The Most Perfect Day... and the ROCKY Road it Took to Get There

Everyone told me that my wedding day would be absolutely amazing and that it would be one of the most perfect days of my life.  I have to admit... I was skeptical.  I was so stressed out in the days leading up to the wedding that I was convinced that it was never going to all come together.  The night before the rehearsal dinner was stressful to say the least.  M and I were up until all hours of the night (ok maybe only til sometime between 1 & 2am) finishing up last minute things for the wedding.  We had spent all day running errands and needless to say I was exhausted, but we had so much to do.  I spent most of my night tying knots... knots for the brunch invites we were tying to the out of town bags... knots around the cards we were tying onto the favors to let people know we were making a donation to charity in their honor... knots around the programs for the ceremony.  I swore that if I never had to tie another knot again it would be too soon! I was also freaking out because the table numbers I had ordered for the wedding that were supposed to arrive on Wednesday were STILL not at M's family's house, so we had to create new ones spur of the moment.  I think they turned out ok, but they were so NOT what I was hoping for!

Program making at midnight

Out of Town Bags

Table #s

Of course I didn't get the best night of sleep on Thursday night and Friday I was ready to go but also super anxious about how the day was going to go.  It did not get off on the right track and when we were driving to Pine Barn Inn I realized that I had no idea where my driver's license was.  Of course we had to check in and had some errands to run and things to do before the rehearsal so obviously I was freaking out that I had no driver's license.  Especially since I had to drive back to M's family's house to pick up my wedding dress and bring it to Pine Barn.  Thankfully one of my bff's and bridesmaids was already at Pine Barn so she was able to come with me to run some errands and to pick up my dress while M went on a search for my license.  Thankfully before we made it back to M's family's house, M got there and he managed to find my license... in the trash. After making it to Pine Barn with my dress things finally started to look up... well minus the fact that we were late for our own rehearsal because we had spent so much time driving back and forth between M's family and Pine Barn.  But all was well, because well the rehearsal wasn't going to start without us.  

Oh I also forgot to mention the during all of this we still had not found someone to play the organ for the wedding.  Our original organist informed us that she didn't feel confident playing the organ that Bucknell had so a couple of weeks before the wedding and despite calling every name that people had given us, we were still no closer to finding and organist.  As our luck would have it, there was an organ convention the weekend of our wedding and that was why we were having such a hard time finding someone.  Thankfully one of my amazing bridesmaids, AV, was able to secure us a Bucknell student to play the organ.  AV's father works for Bucknell and the day of the rehearsal he spent most of his day trying to find someone for us.  He found us an amazing Bucknell organ student who was available to play for us the day of the wedding... needless to say we were super psyched and I was sure that things were finally starting to look up. 

The rehearsal went well and I was very confident that the day of the wedding would go smoothly.  Part of the reason that I was so confident that things were going to go well was that my amazing wedding coordinator Courtney, of By Design Events PA, proved once again that it was one of the best ideas ever to hire her as a day of wedding coordinator.  Courtney was there making sure that the rehearsal ran smoothly and I knew that the day off would go just as smoothly with her there.  We met our organist for the first time at the rehearsal and OH. MY. GOODNESS. was he AMAZING! I know I have said in the past that things definitely happen for a reason, well we definitely couldn't have asked for a better organist to play for us for the big day!

Rehearsal dinner was a lot of fun... got to see a lot of friends from out of town and to spend some time with our wedding party and family members.  After the rehearsal dinner we all headed to Bull Run for a drink before heading back to the hotel to get some sleep for the big day!

