Have you met my attention span??

This is a story about blah blah blah...

I was looking through Mia's wedding gallery again and came to the pictures of the speeches and realized I don't remember a single word of either of them... except when Mia's maid of honor said "I've known Mia for 14 years." This must have been mind-boggling enough to make me forget the best man's speech and then stroke out for the rest of the maid of honor's speech... so I continued through the pictures and I think I'm seeing a pattern:

This picture says "I don't care that you're pregnant Mia, I choose not to see your longing stare. I need to get my drink on!"

I'm totally kidding, I was not trashed the entire night! I am a professional!

helicopters???

parp??

(emily's laughing)

SCRATCH-OFFS!!!!!!!!!!!!

boobies!!

sneaky sneaky sir... look at me with my serious face on!

I'm totally kidding by the way, no one could hear her so I pushed the microphone closer to her mouth... get your minds out of the gutter!!

I can't tell you what I'm looking at right here, but it's not anything that exists on your plane of existence.

... it's imaginary and most likely magical!

I wish I had blatant falling asleep or drifting off pictures to show you... 'cause those are always laugh out loud, but I've gotten so good at looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in order to not get in trouble for not paying attention, but trust me, I'm not paying attention right now...


I just caught a magical caterpillar!

HEY!! Hey hey hey... this is serious business... let's get pissed!!

Point is I'm thinkin' of scrapping speeches. My maid of honor might not be there and I can only imagine what she'd say about me anyway. Truth is, we haven't known each other for 14 years. Now, that being said, I don't know the format of a maid of honor speech because I've never heard one. All I know about them is that they have to start by telling everyone how long you've known the bride. The longer you've known her, the more crabcakes you get.

Also, I think there's got to be some sort of "I've seen her in her birthday suit" requirement as well... I could be mistaken.

Is it just me, or do speeches take away from drinky/dancey time?? All I remember is that at Mia's wedding, I wasn't allowed to drink my Verdi or steal Kyle's until the speeches were over! What's up with that?? Kyle's known Dan even less time than Mia and I have known each other so he gets, like, no crabcakes, and I'm almost positive he's never seen Kyle naked... hopefully they're not reading this, because they'll remedy that.

This is how it'll go:

Mia: "I've known Ashley for... I dunno', like, 7 years or something..."

Random audience member: "Only seven?! Take away some of her crabcakes."

Mia: "... Hey! Remember that one time--"

Ashley: "OK, stop talking."

(Just kidding, Mama :))

Anyway, this is how Dan's speech will go:

Dan: "Whooooo, how 'bout that bachelor party!!!"

Kyle: "Whooooo!!!!!"

Dan: "Whoo!!! How 'bout that time you helped me finish my basement and we had to sand drywall all day!!!"

Kyle: "Whoo hoo! Yeah that sucked!!"

Dan: "Whoo!!! Yeah!!"

Kyle: "Whoooo hooo!!!!!"

I may be undervaluing their powers of speech, but the moral of the story goes something like this; Mia is the callous one, I'm emotional. Dan is the emotional one, Kyle is callous. To compensate, Dan just jokes about guy things, and I try to crack jokes whenever Mia starts talking in case she gets serious or says something embarrassing and/or callous.

Also, if Mia is in labor as the wedding is going on, neither will be there, so why don't we just go ahead and assume that speeches don't need to be made?! Less talky more dancey!!! It's also less formal; let's eat, drink, and then hopefully the music will start playing as if by magic! This way, everyone can drink when they want to, AND my personal favorite, no one, and I mean NO ONE gets in trouble for walking across the ballroom at some unknown taboo moment, ruining everything! I hope you're not expecting me not to walk across the floor at thee "wrong" moment... Because I'll have no idea what's going on.

Walk wherever you want, whenever you want. It's a free wedding. And that's all I have to say about that.

Is anyone else trying to let go of some of their control freak? Especially if they realize that no one's perfect? Not even the bride??

