The Wedding!

I'm only 7 weeks or so late on this. I wrote it up shortly after the wedding but I kept forgetting to post it. Now that I have other follow-up things I want to write about I figure I should post about the actual wedding first.

What a whirlwind!

Well it’s all over, those months of planning lead to a wonderful day that was beautiful and a lot of fun. This is going to a be a long entry as I wish to record as much as I can remember before it fades into a memory. But here’s a few cliff notes in case you don’t have the time to read it all. The first thing I must say is “Thanks!” I was so humbled by all the help people were willing to give to help make the day absolutely perfect. Family, friends and complete strangers (at least to me at the time) did so much for us from helping make the decorations to setting things up to providing beverages and snacks. It was such a great weekend and wedding. Things didn’t go completely as planned but it didn’t matter. I loved the small, laid back feel to the wedding and was so happy that I got to spend it surrounded by friends and family. It was absolutely perfect and in the end I was married to my best friend. The ceremony was beautiful and we both alternated between about to cry and laughing. I loved the handfasting ceremony and, while I’m not sure everyone participated in time capsule, it turned out really nice and will be something wonderful to open in 10 years. Afterwards we were able to talk, hang out and eat some wonderful as well as swim and play games. All in all it was just want we wanted and imagined :)

If you want the full details please read on . . .

Thursday: I don’t think I got any sleep Wednesday night due to a mix of anxiety and knowing I needed to wake up super early (3:30am) to catch my flight. I think I perhaps got an hour or so of sleep :( It was a bit fortunate that I couldn’t sleep and ended up waking up at 3am as the shuttle to the airport arrived 15 minutes early. The flights went smoothly and I got into Rochester around noon, completely exhausted already. We quickly grabbed lunch at Panera and headed off to do the second most important thing of the trip besides actually getting married, getting the license to get married. Being slightly worried about the clerks offices being busy with the newly passed gay marriage law, we had made an appointment at the small Gates clerk’s office right near the airport. Arriving there, we really didn’t need to bother with the appointment but better safe than sorry. It was rather exciting filling out the paper as it made it feel a lot more real. In no time at all we had our license and was on our way. We then swung by David’s Bridal to pick up my dress from being pressed. Another source of anxiety (getting my dress from Omaha to Rochester safely) was over. With all the excitement of the license and dress over with, my lack of sleep really hit me. I decided to try and take a brief nap but also really wanted to get in some swimming before heading out for the night. I’m glad we did decide to swim as it helped wake me up a bit and it was nice to just hang out with Tim for a few moments before the whirlwind of the weekend was to begin.

I really wasn’t sure how long I was going to last but I was looking forward to hitting up the Old Toad with friends. We got there around 6 and we were quickly surprised at how many of our friends showed up shortly after that. We sort of expected people to drop in and out all night but we had a good group for almost the entire night. I got my yummy veggie shepard’s pie and Erica had bought me all this Bachelorette stuff, like a boa, ring, necklace and tiara. It was fun :) It was really nice seeing a lot of the gang again and catching up a bit. I also got to meet a few more of the the “thems” who i’ve either never met or have only met rather briefly. It was definitely a good time, nothing to crazy but still a lot of fun. I actually had a few drinks and was able to stay up rather late considering the no sleep before and I think we made it to bed around 1am. . .


Friday: It started with an early morning of packing of the car of all our luggage and all the decorations and supplies for the wedding before heading out to Penn Yan. We made it just in time to meet up with my parents and head out to lunch. It was great to see them and to see that Grandma made it up safe and sound. Tim and I headed out with them to meet up with Tim’s parent’s at Bully Hill. It was a beautiful location and it was still cool enough to sit outside. We had a wonderful lunch and I think the parent’s hit it off. The food was good, the view stunning, the Sangria refreshing but not super strong and the conversation flowed easily. Couldn’t have asked for more. We did realize later that afternoon, however, that we completely forgot to bring the parent gifts. Things timed out wonderfully and without feeling rushed, we had plenty of time to get back to the hotel and head over to the nail place. I’m not sure why it surprised me but both of my sisters arrived around 1 when I wasn’t expecting them until two, so we were able to all head over together. For finding this place online, it was nice. Not a huge place but the people were really nice, they even had a little congrats sign for us. It was my first pedicure and boy was that nice. I mean manicures are nice but I think if I’m going to splurge on pampering in the future it will be for a pedicure, I could definitely get addicted to those :) But it was a nice, relaxing time to just hang out with my sisters, mom, grandma and Erica. Almost a bit too relaxing as I was again exhausted by this point. Erica was super awesome and had brought some olives, cheese, grapes and crackers along with soda which helped keep me energized a bit. She even had toothpicks so that we didn’t ruin our nails.

