That something should probably be thank you cards. I’ve been so bad about doing them. Granted, “bad” still means I am well ahead of where I need to be. Apparently, as long as they’re out by two months after the wedding, it’s acceptable. I’ll definitely get them out before then. I imagine once we get back to Boston, I’ll motivate myself to do the rest while we’re sitting around the apartment with nothing to do. This weekend we’ve been busy preparing for the trip. So far we’ve got my trunk loaded with wedding and shower gifts. Once we get our other luggage stored in the backseat we’ll know how much space we have for additional gifts. But it does seem like we’ll get the majority of the things to Boston on this trip. Anything we have to leave behind Tylor’s parents can bring with them sometime when they come visit.

So yes, tomorrow we are embarking on our 2-day excursion east. I’m so glad we’re diving the trip into 2 days this time; while the drive is do-able, it’s not the most enjoyable 16 hour day. This time, we’re trekking through Canada and stopping at Niagara Falls. I’ve never been to either, so I’m really excited. And it’s waaaay better than Pennsylvania. We’re spending the night in New York, and then in the morning, we’re going to the Baseball Hall of Fame! It’s going to be great! Sort of like a second mini-honeymoon. And then we are back in Boston! Well, “back” for me, and Tylor will be moved. Temporarily at my current apartment, where we still have a lease for another week. But… on September 1st, we’ll be moving into our first apartment together! I. cannot. wait. (mostly to not have roommates anymore). :P

So I promised a wedding recap. I’ll spare you all the boring, gushy stuff. The day was wonderful. We started out with breakfast with my parents, then Tylor headed out to golf with one of his groomsmen. My mom, sister, and I went over to the venue and set up the centerpieces and other decor. I expected it to take a few hours… it maybe took 45 minutes. I had so much time to kill, so I hung out with my family at their hotel for a bit and went to Starbucks with my brother (not sure how many people do that on their wedding day). As we were leaving it started to rain. It had been cloudy all day, but I kept telling myself not to think about it. It poured most of my drive to the hair salon. Even then I was shockingly calm. The optimist in me refused to even accept the possibility of a rain out on our outdoor ceremony  5 hours before the wedding was scheduled to start. For the time being, I had to focus on making sure my hair stayed dry after my appointment. I loved how my hair turned out. We used a metric ton of hairspray to get it to hold. The rain had let up mid-way through my appointment, leaving us with some pretty intense humidity, so my stylist went to extra lengths to make sure my hair would hold up as long as possible.

When we got there, I hung out in the reception hall to avoid being seen by Tylor, who was greeting guests in the wedding garden.

I got back to Tylor’s house, where snacks had been laid out for me and the girls while we got ready. My mom and sister, the other bridesmaids, and Miranda, our best woman, came over. We hung out a bit and nibbled on food before it was time to get ready. I slipped into my dress, touched up my makeup, and then we had more time to kill! I had anticipated a similar scene months ago – me sitting around in my dress, possibly in my parents’ hotel room, for hours, waiting to go to the venue. This wasn’t as bad. While we were hanging out, the clouds broke and the sun came out!! It seemed all my optimism had paid off and we were going to get to have our outdoor ceremony after all. I was ecstatic. While an indoor ceremony would not have been the end of the world, the wedding garden had been the thing that made me fall in love with the venue, and anytime I thought about the wedding before then, I would imagine the beautiful outdoor photos. I am so so grateful the weather decided to cooperate. And hey – rain on your wedding day is good luck, right? :)

Heading into the reception hall, I thought I saw Tylor coming out. I tried to hide behind my mom. Luckily, it wasn't him.

When we got to the venue, I hung out in the reception hall to avoid being seen by Tylor, who was greeting guests in the wedding garden. On the way inside, I thought I saw Tylor, so I tried to hide behind my mom while walking through the parking lot. Turns out, it wasn’t him, but hey – you can’t be too cautious, right?

We started the ceremony right on time. I hung back with my dad behind a massive fur tree on the edge of the garden so that we could see what was going on and know when it was our turn to walk down the aisle, while still avoiding being seen. We had opted for the traditional, groom-sees-bride-for-first-time-during-ceremony route. After all the bridesmaids and grooms had made their entrance, it was our turn. That whole next minute or so was kind of a blur. I remember Garry, our photographer, holding us up to snap a couple of pics of me and my dad after he had gotten Tylor’s reaction shots. But the audience, the music – all that, I didn’t even notice. It wasn’t even nerves, but pure excitement.

Tylor, on the other hand… a tad nervous. Haha! The man who can give off-the-cuff speeches on a whim was at times shaking slightly. It was rather adorable. I wasn’t sure if it was “ok” for me to reach over and touch him or anything to help him relax, so I didn’t, haha. He gained a bit more composure as we went on. Ray delivered a nice bit about forensics (public speaking) being about truth-seeking, and how that’s equatable to marriage. (Both of us being public speakers, this was a nice personal touch).

