Xapa to the World

Tag: Getting Married

  • Getting Married: 38 Weeks – Road Trip

    I met up with some friends last year in Indianapolis and it was my first time to explore the city. I loved it! (You can find my posts about THAT trip here. Sorry Erik, I still don’t have a review up of your seminars.) Matt and I both had Labor Day off work, so we took off early Monday morning and drove over to Indy for a fun day trip.

    It was a rainy start, but we made our way straight over to The Children’s Museum. I went there on my last trip and their big exhibit was something on Barbie. My friend Audrey and I were not compelled at all to go check it out. This time, the special exhibit was “Hot Wheels for Real!”

    Matt was so super excited about this exhibit. I had seen that it would be there ahead of time, but Matt didn’t know. He must have said 10 times that his brothers would LOVE to see all of it too.

    Pretty Green Camaro…that’s all I’ve got. Oh, and something about the chrome being tinted, instead of it actually being paint.
    I’m pretty sure this kid is livin’ the dream – a super cape and a hot wheels track.

    There were quite a few boys running around with super-capes tacked onto their shirts. I hold to The Incredibles’ theory on capes though…they sure look impressive, but then they get sucked into an airplane engine and where does that leave you? Not very pretty.

    The dino dome really impresses me. I used to love dinosaurs until I saw Jurassic Park and it gave me nightmares until…last week. Just kidding! (I might not be…)

    Oh look! There’s Barbie, afterall…

    *sings* I am a paaaaa-leon-tooooo-logist.
    We may have been distracted here for a full 5 minutes when we got to the hands-on discovery center…and then again on our way out.
    Mirror Maze!

    After the museum, we drove over to one of my favorite shopping districts. If you’ve never been to Indy, then you should go to Massachussetts Avenue. If you have been to Indy, but haven’t been to Mass Ave, consider this your invitation. It’s much like Hillsboro Village in Nashville and just a lot of fun. There weren’t nearly as many shops open as the last time I was there. Something about it being a holiday… The toy store was open and we found some really fun things in there. The owners were running the registers and commented that they realize just how much they need their regular cashiers. I guess they decided to open that day on a whim and were really pleased with the amount of business they were getting. I asked the wife where we should get our lunch and she recommended Bru Burger Bar across the street. We were starving so off we went.

    In the last few years, I have really come to appreciate signature burgers from different restaurants. I never was a burger gal, but I’ve crossed over and was so excited to try one of Bru’s Chef Burgers. I went for the basic called “The Beginning.”

    They call it The Beginning. I call it Delectable.

    It quite literally melted in my mouth. What would take me back to Bru’s, though, is the ketchup – or what they call ketchup. It’s an amazing mix of ketchup, brown sugar, minced onion, and crushed red pepper. I think Matt and I both ran out of the stuff before we were done with our fries. The waitress said she thinks the restaurant was built around the ketchup because you’re always looking for something else to put in it.

    Pensive face over how amazing his blackened mahi-mahi sandwich is.

    After we stuffed ourselves and decided to move on, we walked over to one of my favorite shops, “Silver in the City/At Home in the City.” It’s actually two shops in one and is full of some incredibly witty, sarcastic, and sometimes irreverent material. Here are a couple of things we found:

    Marcel the Shell with Shoes On: Things About Me

    Have you ever seen Marcel the Shell with Shoes On? No? You must!  Go here and then here. We were *thiiiiiiis* close to buying one. He talked about the many large monuments in his hometown (hint, they’re athletics trophies) and what his breadroom is like. Yes, his breadroom. If you’re still confused, then go back to where I said “here” and “then here” and go there. Seriously, why are you still waiting?

    Reading is Sexy and Knitting is Knotty.

    The only thing that kept me from buying one of these is that they’re plastic. Other than that, we thought these were hilarious and very fitting…for me. 🙂

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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: 39 Weeks – The Dress

    Preface: The dresses you are about to witness are not, I repeat, are not THE dress that was purchased for the wedding. No spoilers here!

