She’s got flowers in her hair…

 

So this has pretty much been my life as of late, glued to my laptop working (this was finally finishing my thank you notes).  A glass of wine is not uncommon. 🙂

But to break free of my work addiction, my latest project has been to make my bride’s maids silk flowers to wear in their hair.  We are all wearing the same shade green shoes, so to better tie green into their ensemble I thought a green silk flower in their hair would be pretty.

My good friend Hillary made me one of these that’s brown and teal and really cute, so we had Hillary and her husband Tom over one night.  The boys made dinner while we ran out to Joanne’s.  We bought green silk (like not too silky, you want it sturdy enough to hold itself up at least a little bit), green tulle, hair clips and brown wooden beads.  Hillary already had the clear thread and besides that you need good scissors, a tracing pen, the circle templates (Sorry I don’t have a link, but it would be really easy to fake it) and an open flame.

Basically you just cut as many descending circle shapes as you like, depending on the fullness of the flower you want.  Then you burn the edges of the circles.  The silk burns nicely, it melts and becomes like plastic.  The tulle, however, watch out.  Goes. Up. In. Flames. Let me tell you what.  Be careful too, the more you burn it, the more it curls up and becomes cup-like.  Depending on how flat or curled up a flower you want, keep an eye on it.

Then you just pile the circles up and sew them together with clear thread and thread on a few beads.  I made Grace a little baby one and an extra one for me in case I’d like to wear one at the reception, after taking off my veil.

I still have to hot glue the clips on, but my green shoes came in today and these are going to be so cute! I’m sorry my crappy camera doesn’t do them better justice.  Thanks Hillary!!

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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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Meet the Wedding Party: Flower Girl, Grace Behne

Meet our beautiful God daughter, little Miss Grace.  Grace is our Best Man, Chris Behne and Chrissy Behne’s daughter.  Grace just turned 2 years also, AND is become a big sister in just a few more months!

We were so flattered/suprised/overjoyed when Chris and Chrissy asked us to be Grace’s God parents and legal guardians.  We couldn’t believe with the sometimes messy, clumsy, frantic life we lead that anyone would want to trust us with their child.  But were reminded it’s not about how corganized your life is, it’s about how much you love and care for your God child, and we love Grace more than words can say.  More than we ever realized we would, I think.

She has been such a blessing in our lives.  She is so sweet and funny and smart.  She likes to play shy at first, even with us, but within minutes she opens up and can be found on the lap of anyone and everyone in the room. (Espcially someone with yummy food nearby!)

Pretty much since birth Grace has loved puppies.  The last time we kept Grace overnight I’m pretty sure she said the word “puppy” about 3,702 times.  She’ll read you a book and just kind of blabber, but every page she points and says “Puppy!”, even when there is no puppy in the book.  She and Harley are the best of friends.  As of late, when Grace is over she loves to throw Harley’s ball into the kitchen and watch her run and slide all over the linolium and crash into the cabinets in her attempt to get it.  Harley, being on a bit of the “overweight” side these days, will only play this game a couple times and then just lay down next to Grace.  Then Grace will throw the ball, and with Harley not fetching it, she’ll run over to the ball grabbing it and throwing it the oposite direction.  Back and fourth, back and fourth, all the while yelling “Harley!” “Ball!” in her little voice.  It’s just the funniest thing ever. 

(Please Note: this picture was taken obviously before Grace was able to run and talk.  Also, we no longer have that ratty old couch. Thank you.)

We are so happy for Grace to be a part of our wedding.  We’re not sure if she’ll make it down the isle or not (perhaps if we put Harley at one end she’ll go to her), but it doesn’t matter.  What matters is having her with us on such an important day of our lives.  We love you Gracey Girl and can’t wait to continue to see you grow into such a beautiful and bright little girl!

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Meet the Wedding Party: Jr. Groomsman, Matthew Eaton

Matthew Gustin Eaton, Jr Groomsmen and my little Bro.

