eighteen days later...

Yes, eighteen days since my last post. And what's been done? Not a lot towards the wedding. Remember, Didge and I are digging out from under about five years of stuff accumulated during my almost constant moving *and* all the stuff that was displaced while the contractors were ransacking, I mean *improving*, the house. And then we rearranged pretty much all of the furniture...yeah. It's been, well, let's just say it's *been*. And then, it was time to get ready for the holidays. And now?

Well, they're here, and I we're as almost ready as I think we're going to be, save a few shopping stops and a whole lot of wrapping. How does this relate to our wedding? Baby, the very moment that last crumpled gift tag is sent to the bin it is *on*. Mom hopped in and developed a game plan that has us getting the difficult-to-transport stuff from a range of stores just five minutes from my house, and accessible with no serious traffic drama. I'm having a little trouble pinning down a supplier for meat for the nacho bar, but that's the only challenge.

So far.

I overhauled the how-to's for all the crafting I had planned, which simplified that process, and am starting to get my head around a floor plan. Straight up - I don't know where in blazes the nacho bar, cake, favors, candy array, anything is going to go yet. I know what I would *like* to do, but I don't know how to get to that place. Yes, I will be calling my mom. Call me a wimp. I've nixed some ideas in favor of keeping my sanity, but on the flip side of that, we added a small after party.

And a confession: Trey and I nearly eloped. You have no idea how close to getting married today we were.

multitasking...

While we're not exactly taking a breather, per se, from wedding planning, we *are* starting to take care of holiday zazzles at the same time. It's kind of odd to be putting up trees in the middle of getting our home in order, but they do offer a nice breather after a day of sorting cookbooks, chucking dead highlighters, and mulling over how to display a collection of chickens in the kitchen. And, frankly, I'm looking forward to a leisurely printfest when I start knocking out movie stills and invitations with the images for the living room Christmas tree - *maybe* I'll do laundry at the same time.

It's hard to believe this will all be happening in just a little over two months! I don't think it'll sink in until after Christmas, when the trees come down and the decorations are stashed. Something tells me I'll have a moment of realizing, "It's on!", once it dawns on me that I have to decorate the house all over again.

The big thing right now is carting Trey to a jeweler to get his ring size - we keep going out on errands and winding up distracted by the toy department or Hello Kitty missions. Absolutely, positively HAVE to get this done - no matter how appealing those Star Wars figures are!

it keeps growing...

Trey and I attended his stepsister's wedding over the weekend, and *someone* was most taken with the candy buffet - so now we just have to have an array of sugary goodness to hype our guests to the rafters. To be honest, I'd wanted one, but didn't think he would go for it - - perhaps there is something to letting the man think things are his idea? We've also discussed the idea of giving out guitar picks in addition to soundtrack cd's, and have added an after party to the whole thing for those we don't have room for during the dinner/ceremony/cake thing. We're both getting custom Converse, and he's kind of coming up with his own colors - which I think is completely cool.

We had a bit of an incident - my growing pile of fallen tree branches that were to become my silver twig trees? The ones that were perfectly dried out and ready to begin their transformative process? They're laying in the front yard. Candy Man (ha!) got mad at them and chucked them out there. It's been raining quite a lot, too, so the drying process has to start all over again. He's right, I do need to find a better place to store them - but so does he. There. I said it. I'm having a protracted, silent 'Zilla moment over this.

back to it...

Yep. I can plan again, and I don't have to whisper. Now if I could remember what I was going to write about...

Oh! My bouquet has arrived! And, yes, I will be sharing pictures of it after coming back in from a tremendously busy day, taking care of scanning a bunch of photos for Trey, and tweaking some descriptions on photos on Facebook and Flickr (these aren't wedding related). I might even share a picture of the pile of sticks in the foyer that will be transformed into twinkly magical twig trees, but you'd likely think I was just being a smart aleck and popping up pictures of kindling.

It's on my calendar to begin the flurry of printing all....this.....stuff next month, from invitations to movie stills to banner letters. That also means I have to make a run for crafting supplies. What do you want to bet our holiday decor is going to wind up being a bit like our wedding decor? (Actually, I have a feeling our holiday decor is going to be a tad minimal what with wedding prep and house redux.)

(I really need to start posting some pictures of all this....)

(But first, I really need to tie up the end of what's been a really busy week.)

(sneaking in again....yay!....)

(Our cake topper arrived yesterday. It's adorable, but it's also super secret, so this is basically me telling you that it's here and I can't show it to you. Wheeee!)

