Shut the Barn Door!

I am a BEE!? Someone pinch me, because I clearly must be dreaming. I am beyond thrilled to be here writing for the Hive, which I am still in shock over.

I received the email from Mrs. Mouse and immediately starting getting anxiety. I couldn't open it and was too scared so what did I do? I emailed Mrs. Palm Tree for some extra encouragement. After I finally got the nerve strict instructions to open that bad boy, I made it past 2 sentences before I was screaming in my the office. Thankfully my co-workers are the bomb.com and didn't think twice at me squealing, I'M A BEE, I'M A BEE!  In fact, I was so excited I proceeded to jam my knee into my desk with the happy dance I was doing in my chair. *fail*

I promptly messaged Mrs. PT back and our conversation was a mix of "EEEEEEEEE" and "OMG". (Possibly a few ow's too.) Thankfully I received her email just as I was about to leave work. The Mr. was out of town so I needed someone to share my excitement with, so when I got home I grabbed my furbaby Berkley and did another happy dance around my living room.

(mom you have totally lost it)

 

 Obligatory Pooch Photo

So who are we? Well I am Miss. Barn a fun loving, outgoing, spastic girl who is totally head over heels in love with a caring, romantic, organized gentleman. We reside in the Southwestern part of Minnesota in a tiny itty bitty town, where we live on a......................wait for it.................wait for it............. FARM!!

 Needless to say once the Farm generation came out I knew I had to be a part of it. I mean seriously it's just too perfect.

Mr. and Miss. Barn

So why, Miss. Barn? Honestly, I was rreealllyy torn between 2 icons, Barn and Tractor, but ultimately decided to go with Barn for a few different reasons. Barn starts with a B. My name starts with a B. My new last name will start with a B. My furbaby's name starts with a B. The Mr. and I constantly say Team B and he calls me "B". Besides you can't get more farm related than a Barn; we have several on our property. Had the Tractor been green it would have been an easy choice but as most farmers and their wives know, brand loyalty is very important. I just couldn't do it (plus the Mr. wouldn't ever let me live it down), so here we are, Mr. and Miss. Barn!

I am so excited to 'bee here (had to be done) and share this experience with the Hive. I have admired the Bees for quite some time and feel so honored to be chosen to join them. I promise I won't disappoint.

Grab a cocktail and join me in one heck of a journey! 



Finding a Flat

Hi I'm Miss. Barn and I am 6'0 tall. Darling Mr. Farmer on the other hand is 5'10. I think you can see where I am going with this. When it comes to footwear most of the time I don't care. I rock heels all the time. When asked the proverbial, "Why wear heels when you're already so tall" which is really quite annoying, I respond with "I refuse to sacrifice style simply because I am tall." For the most part I deal with the pointing and staring and move on with my day.

However, when it comes to my wedding day I am struggling with what to wear on my feet. I struggle with people making snide/snarky comments the way it is, so I certainly don't want to have photos that are a constant reminder of my biggest insecurity. (I was picked on quite a bit in school for being taller than all the boys and it left scars.) With my hair done I am going to look taller than 6'0 so I decided, flats it is. 

So as much as I love me a good heel, I am wearing flats on my wedding day. I can still have great style rocking a flat. This is new territory for me though. Totally new territory for me. I like ballet flats but just don't own very many pairs. So I turned to Google to see if I could find "the shoe".

David's Bridal had these and they sparked my interest. They have just the right amount of sparkle and are pretty simple.

Davids Bridal - Glitter Ballet Flat with Bow Detail

I saw these and cringed. I cannot do pointed toe flats. I just can't bring myself to join the masses on this so no pointed toes for me.

The Dessy Group- Lace Bridal Ballet Flat

I saw these Kate Spade's and almost died because they were so beautiful.

Kate Spade via 6pm

I assure you that I looked at quite a few more options but the more and more I looked, they all started to look the same. I loved the Kate Spade's but as much as I love shoes and GOOD shoes for that matter, I just couldn't pull the trigger on these. I started to realize I couldn't make the plunge on any of these ballet flats because, I just didn't think any of them fit my dress or our wedding.

I love summer, who doesn't, and part of that are the sandals you get to wear. Most of my massive shoe collection are summer shoes. So I changed my search to wedding sandals, and my pulse quickened and I started smiling. Yes folks, I am wearing sandals on my wedding day. I know that may not work for everyone and I am sure I will get some flack for it but it's the right choice for me. It fits our venue and will be the most comfortable option for me to wear all day.

