Stock The Bar

I am SUPER excited to share this post with the Hive!

Two weekends ago (I finally got all my pictures put together) I was showered with lots of love (and booze) for my Stock The Bar bridal shower. I haven't touched on it too much but Mr. Farmer and I are not registered for a lot of items, so Mama Barn and MOH B(officially Fluff) decided to throw me a Stock The Bar themed shower instead of a traditional bridal shower.

As I have mentioned before we will be moving into our new house after the wedding and when we do, we have a massive bar to fill, so this was the perfect idea for us since we don't need most registry items. Mr. Farmer and I are not big drinkers but we love to entertain,and do it often so it was an absolutely perfect idea for us.

MOH Fluff really outdid herself with all of the details folks. I was so blown away by all the things she had planned. Even though Mama Barn contributed, MOH Fluff really took the bull by the horns and took charge of the planning. I couldn't be more thankful to her for putting together something so amazing! Not to mention a little relived I didn't have to plan another thing! They kept most of the details from me until the day of and now I am super excited to share them with the Hive.

First up, the invitation which was just way too cute!

"A bottle of red, a bottle of white, maybe tequila, and salt for a margarita night. Glasses, napkins, an ice bucket too, we'll stock her bar before she says I do"

I was in love with these when I finally got the chance to see them and I still love how they turned out. Major points for MOH Fluff! MOH Fluff and Mama Barn worked together to come up with the decor used for my shower.

They did an amazing job putting everything together. I am so surprised at the amount of work they did to put this thing on. So with invites and decor out of the way let's get on with the shower. 

Mama Barn never misses an opportunity to embarrass me (thanks mom) so we had some trivia, which included when I received my first kiss, as my MIL sat in attendance (so embarrassing although she claims to have loved it):

Yours truly and for the first time in her Weddingbee debut, Mama Barn:

(the ONLY picture we have of us together that day, whoops)

And yes I am that much taller than my mother.

I also realized going through the pictures that I have a bit of a "rubber ankle" situation. Clearly I need to work on my heel skills, as no amount of agent coaching seems to have worked on my awful ankles. See for yourself! And yes I am wearing royal blue shoes, thank you very much!

Yeah it's pretty awful but totally entertaining for you guys! Laugh away.

After trivia we played none other than the toilet paper wedding dress challenge (try saying that one 10 times fast).

Contestant #1

Contestant #2 - My cousin A who is getting married just 3 months after me!

Contestant #3 - BM S(officially renamed RaRa)

Contestant #4

Contestant #5 - Our grand winner

After we finished playing around with toilet paper we delved into the food, oh yes the food.

Funny story. I found out that my daddy (yes I call my father daddy, get over it) helped put together the cupcake tower, but my mom thought it wasn't pretty enough so she woke up at 4 am on the morning of my shower to "spruce" it up. She even had my brother help to make sure it was pretty enough for my shower. Too cute!

I was so excited and nervous I barely ate anything but I had my way with those cupcakes afterwards!

Mama Barn did most of the cooking including those amazing cupcakes you see above. She tried out 3 different recipes so that she could find the perfect ones and people wonder why I am a perfectionist. 

After lunch it was time to open gifts and take photos of a very unphotogenic Miss. Barn.

Step daughter K picked out a lovely scarf, as she knows how much I love them and sent it with MIL Farmer since she couldn't be present herself.

I think I spent about 2 gifts seated before I was so antsy I couldn't take it, and had to stand. Take some advice from me ladies, STAY SEATED! Your feet will thank you later!

Ninja blender, for all those margarita nights! One of the few registry items I was looking forward to most.

Getting to the end I had a special gift from MOH Fluff:

......panties......

Without fail every time I get a gift from MOH Fluff, whether it be my Christmas present, my birthday present or what not, she always, without fail gets me panties. So in front of both of my grandmothers AND my future mother in law AND my future sister in law I pulled out not just 1 pair, but 3 pairs of panties! Go ahead laugh it up, I assure you everyone else did too!!

