Thank you all

To everyone who read the blog and gave me helpful feedback and support..

Thank you!
Thank you!!
Thank you!!!

We had a wonderful time on our amazing day and can't wait to begin our lives together.

But for now! Off to Playa del Carmen!!

Much love,
~Carrie

Tipping

Source

Sensitive subject, tipping is. I tend to over tip, to Mr. SB's chagrin. We ate a diner the other day, $16 or so for the bill. Seeing as I n.e.v.e.r. have change, I had a $5 that I was happy to leave and he was shocked. In my mind, the extra $2 doesn't make a big difference to me but maybe the waitress (who obviously doesn't make a ton of money) will appreciate the "big" tip. Or maybe I'm delusional. Whatever.

(Counterpoint: Mr. SB tells me it's not my job to make up for salary injustice in the world by paying more for my meals.)

Anyway, this wedding business... we're paying some people a bomb-diggity amount for their services already. And some people own their own business while others work for companies. So who to tip? And how much? (*Seriously... there are MORE decisions to make?!)

Probably WILL tip:

• Guitarist - works for an entertainment company
• Violinist - same as above
• DJ - same as above
• Priest

Probably will NOT tip:

• Civil officiant - charging us a (large) flat fee for services
• Pianist - charging a us a (smaller, but still large) flat fee for services
• Photographer - works for herself, we're already providing a meal
• Cake baker
• Florist
• Venue owner

Unclear:

• Catering staff - a full 9% surcharge is added as "gratuity" on top of the lots of money we're spending on labor

Am I missing any one? And would you do anything differently? And do you pay by cash or check?

I think I need to hire a decision maker for this last week......

It's 1am and I'm writing checks.

Mr. SB had to work 11p-7a tonight and we went out to a big dinner after a long day/week. We got back from eating and he wanted to take a nap before work. Well.... that sounded like a good idea to me too. Until I woke up at 1 a. m. bright eyed & bushy tailed.

So here I am trying to bore myself back to sleep by paying wedding bills.

Which now that I think about it... might not be the best idea...

Anyway, part of me is really excited that all the balances are now due because it means this whole wedding thing is really happening soon. And the main part of me can't believe how much money will be hemorrhaging out of my checkbook soon! (The wedding industry is a conspiracy I tell you!)

But I can't wait... can't wait.. can't wait!!

*Happy dance!*

Nooooooo

That was the title of the email I sent Mr. SB when I checked the 10 day weather.com forecast today, the first day our wedding date appears.

I'm only allowing myself to check the site once a day, but they'd better change their minds!!

Almost a really bad day.

As most of you know, I love my fur babies very very much.

And as many of you know, this morning when I woke up, my back door was wiiiiiiiiiiiiide open, Elliot was soaking wet inside, and Olivia was gone. :( No frowny emoticon can express how. unbelievably. sad. I was as I drove to work. Luckily, Mr. SB had the day off and spent three full hours looking for her, making signs, driving, walking around in the POURING rain. And amazingly, he found her. And she must have been cold and tired enough to let him catch her. So sassy pants Olivia is back home safe and sound. Both kitties are acting a little lethargic, so hopefully they didn't catch a cold or something, but I'm soooo soooo sooo sooo so relieved.

Hug a loved one, even if they're furry!

Frank Sinatra vs. Rod Stewart

We picked our first dance song, but had to select the version of it to play. We narrowed it down to two choices.

Old Blue Eyes.

Or this guy

What a funny choice. What do you think we chose???

Geometry

So, I ordered the cake topper. And really was excited about it. And got the pictures of it from the topper-maker and was really pleased.

And then I called our baker to confirm our cake order. And my bubble was popped big time.

Our topper (which I'm not showing you but is really cute) is on a 5" square base. Our cake was going to have a 5" round top layer.

A 5" square on a 5" circle.

Doesn't fit.

Options:

• Have a 6" top layer (and pay for the additional servings)
• Try and cut the topper base down
• Try and pull the little clay guys off the topper and stick them on there another way
• Set the topper next to the cake and call it a "next-er" not a "topper". Harhar.

A 5" square on a 6" circle.

Still doesn't fit.

I mentioned putting the topper next to the cake to Mr. SB & he said "well, that's no fun." So I guess I'll have to wait to receive the topper and see if I can more easily take it apart or cut down the base.

What do you think is the best option?

Dad

My dad hasn't been in too many posts so far, but he was cute today. I was talking with my mom and my dad was eager to talk to me on the phone. Now normally, that would mean he has to talk to me about my taxes. But not today.

