6 Weeks and Counting

We made it home safe and sound this week and had to jump right back into life without even a moment to adjust to the three-hour time change. As of Saturday we are six weeks out. Rarely do I count down to any event with the verve I am the wedding. Perhaps it is the extensive amount of work and energy I’m putting into the preparations, but each day I think it’s one day closer and there is still so much to do. For the most part I am proud to say I am keeping my cool and the bridezilla under wraps, but as Alaina will attest, even I have my moments.

  
We spent Saturday at my parent’s house doing more serious yard work. When I approached my parents a little over two years ago about having the wedding in their backyard we made a list of the projects that needed to be done. We’ve had many parties and family gatherings in the backyard and it is always lovely, but it still needed some serious overhauls to be ready for a wedding. We’ve built new garden beds, completely gutted others, and planted more plants than I can count. If you look back to the beginning of my wedding blogging you can find “before” pictures. Today I took an in progress 360 view of the yard. We where in the middle of mostly gutting a flower bed so we can replant it with other plants.

I’ve realized that redoing a backyard is a huge DIY (or really Do-It-Together) project. I’m not doing as many other DIY details because so much of our physical energy and weekends are spent digging and planting. Now that most of the beds are done, or almost done, we are going to build a deck too. Whew! I would encourage anyone who is thinking about having a backyard wedding to go for it, but know that there is a lot more preparation needed to get it ready to host your guests. I’ll put together a post about all that we have done and the details of a backyard event. My Mom was telling me yesterday that when her brother got married her parents built on a whole new extension on their house. While our project isn’t that extensive it really quite a transformation.

A Backyard in which to Wed

Before Alaina officially proposed, we knew where we wanted to get married. We had been talking about it for months. We decided to have it in Olympia because we wanted to show our families why we loved this place so much. Olympia is our town and we wanted to share it with everyone.

Deciding where in Olympia was one of the easiest parts of planning. A few years ago Alaina helped to cater a local backyard wedding. The location was amazing: fruit trees, flowers, a garden, even chickens. She was positively giddy about the place and decided right then and there that was the kind of wedding she wanted.

We were sitting in my parents’ backyard one afternoon talking about what it was about that wedding and location Alaina loved so much. She said it was the feeling and the atmosphere. She loved the homeyness. We talked about the elements of fruit trees, green grass, flowers and large trees. She said she wanted a barn and chickens too. As we talked we both realized that my parents’ backyard has all of those elements. It was perfect.

So, we started the biggest DIY project of our wedding, getting the backyard ready for 120 of our closest friends and family.

So, here are our before pictures:

Here is our inspiration:

We’ll keep you posted on the progress!