The Welcome Cookout

You'll remember that the Welcome Cookout was the first event that all our guests were invited to on the Weekend Activity Card.


Here's where we invited them to - the back view of the "Hanger House" that also served as our Honeymoon House after the wedding. This lawn was perfect for our needs - and a true rarity among beachfront vacation homes in that area.


The menu was down-home comfort: barbecue, shrimp, clams, crabs, sausage, veggie burgers, coleslaw, green beans, and cornbread. The decor was down-home comfort too: red and white gingham tablecloths, lanterns, and lots of lawn games. Now we just needed people... Come on down!

Playing Horse Balls... or its more sanitized name, Ladderball.

Retrieving lost footballs

My aunt made us the coolest beach quilt as a wedding gift - our names are embroidered on the sailboats! (Trevor's sailboat is plaid, of course.) Does anyone else have super-talented aunts who make them feel lacking of any useful skill whatsoever by comparison? Hmmmm....

The quilt hanging in all its glory

My brother cooking up some yumminess...

...and spreading it out so folks could dig in

My sister-in-law Avery is marrying a college teammate of Trevor's (got that?) and he is known for his famous cakes and fondant skills. Do you know any other professional hockey players who are pastry chefs on the side? Yeah, I thought not. Alex proposed to Avery with a ring inside of a cake made to look like a Tiffany box. It opened as cleanly as a real box to present the ring. Alex has also made hamburger cakes, Guinness cakes, turkey cakes, pretty much anything that you think would be funny as a cake, he can make. Here are the cakes he made us for the Welcome Cookout, which look exactly like yummy summer pies. And sorry.... like Trevor, Alex is taken!

My brother kept chastising me that I was too busy meeting and greeting to eat (which was kind of true... while more people from my side attended the wedding, I had only met about half of Trevor's side before, so that night I had *lots* of folks to meet. I'm so glad I got to do that here and not at our wedding, by the way - weddings are crazy enough as it is without having to go through introductions in the middle of it!) Anyway, back to the cookout... Lane was right, so I finally put a plate together and dug in next to my pal Michael, who I always kind of thought of as my surrogate little brother when I lived in New Mexico. Those smart younger brothers!

Here's my dear friend Mikaela (who is a total Wonderwoman) with her husband Eric. See that little face peeking out from Eric's chest? That's Umea, our MVP Guest! She got a shout-out attendance award from me later in the evening...

Trevor's father and Best Man opened up the mike later in the evening. We had some really fantastic toasts - some touching, some hilarious, all right-on and so fitting for the occasion. Unfortunately I don't think I have photos of any of them - or of the two of us up there together. When it was our turn to speak, we thanked everyone who helped us put the weekend together and gave out some special gifts as a way to thank our parents and introduce our wedding party. More to come on those gifts.

Here we are with some of Trevor's college friends - they've been married for eight years already. We joked that at their wedding, digital cameras weren't even invented yet ;-). Mike most definitely received the "Town and Country" attire award for the weekend, by the way. I really wish I could do a photo spread simply of the male attire at Adams-Hanger '09. Outstanding.

A group shot of the high school gang. And hey, recognize the dress?!

Much later in the evening at one of the rental houses, there was a Texas v. Yale v. Maggie's Crew drinking game. Oh yes, it was that kind of weekend... You're looking at Team Texas right here, who I believe was the winner? Someone correct me if I'm wrong...

As you can see, SO MUCH FUN!

Wedding Lead-up

The lead-up to our wedding was just as we'd envisioned... loads of friends and family, great food and cold beer, a balance of hanging out combined with structured activities, and a general sense of mellow goodness.

Much of Trevor's family was in Duck the entire week leading up to the wedding, which was great fun. Having them there early meant we could kick back and really enjoy their company before the rush of guests arrived (plus get help assembling/eating cookies for the Welcome Bags!). We had fantastic meals over at their big house every night - the same house we took over after the wedding for our honeymoon. A typical scene from a fun dinner over there:


My parents arrived at their rental house (just on the other side of the Sanderling) on Thursday, so that night we brought them over to the festivities at Trevor's family's pad for another great dinner late into the night. By Friday morning, my siblings, their partners, plus our one and only flower girl arrived! Here's my sis - so pregnant and adorable - with our niece and flower girl Taylor petting her future cousin.


