Weekend recap

Tuesday weekend recap is better than no weekend recap, right? 

 

Today I was 100% worthless at work, and then I forgot my phone at home so I couldn't even email myself the photos I took to get a blog post put together. Remember that one time I was super excited about taking nice photos all weekend and showing you guys what we were up to? You don't? Good. Let's not discuss the fact that I left my camera in the basement and these are all  cell phone pics. 

Friday morning, as I mentioned, we went to Fort Snelling for a quick memorial service for my grandpa. He passed away in February of 2011, and there was some debate over what to do with his ashes, and the family finally settled on putting most of them at Fort Snelling.. which makes me very happy. 

For one, he was in the Army for 6 years during WWII and deserves to be here. Not to mention although cemeteries are sad, Fort Snelling is breathtakingly beautiful, well manicured, and a place I will look forward to visiting to leave flowers and talk to him.

 They have a voluntary honorary color guard that does the 21 gun salute. Pretty touching to see these elderly men in uniform STILL dedicating themselves to their country by honoring fellow soldiers, marines, airmen, etc.etc.

 No joke, the dude 2nd from the left with the white flag had to be 100 years old. Serious dedication.

 We went to TGI Friday's after for lunch, and then took off for the lovely little farming town of Moorhead, MN.. where M was born and raised. His dad and his dad's girlfriend still live there on her homestead. (M's sister and her bf were also up visiting, so it was nice spending some quality time with them too!) I will say this- I'm happy with where I live in the cities, I love being close to everything, but I REALLY love having a place in the middle of nowhere to get away to. It's simple living, quiet, and pretty in its own way. They live in the middle of a cornfield that's surrounded by trees.

Here's the view up their driveway:

 A few weeks ago we'd gotten an email from M's dad that he had gone out to the car on a Sunday morning and saw a little ball of fur by the tire, barely moving. It was a baby kitten who was very near death. They brought her inside, fed her kitten formula from an eyedropper, warmed her up, and she was as good as new! I think they've decided to keep her. Her name is Cassie. Ready to die? Here she is:

 WAHHH. I melt. She quickly earned the nicknames Baby-Cassie,  Cassie-Pants, Sassy-Cassie, and Gassy-Cassie (I don't need to go into detail on the latter of those)

I spent a good portion of my weekend, like any true cat lady, snuggled up with Cassie.

 I am so in love with her! We may be back up in September when his other sister is home, and I kind of hope we do get up there before she gets too big!

 The rest of the weekend was spent out back doing a lot of this:

 Since they live in the middle of nowhere, shooting at a target is perfectly safe. I did not partake. Guns make me nervous, not to mention, I just really didn't feel like it. I did enjoy watching M shoot, and then borderline skip to the target. Big kid, I tell ya.

 annndddd because there isn't a TON to do in Moorhead, we headed into downtown Fargo (right across the Red River from Moorhead) and browsed an antique shop. I love putsing through antique shops, M and I always have a good time.

 Necessary apparel for the frigid winters in Moorhead.

 We then walked through downtown and stopped for a snack at the Hotel Donaldson. Imagine my surprise when they had truffle fries on the menu. Fries in general are a weakness of mine, but truffle fries? I barely know what a truffle is, but OMG it makes fries so good. Add some herbs and parmesean and enter nirvana.

 Sunday it was time to head back home for my friend's Pinterest Craft Fest.

I made 2 super cute signs out of burlap for the wedding. I'm going to take a photo and showcase those for you soon :-) 

Hope you all had a good weekend!

-Kelly

Bridesmaid dresses, photographers, engagement sessions

I've been a busy little wedding-bee since we last chatted. I was putzing along on Twitter the other day when imagine my surprise, I see a tweet that basically said:

"Target carries bridesmaid dresses. genius" annnddd my little heart leapt.

What do women love more then weddings and Target? Answer? NOTHING.

What I love even more? What you're about to look at, looks like they could be bridesmaid dresses from ANY boutique across the country. BUT? a FRACTION of the price tag. I lurve Target.

