This article does an awesome job of explaining why planning a wedding really isn't that hard.

I mean, yeah, I changed my mind a lot - that's what brainstorming is - and got a little stressed a few times (Darren's mom! Food issues! Money!), but really. Not that difficult. Other than the whole wedding ceremony part, the whole thing really was just a party. People freak out about everything being perfect but anyone who has ever had a wedding has been told by someone (most likely many someones) that something WILL go wrong, and it WON'T MATTER. And they are right. As long as you end up married at the end of the day and people enjoy themselves, you had a great wedding. Good job, you.

Wedding Recap

We did it! And so, wedding planning is done. I figured there's no better way to end a wedding planning blog than talking about the result of said planning. Right? Never mind the fact that the only people that I know read this were there for the whole thing. I'm going to pretend a bunch of strangers are actually interested.

After a lot of last minute stuff on Friday (funeral, Target, Costco to pick up cakes, Scancy's for ice packs for cakes, our apartment for some stuff we forgot to pack), we headed up to the farm to work on getting everything set up. Our directions were bad and traffic was worse, so it ended up taking us 5 hours to get there instead of the usual 2.5- 3. Marsha got there shortly after us and she and I decorated the heck out of our reception tent. Then we bounced over to the hotel. Darren asked me what we did that night and i laughed when I told him: grabbed some gas station food, showered, watched The Nanny, slept.

We did our hair at the hotel in the morning, then went to the farm to complete setup. My hair ended up withering in the heat, so Rebekah re-did it (in a slightly different but possibly more awesome style) it while Gina took pictures. Hooray for Gina and Marcus, by the way.

The weather forecast called for rain yesterday, but it held off long enough. It was very hot, but that was better than thunder and lightning. At least I think so. Pictures went well. I wasn't stressed at all. The whole "I'm getting married today" thing didn't really register. Except when my mom came to see me after I'd just gotten dressed and she started to cry. Then I cried. She did it again when she & dad gave me away. Silly mom, making me cry.

I only freaked out once: the wedding party was waiting in the living room before we began the ceremony. A few people hadn't arrived yet, including one of our readers. We were scheduled to begin at 4 and the clock read 4:20 and I was getting antsy. And then someone told me it was only 4:02. Thanks a lot, grandma, for your fast clock! RELIEVED!

We didn't rehearse and only met our officiant the day of. We found him online. Darren said he talked like Steve Brule (Google him!), but he got the job done.

Darren didn't write any vows, and just said what he felt right there. It was lovely. I had written mine and I literally sobbed through them. I start tearing up just thinking of myself up there, weeping.

We had a couple snafus with the music- our guy didn't fade out when we finished processing, just turned the song off. Then there was a long delay when the recessional song was supposed to start. it SO didn't matter. That's a perfect example of the small stuff that should not be sweated. Har har.

After the ceremony, all formality was done. I hung out with friends, ate delicious tacos, drank amazing beer. Most people didn't dance (so glad I decided not to rent the dance floor), and they bailed early when storm clouds started rolling in. Rightly so, as it got pretty brutal, but the whole storm lasted less than an hour. Several people planned to camp out, so those of us who did partied until about 2 am. At the end of the night, Darren and I retired to our tent. It actually sucked a little, because some rain had gotten in so everything felt damp. But we slept, so whatever. Tonight we get to sleep in our own bed.

It really was an amazing day. I'm excited to get pics from Gina for photographic proof that everything looked stellar.

Okay, this is long enough. I grabbed most of the photos that people posted on Facebook and put them on a website.

snafu'd

Darren's grandpa died this morning. Okay, he's not actually his grandpa, but he was an old friend of the family who very much played a grandfatherly role. Y'know?

So his mom left me a message to the effect of "You need to call me as soon as you get this. As soon as you get it, call me." And I'm at work, so I couldn't just call her back right away. So I was sitting there freaking out, and texting Darren trying to find out if he'd talked to her until finally I gave in and snuck out for a minute to call.

The funeral is in Farmington on Friday so we're going to have to revise some plans a little as far as picking up cake, driving up north, and prepping stuff, in that the food won't get prepared until Saturday morning and it'll be a later night than I anticipated on Friday with decorating stuff. Meanwhile, she's all worried about not "bringing us down" for the wedding. And I'm sitting here thinking 'don't worry about me, I'm the one worrying about you guys,' because HI, someone they love just died! Who gives a crap about it maybe affecting their moods several days from now?

Anyway. Yeah. That happened.

Bonus: while I was panicking about the voicemail she left me, I got an email from the rental company saying the last people that rented the PA system had retuned it broken. So that blows. They have an amp and microphone for backup, so she's going to make sure those work and then get back to me. If not, luckily we know people in bands who prrrobably have PA systems we can borrow. I hope.

We picked up our marriage license last night. It was one of those things that made me really feel like an adult. Kind of like the first time you schedule your own dentist appointment. And then actually go to said appointment, and pay for whatever insurance didn't cover.

