What I did this weekend, in photos

We got a lot done. I'm exhausted. I'm also so, so very glad that I only live 70 miles away from home now- it's so much easier to plan a wedding with a 1.25hr drive, compared to a 2.5-3hr drive, like last year.

I finished all of the paper.

Programs (100)- a group effort.

Table number cards
Menus are completely done (132 of them)Thank you notes for our parents (I was doing all this paper crafting, it made sense to throw in a couple cards)


Favors/placecards (but this was all mom- the only thing I did was choose and buy the favors, and figure out how to best attach the placecards)
We also baked the groom's cake, a traditional fruitcake recipe. It smelled heavenly, it was kind of cruel to have to smell it and know we couldn't eat it.
Not pictured, but completed:
wedding rings are at home, ready to go.
Garden is making progress
Nearly finished making/stuffing goodie bags for OOT guests- still lack water and cookies.

Next:
finish veil
call most of the vendors to double check things
bake cookies for OOT guest goodie bags
finish cold feet socks for Clint
write out detailed timeline for wedding weekend, including necessary items- then gather items, and forward itnerary to those who need it.
buy water
buy mixers for bar (about 1/3 left till to get- club soda, tonic, lemons and limes, etc)
buy cheeses for reception hors d'ouerves
beer tasting
pick up wine

I think in to-do list form these days.

It's getting there! It's so weird and surreal, though.

DIY update

I've posted the save the date cards before, as well as the jewelry for the bridesmaids. Recently I've started working on the menus (about half done or so currently) and my wedding shawl (done!).

Menus:these menus are printed in Bernhard Script, which was what Clint used when he letterpress-printed our invitations. We had to buy the font ($50, but worth it for this- everything for the wedding is in this font, my mom even copied it to do the calligraphy to address the invitations). The menus list the entire contents of the buffet, but don't include all the hors d'ouerves (too many to include). They're printed on a really pretty stripe-textured ivory cardstock-ish paper I got from Michael's and AC Moore, but after doing these two, and finding that this paper prints with much difficulty, and it's also 29 cents per sheet (2 menus per sheet), I began to look into other papers. And found that Staples has 67lb paper, 125 sheets for $10! So we got that, it's the same ivory as this paper, and prints much, much easier- we printed 70 sheets in about 10 minutes. Currently cutting all the menus and tonight will start backing them on this gold paper. I may also add a new, additional back of navy- I think this gold is a little too yello, and I don't want everyone to think yellow is the wedding color.

I finished my shawl last week!I brought the shawl to my 2nd dress fitting, partly to show my seamstress, who told me 3 weeks before that she wants to learn to knit after wedding season is over, and also to see how it looks with the dress. It's a couple shades darker, but here looks good, and is also nearly the exact same shade as my shoes- so that works. This picture shows neither the shawl nor the dress well, but don't worry, there will be more pictures of both! This dress fitting turned into the final fitting- I'd had one scheduled for next Saturday, 8 days before the wedding, but 2 days ago at the pictured fitting, the dress was perfect, so we don't need to. I'm bumping my calorie intake up, because the dress, if anything, is a tad big (awesome! I never get to say that), and since it's strapless, too big is not good. But I've heard from other brides that getting a little puffy/swollen on the wedding day is common (heat and stress and adrenaline), which will probably make it a perfect fit.

We also finally decided on flowers, and placed the order (which will be added to today). Originally we were going to get some from a florist in Southwick, MA (trying to keep everything local) we know, and from Stop and Shop (for roses, glads, etc- less seasonal stuff). But I really liked the flowers Lenita from Blossoming Acres (in Southwick) has, so we're going with:
me: white lisianthus, snow on the mountain (a variety of Euphorbia, has really cool white and light green leaves), white status for shape, and maybe some white roses, and a sprig of a philodendren (I think) that was carried in my grandmother's wedding in 1946 and sprouted and maintained for 53 years by her bridesmaid, who gave it to my mom 10 years ago.
MOH: carmine (mauve, the color of the BM dresses) lisianthus and purple-pinky zinnias, mauve asters, mini daisies (the non-stinky kind)
BMs: carmine lisianthus and lighter pink zinnias, mauve asters, mini daisies
centerpieces: a variety of all the above, plus roses and daisies- all white with greenery.
Boutennieres and corsages: carmine lisianthus with some greenery filler, and white lisianthus for the groom.
The flowers and our indecision about them has been getting to me. I'm SO relieved to figure it out, and be excited. Mom's doing a mock-up of the centerpiece today, just to see about how many stems per centerpiece we need.

