the chairs

ok I know everyone thinks I'm bonkers for objecting to the chairs at Old Town Hall - but check this out. they brought in different chairs and it just Transforms the look of the room.



...but yeah nobody in that room probably gave a hoot about the chairs or the look of the room, they were watching the bride & groom! also those things don't look as comfortable as the ones the hall provides..

ok ok! so the chairs are fine.. I just really like the ones in that picture.. sigh.

lol my mother and Marnie have now both pointed out to me that there is indeed a year-round farmers market, in Alexandria (which my mother mentioned probablyyy 3 days ago). ok ok! let's go visit it sometime soon (not this Saturday though sorry!) and see if we can talk to some vendors about what they have in March and how we can get it to Fairfax..

I love lists. but these are really ridiculous.

oh man so. I have this blog on my reader, I think I may have mentioned it before, called A Practical Wedding. This girl does not mess around. She is definitely making me feel awesome for wanting the kind of wedding we're planning. A few days ago she was talking about how mainstream wedding media make normal people trying to plan a wedding completely stressed out - and her latest post is basically her reaction to the planning lists the major bridal magazines tell you are extremely important. It's hilarious. Maybe only for me because I'm looking at all these blogs and magazines all the time and having Very similar reactions to all this crazy over-the-top freak-out hullaballou that the Industry advises for the ideal wedding..

Just as an example, if I go to theknot.com (and yes I have a log-in ID there but I quickly learned it was making me insane so I don't use that site), under planning tools, they give me a Huge long list of things I need to do THIS MONTH, including some with big purple exclamation points next to them implying urgently that I needed to have these done Last month. And they give you no option to delete some that don't apply to your wedding. you just have to stare at the exclamation point next to it throughout your planning process, apparently.

Anyway here's the link to the Practical post about lists: "The List: The 4 - 5 Months Out Version."

highlight:
"* Choose Songs. Songs for when the wedding party is introduced. Songs for during dinner. Songs for getting the party started. Keep a running list of songs you do and do not want played. Are you OCD? If not, become OCD. (See, this is nervous breakdown material. Apparently I need to hire a Hollywood pro to write a multi-hour soundtrack. Ack. Ack.)"

the best part about that one was actually that in the comments section, someone actually thought the bridal magazine had literally suggested people develop OCD. LOL.

anywayyy yeah we haven't been doing any big amazing planning the past few weeks. I'm definitely fine with that, even though I had So Much Fun in the blitz following our engagement. Every once in a while I get all riled up and go "oh but we've got do--!" and then I take a deep breath and go.. No, not actually. We have a year.

Except now it's technically less than a year!! weeee!

I'm kind of done with the whole wedding magazine frenzy EXCEPT for Martha Stewart Weddings. I just found out there's a new issue out or coming out soon and I'm actually really excited about it. So many fun crafty projects in there!!

I was disappointed to learn recently that none of the farmers markets around here open until May.. I sort of had this fantasy that we'd be able to arrange with vendors at the farmers market for fresh flowers and at least some of the food supplies for the caterer.. Le Sigh. I'm sure we'll find a way to buy local, it's just not going to be as easy-peasy as I'd hoped. The Fairfax Saturday Market happens right up the street from our venue!!! Beginning May 2. Gah.

Fun stuff coming up:
Tomorrow, April 3 - Running of the Brides (and then later this bride will really be running, Crystal City 5K, 6pm)

Sunday, April 5 - completely unrelated to the wedding but still freakin me out: Cherry Blossom 10-miler!! 7:40am. EEEE

Tuesday, April 14 - tasting with the purple onion!

TBD: Zach and I are planning to pop into the After Hours or After Six whateveritscalled tuxedo shop on Wilson Blvd one of these days, check out some tuxes and vests and things...!

new bridesmaid dress ideas

ok Dang I just saw this lady's etsy shop on the blog A Practical Wedding - and I am charmed! The prices are no worse than David's Bridal, and each dress is custom made to your size, and for a lot of the dresses it looks like you can choose different colors/patterns from the ones in the pictures. My favorites for the maids are the Swing Dress (would pick a different color/pattern for the wedding, but I love the polka dots for myself!) and the one she made for someone else's bridesmaids.

Eee! totally cute. If my bridesmaids aren't really into it, I don't mind - I might order a couple things for myself though! Those bathing suits! So awesome!

But speaking of bridesmaids dresses.. earlier today, before I found Miss Braches' etsy page, I was perusing David's Bridal's site for bridesmaid dress ideas. I probably should wait till the summer to start seriously thinking about these - especially since one of my bridesmaids is getting married in May! She'd probably prefer to worry about my wedding after hers is done. I just can't help myself.

Here are some color/style combos I think I might like (fyi the vest ideas are for Mary, not the groomsmen).

Scheme I:



Scheme II:



Scheme III:

(with this I was thinking a champagne sash or some other accent on the strapless one)

Scheme IV:


Scheme V:



I tried to pick a variety of styles and colors just to get across the idea that I'm open to mixing and matching - as long as there's Something to tie them all together. Either fabric, style or color family. I don't want them all to look completely mismatched and indistinguishable from other wedding guests, but I don't mind if they're not all matching exactly. Can you tell I really like that rounded neckline..? :)
I'm not sure my maids will like the strapless ones, but I just loved the fabric of the two in Scheme V - you can get a closer look at it here. I think the original picture is in Canary Yellow - the others are just colorized and look funny.

T minus 1 year...

