Like Mother Like Daughter?

I share a great many qualities with my mummy dearest, two of which that are becoming more and more apparent to me as I plan. The first is the I-could-SO-do-that-myself-for-half-the-price-and-it-would-be-twice-as-nice attitude, which is an awesome trait. Pair that, however, with the other quality I get from my mom—procrastination—and you can see why all of our DIY efforts could easily go wrong if we're not careful.

My mom has undertaken the biggest DIY project by far, the bridesmaids dresses. Last December, we went to a craft store and chose a simple, but flattering pattern. We didn't pick out the fabric together until my next trip home last month. Since she's a teacher, all the while the plan had been for her to get stitchin' as soon as her school let out for summer. But then, school was out and she needed a week to rest. Then, she was sick. I waited until she got better to really start nagging her to start. It's one thing to wait until the last minute to make invites or favors, but nothing can throw off an otherwise well-planned wedding like naked bridesmaids (though, admittedly, it might make the day more memorable).

Let me just say, I feel like a total dope for ever doubting my wonderfully talented mom. In just one week she has finished (except for the zipper and hem) two of the dresses and has already cut the fabric for the third!

See?





To top it off, she's enjoying the project so much she informed me that she will be making the flower girl dresses as well. All this has reminded me of a third quality I share with my mom. Once we get started on a project, whether it's making a dress or reading a book, we get SO focused on it we can't stop ourselves!

Dearly Beloved

I make my living writing words, re-arranging other people's words, and convincing other people how important those words are. So it may be a blasphemous thing for me to say, but here goes: After a few weeks of poring over ceremony readings and rituals, I've decided the words the officiant uses, or even the words my fiance and I use for our vows really matter that much.

In fact, I just plain don't care. Obviously, as a writer, I should sit down and write a beautiful, meaningful ceremony that is serious yet light and funny ... but, honestly, I'd rather put my energy into something that people can see or taste. I've been to several weddings in the last year or so and can't remember much about the ceremony. I remember the flowers, the pictures, and the dress ... but not the vows or the officiants greeting. (The exception being the wedding where the minister actually said, "When I was sitting in my car right before this thing started.. I was thinking about what to say, and ..." But I don't remember his insight, just his horrible lack of planning.

However, since the readings in the book I bought are so sweet and sappy they make me want to gag, I think I just want to find or write something that sounds normal—nothing too out of the ordinary that would neither confuse folks or make them sick to their stomachs.

I'll let you know what I come up with.

How Can Something So Wrong Be So Right?

I knew it was wrong before I did it. It breaks all the rules, goes against conventional wisdom, and is generally just frowned upon... but I did it anyway, and I'm not sorry.

Yesterday, we picked up our wedding bands.

(All together now!)
Ooohh...


Aaaahhh... (I promise you'll be able to see them better when a skilled photographer captures them in a few months.)



Anyway, we went to our jeweler to pick up the bands, which were handed over to us in one of those fuzzy grey boxes. When we got into the car, the box was in my hand. Before Nathan even started the car, we both eyed the box, then looked at each other. I could tell what he was thinking before he even opened his mouth: "Gimme."

"We could just wear them to dinner," I said, trying to justify it.

We opened the box and slipped on the rings so quickly we didn't even have time to think about it. We oohed and aahhed throughout dinner, in awe at the surreal feeling and fact that we'd actually be married in a few months.

The danger in taking the rings for a test drive, is that I was contemplating wearing it to work for "just one day." On the ride home Nathan, who has never had a ring in his entire life and had to get one made out of a manly industrial metal, took his band off. "I'm done," he declared. "It kind of itches." So they went back into the box, hidden away somewhere safe (an underwear drawer) until the big day.

Honeymoon Happy Jig!

There are many things about my wedding plans that make me excited enough to talk about them incessantly. For example, I love to explain, again and again to anyone who will listen, how many of my favors I've made, what the tables will look like, our menu, and music. I'm thrilled and excited about all of it.

But finally we've locked down one wedding detail that I'm so excited about, I can't even think about it without jumping up and down, hips swinging wildly, in a my own awkward version of a happy dance. This dance is often accompanied by a girlish squeal, and a sprint to my computer to learn something new about our honeymoon destination...

... crystal blue waters and white sand beaches ....



... lush rain forests ...


... gorgeous coral reefs ...


Surfing, sunning, snorkeling, hiking, swimming in a crystal clear pool disturbed only by a pristine waterfall, and everything else I've always wanted to do... All in one place! I can't think of a better way to kick-start our lives together than to have an amazing adventure in one of the most amazing places I can image. Yes, I think I'm going to like Fiji!

