Smart Ass Bride

Moving on.

2010-10-02T09:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of recaps. I have a lot of mixed feelings about the wedding and old stuff that it dredged up, and I'm done thinking about it for now, because I need to be.

Moving on... I've started a new blog for October, based on my commitment to learning or accomplishing one new thing each day. Thanks for all your support, readers of this expired wedding blog! (And feel free to check out the pics of the wedding on Flickr if you haven't seen them yet!)

Check it out:

Thirty-One Days of New

finally!

2010-08-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

I think I'm finally finished processing the wedding. I love reading recaps and all, but had NO desire to write them. I still don't, really - I'm ready to move on to the other things that are consuming my brain, but here we go anyway!*

Our wedding started out in a very stressful way. Our relatives came and drove us crazy (with notable exception - my aunt, who not only was helpful but pretty much ran the whole show. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. I hated my flowers (the only dahlias that were available due to the unusually cold/wet weather we had been having), my makeup-doer backed out the afternoon before, I wasn't 100% pleased with my dress, and on and on and on. A bunch of friends jumped in and helped do all kinds of last minute things. We found a new makeup-doer. The local-but-not-organic cherries for the centerpieces found themselves in a bath of fruit/veggie wash. The night before the wedding, Bryn ironed my dress for 4 hours, ordered me around so I could get organized, and prepped fruit until 3. T and I went to bed at 4 in the morning (after having premarital sex for the last time, awww yeah).

this is a total lie. not "all done". not at all.

I got up before 7, when I began to run around like crazy again. That day, many people who were helping pre-wedding arrived late because of one reason or another. Getting stuff to the venue was an absolute nightmare. The tandem bike got left at home because no one had a truck. I received 4 separate text messages within an hour concerning the location of the homemade lavender-infused vodka!

Two people who were on time were Kathleen, who was doing my hair, and Erin, our photographer. Also, Milton was on hand to help get white cat hair on everything possible.

gratuitous cat picture.

We all consumed lots of Viso.

gratuitous hot fiance pic

Kathleen curled my hair with a curling iron and set each section with an alligator clip.

my day of "perfect beauty" - featuring the worst under-eye circles of my life!

tools

Then we tied a scarf over it in grandma-like fashion.

Erin took some neat details shots of our wedding clothes.

Kathleen and Erin drove to the venue together while I finished running around doing Icantevenrememberwhat, and forgetting ALL my jewelry (which I didn't even remember until after the wedding, when I mourned the absence of my CUTE bird earrings and bicycle locket). Best thing of the morning? The GORGEOUS bouquet my neighbor Jan made me! All the best dark-red dahlias with random foliage from our yard.

After a kerfuffle over WHERE THE EFF IS UNCLE RAY, I NEED TO GET OVER THERE ASAP, I ended up driving myself to the venue, alone, in our housemate's car, nearly getting in a head-on collision with a woman haphazardly exiting a motel near the venue. T had told me by phone, "Go in through the front door so you don't see the backyard [where the wedding was]... you do not want to see how un-set-up things are at this point." EFFFFF. So I went in the front and went straight upstairs to get ready.

Kathleen came up and finished my hair. And after feeling a little "meh" after the trials.... she nailed the hairdo perfectly. I loved it!

T's friend, Alison, who might be the most normal lady I know, helped me do natural-looking makeup. We were unable to do much about the enormous bags under my eyes, but whatever, I got 3 hours of sleep and that's what photo editing software is for.

My dress fit perfectly, thanks to the pigging out I did the couple days before the wedding. The few pounds I gained back actually made a huge difference in the fit of the boob area! Also, I'd like to give a huge thank-you to the shapewear industry. I wore a strapless bra that actually stayed up (tested it with the 1-year-old the week prior!) and a "Miraclesuit", which looked awful, felt okay, and kept my stomach in check and didn't creep down! Kathleen and Erin helped me zip and tie my dress. My friendors kept me totally sane, since all my other friends were running around setting things up downstairs.

Then we had an impromptu photo shoot in the white-and-turquoise subway-tiled bathroom with a built-in vanity:

HA! The bottom half of this window is frosted. This pic is a LIE.

So I'm dressed, starving, and ready to go. And things still aren't completely set up, and it's after the wedding's start-time and Thomas hasn't even taken his clothing out of the car because he had a disaster with the sound system and had to tell everyone what to do besides that. And I pace back-and-forth in the upstairs bedroom...

pic by me. obviously.

(To be continued)

(Hey, you're lucky you got this much!)

*All photos by Erin Thomas Photography, unless otherwise noted! You can also "like" her facebook page (which is more frequently updated)!

Almost there...

2010-07-29T23:46:00.000-07:00

Hold onto your horses*, readers!

My first wedding recap is almost finished. I'm way too lazy to look through pictures again tonight, and I have a headache to boot. Tomorrow, tomorrow, you're only 15 minutes awayyyyy.

(Erin Thomas Photography)

* things like the phrase "hold onto your horses" make me really appreciate working with young children.

Aftermath!

2010-07-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

I suppose one of these days I should do a wedding recap! My brain is super-cluttered right now, as I continue to be insanely busy. The day after the wedding we had brunch with my cousins and then we ran around town returning sound equipment and stuff. There was also tons of food that had to be repacked and shuffled around in the fridge. The day after that we ran more errands, did laundry, packed, and left for Astoria (which was wonderful). We got back Friday night and have been trying to work on our apartment, which was filled with mason jars, dishes, napkins and tablecloths and runners. All of which needed to be washed! Some of which were covered with red spray paint dots from a can that exploded in the back yard. Saturday we had a last-minute "come eat our cake" bbq, where I got no less than 50 mosquito bites. Sunday was more cleaning, and running loads of mason jars in our upstairs housemate's dishwasher, and then the mosquito bites started to inflame. My Monday was mostly spent laying around in an itchy stupor after getting little sleep. Today they're a little less intense and I'm getting some stuff done!

I'm making a list of the things we're going to sell now that the wedding is over. By some miracle of the universe, all of the white tablecloths came clean, despite having cherry juice dripped all over them! I'm selling those, table squares, milk-glass, tissue paper, kids' games, serving trays, the white FiestaWare pitcher (which I really don't need), and a bunch of other stuff. I can't wait to have it out of my life!

I feel like there are so many things I still need to process, but between the insane mess of our apartment, and the itch of the mosquito bites, I can barely even think. I want to write a huge recap of the wedding and the madness leading up to it. I want to write about our honeymoon. And I want to write about how weird it feels to use the word "husband" and how our relationship has changed. I just need to clear some physical/mental space first!

2010-07-08T15:30:00.003-07:00

Wedding was amazing after a rough start! Check out photos from Erin Thomas Photography here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smartasskicker/

More later!

opinions needed....

2010-06-30T23:13:00.000-07:00

cute? or too over-the-top? or both?

we are having a craft-a-thon over here tonight! our good friend jeff came over and helped make tissue paper pompoms!

my dress came and was sent back to seattle. it needed more alterations and some boning. but i got my shoes back from being cleaned and they. are. gorgeous.

more later! i'm going nuts! my dad gets here tomorrow night! aaaaagh!

One week!

2010-06-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

One week left, and I finally feel like things are starting to come together. We have been SO busy this weekend, but got a ton of things done. Stuff I did today:

I finished the small pinwheels for the kids. Oh my gawd, these things were (unexpectedly) a total time-vampire, but they're damn cute:

I made the 12 big pinwheels to create the aisle for the ceremony. They're mounted on dowels that I painted red. They're fully functional, so hopefully they'll spin if it's breezy!

I cut out more felt dahlia petals but got distracted because why am I doing that when I should be sewing?? So I went inside and pressed and sewed the last two table squares and the last runner (Total made: 5 of each). It feels so good to have these done!

Later I washed a bunch of the pyrex and milk glass for the centerpieces and started putting each table together. I am setting them up (miniature-style) on our dining table, photographing them, and putting it in a MS Word file with a list of all the components. All the stuff for a table goes in a paper bag, and the photo and list will get stapled to it. I have 4 tables figured out, so far. This is what Table 1 will look like (but a lot longer since it's a 60" table):

T is making a giant mobile using bike parts. Today he spent a lot of time disassembling his old bike (the one I was hit on - it's no longer functional) and cleaning and spray-painting the rims aqua.

He's also taking care of writing out ceremony (with frequent input from moi, of course), working endlessly on our Zune playlists, and is arranging some live music from (part of) Julia Massey & the Five-Finger Discount. And since he doesn't know how to sew or do a lot of the crafty stuff I've been doing, he's been taking on the role of Head Dishwasher in our household so he's just as busy as I am (because fairness is extremely important when I'm fighting with my sewing machine or burning myself with hot glue).

Our biggest challenge right now is flowers. We were planning on getting a butt-ton of dahlias from the farmer's market or a U-cut place, but the unusually cold/wet/neverending spring we had has pushed the season back a couple weeks and they're not ready. I'm trying not to panic and am instead focusing on thinking up a game-plan. I love poppies, so I might try the trick of burning the tips to make them not wilt. I'd love a wedding full of poppies! We can probably get dahlias from New Seasons, but they'll likely be more pricey than buying them in bulk. I need to see how many bud vases we need to fill before going this route. Lastly, I had a moment of madness (and hoped people would help me, which no one really volunteered to do) and considered making a bunch of those felt dahlias I'm in love with. But while I was cutting petals today, I was reminded of how time consuming it is! Probably not the best route at this point. I wish I had thought about the potential flower delay last month, when it was unseasonably cold and raining like crazy... I could've made 20 of those felt ones by now! Oh, well. Something will work out - we're looking for red flowers and that's easy to find. I find myself rethinking and reshaping my idea of this wedding even a week before it happens!

I could REALLY go for a ton of poppies, though....

(source)

Some of my list for tomorrow:
~~+ Pick up trash cans/beverage containers from Jasper~~
+ Collect materials to use as handfasting cords
+ Email everyone with kids who doesn't know about the plan to have them walk me down the aisle dressed in fun outfits (should've done this weeks ago.... oops)
~~+ Go by New Seasons and see their flower options and talk to deli about bread/cheese trays~~
+ Try poppy trick
~~+ Hunt down tea towels or cut fabric to cover food trays~~
~~+ Plan table layouts 5-10~~
+ Try to get some sun while wearing a strapless top to counteract horrid farmer-tan
~~+ Pick up more stuff from an Offbeat Bride Tribe girl~~
~~+ GET WEDDING LICENSE~~
+ A million other things, I'm sure!

ETA: pardon me while I use this as my to-do list

P.S. The most exciting thing happened yesterday! As I was sitting, working on the pinwheels, my glue gun went up in flames. It literally caught on fire! Luckily I was able to unplug it and blow it out before anything burned, but still! Scary! Later, T bought me the DELUXE Aleene's glue gun at Michael's and it is awesome. Not only is it multi-temp, it has interchangeable tips!

P.P.S. I'm having the weirdest formatting issues tonight with blogger. Anyone else?

DIY success!

2010-06-24T23:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, tell me this isn't the cutest goddamn thing ever. EVER.

EVER!!!!!!

I made this pinwheel out of 1/4 of a piece of 12x12 Martha Stewart scrapbooking paper bought in a stack of fun, glittery colors. I covered the dowel by wrapping a couple of 1" strips of another paper around it. I was having problems getting the pin to stick far enough into the dowel, so I solved the problem by hot-gluing a huge 3-dimensional blob onto the dowel and letting it dry before pushing the pin in. That way it had more grip! In order to get the pinwheel to sit properly on the dowel, I put on the pin: 1 small bead. Pinwheel. 2 more beads. And then I stuck it in! (That's what he said.) Wow, this sounds so much simpler than this process actually was. You could also put eraser caps on the dowels, or just use pencils and stick the pin into the eraser if you want smaller pinwheels. I started out with the directions found here, and then altered them to suit my needs. As I mentioned, we are making big 12x12 pinwheels as aisle decorations. These little ones are for the kids!

Also, please note the TWO FiestaWare pitchers AND the pie-plate underneath! The aqua and red pieces are a wedding present from my cousin, and the white one I found at Goodwill for $6.99. No, I couldn't pass it up. I am nuts about Fiesta disc pitchers and could have one in every. single. color.

10 days.

2010-06-24T12:56:00.000-07:00

There are 10 days left until the wedding. Although I don't have a steady job, I have four babysitting jobs between now and then. We bought an 87 Volvo 240, which went to the shop this morning and needs more work (and registration, ugh) before the wedding. I have been running around like crazy! Picking stuff up from various stores and people, making things, trying to find those last items in a cheapo fashion. One of the week's highlights was meeting Jasper, whose wedding was last weekend! I'm borrowing about 8000 jars from her, and am going back to her house to pick up a couple metal trash cans (aka keg-holders) and two beverage dispensers. This lady is not only generous, but is freaking gorgeous, has gorgeous kids, and the coolest house ever.

What's new: Monday I had a hair trial. My friend just got out of school so she's trying to build her portfolio and skill set. Thus, she's doing a couple trials with me. The first looked pretty good, and we've made notes to fix the things that weren't as good. Yesterday I went to one of my former students' houses, where his mom had gathered a few of the other moms to do wedding crafts with me. We prepped a TON of pompoms and the paper-folding part of the pinwheels is done as well. YAY! Today (so far) I took the car to the mechanic, went to my chiropractor visit, and used a hand saw (this is rare for me) to cut dowels down to size for the pinwheels. We had found shepherd's crooks at Grocery Outlet for $4/ea and were going to hang jars with water and flowers, but are taking them back so we can make GIANT pinwheels for the aisle instead, which will be mounted on $.59/each dowels. Cuter, more original, can be done in advance instead of day-of, CHEAPER. I purchased a strapless bra to wear with my dress, which lived through: running, carrying a toddler on my shoulders, rolling around on carpet, toddler pulling my (non-wedding) dress down, etc. I also bought a horrible "miracle suit", which at $40 will hopefully work as well with my dress as the $72 spanx thingy that I'm trying to avoid. I wish I had gone with a dress style that worked better with my body. Ugh.

This is such a scattered entry, but if it was well-thought-out it wouldn't exist!

Time to go to my massage!

Aaagh!

Bye!

17 days!

2010-06-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

So, according to our BB&B registry, there are only 17 days before the wedding. WTF?! How can that be, when I spent a large portion of my afternoon listening to Magnetic Fields whilst reading about serial killers on the internets?! And then went on a social bike ride in the evening? AAAAAGH!

Two things I've accomplished today:

1) I ordered a shrug to wear with my dress! I'm lame/awesome and photoshopped it onto the pic of me in my dress and it makes me look less naked (Oh, strapless dress, why did I choose you?). Bonus: it was about half the cost of the last one i liked. This one isn't quite as cute, but whatever, I'm on a budget.

