Doe: A Hunter's Wife

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Doe: A Hunter's Wife

~The Unbride II~

What makes me an unbride? Why do I even call myself one? Well, I’ve always known that I am just not your typical bride. The bridal aisle at the craft store is giving me heartburn just thinking about it! For starters I am not about all of the attention being on me, pink, ruffles, roses, tiaras, pretty little flowered invitations, limousines, assigned seating, bustles, matching bridesmaids, fancy foods, tuxedos, garter/bouquet tosses. There are a few traditions I do like and will keep such as:

Cake: At least for me! Benny, he’s not much of a cake fan, so perfect, more for me!
Father of the Bride: Yep, I want my dad to walk me down the aisle, end of story.
First Dance: Ok, a bit awkward but I love music so including this is a nice moment for me & Benny on our day.
White Dress: Yes its white, well not bright void of all color white, but off white.
Flowers: I do love flowers but I’m not into the standard wedding flower and they don’t have to all match!
Vows: Perfectly good with the old standbys as long as it’s a Christian Service.
Toasts: Mostly since I want to torture our siblings because they’ll feel obligated to say nice things about us.
Gifts: You know, the ones for the attendants, because they really do mean the world to us.
Invitations: Well I want guests at the wedding, but my invitation style bumps me right into Unbride territory... so see the Unbride list below.
Veil: I was back and forth on this, but found the perfect one and it goes nowhere near my face.
Revealing of Bride: Originally I didn’t want pictures before the ceremony, but I’m way more into having awesome photos than I am about making him wait an extra hour or two to see me all gussied up. So the designated reveal will be just us and our photographer to catch the moment.
Photographer: Um duh photos, yes but again I'm bumped into unbride territory on this one see the unbride list for this.

Here’s some of my thoughts on the stuff I listed that you typically find in a wedding that make me the Unbride that I am:

The attention: Good lord I hate knowing that everyone is looking at me. UNCOMFORTABLE & Benny agrees!
Pink: This is a union of a man and a woman, unless he really has a love for pink, don’t make him do it.
Ruffles: I’m talking foo fooish stuff here, lots of fluffy lace, ribbons, tulle…ick NO!
Roses: No thanks, too expected at a wedding and too easy.
Tiaras: Too shiny and princessy just can’t do it
Limos: Makes me think of the 80’s… don’t ask I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with the old one parked across the street from my house that I have to look at everyday?
Assigned Seating: Uncomfortable for guests & way too much work, I’m focusing my creativity elsewhere.
Bustles: Extra material hanging from my rear end, uncomfortable and looks weird.
Matching Bridesmaids: NO! Bridesmaids are people too!
Fancy Foods: I’ve been dieting for months give me a cheeseburger already!
Tuxedos: = Monkey Suits & I DO NOT, repeat DO NOT like monkeys!
Garter/Bouquet Toss: We’re old and everyone’s already married.
DJ Introductions/Music: Yeah, I just made a playlist on my iPod, and if you didn't hear the introduction of us as husband & wife at the ceremony, you'll figure it out. And there was no way in hell I was going to risk having to hear, YMCA or Love Shack at my wedding and God fobid the Chicken Dance!
Fancy Invitations: Yeah… I made my own because the cost of having someone else make 10-page booklets wasn’t reasonable and I don’t think I would’ve been happy with selection. I just needed to have the control on this one.
Photographer: I’m a photography freak, it had to be a photographer that I could trust to get the shots I want and they have to be photojournalistic in style. After the photographer at my cousins’ wedding, I knew I was going to drop some money to get someone good and someone that didn’t think lining everyone up in a row and telling them to tilt their heads toward each other was a good idea.

I'm not by any means saying don't use these things in your own wedding, I'm just saying they are so not the interest of Benny and I for our wedding. Anyone who knows me, knows they can never really determine what I may like or not like, just ask my mom. I say, as long as its not typical and is something maybe only a few people would've even noticed before I'll probably like it. I'm pretty plain but I like to say, 'less is more just keep it simple' and besides all the excitement is in the details anyway.

