Living room re-do...

I am LOVING re-doing mine and Aaron's little home! It is slowly turning it from Aaron's home to our home. I put a lot of stock in making my house feel like a home and making sure I feel the most comfortable there. It is easier for Aaron cause he has lived there 3 years longer, so he knows the ins and outs of the place - the fact that there is a certain way to get the key out of the front door without spending forever wiggling and yanking it out, or how which windows open and which stick, or what is in the garage (I don't go in there ever). hahaha... so with every home project, it slowly becomes less his and more OURS! So this last weekend was our biggest project of the house - the living room!

When Aaron and I were dating and just started talking about marriage, I started asking him in passing about his house. I asked him about the paint colors he had chosen 3 years before and what his tastes were and whether he was willing to consider redecorating when we got married. Luckily he was more than happy to make a change. Through our engagement I started thinking about what I would want to do for the house and the stuff I would keep or change. The living room and main bathroom were the biggest projects in my mind.

The living room was a great room, but the color scheme was not my style and the curtains were just awful! 

this picture was taken after the curtains came down... take my word for it on the ugliness

Aaron and I started dreaming and we settled on the color scheme of our wedding for the room! It would be easy to incorporate left over decorations, I already have gray couches, and our wedding photos would instantly look awesome... so navy, gray, cream/white... and of course we'll incorporate the orange chair :)

here is the finished product!!

You can see the orange chair a little bit in the bottom right corner

Well... almost finished product. The pictures need to be hung on the wall and our fireplace needs a screen in front. I also would love more pillows to throw on our couches to make them look even more comfy. But it is now my favorite room in the house!

Australian Invasion: Phoebe & Liam's Visit Part 1...

I cannot believe it has already been almost 2 months since Phoebe and Liam stepped off the plane onto American soil!!!! I still can't believe they were here at all! It was such a whirlwind and before I knew it they were gone again and 2 months later it all still feels like a dream somehow!

In case some of you don't know who Phoebe is... read any of my posts from my 6 months in England, starting HERE... and then again any of my Australia posts, starting HERE...


The month of January in the Mertz home was entirely devoted to readying our abode for guests! Our first house guest! We needed of course to actually get furniture for the guest room, so weekend #1 was moving all my furniture from Elisabeth's house to our house... it was quite a task and we had awesome help!! Having my couches and my old bed and dresser and blankets in my new home made me feel more settled. Plus Phoebe and Liam would have a place to sleep :)

Weekend #2 was all about painting! We painted the guestroom and rearranged the furniture and then it was set.

Weekend #3 - THEY ARRIVED!!!!


I had the day off that Friday they arrived and so I spent the whole morning running around like a mad woman cleaning, doing laundry, grocery shopping and other errands. Then off to the airport for pick up! I was like a little kid pacing around the airport terminal waiting and waiting for their arrival... FINALLY they came through security and I ran faster than I thought I could! Phoebe and I stood screaming and slightly crying from joy in the middle of Sky Harbor terminal 4! Hugs for Liam too, of course!

(oh yeah, my hair is red...)

We grabbed their bags from baggage claim and drove home. One might expect upon first visiting Arizona that sun and heat would be their welcome... but not for them... instead Phoenix was rainy and chilly!! What?!

I am a terrible person because there are no picture for the first couple of days they were here... I think because it was so rainy and we ended up just laying around being lazy most of the time. To highlight the first couple of days:

- Got home and allowed them to unpack and shower. I had pre-made dinner, so I stuck it in the oven and we waiting for Aaron to get home from work.
- Gift exchanging! Phoebe and Liam brought gifts and decorations for our Australia Day party! Aaron and I also had a gift basket for them as well including Cactus Pear Jelly, and all other types of Southwest snacks and paraphernalia.
- Dinner and wine! Phoebe and Liam love wine and they introduced us to some pretty delicious stuff!
- The next morning it was super rainy, so we went to lunch nearby at Vovomeena and then took them to show them downtown in the rain... we did a bit of shopping and then back home to prepare for the Australia Day party that night!

The Australia Day Party!

