Merry Christmas

O' Christmas Tree

My tree is decked out with all sorts of new and wonderful ornaments this year. I love them so much I had to share.

We got two "Our First Christmas" ornaments. The first is one I bought myself. I just was so excited about having my first married Christmas I had to commemorate it with an ornament. I ordered it from Etsy from Something About Silver. It's simple and light weight so it won't make the branches hang too low. Plus I loved the packaging it came in.

The other one is from my lovely new parents-in-law. It has a little picture from our wedding inside. A true Hallmark memory.

Then I got an ornament from my friend Beth. She got us this awesome Seattle Space Needle ornament. I just love it!

All my other ornaments are stored at my parents home in Encinitas. Some day I'll have an apartment big enough to store more Christmas stuff. Not to mention, figure out a way to transport them all up here.

And on the decoration-front. Josh and I also got this super adorable Christmas sign from Brown family member Julie. It's freaking cute.

Do all my posts about Christmas have you in the spirit yet?

Tis the Season

To be jolly...and boy, am I jolly. I just LOVE Christmas.

Yesterday we went downtown to catch some of the Christmas spirit with retail and shoppers. We also wanted to see some of the Seattle decorations. My favorite was the Santa drive-by. Pretty awesome.

As we roamed, we bought some hot chocolate at The Chocolate Box (sooo good). Then we walked down to Pike Place to see the decorations. I loved the reindeer pigs.

That's about it besides it being a beautiful Seattle day. There couldn't be much better than some vitamin D sunshine and Christmas spirits.

Crafty Christmas

I was a bit crafty this Christmas. I made my own little Christmas sign. The idea was sparked by my wedding when I made a Hitched sign. I thought, "hey, I did it for the wedding, I can do it for Christmas." And so I did.

How did I do it? Simple. Follow these steps:

1. Buy awesome paper. For instance, Paper Source or a craft store. Personally, I went to Impress Rubber Stamps. I also bought a cool snowflake stamp on the same visit for our Xmas cards.
2. Buy some sticky letters. That's not the correct name, but I'm sure if you tell someone at the store, they'll know what you mean. I went to Michaels. While at the store, remember to get some string if you don't have any at home. Some twine would be neat too!
3. Find a medium sized bowl in your kitchen and a scrap piece of cardboard.
4. Make a stencil by making a half dome on the cardboard. Do this by using a pen and tracing the edge of the bowl. Cut it out.
5. Use this stencil on your cool paper.
6. Spell out whatever you want to say. I went with "Merry X-Mas."
7. Use an exacto knife to make little slits on the edge of the letters - two of them, one on the left and one on the right.
8. Thread the twine or string through it.
9. Hang it in your home and smile.

Here's my result (I tried to get artsy fartsy with the photo):

It's Cookie Time

The title of my post makes me think of this and then I starting sing to myself. I know by admitting this, I seem even more dorky. But, hey, it's who I am.

On Sunday, my friend Beth came over and we had a baking & decorating party. We both get Cooking Light magazine and saw the front cover with the beautiful iced cookies. We were talking about it and since we both like to bake, we thought we'd get together.

So we made the dough, refrigerated it, rolled it out, cut out the shapes, baked, and then decorated them. The decorating was the most fun. We got really into it, and would notice we stopped talking occasionally when we got really focused on a cookie.

They didn’t quite turn out like Cooking Light’s professional snowflake cookie, but they were tasty and pretty. We decided the snowflakes were the most exciting to decorate – and our best cookies.

The snowmen are a different story. Mostly they are happy, except one, he’s sad.

This weekend it's my infamous pepparkakor cookies. Maybe some other too. The Christmas cookie countdown begins!

Deck the House

With trees and garland, fa la la la la la la la la....

I am just now writing about last weekend, but we've officially gone one week with our apartment all decked out for the holidays. Last Sunday we bought our Christmas tree and I decorated our place with boughs of holly. Well, not boughts of holly, but with garland and all sorts of red and green. 

To get a tradition going, we went back to the same Christmas tree lot as last year. However, this year we decided to upgrade on the tree size. I didn't want no dinky tree, I wanted a really, normal sized tree. So we added a few feet to the tree compared to 2010. It's about a five foot tree and it's absoluately beautiful. 

