-We definitely are getting a new pastor for the wedding, according to the church event coordinator. None of them require pre-marital counseling, so Ryan is in the clear. Hopefully we will meet with them soon. And they asked me if we had a preference for the gender of the pastor...and I'm going to be reverse sexist here and say having a female pastor would rock my face off. I was raised Catholic and didn't see a woman preaching until I went to a friend's confirmation my freshman year in high school. It blew my mind to see a female bishop!
-The church wants $70 to use their fellowship hall for our rehearsal dinner, which sucks because we're paying them $800 for 3 hours of church rental and the services of a pastor. Kind of a lot.
-I watched Food Inc. last night and I'm going to be the crazy mom who won't let their kids eat meat unless I know where it came from. There was a food safety advocate in the movie who lost her 2 1/2 year old son to E. Coli. Also, I can't eat meat anymore unless I know where it came from. Those Centralized Animal Feeding Operations are the most disgusting and inhumane things I have ever seen. And Tyson and the USDA are the devil.
-I also watched the PBS Masterpiece version of Wuthering Heights last night while I worked overlays for the reception tables (I get to re do 75% of them because the glue seeped through....super pumped about it ) and Heathcliff is one crazy *sshole. How Emily Bronte dreamed up someone like him after living such a cloistered life I will never know. Now that I watched the movie and kind of figured out what's going on, I might attempt the book after I finish Sense and Sensibility. I also watched The Diary of Anne Frank and it was AMAZING because it was so accurate that it was creepy. The characters were much more like they were in real life (Anne's diary was not kind to Mr. Dussel, but he was really a debonair womanizer who missed his fiance) and the set was perfect. They worked really hard to make it historically correct, and the 5 diary pages Mr. Frank pulled from publication are reflected in the story line. Definitely the best adaptation I've ever seen, and you can watch it here for free until May 12th.
-I talked to the girl who's doing my hair for the wedding last night and she is super cool.
-It's sunny out today for the first time in a while!
-My bachelorette party sounds like so. much. fun, from what little I've picked up.
-My pansy dog caught a blue jay today....bad*ss.
-The dress shop has completely forgotten about me. My alterations were supposed to be done last month but they haven't called, and I'll feel like the B word if I call to ask if it's done even though I shouldn't feel that way...they were supposed to call me weeks ago and haven't. I also had to call the shoe shop because they forgot to call and tell me my shoes were done and the church forgot to call me too. Isn't it dumb that I feel bad calling these people? It's all those B words out there making me paranoid about sounding like one.
-Kristin Chenowith freaking owns and Sue Slyvester's quip about Kenyan racing teams was the best.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
They're Done!
The bouquets I have been working on since AUGUST are finished! And they are exactly what I had in my head...it is so exciting to be able to create something and have it match up perfectly with what you had in your head, isn't it?
Alli modeled one for me:
Here's more of a close up:
And the bottom so you can see how I covered that not-especially-attractive bouquet holder. The ribbon wrap is 100% perfect but I think it's definitely close enough.
My bouquet is a touch bigger, and will have an aqua handle wrap. I found the rhinestone pins at thrift stores...a few of them are earrings that my dad used his saw/drill thingy to cut the earring part off, then I hot glued a pin back from Hobby Lobby on and pinned them into the bouquet.
So all 5 bridesmaid's bouquets are done, I'm waiting on feathers for mine. I ordered 3 inch feathers that worked nicely for the smaller bridesmaid's bouquets, but they weren't big enough for mine. I got the feathers for an amazing price from Etsy seller SimplySilverbyHeena. She's awesome, so if you need feathers check her out!
I am so thrilled with these, I can't wait to see how they look with my dress!
Want to make your own?
Here's the inspiration for my bouquet, and here's how I made the satin flowers. This is how I shaped the bouquet.
Don't want to make your own because it takes an obnoxiously lengthy amount of time? E-mail me, we'll talk!
So what do you think ladies? Don't they look 1000000x better than this attempt!
Alli modeled one for me:
Here's more of a close up:
And the bottom so you can see how I covered that not-especially-attractive bouquet holder. The ribbon wrap is 100% perfect but I think it's definitely close enough.
My bouquet is a touch bigger, and will have an aqua handle wrap. I found the rhinestone pins at thrift stores...a few of them are earrings that my dad used his saw/drill thingy to cut the earring part off, then I hot glued a pin back from Hobby Lobby on and pinned them into the bouquet.
