Accessorize Me!

I am not the most stylish person ever. I know this.

I don’t think I typically am the worst dressed, but I really have a hard time accessorizing outfits. I can find a dress or an outfit that is cute and looks good, but I never know how to put jewelry or shoes with it.

As some of you might know, Mr. A’s best friend is getting married next month. He was the best man in our wedding and is like a brother to me.

A couple weeks ago, we met up with him for dinner and of course, the wedding came up. His family has quite a bit of money and I know that his older sister’s wedding was black tie and a VERY formal affair. I asked about the wedding and it turns out that they wanted to put “black tie” on the invitations, but her parents didn’t think that was a good idea. (Why, I have no idea since this is going to be a big and very nice wedding.)

As soon as he said that, I knew I needed a dress. I had one that I thought I would wear, but it just didn’t seem nice enough. I originally went shopping with the intent of finding a long dress, but all of them looked like prom dresses or entirely too casual maxi dresses. So instead I went with a nice shorter dress that falls right below my knees.

It looks really nice on and I thought with the right accessories, I could make it fancy enough.

This is the top of it. I love the ruffles around the neck and think it adds a fun detail.

So, this is where all of YOU come in!

I need some help. Remember, a fancy wedding at night. Also, Mr. A will be in a tux, so I need to look okay next to him.

I have some nice black peep-toe heels that I think I am going to wear. (I’d show a picture, but I left them at my mom’s so will need to pick them up from her.) I wore them when I was in a wedding as a bridesmaid and I think they will be perfect with the dress.

But I don’t know what to do for jewelry. I am considering hair styles along these lines:

  OR OR one of these

 

Unless, you think this concept wouldn’t look good with the dress? I thought since it is all ruffly around the neck, it would be good to have the hair up and I really like the low and to the side pinned buns. Also, I am getting my hair done at 11am. Wedding isn’t until 5pm and reception at 7pm. I need the hair to last ALL DAY on a hot June day. I have pretty thick hair and I know having it curled and down just won’t last more than an hour.

So that’s the hair question.

Now, for jewelry.

It is kind of low, but it isn’t ridiculous and the ruffles hide some of it.

I was thinking, with the hair style in mind, of doing big dangly earrings, skipping a necklace, but then doing a bracelet.

Yes? No?

And if so, what should the earrings/bracelet look like? Sparkly? Pearls? Black?

SEE?? I am helpless when it comes to this type of stuff. Not a clue.

So please. Help me.

And if my ideas suck, tell me, but then give me other ideas. And if you find pictures, feel free to e-mail them to me at newteacherwife@gmail.com because I need some serious help here! I can’t show up looking ridiculous when my husband will be looking sharp in a tux!

An Amazing Year

Today, I celebrate my very first (and only first) wedding anniversary.

I married my absolute best friend.

To this day, I still wouldn’t change anything about our wedding day. I get all smiley and nostalgic just thinking about that day.

It was a beautiful early summer day.  Blue skies. Warm, bordering on hot, weather, and all our friends and family surrounded us as we committed our lives to each other.

But that was a year ago. And believe me, A LOT has happened in this last year.

Those of you who have been reading since then, you’ve been following my journey and seen all the ups and downs.

There are times I think that we experienced more than other newlyweds, but then again, I think I just wasn’t expecting all the new challenges that were to come.

We moved to Ctown in July since Mr. A would be starting law school in August. This would be the first time we, as a couple, had a place. I had basically lived with him since January, but I still had my own apartment for those days when I was stressed or upset or just needed some space. But moving into a small two bedroom apartment kind of eliminates the chance for separate space.

This was also the first time Mr. A had moved away from his hometown. Since he attended undergrad in Mville, he had always lived close to his parents and family. Now, I’m in no way saying Mr. A wasn’t independent, but he was always used to having that family support system no more than 5 minutes away. When weather was rough, or he wanted a home cooked meal, or even just to do free laundry, he could always come home. So it was an adjustment for him as well.

Our relationship has always been strong. We talk about problems and we work through them. But poor Mr. A is kind of a neat freak and he just happened to marry a girl who was used to living out of duffel bags and was a little messy. Clothes in closets and drawers was a bit of a foreign concept to me. We had more roommate issues than anything. Cleaning up. Doing chores. Those kinds of things.

