The Hick Bride

2010-11-18T10:13:00.000-06:00

I see there are still lots of you checking out this website every day!

So head on over to Whispers Through Wheat to see what I've been up to!

It's a lot more exciting over there now then it is here, I promise.

It's not all wedding talk, it's life stuff now too!

Moving Day

2010-11-01T10:00:00.000-06:00

So...

I'm moving!

Okay, I'm moving blogs! Not houses. My goodness if we moved houses again it would make like seven in two years, I think I'd cry.

Nope, I'm moving over to my post-wedding blog. Yes, I made one!

So head on over and check it out! Add it to your readers and we're good to go! I'll finish up some wedding stuff over here then I'll be done and only blogging on my new blog!

Go check it out!

Whispers Through Wheat!

The bad stuff... Pt 1

2010-10-28T05:00:00.005-06:00

Via We Heart It

So this is the part of the “wedding recaps” where I talk about the bad stuff. Now, I had originally not planned to do this post, but part of the bad stuff from the wedding is still bugging me today and I need help as to how to move on/get over it.

I’m not one who tends to hold grudges and I definitely don’t like to linger on the past, but this feels so different. The things that went wrong around our wedding felt like personal attacks to us and not just random people doing stupid things.

There are really only two issues at hand so I’d love it if you read through this and then left me some advice on how to get back over this crap because it’s seriously eating away at me.

First off we’ll start with the whole hairdresser issue. A good friend of ours, who also runs her own salon out of her house, offered to do my trial hair and wedding hair as her gift to us. I was definitely excited because she stepped up when hairdresser #1 backed out. Hairdresser friend is the one I went to before the wedding for all my hair needs, cutting and coloring and all of that jazz. She seemed excited to do my wedding hair, excited to come and party and have fun at the wedding. I gave her an approximate time (we said 9:30-10:00 am start, make up to follow) and she planned on driving up that morning.

The morning of the wedding came and I text her to see if she had left yet, I was excited and couldn’t wait for her to get there, and she said she had just left. Okay, I thought, a little late but she’ll make up time on the highway. I text her around 9, asking where she was, and she was just over an hour away. Okay, I thought again, she’ll make up the rest of the time. Then 10 came, and she was still at least 20 minutes away. Then 10:30 came and I was worried and stressed because she was STILL at least 20 minutes away. Hairdresser started texting me angry and rude things, blaming the fact that she had to scrape frost off her windows on me, which made her leave a bit later. She blamed the fact that she got caught in construction on ME, because I didn’t tell her it was THAT BAD. (Side note: I totally did. I told her to leave extra early because of it.)

A friend of mine started doing my hair; hairdresser was an hour late and nowhere to be found. Hairdresser showed up just over an hour late; she was bitchy and grumpy at me. It was very hard to enjoy my hair time with her blabbering on about how bad HER drive was and how stressed out SHE was. I wanted to cry. Luckily for me my bridesmaids made sure I was okay, sassed back at hairdresser when they could and tried to look out for me. As hairdresser was nearing the end of my hair she stated she had to quickly finish my hair so she could go do ONE OF OUR GROOMSMENS HAIR. WTF?! She finished quickly and packed up, stating to have a good wedding and she’d see me at home.

Wait, what!? Oh then she proceeded to tell me that she couldn’t stay for the wedding because she had a birthday party to attend at home. One she didn’t tell me about, one she chose to go to instead of my wedding. (I’m not trying to sound petty, but when you drive four hours to do hair and don’t stay for the wedding but instead drive four hours home for a birthday party? Ouch.)

I was choked. Seriously, I wanted to cry. I felt like she had made the morning all about her, making me late for my hair appointment and rushing the rest of the afternoon. I didn’t talk to her for a couple weeks, we ignored her at all costs. Now she’s texting me again, wanting to hang out and stuff, but I can’t bring myself to do it. I REALLY need a haircut and color done, but I don’t want to go to her anymore, but I hate trying to find new hairdressers.

We run in the same group of friends, we hang out at all the same places, it’s not like we can just cut her from our lives. How in the hell do I just get over this and move on? I seriously need help and advice here ladies, my forgiving heart just wants to close up and never forgive again.

HELP.

I’ll talk about problem number two tomorrow, this took more writing than I thought it would…

Randomness.

2010-10-27T08:22:00.002-06:00

So I was cleaning my house last night and putting one of the last few boxes of stuff away. I was actually in our dining room shoving cookbooks into the cabinet that Mom and Mik brought me up a few weekends ago when I realized I had a duplicate! Now, I like this cookbook a lot, it's full of awesome recipes and delicious foods. It's one of those put together by a bunch of people not a company putting it together. It's all from people from Saskatchewan too, so that's kind of neat. But I don't need three copies. Yes, I have three right now, I only need two!*

So I guess I'm giving it away. I don't have a picture of it nor do I have a list of recipes in it. I'm just going to tell you that it's awesome and you totally want it. It's full of deliciousness that everyone needs to check out. I may just also throw in a few family favourites as well.

Just leave a comment saying you want it and you're entered. Just make sure I can get in contact with you after to get your address so I can mail you it! I'll leave it open for a week, so until November 3rd!

If nobody enters I'm going to find one of your addresses and show up on halloween and shove the cookbook in your hands and run. Hahaha kidding kidding.

*One incase I wreck my first one!

