I wish I’d thought of that.
Mar25
Category Archives: i do
Mar10
February Showers
Most February days in Seattle are overcast, gray and rainy. It’s gross. A few Sundays ago though, while it was monsooning outside, all my favorite Seattle girls were gathered in one spot and for a moment, there was no rain and it wasn’t gray. It was warm and bright and lovely.
I didn’t know what it was going to be like being “the bride.” I really didn’t have any expectations. What continues to overwhelm me is the genuine love and support from my friends. My friends have made me feel so special. So special that a “thank you” doesn’t seem to be enough to show my gratitude. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out if this is just what happens when you get married. You get showered and you feel awesome and that’s normal? While I don’t technically know, I kind of feel like it’s not. The motions are all very similar. Showers and parties and games and presents. But what’s different to me, it feels like it’s more meaningful than just the motions. There’s so much emotion involved. It has made being “the bride” very surreal.
It’s not often you take the time to reflect and think about the people in your life and what they really mean to you. I’ve been doing that – and I like it. I like that people are genuinely excited for me and Kevin. And have shown us that in many different forms. It is an exciting time for us. And we can’t wait to celebrate with our closest friends and family. But I think what’s even more exciting is confidently knowing how many people love us, support us and want to be a part of us. It minimizes so much and makes everything past, present and future, less scary.
Thank you, friends. I love you!
Megs, Ree and Nins - the hostess(es) with the mostess!
Crazy gamers!
Who knows me?! Straight to my heart...and hips.
Feb10
Layers
There are a few wedding blogs I peruse on an almost daily basis for ideas and inspiration for our big day. One of my faves is 100 Layer Cake. Shocking, I know.
Anyway, their tag line is “crafting your wedding, layer by layer.” Which, with only a couple of months until the wedding, the layers are finally starting to come together and boy does it feel good.
Throughout the last twelve months, Kevin has been A.Mazing. You often hear how the future husband is less than helpful if even semi-interested with the planning. Kevin has been a part of every single decision (mostly by choice!) and the mastermind behind our DIY projects. From the venue to the table linens he has discussed and negotiated with me; making our big day a true collaboration and reflection of us both.
It seems like we’ve talked ourselves to death about wedding details. I probably send Kevin a thousand emails a day “How do you like that?; What if we did this?; Do you like this or that better?; This is cool! How can you make it work?; Did you finish that yet?!” and on and on and on. What we will talk about after the big day is beyond me. For now, we’ll head towards the finish line, checking each and every layer off – together.
Dec9
Wedding Bells for Cutie
It has never been my intention to turn this into a wedding blog. Well, not any more than, we picked a cake, this is our venue, check out my dress, etc. I don’t want to bore my readers with the hours and hours of wedding blog stalking (I like to call it inspiration) I’ve done the past ten months. There’s this one wedding though that I must share because I absolutely adore it. Like, love love loooove it. It’s a Seattle wedding, in a fancy schmancy venue with Macrina cake centerpieces (freakin’ copy cats!) and lots and lots of love.
Oh. And a band member from Death Cab for Cutie. There’s that.
If our wedding wasn’t going to be the best wedding ever and if I had a picture of a dream wedding, this might pretty much be it. Zooey Deschanel (listen to She & Him already!) and Ben Gibbard (whom are married – how did I not know this?!) sang a duet during their ceremony and John Roderick was their reverend. Can you imagine? John Roderick AND Zooey AND Ben- and they’re all besties?! So dang cool.
Despite all the fan fare, fun colors and Macrina cake, I love the last paragraph of their “wedding details” on the blog post. More specifically, I love this sentiment; “Only once in your life do you get to have everyone you love in a room together, and we cherished every moment of it. By the end of the night, Nick and I were completely overwhelmed by all the love and joy in the room, and didn’t want it to ever end.”
That’s exactly what we’re going for.
…and if Zooey and Ben want to come and serenade us, well that’s fine too!
Nov20
Shower and Sap
I’m a lot behind on the blog. Partly because we’ve been busy bees but mostly because I haven’t been able to put into words all the love in the air. Why is it all I have in my head is this?
My sister and AME threw a bridal shower for me the first part of November. Kind of early in the grand scheme of wedding but I think that was good for me. **Warning sappy-ness in 5…4…3…2…**
Driving to Spokane with Maris and Cousin, chatting, it really sunk in that I’m getting married. Like, married married! Love, marriage, meeting “the one” – oh my goodness, I’ve talked with my girls countless hours – me talking, me listening, tears, jeers. The one thing I’ve talked to girlfriends and Mom about since before I even knew Kevin is actually happening – for me. With Kevin. Looking back and more importantly, looking forward, I can’t imagine being with anyone but Kevin. If only I knew that six years ago….but, when you know, you know - and not a moment before!
