Sneak peek: ceremony shots!

We don't have our "pro" shots yet, but there's a steady stream of awesome pictures rolling in from friends & family. Here are a few I couldn't help but share:


Beautiful bridesmaids, in my favorite colors.


My Mom's homemade jam: favors for our guests.


Seated guests wait patiently and watch the York River roll by.

I can't believe how gorgeous everything was when it all came together. I truly love our wedding. More pictures to come!

Oh, so priceless is this vacuum.

(K & I "registered" for cash & gift cards, since our lives are so full of stuff already). One material thing we really did need for ourselves was a good vacuum cleaner, so last night we took our Target cards, pooled them together, and got:



Ohhh, yes. It does amazing things to our apparently nasty carpeting. Oh, the hairballs this thing picked up! And it's so tiny and light. I love it. It reattaches to itself in a number of clever ways, so no additional hoses/attachments/junk needed to clutter up the corners of the living room. It needs no bag, which is enough to sell me on it right there. The filters are HEPA certified (or something) and you just rinse them out every few months. Improves your air quality and whatnot. But the best thing about it...



...is that Kenny likes it so much, he was vacuuming as I walked in the door from work this evening. He continued pushing the thing around the apartment, commenting with a mixture of fascination and horror at all the crud it was so easily picking up. And then, then, he sat me down for a new vacuum orientation.

I love this vacuum.

Wedding prep: what our iPhones caught

Oh boy oh boy oh boy. I am so excited for many reasons, the most of which being that I finally have caught up on enough sleep to make me feel like blogging! It was rough, y'all, but it was equally rough on all of our little worker bees [including, but not limited to, braidesmaids, significant others of bridesmaids, groomsmen, significant others of groomsmen, siblings, significant others of siblings, assorted parents and step parents], and we were all sleep deprived together. Our wedding prep-fest turned out to be a delightful, albeit stressful at times, five day extravaganza of prepping, shopping, assembling, partying, and sleep deprivation. Let's document from the beginning, shall we?

Wednesday: people begin arriving. We make a giant curry and stir-fry at night and play Hoopla. Sadly, no pictures exist from this night, as we were all too excited to be together after so much time apart. People roll in from Vermont, LA, Asheville, Brooklyn, Portland, JAPAN (!), and Charlotte.

Thursday: dress shopping and primping with the bridesmaids; creepy cookout with the worker bees in the dark (we rented a time share for all of our out-of-town guests to play in, which had a tiny grill way off in an adjoining field). The parents escape to the breathtaking North River Inn in Gloucester to bond. The kids show their stripes by hosting a midnight feast of grilled veggies and shrimp (mmm). We kick off the first of several nights in the giant hot tub that also came with the time share.





Friday: insane rush of activity. I have a few Bridezilla-type moments, but am comforted by the fact that everyone is working their arses off. Escape to The Ceremony Site with stage manager and officiant, to plot and plan. Bring parents along. They are much comforted by the site, which makes me feel like a responsible kid. Airport pickups ensue, completing the gang. Quick run to the gym to pick up sports equipment, and by a quirk of fate, also run into my flower girl & her mama, who just arrived in town. Afternoon finds us prepping the jams my Mom canned for wedding favors, and then all the girls are off to get pedicures. Rehearsal dinner starts at 8:00pm. I arrive with my entourage at 8:30. We all learn how to throw pizza dough and write words with our toppings. There are toasts, and a talk-through of the ceremony plans. The thirty-two of us don't leave Florimonte's deli until close to 11pm. Return to time share to roll 40 sushi rolls for guests to nibble. Kenny is kidnapped by groomsmen, given Jaeger Bombs, and is given a stranger's stylish fedora at a bar. The men return to our apartment around 1am, and spend the next hour declaring their heartfelt love for each other, until the girls break it up to finally get some sleep. Kenny and I remember that our vows are as yet unwritten, and take a few minutes to remedy the situation. Finally asleep by 3am or so.






Saturday: Run the Wedding Day 5k with 5 people total. Up at 7am, but great success! Faster than before, no stopping, lots of talking and cat-calling to people on the sidewalks. Homemade t-shirts and a cheap veil are worn by all. Hooting and hollering and congrats follow us down Duke of Gloucester street. Afterwards, we all depart to shower. My maids come over, we play dress up for an hour, then go to the show. And after all that, with sparkling eyes and clean clothes, we begin...


... actual wedding content to follow!

This made me laugh so hard today...

This post on CakeWrecks made me laugh so hard today. (Click over to the link; the text is funnier than the pictures, but you need to see them together.)

Also, I loved Iron Man II. And more also, tomorrow morning Kenny & I are going to try to run a 5k around downtown Williamsburg-- that we also want to do on the morning of our wedding. Wedding Day 5k! Who's in?! Don't worry, we'll all be done in time to shower before sprucing up.

Oh, and also: INSPIRATION.

Well, you can't win 'em all.

Okay, so one day last week I ran a mile twice at the gym (one before my Zumba class, and one after), and yesterday morning I ran my fastest mile so far (9:34)-- which is not all that fast in the grand scheme of things, but it felt like hard work-- and I worked out with my trainer yesterday evening, but have gotten zero exercise besides those things. Also, there may or may not have been some very splurgy meals, calorie wise. (They may or may not be happening pretty much every time I open my mouth at this point.) But while I was busy making poor food choices and not going to the gym, I managed to:

- make a giant To Do list of wedding things with Kenny, which is going to rule our free time from now til next Saturday,
- use said To Do list to go get lots of little errands done
- babysit at least 3 hours every day (that's a sweet little one I sit for in the morning up there, graciously modeling for my 1st Hipstamatic app shot)
- clean both of our cars
- get almost all of the laundry done (it's tough when you have the smallest and also the loudest washing machine in the city)
-drive to Charlotte and take my Mom & brother out to a combo Mother's day/ 27th bday meal
- oh yeah, and go to LEAF.



Check out these boutonnieres, eh? And bridesmaids' bouquets! They may not look very professional (and the picture is quite crappy), but they're pretty close to what I had pictured in my mind, and the total cost of materials (with plenty left over) was $12.68. The Williamsburg Pottery is officially the weirdest place I have ever been, but they really come through for you with the cheap deals on incredibly random things. There will be plenty of more weird wedding-related Pottery purchases in future posts, I assure you. Oh, and you can camp there in your tent for $16/night. You know, just in case you're coming to the wedding...