Hard decision

This post has been really difficult for me to write. It has taken a couple of weeks, and some serious thought. This blog was started as a way for Anna and myself to share information about our upcoming weddings. Since Anna has decided to no longer blog on this site I also think I will move on, as it is weird to think about blogging on here alone.

If anyone is interested in following my journey down the aisle, you can follow me here: (Somewhat) Crafty Wedding

Thanks for taking me this far, Just Around the Riverbend, you've been good to me...

pausing

Anna here...
Taking a break from the blog (maybe short, maybe prolonged). People that are really involved in my wedding have started reading the blog, which is wonderful. However, at the same time, I want a lot of things to be a surprise, so I'm scaling back. This has been a wonderful place to test ideas over the last year. In the last month we've made some dramatic changes to our plans, and I am pretty sure I will be walking the last miles of the journey without the blogosphere!

Good luck on hunting for a home, Mandie!

365...

We've reached the one year mark until our wedding! Woohoo!

I can't say that I'm always pleased about our extra long engagement, it can be really hard. Often I find myself thinking, what's the point? It's just a wedding right? But then I make myself think, it's not just a wedding, it's an entrance to our marriage. And it's a celebration that is important to our families and friends, and they are important to us. Plus, in two weeks we will have a pre-approval for a mortgage and will be looking to buy our first home. By extending our engagement we spread out payments, yay! Trying to stay positive, but sometimes it's still hard.

Moving on... You HAVE to check out this beautiful gorgeous-ness that I found today!













All images from Justin and Mary photography

Ummm, can I say how in love with the all the yellow I am?

DIY complete!

This post is dedicated to Jessica, my post loyal reader ;) Love you

If you remember from my last post I showed you an ugly yellow candlestick. What did I manage to do with it? (Successfully I might add :) )

Dun dun duh... I give you, a cake stand!

Okay, it was really quite easy and there is no need for the dramatics I've been giving it, but it was one of my very first solid DIY projects and I love how it came out!

Step one: Wash plate and stand
Step two: Test it out and see roughly where you'd like to glue it.
Step three: Put a ring of glue on the bottom of plate
Because I had just washed the candlestick it left a small water ring when I put it on the plate to test where I wanted it, so I followed that with the glue. Note: The glue is called Weldbond, it's a strong glue meant for ceramics.

Step four: Place book or other object on top of candlestick to help it bond better.
Step five: Let sit.
Step six: Enjoy your handiwork
Me showing how bonded it is now.

It's hard to see in the pictures, but there is a faint ring of yellow around the edges of this plate.


Other things to note: I just went to Goodwill and bought plates and other things that might work for stands. This plate is a good dinner size, but small for a cake stand so I have been keeping my eyes open for other, larger plates. I also wasn't super exact about being perfectly in the middle of the bottom of the plate, but it worked out okay anyway.

Anyway, boring but I'm excited about them. I have a couple more plates and stands, but now that I know it's super easy to do, I'm going to put them aside for now, they are easier to store as they are now!

DIY experiment

Today I went with a friend to pick up the supplies for one of the first of my (hopefully) many DIY projects. Here is a teaser:

On it's own, a slightly ugly yellow candlestick. But together with some other supplies...?

You'll have to wait and see :)

(Man, I hope this project works, if not, I apologize in advance for having to wait and hear about my failures)

I love me some Ikea

So after my registry brainstorming, Ikea suddenly popped into my brain. "Do they do registries?!" because there is so much stuff I would get there. As soon as I got home from work (yes, I constantly have weddings on the mind) I checked. They don't do registries, but I did find lots of other good stuff! I think I will be heading there on Sunday to pick some of this stuff up :D

First, if I was doing a candy buffet as I had originally wanted, I would use these:
The Burken Jar. The largest size is $3.99 and will hold just over 4 pounds of candy. There are two smaller sizes (17oz for 1.99 and 37 for 2.99) if you want to mix up the sizes.

There is also the Slom jar
This one is 61 oz is 3.99 and will hold almost 4 pounds. There is a 68 oz for the same price, but, well, it has an oddly phallic shape...

