Back to Normal...Sort Of

So, in case you didn't notice, I took a bit of a hiatus last week. There was a lot of errand-running to be done, what with having to change my last name on EVERYTHING I OWN, so I didn't really have much time to blog. This week should be somewhat back to normal...but I'm not promising anything. :)

I have some big news from the weekend, as well. We're moving! We've been living with C's parents for the last year, which has been wonderful and has helped us save money, but we really need our own space. Especially now that we're married and have a buttload of awesome wedding presents that we can't even use right now. We've been hunting for the perfect apartment for about two months now, and it's been brutal. We've visited between 15 and 20 communities, and seen everything from super cheap but super trashy, to luxurious but astronomically expensive. We were starting to think we'd never find a place that met all of our requirements (pet friendly, washer and dryer in the unit, walk-in closets, lots of space, within our budget). And then yesterday happened.

We found a 1200 square foot apartment that was still on special (the last one on special, I might add), and was right within our budget! All the utilities except electricity are paid for, there's a community dog park for Puppy, it's spacious, newer (so things aren't falling apart), has a washer and dryer, and the closets are HUGE! We're in love. :D Oh, did I mention we get the keys in two weeks? Because my life isn't chaotic enough as it is. O.o

Honestly though, I'm excited. Sure, it'll be a little chaotic around here for the next few weeks while we pack and unpack everything. But the majority of our stuff is already in boxes because there wasn't enough room to unpack everything at C's parents house, and the rest is wedding presents. We'll be able to open up all the wonderful gifts we got and put them to use (Hello new dishes, hello waffle maker, and hellllooooo Black Friday television!) We'll have more privacy, and we'll be able to have our own home office/library. I'd say the good far outweighs the bad in this situation. :)

So, to sum up, I'm going to try to schedule the majority of my posts for the next two weeks to keep this place hopping, but don't be surprised if I miss a day. Maybe someday my life won't be so crazy...

Here's hoping!

J

Just In Case You Missed It...

I know everyone's been busy with the holidays (we certainly have!). For those of you who were interested and may have missed it last week, photos of the wedding are up! I did posts on all 4 sections, and they can be found here:

Prep
Formals
Ceremony
Reception

Happy Cyber Monday!

J

Best Day of Our Lives (Part 4)

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Happy Black Friday! Best of luck to those of you who braved the stores today...C and I hit Target and Best Buy last night, and walked away with everything we wanted (after camping out for nine hours). It was my first Black Friday shopping experience, so I'm glad it went so well. :)

Anyway, if you've missed the first three parts in this series (prep, formals, and the ceremony), you should go check them out first. This particular post is all about the reception, and there were lots of crazy dance pictures to choose from (we have crazy friends :P). I didn't put many of them up, simply because they won't be as special to you as they are to us. I tried to concentrate more on highlights from the reception instead. :)

Here are some of the detail shots from the reception:

The escort cards

Our favors...we had personalized M&Ms with our pictures on them :)

One of ten centerpieces

I just really like this one :)

Our guest tree! We had people stamp their thumb prints onto it and sign it :)

We welcomed everyone with a little speech:

Lots of other people gave speeches after us, including my dad, C's grandpa, my brothers, and a bunch of C's friends. There are pictures of most of them, but they're not really relevant to you guys. :)

Once speeches were done, it was time for us to cut the cake. My mom baked it (along with all the cupcakes for the reception). :)

Isn't it beautiful?

And then C sneak-attacked me with a piece of cake in the face :P

So I made him stand and take his like a man ;)

And then we kissed :D

My bridesmaids thought the sneak-attack was hilarious :P

Once the cake was through, we moved onto dancing. C and I had our first dance to "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie.

We shared a father/daughter and mother/son dance to "The Blower's Daughter" by Damian Rice. My dad and I cried through the whole song. :P

And then the dancing just got crazy...

Kung fu, anyone?

