Centerpieces

Now that the wedding is a bit closer I actually have to start thinking about details: specifically, flowers. Originally when I went to the florist I had cylinder vases in mind with submerged cybidium orchids. She quoted me $80 per centerpiece. We need something like 15-20 of them which comes out to wayyyy more than I want to spend on centerpieces.

I got a hold of the florist yesterday and she said she would but the price down to $50 a piece if I provided her with the vases I wanted. Now I am on the hunt for cylinder vases. I think I am going to settle with finding various heights and doing different centerpieces on each table. I want the vases on the taller side, so around 20"+. If anyone is selling vases please let me know.


Some of the pics I like:

Printing the invites and taping the invitation mats

Yesterday was a shitty Sunday with a whole bunch of rain. Luckily, neither Paul or myself had to work so we spent the day inside doing wedding related thing. Last week I designed my invites and ordered some new ink to start printing them. I have a pretty good printer (HP photosmart 7660) so I was pretty confident that the prints would come out good. The ink I ordered last week finally came in the mail after being mis-delivered after I put the wrong zip code when inputting my address. Oh well.

Anyway, I wanted the invites to come out good so I set my printer on the best quality print. I printed 130 copies on Neenah ivory linen text-weight paper. When I set the print on best quality my PC said that the printing would take longer than normal, so I timed it. Each print=5 minutes. 5 minutes X 130 copies=650 minutes=10.8 hours. I started printing at around 2 pm yesterday afternoon and when I went to bed at 11 it was STILL PRINTING. I woke up and everything was all done. Tonight, I get to print 130 directions inserts. Awesome.

Paul was a nice fiance and helped tape the invitation mats to the pocketfolds. It didn't take nearly as much time as I thought it would. Tonight I plan on bringing the printed invitations to Kinko's and have them cut to 5x5 squares to save me a bunch of time. I will post pics once they're finished.

BRACES. At 25? Fuck me!

I have perfectly straight teeth. So I guess I would consider myself lucky for never having to make a visit to the orthodontist and pay >$7000 in order to get these so-called perfectly-straight-teeth.

A few months ago I went to my normal dentist and he informed me I had an impacted canine. I won't go into detail about this b/c unless you've had this it's too confusing to explain correctly. Anyway, I knew about this impacted canine my whole life, but didn't exactly think it would become a problem until way later in life. Neither did my dentist.

He referred me to an oral surgeon and an orthodontist to get this issue taken care of. I'll skip most of the details and go straight to the orthodontist part. He had this awesome incredible plan which involved putting this metal contraption into my mouth (kinda like a retainer you can't take out) and connecting a little chain to the impacted tooth up in my gums, and gradually pulling the impacted tooth down into it's place in my mouth. He put a fake tooth in the spot where the baby tooth was so I didn't look like I was missing a tooth. GOOD PLAN! He also informed me that once the tooth was pulled down enough he would have to put braces on me. No big deal, this wasn't supposed to happen for a long time. (i.e. until AFTER the wedding)

Fast forward to yesterday when I went for my every 3 week tightening and x-ray visit. The ortho ripped the metal contraption thing out of my mouth without telling me what he was doing. Mind you, this thing was cemented to my teeth. Came out just fine with just a little bit of pain. He took an x-ray and informed me that the metal contraption has done all it needs to do so it's already time for the next step. BRACES.

BRACES at 25 years old. Yes, I understand that there are a bunch of older people with braces. I never thought I would be one of them, especially when I hit the jackpot as far as relatively perfect teeth go.

And never in a million years did I think my mouth was going to hurt as bad as it does this morning. It hurt to eat toast. Effin TOAST! I want to down a bottle of prescription pain killers and vodka and take a nap.

Fuck me.

Invitations!!!

This morning I finally conquered the actual invitations. Now I need to buy some ink to print the damn things because I refuse to go to Kinkos and pay $.59 per color copy. I like them a lot. I thought they would be a lot harder than they were, but thanks to someone from The Knot creating a nice little site including step-by-step instructions it was pretty easy. This is the site: http://superfabulousdiypocketfolds.googlepages.com/

You need Microsoft Publisher. I used 2003 and the instructions helped out a lot.

LIME GREEN SHOES!!!!!!!

