Xapa to the World

Category: Getting Married

I’m getting married June 1st, 2013! These are my posts on the prep and process.

  • Getting Married: 7 Weeks – Postcards, Painting, and Spring

    One of the things we are excited about (well, me way more so) is our idea of a guest book for the wedding. I might have mentioned it before in this blog series, but I absolutely love postcards. When I was out of the country, I would try to send postcards to friends and family and even some to myself. It was a fun time. I remember taking about an hour to sit in a cafe in Hiroshima, filling out postcards to send home before I hopped on the train back to Shimonoseki. That was a special time for me. A time to reflect on the crazy day I had, the things I had seen, and enjoy the scenery. There were even couple people with dogs who walked by and the dogs let me pet them! That was a rare occurrence in Japan. It was the saddest point of my time there.

    So, I have a bunch of postcards from all over that I’ve collected. But also, I have a bunch of friends and family from all over who may or may not be able to attend. Our guestbook will be all postcards that people have either mailed to us, or brought themselves, or just picked out at the ceremony/reception and filled out. We were so excited to get our first one in the mail from my Aunt Brenda a couple weeks ago!

    week 7 postcard

    Isn’t that fun?! It’s just the kind of thing we want. If YOU are picking out a postcard to send or bring with you, it can be whatever you like, but I would love it if it’s from something local to your area. Who knows, maybe we’ll take our postcards and visit each site in order throughout our marriage. That sure would be fun. If you want more instructions, check out our wedding website here.

    I absolutely love to paint. I’m a crafty person (if you can’t tell). Sometimes when I’m stressing, or overwhelmed with stuff, I just need to sit down with a paintbrush and go. I did that this week. It’s purposeful painting, not just for pleasure. I’ll be able to do more of that after the wedding, but right now, everything I do just about needs to be purposeful. I’ve had this bunny shelf for years! I mean, years!

    week 7 bunny shelf
    The project room is one glorious hot mess. Don’t look at it.

    I can’t remember when I got it, but I know I had it through elementary school. That was when I was most into bunnies. Then I loved wolves. Then I loved elephants, and that’s been a regular thing since. But I wanted to incorporate this into the wedding and then into the house afterwards. That will take some tweaking post-wedding day, but in the meantime, I needed to prime this baby and get some paint on her. I like to use flat house paint as a primer. It’s what we used in art class in high school and the habit just stuck with me. When I pried open the lid of my small paint can, this is what I found.

    week 7 old paint
    This used to be white…

    Gross, huh? Tell me about it. I thought it was weird that nothing was moving inside when I was shaking it up. Yep, spoiled to the core. I’ve never seen anything like it. Thankfully, there is a lumber/quasi-hardware shop right down the street from The House, so Matt and I drove there and picked out a fresh can.

    week 7 new paintIt’s better if the paint is not completely white. For some reason it’s harder to cover with darker colors. So, I got a tint called “Violet Puff.” Bahaha, so funny. But it did the job! And the bunny shelf is well on her way to lovely readiness. I’m pretty pleased with her. There are some other things I’m painting too, but I don’t like to give all my secrets away.

    Last Fall, I planted a bunch of bulbs outside the front of The House. I have so many wonderful ideas for those garden beds. The biggest issue is that they don’t get much sun, and there isn’t much drainage. Oh, and about 12 ugly bush stumps spread fairly evenly throughout them. Those are going to HAVE to go. Matt and I dug up some weeds and were working on one of the shrubs the other day. After we finished, I asked if he felt any great satisfaction from it. He shrugged. Me, being the prophet that I am, balked and said, “You are fulfilling a command of God here! You were made and commanded to rule and subdue the earth and that’s just what you’re doing…doesn’t that bring you satisfaction? You are living to the full potential of who God made you to be!” He didn’t seem quite as impressed as I was. Go figure.

    week 7 flowers

    I’m starting to think that those daffodils are supposed to be that short and NOT because they get hardly any sun, but those crocuses are HUGE!

    week 7 crocusesCrocuses are such a happy flower to me and remind me that winter is ending and spring is on its way. That makes you happy too, right?

    While we were weeding (significantly less weeds than were rampant through the bed last year…ahem), I found a whole walnut and decided to crack it open. I had a chopper looking tool (Mom just informed me that it’s a spade) and went at it. This was the result and how fun is that?!week 7 walnut

    We set it down and weren’t thinking about keeping it. Seems another creature thought it was just as yummy, er, lovely, and took off with it before we could try and keep it.

