A House: The Saga, Part 1

When we got married in July of 2010, we came home to our apartment that I'd been living in since that April. At 750 square feet, it was teeny tiny and had a super odd layout, but it was the most space we could find for our budget in our small town. Unfortunately, Will spent that fall semester in Houston working an internship, and a month after he came in December we moved out of our apartment to sublease to some friends who needed a place to stay for a few months. And then last summer we were both in Houston, and when we came back to finish up school in August we went back to his parents' house so we could save money for a down payment on a house when we move down there this summer. So basically, out of the 22 months we've been married, we lived together, alone, in our own place, for about 1.5 months.

Now, I'm not complaining. We chose to do this- we had the option each time (except for during Will's internship and last summer) to get our own place, but we were focused on saving money for a house because we really didn't want to rent once we got to Houston. With real estate prices the way they are right now, we knew there would be no better time than now to get in the market, but that meant saving money. That would be a pretty impossible feat with both of us in school full time and only able to work part time. Will's parent generously offered to let us live with them until we move, and we took them up on it. And really, the last nine months haven't been bad at all. We have our own little "half" of the house, and it hasn't been like "living with our parents" at all. Will and I aren't home a lot of evenings because we're up at the school or with friends, and when we are home we're doing homework in our bedroom. Plus, it's been super nice to rotate cooking meals and cleaning chores. We could not have asked for a better situation when it comes to living with parents.

BUT. I'm not going to lie, it's been hard. I don't think we realized how hard it would be to box up all of our stuff except for clothes and toiletries and stick them in storage for over a year. Though stuff is just stuff, and we shouldn't be materialistic and all that jazz, I am. Our decorations and furniture made us feel comfortable and at home. All my craft supplies was soothing when I needed something to do or had a stroke of creativity. And it was the final thing we needed to really feel like adults- you know, you grow up and leave home to go to college (except we really didn't leave home), we got married but were still in school so it wasn't exactly like a "real grown-up" life yet. Having our stuff that we put on our registry and that we bought with our own money made us feel like real grown ups, and not like college kids who brought stuff from their childhood homes.

Last summer we watched dozens of episodes of House Hunters and Property Virgins, dreaming about the day we would have our own house. I had an epic Pinterest board dedicated to ideas and styles I liked. We would stay up late talking about our dream home and all the personalization we would do to it.

Fast forward to January, when I had an Honor's seminar in Galveston. We decided to drive down several days before it started to have a little mini-vacation and to look at houses. We set up an appointment with a realtor to look at several houses and contacted a mortgage lending agent to get paperwork started.

We looked at about eleven houses that weekend. Most of them were clear-cut  no's. We were looking for a house that needed some work because we really wanted to put our personal stamp on it, but we weren't looking for a hardcore "fixer upper." Some of the houses were okay, but there was one we were sold on. It was built in the 70s, had four large bedrooms plus a dining room, the biggest kitchen out of all the houses we looked, and had really great bones. It was close to Will's work, and we were pretty much sold on it. Though it needed A LOT of updating, everything was still in really nice condition and wouldn't need immediate replacement like almost all the other homes.

We talked to the couple we stayed with last summer, and they mentioned they had a friend who was getting married and selling his house, and it sounded about like what we were looking for. So we stopped by the last day before my seminar started, not expecting to like it that much or at least for it to be so out of our price range that it wouldn't even be a contender. Well, we all know what happened next. We walked in and it was like love at first site. Built in 2000, it was thirty years newer than the other house. It had four bedrooms plus a dining room. Large windows for lots of natural light. A covered patio in the backyard. A beautiful, newer neighborhood. Located just a few blocks away from every store we could possible need (seriously, there's an HEB, Walmart, Target, Lowe's, Home Depot, Kohl's, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Good Will, Best Buy, AT&T store, and a ton of others just minutes away, and a great mall is only another few exits down). We were sold on the house before we walked farther than the entry way. Did I mention that the owner was willing to do a direct sell, and because a realtor wouldn't be getting a cut they were going to give it to us for only 10k more than the other house we liked. Um, yeah. We would have spent way more than 10k in renovations to that house, and it still would be thirty years older and located in a neighborhood that wasn't ideal for a young family like ours. A mild panic started to settle in because we hadn't been pre-approved for a mortgage, and there was no way we wanted to lose the house.

Before we went home that week after the seminar, we set up a meeting with the owners to talk about business. I think God smiled down on us that day, because they were the kindest people and were willing to work with our situation. They assured us that if we didn't get approved for a mortgage, they would be willing to do some kind of lease-to-own plan with us. With that promise, we went home to start the grueling process of getting approved for a mortgage.

Needless to say, it was ugly. Applying for a mortgage is hard enough when you have a realtor helping you out, I'm sure, but we didn't have one. We worked one-on-one with the agent (who was generally pretty good to work with). Will, bless his heart, took care of just about everything. I think they emailed at least five times a day for a few months. Since we were both still students with no full time "real" jobs, our paperwork was even more complicated. But essentially, we didn't get approved. Frustrating as it was, I can't really blame the lenders for not wanting to give a mortgage to a couple who's average age is 21 and who have never held a job that pays on a salary basis instead of wages.

