Thursday, July 28, 2016

Wedding Fever (Part 2)--The Dress (and everything else!)

The Girls:


No. I didn’t sew my own dress.

There it is, all out there on the table for us. So many people asked about this, especially since I’d already done my sister’s prom dress so recently. I won’t lie, I did consider it. To be totally honest though, I didn’t have the time to sew it and I was okay with purchasing one. I got lucky and found mine in one trip to David’s Bridal!


Going into the store I’d already done lots of “Pinteresting” with my mom and sister and had a clear idea of what I wanted. (Fun fact, you can create shared boards that other people can pin to, and you can make boards ‘secret’ so family/future husbands can’t see what you’re up to! LOL) I told the lady what I wanted and she pulled nearly a dozen dresses that fit my requirements. While I was in the changing room, my mom added a dress to the stack that didn’t fit any of my ‘requirements.’ ….yeah, you already know where I’m going with this. Magic Mom Wand up to secret shenanigans again.

I have to say, I looked pretty good in the dress I “didn’t want” if I do say so myself….

LOL the "mom is right again!" face
 I wore purple flats with the dress to match my wedding colors (I don’t know where the ‘rule’ of wearing heels came from but I prefer flats anyway and because of the date of our wedding walking on ice was possibility).

Mine and my sister's shoes






My “something blue” were my toenails! Lovely, right? haha







I also wore this pretty fur stole with the dress because it was a little chilly.





My jewelry was limited to a pretty bracelet from Charming Charlie’s, simple stud earrings, and this beautiful Brighton necklace my parents bought me for Christmas that matched my wedding colors.







 My veil is my ’something old’ and is a remake of the veil my mom had on her hat at her wedding in 1986 and will be making another debut at my sister’s wedding, too! :)






I was going for a cabin/wintery look and also requested pine cones and pine boughs to be added to my bouquet and the boutonnieres, a touch I LOVED. When my mom called the same florist about a year later to ask her to do my sister’s bouquet she said to the other employee, “Yeah you remember this one, her sister was the one that wanted pine cones!” LOL at least I was memorable! 











My sister wore this beautiful dress that’s actually a prom dress! I didn’t have many requirements for her dress with one exception: it had to be full length! There was a chance that we could experience freezing temps during the wedding so we were prepared to layer our little Florida legs with lined tights should the need arise!







Her main requirement for her outfit was no heels, which was fine by me! (She’s already taller than me!) She wore the same pair of shoes as me in a beautiful gray color. The shoes came from Charming Charlie’s which is actually a jewelry store. Unfortunately their range of sizes is rather limited and they didn’t sell her size in a “wide.’ After using every Pinterest hack in the book for stretching her shoe we discovered a pool ball will do the trick! It was still tight though so at the Florida reception she wore a pair of sandals.

Her dress also had pine cones and pine boughs with pretty lavender flowers.







We also joked around that the bride did all of her own hair and makeup but the Maid of Honor was the one getting ‘pampered.’

Haha, I did her hair and my mom did her makeup!



 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guys:

Eric with his brother and Best Man (right).
When I talked to Eric about the wedding colors I originally wanted red, his least favorite color. He’s a gentleman though and said I could do whatever I wanted as long as he didn’t have to wear it himself because “redheads DON’T wear red!” I did stay with red for a while until I realize that red and white, in the winter, in a cabin, with fur, gave us a little bit of a “Mr. and Mrs. Claus” look….back to the drawing board. I knew for sure I didn’t want a pastel and we arrived on a beautiful deep shade of purple instead, which showed in the Best Man’s tie. The preacher also had a matching tie, which was just a cool coincidence! My dad also wore a dark purple tie and Eric wore a gray tie. He also did his own hair, and did a wonderful job :) hehe.


He's warned me that I better not spend too much time on just him so I'll try and keep it short and sweet. :)




This picture of just him is easily one of my favorites. :) I joke that this is his 'sultry' look.


The Parents: 

And last but not least, the parents of the bride...



 And the groom....



Hope you enjoyed! :)

Monday, July 25, 2016

Wedding Fever (Part 1)—A Destination Wedding?

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year and a half since my wedding, sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday! I guess in some ways we took a bit of an unconventional (and somewhat controversial) route with my wedding so I’m going to break this post into a few parts to share some fun pictures and give some explanations—particularly if you’re considering doing the same thing.

