Lemur L'amour: Welcome!

One of the things that I was most excited for was our welcome dinner! This was going to be a chance to see our families and out-of-town guests more than we would be able to at the wedding. We would have gorgeous weather, everyone would arrive on time, and...oh wait.

Personal photo / This is how cold it was...in South Carolina...in May!

It was freezing and raining! I went from being worried that everyone would be too warm to trying to find blankets and jackets. My brilliant sister raided her closet and brought seven coats with her—so I forgive her for being her usual 45 minutes late. (Side note: If your family members are typically late in real life, they'll probably be late when it comes to your wedding! And yet you love them in real life, so you'll love them when your wedding comes around.)

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, the guys hung out and the kids hit the playground. The playground, by the way, which was the BEST PLAYGROUND EVER.

Personal photo / And Mr. Lemur tackled the ropes course with the girls—gahh so cute!

Finally, it was food time! It was your basic Southern fare—pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, coleslaw, and sweet tea—delicious, although if I had known it was going to be 50 degrees instead of 90 degrees I would have had hot chocolate instead of sweet tea. 

Personal photo / Let's eat!

Thanks so much to everyone who braved the cold! The rain died down and some of the guys started throwing a Frisbee around. The trails we were going to run on were still soaking wet and everyone was freezing—so instead of a formal run we walked a half mile down the trail to the tiny park where Mr. Lemur and I got engaged. Nearly everyone at the welcome dinner made the walk down the paved trail with us, including my grandparents and the little kids in the group. 

I wish I had better pictures of this part of the night, but by now it was starting to get dark. The pictures I do have are special to me though!

Personal photo / The beautiful waterfall! This is practically the exact same spot we got engaged.

Personal photo / Pausing for a serious moment

Just as the night was ending, we all gathered at the base of the waterfall for a group photo. This includes almost everyone who was there—except for a few people who had to leave early.

Personal photo / Love all of these people!

Remember that Frisbee the guys were throwing around? An inadvertent throw landed the Frisbee twenty feet up in a tree—and the football thrown up after it ended up in the tree too. After a heavy stick got stuck in the same branch, it was time to bring in the big guns...my dad shimmied up the tree in the dark twenty feet above the ground with thirty people gathered around the base cheering him on. Those are the crazy good memories I still smile at nearly five weeks later.

What special moments did you have at your rehearsal dinner?

Lemur L'amour: "Rehearsal" & Graduation

Remember how I said I was crazy? Well here we go.

After decorating the venue, we went out to dinner—CHINESE! We finally had (almost) all of our family in town and it was time to eat way, way too much delicious Chinese food and hang out with both my current family and soon-to-be family. Then it was rehearsal time.

I envy all those bees who have cute pictures of their rehearsal! Ours was at the end of a long day in the dining room with the chairs pushed to the side. I could feel a cold coming on and was in kind of a bad mood due to being tired and stressed—I really just wanted to get the rehearsal over and have everything go perfectly so I could go to bed.

However, as things are in real life, the rehearsal didn't go perfectly and I ended up getting more and more frustrated over dumb things—which in the long run didn't really matter and I totally regret. We ended up just doing two basic walk-throughs of what the ceremony would *hopefully* look like and then scattering for music practice, final wedding preparations, and sleep. Thank goodness.

Friday morning was graduation rehearsal and Friday afternoon was graduation—it was finally time to get that diploma!

Personal photo / Current family

Personal photo / Soon-to-be family!

I was so SO thankful to be done, but we were nowhere near done celebrating! Unfortunately, graduation went late—like 45 minutes longer than we had expected—putting us late for the welcome dinner at the park. At the same time, a storm was brewing. See our hair whipping in the above pictures? Well, the wind continued to blow and it started to rain...

What kind of crazy schedule did you have for the day before your wedding? Did you deal with bad weather?

Lemur L'amour: Decorating the Venue

Originally I was worried we would only be able to get into the venue the day of the wedding. Technically our contract stated that we would only have access the day of—but our sweet caterer told us to stop by anytime she was there, which ended up being all afternoon Thursday and all day Friday. Since Friday was jam-packed, we scheduled the decorating for Thursday afternoon.

When we got there, they had already set up all of the tables and chairs, spread the linens, and were working on setting the tables. So much more than I had expected seeing as though we had selected a non-traditional wedding venue—the summer months at Pleasant Ridge are full of camps for special needs kids, not weddings! I had brought extra troops with me just in case... so all sixteen of my family members took on the venue in full force to turn it from a camp cafeteria into a ceremony and reception space.

Personal photo

The tables went quickly—we set the bags on the tables and each of us unpacked two or three in less than a half hour. My grandmother tackled the fireplace, which was originally a wide open charred space that was...ugly. She filled it with ivy and candles, and threw in a few flowers on the day of for color.

Personal photos / In progress

We played around with different plants over the fireplace but ended up hanging bunting, which I absolutely loved. The actual hanging part was more difficult though... Ever heard the phrase "too many cooks in the kitchen?" In this case it was more like "too many people watching Mr. Lemur hang bunting."

Personal photo

My dad and sister hung poms over the buffet area and in the windows. I loved the color they brought to the space, but they could have been bigger. Not a problem in the long run but something to remember when you're decorating a huge space!

Personal photos

I don't have a ton of photos of everything we did, but we also decorated all the specialty tables, including the table honoring our parents and grandparents. It turned out to be fantastic and very special.

Personal photo

I can't wait to show you how everything turned out!

When were you able to set up for your wedding?

