Thank you so much for all your sweet comments on our wedding! I love having this blog as a journal for myself, but it's also pretty awesome to have bloggy readers. Jacob and I really appreciate all the happy thoughts!

I have so much to say about the rest of the wedding, and our trip to Costa Rica, but really, I'm too tired to write it all out. I will say that the reception and the wedding made all the planning and the stress totally worth it, because it was so much damn fun. I was really worried about our wedding becoming this big fancy affair that wasn't really like me and Jacob, and over and over I heard from guests that our wedding was unique and an expression of who we are. And I felt that way, too. That made me so happy. It was amazing. All of it. Totally exceeded all of my expectations - the wedding, the honeymoon, everything. Yay.

If you want to see pics of the wedding and Costa Rica, there are about a million over at my flickr account...[ Weddin' Pics, etc.]

I also highly recommend checking out Jacob's Costa Rica pictures, which are here:

[ Jacob's Costa Rica pics ].

And really, you should probably go there first, because his pictures are really, really incredible. He's a photographer, ya know. Here's one of his pics.

See? Go check them out.
So. It's been awhile. I've been busybusy trying to catch up at work and school - my semester is over in about a week. Yikes. There has been knitting, though. I actually finished something!

Maggie.

Yes, I realize that I am subjecting you to yet another poorly lit gross mirror bathroom shot. I'm sorry about that. I just got REALLY excited when I finished it and had to take a picture. RIGHT. THEN. So I did. I did try to take a self-timer shot, which failed miserably. Here it is.

Dork.
(Can you spot a sleepy Jacob in the background?)

Obviously, Maggie deserves a grand photo shoot with natural lighting. Maybe one day. But oh how I love this sweater. It fits perfectly - the yarn is yummy soft - it looks like it's supposed to. I don't have to tug at it to cover my belly. I can button it, or not. It's cute BOTH WAYS, instead of being cute only when I have it pinned at a certain angle and hold my breath (Juliet, I'm looking at you). I am going to wear the crap out of this thing, and she'll be even prettier when I block her. If I block her.

It only took me about 11 months to knit it! Har. It really did - I started knitting it in January of 2007. It's actually a simple pattern and should take much less time, but I may have lost two completed sleeves for a while. I want to knit more things with Rowan Wool Cotton - I may have to start cruising ebay for some deals.

I knit the pattern exactly as written [pattern available here]. The only thing I did differently is that I flipped the included buttons over - the right side of the buttons are shiny, and it didn't really match my color, so I flipped them over and used the darker brown side. Worked out great.

Ah, the happiness of a wearable finished knit. It's so nice. And so rare, for me. I immediately cast on another project in hopes of scoring another wearable knit: Anais.

Front.

We shall see. I'm using some leftover Silky Wool - I miraculously had the EXACT amount that the pattern called for, so I decided it was fate. That piece looks cute, right?

Posted by Carrieoke at 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Hey - I got married! And it was absolutely one of the best days of my life.

May I present: the Mr. and Mrs!

(photo stolen from Vibegrrl.)


Photo by Shawn Fowler.

This will be a series of long posts because I really want to remember all the details of my wedding weekend, and this is the best way I know how. So click below if you want the whole story!

So.

We spent nearly all day Friday decorating the barn-replica-building where our reception was held. There were many phone calls to HEJ in Hobby Lobby and Michaels, lots of inserting of CD covers, and lots of rearranging of candles. Thank goodness my mom and Aunt Barbara are crafty with flowers/candles - they made the fireplace look absolutely beautiful. We filled it with ivory candles, and the mantel had some branches / ruby flowers with some pictures of me and Jacob, and a BIG OLD wreath with lights. It was pretty simple, but very pretty, and fitting with the barn feel going on in the room.

It was crazy to see the room with all the tables set up - it made everything seem very real and happening like REALLY SOON oh my goodness. Still, I felt calm. Things were coming together really nicely. The man who owns the house where we got married said to me, "You seem calmer than everybody else!" Hahahahahaha.

The rehearsal went great. We got started kind of late (even with my tricky attempt to make everyone on time - I told everyone to be there at 5:00pm when the rehearsal wasn't actually until 5:30. TRICKY. But then I started revealing to everyone that it was a trick. Bridal advice: don't reveal that you're trying to trick them. Then, the trick DOESN'T WORK. Oops.) But, no worries. We rehearsed, and hightailed it over to the restaurant for dinner and drinks. At that point, I needed a drink. I was a little anxious.

The rehearsal dinner was fantastic. We held it at a fancy Cajun restaurant here in Athens, and by the time we got there, folks were already drinking and enjoying appetizers, and I was able to relax a little. It's so fantastic to be in the same room with a bunch of people you love so dearly, and then, to top it off, know they are all there for YOU - I had such a great time.

Toasting our family and friends.
They kinda rock.

We had lots of sweet toasts, including one from Jacob's grandmother that included a story about Jacob, constipation and diarrhea. Jacob was SO EXCITED about that one. (People who know me well will be surprised to note that the constipation/diarrhea toast was NOT, in fact, about me. Ha! )

We also gave our attendants and our parents some gifts - [ SIDE NOTE: I got my girls pendants from an absolutely fantastic Etsy seller- Ling Glass. She has beautiful, unusual jewelry, and worked with me to make sure the presents came on time (she's in Singapore, and of course I waited until the last minute, so I was a little worried. They got here on time! She is great. Highly recommended. ]

Here's my dad and me with his present, an engraved silver picture frame:

Yay family time.





Sisters!