    In a few minutes, I will be heading out to my first wedding shower. I’ve been to several, but this will be MY first one. It’s up at Matt’s church and I’m really excited to go and see his family and church family – get to know them a bit better. It’s hard living further away from where I will be living and not be able to spend quality time with everyone. I’m sure I will have pictures for you next entry!

    —————————–

    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: 8 Weeks – Workin and Weather

    In the last few weeks, Matt and I have been struggling through some goofy work schedules. Well, Matt’s work schedule is always goofy, but it did manage to get even more garbled up with an annual shutdown of the plant which had him working long hours for a week straight. Now he’s going to be covering vacation for another coworker, so he’ll be MIA in the mornings for a while. I was working on a big project with my bank and that had me stuck in a basement at our corporate office for two weeks. That’s about all I could handle, although, I have been able to go in early a couple days each following week to help a little more before the branch opens.

    I’m glad to be able to help. I’m glad that I have the skills to help with something like this. I’m glad that Matt and I have both been able to get overtime recently. It has helped a bunch with wedding bills. I don’t think we’ll have many (if any) lingering expenses after the wedding day, which is just as I wanted it. We wanted to go as simply and inexpensively as possible – apart from my requirement of a good photographer.

    But now, we’re under 10 weeks, close to 50 days until the wedding. Crazy to think about! And we’ve been doing really good on the timeline. Getting things done and ahead of time. But I can’t help but get a little….anxious? Is that the word? I’m not nervous or overly worrying about anything. I just have a lot on my mind. There’s a lot going on. Plus, I’m on this birth control, which seems to be the new scapegoat for every physical/emotional issue I have going on right now. My pH balance is off, so I’m on a minimal meat diet while I get more alkalines in my system. Good thing I love spinach, broccoli and carrots.

    To top it off, one of the biggest tasks we still have on our plate requires the wide open spaces of outside and warmer temps. Ohio has been less than obliging in this department. Darn Ohio. I love my state, but man! It’s like a woman going through menopause! There’s no guarantee what temperature we will have on a given day. NO GUARANTEE. Don’t even try to figure this place out. Yesterday, I left my house with gloves on and came home without my coat.

    I’m having dreamlike events. I’ve never sleep-walked before, at least that I know of. Trust me though, if I did, my family would be sure I knew about it. In the last month, I’ve had two dreamlike events that I can remember. I get up in the middle of the night and do some sort of task in my room and then crawl back into bed. I moved some clothes off a chair for the first one. When I woke up, they were definitely in the new location. The other night, I smelled a lot of garlic (mom made us some gluten-free meatloaf…that’s a whole other story). I got up to try and open my window, only to find it wouldn’t budge. I’m so glad I kept the locks set on those. I would’ve freezed to death!

    Is there some sort of Sun Dance we could do? I know there’s a rain dance, but I’m sure there’s a Sun Dance out there. I’d like to do that. Wanna join me? Then Matt will have more time to work on these.

    week 08 yellow jars

    Don’t those look fun? Don’t you wish you knew what those were for??? Yep. Our wedding’s going to be pretty fab. I like throwing this kind of party.

    Speaking of party, next Sunday will be my first bridal shower! I’m so excited! I’ve been breaking my original rule of not looking at the registries to see what has been bought. My thought is that once I see stuff being bought, I’ll not look. Right now, there’s zilch. Oh well. You still have time people, no worries. 🙂 I just really want that shower curtain…and step-stool…and those dinner plates…and the garden tools…and the bat house. Ok, that’s not on any of the registries, but we saw some cool ones at Rural King! How fun! I so want to have a bat house….and a rolling compost bin.

    Ok, I’m done. Time to go to work. 🙂

    —————————–

    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: 9 Weeks – Shopping

    We were able to get a lot of things done this past week.

    Monday, my sister took her daughters, my two junior bridesmaids, to get their dresses. I was able to meet up with them and give my input on styles and such. They are going to be so lovely, I can’t wait to see them when the dresses are altered and they have their hair done up.

    After we left the dress shop, I stopped at Hobby Lobby to see what kind of stands they had for Unity Candles. Let me tell you, they were just pitiful. There was nothing really beautiful. I’ve got a more earthy turn and the ones they had were either glass with gem embellishments or metal with big random hearts all over. Definitely not my style at all.  I shared my dismay with Matt who immediately began searching online for one that would be a better fit.