Meet the Family!

2010-10-26T09:11:00.000-06:00

Even though we climbed on a tractor, wandered through a field and ran all around the acreage, we still did some more "traditional" pictures for the wedding. We had a few with the wedding party but we did our family pictures this way too! I think they turned out pretty cute!

Mom, Me, Mik, Tj, Dad.

I love this picture.

Me, Des, Sherry, Tj.

(Des is Tj's brother and Sherry is his Mom)

Me, Des, Sherry, Keith, Tj.

(Keith is his Dad)

Grandma Gail, Me, Tj, Grandpa John.

(Tj's Grandparents)

And us. =)

I love these, even if they aren't magazine quality or amazingly beautiful, they're still perfect to me.

Let's Get Ready!

2010-10-25T08:53:00.000-06:00

The morning of the wedding started really nice and calmly.

We all woke up on our own, no alarms were set in the house.

(Okay, there were alarms, but they were set for our absolute latest wake-up time and no one slept in)

We ate a delicious breakfast, all hanging out around the table buzzing and excited like little girls.

(And laughed as my cousin Matt ad his boyfriend Joe were hung over.. They were DRUNK the night before and it was hilarious and made my night.)

Mom and Aunty brought up my dress with it's huge train.

I like how it sparkles.

Patricia, one of my really good friends doing Mikayla's hair!

Mikayla, ever the charmer. Hahaha

Me with my hair and make up done.

(Even if it was late because my "friend"/hairdresser showed up an hour late and bitched me out for it... URG)

I found out Aunty paid for my make up! Lucky me.

Let's get this thing on!

Nice cupping Karla. Love this pic.

I love this pic too!

Kristen and Mik tying me up!

All the FELLAS!

2010-10-22T05:00:00.000-06:00

Another picture heavy post!

This one goes out to the guys who stood up for us! I'm not going to say much other than they looked SMOKIN'! When we were spying on them from the upstairs window we heard someone refer to them as the mafia and us girls had a hard time disagreeing.

So here's to the shmexy men who played the role of groomsmen!

The guys hanging out before the ceremony.

The handsome men.

Wade, Farruk, Des, Tj, Joey, Deitz.

All lined up!

Oops, backwards, but walking in!

Nice one of me and the guys!

Tj and his buds!

And then the wedding party dance...

When you yell switch every 30 seconds...

The guys think it would be really funny....

To dance "Wedding Singer" style! Hahahah!

And Deitz. That sonofamonkey! He ALWAYS bugs me, we're besties just like him and Tj, but he was all "oh just one more of us with Jazz" and then SMACK. He grabbed me and kissed me. I wish this was the first one of Tj's friends I could say has kissed me, but alas, I can't. Although I wasn't expecting this at my wedding! LOL..

Those guys, oh how I love them all!

All you LADIES!

2010-10-21T05:00:00.002-06:00

Warning: Picture HEAVY post!

The ladies I had as my bridesmaids meant the world to me! They all looked so beautiful in their dresses!

I let each lady choose her own dress in whatever color and style that she wanted. The only rule was that you must be able to add a sash if the dress didn't come with one! I just wanted to have at least one little piece that tied all of the dresses together. In the end I ended up asking them each to buy a pair of boots. This was something I debated a lot since they aren't cheap but I ended up doing it and I don't regret it!

Jessica, Karla, Ashton, Mikayla, Kristen and I.

Showing off our boots on the bales that were outside at the ceremony!

I really love this picture! It's so cute!

Us girls without the bouquets.

My little man, yeah, he goes in this post because he got ready with us.

This is one of my favorite pictures.

Maid of Honor : Kristen

Bridesmaid and Sister: Mikayla

Side note: This kid does NOT look 12... She turned 13 a week after the wedding, but everyone thought she was 16!

This bothers me. She's growing up toooooo fast!

Ring Bearer: Peyton

and his Mom

Bridesmaid: Ashton

Cousin(more like sister) and Bridesmaid: Karla

Bridesmaid: Jess

We went Pre-K through Grade 12 together!

The girls with Tj!

The girls and I being silly.

Watching the girls dance with the guys!

Photo Booth it Baby!

2010-10-20T05:00:00.000-06:00

We totally ending up having a photo booth area and it was totally last minute. I mean like week before the wedding I was making stuff for it. I’m just going to post some pictures because it’s funny and I love them. No one really knew it was there because I guess people weren’t listening to the MC, but whatever, I digress. I warn you, our fake moustaches went overboard… You see, around here, there are lots of Hutterites. So we made a Hutterite beard. Hahaha

We are WAG hear us ROAR!

WAG = White Avenger Gang.

I used to drive a 98 Dodge Avenger and it was white. So we had a gang.

This are my besties. Like, these three I love with EVERYTHING I have.

Danny, Kristen and Matty. I love you!

(But if you see this Danny, I hate you. Loser says what? Hahahahaha)

I love my friends.

The Distance

2010-10-19T05:00:00.000-06:00

I know some of you have already heard me talking about this on Twitter, but Tj finally got a job. After over a month of us struggling and worrying about our finances, he finally found a job.

I should be relieved, happy, joyful… right?

Well I’m not. I’m sad, whiney and grumpy about it. Why? Because I’m being a whiney selfish brat, which is caused by the fact that this job he got is out of town.

