One Thing I Love About Being in a Wedding…

... is getting my hair and makeup done. Call it the girl in me - I just like being doted on and getting glammed up. It's especially awesome when the bride pays for it.  Love ya, Kristin and Ronny!

I usually seize this opportunity to go for something I couldn't do to myself - this generally means a dramatic eye with poufy hair. I love poufy hair. I had a nice pouf for Ronny's wedding but too many people asked me if I just copied my own wedding hairstyle. I knew I had to abandon the big pouf for Kristin's wedding.

So - I started pouring over celebrity pictures and came across Michelle Williams from the Oscars a few years ago. I have always loved this hairstyle but wasn't sure if I could pull it off:


I bring you my Maid of Honor hair:




It's a messy side bun with Hasidic Jew side curls.


I wasn't crazy about my side tendrils but overall I liked the hair. It was different for me.

Oh and the pics are from Kristin's awesome wedding photographer Evan Bishop.

You can view her wedding pic slideshow here.

I've always said that Evan was the wedding photographer I wished that I would have hired for my own wedding. I didn't discover his work until well after we booked and paid the deposit on our photog.

I still stand by that statement although he's #2. If Maria was shooting weddings around the time I was getting hitched, she'd be my #1 choice. Then Evan.

I was slightly disappointed that there weren't more pictures of the crazy dancing that took place. Seriously - I danced my ass off. Tom was trying to show me some coordinated dance moves that involved lots of spins and some swings (that resulted in my flashing Jackson AND Kristin's families). There was also an incident of me doing a backwards tumble on the dancefloor (in a dress… I'm a classy girl, I know) and Tom dancing over me. I didn't realize how scandalous it looked (me on the floor shaking around with my head at Tom's crotch level… hot stuff) until I saw Evan snap a photo. Ha! And I wasn't even drunk. Those were my real dance moves…

Regardless - their wedding was a blast. Steve cried like a baby throughout the ceremony and his best man speech, Geoff got PLASTERED (love ya, Geoff!), Jamie and Tom wore me out on the dancefloor and The Mr got a wedding off from having to dance with me.

What do you love about being in a wedding? And don't say anything sappy like standing by your best pal! We all know that.

Funkadelic

I'm in a funk, blogosphere. I can't get motivated to do shit lately and ever since signing up for the IronGirl triathlon, I've been having nightmares! What did I do?

My nightmares and anxiety often switch to ambition for everything I think I'm going to accomplish in 2009. I'm already working on my resolutions list (although I don't ever resolve to change anything… it's usually just a set of goals). See - I'll be turning 29 next year. For whatever reason, I'm convinced I need to accomplish lots of things before I turn the big 3-0… as if I will cease to exist as soon as 2010 rolls around.

One of my goals is to run a 10k. I've officially run 5 5k races (one of my 101 in 1001 list items) and at this point, I feel it's time to challenge myself further. I think if I can run a 10k sometime early next year, I'll feel a little better about the triathlon. And if I am successful with the triathlon (in that I don't wish for the sweet relief of death), then I may try my hand at a half marathon. HALF. I'm not crazy enough to run a full marathon. I'm pretty sure my knees would fall off.

Why am I getting so nutty about physically challenging myself? I think it's because I'm slacking in every other arena of my life: work, school, hobbies and friends. I think I'm subconsciously punishing myself for being a bad employee, bad student, bad hobbyist and bad friend. I think I'm also just deflecting my attention towards something other than everything I just mentioned. I wish I could apply this mentality to school!

Aanywho - because I still have yet to get through all of the photos from Scotland, Juli's wedding AND Kristin's wedding, I’m going to post this one measly photo from Kristin's wedding. Jeremy took it with our Nikon point&shoot (hence the poor quality) but I love it. And I've been obsessively checking Kristin's photographer's blog for updates. He's killing me.



Any tips to get me focused on the things I need to focus on?

Wedding Season Is Over!

I was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief on Sunday. Wedding season for 2008 has officially come to a close for me.

