Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
Well, Hive, we did it—we got married! And now that we are far away from the internet on our epic Disney honeymoon, I am reasonably safe from ridicule for what it is that I’m about to post.
That’s right, I’m putting on some Gryffindor courage to share a big, embarrassing secret with y’all in a Secret Life of Bees post.
Deep breath. Here goes.
I…am a Harry Potter fan.
I know what you’re thinking—”um, duh, we saw your invites“—but I don’t think you quite grasp what I’m saying. I’m a Harry Potter fan. As in, fanatic. As in, borderline unhealthy obsession.
Unfortunately (well, okay, fortunately for my mental health) I’m not quite as obsessive as I was in high school when we were still in the thick of book releases, but I did dress as Hermione for a Halloween party…at work. Last year. As in, during the workday.
yup, this is a 23-year-old // {personal photo}
I don’t think I’m really getting the point across here, though.
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
About two weeks ago, I realized I was in a state of Not Looking Forward to the Wedding.
I’m not saying that I was just not in a state of Looking Forward to the Wedding…rather, I was actively not looking forward to the wedding.
I won’t go so far as to use the word dread, but…
As much as I desperately want to be married to Mr. Potion, to be his wife, to have a life with him, I did NOT want this wedding anymore. Oddly enough, this feeling was not because I’d reached the “F*ck It” phase so many brides describe; I still desperately cared about every little detail. However, I cared about them in that if we had to have a wedding, things were going to look the way I wanted them to look, gosh darn it. I just didn’t want to have a wedding.
Mr. Potion and I had several discussions on the topic, each time re-assuring ourselves that this wedding is not so much for us, but for our parents, and therefore we need to go through with it. The most recent occurred Thursday night, on the phone, while he was at the hotel with his mom and I was in my parents’ living room.
I had spent all day being so stressed as to be unpleasant to…pretty much everybody. I was snapping at people, playing a game of snark with my dad—who is programmed just like me and was intent on teasing me even in my frantic state—and things—namely, computers—just were not cooperating. I snapped at Mr. Potion one too many times, and he was now pissed, too. So on the phone, we talked it out, and I had a good cry.
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
Phew, I said it. If I can say that so bluntly, then this next statement shouldn’t be too difficult, right?
I’m a virgin.
You know, for a few more hours, anyway.
Wow, okay, turns out that was difficult to write. Like, really difficult. Like, as I type these words, I’m considering dumping this post completely because who on earth would want to read this unless they plan to mock me mercilessly about it?
But no, I’m not going to delete this, I’m going to write it—not because I think you need to read it, but because I need to say it.
I could give you a really in-depth look at all off the reasons why I’ve decided to wait until marriage and all of the reasons why Mr. Potion has made the same decision, but there is literally no way to write such a post without it sounding preachy or judgmental, no matter how hard I try to avoid such overtones. (Trust me, I just wrote it three times.) I’ll share part of it, however, and try my best to avoid the preachy-ness:
When you love someone, you want to give him things—you want to cook his favorite dinner and surprise him with a copy of that video game he’s been looking forward to and take him to your favorite museum. You know that you really love someone when you want to give him everything, and you don’t expect anything in return.
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
Woooooo, just one more day until The Big Day! Let’s see, what do I have left to talk about…
Ah yes, The Somethings!
(Side note: if I’m ever in a band—as trampoline player, as I have no musical ability whatsoever, aside from good rhythm—we’re going to be called The Somethings. I like it. It’s catchy.)
Something Old
I’ve always interpreted “something old” in the poem to meansomething you already own, not something that happens to have been made a long time ago, so my something old will be my faux pearl stud earrings I’ve owned for-like-ever, as seen at my epic bridal shower.
{photo by Mr. Potion}
Something New
I’ve also always thought it’s sort of cheating to count your wedding dress as the “something new,” so my new object will be my new pair of shoes that I love so so much!
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
So, I’m not sure if you’re aware of this or not, but we’re getting married this Saturday. Holy crap, you guys.
Now that we’ve established that…
Let’s take a look at the RSVP breakdown!
The guest list for this wedding was MASSIVE. Originally, Mr. Potion and I had imagined inviting 100, maaaaybe 150 people, with about 50 people actually showing up because of the rather inconvenient location (Middle-of-Nowhere, Alabama, though it’s Middle-of-Somewhere to us).
And then the church told us that, technically, they could sit 300 people.
And then my mom checked out reception venues, and the winner told her they could accommodate 200, or maybe even 250 people—or, if we utilized the outside space, as many as we want!
This is a dangerous thing to promise someone like my mom.
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
This weekend, before the pleasant rain shower known as Sandy drizzled by, we started working on presents for our parents.
Just to make sure nobody peeks…
Following in the footsteps of many a bee before me, I decided to grab some gorgeous picture frames and fill them with placeholder pictures, to be replaced as soon as the wedding photos come in.
Rather than taking new pictures or drawing stick figures, I just cropped some of our engagement photos and added in the words:
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
I made some more signs for the reception with stamped letters on vintage maps!
