Wedding photos- Bob and Joyce wedding party

I wrote the other day about photos I had in mind for the wedding, and remembered our photographer asking me which of my grandparent's wedding photos they'd like to recreate. In looking through them, I suppose the only applicable one is that of the two of them: 

I'm surprised she kept the little jacket on for this photo, unless maybe it was taken in the church?

I wonder what color the wallpaper and carpet was? Teal, pink and mauve maybe?

It cracks me up that no one in theis photo is looking in the same direction!  Not to worry Gretch, I think this is a little too far for me :)

This is an easy-peasy photo to take of the wedding party. Of course, for us it'll only be four people!

Registry must-haves

A couple of wedding gifts have started to trickle in (note to self: write thank you cards TONIGHT). We have such generous friends and family members! Since both of us formerly lived on our own at one point, we've already got a lot of stuff... but we're looking forward to upgrading!

What, then, are the top three things on our registry? The items we'd return all the crystal, barware, plates, kitcheware, etc. for?

Registry Must Have Item 1: KitchenAid Mixer

I'm drooling. At this very moment, I'm drooling over this appliance. Please? We bake, a lot. We make dinner, breakfast and brunch, a lot. It comes with cool attachements like an ice cream maker! It's pretty, and the accent color in our kitchen is red.

Registry Must Have Item #2: Dyson vacuum

It has amazing reviews. We have a dog. We have a golden retriever. We have tumbleweeds of hair under the couch. The Shop-vac is awesome, but unweildy. We have two vaccuums for inside right now: DJ's for vacuuming, mine for the wand attachment. It's $100 off right now.

Registry Must Have Item #3: new bedding

We've been using the duvet cover that I sewed from two sheets for my apartment in Lexington five (5! already?) years ago. We need grown up bedding. I've been waiting to decorate our Master Bedroom until we get new bedding.

Photo list

Our photographer asked, and a few friends strongly reccommended, that we make a list of all the photos we wanted as a means of ensuring that the photographer didn't miss someone the day of the wedding. Here's a preview of what is on the list(I've tried to source my photographs where I can, sorry if I missed some!):

Getting Ready:

Anne will start photos as I start getting ready. Or rather, as Gretchen starts getting me ready. I'm pretty certain we'll do makeup and hair in the dining room of the place at the lake, as it gets the most natural light in the house. Hopefully this portion of the day, from noon until 2 pm, will go smoothly. I'm sure there will be photos like this:

I'm glad that Gerdy will be doing the makeup and hair, since I can be more honest with her than I might be with someone I don't know.

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Since my bridal party is just my sister, it'll be all my mom and sister helping me get ready. Although I have asked a couple of people to come over and have a drink with me and hang out during this time to help make me laugh and calm down!

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Especially this one, since I'm known to be a hot blooded gal, who sweats when she gets nervous. And I'm sure I'll be nervous. MOM- CRANK up the AC! (Sidenote, I've done the fan up the skirt before, as a bridesmaid. It only makes you realize how hot you really are. Like eyelids sweating hot).

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Wedding party photos:
I'm supposed to be ready by 2 pm, when the Model A will be picking DJ up from the hotel and bringing him to my parents house for bridal party photos. I'd like to start this session with a few moments just DJ and I, to give us a chance to check each other's wedding duds out. I love photos like this, of couples spending some time with each other before going into the storm of wedding day events.

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Seriously, how cool is this?

Once we do photos of me and DJ, we'll have about an hour to do photos of the entire wedding party... me, DJ, Gretchen and DJ's brother Brian (also the designer of our website). I have a whole list of places to scope out doing fun photos, and I'm planning on reconoitering them over Memorial Day weekend. Suffice to say, they'll have a very relaxed, fun vibe. I'm thinking drinks at One Shots, something by the school, in the Model A, and around the house.

I am, however, having a hard time finding ideas for what to do with small wedding parties to create interesting photos. Any suggestions?

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This one in particular cracks me up. I'm wearing a hoop skirt. Gretchen likes to twirl. We're totally going to twirl.

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This would be fun too, of the bridal party sitting on the dock watching boats go by.

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Family photos:

We'll have to be back at the house by 3:45 pm to do family photos. This is where the list-making comes in. These will be the most "posed" photos; me and my mom, DJ and his mom. Me and my dad, DJ and his dad. Etc. I have a whole list of these shots, so as to not forget anyone.