We're ready for this wedding. I have to fill the centerpiece vases with rocks, and we've got a lot of shopping to do, but that's practically nothing. People keep asking me if I'm excited or nervous, and yes, I am both. I think a lot of people say that the nerves have nothing to do with the marriage, but the wedding, and I would say that is completely accurate.

I feel like the wedding is a play - nay, a musical! - and I'm the producer, director, stage manager, and leading lady. In real life, that's pretty much impossible. The stage manager can't be on stage! Who would run the show? Yeah. Exactly. Who is going to do all the crap I can't do on the wedding day because I'm too busy getting married? Answer: whoever is willing. That stuff will be delegated and it will be fine, but until those roles are filled it's just one more stupid thing to deal with. But it's going to be awesome.

Tangent over! I'm suuuper excited for mah party tonight.

dwindling task list

I have 11 things left on my to-do list (not including "pick up the marriage license," which, psh. That'll take ten minutes):

Five of them involve shopping
Three are things to figure out the night before
The other three are assembling DIY stuff

Easy.

Dear Ladies of Honor,

I made a couple really simple chokers for you to wear for the wedding. Just green ribbon with a single flower attached. I think they will look pretty on you. You can totally take them off once the ceremony is over. :)

Love,
Katrina

programs = FINISHED.

They look awesome.

What up.

...

I didn't get as much done this weekend as I'd hoped. Putting together the programs takes more time than I anticipated, but I think I'll probably be able to get them done in the next two days.

I didn't even start the silverware bundle things. Or buy the rest of the vases.

(Although I did get some vase filler. It's actually aquarium gravel, courtesy of PetSmart. We also purchased a cat leash while we were there. Truth).

We did buy Darren a suit, though. We took the awesome Calvin Klein jacket (that he found at Goodwill for $15) to Men's Warehouse and the guy was all "We have this suit, but I can't separate the jacket from the pants, I can only sell them together." And it's a $500 suit. Sooo we decided to get him a brand new $300-on-sale-for-$200 suit instead. And he looks awesome. He'll probably look even better once the pants are tailored. The jacket didn't need any altering at all, which is awesome. The alterations on the pants are only going to cost $20. Win!

The unfortunate thing is we somehow ended up buying shoes from the, too. "We actually have some good deals on shoes right now, too." Ha! Okay, they might be the most comfortable dress shoes Darren's ever worn (awesome), but they were $109. Laughs! Ah, but in the end Darren and I will have spent pretty much the same amount on our wedding ensembles, so whatever. bring on the hundred dollar shoes.

We're going to do the marriage license stuff on Thursday, then pick up the suit on Friday... awesome. We're in the home stretch.

woot

Rental Lady called me back. Pip! Now she just needs to send me the invoice... dun dun dun. It won't be so bad considering we cut the stupid dance floor.

I'll be spending this evening working on program construction, by which I mean cutting them out. I finished all of the printing stuff last night (just in time- I ran out of colored ink. As a result I'll be short 8 water bottle lables. preeeeetty sure no one will notice). I also glued together the popsicle sticks, which as it turns out were the fat ones I'd originally wanted. Since I had so many, I decided to glue two together to make them longer and, in theory, better able to support the waving of the fans.

Goals for the weekend: buy the rest of Darren's stuff, finish fan construction, and make silverware bundles. And make the guest"book." And hopefully buy the last 5 vases and vase filler for all of them. I'm a friggin' machine.

stuuuuuuuuuuuuff

So! Some things.

1. I emailed the rental company on Sunday evening to give the lady our final numbers and I haven't heard back yet and I'm kind of losing my mind over it. RAR.

2. I trashed my previous programs because putting them together made me want to stab something. I changed to an easier and more effective fan-program.

3. I needed some kind of handle for my fans, so I went out in search of either a) stir sticks for paint, or b) tongue depressors. I couldn't fine them anywhere. So I finally got some regular popsicle craft sticks and decided I'll just glue two of them together, wrap them with ribbon, and handles I will have.

4. Anna is dropping off the discount form for our marriage license tomorrow, so next week we're going to get our marriage license. Yay!

5. Progress is being made in several areas, such as: programs (obvs), guest"book", decor, serving/dining stuff, road signage, and general awesomeness.

6. We're going to get the rest of Darren's fancy clothes this weekend. And the last of the centerpiece stuff.

7. I need to figure out what to get you guys for the finishing of the Ladies of Honor gifts. It might be bottles of wine (in addition to the other (secret!) things)... because shopping is hard.

8. It's Kate's birthday tomorrow!

9. I am super excited for my bachelorette party!

title?

I bought the lanterns and silverware/serving utensils/serving bowls/napkins the other day. Go me. Next weekend Darren and I are going pants/shirt/shoe shopping for him. Hopefully we find some pants that match his awesome $15 Goodwill suit jacket.

