A Wedding Gift For Desaray

Ta Daaaaa

all in powerpoint, people. and those boroughs aren't an autoshape. It involved at least 2 hours of me drawing, in powerpoint, tracing over an image of the boroughs because i couldn't find a simple outline of them. Also note how I oversimplified...there are at least 15 other major highways that stream through the greater metropolitan area...

Seriously though, congrats to Desaray and Lauren on their upcoming nuptials this weekend. Even though I don't know them officially, I count on them to update their blog with silly pictures and crazy mash up collages to help me get through this thing called wedding planning.

ps, stay tuned for more invite craziness...during which i go to three paper stores looking for envelope liners only to be talked back from the edge of lining 175 envelopes by my sister and a nice fellow shopper.

Oh Dad...

Dad picked I Hope You Dance by Leanne Womack for our father/daughter dance. Who knew Dad loved country? I mean I knew he had a thing for Willie Nelson, but this is a different animal entirely.

Lyrics
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake
But it's worth making
Don't let some hell bent heart
Leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out
Reconsider
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
(Time is a real and constant motion always)
I hope you dance
(Rolling us along)
I hope you dance
(Tell me who)
I hope you dance
(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
(Where those years have gone)

I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
Dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance
(Time is a real and constant motion always)
I hope you dance
(Rolling us along)
I hope you dance
(Tell me who)
(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
I hope you dance
(Where those years have gone)

(Tell me who)
I hope you dance
(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
(Where those years have gone)

I'm not kidding anyone, even my city slickered heart has some pulled strings when I listen to it.

A good friend gave smart advice: waterproof makeup. In other practical thoughts, this sucker is 5 mins long. If I cry for that long, we'll have other issues to deal with. Good thing my makeup artist is a guest as well.

Stalking UPS

The invites are in the mail! from the printer! I'm inordinately excited and am refreshing the UPS status page at least 4 times an hour.

On a related note, I've spent nearly 8+ hours creating my own little map and directions card to insert in the invite. Gave to FH to review last night.

Me: Oh! Look what I made! (sing song voice that doesn't occur in nature)
FH: (squinting)
Me: Be positive! say something positive! spent a lot of time on them
FH: They're nice
Me: What was the squint about?
FH: (scared animal trying to calculate escape hatch)...they're a little confusing...

Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but I didn't kill him.

Back to the powerpoint drawing board. Just to give you a taste of my torture, google maps wasn't doing it for me, so I recreated downtown brooklyn with autoshapes, complete with directionals. AND I couldn't find an accurate representation of the 4 boroughs (sorry staten island), so I did it myself. In powerpoint. with autoshapes. shudder.

and yesterday, when I had finished my masterpiece, I accidentally hit the surge protector with my foot, turning the computer completely off. Had to stifle a scream of utter dispair and horror so as to not alert my coworkers to my elicit behavior. yeah. had to re-do about an hour of work.

could be fun

Having just finished designing invites, of course NOW I'm seeing all the fun NYC images that I wanted to pull from. That said, our invites are pretty sweet. And they're going to ship by next week!

The Most Stressful Part

A good friend asked what the most stressful part of wedding planning is. Without hesitation I answered

The Guest List

We're up to 280+ people. 75% of the guest list is my family and friends. I was fine with 250, assuming that we would have about 215 actually show up. Now that number is getting bigger and bigger. A few more people here and there are being added by parents who promise "no more after this, i promise" I'm not inviting work people, FH is.

I'm hung up on 3 friends who I have put on the B-List. But it kind of hurts to do that because they won't get a shower invite and if they end up getting a wedding invite, they will know they were B-List. I went to 2 of their weddings, was really close to them at some point in my life, but made the call based on the fact that I haven't seen them in a year.

Mind you, I've cut people off my list that I feel no regret over...

