Category Archives: wedding

Advice from my Dad

Daddy’s little girl and TCK | RAF Upperheyford 1984

Day Three of Blogtember states, ‘Pass on some useful advice or information you learned and always remembered‘. I remember recently sharing this advice from my dad with you all on Six Things You Should Know About Me. So for this post I decided to share a clip from my wedding video where I found it. I also kept in the end of the conversation with our groomsman J as it really shows my dad’s happy personality. He was always smiling and laughing and that is sometimes what I miss most of all.

Advice from my Dad from Bonnie Rose on Vimeo.

Note: I will state that I did not write his advice word for word on my previous post, but from memory. I acknowledge the difference in wording, though the meaning is the same.

You can read about The Story of How He Died here.

*Content belongs to Bonnie Rose of A Compass Rose Blog

My Vow Renewal Dress

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Today is a three day weekend in England as it is a Bank Holiday Monday. A perk of living the expat life in the UK. While my husband and I take it easy today (really worked our muscles yesterday on a 5 hour kayaking trip on the canals and rivers in Bath, England) I wanted to surprise you all with a sneak from our Vow Renewal in Wales. I did end up wearing my original wedding gown for my 10th Wedding Anniversary. I took out the zipper in the back, sewed in loops, and laced the dress up with ribbon.

My head piece is something I bought while living in Hawaii for one of my fashion concept photo shoots. I snagged a whole bunch of props before we left for Wales not sure what we would use or not. I put this on just to play around with the look and everyone really loved it, so it stayed on. It was nice having a bit of home in Hawaii with us on our Vow Renwal day. I am pictured here at Portmeirion, Wales by my photographer husband who took a few shots while we were waiting for our party. It was so rewarding being able to wear the same dress again, ten years later, to say new vows to my husband. Even more special to do so with our intimate group of family and friends.

Q: Would you wear your gown again?

Two Weeks Letter

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My fridays are usually reserved for my Best Week Ever posts and upon reflection today I realised it really has been the best two weeks. So much has happened and so many great memories shared with both family and friends in several cities. So today I share another sneek peek photograph of Ryan and I on our 10th Wedding Anniversary in Wales and a special letter to recap the best two weeks.

A Letter to my Last Two Weeks

Dear Weather,
Thank you for being amazing without being over the top. Up until our vacation in Wales we were experiencing a heat wave in England. We leave for Wales and welcomed with rain showers. It did not ruin our plans and I had one of my favourite memories from my trip. A hike in Dollegau with just my husband ended in a rain shower and a fun run back to our B&B. It rained the morning of our anniversary, just like the morning of our wedding, which I had been told ten years ago was good luck. Which we indeed did have with perfect weather onwards.

Dear Family,
Thank you to my mum and sister for coming out to the UK for our 10th Anniversary and to be a part of our Vow Renewal. Ryan, the boys, and I enjoyed creating more wonderful memories together. We are already looking forward to our trip to France next year.

Dear Friends,
I am beyond words when it comes to thanking my dear friends from Uni, Grant and Miriam, for coming out to celebrate with us. Thank you for traveling all the way from Germany with your kids. I loved watching all of our kids play so well together and how it felt like no time had passed. Thank you for traveling so close to your due date and I anxiously look forward to hearing the baby news! Thank you to my other friend from Uni, Lauren, who opened her place in Notting Hill for us to stay for two nights. We greatly appreciate it and had such a wonderful time in London for two days. Thank you to my friend, Leigh, whom I met while we both lived in Hawaii and who modeled for me several times. Thank you for meeting up with us in Oxford and for showing us around the city. It has been so great to meet up a couple times now in the UK, and I look forward to meeting up again in Oxford soon! Thank you to my long time family friends in Oxford for letting us share a day with you and for letting us catch up over the years since when I was a little girl. Again, because I cannot say it again, thank you to all my blogger friends who took care of my blog while I was away.

Dear Sons,
Thank you for being the cutest and sweetest boys I know. Watching how much fun you had over the last two weeks made my world. Seeing you laugh, smile, and make new friends was so wonderful. You really touched my heart during our vow renewal with your sweet words and sweet song. Thank you for making my life complete.

Dear Ryan,
The best two weeks have been because of you. The first week as part of our first ten years of marriage and the second week as the first week of our next ten. I love you so much and so proud to have stood up in front of our family and friends to pledge our love together. Thank you loving me as I enjoy every day I get to love you and look forward to many more anniversaries together.

xx
B.

*Wedding Photography by Miriam Pinkston Photography. Follow Miriam Pinkston Visual Artist on Facebook.

