The most boring sleepover ever

Ha, ha, ha! I didn't forget about this blog. I swear. I'm just having a hard time with the recaps and admitting it's all over. Anyway, I left off we had just finished our rehearsal dinner and were headed back to the hall to do some last minute set up. I mentioned in an earlier post that our table runners didn't arrive until that afternoon, after set up had already taken place. So basically we had to run back to the hall to place all the table runners, but it was also the perfect excuse to look over every little detail and make sure it was perfect. It was!

After dancing around a bit and a few "Oh my goodness, this is really happening!" we all decided to call it a night and head to our respective places to spend the night. Mr. Tal and I decided to go with tradition and spend the night apart. In his place my sisters spend the night at our apartment with me so I wouldn't be lonely and I wouldn't freak out. I had a great night planned out, we were going to watch a movie and have some popcorn and chocolate and talk and giggle like when we were little. However, by the time we got back to my apartment and settled it was already around 10 o'clock at night. We had to be up by 7AM to all shower and get dressed to go to our hair appointment. So we chatted a little bit and one sister took her shower that night so it wouldn't be so hectic in the morning. By 10:30 I took a Xanax (hey, don't judge, I needed sleep) and we all crawled into our beds and fell asleep. So much for my grand sleepover plans.

I do remember that I slept surprisingly well that night, which is unusual for me when I am excited/nervous about something.

Next up: The girls get pretty!

Recaps are hard

Recaping the wedding is really hard for me, tho I'm not really sure why. Perhaps because there are hundreds of pictures to go through, or because there are moments that I want to describe but don't have pictures to accompany them, or because I got burned out on wedding stuff and just needed the distance and now I'm so far out after the wedding that it seems silly. Whatever the reason, I am having trouble finding witty ways to share my wedding recaps with you.

In non-related news, Mr. Tal and I have officially relocated to Columbus and we are now living in a house, we have a new puppy, and I have been at my new job for over a month (umm, what?). You can read all about it over at Tales from the SalTals. I promise to get organized and start talking about the wedding soon.

Tune in again soon.

"The Best Buns in Town"

(I know I know, I said I wouldn't be posting for a while, what can I say? I found some time)

Are at this place right here!

I couldn't agree more! Initially, Mr. Tal and I wanted our rehearsal dinner to be really laid back, we're talking pizza and beer at our apartment complex's community center. Then it occured to Mr. Tal that we could incorporate a little of our hometown into our wedding by holding the rehearsal dinner at Packo's. It ended up being a really great idea because all of our family and friends LOVE Packo's. It is scrumptious. So after our rehearsal we headed to downtown Toledo to Packo's at the Park, this location won over the originally because it offered a better room for our event..

They had the whole room ready for us and our family and friends ordered some drinks and food and we ended up having a good ol' time. I would like to elaborate more but we didn't really do much at dinner. We all hung out and talked. Oh yeah, and we handed out presents.

Our bridesmaids and groomsmen each got their gifts, along with our parents. Each one of my girls got a tote bag with their name on it, printed in their favorite color. Inside the bags were a bunch of goodies, lightweight hoodies to wear while getting ready, handmade pearls with matching earrings to wear the day of the wedding, a bridesmaid survival kit, some snacks, a pashmina, their clutch purses with flowers to carry down the aisle, and last but not least each girl got a necklace from dogeared.com that suited their personality. I know that it seems like a lot and I'll admit I went a little overboard but I did get a really good deal on everything I bought/made for the girls. The groomsmen each got a pair of handmade cufflinks with the Redwings symbol and a pair of Converse sneakers in maroon to wear to the reception. As for our parents, we got Momma Tal a beautiful digital picture frame that we pre-loaded with some pictures of the whole family. My dad got a frame which we had engraved with our invitation wording and my mom got a new purse with a bottle of wine and a necklace from dogeared.com.

Mr. Tal also took this time to speak for both of us, because I probably would have got too emotional, to personally thank everyone for helping us out and let them know that we could have never done it without them.

After dinner was over and the presents unwrapped we had to head back to the hall and finish decorating. But more on that at another time.

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride.

Postings on Pause

I didn't want anyone to think that I was not going to finish my recaps. I am I promise. I just have a lot to do. See, Mr. Tal and I both got new jobs, in a new city, which means we are in the process of relocating. If that wasn't enough of a reason to be light on posting, I start my job next week. Yeah, so I am freaking out just a little bit, we are trying to find a place to live, make sure I have a temporary place to stay, pack up our apartment and do as much as humanly possible before next week. It's crazy and exciting and you'll be able to read all about it over at Tales from the SalTals. It should be fairly interesting and entertaining to say the least. So bear with me through the next couple weeks, I'll try to post the rest of the rehearsal and start on the actual wedding day by next week, but if I don't, you can see I have good reasons.

