The (Unabridged) Ceremony

Several people have asked for one or more parts of the wedding ceremony, and I like to please my friends and loved ones, so here is the ceremony in it's entirety; enjoy!

Welcome

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court--2003 
"Marriage is a vital social institution. The exclusive commitment of two individuals to each other nurtures love and mutual support.

Civil marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another human being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity, and family. Because it fulfills yearnings for security, safe haven, and connection that express our common humanity, civil marriage is an esteemed institution and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life's momentous acts of self-definition. It is undoubtedly for these concrete reasons, as well as for its intimately personal significance, that civil marriage has long been termed a ‘civil right.’ Without the right to choose to marry one is excluded from the full range of human experience."

Apache Wedding Blessing 
(this is not authentic, it was created for a book and movie, but we love the sentiment)

Now you will feel no storms,
for each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no loneliness,
for each of you is companion to the other.
You are two persons,
but there is one life before you, and one home.
Turn together to look at the road you traveled,
to reach this---the hour of your happiness.
It stretches behind you into the past.
Look to the future that lies ahead.
A long and winding, adventure-filled road,
whose every turn means discovery,
new hopes, new joys, new laughter,
and a few shared tears.
May happiness be your companion,
May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead;
And through all the years to come.
Go this day to your dwelling place
and enter into your days together.
May your days be good and long upon the earth.

Plato’s Symposium
Humans have never understood the power of Love, for if they had they would surely have built noble temples and altars and offered solemn sacrifices; but this is not done, and most certainly ought to be done, since Love is our best friend, our helper, and the healer of the ills which prevent us from being happy.

To understand the power of Love, we must understand that our original human nature was not like it is now, but different. Human beings each had two sets of arms, two sets of legs, and two faces looking in opposite directions. There were three genders then: one comprised of two men called the children of the Sun, one made of two women called the children of the Earth, and a third made of a man and a woman, called the children of the Moon. Due to the power and might of these original humans, the Gods began to fear that their reign might be threatened. They sought for a way to end the humans’ insolence without destroying them.

It was at this point that Zeus divided the humans in half. After the division, the two parts of each desiring their other half came together, and throwing their arms about one another, entwined in mutual embraces, longing to grow into one. So ancient is the desire of one another which is implanted in us, reuniting our original nature, making one of two, and healing the state of humankind.

Each of us when separated, having one side only, is but the indenture of a person, and we are always looking for our other half. Those whose original nature lies with the children of the Sun are men who are drawn to other men, those from the children of the Earth are women who love other women, and those from the children of the Moon are men and women drawn to one another. And when one of us meets our other half, we are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and would not be out of the other’s sight even for a moment. We pass our whole lives together, desiring that we should be melted into one, to spend our lives as one person instead of two, and so that after our death there will be one departed soul instead of two; this is the very expression of our ancient need. And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called Love.

Hearth Lighting
In ancient Greece, the hearth was the center of the home. To symbolize this in the modern home, Jessi and Ellie have had an oil lamp created. 

Carrie & Karina carried lanterns in place of the torches traditionally carried by the bride and groom’s mothers. I would like to ask them to light the oil lamp from their candles to represent Jessi and Ellie’s lives joining together into a single home.

Vows
Ellie 
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride
I love you in this way because I don’t know any other way of loving than this

So, Share each day with me, each night, each morning
Love me, that’s all I ask of you

We have each other for the ups and downs
And for the days of doubt
And when we have lost our way
There are no words left to say.

I’ll be there and I’ll cover you

It may be quite simple, but now that it’s done
I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words
How Wonderful life is while you’re in the world.

Jessi
I sometimes have a feeling with regard to you--especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your frame.

I have for the first time found what I can truly love – I have found you. You are my sympathy – my better self — my good angel — I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my center and spring of life, wraps my existence about you—and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.
Jane Eyre—Charlotte Bronte

Ring Exchange
I take you to be part of my superhero league to fight crime,
One schizophrenic and college student at a time.
Together we’re stronger than either one alone.
Our powers combined will never allow
Harmful villains into our home.
Let this ring serve as a reminder of our vow.

