The Day

Its wedding day, folks! Please think some good thoughts and send your lovely vibes my way! I'm hoping wedding zen hits me full force but could definitely use some good mojo from this amazing community!

Thanks for being with me on this journey, lovely blog land! Its been so helpful to have this genuine community of support and help and humor along the crazy wedding planning ride. I really can't say thanks enough!

But. I can do a little something for you.

I decided that today would be the day to 'unveil' if you will. So, here for the first time, is US! Aka Jenna and Brett! These are all photos from our engagement session with our lovely photographer. She gave us awesome photos from this session and it makes me even more excited for some wedding photos! What a treasure!

I'll see you back here after the honeymoon!

Love,
J

Why am I at work!?!?!

Oh yeah, cuz making money is cool especially when paying for a wedding that is THREE days away!! EEEEEE!!!

But I most definitely do not want to be stuck at my desk today! Don't brides get an automatic free week off before the wedding or something? Isn't that written into the rules somewhere? I think it should be. Luckily, I think my boss totally recognizes the fact that the three days I've worked this week are going to be a total wash. No productivity here! Just some putzing, daydreaming, and making lists for myself. And apparently blogging, too!


My emotions are still like a game of hungry, hungry hippo: spaztastic. But they are kinda moving more into the direction of excitement and I'm really, really trying to push the nerves and the stress away. GO AWAY, STRESS! I don't want to be your friend! I know we have this long history and all, but its just not working for me anymore. I don't want your bad influence!

We have some time to relax in the next few days in between running errands and finalizing details. We are also trying to make time to visit with some of the out of town travelers. As my friend from Seattle said, "I'm coming to town just to see you at your wedding, but I realize that I probably won't see you much at your wedding!" so we need some extra date time! And some State Fair time! Can't miss the Great Minnesota Get Together, now can I!? Wedding details, schmetails! I want a PRONTO PUP! And mini donuts. And hot dish on a stick. And some deep fried oreos. And beer. And whatever else my little tummy can fit!

And I've been writing my vows. Which has been way harder than I expected. So much to say and so little time! And dammit, its not helpful that I cry every time I try writing these dang things. But I think I finally got something good...hopefully... Well, I think it'll be good if I can make it through without being a blubbering mess. I have no idea which way that is going to go. I may be too nervous to cry. Or I may just break down and not be able to say anything at all. It feels like a 50/50 chance to me.

Oh! And can I just say thank you to the weather gods for looking fondly down on us and having a great forecast for this weekend? SO appreciated! We had an inside backup plan, but who wants to be stuck in a silly little room when there is a grand old oak tree to get married under! Sweat may run down my back with the heat and humidity that's forecasted, but I don't care! No rain! YAY!!!

So blog land...

Without further ado (or rambling), I'm heading out to finish my last day of work as a single lady, then off to getting sh*t done, and then getting married! We're flying out Sunday to Cali for the honeymoon and won't be back until the 5th! WOO! So wish me luck, please send some good vibes my way, and I'll see you on the other side!

Love,
J

I do have one last thing that I'm going to leave you with...but you have to wait a little bit for it! ;)

Photo from Desirée Delgado who has so many fun pics! I loved browsing her flickr stream!

Can't Wait!

I can't wait! Yeah, yeah, our wedding is five days away and I'm excited about that, but guess what I can't wait for!? Someone else to get married! Ok, not just anybody. Someone else who I like a lot.

I can't wait to be helpful for someone else. I can't wait to buy thoughtful gifts for someone else. I can't wait to be a little wedding angel if they need me! People have been so helpful and nice to us while we've been planning this wedding that I can't wait to give it back!

I'm going to listen to their crazy thoughts and nod at their lofty wedding goals. I'm going to offer whatever skills I may have to their wedding. I'm going to listen to their family drama. I'm going to help them set up if they need it. I'm going to make them meals for the week of their weddding (because right now...cooking is the last thing I want to do!) And then I'm going to dance a lot because everyone likes a good dance party.

So. From a bride with five days until marriage, be nice to us. Please?

Weddings are hard.

Down the aisle

We've been slowly picking the major tunes for our day - which ended up not being many songs at all! We have a song to walk down the aisle to and a first dance....and those are the only stand out special songs! Otherwise its all just a free-for-all mix!