During all of this, I was looking for a teaching job. I had some experience, not much, but some. I had glowing recommendations. And I was eager and new and ready to work. Unfortunately, I graduated with an education degree at the worst possible time.

So I moved on. I figured, okay, teaching isn’t going to happen this year, but I’m smart and have a good resume, I will find another good job easily.

Yeah, not so much.

I was unemployed for nearly 5 months. It was a terrible 5 months. I won’t go into it all, you can read all those posts if you want, but it killed my self esteem and I was a wreck.

All the while, Mr. A started law school and could really have used a wife that was in a better state to be more supportive. I tried, and I was good at it at first, but quickly it all unraveled, and he was trying to keep me from falling apart.

I finally found a job, but not a good one. I was underemployed and working in retail, which is the worst possible job ever. (Might be exaggerating, but it’s definitely the worst job that I’ve ever had.) I was happy to be working again, but that quickly faded when I was being treated like crap. I have a new found respect for anyone working in retail and I am as nice as possible to all of them.

Mr. A then got pretty sick during his second semester of law school. This involved lots of doctor’s visits, 5 small surgeries, and one horrible night in the emergency room. Luckily, he is doing great now, but it was a lot to handle at the time, especially when he was still a first year law student.

Finally, he finished his first year. And not only finished, but has two truly amazing summer positions that will give him such fantastic experience and connections that I can’t even express in words how proud of him I am.

And while, yes, I am still currently working in retail, my last day will be in early July. And in August, I will start working on my M.A. in English literature. And not only that, the school has offered me a graduate assistantship that has me teaching two English 101 classes and in exchange, they pay for my graduate school. I am finally working my way back to being proud of myself and I cannot wait for this next chapter of my career to begin.

And through all of these ups and downs, my husband has been there for me. We have grown as a couple. We are closer and have learned to rely on each other. We support each other 100%. We stand by one another and give words of encouragement on those days that it seems impossible to keep going.

My husband is everything to me. And no, this doesn’t mean that I just do whatever he says or that I can’t have a life without him. Believe me, he will be the first to tell you that I do not give in easily or without a fight. And I’ve actually enjoyed having some time alone. Everyone needs time to themselves and I’m using this time to rejuvenate before the fall.

But I do miss him while he’s gone and I couldn’t be more excited to spend many many more years with him. And while this first year was a doozy, I think this next year will be great for us as we learn even more about each other and grow together as a couple.

Happy first anniversary to us. I think we will toast with a well deserved glass of champagne.

Attempted Hobby

***FIrst of all, I got LOTS of responses to yesterday’s post about Wal-Mart, both on the blog and on Twitter. I just want to point out that I don’t like supporting Wal-Mart. Not at All. I really dread every time I go there. However, we are in a tight financial budget and, unfortunately, they’re cheaper. BUT, after my last couple shopping trips there and how much I despise it, I’m trying to see if there’s a way to use coupons or store brands at Schnucks or maybe even Kroger to keep the price down without going into the zoo that is Wal-Mart. I feel I received a lot of strong opinions and I hope no one thinks I’m a huge supporter. I’m not. But I’m broke and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. And I’ve never been to a co-op and not sure what’s there, not there, cost or anything. Not even sure where one is here…*

 

Anyways, this is about my new little hobby.

For graduation and Christmas last year, Mr. A bought me a nice and new fancy camera.

My little Nikon Coolpix p100

I’ve never owned a fancy camera before. I had a digital one before, but it wasn’t very nice and it had terrible software which made it a complete pain in the ass to load pictures or do anything with it. And then I left it on a cab in Vegas. Yeah. My dad was thrilled about that one.

Even thought it was pricy, we had a lot of important events coming up that we wanted a good camera for. You know, like a wedding and a honeymoon. Those things.

So here I was with a new shiny camera and not a clue how to use it. I mean, I could take a picture, but not clue how to really frame pictures or do cool things I see other people doing or what the different settings were for. The pictures I took looked significantly better than the ones on my old crappy camera, but not to the level that this camera should be able to do. Completely user error.

Therefore, my little beauty hadn’t been getting the use that it should have been. Also, it’s a little bulky so I feel awkward taking it everywhere like I might if I had a little thin one. But I am determined to use this more.

