Mr. Joey's Back!

I was really, really productive while Mr. Joey was away. I started and finished the assigned seats, designed the table numbers, made good progress on the centerpieces, figured out the bouquets for MOH Joey and myself and I finally found the wedding inspiration I've been searching for.

Despite the progress, I'm really, really glad he's back. His returned has reminded me how little time we have left until the big day. We've got a month, or a little less than 5 weeks left and our to do list is still pretty long.

We've managed to get a lot of the big things out of the way like collecting RSVPs and finishing seating assignments, but we have a lot of the little details still left to complete. Now that Mr. Joey is back and done with school, he has lots of time to take care of the details. Some of the ones I trust him with are getting the liquor license, picking up the beer, mixers and wine orders and assembling the table numbers/menus. I say trust because Mr. Joey isn't the most patient person when it comes to detailed crafts.

I might have to outsource a few tasks or eliminate some all together (gasp!).

What items on you wedding to do list have to delegated to your FI?

The Order of Things

I can't tell you what a wealth of information the coordinators, Victoria and Dann, at the Lake Union Café are. I met with Dann this week to go over some details of the big day and ask some questions, and I walked out of there with a few items of my to do list done.

For Example, the order of the reception.

I had been paging through Mrs. Daffodil's amazing wedding packet. It's so detailed and EXTREMELY helpful. Her wedding is longer than mine and therefore has more elements to it, but it's still so helpful because it lists more wedding elements/events than I could possibly think of at one time. The only problem was I couldn't decide what order to do things in. When is the first dance? What do we do if there is not cake cutting. How do we arrive if there is no receiving line?

Thankfully Dann mapped out what he thought the order of the reception would be and I'm totally happy with it and know Mr. Joey will be too. Here's our order of events:

Noon - guests arrive and enjoy a 1/2 hour of cocktails, appetizers and mingling
12:30 - Mr. & Mrs. Joey (did I say Mrs?) make a grand entrance and straight into the first dance.
12:35 - Lunch and the Joeys greet guests
1:15-ish - toasts and cream puffs
1:30-ish Mother-Son and Father-Daughter dance followed by more dancing
3:15 - Thank You from the Joeys and invitation to join us later for drinks

I love that we don't have to be at the reception before the guests. We're planning on doing most of our portraits before the wedding because of transportation problems and bridge closures. With the extra time between the ceremony and reception, we should get a chance to get some nice shots at the University or Washington or on the Lake near our venue.

We go straight into the first dance because of my costume changing. I'm changing into a sari as a surprise for my Dad but I wanted to be in my wedding dress during the first dance - mostly for the pictures. Dann suggested doing the first dance and then changing towards the end of lunch. I suggested changing while Mr. Joey and his Mom danced but Dann pointed out I'd need more than 5 minutes to get the sari on.

Are you changing up the order of events for your reception?

Centerpieces - part 2

My former attempt at the centerpieces were a bust (pengy, can you link part 1 please?). I searched online for inspirations but most of what I found wasn't doable on our budget. And then I looked down, literally, and found a little inspiration in my own home

I put this little number together over the weekend when my Mom told me to take some roses home from her garden. It was cute, simple and easy to replicate. I could use dahlias or yellow roses in place of the red/pink ones and I could use the the Billy Balls in place of the little pink puff flowers. I'd swap out the frame for the table number and forgo the succulent in this particular centerpiece.

I also tried it with the succulent.

I had a meeting at the Lake Union Cafe and brought along a few vases and a table runner to play with.

I really like the 3 vases in a row and the colors. I also like the picture above (it needs flowers). My next step is the figure out how many of each vase I have and try to stretch them over 10 booths and 6 long tables. I also have 5 big round tables I don't know what to do with. You should expect a few more entries about the centerpieces!

Anyone else find wedding decor inspiration staring them right in the face?

When Mr. Joey's Away (part 7)...

...Ms. Joey will go crazy with the spray paint.

I bought some vases at West Elm late last year for our centerpieces. At the time, I didn't really know what shade of yellow we'd be using. I thought the light-ish yellow would be fine. Fast forward 6 months -- I hate the yellow. I don't hate it, I just don't like it for our wedding. I tried to sell them on Craigslist but what would anyone want with 20 dusty yellow vases?

this is the yellow

I needed to salvage these vases but how? I was at my parents helping them move some stuff out of the garage when I spotted a can of gray spray paint. My Dad told me to take it so I went home and wondered what I'd do with it. You can see where I'm going with this.

My attempts weren't too bad. Spray painting glass vases were hard because of the shape and the fact that the paint has nothing to cling to. In retrospect, I should have tried a primer but, oh well.




Since the grey was a success, I headed over to Home Depot and picked up a can of yellow and another can of grey.



I also picked up a succulent which ended up in the weird champagne glasses I picked up at Goodwill a few days before. A little spray paint and a succulent, and the glasses looked OK.



Anyone else have a few items that needed salvaging?

When Mr. Joey is Away (part 6)...

...Ms. Joey will go shopping at Goodwill.

After my failed attempt at centerpieces a a few months ago, I decided to put away the vases and the fabric, and let them be for awhile. I figured looking at them fresh in a few months might help. This week I felt it was time to bust out the basket of vases and try again.

The problem this time was A) the yellow vases weren't the right yellow (see my next post) and B) I didn't have enough height. So I marched (well, drove) myself down to Goodwill to check out my options. If you are in need of cheap vases, can I suggest Goodwill? Mine has rows and rows of them and most sell for $0.69. I don't mind paying full price from pieces I know I'll use again like the flower girl basket or the fabric for the table runners (and our future quilt), but I knew tall vases would end up right back at Goodwill.

