One week, two weddings

Exactly one week after our wedding my little cousin also got married! So instead of immediately going on our honeymoon Puppy and I stayed in Dallas for her wedding. Here Puppy and I are at the church. Can you tell how tired I am in this photo? I don’t think I had slept more than three hours per night in the week between our wedding and hers. And I’d stayed up super late the two nights preceding her wedding to help her with the flowers and other such things. Note that my hair is up, contacts are in and his tie is on.

Here we are at the end of the reception. Hair down, glasses on and tie off. 🙂

Oh, did I mention that Pickles did the bouquets for both my wedding and my cousin’s wedding? Puppy helped him out with the flowers for my cousin’s wedding. Who knew Pickles had such a green thumb?

I married my Puppy!

Puppy and I got married!

Our 57-guest June wedding was perfect, fantastic and wonderful. 🙂 The wedding party, pictured above, was all family so everything felt very comfortable and loving from start to finish. Very Aho! And although it was difficult to trim the invitations to about a third of the original guest list, it was worth it because a) that’s what we could afford and b) it ended up being the perfect number. It wasn’t so large it became impersonal, not so small that it wasn’t fun and the perfect size for our venue.

Quote necklace from “Love you Forever” by Robert Munsch

Other than taking a bit longer than expected for hair and makeup (we had extra time in the schedule in case this happened) everything went perfectly. My makeup even stayed on all night even though Mom and I started crying almost immediately after getting our makeup done when I gave her a mother-of-the-bride present. It’s a quote from “Love you Forever” by Robert Munsch, which she used to read to my brothers and me when we were younger.

Then I continued the crying when Puppy and I had our first look before the wedding. I just saw him standing there looking all handsome and when he turned around and smiled at me I got overwhelmed. He’s such a good Puppy and I got to marry him!

And I continued tearing up at the altar and a little bit at the reception when the maids of honor and the best man gave their speeches. I seriously did not expect to turn into a water fountain but that’s what happened. Puppy thought it was cute and apparently I made other people tear up as well, notably my cousin who was getting married the next week. Puppy’s family and friends couldn’t remember her name and referred to her as the bridesmaid who cried during the entire ceremony. (She’s the one on the far left in the top photo)

We had fun with the music too:

• Grand entrance: Let the good Times Roll by Ray Charles
• First Dance: All I Want Is You by Barry Louis Polisar
• Cake Cutting: Count on Me by Bruno Mars
• Last Dance: Island in the Sun by Weezer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The whole day was just one big happy and I was so excited that I could hardly sleep the night before, woke up at about 5 a.m. the morning after and still didn’t feel tired. But since Puppy was still asleep and my Clif Bar wrapper was bothering him, I waited a little bit and then went down the hall and woke up my mother and grandmother to hang out until Puppy was ready for breakfast.

Sorry if this post got a little long. I tried to reign myself in… but wedding! And I wanted to post more photos but my laptop has decided that discs are yummy and must be eaten and Puppy’s computer doesn’t have an optical disc drive… so we’ve got some things to figure out.

P.S. All these awesome wedding photos were taken by this guy.

Snow in Dallas

This is becoming a more common sight in Dallas now: snow! I can’t wait for a snowball fight with Puppy when we get home.

i<3 my Nerdy Birdie

Nerdy Birdie (aka Puppy) and I took a much needed break from wedding planning this weekend and got to catch up on couple time! We slept late, snuggled and couch potatoed all Saturday… and a bit of Sunday. I think it’s the reason I woke up feeling refreshed and relaxed this Monday morning and ready to start the week. Or maybe it also had a little something to do with this awesome eucalyptus pillow spray I rediscovered while doing a little bit of cleaning. Either way, it’s a wonderful day.

 

SF to Dallas road trip: Pacific Coast Highway

After the tour of Hearst Castle, Puppy and I headed to our hotel down the Pacific Coast Highway. Earlier in the summer, I traveled the PCH in the other direction and it seemed an appropriate way to bookend the summer.

Puppy drove.

While he drove, I set the camera on a ridiculous shutter speed, hanged out the window and took as many decent landscape photos I could. I was surprised by the number of cyclists on the road. The PCH’s twists and turns and the steep cliff are scary enough in a car, much less on a bicycle. Hats off to these fearless cyclists.