(note: this is not me.)

2) I have someone to do my hair! My friend Kathleen, who just recently got out of beauty school, is going to do my hair. She loves vintage and vintage hairdos and knows exactly what I want! I can't wait to do a trial with her!

Bonus non-wedding-related: I altered my dress for the ugly bridesmaid dress bike ride I'm leading on Friday! And by altered, I mean I hacked it to an appropriate length, and sewed two small darts in the back.

Tomorrow after work I need to ride down to the mall (ugh) to try on shapewear (double ugh) and buy tissue paper and fake flowers (for the ride) at SCRAP and the dollar store! My life right now = fascinating.

Things are looking up.....

2010-06-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

1) Some of my students from this past school year are coming to our wedding! I'm so excited!

2) Made a ton of bunting today. More accurately - I cut out a billion triangles, but only sewed 8 feet onto seam binding. While doing this I finished Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert and started Eat, Pray, Love, both on audiobook.

3) I have a sales gig working for a local coffee roastery! No money up front, but I'll be getting a percentage of whatever i bring in, and it comes with other related possibilities, like working the farmer's market.

4) I wasn't able to find a nanny share for the summer, but at least I'll be continuing on with the little guy I'm already madly in love with, part-time.

5) Here are the finished guest-book-alternative cards.

These were made with images I cut off two notepads. I should get a reward for being Nikki McClure's biggest fan since i cut over 80 of these things! I am very, very happy with how these turned out! However, now that now I tied over 80 knots and bows, we have borrowed a tandem bike for people to tie them to - meaning now I need to UNTIE them all! GAH! This is something T can help with.

Tomorrow: I continue packing up the classroom I worked in this year, and then I may or may not be babysitting after that. After that, a Pedalpalooza ride or two! By the way, I found my ugly bridesmaid dress for my Visions in Taffeta ride - it's awesomely aqua!

On a happier note...

2010-06-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

+ Pedalpalooza starts today! Kickoff parade (that I'm probably not going to make) at 7pm this evening!
+ My somewhat soul-sucking job ends tomorrow. Despite the lack of employment I'm glad to not have to be somewhere I don't really want to be at 7:30 every morning.
+ The wintry gray skies and rain, which have still not gone away, are supposed to be making their exit TONIGHT!!!

Outer productivity, inner strife

2010-06-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

Warning! this post contains a lot of personal stuff which may be considered negative, self-pitying, etc. by others.

We're a month out and so we've finally kicked into hyperproductivity mode (or maybe just productivity mode). Sewing, buying stuff, finally meeting with the friend that's doing some appetizers, coming up with a basic structure for our ceremony. At this point I want to get the wedding over and done with. To be completely honest, if not for our deposits and all the stuff we've already paid for, we would probably just drop everything and elope. How I wish we'd gotten married in a cheap ceremony at Voodoo Donuts.

We invited about 140 people. Because of the holiday, we expected about 100. Now that the RSVPs are in (well, 30% of them came back) and the rest of the invitees have been called, it looks like about 65 people are coming. Included in this 65 are my dad, and T's mom (both of whom have acted as if they weren't sure they were even going to come). Not a single sibling, aunt, uncle or cousin is coming. This has been incredibly painful for us to deal with. I think I've cried every day for the past couple weeks.

My mom abandoned me (complete with a 4-page letter describing exactly how it was my fault) when I was fifteen, and although I made an attempt to keep in contact with the relatives on that side of the family for several years, I eventually ended that due to my grandmother's constant pushing for me to be back in contact with my mom. I wasn't ready for it, at that time of my life. Now at the age of 30, with a women's studies degree and considerably more life experience under my belt, I probably am (although not pursuing it). I have a much better understanding of the life expectations/realities of women of her generation, and I also believe that she suffered from mental illness. To be honest, my mom leaving when she did was probably the best thing for everyone. Despite that, it affected me negatively as well. I don't think about it much, but I have serious "abandonment issues" that (usually) run extremely far under the surface. This, as well as inheriting her incredibly toxic patterns of interaction with other people, have had an enormous effect on my life. I would probably do well to see a therapist about all this, but that will have to wait until health insurance makes a magic entrance into my life.

So, yeah. I don't have a lot of family to start with, and as it became clearer that no, the family that I do have is not traveling 1,000 miles to come to my wedding, I've been freaking the hell out.

Yes, I know that when you get married you're starting your own family.
And I know that "chosen family" is super important and valid.
And that the people who come are the ones who really matter.

All that is nice, and it's true, but you know what? I would give pretty much anything to know that I have a group of people who I'm related to, who think the world of me. Or would at least travel to a totally awesome, not-too-far-away city on a long weekend to celebrate my marriage to T. Because having this wedding that we've poured our hearts and dollars into for the past year, without having our families there, feels more than a little sad.

Crafting like mad

2010-06-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

I've been home sick since yesterday after my morning job. Mostly just trying to sleep it off, but I DID get a good amount of crafting in this afternoon. The cards I've been making for people to write guestbook-type-things on are nearly done! the only thing left is to add this image to each:

source

It's by Nikki McClure, an artist that I LOOOOOOVE.. All her work is cut out of paper with exacto knives. I was excited to come across this picture on notepads at the buyolympia.com website, and so I ordered two to be picked up at their local warehouse. Of course then I got sick and T has been busy training a new employee at the shop he works at, so we haven't made it over yet. We'll be cutting the picture off each sheet of paper (which we'll save to be used as intended - for writing notes) and gluing them to the notecards. The rest of the work is done:

I got the idea for these while browsing at SCRAP a few weeks ago, when I came across boxes filled with hundreds of gorgeous notecards, for 5 cents each. Although I didn't have a set plan for them yet, I scooped up about 120 of them for $6. I decided to figure out a plan for them to be used on the guestbook table, since we still hadn't come up with an idea. Last week I got sick of thinking about it, so we're just going to have people hang them on something (tree branches in a vase? probably.) with whatever they want to write on the backs.

Things I used:

Corner rounder. Hole puncher. Striped yarn from my stash - I bought it on clearance for $1.50 a few months ago because I couldn't pass up the stripey cuteness! Note card. Not shown: paper cutter.

I started by cutting the backs off all the cards. They're stored, waiting for some other project involving cardstock. Then I cut each front in half - along the edge of the brown box. Then I rounded all the corners (in hindsight I should've skipped this - time-consuming and gave me a huge blister on my thumb!) and hole-punched the top. Then I cut the yarn into 1-foot-ish pieces. Each piece got folded in half, looped through the punched hole, and pulled tight. Then I made a knot about halfway up the string. Then I tied a bow in each.

While doing all this, I listened to Elizabeth Gilbert's Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage, which I am loving. I can't wait to get the notepads so I can finish these and mark them off my (ever-growing) list!

On Tuesday night I played around with felt and tissue paper. My attempt at Not Martha's fabulous felt dahlia was an utter failure. It's supposed to look like this:

but I couldn't even get the petals to stick! I think I need to pick up the glue recommended in the post. My generic Joann-brand tacky glue did NOT do the trick. I wish I had a picture of how poorly my attempt turned out!

I was more successful with the tissue paper. I've been wanting to try out the Martha Stewart pompoms and just kept putting it off. My first attempt was BAD. But then I assessed why it was bad, and realized it was because my accordian folds were too wide. Also, my paper wasn't 20x30, it was 20x26, so I didn't get enough volume. My second attempt was a lot better:

Good enough for us to order about $50 in tissue paper from papermart.com! This will make up a huge portion of our decor, between the pompoms and the (yet to be experimented with) pomander balls!

Lastly, a couple pics of T being a dutiful future-husband, ironing wedding napkins.

Up next: healing, getting back to working out (thanks, illness), a million other things! Oh, and finding a job: I'm 6 days from being unemployed.

stuff.

2010-05-30T19:19:00.000-07:00

Here's an update by category.

Dress.
I took a day off school and went up to Seattle on Friday to get my dress fitted. I had the pleasure of a somewhat annoying rideshare, thanks to Craigslist and weirdo 60-year-olds going to the Folklife festival. I'm a little disappointed with my dress. Not the dress - it's gorgeous. But I don't like how the shine of it accentuates my stomach fat. I don't know why I went with the satin. Not to mention, I ordered the hemp satin, but the dress doesn't look like the fabric I saw a sample of. It's too late now, but I just really don't know what to do at this point. I don't want to feel totally self-conscious on my wedding day. I don't know why I thought a white dress made out of shiny white would be a good idea for me. No, I'm not sharing pictures. My "slimming down" efforts have not been going wonderfully. I did really well for a couple days, but came home from Seattle yesterday evening with a terribly sore back and was unable to work out then, or today. Maybe later I can get myself to do it...

Crafts.
Have I mentioned we're having Otter Pops at our wedding? Okay, they're Fla-vor-Ice that were on clearance at Big Lots. We're ridiculous and so we bought a bunch of boxes so we could pull just the red and blue ones. We'll donate the rest to the camp I worked at last year, or a school or something. Today I separated them (only ripped open one in the process), and decorated the little galvanized tub I bought to put them in, with ribbon. The pops came out to be $12, the tub was $2 and we can plant something in it afterward, the red ribbon was 10 cents for the spool at the thrift store, and the blue ribbon was $1 at Michael's, and the kids scissors were $1. Total = $16 (plus a negligible amount for ice and hot glue) to make T happy, since it was his idea in the first place (and a very cute one at that)! If we weren't being color fascists it would've been about $10, since we would've just used all the pops instead of picking the ones that matched.

I have a bunch of other crafts lined up, but every time I try to buy the supplies for them the store is out, or something. Also, a lot of them are one-per-guest type things and I don't want to make 100 of things if it turns out I only need 60 or 80.

Invitations.
The good: We've been getting some nice pieces of advice on our RSVPs, since we asked for "how to have a long and happy life" or something. Well, except for T's aunt, who didn't manage to write her name but did manage to write "DON'T DIE" as her advice. We're going to be including all the loving sentiments on a -mystery project- (also T's realm) at the wedding.

The bad: Today is May 30th. Our RSVPs are due June 1st. We have received a grand total of .......16. Out of 70. That's 22%. 2 days before they're due. We sent save-the-dates, so people knew when the wedding was months ago. We put stamps on the RSVPs, so people could just drop them in the mail. Or clothespin them to their mailboxes. I have no idea why we bothered. We were worried that online RSVPing would be hard for the older people to figure out, but since they haven't even sent in their cards, it seems like we went to a lot of expensive, paper-wasting trouble for nothing. I'm also not looking forward to calling about 40 people this week. And sadly, some people have continued to not write their damn names.

And in other invitational ridiculousness, our friend Jeff called to tell us that the day of the week listed on our invitation is wrong. AAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!! I sent in the wording with the correct day, and it ended up getting changed. Even though we both proofread for misspelled words, we both missed it. Lesson learned: proofread for content, people. Or maybe if you have frazzled wedding brain, have 5 other people proofread for content. Or just don't bother with invitations, since it doesn't seem to matter anyway.

Can you tell I'm having a "WHY THE EFF DIDN'T WE ELOPE" kind of day?

Napkins!

2010-05-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

Our cheap, reusable, not-homemade napkin solution is turning out really well! We went to Ikea. We bought 120 Tekla dishtowels for $.49 each. We threw them in the washer and dryer (you're not supposed to, but whatever). We are now in the process of cutting off the tags and hangy-loops, ironing them, rolling them up, and wrapping with cute paper (about $14 for more than I needed, and that was super-fancy paper). We have about 30 done so far. A little time-consuming, but we've been doing them while watching random movies on Netflix and talking to each other.

The effect is SO cute:

After the wedding we may or may not sell the napkins to another bride. We'll probably save a bunch to use around the house as napkins or to wipe stuff up. The don't seem like they'd be the most effective dish towels, but I'm sure we'll find some uses for them.

Another weekend.

2010-05-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

This has been a tough week. After a few weeks of beautiful weather, the rain is back full-force, and it's been freezing. My schedule has been a mess due to covering more hours at school, and has resulted in more biking in the cold, rainy wind. On top of that, T has been pretty absent due to extra work and friend stuff. After a (ridiculously) major freak-out on my part, he's decided to cut back his days at work (which keep getting longer anyway) by one per week until after the wedding. THANK GAWD. This one day a week off together AND him getting off late nearly every evening isn't cutting it for me. We don't get anything done and hardly see each other while awake. This will help a ton. Also, since he worked an extra shift at a restaurant opening last night, he's giving me some cash to have a much-needed WEDDING CRAFT GET-TOGETHER with some girlfriends. Who wants to help sew runners and make tissue paper pom poms?!

(source)

In other news, I'm realizing the wedding is a month-and-a-half away and I am panicking over how little is done. Because of new budget woes (my dad went back on his agreement to help pay for the venue - the one thing he was helping with; and T's mom halved her total contribution), we're cutting out our caterer and just doing appetizers and dessert. People can be responsible for feeding themselves before the wedding (it's at 1pm on a Sunday and going to brunch is pretty much a national pastime here in Portland), graze on snacks, and then have dinner/a bbq/whatever later in the evening since I doubt it'll go past 5 or 6.

Included in this panic over "how little is done" is that fact that for months I've been saying I'm going to lose the weight I've gained since I started grad school (which I finished IN SUMMER OF 2009). I've been really sick of the weight I'm at for a long time now. It's the most I've ever weighed, and I'll be damned if I stay this size forever. I'm an emotional eater and have been pretty miserable at one of my jobs, and so food has been a comfort... but it's totally a false comfort because I eat too much and then feel physically bad and mentally guilty and pissed off at myself! And it's everywhere: the family I nanny for leaves me a (delicious! omg!) sandwich from the Mediterranean place they ate at, and I eat it despite having had lunch earlier. T decides he needs deep-fried goodness and booze from the bar around the corner on a Wednesday and I go along with it. I CAN say no, save food for later, get a salad, or remind T of his own getting-in-shape goals before we go out rather than after. And I will do this. I also tortured myself with the Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred DVD this morning, and am committed to doing so every day for the next month. I'm not expecting miracles, but my general activity level tends to be high enough that if I couple that with a moderately-successful attempt at cleaning up my diet, I should see some success. The workout seems to be a good fit for me - despite doing the "baby" level of movement on the leg stuff, it makes me sweat like crazy. I need more cardio. The type of biking I do involves so many mandatory stops and stretches of downhill that I never quite get my heart rate up as much as it needs to be for the real health benefits.

On tap for the weekend: An interview with a potential summer nanny share family; cleaning; ironing napkins; filling out wedding liability insurance quote paperwork; (hopefully) meeting with the new caterers; brunch tomorrow with Julia Massey & the FFD, who are on tour and in Portland and then their show that night. And hopefully finishing some more wedding stuff.

