Another happy hodge podge; stuff's gettin' done!

Sorry I've been a little sporadic. Big, stupid presentation for work :(

Also, I hope everyone's recovering from Irene! We live in Philadelphia and never even lost power! Sorry though to any and everyone who still doesn't have power. I know my grandparents have massive downed trees; thankfully no one hurt, not even their houses, but no power for a week!

ANYWAY, I wanted to stop by and show a little progress report in the wedding world!

All invitation components are out and arranged:

From left: invitations, big pile of torn paper bits, RSVP cards, the notice to plant the wildflower seed-imbedded inner envelope, the hotel info, a big envelope that holds all my vellum (which has also been cut to size... which was a production, vellum is a pain in the arse), and the return envelopes with their awesome Shutterfly address labels.

I am three quarters of the way done with the decorating part. Here is a mock-up of what 3/4 of them look like:

I am so happy with how they're turning out. The only negative is that September is a very busy month, and my mom offered to help assemble the invitations, but I don't have a free weekend to go see her. I feel kinda' bad because I really appreciate her offering. I try to let people help because I appreciate their offers... I mean, unless you don't really want to help but are only offering to be nice. I wish we could have gotten together one of those awesome invitation assembly lines you see everyone else having:

No, not like that, these:

Isn't it funny though, how tidy they all are? Anyway, it would have been so nice to have everyone over or go somewhere and set up, and have a nice little invitation party. Drink champagne and talk girly stuff. Not because I wanted to exploit labor out of them, but because the alternative is me doing it by myself in my cramped living room with clutter everywhere and while watching crappy movies over and over again on HBO (I have seen Eat, Pray, Love and Legion like... 500 times!). But at least there's still alcohol involved.

Anyway, the point is, I'll be assembling them myself, and it's almost assembly time!! The other daunting task is addressing the envelopes. Professional calligraphy was never even an option for me. It seemed a completely unnecessary expense, and I have really decent handwriting as is. It just so happens I also took a calligraphy class is high school, just 'cause. But that wouldn't even matter, because the pens pretty much do everything for you. I can't even brag. But the point is it's daunting because I'm still nervous about messing up!

As I get started addressing, and when I take pictures, I'll show you some samples, and you can tell me if I have any business self-addressing all my envelopes :)

Lastly, the man went behind my back and ordered suits before the Labor Day sale. I mean, the price of the sale that was going on at the time ironically works out to be the same as the Labor Day sale but that's neither here nor there. He bought suits! Remember the suit?

Pronto Uomo Signature Brown Suit

Well they came in yesterday and I sneaked a peek!

At first I was pretty upset, it's still really dark! I rolled my eyes and almost pulled my hair out. Why can't I get this right?? This is way darker than the picture online. But before I lost it completely, I got the brilliant idea to walk the suit over into the sun:

And I might have gasped a little. Only a little though, because I had a feeling it just needed some proper light. As I keep looking at the pictures and looking at the suits over and over again, I get more and more attached to them. The color, even in the shade, is definitely decent; maybe not as warm in the shade as I had hoped, but the color in the sun definitely makes up for it. My pulse slowed down, and for the time being, I am letting myself be excited that we found the suit.

Kyle's out of town for business right now, but when he comes back, I have a good feeling that he will also sign off on the suit (because I am sure he will not want to go through the process of returning it and restarting the guessing game) and then we can FULLY cross this one off the list.

One last note, I went ahead and wrote that unthreatening but very firm e-mail to Rikki and she finally got back to me, but she had forgotten most of the information we talked about the first time we talked. So I don't know how to feel about it. My mom suggested doing my own makeup the day of but getting our hair done at a salon BEFORE going over to the venue for the rehearsal (we have to do our rehearsal the day of the wedding because the day before is Thanksgiving).

(for those of you who are not Futurama fans, this is blind Leela who did her own makeup)

It completely slipped my mind that we are not allowed at the venue till noon the day of the wedding, that leaves us with the whole morning to go get our hair done. I don't like how disorganized this all is. I am not happy about it at all, it's all very frustrating. In my mind, it's like a gift, having someone there to tend to your girls. I'm worried at this point that trying to go somewhere the morning of and then doing our own makeup is just as much stress as worrying about whether or not Rikki is even going to remember to show up!

But then I slowed it down and remembered that I am supposedly a self-proclaimed DIY bride

And I've been meaning to head over to Sephora and try out the Bare Minerals. My mom's suggestion was going and paying for the whole lesson thing, maybe spending $100 on makeup, but saving $900 in the long run. Kyle's mom's suggestion was the Bare Minerals. I feel good about me, but I feel bad about my girls. I wanted to treat them. But, at least, I think, I can still treat them to getting their hair done.

What does everyone think? Did you end up doing your own makeup? Did you struggle with the decision? What about hair? And does anyone have any product tips??