Tonight/tomorrow's tasks:
-finish the menus
-finalize the program text, format everything and begin to print the pages
-start the program cover (sheet of stripe-textured cardstock with a smaller square printed "Catherine & Clint"
-finalize all the songs with the DJ
-shower thank you notes
-start making lists to pack for the honeymoon
-lists of what I need to bring to CT for the wedding (overnight bag for the wedding night, rehearsal dinner attire, all the gifts, etc etc)
-sleep
-try not to bark at people who ask stupid questions
-get a better picture of my shawl
-finalize seating chart (nearly there!)

So, hi....

Severe lack of updates. But I have news:

First and foremost, the reason I logged on to blog today.
MY WEDDING DRESS HAS ARRIVED. FINALLY. My mom just so happens to be on vacation within walking distance from the bridal shop (in CT), so when she comes home on Friday, The Dress is coming with her! What does this mean? Why, I get to try it on as soon as I arrive home on Friday night! We toyed with the idea of trying to schedule a fitting on Saturday morning, but my bridal shower is at noon, and knowing how things tend to be, I'd probably end up rather late for the shower. So we'll aim for a fitting on August 1. :-D

Second, and probably more important, we bought a house. I need to get pictures of the house- so far I only have interior shots. It's a great house. All the appliances seem to work (I've done a lot of baking in the 12 dys I've been there), and so far the only mishaps have been the garbage men not taking our garbage (they took some, not all- is there a limit on garbage in Worcester?) and a bat getting into our basement and setting off the security alarm. The cops came. They laughed. We lost sleep, but it made a good story. Pansy's living there with me, and is madly in love with the Pansy Room, aka the screened-in porch. We're currently only using the kitchen, dining room, upstairs bathroom and bedroom, the other rooms are either completely empty, being used as a place to throw clothes, or for packed boxes. But it's good.

Next up on wedding stuff is all the paper goods. I started buying potential papers for the table cards, menus and programs, and I need to see if they print well- printing test on Sunday. I ordered the favors today, and the bridesmaids' gifts will be finished and wrapped by next week. I have no idea how the groomsmen's gifts are going, nor how their tuxes rentals are- I have to leave some of the fun for Clint! (i.e. not my problem, therefore I ignore).

This blog has ended up being rather lackluster, from my lack of posting (which is true for my other blogs, I'm just not posting much in general) and my lack of pictures. Ah, well. Wedding planning is quite a bit crazier than I expected. And the time has flown by, at a rather frightening speed.

Cake! Flowers! Shawl!

Um, sad news. We had our cake tasting a few weeks ago, and it just wasn't right for us. Because the undecorated cake would have cost $300, we decided that was too much money for something I didn't want to devour instantly. There was a stressful, wedding cake-less week, UNTIL my awesome cousin offered to make my cake! He's as good a baker as I am (I'm not being uppity, just honest), has experience in large cakes, and loves to decorate them. We're going to have a 4-tiered vanilla/vanilla cake, with possible flavored fillings that we'll decide later. yay!

My next obsession was flowers- we're going to DIY the centerpieces, but I want to have something striking, unusual, possibly to do ourselves, and not cost a fortune. I could find things that were 2 of those 3 things, but not all. I eventually found:

(again sorry, I apparently can't adjust photo sizes on a mac)

found on Wedding Belles. I think my version will be a hemisphere of daisies on a cake plate, perhaps with some tea roses, but maybe solely daisies.

Finally, my shawl is 5 feet long! The goal is 6 feet, but since it's so close to being done, I may go more towards 7 feet, and stretch it a bit so it's wider, which would shorten it.

A busy planning weekend!

My BMs have decided on my shower theme, and this dress, which I'd originally planned to wear for the rehearsal and dinner, will be for the shower

(sorry for the huge photo, I'm on a mac right now, and it doesn't do the same things as a PC- or maybe it's firefox vs safari)

I ordered paper for the invitations yesterday

Arturo letterpress paper, from Dick Blick. We got everything in "soft white", which seems to be ivory. It was FAR less expensive than what we would have gotten through our stationary guy, and seems to be very good quality. We haven't seen the actual stuff yet, but my parents went to Dick Blick in Plainville last night and saw something very similar (only with a deckel edge, and we need clean-cut). Once we get the paper in, Clint will start printing. We finally decided on Bernhard Cursive for the font, which seems like a nice cross between something italic and easy-to-read, and the Palace Script that has that engraved look to it.