Detail Oriented

So here we are, on this lovely Friday the 13th (nothing bad has happened to me today... in fact, I think my parents' first date was on a Friday the 13th, or the proposal date or something, always a good luck day to me :)) and we're about 6.5 months out and so I don't think it's too early to start thinking about details. I went shopping with my mama a few weeks ago and we found all sorts of cool stuff and so it made me start thinking about details...

Aisle decoration... Alter decoration... Reception entrance decoration... Cocktail hour decorations... Gift table decorations... So just for fun, here's some more stuff I took pictures of during our shopping trip:

So, I mentioned these on each table, next to the candle glasses and wine bottle on a wood slab... I haven't decided what to put in them, but the good thing is, it would only have to be minimal... but there are other possibilities:

Little milk pitchers!! Little watering cans!!! Oh, and see the bottom shelf of the bottom picture? Half buckets! Half buckets that will hang on doorknobs or aisle chairs and hold haphazardly arranged flowers. I also have to justify though where my love of watering cans comes from... although I probably don't have to; how many of us have driven by a farmhouse porch and seen this:

There are plenty more to be had, just do a google search. It's country, but it's adorable. And the thought is that if we do a large watering can with flowers at the reception entrance or at the gift table, then it would tie in to small watering cans on each table.

But is it watering can overload??

Especially when you consider that I want these at the alter:

So yeah, I don't want to go overboard on the tin Amish novelties. Although they are wonderful.

From my own mental wanderings, I think I've concluded that there doesn't need to be "tie-ins" per se: If I love the watering can, how about one or two watering cans, serving only one purpose, like sitting on the gift table, and then just two milk jugs, on either side of the alter, and then the milk glasses on each table? For the cocktail hour, how about a LITTLE of everything... huge emphasis on the little? This way I can bring in those adorable milk pitchers, have a few more milk glasses, utilize extra wine bottles, add more light with more candles, even throw in a lantern or two??? maybe????

I like the idea of the cocktail hour being a little more schizo. I can do whatever I want basically, and by whatever I want, I don't actually mean go crazy, I just mean incorporating things I don't know how to incorporate anywhere else! Basically, what I'm saying is that I'm going to buy all the stuff I like and if it doesn't fit anywhere else, oh, it'll fit in the cocktail hour :)

This is just a small taste of the detail stuff that's rattling around in my brain. We still need to talk about jewelry, hair accessories, hair and make-up, alterations, stamps, envelope addressing... ummmm, there's more, I know it (this is the part I love, a normal person would be frantic right now... I'm searching... begging... craving for more stuff to think about!!)

I ordered our custom seal! Here it is:

It's the same font as in our invitations!! I cannot WAIT for it to get here!! I can't wait to start sealing stuff!!!

Is anyone else freaked out about the whole 'J isn't my last initial yet' thing? Because I heard it was not good to get a monogram or refer to yourself in any way as Mrs. So-and-so before you actually are... someone tell me I did not make a boo boo...

And was anyone else really really excited about contemplating all the little details for their big day? Or was this the scary part?

Papermess

Well, we have a little over six months to go. I'm a little shocked at how fast it's gone by in hindsight. Although, we do still have six months, so, it's not there yet. I cannot tell you how excited I am... already!

Sorry, that was very sappy... I am getting giddy though, but that's just how I am about pretty much anything. I'm feeling really confident that all the details that people usually freak out about are going to be just fine for us because I think we really do get what's important. The only nervousness we're actually experiencing is whether or not our best man and maid of honor are going to be there...

But anywho, this is a post about paper! Why? because it's one of the only things I really sort of flubbed along the way. Remember when I showed the mock-up for the invitations?

Well, here's the mix-up, and it's not even that big a deal, but just full of unnecessary headaches: The paper.

From the beginning, I saw a post on Weddingbee from someone who had used Gmund papers:

They had paper that looked like wood, how cool?!