The plans for Friday evening had gone back and forth a lot in my head. I was torn between having the two families hang out and then just spending time with my family as I hadn’t had a chance to see them much. We ended up deciding on doing dinner separate that night but while my family headed back to the hotel to check-in, settle and rest, I headed over to the cottage to see how preparations were going. Tim’s family was planning a picnic including Erica and Ross and my parents were going to pick me up when they were ready to go. Getting to the cottage, I saw two sweaty men working hard on hanging the lighting and Bud whittling a power cord which looked dangerous. We then ran into the issue of setting up the chairs. The plan Tim and Erica figured before I got there was to put everyone under the tent and us outside the tent but it just looked rather odd with us being outside the tent and so far and there was the bigger issue of the center aisle (since we all didn’t factor in the poles holding up the tent). So it took a bit longer than expected but somehow it was all figured it. It’s sort of a blur to me as I was so sleepy and brain dead at that point. Then it sort of turned a bit awkward as their food was ready and they were starting to eat but my parents weren’t there yet, so I just sort of sat off to the side and then when they did show up, I felt a bit bad for ditching everyone. I know it wasn’t a big deal but it still felt strange.

So then my family and I were off to a local place for dinner. It had great views and good food, the downside was that there was no AC and it was hot! But once we sat down, there was a breeze and it wasn’t too bad, at least for me. Again still super tired so while my family had a few drinks, I just stuck with water (even grandma out drank me!) But it was great just being able to relax with them and joke around my with sisters and their boys. I had originally planned to perhaps go out for a few drinks with the gals later that night but I was so exhausted, I knew I shouldn’t drink. So after dinner, we all headed back to the hotel. I had a few things I needed to finish up, the first being the charm bracelet. Too bad the links I brought didn’t work with the chain but Erica was again a godsend and not only had a smaller chain that would work but then spent most of the night attempting to painstakingly attach all the charms. Meanwhile, my sisters came over to do a trial run of the make-up. I’m glad we did that as some of the things didn’t look so great the first time around. I remember being called Zombie eye a few times. But it was a lot of fun and great way to sort of wind down the night. But before attempting to go to sleep I needed to finish the letter for the time capsule. I had written it but just not written it out on paper. I think when all was said and done we went to sleep around midnight. I’m still not sure how I stayed awake that long. But of course being the night before my wedding, I needed something to distract my brain if I was going to get any sleep. Again, Erica to the rescue! She downloaded “The Wedding Planner” (coincidentally a movie I frequently used in college to help me sleep) onto her computer and we basically ran a loop of it all night. I would fall asleep within the first few minutes but wake up again near the end, so I would start it over again. So I did end up getting a decent amount of sleep just in 90 minute chunks ;) I’m so glad Erica was there that night as her presence and the movie, really helped me sleep and not freak out.


Saturday: The big day!!!

Woke up bright and early to get to the hair appointment at 9. As with most of the things surrounding the wedding, I had never been to this salon and had found it on the Internet and as with everything else I was not disappointed. I had done a trial run of my hair here in Omaha and brought those pictures along. The stylist was able to easily replicate it and even added a new element, twists along the top which I absolutely loved! It added more texture and style to my hair and she did the curls rather tight so that they wouldn’t fall out completely by the ceremony time. It was perfect and we headed out of the salon, perfectly on time. Next stop was Wegman’s where I was picking up subs for myself and the rest of the family. It was a rather big order and did get slightly messed up but nothing horrible. I didn’t really realize how long it would take to make subs, but we had the time and it was nice to just sit and breath before starting the jammed packed portion of the day.

