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Invitations are arriving at homes across the country! The invitations are a custom letterpress job from Hound Dog Press in Louisville. I gave them some very vague instructions over the phone, and the design they came up with is absolutely perfect. Each card was hand pressed on their 19th century equipment. Letterpress was one of the first wedding things I fell in love with. I knew the handmade, vintage quality would be perfect for our "down on the farm" event.

Check your mailbox!

The Best Part of Any Wedding

The cake of course! Jake had two dozen (that's 24!) cupcakes delivered to the office on Friday to celebrate my birthday, and I'm not sure I've ever been more excited. Although I really just wanted to bury my face in them, I shared with coworkers and even put leftovers in the freezer (the gift that keeps on giving!)

Cake is my absolute favorite food (and yes, I consider it a food), and wedding cake is the absolute epitome of cake. Needless to say, our wedding cake is going to be fantastically delicious. I don't want to reveal everything, but we found a fabulous new bakery in Danville that was excited to take on my great expectations - The Twisted Sifter. They have supremely moist cake and we picked out perfectly summery flavors - classic white cake with fresh strawberries, lemon cake with blueberry filling and a deliciously festive champagne cake. Jake's groom's cake will be a very manly bourbon chocolate.

The only downside is that due our outdoor wedding in June, the cake will have to be covered in fondant. I was given the choice between a little fondant to peel back or a cake that had melted onto the floor, and there really was no choice. But the Twisted Sifter fondant is a special marshmallow fondant, and it really is quite good.

Let us eat cake!

Home is Where the Weed Wacker Is

More homeowner developments. We bought lawn machinery yesterday!

We don't have a huge yard and wanted a reel mower (an old-timey one with circulating blades and no motor), but our yard is too steep, rocky, and inconsistently bare and weed-filled, so we went with a traditional push mower and weed wacker.

We got everything from Lowes from a nice man named Jesse. My parents had bought us a reel mower as a housewarming gift, but when we looked at the yard together, decided it wouldn't work out. Anyway, many thanks to Mom and Pop Hill for getting us started.

So after we got the equipment, filled our fuel tanks with unleaded (for the mower) and mix (for the weed wacker), and put the wheels on the mower, I fired her up.

We were initially just checking to make sure everything was in proper working condition, but after it was started I just wanted to mow.



I wasn't at all intending to mow a lawn that day, so I wasn't dressed for the occasion and safety-minded readers don't need to worry about me sporting chacos while operating a lawn mower ever again, but it was just so exciting.

To make things more exciting, while I was mowing, my mechanically-inclined future bride assembled and started our weed wacker.

Soon thereafter, she trimming in the front yard and scared up this little critter, who in turn scared her up to the front porch.



I don't know the first thing about snakes other than I idolized Indiana Jones as a kid and adopted his aversion to them, but I put on my husband face and continued the yard work undeterred. If anyone knows what type of snake this is an has any opinion about whether or not I should kill it the next time I see it, let me know.

In the end, we mowed everything, weed wacked about half of what needed it, and called it a great day. I'm already planning future landscaping projects.

See you in June!

No Place Like Home

Jake and I took the plunge yesterday and officially closed on our new home. I don't want to say too much in case weirdos are reading, but it's in East Nashville and has a great view of downtown from the backyard. The house was built in 1915 but completely renovated by two young guys with some really neat touches. You'll have to come visit!

PS - Happy birthday to Jake tomorrow! Here's a flashback to his awesome soccer cake two years ago.