Best Weekend Ever

John Mayer says that a "little bit of summer makes a lot of history." This past weekend Ben and I had the kind of summer fun that everyone chases from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Being the hardcore music aficionados we are, ours included live music instead of a beach. On Friday night we went to the Bangor Waterfront to see Los Lobos and Tedeschi Trucks Band. On Saturday we made our way south to Fenway Park to see Dead and Company.  One of our first dates in 2007 was to go see Phil Lesh in Connecticut so to see John Mayer play with Bob Weir and the gang was like we had come full circle. There was something really special about seeing them at Fenway (I had never been there before) and so close to the wedding. It felt like our wedding kickoff weekend.

The shows were amazing and I brought the camera that Ben got me for my 29th birthday when we went to Atlanta to visit Amy (our matron of awesome) and Matt and see Mayer play in the place where he really got started. When I went to upload the images from our weekend I saw I had taken 778 photos over two days. #GodBlessDigitalPhotography. The images included here are all raw as I haven't had the time to go through and give them the super fancy treatment but they were my favorite shots from the shows and I wanted to include them.

As I sat watching the Dead show from an awesome seat in Fenway Park, my mind wandered back to a letter I wrote to myself when I was 13. As a girl, I had a hard time focusing on anything but the future. My small town always felt to small to hold my big dreams and one day, I vowed, I would be a grown woman full of happiness, freedom, intelligence, and would have a very cute boy completely devoted to me because he saw all of the things that made me, Me and recognized that those things made him unable to live without my force in his life.

I was a dramatic kid and somewhat lonely so I spent a lot of my alone time thinking about the woman I would be. Most of this time was daydreaming but when I needed something tangible I would write and one afternoon 13-year-old Katie wrote a letter to 23-year-old Katie swearing not to open it until the decade had fulfilled or dashed its contents. I'm very proud to say that I did not open that letter but by the time I had permission to open and read it, I had misplaced it and to this day have never found it.

I assumed that I would be the woman I wanted to be by age 23 (because when you're 13, 10 years feels like forever and surely enough time to accomplish all of  your dreams). This made an irrationally large impact on me. When I did turn 23 I struggled with the idea that I wasn't the woman I dreamed about. I felt like my life had stalled and that I was floundering. I still dreamed of a happiness I still wasn't old enough to really understand yet and I was still naive enough to think that I was a failure for not accomplishing all the things I had set out to. I relived all this in my head watching the show that night and realized that if metaphysics would have allowed it, I would have sent my 13-year-old self a picture of our life that very night. The way I felt with Ben beside me and John Mayer and Bob Weir on stage was what I dreamed of all those years ago. I no longer felt like a failure. I felt like I had finally "made it." Cool job. Awesome Husband-to-be. Great taste in music. And, maybe most importantly, a healthy self-image of my body and soul that made me content. My heart bloomed with happiness and I had an overwhelming feeling of being right where I was supposed to be. I felt a direct connection with all the years of myself and could see how all of it lead me to where I am.

On the way home I thought about how I've never daydreamed about how I would age after I had made myself the woman I dreamed of being. I feel like I am shedding a skin that I get to replace by "Hanging Luce." The slate is clean from here on and with all the things I know now, I feel pretty unstoppable.

<3 The Future Mrs. Luce
23 DAYS until the wedding!

The Mother-in-Law

The last couple of weeks I have taken a break from wedding planning. We are exactly one month out and I have the major details taken care of so now everything that is left I can take my time with and I want to incorporate some sentimental elements. I am looking forward to posting all about the completed dress in a couple of weeks but before that I want to formally introduce my co-designer, seamstress extraordinaire, and Mother-in-Law-to-be.

I'll never forget the day I met her. It was a cool fall evening and I traveled to Bigelow Hill for the very first time. I had come from my father's house and I got lost because it is pretty easy to miss the turn so Ben came out to fetch me and I followed him all the way up to the little stone house that his mother and father had built by hand. I didn't know much about his Mom then but when he opened the door to his childhood home I saw his Mom nestled behind the counter. She had a big smile on her face and welcomed me into their home. I was new and there was no way to tell how serious our relationship would get but she told me to make myself comfortable and they were happy to have me there.

As the years went along Nancy and I have grown closer and I can confidently say that she and I are friends. Outside of my relationship with her son we have connected on so many levels and over so many things. We are a lot alike in our love of craftiness, being frugal, hard work, and Luce men. Some of my favorite memories are times we hung out with his parents and especially his Mom. Last summer we went to the Air Show in Brunswick. I'd never been but the weather was gorgeous, the planes were awesome, and when Nancy and I went out  to see what the vendors were up to we met a "Jeep Keeper" who she tried, valiantly, to convince to let us take one for a ride. He was a trooper in his ability to resist her charms but in the end he let me take her picture sitting on the front bumper (a big no no) and we made the 6 year old behind us begging his mother to touch them pretty unhappy.