So, I put totether a few boards of the styles/colors/fabrics I liked. I've always wanted to do different styles. I think it looks nice, and I have 7 girls with VERY different figures/breast sizes, to be blunt. We have some busty babes, and some "just a handful" not to mention a 5'10" and a 5'0".. so, it was hard finding a "one sized fits all" approach to style. Or at least I thought so. That being said, all the designer lines where you can pick the same color/fabric but diff styles are insanely expensive. Call me crazy, but I was in knots thinking about asking people to pay $140+ for a bridesmaid dress.

Aside from my wedding dress, I never have and NEVER will pay more than $100 for a dress, unless forced to (i.e. I'm a BM myself). Prom dresses were both under $100. I just can't bring myself to spend that much money on any one item of clothing.

SO, imagine my delight in seeing target had a few styles of a few dresses in coordinating fabrics! Behold, my initial "design" boards made with MS Paint:

 I sent the 3 options to a few girls, knowing all the while I liked the chiffon best. I'm not even sure what "shantung" fabric is, but it scared me a bit. Looks a LEETLE like a garbage bag in the photos. and the sateen were a LEETLE bit too shiny for me. Sorry if any of you reading picked shangtung or sateen dresses, they COULD be gorgeous, but knowing we can't try them on before means photos are important. -- oh yeah, the dresses are all "online only"- which isn't ideal, but they all can be returned "in store".. plus, if they are a bit "off" in how they fit? at $70 a pop, I feel comfortable that alterations for a bit more still isn't unreasonable.

SO, the "chiffon" collection it is! I sent an email last night, and almost everyone responded right away, and so far we have 2 picking strapless, 2 picking 1-strap, one with the 2-straps... I love the variety, and I think the styles will look great together!

In other news, we met with a photographer on Tuesday that came recommended by a co-worker. I had the contract signed and deposit ready by Wednesday morning.

We went with: Agape Moments.

 I LOVE their style. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I wanted a photographer that

1) took the type of candid/non-posed "different" shots I liked naturally so I didn't have to feel like a crazy pants saying "did you get a shot like this? what about this kind?" and I could just relax and smile and put my total faith in them.

2) had the type of finishing style I liked. I LOVE the kind of vintage filter they use in a lot of their photos.

We emailed a bit today, and officially have an engagement shoot on the books for October 5 - a.k.a exactly 365 days before our actual wedding! How fitting! I'm sure the fact that it marks the 1-year mark will produce plenty of natural "grinning like an idiot" moments for the photos. Now begins the compulsive Pinterest scouring for outfit ideas for both of us. I cannot flippin wait.

Tomorrow we're having a long overdue small ceremony at Fort Snelling for my grandpa. He passed away in February of 2011, and was cremated. There was a lot of discussion about what to do with the ashes, and myself, along with others, were upset that there was not going to be SOMETHING at Fort Snelling. Scatter 98% of his ashes if you want, but I personally wanted a solid concrete place I could go on "important" days, to visit him, to leave flowers, to sit. Also? If anyone deserves to be at Fort Snelling it was my grandpa. He was the 2nd youngest lieutenant (I think that's the right designation, I could be off) in WWII. Fort Snelling is such a beautiful cemetery.. all the national cemeteries are.

Anyway, after that we're off to Moorhead for the weekend to visit M's dad and gf, his sister and her bf will also be up there, so I'm excited to get to spend some quality time together! She just found out she got into the U of M law school on a special program that allowed her to skip the LSAT! (LUCKY. soooooo jealous. hahaha).. so, I'll be sure to take some pics and post a recap Sunday or Monday!

-Kelly

Wedding DIY: Burlap table runners

I'm currently loving the fact that it's only 3:00 on a Sunday, I haven't spent a single second of the day studying -- which still is taking some getting used to -- and I've already spent hours on DIY.

I'm 1/2 done, but done enough to where I can update you on the how-to. 

You may remember last week I posted this photo of my 100 yards of burlap that came in the mail: 

TJ is a very hands-on cat when it comes to wedding decor. 