Stay tuned for more tales from a DIY bride.

The Rehearsal

Ha, it's been long enough but my dear sister has been on my butt lately to blog the last few days of the wedding, so I thought I'd get to it. I don't know why I'm so hesitant to do it, I think if I blog those days it's really over for me, which makes me a little sad.

When I last left off Andy and I were getting ready for our rehearsal at the Pemberville Opera House with dinner following at the famous Tony Packo's (if you are ever in the Toledo area, stop by it is delish). It was kind of nice to have that little bit of time alone in our apartment before the marathon started. We weren't very bright about gettign ready for the rehearsal, we both got dressed up and then realized that the truck needed to be loaded with decor for the site. Ooops. Luckily, there wasn't that much to load so we didn't get too gross in the process.

So we headed down to Pemberville a little early to get some of the set up done. One of our groomsmen was early as well so Andy had some help unloading and I could just start hanging our pew cones. Meanwhile, some of our guests started to arrive. We opened up our rehearsal to my grandparents and my aunt and uncle who had come from out of town, so there weren't many people there but just enough that it was a little crazy. You have to forgive the fact that I have no pictures from the rehearsal, it all got a little insane. I do have some videos that my sisters gave me, so I can load those in at the appropriate spots.

As soon as everyone got there it was like chaos had ensued. We had our pastor, wedding planner, my parents, momma Tal, four groomsmen, three bridesmaids, my grandparents, and a family friend. Everyone was jabber-jawing and I had no idea what to do to get things started. This is where Melissa, our day-of coordinator, started her miracle working. She started speaking over everyone, clapping her hands and lining people up. She was so authorative, it was great. I don't think we would have got started as soon as we did if we didn't have her. So we we walked through our ceremony, did some sound checks, played through the music and in what felt like a snap of the fingers our rehearsal was done. It then hit me, oh my goodnes, we are getting married tomorrow. I kept getting moments like that for the rest of the night and all through the next day. Moments of pure adreneline, where reality hit hard, then just as quick as it came it would subside and I would keep going.

So that was our rehearsal, next up our rehearsal dinner.

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride.

Happy Friday!

I don't have much time to post as I run around throwing things into a bag and showering to head down for my brother-in-law's graduation. I just wanted to be a good blogger and post something. So Happy Friday! Here's some of my favorite shots of wedding-y goodness to get you through until Monday.

The Day Before

The day before the wedding was kind of crazy. In hindsight, we probably could have been better organized, gave ourselves more times, and asked for a little more help. However, I was so specific about every detail, that I probably wouldn't have accepted any more help than we had. Mr. Tal and I spent the morning finishing a few last minute details and loading them into the truck and heading over to the reception site. There we spent about 4 hours on set up. We weren't smart enough to take pictures of the hall before and after set up but I have some beautiful detail shots.

(All Photos by J Wagler Photography)

All this was a joint effort between Mr. Tal, myself, Momma and Daddy Sal and Momma Tal. To start, we had to set up all the tables, literally. We had to take all the chairs off the tables and any that we weren't using we had to stack in the back. We had to move them into the place and put on the table clothes and set up the chairs. Once all the tables were into place we had to actually set them up to look all pretty. We decided to set up the smaller tables first, like the guest book table, the place "card"(aka the wooden disks) table, and the cake and gift tables. Once those smaller tables were set up, we moved on to the guest tables (without the runners because they hadn't arrived yet, haha, long story), first up centerpieces.

We had no choice but to assemble our centerpieces at the site because the manzanita branches in the pots would have been too high to transport and more than likely the pots would have fell over en route. So in our own little assembly line, Mr. Tal and Momma Sal filled the pots with litter (yes, we used cat litter, it was the most economical choice), then the branches were stuck into some floral foam and more litter added on top, after that the spanish moss and little birds were added by myself and Momma Tal, then the finished product was taken to the tables by Daddy Sal. After all those were in place we had to go around and add the strings of beads (cut up garland with wire added), and paper lanterns with battery-operated tea lights. Voila! Centerpieces were up and looking fabulous, in my humble opinion. After centerpieces came the wooden silverware wraps at every place, along with the bagged cookie favors and our table letters. Once we were done our hall looked transformed, and that was without chair covers, which were being delievered later that afternoon.

We all went our seperate ways early that afternoon to get ready for our rehearsal.

Next up, our rehearsal or why my day-of coordinator is worth her weight in gold.

Tune in next time for more tales from a DIY bride.