wedding stuff

Weekly Therapy: Loyalty and road trips and early morning alarms

- Mel

the week:
I purchased a lunch bag from eBags a few years ago and was sad when the interior lining started ripping away from the zipper. I finally replaced it a few weeks ago with something new, but strongly disliked its smaller interior capacity (less room for snacks!) and handles that don’t keep the back straight — and no short carry handle on the top of the bag (so high maintenance!). When looking around their site to find my original, I discovered that eBags-branded products have a LIFETIME WARRANTY against defects — and they replaced my well-loved lunch bag with a brand new one!

I’m in no way sponsored or compensated by the company, but I absolutely love when brands do right by their products and will shout my loyalty from the rooftops. I’ll love this lunch bag for another few years and all is right with my world and my many (many) meals and snacks that I need to bring with me to work.

race day 5am meme
WORD.

weekend:
I’m off to Illinois to take on the I-Half Challenge (a 5K tonight and a half marathon on Saturday morning) and my first race as a BibRave Pro ambassador! This will be my 10th half marathon. CRAZY.

A friend is also driving up to Champaign to spend the remainder of the weekend with me, and I’m so happy to get to see her and drink wine, since it’s been YEARS. If the weather stays nice, we are planning on trail skating, too. #shutuplegs

seven things, seven days:
1. Remember my office fire from two months ago? Well I finally got a box of my personal belongings from my desk. Which included close to none of my belongings.
2. I had a dream this week where a parade of kids were wearing items from my closet that I haven’t worn in forever. What a message, eh? Must be time for another round of Cleaning of the Closets.
3. For my wedding celebration this summer, I requested a box of party dresses from my Trunk Club [referral link] — and she sent the PERFECT dress.
4. Collaboration creates mediocrity. According to Science. And me, a high performer.
5. Well, this is interesting: The new rules of hydration {via Outside}
6. That voice inside your head will make you a better runner — another great article from Outside.
7. Weirdly, success is about thinking you’re not too successful {via Science of Us}

Weekly Therapy: Luck o’ the Irish to you!

- Mel

the week:
Current status: Eating leftover (gluten-free!) wedding cake for breakfast.

weekend:
So, we made our marriage license official — and celebrated EIGHT YEARS together! ? We found a wonderful lady to come to our home and get our signatures (along with our witnesses), and then will celebrate with some corned beef and cabbage and shots of Irish whiskey.

Sláinte!

seven things, seven days:
1. Spent the week planning out my 50k training (and scheduling periods of NO RUNNING throughout the remainder of my 2017 calendar).
2. I also started my packing list for Ragnar Luckenbach at the end of the month.
3. The Science and Art of Belief – in trail running {via Trail Runner Magazine}
4. Even in middle age, your best running days may be ahead. HOORAY!
5. This research is important for me to see — and, I hope, more to come about low levels of Vitamin D in athletic populations, as I’m someone with seriously-low D3 levels with an inability to absorb supplementation and maintain normal levels: New study identifies threshold for vitamin D supplementation in athletes
6. THE MARSHMALLOW TEST IS A LIE (well, sort of) {via Psychology Today}
7. Speaking of marshmallows… I’m going to eat another bowl of Lucky Charms (they’re gluten-free!)

Every 30-something needs… a mix of the good memories and bad.

- Mel

Something weird happened this week: I saw a blogger’s recent teaser post about her wedding, and her dress looked similar to the one I purchased seven years ago for my wedding.

THIS is the dress, by the way. *sigh*
This is THE dress, by the way. *sigh*

I didn’t get married. In fact, I’m *still* not married (obviously, I’m not with the same person anymore either). Believe me though, I’m not hung up over it — that whole experience basically turned me off to the idea of marriage. But I was struggling with why it made me so sad to see the dress. Was it because she looked beautiful in it, and I never had the opportunity to look beautiful in mine? Or was it simply just another hurtful pang of memories passed?

Or perhaps it was the $700 deposit that I couldn’t get returned?

From wikipedia:

Motivated forgetting is a debated concept referring to a psychological defense mechanism in which people forget unwanted memories, either consciously or unconsciously. There are times when memories are reminders of unpleasant experiences that make people angry, sad, anxious, ashamed or afraid. Motivated forgetting is a method in which people protect themselves by blocking the recall of these anxiety-arousing memories… This could induce forgetting without being generated by an intention to forget, making it a motivated action. There are two main classes of motivated forgetting: repression is an unconscious act, while suppression a conscious form of excluding thoughts and memories from awareness.

As my friend so eloquently put, “It’s a memory… not necessarily a bad memory, and a very important part of your life that shaped you.”

Now, as I’m remembering all of this, I almost want to have a good memory (wedding) to replace the bad one (canceled wedding). But this would mean getting married, which… I have mixed emotions about altogether. I’m sure many 30-somethings have found themselves in similar emotional turmoil. Let’s have some group therapy in the comments!

More:
Why People Remember Negative Events More Than Positive Ones {via New York Times}

My first shower: planning awesomeness for a bride

- Mel

A good friend of mine is getting married in May — a destination wedding in Charlotte that I cannot attend. She asked me to be her Pittsburgh Bridesmaid, however, so that she could have a shower for local friends and family (and in the future, a bachelorette party).

I was tasked with planning my first shower (oh, the stress and time that went into it, which is why I had to step away from regular blogging for a minute), and I think it went really well. Thankfully, I had the help of her mom with location and catering, so that I could concentrate on all the “fun” stuff… and some of the not-so-fun stuff. Like stressing over whether I “forgot” something or whether my friend would like everything and if all the guests were having a good time. Phew.

I planned three games:
The purse hunt (this ended up being such a perfect ice breaker!), via Blue Moon Designs on etsy
Bride Bingo (I made the chalkboard bingo cards and keys — this was a huge task! And, of course, something I left for the last minute)
He Said – She Said, via Sassy Graphics (also on etsy)

And all the fun decorations to follow the wedding colors (gray & yellow), centering around chevron print, chalkboard and Ball jars.

Finding two of the games on etsy was a HUGE timesaver. I had other creative (and labor-intensive) ideas… but realized it was too late to create THREE games from scratch.

My mom made all the cloth napkins, which doubled as place settings for guests and favors (my mom’s etsy shop is Spun Designs — mostly knit, but I’m trying to talk her into making these special order for others). Each guest received a set: one yellow and one gray. The Ball jars were perfect for simple centerpieces (chevron-printed paper straws for all that Southern Sweet Tea!) and for the “wish” containers on the gift container.

I had so much fun “pinning” great ideas and using my creativity to make the theme even bigger. Thankfully, at just the right time of the planning stages, Pinterest allowed private boards.

Have you ever planned a bridal shower? Tell me about it in the comments! And share your links to these shower-hosting posts.