Eleven Twenty Five Eleven: Slow Jamz!!

Hey Peeps, sorry for being MIA; work has been CRAAAAAZY! I scheduled my next thesis committee meeting where they'll finally give me permission to write my thesis (from that point, I have NO MORE THAN 6 months to graduate) for later this month, and my boss wants a draft of my second research paper by then. THEN I have to write my thesis by sometime in April and defend my thesis by the end of April because my boss leaves for his new job in Texas in early May. Oh, and we're trying to buy a house and I need to find my next job!

Anyone who is in research or any sort of graduate program knows about PhD comics. Well, this is life in our lab right now. We've lost two graduate students to other labs and everyone remaining is panicking about what they're going to do. Looks like most of the lab is going with our boss to Texas. Best of luck to you. Watch out for scorpions, tumbleweed, and ignorant people (no offense to any Texans who might be reading who are civilized... I'm not talking about you).

The point is that I'm working my butt off trying to be done with the bench work part. Then I'll have to closet myself somewhere to write... Then there'll be a lot of general freaking out. Meanwhile, the banking world doesn't care that we want to buy a house and no one is returning our calls... because apparently they're too busy. And to top it all off, I'm nervous to start applying to jobs because of a general lack of self-worth in my skills as a scientist.

But enough of that, I wanna' think about fun stuff, like continuing recaps. We've just been introduced and now it's time for our first dance. I mentioned during our recaps that we danced our first dance to Incubus' Friends and Lovers, and this series of pictures is nothing but, you know, nice dancing pictures. So have a listen and enjoy:

Remember... I still have no idea what the first dance song is... Note the trepidatious face...

You can't see my face but when I hear the first notes I started laughing. Oh OK, we're good.

 

 

We just talked and joked and I remember thinking 'I had no idea this song was so long.' Since our party did not consist of couples except for Mia and Dan, I didn't want to make it a Bride+Groom, then Bridal Party dance thing. Besides, Kyle and I are spotlight hogs... but this was a long song.

 

Me singing along ↓

 At least Ben got some fantastic pictures out of it. Can't complain about that.

 

 I also remember thinking a lot about how I've loved Incubus for a long long time but Kyle only became interested in them when he met me, and for him to pick this song was just added to the pile of Stuff-Kyle-did-for-me-for-this-wedding.

Ben made sure to feature Riverdale's fantastic windows and chandeliers and exposed beams:

 

 

So everyone was sweet enough to stand up and watch us dance around for a few minutes. Thanks everyone! We contemplated getting dance lessons- long and hard, actually- but I just felt that the long dress and the lack of high heels was not conducive to a choreographed first dance. Then we thought about costs and time management and it just didn't happen. Why do I even bring it up? Because of what I mentioned earlier about feeling like it's pretty boring to watch two people just slide around the floor for four minutes. But I have to keep reminding myself that we're allowed to hog the spotlight for seemingly boring reasons for one day.

Anyway, when I get a chance, I'll next show you other stuff! I don't know what yet! It'll be a surprise for everyone!

Miss a recap so far? Catch up!
Eleven Twenty Five Eleven: The boys get ready!!
Eleven Twenty Five Eleven: The girls get pretty!!
Eleven Twenty Five Eleven: We're ready for our close-up!
Eleven Twenty Five Eleven: We ceremoniously process!
Eleven Twenty Five Eleven: My turn!
Eleven Twenty Five Eleven: We get MARRIED!!!
Eleven Twenty Five Eleven: We get formal!
Eleven Twenty Five Eleven: Our model moment!
Eleven Twenty Five Eleven: Please welcome to the floor!

What a day

And it's just now coming to a close. The last awesome thing to happen today was my computer dying in front of me... But I'm being overly dramatic because that was the only bad thing to happen today. I suppose I'm also in a bad mood from being away from the man for a few days before our wedding, and he's busy with work and not happy about the tasks that he has left to do at home while I'm here at my parents, apparently eating bon bons and reading Redbook.

No, he didn't actually say that, and obvs, I have not been just eating bon bons and reading Redbook. Just like last night was text heavy, get ready to get photo-blasted:

Small taste of the stuff that I invaded my parents' garage with. This isn't everything either.

Hooray!!! Place cards!!