  

I decorated it with the few ornaments I have (the rest are with my parents until I have more storage). Then some fake (yet very live looking) poinsettias, as well as fresh baby's breath. Finished off with a healthy dose of lights. 

 

The rest of the house decorations mainly lie on our little IKEA cabinet that runs next to the kitchen table. It's got my singing Hallmark snowmen (from my mom), candles, and some other random things.

Now, whip out the Christmas music and get in the spirit...I certainly am!

Straight No Chaser

A few years ago, when Josh and I still lived in the Bay Area, we went to the San Francisco Symphony's Christmas concert. We have such fond memories of that evening. So much so, that every year we reminisce about it and say, "remember that year we went to the symphony for Christmas..."

This year we wanted to do something similar. That when I came across Straight No Chaser was playing this December in Seattle. Now, if you don't know this about me, I should say that I tend to get slightly obsessed with certain songs or artists. For about a month, I play that song or artist non-stop. I eventually get tired and move on to my next song or artist obsession. That's how my music goes. However, given Christmas is only 1 month, I generally don't have enough time to get it "out of my system" so Christmas songs and artists can just be terminal favorites. That's exactly the case for Staight No Chaser. I just love their holiday songs. 

In fact, I can remember hearing them for the first time. I was living in the Bay Area and I was working. I wanted to find some new music to listen to as I worked (because I love to listen to music as I work especially Christmas music). In my search, I came across the 12 Days of Christmas on You Tube by this a cappella group from Indiana University. I listened. And became obsessed. 

Sorry for the tangent; to get back on track...so when I saw they were in Seattle, I seized the opportunity. So yesterday evening we had a night with Staight No Chaser. Preceded by a little dinner at my favorite crepe place, Citizen. Perfect evening.

Here's some songs (they did some non-Christmas too) that they played...awesome:

• Madonna  
• Lady Gaga - Bad Romance with Poker Face
• Michael Jackson mash up with Poison 
• Coldplay Fix You
• Cee Lo Green & Jason Marz
• 50's  mash up
• Christmas Can Can
• The Grinch
• 12 days of Christmas
• Carol of the Bells

Listen to some of their tunes online!

 

His New Look

This weekend Josh changed is his look...literally, he looks out of his new glasses and sees more. Amazing what new glasses can do to your look. 

Josh has been sporting these babies since before law school. We got them in San Francisco at a place called Bjorn. We thought they were so cool, so hip. 

 

These new glasses are from a place at University Village called Market Optical. We think these glasses are so sleek and hipster-estc. 

 

What do you think? (Warning: this could be a trick question)

Out with the Old

IN WITH THE NEW.

By now you've probably noticed something has changed with my blog. It had a makeover. 

I actually just switched services. In case your like geeky stuff, I'll tell you the details. My previous blog service was WordPress. It was great when I started, plus it was free. However, I kept having to update the program (and I'm not very good at that, as evident from the red circle with the number on my iPhone indicating updates needed). 

Anyway, the service grew old and slow. Posting took ages and got rather annoying. After some presuasion from Josh and a free trial, I decided it was time for a switch. I switched to SquareSpace. The service isn't free, but I got 10% off since Josh heard a discount code on some podcast he listens to. Being a paid service, I find that the application is much better. It's faster, No manually updating is required, and there are some cool features. 

I'm still working on some tweaks, but this is the new look for now. I hope you like it. :)

And we'll always remember the old blog:

A Feast for Two

This Thanksgiving, Josh and I spent together on our own in Seattle. We couldn't decide... Eat out or cook & eat in. If we ate out, I wanted to eat a Lola's like we did last year. If we ate in, I wanted to cook a bone-in breast. The decision kept dragging on until we finally decided on eating out. Done. Decision made.

I called Lola's and bad news, they were booked! So I went onto Open Table and explored. My backup options...booked. I found one place, Palisade, and grabbed a reservation. But this made us go back to the decision board: eat in or eat on. After much back and forth, we decided on eating in.