For the record, I only stepped foot into a bridal store once the entire time I planned my wedding. I went there because I knew the manager from high school and I went to find myself a reception dress. I wanted to wear my soon to be mother in law’s cuter than cute tea length 50’s style wedding dress, but she got rid of it years ago, so plan B was to see if I could find a cute little white dress for our in the woods reception. Easy, I tried on about 7 dresses, it was the last one and I actually saw it on the sales rack after deciding on the first one I tried on. It was $99 and it was THE dress, it was even my size and required no alterations, even better!

I made my ceremony dress. Yes, I did! It required lots of alterations since I made it about 4 sizes too big, but I made it and I love it! I always knew I’d end up making my own wedding dress one day. I never took myself serious until the day came and I really didn’t want to go try dresses on, so I went to the fabric store and bought a pattern instead. I knew what I wanted already so it was easy.

After all of the years of wanting to be a bride so I could buy bridal magazines, I never bought one! Picked one or two up thumbed through them and put them back on the shelf. I already had my dress picked out, colors picked out and the rings were designed and already made… what else is left? So I just spent countless hours scouring wedding blogs. Those were my magazines.

We are now 12 days from wedding day and I am getting more and more excited to see how all of my preparations turn out once I put them all together. Most of all I am excited and overjoyed to be able to call Benny my husband. I can’t believe I finally found the man I will spend the rest of my life with. He has been a blessing and an answer to all of my prayers. I am a lucky woman to be the one by his side for the remainder of our days.

~The Invites~

Here are our invites! They turned out pretty much exactly like the picture in my mind. Either way Benny and I love them and were so excited to send them out and show them off. I'll put further photos up later. I just wanted to get a post up since I haven't in quite a while since 180 of these little buggers had kept me rather busy.

~The Dress~

Haha, fooled ya, like I'd actually post a picture of my dress! You'll have to come to the wedding to see that, or wait for me to post pictures afterward. However, here are some of the production pictures of my dress so I'm not a complete tease. The first picture, although by far not my finest its the only one I have of me wedding dress shopping. My maid of honor and sister KasiAnne helped me choose the gorgeous fabric which at present is becoming prettier as I sew each piece.

~The Stuff~

Wow, its been two short months since I've put up a post! It is amazing how quickly this wedding planning time goes. All of this planning and no posting about it, I am such a slacker!

So this 'stuff' post is pictures of some of the things I've been gathering, creating and planning. Its up to you to try to see if you can figure out what I am doing with all of these things. Guess you'll have to wait til the wedding for their final destinations but in the meantime I thought it would be fun to give a little sneak peek into some of the details. Enjoy...

~The Date~

Ok ok, so I haven't announced our date officially yet. Well, here it is... drumroll please... Saturday, June 12, 2010. I've kinda been waiting to announce it until I have our 'Save the Date' announcments ready and with no futher ado, here it is!

Our 'Save the Date' announcments are a little different, as you can see they are 'Save the Weekend.' Since we are doing a camping themed wedding we want our friends and family to join us for the entire weekend. Its ok if they can just make it up for the day too, but really if you have a camper or a tent please, come camp with us and enjoy our Wedding in the Woods! Stay tuned, more information is yet to come.

~The Photographer~

Many of you ask... who does one who is as photo happy as myself choose as a wedding photographer? Well, I'll tell you it was NOT an easy choice for me. There are so many amazing and talented photographers out there, but after careful consideration and scouring of countless photography blogs and websites, I found one! Her name is Suwanee Lennon and she lives in Spokane. I cannot be more thrilled with my choice and I am already impatiently waiting to see our photos.

I cannot honestly pick favorites from Suwanee's work but I narrowed it to 5 for this post. This first one in the snow is Suwanee herself, I thought it would be fun to include one of her. Not only is she beautiful behind the lens but she is gorgeous in front of it too...really who honestly looks that pretty making snow angels... it must be staged, LOL?

Not only am I excited to announce her as our photographer, but I highly suggest checking out her blog and her website. You will be able to see a compilation of her extrordinary talent at the links below.

Suwanee Photography

Suwanee Photography Blog