recent junk we had in our trunk

it has been quiet on the blog front because josh and i just got back from our honeymoon a few days ago. we had such a great time! i need a little more time to prepare for that entry, but in the meantime here is a teaser...any idea where we went??



while i get ready for that post, i figured i would share a few recent scores from outings before and after we left town for a while. one of them was a true jackpot!

before we left for our trip we had one really good day of junkin. most of this stuff came from the same house and it was all at really good prices. we love us some vintage circus/carnival stuff so we couldn't pass up this set of tv trays for $5:







a cute magazine rack:



these great shadow boxes! it seems like karma is really paying me back for that one bad experience i had with the grabby old shadow box man from a few months ago:



cute stacking container for my asian collection:





cheeseburger magnet!



wacky headhunter guy for the tiki bar:



funny little plaques for the hillbilly bathroom:



records!!!



vintage raccoon planter:



big-eyed mod kids for the big-eyed hallway:



and finally, a creepy life-size santa that i know i could sell for some dollar$$$ if i was looking to unload (and give up the chance to scare future generations into a lifetime of holiday-induced nightmares?? NEVER!)







this past weekend josh and i went to a house sale that ended up being in the living quarters above a funeral home. no, really! i wish i had taken photos of the actual apartment, because it was tacky and AMAZING. very 60s old lady style with lots of shiny gold-flecked wallpaper and mirrors. josh and i were having a blast just being able to go inside the place, but then we spotted THIS!











usually people are aware that vintage halloween stuff is collectable and try to ask too much. josh and i tried to mask our excitement (pardon the pun!) and quickly surveyed the situation: there were several boxed halloween costumes stacked on the floor and each had a $25 price tag on them. the woman running the sale in the room with us noticed us walking towards them and said, "yeah, as you can see, most of them are $25 cuz they have their box..." we snatched up rat fink and played it cool.

"how about the loose ones? what do you want for this?" we both knew that vintage rat fink stuff was very collectible, and it looked to be in pretty nice shape despite not having its box. i held my breath.

"how about...ten bucks?"

"yeah, cool, let's get him, he's cute," i told josh. when she wasn't looking we gave each other a wide-eyed look that said "can you believe this???" when we got downstairs to pay another lady said, "so you got the mouse costume, huh?"

the mouse?? i couldn't believe that not one single person running the sale or shopping at the time knew what we had. an old lady sitting behind the table said, "that was mine! i was the rat fink!" apparently it was her costume from when she was a child in the 60s ; )

 overall, it was probably the coolest thing we've ever scored junkin. i still can't believe it.

what about you; have you found anything good lately??

wedding music

being a couple of music nerds/record collectors/djs & one man bands/etc, it was obvious from the beginning that music was going to be an important aspect of the wedding. picking out songs for those special moments was one of my favorite parts about the planning process!

it should come as no surprise that there was no "chicken dance" and typical "party music" at our wedding, although our idea of an instructional group dance could be summed up best when the djs threw on THIS gem:



well played, music to break things by!

at first my little faux-niece would not come into the ballroom because the music was too loud and it scared her. but after her request for some monkees was granted, no one could get her off the dance floor! it was hilarious! she barely stopped for a bathroom break when she told her mom, "i have to go back in there and dance with everybody!"




photo: sheri miller

i made a doo wop mix cd to play in the chapel for when guests were arriving. i love me some dreamy doo wop and vocal harmonizing! i knew josh was the boy for me after we had already met and he admitted he had the words "doo wop" tattooed inside his lower lip. SOUL MATE! here's a few tracks i put on the mix:







rather than walk down the aisle to the traditional wedding song, we entered the chapel to the everly brothers "let it be me." it was the one time that day i came close to tears when i heard this playing and i started to walk in with my dad:





photo: sheri miller

after being pronounced man and wife, we exited the chapel to this sam cooke song, which has been one of "our" songs since we first started dating:



 
photo: victoria stanbridge photography

josh and i decided when we were announced at the reception that we should enter to a song with one of the best screams in all of rock'n'roll. it seemed like a good way to start a marriage, ya know? therefore, we were ushered in with none other than bunker hill's "the girl can't dance." check out that opening holler!




