A Non-Wedding Weekend.

We took a much needed break from all things wedding; a break from attending wedding events and a break from thinking about our own. So what did we do? We played and we played a lot. Although it's no secret that D and I often put playing at the top of our list (much to the dismay of my parents), this weekend was focused on nothing else. While we do a ton of stuff together, our hobbies sometimes take us in different directions on the weekend (I can't go kayaking with him and he doesn't enjoy vino with ladies quite like me) but this weekend we managed to spend 99.9% of our time with each other. It was lovely.

A recap:
Friday night we ventured down the Animas river with Zeus for an evening swim and then made homemade beef stroganoff and watched The Dilemma. Saturday was a kayaking event at Vallecito Creek*, and because there were other spectators I got to -put my life in danger by trekking down a scary cliff- watch from a rock high above the creek. Sunday involved a lovely afternoon nap and a giant slip-n-slide in the park and BBQ with friends.

Here's the evidence:

 {Zeus loves rocks, he could search for the perfect one for hours}

{Cooling off}

 {Joe Dirt D & I}

{Hanging my toes off the 50+ foot cliff...vertigo ensued}

{Vallecito Creek...best 1 mile of boating in Colorado}

{Perspective on the size of the 'creek', an 8 ft kayaker below}

{Giant Slip-n-Slide!}

{D taking is first slide down}

My first trip down was with the girls:

And later, a train:

{personal videos from a friend}

We had such a good weekend, further proof of our awesome life. Now, those Save the Dates are in the back of my brain just calling out for addresses and stamps to be affixed...

*okay, just one wedding side note: Vallecito Creek is in fact the creek that feeds into Vallecito Lake; where our venue sits. I drove by our venue on my way to the creek and it was so gorgeous sitting there in all it's Colorado summertime glory. I couldn't help but think that we will be there gettin' married in six short months.

Our Urban Side

I whined about not being able to afford the photographer of my dreams in my last post, because of (the lack of) money and my best friendor situation. Well sometimes a girl gets lucky enough to have the best of both worlds: a bridesmaid AND a talented photographer.

We are fortunate to have gotten our engagement pictures taken by the amazing BM Candace, as our wedding gift. Since we aren't paying, we gave her full reigns, with a couple requests and suggestions. I think for her it was fun because she got to be uber creative, and for me, well it was my best friend shooting us, need I say more?! I knew we were in for something amazing, because in the days leading up to our first shoot she was sending me Pinterest pictures as inspiration. BM Candace decided that we would do two shoot; an urban influenced shoot and a Colorado inspired shoot.

It was exciting and nerve racking all the same. I've been in a gajillion pictures with BM Candace but never on the other side of her lens. Fortunately I mixed up a batch of Sweet Tea Vodka and Lemonade to help ease my nerves.

Sweet Tea Vodka



Our first stop was the local Skate Park



Of course Mr. Honey couldn't resist playing a little bit during the shoot!

Then we played in the park and on Mr. Honey's skateboard

We headed to our downtown area just before dusk and the light was incredible! We climbed some stairs and hung out on top of a roof, even though it clearly stated No Trespassing. We are rebels like that.

 The light at dusk and us standing on the roof made for these super unique and fun shots, a la Peter Pan!

The final stop was a bar. Yup, we had some engagement pictures taken in a bar. We were going for classy in a less than classy place, that's urban right?

We had SO much fun and Mr. Honey and I are so happy with them. They reflect US and show our personality through and through. They aren't expected and that's what we love about them. 

Our next shoot was inspired by this picture:

Image via Pinterest & Modern Photographers/Photo by Aves Photography



Tell me about your 'off the beaten path' engagement locations, Bees! I want to hear about other fun engagement session locations!

*All pictures by Candace Cross Photography unless otherwise noted

River Trippin on the Dolores River

In justification of my blog title, So Sweet. So Wild, I figured it was time for poof of that title. I started this blog to document our wedding and get my thoughts on to some sort of a medium, but I have high hopes for my (eventually, our) blog after the big day to document big(ger) adventures.

A lot of the time our life is both sweet and wild, as in the case of this adventure, the Dolores River trip. The Dolores River is a tributary of the Colorado river, normally the river is very low and used mainly for irrigation purposes. The river is dammed by McPhee Reservoir, and a 'fill then spill' policy is used to increase the CFS on the river, only if we have had an excessive rain and snow season. As was the case this year.

We had a group of 9, with 3 rafts and D paddling a canoe. The river was flowing at about 1,000 CFS (cubic feet/second) with much of the stretch we did, 47 miles, being class II rapids. Easy peasy. One rapid, named Snaggletooth, is a class IV or V depending on water lever. We ran it probably at class IV.

Friends on the Rafts

D in his Canoe

D Rowing

Me & D on the Windy River

 Solar Stereo!

 Perfect Day on the Water

The Ladies of the Trip

 Scouting for a Campsite

River trip Outfits are Stylin'

 Campfire on the River

Campfire Games, Bop It

Lots of whiskey and beer was consumed along with a delish dinner of taco salad. River trips are amazing, all day on the water and camping right next to the river...it's like car camping but better. I've mentioned before that D is in his element while on the river...whether it's a kayak, a canoe and someday a raft. To bring this story full circle -ahem- to wedding planning, we will be registering for a raft for our wedding. We will be creating tons of sweet memories on the rivers post wedding.

There ya go, a wild adventure documented from our sweet life.

Decision One: Made

I'm hoping I was like all some newly engaged gals when I say that, even though I had only been engaged for a mere couple hours, my mind was instantly in wedding mode.