So many people in my life were probably getting tired of hearing my endless Phoebe stories and might have started to believe she was a figment of my imagination (that isn't true, I have plenty of photo documentation). But none-the-less just a little over 24 hours after Phoebe and Liam arrived in the states we had a party to give all my friends the opportunity to say hi to the infamous PHOEBE!!! I will say here now that Liam also made a huge impression at the party. My brother, Tyler, noted that I built up Phoebe and she met all expectation, but I had seriously neglected to say how AWESOME Liam was. haha

The party was actually Phoebe and Liam's idea because that day (January 26th) happens to be Australia Day!! It marks the day when the first British Fleet landing in Sydney Harbor and when it was proclaimed as a British Colony. YAY Australia! It is kind of the equivalent of the 4th of July here in the States - Australian's usually BBQ and have lamingtons and pavlova and have picnics and party outside. Sadly for us, Arizona was rainy YET AGAIN, so the festivities were indoors. We did however have Lamingtons (brought all the way from Australia) and Pavlova (hand-made by yours truly). Some people came dressed in Australian garb - Tyler was Wolverine honoring Australian actor Hugh Jackman, Shawn was Daniel Johns from the Australian band Silverchair, and Nicole and the twins wore prison stripes in honor of Australians being convicts. haha.

Liam, Phoebe, me, and Aaron - I wore Australia Day colors - Green and Gold/yellow

Prison stripes!

My attempt at Australian Pavlova - is was a wreck, but tasted delicious!

Our Australia Day snacks - ANZAC biscuits, Lamingtons, TimTams, a Salad and S'mores treats (those are American), Shawn and Nicole brought pulled pork sandwiches and we had different jerkies of Emu, Crocodile, and Kangaroo.

Bundaburg Lemon Lime and Bitters and of course Vegemite

Hugh Jackman (Tyler) & Daniel Johns (Shawn)

Sarah brought a "gum" tree - like the song about the Kookaburra- winner for best Australia item!

Playing an Australia trivia game! I losing team had to take a tiny bite of Vegemite! It was disgusting!

It was such a fun night we had a BLAST!  So glad everyone got to meet them and understand how awesome they were!

Remember that one time...

I dyed my hair red?

It was short lived and only last about 6 weeks, but it was my wonderful post-wedding hair experiment!

A lot of women post wedding chop their hair short after having grown it out for probably the duration of the relationship in preparation for the wedding up-do. I on the other hand chopped my hair off soon after starting to date Aaron and so come wedding time, my hair was BARELY long enough for my up-do... I regret ever cutting it, so I wasn't going to do that now. I did, however, long for a change and so dying it a drastic color like red seemed like fun...

... who knew it would be such a process????

To give you an idea... this is what I was going for:

 

Thus began my quest...

I started by trying to just dye it with a box over my black hair... that was a stupid idea and resulted in no change at all except at my roots where my natural hair was growing out. Next I tryed a color lifter... DON'T EVER USE A COLOR LIFT!!! It smells like a rotting egg and leave your bathroom with that smell no matter now long you air it out... plus my hair smelled like that for over a week... needless to say it didn't work :(

Next step was bleach!

This picture actually makes it look descent, but in reality it was slightly more mustard than this

 I had to leave it bleached for 24 hours before dying it again, so for a whole 24 hours I was a brassy blonde.

Next came the hair dye!

This was a horrible orange color :(

What I got was ORANGE!!! I had to leave this in for another 24 hours... yuck!

Third time was indeed a charm... almost... I got the right color, but within a week it was faded again to nearly orange... I finally bit the bullet and bought a Groupon to Dolce Salon and Spa and had them professionally do it to the right color!

After 6 weeks from the beginning of the process I was done with the grand experiment and ready to be myself again... I dyed it back to dark brown and there it shall stay :)

... you'll see my red hair throughout all of the pictures with Phoebe and Liam, so it was immortalized!

Stationary

My big brother is amazing!! I could go on and on about all the many times he has been amazing throughout my 28 years of knowing him, but to save time I will focus on wedding -related amazing-ness :)

First off, Shawn is one of Aaron's best friends. When your best friend starts dating your little sister, one might be hesitant, but not Shawn. I think from the beginning Shawn has been our biggest fan! In fact, Aaron asked Shawn and Nicole the week before he asked me out if it was ok with them... not really for permission I guess, but more make sure Shawn knew how important their friendship was to Aaron and how much he wanted to protect their friendship in the midst of Aaron and I figuring stuff out. He wanted Shawn to know that even if for whatever reason Aaron and I didn't work out, that Aaron and Shawn would still be the same friends they had always been and Aaron was going to do everything he could not to hurt me.