(I can stop sneaking on Monday.)

(sneaking)...

I'm sneaking in (remember, I'm on "vacation") to jot down that we registered for Nerf guns last night, as well as a supply of extra "bullets".

And, yes, we would actually use them. Play is very important to Trey and me, and we believe in indulging this belief as often as possible.

(sneaking back out...)

(whispering....)

I have been ordered to do nothing but relax this week. Trey is taking care of things. I am not to approach anything pertaining to the wedding, anything pertaining to redoing the house, anything that does not pertain to relaxation.

What the devil am I supposed to do?

oh. emm. gee...

Trey and I are getting married three months from today.

have you ever...

Have you ever launched a project, gotten everything organized, tidied up your desk, perhaps even having gone so far as color-coding your to-do lists (ahem) - - and then managed to become so disorganized you wanted to scream? Trey and I are getting married three months from tomorrow, and I realized this morning that I've already reached that point - just three weeks into being engaged.

When all of this started, I was on it. I had a plan, things were scheduled. The PlannerPad and my iCal were totally in sync, my checklist from Offbeat Bride was up-to-date, and I'd purged my checklist at another, less-offbeat site so I could plug my Offbeat list into that space. And up until about an hour ago, I *thought* I'd been keeping up with all of these things.

Planning and keeping things organized are two totally different things! Duh! So I'm going back through all of this, checking things off, moving things around, plugging in new due dates on some things, and am rocking the Hello Kitty highlighters like crazy on things that a nas-tay cold and getting caught up in other aspects of the wedding chucked off into the land of whoops-I-forgot-that-one. (And some of the stuff I forgot is pretty astounding - - - like "book the officiant". Whoa, yeah.)

By lunch, I'll be back on top of this. I swear. Really.

Uhoh...

In two days, we'll be three months out from the hitching. This has had a dual effect on me - I'm beyond excited, but I'm also in a total panic: We have to *overhaul*. We have to *overhaul* and then *decorate* -- and then *decorate some more* just for the wedding. Translation: We have to *work out butts off* and get to said working off fairly soon.

Trey hasn't thought it would take that long. Since we've both been sick, we haven't been able to dive in, but he's been of the opinion that we didn't need to rush. I'm the one who's been scrawling projects into my calendar and going into panic mode over it.

However, something in the calendar flipping to November seems to have struck Trey, too. Just after dinner last night, he walked into the kitchen, and in the most casual tone asked, "So you want to start finishing up the house next week? We could clear all the stuff out and move the furniture....and then get to painting. We really do need to get started."

Nesting fueled by social necessity - one really must love it, no?

super secret and super frustrations

Don't ask me about the cake topper. I won't tell you. I can't. That covers the super secret.

The super frustration? The gnomes, also known as contractors, have miraculously decided to start making (likely continuing unannounced) appearances again - just as Trey and I are about to spring into a very busy kickoff week towards getting this place into shape for the wedding. Now, the gnomes need to do what they going to do in order for this place to be ready, BUT - I'm stopping. I wrote about it in my personal blog. Bottom line, 'Zilla *will* surface, and she doesn't want you showing up at her house unannounced. It was not my decision for them to have a key, that's on my parents, and it was made clear that I need to know of their comings and goings. My turf, not theirs.

ADT will be more than glad to let me know of their comings, should they continue to do so in the fashion in which they so infuriatingly insist upon.

And I covered that in my personal blog. I swear, I'm stopping.

Trey's trying to be the voice of reason in all of this - we haven't felt up to getting to work on it all during the gnome's protracted absence, we can work around them, and so forth, and so on. I am past reason.

I am 'Zilla. Watch me burglar alarm prank.

well, that was fun...

No more spell check dit dots. 'Zilla has left the building.

However, I did run through my calendar this morning, and realize that over the next two weeks, we have to:

- get Trey's ring size
- do an event floor plan
- get down to some fine tuning on decor elements, pink mini lights, for instance, or white?
- get the addresses for the guest list
- nail down sources for the specialty disposable cameras (black and white, lomo)
- nail down sources for decor supplies
- find the perfect non-floral bouquet
- order the cake topper
- and speaking of cake....who's doing that?

I think that's all.

And as all that's happening, we also have to make immense strides on getting everything into place in this house, because we have to...

PAINT.

(bride passes out)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH

The little red spell check dit dots are in the blog header, too.


DRAT!