So all 5 bridesmaid's bouquets are done, I'm waiting on feathers for mine. I ordered 3 inch feathers that worked nicely for the smaller bridesmaid's bouquets, but they weren't big enough for mine. I got the feathers for an amazing price from Etsy seller SimplySilverbyHeena. She's awesome, so if you need feathers check her out!
I am so thrilled with these, I can't wait to see how they look with my dress!
Want to make your own?
Here's the inspiration for my bouquet, and here's how I made the satin flowers. This is how I shaped the bouquet.
Don't want to make your own because it takes an obnoxiously lengthy amount of time? E-mail me, we'll talk!
So what do you think ladies? Don't they look 1000000x better than this attempt!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Threads Remembered Update!
Remember when I did that kick *ss giveaway a while back for my aunt and cousin's new company, Threads Remembered? Threads Remembered takes clothing and turns them in to pillows that make wonderful keep sakes. My fam is doing some pretty amazing things and they make killer ring bearer pillows, so go check them out!
Stephanie was the lucky winner, and she is kind enough to keep us posted as a favorite article of clothing is redone into a keepsake pillow!
Stephanie of The Life of a Husband and a Wife and I Do at the Zoo was the lucky winner, and she was kind enough to drop me a line telling me where she's at in the pillow-making process. Stephanie says:
I'm a HUGE slacker, what can I say?! I'm sorry...despite my less than stellar skills at actually picking an item, photographing said item (seriously, it's been hanging in my closet all picked out for about a month now) and packaging it up to mail off to Stacy's aunt and cousin...whew, I'm less than stellar at a lot, huh!?...I am UBER pumped about this prize!!!!!
After much deliberation with the hubby, we decided against the ideas of: my wedding gown, my mom's wedding gown, a Dallas Cowboy jersey, my baby blanket, an item of my mom's clothing...and we picked something that was sentimental just to us.
A classic Old Navy button up teal shirt of my hubby's from their late winter/early spring 2006 collection.
You see, we picked this item because it means so much to both of us. We hope to use it to decorate our future baby's nursery one day, but in the meantime the fabulous pocket pillow will live in our bedroom as a reminder of where we started.
I bought said shirt for hubby way back in January 2006. I was OBSESSED with that fabulous shade of aqua at the time and bought him a shirt and me a sweater to match. Yup. Be glad you weren't my boyfriend! What's even worse, we'd only been dating since September 2005. I'm an all in or all out kinda gal! My purchases were intentional so we could be matchy-matchy on our First Valentine's Day. Go ahead, gag some more, its ok...Our First Valetine's Day as an Official Couple getting ready to move from VA to IN on our own together was a trip to Philly to see my FAVE, the Piano Man himself, Billy Joel.
We drove up to Philly and had an amazingly romantic weekend together - despite our car breaking down and being towed to the closet Nissan dealership in NJ and despite the BLIZZARD that hit Philly that weekend. In all seriousness, we fell more in love that weekend and knew we'd get through anything together. We explored downtown, ate delicious food, walked around the zoo and aquarium and capped the weekend with Billy's concert. Its a memory that will never fade. So, we picked this shirt to be made into something we can both catch a glimpse of daily and remember our beginning.
Hubby's shirt is all packed up and has been dropped off at UPS en route to Stacy's fam who will be working their imaginations and sewing magic to create a one of a kind future family heirloom for moi.
THANK YOU STACY and AUNT T and COUSIN S!!!!!!!
And THANK YOU Stephanie for taking a moment out of your crazy busy life to keep us posted...I know I am excited to see how it turns out! And be sure to go over and say hi to Stephanie at The Life of a Husband and a Wife. And she even took the time to put a nice note...love people like that, don't you? Stephanie I think the world needs more of you!
Stephanie was the lucky winner, and she is kind enough to keep us posted as a favorite article of clothing is redone into a keepsake pillow!
Stephanie of The Life of a Husband and a Wife and I Do at the Zoo was the lucky winner, and she was kind enough to drop me a line telling me where she's at in the pillow-making process. Stephanie says:
I'm a HUGE slacker, what can I say?! I'm sorry...despite my less than stellar skills at actually picking an item, photographing said item (seriously, it's been hanging in my closet all picked out for about a month now) and packaging it up to mail off to Stacy's aunt and cousin...whew, I'm less than stellar at a lot, huh!?...I am UBER pumped about this prize!!!!!
After much deliberation with the hubby, we decided against the ideas of: my wedding gown, my mom's wedding gown, a Dallas Cowboy jersey, my baby blanket, an item of my mom's clothing...and we picked something that was sentimental just to us.