Say hello to my little friends! My awesome helpers sister Jordan and Mama who were so awesome today. We worked non-stop and without them, I'd be pulling an all-nighter on this one, and stuff wouldn't have turned out as nice:

Sister Jordan's aisle markers! And the milk jug and watering can above are my Mama's handy work.

Two extra sets of hands was pivotal in getting these babies packaged and labeled. Yes, I used a pineapple for scale, who doesn't?

I did some stuff too though... Plus:

Ta-da!! PVC pipe magically transformed into... something that doesn't look entirely like ugly PVC pipe. I'm sure once it's all said and done, the fabric strip backdrop will remain the focus anyway. Otherwise, we had a problem, we came up with a quick solution, hopefully this solution is... not a total disaster... Full mock-up tomorrow.

My Ma was instrumental in not letting me panic about what time we had left or how many things we had to do still. We got everything that needed to be done to take to the venue tomorrow done. The only tasks left are my personalized hanger, modifications to further prettify my hair flower, and maybe some more bunting. Couldn't have done it without her. Lastly, my pops was on hand too to offer emotional support, and when he wasn't there, I worked most of the day and night right next to this bad boy:

Boom... Yeah, I asked for something like a 3-4 foot picnic bench, I got a hope chest. I'm not complaining!! On the contrary! And my dad then immersed himself into finding just the right marker for guests to sign. He took this request so seriously, and for that, he makes me feel so special.

While I miss the man and could use his support, I'm pretty sure I'm in the right place right now. I'm sure Kyle would be telling me to relax and have a beer, my mom never told me 'Oh, you can put it off till tomorrow' but she's also not freaking out and her calm is keeping me calm. 2.5 days left, and it's crazy late, so I must get some beauty rest. We're taking all the non-perishables to Riverdale tomorrow so they can set stuff up for us on Friday, then I get to relax with a facial and mani/pedi. I have to say that I feel guilty about spending the money but THEE LAST thing I want right now is a freakout or a zit to... pop up :)

How was my fellow brides' last few days? Where did you draw your strength and calm from?

I'm the old lady!

I know it's torturous teasing, but I don't yet have photos of the little lizard that is our MOH/BM's first child but I can't not pester you with all the details! Gabriel Anderson (that's first and middle name) was born yesterday (November 9th :-( ) at 2:17 PM and weighed in at 6 pounds 12 ounces. Tiny little thing. Well, not too tiny. But I don't know his height yet, so... he could be short and adorably pudgy! We already planned a trip to see them this weekend, so you'll see for yourselves! I know they did a lot of cooking in preparation for baby but we think we're going to try to help with laundry and cleaning and taking care of their three cats and one dog. That is until they kick us out. I'm not dealin' with Mia's attitude if she gets no sleep ;)

Anywho, I'm starting to feel a little pressure about this whole 15 days left thing. No biggie, but two  more weeks until your wedding. Relax. Well, we haven't gotten all the RSVPs in, we haven't solidified our ceremony layout, we haven't created our support system for our alter, and we haven't finalized our music lists. On the positive side though, I'm still THIS CLOSE to finishing my knitting, hair and makeup is paid for and appointments are verified, and we met with our DJ last night (read: we had dinner with our friends Nick and Julie and happened to talk a little about music at our wedding). That may sound a little wishy-washy, but when Nick needs to get down to business, business gets taken care of quickly. It was a weight off my shoulders because he has all the equipment and speakers and info he needs now to get the job done. And we got to hang out with them, which was really nice because we haven't seen them in a long time. Most of our communiqué has been over e-mail and text messages.

ANYWAY, we're also set to go get our marriage license tomorrow morning, which will be another huge weight off my shoulders as it happens to be the most important (legally of course) part of being ready to get married! I am planning on inventorying our wedding room (pictures forthcoming, man will they be fun, I can't walk in that room anymore! I can barely enter it!) and taking stock, playing with what will go where, there will be excel spreadsheets involved. We're also hard at work on this:

When last I reported on our soon-to-be chalkboards, we had cut them in half and started sanding all the old paint off. It took a long time, lots of sandpaper, and possibly some lung health. This is what they finally looked like when all the old paint was gone:

Not sure why anyone would ever want to cover this up! So that's exactly what I did :) Well, not really, I just stained it, the grain still shows through:

It lightened up a little too as it dried. Tonight I'll paint the middle with the chalkboard paint! I can't wait to show it off!! By the way, I have to promote Minwax Gel Stain. It was awesome and so easy to work with, not drippy, even coverage, all-around fantastic. I'm not getting paid to say that, but if there are any other girls or non-crafty guys out there who want to have an easy time staining, I recommend starting out with this product, because it's incredibly user-friendly.

