Our Wedding Part 3 - In which we eat, drink, and dance!

Miss a wedding recap? Get up caught up!!
Our Wedding Part 1
Our Wedding Part 2

After we had a bunch of photos taken, we headed to the restaurant for our reception. Our reception was at a beautiful restaurant downtown, with amazing cobblestones and exposed brick. The space had so much character and really added to the old-fashioned, "vintage" feel I was hoping for. I loved the rectangular tables and the whole atmosphere just felt amazing. My mom and I handled all of the decor. She arranged the flowers in the mason jars, and my dad and husband cut out the wooden table numbers, and "love" clips. We used black and white wedding photos from all of our guests and family who couldn't make it. People really enjoyed looking at them!

Throughout the dinner, everyone was laughing and chatting and all around having a great time. It made me smile so much to look around at all of our guests and feeling like everything worked out exactly as I had imagined it. Our photographer managed to capture one of my favourite shots of me and my dad.

The food came out a little slowly, but no one seemed to notice too much, and those that did just headed over to our candy buffet to have a little snack! My mom and I made all of the decorations, she is so creative. Also through dinner, my dad, FIL, sister, and my husband's best man all gave some really great speeches. We were very touched, and have never felt so loved! They all did such an amazing job.

After supper, my husband and I got up and said a few words of thanks. Actually, my husband did all of the talking because I am pretty shy in crowds! He did a great job and managed not to forget anyone.

At last, we cut the cake (did I mention my mom also made AND decorated our amazing cake??), had our first dance, and I danced with my dad, and my husband danced with his mom. Then everyone let lose and had a blast dancing up a storm! The photographer left by this point, so I don't have any professional photos to share, plus I am a little wary of posting pictures of people without getting their permission... so no real photos here... Sorry!!

Well, that about sums up our wedding! I could have gone into a lot more detail, but quite frankly, I am lazy. There are so many pictures to sort through and I don't want to overload everyone with too many. Hopefully you've enjoyed reading along, and if you have any questions about any specific parts, please feel free to comment here or send me an email and I will definitely share more :)

What I like about him...

This post was much easier for me to write than the one I wrote about myself! I could easily come up with 100 things I love about my husband. I feel so blessed to have found the one for me early on in life (I was 22 when we met). The last 5.5 years have been nothing short of awesome, and I have him to thank for a lot of that! He’s my best friend, my world, my everything. How cheesy did that just sound? I don’t care! I want everyone to know just how much I love him and appreciate him. He takes care of me when I am feeling down, or when I am sick. He laughs at all of my bad jokes, and I just want to spend all of my time around him. Ok, so enough gushing, let’s move on to the list (a.k.a. more gushing). Here are the top 10 things I love about my husband.

1. He’s so handsome!
2. He’s hilarious, in the same dry, sarcastic way I am so it’s very convenient. He makes me laugh SO much.
3. He’s incredibly driven. He has career goals laid out for years to come and he works very hard to achieve them. He’s going to be extremely successful and I couldn’t be more proud.
4. He’s physically active! He used to play hockey until a series of concussions forced him to stop. Now, he does a lot of working out at home, and likes to run for cardio. He also pushed me to join the flag football league we’re in. which leads me to my next point…
5. He pushes me. He encourages me to try things I wouldn’t normally try. He clearly thinks I am capable of a lot more than I think I am. It’s so great to have such a supportive partner through all of the ups and downs!
6. His family rocks! This is really important since family is such a huge part of my life. I couldn’t have asked for better in-laws, they are truly awesome!
7. His curly hair. Love love love.
8. His blue eyes. So yummy!!
9. He’s tall. Being a tall gal, I have always looked for and dated guys who are taller than me. My husband is about 3 inches taller than me which is perfect because I never wear heels much taller than 2 inches anyways, and it means I can still feel small in his arms!
10. He is so incredibly smart. He’s intelligent in a lot of ways, he’s great with numbers, words, and life! It’s very attractive in a man :)

I could really go on and on and on, but I’ll stop there.

What’s your favourite thing about your partner? If you’re single, what’s the #1 thing you look for in a partner?

Tuesday's iPhone photo of the day...

I went back into the archive for this one! Leroy isn't crated anymore because he's been behaving pretty well. His penchant for destroying things seems to have disappeared by this point *fingers crossed*. One day, about a year a go, I came home to this. Look at the look on his face too, he doesn't even think he's done anything wrong! And I put that blanket in there to make him more comfortable... What a guy.

Weekend recap, Vol. 1...

Happy Monday! We had quite a busy, whirlwind weekend. Friday night was spent at Ottawa's biggest music festival, Bluesfest. It runs for 10 days (I think, don't quote me on that!) every year, and there are usually some pretty kick ass bands in the lineup. I have only been one other time, a few years ago. It's great to find a day when more than one band you like is playing, which makes it really worth your money. We paid $40 to see 3 bands we really like... ok... two bands WE really like, and 3 bands I really like! They're all Canadian bands: Hey Rosetta!, Our Lady Peace, and Blue Rodeo. We had an amazing time, but they wouldn't let me bring my DSLR onto the grounds. I was really bummed. I had been hoping to get some great photos to post here! Instead you'll have to settle for iPhone pics.

Then on Saturday we went golfing. We have a membership at a little 9 hole par 3 course about a 5 minute drive from our house. I've just been learning this year, but I'm really enjoying it so far. I like that it's something my husband and I enjoy doing together, and it's active! Plus, it is awesome to be spending so much time outside this summer. Saturday evening I made supper for my in-laws, that was fun too. We used a green pepper and tomatoes from our garden! They brought over a boardgame and as per usual, I kicked everyone's butt. I am unstoppable at super nerdy games!!! Apparently it's my hidden talent? I should have put that on my list of things I like about myself :P. In case anyone is wondering, super nerdy games include Settler's of Catan and Dominion. There may or may not be a couple of expansion packs included...

