This weekend, we experienced a little bit of Indian Summer. Temperatures neared 70 on both Saturday and Sunday. The Husband was able to do some kayaking and I was able to do some crafting. We both went to a wedding of some co-workers and former co-workers. It was a wonderful weekend of relaxation. Here are some pics for your enjoyment!

I thought that a requisite part of getting married and having a fun reception was hiring a DJ. I think that every wedding I’ve ever been to had a DJ. However, I quickly learned that DJs are expensive and unpredictable. The same DJ at one friend’s wedding can have the place dancing their socks off and can play obscure music with no one on the dance floor at another friend’s wedding.

I was afraid – of a cheesy guy in a cheap tux, of the Macarena, Chicken Dance and Cha-Cha Slide, of somebody requesting the 13:00 long version of Guns ‘N’ Roses’ November Rain. I conquered these fears, though, through the phenomenon that is an iPod wedding reception. I pored over other brides’ playlists on the internet. We asked for requests on our RSVP cards (which not a lot of people noticed on the back of the card). I made playlists.

As it turned out, I had a lot of anxiety about those playlists, but I think it was much less than what I would have had with a DJ. I worried that I wouldn’t have enough music (I didn’t, for the dance portion). I worried that no one would like the music (they seemed to like it). I worried that no one would dance (they did!). I worried that technical difficulties would abound and we’d end up with no music (make sure you have a power cord for your iPod, as our battery died – best friends saved the day with the iHome charging dock in their car!).

Since I stalked other brides’ iPod reception music, I feel it’s only fair to share mine. Bear with me and our unconventional wedding throughout this.

Cocktail Hour (see detailed .pdf)

Our aim was to have a party (with a wedding!), so we started things off with a cocktail hour beginning at 5. This gave guests the opportunity to be fashionably late and it also gave me the opportunity to play some grandma-friendly music that The Husband and I both like but maybe isn’t what will inspire people on the dance floor.

As Time Goes By – From the Casablanca Soundtrack
What A Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong
All of Me – Billie Holiday
Night and Day – Ella Fitzgerald
Getting Some Fun Out of Life – Madeleine Peyroux
Somewhere Over the Rainbow – Judy Garland
One Hand, One Heart – From the West Side Story Soundtrack
You’re My Thrill – Billie Holiday
Dream A Little Dream of Me – Louis Armstrong
It Had to Be You – Django Reinhardt
Memories Are Made of This – Dean Martin
The Sunshine of Love – Louis Armstrong
Dance Me to the End of Love – Madeleine Peyroux
Always – Bobby Darin
L-O-V-E – Nat King Cole

Ceremony Music (see detailed .pdf)

Our ceremony was short and sweet. The only thing I’d ever pictured about my wedding was walking down the aisle to Ashoken Farewell. The other two songs are both ones that are meaningful to us, they could be called “our songs.”

Processional of Wedding Part – Falling Slowly – Vitamin String Quartet
Bride’s Processional – Ashoken Farewell – Jay Ungar
Recessional – All I Want Is You – Barry Louis Polisar

Dinner & Dessert Music (see detailed .pdf)

I don’t even remember hearing any of these songs. It was super busy – I never believed people who told me that it would be.

One Love/People Get Ready – Bob Marley
God Only Knows – The Beach Boys
Blackbird – Sarah McLachlan
Sweet Thing – Van Morrison
If You Could Read My Mind – Johnny Cash
Turn Me On – Norah Jones
When I’m Sixty-Four – The Beatles
Only Fools Rush In – Elvis
Everyday – Dave Matthews Band
Grow Old With Me – The Postal Service
Green Eyes – Coldplay
My Winding Wheel – Ryan Adams
Think I’m In Love – Beck
Girl From the North Country – Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash
Anyone Else But You – The Moldy Peaches
Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) – Marvin Gaye
When the Stars Go Blue – Ryan Adams
Crazy Love – Van Morrison
You Are So Beautiful – Joe Cocker
Remember When – Alan Jackson
My Girl – The Temptations
The Luckiest – Ben Folds
You Send Me – Sam Cooke
I Got a Woman – Ray Charles

Special Dances

We did something that wasn’t traditional, but I am SO glad we did it. It was all The Husband’s idea, and it worked beautifully. We did a toast to my parents – two people who have a wonderful love and life, together. The wedding was in their backyard. Then, we dedicated a song to my mom, from my dad (he was in on it). Her middle name is Rose, and they danced to Rose of My Heart by Johnny Cash (can you tell that we are Cash fans?).

For our first dance, we shuffled along while no one was paying attention to In My Life. We combined my love of The Beatles with The Husband’s love of Johnny Cash by doing his version of their song.

We never got around to the Father/Daughter dance, but I made sure to dance with my dad during the dance party to a song that was perfect!

