I Wish This Were Me

When you get engaged, nobody tells you that the closer you get to your wedding, the less sleep you’ll get. (So, Jessie, I’m telling you this now!) It’s not just that I’m up late doing things, it’s that the sleep I do get is low-quality. However, if I’m at Brad’s, I can sleep peacefully in an instant. Yet another reason to look forward to our marriage.

Supernatural exhaustion aside, I’m loving these last two weeks before the wedding. I don’t feel stressed at all, just excited. My list of things to do keeps getting smaller and smaller and the day when our family gets here gets closer and closer. I’m ecstatic! And sleepy. Verrrrrry sleepy.

image courtesy of treehugger (you know me, such a nature lover)

The Day: It Fast Approaches

Brad and I sat down last night with the unsurpassed Kelly Rivera, who is basically running the show at the Val Air for us (including a tasty cheese course to occupy our guests while we get our pictures taken). I’m am so thankful for Kelly and all she’s willing to do for us. Plus, our meeting forced me to get a lot of stuff down on paper that has been floating in my head.

We also finalized all our cake flavors this week. There will be 22 (count ‘em) layer cakes and one fabulous groom’s cake. And, yes, we are saving a piece of each flavor for us to eat over the honeymoon, thankyouverymuch.

With May starting tomorrow, I’m beginning to make lists of tasks to be accomplished by day (only 16 left!). On today’s list:

• Call the surprisingly few people who haven’t RSVP’d yet.
• Go to another dress fitting.
• Call Paul (our officiant) to see when we need to meet with him to finalize all the deets.
• Write some guest book instructions (it looks great, by the way!).
• Start writing the labels for the cheeses with a little bit of history and interesting bits of tid.
• Call my aunts and grandmas to thank them for all the surprise shower gifts!
• Make more lists including what snacks to buy/bring to the church for the day of, what I need to make sure I remember to bring (phone, lip gloss, program/invite for photographers to shoot, dropcloth, crochet hook–don’t ask).

One thing that’s not going so well: my sleep. If anyone thinks of it, I would really love some prayer that I can shut down the wedding-planning part of my brain at bedtime. I can’t run much longer on 5 hours of sleep a night! Also, Brad’s fighting some type of illness (not swine flu, I promise) that is sapping all his energy, so any prayer for his immediate recovery would be awesome.

image courtesy of redstamp.com

(Almost) One Month Out

I can’t believe how fast the last few weeks have gone. We have 33 days left until the wedding and I’m so excited I can hardly sit down to go over some details. But first, some updates. Bestie Kaelin is in Arizona right now. She’ll be bringing back her veil for me to wear. I’m so excited about that!

Last night, angel Kelly brought over some fabric, risers, and lots of cake plates to show me what our cake table could look like. Divine! I need to go buy some fabric in our colors for this.

I’m still looking for shoes and a clutch to complete my ensemble. I guess that means yet another trip to DSW tonight!

On Brad’s list: design wedding programs and other paper paraphernalia, come up with gifts for his groomsmen, help me make the card box (I’m not excited about using a box cutter on my own), be awesome.

image courtesy of Flickr user cokeisit7

Guest Book

Thebestie is right–now that our invitations are sent and the web site done, it’s time to start working out the nitty gritty details. I’ve been thinking a lot about our guest book. I didn’t want the traditional book with a few pages of signed names (no personality) or the new-traditional framed photo with signatures on the mat (that’s a huge item to be emotionally attached to, at least for me). I looked around online and heard about a Quaker tradition of having every single guest sign an embellished version of your marriage certificate as “witnesses.” That really appealed to me for a while, but Brad didn’t love it, and once I thought about how many people we were having and how huge that  piece of paper would have to be, I moved on.

So now I’ve decided: I’m using an acid-free, cloth-covered scrapbook as our guest book. Each page will have six mini envelopes attached to it and we’ll have stacks of paper and pens nearby. Guests can write their name, a little message, draw a picture, whatever, then slip it into one of the envelopes. If they want to seal it, fine, if not, that’s fine, too. Then later, we get to have the fun of opening all the envelopes and seeing what people said! I love mail, so this is going to be fabulous. (I can’t take credit for this idea. I saw it on one of my favorite wedding  blogs, but I can’t remember which one.)

I just bought the scrapbook at Archiver’s last night (I bought a Kolo brand one). Now, I’m researching envelopes. I’m trying to track down just the right color, although I may have to settle for the kraft paper ones we used for our invititations (just much smaller).

image courtesy of one of my fav wedding blogs, so sorry I can’t remember which

To-Do Lists

I’ve been living by those wedding timelines (you know 18 months ahead do this, 12 months ahead do that) and was finally able to cross a few big things off this weekend. Yay! Here’s our weekend breakdown:

Friday night: Fit in a night of relaxation with Kaelin and Rachel (two besties). I definitely needed a chick-flick girls’ night to re-energize! (For those wondering, we watched Definitely, Maybe and everyone thought it was cute but me. I was disappointed.)

Saturday: Brad and I journeyed over to Lidderdale, Iowa, to check out this caterer called Lidderdale Country Store. It seems small-town sketchball but came highly recommended by some of Brad’s friends who got married this summer. The owner brought out this huge plate of food when we got there and yes, Brad totally scarfed down FOUR SERVINGS of meat with no problem. The food was delish (although not pictured above, that’s just a random photo of what our food basically looks like) and the price even better, so we booked them. Another big thing done! We also opened our registry at Lowe’s (Home Depot apparently doesn’t have a wedding registry), which Brad filled with cool manly things like a 15-piece clamp set. I continue to update our Crate & Barrel registry (haha).

Sunday: Talked to super-cool Andrew and his soon-to-be wife Oana about Andrew being our emcee and iTunes playlist manager at our wedding. We like this option better than a DJ because we can have more power over what’s played, we know Andrew will be easy to work with, and it’s much easier on our budget! Wedding planning leaves me pooped, so we just hung out and finished season 3 of Lost. Can’t wait for season 4!

image found on Flickr

The Binder!

One of the most important things a bride must do is set up her wedding binder. My binder became my best friend during wedding planning. It was constantly with me, just in case I needed it. I still have it in perfect order…just in case my bestie needs to refer to it. Joanna has chosen to use a Russel+Hazel binder with the Better Homes and Garden’s downloadable planner. I recommend having a paper planner but also consider using an online planner like the ones offered through Martha Stewart or The Knot. Each planner is a little different so find one that fits your needs. With an organized binder you’ll save yourself a lot of stressing.

Image from Russel+Hazel.