In addition to my revelation of ”wow, it’s not just talk anymore, it’s actually my turn” there was this overwhelming feeling that all of these women from pretty much my entire Spokane life are all going to be in one place, all for me. It kind of freaked me out a bit. I like attention, don’t get me wrong but it was really overwhelming. What a feeling it is to be loved by so many people. Having all those women from childhood, who have each influenced my life in different ways all come together to celebrate our upcoming marriage was flattering and surreal and my heart was permanently warmed.
I’m a lucky girl.
Oh! And, uh, the presents were cool too!
My team didn't win. I think it was rigged!
Sister, Mamasita and me
Nov11
Cake, Cake and Cake and Cake
We finally picked a cake vendor for the wedding! For awhile now, we knew we wanted cake centerpieces. I originally thought we would save money and support an aspiring baker but it turns out twenty cakes is a lot of work for a home baker (uh, duh, Kelli). So, after describing to Mar the “look and feel” of cake we wanted, she suggested Macrina. We just went and did a cake tasting and were sold. The look of the cake is exactly what we want (simple yet sophisticated), they’re affordable, they deliver and most importantly, they taste awesome.
Our only dilemma has been settling on a cake size. The cake lady kept telling us a 6″ cake is all you need to serve ten (per table). But I feel a 6″ looks too small and silly. She and others have said, “a 9″ cake will produce a lot of waste.” I’m the last person to want to waste cake; so, I think we’re going with the 6″. Does it look too small on the cake platter? It’s ok, be honest. Keep in mind we can put fruit and/or flowers around the platter.
We’ll have six or so different flavors scattered at different tables. Put your requests in now and I’ll do my best to put you at a table of your liking. Our hope though is if you’re sat at a table that you don’t like the flavor of cake, you’ll mingle with your neighbors and ask for a slice of theirs – we support tradesies!
Now friends, all six of you that read this – we need cake platters! Can I borrow yours? And do you mind asking your friends and family if I can borrow theirs? We have one; nineteen to go!
Oct18
Just Registered
What I assume should be one of the more fun adventures in wedding planning, was absolutely not. Registering is stressful.
Kevin did enjoy using the gun and we did manage to make the most of a stressful situation by finding “Registry Parties” where we got free gifts, free food, the store closed to the regular public and five star customer service. Sadly though, after leaving Macy’s, we were told our registry was below par. They had this really helpful guide that explained if you are expecting 200 guests you should have 250 items registered for and it even broke it down telling us we should have 20 in X price range, 50 in Y price range, etc. We had twenty items – TOTAL.
It’s hard because we do need things. They just happen to be big, high ticket item things. Things I feel really horrible asking for. I just feel greedy. We are constantly being told though, “you have to register for something because if you don’t, you will be sorry. You will get that horrid platter that has been sitting in Aunt Sue’s basement for twenty years.” Ok, ok, I get it! I guess if people want to buy us stuff, it might as well be stuff we like!
Oct15
Internet, we have a DJ!
When we first started planning the wedding we assumed a good cost savings would be hiring DJ iPod to spin on the ones and twos.
But! Kevin has a friend, Matt, who dabbles in DJ-ery.
DJ AutoMATTic unknowingly got us through hours and hours of painting and cleaning the townhouse this spring. He’s head boppin’, sing along, dance if you weren’t on your knees scrubbing, good. And better yet, he agreed to DJ our wedding in exchange for pizza and beer. Done and done.
Get your party pants on and check him out, HERE. I recommend Flight 219.
ps – it’s either a slow download or my computer sucks. whatever the case – worth it!
Oct1
Flashy
Smells and I recently took a couple of Lady Gaga dance classes at the Century Ballroom. Basically, in a 90 minute class, we learned about 60 seconds worth of video clips. My favorite was Bad Romance – full of monster mashy-ness. It got me thinking; can you flash mob your own wedding? Because I totally want to!
Sep30
Engagement Photos
We recently had our engagement photo session, shot by the amazing, Matt Shumate. We adore him; and when we met him, we knew he was going to be our photographer. I’m a worrier by nature but I love the feeling you get when you know you’re right about something. Especially after you’ve searched and searched and searched and you just know the searching is finally over. You’ve found the right one. The venue, the dress, the photographer, oh yeah, and the boy 
Here are some of my favorite shots from our session with Matt. It was so much fun to get all dressed up and play!
