A month or so, ago, I took a wrong turn coming back from the Dayton Mall area and ended up on this twisty, beautiful road called Crains Run. When I went to show Matt the road, I noticed that we plopped out near the namesake Crains Run Nature Park. At that time, we could not stop to enjoy it; plus, it was unseasonably cold…or hot that week…I can’t remember, but I just know we couldn’t stop. So we promised that sometime soon, we would stop and check it out. Matt has been in this area for years and had never visited it, but I’m the type of person who a) loves parks, b) loves local, c) loves new places, d) loves old places, and e) loves going to said places with my husband.
That is what Crains Run Nature Park is. It is a park, and very lovely. It’s local, and is part of a string of parks along the Miami River. There is a bike patch connecting all these parks for miles! It is new to me, and I love first time visits anywhere. I’m saying it is old because of the river. There is something about rivers that is just old and new all at once, and I love paradoxes like that. It is like the Gospel.
Ohio has been doing a great job of turning old rail routes that are no longer in use into walking/bike paths. While I do love trains and the rail system, this idea of making something new and scenic from something else is fabulous to me. The views are lovely, and there is a lot of nature to observe along the way. We took a short walk on the path, only a mile in one direction and back, before we called it an evening. My feet were sore at the end of it, but my heart was full.
I felt like I was running (well, I was walking) through Narnia, “Further up! And further in!” It was growing and the smells and sounds were delicious. I’m also a self-christened “hana otaku,” which can be translated from the Japanese to mean a “flower nerd.” And I think wildflowers are some of the best. This park has them in spades. We walked along a big cement platform out to the river’s edge and found some lovely examples of Ohio wildflowers.
Some of these I have never seen before.
I love how the wild nature reminds me so much of God. We go through our lives, many of the events having the same color and feel, like the green of the trees, bushes, weeds, and then suddenly, we will find a patch of beautiful color to remind us that God is right there and has a treasure to show us. The little blessings throughout the day are the scattered wild daisies or butterflyweed tucked into the corners between the strong oak and maple trees. And God spoke these into creation; they are from the very words of God!
I enjoy seeing the discarded remnants of man’s attempt to either make better or to invade something wild. In the end, it is all nothing. God made nature resilient and no matter how many times something is paved over, a flower will probably start growing between the cracks.
The other weekend, Matt and I drove out to the country for a birthday party for his cousin E. She turned a whopping 9 years old and for her birthday, she wanted everyone to bring shoes to donate for kids going back to school who might not have anything. I loved the idea! I was able to raid the sale racks at Payless and came up with 4 pairs of great shoes for kids. She made out like a bandit too.
I think more showed up after I took this picture, or they just arranged them out better. I don’t know why, but it seems like when I do decide to go shoe shopping, the ones I get at Payless last me 3x as long as ones I get elsewhere, like Famous Footwear. Although, it might have to do with the fact that I only get my Nike flip flops at Famous Footwear and those are the only shoes I wear most days.
Filbruns Pond is run by the Slades, Matt’s aunt and uncle. I hadn’t been here yet, what with wedding planning and then not having any vacation left for the year after the Homeymoon. So, I decided to trek around and take some pics of the activities and location. The family was allowed to fish and there were poles galore around the place. Lots of bluegill to be had (and thrown back, of course).
Here is the description from the website:
We offer swimming, a sand beach area. Outside the beach area is a maximum of 10′ depth. We have a 10’X16’ floating sun deck. We have horseshoes, volleyball, hillbilly golf in a beautiful, relaxing country setting. We have over a dozen large picnic tables. We provide a gas grill and charcoal grill, as well.
The party barn with rustic décor will seat approx. 60 people with tables….
We are typically open Memorial Day weekend thru Labor Day. Rental rates are $400 Monday-Friday and $450 Weekends and Holidays. We still have some 2013 dates available and are booking reservations for 2014.
We are also open for daily family recreation on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 12:00pm-5:30pm.
Age 7-12 $3
Age 13 and over $5
General Information
No alcohol is permitted.
No pets.
No fishing.
There is no lifeguard. You are here at your own risk.
We require that you exercise common sense.
The grounds are pretty and there are lots of quirky signs posted around the place. It makes for a fun afternoon during the summer.
I promised that I would put up reviews of the vendors I used for the smaller details of the wedding. I’m going to start with the ceremony first and then move on to the reception. First, I would like to say that most of these photos were taken by Sadie Hodge of Sadie and Jess Weddings. I did a pre-review for her here and you can find their Facebook page here.I’m going to include things that I bought as well as things that I made and was inspired by something on Pinterest, online, etc. I will try my best to site the resources for you. And here we go!
Program
I went simple with the programs. We printed them out ourselves and I designed the whole layout. The top image is something I designed and made into a stamp that we used on our invitations. (Post 1, Post 2 and Post 3) The bird in a tree stamp came from Hobby Lobby. I only stamped one program and then made copies of it. Yes, it was the easy way out, but I was still putting these together the week before the wedding, so I was loving “Easy.”
At the bottom, there is some text that I think was very helpful. It says, “Please do not use any flash photography during the ceremony. Be respectful of our hired photographers. Also, please put your phones on silent. Thank you!” We commissioned everyone at the rehearsal to mention it to guests. I had originally planned to have some sort of verbiage like this, but that was only strengthened after reading this.
The order of participants we chose was: Officiants, Parents of the Bride, Step-Mother of the Bride, Parents of the Groom, Grandparents, Bridesmaids, and Groomsmen. We listed our grandparents together with their spouses and any that had passed away, we put an asterisks after their name and a note “(* in loving memory).”
