Thursday, July 31, 2008

Wedding Flowers!

Making Amber's wedding flowers was quite a production! I'll spare you the long, detailed, and somewhat stressful story about ordering the flowers, supplies, etc. online in an effort to save money by getting wholesale prices... I don't think we actually saved that much in the end! Oh well. I definitely learned a lot and have lots of tips to offer anyone who is a non-'professional' trying to do wedding flowers themselves. I'd do several things differently if I ever got asked to do another wedding... first off, I'd probably decline doing flowers for a wedding in a state other than the one in which I live unless I could be there for atleast a week before the wedding!
Amber's colors were 'earthy' natural blues and greens. I knew immediately I wanted to use a blue or blue/green Hydrangea and Stephanotis with blue pearls in them. The Jade roses circling the Hydrangea and the Salal leaves followed that plan easily. The Dutch Spiral hand-tyed method worked out beautifully and the details only made the design more satisfactory to me. I loved the ribbon I found: it had light green edges and unified the entire design by running down the length of the stems. I was very pleased with how beautiful the bouquet looked! The boutennieres were also lovely, especially the day we made them.


Anyway, with a TON of help from Aunts, parents, and my dear friend Mo, the flowers turned out lovely! After the lil Hydrangea accents in the boutennieres started to warm up, they got pretty limp. Overall, everything looked much better the day before and quickly began to wilt in the Manti sun and heat (and we DID have some disasters, but luckily you can't tell that from the wedding pics)! So, here are a couple of photos.







one of all the immediate siblings... and Justin. I include it because Ambie looks so lovely, despite how goofy Spencer looks or the fact that my eyes are closed! Tamara is normal, atleast. :)

Monday, July 21, 2008

Quick Catchup!

Wow! Soooo much to talk about! We've been so busy with various out of town excursions and trying to keep on top of our normal work and research schedules... that posting has not been a priority. Sorry to disappoint you. Here I am now, sort of catching up on all the news.

1. Most important news of all! We're having a GIRL!!!! She's healthy, 4 days larger than average, and quite a little wiggle worm! Eric and I are thrilled and can't wait to meet her! Things I'm anxious about raising a girl:
a) what about when she becomes a teen? I'm really anxious about having her be so stubborn and sarcastic...what if she hates us?
b) dating, dating, boys, dating, boys, etc. Here's where Eric comes in handy as a fiercely intimidating father... :)...he'll keep those dates respectful! Ever heard that country song about the dad cleaning his gun til the boy brings his daughter back from their date? I think he really envisions himself doing something like that...
c) supposedly girls are more calm...but I know I was a very ACTIVE kid! I won't be surprised if she is too, considering both my history and Eric's. I hope I have enough energy to keep up!
d) I don't want her to be prissy and totally "girlified" so that she wears frilly pink all the time, doesn't want to get dirty, and ends up spending hours in the bathroom doing her hair... but I also don't want her to be "butch" and not very feminine so that she doesn't want to dress up nicely, burps all the time, laughs like a hyena, or doesn't care for having good manners. There's a Tom-boy balance there I'm looking for...
e) I hear lil girls are more sensitive, that hey hold grudges. I think Eric is anxious about how to build a close bond with her since he grew up with 4 brothers...Elise didn't come along til he was older. He's already remarked that he doesn't understand how to get girls to do things that need being done... ya know, with boys you just say "you need to feed the dogs. go on, get yourself out there and do it unless you want a spanking" as a final ultimatum. But that doesn't work quite as well with girls...

2. We've had some wonderful trips! photos forthcoming in future posts of these individual trips
a) Had a Hart family reunion in Idaho and went camping, to Yellowstone, and to a gourmet pizza place
b) Had an Allan family gathering in Idaho and went to the unfinished cabin, horseback riding, fishing, and the Twin Falls Temple Open House
c) Had a beautiful time with Amber in Utah for her sealing to Justin in Manti and made tons of salsa for the reception, flowers for the wedding, got our nails done, and took lots of pictures at the temple