Saturday, April 30, 2011

Chasing Cars - It's the Little Things

The details of the day are sometimes the things that are the most overlooked.  But - as every bride knows - you slave over them for hours, trying to come up with ways to make your wedding scream "YOU!", trying to make things fun and interesting and beautiful, and so you want some documentation of it, dammit!  So, to wrap up my recaps, I'll leave you with the details of our day.  All the little things that added up to make it just perfectly us.  Matt and Erin.

Up first, my grandmother's engagement ring, which I had asked JDK to wire into my bouquet.

And, of course, my bouquet.  I am considering just blowing this picture up.  I loved my bouquet.

My details - my bouquet, my perfume, my shoes (with the girls' writing on the bottom), my bracelet, and my purse.  I wish there was a better picture of my bracelet.  But in case you forgot...

The trolley.  I'm so glad we booked this as the wedding party transportation.  It was so much fun to all be together on the ride back after the ceremony, and this is so iconically Hershey.

The feather boutonnieres that my mom and BM Abriel's mom spent an afternoon crafting.

My wedding gift to Matt.  Rocky cufflinks.  Little did he know, the boudoir book was on it's way, too...
 

The program.  We printed 89 of them.  They were almost all gone.  And the tissue packets.

My mom did the ceremony decor.  I had purchased the tealight holders and candles (thanks, Ikea!).  She purchased the ikebana vases and then filled them with greens from their backyard.  I absolutely loved the way it all came together.  Afterwards, she gifted each of the girls and Pastor Cindy one of the ikebana vases.

My hairpiece.  From Etsy.  Love.

Our guest book.  We made a photo book on Shutterfly of pictures of things that were important to us: places we'd been together, our high school and college mascots, our favorite sports teams, etc.  The page it's open to in the picture happens to be the Barking Crab restaurant in Boston from the weekend we met.  In this photo you can also see the sign I made to announce the group photo location and time.

The escort cards.  We painstakingly made 88 cootie catchers (fortune tellers, whatever).  We folded them up and clipped them together to hold the actual escort cards.  I marked each escort card with different dots to let the catering staff know who got what meals.  I had a silly system to remember them: meat = brown, cuz meat is brown; fish = blue, cuz the ocean is blue; veggie = green, cuz, well, duh.  But it worked!

Our homemade wine favors.  We just finally cracked open a bottle the other night, and it's pretty good!

The table numbers.  These were pretty easy to make, and they turned out looking really good with the tables.

The flowers on the cake.  I heart you, JDK.

The centerpieces.  Again, JDK, you rule.

The bar.  Yup.  JDK doesn't just have those black rolling bar carts.  They did a full set up.  It was awesome.

The ring shot.  On the bar.  

So that's it.  I hope you've enjoyed reading about our wedding as much as I've enjoyed reliving it.  I wish I could to it every single day.  But you'd probably get pretty tired of me.  (c:

*All photos from Everlasting Images

Friday, April 29, 2011

Sometimes...

Sometimes one little thing is all it takes to turn a crappy day upside down and make it a happy day.  That just happened for me.

Ok, so the day started off well enough.  I woke up a little before my alarm and decided rather than lay in bed and torture myself, I'd go downstairs and see if I could catch any of the Royal Wedding shenanigans.  I turned it on just in time to see them recite their vows.  Kate looked just beautiful, and Wills was so handsome in his military uniform.  It was wonderful to watch them recite their vows.  They both look so nervous, and Kate was clearly trying so hard to keep herself together.  It was just adorable when the Bishop officially pronounced them as husband and wife - Kate flashed a big smile then seemed to catch herself so as not to show too much emotion.  Girl, it's your wedding day and you just became a freakin princess - smile away!

Anyway, I got to work and the world sort of exploded.  I have two patients who are dying and I'm trying to quickly arrange hospice services for them so that they and their families have support.  One of them is a 47-year-old man with a 4-year-old daughter.  Brutal.

I also was bombarded with families and patients who have lots of questions and concerns about discharge plans.  And everyone seems to need to talk to me right now.  It's hard having to juggle all of that. 

I have multiple placements to work on, including a psych placement.  One psych placement alone has the ability to eat up several hours of your day, so when I found out about this one in rounds at 11am, I was none too pleased. 