I knew for walking down the aisle I wanted to use Sigur Ros. First - um, amazing? Yeah, thats them. Just amazing. Second - when we first met, we used to just stare into each others eyes while we listened to Sigur Ros. The music filled the space and allowed us to forget words. Third - AMAZING.

So for our 'dance dance' Friday post, here is our walk down the aisle song. We did think about having this as our first dance and if you are still looking - consider it! Its beautiful and soaring and uplifting - Its Við spilum endalaust by Sigur Ros.


(check out some of the other "Take Away Shows" - they get these great bands and have them play in random locations, giving a unique show to whoever is lucky enough to be around!)

Happy Friday!

Poem

Look not in my eyes, for fear
They mirror true the sight I see,
And there you find your face too clear
And love it and be lost like me.

*photo is a teaser from our e-session :) I think I'll reveal us after the wedding!

Soon

I'm losing my mind. The 28th is coming up so fast, there is so much to do, and I'm going through emotions like a hungry hungry hippo. (what, that doesn't make sense!?) Sunday was just pure joy. Monday was annoyance and a little bit of rage. Today is tired.

But through it all, I'm so excited to marry my man! I love him so much and I'm so lucky he loves me. How does such a thing happen? seriously

Congratulations!

Congrats to two lovely ladies from blog land! Angie is getting married TODAY! And Lisa is getting married TOMORROW! Go over and give them some wedding day love!

These two ladies just warm my heart and I have never even met them! They've been lovely followers here at MM&B for quite a while and I've appreciated them so much for keeping me company on this crazy journey!

I wish them nothing but the best for their weddings and hope the day is everyone they could ask for and more!

Good luck, ladies, and we'll see you on the other side!

Dance Dance cuz Its Coming Soon!

Happy Friday!

For today's Dance Dance its The Roots, yo! Collaborating with Cody Chestnutt on a grooving little bit called The Seed (2.0)



Have a great weekend!

Tomorrow, we are going up to the north shore for a friends wedding. This was our dream destination, so I'm super excited to see what they do with it! Plus, I'm excited to dance with my beau and practice our mooooves!

xoxo,
J

Its all in your head.

I had a really weird day this past weekend. It was Sunday, the Stagette Weekend Extraordinare was done, I was just a wee bit hungover and could feel my mushy brain moving along at a putzy, putzy pace. Me and my darling future hubby hung out together just high on love. We also talked about our respective experiences with our Stag Weekends.

One thing that we both noted was how many compliments we get as a couple. We have been told by a friend that we are his role model for what a good couple should be. A friend told me how much she loved the way we look at each other and that "Its like he falls in love every time he looks at you." (totally made me tear up!) And another friend, who is a skeptic of love, told my mister how great it is to watch a couple work so well together.

These things are so amazing to hear! I feel good in our relationship (obviously...since we are getting married!) but sometimes you are so in it that you forget how lucky you are! This was a nice reminder to step back and appreciate the amazing guy that I somehow managed to find and that I somehow managed to dupe into loving me! ;)

Mom, sometimes you are crazy!

My mama and I have a great relationship...most the time. But I swear, there is something about wedding planning that takes us normal people and flips that switch to crazy. And the drama switch. And some chemical reaction just melts are brains so nothing makes sense any more and the smallest decisions seem monumental. ("But what if our cake stands don't MATCH!?!?")

And as the wedding day nears, I'm nervous. For lots of reasons. And one of them is freaking out on the day of as we set up and get ready. Me freaking out. My mom freaking out. My mother-in-law freaking out. All this freaking out making my future hubs freak out! and then it'll just be chaos! chaos, I tell you!!!

Not if I can damn well help it!

Me and my mums had a lovely conversation the other day where I told her I was just slightly worried about us freaking out. At first she seemed a little affronted, and then she said, "Yeah, I'm worried I'm going to freak out, too." So I asked, "Mom, how can we go about not killing each other the day of?" and we came up with a plan to not commit murder on the day of the wedding.