Of course I didn't get much sleep the night of the wedding.  I was up to close to 2am writing thank you notes (yes I am that crazy) because I couldn't sleep and I was awake at a little before 6am and ready to get the day started.  I behaved myself and instead of going to get coffee like I had wanted to I texted Courtney to ask her to pick some up  before the day started.  At 7am my bridesmaids started arriving to my room to get ready for the big day.  It was such a fun morning getting ready... AV provided music for us (I wouldn't have expected anything less from her) and we had a great time just hanging out together.  My bridesmaids made me a photobook with pictures and letters that they had all written to me about our friendships and how they would always be there for me.  The book really made me want to cry, but I was trying to avoid it because I was afraid if I started crying too much and blinking that I would blink my contacts out of my eye and I was not about to do that.  Later on my bridesmaids made fun of me because they said I wouldn't be able to blink my contacts out but I was pretty convinced that I could!

After getting ready the rest of the day was pretty much a blur.  There was just so much going on that I can't possibly put it all into words.  A few highlights of the day that I remember included:

- M not being able to look at me because he would get all teary eyed every time that he did

- Dad forgetting to lift my veil up after he walked me down the aisle

- Tripping on my dress walking up the stairs after lighting the unity candle and giving our moms' their roses

- The incredible feeling of joy that I had once we were united in marriage

- Hanging out with our wedding party before the reception

- Seeing all of our friends and family enjoying themselves at the wedding and reception

Now for the part you have all been waiting for... here are a few of my favorite pictures that were snapped by some of our friends and family members throughout our wedding day!

And if you want to see some more pictures, feel free to check out the sneak peak of our professional photos via Carden's Photography here.

Almost Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Dietz

Well folks, we are coming down to the wire.  Only a few more weeks left until the wedding.. 15 days to be exact... I can't believe it!  So much has gone on this past month that I feel like I have barely had time to breathe, let alone blog.  Yesterday I let you all in on the main reason for why I haven't blogged much in the past month, and today I am putting that behind me so that I can tell you about one of the most amazing things that has gone on in the past month.

On September 14th my bridesmaids, along with my mother, threw me the most PERFECT bridal shower a girl could have ever asked for.  These women put so much time and effort into planning the perfect day for me and I can't even put into words how much it all meant to me.  Seriously the day was beyond PERFECT (am I overusing the word perfect here... because seriously I don't think these is any other word that could be used to describe it), and I don't think I could have asked for anything better.

The weekend started on Friday when one of my fabulous bridesmaids, CS, came to West Chester to pick me up on her way to NJ to the shower all the way from Virginia.  I had originally planned on taking the train home because MD was unable to take Friday off from work and we didn't want two cars up there, but since CS was already driving this way she graciously volunteered to pick me up.  It was so nice to drive up with her as we don't get to see each other very often, so it was fun to spend an uninterrupted 2.5ish hours together in the car.  I was also really excited for CS to "meet" my mom (they don't remember meeting each other in the past... even though they have totally met twice I think!) because they had communicated so much via e-mail to make sure that the shower went exactly as planned.  We made it to NJ with no problems and made plans to get together for dinner for pizza at my parents' house once a few more people arrived!

Dinner Friday night was awesome... so low key and relaxed... just what I needed!  My mom's roomie from college had come up early to help with preparations so she joined us for dinner as well as CS, my maid of honor AW and one of my other bridesmaids SP.  We all had such a great time catching up (and for some just plain getting to know each other).  We were all up fairly late just chatting and it really was nice to see everyone from the different stages of my life getting along, relaxing, and just having a good time with each other.

We had a gorgeous day for the shower which was amazing because the plan was for the shower to be outside under a tent that my parents had rented for the occasion.  Setup for the afternoon began early... I think most of us were awake well before 9am.  Two of my amazing bridesmaids, SP & AV, had actually spent the night at my parents' house, so after some coffee they were good to go with getting ready.  Next think I knew AW was there dropping stuff off, followed shortly thereafter by CS, followed shortly thereafter by a bunch of my mom's friends.  We had so many people helping to get ready I didn't know what to do!