Celtic Wedding Blessing 
May you both be blessed with the strength of heaven,
The light of the sun and the radiance of the moon
The splendor of fire, the speed of lightning,
The swiftness of wind, the depth of the sea,
The stability of Earth and the firmness of rock.

1.5 Months

That actually sounds better than 43 days (as of this post) for some reason.
I'm a little stressed, but Ellie is keeping me relatively sane. We are slowly getting our DIY projects done (I'm going to say we are about 80% done with all of them), the honeymoon is paid off, and I had my next-to-last dress fitting yesterday.

I was nervous, because I had gained a little weight and she hadn't yet clipped out the seams, so the dress was snug last month. I haven't worked incredibly hard at losing weight, but have been paying more attention to what I'm eating (remember, she said I can't lose a lot of weight because she can't take the dress in too much), and it looked like she clipped at least most of the seams, while leaving just enough to let it out a bit if need be.

I haven't been this happy with my dress since the day I tried it on! There's still a little to finish, like removing the last of the train and the seams and some light finish work, and I need to work on reducing my back just a tad since it's tight in the armholes (she thinks removing the seams will make it perfect). But it looked so good, and I'm so happy with it, I couldn't get over the way it looked. I get to pick it up in about 2-ish weeks, so need to get in touch with Man of Honor Jere about storing it in his place to keep it away from the cats and because I'm afraid to have it in my apartment--not because of Ellie, but because of me looking and playing with it.

What's to Eat?

Our choices were the top left and bottom right meals

Now that the invitation are out, we are free to give menu details!! I know you have all been waiting with baited breath to know the outcome of the tasting, and now you do! Alas, we couldn't fit the entire description of each meal on the RSVP card, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to both finish the tasting story AND explain the meals in more detail.

As you may remember, we had to narrow four meals down to two. It was hard, but we had to go with our hearts (and tastebuds!!). While I won't be revealing the appetizer and dessert, I am going to disclose the main meals to maybe make your decisions easier (or harder, as the case may be!!). Ultimately, we have 4 meals to choose from: the two we picked during the tasting, a vegetarian which we did not try or have a choice in, and a children's, which we also did not try or have a choice in.

• Duet of Sirloin with a Green Peppercorn Demi Glaze and Corander Crusted Marinated Chicken with Garlic Ykon Gold mashed potatoes and baby carrots. This dish was so delicious and met our desire to have a chicken option--the chicken-only choice wasn't very good--and we figured people who don't like red meat could just not eat it or swap out with someone who does.
• Mixed Grille of Sirloin and Jonah Crab Stuffed Jumbo Shrimp with Basil Mashed Potatoes & a Seared Tomato. Holy crap was this amazing!! Without question, this was our seafood offering, it was just too delicious to not offer! The neon-green potatoes alone make it worth serving!
• Butternut Squash Ravioli with Vanilla Sage Chestnut Sauce and Shaved Grana Padano Cheese. Vegetarian option they gave us.
• Chicken Fingers with French Fries.  Kid's option

Ellie and I have an unofficial bet to see which of the steak dishes is ordered most, but I don't want to sway anyone's decision, so we'll not talk about that just yet.

It's the Little Things--Which Drive Us Crazy

I was adding this to the invitation post, but it started to take on a life of it's own. There was one detail about the invites that we wonder if people even noticed--the stamps (yes, I am a freak of nature for writing two whole posts about stamps!).

When looking at stamps for the Save the Dates and the upcoming 2012 stamps, we became excited over a few of them. Ellie immediately decided on the Cherry Blossoms--2012 is the 100th anniversary of the gift of trees from Japan, and also happen to be one of my favorite flowers. I pushed back because we're in Boston and DC isn't important to us our our relationship at all and I wasn't sold on the idea off having these landmarks all over my wedding invitations. I wanted the Bonsai Trees or the Year of the Dragon stamps. Ellie wouldn't hear of it because we could match the postcards to the invitations! I still balked because that was an extra $0.13 per postcard and I am a cheapskate. Ellie had a point when she said that Aloha Shirts (the only postcard stamps in existence) were not going on our RSVPs. The postcards are too small to add multiple stamps to make up the difference between the former postcard stamps and the current cost.

