Eyes on the Bride: Cris S. {Part 1}

The next lovely lady to step right up and play our little Eyes On The Bride game is unlike any other we've had visit us before. Cris from Kiss My Tulle had a last minute wedding earlier this year (she explains it all below), and is still planning a wedding for 2012. So she's sort of a mix of a newlywed and a bride-to-be, and offers a pretty unique take on this whole wedding planning business. On top of all that, her blog is a hilarious read, so if you don't yet, you should start reading it on the regular. Cris even let me write a little something on there a while back.

Cris is here today to share details about her Alaska nuptials, and will be back next week to dish about her upcoming Texas wedding. Sure, we're sort of fusing a little Eyes on The Bride with a bit of Notes from a Newlywed in this case, but hey, we've never been sticklers for following rules here at TWB. Why start now, right?

Bride's Name, Age, Occupation – Cris Stone, 33, Professional Blogger (http://www.kissmytulle.com) and Graphic Designer/Website Designer (http://www.crisstone.com)

Groom's Name, Age, Occupation – The Boy, 44, High Voltage Electrician and Retired Air Force Civil Engineer

City of Residence – Hill Country (San Antonio), Texas

Wedding Location – Salcha Fairgrounds in Salcha, Alaska (my hometown). This was a simple civil ceremony planned in three days. See, The Boy and I got engaged in January of 2011 and planned (and paid for!) a May 2012 wedding – then my dad was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer in July. He was given only 30 days to live so The Boy and I rushed up to Alaska to be with him. While we were there, the diagnosis became worse and he was really upset that he might die before seeing us get married. So, on Monday we applied for a marriage license, on Tuesday we posted on Facebook that we’d be getting married on Friday (after the mandatory three day waiting period), and then did a quickie ceremony after people got off work on Friday. After the ceremony, we had a potluck “reception” (read more on doing a potluck reception here) and I danced to Trace Adkins “Then They Do” with my dad. None of this was the way that I had planned or even wanted it to be but I wouldn’t change it for the world. You can read more about our decision here.

How you met – I was helping my parents remodel a rental for this guy who worked with my dad (The Boy). I was bored out of my mind living/working with my parents, he noticed, and asked me out for dinner (at The Cookie Jar) and dancing (at The Silver Spur). We had a great time and have been inseparable ever since.

How long you've dated – 6 years - since December of 2005.

How he proposed – Ummmm, in bed. And then I didn’t say yes until 24 hours later – via a text message. We are SO romantic…(you can read more about it here).

Wedding colors/theme – Whatever we had at our disposal – it ended up being blue, green, and red! I had a green cardigan (that I wore over a simple white cotton sundress), The Boy bought a blue shirt at a thrift store, and we used my dad’s signature red bandanas to wrap the bouquets.

Bridesmaids' dresses info – The bridesmaids were my little sister (10) and my niece (10) and my maid-of-honor was my niece (17). I told them to pick anything from their closets that was blue, red, or green. My maid-of-honor was so excited to be asked that she bought a new dress from her work (Old Navy) and wore a matching cardigan from her closet. My sister decided that the little girls needed to match so she bought them and the flower girl (my great-niece) cute pink and red sundresses from the clearance section at Wal-Mart.

Best part of planning – Writing our entire wedding ceremony myself the night before the wedding (and crying a little with my sister when she read them with me). Also, my dad performed the ceremony and that? Was the best thing ever.

Worst part of planning – All the paperwork involved in applying for the license, getting the license, and getting a marriage commissioner (my dad) approved for the ceremony. I don’t like errands.

Most surprising part of planning – How nothing else matters except the getting married part. My mom and sister ended up making this wedding their wedding (they steamrolled over me about bridesmaid dresses, the food, the decorations, etc.) but nothing, NOTHING, mattered in the end because I was married to my love by my sweet daddy.

Favorite vendor so far – Out of the blue, a very sweet girl called me and offered to photograph our civil ceremony for free. I had gone to elementary school with her husband and her in-laws still lived in Salcha. She had heard about my dad and our decision to get married and just wanted to help out. Floored does not even begin to express it! Amber Westerlund (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=615411520) did a good job and I’m thrilled that I have good-quality photos of that day (and a video!).

Places you registered – Target (our “big box/accessible to everyone” store), Crate & Barrel (our “mid-level, most of our kitchen stuff is from here” store), Pottery Barn (our “higher end, investment pieces” store), and Deposit a Gift (our “tastefully asking for cash, please” website). Ultimately though, we asked people to just bring a dish to share for the potluck reception – some people did give us cash and gift cards though (which was nice - no hauling stuff back to Texas and paying a luggage fee!).

Any Do-It-Yourself (DIY) plans – A few, my family is made up of crafty people so not having any DIY projects for the wedding was not going to happen (plus, it was a nice way to keep everyone’s mind off my dad’s illness). Most of the projects were done the night before with whatever we happened to have lying around my sister’s house.

· My mom made this cute ring bearer pillow: http://www.kissmytulle.com/2011/08/wedding-wednesday-the-ring-bearer-pillow.html

· My 11 year-old brother made me a cake stand from a tree stump: http://www.kissmytulle.com/2011/09/wedding-wednesday-tree-stump-cake-stand-diy.html

· We used a packet of coffee filters and some dye to make cute pom-poms to decorate the gazebo where the ceremony was held: http://www.kissmytulle.com/2011/08/wedding-wednesday-pompom-decorations-diy.html

· I made this ribbon cake topper with scraps from my sister’s craft room trashcan: http://www.kissmytulle.com/2011/11/wedding-wednesday-ribbon-cake-topper-diy.html

· I used a free printable from A Little Heart to make my post-civil ceremony thank you notes: http://www.kissmytulle.com/2011/10/wedding-wednesday-our-alaska-civil-ceremony-thank-you-notes.html

· A friend made The Boy’s wedding ring… no really: http://www.kissmytulle.com/2011/08/wedding-wednesday-how-the-boy-got-a-diy-wedding-ring-no-really.html

· I wrote our entire ceremony: http://www.kissmytulle.com/2011/08/wedding-wednesday-our-alaska-civil-ceremony-part-1.html

· I also made the girls some cute floral headbands to wear and I made my own wedding cake (like 2 hours before the ceremony).

· My niece made a cute poster for the guests to sign and a really adorable picture of us getting married (which we used on our wedding website).

· I made the bouquets in about ten minutes from bunches of cheap supermarket flowers. I used several of my dad’s signature red bandanas as bouquet wraps.

Honeymoon Location – You’re going to die. Our honeymoon consisted of the drive-through at Taco Bell at midnight and then, because I had to pee and it was the only thing open, the meal was eaten in the parking lot of Wal-Mart. After that, we headed back to my sister’s house (where we had been staying) and spent the night in my niece’s room because we had to be up at 9AM the next morning for a work party at my parents’ house. The tacos were tasty though….

*all images provided by Cris