Invitations galore

And so it happens again - I am sick after vacation. Yuck. I stayed home from work today and I am feeling a little better after sleeping all morning.

B and I have been working on the invitations and they are almost done - well, the creative part is almost done. I still have to have the wording printed. I was going to try to do it myself, but I think it will be easier to have it done professionally. If I am feeling up to it tomorrow I'll get started on that.

Here are a few pictures of the invitation making on Sunday night.




The kitties really enjoyed helping too:




Journal of a sick blogger

On the road again

Tonight is our last night in Tahoe and I am sad to say that it is also our last night without humidity. Can't wait to get back home and have to use a whole can of hairspray for my style to stick, step out of the shower and want to step right back in, and trudge through inches of rainwater in the middle of July. Ahhh, the Northeast, tell me why I live there again, yeah, didn't think you could, I don't know the answer either.

Anyway, I will stop dwelling on tomorrow, enjoy tonight and share some pictures.

I am most proud of my sister for 1. being an awesome mom, 2. being a kick-ass invitation maker, and 3. being my buddy. Here are some pictures of her and my little nephew.




Here we are waiting for the sun to set. B didn't make it into this picture; she was often the photographer.



More later.
Journal of an auntie

Introducing our first art project...

The fam and I are vacationing in gorgeous Lake Tahoe and I am trying as hard as possible to steer the conversation to the wedding at every turn. I haven't been all that successful but I have managed to get the most artsy craftyist of us to participate in invitation making. Here are a couple of completed ones:





I adore them and hope that the rest can live up to these. My sister and her husband put these together and I offered to hire them, but I think these tired them out already. I need to find a deeper pool of creative juices around here.

Journal of a vacationing pretend artist

I should be ashamed..."Love is all you need" has not always been the policy

My fellow blogger desaray at Dingmoonment has pointed out that that there is one more glaring thing wrong with the Sandals establishment. I have to admit, I missed it, totally missed the whole fact that Sandals used to have a ban on same-sex couples. Ouch! The ban was lifted in 2004, and since that time gay couples have been allowed to frolic on the Caribbean beaches and swim up to the bars inside the humongous pools alongside their opposite-sex counterparts.

But, what does this mean? Should I be happy about this? Should I be mad that Sandals once had a ban? Do I boycott Sandals or do I embrace it? After much thinking on the subject I have to go with my gut feeling and that is that I support progress and I also leave room for mistakes to be made and then corrected. In my opinion, Sandals has chosen the right path. To me it doesn't matter why it has now chosen the right path, be it pressure, money woes, politics, whatever, it has now chosen to accept all couples, not just "opposite-gender couples only", as it once said on the website. "Love is all you need" is the new motto, and that is OK with me.

Journal of an OK customer

I am cursed with a dislike for shoe shopping

I am trying to find a shoe to wear with my dress that doesn't make me a giant. As a reminder, here is what my dress looks like:

Click here to see a better picture.

I want to wear flat shoes and I want them to look good. Here are two that I really like, but I want them in Gold.



The second pair is only $10. That price rocks - should I spray paint them, can I spray paint them?

Journal of an undecided spray painter

A week of nothin' but Heaven...

Are we crazy for wanting to do a very hetero honeymoon? And by very hetero, I mean Sandals, the hetero, Wal-mart of the honeymoon industry. Well, we are probably a little crazy, but we are also cheap (uh, I mean frugal) and we want a romantic, all-inclusive, beachy, sun-drenched, week all to ourselves.

I don't necessarily mind surrounding myself with straight people, we do it everyday, and we don't curb our behavior because of our surroundings, but there is a little feeling of betrayal seeping into my dream honeymoon; we would trade our Sandals in for an Olivia Vacation in a heartbeat, if they were anywhere near comparable in price.

It's also bothersome to me that Sandals is such a honeymoon mill, but I think they are also good at what they do and they found a niche market, which I can't help but respect. My business sense respects them, but my pro mom and pop sense cringes a little when I think about it.

In order to satisfy my desire to support small business, we have chosen a travel agency run by two women as our Sandals representative. So far we like them. Our final quote should be emailed to us today and then we will make our decision.