With very little time to consider recipes, and having never really cooked a whole thanksgiving feast, I had to find something and go with it. I found most of my recipes in my Cooking Light magazine and a couple at All Recipe (allrecipe.com). Then the grocery buying began.

We got our bone-in turkey breast from a local butcher called Bill the Butcher. Either the meat was super good or my brine and turkey recipe rocked our worlds (or both), but my turkey came out dang delicious. The best part of the whole meal.

The sides we enjoyed were a green bean casserole, fennel-sausage-caramelized apple stuffing, and a mashed potato casserole. The best of the three being the potatoes. As for dessert, I made a pumpkin bourbon tart. Which also turned out quite tasty. All in all, a wonderful feast for two.

Give Thanks

Every year at this time, I like to reflect on what I'm thankful for (a common thing to do on this day). Here are a few things I'm thankful for:

An awesome husband
A loving family
A caring family-in-law
Good friends
A cozy apartment
A job in this economy
Seattle, a cool city
Technology (to make this blog possible)
My camera (to capture memories)
And...the feast I'm about to eat this evening

Think about what you're thankful for...Happy Thanksgiving

Devil in my Coffee

Okay, it wasn't my coffee, the Devil was actually in Josh's coffee, but the title sounded much cooler as "in my coffee." My coffee actually had a beautiful butterfly. Josh got a Devil, and I got a butterfly. HA - goes to show...

Anyway, I've gotta give it to this barista, totally awesome foam-latte art. Not to mention, he was sarcastically joking around as he did this art too. Now, there is talent. This was our Sunday morning treat before church at...wait for it...El Diablo. Well, now I wonder were the Devil idea came from.

Before I go, I just wanted to tell you, this is my continued way of saying my coffee tour is not over. I have gone to many coffee shops and just neglected to post about it. Sad, I know. I am still sinfully drinking coffee though (or should I say Josh is since he got the Devil?). Eventually, I'll get back on the coffee tour posts, but for now, fun coffee-share moments.

 

Apple and Pumpkin

One thing you should know about me: I love the fall. That is why we got married in the fall. I love the colors, the flavors, and the crisp feel outside (that's not yet too cold) that is intermingled with the smell of fireplaces. Ahh, sweet fall.

I get this super anxious feeling in the fall. Oh my goodness, so much fall food goodness and not enough time to make it all! Then I remind myself that it's okay to continue fall flavors into the wintertime. There is no law permitting my baking similar foods in the winter as I do in the fall. Whew, what a relief! But still, the "must bake everything now" mentality persists.

Two of my favorite fall foods is...you guessed it...apples and pumpkins. I start gathering recipes - Cooking Light, Real Simple, all my blogs, random Internet searches. I also start looking at old recipes that I could revisit. Then I print or tear them out and a stack begins.

My first recipe of the season begins with a Pumpkin oat muffin. I found it while at the Kauai airport waiting for our fight. I had just had a pumpkin carrot muffin from Kalaheo Cafe. And so this year's fall obsession began.

However, the Pumpkin oat muffins just didn't make the grade for me. It was somewhat bland and just not sweet enough. Where's the sweet spice (think chai)? Josh suggested I "play" with the recipes to see if I could tweak it into a better recipes. So I tried again. No luck. Trash that recipe.

After two failures, I had to have a success. I WANT MY PUMPKIN. I went back to a tried & true recipe. One that I had left in the binder for far too long. Why haven't I made this one in so long? It's from my freshman year of college. One of my floor-mates, Randi, had a loaf that she shared - her mom had made it. I asked for the recipe - bam.

This turned out much better. Much, much better. Oh so much better. Did I say it was better?



But let's not forget about the apples. Oh, I love thee apples. Such sweet and tangy goodness. For a savory dish, I love them with pork. Yum! But you know me, I love sweet things. One of my favorite recipes for apples is an apple cake that my sister got from a friend at Yale. Then she made it for us, and then I got the recipe. But I didn't make this recipe, I wanted to try something new - be adventurous. Who knows where the next best recipe lies?

I get an email every week from Gojee, a very cool recipe site especially for those on iPads. I think they did a good job of compiling food bloggers recipes in a very cute way. Check out their "thinking" phrases (when you click on something, and the computer is "thinking"). Anyway, I got a recipe for Chai Spiced Apple cake. Now that sounds delish. Now I just need an occasion to make it.