Also, my mom called last night to tell me she'll totally be able to get food through work. Yay, tacos! And fruit, too! Om nom nom.

So, here's what's up. I have come to the realization that I dislike being called - or referring to myself as - a bride. It is weird and I avoid it at all costs. Which is too bad, because the fact of the matter is I am one. It's als weird because I don't mind calling other wedding-planning ladies brides. Just not myself. Nope. I'm looking forward to the day, 29 days from now, actually it'd be 30 days from now, because the 29th is the actual wedding where I will most definitely be a bride- and just be a wife (hee!).

this is a post about how much my mom rules.

My mom is going to buy the taco ingredients. She's going to find out if she can get it through work, and if not she's just going to Wal-Mart.

My mom is awesome.

lanterns

I need to buy paper lanterns, like, this week and I keep losing the web site.

10 8" beige lanterns

10 12" beige lanterns

10 8" sage lanterns

10 12" grass green lanterns

Why we should've eloped.

We are 33 days out and, thanks to Darren's mom's pushy family, had to add another 10 people to the invite list. Never mind the fact that we passed the RSVP due date. I hope they all say no.

Sometimes this week we're going to have to get in touch with Darren's grandma, because she seems to know who all is coming from her side of the family. Almost none of them bothered to respond. I want to assume that none of them are going to be there, but I don't want a shitload of extra people just showing up and have there no be enough seats for everyone.

I also briefly considered making a seating chart, so the people who were smart enough to respond get seats, while everyone else can basically go eff themselves. I'm still kind of tempted to do that, actually. It wouldn't take that long. But then I'd have to make table numbers, too. Argh. That seems like too much work just for the purpose of putting people in their place.

Rage rage rage. I wish I could go back in time and have a guest list do-over.

My photo album hasn't come yet. Grr, argh. It better show up.

FYI

We don't know for sure yet whether or not camping out at the farm is going to be okay.

I'll let everyone know as soon as we find out for sure.

this is a story about how much i rule.

Last night, Darren and I were brainstorming guestbook ideas and came up with an awesome one. We think it's awesome, anyway. Acquire a bunch of old wedding photos from antique stores, have guests write messages on them, and then put them in our wedding scrapbook or a separate book.

Well. I thought to myself "I bet I could find some on ebay." So I did a quick search and right there on the first page was an auction for a full album of vintage wedding photos. For five bucks. Ending in 34 minutes. I bid, I won. Rock.

Unrelated: I bought the ties.

Also unrelated: Instead of going to Ikea and getting a bunch of matching vases, we're going to scour Goodwill/thrift stores/antique stores and find a bunch of random ones. All the flower arrangements are going to look the same so I figured it might be a little more interesting having a variety of vases.

I am pleased.

more progress! man, i'm awesome.

I finished the card box and those banners today, and the dyed program pieces are drying. We finalized the ceremony text and picked our readings.

Eric will read "A Lovely Love Story" by Edward Monkton.
Darren still needs to ask his grandma to do a reading, but assuming she says yes she will read "The Art of A Good Marriage" by Wilferd A. Peterson.

Our to-do list is getting pretty short. Rock.

dreams. And progress.

I had two wedding dreams in a row last night and it was ridiculous.

In the first one, it was the morning after and I was sitting on a couch at my grandma's old house when I realized that everything had gone wrong the day before. There was no photographer, hardly any guests showed up, I never got to eat anything, and the worst: we forgot to sign the marriage license. I was freaking out hoping that it was all a dream. Then I woke up. My heart was racing but I was quite relieved that it was a dream.

In the second one, we were setting up the reception inside a house. We cleared out all the furniture and brought in tables and stuff, and it looked amazing. Some dude was practicing his toast and I overheard it while I was setting up and I started to cry a little. And that was it, end of dream.

Anyway. I spent most of yesterday working on wedding projects. I made a card box, dyed more program pieces, and made necklace things for my ladies of honor. They're not fancy or anything- I fully intend on throwing them away after the wedding- but I think they'll look nifty. Maybe not though. I'll decide the day of, I suppose.

Today I'm going to finish dying the paper, finish the card box, and maybe make the signs to hang. They say "guestbook," "food," "drink," "beer," and "games." When I realized how expensive chalkboards would be, I decided to steal the idea that Heather used at her wedding: paper banners. Bam.

ties

I think I'm going to buy the dudes' ties when I get paid on Tuesday. This is just my note to self so I remember...

1 black tie for Darren.
2 hunter green ties for the ushers.
4 pear green ties for the groomsmen and Kyle.
2 olive green ties for our dads.

go team Baxter

Darren and I had a good talk last night about how we're going to face - nay, attack - the next two months. Two months!