Now, I prepared myself for a rigger job, three weeks away and then one home, but no, this job does not allow those conveniences. I even prepared myself for one month away one month home, yet that is not what is happening. He will be gone every week day and lots of weekends.

So when do we get time together?

I don’t know.

My little heart feels so sad because of this. I imagined our first year of marriage so much differently. I wanted to spend time together, to go for walks, renting stupid movies and laughing at them, BBQing together in the back yard, taking Radar for more obedience classes (he whines too much) and so many more little things.

Now my weeks consist of Radar and mama (<-me) time. We cuddle, we go for walks, we play in the back yard, we cook and we watch movies; but it sure isn’t as good as husband wife time. It’s not how I pictured us making our first year or marriage work. I didn’t expect late night phone calls, wake up calls, texts, pictures sent over phones; it’s not what I wanted. I should just be happy he has a job; right?

I am happy he has a job. I am lucky that he can stay with his Mom while he works there. I am lucky he’s making great money there. I am lucky he loves me. I am lucky because I know we can survive this. But I still want some help.

I KNOW some of you out there have dealt with long distance marriages/relationships. I haven’t had a “long distance” relationship since high school really, so I’m kind of “out of practice”. I need some tips ladies! Some advice, some little things that made your day easier; anything to help a girl out!

1 Month.

2010-10-18T05:00:00.002-06:00

Love.

Some of my favorite moments from the wedding weekend:

Being pronounced pretend husband and wife.

I giggled and he squeezed my hand really tight.

Soaking into a bubble bath with MOH’s Kindle at midnight before the wedding.

I lost myself in old fairy tales and it was the perfect ending to the day.

Cranking the outdoor sound system with our wedding CD while we all got ready.

Hearing the music, getting ready, it made it all so real.

BM/Cousin Karla cupping my boobs to hold my dress in place as the rest of the girls started tying it up!

We were all laughing so hard, it was such a precious moment.

Peeking through the upstairs bathroom windows while the guys arrived to the acreage.

We whistled at them through the blinds, they looked around confused and we giggled harder.

Seeing Tj walk past the window right before the ceremony started.

My heart stopped. He was so close, my almost husband, I wanted to hug him.

The look of pride my Dad wore ALL DAY, especially when walking me down the aisle.

The way he patted my hand as we started our walk around the aisle made me tear up.

Kissing Tj for the first time as his wife.

It was pure magic.

Driving to the hall from the acreage in the big F350 with Tj and the MOH and Best Man.

We sang Johnny Cash (Jackson!) and laughed. We raced the other truck full of wedding party. We drove through town honking the horn as we hung out the side window waving.

Walking into the room full of everyone waiting for us.

They all clapped and cheered and I was overcome with emotion.

The speeches.

I cried, a lot.

Our first dance.

It was fun, silly, romantic and lovely.

Dancing with my Dad.

It was perfect, I’ve dreamt of that dance before I even dreamt of a wedding.

Having a bath in the HUGE tub in our room that night.

It was so warm and cozy; I almost fell asleep cuddled up in there.

Eating McDonalds at 3am sitting in our bed.

With our best man and a groomsman sitting on the couch.

It's been a full month now, a month of being married.

A full month since these small moments have passed us by, but they still remain close to my heart.

I love you my husband.

One month down and millions more to go.

Budget: Tips!

2010-10-15T05:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I posted about our budget and how we only spent half of what we originally thought we would on the wedding. I went into detail about what we did to save money and what we spent a bit more than planned on but I really didn’t get into HOW we saved the money and my tips on how to do so. Today, I’m going to tell you HOW to save money and give you a few tips!

Venue: We switched venues to save money and it was totally worth it. Always look for places that can hold weddings even if they’re not a “wedding” venue. We used an Elks Hall, which has been used for weddings, but the main hall use is not weddings. We got a STEAL of a deal on it because of that! We looked into a few different options too, even an empty space (where a Zellers used to be) in a mall! You just have to think outside the box and be prepared to get CREATIVE! Sometimes the simplest areas can look the nicest with a few decorations!

Food: We knew we were going to feed everyone, every single person that was invited was to be fed, which is not the most “budget conscious” decision. If you can get out of it, and don’t want to feed everyone, don’t feed everyone! Just have a family supper or even just take your wedding party out for supper! If you do want to feed everyone definitely start looking around EARLY. We found our caterer at a grocery store. Yes, a grocery store. He is the butcher at the local grocery store and has a catering business on the side. We originally planned a BBQ style meal, later switching to ham and all the fixings when we had a smaller attendance list. People coming to a wedding are HAPPY to be fed, they don’t all expect it! So have a buffet, have a non-wedding-ish menu, cater part of it and cook some yourself; just make sure you’re happy!

Midnight Lunch: If you have a huge family, like we do, ask your family for help. It’s a heck of a lot easier for a few aunties to bake some squares than it is for you to bake hundreds of them. It’s pretty simple on that one. Yes we got lucky by Tj’s Mom offering to do it, but she delegated and ASKED FOR HELP. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, it doesn’t make you a bride/groom-zilla, it makes you NORMAL!

Booze: Okay, this one is totally dependent on your community, but if you can, have a cash bar! We had a $2/drink bar and made a profit even after paying for bartenders, booze, mix, ice and cups! If it’s totally out of the question, have a donation bar! What’s this? Have a jar sitting at the bar, and have your open bar, but have a donation jar so people can put in money if they want! I’ve seen this done and I’ve seen people make back their booze costs plus more and people then don’t feel like they are having to pay for drinks, they feel like it’s an option!