By the way, we've received 4 RSVP cards so far. Out of 6 people, 4 are coming. If this 66% rate of acceptance stays even, we'll have about 99 people, which is just about perfect. Fingers are crossed. One thing about RSVPs that I didn't expect? That many people don't figure out that they need to WRITE THEIR NAMES on the blank line on the RSVP. How the hell are we supposed to know this random postcard is from you?! (one person wrote their return address on the back... we figured the other was T's aunt by the city it came from. If Portlanders or Seattlites start doing this, we're screwed.

Next Friday I get to take a day off work and go to Seattle for a dress fitting! EXCITING!

The invites are mailed! Most of them, anyway...

2010-05-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

Aaaaand I keep neglecting my poor, poor blog. In addition to wedding madness, I'm trying to look for employment for both fall AND summer. My summer job fell out from under me due to the economy, and so I'm trying to put together a nanny share with about 4 elementary-age kids. On top of that, I'm searching for and applying for teaching jobs for fall... something that requires a larger array of cover letters than one would imagine, along with essays galore. It's an absolute time-suck!

So, since this IS a wedding blog, here's some wedding stuff. We finally got our gorgeous invites mailed out to the vast majority of our list! They turned out exactly the way we wanted them. As I mentioned, we printed the addresses on labels to save time. What a fiasco! I think we ended up using 150 to print 75 addresses because of printer problems, as well as our red ink being on it's last leg. A bunch of our addresses ended up being kind of purple, but it looked fine with the aqua printing and I REALLY DON'T CARE AT THIS POINT ANYWAY. Especially since I used the invitations as an excuse to ride down to Collage and buy my first rolls of japanese masking tape to add a little something to the backs of the envelope! This ended up being a really smart move, since the glue on the envelopes barely worked at all. The aqua stripes came in a two-pack with green stripes that I'll save for another occasion. It was a bit pricey, but there was enough on one roll to use about 6 inches on about 75 envelopes, and there's still some on it! (*Yes, I could've used $1 scotch tape, but whatever.)

source: i-do-it-yourself.com

We sat outside to work on our invites. Because we had to trim all the labels with a paper-cutter (GAH!), they were all individual. We had jobs to make sure everything got done. I'd pick up a label and read the names. T checked them off our list, wrote their number of seats on the RSVP, stamped the RSVP, and put it back in the envelope. I applied the address label and stamp, licked the envelope, and sealed it with tape. We finished all the invites we had addresses for in about two hours, and then we went inside and ate mac n' cheese from a box and caught up on Lost. Romantic!

Here are our invites. I wonder why people keep calling us and telling me they can't figure out what our URL is, or where it's taking place...

Again, we ordered our invitations from Lovely and Gracious on Etsy. You can order just a PDF if you wish, but they had all our stuff printed for us. (You can also check out their blog here!) The attention to detail was wonderful, as well as their flexibility. The images and fonts are clear, and the paper used is wonderfully textured!

I still haven't written about our epic Ikea trip or anything else I meant to write about, but T is off work now and the forecast says it's the last day of sun before a week of overcast and rain, so it's time to get out in it!

IMs from across the room

2010-05-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

T: Check this out.
Me: What?
T: He looks like James Bond.
T: I'd look like a waiter.

Runners

2010-05-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

Currently I'm limping my way through pressing my first fabric table-square (which I'm using instead of runners on the round tables). So far I've burned the tip of one of my most frequently-used fingers (dominant-hand pointer) and cut myself. Thinking, "It'll be worth it, it'll be worth it" to keep myself psyched up.

This is how I'm envisioning how conversations will go after the wedding:
Me: So, what did you think of the tables?
Guest: .....
Me: Did you like the fabric squares under the centerpieces?
Guest: .....
Me: YA KNOW, I PRESSED AND SEWED ALL OF THOSE MYSELF, THEY HAVE MITERED CORNERS.
Guest: ...oh yeah, those. they were great!

Invitations have been ordered!

2010-04-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

After multiple Etsy convo's, our invitations have been ordered! I'm so excited to get them. We ordered them from Lovely and Gracious Design Studio! Go check them out on their blog - they're on the left in the "this week we're working on" bar at the top. We've ordered invites, matching envelopes, rsvp postcards, and a small card instructing people to go to our freaking wedsite already.

In other wedding news, we had a tasting for our food. In case you missed it, we're actually hiring someone professional to do the food. We're going with Cha Cha Cha, a local chain of mostly super-casual restaurants and a more "upscale" taqueria, where we had our tasting. First off, they gave us a ton of food. Second, we had drinks on the house. Third, the food was incredible. Small quesadillas filled with potatoes or veggies, served with guacamole. House-made blue corn chips with avacado salsa, refried black beans, and queso fresco. Picaditas, which are small corn cakes with veggies and black beans and cheese. Poblano peppers in cream sauce with fresh tortillas. And can go back and try the salads and veggie fajitas if we want! We're in love and are putting down a deposit, stat.

In another nod to the WIC, we're doing assigned seating after all. Not only are we now serving an actual meal, but I spent too much time on wedding sites and got scared into believing that non-assigned seating will be a horrible hassle for all. In any case, it means I get to come up with a theme for tables and all that... which of course I already have. Thankfully T agreed, since I worked myself into a frenzy over HOW FUCKING KICKASS IT IS all afternoon.

To match our love of bikes and our bikey invitations, each table will be named after a song that involves bikes. People will know when to get up for the buffet line when a clip from their song plays. I'm not quite sure how we'll make sure it's obvious enough... print lyrics on the table card? Have someone announce it? I think we can probably make sure one person at each table has heard the song they have.

Some possible songs:

I got a bicycle - Coco Love Alcorn

This Charming Man - The Smiths

Bicycle Race - Queen

Riding On My Bike - Madness (the actual song starts about 30 seconds in) - I'm going to have to fight for this one, since T pretty much hates Madness.

Bicycles are Red Hot - TV On The Radio

Cycling Is Fun - Shonen Knife

Brand New Key - Melanie
This one is mostly about skates (har har) but I love it enough for it to count! Check out the awesome 8mm video this girl made as a high school project in the 70s!

Needed: creative, CHEAP ideas for decorating the archway.

2010-04-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

So my new thing I've decided I can't stand is the archway at our venue. it's too tall, too wide, too blah. It's stark white with some roses crawling on it.

Here's a picture of it, dressed up in ways we would never deem acceptable:

I know we'll do something good with it... but what? What should we do so that it's more awesome?

Pardon my absence

2010-04-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

T's father passed away yesterday morning. He flew out to MA to be with his family early this morning, and won't be back until Saturday. I feel really bad that I wasn't able to go. I feel like a bad fiance, but it just wasn't realistic. I'm working two jobs and have treatments for my accident 4 times a week. On top of missing all of that, the plane tickets were astronomical. T will have a chance to get more time alone with his family. I just wish I could be there to support him. Even though we spent the first 10 months of our relationship living 200 miles away I miss him and don't want him to be gone for 5 days.

In wedding news, I finally, FINALLY started sewing my bunting. I have 3 yards done! Once it's all cut out it goes super-fast. I'm just using bias tape - open it up, insert short edge of triangle, fold it back over, and sew. The strawberry fabric was from my favorite pajama pants, which I irreparably tore a few months ago.

As for everything else, we're still trying to get things organized. Keg and sound system are on hold until T gets back - those are his things. We're going to sample food from our favorite food spot/potential caterers a week from tomorrow, but I think we're going to just go with them because it's easy and (relatively) cheap. We submitted the wording for our invitations and are waiting for a proof. (I know, this is SO late. ) I bought stamps and we're going to print addresses on clear labels so we can slap them on envelopes the second we receive them. Tomorrow I need to mail out the impression kits for our rings.

And in other news... I bought a new bike! My old bike is a mess. A friend created it out of random bike parts on a $10 frame and spray painted it for me, about 2 years ago. A few months later, my rad wheelset got stolen when I locked it in front of my sketchy old apartment building. Due to grad school brokeness, I accepted a friend's offer to kinda-perma-borrow his spare wheelset. A year-and-a-half later, and he has asked for it back. The bike was so beat that it was not worth buying new wheels for it - so a new bike I my credit card bought me. I got a (25% off! yay!) sea green Kona Paddywagon with yellow wheels. It's gorgeous and rides incredibly smooth. I have a hard time with drop handlebars, but I adjusted them and am doing ok with them, so far. I still might trade them out for my bullhorns, though. I'm justifying the money like this: I need a reliable vehicle to take me to and from my jobs and appointments. If I was buying a reliable CAR, I would be financing thousands of dollars. I only financed $500 and will serve the same purpose as a car... without insurance or gas. Totally ok (as long as I pay it off in a timely manner, of course).

Dorky-couple alert: T has the exact same bike, but in dark grey.

Registries and Invitations

2010-04-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

Today we actually made some wedding progress! After T got out of work we rode our bikes over the bridge to Macy's to finish registering. They gave us a gun and set us loose! We're now registered for everything from spatulas to luggage to a Simmons Beautyrest mattress (here's hoping, and if not maybe we can buy it with our completion discount). We're still looking for a duvet cover and a few other things that we can get elsewhere, but there's enough on there that we don't have to worry about it at this point. The Macy's registry lady was nice and very helpful. Plus we got a free copy of Portland Bride and Groom, which is a pretty-but-useless magazine. Hooray for fluff!

This evening we (mostly me) looked for invitations since our giveaway invitation deal fell through due to our inability to stay on top of our wedding tasks. We picked out some cute ones from a gal on Etsy called LovelyAndGracious. They have a bicycle on them. Surprised? They are going to be red and aqua (possibly with a different font). Surprised again? Anyway, we're buying the PDF and having them printed somewhere locally, although we asked the gal about the per-piece price for having her print them. At this point I just want to get things finished!

We picked this design:

We still haven't figured out what we're doing about food. T has a couple of friends who may cater appetizers at cost (they're trying to get a business started) but the fact that they haven't done a wedding before makes me a little nervous. We're also looking into having a buffet from one of our favorite restaurants. It's ~~not bad~~ super-cheap for wedding food at $12/person, but still might be a little more than we can actually afford. Oh, money, why must you make things so complicated? I really wish we could just pay for normal stuff and not have to worry about whether or not our cost-cutting option will work out.

I'm looking at another super-busy week. 34 hours of work, two chiropractor visits, one or two massages, and a trip to get more x-rays are on my plate. I still need to do my state taxes, sew a bunch of wedding stuff, and do about 8,000 things on my to-do list. And hopefully go to an interview for a job I just applied for.

I'm really stressed out.

To-do lists

2010-04-06T16:25:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been obsessed with to-do lists. I've been so stressed out over things I need to do, and even more so over the things I can't remember I need to do, and it started getting completely out of control. So I have a notebook. It's not at all organized, and I just write in everything in my head that I can think of. "Go to T-mobile" is right above "Write application essays for ___ School district" and right below "Research wedding suit for T". The first hour of my job is spent in Before Care, where the kids generally entertain themselves. I spend some time looking over my list, figuring out what I have time to do that day, and remind myself what else really needs to happen in a timely manner. This all sounds great, except that this morning I came to the realization that even if I don't sleep, I will not finish all the things that really, really need to happen this week.

On top of working my normal job, I'm now babysitting immediately after work 3 days a week (with a 30-minute mad dash on my bike in between the two... and no I don't get a break at my first job). The other 2 days I make a mad dash for my chiropractor appointment. One of the babysitting days also features a massage (not as relaxing as it sounds since it's treatment for my accident) in the evening. Tonight I have an extra babysitting job for one of the families at my school. This weekend we have friends in town and I'm hosting a Naked Lady Party at my house, which is currently a disgusting mess. So crucial wedding tasks, work, cleaning, mandatory social events, and oh, I forgot to mention Ant Invasion 2010 are overwhelming me completely!

I'm thinking that I need to clone myself if this wedding is going to happen in under(!!!) 3 months. I keep trying to delegate more stuff to T but I'm not having a lot of success in that department. I don't think he truly gets how fast the time is flying by. Or maybe I'm just going insane...

ETA: I should mention that a lot of goodness has come out of my new list obsession. I remembered to defer my student loans. And send a bunch of crucial emails. And follow up on a hospital bill from my accident. Stuff I probably would've forgotten or been late on otherwise.

Massachusetts recap

2010-04-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

So we've been kind of taking another break from wedding planning, although it's time for us to end that and switch over into turbo-planning mode. We spent the last week with T's parents on the east coast and that's been all-consuming of our attention due to the nature of the visit - T's dad is very, very sick. We spent most of the time at their house. MY FMIL is very nice and we got along really well. I think she's accepted that we're (in her mind) kinda weird, and I really appreciate that. She threw us a small engagement party while we were there - featuring a cake with our faces laser-printed on it! And his brother's girlfriend made a TON of food. I got to meet tons of the relatives and T's best friend from childhood. We spent one day in Boston since I'd never been there and it's T's favorite city in the world. He lived there for a few years. We wandered around, took the subway a bunch, and I bought heart-shaped sunglasses and kneesocks with teeth on them. We ate at Grasshopper, which was T's highlight. And mine? Since I'm a geek for children's books, of course it was the Make Way For Ducklings statue:

Hmm... I wonder why I like the building on the left so much. This was near Boston Gardens.

Cutting the thoughtful-but-creepy face cake (before we gouged out each other's eyes and teeth, much to FMIL's dismay):

T's brother and his girlfriend brought us these fabulous balloons.

Insert (snort!) dirty joke here:

No one has ever said we're mature, ok?

Handcrafting.

2010-03-23T00:53:00.000-07:00

When it comes to hobbies, I am lazy. And I am disorganized. Supposedly I'm this huge lover of crafting/sewing/whatever, but here's my secret: I've got so much craft STUFF stashed away that I can never find what I need, or am totally overwhelmed, or my desk is piled with other random junk. So I don't craft nearly as much as I want to. It's gotten to the point where I've asked myself if I like crafting, or if I like the IDEA of enjoying crafts, since I'm never motivated to do it.

However, I have planned multiple projects for the wedding. As usual, it's been hard for me to get motivated to do them even though I have a deadline. I've worked a bit on paring down my craft stuff and organizing the rest, and finally made space on my poor neglected desk. Today I bought an ironing board ($2.50, aqua & tan, vintage). And tonight I finally started working on my bunting in earnest. And you know what? I am loving it. I do love crafting... I just hate my messy, overcrowded work and storage areas. I cut tons of triangles tonight with my rotary pinker and triangle template. Next I need to sew them onto the binding. I'm nervous about this because the last time I used my machine it was being really finicky, despite having been tuned up not long before that. I'm hoping it will last long enough to finish my wedding projects.

