the tables...

...the tables all set to go...

I literally had dreams (multiple dreams) about how our wedding tables would look...I really wanted to convey a peaceful, whimsical, simple feeling to our outdoor-idaho-homemade-rustic-wedding. We rented 8' long banquet tables...and put them side to side to make five 16' long tables for our 75 guests. Then we rented the cheapest chairs possible... white plastic. We love wood, glass, ceramic, cotton, shells... all pure, natural elements...so I have a thing with plastic... not a big fan of it. It goes back to my montessori teaching days. But alas, wood chairs were outrageously priced! So it was not perfect, but it was just ok. You may have read about my table cloth situation from earlier... but it turned out just great- very outdoorsy. Natural colored canvas table cloth/painting drop cloths, that hit the ground and then some. Then I cut 24' long white muslin table runners, and ironed them. I wanted to hem them... but it just took too long, and it was too overwhelming so late in the game. And this was one of those details where you know you will be the one to notice the small details (it turned out to be valid also). We had all of the antique clear mason jars with flowers, little mason jars for water, and wine bottles we had collected and removed all the stickers on to put drinking water with sliced lemons in it for our guests to help themselves to.

...my friends Stephanie and Bryna doing an awesome job setting up the tables...

...me trying to describe "the look" I wanted...

...everyone, minus Colby the big yellow guy, working so hard to fold napkins with the silverware...

...drinking jars, with the wine bottles...

We had cute napkins and our off-white plates, and little antique aluminum jello molds for the tea light candles to sit in. I loved the "idea" of having the tea lights in the jello molds to cast light on the table in little cute scallops and ridges.... yeah. That didn't work out. All of our table mock-ups and trials... we forgot about the possibility for wind. Even most of the mason jars hanging with wire from the log fence wouldn't hold a flame to the wind. It was sad. We also made adorable wood floating candles for the pond... not so. It wasn't so incredibly windy that things were blowing over, but the candles were still affected. So my wonderful friends knew how much whimsical lighting meant to me and literally ran around trying to re-light candles and improvise with taller mason jars... they were awesome. I didn't even have to ask for their help.

...alternating amy butler pattern napkins on the plates...

So the napkins... this is one thing I really loved and it brought in my amy butler prints that I love in life and the inspiration throughout the wedding. As you may know from other posts we had an amy butler print fabric on the invite...so I did the same thing for the napkins. I just cut them though with pinking sheers-olfa cutter. 12"x12" zig zag cut fabric. I chose about 9 fabrics that I loved that were turquoise and greens- some amy butler fun ones...but that gets pricey, so then I bought some coordinating light greens and teal ones that were our colors. Then cut them, starched and pressed them...then rolled them up with twine and our rental silverware. I wanted to hem them at first...but gosh...I sew and I HATE hemming. Plus with all the wedding projects-that just got moved down on the list. Also my mother-in-law who sewed my dress, who is a quilter, offered to take all of the napkins and make a quilt for us- the double ring design. It will be a fantastic way to remember our wedding day...and really the exciting year leading up to it.

...me, admiring the finished product with so many smiling loved ones around me...

...dinner time...
[all photos from rob hart, kenny anderson, and kevin apparetti]

the cotton wedding dress...and first look...

...me feeling incredibly comfy in my dress, while others play ladder ball in the background...

As soon as I got engaged I started looking at wedding dresses....my first stop of course was David's Bridal for my budget friendly wedding. Well, I HATED the process. The dresses looked awful on me...and very few actually come long enough for my height (I'm 5'11)...so I would have to struggle with that if I actually liked one. Next I went to a bridal gown boutique, the price tags were ridiculous and I just couldn't picture myself eating ribs and playing croquet in these huge dresses. So I wasn't sure what to do next. I just really wanted to wear a long cotton white dress. I had endless searches for cotton dresses, and found nothing feasible.

During this process I had been delegating out tasks of the wedding to my family members who wanted to help. My mom- the flowers, Matt- the music, dads- BBQ-ing.... then I asked Matt's mom if she would like to help me make the wedding cupcakes.... she said no way, that sounds awful... I'd rather make your wedding dress. WHAT?! Seriously. She offered to make my wedding dress? The cake was a challenge but sewing a huge white dress was do-able?! I was elated. **side note... Matt's mom is a phenomenal quilter with impeccable attention to details, she is a perfectionist with sewing...so I knew her wedding dress creation would be perfect**

...how adorable are those little flowers on the dress?! Great choice, Janice...