The Dance Party! (see detailed .pdf)

I didn’t have enough dance music. People were sad when it was over. Even if you think it’s enough. It’s not! I tried to start this dancing where everyone – old and young – could be pleased and dance at the beginning. As the night went on, I correctly figured that the younger people would begin to dominate the dancing and planned the music accordingly. By younger, here, I mean my age. By my age, I mean that we grew up listening to early hip hop and were white kids who liked Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle in high school.

I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
A Little Less Conversation – Elvis Presley
I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) – The Four Tops
Love Shack – B-52s
Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
Save the Last Dance For Me – Sam Cooke
Bust a Move – Young MC
Hey Ya! – Andre 3000
Get Down Tonight – KC & The Sunshine Band
Unchained Melody – The Righteous Brothers
What I Like About You – The Romantics
You May Be Right – Billy Joel
In the Mood
You & Me & The Bottle Makes Three – Big Bad Voodoo Daddies
Girls Just Want to Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
Jessie’s Girl – Rick Springfield
Paradise – John Prine (my family’s song)
Wagon Wheel – Old Crow Medicine Show
Shook Me All Night – AC/DC
Honky Tonk Women – Rolling Stones
Let’s Stay Together – Al Green
Let’s Get it On – Marvin Gaye
These Arms of Mine – Otis Redding
Kiss – Prince
Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
Jump – The Pointer Sisters
The Way You Make Me Feel – Michael Jackson
I Think We’re Alone Now – Tiffany
Mack the Knife – Bobby Darin
Into the Mystic – Van Morrison
Shout – The Isley Brothers
Dancing Queen – ABBA
Old Time Rock & Roll – Bob Seger
Livin’ On A Prayer – Bon Jovi
Dog Catcher – Parliament Funkadelic
Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen
Jackson – Johnny & June Carter Cash
Bennie & the Jets – Elton John
Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
Get Low – Li’l Jon
You Never Even Called Me By My Name – David Allan Coe
Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys – Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson
Dixieland Delight – Alabama
Hypnotise – Notorious B.I.G.
Yeah – Usher
Humpty Dance – Digital Underground
Like A Prayer – Madonna
Cowboy Take Me Away – Dixie Chicks

If you read this blog via a feed reader, you’ve probably already seen a new project of mine. I’m launching a new crafts-only blog called LP Quilts and Crafts. I mistakenly posted regarding the wedding banner I made (in progress posted here) to this blog instead of that one. Doh!

]]> http://kylydia.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/lp-quilts-and-crafts/feed/ 0 LP http://kylydia.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/everyone-loves-a-montage/ http://kylydia.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/everyone-loves-a-montage/#comments Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:09:39 +0000 LP http://kylydia.wordpress.com/?p=875 ]]>

Don’t have anything to do for the next 16 minutes? Click here to view the montage I made of wedding photos. You must supply a password. It is my new last name. If you don’t know that or can’t guess it, email me for access!

The daily quote in my Franklin Covey planner (I’m a paper and pencil kind of girl) is from Thomas Edison. It says: "The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense."

I’ve got the first and third nailed. I can be a hard worker when I set my mind to it and I have more than your average person’s share of common sense. The Husband might try to debate that last point, but he would be wrong. I struggle and fail miserably in the stick-to-itiveness department. I am a classic case of a gung-ho beginner, a ho-hum doer and a rare finisher of projects/tasks/goals, etc. How does one be a stick-to-itive kind of person? Nike tells us to Just Do It. The Army used to tell us to be all that we could be. Rarely have people been inspired to just be blah and do whatever.

How are you do make yourself Stick To It? I’d seriously like to know.

You may not have heard the story of former US foreign service officer, Michael Hoh, and his recent resignation from the State Department. He was stationed in Afghanistan. He has resigned, basically, because he doesn’t know what we are fighting for, there, and could not countenance being a part of something that was sending more American soldiers to their deaths without a good reason. Obviously, that’s paraphrased, but check out this link for more (and this and this).

On the way home from work, this afternoon, I had what might be my first NPR “Driveway Moment” (if I had a driveway). It was a moment where I was so captivated by the radio that I sat outside my house, waiting for the interview to be concluded. Just sat and listened. A phrase taken from Hoh’s resignation letter, and presented toward the end of the interview, had tears welling in my eyes:

American families, he said at the end of the letter, “must be reassured their dead have sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished, and promised dreams unkept. I have lost confidence such assurances can be made any more.” source

I don’t have as much knowledge as Mr. Hoh, since I don’t work for the State Department, but I agree with everything that I heard him say. I don’t understand why we are still fighting the war in Afghanistan. I never understood why we went into a war in Iraq. I was opposed to both and am even more opposed now that we are eight years in.