I had friends trickle in all day Friday, which was so much fun. By Friday night, my parents' house was FULL. A group from Trevor's house came over and hung out for a while too, meaning the place was slam full (to use a fave down-home expression) with fun. There was an emergency beer run involved. All night, I kept looking around just grinning... my high school pals there, my freshman year roommate there, my grad school troublemakers there, our officiant there, Trevor's sisters there... just the best feeling ever. I think 22 people slept in my parents' house on Friday night, since most folks' rentals didn't start until Saturday morning. A couple of scenes from Friday night, definitely not capturing the full-on rowdy reunion:


Unfortunately for many of us, Saturday's wakeup call was a tad too early. Hello sleepy hangovers! About a dozen folks went to play golf, and nearly 30 of us went kayaking. Being on the water is so relaxing for me that I couldn't have asked for a better activity to recharge my spirits. I have countless hilarious photos of us all loading up into our kayaks, but the one photo I didn't get, to my regret, was the scene I still have so vividly in my head: a brilliant day, sun making the water sparkle, the sound opening up in front of me and littered with yellow and orange kayaks of people I know and love, and hearing them all joke and laugh together. It was fantastic.

Move 'em up, and head 'em out... as my parents always say ;-)

Can my sisters-in-law get any cuter? Doubtful.

I wore the biggest and ugliest sunglasses I could find and applied sunscreen obsessively. And STILL got too much sun on my chest and shoulders!

My aunt wisely decided to let my cousin do all the work.

My pal Dan had a faulty kayak, which provided the comic relief for the morning.

Our star kayaker! Taylor was so relaxed out there that she was asleep by the time my brother pulled in to the dock. What a trooper!

So. Much. Fun.

Coming up next... the Welcome Cookout, the official kickoff for all the guests!

Election Day :-)

Here's my view this morning while I peacefully eat breakfast before the madness begins... a so-brilliant-the-ocean-glares kind of day:

And look what I just spotted getting wheeled over for setup... OUR FLOWER POMANDERS!!


Yesterday was an insane amount of fun... a morning kayaking with 30 of my favorite people, followed by a Welcome Cookout that was homey and raucous and touching and FUN all at once.

Today's all about getting ready with my girls and getting this thing DONE!

Here's what I'll be wearing today, in case you were wondering:

Much more on that later. For now, there's some marrying to do!

Paper progress

Here's a little taste of what's been keeping us busy lately. Also known as: How to take advantage of the nice printer at your office!

Cookie tags

Our custom maps made by my friend Sasha! They're tabloid size, 11x17. Side 1 is a regional map with wedding details, and side 2 is a village map with shopping/eating recommendations.

All folded up and ready for our Welcome Bags, per the folding diagram that Sasha sent us!

Escort cards done and campaign buttons attached!

Escort cards bagged by letter!

Table signs all done and packaged with our table assignment diagram.

The final Welcome Bag tags.

Random signs

Paper packed up and ready for the suitcase!

One big project left... Ribbon Binding of the programs. Check back with us tonight as we negotiate PACKING, collecting childhood photos, getting our place ready to leave for ten days, PACKING, cutting pretty gingham ribbons, oh and PACKING.

F-Word Fridays: Why Don't We Get Drunk and...

I'd like to start this week's F-Word Friday by issuing an apology. Back in late March, in a blatant and transparent attempt to diversify and expand wedding blog readership, I wrote a post that touched on vampires, sex, rock 'n roll, more sex, basketball, and still more sex. And it worked.... we quadrupled regular male readership from 3 to 12, and even got a couple of them to comment. And how did I say thank you? With consecutive F-Word Fridays about men wearing skirts, shoes, and...that other topic that I can't really tell you about, cuz it's still a total secret. I don't know what to say other than "Gentlemen, I'm sorry."

So this week, in the second-to-last F-Word Friday, we're making amends. We're giving back. We're talking beer.