Can you imagine how amazing that was for me to know and hear?!?! That meant the WORLD to me!

So when Aaron asked me out, Shawn and Nicole (even though they were out of town and out of cell phone range) drove into town to be able to call me and hear all about it! Then when I saw them, you could see how excited Shawn was about his best friend and little sister finally together!

As we dated and then got engaged, Shawn was a huge support in asking how we were doing and checking in with both Aaron and I about wedding planning, relationship stuff, and making sure we were doing ok. It was so fun to have Shawn pop up on facebook chat during the day to chat about wedding plans :) Ha!

Shawn is also a VERY gifted media and logo designer. He has designed several websites, flyer, and promotional art for companies all over Phoenix. He has a great eye for design! His company is called Ithaca Media if you want to check it out online or look at his Facebook page! He does freelance design for nearly anything you could want!

It wasn't a question that we wanted him to do all out stationary designs.

I wanted a suite of sorts for our stationary. It was kind of like branding our wedding, I wanted a logo that would run throughout all the pieces. My parents had a picture of a boy and girl underneath a tree with the boy playing guitar on their wedding napkins and they eventually made it into an ornament... I wanted something like that. So the first thing Shawn did was design our monogram:

I took the monogram logo and turned it into a stamp for the back of the invitation envelopes and for the front of the CD favor packaging!

After the logo was ready, we worked on the invitations. I am not one for the packet of information because usually throw everything away accept the date, address, and picture, so I figured we'd keep it simple for the invitation.
A postcard with our picture on the front and the information on the back. We then had our website details for people to find out more information about the wedding day events.

Shawn also designed our wedding programs! I love the different fonts and sizes to break up all the names and order of service. I also loved the rack card format, so it was front and back and easy to hold.

Lastly Shawn is helping us with our thank you cards... you can imagine the business of the first few months of marriage can be especially when your first month included Christmas, New Years, and guests from out of the country for a couple weeks. Needless to say, they are in process and per wedding etiquette you can expect them within the first 6 months to a year :)

Details...

Because I have nowhere else to put pictures like this, here is a post about some of the details of our wedding...

The Centerpieces

Above is our lovely centerpieces! They absolutely turned out PERFECT! I got the general idea from Pinterest and combines several centerpieces I saw to get this look. I don't like centerpieces that leave little room on the table for you plate or obstruct your view of other people at the table... how are people supposed to talk with a centerpiece in the way. So I wanted simple and elegant. First off, I LOVE antique books! and guess what? Aaron does too... so that was a must! We pulled together books from our own bookshelves, thrift stores, and our parents' bookshelves. Some of my favorites were from my dad's library. So many old books from when he studied bible and history in college. We of course also had some old copies of Jane Austen, Peter Pan by JM Barrie, and Mark Twain. We tied 2 to 3 books together on each table with jute and at the knot put a skeleton key (skeleton keys were bought in bulk from Etsy for super cheap!). 

I liked the country/backyard feel of mason jars. Well of course when I brought the idea up to my mom, she told me she had like 30 in her house alone. We supplemented with some from thrift stores and we had our flower vases.

We then took jam jars (again from my mom) and put a candles in then to add a soft glow for when the sun went down.

We finished off the look with the beautiful flowers designed by Kendra and executed by Chris and Bailey at the reception!

When the reception started, we also added a wine bottle on to the table (either red or white from Trader Joes).

Bride & Groom table

This was also a Pinterest inspiration! My mom (ha!) of course already had all the pieces in her back yard... the wooden pieces were sanded and treated by my dad and then I hand painted them. My mom and dad re-upholstered the old chairs for Aaron and I to sit in and they were so lovely!

The Guestbook Table

The guestbook table was also fun to put together like the centerpieces. My mom painted the little mailbox for people to put our cards in. It turned out great!

We also gathered pictures from our grandparents and parents' weddings and placed those of the table. A way to display our heritage of beautiful marriages.