Here are some of my triangles. The adorable heart-shaped strawberry fabric is from my favorite pair of pajama pants, which had finally gotten too worn out to wear. We also have gingham and stripes from the Knitten Kitten, and Michael Miller polka dots that I was unable to pass up despite their higher price:

Some bunting hints I've figured out:
- Buy fabric that is at least bi-directional. You can get twice as many flags out of it. Think polka dots or stripes instead of hearts. Unless you don't mind upside-down hearts, you'll be discarding a lot of fabric.
- If you're using stripes, you can cut some flags going lengthwise, and others going the other way. I also cut some on a diagonal, since my stripe fabric was an odd-shaped piece of scrap.
- Invest in a rotary cutter and mat. Since I'm using a pinking blade my edges won't unravel as much, and I don't have to worry about hemming.
- Also invest in a triangle template. You can find this in the quilting section of the fabric store. I don't know how I'd be doing this project without one - it's saving so much time, and the triangles look more uniform! I had a coupon so it wasn't expensive.
- It is easy to cut several triangles at once. Figure out the width, and fold it over like you're making paper dolls. You don't have to press down much harder, you make 4 or so at once, and I think I got cleaner cuts doing it this way.

While I was doing this, Thomas was searching for suits and figuring out the PA equipment rentals we'll need. Conveniently he used to do live sound for a living, so he's taking over the music-related stuff for the wedding. It was such a nice evening. Our desks are right next to each other, so we were just chatting, listening to Azure Ray, Okkervil River, Neko Case, and an episode of You Look Nice Today (the funniest podcast EVER... although I might be their only female fan) that we'd missed.

Earlier today I ran to some thrift stores before I took the rental car back. I got the aforementioned ironing board, a few more of those tiny juice glasses I've been collecting, a vintage aqua Ball jar, a quilt to add to the seating collection, and.... a birdcage with a stand at an antique store! It's gold, and we may or may not paint it. It has a bunch of flowers and branches and junk inside, which is going to disappear. It was a little expensive, but the lady at the shop gave me a deal AND we're planning on reselling it after the wedding. Obviously it's going to stand next to the gift table and hold cards. What do you think... paint it red? White? Leave it gold?

I am LOVING planning this wedding. Money is stressful, finding time is stressful, having boxes of junk around the house is stressful. But creating a vision, narrowing down the thousands of possibilities, and seeing things start to come together has been incredibly rewarding. For the first time in awhile I feel creative and accomplished. I have an idea for an ongoing wedding-related project that I might start up after July 4th, but that's all I'm saying about it for now.

Well, the cake situation is solved...

2010-03-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

Thomas and I have a friend, and this friend is an intern at a prominent Seattle bakery. This friend just told us today that she's going to be able to make our wedding cake! At the bakery! With help! We'll pay cost, and the labor will be her gift to us.

AWESOOOOOOME! Thank you, V!

This weekend has been awesome, despite Allergy Attack Part 2 and Lost Voice Part 2. We were up in Seattle for the Julia Massey & the Five Fingered Discount release party/show at Bop Records in Ballard and got to see everyone in Seattle that we love (except one)! Openers were the Jesus Rehab, who also released a record - their first full-length You can listen to one of the songs from the new JM & tFFD cd here. Thomas recorded it in a living room and did all the mixing. Have I mentioned that they're playing at our wedding? Yes? YES!

Geli, Geoff, Julia and Dom:

Sam, our friend/officiant, has received his Universal Life Church card!

Following the show was the breaking of our near-month of sobriety at the bar next door, a slumber party at Julia's, and a pancake party in the morning/early afternoon. We met up with one of Thomas' friends and my good friend from college for lunch, got to see baby Maia and her papa Jed, and then went with a couple more friends for cupcakes and coffee in Ballard before we headed home.

Jed and I forced Thomas to hold the baby. This is the first time I've seen him hold one! He feigned terror but within minutes was playing table-drums with her.

We also made a stop at Gasworks Park. This is where we got engaged almost a year ago. I showed my true old age by telling Tommy, "Put your hood down, you look like a thug!" When did I turn into my father?!

Hopefully my voice will return tomorrow so I can resume my normal state of talking-too-much. I'm also going to buy an ironing board so I can get serious about my 18,000 sewing projects! And we're going to make a master to-do list.

It amazes me and makes to so appreciative to think of all the friends who are working hard to make our wedding happen. Our appetizers, cake, music, photography, flowers, and decorating are all happening because of friends and acquaintances that are offering their talents to us either deeply discounted, for trade, or as a gift. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Cakes and Names

2010-03-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

We've found a few more bakeries we're going to check out. I'm particularly excited about Le Cookie Monkey down in Eastmoreland. She did this cake, which is from an "inspiration shoot" and we LOVE:

(source)

and this one, which i could see in white with aqua stripes and maybe our red/dark red flowers on top:

and this one (which isn't our style but i LOVE basket-weave for some reason!):

AND they're in our price range, AND they're a bikeable distance from us to go do a tasting! AND their name is adorable. I emailed her this evening to set up an appointment. I really want to have our baker and cake chosen and ordered. Although the sugar-fiend in me really, really hopes we get to sample at 8 more bakeries before we choose, my practical side knows this is pretty unrealistic for a couple who has opposing schedules, no car, and an upcoming trip to Massachusetts taking up their free time!

The cake search rages on.

2010-03-16T21:47:00.000-07:00

So we went to our cake-tasting and were a little disappointed with the samples. I'm a big cake-lover and will eat practically any sort of cake, and I'm not sure these were much better than the buy-a-slices at Safeway. Disappointing! Also, they don't stack cakes that are more than 2 tiers - they use ugly plastic supports and plates.

So we're exploring other avenues for cakes. I just wanted to be over and done with it! Especially since our first-choice bakery (Bakery Bar) was already booked for our date. A few of the bakers we'd consider would be pretty much impossible to do a tasting with because they live out in the suburbs and car rental gets expensive. A lot of the closer-in ones are WAY out of our price range! Hopefully we'll find someone reliable, reasonable, and close enough for us to get to.

My voice is still pretty froggy, and my cold is raging full-force. I took a nap earlier, and I think it's bedtime now. I thought about getting a sub for tomorrow, but finding someone to do before-care might actually be more annoying than going in sick and so I'm just going to go. If I'm feeling worse, I'll get a sub for Thursday.

Seriously?!

2010-03-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

Today we are tasting cakes at Beaverton Bakery. We have about 500 ideas for our cakes. However, we have no idea what we're going to order! We're having one two-tiered cake and a couple smaller cakes. But we're not sure if they should all coordinate, or be completely different but still look unified. Or scrap the multi-cake idea and just do one big cake (and have a small, separate cake for the vegans) and then a couple dozen cupcakes on smaller cake stands. I don't know! And to make things worse, I have completely, completely lost my voice, thanks to yesterday's allergy-cough. Thomas, you better be ready to do all the talking!

I need to list some more stuff on Etsy. In the past week I've sold a pair of red 30s pumps and a late 50s gingham dress. It's hard to list since the lighting in our apartment is so bad for taking pictures. Also, I'm lazy. And the shipping prices for USPS have all been changed, so that's a bunch of work, too! I just found out that a pair of beat-up 1930s pumps I sold months ago were turned into exact replicas of
Dorothy's ruby slippers by Etsy seller Cybertosh!
Before:

After:

I leave you with some cake porn:

T and I have been IN LOVE with this cake since we saw it on that Style Me Pretty photoshoot in the candy store. Thanks to A Cupcake Wedding for posting this or I probably wouldn't have seen it (since, as I've said a million time, I don't look at SMP. Yeah, this is kinda bullshit - I look at it any time I'm procrastinating something and my google reader is empty)!

I would love this in white with red or aqua. Without the anemone. Thomas HATES it. I bet this is from MS Weddings but it's been saved in my cakes file forever.

This one was actually done AT the bakery we're tasting at today, and we got this picture off the evil Knot. HATE the topper. And let me tell you, we will have our cake on a platform like that over my dead body. And It would be easy to match the smaller cakes, even the vegan one which is going to be made by someone else. It shouldn't be especially expensive, either. Obviously our topper would be better than that one. This one is Tommy's favorite. I think I fell in love with too much decoration because I've looked at 45989483 cakes online... mostly out of our price range anyway.

This one is from Bakery Bar and I am absolutely in love with it. How cute would it be if the ruffles were pyrex-blue instead of pink? However, they were already completely booked for our date. Sad, sad, sad. Maybe I could have a single-layer version of this for a birthday cake someday (like maybe on August 1st, 2010). This cake was on a cover of Portland Bride and Groom, which is a pretty-but-useless magazine for those of us not following the WIC formula.

Alright! Time to go!

New acquisitions

2010-03-13T21:31:00.000-08:00

Today I went shopping and to lunch with Erin, my good friend and photographer extraordinaire. I was dumb enough to lock myself out of my house when I was going to the post office to mail a dress I sold on Etsy, and she was kind enough to come pick me up early! Our first stop was the Estate Store. Unbeknown to me, they have a "garage sale" every weekend where they sell all the stuff not good enough to get into the store. I scored 3 vintage milk glass vases for a quarter each, a bigger one with fruit imprints for $1, a aqua mason jar (knockoff by Avon) for 50 cents, a repro animal crackers tin for 50 cents (may not end up at the wedding... i might just use it as a knitting needle holder), and a vintage double-decker bus biscuit tin with working wheels for $1!

We headed out in her car and ended up in Forest Grove, a small town about 25 miles from Portland. It gave us a chance to discuss a little bit about the wedding photography, and the fact that Thomas and I want to do a day-after session, and she thought that would be fine! We're going to wear our wedding clothes and go to Union Station (where we had so many hellos and goodbyes), and random spots around the city. FUN.

We found this antique store that is an old house (full first floor), a few tents, and a shed, plus tons of junk outside as well. I scored a 1950s cake plate for $10! It's the Jeannette Lyre pattern - imprinted glass with gold trim around the scalloped edges. They had a second one exactly like it, but it wasn't on sale and they wanted $22 for it, so I passed it up. Another thing I passed up were two vintage crocheted dresses. One was for a baby, and it was red with sky blue trim. The other was for a little girl and was sky blue with red trim. They. were. so. cute. The shop had tons (TONS!) of vintage kitchen collectibles and other housewares. If you're in the area check this place out! It's called Colonial House Antiques and is located at 2018 Hawthorne Street in Forest Grove.

Treasures:

Lyre pattern on our cake stand. It's repeated on the base, too.

Cute, cute baby dress. Picture taken on poor-quality phone-camera.

It's okay....

2010-03-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

... that our tablecloths are only going to go halfway down to the ground. They'll be covered up by people and chairs and they won't get grass stains.

... that our chairs are light gray and kind of ugly. Thomas hit me upside the head (lightly, at my request) after I showed him a pic of them. "This is what you've been griping about?!"

... that we don't have any sort of ballpark figure as to how many people will show up for our wedding, which is on a holiday. We're getting a total of 20 tablecloths, and planning on reselling them, so it's not a big deal.

Yes, these are things I've actually been putting energy into thinking about. This wedding is making. me. crazy.

(Tommy's paraphrase of my last line: "This wedding is making me a stupid bitch." He's right, but I think he was inspired by Liz Lemon's pep talks to herself: "Stop sweating, you idiot... What is wrong with you, you stupid bitch?!")

Ring! Ring!

2010-03-07T22:18:00.000-08:00

I just ordered our wedding bands! We're having them made by Brent and Jessica Williams, via their Etsy shop Fabuluster. They are going to be very simple, made of sterling silver, and will have our fingerprints imprinted on the insides of them. Beside our venue deposit, this is the most we've spent on any one item so far. That said, the pair was an excellent price for something so personal and handcrafted. I can't wait to get the imprint kit in the mail so we can get it all started!

(Pics from Fabuluster's Etsy shop)

Have you ordered your rings yet? Will yours match your spouse's, or will it match your engagement ring... or neither?

Love it!

2010-03-06T13:19:00.000-08:00

Today I was catching up on my blog roll and saw the most fantastic wedding covered on High-Fi Weddings (and also on Style Me Pretty, which I don't regularly read). Although this wedding is not completely my style, I loved all the things that made it unique. I can't imagine how much fun this day must have been for everyone involved! That what we want, too... to have FUN at our wedding!

They had:

Bikes.
Over-the-top bridal party outfits.
A cake with Victrolas on top.
Paper flowers.
Gorgeous, historic reception location.
Group singalong.

Pics by Sights & Sounds (some by way of SMP or HFW):

Fabrics!

2010-03-04T22:09:00.000-08:00

I guess I should just post this while I'm thinking about it.

Last weekend we trekked out to Fabric Depot. Surprisingly enough, we bought fabric! Because I am a super-genius, I didn't make any calculations before we did this, so we just bought a bunch. Whatever we don't use for runners can be used for napkins or my stupid bunting I haven't really started. We also bought a wonderful quilting tool to help me with the bunting! The two triangles I've cut out so far have looked pretty good.

Three of the fabrics we bought:

We bought about three yards of the top one (Tommy picked it!), a yard of the dots, and 4 or 5 of the red. Because there's going to be a lot of Pyrex blue in the centerpieces, I don't want to use that as the main color in the runners/squares. The middle fabric is for bunting. Or napkins. Or whatever. There's only a yard but I want to buy more.

Thomas chose this one to use on our gift table. It's only 44" so we'll have something else underneath it. We might get more of it for our guest book/typewriter/whatever-we-do table!

This weekend, this weekend, this weekend I will actually work on the bunting.

------------------------------------------------

So this conversation just actually happened in our house:

Me: [Blah blah blah...] Whatever, no one reads this thing anyway....
Tommy: I always read it! (Bats eyelashes adorably)
Me: Oh yeah? Then what was my last entry about?
Tommy: Boobs... and sex.....

Also, you should hear his idea for the guestbook. Or maybe not.

More guest list stuff.

2010-03-04T21:36:00.000-08:00

The past few days I've been going over our guest list. There have been some additions, and a lot of addresses scrawled on paper that hadn't been listed in the database yet. What a mess. I went through all of it, made a cohesive list including everyone invited, and emailed the last few people we need addresses from. Yes, there are a few people who have not received save-the-dates! Should we even send them at this point (4 months from today -- eeek)? Or just send them an invitation?

Even though all the sites/books/blogs say not to do this, I went through our guest list and made a list of people who realistically will be able to come. Out of 148 on our list, I put 110 on our "yes it is feasible for them to be there" list and 23 on the "meh, maybe they can make it" list. Out of these 133 people, there will be people who have other plans for July 4th, are going away for the weekend, or maybe just secretly hate us. At this point I think we're going to try to plan/budget for 100, and I honestly think this is pretty generous. I need to buy tablecloths, make runners and napkins, and plan how many tables to decorate, since I came up with my wonderfully-uncomplicated unique-centerpiece-for-each-table idea.

