I’m happy to announce that two of our wonderful friends, Caroline and Nick, recently got engaged! Caroline is the incredibly talented baker who generously made Peter’s and my wedding cake. Now it’s their turn to bask in pre-marital bliss. Aren’t they an adorable couple?
About a month ago, Nick emailed me asking if I could pass on everything I knew about the engagement ring that Caroline wanted. Naturally—us being girls—Caroline and I had already had several conversations about what she would like her ring to look like, especially since she lived through the process of Peter and I designing mine. So, I put together a rather extensive email outlining her preferences, including pictures and a little advice on proposing. I wasn’t trying to overstep my boundaries, I just knew that Caroline’s intensely logical mind would spot a proposal from a mile away.
Off my email went into cyberspace.
Nick quickly followed up thanking me. After exchanging a few more emails about the specifics we were done. So I sent one more email reiterating the importance of surprise and suggesting that he do something to throw her off. Nick thanked me nonchalantly.
The funny thing about boys is that sometimes you tell them things and they act as if they’re completely ignoring your input and then BAM! You find out that they were listening to you all along.
A couple days before Christmas Caroline called me yelling into the phone, “YOU KNEW!!! All this time you knew!”
“Knew what, exactly?” I asked.
What if he hasn’t asked her yet, but she somehow found out? I wasn’t going to be the one to confirm her suspicions!
But then she exclaimed, “We’re engaged!!!!” Peter and I jumped up and down in our kitchen, yelling with excitement for them. I’m sure out neighbors though we were crazy, but everybody’s crazy around the holidays!
When Caroline told me the story, I was really impressed with Nick. He did an amazing job planning the proposal. First of all, he threw her off by getting her a bunch of really nice running stuff that she asked for for Christmas. He made sure to exchange gifts with her days before Christmas, ensuring that she wouldn’t think that she was getting an engagement ring. Then, taking it a step further, rather than taking Caroline out to a romantic dinner or waiting until they were on vacation together, he asked her to go on a walk. When they arrived back at their apartment he asked her to close her eyes. A super-confused Caroline walked blindly into their apartment until she nearly tripped over their dog. When she opened her eyes she saw that their roommate had set up the apartment with flowers. Nick said a slew of nice things and then asked her to marry him! Peter and I couldn’t be happier for them! We look forward to several months of wedding planning, a beautiful wedding, and a life long friendship with them both!
The most time consuming DIY project that I did for the wedding was making our garland. The funny thing is that I don’t know if anyone else noticed it, but I’m really glad that I took the time to make it. Here it is in my absolute favorite wedding photo. (Look to the left of us, above where everyone is sitting.)
Do you see it hanging above the ceremony area? It looks so simple but I can’t tell you how many hours this thing took to make. It was definitely a labor of love. For weeks I looked like this.
Friends would come over and we’d have garland tutorials and drink wine.
Before the wedding we hung it along our walls so it wouldn’t tangle. Then, when we needed to bring it over for the wedding Peter shoved the whole thing in a bag and our poor friends spent hours untangling it. (Thanks again, Leanne and John!)
I still think it was worth it. I can see us using it as party decor someday. To me it just adds a certain extra festiveness to all our photos! Did you have any wedding DIY projects that took forever but turned out great?
The tutorial is here, if you’d like to make one of your own.
Us being married may seem like old news but yesterday Peter finally got his wedding ring!!! That’s right, more than three weeks after our wedding my husband’s wedding ring came in. We ordered it months before the ceremony from Kruger’s Jewelers in Austin. Peter and I were happy to support a local business and Larry, the man helping us assured us that it would only take two days for his ring to come in. And sure enough that’s about what happened. I think it took more than two days but it arrived pretty quickly. Except Larry measured Peter’s finger incorrectly and so the ring didn’t fit. So, he ordered the next size up and we were all confident that the ring would arrive in time. That is until time started ticking down and down. Peter and I started calling every single day and then finally the day before the wedding we showed up at the store. Larry was unapologetic that the ring hadn’t arrived, and quite frankly I was furious because of Kruger’s lack of customer service. So, after Larry suggested spitting on the ring that didn’t fit during the ceremony, I did the only thing I could think of and insisted that they lend us something that could work. In all of our photos Peter donned the substitute.
But now he has this!!
The ring is made of titanium. Peter likes the comfortable fit, light weight, and inexpensive price tage that comes along with titanium. There’s something about seeing him wear a wedding ring that strangely makes us both feel more married.
Here’s an action shot of him and the ring feeling frustrated while on the phone with Priceline.
Yes, I realize we should clean and pick up that tissue paper behind the couch. Actually, I think I’ll go do that right now!
I never loved or hated the idea of a garter. I knew that I didn’t want to do a garter toss, but I was never against the idea of wearing one for tradition’s sake. As the wedding approached I had no garter, no time to order something off of Etsy, and no take to make something extravagant. I also knew that the type of garter that I could buy at the craft store wasn’t for me. So, I went to Nordstrom and bought a simple lace headband.
I could’ve easily gone to the craft store and bought a bit of lace, but believe me, days before the wedding any amount of time that I could save seemed like a huge deal–and I already had to go to Nordstrom.
Because my thigh is not the size of my head, I took a needle and thread and tightly hand stitched the headband so that it would have a tighter fit.
My sewing was messy, but I was in a hurry and no one was going to examine the seam. On the day of the wedding it looked great. I added a couple of strips of fashion tape to ensure that it would stay put throughout the night and that was it.
Since we’re all so close, I’ll show you what it looked like.
I loved the simple and classic look. This would be great for a bride with a fitted dress who didn’t want the bulk of something more elaborate.
Did you wear a garter? What did it look like? Did you DIY or buy something you loved?
Peter and I learned a lot from planning our wedding. He likes to say that after the experience, his opinion of the human race will never recover. It sounds a little harsh, but in all seriousness the process was quite an eye-opener. Like many couples before us, Peter and I were shocked by the commercialization of the wedding industry. People try to take a beautiful occasion and use it to pressure you into spending more and more money. The worst vendor for this was our wedding planner. You can read about us hiring her here and you can read about her initially judging us for using friendors here, but I never would have imagined how poorly she would preform at our wedding reception.
I’m taking the review that I posted straight from Yelp and adding it here.
My husband and I hired Barbara Hearne of Barbara’s Brides as our wedding planner after interviewing several other coordinators. She reassured us that even as our “month of coordinator” she would be able to save us more money than we would spend hiring her. She told us stories of other budget brides with whom she worked and ways that she helped them achieve their dream wedding. She never seemed overly friendly, but at the time she seemed experienced and dedicated to doing a good job.
Post-wedding I can tell you that hiring her was the biggest mistake that we made. She never saved us a single penny, degraded us for our budget (which she supported upfront), refused to be flexible, was unable to tackle situations creatively, and delivered the promises in her contract poorly, if at all. Trying to be fair, we contacted her with our complaints after we returned from our honeymoon. Rather than answering in a professional manner, Barbara was belligerent, refused to take responsibility for anything, and then took it upon herself to list everything from our wedding that she didn’t like, most of which had nothing to do with her executing her job as a planner.
I can honestly tell you that her lack of professionalism and inability to plan an event ruined our reception. I could go on and on about the ways in which she failed to deliver, but my advice for anyone planning an event is to stay far away from Barbara’s Brides. We have since reported her to the Better Business Bureau. I only hope that future couples can enter into a contract and receive the quality service that they deserve.
And because that was a bit of a downer for the day, here’s a picture of the two of us the night before the wedding. (We decided to open a couple of presents like we do on Christmas Eve before Peter left for the night.)