Dad: "So, I've been a bad dad."
Me: "What?"
D: "I've been a bad dad."
Me: "Yes, you said that... what are you talking about?"
D: "You sent me an email asking me for advice on the father daughter dance and I didn't respond."
Me: "True."
D: "I'm a bad dad."
Me: "Stop already!"

I told him there was still time to change the song, if he had input. He asked what I picked and then said, "Oh, I like that one." Which from dad is a glowing approval.

So there we go. The biggest decision dad's been a "part" of. :)

I don't WANNA use my plan B...

Weather in the spring is unpredictable in Northern California. Today, for example, it's 65 and bright and sunny. But two days ago, it was almost winter-jacket-cold in the morning and there have been thunderstorms. So basically, who knows?

One of the main reasons we chose our venue is because of the awesome back up plan. But it's just that, a back up plan. I want to use the FIRST plan!! Unfortunately, the first plan is outdoors and on grass. Hmm...

It's finally close enough to start looking at weather.com to see what we can see.


Ok, true, we can't ACTUALLY see the date... but all of a sudden I'm in a bit of a panic about the grass thing. Even if we CAN have the ceremony outside, my shoes aren't gonna like that very much. And my dress is hemmed to high-heel length. Sweet.

What's a girl to do?? Quick find other shoes? Wear flats and let the bottom be too long? Just sink into the dirt? Eek!

**********************************
Update!

Soulmates!!

Little plastic covers that keep you from sinking in. MOH & I are now proud owners. :) Just now to get them here in time!

Making me up

I'm not sure what to think of this make up business. My goals were to have something that would last all day and make me look good/not washed out in pictures.

Here goes the trial (and since Mr. SB is out of town at his bachelor party... all these are self shots).... Oh, and she did my eyebrows. That's not just a fancy makeup trick.

Before

After

After in mirror with flash

After in window light, more directly

After from on top of my dresser to simulate "afar"
Note, Elliot is checking his mommy out!

Outside lighting

Later, with lower lid eyeliner & different lip gloss

I have to say, it feels pretty amazing. I don't feel like I have any make up on my face. I'll see how long it lasts this evening.

The make up lady was really frustrated that I couldn't tell her what I didn't *love* about it. I think I just look... different. I don't know. She even, very snip-ily, said "This is why I like you to bring people with you!" Well, make up lady, if I had friends or family in town I would have. So just be nice and put on some more mascara. *Frown face.*

Please please, blog readers. What should I change about the makeup?

• Colored eye shadow?
• False eyelashes?
• More liner?
• Liner on lower lids?
  
• Darker eyeshadow?
• Darker lipstick?
  

Other suggestions very very welcomed!

The pants that don't lie.

My weight fluctuates quite a bit. Maybe more than quite a bit. I have a range of about 20 (!) pounds that covers the areas of:

• Too low to maintain
• Low reasonable
  
• Average
• High average
• Tight clothes

Normally, I live around average - high average, depending on how much I'm exercising those days. After Christmas this year, I was more around tight clothes. Which 10 weeks before you wedding isn't a great thing. We tried to be motivated and good about our eating, etc., but we were not super successful. When you're stressed out all. the. time. it's easy to have a bottle of wine, or some snacks, or some comfort food, or chocolate, or all of the above, each night. Which does NOTHING for the chub.

Nice trip in late January. Not so much a good look.

Ripping my dress was kind of a low point. :( I had a woe-is-me blog post about how I won't "look my best" on my wedding day. I'm glad I never hit Publish, whiner.

I'm proud to say that I have gotten "back on track" in the past few weeks. I eat a lot of yogurt and not a lot of snacks. A few Christmases ago, Mr. SB got me the most expensive beautiful pants I've ever owned. They are wool and have absolutely zero stretch to them. They are the pants that don't lie. If you've gained weight, they're tight. Comfortable but slightly loose means I'm at a weight that I'm pretty happy with. Well, about three weeks ago, I couldn't wear them to work. And yesterday I did, very comfortably.

A better size, from this past June. Pre-wedding & job stress!

And tried on my dress again at home and it fit much better. Without tearing. :) Wedding photos, here I come!

Mystery solved!

Remember the "I have one extra postcard stamp and therefore must have forgotten to put it on someone's RSVP card but refuse to open all the envelopes to figure out who" saga? No? Well... it was fascinating.