Well, Saturday Josh was going to a Duck vs. Husky football game with some friends. Before they had a BBQ potluck. Guess what I was asked to bring? Dessert! Perfect timing. So I make my new cake recipe. Verdict: A winner! The frost on topping just makes it sooo good.



 

Comfy at 35 and 60

I am talking about our sleep numbers. The numbers Josh and I have on our brand new Sleep Number bed. Yes, this week we became owners of a new bed - yippee! Our old mattress had seen better days. After 3 moves, the mattress had it-- sloping to the center, flattened pillow top, it was just plain sad.

Now, we have a high tech bed. Basically, you can adjust it to your level of firmness you desire on your side of the bed. 100 is the firmest setting, and 0 the softness. My number is 35 - cozy and soft; like sleeping on a cloud. Josh likes more of a firmed at 60 - like sleeping on a wood floor (okay, that's in the eye of the beholder--to each his own). Then, like a cherry on top, there is a totally awesome foam top so you sink down into heavenlyness.

Let me tell you, this bed is so great that the first night sleeping on it, I over slept! Yes, I over slept and had to race to get ready for work. Lucky for me, my commute is only to the next room or else I never would have made it on time. And, then it happened AGAIN, the second night. By the third, I was back to getting up with the alarm. Some crazy good sleep though for me.

To top off our wonderful new mattress, we got some new bedding. Our bed looks like something on HGTV or the beds at Crate and Barrel. We feel all grown up. We got the layer effect with the green coverlet and the many pillows (and it's stylish Marimekko). The only challenge: making the bed every morning!

We also are getting a new bed frame from Crate and Barrel, but sadly it was on back order until January. For now, we're bumming it on the floor. Check out the frame and join me in the wait.



 

Hike, Swim, Fly

While we did have many relaxing days (usually involving the beach), we also had some adventure days on our honeymoon. Two days in particular stand out in particular as full of adventure.

Adventure #1: Napali Coast Hike

Think up. Think down. Now think up again. Now imagine hiking that...got it in your mind? Well, that's what it is like hiking the Napali coast. Josh and I definitely underestimated the hike. It was beautiful and tragic all at the same time.

We started off on our side of the island, the West Shore. We drove that morning all the way around the island (there is 1 major road on Kauai and it's like a horseshoe from West to North) to the North Shore--it's about 1.5 hour drive. Given this, we didn't get to Ke'e Beach, where the hike begins, until around 11:30am. We thought, sure we can hike this now, no problem. It's only like 2 miles or something. Totally doable. Off we go, forgetting about lunch in the trunk and brining loads of water...(this is foreshadowing).

We get going on the hike, and there are a lot of rocks and it starts going up-up-up. "Oh, this has to end and even out eventually" we say to each other. And it's not leveling out. Nope. Just more rocks and more hill. After we get to the first view point, I honest-to-goodness think we're about half way. Some other hiker says to another couple, "you're almost there - hehe." Then I think to myself, "is he being sarcastic? Or is it true? It certainly feels like we've hiked a lot." I turned to Josh to confirm. Totally wrong; we'd only gone 0.5 miles. Sigh. And we'd practically drank 3/4th of our tiny water bottle.

In the swealtering sun, we continue on. We see some absoluately gorgeous sites. We see ants (ahh, ants with sandles...not cool. Not cool at all.), a hippie on a rock selling stuff, and other red-faced hikers on the return hike.

After forever, we get to the end. It's glorious - crashing waves, a nice breeze under trees, and just a lovely view. We sit and rest but not for long because we know if we relax too much we won't want to go. Back to the hiking. We hike, and hike, and hike. We have to cross over a steam by rock hopping. Josh slips and ends up with wet feet. Now he has wet feet and hiking a million hours.

Finally, we reach the 0.5 mile left to go marker (yes, the very same spot where I thought we were halfway done). We are parched and tired. Out of nowhere, these Canadians appears and see our red, tired faces. And they offer us...wait for it...water!! With just a few sips we are revived. We hike the rest of the way back with the heroic Canadians.