Well, I didn't need paper that looked like wood, but the cool factor and the modern feel of the website (and the fact that I hadn't looked anywhere else...) made me keep looking around their website until I found this paper they called Stroh (means straw... original):

I wanted something that looked sort of like homemade paper. I wanted something with flecks of stuff in it, and I wanted off-white or cream. Perfect. Ordered some samples, free of charge. Was very happy.

In the meantime, I had to start on my Save the Dates but couldn't commit to Gmund just yet; see, I am a firm believer that the little things totally add up. I mean, they do, so you can't convince me otherwise. Who was to say that if I bought the paper from Gmund, some emergency wasn't going to come up later on that month and make me have to dip into my savings?! You don't know!

Point is, I hesitated, and in the meantime, bought $12 paper from OfficeDepot :)

Save the dates are made on slightly different paper but I figure I'm being a little over-... [insert word here; I'm sure you can think of one] and I'm sure it's going to be fine and no one will probably even notice.

Of course it all went south from there. I decided to order my paper through Gmund for the real deal: the invitations. It was only about $50 for a ream of 165 sheets. Not bad for really high quality paper, right?

Well, they make up for it by charging just as much for shipping! Even though it has to go overseas, it became a matter of principle that I would not buy something that cost as much to ship as it cost, itself. Moreover, I was happy to spend $50 on the paper, this still made the invitations fairly inexpensive (less than ordering of course), but now we were talking about $100, just for the paper, and I still haven't bought the other supplies. I started to panic, because when you google for paper nowadays, it ain't pretty.

Well, I can't even remember to tell you where I stumbled upon my latest discovery... Really, I can't remember. I think I had just about resigned myself to paying double for the Gmund paper because it was the stuff I wanted when I randomly came across a company called Under the Sun. I held my breath and looked up their natural, printable papers and then I fell off the sofa:

Check it! It looks like linen or, more accurately, like a screen that you would make homemade paper on! And it's super thick and it has the flecks of straw or whatever else stuck in it. Most importantly, it's darker than the Gmund paper. I was never really happy with the lightness of the Gmund paper, but since it was as good as anything else I had seen thus far, I was willing to accept it as good enough... Again, who was going to call me up and say "We're not coming to your wedding because your invitation color was too white and we wanted more of a cream."

Well, if anyone was going to do that, you don't need to anymore, because I found true cream paper.

So... I ordered it, like, immediately. Before I even knew I was doing it. This was the paper I had wanted from the start but had not found until it was almost too late. It cost less than the Gmund paper even though it's thicker AND shipping this time was only about $10. Major score. So it came this weekend. It. Is. AWE. SOME!! It's perfect, it's thick, it's a rich cream color, it's got all sorts of little grasses and straw and whatever else stuck in there. Most importantly, it actually looks homemade. It really does look raw and... homemade! Sorry for the broken record-ness but I am just still stunned that I finally found my paper!

So did I paint an accurate picture of my headaches? First I found a paper, then I looked for something cheaper, used said cheap paper for Save the Dates, resigned myself to buying original, expensive paper, then found my paper soulmate! It does exist, people!!

Kyle's printer is a fantastic laser printer so at this time (emphasis on the at this time) I am not worried about bleeding ink. I think the paper is sturdy enough anyway, but I will keep you posted as far as whether or not this paper really is the best paper in the whole world. I am finally going to take charge and start calling grandmas to get addresses and then Save the Dates go out... like BEFORE the six month mark. Once they go out, I want to start on the invitations so I'm not in a time crunch a few months down the line. I know, I'm not dramatic enough. I'm trying to make my life difficult so it will be better for blogging, but I just love love LOVE planning ahead!

Anyone else have any great invitation or paper stories? Do you think I'm crazy yet??

P.S. Cake artist papers filled out but not sent, so can't really say we have our baker... but she's got our date reserved for us, so there's only this small little legal distinction separating "our baker" from "our soon-to-be-baker".