I scored 3 tall vases for under $3.00 plus a few holiday reads for the same price. I also picked up 6 short champagne glasses to toy with. So for $10 I got 3 vases, 6 glasses and 5 books. Not too shabby.

If you are looking for mason jars, Goodwill has tons of them. Just FYI.

Anyone else go scouring at thrift stores for wedding decor?

Centerpieces - Part 1

A few months ago, I started playing with the centerpieces. I already bought a bunch of vases from CB2 and West Elm to use and had just finish collects some super fun fabric to use as table runners.

Here are the results of the first go around

I felt reall BLAH! about my attempts. I kind of liked 3 and 4, but not really. I needed to go back to the drawing board and come up with something more. I wanted simple but there's just not enough to fill the space.

If you are DIYing your centerpeices, was your first attempt a bust or did you hit the nail on the head the first time?

Killing 3 Birds with 1 Stone - the table numbers

Remember my new inspiration for the table numbers? Well, I played with it a little and came up with this…

It doesn't look great because I haven't finalized the text of each panel and I printed it on regular copy paper. I have some thicker paper leftover from the luggage tags favors I'll use.

I made one minor change to make the numbers a little more us. Instead of each panel saying the table number, I created a menu panel and an after party info panel. We have 120 guests and 130 place settings (10 for kids under 5), and I really didn't want to make 120-130 menus. I figure this way, I've cut down on the work and the paper.

I need to adjust the dimensions a bit (too much white space) and I might paint the edges of the table numbers yellow a la Ms.Gloss. I haven't decided on that though -- it could be more work than we need right now. I also feel like something is missing at the bottom. I tried the little legs Martha suggested but I'm not sure about them. I was thinking maybe I could take some yellow or grey fimo clay and create a little round base to stick the stable numbers in. Nothing fancy, just something round.

What do you guys think? Does the bottom need something? Do the edges need something or are they OK as is?

While Mr. Joey's Away (Part 5)...

...Ms. Joey will attempt a difficult task -- the seating arrangements.

At first Mr. Joey and I weren't going to do assigned seats. The lunch is a buffet, so it wasn't like servers needed to know who sat where. We changed our minds when we started looking at the guest list. It's a pretty random assortment of people from all phases of our lives together and apart.

We decided on assigned seats because A) we have 4 different size tables that sit anywhere between 4-10 people, and B) We have random people at the wedding who aren't going to know anyone.

We don't want a group of 6 to take the table for 8 and then a random couple has to sit there because there isn't room for both of them elsewhere. We also want people to mingle. We don't want my side of the family to sit on the right side of the dance floor and Mr. Joey's family sitting on the left. They don't necessarily have the sit together at tables, but maybe every other table could be my family or his.

The seating chart seemed doable. I got through 2 of the big tables painlessly and then I got stuck. Who's sits with whom? What about the random single person at the table? I don't want a singles table but I don't want a single person stuck at a table of just couples.

I thought about just randomly selecting people - just throwing names into a hat and filling tables but then thought again. While it eliminated the awkwardness of asking a stranger whether you could sit with them, it didn't eliminate the awkwardness of sitting with someone you don't know or have anything in common with.

If you are doing assigned seats, how are you putting people together? What are you doing with random friends who don't know anyone or groups that are too large and need to be broken up?

Something to Talk About

I have a confession.  I'm a little worried about what people will say about our wedding.  There's no fancy dress, cathedral wedding or amazing flower arrangements. 

Actually, I'm not concerned what people say about Mr. Joey and I.  I've always marched to the beat of my own drum which I DIY'd myself, and anyone who knows Mr. Joey will say the same about him.  Who I am worried about are my parents.

With 38 days to go, my parents have fully bought in to the style of the wedding.  They know there is no flowing gown or wedding cake.  They know about the yellow shoes, short wedding dress and the DIY'd everything else.  While they weren't jumping for joy at first, they seem to be now.  Mama Joey told me the other day that she was really proud that we'd decided to do the wedding on a budget.  She herself had a $30 wedding dress and all together spent less than $900 on their wedding in 1979.  My Mom is the queen of practicality and I am Mama Joey's daughter.

When Mama Joey jumped on the semi-alternative bandwagon, I knew I still had my Dad to convince.  He comes from a family where weddings are a week long affair and parents spend their life savings on the event.  I know he wanted a cake, a large gown and a full mass.  But surprisingly, he came around too.  

So what am I worried about?  I'm worried about what people will think about my parents.  In my family weddings are big and fancy or they don't happen at all.  I can already hear my aunts talking, "why didn't they spend money on her dress?" or "She made all the table decorations?  Why? "  Maybe I'm over reacting but it's happened before.  When Mr. Joey and I moved back to Seattle, some of my relatives asked my Mom why she let me live in the neighborhood I moved to.  Couldn't she have pitched in some rent so I could live somewhere nicer? 

My parents have come a long way and are excited to see what we put together.  On the day of the wedding, I know that even if everything went wrong, they'd only see perfection (as would we) but in the days and weeks later, that's when I worry about people chipping away at the perfection.  

I don't know why my aunts are they way they are.  Maybe it's an asian thing?  They are still talking about a cousin who didn't get married in the Catholic Church.  She got married over 15 years ago!  

I don't want people to think my parents are cheap or stingy or didn't care.  I want them to see that my parents cared enough to step back and let us have the wedding we wanted.  I want them to see they raised someone who was responsible to live within her means.  I wish we had more to spend on this wedding but don't -- not with the house.  My parents would give us more but I can't ask them for that.  I couldn't accept more than they already pitched in.

I guess all we can do is put things together as best as we can, fill every venue with love and tell all the naysayers to suck it!  I mean that in the nicest way.  :)  

Anyone else doing something out of the ordinary and are a little worried about what others might say?

