Be still my beating heart

The last 3ish weeks have been like some sort of alternate reality/ hazy dream.  It sounds so ridiculous and I hate being "that" girl but I know I am right now so I guess I should just roll with it.

On September 8^th, 2012, SP and I had the most lovely wedding.  

The lead up to it was absolutely insane.  It was everything everybody said. The chaos and the stress and the extreme busyness - it was all that.  The details drove my control freak self to the brink.  But every time I thought it would become too much and I couldn't remember the "why's" I would get a sign or a reminder, a kiss from my love, a reminder from my preacher man about what weddings are really about, a friend who calls and helps with anything (and I mean anything) - apparently that's called God kicking my butt yet again.  

And in the end it was everything I never dreamed of. Perfection in every inch, in every look, in every laugh, in every touch – every single moment.

I loved every instant of our wedding.  I'm not sure that every bride can say that about their wedding.  Because there is so much anxiety and exhaustion and nerves and the details, my goodness, the details.  But I honestly can say I loved every second.  Don't get me wrong we had all the anxiety etc but it was so wrapped in a gauze of love and joy and celebration, I remember nothing else but that feeling of bubbly, foggy happiness.

I know that my wedding is a sort of anomaly (I like that, I have to say) in that we didn't really adhere to any of the "traditional" wedding things (whatever those are).  But it was disgustingly dreamy.  It was the perfect balance of all about us (which you know is the way I like it!) and all about everybody else.  I thought I would hate all the attention (and it was hard for me) but the focus on the celebration of the love, of the life, SP & I have, it was actually wonderful.  It was exciting, and strengthening, and the perfect celebration of the marriage SP and I have created.

I could give you the play by play but I'll spare you.  Here's the 30 second version:

Pretty-fy

Take really hot pictures (temperature-hot you dirty minds)

Beautiful touching ceremony full of love love love

Take more really hot pictures that I will treasure forever

Beautiful touching reception that held some of the most moving moments of my life that I will literally never forget (tearing up now, I'm such a girl)

Try to eat - but I can't (SUCH A GIRL!)

Boogie down and try my hardest to talk to everybody (failed)

Go home and nearly die of exhaustion, prepare to leave in 4 hrs for European adventure

The end

And while I'll never be an advocate of the $100,000 big, fluffy, tulle-y weddings full of formality, I realize I am now a major advocate of the meaningful wedding.  It is important to celebrate finding real love (because that's hard people, really really hard) and it's important to allow others to celebrate with you and support you.  And it is important to recognize that two people sharing a life together is also really hard and you should celebrate every moment of love and joy that you can.  I didn't realize how much having a wedding would mean to me, but it meant a whole lot.  

And I'm so very glad I was the cliché and married my best friend.  

This is a combo of wow you look beautiful, I love you, and HOLY MOLY this is for real!

Love

These are titled (L) We made it!  (R) Our favorite preacher man/brother from another mother

With the parents

Everybody

The REAL Everybody ;)

And then the real whirlwind began - but that's another story for another time!

Lots of love from lovey dovey me!  XOXO

Just for Funsies Friday!

Alternate titles for this post:

Study in Kori's Face

or

Learning how to use my new camera

 Ooops somebody else's face slipped in there (I'm going to be in trouble for that one!)

Ain't she just the cutest little subject.  I'm obsessed.  Just wait till I have a baby - 9billion pictures here I come!  I'm loving this new camera (Nikon One) even though I definitely have no clue how to use all the settings (way way past my abilities) thank god it has an automatic setting for the time being...

Hope everybody has fabulous weekend plans.  Ours include, wedding stuff, wedding stuff, wedding stuff...oh and some wedding stuff.

BESOS!

Wedding Planning's Life Lessons

 

I’m essentially an event planner in my professional life.  It happens to be a very specific event that I plan every year, that involves some bizarre circumstances and not very “party like” situations but let’s be honest – my skillz they lie in the organization.   So when it came to planning a wedding for SP and me I thought – piece of cake yo.  I mean it’s a party which is fun and it’s all about me and SP (double fun!)  And it’s really not that big compared to what I spend 11months out of the year planning day in and day out.

And you know what?

I WAS WRONG.  (put that on your calendar because that phrase, it doesn’t show up often…because people, I’m the queen of being right…all.the.time.)

Don’t get me wrong.  This is not a wedding hating post, this isn’t a post to let you know that SP and I now hate each other and can’t believe we are having this wedding (we don’t and we’re glad we’re having it) It’s just a post about what I thought I knew and what I’ve now learned.

And even if you’re not planning a wedding I think some of this stuff is applicable all the time.

So without further ado –what I’ve learned (so far) while planning a wedding:

1)   You are always going to offend somebody or hurt somebody’s feelings – SP and I are champion hikers.  We are well practiced in taking the high road.  Sometimes our feet hurt a lot.  But dude.  This is a lesson I’m learning over and over and over again in life.  And as a chronic people pleaser this one has been a @$$ kicker.  I can’t make everybody happy.  I’m trying my damndest though, I swear.

