Spoiler Alert

We're doing welcome bags for the guests staying at our suggested hotel. These are going to be some pleasantly surprised guests once I get done with their bundles of welcomeness. I found a most wonderful FREE template online of a "do not disturb" sign and can't wait to craft it into something for us! The internet, greatest invention ever. 

The great debate

Table numbers are the most integral part of the wedding. It's absolutely crucial we get these right or else our party guests will be left wandering the reception aimlessly for hours on end. If the table numbers are too big, the guests might lose all processing ability and stare transfixed at the large number before them in a stupor of confusion, neither sitting down nor engaging in general festivities. If the numbers are too small, disaster will surely unfold. Large flocks of guests circling tables and swooping in only to be rejected when they don't instantaneously spot table number confirmation. Having to look from table to table, rejection after rejection as the appropriate number to guest has yet to reveal itself. I don't know about you, but I couldn't even imagine a worse scenario.

 

**Frames in photograph will not actually be present at wedding.

While we were out

Ah, love.  How much I do love love!  This weekend we trekked down to Savannah to celebrate the graduation of our Best Man. Graduation ceremonies sure are agonizing long.  I remember at my own graduation, on that stifling May morning, sitting and slowly dying as my body attempted to suck every last ounce of water from within.  Definitely should have hydrated better for baking under the sun for 4 plus hours. Fortunately, the graduation this past weekend was indoors.  And while the AC wasn't cranked to frigid, it was on and no one died, to my knowledge.  After we watched all 1,000 students walk across the stage to get their diploma holders, we were off to celebrate the newly proclaimed Master.  We headed across the street to The Distillery where his family and girlfriend's family all met to celebrate the big day.  Little did she know, she planned a graduation party that actually was her very own engagement party!  While she was opening a giant "thank you gift" for hosting the event, she pulled out a ring box and her now fiance dropped to one knee to propose. It was certainly a love filled moment. I captured a blurry action shot of the big moment.

When Worlds Collide

Hypothetically speaking, what does one do when the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom don't necessarily get along?

Asking for a friend, naturally.

More Wedding Stuffs

So over wedding planning and working with others and trying to share ideas and those ideas not being well received. I see why some ladies become giant raging Bridezillas because if you don't and try to go through this whole wedding planning a sane, rational person who speaks calmly and makes decisions that make sense you will be stomped all over.  Every thought and idea will be stomped to death like a dirty little roach on the ground.

• Cake tasting.  How important is the cake?  Another thing I've become dispassionate about as the only delicious cake in town that I want to rub all over my body is also double the cost of every other cake place in town.  I don't even enjoy cake all that much and usually pass it up when it's offered.  Is a cardboard imitation cake sculpture just as good?
• Flowers.  Being looked at.
• Bridesmaids dresses have been ordered.  
• Groomsmen tuxes have been picked out.  I'm really liking the way they look and hopefully the whole wedding party will come together in a finely dressed clump of coordination.
• We got our engagement photos back.  Not being a model is really interfering with the quality of our photos and I'm not happy about it.
• Booked our honeymoon to JAMAICA.

Question of the week:  Would you consider Save the Dates on magnets more or less classy than Save the Dates on a postcard?

At least Winston has the modeling skillz

Answer: Neither. Date announcements on a magnet or date announcements on a postcard are neither classy or trashy.  They are just date announcements.

Some Updates

This winter season has been nuts!  Three weeks ago there was a snowstorm that left Atlanta crippled and people were stuck in traffic for hours on end.  This week, another ice storm.  All the rain and snow and sleet have kept us huddled inside and avoiding the cold world of making plans and contacting vendors. And, things keep getting rescheduled! I'm starting to feel like I'm falling a little behind.  My co-worker got engaged two weeks ago and already has the venue and band for her March 2015 wedding.  Some of the things we're been going lately:

• The dress came in!  I tried it on and now it's in my possession.  In June we'll start the great alterations process.  We ordered a size bigger so it would lay nicer across my massive tree trunk thighs.  The dress is also built for someone who is 5'9 (not in heels).  The straps will have to be shortened and the back taken in.  Dresses are so complicated. 
• We took engagement photos! I hope the awkwardness doesn't portray in the photos.
• There was a snafu with the DJ.  A snafu in that the venue won't allow him to use 12 of his LED lights.  I'm not even sure what he was planning to do with these, but it's in our contract and I don't like being gypped! (fact: apparently gypped comes from "the act of being swindled by gypsies" and is derogatory and offensive to the Roma people).  In lieu of 12 LED lights, our DJ has offered us an "amazing" option, 2 7 ft. Vertical Trusses with Moving Heads.  The DJ says it's amazing, but I will be the ultimate judge of that.  
• Called a Harpist. Potentially rethinking my life goals with the amount of money I could make playing the Harp for 20 minutes a gig.  Where does one get a Harp?

