The Venue

Pioneer Playhouse: Where Stars are Made

The date is officially set for September 28th, 2013.   I decided to have the wedding at Pioneer Playhouse back home in Danville, KY.  This place has some wonderful memories that go with it.  Even though it doesn't seem that fancy, it was a place I loved to spend my summer nights volunteering as an assistant in the dinning hall, passing out programs, helping in the gift shop whatever they needed.  I would rather have my wedding some place that feel a part of me and my past than some big fancy hotel or other venue where I've never been.  Plus we save a lot of money by having it since all they charge for a whole day rental is $500.  Most places want at least $1k if not more.  Plus we can come in advance to decorate with no extra charge, and that have both an outdoor area and indoor in case it rains.  Only thing more I could ask for is that they were a little less rustic looking, but from all the stuff I've seen on Pinterest rustic weddings are totally popular right now.  I just wish I could find some photos of the past wedding to show you how nice it can look.  Apparently not many people like to post them, but I know they have a lot of them.  I originally wanted to have it on Sept 22nd, but that weekend was already taken and the one before that.  I guess a lot of people are realizing it's a nice inexpensive place that hold lots of people.

Stage of Pioneer Playhouse.  I don't think we can have the wedding ceremony there, too bad:)

All of Pioneer Playhouse.  It has a little western town replica for people to explore as well as the dinning area and indoor area.  I thought abut having the ceremony under the big tree if possible. 

The Rings

There seems to be a lot of rings going involved with getting married the engagement ring, both wedding bands, plus I got Matt and special ring when we were in Ireland.  Most important first:

The Engagement Ring

My engagement ring is kind of a family heirloom.  It belonged to my dad mom, so my grandmother on his side.  She died before I was born so sadly I never got to meet her, but if I did my dad always said she would have spoiled me to death.  He said she always wanted a grand daughter, so when she died she left her engagement ring to go to the first girl born into the family.  I was the only girl in our family so I win : ) 

It's a vintage looking ring, with a thin 18k yellow gold band, with a larger stone in the middle and 12 smaller stones going around it.  I'd like to give it to the first girl born into our family as well, which is one reason why I'm wanting a girl for my first child.  I like the idea of giving a ring to the girl instead of the boy.  That way you don't have to worry about your son marrying someone and then getting divorced and never getting the family ring back.  Plus when it comes time to get engaged if the boy who wants to ask your daughter wants a free ring instead of shelling out big bucks for one, he has to come ask permission : ) Which is exactly what Matt did. 

When Matt first proposed I could only get the ring to stay on my index finger since it was too big. My grandmothers hand must have been much bigger than mine.

 
Matt's "Engagement" Ring

I knew I already wanted to by a special ring for Matt when we were in Ireland as his Christmas gift, but now since we got engaged there I kind of consider it to be his engagement ring.  He wears it on his ring finger like one, and people actually thought we eloped and already got married when they saw him wearing it.  It's a claddagh ring, almost like mine, expect his is a band with the design engraved into it.  It's not super fancy since we couldn't afford and really nice ring like I would have liked, but it's the thought that counts.  I got my claddagh ring when I was last in Ireland and it was only $10 and it still looks wonderful.  One day I would like to get us real gold ones, and I'd like for him to have one like looks like a bigger version of mine, which is traditional for men to wear. 

Brides Wedding Band

I feel like I'm pretty lucky because both of my rings come from someone in my family.  Not only do I get to save some money by not having to buy a new one, it feel much more special to have a thing be passed down in the family.  My wedding band come from my other grandmother, my mom's mom (I call her Neenaw).  She gave me her wedding band from when she was married to my Pop, who died quite a while back.  I did have it altered a bit though.  It was quite a wide band, measuring 8mm, which actually made it way too small on my finger and made it feel like the engagement ring would fall off.  I had it pretty much cut in half, I believe taken down to 4mm.  This actually made it fit my finger perfectly without more altering.  It still looks like a larger band, more like one a man might wear, but I like it that way.  It makes it look more unique even though it's just a simple gold band.  Plus it's a nice opposite look to the engagement ring, with its super thin band.  I'll add a picture soon to show you what I mean.   So in the end I get my whole ring set from both side of my family.  Now I just hope I can pass my rings down to someone so they can keep being enjoyed.

Grooms Wedding Band

We actually just got Matts ring like a month before the wedding :S  We wanted to go with a yellow gold band to match mine, but it is next to impossible to find one from a real jewlers for less than $600.  Even just a plain one.  We decided where it comes from really doesn't matter, it's what it represents.  So...we went with Walmart.  They actually had a pretty decent looking 14kt 6mm yellow gold band for only $269.  We have a winner :)

Almost Time to go Home Too: Jan 1st-3rd

January 1st, 2013: Happy Friggin New Year

Today was lovely.  Saying both sarcastically and sincerely.  You know that cold I said I started to get last night?  Well it reared it's ugly head all day today.  I layed in bed until about 2pm filled with exhaustion and body aches.  Only reason I got up was because Matt went out to go get something for lunch.  Since it is New Years day and it's an official bank holiday in France pretty much everything was closed, except good old Chinese food.  Thankfully their New Year comes later, so you can always count on them to be open. 

