Practice Makes Perfect?

Ah, the joys of the wedding week chaos and last minute issues. I would have taken the entire week off, given the opportunity! It was so hard to close up a quarter, pack for 3 weeks and a 50 degree difference in temperature, remember all the wedding requirements (forgot some), and get my butt to Colorado. I get the "local" wedding benefits now, but in the end I wouldn't have changed my location or plan for the world!

This post is primarily discussing the day of the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Let me tell my story!

The day of our rehearsal, my planner and various other brides gave me the advice to "escape" the family for some alone time with Kyle to de-stress. Being that Kyle makes me really happy, I figured this was a great plan. Being that he can also drive me crazy because he is so laid back, this could have also backfired. Luckily, I was proven to be calm in the face of adversity when, after the massage and little fall hike, and a light lunch downtown Vail, I got a phone call.

My officiant was terribly ill, his car had broken down (transmission), and he wasn't going to make it up to Vail for our rehearsal.

Ok, this we can work with. I begged him to rest up so that he could make it up to our actual wedding, which he promised he would! Then I calmly called my planner, and told her it was all her for the actual rehearsal. We were just meeting up in a park, and the real "practice" was the walking order and standing formation. It would have been nice to run through the ceremony and the music, and our vows, but we had a copy of the complete ceremony so we knew what we needed to do. We should have taken the time to practice the first dance flash mob (more on this later) and the toast we planned for the end of the ceremony (which got left out in the actual wedding anyway.) In the end, it all worked out although I was pretty overwhelmed and a bit stressed out with so many people paying attention to me at the park.

Kyle would explain this afternoon a bit differently:

Phone rings.
Erica: "What! Oh! Ok, well, will you make it to the wedding itself?! I guess that is the best we can hope for..."
to Kyle: "Um, omg, we totally don't have an officiant and we have to run the rehearsal ourselves!"
Kyle: "Call Johnna."
Erica: calling her mom "Ok, so we just got news that our officiant is not coming. Hopefully he'll make the wedding tomorrow. If not, at least Brett is ordained."
Kyle: "Call Johnna."

Later that afternoon, arriving at the rehearsal at the park.
Erica: "Why is everyone asking me questions and wanting to talk to me!?"
Kyle: "You're the bride. Where's Johnna?"
Erica: "Can you just make everyone give me some space and leave me alone?"
Kyle: "Johnna, can you get everyone away from Erica so she can stop freaking out?"
Erica: "Kyle, why aren't you taking charge and telling people what to do?!"
Kyle: "Erica, you are the only one who knows anything right now, besides Johnna. Ask the right person!"
Erica: "Let's just get this over with. I can't handle all the attention."
Kyle: "That's a first..."

Lesson in this: Get a planner.

Anyway, in the end our rehearsal dinner at Montauk was a lot of fun! Lots of friends, wine, and gifts for the wedding party. Kyle got his groomsmen cooler bags, grilling spice, koozies, and a meat brand that said "Bite me".

I got my bridesmaids custom necklaces and earrings to match the colors of their dresses, monogrammed tote bags, pashmina shawls to keep warm, and nail polish (which I had sent earlier).

We also presented our parents with gifts of thanks. We got Rob an authentic Buddhist prayer bowl (that rings, hard to explain but it is freaking cool) from India and Peg a strand of Tahitian pearls. We got my dad guitar pick shaped cufflinks that said "Dad, you rock!" and my mom a necklace engraved with my parents' anniversary date and then our anniversary date, adorned with the the stones for each month of the weddings, a pearl and a sapphire.

Enjoy some of my favorite pictures.

With my gift bow bouquet in front of our venue.

Kyle and Jared practicing the first dance.

With the savior Johnna, our planner

Handing me off!

Practicing in the park- with the most beautiful of backdrops!

Speech!

The Davis Kids and spouses! Nick, Shannon, Karen, Casey, Kyle, me, Brett, Anji.

My favorite picture- our Vail Gondola, which we have 3 pictures in now!

