2 month sprint begins!

Today is the official 2 month mark until the best day ever.  The funny thing is, I've been saying 2 months (actually I've been going by days ever since we hit double digits) for like the last two weeks.  The fact of the matter is that as soon as today is over, in my head we're looking at a month and half, and then when the first rolls around my brain is thinking its a month.  There's this weird backwards timewarp where you start rounding down instead of up as you get closer to the official day.

It's complete insanity.  Things are really flying by and I can hardly keep up with everything.  It's all so surreal.   I'm finally at the part I've been looking forward to for the last 16 months, and it doesn't feel like it at all.  I even had an impromptu/surprise bridal shower from a few family members a couple weeks ago, and I get to pick up my now altered and bustled dress tomorrow, and It still doesn't feel real yet, despite those two very exciting milestones.

My official bridal shower will be a week from Sunday, and then our final marriage prep retreat/precana/whateveryoucallit is the following weekend, and then just two weeks later its time to pick up our marriage licenses and go to Vegas to celebrate the close of the single chapter of our lives.  Then there are only 3 weeks (and I really think weekends, because who gets anything done after an 8 hour work day?) so with that logic, it's only like 6 days before the wedding.

You think with that weird timewarp counting, things would feel a little more... finished? close? upon us?  But they don't.  I wonder when that feeling will finally hit?  Any guesses?

Also, as a little present before I leave you (and since I abandoned you so you missed out... and because I worked so gosh dang hard on them) here are my cute little countdowns for months 3 and 4.

=)  

62 days to go!!!

Could I have had any longer of a break between posts? Sheesh.  I know, I fail as a Bride Blogger, but let it suffice to say that the stuff has really hit the fan.  A lot of fires have been put out and things are not only back on track, but getting crossed off that to-do list.  For example,

Dress fittings have been completed, and I will be picking her up next week.
The flower girl pommanders have been completed!!!

My shoes are almost done, and Will's are finished =)

Even our shoes look good together!

Veil project was set aside, and my lovely and amazing Grandmother helped me pick out the perfect veil to go with my lovely dress.
Invitations have been finished and sent (and despite the hiccups at the postoffice, Mickey and Minnie even responded already!)

the guys cutting twine and lace; and hot gluing wood hearts

Twine threading and envelope stuffing

The key players

Programs - Will's labor of love- are underway

Supplies

My hard worker =)

Fabric and Ribbon Covered Covers

Cardboard pre Covering, and mock up

Mock up with Bead Closure

Close up of Closure.

After finding out the BM dresses were discontinued, we were able to make sure all the bridal party has ordered their outfits (and including our adorable flower girls!)
Parent gifts were selected and purchased (so excited to pass these out!)
Bride/Groomsmen ties were selected and purchased
Ceremony music and readings are being finalized, and a new officiant found and locked in (I hope)
Favors assembled and finished.
Centerpieces reconfigured and parts selected

Only a FRACTION of the bottles and hankies and candle holders... YIKES

Table names printed and framed
Alcohol being purchased and stored. =)

As you can see, that's a lot of stuff!  And, I'm positive, I have forgot a few of the more minor projects.  There are so many more pictures to share, and so many little things I can't wait to post about.  Like my impromptu/surprise bridal shower and my actual bridal shower.  =)

I promise to be better (or at least try).  xoxo - the bride to be!

52 Card Pick-Up

To say it's been awhile would be an understatement.  To say I've had nothing to write about, a lie.  So here's the troof.  I'm overwhelmed, ya'll.  I missed my "4 month" post (with my super cute image, i may just stick in somewhere else because it's been waiting to be used for months and months now) and had completely kicked wedding to-dos to the curb.  That's not me!

Then I started to notice something, that lovely foundation I had built to keep me on task and help make my life easier right about now, started to crack. Not only that... time didn't just march on, it sucker punched me in the face and pushed me into the mud.  How am I sitting here with only 107 days until W-day.  107 days!

I could ramble on about the never ending Hydra... but i'll be honest, it looks about the same as it has the last few times.  Some jobs just can't get done early.  I could also tell you about the awesome meeting I had with my Aunt and DOC (for the Church) this past weekend, and all the fun festivities that are in the works... but, well.  My heart isn't in it.

I've been hit with a series of unfortunate events.  Nothing that is a total fiasco, yet anyway, but enough things that are making me want to bash my head into a wall v. picking up the phone (it's never good news!!!).  My wedding planning has turned into a game of 52 card pick up.  Do you remember this game?  When you're a kid the adult makes it sound so fun, and the next thing you know you're surround by cards (some still flying in the air - maybe in your hair) and you have to pick them all up.  wtf? this is not a game, this isn't fun at all!!!

