Wedding Week: Friday Day

I woke up feeling much more rested on Friday morning - but it was weird to not have Mr. C next to me.  The next time I would spend the night next to Mr. C we would be husband and wife.

We had appointments at the nail salon for all the women ready to go: my Mom, MIL, Sister J, and Bridesmaid J.

Sister J had to swap out with me so I could be done in time for my eyelash appointment.

After our nails were done, I had eyelash extensions put on.  It felt much stranger than I ever expected it too.  It was really uncomfortable and took about an hour.  I kept fidgeting with them for the rest of the day, but I have to say - I loved the look it gave me for the big day. 

We stopped at a CVS for final things: card for Mr. C, markers for our guestbook, and a pillow for the rings to go down the aisle.  Back at the house things had gotten chaotic: family had arrived, friends were stopping by, Baby J was practicing her moves for the aisle, my Dad was putting the final touches our photobooth - and I still had a LOT of shiz to organize. 

Cards for our wedding party, gifts for our parents, and of course, dressing up for our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner!

I opted to split the rehearsal dinner into a separate post because that is really when the wedding events officially started - and that's when I finally gave it all up to the heavens that things were going to go how they'd go...and I was there for the ride - and of course, for the marriage!!



All personal photos.

handwritten: a penpal project for 2012

I used to have penpals: friends that I would exchange letters with and learn more about their lives.  Mostly it was my RL friends, but we would share chain mail, secrets, and crushes in our ripped straight from the notebook pages. 

When I saw a few Tweets from Anni, Estelle, and others talking about the possibility of collecting a group of people interested in snail mail, I had to jump at the chance.  How fun; what a great way to connect with someone, make my mailbox a little more interesting, and most importantly, an excuse to buy some really  pretty paper. 

Tabitha explains the whole process on her blog here, so if you're interested in joining, go sign up! 

Luckily I just stocked up on some Forever stamps...

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I'd been thinking about my PWC (post-wedding chop) for a long time.  I hadn't had a proper hair cut in years (thanks to student life then unemployed life).

I don't have a hairstylist in Brooklyn that I'm comfortable with, and man...are haircuts around here expensive.  But last week, I finally decided to just bite the bullet and make an appointment at a salon my friend recommended to me.

This morning, I was trying to find styles I liked, but finding a style I like and finding something that will work well with my hair are two totally separate things.  Then I randomly Googled Locks of Love.  I called the salon and asked if they could measure my hair for me if I wanted to donate it.  "Absolutely!" the woman on the phone shouted when I mentioned what I wanted to do.

By the time I got to the salon, I was having second thoughts...I believe I hashtagged #maybechickeningout on Twitter.

But then the stylist talked about how cool she thought this was, and I thought that I had no freaking clue what to do with long hair anyway...

Before picture - taken from my iPhone

So before I had time to think, my hair was in two ponytails in the back of my head...and then SNIP - those two ponytails were in my hand.

That is my hair in my hand!  - Personal iPhone pic

The second it was off I knew this was a great idea.  I needed something done to give me a new look.

Here's the final product:

All styled! - Personal iPhone picture

I really love the cut she gave me.  It angles and shapes my face in a flattering way, and I feel more professional (which is good, as I'm the youngest attorney in our office).  I think it makes me look older (but not old!) and gives my hair some shape and body is was so sadly missing.

Now I just need to find a padded envelope for those two ponytails that are sitting in my bag...

Have you ever donated your hair?  This was the first time my hair was even close to long enough to consider it.  Would you donate your hair if it was long enough?

Wedding Week: Thursday

Thursday was another day I woke up and lay awake well before 7.  The to-do list was making me anxious, and I couldn't sleep without dreaming of another thing I had to do or failed to organize.

We had to be at our venue by 1, dropping off everything completely organized and ready to go, and I was anxious to have everything off my hands.

Mr. C and I woke up and got right back to it.  J was soon awake and filling out place cards alongside us.  Sister J and Baby J came over by 10, and there was a house full helping Mr. C and I to finalize the last of the details.  My goal had been to complete everything before Thursday, but the last minute scrambling couldn't be helped.

It took two cars to pack up and drive everything over (with a quick stop for eyebrow waxing!).

We unloaded the car and our coordinator, Deirdre was there to meet with us (but first we watched a woman untangle a cow from a fence).  Deirdre was impressed at our organization and instructions, even though we had left a few things behind.

We finalized numbers and seating charts; we perfected the timeline; and we said goodbye until Saturday.

When we were walking out the door, I lost it.  I don't know why, even though I'm a crier, I hadn't cried all week and I was just blubbering away with no trigger.

In actuality I think I was exhausted and entirely overwhelmed.  We had been non-stop on little sleep that week and it was catching up to me.

Mr. C and I drove home and stopped for ice cream.  It was amazing to have a few moments alone with him, to giggle, and not to talk about details or schedules.

When we returned, Mr. C's parents had arrived and we went to greet them.  They had their own car full of goodies and it took a few trips.  But that was a quick visit because our amazing bridal party had gifted us with exactly what we needed on that day: a couples' massage.

Mr. C and I enjoyed that massage and it really set the tone for the rest of the weekend: we were chill, relaxed, and ready to roll with the punches.

When we returned to my family's house, everyone was there to greet us: Sister J and her family, J, Mr. C's parents, and my family.  They had been amazing by filling the out of town bags and prepping for dinner (Dinosaur Bar-B-Q, as prepared by Mr. C's mother).  There was a lot of food, a lot of laughs, and a lot of love around the dinner table last night.  Everyone was excited and really looking forward to the rest of the weekend.

