3 Things I Love Today

1. Driving through San Francisco all by myself! Well, me and Jarmin the Garmin. I drove in with no incidents whatsoever, which is quite a feat, because I am really a nervous city driver. But it really was not bad at all. And I went and got pretty good Ethiopian food for lunch. Thank goodness for freedom, independence, and meetings with friends at their sex-centric art show. I think I have crested over the age where you are allowed to blame these kinds of fears (city driving) on naivete or innocence. You are probably just a wuss, or you have let the fear win. Or something. Anyway, I did it, and it was a nice break and a good conversation with a genuinely lovely person over hot chocolate in the middle of August. Life is good.
2. The Center for Sex and Culture in the Mission- they always have great stuff going on there, including super interesting and well-curated shows. I like that every time I am in the building they are about to have a really cool event going on. Plus, they haven't been in the building long, but the community center has already totally saturated the space in the best way possible.

from www.pinterest.com/kassmarie88/likes/‎

3. Timelines and Photo lists- more specifically, getting lots of these things done. It was a pretty fun project to thing of what we wanted and didn't want. Now, just holding out another day or two to see if the photographers write back or if we are just heading forward without them! Yay wedding productivity!

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Todays Inspiration= carl weathers

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3 Things I Love Today

1. This! 17 days!
2. The Boy's reaction to Toilet Paper Commercials with Bears- Nothing disgusts him more than animated bears schlepping for toilet paper. I am not sure why, but I love it. Not the bears, which are stupid and entirely unrelated to the issue at hand, but I think there must be so much of a stigma against the actual function of toilet paper that advertising them must be nearly impossible.  I guess you can't advertise with a family made of shit.

3. The Total Weirdness of Downtown Carmel by the Sea- this downtown is quaint rich person heaven. Its a cute little downtown where the hometown shops are things like Tiffany's, and I couldn't find a sandwich for less than 12 dollars. It has 2 connotations to me- it's where my wedding dress is from, and it is where Clint Eastwood lives. That's about it.  But walking through it today made all the fake little Silicon Valley downtowns look like ghettos. Just bizarre.

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Wedding Wednesday- Trying to Make a Seating Plan (with alterior, match-making motives)

from tahoeunveiled.com/tag/black-and-grey-wedding/

This week's big mission (other than trying to figure out what the hell one packs to go home for their wedding) is to do the seating chart. We haven't finished yet, though we have managed at least one really fun set up, though of course we will have to wait to see how that goes. Basically, the Boy has completely taken over the task, and I make myself available to answer questions as he raises them.

We decided that we should do a seating chart not because of the formality of it, but basically to try to put people we can count on to be chatty with strangers in the thick of things. You can let people seat themselves, and in some cases that might be perfectly fine, but it can also feel like a middle school cafeteria if you don't know many people. It's another one of those things, where I think if the host is a little more high strung, the guest can actually be relaxed. Plus, we don't have extra chairs to go around!

from somethingturquoise.com/2011/09/02/diy-easy-seating-chart/

Apparently the cutesy elves on Etsy do this whole post-it note thing. This is a LOT for us, and in general, excel has worked perfectly. I categorized people, the Boy made a second excel sheet for the table setup (micro and macro). He split them into tables in one night on one spreadsheet, and now tonight we are working each table out as independent units. I'll let you know how it goes. I keep thinking I will blog about wedding stuff more, because it's close and I could if I wanted to, but honestly, how much else is there to say? Especially with the Olympics on! But I will try to talk more about our strategies once I know whether they will actually be successful.

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Wedding Wednesday- Our Inspiration Pictures

 

Ok, now that things are boiling down, the pictures that ended up being our biggest inspirations have really come together. If you are planning your wedding, I highly recommend keeping a stock of the pictures that appeal the most to you as you go, because they will probably paint a pretty clear picture of the feeling of your wedding.

Ooooh, going through these makes me so ready to do this already! I think it is going to be fun. This is the part I miss now that we are going through the nitty gritty.

from www.stylemepretty.com/page/647/

from www.oncewed.com/diy-wedding

from www.chroniclebooks.com/handmade-weddings

from www.etsy.com/shop/stylemycorntoss

from lastingimpressionsweddings.blogspot.com/

from southernweddings.com/vendor/a-southern-soiree/‎

from ruffledblog.com/handcrafted-backyard-texas-wedding

from etsy.com

from fr.weddbook.com/hashtag/fuchsia-wedding/2

from www.pinterest.com/paulajvr/hay-bale-inspiration

from greenweddingshoes.com/diy-giant-paper-rose-flower/‎

from minted.com

from www.societybride.com/category/bridal-look/wedding-shoes/

from greenweddingshoes.com/

from vickiesvintage.blogspot.com/p/wedding-themes.html

from theknot.com

from www.jasminestarblog.com/index.cfm?StartRow=528

from www.stylemepretty.com/california-weddings/

from pinterest.com

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Wedding Wednesday- The Dress is in the House!

Today, I had my last dress fitting at Epiphany Bridal in Carmel by the Bay (they are awesome, but I will probably write a separate blog on that later); now, the dress is in the house. And it fits me just fine. And it looks very pretty in the bag and I keep wanting to get it out and show the boy, because he is the only person around who I could show!

 My thoughts on dress fittings are pretty simple- who cares if the person fitting the dress doesn't like you? Almost everything you have to tell them will sound like a complaint in your head. You are asking for more of their time and their labor, so you should be gracious, really listen to them (because they do probably know more about dress-fitting than you), and be openly thankful for their efforts. But you should also say every little thing that pops in your head and may turn into a real complaint later. Because it will grow like a weed. And they will be on to the next fitting, and you will still be mentally torturing yourself. So just say it. They won't care. Seriously, even if they are sassy, they are used to it.  I found every time I would feel rude suggesting something needed to change, but now that it is done, I am so glad I did!

from www.1950swedding.com/

My only other big piece of advice on this is don't buy a dress from someone who skeeves you out. Randy Fenoli would hate this, but dresses are a dime a dozen. The one you love is elsewhere, I promise you. Don't buy a dress from someone you wouldnt trust to tear it up and put it back together again, because that is what they are going to do. 

Also, bring your shoes! that part really does end up mattering. This is pretty much all I have learned from this particular experience, which I generally found very pleasant and not particularly remarkable. I am very excited/ freaked out to have the dress in the house, because it means we are so close to the wedding! 2 weeks! 17 days!

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Thank you Random Pinterest Post

Great ideas alone mean nothing. Your ability to persevere through 16 major setbacks, a lack of passion, forgetting why you started this great idea in the first place, and all the people who allude that your great idea is actually quite terrible — well, that means everything.

And then there is this one-

 Life will never feel like it's "supposed to". Being twentysomething can feel like death by unmet expectations. However, let me be so brash to say that you are right now, at this moment, exactly where you need to be. But you’ll only be able to see that five years and thirty-eight days from today.

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