A year ago....

I married my best friend! Currently, that said best friend is in NYC and I miss him terribly. (Charlotte and I both cannot sleep very well when he's not around). This morning, when I got out of the shower and grabbed my towel a red envelope fell from my towel. So sweet :)

Here are some things I've learned about marriage our first year, I guess you could say they are true Newlywedisms:

1. 2x the income is great! However, it takes time to get on the same page financially (we are finally there and it feels great).
2. Marriage can be both the easiest and hardest thing to ever go through. I'll hold nothing back - sometimes I can't stand him!!
3. The best conversations happen after the tv goes off and before we fall asleep. I really cherish those moments.
4. No matter how bitchy I can get, he still puts up with me. I don't know how he does it!
5. I'm not sure if he always thinks what I say is interesting, but he always makes me feel that way :)
6. Why don't people have a name for the weight you gain post wedding, like the freshman 15?
7. Just because we are married, it doesn't mean want kids anytime soon. So stop asking me when we will start to procreate! Ask me again in 5 years. This is especially directed to strangers and co-workers.
8. I know someday, a long time from now, we'll look back and laugh about how incredibly poor we were, but it being some of the best times in our lives. I try to think about that when I get jealous of fancy cars and nice vacations.
9. I'd much rather lay at home on the couch with my husband than go out any day.
10. And last but not least, this year went by SOOO fast! I know in a blink of an eye it will be our 5 year, then our 10 year, then our 25 year....

And finally, our Pro Pictures by the talented photographer Michael Norwood:

Getting Ready


Pictures Before the Ceremony


The Ceremony


Pictures After the Ceremony


The Reception


Details (includes a couple non-pro pics)


Also, click here to view our wedding video! It's an incomplete version, but you get the idea :)






I love you, Matt!!!

Wedding Week: Rehearsal Dinner

At the actual Rehearsal, it was freezing! I was stressed because the weather was cloudy and cold - thank god it was nothing like that on our wedding day!


Practicing this was surreal... did I mention it was humid too?



Our Rehearsal Dinner was the best ever - casual, low key. Just a great night with family and friends. My in-laws hosted it in their home and cooked some great Italian food. They have a great backyard and it was the perfect weather and setting!





The party was well equipped with a So Co & lime machine and Jager machine compliments of Matt's bachelor brother. Tacky? Perhaps. But definitely a hit!


The food was great!


The soon-to-be husband and my parents, doesn't he look good and happy? Good!


My grandparents


My brothers and I


My family (dad's side)


Me and the parentals.


My cousin (bridesmaid) and I


One of my favorite parts - giving out the gifts. In this picture you can see we did pictures of all my grandparents on their wedding day with a picture of us. It was sentimental, and inexpensive.

Where's Matt's family? Unfortunately I only have copies of pictures my mom took.

All in all it was a great night! I wouldn't have wanted it any different!

Wedding Week: Details and Gifts

Our wedding took place in the tree-covered foothills here in Southern Cal, I went with a tree theme for all of our wedding details. Okay, on to the details! There were so many great detail inspirations that I found in my year+ of wedding planning; here are the inspirations and what I came up with!

Invites
Here are the Save The Dates - I used old images of our wedding location back when it was used as a community theater in the 1930s (it's currently a historic site):





I put my Advertising major skills to good use and created our invites from scratch, with inspiration from another style I've seen (which would have cost us thousands of dollars). I saved thousands and designed/printed our own invite for less than $500.













Table Numbers
I drew numbers on old vintage European postcards





Guest Book
I also used the old vintage postcards for people to sign as the guestbook - they put them in the vintage glass mini greenhouse, and I still have them in there in our Master Bedroom!


See the vase with flowers? Those are pens! I made them with floral tape and fake flowers.


Favors
I used the same candy apple vendor as this one pictured, and I loved the idea of the monogrammed tag. (credit: theknot.com's pootiekins)



Here are the tags I created for our candy apples:



**check back for the non-pro and pro-pics for more detail shots!**

Gifts
I wanted the bridesmaids gifts to fit the theme, but also be function and something they could use past the wedding date. I decided on a Sephora gift card, make-up bag, pashmina, candle and wine glass (some of my favorite things!)


For the moms we did white pashminas and also a travel jewelry case from Tiffany's




The guys got a variety of different gifts, all coordinating with their likes and personalities.

Coming up tomorrow, rehearsal dinner pictures!

Wedding Week: The Dress, Hair, Makeup and Rings

Whenever I imagined my wedding, I always imagined what any girl did - a big, poofy white tulle explosion. When I actually started searching for the dress - I tried on some fitted dresses for the heck of it. I never thought I could squeeze my rather large hips into a tight fitting dress.

Boy was I wrong. I fell in love with the "womanly" silhouette it created, and I knew I had "the dress". I did have second doubts (like does my ass look too huge???), but finally I realized why I feel in love with the dress in the first place - why hide the curves? I embraced them!

Here I am at my last dress fitting - can you see the happiness radiate?





I loooooved the bustle! and it held up to a night full of dancing!



Next up - the hair. I wanted a romantic up-do to go with my romantic dress, and went for a hair trial:




I felt it was a little too formal - it was our wedding, but since I am usually so casual in my everyday life, I wanted to be a bit more casual for the wedding. Closer to the actual wedding I decided to go for ONE more hair trial, and I'm so glad I did! I decided on this:



Now for make-up... I found an amazing make-up artist and she got it spot on the first time. I am surprised at what type of magic she could do!



Now for the rings. Matt did SUCH a great job on the engagement ring. Completely goofing around, Matt, his mom and I were running errands one day and stopped at a jewelry store with his mom. While we were waiting for one of her errands to be done, his mom said, Let's try on rings! While I tried on dozens, I had a favorite, and without saying a word to Matt about it, Matt went back and bought it.

While in Dallas visiting my parents, I found the wedding ring. I think it's special that his mom was with us when he found the engagement ring, and my mom was with us when we found the wedding ring.



And his handsome ring:

Wedding Week: Decor Inspiration

It's exactly one week until our 1st Anniversary, so I'm going to post pictures from our wedding every day until September 29, 2008! I can't believe it's been a year already, and I'm excited to relive it all over again with this blog feature.

Today I'm going to post all the pictures I gathered for inspiration for our big day. First, I picked our colors:


I first chose a deep, dark red because it's the color of our Alma Mater, University of Oklahoma and perfect for a fall wedding. Then I picked brown for the earthy/rustic feel. I didn't want the red to overpower people, so I choose beige and ivory for the ceremony and kept the red only for the reception.

These images were my inspiration for outside/the ceremony:









And my inside/reception inspiration pictures:








So here's what's in store for the next 7 days:

Today/Day 1: Decor Inspiration
Day 2: Dress, Hair/Makeup, Rings
Day 3: Details/Gifts
Day 4: Rehearsal Dinner
Day 5: Honeymoon
Day 6: Non-pro pictures
Day 7: Pro pictures

Be sure to check back! (I'll also be doing some regular posts, also).