Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Barn After Answers

So in an effort to try something a little different and help out fellow blogger Miss. Border Collie we decided to have a little fun and each answer some “Inquiring Minds Want to Know” questions.  While she was, as she says, complaining to me about her lack of writing material, this idea popped into my head and we decided – let’s go for it! So without further ado here are my After the Wedding answers……read Miss. Border Collie’s Before the Wedding answers here.

1.       What is/was your biggest priority about (or for?) the event?  (Ex: Catering, photography)

My biggest priority was making sure people were well fed and having fun. I know it sounds simple and most people wouldn’t think our menu was anything special (ok a lot of people) but our guests L-O-V-E-D it (the ones that actually said anything to us). Most of our guests are pretty simple people and don’t have a palette for fine dining, that’s just who are families are.  Mr. Farmer tells me all the time, “Meat and potatoes” babe when I ask him what he wants me to cook for our **evening meal. His best man N (who is a total cowboy) INSISTED we have corn.  Apparently you don’t marry a farmer and have a bunch of farmers at a wedding without serving corn, it’s sac-religious.  You just don’t do it, so we served corn. The farmers were happy which means I was happy.

2.       What is/was your biggest concern for the day? (Ex: rain, nobody dancing, guests being bored)

My biggest concern was that everyone was going to hate everything. I was so worried people weren’t going to see the love we have for each other in our ceremony. I was worried people were going to hate the food. I was worried people were going to hate our venue. I was worried people were going to complain about the drive. I was worried for absolutely no freaking reason whatsoever. Not a single person complained about anything and to be honest, I really would be surprised to hear if anyone complained to a bride about her wedding.

3.       What DIY Project do you / did you care about the most?

I like to think I am a pretty crafty person however Mama Barn puts me to shame on her worst days. Because of that I would have to say that our invitations were the one project that I cared about most. Mama Barn really helped by putting a lot of time and effort into helping me figure out what exactly we should do. I would say specifically the envelope liners were my favorite only because so many people commented to me on how awesome they were, and she did them solely herself. As much as I hated the total process of designing and trying to actually decide what to do I really loved how they came out. There are definitely some changes that I would make but the fact that I did this with my mom is what I really love about it. Since Mama Barn is a six hour drive away it was really important to the both of us that she was involved as much as possible and this was the perfect opportunity for a mom’s special touch.

4.       What is / was your worst wedding related nightmare?

The wedding nightmare I had constantly was that all of a sudden it was wedding day and I never had anything ready. The one time my dress wasn’t there. Another time the hotel called to tell me that they didn’t have any rooms for our guests and everyone had to sleep in their cars (horrifying)!  Once there was another wedding going on at our venue and we had to get married in the parking lot of the hotel. Thankfully these were all silly nightmares and nothing even close happened.

5.       Do you think you are going to eat/ Did you actually eat?

I am happy to report that I did eat at our wedding however not much. I did have a lot of food off of stepson R’s plate because we ended up sharing a lot of our food. He liked my roasted potatoes and I liked his fried potato goodness that he was served -I don’t know what they were actually but they were damn good whatever it was. When you are the bride you can eat whatever you want. I justified eating all the fried goodness thinking “well at least I am consuming calories”. It may have been a slight stretch, but at least I was eating!

6.       What is the picture you think you have to have/ What is your favorite picture?

I haven’t started my recaps yet but I will share one of my favorite photos. This was one that when I look at I get insanely happy and I immediately get teary-eyed. When I think back it wasn’t a picture that I thought would have been my favorite only because it’s not a photo of Mr. Farmer and me. Without further ado:

Photo personal – Mrs. Barn and stepdaughter K

7.       What is your biggest fear about what could go wrong vs what was the worst thing that happened at your wedding?

I don’t think I can really think of anything horrifying that went wrong at our wedding. It was all a bunch of really small miscommunications, that nobody would really notice, but if I had to pick one that really bothered me the most it was that my paternal grandparents were not seated in the front row at our ceremony. I didn’t even realize it until I got my pictures and I will say that I was INCREDIBLY disappointed. My poor grandmother and grandfather were seated in an aisle seat like 4 or 5 rows back and it made me so sad. Had I realized that they were sitting there I would have stopped the ceremony and moved them myself to their place of honor. The only thing that I can think of it that they sat themselves or sat with whomever they walked in with. I don’t know what happened but that would be the biggest thing that went wrong.

8.       What are you looking forward to the most / What was your favorite memory?

I would say my favorite memory is of a very special thing that happened during our dinner. I would love to share it but I don’t want to ruin it until I get to my recaps. I will just say that there was not a dry eye in the place and it was a shock of a lifetime for Mr. Farmer and me. I get goose bumps when I think about it and I can’t wait to share it with you guys, but it really does deserve a post of its own. You will know what I mean when you see it, I promise! Stepson R says, “When Mrs. Barn makes a promise, she keeps it so you know she is telling the truth. She’s never let me down”.

9.       What do you think your guests will enjoy the most/ What did your guests mention the most?

Our guests loved a lot of different things about our wedding weekend but I would say that our guests raved about our venue the most. They could not believe that we found such a beautiful place in the middle of a metropolitan city. I am sure some of you would say that Eau Claire, Wisconsin is far from a metropolis but to our friends and family it was. I think just about every guest commented on how beautiful everything was. I saw a LOT of family photos going on after the wedding ceremony was over. It seems that since it was such a pretty place that it was a good time to do it, and I am glad that I have those memories.  I always smile to myself thinking of all those photos in frames that were taken on the day of our wedding and it’s heartwarming.

10.   What do you plan on doing after the wedding is over/ What did you do afterwards?

Once the wedding was over, everyone else headed to the hotel bar to start an after party. Groomsman G and his wonderful wife stuck around and helped Mr. Farmer and I clean up. We had to get everything out of the venue so there was a lot of packing that needed to be done.  Since we knew that we would have to do this, we didn’t have a lot of extra décor that I would have loved to have. I am so incredibly thankful to them for their help. After we packed up, Mr. Farmer and I stopped in the hotel bar for a quick goodnight and retired to the honeymoon suite.

Bonus – depending on how brave you might be: 

11.   Do you intend on donning lingerie for the evening/ Did you use it or crash afterwards?

I didn’t wear any special lingerie per say except for my garter, veil, “something blue” panties, and my “Bride” robe. I wanted to be comfortable under my dress and didn’t want to worry about having to change either. We were so incredibly tired after all the excitement of the day that I knew I wasn’t going to have a lot of energy left afterwards. One of my favorite memories of the entire wedding though was when Mr. Farmer ever so delicately helped me out of my wedding dress and gently removed the bobby pins one by one from my hair. It was such a sweet and loving gesture that I will always remember.

**Mr. Farmer and I have had large debates about what we call meal time. I call it breakfast, lunch and dinner. He calls is breakfast, dinner, and supper. I get lectured quite frequently from his friends that I am in farm country and everyone else calls it “dinner not lunch”. Apparently city folk say lunch and dinner and country folk say dinner and supper.  Who cares, let’s eat!

 Do you think your answers would change much before and after you get married? Pick a question and answer, inquiring minds want to know what you would say!