Anyway, the mystery has been solved!

The RSVP card from my aunt... with a different stamp on it!

She's so nice, she wouldn't have minded... I can't wait to tell her that she was the heart of a puzzle! I'm so relieved! :)

Head count

Ah the guest list.

That was quite a battle. When we first were engaged, Mr. SB & I had a talk about our "ideal" wedding. Outdoor components at a winery was one item. About 50 people was the second. So we brutally slashed our guest list, hurt my parents' feelings, and then reconsidered. We ultimately invited 83 people with a hope of ~65 coming.

We're now at possibly less than 60.

I know, I know. It's closer to what I "wanted", right? And I should be happy, right?

But for some reason, I feel a little lame. That 1/3 of our guests said "no." And now wish I had invited some more friends.


But little is nice, we're not super social anyway and this'll give us more time to talk with our friends and family. But I still feel a little lame.


Ok, thanks blog readers for letting me whine. My (very quickly approaching!!) wedding will be awesome. And I can't wait to be married to the love of my life. And go on my honeymoon. :)

You want a ... what?

A bone scorer.

It has a wikipedia entry. That means it's a legitimate item.

Anyway, it's a sharp stick to help you fold paper. All the uber crafty bride bloggers have and talk about them and I always thought, "Wow, how lame. You bought a stick to fold paper."

And then I tried folding my programs. (*Oh programs... we aren't friends yet.)

I need a little stick.

The paper will. not. fold. straight. without scoring the cardstock first.

Insert my makeshift tool. (Seeing as it's 9pm on Friday night, not many stick stores open 'round these parts.) The calligraphy pen. I started out using the handle end, but it kind of bent, so I switched to using the scratchy end and found I had better control.

After folding, you have to crease the paper and my fingernail beds were getting sore fast! And THEN I discovered that the MIDDLE of the pen worked great for that. So thank you, multi-talented calligraphy pen for saving my crafting evening. Fascinating read, I know. But I needed a break. :)

Ever used a bone scorer? Or a calligraphy pen in that many ways??

Box o' fun

In an attempt to be organized, I want to give the caterers a (shoe box sized) box for each table.

I googled "Box with lots of stuff in it" :)

This is not earth-shattering, but I hope a useful little task.

In the box for each table will be:

• The poms for each table
• The frame with the table number
• Menu cards for the table
• Votives & candles
  
• Favors
  
• And a layout of who sits next to who

Am I forgetting anything?

I have secrets!

I bought the presents for my parents, my MOH, & my husband-to-be and I just want to give them to them and talk about it!!!

But I can't!! And it's killing me!

I had to wrap them up so that I'd stop messing with them... or have Mr. SB accidentally find them. Although, they were hidden in my big pile o' wedding crafts.. and area he stays far far away from.

None are super-stellar awesome gifts, but each took though and searching and I hope they enjoy.

The gifts, patiently waiting in the garage!

Next to last paper crafts...

Yes, I've blogged about this ad nauseum, but the programs are getting completed this weekend! I tried to make Mr. SB help last night and he kindly reminded me that he works 3-11pm Friday and Saturday nights which would be PERfect crafting sessions. Thanks, honey.

Anyway, the format is the same, but the two programs (for the two ceremonies) are slightly different. A cool accident happened... I ran out of the patterened paper that I wanted to use for the belly band, but then I realized if I did one set of programs with patterned and the other with solid green belly bands, you could easily tell them apart. Nice. :) (*Gotta take joy where you can find it!)

The idea was to mimic the invites.. and I think we achieved that.

Burned out photo. Oops.

Up close of how I used the monogram I designed, way back when.

Inside, duh

I have this thing... I am totally and utterly paranoid about letting the printer run without me sitting right next to it, cheering it on. I realize this is crazy, esp after as many trial runs as I do. So this evening after two.straight.hours. test printing, and printing in small annoying batches, I pushed "Print 10" (*I need 40, but 10 at a time is a big step for me.) and went to get dressed to work out.

And then! The printer gods reminded me why I'm so afraid of them.

It cut off our names!!!!!!!!!!! It did NOT look like this on the ones printed prior, I checked!

Here's my patch up. I don't love it, but I'm deep breathing and keeping them. Well, except the one I messed up and threw away.

Any tips for satiating the printer gods??

Shout out to the Dollar Store

I just wanted to give props to my favorite wedding shopping store. Sure Michael's is great, and we love our registry stores, but hello!! Dollar Store. You've been a life (& budget) saver.


