Long time no post! I apologize. Things have been insane lately. I've been thinking for a while that I want to include more than just home improvement/DIY/crafts in the blog for a couple of reasons...
First, I just don't have as many projects going on these days. Our house is like 85% done, so the projects I do are fewer and further between. What's left is mainly to hang art, curtains, and to do random crafts whenever I find some I'm interested in, and those things alone cannot sustain this blog.
Second, it's really unbelievable to think about how hard I was pushing myself before the wedding. From the beginning of December to the end of March, I was either at work working or at the condo working from 7am-11pm. Without fail. 7 days a week, except for a short trip to NOLA. That's insane. I have no idea how I did it. I didn't stop to smell the roses for 4 months, and then I paid the price of utter exhaustion. I totally burned myself out and it took over a month to work up the energy to get off the couch. Point being, things in my life need to be more balanced. I want to avoid committing myself to an overwhelming amount of work which will inevitably be followed by a complete lack of productivity.
Third, I want this blog to be something to look back on to remember my life by. Facebook and Instagram are nice for pictures and little updates, but I want to be able to really see what was going on beyond posed and before & after pictures. So, from now on, I'm going to try to introduce my regular life to this blog. Not just the craft/demo/design projects, but life projects too. And what better project to start with than my wedding?
Now, to immediately contradict myself, let's talk about the fact that our wedding felt like a never-ending list of DIY craft projects. Here's a little rundown of everything I made... which doesn't include the other 349,345,527 decisions I made to make the whole day come together :) I blogged about roughly half of these projects, but there were a good number that I did without snapping pictures because I was just. too. tired.
Now, are you ready for pictures?! There are a lot, and if you're friends with my on Facebook you've more than likely seen them already, but I wanted to include them in this post for two reasons. First, because Facebook posted them out of order, and after I spent 3 hours rearranging them, Facebook
un-arranged them. Really?! I could have snapped my computer in half. So, here is a subset, in order! Second, it's nice to see all of the DIY projects I did in one place. These pictures are courtesy of our rehearsal dinner photographer,
Ashley D Photography, our wedding photographer,
Kristi Wright Photography, and John's wonderful cousin Madelyn Day.
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| The beautiful Madelyn Day |
Here we go! Our rehearsal dinner was the night before the wedding at Zilker Clubhouse, which has an amazing outdoor patio that overlooks the city skyline.
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| DIY crafted Perrier and yarn bottles from John's aunt, uncle, and cousins |
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| Brown Family picture |
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| Hendricks Family picture |
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| Bohne Family picture |
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| John's toast totally made me cry |
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| Look at that skyline! |
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| Theta sisters of mine came to celebrate! |
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| John and his brother, Lee |
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| Hendricks cousins |
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| Bridesmaids |
The morning of the wedding, John's wonderful grandmother hosted a bridal brunch at Chez Zee!
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| Creme brûlée french toast? Yes, please. |
After the brunch we drove to Star Hill Ranch to get ready for the big day!
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| During the 2 weeks leading up to our wedding day, the weather man predicted a 40% chance of rain and thunderstorms on the big day. We were inexplicably lucky to arrive at Star Hill to find blue skies! |
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| Our invitation, reply postcard, and website card |
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| Our welcome packages had local beer, water, nuts, pralines, maps, bluebonnet seeds, and information cards |
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| I made this card in Photoshop from scratch to include in our welcome package! |
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| This card was also in the welcome package. |
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| The site for our first look! |
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| I got unexpectedly choked up and had to really collect myself here :) |
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| I embroidered "I love you" on a piece of heart-shaped fabric and sewed it to the back of John's tie |
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| In the reception hall we set up our family display on a piano. This is the family banner I made, and a pair of each of our grandparents sat in each frame. |
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| Hanging above the props were pictures of the two of us throughout our lives |
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| The wedding cake was almond with vanilla pastry cream and raspberry preserves. John's Texas Longhorns cake was lemon with strawberries and vanilla buttercream. Can't wait till our 1 year anniversary to get the topper out of the freezer! |
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| Our favors were jars of Pok-e-Jo's BBQ sauce with tags I made in Photoshop |
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| Us with my parents and maternal grandparents |
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| Us with John's maternal grandparents, grandparents, brother, and sister-in-law |
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| Us with John's paternal grandmother, grandparents, brother, and sister-in-law |
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| John and his groomsmen |
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| Me and my bridesmaids |
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| My grandmother's Theta badge |
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| A sign to direct people to the ceremony site |
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| Yes, we had a hashtag :) And it worked! |
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| All of the pictures people posted using our hashtag! |
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| John's paternal grandmother, Gloria, being ushered by his cousin, Garrison |
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| John's maternal grandparents, Anne & Sherrell |
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| My maternal grandparents, Jan & Robin |
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| John's parents, Annette & Doug |
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| My mom, Deirdre, and her husband, Michael |
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| My bridesmaid, Caroline |
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| My bridesmaid, Sarah |
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| My bridesmaid, Steph |
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| My maid of honor, Ali |
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| Walking down the aisle with my dad, David |
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| Leis to honor my family in Hawaii that couldn't make it to the wedding |
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| These are the all of the props for the photo booth. From left to right: a sketch book for the photo booth prints that we used as our guest book, Mardi Gras beads, sticks with glasses/lips/bow ties on them, wooden L O V E letters, little plaques I spray painted with chalkboard paint for people to write messages on, and empty frames |
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| Kiting with Thetas! |
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| Our first dance, to Beyond the Sea |
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| Father-daughter dance, to Over the Rainbow |
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| Mother-son dance, to More |
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| Maid of honor toast |
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| Best man toast |
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| The menu I made from plywood and spray painted with chalkboard paint |
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| S'mores! |
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| Hendricks Family picture |
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| Brown Family picture |
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| ...but really this one is more accurate |
So there you have it! Married life has been wonderful :) I didn't think it would be that different than the past 6 and a half years we've been together had been, but living together has made a wonderful difference.
By the time I got to the end of the list of things I wanted to make for the wedding I was totally un-enthused and ready to be d.o.n.e., but now looking back, I'm so glad I pushed through and did all of them. Having handmade things there made it feel so much more personal and special. It was a labor of love and in the end I think it was time well spent!
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