Shoe Buy - Allure Bridal Sweets

Something as simple as this is exactly what I had in mind. So flat? Yes. Ballet? No. Picking out a shoe that you are going to be comfortable in is important and I want to be as comfortable as possible. I may throw on a pair of fun heels for a few photos but I am going the comfy route.

Did anyone else decide to go for a flat instead of a heel? Am I the only one who struggles with being taller than their significant other?

Bring on the Bling Bling

No matter what stage in wedding planning you are at, there is always something exciting about picking out your wedding bands. The symbol that you and your spouse are going to rock for the rest.of.your.life. Typically the engagement ring is purchased unbeknownst to the bride, or groom, and then presented in a formal proposal. I say typically because there are people out there who like to do things differently. 

The wedding bands are then typically something that gets picked out together and purchased together. It's an adventure and something that normally gets done as a couple. It was certainly an adventure that I was very excited about. The thought of Mr. Farmer wearing a wedding band? Yummy! I think Mr. Farmer is insanely handsome the way it is but the thought of him wearing a symbol of our love just kicks it up a few notches. 

As a reminder here is my engagement ring:

(photo personal)

Since this was a custom design there were no matching band to go with it. We would have to find something that worked. Mr. Farmer was insistent that he did not like the look of just 1 wedding band. So enhancers were the best option for us, so we could have 1 on each side. I was very shocked to see that he had such a strong opinion on my wedding band. I didn't think he would have much of an opinion but since he is making this purchase, it only makes sense that he get something he loves just as much as I do. 

The first wedding band/enhancer we looked at was this:.

Photo via Helzberg

This so happens to be the ring Mr. Farmer's friend and sales consultant showed him when my engagement ring came in. We kept coming back to this because we both liked it. It was 3/4 carat weight and with the dip displayed the tiny diamond on the side profile of my engagement ring (sorry I don't have a picture). There was just something about this ring that I wasn't sold on though. I loved the bling, of course, but couldn't pull the trigger. 

Since our sales consultant is a dear friend of Mr. Farmer's we were playing around with rings and decided to play with the option of using 2 separate wedding bands as my enhancer. Soldered together they would create my final "ring". We took this ring:

Photo via Helzberg

And ordered another one in so that we could put one on each side of my engagement ring. Since they only had one in stock we had to come back a second time and when we did we came up with this stunner:

(photo personal)

Wowza, right!? With my engagement ring, there are a total of 4 carats, 2 from the wedding bands themselves. Every time I look at this picture my heart skips a beat and I can't stop looking at it.  When I tried these on my finger, I didn't want to take them off. Seriously who wouldn't!? I tried to stall as much as possible. Thankfully I have very long fingers, and for being 6'0 I should, I was happy to see that I could pull it off. It was very thick but because my fingers are so long it didn't make my hand look bad or the rings look odd either.

I have always been of the adage "go big or go home" but I knew as much as I REALLY WANTED these bad boys, I doubted that Mr. Farmer would see my point of view on spending such a large amount of money simply for the fact I wanted them. So I reluctantly took them off in search for a much smaller and a more practical replacement. So sad because they are so beautiful and sparkly but no way I would be able to wear this on a daily basis.  

As we were searching the case looking for replacements, Mr. Farmer was able to pick out his ring. It only took him 5 minutes to find the one he was happiest with.

(photo personal, sorry so blurry. Bad blogger Mr. Farmer)

Photo via Helzberg

Of course leave it up to Mr. Farmer to find his the fastest. While he was getting the paperwork ready for his ring, I found an enhancer that I wanted to try on, so when Mr. Farmer and our consultant came back I tried this one on for size. 

Photo via Helzberg

( photo personal)

I couldn't get this one on my finger as my ring didn't quite fit exactly inside the enhancer. I liked this one better than the first option though. I hadn't realized it before but it was the top view of the other one that I didn't like. This one still had the dip in it so that I could still see the small diamond on my side profile but it was also appealing from the top as it didn't have "dead space" in the dip. I was concerned that the enhancer didn't have the diamonds match up with my engagement ring but was assured that it would be hard to have them match up without doing a custom design piece. 

After all that bling, Mr. Farmer and I were so confused. We decided to purchase his ring since it was such an easy decision but decided to wait on mine as we didn't know what to do. We liked the 3rd option very much but it was so hard to over look option 2 and how amazing it was. At the end of the day, we walked away without making a purchase. We didn't want to feel pressured by any of the sales consultants and Mr. Farmer needed his time to think about what he wanted to do. I am so thankful we started our ring shopping early for this exact reason. Sometimes you don't find something right away and it can take a while to find the perfect fit. I am thankful we have the time to find the perfect one.