Then Tylor’s sister, Claire, read Robert Fulgum’s Union, a passage I came across months ago that I thought perfectly summed up us. After that, it was time to exchange our vows and rings. Tylor’s hand shook while he put my ring on my finger. Then I took his hands and gave them a little, “relax” squeeze. Haha. I had been afraid that I would drop his ring or something when it was my turn, but it all went smoothly. After the exchange, Ray announced us as newly wed, and well – you know the rest.

Highlights from the trip:

• We got a free room upgrade, so a slightly nicer room and on an upper floor with a balcony that we could eat out on.
• Bottle of champagne waiting in our room for us when we arrived.
• The food!!
• A ginormous breakfast in bed on our first morning there.
• Getting a “candlelight” dinner right on the beach, just feet from the ocean waves our last night there.

It really was a wonderful time. Halfway through our trip, we were already talking about how we’d love to come back for a 10th anniversary or something, haha. But seriously, Sandals does a fantastic job of making you feel at home and catering to your every need. And what’s not to love about gorgeous beaches and open bars? ;)

So now it’s back to reality. Tylor is finishing up his last week of work. Tomorrow he drives all the way to Nashville to hand off the car to his replacement, then Google is flying him back here Thursday. I’ll probably have to pick him up from the airport. In the meantime, with him gone, I’ve got an excuse to get started on writing thank you notes for all our wonderful wedding gifts. I actually would have started them yesterday already, but I spent all afternoon uploading wedding photos to Facebook. I’ve gone on long enough for now, but in my next post, I’ll recap some moments from the wedding itself and share a few photos in case you haven’t seen them on FB yet. Until then!

The reception was just a blast – we had a great time and so did everyone else  who I’ve talked to. I’m really glad we did the mingly, on-your-feet style reception we did. We got plenty of time to make our rounds to all the tables and actually talk to people. And I think the passed appetizers were a nice touch. Speaking of, the appetizers were de-lic-ious. Poor Tylor didn’t really get to any of them; his stomach was still in knots from earlier. Such a cutie. The cake was a slightly different design from what we talked to our baker about, but it turned out pretty good. Most importantly, it tasted really good. And our DJ was fantastic. I’m going to do reviews for all our vendors on The Knot and any industry-specific websites that they would like a review listed at, but I just have to brag about the DJ. The guy was just on top of things, kept the evening moving smoothly, and was awesome at playing songs that could be enjoyed by our age-varied crowd. That’s not easy when half your guest list is college-aged friends. He did a great job though!

So yeah, everything was pretty great. This morning we had brunch with our immediate families and grandparents, and opened wedding gifts, which was just a nice note to end things on. Then we returned tuxedos and collapsed for a few hours, haha. We both expected to be tired the next morning, but I don’t think either of us had ever expected it to last all day. Tomorrow we head to Detroit, where we’ll be flying out early Tuesday morning to Jamaica!! Then it’s a week of relaxing and… not having to plan anything! Haha. Best thing ever.

When we’re back in town, we’re going to sit down with Garry, our photographer, and talk about getting our wedding picture cd, which I cannot wait to see. Right now, a handful of pics have made it onto facebook; I’m sure more will creep up this week. I know a lot of our out-of-town guests took pictures, but they’re driving home today so won’t get around to posting things today most likely. But as soon as I get pics, I’ll upload some to the blog, or link to an album. For now, I leave you this shot, taken from my lovely new sister-in-law:

I also boxed up all the things we’ll be taking to the reception hall Saturday morning for setup: materials for the centerpieces, the guest book and sign, the vases and bouquet stand, etc. This way I’ll be less likely to forget something. I may also draw up a simple map of what will go where, and we’ll bring our mock-up centerpiece as a model for whoever helps assemble the rest. I’ll be there for most of that, myself. I’m waaaay too Type A to sit back and let someone else handle everything, haha.

In the vein of lists, I’ve been making lists for everything: what to bring to the ceremony, what needs to go to the reception room, packing for overnight, the honeymoon, things to bring to the rehearsal dinner. Among that list is a little something for the girls in the wedding party, my little thanks to them. I won’t reveal everything, but I have to show off the name hangers I made, because between the dinner and the wedding, I won’t have time. (Seeing as they get them Friday night, I don’t think it’s a big deal).

They’re wooden hangers with a wire that spell out each girls’ name. I saw the idea months ago on a wedding blog and was in love with it. I had considered ordering them from a seller on etsy, but I decided I wanted to do them myself. They’re not perfect (I’m new to crafts), but I think the personal touch makes them more… well, personal. Special thanks to my dad for helping me drill the holes in the hanger for the wires, and to my mom for making the pretty bows! I’ll give these to my bridesmaids and our best woman at the rehearsal dinner, along with a little something else. Hope you all like them!