I had wanted to help set up for the shower, but everyone kept shooing me away.  Thankfully I had anticipated that, so I had made an appointment with my neighbor, who is also my florist, to discuss flowers for the wedding.  It was great getting to meet with Mrs. Ruesch and to figure out what exactly it was that I wanted for my flowers.  As much as I thought I didn't know what I wanted, I found that the moreI talked to her, the more I did know what I wanted, just had to figure out how to put it into words.  By the time we had finished getting all the flower stuff taken care of, it was time for me to head home and get dressed for the shower!  By the time I was dressed and ready, the guests had already begun to arrive!

My mom, my bridesmaids, and my mom's friends put together an AMAZING luncheon. Everyone who cooked made such delicious food and the catered wraps were also fabulous.  The amount of time, effort and energy put into cooking such fabulous food... I can't even imagine.  All I  know is that everyone throroughly enjoyed the food!  I was also very excited for Mom's famous champagne punch!  This punch was the one thing I specifically requested for the shower because I remember my parents serving it at New Year's Eve parties when we were growing up as kids and the adults all always seemed to love it.  I have to say... the  punch was worth the wait (or maybe it wasn't worth the wait and I should have tried to swipe some from parties when I was underage!).  The punch was definitely a hit... and I knew everyone would love it as much as I did.

Before lunch my bridesmaids had prepared some fun trivia games for my guests to see how well they knew me.  It was definitely really interesting to see everyone's responses to the questions.  It also made me question the fact that my all time favorite color is pink... most people seemed to think it was the combination of orange and blue (hmmm... I wonder why... "Ray Bucknell!!).  It was also interesting that most people thought that Mark had wrestled in high school (not going to lie, I originally thought he did too... but nope, I was wrong).  Once the games were over the food was set up for lunch and everyone dug right in!

After lunch it was time to open some gifts... it is incredible how much amazing stuff Mark and I received from everyone.  It will be so nice to finally go through all of our stuff and to get rid of everything that we have from our college days and start fresh!  It was also a lot of fun watching how into "Bridal Bingo" all of the guests got. Everyone was paying lots of attention in an attempt to get bingo!

After the gifts it was time to cut our cake.  By that time Mark was back from going out to lunch with my dad and the other guys, so everyone thought it would be fun if we gave cutting a cake together a try.  Let's just say, if my shower is any indication of how things are going to go at the wedding... WE ARE DOOMED.  Trying to cut the cake with Mark I could NOT STOP LAUGHING... it took forever to get myself under control so that we could finally make a single cut in the cake.  Then of course I notice that Mark, the delinquent that he is, had stuck his finger in the icing and was heading to try and put it on my face.  Thankfully I still had the knife in my hand and well let's just say he thought twice about coming near me with the icing.  Everyone got a good laugh out of the situation and there are definitely some funny pictures of the two of us during the entire encounter.

I was definitely overwhelmed by the outpouring of love by all of my family and friends who made the trip to celebrate my bridal shower with me.  I had friends from as far sound as Maryland and Virginia, friends from Pennsylvania and Delaware, friends and family from all over New Jersey... all there to celebrate with me.  I felt so incredibly blessed to have so many people who care about me there to celebrate our upcoming wedding.  Seriously, words cannot express how much the shower meant to me.

The Story Behind My Blogging Hiatus

A blogging hiatus... yup, that is what I have been engaging in these past few weeks, or wait, who are we kidding, practically the past month!  Life has just been so super stressful this past month and honestly I have done a very poor job of handling it all.  I am going to share a little bit about what has been going on, not everything because well let's face it, if I air some of my dirty laundry out here in blog land it will cause way more drama than I am prepared to handle at this moment in time, but I also feel like I should explain myself a little... maybe those of you who actually read this thing can even give me some advice!

