wedding recap quickie

so i need to post something, and i want to be able to post about all sorts of details about the wedding in detail (because i was all about details), but i wanted to  give you a little taste of how the day went.

well, first off, remember when i wrote about how worried i was about the weather? the weather on my wedding day ended out being (in the words of our photographer) "the most perfect weather day of this years wedding season." it was 75 and sunny with little to no humidity. we had white puffy clouds during our photos, clear blue skies during our ceremony. the temperature was PERFECT. i was hesitant about an august wedding and that it would be too hot. but it was perfect.

so here are some pictures other people have posted--just want to give you the idea, and we'll get into the good stuff soon. 

we got in last night at midnight from our honeymoon, have a lot to do, andy's got a cold, and our landlord re-did our bathroom while we were gone, which is great, but there is dust EVERYWHERE. so i need to clean the toaster before i can make breakfast.

anyway, here's some photos:

bouquets

bridesmaids: twin, sister, and sister-in-law

the guys (including dads)

ceremony

and for full effect

oh yeah, the kiss.

we did it!

place cards

first dance: I'll Always Be Right There by Bryan Adams

dance with dad: Then They Do by Trace Adkins

fingerprint tree guestbook

sweetheart table

my sister and i and our husbands :)

yes, that's the one i just married. and yes, he's on the floor.

party time! (and this photo features my boston friends)

hope you enjoyed them! it was a GREAT day. the PERFECT day.

wedding wednesday: rings

oh my goodness, so much to post. i haven't posted any wedding updates in FOREVER. hey, life has been busy. so since we're just over 4 months away, i think this is a good time to try to discipline myself to do a weekly wedding wednesday post. (maybe it will be bi-weekly, we'll see how it goes.)


so, since this is a topic fresh on my mind, i think its a good place to start. if you're already engaged, hopefully your other half bought you something that you like and that fits with your style. this was so important to me (and i'm glad Andy did a good job!)--because i was not looking for multiple stones, something vintage-looking or antique. i just wanted simple beauty--a princess cut solitaire set in white gold.

my ring!

if you're not already engaged, i am a total supporter of making sure of what you want (if you're the one to receive the ring), so that your significant other has the knowledge  (and confidence) to get a ring that you're going to love.  i'm not as much into going to pick out the SPECIFIC ring (that takes away from the surprise of the proposal!), but Andy and i went to jewelry stores (a few years ago), and looked at rings. i told him what i liked. i even gave him a carat amount that i was looking for (which he far exceeded). 

antique ring

he shopped and picked the ring out on his own, and held on to it for nearly two months before he proposed and completely surprised me. and i LOVE that. he told me that the sales people in the stores tried to make him stray and purchase a ring with side stones, and all sorts of other styles, but he knew what i wanted and stuck with it.


but so now, we're on the hunt for our wedding bands. and there are so many questions! 

• do you want them to match? 
• what metal do you want them in? his differently than hers? 
• diamonds or not? how do you want them set? 
• what width band? 
• for the ladies, will you do an anniversary band on the other side of your engagement ring, or a ring enhancer?
• do you want something traditional or non-traditional (like something funky & modern)?

anniversary bands

really!? a camo ring?

  
(when i went to the site for the anniversary bands, i noticed they also have camouflage rings....)







 while i won't give away all of my wedding secrets yet, we've decided on getting two sets of rings. we both work outside, and spend a lot of time outside during our free time, so we wanted to get rings that are sturdy, and less expensive. [we call these 'our work rings']. let's face it, i am not wearing my engagement ring when i'm traipsing through streams. so these are our work rings:

titanium with a stripe of sterling silver

 (we purchased these rings from Titanium Knights on Etsy)

then we will have our nice rings. for the days we're in the office, and go out to nice events. and for me, i really wanted these to match. which i knew for me meant no diamonds (Andy objected). your wedding band should match styles with your engagement ring. if you have an antique ring,  a modern wedding band might look a little odd. luckily, a diamond solitaire has ENDLESS possibilities. as i was looking for a simpler band, one of the things i had to figure out was the width of the ring. and how that would look on my small hands, and next to my engagement ring. (i went with a 3mm band).

