Teaberries

The Reception

Ok, I promise this will be the last post of wedding pictures, but they're just so fun!  These are from our reception, which was held at Meadowbrook Inn in Blowing Rock, NC.  

Thanks Stickboy for making an awesome cake!

The Ceremony!

You can see all of the photos and order prints at www.pictage.com/667258

Getting Ready for the Wedding!

The big day was May 16th, and we're starting to get settled into married life!  We just got some pictures from our photographer, and we wanted to share them with you.  

Matt surprised me and gave me a BEAUTIFUL ring as a wedding gift.  

The wedding bands.

Thankfully my sister helped me with my makeup!

Brad helping Matt with his bow tie. 

Writing a little letter for Matt.

Putting on the dress!

Showing off the new ring!

Ready to get married!

Check out tomorrow's blog for pictures from the ceremony!

Tomorrow I'm Marrying my Best Friend

Today is Friday.  

Tomorrow is Saturday.  

Tomorrow is May 16th.  

Tomorrow is the day we've spent the last 5 months planning for.  

Tomorrow I'm marrying my best friend. 

Now, there are a lot of things that I love and appreciate about Matt.  He cooks for me. He supports my dreams.  He is an amazing graphic designer.  He is a hard worker.  He is funny.  I mean really, laugh until your side hurts, funny.  He is dedicated.  He thinks outside of the box.  He loves Jesus.  He is my best friend. 

That is just a few of the things that I love and respect about Matt.  One thing that I've really come to respect is how smart he is!  Here is my favorite example from the other week. 

For the most part, I enjoy weeding.  Its kind of nice to sit outside in the dirt with the only objective of getting rid of annoying weeds.  Its pretty satisfying and relaxing for me. Except when I have to weed the area at the bottom of the yard near the creek - thats stressful because I can never rid of all the weeds.  There was a point last summer when I had weeds out there growing taller than me ... taller than the trees that were planted. Thats sad.  You shouldn't have weeds taller than your trees.  

Anyway, I enjoy weeding the other parts of my yard, but I hate having to pick up all of the weeds.  Usually that results in me ferociously getting out the weeds from the garden and frantically throwing them all over the grass.  I always have good intentions of going back and raking them up, but that only happens about 17% of the time.  

So the other week I was weeding while Matt was rolling up sod from our lawn to make the garden plot.  Here is how the conversation went:

Matt:  "How is the weeding going?"

Ashley: "Great, I'm getting lots done!"

Matt: "Why are there weeds all over the grass?"

Ashley: "What else am I going to do with them?"

Matt: "Get a weeding bucket."

Ashley: "Oh. Good Idea."

In comes the weeding bucket.  

Its the simplest thing in the world, but I had never thought to use a bucket to put my weeds in.  It makes perfect sense!  After I'm done, I have a convenient way of carrying my weeds to be dumped in the woods.  Its perfect!  Thanks Matt!

Since we're getting married tomorrow, I'll be offline for a few days.  We're going to the beach, and we don't allow work on vacations.  Even though this isn't work ... 

Stay tuned for updates about our vegetable garden - we're planting once we get back!

Stuffed Chicken for Dinner

Since we're getting married on Saturday, you can probably guess that Matt and I have had so much to do the past few weeks ... or is it months?!  It seems like the "to do" list has been growing instead of shrinking for a long time now ... 

Anyway, one of the things on my list was to get my nails done, so I went after work for Tina to do my nails.  When I got home, Matt had made a delicious appetizer of cheese and jam, and he was setting out to cook dinner for us.  

We did absolutely nothing wedding related, but instead enjoyed a delicious dinner and time with each other.  

Matt was the chef for the evening - he made an herb and peanut butter , stuffed chicken, salad, and steamed vegetables.  It was absolutely delicious!

This is the stuffed chicken - cream cheese, spinach, feta cheese, and spices!

The finished product!

We may not get some of those last silly details worked out for the wedding, but we sure did have a good time cooking and eating last night!

Weddings and Flowers

I love weddings.  I like attending them more than planning them. My friends Ryan and Maribeth Ashley got married last weekend at Chetola Resort in Blowing Rock, NC.  The wedding was absolutely beautiful!  The weather couldn't have been more perfect for the entire weekend.  

These are some of the beautiful flowers from the wedding last weekend.  

Engagement Party

I can hardly believe that Matt and I will be married in 27 days!  The time has flown by so quickly, yet it still seems like we have so long to go!  

A few weeks ago our friends threw us a big party in Boone to celebrate our engagement. Several of our friends came in from out of town for the weekend, and we had such a fun time.  

My sisters came in for the weekend, and we had a glorious time hanging out, hiking, shopping, and spending time with friends. 

The weather was absolutely perfect, so we spent the afternoon hiking around Moses Cone in Blowing Rock.  

One of the highlights for me was the Italian dripping candles in wine bottles!

My friend Julie is getting married 6 weeks after me.  Her and her fiance, Josiah, came over from Wilmington for the party.  Its mostly fun and only a little bit crazy that we are the maid of honor to each other with weddings 6 weeks apart!

This is me and my soon-to-be bridesmaids!  I have to credit Erin, on the right, for making tiramisu as dessert for the party.  It is one of my all time favorite desserts, and it was absolutely delicious!

Reflections on Marriage and a Lovely Party

My friends Ryan and Maribeth are getting married in April.  I'm incredibly excited they have chosen to live their lives together, so I was thrilled to attend a shower for Maribeth last weekend. 

This was the most lovely shower/party/gathering I have ever attended, and I thoroughly enjoyed special time with the girls.  As soon as I walked in the door, I was handed a gift from the hosts that was beautifully wrapped and adorned with a sprig of rosemary.  The gift was a fun and elegant monogrammed mug that I have actually had my eye on at Anthropologie for months now.  We each drank our tea or coffee in our new personalized mug.   

The delicious food was catered by Reids Catering Company in Boone.  (And on a side note: I'm thrilled that they are going to be able to cater and host my bridesmaid's luncheon!)

The hosts left no detail to chance. Their love for their friend and joy at her upcoming marriage were evident every moment.     

I've included a few pictures of the food, because it was so delightful. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  

Chicken salad with apples and walnuts

Lemon hummus and fresh vegetables

An assortment of fine cheese and fruit

I would like to end with a reflection on marriage:

"In marriage we marry a mystery, an other, a counterpart.  In a sense the person we marry is a stranger about whom we have a magnificent hunch.  The person we choose to marry is someone we love, but his depths, her intimate intricacies, we will come to know only in the long unraveling of time.  We know enough about our beloved to know that we love him, to imagine that, as time goes on, we will come to enjoy her even more, become even more of ourselves in her presence.  To our knowledge we add our willingness to embark on the journey of getting to know him, of coming to see her, ever so wonderfully more." - Daphne Rose Kingma  

Cake Testing

One of the easiest decisions about the whole wedding (other than the decision to marry Matt, of course) has been the cake.  

We're having Stick Boy make our cake, and after the cake testing, I'm really excited! We're having an almond flavored cake with buttercream icing.  Matt and I instantly agreed that was the perfect combination!

Look at all that cake and icing ... 

Its no wonder I felt sick all afternoon!

Honeymoon Location Ideas?

Ok, its time for an interactive blog post ...

Matt and I are trying to think of creative places to go for our honeymoon, and we are open to suggestions.  Any ideas for somewhere warm and relatively inexpensive?