I graduated with my master’s degree on May 3rd, and we got married on May 4th. Making matters more complicated, graduation was in the afternoon and we had a morning wedding…plus Mr. Lemur also graduated…plus I also had to move all of my stuff out of my apartment and pack it to travel 800 miles.
This was not my original plan. Back when we first started talking about dates, I was pushing for May 11th. We knew we wanted to get married in early May because South Carolina is *usually* already 85-plus degrees by that time of year. I also didn’t want a huge gap between finishing my degree and work contract and moving to a new area and finding a job.
Personal photo / Mr. Lemur and me with my grandparents after graduation
For many reasons, May 11th wasn’t convenient for the rest of our families. Namely, the fact that Mr. Lemur’s parents are in Michigan, and he has siblings in Utah, Guam, and Africa. My parents are in Wisconsin. It would have been incredibly difficult and in at least one case impossible for our closest family members to attend both our graduation and wedding. Not cool.
I’m so excited to write this post!
On Saturday, May 4th, at 11:00 AM (well, maybe more like 11:20 AM), Mr. Lemur and I said “I do.” It was not a perfect day…but it was pretty much as close as it gets.
We started out with some pictures in the road (same-day sneak peeks from our photographer!).
I’ve been doing a lot of my wedding planning lately while watching The Office, my current television obsession. (I may have actually dreamed that I was Jim Halpert the other night. It was like The Office: Detroit Edition.) I started from the beginning a couple weeks ago and have cruised through episodes while crafting and organizing like crazy.
*The Office spoilers in this next section*
Image via Buddy TV
First of all, there is no way for me to express how much gratitude I have toward everyone who planned and attended my shower! Mr. Lemur’s church is incredibly generous and I am so thankful for all the effort and time that went into this. I want to share some of the pictures from the day to show what a wonderful event it was—they did a great job!
The theme was books and numbers—ahem, two of my favorite things. The tables were decorated with piles of books wrapped in ribbon and surrounded with paper numbers for the game that we played. The napkins were held with coral tissue-paper napkin rings. Basically, a very similar vision to what I’m looking for at the wedding! These ladies nailed it.
All photos personal—from my mother and a friend of the family.
Remember when I wrote a post about the bunting we had worked on? Well, it looked amazing! There were four lengths hung across the front of the room and several more along the back by the food table. The backdrop to the bunting is cardboard panels covered in book pages. (Interesting note: The room used for showers at the church is a classroom and chapel for the school, so there was a whiteboard all along the front of the room. The ladies have to come up with creative ways to cover it for showers they hold there!)
So. We’re just over two weeks out from the wedding (whoa), and we don’t exactly have wedding bands yet. This is kind of weird for me because usually I’m really on top of these things—but I delegated this to Mr. Lemur who delegated it to our officiant/jeweler, and we’re still waiting on a decision.
We did finally go try on rings last weekend. I’ve known all along what I wanted—just a simple band matching the band of my engagement ring.
Personal photo
As soon as I tried on rings, I knew I was right, and quickly landed on a 2mm band in 14-karat white gold, just like my engagement ring band. Granted, I wouldn’t be opposed to getting an eternity band to wear between the wedding band and engagement ring someday—but I can wait! The ring I’m getting looks something like this. Pretty self-explanatory.
And our wedding isn’t even here yet—but I guarantee nothing can top this one!
I had a shower at Mr. Lemur’s church over the weekend, which I plan to recap once I get pictures. I totally planned to take pictures myself, but between opening gifts and meeting people I kinda failed in that department. (I have exactly one focused picture, and it’s of my sister staring into the camera creepily. Oops.) Fortunately, my mom and a friend of the family took plenty of pictures, which I’m super excited to share with you because my shower was lovely. I was very thankful to have so many people there!
After the shower we brought all the gifts back to the house and were sorting through them with both sets of parents—my parents had driven over from Wisconsin for the weekend. They had brought with them what was I thought was the bedroom set I grew up with. Since I’ve been living in a furnished apartment, we didn’t have a bedroom set and my parents graciously offered to give me the one in my room at home.
I was sitting on the couch, and my dad handed me a card with three pictures in it. The first was a picture of a hallway with wooden trim. The second was this:
Personal photo
When I got engaged, I was in pretty good shape. Several weeks after our engagement I ran a sub-22:00 5k for the first time ever and had high ambitions of cutting a minute off that time in my spring 5k. I was working out consistently, eating well, and really happy with my weight—honestly, for one of the first times in my life.
