1 down, Oh-So-Many To Go!

Incredible how quickly a year passes these days. I can only imagine how quickly they will move in another 50 years.

And just like that I've been married to my wonderful Mingus for a year.

This was a snippet of the year-end video I made for my family last Christmas about the wedding (thus being primarily photos of my immediate family, but I still wanted to share). I'm unsure of whether or not YouTube let's the music play, so please tell me if is silent!

It fell on a Monday, since it was a leap year, which is less than ideal for any anniversary, let alone your very first one! But it was magnificent nonetheless.

After spending the entire week prior reminiscing of the flurry of last minute prep the week leading up to the wedding, we began our anniversary weekend with a trip to Indiana for another family member's wedding. They picked the BEST weekend...if I do say so myself!

Andrew & Jessica

We took our time driving home Sunday, taking in all of the beautiful fall colors on our drive. We stopped by Huber's Winery--always a festive, fun place this time of year--as well as a trip to Target to... wait for it.... Use wedding gift cards! Yes, we have some still unused! Being that we live so far out, we don't make regular trips to a lot of places--such as Target. While I could have used them on one of my work trips to Louisville, I didn't want to spend them without his input (or I may have come home with hots and onesies...). Lucky for us, their gift cards don't expire! We're now fully prepared to still eat hot cooked meals during winter power outages with our Coleman stove!

Last day as "newly weds" in our first year of marriage.

Monday began less than perfect with both of us feeling rather under the weather. (I'll spare you details...) He rested most of the day and I worked from home... then I had to cover volleyball district games (working from 9-9 on your anniversary isn't what anyone wants), but Mingus came with me just to have the extra time together.

We ended the night breaking into our wedding cake topper. We let it sit out all day to thaw from its year in the freezer and I have to say, after a year, it was still quite delicious! We ate it on plates of our fancy pants china we have yet to really use and also opened a bottle of Greystone Cellars wine from the wedding. We looked through our wedding album and laughed a lot.

I discovered the face-detect feature on my camera for the first time
which resulted in a mini-photo shoot during our cake part!

I love my Wonderful with all of my heart and have loved the simplicity we have shared in this past year. He always puts me first and I am continuously amazed at how life-giving he is to me yet still acts like he does so little. Life far and away in the middle of Kentucky's knobs with just the two of us playing outside, getting dirty and taking on life's daily adventures is my kind of heaven.

My Wedding on a Budget: 25 Days to Go!

Cake Tasting...Yum!
Today Kara finally got to do a cake run. There are many factors to evaluate...

The Design/Decoration: Of course they day before she did it would be when I decide to change the design. Okay, not the design but the look, so all I had for decoration was the ribbon from a few weeks ago with KK--No twine or burlap. However, the thicker dark purple ribbon I got that I thought I didn't want to use, may end up being what I use if not the twine. Talking it through with Kara, we decide we could always use a regular stand, lifted up on blocks or something of the sort and just overlay it with the burlap and maybe even incorporate some moss. Is it bad that I sill really don't know what it's going to look like--with 25 days to go!

Icing: It ended up not mattering too much that we couldn't do much decorating because her buttercream icing with no real butter test didn't turn out so well, which meant the exterior look wasn't really top-notch. (Good news is, it wasn't the taste of the icing that had issues. I thought it was delish!) Neither of us thought about the fact tub butter/Earth Balance is very soft in general and that it probably would melt and become soft very easily. While it tasted great, she had a tough time spreading the icing so it was pretty thing and sloppy. It will definitely need a better look for the real deal. I would think that stick margarine would work better. It was only NOW, though, that Jon decided to mention that his mom has her own Jon-friendly recipe. Hopefully that will be the secret sauce we need. She uses water, powdered sugar and vanilla, which I would think creates a fairly thick/stiff icing.

Flavor: Chocolate cake was great. Not too heavy, which I had feared only slightly. It's been that way sometimes in the past, as I have found happens more so with baked goods from scratch. She did good though...as I expected from her baking experiencing! She's also going to throw together tomorrow a bourbon fused version of the cake. I doubt we'll go with it, but it's definitely worth trying and we know how Jon feels about bourbon!

