Our story - a recap

July 2007

My then-boyfriend and I moved to a tropical island, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to teach.  After four and a half years of dating, which includes our first year living on the island, we got engaged.  We were certainly ready to get married.  Except that we were living on the other side of the world.  After being away from our family and friends we knew we wanted everyone there to celebrate with us.  Thus, a two year engagement ensued.  We began to plan our Minnesota wedding from thousands of miles away.  Two years gave me lots of time to peruse wedding blogs, but executing my ideas was more of a challenge.  We weren’t able to meet with lots of wedding vendors.  We weren’t able to work on diy projects gradually, in advance.  We went home to visit the summer before the wedding, but most of our hands-on planning had to happen in the month and a half leading up to the wedding.  Somehow, it all came together…but it’s not exactly an approach I would recommend.

Restart

Why hello there.

I've resurfaced.  I'm married.  :)

The wedding was far from perfect, much like life…but it was also wonderful.

Clearly, the pre-wedding blogging was far from successful.  It was not for me.  Sorry.

However, I am planning to retroactively document some of the planning process, details of the day, and post-wedding reflection.

So, stick around if you feel so inclined!

Rediscovering the island

Our guests are receiving our save the dates, our website is officially launched, and my friends out here are throwing me a shower next weekend!  More details are sure to come on all of this wedding-made-official-ness.

For now, before I go to bed, all I have to say is this:  I had a good weekend.  I left my to-do list at home and went to the beach with friends.  And then I came home and swam in the pool.  And grilled out and played cards and laughed till it hurt with friends.  And then woke up early to go on a hike and see a B29 that crashed in the jungle during WWII.  And then went to breakfast.  And then called home before getting to work.  And I'm not done, but I'm going to bed happy.  Because I squeezed in a lot of what counts.  And isn't that supposed to be my goal?

First photo from ::here:: second from me.

How to make an entrance

My dad is a creative guy.  This is, no doubt, a good trait to have.  However, it sometimes needs to be reigned in a bit.  Every time I chide him for not being actively involved in the wedding planning he comes up with some highly creative ideas that will never, ever be approved.  Much of his fixation has been on our entrance.  Rather than simply walking down the aisle, he has suggested dancing, Harleys, a tandem bike, jetskis...and the list goes on.

So when Mike had his first wedding-related dream the other night, it was no surprise that it involved a wacky entrance idea.  In his dream, I was going to rappel down from the trees and my dad was hoisting me up by attaching the other end of the rope to the back of a Harley.  Mike was not-too-pleased with the plan.

I talked to my dad that next weekend and mentioned the dream.  Turns out he had been brainstorming a plan with some friends at work that involved setting up some ziplines in the trees.  He already had a friend ready to build some platforms.  Shocking, and yet not so shocking at the same time.

Unfortunately for my dad, a quick google search revealed that it's already been done!  Back to the drawing board, I guess!

::photo::

Eye candy

I've been away from the blog for awhile.  I was completely taken out of commission when I got sick for roughly the fifth time since January.  That sucked.  Since then, I've been playing catch-up.  My wedding time right now needs to go toward addressing our save the dates which finally arrived this past weekend.  I had some camera play time a couple of weeks ago after getting some Easter candy in the mail (inspired by a blog contest) so I figured I'd share what I came up with (before it all ended up in my stomach-except for the ring, of course).  I can't wait until I have a DSLR again, but it's still fun to wax creative.

{all photos by me, candy compliments of my mom}

New old treasure

Last summer we went home to visit for the first time in two years.  Rediscovering all of the cold-weather clothes I'd left behind in my closet and all of my possessions waiting for me in Minnesota was so exciting.  I didn't want to wear any of the clothes in my suitcase, just the sweaters and jeans from my closet.  (Which, for the most part, I was able to because I was freezing!)  It was new again and I loved it all.

I'm hoping for a similar experience when I return this summer and get to see everything for the wedding.  The vases and fabrics we bought for the reception are waiting for us and my dress has come in at the shop where it is waiting for me to come and try it on.  I'm more than hopeful that I will see these things and love them all over again.  Some things I'll be seeing for the first time, like my bridesmaid's dresses.  Thank goodness I decided to go for the mismatched look because coordinating colors and designs from across the globe...well, there's only so much you can do.

Mike's mom just pulled out the fabric to work on (and some of my girlfriends here are planning a shower - it's all starting to become real!) which prompted me to revisit this photo I took.  Thank goodness I took this photo to remember!  This was probably the fastest wedding errand yet, even though we visited 3 stores, owning to the fact that I dragged Mike along with me.  He's not much of a shopper and prefers the speed shopping method.  Despite the fast decision making (to which I certainly am not accustomed) I love our picks!

