best wishes for wonderful winter celebrations

(photo by Olivia Bee)

In the flurry of holiday-related activities I have neglected this blog and well...let's face it, all things wedding related. Here's hoping everyone has a safe and fun holiday and I'll be back in the new year with more concrete decisions (let's hope!).

food and fun is a wonderful combination

We had a tasting with a prospective caterer last weekend and now we're in the "We like them but are we ready to commit" phase of the relationship. I'm telling you people: finding the guy is the easy part; planning all this craziness to celebrate the idea of us staying together for the rest of our lives is a massive headache. When can I move onto the funner aspects of DIY projects?

For those of you lucky enough to attend the nuptials, if we go with them (which we probably will because the Boy is far more decisive than I) your bellies will be very happy. Mine was. Even the Boy's dad and he is not into "exotic" foods. We're all very excited by that bit of new as he was the one we were most worried about.

But because these last few entries have been rather humbug in nature, I leave you with pictures from The Image is Found; I hope my wedding is this fun!

Is the little girl below just too cute fo words? She almost makes me want to rethink actually including small fry at the wedding. Almost.

and the second guessing continues...

In keeping with my theme of wondering whether I made the right decisions for my wedding, here is another to add on top of the others: did I pick the right dress? I only ask because I came across this fabulous dress by sarahseven and thought it was adorable! Perfect for a summer wedding even. Who wouldn't have a second thought when confronted by such a gorgeous fun dress? *sigh* I do still love my dress but could I have two dresses, pretty please? I would be a happier bride.

cold feet

I've been going on normallly, being swept up in all the mundane activities of everyday life, giving very little thought to the whole wedding planning process. Of course, there are times when something pops into my head and I feel my pulse quicken just thinking about wedding details. It probably doesn't help that almost-strangers come up to me and take my hand to stare at my ring and proceed to bombard me with wedding-related questions. I get flustered and mumble something to the effect that I haven't really made any decisions just yet and thanks for bringing it to my attention and setting off another series of panic-ridden minutes.

I can't help it. It doesn't seem very real to me and because it doesn't, I can only immerse myself in plans for so long until I simply get...bored. Shock. Horror. Dismay. Who would've thought a bride would be bored. Ok, maybe bored isn't exactly the right descriptive word to use. But without anything really concrete to do for the wedding (favors to make, table decor to put together, programs to type out, all those fun DIY projects), my fingers get ansty and my attention wanders off to more immediate concerns like when's a good time to visit MOH?, did I pay that bill yet?, or what would it be like to have a parasitic twin and would I get rid of it or keep it like the Octopus Man? (Because, you know, my mind is filled with lots of weird trivia.) It doesn't seem real without all of that. And because of this, I find myself changing my mind from month to month about decor details, colors, themes, etc. Currently, my mind is battling the idea of switching the color scheme to grey and yellow because it fun and incorporates two colors I am obsessed with.

Help!

Will someone else plan the wedding for me and all I have to do is show up, smile and look pretty?

To Do List: November Edition

To Do:

