This post and $50 Amazon gift card giveaway sponsored by RegistryFinder.com.
As always, all opinions are my own.
Do you want to know the best day of my life?
Because it wasn’t my wedding day. Not one bit.
Nope, it was the day after our wedding.
When the hustle and bustle had settled down.
When the planning and silly anxiety was behind us.
When we could stop worrying about trying to please everyone.
When we were alone. Together. Forever.
Waking up next to Ben for the very first time,
giving his hand three squeezes,
pretending not to be self conscious about my morning breath,
eating breakfast in our pajamas,
with our cell phones turned off,
looking across the table at one another while we put jam on our toast,
knowing this would be our view for eternity.
THIS was the best day of my life. The best.
From a very young age,
dreams of getting married and starting a family always occupied some part of my mind.
The older I got, the bigger those dream became.
I remember always feeling anxious for that “adult” portion of my life to begin…
The portion of life where you wake up next to the person who fills your soul with love,
and you’re cuddled up next to your squishy and adorable little creations.
But even with constant thoughts of marriage,
I wasn’t that girl who day dreamed about a big wedding.
Or sketched the perfect white gown in her notebook.
Or had the venue selected before I entered high school.
I wanted a husband, sure. But the wedding was just an added bonus.
I suppose this lack of interest is part of the reason that I decided on a VERY relaxed and casual wedding. A wedding where the guests could literally kick off their shoes and feel the grass between their toes.
A picnic style wedding.
With blankets.
And baskets.
And bubbles and beach balls.
And bright colors.
{note that all of these photos are low quality. i literally used my camera to take a photo of the pics in my photo album. picture of a picture to be exact.}
The aftermath.
Each family received their own picnic blanket with a basket filled with fun treats and games.
The mad hatter cake.
The first dance. And those dimples.
The point of no return for my hair.
Headed to our equally casual honeymoon in Catalina.
There’s a great story behind this picture of me lugging my clubs up the stairs. One day I’ll have to tell it.
I forced Ben to get this henna tattoo with my name. He didn’t put up much of a fight.
Nearly seven years later, and I look back at these photos with the fondest of memories.
Though we dated for two years before we were married, this was our real beginning.
The start of our forever.
We came home from our honeymoon to a tiny one bedroom apartment filled to the brim with gifts. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.
We had registered at Bed Bath & Beyond, Target and Crate & Barrel.
Which was great.
Except that there were things from other stores that I also loved and wanted for our new home. Places like Restoration Hardware, Macy’s, Pottery Barn and Amazon.
I wanted oh-so-badly to be registered everywhere, but I felt ridiculous and even tacky including all of these places on my wedding and shower invitations. I didn’t want to have the “registered here” portion of the invite be longer than the actual details of the celebration. So I stuck with my top three picks and wiped visions of those Pottery Barn pillows and RH picture frames from my mind.
To make matters more complicated, Ben and I had a second reception in his hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming. A town that didn’t have much of what we registered for, making it difficult on those trying to find us a gift. How great it wold have been to be able to seamlessly register at their local department stores as well!
Enter RegistryFinder.com, who I wish was around for MY big day.
Now, when planning a baby shower, bridal shower, wedding (or really any celebration with gift giving), you only need to include the web address to RegistryFinder.com on your invitation and your guests can go online and search for ALL your registries in one place–making it easier for you to register at all the places you want, and easier for your guests to find the perfect gift. And if you’re like me and have over a dozen baby showers and weddings to attend this Summer, you no longer need to stress out about keeping track of all the invitations–because you just need to visit RegistryFinder.com and search the names of celebration you’re attending. Viola! I love companies that create smart, simple tools.
THE GIVEAWAY
Visit RegistryFinder.com, give it a whirl, then come back here and leave a comment telling us how this tool could be helpful to you. By leaving a comment, you’ll be entered for the chance to win a $50 gift card to Amazon. For a second entry, tweet or facebook a link to this giveaway (including exactly the following hashtag in your message: “#SweepstakesEntry”). Leave the URL to that tweet or pin in a comment on this post.
No duplicate comments. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
