As you might have guessed based on our Save the Dates and my enthusiastic wedding song post, music was a big part of our wedding. We didn’t have a “theme” per se, but I suppose you could say music was a central component. I had this idea of incorporating a record as our “logo,” with a heart where the hole should be. Josh and his best man Alex got to work and voila – the record was ready for the STD’s (heh heh).

I’d been thinking about doing a mix cd for our invitation, but it took awhile for the entire thing to come to fruition. Josh and I wanted our wedding to have a DIY aesthetic, but we didn’t want it to look cheap or half-assed. It’s a personal decision and an important one when you decide to create things yourself, to take ownership over the final product. After all, if it ends up looking like something an eight-year-old could have thrown together with Elmer’s glue, you can’t blame it on a graphic designer or a florist or a whatever you’re doing instead of outsourcing. Deciding to have our invites in an unconventional format meant more work, more thought, and more potential for falling short. But we were committed.

Here is the final product:

I found the cd jackets and paper online for cheap and we printed the text at home. I designed all of the layouts using Microsoft Publisher and Word and then Josh recreated them using Photoshop. We had everything cut at Kinkos – I highly recommend this if you ever embark on your own invitation creation. They can do it so much faster and so much more accurate. The hearts and circles were labors of love (and practice practice practice).

We also ordered the cds that look like records off the Internet. The Internet was my best friend throughout most of our wedding planning. I found the best deals and found otherwise impossible to find things quite easily.

It was HARD to create a playlist that fully exemplified our relationship, but I think we did a good job. I took cues from John Cusack and paid close attention to the flow. We mixed oldies with new jams, fast with slow.

We even added a secret track. Well, not so secret. It was the first song on the disc.

Sound familiar? Yep, that’s Jackson on the intro. Oh, we performed it too. My favorite lyric: Even if this message goes unrequited, we hope that you know that you were totally invited.

I didn’t want our wedding to be too theme-y and cutesy, so after the invitations we kept the rest of the music stuff to a minimum. We put our heart record on the take-out boxes at the candy buffet, and I made Josh and Alex guitar pick boutonierres. Josh had a special green pick in memory of his best friend Ricky who passed away in 2009. It felt nice to have a reminder of him there with us that day.

Finally, we put this quote on the back of our fan programs (also DIY). It’s from one of my favorite books, Love is a Mixtape. It is one of my favorite quotes and it is perfect for us.

Overall I was very happy with how we executed our theme-less themed wedding. And I was very, very happy that we did so much of it ourselves. In many ways I think spending that time together, having to work together on a goal-oriented project, brought us closer together.

But enough about me. Let’s talk about this thing that I like: The Clarisonic. My mom bought me one for Christmas. When I opened it, I thought “Oh, this is like a Sonicare toothbrush for my face.” I was intrigued, but to be honest, I’m pretty terrible about washing my face. To be even more honest, I never wash my face. My pillow looks like Snooki buried her face in it after freshly applying spray tanner. Or maybe it looks like an artist’s abstract rendering of Snooki after a fight with The Situation. I don’t know, pick from your choice of two equally disgusting scenarios or ponder why I’m citing the Jersey Shore right now.

Lucky for me, my skin takes abuse well, and despite the bacteria colony I subject it to night after night, my face rarely sees a zit. It’s not as fresh or as even-toned as I’d like, but that’s a small price to pay for a bad beauty regimen.

Enter the Clarisonic. One day while we were unpacking I decided to read the instruction manual. Did you know that using the Clarisonic, you only have to spend 1 minute per day washing your face? That’s only 60 seconds! Just 20 seconds for your forehead, 20 seconds for your chin and nose, and 10 seconds for each cheek. And you can use it in the shower so you don’t even have to worry about pulling your hair back or getting soapy foundation all over the sink. SOLD!

How does it feel, you ask? Well, it sort of feels like a Sonicare toothbrush on your face. The brushes whirl around while you move it in a circular motion and it beeps at you when it’s time to move to the next facial zone. It’s kind of like a game – see how thoroughly you can clean your face before the buzzer. It’s kind of like a stupid game, but whatever gets my face clean, right?

Since using the Clarisonic, my skin has improved tremendously. This probably  has something to do with the fact that I set it on the sandpaper setting. Exfoliation to the max. I feel presentable leaving the house with just a touch of concealer on my uneven spots and some loose powder. What few occasional pimples I had before are now gone. And I only have to use it for 60 seconds a day.

I highly recommend this product for my fellow owners of Snooki pillows. It’s kind of pricey, but I don’t really have an excuse that makes spending so much on a beauty product okay so just roll with it, okay? I haven’t tried it, but maybe you can use it as a toothbrush too? An electric toothbrush and face-cleaner in one! Thanks Mom!

But back to Saturday. Saturday was a beautiful day. I headed downtown for a haircut, and afterwards we packed a lunch and loaded the pup in the car. Off we went to Eno State River Park. Wait – that’s not entirely true. We went to the park after we doused ourselves in tick repellent. See, nobody told me that I’d have to worry about ticks in North Carolina. I found that out just last week from my co-workers. Naturally, I reacted in the only way that makes sense to me – I began researching Lyme Disease and freaking out.