Matt has been keeping us on our toes since day one. He’ s always ready to go. He loves to be playing football, baseball and snowboarding. He also loves to go fishing and is looking forward to this years hunting season.

I can remember a couple different times fishing with Matt. The first was down to camp, Matt, Matt Earley, and I took the canoe out for a morning fish. As always my bro was slaying the fish, I think he caught 20-25, he couldn’t keep his line in the water. I did alright and caught 5 but poor Matt Earley only caught one and it died after he took it off the hook. Another time Matt was fishing with me and my best man Chris Behne. We were fishing at Southerland pond, and we were catching a few bass. Matt asked to look in my tackle box. Well he pulled out this purple lure and asked me to tie it on for him. I commented and said Matt ” Ive never caught anything with that.”  Well first cast with his gears burning out on the Mickey Mouse reel he pulled up the biggest bass of the day.

Well Matt good luck walking Harley down the aisle and I’m Glad to have you as a brother and glad to have you as my Jr. Groomsman.

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Meet the Wedding Party: Groomsman, Jacob Sicotte

Meet my “little” bro, Jacob Joseph Sicotte.  I say “little” because, clearly, he is not so little anymore.  Jakey Joe is a recent High School graduate of St. Dominic Academy.  He’s off to U Maine Orono in the fall to begin his studies in veteranry medicine.  He’s spending his summer washing card for a dealership, as a sometimes stand in carperter with Nate, and I’m sure, playing plenty of video games.

I love my little brother very much, and am incredibly proud of the young man he is becomming.  He’s a loyal friend, caring and empathetic, and funny and welcoming – an all around good guy.  He’s the kind of young man one can be proud to call a sibling.  I’ve spent most of my life taking care of him, but I’m realizing the kind of person he’s become and that if I ever need taking care of, I know he’d be there in a heartbeat.

I’m so excited to continue to watch Jake grow up and can’t wait to see where our lives will take us.  We’ve grown more and more away from the big-sister/little-brother dynamic and have been able to become more of friends as he’s become an adult and I have to say I love it!  I can’t wait to see where Jake’s life will take him (though I hope it will eventually bring him back close to me!)

Thank you so much Jake for standing up there with us on our wedding day, it means so much.  Love ya kid!

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Meet the Wedding Party: Groomsman, Rob Rea

I want you to meet my Groomsman “Black” Rob Rea.  We met in college at SMCC in the building construction program.   He now owns his own business in Lakeville, MA where he lives with his beautiful wife Diane.

I met Rob in college, but we didn’t start hanging out until our last year. Once we did, we started to work together. The first time we worked together, I spent my vacation in Mass., helping him and his father shingle a roof. That vacation started with a trip to the Journal of Light Construction  show in Providence, Rhode Island, with about 15-20 guys from our class. We ended up staying in probably one of the top five worst towns to spend the night. We made it through the night even though there were like 2 murders that night. A lot of good memories from that trip, such as Rob convincing everyone that he was so hungry he could eat FIVE RONI’s.

I’m Glad that we became friends even though we live 3 hours apart. Hes the type of guy that if I’m running behind on a job or just need a trusting hand, I could just give him a call and he would drive to Maine to help me out. It’s always more fun at camp when he and Diane come up.

Another funny memory was at Rob and Diane’s wedding: all of the bridal party went in the back room and switched clothes. The boys put on the bridesmaid’s dresses and the girls got in the guy’s tuxes. We all came out dancing to “Dude Looks Like a Lady”.  The bride and groom couldn’t be out done and they went and switched it up to. Willing to do anything- that’s the type of guy Rob is.

It was an honor to be in his wedding and its an honor to have him standing with me on mine.

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Meet the Wedding Party: Best Man, Chris Behne

Meet the Best man Chris Behne. I met Chris skateboarding in front of Carrie Ricker middle school. It didnt take long for Chris, Skidgell, and me to be the best of friends. Chris is a loving husband and father and the type of guy that would take his shirt off and give it up if you needed it.