And that, my friends, is the Napali Coast hike. Beautiful, but deadly. My advice: Get there early, get lunch, don't wear sandles (unless you're cool with ants), and bring lots of water.


 

Adventure #2: Kauai Outfitter Safari

The actual name of our safari was Kipu Zipline Safari. Go head, click the link and read all about it. Just be sure to read on for my rendition.

Being the crazy people we are, we did this second adventure day the day after the Napali Coast hike. My calfs hurt, but besides that we were raring to go! We arrive at the place where we'll take off with our kayaks, and there is Mary Chandler, an SCU alumni friend. Umm, random (but cool). Anyway, we get our 2 minute kayak tutorial and off we go.

Now kayaking with two people should be one of those marriage counsel camp activities. You must work together and communication. Likely Josh and I were pros since we just got married. HA! Fooled you. We were actually not that bad, but far from being pros. After two miles of paddling, and hearing the guide tell us about some local Kauai folklore, we arrive at the site of Indiana Jones rope swing scene. Cool. Then we paddle on to the end of the kayak portion of the day. Now, on to mini-hike and rope swinging into a pond. A very crisp, refreshing pond (aka cold). I wasn't going to do it, but I feel for peer-pressure. Glad I did though; fun stuff. One time is enough though.

After a hay truck ride and some lunch, it was ziplining time. This got me all excited and yet incredibly nervous. Yes, I am a human strapped to ropes and plan to zip across a very high valley. Sounds crazy. Anyhoo, it was crazy...crazy awesome. We zipped twice. The first time I tried to hold myself up for like 5 seconds and then realized I could relax. But zip zip zip. It was like flying. Definitely would do this again. Give me more!!!! (No, I'm not an adrenline junky).

The trip ended with another mini-hike, another pond but this time with a zipline to jump with (I didn't do this; Josh did and did a belly flop - ouch). Then we got on a motor boat and got back to the docks. And that is truly an adventure filled day!



 

Beach Bummin' It

This is the first of hopefully a couple of posts I'll write about the honeymoon. This one is about our beach days. Yes, big surprise, we went to the beach in Hawaii.

We had three days that we spend relaxing on the beach. Ahh, the beach...

Beach Day #1: Poipu State Beach

For our first day in Kauai, we headed to the beach. Being that we were staying on the West Shore in Waimea, we decided to go to the South Shore for our beach day. The West Shore has some nice beaches, but the water is more wild and not really recommended to into the water. We were both ready to plunge in, so we headed south. Poipu is one of the most popular beaches in the South Shore. Luckily for us, our trip wasn't in prime season, so it wasn't too bad. In fact, we snagged a spot to lay that had semi-shade from a palm tree. Although we got some shade, we apparently didn't get enough. Our first day and we returned home with sunburns. We did have our sunscreen on, but when the bottle said waterproof we didn't realize it needed to be re-applied in intervals after water. Whoopies! I guess we should have followed the advise of the guy we talked to in the water, "You better be careful you two. I don't think I was that white when I was born!"

The highlight was seeing the sea turtle. Two sea turtles decided to come in to shore to get some grub. They practically were coming ashore. I touched one of their shells - slimy! I grabbed my underwater camera and got a few shots. Go Turtles!



Beach Day #2: Sheraton Beach at Poipu

We enjoyed our first beach time in Poipu so much that we returned. To try something new, we headed to the beach front by the Sheraton. It was a bit windy, but again we enjoyed our time. We didn't see any turtles, but we did get some good reading in and some splashes. By the end we were hungry and it was getting windy, so we headed out and strolled the rest of our day in Koloa.



Beach Day #3: Mauna Lana Hotel Beach

Our last beach day was also our last day on the honeymoon. A final hurrah at the beach. Josh said this beach is known as one of the best beaches on the big island. I could definitely agree with that statement. The water was uber calm and you could just waddle into the water without much of a splash. We also found ourselves pleasantly relaxed under some shade (easier to read my iPad Kindle app in the shade). We looked out at the blue sky and soaked in our last rays of the trip. A sweet ending to a wonderful honeymoon.

9 Days in Paradise

The moment you've all been waiting for...hearing about the honeymoon!

