Honeys Do: Pictures with 20 People and A Dog

The guys took a few minutes to warm up inside the venue and then Zak quickly gathered the whole wedding party to go back outside for a group shot. With snow accumulating very quickly, dangerous driving conditions and the early arrival of some guests, we had a record setting quick shoot with the 20 people who made up our wedding party, and of course the dog.

Zak recruited a couple brave volunteers to stand on the two corners of the road and request drivers slow down for our wedding party pictures. We got friendly honks and a few celebratory hollars from passing cars. Or, maybe people just thought we were nuts?!

The snow was coming down so hard at this point, so kudos to our wedding party (especially the little ones!) and the photographers for sticking it out with us and providing these shots!

High on our list of photo requests was pictures with Zeus, our dog-of-honor. We made it a priority to be able to have him at our wedding and it was like he knew he had a special role that weekend. He was such a good boy all weekend long. He rocked that tie proudly, he listened to anyone who requested he behave and he even posed for important pictures. We felt so lucky to have him be there with us, representing all of our pets, on our wedding day and I have no doubt the day wouldn't have been the same without his big, goofy presence. After our wedding party booked it for the warmth of the venue, we took a few special moments with Zeus and got these amazing pictures.

We got him situated and gave him lots of praise...

At which point he rewarded me with a big sloppy kiss...

All the stars aligned and insisting our big dog be a part of our wedding was all worth it when Zak captured this perfect picture.

And with that perfection, we called 'formals' a success and got to head inside to mingle with our wedding party and family before the ceremony.

*All Photos by the talented duo of Zak Fleming Photography

·         We had a busy wedding week

·         Teamwork made our Dream Work

·         We rehearsed casually

·         There was a pizza party!

·         Friday night was Princesses, Panties & Practice

·         Bridal details made me reminisce my morning  

·         I became a bride!

·         The Honey Girls took a walk in the snow

·         The Dudes got handsome

·         We did our First Look, with our doggy!

·         The Honeys posed as bride and groom

         The Honey Dudes played in the snow

Honeys Do: A Sweet First Look

The girls and I piled into cars, I jumped in with BM Candace and her boyfriend G, we traversed the snowy roads a couple miles back to the venue. This was the most suspense filled moments of the day...I had jitters, I had tears swelling, I had excitement bubbling over. Not only was I going to see what would be the final presentation of our hand crafted wedding space but I was going to see my groom and I was ready.
We pulled up and waited as the photographers situated Mr. Honey so that he couldn't see me when I stepped out of the truck. I'm hidden in the big black truck below; my parents seized this moment to make their way over to me and catch the first glimpse of their daughter all gussied up as a bride.

Annnd cue the waterworks. My dad is one emotional guy anyway, but the tears came flowing quicker than I could say "Hi! I'm a bride!". It was a quick moment catching up with my parents...my dad had to walk away as to prevent a full on cry session and my mom needed to warm up her toesies. Once I got the thumbs up from Zak, I stepped out of the truck and made my way to the porch where all of our closest friends and families stood.

I spotted Mr. Honey on the far end of the porch and my heart skipped a beat. It was like I hadn't seen him in weeks, and there he stood in his wedding day attire, entranced by our wedding blizzard, waiting for me.

I remember muttering a "Hi everyone!" to the crowd that had formed on the porch, giving out hugs to each of the groomsmen and bridesmaids that I met along the way and giving one file hug to my dad.

Fortunately, Mr. Honey had found something to keep himself occupied while he waited for his bride to hand out hugs to everyone and their mother. Snowballs!

Photo by GM Steele

I took a few deep breaths, held back some tears and made my way to this handsome face.

I walked down the porch for what felt like forever, accompanied by Zeus, who was very excited to see me but couldn't understand why I wasn't paying attention to him. I was a woman with focus! I remember that knot in my throat and the tears swelling...

Once I got to that corner, I can't remember if I tapped his shoulder or what, but I do remember finally looking into his eyes and feeling a rush of emotions...joy, happiness, love, relief; all bundled together and tied with a big fluffy bow. It was that good. And I didn't cry, once we made eye contact the tears disappeared and I was overcome with warm fuzzies.

We smooched and then embraced for one of the best hugs in my life. All while Zeus persisted he be a part of the moment...which is typical of our life.