Cakes: I think our cakes were beautiful and I have my Aunties to thank for that, but I can’t be the ONLY person that has semi-talented people in their lives? So you ask a friend, who loves to bake, to bake you some simple cakes and ice them? She’d love to! She gets to be involved in the wedding and you get to save money! We had a slab cake set aside and cut up so people could eat that too. Total win.

Memories (Pictures/Videos): We lucked out on this one. Tj’s Uncle was a professional photographer previously and a friend of ours is really handy with a video camera. We let the two of them go to and just said that would suffice. I REALLY wanted to go blow thousands on a good photographer and the day after the wedding, it killed me that I hadn’t. Once we got our pictures back, had a post-wedding shoot, and got more pictures from friends/family, I’m SO glad I didn’t blow that money. I’m not saying don’t get professional pictures, I’m just saying weight your options. Touchy subject here so I’m done.

There are other little things that we did and didn’t do, but I kind of covered them yesterday. I covered the big ones I wanted to today so I hope that helps!

Budget!

2010-10-14T11:57:00.001-06:00

I don’t really like talking about money that much. I don’t like talking about how much I make or how much we spend but the wedding budget just feels different than our normal budget. I really want to share our wedding budget with you because we had THE PERFECT wedding and literally cut our budget in half at the same time! I’d say that’s a pretty big deal!

I’ll let the table I created show you the estimates we had for things and then the actual costs that were spent, after the table I’ll explain a little bit more! And cue table:

First off, we were planning on doing everything at the acreage, which meant renting a tent, chairs, tables and a dance floor. We didn’t even calculate in the added expenses of generators and space heaters, so I think you get the point there. We chose to rent a hall in town instead and boy are we glad we did. Instead of spending around $5000 on a venue, we spent $500. Included in the hall was a kitchen, a large hall, a small hall, tables, chairs, a walk in cooler and LOADS of parking.

We were NOT going to skimp out on food, no way no how! We’re a bunch of farmers and small-town people, we know good food and we eat a lot. We originally planned to feed around 300 people but only had to feed around 180.* Since we had such few guests and because we switched from the acreage to the hall the caterer and us decided to switch the meal. We switched from BBQ to a delicious roasted ham with pineapple glaze and side salads and yummies. Delicious. Well worth the price.

*Farmers + late harvest = low attendance.

The midnight lunch was never a big factor to me, I’m not a huge midnight lunch person but Tj’s family definitely is. Tj’s Mom wanted to take care of it all as part of her gift to us and we let her! She was awesome and took care of all costs associated with it and did all of the serving! They had people bake squares and buns and then brought it all up to the wedding! AWESOME.

Okay, don’t shoot me or call the etiquette gods on me, but we had a cash bar! *waits for imminent death* Sure, it might be the common thing around here to have a cash bar, but really, people don’t mind. We had a tooney bar, for you non-Canadians we have looney and tooneys AKA dollar and two dollars, and it worked perfectly. You see, people around here? They don’t mind spending $2 per drink when they know it’s going to help the couple out. So yes, the $550 listed in the booze area? That’s profit…

I asked two of my Aunties, who are very skilled people, to make the cakes for us. . Our cakes were beautiful and delicious (lemon, white chocolate, banana and carrot flavors) so there were no complaints about them! It’s amazing how asking someone to do something like that makes them feel so important, and really, isn’t family important on your wedding day? We bought slab cakes just so we had enough cake! That was our only cost.

As you all know Tj’s Uncle was our photographer for the day so we saved HUGE money there. We had post-wedding pictures taken which cost us $200. My friend video-taped our wedding so we saved money there as well!

The decorations were all done by my Aunt and her friend, but they wouldn’t let us pay for them.

My Mom’s old co-worker did the alterations for us, so that was extra cheap!

The rehearsal supper was all taken care of by my parents, but it was just simple, BBQ styled meal. It was delicious... (Psss.... Are you starting to see a trend?...)

Flowers we spent more than we had planned, but I was 100% okay with that. Instead of worrying about making the bridesmaids bouquets we just bought them. It was WAY worth the reduced stress!

Gifts we found cheap stuff, it's called shopping and bargin hunting!

Boots and undergarmets were just finds and shopping around.

My make up was a gift from my Aunty Brenda, beacuse she's the sweetest woman around. My hair turned into a problem to start with, but I just said okay and was happy with it in the end. I forgot about the long beautiful extensions I wanted and went with my real hair. I looked good.

The tux rental was free because we had six other tuxes rented through the same company, which is definitely something to look for! Lots of places have rent five get one free or something, so keep an eye out!
Stationary we saved money by doing everything ourselves and printing stuff off at work for cheap! We also used lots of coupons and watched for sales over the course of the year.

We last minute threw in a photo booth area just for fun, so I went to the dollar store and grabbed some props. They were awesome and hilarious. I will post pictures soon.

The hotel room doesn't really count as wedding budget, but we threw it in there. We paid for the honeymoon suite for the night, which was a whole extra $10. You've got to love small cities!

