A Year and Some Change Later

I didn't keep up with this blog, I know. I got six months into planning and realized a complaint blog was cliche and I honestly wasn't that interested in keeping up with details. i was busy doing other things like living my life and losing 23 pounds. I've been keeping a diary for the past six or so years over here: www.unrelatedsidenote.com, if you are interested.

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I have acquired a camera and have taken pictures of one of my centerpieces. I got the inspiration from the OffBeat Bride Tribe photo stream. It's like this particular bride was in my head. She even wore her glasses to the wedding! I wish I could find those pictures again so I can comment and thank her but it's pure madness digging through those archives.

For the wedding, we'll toss a smattering of chocolates around but I think you can get the effect without them. Behold!

Chocolately Delicous

I made five centerpieces last night. They look awesome and make me squee with delight! Emily even helped me by prowling around, pouncing on ribbons and pulling silk flower heads off their stems for me. We had such a good time together. For once I wasn't frustrated by her need to be with me like she needs to be beed with. I actually enjoyed her company.

I showed one of the final pieces to Matt (minus the chocolates) and he said, "That looks nice. I like the simplicity of it and that you made it. None of that wasteful, expensive bullshit. Homemade, just like your bangers and mash."

Hooray! Matt's compliment made me beam and I gave him a big squeeze and sloppy kiss. Now for pictures, but where is my camera? Nowhere to be found. I frantically searched the house and about a half hour later, Matt said to me, "What the heck are you looking for?"

"My camera."

"Oh, I have that. It's at work. I was taking pictures of truss and moving lights and such for the website."

Dumbfounded, I opened my mouth to do my usual whining and thought, "How could I be mad at him for that?" I couldn't so I resigned myself to waiting for the camera to come home, which could be today or next year. Sorry, dear readers. I know you are on the edge of your seats but, like me, you'll just have to wait.

In other wedding blither, I read this today. Please to make my own wedding cake? I know, I know. I have to let some things go to the professionals but the idea is certainly hilarious. Besides, a professional wedding cake means dark chocolate cake with layers of ganache and a ganache glaze.

Man, there's going to be a lot of chocolate at this wedding.

Moving Along

Matt and I took his mother out to dinner last night. In fact, we took her to our rehearsal dinner location and when we sat down for dinner I thought to myself "Why the hell aren't we having the WEDDING here?" Hmm, the giant staircase leading upstairs and the fact we have a hefty list of old folks might have something to do with it. Anyway ...

We all enjoyed our meals and I enjoyed my seasonal brew, which knocked me on my ass about halfway through the glass. Excellent. His mom liked the place and we got her sign off on it so I sent the confirmation off this morning. It's a casual, laid back brew pub that sells four beers year round and makes and additional four seasonal beers. Hooray for seasonal beers! Even more hoorays for seasonal WINTER beers!

The more I plan this, the more I love the idea of a January wedding. Books and firelight and chocolate, snuggling, fuzzy beer, my great-grandmother's fur, acceptable alternatives to floral centerpieces, a snowy honeymoon. We have less than six months to go. Eep!

Lasting Forever

I went to Michael's today in search of floral ideas because I've been struggling to communicate with the florist what it is I want when everything I like is so stupidly and unnecessarily expensive or I am allergic to it. I felt hindered and needed inspiration. I needed to hold something in my hand to get a feel for size, color, and texture.

I started rooting through the vintage-style silk flowers and, to my own surprise, created a really lovely bridal bouquet. I started rooting deeper and created several more bouquets. I thought to myself, "My god, these are gorgeous but they would cost a friggin' fortune if I had them fresh."

I began to feel downtrodden about it when my mind started whirring, "Actually, what's wrong with silk? These look totally bad ass and I like the idea of making my own arrangements and decorations. Besides, the wedding is in January. Fresh flowers are out of place anyway."

Convinced, I gathered up all the arrangements, grabbed some ribbon from the bargin bin, and headed to the cash register. I mean, who cares if they are silk, right? I MADE them and that's way more awesome than handing the creative control over to someone else.

I think when my mom sees how gorgeous the arrangements are and how excited I am about making my own centerpieces, she'll cave. Besides, when we were discussing the flower budget, she sighed and said, "You know, I don't even remember what any of my flowers or centerpieces looked like."

Again, it's funny how the things I thought I wanted keep turning into these incredibly different, amazingly inspired, beautiful things that I get to do myself. It's nice when price doesn't impede the imagination and lord knows I have enough of that to go around.

Jump Around

Scanning through my minuscule archives, I realize I made a lot of decisions about the wedding and then those decisions turned into complete different decisions. I'm curious to see how this wedding ends up.

Honeymoon Planned

Well folks, we've been around the world and finally decided on St. Lucia. Planning ensued. We were inches away from sending a deposit when Matt said, "How about skiing in Colorado?"

Seriously? Really? Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! I am so totally, like really, all about a winter wonderland honeymoon. In fact, I've been dreaming about it since the day we decided to have a winter wedding.

