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: 26 Weeks – O Christmas Tree

    I am fiercely possessive of my holidays. This might be because I was born on Flag Day (June 14th), but I really don’t like my holidays to mix. So when Christmas decorations start coming out before Halloween, my hackles start to go up. I will not abide Christmas music before Thanksgiving. When I lived in Japan, they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, naturally, so Christmas season was just about two months long there. That was kind of hard for me to handle. I love Thanksgiving and want it to stand on its own. But that country has its own plethora of holidays that took some getting used to.

    The day after Thanksgiving, no bars are held. It’s time for Christmas! Which means, putting up Christmas trees, lights, decorations, making Christmas candy, listening to Christmas music, watching Christmas movies – yes, mayhaps all at once. I had to work on Black Friday, which was a cake-walk at the bank, but Saturday, I drove up to Matt’s and convinced him that we needed to put up his Christmas tree.

    I decided not to take my decorations up this year. I want to save that special Christmas for our first year married. But I definitely wanted to help Matt get The House ready for the holiday.

    First, mood smell and lighting. Yum!
    Matt’s accumulation of decorations…I brought the candy canes.
    So many branches…
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    I enjoy colored lights, but there’s something crisp and pure about white lights on a tree. 🙂
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    I should probably dress up as a Christmas tree for Halloween one year…but I don’t like my holidays to mix.
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    Can you find Matt? Warning, it’s kind of disturbing.
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    His tree turned out lovely, albeit tame. I hope it can handle my decorations next year.

    Sunday started off with a headache. The Christmas elves made it down to add some cheer to our sugar bowl, per norm. They always seem to be able to find us, even when we’ve moved houses. So fun.

    Christmas02

    I felt better in the evening by the time Matt came down to my home and helped us put our decorations up. Mom and I get pretty into it. We put on Scrooge with Albert Finney to love and enjoy. It’s a musical, naturally. We know every line, naturally. So do my sisters and their kids. It’s a family tradition.

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    I always feel like it’s not really The Christmas Carol without music and dancing…

    Matt was gracious enough to help us bring boxes up from the basement, which has been one of my primary tasks. I was more than happy to let him take over that.

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    We have quite a few boxes…
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    I got the picture pre-skirt/pre-ornaments…but it’s so packed with stuff. I don’t think Matt knew what to expect when I told him I had a lot of decorations. Indeed, most of them are mine.

    A lot of my decorations center around the Rankin-Bass Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys. It’s one of my favorite Christmas movies (along with It’s a Wonderful Life, Scrooge, Prancer, The Bishop’s Wife, White Christmas, Elf, and more).

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    Most things in our house make noise at Christmas. Most things, therefore, have a funny story attached to them about how someone was frightened by it going off. This one is light sensitive and the story takes place in a bathroom, late at night. I’ll let you come up with the rest.
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    I think this is Mom’s favorite. My nieces gave it to her for Christmas one year and it quacks and dances to the Nutcracker Suite. Talk about Duck Dynasty!

    The festivities moved on to work for Monday. Mom and I have put garland and lights up on the little fence out front in the past, but we decided not to mess with it this year. My bank branch opened early this year, so we have no decorations just yet, and Mom let me borrow the garlands and lights to put up at work for this year until we can get some of our own. I had a lot of fun doing it.

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    I bought this tree at TJ Maxx a few years ago and love it. It’s so fun and bright! I added the ribbon at the bottom.
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    With a little finagling and some command hooks, we have a sweet holiday complement to our teller windows. We’ve since replaced a broken strand of lights and now it glows as well.

    The assistant manager also went out and picked up some little trees and poinsettia to decorate. Our regional manager came in yesterday and told us that she absolutely loved what we’ve done. I was so pleased.

    Have you finished your decorating? Do you have a family tradition, like toasting the tree? We’ve not had many resources in the past, so we’ve come up with our own traditions a little off the norm, but just as meaningful.

    —————————–

    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: 27 Weeks – Thankful

    This was my first year having two places to go to for Thanksgiving. I wasn’t sure how it would work out, but everything went very smoothly. The only thing I regret was that I skimped out on turkey for fear of over-eating at either place, but Mom and I had got a roast, so we made up for that.