It was funny that when I would tell people about my wedding dress that my mother-in-law would be sewing, they'd always cringe...."ooo...are you sure you're going to like it? What if you don't? Do you have a back-up? Aren't you nervous?" And surprisingly I wasn't, I felt more at ease knowing I'd be wearing a comfy dress and that I'd look like myself in then trying to fool all of my friends and family that I was someone else. Janice even gave me multiple opportunities to chuck the dress and buy a new one if I wasn't happy...that she promised her feelings wouldn't be hurt. Ridiculous. I couldn't even express how special I felt that she would put so much time into my wedding dress... it was soo touching.

...janice spending hours on the dress altering and hemming...

...dress alteration with the boots...

So she offered to take me to a fabric store, to choose the pattern, and choose the fabric of my dreams. I had dreamed up swiss-dot fabric to add a little bit of texture to the dress but then enough layers for me to be comfortable wearing white on a sunny day. I also wanted something simple. Janice, Matt's mom, made a mock-up dress in yellow... its adorable. Then from there we made a few tweaks...and voila. I had asked for a fabric flower out of swiss-dot for my messy side ponytail (which obviously I changed my mind on) but she then made a few extra fabric flowers and pinned them to my dress just to add some girly-ness... absolutely perfect!! As soon as I put it on I felt like those brides in movies where they put on the dress thats "the one" and they just know.... this was the one. I loved wearing my cotton hand-made dress. Totally DIY... as it turned out and I felt soo beautiful. I felt like me on my wedding day.

Janice came up from Colorado to do a dress fitting, a month before the wedding but I really didn't want Matt to see the final wedding dress until the day of the wedding. It was a silly little thing, but I really wanted him to be amazed on the day of the wedding... that gosh, this is really happening...and even with all of our prepping we still couldn't picture how great that day would be. So, we managed to pull it off... Matt hadn't seen the dress or the pictures circulating to my family and friends...and about 30 minutes before the wedding ceremony Matt and I had our "first look." That moment was great. It was right above the ceremony as guests were going to sit at the hay bales... our dogs had joined us by chance on the bridge. It was a nice little time for us to connect with each other before Matt went down to the corral. We centered ourselves. Just to stop and try to take it all in. This was really happening... how sensational.

...you'll notice the bruise on my elbow... yeah, rafting the day before the wedding...that'll do it apparently...

...me fixing matt's shirt, 3/4 sleeves is a tricky one for guys...

[pictures by rob hart]

the flowers...

...my beautiful mom working so hard and quickly to finish the bouquets...

...huge table full of buckets of flowers...

My mom was in charge of creating wonderful green and white bouquets for us girls to hold and for the mason jars on the tables. I found a local florist who would order flowers in bulk..as long as we told them how many stems we wanted and of which flower. Not only did we have to come up with the design from scratch but we also had to estimate how many stems we would need. This was a little daunting for me... but my whole life I had grown up with my mom cutting and arranging beautiful bouquets from our backyard so I knew just the person to ask for this project...my mom. She was able to take my inspirational flower pictures and make some phenomenal bouquets.

...my mom making my special bouquet to hold the day of the wedding...

...the tables with wine bottles full of water and lemon slices...

I wanted simple bouquets with only white flowers and all different types of greenery. Throughout the whole wedding I only had shades of green and turquoises...then the natural browns and whites.  Matt and I had collected jars throughout the year for the tables.  My mom chose: white peonies, white snap dragons ( which actually weren't fully opened...so they looked like adorable little green buds), cut leafy green stems from the yard.  She had ordered sugar snap peas also, but they died...so the florist substituted them with more peonies. My mom recruited help to make the bouquets the morning before the wedding...anyone who happened to be walking through the living room put together at least one arrangement. She also made boutonnieres for the boys....but we forgot to put them on and ultimately it felt more like us-a little less formal-not to wear them...so that was perfect. All together the flowers ended up costing $600.00. We were able to pick them up from the florist's refrigerator the morning of the wedding, which eliminated the stress of all of the flowers wilting before the big day. It was incredibly convenient...and budget friendly for us to do our own flowers...plus in the end I had beautiful bouquets that were exactly what I had dreamed of.

What did we do with all of these awesomely beautiful bouquets after the wedding? We gave about 8 of them to the cute little coffee shop in town that let our guests borrade their little shop using their internet throughout the week and the rest went to the hospital that I work at to any patients the volunteers felt like needed them most. It was a great way for more people to enjoy the creations... I imagine it put a smile on their faces...perhaps not as big as mine though.

...my lovely sister holding my bouquet and her own during the ceremony...

[all photos from Kevin Apparetti, Matt's talented uncle and professional photographer]

a corral ceremony and some rings...

