Not quite picture-perfect

Well, my mom and I made it down to North Bank Park Saturday to snap some shots of the site. I got some decent photos, but man, the weather sucked -- it was cold and damp and gray, oh my.

We seem to have lost the ability to upload photos from our computers here at work, so for now, those who are interested in wedding images can check out my Flickr wedding set.

Edited ... Just figured out how to post blogs via e-mail, and so I managed to sneak this shot in (additional photos on Flickr).

Heart of it all

Heart of it all
Originally uploaded by 10bagspacking

Not the most beautifulest picture ever, but this is the basic design we're looking at for our save-the-dates. The image is from a brass pin I bought at an antiques booth at the state fair a few years back.

So

I bought the dress. Here's hoping it works!

Oh, and sorry for the lousy layout ... I seem to be having photo-uploading issues ...

Barrrrrf

THE QUESTION THAT CHANGED MY LIFE, AND THEANSWER THAT CHANGED HIS

Suddenly, Walter stopped telling me tales of the farm. He took me in his arms, and staring into my eyes, he said words that took my breath away.
"Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh."
These words were the first words Adam said to Eve (Genesis 2:23). The first words spoken from a man to his wife. Essentially saying, God has made you to be a part of me and me to be a part of you.
Walter continued...
"Blair, I have loved you. I love you. And I will love you the rest of my life."
Tears welled in my eyes, as I watched Walter get down on one knee. It was as if time stood still when I heard his next words:
"Blair Ann Johnson, Will you marry me?"

Via Jezebel.

OK, OK

I should probably update y'all, huh? Truth be told, there still hasn't been a lot of action on the ol' planning front, although Kyle did have his first wedding-related nightmare three weeks ago (and I had one a few days before that). While I now have twice dreamed about totally forgetting to plan for my wedding until someone reminds me the day of, in his dream, we had, like a week. Still, stressful, no? What didn't help was watching Wedding SOS over the weekend -- have any of you seen this show? Basically, the premise that couples with wedding days fast approaching call on the help of this famed (uh, "famed") British wedding planner who whips them into shape and provides them three "wishes" -- favors that she'll do for them. The first episode we saw was the most panic-inducing. A lesbian couple in their 40s were getting married, but three days before their wedding ceremony, they had nothing -- NOTHING! -- done. I mean, I understand procrastination (boy, do I ever), but that's just nuts! The second couple made me feel like punching. This time, it was three weeks before the wedding, but nothing was done (uh, except they'd ordered wedding invites with the wrong date and time). There were two kickers: The bride was a professional event planner (!!) and her husband-to-be was on a three-month vacation, but had used the time not to plan, but to take naps. My blood pressure skyrocketed just watching these folks, and Kyle looked like he was gonna pass out.

Anyway, so with that sort of thing in mind, two weeks ago, we spent a recent Saturday looking up the cost to rent a tent -- the venue insists that we get one, given the size of the crowd (we're looking at having about 150 folks) and trying to figure out if we should rent a party bus to transport people to the park, since there is only metered parking or parking garages nearby. We didn't come up with anything conclusive on any of the fronts, although we do have one lead -- my stepmother said the hotel my stepsis had for her wedding had its own shuttle that people could use for free ... so I think we're going to check that out, because, DAMN, one of those party bus things costs, like, $1,000. Ouch.

In other news, I finally -- FINALLY! -- sent my sister a little present and a request that she be my bridesmaid/maid of honor (although she might not actually know that she'll be the only one -- I'm not sure if my mom told her or not). Anyway, I gussied up the request with one of these "paper" dresses, which is actually the last crafty thing I've done lately, sigh. I wish I'd have taken a picture of the daggone thing before I sent it out, but maybe I can get her to send me one.
As to the wedding invites, well ... we know what we're going to do for our save-the-date (I'll post a preview image up here soon), and I have sort of an idea of what to do for our invites, although I have yet to run it by Kyle, so we'll see ... anyway, luckily for us, we have several friends who are graphic designers/work for major printers, so I think we're gonna try and use their resources because, man, this shit is expensive. Over the weekend, I joined a few other people in helping Colleen and Mike put together their invites. Man, even with six of us working on it (and with Mike as the accomplished designer of said invites and the rest of us as fairly talented crafty folks) it took a looong time to finish. So, yeah, I've gotta be prepared for that. Must not go crazy with the DIY-ness.