Some day last week I decided to start on my table-runner project. I had emailed the venue coordinator to find out how long the tables were, but seeing as how I have no patience, I measured and cut all of these before getting a response. I cut them to 6 feet, and then found out 2 days later the tables are 7 and a half feet. Which is fine, they just won't dangle over the edge. 

So, I rolled out the burlap like so:

 And measured it out with a tape measurer. TJ provided quality control.

 I cut it straight across, and then went back and cut all the ends into a "V" like so: 

 I had seen the "V" on Pinterest and loved the way it looked. The only problem was, the Pinterest runners were professionally produced, so they were a bit cleaner than my scissored V's. Also, I know burlap has very rustic connotations, and while I wanted the texture of the burlap, I still wanted it to have a classy element to it, since our reception location is more modern than rustic. 

TJ agreed

 SO, I picked up some ribbon from Michael's-- the point of my trip the day I bought invitations. 

It's a pretty half cream, half creamy sheer ribbon, with a teeny tiny sparkly/shiny stripe separating the 2. Super technical description. 

I cut the end of the ribbon so it'd but up against the edge of the runner without any overlap, and also cut it so the 2 sides would meet at a perfect V at the tip. 

From there, I laid out a small strip of glue and put the edge of the ribbon down. Like this: 

 The trick is, since burlap is kind of porous, I'd have to lay the glue, lay the ribbon, press the ribbon down lightly, and then pick up the burlap and ribbon and squeeze it with my fingers as it cooled. Otherwise the whole thing would wind up glued to the notebook underneath. 

Here's what the first half looked like:

 Repeat on the other side, and voila:

 I repeated the process with all 25 table runners. We're shooting to invite 250, and hoping around 225-230 or less show up. I'd rather be safe than sorry in making more, and having to scramble to make a tables worth of DIY's after the RSVPS all come in. 

Here are a few more lined up

 I only did one end of all the runners. 

TJ and I decided it was time to quit after that, and relax. 

I swear I don't pose him for these photos. He wouldn't sit still if I bribed him. He does, however, take inordinate amounts of joy in diving into the plastic bag full of ribbon I had next to me.. and then he started to attack the scissors. 

Anyway, those are the table runners! Here's the cost breakdown: 

100 yards of 8 inch burlap + shipping = $60

6 spools of ribbon at $1.50 a pop = $9

hot glue gun = $4

glue gun sticks $3

That boils down to $3.04 a table. 

When I googled "burlap table runners" to see what they'd go for retail, to make sure this project was in fact saving me money, google told me people pay $10-$12 a runner. woof on that. 

Not to mention I'm using the burlap, ribbon, and glue gun for a few other projects (a "Thank You" banner for our Thank You's, and a "Mr <3 Mrs" banner for the head table) which I will bring to you at a later date! 

-Kelly

That time I went to buy ribbon and bought wedding invitations instead

Well, for the first REAL time since getting engaged and having adequate time to look into the "details" I wandered into a Michael's yesterday in search of ribbon and glue to line my burlap table runners (post coming soon!)

I was scouting the fake flowers for my centerpieces (submerged flowers w/floating candles) and rounded the corner and stopped dead in my tracks. On the "clearance" rack were DIY invite kits.

Let's back up, I feel like I knew at some point, long ago, that Michael's had these. I did a mental "OH! that's neat. I'll have to remember that." That thought was most likely later replaced by 30 income tax flashcards. So imagine my surprise when I walk in and see selections of the DIY invite kits were on sale, from $40 to $10.

I posted originally that I was interested in something like this:

We're not really doing set "colors".. but I've been drawn to tans, creams, black. Think cream ribbon lined burlap, sunken white flowers, black lanterns with candles,.... it's more of a "feeling" I want to achieve without restricting myself to "green and yellow" or something of that nature. Ya dig? I think it'll look nice with the limestone accent wall, uplighting, and ceiling drapings at Como.

