Holy Crap!

We've been very wedding-oriented lately, after not doing much for the past...several months. In the past couple weeks, we've created registries, Alan got his great-grandfather's ring sized, I've purchased a veil and some jewelry, we've sort of narrowed down the reception foodstuffs, and we've decided on wording for the invitations! Oh, and we have the name of a florist that I need to call tomorrow.

The most exciting thing, I think, is that Alan was able to find a place that could size the ring without harming the inscription inside. This ring is from 1895, you guys, and was a couple sizes too big for Alan's slender finger (is it a surprise that his fingers are skinny? Not at all.). Fortunately, the goldsmith who appraised my engagement ring is, duh, a goldsmith, and was able to preserve the entire inscription. We had worried about it because when I bought my wedding ring, the jeweler at the store said that they might have to cut out part of Alan's ring to properly size it, and Alan was none too pleased. It was quite a boon, therefore, to find a goldsmith.

And the registering is also exciting, but completely overwhelming at the same time (how many plates? How many glasses? Towels? Do we NEED a waffle iron? What about luggage? Chip and dip platters?). Our house is SO tiny that it's hard to consider the future when what we own barely fits. But it is exciting to think that, one day, when we move into a place that's bigger than half a small house, we'll have lovely things that will remind us of our wedding and of these days when our little family is just the two of us, branching off from our respective bigger families.

The Macy's registry website tells us we have 55 days until the wedding. HOLY CRAP.

ALSO, today is the one year anniversary of our engagement in Paris! It's the one anniversary we can agree on. Yay us!

Wedding shoes

From the beginning of this whole process, I've been more focused on what shoes I'll wear than what dress. I care about the dress, yes, but it's not something I can necessarily wear again, even if it wasn't ivory. I mean, I'm not exactly making the cocktail party circuit once a week. Or even once a month, for that matter. My dress is short, and my shoes will be (quite) visible. So, shoes? Muy importante.

I decided on these:



They were expensive (cost more than my dress!) but they are AWESOME. Darker than the photo, but they look great with the dress. And I can wear them with many things, since they're nude (with that fantastic shock of pink). Seriously. Amazing.

Photos!

As part of our package with our wonderful wedding photographer Emily Perello from Emily Takes Photos we got an "engagement session". So on Super Bowl Sunday we went out to the Albany Bulb and took photos!

You can see some highlights below in the slideshow or here on her blog. I recommend going to her blog if you want to see them larger.

So advanced

We've paid for almost our entire honeymoon already: plane tickets, lodging, and rental car ($15/day through Hotwire! It cannot be beat), and it's all been this week, so it's been a VERY expensive week. On the upside, though, by the time August rolls around we won't have to worry about these large expenses (fingers crossed, of course).

Meanwhile, my wedding band came into the shop today! Less than a week after ordering--very cool. It's verrrrry simple, basically the same as my engagement ring (same width and everything) but without any sort of setting or stones. Perfect. They're closed tomorrow, Sunday and Monday, so I'll have to remember to go pick it up next Saturday. Exciting!

See ball: it rolls

Gosh--we've done so much wedding stuff in the past couple weeks! I picked up my wedding dress (it came in a month early!), we assembled and (as of today) mailed most of our Save the Dates, we went back to Mills with our officiant (Susan, Alan's best friend and a wonderful awesome person) to show her the space and talk about the ceremony and our ideas. We looked at (and ordered) a wedding ring for me, talked to the jeweler about sizing Alan's great-grandfather's ring for him (the short answer is...Alan has to think about it), and, as of last night, booked our plane tickets for our honeymoon in...dun dun dun!....Hawaii!

Weddingy things still to do: get Alan some pants (or a whole new tux), get me a head thing and some shoes, flowers, cake/pie/dessert, invitations, drink-holding things, create a registry, and probably other stuff I'm forgetting. What am I forgetting? Oh, who knows.

Getting the ball rolling

My lovely, wonderful and talented (!!) friend, Rachel, mailed us our completed Save the Date cards from her cozy home in Seattle earlier this week, and they arrived yesterday! Despite Alan being out of town, there was no way I was going to wait until Monday evening to open the package. So I opened it and texted him to let him know they came. It was my own private compromise. And they are AWESOME. They don't have any of Rachel's glorious artwork on them (because we wanted to keep them super simple), but we'll be adoring them with two funny little stamps we picked up on Fourth Street.

And Rachel, I am going to pimp you out a little bit for the 4 people (including yourself, haha) who read this blog: go here to see some of Rachel's amazing work. You can purchase prints of her work, greeting cards with her images on them (some quite festive!), or commission her to do, well, many things!

This means, of course, that we now have to actually finalize the guest list and gather addresses from everyone. Good times!

News to report!

It's perhaps a bit strange that I ordered my dress so far in advance, but when you know what you want, you get it! And I did. It was originally not supposed to be in until mid-February (still plenty of time to get it altered, etc.), but I got a call from The Wedding Party today saying it's come in early! And I made an appointment to pick it up in 3 weeks (our schedules do not match up well).

I am so excited. I can sort of understand how all those women on Say Yes to the Dress feel, having not seen their dress in a while. And while this is DEFINITELY less than the year that those dresses take), I've never seen my dress in the material I decided upon, so it's a bit nerve-wracking. Clara tells me that it's beautiful, that it turned out wonderfully and is so pretty, which helps a bit (but I also think, you see wedding dresses every day--and aren't they always that way?).

If I hate it, I can always get something else, since it wasn't very pricey. BUT I keep trying to picture myself in something long and different, and just can't do it.

Dress, I will see you in 3 weeks!

It's quiet, but all's well

Boy, it's been a while since we posted anything. We haven't been very focused on wedding planning since Alan and I have rarely overlapped on time at home (awake and/or with clear minds) since...Thanksgiving. Right now, we're deciding on what we would like the Save the Date cards to look like, but that's about it.

And, personally, because I can't speak for Alan, I've been fretting a bit over what to do with my extremely un-bridal hair. It's short, and it's going to be short, and that's just the way it is. I'm of two minds about a veil, but it seems impossible to find a place to try one on, just to see what it looks like. I'm thinking of ordering one online, but what if I hate it? Fret, fret, fret.

Otherwise--life goes on! My show closed last week, Alan's closes this weekend, then we have a week, then Alan goes to Michigan, so the first weekend in January will be the first time since early November that we'll spend a Friday and Saturday night together without shows! Huzzah.

Social networking gone TOO FAR

If Alan even THINKS of doing THIS during the wedding ceremony, there won't be a reception because we'll be too busy getting the marriage annulled. Immediately.

And one more thing (this gets its own post)

We booked our photographer! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the synergistic, incredible, lovely and talented...

Emily Takes Photos

Because she is AMAZING. And her photos are AMAZING. And et cetera ad infinitum!

Epiphanies abound!

We are truly doing cake and punch (or pie and sangria, or pudding and lemonade, etc. etc. etc.) during the reception. Truly, truly, for real for real. We sat down and looked at the budget again last week after a couple months of not looking at it--during which time we put down deposits on the location, my dress, the photographer, and a couple other things--and had to take a moment and catch our collective breath. All of a sudden, we're having a moderately expensive wedding! Not outrageously so, thank god, not even probably what most wedding-planning-people would think of as expensive, but it was a bit of a shock to us. And so, after talking about doing hors d'oeuvres [sic, for the love of god, sic] or box lunches (and LADIES! If you are having lunch after your wedding, the BOX LUNCH is highly economical!), we're going to go with our original old fashioned plan.

I know there might be some eye rolling and scoffing at this plan, perhaps a bit of, "we came all the way out here for this?" but the people we care about the most--and who care about US the most--(hopefully) won't care. Or shouldn't care. Or will think it's awesome. I think it's awesome!