#fremdersforever: Portraits

Happy Monday everyone!!

I'm up at 5am because Drew is up at 5am.

Now, I am NOT a morning person. Actually, I will go right back to sleep after I write this. Buuuuut if I get up and help Drew with his breakfast and lunch while he gets ready for work, then he is a happy husband which makes me a happy wife! And I get to zombie write this Bridal post for you- yay!

Theres not much to say actually, I mean I'm just posting a ton of pictures of myself and thats kind of weird to start with soooooo- Daniel Colvin Photography, ladies and gents! Yay!

I mean, everyone wants a bridal portrait like this, yeah? ;)

oh heeeeey there fancy man!!

Now, maybe you noticed, but I threw some pictures of my handsome groom in there. I tell ya, whew! I'm a lucky girl.

So there you have it, lots of cheesin and happiness on our wedding day!!

#fremdersforever was the hashtag we chose for our wedding....and we're still using it today! Follow us on instagram for life updates :) We are @paigebrownflute and @drewsefer

If you love Daniel's work as much as we do, be sure to follow him on Facebook!

Next time I'll be sharing a little bit about our "bridal party" along with some others :)

#fremdersforever: Pre-wedding

Thanks to Daniel Colvin at Daniel Colvin Photography we have exactly 800 spectacular photos to help us remember our wedding day! Luckily for you, I won't be sharing all of them. Unless you actually want to look at 800 wedding photos....if thats the case, I'm sorry. And you're crazy ;)

I have so many faithful friends and followers who have stuck with us on this blog through every stage of our relationship- from dating, to finishing masters degrees, to Army BCT, to England/Virginia long distance, to engagement, and now marriage! I hope you enjoy this little series of mine that will take you on a journey through our wedding day :) Love to you all!

First things first- This was a completely DIY wedding. My vision was for a quaint and whimsy people centered environment- something simple and happy. 

I'm SO thankful for my previous flute students, Rosie and Callan, who curled my hair for me! What a blessing :) And Christina, my former roommate and dear dear friend helped to style my hair.

Now,I know not all brides out there agree with me, but I was all for the idea of borrowing and re-using whatever I could!! 

My hair piece was especially fun to me because it was made out of the hair clips attached to my mom's veil! I loved the flower child look and tried to find a halo or headband off of Etsy (breaking news: Etsy is NOT cheap anymore!!! Silly competitive prices...) but what I ended up realizing is that I had all the tools in front of me! So thanks mom for letting me cut up your wedding hair piece to make mine :) It was perfect and exactly what I wanted!

pretty happy mom :)

Finishing touches on my bouquet. And yes, we were crazy enough to do our own flowers!! I went to a florist and told her what I had in mind. We asked how many bunches she would order for X amount of vases and X amount of bouquets, placed a bulk order, picked them up the day before and arranged away!

Not going to lie, arranging flowers is much harder than I thought and took much longer that I expected, but I was very happy with the results. Plus we saved a lot of money that way!

Need I say that my mom made my garters as well? SUPER woman.

And one of the best pictures of the 800- the daddy first look :)

#fremdersforever was the hashtag we chose for our wedding....and we're still using it today! Follow us on instagram for life updates :) We are @paigebrownflute and @drewsefer

If you love Daniel's work as much as we do, be sure to follow him on Facebook!

Next time I'm sharing my favorite bridal shots from our wedding day- see you then!

Honeymoon Highlight

-this is not about what you think it could be about, get your minds out of the gutter people-

Finishing up our thank you cards from the wedding (holy moly, and are we thankful!!!) reminded me of one of the sweetest memories that Drew and I have shared so far, and I wanted to share it with you all!

this is actually not the memory, just a photo stolen from the Culbertsons, a wedding sneak peek if you will...

After we got to our hotel, completely exhausted, the first thing we did was sit down on our bed and read our wedding cards.

