Wedding "Crashers"

As my good friend Devon mentioned in her blog post about our wedding, we did have a couple of wedding crashers. Just not the kind that you'd expect.

At some point during the reception, my new hubs interviewed a couple of groomsmen regarding the events of the day. Videographer Carson, in another one of his teases, has posted footage of these interviews, as well as some of the more...exciting moments of the ceremony.

(Yes, I'm aware that my husband is a total dork.) ;-)

The funny part is, some people were concerned I'd be mad about the, ah, distractions that occurred. But I just figured, at least we have a fun story to tell, and nobody's going to forget this wedding for a long time! ;)

Our Wedding Video "Trailer"

Our videographer, Carson Greene, used to work with Ryan at NCSA. Carson has become a good friend of ours, and he worked super hard at filming every aspect of our wedding. (He even got footage of me putting on my wedding dress, although I could not allow him to come in while I was, ahem, in my Spanxx.)

He is personally delivering our DVD to us on August 21st (he lives outside Chicago) but he has been teasing us with clips here and there.

First, the "trailer." This video makes me tear up every time I watch it. :) I don't have an electronic file of this clip, so for now you'll have to access it the way we do, at YouTube, here. (You have to pretend (or play in the background) "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Israel K. in order to make this video work.)

Finally back from Jamaica, mon.

When I stop feeling overwhelmed, I will hopefully find the inspiration to blog about every aspect of my wedding -- but for now, I need to get settled. I need to unpack. Suitcases, that is, because then I need to repack -- this whole house, so that we can move into our new one that we bought. Eventually. In like 2 weeks. Ugh. (Patience wearing thin, here.) But here's what's going on in my head right now.

Ever since I can remember, I have been imagining what my wedding day would be like. Acting it out with Barbie and Ken, drawing out designs for what I thought my dress would look like. Picking out colors for flowers and bridesmaid dresses. Changing my mind every year. There is no doubt that my wedding turned out to be everything I’d hoped it would be, and all my ideas – especially everything about the bridesmaids – turned out beautifully. Yet the day after my wedding, I found myself feeling empty, when I should have felt happier than ever. I finally realized that I was mourning my wedding – all those times I (and some of my single friends) have said “it’s just one day” – we were all wrong. It’s your whole life. Yes, you wear the dress for one day, maybe just a few hours. But your wedding day is not just one day, not just a day you planned for during the length of your engagement – it is the culmination of a lifetime of wishin’ and hopin’…and hopefully, it will be or was everything you dreamed of, but regardless, once it’s done, it’s done. I knew the ‘stakes’ were high, I knew I’d look back on my wedding day for the rest of my life, but even I didn’t realize just how important a day it was until it was all over. Wow.

We did it!

We are leaving in a few short hours for Ocho Rios, Jamaica...when we return next week, I'll have lots to post, but for now I leave you with an image that Ryan's mother took of our first dance:



Love. :)

table names

So in reading the various wedding magazines I've collected since last July, I keep seeing this idea over and over to name tables at the reception, rather than just numbering them. Yes, we are doing the seating chart thing; I just feel that telling guests exactly where to sit and seating them with people they know or will get along with eliminates the middle-school-cafeteria awkwardness. Especially considering our venue is not large enough for four or five people to take over one 8-top table; plus, we are renting white chairs for the reception, so there won't be many extra seats.

We will have about 20 round tables at our reception, which means if we are going to name the tables, we have to think of a category that has 20 things in it. Of course, with my fiance's love of sports, we could have gone with mascots or something...but that would be completely irrelevant to the style and theme of our wedding. After a lot of thinking, I finally came up with the idea to naem the tables after places or things that are special to us.

For instance, one table will be called Mine That Bird, which is the name of the 2009 Kentucky Derby winner. This horse is not just relevant to FH and me because we attended the Derby when the horse won -- FH actually placed a $10 bet on that horse on accident. For one, he never bets $10 to win on any horse, and for two, he thought he was betting on the one with chocolate in the name, "because I like chocolate," he said. Well, FH's accidental bet earned him $500. WTF. Needless to say, we went out that night. :)

So, the table called Mine That Bird will have a sign showing the name. It will also have a 3.5x5 wooden picture frame featuring a handwritten explanation of why the table name is relevant to us.

This will be repeated at all the other tables. Other tables will be named after song titles, bars, streets, teams, etc., and every name will be accompanied by an explanation.

The idea is to seat guests at tables where they will learn something new; we figured this will help our guests get to know little details about us that they probably didn't know before.