Eee it's our negative-one-year anniversary today. AND I want to say Happy Anniversary to Elaine & Rob - we'll be sharing it with you after next year! so. exciting.

...I actually started this post this morning and now I have more EEEEing to do - I bought a dress!!! woop woop! But, if anyone still wants to go dress shopping, I still want to go to the Running of the Brides, and probably a few other outings. I got this dress at a Blowout price from the Priscilla of Boston sample sale. Original price of the dress was $4,200. I got it for $167.16, and we couldn't find any damage at all, it just needs a cleaning. And it's a really great dress, I just might take it to a seamstress to see if they can turn the neckline into a sweetheart, right now it's just straight across the top. But it fits me almost perfectly, so alterations would be cheap. Still! I'm going to keep shopping around. In the meantime, Jessika has offered to keep the dress at her place, since I was in a zipcar headed back to Bethesda, and also where would I have put it otherwise?

Anyway that's all the description I'm going to give here! Can't let Zach hear too much about it. :) :) I might send an email out to inquiring minds, once I get the pictures uploaded. I've been searching for images online, but nothing's coming up when I put in the style number.. guess it's probably a couple seasons old!

Tonight zp and I are going to Lebanese Taverna in Westover to celebrate our negative one year anniversary. :)

I just spent ummm a really long time making up a Spring inspiration board, I was hoping to share it here but I can't figure out how to save it as one file! dang. well I'm outta here! happy first day of spring!! :)

the officiant update

Zach and I had our meeting with the officiant last night. It went well! We liked her. I think we'd both prefer to have someone we both already know really well, who knows us - but since that's not possible, I really don't have super high standards for who I'd like to conduct our ceremony. Not speaking for Zach, my hopes for the meeting were that she would have a plan for the ceremony, and that she didn't annoy me, or rub me the wrong way. And she was great, she was very warm and easy to talk to and presented a very professional proposal for how she would personalize and conduct our ceremony. That's really all I can ask for.

I have this nagging feeling that we Should interview other people for the job, maybe find a better price or someone we connect with even more. However. I just really don't feel like it! She had a lot of good ideas for different things we can do (some ideas didn't really jive with us but we can veto anything we don't like), and what she does is pretty neat - we each fill out a questionnaire (separately, and then we share our answers with each other) about our relationship, ourselves, what we love about the other person, etc. etc., and she even offered to interview friends and family about us if we wanted her to. Then she takes what we've talked about and what we've said in our questionnaires, and writes up a draft. She sends it to us, we go through it and make whatever edits we want - re-write the whole thing, take out whole sections, amend wording here and there, whatever. And together we create a really personalized and meaningful ceremony! Which sounds awesome.

Included in her fee, she also conducts the rehearsal, provides cue cards to whatever musicians and coordinators or anyone else who might be helping out, and a few other little extras that seemed nice.

Sooo, we're going to think about it for a bit. We've got Plenty of time.

how to convert a library into a chapel?

So, for lack of any other big decisions to make, I've been thinking about the decor for the upstairs. As you can see from the pictures (the picasa web album I linked to earlier), the upstairs doubles as a library and art gallery. I love this feature, don't get me wrong. I'm just thinking how we can add simple decorations to make it more romantic/formal.


I found these lanterns, thought they might be pretty lining the aisle? And then after the ceremony we could move them down to the tables for the reception?

Just got a sample menu with quotes from Helga's Catering... they sent me a menu with "red bliss potato baskets filled with sour cream and caviar" as one of the hors d'oeuvres. ICK. I can't imagine serving caviar at our wedding.. Also they ignored my request to show me all taxes, fees, delivery charges, etc. They sent me a document showing a buffet option and a sit-down dinner option, with a note saying "does not include taxes, delivery charges, blah blah blah," and then they're asking me to sign it and send it back with a 50% deposit to secure the date. Nothing about coming in for a tasting first, or any kind of explanation of extra fees and charges we're likely to incur. So far, I'm not impressed. I sent them an email back with more specific requests for menu items (ugh no caviar!!), what the extra fees might be, and also when we could schedule a tasting..

ooh more later re: ceremony decor, I'm off for some fish & chips! (picture of me in my wig coming soon)

.....


and here's the photo as promised. :) Happy St Paddy's Day! We do like to have a little fun around here..

updates

I guess my frenzy has subsided a bit huh? Just haven't had as much to blab about I guess!

But I do have a couple updates. Tuesday, March 17 (St. Patrick's Day what, I'll be wearing my green wig to work), we have an appointment to meet with A.C. Warden, of Capital Ceremonies, to talk about her officiating our ceremony. I will for sure let you know how that goes! We're excited.

Also, Tuesday, April 14, we have a tasting appointment with The Purple Onion catering co. I really really like the lady who's been working with me, I hope we like their food. Just to be safe, I've been researching other caterers and I'll try to set up a couple other tastings so we can compare. But she's just been so helpful already, I think she'd be great to work with and I'd like to hire them as long as their food doesn't stink, and we don't find someone else who's way cheaper.

This weekend I'm going to try to make more button flowers. Hopefully after a while I'll have enough to form a full bouquet and I can actually see what it looks like in real life. Maybe I'll take it with me the next time I go dress shopping! Would probably freak out the sales people but.. I need to see what it looks like against a dress. I may decide it's just too goofy and I want real flowers. I think I'd still work in the button bouquets somewhere, maybe in the centerpieces, I dunno. I just don't know! We'll see. :)