After one final round of tying up the out of town bags, we said our farewells to Mr. C's parents and Mr. C, and J and I snuck upstairs for some quiet girl time.  As soon as the lights went out, I was asleep.


There aren't many pictures of these moments leading up the wedding, but they are vivid in my mind.  To be with the people who were closest to me, to be organizing for the biggest day of my life, and the anticipation of marry Mr. C made for many memorable moments.  And the weekend hadn't even started!

I'm grateful for those moments with our immediate families and grateful for their help.  And above all, I highly suggest a massage prior to the wedding day; it was literally one of the best decisions we made leading up to the big day.

What are your most memorable moments prior to your big day?  Do you have plans to allow for relaxation and family time?

Wedding Week: Wednesday

Wednesday was by far the most stressful day leading up to the wedding.  And Mr. C and I didn't handle it super classily.  But we lived!

We woke up and headed straight to a Starbucks.  My mom had scheduled to have someone clean the house, so we couldn't stick around.  Two coffees later, we both had the this jitters and had to run to pick up our order at FedEx Kinkos.  The coffee was definitely overkill - we both were super shaky and it made us really anxious.  If you're someone who doesn't normally drink a lot of caffeine, trust me, you won't need it. There will be plenty of natural energy and anxiety to pull you through.

Mr. C and I had a long list of tasks: finalize parent gifts, finalize menus, reprint some of the place cards, and generally organize the rest of the week.

We made a run to Kinkos and then headed back to my Mom's house.  Hoping this would finally be our chance to fill out our place cards and organize our baskets for drop off at the venue the next day, we got sucked into errands with my Mom instead.  A quick trip to Costco, and then it was time for a WONDERFUL interruption.

Do you remember when I there were some bridesmaid switcharoos?  Well, one of the reasons was my friend Ashlie was expecting and her due date was the day before our wedding.  She realized that she couldn't predict what things would be like for her, so she decided to not be a bridesmaid (in practice!  but always a bridesmaid in my heart!).  As she had been predicting for awhile, Ashlie delivered beautiful baby Milo early.  Mr. C and I made a point to be able to visit that precious little boy on Wednesday.  It was a great to take some quiet moments eating pizza with my friend, her beautiful baby boy, and my very-soon-to-husband.

Personal iPhone pick.  Ashlie's precious, little baby.

From here there was more excitement - we went to the bus station to pick up Bridesmaid J and things were feeling more and more real.  We left Mr. C in the food court of a mall, and J and I ran to pick out some lipstick for the big day and last minute gifts for me to give Mr. C on the morning of the wedding.

And here it was...close to 10 pm and our night wasn't close to over.  My family rallied and tackled many, many wedding projects.  Place cards, photo booth, green screen (my dad is amazing - I can't wait to tell you about that), candy bar set up, organization, labeling and making final lists of everything we forgot.

Candy Bar mock up on my iPhone - and all the chaos around it

Mr. C, J and I soldiered on until about 2 am.  I think I was the first one to give in, and admitted defeat.  I needed sleep.  I hadn't slept well all week and knew that if I didn't start catching up now, it was going to hit me later in the week, and that would be bad.  So off we went, excited to be rid of all that chaos the next day.

Did you leave any of your organization or projects to the last minute?  I swore I wasn't going to, but look how that turned out!

Wedding Week Begins

The lead up to the week of the wedding was insane.  I worked Monday and Tuesday, and Tuesday was my first hearing at work.  Needless to say, I was fairly stressed and distracted.

Mr. C picked me up at 5 pm on the dot on Tuesday and we started our drive up to my parents' house.  Now, unfortunately, our trip started with a fairly loud yelling match.  I think we were both stressed and felt we couldn't show it to other people, so we were taking it out on each other.

But we cleared that up and hit the road.  We both recognized why we were cranky with each other and vowed to not do that again the rest of the week (it didn't work out perfectly, but we did ok!).

Our first stop was at the house of our friends Kristin and Tom who were married in August.  They had graciously agreed to let us use some of their glassware as part of our candy bar.  It was awesome of them, as we really felt we were missing a few big pieces, but couldn't justify spending up to another $50 on our candy bar.  So we just went 20 minutes out of our way on the road home and had two additional (really large!) candy bar jars.

My terribly lit iPhone photo on the car ride up to MA

We didn't get back to my parents' house until 11 and I really wanted to run around shrieking from excitement.  But instead, we unloaded the car, only shrieked a little bit, and got to bed to prepare for a very busy week ahead.  There was three days left before the wedding, and I couldn't wait.  I just had to finish up a lot of the details...

Tis The Season!

This is one of those awkward moments where I admit I've been gone too long, you admit you forgot til I popped up in your reader (except a few great friends who reached out to me - thank you!!) and then we get right back at it!

It's been very busy since my last post: I got a new job, I got married, I went to the wedding of wonderful friends, my husband and I ate our first Thanksgiving meal together, and we're prepping for our first Christmas.  But life is absolutely wonderful and busy busy busy.  Part of my plan for organizing my life (after a month of newlywed bliss when I've done nothing productive except been happy with Mr. C) is to get back to blogging.

So, wedding recaps anyone? Honestly, wedding recaps have always been my favorite part of following a blogger, and I'm excited to have a written account of that amazing day for myself.

Can't wait to get back at it!  What's new with you??  Fill me in!

In the meantime, here are some teaser pics.  It was, and will for a very long time be, the very greatest day of my whole life.

All photos by David Barnes Photography