• First thing Mama said was that my organization really helps her. So having lists of what she is supposed to bring, what she is supposed to do, whats happening when, etc. and letting her see these ahead of time is a big plus. Seeing them ahead of time lets her ask questions, clarify items, and make sure we are all on the same page.
  
• Second thing we both noted is that we have a tendency to get annoyed, hold it in, and then burst. Instead of bursting, we are both going to try very hard to voice our issues sooner if they arise.
• Third, to avoid frustrations, being clear is key. And a lot of this is going to start with me. I need to be clear on what I'm expecting of people. I am also going to make a point to tell people that I need them to be helpful and do what we ask...this is not the time for opinions! Its the time to DO! Also, I need to be clear on how thankful I am for their help. No one wants to help a pushy, ungrateful bride.

K, so that's it I guess. The three things we've come up with so far to help us not kill each other. Now I just need to figure out how to do the same with my MIL...hmm....

Any suggestions on how not to kill people?
Any suggestions on how to broach this topic with a MIL or other helpers who might be troublesome?

Peace!
Jen

* Image from Five Film Plus, fun story: growing up, my mom would get frustrated with my brother and I for whatever dumb stuff we were doing and get whipped into a yelling fury. Sometimes, instead of being scared or behaving...we'd run around in circles yelling "Mad-mom-martigan! Mad-mom-martigan!" I'm sure that really help my mom's temper at the time. :) Love you, Mom!

Bomb giveaway!

While posting it here gives me a second entry, it also gives you all a chance to enter and swipe away an AWESOME giveaway from over at A Mountain Bride!

The giveaway is for No Foundation Foundation from Perricone MD. I know we are all looking for a way to give us the best bridal glow, and this product looks like a winner.

Good luck, all!

Stag Weekend

sooooo
sleeeeppyy.....

Its Monday morning after a long weekend and I feel zonked! So I'm going to let my fingers fly and give you a recap of my bustling Stagette Weekend!

Friday - My two ladies of honor stole me away, we went out to dinner, roamed an art fair and then had a girls night with drinks, snacks, and a cheezy wedding movie. Perfect, fun, bonding night!

Saturday - I woke up early (8:00 is totally early on a weekend!) to make it to a special appointment I had then made it back to my house to meet everyone for the start of our Stag Party Weekend!

First thing on our schedule: guns! Both the guys and the gals groups went to a gun club just north of the Twin Cities and had an awesome time! The owner of the gun club was so excited to have women there that the gave us member prices, deals on ammo and a personal lesson! I was pretty nervous to shoot and had never really shot anything before, but the people at the gun club were very nice and welcoming. So they took us out to do trap shooting and I thought there was no way I was going to get this little flying disc in the air! But lo and behold, they told me I was "a natural!" and out of the five guys and five girls that we had shooting, I had the highest score with a 19 out of 25 on my second round! BAM!

From guns, we all then went to grill out and socialize for dinner. It was great that all the ladies and the guys were hanging out and getting to know each other. We have a wide variety of people that we hang out with, and it was fun to see them mix!

After the grilling, the guys and gals split up for our respective bar crawls. We both stuck to the more mellow side of the Twin Cities and did St. Paul crawls. Patios, Irish bars, and a super crowded dance floor! I was proud because I managed a nice steady buzz for the night with limited shots (which are my downfall). When the ladies who were staying over came back to the house, we finished off with a refreshing run through the rain storm, greasy pizza and the few minutes of a movie that we managed to watch before all zonking out!

Phew!

Thanks to my lovely ladies who set it up and did a wonderful job! I couldn't ask for better friends and am so happy to have them standing up for me at the wedding!

Peace,
Jen

Baby, I'm about to have me some fun!

Good morning, ladies and gents, and happy Friday! I am currently posting to you from the PAST! Because today, I took work off and am hopefully not sleeping in an instead doing all sorts of productive things! In fact, I took all four Fridays off this month before the wedding! Thank goodness I work somewhere where I get bomb vacation benefits and have been saving up vacay time! These days off will definitely help me progress down the to do list and ease my mind. Plus, by taking an extra day off each week, that invariably means that I work one day less and four day weeks are the BEST! Almost as good as three day work weeks.

