It's My Party and I Can Cry If I Want To!

So, a lot has been going on since my last post- some bad, mostly good....anyway, we have been busy as can be imagined!
In preparation for the wedding, I decided to experiment last week with bottling cocktails in order to make it easy for guests to have a craft cocktail without a bartender (I will post more details about this project in the future)! When cleaning the labels off of Topo Chico Bottles with a caustic solution, I accidentally splashed my right eye with chemicals and suffered a pretty bad (mainly ugly) burn that lasted throughout the week. With Nathan also having a nasty staph infection on his leg, we spent a lot of time last week traveling to the pharmacy and hoping for the best!
On a more positive note, Nathan started working on a homebrew recipe for the wedding in his free time, and I started another day job at my favorite local lunch spot, where I will be working a few weekday mornings in order to make a little extra cash for the wedding. We also got big news that one of our besties Maddie (that now lives in Washington) agreed to travel to Texas for the big day and be a bridesmaid!

On Friday, we traveled to Austin to spend the weekend with some of our close friends and family in the area. LeAnn Artis (Nathan's mom's best friend) threw us a little shin-dig on Saturday evening- it was really special! Although I am incredibly emotional on a regular basis, I could not help but be a little overwhelmed with love from the wonderful people in our lives. My family is not one to throw big parties for birthdays or graduations, so having so many people gather together to celebrate our love for one another brought me to tears pretty quickly! (It was a bit embarrassing- I am hoping to get the crying out of the way now instead of at the wedding itself- yeah, right.)

Me and my oldest bestie Morgan- love her!

We are blessed with wonderful family and friends!

I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures for the blog (much less eat anything) at the party! We did not get one of Nathan and I together, but thanks to my sister for sending me some of her pictures. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate, and thank you for all the wonderful gifts. 

Some days I wake up and feel it is surreal to be so loved. 

While I paid for it the next day- it was a great time!

We got some beautiful cards and gifts- so lucky!

Bianca got us some hot body grilling aprons!! haha

The Guest List: Thoughts on Friendship

I guess I have been thinking a lot lately about feeling included, and it seems ironic that my main goal for this week is getting our invitations out in the mail. While I decided to take the easy way out and design and purchase our invitations online, it still means we have to finalize our guest list. I have heard before that doing your guest list can be the most stressful part of the wedding planning- obviously, because you must decide whom to include on one of the biggest days of your life. And with a large family and a small budget, sure enough- these tasks have been equally challenging and thought provoking.

We all know "that group" of childhood friends that grew up together, went to college together and are all still the best of friends. While both Nathan and I have great friends from every stage of life, we do not have this. We both grew up in small towns, moved away to college and met new best friends. Then we moved to another state, and made connections with new people from all over the country. When we moved to another country, we made special bonds with people that shared our experience. We have worked with many interesting people that have touched our lives and taught us about ourselves.

One of the first tasks in planning your wedding is deciding whom to include in your wedding party, which seems to force you to define the relationships you have with your close friends. Our environments and influences have consistently changed, but these friends have helped us to feel included in their lives, even if we were far away. They were instrumental in our lives in the past, and will be important in our future together. With that being said, there are many people that are very special to us that are not in our wedding party- I hope they know how much we love them. 

What I mean to say in this blog post, is that our lives have been touched by many wonderful people- and there is no way we can possibly include all of them on our wedding day. When finalizing our list and addressing our wedding invitations this week, I am grateful that we could add many more names if our budget allowed. I am so proud of our friendships. I feel so grateful that our lives have been filled with love and laughter.

DIY Wedding is 100 days away!

After a move to humid Houston, a year of crazy work hours, endless phone calls, wedding emails, and a knee surgery, we are 100 days away from our wedding day! The last year has been an adjustment, but we are now settled in to domestic life, and I have decided to share some of our upcoming wedding projects and events here on my blog!

We have been to several weddings this year- this was at Brad and Heather's in June- fun times!

As you know if you are a returning reader, we traveled a lot in 2013 for Nathan's education (which has come in handy- his work life is pretty great.) Unlike some traditional couples that have planned and saved money for their wedding, we have had a pretty small budget going into this thing. Our families have been incredibly loving and helpful along the way, so asking them to throw us an elaborate black tie affair was pretty much out of the question. Instead, we decided to put a little more personal time and creativity into an approachable "Do It Yourself" wedding- a wedding inspired by our love for each other, an event that will allow us to spend quality time with the people we love, in a beautiful place.

Nathan hard at work in the Karbach Brewery Lab!

So, we found a beautiful and very affordable location along a river in Texas (we prefer the fall here, which happens to be the "off season" in this area= perfection) and have encouraged our friends and family to make plans to join us for the weekend.

A pic we took last fall at our wedding venue in Concan, Texas along the Frio River- beautiful!

I recently quit my restaurant management job in order to spend more time with my husband-to-be, and our friends and family for the next 100 days. While I am still working part time, this move has allowed me to save a lot of money doing most of the wedding planning on my own. While I would not recommend everyone plan their wedding on their own, I am a "event planner" by nature (I grew up in a wedding business which my family still owns, and have been professionally organizing other people's special event food for some time now.) Not to mention, we are surrounded by creative and fun loving individuals that are helping to make this whole thing happen. Some days are more challenging than others, but so far I am enjoying myself. Stay tuned for the upcoming 100 days of wedding planning- it should be a wild and rewarding ride.