Thankfully, the owners were true to their word and signed a lease-to-own contract after we made a hefty good-faith payment, and we will try again for a mortgage after Will graduates and begins  his "big boy" job.

The original plan was for us to move all our stuff (that's been in storage since last January) after Will's graduation before he starts work. But due to some other things that came up (friend's wedding, his mom will be out of town, I'll be taking a May Intercession class, etc.), we were able to go ahead and move all our stuff down in March over Spring Break.

Since we were really nervous to leave our new house empty with all our stuff, we asked Will's sister (who was currently in transition with living arrangements) to live there to look after the house and watch the dogs until Will could come down after graduation. Yeah, it was a steep request. She agreed and moved in the day we left Houston to finish out the semester.

As hard as it was not evening have a house to picture in my head when thinking of ideas, I think it's been even harder to actually have that house, yet we've been unable to live there. We had a week to move, get unpacked, paint, and make it as much of a home as we could. We went back the first weekend in April for three days, but it wasn't enough time to do anything except a little yard work since we had other obligations that weekend. That weekend in April was hard, because even though it is my house, my clothes weren't hanging in the closet and my toothbrush wasn't in the drawer. I've been dreaming for so long about a house and now we have one, but I feel like it's still so out of grasp for me. The worst part is that I'll be able to visit for two or three weeks this summer, but I have to work and take a few classes this summer and I won't actually move down there until September. But, now I am complaining when I should be thankful for the amazing opportunity we've been blessed with.

To say I am excited about finally moving into our home and making memories with Will is a bit of an understatement. I cannot wait to be able to tackle weekend projects and do all the awesome things I always wanted to do to our apartment but couldn't. We have been so blessed by all those involved with this process, especially all my in-laws, and we couldn't have done it without every single one of them. Next post will have pictures- this one is too long already!

The Wedding

July 10, 2010.

The day started off a little cloudy and just the tiniest bit humid, which is exteremely weird for this desert that we live in. I spent the night in our apartment, Will slept between his parents in their king-size bed because other guests had taken over his bed. I went by their house to get something, and headed up to the church to finish a few last minute details like moving the unused boxes of greenery to the bride's room. 

After that I went to get my hair done with my maid of honor, who had strict orders to tell my stylist if she was going amiss. (I had a trial run with my hair a weeks before and it was HORRIBLE. Worst hair up-do I'd ever had. I decided to trust her and brought in a new picture of what I wanted, and I knew my MOH would make sure it came out the way I wanted.) When my hair was done we ran through Taco Villa for lunch and then went back to the church to wait for everything to start happening. I didn't want to go back to Canyon because I just knew something would happen and we wouldn't make it back in time, so we hung out in the brides room for a few hours.

Finally, it was time to get ready.

This is a picture of my best friend since elementary school's mom sewing me into my dress. I knew it was going to be a tight fit, but just as they were hooking the little button on the top of the zipper if took a deep breath in and it popped off. This woman was always like a second mom to me while I was growing up, so it was only fitting that she help me in this moment :)

My hair-do.  A little un-conventional, but I loved it. I would have loved to wear my hair down, but it is simply too hot in the summer down here. My hair was long and is super thick, so she had to use a million bobby pins and a ton of hairspray. They even tucked some more bobby pins in at this point, but by the time we went to take our pictures after the ceremony part of it had come out. Oh well!

My mother-in-law managed to snap this awesome picture of the groomsmen while they were waiting for the ceremony to start.

The ceremony.

Didn't my cousins do an amazing job with the aisle?

The only fresh flowers we had were the bridesmaid's bouquets, the arrangments on stage (both baby's breath) and the boutiners for the groomsmen and crosages for family members (which were all light pink baby roses). My bouquet was made from white silk peonies, since they're my favorite flower but were pretty much impossible to get at that time.

We had tons of candles everywhere. I really lucked out with a lot of our candles decorations because I was working for a woman that used to decorate weddings, and she gave me free reign of all her gorgeous stuff.

We rented this unity candle stand, the big swirly candle sticks, the massive gazebo we stood under, and the arch at the end of the aisle. Since it was such a big stage, we put the gazebo in the middle to make it more focused. The greenery that went up all the columns was sent as a wedding present from one of my mom's friends who live up north somewhere.

You can see in this picture that the gazebo had a kind of chandelier thing in the middle. We hung a bunch of little crystals from it to add a little more bling.

Since it was such a big church with many entrances, we hung these letter on the doors to indicate which ones guests should enter. We also had these letter on the doors to the building where the reception was, since it was across the parking lot.

And then we had two signs to direct people to the sanctuary.

The guys were able to take these awesome shots before the ceremony. I am still so sad we weren't able to get any of the girls.

My handsome groom.

I adore this photo of my granddad. He's the man who has been with me my entire life, and he walked me down the aisle. This was taken just before we came out to walk down the aisle.