I figured this past weekend would be the perfect opportunity to take my camera with me and play around some. Not only would I be in the woods and have pretty things to shoot, my dad is actually really good with a camera and I would have lots of time to ask him questions and have him show me things. As it turned out, both of my dad’s friends are also really good photographers, so I got hints from everyone. One guy has some intense lenses and takes pictures that I’ve seen being sold for hundreds of dollars. (I’m getting my dad to e-mail me a couple. I’ll post them as soon as I get them. And I will tell you which ones are his, even though you will be able to tell because his are gorgeous.)

I must say that I in now way think I’m all that good. This was my first time ever really playing with effects and settings. I’m not sure how to use lighting quite yet. I really want to take a photography class and friend M said I should see if a camera shop here in town has a class to take. I’m looking into it.

Mostly, and this will sound so lame to anyone who takes pictures, but I learned that a macro is used for close-ups. Confession? I thought that flower meant it was for nature pictures. Dumb. So, a lot of these are close-ups because I found it so fascinating the details I could capture. Also, my dad taught me how to take a close-up and then make the things around it blurry. I apologize that most of these will look similar. I learned something new and then kept going with it.

I also took like 12 pictures of my ring because I didn’t know about the macro, and until this weekend, had never been able to get a good picture of it. HA.

Super tiny flower.

I love my Chuck Taylors. Lameeee

Fun mushroom/fungi thing.

Close-up on some wheat

Yummy salad.

My brother’s sweet boots. I took pictures of everything.

I thought my brother’s vein-y hands were neat.

My brother has a Harley sportster. It’s pretty cool.

Up the tail pipe.

Why yes, my brother DOES have a sparkle blue helmet. No, he’s not gay. Promise.

Cool side mirror picture. Should have cleaned the mirror first. Oops. And my brother wears the bandana to keep his face from chapping. He’s not in a gang. Promise. I sure do a lot of defending for that kid… Too bad he’s a badass.

Oops. Got myself in that one. Not the point.

My camera even has a food setting. My dad found this amusing.

I want to see a bird that actually has a feather that looks like that.

Lonely leaf.

I really like this one of my brother playing guitar.

Beer of choice.

Barbed wire keeping out the nature.

Cool tree and I like how it’s framed against the blue sky.

So there ya go. I don’t have any photo editing software. I would love Photoshop, but it’s pricey. Does anyone know of any online or cheaper programs to use? Especially since I’m new to this. Not quite ready to invest too much money into a new thing just yet.

Also, if you have any tips or tricks or something, feel free to let me know. I love great photos and hope to learn to take some soon.

“I DO!”

We were stashed in the back. Mark, the owner of the gallery and wedding organizer, was a nazi about letting anyone see us. I had to sneak my friends back. Even though I didn’t have bridesmaids, I do have some wonderful girl friends and I wanted to see them. Chill out Mark.

(I can’t say much bad about him. He was wonderful. His staff was very professional and made the even fantastic. They loaded things and did extra to help out. TRULY great venue and people to work with.)

I was antsy, but not in a bad way. I just wanted this to get started. I was peeking as guests arrived. I’ve never been one to keep surprises well.

(All pictures from http://www.kellymannophotography.com/)

Me and some of my favorite girls

The Moms lighting the unity candles

Coming down the stairs. I was the only one to walk down these, so the guests were expecting me from another direction. A little wow factor, I guess.

We didn’t have a videographer or anything, but I wish we would have had one for one part int he ceremony. During the entire time the judge was talking to Mr. A and we were supposed to be listening intently and thinking about the importance of this ceremony and the marriage ahead, I was not. All I could think about was how I was going to say, “I Do.” That’s it. I have absolutely no recollection of what the judge said to Mr. A, how he said it, or what the judge said to me. No clue.

I kept thinking that I needed to say it loud enough for people to hear, without shouting, and with enthusiasm, but not dumb. I succeeded int he first, failed in the latter. I said, “I DO!” with all the energy of a rabid rabbit. It was loud and sounded so goofy. Everyone laughed and I got a little bit of the giggles going. I was embarrassed, but it was a cute moment and went along with the whole day as people kept telling me how happy, excited, and calm I looked and acted. I was marrying my best friend in the whole world. Why not be a little over-enthusiastic?

And we're married, folks!

About the cake....

