Guest Bench

Ok, lovelies...I want to get married again...just so I can redo all the fun things...but not pay for any of it.  Who's in?

The biggest reason I want to get married to Husband again?  This awesome wedding guest bench.  How freaking cute is that?  And how much better is that than a book?  Seriously, who really looks at the book again?

Maybe Jaynee and Ryan could have one.  Or maybe when Court or Dev or Bre get married.  Aww...man!  So cute!

If I made one, would all you lovely guests who signed our book also sign our bench?  Pretty please.

Just Pay the Extra Money for a Reception Center

is my advice to any bride who thinks they'll save a butt load of money by using the church cultural hall for their reception.  Yes, the money will be saved but you pay for it in being a crazy person.

The night before the reception, Anthony and I and a bunch of fabulous friends and family members decorated the cultural hall.  While trying to decorate, I almost canceled the reception...twice..., I cried and locked myself in the bathroom...twice..., I wanted to scream at EVERYONE and punch holes in the walls...but I didn't, I held my composure that much at least.

After all of that, I want to discuss one simple fact: from the time we got engaged until the moment we began decorating the church for the reception, I was the most calm bride IN EXISTENCE.

I never had a meltdown, I never worried about little things.  I was a whatever works kind of bride.  Nothing bothered me.  Yep, I wanted things to look nice but I didn't care that the blues weren't the exact shade I had imagined or that the bridesmaids wore different colored shoes or that the groomsmen's ties didn't really match the green in the decor.  Whatever.  No one really notices those things anyway. 

That all changed the night we decorated for the reception.  All I wanted was a beautiful cultural hall that didn't look like a cultural hall.  Is that too much to ask on a wedding day?  I think not.  I had a vision but it refused to work...for a while. Anthony had shown me pictures from his friend's wedding in which they hung tulle and white Christmas lights from the ceiling of the church and it looked really nice.

Kirsten and Joe's reception...Awww...so lovely.

I thought "Easy peasy mac and cheesy.  I can do that."  It wasn't.  The tulle and lights were way too heavy for the fishing line and the tulle was hanging about 3 feet from the floor. (Cue first meltdown)

It looked horrible and about 99% of our guests were taller than 3 feet so I knew it wasn't going to work out.  We tried everything.  Still, 3 feet off the ground.  Ugh times one billion.  I was devastated.  Looking back it didn't really matter but at that moment my life was over.  I was freaking.  We tried a few different things for a few hours and nothing worked.

(Cue Jaynee's entrance)  Jaynee saw that I was upset and having a difficult time being there.  We left to find a ladder.  We came back, she suggested something brilliant, said it was my idea and everything finally worked.  Ahhh...I love her.  It finally worked but it was about 1am by the time we got out of there.

Here's what it looked like after four hours of headache and breakdowns:

It really did look a lot better than this in real life...promise.

Moral of the story: just use a reception center.

What I Love...Day 30, 2011

I love...

that I'm going to love more than 1 thing in this post.  You might be arguing with me saying something like, "Ash J. You can't do that!  It's 1 thing a day.  That's the rule."  Too freaking bad is what I say back to you.  This is my blog...I do what I want.  I'm a rebel.  Now I'm just rambling.  Anyway...

I love this picture from the wedding

Did you happen to notice something...or someone...beside me and Husband?

Oh, yep.  Little girl who was spying on us the whole time we were out there.  She kept distracting me by opening the curtains to peek at us.  Little did I know that she would be a permanent part of our memories.  Made me laugh pretty hard when I discovered her in picture form.

I love my wedding dress.  Jenny did an amazing job and it was everything I could have wanted.  Would it be weird if I wore it again just because?  Maybe I'll be a bride for Halloween or maybe I'll just lounge around my house in it.

I love when people call me or comment and let me know that my blog is funny or that it brightened their day.  (This is a hint to all you lovelies who read on a regular basis to comment more often and validate me.)

I love spending time with family.  The drive me nuts at times but I love them dearly.


I love technology.  Cell phones, internet, computers, electricity...it's all amazing and I'm so glad I get to use it all daily.

I love my husband.  He's really good to me and fixes everything I need fixed.  Not to mention, he's really handsome.

I love shoes.  Really cute, sassy, high heeled varieties especially.

I love frozen yogurt with many toppings...mmm...YogurtLand.

I love babies....mmm....babies.  (Nope, Court, that's not an announcement.)

I love Utah.  It's a wonderful state.  It's a wonderful place to live and I'm pretty sure they only way I'll ever live somewhere else is if I'm paid exorbitant amounts of money or Utah sinks into the ocean...pretty sure neither of those things will happen.

Basically, I'm just super in love with my life right now.  Life is good.

Love. Love. Love.

Pre-Wedding Day Love

My cute sister Devin has a blog...but it's private.  The day before I got married she wrote a post that made me cry.  I hope she doesn't mind that I'm sharing it.

Ashley Marie. I'm so happy that you are getting married tomorrow.  You've found an amazing guy to call your husband.  Anthony is a great guy and I'll be glad to call him my brother-in-law. You are a wonderful sister and I'm positive that you will be an even better wife.  When the time comes the two of you will also be super parents.  I'm also glad that you guys choose to go through the temple.  This is the happiest I have ever seen you, Ash.  Thank you Anthony for making my sister happy. Your wedding is going to be beautiful and I'm very glad that I get to be a part of it.  Have a wonderful life together. 
 
I love you both!

[Antony, if you are reading this, thanks again for teaching me how to do a back flip.  It's still the coolest thing that I'm able to do at the moment!]

What I Love...Day 26, 2011

I love...

these pictures from my wedding day. (There will be more soon.)