Before I go getting all sentimental.... instead of just blowing through cards, we sorted them into piles based on who they were addressed to: Paige and Drew, Drew and Paige, The Fremders, Mr. and Mrs. Fremder, etc.....it was a fun game. Yeah we're weirdos, I know. 

Anyway, we sat on the bed and read our cards out loud to each other, and this simple action has proven to be one of the most powerful emotional experiences we have had together. It seems cheesy when you're trying to pick a card for someone, but we want you to know that we read every word (printed and written), every quote, every verse, every bit of advice, and genuinely took it to heart.

Thats when the "this is it, we're REALLY married!" moment happened. All these people from all parts of your life, together and individually, are all in one place at one time and there is only one reason they are there: YOU. To say that the experience is overwhelming would be an understatement. 

We enjoyed every single card. We got to tell each other who "our" guests were and what role they played in our lives. Your messages made us beam, laugh, and cry. Altogether we feel so loved and supported!!! 

So to everyone who has blessed us in any way, AGAIN, we want to thank you, and we can never thank you enough!

God has surely given us the best people to journey through life with, and our wedding was the perfect reminder to reminisce of and be thankful for each and every one of you!

Hello, my name is...

I feel like I need to reintroduce myself...


Hi!!!

My name is Mrs. Fremder (say, whaaaaa?) and I live in Virginia.

Dinner a few nights before our wedding...probably looking at a picture of ourselves

-The last time we talked I was Ms. Brown and I lived in Texas....and England...and then kind of no where-



I'm currently a flute practicing, meal cooking housewife.

Ok, you're right, I didn't really cook this. But I have been cooking!!
But seriously, look how handsome my husband is.

-The last time we talked I was a student, studying the flute in England with Trevor Wye-


(Ok, so I'm watching Modern Family right now and this is taking me forever....)


I'm going to miss living in Texas a lot.
I'm going to miss being really close to my family and friends.
I'm seriously going to miss Baylor and my Baylor music family.

BUT

I get to live in beautiful Virginia.
I'm married to the man of my dreams.
I have a family of friends here that have welcomed me with open arms.

And I'm pretty sure this is what happily ever after looks like.

HOME (long winded but worth it)

HOWDY Y'ALL!

This post is almost three whole weeks delayed, but as you'll soon understand, life has been a bit of a whirlwind!!!

I can't tell you how good it feels to be on a laptop looking at blogger and being able to access all of its functions without a hitch....and having my photos right there just a click away! My iPad was NOT very kind to me when it came to blogging the past six months. But I also feel like the contents of the last six months weren't very blog friendly for me, but thats ok! I'm home and I'm back and I'm looking forward to probably starting my readership from scratch again. Oops...sorry guys and thanks so much for sticking with me if you're reading this!!!

I finished my flute course with Trevor Wye in England and flew home (USA home, not TX home) on March 31st. I didn't blog through most of my time in England because I was focusing on the flute, which is why I was there. Also being in the same tiny place all day er day for six months is not extremely stimulating for the creative brain juices. Anywhooooo I still have a trips to London, Canterbury, and Paris that I would like to share some very unprofessional photos of. They'll just be, you know, 4-6 months late! Oh. Well.

This is Trevor, super famous flute teacher, dropping us off at the airport! Byyyyye Trevor!!

So now we're getting to the fun stuff. Hiiiii. I'm back!!! Mexican food and pizza please!

***Necessary background story***

I was completely convinced that Drew would NOT be picking me up from the airport. He plays in the Annapolis Symphony and had rehearsals all that week (I got in on a Monday) and since he isn't a tenured member he wasn't allowed to take a rehearsal off without giving up playing on the whole concert.  SO, we were sad. I mean, six months, and then an extra 5 grueling hours before we could see each other?? Mega bummer. BUT our super amazing friends Manny and Sarah (who live in Annapolis) agreed to pick me up, which was totally awesome, and take me to Annapolis to see Drew ASAP.....

fast forward

Airport. US soil after six months in England. Anticipation is CRAZY. It took AGES to get to baggage claim.