Anyway, I've had to take a "reality check" here and there with this wedding. Here are some truths:

1. NOBODY will care about the invites 1/2 as much as I do. As long as they're not printed on an 8x11 and folded into thirds (which is what my dad thought I meant when I said DIY) people will look and think "aw, nice." and put it on the fridge.

2. As much "fun" as custom making/crafting/and lovingly assembling invites myself would be, the cost would add up faster than I expected. I can almost guarantee that. Even if we're talking about buying nicer paper, a fun stamp, and envelopes ... we're already at $30. Easy.

That being said, there was no way on earth I could pass up invites for $30, that look like they were professionally done. And in some respects, they are! Professionally designed at least, by BRIDES magazine.

Here they are!

M's reaction when he saw them? "THEY SAY SARAH AND PETER!?"...bless him. This was the insert in the box to give you an idea of what it'll look like. The rest are blank, and you print your own info on them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally compromising on my "ideal" invitations. Long before I saw that lace wrapped beaut up top, I have always been drawn to somewhat contemporary invites. I also have always loved the "swirl" design. I have no idea why, I'm just drawn to it.

The part with the text actually pulls out, the little flap-looking thing on the left is a folded over envelope, with a cut out of the same design that's on the actual invite. Kind of a 'peekabo' window, if you will. There were matching RSVP cards, large envelopes, and small envelopes all inside as well. They happened to have 3 sets of these kind of invites (4o in each box) on sale for $10 a piece. No passing that up. They come with a website and instructions for a template on how to print them off on a home computer!  

M just laughed at me last night and said.. "We have 14 months dear. Yet, we're going to be done planning in about 2 months."......

Your point? :P

I'm looking forward to playing with fonts and wording to really make it our own. I think a good font can change the entire look!

That's it for this edition of the over-prepared bride. Stay tuned for a table runner tutorial :)

-Kelly

The ring

As promised, the bar exam is over, and bride-brain has returned. :-). 

I got lost on a blog the other day, I don't even remember the name, and stumbled on a post dedicated to the ring. I then checked my posts and realized I never really posted about the ring, or even a close up photo of the ring, or the story behind it. 

Let me preface this with saying, I've been kind of weird about what I post on FB. I always thought I'd look forward to posting a shot of the ring. But, something happened. I can't really pinpoint it, but I found the people on FB who posted the least were the ones I was most intrigued about their wedding details. It adds an air of mystery, and it almost adds an element of class to it. This isn't ENTIRELY what prompted my decision to keep things off FB. More so, I came to the realization that... I want to share these moments with the people who are in my life and who I interact with and who make time for me. If you're not invited to the wedding and you're not a part of my life, I kind of don't want you knowing about these very personal details. I know I sound crazy, and it's just a ring and a wedding, but... it's just how I've grown to feel about it. 

Throw on top of it the fact that I know there are girls are out there, and I feel bad saying I used to do this..back in the day.. who see "ring photos" and then text and gossip with their friends, saying things like "did you see her ring?" It wasn't until I got engaged that I realized just how defensive I became about my ring/my wedding. I realize it's not everybody's style, but it would crush me to think of people who aren't even in my life, talking shit about it. It's totally changed my outlook on when I see others posting photos of their rings/engagements on FB. I'm 100% less critical. 

End rant. That being said, I feel 100% comfortable sharing it with 39+ (the + is for you lurkers.. you know you're out there... ;-) ) pseudo-strangers!

SO, onto the good stuff. M and I never went shopping for a ring. It was a choice both he and I made. We wanted it to be a 100% surprise (as much as you can surprise a girl with 'proposal radar' that was on 24/7). So, it was a bit strange, but even in the months leading up to the proposal, we talked about a marriage timeline in vague terms. I know this is the most important piece of jewelry I'll ever own, and some people think I'm nuts for not wanting to pick it out, but I had 2 feelings on it.. 

1) If I can't drop/he can't pick on adequate hints..well..I wasn't doing my job.

2) It symbolized a promise from him, a gesture on his part, and that was enough. Knowing that he picked it, he bought it... doesn't matter what it looks like. It came from him, I'd love it. (CHEEZEBALLS). 

