A Very Un-perfect Wedding

   

It has been a year and six months since I married my amazing husband Evan, and I still think about our wedding much more frequently then I would have thought.The things that come to my mind are not what I would have expected when I was so busy planning and worrying about the specific details. I don't think about how much I loved my wedding dress (even though I did), I don't think about how all of our decorations matched (they didn't), and I definitely don't think about how perfect everything went ( it didn't go perfectly at all.)


Here is what I do think about when I look back on our wedding:

       My family is completely awesome! All of them, I just have to say that first and foremost. I had family come in from all over the country for our special day. We had representatives from Texas, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Indiana and quite a few more states. One cousin even made our wedding a pit stop as they moved their family from Texas to Alaska! Not only did my family show up (in droves) but those who could, pitched in immediately with wedding setup. We had so much help it was incredible!

     On the day before the wedding, a ton of my family came to the Camp Wokanda, our wedding venue, and set to work. At one point, in all of the hustle and bustle, I took a moment and just stood and watched as the reception hall was transformed.   One table full of cousins and uncles were stringing hundred of toy airplanes on fishing lines. Another uncle quietly hung those hundreds of toy airplanes from the rafters. A couple of aunts were decorating the tables. My Mom and my Cousin-in-law were setting up the seating chart, and a passel of younger cousins were buzzing around, running errands for everyone and generally being adorable. In that moment, it hit me how truly blessed I was. Another crew of family showed up the next day...and guess what? They immediately chipped in too: tying ribbons, helping to set up the arbor, carrying 50 benches to their proper locations and the whole time supporting the crazy bride as she ran slightly amok. It was never a question, my family just helped, and the best part is that we all ha an awesome time together.

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     My friends are utterly wonderful (and pretty much family at this point, they're stuck with me). All the ladies in the wedding party helped me so much in the months leading up to the wedding, but the day itself, they all really out did themselves.

    I have three particularly close friends who where my bridesmaids (I had been in each of their weddings also, I was the last to tie the knot). They even let me borrow their wonderful husbands for our ushers. All the ladies got ready in a little cabin next to the dining hall/reception site. It was kind of dirty and there were spiders. It was definitely not the swanky, relaxing pictures you see on Pinterest of the bride and her bridesmaids sipping champagne in matching robes while getting their hair professionally done.

Our flower girl :)

 We all did eachother's hair, I did my own makeup, and my little cousin even gave one of the bridesmaids a quick last minute pedicure. It was crowded, it was loud, and it was completely wonderful. It reminded me of getting ready for a high school dance or having a sleep-over like we had done a hundred times before. Plus as a bonus, they all looked absolutely gorgeous as they stood by my side as I married the Love of my life.  

 

    When I was standing at the reception with soaking feet (more about that later), a bridesmaid grabbed me by the hand, dragged me too the bathroom (fending off well wishing wedding guests), got on her hands on knees to dry off my feet and put my clean and dry shoes on for me. Another friend gave a wedding speech so touching and intimate it still makes me cry to think of it, another bridesmaid was the last one at the reception hall helping my parents clean up, if that's not dedication I don't' know what is. I had many friends who where not in the bridal party, and they showed up and showed off too. One friend became an impromptu florist assistant/ coordinator. He was the one who carried my train over the ditch as I got ready to walk down the isle. When they realized all of our benches where wet , a friend and her husband grabbed towels and immediately started helping dry them off. I am blessed beyond measure with amazing friends.

 

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     Our wedding did not go as planned, and that was OK, infact it made it perfect. The plan was to have an outdoor wedding ceremony under a canopy of trees (that part did happen), an outdoor "cocktail hour" with a popcorn bar and yard games before the official reception (this is where things started to go wonky), and then an indoor reception.

                                                 

 The Friday before the wedding was a gorgeous June day, completely perfect, the day every brides dreams of. The wedding day was just as gorgeous, until around 4 o'clock. The rain was coming and we all knew it. My husband made the final call to go ahead with the outdoor ceremony and mid way through our pastor edited his sermon for length, which worked out well because immediately after the ceremony, when we were supposed to be having a receiving line, the heavens opened up. It didn't just rain, it monsoon-ed!

