Welcome, to our Wedding Blog!

Family, Friends, welcome to our wedding blog! Needing an easy way to share information about our upcomming wedding, Nate and I have started this blog.  We hope you’ll find it useful as we approach our big day.  We’ve included all the information you need to know about our ceremony, reception and after par-tay!

4 months later…

Well, hello there! Long time no blog.  It was my intention to keep this blog going, even after the wedding to share stories, projects and insights, and maybe even feature some upcoming weddings.  While I’m here, I just have to share:  my wedding and my DIY experience was featured in Lewiston Auburn Magazine! I work for the magazine, but in advertising sales.  It’s commonplace for me to see my ad designs in print, but to write something was a whole different beast.  The article I wrote was called “Confessions of a DIY Bride: The good, the bad and the ugly from an honest bride”.  The picture below was featured as well.  Apparently Nate and I are the first to have a make-out picture in the magazine, haha!

If you get the chance, pick up a copy of the magazine.  It’s the December/January Wedding Issue and will be on stands through mid-February.  🙂

5 Day Countdown: Day 5- Friday

What a long and exhausting day Friday was.  We got up super early Friday and were met by my family, my god-parents and family and my MOH.  We had thankfully packed the cars the night before, so all we had to do was take all the flowers out of my air conditioned living room and head upta camp.  Nate ran to camp to drop off Harley while the rest of us went straight to UMF to start decorating.  It took us a few hours to finish, and with the help of Nate’s family, who were already upta camp, it wasn’t too bad.  Thank God for MOH’s.  I told Kate “don’t let anyone ask me questions.”  I was just so stressed out and distracted, I didn’t want to be asked a thousand questions of  “where do you want this?” “what’s this for?” “what do you want?”  I knew I’d flip a lid, so she took right charge and kept everyone working and busy and I was able to relax and calm down a little bit.

Here’s a not-so-great story of the day for you: do not hire Affordable Events out of Harrison, ME.  From the very beginning, I just didn’t really love the way I was communicated to.  I felt they were pushy and brash and didn’t really listen to me.  I reserved 200 chairs for the ceremony, and after finally getting my head count nailed down realized I only needed 175.  It would have saved me $75 to have 25 less chairs, but they refused.  I understand I signed a contract, but it would have been a nice gesture.  They didn’t give them a tip, they can consider that $75 wasted their tip.  Anyway, on Friday they were to bring the chairs to camp to drop them off (I refused to pay $100 to have them set them up too, the boys at camp could handle that) and then bring the dance floor to UMF.  (UMF’s dance floor space is separated in two corners, we rented a dance floor to put between them to create one full dance floor space).  Scott, the guy from Affordable Events, comes walking through the door while Kate and I are in the hallway hanging up the drop cloth art.  So I go over to him to shake his hand and introduce myself.  The first words out of his mouth, word for word are: “So we had an accident at camp.  (Straight faced and as serious as can be) One of the dogs….ran out in front of my truck, and…” Now, the “…” represents inappropriately long pauses in his speech.  What is running through my mind? He hit my dog. He killed my friggin dog.  As soon as he started to say it my hands came up to my face and the tears welled in my eyes.  On a normal day, I might be able to hold it together better, but I’m emotional as all hell here and those of you who know me know that Harley is so much more than a dog to me.  So I’m standing here, tears ready to roll and about to collapse on the floor and he finishes by saying “ran out in front of my truck, and…she jumped up on my truck and scratched my truck. So…we’re going to have to deal with that.”  I couldn’t believe it.  I was completely stunned.  I just stood there staring at him.  This was about money.  He just made my heart sink to my feet, because…he wants more money.  My fear and panic quickly turned to anger.  I could do nothing more than raise my hand, point at the door and say “you need to go talk to my fiance or someone else about that” in a “get the hell away from me before I punch you in the face” tone of voice.  Thankfully, by this point, Kate was already whisking him away into the room to find Rex.  I just couldn’t believe him.  Really? You think right now is the best time to bring that up? How about later, after you’re done, or another day – you know, like not on the most stressful, emotional day of my life? How about then?

