Pre-Wedding- Day of Set-up

Did I skip over the rehearsal dinner? I apologize. I promise I will come back to that amazing dinner and night! But I just received an e-mail from my sister-in-law Christine of the beautiful photos she took of day of set-up that I hadn't seen and was not present at. So I thought I would share them. Obviously it gives away some more of the wedding day, but I am sure if you are my friend on Facebook you've seen most of this anyhow! Enjoy!

Incorporating Grandma Into our Special Day

Since grandma could not be there to join us for our wedding, I dedicated many a decor/things in our wedding to incorporate her into our special day. This is getting a bit ahead of the game on the recaps. But I cannot help myself because I am thinking dearly of my grandma tonight. So how did grandma attend our wedding without being present here on earth? Here's how:

1. Little odds and ends. I made all the light lanterns out of doilies from my grandma's place. I placed a light inside and they lit up the night! They were hung along side the chandelier, etc. "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine,let it shine!"

2. The family photos area. We had a table displaying the family wedding photos. We acquired everyone's except Chad and Noelle's wedding photo and grandma and grandpas (on both sides for me). Never did get either or. But instead, I felt that it would be decent to reflect the last photo I have with my grandma while she was here with us. I honestly did not plan on her frame being black. It was more of the last minute shuffle of things- but in a way, it seemed to be representing who I was trying to reflect a lot of the wedding based of off.

3. The cake stand board. When grandma was here her last year of life- she had a stroke. Honestly, we all thought this would be the last few moments with grandma. I flew down there on a whim to spend time with her and caught up with her in the hospital and then later in rehab. We ran through a slideshow of Costa Rica (which I found out about my grandma's declining health initially and remembering running into the ocean in tears and staying out there for about half an hour- running my hands over the waves and thinking how much my grandma would love to be there experiencing Costa Rica, as well being with people- she seemed so lonely). When I was visiting her in rehab after she was slowly regaining herself and her speech post stroke, it was the first time I had seen her since I was proposed to by Courtney. I asked her,

"Grandma, if you could give me any advice about marriage, what would it be?"

And she said to me very, slowly, (from the stroke) but thoughtfully,

"Make sure you are loved, and that you love him so much in return."

I took every ounce of those words, and cherished them close to my heart. My grandma, whom I grew up with, cared for me, taught me many things about life, and most of all inspired me. But she is right about marriage. So many people settle. They want to get married just to claim they are married or they just want to have a family. But why rush it? Why settle it? Courtney came into my life when I was with someone else, and he took me by storm. And everyday since, he praises me and tells me how much he loves me- and I return the love too. That is why I think this saying is so important. My grandma nailed it on the head, and she knew our relationship without really knowing our relationship. That is how amazing she was.

3. The weather. Dun Dun Dun! I will be completely honest and say I did not have a Plan B for an outdoor ceremony/reception except to wing it with everyones help if it did rain. Welp... The weather forecast up until day of called for possible thunderstorms at 30%. 30 whopping percent. That is to cover their butts really in case it does thunderstorm. We woke up to a partly sunny morning. As the day progressed though, it got cloudier and cloudier. Someone texted me with news that it was raining out. I looked out and saw it was already sprinkling rain. My heart melted. Now what. Honestly, I thought- screw it. Let everyone else figure it out. I've planned for 14 months for this day, I wasn't about to ruin this day by last minute plan B'ing it. Regardless, we loaded into the cars and continued on our way to our first look/wedding party location for the photos. When we arrived, it was raining. Not down-pouring, not sprinkling, but a good constant drizzle. We waited for about 15 minutes in the car for Courtney to arrive and this is a weather snapshot I saved while checking the weather during the wait.

Turns out the men were late (due to a bow tie tieing error we can get into later...) but in the 15 minutes, it went from raining, to stopping. During that time I slightly panicked, maybe took it out on my dad and yelled him for accidentally opening the side car door automatically (sorry!) in fears Courtney would drive by me and see me before our first look. I can tell you that in my memory, it was the minute Courtney showed up, it stopped raining. So maybe all those debates about one of us being cursed with bad weather has shown it's ugly face. I am the cursed one. Well just so you know, the weather ended up shifting course to the East, not North, which is the typical weather route here in New England. Hence, I was freaking out pretty good in the car there. My dad said,

"Don't worry, your grandma is looking out for you today."