Speaking of invites, I need to contact the letterpress shop I won the giveaway from. (From which I won the giveaway? Eff grammar.) Before we do this though, we need to decide what time our wedding is happening. Also, what do we want the invitations to say?

It's a good thing I spent most of my afternoon messing around reading blogs instead of being productive. I did come up with the idea of doing a wedding sewing/childcare trade with one of the super-crafty moms at my school. I haven't contacted anyone yet, but I know several ladies who could whip out in an hour the sewing projects it would take me four hours to complete. These same ladies would probably LOVE a few hours of free babysitting on a weekend afternoon or evening.

And in other news, our next door neighbor Jan, who is an avid gardener, is going to help me put together my bouquet and any other flowers we do. Also, we have leads on super-affordable and delicious appetizers that will be vegetarian, feature local foods, and lacking vinegar, which is my arch-nemesis. AND today I found out a place that sells used stuff from businesses, including tablecloths. I might go check it out this weekend to see how the prices and quality are! If not, I found super-cheap linens on ebay, too.

*p.s. I'm trying to make an effort to post more often and make it less of a huge mental production for myself. I promise I will post pics of the fabric we bought. SOON!

I have my weekend back!

2010-02-28T18:29:00.000-08:00

On the topic of outlook changes, I've had another very positive one. Since December I've been working a 5-day workweek (with the most exhausting class of young children in the history of humankind) and then babysitting on Saturdays for a family with two toddler boys. And it just killed my weekend! I love playing with the boys but I'd come home exhausted and then I'd only have one more day before starting a new week. Have two days is AMAZING! Yesterday was a total vintage day. Since I was driving my rental car and had things to do with other vintage ladies, I wore my favorite late-30s dress, 40s black suede pumps, a black 40s hat, and carried a corde purse. I managed to do faux-bangs for the first time using this tutorial by Fleur de Guerre, and a rat I made the 40s way, from hair I saved from my hairbrush for a year, and wrapped in a hairnet. I curled the rest of it (poorly) with hot sticks and pinned up the sides. It looked pretty good, especially since I haven't done a real 40s hairstyle in ages. First I went to New Seasons and almost fell on my butt. Vintage shoes + hurrying = mistake. Then I went to two estate sales and spend $2 total. I got a little red vintage scoop for the kitchen, a seam ripper with an aqual handle, a needle book with kittens on it, a plastic "raffiaware" cup, and the softest moss green 60s sweater.

After that, I went to the Vintage Bridal Show, where I talked to two different ladies to potentially do my hair for my wedding! It was held at the Queen Anne Victorian Mansion, which is this insanely beautiful wedding venue that includes a 3rd-floor ballroom, glassed-in gazebo for receptions in the yard, etc. Of course I managed to not take a single picture while I was there. (Yes, I'm a failure at blogging!) My friend Ava has info on the vendors on her website. She's a fantastic milliner so if you need a hat or veil, she's your girl.

Then I drove down to Oregon City to attend a vintage clothing swap at my friend (other) Julie's house. I came home with less than I took, which was the goal. I got to see a couple old friends, and met some new people.I ended up with a cute red jacket, some rhinestone clip-on earrings, a plaid coat with satin lining, a Gunne Sax dress for a friend, and a gorgeous black rayon dress as a trade for a playsuit I gave Julie a couple years ago. On the way there I stopped by an antique store and found a bird cage that I loved. We're going to jump on the bandwagon and use it for cards at our gifts table - but we're going to hang it above the table instead of just setting it on it. Well, he thinks we're going to somehow find a stand to hang it from but I told him not to hold his breath. I didn't buy it yet - Julie is going to go grab it for me and we'll give her the cash for it then. I wanted to check with Thomas before dropping $25 on a birdcage, but he liked it, too. Maybe we can sell it after the wedding. It's pretty!

This is how my faux-bangs looked:

This is one of my favorite dresses:

My raffiaware cup looks just like these:

(source)

This is the birdcage we're hopefully getting:

That's it for yesterday's vintage fun! Stay tuned for today's adventures in fabric shopping!

Back in the saddle.... kinda.

2010-02-26T17:08:00.000-08:00

Since my last entry, I have

+ Hired amazing bike-centric attorney to deal with the accident stuff
+ Had my first adjustment at the chiropractor
+ Started feeling a lot better (except my back)

What a difference these things have made in my outlook on life! Also, my wrist is healing up nicely, and so I'm hoping I'll be able to ride my bike on Monday after I return my rental car. I'm really ready to return to normal life. I have a huge list of stretches to help, a prescription for massage, and determination.

This weekend's wedding-related stuff includes a run to the enormous Fabric Depot for fabric for runners, a trip to some antique malls to look for awesome vintage cake stands, and whatever else I decide to use the rental car for.

I'm deciding if I want to make runners for all the tables, or do a square piece in the center like the fabulous Miss Fancy Pants is talking about in this entry. And I just asked Thomas and he feels like he needs to see both of these options. I think he's being sarcastic, though. Really, I don't care, so I'll probably just choose whatever will take less work or be most reusable.

And just to leave you with something incredibly cute for the day:

(source)

Have a wonderful weekend, hopefully full of more sun than we're having here in Portland at the moment!

Bridefail

2010-02-23T20:31:00.000-08:00

Guys, I am totally taking a break from caring about wedding crap. I'm stressed about all the accident stuff (still not resolved, although I FINALLY got a claim number and insurance info) and have been killer allergies. I've also gained some weight, thanks to (1) the January of Constant Illness and (2) the February of bike accident. I still can't get on a bike. I tried on Monday - I rode my old upright Schwinn 5-speed to work, and was hurting so bad I had to leave it there. Later that day I saw my new chiropractor and he said to stay off it a little longer. AAAAGH! I don't want to overdo the car rental thing, in case the car insurance contests paying it back. So instead I get to wait for the bus, getting splashed by cars, and walking more than my hurting knees and back would like. Ugh. On one hand I know it could be so much worse, but on the other I miss my old life of riding my bike and feeling not totally out of shape and being able to buy organic groceries on my way home and leaving the house for work much later than I do now. Should I just rent a car again? At least for the weekdays?

Anyway, in all this being-bummed-out I also slacked on getting measured for my dress. Who the hell wants to get measured for their most awesome dress EVER when they're at the top of their weight?! NOT ME. But it needs to get done, or I won't be getting a dress period. As soon as I'm able I want to join a small local gym and zone out to audiobooks on the machine and drop all this extra weight. The gym nearby is rad - instead of wasting energy to power machines that help people burn off energy, this one has machines that put it back into the grid. You get discounts and gift certificates for the amount of time you spend on them - how rad is that?! I've always been kind of anti-gym but this is an exercise emergency - this wedding isn't getting any further away! Also, these Cadbury mini-eggs aren't getting any further away from my mouth. Oops/Yum.

We HAVE been talking about our honeymoon a bit. Location to be announced... I don't want to jinx things. The airline we just signed up for frequent flyer miles does fly there, which is good.

In awesome news, Thomas is ALMOST done mixing the record he's been working on for Julia Massey & The Five-Fingered Discount. It sounds AWESOME. Did I mentioned they're also playing at our wedding? If you live in the Seattle area you should go to their next gig at Neptune Coffee on March 5th. Julia Massey vs. Three Ninjas (of Hoarders fame). Here's a (very low quality) video I recorded of Julia and Geli (violinist) and a drummer who isn't Dom, and Geoff (the bassist)'s ghost:

Have any of you just had an incredible desire/need to lay off the wedding stuff while you took care of other things? Please convince me it's not going to ruin my planning for good so I can relax!

DIY Wedding Organization!

2010-02-18T21:18:00.000-08:00

After the month of illness and the three weeks of accident recovery, I'm ready to tackle the Beast That Is Our Apartment. One of the problems I'm having is that Wedding Stuff is starting to take over. I need to hear from other ladies who are DIYing everything... where do you put it all? How did you catalog what you have and what you still need to get?

One of the major problems being, of course, that I'm not just going to X Location and purchasing 100 champagne glasses. Oh, no. I'm collecting a certain type of small jar. So far I have 32. They have not been washed (and we don't have a dishwasher so I don't even want to think about it right now... maybe we can borrow upstairs housemate's?). We're not purchasing 12 identical vases from Michael's for centerpieces. I'm collecting pieces of vintage milk glass and pyrex to craft a unique centerpiece for each table... along with interesting fabrics for runners. Each centerpiece will be put together, photographed, and all pieces (including tablecloth and runner) will be placed inside a paper grocery bag with the photograph attached for assembly by a member of our poor, tortured wedding team. (WAIT A SEC... I thought I didn't care about centerpieces?! Until I made the theme "obsessive vintage collecting plus cherries" that is!) Since I'm not quite ready to start doing this yet, I need a clever way to store 8 million random pieces of bric-a-brac (uhh, treasures).

Along with more Wedding Crap, today I thrifted two huge sterilite/rubbermaid drawer units. They're higher than my waist, 22"x17" and each have four drawers. They are fantastic! And cost under $15 total. They will be housing my knitting stuff, some of my sewing stuff, wedding craft supplies, and shipping supplies for the Etsy stuff I rarely list/sell. I think the sterilite bins I emptied are all going to be dedicated to wedding stuff, but I'm not sure what would be the best way to categorize. This is important since I need to access some of the stuff, and a lot of it is breakable. What about the stuff that needs one thing done to it?! Does it go with the storage stuff, or the to-be-assembled stuff?

In more fabulous news, I also bought more milk glass (one huge piece was 25 cents... score!) a white 60s raffia handbag to theoretically sell, and a perfect topsheet with cherries and strawberries all over it (runners? photo booth backdrop? are we doing a photobooth? Tommy seems to think we are.) Yesterday I wandered into Bolt on NE Alberta and found REPRODUCTION VINTAGE TOWELING BY THE YARD. oh, my gawd. I bought enough to make a runner for one of the round tables, and it should make us about three gorgeous kitchen towels when I'm through. If I find a coupon or can get a quantity discount I'm going to buy more because it is going to look awesome. If you don't live near Portland you can get it at retro-redheads.com. They have a great selection! This is the one I bought yesterday:

source

I'm healing up pretty well from my accident. I'm realizing my sprained hand won't be able to handle the position it would be in on my handlebars of my regular bike, so I'm thinking of riding my vintage Schwinn 5-speed for a bit. I'll still have to bus it on rainy days though - it doesn't stop in even the smallest amount of damp! I have a meeting with a lawyer-who-focuses-on-bikes tomorrow, and a chiropractor appointment to hopefully help with the shoulder/back/neck/knee pain on Monday. I've filed a request for the police report and have a colleague helping me collect the insurance info I need since they still haven't contacted me and the police officer who has it won't give it to me (grrr). I'm trying to take care of everything, but it's leaving me horribly stressed out and biting my nails to the quick. On top of that, the family I nanny for need different hours now that would leave me working seven days a week so I need to find a new second job. I'm hoping things will pull together soon! At least Seattle was fantastic! But it always is.

I'm so relieved tomorrow is Friday. I babysit Saturday morning and am hoping to get some more apartment organizing and cleaning done that afternoon. Oh, the exciting life I lead!

Valentimes are SERIOUS times!

2010-02-14T09:18:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day to you! This is my all-time favorite Valentine thing:

I have a huge surprise for Thomas today. I've booked us a room at a hotel in Seattle (thank you, hotwire.com!) and we're driving up in the rental car I have right now after I get off work. We're meeting up with our close friends for beer/dinner at our favorite spot there. We're coming home tomorrow evening. He has no idea, except that I wouldn't let him plan anything for this afternoon. I'm so excited! I hope you all have an equally wonderful time, with whoever (whomever?) you love.

Save-the-Dates (and a couple other things I've made lately)!

2010-02-13T11:08:00.000-08:00

Our Save-the-Dates have been (mostly) sent out and (hopefully) delivered, so here's a picture! The one with the drawn-on stamp is for our upstairs housemates. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay to have something sent to our own address.

People keep telling me, "I got the invitation, it was really cute!" And I keep replying, "Yay! But it's not an invitation! That comes later! Don't verbally RSVP to me now!" But hopefully sounding less rude. I failed to put "Formal invitation to follow" on the S-the-D because it sounded so weird. And formal, which we're not. And I couldn't be bothered to think of different wording. So I made a note of it on our website. If you really want to see it, I'm sure you can figure out the URL!

We are really pleased with the results of our VistaPrint postcards. The colors on the photo side are totally rich (much better than in the photo above - nothing looks very good when photographed in our basement apartment), and the back turned out great as well - VP's guide for margins was really accurate. Make sure you follow it if you do postcards with them - I can't stress this enough! The writing looks a little fuzzy but that's more the fonts we chose than the printing. I'm glad I saved money and did the circles on the 4th myself. It took less than one episode of Lost on Netflix.

In non-wedding news, I completed my very first baby sweater for an old friend in California. I used a free Debbie Bliss pattern which you can find here. I learned about 4 new knitting skills while doing it, it was fun, short enough of a project that I didn't get bored, and turned out totally cute! I got a little confused and had to reknit some parts, but I was either watching children or ~~drunk~~ buzzed when this happened.

Thursday evening I realized our class Valentine's day party was the next day, and I had not made them anything! All my crafty paper is in some heavy rubbermaid tub or another so I came up with something else. I whipped these up in under 2 episodes of Lost (almost caught up now - halfway through season 5) out of some sparkle pipe cleaners I've had forever, and extra yarn from the first scarf I ever made.

You've got to love kindergartners. They thought these sparkly hearts were fantastic, and had no idea they were thought of the night before and made with leftovers from other crafts. The valentines they made me are pretty cute, too!

Accident update: The whole thing is a mess and I'm in the process of hiring a lawyer to help me sort it out. Also, I have a weird dent in my leg. Fun times!

My first inspiration board!

2010-02-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

After saying I would make one for the past 3 months, I've finally done it! An inspiration board to hopefully capture some of what I want our wedding to look like.

Top row: Tissue flowers by xAtomicCherriex on Flickr, as seen on Offbeat Bride; perfect bunting by Giggleberry as seen on Flickr; reception setup on Style Me Pretty.
Middle: Cherries from Zannestar's favorites on Flickr; unknown; desert display from Martha Stewart Weddings. Botton row: Typewriter from Classic Bride blog; flowers by Nancy Liu Chin as seen on Junebug Weddings; Athena dress by Wai-Ching; cake by Bakery Bar.

Please let me know what you think!

Red and prex-blue and red and pyrex-blue!!!!

