I need some potted plants in my life.

Long ago, I thought it would be adorable to use potted plants as our centerpieces. Flower pots are so cute, and I hate the idea of using cut flowers that are just going to die in a few days. With potted plants, the flowers could thrive long after the wedding!

While wandering around Wal-Mart one evening, Mr. Hyena and I stopped in the gardening section to take a look at what types of plants were available. I was undecided about whether actual potted plants were a good idea, especially because I was so underwhelmed with the quality of the flowers (but then again, it's Wal-Mart. I did look at Home Depot and HEB as well, and was still a little disappointed). They didn't have much variety and the ones they did have weren't the best quality.

Here are some cute pictures I'm using as inspiration:

(source)

By Mrs. Beagle

Hmm, apparently not too many people have used pots in their wedding decor. Oh well, that's cool, something unique for me! Even without concrete inspiration photos, I think this idea might pan out...

Did you have a vision in your head of your decor and then it not work out? What did you do?

Love is PATIENT ... and I was not.

Where we left off, I was panicking about not finding a church to get married in. Months had passed, but it all worked out in the end, because we found it.

View of the sanctuary (personal bad-quality iPhone photo)

This was such a huge relief to me, not only to have finally found a church that we both liked, but that Mr. Hyena is so happy with our decision. Deciding to switch denominations entirely was a much bigger sacrifice for him than it was for me, and I'm thankful that this decision was made together and without too many issues.

We joined up and I went to work getting the church booked! And ya'll, we got our first-choice date. Another couple is getting married the same day, but we got our time preference, and I could not be more excited about saying our vows in this little church!

Where are you having your wedding ceremony?

"And now, a reading from Paul's letter to the Corinthians..."

(source)

The beginning of our engagement was very frustrating for me. I had moved to this new city about eight months prior, and as churchgoing folk, we decided we wanted to find a church to attend together. The difficult part was finding one we both liked, since we came from different religious backgrounds and hadn't had to deal with them while in college. Now that we were living in the same town, there were a lot of churches to try out, and we tried. them. all.

Enter engagement. Mr. Hyena really REALLY wanted our ceremony to take place in a church. Great! Only problem? Eight months into our search and we hadn't found a church that we both even liked to attend every week, let alone wanted to get married in. It was time to kick the search into high gear.

For four months after that, we attended two different churches' services every Sunday. Maybe not the best idea ever, but I was panicking. We wanted to get married during Wedding Season (because Mr. Hyena is in grad school, and we didn't want the wedding to conflict with any of his schooling), and I didn't want all the churches in town to be booked already. Priorities, man.

Four months into our engagement, and we still had no ceremony site, and no set date. My planning was at a complete standstill right as I was getting excited to get things done.

Anybody else new to their town and having a hard time finding what you're looking for?

Florism

One weekend when my Mom Hyena was in town, we made appointments to talk to a few florists, just to get ideas and quotes. This picture sums up everything I wanted in my wedding flowers.

Peonies! Maroon and pink peonies! Perfection! I die! (source)

Unfortunately, I didn't know anything about flowers prior to getting engaged, so when I saw online that peonies were spring flowers, I said "YESSSSS," fell in love, and decided there was no other flower for me. Then, when I met with the first florist, she said peonies stopped being in season in Texas around the end of March, and we wouldn't know until closer to our May wedding whether or not we'd be able to fly some in from somewhere.

Fly them in? What? That costs extra!

Not all hope was lost though. We still had another appointment! Maybe they would have a solution!

They didn't. Instead, I was offered two hours of anxiety. Florist 2 not only said peonies were likely unavailable, but said we should come up with a backup plan. However, instead of coming up with a backup plan, she came up with a Plan A for a bouquet that was totally different than I wanted, then told me it would cost $250! What? We were not budgeting very much for flowers, and that definitely fell outside the allotted amount.

The colors in this are exactly what wanted, but for the flowers themselves I wanted something a little less wild. (source)

Because we were trying to get a lot done in the short time Mom Hyena was in town, we also went to check out cakes and artificial flower options at Michaels, but I was so overwhelmed and anxious about the florist appointment that I stopped seeing Mom Hyena and Mr. H as helpful, and instead started seeing them as trying to force decisions on me RIGHTTHEN instead of listening to my ideas and taking my time to choose things that will ultimately make me happy instead of stressy.

The main thing I learned from this experience is: When you're feeling overwhelmed, take a step back. Do something non-wedding related, even if you only have a short time with your mom before you go back to planning on your own. Take a breather and calm down. Then, if you feel better, dive back in. If you don't, that's okay, but it's better to get nothing done than to make decisions you'll have to undo later.

Anyone have ideas for reducing stress in planning?

Snack Attack!

This is my darling kitty-boo, Elliott.

(Personal photo)

(Don't worry, she likes being under the covers. I'm writing on my bed with my knees propped up under the comforter, and she crawled underneath and fell asleep.)

Wanna know what else she likes? Eating ribbon. Eating flowers.* Eating my clothing. Eating random things she finds on the ground. This does not bode well for my many wedding projects!

