Our Peeps

{Peeps, image via Boston.com}

I don't have any sisters but I am very much a girlfriends-friends forever-these are my ladies type of person and so I always knew my wedding party would be massive. I felt (and still feel) that the people standing with you should represent you and important phases of your life. Before I was even close to getting engaged, I joked that my side of the wedding party would be 12 women...and if that meant two ladies to one man, well then so be it.

{image via Weddingbee.com}

While it ended up not being 12 (although it very easily could have been), I have 8 females standing up with me on my wedding day.

I have three best friends from high school, one who is my Maid of Honor (this title seems so ancient!). MOH Stacy & I have a picture together on the pre-school playground...through elementary school we always participated in birthday parties together; through middle school we stood by each other as other girls were not so nice; through high school we partied, laughed and cried; through college we traveled and lived in Guam together; 7 years after graduating college she is married with two daughters and we still see each other as often as life will let us. There was no question in my mind that she would be my MOH, she knows me pretty damn well and although we don't spend every day or night together anymore, there is no one else that I could picture with that title.

{From high school days to now}

My other two best friends from high school, BM Fawny & BM Jen, complete what I like to call the BFF circle. The four of us girls had far too much fun in high school and we have managed to hold on to our friendship for 15 years!

{Young BFF's in high school to more recently}

I have three cousins who I was raised with. Two of them are older and one of them younger, but growing up they were like my sisters. Although blood has us related, we all four know that we are very lucky to be friends in addition to relatives. We all live in Durango and so it makes family get togethers very fun because it's like I've got a group of girlfriends with me. So that's BM Kel Bel, BM Mae, & BM KT.

{Cousins in high school, Cousins at Christmas 2010. With an appearance by my bro!}

See? My side is already at 6 with my stand-by high school besties and my cousins.


BM Candace and I actually went to high school together but we didn't become friends until a few years after. She has been by my side since 2005 and I can't even put into words how much fun we have had over the years. I can always count on her to meet me for a drink, or be there with her shoulder for me to pout on.

{Candace & I circa 2005, and more recently in 2009}

Last, but certainly not least, BM Hogan. My dogg aka homegirl. We have a ridiculously fun time together...from girls nights out to including our men in a home cooked dinner. We have been known to sit on the couch and watch E! and cry from laughing so damn hard.

{First known picture of BM Hogan & I and of course more recently in 2009.}

{And an appearance by mine & D's matchmaker, Carly!}

That's eight. I had a very hard time keeping it to eight. I would have loved to add at least three more(I'm looking at you, JoJo, Em & Schlapps!). BUT I forced myself to stop at eight. We will have sixteen friends/family standing with us and then a small army of little ones, that's for another post. I can't wait to get pictures like these:

{Image via eleganceandsimplicity.com}

{Image via bridal.threaddesign.com}

{Image via carlateneyck.com}

For D it's not so easy; sure he's easily got eight friends but guys are different. I know that if these girls were anywhere in the world they would try their damnedest to get back to D-town for our wedding. D has two great friends here in Durango. His best man (luckily!) and one other dude that we are close to. The other six he has mentioned having are spread out around the country...and by that I mean on the eastern side of the US. And traveling to our little world is not easy peasy. Our airport is tiny, I'm talking two terminals; we are 6 hours from Denver and 4 hours from Albuquerque, the closest international airports.

This makes me a little worried, not that I don't have faith in his friends but I want to make sure that D has support from his buddies just like I will have support from my ladies on our big day. He was not so enthused to talk to his friends and 'invite' them to be groomsman, I think majority were asked via Facebook chat. Two were in person. And maybe a couple over the phone. And he's said more than once "Whoever can commit to coming to Colorado will be my groomsman." Men, I don't get them.

The day after we got engaged, I started calling my girls. MOH Stacy actually stopped by my office to see my bling and that's when I was able to ask her to be my MOH. I had always envisioned myself doing something clever to ask my favorite girls to be in my wedding, like this beauty:

{Image via Oncewed.com}

I also thought it would be creative if I just sent them a text and ask them if they were busy on January 21st? And when they responded, 'Why?' or 'How on earth am I supposed to know, that's so far away!' I would say 'Because I would like to have you stand with me on my WEDDING DAY!'.

Unfortunately, excitement got the very best of me and during each phone conversation, I just blurted out "I'm engaged! You are in the wedding!" Whoops.

Learn from my mistake, taking your TIME to relay this information to your bridesmaids is crucial...the follow up to this mistake, up next.