He's starting his new job today, which mean he'll theoretically be making more money than he was on unemployment (they're only paying him $10 an hour, but it's better than nothing). We're going to stick firmly to our monthly budget plan and try to reduce our grocery allotment. We won't be going out or doing anything that involves spending money - no bars, movie theatres, restaurants, and the like. All the money we have left over will go toward the wedding.

We'll also slowly but surely stock up on frozen ground beef for the taco bar. If we can find ground chicken at a good price we'll pick up a bunch of that too. We'll pick up the perishable stuff (lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, etc) probably the day before.

We haven't made any decisions about side dishes. If his mom still wants to help, she can do those. Rah rah.

We're going to need crock pots.

programs

Okay, so it might take a little convincing to get Darren to go along with this taco bar idea. Fingers crossed!

In other news, the most time-consuming project is proving to be the ceremony programs. I mentioned in an earlier post that I downloaded a template to make fans. I have to cut out each individual piece- five sections per fan. Three of them will be printed on both sides (one side with actual ceremony and wedding party info, the other side with a design), and the other two are blank but there to make the fan larger and more fan-like.

I decided that instead of leaving the blank pages boring and white, I'm going to stain them with tea. I've got some test pages drying right now, but as long as they dry to the same stiffness as before, then it's a go. I've got almost all of the blank pieces cut out. I'm not going to print the other pieces until after I get more ink, so I can do them all at once (my current color cartridge is about half empty and I'd inevitably run out half way through printing).

So it's going to take a long time. But they're going to be pretty nifty I think.

Ugh

So, you know how cows and turkeys were going to be raised for our wedding feast? Yeah, that fell through. So now it's all going to have to be purchased. Oh, and Darren's aunt told his mom that it's been too cold for the sweet corn (70-80 degrees is too cold??) so that's going to have to be store bought too.

It was my understanding that Darren's mom's family was going to take care of all the food. But she just got off the phone with him and she asked him to ask me what kind of food budget we have. Um, we have zero dollars. I had just gotten off the phone with her myself after explaining that we were over budget as it was. And I don't see why she couldn't have just asked me herself.

We have two months. Food won't be purchased until a couple days beforehand so we have time to save extra money, but it's not going to be much. Especially since we have to save extra money for our over-budgeted-ness.

We should have eloped.

*EDIT: We had accounted for the side dishes, but not the farm-provided food. But Brenna, bless her, had a brilliant idea: taco bar. BAM. Ground beef, ground chicken, black beans, and the usual taco fillings. Delicious, and way more affordable.

Confession

Now that invitations have been sent, I'm totally girl-ing out. We've gotten two RSVPs so far and both times I've been all "tee hee hee yay *giggle*" despite the fact that one of them was a no.

It is ridiculous, and I hope I calm down.

But the first RSVP was from Beth & Dan and they're totally coming and I get super excited every time I think about it. Yay! Yayayay!

I'm also inbox stalking, since every time someone RSVPs via the website I get an email. I don't know what I'm going to do when someone responds by phone. Probably not answer and then listen to the message and have the same response.

Bah. Total girl.

In other news, we finished pre-marital counseling on Tuesday. Now we just have to wait for Anna to send us the official, notarized thingy saying that we received counseling so we can get our discount on the marriage license. Pip!

Progress!

Invites are going out with the mail this afternoon! Holla!

Also, my pretty sage green crinoline is finished and was shipped today:Hopefully it arrives soon. Although I noticed she shipped it to my home address, so... I might end up having to fetch it from a post office somewhere, because we can't really accept packages at our place if they don't fit in the mailbox. Oh well. I'll get it somehow.

I also started cutting out pieces for our programs last night. Just the blank sections. I want to buy more ink before I endeavor to eff with the actual colored portions. This project is going to be the biggest pain in the ass yet. If I end up baking cookies as the favor, it's going to seem like a breeze compared to these programs.

Anyway. I finally got around to creating a To Do list and it's getting pretty short. Mostly just making purchases, with some shopping and writing and creating thrown in. It looks long but it's kind of not. Although I do feel like I'm forgetting something:

To Do

• find vases for centerpieces

• make centerpieces

• find square placemats or something for centerpieces to sit on

• acquire marriage license

• book flights to Vegas

• ask Darren's grandma to be a reader

• choose readings

• buy Darren's suit, shirt, shoes

• buy all ties

• buy groomsmen gifts

• finish buying bridesmaid gifts

• acquire games and stuff for reception

badminton
bocce ball
board games
bean bag toss

• decide where to stay before the wedding (book rooms if necessary)

• decide where to stay on wedding night (book room if necessary)

• finish vows

• finish ceremony

• finish programs

• make guestbook

• make description cards for food

• make signs (may scrap this idea depending on what resources end up being necessary. I want to use chalkboards but damn if they aren't surprisingly expensive):

"guestbook"
"games"
"food"
"drink"

• buy place settings, cups, serving utensils and bowls

• buy lanterns for decorating

• make playlists

pre-ceremony
dinner
dance

• try to go to Bertha to decide layout

meet with officiant if possible

• make signs to put along the road to direct people

• buy all beverages necessary

wine
water
soda

• favors??

