San Diego Brides: This one's for you!

Justine Murray is a bridal accessory genius. I could sing her praises all day long.

I felt so lucky to wear a few of her fabulous creations on my wedding day:



So, if you live in the San Diego or Orange County area, don't miss Justine's trunk show this Saturday! Here are the deets:

Saturday, Feb. 27 (call for appointment)

Chez Bride Moderne, La Jolla, CA
858.551.1295

*Mention Mason Jar Bride and Justine will give you 10% off any of her amazing designs!

Can't make it to the San Diego event? Don't worry, Justine will also be showing her collection in Orange County and L.A., and she's making a special trip to the Bay Area April 30-May 1! Check out her website for more details.

Rehearsal Brunch

Kathryn, Sarina, Michael (bro-in-law), and Heather (my sis)!

I really wish I had more pictures from this day. But I much prefer the role of "hostess" over "photographer" so I was buzzing around all morning, making sure everyone tried my cinnamon rolls... and I barely remembered to pick up my camera.

And it seems that hardly anyone else took pictures... maybe they were distracted by how delicious the cinnamon rolls were. Hmmm.... well, in any case I have a couple of my own, and the rest were shamelessly stolen from my sister's facebook page.

When Curt and I were trying to figure out what to do for a rehearsal, we threw around a lot of ideas... we knew the chances of an actual rehearsal at Marvimon were pretty slim, plus even if we could reserve the space for an hour on the morning before the wedding, it seemed silly to drag everyone over there just so they could walk down an aisle. It's not that hard. They're all smart people and I had faith in them. So we decided to have a small, casual brunch at my in-laws' house on Saturday morning, and do a quick little rehearsal in the backyard. Easy peasy.

my Maw-Maw and my Dad

Pastor Ryan showed up and I introduced him to my family members who had come from out of town, while simultaneously handing him a plate of food... maybe playing hostess helped me feel more in my element and it calmed me down, I don't know. But I honestly wasn't stressed out or nervous at all about the wedding. I was just uncontrollably happy and full of adrenaline!

my momma and me!

Once everyone was stuffed, we gathered in the backyard and Jesi and I got everyone organized. Leland, one of our good friends from college, was going to be playing acoustic guitar for the processional, and I completely trusted him to improvise and still sound amazing. He offered to come up from San Diego for the rehearsal but I didn't want him to have to make the drive two days in a row. It didn't matter, he was absolutely perfect, just like I knew he'd be. No one had to worry about memorizing a certain spot in the music, they just walked when Jesi said "go" and Leland played along. He's the best!!!!

not really sure what's going on with Ryan's face here...

So we walked through the processional, and once everyone was in the right spot, Ryan talked us through the ceremony. I won't go into any details right now because the ceremony was HANDS DOWN my favorite part of the day and I'll be writing a nice hefty post on it... but anyway we talked through the main points and practiced our kiss....

sneak attack! haha

And that was it! Simple, fun, and delicious. That's the way (uh-huh uh-huh) I like it.

Next: The morning of the wedding! Getting ready at the amazing Standard Hotel.

First Things First

let's get caught up...


I mentioned that Curt and his buddies did something pretty non-traditional for his bachelor party. Over Labor Day weekend, the guys kidnapped Curt and took him up to Big Pine (close to Bishop, CA) for a camping/fishing/hiking trip. They slept in tents and bathed in a stream and made a Craps table out of cardboard, and Curt had a blister on his heel the size of a golf ball when he got home. No joke. But they had a lot of fun. And come on, this is a much nicer setting than a Vegas strip club (I guess that depends on who you ask. but whatever):



My bachelorette party was a bit more typical, but none of the standard penis-shaped accessories. Thank God. Instead, Sarina and Kathryn made me a really cute veil headband, which was far less embarrassing. We went out to one of my favorite spots, Nick's in Laguna Beach, the Friday night before the wedding (remember, our wedding was on a Sunday).

Even my grandma got in on the action... that's her in the middle, and my mom on the right.

Corrie got me some granny panties and wrote "10th Anniversary" on the butt. Or was it 5th?

The girls had to throw in at least one traditional make-the-bride-do-something-embarrassing move... at some point one of the bartenders brought me a "BJ shot." I'm sure you can guess what the rules are when downing this particular drink...

"Look, ma! No hands!"


I know I'm going to regret posting this next shot, but for the sake of full disclosure...

Ok, yeah. Moving right along...

This is Betty. I'm pretty sure that wasn't her real name but somehow that's what we ended up calling her. She was really drunk and she really liked Corrie. And she bought shots for the whole table. Oh, Betty. You are one crazy lady.

The whole group: Corrie, Kathryn, Me, my grandma, my mom, my sister Heather, Rachelle, and Sarina.

LOVE these girls. So much.

So there ya go! Nothing too crazy, but it was still crazy fun. Stay tuned for the rehearsal brunch... unfortunately I only have like 2 pictures of it, boo :(

After that, wedding day recaps! So excited!

They're Here!

All 853 of them. Which means I finally get to start sharing the story of our wedding day!

So here's my question (for all 5 of you who are still reading this poor little neglected blog):

What kinds of stories would you like to hear? What are you curious about? I'd love to know :)

Ask me anything and I'll do my best to include my answers somewhere in the recaps.