We Brewed White Lightnin'

The day after our engagement, I finally revealed my folders (and folders) of wedding inspiration pictures to John.  About a year and a half ago, I just "randomly" found my mouse sliding over to wedding blogs.  Collectively, these images reflected, as my mom so perfectly put it, a "theme of love and fun and beauty, love of the land and unpretentious veneration of Southern culture."  The loose flower arrangements in mason jars particularly caught my attention. 

Image via: Southern Weddings

After our little viewing party, John said he knew where we could get a bunch of mason jars, and I thought, "yeah, for $15 each at the antique store."  Oh, was I wrong to doubt my new fiance...

Being a second semester 3L includes a few perks, including just two classes and a single digit monthly countdown to graduation.  Over the winter, John enjoyed being reacquainted with this thing called "free time" by hunting on nearby game lands.  One day he came across hundreds and hundreds of glass bottles and steel drums scattered across the ground. Now, for the Baptists reading this site, we'll just call this the "dumping grounds," and for the Yankees, allow me to direct you to the history of our state's sport.  And since this is a family-friendly site, this is the end of the speculation of why hundreds of mason jars are hidden deep in the North Carolina woods.

So, on a warm February morning, we trek off on our first wedding-related task to retrieve the mason jars equipped with 10 Trader Joe's bags.  We get to the spot, and I'm blown away by the number of jars we find at the dumping grounds.  Many are broken or old applesauce jars, but we manage to fill up our bags in less than 30 minutes with perfect half-gallon Kerr, Lamb, Atlas, and Ball mason jars.  Half-gallon!  Be still my Martha-Stewart-loving heart...

Soon, my heart wasn't beating fast just from the ideas dancing in my head because we had to  carry our ambitious haul out of the woods.  Three-quarters of a mile out of the woods.  Did I mention that the jars were filled with dirt and the glass created a terrarium?  Coupled with ripping paper bags, the trek out was not nearly as quick as my giddy skip into the woods.  We finally got out of the woods and home with our new jars...

... our thirty-eight new jars!  After a couple hours of prying the dirt out and scrubbing them clean, they are as good as new!  

 My wonderful fiance cleaning the jars, which might have to be used as evidence at some future point in our marriage that he does know how to clean.

Beautiful and personal, what better words to sum up our wedding. 

Can't you see it now?

Next week we'll discuss what happens when you take all your suits to the dry cleaners, drag 38 mason jars out of the woods, spend all afternoon cleaning them, and then realize you need to be dressed for a formal event in two hours...