It's four months until our wedding. Things are shaping up. I'm headed to my hometown in a couple days to meet my hairstylist, consult with the photographer, converse with the officiant, see the reception site and taste cake. I'm treated to regular updates on my dress from my mom, who sends me frequent cell phone photos.
I'm still not done with the hearts, but I'm trying. I just have to make my veil and the bridesmaids' gifts after that. I have one of the bridesmaids' gifts done, and they won't take long. I can make the veil as easy or as difficult as I have time for it to be.
I have been really heartbroken for the people of Japan and looking for ways to help. Reading all the news coverage has put a damper on wedding excitement for me for a while. I wish there were a way for me to help that didn't involve money, but it looks like a contribution to the Red Cross or another aid organization is going to be the way to go for a while at least. I don't know what I could do; make hats or blankets or something, maybe? It sounds like food and shelter are the biggest needs for the Japanese affected by the tsunami and earthquakes right now.
I know a wedding blog isn't really the place for thoughts on the disaster in Japan, but it has honestly been at the forefront of my thoughts since it occurred. For now, I suppose, I will continue to pray and hope the gentleman and I can make a charitable contribution to an organization helping soon.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Et cetera
Sorry about last night's pity party. I got a trifle overwhelmed. I don't want this blog to turn into my anxiety corner, but rather to celebrate the creativity that we're trying to put into the celebration we want to have. So here are some pictures of our save the dates!
Dan wanted to be the one to put the magnets on the cards, and he decided he wanted them all to be heart-shaped. Which was adorable, and looks awesome. It's a little detail, but it is just cute.
We've got all the envelopes sealed, we just need to address them and get them in the mail.
For the next couple days, I might take the advice of a little Zen wedding book my future mother-in-law got me, and put a moratorium on the W word. I seem to be less overwhelmed, but I need to temper my headlong dives into the details.
Dan wanted to be the one to put the magnets on the cards, and he decided he wanted them all to be heart-shaped. Which was adorable, and looks awesome. It's a little detail, but it is just cute.We've got all the envelopes sealed, we just need to address them and get them in the mail.
For the next couple days, I might take the advice of a little Zen wedding book my future mother-in-law got me, and put a moratorium on the W word. I seem to be less overwhelmed, but I need to temper my headlong dives into the details.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Blogorrhea
I'm officially sick of hearing myself talk about the wedding. Is there some sort of wall people hit, where it's all you think about, and every once in a while you still tear up listening to a song or imagining something, but mostly, you just want yourself to STFU about hair, dates, favors, songs and all that?
That seems like a complicated concept. Maybe there's a word for it in German.
There are four months and nine days until the wedding. Dan has been extremely helpful with everything I'm doing.
We have finished the save the dates, except for addressing them. All the envelopes have our return address on there. I hope to get them sent out Friday or Saturday, which means it's cursive time again. Then we get to do it one more time for the actual invites, and I forget when those are supposed to be sent out. A month in advance? Idk.
If there's anything I do know, it's that my family has my back like whoa.
We had a problem with the reception site, namely, that it was less than desirable in parking and number of sinks per bathroom (none), and it wasn't 12 hours before my aunt, grandparents and dad had found a shiny new reception site and got that sucker reserved. I can't even figure out how to thank them. A card seems insufficient.
I have completed 72 hearts. I am inching ever closer to my goal.
But anyway, I am tired of hearing myself talk about the wedding. As much as I know I will cherish the day with Daniel, I can't wait until I don't have to think about the little details anymore.
That seems like a complicated concept. Maybe there's a word for it in German.
There are four months and nine days until the wedding. Dan has been extremely helpful with everything I'm doing.
We have finished the save the dates, except for addressing them. All the envelopes have our return address on there. I hope to get them sent out Friday or Saturday, which means it's cursive time again. Then we get to do it one more time for the actual invites, and I forget when those are supposed to be sent out. A month in advance? Idk.
If there's anything I do know, it's that my family has my back like whoa.
We had a problem with the reception site, namely, that it was less than desirable in parking and number of sinks per bathroom (none), and it wasn't 12 hours before my aunt, grandparents and dad had found a shiny new reception site and got that sucker reserved. I can't even figure out how to thank them. A card seems insufficient.
I have completed 72 hearts. I am inching ever closer to my goal.
But anyway, I am tired of hearing myself talk about the wedding. As much as I know I will cherish the day with Daniel, I can't wait until I don't have to think about the little details anymore.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Super quick update
I'm at 65 hearts - getting there slowly but surely.
I picked up the save the dates today, so we'll be busy addressing and putting magnets on the cardstock, I'm sure.
Every "The Knot" e-mail I get tells me how many days to go, and it's starting to make me majorly nervous. Not in a cold feet sort of way, but a "how will we ever pull this off???" sort of way.
I picked up the save the dates today, so we'll be busy addressing and putting magnets on the cardstock, I'm sure.
Every "The Knot" e-mail I get tells me how many days to go, and it's starting to make me majorly nervous. Not in a cold feet sort of way, but a "how will we ever pull this off???" sort of way.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Corazoncitos
As of this evening, I have made 52 crochet hearts. That is just about halfway done. I've still got a lot of work to do, but I feel halfway is cause for a little celebration. So, huzzah!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
A tisket, a tasket...
One of the things I haven't done much so far in my wedding planning is support small business, either in my hometown or where I live now. We're trying to save money whenever possible, and one of the double-edged swords of American industry in my (often flawed) point of view is that often, the cheapest options and more choices are offered at bigger businesses.