A classic Old Navy button up teal shirt of my hubby's from their late winter/early spring 2006 collection.
You see, we picked this item because it means so much to both of us. We hope to use it to decorate our future baby's nursery one day, but in the meantime the fabulous pocket pillow will live in our bedroom as a reminder of where we started.
I bought said shirt for hubby way back in January 2006. I was OBSESSED with that fabulous shade of aqua at the time and bought him a shirt and me a sweater to match. Yup. Be glad you weren't my boyfriend! What's even worse, we'd only been dating since September 2005. I'm an all in or all out kinda gal! My purchases were intentional so we could be matchy-matchy on our First Valentine's Day. Go ahead, gag some more, its ok...Our First Valetine's Day as an Official Couple getting ready to move from VA to IN on our own together was a trip to Philly to see my FAVE, the Piano Man himself, Billy Joel.
We drove up to Philly and had an amazingly romantic weekend together - despite our car breaking down and being towed to the closet Nissan dealership in NJ and despite the BLIZZARD that hit Philly that weekend. In all seriousness, we fell more in love that weekend and knew we'd get through anything together. We explored downtown, ate delicious food, walked around the zoo and aquarium and capped the weekend with Billy's concert. Its a memory that will never fade. So, we picked this shirt to be made into something we can both catch a glimpse of daily and remember our beginning.
Hubby's shirt is all packed up and has been dropped off at UPS en route to Stacy's fam who will be working their imaginations and sewing magic to create a one of a kind future family heirloom for moi.
THANK YOU STACY and AUNT T and COUSIN S!!!!!!!
And THANK YOU Stephanie for taking a moment out of your crazy busy life to keep us posted...I know I am excited to see how it turns out! And be sure to go over and say hi to Stephanie at The Life of a Husband and a Wife. And she even took the time to put a nice note...love people like that, don't you? Stephanie I think the world needs more of you!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Corsages
Since I did the bouquets on my own (they are DONE you all, I cannot WAIT to show them to you!) and Ryan has an extreme dislike of boutonnieres (yes, wedding planning has taught me how to spell that word...we've obviously been engaged for too long), it didn't make much sense to employ a florist for a few corsages, one for Ryan's mom, one for my mom, and one for my grandma. Oh and one for my mom's best friend who is mom #2. So I decided to make them. This was actually one of the very first wedding decisions I stuck to and I never once changed my mind, which I find impressive considering my track record.
Anyway, I made the 4 corsages out of organza flowers. I did a tutorial of them here. I also used these flowers in my toss bouquet.
I used pearl beads in the center because I figured they would match pretty much anything the ladies decide to wear. Here's my sister Allison modeling one:
She should skip grad school and go into hand modeling, what do you think?
Fuzzy close up:
I wanted to give the ladies options on how to wear them, so I bought pin backs from Hobby Lobby. They were in the beading aisle and were maybe $1 for 50 or so. I hot glued 2 ivory ribbons cut on a slant so they wouldn't fray on the back of the corsage and hot glued the pin back on top of that.
This way, the corsage can be worn pinned on a dress/jacket or tied on the wrist. I felt super clever until I realized that if they wear them on their wrist, the pin back might be annoying. I tried it on though and it didn't bother me, and Alli said it didn't bother her either so I'm going to go with "it works" on this one and leave it at that! I'm also going to equip the guest book attendants with scissors, so if the corsages are pinned on then the ribbons can be cut off.
Super cheap project, and I already had the flowers made, so it took 10 minutes for all 4! I think they are really pretty, too, and will make a nice keepsake.
Are you doing corsages for the ladies in your life?
Have a lovely weekend...Ryan's coming down tonight, my friend Melissa is coming over for dinner AND the printers just called and said the proof of the invites is ready!
Anyway, I made the 4 corsages out of organza flowers. I did a tutorial of them here. I also used these flowers in my toss bouquet.
I used pearl beads in the center because I figured they would match pretty much anything the ladies decide to wear. Here's my sister Allison modeling one:
She should skip grad school and go into hand modeling, what do you think?
Fuzzy close up:
I wanted to give the ladies options on how to wear them, so I bought pin backs from Hobby Lobby. They were in the beading aisle and were maybe $1 for 50 or so. I hot glued 2 ivory ribbons cut on a slant so they wouldn't fray on the back of the corsage and hot glued the pin back on top of that.