Eno State River Park is beautiful and I can’t wait to see it when there are leaves in the trees. Jackson was happy to trot around and smell the new smells. It felt good to get out and soak up some sun. And best of all, when we got home, we were tick-free.

Freshly Bathed

Some days you visit beautiful homes that belong to interesting people. The kind of people that inspire you to do something great with your life, to follow your dreams.  The kind of people that make you think that maybe one day you and your husband will retire to that bungalow on the beach. And sometimes those days end with you coming home and discovering that your puppy has diarrhea’d all over his crate. That’s life.

Not much happened.

Well, that might not be true. My job is new and exciting. The people that I work with are smart and funny. I knew I was in good hands when I saw the Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness on the fridge at work.

Josh visited me for his birthday, so I surprised him with a trip to Wilmington. I rented a boat for the evening. We stayed on the Jubilee Snooze ‘N Cruise.

Look at how much fun these people are having! I was terrible at taking pictures on this trip, mostly because we drank two bottles of wine and ate yummy food. The owners of the boat served us dinner, and we sat and talked with the old man while we ate. He informed us that Samuel L. Jackson will film a movie on his boat this month. Also, while sitting in the lounge area of the boat, we saw Virginia Madsen making out with some young guy. We experience the most random celebrity sightings.

Then Josh went back to Arizona and I went back to taking care of things in Raleigh-Durham. I found us a place to live at the end of November, a super-cute townhouse with a 1-year lease until we decide where we want to live (or buy!).  Blah blah blah new furniture blah blah blah move-in inspections blah blah blah.

On December 22nd I headed back to Arizona with a tickle in my throat. Aside from a couple of nights out with friends, the rest of my time was spent in bed. I am still resentful of my third coldlflu in six months for stealing my final desert days from me. That cold did not steal my ability to make three delicious pies with my baby sister: Apple with Crumb Topping, Pecan, and S’mores (yeah, S’mores). Christmas was wonderful, as always. Blah blah blah I got more than I deserve blah blah blah I liked giving gifts more this year. I love my family.

On December 27th, Josh, Jackson, Alex (there’s a reason he was Josh’s best man, he came all the way to help us move!) and I embarked on Day 1 of our three-day cross-country voyage. Again. It was not as fun the second time around, but at least it’s our last time for a long while.

New Year’s was uneventful, due to exhaustion from moving in and being sick. Blah blah blah resolutions blah exercise more blah blah eat better blah blah.

So, I guess a lot happened in December. And a lot is happening in January. We have more to do before our house feels like a home. I start grad school soon. Work is going to be insane. I need to update this thing more so that I stop having gargantuan updates. I have lots of posts in mind, but I never manage to sit down to write them. I still need to write my year-end recap. Crap.

Anyway. We are almost completely unpacked. We are here. We are stressed out. We are happy.

Happy New Year, friends.

Let’s break it down:

Groom’s and Wedding Party Entrance: “Make It Wit Chu” by Queens of the Stone Age

This song just has a great beat and guitar riff to strut to. Josh knew it was his song when he heard it. The lyrics are pretty sexy, too. Because of this sexiness, Josh used his audio editing skills to turn it into an instrumental. It was perfect. And we still knew it was sexy.

Bridal Processional: “Hoppipolla (Instrumental)” by Sigur Ros

I was not going to walk down the aisle to “Here Comes the Bride” or “Canon in D.” Those are fine and well, but way too vanilla for me. Sigur Ros has been one of my favorite bands for a long time. After I realized that “Hoppipolla” was my entrance song, I couldn’t listen to it without tearing up. It’s dramatic, it’s soft, it evokes beauty. It was everything I wanted.

Next I had to figure out how to acquire the instrumental version – enter our DJ – who found it rather quickly and sent it to me for verification. This in turn created more tears. I don’t think anything about our wedding made me as emotional as this song. I was too happy to cry. But as soon as that song started playing before they parted the gates, my mom and I had to collect ourselves.

Recessional: “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

This was a no-brainer. It was an often played song right before our engagement, we included it on our invitation (I will post about that soon too!), and it is a perfectly perfect song. It captures exactly how Josh and I feel about each other. With our impending move, the lyrics spoke to us even more. Home is wherever we are with each other. Again, Josh did a little editing so that after we were pronounced husband and wife, the chorus and trumpet part kicked it. It looped after that. It was awesome.

Grand Entrance: “Riot Rhythm” by Sleigh Bells

Yep. You weren’t going to catch us walking out to “Celebrate.” This song is rockin’, super fun, and loud. You might recognize it from the photobooth video. When I was listening to the Sleigh Bells record and found this song, I thought it was a great entrance song because it exemplifies what the reception entrance should be: FUN. The heavy stuff is over. Now it’s time to party. I wasn’t sure if Josh would think it was too hipster-fied, but every.single.time I played the intro and asked what he thought, he responded with a huge smile. Winner!