In other news, this weekend is my stag weekend! WOO! My double trouble maid o' honors have planned what sounds like an amazing weekend - from what I know at least! And all I'm going to tell you right now is that it includes guns, grilling, boozing, and possibly a river in there, too! yes, yes, yes!

If I have any energy left in me after this weekend, I'll post a prompt recap! But. I promise nothing!

To keep you satisfied until then, listen to this love song by Amos Lee called Sweet Pea. And have a great weekend!

xoxo,
J

Pom Poms Galore!

I am super excited to share some DIY/DIT craftiness with you today! Not only is this project complete - like totally done and I don't even have to think about it anymore - but this is probably going to be the only project that I've had in mind since the beginning. Months and months ago I became enthralled with little lovely garlands... which looked easy and all but turned out to be the project from hell! I only managed to make one tiny little dumb poof ball based on that tutorial before I was throwing things. Not the best...

But I was determined! So I found a new way - inspired by my aunt and based on Martha's know how. So, ladies and gents, I have for you today....

Quick and Easy Peasy (Plus Super Cute) Garland Tutorial!

Materials

• fabric
• cutting mat and one of those roller cutters work excellent (thanks, Mom!)
• good fabric scissors
• pins
• wire - 24 gauge is what we used
• wire cutter
  
• ribbon
• needle big enough to fit ribbon
  

First things first... by a crap load of fabrics in your chosen colors! Wait, maybe don't buy as much as us. We bought a LOT! My mom kinda freaked out and we ended up with 10 yards total! holy geeze. Um, and we maybe used a third of that for garland making? But we have used it for some other projects and its definitely better to have more than less. And we had coupons. Anyway. Ok, get fabric. I'd say something stiffer like taffeta is best, but that can be expensive. We actually have three totally different types of fabrics for our pom poms and they all turned out ok, but the stiffer stuff definitely poofs up better and stays in place better.

Now that you've got your fabric, cut it all up into rectangles. Ours are six inches by five inches to in the end make a pom pom of about four inches wide, but play with the sizing to find what you like! You can also play with how many layers you use in your pom poms. At least three are needed to make a nice poofy pom. We used four layers. Here are my lovely rectangles...
Also, take your wire and cut a bunch of segments approximately five inches long. You'll use these in a bit but its good to have them all handy and ready.

Take your four cut rectangles, line em up, and pin them together. Now, you are going to cut the edges to give the pom pom the desired texture. I've seen them with pointy edges or rounded edges - we rounded ours. The nice part about this step is that you don't have to be too picky. Make sure the corners are nice and round and kinda make a nice wave along the edges, but any oddities from this step are not too noticeable. Here is a funky looking bunch as a good example:

Now you are going to take your four layers of fabric (take the pins out! ouch!) and accordion them. As small as you can get the accordions without too much work. And accordion them the long way? short way? Um, start with the shorted edge towards you and then accordion that way. I dunno what to call that!

Then, when you have it all accordioned up, take one of your pieces of wire and wrap it tightly around the middle of your fabric bunch. It should look roughly like this:

Now poof that sucker! Pull and yank and squish it - don't be shy - until its a lovely little poof ball of a pom pom! Like zis:

Beautiful!

Now make a bunch more. I think we had roughly 70 poms of each color? Or something ridiculous like that. With your ribbon and big needle (get a strong one! I broke a little puny one after two poms!), string up your lovely poms into an even lovelier pom pom garland! With all the pom poms I had, I used up three rolls of 10 yards of ribbon. Aka I now have 90 yards of garland. Holy balls, batman, thats a lot of garland!

But I can't wait to hang them up and see them brightening our outdoor space!

(sorry for the poor lighting on these photos)

So there you have it. The garland tutorial that was months in the making!

Peace,
Jen

PS those are our colors! I don't think I've actually shown you our colors yet! I've become adept at describing them and they are as follows: "Granny smith green, robin's egg blue, and magenta/fuschia/pink/purple/berry color." See? adept.

YES!

The ruling came in against Prop 8!!!!!!! Good job, Judge Walker!

I'm so happy for California, and I hope this is just the start and that this ruling starts the wave we need to come to our senses nationwide!

Why is it so difficult getting gifts?

