School spirit, yes we do, or something along those lines.
Kirk and I are both IU grads. Since we're getting married on campus, it feels prudent, nay necessary, to tip our proverbial hats to our alma mater. I just don't know when or how!
There are three school songs: two fight songs and "Hail to Old IU," the song that makes me cry my eyes out for the glory days of Mother Bears pizza and Ballantine Hall.
My original idea was to have a mini pep rally at some point after the ceremony, since many of the guests are IU grads too. My problem of course is timing. Is this best suited for cocktail hour (we'll be able to make the second half of it) or some point during the reception? Should the DJ play a recording or should I conspire with the IU grads to burst out with an a cappella version? Opinions are requested on when and how!
I've been hush hush about rings since my slight meltdown over the Dior ring. I mourned it and moved on with a little help from a small jeweler out of Philly, Bario-Neal.
They use recycled metals in their rings, have pretty affordable prices, and Kirk and I could get matching rings. Yay. I ended up with the Milla thin band in white gold and Kirk got the Milla round. Best of all, Bario-Neal shipped the rings in adorable glass bottles!
The rings took about six weeks to arrive and we definitely cut it close (they came yesterday!), but the rings are gorgeous. Happily, both rings combined cost less than the Dior ring.
Which of your wedding disappointments had a silver lining?
I've started an impromptu list, not of DIY projects or wedding day time lines, but things I want to do after the wedding. Part of it is to cope with post-wedding planning blues, but mostly I want a life again.
So I present to you the highlights of my "After the Wedding Resolutions."
1. Start getting weekly polish changes and monthly pedicures. Totally selfish and wonderful.
2. See plays, musicals, and ballets more. We went to only one this past year. Fail.
3. Take dance classes.
4. Every other weekend, do a museum or otherwise historic thing in or around DC. I've lived here for 2 years and still haven't done everything. That must change.
5. Buy records.
6. Volunteer.
7. Get a Sunday newspaper subscription.
8. Reinstate date night. Date night has disappeared for us. It's morphed into Kirk watching Dr. Who while I work on the computer/cut stuff out/glue crap/etc and half watch the vampiric fish people. I want to go to movies again, eat popcorn and Sour Patch Kids, hold hands, nuzzle on the way out, argue about the movie, get ice cream, and then metro home in that blissed out hazy state of being too full of sodium and sugar.
9. Re-watch BSG from beginning to end again. I am a nerd.
10. Read again. I've been reading exclusively issues of Poetry, mostly because they're a handy size for the bathroom...
The fun/tedious part of planning is the evolution of ideas. At one point I thought I had a clear idea for a ceremony program and then I fell victim to second-guessing. The cover was changed, more information was added, and did I mention I only got these printed today? Oh yes that happened.
I had these printed on text weight paper, i.e. crap. I had big ideas about tying them with a black grosgrain ribbon, yadda yadda, but that felt silly when it was basically photo copier paper. Instead, I busted out the twine.
The lesson here is if you're smarter than me, you print the cover page with a light cardstock and then the interior pages with text weight paper. It gives the programs a lot more heft. Learn from my mistakes.
Did you reinvent the program wheel or stick to the basics?
All of the flowers are going to be roses and peonies. So while for the most part that means a ton of fluffy goodness, it can also be concerning. For evidence, see above.
My beef with rose bouts is this: they remind me of high school dances, where every single date of mine had the same tight rosebud bout. I also don't love how far it sits away from the lapel. I'd like to avoid this.
Those aren't roses, they're dahlias, but they sure are awesome. Note how the flowers lay flat across the lapel and while they're large, they're a quirky large, not "I'm a giant bud" large.
So I think at this point, a rose is not the ideal flower bout for me. But peonies are a little delicate and I assume they would not hold up as a bout either. Do you have any last minute suggestions for a flower available in June that'd be flat and big and lovely?
I've reached the point in planning where there is no such luxury as shopping around. There are things on my list and I either buy them or strike them. The garter was something I put off and put off some more for months. We won't be doing a toss, so it never seemed urgent or required, but recently I just felt it was something I wanted. Being four-ish weeks out from the wedding, I had to make it happen now!
A big shocker here: I got mine from Etsy. I bought from JLWeddings, who makes some very sweet, delicate garters for an affordable price, like mine for instance!
Almost two weeks ago I started a new workout routine that I sort of believe in. That's pretty much the best endorsement exercise can get from me.
I read Gwyneth Paltrow's newsletter, GOOP, for the lols. Usually she's talking about the $900 boots you need for fall or her new diet that consists entirely of kale juice. But the other week she had a video created by her trainer, Tracy Anderson, that really intrigued me. To view it, click here.
Why do we care about Gwyneth "goop" Paltrow's workout? Because these are her legs:
Now that we're on the same page, I liked this workout for two reasons: it doesn't require any equipment, so I don't have to drag myself all the way down the hall to the gym. Secondly, as someone who took ballet all the way through college, her moves come very naturally to me. Nothing feels awkward or stilted like a lot of other exercise videos out there.
