Xapa to the World

Author: xapatotheworld

  • Getting Married: 40 Weeks – Flowers!

    This week, I had my official meeting with the florist about the flowers for our wedding. I love flowers so much! When I was in Japan, there were so many new kinds of flowers that I didn’t know that I was taking photos all over the place of them, earning myself the nickname of “hana-otaku” or “flower nerd.” I also love the meanings behind flowers. For this reason, I do not like the idea of having lilies as wedding flowers (completely personal preference. I think they’re lovely flowers, I just don’t want them in my wedding flowers), since they have been traditionally funeral flowers. I’m allergic to mums, don’t like orchids (in wedding flowers), and don’t want daisies or roses. Where in the world does that leave me!?

    Our colors are red and yellow, which you can see together on my Pinterest board. I would have thought this color combo would be easy to find examples of, but it’s not really. I like the idea of having a uniquely colored wedding, but it makes the prep work a little tough. I’m glad to have another 40 weeks to get this all together.

    The primary flowers are sunflowers! I absolutely looove sunflowers. I even have a Pinterest board completely devoted to sunflowers. (I also have one for elephants, if you’re interested.) The great thing about sunflowers is that they’ve increasingly been dyed a lovely red color, so this works will for my plan.

    sunflowers – pure and lofty thoughts

    I just needed a good red flower to complement the yellow suns. The first one that came to mind was the lovely red poppy.

    poppies – pleasure

    There were some that grew as wild flowers in Japan and I loved how light the flower is, but how deep the color is. Unfortunately when I spoke with the florist the first time, she said that poppies are hard to get in June. So, we had to come up with an alternate. Enter the ranunculus.

    ranunculus – I am dazzled by your charms

    Making its debut here in a gorgeous red and yellow (hmm…can anyone say, perfect?!) I was just looking up the meaning for ranunculus, and you’ll see above that it means, “I am dazzled by your charms.” There was also a funny little story that accompanied this:

    Legend has it that the mythological Coyote was tossing his eyes up in the air and catching them when Eagle snatched them. Unable to see, Coyote created eyes from the ranunculus/buttercup.

    …

    Interesting, huh? And notice that the buttercup is part of the ranunculus family? I love buttercups and have always wanted them in my wedding bouquet.

    buttercups – riches

    *sigh*

    We also thought about including anemone, which looks quite a bit like poppies. Oh, and don’t worry, I am having fake flowers for the reception, so I’m sure I can get poppies in there somehow.

    anemone – unfading love

    Last but not least, woman cannot live on red and yellow flowers alone. I love the idea of having white accents in there too. There was one flower that the florist mentioned, but I can’t remember its name. I’ll try and look it up for you. But also, jonquil works really well, especially with a yellow center. Also known as a daffodil or narcissus and called “suisen” in Japanese, this flower has a special place in my heart. The woman who I began to call my Japanese Mother loved these flowers so much, especially since they are an early indicator of Spring coming, much like the crocuses here in the states. That reminds me, I’ll need to plant those in the garden beds. 🙂 The yellow ones.

    jonquil – return my affection

    There you are, the flowers…or the gist of them. This week, we also went and scoped out wedding bands. Rather, a wedding band for Matt. I’ll post more about this later. No purchases were made as yet.

    We perused the kitchen section of Target a bit too, and tagged some pics of what we really liked. More to come on that in the future too. Thanks for stopping by!

    —————————–

    I’m getting married to my, you guessed it, best friend on June 1st, 2013! Matt and I are super-excited and since we have quite a bit of time to plan this thing, I decided it’d be fun to blog about it. Well, maybe not always fun, but at least informative and it might give me a welcome distraction. You can find all the posts by clicking the “Getting Married” tab on the right of this page, or by clicking here. Thanks for stopping by!

    My Pinterest Wedding Board

    Our Wedding Website on WeddingWire.com

    Related articles

  • Getting Married: 41 Weeks – Interests, Hobbies, and Dates

    I’m running a bit behind this week, but here’s the next blog entry! 🙂 Enjoy!

    ——————————————–

    Work always seems to get in the way of having fun and doing what we want. I’m sure that resonates with you, but work is a necessary thing in life, so we grin and bear it. Matt and I both have kind of goofy work schedules, especially with him being on swing shift, so when we find we both have free time, we do our best to get together and do something fun.

