We're Married!

To use Offbeat Bride lingo, our "wedding porn" is on the way...

What I Have Accomplished Since Last Friday

• Finalized the food menu - It's super yummy, and now we just need to figure out the booze!
• Did a reception location run-through with JCakes and our parents
• Created a test centerpiece - and did lots of research on where to find moss on the cheap (Thank you WeddingBees!) and liter-size mason jars.
  
• Met with our new DJ
• Met with a possible flower vendor
• Finally tracked down the Fun Zone guy for a photobooth quote
• Emailed our photographer for follow up
• Researched wedding rings
• Researched wedding shoes
• Picked wedding fabrics for dress with designer
• Helped my mom pick out a dress for the wedding
• Helped JCakes locate enough ties for all the guys and himself
• Found an invite designer, went through three rounds of edits in no time flat (Monday-today) and have them ready to go out to the printers today! MAD PROPS to Megan at Silhouette Blue!
• Went through 10 pages of forum suggestions on Indie Bride's Kvetch "Vows" forum thread and narrowed our ceremony readings down to 30 - now to choose three!
  
• Shopped and purchased honeymoon clothes & under-stuffs
• Emailed a possible hairdresser/makeup lady - Suzy please email me!
• Coordinated with the bridesmaids on Bachelorette Party #1 and #2
• Researched flower girl dresses
• Researched bridesmaid gifts
• Researched DIY non-denominational wedding ceremony scripts
• Bought some reception decorations
• Looked for wedding hairpiece DIY stuff - Sadly, all three craft stores left me coming up empty-handed
• Looked into wedding hairstyles
• Looked into making my own birdcage veil
• Booked the honeymoon!

This was all in addition to the normal work-week, chores stuff too and it doesn't include the help I've gotten from family and friends. It may be lame to write it all out, but I'm feeling pretty good about the headway here.

Still, there's so much to do though that I am actually having nightmares.

I wish I had a coordinator for the timing on all this. I know I can do a ROS on my own, but it just helps to know there is someone out there thinking it out.

Anyways...

Official Guest Website Is Up!

Hey folks,

If you are reading this as a Save-the-Date card-carrying, official guest of our wedding, please email me for a link and password to our official wedding website for guests only. Site is a work in progress, but as of now, it does include key information about booking hotels, directions and other fun stuff.

Also, if you are still looking into hotel accommodations, you may want to hit me up sooner than later. The Notre Dame homegame situation is making it increasingly difficult to find a room on the cheap and we have a few rooms blocked, but not a ton.

Just want to make sure everyone has a place to stay and doesn't have to camp outside Johnny's parent's house ;)

xoxo,
Candace & Johnny

Keeping it Woodsy, No Matter What

Man, I have been the worst about keeping up with the blog posts, but I'm happy to report that this crazy-planning train in back on track, and BIG thanks too all the lovelies who've stumbled across my blog and shown a little love by way of comments or re-tweets.

This week's goal was to accomplish at least two wedding-related tasks and I'm happy to report that I actually did three. Hoping to maybe even round out a few more as soon as JCakes is off work and can meet me at Knockbox Cafe (by the way, Knockbox is Humboldt Park/Logan Square-local, wi-fi ready and has incredibly friendly people working there).

Anyways, the wedding is something like seventy days away, so no time like the present and with all the crazy that's been going on, figuring out centerpieces have sort of been wayyyy down on the priority list. Largely because I've been having some trouble figuring out how we are going to make the new wedding location fit with our theme:

Theme: Woodsy, whimsical, nature-lovin'

Old Location: Humboldt Park

New Location: Knollwood Country Club in Granger, IN.

Note: We're not hating on Knollwood. While it's true that there's nothing about me or Johnny that really screams country club; the location is great, the coordinator is very professional, the chef flexible and the space is big enough to handle our big ol' guest list.

Anyways, my aunt has been gracious enough to help out with centerpieces and lean some of her keen decor skills to our reception space, so I should probably knock something out idea-wise since we'll have to come up with enough to cover 25+ tables.

Idea #1: Manzanita branches

Originally, I had some pretty kick-ass plans involving Manzanita branches, moss, wooden boxes, fabric fall leaves and ever-popular tea-lights. Sort of like these (Photo Source: The Knot)...

...but turns out Manzanita branches are pretty pricey. Wedding idea, expensive? Go figure.

Seems a little crazy to pay that much for branches, with so many readily available and ripe for the pickup outside, so we thought about going a different route...

Idea #2: Hurricane-jar-filled with acorns + tea-lights.

Turns out, there has been a shortage of acorns for the last two years. Even if we could locate enough to fill all those jars, I couldn't bear the thought of stealing food from squirrels and the other little guys who rely on acorns as a food source.

Luckily, my friend Laura Rupp, event planner at Classic Party Rentals and all around bad-ass, found a couple cool ones and shared them with me today...

