Band Wifing

Today marked the last day of band camp, which means the season is about to kick off. The band did a parent performance tonight, but because of thunderstorms all day, the performance had to be moved inside - hence, no marching, only playing. Bummer! But they sounded great :)

Band wifing is a ton of fun for me. Basically, I get assigned all the jobs that husband, the band kids, and parents haven't gotten around to. Like picking up cases of water 20 minutes before a football game because a certain band teacher forgot to assign that job to someone or escorting kids back to the band room midway through the first quarter because they forgot something they need for the halftime marching show ;) I think my record for running back and forth between the football stadium and the band room is five times in one game. My husband's love language is acts of service, so I love being his helper and filling in the cracks in his packed game day schedule! It makes the game run more smoothly when I can do things he doesn't have time to do and I am happy to do it.

He's already thinking ahead through the end of the semester - football games, pep rallies, marching festivals, and more! We actually close on our house the day after the state fair marching festival and the day before the first home football game - hey, if we're going to jump feet-first into this school year, might as well throw a move into the mix! 

The marching show for this year sounds great already, and I can't wait to see the final product all put together!

The Beach

Guys. Our honeymoon turned me into a total beach bum. If I could spend all day with my toes in the sand and salt on my skin, I totally would. I miss throwing on some flip flops and a tank top over my swimsuit and walking a few steps to the ocean. I've told the husband a million times that we need to retire to Hilton Head Island, so if someone would like to donate one million dollars towards the summer beach house fund, we would appreciate it :)

We took a dolphin tour the first day - sailing around on a boat while watching dolphin frolic in the ocean was an excellent way to kick off our beach week!

Hilton Head Island has beautiful scenery, inland or on the beach!

I love palm trees. Love.

I enjoyed every minute of every meal we had with a water view. 

Taken one evening when we were having a sunset stroll on the beach. Take me back!

I feel like it is necessary for my soul for me to live within walking distance of palm trees and the sound of waves crashing. One day, y'all. 

The Ceremony

Our wedding ceremony was perfect. Not too short, not too long, and filled with love. 

The cast:

The men

Husband's immediate family

The ladies

My immediate family

I am so thankful that both of my grandmothers were able to attend my wedding and I cherish these photos with them.

The ring bearer and flower girl

With every family member who came to the wedding - on both sides!

My favorite ceremony moments:

My husband is not a very outwardly emotional kind of guy. For him to tear up as I was walking down the aisle is the most precious thing to me.

I am a huge cryer, but surprisingly didn't have any tears on the walk down - just a big goofy smile on my face. My dad, on the other hand, was a puddle.

My sweet husband surprised me by playing a song for me during our wedding. The priest invited everyone to be seated for a special music piece and I started to follow Chris over to the piano, not knowing what was going on. He told me to stay where I was, but it wasn't until he sat down behind the piano that I knew what was happening.

And for good measure, a couple of my favorites of us:

We went outside to take group photos and he carried my train for me :)

I'd seen a similar pose on Pinterest and put it at the top of my "to do" wedding photo list! I love how it turned out!

This picture shows how happy (and exhausted!) we were that day. I love the smiles :)

I can't thank my photographer enough for capturing such wonderful moments! I love looking back on these photos and remembering our joyous day.

The Honeymoon Souvies

Confession time: I am a huge sucker for souvenirs. I love those kitchy touristy shops that all cities seem to have, I love magnets and T-shirts and keychains that sport the name of the city I've visited, and I especially love knick-knacks that have a story behind them. I have a small basket woven by a local Native American tribe, a wooden pot made by the Amish in the local Amish community, and I have a small blown glass statue made by a local artist that I purchased from the art museum. Anything pretty that was handmade or came from a unique place, I'm all about.

So even though we ended up with ten T-shirts, three magnets, two Christmas ornaments, two keychains, and a million seashells from our Hilton Head Island honeymoon, we also managed to snag some cool, unique, and interesting items as well.

This photograph was taken by a well-known photographer on Hilton Head Island. This photo is of Harbour Town, which was one of my favorite honeymoon stops. I loved the lighthouse and exploring the boardwalk!

We only spent about a day in Savannah, but I absolutely fell in love with it. I purchased this photo collage because it showcases so much of the Savannah architecture that I couldn't get enough of!

Seashell windchime. Seriously. When we got to Harbour Town, we saw these displayed in all styles and sizes, and I wanted to look at them, assuming they would be extremely pricey. I was so happy to find that they were super affordable, and I snatched up this one for only $15. There's no way I'm going to hang it outside with Kansas winds reaching 40+ mph, so finding it an indoor home is high on my priority list once we move into our house!

This sweetgrass basket was hand-woven by a Gullah man. He was weaving them when we went to a farmer's market, but I didn't buy one because they are fairly expensive, being a handmade item. I kicked myself for the rest of the trip for not splurging on one, and we ran into the same guy on our very last day there, selling them at a museum we went to! I couldn't pass them up twice in a row, and I'm so glad I didn't. This little basket smells so good (think a smell similar to hay, but sweeter) and is a great conversation piece. The man who wove it is a seventh-generation basket weaver!