I was so in the moment, that I didn't even notice our big doggy tromping all over my white dress...he just wanted to be acknowledged! Needy much? He was trying his damndest to get some love. In a matter of minutes our dog had stood on the white train of my dress and even nibbled on my arm. But, it certainly wouldn't have been the same without him there!

After I wiped away my man's tears, I finally said hello to Zeus and we gave him some much needed confirmation that he was indeed a part of the moment.

Mr. Honey and I took a few more moments to ourselves, we exchanged compliments, chatted about the morning, snuck in a few more kisses and laughed. 

Those moments with Mr. Honey felt like there was no one else in the world, they were intimate and special and emotional. Then we remembered we had a whole posse of people just dying to give us hugs.

As soon as we finished our first look and our moment together, my jitters and butterflies were gone instantly. Seeing him before the ceremony was the best decision...in the final hour or so leading up to our ceremony, it was calm. I held his hand, I told him I loved him and we even got to do a cheers before our ceremony, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We had to get some pictures out of the way!

*All Photos by the talented duo of Zak Fleming Photography

·         We had a busy wedding week

·         Teamwork made our Dream Work

·         We rehearsed casually

·         There was a pizza party!

·         Friday night was Princesses, Panties & Practice

·         Bridal details made me reminisce my morning  

·         I became a bride!

·         The Honey Girls took a walk in the snow

·         The Dudes got handsome

Furbabies Represent!

Last Christmas Mr. Honey bought me one of those flip-a-day calendars, 365 days of cat tips, advice and quotes. There was one recently that said this: "If you plan on having your cat play a role in your wedding, make sure you take her to the site so that she becomes familiar with the space". HA, yeah right. If you have ever travelled in a car with your cat, you know that they don't do well under stress. Needless to say, our kitties won't be with us on our wedding day. As you may or may not remember, our doggy Zeus, will be. We just bought a handsome new leash and his tie should be in any day. I first told you about all four of our furbabies a long time ago, but in light of this post, I will just say again that in addition to Zeus, our three kitties are super dooper special to us. They make us smile and laugh a thousand times a day. Since they can't be there physically I wanted to represent them in some way. Enter the adorable phenomenon that is custom cake toppers. Normally couples have themselves customized, but I skipped us and went straight for our pets.

I searched the holy grail of custom toppers, Etsy, and fell in love with too many shops. Most of them came with a high price tag to match, but I finally stumbled upon IttyBittyWoodShoppe and commissioned a topper of just animals for $40. I sent the owner pictures and placed my order. They arrived last week and I put some finishing touches on it and am ready to share!

In addition to the animals, I bought a base for $3, the pieces don't come attached as to avoid the risk of breaking in transit. The base comes in plain 'ol white, and of course I needed to add a little DIY flare to the project in the form of moss.

I picked up a bag of moss for two bucks at Wally World and went to work.

I decided to cover the whole base with moss first, and then attach the animals. No real strategy here, just add glue and stick moss. I did this over a two day period with drying times and filling in spots that seemed to just keep appearing.

After the base was all covered in moss, with as many holes filled in as possible (I swear the flash makes the white spots more obvious...) I used hot glue to attach the animals to the moss. I spent far too long positioning and re-positioning them on the base. I got to that point where I was agonizing over a hundredth of a centimeter because I was too focused on them being exactly perfect. You know that point, right? So I just went for it and the end result is just wonderful:

And I have to show you the backside, too. Zeus has a docked tail and Duke, the brown tabby is a manx. I just love that their little nubs are showcased!

I'm happy with the final product and love that all of our animals will be "with us" on our wedding day.

Now that I've shared the cuteness with you and expressed my happiness, I will tell you that it took awhile to get to this point. I placed my order in August and received them the first of December. The owner was upfront about August being busy, but I was glad I ordered them six months before I needed them. When I received the order, my heart sank; two of the four were painted the wrong color. I contacted the owner and he was super apologetic and promptly re-made the ones that were incorrect. What caused the wrong color? Monitor differences. When I look at the pictures I sent the shop owner, my pets look the correct color, but his monitor portrayed them differently. My advice to you is that if you commission any sort of custom work be specific, even if the creator doesn't request additional details. I was lucky to make my purchase from an understanding owner that ensured I was happy with his creation. That's my PSA for the day.

Our topper won't actually be used as a cake topper, moss in cake frosting isn't appealing to me. Instead, I will set them on the table with our rock guest book. Moss and rocks go together much better.

