Bittersweet Ending

The last 199 posts (today's post marks number 200!!) I have shared with anyone willing to read my journey through the wonderful world of wedding planning. Some days all I wanted to do was read wedding blogs, look through bridal magazines or find the perfect accessories and other days I wanted a mental break from all the decisions Joe and I had to make. Looking back, I wouldn't change a thing.

'Until We Say I Do' was a way for me to share ideas and details with family and friends (and possibly strangers) on what I wanted to do or try to do for the big day. I realized I'm terrible at making decisions - give me 16 months to plan one day and I will change my mind again and again. I also realized (even more) that it doesn't matter if the tablecloths don't match the napkins you bought (guilty) but that you are marrying your best friend! Personally, I think that is the coolest part about getting married. Joe has been really good at reminding me of this on several occasions when I get hung up on the little details.

However, the time has come to start a new adventure. I've spent months and months talking about this wedding thing that is taking place in just 3 DAYS but honestly, I'm ready to move on. Who knows what I'll talk about in my next blog although I'm sure it will consist of living life as newlyweds and starting school back up. We live very exciting lives haha:)

Today is my last day of work for two weeks and I could not be more excited! My parents and Sadie are coming down tomorrow and we'll run as many errands as we can. I have to pick up our linens from the catering company and then we're headed down to the farmer's market to get some flowers for the dinner tables.

They say all good things must come to an end so today is my last post. I think with the next couple of days, the wedding and then leaving for our honeymoon I won't have much time to sit down and fill you all in. Thank you for sharing in this journey with me...it's a little sad leaving my little blog but promise to write again soon.

xo, Sarah

4 days

I'm really hoping this heat wave pushes right on through and leaves us by Saturday. Right now the weather channel is saying with the heat index it's feeling like 120 degrees outside. I'm very thankful that my office is air conditioned and thankful for our window unit (which has been running all day because I forgot to shut it off this morning...oops!) 

Last night I finished our signs for the wedding grounds and the picture above was my inspiration. Joe built us a sturdy sign with some old, aged wood we grabbed from his grandparent's barn and I wrote "Games", "Reception" and "Joe & Sarah Say I Do". I'm not too fond on how the "Joe and Sarah Say I Do" board turned out because my lettering looks a little funky but overall it's a great little detail. After, Joe and I went over to Chad and Kelly's place to take a swim in their pool - a much needed relief from the heat. Tonight Kelly and I are getting our toes done for the wedding...hmmm what color shall I do? :) This is my second pedicure of my life (first one was also with Kelly) and I'm mostly doing it because I'm gettting married on Saturday. Why the heck not?! I don't normally partake in life's little luxuries because 1) I can paint my own toes and 2) I don't have time but I'll make an exception once in a while. Hopefully the place will be air conditioned too!

Going through my "wedding" folder of all the pictures of ideas and details I gathered throughout this whole wedding planning process, I'm realizing I haven't shared a lot of them with you. And now, well...I guess it's a little too late. I probably shouldn't be looking for more ideas at this point anyway. I mean, I only have 4 more days!

5 days

This is my last Monday as Sarah Micke. Next Monday, Joe and I will be driving from Seattle at this time on our way to catch a ferry. Honeymoon at last:) I can not express the emotions I'm feeling right now in adequate words so you'll have to settle for words like... awesome, excited, happy. Original I know. Joe and I had a successful weekend gathering up some last minute things. I have already made another list for the things we forgot to pick up...oops. But overall, we survived are surviving the 90+ temps and high humidity. I think they're saying the heat index has been making it feel like 112 degrees or so. I'm hoping the humidity and high temps leave by Saturday but now they're saying scattered storms :( The forecast can still change - at least that's what I keep telling myself.

We worked on our slide show and are about 90% done, I washed up our water glasses I had sitting in the basement, met my parents in Isanti for Sadie's soccer game and took back the rest of our wine and cookie jars, got my ring cleaned and shined up so it's sitting in the box right now waiting to be worn again on Saturday, picked up a few items for the honeymoon, starting organizing things for the day of and put it all in appropriate boxes, went for a bike ride with Joe, went for a swim in Cedar Lake with Joe, slept on our air mattress under our new window A/C unit for the past couple nights and will probably do so until the heat leaves us, and on and on.

Seriously, what am I going to talk about after this whole "wedding" thing. Guess I'll find out in 5 DAYS!

