Xapa to the World

Tag: Getting Married

  • 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. 🙂

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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

    Related articles

  • Getting Married: 36 Weeks – 20 Thoughts

    There’s another blog that I follow that I enjoy quite a bit. Every now and then the writer will just list 20 things she has been thinking about or wants to say, without much theme. I like it. So, I’m going to do that for you this week.

    1. Is our wedding really only 36 weeks away?!  2. I’m loving the time I’m getting to spend with friends lately; it seems so full and uplifting.  3. Matt working 2nd shift is not my favorite AT ALL!  4. We opened a joint checking account to put our wedding money into. Talk about weird!  5. I feel so on top of things and then I think about money and it makes me a little queasy.  6. Today, I am going up to The House to plant bulbs for a Spring/Summer garden!  7. I have so much stuff that I’m starting to filter through it now.  8. That seems like a never-ending task.  9. We’re putting the deposit down for the wedding flowers today.  10. My best friend is going to be even further away from me once I’m married and I’m not a fan of that.  11. My other best friend will just be far away from me, and I don’t like that much either.  12. I’m going to get whole new towns and cities to explore when I move.  13. That means new restaurants … score!  14. If we’re friends on Facebook, you know I post a lot about food. I think it’s much more agreeable than politics or drama. 🙂  15. I’m so excited to marry a man who has a countdown to the millisecond on his phone to our wedding day.  16. Did I mention that 36 weeks seems like a long way away? 36 weeks. 252 days. 6055 hours. 363,300 minutes. 21,798,000 seconds.  17. We had a cake tasting this week and it was wonderful!  18. I’m prayfully looking forward to God showing us what our ministry together will be.  19. I am looking forward to learning to love to cook.  20. C’mon 36 weeks!

    Hope you all have a great week! (Once we do our other cake tastings, I’ll post more about them)

    Until then, enjoy this:

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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

    Related articles

  • Getting Married: 37 Weeks – DIY Invitations

    As much as possible, I want to DIY our wedding.  One easy thing to do yourself is the invitations. Let me say that I love stationery. I love letter writing, sending postcards (which is why our guestbook will be postcards instead of a traditional book), and sending Thank You notes. In fact, I’m a compulsive Thank You note buyer. I have two shoe boxes full of Thank You notes I’ve accumulated throughout the years, which I know will come in handy after the first bridal shower and such. I have never really tried to make my own stationery, though, and my only attempt at scrapbooking was in high school when I took an old binder and filled it with pages, photos, and even a book I had to make in French class about what I was like as a child.

    That kid at the bottom is my now 20 yr old nephew…eesh!

    I know what you’re thinking…SIGN ME UP! But I love trying new things and I really think that this will work. 🙂

    My first order of business was to brainstorm what I wanted them to look like. I saw these invites and fell in love with them. And then I saw these and thought they were a bit more feasible. So I set out to make my own stamp. I’ve never done this before either, but it sure looked like fun, and considering I have 37 weeks to go, I’m ok with trying some things out before we need to get serious. I’m not going to show a finished product of the invites until we send them out, but you are welcome to see the process of, at least, this attempt.

    I went to Michaels and bought a Speedball kit and a soft rubber stamp pad. Since I’m new to this whole process, I thought better start with the soft than the harder linoleum block. I sized my stamp and then pulled up Powerpoint. This is my picture manipulator of choice. I’m probably super old school saying that, but you make do with what you have and I have Microsoft Office! I typed up the wording and positioned the pieces where I wanted them.

    Then, I took the little bit of tracing paper that came in my kit and put it up to the computer screen, sketching the letters out lightly with a No.2 pencil.

    Once I had the design on the transfer paper, I flipped it over and pressed down the back of the paper so that the pencil marks went onto the rubber. It’s really important to do this gently, since you don’t want the design to get smudged. It goes on backwards, too, which is just want you need for a stamp!

    Once the design was on the rubber, I began to carve. I probably didn’t do this the right way, but it turned out really well once I had it all cut out. The kit I bought came with two sizes of blades, one for larger areas and another for the detail cuts. Here was the finished product for that, and the sample stamp.

    The hard thing about these stamps is that they’re a bit flimsier and tough to get a consistent image. So, I ran over to Home Depot to see what kind of scrap wood I could find to mount it and the other stamps on.

    I know they’re not really scraps, but they will do the trick, and with a little wood glue, I have nicely mounted stamps to use!

    That’s an ampersand, by the way. I think it’s gorgeous. So there you are. My stamps so far. Matt and I were super please when a month ago, we went into Michaels and they were having a crazy huge sale on blank cards. We got a steal on the basics for our invites…now I get to play around and figure out what I want. In the mean time, I’m enjoying experimenting on the left over pieces of rubber I have now.

    The one on the left is supposed to look a bit like an elephant. Ok ok, I’m workin’ on it! 🙂 I’m still brainstorming here.

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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

    Related articles