6 Months!

Today is our 6 month wedding anniversary! 

I am fully willing to admit that I have completely surprised myself and dorked out to the max over being married. To further establish my annoying newlywed status I bought my husband a 6 month anniversary present. This is completely out of character but I'm enjoying it immensely. I mean, getting married was the coolest thing I've ever done so I might as well wallow in the fun of it.

Though I do have a history of gifting him random things for no reason so maybe it's not so dorky to actually make up an occasion for it. 

Incase you care the gift was python straps to make our hammock camping adventures more fun. 

That's not the reason I'm writing this post though, I really just wanted to share our wedding photo album because I love it! Seems cheesy b/c you've seen most of the pictures in the recap I did here but hey, if I'm going to call myself an annoying newlywed I might as well live up to it. 

Our pictures came to me in the beginning of december and straight away I made one photo book for each of our parents to give as Christmas gifts. It was pretty easy considering that I was on a tight deadline, decision had to be made fast. I came up with a basic layout using blurb (which btw is super easy) and just switched out a few pictures here and there to personalize it. 

When it came time to do ours however I didn't have a deadline and therefore had all the time in the world to hem and haw over all the picture choices. I feel like this was a good thing though because it really gave me a chance to go through all the pictures and the 3rd and 4th time few I found some gems I'd completely overlooked on my previous picture browsing adventures.

My goal was to create a story with pictures that completely captured the events of the day and I feel like I did a pretty good job. So years from now going back and looking I'll be able to share the details of our wedding with someone who wasn't in attendance and really be able to show them how the whole day went down.

I love that we had such a casual event and I love that a great friend of mine was the person who captures it, it doesn't come off as staged or stuffy and the true spirit of the day really shines through.

I also feel like kind of a badass because I got this done in under 6 months which I've come to find out is quite the feat! 

The cover, I went with the hardcover option. 

Our invite.

One thing I wasn't thrilled about with was that on page 2 blurb takes the bottom part of your page and blocks it off so that they can put their own stuff there. In the books for our parents I had detail shots there but didn't really like how the text messed up the flow so for our book I added text from our ceremony and I thought it had a nicer look to it, it's also nice to have those words for always. 

Pictures from our big hat bitches brunch and getting ready pictures. I love that picture of my mom seeing me for the first time after hair and makeup, I'd missed this one the first few times through, her eyes are bugging out of her face and it's awesome.

Priceless mother and daughter getting ready shots. 

Sneaky sneaky first look.

Couple portraits. 

Some more first looks.

Walking down the aisle.

The hand off and the ceremony. 

We did it!

First married snuggles and kisses.

DIY details. 

Cake fight!!

Family portraits.

My parents. 

His parents. 

Siblings.

Dear friends. 

More friends & hanging out in the grass.

Hugs and booze.

Festivities.

People watching.

Our first dance.

Father daughter dance.

Mother son dance plus me being forced to dance again.

Dancing fools.

Mid reception photo shoot.

BBQ & speeches.

More speeches.

Play clothes.

The end.

The back, rather appropriate I think. ;)

It pays to have a handy husband

I have an entire board on pinterest dedicated just to shelves because I have kind of an obsession. I'm not the only one though because I can find plenty of pictures of people to pin and it ranks as one of my most followed boards. I also have one just for rooms made from closets, I am so weird.

Anyway, it didn't take long for me to stumble upon the idea of ladder shelves and though I recently talked about a vertical one I fell in love with at Ikea the house we currently live in is more suited towards a horizontal one. Check out the many options below.

A while back I rearranged our bedroom so there was room on either side of the bed, this was at The Beef's request because apparently starting your day by crawling over your significant others lifeless body is not idea. Going to the end of the bed was also an unpleasant experience due to a large elliptical that resides there. 

When the room was rearranged it suddenly opened up the possibilities for some wall space that I had previously only been kind of using. I decided a ladder would be perfect there. So one day when The Beef was bored but feeling handy he asked me for a project, I didn't have to hesitate for a moment and requested a ladder. The project was simple enough and it barely took an afternoon to complete. We didn't even need to leave the house for any of the necessary supplies. 

The next order of business was to stain it. I saw on pinterest that to age wood you could soak steel wool in vinegar for a few days to give it a grey color. I thought that might be a nice look. However it took me a few weeks to gather the supplies and then when I combined the ingredients I got sidetracked by life and let it sit for two long instead of the nice grey color I was hoping for I ended up with a rusty red. This was not what I wanted. 

Then I thought about it for a while and figured I should just leave it as it because this won't be our home for much longer and I'll be able to decide what color to stain in when we have a more permanant bedroom. Besides, I hadn't even figured out what to put on it yet.

Entering wedding planning and all other projects were completely thrown out the window. Though the ladder project was the first I wanted to tackle once the hoopla had died down because there was a ladder in my living room. But then I started a new job and the ladder moved to a less intrusive spot. However, the very night I finally got our wedding pictures I knew that this ladder would become my wedding shrine. I just had to go about plotting it out. 

Then Christmas happened which actually is what spurred me into action. A framed wedding photo of us given as a Christmas was what finally halted my procrastination. It was the same kind of fun frame I already had in my possession finally adding to the imagined symmetry I so desperately crave. Three more frames that were given as wedding frames added to the mix and I had the bulk of my shrine taken care of. 

Rounding out my frameaplooza were framed invitations from the wedding itself and the party a month later at my mothers house. From there all it took was one of our lanterns (I'd been dying to do SOMETHING with it) a tiny mason jar, a wrapped can and paper flowers from our center pieces finished it off nicely. 