Taking it Back to the Old Country

Mr. Joey and I both lived in Russia. Actually, I take that back. I lived in Russia and Mr. Joey lived in the U.S.S.R. in the early 1980s. His Dad had a one year teaching fellowship at Moscow State University in 1982 or 1983, and the whole family moved there.

Mr. Joey and i have different feeling about Russia. I loved it and would go back any day. He's not to fond of it. All he remembers is lots of snow, lots of cabbage and lots of strange days in a soviet kindergarten. I think everyone but FFIL Joey feels that away about their time in Moscow.

I bring this up because of the groom's cake we're not doing. I thought about doing a groom's pie since Mr. Joey doesn't like cake, but he said it wasn't necessary and wasn't sure he wanted one.

I was fine with his decision until FMIL Joey sent me an email with fun cakes from Russian bakers.

These are my favorites...

I really like the last one and this would have been my choice for a groom's cake. When Mr. Joey lived in Moscow, he was required to join the Young Pioneers. It's sort of like the boy scouts and maybe a little of Jr. ROTC (minus all the physical tests). We all tease him about his time as a Young Pioneer because of his marching skills. Apparently his favorite part of his time there was marching during Young Pioneer events and meetings. He's a skilled marcher I guess. Ah....if only he liked cake.

Are you doing a groom's cake? What interesting shape will it take?

Oh, and I'll leave you with this shot of my Young Pioneer (on the right) and his brother .

What to Call Myself? Julia Gulia?

There's been a lot of talk around the hive about name changing, so I thought I throw in my own little name conundrum.

I have a very interesting last name. Unless you're Sri-Lankan or spent some time near a large Sri-Lankan community, it's not a name that you'd probably be familiar with or be comfortable attempting to say. On the first day of 2nd grade, my Art Teacher, Mrs. Lundeen, told me that over the summer she learned to spell my last name from memory. I remember how proud she was of herself. It's a big accomplishment. It took me months to learn to spell it myself.

I like my last name but I'm not THAT attached to it. Apparently it's not my Dad's last name at all. I'm told that our real last name is Fernando but the British made my grandfather change it. Not sure on the details of the story though.

I always felt like I'd be happy to take my husband's name. I wasn't worried about my last name dying out -- I have 4 male cousins who will ensure it will live on. Notice I said felt. I'm not sure I feel that way now. Yes, part of my reasoning is about my identity. It's my last name and it's been my constant name. I say that because Mr. Joey says my family is like the Wu-Tang Clan, we all have about 5 aliases. He's not kidding. My real name is Catherine. My family calls me Cat, Ca-tee, Cats and Ate (pronouced Ah-teh -- it's my title as oldest sister). In kindergarten there were two Catherines and I became Cathy. I was Cathy until college when I became Catherine. In college, not only was I Catherine, but I was Cathy to my high school friends and Katia to my friends and teachers in Russia. Still with me?

Mr. Joey knows me as Catherine but he calls me Catty and his students nicknamed me kitty kat (awesome right?) So there you have it. I've always had various first names but always the same last name. And now, I could be changing it from this really interesting, long and hard to say name to something that is very similar to Danielson.

Catherine Danielson. It's no Julia Gulia but it's just not there. I thought about hyphenating my last name but I'm pretty sure the new name would be too long. My first and last name are 20 letters now. You add his 10 letter last name and I have a whopping 21 letter (not including the hyphen) last name. I wouldn't think about making my current last name my middle name. I have a middle name and it stays. It's Liberty. Seriously. I was born on the 4th of July (unlike Tom Cruise) and my parents wanted to be patriotic.

I will say that the advantage to taking Mr. Joey's last name is not having to listening to the Safeway cashier butcher it week in and week out. Or having to spell and re-spell it over the phone. I can just say "Danielson" and it's done. No was that a V or a Z. No more, "Wow, I'm not even going to attempt that name."

So here I am. New name that sounds kind of boring or my current name? Mr. Joey doesn't care but does agree that my new name would sound super boring. FILs Joey say to keep my name if decide that hyphening is too much. I just can't decide. If we have kids, I want everyone to have the same last name. If I'm not hyphening, I'm not going to make them do it.

I haven't made a decision yet and it's possible it won't be made until after the wedding but the name issue is on my mind.

Anyone out there not sure they like the sound of their new last name?

While Mr. Joey's Away (part 4)...

...Ms. Joey will solve the table number problem.

We thought we figured out the whole table number thing a few weeks ago. Remember? I blogged about it.

We were really excited until reality set in. We have almost 26 tables that seat anywhere between 4-10 people. That's a lot of wine bottles to have on tables and at the bar.

We have a few families of 4 we'd like to put in booths who wouldn't drink a bottle of wine. We also have groups of 4 who would go through a bottle in no time flat. Plus, do we put red out or white? Too many questions and too many things to figure out.

So I hunted around again, and of course, Martha provided the perfect solution.

images

I have a few changes that will liven up the table number and make it our own. How are you displaying your table numbers?

Accessorizing the Cake

Opps, I mean the cream puffs. Back when we were doing our wine tasting, I decided we need to do a cream puff tasting. I wanted to make sure they were as good as I remembered. Well, they are as good and cheaper than I remember. They sell for $0.50 a piece! We're ordering 150 for 120 guest and they should come in at about $75 plus tax.

The only minor worry about our cream puffs is that we can't order them until about a week before the wedding. Our vendor is actually the Than Brothers, a Pho restaurant chain in Seattle. They said to call no more than 2 weeks (1 week is better) before the wedding. I'm a little worried but everyone says that's how they roll. I guess I'm just going to roll that way too.