I dont know what Burger King was thinking when they hired first Chris, then Jason Skidgell, and then me. Then they would schedule all of us to work together. Lets just say not to many whoppers got made. If Chris isn’t spending his day with his beautiful wife or amazing daughter he might be found on a lake or in the woods with me. That’s another adventure all in its own. Every time we head in the wood we should have a camera with us because if it can go wrong it will. There are countless amount of fish, deer, and thunder chickens (turkeys) still walking around because of our mishaps.

I couldn’t think of a better guy to be standing next to me on the biggest day of my life.

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Meet the Wedding Party: Bridesmaid, Kristen Eaton

Meet Danielle’s soon to be sister and my lil sis. Kristen is a recent college grad from New England college in Henniker NH. She is now working in New Hampshire and living with her boyfriend Matt Earley. She has grown up into a beautiful young lady and I’m so happy to have a sister like her.

Growing up she never liked any of my girlfriends and would never give them the time of day. So when she actually talked to Danielle and actually wanted to hang out with her meant a lot and I knew she was special.

We have come along way since all the little kid fights we had. I cant wait for the next step. Having our families and spending many more years together.

Look for her out on the dance floor at our wedding being the life of the party.

I love you sis and thank you so much for being in our wedding.

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Meet the Wedding Party: Bridesmaid, Michelle Sicotte

Meet my bridesmaid: my baby seester, Michelle Sicotte.  Shelly bell is my 16 year old, not such a baby anymore, baby sister.

Ain’t she purrdy? 🙂

Michelle and I performing as Joan and Melissa Rivers in “Sardines and Biscuits” at Mechuwana.

I have always been protective over my little sister, in the “no one gets to beat up my little sister except me” kind of way. 😉 As kids, I protected and tortured her.  Today she is growing into a strong, independent, beautiful young woman and has evolved from the little girl I used to babysit to one of my very closest friends.  You couldn’t ask for a better sister, and I can’t wait for our lives to continue to grow.  I’m so curious to see what her future holds.  I look forward to her high school graduation, going off to school or whatever she chooses to do, and seeing where her dreams will take her.  To me, she will probably always be my baby sister, and I’m so happy she will be there, standing beside me on my wedding day.

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Meet the Wedding Party: Maid of Honor, Kate Lydon

Meet my Maid of Honor: Mrs. Kate Lydon.  Yes, I said Maid and not Matron.  If you call her Matron, I will punch you in the face.  Why should women have to change their prefix and titles simply because they are married? Oh, so other men will know to back off and not touch someone elses’ property, while men get to continue to use “Mr.” all their lives and never have to tell other women to back off? Don’t get me started on a feminist rant, not today.

Anyway, this is my best friend.  We’ve been best friends since we were in kindergarten.  Let me tell you a story.  If you know me, which if your reading this, I assume you do, you know how shy I can be.  Needless to say on my first day of kindergarten, I was pretty timid.  I got on the bus that fateful morning, and not two stops down the road does this bright, bouncing, smiling little girl get on the bus.  She looks around, sees me, and in true Kate fashion walks right up to me and practically yells “Hi! I’m Kate, what’s your name?”  “Danielle.” I said quietly.  “Well Danielle, do you want to be best friends?” She replies.  I say “o.k.” and the rest was history.  By the time we got to school she dragged me off the bus, across the school yard and right up to our kindergarten teacher and introduced us as best friends.

Ever since that day we’ve been inseparable.  She’s been there for me at my lowest times, and I for her.  We laugh together, cry together, and keep each other going.  That’s why it was my honor to be Kate’s maid of honor, and I am looking forward to August 20th when she will do the same for me.  She’ll keep me safe from panic attacks and wardrobe malfunctions and make sure I make it down that isle in one piece. 🙂

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