Then at 4:30 om, DJ and I (along with the photographer!) will leave the house via the Model A to do more just bride and groom photography around town at the places we missed. This session also serves to get us out of the house while guests arrive for the Cocktail Hour.

Cocktail Hour photos:

We'll arrive back at the house at 5:15 pm; hopefully by then the cocktail hour will be in full swing. Anne's one strong mission during this time is to get photos of me with my aunts and uncles, DJ with his aunts and uncles, me with my cousins (all 30 of them, if we can get them rounded up), and one of the entire crew. Hopefully it'll look something like this:

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Ceremony:

I'm leaving it up to Anne as to which photos to take during the ceremony, but I do want her to get one from up on the hill, looking down on the whole scene. I told her last week that I'd like a photo that gets the wedding going on amidst the bicylers, jet-skiiers and boaters.

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Post Ceremony:

Anne's reccomendation to me was to vacate the ceremony site IMMEDIATELY after walking back down the aisle, or we'd get caught chatting away with friends and family. So we're leaving in a boat... my dad's Mastercraft. I wanted to go old school wood boat, but we don't  know anyone who has one, and I'm out of time to find someone. The half an hour or so that we cruise the lake will give us a chance to get great photos in more flattering light, like these:

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The remainder:

What does that leave?  Well, there will be the standard photos of the reception, families, etc., but there are a few specific photos I'd like to get that evening or the next morning:

How cool is this? With sparklers and a long exposure!

And yes, you can't get married at the lake without at least one of these photos:

Sign Language

Sorry for the radio silence again for the last week. It's been super extra busy around here, with 12-14 hour work days, trips out of town and events. Thankfully this week has a little more downtime! And the prospect of the lake at the end of the week-- YAY!

I spent some time on Sunday finishing the wedding signage. It's important to me that our guests have some clue as to what is going on, in order to avoid standing around wondering what is happening next. DJ's mom kindly took on making or having made most of the signage, with these as the inspiration:

I  also needed to add a couple of handmade signs in order to give guests a heads up on which vehicles are transporation from the parking locations to the house, as well as point out the location of bathrooms during the cocktail hour, reserved seating during the ceremony.

Since we're leaving the ceremony site in the boat and going out on the water to take photos, I wanted a Just Married Sign to string across the back of the boat for fun! Something like this (notice the floating beer bottles tied to the back of the boat!)

So, here is what I came up with. Pretty simple 6" X 6" squares with beveled corners, tied together with jute twine so they can be tied to boats and cars. If you're a wedding guest in need of a ride in Harrison, look for these!

How'd I do? Too boring?

Friday Farming May 21

* I'm blogging this a week late and post dating it since I didn't have time to last week!

Lets talk first about what is going well....

Hyacinths.

Tulips

Daffodils.

The starts that I've got going are doing okay. It's still too cold to put them outdoors at night, with temperatures still hitting the high 20's at night. Sucky. They're taking up a lot of space, and daily effort moving them in and out. I've already got blooms on my summer and winter squash, pumpkin and zucchini.

I'm curious about how the sweet corn transfers go. They're doing okay, but they've got to make it one more transfer into the ground next weekend.

I've got sweet peas working on vining up a trellis in a few pots on the front porch. They're doing okay, but aren't really going up very quickly.

Now lets talk about what's not going well. Specifically: the god damned GOPHERS!!!

Here is what the garden area looks like from our bedroom window. You'll note the open field to the north. It's filled with flea-infested, gross, obnoxious GOPHERS!!!

The little effers seem to enjoy the sugar snap peas I planted.

Also a fail? The basil, the chives, the carrots, the cilantro, and the leeks that I planted. Nothing is coming up. Seriously, frustrated with the farming effort this year.

How can I keep the gophers out?

Two week sprint

Man, a whole week since my last post. And I didn't even do a Friday farming update! Dissapointing.

Sadly, it's been one of those weeks around here, and will continue to be for the next two weeks. Last week was prepping for a big work project, dealing with projects, presenting to boards. This week is executing work projects, fufilling a Mullan Road commitment (dork), trying to not lose my shit wedding planning (55 days?), and what else... prepping for going to the lake a week from Friday (WOHOO!).