Irish Claddagh

i wasn't looking for anything super fancy, i just wanted them to be special, personal. the rings symbolize the promise that you will make to each other, and they will be an outward symbol of your commitment. my mom told me that she still loves the idea (more than 30 years later) that the ring my dad wears is the ring that she put on his finger on their wedding day [my mom lost hers in the ocean, and they had a replacement made, but she has worn a ring enhancer set for years].

plain domed bands

after the wedding day, you're not going to wear your dress, shoes, do your hair up the same, have a professional do your make-up, and have all of this food catered to you. you'll have photos to remind you of the day, but the one thing that will be the same every day are the rings that you wear.


rings may not seem like a big deal, but for me, they are one of the most important parts of the day. you'll just have to stay tuned for what we chose! :)


what are your thoughts on wedding rings?

warning: not a happy topic, but keep reading.

A friend had posted a link on facebook to a blog post about "What you can do to help a grieving family." The blogger, a mother who lost her son in a tragic accident this past September, posted this wonderful list of things to do or say. Most of us are paralyzed in these interactions, not wanting to upset someone who is grieving.

On Christmas Eve 2011, I woke up and found myself going through old emails--the ones that I had from when Meghan, my classmate and friend from my study abroad program, was killed in a bus accident in Peru. I had written about her, on the fourth anniversary of her death, in my old blog. The group of us had put together a memory book that summer (and through the fall and winter), which traveled around the world, collecting stories and photographs from the 14 of us, which was hand-delivered by one of our group to Meghan's parents in March of the following year. Meghan's parents had asked us to write, and I never felt I was close enough to her, or I didn't want to upset them. 

But for some reason, I felt compelled to write to them on Christmas Eve. I wanted to tell them about all of the times that I've thought about Meghan over the past 5 1/2 years. She loved monkeys, so when I went to Africa, I naturally thought about her. She was one of the reasons I wanted to get a DSLR to take photos (which is now one of my favorite things to do). I shared with them the things I have wanted to share with Meghan. I shared with them what her death has meant to me. I offered to send them an email she had sent to us just hours before she was gone.

I have not heard back from them, and for a time I've regretted it. Until I read this post from Anna at An Inch of Gray. The only regret I have is not sending the email sooner.

I feel I've been surrounded by so much loss in my short life that I need to be better prepared for dealing with this. I hate being at funeral homes, and I've been spending a lot of time there recently, after losing Uncle Ken and Poppa in the past few months. And we're just a few weeks away from 10 years without Uncle Parkie. (I was not able to write that without getting a huge pit in my throat and starting to cry).

With my upcoming wedding, I've been thinking about ways to honor family members mentioned, especially because their absence will be very noticeable because of how fresh some of this is. I have seen calla lilies on the alter during the ceremony for those no longer with us. And Pinterest gave me this idea:

source

but the number of pictures I would have to have, just for my family would take over my bouquet (I'm at 8, just out of grandparents, and aunts/uncles). So I'm working on something else. I'm hoping with my renewed sense of how to help those grieving (myself included), that a remembrance gesture like this would be well-received.

Thanks for reading and putting up with this. I feel that the tips on what to do and say are helpful for all, so I just needed to share (and then my heart takes over and the above mess is what results).

Have you seen other ways to remember loved ones at a wedding?

monday, monday

so, i'm not doing as well as i had hoped for my 30-day challenge, and this week will probably be the nail in the coffin. but i'm still trying nonetheless to work out as much as i can, even with a little here and there. (it has to help somewhat, right??)

day 12 - pilates (1 hour)

day 13 - a little weight-lifting, a little abs (probably 15 minutes)

day 14 - nothing.

day 15 - i spent the day as a "runner" for a regional National Ocean Sciences Bowl. so from 7am to nearly 7pm (aside from a lunch break), i was on my feet, and briskly running/jogging/sprinting on occasion every half hour or so (on average). i'd say that counts. [this is my 4th year as runner for this competition. i love it!]

day 16 - hot yoga (90 minutes)

day 17 (today) and day 18 (tomorrow) - are not looking promising. excuses excuses. like having to work late, and wedding-related errands. and maybe that i also have to eat some food out of our fridge and freezer, which doesn't really happen when i workout later than normal, because then i don't want to eat dinner. see, excuses excuses.

anyway. work is very busy, in general things are very busy.