I'm excited to see these scattered about the room along with all of the other decor and surprises we have up our sleeves.  I don't know which is my favorite.  How about you?

For the love of chocolate

If I had attended this wedding with this amazing looking chocolate bar I’m pretty sure I would’ve thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

I don’t think this will be redone at our wedding but I can only hope to someday be in a room with so much delicious chocolate up for grabs. That’s the stuff dreams are made of.

Dandelion love

Well over a year and a half into this engagement, wedding planning has morphed into something entirely different.  In the beginning it was all about inspiration and ideas.  And I filled my head with a lot of those.  But now it is becoming much more real, and I have moved past that in many ways.  In part it is due to necessity.  There is no more time to sit and daydream.  Decisions are being made and I'm behind on the to-do list.  It's like when you write giant research paper and you have to spend hours on the front end finding quality research, reading it, collecting data, etc.  And then finally it's time to write and you just have to hunker down and focus on your paper.
Also, my brain is full.  Most of the images that fill my google reader start to look the same.  Fabric bunting?  Seen that before.  Bride in Manolo Blahniks?  Next!  But every once in awhile I come across something I absolutely adore.

If I had a flower girl, I would send her down the aisle with dandelions, just like this.  I mean, seriously, how perfect would that be?  How charming would it be for her to reach the front and blow all of the seeds to the wind?  So much more natural than rose petals or a fancy floral arrangement.  Love.

We wove a web in childhood, a web of sunny air.
[Charlotte Bronte]

Photo from ::here::

Save the dates ready for print

Our save the dates have been edited, scrutinized, uploaded, and ordered!  It feels so good that it is (temporarily, at least) out of our hands and onto the printing press.
This has been a big hurdle and it is a big giant check on the to-do list.  There was a fair amount of stress, disappointment, and frustration involved.  More on that later, perhaps.

But, for now, I am pleased, relieved, and excited to see the finished product and get this real wedding stuff going!

And until I have more time on my hands, just a peak.

Goodnight, island!  Goodnight, world wide web!

Slow, sweet walk

Walk With You
Edwin McCain & Maia Sharp

I’ll take this slow sweet walk with you
You’ll let go of my hand to say “I do”
He will discover just how blessed a life can be
I know ‘cause all those years ago someone handed you to me
Every step that we take brings back the memories
Winter snows and horse shows and dancing on the beach
I can’t help thinking that I’m the lucky one
You’re still my baby daughter and now I’ve gained a son
I’ll take this slow sweet walk with you
You’ll let go of my hand to say “I do”
He will discover just how blessed a life can be
I know ‘cause all those years ago your mom handed you to me
Don’t miss a chance to put each other first
Now that you’ve vowed for better or for worse
Don’t let the beauty of this life pass you by
In the times of trouble you’ll stand side by side
I’ll take this slow sweet walk with you
You’ll let go of my hand to say ” I do”
I picture a slow sweet walk yet to be
When you’ll take my hand and say “Daddy come see”
Then you’ll know what it felt like
You won’t believe what it feels like
Then you’ll know what it felt like when she handed you to me.
She handed you to me

I heard this song on the radio the other night while driving home from a late soccer game.  I'm sure the rest of the world has heard it already (we don't always have the most up-to-date music on the airwaves here) but maybe there's someone else out there who hasn't.  Or someone who would like to add it to your music collection for free.

I googled the song when I got home and found out that Edwin McCain offers it as a free download on his website.  I love free stuff, and it really is a sweet song, even if there is a bit of country twang.  Check it out here!

Priorities

Mike is finally home!  Now that we're together again, we can make some progress on the wedding front.  Except that all I want to work on right now are non-time-sensitive projects, like ceremony fan designs and reception factoids, not pressing to-dos like save the dates (now quite late) and invitations and such.

<sigh>

The world wide wedding web

*Warning*

This post is 100% wedding-planning-induced rant.

Dear wedding vendors,

I’m a little frustrated with planning right now, so please bear with me.  I just have a little request that I’d like to put out there.

Please, for my sake and yours, get a decent website!!!

Actually, for some of you we may need to start with get a website, period.  You don’t even exist on the internet!  But I’m prettymuch ignoring all of you anyway, because you make life too difficult.  Good luck having someone else find and hire you for their wedding.