So the event that started my whole downward spiral into being stressed out beyond belief was that on September 11th one of my bridesmaids unexpectedly dropped out of my wedding and in fact will no longer be attending the wedding.  Needless to say I was devastated.  She said some really hurtful things to me and it is obvious that we will most likely NEVER be friends again.  I'm not even sure I could be in the same room as her at this point in time.  Granted I probably should have seen this coming.  Our friendship seemed to be going through a rough patch, but never in a million years did I think that things were this bad.  Now, I am not going to claim that I was totally innocent in all of this.  I will admit that I did make a few comments that I probably should not have, but honestly I never made them to offend her, I was just talking about weddings and wedding planning and I had NO idea that she was offended by some of the things that I said.  Until she told me that something I sad had offended her, I honestly had thought nothing of it.  In retrospect looking back I guess I could have changed the wording of what I said, but I in no way had ever intended for it to be malicious.

Part of what hurt the most about this entire situation was that someone supposedly told her I said something that I did not in fact say.  I am the type of person that if I said something I would own up to it.  I am not going to hide and pretend like I didn't say it... I will tell you to your face that I said it.  When she confronted me about the stuff that offended her, I admitted to saying it because well I had said it.  So doesn't it stand to reason that if I had said the other stuff that I would have admitted to that too? But apparently that is not the case. And I am apparently a fake friend and didn't care about her at all, so she will no longer be supporting me at my wedding to MD.  The fact that she thought I was a fake friend and didn't care about her at all is what hurt the most.  I have cared about this girl for so long... we have made it through so much together... and to hear her say those things hurt more than you could have imagined.  I spent almost 2 days crying off and on.  I spent 2 days calling all of my wedding vendors to change contracts around since I had planned on having 7 bridesmaids and now I was down to 6.  It was like ripping a band-aid off every time I had to explain to someone what had happened... and let me tell you IT HURT! I was really down in the dumps... I didn't even want to go to my own bridal shower which was on September 14th.  I was defeated.

Thankfully I have some of the most wonderful friends and family in the entire world.  The few that knew what had happened, because no, unless they read this post most people still don't know what happened, were so amazing and showed me so much love and support. The only people who I have told until now are the mothers, the wedding party, and 3 of my other close girlfriends.... who they have told I have no idea... but for the inner circle of people who knew what was going on, I never would have been able to pull myself out of whatever it is that I was in without them.  Even though I felt as though something terrible had happened and that I was a horrible person, I have been blessed with some wonderful and amazing friends who showed me how much they care about me and reminded me that despite what one person may think about me, that is not who I really am.  I can't let the way that one person is labeling me dictate who I think I am... I KNOW who I am.

In the end I am still hurt by what she said and that she is no longer going to be a part of my wedding.  But I also know that those who are still going to be a part of the wedding are some of the best friends that MD and I could EVER have asked for.  They are so loving and supportive and would do anything for us... and for that we are beyond incredibly blessed.  I know that although in my heart there will be a little hole which this bridesmaid left, that no matter what we will still have people there on our wedding day who love and support us and who will be there for us as we begin this new journey!

That being said, the other reason I have been on a blogging hiatus is also that the last month of wedding planning is SO FREAKING TIME CONSUMING!  There are just so many last minute little details to attend to that I think my head might explode.  We only have 16 more days until the wedding and I am not so sure that everything is going to come together... but hey, let's hope it does!

Today *NEVER* Get Any Easier

No matter how many years have passed since that fateful September day, this day NEVER gets any easier for me.  Growing up right outside of NYC, 9.11.01 was one of the worst days of most of our lives.  And there is nothing that can change that.  That day was terrible (you can read about it here...rereading my own post brings the memories flooding back even more and has reduced me to sobbing) and still sticks out in my mind like it was yesterday.

There is nothing like not knowing why your school suddenly went into lockdown mode.  There is nothing like finding out what was happening and then not being able to remember if your family had to go into the city that day for work.  There is nothing like not being able to get any cell phone reception so you can't even call your loved ones to make sure that they are ok.  There is nothing like the panic that went on in my high school that morning.  It is something that unless you have experienced it, you have no idea what went on.