She is always prepared, creative, thoughtful, and helpful. She goes out of her way to make the lives of those she loves easier and happy. My first Christmas with the Luces brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. I had never spent a Christmas away from home. Ever. In 26 years of being alive I always woke up at home to have Christmas morning with my family. When Ben and I got serious we decided to alternate Christmas eves and days between our immediate families. I didn't quite know what to expect because everyone's traditions can be so different but when we gathered around the tree I felt like I belonged there. I felt like we were a family. We all passed around presents and laughed and drank coffee and totally forgot the hangovers we were all nursing (adult christmas are a whole new ball game). I never once felt like they just included me because I was Ben's girlfriend. I felt like they included me because they wouldn't have had it any other way.  Even the presents they gave me made me feel like family because they were all things that were thoughtful and were clearly meant for me and not just "things that a certain girl of this age should like."

I could go on and on thinking about sliding on the hill and adventures with Dr. McGillicuddy, playing cards, shooting off fireworks, concerts and countless other things we do together that have made so many amazing memories. None are quite as special as making my wedding dress with her though. I can't say enough how this would not have happened without her. I would have been a bride that put on a dress that was beautiful and I would have grown to love but it wouldn't have been the same. Every dollar spent on the dress we made means something in the end. This isn't a route for everyone because the experience of choosing a dress is different for every bride but for me, this was the right choice and that is 100% due to Nancy and her awesomeness.

There have been so many movies made about how terrible Mother-in-Laws can be. The scenarios are all basically the same. Boy meets girl, proposes, and introduces her to his mother and all hell breaks loose. I can't relate to those movies at all. I'm winning the mom-in-law jackpot for sure. I owe so much to Nancy for making my dress, birthing my groom and my Matron of Awesome, and opening her property up to the wedding of my dreams.  Ben's Dad certainly had a hand in most all of that and I'm grateful to him too but Nancy is the oil that makes the machine run and without her I know our lives would not be nearly as rich, happy, or full.

<3 The Future Mrs. Luce
30 Days until the wedding

Phase 3: Beads of Glass, Sweat, and Blood

The last progress update I gave was when we just began to do the beading. We had a completed canvas with an attached overlay and we were ready to bedazzle this bitch. That was more than a month ago and I am so excited to say that the last leafy sequence have been placed on the dress! We have a completed wedding dress people! HAPPY DANCE!


via GIPHY


This process may have been the most grueling of all! Again, I have to disclose that I wouldn't entirely know how grueling, because Nancy did all the beading, by hand, over the past month and a half. At the beginning of the Beading Phase we met at her house and I had drawn out the general idea of how I hoped the vines would lay out. I LOVED this drawing and I was so excited to have come up with something I was so proud of. I also spent several nights stringing glass tube beads onto strands so all we would have to do is lay them out and attach them. Easy peasy! Right?! Yeah.. we know how it goes when I think something is easy...

 Upon laying out the strands I soon realize that they don't really keep the curvy shape that my drawing so beautifully depicted. I taped on each strand only to have to tape and retape and with each adjustment I became more and more worried that I really was an insane bride whose ideas are brilliant but completely and utterly impractical.

Nancy clearly saw every panicked expression and bead of frustration drip down my face because she said "Why don't you take a break and I'll give it a shot." I gave her the reigns and the next time I saw the dress every trace of panic evaporated because it was exactly what I had in my head that I tried to convey in my drawing. She is absolutely incredible! She saved me that day from having the complete meltdown that I vowed to myself I would not have under any circumstances.

My whole problem was that I had no faith and too much vision. I was too close to the tree to remember there was a forest around me. She pulled me back, gave me a powerful talk on "Just Winging It" and got down to business. How lucky am I to have her in my life, on my side, and as my seamstress? Luckier than words can ever describe. She has made this whole process so easy on me and made me feel amazing every step of the way. I owe her more than I could ever realistically repay but I promise that I will always treat her son with the same unconditional love, kindness, patience and respect that she has shown me through this process. I will spend a lifetime doing everything I can to make her proud to call me her daughter-in-law. Even then, I'll still be in her debt because I am so so so in love with this dress... and her son... and neither would have happened without her.

 In the end, there were more beads than just the glass ones that make up the vines in the design. We both pricked ourselves and bled all over the dress (one word: OXYCLEAN!) and the beads of sweat that ran down our faces round out the holy trinity of dress making woes. The final product makes my heart sing and I can't wait to put it on and become a Luce.

On July 30th I'm having a "Dress Reveal Party" to introduce the dress in all its glory to close family and friends before unveiling it here on the blog. The ladies that attended my Bridal Shower already got a sneak peak but the dress wasn't entirely complete then so I'm looking forward to the official reveal. I really feel like this is a work of art and can't wait to share it with everyone up close.

In the coming weeks I'll be adding more posts to the actual "How To" series and I hope to have Nancy be a guest blogger and describe the experience in her own words so you know just how full of crap I am with my bright sunshiny attitude.

<3 The Future Mrs. Luce
37 Days until the wedding