    I’m going to apologize now that I have no pictures to accompany this post. I’m a bit disappointed in myself. No fear. The next post will have plenty of photos for you to enjoy.

    We started the day with sleeping in. This was glorious, or would have been much more glorious had I been able to sleep in passed 8 am. Mom used to complain about not being able to sleep in after some time, and I would balk at her. I completely understand now. Darn body clock. I had baked my goodies for the meals the night before, so I was free to lounge around in the morning, play Lego Lord of the Rings on our Wii, until we headed out to my sister’s for lunch.

    We’ve been having Thanksgiving lunch at either my mom’s place or my sister’s house for several years now. It’s a great time, and very low-key. And when we’re all tired of each other, we pack up leftovers and head to our respective homes to munch on turkey sandwiches for the rest of the evening – usually put up the tree, watch Christmas movies, get into the spirit of the next holiday.

    This year was a bit different since I have a fiance and his family to include. Late afternoon, I hopped in my car and drove on up to Matt’s parents’ house for some more grubbing. It’s been great to be able to spend more time with Matt’s family and to get to know them. My biggest concern was that I don’t really know what everyone’s regular “dish” is. At our family Thanksgiving, we have it pretty well established who brings what. But this is a new group of people. I decided to play it safe this year and bring cornbread and the World Famous chocolate chip cookies. Those went over famously (haha!) but the cornbread didn’t do so well. I think I’m going to try to perfect a twice-baked potatoes recipe and make that my regular dish. I told Matt, and he loves potatoes, so of course he was on board.

    Throughout the day, I updated my Facebook status with things I am thankful for. Here they are:

    • I’m thankful for brekkie. It’s my favorite meal of the day. I will frequently have it for lunch and for dinner…and sometimes elevensies, 2nd breakfast, afternoon tea, or a midnight snack (but I’ve been really good about not eating anything late in the day.)
    • I’m thankful for coffee. Also for getting paid a day early, and for the overtime I accrued this pay period.
    • I am thankful for technology. For the internet and phones where I can keep track of all my friends and family scattered across the globe. It is such a blessing!
    • I’m thankful for games. I love playing sudoku, Farmville (yes….yes I do) and all the Lego games for our Nintendo Wii. Thanks to my cousin Tessa and her family for first introducing me to them while in Tokyo. You created a Lego Wii playing monster…and I’m totally talking about Mom and not myself *cough* *cough*
    • I am thankful for creativity and being able to make things. I love that God gave us His passion to create and grow. 🙂
    • I’m thankful for lazy mornings and the smell of things baking.
    • I’m thankful for my car. He’s such a good little machine.
    • I’m grateful for holiday lunches with my family that my car drives me to. They are few and far between.
    • Thankful for adding future in-laws to the holidays 🙂
    • I’m so thankful for an amazing man who I will get to call Hubby in just over 6 months. Love you so much Matt!

    There are so many other things that I’m thankful for; I can’t even list them all. God has been so good to me this year (every year, but this year I feel the blessings especially well.) I am so thankful for my church family and the cherished memories with believers all over the globe. There have been so many people in my life who were there for a season and yet so valuable to me and my walk.

    What are you particularly thankful for this year? What special time did you have this year for Thanksgiving?

    —————————–

    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: 28 Weeks – Cake: Not the Band, But They’re Cool Too

    The last big, sorta expensive, thing we’ve needed to get booked is the wedding cake. I was able to go to the Bridalrama in Cincinnati (find more here about that) and sampled quite a few cakes. That is, by far, the most enjoyable part of the wedding planning we’ve had. Together, Matt and I scheduled tastings at two places in the area. We wanted something really nice where we could get a wide variety of flavors and make it unique to our style (well, probably more my style, but Matt was super-excited about the tasting part). For us, the emphasis is on taste, not so much on appearance, although I would love to have a pretty cake too. We also wanted something that wouldn’t cost double what my dress did. Yikes, there are some pricey places out there!