The only problem is, why didn't I think of this sooner than 10 days before the wedding??

the checklist.

at least the major stuff.

- finish gift for groom
- get gift for mothers of bride and groom (and probably new stepmother of groom as well?)
- finish list of formal group pictures (ugh. too many on the list already. more like, edit the list of group pictures.)
- finish ceremony script (almost done. swear.)
- finish day-of schedule
- create seating chart and name cards
- finish slideshow (which includes scanning baby pictures. perhaps the most time consuming task i have left. a.k.a. royal pain in my @ss.)
- get dress steamed
- get ring cleaned/refinished
- finalize programs (designed and to be printed by FSIL, who also designed invites, god love that girl!)
- meet with ashley about our cake (i know. but we don't want much. promise. she knows this.)
- finish ceremony music cd and give to dj
- confirm pa system with dj
- print copies of ceremony readings and mapquests for guests
- get marriage license

that might sum up what i have left to do over the next week or so. maybe.

holy cow.

parties.

my shower and bachelorette party went off without a hitch. no drama, no awkwardness. no weird sentimentality or embarrassing moments either. just girls having a good time.

i did spend several hours by the pool and am still recovering from the sunburn (i haven't yet become attached to the spf as i should). also, at some point on sunday i lost my voice, which i am blaming on allergies because if it was due to my determination to talk over the loud music, my attempt at singing at the karaoke bar, or god forbid, my intake of alcohol, i'd be over it by now.

i do remember the entirety of the bachelorette party, which includes the parts where i attempted to sing "total eclipse of the heart" with 3 other girls and completely botched the words in the first verse; where i attempted to dance on a giant speaker and was removed by a guy wearing boxers and a tie (who, by the way, stole my pink garter that said "bachelorette" and immediately took my place on the speaker, wearing my garter on his head, and never gave it back); where i moved to dancing on the bar (which was apparently more appropriate than dancing on the speaker); where i ran into a former basketball player from my college, asked him what he's up to now, and bragged to the basketball player that i was going to call my fiance and brag to him about my conversation with said basketball player; where i ran into two old, old frat guys i used to hang out with when i was a freshman in college; where i slurred over and over how much i loved the BM who was driving us home for being so kind as to drive us home, considering she absolutely does not drink and had to tolerate my dumb@ss drunkenness; and my favorite: the part where i met some guy from new zealand and realized the only thing i know about new zealand is that they filmed the lord of the rings movies there -- my completely numb brain could remember this fact but could not remember the name of the damn movie. lord only knows what i said to the guy, because all i remember is him repeating, over and over, "it's not australia!!"

as i relive these moments in the sharing, i remember why people tend to black out when they drink, and wish my own brain could have been so kind.

i'm sure some incriminating pictures will surface soon enough, as i did not bother to carry my camera around, knowing i would have either forgotten i had it, or lost it altogether.

rain rain.

this is what my world has looked like lately (at least, the last few days):

the view from the couch

(did i mention that being a teacher has the most amazing perks? specifically, the opportunity, for a couple of months at least, to sleep in until noon and lay around like the lazy dog you see here? which is especially nice when you are someone whose allergies kick in at their worst when it rains [mold allergy, maybe?] and on such days you lose your voice along with your ability to breathe easily. perfecto. nothing like taking a day "off" to recoup, get the mind off of wedding stress, and read a good book.)

as FH said last week when we saw the week of rain in the forecast, "i hope the rain is out of its system before the wedding." i agree, even though i'm not sure of the grammatical correctness of the sentence. (who is 'it'? the sky?)

How could I forget?

Add to the list:

- Slideshow
- Bridesmaid gifts (halfway done)

Oh the decisions!

So, the first dance issue is still on my mind...still can't settle on a song.



I want a song that has lyrics which are meaningful and say the right things....I also would like want one that is not so obscure that we'll never hear it again unless we turn on my iPod...yet not one that is so overplayed that I'm tired of it too soon...



I think as far as the father-daughter dance, I've figured out a plan. I think the "My Little Runaway" idea is going to work... I'm actually thinking of doing that "rock the reception" thing where my dad and I start out dancing to the slow version, then in the middle bust into the fast version and get my dad to dance kinda like John Travolta in Pulp Fiction (a little twist, a little mashed potato) and then go back into the slow song. I think it will provide the comic relief that is so...Armstrong. ::sniffle::

Other music has been much easier to figure out. My very dear friend Anthony is a jazz saxophone musician, and I asked him to play for us. He took it one step further and is not only bringing a STRING QUARTET to play at the ceremony, but is composing original arrangements of two songs I chose for processionals.

