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6 Months a Mrs.

Filed Under: Marriage // May 18, 2015

Saturday marked six months of marriage for T and me. We spent Friday night watching our wedding video and Saturday adventuring throughout Chicago (more on our day later this week). When we got home, it was studying and school work until Netflix time. After my studying, I spent a good portion of the night looking through photos taken throughout our relationship. It got me thinking. We’ve done time on a aircraft carrier and deployments (T), law school (me), 5,000 miles of long distance for years, various moves and now here we are– very happily married.

In the short time I’ve been married, marriage has taught me a lot. In honor of six sweet months, here are the top six things I’ve learned:

1. Life has a funny way of working out. Never did I think I’d meet my future husband out in Las Vegas. Never did I think my future husband would be in the military and never did I think I’d ever be able–or willing–to be in a long distance relationship.

2. It’s important to appreciate everything your spouse does. I’d be lying if I said T and I didn’t get into little tiffs. About dirty clothes and dishes. About eating out too much. About the silliest things. But it’s important to realize all that he does. Honestly, I wouldn’t eat dinner everyday (when I lived alone dinner sometimes may or may not have been a smoothie or a bag of baked chips) and the house would fall apart without all his help and I try my best to acknowledge this.

3. Having photos and video of our wedding was the best decision, next to choosing one another as husband and wife, of course. It allows us to relive the fleeting moments of that special day that at times felt surreal. From our video we were also able to capture some pretty awesome stills (like the ones in this post) different from photos taken by our photographer. Photos and video of our everydays are also just as enjoyable to look back on. They help to put things into perspective when I’m being bratty, too.

4. Being both best friends and lovers goes a long way. I’m not sure if it’s love talking but T is the funniest person I know. I know a bunch of people who would agree. It’s one of his greatest qualities so we are constantly joking around. I love to laugh and I love to make him laugh. It’s helps us so much when we’re stressed but it’s also in those moments when I feel absolutely head over heels for him.

5. Honesty really is the best policy. This should go without saying but hiding things from one another–whether it’s feelings or a purchase–would be toxic. We’re really open with one another and joke that we need more private space. But honestly, I hope we’re always this open with one another.

6. Say I love you as often as possible. We probably say it more on any given day than we can keep count of. I think that’s good because they’re my favorite words to hear from and say to him.

As you can tell, he’s pretty much my favorite human.

A gallery wall, Indiana + avocado.

Filed Under: home decor // March 25, 2015

You’re probably wondering what the heck those things have in common. In short, not much except they involve things we’ve been doing.

We’ve had a fun few weeks in our household. See: home decor, a family visit, and yummy food. What better way to tell you about it all then to show you?

Have I mentioned we have a built in gallery wall in our apartment and that our living room overlooks Lake Michigan? Well it does and I love our little home. This wall is probably my favorite part of our apartment. There was a small chance it would be covered by a couch but I was really hoping and rooting for it not to be. And voilà! It’s not — it’s filled with photos and mementos, some of which I added just this week–wedding photos! I figured I’d bite the bullet/ stop being lazy and put up some of our favorites already. Also in this wall are decor from our wedding shower (the quote milk jugs) and wedding (the white board we used as a drink sign).

Lately the weather has been colder than I’d like it to be. Today is supposed to go up to a whopping 60 degrees, though so that’s good. This photo was taken when my family was in town and the temps were nice. It’s the view of Chicago from Indiana. Pretty, huh?

And last but certainly not least, I finally decided to make avocado sauce for our pasta dinner instead of using a more traditional sauce. I was nervous my husband would like it but he actually loved it! Here’s my recipe (feel free to modify to your liking):

Ingredients: 1 avocado + basil + a smidge of olive oil + chopped up banana peppers + a smidge of hot sauce. *A lot of recipes call for garlic, which I would’ve used but we just ran out…

Directions: Boil the pasta. Mash the avocado. Mix in the ingredients. Drain the pasta (I left a tiny bit of water). Put the avocado mix into the pot with just-drained pasta ). Let it simmer for a couple of minutes. And enjoy!

Married Monday

Filed Under: wedding // January 12, 2015

I don’t think that’s a thing but I’m making it one because I can’t always wait until Wednesday to share wedding things. Let me preface this post by saying our 2015 has been off to an amazing start and for that I feel truly blessed.

On New Year’s Day, we received our professional wedding photos. While I will surely share some of those soon, we also just received our wedding highlight video and I’m sharing it first. It’s amazing and really captured the exciting, loving mood of the entire day. Have yourselves a marry little Monday!

