forget the guest book

i bought this beautiful poster instead, from etsy seller fancyprints.  guests sign the leaves, and then you put it in a frame and hang it up in your house.  hooray!  i can't wait for it to arrive. 

the kids were nice enough to come with me to the party store yesterday and pick out decorations for the reception.  today i'm hoping to put together a "sample" table and then decide once for all if i'm going with the brown or green tablecloths.  i'll be honest: i am not doing real linen.  i'm not even doing paper.  i'm going plastic.  i know it's not as nice at paper or fabric, but it's also a million times cheaper, doesn't have to be returned (if rented), and can all be thrown away at the end.  the plan is for us to do the clean-up the day after the wedding, and i don't want to spend all day doing it.  i think i've come up with a way to make plastic look cute, so we'll see!   

rhapsodic

so i'm thinking about using rhapsody to DJ our wedding.  anyone have any thoughts on this?  have you used rhapsody?  do you like it?  have any tips?  we'll still probably need someone to man the computer on occasion and keep things flowing as well, so it won't all be robotic.  they just seem to have a HUGE library and that means i won't have to buy CD's and MP3's we might not ever listen to again.

i also wouldn't complain if you had more song ideas!  not just romantic, we're dancing in a spotlight shit either; i need some happy, dancing music too!

ooh, and i just discovered this rilo kiley song,

brass tacks

when i first saw these tissue paper pom poms, i knew they would be perfect for my wedding reception.
for one thing, they are crazy pretty, for another, they look like dahlias, which are my favorite flower.  unfortunately, dahlias won't be in season in may, so i can't use real ones; these pom poms kind of make up for that.  month ago i ordered a ton of tissue paper from dick blick (they have great paper!), and made a test pom pom that's still hanging up in our living room.  they're fairly easy to make, but i learned early on that you do have to be kind of fiddly with them.  you need to use a bone folder to make the creases sharp, and unless you have the most amazing pair of scissors EVER, you need to use an xacto knife to get the points sharp.  i made about four pom poms last night, and by the time i was done, my back was fussy from bending over, and i was shocked to realized i still have TWENTY TWO more to make, at the very least.  all this homemade wedding stuff is delightful and charming, to be sure, but sometimes i could kick myself. 

i also understand susan's pain quite a bit better now...

invitation nation

lately my favorite thing to do on monday nights is to assemble invitations while watching it's always sunny in philadelphia.  i'm sure that's a time-honored bridal tradition somewhere.  tonight D helped with my little invitation sweatshop.  earlier this weekend i roped the girlchild into helping.  i have yet to make the boychik lick envelopes, but he did have to go through the agonizing process of picking out paper.  in short, we're all working hard.

we also went to costco and cash and carry this week to price out food for the reception.  did i tell you that we went to see a caterer?  and that they wanted $3,000 for soup and sandwiches and salad?   yeah, i had a slight heart attack.  nothing too major, mind you, because the best thing about being us is that 1) we've both catered before, 2) we have a lot of catering/food service relative and 3) we're willing to roll our sleeves up and get into the food ourselves.  in fact, today we saw some things that gave us a million good ideas, and all i will say is this; the theme is decidedly picnic-y.  i'm happy!

so far things are coming together nicely.  i'm not as stressed out as i should be (or expected) but maybe that will just come closer to the actual date.  we'll see! 

going to see the caterer today!

wedding plans are moving forward at an amazing clip.  for a while there i really felt like we were not getting anything done, but i think we were just percolating ideas.  the invites are 85% done (if we hadn't had printer and computer issues, they would be DONE and not giving me a headache), my dress is here, we have a plan for the PA system and decorations, our rings have been settled on (and will be paid for this afternoon), we've got an officiant, and it feels like most of the big ticket items are covered.  whew.

it probably feels like there is never enough time to plan and throw a wedding.  also, i really want a soda bar that is all rainbow and crazy cute.  if we're going to have soda for our guests, then it can double as a cute decoration.  

i spent a big chunk of last night

working on invitations.  just so you know.  i'm not totally slacking off. 

four wheels

i worked on my registry today, after my mom pointed out that people have started asking her where we're registered.  is it weird that i put a bike on there?  after all, my bike got stolen last year, and D doesn't even have one!  so, in fact, i put two bikes on the registry.  we can go ride our bikes together if we get them, which i think is something nice married people do. 

i've been really wanting to work on these

by "these" i mean invitations, but right now my head hurts (sinus pain from allergies, awesome!), and suddenly the thought of making a million invites is overwhelming and exhausting. 

i'm going to make a deal with myself that i work for at least fifteen minutes, then i can take a break if i need to.  maybe working in small spurts will help get my creative juices flowing and seem less daunting.  i'm using this awesome return address stamp as my jumping off point!

pop quiz

i'm posting this on both blogs! 

i'm starting to set up my reception ipod playlist.  do you have some ideas for romantic or otherwise fun songs?  if so, you should post a comment or send me an email.  don't feel like you have to limit yourself to just one song, if you've got a lot, send them all! 