This way, the corsage can be worn pinned on a dress/jacket or tied on the wrist. I felt super clever until I realized that if they wear them on their wrist, the pin back might be annoying. I tried it on though and it didn't bother me, and Alli said it didn't bother her either so I'm going to go with "it works" on this one and leave it at that! I'm also going to equip the guest book attendants with scissors, so if the corsages are pinned on then the ribbons can be cut off.
Super cheap project, and I already had the flowers made, so it took 10 minutes for all 4! I think they are really pretty, too, and will make a nice keepsake.
Are you doing corsages for the ladies in your life?
Have a lovely weekend...Ryan's coming down tonight, my friend Melissa is coming over for dinner AND the printers just called and said the proof of the invites is ready!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Clothes and the Sewing of Them
So I attempted to sew a ruffled wrap dress from a vintage pattern I picked up at a local thrift store. I invested pennies in the project, making the dress from super cheap lining and a vintage flowered bed sheet.
It is of my personal experience due to this project that choosing a pattern with 16 pieces as your first attempt at sewing is a poor, poor idea. And one of the those pieces was missing...my plan for that was to cross that bridge when I came to it.
I learned quite a bit from that major mishap that ended with me shouting at the dress "I HATE YOU" repeatedly. #1, never try to cut out pattern pieces on the floor because they won't be just right and #2, let's just keep it simple for now. 16 pattern pieces does NOT fit the definition of keeping it simple.
Armed with this new knowledge, I located a seemingly simple (foreshadowing, anyone?) pattern on Burda Style. It was a free download, and I had no problems printing the pattern out, taping it together and cutting it out. I intentionally chose a pattern with very few pieces (6, to be exact) and no complicated fitting requirements like darts or anything. I knew the zipper was going to be a problem (I quake in fear before zippers) but my grandma generously offered to help me when I got to that point.
Here's the dress in question:
I bought some cheap teal cotton fabric (on sale for $1.99/yard, woohoo!) and did everything I was supposed to do...washed, dried and ironed the fabric before cutting out, etc. I cut out the pieces on my cutting "table" (a cardboard measuring thing my mom scored at Goodwill set on top of my bed, it works very nicely) and last night I sat down to puzzle it out.
It all began well. The first step was to add the gathers in the middle of the bodice, which I had never done before, so I whipped out my handy dandy sewing machine manual and investigated how to add gathers. I practiced on a piece of scrap fabric first and the gathering was very successful. Encouraged, I proceeded to gather the actual pattern pieces with an impressive degree of success. Then I sewed the wrong things together, picked out the seam, figured out what actually needed to be sewn, obsessed that it was obvious I picked out a seam, got Alli's opinion (she told me I was being anal retentive), sewed the right thing together and then moved on to the next step.
Which makes no fing sense whatsoever. So I went to Burda's website where there was 1 commenter saying the instructions made zero sense and another 100 commenters who keep harping on how "easy" this dress was to put together. Which made me feel like a.) the instructions are vague, its not just me and b.) EVERYONE ELSE FIGURED IT OUT I MUST BE STUPID.
Also, a sewing blogger recently did a review on the pattern magazines she sews from and lo and behold, she mentions how obnoxious Burda's directions are.
I'm sure if I were an experienced seamstress, I could figure this out. But I am so far from that. I am a complete beginner, and instructions that assume I know all about garment construction are not helpful.
So, I'm taking over the instructions in question to my mom. My mom sewed us so many Halloween costumes, and she improvised and owl costume when I was the Owl in Winnie the Pooh. She makes T-shirt quilts and blankets too, she knows her stuff. If she can't help, then I'm taking this all the way to the top...my grandma. She is an award winning quilter and she sewed countless garments for her 7 kids and for her many grandkids. When I was little, she always sewed her granddaughters Easter dresses.
I WILL figure this out.
Even I have to start making educated guesses and sewing what looks like it needs to be sewn together, together. Ripping out seams doesn't scare me.
This must be part of the learning process....that, or I just keep making terrible first project decisions.
Anyone else out there trying to teach themselves a new skill and hitting some roadblocks?
*Urgent Update: After posting on the blog I mentioned above about how Burda's instructions are driving me to tears, she wrote back and said that their online instructions are way, way better to the print-out ones. And after glancing at them, I now know where to put the pieces in questions, a million thank you's Fehr Trade! I just love the blogging world.
It is of my personal experience due to this project that choosing a pattern with 16 pieces as your first attempt at sewing is a poor, poor idea. And one of the those pieces was missing...my plan for that was to cross that bridge when I came to it.