Last Minute Runs

Haha...That title makes me giggle. Yes, I am that person who likes a little childlike humor in her life every once in awhile. This weekend marks mine and Joe's last weekend EVER as an unmarried couple. Isn't that crazy? Joe and I are already on the road to living the high life that married couples do. We bought our first ever window air conditioner last night! Can I get a whoop whoop!? We figured with the 90+ degree weather and humidity coming our way for pretty much the next five-six days straight we'd get ourselves a little present for toughing it out thus far this summer. I feel like a grown up.

Our last sweet taste of freedom (jk:) weekend before we get hitched, Joe and I will be running all over the Twin Cities to pick up any last minute things we may need for the wedding. I'm sure we'll be at some places more than once because we forgot to get this or that but we'll get it all taken care of eventually. Yep. Eight more days to go. Get excited!!

Happy Weekend!!

I Don't Want to Jinx Myself but...

The weather for the big day is looking perfect. And please don't tell me, it's "too good to be true".

Because I want it to be true...

According to weather.com starting tomorrow up until next Thursday it's going to be in the 90's so I'm hoping it rains a bit on Friday - gets all the heat and rain out of its system and be amazing on Saturday. A girl can dream.

10 DAYS!

You heard me. TEN. I can use both of my hands now for the countdown because I have ten fingers. Shocker, I know. You know what else is kind of at the end of its purpose in ten days? This blog:( Tear. When I originally started this "wedding" journey, I told myself this was going to be my one and only blog. Then earlier this spring I decided to keep going with it but change it up a bit. 'Until We Say I Do' is nearing the end of its life but as they say when one door closers, another one opens. I will be starting a new blog with a completely different web address but I will keep you all in the know. And I'm not going to be blogging the day of our wedding, the day after, or even the ten days after that because we'll be in Canada. Oh glorious day!

Wow, I sound like a debbie downer. I am very excited about all the new changes coming our way. Monday night Joe and I walked down to Harriet Island and sat on a dock on the Mississippi River. It was a beautiful night - perfect summer breeze, perfect evening and we wrote our vows. I love them. They have a hint of tradition but sound more like us. Then today I finished up our programs, hello 240 programs, paid our caterer (thank you MOM) and chairs for our ceremony (another thanks to MOM), printed off our drink menus, made table reserved, cookie and beverage signs. I've been a busy girl.

Never ending programs...

I've been working on the layout and wording of our programs for about a month now but today I officially started putting them together. We originally were going to make 300 but have now dwindled that number to about 240. That's right, we are no where near our 320 max capacity which means, less people, less running around like crazy trying to say hi to everyone and finding time to dance to EVERY song - which I plan on doing. It feels good.

Our programs have a little bit of spunk to them with the wording and seeing the final product makes me love them even more. They look awesome! I may be partial because I created them but it's the truth:) And if you find a spelling error, please don't tell me. Don't even bring it up. I've looked through these hundreds of times and would like to think that they are perfect.

I've managed to put together 160 today and will probably squeeze a few more in before the end of the day. Tomorrow I should have them all done along with printing our drink menus, reserved table signs and signs for the cookie jars and beverage dispensers. Almost there.

11 DAYS!

Bachelorette Fun!

This weekend was the big bachelorette party and let me tell you...it was a fantastic day! Saturday morning I awoke to clouds and the dreadful rain but we decided to tough it out and head to the cabin anyway. Sadie had been watching the weather all morning and it looked like it would clear up at some point during the day, we just didn't know when. On our drive out the rain stopped and it was actually humid when we stepped out of the car. Everyone finally made it out and although the sun wasn't shining, it was still warm enough to play out on the water.

We had two jet skis going, three kayaks, the paddle boat and towards the end of the day my Dad's boss (who also has a cabin on the lake) came over with a huge Jumbo Dog tube to pull us around. And the sun also graced us with its presence for the last half of the day. WHOO! Thank you to everyone who came...my lovely sisters and cousins for hosting it, my aunt and uncle for letting us use their cabin, my Dad who got the second jet ski running and my parents and aunt and uncle for grilling up the delicious food and keeping everything running smoothly. I had a blast and felt very blessed to have everyone there!



The game...who brought what? I managed to guess two out of ten correct!



Melissa, Kelsey & Emmy taking the kayaks out!



Kate, Nikki, Melanie & myself out on the slowest paddleboat ever:) Ha



The Jumbo Dog! If you're on the back, the longest you'll ever be able to
hang on is about 30 seconds...no joke!



Sadie, Andrea, Melanie & Nikki finally enjoying some sun!

 

Melissa, myself, Kelsey & Emmy...I'm obviously the one who needs the
sun the most! ha



All the ladies, minus Kate. She had already left before we got our act together
to take a group picture

 

High School Friends!



Sisters



Cousins



Andrea & Sadie played in the water the whole day!



