Wedding Day!

We got married... and it was a wonderful day!

So, of course, I have some advice about planning your big day...and I'm sharing these helpful tips in case anyone is planning a wedding anytime soon. 

First... make sure you are marrying the right guy. You can have the most beautiful wedding in the world and fit into a size 2 wedding gown and still be miserable if you aren't getting married to the right person at the right time. For me, I know I would have been miserable if I weren't married in the temple, and looking back at a time when I thought a temple marriage could be a compromise made me extremely grateful that I didn't go down that road and instead I waited for just the right person who wanted the same things I did.

Everyone says it's the bride's day. Nope. It's the bride's mom's day. Especially if she is the one doing all the work. Give her a break and try not to be a bridezilla. Seriously. Easiest thing I did was pick out a few things that were important to me, and then just let my mom do her thing with everything else. She was less stressed by me not sweating every tiny detail, and I didn't have to sweat every tiny detail. Win-win, people! 

Next. I said NO to bridesmaid dresses. I don't want to wear a dress that someone picked out for me because it "looks great on every body type" and I figured my friends and family didn't want to wear something I picked out for them, either. So, we went to Home Depot and stole appropriated  paint chip boards that ranged from a dark coral red to a light blush and told everyone to pick out something that fit in that color scheme. I was able to send the exact color to my sister in Chicago as well as pass the paint chips out to everyone in my family and especially my mom (so she could match ribbon, flowers, etc). Voila... everyone coordinated and everyone was happy in what they picked out because they picked it out. People who feel comfortable in what they are wearing are happier... which also leads to better photos.

I asked the men to wear a white shirt with gray pants (which they all already owned), and  then they picked out a coordinated tie. The shirt and pants kept things somewhat uniform, the ties showed a little personality. And they all looked pretty sharp. The younger girls all wore blush dresses and looked adorable. The boys were dapper in bow ties. 

I didn't want to fuss with bridesmaids/flower girl bouquets, so the girls wore flower bracelets and my sister and sisters-in-law wore flower rings so no one had to carry a bouquet around all day, but still had a little floral-y goodness to tie everything together.

If you're anything like me, having my picture taken is not my favorite thing. So, I found a great photographer (Brooke Schultz) who was all about letting us be ourselves and then capturing those moments. I wanted to look like me on my wedding day instead of someone else's idea of what a bride should look like.

I think a lot of wedding venues are WAY overpriced. I just wanted something simple, so I looked around my town and found that you can rent the old Day Barn pretty inexpensively. Plus, it has some great outside space, too. If you think outside the box, you can avoid paying a lot of money for an empty space. And spend the money on yummy food instead!

We kept everything close by. We were married in the Draper Temple and had both the dinner and the open house within a couple miles of the temple and my parents' home. This made transportation on the day of the wedding a piece of cake. (I'll get to the cake tips later) Plus, we didn't have to worry about forgetting anything because if we did, it was 5 minutes away.

You do not have to spend a lot of money on your accessories. Get creative. Check out Pinterest. I spend HOURS looking online for coral pink satin sandals with no more than a 2" heel. I could not find them ANYWHERE for less than $100! So, I looked on Pinterest and found that you can paint dyeable shoes with regular old acrylic paint. I found these cute shoes at DSW for only $5 (after a birthday coupon). I spent a couple of bucks on paint and there you go... cute shoes that are exactly what I wanted. I made my pearl bracelet the day before the wedding by checking out the jewelry section at Michael's, finding a cute chain with pearls on it. I attached a clasp, and had a perfect bracelet for about $2.

I'm lucky that I have a super crafty mom. I showed her a picture of something I liked on Pinterest, and she came up with this. She made the box out of some old barn wood, stapled a disposable lasagna tin into the bottom, and planted succulents. The day before the wedding, she added the roses in glass jars. Best of all, to reuse the centerpieces, she plucks out the old roses and puts in new ones. A lady in the ward already asked to use them for her son's wedding... genius idea, Mom! 

Mormon weddings are interesting things. We spend lots of money on cakes, but don't cut them until the end of the reception when almost everyone has left. Sort of a waste if you ask me. I wanted cake, but did not want to do a giant over-the-top cake. Plus, my friend Daryl made an amazing cake topper for me, so I had to have some kind of cake. I ordered fondant decorations on Etsy, and placed them on a yummy vanilla cake from Kneaders. You can find almost anything made out of fondant on Etsy, and I had a beautiful cake with fondant succulents that matched the floral arrangements for just about $60.