Speaking of registries... The registries have been one of our biggest trouble makers in this planning process. And I think that is weird. Shouldn't receiving gifts be easy? We put together a list of what we want...and those who want to give us gifts give us those things. But no. Not quite. Because it just wouldn't be wedding planning without a dash of drama and a healthy dose of indecision!

Its probably because we are running into the common problem of not wanting much STUFF. We've been living in sin for quite a few years now, have a home set up, and don't need (or want) much. (and have very little room to put said stuff in!) But a lot of people don't like giving money - even if its in the awesome form of honeymoon gifts on Traveler's Joy!

We've had family telling us that we don't have enough on our tangible item registries and that we need more. That we should set up another registry all together to give lots of choices. We even had a family member set up a registry for us because they reaaally wanted us to have this extra registry. And people telling us that the stuff on our registry isn't nice enough and that we should take this opportunity to get china or or crystal or other fancy stuff (stuff that would definitely fall into the "don't want or need or have space for" categories). People telling us that the white dishes we picked out are boring (because he wanted super dark dishes and I wanted super bright dishes....so we just went with classic-never-fail-will-always-match-and-never-go-out-of-style white).

Talk about unsolicited advice! Such strong opinions on what we should ask for for gifts!? wtf

Are/did any of you have similar registry problems?

Image from Kol Tregaskes because while some of you are dreaming about babies...I'm dreaming about puppies!

Finals Time

I feel like I'm back in school. Like its the end of the semester and finals are looming close. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited for the wedding and I never know what to say. Yes, of course I'm excited, but I also have a little heart attack every time I realize how soon its coming up! Its like when people would ask me if I was excited for summer. Uh, yeah, obviously! Everyone loves summer, but first I have to go through finals first and not lose my sanity!

My goal here is to get stuff done and NOT procrastinate, dammit! and then have a week before the wedding where I can actually be excited and anticipate the upcoming day and enjoy the ride. I dun wanna be a stress ball!

And its actually coming along great and I'm super excited because I have two lovely crafts that I want to share with you all! They are all finished and they don't look like a child did them! Unless Martha Stewart has a child...then maybe they look like her child did them. One of the best parts too is that the mister has been involved in lots of them! He made pom poms, he pretty much did all the work for the tree cookie escort card holders, and I even had him decoupaging! awesome!

There are more crafts coming too! Like the flower that I'm making out of the cut off train from my dress to rest on the hip of my dress. And the lighted trees that we are making. And the mason jar lanterns that might not qualify as 'crafts' but I'm going to include in our DIY section.

huh...I never really thought of myself as DIY, but maybe I am? who knows. and who cares! :)

August 28th is only 25 days away! and I have this feeling that time isn't going to stop. So the 28th is only going to get closer and then BAM! be here!

Mish and Mash

August. Is. Here. Holy goodness we are in our wedding month! Crunch time, baby! Time to tighten the knots and get ready for this ship to sail! I feel like I'm back in college and its finals time. I'm super excited for summer (aka honeymoon and married life) but there is this big thing in the way that is sucking up all my attention. And while I can't wait for it to be here I'm just trying to stall time so that I get all my biz done! Luckily I'm awesome at cramming...but unluckily I'm a horrible procrastinator. I'm trying so heavily not to procrastinate! I really, really want that week before the wedding to do very little, check on loose ends, and just mentally prepare.

Since it is August, it means that our August 1st "RSVP by date has passed and we still have a bunch of guests who did not RSVP! wtf? Did any of you deal with this? How do you gently but firmly harass the people you didn't hear from?

Other random thought... I looked at one of our registries the other day because I was going to take an item off (my parents just put an addition on their house and my mom is going crazy and getting rid of everything and buying new everything it seems. Which is fine by me because we get first dibs on all their awesome stuff! And they just gave us this set of glasses...so I was going to take the glasses we registered for off. but anyway...) and sooo much of our registry has been bought up! Its crazy!

And I feel kinda silly for being so excited. We registered for stuff because we know a lot of guests really like to give tangible gifts. But at the same time, I feel weird accepting so many gifts! And to see all the stuff that has been bought is kinda overwhelming and makes me feel really nice and special and grateful for our generous family!

So this is what a wedding is all about. Warm fuzzies and love! :)