2010-02-07T22:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend I've been swimming in a sea of red and pyrex-blue! I've been working on my inspiration board and googling and flickr searching like crazy. I even found a turquoise-and-red flickr group. This non-wedding inspiration board makes my brain hurt I love it so much.

I also need, need, need you to go see the BEST WORKSPACE EVER, which is where the Allsorts magic happens.

So anyway, the graphics for my inspiration board are done and are totally rad. I still need to get my sources squared away, so stop by tomorrow afternoon to check it out! I also need to tell you about my vintage quilt project. I always seem to bite off more than I can chew...

Hope you had wonderful weekend! I spent most of mine running errands, cleaning house with Thomas, battling ants, and watching copious amounts of Lost - season 4! Time for a new work week.... hopefully I'll make it there every day!

Picnic blankets!

2010-02-06T12:09:00.000-08:00

An idea I had is to nix some of the tables at our reception and provide picnic blankets to sit on the grass. I think it's rad, and so do my friends that I've run the idea by. So we're (read: mostly I am, since
I'm the thrift whore) going to hunt down old, end-of-their-life vintage quilts, granny square afghans, and blankets. I've found one so far - a quilt that looks 30s/40s and has a butterfly motif. I'm sure more are to come my way - I have good thrifting luck (and a friend who who has a car AND wants to drive with me to do it). Although it seems expensive, the cost is going to be WAY less than the price of linen rental + homemade runner + centerpiece components.What type of table/picnic split should we do? I wonder how much blanket seating we should provide vs. how much table seating... Obviously no one will be forced into either.
This is the type of setup we WON'T be having:

(source)

These are the sorts of things we WILL be using:

(source)

(i can't find the source for this! do you know?)

(go look at this whole damn wedding!!!)

In other news, I've spent my morning at Cellar Door Coffee getting overwhelmed with wedding ~~porn~~ inspiration. I've found obscene amounts of cuteness in our colors. Off to work on an inspiration board!

Conquest.

2010-02-04T22:36:00.000-08:00

Today I got a chance to hit the GOOD thrift stores - not the overpriced Goodwills, but the cheap, independently-run thrift stores that I love. I got a ton of stuff for the wedding, a few vintage goodies for myself, and some clothes, for about $40 total.

Including:
- 34 jelly jars from the 50s or 60s - to use as champagne glasses (25 cents each - $8.50)
- art deco glass light cover with a star design - to use as a vase ($1.50)
- 6 mason jars (25 cents each - $1.50)
- huge spool of red satin ribbon ($1.00)
- vintage fabric for bunting - gingham and stripes - ($5.50)
- foam fruit stamp set ($3.00)
- 70s postage scale to paint Pyrex Blue and use in our centerpieces ($1.50)
- 12 napkins - black modern, white vintage with embroidery in the corner (20-25 cents each - $2.70)
- cute tin (50 cents)
- non-wedding stuff = vintage stockings (75 cents), three 40s knitting magazines (50 cents each), a placemat for the cat's dish (75 cents)
- some other stuff I can't think of.

My light cover looks exactly like the one below. The top will be the base, though.

(Buy this one on ebay!)

My leg is actually hurting worse now than it was earlier in the week. I can't bend it more than 90 degrees without intense shooting pain going from my knee to the huge bruise halfway up my thigh. I'm going to work tomorrow, but am going to make a doctor appointment to get it checked out. I don't know how I'm going to get back to my normal life. Without riding my bike, my mobility is severely impaired. Our bus system is ok, but not great and it's tedious as hell to try to get anywhere. Lots of walking, lots of waiting, and lots of weirdos and unpleasant odors on the bus itself. I can't wait to be able to ride again! I need to buy a new helmet and get my back tire fixed (again... this is why I was on T's bike when I had the accident) so I can ride as soon as I'm able!

RIP stripey helmet. It will now become a hanging planter and I think my next helmet will be polka-dotty. This pic is from the Scandinavian Short Shorts ride last June. Obv the people around me in this shot weren't dressed up. You can see April's ~~butt~~ short shorts right in front of me, though!

Thomas is a genius.

2010-02-03T01:16:00.000-08:00

So. After a day of narcotics-addled freaking out over centerpieces, THOMAS came up with the winning idea. It is local. It is affordable. It is cute as hell. It involves locally-grown cherries, which are plentiful at the beginning of July in Oregon. Pyrex-blue Pyrex (which I have a ton of) and Fiesta bowls (we'll buy some of our registry dishes ahead of time) balanced on red vintage books or vintage scales (i have one, can borrow others) or whatever else is neat. basically, combining coordinating found-objects into cute, edible centerpieces. We can do some math and figure out how many we need to make, and then go from there. Some tables may end up with some flowers - simple arrangements of red & dark red dahlias and zinnias from the farmer's market - housed in vintage coffee percolators and Chemex pots. We're not assigning seating, so people can choose if they want to look at flowers, or eat cherries. We also want to gather some blankets/quilts so people can sit on the grass picnic-style, if they're so inclined. On the tables I think I want to have red tablecloths, with runners made from cute fabric. I'd love to have vintage tablecloths draped over the regular cloths, but the tables at our venue are a little too big to do this with standard size vintage cloths, and the repro ones are about $30 apiece. How cute is this, though?!

(from Style Me Pretty)

Centerpiece ideas.

2010-01-31T17:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I addressed all the save-the-dates that I have the addresses for. And then expressed (a little too much) rage at Thomas for his lagging in getting addresses for people he is responsible for. So those should be taken care of soon. Monday we will get stamps and mail them! They look so cute. I used a robin's egg blue pen to circle all the 4's and a red pen to write the addresses. I can't wait to post pics of them!

This weekend we've been thinking a lot about centerpieces. We have colors (red/pyrex blue) but no "theme" or particular motifs we're revolving around. So lots of freedom for the centerpieces at this point. I'd like them to be not centered around gigantic arrangements of cut flowers, although the backup is simple arrangements of farmers market flowers in mason jars with pyrex-blue ribbons tied around them.

If it wasn't likely to be pretty freaking hot on our wedding day, I'd want to go with something like this, with bright red tomatoes, cherries or strawberries from the farmer's market in blue baskets.

(source)

However, I worry about the fruit starting to rot before guests go home! Apples would work, but the beginning of July isn't QUITE apple season yet and we want to go with something local.

We're also thinking about painting small flower pots in our colors and transplanting herbs/plants (that we'll grow) into them. Meh.

(source)

Another idea is getting our hands on unpressed color vinyl and making record bowls to either plant something in or put something else in. Thomas is in charge of finding out if this is feasible. Or taking three 45s and attaching them in a triangle, and then doing.... something with them.

Or filling vintage bowl-type things (large bowls, tins, etc) with... something. Maybe fluffy tissue paper flowers? Fresh flowers? If I had a car I'd just hit the Goodwill bins/non-chain thrift stores until I collected enough things, but it's a little hard to get out to those places without one.

Fluffy tissue paper flowers:

(source/how-to)

Flowers from the farmer's market vendor we might use:

I would love to buy a bunch of aqua Fiesta disk pitchers and plop red and dark red dahlias and zinnias in them, but that would be expensive ($40+ each) and I doubt anyone rents Fiestaware. But it's an awesome idea and then I'd be done with it. Maybe I could recruit a half-dozen people who each want a disk pitcher... or not.

(source)

And the last idea we've come up with is candy. Massive quantities of candy in our colors. In random containers, many of which we already own. I don't like the container in the pic below... but candy in our colors? Yes, please!

(source)

Sorry this entry is ~~a little~~ totally disconnected... I'm still on Vicodin and wrote it over two days.

aaaand scene.

2010-01-28T18:32:00.000-08:00

So today riding my bike to work I got hit by a car. I rode in an ambulance for the first time. I went to the ER for the first time. I got a bunch of x-rays. I've got a sprained right hand/wrist, some minor bruises on my face, and a gash (a.k.a. scrape) on my thigh as well as some major swelling on my thigh and knee. I'm crossing my fingers to not have back/neck pain tomorrow. The driver was 17 years old and DOES have insurance, and it was obviously not my fault, so I'm covered there.

In wedding news, I've emailed Chrissy Wai-Ching with my desired dress modifications. Also, while watching season 3 of Lost today, I circled the date on the calendar part of our S-the-D's (luckily I'm left-handed). A friend is going to pick me up a rotary cutter with a pinking blade so I can get started on the bunting. And I'll either figure out how to plug spreadsheet info into address formats, or be awesome and write them all myself with all this free time I've earned. I'm finally starting to feel like it's time to finalize wedding details and stop dreaming up ideas and start DOING them. I did my taxes and am getting an AWESOME return so I have a little cash to spend! Finally!

Hmm, what things should I work on while I'm convalescing at home?

New worry:

2010-01-27T21:02:00.000-08:00

This just occurred to me: What if people assume our Save-the-Dates are junk mail and toss them in the garbage?! They do kind of look like advertisements. T says, "Well then I guess they don't get to save the date, and they probably already know what it is anyway."

That said... our save-the-dates have arrived, and they look great! I swear the picture looks a little stretched, but it probably isn't.

I'm still sick and have to work 10 hours tomorrow, so I'm going to bed. At 9pm. Goodnight.

A Project Completed!!!

2010-01-23T16:56:00.000-08:00

Our save-the-dates are finished, ordered, and will be here within a week! After procrastinating for weeks, I used a few fonts, the calendar graphic I showed in my previous post, and Paint.Net to create an acceptably cute postcard in one afternoon and evening. And then I used the USPS postcard requirements to redesign it again. And then last night at 11:30pm I finally put an order into vistaprint.com. At Buhdoop's suggestion, we are going to use a different color to circle the "4" on the calendar and so we'll be doing that by hand. We're going to buy stamps in advance print addresses on label stickers so we can send them as soon as we get them back. I'm excited to get a project off the ground! (I'll show pictures of the S-the-D's after they've been delivered to the recipients, since some of them are reading this blog!)

Next up: bunting. My wonderful Annika has loaned me a rotary cutter and mat, which is going to make this go so much faster and. I'm thinking about buying a pinking blade, but since I never get near fabric shops I should probably just use the straight one. We're planning on using the bunting on our future house's porch or inside our apartment, so I'd like to have finished edges. However, I don't want to have to sew a billion flags inside-out and then turn them and iron them. So maybe I should just go ahead and get the pinking blade. I also need to contact Wai-Ching about my dress, like A WEEK AGO. I'm feeling a little nervous that it might already be too late to get my dress made by the beginning of July.

PS... we're both still sick. Next weekend is our (imaginary) deadline. We absolutely, MUST be healthy by then. Enough is enough!

Save-the-Date mini calendar

2010-01-17T19:01:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow marks a month since I got sick. I'm feeling so-so at this point, but Thomas has whatever-virus-we've had again with a vengeance. He's spent much of the day sleeping and I've mostly been internetting and doing a couple small home projects. I organized our hardware-type stuff and put it in a clear Sterilite box in the laundry room, except for a well-organized NKOTB lunchbox of our essentials, which is on a shelf in my desk. A little organizer with drawers that I purchased from Value Village two years ago now contains screws, nails, hooks, buttons, etc. and sits on top of the desk. The cat food is in a plastic lidded container that now slides under our bottom shelf on the kitchen floor. I managed to free up a whole cabinet shelf in our teeny kitchen and a half one on my red vintage kitchen cart!

My main project of the day, however, has been working on our Save-the-Dates. I should be very clear about this: I have absolutely ZERO graphic design experience. I'm limping along using paint.NET, (which is fabulous... I'm the inept one) and MS Paint. As I've mentioned, the front of the postcard is just a photo of our feet. The back is black & white text. I got the idea to do the whole month-calendar-with-the-date-circled thing, but none of the fonts I liked were monotype, so I spent a couple hours moving things around bit-by-bit in MS Paint to make them line up properly. Because I have no idea how to logically do this in paint.NET. This is what I came up with:

What do you think? I really liked the typewriter keys, and I think they go well enough with "Old Newspaper Font". I got both from dafont.com. Now to design the rest of the back. I wonder how many fonts I can use without totally driving myself crazy...

Things we've been working on.

2010-01-11T17:34:00.000-08:00

Wow, no update for 11 days?! Where have I been?!

Mostly at home trying to get well. I've been sick on-and-off for over three weeks now and I'm so tired of it. We have been doing a bit of wedding stuff, though. Yesterday we registered a domain name (~$11 at godaddy.com) and registered at Wordpress to make a wedding website. I made a really cheesy banner for it that looks like this:

Tommy is saying he's going to relearn some web design stuff so he can make a better template (and by that I believe he means, ditch my banner) for it. Not that it really matters, especially right now! We mostly just wanted to get our URL set so we can finish our S-the-D's and order them. We are going to happy hour this evening and bringing my laptop so we can work on them. (Just for the record... I'm still getting over being sick and it's a school night so I'm not drinking. It is however, Thomas' weekend.)

We've both sent out requests to everyone we needed to get addresses from. Facebook has made this process infinitely easier than it would have been otherwise. I think we've gotten back maybe 70% of our requests so far. I ditched My Wedding Workbook for the invites, after downloading a spreadsheet from them, which I then adapted to our simpler, not-havin-a-bridesmaid-luncheon-or-day-after-brunch selves. It's taking a lot less headache to just keep all the information in the spreadsheet than on the website. It has also really helped to ask people to send me ALL their contact info so I can c/p it right in. Much easier than looking at their reply, then hunting down their number in my phone, and their email address in my gmail, etc.

And I also cut out my first triangle for our bunting... which of course I did upside down. It was from my favorite pair of pajama pants which I ripped by doing something stupid, like sitting on the floor, under the influence of alcohol. And I found an idea for centerpiece-type things, if we decide to do centerpiece-type things. I found (didn't purchase) a vintage milk-glass ceiling light fixture which, when flipped upside down, would be an awesome container for... something that I haven't figured out yet. Flowers? Some sort of red fruit such as apples? etc? I see similar fixtures for CHEAP all the time at garage sales and the Rebuilding Center, so we should be able to get them. What should I put in them? Here's a (bad, cell-phone) picture of the fixture:

And I leave you with the most awesome of all save-the-dates: An online, backwards-cake-destroying one set to a Mates of State song! This couple is awesome. I saw this on the DIY Bride blog.

press play... from tim and jane on Vimeo.

PS. I just found out that Mep Gies died today at age 100. Rest in peace, Miep, to an amazing, brave woman.

Putting down a deposit. Also, Save-the-Dates!

