Invitations

The invites were an awesome find and are totally not what I ever would have thought I wanted. Funny how everything in this wedding is turning out to be full of things I never thought I would want but every detail is perfect.

My matron-of-honor and I went to Target to browse their stationary and, low and behold, we discovered a clearance sale. Ladies, I repeat CLEARANCE SALE. I purchased my invites for $4.98/box. Each box came with 25 invitations, envelopes, and response cards with envelopes, so I purchased four boxes. That's a whopping total of $21.12 including tax. When I ran the numbers, the total cost (including postage, mailing envelopes, and direction cards) was well under $100. Unreal.

The invites are:

1. Off-white card stock with a deep ivory toile floral pattern.
2. A vellum overlay tied to the card stock with an ivory ribbon.
3. Sophisticated without being overly formal.
   

Reasons why these qualities are awesome:

1. The reception is in a historic manor home that has a very vintage, very French feel to it.
2. My dress is ivory with an organza overlay and ivory ribbons.
3. Our wedding is semi-formal.
   

Seriously, perfect. We budgeted about $400 for invitations but since I have a design background, I can do all of the layout, text, and printing myself. Another added bonus is that I can spend the saved money on a car service!

Matron of Honor and Natty Boh

My matron of honor, Tess, is going to be in town on Tuesday. Yippie! We are going to drink coffee and stay up all night talking about invitations and parties and other sappy wedding things. I can't wait to try on my dress while she is here. I'm been itching to put it on since I brought it home!

I designed our save-the-date magnet, which is a cleaned up version of this with the appropriate text. If you are from Baltimore, or have ever lived in Baltimore, you are laughing right now and saying "awesome." If you aren't here's a little history:

The one-eyed, moustached man is the Natty Boh icon. Natty Boh is Baltimore's beloved beer. We plan to serve it as one of our four beers. The girl is the UTZ potato chip icon. Matt and I grew up on UTZ potato chips and they are only distributed locally. What can I say, Matt and I are Baltimorons through and through.

In addition, I am planning to use (as close to as I can) the Natty Boh fonts for all of our printed materials. I love the look of modern and vintage, which is pretty much what our wedding style is. Tess and I will go shopping for materials and ideas while she's in town. Yippie!

It's nice having a year to plan this thing. I'm really enjoying the process and am hoping this will be an event where even the old people totally rock out and everyone leaves holding a good happy feeling and crying out, "We don't want it to end!"

Just Cut It

I tried growing my hair out. I really did. I tried for like two months. Please don’t tell me I just needed to get past the awkward phase. It was all awkward and heavy and YUCK and it was only just below my chin. Now it’s all neat and trim and rockin’ and Cindy.

Folks were recommending I grow my hair out for the wedding. You know, so I had more options for hairstyles. I figured it was worth a shot and I could always cut it off if I decided I wanted to. Well, I decided I wanted to and I think I’ll still have options. For example, look how EXCITED this chick is!

Honeymoon

Matt wanted to go to an all-inclusive resort Mexico.

BORING!

He could not be swayed. I mentioned, "We've been there before. Let's go somewhere new. We are getting married! New chapter in life. New adventure! Let's celebrate it that way." Whine, whine, whine. More whining, incessant whining.

He said, "Okay, how about Iceland? It's either Iceland or Mexico. You pick."

I cocked my head and looked at him funny for a minute before bursting out into a huge smile and throwing my arms around him. "Iceland! Awesome! They have northern lights and hot springs and snow mobiles in the highlands! YES! Oooooo, we should totally do that!"

"I was joking. Are you serious? You really want to go to Iceland?"

"Abso-freaking-lutely."

Matt saw the excitement in my eyes and said, "Alright, let's do it."

So it looks like we are going on an Arctic adventure in January and we are totally jazzed. If things work out, we'll be heading over to Stockholm for a couple of days as well.

Turning in Circles

Ah ... the first dance. When the slow song comes on and all eyes are focused on you and your betrothed while you turn in high-school-dance circles, whisper nervously to one another, perhaps exchange a kiss or two, and everyone applauds when the dance is over and you are left glowing with memories.

GAG!

Okay, maybe not gag for everyone but gag for me. I was conflicted because slow dancing in front of a room full of people is totally not my thing. I was willing to try it out though so Matt and I spent an evening listening to slower-tempo songs and moving around the kitchen to them. Nothing felt natural to me but Matt really wanted to have a first dance. So, like everything in our relationship, we talked about it and then compromised.