...Matt and I before the wedding preping our vows...

So on our wedding day Matt surprised me with a new set of rings. I did not know this was coming and it was wonderful. And fit perfectly with the unbelievably perfect and emotional ceremony. Perhaps I should back up a bit... I was an emotional wreck at our ceremony in the best way possible. I thought I would be able to hold it together and not cry, that I would be the strong dry eyed type...not so. As Matt and I rehearsed our vows at the pond as to what we were going to say so that we wouldn't be overly nervous I started crying at the part... Matt, I love you because you are a phenomenal man. That was it...I was going to loose it. I was marrying a phenomenal man in front of all of our incredible friends and family who support and love us soo much....and that day was today. Unbelievable.

...us girls walking up to the stairs...

So all of my best girlfriends/bridesmaids and matt's best friends/groomsmen and I all gathered up at the stairs above the corral to walk down into the corral for the ceremony. As soon as we hit the gates into the hay-baled, friends and family laden, love filled corral, with logs covered in vines straight out of sunset magazine, and I heard our very special Andrew Bird song (one of our favorite musicians...and a non-traditional beautiful wedding song), and saw my future husband who I love more than anything...I started sobbing, not crying, sobbing. I literally couldn't see I had so many tears in my eyes.

...my sister-maid of honor, and ryan- best man, finding it hilarious that I was crying...

Once I was at the start of the hay bale rows, I picked up my mom and dad to walk me down the rest of the aisle. It was incredible. My mom has MS so the fact that she was able to walk with me down the aisle meant more to us then we could say... and I needed them by my side to clear the tears, and to be strong and present. Then they gave Matt and I an impromptu group hug, it was perfect. They both give me away to Matt...forever, for keeps. It was very sweet. Matt's uncle, Bud, married us...which was awesome. We asked him back at Christmas if he would do the honors...making our ceremony actually ours. We do not have god as a part of our lives, so we wanted a ceremony that bound us to reflect that...which is exactly what he did and it was powerful. We had a little bit of a quaker-feeling to it, where some friends and family said their blessings, then Matt and I read our vows. Thank goodness we wrote them down, because it was nerve wrecking to say something so personal in front of everyone...and loudly.

...in disbelief of the new rings...

Then Matt pulled out these new rings. I looked at them, and they sparkled soo much in the light...then I looked at him and said... those aren't my rings! We had planned on me just taking off my bands and he would place them back on my hand...because I loved my rings we designed. But these were sparkly! They were beautiful.... I was so excited I almost kissed him right then, Bud had to tell us to wait, it was funny that I completely forgot in that moment that we had a real wedding going on. As it turned out he had one of my grandma's (who isn't with us any longer) diamonds placed in the center, with two smaller ones on the side, which is so incredibly meaningful to me that she is with me all the time. Then the ring has my same textured bands but now everything was in white gold and pallidium (the pallidium makes it so it stays white, and you never have to rhodium-ize them...which we like the idea of low-hassle, and our rings were designed on Etsy, from a super talented artist, Justine, and we love her work. I bought Matt's ring from her...and both of my sets came from her). Before I had the same style rings with white sapphires and recycled argentium silver- for budget reasons, and I loved that it represented us and where we were in life...but now I feel like a wife, with these wonderfully sparkly rings from my husband... its quite simply great.

...my rings, with the lovely bouquets my mom made...

[all photos were from rob hart]

We did it!!

We had an utterly fantastic wedding... I can't wait to blog more about what went perfectly and what we would tweak a little. But ultimately we had a blast, and we are now married.... now I just need to be patient and wait for the rest of the photos from our incredibly talented photographer (also a great nurse that I work with), Rob Hart from Hart Images...Ahhh!! I can't wait to see them...

8 more days...

8 more days until I have a husband!...simply unbelievable. Time flies. Matt and I still have a ton of projects that have been on our to-do list for nearly a year. We have finally found time today to sit down and start to think about our non-traditional vows....its a little overwhelming trying to think of saying something incredibly sweet and personal...but wondering how are we ever going to hold back the tears?! Matt's uncle will be marrying us, and he wrote a phenomenal wedding ceremony just perfect for us that we have been lucky enough to get a sneak peek of. Hard to not choke up even reading it in this coffee shop. Then we think about the 75 friends and family members who are all traveling from far distances to see us get married?!... just wonderful, we can't wait. Now... we just need it to stop raining. seriously. 3 weeks of almost solid rainy weather for Boise in May/June...unheard of.

Today's plan... write vows, paint wooden wedding signs, sew table runners, cut napkins, cut matt's hair. 