    He found something so suited to what I wanted, it was fabulous. I ordered a set and it should be here by the beginning of May! I don’t want to share it, but here is the shop on Etsy. She has some other lovely things.

    Matt and I both had Thursday off and so decided to spend the day getting some other shopping done together. The plan was to find his clothes for the wedding (I’m fairly taken care of) and then find some cheap rings for the ceremony.  We went to JCPenney for the clothes and found just about everything we needed! Our bridal party are wearing/alternating of sorts, the wedding colors, and the thought was that to make Matt stand out more, we would have him all in red and then tan khakis. We easily found a red bow tie, but could not find a good fitting red shirt to match. So, Matt decided he’d rather stand out more by wearing a white shirt with the red accents. There’s nothing more frustrating than looking at wedding pictures and not being able to tell the groom apart from the rest of the guys. This would’ve been a problem because the best man (Matt’s brother Adam) would’ve been dressed almost the same as Matt. This will definitely keep him distinguishable.

    Did you know that suspenders are hard to find? I didn’t think they would be, what with the hipster culture going on right now. We are not hipster, but you plan on things being easy to find and when they aren’t, that’s frustrating. So, I went to my default problem-solving website to find what I needed. And, voila! Etsy pulled through again. Albeit, a little more pricey (more than half what the rest of Matt’s outfit cost!!), but I found what I was looking for.

    week09 suspendersThe shop owner is currently on vacation until the end of April, probably sewing up Matt’s suspenders! 😀 I can’t wait to see them in person. I hope they look as wonderful as I think they will.

    We finished up with the clothes and on a whim, stopped by the jewelry selection. We found just what we were looking for, probably cheaper than we could’ve found elsewhere too! It took some convincing, but we finally got the lady to understand that we weren’t looking for anything spectacular. See, Matt’s job requires him to be jewelry-free, including wedding bands. He needs something he can easily take off and put back on. He also needs something that isn’t so expensive that if he loses it, we’re devastated financially. We are willing to pay for certain aspects of this wedding, but other parts are just not a big deal to us. For me, we found a simple, narrow sterling silver band that will sit beautiful next to my white gold engagement ring. Maybe for our anniversary, we’ll spring for the matching band to my engagement ring, but it’s not essential. We just need something for the wedding. What we found cost us just over $75 together! I like that kind of spending.

    Might not be valuable to the world, but they're precious to us!
    Might not be valuable to the world, but they’re precious to us!

    While I’ve got you, I’ll let you in on a secret.

    I was at Target and found this lovely little glass pitcher, the kind with a spigot on the bottom for easy dispensing. It is very sweet. I wanted to add it to our registry, but I didn’t have time to go all the way back to the counter to get a scanner gun configured and go back to scan it and then leave again. It would’ve been a pain. But recently, I added the Target app to my Android. I signed in to my registry on my phone and found this handy-dandy bar code icon at the top of the screen. I touched it and amazingly, I could scan the barcode of the pitcher through my camera. In just a few moments, the pitcher was now on our registry! Remarkable! I was so excited that, had I had more time, I might have run around the store to add some more things on it, but I’m so glad to know that I can do this in the future. You can also manage your registry from there (increasing item counts and such. It’s a great tool. The only thing I couldn’t do was remove an item, but when I got to a computer, I could do that. Anyway, take that knowledge and go with it, m’dears! Oh, and remember that you have to scan the barcode on the actual item, not the one on the shelf with the price. Why they can’t work that out to be the same, I don’t know, but it’s ok. We still love them.

    —————————–

    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: 10 Weeks – Fitting in Lithuanian

    70 Days and 10 Weeks. Wow! The time is getting so close!

    This past Sunday, Matt and I met with and booked an awesome DJ! I’ll have some more info up for you after the wedding about DJ B. We are pretty pleased with our pick. He was very organized, detailed, and personable. And he could laugh. That’s always a good sign.

    Tuesday night, Mom and I lugged my wedding dress and accessory clothing to David’s Bridal for my first fitting! It was pretty fun and informative. My dress is so gorgeous and detailed…that means alterations are going to be a bear. We actually have to go back at the end of April for a Part Two because she could only focus on the top part and not the hem. That’s right. I might be long-waisted, but I’m still short and the back was way too loose. The dress looked so pretty when I first tried it on, but it felt wonderful after she clipped it up to the right dimensions on the top.

