Love and marriage
Love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage... Its in your head now, huh? Ahahaha
Anyways, this post is really really late. Like 4 months late. Its weird because it was such an amazing thing and I've been really excited to talk about it, but every time I try it just doesn't come out right! I've written and rewritten it an embarrassing number of times, which has caused me to second guess it and put off posting anything. I don't know what the deal is! Is this what they call "writers block?" Whatever it is, its annoying and I don't like it. Maybe its because this was so special and important and I feel like my writing doesn't do it justice. Or maybe I'm just chronically tired - that's a distinct possibility, supported by physical evidence (did someone say "eye bags?"). Whatever the reason, I've decided to just share my most recent attempt and hope that it comes across okay and that people don't unsubscribe because they think I'm lame.
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This summer was CRAZY BUSY! Like absurdly busy - especially July. We had my birthday, then John's birthday 4 days later, then our wedding 4 days after that, then my mother-in-law's birthday 2 days after that. Then I moved into my husband's house, which meant fitting the contents of my full house + basement into his already-full house + basement. Combined with summer staffing at work (meaning lots of mandatory overtime) it made for a beyond exhausting, but completely amazing, month.
Then in August my son turned 8, so he got his Harry Potter birthday party. I'm not even going to write about it - I just wanted an excuse to show how cute he was with his Hagrid-inspired cake.
Behold, my Stinker.
So all of that happened, and blogging kinda got moved to the back burner of my life. Because, in case you didn't catch the big news I mentioned up there... I GOT MARRIED!!! And I'm SO HAPPY!!! I'd like to insert some snarky comment about what a lucky man he is, but let's be real - I'm the lucky one. He's wonderful and handsome and sweet and bald and he can cook and I adore him. And he's pretty much the best stepdad in the history of stepdads. I can't imagine a better summer than one where I had the privilege of marrying my best friend. One where his house turned into our house (which is looking pretty sharp with the new baking nook). One where I gained an amazing stepson, and my son got a brother. One where we officially became a family.
Obviously, our entire summer pretty much centered around the wedding - especially since we had it in our backyard. Planting flowers, hanging lights, preparing food, cleaning the house, building planter boxes...
Even "casual" weddings are a lot of work.
But one thing that really became obvious during the whole process was that we truly have the best friends and family in the world - and that's not an exaggeration.
We had friends who threw us an incredible surprise engagement party
Some loaned us lanterns and tablecloths
(look closely... can you spot a good boy?)
One let me borrow her gorgeous headband
Friends and family helped us decorate and make food
My stepdad built a stunning table for our backyard
Friends helped us get a great deal on loose flowers, and family turned them into gorgeous arrangements
Our Tongan friends surprised us with stunning traditional handmade ginger leis to wear for the ceremony. And they roasted a delicious pig for everyone to feast upon!
Don't be jealous, but I have to say: we had the world's most handsome and regal ring bearer!!!
Meet Able. He is indeed the goodest of all boys.
I could go on and on about how much love, sweat and tears our people put into this. About how much our families helped, financially and emotionally. About all the subsequent help our friends provided when it came time to clean up after the wedding, and when it came time to pack up and move into his house. OUR house. (I love saying that)
Special shoutout to Luke & Kendall - I'm calling you out by name! We can never repay you two for everything you did for us. Truly. xoxo
So yeah. If marrying my best friend wasn't amazing enough, truly experiencing that much love and support from the people around us really took it to another level. We are lucky people.
The wedding went off without a hitch (see what I did there?) and everyone seemed to enjoy how relaxed it was, which was exactly what we were going for. We wanted it to be a cookout where we happened to get married, and we wanted to be in our favorite place - which is why we wanted it in our backyard. Home.
Going along with the casual theme, I opted to make our cake myself. I made chocolate cupcakes for everyone, with a small 6-inch vanilla cake for the hubs and me. It was kind of nerve wracking going into it because I didn't have a clear vision of what I wanted it to look like. I literally had to wing it and figure something out as I did it. All I knew was that there would be a model B-17 bomber on the cake as a tribute to our engagement, and that we would be using a wooden cupcake stand. That part was really special because it was first used at my dad and stepmom's wedding. Their wedding was absolutely phenomenal, so I felt like it might bring us a bit of good luck. And its super pretty, too!
I ended up deciding on a blue & white, sky-looking design to compliment the little B-17. I thought about doing white frosting clouds, but opted for patches of blue flowers instead. I was afraid that tufts of marshmallowy looking clouds would make it look too cartoonish and kiddish. (are those words? If not, they should be.)
For the cupcakes, I kept the blue color and did a basic rose swirl. I kept the chocolate brown liners showing on half, then used some beautiful white paper cupcake wrappers on the other half to break things up a bit. I also thought it made them look more weddingish. (I'm just gonna go ahead and make up whatever words I want today)
They looked pretty enough, but somehow it still felt too... monotone. There was just something missing. I had some silk flowers left over from a prior project - some in a salmon color and others in a blushy pale blue-green. They were sitting in a Michael's bag right by my other baking supplies, and I didn't have time to go shop for anything else. So, a couple of hours before the ceremony, I started cutting them and randomly sticking them in and praying that they didn't look awful. In the end, I think they turned out really pretty! That little bit of color really made all the difference. I was just so relieved that they turned out OK and that the hubs liked it.
So yeah - if you ever plan on making your own wedding cake, try to have a plan on what you want to do before the day of. Otherwise its a tad bit stressful.
Fortunately for us, because of the help from our family and friends, the rest of the day was surprisingly relaxed. I couldn't have asked for a better day, a better husband or a better wedding! I got to marry the love of my life, and did so while surrounded by the most amazing people. It was just perfect.
