A Review of My Wedding: What the Hubs Wore

Looking through the photos, there are not too many itemizing the different things hubs wore.  I don't think most men spend as much time picking out their tuxes as women do picking out their dresses.  However, I think that hubby's suit was a bit special.  He'd never had a suit before in his life.  He'd never actually owned any pants that weren't jeans and shoes that weren't boots or flipflops.

My dad decided that as part of his gift he was going to take hubs out to Men's Warehouse and buy him a new suit for the wedding (we decided on a suit and not a formal tux).  It was the nicest thing ever - and hubs was really touched that someone would do something like that for him.

My dad ended up buying him TWO suits!  Plus two shirts, two ties, 3 pairs of socks, and dress shoes.  Yes, it was an expensive shopping spree.  My dad then spent the rest of his time here (they live 10 hours away and were here for my bridal shower, niece's bday, and hubby's arrival) trying to teach hubs how to tie his tie.  As you can see by the pics - hubs didn't figure it out completely.  My dad was more than happy to help him get it right for his big day.

I know I'm a bit biased, but I think hubs looked especially handsome the day of the wedding....

A Review of My Wedding: What I Wore

I blogged about wedding dress shopping on my other blog, 365 Days of Happiness, because shopping for wedding dresses is always a spot of happiness.  However, I only posted photos of the dresses I didn't buy.  Here's the dress I did buy:

I love it, of course - that's why I bought it.  It's a Maggie Sottero and was called Ireland.  It actually looks kind of Irish, or like what you might wear if you got married in Ireland.  I always swore I wouldn't get married in a strapless dress and although I LOVED this dress, I did feel like it was falling down all night.  Luckily it didn't.  It was a pretty simple dress with beautiful crystal and an empire waist.

Now - it looks kinda easy to put on - but don't be fooled.  There were like 100 buttons that had to be buttoned.  And I was a bit demanding - making my bridesmaids help me put it on, then unbutton it all and tie the corset tighter, then after the ceremony I made them do it again.  Hey - I didn't want a wardrobe malfunction on my wedding night!!

Please don't say anything about my fat hanging over the back of the dress.  I was not compelled to work out much before my big day.
Here's what it looked like all put on:

Notice my bridesmaid STILL button the buttons....

As for my shoes - I decided to go with a non-traditional color of blue.  I posted a pick of my wedding shoes on my other blog so I won't bore you with them too much.  I loved them though and if I were more fashionable I would probably wear them more often.

And now for our rings.  For pretty much my entire life I have not really understood the desire to buy real diamonds and gems.  I've done just fine with fake stuff.  My engagement ring, being bought in Honduras, is thin gold with cubic zirconia or something.  To tell you the truth, no one notices.  People compliment me on it all the time and talk about how much money my husband must have spent on it.  Only I know the truth - and him.  For our wedding rings I saw no point in spending thousands of dollars that we didn't have on a piece of metal to put on my finger (I know, I'm so romantic).  Especially since I've lost my engagement ring three times and two of those times I never found it and it had to be replaced.  So, going with my past follies, I knew it was a bad idea to invest so much money on something so easily lost.  However, I actually love the rings we bought.  It was a crazy night because we waited until the very last minute (a week before the wedding) to stop by Sears and search out the rings.  I pretty much had to take the only ring they had in my size because we didn't have time to order one.  Hubs actually found one he really liked and since his fingers are normal size (and not toothpicks like mine), his size was always available.  But although it doesn't sound romantic, it feels as special as a ring with diamonds and white gold that we designed ourselves and ordered at Edward Arthur Jewelry.

No matter what the cost, a wedding ring is as special as they come.  I loved everything I wore on my wedding day - I've never felt so beautiful and done up in my life.

A Review of My Wedding: Table Tents, Guest Trees, and More

This was one of my most special and amazing parts of my wedding:

Our Guest Tree.

I had been browsing wedding blogs in my spare time and found a picture of a guest tree.

Instead of signing names, guests put a thumbprint on a tree and signed there name above their print.

I LOVED IT!!

However, I don't draw and don't know anyone who does.

At least in real life.

However, my bloggie friend Shellbell from Chapped Lips and All is an amazing artist.

So, although I wasn't sure she'd do it or how much it would cost,

I sent her an email and asked if there was any way I could commission her to paint me a guest tree.

And because she's SOO amazing, she offered to do it for free.  And mail it for free.

As a wedding gift.

Except I had never even met her so she didn't have any reason to send me a gift.

Except that she's amazing and the nicest person ever.

I couldn't have ever imagined a better tree.  It was PERFECT.

And everyone loved the idea.

And now we have it framed and look at it all the time.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you Shellbell.

These were my table tents.  I wanted to keep as many things homemade and Vermontish rather than professional and expensive-looking.  My mom found this drawing on a coaster from a Vermont artist and we copied the image (of a maple sugar house, of course) onto table tent cards. 