Lounging...

Off to the Barn...

Early this week Joe and I headed out to the barn one more time before the big day. (Which is in 15 days by the way:) It was actually the first time we had been there when the leaves were on the trees and everything was green. In the past, we've been out there in early spring or the fall so we hadn't seen what it would look like in July. All I can say is that is was perfect. Everything about it. The way it looked, the way it smelled...everything! I'm praying a little more for a beautiful summer day so our guests can enjoy the beauty of the area. Please pretty please be nice!!!! See what I mean about perfect??

Ahh oh so lovely:) Joe and I were standing where the ceremony will be taking place and he goes, "I'm getting really excited. It's starting to actually hit me that we're getting married!" I've been really emotional for some reason the past week or so and I'm sure it will continue through to the wedding. I don't know what it is but I am giddy with excitement, I start thinking about the first time I'll see Joe and when my Dad walks me down the aisle and I get teary eyed. Ay ay ay! I really want to write our own vows and even though Joe isn't crazy about the idea he's doing it for me. (insert collective "ahhhh" here) We were talking last night about what we could say and I started crying! haha. Pull yourself together Sarah! It's all happy tears and I'm such a sap to begin with...maybe I should have a big happy cry fest before the wedding and get it all out of my system.

Anyway, the reason for going back out to the barn was to take one more walk through and get a better idea on how to hang the lights or where to put the dessert table. We made a little list of a few more things to get but other than that we're sitting pretty good! Tonight I'm making the drive home because tomorrow is my bachelorette party! A day out at the cabin and the weather is looking in our favor so far! Can't wait! Happy Weekend my friends!

Britney & Bean Bag Toss

What a night! My friend Kelsey, a few of her friends from college and myself rocked it out at the Britney Spears concert and it was awesome! I've been a hard core Britney fan since the beginning and it was so great to see her in concert again. (This was my third time:) Of course, the show was incredible and very entertaining which I had no doubt it would be. I usually go to the shows with Kelsey's brother Joe, but since he's living in Chicago now it was hard for him to find the time midweek to get here. Lucky him, he won tickets last night for her show in Chicago tomorrow - he's so good at getting good seats and winning things! Anyways, here are a few pictures from last night:

On another note, Monday I finished up our Bean Bag Toss game! Finally. I think they turned out great and I'm glad I don't have time to change anything because I just saw another cute way to paint them. There I go again with second guessing myself...can't wait for that part of wedding planning to be done with!

Here's the before...



And here's the after!!

WHOO! I used stencils to write "the shelerud's" but it was a lot harder to use them than I thought. I had to do every other letter to begin with, wait for that to dry and then go back and do the other letters. I ended up free handing the S & J. At one point it looked like this which Joe told people it said "We Love" in Polish.

Silly guy. Another project done! Joe is going to work on our signs while I'm off at my bachelorette party! So far...no rain in the forecast which makes it ten times better because it's out at my aunt and uncle's cabin!

16 days!!!!!

4th of July Weekend

This past weekend was crazy busy...all day, everyday but it was the good kind of busy. Friday after I finally made it out of work, barely alive due to over exposure to boredom, I pulled in our driveway to find our friend Steve sleeping in our hammock. Now, this wouldn't have normally been an issue but it was over 90 degrees with high humidity and he had been out there for an hour! Joe was still at the lake with a couple friends and was not near his phone to hear Steve or myself call him a few times. I got him inside, which wasn't any cooler and gave him a tall glass of ice cold water. We chatted until Joe and the boys showed up. Steve lives up in Alaska and I hadn't seen him for a while so it was great to catch up on all of life's adventures with him. Once everyone arrived, Kelly and I ran to Target to pick up some brats to grill for dinner.

I kept joking with Joe that not only does he get a Pre-Bachelor Party up to Alaska, he gets a "Bachelor Party Eve" kick off too! What a lucky guy. Saturday was the big Bachelor Party and Joe and five other guys spent the day golfing, coming back to our place to play a few yard games before heading out to dinner at the 5*8 club and ended the night at a hotel in downtown Minneapolis. I, on the other hand, ran around the Twin Cities on a mission. I did a little shopping for bridesmaid gifts, picked up a couple things for myself and went to the Paper Depot to pick out paper for our programs and drink menus. I found exactly what I needed but realized a few hours later I forgot to get paper for our drink menus! I'll have to run back there in the next week since we don't have that much time left. (17 days if you're counting!)

Later that afternoon I headed over to my friend Alsie's house to hang out with her and little Grayson. Her husband Josh was at the bachelor party so we decided to get together while the boys are out having fun. We picked up some food from a small town Mexican restaurant, El Torro, which was soooo good and spent the night talking about Grayson and the wedding. You can tell by our conversations that we're getting "older".