I learned quite a bit from that major mishap that ended with me shouting at the dress "I HATE YOU" repeatedly. #1, never try to cut out pattern pieces on the floor because they won't be just right and #2, let's just keep it simple for now. 16 pattern pieces does NOT fit the definition of keeping it simple.
Armed with this new knowledge, I located a seemingly simple (foreshadowing, anyone?) pattern on Burda Style. It was a free download, and I had no problems printing the pattern out, taping it together and cutting it out. I intentionally chose a pattern with very few pieces (6, to be exact) and no complicated fitting requirements like darts or anything. I knew the zipper was going to be a problem (I quake in fear before zippers) but my grandma generously offered to help me when I got to that point.
Here's the dress in question:
I bought some cheap teal cotton fabric (on sale for $1.99/yard, woohoo!) and did everything I was supposed to do...washed, dried and ironed the fabric before cutting out, etc. I cut out the pieces on my cutting "table" (a cardboard measuring thing my mom scored at Goodwill set on top of my bed, it works very nicely) and last night I sat down to puzzle it out.
It all began well. The first step was to add the gathers in the middle of the bodice, which I had never done before, so I whipped out my handy dandy sewing machine manual and investigated how to add gathers. I practiced on a piece of scrap fabric first and the gathering was very successful. Encouraged, I proceeded to gather the actual pattern pieces with an impressive degree of success. Then I sewed the wrong things together, picked out the seam, figured out what actually needed to be sewn, obsessed that it was obvious I picked out a seam, got Alli's opinion (she told me I was being anal retentive), sewed the right thing together and then moved on to the next step.
Which makes no fing sense whatsoever. So I went to Burda's website where there was 1 commenter saying the instructions made zero sense and another 100 commenters who keep harping on how "easy" this dress was to put together. Which made me feel like a.) the instructions are vague, its not just me and b.) EVERYONE ELSE FIGURED IT OUT I MUST BE STUPID.
Also, a sewing blogger recently did a review on the pattern magazines she sews from and lo and behold, she mentions how obnoxious Burda's directions are.
I'm sure if I were an experienced seamstress, I could figure this out. But I am so far from that. I am a complete beginner, and instructions that assume I know all about garment construction are not helpful.
So, I'm taking over the instructions in question to my mom. My mom sewed us so many Halloween costumes, and she improvised and owl costume when I was the Owl in Winnie the Pooh. She makes T-shirt quilts and blankets too, she knows her stuff. If she can't help, then I'm taking this all the way to the top...my grandma. She is an award winning quilter and she sewed countless garments for her 7 kids and for her many grandkids. When I was little, she always sewed her granddaughters Easter dresses.
I WILL figure this out.
Even I have to start making educated guesses and sewing what looks like it needs to be sewn together, together. Ripping out seams doesn't scare me.
This must be part of the learning process....that, or I just keep making terrible first project decisions.
Anyone else out there trying to teach themselves a new skill and hitting some roadblocks?
*Urgent Update: After posting on the blog I mentioned above about how Burda's instructions are driving me to tears, she wrote back and said that their online instructions are way, way better to the print-out ones. And after glancing at them, I now know where to put the pieces in questions, a million thank you's Fehr Trade! I just love the blogging world.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Hairpiece
I'm not wearing a veil, and the cute wedding hair flowers look tough to rock with me wearing my hair down and everything, but I kind of want a headband. A sparkly one.
I really like the double look:
You know how I feel about leaves....
God bless Emma Pilsbury....
I don't know how well those pretty satin ribbon headbands would really stay put though, and WHOA are they pricey.
But this one is only $9, it's not satin so I know it would stay put, and it would be a piece of cake to pin a rhinestone pin on one side:
Hmmm. Even if it doesn't work for the wedding, pretty much every day is messy bun day in these parts and a headband such as this would dress this daily occurrence up very nicely.
Shipping's only a $1.50. This might have to happen.
What are you wearing in your hair? My friend Melissa has some lovely plans, I can't wait to see them!
I really like the double look:
You know how I feel about leaves....
God bless Emma Pilsbury....
I don't know how well those pretty satin ribbon headbands would really stay put though, and WHOA are they pricey.
But this one is only $9, it's not satin so I know it would stay put, and it would be a piece of cake to pin a rhinestone pin on one side:
Hmmm. Even if it doesn't work for the wedding, pretty much every day is messy bun day in these parts and a headband such as this would dress this daily occurrence up very nicely.
Shipping's only a $1.50. This might have to happen.
What are you wearing in your hair? My friend Melissa has some lovely plans, I can't wait to see them!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Marathon Day and Engage-versary!