MOH Fluff and Miss. Barn

And while we are on the topic of embarrassing and hopefully laughing, my oh so loving mother decided to play one last game.....ever heard of the dirty chore game!? If anyone asks you to list the one household chore you hate and why, be weary. Be very very weary!

Apparently this is a game where instead of saying I hate doing the dishes because my hands get wrinkly, you say I hate sex because my hands get wrinkly, except nobody knows the "I hate sex part". Well my mother had everyone answer this question and made me read out the answers in front of everyone. People were crying they were laughing so hard including my very own Mama Barn:

you can see how thrilled I was.......

Clearly you can see I am less than impressed, even though just about everyone told me how hysterical it was. Of all the wedding showers I have been to and planned I have never heard of this one and neither did my family and friends. Another guest who is getting married in September (I am a BM in her wedding, so busy ahhh) asked if my mom would play that game at her shower. Her mother agreed that they have to do it because everyone loved it so much.

Hey if everyone else can laugh at my expense why not - and just so I don't leave you hanging I will leave you with some of my favorite ones:

I hate sex because the floors make my knees hurt, (the chore was washing the floors). Given by none other than my dear sweet grandmother.

I hate sex because he always gets me all wet, (the chore was washing the dog).

I hate sex because it smells like pee, (the chore was cleaning the toilet).

I hate sex because the glove always breaks and gets icky stuff everywhere, (the chore was picking up dog poo).

I am so thankful for all the friends and family that were able to attend my shower. It was full of laughs (obviously) and it was so great to see everyone. I don't get home nearly as often as I would like, because of the drive, so being able to see some of my family and friends all in one place before the wedding meant a lot to me.

For those of you wondering, my dress was from Rent the Runway:

Lilly Pultzer - Bowen Lace Dress via RTR

And my royal blue shoes that everyone kept commenting on? Just a pair I had hanging around my closet that I have never worn:

CHEERS!

All photos personal 

How did your bridal shower go down? What was your favorite part?

Forever Please

Our invitation suite is coming along quite nicely and I can't wait to share them with you, but until that time I wanted to share something else with you. Something pretty special.

Integrating who you are as a couple is a pretty important part of the wedding planning process, I mean if you don't, it would be pretty boring and a little weird. I mean imagine a wedding with no personality, how boring!! There are all kinds of various ways to do it. Whether it be your favorite color like Mrs. Manatee, a favorite food like Mrs. Blue Whale, your birthstone like Mrs. Palm Tree or an emblem like Miss. Phone Booth and various other bloggers, the possibilities are endless. Obviously! It's the best part of the wedding, adding your personal touches. 

One of the ways Mr. Farmer and I intend on doing this is incorporating a phrase into our wedding. 

Forever.Please.

It's as simple as that but it means so much to us. We began saying it to each other very early on in our relationship. Most people say "I Love You", and we do too, but we say this just as much. It's the term of endearment we use to express our love to each other. It's just US. Because it is such an important thing to us, we even had this created:

Photo Personal

This was used in our Christmas card photo this past year. 

Mr. Farmer and I agreed that we wanted to use this phrase throughout our wedding decor and paper products but just writing it seemed to look weird. Well I thought so anyways. We wanted something that made more sense, so we turned to the other thing that means a lot to us and we use quite often.

Personal Photo

The infinity symbol!

Step-daughter K and I have matching bracelets. She picked them out and I wear mine just about every day so even when we aren't together, we are. It's special to us and it's a symbol that we think of when we say Forever. Please. It's not only a term we use to express our love to each other, it's a term we use with our children too. (K always points it out when we both wear them and it ALWAYS brings a smile to my face)

So what's a girl to do with a phrase and a symbol?! Get creative, right? Yyyeeaahh, I failed miserably. I mean pretty horribly! I am no design genius (as you will find out from my invitations coming up). Thankfully, there are some amazing designers around the Hive and Miss. Hen ever so graciously offered to give me a hand (she's a rock star, seriously). Based off of my original design she came up with this:

Photo personal

It's the perfect symbol that means so much to Mr. Farmer and me. It is simple and pretty perfect because we are pretty simple people. I wanted something very personal to be able to add to our stationary and this was the perfect solution. If you remember, we had the infinity symbol on our save the dates. 

photo personal

My ring has a twist on the side to mimic the infinity symbol which was a design element we purposely did. 

photo personal

We also have it in a few other places that I will share with you all in time, but it's a small element that we can use to bring a little bit of us into our wedding. Creating a logo, if you will, has been steadily increasing in the wedding world and I can totally see why. It's a great way to carry something through from the beginning stages of your planning all the way until the end of the honeymoon. I am certain only a handful of people will notice the theme throughout but you know what? I don't freaking care. This is something we are absolutely in love with and hey it's our wedding. I love it. Mr. Farmer loves it. Our children love it. Our families love it. What more can we ask for?

Did you have a wedding logo? Did you have a personal design element that carried throughout your entire wedding?

Pour Me a Glass: Hybrid Host

I love a good glass of sweet, not too dry Riesling. Mr. Farmer loves a full flavored Cabernet. I am a white girl and Mr. Farmer is a red kind of guy. Opposites attract anyone!? We happen to love wine. Mr. Farmer is more adventurous in trying different kinds, whereas I am just starting to develop a taste for anything other than Riesling. 

photo personal

Our current "wine bar". Mr. Farmer and I are members of a wine of the month club. We receive a shipment every other month of 12 bottles of red and white. If you remember, we are currently in the process of building an addition onto our new house so we have nowhere to store our wine until we move into the new place, where we will have a sufficient wine rack and bar. 

currently waiting to be put in their forever home - photo personal edited by yours truly

Needless to say we like our wine so it was no surprise that when we attended Creating Lasting Memories to sample our food, we would also be sampling some beverages. In the Midwest it's pretty common to do a partially hosted bar. What does that mean? It means that the bride and groom (or traditionally the groom's parents) typically cover the beer and soft drinks, while the spirits are paid for by the guests who order them.  

Now before you clutch your pearls and give me grief, it's common in my neck of the woods and nobody bats an eyelash for having to pay for a spirited drink. It's expected in my group of family and friends and every wedding I have ever been to has done it this way. I often find it depends on where you live when it comes to cash versus hosted. It also depends on the budget as well I suppose, but our budget isn't huge so a fully hosted bar was out. Since the Barns enjoy wine so much we are also putting that on the hosted menu. So we are doing a hybrid host if you will - Beer, Wine, and Soft drinks.

So let's get to the good stuff huh!?

Yours truly at Creating Lasting Memories - photo personal - Cheers!

First up was the champagne. We aren't huge champagne drinkers but we wanted to make sure we had some for the toasts that will be given. 

We had a choice of:

J. Roget, Cooks, Martini, Rossi Asti or their Raspberry Champagne Punch

Both of us have no idea if our choices are decent or not but we know what tasted good. We both liked the J. Roget Spumante and the Raspberry Champagne Punch the best. When we told Collette, the wedding coordinator, our choices she laughed because the punch is made with J. Roget so it's no wonder we liked it. So that was put on the beverage menu. 

We also decided on a Kendall Jackson Chardonnay, Schlink Haus Riesling, Murphy Goode Pinot Noir and Columbia Crest Merlot. We figured that would be a good sampling of wine and it still has both my favorite, the Riesling and Mr. Farmer's pick, the Pinot Noir. 

Up next was the beer. I told Mr. Farmer to make his selection as that will be his drink of choice, should he choose to drink at the wedding, and he selected Coors Lite as it's the beer he drinks most often. Being from Wisconsin I thought it would be sacrilege to not have any Miller Lite so we are having both (my family would give me serious side eye if there wasn't a Miller product present). My family will drink the Miller and his family and friends will drink the Coors. It's all about compromise people. 

What did you choose to do? Cash? Hosted? Or did you do a hybrid as well?

**as always please drink responsibly and do not operate a vehicle while under the influence. We will be combating drinking and driving since our venue is right next door to the hotel and our guests won't have to drive either. Keep it safe peeps!