How are you representing your furbabies on your wedding day?

Who Wants To Be My Venue? Part One.

Somewhere in my bridal haze, I had imagined finding a venue to not be too difficult. Go ahead, you can laugh at me, I would laugh at me too. I did really assume that it would be like asking "Will You Be My Venue?", I mean you are paying to have a large event there, what could be so hard?

I think I assumed it would be fairly painless because we live in a small town. There isn't a large selection of venues. In fact the embarrassing truth is that according to Colorado Wedding Magazine, there are....drum roll please, NINE venues available in the Durango area. Granted these are the structures/locations that advertise themselves as a wedding venue. With a bit of creativity the options expand a tiny bit...unless you are like the Honeys and getting married with snow on the ground.

Sure a few of those nine venues are still available in the winter months, but we have to be a little more extreme because we want to have our wedding ceremony outside. You read that correctly, outside in January, in Colorado. I have always dreamed & envisioned myself getting married outside. There was no other way, even in winter. And luckily Mr. H was fully on board. Majority of the weddings in our area do take place outside, I've only been to one over the years that took place indoors and that's because Colorado scenery is just breathtaking:

Image via Custom Weddings of Colorado/Photo by Greg Harring

This was request number one: is there a way for us to say I Do outside. We had a second request for our potential venues because we want photo op's like this:

Image via Luster Studios/Photo by Luster Studios

That's right, Hive, our 100 pound handsome puppy dog will be rockin' a tie for our big day. Here's a refresher of our handsome dog:

Zeus likes to wear things; here is wearing beads and his back pack.

Before I even started contacting venues directly I spent time researching who was even open all year round, since we do get hefty amounts of snow here, many places are only open May through October. This narrowed down my list substantially, but it took even more work to try and uncover some hidden gems that may or may not be willing to get business in the oh-so-dead season. Armed with a contact list and my wedding requests requirements, I started at the top...and by the top I mean the venues that were most intriguing to us.

The list was narrowed down very quickly. Here is a short list of the No-Goers.

- Cascade Lodge was beautiful, but no winter access to their outdoor ceremony site.
- Purgatory/DMR was not available since, ahem, people are using the mountain for skiing
- Blue Lake Ranch was open in the winter, but only for a wedding with 40-50 guests
- Silverpick Lodge was willing to work with us on the outside request but NO dogs allowed
- Abbey Theatre didn't return any of our FOUR phone calls so we were not interested
- Avalon Acres did not allow pets whatsoever
- The Glacier Club also never returned emails or phone calls

On a side note, what gives with venues just straight up ignoring requests for information?!

After contacting the more obvious choices and having NO luck, we did start think more creatively. Private mansions via VRBO. Ranches in the countryside. I got frustrated after one email from a coordinator questioned my ability to comprehend winters in Durango. Yes, LADY, I do know it SNOWS here. I LIVE HERE. Sense my frustration?

After all but giving up, finally finally I had three venues who would meet with us and were willing to accommodate our two requests.

Who else has (or had) special requests that made it a little more difficult to find the venue? Was anyone else's venue list as teeny tiny as mine? Let's here it hive!

How Two Became Six

Alternative Title: The Honey Furbabies.

Our first night together was in January. Our first getaway was Valentines weekend. He said I Love You that following Monday morning. By the end of February we decided we wanted to live together and in the beginning of March we moved into our home. Ya, in case you aren't counting, that's less than three months from our first night together.

{Personal picture of our house the first time we looked at it}

In addition to combining our lives, we would be combining the lives of our current pets:

{My 10 year old kitty, Cloud}

{The Misters 2 year old puppy, Zeus} 

I think it was fate that we were to be together because, duh, our pets are the exact same color. Nothing says soul mates like matching pets, right?

So two pets, two people in a new home. A lot of changes, but both us and our pets were adjusting to our new lives perfectly, when we decided to up it once more and round out our family with these additions:

{Duke & Macie, as teeny tiny babies in May 2010}

Hive, I'm not exaggerating when I say that we adore our animals. They make us smile and are at the center of our lives so it was only appropriate they had a post all their own. There is no doubt that we will be incorporating them into our big day. We have learned to be less selfish and also rely on each other for taking care of our mini family very early in our relationship.

Did anyone else take huge relationship steps in a short amount of time? And, where my animal lover's at?!

*All personal pictures unless otherwise noted.