Sunday rolled around and I started working on deep cleaning our kitchen and moving in our new things from the showers. I started at 10:30 and don't think I stopped until 8pm that night. Of course I took a few breaks in there but I was non-stop the whole day. My body hurt after but it was well worth it! I finally feel like the house is ours. At least the kitchen does:) I threw out things the boys left behind, made a pretty large Goodwill pile and reorganized everything! It looks awesome! Joe made it home around noon and it sounded like they had a fun day. He was more perky than I thought he would be and he quickly went to work on turning the "Wedding Central" room into his very own office. Let me tell you, the "office" is all I hear about now. Every time he goes past the room he stares into it for a bit and gets all excited. It's kind of funny.

Monday Joe and I ran a couple errands including one to IKEA so Joe could get a shelf for his big office and then we spent the rest of the day doing house things. Later that night we walked down to Harriet Island to watch the fireworks. We have found the best spot to watch them...it felt like you were right below them. Overall, it was such a great weekend and it's nice to get settled in more a little at the house. I feel like it's slowly becoming "our" house instead of Joe's house with two roommates and I am loving it! 

In the words of myself...

18 freakin days left!!!

Wow. The big day is getting closer and I am so excited for it to finally get here! It feels like a million years ago we started planning this day and now it's coming up quickly. Well, maybe not a million years. Joe proposed to me on March 14, 2010 so we've been planning since March 15, 2010. And of course because I'm a girl who has dreamt about this day for my whole life, I guess you could say I've been planning for this day for the past 20 years. (I'm going to assume the first five years of my life I really didn't understand what it meant to get married to your best friend and start a life together.) I'm walking away with two bits of advice to give to all those unmarried woman out there:

Advice Tip #1) Unless you love making decisions, do not plan a wedding for 16 months like I have. I have changed my mind on centerpieces, invites and all those other details about 20 times. This has also caused me to "give up" on some things I wanted to do because I thought I had all this time to see what else was out there and now I'm running out of time. I would shoot for about 7-10 months. This gives you plenty of time to get everything ready and then you're not counting down the months, days and hours until your big day. Believe me, that gets old.

Advice Tip #2: Unless you want your grandma's, second cousin's niece invited to the wedding, put a cap on the guest list. I realize this is very hard to do and you don't want to hurt any body's feelings but the list can get out of hand, and fast. It was harder for Joe and I to do this because we both have such big families. My immediate family (siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins) was about a 100 people. YIKES! We tried to do a "first round" "second round" go with our invites but there were still people on our lists that we would have liked to have invited but we couldn't guarantee we'd get enough no's so they never got the invite. And for some reason everyone wants to come to our wedding. They must think it's going to be a good time because of our pig roast and barn dance. Who knew! Just know where to draw the line if you don't want to have everyone and their mom at your wedding.

I don't regret anything we've done with planning this wedding. I can't say how Joe feels personally but I have been waiting for the day to marry my best friend for a lifetime. And I've always wanted a big wedding (within reason) where you wear the white dress and have all your family and friends surrounding you, helping you celebrate the start of your life together. But if I could do it all again, (after having the wedding I've always pictured of course) I would have a small, intimate wedding with close family and friends. And by close I mean no extended family unless they've been a huge part of your life and friends you see on a regular basis. At the end of the day, the most important thing about getting married is that you are starting your life together with your husband. It doesn't matter who wore what or what you had for dinner, or the fact that they didn't play your favorite song at the dance. What matters most is that you are making a lifelong commitment together to love each other through thick and thin.

This post seems to have turned into a short novel so I'll update you about the holiday weekend throughout the week to come.

It's July....

Which means our wedding month is officially here! I can't believe in 22 days Joe and I are getting married! It also means I have A LOT to get done haha. The pressure is on. Good pressure of course. And I'm so glad we applied for our marriage license on Wednesday because the MN Government shutdown. I could never get a clear answer if it would affect the county when I tried calling but no need to worry about it now!

I think the next few weeks are going to be pretty crazy around the future Shelerud household but I am so excited to enjoy the day that we've been planning for 14 months. It's going to be awesome! Today is the deadline for sending in the RSVPs and unfortunately we are still waiting on about 80 people to respond. I guess we'll have to start hitting the phones and calling our guests to see what they're planning on doing!

The countdown to 5:30pm started before I even got up this morning to come to work. It's going to be a long day. At least I have a three day weekend to look forward to!

Happy 4th of July Everyone!!