    Who is this she? Her name is Grazina. From Lithuania and bearing a thick Eastern European accent – she was just what I wanted in a seamstress.  When we bought the dress, we also bought a slip to go under it. It had tulle and a couple layers to make the dress poof out a bit more. When I tried it on for the fitting, Grazina decided that it was too much and found one with tulle only towards the bottom. It fit so much better. Alas, that one was also too long, so she will probably have to alter that as well. But, at least we didn’t have to pay for the second one; she let us swap out the first one.

    I have been putting the finishing touches on the design for some of the favors. We are having a couple different favor choices and I love the variety of the reception so far. We have several cake flavors, different favors, and the decorations are going to be cockamamie – just my style. The music too, will exactly suit our taste, spanning a few decades. I absolutely can’t wait!

    I got a text from both my bridesmatrons. My MOH, Lanna, found her dress and it is so lovely! Amy sent me a picture of the dress she found for her daughter who is my flower girl. Both of those dresses are in yellow and Amy found red shoes to match. I know she is going to be so amazingly adorable. My sister is going to take my nieces out, who are my junior bridesmaids, to find their dresses hopefully this week.

    Things are starting to come together and the RSVP’s are coming in too!  I am so excited for all of this and hope that I don’t get too stressed out throughout the next 70 days. I’m so glad that Matt and I decided to stay home after the wedding if only just to be able to relax and recoup from all the planning and the day. I know that I will be exhausted.

    Oh, I bought a necklace to wear with my dress. I won’t post which one it is, but here is the link to the shop. I think her jewelry is darling!

    I will leave you with another shop to peruse. I’ve been following this Meg Duerksen’s blog for about a year now. She has creative women come to her done-up barn once a month for a crafting weekend and they get crazy! She is a Christian and inspires me in so many ways. She just reopened her online shop, so I think you should check it out.

    This next week will be – shopping for Matt’s outfit and our wedding bands! Yay!

    —————————–

    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: 11 Weeks – DIY Invitations #3

    I can’t believe it, but the invitations are finally finished and they were sent out early this week. I am all about helping struggling businesses and I just want to say, “Kudos to the USPS!” Mom dropped off the invites to the post office on Tuesday afternoon. The AFTERNOON people! And I was tagged in a friend’s photo of them on Facebook by late Wednesday morning! Unreal! Friends in Kentucky even got theirs the next day and RSVP’d and everything!

    I’m so pumped. We chose to have our RSVP’s go through our wedding website (http://weddingwire.com/MattandSarahMartin/) and I get an email every time someone uses it. I know about half the people, so some names are a little bit fuzzy for me, but I know Matt will be excited when he sees them.

    Funny story. We had to make our reception RSVP only since we have such a large family population coming. It’s been sad to have to cross some people off our list, but we hope they can still make it to the wedding ceremony. Anyway, since we were sending invites to some people even though they weren’t going to the reception, I had typed up two lists for my bridesmaids to write from so we didn’t mix up who got a reception card and who didn’t. The last two weeks have been haywire for me. I work 54 hours last week alone and this week was even more. I was so wiped out typing up the lists that I made a couple of typos.

    No, Amy, it wasn’t your fault (even though there were a few envelope casualties). I misspelled the first names of a couple of Matt’s guests. “Arron” became “Aaron.” So, sorry, but it would be a common mistake, I’m sure. “Bob” became “Bon” and we had quite a lot of fun making James Bond-esque jokes. Yes, that we did.

    The topper was my grandmother, whose last name I mistyped. She has such an easy last name too, but there it was, written on the envelope as “Dorothy Book.” I am baffled that it even got to her considering I put her in Latrobe, Ohio instead of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. I guess it’s a blessing that I got the zip code right. Another kudos to the USPS! Y’all are beasts!

    On to what I’m sure you’re really here for. As a recap, let me point you back to a few other posts in this series.

    Week 37 – DIY Invitations, Week 20 – DIY Invitations #2, and Week 15 – Review: The Darkroom.