    As mentioned in the Bridalrama post, we had quite a lot of praise for J Annette’s Cheesecakes, out of West Chester. We had tasted the traditional cake in cupcake form at a birthday party and I had tried the cheesecake at Bridalrama. I recently had some more cake from there at our friend Dannie’s baby shower. So incredibly good!

    We were pretty excited about having a wedding cake with cheesecake, and the cost per slice was the same for traditional cake or cheesecake. We felt that the price for a cheesecake wedding cake was very reasonable. I loved that they do not opt for using fondant, and that with the cheesecake, they only use white frosting, which is perfect for what I have been wanting. I love my wedding colors, but I don’t want everything to be completely overwhelmed by them. We left that tasting knowing that we loved the taste, presentation and service. (Facebook)

    We decided that regardless of whether we had found OUR cake place or not, we wanted to do more tastings! So, a dear friend, Kim, recommended we check out “L&L’s Simply Sweet” out of Franklin, OH. It’s right on my path to The House in Carlisle, so I thought it would be a pretty good idea. I called them up and scheduled a tasting. They also have a plethora of flavors and boasted of being committed to coming up with new flavors on request – I was just glad that they had something with mocha in it. All Matt really cared about was the chocolate stuff. 🙂

    We tried out a few of the flavors and talked about design. The pricing is VERY reasonable and despite not having cheesecake to offer for wedding cake, I was very happy with the tasting. We love cheesecake, but if we really want to have cheesecake for our wedding, we’ll buy a small one and enjoy it ourselves. Goodness knows we probably won’t get to taste much of our own at the reception! I emailed them pictures of the cakes I wanted to pull elements from and of our topper and Lisa and Lori were both real excited about the cake! So, on Monday, Veteran’s Day, I stopped by and made the deposit for it. I can not be more thrilled! (Facebook)

    While I don’t want to show you ALL of my plans for the cake, I will share with you some of the designs and such that I have seen and liked for inspiration. Here you go:

    I’m just including this picture so you can see what a lovely combo red and yellow make. I do not like fondant and we will not be having it on our cake, but you can get an idea of the colors.
    I like square cakes, mostly because I like clean edges and I also like how much more cake can be got out of square than round. I also like the staggered effect.
    I’ve loved the spackled/rough frosting effect so much. It looks how I love to paint and gives it such great texture.
    I saw this picture in a “30 Best Wedding Cakes” or some such website and I love the ruffled icing effect. I put this up on my Pinterest right away for inspiration.

    I keep thinking that I can’t really remember what my friends’ cakes have looked like at their weddings. But I remember what they tasted like. I can remember my friends Audrey and Erik’s cake, but I think that was just because it was so super unique, and also the last wedding I’ve been to. I want people to remember our cake as being tasty and being exactly what they would have wanted. That taste is specific to each person, so I hope that what we’ve ordered will appeal to enough people. And if not, we definitely made the effort, so go buy your own. 😀

    I kid, I kid…but if you do, would you mind going to one of these two lovely places?

    —————————–

    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: 29 Weeks – Engagement Photos #2

    If you are friends with Matt and I on Facebook, then you will know that we got the rest of our engagement photos. (Yay!) You can read the first post about the experience and our photographer here. But we finally got around to getting the proofs developed. They turned out so good. Matt and I visited Michael’s for a frame for a gift and picked up this pretty little album to show them off in and to add our wedding photos to when we get them done.

    I took the CD-Rom to The Darkroom in Fairfield, OH. They are really good and I’ve had pictures developed there before. The quality of their prints with the sharpness of the photos – great combination! I will be using them to get more prints in the future and one of the best parts is that they are local! Just like my florist and just like our cake people (yes, we got our cake place! More info to come in the future.) Also, my mom picked up the pictures and the woman told her that she just loved our pictures and that we looked so incredibly happy. She thought we were a beautiful couple. I thought that was sweet.

    We had a lot of fun posing and getting the pictures done. It’s so good to finally have some photos of the two of us and I can’t wait to add to them with our wedding photos.