Transportation we stuck with what we had, and what I grew up in, trucks! Well, we had two trucks (my Dad and mine) and borrowed my Aunt and Uncles Charger. It worked great. We didn't plan on getting a videographer but asked a friend to video tape some stuff, I'm excited to see it!

There's so much I could tell you on how to save money, but really, there are two things that stick out in my mind that I want every bride to remember.

Your wedding isn't just about you; it's a celebration of you and your soon to be spouse and the love you two share, it's something your family WANTS to be part of. Ask your family and friends to help you where you need help, they'll feel honored and special that you want them to be part of your day!
Just because your "dream" wedding can't happen, doesn't mean it won't be perfect. Remember that no matter what, you're still marrying the person of your dreams. You will be married, you will enjoy it. The color of the napkins really won't matter when all is said and done.

Home Cookin': Turkey Soups

2010-10-13T13:04:00.003-06:00

This morning I tweeted that I had invited a few ladies from work over for lunch, also mentioning homemade turkey/rice soup! Well dearest Mallory immediately demanded a recipe! See, the thing is, I’m not much of a recipe follower, I kind of add whatever I want and go with the flow. For me it’s all about taste and smell but I can usually write down what I did to get a product once I’ve made it. Luckily for Mallory, I remembered everything for my soups and wrote it all down! I made both a turkey noodle and a turkey rice soup so I’ll include them both, since they are a lot alike.

Turkey Rice Soup

Turkey Noodle Soup

First off you must cook a turkey (or a chicken) on a low heat setting, the flavor is much better with slower cooking methods for roasting! Once you’ve enjoyed your delicious meal take everything off of the bones and keep the turkey off to the side (or in the fridge).

Break up the bones as much as you can and throw them in the biggest pot you have. Add all of the little scraps from the turkey; the skin, the fat, the giblets and all of the bones. Add COLD water to cover the scraps in the pot (generally about 9 or so cups). Bring this to a hard boil; keep it at a hard boil for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat and simmer on medium to low for 45 minutes.

Add:

1 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp basil
½ tbsp thyme
½ cup carrots
¼ cup onion
4 tbsp Chicken OXO

Once you add this to the mixture bring it back to a boil for two minutes and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer the mixture on low for three hours. Make sure you simmer it for the full three hours to allow the flavor to set nicely, any less and it’s just not as rich tasting! Cool the mixture down by putting it in the fridge for half an hour. Take the mixture and strain it through a cheese cloth. A fine strainer will work here too, I like using a strainer, but that’s just personal preference.

Divide the stock in half, which will be approximately 4 cups for each soup. Add three cups of water to the each pot of stock. Bring the stock and water to a boil and immediately turn it down to the lowest heat setting.

Both of these soups freeze REALLY well and are absolutely delicious. The noodle soup is just like chicken noodle with a bit of a different flavor, but the rice soup is a lot richer and quite a bit creamier. I love the rice soup on cold days!

Don't judge me by the pictures, I swear the soups taste like heaven, I just used my BlackBerry and, well, come on!

My BlackBerry isn't meant to take awesome pictures!

Love

2010-10-12T16:22:00.001-06:00

Photo Credit: We Heart It

Love is all encompassing. Love is:

passion, romance, sex and full bodied laughter late at night.

The smile you hide when you pretend to be mad,

the giggles I swallow as I call your bluff,

those things are true love.

Love is raw and unhinged; it can sting and taste sweet all at once.

Pure and innocent yet playful and sassy;

mischievous, mysterious and marvelous;

it is all of these things, this LOVE.

Love, the attention whore, always wanting more she is.

Perfect is never an option; perfect isn’t bliss.

Love is bliss/ecstasy hidden in imperfection.

Love is sharing the bath tub, your razor, my shampoo.

You doing the dishes, the task I hate most. Love.

Conversations all night about nothing at all,

your nothings mean more than these words can describe.

Sweet kisses on eyelids as sleep closes in;

Love is those kisses.

Love is the thing that I feel for you.

This has been sitting in the draft posts for some time now, just staring at me, so I posted it. I used to/occasionally write random things, it ususally happens without me thinking at all, just like this did. A friend emailed me and asked me what it was like to have true love, that's what I typed. I told my friend that if I had to tell Tj how I felt love was, that's what it would be like. See, the "random" tag really works well here...

Thursday and Friday: Wedding Re-Cap

2010-10-07T13:05:00.002-06:00

Thursday and Friday seemed kind of like a blur, they just flew past and at times I think I might have zombie-walked my way through them both.

Thursday consisted of a whole bunch of everything. We slept in and ate a big breakfast, we finished writing our thank you speeches and wrapped up our gifts and notes for the wedding party and we grabbed a few last minute items at the dollar store. YAY dollar store, we found the cutest little berry decorations that was shoved onto the ushers to designate them.

Thursday was also our day full of drama. Now, I really want to share with you what happened, but at the same time for the sake of family and who was all involved I don’t want to get into it. I might get into it later, maybe do a post about what went wrong, but for now we’re moving on.

Friday was a BIG DAY. We woke up and started at it all. I was up and ready because my girls were all coming and I couldn’t be more excited. After finishing up some decorations around the acreage we headed into town to get the keys to the hall. The hall was so big and empty I was kind of unsure of how things would pull together, especially since I had no hand in the planning and decorating.