Our "rehearsal dinner" Saturday night is a barbeque cookout in the yard of a big beachside house overlooking the ocean. Pulled pork, boiled shrimp, coleslaw, cornbread. Checkered tablecloths. Footballs, frisbees, and volleyballs flying all over the place. With any luck, it will look like something out of a beer commercial. Which means one thing: we actually need beer. But not just any beer. I mean sure, we could probably throw a couple of cheap brand-name domestic kegs at this crowd and still get the desired response, but Maggie and I (but especially Maggie) have a hint of beer snob in us. So I spoke to a friend who happens to work for a brewer in Montreal, laid out the scene for him, and asked for some help.

Visionary that he is, my budding brewmaster buddy came back with a truly inspired idea.... he showed us a list of six microbrews he could personally vouch for, three of which are from Connecticut (my home state), and three from NC, and thought we should pick one from each state to throw even more local fare into the mix. What's more, he found a local liquor store on the Outer Banks willing to order en masse for us. From these suggestions, we chose the Duck Rabbit Amber to represent the Tar Heel state, and an IPA called Sea Hag from New England Brewing in Woodbridge, CT (we passed on the Thomas Hooker IPA in spite of the obvious temptation to supply ourselves with an unending littany of "Hooker at a wedding" jokes). But our friend wasn't done. Knowing as all good brewmen do that a large cadre of rehearsal attendees will steer clear of the fancy microbrew, he even suggested we provide Lone Star to placate the Coors Light crowd, and allow us to run up the tiniest of Texas flags in spite of ourselves. (And before any of you locals say "wait, how can you pick Lone Star over Shiner?!", try to remember that Shiner sucks....too many Texans blindly love Shiner just because it's from Texas. It's the Dallas Cowboys of regional pseudo microbrew. Lone Star may be no better, and might even be worse, but I simply refuse to perpetuate the Shiner myth any longer. Not only that, but Lone Star is an infinitely better beerpong beer than Shiner. And there will be beerpong.)

So we're set to place the orders tomorrow. Cases and cases. Maybe even kegs. Hopefully enough to last for a few late nights and even into the following week, since Maggie and I are sticking around after everyone else heads home. Gotta have something to drink with your toes in the sand.

Mmmm....Beer.

Beware leaking UPS boxes...

A huge box of these little guys made their way onto a brown truck this morning, labels affixed. Please, please don't start leaking, little ones!


I realized I haven't shown off our Welcome Bags yet, by the way. My mom found these reusable shopping bags that are adorable and can easily double as beach bags for the weekend.


Each one will have a little tag with our campaign sticker on one side and their names with a note from us on the other. Inside, they'll find:

• Custom map
• Official Visitors' Guide to the Outer Banks
• A print-out of the activity links from the wedding website
• Directions to golf and kayaking, if they're doing either of those
• Water
• Homemade cookies (thanks, Aunt Lynne!)
• Candy
• Sunscreen
• Insect Repellent

And maybe....

• Flashlight (the walk back from the cookout will be dark - we'll have some flashlights there, but if I can find them cheap enough I'll put one in everyone's bag)
  
• A salty snack
  

I've got friends in [more artistic] places

My friend Sasha is a fantastic landscape designer and graphic artist, and is considering getting into the business of custom map-making with her friend Tawny. They're using our wedding as a guinea pig project to help finetune their future business practices. Our map will be a full illustration of NC's Outer Banks, dotted with sights to see, places to go, and the weekend's golfing and kayaking activities. Included on this map is a smaller, more detailed inset map that illustrates the weekend's official events, with both walking and driving directions included.

These fantastic maps are going into our Welcome Bags, and will set the tone (with our exact color palette and fonts, of course!) while also providing the practical information that guests will need as soon as they arrive. While Sasha and Tawny are hard at work on our full map, they finished the inset map early so that we could upload it onto the wedding website. With a title plopped on top just for Web use, the inset map works perfectly as a stand-alone explanatory map for guests trying to get their head around the weekend before it begins. I'm thrilled with how this turned out... and can't wait to see the full map!

By the time of the wedding, I'll post our custom map in full and will brag all about Sasha and Tawny as they unveil their new business website, so stay tuned! Don't you want them to make you one?