Our guestbook was a photo album of our engagement photos that people got to sign. I love that it is not just a list of names, but pictures of Aaron and I with words of love and encouragement from people we love and respect.

As people entered the wedding and signed the guestbook, they also had a chance to take our wedding favor, which was a CD of music from our wedding! The CDs were in brown paper bags with our Monogram (designed by my brother) stamped on the front.

People also picked up a wedding program (also masterfully designed by Shawn).

The Jewelry & Accessories

For my bridal accessories I chose pearls... very elegant, simple, and understated. The necklace is from Mykonos, Greece and I bought it on my trip there. Soon after I got home the necklace broke and needed to be re-strung. My parents surprised me with getting fixed and even a new antique clasp put on it! Since my dress had such a pretty neckline, I decided to wear the necklace as a bracelet. It was my something old. The earrings were from my mom. Simple drop pear earrings.

The hair clip was my something borrowed. It was my friend Tara's from her wedding a couple years ago. I always thought it was beautiful and when I bought my dress I knew I wanted something in my hair like a flower. Tara was so gracious to let me use her flower! (Which reminds me, I need to return that to her... ha!)

The bridesmaids dresses and shoes. My girls did an amazing job finding such pretty and interesting bridesmaids dresses to display their personality and style. Their shoes were also an awesome example of their awesome style! My favorite were Ashley's with the spikes on the back! So fun and creative!

My gift to my bridesmaids was a burlap and lace clutch with wedding day essentials in it. They got some Chapstick, tissues, breath mints, and a note of thankful words from me. They also got this bracelet from 31bits. It was so pretty with my wedding colors. They each wore it for the wedding :)

A picture of my gorgeous bouquet!! Kendra did an incredible job arranging it! I loved it and it was exactly what I pictured :) It is now dried and on display in mine and Aaron's bedroom in a vase. I did not toss the bouquet at the wedding... I hate that tradition. As a woman who was single for most of my twenties as all my friends were getting married, I grew to resent the tradition. So I would have been a hypocrite if I had one at my own wedding... so I got to keep my bouquet.

Our pretty rings... enough said :) love this picture!

The Communion table

For our ceremony, Aaron and I got married under a traditional Jewish Chuppah and Aaron broke the glass and everything. We also decided because of our own convictions we wanted the first act as a married couple would be to take communion and remember Christ as the focus of our lives and marriage. On our communion table was Aaron's grandpa's prayer shawl. It was so sweet to have it there on our table.

The Dessert and Snack Table

After the ceremony as everyone waited for the reception to be set up and the tables arranged, everyone snacked on popcorn and M&Ms. My mom put together this basket for the popcorn, even topped off with her Cath Kidston oilcloth she bought when she came to visit me in England with my dad.

The beverage table! Mark and Joni (parents of some of my best friends and like second parents to me growing up in high school) were in charge of the drinks table. They took all the pieces and made it so pretty! Lemonade (strawberry & regular), paper straws, and chalkboard labels adorned the station.

Next to the drinks table were two galvanized buckets on a stand filled with bottles of water and beer. We had a limited supply of beer, so it was first come first serve :)

For dessert we had a drink table of hot beverages from hot chocolate, apple cider, coffee (regular & decaf) and a different assortment of teas.

um... I love paper straws! enough said :)

The Dessert Table

One of the most beautiful spots of our entire wedding was the dessert table! Nancy took this under her wing and from decoration to food, made it gorgeous! It was so nice to completely trust her to make the dessert section a beautiful part of our reception!
She hung paper lanterns and twinkle lights above the table to create a soft glow... just like a Pinterest picture I sent her!

Our wedding cake was made by non-other than Joanne Stern. She has been making wedding cakes for year, but her last wedding cake she made professionally was for my brother and sister-in-law at their wedding 8.5 years before.When Aaron and I got engaged she offered to make our wedding cake as a gift!!!!!!!! Since we were having such an assortment of desserts, the cake was mainly for a centerpiece and to cut! So she made a gorgeous cake that would serve about 75-100 people. We ordered extra flowers for her to arrange on the cake and it turned out spectacular! Delicious too! I only got the one bite from Aaron, but it was so yummy!

Lastly this banner was from my mom... you might remember it from my Prayer Shower decorations and it also adorned the dessert table as well!