some songs i know i want to play, with links to the youtube videos,

• cee-lo's old fashioned
• camper van beethoven's life is grand
• the avett brother's january wedding (even if we are getting married in may!)
• travis, sing (also flowers in the window because, um, it's so cute!)
• stevie wonder, isn't she lovely (really, though, there will probably be a lot of stevie on the playlist.  i can't hear him without smiling!)

wedding underwear is kind of pricey

however, having all your bits and bobs held in place and looking just right is going to be worth it.  plus, i never have a good reason for buying fancy underpants!  or rather, i rarely have a good reason.

i've gotten my internet orders for decorations this week; lots of tissue paper, some acorns, a nice paper cutter.  now of course, i just need to get down to the business of making the pom poms and embellishing the votive candle holders.  tonight looks like it will be kind of quiet, the girlchild will be out babysitting, D will be at work, and the boychik will likely be engrossed with the internets, so i can set up a station on the kitchen table and get to work.

for our invitations, i think what i would really like to do it hand-draw and letter them, then convert the images into PDFs for printing.  however, past the drawing i'm at a loss.  if some of you get emails asking for help, consider this your warning.

i bought another dress!

changing the venue and season of our wedding meant the dress i'd bought before wasn't quite right.  it wasn't terrible, don't get me wrong, but i realized i didn't want to wear a short dress, and to be honest, that dress was $50, so i wasn't worried about not using it.  looking around on-line i found a beautiful dress at david's bridal that is super, super simple, very pretty, and not crazy expensive.  i showed it to my mother this morning and she agreed that it's pretty.  she also bought it for me.  i feel kind of bad about that, but she insisted...and i did pick a very economical one.  i'm so excited for it to show up! 

i also bought the votive candle holders for the tables, the flickering LED tea lights (the grange is really old, no open flames!), the paper for the invites, and ordered some acorns for the centerpieces and tissue paper for the pom poms.  whew.  my brain hurts. 

items i have bought for the wedding so far:

• small plastic squirrels
• small plastic dinosaurs, one gorilla, and some farm animals
• tissue paper
• stamps
• white christmas lights

you can throw a wedding with just those things, right?

updated plan!

 since calling off the wedding earlier last year (feels weird that it's 2011 already), changes have been made to our original plan.  we loved the la conner flats, but unless we wanted to wait until next summer, early fall to have the wedding, we needed to find a new place.  preferably, one that had indoor and outdoor accommodations.  we found that in the rexville grange, located right in between la conner and mt. vernon.  you maybe familiar with the rexville grocery; the grange is right behind it!

the nice thing about the grange is that there's this inside,

and this outside,

how time flies...

oh my.  i'm supposed to get married in a little over five months!  the new location and the new date means we have a lot of work to do.  i should probably get my shit together and start with the planning in earnest.  it was easy the past two months to just "focus on the holidays," but it will be may 21st before i know it, and i don't want to be one of those brides who spends all day flummoxed and stressed out. 

that's why i'm posting now...as much to remind myself as anyone else.  ha!

honeymoon!

okay, i admit, planning a honeymoon on top of planning (and paying for) a wedding has made it a very low priority on my list of things to be doing. at the same time, one of my co-workers made a point to tell me that he thinks doing something, no matter how small, after the wedding and before you start your new life as spouses, is very important. with that in mind, i talked to dave about maybe taking a short camping trip on the coast after the wedding, and we both agreed that would be okay.

then, i was reading a sunset magazine and there was an article about utah and i remembered the amazing day i had there on my way out to colorado. specifically, i fell head over heels in love with moab. i put beehives on everything for a while, planned on where i wanted to put on as a tattoo on my body, embroidered them and read about them and the history of utah (and the mormon church) for an entire summer. i couldn't believe i hadn't thought of it sooner! i brought it up to dave yesterday while we were driving around and his face just lit right up. we're not sure if we're going to go to moab exactly, but we know we want to be in utah, and we want to be surrounded by red rocks. yay!

check out this lazy baby goat!

it looked at me just long enough to blink sleepily before laying back down. no matter how much i called "hey! baby goat! over here!" it just slept next to her mama and refused to be cute for my camera. lazy baby!

how's the wedding planning going? pretty well. we have a caterer, we have a wedding dress, we have a deposit on the venue, and we have a pretty good idea what the invites will look like. we still need to either find a dj or a place to rent a PA system, nail down the menu, and find clothes for everyone else. i feel pretty good about the progress we've made, though. i have some stuff to do as far as decorations go, but nothing is too terribly complicated, so i'm not too stressed about that.

i've quit going on to the offbeat bride forums. they were beginning to make me crazy, and to be honest, they kind of fostered this "OMG my wedding is going to suck" feeling in me. when it's just me and dave talking about the wedding, i feel great. the moment i start to compare to anyone else's (and i do that way too often for my own good) i start to doubt myself. my dress was $50, and it is not fancy or princess-y in any way, which i think suits me, but then i see all sorts of fluffy, pretty dresses on other brides and think "maybe i'm missing out..." i see amazing photos that people obviously spent good money on, and i worry that my pictures won't be as awe-inspiring. i see groups of bridesmaids and groomsmen that look like they wandered over from a movie set, and i feel weird about not having a bridal party. i could go on and on. i like to think that i'm feeling a bit insecure because i want to do this right, because i only want to do it once and i want it to be the best it can be, but i worry that i'm just shallow and buying into the whole wedding-as-show thing.