I got a little under one fingernail, but nail polish will hide that, BUT when I went to clean out my brush I wasn't thinking and got it all over my left hand (I had taken my ring off, thank GOD!) and started freaking out. MINERAL SPIRITS, PEOPLE!! Miracle-in-a-can is what I call it. Not a trace left on my skin... which is great because I didn't fancy having Kyle place my wedding band over my brown splotchy hand.

Anyway, I just turned 28 two minutes ago. Wow. And it's time to get back to work, because I'm taking a pretty significant chunk of time off for wedding prep and then honeymoon. How did my other married readers feel at the two week mark? Does it get better or worse? Any crafts anyone wants to share??

Foggy like the weather

This is what it looks like in Philadelphia right now:

(I swear, there's a whole city beyond that fog... It was worse an hour ago too, but I forgot to take a picture then)

I haven't posted in a few days because some discouraging things have been happening that made me not want to think about wedding for a few days.

DISCLAIMER: these things are going to seem silly once I spell them all out, please just keep in mind that they all happened in one day and were accompanied by an announcement by my boss that rocked our lab.

The bridesmaids cover-ups came in. These are the ones I ordered, remember?

This is what I got:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. First of all gross. Second of all... just no. The same day, the ties came in, oh, I don't think I ever shared the concept:

(Kyle will be wearing a burgundy tie and the groomsmen will be in light blue ties; the two middle ties are two different light blue ties from the same vendor that we were having trouble deciding between, and the cappuccino ties are for my Grampa and Dad)

Kyle ultimately felt that the lighter blue tie was too light so we ordered the slightly darker blue ties thinking they still looked pretty light. Well no, they came in and were way too dark. I mean, not navy, but blue blue, instead of light blue. So in one fell swoop I was faced with having to get new ties and new pashminas. We actually went out Friday afternoon (because Kyle took one look at me and grabbed his car keys) and got lighter blue ties, but the vendor who sold me the pashminas is not admitting either way that she sent me the wrong pashminas (they are clearly the color of the bottom of a hotel pool. C'mon, man!) or denying it but she won't send me replacements until I send her back the ones I have now.

Then I looked at my countdown clock and a string of expletives came unbidden to my lips. And now I can't remember how long it took to get them the first time... so I can't say whether or not there will be enough time to send me out the right ones. ALSO, what if I'm wrong? What if she writes me back and says 'Yeah, that's the light blue.'...... Come one now, I know different monitors can show different things, but that light blue in no way looks aqua... the pashminas I got most definitely are.

We are four days away from being two weeks away!!!! I'm starting to get a little unhappy because important things aren't done, like the marriage license and paying for the rest of the honeymoon, flowers, and cake (no worries, those checks are written and going out today!) and it's making me not able to focus on my crafts at all. I can't say I'm stressed, I'm not; just unhappy right now. I do not want to be this way two weeks before my wedding. Ha, people are not lying when they say it sneaks up on you.

Also, the old crap paint is not coming off the old door I found even with paint stripper. I think this will be OK though because the chalkboard paint should cover that up and if it looks a little bumpy, well that will just add to its character. I'm only mentioning it because it added to my not-so-great Friday. Then my boss told us all that he's moving to Baylor University next year... that's in Texas. Thankfully I should be a PhD safely out of UPenn by then, but it shocked us all nonetheless.

Lastly, I talked to my best friend last night:

Don't let the bloody orifices fool you, he's actually quite sweet.

He thinks he's a cool guy ;) I'm just kidding, he's definitely not this full of himself... but he does think he's funny... Maybe, just maybe, I can find a normal picture of him somewhere... no luck.

