Category Archives: weddings

by | May 1, 2013 · 12:00 pm

Lows & Highs: 4/17-4/30/13

Lows:
1) I started drafting a tentative schedule for the day of the wedding and it looked like I would have to start getting ready at 6:30 a.m. (which seems far too early).  Brian and I talked about what truly matters to us on the schedule, though, and pared it down so I can start at seven. I know it is only 30 minutes later, but it seems much more reasonable in my mind.

2) I went clothes shopping by myself, spent hours trying on lots of stuff, and did not find garments that fit well. I finally stopped for a hazelnut Americano and a blueberry scone when I realized I was tired, frustrated, and hungry. I felt much better after that.

Highs:
1) Brian and I met up with our good friends, Jon and Priscilla, for dinner and our last scheduled premarital counseling meeting before the wedding. (Jon is going to be our officiant.) Since we had not seen them in weeks, we had a good visit with lots of catching up on plans and travels.

2) I went shopping for wedding and reception decor and found everything I was looking for that day at very reasonable prices!

3) I tried on my wedding dress for my first fitting and it looked even better than I remembered! In addition, jewelry I already have looks terrific with it.

What were your lows and highs from the past week?

Lows & Highs is a Stories from the Stairs weekly feature. Feel free to join in by posting your lows and highs in the comments or by posting a link to your lows and highs blog post.

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by | April 24, 2013 · 12:00 pm

Lows & Highs: 4/17-4/23/13

Low: By the end of the day on Saturday, I felt as stuffed as if I had spent the whole day gorging on delicious food (which is true!). That is not much of a low but it is what I have!

Highs:
1) With the help of our mom, my sister planned and hosted the best wedding shower I have ever attended. (And I am not just saying that because it was mine!) She took all my “It would be fun if…” suggestions and blended them with her creativity to make a fun, laid-back shower. We invited ladies of all ages and let the youngest girls volunteer to be models for the toilet paper wedding dress game. I am not sure whether they had more fun letting us older ladies dress them up or tearing off the toilet paper at the end! We had delicious brunch food and a coffee/tea bar with my favorite homemade gingerbread syrup, too.
Shower1Collage
2) On Saturday afternoon, our group of five girls met up for coffee since the three out-of-towners were here for the shower. (We have been close since we were in senior high girls Bible study together). We caught up on new details and enthusiastically chatted about weddings, babies, pregnancy, husbands, and whether it is easier to parent boys or girls. (So far there are three sons in our group with another expected in May, so none of us really know.)

5 Girls April 2013

What were your lows and highs from the past week?

Lows & Highs is a Stories from the Stairs weekly feature. Feel free to join in by posting your lows and highs in the comments or by posting a link to your lows and highs blog post.

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by | April 18, 2013 · 6:00 am

Simple, Summery, & Fun

Wedding Planning2

Have you ever planned a wedding? Boy, can it be a lot of work!

I have attended, helped plan, and bridesmaid-ed lots of weddings, so I’ve seen how much work wedding planning can be. Now that we are planning our own wedding, Brian and I have a philosophy that the important thing is the two of us committing to each other before God and the rest is just a party with people who care about us.

We want to enjoy our brief season of being engaged and to spend the majority of our time preparing for a lifetime of marriage instead of for a one-day wedding.

Early in planning, I told him, “I think we need to communicate clearly about what’s important to each of us. If neither one of us has a strong opinion about something, we should pick the simplest, least expensive option or eliminate it altogether. Like, if neither of us care what kind of mints we have at the reception, maybe we shouldn’t have mints.”

“I agree and I don’t really care about mints.”

“Okay, bad example. I care and we’re having cream cheese mints.”

For some reason, he laughed really hard.

We still laugh about that conversation, but it greatly simplified the planning. For example:

  • Our theme (wedding themes are trendy, right?) is simple, summery, and fun.
  • Decorations will be cute but minimal and I will probably delegate them to friends who are better at it than I am.
  • We are having an afternoon wedding because more people will be able to make it a day trip.
  • Plus, a cake reception lets us include more people on our budget than a dinner. (We are going to have a light lunch of party subs and chips and fruit with our family and wedding party between photos and the ceremony, though.)
  • We made our guest list in a spreadsheet so we (read: my mom) could do a mail merge to print address labels with minimal effort. The invitations do not require any folding or assembling, so we will just stick them in envelopes.
  • We chose music we like but that is not particularly traditional for weddings.
  • We will have our favorite cake flavors (lemon and red velvet) and some of our favorite drinks (iced tea and peach Italian soda).

Do you have any ideas for simplified wedding planning?

If you need a fun, talented photographer in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area, check out Keri (she didn’t ask me to say that). She is our engagement/wedding photographer and I really like her!

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by | February 22, 2013 · 11:29 am

Engagement Party

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Brian’s aunt and uncle hosted a lovely, fun engagement party for us. We were able to introduce several of our family and relatives for the first time and everyone seemed to have a terrific time!

