sixes

six months ago (well, actually six months and three days ago, but who's counting?) (i am!), AWD and i were doing this:

so on saturday, to celebrate, we did this:

{brunch at carlyle. favorite}

{d.c. united season opener.}

(turns out they are just as bad as every other professional sports team in d.c.)

plus on sunday i made this perfect and delicious loaf of bread.

six months have quite literally flown by. i can't believe it has been that long. but i also can't believe that i haven't always just been married to AWD. i always figured being married would be a pretty good deal, but it is more fun than i ever imagined it would be, and i like AWD a little more every day. the other day he was late coming home from work and he didn't answer when i called so of course i assumed he had been run over by a train or kidnapped by aliens and i really couldn't fathom how i would get by on my own if he wasn't around. when i think of all the people i thought i wanted to marry before he came along, all i can say is, whew. certainly there are misunderstandings and miscommunications and cranky days and a learning curve, but i simply can't imagine doing it all with anyone but him.

so, here's to six glorious months. i figure we can make it at least six more.

made with love

i know there are people out there in the world who can pull off an entire DIY wedding.

i am not one of those people.

but, i did want a few handmade touches to our wedding, and i had two big triumphs that i am still really proud of.

one was the name card/favor coup, a combination of ideas from my handmade weddings book. i stamped paper bags (from the grocery store) with a bicycle rubber stamp, and name cards (from paper source) with the names of each of our guests.

i put a chocolate covered graham cracker (from the sugar cube in alexandria) in each bag, attached the name cards with a piece of ribbon and, voila! name cards and favors.

i was pretty proud of that one.

but the piece de resistance were these felt boutonnieres (and corsages for the ladies, with a few more flowers and no stems), also from handmade weddings.

there was quite a lot of hand-stitching involved, which has never been my strong suit, and they were definitely time-and-work-intensive to put together, but the result was totally worth it. they were unique and personal, and i loved that everyone in our family had an extra something to take home with them if they wanted to.

and that was quite enough DIY for me.

old, new, borrowed, blue

we opted for a pretty non-traditional road when it came to our wedding festivities (no cake, no toasts, no line. thank goodness) but i really liked the idea of the "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" tradition. so i decided to give it a try. and it worked?

old was the antique wedding kimono fabric, purchased while my mom and i were in japan, that made up part of my skirt and the belt around the dress.

new was this headpiece, made by hand and divine.

blue was the perfect pair of kitten heels.

and borrowed was this necklace, which now belongs to my mother and had belonged to my great-grandmother frances before her.

it felt so special to wear such a precious thing on such an important day. i loved having a part of gram with me at my wedding, and again at our reception in salt lake, which just happened to be on our birthday, mine and gram's.

it was just right.

and now, on an only slightly related and completely non-sentimental note, do you think if you brought beyonce and jay-z's baby to your wedding it would count as borrowed and blue?

peek-a-photo

since i won't be seeing AWD's face until tomorrow, i decided to put it on the blog today. and lucky for you, because that means another wedding photo sneak peek, this one shot by kirstin roper (who we loved, loved, LOVED!) before our reception in salt lake.




man, i could live that day every day for the rest of my life.

wedded. bliss.

i only have a very small sampling of photos from the wedding so far, but i've received some vaguely threatening e-mails (hi, kate! hi, emdawg!) so hopefully these will tide everyone over until the professionals have finished their magic.

speaking of which, our wedding day was magic, too. everything went off beautifully and just as we had hoped. i can't wait to tell you all about it.

except, actually, i can wait. for a little bit at least. because for now i am going to bed. i hope you can wait, too. but don't worry, it won't be for long, my babies. it won't be for long.

tomorrow i am getting married.

and i couldn't be happier about it.

i'll see you on the flip side, my babies.

the rain in spain

it turns out that three days before your wedding is not the ideal time for your basement to flood.

especially when your basement is stacked from floor to ceiling with your roommate's boxes, ready to be moved out, and your husband-to-be's boxes, ready to be moved in.

throw in a big bonk on the head while moving piles of dripping paper and cardboard to the garbage can, and you have a pretty rough morning.

luckily, we survived. and so did almost all the things. the mess is cleaned up and we still had time to make all the wedding dinner favors and go to a little engagement party at AWD's work.

i am actually pretty proud of myself for only breaking into massive and uncontrollable tears once. but, if anything goes wrong tomorrow, i'll probably lose it for good.

