My New Last Name.

I’m a Mrs.!

They really are not kidding when they say that the wedding day flies by and you have no idea how it went by so fast.

I spent the night at my parents house the night before the wedding. I spent some time with Justin and some relatives at the bar (ha!) after our rehearsal was over. Justin left to spend the night at our place and I headed home with my parents after getting properly tipsy. I’m almost surprised we stuck to the tradition.

On Friday, our wedding day, we woke up to it pouring. When I say pouring I don’t mean just cats and dogs, freaking bison and antelopes where falling from the sky. I was pretty sure it couldn’t have rained any harder if it wanted to. We had our own monsoon in western PA.

Honestly, the rain wouldn’t have bothered me except for one small detail…our wedding was set to be outdoors.

I went about my day checking the weather on my crackberry like a fiend. I did it while I was getting my hair done, while I was getting my makeup done, while I was driving (I know, shame, shame.) The rain would not let up.

I drove my mom and my great cousin to the venue where our wedding was about to take place in about an hour, there where still bison falling from the sky. I really couldn’t believe all the rotten luck. I had never felt so sick to my stomach in my life. I choked down a turkey sandwich before we left and still felt like I was just going to be sick all over the place.

To be honest, all I wanted all day was just to see Justin. Justin is the person I go to when I need to cry or need comforted. He’s my best friend and always can make me feel better. I very nearly said to hell with tradition…but I knew it would take away from the magic of the moment later. It was hard.

When we arrived at the venue the rain started to calm down. I was shuffled into the dressing room where the rest of my bridesmaids where already gathered doing last minute touch ups and getting dressed. The closer the moment got the more anxious I became. Bree even had some little shots for us, and would you believe I didn’t think I could handle it? That’s right, I turned down hard liquor, I was that bad off.

No one would let me out of the bathroom as Justin was running around outside taking care of last minute details. I had the shakes and felt like I was going to laugh and cry all at the same time. We lined up to go out and I heard the song we picked our for the party processional….God Bless the Broken Road.

It was like everything clicked. The sun had come out while I was hidden in the bathroom and my friends where gathered around smiling. Everyone looked amazing all dressed up. I took my father’s arm and we started to walk down the isle… The water had miraculously already dried on the concrete as we made our way to the gazebo where Justin was waiting.

And it was like God blessed the broken road. Every single heartbreak and trial and (literally) thunderstorm that we went through to get to each other was nothing. It was all worth it and then some when I saw him waiting for me up there. At that point I was beyond laughing and I was beyond tears. To be honest, I barely heard the minister while we were up there looking at each other.

It was like my whole world had been in pieces before this, and in 20 minutes it all fell into place so perfectly that nothing can describe it; you have to live it.

There’s nothing in the wold that compares to finding the place your heart can call home.

 

Marrying My Best Friend

The happiest day of my life! I will give details soon, I promise!

 

Regardless of Warnings the Future Doesn’t Scare Me at All.

15 days to go!

When I was younger, 15 was my favorite number. Why 15 you ask? I always thought 15 was that last year of your life before you started getting loaded down with responsibilities. It was the last year of my life before the freedom that a driver’s license offers you. I was also the older of two siblings, so 16 brought on having to drive my brother (who is 4 years my minor) around. 15 was that last year of blissful ignorance to the big bad world out there. Oh, I got my first kiss at 15, that was pretty cool too But I digress, 15 is still my favorite number, and even though it will be almost a decade passed, I still look back at 15 with nothing but very fond memories at everything that amazing year taught me.

Now it’s 15 days until my wedding day, and obviously I’ve done a lot of reflecting about what exactly this huge leap in my life entails.

You go through life from one major milestone to the next, with a lot of little jumps in between. You go to school, you graduate high school, you go to college or get a “real” job, or both, you get married, have babies, sometimes not in that order…etc.

So, here I am deciding to get married. It wasn’t even a decision really, it was the knowledge that I could never be completely happy unless I had Justin in my life. When he asked me to marry him it was the happiest moment of my life and it will stay that way for another 15 days. I said yes without even needing to think about it. In my mind Justin and I were in it for the long haul no matter what. I want to build a life together and have children together. I want to grow old with him, and I know that’s horribly cheesy.

Planning a wedding is really stressful. I think that if Justin and I didn’t already have a love for throwing parties we would be at each others throats and this expierience wouldn’t be enjoyable at all. I’m laid back by nature, but I also find that I like to micromanage as much as possible, which is kind of a conflict, isn’t it? At this point it’s all down to the little details that need worked out. There is nothing major that needs done. We could get married tomorrow and be okay, which is what I keep trying to tell myself!