Within 48 hours, I had blown away our travel agent with this 180 and together she and I planned and booked the trip. Snow! Mountains! A fireplace! Outdoor hot tubs! snowmobiling! Snuggling to keep warm! What could be more perfect? I'm totally EXCITED!!!

Links

My family had an estate yard sale at my grandparents' house yesterday. I was sent to the basement, of course, which was fine with me. I'm a good negotiator and I only cried once, when a woman bought Tiny Teddy--a toy that brought so many memories rushing back to me, I had no choice but to release them in a flood of tears. She asked if I was sure I wanted to sell it. I told her, "Yes. Sometimes one just has to let things go." She paid me for it and then gave me a hug.

At the end of the sale, I wandered upstairs and discovered these in a box full of tie tacks, clips, and random cuff links.


Mother of pearl set in silver. They need a serious cleaning but I picked them up for Matt to wear at our wedding. It's been difficult cleaning out my grandparent's house. It's even harder to think that, in just a couple of weeks, the house will be sold and I'll never set foot in it again. In the meantime, I'm glad to find all of these wonderful treasures and to be able to use them on my wedding day. I hope Matt will continue to wear them over the years to come. I'm sure he will.

I Don't Need a House Full of Things, I Need a House That is PAID FOR

Matt and I are both in our thirties. We own a home and a business. We have a Dyson, a well-established kitchen, sheets, curtains, furnishings, fine china, water pitchers, ice buckets, ad nauseum. How much more stuff do we need? So ...

We decided to register our honeymoon. Once we have our trip booked, we'll go online and set up everything. I think it's a grand idea for those who are willing to be modern about giving a gift and just think of the Thank You card for things like a "Hike on Gros Piton," "a sunset cruise along the coastline," "fresh croissants in a French bakery," "Friday night street party in Castries."

The more traditional guests can purchase items from a registry. Yes, I have one because there are a few things I could use and would like to have like some necessary cookware and kitchen gadgets. I've got a soft spot in my heart for a Le Creuset french oven in, um, Caribbean Blue ...

More Treasures

As we clean out my grandparents' house, I find myself crossing more items of my wedding registry plus finding all sorts of neat things to use at our wedding, like these vintage, Waterford champagne glasses:



It's a terrible picture, I know. Anyway, my brother inherited the set of eight and said we could use a couple for our toast. I have no interest in keeping them but am thrilled to be using them at my wedding. With a big smile on his face, my dad handed me this cute little number:



It sat on my grandmother's knick-knack shelf for thirty years. It's so tiny and we are going to use it as a cake topper. I love the expressions on their faces. Hilarious!

As much as I miss my grandparents, it's been nice to find things that I can use at my wedding. While these little details won't mean anything to our guests, it will mean the world to me to have reminders of loved ones past. My mom is even going to give me the knife she and my father used to cut their wedding cake, which was a gift from her parents. So much vintage! So much love.

Meeting the Officiate

We had our first meeting with the officiate today. It was awesome. At the end of the meeting, he handed me a book of Mary Oliver's poetry and told me to read a poem. I selected "Morning," After I finished reading it, Matt said, "That's you alright. Loving the mess out of that cat and being happy in the kitchen. Although I would like to change the words around to the cat howling at the door and then tearing up your garden only to come in and puke on the rug NEXT to the linoleum." We all laughed and I passed the book to Matt. He read, "Picking Blueberries" and stopped periodically to say, "Don't worry, honey, the dear doesn't die."

Matt has never read poetry to me. I was thrilled! He picked the poem stating, "This is for that pound of tasteless blueberries you bought last week, except when you made the pancakes, those were good. Oh, and for that time in New Jersey when we almost hit a deer on our motorcycles."

The Vintage Table

This weekend, I came across a ton of old family wedding photos, some dating back to the early 1900's. I even found one of my great, great uncle (who was a dandy) and great, great aunt (who was wearing orthopaedic shoes on her wedding day)! I snatched up this photo, along with a few others, and decided that I would like to display these at our wedding. My parent's have tons more photos so how fun will it be to bring them out from dark, cobwebby closets? I'm hoping Matt's mother and grandmother have some photos to share as well.

I also picked up my grandmother's ring. It's perfect and it needs minimal restoration work. The ring had to be cut from my grandma's hand after she passed and the cut was made through the date engraved on the inside of the ring but only through the day. Once the ring is joined back together, it will read Dave & Betty 01-42. I plan to have Matt & Cindy 01-09 engraved alongside it. There are 52 years of marriage bestowed upon this ring. I’m a lucky girl.

Heirloom

My mom just called. She found my grandmother's wedding band and said that WE COULD HAVE IT!!! I almost cried on the phone when she told me. It's a 2 mm platinum band, plain on top with filigree work on the sides. It's exactly what I've been looking for and have been unable to find.

Items, in No Particular Order

White and cranberry has extended itself to ivory, burgundy, and gold, which will be a nice and cozy vibe for an otherwise cold winter day.

I'm dying my crinoline. Awesome.