I'm quite happy to report that my pals are married, all weddings were lovely and I went out with a bang at Kristin's wedding on Saturday. Let's just say that I'm covered in bruises, Kristin's family saw a "peek" of my ass and I'm pretty sure I flashed all of Jackson's family my crotch. Talk about classy...

I don't have pictures uploaded just yet and I've been obsessively checking her photographer's blog for his slideshow. I'll share it when it's up.

There are at least 4 weddings that I know of next year and I will now spend the next several years living in fear of babies. I'm not kidding when I say babies scare me. Everyone that I'm close to is getting hitched and it generally means babies are next. UGH. And as I type this, I realize that I may have jinxed me and my womb. Dammit!

Some highlights from Kristin's wedding mostly involve my mother. Yes kids, she was crazy enough to invite my parents.

1. The Mr said that my parents chatted through the ENTIRE ceremony. My mom was fumbling with her phone in an attempt to snap a photo of ME (not the bride). My dad repeatedly commented on the minister's accent (he was italian) and may have even offended some folks sitting near them. My dad has a tendency to be politically INcorrect.

2. As we were exiting the ceremony, my mom yelled, "You look good, baby!" to me. Thanks, mom.

3. My mom excitedly told everyone at her table that I was the matron of honor after I gave my kick-ass speech. Thanks again, mom.

4. She repeatedly flagged me to come over to her table several times to (a) take their card for Kristin and Jackson, (b) to warn me when they'd be leaving and then (c) to tell me they were leaving and most importantly (d) to tell me to stop drinking "so much".

5. My parents harassed poor Theresa about getting married. I'm so sorry again, Theresa. I won't even tell you about the 50 questions I got on Sunday when she called. Brace yourself.

6. My mom called me on Sunday to comment on Steve (the best man) jumping on my back during our entrance. She was NOT pleased. I tried to explain that we were being funny and she didn't get the joke. She called to see if my back was okay.

I can't imagine what my mom would have to say if she witnessed my dancefest with the boys...

How was everyone else's weekend?

Weddings Galore

I'm still sorting through and editing the close to 1800 pictures we took while in Scotland... but in the meantime, I thought I'd share a few pics from Juli's ceremony.

A quick story for everyone - we stayed in Edinburgh for most of the time (that's where Juli lives) but the wedding took place at Loch Rannoch about 2 hours outside of Edinburgh. Juli and Martin chose this location because the hotel overlooked this gorgeous lake and it had a beautiful mountain view.

The ceremony was to start at 2pm.

The Mr and I were responsible for driving Juli's mom to the hotel. Her mom is like my second mom so it wasn't terribly weird to me to have that kind of responsibility.

We picked up our rental car from the city centre and hit a few snafus. Actually - we only hit one snafu... The Mr had some issues driving the manual transmission Skoda car outside of the station. I had to take over. Whoo hoo! I don't think I've ever seen The Mr so scared in his life.

We were in a rush and feeling a bit frazzled from the rental car pickup situation so when we got to the hotel in Edinburgh to grab Juli's mom and our luggage, we just kind of threw everything into the car quickly and went on our way. It took about a half hour to get out of the city and about another half hour onto the highway, Juli's mom said, "OH NO! We forgot our clothes!"... as in the clothes we were wearing for the wedding.

See - we took our clothes out of the bag to release the wrinkles and in our rush to get out of the city... we left them hanging in the hotel lobby.

Long story short - I called Juli to see if we had enough time to turn around and make it to Loch Rannoch. The time was approximately 11:30am. And did I mention it was raining?

So I turned around and put the pedal to the metal. And wouldn't you know it - we got lost in the city on the way back. By the time we picked up our clothes and got back onto the highway, it was 1pm. The hotel was about 2 hours away.