Anyway, it seems that ‘Wedding Fever” caught hold in my family, I’m so excited to share that my favorite (and only) younger sister will be tying the knot as well! I’m thrilled for her and her soon-to-be-husband, they’re amazing individually, and together and I wish them many years of happiness!

I realize that I've never actually shared much from my own wedding on this blog so until my sister's big day I'll post a short series on my own wedding to catch everyone up. Hopefully (with my sister's permission) I'll get to write a post on her wedding shortly as well! Like mine, it will also take place in Tennessee. 

What? Traveling to Tennessee, I thought they all lived in Florida? Yeah we do, but destination weddings are awesome! Let me rewind a little and explain...

When I got engaged I began planning a beautiful outdoor wedding with the help of my mom and Pinterest. It included everything, the works, the whole shebang, kit’ and caboodle, nine yards, or any other crazy idiom you can think of. Even pushing the date back some in order to allow more time for planning! It was fun to plan and dream up…for about two weeks. At some point the newness wore off and the amount of work and stress began to set in. I realized very quickly that the bride and groom are often the last opinions that matter in a wedding! I had family and opinions coming out of the woodwork. I was done pretty quick. I love my family, and wanted to please them, but that wasn’t the reason I was getting married. I was getting married because I love Mr. FGT tremendously. Not to get too cheesy, but he is an amazing person and my heart was already dedicated to him. He was all I wanted, the “whole nine yards” was just icing on top of the best cake ever.

In a fit of frustration, I told my mom to forget it, we just wanted each other and could make that happen in a courthouse as well as anywhere else. Good ‘ole mom…she let me fume for a few hours before waving her magic mom wand. (Which IS a thing…I just haven’t discovered it yet. LOL)

Her suggestion? A destination wedding.

My first thought was beach or Vegas and neither appealed to me. (Funny tangent story, in Florida it’s not uncommon to go to the beach and see a wedding in progress or chairs, archways, etc. being set up for one. My two crazy aunts saw one being set up and intentionally laid their blanket, umbrella, etc. close enough to enjoy the wedding themselves! Yep—they pretty much crashed a stranger’s wedding! haha)

Anyway, my mom was the one who suggested a small, intimate wedding in Tennessee with only the people who are the closest to us.
These were all our wedding guests in front of the chapel!

Why Tennessee? Mostly sentimental reasons. When my parents were married they went to Gatlinburg, TN for their honeymoon and fell in love. When we were teenagers, we often took family vacations back—staying in nearby Sevierville. My husband and his family also vacationed in nearby Cherokee—usually camping! Unbeknownst to us at the time, it’s also the #2 destination wedding spot in the country—bested only by Las Vegas!


Suddenly, we had a plan!

Now, I have gotten TONS of questions about this choice so I’ll try and break it down the best I can into the ones people ask the most. It’s funny the people who ask about it in person though, they either seem to be incredulous and slightly offended, or impressed and slightly jealous. LOL

How did you convince your family?

Well, my family was easy: it was technically my mom’s idea after all. Some of the extended family members who wouldn’t be able to attend were a little more difficult. Basically, we explained that this was a choice and something we really wanted to do and that we loved them very much and would miss them terribly but would send wedding announcements and share photos. We also decided to hold a ‘reception’ back in town about a month after the wedding where we invited everyone so those who couldn’t come could watch the video, etc. (And I got to wear the dress again—which is just fun!) As for my husband’s family, I guess I just got super lucky. He was excited about it right away and his immediate family seemed on board as well. They wanted to put us first anyway, and who doesn’t want to take a trip to Tennessee? Haha!

How could you afford it?

This one is a little trickier to answer and quite frankly isn’t one I like to be asked. I was always taught that it’s bad manners to ask about finances and it does make me slightly uncomfortable sometimes. I’ll try to be fairly transparent but I won’t get into specifics. We started by doing TONS of research on the etiquette of a destination wedding, one of our questions was whether or not we’d be expected to pay our guest’s expenses. Basically the answer is this: you can if you want, but the only thing you’re EXPECTED to pay are things you’re requiring the guest to attend. (i.e. if you hold your reception at a local restaurant, you’re expected to pay for their meal.) Other than that, the trip’s expenses are up to them. As a courtesy though, ‘Save the Date’ cards DO need to be sent out much further in advance than with a typical wedding in order to allow guests time to accommodate the trip financially and with work schedules, child/pet care, etc. After that, we did a lot of online shopping around for good deals on flowers, locations, flowers, etc. Destinations can be a cheaper option than a traditional wedding, but it can also be MUCH more expensive, it kind of just depends on the route you take and the choices you make.