But it's going to take quite a bit more planning than the Hawaii trip we've been anticipating for the past few months. (We changed our minds when we started researching prices and realized Fiji was just slightly more than a Hawaii vacation.. Go figure!) We'll have to rethink our packing list. We'll need a power converter and phone card for sure. Since Fijians drive on the left side of the road, instead of renting a car we'll have to really plan out our trip using public transportation. There are more than 300 islands in Fiji, so we'll have to rely on boats as well as buses to get where we want to go. But, what the hey, we've been planning our wedding for months, what's one more thing? I can't wait!

A Little Somethin'-Somethin'

I'm happy to report that I finally found my perfect Something Old! It's a vintage hair comb I found on Etsy (after months of searching Etsy for the perfect hair comb) circa 1940s. It was a total impulse splurge, but I think I'm happy I did it. My reasoning: I'm wearing shoes I bought three years ago for less than $5, so I can spend just shy of $100 on a perfect hair comb that I will be able to wear to every wedding or fancy cocktail party I go to from now on, right?
(From Etsy seller belcanto.)

But this purchase has made me start thinking about all the other something-somethings I need to collect before the wedding.

Something New is really no problem.

Clutch (which FI lovingly refers to as a throttle... Get it? Clutch? Throttle? He's a lame comedian, but he's MY lame comedian.) Although, I don't know the rules. Does it have to actually be on your body to count?


Veil, flowers, and garter will all be new, too.

Something Blue:

I'm considering wearing the earrings you see here, but am rethinking it based on the purchase of Something Old:



Something Borrowed is the problem ... I'm not sure how to ask my friends and/or family if they have something I could borrow. Since I don't have anything particular in mind, I'm afraid if I send emails requesting suggests I'll have to turn people down and hurt their feelings. (You can't have 15 borrowed things, can you?)

So, I have yet another dilemma. Have you found all your Somethings? How did you approach the Something Borrowed?

Suprise!

Every gift we've gotten so far has been special and meant a lot to both of us. But there's nothing more thoughtful and exciting than a completely random, unexpected gift like the one we got yesterday.

FI and I got home from work as usual at about 6 pm, opened the miniture mailbox positioned in the lobby of our apartment building expecting a handfull of annoying grocery coupons and election mailings. The annoying mailings were there (as they always tend to be even though we've opted out of them several times), but wrapped in the middle of the grocery pamplet was a hand-addressed card.

That's weird, we think. After arguing brief about who should open the envelope (FI has a slightly neater method than my just-rip-it-already method) we found a lovely card from one of our college friends congratulating us on our upcoming marriage and saying how excited she and her husband are to attend! We hadn't even mailed our invites yet! Enclosed was a $50 gift card!

Either the friend was trying to ensure her name on our guest list or she's the most thoughtful person in the world. We choose to believe the latter!

I Will Now Begin Planning my Wedding

We have three months left until our wedding. Three! I've settled on most of the details: the menu, the cake, the centerpieces, the music, the flowers... Done! (Well, at least ordered.) I have not, however, even an inkling how the actual wedding is going to go. I'm talking about the ceremony itself here&mdah;you know, the reason for planning this big party in the first place.

There are a few reasons I've been procrastinating on this issue. The first one is that I don't really know where to start.

That's why I bought this book:



It's been really helpful with laying out all the different parts of the ceremony and explaining what the options are. Great! So I can't use the "I-have-no-idea-how-to-do-this" excuse.

Here's the real problem, I think. Your wedding is supposed to be a big reflection of who you are, right? It shows all the people you care about your style, who you are as a couple, what colors reflect your personality, how traditional or non-traditional you are, your favorite music, your creativity, your rockin' ability to cut paper, etc. I had no problem with that. But the ceremony itself should say something more (and I'm not just talking abiance here—this time you have actually say it in front of God and everybody. So before you plan this major declaration, it's important to sit down as a couple and figure out what you believe on a higher level. Do you believe in God? Are you religious? Which religion are you? These are heavy questions, and at 24 I've only begun to scratch the surface. I have more anxiety about this than anything else in the whole wedding process.

I guess my plan is to start with reading this book, throw some ideas off of Nathan and our pastor, and go from there...

Don't Mess With Me, Postal Service

Aside from a few RSVPs, I've had my invitations pretty much done and assembled for months now. I've got to tell you, after pain-stakingly cutting, gluing, stamping, gluing, cutting, and addressing 70 invites, you want to get them out and begin gathering compliments as soon as possible. And yet, it was just a smidge too early to mail them, so they've been sitting in a drawer. Two weeks ago, I was all geared up to go buy stamps, when I heard the announcement: Regular stamps will be 42 cents from now on. The one-cent increase is more of a rude (albeit necessary) inconvience, but it adds up quickly. (That's $1.40 for you mathematicians—hardly worth mentioning.)