Who Wants To Be My Venue? Part Two.

When I left off, I had narrowed down my list of potential venues to three, yes 3. I was very eager to take the next step and actually look at them. I will admit I was a tad jealous of other brides who had a lot longer list and I was a bit nervous that my venue list only included three, what would we do if those three weren't what we wanted...or too expensive...or ended up not wanting to accommodate our requests. The venues have a lot of power over the direction of a wedding.

My mom and I scheduled the first meeting and went together because Mr. H was unable to get off work at that time. My mom had spoke with the lady and outlined our thoughts: winter wedding, outside, 150ish guests, doggy in attendance. On the phone she said "Not a problem, we can work with this".

We drove 10 miles west of Durango to Kennebec Cafe, a charming cafe nestled at the base of the La Plata mountain range. I adore this cafe, their food and atmosphere. She had just added on and finished a full wrap-around patio outside: bonus. The inside was open and modern, with fireplaces scattered throughout.

Image via Kennebec Cafe's website

We arrived and sat in the entry area for 15 minutes waiting for the lady, apparently she forgot and went on a quick walk: strike one. We did a walk through of the building and she proceeded to ask us the exact same questions my mom had gone over with her on the phone: strike two. She then told us that only half of the restaurant would be available at the time of our wedding, making it only able to hold 50 people: strike three. You'd think after three strikes we'd be out like trout, but we stayed and filled out an 'application'. That's when strike four occurred, her menu prices. Being that this is a restaurant, she obviously does the catering herself, which was fine so we discussed our desire to have a casual dinner. And the casual menu cost per head? $20 to $30. I don't think we could have gotten out of there fast enough. On to venue number two.

We scheduled our next two visits the same day because they were in the same area. The first was a recommendation from a family member who had been to a birthday bash at this private home mansion, called the Retreat at Thunder Ridge. The couple was in the beginning process of offering their home as a wedding venue, but we would be the first to get married in the winter. This home is spectacular:

 Image via Thunder Ridge website

The couple actually provides this home as a retreat for ministries. Because of this I was actually a little hesitant; we are not a religious couple at all, and we didn't want someone else to have expectations of how we should be married. The couple was incredibly nice and accommodating and shared pure joy with our vision. They were okay with the pooch and were on board for the outdoor winter ceremony. Their home in winter? To die for:

Image via Thunder Ridge website

Then we started talking logistics. This is going to be a party, and we have friends (including us!) who like to celebrate with plenty of libations. We like loud, booty shaking music. They weren't really on board for Jager shots or hard alcohol period. Mr. H really enjoys Jager. They also wanted all of our guests to take their shoes off when in the mansion. I understand their concern, it being winter and potentially muddy out and they had beautiful wood floors from some far off land. It just wasn't going to fly because we like liquor and we would prefer our wedding photo album to not include our guests socks. The other kicker for me? This guy was a world traveling big game hunter and he liked to proudly display his 'kill's' on every.inch.of.wall space. Me in my prettiest on my wedding day, with a dead zebra/bear/big horn sheep in the background is not what I picture. Although it works for some couples who can rock the look of stuffed animals:

 

Image via Offbeat Bride/Photo by Donald Norris

Even though this mansion was incredibly beautiful and the couple were delightful, logistically it just wasn't going to work for us. Next up, we crossed our fingers hoping that the third venue would be a charm!

Was anyone else deterred from a venue because of the potential for off the wall photos, like guest's socks?

Fail.

I interupt my lovely engagement story posts to note a fail I had this weekend. Remember how I stated I was going to document our sweet life? Who am I kidding, I haven't even told anyone I'm a blogger yet...so I'm documenting this fail for my own accountability. Of couse we had another awesome weekend. We do so many things, big and small, and besides using this blog as a writing source for me, I want to document the big and small stuff...journal and photo album style. I envision looking back on this sweet blog next year, five years, even ten years from now and remembering every single thing we did. They all deserve pictures, no? This weekend included a reggae show by A Dub Rockband...who is an amazing local reggae band with members from Durango & Jamaica. Saturday included a wedding crafting session with girlfriends and a bike polo tournament that lasted through the night. Sunday started with a birthday party for a 2 year old and finished with Blue Moon beers on a patio. So, why a fail? I didn't take a.single.picture. BUT I do have an excuse, the batteries in my camera were dead when I went to take pictures and then charged all weekend to get them ready for the events this weekend. It's already Monday and my three day weeekend is packed full of sweet activities. Can I get a Woop Woop.