I tried not to eat too much in case nausea came with this cold, but all seemed well.  We watched Doctor Who for a bit around 4 I ended up falling back asleep again until dinner time.  The studio we were staying in may be small, but at least the bed and blankets we super comfy.  I wanted to steal her comforter so bad.  Thankfully by dinner time I was feeling a bit better, enough to go with Matt to find something for dinner.  There ended up actually being a grocery store open so we got a few more things for breakfast the next day.  We opted just to go with Chinese food again since we still had a little left over from lunch as well.  We stopped by a different place and got some yummy poulet au caramel (caramel chicken, kinda like sesame chicken) and beouf basilic (Basil Beef, tastes kinda like Thai curry). 

It was actually kind of nice to just have a day to chill and cooperate from traveling.  We wanted to go see the Eiffel tower and La Defense today but Matt didn't want to go without me and I was in no shape so he said he was fine with just relaxing.  vacationing is hard work.  Next one Matt and I take will be our honeymoon and we are just heading to the beach.  We're just going to sit back, enjoy the sun and sand, maybe go to a spa, go snorkeling, do whatever we want without a care in the world.  and to make thing even easier hopefully I'll be able to work with a travel agency to book everything for us so I don't even have to plan everything. 

January 2nd, 2013: Fly Away Home

Today is the Day.  Matt flys back to the US.  Then soon I'll be doing the same.  We made sure to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport since we had to take the metro.  I considered taking a shuttle from one of the train stations like I have heard of but when Matt looked it up they were all ridiculously expensive.  Plus when I thought about it they would probably take longer since they have to deal with traffic and the RER only stops for about 15 seconds at maybe 15 stops total all the way up to Charles de Gaulle.

The only downside to taking the RER is we had to lug all our suite cases up and down stairs, which was so much fun.  I had Matt take one of my suite cases home full of a bunch of stuff I could live without for 10 days.  I figured it would make it easier on me when I have to go back so I will only have to drag around 2 suit cases instead of 3, one of which being really massive.  I had him take my biggest one so I was just left with the medium and carry-on sized one and my back pack.  I wish I had jammed more stuff into because after I repacked both bags at the hotel we probably could have gotten more into them.  but then they might have been over weight so maybe it's ok.  It took him probably over an hour to get through check in since he couldn't do it online and for some reason people weren't using the kiosks they had.  Leave it to the French to make everything harder than it need be.  I'm glad we got there 3 hours early or else he might have missed his plane.  I'll need to remember that when it's time for me to leave.

Last time I was in CDG I got through the line tout suite because my tachycardia was happening and the French were freaking out.  They pushed me to the front and didn't even care my bag was over weight, then let me may down in the back room of the check in area.  They didn't want to let me on the plane since they thought I would die or something.  No one tends to listen when I say I'll be fine.  It's like they don;t trust me when I say I've had it ever since I was in 5th grade, I know what I'm doing.  One the plus side I got a whole isle to myself and a wheel chair to the plane.  Maybe I should drink strong french coffee before getting to the airport again.

We said our goodbyes, which were much shorter this time since I'm coming home soon.  honestly if I wasn't coming home I would have ruled Matt's trip here kind of lame and would have been even more sad things didn't go as planned hardly ever.  But since I'll be some soon I can handle it more.  Then Matt will be stuck with me forever.

January 3rd, 2013

Wow, I have never been so bored in all my life.  Cabin fever is a real thing because I have it.  even though I can go do stuff, there is nothing to do back in Orleans, and I feel so lonely now that Matt is gone.  It was nice having some me time when I first got home, but now I'm just sad.  I really can not wait until people start getting back to the foyer so I can have some interactions with people.

Only person back so far is Dalia and we had dinner together which was nice.  I always think I'm more of a loner, until I'm really alone.  Then it's just sad.  I don't have many friends in KC, but Matt is always there which makes it better.  When he is gone on business I realize I need to find more friends so I don't get depressed.  I'm very happy I have friends here and I'm sad to have to leave them.  I wish I could bring them all back to KC with me.  I wanna invite them all to my wedding but I know no one will make it, since half of them live across the pond.  I think I'll still mail over a save the date card to everyone.

 I'm actually quite glad to be going home and I'm glad I decided to.  While I'm sad I have to say good bye to all my new friends, and won't get to go to any more cool places, I think I will be happier, and my stress will be lower.  Now I won't freak out as much about saving up money for the wedding and if things go wrong with the house (so long as they are smallish things:) since we will have 2 incomes.  Its going to be a long wait though.  Still 9 more days until I leave.

I Love Comments : )

Attention all readers.  I have been blogging for a bit and have yet to get any comments on my posts.  Tell me what you think, either about my experiences, recipes (espeically if you tried them), advice, anything. First one to leave one will win my undying gratitude and maybe a response back :P  Happy Reading

Mary