I think the day is going to be pretty surreal. I was in two weddings this year and while I knew they were getting married, it hasn’t clicked that I’m getting married. Maybe it will in the next two weeks, but I’m wondering if it will just all sink in while we’re in Mexico and I start freaking out over my margarita…haha.

 

Wedding Cookies, Part II

Man, I really don’t like baking, but I trudge on!

I think I’m coming down with some kind of cold. I was off on Monday, so I spent the entire day dedicated to trying to get ahead of the wedding preparation deadlines that are so quickly approaching I’m going to have a heart attack. I did not really succeed. I did get the final bridesmaid dress from David’s Bridal, so that’s taken care of. I think 3 of 5 of the bridesmaids have their shoes, so I’m not too concerned about that. I went to my parents on Saturday and tried on my dress with the veil and all the accessories and contrary to my nightmares the dress still fits beautifully, so as long as I don’t gain or lose 20 pounds by the day of I should be good.

I also baked about 15 dozen cookies on Monday, which really sucked. I don’t mind baking in general every once in awhile, but to be on a deadline and making a million cookies when I could really just use the relaxation time…blah. Anyway, I made three different kinds, so we’ll start with my favorite!

Oreo Truffles
8 oz. cream cheese
1 pound Oreos
1 pound milk or dark chocolate (I used tollhouse and found that the dark chocolate melted just fine on its own, but the milk chocolate needed some milk added to help get the consistency right)

1. Grind Oreos to find powder in food processor (I was really excited to use my new processor I got for my bridal shower, haha).
2. With a mixer, blend cookie powder and cream cheese until thoroughly mixed, there should be no white traces of cream cheese. (I needed to add a tiny bit more cream cheese just because I couldn’t get it to mix completely. It didn’t hurt anything.)
3. Roll into small or large balls and place on wax-lined cookie sheet. Chill 45 minutes.
Line two cookie sheets with wax paper. In double-boiler, melt milk or dark chocolate. Dip balls and coat thoroughly. With slotted spoon or fork, lift balls out of chocolate and let excess chocolate drip off. Place on wax-paper-lined cookie sheet.
Store in airtight container, in refrigerator.

I think I liked these the best because there was not actual baking involved, haha. But these things are really, really good. I’ll probably make another batch before the wedding, this recipe yielded about 3 dozen because I made the Oreo balls on the small side.

I have to say I’m just about really for everything to be done and over with. I’m getting tired of stressing over every detail and I really just want to go on our honeymoon and relax for a week!

 

Bridal Shower and 39 Days to Go!

The days are flying, and I had my bridal shower this past Saturday!

From left to right: Brittany, Lori, Kendra, me, Tara, Bree.

It’s all becoming very surreal. I had a party to celebrate that I’m going to be a wife! It also really allowed me to kind of reflect on my friends and family.

Brittany I’ve only known a couple years. We became friends when her (now) husband became friends with Justin. We all work together and get to bitch and complain to one another about our wonderful job. Her’s was one of the weddings I was just in recently.

Lori I’ve known a couple years longer than Brittany. In case you’re just tuning in, she’s Justin’s sister-in-law, married to his older brother. Lori and I hit it off right away long before Justin and I got together, and she helped get us together and get him away from someone that didn’t treat him as well as he deserves.  It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 5 years since I’ve met her!

Kendra and I formally met while we were in 5th grade and we were taking out Iowa Basics tests (standardized testing for grade school-ers here in PA) She and I basically put each other through some hardcore high school hell, but we always found each other again. We expierienced a lot of our “firsts” together. First boyfriend, first kiss, first dance, etc. We’ve really gone down the road together. And then I watched her son be born, that was kind of a life changer, seriously.

Tara is my longest running friendship. We met in third grade and found a common ground in Goosebump books. We practically lived at each others houses as kids. We started to grow apart a little in junior high, then came back together when we found common ground again in show choir and high school musicals (you know, before high school musical. Did I really just go there? Anyway…) She’s one of those friends where you don’t talk for months, then pick up a phone or meet for lunch and pick up right where you left off. It’s pretty awesome.

Finally, Bree!. We first met while I was in third grade, but we didn’t really become friends until high school. Like Kendra and Tara we all went to school together, but Bree is a year older than us. We have a funny history together that involves a boy that we love to laugh about now, but obviously back then it was serious business, haha. We basically hit it off during my freshman year when our school put on the production of Grease. Ever since then we have been friends, and both share a love of cooking and being boring old ladies. She has also been my go-to complainee with wedding related stress. Poor her! haha. She just got married a couple months ago too.