(click for full size)

Label dork

Guess what I'm doing while waiting for a conference call? Making personalized bug spray and sunscreen labels for our Welcome Bags, of course!

DORK.


Our actual product is on its way, and our little empty bottles are in wait at home. I sense a filling party in our future!

More is more

First off, how FUN to shop with everyone else! Even if it means posting unflattering photos of myself online!

Second, in order to relieve everyone who'd be anxiously awaiting the outcome of my dress debate all weekend, allow me to announce:

My Welcome Cookout Dress:

My Farewell Brunch Dress:

Best of both worlds, yes?*

*to my checking account's chagrin, obvs

Dress shopping! (not that kind)

I've been on the hunt for a new dress to wear to our Welcome Cookout. The cookout, you might remember, is our version of the rehearsal dinner, only it's ultra-casual with bbq/beer/shrimp, everyone who's coming to the wedding is invited, and it's out on the lawn of the rental house that will become our honeymoon house, overlooking the beach. The worst mistake I could make with this outfit would be wearing something too dressy; it has to be paired with wedges or flip flops and be fine if it gets sandy/dripped on with barbecue sauce.

I headed over to Sak's today to see if I could make some magic happen with their Friends & Family Discount. The shopping conditions could've been more ideal: I forgot to bring along a strapless bra and had to get on my tippies to represent good shoes, which pretty much means every photo is blurry and a bit, um, saggy. Not to mention we're dealing with horrific department store lighting here. But in the spirit of letting it all hang out, and to kinda celebrate that I dropped a dress size, let's review the tape! (click for larger images)

Nope:





I adore DVF, and try to make her work for every occasion possible. This dress needs nude heels and a briefcase, though. Sorry D!











This is Marc Jacobs and it's ultra-cute, but more suited to a fun restaurant than salty sea air.












This is Shoshanna and definitely has the most "rehearsal dinner" look about it. But since we're not having a standard RD, I think it's a tad dressy. But pretty anyway!












As you can see from my artful additions to the photo, this dress shows off one of my pet peeve areas. As many arm, shoulder, and chest exercises that I do, those areas continue to firm up and that smooshy area looks even worse by comparison. So no. But great color!











I originally wanted a red dress, and this tomato shade is great. This dress is cute and casual, but just not cute enough. It also has major tomato-sack potential in photos.












I knew this would look bad on me, but the print is so fun I had to try it on anyway. And yep, it's a green and yellow Juicy disaster.










Hell YES, but not for this event:

I only allowed myself to try on one dress in this category. It's a Nanette Lepore that I've been eyeing for ages. I adore what her dresses do to figures like mine. She and David Meister pretty much have the curvy girl market blanketed, in my opinion. This dress is in no way right for our wedding weekend. But while trying it on, I figured out what it is right for: My engaged friend Amy deciding to elope to an island and inviting a select small crowd at the very last minute, as her procrastinating self is wont to do. I will throw open my closet, grab this dress and my very favorite bright pink patent leather peeptoes, splash on some self-tanner, and run to the airport. Hear that, Amy?






















Tied for First:

So I found two dresses. Tonight, a fashion show to decide, and then this weekend, a sad return of one of them. Unless, of course, I decide I also need a frock for rehearsing, or getting our marriage license, or going to the post-wedding brunch. Hmmm.....

First up, Marc Jacobs. It's a great lightweight fabric, is a pretty blue with flecks of pink, and has an adorable reddish pink belt (I'd cut off those weird belt loops, never fear). Now I'm not wearing a bra in these pics, so we can all imagine an upgrade in that area at the actual event. I think this dress is cuter in person than in these pics, which might be a warning about its value as a dress that will be photographed.























The other contender is Alice + Olivia. In a word, adorable. The top feels like your oldest, comfiest cotton t-shirt, and then the skirt is a flowy little number that's ultra-cute. I wouldn't have guessed purple and yellow for myself, but I'm kinda liking it. The straight-across strapless neckline can be tough to pull off all the time, so I worry about the potential for unflattering photos, although in those photos I'd be damn comfortable even if I didn't appear to have dropped that dress size. ;-)