You wouldn't think stamping envelopes and postcards would be an ordeal would you? Well, it totally was. See, we had three dilemmas in front of us:

• we needed to make sure that all the cards got one and the envelopes got the other
• we had to keep everything in a particular order so the cards and envelopes matched up
• we have one international invitation and one not being mailed

This necessitated us double-checking that all the envelopes were in the same order as my initial spreadsheet, which was loosely based on last name and family. We set up an assembly line of sorts to work it all out: address and return address the envelopes; number the cards; put the cards into the invitations; organize and RE-organize the envelopes, using sticky flags to mark the special (read: different postage, address errors) invites. 

Wax seals had to wait until the next day when we 1) had time 2) made our corrections.

Color Me Gorgeous!

Tuesday was the hair/makeup trial and I am super happy with the results! I typically wear my hair chin-length because otherwise it's limp and I hate it being on my neck, so I wind up pulling longer hair into a ponytail which destroys my hair & turns the top into a halo of tiny broken hairs. I loathe it, yet I insisted on growing it out for the wedding because it just wouldn't be right if my hair wasn't up in some way. And I don't have a stylist of my own; I can't find anyone who can get my hair cut correct unless I pay $60; and that's not going to happen.

I found Hey Good Lookin at a wedding expo of all places! The stylists all had fun & funky haircuts, most of them with some amount of unnatural color; and many of the ladies had multiple/facial piercings--NOT the kind of ladies you think when you think about salons vending at a wedding expo. Obviously I spoke to them even though the salon is more than an hour from my house. They were sweet and understanding and completely willing to help. The prices were right too--$40-$60 for wedding hair!! Cassandra and I chatted; I wanted a look that's kind of whimsical but still off my neck but not pulled all the way off my face either (I am embarrassed by my high forehead). Casandra had actually worked off my inspiration photos, so we were completely on the same page:

This is how I looked just as I arrived

Hair is done! Will be tighter, and the front a little less awkward, but you get the idea

It looks like I have a ton of hair!! Can you see the tiny braids?"

The make-up didn't come out great in this pic--teal eyeshadow, light cheeks & lips.

From the side. I may have the headband moved forward a bit

Programs--Check (minus assembly)

Back in March, I did a  trial to determine the best kind of glue to use for my programs. Saturday, with the assistance of my Man of Honor, I finalized the programs. On Sunday, we printed a test batch to make sure it looked as good on paper as it did on the computer. One of the fonts is a little pixelated, but it's something that only a graphic designer or myself would notice, so we decided to go with it rather than finding a new font. Yesterday I did one last trial before we printed out 125 programs. I didn't want to print a large bunch out and then realize the bottom margins were off or anything. I had nothing to worry about:

All my supplies together-program, dowels w/caps, glue & clips to hold the dowels while it dries

All together, the measurements were perfect!

If you are ever gluing something to a dowel, chip clips are your best friend! These are cheap-o dollar store clips, but they hold the dowels in place to let the glue dry--which is actually pretty quick. I recommend having 3-4 sets so you always have a free set as you assemble. It doesn't take a long time to dry, but you want to give it a few minutes.

Dressing the Ladies' Hair

Karina came up from NYC to help with our dinner tasting and spend some time with us. Ellie took Saturday off from work, but left Karina & I together to make the hairclips that Karina and Carrie will be wearing. I have to admit to being VERY nervous about this--cutting those beautiful peacock feathers I'd bought was incredibly stress-inducing, I was terrified I'd make a mistake.

But K had taken the lead in making the facinators for another friend's wedding last year, and was totally confident in both of our abilities. Our plan of attack: get coffee, lay out all the supplies, and each of us make one--she'd make hers, I'd make Carrie's. Here's K just as we're getting started:

I had the feathers, hot glue, black felt and scissors--she had brought some costume jewelry she had lying around, as well as some beads  & other bobbles for embellishment (look, you can see my card box in that pic!--I'm storing smaller stuff in there for safety).