We decided to have the wedding and family dinner on July 18, and then an open house on July 27. Can I tell you that that is the best decision we made? I was not rushed or panicked or tired on the big day. I went for a run, helped decorate the barn a little, ran a couple errands, and then got ready to be married at 2pm. We had dinner at 5pm, and then Scott and I took off for our honeymoon at 7. Most Mormon festivities would still have a couple of hours to go.  A week later at the open house, I was thrilled to see people and have the time to talk to them and not feel like I had to hurry them up. One friend said to us, "Bet you guys can't wait to get out of here..." (not knowing that we'd already spent our honeymoon week in Mexico) and we said, "Nope... we are thrilled to be here all night!"

In the end, if you are marrying your best friend, then it really will be the BEST.DAY.EVER. Let go of the things that don't matter and enjoy being with your family and friends and celebrating that you have found someone to love for the rest of your life. 

Those are a few of my wedding planning tips, from a total novice and DIY-er. And, if you are planning a wedding, call me. I will totally help you with anything, because one of my favorite things was looking around and seeing the craftiness and hard work of my family and friends. It made the day that much more meaningful to know how hard they worked and that they were willing to share their time and talents to make my day beautiful!

One Month

One month to go and I will be Mrs. Robinson. I am amazed at how quickly the time has been flying by, but then again, we're not just sitting around! We've kept very busy with some races, both as spectators and as supporters.

Cheering Chad on at Ironman St. George...
 I was awesome with the cowbell...Scott broke the GoPro.

I took 2nd Place in my age group at Salem...
 if I take 3rd next year, I'll have a trifecta of medals!

Scott ran his first half marathon in 1:54!
He was awesome...and probably ready to
break up with me at the end for signing him up for this!

I am so grateful to have found someone who totally gets me, and not only supports my craziness, but jumps into the craziness with me! Now I just need to talk him into this...

NO MORE BLIND DATE POSTS!

I know many of you will be saddened by the news that I will no longer be doing any blind date posts. I know that many of you will never read my blog again because bad blind date experiences were the only posts you liked. Well, too bad. I have the very best reason in the world for never going on a blind date again... Scott and I are engaged and getting married in July! 

I am completely thrilled, although at the same time I did have some grand plans for life as a Mormon spinster...plans I made after being in the dating world for quite some time, having a good look around, and starting to think I just might be better off single. Nearly two decades of dating that included (but sadly not limited to): Sasquatch hunters, WWF wrestlers, homeless guys, not-so-smooth moves (mostly mine), plays about pee, internet creepiness, abandoned accountants with five kids, dating brothers, dating roommates, dating cousins (not MY cousins), a couple of long-term relationships, wannabe professional water skiers, race stalkers, agonizing first date outfit decisions, too many awkward door-step situations, friends trying to fix me up with guys I've already gone out with, friends telling me that if their husband died they'd want him to marry me (?!?!!), well-meaning ward members who suggested that I just pray a little harder, a lot of tears, and a lot of  nights where I wondered "why did I agree to this set-up instead of staying home with a good book"... the thing that kept me out there all that time was the hope that it would all somehow end up here...with me finding this man at this time and it is all more that I thought I could hope for and a lot more than I ever thought I would find.

  

So, although my blog is called "Just Heather" ... it won't just be me anymore. But, I know it never really was just me. I have always had amazing family and friends on this journey supporting and loving me... now I feel like I really have it all because I have found someone to walk beside me wherever life may take us...and I can't wait for the adventure ahead.

BEST. GIRLFRIEND. EVER.

I nailed it.

For Valentine's Day I got Scott tickets to the Bellator MMA fight. As Missy pointed out to me when I told her what I got him, "Nothing says love like mixed martial arts". Truth. Scott and I have decided that we are never going to do "traditional" Valentine's Day activities. We'd rather go the quirky route and do something random that's a little more "us". So, we celebrated the actual day with Mexican food and saw the Die Hard movie...and for our 10-month dativersary (10 months since our first date), we watched a bunch of guys get the snot beat out of them. Who says romance is dead?  

2012 ...