We got back to the hotel and I was rather happy with how smoothly and on-time everything was going. I wasn’t all that hungry but Erica made sure I ate all of my sub and drank lots of water. I was able to spend a bit more time with my family before we all split up to get ready. Around 11:30 the photographer, Sonia, showed up and we began to get my make-up on. The photographer was awesome, she spent the time taking pictures of my sister’s doing my make-up, my dress and lots of my jewelry. She was always busy doing something and I can’t wait to see the pictures. The make-up went rather smoothly, thanks to the test run the night before but it did take a bit longer than I expected. Definitely not my 10 minute morning routine :) At Christine’s wedding, grandma called her fat and so I was expecting some sort of line to happen at mine. Since grandma wasn’t there for most of the getting ready, the line came from Steph. As she went to start my make-up she said, “I think you have a grey hair”. I of course laughed and Sonia laughed but was like sister’s aren’t suppose to tell their sister’s that on their wedding day. We both joked back, that we would. I love my sisters. Luckily my dress wasn’t complicated to get into but the sash took a bit more fussing. My sister’s really didn’t like the bows they were making so they came up with some sort of other method, though honestly I wasn’t too worried about it and from the pictures I’ve seen it looked nice. At about that time, we got a call that there was no pin for the boutonniere so Eric came up to get one and the photographer went with him to get some shots of Tim.

With everything finished and me ready to go, it was off with Erica and the photographer to the bridge for first look pictures. It was sort of strange walking through the hotel lobby with people around in my wedding dress but luckily most of the other guests were there for weddings as well so it wasn’t so unusual. Out in the parking lot, while waiting for Erica to get the car, people driving by kept saying I looked beautiful and I must honestly say I felt beautiful. With the hair, make-up and dress, I really felt like a bride. I was done up but still looked like me :) As we drove by the bridge, I could see Tim and Ross waiting for our arrival. I think that might have been the most nerve-racking part of the whole day. Seeing him standing their anxiously waiting to see me. We hadn’t seen each other since the previous afternoon and it was at that moment that it hit me that this was real. Everything we were planning for was now happening. So we set ourselves up on the bridge and he turned to see me. I so wish we had a video camera for that moment as he actually squewed. I guess he liked what he saw. I think from that moment on it was all smiles, we just couldn’t help it when we looked at each other and realized what we were doing. It was then off to Keuka Springs vineyard for pictures and it was so beautiful there. Sonia guided us along to different areas and it was just a nice way for us to sort of relax and get a handle on the day. I think if we had done the more traditional not seeing each other until the moment I walked down the aisle, we both would have been a nervous wreck. But we had a lot of fun trampling through the vines and getting wonderful pictures.

We even got done early and were at the cottage with time to spare. So we just all sort of hung out and I took a look at all the hard work Tim, Ross, the Krayer family and the cottage crew had done to get the tent and area looking amazing. It was all so beautiful and fun! The weather was really working out nicely, it was hot but there was a strong breeze coming off the lake. Perhaps a bit too strong as some of the pinwheels sort of came apart but I’d rather have it be breezy and bearable than super hot and humid. While heading into the cottage we happened to notice my dress had a lot of marks on it, we think perhaps from Erica’s car but it could have been from the casks at the winery. So poor, pregnant Erica did her best to clean them off, though honestly I wasn’t worried about it. I sort of had a what will be will be attitude about the whole day and I think others stressed out/worried more about it than I did.

