One B.A. Wedding

I wasn't going to blog about my wedding. I don't think I have the curating skills to pick a few favorite photos and anecdotes about the day.  If I had it my way, I'd bore you to death with all of the bajillion thoughts that were racing through my brain. However, I know I won't have the patience to caption all the photos I'm about to upload to Facebook and that this is my chance to share with you my wedding planning process (since I did an exceptional job at being controlling and keeping most of it to myself). This day fit the exact vision I came up with after Brandon proposed. For me, the event was going to be about certain details and the thought and work behind them, but it wasn't going to be "my baby," as they say. Anyway, without further ado: here's a synopsis of my and Brandon's wedding in the order in which it got planned.

First things first: the man. Most of you know Brandon and I dated a long while before getting engaged. We grew up together, really. I see all of the things I love about Brandon in this photo. He's pretty hawt (and sweet and hilarious and also a decent cook).

2. The location. There had to be trees (my wish) and the venue had to be big enough to have our ceremony as well as our reception (Brandon's wish). In my wildest dreams I pictured myself barefoot in the middle of a forest or a wide open field. Brandon pictured a church. So we compromised. We picked Fox Road Ranch in Dixon where I got the trees and B got church pews.

3. The dress. The dress! I remember looking at the Alfredo Angelo Disney dresses with my friend Sara back when she discovered them. Now, Belle is my favorite Disney princess of all time, BUT I could not get over the gorgeous beauty that is the Snow White dress--especially after putting it on. The flowers. The sweetheart neckline. The tulle. The beading I didn't think I'd love so  much. It fit every. single. thing I was looking for in my wedding gown. I knew this was it as soon as I put it on, which was an incredible relief after my hectic and unsuccessful trip to David's Bridal (where I was hoping to find a sweetheart neckline strapless gown with a textured bodice and ballgown skirt). I'm telling you, I love this dress. I'm trying so hard to find another reason to wear it. Too bad I'm not a movie star.

4. The Bridesmaids and their dresses. I wrote and mailed my bridesmaids-to-be a poem asking them to join me in this whirlwind of a day. Soon after, I found the exact dress style in the exact shade of blueish, greenish, mint I wanted. I'm not a hardcore mint fanatic and I knew it was super trendy, but I couldn't pass it up as a great pop of color to my otherwise very...neutral...color tendencies. I'm incredibly happy with the outcome. In fact, I'm holding myself back from ordering one of these dresses for myself. That's how much I love them. While I didn't originally plan for necklaces, I think they went fantastically with the dresses!

Oh, in case you're interested, here's the poem I wrote:

On the 17^th of December, he got down on one knee

and asked if I’d marry him, finally!

I’d thought that night was for skating on ice,

but now it’s my turn to ask something nice.

You’ve been there with me in good times and bad

and calling you friend makes me eternally glad.

So on that day in September when I’m dressed all in white

I hope you’ll be there, again by my side.

Let’s have an answer, come on, what do you say?

Repondez, s’il vous plait, will you be my bridesmaid?

Okay, full disclosure, I can't remember what I planned next. I think it was...

5. Our photographer. This isn't a photo of our photographer, but it's one of Brandon's favorite shots of the day. Ryan is simply fantastic. I'm using that word a lot. Ryan is brilliant. His photos are exactly how I would have captured my wedding had I been my own photographer. Except his skill is way beyond mine.

6. The invitations. I made these and I'm so proud of them. My parents wanted something really traditional and I wanted it to be "us" (I can't tell you how many times I said/thought that in the 9 months I planned this thing). I searched and scoured the internet for watercolor invites, but everything was either too busy or too expensive AND I'd have to compromise on my color scheme vision. And that was not about to happen. So I ordered like 250 sheets of 5x7 cardstock from Paper Source, mixed some watercolors my dad had on hand and got to painting. I also designed the invites, I played with fonts and emailed Brandon proofs (we were long distance during the last 3 years of our dating). I included the "one B.A. reception to follow" as a placeholder for a more formal one and joked about keeping it to Brandon during one of our phone conversations. He chuckled and told me to keep it, that it was funny. So we kept it and didn't look back. In the end, it reminds me that we wanted an enjoyable, lively wedding that still incorporated tradition. And you know what? That's what we got.

7. The "Give Away." For me, it was of utmost importance that both my parents walk me down the aisle. My relationship with each of them is different, but there was no way on earth I could prioritize one over the other.

8. The flowers. You can't see all of the flowers in this shot, but just know they too were perfect. Daisies and stock and freesia and mini carnations (and more) all came together into a stunning element of the day. My florist nailed everything I wanted without ever showing me a model bouquet. It took a lot of trust, but boy was it worth it. That Eiffel Tower charm was from a bracelet my friend Jenny had gifted me. The charm fell off the bracelet, but thankfully I got to incorporate a teensy bit of my Parisian obsession into the wedding.

(I'm skipping so many details but I'm trying to keep this readable)

9. THE PROGRAMS. I worked so hard on these. Andrea drew out the cover, I scanned it and got to work. This and the invites were my biggest labors of love. Well and the cake topper. You're probably bored of hearing it, but the programs were everything I'd pictured. They were perfect. Perrrrfecctt.