What about the traditions—the wedding party, rehearsal dinner, etc.?

For the most part the rest of the wedding was fairly traditional. I chose to have a very small bridal party (Maid of Honor and Best Man only) but you could certainly have more, or even less people. As for the rehearsal dinner we did have one, but it wasn’t anything like a traditional wedding. We actually didn’t rehearse at all before the wedding or even see the inside of the location!. (I did watch a YouTube video of a wedding beforehand though just so I was confident I knew when everything was supposed to happen! haha) His parents did want to hold a ‘rehearsal dinner’ though and it was one of my favorite parts! The night before the guests who were already in town (some waited to travel or were just arriving) all gathered at the gigantic cabin they were renting and we had the most delicious homemade taco bar. It was casual but that was what made it awesome. We got to sit down together, joke around, enjoy a meal, and most importantly, RELAX! Since all the last minute decisions were finally done, it was really just a fun dinner and I’m glad his family chose to have it. Most of the extra parties were held before we left Florida. My family threw a shower for me, as did my coworkers and his family through a really cute ‘Honey Do’ party. (I may write a separate post on that later, although I wasn’t really a part of the planning. It was a very cute theme, the focus was on him and all the ‘manly’ chores—there were tool bucket centerpieces, games based on household chores, etc. I definitely want to steal the idea if I have sons in the future.) We also had a ‘reception’ at a separate location: a really cool old restaurant that’s built over a river—a recommendation by locals.

Did you have a honeymoon?

This question always seems strange to me…um, yes, of course! I finally figured out that what people are really asking is did we have a honeymoon in the same town as our wedding—that would be a negative, Ghost Rider. We arrived several days before the wedding and did everything we wanted to do in the town where we had our wedding. After the wedding we drove over the Asheville, North Carolina and stayed for several days enjoying the Biltmore (an old favorite for me, and new experience for him) and local attractions in the area. (Canyons, Blue Ridge Parkway, Grandfather Mountain, etc.) We also stopped for a day in Savannah, Georgia. Now, you could certainly choose to stay with your family if you wanted but that didn’t sound the least bit appealing to us, or them! Haha. I do think that’s one of the downsides of being married on a cruise though—you can’t really ‘get away.’

How did you decide who got invitations? 

This was easily the most challenging part of the experience! Since both of us have huge families, our original pre-destination guest list numbered in the hundreds—and that was just with family! It came down to deciding who we were closest with and most wanted there with us and not feeling guilty over the ‘cuts.’ We were also limited by the number of people we were allowed to have in the chapel we chose, but you could certainly choose a location with a larger capacity. You may also have to be willing to compromise some on the guest list. Our list wasn’t split 50/50, and that’s okay. Mr. FGT has four siblings and two of them are married so his immediate family already more than doubles mine. Of the 20 quests (if I’m counting right) 7 were mine, 13 were his (including the Maid of Honor/parents/Best Man). It was close to 50/50 but there was compromise—which is great! That’s already an important part of marriage! :)

What did your family do after the wedding?

Uh, whatever they wanted! It was really up to the guests. Quite frankly, I was on my honeymoon, as long as they were safe and not with me (sorry, love you but not that much) I didn’t really care! Some family immediately went home due to work obligations, or simply because they were ready to go home. Eric’s family only stayed a day or two after the wedding but they also chose to go up to TN early and enjoyed a camping trip in Cherokee prior to the wedding. My parents and sister vacationed in a different part of the state, only returning a day or two before us.

What was your favorite part, besides the wedding itself?

I have two. First: We wanted to go up a ski lift in the middle of Gatlinburg wearing all our clothes with the family members who wanted to join us. (Some of the young kids couldn’t) I loved that unique part of our wedding. The second was how stressless it was. We literally arrived, got married, and left. No setup, tear down, or anything else!

What are the cons?

There weren’t many, but having to make tough choices about the guest list was definitely up there. Another big challenge was getting everything there and ready. We couldn’t simply ‘run home’ and pick up a pair of forgotten shoes! We don’t usually pack super heavy for vacations but it felt like the amount of ‘stuff’ doubled for that trip. Dresses had to travel without being smashed, guests got little gift bags, makeup bags were added, etc.

Do you have any regrets?

I’m a fantastic procrastinator…and so is Eric. We waited until we got to Tennessee to buy him a wedding ring! Whoops!

What about your sister’s wedding?

