First Glimpse

Quick announcement before we move on to the pics... I switched my new blog url to one without a "the," so please change your bookmarks to http://www.freckledcitizen.com. Things might be in transition for a day or so, but all Blogger-supported links seem to work already. Thanks for reading!

Now back to the good stuff...


Trevor and I were among the growing number of couples who chose to see each other before the ceremony. It worked out really well, and was definitely the right decision for us. We took several family photos immediately following the ceremony, but that's really it... we were able to enjoy almost our entire cocktail hour. But what we loved most about taking our photos before the ceremony was that we were able to relax and really enjoy each other alone. By the time the ceremony rolled around, we were calm and joyous and laughing. I should seriously do a collage of all the ridiculous "Maggie cackling with her mouth wide open" shots from our ceremony, because there are about 20 of them. But you know what? I love that I was laughing so hard all the way through. We are kind of funny, after all... And I really think that doing these photos first was a way to help make all that laughter possible.

On to the First Glimpse!

All photos by Julie Dreelin of Beach Productions

I wish there was more of Trevor's face in these, but I still like them.


...and... shoe check! Which leads to the eventual shot that I love of those tall, skinny heels stuck in the rustic boards of our dock setting AGAIN (they also repeatedly pierced the lace in my dress... oops!).



Now up to the landing and down to the beach!

...and away we go!

Makeout pictures for the weekend

As promised, here are some wedding photos that you haven't seen yet. Warning: you might start rolling your eyes just a little bit.

(all photos by Julie Dreelin of Beach Productions)




Happy weekend, everyone! Hope it's full of kisses. ;-)


PS... I've moved! Catch up on my daily adventures at The Freckled Citizen!

So much love from ABCD!

What a fantastic feeling for a Friday, waking up to so much love over on the ABCD Designs blog!

ABCD: Bride stays true to her vision


I think she is much too kind, of course, but Amy's point about sticking to your inspiration "guns" is well-taken ... I agree with her that wedding blogs can become inspiration overload at a certain point in your planning process. In a way, because our "theme" was so different than what I was seeing on other blogs, it made our planning process easier - nothing out there was something I could quickly scoop up and incorporate into our event, so I could just ooh and aah objectively. Plus, not only was I already over my head with graphic design and printing up until the last minute, but Team DIY was up to their ears in glue with all the fabric pomander-making, can-wrapping, and votive-decorating. Factor in the travel requirements for all projects to arrive at our tough-to-get-to-wedding, and adding another project just wasn't an option!

Lacking detail angst doesn't make me immune from the problem of too much inspiration, though. The one place I can say this "was it enough?" angst has hit me is with photography. We spent a large portion of our budget on photography and love so many of our photos, but I confess that I do get pangs of "should we have hired a second photographer?" or "instead of going with a local photographer, should we have imported someone?" I'm sure every couple ends up with a few photos they wanted but that just never got taken - whether that was verbalized in advance or a shot you only realized how much you wanted after the fact. As we found with so many other aspects of our wedding, the benefits of getting married in a remote place also become drawbacks - doing anything that's not "home-grown" was exorbitantly expensive. I don't mean to discredit our photographer at all - we truly love our photographs - really. And her presence throughout our day was nothing but a good thing - she is one of those truly warm, free-spirited, FUN people. But because I'm drawn to so much photography on other wedding blogs, it has become that nagging little question in my head, just as others might have that voice worry about their dress, or their flowers, or their music, etc.

But in the spirit of just being thrilled that we pulled off our crazy election-themed party - and to not having regrets, because we did the very best we could with the budget we were comfortable with - let's look at more pretty photos in the next post!

And to Amy, who without question was my absolutely favorite part of our wedding planning process, a huge thank you!

PS... I've moved! Catch up on my daily adventures at The Freckled Citizen!

Lisa and Liam

As many of you remember, my sister Lisa was my Best Woman and was due to give birth to her first child just six days after the wedding. She made it through brilliantly ... rocked her heels, covered her non-maternity bridesmaid dress bunching with a festive sash, and put on a smile! Here's my "Best Of" of the Best Woman:


My nephew Liam was born right on time, exactly on his June 1 due date. He is a sweetheart, as you've already seen... but everyone loves to ooh and aah over baby pictures, so here's some more!



PS... I've moved! Catch up on my daily adventures at The Freckled Citizen!

Hey...that's us!

Was just exploring my site meter and found a discussion thread about our wedding! Funny.

Check it out here.

Thank You... strategically

A big chunk of our thank you cards went out in the mail yesterday. I love finally getting these out the door!

We had standard stationery created by ABCD Designs in lieu of formal thank you cards. Here's a closeup of the front of our card (yummy letterpress alert!):


When we decided to go with standard stationery instead of official thank you cards, we thought we were being practical: we could slip a photo inside featuring a "thank you" and continue to use the stationery for general purposes after the thank yous were done. In theory, this was smart. What I didn't anticipate was not getting my photos until nearly two months later, meaning that this stickler for thank you etiquette was stressed to the max about getting my cards in the mail so late. My advice for anyone having custom stationery made is to be 110% sure your photos will be ready quickly if you opt for a thank you photo instead of a thank you note.

Amy also made us a rubber stamp with our campaign logo, which we stamped inside the cards with red ink along with our note.

Included inside is our official thank you photo:


Adding our names and the date was purely strategic. Shortly after the wedding, we received two cards in the mail from folks who I thought knew I wasn't changing my name, but apparently hadn't gotten the message. I decided that the best way to approach this is going to be consistent, gentle reminders. Therefore, both of our full names appear on our thank you image, and both of our names are also on our coordinating return address label. It's not a press release, but I hope that small decisions like these will help convey the message over time.

We're thrilled with our cards and have had a blast including images of guests partying at the reception as an extra token of thanks. I'd love any tips any of you might have on ways you've tactfully approached the name issue - please share!

Now... back to finishing the rest!


PSA: I've moved! Catch up on my daily adventures at The Freckled Citizen!