No Internet Connection = Irregular Posting

We won’t have internet for the rest of the month.  So posting may be spotty.  That is fine since it gives me the opportunity to post wedding porn!

So the lowdown on the wedding…It was fantastic!

We had a fairly small wedding on the lakeside.  The actually ceremony was under a tent on the shore and the reception was nearby at the boathouse on the same property. We had a small wedding party, just the matron of honor, the best man and a flower girl.  We wrote the ceremony, which included a ring warming, and the whole thing lasted about seven or eight minutes. 

My friends were amazing.  I had one friend drive up from Kentucky the Monday before the wedding (which was on a Saturday.)  My friend spent the week doing laundry and yard work and anything else that we asked, to help prep for the wedding.  My other friends all helped out and decorated the boathouse for the wedding. 

My matron of honor was amazing.  Not only did she arrange the shower and help with invitations and make my jewelry for the wedding, but she also hosted another one of my friends from out of town.  Her husband actually drove two hours to the airport to pick my friend up.  My friends are wonderful and I am so lucky.

There was one small hitch.  My Matron of Honor got a flat tire on the way to the wedding.  She calls, says she already has the tire iron out and shouldn’t be more than 15 minutes late, just then in the background I hear “That's a might pretty dress…”  Some boys stopped and helped her and she was only 10 minutes late. It worked out fine.  While we were waiting for her I shoved my future sister-in-law out of the limo to start the ring warming so the guests would get too antsy.  Enough with the talking though….Wedding Porn.

Nazar Boncu pinned to my dress

My brother and me at our home.

My parents, brother and me at the house.

First Kiss

 

Walking out as husband and wife. (Music: Signed, Sealed, Delivered by Stevie Wonder)

Walking to the boathouse with my men.

 

Wedding cake, which my mother and I made.  She has the skill, I just helped. 

 

  View from the boathouse.

More photos coming later, including tales from the Morning After Brunch.  That’s right, my mom threw an after wedding brunch for 75 people and cooked it all herself. And it was tasty!

Negligent Blogger Backlog…

Since I have been back in NH I have been running around like crazy.  I have been seeing friends, cleaning and polishing the house along with all the regular pre-wedding stuff.  A quick run down…

Bacon.  Pork.  Pork chops, pork loin, eggs and bacon, BLTs, etc.

The first morning I was in the States I went out for breakfast with a friend.  BACON!!!

Also my mom makes the BEST dirty vodka martinis! I have been practicing since I have been home.  Practice makes perfect, and also is tasty!

 

Bachelorette party in New York with my aunt and cousins!

I also took this opportunity to stock up on ridiculously expensive make-up for my wedding.  ‘

BT DUB—Totally worth it!

 

 

And a bridal shower.   I can’t carry much back with me to Turkey so my friends organized a lingerie bridal shower.  I will be the best dressed women who has ever gone to bed.

And then on July 24th, I got married!

Bulent’s parents are in town for a week, so I will try to update on the upcoming New England adventures. 

Married!

More details later!  And Wedding Porn (I mean photos!)

Getting Ready!

My parents have a very old home.  About 150 years old.  They have been working on it for years.  Each year they tackle a problem or redo a room.  Well, the wedding gave them a little more momentum.  Since I was home last January they have redone..

The upstairs bathroom, the downstairs bathroom and the entire kitchen.  They have also repapered all the walls downstairs and many of them upstairs and refinished most of the floors. They do most of the manual labor themselves, though my strapping younger brother did alot of the heavy stuff.  Better Homes and Gardens meet This Old House.  I am seriously impressed.

So now we are working on the outside.  There has been a heat wave lately so outside work means lots of sweating, swearing and water breaks. So while my brother was on a ladder painting the house (he should get a medal!), I was pulling weeds from flower beds.  I need to be careful not to get tan line because of my strapless wedding dress, thus this fetching ensemble…

Obviously I am totally glammed up for the wedding!

Home

I will be posting as often as possible, though coverage may be sporadic.  I am at my parents home in New Hampshire, hanging out, visiting family, and prepping for the upcoming wedding…Mine!

So in between the bachelorette party, (this weekend),Bülent flying in (next week) my bridal shower, (next weekend) and the wedding (the weekend after) I may be fairly busy.   I will try my best though.  I have some awesome food photos coming so be on the watch.  Happy Fourth!

Wedding

Last night we went to Bülent's cousins wedding. It was fun, and also interesting to see how Turkish weddings differ from weddings in the US. Some of the traditions were different, but over all, it appeared very similar to a US wedding.

In Turkey, weddings are always civil ceremonies presided over by a government official. There are no lavish religious ceremonies. The wedding last night included the ceremony, and then cocktails and hor dourves followed by cake, but they can also included dinners and lunches. It is not common here for the couple to "register" for gifts as they do in the US. Instead the couple is gifted with gold. After the ceremony, the families of the bride and groom approach the bride and give her their gifts--jewelry. By the end of this the bride was draped in gold necklaces and bracelets. She also had evil eyes pinned to her dress, to protect her from bad karma.

The rest of the wedding was pretty typical wedding stuff, small talk and dancing.

One notable difference between this wedding and others I have attended, had nothing to do with the geography. The bride, and her sister, are ballerinas. As were many of their friends. This created a wedding where there were many beautiful, svelte women who danced extraordinarily well, ruining the bell curve for the rest of us.