"And they lived happily ever after"

so i guess this will be my last post on the journey to getting married. its kind of a relief that its all over now. not that i didnt have a blast getting to this point, but i'm just so ready to start my life.

after the ceremony was over we literally sped through pics. we finished a lot earlier than the photog had expected. shes pretty awesome (yay lynn michelle!) and it was hard to really keep up with what was going on lol. but after all that madness we got to just relax and have fun the rest of the evening.

after our grand entrance, anthony and i went straight into our first dance. we are not sappy people in the traditional sense so it didnt really make sense to have a traditional sappy dance. so what we asked our dj to do (shout out glenn roush) was to come up with the cheesiest love song ever. they kind when you hear it you groan. and then switch to our real song... "if youre wondering if i want you to" by weezer! and we started acting a fool and just having fun with a song that was just so "us."

then we caught up with the guests and actually got to eat!. we catered from pappadeaux! and the food was soooo good. we had an avocado bar where you got half an avocado and got to stuff it with all sorts of wonderful. i decided on the shrimp ceviche. yum. and we also had fresh crab cake balls. they were AMAZING! i wanted like 8 of them lol but i restrained myself and only had 2. what was even more awesome about this was that because old red doesnt have a kitchen, most places pre made the food but pappas actually set up shop outside and fried things up for us fresh! then for the main course we had crawfish etufee and chicken Dijon. yum thats all i have to say about that. just thinking about it now is making me hungry for lunch... at 7 am!

after schmoozing with all the tables, we cut the cake! i think our cakes pretty much rocked. best cake ever was anthonys grooms cake that was sculpted to look like tom servo from mst3k. cake was delish even thought the brides cake didnt turn out looking the way i really wanted it to. but oh well.

after that we did toasts. javed gave one that was on the funny side, then kyles 2 page typed speech was very touching, zainabs was short and sweet and dads made me cry...(not cool dad). from there we started our father-daughter dance to "butterfly kisses". i know i know so cliche... but its one that my dad sung for me when i was little and always made him sort of emotional so it was really my only choice. since we did get married on fathers day... 1/2 way through the song we invited all the other father-daughter pairs to join us. this opened the floor which was hot for a couple songs until people decided that it was just too damn hot with all the windows unshaded to get down.

when the dance floor died we decided maybe it was time to call it a day. so we called party animals who was in charge of bringing our horse drawn carriage to see if they could come earlier. they told us at that point that there was a city ordinance that didnt allow horses to be out on the street if it was about 100. and that they were "pushing for 730" seriously... you werent gonna tell me that when we booked you. its freaking june in texas chances of it being over 100 are high! so we decided we'd do plan b and the boys left to pack up kyles car. when they got back up to the hall we did the bouquet toss and my cousin yasmin who has been dreaming of getting married ...well allher life caught it. and thent he garter toss ... ryan actually dove for the garter! lol guess he REALLY wanted it ;).

our last dance was to another one of "our" songs... "strangers int he night" by cake. after that all of our family and friends ran downstairs to get their flower cones (see DIY post for pics ) and we were just about to walk out when kyle told us that our carriage was here! yes really. so we walked out to a shower of rose petals and rode off into the sunset.

after we got to the W hotel where we were staying for the night we ran around downtown with our wonderful photog to get some pics of just the two of us. it was a lot of fun. the whole process was a pretty fun ride. but now im ready to start the real adventure. and i couldnt have asked for a better partner to share my life with. i love you anthony!

signing off.... MRS METZ! :)

Mr and Mrs Metz!

Ok now the post you have all been waiting for.

The night before the wedding, after running around and getting all the things together, I met my three wonderful ladies at the downtown hyatt. We stayed the night in the hotel just chatting and trying on our dresses and just having a good time. Nothing too over the top.

We woke the next morning and right away people started getting their makeup done. Two of three of the moms decided they didn’t want the makeup so I had a few extra faces. So I invited my aunt amy to get hers done along with my mom, z, a, n, i and myself. J she was kinda rude and rushing me though. I felt like she was antsy about finishing everyone in time. Don’t be antsy! Lol but everyone got their makeup done and everyone looked amazing.

While the first victim was in the makeup chair, the rest of us headed to the venue to set up. Everyone was acting like I was doing too much but all I did was put up reserved signs. Lol other than that I just told ppl what do to haha.