For me, setting the date the night we got engaged was priority one two three. I called my parents (priority one), and called my best friend (priority two), MOH Honey. After asking how Mr. H proposed, and then of course congratulating us, the first question my parents and MOH Honey asked us, was when...When will we get married?! The date is so important and everything revolves around the date. I know that is the first question I ask newly engaged peeps. I guess it's in attempt to know how soon (or far away) the date is. Are we talking next month or next year? The date is a pretty big deal.

So, we sat down after drinking our celebratory champagne and discussed the date, very very lightheartedly. I knew this: we already had four friends getting married in summer 2011.These four ladies were engaged before me and I did not feel comfortable tromping in and squeezing our wedding in between ones that had already been set. We wanted to be different, provide something different. And that's when decision one was made: we will have a winter wedding!

Lets indulge in some winter and snowy wedding goodness.

Our own Mrs. Champagne! Image via Weddingbee.com/Photo by  Design MB Fotografie

Another snowy bride, Mrs. Knitting! Image via Weddingbee.com/Photo by Josh Levinson

Photo by Elizabeth Vanderbij

Photo by Ian Johnson

Image via Wedding Splendor/Photo by Shandro Photo

Image via Snippet & Ink/Photo by Kristopher Orr

We instantly had our hearts set on the winter wedding in the Colorado mountains. Being that we got engaged in August we decided to take the long engagement route and rather than push ourselves to plan a wedding in 5 months, we would take 17 months. Picking the date in January 2011 involved nothing more than looking at what the dates were on Saturday's and picking my favorite. Super technical and special, heh? Since we didn't have our hearts set on any particular date, this worked the best for us, and even though there wasn't a lot of though process behind the decision, I love the way the dates look together. Easy peasy, on to the next step...

Did you just pick a date because the numbers looked good together or were you lucky enough to have sentiment behind the big date?! Who else is loving the off-beat season of winter weddings?

She Said Yes: The First Part

I apologize for the spoiler alert in the title...

Last summer, Mr. Honey purchased a sailboat, to round out his collection of skateboards, kayaks and snowboards. I frequently tell him we need a garage so that he can sit in all his manly glory and admire his toys. Side note: don't google images of man and his toys; weird things come up.

I had never been sailing before, and envisioned calm, relaxing afternoons in the high mountain lakes. Mr. Honey, of course saw the new hobby as an addition to his extreme sports. You know, the kind of sailing that involves harnesses, high winds and sail boats sailing sideways:

Photo by John Harvey Photo

While I understand his desire to be extreme, I made it very clear that if I'm on the sailboat, both pontoons need to be in the water...a little bit of this is out of my control as you are at the mercy of the wind on the lake, which is why I don't have pictures of Honey sailing, because the wind can take him far, far away.

Finally one weekend in August I accompanied him to the lake for a sailing trip. He swore to me he would be mellow and promised a calm relaxing afternoon. I believed him and we made our way to Vallecito Lake, a beautiful mountain lake at 8,000 feet surrounded by mountain peaks. We set up the sailboat, carefully looped all the ropes and put the pins in the proper places. (I'm such an expert, heh?) and finally got our lil' sailboat on the lake:

{Our boat at Vallecito, with the doggy}

And hive, it was amazing...so peaceful and calm, but exciting at the same time. I was honestly loving every minute of it and I could tell Mr. H was pretty happy to have me on his newest toy with him.

The clouds were rolling in over the mountain peaks and we decided to drop the sails and have lunch. A very sophisticated lunch of PB&J sandwiches. We were laying on the trampoline deck soaking in the sunshine and all of a sudden he just blurted out "I love you. Will you marry me?" I laughed and said, "Yes, I will marry you." He must have known I wasn't taking him serious because the next thing I know a pretty, sparkly ring was being dangled in front of me. I can't remember exactly what was said in the seconds following the presentation of the ring, but I guarantee it was sweet. I do remember asking him if he was 'for real' and even 'is the diamond ring real?'. Of course I managed to get my response out, which was "Hell yes!!!!". Or maybe it was "Absolutely!!". I can't remember. But we were engaged!

And then we laid there in our newly engaged bliss while I stared at the sparkler on my left, ring finger. In. Love.

{The Honey's on our sail boat}

It just so happened that my BFF, who is now my MOH, and her entire family were at the lake wake boarding. Not five minutes after Mr. H popped the question, they pulled up to us to get us to wake boarding. We declined the offer since we were still in such a state of bliss. I decided I wanted to tell my parents first, before telling anyone else and so I tucked my purty lil ring inside her safe case in the dry bag and we made our way back to shore. We began the tedious task of taking down the sail boat and if you've ever put together/taken apart a sailboat, you will know it is no easy task. It involves heavy pieces of very large metal, excessive amounts of rope, and p.a.t.i.e.n.c.e.

This trait ceases to exist just moments after you have gotten engaged and are trying to keep it hidden from your best friend.. So I kept my left hand hidden the entire time. I got so distracted at one point I failed to do something with the sailboat which resulted in the mast being dropped and good chunk of skin being removed from Mr. Honey's shin. Oops. That's when MOH Honey casually said "Well you know what they say...if you can put a sailboat together without fighting, you can have a successful marriage". While I don't know if that's what they actually say, us Honey's found it amusing and gave each other a wink.

How we celebrated our engagement is next!

How about you engaged bees, did you have to keep your newly engaged status a little secret before you made the big reveal to friends or family? Did anyone else have to manage patience with the excitement of being engaged?

*All personal pictures unless otherwise noted.