Xapa to the World

Tag: wedding

  • 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!

    —————————–

    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:

    —————————–

    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.

    —————————–

    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: 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

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  • Getting Married: 46 Weeks

    I was looking forward to the week following the last post since I figured we had the two big things booked and locked away, so I could relax a bit, enjoy being engaged. Sadly, southwest Ohio weather had another idea. I started getting a bit of a sore throat by Sunday night which progressed to a full-on sinus infection by Thursday. That made for a miserable week with barely any sleep, lots of coughing and a Z-pack.

    While I haven’t been up to par, that doesn’t mean we didn’t make any headway on the wedding plans. We decided to do our own invitations to save some money. I’m excited and have been brainstorming ways to make them fun and creative without going overboard. Matt met me near my work place on a half day to have lunch and hang out a bit before going in to work the afternoon. We stopped into Michaels to peruse. I’m glad we did. They were having a fantastic sale on paper and stationery. We got an amazing deal on the blank card stock and envelopes we need for invitations including some card stock for embellishments and our separate reception invitations. When I say, “We got an amazing deal…,” I mean, we got everything paper that we needed for under $50, plus some fun red/yellow flowery things that we can use to decorate for the reception. I can’t wait to start experimenting with designs and trying out different things. I will post some of the outcome on here for you all when I get them going.

    After chatting with my sister one night, I decided I should go ahead and schedule my wedding dress shopping date. There has been a great summer sale going on at David’s Bridal this week, but it seems too soon to go get my dress already. We’re planning to go on Labor Day weekend, hoping for a sale, and also hoping that I can get myself in a little better shape by that time. There are going to be 10 of us there if everyone can show up! It’ll be so much fun though, and I want to try on the truly awful dresses too, so I’ll have some pictures for you.

    Well, here’s hoping that this week is much better than the last!

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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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  • Booked! (47 weeks)

    There were just two things that I have been stressed about to get booked for this wedding, yes, even 11 months before the aimed-for date: a reception venue and wedding photographer.

    This week’s post is to let you know that we have them booked! I am so confident about my vendors so far, that I’m going to do a quick review/plug for them.

    RECEPTION HALL – Barn N Bunk – Trenton, OH

    Borrowed from the Barn N Bunk website

    First, here is the website: http://barnnbunk.com/

    Both Matt and I have been to wedding receptions here, so when we found out how economical the place was, we knew we had to get it. Located in Trenton, OH, a very farming-heavy community in Butler County, OH, this venue is ideal for weddings and receptions. Barn weddings/receptions have become super popular in the last few years and this 1893 barn is definitely up for the challenge.

    The owners, Bev and her husband (Tom, I believe…I did meet him, but it was for a split second), have been doing this for years. their granddaughter works in one of the shops. You can tell that the whole place is a labor of love. During the growing season, the fields surrounding the barn are filled with a variety of vegetables and beans. They have a farmers’ market and a slew of community activities throughout the year.

    What amazed me was how excited Bev was about our future marriage. I’m thinking that she must see about 52 weddings a year and yet she was still so thrilled that we are getting married and having our reception there.

    Here’s the breakdown of the deal:

    For 200 people, we were quoted a price of $3200. This includes catering for those people of a hot buffet (there are two other buffet options available) with three meats (sliced ham with pineapple, turkey breast in gravy, and roast beef au jus) and four sides or salad options. We chose mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans with ham chunks, tossed salad with dressings, and applesauce. Matt hasn’t insisted on too much so far, but he pretty much said it was a deal breaker if we didn’t get those mashed potatoes. Naturally, I accommodated. I love potatoes too. They also provide iced tea, lemonade, water, and coffee.

    Any guests above the 200 is an additional $11/person, which is a very good price based on what I’ve gathered from friends and family who have planned weddings before. We can also bring in pop, if we want, but we would be responsible for clean-up and monitoring of that. They will allow alcohol, but again, you are completely responsible for organizing that. They do have china dishes and silverware available, but they typically use Styrofoam plates and plasticware. This is where I expressed some concern. We have plans for repurposing things for this wedding – reducing our waste and lowering cost. I asked her if we could buy thick paper plates instead of styrofoam, so that the material would at least be biodegradable. Bev is in a recycling mode so she was very glad to help out and said that she would price-check for us and if it wasn’t much more than the styrofoam plates, then she would just consider it in the original cost. Just a testament that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask about something that is important to you – you may not get the answer you want, but you also just might.

    I will probably do another review of the place after the wedding, but for now, I leave you with the above. I’m very hopeful for what our special day will be like.

    WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER – Images by Sadie – Sadie Hodge

    Here’s her website: http://www.imagesbysadie.com/

    Just about every one of my friends have commissioned Sadie to do photos for them. She runs the gammut of Senior pics, engagement shots, weddings, mom-to-be photos, baby and kid photo, and full family shots. She first came into our lives when my matron of honor (who will be doing our engagement photos) married her super-cool rockstar hubs. I believe that he and Sadie knew each other from school, but regardless, she did some promo shots for his band and then she did their engagement and wedding photos…then my other bridesmaid had her do mommy-to-be shots, then it seemed like just about every other of my friends had her do their engagement shots and weddings. Most recently, she has done pics of friends’ new baby boy and she was brought in for a surprise proposal session at a Cincinnati Reds game.