And then the biggest miracle of the day happened, my family arrived early!!! Them getting there on time was probably my biggest worry for the day and it turned out fine. Shortly after they arrived the officiant arrived and we did all the paperwork stuff. Then we still had a bit of time to just sort of hang out but finally after we realized we had everyone there, we figured we’d just start a bit early. I walked with my dad back towards the cottage and Kevin hit the music. It was a great ceremony and we spent most of it either smiling/laughing or fighting back tears. Luckily when one was on the verge of tears, the other one was able to make them laugh. I flubbed my lines a bit but it was a lot to remember when you were on the spot and the nerves are taking over. It was a bit surreal to realize that this was actually happening and as many people had mentioned I barely even realized other people were there. And it seemed like it was over in no-time, one moment she was welcoming people and the next she was saying we could kiss. I really loved the handfasting part of the ceremony and was really glad we did it. After the ceremony we put the ribbons in the time capsule and we then grabbed a whole bunch of group photos, I think we got all possible combinations and were even able to get a few photos down by the water. Many people end up running behind with their day-off timeline but we had the opposite problem, I allotted too much time to things and the group shots were done by 3:15 or so. So we did really end up having an impromptu cocktail hour and I’m glad I pushed for having some sort of beverages and snacks for the guests as it would have been awkward without them. Again the neighbor’s and Tim’s parents were amazing, making cheese, veggie and fruit platters as well as rolling out the tables and coolers while we were doing our group shots. I’m also happy we provided everyone with water at their chair because I must have stolen half of them to hydrate myself after the ceremony. I was a bit lost as to what to have Sonia do and was thinking of just letting her go early but she kept herself busy taking even more shots of guests, my bouquet, the scenery etc. And again the theme of the day held true, we just sort of hung out and relaxed and Tim and I enjoyed the fact that we were married.

It was then time to head over to the restaurant, which I had never been to or seen but again it was really nice and cute. As we were sitting there, waiting to get our drinks, Bud makes a comment about an apron or bib as there was tomato sauce and if he should ask the wait staff for an apron. As I know Bud himself often wears an apron as a bib and because I was slightly worried about the sauce myself, I said sure. Tim sort of laughed at me and I had to explain the sort of inside joke to my family but better safe than sorry and the apron was white so you could barely tell ;) The food was amazing. I’m not sure if it was because I was hungry or it was just that good but I had a few helpings especially of the mashed potatoes. I knew we were having cupcakes and the such back at the cottage but their desserts were also too good to pass up. I think everyone really enjoyed the food.

The evening sort of broke-up a bit from there. After dinner, my family decided to stop at the hotel for a bit so Christine (who got no sleep the night before) could nap and so Grandma could rest a bit too. The rest of us headed back to the cottage and while I really didn’t want to get out of my dress (shocker, since I thought I’d want out as soon as the ceremony was over), I did want to go swimming. I also realized swimming could ruin my hair and make-up which looked so nice, but again I wanted to go in the lake. So, most of us changed into suits and went swimming, I just waded so that my hair wouldn’t get wet. It was fun and relaxing, though the bottom of the lake is muddy/slimmy and a few people lost flip-flops too it. By the time I decided to get out, my family had returned! I changed into my casual dress (though honestly I liked the wedding dress more!) The neighbors brought out some more drinks, cookies and the cupcakes! I was a bit disappointed on the size of the cupcakes (especially in relation to the size of their normal cupcakes) but luckily we had bought a lot more so that we could include the neighbors so I think there was enough to go around and people could try more than one flavor. But since the cupcakes just sort of showed up, there was no real good way to do a cake cutting without it being odd and we weren’t all that hungry anyways. So the cake part was forgotten for the night. There was more talking and hanging out and Bud took Tim, my mom and I out on a boat ride. I had never been on the boat before and it was definitely a lot of fun. The only downside was that when we got back Tim’s brothers and their families had left. I was sort of bummed that they left without saying good-bye but I understand with kid’s you don’t really have a choice and we’d see them the next morning. While we were out the friends had started a game of Apples to Apples which Tim joined in on while I played with bubbles with Christine. Grandma was feeling a bit left out so I spent most of the night with her and my family. Mom got a chance to unwind and go swimming with Liz which was great as she needed a break. But soon, people had to head out to get home and the party broke up around 10pm. We helped clean up a bit but again the neighbors and Tim’s parents were wonderful, helping us take down the party. We got back to the hotel and were surprised to see our room decorated with balloons, streamers and confetti. It was really nice of Andy and Eric to do that :) We showered, relaxed and spent a very nice first night as a married couple.

Sunday: We slept in a bit and lounged for a bit more before starting to pack everything up. We got a great new luggage set that I was eager to use and we had a lot of things to round up that had ended up all over the hotel in numerous rooms and even back at the cabin. Somehow, I think we ended up getting everything we needed back to our room and in our luggage. We then headed up to brunch in Canadaigua, the restaurant was really nice, however it didn’t really have a space big enough for our large group of 20. We fit but I felt like we were in the way a lot of times. But it was nice to hang out with the family a bit more before having to leave. Since we didn’t cut our cake the night before, we decided to do it after brunch. I must say I enjoyed slightly smooshing cake on Tim’s face and that cake was really good. Too bad we were both full from brunch to actually eat much more than what we fed each other. After that people started heading out and we said our good-byes to our siblings and then parents.