SF to Dallas road trip: Hearst Castle tile and details

While I found Hearst Castle’s architecture and furnishing mostly tacky, I loved the tile. I took tons of photos of the tile throughout the gardens, but I particularly liked this art deco style that was repeated on the stairs throughout the castle gardens.

 

 

 

 

 

The estate was filled with beautiful details like this gorgeous staircase, door grate and cement cutout window. If I ever have the chance to decorate my own home, I’d like to incorporate that awesome tile and the cutout cement windows.

SF to Dallas road trip: Hearst Castle

William Randolf Hearst was a bit ridiculous with his castle. I guess that it’s a castle says it all. Check out a panoramic of the castle grounds above, and the castle’s entry, modeled after an Italian cathedral, and the fantastic view below.

And, here’s Puppy standing in front of the awesome Neptune Pool. Below are a few photos I took of the extravagant dining room. The tour guide said Hearst would seat newly arrived guests closest to him, and the longer the guest stayed, the further he or she was seated from Hearst. Once that guest reached the end of the table, that meant it was time to consider leaving to make room for other guests. The entire estate was equally ostentatious.

SF to Dallas road trip: Monterey Bay Aquarium

I flew up to San Jose Saturday to meet up with Puppy for a nine-day road trip back to Dallas. After he picked me up at the airport, the first stop was an hour and a half-hour drive to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. (I love marine life!)

I’m particularly fond of octopuses and jelly fish. This held true for the Monterey Bay Aquarium but I hated their octopus display; it had a psychedelic 70s theme with loud, cheesey music throughout. But, I did like that they pumped actual water from the bay for their Aquarium.

This summer, I’ve visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Dallas Aquarium, Aquarium of the Bay and the California Academy of Sciences; the Academy of Sciences was my favorite, the Dallas Aquarium was my least favorite. The Academy is just so awesome, with a variety of exhibits and an awesome tunnel to view the fish and sharks from underneath the aquarium! The one in Dallas is ok, just really cramped; the path width is so small the line gets backed up if just one kid wants to stop a bit longer at a particular exhibit.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the next excursion – Hearst Castle!

H-kids wedding summer extravaganza!

My brother and his fiancée just set their wedding date – in July 2014.

That makes four weddings in the family set for next summer. Puppy and I kick-off the nuptuals in early June, followed by Anda the next week, Roman Candle the week after and now Duder in July! I know the first three will be held in Dallas, or around Dallas. I wonder where Duder will have his. I’m hoping he’ll continue the trend and have it in Dallas. It’ll be like when we were kids again – an “H-Kids” reunion – all family hanging out all the time. (Junebug, Duder, Anda and I were nicknamed the “H-Kids” when we were little because we were always together and our last names all start with an ‘H.’ We even had H-Kid jackets.)

While we’re talking about weddings, Anda officially asked me to be her bridesmaid a few weeks ago in the sweetest way! She presented a box with my initial on it, and when I opened it, it was filled with photos of us from childhood to adulthood and a sweet note asking me to be her bridesmaid “to help make a new memory.”

Now we’re going to be in each other’s weddings… a week apart. I’d always thought she’d be my maid of honor but couldn’t ask her to take on such a big role with her wedding a week after mine. Also, I’ve gotten very close to my other cousins in the past few years and the proximity of our weddings let me ask another cousin without feeling like I was leaving her out.

I asked her to be one of my bridesmaids in December, when everyone was in town, along with three other cousins, with hand made custom bridesmaid paper dolls, which I’ve decided to sell on Etsy.

Nerdy wedding guests, part Two

Puppy wore a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, and a bow tie! Bonus points for matching it the belt of my dress.

The wedding was a blast. Of course the bride looked beautiful, and happy. I’d never met her husband, but if she picked him, he had to be great.

I think Puppy and I were definitely at the nerd table. It consisted of us, a recent grad from his Ph.D program, two math professors and their spouses, who I think also have doctorates. It was a fantastic experience to see all of them dancing to songs like Thrift Shop by Macklemore!