Then I found these bottle openers:
The 'Charm bottle opener'. For 0.99 a piece, these could make awfully cute favors, and are much cuter than some other sketchy bottle openers I've seen.

These actually caught my eye in the weekly circular they sent out last week
The Tripp tins. These are 7.99 (for all 3) and the other set...
...is 2.99. I will have to admit that the first thing I thought was, how cute would these be as floral arrangement containers? But I'm sure they could be used for other things. I would use the green and yellow from both sets, but would probably find another use for the orange...

I also love these Marit placemats
And for 0.99 a piece these would be cute as pops of color under arrangements. But I think I will pick some of these up just for my own personal use right now. I love love love the green.

I have also been a little obsessed with cake stands lately and the idea of maybe creating my own. Then I found this plate, the Fargrik.
The largest of them is 3.99 and I was thinking I could use the matching bowl as a stand. Or something else, haven't figured that part out yet. Much cheaper than buying a jadeite cake stand.

Last but not least I found these Wilma curtains.
While they are sheer. But at $9.99 for a pack of two, these would make delightful table runners.

I have to come to the acceptance that the greens I'm going to use aren't necessarily going to match. But that's okay, but I love lots of shades of green. I found most of these things by going to the Ikea website and searching for 'green'. They also have some adorable fabrics and other things. The placemats, curtains, and plate all come in other colors which is why I included their names. If you want to check them out, just search the name on the website.

Anyone else wish that Ikea had a registry option? Or does anyone else want to run to the store and check out what they have, right now-ish?

Shopping for others

It's a busy summer for me in terms of weddings. I attended a wedding last month, I'll be going to another in a couple of weeks, and I'll be buying a gift for my parents to take when they go to my cousins wedding in August. It's been an interesting look at the registry aspect of weddings. All three of the couples registered at both Target and Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It seems to be a trend.


Looking through the registries got me thinking about where we are going to register and what we would register for. Personally, I think the idea of registering is kind of weird, I have always hated telling people that I want things (personal issue, obviously). Registries just seem kind of selfish to me, putting out for the world what you want them to buy for you. I know that it is so that people who love you can support you and the building of your home and life together. But it just makes me feel weird.

It makes me think about where we are going to register (because despite my weirdness about it, it's an expected part of the wedding that I'm not going to shirk... ) My mom suggested Macy's but I can't see myself asking people to spend for stuff from Macy's. I've considered Kohl's, but their merchandise changes so often. I have looked into those websites where people can contribute to your honeymoon, but they often charge people on top of what they are gifting). What does that leave us with? BB&B, Target. I'm also considering Amazon, but I don't want that to be the only registry because it will then require shipping costs.

Are there are places that people have registered? And how far out are couples 'expected' to register?

Reversal

A snippet of conversation:

Me: ::sigh:: I can't wait for our honeymoon, can we skip everything else?
Mr F: No! I'm excited for the wedding!

That one had me giggling because I so often feel like I'm the one who is trying to create excitement about the wedding. Apparently he has it, he just needs me to want to give up everything and elope before he'll show it? Silly boy.

Holy Frijoles

It's cheap to book a vacation in Mexico right now!

~Anna

Engage-aversary

Mr F and I got back last night from a week of family vacation with my family in California. Needless to say I was not ultra excited to be back in the clouds or back at work. Le sigh.

But yesterday marked an important day for us... it was our 1 year Engage-aversary! I can't believe we have been engaged for a whole year, it seems like so much has happened, but that it can't have been a year yet. Isn't time a weird thing? It's also funny because we have already been engaged a lot longer than a lot of people we know and still have a while to wait.

Our next big day we have coming up is the 1 year countdown to the wedding day (2 weeks!).

on the cheap

Hi it's me, Anna. Once again, I am on the quest to save lots of money.

I met with a recently married couple who had their wedding at the Boathouse, just like we will. If you can chat with another couple who used your venue, do it. It's so worth it. You get the full *honest* report of what is actually realistic for that location. I feel so much better now.