photo: victoria stanbridge photography

the song that became our first dance would make me cry before the wedding whenever i tried to play it for people, so i thought for sure i would bawl my eyes out when the time actually came. in the end, josh and i were talking and laughing throughout it to cover up the fact that we were so nervous and hated being the center of attention. i'm sure it can still make me cry even though the wedding is done, though! ha.




photo: victoria stanbridge photography

my dad and i had a dance to the turtles "you know what i mean" because i "borrowed" his record when i was a teenager and that is why i love the turtles to this day. whenever a cool oldies tour hits town, my dad is always the first one to ask if we're going to see it (we're going to see the turtles along with micky dolenz of the monkees and a few others in just a few weeks!)




photo: victoria stanbridge photography

josh and his mom had a cute dance to this carl perkins cover (only the first song on this clip, it was the only one available):




photo: victoria stanbridge photography

i also had a dance with my friend jeff, who i've had a special musical bond with since the minute i met him. he and his wife are dear friends and came all the way from new york city to celebrate the day with us. we danced to this little richard song, which he chose:




photo: victoria stanbridge photography

the djs did the most bitchin job of choosing tunes and making the nite go by waaay faster than i wish it would have. one of the guests (a certain carol "miss firecracker") commented that it was the best music at a wedding ever! i have to concur, even though i am slightly biased!

besides the candy bar, josh and i also had cds made to give out as favors. they turned out really nice. we included some of the songs mentioned above, plus some other stuff that is "us." we ended the cd with two songs we would choose as "theme songs" -- "i'm the wolfman" for josh and "rock'n'roll girl" for me :)





my brother mike did the photo shoot for the cd and here are some pictures we took!



















i have a few more wedding pictures to share next time and then i should be able to shut up about it finally  :)

wedding: a (long) recap

in case you were wondering, you will finally get to see what it looks like to get married in a cemetery. the truth is that its absolutely beautiful! but don't take my word for it.
photo by victoria stanbridge


the longer i wait to do this post, the more overwhelmed i get thinking about what a full day it was and the more i want to just skip writing all this. BUT! it was honestly one of the most amazing days of my life and i don't want to gloss over it just because i was feeling lazy. i also want to apologize in advance if i get someone's photo credit wrong because my brain was absolutely scrambled that day and i started saving photos when it was all over without keeping track of who took what. just send me a message and i will correct anything i get wrong!

i will admit, i always thought it was sorta cheesy and unoriginal when people described their wedding day as "the happiest day of their life." shame on me. now i get it. not only because i was marrying my best friend, but being surrounded by so many people who went out of their way to help us, make sure we were happy, and just spend our special day with us was the most humbling and incredible experiences ever. josh and i are very lucky to have the supportive family and friends that we do. it was important to us to hire our friends to help us accomplish all the personal touches we wanted for our day, rather than hiring a bunch of strangers who didn't really know or understand us. plus, as you will see, our motley crew really helped us achieve the rock'n'roll wedding we always hoped we could pull off!


this was the table we used for our guestboook, candy bar and display table (i apologize for my terrible phone pictures -- did anyone get any better ones of the table?)


we used josh's guitar case as an alternate to a boring old card drop box.


we set out a vintage record player with the 45 of our "first dance" song sitting on it (more about that later, i want to do a whole post just about music)


part of our wedding favor was to have a candy bar. we collected old-fashioned candy jars and filled them with candies that matched our colors of red, black and white. the boxes were all hand stamped "love is sweet."


josh and i used 45 records to make the table place cards with people's names on them. they were a big hit!


the head table!

my 5 bridesmaids were indispensable. amy and beth are my cousins, and are basically the sisters i never had. amy was my matron of honor and went so far above and beyond what i could have expected of her that i still can't find the words to thank her. i have known dana since high school and met angie and billie through her shortly after, and i can't imagine the day without them. especially poor billie, who at one point during the morning was doing my hair, angie's makeup, and about to sew dana's dress all at the same time!


with amy, angie and beth


my little flower girl! photo by elysse.


wedding day breakfast, thanks to beth! including sparkling grape juice for my mimosas ; )

josh had an issue with a deadbeat best man just 3 weeks before the wedding, which really threw us for a loop for a minute. in the end, things worked out even better than they were going to, because we were able to bring in both my brothers as groomsmen, as well as josh's good friend travis as best man and our mutual friend greg as a fellow groomsman. our friend scott from buffalo, ny (former drummer of the band the blowtops) jokingly volunteered to drive here and be the 5th groomsmen, and when i told him how much we would love having him as a part of the day he admitted that he practically had his bags already packed. so cool of him.

