Moving Right Along

The hotel block has officially been booked, I am three people's sizes away from ordering the bridesmaids dresses, I'm 90% of the way to the goal line on the rehearsal dinner and this weekend I will be calling the salon and shopping for outfits for the flower girls, acolyte and ring bearer. I'm actually starting to get stuff done!

"By Saturday, we learned a thing or two..."

We met with the caterer this weekend. It was fun to be back in Columbia, we miss that town very very much. 

I was excited to see the new City Hall is almost completely done. Our guests will walk right by it between the church and the reception and I think it makes the city proud. This is what the building looked like when we moved. I am glad that this isn't what people will see on our wedding day!

(source)

As for the meeting with the caterer...it went well. I guess. It was a little overwhelming to tell the truth. 

There are just so many little things to decide and plan and negotiate. 

Plus we were late, which makes me flustered. 

We made many, many decisions. Want to know a few?

Well...when guests arrive, they will be offered some yummy mimosas. 

Because that's one of the only alcoholic beverages you can get away with at noon. 

For lunch there will be an option between a yummy sounding chicken with artichokes and mushrooms or stuffed portabella caps, similar to these:

YUM-O. 

I think I will get the vegetarian option. Even though I'm not a vegetarian. Because seriously. 

YUM-O. 

My mom and I also picked out a pattern and a fabric for the junior bridesmaids dresses. She's making them. I'm not far advanced in my sewing skillz enough to pull them off. But I am going to attempt the ring pillow sometime this week. Wish me luck!

"Tea for Two" meets "Madame Librarian"

Our original favors were going to be little bottles of homemade vanilla extract. It was going to be a really fun, cool project. Unfortunately, we thought of that idea about a year ago. And since then the price of vanilla beans has gone up more than I would have thought possible. So now we are without favors. My new ideas are either homemade tea bags or hand embroidered tea towels (to go along with the tea theme from the centerpieces). I found this really cute embroidery design:

If it was on tea towels it would be tie in the book theme with the tea theme. How cute is that?

Both of those ideas sound expensive and time consuming, but I haven’t done the necessary research to figure out how much it would cost me and how long it would take me. I'm guessing it's not really possible. Maybe if I had started a couple years ago. There's also these, which I thought were kind of cute.

I don’t want Jordan almonds wrapped in tulle. I don’t want a picture frame that doubles as a table number. In fact, I don’t want a favor that people are going to forget at the hotel, or throw away at the airport or any of the other things that have happened to favors I have received over the years. I just want it to be unique and cool and something people will actually enjoy.  Ideas?

"Food, glorious food! We're anxious to try it!"

We are meeting with the caterer in two weeks and I am finding myself becoming nervouser and nervouser. Beyond the financial  EEK! that’s coming our way, there is also another major flaw in this plan. The problem is this. Our wedding is in June. I should be thinking of feeding my guests light early Summer fare. Salads and fresh vegetables and limeades.

Things like this:

And instead I’m really worried that I’ll end up asking the caterer for things like this:

Because right now? It’s January. In Iowa.  And it is COLD. It is so COLD that I can’t help but type-yell in all caps the word. It is COLD. Everything is frozen to everything and it took me 10 minutes to open my car door this morning and I’m indoors right now and I am still shivering so much I can barely type. So just cross your fingers, and hope that I don’t end up serving you this:

Well...actually...maybe that I ccould get away with. Right? RIGHT?

It Ain't So Much a Question of Not Knowing What To Do...

In this case, I'm talking about not knowing what I'm doing when it comes to crafts. I'm a DIY bride on the loose with absolutely no clue what I am doing.
This is a list of some of the projects I'm planning to do over the next few weeks/months. Some of them even have pictures...ooooh!

Ring Bearer Pillow

Flower Covered Over-sized Initials
Chair Sashes?
Candy Buffet Table (Finding Containers, Making Labels, Choosing/Buying Candy)
Tissue Pomanders

Menus
Welcome Letters/Baskets for Hotel Rooms
Bridesmaid Gifts Containers
Groomsmen Gifts Containers
Soda Bar

Emergency Kits
Lacey Luminaries
Kids Room Craft Kits
Message Flags

Ceremony Programs
Organdy Corsages
Favors
Invitation assembly (printing, maps, other inserts, addressing envelopes)
Cards Box

That's what I have so far, but I'm sure I'll come up with more as I get closer and figure out more details. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go get to work.

"You've got to have a dream, If you don't have a dream, How you gonna make your dream come true?"

This is what I look at in my head when I think about our wedding day.

"What good is cake, You have but never eat?"