My bridesmaid Sarah and I wrote the table assignments and names on each card...

the night before the wedding!

Talk about last minute.

And something even funnier?

I missed Table 2 - so there was only Table 1, and then Tables 3-7.

Yeah - whoops!!

And this was my little welcome table.  You can see the beautiful Guest Tree before people thumbprinted it, and the lysol whipes to clean their little thumbs.  Also, on the top of the little mountain is the instructions for the guest tree - made my my wonderful aunt.

I loved the little table all set up.

So pretty.

I couldn't have done this without Shellbell, my aunt, my amazing mom, my dad (he printed out all the little tents) and Sarah.

Thank you!!!

A Review of My Wedding: The Church

Every since I thought about marrying my hubs, I envisioned us getting married in the Catholic church.  I was raised Catholic and although I stopped going to church regularly in high school, I still think of myself as Catholic.  And I still felt like to be really married I needed to be married in the church.

Well, apparently the Church didn't really want that.  Since I was getting married in Vermont, I spoke with the priest at the church close to my parents house.  He wasn't too interested in marrying us.  The Catholic church requires that couples wanting to get married attend marriage classes, meet with the priest, and pass a compatability test.  Hubs and I had less than three months between his arrival and our marriage and the priest just didn't think there was enough time.  There were many stumbling blocks, like hubs not being baptized, not speaking English, etc.  I think maybe if we'd belong to that church they might have tried harder, but this priest pretty much told me he wouldn't put forth the effort and he even wondered how compatable we were. 

What did that mean?  The Catholic church was out.

However, I didn't want to give up on getting married in a church so I decided to get married in the church across the street from my reception location. 

Middlebury Congregational Church. 

I loved it.  It was the perfect Vermont/New England church. 

It was so quaint that I didn't even really need to decorate it. 

Although my dream of being married in the Catholic church didn't work out, I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to get married in a church.

And one so beautful.

Thank you church!!!

And thank you guest for filling the church with your presence and support.

A Review of My Wedding: The Cake Topper

So, I thought rather than put a bunch of photos on my blog and make people sort through 400 photos, I'd break them up and feature a few photos and then the story behind them.  Obviously you won't see EVERY photo of my wedding, but most likely you aren't my mom (one of the few people interested in all 484 photos) and so just a few photos will suffice. 

So, my first set of photos is of my cake topper.

I LOVED my cake topper.  It was one of my favorite things that I did for my wedding.  I'll admit, it cost an arm and a leg but I don't regret for one second spending more money on my cake topper than my shoes. 

My co-worker is the person who inspired me to look beyond regular cake toppers.  She had a giraffe and squirl as her topper.  So, I searched etsy.com and found Sophia's Workshop.  She made customized clay cake toppers.

And she did an AMAZING JOB.  All I did was send her photos of me and the hubs.  Then I sent her a photos of the bus that we met on and said I wanted it incorporated on the topper.  Oh, and I wanted a Peace Corps flag in my hand. 

This is what she came up with:

Isn't it so wonderful!  I love it.

We turned out so cute.  Doesn't it look just like us???

Alka-Seltzer is not always the answer

I don't know what it is with my hubs, but he LOVES alka-seltzer.  Most everyone I met in Honduras loved alka-seltzer actually.  It was the miracle drug.  Have a bellyache - take alca-seltzer.  Now, who would've though that this would be such an area of cultural contention?  Not me.

In the past hubs had driven me crazy in his pursuit of alka-seltzer - nothing compares to the amazingness of this medication.  We had a bunch of Tums at home, but no - only alka-setlzer would solve his tummy troubles.  So, rather than deprive him of his dear medication, I bought some so we have a nice stock in the house.

Well, enter MY tummy troubles.  I had throw-up disease last week and was rolling around holding my nauseous little belly.  Hubs decided this was the perfect time for alka-seltzer.  I had not actually thrown up at this point but was battling lots of nausea.  Hubs, in an attempt to make me feel better, made up a nice big glass of alka-seltzer.  Too tired to put up much of a fight (as I don't think alka-seltzer is the best medication for me), I took a few big gulps.

I then proceeded to throw up all night.

Hubs still defends his alka-seltzer - but I don't think I'll really be taking it too many more times in my life.

It's funny how cultures all have their go-to medicine.  In the US, or at least in my experience, we run to Advil, Motrin, and Tylenol at the first sign of muscle or head pain (at least I do).  Hubs never really takes headache medicine and never takes anything to ease his sore muscles.  He just looks at me funny when I suggest it.  He runs to alka-seltzer at the first sign of a tummy ache whereas I rarely think to take medicine when my tummy hurts.

Maybe I've been stressed for much of my life and get headaches way too often; whereas he's had parasites his entire life and has had tummy problems way too often.

Who knows - I just know that I'll never love alka-setlzer as much as he does!