We are still on the lookout for my perfect wedding band, but it will be a lot easier moving forward as we know what we are looking for. After seeing all that bling, it makes me even more excited to wear my ring forever and to see Mr. Farmer wear his. :-)

Did anyone else struggle to find their perfect wedding band? Am I crazy to use 2 separate bands as 1 enhancer?

Take The Cake

I know that I left you lovelies hanging with our cake post but I promise I won't leave you in suspense any longer. We had planned on having cupcakes as our wedding dessert and were all set to find our baker at our venue's wedding show. Oh boy were we wrong. When we walked into Making Memories Last the first booth we stopped at was:

Photo via Take the Cake

 

Take the Cake specializes in my most favorite treat on this entire planet.....CHEESECAKE!!!

 

Yes Bees I am so pumped to announce Mr. Farmer and I will be having cheesecake at our wedding. Even though we were set on cupcakes one bite of Kim's sample and we were hooked. I absolutely love cheesecake.

 

(photo personal)

This was the biggest, thickest piece of cheesecake I have ever been served 

 

Needless to say once we tasted a sample our minds were made up, so we paid our deposit and signed the contract right there and then. We hadn't even considered one of our favorite desserts. Why? Because it's not common. I have never been to a wedding where there was cheesecake served instead of wedding cake. In fact I have never been to a wedding where anything OTHER than cake was served.

 

I wanted to do something different and cheesecake is certainly different. When it comes to your wedding dessert you don't have to go with cake just because it's traditional and the most common option. There are so many dessert options out there today and so many talented vendors who would love to make your day special.

 

Wedding Pie

 

Mrs. Gloves via Weddingbee

Photo: Barefeet Studio

 

Wedding Brownies

 

Photo via District Weddings

 

Wedding Cake Pops

 

Erica Gomez Cakes Credit via Grace Sheppard

 

Wedding Truffles

 

Photo Tia Pollick ia Whimsy Love

 

Wedding S'Mores

 

Jackie Sorkins via Hollywood Candy Girls

 

Wedding Cookies

 

Rolling Pin Productions

 

Or you can say the heck with it and do a dessert bar and have a bunch of different things:

 

Wedding Dessert Bar

 

Photo via Sierra Studios found on their Blog

 

There are so many options for dessert at your wedding. Your fiancée and you should pick something that you will enjoy just as much as your guests. I wish I hadn't been so oblivious to all the other options available to me. I am so glad that we found Kim at Take the Cake though because we will be enjoying one of our favorite treats and I am pretty sure that our guests will enjoy it too!

 

What do you think, would you enjoy cheesecake at a wedding? Did anyone else stumble upon something they just had to have?

 

C What I am Talking About

On this perfect holiday that is Valentine's Day I wanted to give you all a sweet little treat. What is that treat? A guest post by C himself!

I asked C to provide some relationship advice and this is what he had to say:

Hello to all you guys out there, this is for you and for you women out there who want to know what we are thinking. Now I know I can't speak for all men because let's face it, some guys just don't get it and never will. Those are the guys that are pretty undateable. Why? The reason is because they are secretly insecure and only make it about themselves. Those are the guys I like to call D-bags.

Credit 

Guys don't be a douchebag. Plain and simple, don't!

Two things that I have based my relationship on with my beautiful wife to be is I give her unconditional love and in return she gives me respect. That can go a long ways guys believe me. It's also easier said than done. You can't get complacent in your relationship and you always have to respect the other person.

Now have I done everything right since meeting B? Heck no! I have failed in many areas but I have worked on it with her help and have gotten better. My major flaw is anxiety which makes my brain over think and to look for flaws in her, while never looking in the mirror at myself, which most men with anxiety do. We like to point out the bad in you ladies but we forget that when we are pointing that one finger, the other four are pointing back as us. It can be hard to realize your relationship flaws but doing so will help you and your partner in the long run. Recognizing the problem is a huge part in fixing it. Everyone has flaws, nobody is perfect but by being able to admit them you can fix it and work through them with your partner. 

In my 38 yrs of life I have had ups and downs as we all have. I was married at 24 and was not even close to being ready. That marriage failed but I was blessed with 2 amazing children so it wasn't a total failure. Why do marriages fail? From my point of view it's not just one thing it's many. When us men first meet a pretty lady we like to do things to get your attention so you will like us. Seems pretty simple but after awhile we get comfortable and just carry on with our day to day life forgetting all the things we used to do. Big mistake guys!

What I have done with my beautiful B is I never stop dating her. What does that mean? It means doing things weekly or even daily to make her smile and feel loved. 