Belated

heeheeheeheehee

Happy Mother's Day and I promise this is the last Bridesmaids related post :-P

BUT I'M STILL SO EXCITED!!!

Bridesmaids

No, not like, my bridesmaids, THESE bridesmaids!

EeeeeeeEEEeeeeee!!!! What a great time to be a bridesmaid! If I was Mya Rudolph, I'd be super pissed I was just... the dumb bride:

I'd much rather be...

Ha! Or perhaps:

But Mia takes the cake for this one

Then there's Keri:

And of course, I can't forget sister Jordan:

Heeheehee

I cannot even express how excited I am about this movie. I've always been one of the guys as far as my humor goes, but now I'll actually get to indulge in guy humor of the female persuasion!

This movie is said to be The Hangover for women! Now, some people didn't like The Hangover, or for that matter Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, or The 40-Year-Old Virgin, or Forgetting Sarah Marshall, or Pineapple Express, or Stepbrothers, or Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, or Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, or Heavy Weights (yeah, Heavy Weights, look it up!)... in which case, you and I wouldn't get along too well. But if you do like any of those movies, and hopefully you're one of my bridesmaids or my mom (c'mon Mama!), then we need to go see this movie together. It's too coincidental not to!

So here's the deal, my sister has been in Germany "studying" abroad all semester but she's coming back very soon, like in a week or something and although Keri just got her PhD (whoo hoo!!!) and moved in with her boyfriend in Boston, she has to come back to Penn to hand in her final copy of her thesis. Mia lives close by and is not out of the country... sooooooo...

When Jordan gets home from Germany and Keri comes back to hand in her thesis and when Mia can get off her lazy butt (alcoholic ;-P) let's all meet and try on bridesmaid dresses and then go see Bridesmaids!!!!!

Is anyone else who is a soon-to-be bride or bridesmaid right now super excited?? Or is it just me??

Update with pictures that finally e-mailed themselves

As promised, here are pictures of the dresses I tried on at DB:

 

Please excuse my bosoms which I am told appear rather large in the red dress. Well, regardless, it was very comfy and I really like the neckline. It looks kinda' like it bubbles at the bottom but it doesn't, I think I was moving around right before the picture was snapped, and the awkward hand positioning in the black dress is because I was just pulling my hands out of the pockets. The pockets gave the dress a weird shape that was wholly unflattering on me, but on someone with hips or a waist, it might work just fine. Besides, the version that comes in the correct color does not have pockets but still has the v-neck. Does that make sense?

I tried on a few more but did not like them, so I am only showing the cotton ones.

Bridesmaid Keri already said she likes the red design, and I just got word that sister bridesmaid Jordan also likes the red design one. Funny right! If you want to choose the same one, I'm totally OK with that, I would recommend trying on all four (if DB has all four at whatever store is near) and deciding which one you like best on you!

I wanted to also post one picture of the antique milk bottles we found at the Amish craft warehouse because the random google image search pictures don't do them justice:

I love that cracked look! I think they will make really sweet additions to the tables and possibly to a gift table or cake table.

Well, back to work, I just wanted to post those dress pictures.

Hodge Podge

Soooo so sorry it's been so long, but you would not believe how crazy busy I have been! And how panicky I am getting right now:

Yeah, I'm trying not to, but the thing is, it has nothing to do with wedding stuff. It's work!

I am taking part in two collaborations right now and of course I have to finish my own project and taking most of the week two weeks ago for Mia's wedding and then two days off last week to spend time with my mom in Amish country has made me feel just for the time being that I'm behind. We are fast approaching the six month mark...

This may mean nothing to most of you, you might be saying, 'umm, six months is a good chunk of time' so let me explain quickly: in grad school, or at least, in mine, you ask for permission to write your thesis from your lovely thesis committee:

(Just kidding!) and then you have six months to write and defend your thesis. You can only ask for permission if you are going to be ready to defend your thesis in six months. Now, for some people, six months is a mountain of time, but I am not a fast writer, so it will probably take me a couple months to write a 50-100 page thesis (I know, that sounds crazy, but most of it is your own already-published papers). I don't know if it will take me six months, but I would rather finish writing in plenty of time rather than end up not leaving myself enough time.