We set up the risers and put the head table on it to make sure we liked it at the one end and then they told me to go away. Yes, my Mom and Aunties kicked me out so they could decorate. I stood at the doors waiting for MOH Kristen and BM Karla to get there, since they were only a little ways away!

Once Kristen and Karla got to town we headed back to the acreage, only to meet my Dad and Uncle out putting up signs and Tj and the best man headed back into town. We spent the day talking, catching up, enjoying all the people showing up and finishing up last touches.

Around two we headed back into town to finalize DJ stuff and see the hall. It was BEAUTIFUL! My Aunties and Mom and everyone that helped did an AMAZING JOB! Love love loved it.

Then back to the acreage to get ready and have our rehearsal, supper and give gifts to our wedding party! And of course listen to Joe play his AMAZING song he WROTE for us to walk down the aisle to. Love love love him. Okay, I’m sick of talking. Look at pictures: NOW! Hehehe

Some of the guys opening their gifts.

MOH Kristen and Ring Bearer Peyton.

Some more opening gifts, some family and friends watching.

Us saying thank you, Tj pointing out the alcohol to put in the flasks and cups.

Joe Jackson. The amazing lovely wonderful guy he is playing the song he wrote for Tj and I. I can't remember it's name because he titled it in French, but it's Jazmin and Ti's French Waltz (ish).

Me, telling the guys where to stand, playing boss!

MOH Kristen

Sister Mikayla

BM Ashton

BM Karla

Ashton helping her son, Peyton, down.

Dad and I were walking in funny-like.

And making sure we didn't fall.. I love my Dad!

Let's pratice!

Our freezing cold readers.

Pretend unity ceremony.

We're pretend married!

Peyton and Ashton

Hanging out. Note the unfinished basement, we're still at that beautiful acreage! Lol.

Kristen telling Peyton that the truck was HERS.

"Go jump on Aunty Jazz to say thank you!"

"And hug Uncle Tj too!"

The hall before! I got to help set this much up! LOL.

Putting up the lights!

And I'm back to see it! LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Uncle Mark

Uncle Mark dancing!

The head table and two other tables.

The side of the hall.

Shot of the head table again.

One of the centerpieces with wild oats thrown in! Wheat courtesy of Dad's boss (not that he knows that ;) hahaha he wouldn't care though) and the guy that farms the land around Aunty and Uncles acreage!

The neat overhead decorations.

Overall shot!

Memorial table - in memory of those we have lost to cancer.

Pictures all taken by family and friends!

After all of the fun of setting up, opening gifts, working out the kinks in the ceremony and eating lots of food were done the guys headed off to the hotel and us girls hung out some more. We drank wine and had munchies, we watched the football game (Roughriders baby! WOOP!) and some of the occupants of the house may have had a few too many drinks... ;) We had a blast though... Kristen gave me her Kobo and I had a wonderful bath and read some old school fairy tales, then crawled into bed with Kristen! Mikayla was sleeping on a cot in the same room so the three of us giggled a little bit and quickly drifted off to sleep!

Now we're onto the wedding day re-caps!

Gather Round

2010-10-05T11:53:00.000-06:00

This is one of my favorite pictures from the wedding.

This is what happens when you decide your wedding party dance needs to be a dance where every thirty seconds you yell switch and grab a new partner.

Everyone ends up laugh and giggling and dancing silly.

Girls danced with girls, guys danced with guys. It was epic.

Then we realized the song was super long, so we formed a cirlce and started laughing even harder.

We did the can-can.

I love my friends.

Thanks Tiffany for taking this shot, it just makes me smile.

Wednesday!

2010-10-04T10:59:00.001-06:00

I woke up Wednesday morning and my head was going nuts. I had so much to do AND I still had to go to work. Tj, the wonderful man that he is, got me up and convinced me to get ready* and took me to Tim Horton’s on the way to work.

Work FLEW by. I was stressed, everyone was trying to make chit chat about the wedding but I didn’t want to talk, I only wanted to LEAVE. I went home for lunch and only then took the advice of my dearest co-worker Anna.** Tj was a busy bee that morning, he dropped the truck off to get our FREE detail clean***, packed up everything and had it sitting by the door and was busy being awesome starting to pack the house for our move the week after the wedding.

So I got home and showered, ate lunch and relaxed. Figuring the truck would be done it’s clean by one we threw in a movie to watch until then. One came, one thirty, then two, then two thirty. I made Tj call Ford and see where our truck was. It wasn’t done, I was mad, but they brought it back to us anyways. It was half cleaned, they got rid of the dog hair (YES!) and it was good enough for us.

We packed up and headed to the city. We had to pick up all of the tuxes so we went and grabbed them. Then off we were to K town!

The usually four hour drive felt like it took a zillion hours. I just wanted to be there, to be with my Mom and my Aunty who were doing fun wedding stuff. I was grumpy and bitchy, too little sleep and too much to do. Tj was in the same boat, we made quite the pair, yelling at every slow vehicle on the road and all.

We finally got to Ktown and to the acreage and then I felt content. We were there. We had very few things left to do and it was all coming together. The acreage looked amazing. Aunty’s friend Maryann was there helping make some beautiful fake flower arrangements for outside, Uncle and Kirk were having drinks, Mom and Aunty were half cut. It was awesome.

I smiled, I laughed, I had a beer. Tj laughed and had a few more drinks than I. We cuddled up in bed and giggled that we were getting married. We felt like we were kids. It was perfect.

