why yes officer I have my registry

the ever-coveted mixers

Kirk and I finished picking out the registry items by the time we sent out the save the dates, which has its pros and cons. One problem with registering early: our dishes and cordial glass designs at Crate and Barrel have been discontinued. They're available online still, but in limited quantities and I have no idea if people will buy them. I'm almost convinced I should just buy those myself, in case they run out! Suffice it to say, you run the risk of discontinued items when you're a little overeager about registering.

On the other hand, it was nice to work on the registry in chunks at my leisure. I looked at knives one day and bedding the next. I wasn't rushed to finish picking things out for an impending shower, so I really mulled over all the choices. Pros and cons, people!

Even though I had so much time, I was still stressed about one thing: price points. I'm from a very middle class Midwest background. The real or imagined threat of registering for an item that was "too much" was eating away at me. I don't want to look greedy but I also want things I'll use and like.

So I settled on this strategy: balance. I picked out a few high quality and essential items, like pots and pans, and then balanced the rest of the list with more affordable things. We went with the assumption that most people will want to spend about $50, some more, some less. So we populated the list with a lot of things that either as a set or alone cost about $50 and then peppered stuff in the price gaps. I even got my Midwestern mom's approval on the prices, so I think I did okay.

Did you have any strategies when you registered?

I'm not dead

Just trying to finish these freaking invitations.

I'll do a full recap of them once I finish, but seriously: DIYing invites is a terrible, terrible thing. I have to go finish re-cutting envelopes liners because mine are crooked.

Shoot me.

sash wars

I just had my second fitting today, which means it's time for sash wars. Or, which is better, organza or grosgrain?

If I do choose the organza, we'll cut down the width by two or three inches -- so those tails won't be quite as wide.

Which do you prefer?

countdown anxiety

This is a crap post. Sorry.

I'm in the middle of finishing my invitations, which means all other wedding projects are on hold until they're sent out. It seems like March zoomed by and I have accomplished zero things.

So I get anxious. I worry. We have no wedding bands, no first dance, an un-finished cake topper, programs, menus, and table numbers to print, neck ties to order, and no flower containers. I still think my reception space is kind of ugly. I need to find a vintage tablecloth for the chuppah. We need to order chairs for the ceremony. Details that make my stomach churn.


I want it all to go away. Please. And then magically appear in June.

press the button: the highs and lows of square envelopes

When I decided over a year ago that I wanted square invitations, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I didn't know they'd cost more to mail and I sure as hell didn't know I would battle my printer for hours trying to print addresses onto them.

the dream

Let's backtrack, though. I've held hand-written envelopes in high esteem ever since I started wedding planning. But very recently, the reality of bad handwriting being anywhere near my lovely invitations started gnawing at me. I even tried using a nib pen to somehow dress my handwriting up, to no avail. I checked various etiquette sources and the preference for hand-written seems to stem from the amount of time and care it takes to write them. Well, that's easy to solve:

• I'm hand-lining the envelopes
• My address font requires choosing from a variety of glyphs for each letter, which is time-consuming
• I designed the whole freaking suite
• I'm hand-feeding the envelopes into the printer, one by one by one
• I'm printing part of the suite at home on an inkjet, which is a form of torture

So it seems I have all of my bases covered when it comes to care and time.

For the addresses I chose Burgues Script, for its calligraphic properties. It has swooshes and curls and all manners of flourishes -- ideal for faking my way to a pretty envelope. Because I know no ideal way to do this, I created individual documents for each address, setting the page size to 6.5" x 6.5", the size of my square envelopes. I fed one of my test envelopes into the tray, hit Print, and then... nothing.

"Paper Mismatch, Press Okay to Cancel."

I went to the Print Setup and tried to set the paper size to my size, but it wouldn't allow custom sizes! Oh the humanity. I could choose A6, a standard size I shirked -- why, why, why did I do that? For hours, I sat there, trying to come up with novel ways to trick my computer into printing my square envelope. Finally I decided it was InDesign's fault and typed an address in a Word document. Print.

A printed envelope came out, albeit printed on the wrong end. I examined the settings, needing to know what foul Microsoft magic made it print. It was set on Letter. I was an over-complicating idiot the whole time.

The moral of the story is: if you're using square envelopes, use the Letter size setting!

So for the next hour I sat on the floor feeding the envelopes into the printer while Kirk hit Control P. The result was glorious:

I already have an edit to make, which is this: I spelled "Crown Point" wrong on 12 invitations. The above picture illuminated this fact to me.So the real moral of the story is: order way more envelopes than you actually need. Sheesh.

Have you had any epic struggles with technology?

and more cupcakes

It was a little cold after we stood outside in front of randomness, so we took shelter in a subway station.

That was my displeased face. Here's my happy face. Aw.

But as is wont to happen in a subway station, the familiar smell of pee became a bit too much and we headed out into the strangest park I've ever seen!

There were top hats. And person-shrinking dominoes.

Have you ever played the game Sorry? I hate that game. But alas, there was a Sorry piece too.

As our time with Shannon of Fromage Photography was drawing to a close, we stopped for one more treat: duh, cupcakes, at Philly Cupcake.

I loved this experience for two reasons: meeting Shannon, who is adorable, and getting comfortable in front of a camera. We acted as naturally as we can - we're pretty awkward folks - and it definitely seems to translate well in pictures. If you have a chance to do an engagement session, do it!

How did you decide to get engagement pictures?

we had cupcakes

The tease is over. Our engagement photos are back and Shannon, aka Fromage Photography, did an amazing job.

We started at Reading Terminal market in Philly and I spied some cupcakes.

There were details too.

Then we started fake-exploring the city. We had really no idea where we were. This was apparently funny to me.

We held hands because that's about as mushy as I can get in public.

And then we crawled into the underbelly of the city... stay tuned!

Did you wing your engagement photo locations?