    Despite the work it took, I had a lot of fun making these. It was my first time doing anything on this scale. I perused online for some ideas and tips, but most of it just came from my brain. I never know how things will turn out when they come from my brain, but I am really pleased with these. Here we go.

    week 11 invite front

    Sorry for the shadow at the bottom. I’m not very skilled at photo-taking with my phone yet. The concept of lighting is nearly lost on me. I saw something very similar to this stamp set on another website. I may have linked to it in the Week 37 post, but I can’t remember. It’s a two-stamp set. One has our names in a pretty font, and the other is the ampersand. These, I actually cut myself out of a rubber pad and glued onto a block of wood to use for pressing. It took a long time to cut out and a long time to get comfortable using, but it is probably my favorite part of the invitation. The bird in a tree stamp was a quick buy from Hobby Lobby. I fell in love.

    week 11 invite inside

    Color blocking has been real popular in recent seasons. I wanted the invitation to focus on this kind of style. I bought both of these stamps at Michaels – the M came from one of the dollar bins. It was perfect, except that the indents on the side of the stamp were really on the top and bottom and didn’t help with comfort when using it. Of course, I did stamp something 1,776 times for these final invitations so that might have been a factor as well. We did the math, and it turned out mighty patriotic, so I guess it’s all for good. 🙂 The wildflower stamp at the top was so worn by the time I finished, you could barely see the black “preview” image on the top of it.

    week 11 invite insert

    Just to be clear, I faded out my phone number on the RSVP cards. I don’t want random people getting my number and harassing me. I already get that dumb “The FBI reports an increase of break-ins in your area…blah blah blah” message all the time on my mobile. I don’t need other misery with it. These are just standard cream paper glued to yellow cardstock glued to red cardstock. Very easy. Glue sticks are wonderful. Next!

    week 11 stamps

    The USPS comes out with new lovey stamps right around February. I managed to get last year’s Love ribbon Forever stamps AND a couple of weeks later got this year’s heart envelope stamps. I like these way better than the dorky wedding ones. No offense if you like those. Plus, these match one of our colors. 😀 I ordered the heart envelope ones through the USPS website and they came in the mail super-quick. That’s kudos #3 for you USPS…right? #4? #16? Oh, I can’t keep track.

    week 11 invite back

    Our faith is so very important to us. We thank God for the blessing He has given us in each other and our relationship. This day is one of many days to celebrate, rejoice and be glad in it and who He is – the Giver of good things.

    —————————–

    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: 12 Weeks – Missing Week

    Excerpt from an email to my sister:

    Is this the year I get married? Does the sun still shine? Is the war over? Who is the President?

    To which she replied, “You should take a picture of the sun.” and “Reagan. I still can’t believe he went from acting to politics. But I have a good feeling about this one.”

    Haha. We’re all a bit crazy.

    This week, I’ve been trapped in the basement of our corporate office, working on a super, huge project. It’s a big deal. I was asked because I pay attention to the small details and I love filing/sorting/etc. All the paper-pusher type activities just give me a thrill. I’ve been working on a big filing project at my own bank branch, so it’s right up my alley.

    My hands have more cuts and marks on them than I can ever remember. And they seem to multiply. But, hey, the paycheck will be really pretty after this week and we get other incentives like free snacks and lunch every day.

    Yesterday was the first day in nearly a week that I got to see Matt and give him a hug. We missed each other. Since this is such a big project for me and I’m putting in so much time at the office, he’s getting some overtime with his job too. Might as well. We’ve got a wedding to pay for. But the time away is pretty tough. Thankfully, I’m so tired when I get home that I don’t have much time to think about it before I collapse into bed.

    Didn’t stop him from making me an amazing bedside lamp. I got to use it last night and it was glorious! I actually read a chapter of my book, in bed, without having to get back up to turn off my big light, and before I fainted from exhaustion. And I charged my phone from it overnight. Fantastic!

    This is the one Matt made for himself. Mine doesn't have a shade yet, but it's nearly identical!
    This is the one Matt made for himself. Mine doesn’t have a shade yet, but it’s nearly identical!

    Today the plan is to get to church and then my bridesmaids are coming over to help address envelopes and put the invitations all together. I got a text midweek that my matron of honor caught a bug from the kids she nannies and it’s still having its way with her. She will not be joining us today. That leaves me and Amy, who just found out that she is pregnant and that baby is already making her life difficult with morning sickness. Poor things. It might just be me and Mom over here writing away and having a big ole time.

    But there is plenty to do and there will be plenty more to do after the invites are in the mail. I will share more with you about them once they get sent out and people have time to see them. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. 🙂

    Hope you all have a fantastic week and enjoy any sunshine you get, once for yourself and once for me, the Rumpelstiltskin of the bank basement.

