this is love

Spencer: You know why I love you?

Anne: Why?

Spencer: Because a bottle of wine is too much for one person, and too little for three.

celebration!

I had the song "Celebration" stuck in my head tonight, and it reminded me of this...

There aren't any people out there planning on surprising us with this move, are there?

wedding attire

(whoops! not on the invitations!)

wedding attire: semi-formal is encouraged.

(dresses, skirts, collared/button-front shirt, tie, jacket. we thank you for not wearing jeans!)

we're niwot kids through and through, and we decided to honor our roots with a backyard wedding at our family homes. so be sure to be comfortable walking in the grass, and being outside in august!

we have added an element of formal-ness to the night, so semi-formal attire is encouraged.

lazy saturday

hey all! spencer and i decided to do absolutely nothing today. nothing at all. we've had a busy couple weeks planning for the wedding, building a stone patio (pictures to come) for the ceremony, and, oh yeah, moving.

but today is about relaxing and enjoying the first day of summer (is it the first day of summer?) spencer's playing foo fighters on his guitar right now and i can hear clear creek rushing outside. it's a beautiful Golden day, and it makes me realize how lucky i am to be marrying such an amazing friend!

can't wait to see you all on the big day.
xoxo,
anne

2 and a half months!

Well hello again. Remember us? The couple that's gettin' hitched?

We've gone and fallin' off the edge of the world, it seems. Well actually, we've been spending our days building stone patios and talking to catering companies and building pipelines and babysitting doctors!

I don't have much to say except...wedding planning is hard. Especially for two control freaks like us. Everyone keeps telling us to enjoy it, but to that we say how??

The most important thing we keep reminding each other of is that we will be married at the end of all this. Oh yeahhhhhhh! we say. I remember now.

Do you have wedding planning advice? My cousin Julie keeps telling me to elope. Well yes, I have to admit there have been times where I have tried my best to convince Spencer that we should do that. But there is something to be said about the sacredness of a wedding. And that is enough to reel me back in.

What do you wish you would have done when you were getting married? Any planning tips?

All my love,
Anne

Our Story

Spencer and I finally got the chance to write Our Story. We chose to format it like a Q & A session, so it's not too formal. Head on over to the 'Our Story' page, and check it out!

Here's an excerpt:

"...there was always something special about her that attracted me. I started to write her letters (knowing deep down inside that she thought the prospect of handwritten letters was romantic) when I was a junior in college. I can't say exactly why, again I think I was helplessly attracted to her and finally just decided to let myself be swept away by my feelings for her. And thats what happened, with every letter my true feelings for her became more apparent to the both of us..." -Spencer

we registered!

Wow, we spent the whole weekend running around town registering, and it really takes it out of you to try and plan ahead that much.

Click here to see our "Registry" page for details.

Homecoming

Spencer is coming home today!

honeyfund

Visit our honeyfund at Honeyfund.com, the free honeymoon registry

Spencer and I decided to go more of the non-traditional route when it came to the tradition of registering. Don't worry, because we have big families who value traditions, we're creating the regular wedding registries. But we also love to travel, and are really excited for our Napa Valley honeymoon.

Because of this, we thought it would be fun to register for our honeymoon. That way, our friends and family can give "memories" - like a wine tasting or a bicycle tour of the Valley.

It's pretty simple. You just go to our Honeyfund website, and view the "items" we've registered for. And in order to protect our loved ones, we've opted for the print-a-gift-certificate route that you can insert with your check, for instance, at the shower or wedding.

We are just so excited to be with our loved ones on our special day, and can't hardly wait to get back to our beloved Napa.

Talk to you soon,
Anne and Spencer

color and what it means

some of our colors. photographs from snippet & ink.

I am quite the aesthetic person, and although I was raised by an artist, and my enthusiasm for color may very well stem from that, I believe with all of my being that our experience of color is a true expression of some subconscious level within us, and really has the power to speak for parts of ourselves that maybe we can't find words for.

I am also a planner, and so I have been planning this wedding for... well, a lot longer than I've been engaged. I've been saving all these pictures to a folder, pictures that inspire me, magazine cut outs that I think are pretty or would be great ideas for our Colorado wedding. But it's been hard to try and think of the design as just that, as a plan that we could pay someone to put together for us. Really, it's been hard to think of it as anything other than a tangible and/or material articulation of some deep feeling Spencer and I have about love and "us." 

Spencer and I both had very whimsical childhoods in Colorado. We spent a lot of time outside. And when we met and throughout our relationship, the beauty of this country and the wilderness around us has been an integral part of our love. So don't you think that we should try and encapsulate that for the guests, for all of you, to experience with us?

Anyway, that's my thought process.