Each clip has 2 feathers and an old earring as it's bling aspect. I feel a little guilty not using any of the other beads & bobbles K brought, but I think they might have taken away from the clips (and we really couldn't think of a good way to incorporate them). Here are the cut feathers, the felt support backing and a bunch of the beads we had--you can kind of see the earrings towards the background of the picture. Man, I was NERVOUS about cutting those feathers down, but I did it, slowly. I kind of messed up in the length, then when I was gluing the top feather down, but it actually came up fairly well & I was able to re-position it.

How we did it: we cut a teardrop out of black felt as a base, then glued one of the feathers to it. We positioned the other feather on top and slightly off-center & glued that down. K was really thinking and came up with the idea that, since they will be on different sides of the altar, the guests will see different sides of their heads, so it might be best to have the clips facing different directions! How glad am I she was able to help with this?!?! After everything was glued, we stuck an earring through the bottom, glued it to prevent it from spinning and bent down the post. I still need to find good clips to attach to them--K said I want ones with teeth to help with the hold, but I've yet to find any; the hunt is still on!

 

Putting a Ring on It

A few months ago, we went back to Jared's to have our wedding bands made. I was inspired by a set I found during an online search for rings with multiple colors of gold--our e-rings are white gold with tiny yellow gold hearts & infinity symbols, so I was really keen on having some pink gold in there as well. Lucky for us, Jared's can do anything, and they were able to re-create the rings with some modifications to make them more "us": the sides have the same leaf patter as on the sides of our e-rings, the chevron shape is contoured exactly to the center stone (I had to give up my ring for about 6 weeks so they could make the mold!), and the leaves are attached directly to the ring rather than held by prongs as in the inspiration. We also had "beads" applied to the top edges--that textured look you see in the pictures below is what I mean by beads, it's not smooth.

Both bands-the outer leaves are pink gold, the inner leaves are yellow gold

Profile of the set

Ring set from the top.

The Hair Issue

Anyone out there who knows me in person knows that I rarely wear my hair down. Unless it's short. I've been growing my hair out for the wedding and I think it's the longest that Ellie has ever seen it. When we met, I had just gotten the perfect haircut, something I haven't been able to replicate because I couldn't afford the cost of a good haircut while in grad school, and have yet been able to find someone who can do it right.

What awesome hair! Please ignore
the blemishes on my face

Then I began growing my hair out for the wedding.Why don't I ever wear my hair down when it's long? Because it's unruly, semi-frizzy and looks really unhealthy when it's this long.

I needed a picture for demonstration--this is a GOOD hair day!

And this isn't even the longest it's ever been! My hair used to be to my waist--just ask Man of Honor Jeremy about it!! I never wore my hair down then either. But I'm trying to because I have this lovely halo of tiny, broken hairs about 1-2 inches long all over the top of my head that are far more noticeable when my hair is up; I've convinced myself that elastics are the culprit. I've never been one for taking good care of my hair...the only thing that really mattered for shampoo & conditioner was the smell right? I can get that for $1/bottle from Walmart! Supposedly this is not the case and I have been trying to find something to tame this mess, to no avail.

I'm want to try to find a way of getting my hair cut off before we leave for Turks & Caicos. I'm fairly convinced that it won't happen, but I still want it; guaranteed to be off my neck, higher likelihood that it'll look good, short hair is a lot more fun!

The moment you have all been waiting for!!!

No, not our wedding, we still have 3.5 months before that. But people can officially reserve their hotel rooms. We have rooms blocked off for our wedding. Which just means they will guarantee X amount of rooms on Friday to Saturday and X amount of rooms Saturday to Sunday. I thought there was a discounted price but I am not 100 percent sure but one needs to call. (781.275.5500) There should be 2 weddings taking place that day at this location. All you need to do is call and give the name Robinson or Wirzburger as the wedding you are attending. It does also help us out if you do this. After so many rooms rented we get "free" things added to our package so if you are planning to stay anyway please link our name to it. :-) Also for those who think they should have received an invite... They HAVE NOT been sent out yet. We are having a plated dinner and we just chose the food choices on Thursday. If things go as planned we will be sending them out at the end of this month. :-) I hope I cleared some of this up. :-)

Oops!!!

So do it yourself projects are fun and exciting and it makes us feel like we are getting things done for the wedding. Until... we lose something. For our centerpieces there are three unique parts. One piece we ordered and have them set aside. Parts 2 and 3 are the same but we painted half blue and half we painted green. However, when we went to find the last of the green ones we could not locate them. We have torn our apartment apart no less than 7 times... Finally we came to the conclusion that we in fact might have painted 3/4 of the books blue and the reason we can't find the other 1/4 of the green is because they don't exist. So we ordered more and hopefully they are the same or at least really close.

Now the vests are being difficult. We thought this would be the easy part and in fact it is not. The vests we want have the wrong color back side...Sigh and my vest people did not seem to want to sell it to me. So we ordered that and I can't wait for that to come in. But what to do about the rented wrong backs... unless someone rents it differently. We need to set up a time and meet with the place in Braintree and hopefully this will put some of this at ease... Hopefully. These were two of the many little oops we will have. These two hopefully we will get past with out too many grey hairs. If not dying hair will be the next oops. ;-)

Centerpieces--CHECK! (for real)

I've already posted what we plan to do for centerpieces, so I'm just going to nutshell it: small, battery-operated fountains placed on top of 2 paper-mache books which are painted in our colors (clover and sapphire). In that entry, I posted a picture of the unpainted centerpieces, now I can finally show the finished project!

Painting the books--we used a blue and green paint we already have, so they don't match exactly, but who's REALLY keeping track, right?

They were lacking something, so we got a paint pen and I added binding lines

The finished project, with a couple wine glasses to show size

And that's that! Half the green books are missing in the pile of wedding crap, but once I find them, I'll add the lines to them and I'll be DONE-done, but I'm counting this as one DIY project off the books.

LOL! See what I did there? That wasn't even intentional. LOL, wedding planning is getting to my head...

Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

I've never been one for the whole "Something Old, Something New...blah,blah,blah." Not for any reason in particular, but it always seemed kind of silly.

Then I got this beautiful sapphire ring and everyone started with, "Oh! You have your 'something blue,' and you'll have lots of 'something new,' what are your 'old and borrowed'?" I typically shrug it off and pretend I'm not sure when I'm among co-workers or people I don't know really well. With friends, I laugh it off as a silly tradition.

But then, as typically gets my mind running, I see blog & forum posts by brides planning out their ONBwBl (I'm tired of typing out the words) and I start wondering if it's something I want to pursue. I think, when you get right down to it, I want to ensure that any traditions that are incorporated into the wedding are ones that really speak to me and/or Ellie. So let's evaluate: I have a Blue, but what about O, N, & Bw?

New is fairly easy...most of what I'll be wearing that day is new: dress, shoes, headband, most of my jewelry, possibly underthings, etc. Most of that feels like a cop-out though since I'll only wear most of them that one day, never to be seen again. The shoes however might be able to count though since I see myself wearing them for work, or to dress up a pair of jeans or something. And 2 of my pairs of earrings will most likely be worn again since they aren't overly fancy or anything. Two down.

Old is really easy. I'm wearing a jade pendant & earrings that belonged to my Great Aunt; my friend Liz at Lush Beads, who is making my headband, is also replacing the yellow gold findings with silver.Three down.

Borrowed is where this all kind of goes to hell. I don't feel like it's borrowing if the person is no longer with us, so that excludes any jewelry from my mom or other female relatives (even if it was stuff I wanted to wear). Any female relatives that are still around are distant at best, but completely unknown for the most part. Regardless, I have more than enough jewelry/accessories: headband, 3 pairs of earrings, necklace, e-ring and my standard right-hand ring; I don't need any more bling! What else is there to borrow from someone? And who would I ask if I figured it out?