BUT. today i will get to have MY dress on for the first time. since it's a custom dress, i've never had a sample of it on, so i'm so nervous, hoping it will be right and everything that i've wanted. my appointment is in 2 hours, and these will be some long, slow two hours. as long as everything is fine when i put it on, i think i will be able to breathe a little easier for the next 5 1/2 months.

hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

30-day challenge update & a nightmare

shortly after i wrote of my commitment to my 30-day workout challenge, it went out the window. andy's parents were visiting, but not staying with us, instead staying up where the wedding will be. andy was off, and was staying with them, i was at work. i stayed with them the night before, and drove 1.5 hours to get to my office for a 7:30am start time. i was planning to go home (and go to the gym for day 4), but they tugged at my heartstrings, and i turned the car in the opposite direction, drove 2 hours up there, and then turned around and drove back to work the next morning. (ugh, that was a lot of driving).

so day 4 -NOTHING
but, day 5 - pilates (1 hour)
day 6 -  at home gazelle and ab work out (45 minutes)
day 7 - NOTHING (oops. andy got home late from work, and we just went to dinner instead of working out)
day 8 - hot yoga (90 minutes)
day 9 - hot yoga (90 minutes)
day 10 - walk/jog at a local park (45 minutes) -- it was nice outside, sort of. a little chilly by the time i got home and out there.
day 11 - zumba (55 minutes), BODYCOMBAT (30 minutes)--i just wanted to test this class out, i couldn't stay the whole time.
day 12 (today) - pilates is planned.


and i had my second wedding nightmare. my first happened just after we got engaged. i had a dream that it was my wedding day, and i had everything figured out, except that i forgot to get a wedding dress*.

the other night, i had a dream that on the directions card we sent out with the invitations, i missed a turn, and people were calling me on my wedding day, just before the ceremony, trying to figure out where they needed to be! [our place is tucked back, off the beaten path, so i have to make sure the directions are right!]

*this is not going to be an issue because my dress ARRIVED today. i'm so nervous to see it--it's a custom dress, so i just hope and pray that it is everything i dreamed it would be!

hope this rain isn't getting you too down! only 2 days left this week! [thank goodness, today was a little crazier than i was able to handle.]

varied or unfocused?: a 30-day workout challenge.

i love my hot yoga studio. but they are always pushing for me to take on more classes/monthly unlimited/extra programs. i'm barely making it once a week on a consistent basis, what would make you think that it would be reasonable for me to pay for something that is equivalent to 3x a week for a whole month?

a lot of the yogis there participate in a 30-day challenge. which for them, is partaking in a hot yoga class every day for 30 days. now that's a little intense for me, considering going to hot yoga eats up a minimum of 2 hours of my time, not counting travel time to get there, and showering after class. needless to say, i only make it on the weekends.

also, i'm not going to pay for monthly unlimited for hot yoga, when i also pay monthly for a gym membership elsewhere, and have paid for pilates classes at a different place. and i like my varied workouts. some may feel that i am unfocused, by dabbling in so many different types of exercise, but i think they all have their benefits.

for example:   

hot yoga gets my blood pumping and strengthens and stretches every fiber of my body.

hot yoga

but pilates is an intense strengthening and stretching opportunity, but the focus and the vibe are totally different than hot yoga.

pilates

bodypump is my weight lifting class. i get to build muscle in all of those parts that i've toned and stretched in my other classes.

bodypump

and then throw in some of the cardio, whether it be the elliptical, or zumba, or spinning.  

 i think all of these work well together, my own version of p90x-the well-known muscle confusion workout, preventing the body from getting used to the workouts and plateauing. 

so, as saturday marked SIX MONTHS until my wedding day, i've kind of gone into panic mode that i haven't been focusing on working out and losing weight. my dress will be in around april for my first fitting, and i need to be pretty much to my goal by then--it's better to lose more now, than having to constantly take in the dress.

so i've decided to take on my own 30-day challenge. i am challenging myself to partake in some form of exercise (for at least 45 minutes) EVERY DAY for the next 30 days. that's a lot to take on, considering some of the things on my plate in the next 30 days. but i'm going to do my best, and not beat myself up if it doesn't happen.

so far, this is what i've accomplished:

day 1: hot yoga (90 minutes)
day 2: hot yoga (90 minutes)
day 3: zumba (45 minutes); core strengthening (15 minutes) [hooray for being off on monday so i can go to zumba!]


today is day 4, so who knows what today will bring!? :)

what is your favorite form of exercise/routine?