I dance when I'm excited.  I left the temple dancing. 

There was a lot of excited dancing that day.

And maybe a few fist pumps.

Ryan...he was almost as giddy as I was this day.

Court fanning Dev's tears away.  When I left the temple dressing room, my beauty (maybe?) made my sisters and mom cry.  Bam.  Double bam.

Friends

Trifecta!

sisters

We're going into the modeling business...tomorrow...we'll make sure to remember you when we're famous.

Honeymoon

Husband and I went to Denver from January 28-February 1.  It was an amazing 60 degrees when we arrived...and a horrid negative 6 when we left.  I know...who does that?  Negative 6...NEGATIVE SIX...as in below freezing...as in below zero.  Ridiculous.  Regardless of the weather we had a good time.

For our wedding, we received a gift card to Olive Garden.  I'm not a huge fan of the OG but decided since it would be basically free we'd go.  Little did I know that a salad with murderous intentions would try to kill my husband.

I refer to the salad as "The Widow Maker."  OG staff knows what I'm talking about.

 Yep, husband almost choked to death.  NBD...psych!  Super scary but we made it through.

We also stopped at the Safeway to get some groceries for Sunday.  Safeway = super expensive unless you have a Safeway card...we are now club members.  Good thing there are no Safeways in Utah.  On the way in we saw this sign.  It made me laugh.

I have never seen a sign like this.  Are shingles a big deal in Denver?

 Also, Denver traffic sucks.  Combine that with snow and rush hour and you get this.  Ugh.

Jealous of my photography skills?  Thought so.

One highlight of the trip.  Tocabe.  Amazing food.  It won out over Cafe Rio and I loooove me some Cafe Rio so that's saying a lot.

Again with the amazing photography...maybe I should open my own photog business. 

Husband had the stuffed Fry Bread with Bison.  Good but not nearly as good as mine.

I got the American Indian Taco with Bison.  Amazing.  If I could I would wear it as an edible suit and munch on it all day.  Ok, probably not but it's freaking delicious.

In case you were wondering, Bison is really really good for you.

Like I said, when we arrived in Denver it was super warm.  By day 3 it was negative degrees.  We had ice on the inside of our hotel window.  Then it started melting and we had puddles on the inside of our hotel.  Not cool.

Ahhh...what a lovely weekend...now we head home for a relaxing evening...not.

We got home and these are the lovely surprises Jenny (my twin/roommate/one-third of the trifecta) and all other nameless parties left for us.

The front door was tied shut but I was able to squirm my way in.

Pictures were turned around, things were sideways, all my toilet paper was used as decor.

No watching TV for us...or using our new Kinect...woot awesome wedding present.

Don't mind the super old penis cookie falling out the front of the microwave.

 

 

 

 

Frozen water balloons?  Yes, please.

Aside from the random crazy things left by my friends, the honeymoon and the living together was/is amazing.  Living together...not as weird as I thought.  I actually really love it. 

Moral of the story: being married is the coolest.

Giddy Wedding

I'm still waiting on the pictures from my wedding but here's one Court took that I loved.  (You can read her take on the day here.  I promise I'll get around to writing everything soon.  Probably when there are pictures.)

Not entirely sure what I'm doing but I think it captures my emotion from the day very well.  I was downright giddy.

What I Love...Day 18, 2011

I love...

Rust-Oleum ColorShft spray paint.  It's the most amazing spray of my life.

For the wedding decor, we bought cheap-o frames at the dollar store then sprayed the crap out of them with the green version of this paint.  I L-O-V-E how they turned out.

Maybe one day when I get my house put back together, I'll have a picture of the frames but until then just believe me.  This stuff is awesome.

What I Love...Day 16, 2011

I love...

these bridals (for those of you that asked to see them, you're welcome)

Which do you like better?  Black and white or Color?

Gust of wind = my Marilyn Monroe moment

And I guess I thought that was really funny.

What I Love...Day 13, 2011

I love...

Anthony and being married to him. (Yep, that happened today.  Yep, I wrote this a few days in advance.  Yep, I'm not actually going to be blogging for the next few days.)

What I Love...Day 12, 2011

I love...

that I get married tomorrow.  What the what?!  How did that get here so fast?  Ahhh, man!  I'm so stoked.

4 AM and I'm Awake

Technically it was 2:30am when I first woke up but I spent the last hour and a half trying to trick my brain into sleeping until 8 like I wanted.  It was a no go. 

My eyes are still so tired but my brain is racing.  Dang brain.  I want a bagel.

I think I'll work on cleaning my room in preparation for a new person living with me...in the same room.  Weird.  But awesome.  I haven't shared a room since I was in 2nd grade.  (That's almost 20...ack...years, in case you were wondering.)

Remember back to when we got engaged I thought this day was so far away.  3 months has FLOWN by.  I can't believe it's only 2 days...days people, DAYS!...away.  So stinking excited.  I hope I can sleep the night before so I don't look all zombie-fied in the pictures.  Cross your fingers for me, maybe say a prayer.  I'll be knocking back a couple melatonin pills just to be sure.

Slow Motion Like Whoa!

As the day was ending, JR handed me this box of artificial rose petals

and said, "If you could get me a ladder and a fan for your wedding that would be great."

I laughed so hard.  It was just so funny to me.  Because I was laughing so hard he tried to explain how this was the greatest idea that ever happened.

"See if you bring me the fan and ladder I can set the fan up behind me and stand on the ladder and then you can walk into the reception all in slow motion and it will be like 'WHOOOOAAAAA!!!!'"

"I'll see what I can do, JR.  I'll see what I can do."