Matt and I set up an appointment with the officiate. So that's on a roll.

We decided that we are going to have a fifteen minute grace period for the ceremony. On the invitations, we will write 3:00 but the ceremony doesn't actually start until 3:15, which we will note on the program. It's hard to expect 120 people to all be on time. We figure this way there is some breathing room and it won't push into our reception time.

Wedding Cake

I want a croquembouche. People keep telling me it's weird. WELL at the wedding we went to this weekend they had one and OMFG IT WAS SO GOOD. No one thought it was weird. In fact, they ate that shit up.

We're totally doing it. Enough said.

Honeymoon, Foiled Again!

The place we both liked doesn't take reservations for next year until early November. So sad! We decided to write it off the list and keep looking. Matt started talking about going to Vermont but we would have to fly and then drive a long distance and UGH. I said we should go out to the Eastern Shore for a couple of days and then take a rail trip throgh Italy next summer. Matt liked this idea and so do I.

It totally sucks that deciding on a honeymoon is the,well, suckiest part of the planning. Part of me doesn't even want a honeymoon; it just seems expensive and uncessary but Matt really wants to do it so I'm trying to be cool about it.

In good news, I had a nice day with my mom.

1. We decided on flowers for the ceremony, peace lilies. Simple, pretty, big but not extravagant, and we can bring them home to keep in our house for ages.
   
2. I mentioned that idon't want a guest book and asked her, "Am I going to care about it in forty years?" She laughed and said, "I remember it's the one thing I forgot to bring that day. We had to turn around to go back and get it and it made me feel stressed and you know what? Forty years later I don't even know where the damn thing is and you're right, I don't care. "
3. I requested that she start gathering wedding pictures of her and my father, both sets of grandparents, great grandparents, etc. In addition, any newspaper announcements they could find would be great because I want to do a family history table. (Note: I must make sure to let Matt's mom and grandparents know to start hunting these up as well.)
   
4. I tried on my great grandmother's mink stole and it is so-ho-HO awesome and will look even more awesome with my dress. What handsome winter wedding pictures we will have!

When all was said and done, I took her for a manicure/pedicure, which is something I rarely do but she loves to do. I was grateful that when I expressed my disdain for nail polish, the girl buffed and shined me instead. Score!

So Matt and I will figure out the honeymoon eventually. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy planning the actual event.

Tidbits

1) The first dance. Not doing it. We went back to that Modest Mouse song we liked so much and decided we didn't like it after all. I said to Matt, "I really don't want to do this. Can't we just eat and drink and not do all of the stupid traditional bullshit? I would like to cut the cake and have a toast but that's it, really." He thought that was a most excellent idea.

2) Tuxedo? Matt is going to wear one. I'm excited about this because Matt looks smoking hot in a tuxedo. He puts the ass in classy.

3) I decided to carry a small bouquet of ivory roses. My grandfather recently passed away and he loved roses so much. He had the most wonderful gardens. I miss him so much and feel like this would be the perfect way to honor him.

4) I decided to wear the shoes I wore to my matron of honor's wedding. I was her maid of honor. Simple, gold ballet flats. They look cute with my dress and can be my something old.

5) I took my dress out of the closet today and ran my hands over it. It's so simple and pretty and in every way perfectly me. I'm really looking forward to wearing it. Me, wearing a dress! It happens so rarely.

I'm enjoying planning this wedding. It's fun to plan a non-traditional, traditional wedding (if that makes sense). I feel lucky to live in an age when society has loosened it reigns enough that I can plan a really nice wedding that suits mine and Matt's personalities. I'm all for tradition, heck that's why I'm getting married, but like most everything in my life I'd like to do it my way.

The $1000 Honeymoon

Can I do it? Yes I can!

So all that excitement about Iceland? Well, I decided I am just NOT up for all of that traveling to stay there for only a week. A trip like that deserves at least two weeks and some puddle jumping to the mainland. Matt's business is in a serious growth spurt and it's not easy for him to walk away for that long even in January. We'll see the world once he hires an employee or two. After all, we are young. We've got nothing but time.

So, on the bookshelf at work, I saw a couple of B&B guides for the Mid-Atlantic region so I brought them home for perusal. I found a few nice areas to consider that are within a five-hour drive so I started digging deeper. Several days and many internet searches later, I found the perfect little B&B in the Hudson Valley. It's priced right and I am totally in love with one of the rooms. In addition, there are tons of wineries, breweries, and great restaurants in the area. Cross country skiing, historic sites to visit, etc.

The price for four nights is $600 plus tax. That leaves us $400 in travel expenses, entertainment, and dining. Since breakfast is included and they serve cookies and beverages all day long, I think we can make that work and we can have a few nice days enjoying each other's company. The sweetest part for me is knowing we can afford to return to celebrate anniversaries if we so desire. While I'm not a huge sentimentalist, stuff like that makes me happy! Happy!

So if Matt is down with it, I think we'll get this booked and check one more item off the list. Hooray!

Green It Up

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