(no) labor day

how was your labor day weekend?

i watched a french movie, went to the grocery store, went to the temple, went to the mall, went out to dinner, went to church, had my trial wedding hair and make-up done by EH and miss angela, ate a leisurely lunch at bayou bakery with EH and miss angela, picked up my wedding dress and went to the mall again.

it all went pretty well, though the ending of the french movie, "the hedgehog," was really tragic and sad. in happier news, the beignets at bayou bakery are a little piece of fried and sugared heaven.

and now we are in the home stretch! the mama bear arrives tomorrow, dad and ben the day after, AWD's parents the day after that and then the day after that is the wedding.

man alive.

i had every intention of doing a bunch of blogging this week to tell you all about the wedding preparations and all the wisdom and insight i have now as a soon-to-be-married lady, but i think i just have to be honest and tell you that might not happen. i mean, wedding dinner favors don't put themselves together, you know?

not to mention that i am obsessively checking the weather for saturday (currently 30 percent chance of rain) and the path of hurricane katia (looks like our honeymoon destination will emerge unscathed).

so, wisdom and insight might just have to wait, though hopefully i'll get some of my favorite wedding details up here before the wedding itself.

four more sleeps. i can hardly believe it.

this was my weekend. how was yours?

friday night a storm rolled in with thunder so loud you thought the sky might split open right above your head.

it was the perfect kind of night to curl up with AWD, a sewing project and a little "friday night lights." so that is exactly what i did.

saturday dawned sunny and warm, so we loaded up our bikes and drove out to antietam to bike the battlefield. the only thing that could have possibly made the day better would have been if we had remembered to bring sunscreen. i am rocking a pretty sweet farmers' tan that better be gone by the wedding.

we stopped at the most luscious farm stand on our way out of town for fresh peaches and corn and squash and zuchini bread, and then made our way to winchester for an early birthday celebration with AWD's family.

it was nice to get away from all the wedding madness and spend some time thinking about things other than mini cupcakes and seating charts and dress fittings.

actually, who am i kidding? i love thinking about mini cupcakes any time.

rain and other showers.

i had a bridal shower last weekend and it was lovely.

the original idea was to have a picnic shower at hains point with croquet and bocce ball and general outdoor merry-making. but then it started pouring rain (are we seeing a theme in weekends around here lately?) so we moved the picnic inside. and that was delightful, too.

EH, being the party planner extraordinaire that she is, knocked it out of the park with the most adorable details and little surprises. included my new a&f shirt. clever, huh? and ck sent cookies as big as your face from new york and miss angela brought a big bunch of cheery yellow balloons and it was just the best night.

of course, mostly it was the best night because i got to spend it eating and laughing with so many of my favorite ladies (including laura on the computer! miss you!). every single person there was a person i just really adore. i felt so lucky.

one of the questions someone asked me during the present opening/question-and-answer period was what i am most looking forward to about being married. and this was my answer.

i have felt so overly blessed my entire life to be surrounded by such kind and talented and unique and loving and giving and forgiving friends who have loved me for me and who always had my back and my best interests in mind no matter what. when it comes to friends i have always been rich beyond measure, and even when i have felt a little lonely i have never truly felt alone. i consider this a great miracle.

and from those friends i have really learned how to be a friend and how to be a giver and what i am looking for as i gather the people i want to be around me. i really think a lifetime of good friends prepared me to choose a partner for my lifetime.

so what i am most looking forward to about being married is getting a friend like that and a husband all rolled into one.

there is, of course, other stuff i am looking forward to, too. but my parents read this blog. and so do AWD's. so i'll leave it at that.

(wink, wink.)