Tasting the Food

Since I get most of my knowledge from pop culture, I've also formulated my expectations for the wedding based on various movies and television shows I've seen over the years.  One of the key wedding related scenes in any good flick is the big food tasting scene.  Cake tasting will come later, but we had our first food tasting just last week.  Although it wasn't quite what I thought it would be, as in it wasn't purely a tasting at all, but a chance for various vendors to haggle with you and promote their business, it was still a wedding related experience worth remembering for all of time.

There were hotel reps and officiants and trumpet players and other musical people.  All of them wanted to chat and cram their offerings down our throats until we gave in and took their free pamphlets.  At one point, one of the officiants cornered Josh and I to have a discussion about a potential Christian wedding.  After politely explaining to him we've already booked this aspect of our wedding, he changed the subject to Josh's personal religious well-being and the state of his soul.  This stranger, while a man of religion, was very presumptuous in assuming Josh was a lost lamb needing saving.  He then went on to rant about people who haven't read the Bible cover to cover don't know anything and don't have a place to say anything. We both smiled and politely nodded our heads to this man's straight-to-the-point religion talk, while simultaneously plotting an avenue of escape. At some point we were finally able to free ourselves from his presence and fled to the safety of a heaping cup of shrimp and grits, but only after Josh promised to give the man a person phone call later that week. 

After that debacle, we made our rounds to sample as much food as possible.  Me, to assuage the awkwardness of interacting with strangers, Josh because he's a bottomless pit.  We were able to sample some pasta items, mini cheese-steaks, braised beef, lobster mac & cheese, egg rolls, and desserts.  Desserts galore!  In between the food tasting, I was able to finagle a cocktail.  It was an interesting cocktail where they poured liquids over cotton candy and said it was an example of a "signature drink".  I guess that could work. 

The whole venue was set up in a blue and white color palette to give us an idea of the things that can be done for our big day. There were lounge areas set up and table settings and an alter.  It was revealing to see how they can transform the space to accommodate a particular theme.  It was also very crowded. A special source told us 200 brides were in attendance at this event.  I had to throw some bows just so I didn't lose a spot in line waiting for a cheese-steak!  I hope I do not have a repeat experience on the day that we wed.  These bows stop for nothing when it comes to food.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience to take another step in the wedding planning direction.  I hope next we get to sit down and sample some items that may actually be served at our wedding.  We want only the best for our guests and need to have as many meetings as possible to eat lots of food and drink lots of beverages to finalize this decision. Also, we still need to do the most important tasting of all - the cake tasting!

Music Man

Weddings, what fun it is to plan such things! We booked our music (finally) and now we're gathering a music play list. It sure was difficult convincing my mom that a DJ was the way to go.  It was made slightly more difficult when Josh, in a heroic attempt to convince my parents, went into get detail about all the "scratching" the DJ will do and that extra bass will get it really, really loud.  Exact reasons my parents did not want a DJ.  Two months later, they caved and now we have someone to provide sound to our otherwise silent shindig.

Picking the right songs can really make or break this whole thing, so we really gotta be strategic about it.  The main wrench in the system is Josh has a completely opposite opinion of what music we should play.  He wants to have an 80's revival party filled with music that no one wants to dance to and where people can stare blankly at one another why they try and piece together what time machine they just stepped out of. 

I, on the other hand, would prefer music that appeases the crowds across all ages.  Old timey stuff for the old timers and modern music with a good beat where I can snap aggressively without care into the late hours of the night.

Yet, this is a wedding we're planning and not a day of celebration for the two of us, so I do have to include my mom's ever looming judgement.  My parents have already told me "none of that rap music".  Which, to them, anything produced after 1991 is rap music.

Right now this is number one on our "must play" list.  This does not please me.

▶ Prince - I Wanna Be Your Lover (Official Video) - Video Dailymotion

Taking any and all music recommendations now!