First married Christmas

Although it was our fourth Christmas together, this year of course marked our first Christmas as husband and wife.

And it was PERFECT!

We kicked the season off with our now-annual trip to Kennebunkport, ME for the Christmas Prelude.  I dressed up very festively:

We bought a souvenir ornament:

...plus chocolate wine, white wine, eggnog, and Simon sneakily bought me some stocking stuffers.  We ate and drank at an amazing ice bar:

...and then sat by a roaring fire under wool blankets:

It was an amazing day.  I also did karaoke and somehow got quite the fan club.  ;)

Since we'd be visiting family all day on Christmas, we decided to treat Christmas Eve day like our Christmas. Simon had the day off, so we woke up around 10, opened presents:

...and had a big brunch of French toast casserole and bacon:

Our tree was lovely as always:

...with a new wedding ornament:

...and plenty of our favorite geeky ones:

Then on Christmas day, we headed first to Simon's parents' house in CT, where they spoiled us rotten, as usual.  ;)

Then after dinner with them, we drove back to MA to go to my aunt's house in Scituate.  All the little ones were there, and most of the adults.  We enjoyed gifts and dessert with them:

All in all, it was an AMAZING day!  Happy Holidays!

Love,
Simon and Sarah

My wedding reception dress came...and I hate it.

ARGH.  Simon and I went to visit friends in Canada for the weekend, and came home on Monday night to a boat-load of wedding stress.

First, my reception dress had arrived.  Yay, right?  I excitedly tried it on…and immediately hated it.

The brown sash is too light of a brown.  The over-layer isn’t really lace, it’s sheer mesh with some floral designs and sequins.  The back is too low to wear a bra.  It looks frumpy and thick and makes me look 10 lbs. heavier.  It sucks and I won’t wear it.

AWESOME.

So now I have yet another dress to sell on eBay.  I’m not too worried; it’s really quite pretty and unique and should sell easily, it just wasn’t right for me.  This means I now have THREE dresses to sell on eBay, since I bought and changed my mind about two others.  And while I still love my actual wedding gown, I can’t help thinking I should have bought something just a little more comfortable so I wouldn’t have to worry about a reception dress.  It’s GORGEOUS, and looks amazing on me, but it’s hot and heavy and tight.  I will not be able to eat much in it.

Back to the drawing board.  Going dress shopping ASAP, in actual stores so I can try them on.  I don’t expect to find much; white, preferably lace, dresses are rare even in summer; but I’ll do the best I can.  I’m sure I can find something…right?

So while I’m pissed about that, we worked on the other bomb that was dropped WHILE we were on vacation: Simon’s mom not making it to the wedding rehearsal.  Which, obviously, is NOT an option.

Here’s the story: Simon’s dad, Charles, comes from PA, and most of his relatives still live there.  Simon’s grandmother (Charles’s mother) is coming to the wedding, and was going to get a ride from her daughter and son-in-law, who were also attending our wedding.  Well, her son-in-law’s mother became gravely ill, and they are no longer attending our wedding.  In order to get his elderly mother to our wedding, Charles wants to drive down to PA and pick her up.  His plan is to do this the day before our wedding, Friday, and meet us all at the rehearsal.  Charles and his mother would then spend the night in a Boston hotel.

This leaves Simon’s mother, Barbara, to drive alone from CT. This wouldn’t be so much of an issue, except she is responsible for driving Simon’s brother John, and Charles and Barbara’s housemate Adam, from CT to Boston for the wedding. Their solution was for Barbara to skip the rehearsal, and have me “fill her in” on what she’s to do in the ceremony on the day of the wedding.

Um…NO.

I’m going to be more than a little busy on my wedding day. While I love her to pieces and don’t want to start any fights, this is NOT an option.  The ONE thing I need from his family is to have both parents attend the rehearsal because they have a part and a spoken line in it.  I wrote a part in for both sets of parents because family is important to me.  Simon briefly suggested I take that part out to solve this problem, but I shot it down before he could finish the sentence.  I want the ceremony to remain how I wrote it.  Whether they’re in it or not, his parents should be there anyways!