But I keep coming back to these three. Advice I've received covers the gamut:

"Picture yourself a year after the wedding, what is your relationship with them"
"At some point, it doesn't matter if you invite more people"
"You never regret inviting a person, but you might regret not inviting a person" (I don't agree with that, there are plenty of family friends I'm regretting)

At this moment, I'm going to resolve to LET GO OF THE GUILT. And move on. They will understand, and if they don't, I just can't do anything about it.

First Dance

I like the first dance tradition, it's sweet, doesn't really have any hidden agenda, and gives everyone a chance to take way too many pictures. It also creates a little pocket of time for just us. We're not going to break dance like some couples or play baby got back....you know you watched that you tube video.

So, I lobbied for a little dance lesson $$ in the budget and we went a few days ago. It was SO FUN. I felt like a kid in mad hot ballroom, but better.

Not only do you get to learn how to look better than you normally would dancing, but dancing is really a team effort. And I can't emphasize how much I like team efforts, especially in the crunch time of wedding planning, when things are delegated and taken care of by one person or the other, but not both.

Also, a helpful hint from my friend, your dress should be altered to leave you about an inch from the floor to the bottom of the dress, or else your betrothed will step on your dress when dancing.

PS If anyone is looking for dance lessons in the NYC area, Alfredo Melendez is your man.

in praise of RK Bridal

Added to the list of things that freak me out are bridesmaids that look all the same. However, being lazy, I didn't put up a fight when my sister wanted everyone to match and gasped in horror to my suggestion that everyone wear a blue dress of their choice.

Off to RK we went.

With 2 bridesmaids by my side to combat the sister strongarming, we settled on a lovely Alfred Sung number in midnight blue.

Due to 3 pregnancies amidst tiny army of b maids, we strategically ordered the dresses at the end of may to arrive by August.

They arrived today!

May the gods grant more luck like this! Would I be pushing it to hope for 80 percent of the guest list to respond within a week?

3 Months To Go!

Please pull the harness from above

Pull towards yourself until you hear a click

Keep hands and feet securely inside the roller coaster car

and enjoy the ride.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

That's what I feel like.

In the last month, we finished pre-cana, gathered all the church documents (baptism, communion, and confirmation certificates), reserved tuxes, found really truely comfy yet sexy shoes, picked flower girl dresses, crap, it felt like we did more...oh! ordered invitations after several back and forth convos with the designer and they should be here by the end of July, we hope.

At this point, I think that things start taking care of themselves. Am I delusional? Or maybe I hope they start taking care of themselves...

Things to look forward to include picking readings and music for the church, hauling my dress out to brooklyn to be fitted, getting the b-maid dresses, acting surprised at my shower, picking a song for Father/Daughter, toning my arms and back, scaling back on the drinking, and reaching my goal of owning one bathing suit for every day we are in hawaii.

ps, hell no the tuxes aren't white and pink, gotcha!

pie in the sky

I thought we could get away with cutting a small cake to satisfy those, including my sister, who want us to cut the cake. My sister bought us a Lladro cake topper as an engagement present, because I am so clearly a figurine person...yeah...not so much.

sis, "So just put it on top of the pie!"
me, "It will sink"
sis, "You take all the joy out of wedding planning!"
me, "You're welcome" (to my niece who will one day have to deal with the musings of my sister as she tries to have a low key wedding)

Emailed the coordinator at the restaurant who pointed out, well, if you cut a cake then people expect to EAT a cake. So true. Pie it is. Not just any pie, but fancy stacked pies.

yum.

the man in my life

Every time someone buys something off our registry, the man in my life (TMIML is too long, right?), calls me and updates me. Looks like someone has a case of registry-stalkaholism.

I find this...fascinating. Especially considering that registering was about as pleasant as a dentist appointment.

another sale

Daily Candy is beginning to be more of an annoyance than the knot.

What: Lela Rose Wedding
Why: Fifteen styles of white gowns are $500-$3,000 (up to 80 percent off).
When: July 15-17. Wed.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Where: 224 W. 30th St., b/t Seventh & Eighth Aves., 13th flr.

must. not. look. at. other. dresses. ugh.