Meet Sean, we've been friends for 12 years now. He's the biggest goof ball you could ever be fortunate enough to know. He knows me better than any other non-family member in my life (Kyle's included in family). PLUS, his insane Lithuanian last name is the clue for most of my online passwords since no one can spell it. While I refer to Kyle as my best friend, and while I can talk to Kyle about everything and love Kyle with all my heart (in fact, one of the most bestest things about Kyle is that he's not threatened by my relationship with Sean, like so many other ex-boyfriends have been), Sean is my link to my teenage years... Yeah, I was stupid and kooky and ridiculous, but I still look fondly back on those years nonetheless. No one else from those days is still in my life, so it's a big deal to me. Also, I would have hated most of high school if Sean wasn't there. He stood by as a good friend through every dumb relationship and decision I made. He was better than every boyfriend I ever had in high school and college even though he and I were never actually anything official. He was there when I needed him, he was an excellent listener.

After high school, he spent a lot of time in dead end jobs, got into trouble a few times, ended up in rehab, got into trouble a few more times, and spent some more time in some more dead end jobs. I am by no means disclosing all that to say my best friend is a loser. He maintains the best attitude towards his situation of anyone I have ever met. He takes responsibility for his actions and accepts their consequences. He is slowly but surely rebuilding his life. For the first time in a long time, when I talked to him for a full hour and a half this weekend, he sounded wonderful and hopeful and funny again. We even spent a little time reminiscing about high school, which mostly just means "Remember that one time at lunch?" and then uncontrollable laughing.

The reason I say all this is because I felt like I wasn't there for him when he was going through some of his hard times. I wanted to be, but I always had excuses- legitimate or not- that made it difficult to reach him or hang out with him for long. I think it's because I always felt like, as his junior by two years, I had no right to scold him for his actions, but I also couldn't pretend he hadn't done something dumb. I feel blessed though that even when I don't see him for months, our conversations have never felt like we're drifting apart. I'm so grateful for that. But we're going on an alarming number of months now since seeing each other and I feel a little unbalanced. I need his irreverence in my life. It kills me that I can't hang out with him after school like I used to.

Why is all this bubbling to the surface now? Well, I feel like I don't know how he didn't make it into my wedding party. I'm sure it had something to do with keeping it traditional or the fact that he would look absolutely hideous in a burgundy ruffly dress. Whatever the reason, I've been racking my brain for about a year as to how to include him. And not as the person who has to track people down and force them to sign the guestbook or something. It has to be meaningful, because he still means so much to me.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Did anyone else go through a sort of unhappy funk? I think I'm at the stage where I'm ready for it to be here and then over but I need more time to get everything done. Can anyone relate?

Nervous anticipation and you

I mentioned the other day that I was none too happy about having to create a support system for my fabric backdrop but aside from that and the linen boredom and the unfortunate business with the makeup/hair ridiculousness, I'm anxiously excited for all the cool stuff that will be incorporated into our day!

There's arts and crafts time:

There's also homemade vanilla extract favors, personalized hangers, reception decoration (no pictures of that because I have no idea what I'm doing yet!), wine cork place card holders, knitting and any number of other projects I dreamt up at one point and will probably not get around to, but I'm not discouraged because if they're meant to be, it will only be more fun to make more cool things, and if they don't make it, we will still have a very special day.

I also have things to do with some of the stuff I bought at the Lancaster flower and craft warehouse, like getting wheat stalks, twigs, moss, etc... to put in the buckets, bowls, baskets... etc... I'm going to try to take stock of what I have this weekend chilling in the pink room so I have a good idea of what I need... How do you know what you need if you don't know what you got?

(I'm sorry, did I mention we have a spare bedroom in our house that's pink that we store wedding stuff in...? 'the pink room')

I just came upon these pictures that were hiding in one of my wedding folders:

and I love them all over again!! I had forgotten about them, but the chair arrangement is a rustic alternative to buying some sort of container for all the aisles as well as an alternative to hanging big gaudy ribbons or lots of flowers. I love the twigs and I was thinking to add wheat instead of the yellow flowers and one calla instead of the succulent. That will go perfectly with the lantern and wheat, which I'm gonna' figure out where to use... somewhere.

I'm going to also use the old crates I bought as alter decoration along with a few more lanterns and more burlap and candles, etc... It'll be awesome, I'm starting to see it in my head, and I'm getting so excited about seeing it come together.