Probably my last post before the wedding

I'm sitting here counting down the final minutes of work before I can head home, finish packing, drop off the dog and attempt to get some sleep tonight before I'm off to Rochester! I go through waves of it sinking in that I'm getting married in 3 days and other moments where I don't really realize how close it is. I'm just getting anxious for it to get here. Tim is off hanging out with family and getting the last minute details all set and I'm here, alone and working. He's already in wedding mode and I'm just dying to get to that point. I was sort of worried that handing over all the last minute details and decoration decisions was going to be tough as I'm a planner but it hasn't been to hard. Tim has showed me what him and Erica have been up to and it all looks great. The rough part has been not being there to hang out with Erica or spend some time with his family. It really sort of bums me out that I won't get any time to spend with Liz or Bud or his brothers as by the time I'm in the same area as them, my family will be around too. It would have been wonderful to get more bonding time but sadly thing just didn't work out that way.

I'm also starting to get a bit nervous about the big day. Not the marrying Tim but doing so in front of people. For as outgoing as I may appear, I'm not a huge fan of being the center of attention and having everyone staring at us as I attempt to make it through the ceremony without bawling is somewhat nerve racking. I know they all love and support us but it's just rather scary. But everything really seems like it's going smoothly and while there are little worries about timing and the such, I think things will go rather well. It's just that these last few minutes of work are crawling, I just can't wait to actually get there and do this thing!

What's in a name?

I never really thought much about it before and I always joked that I couldn't wait to get married and change my name because having people always misspell it or make jokes about "How's George?" get really old. But now that I'm a few short days away from becoming Larissa Krayer rather than Busch, it feels rather strange. I just approved the proof of my new business cards and it just looked weird and not real. After spending 29 years seeing Larissa Busch, it feels like a lie to see it any other way. Like it's not me. Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited to become Mrs. Krayer and I've never even considered not changing it but it is a bit sad to be saying good-bye to the old name. I know that I won't become a different person but it's just odd to have one's identity change like that. It's going to take some getting use to and I'll most likely screw up a lot in the beginning, especially with my signature. But now that we are 5 days away from it happening, I'm slowly saying good-bye to seeing Busch. What a strange sort of feeling it is. . .

On a completely different topic, to help me fall asleep at night I've been watching movie, wedding themed movies. Saturday night was The Wedding Planner and last night was 27 Dresses. It actually helps watching them as they help trigger things I've forgotten to think about. Like last night in the opening scene of 27 Dresses, I notice the main character (who is always the MOH in lots of weddings), holding the bride's bouquet. And then I realized, I had no idea what my plans were for my bouquet. But at least now I have some time to figure that out rather than having to do it on the fly when I'm presented with that issue on Saturday. Watching these movies actually calms me down as I realize we really have thing together and there's not much left to do. I really thought this final week would be hectic and stressful but so far so good. I know Thursday through Sunday are going to be a whirlwind but I think they should be a fun whirlwind rather than frantic. At least that's the hope ;)

Sleep eludes me

For the past week, sleep has been difficult. Falling asleep has gotten easier as I'm so exhausted from the lack of sleep the night but staying asleep seems near impossible. I always seem to wake up about 2 hours before I have to, around 4am and my brain just kicks on. I'm thinking about the wedding, which is a bit odd as there isn't much left to think/worry about but my brain comes up with stuff. I also think about work as it has been super crazy and I have a lot to do to prepare for my 7 days off. So I've just been exhausted lately.

This post at 3:45am, however, is not just about me not being able to sleep. I'm actually suppose to be up this early (which of course meant my brain kicked on at 2am so I've gotten a grand total of 3.5 hours of sleep today) because I'm about to drop Tim off at the airport. I'm really going to miss him and I'm rather jealous of the fact that he gets to spend the next few days hanging out with friends and family, relaxing and finishing up the wedding stuff. It's tough for me as an uber-planner to relinquish control of these final details that can only be figured out when in Rochester but it's how it has to be and I totally trust Tim's decisions. Again just jealous that he gets to do some of the things I count as the "fun stuff".