Still something was off with the spacing, the project was finally completely mapped out when I got a hold of the decorative marriage certificate and a beautiful cross stitch my aunt did that she sent with our congrats on getting hitched card.

Tah-da!

My only hurdle then was to get it all up on the wall. This was a job for The Beef who wasn't home and would probably put it off for as long as I already had without the proper inspiration and since I'd finally gotten it all figured out I wanted it done NOW. So I hung it up, with a series of push pins and when I told him of my method he practically had a heart attack and put it up in a more secure way at once. Victory is mine!

It's a beautiful sight to wake up to every morning and I could not be happier with it. 

Wedding Recap Part 4

Most of the following was written a day or two after the wedding as I recaped the big event for some friends who couldn't get there and were dying for details. I am so glad that I did this right away because I really did forget almost everything that happened. When my photographer sent me the pictures I said a lot of "oh yeah, I forgot about that". It's amazing that the old cliche of it all being a blur is 100% true, and here I was thinking that I had been stopping to savor moments. Below you will find part 3 you can start with part 1 here, part 2 here and part 3 here.

The Beef has been having shirts with BT Customs printed on them for a while and we thought it only appropriate to incorporate that into the wedding. The shirts only come in a boxy man style so I altered mine to be a bit more fun. I cut open the top and laced it back together with black cord through the grommets I punched in. I based it off of this pin I found.

We had set up a photobooth in the garage that turned out to be a really big hit. It was somewhat more family friendly (aside from The Beefs step father who found the coconut bra) at the beginning of the shindig and slowly slid into madness as the night went out. End up with every single person left at the party cramming themselves into the frame.

And then The Beefs motorcycle made an appearance.

The Beef and I also rarely miss an opportunity for a good couples selfie and our wedding day was certainly no exception.

From there we had great fun making a fire, doing our own versions of horrible karaoke at the microphone, late night grilling, skipping around, singing, dancing and head banging.

The night ended with about 8 of us left in the back yard, my father in law included, just hanging out and laughing, it was all pretty perfect and I'm so glad it turned out just how we expected.

The End!

It was the best day of my life so far and I was really happy to find out in the following weeks how many people truly had an amazing time. We even heard a few "best wedding ever" because of the casual no pressure atmosphere that we created. 

Wedding Recap Part 3

Most of the following was written a day or two after the wedding as I recaped the big event for some friends who couldn't get there and were dying for details. I am so glad that I did this right away because I really did forget almost everything that happened. When my photographer sent me the pictures I said a lot of "oh yeah, I forgot about that". It's amazing that the old cliche of it all being a blur is 100% true, and here I was thinking that I had been stopping to savor moments. Below you will find part 3 you can start with part 1 here and part 2 here. 

At some point Katie decided to document the decorations that I created during the 3 month planning process. Starting with the centerpieces for the tables and the flags hanging across the yard.

The picnic basket for gifts and cards, the suitcase for the madlibs our guests filled out and the fingerprint guest book.

Eventually it was decided that it was time for cake, we thought we had everything set up and were ready to go until I looked around and realized I was sans groom. I felt like I might die a little as the crowd started to gather and I stood there alone very much the center of attention. To break my own awful tension I asked for volunteers for substitute grooms for the cake cutting but the Beef magically appeared before anyone stepped forward.

We'd had the "should I smash the cake" discussion before hand and we both said no thank you to getting cake smashed in our face. But I could see the beef wanted to smash cake in my face so I said please no and he asked me if I really wanted to smash cake in his face and I smiled, to which he replied, do what you want, you know they're expecting a show.

So we cut the cake and he picked up a slice and I could see him debating, trying to gage my reaction, before he could make a decision I leaned forward and bit the cake out of his hand because I'm a crafty ninja like that and of course I smashed some cake up in his face because I'm a brat. I did help him clean it off though.

Then it was time for dancing, we got our first dance in (Then by Brad Paisley) which was funny because we had to keep switching the directions we were spinning in as much alcohol had been consumed and someone was getting dizzy. I kept zoning in and out of being painfully aware of the crowd and focused on his face.

Then I danced with my father (I loved her first by Heartland) which turned me into a sobbing, white knuckled mess for a minute until we started chatting away about the world series of beer pong. 

The beef got a dance with his mother and heaven help us, by the next day we had forgotten which song. At this point the Revs  FIL, Greg, decided this was his chance to dance with me which took me by surprise and then he promptly passed me off for a dance with my new FIL.

 And then suddenly the music changed and The Beef and Greg were cutting a rug. They win for best dance moves.

Katie took a few moments to take advantage of our slightly intoxicated calmed nerves and threw us in the woods for a few more couple portraits.

And then came the moment I think my dad had secretly been waiting all day for. The giving of the speeches. I know he'd been working on his for a long time. I requested that there was a microphone present just for this occasion because I suspected he would bring his own if we didn't provide one. The speech he gave was so heartfelt that I was of coursed reduced to tears again and then laugher because he is ever the showman. 

 Up next was my father in law, who might be the coolest person on the face of the planet. He speech was off the cuff but no less special. At one point he had us close our eyes and listen to the crowd roar, it was a really cool moment. 

 And then we were handed the microphone and I tried my best to stay as far away from it as possible because public speaking is my nightmare.  The Beef was nearly as flustered and did his best to say thank you to everyone. I did the only thing I found appropriate at the moment. 

As it does the microphone ended up back in my fathers hands where he was interrupted by The Beef step-father. There is no need to mention what was said because a picture speaks 1000 words.

After that some of the crowd started to clear out and the party got a bit more rowdy. I went inside and changed into my after hours outfit.

To Be Continued...