We are getting the cakes from a small local bakery, but we got the fabric for my dress from a large craft store chain, and the paper goods came from a number of large craft store chains. Our bridal party is getting their dresses and tuxes from two national retailers, in no small part because we have friends and family all over the country. We're getting the food and serving items from Gordon Food Service, a huge company that is all over Canada and the Midwest. I'm not saying I don't like those businesses, in fact, the opposite is true. I'm just saying a little hippie part of me feels bad that our dollars aren't always staying local and small business.
So I'm excited about my flower girl baskets. I just ordered them from a local basket maker and baker, a husband and wife team who are either Amish or Mennonite, and who make lovely baskets. They live in a small town about 10 miles east of where we live.
I had been keeping one eyeball peeled for anything interesting, because I was somewhat underwhelmed with the offerings of the wedding sections of the aforementioned giant craft stores. I know if you put the word wedding on the box, the price goes up at least 10 percent, but the Barbie quality of the snowy satin on the flower girl baskets I've seen so far didn't have me opening my pocketbook.
I know it's a small detail, but I'm excited to have good, handmade baskets that my flower girls can keep when the day is over.
We are getting the cakes from a small local bakery, but we got the fabric for my dress from a large craft store chain, and the paper goods came from a number of large craft store chains. Our bridal party is getting their dresses and tuxes from two national retailers, in no small part because we have friends and family all over the country. We're getting the food and serving items from Gordon Food Service, a huge company that is all over Canada and the Midwest. I'm not saying I don't like those businesses, in fact, the opposite is true. I'm just saying a little hippie part of me feels bad that our dollars aren't always staying local and small business.
So I'm excited about my flower girl baskets. I just ordered them from a local basket maker and baker, a husband and wife team who are either Amish or Mennonite, and who make lovely baskets. They live in a small town about 10 miles east of where we live.
I had been keeping one eyeball peeled for anything interesting, because I was somewhat underwhelmed with the offerings of the wedding sections of the aforementioned giant craft stores. I know if you put the word wedding on the box, the price goes up at least 10 percent, but the Barbie quality of the snowy satin on the flower girl baskets I've seen so far didn't have me opening my pocketbook.
I know it's a small detail, but I'm excited to have good, handmade baskets that my flower girls can keep when the day is over.
Monday, February 14, 2011
You're invited!
Planning our wedding has been a humbling process. I don't know if it's supposed to be, but it has been.
I started out thinking I was going to apply my boundless creativity to every aspect of the process. I quickly figured out that my skills only expand so far.
We bought paper products for our invitations early on, because I was confident I could design a beautiful invitation for us with ease, having forgotten the painstaking hours spent in computer labs for my design classes in college.
We initially were leaning toward a Wall-E theme, because it's one of our favorite movies and it's impossibly adorable.
However, Wall-E is really hard to draw, as evidenced by my failed attempts at creating a save-the-date.
After I gave up on Wall-E, we compromised on a bird theme. I trolled the Etsy pages for wedding invitations, looking for inspiration. I bought a 30-day trial to Adobe InDesign in hopes that I would become a good artist in that amount of time. By day three, I'd given up and put out feelers for anyone who would design the invites for me.
I did what's called an alchemy request on Etsy, looking for someone to help me draw the birds for the save-the-dates. Typography and extremely basic things are not beyond my grasp, but I was having an awful time electronically rendering two cute little birds. I set my desired cost at $25.
More than a dozen people applied for the job, which surprised me a lot. On the second day, one of the people whose designs I had admired, arippke, said she would do everything - save the dates, invites and RSVP cards and envelopes for $40.
She's done a beautiful job, and we're going to get the save-the-dates printed tomorrow. Out of respect for her designs, I won't post the original image. I will take some photos when we start stuffing envelopes.
What I've learned is that you can't do everything yourself, but if you spend a little bit of time looking, you will find someone who will be willing to help you out.
I started out thinking I was going to apply my boundless creativity to every aspect of the process. I quickly figured out that my skills only expand so far.
We bought paper products for our invitations early on, because I was confident I could design a beautiful invitation for us with ease, having forgotten the painstaking hours spent in computer labs for my design classes in college.
We initially were leaning toward a Wall-E theme, because it's one of our favorite movies and it's impossibly adorable.
However, Wall-E is really hard to draw, as evidenced by my failed attempts at creating a save-the-date.
After I gave up on Wall-E, we compromised on a bird theme. I trolled the Etsy pages for wedding invitations, looking for inspiration. I bought a 30-day trial to Adobe InDesign in hopes that I would become a good artist in that amount of time. By day three, I'd given up and put out feelers for anyone who would design the invites for me.
I did what's called an alchemy request on Etsy, looking for someone to help me draw the birds for the save-the-dates. Typography and extremely basic things are not beyond my grasp, but I was having an awful time electronically rendering two cute little birds. I set my desired cost at $25.
More than a dozen people applied for the job, which surprised me a lot. On the second day, one of the people whose designs I had admired, arippke, said she would do everything - save the dates, invites and RSVP cards and envelopes for $40.
She's done a beautiful job, and we're going to get the save-the-dates printed tomorrow. Out of respect for her designs, I won't post the original image. I will take some photos when we start stuffing envelopes.
What I've learned is that you can't do everything yourself, but if you spend a little bit of time looking, you will find someone who will be willing to help you out.
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