Before I delve into details and tell fun stories, I thought I'd give an overview of our fabulous nine days in Paradise (aka Kauai and Kona)...

Thursday, 10/6
•The trip begins with our flight to Kauai
•Land and first things first, get a JoJo's shaved ice
•Spend the afternoon driving through beautiful Waimea Canyon (the Grand Canyon of the Pacific)

Friday, 10/7
•Our first full day...a beach day! We head to Poipu Beach and see a sea turtle!
•Get some relief from the sun and go to the shops, visit the Kilohana Plantation, and taste some rummy rum rum at Kōloa Rum Company
•Get some traditional Hawaiian grub at Bobbies and stroll Hanapepe's Friday Art Walk

Saturday, 10/8
•Drive and tour the North shore day
•We liked Hapapepe so much yesterday, that we grab breakfast there at Little Fish Coffee
•As we drive to the North shore, we make a few stops -- Wailua falls, Kilauea Lighthous, and Opaeka'a Falls
•Get to the end of the road (literally, the road ends) and then spend some quality time in our favorite town, Hanalei
•Enjoy a very romantic dinner at Postcards before heading back to the West Shore

Sunday, 10/9
•Get our morning caffeine at Kauai Coffee Plantation
•Spend another day at the beach at the Sheraton Poipu Beach.
•Shop around in Koloa, get another shaved ice, and then chill at our little plantation cottage

Monday, 10/10
•We liked Little Fish Coffee so much that we go back for more
•As a wedding gift, we were gifted a day at the Grand Hyatt. We get a room for the day and access to all the hotel's facilities...including the pools. Did I mention there was a water slide?
•Another romantic dinner at Roy's. The restaurant was cute and put a special message to us inside the menu...awww.

Tuesday, 10/11
•A big adventure day as we head back to the North shore to hike the Hanakapi'ai Trail. This tril starts at the base of Ke'e Beach and runs along Napali Coast. The hardest 2 miles. Ever. More to come in another post.

Wednesday, 10/12
•Josh's 30th Birthday!!
•Adventure day #2 with Kauai Outfitters Kipu Zipline Safari
•Kayak 2 miles, hike to pond rope swing, hay truck ride, lunch, zip line, swimming hole, hike, motor boat back

Thursday, 10/13
•Say goodbye to Kauai and Aloha to Kona
•Ahh! See a the Kiluaha volcano! No eruptions though, just steam vents, museums, & lava tunnels
•Drive across Kona on an awesome scenic road. Bonus rainbow included.
•Drinks at sunset at our hotel, Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel

Friday, 10/14
•Kimo Coffee for some true Kona coffee beans (we're coffee snobs now, so we have to act it).
•Walk around Hilton hotel (uhh, awesome hotel - basically a little town)
•Sadly our last beach day, but at Kona's premiere beach at the Mauna Lana Hotel
•Our last dinner at Tommy Bahama Restaurant

Saturday, 10/15
•Waive good by to Hawaii and head back to rainy Seattle



Honeymoon in Hawaii from Heather Brown (O'Neill) on Vimeo.

Little snippets from our honeymoon in Kauai and Kona.

October 2011

Wedding After Party

Since practically 98% of our guests were from out of town, and the wedding being on a Thursday, most people decided to stay in Seattle for the weekend. This means: after party!

Both Browns and O'Neills stayed around as well as some of our good friends. Josh and I alternated back and forth between the families. It's like the movie 28 Dresses when the gal is running back and forth between weddings. At least, that's how I pictured it.

Here are the highlights:

Friday:

• Our first breakfast as a married couple was celebrated with friends and family in the Sheraton restaurant, The Grill.


• Shopping and lunch with Caroline


• Dinner in downtown Queen Anne at Portage with the O'Neill crew


• Chillin' at the Hilltop Pub with O'Neill clan and some of Erin's friends (they live in Seattle)

Saturday:

• Mega lunch at Tutta Bella with the Brown family and some of our Bay Area friends. Good pizza too.


• Hangin' with Manuel, Alley, and Jimmy for a bit. We took them to the always popular Kerry Park.


• Mexican fiesta with the Brown family again to bid them all farewell.