Don't ask...I don't even know what was going on here :P

He has this crazy awesome butt wiggle, which he was demonstrating :)

I hope you've all enjoyed seeing the photos from our wedding. It's been fun sharing them with you! Have a great weekend! :D

J

Best Day of Our Lives (Part 3)

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Happy Thanksgiving! If you're here, reading this, I kind of wonder why you're not with your family. But...I get to bask in your comments, so it's ok. :P If you missed the prep or formal pictures, you should go look at those first. :)

Anyway, on to the main event! We started our ceremony at 5:30 so that we could take advantage of the sunset. C proposed at sunset, so it was something that we really wanted to incorporate, especially since we get some of the most beautiful sunsets in the world here. The ceremony kicked off with this:

We didn't use traditional wedding music for our ceremony (because it's us...why would we have done anything traditional? :P), so the bridal party was walking down the aisle to the instrumental version of Imogen Heap's "Little Bird." We made our own song specifically for the wedding, so "Little Bird" was blended with another Imogen song to make a unique processional track. (Imogen is a very important artist for us, in case you couldn't tell)

Once the bridal party had made it to the front, this bundle of adorable made her way down the aisle:

She made it all the way to the front, and then proceeded to throw flowers at the bridesmaids and groomsmen before running over to her mom. :P Once she was out of the way, the music faded out of "Little Bird" and into the instrumental version of "Wait It Out." Our processional song is something I'll cherish forever, and I still can't listen to it without tearing up. :) Anyway, once my music had started, this happened:

And once I'd made it to our makeshift alter, there was a little of this:

Our minister welcomed everyone, and spoke a little about what it takes to make a marriage thrive. Then we said our "I dos" and exchanged vows. We wrote them ourselves, and it was really emotional (for everyone) when they were read. C wrote some beautiful prose about the meaning of life, and how I'd become the meaning of his life, and I wrote him a poem incorporating traditional vows, but with my own twist. I knew I wasn't going to be able to read mine without crying, so I had stuffed a couple of tissues down the front of my dress (I had no pockets, people, and I knew I was going to need them!). When I pulled the tissues out, the whole audience and bridal party laughed through their tears. :) It looked like this:

Once we'd giggled about my boob tissues, it was time for this:

And then this:

And with that, we were married! We walked back down the aisle as husband and wife, with the instrumental version of Imogen Heap's "Tidal" playing us out. :)

Of course, we couldn't head to the reception without doing a little of this:

And in less than 5 minutes, we had proof we're legally hooked to each other! C was a little excited. :D

I got lots of hugs from people, but this is my favorite picture out of that group:

Tomorrow will be the last set, with lots of pictures from the reception! You're not going to want to miss those...there's lots of crazy dancing. :P

J

Best Day of Our Lives (Part 2)

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If you're stopping by for the first time this week, don't forget to check out yesterday's post about the wedding prep. There are lots of pictures! :)

Anyway, I promised formals today. Our formal pictures started at 3, which gave us about 2 hours before the wedding to photograph. The men in our wedding party (my husband included) were difficult to wrangle. They're easily distracted, and totally goofy, which you'll see in a minute, so it was hard to get a lot of pictures in. Unfortunately, there aren't any of C with the bridesmaids, me with his parents, or him with my parents, but the pictures we did get are priceless.

The stinker walked right through my shot! :P

Our flower girl was super adorable, and even though she was a little cranky before the ceremony (she REALLY wanted to throw flowers), we did manage to get this:

There's a whole series of photos of C with his groomsmen, and all of them are hilarious, but these are my favorites:

Kung fu stances!

I think they were praying...maybe...

I also got a whole series of hilarity with the groomsmen, but this one makes me smile the most:

My photos with my bridesmaids were on the ridiculous side too, mostly because my brother was involved, and he's a goof. Here's our best one:

I also did pictures with each bridesmaid individually, but since you don't know any of them, I won't include any of those here. I will include this one, because I think it's awesome that our tattoos matched the ribbons on our bouquets:

 

...and this one, because my brother cracks me up:

We got pictures with our families, but even those couldn't be serious:

Once all the formals in the front yard were done, we headed over to the reception venue for a few silly ones (because we didn't have nearly enough...)

The whole bridal party monkeying around :P

Our dream house...*sigh*

We didn't want to kiss before the ceremony, so we faked it :P

Tomorrow will be filled with pictures from the wedding ceremony, so check back in if you're interested! :) No worries if you can't (I know it's Thanksgiving)...you can always catch it on Black Friday. :P

J