HA! So. Cake cutting. Seems simple enough, right?

Wrong. Very very wrong. They should teach classes on this important step. I mean, all eyes are on you and cameras are flashing. you should be prepared.

Our cake had a ribbon around each layer. Our bakers didn’t leave a spot to pull the ribbon back, at least from what we saw, and you can’t really cut through ribbon with a cake cutter.  So, my mom gave me some instructions on how to do this. For some ridiculous reason, I thought I should cut first and feed Mr. A first.

Mr. A used to work at a bakery and considered going to culinary school. So logically, he should go first. This slipped my mind.

I had a heck of a time getting that first piece out. Everyone was watching and laughing, I turned about 12 shades of red and kept saying, “This is what Mom told me to do!” We finally got it out, but this picture shows how embarrassed I am and the husband enjoying the moment, not helping at all. Go figure.

The toasts were wonderful. Heartfelt, funny, and touching.

Everyone

Best. Band. Ever.

And I’m not just saying that because she was at our wedding. Her name is Kim Massie and she is truly fantastic. She is NOT a wedding band. We were her first wedding, actually. You can find her on YouTube. She’s got an amazing voice. She’ll sing Aretha Franklin then switch to Led Zepplin and it all sounds amazing. She’s funny and got the crown involved. LOVED her. So grateful of whatever strings my dad pulled to get her.

And we ran away to Mexico...

Well, not quite that dramatically, but you get the idea.

The wedding was perfect in every way and I would relive it as often as I could, if it were possible.

My advice: Marry your best friend. And never look back.

Wedding Pictures

Here they are finally. This will probably be a picture explosion.

I know I had a freak out over the pictures. And I wish there was more variety or some more “edgy” shots, but I have what I have and I do love them. So here they are.

The date was May 30th, 2010. It was hot. Maybe not hot if you were in shorts and a tank top, but throw on a wedding dress or a tux, and it was hot. Very hot.

(All pictures from http://www.kellymannophotography.com/)

This was the venue:

Some Fun Art

Ceremony

Bar-always important

Dinner Area with my favorite lanterns and black chairs

Mr. A and I decided to see each other before the wedding and do some of our wedding pictures beforehand. When we saw each other for the first time, it was just him, me, and the photographers. No one else. We exchanged our gifts and had a couple minutes with just us. I loved it. The rest of the day was so busy and with so many people around us, that those precious few minutes was the only chance we had alone.

It calmed both our nerves and I was able to just enjoy the rest of the day and not be a nervous wreck or trying to hide from him and all that. I would suggest it for everyone, but that’s just me.

Seeing him for the first time

First meeting...

Before I go on with these pictures, let me explain something. I’m pretty sure I was the anti-bride, as I’ve said before. I was just so freaking excited, that I had this goofy look on my face. Half the pictures have my mouth open because I was laughing and just goofing around. I was incredibly relaxed and just enjoyed the day. So when I look goofy and like a girl just playing in a wedding dress, that’s why.

Exchanging gifts. I got him a really nice watch and he got me the second band, so my rings were all centered...

***My engagement ring was part of a set, with the wedding band. I love it. But, but just one band, the engagement ring looked off center and I knew it would bug me immensely. We talked about getting the other band maybe for the one year anniversary, but when we started talking about wedding gifts, I convinced him to get the band as my gift. Yes, I knew my wedding gift. But if we were going to spend that much money, we both figured it be better that we KNOW the person would love it. Ruins some surprise, but I still loved it.

There's that hand on the hip. I thought it would make my arm look smaller. SO I guess I did it for nearly every picture. Why didn't the photographer warn me?

Close up of flowers from rwdesigns.com

We took our outdoor pictures here. I had more places planned, but since we did these before the ceremony, I didn't want everyone wilted and sweaty. Otherwise, we would have gotten into the fountain...

One of my favorites. We're just silly.

"Show some leg boys!!"

Everything in this picture is important to me. The little blue ring? That was my Grandma S’s ring. She passed away last year after her battle with ALS and I have always remembered this ring. My dad and my aunt decided I could have it and I wear it everyday on my right hand. It was also my something blue.  The gold ring? It was given to my mom by her mom, Grandma R. It’s also a mother daughter ring, and it was my something borrowed. The handkerchief wrapped around the stem was also my Grandma R’s. It was very special to my mom, and even though I didn’t get to know Grandma R as well before she passed, it was special to have as my something old.