What are your reactions to Mr. Hoh’s resignation? I think it takes courage to step up, as a civilian in no way related to the war, and say that you don’t agree with our nation’s foreign policies. I think it takes a hell of a lot more to do so when those foreign policies are your job. It’s always easier to just keep quiet and go along. I’d call it patriotic. Where would we be if we didn’t have people who spoke about what they knew was right? Thomas Paine and Nathan Hale would be just two dead guys that lived in America in the 18th century – except that America just might not be America without those patriots who put action to philosophy.

]]> http://kylydia.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/on-the-resignation-of-michael-hoh/feed/ 0 LP http://kylydia.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/out-with-the-old/ http://kylydia.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/out-with-the-old/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:47:11 +0000 LP http://kylydia.wordpress.com/?p=866 ]]>

This week, I’ve been working on finding places for all of our wonderful wedding gifts. I should be writing thank you notes, but I like to use the gift in order to write a better note. The bulk of our gifts were kitchen-related. Making room for them hasn’t been easy.

The kitchen is a point of contention for various reasons and with various people. When I bought the house five years ago, the kitchen was the room that I thought needed the most work. True to form it’s not yet finished. I laid tile, painted walls, bought some new appliances, took down pantry doors and refinished the cabinets. I should say that I’m still in the process of refinishing the cabinets. Their formerly grease-spattered exteriors are/were painted with high gloss oil-based paint. Many of the cabinets don’t have doors because I just didn’t strip them well enough. My aunt, the cabinet finisher extraordinaire promised to finish the remaining doors as our wedding present. I am stoked.

All of this is to say that even though the cabinets will soon be completed, there isn’t (be any means) enough room for all of the kitchen stuff we have. That’s why we’ll, hopefully, have a new kitchen island in the next week or so. On the list of things to do is sort and clean out the pantry. There are many things I haven’t used in years. Donating some of that should free up some space. We are donating all of the mish mash of plates and glasses and plastic cups I’ve accumulated over the years. There are the Pier One clearance melamine plates, the Big Gulp stadium cup and the random garage sale pieces I thought would be full of character. Luckily, Jason didn’t bring much kitchen paraphernalia to the relationship! I’m happy to say that I found an excellent charity to donate all our unwanteds to. Normally, it would all go to the Goodwill. However, I had a minute of brilliance and decided to donate it all to the local safe house for victims of domestic violence. I hope that the cheery stripes and the colorful array of drinking ware will help cheer someone who was forced to walk out on their own home and life.

After the kitchen is in order, it won’t be difficult to find a proper place for our other new gifts. I’m looking forward to purging the closet and re-organizing my sewing room.

ETA – Sorry, this may be the most boring post I’ve ever written! I’m trying to get back in the swing of things!

It’s over. Eleven months of planning for one day is over. That sounds ridiculous – eleven months of work for no more than seven hours, or so, of fun? It probably is, but it was worth it. I was so pleased with the way everything at the wedding turned out. I received multiple compliments from my wonderful family and friends. The best conversation I had, though, was with my new husband, on the dance floor. Throughout those 11 months, he decried all the work I was doing. He had a hard time seeing what I saw as the end result. However, on that dance floor, he said, “I’ll never doubt you again. This is wonderful and perfect. Thank you.”

Best guy ever!

More details about the wedding will come when I have some photos back from our wonderfully patient photographer, Clay Jackson. Expect those, this week.

I’d like to share two of my favorite photos from our honeymoon, though. It was a wonderful week of pure relaxation. Most of our time was spent laying by, swimming in or thinking about the outdoor infinity pool.

It really was as wonderful as that picture looks. You can spot The Husband’s favorite place, there on the left. Under that dome is the swim up/walk up pool bar. That was a feature that was lauded by every single person who has ever experienced a swim up bar, and we were NOT disappointed. Get thee to a pool bar, stat!

My second favorite picture came from the night we arrived at the resort. In it, you see that we’re both a little tired around the eyes, but very happy in paradise!

Today, it’s back to the real world of work and life. Stay tuned to this space for more regular updating and news about how life goes.

Yesh, two posts in one day? When was the last time that happened?

However, I am stuck at work without a lot to do (slow days do happen, now and then) but with a LOT of pent-up nervous energy.

I think I’ve already gotten on The Fiance’s nerves with incessant emails about what my to-do list looks like for today (run around like a crazy person), what’s currently on the radio (the BUS! MAGIC BUS!!), and what kind of entertainment we should have for the flight to Mexico (iPod movies, books or puzzle game books).

Now, I’m here to annoy you!

Although I am really looking forward to this weekend and I think it will be a lot of fun, I also sort of agree with The Fiance and just want it to all be over. That makes me feel ungrateful and petulant, but it’s partly true. I worry that taking lots of pictures will be awkward – I’m self-conscious. I’m afraid I’ll feel very uncomfortable during the ceremony with all eyes on me – I’m self-conscious. I’m afraid that everyone will freeze and go home early and not dance to or like my music playlists – I’m self-conscious. I think this is all needless worry, though. Parties are fun. Our wedding is a party. Doesn’t logic mean that our wedding will be fun?