Enter: Pinterest. 

I had been pinning things to a board titled "For the 'big day'" for a while now. Yep, I was that girl. Whatevs. Anyway, I must have been pinning one night on the couch, and M got a glimpse of my wedding board. He then went as far as to stop me, and browse the board a bit. I didn't think anything of it. 

I had pinned a few rings, without any idea what price point they were, what stores they were.. it could've been Harry Winston for all I knew. I was just pinning for style. After M proposed, we were driving in the car to dinner and he says "so, do you recognize the ring?" 

Huh? No. 

He says, "you pinned this ring on Pinterest." 

annnndd my jaw drops. At some point in the blur that was the next few days, I checked my Pinterest board and BAM- there she was: 

Just sitting there, all unassuming. M said he pulled up my Pinterest board on his ipad, walked into Shane, and said "I want that." 

SO, in some twisted roundabout way, I got to have my perfect non-shopping-beforehand proposal AND still got the pick my perfect ring. God bless my technie-ingenious fiance. 

Now, want to see photos of my ring doing cool things? OKAY!

Scrabble has always been kind of a part of our relationship, especially in the early days.. so one of the first things I did was whip out the Scrabble board and re-create a Pinterest idea. Can't really see the side details of the ring there. And below, a product of boredom at work: 

 You may have read in our proposal story (see the "Our Wedding" tab!) that M got a parking ticket in the 5 minutes it took him to propose. Kind of hilarious, when he calmed down. Anyway, here's an artsy/ironic/funny photo I took of the ring and the ticket (which we've saved). You can see some detailing on the side of the ring better in this one:

 Annddd a slightly more close-up straight on shot of the ring:

I love the halo of diamonds around the center stone. One of my only real big wishes for the ring, is that it'd have a halo. 

Anyway, there she is in detail and with a background. :-) I love her. 

Stay tuned for an upcoming post titled: burlap, a love affair. 

Starring TJ... and burlap. 

Just kidding. But remember how I said in my MN Bloggers guest post I had burlap coming? It arrived later that day! I've already cut it down to begin my project. AND I even remembered to take photos. Your lucky day, people. :-) 

-Kelly

Minnesota Bloggers

Hi guys!

Just wanted to let you know, I'm over here today guest posting:

You can head over there to read 5 things about me you may or may not have known. Actually, that's a bit insulting to all of you. If you've hung around here at all, you know these things, but still- feel free to head over! And while you're at it, check out some other cute Minnesota Bloggers ;-)

-Kelly

Girls night and a fireball

This is a short story of how a seemingly innocent girls night can go terribly wrong in a matter of minutes. 

Intrigued? Good. Stick around, and you'll find out what I'm talking about. ;-) 

Friday night I had some girls over for dinner and drinks, as I mentioned previously. Ever since I gave TJ a taste of the great outdoors (via leash and collar) he sits at the back door looking pitiful when people are on the deck. 

Exhibit A:

 The girls, minus Leah, on the deck. From L-R, Molly, Sarah, and Laura. I've known Molly since middle school. She's also a bridesmaid. Sarah and Laura were college friends of Molly that I've since gotten to know, and love :)

 This girl never says no to cheese.

 And a tasty little treat I call the "French Kiss" (equal parts chardonnay and Simply Lemonade brand Raspberry Lemonade. I've never tried it with another type of lemonade and I don't care to.. the Simply Lemonade stuff is just SO GOOD.

 The girls got a sweet action shot of me prying the cork out with my teeth. Yes, that's an electric wine opener next to me on the table, and no, apparently I don't quite know how to use it.

 Lemon cream pasta with asparagus. nom nom nom. Similar recipe (with brussel sprouts) HERE.

For the asparagus, I just blanched it (boiled it for 2 minutes, shocked it with cold water), and then diced it up into 1/3's, and sauteed it in olive oil with salt, pepper, red onions, and garlic. Lil' bit-o-basil and parmesean cheese on top.