My bridesmaids are walking in to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Now, I sent Anthony the Israel Kamaka-whatever version (Hawaiian, ukelele), but he is arranging it with the strings and his sax, so I'm not sure how it's going to turn out...I'm very excited though. :)

I am walking in to Anthony's arrangement of a song called "I Do" by Daniel Ho. Even though there will be no lyrics, the song is beautiful and I get chills every time I think about it.

I am trying to figure out what to do about the seating of the parents...I could have them walk in to SOtR, but I would prefer it to be different music...I was hoping Anthony could get a ready-made arrangement of "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz (I'm not going to ask him to arrange another song -- the two he's working on have taken him several months as it is). Worst case, I may have our DJ play an instrumental version of it...we'll see.

I did decide against having any singing or music during the ceremony. Mostly because I don't know what in the world we would DO while the music played. I'm not a fan of standing there and looking at each other while somebody sings or something.

I do still have to decide what the ceremony is going to say. We have a Methodist minister, and he gave us the standard template with the standard wording, but it's very God- and Jesus-heavy, which is not really us...so I want to change it a lot. I've done a lot of work on it already, but it's becoming heavy and complicated and I really wanted to keep things more simple... Ugh.

If anyone has any ideas about where I can steal some good vows, let me know. :)

So the hard decisions (and generally major list items) I have remaining are:

- Order flowers
- Choose first dance song
- Finish writing ceremony script
- Finish program
- Make list of photos to be taken
- Type up day-of schedule
- Decide on table names, labels, & place cards
- Seating chart
- Confirm, confirm, confirm

Other than that, it's just buying little stuff here and there. I'm sure there's more, I jus tdon't feel like getting the list out...

What am I forgetting?

First dance song

Can't decide.

The MOH is on the case, so we'll be adding to this list I'm sure. But for now, here are the songs in the running:

"I'm Yours" (Acoustic) - Jason Mraz
"Better Together" (Hawaiian Slack Key Version - reggae-ish) - Jack Johnson
"You Are The Best Thing" - Ray LaMontagne

*The specific version of the song is almost as key as the song itself.

This feels like the hardest decision of my life....apart from the one where I said "yes". Help!

Fortunately, I think I am close to a decision on the dad-song...

When I was a kid (like way-little...back when it's all kinda fuzzy) I remember watching this show called Crime Story with my dad. The theme song was "My Little Runaway" by Del Shannon (?). That version is a little too upbeat for my Hank Hill-esque dad; however, I found a slower version by Bonnie Raitt that I think will work. See, sappy just isn't me and my dad...we have an understanding...I'm a daddy's girl and he does anything for me, but we don't talk about it.

Which is where option 2 comes in for the dad-song...

"Ready, Set, Don't Go" by Miley and Daddy Cyrus

Even though I'm not technically going anywhere, that song gets me choked up every time cuz it reminds me of my dad...like, the dad in the song doesn't want her to leave, but he doesn't want to say it because he wants her to be happy...that's my dad. Yeah, that might be our song. Maybe....

Bridesmaid shoes!!!

So, as mentioned in my previous post about my wedding-day footwear, I will be sporting some yellow kicks. In keeping with the brightly-colored bridal footwear trend, I thought: why not extend this to my bridesmaids as well? Considering their dresses are yellow, although an orangey-yellow, but our "complimentary" colors include magenta pink, plum purple, blood orange (what a great name for a color), and maybe a little green because of the bouquet greenery, I have invited the girls to choose their own brightly colored shoe that will contrast with the yellow but still "go" with it. I have this vision of a wedding photo with just our feet, in various cutsey-foot poses (which obviously calls for pedicures, but that's another story)....

Originally, I had expected each girl to choose a solid color (realizing there are 7 BMs and one or two colors might need to be repeated), so I sent out these pictures as possibilities:

A pink/coral option:

An orange option by Miss J. Simpson:

Pretty in pink:

The J. Simpson shoe in green:

And possibly my favorite, purple:

Of course, leave it to the amazing BM Kelley to come up with the craziest, most random shoes in all of Louisville. It hadn't occurred to me that the girls might use my wedding as an excuse to buy some rockin' new shoes, but Kelley called and said, "I found some shoes, and I won' 'em," (Translation: "I want them" in Kelley-speak) "but you have to say it's okay, and if you say it's okay, then I can get 'em." So, I came to see -- and I approved. See below:

"Glamour" by Carlos Santana shoes

Can you just imagine how awesome all my girls are going to look? As BM Sarah pointed out, "It's going to be very Sex-and-the-City." ....At our country wedding. ;-)

The shoes arrived!