The smart thing would've been to go back to the hotel and go to bed, but of course since so many of our friends were in town from far away, we had to go downtown! We made it home by 1:00 or so...not so bad. I guess. I only got about 3 or 4 hours of sleep - I was too excited to sleep soundly. WEDDINGWEDDINGWEDDING.

Next morning! Woo-hoo! Weather = PERFECT. I mean, breezy, sunny, 70s. It was amazing.

We had to be at the salon around 9:00 am for hair. It was early for all of us.

AM slept for a while.

The rest of us got all gussied up by Michelle and Tom at Rocket Salon in downtown Athens. They totally let us lay around and sleep and basically take over the place, which was excellent.

Back of my hair. I am half asleep in this picture.

We also worked on finishing the toss bouquet, which was made up of six knitted calla lilies (here's the pattern we used from Knitty). Thanks to HEJ, AM, Courtney and my sister Cathy for each knitting a flower (Cathy had never done short rows before and was extremely frightened of the pattern, but she persevered and hers looked excellent!) HEJ helped me wrap the stems with ribbon at the salon, and here's how it ended up:

Yay!

After the salon, we headed straight to the wedding spot. We had to be ready for pictures at 2:00, and we also needed to eat something before we started putting on our dresses. My mom and sister Michelle took our orders and had sandwiches waiting for us as soon as we walked in the door (bridal advice: put someone in charge of making sure lunch happens. seriously.). So we ate and then the primping began.

I waited a while to put my dress on, mostly because I didn't want to spill anything on it, and it was hard to lug all that dress around the house where we were getting ready. I watched all the bridesmaids get their dresses on, drank some mimosas, tried to relax. So far, so good with the nerves. I was a little jittery, but still feeling good and happy and fairly calm.

When we got closer to picture time for the girls, I put on my dress. That made things really start to feel real...

Working on my buttons. There were many, many buttons.
My sister-in-law Alison rocked my makeup. She's a makeup artist.

Me and my mom.

We tried for hours to steam my dress. (Leslie worked on it FOREVER.) I think it was hard because of the dress material (some sort of silk blend) to get ALL the wrinkles out, and anyways I would've had to stand around like a statue for the rest of the day even if we did get them all out. Not gonna happen. Oh well. Hopefully no one was looking at my dress that closely anyways.

At some point, I decided to get some pictures with the wedding shawl...

Back. and front.

Finally, it was time for pictures. Pictures were fun because we got to run around outside in the beautiful weather and pose and smile and hang out with our fabulous photographer (my friend Shawn), but also exhausting. We all had to be on the lookout for the groom too, to make sure he wasn't peeking. By the time we were done with bride pics, family pics, bridesmaid pics, and bride pics, I was starting to wear out. My feet were hurting, and I had to go to the bathroom (not a simple feat in my dress + Spanx combo.) And guests were everywhere - talking and laughing and starting to make me nervous...

You see where this is going, right? About 30 minutes before the wedding started, I totally lost it. I mean, LOST IT. I started crying and couldn't stop. It was so weird - I'd been calm all day, and suddenly I sat down and just started bawling. It was just so emotional - my family and my dear friends being so helpful and supportive, all these guests coming to celebrate with us, and the realization that it was about to really happen after all these months of planning and working -- it was wonderful, but wonderfully overwhelming. Luckily, all my married bridesmaids were like, dude, it happens to everyone. WE WERE WAITING FOR THE BREAKDOWN. Don't worry. (This is where Alison's amazing makeup skillz became even more evident because my makeup didn''t BUDGE. I mean, I was sniffling and wiping my eyes and the makeup stayed perfect. She rocks.)

The girls all started telling funny stories, and then JoAnna went to get me a glass of water, and spilled it all down the front of her dress (and came running over, holding her dress out, and said "OH MY GOD TEAMIE WHAT DO I DO?" and Leslie tried to hide her from me but it was so funny and I laughed hysterically for a while.) My sister and HEJ surpassed their duties as bridesmaids by helping me go to the bathroom - twice - in those minutes leading up to the ceremony.

So it was about time. Our coordinator came to get the girls, and then it was just me - all by myself - waiting to go down the aisle. (I met my dad down near the front of the aisle since he walks with a cane and it was a little hilly.) Of course the tears started again, but I was able to stand outside in the sun and just breathe. And cry.

I literally cried the entire way down the aisle. The tears came even harder when I turned the corner and saw ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY smiling at me, and my handsome schmoo waiting for me - it was so unbelievable.

Picture borrowed from my friend Ginia.
Flowers= ruby mini callas.

The ceremony was short and sweet. We put the ceremony together ourselves, using parts of other wedding ceremonies we found and liked. Our dear friend Taylor, who introduced me and Jacob, got ordained just for our wedding and came all the way from Boston with his fabulous fiance Rebecca to be there for us. He did a fantastic job, too. There was one moment, as I put the ring on Jacob's finger, when I said "You are my beloved and my friend. Will you be my husband?" and we'd read it a bunch of times but never actually practiced that part, and there was just silence. And Jacob and I looked at each other, and Taylor looked at us, and then Jacob said "...yes?" and everyone laughed. (I think that's when I stopped crying and started laughing. )

Ceremony.
Photo by Shawn Fowler.

And after we exchanged rings and vows, we got to my favorite part of the ceremony, where Taylor declared us husband and wife, and said "You may now kiss your schmoo." (We really want to put the word schmoo in our ceremony, and that seemed like the perfect place. SCHMOO!)

Schmoo Kiss!
Photo by Shawn Fowler.

And just like that, we got married. YAY!

I have more to write about, like the reception and our first dance and our getaway and COSTA RICA, but I think this here post is long enough for one sitting. So much happened in that one weekend. I need to go catch up on all of your blogs anyways!

Posted by Carrieoke at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (177)