 The remainder of the evening was relatively unassuming. We sat on the deck drinking, chatting, laughing. M came home from happy hour and joined the convo. We moved things inside when the bugs got bad, and continued the drinking, chatting and laughing. 

Then it started to rain. Nothing TOO bad, but heavy rain, and a "threat" of a potentially big thunderstorm. There was some thunder and lightning but again, nothing to seek shelter over. 

M started to fall asleep sitting up, so he dragged himself upstairs around 10:45. 

It was a little after 11 when there was a flash and a crack and then black. Power was out. I think I exclaimed something along the lines of "fuckkkkkkk." I just get annoyed with power outages. You don't realize how much you rely on power until you try to do little things and realize- oh wait, that too requires electricity. I stumble into the kitchen to get the lighter and start lighting candles in the living room. We're giggling because we're buzzed and it's kind of silly at this point. Then M comes RUNNING downstairs screaming "THE NEIGHBORS' HOUSE IS ON FIRE!" We run to the backdoor, look down the alley, and all you can see is this huge, intense, orange glow. The unmistakable flickering orange glow of flames. 

For about 5 seconds it was one of those "OMG this is happening. This is real. I actually have to call 911" moments. 

So 2 of us grab our phones and call 911... it's raining hard so we still can't really see what's on fire. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we get through... the dispatcher picks up and the first thing she says is: 

"are you calling about the fire on _____ Avenue?" 

"uh, yes." 

"yep, we got it." 

click.

Sooooo we turns out the fire dept was on it! a minute later the sky goes from orange to black. Then we hear the sirens and see the lights. The truck stops at our end of the alley and for a second we're confused. It quickly becomes clear they were blocking off both ends of the alley, and then walking towards the scene. 2 firemen walk by, as all of us our standing on the deck in the rain. M, in what I didn't think was the best decision of the night, decided to put on a poncho and go walk down the alley. He ended up chatting with a fire fighter and found out what happened. Lightning struck a tree, which caused a branch to fall on the transformer in the alley, which promptly exploded into flames. Thank god it wasn't anybody's house. They cut power to the wires which killed the fire for the most part, but the fire was still smoldering/flaring up a bit.. so they stuck around to douse it. There was a live wire down in the alley though, so they taped it off for the rest of the night. We went to bed, hoping to wake up to power. Alas, no such luck. 

We hopped on the internet and learned it'd likely be out until 11 p.m. or at least that was their forecast at the time. So, we packed a bag, packed up our food that may spoil, and crashed M's mom's house. I had bought a bunch of brunch food dead set on having a lovely little Saturday morning with M.. since I had been absent studying. So I still made us breakfast, just at his mom's. :)

 Her spaceship stove. That I love.

 We lounged, I napped, and then we got ready to go to my cousin Mitch's 2nd birthday party. He loved his Elmo cake his mom made him. That's his brother Max in the green. 

M and I got into the party spirit. Actually, some little boy was running around making everybody take, and put on, a birthday hat.

 And then M was naughty and had to eat his Elmo cake in the corner.

And thus concludes girls night gone wrong, a fireball, and an Elmo birthday party. 

M and I have ZERO plans tomorrow. I'm quite looking forward to it. Actually, he looked at the weather (I call him Dave Dahl - local meteorologist- for a reason...) and it's supposed to be 78 and sunny. No more deathly hot temps! (I know people live in states where it's regularly 90+ degrees and I honestly don't know how. It's been in the 90s and humid for WEEKS/over a month here and it makes me want to die.) So, we're thinking of putzing over to Wayzata and Lake Minnetonka, where his dinner boat cruise was, for a nice little afternoon out there. 

Unrelated. Are people not supposed to post on weekends? I feel like I should be scheduling posts for weekday mornings. Is that what people do? I just draft them when I can, and then post it right away. I guess I don't care at this point what my stats are or which day the fall on. I barely look at them to begin with. I figure people will read it when they open up their google reader anywhoo. Whatevs. 

Hope everybody's having a fantastic weekend! and HAPPY WEDDING DAY to Syndal! Can't wait to see photossss!!