    P.S. Um, Once Upon a Time is supposed to be amazing tonight!!! I am dying to know who dies! (pun intended)

    —————————–

    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: 13 Weeks – T Minus 90 Days

    That’s right, we’re under 100 days folks! Wow!

    I’ve said this to a few people when they ask how much time we have left: “It feels like it’s going so slow sometimes and so fast others!” I think that’s pretty standard. I’ve never planned a wedding before, but I think I’m relatively on track.

    However, some moments have got me to the point where I want to freak out. Like, when we ourselves were unable to print out the invitations. When I heard that Fairfield’s graduation ceremony is the same day, just a few hours earlier. When I found out that we didn’t indeed have our DJ booked.

    There might have been others, but of such lower intensity that I’ve forgotten about it. The point is that things will happen, either beyond our control or well within the bounds of what we can handle.

    And I have a choice.

    I have a choice to freak out and let the emotions or situations dictate how I act and feel. Or I can give it up to God and move on with what things I can handle.

    I haven’t liked the idea of a bridezilla since the term first became so popular. I don’t see myself as one. If I come across as one (first please tell me honestly), it might just be that I have an idea and I know how I want it to turn out. But I try to be respectful of people around me and their ideas/input as well – even if they’re entirely opposite to what I know or am aiming for.

    I think people get into the mindset that they are entitled to what they want and anyone who gets in the way of that is completely against them and should be cut down. I can’t stand that, and I hope to never be one of those people. In the freak out examples mentioned above, I had a flood of emotions and thoughts come through me. They all felt right to feel. But something inside said, “Don’t give in.”

    Satan loves to attack us in any way that he can. He wants to ruin our relationships, not just with God but with others. He loves to create discord and animosity between believers and what better time to do it than during the high intensity time of a wedding planning? I had to sift through the thoughts that were coming through and decide that most of them were designed perfectly to drive a wedge between me and someone else. Of course it feels right to be the afflicted one. But it’s not right. It’s not right to lash out at someone just because things aren’t going your way. It’s not right to even keep those thoughts circulating through your mind.

    I am learning a lot about myself through this planning. I’m learning a lot about Matt, and about the others around us. This is so good because in our marriage, we will go through numerous high-stress situations. Do we have what it takes to get through them? I believe so. If only just because we have God to depend upon.

    We have been talking in church about the armor of God and this morning’s message was on the “Sandals of Peace.” The Gospel is peace and the Gospel preaches self-sacrifice and love for others. We want, most of all, for our wedding to point to God and be a testimony of the work He has done in our lives and in our relationship. We want to be ministers of peace as we celebrate our wedding day and throughout our marriage. Please help us through pray as we plan out the rest of the wedding and for the day of. Your prayers are most appreciated.

    —————————–

    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: 14 Weeks – Registries

    This week has been pretty intensive with working on the invitations, but Matt and I did manage to make it over to Target and put the finishing touches on our registry there. We had started it about a month ago, going through kitchenware and other household items, but this visit, we registered for our bedding and bathroom things. I’m so excited! I wish I had taken a picture of the cute shower curtain and matching rug we picked for the bathroom. They don’t have a picture online of it either, so you’ll just have to go see it for yourself. 🙂

    We also registered for our plates through JCPenney. I fell in love with Fiestaware and, although, they can be a little heavy,  the colors are vibrant and that’s what I wanted for our kitchen. So, the night we came home from Target, I got a message from Matt saying that his mom had gone on our registry on JCPenney and there was a problem. All the dishes (the only thing we had actually registered for with JCP) were showing as unavailable. I was so confused because when I brought up the actual website, it showed all the dishes and colors right there as available. So, I called the Customer Service line and they were unable to give me an answer. When I finally got ahold of Gift Service, I was told that the product numbers of the Fiestaware had been changed. Rather than update it themselves, I had to go in and replace every item on that registry with the new product number. Thankfully, there weren’t that many, but it was an inconvenience. Also, there was the fact that we had also put our registry info right on our already printed invitations.

    After that was finished, though, we were all done and ready to go! So here’s the info for you:

    week 14 target.
    You can find our registry on Target here.

    .

    .week 14 jcpenney

    Here is the link for our registry for our dishes at JCPenney.

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    .

    week 14 menards.

    Matt and I look forward to taking care of our house and the garden and land around it. So, we registered at Menards too!

    .

    .