I know it seems like this shouldn’t even be an issue, but here are the other problems: John and Adam, for various medical reasons, cannot drive themselves to Boston on Saturday.  They cannot all come and spend Friday night because Barbara has cats and John has a bird that all need to be fed.  No, no one else can do it.  NOW his parents are saying Barbara can drive up here Friday night for the rehearsal, but drive home before the dinner so she’s not doing a 2-hour drive late at night.  I also don’t like this plan, because the mother of the groom should be at the rehearsal dinner, dammit!

Simon and I have this solution: Charles picks up his mother in PA and meets us, with her, at the rehearsal.  Barbara drives herself to the rehearsal.  Charles, Barbara, and grandma all spend the night in Boston.  Simon and I hire a driver, or allow a friend to volunteer, to pick up Adam and John in CT on Saturday.  That way Adam can feed the cats and John can feed his bird Friday night.  Adam and John drive back to CT with Barbara after the wedding.  We have pitched this and are waiting for Simon’s dad to stop making excuses and agree to it.

My other issue…I don’t for a second trust that Simon’s dad can make it from PA to Boston by 5 pm on a Friday without being late.  He just isn’t reliable enough for me to be confident in him.  We have one hour to rehearse; the space is booked after us.  We cannot start late.  What if we make all these arrangements for Barbara to make it and his dad misses it?  Do you realize how PISSED I will be???

Simon and I really don’t care THAT much if his grandmother comes.  Simon barely knows her, and she and his mom do NOT get along.  This could all be solved by her just not coming.  But Charles is a momma’s boy and won’t in a million years accept that solution.  So we’re stuck.  There are SO many things that can go wrong here, and it’s still not 100% solved anyways.

STRESSED.  OUT.

Maybe I should change my name somehow?

As you may have read in @msrib's blog the other day, we're having identity crises. We both currently have very unique names and are going to be marrying into very common ones. I'll take the risk and post my name here because I really want some feedback.

My current name is Sarah Ann Proto. Common first and middle, rare last name. (Also, my initials suck. Seriously Mom?) When I take Simon's last name, I will be Sarah Ann Nelson. Not only are there a gajillion Sarah Nelsons (one in the race I ran Friday, I went to school with one and am still friends with her on Facebook, etc.), but there are other Sarah Ann Nelsons! The Sarah Nelson I knew in high school (middle initial K), her sister-in-law is Sarah Ann Nelson! Luckily she lives in Germany, lol. But seriously. My name will be SO common.

I do not want to keep Proto in any way, as cool as the name is. It's my dad's last name, and I hate my dad. (Long story.) I also don't want to get rid of my middle name, because that's what my beloved late mother named me. So what to do? Hyphenate my first and middle and choose a new middle? Sarah-Ann Louise (my mom's name)?

I really think I'm probably just going to leave it Sarah Ann Nelson. Messing with your name can be iffy. My nickname, though rarely used, is Sari, so maybe I'll go by Sari Nelson professionally. Sound good?

After seeing a pic of Twitter friend @PhysicistLisa's husband @theryanburke wearing ablue 8-bit tie for their wedding, Simon just had to have one. He knew I'd been debating changing into a more comfortable gown halfway through the reception, so he wants to change his tie to that, in red, when I change.

That got me thinking it might be fun to geek up my own ensemble and let loose as our true selves for the last couple hours, so I snatched these up on @Etsy:

Good to go!

1 day past RSVP deadline, 51 accepting and 32 declining. Most missing RSVPs will be declines. Waiting on 12 out of 57 RSVPs.

My RSVP deadline was Monday. Still got a lot of RSVPs that haven't been returned. Most of them are Simon's extended out-of-state family, whom he hardly knows, that his parents are now going to have to call. One of his dad's siblings is coming, so it's not out of the question that others might. We just need to freaking know! I gave them a month and a half window to send them back. The stamp is already on it. It would really be nice if people actually cared enough to send them back. Argh!