We've started to order the tuxes, but are still waiting for GM and FOG measurements. Class 2-button tux with navy vest and tie for everyone but Clint, who will have an ivory vest and tie.

All our registries are done :) Sadly, Lux Bond & Green does not carry our fine china, but they have the everyday and the fancy wine glasses we wanted.

Tablescapes have been decided on, and require a bit of paper crafting, which I'll do in the same colors as the STDs. I've ordered the paper for the placecards, but not the favors just yet- I think I'll wait until after the invitations are sent out, because the placecards require the most work, and the paper will already be here. 1 month should be plenty of time for the favors to arrive, based on previous orders from this company, so we'll aim to get them started in early August.

My potential new rehearsal dress has shipped. :) I need to lose a bit more weight before I think it'll fit, but that's progressing nicely. I'm starting a zumba class next week, and started pilates last week.

Finally, we have photographers, and they're great. I'm so pleased that they're so friendly and accommodating, and their work looks really nice. (also, very affordable)

I'm still looking for a videographer, the one I'd hoped to use is busy that day, but he's forwarded my info to his colleagues. We also still need to figure out flowers, and we're currently thinking we might do all the flowers ourselves... we already have a supplier, but the work makes me nervous. We might make some practice bouquets and see how that goes, we already know making the centerpieces ourselves is no problem, mom and I (especially mom) have a lot of practice with centerpieces.

I'm not sure where the honeymoon planning is, I'm leaving that up to Clint, after sending him some ideas. We still have to worry about all the legal parts of marriage, but there's time still. Finally, we started house hunting, and saw one lovely one.... some number crunching is ahead of us :)

Catching up on photos

We got our wedding rings!! I can't find a picture of mine online, but it's the matching band for my engagement ring. Clint's getting a palladium band similar in design/idea to my platinum band, by Artcarved.


Our STDs are in the process of being mailed out.My shawl is getting rather long (39 inches as of 5/7, and I'll get a better picture once it's more done)
I'm making good progress on the BM gifts (and yeah, I'm posting here, so this part's not a surprise)That's one necklace of sterling silver and crystal, and the pieces for 2 others. I currently have 3 necklaces done, all the earrings done, and all the pieces for the other 2 necklaces. Additionally, I have enough silver and beads for like 4 other necklaces- I bought extra, but geez! I think people can expect necklaces as birthday gifts.

This weekend we're:
-looking at tuxes
-talking to our stationary guy about invitation paper
-meeting with the DJ
-picking out dishes to be rented for the reception
-meeting with the photographer
-setting up our last registry

and we'll hopefully figure out what we're going to do for flowers, so we can decide what we need for a florist (probably just bouquets, corsages and bouts).

More updates, again sans photos

Photographer: almost check! We're meeting with her next week to cement everything.

Ceremony musicians: check! A brass quintet that plays at my church in WH, who are incredibly accommodating. I'm so excited for our music!

Landscaping: the yard is leveled. The pictures are insane. I'm really excited, now you can see what a lovely yard it is, without all the crap growing everywhere (note to self: do not let garden go untended for several years, you can't repair it after it junglizes)

STDs: in the midst of mailing, some still need addressing. We're being stingy, if there are children and parents both invited, only one set gets one. This is because I simply can't bring myself to make any more, 80 was enough.

Favors: idea is set, everyone likes! Decks of ACBL playing cards that will double as a place card. I'll buy the cards, some ribbon, Mom and I will make the tags. Tables will be numbered in the playing card theme.

Shawl: 30 inches so far, 42 more to go! Nearly half way! Then I may start on wedding stockings.... but that may be a little too ambitious, even for me.

Wedding attire: um, I has undergarments. They'll be shipped tomorrow, we'll see how that goes.


We're looking at wedding rings on Saturday, meeting with the rental guy and DJ again (since I wasn't at teh first meeting) next Saturday, and the photographer hopefully some time in between.

In other news, I'm moving soon. How soon depends on when I can find an apartment. Wish me luck!

A series of checks

Oops, long time no update. I'm happy to say I've been using my time to plan, not just talk about it.

We have:

hotel room blocks! We're going with the Simsbury Inn (although that one's not yet official, I haven't heard back) and the Hampton Inn/Bradley Airport. I knew SI was nice, but I was pleasantly surprised by HI! They also gave us free coffee when we went to check it out. The rooms are quite lovely. SI rooms remind me a lot of the Hanover Inn.

caterer! Well ok, we haven't given her any money yet, but as soon as we get the revised proposal, we will. More on that when it's official, but I'm excited about it!