• finalize day-of timing and details

• 2 weeks out: make sure officiant has final ceremony

• 2-3 weeks out: make sure rental company has final numbers

• determine any tasks for wedding party

• decide who will coordinate day-of setup

• write toasts

• do name-change paperwork

We have invitations! Here it is, edited for privacy. Eric is working on the RSVP, hotel, and direction info as I type.


Also, Darren's ring arrived on Monday and my necklace should be here in the next couple days. And I think we're going suit shopping this weekend. Woo!

oh, and Darren finally decided on his wedding ring and it's being made for him this week.

ikea

I'm looking for some kind of placemat-type thing to put under our centerpieces to make guest tables a little more interesting. Sooo... list of options below.

A bamboo-looking one from ikea

This one is apparently made from palm leaf.

And this one is bamboo.

More palm leaf.

bookmarks

I will buy my utensils from Smarty Had A Party.

• 3 packages each of dinner forks (maybe 6 in case people throw them away before cake) & knives, probably not spoons.

• 1 package each of serving forks and spoons.

• 5? pie slicers (1 for each cake & pie. # will depend on how many pies & cakes we actually get)
  

• 2 - 4 sets of tongs
  

• possibly serving bowls as well, if budget allows.

• guest towels as napkins

• I'm not totally sure about cups yet, but SHAP has good options. They seem a little spendy though. That said, I really like these square ones. But the regular ones are a waaaay better deal.
  

Not sure yet where the plates will come from. I like bamboo plates (the cheapest ones I found are here), or square ones, but when it comes down to it I'll probably just pick up some of the clear plastic ones at Costco. They're cheaper. :)

yes!

Darren got his unemployment back, which means we'll have extra money to spend every month, which means I can make wedding purchases with said money and leave the current fund in tact (for when we have to pay vendors in August).

So I jumped on the opportunity and did the following:

• submitted an alchemy request on etsy for a green crinoline, and accepted a bid. Yay!

• bought a bridesmaid gift.

• bought the necklace I've been lusting after (with our initials and wedding date):

Yay!

score

The rest of my flowers are here. Wee!

I need to get vases so I can start making the centerpieces, and I need to go buy more ribbon.

AHH! So pretty.

90

Thanks to The Knot, I inadvertently know exactly how many days I'm at. An unintended countdown.

It's 90 days from today. That's 2 months, 4 weeks, and 1 day. Nice.

Now if Darren would just pick out a ring and decide when he wants to go suit shopping (probably not for at least a month yet, he's been losing some weight), then the rest will be a cakewalk. Kind of.

Programs!

Originally I was going to have Eric design some super simple two-sided programs with just something pretty on the front, and the wedding party on the back.

Until today, when I found this sweet template for fan programs. Which means I won't have to buy actual fans. Win.

I found a fabulous design that is actually a border, at a stock images website. I just had to register (free, of course), and was able to download the full-sized document of said image. I used my mad skills in Photoshop and MS paint and will be adding the test in the very near future. I downloaded a free font that is similar to Futura, which is what Eric is using, but then he said he's send his fonts to me, so... awesome.

I'm kind of geeking out over this, actually. Hahaha. Programs.

DIY'd

I spent some time screwing around with my flowers today, and accomplished much. You can see the details over here.

I also ordered the rest of my flowers from save-on-crafts.com. They should be here in, I don't know, a couple weeks. I need to pick up more ribbon, mostly so I can wrap my own bouquet when it gets here. Wee, flowers!

vegas

So! Darren talked to his mom today and, because it's a time share, the earliest she could book us a week in Las Vegas is in October.

Con: it's two months after the wedding.

Pros: in August, average temps in Vegas are in the 100s. In October, it's the 80s.
Also, just when it's starting to get a little chilly here, we'll be able to flee to the desert.
And it'll be kind of like I get two vacations from work- one shorter one for the wedding itself, and then the honeymoon. It'll be spread out instead of lumped all together.
Plus it'll give us two months in between to hopefully save up a little more money. Especially if Darren's found a job by then.

Works for me! Now I just need to find out the exact dates so I can book plane tickets.

fans

Looking for inexpensive paper fans to include with the programs at the ceremony, the cheapest place I could fine them was here. 100 programs, with 100 fans. Doo doo doo.

Aaaand I may have found a cheaper place for lanterns here. Or here.

It all comes down to shipping costs. And whether I can find them at a lower price locally, like the dollar store.

bleh

I think I'm going to change my boutonnieres. I don't think the cost of getting different ones is going to be any more than buying all the stuff I need to fix the issues with the ones I originally purchased.

So I think I'll get this one for Darren.
These ones for the groomsmen.
And these for the ushers/attendants.