When it comes to the colors, I've been thinking a lot about the natural landscape of this state. My mom used to say that her favorite colors were the ones that she could find naturally, out in creation. For Colorado, we're thinking sage greens, light blue-grays, and deep purple-reds. Have you ever seen a Colorado sunset? Then you're familiar with those burning orangey-reds, and those champagne color clouds. How about the sky on a perfect summer day? Or a hike through the Rockies? These colors just present themselves to you. At least they have to me. There is a reason that John Denver wrote a song about it all. Yeah, yeah... I know it's cheesey that I like John Denver. Get over it.

It's our hope that when our guests come to our wedding, they are able to relax and experience our love so that we can all truly celebrate together, without feeling all stuffed up in tradition and uncomfortable clothes. Don't wear your torn up blue jeans, now... but I think the point of this blog is that our guests might be able to come to our wedding feeling as if they are already a part of it. 

It's a pretty special day after all.

marriage lesson #1

If I have any gaps in my knowledge of what marriage is all about, it seems that I've just been introduced to one of them.

Spencer has Crohn's Disease, as you may or may not know. He was diagnosed last September, and it is a disease where our immune system thinks your small intestine/colon is sick and attacks it for no good reason. No one really knows what causes Crohn's, and we've been lucky to meet with some great GI docs and others who have really been guides for us through all of this.

Unfortunately, it hasn't been an easy road back to normal life. Spence has lost a lot of weight in the last few months, and has had some pain on and off. And to top it all off, this past Monday, Spencer was admitted to the hospital because of a fistula. In my very limited medical talk, a fistula is basically a fusion between, in Spencer's case, the latter part of the small intestine and the bladder. This has led to an infection, the need for antibiotics, and as we know now, a required surgery to remove the damaged intestine and sew up the hole in his bladder.

Now, I'm the one who convinced him to come into the hospital on Monday night. He had a high fever, and I just felt that it couldn't wait for a doctor's appointment the next day. I honestly thought that we'd go in, they'd find a kidney infection or something, and that we'd be out of there with antibiotics in no time. But after a few hours turned into him being admitted, I had to rewire my brain and realize that I am not really just the concerned girlfriend anymore. I've said yes to marriage, and that means I'm saying yes to staying by his side, and being a part of these decisions.

This surgery will be a good thing. It has a great chance of improving his quality of life. He'll be miserable for a few days afterward, but it's highly likely that we will both be able to go back to a more active and more positive way of life.

Today, someone said that this is the beginning of my wife training. Yikes, being a wife feels like my body is going into surgery, too. It feels like crap when I go home for a few hours of sleep every night, and it seems that if I left half of myself behind. I've learned more about love and commitment in the last few days than I have in months. It's incredible.

If you can keep us in your prayers tomorrow, that would be so great. We have faith that God is providing for us. In fact, Spencer was supposed to go to Utah on Sunday night, and his flight got canceled. Who knows what would have happened if he had gone, but the Lord is surely protecting him.

the world of inspiration boards

Ah, the challenge of trying to find a color palette, a theme, a celebration that is truly you...

I've been skimming through the hundreds of inspiration boards that Kathryn at Snippet and Ink, my fav wedding blog, has created over the years. These are some of my favorites...

Inspiration boards via Snippet and Ink. 1| 2| 3| 4 | 5| 6|

let the planning begin

Getting engaged is a milestone, and our engagement experience was a whirlwind, a completely indescribable moment in life. The depth of its importance, the memories, the words, the surroundings (the storm and wind - completely and so wonderfully Colorado, in our case)... it's just great.

And now we're getting married! Can I just pause for a minute and say "woohooooo!!!!" - yeah. That's right. 'Yippee' is a great word, actually.

There is a lot to the planning, so much that goes into budgeting and deciding what kind of experience you both want on that special day. Spencer and I are excited, I think, to plan and organize and see the thoughts come to life. I know I am, as I'm a mostly-obsessive planner and aesthetically crazed individual. Spencer bought a white board - another reason why I love him.

White board+binder & dividers+planner+Excel worksheet=happy couple, in our case.

This just got real, people.

I think it's easy for some couples (or even just brides) to forget that this is about joining two lives, coming together in a sacred union... it's about marriage and love and commitment... completely selfless devotion... and not just about a party. Oh we will party, don't you worry. But I think my hope in all of this is that I remember that I'm crazy in love with a beautiful person that is faithful and real and strong and devoted, and that no matter the size of the wedding, the price tag, or the food, we're still going to have a marriage at the end of that. And that's really, really great.

This whole time is full of milestones: buying the ring, asking the mother and father for permission, getting down on one knee, saying 'yes.' And then there's wedding dress shopping, asking someone to be your maid of honor, writing your vows, and saying 'I do'...

Wow. This is pretty rad, don't you think?

Stay tuned. More details to come. Thanks for coming along for the ride, and celebrating with us.

Best,
Anne

wedding mayhem

i love this movie. don't you?

hello!

hi friends! we're so excited to get married, and to share our special day with our loved ones.

we decided to create this blog as a place where we can share details about the wedding, our registries, photos and our love story.

check back in now and then to get updates!

sincerely,
anne and spencer