2010-01-01T21:19:00.000-08:00

Here in Portland, it rains a good portion of the year. However, it rarely snows. So far this year we have had exactly one day of snow. This day coincided with the day we went to put a deposit on our venue and sign the paperwork. It was fantastic! We walked a half-mile to the train, and another half-mile to the venue, and it snowed the entire time. I always take a million pictures when it's snowing. I grew up in Southern California so snow is completely magical for me! T grew up in Massachusetts so it's old hat for him. Here we are while waiting for the train:

By the time we got there, the entire yard was covered in a gorgeous blanket of snow! That small arch in the back of the photo is where we will (probably) be having the ceremony.

This is the back of the house. During the year, the balcony and staircase are covered with a burst of green. Right now it's all asleep. The door at the top of the balcony goes to the room where I'll be getting dressed. (Sorry about the poor quality photos... my camera didn't know what it should be doing with the snow!)

And here we are, handing over the first large chunk of "wedding money":

Right now I'm working on our Save-the-Dates. We're creating postcards to send out. All our family lives out of town, and we have a date that people will likely want to make other plans for, so there we are. All I want to do is put a few words over a photo we took last spring, but of course I made the mistake of poking around the internet for "inspiration", and what started with a simple project has me second-guessing everything... Wouldn't it be cooler if I made the pic look like it was taken with a Holga? And I need a fancier font! What if we unintentionally set a "theme"?Everyone else's "DIY" looks so professional, and mine is going to look uncreative and stupid! Our photo doesn't evoke a summer wedding... should I still use it?

SERIOUSLY... does it really matter?! It's purpose is to let people know the date we're getting married on and where the wedding is going to be. The recipients are going to hang it on their fridge, or toss it in a pile of papers or in the recycling. It's really not that big of a deal! What's something in your wedding planning that you've had to give yourself a serious reality check about?

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T13:49:00.000-08:00

Goodbye, 2009, hello 2010.

Since we're both still kind of sick, we spent our evening at home with the cat. It was really nice, though. We watched some 30 Rock, played with the cat, ate tasty snacks, drank more alcoholic beverages that semi-sick people should have, and wrote lists of resolutions. I'm really hoping 2010 is a better year for us. Being engaged and living together is awesome, but in 2009 we (especially me) were hit tons of financial and career setbacks, and I'm tired of it. I'm hoping this year I can get a teaching job (I went into CRAZY debt to get my M.Ed. and license over the past couple years and then there were no teaching jobs this past fall), get rid of my credit debt, and start preparing to buy a house. I also want to get back into the habit of eating healthier and riding my bike more, taking better care of my bike, our apartment, and the cat, spend more time with friends, with Thomas, making things, reading, and spend less time on the damn computer! So basically, I resolve to improve my quality of life!

How about you? Any particularly creative or interesting resolutions?

Postcard Giveaway!

2010-01-01T13:16:00.000-08:00

If you haven't entered, today is the last day to enter a postcard giveaway from the Shooting for a $3,000 Wedding blog and U-printing! Check it out here: http://pandbwedding.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-first-giveaway-100-postcards-from.html. If I win we'll be using the postcards for Save-the-Dates!

Get your entries complete by 5pm TODAY!

Dropping the first pile o' cash

2009-12-29T14:08:00.000-08:00

Today we got word from our perfect venue that it is still available on July 4th - as long as we give them the deposit STAT. We're going to the tour tonight, bringing a check, and signing paperwork. I was obsessively looking at new bikes on the internet and about to start searching the local bike shops with Christmas money from my dad, but that can go on hold for now. My old bike still rolls and I'm sure I can do a little maintenance and get a few more months out of it.

Here is my bike back - when it was pretty and new, before my matchy tires were stolen and the paint started to chip off (taken during Pedalpalooza, June 2008):

I also realized that I haven't written about my visit to Chrissy Wai-Ching's studio in Seattle! I'd like to report I'm just as smitten with her dresses in person as I was on the internet. Luckily there were some dresses in/close to my size, so I actually got to try them on! I tried on a modified Pandereta (which I LOVED - more than the standard one); a couple Samsaras (not a fan - I don't like tightness through the hips, and they were in the "if I lost 20 pounds they'd look good" category), a Eucalyptus, which I also loved, and an Athena, which as predicted, I didn't like on my body shape. As I expected, I loved the strapless, super-fitted dresses on me - they were all in the "I'd wear this in public the way I am tomorrow" category. Super-flattering! We talked about doing a little Athena-esque modification on the Pandereta, and I think I want it in a different fabric - either the silk charmeuse or the hemp satin. I want to eliminate the band of color around the bottom (because it messes with my plan to wear colored shoes). I'm so excited about my dress!! Hopefully next month I'll be back up to get measured and pay a deposit. Poor me, having reasons to visit Seattle...

In typical bride-ness I'm using the wedding as a motivator for weight-loss. I gained about 20 pounds during grad school and I want them gone - back to the size I am in the photo above. So far it hasn't really worked, but T and I are making some changes this week. Pilates starts again next week and we're going to work out at home besides that as well. And Christmas is OVER! I can't believe how much junk I devoured under the excuse of "it's the holidays." Time for more salads and stir fries with brown rice and not eating out at the drop of a hat. A food makeover is a long time coming in our household. That said.... what should we eat for dinner tonight?

Also, Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T13:09:00.000-08:00

Or happy holidays, or whatnot. We celebrate in a completely secular manner (except for Sufjan Stevens' Christmas box set). Last night our friend Jeff came over and we ate grilled sandwiches and decorated our tree with robots, vintage glass ornaments, Del Monte fruits, Wizard of Oz, classic film stars, and other stuff we've collected. The mid-century modern metal angel on the top was my grandmother's. This morning we unwrapped presents from each other... including a classic NES and Super Nintendo duel system, and copious amounts of Nikki McClure. Later our friend Cat is coming over to share dinner with us!

We are not posing at all in this pic.

Vintage glass ornaments and Carmen Miranda

The scarecrow and vintage grapes

And it's decided!

2009-12-25T08:09:00.000-08:00

Source.

After speaking to Thomas and running it by our friend Jeff, we've come to a decision on the date/venue issue. Unless our venue has become unavailable since I last heard from them, we'll be getting married on July 4th, 2010! And on our anniversary every year we'll have the day off work, fireworks, and a million celebrations.

Woohoo!

Venue/Date Nightmare! Gah!

2009-12-24T10:54:00.000-08:00

So much wedding-related NOTHING has been going on, and I'm so stressed that I've been refusing to write or even think about it! It's just been building up into this huge ball of ick living inside of me. This, together with our (totally fun, but) hectic weekend in Seattle, working on my days off, and making a million late preparations for Christmas, has meant that I've got a cold that keeps resurfacing. I took the day off from nannying today, and am getting nothing done.

Here's the deal with our date and venue. We originally chose Saturday, July 31st as our tentative date. However, we were looking at a venue (perfect! in location, price, and aesthetic!) that is significantly less expensive on Sundays, and since it would be nice to have more time before the wedding with out-of-town guests, we thought July 25th would be good. However, it took the venue several weeks to get back to me on dates, and so we just found out the 25th is booked. Several days before Christmas, and only a couple weeks before reservations start for the city-owned sites. On top of that, I looked up the dates for a 2-week training I'll have to go to if I get hired at a school I have a decent chance of getting hired at next year, and it ends the 23rd of July. Meaning the 25th wouldn't be doable for me anyway. Nor is the 18th, or the weekend before that. Sunday, August 1st is my birthday, and while I don't really want to get married on my birthday, it's also booked at our perfect venue (as is ALL of August). I just emailed the woman again about June and September, which I'm not thrilled about as it rains a good portion of the year here and tents are expensive to rent. So I'm kind of at a loss of what to do. T's computer died just as he was nearing completion on the album he's mixing and it is going to take a few weeks to get a new one built, so his stress has been dedicated to that. Understandably, he hasn't wanted to worry much about our date/venue conundrum! (I also don't think he realizes how rare it is to find a pretty, non-caterer-tied venue in our price range in this city.)

It looks like the only July date that would work at that location would be July 4th. Is it weird to get married on July 4th? We're not exactly patriotic, "God Bless America" types. I guess it could be fun to ensure we have our anniversary off work every year... What do you think?

(And in more positive news, stay tuned to read about my visit to Chrissy Wai-Ching's studio in Seattle!)

Our engagement story, inspired by an upcoming Seattle trip!

2009-12-12T15:04:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned (probably more than once), Thomas and I have fairly opposing schedules and don't see enough of each other. After thinking that was going to change recently... it hasn't. Theoretically we both have Sunday off. However, I've been nannying on Sundays and he's been picking up shifts. I'm currently in the middle of a 13-day workweek. Tommy is doing something similar. However... after my shift is over on the last day (Friday!), we're going to Seattle for the weekend. It will the first time we've been up since he moved down here, and I am so, so excited. Not only do we love the city, we have a bunch of friends up there that we can't wait to see. Also, the record Thomas has been working on is nearing completion, so we'll be having a listening party with the band and assorted friends while we're there. And I'll be going to Chrissy Wai-Ching's studio to check out wedding dresses! I think we're going to be renting a car and driving up. It'll cost about the same as train tickets at this time of year, and as a bonus we'll be able to do more stuff because we won't have to wait around for the bus while we're there like we usually do. Some places I want to go: Brouwers, Trophy Cupcakes, Paseo, Equal Exchange Cafe (Tommy's old shop), Victrola on Pike, Vivace, the Red Light in the U-District (so different from the Portland ones!), Pioneer Square Antique Mall, and of course, Gasworks Park - where we got engaged.

Despite it being one of my only days that I can sleep past 6, I woke up a little after 4am and couldn't go back to sleep. That's how most of my week has been - up WAY earlier than I need to be - even on the days when my alarm is set for 6! So because of this, and since I'm working tonight, I've spent most of my day being lazy. I did one whole load of laundry. Looked at knitting patterns online. Scanned a bunch of old photos from elementary, jr. high, and high school and uploaded them to facebook. Here's one from about 1986:

And one from senior year, 1997 - with the same friend (Sara)! I'm on the right in both pics.

I also found out about an awesome engagement story via Green Wedding Shoes. It was done with a series of illustrated panels that folded into a bridge. You should go to the artist's blog to read about it! I love hearing about super-creative proposals. Mine was pretty standard, but in the most perfect of locations. It took place on our 6-monthiversary. I was student-teaching, and had a Craigslist ride to Seattle after school. Thomas met me near Victrola on Pike and we had dinner/drinks at the Honey Hole. He obviously was hiding something - look at the gleam in his eye!

After that he insisted that we go to Gasworks Park, even though it was already getting dark and it was kind of cold out. We walked downtown and had to wait awhile for a bus. He almost changed his mind about going, since we were both tired. I didn't think he was going to propose (ok, the idea went through my mind for about a second), but I really wanted to go anyway. We hadn't been there since the first time I visited him, and we had all these great memories. So we waited for the bus, then walked to the park and up the hill and onto the sundial. And we were looking at the skyline, and hugging to stay warm, and he started talking about how good we are together and all of that, and then before I knew it he was on his knee and holding a ring that I couldn't see because it was so dark. I obviously said yes, and we stayed there on the hill for a few more minutes. And then we headed home, because we were tired! We walked the whole way - through Fremont and up that damn hill (Phinney Ridge) that he lived on top of.

Later on, Tommy told me that he thought about proposing in the Space Needle. I am so glad he chose Gasworks instead. For starters, the SN is ok, but not that great. Also, I would've bitched endlessly about how damn much it costs. (I'm sorry, but $17 or whatever they charge is outrageous, in my opinion. I've done it once, and I'll do it again if we have a kid who is interested, but that's it.) And on top of that, Gasworks park is so much more US. We definitely had more fun there that first weekend that at the SN.

There's tons of old machinery:

The view is gorgeous:

And sometimes people dance in giant animal heads on the very spot we got engaged at:

Hope you're having a nice weekend. I'm behind on Christmas shopping, knitting, and chores. What are you procrastinating right now?

Happy birthday, Thomas!

2009-12-05T21:24:00.000-08:00

Today is Thomas' 28th birthday. Because we are old (and because we celebrated last week with our friend Sam), we are already home from celebrating. Now we have 4 different types of beer, cupcakes, and a comfortable couch. He worked all day, and then we went out for dinner at Sagittarius, which was amazing. I had rosemary mac & cheese and a cocktail involving coffee called HOT NUTS, and he had a beer-battered, deep-fried veggie burger and a beer. (Obviously we are not the most health-conscious of vegetarians.) We went by Saraveza, but it was too crowded, so we got beer to go and came home. I'm glad we don't have to bike anymore tonight. It's about 30 degrees outside right now, and we biked about 12 miles each today.

Due to money restraints, I bought Thomas some silly and sentimental bikey little gifts: a pin from local bikey artist Shawn Granton, a striped tie screen printed with a blue bike-chain/heart, a handmade switchplate cover, and locally made lava/pumice soap (for removal of bike grease from hands). The sentimentality came from the switchplate cover and soap. The first December we knew each other, I was super-broke (even more than now!) and bought him (at another craft fair) a switchplate cover and rootbeer-scented, bike-shaped soap. He thought my gifts were nice and not-lame, which is what I was hoping for! Here he is, modeling them all at once:

and the button:

I have little wedding progress to report. We had our first planning-related argument last Thursday. We got over it pretty quickly, but I'm hoping it doesn't happen again for awhile. It was over something totally dumb - how to go about making our budget. If we're going to fight, we should at least be fighting over something good! But we have started budgeting, which we've been putting off. In better news, I asked my dad if he could help pay for the venue rental, and he said yes!

Also, I recently saw a photo shoot that I loooved. I normally love to hate Style Me Pretty because of how freaking expensive and overdone I think everything is - it makes me feel like our plans and budget are total crap, when in fact they're just fine. However, this shoot incorporated all sorts of wonderful vintage crap in the decor. In fact, it included the exact finger-amputating fan that I rescued from the goodwill bins a couple years ago! So we've been talking about hauling some of our useless vintage goodness to decorate at our venue. If you don't know the shoot I'm talking about, here's a link to one of the posts about it.

Venue possibility!

2009-12-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

We've found a strong candidate for a wedding venue! The search has been a mess. As I've said, we're operating on perhaps the world's most minimal budget, and don't have any family in the area, so no having the reception in someone's backyard. It seems like pretty much everything is out of budget or requires X amount of catering we can't afford or 8,000 rentals or SOMETHING. Which makes me nervous and sad. Then on a whim, I looked at the website of a historic house that is run by a neighborhood association and is often used for weddings. I realized that if we have the ceremony AND reception there it will be (relatively) affordable because it includes rentals for some things we would otherwise have to rent. The irony of this is, of course, that a couple months before we got engaged I went to a vintage bridal fair at this historic house, and assumed it'd be WAY out of budget. However, the price of renting the city-owned rose garden + picnic area + rentals would be more than this amazing location!

