Rehearsal: After Party

With my own, personal army completing the venue setup (THANKS EVERYBODY!) in the hour or so before the Rehearsal, this definitely cleared up our schedule after the Rehearsal Dinner.  My original idea would be that we would all go out to local bars in Seguin.  Once again, our options are pretty limited; there’s The Ticket, The Oak, and Austin Street Live and they are all within walking distance.  We eventually decided on The Ticket because we had a few underage family members coming along, and I wanted to make sure that everyone could enjoy the evening.

Luckily for my friend Natalie, The Ticket is right next door to Chiro Java which offered free wifi for her to quickly complete and submit some homework for her online class:

That’s right.  My friend sat on the street at 9:30pm finishing her homework.  And it looks like I’m am doing some sort of karate chop in the background.  Wish the picture wasn’t so blurry, but glad we have the proof of what went down.  You can’t make this stuff up!

This part of the night comes complete with pictures!  A couple of my friends made sure to snap a few throughout this part of the evening, and I have them to share!

As you can see, a great time was had by all.  But with the lights coming on at midnight (that’s small towns for you), it had to come to an end; or at least to be continued the next day.

Rehearsal: Dinner

Rehearsal dinner was probably one of the easiest decisions we made concerning the wedding.  First, we limited our options to either a backyard bbq, unique New Braunfels restaurant (The Gristmill or Gruene River Grill), or a local Seguin restaurant (*cough*El Ranchito*cough*).  Backyard bbq was omitted almost immediately due to July weather conditions in Texas (please see 5 Day Weather Forecast for examples).  The unique New Braunfels restaurant option soon followed due to the driving distance from Luling, where our rehearsal was going to be held, which is a good 45 minute trip one way. 

After eliminating our other two options, a local Seguin restaurant soon became our only way to go.  Our decision was based purely on convenience and guest comfort.  From here, it just got easier.  Our only option that would be large enough to hold roughly 40 people AND would take some sort of reservation was El Ranchito.  Mexican and margaritas (my favorites!) soon became the theme to our rehearsal dinner.

We talked with our friends and caught up with the long distance family that we had also invited to the dinner.  It was really a lot of fun getting to see everybody gathered together.  We also had decided that we would pass out our bridal party and parent gifts here, even though Michael did forget to give his parent’s gift to them that night, and had to give it to them the next day.

For the parents, we gave the obligatory picture frame.  I used the picture we had taken with the 7.14.12 banner.  I guess I could have used one of our engagement photos, but honestly, this one is my favorite.  I liked that it includes our puppy and one of the banners I had made (side note: tried taking a picture with props at the wedding, but completely forgot!), and I liked the way it went better with the frame that I had picked (barnwood).  We also promised them one of the wedding pictures, whichever they wanted.

The groomsmen received their ties for the next day, as well as a pilsner glass.  Michael hand picked each of these for the groomsmen.  Bonus points if you can decide which glass went to which groomsman!

For the girls, I had already decided what I wanted to do early on.  I had been perusing the internet (cough*Pinterest*cough) one day, when I found the bridesmaid’s survival kit.  I decided I would combine that with the Vera Bradley Hanging Organizer.  I picked out a color for each girls, and then filled the plastic zipper areas with lotion, toothbrush, toothpaste, and other odds and ends I found in the dollar toiletries section at Target.

I think the rehearsal dinner went very well, I just wish we had more pictures to share!  The waitstaff was excellent and kept the margaritas flowing, which kept the party going!  Stay tuned for the third and final installment for Friday evening: Rehearsal After Party!

Rehearsal: Setup & Rehearsing

My original understanding with Zedler Mill was that we would have access to it all day on Friday, which would give us the extra desperately needed time to set up the tables, chairs, plates, and napkins.  Unfortunately, a few weeks before the actual weekend, we realized this was not to be.  We wouldn’t be able to get the keys until 5 o’clock.  The venue had drawn a hard line in the sand, and there would be no way around this.  So we adjusted our timeline accordingly and came up with the below.