With aunt Pat and uncle Jim

Groomsman gift

Parents gifts

Happy flower girl Lotus!

Happy flower girl Rory.

My family- Bryce, Amanda, Cassie, Mom, Dad, Brian, Irina

Kyle's boys all matched for the occasion! Dave, Brian, Nick, Pat

I just love this face!!!

Gifts for my maids of honor

The necklaces were all personalized with their initials and colors.

Wedding Recap Part I

So, I am back. Sorry for the delay and absence. I know you missed me every minute of your day.

I want to go back through some of my favorite things about our wedding. First, it will help cure the post-wedding blues that I've only been avoiding with a busy work and social schedule up until this point. Second, I reviewed many other weddings, so I must review my own. Third, you KNOW you want to hear more!

I am going to start by talking about the events leading up to the actual wedding. For one, making programs. This became a huge task because I put it off for so long, and of course I wanted to make them really unique, so I stressed over content, format, materials, construction... My awesome friend Nadja came over to help one weekend while Kyle was at his bachelor party in Vegas. We ran out of card stock, had to wait because Hobby Lobby is closed on Sundays, got FedEx/Kinkos to professionally cut them so we saved our hands from arthritis, (They are the BEST and their machine rocks), and had lots of wine.

Here is the result:

Photo courtesy of Devon Adams Photography

Along with programs, my sister-in-law, Karen, helped me to construct our table "numbers" which were named for places Kyle and I love in Colorado. We ordered picture frames off Etsy, added labels, and inserted photos of Kyle and me at the locations. Here is a compilation of the frames:

I think they turned out pretty cute!

My mom and in-laws helped to construct the aisle runners, which made the aisle space a bit tighter than we expected for 3 people (both dads got caught up on the trees), but were SO beautiful and just what I imagined.  Here is a shot of them, I am sure you'll see more when I get the wedding pictures themselves posted.

Photo courtesy of Devon Adams Photography

So, as you can see, the details really started to come together nicely. I think that my vision was pretty close to the final result! 

Wedding Review!

Unless any of you are planning on a quick engagement, I think that we have officially attended our LAST wedding as two separate last names! That makes it #24 out of 7 years. We are really touched that we had so many friends and family who wanted us to help celebrate, and hope that they are all excited to be a part of our day.

This past wedding celebrated my college friend Sarah, who really became my friend after college, but the sorority started it all! Sarah is part of our ski gang, always reliable for hitting up the slopes and going down any run with you. She married Jason in Wyoming, the first time I've ever been there, and here are some of my favorite details from the wedding:

J Crew bridesmaid dresses and cowboy boots!

When they left up the aisle, the sign said "Just hitched"

My friend/bridesmaid Jenna's son Arthur and the cute (and delicious) program!

Love this dress for her! So elegant!

This location was just gorgeous! The rain even held off just long enough for the ceremony!

Check out Kyle's Western digs! And can you start to see the difference in our size?!

The place cards and menus- Baby's Breath centerpieces were also aisle decorations.

Gift table with cute banner, and nice card box!

Candy bar!

So many delicious cupcakes, so little room on the diet for sweets :(

I absolutely LOVE this cake. It is just perfect.

Me with Sarah

All the Delta Gamma ladies! We are a cute bunch.

2011 Review

Of all the years of my life, each one seems to get progressively better. 2011 was an amazing year. I have so many wonderful people in my life, as shown by the tremendous support I've received for my wedding, my blog, and all of life's other activities. I cannot wait to see what 2012 will bring. Here are my top 11 memories of 2011 (in no particular order).

1. Our 2-week fall road trip through Colorado in October. Seeing the beautiful colors that covered the state instilled a sense of awe at Mother Nature and renewed (like it was ever gone) my love for the mountains and fall colors. I got to see Aspen and hike the Maroon Bells, go to Crested Butte for the first time and stay in my first hostel, and visit Palisade and the Colorado National Monument.