Lemur L'amour: Celebrating & Finally Together

I loved everyone's suggestions for titles! I think I'm going to go with Lemur L'amour—it's a little nod to Mr. Lemur's birth and growing up years in Quebec, Canada. Plus it's just really cute. You guys are way more creative than I am!

The Tuesday before the wedding was Sister E's 21st birthday! As a combination day celebrating both her birthday and being together for one of the last days before we scattered to Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania for the summer, we spent a low-key afternoon in Greenville and went out for dinner. Sister E set up a walking course that hit some of the nicest places in Greenville—old downtown churches, the Wyche Pavilion (my secret wedding dream that wasn't meant to be), and Falls Park.

Personal photo

Afterwards we celebrated with our extended family with cake, ice cream, and ultimate frisbee. The ultimate frisbee game consisted of me running around with my cousins and uncles while my grandmother and aunts screamed "Don't hit the bride!" I was fine. No bruises on my wedding day.

Wednesday was the best day, because on Wednesday Mr. Lemur finally arrived! We celebrated with wedding errands... and Subway footlong sandwiches in Walmart. Super romantic.

Thursday is where it gets crazy. South Carolina has a 24 hour waiting period for wedding licenses, and you have to apply in person. Since Mr. Lemur hadn't been in South Carolina since December, we had to wait until two days before the wedding to get our marriage license—cutting it a little close. Fortunately, there was hardly a line and we were in and out with our application in less than a half hour!

Personal photo

Then it was off to the venue to decorate! What were the days leading up to your wedding like?

*insert title here*: The Wedding Week Begins

So, you know how everyone has really cool recap titles? Bad news: I'm not clever. I'm prepping to write recaps as soon as we get professional pictures back (should be just a few more weeks!), but I'm not sure what to use as a title. Yes, I know you don't HAVE to have a title, but I thought it would be neat to include one. So help me out! What should I title my recaps? I'm open to any and all suggestions!

The week started out with my parents arriving late on the Saturday before the wedding. We spent Sunday doing typical family things—attending church in the morning, eating lunch with our extended family, and lying around. The rest of the week, though, it was go time.

I worked Monday through Wednesday. In retrospect, this may not have been the greatest idea. Maybe I should have ended my contract early, but that would have meant using non-paid days—and given the fact that we were getting married and moving with all of those related expenses, I thought I should work out my contract.

Monday night was spent working on miscellaneous projects, like signs to direct guests through the turns in the park and toward parking. I'm lazy, so we stuck with our trusty sharpies on wood method. I just free-handed and filled in the lines, so the signs don't match or look consistent. At all. Oh well. Just look at them one at a time.

Personal photo

They ended up working out great. Unfortunately, we still had guests get lost, but at least it wasn't within the park!

Personal photo / My little brother posing with one of the finished signs

We finished several other projects, including organizing the materials for set-up on Thursday. I placed everything for each centerpiece in a bag labeled for the table, which ended up being one of the greatest things I did. When we arrived at the venue, it was as easy as pulling out each bag and setting it on the correct table.

Personal photos

Then it was on to Tuesday and my sister's birthday plus celebrating one of my last days as a single woman!

How did your wedding week begin? Suggestions for a name? Please?

I Was Crazy

I graduated with my masters degree on May 3rd and we got married on May 4th. Making matters more complicated, graduation was in the afternoon and we had a morning wedding...plus Mr. Lemur also graduated...plus I also had to move all of my stuff out of my apartment and pack it to travel 800 miles.

This was not my original plan. Back when we first started talking about dates, I was pushing for May 11th. We knew we wanted to get married in early May because South Carolina is *usually* already 85+ degrees by that time of year. I also didn't want a huge gap between finishing my degree and work contract and moving to a new area and finding a job. 

Personal photo / Mr. Lemur and I with my grandparents after graduation

For many reasons, May 11th wasn't convenient for the rest of our families. Namely, the fact that Mr. Lemur's parents are in Michigan, and he has siblings in Utah, Guam, and Africa. My parents are in Wisconsin. It would have been incredibly difficult and in at least one case impossible for our closest family members to attend both our graduation and wedding. Not cool. 

So we decided to cram it all in to one crazy weekend. When I told people this the response was usually "You're doing what?!" I had a cookie cutter answer like "Well, actually my degree requirements are complete on April 5th and I'm only working 30 hours a week for the remainder of the month, so it's not that bad! Plus I have a lot planned already." Which was all true, but I underestimated the amount of work that has to get done right before the wedding. 

Personal photo / With three of my best friends after graduation

I'm going to get into the events of the week before the wedding more in future posts...you guys, I was crazy. 

But do I regret that insane weekend where not everything went perfectly and I didn't sit down for four straight days? As I relax on the couch in our new apartment with my husband during a lazy morning while he reads forums and I blog...no. Absolutely not. 

Did anyone else have a crazy wedding weekend?

We're Married!

I'm so excited to write this post!

On Saturday, May 4th, at 11:00 am (well, maybe more like 11:20 am), Mr. Lemur and I said I do. It was not a perfect day... but it was pretty much as close as it gets.

We started out with some pictures in the road (same day sneak peeks from our photographer!).

Image via Niki Marie Photography

After getting everyone situated and family pictures done, we started the ceremony... ten minutes late. (We'll get to that in the recaps!) The ceremony flowed smoothly into the reception and pretty soon we were sneaking out for a few more pictures in the woods.

Image via Niki Marie Photography

I'll be back in the next few days with the events leading up to the wedding, our honeymoon, and a few more miscellaneous posts! It will still be three or four weeks before we get the rest of professional pictures, but I have several things to talk about before then. Until then, I'm back! And glad to be back as a married woman.