Tuesday, August 31, 2010

A Bit of DIY, A Bit of DIT



SO. I figured it was time for some official photos and some round-up sort of things. I thought I would start with some of our many many do-it-yourself or do-it-together projects. Our wedding got very very DIY. My bridesmaids and I did the flowers, David and his groomsmen steamed the linens and cleaned the barn, my mother and sisters did a hundred little DIY projects and my uncle and my mother's cousin together painted the farm sign the morning of the wedding, we hung all the lights, my sister wrote the place-cards. Our wedding was not just something we picked-out and put together, our wedding was something that we built, that our families built. I wore a flower in my hair my friend from college made for me, I carried a bouquet wrapped by my Oldest-and-Best-Friend, our wedding felt like something we had spirited out of nothingness. To show you every single one of our do-it-yourself projects or do-it-together projects would take days, but here are some of my favourites.


The wedding was held in the barn on the farm my family my family bought my freshman year of highschool. There is a room in the barn that The-Oldest-and-Best-Friend and I painted and cleaned out to use as a fort and my little sister later took it over and painted it lime green. I lived in the house on the farm by myself when David and I met. The barn was full of hay and pigeons and David spent hours and days and hours pulling hay out of it and spraying it down and trying to get rid of the pigeons and keep them out. It was his full-time job for most of June and July.


I ordered two reams of tissue paper online (shipping that stuff costs a fortune) and my sisters and a few adorable friends spent many a random episode of Bones making those Martha Stewart Pom-Poms that every single other bride seems to have at her wedding. We made what felt like thousand but we barely had enough, I loved the way the antique white looked against the barn, we had them hanging over the wedding cake and over the band (which was my brother's band, they are totes stellar, listen to their music, buy their cd).

These sparklers don't really count as diy but I put them in a jar and wrote a tag and they were the best wedding exit ever. Yeah, EVER.

This freezer was in the bottom of the barn the entire time I lived there. My little sister did some serious disinfecting while leaving the rust intact. I wanted rust. My friend Meghan who was my day-of-coordinator propped it open and we filled it with glass bottle cokes and Perrier (dear Sam's Club, I love you). The bar ended up right next to it.

I was planning on making a ring pillow for the boys to carry but three days before the wedding that wasn't done and I was planning on having them just march up the isle. My mom offered to make a ring bowl and boy did she ever. Mummie is the single greatest boss of paper mache and rocked the hell out of this wee bowl. My sister Ellen (Tres) painted our initials and the date one it as well as the gold ring.

Ellen also wrote ninety names on these old fashioned mailing tags and she and my dad wrapped them around the napkins we got at Sams Club. I poured 90 candles using soy wax. I bought fifty pounds of the stuff online (here) and had everyone I know saving jars for me. I used all 50 pounds. There are now candles EVERYWHERE at the house.

My bridesmaid Christina apparently burnt herself a lot and drank most of a box of Franz while making these babies but they looked GORGEOUS. I was moaning about not knowing what to put in our hair and she told me she had it and she did. She made one for each of the bridesmaids and I considered it evidence of the excellent time they all had after I left when I found two in my parents pool the next morning.

I got the idea to use a chalkboard for a seating chart ages ago and my 13 year old sister, Fiona, jumped on it. She found the frame for $3 at a garage sale and she primed, painted it, bit of chalkboard paint, bit of wood, wood glue and some nails. She's the bomb.com My sister Ellen then used chalkboard pens to write the seating chart on it. Right now it's waiting to be put on the wall of our new apartment in Durham. I can't quite bring myself to erase the names of everyone who was there with us. Lovely lovely lovely.

Photos by Shaun Yasaki and my sister Ellen

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Boots and L.L. Bean


I have to admit that I'm a little bit in love with the new L. L. Bean Signature line. Okay, a lot in love with it. "Cozy" is not exactly the most fashion-forward word, but the looks make me think of mountains and dogs and hot apple cider and pumpkins and make me smile. Therefore, I want. Go forth and prosper. I dare you to look at this coat and tell me its not beautiful.

I'm also thinking that maybe, just maybe these boots might fit. I have calves like a brick house and I would generally ignore them but these boots are smooth-talking their way into my heart. I think I need to try them.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Perks of Husbands


We were homeless for my birthday. Between house sitting and our own apartment. I ended up coming home to my parents' for two weeks while David slept on a friend's couch. For my homeless birthday we were staying in a hotel in Durham and David got the day off work and we went to the zoo, and the Magnolia Grill and I got a lovely chocolate cake from Scratch. We'd been married a little over two weeks, I had bronchitis, I was in a new city where I knew no one. David did really really really good. And he got me this. Or rather he had our friend Mary Wunderlich paint it. Snapdragons are my favourite, and have been forever. I remember snapping them as a little girl in Chicago, they featured very prominently on the wedding cake, in my bouquet, in mason jars exactly a month ago. She also stuck some lavender in there. Because there was also lavender in the bouquet, in mason jars. She's good like that, is MW. The wedding pictures are getting processed slowly. I'm tired. The moving is tiring, the being so far away is tiring. But they are coming. I promise. Over in our friendly neighborhood wedding blog.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

So I Make Pottery Now...


...And I blog about it on Friday nights. At 1:20 am. Because I'm not cool enough to go out. And I don't feel like sleeping. Or packing to go on vacation for a week.

And things have been stressful. But pottery, it's really really excellent.




Friday, August 13, 2010

More to Come


I promise that this isn't the end of the wedding blog. We are just moving and David's in one place working and sleeping on someone's couch and I am in another place, sleeping in my girlhood bedroom in my parents house surrounded by boxes and three other siblings who are all going back to school and my muddy wedding dress. There will be more pretty pictures and details and all that. Being married is weird. It is not like not being married. Even though everyone else said it was. My soul feels different, which I didn't expect. And I'm still getting used to. More on all this later.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Three Weeks On





The photographer posted pictures today and there are some unexpectedly lovely pictures. Amelia laughing at the reception, me not looking like a mobster's wife, the church packed to the gills with lovely, loved people. Shaun did a good job.

All photos of course by Shaun Yasaki