    Today, mom and I are lugging up a bunch of my stuff to The House. This will be her first time to see the place. Let’s hope it meets with approval.

    What’s that I hear at the door? Oh, it’s the mailman! And he’s got a package for me!

    *runs to the door*

    Yay! Our unity candle set just arrived and check out this sweet note with it!

    week 14 tea lights

    Etsy is such a neat community of artists and people. I will have to do a post-wedding post of all the wonderful Etsy vendors we used. They are fabulous!

    —————————–

    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: 15 Weeks – Review: The Darkroom – Fairfield, OH

    For a quick summary review, you can skip to the bottom of this post. Everything else is all flowery and verbose and not for Cut-To-The-Chasers.

    We tried to do completely DIY Invitations and aside from making the paper ourselves, we were on track to doing just that.

    So here’s what happened. I’ve been saving up invitations of my friends for years to be sure I had a wide variety of wording and designs. They’re also just great memories of the lives I’ve been able to have as friends, many of whom are now out-of-state and have homes bustling with kids. I heard there would be a huge stationery sale at Michael’s one day and I had another 20% off coupon, so Matt and I went through and found packs of 50 invites/envelope sets. We picked up 4 and some other sheets of paper and went on our way.

    I started brainstorming the design and we discussed the wording. I typed it up, made the adjustments for the dimensions of the invitations and emailed it over to Matt for him to print out. Only, the font didn’t keep, and when I saved the file as a pdf, it wouldn’t hold the dimensions. So, Matt had to play around with it for a while and when he finally got it to print the right way, he was running out of ink and some of the lines bled.

    I was getting a little stressed about it before all this and that was worrying Matt. He’s so sweet to me. He said that this was a problem he would solve and I wasn’t to worry about it any more. He took the invitations over to Staples to see if they would be able to print them but they refused saying that they don’t work with paper of those dimensions. (Rule of thumb: When getting paper on discount, be sure that the dimensions are something that can be readily put through a printer!) Staples said that a smaller print shop might be able to do it and Matt remembered the developer shop down the street that printed our engagement photos and Christmas gifts (we gave out some framed copies to family members).

    This developer shop is called The Darkroom and I’ve mentioned it before in this blog series. They are, honestly, my new favorite place. Before planning this wedding, I’ve only used them less than a handful of times, opting for the quick develop shops, or online developing. The quality of the prints I’ve got from The Darkroom makes the adage ring true, “Good things come to those who wait.” And the wait is not that long at all. They will work with you on a deadline (within reason, of course), but they seem very flexible and determined to help you out.

    Week15 Darkroom Logo

    The Darkroom

    1195 Hicks Blvd
    Fairfield, OH 45014
    513.829.3154
    Website

    Matt dropped off the paper and the file and presented our case. The man readily accepted the challenge and was to call me when he had a proof completed so I could see the result. The difference was amazing! He and I discussed the price (since we had brought our own paper, they didn’t have a set price for just printing invitations) and came up with an agreeable settlement for the both of us. Those weeks learning how to bargain in China and Egypt really paid off! In the States, we don’t bargain much, so I didn’t haggle the price as much as I did in those countries, but it was fun to do on my home soil.

    The Darkroom has so many products and services, it really is amazing. Here I thought they just developed pictures! According to the website, they provide the following:

    • Hardbound Lay Flat Photo Books
    • Canvas Prints and Gallery Wraps
    • Fine Art Metals
    • Candids, Portrait Units (which include – Magazine covers, key chains, luggage tags, trading cards, photo buttons, fridge magnets, t-shirts, coasters, keepsake box, coffee mugs, aluminum water bottle, and mouse pads.
    • Shoot for special events and Prom
    • more information on the website.

    Within a week’s time, I received a call that the invitations were ready and Matt swung by to pick them up. They turned out beautifully! Now I’ve had the task of handstamping the details, but the text is lovely, precise, and just what I wanted it to be. I would put up a picture, but I want the final result to be a surprise to my guests, so that will just have to wait for an update until after the invites have been sent out. I’m sure you’ll understand.