"What is it you don't like about it?"

"It feels forced, common, and uncomfortable to me."

"Yeah, it does feel a little weird. Even though the songs are great, they don't feel like us."

"We are both excitable people. The slow thing doesn't feel right. Maybe we should try something with a slightly faster tempo. Nothing too outrageous, just something that lets us move a little more."

"That's fair. Hmmm, how about Modest Mouse's People as Places as People?"

I thought this was an excellent idea so Matt put the song on and we tried it out. We loved it! It will allow us to mix a little bit of the slow stuff in with a more rock n' roll style dance. We'll be able to shake off our nerves and cut loose a little bit without offending anyone.

Although we might go with Van Halen's "Jump." One never knows ...

Who Says a Man Can't Have an Engagement Ring?

For the past month, Matt has been wanting a ring. When I thought about it, it seemed unfair to me that I had a ring and he didn't. What's the big deal? The man wants to wear a ring. I'm okay with that, in fact, I think it's sweet; however, I didn't want him to wear his wedding ring because that felt too special.

I went to the mall and browsed through the jewelry carts in search of a suitable placeholder/engagement ring. At the fourth cart, I happened upon a plain, black-anodized steel ring.

"Cool," I thought, so I bought it and I gave it to him. He was totally floored by the gesture and he liked the ring a lot. I can't say "he loved it" because Matt only loves the following things:

1. Me
2. Our two cats (whose birthday is today!)
3. Hot Dogs and
   
4. Tater Tots

I'm sure our families will find this gesture unusual but, well, they all know me and I'm kind of unusual. Matt, well, if you know him, he's Matt. The Matt-truly a breed of his own.

Tradition with a Twist

A winter wedding has forced us to be creative in our planning and has also helped to save thousands of dollars on wedding expenses. The most important thing we decided was "Keep it simple."

We decided to honor tradition as closely as we could while working our personalities into the celebration. After all, that's the kind of couple we are, traditional-with-a-twist. Here are some things we have planned so far:

• This dress. Contemporary but still very much a wedding dress. It was on sale for $350, thus leaving us with loads of cash for other things we want. Also, since there is no train, it's light-weight enough that I can dance all night in it without getting tired. It is very much my style.



• Matt is considering buying a suit. I really want him to wear a tuxedo though. *pant, pant, pant* I'll keep on the DL about this one and see if I can find a way to let him think a tux was his own idea.
  



• Spring flowers seem out of place in winter and I think cranberries in an arrangment slightly larger than my hand will be striking against the dress I chose. Other arrangements will possibly include cranberries and white chrysanthemum. A nice winter theme, I think.



• To go with the cranberry idea, my mom and I are going to make cranberry preserves as a wedding favor. Delicious, homemade, and cost-effecient! I am rather fond of the culinary arts so this is just another opportunity to explore new ideas.



• The Ceremony: The room and the enclosed atrium have huge skylights which will let in the afternoon light. The atrium also has a big, round fireplace-perfect for a winter wedding. It might be cold and grey outside but it will be warm, lovely, and bright inside.



• We are having a cupcake cake! Enough said! I wanted a croquembouche but everyone told me that no one will eat it. Meh.
  



• We are getting married on a Sunday in January. This allowed for flexibility in start times so we could plan the day around our wishes and our travelling guests. Not to mention it saved us tons of cash on the site fee (we even got a fifth hour for free) and has dropped the price in other areas as well.



• We have one member each for the bridal party. This was one of Matt's requests and I was totally okay with it. I chose my friend, Tess, to be my matron of honor. I have several close, UH-mazing friends but she's the closet thing in the world that I have to a sister. My own mother gets us confused sometimes. Matt is still in limbo about his best man. He'll figure that one out.



• We have not defined colors for the bridal party. Most likely, Tess will wear a black dress that flatters her and Matt's Best Whatever will wear a classic tuxedo, just like Matt.



• For our personal till-death-do-us-part touches: Matt's wedding ring is 6mm and made out of tungsten carbide, which is a shiny, blackish grey, and friggin' NEAT! It's a super cool ring that will hold up well to the beating it will take. Matt works with his hands a lot and tunsgten doesn't scratch or dent. I'm still not sure what I want. My engagement ring is friggin' fancy and I've been having a hard time finding somthing I like.
  

We still have quite a bit of planning to do but for the most part, we feel like we have things under control. We have eleven months to figure the rest out.