2)   Flowers die, cake gets eaten, chairs don’t matter – not singularly focusing on the stuff that doesn’t matter somehow becomes insanely hard.  Should we have purple napkins and margaritas or white linens and beer? We really want cupcakes but if we have those can we have white flowers?  Or will they clash?  If the only thing people remember from my wedding are what type of chairs I had then I sucked at planning my wedding.  My wedding is not about chair covers and aisle runners and flatware.  My wedding is about marrying the person I love and having a raging party with my friends and family.  Remember our smiles and the dancing and the love.

3)   The wedding is not about us – this one was rough for me to swallow.  It still is, because on most days I’m pretty sure the sun rotates around me ;)  But really the wedding is for celebrating with family and friends and loved ones.  The marriage is for us.  The life and love and experiences – those are ALL mine.  The wedding is for everybody else.  I mean I’ll be there (I suppose that’s kind of important…jk jk) but I recognize now that this one day, the sun has to rotate around others as well.

4)   The rest of your life will go to sh*t – I like the multi tasking.  I think I’m good at it.  But inherently people are not wired for multitasking.  Our little brains, they are meant to focus on one thing at a time and dedicate ourselves to it.  When you dedicate your life to planning your wedding you suddenly forget how to work, dress yourself, do laundry, eat normally, and exercise.  Every day things like not eating beef jerkey for 3 meals a day seems impossible.  Sitting on the floor crouched over your 100^th DIY wedding banner – now that you have super human strength for.  You may never stand up straight again but that’s beside the point.

5)   The things and people that don’t matter, they fall away – Another lesson I’m sure I should have learned long ago, but I guess I’m dumb (nahhh!)  It’s funny who shows up and in what ways.  But the people that love you and care for you – they know what to do and they will be there in every way they can.  And those are the ones that matter.

And in wedding related goodness.  Here's a few dorky pics from our dorky friendsie

wedding shower which was practically perfect in every way!

 Friendsies hanging out and celebrating!

 Beautiful Dress Making Teams...

And a little bridal pictionary!

These ones won for best drawings, can you guess what they are?

 Honey moon and bridezilla...yeah we have some masters amongst us!

Besos!
Sarah

Just for Funsies Friday - Olympic Diving Addition

Matt King/Adam Pretty/Al Bello, Getty Images

 
Just in case you haven't seen this yet, here you go!

Olympic Divers on the Toilet

Because nothing's funnier than a little toilet humor!

Happy Friday!

And now what?...

What happens when everything you've been working for is over?  Olympians must feel this way on an epic scale (everything these days is an Olympic analogy lets be honest...isn't the olympics consuming every moment of your waking hours too?!)  But I have to say I kind of feel that way now that my program is over. Its like I work and work and work and live and breathe this program for months.  And then it consumes every fiber of my being for 4 weeks straight. And then its over.  And the simultaneous relief and exhaustion and feelings of missing something are overwhelming.  

The wildly (WILDLY) successful program ended this past saturday.  I hesitate to say this in fear of cursing myself for the future...But this was far and away the best group of students I have had the pleasure of working with.  They were kind, engaging, enjoyable to be around.  Things went so incredibly smoothly that I found myself holding my breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop.  I worked my tail off...don't get me wrong, there was no resting on my laurels or anything.  I guess my meticulous planning and my newfound ability to put things in perspective (this actually ISN'T the end of the world) actually paid off.  And it was it incredibly sweet and rewarding.

And then I shut down.

Saturday afternoon I literally laid on the couch for 5 hours straight.  I couldn't do anything.  I kept waiting for my work phone to ring and I kept thinking there was something I should be doing.  But there wasn't anything. It was so weird.  But still the great feeling of freedom didn't set in.

Sunday SP and I headed to the beach to celebrate my (and by association, her) freedom.  It has become a tradition. One I think we should definitely keep.  We even left the dog at home (thanks best friendsie face!) so it was total freedom and it was so strange and so lovely. Being responsible for only myself and my SP...it was relaxing in the most fabulous way.  And then freedom hit me and hit me hard!

Off to the beach, clearly I'm still tired! 

Oh Glorious sand and sun and ocean!

They tell me this is like the best pizza ever.  It was pretty delicious...

What's left over from breakfast.  And now we're on a diet...

We went to the boardwalk a little too early.  This however is the best time for pictures!

But apparently that old adage is true - there is no rest for the wicked.  And I'm definitely no good witch.  So after a couple extra days of hibernation (to try to get the shambles of my personal life back together...laundry, cleaning, dog baths etc) I'm back to the grind for a few weeks.  Intense clean up at work and prep for me leaving for nearly a month (EEK!) and all of those little details that are left for the wedding. Which is officially one month from today.  (DOUBLE EEK!)  Wedding's are a strange thing...but that's a whole other post for another time.  I am both excited and terrified simultaneously.  But I just successfully carried out a program that lasted 20x as long and dealt with 15x as many people.  I think I can handle one little wedding...right?! ;)

So sorry for my absence my friends (I've missed writing more than I thought I would) but I'm backkkkk!

Besos!