Sorry, let me stick to the highlights - first, my caterer went awol.  It appears we're back on track, but it was touch and go for awhile.

The whopper is I've lost my officiant.  This is not to say we were out for a walk and I turned my head and he was suddenly kidnapped or something... although it felt a bit like that.   Here's what happened.  He forgot to put us in his calendar, and now he's booked something else. Out of town.

This whole situation has me a little flustered.  I did everything right (almost - but we'll get to that).  I contacted him as soon as we had a date (given his age you could argue this may have been a little early, but oh well.) and he confirmed he was in, so long as he was... around.  When I learned about this little mishap, I contacted him immediately, and to say that he was... i don't know, he wasn't anything more then matter-o-fact.  He has something else going on, and I should contact X, Y or Z.  No, let me see what I can do, I did promise you ages before any of this was in the works... nope, just a "all that matters is you getting married and starting a new life..." right. yes. let's patronize me please.

*insert long drawn out sigh here*  This is not a huge deal in the broad spectrum of things, I know this.  However, given the history with this particular person, it's hard to let go of.  Especially when my inner two year old is shouting "I was first, and you are the one who messed up so why must I be punished?" (you have to admit, that's good logic - even for a two year old.)

Here's what I did wrong.  I assumed that when people said they had talked to him and had been communicating with him regarding my wedding, this meant he was well aware of the date.  I should have checked in months ago and just followed up, made sure I was still on his radar. Like I have with every other vendor (and which I am doing again after the new year).  I know this.  I do this at work, every, single, day.  So frustrating.

Yes, there are other options, but those people are essentially strangers to me, which makes me a little... underwhelmed? uncomfortable? sad? yes, yes and yes.  We have one potential, but there are a lot of contingencies so it's not feeling like much of a possibility at the moment.  This possibility would be someone that played an integral part in the preparation required for our wedding - and thus someone both Will and I are comfortable with.  This seems like a great trade off.  If, given a series of events out of my control, this cannot be... I will be left with my strangers.  And I will be grateful that I had them to consider, but I will still be sad that even though I did everything right, I didn't win this time.  At least for awhile.

So here I am... 3+ months away from my wedding and the last 15 months of careful and intensive planning is starting not to matter.  The universe has a funny way of reminding you how very little your carefully laid plans matter.  Hopefully, we get all of these kinks out of the way now.  I have a feeling that we're not quite done with the shenanigans yet though - bad news has a way of coming in threes.

I'll keep you posted!  And - next time I'll focus on the good and exciting stuff! Instead of the sad, bad and yucky!

Feeling Centered

Over the last few months, and with an increasing intensity over the last few days, I have become consumed with the need to spruce up our centerpieces.  When we originally saw the wrought iron with crystal embellishment candle holders (hard to explain and I can't get my picture off my phone!) I thought they were absolutely lovely.  Now I look at them and feel that there's *something* missing.  The problem is, I can't figure out what that something is.

The height overall, is decent - not so high you can't see your table mates, not so low they don't have impact.  They go with the overall feel of the venue, but there's some warmth or something that is missing.

This led to a flurry of research *echem* watching bridal shows *echem* which left me even more confused.

If I could have my dream centerpieces, and money was no object, my table would look something like this:

But we have neither the space nor budget for that much decoration.  Or that many flowers.  So, here are some of the other ideas I toyed with:

Submerged Flowers

Maybe with Colored Water???

There is something so lovely about seeing the flowers this way.  Magical and romantic, but maybe too modern for out venue?  And would this work with the wrought iron? There seemed a few too many issues with this idea, so I continued my search.

Candles:

There are actually some truly amazing things that you can do with candles as your centerpiece focus.  I tried to find images where the candles were costars, so to speak.  I love how candlelight adds the romance and easily ties into a vintage feel.  I looked toward the 3rd picture with the mirror bouncing the light back up as good idea of how I could incorporate different size candles with the candelabra thing (maybe it would go where the hydrangeas are), but then I realized It's just all candles, there's no color.  And thats when I got a bit more focused in what I want.  I would love to say it's the first picture in the candle set that set me on track, but it's really what I came across when looking up "Aquarium Gravel."

Yes, this is an odd thing to search when looking for centerpiece inspiration.  However, we recently decided that violet aquarium gravel was the perfect accent piece to another wedding project (more on that to come!) and I thought maybe it could add color sprinkled on the bottom of the candle holder, or on a glass piece like above, or maybe in a vase with water and floating candles.  I was in no way prepared for what I stumbled across.

