Wedding

Something Old, Borrowed and Blue

I love what I wore for something old, borrowed and blue. I really hadn’t given the “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue” tradition any thought so when my Aunt Sue offered to loan me the light blue sapphire bracelet that my Grandpa Tanner gave to my Grandma Tanner for her birthday years ago I jumped at the opportunity. Both my Grandpa Tanner and Grandma Tanner are deceased and the bracelet was a perfect way to remember my them during our wedding. I remember touching it a few times throughout the ceremony and thinking of my grandparents and the surprise party we threw them for their 50th wedding anniversary in 1996. They left quite a legacy with 5 children all married, 19 grandchildren with 10 now married and 21 great-grandchildren ranging in ages from 16 to 1.

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Aunt Sue loaning me Grandma Tanner's bracelet at the rehearsal dinner.

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Wedding

The Night Before

It almost felt like the night before Christmas with all of the anticipation, excitment and my inability to sleep before the wedding.

Our rehearsal dinner the night before was incredible and the best part about it was that my in-laws planned the entire thing – I loved it! We had a cookout dinner with an ice cream bar (my in-laws know me so very, very well!!!) at Medallion Country Club and everything was delicious. The weather was perfect for a cocktail hour outside and there was plenty of grass for the kids to run around.

My new family

My new family

After dinner, my father-in-law gave a great toast that made me teary and so appreciative of the family I’ve joined and then my mother-in-law played a slideshow of photos of Nick and I. The cute part about the slideshow is that she showed the parallels of our lives (piano lessons, sports, OSU Engineering graduates, etc.).

I spent my last night as a single girl at my parent’s house laughing over a glass of wine, trying to make (crooked) directional signs for the reception with my mom and sharing a few emotional tears. I can’t really imagine how they felt but I know my primary emotions the entire weekend were love and gratitude. I owe my parents so much for everything they’ve done for me and their example of unconditional love!!

I'll still always be a Tanner regardless of my last name!

I'll always be a Tanner regardless of my last name!

 – Mary

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Wedding

The Rehearsal

So after the manicures and pedicures I rushed home to get ready for the Rehearsal, I was one of the last ones to arrive at the church (oops – too busy wrapping presents to get dressed) but I still arrived on time. The rehearsal was surreal. I kept wondering if it was really happening. Our priest, Fr. Chuck, walked us through the ceremony pretty quick and we were done in less than 30 minutes like he promised.

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Us with our wedding coordinator, Nancy: "Do you guys know what to do tomorrow? That was a pretty quick rehearsal." Us: "Yeah... we're ready"

My thoughts: Is the wedding really tomorrow? I'll be sitting up here tomorrow? It's here all ready??

My thoughts: Is the wedding really tomorrow? I'll be sitting up here tomorrow? It's here all ready??

After the rehearsal I led a convy of 6 cars to the rehearsal dinner, and that’s when I had my one and only one moment of feeling slightly overwhelmed. Mainly because things were starting to happen REALLY fast and probably because it felt out of my control. Since I was alone in my car, I called up my wonderful, dear friend Monica and asked her if it was normal to feel overwhelmed – not at getting married or being married to Nick –  just at the imensity of it all and not remembering any part of the rehearsal we just had. She gave me wonderful advice – “Tomorrow you will not care about ANYTHING except Nick. Just look at Nick and nobody else will matter. Oh and your priest will run the ceremony”  She was and still is 100% right. And she made me laugh!

So for the rest of the drive to dinner I kept repeating what Fr. Chuck had told us from day 1 when we met with him. “You only need to do 3 things: (1) Get to the church. (2) Get down the aisle. (3) I’ll get you the rest of the way.” And he was right too. I guess there’s a reason he told us those 3 things multiple times, because when I needed it, I remembered them.

– Mary

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Wedding

The Day Before

This is me with my future mother-in-law and future sister-in-law on Friday, July 31st after getting a manicure and pedicure:

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One of the nail technicians commented that she was so shocked to find out I was the bride since I was so calm and relaxing in a chair! And I was calm and relaxed. Previous to this photo I had lunch at Cosi with my mom, future mother-in-law and future sister-in-law. The four of us went to get our nails done and were joined by my other two bridesmaids and flower girl.

hannah_nails

Note: I am writing a month’s worth of posts after the fact, but I remember every detail very vividly… I’ve had a difficult time wanting to capture the whole wedding event, mainly because I’m afraid of ruining the perfect vision in my head by not representing it well enough!!

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Wedding

4 Weeks and Counting

Less than 30 days to go!  Today we visited St. Charles and took a sneak peak at someone else’s wedding setup. Our caterer Berwick (who’s the BEST), let us in early to check it out. It was good to see and have a real image in my head of what it looks like for a wedding reception. Up until now it just looked like a really big room with incredibly high ceilings. Of course in viewing someone else’s wedding I immediately saw about 10 things I hadn’t even considered yet. Mints for the bar? Framed photos of parents and grandparent’s weddings? Sparkly table cloths to add color to the white ones? Pretty decorations to wrap around the banisters down the stairs? A list of drinks for the bar? I already nixed the cocktain napkins – phew.

I also noticed the gold chairs they have at St. Charles. They stood out a ton. They aren’t necessarily ugly, they just don’t quite go with the color scheme (today’s wedding was white and light blue). The caterer quoted $3.75 / chair to cover them from a woman he knows, but my mom is going to search for cheaper, because $1125 to cover them up is ridiculous, insane and illogical. (Now ask me later if covering them up is worth $600? $300?).

Last night, we stayed in Dayton with Nick’s parents and his mom and I did a trip to Joanne’s and Michael’s looking for wedding favor bags. I’m stocking up on Swiss chocolate on my trips (I go to Switzerland again in a week), and we found some 3×4 Navy blue organza favor bags that I think will work great.

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At Michael’s the bags were $3.99 for 12 (or $0.33 / bag). After a quick search of the internet, Idea Ribbon is having a sale and if I buy 300 I can get them for $0.08 / bag. Luckily, I need 300!

Speaking of numbers… the RSVP deadline was Wednesday the 1st. As of right now we have 226 yes’s, very few no’s and we are waiting on responses from 70 people. It looks like we will surpass my 250 people estimate!!

Happy 4th of July!!

Mary

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