So I'm really hoping I can get some more sleep when I get back and somehow figure out a way this week to get some sort of sleep or Tim will be marrying a zombie bride by the time next Saturday comes along. I better look into some concealer to cover the dark circles under my eyes when I go make-up shopping today ;)

10 days!

Tomorrow we'll be in the single digits which is just sort of crazy. It feels just like yesterday we were counting in months and saying things like "Oh that can wait or can only be done the week or two before." And now that time is here. We don't actually have a ton left to do which is nice. All the appointments are made, all the vendors have been confirmed and we are double checking our numbers to make sure all the money is in place to pay people. Now all that is really left is to pack and stalk the weather. It's like a roller coaster, yesterday it looked nice and today it says hot and humid. I really don't care about the heat but humidity will be rather tough. I guess that's what we get for having an outdoor summer wedding. But the weather stalking is sort of fun.

I was all prepared for these last two weeks to be hectic and crazy as that's what I've been told by a lot of people but either due to the size and style of our wedding or my crazy need to prepare and plan, it's sort of boring. So much so that I've turned my attention to the NJ party. We won't have all that much time to plan things for it as we'll only have 5 weeks but not much really needs to be planned. Invites are out and I'm not sure how much other things we'll do for it. But I at least want to start thinking about it since the wedding seems under control

Create-atuity

I'm not even going to apologize for not updating...  Here we go:

Throughout the preparations for the wedding I have discovered sort of a new hobby.  I really enjoy graphic design/publishing/layouts whatever you want to call it.  I've had a lot of fun making the programs match the invitations and the invitations match everything else.  Taking graphics and colors from one thing and using them on others.  I don't have a lot of fancy equipment- it's all been done within Microsoft Office, but I'm pretty proud of what we've come up with.  It's neat to do it yourself and come up with something you're happy with while at the same time saving money by not using professional printers (although, some of our stuff has come from Vista Print).

I've done this sort of thing in the past, making worksheets and such for school.  I guess this is the first time I've done it in this quantity, and been this concerned about the final product being produced.  It's all a little ironic... I'm the first to admit, and Larissa would readily agree, I generally have the attention span of a flea.  So it's impressive I'm able to focus on graphics and layouts and margins and measuring as long as it takes to get things to an acceptable level of "good enough".

So that's what I've been up to- knee deep in desktop publishing.  I hope my printer holds up for a few more days.

Only FIFTEEN more days until the Big Day!

So it begins . . .

The wedding dreams. Friends told me to except strange dreams of the wedding as it got closer but last night was the first one of the actual wedding that I remember. I had some a few months ago but they were more related to flights and getting to the wedding/honeymoon. So all I really remember from the dream is bits and pieces and emotions. It definitely wasn’t the wedding we are planning as it was in a huge church (with a zig zag aisle, I had to walk halfway up the church make a left turn walk a bit more and then make a right turn to head up another set of pews) and there were tons of people. Far from the small gathering at the lake we are going to have. I was also walking up the aisle by myself which felt really strange, like something was missing (duh my dad!). I also remember the anticipation I had waiting to see Tim. This was a strange shaped church and so while walking up the first set of pews I couldn’t see anything but the backs of people standing in the other set of pews. But when I turned the corner and saw Tim, I can still recall the wave of joy that washed over me in the dream. I then realized there was no music but that quickly cut in (it was the correct song, the one we’ll be playing that day, though at the wrong place where we will have the song start from). I finally get up to the front and the last thing I remember before waking up and the part that has been bugging me a bit is that when the priest goes to speak, no one can hear him. I mean we can barely hear him and he’s right next to us. So I’m all freaked out that people are missing the words. Then I wake up. Now I’m a bit nervous that since there will be no sound system people will not hear the beautiful ceremony we created. I’m sure I’m worrying for nothing as it will be a small group and the Reverend is use to speaking up, I just worry about us. Still it’s prompted me to at least look into having some sort of microphone, if I can figure out something that isn’t super expensive.

But with 17 days to go I can happily report the wedding dreams have begun :)