My Hubby is Coming Home!

My husband (still so weird to say) is coming home today! He has been out of town for a couple of weeks and then is off to Chicago for 3 more. It is only for less than 48 hours but I am super excited!

Our favors are dying...

I really wanted to have favors that were alive - like fresh flowers or succulents. Fresh flowers weren't really in the budget but I found some great agave plants that I nurtured for months leading up to the wedding. I thought this was even better because I just happen to do research on prehistoric uses of agave in the North American Southwest. (If interested you can watch some of my work featured in a NPR Science Friday video here.)



Agaves bloom only once in their lives and then they die. But the bloom produces dozens of small baby agave plants that keep the generations alive so to speak. I really wanted to translate this idea and had a very romantic notion that our guests would give us back a baby agave once their favor bloomed and we would continually propagate our agaves like we would propagate our love.



Well this is sort of working out but I think the 100+ temps in Phoenix are doing a doozy on our little plants of love. Either that or our friends have black thumbs. I have gotten reports that many agave plants are no longer. I even planted about a half dozen outside our office building on campus where we first met - someday thinking that we would return to them as flourishing adults. But they are on their last legs as well.

Hopefully in 10-15 years we will have some survivors.... I hope this isn't an omen of some sort. Just kidding. It would be nice to be able to get some back, but it will be just as meaningful to reminisce about our wedding day.

Bridal Look

To recall here was my inspiration look. And this is what I pulled off:



I loved my dress from Dolly Couture (Seriously check her out if your looking for a short dress - where else can you get a semi-custom dress for < $600). I loved my pearls. And I loved my hair. I went back and forth about the bright fuchsia hair flower instead of something more subtle. In the end I am really happy with the pop of color.


I am not really a girly girl and would nearly go into panic attacks when I would think about all of the primping, plucking, and prodding that needs to be done to get a perfect bridal look. I did my own makeup based on a lesson I got from the ladies at Clinique. Definitely recommend getting a free lesson from a department store makeup counter and spend your money on makeup instead of an expensive application.



What to do next? Photo booth? Grand Entrance? or Reception details?

Our Wedding - Where to get the Goods

I have had a couple of questions lately about where to get some of the supplies I used for our wedding decor. I thought I would just go ahead and post the details so all could see.

MAP

The map included in our invitations was made by me. I used Adobe Illustrator and printed the file on cardstock at Kinkos.


STATIONARY STAMPS

The stamps I used on the Thank You notes and our Save the Dates is from the Martha Stewart line sold at Michael's Craft Store. It is called Wedding Cake. Isn't it delicious - I sort of want to lick the paper after using this one. Each design is a separate clear stamp that you put on a stamp block (sold separately) in whatever arrangement you want. Worked pretty well but the intricate design didn't always work with embossing powder like I did with the STDs.


CUPCAKE STANDS

The cupcake stands are from Martha Stewart's craft line sold at Walmart. Sense a trend of my design inspiration? I snazzed them up a bit with ribbon and papel picado stands like our theme.



MEXICAN CANDY

I got the Mexican candy from a Mexican Party Store in Phoenix called Dulceria Pico Rico. I didn't actually buy any candy for the candy buffet on-line like many wedding advice sties recommend. I found the on-line stores sold only in ridiculous quantities and Sam's Club along with the Mexican party store had better prices (and no shipping costs). We weren't going for a monochromatic color scheme though and wanted to feature our favorite candies - not just those that would look good. If your looking for candies that you can't normally find in the store the on-line sellers would make more sense.



If interested in knowing any other details just let me know!

Candy Buffet!!!

One of my favorite DIY projects was our candy buffet. Going with our Mexican theme we choose all sorts of treats from south of the border and a few of our favorite American sweats that came in our colors. There is a fabulous Mexican party store in Phoenix that had loads of Mexican candies to choose from including peanuts covered in chilies, caramels, chili lollipops, and coconut treats.

I dressed things up with ribbon, papel picado inspired signs and tissue paper bouquets. A banner saying Gracias and Thank You was hung over the table. We had small white paper bags and stickers with our monogram for guests to take home their treats. It was a real hit and I was surprised how little candy we had left over. It was kinda a disappointment because we had it sitting in our house for weeks - tempting us and were looking forward to digging in! Oh well, we did however have a few extra cupcakes to enjoy. I will share the cake cutting next.

How about some non kissy face pictures...

I was just noticing how many kissy face pictures I was posting. We did actually get some normal photos...