He was, in fact- very right. To this day, we consider the weather a miracle performed by my grandma in heaven. It brings me to tears thinking about it. The weather pattern does not ever happen here in New England, ever. Thank you grandma, for looking after us on one of our special days in life. We love you and miss you dearly- but can obviously tell you are happy and in heaven and reflecting that down on us :)

Wedding Week Prep Part 2

Where did I leave off? Oh yeah! Momma coming to town! On Monday I worked from home in order to meet the maid service at our apartment. Also to spend time with my mom. Mom spent the day steaming linens and being a good sport- helping with whatever she could She also tackled filling the out of town bags. Then we went and got our nails 'did. Momma never had a manicure before and so this was a first for her! Tuesday- I had to go into work and my mom tagged along with Jean and Gary to Rockport, MA. I'm so glad they got to spend time together but also got to see a bit of the North Shore. Wednesday- People started to arrive from out of town. I spent the morning wrapping up baking the remainder of the cakes. I also began making some appetizers and such for family and friends that would be stopping by for an impromptu BBQ that afternoon for the 4th of July. Courtney's Best Man arrived as well his his mom and step-dad. We enjoyed a very nice dinner while recapping some old memories over a beautiful memory book that was made for us. Tears streamed down our faces, but of course, happy tears to say the least. Thursday I woke to the planned "cake decorating" day. I immediately started whipping up the butter cream icing in batches knowing we'd need a bunch of it to decorate all the cakes. My mom and Courtney's mom came to the rescue and helped decorate the beautiful wedding cakes!

There were three cakes total. One three tiered three layer each cake (pictured above) with 2 vanilla layers and one chocolate layer with butter cream icing and apricot/sugar rubbed flowers. The other two cakes not pictured were three layer cakes in a light pink with white cross hatch icing decoration. Very fitting for the amount of "pinks" in this wedding. The baking took a total of 2.5 days and icing took about a half a day. We cheered and celebrated after the finishing touches were put in place. We had accomplished my goal of DIYing the wedding cakes. Thursday night after a day of decorating cakes, I met up with my bridesmaids and friends at Alewife train station. We then headed down to the city for my bachelorette! And that is all I will leave you with for this night! That and the fact that it was one of the best nights I've had with my girlfriends and we had such a blast!

Wedding week to be continued...

Pre-Wedding Festivities! And the wedding week begins! A few days early...

Well hello there Mrs. Dean. Oh wait, am I talking to myself here? Welp, yes- by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Courtney and I are officially husband and wife! As I kept saying all day Saturday while getting ready, "This is crazy!" so call me maybe? Ha! Man am I corny?! I can't wait to tell you all details all about the big day. But I figured I'd prefer to break it down for you starting from the very beginning....

Once upon a time there was a girl and a boy who had no idea each other existed.... *fast forward 3.5 years* and "I now pronounce you husband and wife!". We originally thought the wedding week would begin with my momma coming up on the train on 7/1 but we were more than delighted to find out that Courtney's father and step-mother had arrived to town on 6/31. They were staying at a nearby RV park at Hanscom Family campground. So we immediately headed up after work that day to go visit. We enjoyed a nice BBQ and caught up over good food and company. It was so good to see them as it had been about a year since we last connected in person. We talked about the week, plans, and laid out more of a timeline for getting things done. They had arrived early to spend time with us before the Circus of a week that we knew would be upon us. It was so nice to spend some quality one on one time with them.


The next day- I luckily got out of work about 2:00 p.m. thanks to "FlipKey Fridays". I linked up with Courtney's dad and step mom in downtown Boston for a trolley tour. It was really nice to spend some time with them and to see more of Boston that I never even knew about! It was incredibly hot too, so right after the tour we decided to take the train back to Arlington, where we got started on BBQing at our wreck of a place! I had been saving up the mess because help was coming on Monday to clean up. But they still dealt the the heat, the mess and got to see where we spend our everyday lives. It meant so much to us!

Then, Saturday rolled around. And it was the big lighting set-up day! We had the help of Gary, Jean, John, Jamie and Courtney. My vision was Young House Love themed meets John and Jamie's wedding. And thanks to friends and family- we nailed it! We wrapped up and again enjoyed a meal with family... ending the day right!

Sunday came so quick- and Courtney was off with his father deep sea fishing for some father son time. I spent the day with Jean (his mother-in-law) who helped me run errands- including Trader Joe's errands, taking her to FlipKey to pick-up a cooler. Jean got to see my cubicle and office. Then we walked around Chinatown and soon headed to the North End for some famous Mike's pastries. We picked up some cannolis for everyone. I should be shot because I never ended up eating mine. I crave sweets but when it comes to actually eating them- can't find the appetite. A storm started rolling in and we headed to the train station just in time to stay dry. Or so we thought! The storm never even hit even though it looked pretty "crazy".

My mom's train ran late, so we grabbed some Auntie Anne's and took a seat. Finally, my mom's train arrived, and we waited on the platform for her. I remember her walking down in her blue and white shirt with those cute white capris on. I was so incredibly moved to see her. I ran up and hugged her, fighting back the tears. She had traveled all this way, alone to help me for my big day. And that meant the world to me... And I will leave it at that for part 1 of the pre-wedding festivities. How many parts are there? You will have find out!