    Yes, that is what I did today: shopped for my wedding dress. Let me preface that I have not really ever spent my time daydreaming what I would wear for my wedding one day. I admit that about a month before Matt proposed, I thought that I should probably get an idea of what kind of gown I should like. I may have perused some magazines or photos before, but nothing in earnest. I’m also not one for shopping and especially not for clothes shopping.

    So, after we got engaged I really began to look through the various options out there. Wedding dresses are so expensive! The one we finally settled on (we, being my mother and I) was a bit more than I had anticipated spending, but it looks amazing and Mom insisted. 🙂

    I called about a month and a half ago to set up my appointment with David’s Bridal and then began favoriting some of the dresses I really liked. There was one in particular that I absolutely loved from the picture, but I added a few others that I thought might be nice. I don’t have a problem with pure white dresses, I just think they sometimes look bluish in certain lights, so I was hoping for an ivory or an off-white. David’s Bridal seems to only have white or ivory…with some pink *cringe* dresses too.

    I called on Tuesday to confirm my appointment. Much to my shock, I wasn’t anywhere on the calendar. :/ The woman apologized profusely and got all my information again, guaranteeing that I would have a consultant to work with and accommodations for the 10 people who were hoping to come with me.

    You read that right, I had an entourage. My mom and two sisters were there, as were my two nieces who are my junior bridesmaids. My matron of honor and other bridesmaid also came to watch and throw in their oars (much, much appreciated!). We would have had a couple others with us, but there were unforeseen events which prevented their participation. They were missed. 🙂

    I knew she’d be good because of how cute her skirt was.

    When we arrived, I checked in with the woman at a desk in the front of the store. There was a lot of activity going on, but when I filled out the contact information sheet, I found that they already had my favorites printed out so they could grab them quickly! I was so impressed!

    My consultant was cute and fun Kelcie who really helped keep things going and was great on advice and finding other gowns to try which I may not have known about.

    Did I mention that I love her skirt? Amy, Lanna and I drooled over it for a little bit.

    I didn’t try on a ton of dresses, but I knew I wanted to save the “absolutely love” dress for last. I was thinking that I might fall in love with one of the others before trying that one on…it came real close to happening, but nope…I really did save the best for last.

    So pretty…love beadwork and lace 🙂
    The train was gorgeous on this one and would have cost as much as the dress to alter, probably.

    They even got me to try on some headgear – this is one part of the dress fashion that I’m clueless on…however, I think we could probably rule out this option:

    I’m not a huge fan of veils (for myself) and they really don’t work well with the chosen dress, but I liked how this picture turned out:

    Look! I’m wearing a tiara! Eeek…

    I was so nervous that the dress I loved wouldn’t look as good on me as it did in the picture. That fear was soon dispelled. I had to tell Mom to turn away a couple times because she was getting all teary-eyed.

    Mom wants me to tell you that it was actually her sinuses that were bothering her…you can believe whatever you like. 🙂

    I threw Kelcie for a loop when I asked her to find a couple of the most hideous dresses for me to try on and get a picture with. Rest assured that neither of these are the dress.

    This actually didn’t look too bad once it was on, but apparently Kelcie hates it. I think Amy and Lanna wanted it by the time I took it off. It had soooooo much going on!
    “Hmmm…what if we take a monstrously huge ribbon and wrap it all around squiggle-like? Perfect!” Oh, and I have a green light coming from my belly…

    I am so excited to have both of these ladies in my wedding. They are so special to me…yes they might be super-prego balloons by the time it gets here, but I still love them!

    image
    Me and my gals!

    Can’t wait for you to see the dress in all its glory!

    image

    —————————–

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

    My Pinterest Wedding Board

    Our Wedding Website on WeddingWire.com

    Related articles

  • Getting Married: 40 Weeks – Flowers!

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

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

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

    sunflowers – pure and lofty thoughts

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

    poppies – pleasure

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

    ranunculus – I am dazzled by your charms

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

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

    …

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

    buttercups – riches

    *sigh*

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

    anemone – unfading love

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

    jonquil – return my affection

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

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

    —————————–

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

    My Pinterest Wedding Board

    Our Wedding Website on WeddingWire.com

    Related articles