Weekly Wishes #3

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Most European calendars start the week on Monday and it is why I love starting off my Mondays with Weekly Wishes. As an update on Weekly Wishes #1, I went on my first audition in nine years yesterday. I know my accent was not perfect, but I still had a lot of fun. In place of being nervous I realised I have a lot of work to do in getting used to cold readings again. There is nothing worse than holding a script in your hand and getting that moment of disconnect when trying to locate the next line. It has fueled the fire of my passion for theatre and I am not searching out for more auditions to attend. I already have one next month circled on my calendar. For Weekly Wishes#2 I have started to make a dent on the weeding out of clothes. Actually I have a great start on my kids’ clothing too! My kids mostly wear school uniforms, dressy casual (jeans and button up dress shirts), and pyjamas. Through outside family they have acquired all these clothes they never wear. I have stacks of brand new clothes that I am going to sell on ebay since the boys will not wear them. So we are getting closer to the finish line with the ‘Spring Cleaning’.

Weekly Wishes # 3

w i s h e s f o r t h i s w e e k

My wedding gown. If you have missed out on the story about my custom made gown I had talked about how the zipper had broken in my ‘Crushed’ Self Portrait post. While I know we could get the zipper fixed I am not going to be able to get a corset in time for our Vow Renewal in a couple of weeks. Since I wore a corset with this dress 10 years ago I have decided to go another route. Today I will be taking out the zipper and attempting to make it a lace back instead. So my weekly wish is that I can accomplish this successfully as we leave on Saturday of next week for Wales. My American expat friend is going to be helping me this week with her sewing machine and we seem pretty confident that we can pull this off. I am going to be wearing flats since we plan to be out in the countryside of Snowdonia and I want to be able to walk without falling down on uneven surfaces. This means I can take up the hem and use that extra fabric to accomplish the goal. Fingers crossed!

Q: What are your Weekly Wishes? Have you linked up?

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Today I would like to introduce you to my beautiful sponsor, Jessica.

She is dear to my heart because she is a fellow USAF wife and is currently stationed in Italy.

You have heard me talk about military moves before, check out her post: 1000 Pounds, What Would You Pack

Her blog: http://www.jessicalynnwrites.com/

Additional Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JessicaLynnWrites

Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/JessicaLynnWrites

Bloglovin: http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3943401/jessica-lynn-writes

Elopement in Honolulu, Hawaii

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For ‘Wedding Wednesday‘ an elopement photo shoot and a special behind the scenes look at a Vintage Bridal photo shoot with Sabrina & Daniel. Take a walk with us through China Town in Honolulu, Hawaii and experience the joy through the their look of love for each other.

Did you see the Behind the Scenes video

for the Vintage Bridal Shoot?

Vintage Bridal Shoot from Bonnie Rose on Vimeo.

*Make up by Melissa Hurley and Hair & Photography by Bonnie Rose.

‘Crushed’ Bridal Self Portrait

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'Crushed' Self Portrait by Bonnie Rose Photography © 2013 All Rights Reserved

There are fifty days until our tenth wedding anniversary and vow renewal ceremony in the Snowdonia region of Wales. Final travel arrangements are being confirmed and my to do list is being prioritized. There has been one task that I have been putting off until ‘closer to the date’. My husband urged me this weekend to finally try on my wedding gown. It has been perserved in a box, inside another box for safe keeping since our wedding in 2003. In the last ten years it has been moved six times and lucky has never been lost or damaged. Taking the gown out of the box and feeling the smooth duchess satin, I was reminded just how much I loved this gown. I had fallen in love with the idea of it once I laid eyes on the blue sash gown by Amsale in my Knot magazine. Since it cost as much as my entire wedding budget I found a seamstress in town to make a replica for a fifth of the cost. Other than choosing to keep the sash the same colour of the gown it was a perfect comparison. I honestly could wear this gown every day for the rest of my life because it is that beautiful to me. I could never sell it and would love to see my future daughter wear it one day. Be it as a wedding gown, or repurposed for a baby.

Another reason I had been putting off trying it on was that there were three issues before me. Aside from having only worn it once ten years ago I have had two kids since that time. I also wore a full bridal corset that I no longer own as I sold shortly after the honeymoon. The third is that since Christmas I have not been eating a strict paleo diet and can tell that the carbs from bread, porridge and potatoes (chips/mash/roasted) have gone right to cover up my abs. When Ryan exclaimed, ‘Wow, its tiny!’ as he held up the gown for me I started to get worried. I stepped into it and held the bodice up to my chest as the final test awaited us. Could we get the zipper to go all the way up?