The first time I did the mat workout I was ready to die. My butt was sore to sit on. The GOOP newsletter mentioned doing dance cardio after the mat workout, but being an intrepid internet denizen, I managed to find a meager replacement, for free of course.
Apparently Miss Tracy is a promoter of dancing on a treadmill. If you have a giant house or a park nearby (and a lot of self-confidence), you can of course do all of these without a treadmill. But I lurve it. Skipping on a treadmill is so hard, I use running as a break from it.
Though the weight loss has been limited to a pound or two, I've noticed the lovely sore feeling in my butt all week and my arms look a little more defined. These are things I like. The only major drawback is you're expected to do these 6 times a week, which is pretty time consuming. I made it five days last week and twice this week, in addition to being totally incapable of doing her cardio for 45 minutes straight, so my results are on the wimpy side, I assume.
Here's a doozy: my mom took me lingerie shopping. Not that I'm exactly into the sexed up stuff that would really embarrass me, but it was still a little strange picking out thongs with my mom.
To keep the experience light and not make my mom think I was a dominatrix, we stayed classy at Bloomingdale's. For some reason they were passing out champagne, which certainly helped along the whole experience. Our list was brief: one robe or cover-up and a bra and panty set for some unknown purpose on the honeymoon. Off topic: does your mom play dumb when there's any mention of sex, whether it's on TV or someone in person makes a reference? Because my mom does and it's the funniest crap. I digress.
My mom picked out the robe, a sweet 70s throwback in chiffon.
You can't tell from this picture, but there are bitsy glitter dots all over it, making it less of a snoozefest.
My mom was so very generous with the lingerie gifts, but my honeymoon bedtime wardrobe wasn't complete. I'm a big time believer in the romper, so I snatched one up from Target.
To top it all off, I dug through my underwear drawer and found all of the lingerie I've been too lazy to wear. Yes, I am too lazy to wear pretty underthings. I've promised myself that I will only pack those pieces in the honeymoon bag. Well, except for one or two pairs of cotton briefs for the plane ride and hiking day!
How have you handled your honeymoon lingerie? Any awkward familial involvement?
Some time ago, I talked about my wedding day jewelry: a rhinestone hair doodad and earrings. It took me a while to be able to actually decide between the two earring contenders due to the fact my left ear piercing closed and I had to get it re-pierced!
Last weekend marked the point at which I could take out the tyke earrings. I jumped in front of the mirror to try on both pairs of earrings and I was completely wowed by the studs. Enormous and sparkly, I felt like an ex-wife of Donald Trump, in a good way. But even with big first wife earrings, I felt a little bare, so I went out and bought a bracelet on sale. It is perfection. I have a funny neurosis about wearing earrings and a necklace together, don't ask.
Of course, the wedding get-up isn't complete without perfume. I bought a small bottle of Miss Dior Cherie just for the wedding and honeymoon. The plan is to wear it on anniversaries and other special events, but we'll see how that shakes out!
Was finding your wedding day accessories a lengthy process?
Quite a while ago I said my bridesmaids would be getting their dresses made by a seamstress local to Indiana. Well, I actually have an update and I call it: Slopcity!
Before I get into that, I'll just explain the process we've gone through. We contacted a seamstress in the winter and she gave us a slot for March to begin sewing the dresses. My mom helped source fabrics by sending me various swatches of green silk and taffeta. We also consulted patterns that had similar skirt fullness to the designs we chose to figure out the needed yardage. We ended up buying 10 yards of emerald green taffeta, at a price of $5/yard.
A few weeks ago I went to Indiana for my shower, so we stopped in at the seamstress's to see the dresses. Bridesmaid M had already been in for a fitting before, but Bridesmaid T's dress was being made entirely from her provided measurements.
Now I finally understood why dress fittings were so traumatic for many women. My own wedding dress was close to my size, so I never had to deal with a too-big dress that looked shapeless and sad and depressing. The dress I tried on for Bridesmaid T though, who is close to me in size, was all of those things. I could see that it looked like the design we chose, but it was just enormous and baggy, hence, Slopcity. Fortunately she'll be able to come in before the wedding to get it properly fitted.
So I begrudgingly offer a photo of the bridesmaid dresses in a very in-between stage. Bridesmaid M's dress is also too big, as you can see. We departed from the original design a bit to provide wider straps and more boob coverage.
When it came time to buy gifts for my bridesmaids, I really wanted to get them something lasting, like jewelry. But the more I looked and the more I thought about what I consider "lasting," I realized I was probably going to fail. There are very few pieces of jewelry I would consider classic for my personal style. So I felt way too pressured to find something perfect for their personalities.
If by some off chance either of my bridesmaids are reading, move along!
I liked the big tissue balls from a past MSW issue, but I wanted to do something different. I didn't document the whole process because I'm bad, but I bought the following materials:
20 yards of ribbons in various colors, plus a "mega-roll" of low quality wide ribbon from Michael's
3 embroidery hoops
twine
With a hot glue gun, I glued ribbons to the inner hoop of the embroidery hoops. Here's how they've turned out:
The idea is they'll hang at different heights and the last one will be solid light pink. It was really easy and fast, probably one of the most satisfying DIY projects I've done yet.
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