Oh, we had our phone meetings with both our ceremony violinist and our DJ the other night. Both of them seem like great people to work with! I’m really excited about our ceremony music. We’ve got some fun music choices, and then she’s going to add some of her own choices to the mix. I talked to her on the phone, and Tylor talked to the DJ, but he sounded like a cool guy from what I heard of their conversation. What we like about him is that he’s apparently really good with varying about music for a mixed crowed. We have a lot of college friends attending, but we also have a lot of aunts, so striking a balance enough so that our relatives don’t leave the wedding remarking how they “hated every song they played” is important to us. This guy sounds like he knows to work with that, so that’s a big plus.  I think it’ll be a really good time.

Tomorrow my family gets into town, which is exciting. After they check into their hotel and get settled, they’re coming over to Tylor’s house for a barbecue. This will actually be the first time our parents have met, which may seem odd since we’ve been engaged for a year and a half, but that’s what happens when your family’s live in different states. Oh well. It’ll be a good time. Once my family is here, things will really feel real. Not that I haven’t been having the “Holy crap, I’m getting married this weekend feeling” all week as it is.

I had one of those moments yesterday when we went to Baryames Tuxedo to pick up Tylor’s tux. They had him try his on to make sure it doesn’t need any last-minute alterations. At first he came out in just the pants, shirt and shoes, which, whatever – but then he put on the vest and jacket and it hit me: how we are just a few days away, how handsome Tylor looked, and how excited I am for everything.

In a couple hours, Tylor and I are heading out for a date night at a nice restaurant – kind of a last “hurrah” before the wedding. It’ll be nice to relax, listen to jazz music, and eat some really good food to kick off all the exciting things this week!

]]> http://bloggintilbride.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/almost-there/feed/ 0 stephdonjon 272214_10100230389534550_22924758_50162828_7220452_o http://bloggintilbride.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/bouquet-holder-issues-and-monogrammed-tissues/ http://bloggintilbride.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/bouquet-holder-issues-and-monogrammed-tissues/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:51:02 +0000 stephdonjon http://bloggintilbride.wordpress.com/?p=1361 ]]> Just days away now… filling the time with last-minute things. And trying to avoid piling on too many last-minute things so that our planned stress-free week of the wedding doesn’t become stressed. I was starting to feel it a bit when I spent almost four hours running around East Lansing today looking for bouquet holders for the head table. This was definitely an after thought. We had just planned on setting the bouquets down on the table, I guess. But Tylor’s mom has been telling me about some sort of vase/holder that someone had at their wedding. So I went to Hobby Lobby and a couple other places to try and find something. I had to ask an employee to sort of dismantle a display, but I ended up buying a bouquet stand. They’re apparently a fairly new item so they didn’t have tons of them out on the shelves yet. In fact, there were only 2, including the one I took. There’s my bouquet and the 3 bridesmaid bouquets, so that wouldn’t work for all of them. But then I thought I kind of liked the idea of spotlighting the orchid bouquet anyway, and then using the bridesmaids’ hydrangea ones as additional decor. I kept trying to find some type of holder for them, but had no luck. I did see these vases that would have worked really well, but Hobby Lobby didn’t sell just the vases – they all had flowers glued in them. No other place had them either, which was a bummer. After about three hours, I was finally pretty over this, haha. I ended up going to Michaels, where I knew they’d at least have small glass bowls. (Bouquets, being top-heavy, will tip a tall skinny vase easily, so a wider bottom is necessary). I said, “screw it,” and settled on three, textured bowls for $1 each. I think they’ll actually look nice with the more full, foofy hydrangeas anyway. And if I want, I’ll wrap some gauze-y navy ribbon around the rim and make a big bow.

A big dilemma I was toying with most of the day was the fact that we have three bridesmaid bouquets, plus mine… so I wasn’t sure how we’d arrange them on the table and still get kind of an asymmetrical look or whatever. So what I think we might do, is put two of the hydrangea bouquets at the head table – one on each end, with my bouquet toward the middle – and then put the third at the gift or escort card table, to add some decor there. We’ll have to coordinate a way to get the bouquet over there, but I’m sure we can work something out. I’ve got to see what Tylor’s mom thinks of the stuff I got anyway. I’m exhausted and want to say, to heck with it!

At Hobby Lobby, I found some adorable monogrammed, damask tissues. Black and white damask isn’t anywhere in our decor design, but a) they’re tissues; no one is going to see them but me and the people standing up there with me when I inevitably use them, and b) they were 50 cents, so how could I pass that up? And I will be needing tissues that day.