I found out after the fact, the the Giles were at camp and witnessed it happen.  Harley did jump up on his truck – which she does sometimes, but has never scratched anything.  The reason is precious truck was scratched was because he pushed her.  She jumps up to say hello, and she shoved her, making her scratch his truck on the way down.  Rex refused to give him any money, because his truck was apparently a dinged, dented and scratched up piece of crap anyway, and told him if he wanted to get insurances involved, that’s fine.  Of course he didn’t bother, he was looking for a handout.  After setting up the dance floor he still had to balls to come up to me, clearly looking for a tip.  I ignored him and kept my distance.  Don’t ever hire Affordable Events. End of Story.

After all the craziness of setting up UMF, us girls went back to the hotel and got showered and ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  Rehearsal Dinner was at The Homestead in Farmington.  Seriously, soooo good!  The rest of the evening went beautifully from there.  The rehearsal went great, the boys and Eaton families got everything all set up and decorated at camp.  Don’t you love my little lawn flag? 🙂

And how about this totem pole sign my mom and Nate made?  Nate cut and assembled the pieces and mom painted them.  I loved it! And nobody (that I know of) drunkenly walked into in the dark at the after party and poked their eye out, so great success!

5 Day Countdown: Day 4- Thursday

What a stressful day Day 4 is.  Between hair and nail appointments, making all the bouquets and boutineers, I did not stop running All. Day. Long!  Bride-to-be’s: let me clue you into a little something.  The days before your wedding are not glamorous.  It’s not dreamy and romantic.  No matter how laid back you are, you (and everyone around you, including your husband-to-be) are riddled with stress. 

Argument

Nate and I were both exhausted and stressed out and not having being around each other.  When he’s stressed, he shuts down and just wants to zone out, when I’m stressed I focus and plow through what’s in front of me like a mad man.  We had a long and not so happpy night Thursday night.  There were just so many stupid little things to finish before leaving very early Friday morning to head up north.  It made me so upset that we were having such a bad day, two days before our wedding.  For some reason I thought the days before your wedding were spent in loving bliss.  That’s a lie, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.  Friday I talked with Kate, my MOH, and other friends and they said the same thing, they wanted to strangle their husbands-to-be before their wedding days.  Not because they didn’t love them, simply because planning a wedding is stressful, on everyone’s parts and you just can’t help being an emotional train wreck.

Here’s my advice to both soon to be brides and soon to be grooms: Brides- chill out.  Grooms- be patient.  The stress will be there no matter what, you can’t change that.  What you can change is how you approach and handle that stress.  Simply try to remeber how the other person copes with their stress and do your best to be supportive of one another.  Thursday was a rough night for us, but as always a needed learning experience that brought us even closer to one another.

5 Day Countdown: Day 3-Wednesday

Wednesday has been a busy day.  It’s my last day of work.  I’ve got nail and salon appointments tomorrow, as well as heading over to Lynn’s to make my bouquet and all the girl’s bouquets and boutineers.  I’ve spent all day just trying to make sure all loose ends are tied up, I’ve got an out of office reply up and everyone is all set for me to be gone for nearly two weeks.Office Space

I wish my office space looked that pretty.

I do

Keep Calm.  That’s been my mantra.  Just breathe…

relaxation

I can’t wait for vacation….

5 Day Countdown: Day 2-Tuesday

It’s getting clooossseeerrrr!! Ahhh! My stress has begun to manifest into full on excitement.  Nate and I went to pick up my wedding band(s) last night.  Here’s the scoop: we bought one of those inserts, where it’s two rings and your engagement ring slips in between them.  We found one that was very vintage looking, and simple and pretty.  But the one they had in the store was about 7 sizes too small, so I couldn’t really see what it would look like, since I couldn’t get it past my first knuckle on my pinky.