We were 45 minutes late! Talk about feeling like a jackass. Anywho - a lot of guests (and even the bride) said it was probably a blessing in disguise. At 2pm, it was POURING outside. By the time they were able to start the ceremony, it had stopped and the sun even peeked out a bit. I'd like to think we did it on purpose. Ha! Here are some quick pics:



They wore Vans with their kilts! I loved it! And btw - I'm now a believer that kilts are hot!


The bride is walking down the aisle. I love the look on Martin's face.






I'll probably continue to post more photos! IN the meantime, I'm off to spend a day with Kristin. She's getting hitched TOMORROW! Have a great weekend everyone!

I think most Scottish cuisine is based on a dare*

Apologies for the lack in posts, folks. This one isn't going to be any better...

We're heading to Edinburgh, Scotland for Juli's wedding! Our flight leaves at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow morning and you shouldn't be surprised to read that it's 8:10pm and I still haven't packed.

I better get to it!

Juli warned me that the weather will be beautifully cold, rainy and sleety.

The Mr, however, confirmed some great vegetarian restaurants. Who knew? I thought the Scottish only ate haggis.

*from So I Married an Axe Murderer

I'll be back to blogging on Tuesday!

My Name is Just Twink!

This past weekend was Zach & Ronny's wedding. I'm kind of bummed that I forgot to take my point & shoot to the reception with me. So if you have pictures, share them with me!

Aaanywho - what can I say? I heart Zach & Ronny and was very honored to be a part of their day. Even though I spent the morning OF the wedding paddling my little heart out in the pouring rain, I was able to warm up and glam up in time for their nuptuals.

Just to make things easy, here are some highlights from the weekend:

1. I heart Zach's parents. Seriously. If I could adopt another family, I would adopt his. I'm always so happy to see them.

2. The rehearsal dinner locale was fantastic and dinner was delish. They picked Amicci's in Little Italy. The Mr and I got there ass early so we wondered around and snapped some photos.


3. I was (mostly) on time to meet at Ronny's hotel room. Paddle practice wasn't great and we got our asses handed to us in a scrimmage... but I was worried about being super late to the hotel.

4. I went from looking like a drenched homeless woman to a glam bridemaid.

I realize I look angry in this picture but it was because I couldn't take a self portrait. It figures that the only clear self portrait is of me looking like I'm crapping myself.

5. Ronny's wedding flowers are hands down the prettiest flowers I have ever frickin' seen. I didn't know that Calla lillies came in yellow? They contrasted fabulously with the bridesmaid dresses.


6. Ronny was frickin' gorgeous!


7. Zach was so nervous! His shaking hands made me choke up during their ceremony.

8. Old people can party down. The reception was supposed to end at 10pm but the old folks were partying so hard that they decided to extend it to midnight! I didn't even last that long!

9. Okay this isn't a highlight... this is a bit of a gripe (sorry friends). The last 2 weddings I've attended have addressed me by the wrong name on my place card. I'm just Twink. I'm not Twinkellina. I just assumed this was common knowledge but it's becoming apparent that it's not. Friends - it's just Twink.

10. It was hilarious to see how packed the dancefloor was when disco or oldies were played but as soon as "... and the sweat drips off my balls..." comes on, it clears and the older folks just watch the younger folks in horror.

11. Am I the only one surprised to hear tunes about sweat dripping off balls or supersoaking hos at wedding these days? Maybe I'm just more aware now. These songs could have totally been played at my own wedding and I wouldn't have even noticed.

12. What I did notice was that the dj totally ignored my request for "Mr. Roboto"! I couldn't even do my awesome robot dance moves.

13. Some people were TRASHED. I'm not naming any names here but you were hilarious! Maybe a little sweaty from breaking it down on the dancefloor but hilarious.

So another wedding down and 2 more to go...

Crafty Bitch

Despite totally crapping out on the day of Kristin's shower, I had done a lot of work prior to my night of binge drinking. I'm not sure why I felt the need to be so damn crafty, but I think I did a pretty good job for not really being a crafter [patting myself on the back].