Today is Marathon Day in Boston (shout out to Kristy! Next year my friend, we watch it together!). Last year on Marathon Day, I got engaged and it was amazing. Even though tomorrow is officially our "engage-a-versary," today feels like it more due to the race. So here's a re-port of last year's marathon day and how Ryan and I managed to get engaged.
Originally posted May 12, 2009.
I love the way that Ryan proposed! I couldn't have asked for anything better, it was perfect.
We went to Boston April 17th-April 21st. Ryan ran the marathon on Monday, April 20th, 2009. That's him the red shorts and black singlet, black arm warmers.
Ryan ran an absolutely amazing race. He placed 158 overall, out of about 25,000 runners. He PR'd at 2:38:46, about 6 minute miles. He is really hard on himself, and even he was thrilled with his time. Everyone was ecstatic about his race (everyone being me, his parents, his best friend, and his best friends wife).
After the race, we went to the Sam Adam's brewery. It's actually their research and development facility, where they test all of their new beers.
After the brewery tour and tasting (yay!), we headed to Hopkinton, MA, where the start line to the marathon is. Ryan wanted to get some pictures here, and I wanted to see it anyway, being a running nerd myself. Someday, if I get good enough, I will be crossing this myself. I would love to run Boston.
We took lots of pictures, and Ryan said that he wanted a picture of a certain street sign. I thought it was kind of odd--it was a pretty non-descript street sign. So across the street we went to take the picture. I took it, and Ryan started hugging me and saying these really nice, sweet, things. It didn't strike me as odd until he kept saying these wonderful things, and before I knew it, he was down on one knee! How he got down on one knee after racing 26.2 miles, I don't know, but he did it. (He did say it hurt, though!) Of course I said yes, and his parents, best friend, and best friend's wife (who were all across the street documenting this for us) starting cheering. I was teary, and Ryan started hugging me again--I was very close to falling over, so this was a good thing. We hugged for a long time. Then Ryan holds the ring up and says "Would you like to put this on now?" It was everything I wanted the proposal to be, times 1000.
That's us right after he asked me, when we had both calmed down enough to pose for a picture. I love the grin on his face...getting him to smile like this in pictures is impossible.
So we've been engaged for 364 days now...and I am so, so ready to get married! How long is too long for an engagment? It's been nice in terms of planning and mental prep, but dang...I'm ready. What do you think about how long engagements should be? Any marathoners out there who ran Boston this year?
Originally posted May 12, 2009.
I love the way that Ryan proposed! I couldn't have asked for anything better, it was perfect.
We went to Boston April 17th-April 21st. Ryan ran the marathon on Monday, April 20th, 2009. That's him the red shorts and black singlet, black arm warmers.
Ryan ran an absolutely amazing race. He placed 158 overall, out of about 25,000 runners. He PR'd at 2:38:46, about 6 minute miles. He is really hard on himself, and even he was thrilled with his time. Everyone was ecstatic about his race (everyone being me, his parents, his best friend, and his best friends wife).After the race, we went to the Sam Adam's brewery. It's actually their research and development facility, where they test all of their new beers.
After the brewery tour and tasting (yay!), we headed to Hopkinton, MA, where the start line to the marathon is. Ryan wanted to get some pictures here, and I wanted to see it anyway, being a running nerd myself. Someday, if I get good enough, I will be crossing this myself. I would love to run Boston.
We took lots of pictures, and Ryan said that he wanted a picture of a certain street sign. I thought it was kind of odd--it was a pretty non-descript street sign. So across the street we went to take the picture. I took it, and Ryan started hugging me and saying these really nice, sweet, things. It didn't strike me as odd until he kept saying these wonderful things, and before I knew it, he was down on one knee! How he got down on one knee after racing 26.2 miles, I don't know, but he did it. (He did say it hurt, though!) Of course I said yes, and his parents, best friend, and best friend's wife (who were all across the street documenting this for us) starting cheering. I was teary, and Ryan started hugging me again--I was very close to falling over, so this was a good thing. We hugged for a long time. Then Ryan holds the ring up and says "Would you like to put this on now?" It was everything I wanted the proposal to be, times 1000.
That's us right after he asked me, when we had both calmed down enough to pose for a picture. I love the grin on his face...getting him to smile like this in pictures is impossible.So we've been engaged for 364 days now...and I am so, so ready to get married! How long is too long for an engagment? It's been nice in terms of planning and mental prep, but dang...I'm ready. What do you think about how long engagements should be? Any marathoners out there who ran Boston this year?
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