    I have wanted her to do my wedding pics for a long time, years even! So I was so excited to hear that she was available for our wedding date. She has some different wedding packages which are on her pricing page. I have had too many friends who didn’t get a very good photographer and their groomsmen ended up with a mullet from the shadow, or heads chopped off, or missing whole segments of the night because the photographer sat down to eat his meal during the dinner. I do not plan to be a picky bride, but a top-knotch photographer is one thing I am not willing to compromise on. Sadie is the best and has very reasonable pricing for the quality of her work.

    Another really great photography couple that I would have used had Sadie not been available is her friend Tammi Harris and hubs Rudy. You can find their website here. I really like the stuff that they come up with and as a husband/wife team, they work super well together.

    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!

  • 48 Weeks!

    On June 26th, 2012, my boyfriend’s parents renewed their vows on the beach at Gulf Shores, Alabama, after 30 years of marriage. I was floored when they invited me to come with the family on vacation, but I was even more excited to be part of their special ceremony. It was lovely, at dusk, and we were all dressed up for it. I was the designated photographer, trying to get photos of everyone from different angles. It was really sweet.

    My boyfriend and I have been together, officially, since mid-January 2012, but our second first date was December 2, 2011.

    I know. I know. That sounds weird. It’s true though! Here’s the gist:

    About 5 years ago (sadly, neither of us can come up with the specific date), we were set up on a blind date by a friend and her mother. We went on it, seem to remember having an ok time, but neither of us really being that interested. I’m blaming myself, really. He might have been more interested, but my priorities were completely different back then. It took a trip across the world to teach me that I desired a husband with a servant’s heart rather than a ministry job title.

    Regardless, it didn’t go anywhere. We became friends on Facebook, but that was the extent of it. Over the next five years, both of us went in and out of other relationships, I finished college and traveled to Japan, came back to work in a couple different fields.  We casually observed each other over that time and didn’t think much of it.

    In November, we began talking again and then talking some more. We decided to meet up for a second try at a first date. After all, so much can happen to a person in 5 years, it’s almost like meeting a brand new person. We had a great time. Chose an art festival-type event called “First Friday” up in Middletown, OH. It’s a fledgling art community, but we had a great time and there was plenty for us to talk about and see.

    We decided to keep dating, just to see if it really was going well. It was and we decided to become an official couple in January of the next year. I’ve loved our relationship so far. I have never felt so comfortable or at ease with someone else. I felt like I could tell him anything and I wouldn’t face any judgement.  When I have an important decision to make, he lets me work it out on my own, giving me his opinion, but not hounding me with it. I respect him for that.  Also, I can be the most silly thing with him and it just makes him love me even more. I try my best to return the favor and really, I’m so glad that he can cut up and be goofy without apology. With my family, that is a necessity! None of us really take ourselves seriously.

    So, after the vow renewal was over, Matt and I decided to walk down the beach while the sun slipped further below the horizon. His brother needed something out of his car, so I didn’t think anything of it when he returned with Matt’s keys before we really took off on our stroll (he was really grabbing the ring from a secret hiding place).  We walked a good way down the beach, the sky getting darker around us. I was just getting tired enough to decide to walk back to the condo when I heard Matt call out my name from behind me. When I turned around, he was down on one knee, holding out what I could just make out to be a ring, saying something about “love, heart, life, would you, me.” He had to repeat to me what exactly he had said later because I was too tickled to really comprehend the actual words. I just knew he was asking me to be his and plopped that ring on as fast as I could.

    Let me tell you that I am so glad I was miles away from most everyone during the first few days after being engaged. We waited to become FBO (Facebook Official) about half a day until we could make phone calls to the necessary people and send out pictures of the ring. Once we did, though, our Facebook profiles went quite a bit crazy. But, being that far away from home (southwest Ohio), it was easier to ignore the phones and just enjoy being engaged to each other. Of course, it was super fun coming home and seeing all the special people in our lives for the first time and celebrate the event over and over.

    I’m going to try to be diligent and blog about each week as we prepare for the wedding. We are shooting for June 1st, 2013 (pending reception venue), so as of right now, we have 48 weeks to go. I’ve not been very good about keeping my blog the last year, but that’s because my creative writing reservoir was being used up elsewhere. I hope that I can be more proficient at this. We have an official “Wedding Website” set up, but it’s not completely finished yet, so you will have to wait a little while until we can get that put together. Until then, you can hop over to my Wedding Bells board on Pinterest and see what fun things I’m scoping out. Be sure to click on the “Getting Married” category for more posts about my wedding prep and process.

    Thanks for stopping by!

    Sarah ><>

    —————————–

    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