Rentals! It pays to have people. We're getting a 10% discount and no delivery fee through our cousin who owns a rental business. He's providing everything but portopotties- which sorry, are now referred to as portolettes. How posh.

A landscaper! Not required directly for the wedding, but for preparing the site. The fee is believable- a lot of money, but not so much I fainted. We're trying to be budget-friendly and plant the gardens ourselves. I expect I'l be in Granby quite a bit this summer.

Bridesmaids' dresses! I said that before, though. But we're all pleased. The pink is not what I expected, but it grew on me. I think it'll be a lovely color for a late summer wedding. I wore the dress I got for myself for the DAR shower, and I loved it :)

30% of a wedding shawl! Pictures are required, because my knitting group oohed and aahed over it, and you know when fellow knitters gush, it's really impressive.

Save the dates! They're being addressed and will be sent out soon (like, this weekend, I hope)

Invitation mock-ups! Clint's printing them on a printing press at Dartmouth. We had some wording issues and I'm still waiting for my parents' opinion on the typeface (bulmer or palace script)

DJ! We're meeting with him on May 9th to discuss music.

The big things we still need to deal with:

photographer. Drama! But I'm not so worried anymore (maybe I should be).

florist. We were actually really impressed with the florist from Stop and Shop, who does the flowers for weddings at the Pond House in West Hartford. If we can't get the woman my mom's trying to track down, we'll go to Stop and Shop woman. Mom and I (and others, I hope?) are making the centerpieces ourselves, anyway, so we just need the bouquets, and probably the bouts- I'm not sure I'll have the patience to make the bouts myself.

Portolettes.

Ceremony musicians. There are 2 groups of strings we liked, both are pricey, in the mid-$500s for a trio and around $800 for a quartet. The brass group I want is conveniently ignoring my emails and the emails from my contact for them. I'm considering having the DJ do the ceremony music, but I'd really like live music.

I will try to post STD, invitation mock-up and shawl pictures soon.

In non-planning news: I had my first bridal shower last weekend! It was super fun, although a little un-nerving to be the center of attention. I only got one embarassing thing, adn it was very tasteful. I also got a few things from my registry that I'm *super* excited about: bread basket, cake pans, 12 (12!!) place mats, the 2 calphalon pans I wanted most. My friends have excellent taste!

To the shower I wore the BM dress and my wedding shoes. :)

Speaking of the shawl, it's 30% done, after not quite 3 weeks of work. I'm currently going at a rate of about an inch a day, with a goal of 72 inches in all. If I finish it in sufficient time, and have time to throw in a pair of "no cold feet" socks for Clint, I'm going to make these (second down on the left, there's no direct link) from the current issue of Vogue Knitting.

Bridal party attire!

We finally have a Bridesmaid dress! I'm just waiting for everyone's info to place the order.

These are Ann Taylor silk dupioni dresses, and with a coupon code, are incredibly affordable (I'm even getting one for myself!)
Pink for the maids (and Mom and I are making navy sashes for them to wear instead of the removable pink one)

And navy for my Maid of Honor, who will wear one of the pink sashes from the pink dresses.

I'm also almost ready to start making 75 Save The Date (STD) cards. I have to do some final sizing on the details text, and somehow come up with an ink jet printer to print on vellum. (which means I'll either go visit my parents, or Clint will bring his printer when he visits).

Finally, our wedding website is kind of up and running (it contains a list of our registries, the event time/place, and a partial list of the wedding party, with possible name misspellings (my fault)). There's a password, so email me if you'd like it.

Various photos

I am very late about posting these- so sorry! Moving and starting a new job in a new city is a little more confusing than I thought.

First, I had my hair and makeup trials at the beginning of February, the day after I bought my wedding dress (no pictures of that here, though, sorry!)


The makeup is a bit orange-y, but I love the eyes.

The hair, however, is beyond perfect. I also brought the nearly-done veil to the trial.




That weekend, we also had cake tasting with Harvest Bakery (in Simsbury) cake, and went to an open house at the Pond House in West Hartford. I really liked the cakes and fillings at the Pond House, but not so much the frosting. I really liked the frosting from Harvest Bakery, but while the cake had good flavor, it was rather dry, and the frosting:cake ratio was off. However, we chalked that up to cupcakes not being accurate representations of cakes.