    When I was younger, I thought that the best kind of relationship was one where man and woman shared exactly the same interests and goals in life. The goals part is probably still true to a point, but I have learned that it is vitally important that each person has unique interests and hobbies. Matt loves to do things with his hands – working on cars, taking pictures, taking care of his home and serving others through the gifts God has given him. I love to learn things through reading or boring documentary movies/tv shows (yes, I spent most of the weekend watching a BBC doc on the history of the monarchy in the UK), making things with my hands and being creative, traveling, and being informed of world affairs. Matt loves goofy movies, yes, even A Goofy Movie, and I love musicals and sci-fi fantasy movies. We can usually agree on some things like funny tv show sitcoms, antiquing and wanting to understand how something works. We also just enjoy being together, exploring the natural world that God designed, and having a good meal. We admire ingenuity of others and the joy of Christian fellowship. There are so many more things, but I’m going to get on with the rest of this blog.

    We had a day and a half off together. We had planned to run down to visit his grandparents in Kentucky, but his grandpa hasn’t been doing so well (prayers! please). So, Matt had worked out a surprise outing for us that fit both of our interests very well – The Air Force Museum.

    Dayton, Ohio claims the birth of aviation with the Wright Brothers, starting in the bicycle industry, who invented the first manned, double-propeller airplane. This event sparked an interest in aviation in Dayton that has lasted through the years.

    image

    image

    image
    My roots! This picture is perfect: a heart, Italian colors, and an airplane. Yep!
    image
    If you can’t read that, it says “Martin U.S.A.” – my fiance’s last name!
    image
    I love my Butler County. 🙂
    image
    At least it isn’t Bad Horse. *shivers*
    image
    Um…I think they forgot the “H?”
    image
    We started getting really hungry and it was amazing how the planes started to look hungry too! om nom nom nom
    image
    They’ve got pockets…with pens and such in it!

    On another note, what do you think of this wedding hairstyle?
    image

    😀

    —————————–

    I’m getting married to my, you guessed it, best friend on June 1st, 2013! Matt and I are super-excited and since we have quite a bit of time to plan this thing, I decided it’d be fun to blog about it. Well, maybe not always fun, but at least informative and it might give me a welcome distraction. You can find all the posts by clicking the “Getting Married” tab on the right of this page, or by clicking here. Thanks for stopping by!

    My Pinterest Wedding Board

    Our Wedding Website on WeddingWire.com

    Related articles

  • Getting Married: 42 Weeks – Making “The House” Our Home

    Matt and I have been reminding ourselves and learning to use phrases like “the house” or “our house” and the like instead of personal pronouns “my” and “your.” It’s surprising how much the words we say become habit. I knew that he would probably be proposing soon, about a month or so before the fact, so I had been talking with friends and some coworkers that I thought I’d be getting engaged. Even now, I find myself saying that to people when I mean to say, “I’m getting married!” So silly!

    This post title will probably be coming up again in this series as Matt and I get things together and move more of my own stuff back in. Here’s what I’d like to show you so far. Enjoy!

    This garden bed, we managed to clean completely of weeds about mid-summer. We try to touch it up when we get a chance, but I’m very proud of it. That azalea bush is gorgeous in the Spring!
    We bought this shovel when we decided to tackle the garden bed above. I had been pulling out prickly lettuce from the other beds when Matt tried to dig out another set of weeds that had grown taller than the little evergreen bush on the corner. The weed won…
    After some more intense work, we defeated the weed, freed the bush to the light and fresh air, and avenged the shovel!
    In just the 30 minutes or so we were pulling up those weeds, I got a whole slew of mosquito bites. I’ve always wanted to have a bat house in whatever backyard I have…now is prime time! I think that we’ll put it “up there.” 🙂
    I know that Matt’s parents gave this patio glider and tables to him for his birthday, but I’m pretty much claiming it as a gift to us. 🙂 It’s ok. He said I could.
    I bought these a few years ago at the antique mall. I can’t wait to restore the design on the front and then fix up the kitchen to match. Can’t you just picture those in front of a gray-blue wall? I sure can.
    We’ve been collecting glass bottles for the centerpieces at the reception…and I’ve also brought some of my mugs over. I may have a little bit of a collection. :p
    We’re making one of the bedrooms a work room for me, since I love to create stuff and need someplace to do that. I can’t wait. Mom had bought this table for me a few years ago. Lanna and her husband were using it for a while but no longer have a need. Sure looks nice here! (You can see a chair I painted a few years back hanging out behind the table.)

    —————————–

    I’m getting married to my, you guessed it, best friend on June 1st, 2013! Matt and I are super-excited and since we have quite a bit of time to plan this thing, I decided it’d be fun to blog about it. Well, maybe not always fun, but at least informative and it might give me a welcome distraction. You can find all the posts by clicking the “Getting Married” tab on the right of this page, or by clicking here. Thanks for stopping by!

    My Pinterest Wedding Board

    Our Wedding Website on WeddingWire.com

    Related articles