Then went back to hotel and got hair and makeup done. And came back to the venue…later than planned. Photog was there and taking pics of what she cold and told me not to worry that we’d end up back on track. She went off to take pics of my things and came back to tell me that one of my earrings was missing! After a short panic I decided that I didn’t need both only one ear was actually showing lol we took some pics and then they locked me up in a room so no one could see me lol.

Judy, my mother in law, let me borrow her grandmothers diamond bracelet. It was soo pretty but I was so nervous all day that itd fall off and id lose it! That was my something borrowed, then blue were my earrings, old my gmas bracelet, and new…well everything else. I didn’t get nervous until I was standing there waiting to walk down the aisle. silly I know but I couldn’t help myself from feeling butterflies in my stomach.

As I was walking down the aisle i saw how handsome Anthony was standing there waiting for me beaming with happiness and I just lost it… the wedding atmosphere hit me and I couldn’t keep from crying. I really didn’t wanna do that. I wasn’t sad I was just so moved and happy I couldn’t help it! The minister took jabs at Anthony any moment he could. It made it a lot lighter and happier than a solemn take to it. We wrote our own vows. Anthonys was about honesty and openness and mine was an original poem that apparently everyone loved. We literally tied the knot with a handfasting. And then we were done. It was short sweet and perfect. Of course I had to pull an ATEAM reference and said “I love it when a plan comes together” just before we exited as husband and wife! J

DIY

Lemme start by saying I *think* I’m creative but my ideas don’t always play out the way I want them to. I did not do a LOT of diy projects but I had a couple. Some that panned out well others backfired.

I made all of my bridesmaids and moms tote bags. On one side I carefully hotglued rhinestones in the shape of the first letter of their name. on the other side I used fabric paint to write words that described them that started with the same letter. These bags, if I do say so myself, turned out really well! Everyone loved them but unfortunately I don’t think I got any pics of them so I cant show you. Bridesmaids if you took a pic of your bag please send it my way!

I wanted to do something fun and different for my programs. So I decided to make them into fortune tellers. Remember when we used to make them as kids? So with the help of my mom we tediously put together a template and wrote everything out. And my lovely girls spent an afternoon with me folding them up. There were SO many it felt like we were never going to finish. Ms Zainab was totally showing everyone up! She was like the origami queen! Her pile of folded programs was at least 3 times the size of everyone else. So ill take a sec to shout out to her. You were a really big help in that department!

On a less DIY note but still putting things together, we got coaster frames as our favors. Our  lovely photographer made little prints of our fave engagement pic for us to include in all of them. She took the time to find the right sizing and even cut them out for us. So all my bms and I had to do was print out labels with the photographers site on them for guests to know where to go for the rest of the pics and put the label on the back.

For our grand exit we decided to do a petal toss. I saw this cute idea that was easy enough for little cones for people to toss from. So I went to Michaels and just bought a whole bunch of white and black scrapbook papers and cut them in half rolled them and then taped them closed in the shape of cones. By far the easiest of my diy endeavors.

I also wanted to do little madlibs so people would have something to do while we were off taking pics and leaving our guest to themselves. So I just went online and got a whole bunch of different wedding themed mad libs and pasted them to little cards for each person. Easy enough right? Well this project was just so daunting to me I kept putting it off and putting it off. Then when I tried the first time the printer was broken then my computer was dead and then we ran out of glue. So I ended up with about 100 when I wanted to do 150 but it ended up working out just fine! J

Now for the one that completely backfired on me were the pew bows. The premade bows at hobby lobby were so pretty but 3 times as much as the ribbon to just make my own. So I bought the ribbon planning on doing it myself. My mom and I watched 4 or 5 different youtube vids to figure out how to do it and none of them  panned out the way I wanted them to lol so we ended up just going to HL and getting the premade ones… some things are just worth the extra money lol.

Stress Ball

I have been pretty cool, calm and collected for most of the planning process. I gave myself well over a year to get everything done because super planner girl that I am, I knew for things to be “perfect” it would take time. In doing so I was not stressed throughout *most* of the planning process and my bridezilla horns only flared once for a hot min when two of my bridesmaids ran down the clock on ordering their dresses.