Love.

I think I’ll stop here. These were the pictures leading up to the ceremony and reception. I wish I could relive everything about that day. I wouldn’t change a thing.

No more stalling

FINALLY! Some wedding posts. I think I thought (still think?) that if I keep it to myself, then I get to hold onto it longer. But at the same time, I want to share. Is that vain? I sure hope not.

I’ll do this a little backwards. I’m doing honeymoon before wedding pictures. Figured no point to post about the wedding and then have to do it again when wedding pictures were done. I got an e-mail that our wedding pictures are in, but since I do not live in the same city as the photographer, my mom is picking them up and  I will get them on Sunday when my mom comes and brings us our wedding gifts that are stashed in her basement at the moment. I tried to say she couldn’t look at them until Sunday, then we could look together, but she nixed that idea really quick. She says she paid for them, she gets to see them. Touche, Mom. Still bummed though.

But anyways.

View from our balcony.

We went to Mexico (in case you missed that somehow.) It was beautiful, but HOT. Now, before you say, “Mrs. A-it’s Mexico. What the heck did you expect?” I know this. I knew this. But the heat was something else.  When the workers say, “Man, it’s hot for this time of year.” That’s telling you something. We took about 5 showers a day…cold showers. I think I only took one warm shower the entire time because it was just too effing hot.

We LOVED our resort. (If you want to go to mexico and want to know which one, e-mail me and I’ll get you the info.) It was perfect. Granted, had we payed a FORTUNE more, we could have been at some super ritzy place, but this was INCREDIBLY nice and from reading reviews on trip advisor, had some of the best reviews, even compared to the others.

Our resort was basically 3 in 1. We stayed at C, but we could use any of the amenities/restaurants/bars-anything at both A and T. They were all connected and had little shuttles going between places. These were the 3 lobbies:

Fountain and statue in C.

All the lobbies were open, so no doors and you could usually feel the breeze blowing through. It was very nice.

All the lobbies had these awesome thatched roofs that were just very neat. They looked awesome.

(sorry it’s huge, but wanted to show the detail.)

The resident iguanas. They were EVERYWHERE. I had never seen an iguana in real life, not at a zoo, so it was crazy to see them everywhere. And some were gigantic, like this guy. He lived in the garden area outside our building. He had a wife and a mistress. He’d switch up which one he hung out with. And they loved bananas, so we gave them our bananas from the fruit basket as we left the resort. Probably not supposed to, but we enjoyed them so much that we had to. Mr. A tried to touch one. That was a no-go.

Our room.

The super wonderful jacuzzi tub. I frequented this about every night. Filled with cold water and it was so relaxing after 113 degree days!

The food was just delicious. The buffet was really good, but then the a la carte restaurants were to die for. I'm drooling now.

They had towel animals everyday for us. I was SO excited about these. I took pictures of all of them except 1. Can’t remember which I missed, but they were awesome! I couldn’t believe how good they were. The elephant and the sea turtle were my favorites. I love sea turtles, so it made my day since we couldn’t see any.

Elephant with flower that was in my hair at the wedding. They saw it on the dresser and used it. So cute.

When we arrived, we were greeted with these!

Sea turtle. Cute that they put it next to the figurine we had bought.

There were coconut trees everywhere on the resort and the beach. I loved it. I thought the clusters were fascinating and I probably have 30 pictures of them. I wanted to get one and open it, but Mr. A told me that might not be a good idea. One day I will.

Ever see the movie Emperor's New Groove? Remember the ball game? This is what it really looked like at the Mayan villages. They played to the death. Now that's some motivation.

This was the super crazy tall Mayan ruins we saw. At this point, we had already been ziplining in the jungle, rapelling 75 feet into an underwater cave, climbing back up those 75 feet, hiking through the jungle, and walking 2 miles to these ruins. I was completely wiped out. My original goal was to climb these ruins just to say I did, but I just couldn’t. I knew we still had a 2 mile walk back and I thought my legs were going to give out they were shaking to badly. (I also learned on this little adventure that you CAN sweat from EVERY. SINGLE. PORE. on your body. All of them. Legs, arms, back, stomach…everywhere. I’ve never been so drenched in sweat in my life.