5:00pm – setup what we can

6:00pm – rehearsal

7:00pm – leave for restaurant

7:30pm – rehearsal dinner

9:00pm – have fun at local bars

9:00pm – return to Zedler to finish setting up

We managed to get the keys to Zedler at 4pm (the lady was literally calling my mom to ask why we hadn’t picked them up yet, meaning we could have had access earlier to the venue; miscommunication much?), and started unpacking the stuff by 4:15.  By 5 o’clock, a small army of people showed up to help.  Within an hour the tables and chairs were setup according to the floorplan, tablecloths, plates, and napkins were in place, and people were putting the finishing touches on the cake table.  It was amazing to watch and there’s no way I can possibly thank all the friends and family who showed up to make that hour so productive!

 

And just like that, “9:00pm – have fun at local bars” was back on the table!  But first we had to rehearse.

Reverend Ron was able to attend and conduct our rehearsal, after meeting him a mere two weeks(!) before the wedding.  It went pretty smoothly, which is the way he intended it I’m sure.  Like he said, he had done this many times before so I was more then willing to turn the reins over to him.  He first talked to Michael and me to make sure he had all the details.  Then we gathered the troops so that he could show us where we would end up standing once we had processed.

It was pretty easy.  We weren’t asking for anything out of the ordinary in our ceremony, so after starting about 10 minutes late, we were done by 6:45.  Perfect!  It gave us just enough time to give out last minute directions to the non-locals, discuss a few leftover details for the Mill, and make it to the restaurant before my stomach decided to start eating my insides from starvation!

Unemployed

It’s been a while since I was last here (two years and five months to be exact), but it feels like déjà vu all over again. Different apartment, different city, but same dog, same couch, same job applications, and same test material to review.

Well, last time I was studying for the Mathematics 8-12 test to be able to teach high school math.  Now I’m hoping to add the Science Composite test to make myself more valuable as a teacher.  I guess as long as the outcome is the same (passing the test!), I’ll be ok.  Although this time I hope I get an actual teaching job instead of settling for pushing papers at some Corporate office somewhere.

I have three weeks from today to study.  Wish me luck!   

Repurposing

Or like the Yuppies call it…..Upcycling.  It’s all the rage now. *cough*sarcasm*cough*

Image Source

No really, it is!  To us common people, it’s more about recycling things for another purpose (cheaply!) then it is about going out and spending lots of money on something that has been Upcycled for you.  I realize you wouldn’t think we would be repurposing anything after gutting cleaning out our house, but there were a few wedding mementos I had always intended to be saved and changed into something we could use/cherish afterwards.

1. Framed monograms for ceremony arches

You can see the framed P hanging from the arch behind the guys.....

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with these for a while.  Worst case scenario was that the P’s would get tossed, and I would save the frame’s to display wedding photos.  Then I started thinking how great it would be to add burlap throw pillows to our couch.  After that it was just a snow ball effect of combining burlap pillows with the monograms, a la the ring bearer pillow.  I thought the combination of burlap with the monogram would be a great addition to our couch!

Ooops, looks like it was upside down.  Haha, oh well.  My cousin did so good.

So my intention is to sew two burlap pillow cases, somehow attach the P’s, and then admire them on our couch.  I think they’ll look great!  Plus, I can use the empty picture frame’s to display some of our wedding pictures!

2. Wedding cards

Luckily, I saw this pin on Pinterest BEFORE the bridal showers and wedding, or our cards would have probably ended up in the trash.  As of right now, they’re safe and sound in a perfectly sized plastic tote, and will remain there until I get around to doing this.

Image via SomethingTurquoise

3. White and gold framed “P” on cake table

My original repurposing plan was to paint the frame to match our living or bedroom.  Honestly, the more I look at it, the more I like it as is, so not sure I’ll be making any changes to it.  Instead of repurposing, perhaps this is just moving?  Or not selling it?  You’re call, either way, keeping it with minimal changes.  I think the wire to hang it runs width wide and I will need to change that to length wide. 

4. Chandelier and small blue mason jars

Image via Etsy

Now, this was not something that was featured at the wedding.  After seeing the above inspiration picture, I had every intention of making this.  I bought the below chandelier from SaveOnCrafts, had accidentally bought four pint sized mason jars (instead of the quart sized needed for the centerpieces), and was fully prepared to convert my plain chandelier into the above. 