Now that it's all been written out (and when you really get down to it, this has probably been kicking around in my head for at least a little while or I wouldn't have actually written this post), it's almost a "Challenge Accepted" situation...I need to borrow something from someone to have with me in some way on my wedding.

What's In a Name?

This has nothing really to do with planning, although I will share a picture I took the other night when my Eden swatches FINALLY came in from Macy's:

The bridesmaid dress color DOES go with clover!

But this post is mostly inspired by a common theme amongst the wedding blogs lately--changing one's name after the wedding. Now, this can be a semi-controversial topic, and I'd love Ellie to weigh in publicly, but we'll see how that goes.

I'm not changing my name. Not because Ellie's last name is longer than my already long-enough last name, or because I would be a lot less anonymous in this ever-increasing world of ID theft and whatnot (seriously, just try to Google my first-middle-name combo without location qualifiers; I doubt you would find ME for quite a few result pages--a a matter of fact, another Jessica Lee Robinson was born on the same day, in the same hospital, within the same hour!!). It's because I never wanted to. I always thought it was archaic that a woman automatically takes her husband's last name--it's a tradition steeped in misogyny and a cultural idea that women were not much more than property to be handed from a father to a husband (the whole "giving the bride away thing").

Then, in 2007, my brother passed away and I re-confirmed my desire to keep my last name. In many ways, I'm the last of my line. I have a cousin who was adopted by our grandparents, making him of the same line AND having the same last name, but we are distant and the gods only know if he will ever have children. I know there are some 2nd? once-removed? cousins from my grandfather's brother, but I think I have met them exactly once in my life--as far as I know, we're not the most "clannish" bunch. Anyway, by changing my last name, my father & un-married uncle would be the last of the AWR line. I feel like my original decision had been, in a way, reinforced.

I'm not from one of those families where everyone is super close. Like I've described above, I have only met my father's extended family once, maybe twice in my life. Our families were never very big, and stubbornness, alcohol and general dislike of other humans keeps us from really reaching out to others. Sometimes I feel that's a good thing, sometimes not, but it's how things are. None of this means I don't have some sense of family though, so there is something more to keeping my last name than just selfishness or an overly feminist ideal. It's many things, building upon each other, making up who I am. Sure, "a rose by any other name" and all, buy why fix it if it ain't broke?

Where Our "Happily Ever After" Starts

Back in October, Ellie and I took a ride to visit friends, and stopped by the hotel where we're having the wedding to get a better look at the ceremony space (it was under about 3 feet of snow when we selected it!!) and to see what it would look like when we got married. Of course, we took pictures!!

This is from the back of the seating area looking at the pergola we'll be standing under--we'll stand on the first landing, and our officiant, who is shorter than us, will be at the top. The hotel is behind me.

The pergola is to my right in this picture. I'll walk out of the hotel & come down this walkway.

I'm standing at the top of the steps under the pergola in this shot. Ellie and I are going to meet under the tree and walk down the main aisle together.

Just another shot of the ceremony space--needed the full 360 effect. In the right hand corner is a firepit! How awesome are the nighttime photos near that going to be?!

PAPER! Paper?

Man of Honor Jeremy might kick my ass or resign once he reads this post, but I hope he understands.

Until very recently, I have been 100% committed to the idea of "Send 'n Seal" invitations.

Source: lcipaper.com via Jessi on Pinterest

How cute are those right? And they are environmentally friendly too--no superfluous inserts to get lost, not to mention up to 3 envelopes if I was to go completely formal--envelope with the address, envelope inside that containing the actual invite suite, and one more tiny envelope to send back the RSVP card. No way. I was not going to destroy the earth with a bunch of useless paper--the RSVP is a postcard that is simply detached and mailed all by itself. Not to mention the EXPENSE of all of that!

Then, a couple months ago, I realized that the chances we can use a wax seal on the invited was slim. I really like wax seals, and they would so go with out theme.

