Happy First Anniversary!

It's our first anniversary today. We're celebrating where we said "I do" one year ago. Except this year we're enjoying the total lack of a to-do list and twenty-four page mani-f|s-to.

I can't believe it's already been a year, and I can't believe it's only been a year.

I love you, darlin' S!

Wedding Recap: Getting Ready at the Salon

I booked our appointments at Head Games salon nine months in advance. They only had two stylists available because it was Labor Day weekend, so we had to stagger our appointments for the morning, with my appointment being the last.

Amy and I left the farm with all the cupcakes in their boxes:

 and the guys hard at work putting throwies in the lanterns.

Amy drove while I texted, updated facebook and emailed. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and we were a little concerned that my makeup wasn't going to hold up later without any a/c. When we arrived at the salon bridesmaid S greeted me with a pumpkin spice latte and a mimosa. Clearly she had been having a more relaxing morning than I.

Bridesmaids W & G had left for their their hotel before I arrived so W could feed her 8 week old baby. He puked in her hair, that she had just had "done," but it wasn't anything a shower, blow dry and barrette couldn't fix. It's a good thing he's cute.

Kate, my hairdresser from law school, set to work on my hair and moments later our photographer, Geneve, showed up to start her day. I had met with Kate once before when I was in Maine for a week-long trip for work. We had discussed doing something to enhance my curls with a low bun and a white satin flower. I didn't have a trial and she spent less than a minute floofing my hair around before she started to work. The end result was exactly what I wanted. Kate is just that good.

 

Bridesmaids S & Amy hung out while Kate applied my makeup in a little nook of the salon that's has a wall of windows facing the street.

We finished up, I bought some lip gloss and hairspray, and we were back in the car and on our way back to the farm. We had strict orders that all the bridesmaids and family needed to be dressed and ready for photos by 12:30, even though I wasn't getting into my dress until 1. When Amy and I got back to the farm the entire yard was transformed, the corn hole was set-up, and the bridesmaids were all dressed and looking beautiful. Suzanne was applying my nana's makeup for her in the dining room and everyone was hanging out eating lunch before we went outside to finish up a few final details.

Wedding Recap: The Morning of Our Big Day

My phone rang at 6:30. Bridesmaid, C, not knowing I had taken a sleeping pill and set my alarm for 8, assumed I would be awake. Lexi was sprawled next to me on our bed and after lying in bed for a few minutes I decided it was time to get up and embrace the few extra set-up hours C's call granted me.

It was a beautiful, peaceful morning as I Lexi and I set out to the barn where a trailer hooked to the jeep waited full of luminaries. I am so grateful for C's wake-up call and for the quiet time I spent on the farm early that day.

Lexi and I hopped into the CJ and started lining the driveway and pathways to the bonfire and restroom with luminaries. I placed the lanterns on the stone wall:

And set-up the bathroom area and lots of goodies and mini flashlights.

I place the dancing flip-flops next to the dance floor that had been set up earlier in the week.

We set-up the guest book cookbook near the quince bush:

And then hung the escort cards that we had attached to ribbons earlier, from the quince.

I placed the goodie bags we made for our three kid guests under the escort cards.

At some point my matron of honor, Amy, showed up early with all the cupcakes she had stored in her freezer:

and then set to work in my mom's air conditioned office putting each cupcake in its own take-away favor box. The boxes had to remain open so the thawing cupcake frosting would not develop soggy water droplets. The room smelled amazing, and after the cupcake baking fiasco, I was so grateful that the whole plan was pulling together well.

At around 9 I took my toiletry basket to the outdoor shower and went through my whole wedding-morning grooming plan. I was remarkably relaxed, calm, and ready for the best day of my life.

As Amy I left for Head Games salon in Portland, the caterer's crew arrived to set the tables in the tent and around the yard.

As calm as I may have been, the morning was not without drama. I realized that there was no way I'd be able to light all the lanterns, and set out all the directional signs on my own. So I interrupted my darlin' groom's last morning of singledom, dialed-up my brother, and enlisted some much needed last-minute support. While I was at the salon with the ladies S, my brother, and several of S's friends hung hundreds of throwies in all the paper lanterns and set signs along the road to and from the ceremony and reception.

Amy and I texted S as we left the salon and thankfully the guys were just finishing up. As she and I turned onto my parents' road we passed S leaving the house on his way back to his hotel.

The yard had transformed while we were away. It was absolutely amazing. I was so excited. The catering crew asked for my final approval and then set off to get dressed and ready to switch into server-mode. Before they left, they set up a huge delicious spread of sandwiches and snacks in the kitchen for all the bridesmaids and family who were getting ready at the house.

Wedding Album #1: the Photo Booth

The photo booth was one of my favorite parts of our wedding. I have a million favorite parts, but it's up there on the list. A minor snafu with the timing of toasts and having wine in the glasses turned out to be a huge benefit for the photo booth. As Stacey and her crew zipped through the tables pouring wine, our guests lined up to pose in our photo booth. As a result we had tons of fabulous images to use in our "photo booth guest book."

We didn't have as many guests write notes on the chalkboards as I expected, so when I designed the album in Adobe InDesign I interspersed the photos with personal messages among those without to give it the feeling of a true guest book. I assume that many guests opted to write notes to us in our wedding cookbook instead. In hindsight we probably ought to have set up the photo booth directly next to the escort cards as we did with the cookbook, but the light wasn't as nice there.

It took dozens and dozens (and more dozens) of hours to design our 20 page guest book album. I absolutely love the way it came out and am very excited to start finish the wedding album. After we finish moving into the new beehive, that is.

All photos taken by our fabulous photographer Geneve Hoffman. She's amazing. Call her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finished the layout way back in November, but waited to post it until my mom could view it with me. She made a special trip to the new beehive last week just to see the album. Ok, maybe it was 75% to see the album and 25% to see me.

Relax, the social security number photo is a work-related joke. Those are random numbers.

Moving, kind of

While I wait for the CD of our wedding photos to finish off this blog with a few wedding posts, I've started a new blog over at The Bee Hive. Skip on over there for some fabulous news and lots of eye candy!

I do...but First You do This and You do That

As I mentioned earlier, I wished I had one more day before the wedding. I would have made more wedding wands, downloaded more music, and made a more organized list for our coordinator, Abbie.... Well, maybe not a more organized list for Abbie, because the woman rocked! Holy cow, she was awesome!!

Abbie is bridesmaid C's younger, very organized, very professional sister. We spoke several times leading up to the wedding, but not in any great length. She showed up to the rehearsal with a clipboard in hand and downloaded my entire vision in under an hour, all while bossing around our family and friends and generally running the tightest ship to sail through the meeting house. She's available to boss your friends and family around too. And wow, she rocks.

She had the wedding party lined up just as the manifesto dictated
and lead us through our processional and recessional several times.

S and I practiced our I dos, or in S's case our "we'll see." It was at about this point when we realized that we were not (ahem, I) going to have enough time to write our own vows. So we nixed them.
After a quick run through of swords with no swordswe were off for the feast, featuring lobsters and a dinghy full of beers.
We celebrated for hours, S's dad toasted us, we toasted them, we gave our wedding party gifts and the night went on and on. In a separate post I'll have to go back and find photos of all the goodies I made for the girls. Somewhere I have photos of the sail bags, clutches, gold and crystal earrings, and flip flops that I made!

We stopped at our local bar, Gritty's, where we met more guests and had a few drinks. After about an hour S and I split up for the night. I went home, took a sleeping pill and wrote an email to Abbie outlining everything that was left to do in the morning before the big event. I set my alarm for 8am and turned off the light at mid-night.