Happenstance

For our second wedding anniversary (cotton), I made Mark a t-shirt quilt out of all the Old Chicago Beer Tour shirts we collected over our years together.  I followed some simple instructions  and felt it turned out pretty well! Some of the difficulties I faced while making this had to do with the shirts' patterns not all being placed in exactly the same place or being all the same size. Other than that, really the most important thing was getting all the interfacing on so that the shirts didn't stretch oddly at any point in future use. 

While Mark and I have been together since 2006, we decided to try to follow the traditional wedding gifts for each year's anniversary.  For our first anniversary I wrote Mark 100 love notes and folded them into origami.  I honestly went into this thinking the hardest part would be folding the paper into something resembling origami. But after about 10 notes, I realized it was impossible for me to write 100 meaningful love notes at one time. In all honesty, some of these are just funny and a few verging on gibberish. 

Looking back on the day of the wedding, there is almost nothing I would change. I was more stressed out (wanting everything to be perfect) than I would like to admit, but once the ceremony started I felt more relaxed. The video projector that was supposed to run a loop of pre-selected pictures did not work as intended... but I need to let that go.  Honestly, we heard from SEVERAL of the coordinators that we worked with at the hotel and zoo that our party was one of the easiest and most fun they had worked with. I'm sure they say that to everyone, but I'm not going to lie - I liked hearing it! Be forewarned, this is a long post! We were able to get ready and take pictures at the zoo before the ceremony, which worked out really well for us. People around the zoo were very accommodating of the bridal party and one little girl said I looked like a princess - so,  I'm free to adopt her at any time! The animal masks worked out spectacularly and were great bridal party gifts! T...