10. The rings. Brandon's ring was his grandfather's original wedding band. Given that it's gold and my engagement ring is platinum and the fact having coordinating rings was important to us, I custom ordered my wedding band from Etsy. I adore looking down at my rings. They just go.

11. The Cake Topper. True to form, I put this off to the very end. Like, very end. As in the night before the wedding, the end. Maybe you all didn't need to know that. Oh well. I wanted to add some personality to our delicious cakes. Brandon's the reason I've even seen the Star Wars movies and I couldn't help but pay tribute to one of my favorite improve'd lines in film at our wedding. Btw, the cakes were made by our best man. The fact that he juggled baking these cakes, being in our wedding all while working insane hours at a newly opened restaurant after returning from a few months in China is in-cre-di-ble.

Okay That's all of the photos I'll give you. But I will tell you that Brandon's dad married us, his grandmother made our ring pillow, my garters and a purse, our toasting glasses and cake knives were etched with our names and were a gift from my parents, there were so many gorgeous lights that illuminated the night, our first dance was to Yellow, my sister sang her speech in a medley set to Disney tracks, our good friend catered the wedding and the last song of the night was September. So many of our friends and family made it to our day, it was humbling and overwhelming and just plain awesome. Our formal thank yous are on their way, but I'll take this chance to thank every single person who joined us in person or in thoughts on that day.

Now go stalk the Facebook photos! ;)

A

10

I saw that a couple of my Facebook friends had started doing one of those things I like to call a "status challenge." They closely resemble the wonderful surveys of Myspace and being that I loved Myspace for its surveys (and its option to play music on your page and play with html), I figured what better way to kick off the blog.

The following are 10 Random Facts About Me

1. I've kept a diary since I was about 8 years old. My first diary was a blue and pink Hello Kitty one. I didn't fill that one with much, but finding/reading it as a teenager and adult was pretty cool. I abandoned the diary thing shortly after and just stuck with composition notebooks or other actual journals for my life/thought documenting. But the whole reason I write is...
2. I used to have this weird fear of getting amnesia or some kind of serious memory loss where I'd forget who I am, who I love, what my life is like, everything. This is why I started journaling in the first place and is probably the reason my instagram feed is so boring, except to me.
3. My drawing skills are not incredible. Even my stick figures lack proportion. But the things I've naturally liked to draw are letters. Lettering and typography are so interesting to me. The shapes of letters and how they can look so different depending how you pen them...so cool. I've changed my writing a handful of times just because I wanted to.
4. In kindergarten, I used to write my name out in the air  with both hands to help me distinguish my right from my left. I knew I was right handed (though I always wanted to be a lefty), so I would pay attention to whichever air-writing felt more natural to me to help me remember. I still do this on rare occasions.
5. I've recently reached a place in my life where I realize that my hair is like Miley circa 2009(?): she cannot be tamed. My whole life I've resented my curls. Yeah, resented. All I wanted was to have pretty, easy hair that didn't require so much work and upkeep. I wanted straight hair. I wanted people to quit asking to touch my hair. I tried so many times to reach this ideal I'd put on myself and no matter what product I used, it was never what I wanted. So, at 23 years old, I said screw it. I'm rocking this. My curls are gifts from my grandmother and dad and I love that. Big curly hair, don't care.
6. I like odd numbers because they can't be split evenly. So if you were dividing 17 people (my favorite number) in a line, one would be left in the center. You'd have one person center stage (wait we're on a stage now?) and then 8 people on either side of  her. That visual makes me happy, so I like odd numbers.
7. Now, I promise I didn't save this fact for number 7, it just happened. I got married to my best friend on the day of our 7th year together, which also happened to be on the 7th day of September. Married life is thrilling and incredibly normal all at once. It's one of those things you can't answer in a sentence without that sentence being the generic, "It's great. I love it." or any permutation of that.
8. I find great joy in dancing. Not trained dancing, though I've always loved that stuff too. I'm talking about jumping around my room/dorm/apartment pretending like I'm in a music video...and not just in a music video, but the star of the music video. Or like I'm in concert! I walk strut across the living room to the beat and dance and belt out whatever songs I feel like. And let's not forget the private concerts that my car serves as a venue for. Unabashedly dancing is so much fun.
9. Given that I'm not super artsy (i.e. I don't play an instrument, sing for personal recreation only, can't draw, don't know what to do with a paintbrush, am not a dancer), I take to my clothing to express a solid amount of my individuality. I try to always look and feel like myself in my clothes. I hardly wear the same outfit twice, in fact I challenge myself not to. Like I said, this is my creative outlet. My outfits are never too intricate, but I put a lot of thought behind how I put my clothes together and I thoroughly enjoy that process.
10. I really, really like movies. My favorite kind of movie is one that strikes me about my current perceptions about life. Movies that make me reflect on my values and my approach to life, even if that's not the point of the film (most of the time it isn't), turn into instant favorites. Perks of Being a Wallflower, for example. However, my favorite movie of all time is Chicago, because it's visually stunning and it used stage methodsduring filming and...because it's a musical.

So there we go. 10 random, pretty personal facts about  me. Welcome to My Favorite Hoody! I hope you stick around.

♥ A