                                  

            

I truly loved our ceremony, because the rain held off, we were able to worship God under a canopy of His creation. After the ceremony, people literally had to go running for cover. Our ushers ferried people in our two golf carts as quickly as they could, people made friends sharing umbrellas and some people just dashed through the rain up to the dinning hall. My new husband and I spent the next few minutes embracing the rain and getting soaking wet for our wedding portraits, with an usher chasing us around with three giant umbrellas.

 

   Our ushers got so wet helping our guests that one ended up ditching his shoes and shirt. They all looked like they had gone swimming in their clothes, and they were so generous and humble with their help it was amazing. While I embraced the rain and decided to lot let it ruin our day, I had one worry nagging in the back of my mind, My guests. I was so worried that my guests were miserably sitting in the dinning hall...dripping. Since we were supposed to be having a cocktail hour, our caterer was not ready for the 300 people to be in the reception area yet, so that meant no dinner yet. There was still the popcorn bar,  and that seemed to go over well, we even had some stranded hikers take advantage of it as they waited for a break in the rain (that never did happen). As Evan and I waited to make our entrance into the reception, I was terrified that the rain had ruined the party and our guests hair/clothes/moods....until I took a peak through the window.
                 
Quick side note: My husband is an Aerospace engineer and obsessed with airplanes and to celebrate this (and because we are giant kids), all the tables had piles of paper and instructions on how to build various types of paper airplanes.

 The site that was before me as I looked through the window was amazing. Paper airplanes filled almost all of the available room, and laughter filled the rest. All of our family, friends, and church family were having an epic paper airplane battle. Love and happiness radiated from the room as our loved ones all bonded and laughed as the rain pelted away. My Grandma sweetly told me the rain made everything "cozy". God's timing is always perfect, even when it doesn't seem like it. Because of the rain, Evan and I were able to fully appreciate how amazing the people in our lives are, and how much they love us....soggy and all.

What I learned from my "very unperfect wedding":

1. If you pick a popular rock song as your wedding march, be prepared to break out crying in public when it starts playing over the grocery store loud speakers.

2. Your wedding guests where invited to your wedding for a reason, you love them. They truly wont mind if everything is perfect, and if they do care, they truly aren't focused on the right thing, and too bad for them. I found many wedding websites were so focused on not offending anyone or doing anything that someone might not like, they lost sight the point...its a party for people you love, and that love you.

3. DIY weddings are super fun, save quite a bit of money, but are a lot of work. Be prepared. Also DIY weddings lend themselves more towards the kind of eclectic camp/barbecue wedding we had. If you want a very shiny clean wedding, it may be harder to DIY some things.

4. It can be really fun to mix tradition and nontraditional elements of the wedding. It makes it personal. All of our wedding ceremony music was non-traditional and we loved it. Our vows were the tradition nondenominational christian vows and they were wonderful too! Don't be afraid of doing your own thing, and on the flip-side, don't be afraid of tradition because its "boring" or "uncool".

Grandma's Pancakes

(Also known as "Egg Pancakes"& "German Pancakes" )

A favorite memory from my childhood was waking up at Grandma's house. Living only a mile away from Grandma and Grandpa's house meant that I stayed over often on weekends. Saturday mornings at Grandma's meant only one thing... Pancakes! And not just any pancakes, Grandma's pancakes. I'm not sure where the recipe originated from and I don't think my Grandma is quite sure either. They are thinner than most traditional kinds and thicker than crepes. They are unique, extremely simple, easily customized and very yummy. So here, I finally write down the recipe that I (and my cousins) learned by heart by the time we were five. 

Ingredients

One reason that this was such an easy recipe as a kid, was because of the "rule of two". Two items from the baking pantry, two items from the fridge, two items from the cupboard. 

• 1 Cup Flour 
• 1/3 Cup Sugar
• 1 Cup Milk
• 2 eggs
• Around 1 1/5 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

Directions

This Recipe is pretty much "throw in Bowl and mix" but this is how I usually do it.