First - I made the shower invitations from scratch. I don't know why I insisted on doing this and I definitely took the hard road to complete it. Who knew you could purchase blank white folded cards? I wish I had known that prior to wasting several sheets of cardstock trying to figure out how to put a nice crease in the card (a butter knife is how, in case you're wondering).

So here is the outside of the invite:


That was a picture of Kristin and Jackson back when we first got our Nikon D80 camera. It always cracks me up. I printed the photos out separately and attached them to the cardstock using one of those 3-D glue dots. Oh yeah - I'm fancy.

Here is the inside of the invite:


This is probably hard to read but I included instructions for the guests that probably left most of them thinking, "What the hell is wrong with this girl?" I asked the guests to not wrap their gifts in traditional gift wrap and bags mainly because I was trying to go a little "green" with this wedding and because I wanted to spark some creativity with people. Well - half of the guests, as predicted, didn't bother to follow my instructions. But others wrapped their gifts in dish towels, pillowcases, blankets or they put things in reusable grocery bags, baskets and storage bins. So I was pretty pleased.

I had asked guests to bring photos of them with Kristin because I made an interactive shower guestbook.


Kristin likes the idea of scrapbooks but suffers from the same lack of motivation that has inflicted me when it comes to scrapbooks. So - I thought this was a cute way to incorporate her love of scrapbooks while being able to handover a completed book without too much work from me! Whoo hoo! And this was the pain in the ass print job I needed from Sir Asswipe Speedy last week. I needed this printed in scrapbook dimensions (12x12 inches) and apparently that's not easy to do.

Crafts galore!

Then I thought it would be an interesting twist to collect an assload of wine corks to serve as little place card holders (to identify food) and just to scatter around. Thanks to my kickass friends who drink lots of wine or work in establishment where lots of wine is served, I was able to collect to shit ton of them.



Can you guess how many wine corks fit into this giant cookie jar? The answer is at the end of this post.


Wow. Writing this stuff out is actually wearing me out…

So my last craft project and gift to Kristin was a giant wine bottle. Jackson proposed to her with a message in a bottle so she really wanted to incorporate this somewhere in her wedding. Someone suggested that instead of having a traditional guestbook or signboard picture, she use a bottle and have guests write down "advice" and slip them into the bottle.

Cute!

I started my quest to find a gigantic bottle. This wasn't easy. Lucky for me, the fab Italian deli we go to every Saturday for lunch has gigantic wine bottles. The owner was so nice and gave me the bottle for free (after I explained what I needed it for).

I didn't want to give Kristin just a plain gigantic wine bottle. I thought etching a "B" for her married last name would be a nice touch. And I also thought etching was going to be easy. Well I was at least right about one thing.

After I practiced on two other wine bottles (at The Mr's suggestion), I finally mastered the art of etching glass. Holy fuck - this is a pain in the ass.



Theresa gave me some shelf liner to stick to the glass. I had originally used sticker printer paper but it didn't work very well and my first 'B" looked like a big blob.

The problem with shelf liner is that it's not meant to be printed on. See those smudges? That's from my hands smearing the ink around when I was cutting the "B" out with an exacto knife. My hand was black.



To make sure all of the curves looked good and nothing was missed, I took a damp cloth and wiped off the smeared ink after I finished cutting the pattern out with the exacto knife.



The etching cream! This shit stinks.


Voila! Sorry for the craptacular picture. I think I was too excited to hold very still.

Here is a shot of my practice bottle. I don't know if you can tell, but there are several "B"s etched onto the bottle.


Look - its mama bottle and baby bottle:


The clear bottle is actually a large-ish normal wine bottle… I'm telling you, the bottle I gave Kristin is frickin' huge.

Lastly - since I was feeling poetic (I'm not sure why my craft projects all had to rhyme), I wrote up an instructional poem for the guestbook and printed off the little note cards for the guests to fill out. I included pictures of what the guests should do because according to The Mr, my poem was too long and people wouldn't read it. Thanks, hon.