Also, I'm thinking about tying paper fans together with each program and I'm currently searching for the least expansive fans I can find. So far this is my best option. We'll see if I actually follow through on this idea, but whatevs.

1. Four months!

2. My first flower order came today. Bridesmaid bouquets look good. The daisies are smaller than I expected, but I can just order more and put several in each vase instead of just one.
The wooden flower heads for the groomsmen are more yellow than green, but I bet I can find some paint. And the dark green flower heads for the ushers and attendants are dried, not plastic like I thought, so they're very fragile. I'll see what I can do to make them stronger- maybe spray lacquer or something. Michaels seems to have what I need.

So, when we're in Vegas, we might rent a car and take a day trip to the Grand Canyon. The west rim of the canyon is only 120 miles from Vegas. So I'm writing this post so I can hold onto this link with directions.

crrrazy dream

Right before I woke up this morning I had a wedding dream. Not the first, but possibly the craziest. Or, at least in the top 2 Crazy Wedding Dreams I've Had.

So, it was the day of, right? And we hadn't done ANYTHING. We hadn't picked music for the pre-ceremony, we hadn't given the officiant the ceremony we had written, and it was pretty clear that nothing had been rehearsed.

Everyone was in the gigantic church with what was basically a big carnival ride behind the pews- the kind where there are cars set in a circle around a base, and the base raises up and you just sit in these cars and go around in the circle. But the cars on this one tilted. A lot. The wedding party was using this ride to make their entrances. The idea was, the ride would spin, we would raise up and ride it briefly, then it would lower and we would get off the ride and walk up the aisle.

So we're up in the air, and I was in one of the cars all by myself, pissed because we hadn't given anyone our pre-show music so we were stuck listening to boring crap. And then I was remembering that we were going to be stuck having some generic, crappy ceremony because we hadn't gotten around to writing ours. And then the cars started to tilt, which wasn't supposed to happen. At one point they tilted completely upside down and I was clinging to mine in an attempt to not fall to my death, because remember we were up in the air.

The cars finally righted themselves and the ride ended. Just as I was about to start walking up (down?) the aisle, some girl in a blue ballgown ran in from the back screaming. I'm not sure who she was supposed to be. Maybe an old girlfriend of Darren's who was still in love with him, or something. Either way, I was PISSED. I ran up behind her, grabbed the train of her dress yelling "oh HELL NO."

I woke up right as I was [presumably] about to drag her out of the church.

.....

In other news, I'm pretty sure we're about to finally book an officiant. I've been emailing this guy who is actually in Bertha and willing to work with our budget. Once I've given him a deposit and signed a contract, I will breathe a sigh of relief. The most stressful thing in the last couple weeks (besides money, which I'll get to in a second) was finding an officiant so we would actually be legally married at our wedding. Y'know? At the end of the day, we agreed that if we ended up having to spend more than we wanted on hiring someone to do it, we'd make it work.

At this point I have no qualms about asking my parents for a little financial help if we end up needing it. I had about $2,000 set aside in a bank in WI which my grandma had sent to me early this week and it'll cover more than half of our estimated expenses. It was about $2,200, plus the $400 I already put down as a deposit for our rentals, plus the fact that my dress didn't come from that fund... if we're careful about saving, and I figure we'll end up getting a few cash gifts, we should be all right money-wise. That was the other panic point. Really, though- right now our budget estimates (which will definitely change, unless 1/3 of our guest list doesn't end up coming) come to less than $4,000. Considering most people spend over $20,000 (I don't know where that statistic came from, but I see it everywhere so there must be some truth to it), I'd say we're doing pretty well.

decor, finalized.

I ordered my first batch of flowers today! Gotta make sure they don't suck before I order the rest. Here's what I'll end up with:

This vase ***edit** HOLD UP. Shipping for those vases is as much as the actual cost. DEALBREAKER.

So instead, I'll find some bud vases and fill them with some twigs (or these twigs... probably the first ones because they're cheaper. Heh). and a single daisy (I'll break up the bouquets) for the centerpieces.

I'll make some garlands for accents on the head table and probably buffet table.
The centerpieces on the head table are going to be made with three vases I got from work and some vase gems, so we (me, Marsha, Kate) can put our bouquets in them.

I'll make boutonnieres for the ushers/pins for the attendants with these flower heads.

Similarly, I'll make groomsmen boutonnieres with these wooden flower heads.

Darren's boutonniere.
My bouquet.

Ladies of honor bouquets.

Boutonnieres for our dads.

Wrist corsages for our moms.

Finally, because ceiling draping is so expensive (like $600 minimum, srsly!), instead we'll hang green and white lanterns up (sans actual lights). The tent lighting we're renting plus the shitload of Christmas lights I acquired should provide enough light- the lanterns will just be there to add a touch of awesomeness.
ALSO, I bought a new flower clip for my hair. Ordered it yesterday. The other one just wasn't doin' it for me. Or, the other two that I got when I ordered one. I mean, I like them, but I like this one better:

So maybe the other ones can be for mah ladiez.