I did sneak a (couple) peak(s) at the wedding garden while we were at the venue to drop off our checks. It looks gorgeous – the flowers in the garden look fantastic and everything is just as beautiful as I remembered it being this time last year when I fell in love with the place. I couldn’t be more excited!

This week is just going be fantastic. We’ve jokingly dubbed it “wedding week.” We’ve got a few fun nights lined up at the end of week, and now we’re just declaring anything between now and next Saturday that happens that we like is part of “wedding week,” haha. For instance, today, after dropping off our check, we grabbed lunch and went to the zoo. I have a thing with zoos, where I try to make a point to visit every city’s zoo when I am able to. So that was just a really nice “last weekend” bit of fun. Then we came home and found out some of Tylor’s parents’ friends are coming over for dinner, so we’re going to grill some delicious food and hang out with them, which will just be nice. Wednesday night Tylor and I are going out for a nice dinner at Enso, as kind of “last date night” before the wedding. Enso is actually one of the places I’ve listed as a restaurant option on the wedding website. (Tylor had been browsing it and after looking into them decided we had to go there, haha). I’ll be sure to let you know how it is. ;)

Then Thursday night, my family will be getting into town. Tylor’s family is going to barbecue and have my family over. This will actually be the first time they’ve met. (This is what happens when your families live 8 hours apart and we don’t live at (or near) home anymore). So that should be a fun evening.

Friday of course is the rehearsal dinner. We’re keeping things pretty low key, because that’s how we prefer things. And really, with all the pomp and circumstance that goes into the wedding and reception, a rehearsal dinner is just one more thing you could let yourself get carried with unnecessarily. Nope, we’re just going to order some food, eat and enjoy ourselves, and talk a little about what everyone can expect on the wedding day.

It’s going to be a crazy fun week! :)

 I stuck with the theme from our escort cards to give everything a bit of cohesion, and picked up a cheap frame from Target for $2. I wasn’t able to get the design to stretch across the whole frame like I would have liked; I could have done it with some splicing and finagling, but I decided I don’t care that much. I think it looks just fine. It’ll get the job done.

Now I need to stop myself from thinking of others things I need to make, haha. Friends: when you get engaged and need someone to help you design stuff for your wedding, hit me up. ;)

With our final head count due tomorrow, we’ve got our seating chart pretty much done. There is just a couple of tables that might change a bit based on final responses we get today. Today I’m probably going to go ahead and start making the escort cards for the tables that are done. I’m so excited about the escort cards. I’ve been toying with designs for a couple months and couldn’t get any of them to print right, whether it was image clarity issues or sizing… I finally had some luck the other day. Here’s what we’ve got:

When I made the first mock-up to show Tylor, I just did my dad’s and Tylor was like, “Why ‘D’?” Haha. As you can see from the picture, my grandma’s card in the back has a ‘W’. Every guest’s card will have their last name initial on their card. This will help guests in finding their place card when they’re alphabetized on the table when they walk in. (Also we needed something to fill in that white space). I’m quite proud of these puppies – I think they exude our theme rather well. So those are on today’s agenda.

I’m also going to print out the ceremony reading and mount it on some of the extra navy card stock I brought with me that I originally was going to use for escort cards. I’d been toying with different ideas for what to do with the reading for the past week. I thought about putting it in a black book, but couldn’t decide if I’d like the in-joke of the interp book (a speech team thing) or if the association would almost take away from the reading. Plus, neither of us have an interp book lying around here so we’d have to track one down. Card stock it is!

I’ve also been working on a day-of schedule for the wedding party members. I wanted to send it out a bit sooner but we were hung up on a few details. I think we’ve gotten most of them worked out now. I just know I’d appreciate knowing what time I need to be where. Rest assured, I’m not going crazy and assigning everyone “jobs” or anything. Oh no, I’ll probably at the venue midday wanting to set everything up myself and my mom will have to drag me away when it’s time for my hair appointment. I’m way too Type A for the delegation thing. Also, I’ll be antsy and hell that day and need something to occupy myself with. For the things I can’t do, I’ll definitely have help.

And… now the fun part – transferring over all the wedding fund from savings so that we can pay all the final bills. Ha, part of me thinks I should call my bank and give them a heads up so they don’t freak out when almost my entire savings balance gets moved to checking, and then in about a week’s time, is spent. I do not need a lock-down on my bank account when it comes time to pay vendors. I doubt I’ll have to worry… but I’ve had banks freeze my account for stupider reasons…

 Oh, and in case you missed it, I added some restaurants and activities in the Lansing area for our out of town guests to our wedding website. And as always, please let us know what we can do to accommodate you.

]]> http://bloggintilbride.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/the-final-countdown/feed/ 0 stephdonjon IMG_20110725_092355