Oh and if you've made it this far in the post (wow - it's really long, huh?) - there were 270 wine corks in that cookie jar.

Random Friday Babbly Blah

I had a post all ready to go yesterday evening. I had typed out a rant about my career and colleagues and babbly blah but decided that it was probably in my best interest to not post it. Strangely, the mere act of typing it out was quite therapeutic.

So I'm pretty stoked today because we're leaving for the Outer Banks, NC tomorrow! Whoo hoo! I've never been down there before (and I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in Maryland that hasn't been there) and we're staying in a town (Duck!) that has dog-friendly beaches. We are vacationing with our dogs!

Oh and I guess it wouldn't hurt to mention that my birthday is on Tuesday. Beach + relaxing + dogs + NO WORK + my hubby + some pals = a fabulous birthday week.

I desperately need a break from work and life in general. I'm a little bummed that the weather forecast is calling for rain EVERY DAY that we're down at the beach. Hopefully that's just a fluke.

Lately I feel like I've been moving at 100 mph but yet am not accomplishing shit. I had all these grand plans for things I was going to do this summer:
- finish my wedding scrapbook
- start practicing my Rosetta Stone - Korean program
- start photo blog and take more pictures
- train for a 10k run

and... I haven't really done any of that. I started 2 pages of the scrapbook, uploaded the Rosetta Stone program to my desktop, opened the photo blog and bought new running shoes. That's as far as I've gotten with any of it and the summer is almost over! I can't seem to get motivated.

Maybe this upcoming vacation will energize me? Let's hope. I hate feeling like a waste of space and that's just what I've become. I even took a half day from work to accomplish a ton of stuff before we leave for the beach.

Let's see - I went to the liquor store and picked up some booze (for the bloody marys and margaritas we'll be drinking) and purchased something to keep the dogs leashed near us at the beach. Oh and I went to the mall and had some impulse buys (2 dresses, a shirt, a necklace and some flip-flops). And that's it. Ugh. I need a nap!

I don't think the beachhouse has wifi but I'll try to post something here and there while I'm gone. In the meantime, here are some pics from Ronny's bridal shower:


Here are the favors I made. I designed the little tags in PowerPoint (because I don't know how to use Illustrator or whatever fancy schmancy program all the fab DIYers use) and the other side contains a cutesy drink recipe for a drink called, "Sealed with a Kiss".


See - the wine glasses are filled with Hershey Kisses. Did you just gag a little from cuteness overload?


This is probably only 35% of all of the gifts Ronny received. Her registry was nearly bought out completely. And this was just her shower!


One of her bridesmaid made a joke about her being barefoot and pregnant... and gave her some sassy undies AND CANDY NIPPLE TASSLES. Genius! I think Ronny actually blushed (and this girl does not embarrass easily).

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

How about a Thank You?!

To all the married or soon-to-be married folks out there - do you find that your viewpoint on weddings has completely changed? Or am I just crazy?

Prior to getting married, I never really paid attention to details. Sure I noticed if the bride's dress was nice and maybe commented here or there about flowers and food but to tell you the truth - I have a hard time remembering the details of the weddings I attended prior to my own wedding planning.

I don't know if the fact that I've gone through the planning process of a wedding and therefore had to worry about details that I now notice details of other weddings or if it was my fascination with sites like WeddingBee and shows like 'Whose Wedding is it Anyways?' that shifted my focus. Either way - I can't help but focus on details.

Aside from details - my viewpoint on how I should be treated as a guest or invitee has also shifted. I never wrote a Thank You note until my wedding (well - bridal shower). I didn't realize the importance of them but now understand why so many family members were offended when I didn't send them a Thank You card for sending me a graduation gift. Its f'n rude to not thank someone!

Someone tried to sell me some cop-out about how a person they knew said they'd rather thank people in person. That's crap. It's so easy to walk up to someone and say "Hey man - thanks!" but to actually take the time out to write a nice note? That takes a little effort. And I love getting mail!