    Matt and I really love our cars. We call Matt’s car The Cube, or Cubie, or when I’m feelin’ rather fond and silly about it, Cubester. My boy’s Christian name is Mephibosheth, but his street name is Gravy – both because of his color and he’s a smooth ride. This picture might also have been my idea.

    Also, you should check out this website. The shop supports survivors and rescues for people of Human Trafficking. It’s pretty amazing.

    —————————–

    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: 30 Weeks – Holidays and Traditions

    I know Halloween starts off the holiday season. 93.3 starts playing Christmas music right after. That’s a little soon for me. Christmas decorations have been out in some stores since the beginning of October. It doesn’t feel like the holidays until a week before Thanksgiving and we’re trying to figure out what dish we’re bringing to the dinner, well, lunch in my family’s case. It doesn’t feel like the holidays until all the political commercials stop and we’re all groaning about Macy’s latest sale’s pitch. It doesn’t feel like the holidays until our family baking day and we all have herds of chocolate mice running around (if you don’t know what those are, I’ll have pictures later). It doesn’t feel like the holidays until I’m fully into whatever craft I have decided will be my Christmas gift this year (I’m pretty hopeful that this year’s gift will be less stressful than previous years. *fingers crossed!*)

    This is the first year that I’ve ever had a significant other to include with my holiday plans. I’ve only had to worry about fitting in my sisters, my mom and my dad and then my people at church. This year, that is all out the window. Matt and I were dating last year through December but we definitely were not a couple yet. So combining our families, well, my two families and his family, is and will be a challenge.

    Those of you who have done this in the past, how did you do it?! What kind of concessions did you make. What was a big deal to you personally?

    One thing that I would LOVE to do is to get The House all pretty and holiday-ish…but I also don’t want to do anything of that until Matt and I are having our first holiday season as a married couple. I have been putting together an ornament collection for myself for years and when Mom and I tear down the tree after Christmas, we’ll be divvying up my decorations from hers and I’ll cart them up to The House for safe-keeping. I’m really excited to bring all our stuff together, but I really am looking forward to doing that as a married couple.

    What kind of things or traditions did you bring to your marriage? Did you combine any to make a specially unique tradition just for your new family? Or did you come up with something totally and completely new for the both of you?

    I would love to hear about 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: 31 Weeks – Halloween

    We found out that Danny and Allison, Matt’s cousins, were having a Halloween party and people were dressing up. I can’t remember the last dress-up party I’ve been to, so I started looking up costume ideas. I’ve also only ever dressed to match a couple girlfriends at most in the past, so finding a couples costume for Matt and me was so much fun!

    One such costume…I am still scratching my head about this one…but her expression is crazy freakish!

    There are so many couples costume ideas! I found a website that had to have listed 1,000 different ideas, at least. Some were super intensive and others were super easy. I wanted something creative, that Matt would enjoy too, but would be pretty easy to put together. Skimming down the page, I saw Goldilocks and a bear. I ran the idea by Matt and he was totally on board.

    I was looking online at different Goldilocks costumes to get an idea of what I would need. Um…I knew that there were some pretty trashy costumes out there for women, but these were ridiculous! And they don’t just come right out and say “sexy nurse costume” anymore. Instead they say, “Sassy.” I’m sorry…you can be sassy without being sexy, but way to get people to have to look at scantily clad ladies and feed the lust drive of our culture.

    Anyway, my costume was pretty easy, I just had to girlify myself. I found some leggings and put on a full apron and then a big ribbon bow in my hair. I like complementary colors, and though a lot of sites were saying that I should dress and decorate all in yellow, I decided to use purple a bit more. They also recommended to carry a teddy bear or wooden spoon, but I didn’t have a teddy bear, so I took along the stuffed elephant that Matt got me for Valentine’s day.

    I had to endure comments about Goldilocks being Republican… *smh*

    Matt’s costume was a bit more complicated. I thought there might be a bear head, or muzzle, at least, but he couldn’t find anything at all. We ended up having to get a big stuffed bear and dissecting it.