But back to accessories. When we decided on cream puffs, I was trying to come up with a way of dressing them up on people's plates. They aren't as colorful or interesting to look at as cupcakes or cake. They needed something. I was searching on Etsy (as usual) when I found Bake it Pretty. They sold fun cupcake liners in a variety colors including yellow.

I went with a solid yellow and striped yellow. For $13 including shipping, I got 150 liners. We tested "the look" out before the wine tasting and I'm totally feeling the liners. I'm still not sold on the silver platters. We may just use those for the breakfast bar. Now for the toppers...hmmm.

How are you accessorizing the "cake"?

When Mr. Joey's Away (part 3)...

...Ms. Joey will figure out what MOH Joey's bouquet will look like.

I'm thinking something like this...

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image

Yes, I'm thinking baby's breath.  It's simple, clean and has sort of the modern/vintage feel were going for.  We're already thinking of using it in a few of our centerpieces, so why not tie things together and use them in our ceremony too?  Plus, they are light on the pocketbook and you can't argue with that.  

I think they will compliment my Billy Button bouquet (Pengy, can you link my last post to this one please?) nicely.

Anyone else thinking of making a filler flower the star of a bouquet or centerpiece?

When Mr. Joey's Away (part 2)...

...Ms. Joey decided on flowers for her bouquet. 

I had some flower inspiration before, but now I know what flower is going to be featured in my modern bouquet -- the Billy Button.

I first ran across this flower months ago when I saw it on one of my favorite wedding inspiration websites, Black. White. Yellow.   I loved the Billy Button and then I forgot about the Billy Button until a recent search for yellow flowers.

Then I came across this

image

And this

image

I found a few websites online that sell Billy Buttons pretty cheap but before I buy, I'm checking to see if the flowers are fresh or dried.  I'd prefer fresh but I'm OK with dried.  I think they will give fresh flowers a little punch.

Anyone else considering dried flowers?

When Mr. Joey's Away...

...Ms. Joey will find wedding inspiration.

Mr. Joey got a grant thing from the Gilder Leherman Institute of American History to spend a week in Washington D.C. studying the 1960's.  While it doesn't sound like the most exciting thing to most, he's really excited about it and I'm really excited he's excited.

With him gone, I'm free to spend as much time on the Internet as I want.  Saturday night was no exception.  I went hunting for more table number inspiration and stumbled upon my inspiration for our wedding.

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This amazing wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty back in May but apparently I missed it.  It's encompasses a lot of the ideas I had floating in my head but have had a hard time bringing together.

The weird thing about finding this amazing wedding is that I feel like I'm copying them but I'm not, not really.  Within the first week of getting engaged, I knew our wedding colors were going to be grey and yellow.  Mr. Joey said no pink or red.  I LOVE grey.  It goes with everything. And I love yellow.  It makes me happy.  I thought about a grey and green combination but our apartment is largely grey and green and we needed something special.

So I've found my inspiration 7 months after I had my original idea.  Does that make sense?  Has anyone else discovered the inspiration for the style/design of their wedding after they started working on their wedding?

I'll Toast to That!

Like Ms.Gloss, the Joeys also held a little wine tasting last weekend. We had 10 random friends over to try the 7 bottles of white and 3 bottles of bubbly we managed to gather the weekend before. I wish we had pictures of the night. It was a lot of fun. I also wish I had pictures of the tasting sheets. We numbered the bottles 1 to 10 and then gave everyone a sheet of paper with the numbers 1 though 10 on it. We asked everyone to comment on each wine they tasted. Some did the simple Yay or Nay, while other were really descriptive of what they tasted and liked about it. It worked really well.

Despite everyone's palettes, we have an overwhelming winner for the White and the Cava. We initially were looking for a $7 bottle of white and $10 bottle of Cava. When our Red selection came in super cheap ($5.91 including tax), we decided we could look at $9 Whites too.
And the winners? Everyone loved the 2008 Barnard Griffin Fume Blanc. It was the most expensive wine in the lot, but it was really good. We were told that we would get a 15% discount if we paid in cash or by debit card, so that brought the bottle down to $8.28 including tax.

The Cava we selected was a 2000 Freixenet Cava Brut (sorry, I don't know how to list it's name).

It was a $12-15 bottle of Cava that local wine wholesaler, the Wine Outlet, was selling for $9 a bottle. It was totally doable. When we purchased our sample bottle of the Freixenet, the salesman told us that if we were buying, we'd have to purchase by June 14th because it was going on sale that day. They had quite a few cases in stock since December and the bottles were not moving. We think it's because not too many people have something to celebrate in this economy. We'd actually had this Cava at New Years and really liked it. I almost bought our wedding bottles then but then changed my mind. Where would we put it?

I'm so glad I changed my mind and this turned out to be the favorite Cava of our 3 samples, plus we got a steal of a deal during the sale. The $9 bottle went down to $5. Yes, FIVE DOLLARS!! Seriously! We ended up buying 33 bottles and it only cost us $180.84 including tax!

Why 33? We bought bought 2 cases for the wedding. I had originally budgeted for 1.5 cases at $10 a bottle. I figure we'd just use the Cava for the toast and not give guest full glasses but at $5 a bottle, we could get 24 bottles at $120, and still be under the $180 I budgeted for 18 $10 bottles. We also got 6 bottles for the rehearsal dinner and 3 extra bottles for us; 1 to celebrate getting our building permit (if that ever happens), 1 for our 1st anniversary and 1 just cause. You never know when you should pop open a bottle of bubbly.

In addition to the great deal on Cava, we also picked out 9 bottles of Magnificent Wine's 2007 Chardonnay. It wasn't the winner at the tasting, but it was in the top 3. Why did we pick up 9 bottles? Because they were selling them for $3 a bottle. Yup! Including tax, it came to under $30. We figure we'll either use it at the rehearsal dinner, shower or bachelorette dinner.