So there you have it, my formal introduction to my oldest and closest friends! One of the best parts about this whole wedding expierience is that they all are in one place at one time! All my friends are pretty laid back, so I think they all clicked very well!

The whole shower was a stunning success. Lori did a great job organizing the whole thing, although everyone kept telling me how nice it was. I didn’t do a thing besides show up! Lori definitely outdid herself. I’m very lucky to have her!
The shower was a lot like those birthday parties you have when you’re younger. You play some games, eat a lot, and then everyone watches you open presents. The one big difference is that I picked all the gifts ahead of time in the form of a registry, haha. I’m not one for surprises.

August 8th is my bachelorette party. I’m pretty excited to go out with all my friends, I just hope it doesn’t get carried away too much. I’m honestly the type of person who would be happy to go out to dinner with everyone and grab some drinks. I’m not much for the club scene or anything real crazy. We are going to a dueling piano bar, which I am seriously excited about. However, if any of my friends think I’m getting up on stage and getting myself humiliated, I guess they don’t know me that well! I’ll be a stick in the mud about some things, but I’m just not the center of attention type. I hope everyone understands that! no penis crowns for me, thanks. haha.

I do have the most awesome friends though, I’m a lucky girl

 

Wedding Cookies, Part I

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m not a baker. It’s not even that I don’t bake, I don’t even like to bake. I take after my maternal grandmother, I love to cook and I love to experiment with different dishes, but with baking it’s just too much like math and science. Bleah!

That said, I have a wedding coming up. For some crazy reason it’s kind of a tradition around these western PA parts. People expect their cookies. Being the glutton for punishment that I certainly am, I, along with my future mother and sister in law and my own mother, and baking all the cookies.

Justin’s mom is the opposite of me. Justin’s dad is a picky eater, so she doesn’t get to experiment with cooking, while with sweets it has always been game on growing up in a house of Justin, his father, and his older brother. She’s an excellent baker, but I wouldn’t feel right leaving her to bake 50 dozen cookies.

So my tremulous journey might as well be documented for all the world to see. I figure if I can make a successful batch of cookies then anyone can. Seriously, trust me on that one.

So here we go! My first attempt at something other than chocolate chip cookies: White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies. I found this recipe on one of the food blogs I like, Good Things Catered. I really didn’t stray from this recipe at all except I doubled it and added a tiny bit more white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. I didn’t this it would matter that much since they are the “solid” things in the cookies that don’t really change at all. Of course, this reasoning may be why I cannot bake

Ingredients:
2 C. plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted & cooled until warm (I used half butter, half butter flavored Crisco. I can’t remember where I picked this tip up from. What? I didn’t say these were healthy cookies, it’s a wedding for Pete’s sake! )
1 C. brown sugar, packed
1/2 C. granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 C. white chocolate chips (I added more, basically to use the bag up…and I love white chocolate)
1/2 C. macadamia nuts, halved (same as with the chocolate chips, haha)

Directions:
1. Adjust oven racks to upper & lower -middle positions & heat oven to 325. (This is so important! I let one batch bake too close to the bottom of the oven, definitely resulted in a little too much browning on the bottom of the cookies)
2. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
3. Whisk dry ingredients together; set aside.
4. With electric mixer, or by hand, mix butter & sugars until thoroughly combined. (Justin’s mom bought me an electric hand mixer. I really will be thanking her after this cookie explosion nightmare!)
5. Beat in egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.
6. Add dry ingredients & beat at low speed just until combined.
7. Stir in chips and nuts.
8. Measure out 1/2 cup of dough and roll into a ball.
9. Holding dough ball in fingertips of both hands, pull into 2 equal halves.
10. twist the ball of dough in half until you have two equal pieces, set the pieces jagged-side up on cookie sheet.
11. Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft & puffy, 15-18 minutes depending on size. (Mine were perfect at 15 minutes to the dot, but my oven is pretty hardcore.)
12. Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking and place on wire rack to cool.

When I first read through the original instructions for baking these, steps 8 through 10 confused me until I had the dough in my hands and realized what I needed to do, so I re-worded it the best I could, and included pictures! Lucky you! Don’t mind my bright blue nails, I’m going through a sparkly phase. Big thanks you my handsome photographer, Justin. It could have been messy if I attempted it myself!