I told my roommate Katie (who lives in the Washington DC area) that I was looking for a tall dude probs wearing a button up shirt and awesome Warby's and a tiny adorbs curly haired girl jumping up and down.

When I found Manny and Sarah, they were exactly as described....jumping up and down and all, so I dropped my suitcases in excitement and started giving hugs and all that stuff

*sidenote, my heart is beating out my chest in anticipation like I'm reliving this crazy moment all over again*

and then mid catch-up chat (Sarah was telling me this awesome joke about "how was your clarinet class?" or something like that) I get tapped on the shoulder, only to turn around and see DREW just in time to pretty much have a heart attack. Photo evidence coming up...not my most flattering moment, but totally worth it.

Are you kidding me?!?!?!

And then this happened.

I promise you SO MUCH sobbing was going on in ^that picture. And all the following pictures. 

Drew had ditched the concert cycle so he could be at the airport to pick me up. Manny and Sarah drove all the way from Annapolis to pull off the surprise, which went without a hitch. Patrick Morgan drove my nervous wreck of a fiance to the airport and took these incredible photos for us. EJ and Amanda (and their precious son, Will) were there, incognito and adorable, to greet me and to capture the whole thing on film. I mean, I'm STILL complete blown away. Almost speechless. 

OH! If you were wondering, I said yes! Actually if you ask Drew, I blubbered and nodded my head a lot and hugged him five times before I actually even looked at the ring....

But hooooly moly. Just blown away. They whisked me off to a texmex restaurant where we were all met by Patrick's wife Emily and MORE friends, Joe and Yarina. I couldn't have asked for a better welcome home party. So again, thank you so much to everyone involved, and enjoy a few more of Patrick's photos and the video that EJ took!!!

Watch our proposal video here!

I spent a wonderful, and necessary, two weeks in Virginia with Drew. Now I'm in Texas with my family (another wonderful reunion!!!) and my sweet puppy dog and we are whirlwind wedding planning up a storm!

To be continued......

if I were home...

With barely more than a month left in England, "if I were at home" runs through my head quite often....

 

• If I were home, I would head to the nearest gas station/grocery store/px to buy some Cheetos ASAP. Crunchy, puffs, both, I don't care!!

• If I were home, I would most difinitely eat Mexican food, also ASAP. Probably Chuy's, but honestly at this point anything would do!

• If I were home I would cook for Drew a lot. (I'm sensing a theme here...) but I really do have a list going! Three of us share a mini fridge and a tiny kitchen, and we only get one grocery trip a week so planning and cooking has become a strength of mine!

• If I were at home, I would go to Target, buy an icee, and wander around for at least an hour. And I'd probably buy stuff.

Actually, I'd buy these!!

• If I were home, my phone connection would frustrate me sooooo much that I want to chunk the thing across the room. I mean, thank the dear Lord for giving people the brains to invent things like viber and facetime, but relying on just that for a super long distance connection gets old.

Now that I type that out, I feel like I should delete it because I'm SO thankful for how much I get to talk to Drew, my family, and my friends

• If I were home, I would be all caught up on Grey's, Modern Family, Once Upon A Time, and Pretty Little Liars. I only have an ipad here so I can't stream anything, and Netflix UK is a force to be reconned with....I COULD however watch every episode of Dr. Who ever if I so desired. But no, not Sherlock. Hmph.

• If I were home I would never ever ever EVER make instant coffee again.

• If I were home I would hug EVERYONE. For awkwardly long amounts of time. And cry.

• If I were home, I wouldn't be holding on to some pretty exciting news!! How's that for a cliff hanger? Now you have to wait 30+ days too. Wahahahaha ;)

 

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noises in the night

I have this really great ability to fixate on sounds. 

It's probably helpful since I'm a flute player, but sometimes I feel like I hear EVERYTHING.