With this ring…

Well they order me the ring in my size.  After paying it off, Nate went and picked it up and brought it home and put it in the safe.  I never even thought to pull it out and look at until about 2 weeks ago.  Why would I? They said everything would be fine.  Yeah, right.  Sure enough, I got that uneasy feeling about it, pulled it out, and could barely get it on my finger.  Furthermore, my engagement ring does not just slip into it, because it’s too wide.  Awesome.  So I bring it back to have them do something about it.  Their solution: costs me $200 bucks.  Not happening.  Long story short: when you purchase an insert and are planning on having them saudered, buy a size slightly larger, because the thicker the ring, the more difficult it is to get in on and off.  I had them take the roll bars off (for free) and I’m just going to wear three individual rings, rather than paying to have each (make it three now, not two) re-sized and saudered together.

Nerdy Love

I am very proud of myself for not letting that little bump in road get me down.  Nate and I purchased our parent’s wedding gifts, did some honeymoon shopping and got some things done around the house.  A very nice end to the evening indeed.

Dreamy

Someday, when I own my dream wedding barn, I will (I will have Nate) build me this out back.  It’s just so dreamy and pretty.  …I am so excited!!

5 Day Countdown: Day 1- Monday

Monday was not my best day.  Not a “shinning moment” as they say.  I pretty much had a breakdown.  I’m super stressed about not only the wedding, but all the work that needs to get done before I leave.  The thought of not checking my email for two weeks is sending me into panic mode.  Just because I don’t want to drop the ball on anything.  I want everyone to be happy. …and like me. …and for world peace. amen

Be OK

This seemed like a great picture to illustrate my feelings.  After just being crazy and stressed all day AND having to go to Day’s to deal with that whole issue, which I need to head over there again to continue, I was exhausted.  I fell asleep at, like, 7:00.  I needed it.  Nate stayed up and finished place cards.  This is why I’m marrying him. ❤

Happiness

A good, long night’s sleep and a cinnamon dolce latte today made things seem a whole lot better.  I got to see a proof of the program I designed for the ceremony.  Evergreen Custom Printing is doing the printing for me and it looks awesome.  Plus Laurie over there is just super nice and helpful.  After a little set back with University of Maine Farmington, which took about a half hour out of my (already busy) afternoon, raised my blood pressure just a bit and continued my battle with tears, working with Evergreen and having them be just so nice and accommodating really lifted my mood.  And the Starbucks, don’t forget the Starbucks.

Dimples

hmmmm perhaps this is why I have craters on my cheeks.   “I just love smiling.  Smiling’s my favorite.”  My mantra of the week: Just Keep Smiling.

Wedding Nightmare

So we had a busy night last week, printing CD labels, working on wedding party gifts, etc. etc.  I had the brilliant idea to check the weather channel before going to bed.  Know what next Saturday is calling for? Rain. Friday, Saturday, Sunday: rain.  I’ll be honest, I teared up a bit.

Rain

It’s not really the rain that was getting me upset, just the feeling that you put so much hard work into one day (and I mean SO MUCH hard work), and in the end, you still can’t control what will happen.  The fact that if it rains, the ungodly amount of money I had to spend on chair for the ceremony will go right down the drain AND I’ll have to pay for the rain location wasn’t helping much either.

Wrinkles

So that night, I had the worst nightmares.  I was dreaming after all this hard work our wedding day came and it was down pouring and I got ready and we went to the ceremony and no one was there.  Like 2 people.  Then I look down and my dress was all wrinkled.  It was so strange.  I heard so many other brides say they have wedding nightmares, and pretty early on in their engagement, but this was my first one and a week away from the wedding, so I’ll say I’m doing alright. 🙂