And something extra: Kara also stuck a little purple surprise in the center! She put a layer of purple icing between the two layers on top. (I assume she did the same for the bottom.) Not only was it purple, though, she took it a step further and threw blueberries in it. I guess she knew we wouldn't turn down the extra thought by securing my vote with the purple and Jon's with the blueberries.

Icing will have to be bettered and the look still has to be nailed down, but it'll come together. It's one of those things I'm not too worried about.

My Wedding on a Budget: 27 Days to Go!

Grown up Stuff
Jon and I are Godparents! Well, before today, I was a Godmother and Jon was a Godfather but now we are Godparents together! Little Samuel Jonathan had his Baptism in Lexington today and Valerie and Brett had asked us to be his Godparents, which we definitely accepted. It was great to spend time with the two of them and the little guy, plus both of their families. So much grown up stuff happening these days!

However, it did mean for not much time at home. I didn't get to much wedding stuff. A quick trip down to Greystone and Mom had the chance to show off some of the rooms and space she's getting cleaned so that she has storage room. I made a trip up to Jerusha's new place (first and foremost to see it!) but also because she sampled some icing styles. She has more icing tips than I'd ever know what to do with, but she did a sample of each for me...which, we all know that's the last thing I need: more to decide among! I wrote down a few I liked so this week I can see what similar tips Michelle and Kara have and decide from there so that they can all be slightly similar.

I'm also leaning towards a new idea with the cake decoration. Going back to this idea of the brownish icings, I think I'll look for twine to use around the cake and then throw on some flowers for color. Some ideas I saw also incorporated burlap, which gave me the idea to use burlap around the bouquets with just a single purple ribbon. I am liking that idea more and more and I feel like it will be easier than wrapping a bunch of ribbon. We'll be buying burlap for the hay bales anyway.

My Wedding on a Budget: 31 Days to Go!

Special Deliveriessss!
I think I've gotten in just about everything I've ordered now. The second round of cupcake papers came in. Yesterday Holly had my shoes for me. The bridal party jewelry came in while I was away so Jon had that box waiting for me when I arrived home. The room I've been storing stuff in is beginning to have quite the pile of weddingness! Shoes, bags, candles, flip flops, makeup, jewelry, flowers...and on and on!

I talked with both Kara today more about cake to-dos. We were going to taste-test yesterday but I forgot to bring the ribbons for her to decorate with so we can square that away, so we've postponed until next week. She IS going to do one of the cupcake batches, which takes some off of Jerusha's plate, which is a good thing considering how much she's taken on for me! So Kara will do funfetti, Jerusha will do lemon and Michelle will do German chocolate and caramel apple. With the chocolate and caramel icings pretty much being stuck with the brown/tan colors they are, I am thinking I'll do funfetti in purple and lemon in green...and maybe, just maybe, I can still get Jon to help me construct a wood/log piece to place the cake itself on to tie in the browns of the icing. Karen Schafer also has some cupcake stands I'll be able to use from her.

My Wedding on a Budget: 37 Days to Go!

Veil...Check!
Aunt Lea is done with my veil! I picked it up this evening and it looks wonderful! She did an excellent job. I officially have a veil and it's even more excited to have had it made by someone so near and dear to me!

Here is some more good news: Shades, the salon, will do make up! They don't have a big line or anything too fancy so the guy, Brian (the one Holly was familiar with), told me that they recommend us bringing some of our own stuff--particularly foundation and powder. It's only $15 a person. I'm just glad to be able to give the other girls an option and to not have to worry about who is going to do mine. I'm still planning to do the Mac counter or something on Saturday. Jo and Rachel both recommend Mac as the best brand to really look good and last all day...and, well, let's face it... Of my bridal party, I'd say those two are the experts! Brian also told me that we are free to bring morning mimosas and food/party trays and our own music. We'll be the only ones at the salon!

Kara and I also chatted at length online today. She found the smaller size cake pan she needed for the top layer of the cake, so I think she is going to do a trial this Tuesday or so and then I can come by and bring my ribbon and maybe by then I'll have picked out flowers for the rest of the wedding and have an idea for her. I just have to remember to bring my stuff up to her!