Skyler and I spent several hours over the weekend persusing the cake galleries at Martha Stewart Weddings and The Knot. It's funny, for as much as I love weddings, and as much as I watch the Food Network, and as much as I might just MIGHT leave Skyler for Duff from Ace of Cakes... the wedding cake has never been an important element to me. Imagine my surprise when I realized how obsessed and picky Skyler was going to be about picking a cake. He really really cares. He has opinions on all sorts of things. He doesn't know the names of the things on which he has opinions...but they are there. Here is my real-cake-terms interpretation:

• He hates monograms
• He likes it when there are tiers that are both square and round 
• He likes quilting
• He likes the look of fondant and he hates the taste of buttercream
• He really has no concept of what our actual color scheme is
• He doesn't like "Mad Hatter" cakes...except for when he does

Below is a mosaic of the ones we picked out. Most of them really only have elements that we like. None of them are perfect. What do you guys think we should ask the bakers for?

From here on in I shoot without a script

How important is a wedding video? I really think I want one, a professional one, but I can't see us affording one. Videographers cost a lot more than I expected. There are these people at a company called "I Do Films" Click on the link and see the amazing movies they make with a vintage 8mm camera. The problem? If I booked them we would be eating peanut butter and jelly at the reception and my dress would be from Walmart.

Maybe we could buy our own 8mm on Ebay and find a couple people with normal digital video cameras and I could edit something decent myself? Or maybe I just need to keep looking for someone affordable.

On a related note, why does every wedding sample video out there have the worst soundtrack ever? Is it a requirement of videography school to have horrible taste in music?

We know we belong to the land! And the land we belong to is grand!

Well, the move to Iowa is, in all theory, complete. Everything is at least in our new house. We don’t have anything unpacked yet, and still no sublease in Missouri, but…it’s progress.

This blog, however, is not about our crazy lives. It’s about our crazy wedding! I haven’t done much for wedding planning lately, but I have been doing a lot of thinking.

Shortly after we got engaged I purchased a book called “The Green Bride Guide.” It, as you could probably guess from the title, is all about having an eco-friendly, sustainable nuptial celebration. If you read the list a couple posts ago, you will have noticed that “sustainable” is on our list of things we want our wedding to be.  I’m not going to spend time explaining why we feel this is important, but I am going to talk a little bit about how we plan to execute this.

First, let me say that our wedding, just like our lives, will not be perfectly green, or (hopefully) even look like what most people would imagine as an “eco” wedding.

The truth is, woodsy décor and paper dresses are not what it is all about. Instead, we are choosing to stand up to the wedding industry, choose our priorities, and be careful with our purchases.  Here’s what I mean.

Standing up to the wedding industry: No, thank you…I do not need individualized matchbooks that no one will ever use. I also do not require 99% of the things sold in The Oriental Trading Company wedding addition. And the things there I do need (ok, want) I can probably find a better alternative for. No. We will not sign up for the all inclusive wedding package that includes a Swan shaped Ice Sculpture and heart shaped confetti (ok…that refusal has a LITTLE bit more to do with taste than being earth friendly).

Choosing our Priorities: What do we care about most? The truth is that bridal magazines and websites like theknot are trying to sell you stuff. Period. Now, don’t get me wrong. I use the websites. I read the magazines. I just keep in mind that nothing on my wedding day is mandatory except for us, our love, and a marriage license. Everything past that is personal choice. There are some things we just don’t want/care about. There are some things we aren’t willing to compromise on. I want amazing, artistic photography. So we spent a little more and went all out with the Photos. On the other hand, I don’t think I need elaborate bouquets made of artificially grown, imported, pesticide soaked flowers. That just doesn’t say “Romance” to me.

Being Careful with Purchases: This is simple. We are doing what we can DIY. We are buying things organic or local when we can. We are buying things used (yes…used). We are buying things that can easily be sold or used for a different purpose after the wedding. My centerpieces are a wonderful example. We’re going to be doing an arrangement of teacups and antique books. The teacups will have a single peony or hydrangea in them. I have been collecting them for months on the cheap and continue to do so. When the wedding is over I plan to keep most of the books (books come into our house…but they never leave…) and selling most of the teacups on eBay, keeping the ones I really love.  The centerpieces will express our personalities and show off things we love and at the same time they will be totally eco-friendly.

The best part about having a sustainable wedding is that if you do it the way we’re doing it, it also becomes an affordable wedding. And that’s an awesome thing.

"Let's have an old fashioned wedding"

Shortly after we got engaged, I asked Skyler to make a list of the words that would describe his perfect wedding. He wasn't really all that thrilled about the idea, but I pouted and he did it. I had made my list years ago and I have been adding to it periodically over time. Yes, I am one of "those girls" who has been planning my wedding since I was old enough to stand underneath my mother's lace curtains and pretend they were a veil. What follows is the list that we made together:

• Vintage
• Formal
• Ceremony Focused and Faith Filled
• Full of Friends and Family
• Entertaining
• Sustainable
• Classy
• Big yet affordable
• Jubilant
• Nostalgic, Post-War era
• Spring, Bright, Daytime
• Light, Airy
• Simple, yet elegant
• Dark Blue, Moss Green, Various Shades of Pink
• Traditional
• Personal
• Socially conscious
• Timeless
• Romantic
• A Celebration

So there you have it. The rest of this blog will be all about the two of us figuring how to fit all that into one spectacular wedding day.