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::