we also lucked out in that we have some amazingly talented friends that helped us with nearly every aspect of our wedding. our good friend ben (creator of the record label/zine "rock'n'roll purgatory") acted as officiant. adam and andy, hosts of the college radio show "music to break things by" (and brother show to my own hot trash) were our official wedding djs. i danced to the sonics, the monkees, the devil dogs and gentleman jesse and his men all in one night. it was SO FUN! i can't say enough good things about our photographers, sean and victoria. as you will see from the photos in this post, victoria is definitely in the right business and i would recommend her to my fellow clevelanders all day every day. is it possible to be in love with a photograph??? victoria is making me question everything i ever knew about life. i'm hoping that once i order some of the wedding photographs, she will allow me to share more here in my personal blog because some of my favorite shots from the day aren't available to be shared online. i love that she was able to capture our big day in a way that was totally us: dirty cowboy boots, tattoos, silly faces and all. and finally, our friend jen made the cupcakes and our cute little wedding cake that josh wouldn't let me smash in his face. can you say chocolate covered cherry cupcakes??? they were wildly popular.

my amazing mom made my wedding dress from a 1957 dress pattern i picked out. i also took some inspiration from a vintage dress i saw for sale on etsy that i didn't stand a chance of fitting into. she did a beautiful job. i'm not used to wearing a lot of white clothing, so it was a little strange to see myself any time i looked in the mirror...but the style of the dress, as well as the pop of red, is exactly my thing. i love the secret touch she added when she revealed to me that she cut a piece of fabric off her own vintage wedding dress and added it as an embellishment on the back of my dress. soo cute.


 the 1957 dress pattern

 
vintage dress i used as inspiration


the finished product. photo by victoria stanbridge


photo by victoria stanbridge

in the 11th hour, a complete stranger to me walked into the store where i work and my coworker introduced us. this is how shawn came to be our chauffeur in his 1952 ford customline. talk about arriving in style! what an awesome thing to do for a couple of kids you've never even met. it was exactly what i was envisioning when i decided i wanted to find a classic car to use. and he even let us tie an old-fashioned "just married" sign to the back that me and amy made the night before :)


photo by victoria stanbridge



photo by victoria stanbridge


photo by victoria stanbridge


photo by elizabeth 

somehow i managed to make it through the day without crying, although i had my great-grandma's handmade red and white handkerchief tucked into my dress just in case. josh and i wrote our own vows, and in the course of my 1 page i referenced beer, eddie cochran records, and the time that we rode an elephant together. i told josh he was "the dan to my roseanne, the gomez to my morticia, and the elvis to my priscilla" (and then promised not to leave him for any karate instructors). i knew he would get it. the best part was how i told him i loved him for a list of reasons, including the fact that he always lets me have the best records first. in his vows, he pointed out that he still loves me, even when i take all the best records first. HA! we mostly see eye to eye.


me reading my vows. photo by elizabeth.

the taco bar we chose for the reception was AWESOME. we overheard several guests talking about how they already planned to come back the following tuesday for taco tuesday nite. haha! we had a cross-country guestlist that included people from wyoming, new york, west virginia, iowa and michigan. we had a dead boy, a member of the alarm clocks, the owner of our favorite music venue and lots of fellow college radio djs. even mr. california was there! 

it was a long, nerve-wracking, exciting day that was more fun then i even imagined possible. a HUGE thanks to all our family and friends who made it possible and shared it with us! special thanks to our parents, who supported us even when our ideas were less than "traditional" and who welcomed us into our new roles as son and daughter with open arms :)


nervous and about to go in at the reception. photo by lacey.


 overwhelmed and nervous, being announced as mr. and mrs. for the first time while entering the reception :) photo by lucky.


first dance! photo by elysse.


ha! photo by johnny.

our rings. photo by victoria stanbridge


cemetery photography. by victoria stanbridge


by angie.


more cemetery photos. by dana.


my beautiful boquet, still going strong a week later.

i do

well, it's official.


[victoria stanbridge photography]


[photo by angie]


[photo by angie]

many, many more photos to come and bore you with soon enough.