A few things I've gotten there:

• Floral wire - and lots of it.
  
• Mini hot glue gun sticks - yeah. They even had MINI ones.
  
• Tissue paper
• Wrapping paper
• Items for the bathroom baskets
• A bathroom basket
• Picture frames for bathroom basket poems

Our little (snobby) town doesn't have stores like Target or Wal-Mart, but we do have one of these. And hooray for that.

Do you have any favorite hidden gems?

Single file line every one!

I've been stressing about the walking-down-the-aisle order for some time.

Why would I worry about something like that? Well...

• We won't have grandparents in attendance.
• Mr. SB's mom doesn't have a date or a male relative.
  
• We don't really have traditional ushers.
• My mom is having three brothers in attendance and doesn't want to pick just one as an escort. And all three would look ridiculous.
  
• Our wedding party is super small.

So... right. All of the postings of "this is how you do it" don't really apply. I think our way of "doing it" will be as follows.

• Mr. SB walks his mom. (Not typical. I know.)
• My mom + ringbearer (My little brother.)
• Best Man (He can't be standing alone at the front is Mr. SB is walking in with his mom as part of the processional)
• Maid of Honor
• Bride + dad

Really and truly, I'd love suggestions. This just doesn't seem quite right still...

Tag punch, woohoo!

I'm stuck at home today waiting for a furniture delivery (yay!) and was stoked to finallyyyyyyyyyy get my tag punch in the mail!

So stoked, I even took a picture of the box. I'm that cool.

What does one do with an awesome tag punch??


Make tags!! Of course!

Escort cards (on the table during cocktail hour to tell you what table to sit at). Attached to the wine charms. With a note that those are in fact wine charms and you are to use and keep them. :)

Seat assignments (on the ubiquitous poms at your seat). Yeah, I'll be the one attaching the tags to the poms. I'm pretty sure Mr. SB's head'll explode if I ask him to do one more thing w/ the poms.

Initially, I wrote them like I did for the lime pom... and you can't see it at all. But I think writing it on the side, like the "Dad" one looks fine. And the caterers have asked that we have assigned seating to make meal delivery easier. Cool.

I also had a mini-panic attack that I should print (like with a printer) and not hand write the names. Then I realized how hard that would be to line up and totally got over it.

Any other ideas on how I can use my awesome tag punch??

Back to the hair flower idea...

So a while back, I was really inspired to make myself a hair flower. After the failure of that idea, I picked out the sparkly clip I'll be wearing.

At my hair trial, the stylist asked what I had bought for my MOH to put in her hair (a low side bun). Which is nothing. So feeling a little bad... I ventured back to hair flower land.

Here's what we got...

Flower One. Pretty, delicate. But... huge.

Flower two. Better size, but not as pretty.

Side by side of 1 & 2.

I didn't have any other flower petals to work with.. the ruffly ones were too big and the smaller ones were lower quality. So what's a girl to do? Brainstorm!

Flower three. Better!

I had to cut apart 1 & 2 to make three, but here are the comparisons. I'm pretty happy w/ how it turned out. We'll see how it looks in her hair.

Man it feels good to conquer a project that previously conquered me!!

Any input to make it look better? More pearls? or feathers?

Not-so-great hair day

I had my hair trial today. I was really excited about it.. bc I had a pretty clear vision of what I wanted my hair to look like. (Remember Stephanie? Well, that.) And I really really like the woman that does my hair... so off I go on this rainy day.

Results: (*Click any picture to make it bigger)

That goofy smile? Yeah, that's bc this dumb shot took like 5 tries!

Look at that focus!

I took, no lie, three(!?) shots of my ear/door before figuring out the mirror/back-of-head technique.

The right side, with pretty hair clip.
And toothpaste. Yuck! :)

The plain side & back view.

To be honest... Overall, I'm not thrilled.

The changes I asked for were:

• Less hair up, more down
• More "twisting" of the hair on the sides so there's some interest
• Not so tight on the sides so my ears are more covered (I kind of did that already)
• And I'm getting a cut in two weeks to add some layers/highlights that'll help too

What I DID like, is that it's super comfortable. The hair is out of my face, but still "down" like Mr. SB likes. I like the shape of the front/top. And it seems to be holding up well. Oh! And it looked great with the veil.

I'm a little nervous that I'm not having another trial... but I think (and hope and cross my fingers that) she really understood the changes I was after.

Ok, time for input! What else should I ask for?