(for my own reference: today I ordered the bridesmaids bouquets, 1 daisy bouquet, all the flower heads for pin-making, and the flowers for garland-making).

marriage prep

A friend of mine is in grad school right now studying Marriage & Family Therapy. She took a seminar and got her certification to lead Prepare-Enrich sessions. So she's hooking us up. All we have to pay for is the cost of online the assessment and, in return, we'll fill out an evaluation for her. Everyone wins! Plus we get a discount on our marriage license. Extra awesome.

So we met with her for the first time tonight, just to discuss the process. We're meeting again in two weeks to really get started. Sometime before then we'll do the assessments and go from there. I'm looking forward to it, despite that fact that sometimes people go through these courses and end up deciding not to get married. Kinda scary, sure. And sometimes people end up learning nothing new. If I were to fear one of those options it would be the latter- since we've lived together for almost two years we've already figured out a lot of the day-to-day stuff, the financial nonsense, the sexin'... you know.

But, yeah. Darren and I are awesome. I think this'll be pretty neat.

Suit for Darren? The one I posted several months ago doesn't exist anymore. Fail.

He's concerned about single-button jackets, but if he wears a vest... and/or does some sit-ups, I think it'd be fine.

Or maybe I'll have him come downtown and I'll drag him to Men's Warehouse. They have some suits in the same price range as my dress that could work. We'll see.

Five months!

dress!!

So. I was at the Mall of America today with Kate and Kelsey and we were walking past Deb, where they were selling prom dresses. So I was like "hey, let's go to Deb and I'll try on some white dresses because why the heck not?"

And I ended up finding a dress. This one, but in ivory. The ribbon can tie in front or in back. I tried on several dresses and liked two other ones too (this one and this one, both in white), but, you know. They weren't The One. The first one is The One. I walked out of the dressing room and Kate made the "I might cry" face. Wee!

ooh

This vase is super neat.

I kind of want to buy a couple sets of them and, instead of putting full bouquets at each table, do a single flower. With twiggy accents, like this. Or these. Or both! I might find different flowers for the centerpieces altogether... maybe just the two types of branches? Hmm.

Also, I might have my ladies of honor wear these wrist corsages instead of carrying bouquets.

Double hmm....

Vegas, baby

Most of the wedding stuff is planned at this point. Now it's just a matter of making all the purchases.

Side note: it's hard to save money when you somehow end up overdrawing your checking account by $150 despite diligent budgeting ARGH I HATE MONEY! Whatever, I'm dealing with it, plus when Darren gets his tax return next week I'm getting $900 of it so I'm going to stop freaking out now.

We haven't officially booked an officiant, but Darren's mom has a few she said she'll be in touch with for us (and she'll give them my contact info, la de da), and a photographer hasn't been officially booked either, but I've been talking to a couple people so we're mostly good to go there too.

Other than those few things though, it really is just a matter of spending the money. And there's not a lot to be done right this second. So, in the meantime, I'm looking up awesome, inexpensive stuff to do in Las Vegas. Sounds like this is for sure what we'll be doing for the honeymoon, so why not be prepared, eh?

The place we're staying has a kitchen and apparently it's right off the Strip, and I guess they have drivers who will take you wherever you want to go? Amazing. I definitely want to see Cirque du Soleil's Love while we're there, which is going to be spendy but totally worth it. Kate saw it when she was in Vegas on her MLP tour and she said she would've seen it again.

I think it's going to be a pretty amazingly fun week. We probably won't go the week immediately after the wedding, mostly because some friends are getting married on the 14th and we don't want to miss that. If we go the 16th through 21st, it'll work out perfectly: I'd get paid on the 13th, our renter's property tax refund would get deposited on approximately the 16th, and Darren's birthday is the 20th. And I could catch up on work the week before and spend the whole time bragging about how I was going to be in Vegas. I'm only half kidding about the bragging.

Wee!

At the wedding fair, there was a catering vendor who had these fantastic plastic forks that totally looked like real silverware. I picked one up and was like OSNAP! These are plastic! WANT!

And I can get them here. Or here. Or here. Booya!

The Save-the-Dates are finished and have been ordered! Wanna see? Sure you do! Even though you're getting one in the mail in the future. Ha.

Here's the front:


and here's the back:


Designed by my favorite Eric in the world. Yay!

more stuff

Sounds like we're going to Vegas. WHAT UP?! Darren's parents have a timeshare there and they're not going to have the time or money to go this year, so they offered it to us for our honeymoon. Amazing.

Anyhoodle. Darren mentioned paper lanterns, so I'm looking into places I can buy them wholesale. So far this place has the best prices. Oh wait, maybe this place does. IKEA has them, but $4 each? Really? Come on.