Next post will be about food :) So excited to tell you about our amazing caterers!!

Reception!

And now the party!!!

This was the point in the night, where everything important had been done, and now it was time celebrate!!!!

John Lynch wrote this on his Facebook wall the morning after our wedding and it perfectly describes the night:

I helped perform a wedding last evening. But it was an entire historic community marrying off Aaron Mertz and Miranda Thompson. It is easy, in the day to day, to forget the power of life-giving community which stands together long enough, allowing a setting for God to do His wonder. Under a canopy of lights and perfect weather, in a magical backyard, God showed us His glory, power, love, patience, timing and grace. Friends laughed, mingled, danced and reunited, with great joy, not even noticing they'd been the heroes in this story. Sandy Mowen came out of retirement to shepherd us with grace and masterful skill, Don Nelsen did his magic with sound, David Pinkerton was the perfect MC, Kelsie Pinkerton and Sarah Doyle floated around the event, taking majestic pictures, Chris Tinard filmed with brilliance, the legendary JoAnn Stern made the cake, the Mozingos and great friends served up food fit for heaven. Nancy Hahn and friends helped present incredible desserts. Pat and Laurie, Randy and Linda showed how healthy families give their kids away, dozens of heroes helped serve, Mark Williams embarrassed us with dancing that is banned in several states. Dozens of others served without notice or fanfare. Last evening, I stopped several times and just stared at what love looks like in a community. Well played community. Well played.           ~ John Lynch

And with that, there is no better way to describe the night except to just give you more pictures - 

A picture of our Venue - The Hearn House - after dark

Thousands of twinkle lights provided a magical glow

Nancy Hann did a flawless job of designing and coordinating our dessert table. She asked people to contribute and people made the most delicious treats for our guests! Literally perfection! I got one of the S'mores treats before they were all gone.

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Mertz!

Our first dance was to "Today" - by Joshua Radin

My dad and I danced to "Mandolin Rain" - by Bruce Hornsby. I have had that song picked out for years. It is one of my dad's favorite songs and I think of him whenever I hear it. When I told him months before that it was the song I'd chose for us, he nearly cried. Nailed it!

Aaron and Laurie danced to "My Wish" - by Rascal Flatts

I'll do a separate post for the dinner, but it was in a word - Phenomenal!

After the dancing and before the food, we watched a slideshow of mine and Aaron's lives. Shawn put it together for us and it was a hit! So fun that so many people at the wedding were in pictures with us when we were little or in high school. Amazing!

Andy gave the "best man" toast

Kendra gave the "Maid of Honor" toast

After dinner, it was cake time! Aaron was a gentleman and didn't get any frosting on me... I on the other hand gave no mercy.

Get you're dance on!

Another photo favorite! He looks so terrified... what is going on here?

Another must at my wedding was to have Mark Williams dance to "Shout!" He has done it at all of his kids weddings, and I had to have him dance at my wedding. His break-dancing is truly something you can't look away from, but kind of want to! ha! He also asked me if he could wear his kilt to the wedding, and Aaron and I could not refuse!

There it is... those who weren't prepared for it, were in awe - NOTE: He does have something on under the kilt... no worries :)

Josh and Kate did our guestbook and they are getting married in May!!!

with John and Stacey Lynch

Bruce was a groomsmen of course, but he and Janet did our pre-marital counseling. So blessed by them as friends!

These are my girls! We have stood by each other for the last 10 years! Can't believe I get to have each of them in my life! (From left to right: Kelsie, Nicole, Heidi, Sarah, me, Tara, Jessica, Jeannette, and Meredith)

Our amazing Photographers Sarah and Kelsie! They are responsible for all these beautiful pictures!

My nephews, Jonah & Nathan, made a night time appearance at the wedding!

Read on my mom's blog about how she made the boys onesies with vest... such a sweet story!

During the dancing and dessert time, we had a photobooth open for our guests to have some fun! Our friend Rod Gipson did the photography! What a sweet keepsake to have our guests pictures from the photobooth. We also saw some crop up in this years Christmas card pictures! 

Aren't we adorable!

The groomsmen

Fun with Sparklers!

And the Grand Exit!

A perfect end to the wedding!