So long beautiful wax seal
Image from GiftValues.com

But it was okay because I could use the seals on our programs! As we started the process of testing the programs, we realized that wouldn't work very well. So I resigned myself to not having a wax seal.

Late last week, I thought about the possibility of our invites coming open unless we also sealed the sides, which would mean ugly tape or buying extra, clear, seals for the sides and I began to ponder the idea of envelopes--we can still use the above invite, with the tear-off RSVP card and stick the whole thing into a single envelope, right? I imagine the cost exchange being fairly similar when you account for both price and labor. The environmental factor can be off-set by using recycled envelopes, making envelopes from paper we already have--and the impact of plastic seals/tape is likely to be similar to that of envelopes? I just don't know. My inner perfectionist is battling my inner environmentalist.

Invites still have to be made, and no matter what, we're using that format, even if it is put inside an envelope, so there's time, but not a lot, because we want to put them in the mail in July. So really, it's not a ton of time depending on how long they take to get made.

Program Trial-Run

This was done eons ago, but I've just gotten around to posting. I wanted unique programs that people would remember for a while. Fans are being done to death, and I was adamant that, if we were to go that route, they be the kind that open, but I couldn't think of an effective means or keeping them from just spinning on their brad. Then I saw scrolls, mostly used as invitations, but MUCH better suited for programs IMNSHO. Fearing assembly mistakes with the real thing, I did a few trials with different types of glue (I may try a couple more types of adhesive, but we'll see). First, you need to gather your supplies; in this case--8.5"x14" cream colored paper, chip clips, 10" long dowels (which will be painted silver), & some type of table-protection:

 

And don't forget your adhesives (I tried a few different ones before I was happy with the result):

First, lay out your paper and put a line of your adhesive of choice on the edge, covering about an inch. Position dowel #1 JUST on the edge so there's some overlap:

Begin S-L-O-W-L-Y rolling the paper onto your dowel:

When you get the paper edge completely wrapped around the dowel, add more glue just in front of the dowel & continue to roll so the paper glues to itself, then secure with a chip clip or clothespins until the glue sets:
 

I found that Elmer's is too runny to get a smooth, tight wrap & I was left with wrinkles and they won't lie flat:

Glue sticks are too hard?

I found that my best option out of the glues I tried was the scrapbook glue; and it dried really well too! The drying pic above is using the scrapbook glue, and it looks the best out of all of them. I can't seem to find the same kind though, so may have to try to find another brand. The nice thing about the one I used is that it has a rolling applicator rather than just squeezing a bunch of liquid & hoping it's not too much or little--a lot more control. Finally, some pics of the bulk wood order we made; a few dowels at the store aren't expensive, 75 are! We are also going to cap the dowels rather than try to sand them down, and those little babies are $4 for 2 in the store!!

Home, or a UPS Warehouse?

Most of our "wedding supplies"

Go ahead, I dare you to click this image and see it full-size. Those of you who've been to our place know this shot--it's the sideboard in the dining room, which stands at my waist, around 2-1/2 feet high. right there, you can see the following: programs, centerpieces, part of our accessories, the card holder, our toasting glasses, and I'm sure some other odds & ends. And this isn't even everything we've bought! Our cake topper isn't boxed, so that wasn't included, nor did I include the box that's holding some of our supplies--paints, brushes, glues, etc. My dress is also not included because A) it's with the seamstress, & B) Ellie can't see it. OH! I forgot to include a few other details we've already bought, again because they aren't boxed & I don't want to spoil everything.

We have yet to buy favors, escort cards, Best People gifts, gifts for each other (well, I haven't bought Ellie's gift, I don't know if she's bought mine...I doubt it), my jewelry isn't done yet, and I'm sure there are other packages that will be arriving over the next seven months that I haven't even thought of!