But what really got my goat was that they wouldn't be selling the wedding hearts stamps again until June 10. That meant, I had to wait even longer to send my beautious invites to our family and friends and make it really really official. Or, as my mother pointed out, I could just use the Liberty Bell stamps, but that doesn't say "wedding invitation" and was not part of my plan. This is an aside, but to add to my misfortune in 2007 the wedding hearts stamps that I needed were purple and matched my wedding colors perfectly. This year, they're green—strike two against the US Postal Service.

At long last today is the day I was promised (twice, in fact) that I would be able to grace the San Francisco post office with my presence—and my debit card—in return for my stamps. I was half-expecting them to tell me that they didn't have them in stock yet, but much to my surprise they were fully stocked, and had enough to meet my invitation and RSVP needs. They're not as perfect as last year's stamps, but they'll do just fine.



Is anybody else mailing invitations soon? What kind of stamps are you using?

Jackpot!

My entire color scheme is pretty much based around a pattern I used on my invitations below:


Source, Paper-Source

This is the invite.


The idea was to use all the colors in the paper in different places so that the whole event would echo the invite... midnight blue bridesmaid dresses, flowers in purples and white wrapped in silver ribbon, lavender votive candles, blue napkins tied with silver ribbon, lavender and midnight blue eye pillow favors, and so on. Then, I would use the paper on the place cards to bring the whole thing together.

But as I've gathered decorations, I've found lots of light-hued purples, but not many of the deep, rich purple in the paper that I did my invitation envelopes in.

I find the most amazing things when I'm not even looking. A couple of days ago I went with Nathan to run some Saturday errands. I didn't feel like waiting on him to get his hair cut so I wandered into the Gap and stumbled upon these!



Here they are all together! I love the variances and how they still go beautifully together.


I bought five (two solid, two flower print, one striped) because initially I had planned to give one to each bridesmaid. However, when I got them home, I couldn't help but think they'd be gorgeous draped over the tables like a table runner. I'm doubt they'll be big enough for the guest tables or buffet table, but could give the perfect punch of color on the cake and sign in tables... I could just buy a couple extras, and then I could wear them later. If I give them to bridesmaids as gifts, and they decide to wrap up in the afterward would that be a creative and interesting way to tie things together, or would it be overkill matchy-matchy? What do you think?

Shower Pictures

When I was in Tennessee I also had a shower! I got to see a ton of people I hadn't seen in years and we got some great items from our registry.

Here are some pictures:

Me with my matrons of honor, my sisters.

Here's a look at some of the guests.

My parents.

Flower girls!

Our first place setting (True Blue by Mikasa)! (Two down six to go..) (Ring bearer on the right, with the passy.)

A hand-crocheted doily (from a lady from the church I grew up in) ... SO thoughtful!

I'm back!

I know this isn't a good excuse, but I took a blogging hiatus because I took a vacation in regular life, too. (And a vacation isn't a vacation if you're turning your computer on every five minutes to update your blog.) The good news is, on my trip—first Boston for a yoga conference and then to Tennessee—I got a lot of planning done so I have many a blog to write to get things up-to-date again.

The first thing, and possibly most important thing, I did when I was in Tennessee was visit the venue, a gazebo near a pond on the Allandale Mansion property in Kingsport, Tennessee. The last time I saw it was around Christmas when everything was kind of dead and dreary. Luckily, it is more beautiful in the spring that I could've imagined. Flowers were blooming, birds were chirping, willows were weeping, and I even liked the fact that the nearby pond was lined with several grandfather/grandson fishing buddies. It is ADORABLELY CUTE, see?





But there are one major logistical problem that I hadn't really thought about ... that weird turn in the brick walkway. I mean, why couldn't they just put a straight walkway to the mouth of the gazebo? Then everyone can sit in nice, even rows and stare in complete and utter awe (mouths wide open) at me and my gorgeous gown! I can't even picture it with the rows all... UNstraight. My Virgo mind reels at the thought.

I asked the woman at the venue if she had any pictures of how other people had set things up, but she only had pictures of pre-walkway weddings. At first I thought, I could get an aisle runner and make a straight line, but going from grass under the runner to the brick is a safety hazard (especially in heels!). Then, I thought, I can just have the chairs set up on the other side of the gazebo, but then people would be able to see the wedding party before they start walking... and the audience would have to watch us walk all the way around behind the chairs before they get to the actual aisle. That won't work either. As of now, my best idea is to cram as many chairs as I can in the area closest to the gazebo and have a shorter aisle (I'm hoping for only 80 guests), but I don't like that idea either. I want a long, dramatic walk down the aisle.

Any ideas?