{All photos courtesy of family}

*Not that it takes much getting ready for work. I throw on jeans and a t-shirt and put a ponytail in the hair and go.

**As I got to work Wednesday morning Anna emailed me, saying “OMG Why are you here? Go get marries already!” No one thought I was come in, so I said screw it and didn’t come back after lunch. I love them all.

***We ended up having to replace all four tires on the truck a week before the wedding, great on the budget. HA! But we got a free detail clean out of it, pays to know people.

Married

2010-09-23T09:43:00.000-06:00

We're married!

We've been married a whole five days now but it's a million times better than I could have imagined.

Our "two days of together" went to shit since we kind of forgot we have to move this week. We've been packing and moving and not sleeping or eating, it's a bad combination. We're exhausted and hungry and we want to put away all of our cool new stuff from the wedding and from both showers, but we need to finish moving first.

BUT we're happy.

Yes, in five days we've been married we've fought but the fights aren't the same. It's a zillion times easier to forgive each other for stupid things. We WANT to be done fighting and make up even more so than ever before.

We're moving into a new home as we start on our marriage, it's kind of fitting and it's really exciting.

We now have the honeymoon to look forward to! December 18th will never come quickly enough!

The wedding was PERFECT!

The week of our wedding seriously could have been a movie, it had the plot of one, I'm not even lying.

We didn't spend thousands on professional pictures, we got them for free from Tj's Uncle who used to be a photographer. We have them back already and it's super exciting.

I could care less about pictures actually. I glanced at them once and now they're sitting in a pile. No picture can capture how I felt that day.

We ate McDonalds at 3am in our "honeymoon suite". Our best man and a groomsman brought it up to us and we all sat together and ate it. I was half naked and sitting in bed and couldn't care less, it was perfect.

We had no gift opening, but ended up opening up the gifts and cards anyways on Sunday. It was a lot of fun with just a few of us around.

I feel like a little kid, I really do. I'm giddy and I just want to sing "na-na-na-na-na I'm married". Real mature, I don't give a flying frick.

I promise I'll upload pictures and "recap" and all of that, but for now I don't want to talk about it. I barely talk about the wedding at all except to say it's perfect. I feel like if the words I felt about it escape my lips it will lose some of it's magic, at least for now.

Generosity!

2010-09-15T10:19:00.001-06:00

So, I thought I better write this one up real quick while it’s fresh in my mind. I freaking love my co-workers. I find them fabulous and they are far too generous for their own good.

The entire department has a “fund” and you put money in for stuff and every time someone has an event, large or small, they give you a gift and everyone signs the card. Supper cute idea and I think every office should do it. Anyways the department got me a gift and brought it in yesterday, so I was pretty excited. They bought Tj and I a cute little water cooler, it’s like the counter top version of a big stand up one. Supper cute, so now we’re trying to figure out where to put it since it’s kind of big and we don’t have much counter space once we move. I think it’ll become a bedroom/hallway thing for upstairs, but we’re still unsure.

Then a few of them women I work with asked if they could take me out purse shopping as a shower gift. They had heard me mention I wanted a new purse and thought that would be a super cute and fun “shower”. They were right, we had a blast. They got me such a great purse and I love it and can’t wait to wear it around. After that we went over to the local Irish pub for some food and drink. We were having the best time, laughing and drinking, it was just pure bliss. I’m sure everyone there thought we were nuts drinking and being loud at six on a Tuesday, but boo on them! After that we moved up to the pool hall and had more drinks and played pool for a few more hours. Then one of them drove me home and we called it a night. I was well tipsy, we’ll just say that! Lol.

Do you see how great they are? A department gift, a gift from a select few, they took me drinking and paid for supper and everything AND at the end of the night they handed me a card with over $100 of cash in it. I seriously almost cried, I’ve only been working here for FOUR months and they do this for me? Such generous people. I love them!
`

And the winner is....

2010-09-13T09:30:00.000-06:00

Kjpugs!

These little beauties are ALL YOURS! Congrats! Send me an email (at thehickbride[at]gmail.com) with your mailing address and I'll let Chin at DesignerApparel.com know and she'll send them out to you!

Five Days!

2010-09-13T08:54:00.000-06:00

Oh my goodness, I thought that the wedding would never come but now it's right behind the corner! I can't believe we'll be getting married in FIVE DAYS! It's so exciting. I really can't wait! With only five days left I'm glad that our to-do list seems so small...

Finish thank you
Tj finish writing thank yous for the guys
Get my nails done (today at noon!)
Buy one last thank you gift.

That's it! That's all! Tomorrow Radar goes on vacation for a week, he's heading to his breeders acreage while we're gone, so it will be nice to finish things up without him wanting attention. Wednesday after work we're off to Ktown and starting to get things ready!

Expect light, if any, posting between now and next week! We aren't taking a bunch of time off after the wedding so I'll be back in swing next week!

We'll be OK

2010-09-09T06:00:00.001-06:00

After writing yesterday's post about Tj losing his job, I kind of realized we've been through a lot even before marriage comes around. I figure if we've survived all of this we can survive marriage too! Sooo I made a list like the sometimes OCD person I am. . .

• I lost my job and was jobless for approx 3 weeks. Luckily I had an interview before my position was terminated and got the job from that interview, but I didn't find out for a good two-three weeks after.