Shoes were kind of a big deal for me. First off, Paul is only about 1/8 inch taller than me and I refuse to stand taller than him on our wedding day. I have a slight complex when it comes to being tall. Second, we're getting married in a garden and I couldn't wear incredibly spikey heels because they'd surely sink in the grass. I absolutely hate ballet flats so that option was OUT. I wanted something different and plain white wasn't for me.

So, I did it. I dyed my shoes lime green! I have been eyeing the Camelias by Pink Paradox London. I finally broke down and sat in traffic for a fricken' hour to go to the place in Natick to buy them. I told the guy I wanted to dye them some funky color and he asked me if I wanted to them red. I said I was thinking more like lime green. He told me he loved me and that I would be the first bride to dye my shoes lime green. He said I better email him a picture of them on my wedding day so he could put his first lime green shoes on the store's website.
Here they are in all their glory. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!

Before, all plain and white:
After: Pure deliciousness

Envelopes

On Monday I finally ordered envelopes for my invitations and my RSVP cards. Again, I went to http://www.envelopperinc.com/ to buy them. For what I was looking for they were the cheapest on the internet.

Last night I got home from job #2 at around midnight and was surprised to find a box sitting at the bottom of my steps. Sweet, my envelopes are there! I ordered them on Monday night with free shipping and they took a total of like 40 hours to get to my house. Once again, envelopper, you ROCK! Even though it was midnight I absolutely HAD to open them up and see exactly what the color looked like in person.

I ran up into my room and ripped open the box like a freakin' 4 year old on X-mas morning. (For the record, I know how ridiculously lame I am). I love the colors of the envelopes. FYI, the colors are very different than the color they show on their website. Paul was pissed. I woke up him AND the dog opening up my envelopes at midnight.

I bought leaf green cover stock from Paper Source a few months ago and was planning on using it for my invitations mats and the backing for my inserts. I was sorta paranoid that since I bought the envelopes and cover stock at 2 different places the colors would clash and look like shit. Much to my surprise, the leaf green from Paper Source and the tropical green from envelopper are almost the exact same color. SWEET!

150 tropical green 6x6 envelopes (30 extra for all the mistakes I will surely make)

150 4 Bar (3 5/8 x 5 1/8) Envelopes in citrus green for the RSVPs.

Yes, I realize they are 2 different colors, but they look incredibly awesome together. Word.

Finally made an appointment w/ the JP

Have you seen that bud light commercial where the officiant marries the bride and groom like he is auctioning off a prize horse so they have more time to drink bud light? No? Well, you should. It's hysterical. That's the kind of ceremony I am looking for. "I do" "I do" okay, let's party!! I wonder if my JP has something like that.


All joking aside, I do want an incredibly short ceremony--probably 15 minutes or so. I don't plan on doing a unity candle or a sand blending ceremony or anything like that. I just want to say my vows, Paul to say his, and the actual ceremony part to be over with.

Paul is a non-practicing Catholic and I am a non-believer in anything God related so Paul has agreed to not have anything even mentioning God in our ceremony. I am very happy he agreed to this. Paul, you rock!


So Monday we're meeting with your JP at his home in Weymouth, Ma. His name is Tom Welch http://www.welchweddings.com/ and he comes highly recommended by fellow knotties on the Boston board.
I just think he looks a lot like Kenny Rogers. Everyone say hello to Tom:

Things I need to do

A couple of weeks ago a post went up on the knot about all the random stuff people either did or still needed to do. From that post I pretty much scanned through the entire thing and pulled out all the random wedding related stuff that pertained to me and wrote it all down. There's a whole bunch of shit on it. This is what I have left:

• find a cleaner for my dress
• get alterations (I already have an appointment for January)
• pay dj (he is a friend so we aren't doing a contract)
• pick out music for ceremony
• design the actual invites, RSVP cards, and inserts for our pocketfolds
• get the few last addresses for invitations
• address the save the dates
• book hair stylist (pretty sure I am using my friend Jill, so it's not a big deal right now)
• book make-up artist (I have one reserved, I am just waiting for my trial run)
• figure out what I am doing for a guest book
• DIY a card box
• book a place for the rehearsal dinner
• buy truffle boxes for the buckeyes I am making as favors
• make the actual buckeyes and freeze them
• buy my shoes
• meet with JP
• buy toasting glasses
• order bridesmaid dresses ( I am letting my girls pick whatever ones they want)
• buy bridesmaid shoes (again, I told them white or silver, doesn't matter to me)
• buy BM/GM gifts
• find/buy/make jewelery for me
• buy garter
• get on my mother's ass about buying a mother of the bride dress
• get Paul to get on his mother's ass about a mother of the groom dress
• pay $1500 for the house rental
• pay $2000 to our florist
• pay$900 to our photographer
• finish paying for venue
• decorations for guest book table
• make table numbers
• make escort cards
• make place cards
• rehearsal dinner invitations
• vaccinations for honeymoon (we're going to Bali)

Pretty excited that's all I have left to do in the next 9 months!

Wedding band(s)

We are tight with the guys that own Hannoush jewelers which is pretty sweet. Paul bought my E-ring for about half of what it retailed for in the store. The appraisal is also about 3k more than he paid for it so if I accidentally lose, ahem, decide to make earrings out of the diamonds, I will make money off the ring. I am obviously just kidding.


My engagement is custom made which basically means to find a wedding band that fits around the diamond and has the exact same setting it needs to be custom made too. I originally bought a band which looked nice around the ring but it didn't exactly 'hug' my engagement ring the way I wanted it to.

Since Paul is the greatest guy ever, on the tax free holiday a few weeks ago he paid a visit back to the jewelers and had a band made that was my exact setting. I decided that it would be best if I got 2 bands to fit around both sides. I know, 2 bands, I am really not spoiled at all. The jeweler happily exchanged my old band that I bought for the 2 new custom-made bands. I am in love.


We finally got both of them back fro the jeweler last week and they look awesome. Here's a pic. It's kind of blurry. For some reason my camera sucks at taking close-up pictures. You get the point.

Okay, so I guess I'll put my Boudoir teasers up

Here are the teasers. Rachel did a great job. They are kind of small, but you get the point. If you post these pics anywhere else, please give Rachel at Mergeweddings.com proper credit and please do not remove the water mark on the pictures.

Boudoir Pics

For those of you that have no idea what Boudoir pictures are, look on google, because I am not going to post mine in this blog. What if I wanted to run for president some day? I don't want them getting out

Anyway, I thought getting them done would be a grea gift for Paul. Originally I thought that I would give them to him in an album right before we walked down the aisle, but last night I received a couple of teasers from the photographer and I don't think I can hide them for 9months.

Rachel from Merge weddings did the pics and so far, I couldn't be happier with them. I can't wait till Monday when I get the full album.

The invites

After much convincing from lurking other people's bios on the knot I decided that I would make my own invitations. I was dead set on making pocketfolds because they are just so pretty! :o) I am no where close to being complete, but here is what I have so far.

I bought metallic bronze 5 3/4 X 5 3/4 pocketfolds from envelopperinc.com. Contrary to what people say on the knot, cardsandpockets.com is NOT the cheapest place to get pocketfolds. I paid 1.29 a piece for these. The monogram tags consist of the kaleidoscope gold pattern metallic cardstock from envelopments.com. This paper was a bit more expensive than I wanted, but it's beautiful. I think it was 1.25 a sheet and then $12 to ship or so. I have about 15 pieces left if anyone wants to buy it from me.

I printed the actual monogram on ivory linen text weight paper and used double sided tape to stick it on the metallic card stock. I used Zots to stick the tags on to the ribbon and more Zots to secure the ribbon belly band around the actual invite.

I still haven't started any of the inserts.

If you have any questions feel free to page me on the Boston, June 09, or Planning and Etiquette board.

After the party is the after party....

Our wedding ends at 4:30pm. What a lame-ass time to end a wedding, huh?. Normally weddings get over between 11-12 and people stumble back to the hotel, have a few more drinks at a hotel room after party and call it a night. Unfortunately, since our wedding gets over at 4:30 going back to the hotel when it's broad day light doesn't seem like so much fun to me.

After months and months of trying to figure out how to handle this, we've decided that we'd rent a huge beach house and have everyone come over after the wedding. Kegs, BBQ, and comfortable sleeping for about 30 guest will be provided. After that, you're free to crash on whatever open surface remains.