It is open on Tuesday evening for people to tour it, and we meant to go today... we really did. According to the lady I emailed, they still have plenty of dates available for next summer, especially since we're planning a Sunday wedding (which will save us $300... yesss!) However, I worked 8 hours with children under the age of 6 today, and biked home in the wind, and didn't get enough sleep last night, and had Pilates before that... so I was exhausted when I got home. And was a little late. And T was napping when I arrived. So we'll go next Tuesday instead.

What is this fantastic location?

The Overlook House in North Portland! A huge Tudor-style house, built in 1927, that overlooks (HA!) the river (and industrial zone, sexy!), on an acre of property.

(Picture graciously borrowed from the website.)

I'm crossing my fingers that this is our venue. I don't want to have to worry about table/chair/dish rentals, and I'd love to be able to actually set a date. The city-run site we were planning on doesn't take reservations till January 2nd, and it's one of the city's most popular so there's no guarantee we'd get it. It'll be really nice to actually envision what we're planning, and form a realistic budget based on what we're going to be needing.

In other news, I switched from Mozilla to Google Chrome, mostly because I couldn't get blogspot to function well in Mozilla (at least on my computer it wouldn't). I swear, I shouldn't try to use technology. I also can't get my Addthis RSS button to work... at least for Google Reader. It says that "The feed being requested cannot be found." Hmmm. Any hints on how to fix this? Or is there a better RSS button-thing I should be using?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T21:27:00.000-08:00

Thomas and I are currently working conflicting schedules. We literally never have a day off at the same time, and it's been really wearing on us. However, we both have today and tomorrow off - a small miracle! It's been great to see us getting back into our old patterns of acting like we like each other, instead of being tired and grumpy and stressed out. We needed this. An added bonus has been beautiful, clear weather the past couple days, which is a nice change from the constant drizzle and cloudiness. We've been wearing short sleeves (with scarves/hats/arm warmers), walking everywhere instead of biking to savor our outdoor time, and holding hands.

At this moment, Tommy is starting our stuffing for Thanksgiving and brandishing a knife covered in fake sausage at me. We are listening to the You Look Nice Today podcast, which you should start enjoying NOW if you don't already. We're staying home tomorrow, and making dinner for just the two of us. We're both long-time vegetarians (I just had my 7-year veg-iversary, and Tommy's been one twice that long), so we've gotten together a delicious, bird-free feast. On the menu:

- Qorn "Turk-y" roast that Tommy is marinating in herbs and broth
- Stuffing with fake sausage
- Mushroom gravy
- Green bean casserole
- Mashed root veggies (potatoes, parsnips & carrots)
- Red wine

- Pumpkin pie (I cheated and bought a frozen crust from New Seasons)
- 2 bottles of Pliny the Elder (a sentimental favorite for us)

We have bagel sandwich ingredients and some Mexican Oaxica from Cellar Door Coffee with Caramel Baileys and whipped cream for breakfast. It's going to be a good day.

In other news, I keep telling Tommy that I want our wedding to be Mates Of States theme. I'm joking, kind of. Neither of us can get this out of our heads:

It'll definitely be going on our save-the-date mix cd's, and possibly be used in our ceremony.

"Like U Crazy" alternates in our heads with No One Likes To Be Left Out. In addition to MoS, we're also a little in love with Yo Gabba Gabba right now!

In other news, my laptop is in transit right now and will arrive on Friday. I can't wait.

I hope you have a fantastic day tomorrow with your loved ones!

Apartment Living

2009-11-22T11:39:00.000-08:00

As Tommy likes to say, we live in our dream house...'s basement. A few months ago, the dad of the kiddo I used to nanny converted the finished basement of their gorgeous craftsman bungalow into an apartment. Eight weeks ago, we moved into it! Despite it being a pretty huge one-bedroom (seriously, the bathroom is nearly the size of the bedroom I grew up in), it is overcrowded with stuff. My stuff. Part (ahem, a small part) of the problem is the lack of sufficient closet space, but most (the vast majority) of it is due to me having too much stuff. Thanks to some floor-to-ceiling curtains, some skinny pieces of scrap wood, a few zip ties and a few hooks, and some rubbermaid tubs, we now have an extra "closet",and (some of) the clutter has been alleviated. Temporarily.

I have been collecting vintage clothing for over a decade.* I dabbled in selling for a year or so, and since then have been trying to motivate myself to list more stuff over at Etsy. However, I find it to be incredibly tedious! The mending, steaming, photographing, measuring, sometimes weighing to determine shipping, and listing is not my idea of fun. And so all of this wonderful vintage sits, for now, in bins in my apartment. On top of that, there is the fabric bin, the yarn bin, the art supplies bins, the stuff-i-can't-let-go-of-from-childhood bin, and now, the wedding crafts bin. Having so much stuff makes it hard to use it, because I have limited workspace and everything is packed so tightly together. So my goal is to sort through this junk, actually use some of the art supplies or donate them to SCRAP, and enjoy using the extra space for a big sewing/crafting table!

We just bought a couch on craigslist, and it's seriously comfy! Right now I'm washing the cushion covers, but maybe I'll post a picture later. It's a pretty average-looking couch. Sage green, textured cotton fabric, down-filled. We were temporarily sharing my studio apartment before we moved here, so we didn't have room for a couch and so this is pretty exciting. We can sit next to each other and relax! Or watch a movie! Oh, the luxury! I also set up my rickety vintage kitchen table in the dinette, which was previously filled with junk. It's starting to feel more like home.

Our next purchase will be a new bed. Sharing a full-size is making us grumpy and sleep-deprived. I'll miss my 1920s bedframe, but for a Simmons Beautyrest? It'll be worth it. I've been researching mattresses online, since comparison-shopping seems next to impossible. I found out that the same model will be called different things at different stores, but I found a website with charts showing the equivalent names for some good brands. We both have bad backs, and I'm a light sleeper, so the bed needs to be comfortable AND reducing of movement. I personally cannot stand memory foam, so a spring mattress it will be. We'd like to get something pretty good, so it's comfortable now, AND lasts us a decade. We also need to get it at a good price. There are so many factors in choice that I can see this mattress search becoming obsessive for me!

Hope you're all having a good weekend filled with relaxation or adventure or crafting - whatever you prefer!

* I was planning on posting pictures of some of my favorite items, but my laptop is still in the shop and a spin through my flickr account is making me realize they're all hidden due to my Pro Account expiring. Here's just one of me in a favorite 40s dress and (not-historically-correct), 1950s sunglasses, taken at Fort MacArthur Days in San Pedro, California in 2008. Obviously I am on the right:

Some details....

2009-11-19T21:29:00.000-08:00

This post is coming to you from Thomas' computer. Mine has been sent off to be fixed by Dell, and will probably not be back for another week. After a few days of dealing with Tommy's Windows 7 and a missing "E" key, I'm ready to have my laptop NOW, even with the broken hinge and left-click button! (I should just be grateful that I have a computer to use, shouldn't I?)

I was thinking today about how so many people have this vision of what their wedding is going to look like, and that the more I think about ours, the less I do! Right now, most of our wedding plans are completely up in the air. We know where we're having our ceremony, although the city doesn't allow reservations till January 2nd, so although that's settled, the date is TBD. Our reception location is completely and totally unknown, and so much rests on that! I love to scavenge vintage goodies and to make stuff, AND we're on a low budget, so having a loose idea of what we want is a good thing because we can improvise and make stuff up as we go along! Some things we DO know are:

Colors. We're planning on lots of red and robin's egg blue (aka pyrex blue) incorporated into stuff. These are 2 of my favorite colors. I collect vintage pyrex in REB, and red is just the best color out there. (Tommy likes the blue, but would rather have orange. Since I'm not a fan of orange, but he likes red ok, we're having red.)

Pyrex blue!

I. Love. Red. Hat by Ava Hansen Millinery

Officiant. Our friend Sam is getting ordained online so he can marry us. He is going to be awesome.

Sam.

Cake. We want to do a table with a few cakes. They will be on vintage cake plates. They will be topped with vintage cake toppers. I got the idea from project wedding, via Elizabeth Anne Designs. We'll have one 2-tier cake from Bakery Bar, along with a few other cakes in different flavors (one of which will be red velvet, and something vegan).

Vintage-trimmed cake table:

Cute cake from Bakery Bar (photoshopped with our initials):
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Bikes. We will be riding our bikes as transportation at some or all points of our wedding.

Us, on a bike ride on my birthday last summer. Bikes not pictured.

Invitations. As mentioned, our invitations will be made by Jamie at Don't Press Me. He's got an awesome idea for our design and I can't wait to see it! Go to his website to see a slideshow of recent work!

We've got some more ideas, but this is it for now... I don't think I missed any E's, but don't judge me too harshly if I have. Pleae cross your fingers for the quick return of my beloved laptop!

What details did you figure out right off the bat? What things do you care the most about, and what are you super-flexible about?

Brain-dump, plus our awesome photographer!

2009-11-13T22:42:00.000-08:00

This afternoon/evening was full of weddingness! I was able to convince Thomas to work on wedding suff by going out for happy hour at The Chapel Pub - a historic funeral home/wedding chapel turned restaurant, which is a short walk from our apartment. Amidst cheap veggie burgers and tater tots and beer, we nearly finished our guest list! We have been using My Wedding Workbook, which is going pretty well. I like all the options and ways to keep track of things, although it's a little clunky, especially when you have to go back and change details. Our guest list is a little over what we were hoping it would be, and I don't think all of Thomas' people are on the list yet... which means we need to do ~~some~~ a lot more paring.

We also talked a bit about our ceremony venue, which keeps changing... we need to visit a couple more sites - balancing price vs. closeness to reception location, which is also (kind of) undecided. I think we're just going to do a simple cake + booze reception (with live music, provided by the amazing band Julia Massey and the Five Fingered Discount). Where we're doing this, we do not yet know. We may do it at the park where we hope to have the ceremony, or look for a nice-backyard-of-someone-we-know type of situation.

After we got home, I had a good talk with my dear friend Erin. Erin is awesome. She is enthusiastic, creative, generous, and wonderfully offbeat as hell. We brainstormed ideas about decor, glassware, and money-saving. She really understands what Thomas and I going for with our wedding: authenticity. She told me to make a list of stuff we need, and since she is constantly thrifting/garage-saleing for her classroom, she will be on the lookout for these items! Considering we're going to be using things like mason jars for beverages, and multiple vintage cake plates and cake toppers, this is awesome.

Not only is Erin a good friend, she is also an amazing photographer! Last summer she photographed our mutual friends' David and Andrea's wedding, and the photos turned out beautifully. She will be doing our photography as well, and I know it's going to be good.

Here are a few pics she took at D&A's wedding:

Erin does commercial and fine art photography and is just starting out with weddings. Feel free to contact her through her website!

WE WON!!!

2009-11-07T19:07:00.000-08:00

Today I got an email from Elizabeth Anne Designs telling me that I WON their latest giveaway! Thomas and I will be getting 75 LETTERPRESS invitations and RSVP cards for free from Don't Press Me - a letterpress shop in Omaha, Nebraska. I am SOOOO excited. There is no way we'd have this gorgeous of invitation otherwise. We were planning on making our invitations, but this is going to be such a time, stress, and money-saver for us, at a time of year where I'm busy with school events, and trying to secure a job for next year, AND planning our wedding! Not to mention... I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE letterpress! I can't wait to start the ordering process for this - although it'll be quite some time before we're there!

SO EXCITED.
SO EXCITED.
SO EXCITED.

In other news, I've been home sick since Thursday evening. I've been passing the time watching The L-Word Season 5 (cheesy! ridiculous! addictive!!! Bette and Tina are getting back together! Jenny is even crazier! ETC! Yes, I'm a bit behind.) and working on a sweater I started last January. It appears that my knitting has improved - I just finished the ribbing on the front, and my stitches are much tighter and neater! The downside to this is that it's completely different from the ribbing I did on the back almost a year ago. It's just going to have to mis-match a bit... I am not redoing the back now! I've been really working on learning new knitting skills.. I want to knit a shrug to go with my wedding dress, but fancy stitches are more than what I'm doing right now.

2009-11-03T21:46:00.000-08:00

Me: What should I write about in the wedding blog tonight?
Tommy: Boobs.
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Now, I love boobs as much as the next girl, but instead I'll write a bit about my dress search. I have a history of looooving vintage, and in fact I've been collecting it for over a decade. I've been (casually) looking at vintage wedding-ish dresses, but haven't found anything that (a) I like, (b) is appropriate for the type of wedding we're having, and (c) is my size! My search for a (somewhat) inexpensive dress that i love and that will look good on me led me to find Chrissy Wai-Ching's amazing dresses. I'm kind of in love with the Athena (too expensive + won't flatter my body) and the Pandereta (in budget + will probably look a lot better on me). I'm still looking at other dresses, but I'm thinking this is going to be what I end up wearing. Luckily I received my full deposit back from my last apartment, which I've squirreled away to pay for this dress. I need to schedule an appointment with Chrissy, which will give me a reason to go to Seattle! After the wedding I'll probably have it altered and maybe dyed into a normal dress.

So this is the dress! The embroidery/dyed silk will be either red or robin's egg blue. My favorite part = the huge back ties!

(FYI: These pics are borrowed from the Wai-Ching website. Go look at her other amazing dresses!)

First post, and I have no idea what to say....

2009-10-29T14:29:00.001-07:00

Hello, interwebs! I've been talking about starting a wedding blog since we got engaged over 6 months ago, but am only now taking action! My name is Julie, and my fiance is Thomas. We live in Portland, Oregon, and we're getting married next July!

Some things about our relationship/plans:
- We met in Portland in 2005 at a vegan potluck and became instant best buddies, bonding over a freebox NES that we decided to share.
- We later had 2 years of "unpleasantness" where we did not speak.
- We got together (romantically) in Seattle in October 2008.
- For our first 10 months of being together, we spent way too much time and money on Amtrak tickets, spending a couple weekends a month and my school breaks together.
- We got engaged on our 6-monthiversary at Gasworks Park in Seattle.
- Since we're funding it ourselves, we are planning a super-budget wedding. We'd rather spend the extra money on: honeymoon, debt-reduction (for me), recording gear (for him), down-payment on a house, etc.
- We're making a ton of stuff for our wedding, including the save-the-dates, invitations, decorations, some of the food.
- Our wedding location is about 4 blocks from our apartment. I pass it on my way to-and-from work!
- My engagement ring was purchased at the Pioneer Square Antique Mall, and is gorgeous, filigreed white-gold with a small diamond. It's from about 1910. Thomas picked it out himself, and I LOVE it!

obligatory "we just got engaged, will you take our picture?!" picture:

a picture of us taken the day after we got engaged, at Brouwer's:

my gorgeous ring: