Wedding

So stress isn’t even the correct word to describe what is happening. I think last weekend my body took all the “stress” it could handle and just collapsed Thursday evening. With school taking the majority of my time and wedding taking what remained, I was left with a shell of a body but I am happy to say that by yesterday (Tuesday) I have completely recovered and feel more confident about the progress being made.

As some of you might have heard Dan found a job in Austin so we will be officially moving there after the wedding, now exactly where is an unknown as of right now but I hope that dilemma will naturally work itself out since putting in the energy of a full on house hunt is out of my grasp at the moment. He gave his notice yesterday, and while he is sad to be leaving his team he is really looking forward to starting fresh in a new place (with a new wife).

Back to wedding stuff, we found our rings this weekend and got our marriage license, which is completely unromantic… well if you imagine spelling out your name and social security number in a severely bureaucratic office building to be romantic then maybe you would of had a better time. But I am glad to get it off of my to-do list. We still need to figure out a few things like:

The Dance Playlist (and please if you have any suggestions for good dance songs… maybe some that don’t require the old fashioned “bump n’ grind” it would be very appreciated)

Vows (don’t worry they won’t be lengthy)

Logistics (who is where and at what time)

Papel Picado (Yes I am still putting it off)

AND, lots of other little odds and ends that need to somehow find their way onto my to-do list.

Anyway it will get done one way or another. Just keeping my head down and pushing through until the end.  Wish me luck and sanity.

Since it has been awhile since my last post I have a lot to tell all of the 2 people who follow this blog. We have licked and stamped all of the envelopes and are ready to mass mail all of our invitations! I am so glad to have these behind me as they have been the dark cloud over me for the past 4 months. From conceiving the design back in April to finally printing them with the help of Jon and Leo Lee (I probably should be an indentured servant/babysitter to them until my debt is repaid) in early July, to putting the final touches on the handmade rubber stamps for the envelopes these past couple of weeks, I am finally ready to release my labor of love into the world, and I swear if the United States Postal Service screws it up like they did with the Save the Dates (lots of return to sender and several no-shows) I will be one majorly unhappy camper. We are about 2 months out so it is perfect timing that these invites are ready and I am very glad to get them off my dining room table and living room floor (and other places I am sure) and get them to our ever growing invite list. The one thing  I worry about is that people will not realized just how much work went into these invitations and have the audacity to throw them away. I know they cannot keep them forever but maybe if they don’t want to keep them they could return them to us on our wedding day? Just have a “recycle your invite here” box as they enter the ranch. My hoarding tendencies spike when I think of all the work and hours that will be thrown away and I become a little protective, maybe I should have thought of that before making the invitation….

Moving on to happier subjects this past weekend was my bachelorette party in Fredericksburg, TX. We had a wonderful time together and I really got to relax and appreciate what fabulous friends I have. We started off the night at Hondo’s which serves a mean “taco burger” with a very strong Margarita, while listening to some classic country played by the band (for such a cute small town there is plenty of nightlife and music to enjoy) afterwards we went to Lukenbach for some old country fun we danced to the stylings of the Almost Patsy Cline Band (by the name you already know it is a winner) and got to sit outside under the big oaks and the hill country stars, which might be my favorite part about Texas Hill Country the trees and the stars. When we got home to our cute little cottage off of Main St. we were ready for bed.

The next day was brunch and a day full of wine tastings and food, HEAVEN, needless to say I was happy as a clam getting to spend the day in rare cooler weather with a glass of delicious Cabernet Souvignon in my hand and a Rice Krispie treat in the other. To end the wine tasting festivities I danced with a stranger named Ray and bonded over La Fonda’s on Main with the wine guy Jerry, I can now check off “Made New Friends” category on my to-do list.

I really wish I could spend every weekend like this because I feel as if I don’t get to see my friends often enough if ever at all, since we are all so spread apart (Kansas City, Minneapolis, League City, Austin, Dallas, etc.)

Two more months to go and it seems as if everything is falling into place (if not, then it will be forced into place) let’s just hope we get everything done!

This past weekend we loaded up and drove out to West Texas. Though I’ve been fortunate enough to meet most of Emily’s friends and family from home over the last few years, Emily had still not met a lot of mine. She had met the immediate family, most of the aunts and uncles, and so forth but had not met two aunt/uncle pairings nor any of my friends and family’s friends. So whenever I speak of the Mikado cast, my teachers that I had for multiple years each, or the church choir mystery mates and sponsors… she had not met any of them.

That led us to Midland where my parents were so generous to throw a party to try to get some of these people out and about with us. We decided on La Bodega after three seconds of deliberation, and got several teachers, church folk, and family together. It’s the middle of summer so some could not make it that I would have loved to see, and a large majority of my friends from church and school no longer live in Midland. Despite all that, we had a really great group of people come – so many faces I hadn’t seen in a long time (in some cases for a decade). I’ll be having La Bodega leftovers for the next few days… the luck.

The best part of it all was that Emily made it through fine. Not only that, but she has been quoted as having a great time. My parents did wonderfully, and it was lovely to see everyone.

The second best part of it was that we had a huge bowl of guacamole.

For the last few weeks wedding planning has kicked into high gear. Since my grad school classes ended at the beginning of May, I have had more time to think about the big day.

In that time I have:

1. Cut 3500 strips of vellum for paper chains

2. Ordered 4 pairs of shoes from Zappos to see which one would look best with my dress

3. Ordered a custom-made veil from a vendor on Etsy from Germany.

4. Thought of a very clever gift for our wedding party (hopefully they like it)

5. Painted another 45 candlesticks and am ordering 15 more for good measure (actually had tremendous help from, Mom, Sister, Gandy, and Dan on this one)

6. Designed and started cutting out doilies for the table settings (Mom cut out the rest)

7. Calculated to Nth degree how much of everything we need for the table settings, hopefully I am right, or else someone is going to have an empty table.

8. Finished writing little bios about our wedding party, which will go up on the website this weekend!

9. Started looking for an alternative caterer for our rehearsal dinner.

10. Last but definitely not least Jon, Leo, and I, with help from their little brood, started making the invitations, it has taken several hours so far and we are still not finished but I am really happy with what it looks like. I know everyone getting theirs in the mail (probably in August) will see the hard work, planning, and love that went into each invite. Each invite is hand torn, has a screenprinted design that Jon pulled (and I designed) and will have a letterpressed message on the backside, the same with the reply cards.

I cannot thank them enough for their patience and determination to see this project to the end. They have been so helpful and wonderful it is no wonder why I never wanted to leave Trinity and become a lifelong student.

There is plenty that still needs to happen, I still need to finish designing and cutting the papel picado decorations, get my dress altered, put down deposits for the last of my vendors and put all of the missing pieces together, somehow though I am starting to see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel even though it is far away and faint.

Dan has worked so hard on making this website both beautiful and functional and I think he has succeeded tremendously. We will be using this place as a hub of communication for people who are planning on coming to the wedding.

Right now we are working on the save the date (I use “we” lightly, again Dan has taken the reins since I am so busy with school and work). I love the work he is doing and am really excited to see the printed product. We plan on sending out not only a postcard mailing but we are going to send an e-version as well for those who are more tech-savvy. We hope that the majority of our RSVPs will be sent back via this website to save on postage (and a few trees).

Things are coming together for the most part. I am really lucky to have the three big Fs to help me through this, friends, family and a big time thanks to my fiancé. I do not think I would be able to get through all of this messy planning on my own.

Hopefully I will find the time and inspiration to sit down and design the invites soon, in May, Jon and Léo Lee have agreed to help me letterpress and screenprint the invites. This will be a truly DIY wedding from start to finish. Ask mom, a couple of weekends ago we sat down and painted 45 wooden candlesticks now we only have 45 more to go. We have been thrift-store shopping for glass/crystal candlesticks and glass cake pedestals. And we still have yet to start on all the paper chains! I have been in the process of making papel picado for months now (sadly it just sits on my desk waiting to be worked on) but for some reason I have faith that it will all work out great and end up looking festive and beautiful.

Thanks again to everyone who has helped so far in the planning and creation of what I hope will be a great day!