A few things:

We are having a dessert, hors d'oeuvre, and wine reception so there is minimal cooking involved. I haven't picked out a caterer yet, but a bakery will most likely suffice (even for the finger food). However, for those that are wanting a full meal but can't afford the catering company, I really recommend this site.

I am also trying to DIY as many of our decorations as possible. However, I am not super crafty (nor do I have much time), so I am also trying to get things that will be easy to assemble. Enter in Efavormart, the best kept secret on the web. Really. So cheap and so easy.

I am starting to think about bridesmaids dresses (Mandie--we seem to be intersecting here). We are 8.5 months away from the wedding (OH MY GOD!!! OHMYGODOHMYGOD). In September, at the 6 month mark, I am going to formally invite my gals to be in the bridal party... (they all pretty much know that they are going to be involved). Because these wonderful women are just as busy as I am, I want to make their time participating in this project enjoyable. So, I am starting to shop around now. Here are two dresses from Nordstrom's that I really like:

Last but not least, we are boiling down to two decisions:

-We are most likely going to have a dear friend officiate our wedding.

-We are honeymooning either immediately in Mexico (Guadalajara) or a few months after the wedding in Portugal. Honeymoons are so exciting that they make me want to elope!

~Anna

progress?

A little less than 9 months from the wedding. Here's what I have completed:

-Dress
-Venue

Here is what is left:

-Wedding party
-Music
-Food
-Officiant
-Decorations
-Invitations
-Save the dates

and on... and on... and on...

Take away messages:

I finish graduate school in 6 weeks. Maybe I should just stop trying to do this while I am a student.

Exciting updates:
-Fiance and I are both working! Both employed! And they are actually jobs we really enjoy. So we will actually be able to afford a *budget* wedding. And not live in a box. Yes!

-Tomorrow we're signing the lease for this gorgeous condo we're renting for the next year.

So, in summation, I feel fortunate right now. Sometimes I worry that this wedding will never get planned because I seem to be a work-aholic in every OTHER area of my life, but I keep telling myself that nine months is plenty of time. Right? Minus 6 weeks. So, more like seven months. Uh, maybe I need to hurry up and delegate...

~Anna

I have a problem

I was at a friends wedding yesterday (which was inspiration galore) but there was another guest there who was wearing the most adorable dress. So with a glass or two of wine in me I approached her and asked where she had gotten it. Turns out that this is a Calvin Klein dress she had purchased at TJ Maxx but she knew they had them on Overstock.com. Today I checked it out and I am officially in love with Calvin Klein sundresses.

How gorgeous would my ladies look in different CK dresses in one color?
This was the dress the girl was wearing (she had it in a beautiful butter yellow) and I love the pistachio color

And there are more beauties!

If I decide to make yellow a more prominent color I love this dress, it would flatter so many shapes. And it has pockets!

While I love the kelly green, it's too green for our palette, but I have been looking for a good brown dress...

Apricot is one of our secondary colors, and I love the brown too. Could I maybe have all my girls in different colors? And box pleats are adorable and flattering!

Love the style and casualness of this dress. Have I mentioned I have been obsessed with yellow recently?
These were all found on Overstock.com and they are all under $90 and they have all the elements I want in a bridesmaids dress: adorableness, flattering features, affordability, and rewearability!

Here are some more dresses I found searching the web:

David's bridal (who I'm trying to avoid because their bridesmaids dresses LOOK like bridesmaid dresses)

J Crew, who doesn't love J Crew? But they are so much more expensive than I want to ask the girls to spend...

More J Crew, I love this dress actually. I kind of want to get it for me.

Anyway, my plan is to (eventually) pick my bridesmaids and weigh all the options out with them and get their opinions because, well, I have smart, sassy friends.

And now for something completely different

One of the cds I play during naptime at work is a mix of Jack Johnson. I love it. You can really only play "Tender Lullabies" so many times without going crazy... I love to sing along to Jack and his simple yet beautiful songs.