Wedding shower

Sunday was our wedding shower!  It was awesome!  Twenty-six people came, plus six kidlets.  My aunt hosted it, BBQ style as we discussed.  I think the guys were far more comfortable than they expected to be.  Successful co-ed shower!

There were so many cute touches, from my aunt’s towel cake:

(…which contained two wash cloths, 2 hand towels, and 2 bath towels!)

…to the sweet sign (containing a pic we have no recollection of ever being taken, lol):

…to the ADORABLE Beau Coup favors (BBQ sauce and chocolates!):

She really outdid herself.  My bridesmaids led the group in a couple of games: make as many words as you can from Simon’s and my names, and a wedding word scramble, and gave out prizes to the winners.  They also had an egg timer going while we opened presents, and whoever’s present we were opening when it dinged, got a prize!  So cute.

My aunt’s house is right on the water and made for many great photos, like this one:

We also practiced our wedding cake cutting!

We had a blast.  It was such a perfect day.

I just have to share my latest DIY projects, my wedding arch:

…and my old family wedding gowns:

 

 

The wedding arch is something I had been dreading, because I do NOT sew.  I finally buckled down and did it, pricking my finger about a dozen times.  But it’s done!  And I love it!  We will have to disassemble it for transport, but the cloth all stays attached thank goodness.

The wedding gowns idea I got from some bride on Twitter (I forget who, sorry or I’d give you credit!).  I have my mom’s gown from 1975 and my great aunt’s gown from around 1940.  I called Simon’s mom and she says she has her gown (but it can’t be found at the moment, which may be a problem).  Display them on mannequins at the reception, and voila! Instant conversation pieces.  I just recently got the idea to make some “displays” at the reception, as it IS in a museum!  I have old pics of Simon and I and our siblings, and our parents’ wedding pics:

Each will be accompanied by a little display of facts about the picture or gown.  I love how it ties into the venue; it’s the little touch I’ve been searching for to make our wedding unique!  Plus, my ever-present problem of how to entertain people with no dancing.  I’m also displaying the scrapbook I mentioned last week.  I think that’s enough at this point. I’m trying not to add any new projects, since the wedding is just over FIFTY days away! OMG!

Also, happy 3-year anniversary to my sweet, handsome, wonderful fiancé Simon!  I love you baby, this has been the best three years of my life!

Which bridal bouquet do you like better?

I worked long and hard on my bouquets recently.  Ran out of ribbon and had to buy more.  Each bouquet took about 3 yards of ribbon to wrap the stems!  So here are the three bridesmaid bouquets:

The yellow one is Beth’s, the orange one is Allie’s, and the red one is my sister Katy’s, as maid of honor.  I put the white rose in the middle of hers to make it more distinct.  So I can’t decide whether to have a little burst of those colors in the middle of my bouquet:

…or keep it all traditional bridal white:

Thoughts?

Simon and I are casual people.  I enjoy the occasional fancy get-together, but in general we’re very laid-back.  I knew when my aunt asked me about my shower that I wanted it to be co-ed, as it’s Simon’s wedding too!  And with guys there, you don’t want anything too frilly, so I requested a BBQ.  I received the official invitation recently, and it’s super sweet.  So of course I needed a new dress, even though it’s casual, because that’s me!  ;)  I went shopping at Kohl’s with a cute pair of new shoes to match it to: aqua wedge espadrilles.  I ended up with this adorable number:

It’s far trendier than my usual style, so it was something fun and different.  It was $60, marked down to $45, then I had a $10 coupon.  Woot!  I love it.  I even bought Spanx and a bandeau bra to go under it so it looks even better, lol.

In other news, I’m officially down 30 lbs. total, woo hoo!  Hoping for another 10 by the wedding.  My first gown fitting is Thursday, so pretty much while you’re reading this blog.  I can’t wait!  I miss my gown!