Personal photo / After the race
I bought my wedding dress and was super happy with the way it fit. It was snug but comfortable and flattering. In a conceited way, I thought “Ha, I have this in the bag! All I have to do is stay my current weight!” Of course, I also had visions of getting more toned and looking incredible on my wedding day.
Then real life happened.
Hive, we’re three weeks out from the wedding tomorrow, and I have something really, really big I haven’t done. Something really important. That I really shouldn’t be putting off.
That thing is to figure out who all is coming to this party.
I haven’t gotten a ton of RSVPs—maybe 30%? Plus another 20% or so who I know are coming or who have said they’re coming. That leaves…a lot of people.
Part of this may be my fault. Remember my invitation with the online RSVP on the back of the card? There have been a fair amount of people who have left the picture on the card and not slid it off to see that there’s a back side. What I don’t understand is the people who ask questions, I refer them to the website, and they’re like “Oh, there’s a back to the card!” and then they still don’t RSVP.
I promise to always RSVP to every single event from here forward.
I know Miss Otter just posted about her RSVP drama so…I’ll just add to that post by saying &@*(@^#^. (That’s as close to swearing as I’ll get…but seriously!)
I like shoes and all, but finding the perfect shoes for my wedding outfit has never been at the top of my to-do list. I know a lot of girls are super interested in the search for the perfect shoe—check out Miss Airplane’s posts on her shoe search if you feel like this post leaves you lacking in enough shoe envy for the day! This post is keeping it simple, so consider yourself warned.
I decided a while back to wear flats for the wedding. It’s less of a height issue than a comfort issue—but I don’t mind not having to worry about pictures making me look taller than Mr. Lemur (I’m not!) or towering over anyone (which I wouldn’t, since I’m only 5’5″…). But flats it was, and since it’s a late spring/early summer wedding, I was leaning toward wearing sandals. The casual vibe of the wedding lends itself toward dressy sandals, I think, and I happen to be very partial to that style.
I actually know exactly what shoe I want. I owned it once. It was a flat gray sandal from New York & Company with ruffled flowers down the front of the strap. I bought the pair two years ago for less than $10 on sale and wore them four times a week for the rest of the summer—no joke. They fit perfectly, were flattering, went with everything, and were super comfortable. I frequently would walk to work (three miles round trip) without blisters or sore feet.
Not surprisingly, given how much I wore them and the fact that I didn’t pay much for them to begin with, they wore out by the end of the year. I went back to New York & Company the next summer to find another pair, but I couldn’t even find anything similar.
All my life when people have said I was a blonde I’ve quickly come back with, “My hair is not blonde! I am definitely a brunette.” And that’s true…sort of. I have kind of “in between” hair. It’s not really blonde, but it’s also not brown—I guess a lot of people would call it a dirty blonde. In the summer my hair lightens to a golden blonde with almost pure white streaks, while in the winter it grows out to a light brown.
I just posted this picture the other day, but in our engagement pictures you can see the progression from darker brown to golden blonde to ash blonde. Clearly my hair had grown out several inches since the summer blonde!
Image via Niki Marie Photography
I didn’t realize how dark my hair had gotten until I saw this picture from the marathon my sister ran several weeks ago. Ignore the part where I look like I’ve been up since 4:30 AM…I’d been up since 4:30 AM driving around a marathon course cheering “Way to go! Keep it up!” at every runner that passed by. Marathon spectating is hard work, you guys. (My sister rocked it!)
No, not that big day.
Today I finish the requirements for my master’s degree in business administration. Although I won’t be officially conferred with my degree for another four weeks, I’m done.
I know this is nothing for those bees who are finishing up a doctorate, but this is big for me. All those days of trying to simultaneously plan a wedding and somehow write a 50-page business plan while working 40 hours a week are over. If I do decide to go on and get another degree, I swear to you it will not be while going through another huge life event—so no kids or home buying at the same time as studying.
(I say that now, but knowing us Mr. Lemur and I will decide to move across the country or remodel a house while I’m writing my dissertation.)
