![IMAG0465[1]](http://www.sweetloveandginger.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMAG04651.jpg)
February ended with birthday celebrations and March started off a little nutty for them, but it all settled out in no time.
She got excited about working in the garden, and learning about permaculture
.
He daydreamed about far off hunting seasons.
They started planning kitchen renovations and financial futures.
She got in her first hike of the new year while he hit his first few golf balls of the season.
It was awesome.
Kicked off the month with visiting friends and Chowderfest.
She cooked lots of great food, and he enjoyed every second of it.
They finally started planning that trip to Italy they have been talking about for years. It’s so exciting!
She took a trip with her mom and sister to the big apple while he and his father had a satisfying day of tackling house projects.
The learned some important lessons in planning bigger projects like kitchen renovations. Who knew he cared about color?
January started out pretty lazy. G had a hell of a cold and they used the excuse to binge watch Grey’s Anatomy and lay around.
They both also had to get themselves together enough to go to work after a long vacation, which was not fun.
They discovered a new game
that they played quite a bit in front of the fire since the weather outside was cold and wet most of the month.
C was able to finish a few more projects around the house (more on those soon).
G got back in touch with painting, crafting, and decorating, finally choosing a color for the living room.
Settling into this life that they have built together is really been a great time.
I’m sort of falling behind in all the things I wanted to post about for my wedding series. I’m just not into gushing about the thing, not that this should be a surprise to anyone.
One thing I do want to gush about a bit however is my dress. I love my dress, like totally and completely love it.
I did the whole bridal shop thing and tried on a few dresses, but never really loved any of them, and certainly not the price tags on them. So as any smart chick in my generation would do I turned to the internet and started snooping around for some options.
I stumbled onto it somehow when I was just clicking around on ModCloth. It was on sale, it was just the style I liked, minus a few things small things I could do myself and so despite the no return policy on sales items I bought it, and another one for extra material. The total for both of these dresses was about $120.
As it turns out I didn’t end up using the second dress. Originally wanted a train added to the dress, but after testing out a few options I decided that anything I added just took away from the dress itself. The only alteration I really made was cutting out a center piece of lace on the neckline to make it a kind of scalloped v-neck.
I did add a beaded belt to break up all the white lace, which cost about $15.
For the vale, I simple bought a cheap one from a local craft store and made the alterations to it myself. I didn’t want anything fancy, so there was no need to spend a couple hundred dollars on one at the bridal shop. The vale cost roughly $5.
I found the earrings at one of my favorite local artists shop Corina Jewelry, and had her make a necklace to match. The total for those came to about $50.
You may or may not have noticed from the pictures that I did not wear shoes. I had a lot of reasons for choosing not to wear shoes, but there is more on that in my Wedding Traditions we are Not Doing post.
I’m still in awe of how it all came together, and so proud that I had a hand in making my dress complete. It’s beautiful and unique and everything that I dreamed of. All together, my dress (not including the unused second dress), and jewelry cost a whopping total of $130.00. You read that correctly. My entire ensemble for the wedding cost barely anything, and I loved it.
I realize that not everyone is ok with a simple dress, but that’s what I wanted, and I’m glad I was able to help keep the costs of the wedding low to boot. If you are interested in a unique and simple dress I would definitely suggest you check out ModCloth. They have some great stuff.
For them December was a hectic month.
C did some more hunting and brought home another big prize, so additional freezer space had to be purchased.
G decided to conquer the Fire Tower Challenge and hiked her first mountain on her own. An accomplishment to say the least.
Together they did the Christmas shopping and put up the very first tree in their new home.
They hosted back to back holiday parties, and were able to finally use those mauve candles.
December came in like a storm and they weathered it together with ease.