So, long story short, I didn’t do it. I still wish I could have, but it just wasn’t going to happen. But Mr. A did. I took his picture at the bottom. I turned around to walk down to the log to sit on. I figured it would take him a little bit and I would take pictures of him along the way. I was wrong. Apparently I married a monkey. By the time I turned around at the seat, he was at the TOP.  Other people were saying, “Did you see that guy run up there???” And I missed it.

At the top. He said he looked down and got a little nervous. Ha.

Glorious. The beach was my favorite part. Living in the midwest, I never get to see the beach. Lake beaches are gross and the water is brown and you can’t see what is swimming around you. Icky. But this beach. I could live here. White sand that didn’t scald your feet. Crystal clear water. Cool breezes. Little cabanas. Beach bars. How soon can I go back? It was so clean and I just loved it here.

Pier

We're dorks.

Started reading this on recommendation of Life of a Doctor’s Wife. Really like it. Not finished, but getting there.

Heaven.

This cracked me up. In the U.S., we put tiny little labels about the dangers of smoking and that is could cause cancer. Nope. Not in Mexico. Huge letters and they just put it out there. This will kill you. No doubts. Good job Mexico.

Had this little guy in our room one day. Mr. A named him Intruder. I ran away until we got someone to get it out of our room.

Last night in Mexico before dinner.

Most expensive meal.

By the time it was time to go to the airport, Mr. A and I were kind of craving some “American” food. The resort food was excellent, but we wanted some cheeseburgers. So, we went to Margaritaville at the airport to get some food. I had a yummy margarita. Mr. had a Corona (which we could never get on the resort. It was strange.) And delicious food. But this is a chain. How much could two drinks, free chips, some guacamole, a burger, and a shrimp sandwich cost? We thought maybe about $50. It was the airport so they could charge a little more. Fine. $50 was worth it. Nope. $80. Yeah. That was our reaction.

No more airport meals for a while. Geeze.

It was a truly amazing trip. Mr. A and I finally got some quality time together. The last couple weeks leading up to the wedding were so hectic that we didn’t get any alone time or time to just relax. Finally, in another country, we were able to breathe and just enjoy being married.  We did have some bad news, but we made the best of it all and loved every minute. I would love to go back.

Off to dream about when we can finally return to our little paradise. In 3 years? Better start saving now.

Pre-wedding schtuff…

Life is being stubborn and apparently does not want to give me any time to blog about this sill little wedding. I work at a summer program and today we had a field trip to the water park. I usually only work mornings, but they needed people, so I went to the field trip as well. I ended up working a 10 hour day. I know many of you do this EVERY day (and more power to you and I think your commitment is honorable), but running around a water park all day, in heat advisory weather, is very tiring. So, at 8:35, all I want to do is go to bed since I’ve been up since 5:30, but I am forcing myself to stay up and stay in touch with all of you who are quickly becoming friends.

So….I’ve decided to break this up. If I tried to write one post…no one would ever finish it because I will probably want to relive every detail via the blog since I can’t really relive it. So a few little chunks to make it more manageable. I’ll throw in the day to day stuff as well.

I have also decided that I think I am going to show my face, but still keep the names out of it. That way, our names won’t be showing up anywhere…and, obviously, any pictures that I think might be taken as questionable…won’t be up. I think I knew this would happen once wedding pictures came out…oh well. (I just hope I don’t get any mean criticism…hah)

On to the pre -wedding stuff. I know I posted a couple pictures from the showers and bachelorette party. I’m pretty sure those have been covered, so I guess next would be rehearsal dinner. I wore this dress, in this color actually:

I loved the jewel blue color. And, a good problem to have I suppose, the dress was actually too big when I went to wear it that night. I really like it, so I’ll have it altered, but I was so annoyed when I tried it on and it was baggy…my mom told me to deal. Isn’t she sweet?

This is where we had dinner and rehearsal since we couldn’t get into our actual space until the day of the wedding:

Kind of a wonky aerial view, but you kind of get the idea. It had this neat old bar that was from prohibition with the big window behind it. They decorated all the tables and after dinner and all the teary-eyed speeches, we set up a little aisle to do our run through. The food was EXCELLENT and everyone had a great time.

Hello! Me at rehearsal dinner....all smiles!