Right now, I think we'll be right at budget or under for our beverages.

Budget: $720
4 bottles of Pimm's - $74.25
24 bottles of Cava - $131.52
18 bottles of Red - $106.53
18 bottles of White - $150.91

Total left - $256.79

Left to buy (these are estimates):
4 bottle of Gin or Rum - $80 (buy at PX - no tax)
4 cases of beer - $22-26 each plus tax
Assorted sodas and mixers (lemonade) - $30

I can't believe the deal we got. Seriously, I almost feel guilty. What wedding steal are you most proud of?

P.S. This is our Red option

Steals and Deals

Whenever I have to buy something, I always check 2 sites to see if there are any good deals going around that I should know about. The first one is Slickdeals and the second is Bargainist. Slickdeals is a place where savvy shoppers post coupon codes and other great steals they found online or got sent in emails. Sometimes things are free but most of the time they are just dirt cheap.

Today I found out Aldo was have a clearance sale you need a code to get into. If you enter their site via this link, you get prompted for a access code. If you enter 5489548, you get access to the clearance deals. If you enter the code 22040422, you get 10% off your clearance purchase and shipping is free. I just picked up this super cute clutch for the wedding. I got it for $14.69 total including tax and shipping. Score!

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Bargainist is just a nice place to see all the published deals official stores/sellers are advertising. The one I really like today is free admission to National Parks on select weekends this summer. If you live close to a national park and have people in town one of the listed weekends, why not suggest a free visit. They also list a site that lists free attractions by state. What a perfect way to fill the suggested activities page on your wedding website.


Happy Shopping!


What websites do you go to for the latest deals?

Help Me Too!

I'm following Ms. Mary Jane and asking the hive for help. I need a necklace. I don't have any idea except that I want it to kind of match my grandmother's earrings. I did have a plan at one time. I was going to take the matching ring and have the stone part turned into a pendant. Then I was going to have the band part formed into a complete circle and have it used as a pendant for a necklace for my sister. That way we both got a piece of the heirloom. But the ring is M.I.A. No one knows where it is. So I have to come up with something else and I stuck. I have a gold chain I can wear if I find a pendant. I just need the pendant part or a new necklace all together. Suggestions? Links?

the neckline

the earrings

Saving Up

Mr. Joey and I have been saving up for the honeymoon. No, I'm not talking about saving our pennies (though we are saving those too). I'm talking about gathering up things to do during out LONG flight to Sydney. An 18+ hour journey for me is pretty normal but for Mr. Joey, I worry. The 5 hour flight from NYC to Seattle drives him crazy, so I can only imagine what the flight from LA to Sydney will do.

I've started saving magazines when they come. We get a good range of them, Sunset, New Yorker, Esquire, Outside, Readymade, so I'm good on that front. I just need to keep myself from reading the occasional article. We plan making a stop at out local goodwill. They sell paperbacks for $0.79 and you can always find something good there. I always stop at the goodwill to buy books for a trip. I don't feel so bad leaving a $0.79 book on the plane or in a hotel.

The other thing we've been saving up are podcasts. I listen to news programs on the way to work most days but on Monday evenings, I get the pleasure of listening to This American Life. I think I really like the show because I feel like it's entirely possible I would hear someone I know on the show one week. Heck, I could be on the show. If they ever do a show on kidnapping capers in a foreign country, I'm their girl.

It's been really hard not to listen to the show, but I'm doing my best. I also like Stuff You Missed in History Class. Mr. Joey has also been saving podcasts. He's got a nice collection of Car Talk and NPR: All Songs Considered he hasn't listened to yet.

Right now we don't have nearly enough to listen to but we have time to save up. We're trying to avoid current events since we read the paper almost daily. Any suggestions? Which non-video podcast series do you like?

Wedding Traditions : Something Old

OK, OK, I'm late. I promised to post about my next something way back in May but then never got around to it. I have no excuses. You've seen my something borrow, so now my something old...

My something old is really old. It's the oldest anything in my family and besides my engagement ring, the one thing I cherish the most (people not included).

The earrings belonged to my maternal grandma Isabel and before her, to her mother. Great Grandma Joey died when grandma Joey was about 8 years old. These earrings mean a lot because they belonged to Grandma Joey and we were really close when she was alive. I actually think that apart from when we or she was on vacation, I saw her at least once a week until she died when I was 12 years old.

So these earring are special to me not only because they are hers, but also because of the story behind them. During WWII, my grandparents were still living in the Philippines. When the Japanese soldiers arrived in their area, the decision was made that my grandpa and his brother would leave and hide in the jungle until the soldiers left. Everyone in the area had heard stories of what happened to Filipino men when the soldiers arrived. Most were killed and lot were taken as servants and were abused. My grandma stayed. My Mom said she made herself ugly to survive. Mama Joey said that meant my grandma made herself look dirty, wore clothes that were too big (unflattering) and never wore make-up or did her hair. Apparently the things the soldiers did to the pretty women were horrible. I can't even begin to describe what my Mom told me, so I won't.

My grandma was taking care of 4 little ones at the time, and things seem to be going OK for awhile. They had enough to eat and for the most part, the soldiers left them alone. Then my uncle and aunt got sick -- really sick. My grandma brought doctors in but nothing could be done without medicine. She tried to buy some, but there was none to be had anywhere. She sold anything with value in hopes of finding medicine on the black market but there was nothing. The soldiers were not permitting medical supplies into their area. Eventually my grandma lost both children. She never speaks of that time of her life. Everything we know about it was pieced together from my 2 aunts that did survive, my grandpa and his brother.

In the end, she didn't sell everything. She didn't sell the earrings or the matching ring. It was the only thing she saved from her life before that great loss. I only remember her wearing the earring at weddings. Well, I only remember from one picture from one wedding.

