new chapter, new blog

New blog. I realize I was awful at keeping up with this one, so this is my new, fresh attempt to be better at blogging. I promise wedding recaps!

Visit me here!

Oh hello there. I am getting married TOMORROW. As in, 24 hours, less than a week, less than all those months that I ahve spent planning. It's kind of crazy. I am, however, really NOT sad to see the planning end. The planning started to be really a drag by the end. I think perhaps i had too long between booking the (first) venue and the date.

Also, I may have underestimated the amount of extra stress resulting from working full time while planning a wedding. I work a full-time, professional, white collar type job, and that entails staying late a lot to meet my hour requirements and things like that. It was really difficult to juggle that and still be able to plan and make appointments to meet people for wedding related stuff.

Additionally, I wish I would have researched more. Ultimately, I love all of my details, but there have been a few that have made me think wistfully of what I may have been able to come up with had I done a bit more looking into my options.

But in the end, I'M GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW! So excited! See you guys on the other side!

Last time as a miss!
Love,
m

FOUR DAYS!

So much to do! Finished most of the paper stuff today, thank goodness. Very tired of the paper cutter. It's coming so quickly! I can't wait.

Hair trial!

Makeup trial!

Gratuitous cute kitty photo!

Things I have not thought about or done yet:

1. written the ceremony
2. decided on the programs
3. made labels for the jam
4. picked vows
5. selected cake buffet flavors
6. found a makeup artist
7. had a second meeting with the caterer
8. decided on table numbers vs. table names
9. picked the beer list
10. gotten possession of my dress
11. tracked down the last RSVP stragglers
12. done table assignments

AHHH

For all those wedding guests who are still looking for lodging for our wedding:

I just recently discovered that a hotel near our venue offers discounts to people who have weddings at our venue. I reserved a block of rooms, but in order to take advantage of the discounted price, you need to book your room by August 19, 2009. Please visit our wedding website for instructions on booking.

If you know of anyone else who doesn't pop in to the blog, and might need lodging, please let them know!

We made our favors this weekend! It was a lot of work, but ultimately I am very pleased with them. I really didn't want to do any favors unless they either meant something to us, or were specially made for us. Too often I have gone to weddings that give you something that is nice, but ultimately useless. Thus, food favors are a definite must.

We started with a bunch of strawberries:


Mashed them up (my favorite part!):


Added some sugar and pectin and cooked them for awhile...

Prepped some wee tiny jars for jam receptacles:


Filled them with jam:

Cleaned the jars off:


Lined them up on a tray:


And created a small army of cute little jam jars!


I'm really happy with how they turned out. The jam was delicious too! Hopefully our guests like the favors!

(Don't worry, we did process the jars. I just forgot to take photos.)