And finally, iffn' we end up getting tables and chairs for free from Darren's grandma's church (hope, hope), if the chairs are ugly, I'm going to have to get covers. And this is the cheapest place I can find them.

Doo doo doo...

notes

Shoes: received. Fit. Super cute.

Rental company: emailed. Sweet Jesus, I hope their stuff is available that day.

**edit: It is. She's working on an estimate/invoice today (Friday). Wee!
Unfortunately, I was doing my taxes last night and it looks like I'm going to be getting less than half the return I usually get. That sucks, since it was going to go toward the wedding. Argh. I should still be getting enough for the 25% deposit, though. And hopefully Darren will be willing to hold off on buying his new TV and donate more to the wedding fund than originally planned. :( Money is frustrating. I wish I could just blatantly ask for cash gifts only, but some people aren't into that. Oh well. We'll make it work.

Wedding fair: planning on going on Sunday at Darren's insistence. It's $15 bucks to get in, but hey, if we get lucky we could win a friggin' honeymoon. Or if we're really REALLY lucky, a $150,000 dream wedding. Ha!

We're hoping Darren's uncle will do the photography for us. For free! Or really really cheap! Cross your fingers for us...

Ha. PS: I asked Darren about porta potties last night and he told me his mom had called him earlier in the day to ask the same thing. I LOL'd.

I just submitted an estimate request for port-a-potty rental. Hahahahahaha.

Ooh, I just got an email back. That was fast. Looks like two stalls is going to cost about $250. And that's not even for the nice ones, which it says they don't have at that branch! Sigh. We'll see what Darren and his mom and grandma have to say about it. I'm thinking they may not have even considered it yet.

**edit** Doo doo doo. This is ridiculous. Instead of contacting all these places today, I'm just going to list possible options here and deal with it later.

Option A
Option B
Option 3

...

In other news, I bought those shoes. They should be here by the end of the week. This means that all I need is my dress and my wedding ensemble will be complete. Win!

mistake #1

Yea, that flower hair clip I bought? Not what I expected. Good thing it didn't cost much because it's poorly made and sits weirdly- it sticks out super far when it's in my hair. So I'm calling that a wash and looking for something else for my hair. Like these.

**edit** Or, instead of spending more money, I can take the flower apart and reconstruct it so it looks, you know, good.

If I fail at that, then I'll find something else. Heh.

Oh, by the way- 7 months exactly. Go team Darren & Katrina!

let them eat cake

The thing about wedding cakes is they cost a ridiculous amount of money. We want cake because it's delicious, but we don't want to spend $500 on something we'd just tear apart.

The other day I came across a web site, instructables.com, and was browsing their recipe section when I saw something fantastic: Pie in a Jar.

Dude. I could make cake in a jar! I could get several dozen 8 oz jars (10 dozen = 120 jars). Then I could make sponge cake, rip it apart, and put cake chunks in the bottom of the jar, then a layers of strawberries and whipped cream. Simple, summery, and delicious. I'd totally have to freeze them though, so the whipped cream didn't melt. Which is fine; I'd just need to find people who would let me stash jars of cake in their freezers.

Wedding Cake in a Jar. Then we could just put a jar at each place setting. It would serve a dual purpose: dessert/wedding favor. And it would cost much less than having to buy dessert and favors. Brilliant.

Darren doesn't like sponge cake, so we could totally make/buy an angel food cake, frost it with whipped cream, add some strawberries, and use it for the traditional cake-cutting and then eat the hell out of it.

rocks rock

I was thinking more about centerpieces. Right now the plan is to put these daisies into these jars. I'll have to trim the stems. And I'll put ribbon or something around the tops of the jars.

Well, I felt it was lacking. So, long story short, I decided that I'd fill in the empty jar space with rocks. Easy and a little more interesting to look at, plus it will hide any damage I do when I hack off the long-ass stems on those flowers. I figured black stones, since it is one of our colors and is under-represented in our decor thus far. I can buy a 5 pound bag of smaller stones, and a two pound bag of larger ones, and mix em up for jar fillin'. So easy. And cheap. Like the whorish rocks they are.

oh my god, shoes

Lookin' at shooooes. I want green ones.

Initially I was thinking something darker, like these. But given the color scheme I'm going with, the shades of green in my bouquet, etc., I think I'd rather wear something lighter like these ones (which cost more than I really want to spend, and those particular shoes in that shade aren't currently available in my size, but you get the idea).

So I'm browsing current options.

Rumor has it DSW has these shoes available in green in-store.

These ones are decent but also not available in my size (9).

Ooh, maybe these! <- **edit: Yep, after I saw these shoes I could not stop thinking about them. They're the right color, not too formal, and affordable. And I can wear them after the wedding too. Next paycheck, they will be mine!

Uh... yeah. You get the idea.

Happy new year!

Is it too early for a wedding countdown? Seven months and one week!