1. Call caterers and make appointments to meet them in person.
2. Follow through and actually go taste good food (I hope!).
3. Show the Boy the prospective photographers. Convince him to decide on one and call.
4. Meet with said photographer and (hopefully) book him/her/them (I do so enjoy husband and wife duos).
5. Once we decide on a caterer, spring my gigantic list of party rentals companies for the wedding. Ok, so it's not really gigantic only my hand kinda cramped up with writing little lists of all that we need (really, do we need to feed you folks who are coming to the wedding? Will you be happy just to use the same plate, silverware and glass for any and all courses? Pretty please say yes. I'd love you even more.)
6. Show the Boy the list I've compiled for tentative play lists for songs to rock to at the wedding. Since we're on a budget, we've decide to opt for the low-tech DJ: one of our ipods connected to a laptop connected to some speakers. Yeah, we've got to play with the whole technical aspects of it but seeing as we'd like creative control over the music choices, and we're really not big on dancing anyways--though I expect our guests to boogie at the reception--it made the most sense. See what songs he'd like.
7. Work on invitations. Since I've got a general idea of what it is I want to do, keep on sketching ideas and see what happens.
8. That being said, figure out what sort of Save the Date cards to send out. I'm thinking something a little more for the Boy as I've sorta hijacked the wedding planning and turned it a little girlier than what we originally pictured it to be (modern, cool, fresh pops of color).
9. Shop for wedding shoes. Gee, that's not really a task, is it?
10. Go with bridesmaids and pick out dresses that suit each gal's figure and style. Opting for non-traditional look of matching maids. I don't really care for the look and I think since we're having a wedding that fits us, the dresses should fit the personalities of the Maids.
11. Decide what to do with my mad hair. Am I cutting it? Sticking with the whole growing out my hair thing? Getting cute fun bangs? What to do, what to do. Opinions?


And that, ladies and gents, is on my Wedding-Related To Do List for the rest of the month. Let's not even get started on the list for the rest of my life.

a photo is a creation

Dear Max Wanger,

I love your photos.

Please come down from LA and take the pictures for my wedding; I'd be much appreciative.

Thank you.

Love,

Bride-to-Be

p.s. Here are some of my favorite shots.

papier collé

A little quiet but can you blame a girl? Life has been a little busy (though things have begun to die down only in preparation for the holidays), almost too busy to really plan anything about the wedding. In all honesty, I am torn about designing it because it almost seems like I keep changing my kind every two seconds (and really, why can't a bride do this?) Only, it makes talking it out with other people difficult because I jump from style to style in an attempt to discover the all allusive "OUR Style." Grrrr, frustrating. But here it is, trying to blend the romantic half of myself with the fun and playful (dare I say it, whimsical?) part of our relationship with the more traditional leanings of the Boy. I love color (which has made it hard to narrow down "colors" because I love all sorts of combinations), he likes things with cleaner lines. Marrying the two isn't hard; finding something that screams us while maintaining our individual personalities proves a little more challenging. Which doesn't help my tendency to procrastinate. In an attempt to avoid the last minute melt downs that I know would come if I didn't plan ahead, I attempted more research.

I was browsing the blogs when lo and behold, I fell in love with these adorable invitations and save the date cards made by Celine, a lovely bride sharing her gorgeous wedding on Once Wed. Aren't they cute? I love the whole fun use of color and illustrations throughout the paper goods.

I love these adorable Save the Date cards. They're fun and give the guest a hint of the going theme of the wedding. I think they're cute but for us, I was thinking of something else for our Save the Date cards....

This is the cover of their invitation. It makes me want to dust off my old drawing pencils and sketch a little cartoon of me and the Boy (it would actually be fitting as I once made the Boy a comic book--with him as the super hero--way back in high school).

I love the singing little birdie on the left. I showed it to the Boy and he really liked it as we had planned on a bird theme for the wedding (not like nests and eggs but a subtle sprinkling of little birdies, bird cages, and maybe little birdie foot prints). Still working on how we'd like to word the invitation though.

Thought this was the most hilarious RSVP card ever! We have to definitely steal this idea; it's so us and out quirky sense of humor.

Long before this set of invitations, I had wanted to somehow include a map for our out of town guests (and a few in towners who had never been to our wedding site). This could be an inspiration for one way to style it.

I love the idea that Celine and Jin incorporated their guests. They had planned to go to Spain on their honeymoon so they sent along this cute stationary and had guests write down tips or places to visit in Spain. I think these would make really great thank you notes after the honeymoon.
And here is the happy couple:

Thanks to Celine and Jin, I think I may have found a little more direction with wedding plans. If you are one of the fortunate people coming to our little wedding, please don't judge me too much if you see more than one element lifted from this stylish lady's wedding--like the Boy, I think I knew it was the one when I saw it.