Hang it for tonight. I'll fix them tomorrow.

hmm. just hmm.

Trey and I ran a test print of our invitations yesterday, and even on "fast draft", were pleased with how they turned out. Love 'em, flat out. Just one problem (other than the fact that I failed to notice the little red spelling check dots under my name): Tomfoolery.

The event info includes the following: "Event starts at 6.00pm, ceremony at 8.00pm, cake to follow, and tomfoolery throughout." I thought it was witty, cute, even. Trey? Trey does not like the tomfoolery. And that surprises me, for reasons you can read all about here. (Just peruse the entries - he can play quite the fool, can Trey.) So, no tomfoolery for me.

So *what* then? Tomfoolery has become a serious bugaboo. I'm kind-of-sort-of-maybe thinking we should change that part to say something about the eighties, since the party/wedding is sporting an eighties theme. Then we could mention that guests might want to dress the part, if they so choose. I put the idea out there, and we went to sleep last night with it still floating around the living room ceiling.

It's still there this morning. If not tomfoolery.......what?

why diy?

I'll be completely straight up about this: Trey and I have both done this before. (Gasp! I know, I know, haven't we learned, we should wait seventy years, we should this, we should that, and then we should do something else just for good measure.) "Should" reminds me of a particular four-letter word. And while my past experience has been full of gorgeous, amazing things that one typically associates with weddings, and while I am very appreciative of having had those experiences, I noticed something: There's a whole lot of "shoulding" that goes on when you start planning a wedding. And all that "shoulding" - what to wear, what to serve, where to do everything, what to send - can usher you straight into shelling out enough money to fully arm a small country in the course of six months because you *should*. Been there, done that, wanted the red cake, got talked into the white, wanted a black dress, got talked into white, wanted a colorful bouquet, got talked into the one that would blend, and became a competitive little princess 'Zilla just like I was supposed to. I punched my steering wheel over the fact that anyone dared mention having plastic plates at the reception so hard my hand was stiff for days. *Yeah*.

When my life took a series of upending turns, I decided that it was high time to just embrace who I am and go with what I honestly feel I should do. Trey's the same way, and has been through as much "stuff" as I have, so when we got engaged there was never any question as to whether or not we were going to do something that reflects who we are. I think I probably started getting a little more "out there" with the initial planning than he did, for instance, I went through a couple of days where I had my heart set on getting married at the Sno Cap Drive In in North Augusta, SC. He expressed a desire to actually have a wedding, a real wedding, with a cake and invitations (I've been there, he hasn't) - but he still wanted it to be cool. That grounded me a bit, and put us squarely on the same page.

Combine the desire for a real wedding that's different, fun, and fully reflects who we are with budget constraints from both of us gearing up to go back to school next year (not that outpricing anyone matters to us in the slightest), and you've got why we decided to do as much of this ourselves as possible. I honestly think we're doing everything but our clothes and the cake ourselves - oh, and someone has to marry us, obviously. Once we jumped outside the wedding box of settling for something we didn't want because we *should*, the whole thing became more fun than the most fun day at the fair imaginable. Since planning parties and making stuff are things we're both already into, the DIY approach is just another way of making our event that much more authentically us.

And honestly, I don't think we *would* do it any other way - this way, we get our vision *and* save a small fortune, and no member of the traditional wedding brigade will ever tell us we should really opt for the softer, prettier option. I'm sure certain elements might slightly raise some eyebrows, but a little facial exercise never hurt anyone's complexion, now, did it?

life's funny, isn't it?

I've been laboring over what to write as our introductory entry for a while, and so far all that's really hit me is the title. But, especially in this instance, life's pretty funny.

Case in point:




That's us in 1990, when we first became acquainted. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of us together (that we know of), but neither of us would have considered the other back then. I was too dark, he was too pretty, and a whole host of other things were in the way. And while we ran into each other on a night out about five years ago, and he gave me his number (which I lost), we didn't actually wind up hanging out one-on-one until September.

I won't go into September. We were both dealing with big ol' swirlies of drama which we're both quite relieved to have behind us now. No need to rehash, and if you know us, you know all about it anyway. But somewhere in the middle of those aforementioned swirlies of dramas, it occurred to us that *this* works, so we decided to stay. On 11 October, we *really* decided to stay - he proposed and I (obviously) accepted, which brings us to:



And there you have the backstory, with one small exception...

Our rather small wedding will be the 6th of February 2010 at 8.00pm, hence "oh two oh six ten at eight".