I am nervous about this whole honeymoon part. I don't know why. I plan vacations all the time, I do a lot of traveling and I love going new places. I think the part that I am unsure about is that this is what we are registering for. No towels, pots, picture frames and vases for us; we want a beach and a fruity drink, and we want our guests to pay for it. Is this too different, will people be turned off, is America obsessed with getting 'useful' things for a newly married couple? Useful to me is seeing my girl laying on the beach next to me and knowing she is mine, forever. This honeymoon will be mentally useful for both of us, even if we are the only lesbian couple in all of the Caribbean and even if 'Sandals' painted on the bottom of the pool can be seen from 3,000 feet in the air.

Journal of a guilty pleasure seeker

Invitations....this feels big

Over the weekend B and I decided on our invitations. I am not very crafty, but I pretend to be, and so in my pretending, we have decided to totally make all the invitations ourselves. I can't pretend, however, that I came up with the design (thank you, Michael's Book of Wedding Crafts) but B and I will pick out the colored paper and make each invitation one-of-a-kind. If I could find a picture of the inspiration invitations I would post it, but I don't have a scanner and so, you will just have to wait to see the works in progress, when we get to that step.

We are headed west next week to visit the ever lovely Lake Tahoe with my family. If B and I can get everything together for the invites, we will employ my mom and sister (and dad and brother-in-law, if they want to humor us) in the beginning stages of the invitation making process. This consists of cutting the cardstock to match the template from the book and then attaching the colored paper to the cardstock. The shape of the invitation will look like this:



We will then attach (not sure how yet) pieces of gorgeous paper to each of the flaps. The paper can all be different, the same, themed (such as stripes) or whatever. I like color and chaos and fun brightness. Here are some awesome papers we like:



We will then have to print out the text of the invitation on 5x7 cardstock and stick it in the middle. We haven't done the printing yet, that will happen after the whirlwind week of putting all the colorful invites together. After we stick the printed text card into the center of the folded thing, we will wrap a brightly colored ribbon around it and put it in an envelope. Hopefully ones that look like something like these:



Journal of a Do It Yourselfer.

The ceremony and reception will be where???

A couple of days ago my mom sent me pictures of her yard where our ceremony and reception will take place. She did a stunning job of taking the photos. We have decided to have the ceremony in the front of the house and then head to the back for dinner and dancing. This allows the caterer, bartender and DJ to set up while the ceremony is happening without disturbing us.

Here is the brick circle where the ceremony will be.


People will stand on the porch and look down at us in the circle below.


B and I will walk along the path to the circle, gathering flowers from our guests, who will be lined up along the path before convening on the porch. Before the ceremony begins each guest will be handed a flower to give to us. These flowers will make up my bouquet. I love the idea of gathering the flowers from the guests as a way of saying hi - from us to them, and them to us.


Here is a good shot of the yard.



The dance floor will be set up on the grass and the dinner tables will be placed on the 3 patios surrounding the grass. The pool can be seen at the far end of the photo and there is a little more patio space near the pool where we will put another table or two.



Thanks for looking!

Journal of an excited set decorator

All the things left hanging...

TA DA! My new favorite tablecloth. It could realistically be ribbons, but I choose to think it is a tablecloth or runner that I could actually find to put on our tables!



Updates: No dress yet. It is still languishing in Toronto while money changes hands and it gets ready for its long journey here. I don't ever purchase clothing without trying it on first, so it's pretty ironic that I am not only not trying this dress on first, but I am accepting that there is no return policy. Madness. And, it's my wedding dress! Some say that a wedding dress is the most important dress one will ever wear - not sure I subscribe to that thinking - but, it would be nice if the dress fit.

Updates, con't: No ring yet. I am not very happy with Kay Jewelers. Not only did a diamond fall out 2 months after the ring was put on my finger, it has been in the possession of Kay Jewelers since May 18. That's a long time. Yes, a long time for them to have MY ring. I have had many discussions with my 'problem solver contact' and she assures me that this is a normal time frame. Well, their 'normal' sucks. Supposedly a rush has been put on a rush with a rush on top of that, but I still don't have the ring...let's put a rush on it folks.

Updates, con't: my little kitten Frankie is barely a kitten anymore, in size. In attitude, he is a ginormous terror that never stops. Even while sleeping, I know he is dreaming about the next small object he can knock off a counter and lose forever in the abyss of small corners and little spaces in the house. "Where is my ____?" asks B, "I don't know, love, did you leave if laying out for the miniature beast to get" I say. Undoubtedly, miniature has lost many great things of value to us. But, for some reason he doesn't answer us when we question him. I think he may be just like those Russian tourists on the Lobster boat; not understanding the guides who are trying to teach.



He still looks pretty small in this picture, but that is just because Huey is massive. Don't be fooled. The cats love this new floor mat we have below the sink in the kitchen. They think it belongs to them. Fine, except if we are trying to wash dishes, run the water, do anything at the sink, they DO NOT move! We try as best we can to step over and around them but, without fail we end up kicking or stepping on one of them each night. Uggg, you'd think they'd learn....plus, they never pick up the cat hair they leave behind.

Frankie supporting his rainbow moms.



Journal of a wrapper upper.

A Gorgeous Weddin' in Bah Haba

Bar Harbor, Maine is just the cutest, most picturesque little place ever. After our LONG car ride to the sea (of which I am proud to say B discussed our wedding details more than I did) we quickly made our way to the nearest lobster selling place for dinner. This was not difficult b/c EVERY little place we passed sold lobster. It was very charming.

We didn't eat these dudes - they were part of the lobster catching/learning excursion we took:





This is a shot of the hill overlooking the water where we watched the July 4th fireworks on our first night.





On our lobster excursion we learned that some lobsters are right handed and some are left handed, they are cannibalistic, they have gills, but can survive outside of water for awhile depending on the outside temp., and that Russian tourists do not understand a word that the guide is saying.

And the wedding.....

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the bride and groom. That probably has a little to do with the fact that I don't know them and a little to do with my inability to think of pictures when I am (a) crying during the ceremony, (b) dancing my heart out or (c) at the bar. I did, however, take a picture of the awesome lanterns they used:



I also employed my soon-to-be-brother-in-law to take a few pics of B and I in the ceremony site. I loved the ribbon decoration and the background. Oh, and I also loved my kickin' dress.






B is experimenting with a new hairstyle that looks like it could poke my eye out. It's not quite as pointy as it looks in the pictures. I like it.

Journal of a fan of the Maineland

Pride and Bride

Pride: This past weekend I saw tons and tons of gay people at NYC Pride. It was awesome! I will post some pictures when the time is right (aka, when I actually get some time). NYC Pride has such a fantastically long parade that the sky actually had time to rain about 5 different times, with huge blocks of hot dry sun in between the downpours. I'd say we started watching about 1 pm and at 6:30 the last gay parader crossed the finish line. Long? Yes. Worth it? Yes. Even in the pouring rain? Yes.

Bride: Hot damn! B and I picked out our menu last night. I like food, I like food, a lot, but I really like drinks. We have decided on a signature drink, as it's called, sounds awfully pretentious to me - it's just a mojito, but whatever. Batches of this signature drink will be mixed up for our guests (umm, me) to enjoy! Can't wait. The freshness, the mintyness, the rumness, I can just taste it now. I can just see it now.....



However, in order for me not to fall over from too many signature drinks, we also have to have food. I plan on choosing the steak from our selection of steak, salmon, and vegetarian (hmmm, I don't actually know what the vegetarian option is, I didn't even bother to read the description, note to self: read the description. Shows how interested I am in that option). B plans on choosing the salmon. And, I hope everyone chooses the salmon or the veg, because they are less expensive than my savory steak. Look at me: trying to help the folks protect their pocketbook.

B and I have also chosen our photographer! I am even more excited about him than I am about the signature drink (odd). His work is gorgeous and he is looking forward to shooting his first same-sex wedding (yes, I like the term same-sex wedding more than gay wedding too, girls: Board Name Change). As I have said before in this journal, I love color! And so does our photographer. Check out his blog too: http://rcjonesphotography.blogspot.com/.

This weekend B and I are off to Maine to be wedding guests. I have to remember not to inundate B with wedding talk or she may open the car door and quietly drop out during our 7.5 hour drive.

Journal of a signature drink blogger.