2. Experiencing the births of many of our friends' first children. It has been amazing to watch (from afar) the little ones grow and learn.

3. Camping trips with two great groups of people, my coworkers and our annual camping trip friends, and getting to tour Tonto Natural Bridge and enjoy all of Payson's natural beauty, namely tall trees and the Rim.

4. Getting 8 ski days in last winter, with the best snow Colorado had seen for years. I skied Winter Park, Copper, and Steamboat with family and friends.

5. Running in the City Search Challenge in Phoenix, a sort of "Amazing Race" for the locals. It was more work than I anticipated, but a memorable and fun experience. 

6. Getting to go to Chicago not once, but twice, for 2 conferences for work. Common Core left some things to be desired, but NCTE (National Council for Teachers of English) was well worth my time.

7. On that note, getting ENGAGED in Chicago on June 26/27 and feeling more loved than ever before while enjoying each minute of our engagement thus far.

8. Christmas with both families, 3 in 24 hours to be exact, and making it work out so that we could be with everyone and see their faces while they opened all the gifts. 

9. Wedding planning, when it was not too stressful, meeting our photographer and planner and getting excited about the final product (our wedding) with everyone's creative input.

10. Sedona, AZ engagement photo session, from climbing in the freezing cold Oak Creek to get that "perfect shot" to changing outside the Chapel on the Rock to get pictures in my favorite outfit before the sun set altogether.

11. Going to Tucson for Kyle's birthday in January and touring the Mission San Xavier, Colossal Cave, and horseback riding through the desert.

Of course, there were many more memorable nights with friends and family, too many to count, and I have realized how lucky we really are to have the life we have. Aside from the events mentioned, successfully reaching over 5000 views on my blog has made me feel even more blessed and has been more rewarding than I ever imagined. Continue on! See you in 2012.

Maroon Bells October 2011

Kyle lounging with Maroon Bells

Fall Color!

My first family bar outing (the youngest is finally 21) in Denver October 2011

"The Bean"- Chicago, IL

City Search Challenge Starting Line

Christmas #3 in Minnesota

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Confession: All I Want for Christmas

I must confess, I am having a hard time enjoying Christmas when the much more-anticipated wedding is getting nearer and nearer each day. Every year, people look forward to the spirit of the holidays and the time with family, gift giving, and of course food. Well, I'll see you one Christmas and raise you one Wedding!!

Why weddings are more fun than Christmas (not that anyone out there will argue):
1. The cake. I love Christmas cookies as much as the next person, but cake wins, hands down.
2. DANCING. Christmas dancing is really reserved for New Year's Eve, not Christmas.
3. Dresses. It is much too cold in Minnesota to dress up on Christmas and be comfortable, so until I spend Christmas in Phoenix (which can also be freezing in December,) I give one more point to Weddings.
4. More friends and family. I don't know about you, but we are lucky that my immediate family can be together for Christmas. Weddings are filled with all the people you love, not just a select few.
5. Christmas may mean happiness and joy for a month or two, but my wedding will mean a lifetime of happiness and joy. (I know, I am so cheesy now that I'm a bride to be).

On that note, all I really wanted for Christmas this year was a wedding, and I am getting exactly what I want.

Christmas 2010 in Minnesota!

Confession: I'm not as amateur as I claim to be

I must confess, I have done this before.

By "done this" I mean worked on planning weddings. But not for myself, well, ok maybe for myself, in the guise of working on other friends' weddings, attending other friends' weddings, and everyone else's blogs and stories. I feel like a seasoned researcher, having attended about 20 weddings together with Kyle over the past six years of our relationship. I have seen it all, from the behind the scenes of getting ready with my bride friends, to the gamut of ceremonies lasting anywhere between 10 minutes and an hour, and watching from afar at weddings where we only knew the bride and groom. I have tasted nearly every cake flavor available (my favorite to this day is still Will and Brittany Heerman's chocolate Grand Marnier). I have seen every style of dress (this one's favorite goes to Lisa Houston's) and I have danced it up to live bands and DJs.