    We cut off the head and left some of the chest fur attached so that we could tuck it into his shirt. There was a problem with the angle of the head on the stuffed bear not matching the angle of Matt’s head (go figure), so we had to make some adjustments – cut up part of the back to fit over his noggin, and then we attached it to an old backwards ball cap. This made it easier to take on and off and to keep on. We forewent the eye holes because the fabric was still pretty flimsy – this made moving around a little difficult. He often didn’t put the face down unless he was standing still for a picture or something.

    We cut off the arms and the tail as well. The arms tucked up into his shirt and with the sleeves buttoned up, it worked great! I was relieved that the fabric was soft on the inside. It was so furry and every time we cut into it, little brown fragments of fur went all over the place. I think I’m still finding some and we didn’t even make it here at my apartment!

    We sewed the tail to his jeans – it came off fairly easily afterwards. I was so relieved that I carry around a sewing kit in my purse. It was a gift from a student I had in Japan. I only had to stop at Michaels for my hair bow and then some brown stitching floss. I was very impressed with our resourcefulness. We didn’t have a ton of time to get a costume together, but we did pretty well. And had a lot of fun in the process.

    —————————–

    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: 32 Weeks – Silent Auction

    We interrupt this regularly scheduled program for an important announcement. If you don’t know me very well (which, if you are part of Matt’s crew, that is probably pretty true), I would like to share something that is very heavy on my heart with you. I have sought to be involved with the international community since I graduated from high school. I was intending to become a Bible translator and trekking the wilds of Nepal, teaching the Nomadic tribes about the love of Christ. Through a series of events (some felt unfortunate at the time, but the end result, I will not complain about 😀 *heart*) God took me through three unlikely countries (for me) before plopping me right back to southwest Ohio and saying that it would be here that I would serve Him. When I came home from China, I thought that God would send me back there at some point. I started offering English lessons to some of the workers in Chinese restaurants in the area. I worked on learning more about the culture and the language. But God decided to use my exposure here to teach me about something else.

    Buy it on Amazon!

    I got ahold of a book called “Not For Sale” by David Batstone. This book began with an account of a normal man, in a normal suburb, who found out a young Indian woman was found beaten and left wrapped in a carpet on the side of the road a few streets over from him. This woman was kept in debt bondage to a local Indian restaurant and then cast out, left for dead. It amazed this man that something like this was happening in his own backyard. This was my first real exposure to Human Trafficking.

    And then it happened in MY own backyard. I discovered that it was happening to people who I had come to know and had spent time with. I was floored and began to investigate even more about this issue. Learning more about Human Trafficking, the various forms it comes in (debt bondage, sex trafficking, slave labor, child slave labor, child sex trafficking), God began to put these people on my heart. He brought a Bible verse to my attention:

    “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
    – Isaiah 58:6 (ESV) –

    Yep, we thumbs up.

    I was so excited when my dear friend Amy Davis shared that God had been pulling her heart towards this same issue and to these hurting people over the years as well. She has been such a blessing and helped me get beyond just thinking about the problem and raising awareness to actually doing something concrete. We started out by going through the Love146 Task Force curriculum with a group of people at our church and others. We got a Fairfield police officer to come and speak at our church about the issue in our own hometown. Also, Matt has totally come on board to help whenever work permits and that is such a blessing!

    This past weekend, we organized a Silent Auction to benefit a ministry reaching out to women in the sex industry in Dayton, OH. There are so many things I could point out about Human Trafficking in Ohio. Ohio is in the top 10 for human trafficking, with Toledo being the number one city in the nation for Child Sex Trafficking recruitment. Kids are regularly taken off the street and transported to other cities and states for the purpose of prostitution and pornography. Many active adult sex workers were forced into the business before they were 18 and most have experienced some form of abuse as a child. It pains me so much to know that there are people and children hurting like this, and that the demand exists at such a high level in our state.

    This was our first time ever doing a Silent Auction and I honestly had no idea what to expect on support and amount raised. When we started talking to people about it, the promises for donations came pouring in. We would come into church and someone else would hand us a basket or bag of items they wanted to donate. The women’s ministry group at the church organized all the food and refreshments. And just when I was getting discouraged about not selling enough tickets, we had a few people come up to us that morning to buy some.