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by | February 20, 2013 · 6:00 am

Lows & Highs: 2/13-2/20/13

Low
I had an intense headache that started around noon on Sunday and worsened as we posed for engagement pictures. It reached its worst as I drove home from our weekend celebrations. It finally abated a bit when I took a power nap in my car when I stopped to run some errands.

Highs
1) I enjoyed the way people enthusiastically participated in Brian’s birthday surprise.
2) Brian’s aunt and uncle hosted a lovely and fun engagement party for us. The food was delicious and I enjoyed seeing some of our family members meet and interact for the first time.
3) On Sunday afternoon, the weather was sunny and over 60, which made our outdoor engagement photo session much nicer than it could have been in February! Our photographer is sweet and energetic and creative and took some terrific pictures.

What were your lows and highs from the past week?

Lows & Highs is a Stories from the Stairs weekly feature. Feel free to join in by posting your lows and highs in the comments or by posting a link to your lows and highs blog post.

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by | November 2, 2012 · 9:00 am

A Baby, A Wedding, & A PSA*

The past week – really most of October - held one major milestone after another.

I met Eli, my nephew, for the first time last weekend. Meeting my first nephew or niece is a milestone I have been looking forward to for years and I loved every minute!

In my head, I know no one is perfect but this boy is pretty darn close. He is pretty content as long as he can have one hand up by his face.

I also celebrated the wedding of two dear friends last week. I am thrilled for them, especially since I will get to see Veronica more now that we live in the same town!

This sweet girl is one of my favorite young friends. Her dad was my youth pastor in high school and her mom led the senior high girls’ Bible study. They live in Georgia now, so I don’t get to see them as often as I would like but we sat together at the reception and hit the dance floor for all sorts of fun!

Not a milestone but I did snap this photo of a brown recluse spider stuck in my bathroom sink. Note the violin-shaped spot on its back? That is how you can tell it is a brown recluse. They are poisonous to humans and should be avoided. If you are bitten by one, seek medical attention right away. This concludes the “big sister PSA” portion of Insta-Friday. Thank you and have a good weekend!

Question for you: What would you like to advise/warn people about? Post your own PSA in the comments.

*PSA stands for Public Service Announcement.

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by | October 28, 2012 · 10:15 pm

31 Days of Random Questions – Day 28

I really thought I had today’s post all written and scheduled to post at 6:00 a.m… It has been a busy weekend with meeting my nephew for the first time, partying at a wedding (where I saw no bouquet throwing!), taking a four-hour road trip, and catching up with two different friends. I have had a marvelous time! Bonus question: How was your weekend?

Actual question I intended for Day 28: What is one smell that brings back a childhood memory?

The smell of coconut reminds me of sunscreen and summer and swimming at the lake or pool. As far as I remember, all sunscreen smelled like coconut in the 80′s and early 90′s. To this day, that olfactory trigger is why I avoid coconut-flavored drinks. They taste the way sunscreen smelled.

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by | October 12, 2012 · 6:00 am

31 Days of Random Questions – Day 12

What is a song that always makes you smile?
Built to Last by Heartland; it has a pretty melody and the lyrics remind me of my grandparents who will celebrate their 65-year anniversary in November. The chorus goes:


Here’s to the makers of things built to last
Like church bells and bridges, and baseball on grass
Like Ferguson tractors and Lucchese boots
My daddy’s old tools I still use
The pledge of allegiance, the stars and the stripes
The words in the Bible, the sun in the sky
And here’s to the twinkle in old married eyes
Still there after fifty years past
Here’s to the makers of things built to last

Lyrics from: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/heartland/builttolast.html

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by | October 4, 2012 · 6:00 am

31 Days of Random Questions – Day 4

What rule or tradition do you think people should stop following?
People should stop doing the bouquet and garter toss at wedding receptions. As far as I can tell, the majority of single people would prefer not to emphasize their singleness by standing in front of all the guests and trying to catch something thrown at them.

Note: If I was in your wedding party, I cheerfully joined in the bouquet toss because it was important to you on your special day. If I was not in your wedding party, I probably hid during that particular photo moment unless someone noticed and dragged me along with them.

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by | September 21, 2012 · 9:48 am

Insta-Friday

I like my coffee nice and hot, so I set my mug on a warming plate when I’m at work. Occasionally someone visiting my office will notice and say, “You put your coffee on your candle warmer? That is such a good idea!” Am I the only one who remembers when these were marketed as mug warmers in the 90s?

Recently, my family congregated for my cousin’s wedding dinner. The weekend before, I heard my mom tell my youngest brother, “Now, just because the dinner will be outside doesn’t mean it is casual. Dress for a wedding.” This photo tells you two things about Ben: First, he listened to his mom. Second, he cleans up well.

At the wedding dinner, I wanted a photo with my grandparents but Grandma hates having her picture taken. As someone across the table told us to smile, she protested, “Oh, no, no!” shaking her head vigorously. I turned to her and smiled firmly, “Grandma, I want a picture with my grandparents.”

“Well, OK then.” This is as close as she gets to smiling in photos.


I occasionally play Draw Something and, while I’m no artist, sometimes I crack myself up.


life rearranged

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