So back to those of you with crappy sites.  Maybe this is just me, trying to plan a wedding from the other side of the globe through a 15 hour difference and a job that does not allow me to even go to the bathroom, none-the-less make a call during working hours, but I like/have to do a lot of my research, planning, decision making, and purchasing online.  I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.  Sure, looking through actual invitation examples in person might be nice.  But that’s not going to happen.  And there are a lot of other people who are home bodies, out of towners, or just lazy.  Or just busy.  Who do not want to come in to talk to a sales representative.

About that website.  Just because you have flash doesn’t mean your website is helpful.  Modern websites with sleek designs are nice, but I have been to many that still fail to meet my basic needs.  Show me what you have.  Not just one very pretty angle.  Tell me what it costs, or at least an idea.  If you bait me in and don’t tell me until later that it costs a million dollars, guess what?  I’m not going to give in and take out a loan.  I’m going to not buy it and I’m going to be pissed and harbor negative feelings toward your brand forever.  Yes, I’m that stubborn.  Provide clear descriptions.  If there are options, make those clear.  If there are not, make that clear.  If you can choose from colors and fonts and paper and frostings and fillings and ribbons and such—tell me and let me see my choices!

This website is so wonderful that I want to hug it!  It’s an invitation site that lets you customize designs and purchase the PDF or have it printed.  Handy.  Cute designs.  You can actually change the text and colors and see what your invitation would look like with different designs/colors/fonts.  And the pricing is clearly outlined.  I am this close from throwing my other invitation plans to the wind and going this route, I just love them that much for their great website!

Okay, that’s all.  A website with organized, useful information.  Is this really an outlandish request in 2010?

I’m going to go make some tea.

Images from ::here & here::

Smile

From ::here::

So this is love

Mike has been stateside for the past week to attend a conference, leaving me to fend for myself way over here on our island.  We'd both been trading germs and rotating sickness for the couple of weeks leading up to his trip and it was evident in the state of our apartment.

It was really important to him not to leave me with such a mess to deal with (because I was going to be a mess myself anyway) so we spent his last night cleaning.  He's always been proud of his dish stacking abilities.

So, he left me with this reminder of his love.  Not quite as romantic as a love letter or as delicious as the muffins he had planned would have been, but totally him.  He takes care of me.

Two and a half days until he is back!

La la land

Full on wedding/job search/moving/goodbye stress hasn't even hit yet, but I'm definitely ready to retreat away from it all.  You know how it is when you're already behind and things just keep being added to your plate?  And then you get the flu and lose an entire weekend's worth of rest and productivity?

On the upside, our save the date is in the works.  (Yes, it's late.  But it's moving forward.)  We finally figured out that we do have a friend (Mike's friend) that works in design.  So, we sent her my sketch-up and chatted today and now the ball is rolling!  <phew!>

Also, three of my bridesmaids have a dress and one has the fabric and pattern to begin making her dress!  Hooray for progress that I can't really take credit for but will anyway!

Now, onward with wedding plans, to-do list making, progress reports, lesson plans, and job hunting!

Photo from ::here::

Check and check

We have a photographer!  And a DJ!  More on this later.  I just wanted to note the occasion.  Progress has been made!

The clearance game

I would oh-so-love to have my sister (MOH) wear this dress for the wedding.  Cotton?  Pockets?  Cute retro yellow print?  But first it was too expensive.  And now it's on sale but sold out in her size.  Boo hoo.  Internet shopping sometimes sucks.

Time

It’s 2010.  Holy canoli.  Where did the time go?

Our engagement has been on the longer side.  (Six days short of two years.)  I’ve had nothing but time on my hands but now the wedding is in less than 7 months.  SEVEN MONTHS!  All of a sudden, I’m not only on the wedding checklist timeline, I’m behind!

It’s time to get a move on with this wedding business.  Decision making time.

Eek.

Other important milestones:

We celebrated our six year anniversary on January 16.  :)  In less than seven months, we’ll have a new anniversary to celebrate!

Picture from :: here ::

2010

We spent New Year's Eve camped out on an itty bitty island just off the shore of "our" island.  It was a pretty amazing NYE thanks to the blue moon that lit up the sky.  We set off fireworks and my future sister-in-law and went for a midnight swim.  Then we tried to sleep.

Although sleeping didn't go so well, Mike and I got to watch the first sunrise of 2010 together on the beach.

It's going to be a big year.  We'll be saying goodbye to our island and moving home to get married.  We'll also be looking for new jobs, cars, and a home - all yet to be determined.

Hello 2010.  Let's get started.