Sunday:

• Coffee with Don and Nada before they go to the airport. Then breakfast with the O'Neills.


• Ballard Farmer's Market. Just a wee bit of  time with Richardsons and Chris & Beth.


• Dinner in downtown with the last of the guests: mom, dad, and German Chris.

Monday:

• Only mom and dad are still around. We head out to Edmonds for the afternoon.


• Visit the Rick Steve's store and hometown. My dad is in awe.


• Dinner at the Pink Door for some grub and hoop girl.

Tuesday and Wednesday:

• Prepare for the honeymoon!

Reality Bites

It's time. Back to reality. It BITES!

Back to work. Back to laundry. Back to groceries and cooking. Back to errands. Back to the grind. Grumble grumble grumble.

As you can tell, the wedding is over. The honeymoon is over. The party is over. Tomorrow it's back to work for Josh and me.

For you, this is good news...now that I'm not spending all my time preparing for the wedding, having the wedding, or on my honeymoon I have more time to write my blog. The next posts you'll see if more wedding and definitely honeymoon. However, I give you forewarning, I took 500 pictures on the honeymoon. I need to filter through and decide what to put on Flickr. I'm pretty sure you don't want to see all 500. I'm just horrible at narrowing it down. Luckily a lot of them are the fast, multiple shot function that we used for our zip lining. (hint on how my blog: I post pictures first, then write).

Sigh, back to regular life. But really, it's not all that bad. In fact, it's great...Josh and I are now offically starting our life together. It's really just the beginning (<-- that sounds really cheesy).

H+J Wedding Day

When you're a little girl, you dream about your wedding day. Over the years the exact vision may change a bit -- the colors, the dress, etc. My wedding would have surprised my younger self with how wonderful it was. I always dreamed about how it would look, but not about the emotions. I felt complete and utter happiness. Nothing could have wiped the smile off my face! Our wedding was a dream come true for me -- I could not have asked for (or even imagined) a better wedding. And better yet, practically nothing that went wrong (except for one broken votive before the ceremony)!

As for me the bride, I feel like I handled the pre-wedding chaos and the nervous excitement beforehand smoothly and calmly. No bridezilla or nervous mess bride here! I even had two outsiders (hairdresser and co-worker) say how calm I seemed. Go me! I think it was my myriad of checklists (and awesome vendors that handled my crazy & frequent questions).

As you know from my earlier post, the first half of my weren't day was beautification--hair and make-up. The wedding really starts with the departure from the hotel to Sodo Park. And that's where I'll start...

My dad was the chauffeur for us girls (Lindsay, Erin, Caroline, mom, and me). We got a little behind schedule since some stupid dudes decided to unload their golf clubs in the exit of the hotel car exit. Gargh. Don't they know we have a wedding to get to?!

We made up for lost time and arrived at 2:30pm, just in time to start the pictures. Kristen Honeycutt, my wonderful and sweet photographer, began the photos with my "getting ready." Okay, so I was already ready, just needed to get the dress on. So on went the dress, snapped a few shots, and then off we went to bride and bridesmaid photos. Photo taking is a lot of...stand here, put your dress this way, hold your head up, smile. I think we got some cute pics!

 

Sometime during the girl pics, the guys arrived. There was a mini commotion about keeping me out of side (which we managed without a problem). But I wasn't out of site for long because it was "first look" time. Side note: Yes, we opted to do pictures before the ceremony...I highly recommend it.

The first look. This has to be one of my favorite moments of the day. Kristen took Josh inside while I remained outside. Josh was given strict instructions not to peek. I walked up the ramp towards the doors, but Kristen halted us. She thought there might be "wandering eyes" so she opene the door a crack, and gave Josh a scolding, " keep your eyes on the wall, Josh." (Josh will most likely tell you that he heard noise in the adjacent room & snuggle how could you not look at the source of where noise comes).

I arrived inside the door, and Josh's back is to me. He laughs at the torture and Kristen snaps a few shots of me slowly walking up and then tapping his shoulder. He turns and his face lightens up and jaw drop, and quickly exclaims how gorgeous I look (aww shucks...I know, wink wink)! We share a few kisses and words and then back to photo time.