First Dance: “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star

We both love this song. The lyrics have a lot of different meanings for a lot of different people, but when I hear “Fade into you….I think it’s strange you never knew” I think of how long Josh and I knew each other before we fell in love. If you’d told 18-year-old me that I would be married to Josh in eight years, I wouldn’t have believed you. Sometimes, I still look at Josh and think: “Wow I am married to JOSH. THAT JOSH! FROM HIGH SCHOOL” and it makes me so happy.

Father-Daughter Dance: “Sleepwalk” by Santo & Johnny

When you grow up with a Mexican dad and a white-girl mama from El Paso there are certain things that are guaranteed. One of those things is that you will spend a huge chunk of your childhood watching Lou Diamond Phillips portray Ritchie Valens in “La Bamba.” My dad and I went back and forth on a few potential father-daughter dance songs, but when I told him how much this song meant to me, he agreed to this one. This song doesn’t just remind me of my dad, it IS my dad. I remember sitting in the living room watching “La Bamba,” incapable of fully comprehending all of the content (seriously, what is WITH Bob?) but loving it anyway. This song is played at the end of the film, when everyone is reacting to Ritchie’s death and going to his funeral. This sounds really horrible, but it is a beautiful song. Thankfully, no one screamed “RITCHIEEEEEEEEEEE” while my dad and I were dancing.

Mother-Son Dance: “Simple Man” by Josh (cover of Lynrd Skynyrd)

I was so proud of Josh for this. His mom suggested the original for their first dance. The lyrics made sense for them, and Lynyrd Skynyrd was Josh’s first concert (that she took him to). The pace was weird for a slow dance, however, and since we couldn’t find a cover version that Josh liked, he took it into his own hands. With a little bit of me pretending to play producer, he actually recorded himself singing for public consumption. I’ve heard him sing before, but he is pretty secretive about it. It turned out great, and everyone wanted to know who it was after they were finished. His mom was extremely happy to announce that it was her son.

Cake cutting: “Love You Madly” by Cake

We found this song independently and sent it to each other. But really, how could you not?

Bouquet Toss: “No Scrubs” by TLC

We had reservations about doing any of this stuff. We didn’t even do the garter toss. There’s just something icky to me about the bouquet toss, I guess the fact that it (maybe harmlessly) reinforces that a woman’s happiness is gained through marriage. You shove all the single ladies on the floor, making them confess their tragic unmarried state, and force them to fight for a bouquet of flowers that lets them know that one day, they too will have a ring put on it. Still, I recognize that it’s a fun part of the wedding and that not everyone has such a cerebral approach when it comes to tradition. When I told my friend Megan about my concerns, she said that if I did it, I had to do it to “No Scrubs.” That was that.

There you have it. Our wedding songs. Picking music for our wedding was one of my favorite parts of the planning process. We really saw it as an opportunity to set the tone for the evening, rather than one to coalesce to the norm. Sorry, Pachelbel.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, friends.

Skypesgiving

Enjoy the highlight reel below…

The plan was for me to quit my job and pack up my things. I was to stay with Josh’s mom in Cary until he finished school (so that I could hopefully land a job and find us a good place to live), at which point I would go back home for Christmas and we would bring everything back. Josh and I loaded up my car, dropped off the pooch with my parents, and set off on a three-day drive to North Carolina. We left last Friday. We listened to music, talked, took turns driving, I read a terribly written crime mystery to him from my Kindle. The first day, we drove for 11 hours before settling in Abilene. The first day was the worst drive. West Texas is brutal.

Day Two was prettier as we ventured into East Texas and made our way to Birmingham for the night. We abandoned music for audiobooks until we decided to start listening to artists who were regionally appropriate. Jay Reatard was a hit in Mississippi and Britney Spears was the artist of choice for a brief jaunt through Louisiana. I ditched the terrible crime drama and began reading from a tawdry erotic fiction book which provided us with some good laughs.

The first night on the road was hard. I am so so so close to my family, and I don’t think that I’d allowed the gravity of the situation to hit me until that moment. I was moving 2,000 miles away. I wouldn’t be able to visit every Sunday for dinner. The days of wasting summer days by the pool were gone. I was scared and – honestly – devastated.

But we pushed on. And magically, as the climate improved, as the yellow flat-land turned into rolling hills of green and yellow and red trees, I started feeling better. By day 3 on the road, my excitement about this new chapter returned. We rolled into Cary on Sunday, and Josh left Monday afternoon.

Since arriving, things have been okay. I am going to meet with someone who works with Josh’s mom and is about my age. I had Phase 4 of the application process with a really great job yesterday and it went really well – on to Phase 5 next week. I have an interview with a different company on Monday. I got to go shopping for fancy new interview clothes which is always fun. I’ve gone exploring through neighborhoods. I now understand why tourists in Arizona take pictures of cacti as I am in complete awe of the landscape here.

I miss my family and friends terribly, but I talked to my mom for awhile on the phone yesterday and I talk to Josh everyday. We started Skype-ing, which makes a world of difference. I even get to see my puppy on Skype, although I only keep his attention for a few moments before he goes to sleep (he is a lazy bum).

I’m not entirely sure what the future holds now, and I am entirely okay with that. For the first time in my life, I feel fine not having a solid plan in place. I am filled with an overwhelming sense of everything-is-going-to-be-okay.