Personal photo / With my sweet parents at my college graduation
I actually really enjoy doing my own makeup. I’m not particularly good at it—but over the years I’ve gotten into a routine that I really like. It takes less than 10 minutes for me to wash my face and put on my daily makeup, and only slightly more than that if I’m trying to “dress it up” for a special occasion. It’s a good way to start the day—I find it calming before I head out to work.
That being said, I considered how nice it would be to have someone do my makeup for the wedding. I wouldn’t have to worry about it at all, and I’m sure they would do a better job than I could! Unfortunately, it’s also expensive and really not practical given the time constraints on the morning of the wedding.
I decided that instead of paying a makeup artist for one day, I would invest a smaller amount of money in makeup that I could wear repeatedly for nice occasions. I’m looking to spend less than $100 on some staples I can have for a while—a basic primer, a nicer concealer/foundation, and a subtle yet polished lipstick. I’m also thinking about trying out some different eyeliners, but I like my mascara and eyeshadow.
Oh, but first, here’s my current makeup look.
Image via Niki Marie Photography
Sorry for awkwardly cropping most of Mr. Lemur’s face out of the picture. It’s the best shot I could find of what my makeup usually looks like! Also, it was so windy that day and my hair went everywhere.
I thought especially in light of my Monday post on getting married young, I would talk a little bit about premarital counseling. I definitely don’t think this is just applicable to younger people—but it does help for us to learn from someone older who has been through all of these years.
I know premarital counseling varies widely—for example, in the Catholic church it’s Pre-Cana and significantly more structured. I found a bunch of posts on Pre-Cana by some other bee bloggers, such as Mrs. Mascara, Mrs. Dumpling, Mrs. Boa Constrictor, and Mrs. Treasure. I’ll yield to the experts since I’m not familiar with Catholic tradition! In many Protestant churches, premarital counseling is often done voluntarily with the pastor of the church—in our circles, sometimes pastors will also require you to have premarital counseling or least a session with them in order to get married in the church.
Image via Lover.ly / Photo by Melissa Tuck
On Saturday I had my dress fitting, and last night was my sisters’ dress fittings! Talk about things getting exciting around here. This is kind of a random post but I wanted to recap those dress fittings.
In the beginning my grandmother had talked about doing the alterations to our dresses herself. (She made my aunt’s dress from scratch back in the day!) As the wedding gets closer and closer, she was less sure about being able to work with the chiffon material and instead referred us to a lady from her church who specializes in altering and making formal wear—Jamie. After several phone and text conversations with Jamie, we set up a time and she texted me her address.
I promptly deleted the text conversation without writing down her address. Oops.
I didn’t realize this until I got in the car after getting my hair cut to drive to her house, when I was already running late, of course. Genius that I am, I realized my grandmother had sent me the address, so I whipped out my email, plugged the address into iOS maps, and was on my way. Parked, rushed out of the car, got almost to the door—and realized I had forgotten my wedding dress in the car. Back to the car, grabbed the dress, walked up to the door, rang the doorbell…and a large tattooed man opened the door. I knew her husband was a deacon at my grandmother’s church and a camp director, so I was slightly surprised—but hey, tattoos don’t mean anything! So I asked for Jamie, and my heart sank when the guy said, “Jamie? Jamie who?”
Back to the car and I embarrassingly texted Jamie “Uhh, what’s your address again?” Now I was 15 minutes late, but fortunately she lives just five minutes from there. I arrived at the adorable ranch house they’re remodeling and she welcomed me into her sewing room. Thankfully my dress zipped right up.
Personal photo
On Saturday I went to get my hair cut. The girl who cut my hair for the last four years graduated and I was in desperate need of a trim, so I chanced it with an unknown hairdresser. (I hate doing this!) I explained to her in great detail that I was getting married in a month and a half and really, really just wanted a trim. I’m practically begged her to only take a half inch off, dramatically praying the whole time she was cutting that I wouldn’t somehow walk out of there with a pixie cut.
Well, she was a sweet older Southern lady, and did a great job giving me a simple trim. During the haircut, we started chatting about weddings. I’ve found this happens pretty much every time I meet anyone new. Need something to talk about? I’m getting married! Instant conversation starter. At the end of the quick cut, I thanked her, paid and tipped, and turned to walk out when she paused, looked at me, and said these words:
“Honey, you just look so young to be getting married.”
And then it happened. I lied. I told her I was older than I am.
(Let’s ignore the fact that a lot of people don’t even think I look 22, so there’s no way I could pull off any older than that.)
