project: rehearsal dinner !

planning the rehearsal dinner has been so easy and fun. we are still hosting it in our neighbor's backyard, both to keep it casual and keep costs down. and we have a color scheme (i couldn't help it, i had to use the red/aqua combo somewhere). i have bought almost everything we will need but the foods and drinks. we aren't sure about the dinner part yet, but dessert will be a make-your-own-vegan-sundae-bar, and i will personally make sure everyone eats one.

so far:

tea lights, lava rocks

napkins (to be gocco-ed), vases, cups

tablecloths, paper lanterns

lanterns, to be transformed

party lights (a free donation from a friend!)

glass terrariums

i am wondering about hiring a photographer for a few hours at the rehearsal. total unnecessary indulgence or a good idea? maybe i will just load up on polaroid film on ebay, break out the actual film cameras, and take some photos myself.

project: honeymoon !

we are not telling anyone our honeymoon destination until we return. part irish tradition (something about drinking mead in a hidey-hole for a month so our families can't find us and break us up), part paranoia about people telling us that our trip sounds weird. i can say, due to time constraints, we are staying in the continental united states, leaving the day after the wedding, and returning six days later. i would love to take a two week tropical or european or asian adventure, but when you run a small business or don't get paid time off that is virtually impossible.

the places we considered going, in order of consideration:

1. ireland. when we first started planning brodie wanted to go to ireland, ireland and only ireland. i finally talked him into one week of ireland followed by a week in italy, but this was before we realized we only had a week to honeymoon. we don't want to do any part of europe in only one week, especially since brodie has never traveled overseas.

2. costa rica. after the europe idea was thrown out, we decided tropical! and costa rica is not only tropical but super vegan friendly (a vegan resort! a tree house hotel!) and really inexpensive in september. but it's super cheap for a reason: green season- a fancy, friendly way of saying rain all day. and mudslides, and washed out roads, and many closed hotels. while normally i really wouldn't mind such things, we want to keep our honeymoon a bit more relaxed and easygoing. so we are saving this one for another september.

hawaii was out since we go there for thanksgiving. nyc was out because i have been there a hundred times. mexico and canada were out for the same reason. we decided to stay here in the continental u.s., but find somewhere we hadn't visited before. we looked for three main things: vegan friendly, good nightlife/good outdoorsy stuff, and to be as environmentally responsible as possible.

at midnight the day after the wedding we will be trekking to LAX (the horror! but burbank didn't have any flights to our destination). we will arrive in a state neither of us have set foot in before. two states, three different cities, one bed and breakfast, one farm, one hotel, a short road trip in between destinations. perfect!

while part of me still yearns for a month in thailand or two weeks in austria (ohhh dream vacations) i know we will get to all of those places eventually. for now, i would just like to find a rental car for less than $1000.00 a week.

project: girly wearables !

some dress ideas for the other ladies (maid of honor and best woman) that will be walking down that aisle with us:

buy from: modcloth

buy from: anthropologie

buy from: anthropologie

buy from: anthropologie

buy from: j.crew

buy from: j.crew

buy from: amanda archer on etsy

buy from: sarah seven on etsy

buy from: sarah seven on etsy

gina (awesome maid of honor) sent along links to a few of these this afternoon, and i added in several i had saved from etsy. i kinda want all of these dresses. if neither lady chooses the pleated amanda archer dress i am totally finding an excuse to buy it for myself!

after weeks of telling people we had "all the major details taken care of" i realized on saturday (during a meeting with one of our lovely day-of coordinators, alicia of in the now weddings) that we are actually missing a key player. an officiant. you know, the person who actually.. marries us. so, i need to get on that.

at least we will have good food, music and atmosphere, even if we don't manage to get legally married!

project: rings !

a few weeks ago i had a little brain scare and ended up in the ER for six hours. although i am fine now, things were a bit scary. i had to get two bags of fluids. they couldn't find a vein. when a nurse finally got the needle in i was relieved. until my hand started to swell. the hand with my two day old engagement ring on it. it took me a few minutes to get it off but i managed. close call!

brodie proposed to me with my mom's engagement ring.. then he made me pick one out for myself. so now i have two. i don't wear them everyday because most days i am elbow deep in playdough and worm bins, but when i do wear one i secretly giggle at it every time i catch a glimpse.

my set (bought from etsy):


for brodie we purchased a simple tungsten band off ebay, but it is a bit large, so we will be doing some more online searching this month for another option.

project: kidlets !

our reception will have a kids table. there was no way around it, and although i don't think the children will actually stay at their table through dinner, i am having SO MUCH FUN planning it out. seriously, it's great.

making boxes for the tiny ones is so easy- the girls like disney princesses, the boys like spiderman, etc. but what do i put in a box to occupy two twelve-year-old girls? maybe they will just giggle over the cute waiters or something.

here is what i have so far:

$1 pencil boxes from michael's, in various hues.

sticky notes with names and ages to keep it organized.

bundles of crayons. tweens still like to color, right?!

fairy wands for the youngest (girls and boys).

an almost finished four year old girl box.

i am tempted to make a survival box for our super-babysitter, who will be sitting at the kids table and trying to keep them all in one place. for once i won't be the one keeping an eye on the kidlets!

project: music !

i met with a few dj types over the last few weeks, and i am hoping to meet with one more before i make any real decisions. picking a dj has been one of the hardest parts of this process. i love to dance! i want other people to dance at our wedding!

a big percentage of our wedding guests will be family members. we really don't have a lot of friend-friends. i don't have any old high school or grade school buddies (that i talk to outside of facebook, that is) and my only "college roommate" will be eight months pregnant at the time. i've moved around a lot in my twenty-six years, and since i moved to l.a. i really haven't made close friends.

i am worried that the older family members will not dance. when i was younger and i had tons of "party friends" (you know the type.. your best friend when its 3 a.m. and you are stumbling down the street in your hot pink socks and then you sit in a puddle and take them off and throw them down the street and.. yeah) and i first started dating brodie i would imagine our wedding as a huge dance party! and i still like that idea. at least i will have my preschool kids to dance with- we dance together every day.

i am trying not to worry about it too much. although writing this post has been a bit depressing. perhaps i need to join some clubs and meet people.

project: the dress !

i bought a dress three weeks ago while my mom was in town. we stumbled upon this place during a 25% off sale.

and so, my wedding gown:

photo: elizabeth fillmore

photo: elizabeth fillmore

photo: elizabeth fillmore

it's a bit hard to tell from the pictures, but the dress is ivory, fitted on top, and covered with strips of a slightly darker ivory lace all along the bottom. it has a very small train, and it is super swishy. from what i can tell online it is from the spring 2005 collection, and called "tattered tulle."

i had never heard of elizabeth fillmore before that day (my bridal gown designer knowledge in slim) but after some googling i found that her dresses are not only beautiful and unique, but she has a lot of dresses in darker ivory, dusty rose and champagne! i had to stop looking because i was finding too many dresses that were calling out to me. like these:

photo: elizabeth fillmore

photo: elizabeth fillmore

i would love to see this last dress in a real wedding. i love it!

it's been hard not to wear my dress now that it is hanging over the closet door (it doesn't fit in our overstuffed only-storage-in-the-house bedroom closet). next order of business: shoes! wonderful, glorious shoes.