I know it's a little blurry, but I took the pic with my camera phone, so bear with me. :) (I'm too lazy to dig up my digital camera...) I am absolutely in L.O.V.E. with them! I pick up my dress on Friday so we'll see if they work with the length of the dress. Worse case scenario, if they are too tall, I'll just wear them with capris and dresses! :)

I may have found my shoes...

....and I would share a link to them, but it seems I ordered the last yellow pair and I cannot find another picture of them ANYWHERE! So, I can share with you here the black ones, and you'll just have to use your imagination. The shoes I ordered are YELLOW and I actually got them for $21.15 (free shipping!!). I'm a little worried about the height -- my bustle is being made for a 2 inch heel, and these are 2-1/2 inch, but I'm pretty sure these will still work, because the skirt of my dress is pretty flowy, not stiff, so it should be fine. Even if they don't work, I got some sandals for $20, so it's a win-win!

I can't wait for them to come in!! :)

***LET IT SNOW***

The picture on the left was taken somewhere in Arkansas, but I think it perfectly illustrates the strange weather situation we have going on around here.

On Monday at school, every time I told my students "and tomorrow we'll be working on...." they said, "We're not going to be here tomorrow! There's a winter storm warning tonight!" I kept reminding them that weather around here is unpredictable and that they better plan on coming to school, but secretly I had my fingers crossed.

By 2:30am Tuesday morning, when I was just finishing Twilight, I was praying that school would be closed. After looking out the window, the idea of a school closing seemed pretty promising. There appeared to be at least 4 inches of snow on the ground already. For those of you who are not from Louisville or who live in Chicago, 4 inches is, in fact, enough to close school, especially if it involves icy roads. See, we get a significant snowfall so rarely that the city does not keep enough trucks, employees, and salt on-hand for when a true crisis occurs. Keep this in mind for later...

So I woke up at 6:00am on Tuesday and checked the website; sure enough, no school. Back to bed until almost noon... :)

Sometime around Tuesday afternoon, our Directv satellite lost its signal. Ryan went to the backyard to check on it, to find the entire dish covered in 1/4 inch of ice. Perfect. We also noticed the neighbors evergreen tree was coated in this same ice and it was leaning precariously into our back yard....grazing the powerlines behind our house.

We left the house on Tuesday only to run to Target and the gym. Rain was falling, even though my car's thermometer read 31 degrees...of course, this was at 7:30pm, and it was only going to get colder. Sounded like a recipe for disaster to us, so we braced ourselves to lose power. We sat up until about 3:00am working on save-the-dates, occasionally hearing a "woosh" from outside as another tree gave in to the weight of snow and ice. Then, around 3:00am, we heard a considerable thump and the power went out.

Our original plan had been to drive to Indiana to stay with my parents when (not if) the power went out. However, it being 3:00am, we weren't sure about risking the drive. So, we bundled up, all three of us (Ryan, me, and the dog) and slept pretty well, considering. We got up around 11:30am on Wednesday, packed some bags, and drove to Charlestown.

We went to check on the house today and found we still have no power, so we're back in Charlestown for another night.

The best, most wonderful news is that school has been closed since Monday, so it has been like a mini-vacation -- a very much needed mini-vacation. See? Proof that God loves me. ;-)

Wedding Shoe Help Needed

So I am looking for suggestions re: shoes to wear with my wedding dress. It is of the dainty sort, not too poofy, pretty lacy and all that. I am looking for a brightly colored pair of wedges (because after all, the ceremony will take place in grass and I don't want to sink!) I prefer either yellow or blue (as my "something blue") but am open to pink or purple as well. Please comment with suggestions!!! :)

Wedding Flowers

One of the luxuries of being a teacher is that I will have nearly the entire month of June to DIY for my wedding. And a luxury of having an enormous bridal party and a Mom who is taking off the entire month of June and several family members who will be in town the entire week before the wedding is that we will be able to DIY our flower arrangements and save about $500.

As has been my plan all along, I have decided to use primarily alstroemeria, which I can order in bulk for a relatively cheap price. The plan is to use the following colors:

And mix them up for random wild-flowery bouquets that look something like this:

Love. :)