I promised myself and told everyone else that I would have my PhD before the wedding. I need to ask permission in three weeks... they want me to write a paper first. In order to write a paper, I have a few more experiments to do... it will take me a few weeks to do said experiments... it will take me a few more weeks to write a paper...

I need to start thinking about accepting the possibility of not having my PhD by the wedding... The thing that sucks too is that when I say this to people they're like 'Oh, but you'll get it done, right?' And I have to say 'Umm, maybe not.'

It's like a knife in my side, and it makes me just want to quit.

Yeah, I'm this close to slamming that button. Anyway, so this is why I haven't been writing, I've been a little overwhelmed, as a result, nothing has gotten done. I've found that when I place deadlines upon myself, they never get met, almost like I try and act as my own cheerleader and the other side of me-- you know, the mean skater chick that hides out behind the school smoking cigarettes with her dark eyeliner and her ratty jeans-- pushes the cheerleader down and steps on her face. I know, graphic, but the point is I'm constantly degrading my cheerier side, telling it there's no way these deadlines are going to get met, so just shut up and stop bouncing around; what's there to be happy about??

I know, I know, depressing. I can still get the experiments done and start working on the paper and be close to the six month mark, close is good enough; most of the other students I've spoken with said it took them about two months to write their thesis, even if I say it'll take me double the time, I've got time to finish my experiments, my collaborations, my paper writing, and my thesis in the next six months... hopefully. In the mean time, I am coming to grips with the fact that if I do not have my PhD by the wedding, it isn't the end of the world.

(That's a happy-go-lucky thumbs up, but also ties into the whole "Don't Panic" Hitchiker's Guide the Galaxy theme... get it?)

Anyway, one place I'm not panicking... the wedding!! I'm surprisingly nonchalant about it thus far. Save the Dates are done and [mostly] addressed (!!) but I am waiting on addresses from Kyle's dad... I've actually been waiting a good long while and he seems to have just forgotten, but I'm not too stressed. I wanted to get them out about a month ago, but I don't think it's the end of the world nonetheless. I am only waiting on a few more addresses, and I think I might just go over Kyle's dad's head and ask Kyle's grandma, that oughta' teach 'im!

Anywho! We did other exciting stuff too!! Kyle and I went shopping for suits, and found... nothing, all the spring and summer colors are out right now, so there were no chocolate browns... I'm not joking, we found one from Jos. A Bank and it wasn't even the actual shade of chocolate brown I was looking for (but would have been ok if it was literally my only option... that's why I mention it). It was disappointing but we did get to talk about what we really want and see what prices are going to be like, etc... so it wasn't so bad. Kyle didn't try any on because he felt that he couldn't get the right effect if the color wasn't right. So he literally refused to try any on... It was cute:

Yup, he looked just like that. Anyway, pictures from Mia's wedding are posted:

Fairly certain I do not have permission to post that, but I'm going to buy it anyway, so as they say in the wedding world: it's a lot easier to apologize than to ask for permission. Anyway, the link to the website with all the pictures is totally open, not password protected or anything.

I kind of came to a resolution too about hair because while I recognize that my hair looked nice, I don't like it, and it does look kinda' boring... But I'm still not making any promises about how it'll be for the wedding. We'll still have to do some trials and whatnot.

We're so sweet.

Anyway, then I visited my mama and we went looking at bridesmaid dresses. Surprisingly, my favorites were from David's Bridal. Can you believe it?? This was because DB has a couple dresses in a fabric I didn't know existed in Bridesmaidsland...

Cotton:

TA DA!!

Now, I know what you may be thinking, because looking through their website, I was all like "It all looks shiny and gross to me!" They didn't in person!! They were like, nice cotton dresses in person, a little sheen to them, but otherwise, just normal cotton dresses, no frills, no bells or whistles; truly a bridesmaid dress that can't be hideous even if it wanted to.