Flowers for her birthday

A picture text with an "I love you and am thinking of you" message

Chocolates delivered at work

A card just because

Flowers just because

Simple as that.

 I think this where most relationships and marriages fail. Guys forget to show their love and in return women don't give enough respect. It's a vicious cycle that keeps repeating itself. Now are guys only to blame? No. Why is that? Ladies we are not mind readers, communication is key. I can't stress it enough how important it is. I suck at taking hints just ask B. She needs to flat out tell me if something is on her mind or if she has a problem.  Also, ladies believe it or not, us men like to be surprised as well. We like to be shown how much you love us. Anything from a I love you random text, a out of the blue card, or KFC drive-thru. 

I wish you each a Happy Valentine's Day! I hope all you ladies out there receive some sort of recognition from your man about how much you mean to him. I know I will be showing B how much I care.

Thanks for reading my guest post! - C

Gimme the Goodies

I love sweets, so it was no surprise to Mr. Farmer when I demanded we have chocolate as a flavor at our wedding. I demand chocolate at our wedding and gosh darn it, we shall have chocolate at our wedding! A debate might have ensued following our conversation in which I was compared to:

Poor Veruca Salt - GIF via annfriedman

I plead the fifth.

Once we I had established that chocolate was a requirement at our wedding we forgot about it for a few weeks. According to The Knot timeline I am using, we needed to get on the ball and secure a bakery sooner rather than later. Ideally your bakery should be booked about 6-9 months in advance to secure your wedding date.

 Mr. Farmer and I were attending an event at the beginning of February, Making Memories Last, at our venue so we figured that we could start scoping our baker at this event. Making Memories Last is basically a wedding show with vendors that our venue works with frequently. It's also a great chance to taste test their food and wine (more on that later) so we made a weekend trip out of it.  I wanted to be prepared so I started putting together some inspiration.

Photo via Pinterst by Incredible Icing 

I love the design of the whole cake and it fits with our wedding colors however I was not too sure about a gray wedding cake. Something about it just didn't look appetizing to me. Please tell me I am not alone. 

Photo via The Knot - Sarah's Cake Shop photo by: White-Klump Photography

I was in love with this wedding cake! It was so simple and elegant at the same time. The flowers on top eliminated the need for a cake topper and were super pretty. It had the perfect touch of color. 

Photo via The Knot - Sarah's Pastries & Candies - Photo: YazyJo Photography

I started to see a pattern develop and realized that I like fondant with a little color detail and flowers on top instead of a cake topper. Now that I had my inspiration photos I was ready to present them to Mr. Farmer to review. Mr. Farmer and I have a pretty good understanding of how our wedding planning process works. I do all the research, then present Mr. Farmer with my findings and we make a decision together. Too much information and he gets frustrated and uncomfortable so this was a perfect plan for us.

Mr. Farmer and I had a 5 hour drive to Eau Claire, where we are getting married in case you forgot or just joined the party, so we used that time to discuss cake. After presenting Mr. Farmer with the pictures I liked, he dropped a pretty big bombshell on me. He didn't like any of the designs I picked out.

Apparently he had been doing some thinking and decided he wanted cupcakes instead of a wedding cake. Womp, womp, womp. Bye bye beautiful wedding cake and hello cute cupcakes:

Photo via The Knot - Belathee Photography - Amy Atlas Events

Georgetown Cupcake, Stephanie Ascari and Lois Zeigler/Cleverly Candid Photography found via The Knot

Because Mr. Farmer and I have developed a process for decision making this kind of threw a wrench into it.  In typical Barn Wedding fashion I assumed we would just get a wedding cake because well "that's just what you do when you get married", you get a wedding cake. Clearly I have a lot to learn about wedding planning.

I had no idea he wanted cupcakes but after he presented the idea to me I was on board. Mr. Farmer hasn't made many requests so I was willing to give this to him. I was loving this idea for a few different reasons. As beautiful as cake is, I don't really love cake. Ok that's not true, mostly it's just the frosting that goes on it that I don't like.

Another reason I was on board was that cupcakes are a little different. We could have many different flavors so if someone didn't like my selection of chocolate they could choose something else. As beautiful and traditional as a wedding cake is, it just wasn't for us. Any time we can save money, I am always on board.

So now that we knew we wanted cupcakes for our dessert with one flavor as chocolate, we were ready to meet a few different bakers at our venue's event. This was a part we were really looking forward to. Who doesn't love to try delicious baked goods? However upon entering the event we saw a booth that made us overjoyed. We both looked at each other and knew immediately that we had to have it at our wedding. What was it? Stay tuned to find out!

Did anyone else have a planning miscommunication? 

