Three Week Anniversary - what what!!

Married three weeks!  Where does the time go?!  To celebrate, Sam lit a Glade scented candle and we're watching the Braves play the Giants.  There was just a 6-3 double-play.  Marriage is teaching me lots about baseball. . . 

Clyde loves the Braves. Also, low res ring shot!  Hot.

Actually, I'm not feeling that hot right now.  My tum is doing flip flops and Bonnie drank all my water.  Despite me feeling like total crap, I wanted to post the link to my photographer's note for some of the pictures.  She sent them to us two weeks ago and got us all twitter-pated.  I didn't want to lose the link on a long facebook wall, so I am using the blog for filing purposes/easy access.  If you have seen the pictures, check them out again and get excited for the new ones that will be coming soon-ish.  We should be getting together with Stacie in the next few weeks to get more images.  If you haven't seen them, take a look!  They are really lovely.  I still get butterflies looking at them.  Ok, I need to get more water and pay attention to the game.  YAY marriage!

Intrepid Honeymooners - Day One: Rehoboth Beach, DE. . .

We said goodbye to our Bonnie and Clyde before packing up the car to drive to Rehoboth Beach, DE. 

Starting our drive to Rehoboth Beach, DE

Our trip drove us over the Bay Bridge and through the farmland in Eastern Maryland and ultimately in Delaware.  Sam and I, being the nerds that we are, listened to last weeks 60 Minutes Podcast on the drive.  We arrived at the Delaware Inn at 3 pm, where Sharon, the house manager met us to give us our keys and told us about the area.  After dropping off our stuff and layering on some sunscreen, we walked three blocks down to the boardwalk to take in the beach and the boardwalk.  It was sunny, gorgeous and, thanks to the September off-season, relatively un-crowded.  We purchased some peanut butter fudge and saltwater taffy before walking up to Dogfish Head Brewpub, which was less than a quarter of a mile from the B&B.  

The B&B we stayed in

We arrived and put our name on the list for a table and ordered up two 2 oz tasters of 120 IPA, a beer we both tried for the first time in April, and at 19-20 percent ALC., 2 oz is all you need.  We were seated in a booth and ordered our next round – Punkin Ale and 75 Minute IPA (a mix of 60 Minute and 90 Minute).  We ordered fried pickles for an appetizer.  I had a crab cake on a Caesar salad and Sam had a tuna steak sandwich with fresh cut fries paired with a Palo Santo Maron.  We took our time finishing our beers and watching the Jets v. Pats game.  A little girl came over to our table to ask if she could take our picture, which made me want to laugh at the randomness of it all. 

Intrepid honeymooners

We grabbed some beer and gin from the Dogfish Head Shop before heading back to our room for a nap.  Then commenced inevitable the post-wedding crash.  We slept for an hour in what I will dub a very serious nap before getting dressed to go see the ocean at night.  We had walked on the cold sand for a few minutes when I decided to record the sound of the ocean’s waves and Sam decided that I needed to dip my toes in the ocean.  Unfortunately, in one of those “of course” moments, a larger than normal wave took us by surprise and soaked us. (Thanks, Hurricane Igor.) Check out the video below. Don't think your computer is screwed up.  It was night time and we weren't carrying a light.  So the screen is black.  I was trying to capture the sounds of the waves and then. . . 

Sopping wet and sandy, we walked back to the B&B to clean up and sleep until just before sunrise.  Neither of us had ever seen the sun rise over the ocean before, so we got of at 6:15 and walked down to the beach to catch the show.  It was breezy and cool, but beautiful and I am so glad we were able to take it all in.  We went back to the B&B and slept for another hour and a half before going down to Chef Angie’s breakfast of organic yogurt, fresh fruit, homemade granola, steel cut oats, banana and black walnut muffins, sweet potato biscuits, veggie sausage, and scrambled eggs.  I wanted to bring Chef Angie back to DC with me.  She is amazing. 

We needed to get on the road around 10:30 am to get to NYC on time, so we showered, packed up our stuff, and hit the road for the three and a half hour drive to Riverside Drive.

More pictures of Delaware!

Deleware!

The host of the post-wedding crash

Salt Water Taffy!

The beach - I like the submarine-like sandcastle

Dogfish Head 120 on tap! - 2 oz is about all you need

Fried pickles, Punkin Ale for Rach, and 75 Minute IPA for Sam

Dogfish Head Brewpub in B&W

A little girl asked if she could take our picture - adorable!

The start to our walk on the beach

1 Days - Waiting for the Team

Wedding adrenaline is slightly annoying.  Mostly at 5:30 am when you can't fall back asleep.  So today, I walked around the dog park in front of our building from 6 am to 7 am.  Now 45 minutes later and everyone is still asleep, which is good because it gives me time to clear my head and make a to do list for the day.  Also, the bridal team will start arriving this morning and we will be running around picking them up and getting all of our wedding business up to the hotel.

Last night, we had our rehearsal with our priest at Our Lady of Lourdes, which went pretty well, but I was definitely nervous that I would forget something Fr. Avella told us that we would need to relay to the bridal party.  Thankfully, our friends, Andrew, Marisa, and Mia, came by to help us and to go through the process, too.  It also gave Mia the opportunity to practice walk/running down the aisle.  She did a very good job!