We worked out the order of the ceremony with my pastor and included instructions for communion. We (Matt and I) love communion and since we are coming from two different churches, not to mention the many churches represented by other friends and family, communion is a great way to draw unity with a diverse group of people. Different churches have different traditions in the act of communion, so we had to make sure everyone was on the same page. It worked out wonderfully!
We also invited the guests to sing along with our singers while people were walking down the aisle. The back page of the program shared the lyrics of the primary songs so people could join in. It was a lot of fun to walk down the aisle to people singing along one of my favorite songs, “For the Beauty of the Earth.” Ever since I heard it at Meg’s wedding in Little Women, I have wanted it in my wedding. We also had “Greatest Commands” which is a great acappella song that Matt’s church sings, “Blessed Assurance,” and “Blest Be the Tie That Binds.”
Rings and Bibles
Matt and I have great love for our families. We both have lost two grandparents each, one from each side in the last 4 years. We wanted to include those who couldn’t be there as much as possible. We know they’re in heaven, and would’ve been so glad to be here for our wedding, but God decided to take them on home. What you see here is my Pappy Cook’s Bible and Matt’s Grandpa Charles’ Bible. It was inspired by this pin. My grandma decided to give Pappy’s Bible to my nephew, Jason, who was a junior groomsman in the wedding. It has his notes and everything and I heard that Jason just loves it. Pappy is touching our lives and discipling us even after he has left earth. What a testimony that man has.
Unity Candles
This is a two part mention. The candles came from The Oliver Company on Etsy. They have all sorts of home sweet goodness, beeswax coming straight from their own hives. I just checked the shop and didn’t see the unity candles on there, but I’m sure they will be back. In the meantime, check out the other great products they have from lip balm and honey soaps to burlap flowers and bows.
The stands came from Morgan Hill Designs. I was looking for something unique and something that could be customized to our wedding colors. Totally found it with this purchase. I loved the “His” “Hers” and “Ours” labels. I haven’t found a place for the His and Hers yet, but the Ours with the pillar candle is displayed with some other things from the wedding in our living room. It is perfect. There is a guide for paint colors on the shop and you just have to designate what it is you would like. I just took another stroll through her shop and there are 75 pages worth of items! all hand-carved and painted. So many unique finds and completely personalized. Be aware that there is a bit of a turn-around time. She is up-front with the prep time so be sure to read the fine print so you’re not disappointed or act too late.
Groomwear
We got most of Matt’s outfit from JC Penney. My original thought was that he would be in all red with the khaki’s, but he wanted to make sure he stood out from the groomsmen, who would also be wearing red and yellow. He chose a white shirt and we managed to find a red bow tie at the store. However, the red suspenders proved a little more difficult than we anticipated. I thought that with the hipster culture going on right now, suspenders would be super-easy to find. No go. I looked everywhere and it just wasn’t happening.
Naturally, I redirected to Etsy. Dapper Gent is THE place to go when you are looking for suspenders, bow ties, or matching sets. I found what I was looking for quickly and received our order in record time. It was good, we were running close on time. The cost was a little more than I was anticipating, but at that point I was willing to pay a little more to get what we (ok, I) wanted. They have so many cute sets for kids. Absolutely precious if you have a boy and he’s cool with stepping up his style.
Jewelry – Bride
Picture taken from Etsy.com
I chose to go minimal. My dress was so detailed and beautiful that I didn’t want too much else taking away from it. My makeup was minimal and done by my MOH. The hair complemented the dress (wish I had a good picture of my hair, but I don’t) but I still wanted a pop of color and a way to tie myself into the wedding besides my flowers. This necklace was just the ticket. It matched the dress perfectly and combined the wedding colors in a way that I swooned for. I bought it from Winter Garden Studios on Etsy. I had originally wanted to find a jeweler in my own area, but this was far and beyond what I could’ve wanted. Here’s the best picture I could find of me wearing it.
Jewelry – MOH and Bridesmaids
Picture taken from Etsy.com These earrings were for my Matron of Honor. I fell in love with these when I saw them. If I could wear earrings, I probably would’ve got them for myself. I bought them from McKee Jewelry Designs on Etsy, which I would link for you, but Etsy says she no longer exists. That’s sad. Lanna (MOH) was wearing yellow for the wedding, so her accents were all in red.Picture taken from Etsy.com For Amy, my bridesmatron, dear friend. Her dress was red so her accents and flowers were more yellow. Yellow is our collective favorite color, so it worked out perfectly. I discovered IKE and Co through the Craft Weekend blog and fell in love with these earrings. They are perfect for Amy. Ike is the name of their dog, by the way. IkeandCo is on Instagram too and she puts up some great stuff. 🙂Picture taken from Etsy.com These earrings were for my two nieces who were the junior bridesmaids of the wedding. They were wearing red dresses so their accents and flowers were mostly yellow like Amy’s. JoMazing Accessories has quite a bit in their shop so I recommend stopping over for a visit. She’s currently on vacation, so give it about 3 weeks.
More on the Wedding
You can find more about the wedding by checking out the Countdown Post. I posted each week leading up to the wedding and detailed a lot of the preparations for the big day. Soon to come, Wedding Details – Reception.
I love how the wild nature reminds me so much of God. We go through our lives, many of the events having the same color and feel, like the green of the trees, bushes, weeds, and then suddenly, we will find a patch of beautiful color to remind us that God is right there and has a treasure to show us. The little blessings throughout the day are the scattered wild daisies or butterflyweed tucked into the corners between the strong oak and maple trees. And God spoke these into creation; they are from the very words of God!