I know I mentioned that my bridal party was not traditional at all. My brother was my “Man of Honor” and my best friend since 5th grade was my “Bride’s man”. It was wonderful. My best friend, A’s dad was the judge that officiated the wedding, so it was a whole family thing. A’s mom was a riot. She brought her big, professional looking camera, and took, literally, hundreds of pictures. She would walk up to everyone in the room, not knowing most of them, and get people to pose for pictures. She took a ton of candids and just captured everything. We appreciated it so much because all of us involved, such as myself and parents, we were too busy talking and being excited to think about pictures. She did this at the wedding also,  so it has been fun to have so many pictures to look at before all of the professional ones come in.

Just another shot from inside the restaurant.

So delicious

I know fried chicken doesn’t sound classy or something you would have at a rehearsal dinner, but once you tasted this stuff…you would understand. And the peach glazed pork chops? Heaven melting in your mouth. I might be drooling as we speak.

Lots of wine and other libations were consumed. It was wonderful. This pictures says it all….

Male bonding at the bar. Nothing else more natural.

My dad and Best Friend A….the comments are endless.

Tears were shed as my parents gave some pretty sentimental speeches. Mr. A was annoyed that I wrote 4 pages for my speech when we had just found out that we had to give a speech the day of. This translated into him speaking for about 45 seconds and I spoke for about 6 minutes. Yes, I ramble in real life too.

I headed to bed early, and woke my happy self up at 7am to start getting ready.

My mom kept asking me all these questions about how I felt and everything. At 7am, all I could feel was that it was too early for me to be up and people expecting a whole lot of excitement from me. I said, “It feels like prom right now. Lots of anticipation, but not a lot happening yet, so not sure it’s even real yet.” I kept thinking it wasn’t real or that it wasn’t really happening to me. It was all sort of surreal.

Nothing felt concrete until I got my hair done. When I saw my hair with the veil in it, I knew.

Me and my wedding day hairstylist

We headed to the gallery to start getting into the dress, but we were ahead of schedule. Does that happen to any other bride but me, because all I kept hearing about were brides showing up to their weddings an hour late. If I had been even 10 minutes late, I would very possibly had to have been committed because I would lose it. To waste time, I ran around like a 5 year old in a candy store because I had never seen our dinner space set up exactly as it was going to be and took some fun pictures…

I must have thought I was cool or something. Excitement does weird things...

This had all the table seatings, guest book, and where gifts were put. Had to crop out Mr. A, but the picture was taken about a week after we started dating, and to this day, is still our favorite of the two of us. I’m hoping some wedding pictures will top it.

It was finally time to put on the dress.

Mom hiding the laces to the back of my dress.

Funny story. I have a very nervous stomach. Any level of excitement/anxiety/nervousness and my stomach goes haywire. My brilliant mother, knowing this condition and my fear of this acting up after I was in my dress but also knowing I would need to eat, packed the best food possible. A plain ham sandwich, and by plain I mean two pieces of bread and a piece of ham, bottles of water, and some multi-grain Pringles. We had to get a picture of me eating in my dress before pictures. I sure do love food…ha!

And then I saw Mr. A….

Picture Tease

I know I said I would wedding/honeymoon blog Friday. Well, we went to our future hometown to go apartment shopping, which was more frustrating than anything, so no blogging. Yesterday I had a bridal shower to go to for the girl whose wedding I will be in, in July and the car died on me and Husband had to track down a truck and a trailer, drive 50 minutes to save me, and then haul the POS car home. Today…I just have no energy. Laundry and unpacking have done me in.

But, I will leave you with a few pictures and I promise to start blogging all of this tomorrow, including how much I hate apartment shopping. Also, probably going to have to have a serious conversation with myself as to whether or not I show pictures that show my face. I will probably give in, but I know the husband doesn’t want to be shown. He’s more private than I am.

Mr. A approves this photo

Speaking of private, here he is. He approved this one because you can’t see his face. I figured he’s going to have to make an appearance on this blog at some point, but we will start small.