I'm still a little nervous about relaying all of the wedding to-do's during our rehearsal in the park today because its going to be such a big crowd (35 people).  I don't know if I can keep the attention of 35 people, but I sure as hell am going to try.  I typed up everything that Fr. Avella relayed to us last night and said it out loud to Sam and my parents to make sure I didn't miss anything.  In an ideal world, we can just do a quick run-through in the park with minimal questions and then take some nice group shots with our photographer before heading to dinner.  Dinner will go til around 8 or 9 pm.  I hope to have the most delicious crab cake ever.  :-)  We plan on going out for drinks after the rehearsal dinner, but I may call it an early night. The 4-5 hours of sleep a night for the past week have made me a tired bride and I was informed I need to sparkle tomorrow. ;-)

3 Days - OK, I'm excited!

It's official.  I'm excited for the wedding now.  I turned in my draft this afternoon and my supervisor said I could go home. I wish I could describe it, but as soon as she said those words, a serious wave of adrenaline came over me and I could not wait to get the show on the road.

This past week, I lacked a lot of the enthusiasm that hit me this afternoon.  I had gotten phone call after phone call asking me how excited I am about this Friday.  I felt like I needed to keep feigning excitement, like Miranda on S&TC when she found out she was having a baby boy - "A BOY!"  Don't get me wrong.  I can't wait to be married.  This day has been a long time coming, but the work that has needed to be done at work and at home has sapped a lot of my energy and enthusiasm.  I hope people weren't concerned with my lack of "I CAN'T WAIT!" but I was more concerned at the time in making sure I had enough chocolate truffles for our wedding guests and ensuring that my objective drafts at work were in the best condition they could be in before I leave for our honeymoon for two weeks.  But today the work ended and the truffles are made.  There are a few small things that still need to be done, but they are little and will be finished.  I can finally sit back and bask in marrying Sam.  

3 Days - The Non-Wedding Dream - The Road Back to Normalcy

I have been waking up a lot recently with dreams about the wedding and what can go wrong and it puts me in a weird, somewhat anxious, wedding planning-focused place. I wouldn't recommend starting your day with those kinds of feeling.

Today was a different story, though! Today, I woke up to a dream about going to dinner with a friend and then going to Ithaca to speak to one of my professors about statistical analysis. I felt refreshed and a little nerdy, and I loved every moment of it!  I think this means my sub-conscious is making the shift away from the wedding and back to my normal, nerdy life and that is awesome!

I am working hard to be in the moment for the wedding and to relish the coming together of our family and friends and making the ultimate commitment to Sam.  I'd be sad if I got so caught up in the stress of the day that before I knew it, our wedding would be over and I wouldn't remember a thing. So my focus the next three days is to take each moment in and focus on why we're all coming together.  Then I get to look forward to the future. There are so many good things that will happen after the wedding that we get to look forward to. On Sunday we leave for our honeymoon, a break we have been craving for over a year, but more importantly, I am excited for the day that Sam and I get home from work and we make a delicious dinner (something I haven't done in ages), go for a long walk, and watch a movie or a football game before going to bed. . .you know, normal things.  Soon, my friends, we'll be there!

4 Days - Something Old, Something New

My sister asked me what my something blue was the other day and it got me thinking that I should probably go through the rhyme.

Ok so here it goes.

Something old - my grandmother's bracelet
Something new - my wedding dress
Something borrowed - my sister's clutch
Something blue - my bridesmaids :-)

I just finished the truffles about an hour ago.  They look pretty good, but if I have to smell chocolate again before the wedding, I may be sick.  That is the one thing about making truffles; as soon as the chocolate hits my hands I no longer have an appetite for it.  I should probably make truffles more often.  My bum would thank me for it.

Sam and I finally did the laundry.  There were five loads which will take the rest of the evening to fold, which means we might get it folded tonight but it will sit in the basket for days after.  Despite the reality of our laundry habits, my goal is to get it folded and put away before my parents arrive on Wednesday.  One can dream right :-)

Tomorrow is my last day of work before the wedding!  I'm getting excited for the big day, but I also have this anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach about getting all of the details right and remembering everything that I am supposed to do.  Yesterday, Sam told me before bed not to worry that there is no such thing as perfect.  I know that.  I have repeated it to myself during the past year and a half of planning, but I have poured a lot of my time and energy into the details and it would be nice if they all worked out, right?  A newlywed friend at work told me today that he and his wife had similar anxieties before their wedding, but he assured me that the feeling will go away soon.  I'm looking forward to it!

All right, its on to the laundry.  The sooner our clothes are folded, the sooner I can cuddle up with my soon to be husband. Bon soir!

5 Days - "Is there a clean comforter we can just put down?!"

In response to the question in the post title, the answer is, no.  We don't have a clean comforter to put down. Ugh.

In our efforts to tidy up the apartment before my parents get into town on Wednesday and the wedding festivities begin, today we folded laundry, stripped the bed, and sorted the dirty stuff to be washed.  Well its 11:30 pm and I just realized we don't have any clean sheets because they are all in the dirty laundry bin that we were going to wash tonight but things got in the way and now it won't be done until tomorrow evening.  Fantastic.  So now we are scrambling for a solution so we can get to bed on time.

Goodnight, all!