    Three Citizens…yes, I realize there are four of them. They still sound good.

    The week before, we had a bit of music debacle, but it all worked out with finding a new group that is fantastic! [Insert plug here] These are Three Citizens. We are so grateful that they came out to play for us. We had a great time with them.

    We raised over $1,000 for Oasis House! It was so good! God definitely was in control of the whole thing. If you would like more information about Human Trafficking and the impact in Butler County, you can check out the Butler County Human Trafficking Awareness Facebook page. We are completely grassroots right now, but who knows what God will do in the future?! He has done crazier things in my own life so I won’t hold Him to any plan of mine.

    Here’s a link to Oasis House, as well: http://oasisforwomen.org. I’m looking forward to spending much more time with them in the future!

    —————————–

    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: 33 Weeks – Dearly Beloved

    I’m going to apologize ahead of time that this post might be a bit of a tear jerker. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to write it or not, but last Friday, we got word that Matt’s grandfather finally passed away. He had been sick and in a lot of pain for a long while. I never got a chance to meet him as he seemed to always been in a precarious state when I had time to go for a visit. But that happens and knowing how much he meant to Matt and his family, he will have a dear place in my heart as well.

    Matt’s Grandpa Charles and the boys (Matt’s the cheeser on the bottom left)

    I was one of the lucky ones to not have any grandparents pass while I was in grade school/high school, even in college. I had several friends who had to deal with losing a grandparent while we were in school, and although I love my grandparents dearly, I had no idea how to sympathize with them. My grandparents have always been, as the Japanese say, genki (“gen-kee”) – strong, and energetic, if not healthy. And we have enough personality in the family to make Joe Biden jealous after a debate. Going to see the grandparents, which was a short drive for one set and a long 6-hour drive to Pittsburgh for the other, was always a good time and filled with laughter, usually good treats (whether oatmeal cookies or pancakes for breakfast), and great hiding places for games with the cousins.

    My grandparents have always been devoted followers of Christ. My mother’s parents got saved and plugged into a church after they were married. From two very strong Italian families, they threw themselves into the faith. My grandpa became an ordained minister, my grandmother taught Sunday School, they both sang in the choir, and they lived their lives with integrity. There are two things you could count on when visiting the family in Pennsylvania – good food and going to church. And we loved it! The church was small and sweet – I have fond memories of Easter egg hunts, getting to church early and helping to fold the bulletins, and using flannel-graph during Sunday School.

    I think that, as children, you always think certain people will most definitely be at your wedding. It’s sad to know that some will not because of distance, cost, changed relationships, but death is the most abrupt form of separation. I have two grandparents who will not be attending because they have gone on to heaven. I also have an uncle and a cousin who I would have loved to be there, but I hold on to the hope that we are separated only for a time and will all see each other again.

    Grandma and Grandpa Russell at my college graduation.

    We said goodbye to my Grandma Russell last November. She had got an infection in her heart and before it was discovered, it was too late for treatment. She was in the hospital a bit before Thanksgiving and then moved to hospice. A day or two before she went, there was a great moment of clarity (she had been sleeping off and on for a long time and not making much sense). We had quite a bit of time where she was talking with us and telling us how special we were to her. We spent the evening around her bed singing sweet hymns trying our best not to choke over the words. It is one of my favorite memories and I am so grateful to have it.

    Grambo and Pappy Cook

    My mother’s dad, Pappy Cook, ended up in the hospital early this year, in February, I believe. He had been suffering through the effects of Alzheimers and deteriorating mentally for a few years now. Out of nowhere, he developed a blood condition – he wasn’t producing any platelets and no matter what the doctors did, he wasn’t getting better. We went for a visit and his memory was really fading. He would get caught up on one thing and ask the same question about 50 times during a visit. What I loved, though, was that my Pappy had always been a goofy, ornery kind of man. He was still that man, but he became even sweeter. He might not have remembered who we were all the time, but he was the gentlest, most gracious patient and above all, he never lost his faith. I am grateful for that as well, and for the testimony he gave to every person who walked into that hospital room. I miss so much of him, even though we didn’t get to see him that often – his laugh, his jokes, his smell, his singing, how he would bop us on the head when we walked by, his prayers, how he rode the factory ride with me over and over at Hershey Park just so I could get another free candy bar, and so much more!

