Looking Back, Part 1
Well folks... we made it.
This weekend marks our 1 year wedding anniversary! (But I'm sure all you loyal readers already knew this and were anticipating these posts, right... right?!)
While I understand this is the 1st of many anniversaries to come, I do feel this particular one is a big deal and thus, will take up some room on the blog originally intended to be a newlywed blogand has since become a place for Sarah's most random thoughts ever. I will recall the blessed event in 4 parts so hold onto your socks people, you're in for an exciting trip down memory lane! (Don't worry, I won't get too sappy or go into too much detail!) Keep in mind all the dates were one day earlier last year so when I refer to this day as Thursday, the 16th fell on a Thursday last year and so on.
Our wedding was in a hotel in Minnetonka, MN which is where my parents currently live and I grew up. Unfortunately though, none of our family lives in the area which is why we had our wedding in a hotel... many many out of town guests. My parents decided to have a gathering of sorts at their house on the Thursday before the wedding as a way to accommodate the out of towners who came up early. This worked out perfectly and gave Mike and I a chance to hang out casually with everyone before the official festivities began.
Pictures from the gathering.
Mike and I actually drove up from Des Moines the Sunday before our wedding. Being teachers allowed us the time to do this and I was very thankful we had this opportunity. Although I'm not huge on offering advice when people aren't asking for it and I by no means consider myself an expert on anything wedding related (my total wedding magazine purchases throughout the process = 0, no joke) I do have something I would recommend to all brides the week before their wedding.
I woke up each morning the entire week before the big day around 7am and went to the gym. Despite the cliches, it had nothing to do with how I looked it was more a mental thing.
#1, working out in the morning cleared my head, gave me time to prioritize things for the day, and helped me feel great despite all that was going on.
#2, getting up early and working out hard ensured that I was actually tired by the end of the day therefore I actually got a lot of sleep the week before the wedding (unheard of for some brides).
You're going to be so exhausted anyway but stress has a funny way of making us unaware of our exhaustion until we are about to fall over. You do not want this to happen on your wedding night, so spending some time physically wearing your body out like exercising does, helps sleep come a bit easier.
One more thing and then I'm done, I drank a ton of water all week because I didn't want anything besides stress interfering with my sleep and activities for the day. It sounds like I was totally anal about sleeping, but I know how my body reacts to stress and if yours is similar I seriously recommend these tips to any bride to be. (and please know when I refer to stress in these posts, its not a bad thing, you're just super busy and overwhelmed by the culmination of the planning process and the anticipation for the big day unless you have a wedding planner like J.Lo, but I wasn't so lucky, hehe)
The one thing I'll always remember about the Thursday before the big day was heading to the hotel around check-in time to greet everyone arriving on that day. I remember feeling like the happiest, luckiest, most excited girl in the entire Minneapolis area! That's really corny, but I did. It was so great to see everyone and my heart grew 5 times its size when I realized they were there to celebrate Mike and I.
More to come tomorrow.... stay tuned
This weekend marks our 1 year wedding anniversary! (But I'm sure all you loyal readers already knew this and were anticipating these posts, right... right?!)
While I understand this is the 1st of many anniversaries to come, I do feel this particular one is a big deal and thus, will take up some room on the blog originally intended to be a newlywed blog
Our wedding was in a hotel in Minnetonka, MN which is where my parents currently live and I grew up. Unfortunately though, none of our family lives in the area which is why we had our wedding in a hotel... many many out of town guests. My parents decided to have a gathering of sorts at their house on the Thursday before the wedding as a way to accommodate the out of towners who came up early. This worked out perfectly and gave Mike and I a chance to hang out casually with everyone before the official festivities began.
Pictures from the gathering.
Mike and I actually drove up from Des Moines the Sunday before our wedding. Being teachers allowed us the time to do this and I was very thankful we had this opportunity. Although I'm not huge on offering advice when people aren't asking for it and I by no means consider myself an expert on anything wedding related (my total wedding magazine purchases throughout the process = 0, no joke) I do have something I would recommend to all brides the week before their wedding.
I woke up each morning the entire week before the big day around 7am and went to the gym. Despite the cliches, it had nothing to do with how I looked it was more a mental thing.
#1, working out in the morning cleared my head, gave me time to prioritize things for the day, and helped me feel great despite all that was going on.
#2, getting up early and working out hard ensured that I was actually tired by the end of the day therefore I actually got a lot of sleep the week before the wedding (unheard of for some brides).
You're going to be so exhausted anyway but stress has a funny way of making us unaware of our exhaustion until we are about to fall over. You do not want this to happen on your wedding night, so spending some time physically wearing your body out like exercising does, helps sleep come a bit easier.
One more thing and then I'm done, I drank a ton of water all week because I didn't want anything besides stress interfering with my sleep and activities for the day. It sounds like I was totally anal about sleeping, but I know how my body reacts to stress and if yours is similar I seriously recommend these tips to any bride to be. (and please know when I refer to stress in these posts, its not a bad thing, you're just super busy and overwhelmed by the culmination of the planning process and the anticipation for the big day unless you have a wedding planner like J.Lo, but I wasn't so lucky, hehe)
The one thing I'll always remember about the Thursday before the big day was heading to the hotel around check-in time to greet everyone arriving on that day. I remember feeling like the happiest, luckiest, most excited girl in the entire Minneapolis area! That's really corny, but I did. It was so great to see everyone and my heart grew 5 times its size when I realized they were there to celebrate Mike and I.
More to come tomorrow.... stay tuned
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