So, claiming to be a true "amateur" throughout the planning process is really a misnomer. I am by no means amateur when it comes to the details, the things the guests can see and experience. I am certainly, however, still an amateur when it comes to knowing when to plan our wedding details, and how to manage the time between working and planning. If I had all the time in the world, I am not sure I'd find the time to do everything that is in my head and make it reality.

But I'll continue to call myself amateur for the sake of this blog! By the time I'm through, none of you will be amateurs officially, either. :)

Some of my recent research:

From Jared and Beverly Ross's Wedding

The Importance of "We" Time

If nothing else during this engagement, I have learned to appreciate the time that I get to spend with Kyle when we aren't under the stress of work, chores, or even wedding planning. Our weekends away, which are quite frequent as has been the case throughout our relationship, are often the refreshing escape we need to be reminded of the bigger reasons we are together. I recommend that all couples going through the planning stages of a wedding, or even a child or buying a house, get away from it all to relax a bit and remain sane.

This makes me think back on some of my favorite travels with Kyle. Whether it was to Europe in the summer of 2009 to party in Pamplona during San Fermin (and running with the bulls), or paragliding off the Swiss Alps outside Interlaken, or closer to home in the Yosemite Valley watching the rock climbers on the face of El Capitan, and wine tasting in Sonoma, CA, I cherish our time away. It is these trips that not only help us expand our knowledge of the world, but also bring us back to the roots of our relationship- our mutual love of people, of nature, and of each other.

Recently, although on a scale not as grand as Europe, we got away a few times. The woods are quite relaxing, calming, and with our crazy friends, often extremely fun. Call me Emerson, but living in nature just brings about clarity of mind.

Teva Mountain Games- Vail, CO

Water Wheel Trail and Waterfall- Payson, AZ

Bear Canyon Lake, Rim Lakes, AZ

1st hour of engagement survival guide

Here are 11 tips from me and Kyle to help you survive the first hour of your engagement:

1.  Try to get engaged before 1 a.m. so you don’t have to wake up so many people, but if you must get engaged late in the night, make sure that the time difference between where you are at the time and your home is going to help solve this problem.

2. Have your phone nearby so you can immediately pick it up to call someone to tell them the news. It is also helpful because you forget about the number of people you need to tell until you consult your contacts. Don't let that number deter you from getting engaged due to the sheer number of contacts you have... a mass text will work.

3. A mass text is also a great form of communication so that everyone who is "important" is also "the first to know". You won't leave anyone off, unless they don't have a cell phone with text. And if they don't, why in the world are you friends with them? :)

4. Buy the bar a round of tequila shots after the deed is done, and then take at least 3 of them yourself.

5. Suggest that the bar change the music to romantic, wedding-themed music. But don’t dance to the music, save that for the wedding. You’re too drunk to make it look good, and everyone is looking at you, trust me.

6. Oh, by the way, get engaged at a bar or some other public institution where alcohol is served so that there are many witnesses in case the man freaks out and changes his mind, and it is preferable if someone around you has a camera to document the occasion, the pictures are priceless!

7. When you DO talk to family and friends, tell them as many details about the event as possible, because you will remember nothing (mostly due to the cheap champagne and tequila) and you will appreciate them filling you in later.

8. You’re not going to sleep that night if it is at night, or probably even if it was in the wee hours of the morning, unless you are the man, then you’re work is done here.

9.  Remember to look at something other than the beautiful ring on your finger. Perhaps the man who put it there. He is feeling neglected now.

10. DO NOT go FBO (Facebook Official) until all your relatives and close friends know. Who wants to find out about that on the internet? Besides, you’ll get TWICE as many wall posts that day as on your birthday, or the entire year combined, so give yourself time to mentally prepare.

11. Oh yea, you just got engaged. Love each other a little! Enjoy this moment. Don’t forget this feeling as you will need it to help you get through the wedding planning that is ahead.