    Matt’s Grandma Martin passed away in 2009. She went in for a surgery and suddenly was gone. I have heard how much she meant to his family, to the whole family. I would love to hear more about her, but sometimes it’s hard to talk about loved ones who have gone on. Matt’s mom made recipe boxes for all of the cousins with recipes of grandma’s and covered in pictures of her and the family. Matt told me that when he was younger, sometimes it was hard for the family to get to and from church, so she and his grandpa would often convey the boys the 40 minutes to get to the church and then back. She was a spiritual leader for the family and her family was very important to her. (I’ll try to get a picture up here soon; we’re having some technical difficulties in getting one.) Here’s one story from Matt: “Once they (Grandma and Grandpa) were talking about going to Hueston’s restaurant. Their specialty was frog-legs. Grandma asked what they were like and Grandpa said, ‘A lot like chicken legs. She said, ‘I’ll just have the chicken legs then.’”

    Grandpa Charles – what a handsome man! 🙂

    When I started this post, I said that Matt’s grandpa had just passed away. That was last Friday. He had been sick for quite some time. Matt’s mom’s family is from somewhere down in Kentucky (I have yet to locate it on a map!) and so his grandparents have been down there, along with an aunt and uncle. He had served in the military and I’m not sure if it was from the discipline he gained there or not, but Matt says he was a very orderly man – everything had its own place. A man after my own heart, I’m told he was a storyteller, but whether they were true or not is another story. I wish I had more to tell you about him, but I’m going to have to learn the stories myself before I can share them with you. I do know that he became a believer well into his adult years, but that he was a committed follower of Christ.

    .

    There are so many things I wish I could tell you, so many inside jokes that you wouldn’t understand unless you were in my own quirky family. I know Matt would say the same.

    Thank you for reading and I hope I didn’t make you cry too much. If so, just holler at me next time you see me and I’ll tell you some of the silly stories too. Trust me, I’ve got plenty!

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    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

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  • Getting Married: 34 Weeks – Combining Forces

    This is more of a question post.

    Matt and I decided that we wouldn’t talk about combining our regular finances until we absolutely had to. We both seem to have a good handle on the bills that we have and why add extra stress before the wedding by jumbling up our financial systems until necessary.

    That said, I’m curious about when you all (the sparse readers) started combining the different aspects of your lives together with your spouse. Was it before the wedding? Was it after? Was it at random times, depending on the aspect? Like…I’ve taken over one or two boxes to The House of my things – decorations and such that I’ve gathered through the years until I had a place to display them. Matt also signed up for AAA, so he added me on as part of his household and now I have my own card. 😀 That was nice. Still has my current name on it. We also went ahead and opened a joint checking account just for the money we get together for the wedding. That seemed a very logical and not very invasive thing to do.

    There was one thing that did come up that I was on the fence about: a return address stamp. I was hoping that I would have got the one I decided on in the mail by the time I wrote this entry, but alas, it’s taking its dear, sweet lovin’ time. A return address stamp might seem like a fairly innocuous thing. BUT, sometimes small details can really trip up a brain. By the way, I got a discount for an address stamper through Groupon, which is what brought on this whole ordeal. And a mental ordeal it was…you’ve been warned.

    The traditional return address label is the bride’s family home, or the ones paying for the wedding. However, since Matt and I are taking care of the bulk of the finances for the wedding, this didn’t seem like an issue. For a practical aspect, there’s not a lot of room at my current home for lots of gifts and such that might come through the mail. At The House, there’s a whole spare room set aside for wedding things – to be converted to a project room once it’s all straightened up after the wedding. So, for things like gifts, or items we are buying ahead of time, having them sent to The House just makes sense. We’re also inviting out-of-town friends and guests to send postcards for our wedding guestbook and those will be sent to The House as well.