    So here’s the breakdown:

    The services:  I didn’t even know that The Darkroom did invitation printing, but Matt happened to notice it on one visit there. We saw another sample set out and it was exquisite, with beautiful embellishments and colors. So, they provide this particular service and just about any other service one would imagine along with photo services. You can find them here.
    The help: Richard Braun and the ladies who help out there (I’ve never caught their names, but they are lovely) are very helpful and attentive to their customers’ desires and needs. Richard has been doing this for years, and worked with his father who started the business 34 years ago.
    The parking: They have their own parking lot. It’s kind of across from Skyline and near an intersection on Route 4, so sometimes traffic is a bit tricky if you park in the spots along the road.
    The facilities: The shop itself is small and unassuming, but I’ve only seen a small part of it inside. I will tell you, though, that someone on staff smokes, so you can smell it when you first walk in. However, the smell didn’t transfer on my invitations or photographs at all.
    The results: The results are highly professional and just what you order. If they can’t do something, I’m sure they will tell you, so you have realistic expectations of what you are going to get. The color in the picture prints was lovely and my invitation text was crisp and exactly what I had wanted.
    The price: Price is very reasonable for a professional shop. If you’re looking for a cheap shop, then this isn’t for you and maybe an hour developer is what you’re looking for. But you get what you pay for. The quality just is not going to be the same.
    Returnability: I plan to use this shop much more in the future, even though I won’t be living in the same zip code. I anticipate bringing our wedding photos to be developed here as well.

    Thanks for the read!

    —————————–

    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: 16 Weeks – More Random

    Ok, ok. I know I’m behind. I totally had a great post in mind for 16 Weeks, but then time just went crazy and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to write it how I wanted, so it’s on hold. Here’s what we’ve got going on though.

    I am so not a cook. I can bake up a storm, but cooking…eesh. I think it’s because there are no real set rules. There are loosely put together guidelines. I like rules. I like formulas. I loved Chemistry because things had to go in a specific way in order to get the right result. Baking is Chemistry. Cooking is…well, I don’t know…not a science that’s for sure. It’s more of an art form and while I love art and being creative, food is not a medium I’m well-versed in yet.

    While we were visiting Matt’s grandma, she told me that she could barely cook anything when she first got married. She is such an incredible cook now. I told her, in my most Anne of Green Gables fashion, “You have given me hope beyond anything I could have imagined. I will always remember you as a benefactress.”

    By the way, I’m in the fourth book of that series, Anne of Windy Poplars. It’s a sweet book. I love all the chapters that are just letters she’s writing to Gilbert. And how it shows where sections were omitted because Anne had just the right pen for writing love to him.

    Back to food. I tried to make a pork chop dinner for Matt and I the other weekend. It was…alright. I think Matt liked it, but I know that it didn’t come out alright. Timing is such a hard thing. Mine and his mom encouraged me that it does take practice to get the timing of meals down. I will not lose heart. Matt says that he is looking forward to me learning how to cook. I reminded him that I will fail quite a bit, but he said he didn’t mind. We’ll see how that goes. There’s a pizza place and Subway just down the road. We might keep them in business – all by ourselves.

    We got our invitations back from the printer so now I’m working on stamping them. It’s a process. I did a bunch of stamping while listening to the State of the Union address the other night. It helped me have the right amount of pressure to get the stamps pretty well even. I get fired up sometimes. And John Boehner and Joe Biden’s exchanges of looks were quite amusing. Usually with Biden grinning widely and then catching Boehner’s eye and slowly dropping his smile and clapping slower. It was humorous. Boehner’s eyes were daggers over his glass of water at times. I can talk about him like that because he’s from around here.

    I have just 45 mins to finish Matt’s Valentine’s Day gift. Last year, I made him a cake loaf with red and pink heart sprinkles in the batter and icing. It was yummy. I’ve not had much practice with Valentine’s Day, so I’m still a little rough around the edges.

    I scheduled my dress fitting! Now, I just have to get my hair scheduled and I’ll feel a little better about my appointments.

    We had our first premarital counseling last night. It was mostly about the order of operations for the ceremony. It ended with me all jittery inside – in a good way. 🙂 I’m so looking forward to it and I’m hoping that we can fit everything in that we want to without making it too long. We’ve got some good ideas, but I will not stress about it. I.Will.Not.

    This is the book we will be using during our counseling:

    The Most Important Year in a Man's/Woman's Life
    The Most Important Year in a Man’s/Woman’s Life

    I’m pretty jazzed about it. I want to take it, and highlight, and write notes in the margins, and then keep it on my bookshelf for forever and ever and ever amen.

    That’s all I’ve got for today. Now I have 30 mins. Eek!

    Catch ya later!!

    —————————–

    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