1. In a medium mixing bowl add flour and sugar

2. Next add eggs and 3/4 of the milk (Save the remaining milk to add at the end to achieve desired thickness. Depending on the size of the eggs and any "add-ins" you may need to add the rest of the milk, and maybe not)

3. Next add your vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Growing up we measured by the "cap-full". 1 cap full of oil, one cap full of vanilla (my vanilla is slightly on the big size so I don't use quite a full cap)

4. Whisk mixture and add more milk if needed/desired.

5. Heat non-stick pan over medium-high heat with small spray of oil

6. Pour batter into the heated pan, I usually make these pancakes a bit on the smaller side.

7. Flip pancakes when small bubbles appear all throughout the batter (as shown).

8, Remove when golden brown and pour your next pancake and enjoy. This recipe makes 9-12 pancakes depending on the size. 

Toppings

Another great thing about these pancakes is that they are great vessels for many kinds of toppings. My personal favorite (and my Grandma's) is a stack of pancakes with 1 slice of American cheese and syrup poured over the top. It may sound strange, I took some convincing too, but it is so delicious. My mom likes to roll hers up with jelly and munch on them that way (especially cold). Peanut butter is another popular choice ( my husband's favorite). Just classic syrup, applesauce, bananas, and apple butter are wonderful too. Go Crazy and be creative!

Healthier Options

I commonly make changes to up the health factor of these sweet pancakes. Whole wheat flour works wonderfully for this recipe. Removing half the sugar and replacing it with agave nectar or other low calorie sweeteners works very well too.  Be creative and see what you like! The standard recipe is right around 300 calories per serving (split between 3 people). 

Additions

I love to add things to this basic recipe to spice things up. Replace 1/3 of the milk with eggnog for a christmas treat. Pumpkin and cinnamon are great add-ins for fall (no adjustments needed to the recipe otherwise). Mini Chocolate chips and small blueberries are wonderful (Because of the thin batter, large things don't integrate well). Sprinkles and food coloring make a fun birthday treat. One day my baby cousin and I made Purple Polka-dotted pancakes to share with our stuffed Pig and Penguin (it doubled as a lesson on alliterations). The flavors are endless!

Hope you Enjoyed reading about our family favorite pancakes. 

Hope to chat again soon!

Proverbs 22:6 Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

New Year-New Town-New Name

I can not wrap my head around the fact that it is 2015 already. It doesn't quite feel like it could possibly be the start of a brand new year. The date transitioned from 2014 to 2015 quietly for me this time. I sat at work watching a premature baby try to figure out what she was supposed to do with the bottle of formula that I had placed in her mouth. I glanced up to check how long our attempted feeding had lasted and it was midnight on the dot. So I whispered "Happy New Year" to my tiny little friend and tried to convince her to eat a few more drops. 

While my New Years Eve wasn't a major affair, this last year certainly has been for me. Even my very name changed this year; I sit here now bearing a brand new initials (MMLD) for a brand new year.

(This is before we got completely soaked in the rain)

Marriage was a huge milestone in my life, and only one of many this year. My Mom continued to bravely kick cancer's butt and successfully went into remission during 2014. My hometown continues to rebuild after a devastating tornado that tore a hole through our landscape and all of our hearts. I moved to South Bend and went from seeing my lovely husband  once every two weeks, to sharing a little home together. I went from being an only child, to having a sister-in-law. A sweet little dog joined our family in July. 

(Aero Dynamic says hello)

 I cut off a foot of my hair and then in a moment of pure bravery (Cough...insanity...cough), I cut off the rest of it, and now sport a short little pixie hair-do. I guess I'll have to leave the hair changes alone for a while, I don't have much left to work with!


Sometimes my life felt like it was going so fast with all of these events, that I felt like I was just hanging on for the ride. It was a wonderful, amazing and at times stressful rollercoaster life. As I look back on this year, I feel completely blessed by the people God has placed in my life. My whole family descended in force for my wedding and showed me so much love and support that Evan and I still can't find the right words of thanks. Our friends, who are pretty much our family anyway, mirrored that same love and support. 

I had quite the year with both highs and lows. My goal for 2015 is to be more intentional about life and not just let it pull me along. With my husband and little Aero to help me, I think I'm on the right track already.

Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (NLT)

Hope to talk again soon. God Bless and Happy New Year!

Megan D.