For example, Drew used to have this watch that just killed me. He loved the dang thing but it was just SO LOUD!! I could hear it everywhere. Click click click click (metronome marking quarter note equals 60). Once he lost his beloved watch (and no, I did Not hide it). I'm not sure how long the thing had been gone, but I remember once he stopped the car to run inside and a grab something and I stayed in the car. After a few seconds of silence, I started to hear the dreaded "click click click click" and just about had a cow.... So I dug through the back seat, found a box full of odds and ends, and there is the box, with a closed lid, was the stinkin Timex watch. Needless to say, I completely freaked Drew out, but hey! Found the watch!

Back to my fixation on repetitive sound....this talent of mine is extremely heightened when sleeping is involved. Of course. 

It's been raining here in England for eternity, which makes for a really nice sleeping background, but last night was a little different. The mist was just enough to roll off the roof and make a marvelous Drip Drip Drip Drip at about quarter note equals 120 (I know this because I was singing Stars and Stripes to it at 5 this morning). As I lay there awake at 5am, my hearing finally started to haze over and after an unknown duration of silence I thought "hey I haven't heard the drip for a...."

"Drip drip drip drip drip...."

an unprovoked argument for letter writing

I'm taking a break from my unplanned blogging hiatus to scribble out my feelings on the importance of letter writing.

(HELLO BLOG! It's been over a month! Oops...)

The decline of handwritten letters has been an unfortunate result of, let's face it, the internet. Now, by no means am I complaining about the wwww (Wondrous World Wide Web), so hear me out!

Without the internet I honestly say that would not be in England right now. Without the security of (fairly) easy communication with my family and being able to see Drew's handsome face at least once a week...

(flashback to the October when we didn't have internet and I thought I was going to die and be shipped home to my parents in a box)

...there is absolutely no way I would have had the courage to take this crazy life detour. I love that I can check in on my friends via Facebook and twitter. I adore the fact that things like iMessage and Viber exist. I enjoy documenting my travels and oversea experiences on Instagram. FaceTime is my best friend, etc.

HOWEVER, I am mourning the loss of letter writing as an art form in our generation.

As a lifetime note hoarder and personal journaler (yeah yeah, "journaler" isn't really a noun but I am by no means a "journalist" so whatever) it was easy for me to transition into letter writing when Drew left for bootcamp this past summer. Since we weren't able to communicate at all apart from the coveted weekly letter, those letters became conversations. Conversations with ourselves about struggles of the day, longings of our hearts, the bitterness of separation, prayers for strength, and as much encouragement as written words can possibly provide.

Hooray for an email or text message than can be read one whole second after the writer hits the "send" button, no denying that! But what is to be said about the time and energy that goes into physically writing a letter? The character of personal handwriting? The anticipation of actually having REAL mail in your mailbox? The beauty and detail of stamps....I mean there's a reason people have entire collections of the silly (expensive) things! There's a reason why "evites" still haven't really caught on and there's a reason why writen cards, invitations, and thank-you's are still the social standard.

*sidenote, ecards should NOT be a thing. No one likes them. No offense.

That reason is personal connection.

When our parents were in college, they wrote and received letters from their parents! How awesome would it be to have those to reflect back on your relationship? Wouldn't it increase the gratitude and affection that you feel for them?

When our grandparents were young, the wrote love letters to each other during the war....imagine the history and love story in those letters!! BOOKS are written from letters, history is discovered through letters, inspirational quotes are pulled from personal letters...and what are we giving ourselves? Super crappy, disorganized, and eventually deleted archives of emails.

I fell 100% more in love with Drew by exchanging letters with him this summer, and still enjoy writing him letters while I'm in England even though we are lucky enough to talk on the phone daily. I feel more connected to those that I've had the time to send notes to, and I need to do more of that. I feel 100% more affection and more connected to people who have bothered to send me even a short note or a Christmas photo card while I've been here. I appreciate you all more than you know and will cherish your written words of encouragement for the rest of my life! (Like I said, serial note-hoarder).

So, end dramatic rant of the day. Go write someone a letter letting them know how much they mean to you! I promise you won't regret it.

PS- HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

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