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!

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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? 🙂

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Meet the Wedding Party: Ring Dog, Harley

Meet the Ring Dog: our black lab Harley “Black Dog” Eaton.  Nate got Harley while I was still in my last year of college.  (I think he was lonely at home without me!)  She has turned out to be the sweetest, best dog I have ever had.  She has so much personality, I’m pretty sure she thinks she’s our child and not our pet.  (She’s a little bit right to think so.) 

We have many terms of endearment for Harley.  Harley Girl. Black Dog.  Chunk-a-lunk.  Harley Barely.  Dog Faced Girl.  The Blackness.  I could go on an on….

It’s funny the things our pets can teach us.  Harley at first meeting likes to pretend that she’s a big scary guard dog.  Whenever anyone walks by the house, especially another dog, her hair stands on end and she growls and barks the meanest sounding bark.  Which has always confused Nate and I because she couldn’t be farther from that behavior.  She’ll growl while your on the street, but once at the front door, her tail is wagging and she’s a tap-dancing with excitement to see you.  Besides the “hey, get off my lawn” growls, she will never show any signs of aggression.  She barks, for sure, but she won’t growl or be mean.  Nate and I are constantly poking and prodding her, and she never gets upset.  When Grace comes over she can sit right on her and use her as a step-ladder to climb up on the couch (imagine a two-year old stepping on your head) and she just lays there, no problem.  I love that about her.

Really and truly Harley has been such a blessing to us.  Being a young couple not ready for kids, it’s nice to have a little something to pour your love out onto.  She is so affectionate and snuggly, something anyone whose met her will know, she’s about 80 pounds and sees no reason why she can’t sit on your lap and be pet.  She’s spoiled as all hell.  Her mama makes her handmaid bandannas and she loves them and to be told how pretty she looks with them on.  When it’s time for a bandana change, I’ll take the one she’s wearing off of her and she’ll pout and hang her head, but then go to HER section of the closet and pull out two clean ones.  I’ll hold them out and ask which one she wants and she’ll sniff them both then nudge one with her nose.  Then the “oh, look how pretty you are!” game will begin all over again and tails will wag.  She’s such a freak.

I love having this big, clumsy baby of a dog in my life.  I can’t imagine life without her.  (When the day she’s taken from us comes – you can expect me to be devastated.  Like in bed for a week devastated.  I’m just warning you now…)  We often joke that Harley is going to have a hard time when Nate and I do decide to have children, she’s been so used to being the only “child”.  But seeing how sweet she is to our God daughter Grace, while I will expect some jealousy, I know she’ll be a big teddy bear, and a great family dog.

Matt – good luck walking this nut down the aisle, but thanks for doing it! It means a lot to us to have her there with us on our big day.  (Please just try to keep her out of the pond before the ceremony!)

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