And then we danced back down the aisle. I had really wanted to do this but Will had told me "no" all along. Then at the rehearsal they started the recessional song (Chris Brown's Forever) and he busted it out. I am so happy we decided to do it- it was so much fun.

As you can see, the best man really go into it also :) All the groomsmen pulled on sunglasses as soon as the song started, for an added effect, I suppose.

Will's grandparents even got in on the action!

All the family

The wedding party

Walking over to the reception.

There was a big entry way to the building where the reception was. In lieu of favors, we had a cookie bar where we asked several family members to bring a "meaningful" cookie to share. I made snickerdoodles the night before since those were the cookies I learned how to make just for Will. I asked a family friend to be in charge of this table and she far exceeded my expectations! It was so beautifully done and I didn't  have to worry about anything.

I made a little tag for each kind of cookie to explain its significance.

Our cake table was in the middle of the room, since the had an odd layout. I think it turned out especially well since everyone could see us and no one had to move. Plus, it was the center of attention.

We had a first dance, but not an actual dance after that. The stage wasn't very big, plus I didn't really think we would have very many people want to dance. We aren't big dancers, so it was fine with us.

We asked Will's best man to sing and play the guitar for our dance. He was a little nervous at first, but again, he did an amazing job. It was so special and personal for him to do that for us, and I am so happy we asked him. He sang Parachute's She is Love.

Cake time!

We chose not to smash it in each other's faces, mainly because the cake was traditionally supposed to be a sign of communion, or in other words, a representation of Christ's body. We felt it was a little disrespectful to smash cake after we knew what it was supposed to represent.

In this picture, if you were to zoom in (but please don't!), you can see my "something blue"- I clipped a small evil eye that I was given in Turkey into the strap of my dress. I wanted a little piece of my Turkish family to be there with me, too, that day.

While we were taking our pictures is when something went wrong. Apparently a lot of people thought we had already left so they started to leave. And apparently, our wedding cordinator didn't think to get on the mic and announce that we had just gone to take pictures, and that we would be back soon. We were on the other side of the church taking pictures when the best man roared up in his pickup and said we had to go back because everyone was leaving. Keep in mind that the entire reception had been going for about 45 minutes at this point. So we went back and didn't even get to go back into the reception because the cordinator had gathered everyone outside so we could do the bouquet and garter toss. Will's mom had gone back to Canyon to get our marriage license because I had forgotten it and the pastor was leaving town that night. In a whirlwind we did the tosses and were ushered to the car.

Though we're not upset about it any more, at the time we were really upset. We only got to enjoy our own reception for 45 minutes, and we had hardly talked to anyone! All the blood, sweat and tears (and love) that went into making sure every detail was perfect seemed to be almost completely waisted because no one got to enjoy it for even an hour. It was still light outside, for crying out loud. I think we got to our hotel by 9:30. Note to the world: A bride and groom will not leave their own reception without making a formal exit. Please do not assume they've left and then leave with all your friends 30 minutes after the party started.
Sigh. I wouldn't say we're laughing about it yet, but it does make for a semi-funny story.

Here are a few other details the photographer grabbed:

I bought a bunch of shepard's hooks to line the aisle since we had chairs instead of pews, which made it difficult to hang the tulle. I made these cones out of scrapbook paper and put baby's breath in them.

I always told Will there was no way we'd be buying these dumb napkins, because I thought they were such a  waste of money. But they were the one thing he really wanted and I figured out they weren't terribly expensive in the midst of everything, so we got them. Also, he always called the "embroided napkins" and it drove me crazy, because they're "embossed" and "you CANNOT embroider paper!"

His Meme thought the story was funny, so she made some real embroidered napkins to put at our table.

My mom made a gazzilion of these beautiful things for the tables. Every time I went over to her house for months leading up to the weddding she was working on them. I loved them!

Instead of a groom's cake, we had cupcakes! We also made all the cupcake stands by buying plates and platters and candle sticks from the thrift stores and gluing them together. We spray painted them all white.

There weren't any professional photos of the table, but my awesome mother-in-law managed to snag one. We're always laughing at her for taking photos of everything (she even took some photos during the ceremony from the front row because she noticed the photographer never came over to that side, and she wanted to make sure we had some pictures from that angle... she thinks of everything!), but I am so happy she got the photos she did.

Groom's table

Drink table- we put a bunch of our engagement pictures this table.

The next morning we went over to his parents house to say goodbye to everyone before we left for our honeymoon since we didn't get to tell them at the reception.

They made us open this wedding present because they thought we might want to take it on our honeymoon. It was a Wii! And we did take it, and we did use it! It's probably one of our most-used wedding presents.

All in all, it was the perfect day. There were some things that came up that I could have lived without, but there's nothing I could have done to change or prevent it ahead of time. We wanted an elegant, high-end-looking wedding on a teeny tiny budget, and I think we accomplished that. We never tallied up everything we spent since we paid for things as we went, but I think we spent less than $6,500. I would not change a thing. Of course, that day was just the starting point for a lifetime together, and I know a lot of people don't get so excited by weddings. But it was our day, and it was a perfect day. I can't believe it was almost two years ago!