Brides-to-Be… Just Breathe

Filed Under: wedding // January 7, 2015

There were quite a few wedding things I thought would go wrong but in the end, everything worked out perfectly. So I say to you brides-to-be: relax, enjoy the time, keep everything in perspective and breathe because you’re marrying the love of your life!

Getting married in a Roman Catholic Church

I am Roman Catholic and Tim grew up Baptist. I thought it might be a problem getting married in a Roman Catholic Church since he was never baptized and didn’t covert/there was no time to. The church and priest who married us was so accommodating that this was not an issue. All we needed was a letter from my Chicago parish allowing me to marry elsewhere, my official catholic sacrament documents, and to meet with our priest. Instead of a mass, we had a 30-minute ceremony since Tim isn’t Catholic and that couldn’t have worked out better for us and for guests. It was short and sweet.

Obtaining a marriage license from another state

It’s important to keep in mind the marriage laws of the state in which you are getting married. New Jersey has a 30-day time period during which the marriage license is valid–once it is signed by the county clerk. I was nervous that this 30-day period kicked off when we applied for the license (in person), from which our wedding was ~36 days away. Thankfully that was not the case. Just call and speak to the county clerk so you know when to meet and apply for the license.

Visas for our honeymoon

The closer it got to our wedding, the more things we had to do. We flew home a bunch of times for planning and wedding festivities. Yet, we’d forgotten all about visas, which are required to visit Brazil. A bridesmaid of ours who works in human resources nonchalantly asked me one day if we’d gotten them because she’d just been to the NY Brazilian consulate and there was a wait. Thankfully, we live in a city with international consulates–some people have to drive or fly to other cities or states to go to one! So, that day Tim and I ran around like chickens without heads gathering all of our documents and getting photos taken only to be turned around for the next day. We returned the next day and eventually (thankfully) received our visas in time.

Engagement ring debacle

There was a huge mess with my engagement ring. It was poorly resized by the original jeweler so the designer REMADE my ring using the same diamonds but the original jeweler would not reimburse us (that changed one Better Business Bureau Complaint later). The ring did not get back to Chicago until two weeks before the wedding (yep, I used a fake ring for my Bachelorette and our wedding shower…), and then it was time for my wedding band to be CUSTOM MADE, which would take close to two weeks. The jeweler here in Chicago was great to work with but needless to say, the whole situation and the waiting periods were stressful. Again, though, it all worked out.

DJ vacationing right before our wedding

Our DJ was a friend of my father’s. We got a GREAT deal and trusted everything would go well, which it did. A little over a week before the wedding, I got in touch with the DJ about the music and logistics. I also found out he’d be on a cruise up until the day before our wedding! Ensue the panic– what if flights were delayed? It really was not until he texted me Saturday evening when he got back into town that my nerves settled.

Rain/snow

The weather forecast predicted rain for our wedding. Sure, some days it said no rain but most days there was rain–downpours– in the forecast. To prepare, I bought a big white umbrella, which we wound up not needing because the rain held off until the next day! There were brief flurries, which was cool because one of my bridesmaids who’d just returned from Asia said that in South Korea it means the person you are with on the first snow of the season is the person you are meant to be with for life… But no rain!

So basically, brides, just breathe. Prepare for some hiccups but have fun and enjoy the planning stage. I was pretty calm and nonchalant the whole time but it was because I had SO much help from family. If you don’t have that kind of help and if your venue doesn’t provide you with day-of decorating and assistance, then I would recommend a day-of wedding planner.

Thankfully, for me nothing went wrong on our actual day, but people say something will. I think for us, there was enough to stress about pre-wedding so we were spared. What really matters anyway is that at the end of the day you are marrying your soul mate and best friend. Everything else is just extra.

The Decor & Details

Filed Under: wedding // December 10, 2014

We finally received a preview from our photographer but I’m keeping it a secret because it’s making its grand debut via our thank you holiday cards 🙂

Until then, here are some photos of the decor at our rehearsal dinner and wedding:

{The map hearts I made represented significant places: where we met, fell in love, lived, etc. The burlap banner was a present from one of my bridesmaids. The instagram sign was made by me. I placed my bridesmaids presents (Kate Spade knotical bracelets and matching floral robes in MOH and bridesmaid totes) in the basket that was a present from the same bridesmaid who gave us the banner.}

{Our welcome presents were custom door hangers made by Contagious Events hung around wine bottles enclosed in a wine bag.}

{You can’t really see but there is a white flower arrangement on the altar. The lanterns along the aisle were reused from our wedding shower centerpieces. We added bows. My amazing family members decorated for us.}

{I might be biased but I absolutely loved our reception decor. Fortunately our florist and venue decorated for us … And that beautiful custom wood sign was a present from another one of my bridesmaids. We seriously have the best loved ones.}