Finally, on Sunday we went to Calypso! It's a big waterpark near us. It was so much fun. The weather was great, hot, but not too sunny, so we didn't get burnt! We went on as many rides as we could when it first opened, and then we had lunch and spent the rest of the time floating down the lazy river, and hanging out in the wave pool. There was even a candy buffet! I love me some gummy candy and liquorice!!

We also play in a flag football league on Sundays, so we had that too. I didn't take any photos though, but maybe one of these days I will... Oh, and also, I have discovered instagram! I am always so behind the times when it comes to social media stuff, but I am getting caught up! If you want to follow me, I'm mcsarahanne! As a sample of my "work", here's a gem (haha) I took of Leroy.

What did you do this weekend?

A brand new look!

I wasn't planning on posting this weekend, but if you've been to my blog before, you've probably noticed a little something different the last couple of days. I have a whole new look! This is all thanks to Emily, over at oh, hello love!. She did such an amazing job, and I couldn't be happier. Please head over and show her some love on her blog :)

Happy Friday!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! We have lots of stuff going on this weekend so I will be back Monday with a round up of all of that! Look what I spied in out garden this morning...



What I like about me...

I have been feeling pretty down lately, lots of things going on that I don’t really want to get in to right now. I’ve been really negative and pessimistic, and I finally decided that I’d really like to snap out of it. I also decided that by deciding to snap out of it, it would just be over and I would automatically become positive. It’s been two days and it’s actually been going pretty well, and I feel a lot better. So, in the spirit of positivity and feeling good about myself, I decided to come up with 10 things I like about myself.

 This was a lot harder than I thought it would be, which, if you really think about it is quite sad. I actually got stuck on the last one. I had nine items on the list for the longest time, trying to rack my brain to find just one more thing I like about myself. This actually had the opposite of the intended effect, it made me feel bad about myself!!! How pathetic am I that I couldn’t come up with 10 nice things to say about myself? It is so awful that I could come up with 25 things I DON’T like about myself in an instant. What an eye-opener this was, honestly.
 
I really need to work on being nicer to myself. This is probably the key to good self-esteem I have been searching for all of these years. It’s not weight loss, or nicer clothes, or a bigger house, or a better job, or a more well behaved dog (haha). The key to great self-esteem is actually liking the person you are. I don’t need to change anything about myself. What I need to do to feel better is start talking to myself with a less critical, less Mean Girls-esque voice. I would never talk to my friends the way I talk to myself. Never. If I did, I certainly wouldn’t have friends anymore. Why is it ok to put myself down? Obviously, the answer is, it’s not. It’s not ok. After this little exercise I made the conscious decision to say 3 nice things to myself every day. Today I told myself I liked my outfit, that my butt looked good, and that I am great at my job.

 I’m hoping in the future it won’t be so hard, and I’ll be able to list off 100 things no problem. Until then, here are the ten I came up with (in no particular order, although I would say #1 is the #1 thing I like about myself!):

1. I am funny. It’s a fact, and I know this because so many laugh with me, although sometimes it’s at me, I’m sure. I credit most of my funniness to my dad. We share the same deadpan, dry, sarcastic sense of humour. Actually, come to think of it, my whole family shares this. We make each other laugh A LOT. It’s one of the things I really miss, living away from them. My husband and I make each other laugh a lot too though, so it’s not so bad.
2. My teeth. Thank you Mom and Dad for the braces!!
3. My figure. There are definitely things about my body that I don’t like, but I do feel very blessed to gain most of my weight in my lower half. I have never had “love-handles”, and I can gain 10-15 pounds with basically no one noticing. This is probably also a function of my height, 10 pounds on 5’ 11” definitely shows less than on shorter people! I am very fortunate!
4. My eyes. I just love my blue eyes! They’ve always been my favourite feature J
5. My hair. I have thick, wavy, dirty blonde hair that I spruce up with highlights! The individual strands are thin, not coarse, I just have a lot of them. It makes my hair pretty easy to style. I can do curly or straight pretty easily, and both will hold all day long. I’ve always liked my hair!
6. I am stylish. Or at least I think I am, and I hope other people think so too or else I am in trouble! I haven’t been as adventurous with fashion since I started a real job, but I do like to try new things, fun trends, and bright colors! I should start sharing some of my outfits on the blog. I’d also include my home décor skills in here. I think I have pretty awesome taste. I’ll also need to post pictures of some of that stuff soon!!!
7. I am an excellent baker. I know this because everyone tells me so, plus I just genuinely think so myself. I make a mean cupcake. I think what makes me good at this is the fact that I LOVE baking, and I am not scared to try new things. A couple of weeks ago I made a pineapple upside down cake for my father-in-law. Not only had I never made one before, I had also never even tasted one! It turned out so well and was so delicious. One day I am going to open my own bakery. That’s the dream!
8. I am very punctual. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have been late for anything. I am punctual almost to a fault, I am usually really early for everything, just because I fear being late so much. People being late is one of my biggest pet peeves!! I like that I can always be counted on to arrive somewhere on time, and I rarely keep anyone waiting.
9. I’m adventurous. I like trying new things. I packed up and moved to a city I didn’t know that well to be with my husband. I didn’t have a job, I just knew we’d make it work. I went away to university in my first year. I’m not particularly scared of change, and that keeps things interesting. We have roots here now, but we’re not opposed to moving somewhere else in the future, and that’s really exciting!!
10. I like being home. I am a homebody. I don’t need a blossoming social life to be happy. I can entertain myself pretty well. Luckily, my husband is the same way, otherwise I doubt we would be married!

 I encourage you to reflect upon your relationship with yourself. Can you list 10 things you like?