Weddingbee bios

I will start off with the person I know the most about, though sometimes I question that - me!  Born and raised in Southern Maine, I have always been into small town living - the comfort of knowing your neighbors, the spirit in the community for different school events, the ability to actually get to know someone.  When I met Mr. Library, I was reaping the benefits of such a lifestyle in, well, middle school.  That's right, middle school.  But that's another post.  As the years went on, the small town seemed to feel like a sweater two sizes too small.  I needed some room to breathe, and after finishing my Bachelor's degree in yet another small Maine town, I decided to give the big city a whirl.  Anything would have qualified as a "big city," so off to Providence, RI, I went.  A small city in comparison to other neighboring ones, but it felt big for me nonetheless.  After gaining new friends who helped acclimate me to my new culture, I graduated with a Master's degree in Secondary Education English, got a job as an eighth grade language arts teacher, and moved (you guessed it) back to small town Maine.  Boy, talk about a cycle. 

My life outside of moving around revolves around my friends, family, Mr. Library, photography, cooking, reading, field hockey, coaching sports, and the Food Network.  Dates with Mr. Library often consist of curling up on the couch to watch Top Chef or Ace of Cakes marathons.  It's not fancy, but hey, neither are we!  Wedding planning has taken over my free thinking time, and I am obsessed with coming up with new ideas.  Mr. Library likes to joke that I send him at least one wedding planning idea every day during my planning time.  Sometimes I think he is right.

Speaking of Mr. Library, the man of my life, he is currently living in the big city of Boston attending graduate school at Harvard, a school whose reputation is just under that of my alma mater: Brown University. (Okay, so maybe our educations are a little fancy...) He is studying dramaturgy, the research end of putting on theatrical productions.  The academic aspect of this arena suits him to a T; he is always reading, researching, and critiquing plays.  His passion for theatre originated in (you guessed it!) middle school.  We grew up a town or two apart.  In high school, he was in every play and every theatre club.  College came and went with a B.A. in Theater Arts, and onto grad school he went.  We have put off our wedding for two years because of the financial demands of graduate school, so his graduation in June will be a welcomed sight!

Mr. Library's hobbies include making fun of me, giving me a hard time, and poking fun when I occassionally make mistakes in my verbal grammar.  Or at least those are what it seems like sometimes! :-D  In all honesty, he enjoys reading, the Food Network, board games, climbing rocks, and taking walks with me. 

Our most favorite activity?  Snuggling.  And being cute. 

People tend to have cute stories where they met, they kind of liked each other, they dated, they got married.  Well, here goes my story with Mr. Library:  we attended middle school, we met, we hated each other because 1) I liked another boy and 2) I made fun of Mr. Library to get into the good graces of the other boy, we went on a class trip together, we began to be civil to each other, we had all of the same classes in high school, we started to like each other, we started dating, we graduated from high school and thought about breaking up, but didn't, we went to college (in different states), we broke up for 45 minutes, we got back together in the same phone call, he proposed, and we have planned.  And planned.  And planned.  Wow, that's a bit longer, isn't it?

Mrs. Botka's class was where we really met for the first time.  Seventh grade isn't nice to anyone, which was certainly true for the two of us.  I was chubby, awkward, and had hair down to my rear.  He was overly emotional, more awkward than anyone I had ever met, and super shy.  It was not a match made in heaven.  I fell for a boy named Tim, a boy who made life for Mr. Library rather unpleasant.  I hopped onto his bandwagon and began tormenting Mr. Library as well.  This allowed me to date Tim for three months in the summer, but never led to anything great.  After a class trip to Washington, D.C., and a middle school play, Mr. Library and I got to see different sides of each other and became better friends.  Within the first few weeks of freshman year, we were gaining speed and talked for hours online (IM was new back then). 

Our sophomore year of high school was when we finally liked each other at the same time.  We had worked together at a class fundraiser, and after some serious flirting, he asked me to go over to his house.  He told me that I was one of the most special people he had met and asked if he could date me.  I agreed (though Mr. Library will tell you I "grunted" yes... I claim no such thing) and we started our relationship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My bridesmaids never thought that they would be making themselves coordinate, but they did.  I told them what length and color to pick, but otherwise it was up to them.  We went to David's Bridal to just look around, and within ten minutes of each other, all three ladies present emerged from the dressing rooms in the same dress, spouting out compliments about how much they loved the dress.  I hadn't planned on making them wear the same dress, but they all got it anyway!

This is the color of the dresses.  Here are four out of the five with theirs!

Sister Library/MOH in her "unique" pattern to make people see she is the MOH.

Cousin Library looking lovely

Ms. Sox in the City loving her dress

And finally, Bridesmaid C super pumped to have her picture taken in a dress!

They will all be in the Horizon blue with silver shoes.  I can't wait!

 

 

 

Mr. Library and I decided pretty early into our engagement that our overall motif would revolve around birds and branches (like we are branching out and creating our own family tree).  I got right to work on a couple DIY projects with these in mind, the first being the escort cards.

We started with these, and as the verbal RSVPs started rolling in over Christmas, we began to fill them in with the corresponding names.

 

I got a silver pen from Michael's and it worked wonders on these birds!  If you have any type of similar paper to write on, go get these pens!

 

We will also use these birds to label and decorate.  We're using them to label our card cage, to reserve seats at the ceremony, and to give instructions for our thumbprint tree.