I tried on the v-neck and the twisted v-neck one (pictures are on my phone, but for some reason I tried e-mailing them to myself and it's not going through) and liked the feel and breathability and comfort of both. I really liked the twisted v-neck... I mean, this might sound like I'm reaching, but if it had a nice print/pattern, I honestly would wear that to a wedding or cocktail party... like as a guest... as in no one would have to force me to wear it. The v-neck I did not like as much, but still loved how it was comfortable and normal, no chiffon, no satin.

Now, I know what else you might be thinking: 'I thought she wanted a similar fabric to her wedding gown!' Well, on my gown, the material is probably a little higher quality than on the bridesmaid dresses, as such, a similar fabric on a bridesmaid dress is not the look I am going for anymore. I like this cotton a lot. I really like the more laid back comfortable feel it will put across, and hopefully my bridesmaids will appreciate that too. That being said, did you notice that there are four?! There are also a few long versions... I think, I'll have to check, but for the time being, if you girls want long, go for it, but otherwise, I give you leave to pick a favorite, let me know what you think! That goes for everyone!!

My mom and I then went Amish country shopping. Eeeee!! I love love love Amish country. It was cold on this particular day and I didn't have a jacket, but I still enjoyed myself immensely. We went to a huge silk flower and craft warehouse that had all sorts of cute Amish stuff. And it didn't have the feel of mass production, even though some of the stuff was technically mass produced.

There were antiqued Amish milk jugs:

My mom and I threw around the idea of using them to hold flowers at the alter.

We brainstormed that you could put flowers in a watering can and set that at the gift table/guest bench area.

And antique milk glasses for every table. It will give a nice contrast to the candles glasses and wine bottle; all that glass.

Lastly, we found some great baskets for cards and for holding programs. I didn't take pictures of them, but they kind of look like this:

Except with chicken wire! They were adorable. We bought them :)

Last but not least ya'll, we went cake tasting!!

We went to Bella Manse to see Renee. She was very sweet and totally accommodating.

Her cake was moist and flavorful but not too crumbly or anything like that. Her buttercream was AWE SOME! and she let us try her chocolate fondant which tasted like tootsie rolls! She's big into fruit fillings which Kyle liked because he said it was more sophisticated or something which I had to laugh at because I wanted peanut butter and chocolate ALL THE WAY!! Needless to say, we haven't decided on flavors ;)

We did decide, however, that we do not need to go any further. So as soon as we figure out our flavors and send her the paperwork, we'll have a cake artist!!!!!

The style we collectively decided on was one I had already shown you:

No pleats, no flowers (well, not like that at least, we haven't decided exactly how we want to dress it up), no alternating light and dark chocolate, but with the short then tall tiers theme. I didn't even bring up asymmetric because I sort of figured that asymmetric is best if all the tiers are the same height, and I really really wanted the different height tiers. We decided on a lighter chocolate for the layers but then to have a dark chocolate band across the bottom just like the top and third tier of this cake here.

So that's basically it! It was a painless procedure. The only part that gave me any distress was when I turned to Kyle and said "I was planning on leaving the round versus square decision up to you." To which he replied "I'm kinda' partial to square." But after seeing this picture and then talking with Renee, he said something to the effect of "I think that design will only work with round." Now, I know that as a man, and a manly man at that, he doesn't really care, but I do feel bad that he admitted to being partial to square and then very easily let us talk him out of it (or talk himself out of it, whichever; doesn't make it better). But... I'm kinda' grasping at straws here, it was 99.998% painless. Good enough for me!

So, whew, that was a lot of stuff. And truly, a lot of stuff has happened, but my posting might be like this for awhile here, nothing nothing nothing and then BAM!!! huge blog vomit. Please bare with me, I have to work work work, and when I get time, I still love keeping my blog updated.

How is everyone else doing???