There's also the tasks I've asked my relatives to help me with, like bird cake toppers, a guest bench, and a homemade garter:

I found really great fabric for the birds; music score on aged parchment cotton. Aunty K is currently pluggin' away at these!

My dad is working on this. I love the look of the white but that's not what we want, so we're going with a nice, rich natural wood color, just a little darker than a normal cherry stain.

Not like this necessarily, this is just one from etsy that caught my et-tention :)

This shop is pretty nice though... I really have no ideas though, not sure if I want something smooth like a single piece of satin ribbon or complex like lace. But I do know I don't want any tulle or white or generic.








Rehearsal dinner is coming up and I'm making deserts!!

Don't try to dissuade me! I've wanted to make these mason jar pies for a long time and I just saw the recipe yesterday for apple pie cookies so I think they would be a fantabulous addition to Thanksgiving/rehearsal party dinner. It would also make me feel like I was helping, and it would be one less thing we had to buy.

I'm going to try some eye looks this weekend. Now, disclaimer time: I know the first look is too over-the-top, this is just my inspiration... my starting point, and I'll be much more modest than that... maybe:

Obviously the first one is a bit overly dramatic but the tutorial was really well-done, the second is much more modest and wedding-appropriate but the colors are boring and the last one is my favorite, so I'm going to try and take the tutorial from the first one, use the restraint of the second one, but use the colors of the third one. Got it?? Good! I hope I get to this this weekend, if I do, pictures will shortly follow as long as I don't blind myself taking crazy zoomed in pictures of my eyes ;)

Also, found this cake... it was pink, I made it chocolate... is it bad that I'm now considering changing the cake design? Because I would love to have more ombre...

I know what you may be thinking... 'Can this girl AGAIN not just stick with one thing?!' I don't think I care this time. I e-mailed our baker and she had no problem with changing the design because she told us from the start that we can change anything we want up until 3 weeks before the wedding... I don't feel the slightest bit bad. I like this better than what we originally had. Simple as that. When she wrote me back, she included this picture... as if to say 'Pshaw, nothing simpler, look what I can do:'

And I was all like 'whoa! smack my ass and hand me to my mama if that ain't even better!' I didn't say that at all, but I do like Renee's better than the one I found, which, if you're following me, is awesome. Not only can she do ruffles, but they'll look even better than I had hoped.

Still have to get the final OK from the man, but I think this cake is more interesting and romantic and don't tell the man but it will correspond nicely with my dress, and since I never got my ombre underskirts, it's like living vicariously through my cake... which sounds amazing by the way.


So, with all that being said, this is where my to do list stands, I've taken out some things that were done months ago, so I guess that makes the list not as impressive, but you already know those things are done, it feels like cheating to keep them in there just to increase my %done quotient.

• Yarn orbs - up to 9 of 20 now
• Fabric backdrop supports (alter, entrance?)
• Shrug - only 3/4 done still but that's because I added more yarn!
• Trip to my aunt's farm for cool old rustic stuff
• Small burlap bunting
• Burlap table squares - even though I might not be able to use them :(
• Hangers
• Music list, solidify DJ - mine's done but still need Kyle's
• Hotel rooms night before and night of wedding - just got this settled!
• Rings - I just called and they're IN!! We can pick them up this weekend!!
• Suits - To my knowledge, all the groomsmen+my dad+my Grampa have their suits!
• Cork place card holders
• Makeup practice
• Vows - I re-wrote, and I think they're much better this time!
• Gifts - parents, attendants
• Dress alterations - Picking the dress up on Friday!!!
• Brideslovelies accessories - just picked shoes last night!!
• Chalkboards
• Bubbles/Bells/Sparklers ???
• Must figure out my part of the centerpieces and aisle decor (by this I mean the florist is providing wood slabs, moss, candles, flowers... obvs, but I have to figure out what I want to do with the wine bottles, as well as all the things I bought from the Lancaster flower and craft warehouse and make table name signs)

Loooooooootta stuff to do, but, as I said, I'm starting to see it come together, I'm excited about all the work that's gone into it, even if I'm nervous about it all physically coming together and working. In the end, I have to remember that it's OK if They don't want to put my wedding on the cover of Weddings That Are Awesome magazine. Once I came to grips with that, I started having fun again, so I am soooooo glad it's Friday!

How's everyone else's to do list? Feeling stressed or excited??