{personal photo}
I went ahead and decided to not paint the frames for these signs, a decision largely driven by the ever-ticking clock, but also influenced by your suggestions.
I found this two-sided frame at Goodwill that I plan to place at the bar; on one side it will say, “eat, drink, and be married!” and on the other will be a list of alcoholic beverages available to encourage dancing. Observe:
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
Originally, I wanted to find stretchy beaded bracelets, have each woman wear three or four of them, and attach the flowers to the stacks to create the illusion of single bracelets with multiple loops.
Only I couldn’t find stretchy beaded bracelets ANYWHERE. Maybe I didn’t look too hard, or maybe I didn’t look long enough, but I couldn’t find them! No matter—I decided to make them myself.
I have a ton of floral wire for a project you haven’t seen yet, so I set off to my good friend Michaels and snagged some jewelry-making supplies.
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
The last time you saw our boutonnieres, they looked like this:
{personal photo}
I know you’ve been DYING to see these things finished, so I’m finally happy to be able to oblige.
I wanted to attach the LEGO minifigs to the center of these flowers, but I didn’t want it to be permanent—once The Big Day is over, you should be able to take the little dudes off and play with them! So rather than reaching for the hot glue gun, I decided to use something I have spools and spools of around here, leftover from another project: floral wire! It’s thin, light, and malleable, so it’ll do a good job holding these guys in place without looking bulky, and when everybody goes home they can simply snip the wire and remove their LEGO.
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
That’s right—I splurged. Oh boy did I splurge. There’s always one item you go a little overboard with when wedding planning, and I decided makeup was an acceptable item for a bit of ridiculousness, for several reasons—I’m doing my own makeup on The Big Day, meaning I need the best quality equipment to ensure a good job; I’ve never owned real makeup brushes before, so I might as well grab some of the best; and makeup is something that I can actually use after the wedding day is over, so I’m looking at it as more of an investment, not just a splurge.
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
Yay for three-day weekends—they were made for wedding planning. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a whole lot of crafting done this time around—but I did tackle one project.
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
There’s one more white dress I need for The Big Day.
Well, technically, it’s for the night before.
Our rehearsal dinner is going to be in the parish social hall so we can get to the eating pretty much immediately after the rehearsal. It’s going to be very laid back—Mr. Potion will be in jeans—but I just can’t pass up another chance to wear a cute dress. Enter: ModCloth.
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
(Not gonna lie, y’all—this close to The Big Day I kind of don’t have time to come up with clever titles for posts. My apologies.)
Remember those boutonnieres I sewed for Mr. Potion, his attendants, and our dads?
{personal photo}
I also want to recognize our mothers and grandmothers with corsages—but not almost-wilted flowers, shiny ribbon, and itchy elastic corsages. Much like the fabric boutonnieres, I’ve put together fabric corsages. I’ll be attaching them to bracelets for the ladies to wear (and keep forever!), but these won’t have LEGO minifigs in the center. Instead, I added extra “petals” to make them floofier (as that’s the technical term for it). Wanna see?
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
Our wedding is the first weekend in November for various reasons, including the fact that it’s a holiday weekend (Veteran’s Day). We plan to make the drive down to Alabama the Monday before with all the Wedding Crap, as I’ve named it, so there’s plenty of time for last-minute preparation and (hopefully) some relaxing.
Those of you playing along at home will probably notice that the Monday before our wedding is the day before Election Day here in the good ol’ U S of A. As in, we’ll be out of town on Election Day. Absent, if you will.
As much as I would like to be truly apathetic about the state of partisan politics in this country, this truly is an important election, and I firmly believe that everyone should educate themselves and then VOTE, not because we have the right but because we have the responsibility.*
Mrs. Potion, Herndon, VAAge and Occupation: 23, ITFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, SalesEngagement Date: November 26, 2011Wedding Date: November 2012Venue: St. John’s Catholic Church / SpringHouse, Alexander City, ALAbout Me: We are two complete and total geeks that met at engineering camp, of all places, and after several years of being in love long-distance, we’re finally at the beginning of a lifetime together. We’re working with a modest budget to plan a long-distance wedding full of handmade details, Harry Potter references, and, most importantly, lots of love. I could spend an entire afternoon watching Food Network while shopping for shoes online, while he’d prefer to pwn some n00bs on Halo while blasting Deadmau5 on his stereo. I taught him how to swing dance and he taught me to appreciate Tolkien; he introduced me to LOST and I introduced him to the BBC’s Sherlock. I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and we can spend hours discussing and debating the finer points of Rowling’s masterpiece. We’re so excited to be setting out on this adventure and I can’t wait to share all the details with you!
Back when we met with our reception venue to taste the (delicious) food and settle on a menu, we discussed the display for our cupcakes—scrumptious little morsels that will take the place of a wedding cake.
{personal photo}
We’re still working out the specifics of the display for these puppies, but I went ahead and made a little sign for them.