Dressing the Mister

 Back when I began to get inspiration for our wedding I knew right away that Mr. Farmer would be wearing gray. I know it's insanely trendy right now but you know what? We don't care, we are saying "Eff it" and jumping right on that bandwagon baby. I love the way a gray tux looks.

Vera Wang Slim Fit Tuxedo via Men's Warehouse

Slim Fit Tuxedo via Mens Warehouse

Mr. Farmer is a pretty shnazy guy. It's pretty sad to admit, but he is better dressed than I am on most occasions. Mr. Farmer has been a model/actor for quite some time and throughout his career has done his fair share of wedding expos and wedding shows. With that being said he was pretty opinionated when it came to what he was going to wear and where we were going to get it.

(photo personal) Doesn't he look studly?!

Tip Top Tux (try saying that 3 times fast) has been the company who outfits all of Mr. Farmer's suits/tuxes for each show, so it was only natural we gave them our business. I knew that they would be able to accommodate all of our menswear needs and I was correct. We have a large bridal party, so Mr. Farmer and I were uncomfortable having the guys buy themselves a tuxedo so renting was the way to go for us. But what did we choose?

The Vera Wang Slim Fit Tuxedo of course!

(photos personal)

If you didn't notice the 2 pictures I posted above are the Vera Wang Slit Fit. Currently it is one of the most popular rented tuxedos and we were A-Ok with that, jumping on the bandwagon peeps. In order to mix it up a bit Mr. Farmer will be wearing the one on the left and the groomsmen will be wearing the one on the right. We also decided that our dads will wear this same tux but in black.

We are getting married in July, at the hottest time of the day, in the hottest month of the year, outside in a garden. We would like to prevent any heat exhaustion so we are losing the jackets and only wearing the vest. Mr. Farmer made the executive decision to wear a jacket with his so it will look more formal.

I gave him complete control with the vest styles and he was able to pick the following:

Dad on left, Mr. Farmer in the middle (without the tie) and Groomsmen/Ushers on the right

I think he made a pretty awesome selection. We have decided to spruce things up and buy our guys some fun socks and fun suspenders as part of their wedding gift. Since our bridesmaids have some fun footwear we decided this would be a fun twist on the traditional tuxedo.

When I went to fill out our paperwork I noticed she had scribbled out our wedding date and pick-up date. I got confused and asked her what was up. You see if you are renting a tux and getting married on Saturday you would logically put your tux pick-up date as Friday. WRONG! She explained since we are getting a popular item, that if we came to pick up our tuxes Friday morning before we left, they might not be in yet, as their "Friday" shipment doesn't come in until the afternoon. So she recommends giving yourself an extra day grace period. 

Getting married on Saturday, schedule your pick-up day for Thursday. Exchanging vows on Sunday, schedule your pick-up date for Friday. Tying the knot on Friday, schedule your pick-up date for Wednesday. That way your shipment comes in the day before and you can ensure a proper pick-up time.

Logistically that would of been a nightmare. For anyone who is selecting a gray suit or tuxedo and renting it, please give yourself an extra day grace period. This color and style is so popular you want to ensure you have it available when you need it. I certainly would never have thought to do that, I mean who would!?

 Thankfully once we got through our pick-up date debate, we were able to finish out our rental order with the ties for our guys. Mr. Farmer will be buying his own tie in order to get something a little fancier. However we selected the following for our guys:

Navy for all the groomsmen except the best man

Fuschia  for BM N and Junior BM R

We will be hauling all of these bad boys with us when we head to WI. Wish us luck! I am really glad to have gotten that taken care of and even happier to have piece of mind knowing they will be ready when we need them. Had Mr. Farmer not known the owner as well as he did, we might never have found that out and could have run into a really sticky situation if they didn't come in on time.

Did anyone else jump on the gray tuxedo bandwagon? Did you ditch the jackets for your wedding?



Back to Reality

Why hello my lovely readers! How the heck are ya!!? How's life? Miss me? No I didn't forget about you!

 I just returned from 7 days in paradise, Cozumel Mexico to be exact! I am ready to dive right back into all the goodness that is wedding planning but until I do, I figured I would let you know that I am back and leave you with some pictures of our fabulous vacation, or as we called it our "Pre-moon".

Enjoy!

(all photos personal)

Nothing better than drinks on the beach with your love

C cheesing it up for the camera

The night of our uber romantic private dinner at the end of the resort pier

Dinner at the end of the pier

The most beautiful sunset

It was so sad to leave but now that I am back, we are getting right back into wedding planning. I can't wait to share more of our journey with you guys, stay tuned!

With love - B and C