When Grandma Joey died, my aunts (4 of them) divided up her things. My mom didn't want to be there so she told my aunts she didn't care what she got as long as she got those earrings. My Mom was already saving them for me. She had hoped to get the ring too, but she didn't. We're not exactly sure who got them or where they are. One of my aunts thought she had them and offered to give them to me but when she looked, it turns out they weren't the pair we were looking for.

The stones in the earrings are suppose to be black diamonds. I'm not sure if they are, I've never had them checked, and I don't really care. My Mom says the earring are from around 1905-ish. Some of the stones are chipped but I'm not going to have them replaced. I will have the earrings cleaned though.

If I could have anyone attend my wedding, anyone - dead or alive - it would be her. Since I can't, I'm wearing these -- my something treasured, my something hers, my something old.

Does your something old have a story behind it?

The ABCs of Being Showered

Sister Joey a.k.a. MOH Joey has been racking her brain for weeks about what to do for my bridal shower. She lives in Italy since her husband is posted there, so she hasn't been able to help with the wedding stuff. She wanted to do an Around the Clock shower but decided explaining the concept to some of the older guests would be too complicated. I liked the idea of something that revolved around the kitchen, but she wanted to be more creative than that and wanted other to be creative too.

So her idea? The ABCs. She assigned each guest a letter and asked that they bring a gift that starts with that letter. This seemed like a great compromise - if people want to be creative, they can, and if they don't, they are likely to find something on the registry that starts with their assigned letter.

I love it. It's sort of schoolish and Mr. Joey is a teacher. She's hoping to do a food or drink item for each letter of the alphabet but that may be a lofty goal. She wanted to do real invitations but finding supplies in her small village was hard. She thought about ordering them but wasn't sure how long it would take. I told her an evite was fine. She scanned in our actual invitation and used it as a background.

Did you have a shower theme? What was it?

Hey Mom! That's Cheating!

Over the last few days my Mom has been bugging me about what Mr. Joey and I want for our birthdays. Mr. Joey's birthday is in 2.5 weeks and mine is 7 days after his. We always tell her we'll be happy with whatever she gives but that never satisfies her. The presents are no big deal. I mostly enjoy the dinner out or even better, when she lets me request any meal in her repertoire.

So she's finally figured out what we want with our help but without us knowing. What did she do? She bought us birthday gifts off the registry. Seriously. She figured out which gifts were really more for Mr. Joey (like the Wii game and BBQ tools) and which gifts were really more for me (the cookbook and GPS). I guess it's a win-win we get stuff we actually want and she gets the satisfaction of getting us stuff we want. Somehow it seems like cheating


Have you ever received or given a wedding registry gift for a birthday?

Party on a Disc

Ah the playlists. Yes, I said playlists, as in more than one. Mr. Joey has to come up with 3 playlists and being the music snob he is and a playlist perfectionist, all 3 may not get done in time. Since we're going without a DJ, we need to come up with a light, cheery mix to play as background music at the rehearsal dinner, something for the reception, and something for the after party. I'm going to guess that the reception will have to be two playlists -- one as background music while people are arriving, mingling and eating, and one for dancing to.

I think the rehearsal dinner playlist will be easy for Mr. Joey to come up with. So will the background music for the reception. I think it's the reception dance music which will consume his time. Trying to find dance music he likes (he doesn't dance) that other will like and is clean (no blatant sexual innuendos and swear words).

To help Mr. Joey out with the playlist, I think I've come up with a plan for the after party playlist -- playing a pre-made mix.

Yes, it seems like cheating but I think it will be OK. Who are we going to play? Girl Talk. The artist/dj samples work from what seems like hundreds of artists from all over the place. In one song you'll hear samples from Chicago, The Quad City DJs, Nine Inch Nails, Blur and Three Six Mafia to name a few. The sound is more Rap and R&B inspired than anything but it's got enough of everything to satisfy everyone. I think it represents our wide and varied musical tastes.

Here's a break down of one of my favorite tracks from the CD

"Set It Off" - 3:42
0:00 - 0:17 Rihanna featuring Jay-Z - "Umbrella"
0:01 - 0:15 Ying Yang Twins - "Jigglin'"
0:05 - 0:20 Swizz Beatz - "Take a Picture"
0:05 - 0:17 Vanilla Ice - "Havin' a Roni"
0:06 - 0:19 Eric B. & Rakim - "Eric B. Is President"
0:20 - 1:21 Jay-Z - "Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)..."
0:20 - 0:40 Kelly Rowland featuring Eve - "Like This"
0:21 - 1:21 Radiohead - "Paranoid Android"
1:00 - 1:24 GZA - "Liquid Swords"
1:25 - 2:03 Mary J. Blige - "Real Love"
1:26 - 2:03 The Guess Who - "These Eyes"
2:04 - 2:09 Aerosmith - "Sweet Emotion"
2:09 - 2:37 Ice Cube featuring Das EFX - "Check Yo Self" (which samples "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five)
2:09 - 2:37 Young Gunz featuring Swizz Beatz - "Set It Off"
2:11 - 2:24 Tom Tom Club - "Genius of Love"
2:35 - 3:42 DJ Kool - "Let Me Clear My Throat"
2:36 - 2:37 Mistah F.A.B. featuring Turf Talk and E-40 - "Super Sic wit' It"
2:38 - 2:46 The Spinners - "The Rubberband Man"
2:38 - 2:53 Fine Young Cannibals - "She Drives Me Crazy"
2:47 - 3:39 Bubba Sparxxx featuring Ying Yang Twins and Mr. Collipark - "Ms. New Booty"
2:55 - 3:30 Dexys Midnight Runners - "Come On Eileen"
2:57 - 3:39 Bubba Sparxxx - "Heat It Up"
3:33 - 3:42 Eddie Floyd - "Knock on Wood"
3:40 - 3:42 Fatman Scoop featuring The Crooklyn Clan - "Get Your Hands Up"

source

Come on Eileen? Heck Yeah! If you need some good dance music and you don't think you have the money to hire a DJ or the time to put together a good mix, let me suggest Girl Talk. I hear they have 4 albums though I can only get my hands on 2 of them. I'm definitely ready to get my groove on now.