....my inspiration for mismatched amy butler napkins... but my version will be placed on our off-white ikea plates on the tables, with the silverware wrapped up inside, tied with twine and little white ribbon....

craft night in boise...

...craft night at our house getting ready for the wedding... matt transplanting the succulents and cacti into terra cotta pots for the summer fiesta and I am cutting circles for this adorable garland...in front of the bachelorette and a glass of wine.

...and the dogs doing their dog thing...

...this is the garland I am making. It will be amy butler turquoise/green fabric puff flowers, turquoise puffs, white puffs, and green puffs all strung on a thread.Maybe this will be hanging on the banister in the lodge... or maybe behind us at the ceremony? maybe even over the porch overhang outside next to the food buffet tables? yet to be determined... but puffs are made.

 ...these dried curly willow branches and dried flowers/wheat will be used in a wreath- bough above our heads in the corral for our ceremony. we got these at michaels...great selection of dried real flowers, instead of going the fake route or worrying about wilting flowers...

...and these ugly black buckets will be spray painted white tomorrow by me for our haybale laden aisle for the ceremony. We will be purchasing some nice green shrubbery from home depot a few days before the wedding...(ahh!!! thats next week!!!) to plant in the buckets. But these were cheap, $2.99 each at Hobby Lobby... we were quite pleased, and saved a bunch of money compared to the galvanized buckets I really wanted that were $8 each... and who would really notice? Probably just me. But I will let you know afterwards what little details I wish I could do over, and which were just perfect and unique...and simple...

summer fiesta- rehearsal dinner

So we are having a fiesta welcome dinner ...ahhh...next week!...but it will be the night before our wedding.  All of our guests are from out of state or far up north in Idaho...so practically another state and will all be traveling here for us. So instead of a "rehearsal dinner" with only the wedding party and family we will be inviting everyone. So with the help of my fabulous friends we will be throwing a summer fiesta. Fresh hand-pressed corn tortillas, chips, salsa, guacamole (avocados all the way from my friends backyard in central coast california), cheese, grilled meats, sour cream, pico de gallo.... and of course margaritas and cold mexican beer. So originally I thought a fiesta would be corny...until I saw this post from designsponge.... absolutely our style! More texas/arizona style fiesta... with my favorite color- green. So matt and I ran out to our local hardware store....home depot,  perhaps you have heard of them, and bought a ton of succulents and cacti and cute little terra cotta pots. We wont have table cloths- for those need to be nice and crisp for the wedding, but the tables are wood/rustic and will just do fine. I want to have butcher paper down and crayons for kid and adult fun. We will be doing a few other fun things- that I don't want to spoil the surprise for.... but lots of pictures afterwards to share. Lots of green tissue paper fringe... and string lights. Those big ol green recycled glass serving containers filled with margarita.

...our succulents...

...inspiration from design sponge...

the bachelorette party...

It seems like only a dream now having had the most memorable bachelorette party EVER. I mean, if youre only going to have one bachelorette party in your life, this was the one to have. My fabulous friends threw me a wonderful party that encompassed a whole weekend. It took place in central coast of california...wine tasting, a cute coffee shop, sitting on the beach, home-grown taco night, sushi, swiss cheese pancakes, and even a trip to our favorite college pub. Just utterly perfect. My sister made me a veil to wear winetasting- totally my style, and adorable...which put even more attention on us as I unwrapped lingerie laden gifts at each vineyard.

Jessica included my fiance, matt, in a newly wed game- questions that both him and I had to answer to see if we had similar answers- just wonderful, great big happy tears were shed, thats for sure. I am truely marrying wonderful man- and he's going to be mine forever! Jamie lent out her ideal beach home for us to all crash at and cooked wonderful food for all of us to eat.

Andrea- my fellow bride to be-was sweet enough to drive me back to northern california to catch my plane- meanwhile providing a great 3 hours to vent about wedding stressors and excitement.

Kelsey (my sister) and her friend Sarah (a marvelous new edition to our group of friends) traveled all the way from Boston to partake in the weekend and share in the laughter...and some tears at sunset on the beach.

And Tracy who can always give meaningful insight to any situation kept us up way into the night talking about life....and how to be strong powerful women in this world.And all of these beautiful photos are from Jessica... I will be so lucky if she brings her camera to idaho for our wedding week. So the weekend of just sitting down and relaxing- no wedding planning, no nursing clinicals, and no packing up boxes.... just enjoying my best friends....it was marvelous. I felt so loved this weekend... Thanks you guys... you mean the world to me.