This weekend I was maid of honor in my dear friend Caroline’s wedding! I wore this dress and we all looked fabulous. (Of course Caroline looked the most fabulous of all.) On the way to the church she was a bit nervous so we all sang Going to the Chapel of Love over and over again. It was really fun and very sweet. I would post a video, but she’d probably kill me. I don’t have any pictures to share yest, but when I do, I will definitely post them. Instead here’s an adorable scratch off save the date from Martha.
You can find the instructions here. If I were planning a party that needed save the dates, I would definitely consider this idea! So adorable.
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!
Peter and I returned to Austin just before our blogiversary (the 19th) and have been doing nothing but playing catch up ever since. Each day I feel like I accomplish a million things, then I look down at my to do list and I see a million more. I guess this means I’m an adult. Hopefully, it just means I’m busy.
The drive home from Chicago is one that we’ve done before (Can you believe that we bought our car exactly a year ago and have since put more than 20,000 miles on it?!), but this time Peter and I were both swearing that we will never do it again. A late night flight from New York to Chicago the night before we left added a lot of exhaustion onto the trip. Then, on the second day of driving we got a a flat tire. It was a horrible experience, but we learned a lot from it.
We pulled past the Texas border, cheering because we knew we would be home soon–when all of a sudden our tire pressure light came on. After inflating the tires and then watching the light come back on, we suspected we had hit something. Sure enough a huge nail was lodged into our back tire. Peter wanted to drive the rest of the way of the way home, but I knew it would be a better idea for us to stop at the Honda dealership and get a replacement. Luckily, it was the middle of the day and we were sure we had all the time in the world. Only, when we got to the Honda Dealership the parts guys were telling us they didn’t have a tire that would fit our car. “Okay, no problem,” we thought, “we’ll just head over to the Discount Tire.” Before this trip I thought a tire was a tire and you could get them anywhere, but apparently our 2009 Honda Fit has a very rare sized tire and after spending hours searching for one, we were desperate and didn’t know what to do. We also learned that you’re only supposed to drive 60 miles on a spare, so Peter’s original idea to drive home was out of the picture. We were pulled over at a gas station using the GPS and my iphone to search for places that might have a replacement tire. Out of ideas, we went to Target and Peter bought a bottle of green goo called Slime that was supposed to fix our tire.
{via}
Right as he started getting out the original tire, it started pouring. The dogs and I stayed huddled in the car while Peter pulled out everything that was packed on top of the tire storage area. (I think he packed and unpacked the car 20 times that day.) The rain only added to his frustration and after a very long twenty minutes he knew the tire was destroyed beyond repair. We were out of options and somehow the afternoon had vanished and it was already 6:50 PM. We knew we weren’t going to make it home that day, so we called one of our fabulous friends and she and her boyfriend graciously let us stay at her house. In the next ten minutes we called every dealership in town and eventually located one that had a tire that could work.
The next day we arrived at the dealership, only to discover that the Slime had ruined the computer system in our car that measures the tire pressure, so it had to be replaced. A few hours later, we were finally on the road.
If and when we have to take another long journey, Peter and I will be buying another full tire before we go. Here are a few takeaways from our experience:
1.) Find out if you have a rare tire size before you go on a long car journey. If so, prepare accordingly.
2.) Don’t drive more than 60 miles on a spare.
3.) Slime destroyed the sensors in our car, use caution when using a product like this if you have pressure sensors in your tires. (It also voids the warranty on your tires, if you have one.)
4.) Good friends are hard to come by, but Peter and I are so lucky that we have some who will drop everything, go to dinner with us and drink wine and watch a movie, even on a work night. Thanks again, Caroline and Nick 