What are you and your guest going to be dancing to?

Something to get Excited About

So I said in my last post that it's been hard to get excited about anything, but that's a bold face lie. I can get excited about something -- the honeymoon. Mr.Joey and I are going to the land of the Joeys a few days after the wedding and frankly I can't wait. No wedding plans, can't do anything about the house, no cellphone or email -- absolute bliss. We thought about a long leisurely vacation on a beach somewhere but then we'd be bored after a few days. Well, he would. I could see myself hanging out on the beach and reading for a long while.

So what's got my panties all in a bunch (in a good way)? The activities we have planned. We plan on heading north to spend 2 days and 1 night snorkeling on (or is it at?) the barrier reef. I can't wait! We're also doing a massive train trip from Cairns to Brisbane aboard the Sunlander to see some of the country the old fashion way. I love trains and I especially love train when I have a private 1st class cabin. Once we get to Brisbane there is the possibility of cuddling koalas and feeding real Joeys at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Koalas -- here I come.

Janet knows what's up

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We have some time scheduled for Sydney and few other places. For now, the big reservations have been made and we can worry about the rest later. I'm happy to get this big chunk of planning off my plate.

An interesting thing I've discovered through honeymoon planning is using the Amazon.com universal registry (see Ms. D'orsay's post) to register for honeymoon events. I know there are a bunch of websites where you can register for honeymoon activities but it's nice to have it all in one place. We registered for tickets to the Refuge and tickets to see Aida at the Sydney Opera House. We think both events would be absolutely amazing gifts but we wouldn't cry about it if they weren't purchased. We'll probably purchase the tickets to the refuge anyway.


Did you register for honeymoon activities? If so, which activity was your favorite?

A Word of Advice...

If you are planning a wedding, don't plan on building a house. Building a house sort of dropped (like a cement block) into our laps. I don't know if I shared with you how this all came about, but here's a little background. When my maternal grandma died, she left me and my parents a pretty good sum of money. Instead of spending it or putting it in a college fund, my parents decided to buy some property. The double lot they purchased wasn't in the best neighborhood, but any house built on it would have a great view.

Over the last 16 years, the neighborhood has really improved. Businesses are coming in and they build an elementary school 3 blocks away from our property. For years, my parents talked about building a house there and making it the last home they had. But something changed a few years ago. As the prices of homes sky rocketed in the Seattle-area, my parents realized that I wouldn't be able to buy a home at 30 like they did. I made decent money for Non-profit work and I'm a really great money saver, but despite that, a house wouldn't be in the cards.

When Mr. Joey and I got engaged, they started talking about giving us part of the double lot. Actually, they started talking about it when sister Joey got married but they didn't seem serious about it until September of last year. Then in January everything was a go. Building priced were down, we could get the money, my Dad (the contractor) had time this summer -- everything fell into place. In March, the last was signed over to me and I became a property owner. Just in time to pay property taxes -- my parents are no dummies :).

We started working with an architect that month and by mid-April had our packet into the city planning office. It wasn't my intention to plan a wedding and build a house at the same time. The cards fell into place and my Dad gave me a "Build it or Bust" speech. So we went with building it. In hind sight, I should have tried to convince him to start later -- like after the wedding. Just the permit process has been all consuming. I feel like I can't put anything into my regular life let alone wedding planning. I don't know how many times I've gotten a call from someone at 2pm telling me to pick up something here and get that notarized there. Luckily, because I've made my life flexible for work, work is now being flexible with my life.

I have wedding DIY projects that need to get done that get put aside because I have to fight it out with my contractor (dad), architect (family friend) or the city planning office. I even got so frustrated with the permit process that I emailed the Mayor's office to complain. Funny, it actually helped. A really nice guy at the planning office has been hand holding my packet through the permit process ever since.

It's hard to stay positive about one good thing (the wedding) when the other good thing (the house) is draining you of all your energy. People ask me what I want for bachelorette parties or showers and all I have to offer is, "I don't care as long as I don't have to do anything." I can't get excited about table settings when all I can think about is if our soil engineer will get his comments to the city by Monday. I thought I could separate the wedding and house but somehow these two different milestone events have become so tied together that I can't think about the wedding without thinking about the house.

The house was suppose to be done right around the time of the wedding. If we had been on schedule, we would have gone from the airport after the honeymoon to the new house. Our registry indecisiveness has revolved around the house. Everyone who knows we're building is expecting to see a house when they come to town. Let's just say there's a lot of stress when I think of the house and then the wedding.

My Mom told me not to stress out about it. She says stress will make for an ugly bride. :) But how can I not stress about two somethings that have taken up so much of my life for the last 3 or 4 months. Sometimes I think we should have eloped, sold the land and bought a condo. I want to be excited about both events -- they both are true blessings -- but most days I'm too tired, too overwhelmed and too busy to be excited.

So yes, my advice, don't plan a wedding and a house at the same time. Did you take on a big project while you were planning a wedding?

Calculating for the Happiest Hours

Over the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about what beverages we will be serving and how much we’ll need. I looked over our list of guests and came up with a breakdown of who would drink what.