As to colors, the plan as it stands is to have sort of a toned-down grass green, (not super-bright) yellow and brown be the dominating theme. There are lots of wildflowers along the river, so natural summery colors like that should work out really nicely, I think, and Kyle was a fan because they're not super-girly. Thanks to the wildflowers I probably won't go too crazy in including flowers as part of the centerpieces, either -- I like flowers, but they're not the end-all for me, so I'm thinking that our centerpieces will be more, like, candles and such, with a few flowers scattered in there. We'll see.

We think we've got the food thing hammered down, too. Of all places, Katzinger's seems to be the most within our budget, and seemed to have the best veggie options (Kyle will be trying out their chicken offerings for the omnivores). So, we're looking to kick it buffet style, sans servers, but with some good eats. Yay. As to the wedding cake ... I dunno, I'm still leaning toward wedding cupcakes, actually. We've also discussed having a family friend (who made her own cake when she got hitched) make a cake, or asking people to bring sweets, potluck-style. So that is TBD.

No dress yet, either. I'm still looking at something short, like just below my knees, and it will probably end up being a bridesmaid dress in white/gray/cream. Here's some favorites so far:

From Max Studio (sigh, if this was in white, I would snap it up, and I'm still tempted ...)
From Anthropologie (Would big boobs work with this? Would I look preggers? I dunno)
From Simple Dress (Although I sort of love this color)

Oh, but I'm pretty sure on the shoes. I can't get these out of my head, as they're pretty much everything I could ask for -- simple, cute, comfy looking, non-leather, not mind-blowingly expensive -- yay!

OK, folks so now that you've seen what I'm sort of aiming for, if you see anything that might fit the bill, please send it my way!

I still haven't watched Bridezillas yet

Yep, it's been two months, and those last two eps of Bridezillas are still sitting unwatched on my DVR right now. Happily there has been some movement on wedding stuff in other respects.

Last weekend, I dragged Kyle and my mom to to the Columbus Bride expo. They were there for the cake samples (oh, and Kyle was really excited when he discovered the meatballs and barbeque, too), while I was there to figure out just how much this whole getting married business was going to cost us, to try and see if I could find any pretty dresses, vegetarian friendly caterers and inexpensive group transportation to our reception site, since the parking situation there pretty much blows. Oh, and I wanted to get there in time for the fashion show that would surely torture Kyle.

For the most part, it was a bit of a bust. The veggie options are there, catering-wise, but they are slim, and I haven't found any standout caterers. There was only one transportation company represented, and given the cost of renting a bus through them, it is almost as cheap just to pay for everyone to park in a nearby garage. Which is not that cheap. So, yeah, we still have to figure that one out. [Oh, crap, and I just saw that the freaking Buckeyes are playing at home on our wedding day. I should get on making our transport and housing reservations ASAP. Damn stupid college town.] Mostly, Kyle and my mom wandered down through the aisles of the convention, snatching up samples of cake, while I spent a goodly portion of my time ducking and covering myself from the various jewelry, stationary, honeymoon and condominium sales people making their pitches while simultaneously doing my best to attempt to avoid any sort of contact with the dead-eyed, tux-wearing deejays who slowly shook their hips to the one-hit wonders blasting from their respective booths.

The fashion show proved to be all I thought it would be -- and more, as it lasted nearly two hours, torturing not just Kyle, but me and my mom, too. Still, it was fairly entertaining, at least for the first 60 minutes. The emcee wore a dress that had the sartorial splendor of a disco ball, and the spectacle included dry ice, faux snow and fake trees, not to mention lei-wearing models and a backdrop of oversized, tiki-style heads. Good times. My favorite -- I mean, "favorite" -- dress was this one, which looked to me as if it was made of crumpled pink foil. [See above.] I must find one in my size.

Anyhoodle, the expo was, at the very least, good at giving me a sense of how much services we need to get -- food, photography, drinks, etc. -- cost around here. They are, as I sadly expected, decidedly un-unexpensive. But it did help cement our decision on who we want as our wedding photographer. She is awesome, but in my ever-present fear of jinxing my plans, I will retrain from linking to her until we sign our contract. But still: YAYEE!!

So, we have that nearly done and so much more to come. I'll keep ya posted.

I bought a binder

There you have it -- an update!!

No seriously, all apologies to Mandy, Kara and The Baby Jeebus, but there hasn't been much on the ol' wedding front, other than my purchase of a wedding-planning banner. Hell, I still have two unwatched episodes of Bridezillas sitting on my DVR right now.

That said, it's nearly 1 a.m. Nov. 7, which means that the election day madness is nearly over, which means that I'm thisclose to being a regular human being with, like, a life and everything. So yeah, I should have some weddin' stuff for y'alls soon.

Yay.