Obviously I’m a total novice when it comes to this whole baking thing, so I’m not 100% sure if this whole twisty thing is absolutely crucial to the cookie-making process. The only kind of conclusion I can really come to is that after you roll the dough into a ball you cover up all the nuts and chocolate, twisting it open gives you the opportunity to have some on the top so he world can see what awesome goodies you baked inside there delicious little cookies. Maybe? Do you believe my theory?

Anyway, if all goes well and you followed these directions better than I usually do, your house will start smelling amazing. There is one odd thing I noticed about these cookies though, They do a steamy/smokey sort of thing while they bake. It’s not smoke, per say, because there was no burning of the cookies, and it was a little too thin to be burning smoke. I’m not exactly sure why my kitchen looked like Dementors were mating in my kitchen, but the cookies were fine.

There you have it! My first attempt at something more complicated than pre-made dough or my trusty Chocolate chip cookie stand-by. Right now I have oatmeal raisin dough chilling (ha! literally!) in my fridge, but I have a somewhat bad feeling about them. If they bomb you’ll probably be seeing snicker doodles next instead.

 

Honeymoon Practice.

On Thursday Justin and I went off on a little day trip up to Erie, PA. It’s funny, when i was a kid and my parents would take my brother and myself to the beach, I wouldn’t sit still. I wanted to go swim in the water, I wanted to make sand castles and fly kites, I wanted to run around in my bare feet in the sand. My poor parents. Now that I’m older nothing, nothing beats lying on the beach with a good book and just taking in the sunshine. I honestly could have done it all day. I had a towel and my fiance snoring quietly beside me, and a comfortable sand-mound pillow beneath my head. Every so often I would roll over and let the rest of my body enjoy the sun while I read my book and listened to the waves.

I jokingly said to Justin that this was practice for our honeymoon. I know it’s rough just lying on the beach all day, so we should get as much practice in as possible I definitely plan on going up a little before all the wedding craziness starts coming at us full-force. Nothing beats relaxing in the sun all day, and down in Mexico we get all the adult beverages we’ll be able to handle!

Once the sun was getting ready to set, we made our way over to Waldemeer park. The only thing that could maybe be a match for a day at the beach is a night at an amusement park! Justin and I are big roller coaster junkies, and Waldemeer has a couple awesome ones, along with the general adrenaline-pumping rides that are just a step below roller coasters. We got there at a very good time, all the very young children were starting to clear out, so no crazy sugared-up kids were running around

I also learned something new about my fiance. He doesn’t like farris wheels. He thinks they’re creepy. This picture was taken while we were actually on one, so apparently he doesn’t dislike them that much, but I found that funny. I personally love Farris Wheels, I think they’re romantic.

They also make for one hell of a view! Sunset on Lake Erie taken from the top of the Farris Wheel. Perfect sunset to end a perfect day.

 

DIY Project – Pomanders!

Not sure if you noticed or not, but I’m a huge craft junkie. This wedding has given me the opportunity to try different projects that I never would have otherwise been interested in. One of my favorite projects have been adorable little pomanders!

I first came across pomanders while looking at bios on The Knot, and I was interested in finding out what the heck they were and what they were made out of. I found out that the original pomanders where made out of fruit where used to keep people from being too….well, smelly. Haha.

First step! This version of pomanders is obviously not the tissue paper kind. First I found little flowers (these are about an inch wide) at a local craft store. You know the kind that are basically used as “fillers” in an arrangement? They come in bunches with probably about 30-50 little flowers per stem. I got them on sale for 70 cents each. I figured I’d probably need about 30 to make 20 pomander balls. This math is still a work in progress. haha.

As you can see, I basically tore everything apart. I took the little flowers (mine basically had two layers of silk “flower”) and stuck a corsage pin through the center. I used pins with a pearl head, but there’s dozens of colors out there that can be used for matching. This is the tedious part, pulling the flowers apart and sticking the pins through them one at a time. One. At. A. Time. Patience is not one of my virtues, but these are so cute they are worth it.

Once you get through the tedious process of pulling apart the flowers you get to the fun part of stabbing the Styrofoam ball until it’s covered in cute little flowers. Obviously the colors for my wedding are red and white, but you can find the little flowers in any color imaginable if you have a good craft store nearby.

Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of the finished project. I plan on stringing ribbon through the Styrofoam and hanging the little pomander balls on the back of the wooden chairs for the ceremony in the gazebo. Because everything is all outside, I figured the scenery is really the main decoration, these just add little personalized elements to the ceremony.