A couple always catch my ear and make me wonder how I can incorporate them into the wedding. He sings of such sweet, tender love that it makes me so happy and excited.

[Verse 1:]
There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard,
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart,
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things,
Like a shoebox of photographs,
With sepiatone loving,
Love is the answer
At least for most of the questions in my heart,
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy,
And sometimes life can be deceiving,
I'll tell you one thing,
its always better when we're together

[Chorus:]
Mmm, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, we'll look at the stars when we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together
Source and rest of lyrics

Can you imagine this as the first dance song? I don't want the typical slow, sway song... I love that it has a little beat that is a little bit different.

I also love Do You Remember:

Well, I was crazy about you then and now
The craziest thing of all, over ten years have gone by
And you're still mine, we're locked in time
Let's rewind

New wedding time waster

Oh my gosh, this new program is awesome. I'm excited... It's called Springpad.

There is a Wedding Planner feature and it is so cool. And it's free! There is an invite manager, and you can upload contacts from facebook and from gmail that way you don't have to type all your contacts in individually. There's a task list which isn't ridiculous like The Knot list which has tons of miscellaneous crap on it. It's basic and you can add or subtract easily. You can set a 'complete by date'. There is a vendor category with suggested vendors that are in your area. There is an idea area where you can put all your ideas, and you can note stuff like the old Google notebook which doe not exist anymore. And there's a budget area.

Can you tell I'm pretty excited? I found all this just in the few minutes I've clicked around. It seems pretty easy too!

visual?

Mom and I were talking about reception things and have decided that we may need to rethink the color scheme because (and this sounds ridiculously bride-zilla-y) the green paint of the reception space clashes with the green that we had chosen to be one of our main colors.

One option is that we don't change the color scheme, we just limit the amount that is in the reception space and use it a lot more outside. Problem with this is that I really don't want all chocolate linens because I think it will be too dark for a summer wedding. So I suggested using half chocolate tablecloths and half different patterned tablecloths that incorporate all the different colors.

My mom just cannot picture this, and thinks it will look odd.

I think it will look fantastic, refreshing, and fun.

A la these pictures:

Source


Source

Plus I think it will tone down the formality of having a summer Saturday night wedding.

Who is right? Who has more visual style, Mom or me?

summer again

Garden party.

~Anna

Meet our venue!

After an extensive, and frankly, ridiculous venue search we have decided on our venue.

Meet the Fairgate Inn.

We loved this venue. When I asked Mister F what his top two favorites were he said "Fairgate" and? "Fairgate". So that settled it, Mister F was in love and I was as well as I pictured English country garden, vintage beautifulness.

I'm so excited. I know that there are probably other places that are "better" than this one, but just walking through here made me so happy and so excited. I'm having a bit of a hard time letting the venue search go though, I'm constantly thinking about it. I need a new task...

We are going to have a meeting with the wedding coordinator soon to set and finalize the contract and wedding date.

Yikes

Just a little pet peeve. I know folks mean well, but it's ridiculous when a minor acquaintance is trying to become the wedding planner. Um, can we just go back to being two people who had a casual working relationship? Thanks.

-Anna

Venue visit #8

Last weekend Ma, Mister F and I went to visit one last venue. I forgot my camera and Mister F's was dead so we have the wonderful photos from the camera phone! (We think quick on our feet) Not the best quality, but you get the idea. I also stole a fee photos from the website, shhhhh don't tell.

Lewis River Golf Course

















We really liked the rustic simplicity of it and we liked how free we were to choose where we put everything. And the view and location were pretty spectacular.

We have FINALLY decided on a venue. Eight venue visits later, I hope this is the toughest decision we have to make because WHEW it has been exhausting!

The venue we chose was one of the last two I visited... the Fairgate Inn and this one (Lewis River). Even though we only have like 6 readers and a few of you (due to facebook) already know which one we picked, I still want a tiny element of surprise considering this has been such a huge thing for us... I'm going to leave all 4 of you hanging until tomorrow when I announce our wedding venue and date :D