I cannot tell you the answer to that as the zipper broke in the process and my excitement about putting on my favourite gown plummeted with it. I attempted to make a status message or send a tweet about it but then canceled it as I was too heart broken. In six weeks and a couple days I am planning on wearing this gown and now I not only have to figure out where to get it pressed but how to fix the zipper. Not to mention I need to get a corset, keep all carbs away, and stick to Paleo until after we return from Wales.

So here I am with a a dress out of its perserved box and I will admit I am crushed that I do not know if I can now wear it. The practical part of me is saying that Ryan’s DIY idea of fixing the zipper himself will work out and that I will most definitely shed the carb baby I’m currently carrying before we get to Wales. The dress will fit. I hope to hold onto that shred of optimism

I will be honest that the last couple of days I have been pretty down about it. I lacked the motivation to take this photo at all and it took me two sessions of it on Tuesday to get my shot. The first time around I ended up just laying on the bed with my gown still on and taking a nap. The toll of it not fitting was not conducive to working with my creative needs. However, I got a few shots I liked in the second go around thankfully.

I like my self portraits to come across like paintings and this photograph I feel fits the bill. I love the gown, I am crushed that it will no longer zip, and my hair cascaded down in front of my face to hide the tears.

Music that Speaks to Me

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Day 29, Wednesday: Five songs or pieces of music that speak to you.

I decided to look for the songs that have really impacted my life in one way or another and these are the five that have spoke to me for this prompt. I hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I do.

I love music. I love the way it can alter and change your mood if you are feeling down.

I love the way a song can cement itself to a memory or a person.

A world without music would be a sad one indeed.

My eldest son always has a song on his lips.

Whether he is humming or singing.

Music is the heart of the world.

Stereophonics

Y o u ‘ r e M y S t a r

I put this song on my sons’ iPod before my husband and I moved to England. We did not take our boys with us initially so that we could get settled with a place to live, jobs, and a schools. I do not lot like being a part from my sons one bit but I did what I could to help the transition. I told my sons that every time they were sad because they missed us they could listen to this song and that I would be doing the same thing too. It still makes me think of my sons when I listen to it and Stereophonics are one of my favourite bands.

Gavin Rossdale

F o r e v e r M a y Y o u R u n

I fell in love with Gavin’s voice in Bush when I was in seventh grade with ‘Swallowed’. When his solo album was released in June of 2008 I listened to it frequently. In August my father was killed. When we got to my parents house I went for a lot of walks on my own to get out of the house and this song started playing on repeat from my iPod. I ended up modifying the title to ‘Forever May You Fly’ for a title to put on the Ghost Bike memoria for my father who flew in the USAF.

DAVID BOWIE

A s t h e W o r l d F a l l s D o w n

When I was five years old I had two loves aside from my daddy. One was Prince William, whose photo with his mum Diana sat on my vanity, and the other was Jareth, the Goblin King from Labyrinth. I loved this film and enjoy watching it now with my own kids. While I equally adore the song Within You followed by David’s last scene in the film this song is quite iconic. I really enjoyed the dream-esque world of being a princess in a world that is just too strange and foreign to be comfortable within.

LEONARD COHEN

&THE CIVIL WARS

D a n c e M e t o t h e E n d o f L o v e

I had to include both the original from Cohen with the amazing violin and then one of my favourite covers of the song by The Civil Wars. It is one of my favourite songs to dance to with my husband. I wanted to include the meaning behind the song however and will let Cohen’s words do that for me:

“…it’s curious how songs begin because the origin of the song, every song, has a kind of grain or seed that somebody hands you or the world hands you and that’s why the process is so mysterious about writing a song. But that came from just hearing or reading or knowing that in the death camps, beside the crematoria, in certain of the death camps, a string quartet was pressed into performance while this horror was going on, those were the people whose fate was this horror also. And they would be playing classical music while their fellow prisoners were being killed and burnt. So, that music, “Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin,” meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation. But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved, so that the song — it’s not important that anybody knows the genesis of it, because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity.”

EDITH PIAF

L a V i e E n R o s e

I love Edith Piaf and when I was last in Paris my husband took me to see her final resting place in Cimetière du Père-Lachaise. I could listen to her voice for a long time and though I have many favourite songs La Vie en Rose is my most favourite song. I think I hummed it a frequently aloud and in my head when were were in Paris. I found a little music box song of it when in Sorrento and I love to play it. She is just so iconic and I do not think I will get tired of this song.