when i stop and think about our wedding as more of a fun party for our loved ones, i relax. i remind myself that it's the marriage that's the important thing, and that being able to share it with our friends and family is the point. telling everyone that he's the one, introducing my new family, these things mean more than what i look like, how great our wedding favors are, or that the invitations were handmade. my wedding isn't a competition with anyone else, and it is only one day. i'm sure stuff will go wrong, i'm sure someone won't like the appetizers, and i'm sure that no matter what i'm going to have a great time.

gah

i keep saying i'm going to finalize the acorn drawings for our invites, but i keep putting it off. tomorrow maybe i'll bring my ink and pens into work, so when it's quiet there i can do it. i get self-conscious doing it at home sometimes, which is dumb, because no one cares when i doodle.

dave and i have come to an agreement; i do the invites, he does the food. our ideas weren't necessarily clashing with one another, but it's clear that i'm way more into the visual impact of the wedding stuff, like invites and decorations and such, and that dave will absolutely, positively perish if the food isn't exactly what he wants. i'm not going to make everything all crazy carnival, tiny top hats and circus freaks (like i would enjoy), and he promises not to spend our wedding slinging barbeque and getting his suit all dirty and greasy. this will be a good exercise in delegation and trust for us, right?

bought some paper!

the honest to goodness designing and wording of the invites happens...soon. like real soon! yes. going to happen.

also going to happen, i think i'm going to have to declare bankruptcy. like many kids in their 20s, i got a credit card and messed some stuff up, to the tune of $7,000. it was more than that, but i'm at the point where no matter how much i pay, it's not getting paid off. i don't want to carry this debt into my marriage, and since dave had to declare a few years ago, we won't be putting him back too far. ugh. not the *best* way to start a marriage, but not the worst.

it's stressful, to be sure, but what can you do?

we have the site!

which means we are also, totally, seriously, for REAL getting married on sept. 18th! before i locked the place down with the deposit, i was worried pretty much all the time that our day would get swiped out from under us and we'd have to change the date again. not that the first time we decided to change it was traumatic or anything, but i like to worry, and that was definitely a concern for me.

i also just discovered that i'm not getting comment emails for this blog! which means you nice commenters probably think i'm being an ass and ignoring you. i'm not! i swear! i'm so stoked to know anyone gives a shit about all this that i'm practically giddy. dude, that sounded sarcastic, but it's not. thanks for reading!

on to the details; we're getting married at the la conner flats, we have our date set, and now we have to work on the caterer and getting a dj. i think we also need to rent a little tent, because the granary only seats 50 comfortably. with the tent set up outside, and the pie buffet set up right outside the granary, under the awning, i think people will still mix and mingle while getting dinner. truth be told, most of the people coming to the wedding will be from dave's side of the family, as they are a big group, so i guess i'm just hoping my people mix in with them.

a few photos for you to enjoy,
a preliminary sketch of our save the date cards. that's a red solo cup, kids. these may not go out to everyone, by the way. i think i'll also draw a version that's a mason jar with lemonade in it for our elder guests.

and here i am having shots with my friend anne, who while technically not my maid of honor (since we're not doing that), is pretty much my main wedding babe. she knows a crazy amount of stuff, she's super extra amazing supportive, and i'm fairly sure that by now i'd be a nervous wreck without her. hooray for anne! and tequila!

okay, now that the site is booked, i can get to work on other things! you know, as soon as i drag myself away from the computer and all the other fun things i could be working on.

8 months from now i'll be a married lady

well, maybe not so much a "lady" as "married."

things i learned this week about weddings:

• if you order a dress, it could take 3 or more months to show up. meaning, i should really try on dresses.
• my friend anne is all about me trying them on this weekend, while i visit her in portland.
• if i want to buy a dress that doesn't involve the word "woman" i should think about starting that diet i've been talking about.

whew. so much to do! geez. we found the place, thank goodness, but we really need to put down a deposit so we can actually use it. we need to make our invitations, which also means finalizing our guest list and getting some addresses together. we need to figure out how to decorate our venue. paper plates or rentals? i think the biggest thing we need to do that will be the biggest pain in both our asses will be this: deciding on a caterer. as foodies, we're not sure anyone could do it better than us, our friends, and our family, but the thing is, if we want to actually enjoy the wedding, that means someone other than us need to be in charge of dinner. i've come to terms with this, but i know my dear man is still holding out, still trying to talk me into just doing all the food ourselves. luckily we are having this discussion now, and not three months from now. check back in three months, though, and make sure we've actually come to a decision.

i resolve to start with the planning, the decision making, and some of the purchasing, this very weekend. being with friends will help; i need someone else there to say "yay!" or "ew, gross." plus, i have a lot of married lady friends, who know about throwing big parties and where to get the best stuff. hooray for them!