• Tj has now lost his job. Funny thing is that we're happier this way already. I mean, what soon-to-be-wife wouldn't be excited that she now gets to actually cuddle at night with her man again. Not just once a week!

• We moved to the "big city". We tried it out, met new people, got new jobs, and left.

• We move back to "college town". We moved back for my job, him still commuting. It was a switch from hanging out with "my" friend back to more of "his" friends.

• We've both commuted. I commuted for two months he commuted for just over two months. It made us grumpier but we managed.

• When we move Oct 1st it will be the fifth house we've lived in since we moved in together. Moving is STRESSFULL so if we can handle five moves before a marriage? Heck we've got er made.

• My sister got sick. I mean SICK. She was in the hospital for 18 days straight. They didn't know what was wrong with her and they still don't. She had every test imaginable done including a spinal tap and numerous scans. It was scary. She couldn't keep anything down and kept losing weight, eventually they had to put a TPN line in and feed nutrients directly to he heart. We spent lots of time making supper and taking it up to Mom and Dad. We went there every night to see her.

• We've dealt with a lot of death. I can think of four funerals that have been very important to us, having lost four family or close friends in our time together. Death can bring out the most extreme emotions in people and I'm glad we've dealt with this before we get married.

• We've had married friends go through divorces and some almost went through divorces. I think this made us REALLY aware of the work that must be put in to get a good marriage. As scary as it is to see someone else's marriage deteriorate, it was almost helpful to us as a couple.

• BABIES! As silly as it seems I’m glad we’ve been around a lot of babies together. I think someone can say they want kids and you can think they’ll be great with kids, but until you see how they react to other kids and babies you will never know what kind of parent they will be. After seeing Tj with a baby in his arms and seeing him play with kids of all ages, I know he’ll be the perfect father to our future kids.

• Family fights don’t come up very often for my immediate family, although on Tj’s side they are a bit more frequent. It was really informative to see how Tj and his family had “fights”. It also kind of opens your eyes up to how things might end up the longer you are together or what you need to work on.

• We’ve had our share of financial difficulties! From vehicles breaking down to just being broke, we’ve been there done that. Finances can RUIN a couple and we know that but even if we fight a bit about money, we’re on the same page in the end and know we can overcome that stupid money shite.

Well, I’m done with the list for today, but I’m pretty darn sure we’re going to be just fine. Sometimes I just like to remind myself of that!

I didn't see this coming - Part 2

2010-09-08T08:39:00.000-06:00

Remember part one? The one where I was let go from my job due to lack of work? Wellll...... Yesterday Tj lost his job. His boss text-fired him.

Let me explain a little bit. Tj was working for a "friend of a friend" who turned out to be a crook, liar, fraud and just a plain jackass. He was an alright guy to start with but the bullshit started soon once Tj started working for him. Late on pay days, hard to get a hold of and all sorts of other crap. I mean, some jobs can have a boss like that, but a job where your employees are driving all through the night in sometimes shit weather means you have to be around for them. Tj's been stranded with broken down vehicles, even in minus forty weather. He's gotten an unregistered vehicle ticket because his boss didn't register the work van. He's been arrested because of it because his boss didn't pay the ticket on time, when he had told Tj it was paid. He's ran Tj's own vehicle into the ground because Tj drove it a couple times to help him out, then when the Jimmy had some problems during a MAJOR snow storm (like highways closed bad) his boss wouldn't pay to fix it. He's had Tj caught up in the middle of his messy divorce and multiple affair situations. He's tried to cheap him out of money. Tj has taken a total of maybe three days off in the past YEAR that he's worked for him, every time being almost a firing to get a day off.

Get it? He's a worthless piece of shit.** So in the end Tj was going to quit there after the wedding anyways, but not right now. Tj was making AMAZING money there, like, huge money, so that's why he stuck it out for so long. But now he's on the search for something new, hopefully he can persue his dreams of carpentry now and get on that but we'll be fine in the end! Luckily for me I have a great job and we are moving to a rental house that's pretty cheap, so if worse comes to worse I'll be able to support us!

We are accepting all prayers and thoughts! Believe me we can use them! This really just turned into a big vent post about how shitty of a human being Tj's old boss was. I mean come on, he TEXT fired him, grow some balls you peice of.... I better stop now because I could go on ALLLL day....

On a positive note keep entering for the GIVEAWAY! Anddd it's only 10 days until I get married! EEEP! =) I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and we went down to the bar where Tj and I met? Tj has his bouncing job back, no questions asked. At least that's a little bit of money!

On a crazy note, me being scared to death of clowns and our best man not liking clowns and Tj not liking scary movies. We all sat down and tried to watch IT last night. Once again I didn't watch any of it, I hid behind a blanket. Tj and Joey didn't want to finish it so we just turned it off. We're silly like that. It was sure nice that Joey came up yesterday! They went and paid for the tuxes and got Joey re-measured!

End crazy long stupid ramble.

**I don't care if he or anyone who knows him sees this. I also don't refer to many people as such, but this man deserves it, if you can call him a man.

Countdown

2010-09-07T15:49:00.000-06:00

I can officially say "my wedding is next weekend"...

That is insane...

This weekend will be my last un-married weekend EVER!

I'm so excited to be married...

Even if I am breaking out and icky...

He'll still love me...