Bar shot at rehearsal dinner

View from our balcony in Mexico

Lobby at our resort

Mayan ruins

The gorgeous beach at sunset

Upstairs at the gallery, where we had dinner. (Kelly Manno Photography)

Little snippets from the wedding. Love the one with both of our moms on the bottom. (Kelly Manno Photography)

Tomorrow’s to do list:

-more laundry (blah)

-finish unpacking ( might hate this more than laundry)

-online apartment research

-blog about this wedding stuff…I think I keep hesitating because once I blog about it all, it’s over. I would relive every moment of our wedding…it was perfect!

Goodnight everyone!

New Teacher. New Wife.

Pictures make up for no creativity

I have nothing new to say. I’m sure I will lose any readers if I keep rambling about this wedding in 26 days. (Shameless countdown…sorry.)

Did the seating chart. THAT was a beast and a half.

All of our fantastic dishes from our registry have been bought. So excited.

Closeup of the dishes, only in black instead of green

I love them. We registered at 3 stores. This was the only set that I liked. I think I’m picky. haha. We didn’t get china because my mom has some waiting for me. And I’ll never use it….

So, to make up for my lack of creativity, I bring you a post of pictures.

We will be at this glorious place in 28 days…

Lots of sun and places to walk around...and the beach

Can anyone tell that I am SOO ready to be on this beach???? I need out of the midwest for a while, and after going to the caribbean last summer on a cruise, I’ve gotten bit by the bug….the “I can’t afford this all the time, but it’s my honeymoon, so we’re going to Mexico” bug.

In the wedding spirit, I figured I would give a few details of our upcoming event. This is my bouquet, kind of. Very similar, but no pink. No pink anywhere. At times, I think I’m the anti-bride. It took me MONTHS to pick out flowers. And I’m not even exaggerating. I didn’t want roses, or pink, or red. I feel in love with these:

And they come in a bunch of colors, but they are one of the most expensive flowers you could pick. Of course. The girl who doesn’t like flowers falls in love with the sup expensive ones.

But then I saw the above bouquet and loved it. So that’s what we’re going with.

Also, wanted to mention to the bloggers that read my blog and those that I follow, that I truly appreciate any and all comments and the support and advice that I have received. Thank you very much. So many of you are going through similar situations and I have learned so much from reading your blogs.

New Teacher. New Wife.

The First Shower

This past weekend I had my first bridal shower. I was so very excited. I mean, we have been planning and planning since January 2009. That’s almost a year and a half of planning without anything happening. The whole wedding almost doesn’t seem real.

But, finally we had an event that says we’re getting close to the big day. I just still can’t imagine it. Did anyone else feel like that? I have a feeling it won’t REALLY hit me till the day of the wedding.

I mean, opening presents and not sharing the attention is different since I always share my birthday with my brother, but it’s still odd.

I know we’re only 33 days….

I’ll just stop analyzing now. I might drive myself nuts doing that.

I loved my cupcakes. Red velvet and the cute little flower decorations made them perfect for me!

Cute centerpieces that were then given to all the moms ( my mom, stepmom, and mother in law)

This shower at home was fairly small. All of my mom’s sisters and such live all over the place, so it is understood that they won’t be at a shower…and this goes for all the kids. My mom’s two best friends threw the shower and I loved it. I liked that I knew everyone there and I was so very appreciative of them coming to the shower.

My favorite gift from the shower was one we didn’t register for. My mom had a chenille blanket embroidered with my soon to be last name and our wedding date. The lettering was done in our wedding color. I love it. I am a HUGE fan of blankets so this was perfect and it’s the softest thing ever.My mom said she has had it for a year. She’s so sweet.

I thought I had more pictures that I wasn’t in, but I don’t. I’ll try to work on that.

Also, if you read a couple posts ago, still don’t know what to do about this bachelorette party this weekend. My good friend A (which I will be a bridesmaid for in July) is going to be out of town, so she won’t be going. She and I both feel awkward with these other girls because of everything that has happened. So no one to back me up.

Also, this is our ONLY free weekend between now and the wedding, and we would like to spend some time just relaxing and not having any other commitments. I think I’m leaning towards not going and then praying it doesn’t cause a huge blow up. I despise pointless drama.

See why I’m friends with guys? If this were a group of guys, I could say, “Hey, I can’t make it. Sorry, but I’ll see you at the wedding.” It would be over and no problem.

Oh, well.

I have another shower in two weeks, her wedding in three, and my bach party in 4. Very excited.

*New Teacher New Wife