Mason Jars

It was love at first sight.  Somehow, despite seeing these sorts of arrangements all over the intranet I never thought about this for my own reception.  I'm not sure if I wrote this look off because I had it filed under "shabby chic" in my head and I consider my wedding "vintage romance" or if it was simply because I stopped envisioning flowers playing a major role in our wedding when I picked our venue. For whatever the reason, I didn't see how this could work... until it stole my breath.

The venue would provide us with 2 of the candle holders per circle table, and 3-4 for the rectangle tables.  If I used different size mason jars, and maybe a votive/tealight or two, I could have the varying heights, and add warmth and color to the tables.

There was one other element that really cinched this idea for me.  The vintage handkerchief in that first picture in this grouping.  I had been wanting to find a way to incorporate these, after seeing all the lovely tears of joy and save the dates that had been made with these.  It just wasn't quite the feel we were going for, however, there is something so feminine and lovely about the hankie it never completely left my mind.  If I use is as the base of my arrangement, and then alternate with different combinations of the mason jar arrangements and candleholders, I will have a real cohesive look that still matches the feel of the venue and period, but is a little softer, a little more romantic, and much more me!

The best part is the jars are relatively inexpensive, and with only 3-4 flowers per jar, I wouldn't have to spend an arm and a leg on them.  Candles are easy to buy in bulk, and the hankies could become the centerpiece item guests take home (do people still do that? I remember this from the weddings I went to as a child).  We will have black faux-antique frames that will have the table names in them as well.  I don't think we would need to worry about anything else, but we could always do some petals or maybe even aquarium gravel (haha!) lightly around the bottom just to finish it off.

So what do you think?  Did I find the most perfect centerpiece inspiration or what?

Why We Will NOT Be Having A Dollar Dance

This post is going to be a therapeutic one for me, but is about an issue that has been a huge point of contention between myself, my future husband and our families.  The Dollar Dance.

You would think that is such a silly thing to have stress about, but I can tell you in complete honesty, this silly insignificant part of the reception has made me want to curl up in a ball and cry more times then I can count.

Here are the issues:

Pros:
-Every wedding I have ever gone to growing up had one, and it was my absolute favorite part of the reception because I got to have that special moment with the bride/groom.
-It would give me a moment to spend time with guests more personally then just going around to the tables and saying "hello."
-My family really wants one.
-My side of the family expects this and is coming prepared (apparently this is how people help pay for honeymoons - which is not something I knew).

Cons:
-Will's family thinks its tacky and has never had one.
-Will has serious anxiety about the thought of having to dance one on one with people he doesn't really know.
-Will does not like to be the center of attention.
-The entire idea makes Will completely unhappy.
-I'm not 100% comfortable with the thought of begging for money from guests that have likely already brought gifts and have traveled near and far to be a guest at my wedding.
-The entire idea makes Will completely unhappy. [this needed to be listed twice, because it's probably the biggest factor]

As you can see from the above, it's sort of a clashing of cultures.  Will and I have both been cornered about this numerous times, by numerous people.  I think the day we announced our engagement we were cautioned to stay away from "tacky and undignified" traditions because our guests would be offended and we would regret it.  No joke.

The funny thing to me, is that the money part of it really isn't a factor at all.  I know that this is a tradition our guests would be familiar with, so I highly doubt anyone would be offended, other than those that will remain nameless, and who have very vocally already addressed the issue.  The part that makes me sad about the idea is not getting to have that time with my guests, since it was so special for me as a guest to experience it.

HOWEVER, the whole purpose of this entire day is about becoming an "US" not an "I."  Therefore, I can't really make a decision to make other people, or even myself, happy, knowing how perfectly unhappy it would make my husband on OUR day.  He is a shy person, and he gets physically ill at the thought of being the center of attention for any length of time (another reason we are keeping our parent dance short and doing it at the same time).  I have to respect this.  I DO respect this.  The last person I want to be miserable is my husband on our wedding day!

So no, there will not be a Dollar Dance at our wedding.  And no, it's not because we were told it was tacky.  And no, I will not regret not having one.  All I want is for our day to be as meaningful and special as it can, and I refuse to ruin it by forcing him to do something that he does not want to do.  Period.  If that means I have to give up something, that's okay because the entire foundation of successful relationships is based on compromise, and there are so many little details he has stood back and let me take control of.  I will give him this.  He deserves to have a say, more then anyone else.  And I love him. So I really can't think of a better reason not to have a Dollar Dance.  And after hearing said reason, I am sure you all agree.  Or, if you don't, then you will at least respect how difficult a decision this was, and understand.

.:150:.