Of 121 guests:

21 won’t drink – most are underage but a few don’t drink at all
25 are beer drinkers
20 would definitely do one of our signature drinks
15 would do either our signature drinks or have wine
50 would do wine but 15 of them would only have one glass.

I played with several online beverage calculators and came up with the following beverage needs:

2 cases of both red and white
3-4 bottles of Pimm's
3-4 bottles of Gin
1.5 cases of bubbly
1 keg of beer
Assorted 2 liter bottles of soft drinks

We have a budget of about $720. Our red wine selection is only $6 a bottle. When we had it, we were surprised it wasn’t a $8 or $9 wine. We’re buying the gin at the Coast Guard station and are hoping they carry Pimms too. If not, we can buy it at the state liquor store or have some of our European visitors bring it in for us.

Over the weekend, we visited a wine shop our rehearsal dinner caterer suggested. They recommended the $6 Cabernet Sauvignon we really like.

The visit was OK but a little shocking. The person who helped us obviously knew his wine; he suggested some good wines we could try in the $8 range. The shocking part? The amount of wine he thought we needed.

I shared with him the breakdown I came up with and he suggested a whopping 7 cases of wine. I think my jaw literally dropped. I asked him how he came up with the math and here’s his breakdown despite what I shared about our guests.

Of 100 people:

75 people would drink 1 glass of wine
50 people would drink 2 glasses of wine
25 people would drink 3 glasses of wine
12 people would drink 4 glasses of wine

Um, is it me or does that add up to 162 guests?

We left the recommended wine shop scratching our heads but 4 bottles of wine/bubbly richer.

After some conversation in the car, we decided it may be best to visit some other local wine shops.

The second place we went to confirmed that we weren’t crazy. We shared our guest breakdown and the salesperson said 1.5 – 2 cases of red and white for a total of 3-4 cases. Phew! That was much better! We also walked out of there with 3 more bottles of goodness.

On the way home, we decided to stop by one more shop. We presented our numbers and thankfully they reconfirmed what we heard at shop two more or less. They said 1 case of red and 2 cases of white. Happy with the news, we also walked out of there with 3 more bottles.

11 bottles of wine later, we’re pretty confident that we’ll only need 3-4 cases. We may go with 4 since we were offered some amazing deals from each shop. We’ve yet to decide what to serve – that comes Friday. We’re having friends over to taste the whites and the 3 kinds of bubbly.

How did you figure out how much liquid goodness to buy? Did you rely on an online beverage calculator, a local wine shop or did you just pull it out of thin air?

Adding it Up

What do you get when you add this

Plus this

Plus this?

Our table numbers.

all images except fabric

I've been thinking about how to label tables. Our venue offered us pre-made table numbers in little silver frames. I wasn't sold on them but thought they'd be OK if my brain couldn't come up with something better. Then a few days ago I was surfing Martha's website and found the last image. So perfect.

The plan is to cover some buttons (thanks for the instuctions Martha) and use them in place of the cufflinks. I like the idea for different fonts for the numbers. I think I'm going to use different fonts for each number and have that correspond to the font I use on escort cards. I also want to match the fabric on the bottons to the fabric used on for the cufflinks. Each table has a different fabric print.

I'm so excited. The idea just came to me and it seemed perfect. I can decide whether to put a bottle of wine on each table or fill each bottle with water. What do you think?

A Ridiculously Productive Joey

I have to say, Thursday was a ridiculously productive day. I got a mani/pedi (I NEEDED it), got in a walk, went to Spin class, finished 30 luggage tag favors, came up with two possible itineraries for the honeymoon, came up with table numbers plan, got a wedding thank you postcard out, calculated our wedding beverage needs, did some new house stuff and went to work where I was also ridiculously productive (seriously).

I haven't been this focused for no particular reason in a long time. I don't know what happened or why I've got some motivation.

This weekend I going to attempt to MacGuyver (thanks for the term Quiche!) my escort card display. We're also going to pick a honeymoon itinerary so I can book hotels, and buy the wine for the reception and rehearsal dinner. I'm also thinking I might finish the rest of the favors while watching TV.

Have you had moments of complete wedding planning Zen? How did you keep it going?

May I Escort You to Your Table?

I bet you can guess what's been on my mind lately -- escort cards and how to display them. I have no idea why and it isn't my highest priority right now, but I can't stop thinking about them. Of course I went straight to Martha to gather ideas.

all images

I'm thinking a combination of image 1 and 4 and maybe even a little 3. I have an idea in my head that involves Goodwill, some left over fabric from table runners, a package of yardsale price tags I found at my parents house and some spray paint. I might even throw in a white platter and few flowers. This may be my weekend wedding project. I can't wait to play with it and share.

Are you doing escort cards? How are you displaying them?

The Bouquet Buzz

From the beginning, I knew I wanted to do the flower centerpieces myself. I love flowers and in another life I would have loved to be a florist. My plan is to head down to Pike Place Market or store with amazing flower selection (Trader Joe's or Metropolitan Market) the day before the wedding and pick up flowers for my bouquet and for that of my MOH. I wasn't sure what I wanted except that I wanted it to be simple (easy to make and clean lines) and modern.

Then I saw this and fell in love.

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It's perfect. Black and White, simple, elegant and modern looking. I hunted around to find out what kind of flower it was and if it would be in season. Luck! Martha said it was available all year long. And then disappointment. Every other website said December through April. Poop!

So now I'm looking for new inspiration. So far here's what I came up with:

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image

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I really like the last one. I have no idea what the flowers are. Anyone?

So now I'm trying to come up with some bouquet inspirations. My criteria? Simple (easy to make and clean lines), white or yellow (doesn't matter which) and flowers in season. Links? Ideas?

I'm also hitting up my special imaginary man, Craig, and his list to see if I can find a florist on the cheap.