In order to keep her from chewing up everything I have done so far, I've had to keep everything far away from her. Currently, I'm keeping all my (cat-edible) projects in a Snuggie box on the top shelf of my closet, and I always make sure the door is shut, but it won't be long before the top shelf is overflowing and I'll have to find another way to store all my goodies. Not to mention, when I finally get my dress in from the shop ...

Do your pets try to "help" you with your wedding planning? How do you keep them from destroying all your hard work?

*Seriously. My poor engagement roses lasted about 20 minutes before kitty-boo discovered them, and then I had to keep them in the shower when I wasn't around to supervise her.

Color Not-Bored

I love colors - the brighter the better! Maybe that's the reason I found it really, really difficult to decide on wedding colors. My favorite color has always been hot pink, which Mr. H wasn't really on board with when we first got engaged. In my indecision, I threw so many color combinations at him, he finally gave up and told me to pick whatever I wanted. Uhhhhh ...

Hot pink and tangerine?

Seafoam and lavender?

Hot pink and a slightly darker color of hot pink?!

(Awesome color boards created with Idee Multicolr Search Lab. Seriously, awesome.)

But time after time, I kept coming back to one color combo...

My first inspiration board (sources: from top left to bottom right - wreath, peonies, stone pot, pink votives, hair flower, stair photo, ring photo, pink/maroon bouquet, pomander photo ribbons, pink and green bouquet, bridesmaid dress (color altered by moi), centerpiece, hair flower, couple on stairs)

There was no way I was going to not have hot pink, someway somehow. In order to get him totally on board, I appealed to his Aggie side and offered up maroon as a complement. He agreed! Over time, "hot pink and maroon" has evolved to include bright green and silver accents as well, and I lurve it!

What inspired your wedding colors?

Really?!

It's not that unusual for Mr. Hyena and I to go on nice dates; we try to go out somewhere nice every few months or so. In January 2010, we had planned to go to a nice dinner. I had my suspicions about a proposal coming, but I wasn't getting my hopes up since I tended to overanalyze every single event we went to or hosted for proposal potential. Better to not get my hopes up so I wouldn't be disappointed. :) This time was different though. We'd been ring shopping recently, and talking about marriage A LOT.

So Friday afternoon I came home after a bad day at work to find red roses on my front porch. That was when I got really suspicious, but I was still determined to not get my hopes up! I debated whether to get pretty or get REALLY pretty while I tried to keep my cat from eating the roses. I got all dolled up, and Mr. Hyena came to pick me up. I told him thank you for the flowers, but said I wasn't going to kiss him since I had lipstick on, and I didn't want to get it on him. He said, "Well then this is going to be difficult for you," then got down on one knee in the middle of my living room and asked, "Will you marry me?"

My exact reaction was, "REALLY?!" I wasn't expecting it that soon in the evening! I quickly followed that with a "Yes!" Believe me, I got some teasing for my response! :)

(personal photo)

Did your fiancé manage to surprise you even if you knew it was coming?

Whozzat?

This is the story of how I met Mr. Hyena, way back when we were young'ns.

Mr. H and I went to the same school since fifth grade, and never knew each other. In high school, most of my friends were in the marching band, so I spent a lot of time hanging out in the band hall in the mornings before class started, because that's where they all hung out. Mr. H was a percussionist. We had a lot of mutual friends.

We had several classes together senior year of high school, and we started talking more often. I thought he was cute, but we only really hung out at school. But Homecoming was coming! And neither of us had dates! One of my best friends told him that he should ask me to go with him as a friend, so one day as we walked down to the lunch line, he did.

Aww, look how cute he is. He was the Drum Captain! (October 2004)

After that night, for the rest of senior year we stayed up until 1 or 2 in the morning instant messaging/flirting with each other every night. He stayed after class and helped me with my calculus homework (I am math stupid). I started getting to the band hall earlier and earlier every morning to hang out with him before school started.

Then, in March, he asked me to go to prom with him, as his date. Soon after, he asked me to be his girlfriend.

It's official! (April 2005)

So, here we were, a month before high school graduation, together at last. I had applied and been accepted to go to the University of Oklahoma, and he was going to Texas A&M. Schools that were six hours apart.

It's interesting to look back at these photos, because this is the last picture I think I have of us where he's not wearing glasses.

We wanted to make a long-distance relationship work, so at the end of the summer, we packed up and went to our separate colleges. We tried to meet up every five or six weeks, either back in our hometown or in one of our college towns.

Mr. Hyena visiting me in Oklahoma, January 2006

My first midnight yell in College Station, November 2006

We never could justify transferring. His school didn't have a journalism/advertising program at the time, and A&M's aerospace engineering program was better than OU's. We remained long distance for the entirety of college.

Oh, did I mention that his family moved, so we weren't even in the same town over summers and holidays?

So after four years ...

Our four-year anniversary, March 2009

... we both graduated college, and I moved to College Station. Finally together again!

How long did you date your fiancé before you got engaged?

(all personal photos)