Image via SaveOnCrafts

But it just. Never. Happened.  I was slightly upset, but it’s almost as if the universe was saying no Megan, that’s enough.  First, I didn’t have the right tool to cut off the metal spikes that would hold the candle; second, I couldn’t seem to find anywhere to hang it where it would look good at the venue; third, Michael was always against it.  Oh well.  You can’t always get your way, even if you are the bride.  I am determined to complete this project though.  Even if it is just to see how it turns out.

As you can tell, just because the wedding is over doesn’t mean that I am done diy’ing.  I think that completing these projects, studying for my state certification test, trying to find a job, and unpacking/organizing our apartment should keep me from getting bored anytime soon.  If not, there’s always the puppy to walk. 

So much for taking a break……

Moving

This weekend we went from this two bedroom house located in the concrete jungle of Dallas, Texas:

Pictured here is my parting gift from my friend Crazy in Dallas!  This is our little spicy Burrito.  He was a pinata bought for Cinco de Mayo, then used as a cubicle decoration for my birthday nineteen days later.  I've decided he's my first classroom decoration for when I (fianlly!) manage to get a teaching job.

To this small quaint apartment on the banks of “lake” Dunlap (aka it’s a river that gets a little wider right above the dam):

It will be a little cramped, and we’ll need to adjust to the apartment life after spending over eighteen months in an actual house, but we just have to keep reminding ourselves that this is *fingers crossed* our last apartment home.

We made the drive from Dallas to New Braunfels in pretty good time even with the Budget truck maximum speed staying at 65 mph.  I drove Michael’s truck with the puppy as my only passenger, and Michael towed my 4Runner behind the moving truck.  After we FINALLY made it to the apartments, we ended up sitting and waiting on the maintenance man after trying TWO sets of keys to get into our new apartment.  It turns out the lock on our door was recalled at some point because sometimes it just decides to not unlock, which is what caused the problem for us.  About an hour long problem for us to be exact.

Anyways, we finally got in.  YEAH!!!!  It was hot outside.  Within an hour, the living room of our new apartment looked like this:

By the end of the day, it honestly didn’t look much better.  Michael worked on the bedroom and I worked on the kitchen.  Empty boxes were flying, but I don’t feel like much progress was made until Sunday:

You can at least see a living room starting to take shape.  I had also finished the kitchen, which really helped get rid of some of the boxes that were lying around, taking up valuable space.  On Monday, the cable guy came to hook up the TV’s and internet.  After taking FOUR HOURS to complete the installation, we finally had internet and Olympic Game view ability.  GO TEAM USA!  By Monday night, we not only had walking pathways, but an actual living space in the living room!

 

I know if you’re looking at the above picture, you’re like what?  Really Megan?  There are still boxes and drum set pieces all over the place!  See below for further explanation.

1. Move

2. Return moving truck

3. Cable Installation

4. Move stuff to storage unit

You can tell from the list, we have one more thing to take care of before we can begin to put the finishing touches on the apartment.  We’ve also learned that finding a storage unit around here is a little cut throat, so wish us luck!  Hopefully I can start posting some finished pictures of the apartment instead of the unorganized mess shown above.

Pictures In A Field: Live Version

A.k.a. I actually took my ideas and did them. 

Now that the wedding is over, I can show you some of the awesome pictures from my bridal shoot.  Sounds fancy, right?  Remember the title?  They were in a field….  Filled with cow poop.  Trust me, not all that fancy.

Props included this cool couch taken out of my Papa’s Party House:

Pictured here was my muscle and ride for the day, my Dad and Uncle.  They took care of carrying this couch that weighed a ton, and driving us all around to the different locations.

And this lovely diva, Holly Bay:

She was the best live horse prop a girl could have.  Stood still for the pictures, picked her head up when asked, and didn’t even spook from my dress!  Amazing!  I sound surprised, but like they say (whomever they might be), when working with live animals and kids, you just never know what might happen.

The infamous couch picture.

I think this is Michael’s favorite since he posted it on Facebook.  Apparently I give him this look often.

This picture was taken right before my dad realized there was a water moccasin playing in the creek.  As soon as he yelled “snake!”, I was done with this location.  Anyways, I’ll let the rest of the pictures tell their own stories.

And finally a picture with my boots!  My favorite accessory.

**All pictures courtesy of Dawn's Photography.