BUT.  A friend of mine let me in on a secret that my favorite band is coming to Philadelphia.  I already missed the opportunity to buy tickets for their first show, so when she told me about this one, I joined the fan club so I could get pre-sale tickets.  They went on sale today at noon.  After some issues with my computer, I went to my phone and ordered them using the browser on my phone.  Success!  Come Friday, August 5, I will be sitting at the Mann Center enjoying the music of my favorite favorite favorite - Death Cab for Cutie!  Ben Gibbard's voice is just angelic, and I'm also secretly hoping that his wife, Zooey Deschanel, will make an appearance, sit next to us in the audience, and become my new BFF.  Because I just love her. 

So that totally turned this day around for me.  I'm going to see Death Cab!!!!!   I cannot wait!

One of my favorite DCFC songs - The Sound of Settling

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Chasing Cars - Final Portraits

While the party raged on in the reception, our photographer stole Matt and I away for a few more portraits.  There is an antique car/wagon that is set up specifically for pictures, so we took advantage and got some really pretty shots.  I had really hoped that we would be able to get some pictures around some of the other cars and in some other "scenes" around the museum, but it just didn't happen.  We'd discussed all of this with our photographer when we met with her before the wedding, but she ended up being sick the day of our wedding, so we had replacement photographers.  They were good, and took beautiful pictures, but we didn't get everything we'd hoped for.  Oh well.  On to the pictures we did get...







I kind of wish the photographer had reminded me to change into my nice shoes
Finally, we headed back in to the reception and joined up with our friends.

photo from Karen

photo from Mish

photo from Mish

photo from Steph

photo from Steph

photo from Tammy



Sick of our ugly mugs yet?  Good, cuz that's the last you'll see of us.  Up next, I wrap up the recaps with all the details!

*All photos, unless otherwise noted, from Everlasting Images

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Royal Wedding!

I get it.  It's just a wedding.
But c'mon!  It's a regular girl marrying a Prince.  I mean, who hasn't wanted to be Kate Middleton in their lives?  She's going to be a Princess!  Hello?!  She's our age.  Well, at least, she's from our generation.  Look she would've been in high school when I was, so...therefore, she is my age.  Got it? 

Anyway.  Yeah, I admit it.  I've got Royal Wedding Fever.  I am absolutely dying to see what this thing is gonna look like.  The flowers, the decor, and - obviously - Kate's dress.  God, is that girl beautiful, or what?! 

No, I'm not planning to get up at 4am to watch it live.  I still have to work on Friday.  But if I didn't have to work, you can bet that I'd be up watching it.  I might even wear my wedding dress again.  You know, to really get in the spirit.  A la Friends.

(source)
I recently found a link to a party in New York City at the Salon de Ning (rooftop bar at the Peninsula) where they were encouraging women to wear their wedding and/or bridesmaid dresses.  But I can't find it anymore.  Bummer.  Cuz that looked super-fun! 

Or, if I lived or were anywhere near New York, I might have to go watch it in Times Square.  I mean, Randy Fenoli is hosting TLC's live coverage.  Who doesn't love Randy Fenoli?  Plus, there will be a wedding dress fashion show after the wedding.  I know, I'm done with my wedding and my planning, but that doesn't mean I don't still like looking at wedding dresses. 

All I know is that this is going to be one big huge event.  Kate will look gorgeous, Wills will look dapper, and the whole world is going to be watching the start of their lives together.  No pressure, guys! 

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Chasing Cars - Please Don't Stop the Music

Among our friends and family, there are certain things you can count on at weddings.  One is Matt's brother, Mike, morphing into John Travolta and doing the dance from Saturday Night Fever.





The other is what my girlfriends and I call "The Oh What a Night Dance." [yes, we're very creative] It's a line dance we learned in high school at this skeezy dance club we used to go to (I still can't believe our parents let us!).  It's to the song "Oh What a Night" and it is absolutely a must-have at every single wedding when we're all together.





Otherwise, there was still plenty of hot moves on the dance floor!








If you've seen the movie Airplane, you know what's happening here
photo from Mish
photo from Mish
photo from Mish
photo from Steph

photo from Steph
I had SO much fun out on the dance floor with all of our friends and family.  I wanted it to last all night long.  Up next, we take just a few more portraits...

*All photos, unless otherwise noted, from Everlasting Images