What do you think of our first family portrait?

Biggest Wedding Day Fear: Rain

My biggest wedding day fear was that it would rain or even be cloudy with the threat of rain. Luckily it was sunny and gorgeous for our outdoor ceremony in Sedona. Why would it rain in Phoenix a few days later. Really there was no reason for me to have anxiety. It rarely rains in April. That is actually why we choose April. But the forecast was not prediction clear conditions. A storm front was moving in Friday and not expected to clear until Sat night. Out reception night. The audacity of the weather to rain on our reception!!

I tried to deny it. I resisted buying a cute umbrella for pictures just in case. I didn't worry about a back up plan or fret about how 75 people could crowd under a little tent to avoid getting wet. Or worry about all of the tissue paper DIY projects would be ruined even if it sprinkled. I didn't worry until about 3:00 when the clouds still were not clear and the hour by hour predicted another downpour at 6. Then I began to freak!!

I would recommend to everyone to have a small ceremony and a reception a couple of days later. We were so relaxed the day of our reception. We slept in and lazily watched TV for most of the day. Until 3:00 when we started getting ready and I had my first Bridezilla moment of the whole process. (Matt would probably disagree and say that I was a Bridezilla throughout the whole process but I would not.) I really regret how I acted throughout the whole thing.

Once we got to the venue I was devastated. Very few of the tables and decorations were even set up because we were all waiting to see if it would continue to downpour. All of the flowers were dripping. A giant puddle was enlarging in front of the bar. The tents were hardly water proof. My hair was fast on it's way to becoming flat. The venue people asked me every 15 minutes if we should move the tables. (They did 3 times - back and forth between tents offering various levels of weather protection). The tissue paper bouquets were bleeding and the banners were hopeless.

The only person I openly freaked out on was Matt for which I deeply regret. In the end all worked out just fine and I feel really silly that I was so upset it was raining. At about 5:45 - right as the guests were arriving - the sun game out and a double rainbow appeared. People said only Melissa would plan to have a rainbow appear at her wedding. Well, I didn't exactly plan it. But it was gorgeous.

Some more advise: Don't freak out if it is raining. Buy a cute umbrella or galoshes. Take it all in. Rain or shine.

After all, it it didn't rain we wouldn't have a picture like this:

Oops. Did I loose time again?

Seriously, it has been 1 month since my last blog post? Well I guess I did get in a bad car accident (I'm okay but did total the car a week before our road trip honeymoon :( but not to fear we got a new one). I am teaching a class and playing academic catch up. And I did need to finally clean the house after neglecting it for months. And there was the 2nd reception to do. But that can't explain my absence.

Maybe Post wedding depression?? Perhaps that is why I have been MIA. All the planning, the DIY, browsing through blogs for inspiration. Does it HAVE to be over already? Everyone talks about all of the buildup to the wedding - but no one talks about after the wedding. What am I to do for fun now?

Maybe getting back to wedding recaps will bring back my wedded bliss.



I am going to ride out this "Just Married" thing for at least a few more months.

May I please have the rings?

When our officiant said these words I had no idea that just moments before my sister did not have the ring. Matt's dad was carrying my rings and my sister was in charge of Matt's ring for me. Apparently just moments before the rings were needed my sister had to run back to her purse and get the ring which was about 25 feet away causing my mom to nearly have a panic attack wondering what in the world was wrong.


One would think that with only 9 people in attendence at our little ceremony I would have noticed one of the guests running off. But my sister said I was to busy staring into Matt's eyes to notice anything.


We didn't notice a thing, only each other. The rings were there, we delivered our vows, and YEAH we were married!!! The vows we selected were a combination of several different traditional ceremonies. We selected words that would emphasize our equal partnership as best friends.


And of course we sealed it with a kiss. This photo isn't our first kiss but I got carried away in photoshop again and wanted to share.


Photos from David Sunfellow Photography.

Ceremony: Walking Down the Aisle

As my brother often says, Matt and I are not necessarily a traditional couple. We knew that we wanted our wedding to be outside, the more isolated the better. Fearing our family would not be willing to take a several mile hike or an adventure jeep ride to get to the wedding we settled on a spot about 500 meters from the car but full of beautiful Sedona scenery. We mentioned the crossing of the creek after we eased them into the idea we were not getting married in a church...

Here are a few shots of us "walking down the aisle" to our ceremony spot. Watch out over the next few weeks. We got our photo CD and I am not afraid to use it...


All photos from David Sunfellow Photography.