I'm griping right now because we have yet to receive a Thank You card from one of The Mr's friends. I know it's lame to get bent out of shape over this but you have to keep in mind the following:

- The girl RSVP'ed to OUR wedding 2 people (her and her fiance)
- About 2 weeks prior to our wedding (and after the final headcount was submitted), she cancelled her fiance. Okay - no real biggie because things happen. I get it.
- While she did travel from NY, she was able to stay with her parents (for free!) and managed to turn the weekend into a wedding related weekend for herself. So quite honestly - I don't feel so bad about her traveling down.
- The gift? She signed her name to her parents' card. Now I understand perhaps not being able to get us anything but she could have at least splurged the $2 on her own card and signed it from her and her fiance… you know, the one that cancelled at the last minute?

So she got married about a year later in NY. Due to my being in school and the bajillion other weddings we are in this year, we couldn't really squeeze in the weekend trip up to her wedding. We did, however, send a pretty generous gift considering everything that I wrote above.

That was in April. We have yet to hear anything. At first I just figured she was a person who didn't write Thank You notes and that irritated me but then I found out that she did send a Thank You note AND picture to my in-laws! What does this mean? It means she purposely didn't thank us! Say what?

I'm about thisclose to driving up to NY to kick some ass and enforce some basic rules of politeness.

Yeah yeah yeah, I know you're shaking your head like, "who the f cares?" I do. I f'n care. I don't like when people are blatantly being rude to me.

Another part of me (the part that wants to give her the benefit of the doubt) wonders if the gifts ever made it to her? Our credit card was definitely charged… so do I follow-up with a nice e-mail? Or should I just leave it alone like any other normal person?

Yarg! So how do you feel about Thank You cards?

Just When I Thought Taking Pictures Was Easy...

... I realized I still had a lot to learn. I finally got around to uploading pictures from Ian & Katie's wedding. We recently purchased this fabulous lens for our Nikon that takes amazing portraits. And it does... as long as you know how to use it.

I apparently suffer from the shakes. The majority of the pictures I took were incredibly blurry. I understood the blur issue of the church because it was dimly lit and I didn't want to use my flash (especially since I was snapping pictures left and right... I mean, they paid someone to take good pictures. I didn't want to interrupt that guy's flow). When you keep the shutter open longer you have to be ridiculous still or in my case, not suffer from overexcitement at a wedding. This is probably why I'd be an awful wedding photographer.

Anywho - we all like looking at pictures and if you're like me, you like looking at pictures of weddings even if you don't know the person. Oh... you don't? Well then um... perhaps you should stop reading now.

Rehearsal:

Ian is calm and relaxed.


Stacy trying to measure the height difference between her and The Mr.

I love these 2 pictures. Katie is walking down the aisle with her dad and Ian is beaming at her. Say it with me now... Aw!



Right before the ceremony:

What a great lens, right? In the perfect light, the images captured are so crisp. And The Mr. looks like he should be in a cologne ad.


Jon is the only guy in the entire group that knows how to fold a pocket square.


The old roommates. I love these pictures! The second one is, "Holy crap - Ian is getting married today!" Apparently The Mr wasn't that shocked.


Aw - a very excited groom. You can't even tell that he's nervous.

Ceremony:
Now here's where everything gets super blurry...

Ian's parents.


Katie's brother and her mom.


Moms lighting the unity candle. I chose not to do this at my own ceremony because I knew my mom wouldn't remember what she was supposed to do and would probably just end up lighting a cigarette from the candle.

These pictures are called, "Ian smiles a lot."





The last picture (above) is his reaction to Katie walking down the aisle:

I love it!


Katie being given away.


I don't remember what this was. A Catholic ceremony is intense!

Aw... the first kiss!



The new Mr & Mrs!





Reception:

This is one of the only clear pictures taken at the reception from our point & shoot. Keep in mind that this followed a cocktail hour that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Morning after:

This was Ian's "Thank god the wedding is over!" face.

Congrats guys! Hope you're having a fabulous time in Greece.