I had seen a cute project on Pinterest before we got married that I knew I wanted to try, and I love how it turned out! Basically, you print a picture of a beach and mount it in a shadowbox, then take sand from that beach and cover the sand in the photo with the real sand from the beach. Here's the original pin:

And here's how mine turned out:

I snapped this photo of Folly Field beach one evening - this beach was about 20 steps from our hotel room. We loved spending the day doing touristy activities and then heading back to the hotel to sit on the beach and play in the waves in the evening. It's the first time I've ever really seen the ocean and I was instantly hooked. Our hotel was in a gated community, so it was never super crowded, and the sand was so soft and clean! We found a couple of boogie boards in the closet in our room and took them out in the ocean - it was fun until the waves were almost over my head, and then I had had enough and was quite content to sit with just my feet in the surf :)

I know that vacations are about building memories, but I still love having photographs and tangible items to remind me of all the adventures we had. I'll do a full post (or multiple posts...?) about our honeymoon later on, but I wanted to share some of our neat finds!

Wedding Bells

I'm sure anyone who is reading this has already seen our wedding photos on Facebook, but I wanted to share a few with some wedding day commentary. Our wedding was a culmination of 7 months of crafting (mostly on my mom's part), tears (mostly on my part), and planning, planning, planning. Everyone says your wedding day goes by in a blur (true) and that the time leading up to it flies by (also true). I will probably never ever plan another wedding, but I would gladly relive our wedding day over and over :)

I got my husband a small gift the morning of - mints, candy, hairspray, and some other small items. I also stuck in these socks that matched our wedding colors - in case he got cold feet ;)

I also found these cufflinks on Etsy - perfect for my musical husband! 

My maternal grandfather passed away when I was 12, and I was constantly reminded throughout the wedding planning that he wouldn't be at my wedding. My wedding coordinator makes bouquet charms and this was such a special way to have him with me all day.

This photo really conveys how nervous I was that morning! I had a nervous stomach starting about 48 hours before the wedding up until 2 hours before. I cherish the time I had with my mom, sister, bridesmaids, and (almost) in-laws before I walked down the aisle!

As I was getting my makeup done, my great-aunt was texting my mom and sent her a couple of old photos of me. How sweet :)

I will do a few more posts with some of my favorite ceremony and reception photos - and why I love them so much!

The Band Life House

We bought a house!

Once we started to move all my things into the apartment, we realized how much room we don't have for all of our things + wedding gifts. Thus, the house hunt began. We looked at a few houses before we made an offer on one we liked... only to lose out to a higher offer. Thus, the house hunt resumed! We looked for another couple of weeks and found the house we ultimately put an offer in on. 

We will be closing in mid-September on a lovely quad-level home in a small suburb north of where we currently live. It has four bathrooms and two baths, giving us plenty of projects to work on. The current owners are in the process of repainting the exterior and pouring a new backyard patio - two less things for us to do! 

We went to Home Depot today to scope out new paint colors for the living room, kitchen, and both spare bedrooms. We haven't decided on colors for the office or master bedroom quite yet! The house doesn't need much updating, thankfully, so we won't be ripping out any counters or cabinetry anytime soon ;)

I can't wait to get started with making the house truly ours!

Happily Ever After

This girl is a major Disney fan. Like, people I barely know will send me links to Disney videos or stories because word has gotten around about my Disneyness. My room at my parents' is filled with Disney memorabilia and I am going to have to find a tasteful way to display it that husband will actually approve of... that will be a post for another time.

So naturally, one of the most common questions I got asked post-engagement was "are you going to have a Disney wedding?!" The answer... no. A wedding is about both of us and sadly, my better half is not quite the Disney fan I am. Why have a day to symbolize the joining of our lives that's only about my most favorite thing?

So I hit up Etsy and Pinterest to find ways to incorporate cute Disney touches without turning it into a Cinderella wedding. Here are some of my cute finds!

These shoe decals were originally supposed to be my "something blue" because I was planning on having a purple garter to match our wedding colors! Until I found...

My Cinderella slipper garter!

Our program, complete with hidden Mickey! One of my bridesmaids is a graphic designer and designed all of our Save the Dates, invitations, and programs, and I gave her virtually no direction for how I wanted her to place the hidden Mickey. She did a great job!

I was so happy with how these small bits added just a touch of Disney flair to our day without becoming the whole focus of the wedding!

The First Post

A new grown-up blog for a new grown-up me!

I'm a brand-new wife married to a high school band director (hence the blog title name), learning to balance school, work, house hunting, and wifedom. Here I will share my ups, downs, inevitable mistakes, and what it's like to spend weekends in my mid-20s cheering on a high school team. 

Pro wife tip #1: mini-pizzas. I've been fighting off the flu all week and my poor husband hasn't had a home-cooked meal in DAYS. {DAYS, I say.} But I'm not quite up to making anything fancy, so I start pulling leftovers and extras out of the pantry and fridge, and these little bad boys were born.

I had three random hamburger buns that I knew we wouldn't use before they went bad and a third of a jar of spaghetti sauce, so boom - instant pizzas. I spread sauce over each bun half, topped with a dash each of onion powder, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and oregano. Next came shredded mozzarella, then pepperoni (that I don't even remember buying...). I popped them in the toaster oven for about 7 minutes at 375 degrees, and they came out so yummy. Husband ate four and I ate two. The spices gave them a sweet Italian flavor and the buns didn't turn crunchy. I hate crunchy crusts! Highly recommend for kids or a quick dinner for one or two people. Next time, I'll probably use a whole package of buns.