2012 just flew right by! So, here is a brief recap of what I've been doing the last few months...

Look! I have a boyfriend! He has kept me very busy this year.

He even survived a week in Lake Powell with my family... daily trips to the marina for ice cream were essential to surviving the heat!

Scott had never experienced Disneyland, so I dragged him there for the Happiest Race on Earth... the Disneyland Half. I love this race...even though I ran by myself this year and didn't dress in costume, I wore my TinkerBell running shirt and made sure I got a picture with Captain Hook.

Captain Hook & Smee & me...

Scott was up super early to hang out at the start line.

I am still riding my bike. Dixie talked me into LOTOJA this year and it was the first (and hopefully the only) race I didn't finish. I will do another Ironman before I do LOTOJA again...it was the most difficult race I have ever done. And it was a long lonely day, so not only physically exhausting for me, but emotionally as well. Thankfully, Scott had installed a GPS tracker on my phone so he knew when I was stopped for way too long. He picked me up after about 175 miles... I was having some cramping issues and throwing up and decided to call it a day after nearly 11 hours of riding. My throat was so raw afterwards that I couldn't eat solid foods for a couple of days... I HAD to drink raspberry shakes to recover.  Thanks for the memories, Dixie... let's stick to the fun rides from here on out, okay? Like the Wildflower Pedalfest...where this picture was taken at the top of the mountain. I loved that ride!

I am still running races, even though I don't have any big ones planned. I'm thinking half marathons are the perfect distance right now. I love the Pink Series Half in Park City... it was a cold wet day on a tough course, but Amber and I still had fun... and she won!

Scott didn't know what he was getting into when he said I could decorate his house for Halloween...and he didn't realize he would be dressing up... I've waited so long to do couples costumes!

In November, Scott had to go to London for work... and I tagged along. We had a great trip and saw Les Miserables, the Tower of London, and did the Jack the Ripper walk. We also enjoyed fish n chips, meat pies, and I had the best cheese toasty in the world. Somehow, we also managed to stumble upon the UK Premier of the Twilight movie...lucky us!

November's craziness continued with the Festival of Trees. Mom's tree was amazing and decorating day is always a highlight of the year for me. And I had a lot of fun working on my gingerbread pub...

I'm finally learning to sew... I made some Christmas stockings!

And Troy the Elf paid a surprise visit on Christmas morning...

I hope your year was full of wonderful people and places as mine has been. I have been so blessed to have family and friends, health and happiness in abundance this year and hope the same for you and yours and an even better year in 2013!

A Cautionary Tale of Internet Dating

Perhaps you remember this post about some of my adventures with internet dating. Let this be a warning to all of you who are participating in online dating... you never know who you might be going out with...

Appearing on LDSPlanet

My friend Stacy emailed this guy for me, and it turns out that I knew him from my BYU days. If you are living in Utah, you might recognize him from his recent appearances on the news...and in court.

Appearing in court

While there are many wonderful people out there, there are some not-so-wonderful people, and some who are just evil. This isn't exclusively an internet dating problem... this could (and does) happen anywhere...online, singles' wards, the grocery store. 

With that said, I met one of the wonderful people, and I'm so glad I did. But knowing that this kind of guy is out there, too, totally freaks me out. In so many ways, I am so lucky that I was never in a dangerous situation. I was in many many weird situations, but I never felt like I was ever in a situation where I was afraid for my personal safety. If you are out there dating, please be careful... listen to your gut and if it tells you that something is weird, get out of the situation as quickly as you can. Make sure that a friend or family member knows where you are going, who you are meeting, and then let them know when you are safely home.

Don't take chances with your personal safety, but don't let fear keep you from meeting new people. Just use a little common sense and your modern dating life can be all you hoped it would be...a little weird, a little fun, and hopefully something wonderful, too.

Lake Powell...Bunting Style

We Buntings know how to vacation...and Lake Powell is our favorite. Go ahead...browse through the photos and feel jealous of all the fun...

Who wears short shorts?  Um, my brothers... 

Troy demonstrating his life-saving skills... and his love of all things pink.

Giant water fights are a great way for families to bond

My alarm clock was the boat engine starting...

Dad and Mom trying to escape...they didn't get too far.

 Thanks for the amazing trip Mom and Dad! We can't wait to do it again!