We’re officially sitting at 51 days until we tie the knot! Wedding festivities start this month beginning with my Bridal shower on the 18th. I’m so excited! I have an amazing Matron of Honor who has been working her butt off to pull it together, and I’m so grateful for her. August 8th is the bachelorette party, I’m so excited to tear up Pittsburgh with my favorite girls. The tentative plan is to have dinner at The Melting Pot, then we’re going to catch a show at the dueling piano bar in Pittsburgh, Sing Sing. After that everything’s kind of up in the air. We may just bar hop on the south side until it closes down.

So many things to look forward to, can’t wait!!

 

Things I Love, Part I.

So, Bree had this nifty little thing going on in her blog called “Things I Love Thursday”. Well, it’s not Thursday, but I don’t want to wait, so here are my 5 things I love, part I.

1. Justin! There is no one in this entire world who knows me better, who has seen me at my best and worst, and who could support me in every way the way Justin can. I still look at him and can’t believe how far we’ve come in the last three years, and I really don’t see how I got so lucky. I must have been a saint in a past life. He is my miracle and I cannot wait to call him my husband…in exactly two months from tomorrow!

2. Wedding planning! I’ll admit, it can be a major pain the the ass. The guest list more than doubled from what we had originally planned, the industry loves to nickel and dime you, and it feels like no matter how much you can manage to accomplish in a day there’s a bazillion other things than need to get done just as urgently. But after all that you have the excitement of planning the biggest party of your lives for your closest friends and family, you get to do some “research” at the local winery to decide what kinds you want to serve said friends and family, you get to make a kickass wish list in the form of a registry, you get a pretty dress, a great vacation, and after all is said and done, you get to marry your best friend in the whole world. I’ll take the stress in exchange for all that…and the sparkly rings

3. SUSHI! Omg, I love sushi. I suppose technically what I make for myself are called “California Rolls” but that works too, since I’m a California girl, Born there. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I could live off of sushi, and I’m seriously considering going on an all sushi and fruit diet until the wedding, it’s so good for you! All the delicious veggies wrapped in rice with toasted seaweed…oh man. I think I’ve made them about 5 times since I posted my how-to, and I’m still not sick of the stuff. I need to hit my grocery store tonight and buy more seaweed and avocado though. But yeah, love my sushi.

4. The mountains, especially the mountains in summertime. This picture was taken in early spring, which is amazing as well. The mountains, aside from being amazingly gorgeous, just hold a lot of crazy/wonderful/surreal memories. From first meeting my soon-to-be brother and sister in law, to trips where I couldn’t call Justin mine yet, riding through the woods and trails on our quads, all leading up to him proposing in a downpour on the most romantic and wonderful day of my life (for another two months or so!)

5. Our wedding venue! I can’t even begin to describe how in love I am with this place! When we decided to move our wedding date up we were so nervous that we would have to sacrifice some things that we really wanted as part of our wedding, such as it being outdoors, able to have the ceremony and reception in the same place, not outrageously expensive, allow us to bring our own alcohol in, etc. This place completely fell into our laps after some extensive googling. Not only that, but for some reason that can only be explained by fate, we got the very last day that they had available! Seriously, I cannot wait for that day to come!

Well, there you have it, five things that I love! I’ll add to the list some other day, haha. Now it’s time to compile my grocery, wahoo

 

66 Days.

We officially booked the honeymoon to Riviera Maya yesterday! We’re going from August 30th, (Sunday after the wedding) to September 4th. Justin officially submitted for his passport and I dug my poor neglected one out of storage the other day. Thank goodness mine’s good until 2015! I’ve been obsessively looking at pictures and reviews for where we’re staying and I’m pretty sure we’re going to have an amazing time. Bree thinks they’re going to think twice about the all-inclusive alcohol part once Justin and I get there (haha) but that’s one of the reasons we chose inclusive. We like to eat and we love to drink

The nice thing about the resort we picked is that there is so much to do! We can do the R&R thing by the beach one day, and then do this the next! Quads through the jungle, oh be still my heart! In that same package there’s also snorkeling, which is another thing I’ve always wanted to do. Is it weird that I have no qualms about swimming in over my head in the ocean but being in a lake freaks me out? I guess I’m more afraid of snakes in a lake than sharks in the ocean!

We started receiving our RSVP cards back yesterday, I have never been so excited to receive mail before! Honestly, it’s so cool to see all our friends and family take the time to respond I can’t believe that day is inching closer and closer.