Harvest Bakery cupcakes:

Somewhere in the mix are: red velvet with cream cheese frosting, vanilla cake with lemon curd and vanilla frosting, vanilla cake with lemon mousse filling and vanilla buttercream frosting, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and lemon cake with raspberry mousse filling and vanilla buttercream frosting.

Vanilla with lemon curd and vanilla buttercream:
And carrot cake with cream cheese frosting:


In other news:
our registries are about done (still haven't done Lux Bond and Green, but we'll do that on Easter weekend. it won't take too long). We're still deciding on a caterer, and waiting now for some proposals from them all, before we make the big decision.
I'll start working on the STDs very soon, and pretty much everything else is being decided. We'll do a lot of Easter Saturday, or perhaps the Sunday of the next weekend, since I'll be home for something Friday and Saturday.

SHOES.

This time, it's serious.

I just ordered my wedding shoes!!I saw them on bluefly, and you know how they say you just know when something's right? I just knew. (the return policy on bluefly is also very convenient if they don't fit). I ordered a half size up in case my feet get a little puffy or something. I may even have them in time for my next trip to the bridal shop!

Icing, by Stuart Weitzman, in gold. I hope they look as ivory as they do here. 2.5 inch heel.

In non-shoe news, I have my hair and makeup trials both on Monday, Feb 9th. The hair stylist suggested I bring my veil and any hair jewelry I plan to wear. Um... I don't have any of that yet. I have decided on the style of veil (I'll find an example and post a picture tomorrow), but that's all. However, I'm leaning towards no hair jewelry anyway.

I can't wait til my shoes arrive!! 5-9 days.

Edited to add: the shoes turned out to be a little darker than they appear in the picture. But, even though they're several shades darker than the dress, I've decided I don't care. They're super comfy. I'm going to break them in at the spring CT DAR meeting, when I'm wearing an ivory dress with gold stitching, and it's all indoors on carpets, so a good chance to try them out. :) I loooooove them. I have to leave them at my parents' house so I don't waste time gazing at them every day.

STDs

A rough sketch of the save the date cards. Once we cement the date, I'll get working (there's also no point in working on them before I move, I won't finish them before I go, and I'll probably lose half the stuff by the time I get to Worcester).

Cover:
Cover will feature our engagement photo (not actually a photo of a gingerbread house, but the same size) with a pink ribbon (sheer like this, or grosgrain) on the edge and a darker background paper (either green or navy, depending on which we choose for the wedding colors. I'm partial to navy, but Clint should have a say). Also a little embellishment like the flower, and possibly "engaged!" or "we're getting married" stamped near the top.

Inside:
The inside will be stamped with this wedding cake stamp in pink (pictured here in red, I don't have a pink ink pad) and the vellum over it will be printed with the details- Save the Date, Catherine and Clint's Wedding, date, location, etc etc. Vellum will be secured with oh-so-awesome sticky dots, but will have a pink ribbon at the top to make you think the ribbon ties it down.

note to self:

I want Kate Winslet's Golden Globe hair for the wedding... minus the in-her-eyes bangs.

Also, pictures of rough STD (save the date card) sketch coming soon!

Possible BM dress?

I'm mostly putting this here to remember it.

Delores, by J Crew, in pink flamingo
Also, I've booked my makeup artist! I'm using one of Naomi Martinez's team members. My trial's on Feb 6.

Oh, by the way...

I've found a dress! I'm not going to post it here, but if you're on ravelry, you can find it there, and a few other members-only spots. Email me if you want to see but can't.

It's ivory and is by Blue by Enzoani, a designer I'd never heard of until a small bridal shop in Westbrook, CT, emailed around about a trunk show.

I'm also madly desirous of Mattie by Kate Spade for my shoes. I have an idea for a veil, but need to acquire it (borrow or make, I'm not spending $180 for mosquito netting on a plain hair comb), and I'm wearing heirloom jewelry. I also need to acquire proper undergarments, but I feel like that can wait.

So, wedding day attire is nearly set. I'm doing things backwards, though, because we still don't have a definite date!

Current reception thoughts: food stations. Kind of like a trendier buffet. Coffee and tea will definitely be self-serve (waitstaff anyway are way too stingy with hot beverages), and I have dreams of a square 3-tiered wedding cake, white with fondant/frosting pink and green flowers. Or white fondant-covered cake with real flowers, hmm.