We rented the house from Thursday-Sunday so pretty much anyone who wants to stay there for the weekend can. Hopefully most of the wedding party will be there.

Bridesmaid dresses

Since I decided I am not going to be an asshole and make all my bridesmaids look like the Olsen twins circa 1988, I've decided to let them choose their own dress. I've picked out the color honeydew from David's Bridal and they can pick whatever dress they want as long as it's that color and tea length. On of my bridesmaids asked if she could get a long dress and just have it altered to tea length. Sounds good to me. I am hoping to get 5 completely different dresses. These are the ones I like:

Save the Dates and Photosharing cards

I made these with the help of Vista print.com It's a pretty fantastic site. Once you sign up, wait a few days and then you start getting bombarded with free offers that make you feel like the luckiest person alive. I don't think a morning has passed where I don't receive an email from these guys telling me that everything is free. Really, all you pay is for shipping. I got 100 post card-sized save the dates and 250 business cards and it only cost me $10 of so for shipping.

We finally booked our honeymoon

The honeymoon has probably been the hardest part of the planning process yet. I refuse to go anywhere I've been before, so that sorta rules out a lot of places people typically go for honeymoons--I've lived in Spain and while I was there I pretty much traveled to all of the major European countries so that was out. I've been to Morocco and Gibraltar. My best friend was born and raised in St. Thomas and her parents still live on the island so St. Thomas and all of the surrounding islands were automatically out of the question since I've been there between 8-10 times in the past 6 years (St. Thomas, St. John, Jost Van Dyke, Tortola, St. Croix, Puerto Rico, etc.). I've been to the Atlantis on Paradise Island and really, unless you're hammered for 5 days straight, it's really nothing to brag about.

Initially, Paul was dead set on staying at an all-inclusive resort. After researching all-inclusives I came to realize that most of them were centralized in the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and Mexico. I won't even list all the reasons why I never want to go to Mexico. We'll just leave it at that.

We looked into Fiji a bit and apparently June is their winter, so beach conditions aren't ideal. If we were putting off our honeymoon till winter Fiji is where we would be going. No questions asked.

And then I discovered Bali. The second I saw this place I knew it was where we were going. The hard part was trying to convince Paul that Bali was where he wanted to go too. I had my heart set on it for a good 2 months and after another 2 months of convincing, Paul decided it was where he wanted to go too. Mind you, in my attempts to convince, I left some of the major points out of the argument (i.e. 40 hours of travel time, including a 15 hour plane ride from NYC to Seoul followed by a 12 hour layover, insane mosquitoes, and the need for a Typhoid Fever immunization shot.)

Either way, we are staying at http://www.thevillas.net/ and I couldn't be happier. We have our own private villa accompanied by our own private pool and butler and concierge service for 10 nights.

We are getting married on a Saturday and not leaving till Monday night. Our flight consists of 3 legs: Boston to NYC which is only about 45 minutes. A 2 hour layover in NYC followed by a 15 hour plane ride to Seoul, Korea. Then a 12 hour layover in Seoul, which there was absolutely no way of avoiding. After our 12 hour layover we get to jump on another plane for 7 hours from Seoul to the wonderful island of Bali!

These are some pics of the hotel:

My wedding dress

Because I felt I absolutely had to post a pic of my wedding dress, here it is. It's an Angelina Faccenda line from the Mori Lee collection. Regular price $2500, paid $250. I bought it at the running of the brides back in February 08. I have to get a bunch of alterations done and some cleaning. Overall, not a bad buy. If I gain more than 5 lbs. I am screwed.
Front of the dress:

About me, if you already don't know me

Paul and I got engaged way back in December 2006. We finally decided we would get married June 20, 2009. At the time 2009 seemed pretty far away. Now, it's only 9 months away. Apprently, my sick obsession with Southpark has gotten in the way of my planning.

This is my dog Yaz. Overall, he's a pretty bad-ass animal. Yaz is an English Bulldog. The way his body is formed makes it impossible for him to lick his own balls. I find it amazing that my life revolves around something that is incapable of preparing his own meals. It's annoying, especially since I hate to cook for myself.