Things are happening...

Ignore the clutter.
Watch this space.

And so it begins...

Well, now is the time I plan to get really "wedding-y". It is now one year, less one day, to the BIG day, and we are getting excited! We can finally start on hardcore planning; actually start buying things for the wedding; and definitely start making things!

Case in point 1) We booked the hall for 4/28/2012.

James P. Davis Hall courtesy of Nate Hofer

Yeah, remember this place? Still gorgeous.

2)I got pieces of my first wedding project in the mail TODAY. Thanks, Ebay.

(photo mine)

What will it be? Guess away!

So I am ready to get into high gear. I am READY. And excited. And so is C. We've been reading The Smart Couple's Guide to Planning the Wedding of your Dreams: Planning together for less stress and more bliss. Its been amazing. Its like counseling in paper form, with the added bonus of making him really excited to plan this thing together!

Wedding Porn

That's what it is. Gratuitous photos of weddings, weddings, weddings. And just like real porn, they make you feel somewhat inadequate; ashamed and alone, sobbing into your pillows at night. Ok, not quite so dramatic as all that, but I spent last night scouring my google reader for inspiration on colors. I have also sent the last year emailing myself blog posts that I thought would be useful, and then filing them away into folders according to the topic. So I had that backlog to look through, too. My plan is to amass a quantity of pictures showing the colors I like, and then letting C look through and pick his favorite combinations, and we decide from there what our "colors" should be. Frankly, at this point, my eyes are bleeding and I hate the very idea of having wedding colors. What's wrong with just choosing whatever color strikes my (our) fancy at the time, so long as it goes fairly well with what we've chosen before? It seems to me like wedding colors are just a thing you "do" and I may rebel.

Whoa, Cowgirl.

This is my cousin.


She's pretty much awesome. She rocks my world.








She's beautiful.







And she makes a great bridesmaid. Hip. Cool.


I should know.



We've been in the wars together.






So I wanted to do something extra special for her, when asking her to be my bridesmaid. I'd asked her previously, but she deserves something a little formal. So I came up with this. A photo album. An awesome one. I made it.

It made me happy. And I think it made her happy, too.

Plus, who doesn't like getting packages in the mail?

I <3 her. I think she needs a blog nickname, like they do on Weddingbee. What do you think? Maybe I'll name all my bridesmaids after the states they live in. I'm pretty sure they all live in different states. Miss Kansas. That's it!

So. Blogging. I should do some of that.

Hi world. Its time to start blogging again. I stopped, six months ago, because I wanted to work on some craft projects, which I then wanted to post, but not before I actually gave them to their intended recipients. And that dragged on a bit. Because... well, I'm a little bit distractable.

But, those gifts finally reached their destinations. So now I'm going to blog about them. Blog, blog, blog, blog, blog.

I've already asked a few people to be in my bridal party, but I wanted to ask them formally, with some sort of gift, or at least a card. And I got it into my head that I wanted to make them myself - and if all the wedding projects take as long to complete as these did, then we're never getting married. I'm crafty, I'm just a procrastinator.

First up was my Matron of Honor. I don't think I'd officially asked her to do that, and I was a little afraid to. She lives in Alaska, and with the distance, and with two small boys, I wasn't sure she'd be able to come at all, let alone be able to take on any responsibilities. But I made her this card.

(She really likes frogs)

But she said yes! So, if everything goes as planned, my matron of honor will by my oldest and dearest friend.
I'm trying to avoid acronyms here. But its tricky. Matron of Honor is a mouthful. MOH would be easy. Plus she's not in the least matronly.

wedding prototypes

These are some trials I've worked up for potential paper based decorations... I'm really excited about them. I'm picturing the paper chains lining the aisle, and perhaps draped along the long tables with some ivy. The hearts might look nice hung above the cake table... and the books will probably have numerous uses! These are all things I can be working on way, way ahead...
Can you tell I'm starting to get excited here?

Crowdsourcing. The wisdom of crowds.

You know, in order to crowd source, you need a crowd. I really need to tell more people about this blog.

However, in the meantime, I'm trying to decide what we will use in place of an altar area, as we aren't getting married in a house of worship. I love the idea of having the ceremony outside, but I know it might rain in April, so it has to be something that could be easily put together indoors or outdoors. So I thought we could use an garden arch (purchased in part with an amazon.com gift card I earned taking surveys), and then drape it with ribbons or flowing fabric (Imagine the photo on the right, only floor length and hanging from the arches). So I found a couple of contenders... what do you all think?

First off - a little reminder of what we're working with here.
The lovely terrace where we might have the ceremony:

The lovely interior where we might also have the ceremony:

With me still?

Now for the arches.
In this corner, a lovely little three dimensional number.

Its got a lot going for it. The three of us (the officiant, Mr. Adorable, and I) could stand underneath during the ceremony. However, its the most expensive, at just under a hundred dollars.

And in this corner, the champion (price-wise).

This one is a clear winner on price. Its only 36 dollars. As far as garden arbors go, that's pretty low. So I am drawn to it strongly. I could see it with a wall of ribbons hanging from the back, fluttering in the breeze.

And finally, this corner holds my favorite:

I love the square(ish)ness of the corners, and... I just like it alot. Its priced moderately, at 68 dollars, but I'm quite drawn to it. Again, with fluttering ribbons, or perhaps the floaty, drapy fabric angle.
I like the idea of being married under an arch like one of these - its evocative of a chuppah - a Jewish wedding canopy. As a little girl, I didn't dream of my wedding much. But when I did, I pictured it looking a lot like the wedding scene from Fiddler on the Roof. So it would be particularly meaningful for me. And I floated the idea by Mr. Adorable, and he's for it. He's the best of all possible future grooms. His opinion is generally either "I'll defer to your judgement" or "I want you to be happy." Makes planning pretty easy. He has yet to weigh in on the "which one" issue, but he's fully on board with the idea. He's so loveable.

Sunrise, Sunset.