I don’t think she’d put much thought into her own wedding at that point in time (she wasn’t engaged—yet!) but  when she saw all the positive things that came of it she fell in love, too! Almost the moment she was engaged she also began talking about a destination wedding. (My cousin Ethan and I lobbied for California! LOL) They decided on Pigeon Forge, TN which is a stones throw from Gatlinburg. His family is from Pennsylvania and since we’re from Florida, the location they chose is almost in the exact center as far as drive-time goes! On and off she’s worried that our weddings may be similar, but the reality is the weddings are as different as we are! Her wedding totally fits her and her fiancĂ©’s personalities and what they want is up to them. I learned first hand how annoying other people’s opinions can be so my message to them from the start has been, “Do your thing, I’ll be on board and we can wave to the ‘haters’ together!” :)

I'm Back! :)


Hi everyone, I’ve missed y’all so much but I’m happy to announce that today I’ll be back on the ‘blogging bandwagon’ after my long hiatus. I know, it really has been a long, unannounced absence and I’m deeply grateful for the number of emails I received from kind people asking if I was okay and where I had been.

Let me start from the beginning: I began this blog for a few reasons, one of the main ones being that I simply love to write. I always have, it’s a stress relief and a creative outlet in many ways. The other reasons are simply to share some ideas, get to know people, and keep in touch with some of my more long distance friends and family members.

While I love the social community on the ‘blogosphere', the real world one will always top my priority list which was a HUGE part of the reason I took such a long break. :)

You see, about a year and a half ago, I happily became “Mrs. Farm Girl Teacher” at a small ceremony in Tennessee. It was one of the happiest movements in my life and has been a wonderful journey ever since. While on our honeymoon, my husband I made a deal to limit the usage of our phones/social media—opting instead to focus on the moment before us. It was in a word—freeing. All of a sudden, a stress I didn’t know I even had was lifted off my shoulders! I made a personal decision at that moment to continue this route, constantly reminding myself that my real-world relationships must always be put first. You see, it wasn’t that I’d been putting them second, the problem was that I had been allowing the stress of constant posting bother me, when it really didn’t have to be a pressure at all!

I wanted to dedicate our first year of marriage to him fully, and then decide if and where this blog would fit in later. I have to be honest, in many ways it was absolutely glorious! I still followed other favorite blogs of mine (check out Farmish Momma and No Big Dill if you haven’t already) but I didn’t allow myself to become troubled over my own, simply responded to emails from fans and people who had questions about some of the crochet patterns they’d downloaded. I won’t lie—I also flooded my draft folders with titles of posts I wanted to jot down so I wouldn’t forget later. I’ll be slowly going through that but I have to say, for some of them I have no idea what I was thinking! (I have to throw in this reference for my mom—remember the Seinfeld episode where he wakes up in the middle of the night to jot down the ‘hilarious’ joke? haha that’s what I feel like!)

Shortly after our one year anniversary, I began to think about this blog once again, but once again life had other plans. (I’ll make this short and to-the-point because I have a whole other blog post coming on this soon) Basically I have a neurological disorder that had other plans for me. All of a sudden, symptoms began to rear their ugly head and my life took a few hits as a result. Nothing major, I’m perfectly okay, but once again, my priority list changed dramatically. As I said, I want to wait and go more into depth on this later, but I will go ahead and spoil the ending for you. :) My wonderful doctor assisted in starting me on a new medication and for the moment everything seems to be under control!

I am now happy to announce that I am back for as long as life sees fit. My health and real world relationships will always be the biggest priority but the truth is that this blog is something I love and will only become a burden if I allow it to. (Which I don’t plan on again!) I love meeting new people and some of the wonderful conversations we have via email and sites like Ravelry and Craftsy and I have had many family members who’ve talked about how much they enjoy keeping up with our family in this way.

Like what you see?

I'm often asked if I will make custom projects or sell my work. The short answer is, yes.
My patterns are always free, but I do charge for projects mostly to cover the cost of resources, and my time. Basically, if you see something you like and want me to make it, I'd be happy to talk to you. The best way to contact me is through my email thatfarmgirlteacher@gmail.com. I can make nearly anything and I've had people in the past send me photos of what they're interested in. Time to make it, cost, and more can be discussed through my email and varies greatly based on what you'd like made.
I also sell my hand spun yarn at our local Farmer's Market. I don't really sell yarn online because my inventory varies greatly, however if you know you want something specific, I can usually work something out with you, again, just send me an email.