Now I say most of the planning process because I def became more stressed and hot headed as the wedding drew nearer. I tried to follow the timeline that theknot.com had given for when to get things done in the planning process. So just as advised I took my dress in for its first fitting a month before the wedding. I told the seamstress that it needed to be shortened and a bustle put on it and told her the date of the wedding. June 19. She pinned the skirt for the right length and told me to come back on the 9^th of june to make sure the hem was right and to get the bustle pinned. So I came back on the 9^th as directed and there had been NO work done on the dress. It was still just pinned from the first fitting. I thought that the hem was supposed to be done.but the seamstress proceeds to pin up the rest of the skirt and then asks me when the wedding is. I told her… and she FREAKED OUT.  IN FRONT OF ME! “What!? Are you Sure?” *holds head in hands*. Um… hello I told you this like 2 weeks ago when I was last in here what do you mean am I sure! But even with this news my bridezilla horns did not come out. She informed me that if I came back the TUESDAY BEFORE MY WEDDING that the bottom layer would be hemmed and she would double check the length and finish the dress then and there if everything was set. Ok Sara don’t worry it’ll be done on time. But this news definitely got my stress ball rolling. If she had not freaked out in front of me I maintain that I would have stayed calm and collected. She should know better as someone who works with brides on a daily basis than to freak out in front of us about our DRESS of all things!

From that point on while I tried to remain calm and unstressed I didn’t relax till I had my dress in hand. It of course was done in time but I could have done without the added stress of worrying if I would have to trip over my dress down the aisle.

Jewelry!

I have some really talented friends. One of them is a very talented Jewelry artist. she does custom wire wrapping. so when thinking of gifts for my lovely girls she was an obvious choice.  you can find her online gallery on facebook here!

 we went together to a gem store and picked up all the goodies for her to make her creations! Today she sent me pics of the final products. I just really had to share them with anyone actually reading my blog!

claimed by artist and bridesmaid Alyssa

 

claimed by my sister Imaan

claimed by bridesmaid Nedra

 claimed by my made of honor zainab

i am totally keeping my jewelry a secret. unfortunately it wasnt made by lys as i originally intended but its till very pretty.

Icepocolypse 2011

On tuesday we had a huge thunderstorm that quickly turned into sleet and then the roads iced over. The temperature has not been above freezing since then. Which means the treacherous black ice has made it impossible to go anywhere or do anything. This is the first time in my life that there has been 4 consecutive days below freezing in Texas. The chemical that we use to melt ice only works above 20 degrees. So the city has been shut down since tuesday. Today it snowed. almost a foot! in TEXAS!!

but with the city shut down i have been home for a week. stuck in my apt. with anthony.

now i know what youre thinking.." great here comes a post about how crazy shes going being locked up with her fiance". but in fact its the exact opposite! We have had a great very relaxing week with eachother. We've spent the week watching movies, talking, and when we want the occasional alone time we went to our separate tvs and turned on our xboxes. when we finally were able to go out today we actually decided to go together! we had a great lunch over at seasons 52 and then went shopping. anthony actually went shoe shopping with me! and i got a pair of killer gianni bini pumps for $20! now we're about to go watch another movie on netflix.

I'm so glad im marrying him. any other couple would be driving each other crazy. we.. are going crazy together. :)

If you're house was on fire

Everyone has been posed with the question, what would you take with you if your house was on fire? And they answer things like photo albums, phones, shoes, things that are important to us. Well tonight (its like 6:30) I got to answer the question first hand.

Calm down people my apartment did NOT burn down. But someone was stupid enough to let the fire alarm in the entire building go off. Don't know the source of it but itd had to be something dumb like leaving their toast in the toaster oven. Regardless, here Anthony and I were roused from our dead sleep into a sudden state of emergency.

We quickly got dressed, put on coats and shoes and looked around at what to take...nothing seemed that important. when it comes down to it everything is replaceable. I didnt go for my computer, or my camera, or my clothes, or my fave shoes because when it comes down to it, my renters and various types of insurance with replace all that. My Scrapbooks (while they do hold sentimental value all the pics are on facebook and can be printed again at some other time. The only thing i actually took with me was my cat and my fiance.

Thats what i would take if my house was on fire.... What would you take?