I’m looking forward to a number of things AFTER the wedding – when things settle back into normalcy and it doesn’t seem that every minute of every day must revolve around a wedding. In particular, I’m looking forward to:

• crafting – I have a long backlog of items that I’d like to make for special people and for myself
• boating – it’s going to be awful cold and I’m going to be awfully out of practice, but I’m looking forward to being able to share the boating experience with The Fiance and our new friends, again
• working on our house – we’ve got some fun and not-so-fun plans in the works. In the near future, it seems we’ll need a new water heater. We also want to add some items to the kitchen to make it more functional. Before or during next Spring, we hope to install a new fence and begin work on a back-patio hangout. There are MANY more things that need to be done, but those arethe short-range plans.
• working on going to the gym – I like being at the gym and working out, but I dislike the "going" to the gym part. It’s a struggle, but I’m looking forward to setting up a routine for this.
• paying off debt – Before we got engaged, I started to nibble at the edges of my unsecured debt. That got postponed as we saved for the honeymoon, then saved for the Rehearsal Dinner, and then spent on items that were wedding-related. It’s something that makes me worry and makes me not enjoy life to the fullest, so I’m ready to really knock it all out and be done with it.
• being smooshy wooshy with my new husband – This is just a joke part of the list to check if you’re still reading. If you know me and you know him, you’ll know that we aren’t Smooshy Wooshy people. It will be fun, though, that’s guaranteed.

Today, I’ve decided to focus on how much I am looking forward to our honeymoon. This helps me to not stress out over items on the to-do list that I can’t accomplish for the eight hours of the day that I’m at work. Why didn’t I plan my vacation days more wisely and take this week off, too? A rainy spring and the lure of whitewater can explain that one.

Our honeymoon trip grew out of a vague wish before we were engaged. Shortly after our vacation to Baja Mexico, last year, we began thinking about our next vacation. In stark contrast to that vacation’s theme, we wanted something luxurious. Enter the idea of a 5-star, all-inclusive resort. I’ve pretty much never been anywhere in the world so I was open to any beach-oriented place. The Fiance went to work on researching potential locations. One day, he came home and commanded me to look at what he’d found on the internet. Normally, he just says, "Hey, come look at this!" and I reply, "Can you send me a link? I don’t want to get off the couch." But, on that day, it was a command, and I knew he meant business.

That’s when he showed me this site. We oohed and aahed our way through every single link and picture we could find. Then, we searched on Flickr for more glimpses. The next day, I read through the TripAdvisor reviews. I knew it was what I wanted, but I also knew that it looked incredibly expensive. I wondered if this dream vacation would remain a dream like all the others we’ve dreamed about. In the meantime, though, we asked my best friend and her husband if they were interested in a vacation. They have two little boys who are adorable and rambunctious and generally demanding of their full-time working and socializing parents’ time, as children are wont to do! They quickly agreed that they were interested. We sent them the link and promptly became wrapped up in other dreams and ideas.

Then, The Fiance completely floored me by proposing in November. After I agreed to marry him and squeeled and kissed him, he immediately said, "I already know where I want to go on the honeymoon." I think I responded by saying, "OK, well, I already know who I want to be the photographer. What is it about this honeymoon?"

It was decided that we’d spend a week in paradise, drinking premium liquor under the palapas-shaded Caribbean sun at a result where children weren’t allowed and there’s a sushi restaurant. We’d do all of this and not have to worry about paying for it in the moment. Pretty much all our dreams come true. Oh, and guess what? There’s a spa (for me) and a super-duper (technical term) golf course (for him). Sweet!

I think it was The Fiance who suggested that we ask the friends if they wanted to tag along. Honestly, I probably never would have thought about it just because I’ve never heard of anyone else who goes on their honeymoon with their friends across the airplane aisle. I’d say this was one of the most brilliant ideas that The Fiance has had, to date. Vacations are fun. Vacations with your best friends are even more fun. Vacations at the beach where I can read a book and not have to entertain The Fiance every minute are the most awesome! Just last night, we all went to dinner and were discussing our excitement over the week to come. It’s safe to say that the girls are most excited about drinking fruity drinks and reading books on the beach. They boys seem to have all they need to entertain each other – I heard talk of remaking Corona commercials on the beach, playing all of our free rounds of golf, taking FULL advantage of the swim-up bar, etc.

Excellent! I can’t wait. The thought of the first snowflakes of the season might fall on my wedding day is quickly shoved to the side with the knowledge that I’ll be in the Caribbean for a week soaking up the sun.