Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
Have I ever mentioned that I love the Food Network? Because I do. And while I like most of the shows/chefs on there, there’s always one that keeps me coming back for more.
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
When planning a wedding on a budget, there are certain things that are just not a possibility. Like videography, for us, is just not in the cards. It’s actually taken me awhile to let go of that because I see something like this, cry at how beautiful it is, cry because I can’t have it, and then just go on being pretty upset about the whole thing. Then I realize that we’re going to have incredible photographs that will be with us forever, and I am able to let go a little bit. Nonetheless, I’m still a bit saddened by the thought.
But that is actually not what this post was supposed to be about. I started off with the topic of budget constraints, and I’ll try to stay off videos for a while. We will be having a considerable amount of out-of-town guests celebrating with us on our big day. The thought of our guests arriving at their hotel and being welcomed with a sweet little bag full of goodies just makes me smile.
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
Let’s talk about something that everyone likes…gifts! While we’re still a ways away from thinking about bridal-party gifts (I’d love love love some suggestions, by the way!), I did get my main gals a little something at the beginning of our engagement. I included these sweet monogrammed necklaces with my version of a “Will you be my bridesmaid?” card.
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
I’ve answered the who and what of our wedding, but I have yet to address the where. And here is where I run into a wee problem. I don’t feel like sharing this bit of information. I’m not trying to be snobby about it at all. I just feel like our venue is unique in comparison to the traditional venues in the Fresno area, and I’d rather that detail be saved for our guests to enjoy the day of. I’m not under any impression that we’re the only couple getting married here because that’s most definitely not the case. I just don’t want to share. That’s all there is to it. With that said, I will describe it as best as I can (and just maybe give you a small sneak preview of it).
So…our big day will be celebrated at a lovely private residence. Yes, we are having a backyard wedding! When we went for our initial tour, I thought about it for about one hot second before deciding that it had to be it. I knew the moment I saw it that this was going to be where we said our wedding vows. It has a unique charm, complete with tons of overgrown trees, fountains!, and the most gorgeous flowers I’ve ever seen. Luckily for our wedding budget, the gorgeous ambiance of the backyard will allow us to somewhat skimp on our flowers. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still getting flowers. I love flowers, but they’re not high on my priority list. Here’s a picture I found early on in the planning process that has remained my inspiration. (You may recognize this from a previous post.)
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
What could that title possibly mean? Exactly what it says. Maid of Honor Oatmeal and I spent the better part of a Sunday afternoon driving around in a seriously sweet ride, scavenging for wood. You see, her family owns a ranch. A very large ranch. And on this ranch there was a pile of wood that was about to be burned. So guess who got to benefit from that, in the hopes of making signs such as these?
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
Get your mind outta the gutter—I’m talking about our save the dates. (By the way, that joke isn’t even close to being funny on the ‘bee. Everyone here knows what an STD is.)
I happen to be quite fond of ours. Thanks to RCJones, otherwise known as Brother Oatmeal, we had the chance to take some incredibly cool pictures to use for our STDs. There also wasn’t any Photoshop involved in the creation of that sign, so that makes it like 100 times cooler. I can’t say it has anything to do with the theme of our wedding because it most definitely does not. But I still love it. Without further ado…
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
You’re probably thinking, “That’s awesome, Miss Oatmeal. Great pictures. But I still have no idea what your wedding colors are.” Well, here they are. I can’t remember the thought process behind choosing these; I just all of a sudden had colors. I had colors! That made the wedding so official to me. Because the first thing everyone asked me at the beginning of the engagement was, “What are your colors?” Well, that and “When are you going to have babies???” Yikes.
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
I suppose I should get to the point and introduce our wedding theme. While I don’t really think I can put a name to it, I’d probably describe it like this:
This wedding is going to reflect us, and believe me when I tell you that we aren’t following any tradition just because we “have” to. I can’t promise everything will be perfect, but I can promise that I’ll be crying a lot, we’re going to have fantastic music, our wedding party’s speeches won’t disappoint, and there won’t be any boring downtime.
OK, back to the fun stuff. I started looking at wedding blogs long before I had a ring on my finger. Speaking of rings, have I told you about mine? Cause I’m in love with it. It doesn’t look like anyone else’s I know, it’s yellow gold, and it’s just wonderful. I’ll try to get a good shot of it one of these days to show you. It deserves its very own post, anyway. So I was talking about how I was frequenting blogs even before the proposal. I’m admitting it because I know I’m not the only one out there that’s done that. So I’d say I had a pretty good idea of the look I wanted pretty early on.
Here are some details that have inspired me over the last few months.
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
What was the first thing we did after getting engaged? We booked our photographer. That’s a slight exaggeration, of course, but it was most definitely a priority. You might be wondering why, since Brother Oatmeal is a professional wedding photographer. Duh, people. He’s going to be the best man. It may be difficult for him to shoot an entire wedding ceremony while standing up there next to Mr. Oatmeal, but then again he is talented. Maybe I should have given him a shot. Oh well.
So who did we decide to go with? The lovely and talented Kate Mefford. She really is the most adorable person I’ve never met. You read that right—we’ve never met. There’s a good reason for this, of course. She lives in Texas. We live in California. That’s how badly I wanted her as our photographer. Between my bro’s recommendation, my incessant stalking of her blog, and our shared loooove of Anthropologie…she just had to be it. We are thrilled about her making the trip to shoot our wedding. Thanks, Kate! We love you already.
Just to prove how sweet this lady is, I’ll share with you a special gift I received from her a couple months ago. Don’t you just love getting real mail? Cause I do. I adore it. Read more…
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
So I figured my first post would be to give the bees some insider secrets about who I’m marrying. Here are a few things about Mr. Oatmeal, as told by the Miss.
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
That’s the most clever line I could come up with, and I wholeheartedly apologize for that.
Hello, hive! Holy smokes, I’m a bee. Those were my first thoughts upon receiving the e-mail from Mrs. Penguin. I called Mr. Oatmeal, Mama Oatmeal, and Maid of Honor Oatmeal, and I e-mailed Mrs. Kiwi, who also happens to be my second cousin. I had to spread the news, fast!
I can’t believe I’ve been accepted into a community as unique and wonderful as this one, and frankly, I’m honored. I came across the ‘bee some time ago, even before I was engaged (yikes! I was one of those girls), and at first I didn’t get it. Of course, I didn’t click on the “About the Site” link to learn more; I just started reading all the posts. I thought, for a split second, that the same person was writing all of this craziness. Then I smartened up and realized the magnitude of what I had stumbled upon. AND I FELL IN LOVE.
So here I am, in all my Oatmeal glory for you to see.
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
Unique Wedding Favors
With that said, I will describe it as best as I can (and just maybe give you a small sneak preview of it).
![Insert Inappropriate Comment About STDs [Here] : wedding fresno save the dates Oat12 oat1](http://fivefourteeneleven.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/jenna-and-troys-std-0845_edit-12.jpg)