The good news is that I spend two hours on Sunday afternoon going over wedding stuff with Dusty's mom and Erin, our day of coordinator for the wedding. Everything *seems* to be on track. Except for the part where I wanted to lose weight... might those two margaritas have had something to do with that?

I have a lot to catch you up on! Wedding planning, landscaping (we planted 32 perennials last weekend), dog, work, life, etc. And sadly, I have no good photos for today. Sorry charlies. Only Harlow, sitting out in the evening sunshine. She looks so tired!

14 weeks of puppy

Harlow continues to make us laugh every day. She's doing well, save for some re-adjusting after we were gone a week. She loves laying on the floor with DJ. Loves wrestling with him, being staked out in the front yard, and going for walks.

Balancing.

Super dog with the bionic eyes.

She does not, however, enjoy going for runs. After about 10 minutes She. Is. Done.

One thing is problematic though; she's a little shy around other dogs. She either gets too excited and pees, or gets scared and pees. Or rolls on her back in a submissive pose. Yesterday the neighbor's frodo-looking 10 pound dog came over to say hello. The little shit lifted his leg and peed on Harlow. Right on her ear. And she didn't react.

So yeah, we need to work on some confidence for the girl. Any suggestions for how to accomplish that?

Ringa Ding Ding

... we bought wedding rings yesterday!

You might remember that on a quick shopping trip with my mother-in-law (okay, not "technically MIL yet, but easier to just say she is) I stopped in at Tiffany's and found a ring I loved. Suffice to say, we weren't going to drop $3,000 + for a a little blue box; I knew we'd likely have to have something similar custom made.

You might also remember that my engagement ring is a custom piece. It's squared on the bottom to be more comfortable on my finger, and I thought I wanted a wedding band that matched that shape. So we went to the guy who did my ring... and found out we can't afford a custom piece like that.

Back to the drawing board.

I dropped by another local jeweler on Main Street (local yokel, I know), and found their line of knock-off celebration rings. After trying on a few, and pricing them out in platinum, we decided to go with this set:

I like the way the swooping desing of the wedding band sets of the minimalist, square edged design of the engagement ring. It was also important to me that the wedding band sit low on my finger, so that it didn't come into conflict with the head of my engagement ring. I won't sauter them together; I wanted to be able to wear just the band at certain times. It's not the yogo sapphires I initially wanted, but it's pretty, it looks good with the engagement ring, and it was in our price range!

The price for DJ's ring? Tungston $39.99 from Amazon!

May 7 Friday Farming Update

The title of this post is going to be misleading. Farming; the mercury will dip to 17 degrees tonight. I'm not even sure my spinach can handle that, although their starter leaves are frostbitten. We'll see. My onion sets are surviving, but some water erosion filled half of the ditch where the asparagus is planted, and I'm worried it won't ever poke through the soil.

Farming in the northern Rockies takes patience. And I'm not so good with that!

About all I have to show for my farming efforts right now are some daffodils and hyacinths that I snipped from the garden between winter storms. They're in little bud vases above the sink.

In the meantime, I didn't do a Friday Farming update while we were in Utah. I meant to post a week ago about the starter plants I transplanted two Fridays ago. The last expected frost date where I live is May 15, although by the looks of it we'll go into June before it quits. I knew that my zucchini, summer and winter squash and pumpkin starts needed more room than they were getting in their peat pots. So I switched them into plastic pots I saved from 2009's annuals. Yes, I hoard things like cheapo plastic pots. Now cross your fingers that Old Man Winter will leave someday soon!

65 Days

... till El Weddingo. At least that's what our registry on Macys.com tells me when I open it. In bright red letters it tells me we've got 65 days to get this shit together! I feel like the to-do list is unendingly long!

I mean, I guess it is really happening, and in a pretty soon-ish fashion. We mailed the invites on Tuesday, and laready have our first RSVP back. One of the benefits of arriving back home earlier than planned from vacation is having two days to decompress and stuff wedding invites, right?

And it's pretty nice to do with a puppy curled up at your feet.

Harlow, of course, was super helfpul licking the envelopes :)

You gotta start by pinning it between your paws, like this....

And then make sure you get a good amount of spit on it. Yeah, on the tasty part. Sometimes it helps if you work up spit by chewing a little bit.

I mean, sometimes you just have to show that envelope who is boss.

Sigh. With 120+ invites going out, I've got a lot of work to do.