We get the bridal party and immediate family shots and then some time to relax before the ceremony. We head up to the Bridal Loft and enjoy some time to sit and hydrate (don't want to faint at the ceremony). I started to get nervous about the ceremony - like tripping, forgetting to do or say something, kissing Josh in front of 94 people. Josh calmed me down though (like he always does).

 

Time for the ceremony comes quickly and the party is herded to the side of the building. Laura Gram, my day- of coordinator, was perfect at keeping us in order and prepped. The Browns, groomsmen, & bridesmaids all head down the aisle to Peter Gabriel's Book of Love. Then comes my time with my mom and dad. I had little bit of a tough time with my dress and the stairs, but we made it to the front of the aisle. At this point, my dad stops and says to wait for my music. I listen, and say, this is the music! So down we walk to Tom G Marriott Bridal March.

The ceremony is short, sweet, and lovingly delivered by my Uncle Chuck. We have three reading - Micah 6:8, Colossians 3:12-17, & Mark 10:6-9 - read by our close friends Heather Richardson and Jonita Davenport. The message from Uncle Chuck is nicely tried with our "how we met story" and conversations, and God. Then comes the pledge and vows. Now, let me say here, I frankly think I proclaimed my vows louder (for the record). We kissed (which to my relief went just fine). And at was that; we were wed! We rocked down the aisle to Stevie Wonder's Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

To make it official, we went upstairs to the loft and signed the license. Ta da! Husband and wife! Laura brought us both a few appetizers and our drinks. Yes, I say "our drinks" because they were so named - The J-dub (Makers Mark and ginger ale) and The Joyus (spiced apple martini). After a few bites and sips, we were whisked away for more photo time.

After photos, we mingled a bit with friends & family. Then we hide away and re-entered as Mr. And Mrs. Josh and Heather Brown.

Dinner is served. After our introduction, dinner was ready. We chowed down on some delectable foods. For starters, we had a salad with roasted beets and greens. Next came the family style entrees and sides. My favorite was the roasted pork loin, but the salmon was a hit too. Accompanying these were kale rice pilaf and cider-roasted veggies. Nom Nom Nom.

What? Clinking glasses? So many kisses! Ethan Zerth was the real initiator of the clinking.

   

With full bellies, the toasts began. Kevin gave a heart-warming toast starting with Josh and his friendship in the sandbox and ending with sage advise on marriage. Lindsay, in her professor style no less, researched Josh and I (mainly from my blog), and gave a sweet message on us as a couple. My dad also toasted us as a couple and welcomed & thanked everyone for coming. And Josh wrapped it up with a big thanks for the years and coming years of support.

Pie time! We headed over to the pie table for our pie cutting (x-nay on the usual cake thing). The song Sugar Pie Honey Bunch started playing as Josh and I grabbed the knife and cut the pumpkin pie (it seemed the easiest flavor to cut). No smashing the pie into faces, but instead cute feeding of pie to each other. People then got to chow down of five pie flavors: pumpkin pie with graham cracker crust, banana cream, apple crumble, chocolate pecan, and chocolate tart from the wonderful Shoofly Pie Co.

 

To keep the party rolling, we headed straight over to the dance floor. After a few dance classes, Josh and I were hoping to impress the crowd with our fox trot to Ingrid Michaelson's The Way I Am. I think we did pretty well just that dang dress getting in the way! Our awesome dance we followed with the father-daughter dance to John Denver's Sunshine on my Shoulders, and the mother-son dance to Rob Orbison's Dream Baby. During this, Nada really got the party started by pulling people out onto the dance floor.

 

And it was party like a rockstar from there. DJ Sean Wheatley kept the floor jumping all night. Josh and I boogied all night with interspersed with chatting with friends and family.

The party went until 11:30/Midnight. Josh and I took the last town car back to the Sheraton with our little "Just Married" flag waiving in the wind.



P.S. Pictures keep coming in, so be sure to check out my Flickr album every now and again for any update. Right now, I'm in Kauai on our honeymoon so it won't be updated for at least 7 days though.

P.P.S Oh and don't think this is the end of my wedding blog posts. No sir ye. There is still much more to share.

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