    But, there’s still the question of the return stamp. Do we put both of our first names and the address of The House? Or do we just have the address with no names? I was really torn about it. I didn’t feel comfortable using Matt’s last name before our wedding date. I also didn’t want people to think that we’re living together already, even though most who know us would not think that. Equally important is the cost idea: I didn’t want to buy a stamp to only use for 8 months and then have to get a whole new one for after marriage. So, I made a compromise. A little out of tradition, I went ahead and ordered the stamp with my future address labeled as “The Martin House.” Yes, it’s a dumb thing to get all concerned about, but I do have 8 months, I might as well think about details like these.

    So, what about you? Was there one thing about combining your life with another person that got you on edge or was a real struggle to work through? I don’t think there’s any real right or wrong answer, and our idea of a good arrangement might not work for someone else. I would love to hear your thoughts, though. Might as well learn from those who have taken this path already.

    —————————–

    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: 35 Weeks – Engagement Photos

    Oh my word! Yesterday was such a gorgeous day! Anyone else have a great Saturday? I have to admit that I was a bit worried about it earlier this week. See, back in July, I scheduled to have our engagement photos done yesterday. No idea what the weather would be like, but I was so super hopeful. And then this week, it was cloudy, rainy, gross, cold…and when they said we would finally get some sunlight, we didn’t. I was doing my best not to get undone though, and I’m glad everything worked out great.

    I am so fortunate to have a photographer as my matron of honor. Of course, I don’t want her to do my wedding photos, since it’ll distract her from other duties, but she was so excited to do our engagement photos. We’ve had her do some pics of the family (my mom, me, sisters, and their kids) and she’s done pics for friends and such. I’m thrilled to see what else she comes up with for us!

    I love my Butler County, Ohio. There’s just enough city (and nearby Cincinnati) and country, that it’s a really beautiful place. The MetroParks have always been lovely, but it seems like this year, they have really stepped up and worked to integrate them into everyday life. There are quite a few parks just within a small radius of where I live, my favorite growing up being Harbin Park – which holds the highest natural point in Fairfield, maybe the county…I’m not sure on that last part. However, I think my new favorite park would have to be Rentschler Park. I had a dear friend who lived in one of the homes on the park, so I had some exposure to it while in high school. Honestly, I just didn’t appreciate it much. There’s quite a lot going on here. There are soccer fields, playgrounds, fishing pond, a creek weaving through the woods, indian earthworks (I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen these!), rustic gray barn, lots of walking paths, and a view of the beautiful Erie-Miami Canal. It makes for a beautiful time.

    It also has a special place in my heart because it was here Matt first told me he loved me. Albeit by accident…but I heard it and acted like I didn’t, since I wasn’t sure if he really wanted to say it yet. Two days later, he did…and he meant it.

    So, it was here that we wanted our pictures done. I’m glad that we could introduce it to Lanna and her husband, Matt. They didn’t even know it existed and I’m pretty sure they will use it again for future backdrops. Love first times! Can I just say how awkward it is getting pictures done? Especially when you’re trying to make them not look posed, but having to pose. Plus, there’s the whole kissing in front of people. Matt and I are NOT PDA kind of folks and the most we do is hold hands and sit close to each other. Other than that, it was a great experience! The weather was cooperating, except for a stray cloud that stole the sun away at an opportune moment, and we were with dear friends who we could laugh and cajole with.

    So, when the shoot was done, we went separate ways and on with the rest of our evening. Matt and I headed over to my pastor’s house to practice some songs for Sunday morning worship and to see friends. While we were hanging out and then getting dinner, Lanna was busy editing away to get some preview shots up for us. I am so excited by what she has put out so far, I’m literally checking my phone every two minutes or less to see if there are any new ones. Alas, we have to wait for the CD for the rest, but here are the 6 she loaded for preview.

    Can you say, “Awww?!?!” I have no more words. 🙂

    Oh, but if you are in the Cincinnati area and would like to book Lanna for your photos, you can contact her through email: lanna.hoffman [a] gmail.com. She’s pretty fab, and I’m not just saying that because she’s my best friend, matron of honor, and engagement photographer. 🙂

    —————————–

    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