When all this started, I don't think I realized just how much STUFF we'd be accumulating. It's not just the money either...it's mostly the stuff, and how it's taking over our home and life. We definitely have to go through it all and pack away what we won't be using until that day, get the DIY's done so we can also pack those away. At the same time though, it's comforting because now, after a year and a half of mostly talking, we're finally DOING something for the wedding. I never saw the point in making a lot of the purchases until we were closer because we have storage space, but not a LOT. I also had a fear of things getting damaged (because obviously we'd have a tornado, or a flood or something simply because the wedding supplies were bought too soon). Yes, my apartment is covered in boxes, which is a huge stress trigger to me. But those boxes represent something very special, something so much bigger than my anxiety and compulsions.

Centerpieces--CHECK!! (well, almost)

I don't like flowers. Let me correct that: I don't like CUT flowers--they are overpriced, overused and DEAD. So, I convinced Ellie that we didn't want the floral centerpieces included in our venue package taht guests couldn't take home & that we should do something awesome. She thought fountains would be nice, and the hunt commenced. Eons ago we found the fountain we wanted to use:

Now what to do with them? Being 4"x4"x6", they were going to get lost on the 8' round tables with all the glasses and whatnot. How were we going to lift them up? Going with the "Faerietale Forrest" idea, log slabs were our first thought, but ensuring they were all level so the fountains could work properly was going to be too difficult. Small baskets turned upside-down? Meh. Plastic display risers that you see in stores? SUPER expensive, and ugly to boot. Then, my dad gave me my birthday gift. The gift doesn't matter, the packaging does--a small (6"x4"x2"?) paper mache box that he had found in a box under my old bed!! He thought that my mom had brought them when she moved in during her cancer treatments, but I had bought tehm years ago for a craft project--the company had trippled my order & didn't want them back, so there they had sat for the last...6 years, still good as new.

Close enough; image from Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts

Stacking two of these babies would be perfect AND stick to the theme. Sunday on my latest visit to my dad, I scooped up the books (3 boxes of 12--more than enough for our 15 tables) and brought them into The Wedding Zone. We're working on painting them now (hence the ALMOST done comment); one blue & one green for each table, with gold pages & maybe some gold embellishment on the spines, I'll have to look into that. Here's the demo, from the front & side, with some glasses to give an accurate depiction:

Centerpiece Trial-front

Centerpiece Trial-side

Collecting ALL THE THINGS!!!

Ellie and I created a schedule (will need to post about that) of when things NEED to be bought/made by, and I think we're doing a pretty good job. We've been trying to collect up wedding ceremony and reception items whenever we're out shopping & see something that works, and have specific dates for making the big purchases (like centerpieces). Here's the haul so far: We were at a craft store a few weeks ago (damned if I remember which one) to buy supplies for starting our program prototypes and I saw this beauty that I knew HAD to be our card box--with Peacock as our color theme and Faerietale Forrest as our decor theme, it was perfect:

 

These next two pictures aren't great, but together give a decent visual. My brother passed back in 2007, my mom passed back in July, and Ellie's father will likely not be alive by the time the wedding happens in September (and even if he is, he will neither be there in person or spirit). This is in addition to the grandparents, great aunts & uncles, etc. Having some kind of memorial is important to both of us, especially as honoring the ancestors is very important within Greek Polytheism, my religion. Wandering around Christmas Tree Shops one evening, I spied this gem:

 

Ellie has a small obsession with pictures, I have a small obsession with trees, and this will be easy to display after the fact, without taking up table space or anything like a candle or something might. On the same outing to Christmas Tree Shops, we found the lanterns our girls will carry down the aisle. In ancient Greek marriages, the bride's mother would bring an ember from their hearth & combine it into the groom's family hearth, symbolizing the bride entering her new family. I want to incorporate this tradition, and thought the best way was to have each of our girls (one for each of us, childhood friends) carry a candle & light a single candle or something that we'd keep as the symbol of our Hearth, which was the center of the ancient Greek home/family. The girls can choose to keep the lanterns or not--we like lanterns!



And finally, our centerpieces, which we ordered a week ago. We're still trying to figure out the best way of dressing them up--we definitely want to raise them about 4" and my Lady of Honor thinks they might be a little too small for the tables, so we may look into something that will widen them without overpowering their simplicity.