[Photo Source: Totally Tabletops/The Invisible Hostess - http://totallytabletops.blogspot.com/2009/05/thursday-thievery-jill-thomas.html]

This one I had actually started playing around with on my own. You can score a wood burning tool and the smoothed out wood slices at Jo-Ann's on the cheap (or free wood slices if you know anyone cutting down a dead tree). Alternatively, if you fear the wood burner part of this craft you can pick it up online from Etsy seller BraggingBags:

[Photo Source: Etsy - http://www.etsy.com/listing/51190049/personalized-wood-tree-slice-wedding?ref=sr_list_8&ga_search_query=wood+centerpieces&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page&order&includes]

Kinda liked the idea of poppin' a few tea lights and planting these guys around the reception space...

[Photo Source: Etsy - http://www.etsy.com/listing/52334132/19-birch-bark-tubescandle-sleevesvase?ref=sr_list_10&ga_search_query=wood+centerpieces&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=2&order&includes]

And then adding a few carved ones here and there...

[Photo Source: http://www.etsy.com/listing/51829528/set-of-3-personized-birch-bark-vases?ref=sr_list_39&ga_search_query=wood+centerpieces&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=3&order&includes%5B0%5D=tags&includes%5B1%5D=title]

What do you think? Too much wood? Is that even possible?

100 Days Away!

Um, I haven't been a really good blogger lately, but I have been kicking ass with bartending and my daytime freelance work.

There will be more posts. I just have to get a few minutes to make it happen!

Postage Hell

A little note about STD's.

If you are planning on going the ever-popular postcard route the way we did, opt for a 4x6 card size or less and avoid the 5x7. We failed to think that through before ordering from OverNightPrints.com and ran into a little problem...

4x6 in. (or less) = $.28 per card.
5x7 in. = $.44 per card.

Might not seem like that big of a deal at first, but then multiple that number times 200+ and you've got yourself a big fat extra expense for no good reason.


In an effort to see the silver lining, I think this was meant to be a little lesson before the big invite mail out. Our original idea was pretty kick-ass: Since October, we've been collecting old paper towel tubes from family and friends. The plan was, we would make our own mini silkscreen 10x16 in. poster prints and use the paper towel tubes as mailers. To reinforce the tubes, we were working with our designer friends on making a tag board overlay that would look like birchtree bark, complete with the return and mailing addresses having a "carved out" effect. To seal 'em, we were going to buy some tube ends from Uline at bulk, and then create a sticker to look like the inside rings of a tree when you saw it, and have that sticker cover each end. Once completed, it would look like a little branch and fit really nicely with the whole outdoorsy-whimsical feel we were trying to go for.

Apparently no creative effort comes with some sort of aftershock. After some estimated calculations on the USPS web site, it appears our idea would really run us up on shipping costs. We could try UPS, but it's still gonna be up there. Not sure this is going to pan out how we hoped and it looks like we're going to have to figure something else out.

To all our friends and family, regulars at work and perfect strangers who have been helping us collect paper towels tubes: Thank you so much for thinking of us and sorry we won't be able to use them. I promise we will do our best to find a creative use for some of them and recycle the rest.

Back to the drawing board.

Australia, some day I will see you, I promise.

Le sigh.


Where to go on our honeymoon had such a simple answer back when we just got engaged (doesn't every part of wedding planning). Whilst daydreaming, we forgot to factor in those tiny details...

a.) Australia will cost a crapload and b.) it will take a lot of time up just with travel.

Reality really does bite sometimes.

Anyways, in our quest for alternatives, we've been considering the following locations:

Hawaii
Spain/Portugal
The Greek Isles
Costa Rica

Obviously, this is not as cheap as staying local, but we haven't had a proper vacation in two years and we both really, really need one. I did some research and to par it down for travel junkies like ourselves, the suggestion is to consider what kind of honeymooners you'll be and match it with location. Simple enough, although we would be down for tons of different kinds of adventures, I suppose we'll be pretty beat and ready for some fun and relaxation. We talked it out and basically, here's what we're looking for:

• Very warm to hot weather
• Beaches and those drinks with the little straw umbrellas
• A swim-up room (that was my idea, I also thought that was so cool and to me it equals total big-shot status)
• Lots of options for surfing, boating, fishing, hang-gliding, hiking, swimming, etc.
• Maybe a tour or two of the area
• A hotel with a nice spa so we can get massages and stuff
  
• Not crazy expensive
• Not somewhere during hurricane season

We contemplated cashing in the idea of big, luxurious honeymoon suites for extra time somewhere and backpacking, but I think after all this figuring out logistics will be kind of annoying. Besides, I don't know when we'll take a trip like this again.

Suggestions and links to hotel and vacation web sites are very, very welcomed! Let me know what you got, people!