I can't help but look at all the posts today on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even in blog land.  Every picture, every post, every person sharing what they remember about this day brings tears to my eyes.  So many memories come flooding back and I don't even think that I can adequately put into words how I am feeling today.  Today will not be a good day... it never is.  Today will be an emotional day filled with tears as I remember what happened that fateful morning.

As tough as today always will be, today is also a day where I will continue to remember to thank God that my loved ones were no where near the attacks.  I will continue to pray for those who lost loved ones on this day 12 years ago and who have lost loved one since as they have fought the war on terrorism.  I will continue to pray for the men and women of the US Military who have given everything they have to protect our country and to give us the freedom that we all cherish.

I pray that as a country we never have to go through something like this again, but that even if we do that we come out of it all stronger than ever.

God Bless the U.S.A. and all of our Military Personnel

Great video from YouTube... we'll never forget.

Cara Box Reveal!!!!!

So I know I am late to the Cara Box reveal game, but this month I received my box a little late and since I received it I feel like I have had zero free time for blogging.  In fact I think my only post since I received it was a "Wordless Wednesday" post where I didn't really do much besides post some pictures from one of my bff's wedding.

So about this Cara Box.  The Cara Box Exchange was started by Kaitlyn over at Wifessionals as a way to "Make Friends... Receive Gifts...Share Encouragement" as her button for the exchange states.  My first time participating in the Exchange I was paired with Ashley from Our Mitchell Moments and Maddie from My Saturday Smiles.  All of us were newbies to the Cara Box Exchange and had no idea what to expect.  The theme for this month's box was "Seasons of Life" and we were supposed to make a box for our partners that captured the essence of who they are.

I had to send a box to Ashley and immediately upon e-mailing her I knew that we would become AMAZING friends.  Ashley was so easy to talk to and I loved hearing about her beautiful baby girl as well as all the other little things going on in her life.  We e-mailed back and forth A LOT and I really feel like I was able to create a box that was simply her... a box dedicated to her love for her family!

I received a box from Maddie who is a talented artist... you should check out her Etsy shop here... especially if you have little girls!  She has some phenomenal artwork that if I had a little girl I would totally love to put in her room.  Maddie is way more creative than I am and she definitely put together a box that will hopefully get my creative genes flowing a bit more!

My pretty bag of a box from Maddie!!

Contents of my box

My box included a little chalkboard that says "I love you because..." and some chalk so that MD and I can write messages to each other letting each other know why we love each other on any particular day.  She also gave me a journal and pen where I can write down anything related to MD & I.... so that we can remember why it is that we love each other and what it is that we are doing together.  I love that she decorated the notebook with red, white and blue ribbon as my favorite football team is the NYG.  I also got some really cute coasters that I plan on using during football season!  

Overall my first experience with the Cara Box was wonderful and I am looking forward to getting to know my new partners for the next box!  

Wordless Wednesday... Jersey & Buffalo Unite

I haven't done a "Wordless Wednesday" post in a while, and I also haven't done the post about AP (now AC) and CC's wedding yet, so I figured that there is no more perfect way to showcase their wedding than an "almost" "wordless Wednesday" post.  One of my Jersey bffs, AP, married her love from Buffalo, CC, on August 17, 2013 at the Greycliff in Moonachie, NJ.  I was privileged to be AP's honor attendant in the wedding, standing up there next to her while she married her best friend and soul mate.  Most of these pics are courtesy of my amazing fiance (I was in the wedding so ya know I couldn't actually take any pictures during the ceremony), but some of the ones from the reception are mine.  Enjoy!!

Something Blue... "I Do" on the bottom of her shoes

Me & the lovely bride AP before the ceremony

Ceremony Site

Cutie flower girls

AP & her Dad

So happy

Mr. & Mrs. CC!!!!

1st Dance

Me & my 2nd Momma... Momma of the Bride!

High School Ladies at the Reception

It was seriously such a lovely day for such a lovely couple!!  Wishing these two a lifetime of happiness together!!