I had big plans for a wedding recap post today, but this morning’s discovery has to take top-blog priority. Our maintenance man was outside mowing this morning, when he noticed some dark spots in the grass. Good thing he stopped to check it out – there are two abandoned newborn deer out on our playground (I work at a school)! He came and got me, as I am the resident “crazy animal person” and I grabbed my camera…

They have to be only a day or two old. My pictures don’t do justice to how small they are, but they seriously look like tiny cats curled up in tiny balls – at first I thought maybe they were bunnies! Poor lost little babies. My animal-lover instinct makes me want to call animal control or wildlife, because they are only about 20 feet from a busy road. But I googled “what to do with a newborn deer”, and came up with this…

If you find a deer fawn that appears to be abandoned, remember that deer fawns are born with natural camouflage and a lack of scent. In the first few days of their lives, the newborns are not mobile enough to travel with their mothers. As a defensive tactic to keep nearby predators away from the newborns’ location, the mothers will often leave the young animals alone for long periods of time. During this crucial period the mothers will visit the newborns at least twice a day to feed them. After a few days, the fawns are usually strong enough to join their mothers and the herd, where there’s more protection.

They are definitely too young to walk, because I got pretty close to both of them and all they did was twitch their ears. They are about 100 yards apart too – not even curled up together – so sad! Here’s hoping that mama deer is nearby and keeping a close watch. I’ll be checking on them all day long just to make sure. And you better believe that if mama doesn’t come back, I’ll be camped out in the parking lot tonight!

Okay, okay – I concede. Today is our one month anniversary as official married folk. Hard to believe it’s been a month already, but it’s been a very busy month, so it has kind of flown past. This also means I have neglected to share wedding stories and recaps and pictures for an entire month, and for those of who have tuned in for my rants and raves and various meltdowns, that’s not really fair to you. So with that, I give you the long overdue story of our fabulous wedding…

Some people say that their wedding is the best day of their life. I will definitely agree that our wedding was the happiest time of my life (so far!), but I can’t possibly pinpoint a specific day. Our festivities kicked off on Thursday. Mary Ann was scheduled to arrive in Cincinnati at 8am, ready to spend the day putting her years of Dairy Queen cake decorating experience to work… You know how everyone tells you to plan for things to go wrong? Well for me, test #1 came right away – Mary Ann was trapped in Jacksonville (faulty airplane bathroom, seriously?), and wouldn’t be getting to Cincinnati until 1pm at best.

Keep in mind I had pretty much planned out every minute of the weekend in full detail and with no room for error. According to my absurd, color-coded hour by hour planner, I was supposed to be writing place cards, while Mary Ann and Lindsey hand piped 200 custom-made sugar cookies. Since that was clearly not going to happen, as MA was busy throwing fits in the JAX airport, I became Flexible Bride. I dropped the sharpie and picked up a piping bag.

Months back, I saw this blog post, and got the idea to make custom sugar cookie cut-outs of our silhouette images, also featured on our invitations. I emailed the post to master cookie-baker Lindsey, who replied back immediately saying that she was willing to take on this project if I wanted to do it. I ran the idea past Casey, who said he thought it was creepy to eat cookies of our faces, but that we could do it if I really wanted them. So clearly I took that as a yes, and emailed our silhouette images to Victor Trading Co., and several weeks later I had two custom cutters waiting on my doorstep. Let me just say that it is one thing to envision yourself as a cookie, and a whole other experience to actually see it. They were awesome.

Lindsey spent hours and hours researching the best cookie and icing recipes, and doing test batches to bring to me and Casey to sample. A true friend, she even offered to make “healthy” cookies, knowing Casey and I are borderline obsessive about what we eat. But we figured if there is ever a day to splurge it’s your wedding day, so bring on the butter and Paula Deen recipes, right? I believe the final winner was actually Martha – no surprise there.

So back to the recap – Thursday morning, Casey and Emily heads covered every surface of Lindsey’s apartment, where we rolled up our sleeves and hand-piped every single one – Emily in pink, and Casey in white.

When all was said and done, I may not have gotten my place cards written out that morning, but decorating those cookies with Lindsey was a special memory of the weekend. We lived together for so long, and now that we live separately we don’t spend as much time just sitting around talking for hours on end like we used to. We listened to depressing music (our favorite – during good times and bad), made ourselves sick with icing, laughed at Lindsey’s oompa-loompa spray tan (pictured above), and just genuinely relaxed and enjoyed our morning. Other than Mary Ann’s absence, it was a perfect way to kick off the wedding weekend.

Two hundred cookies and two cramped left hands later, we broke for a quick lunch at Panera, while my mom picked up Mary Ann and other out-of-towners at the airport. Up next was the Wedding Tea! My fabulous friend Liz (who got married last summer), and her mom, Jan, were throwing me a pre-wedding tea party at my favorite bakery ever, The Bonbonerie.

As soon as I walked in the door, the reality that the wedding was here really hit me. It was so overwhelming – there was my big sis (from Connecticut), my aunt Martha (from Massachusetts), Mary Ann (from Florida), and all my other fabulous friends and family! It was strange to think that everyone was there for me. Liz and Jan had gotten adorable Emily & Casey teas made, and everyone gave me their favorite recipes to keep in a cute recipe box. We sipped fabulous fruity teas and ate delicious iced cookies (since I hadn’t eaten enough cookies that morning!), and we laughed and told stories, and relaxed – which was exactly what I needed. It was so much fun!

Ladies who drink tea and eat fancy cookies.

Me and my fabulous tea hostesses – Liz and Jan!

The bride and 3 bridesmaids – Mary Ann, Lindsey, and Liz!
(Mary Ann pointed out that we were a walking Anthropologie catalog.)

Me and my wonderful, fabulous, couldn’t-live-without them sisters.

The rest of Thursday’s events will continue in tomorrow’s post (oh yes – there is more!).

Tonight, we’ll celebrate one month of married bliss by doing what we do best – running, cooking, and cuddling on the couch with Huey and Indy. Perhaps we will eat a slice of leftover wedding cake? I’m not much for tradition anyways, and who says you have to wait a whole year? Twelve slices in a year sounds much more like it to me…