More Bouquets

So, it’s the Monday before our wedding.  We had a very busy last weekend as an un-married couple.  We got lots of stuff done, though there is still tons to do!  We went to visit Lynn at Petal Pushers Garden Place and saw all the beautiful flowers she’s been growing for us.  I’m so excited.  They look awesome.  I have tons of varieties of sunflowers to choose from, as well as lots of other bright yellow, orange, blue and green flowers.  It’s got me so excited for Thursday when we’ll go over to her house to make bouquets and boutonnieres.  Here’s some of my bouquet inspirations:

We’re getting so close!! ahhh!!! ❤

Champagne & Table Numbers

Life has been so busy.  Everyday of the night, and all weekend long, we’re working on wedding projects.  Tonight my Mom and Dad came over and helped Nate at I make our table numbers.  Nate and I made the tags the other night.  All we used were two correlated scrapbook papers, white wooden numbers, a glue stick and hot glue and scissors, of course.  We cut out the paper shapes, glued them together and hot glued the numbers on.

Tonight my parents brought over the milk bottles we bought at the Christmas Tree Shop.  We wraped the necks in twine, punched holes in the tags and voila!  We’ll have one on each end of each tables with flowers in them.  Pretty. 🙂

Aunt Nancy, of Nancy Merrill Photography, came by to talk with us about our photography.  Bubba arrived just in time with the champagne for a little champagne tasting.  We tried an extra dry, brut and a blush.

Brut was not my, or anyone’s favorite.  Extra dry was good, but blush was the favorite.  There was some discussion on my part as to weather a pink champagne fits into our color scheme.  But ya know what? Screw it, it’s yummy.

 

I promise to have more updates soon, I’ve been so busy doing, it’s been hard to remember to get pictures in the process!

DIY Ring Dog Pillow-Collar

This is my take on a DIY Ring Dog Pillow-Collar.  Nate and I knew we had to have Harley in our wedding in some way.  She’s like our child, quite literally.  Since Matt is 10, he’s a little too old to be our ring bearer, and we don’t really have any young boys close to us to fill the role.  I saw a picture somewhere of a black lab with a ring pillow collar, and that’s how we got to where we are now…

You’ll Need:

Fabrics of your choice (I repurposed)
Coordinating Thread
Pillow Stuffing
Ribbon
Velcrow or other fasteners
Fake Rings (Just in Case)

The best and I gathered the materials needed.  My dress actually had a collar on it. Ew, I know.  Don’t worry, it’s night and day now from when I bought it.  Anyway, I used the collar from my dress and extra fabric from this weird veil/cape thing it came with.  We bough green fabric to make the pillow out of.

Determine the size and shape pillow you want, cut out matching pieces, put face sides together and sew around the edges.  Remember to leave a small gap for getting the stuffing in.  Tip: after sewing pieces together trim edges and snip the corner pieces off, just don’t cut your thread! The less extra fabric on the inside, the better shape you’ll get after turning it right side out.  I also use the flat end of a kabob skewer to push the corners out.  Again: just don’t shove that baby in there too hard, you’ll poke a hole right through the corner, you just want to get some of the point back, so take it easy there bucko!

We then stuffed the pillow and hand stitched up the gap.  A stitch through the middle and the green ribbon gives it a super cute touch.

Kate then sewed one end of the pre-made wedding dress “collar” to one side of the pillow, and on the other we attached Velcro to the collar and pillow.  This might depend on the dog.  Harley’s really easy going, and as long as you make a big deal about how pretty she looks, she’ll pretty much wear anything.  So, Velcro was fine since she doesn’t fuss with it, for a more temperamental dog you might need a more sturdy fastener.

Harley love it.  Like, really, really loves it. haha

We got a couple cheap little rings from a local craft store ( like with the mood rings on the counter).  I was not about to put our real rings on there, just in case she feels inclined to take a dip in the pond or something.

I hope you like it, and I’m sure all of you attending my wedding are just so excited.  Just please peel your eyes away from my beautiful pup when I come down the aisle.  I know you’ll just be super impressed by her pretty pillow, but let’s remember who this is really about, ok? 🙂