family reunion, or wedding?

I originally wanted a smaller wedding so that it wouldn't turn into a family reunion. Ben wants a larger wedding precisely so that it will turn into a family reunion. This wasn't something I felt was worth fighting for, and agreed to invite almost everyone we're related to (grandparents, parents, sibs, aunts and uncles, first cousins, parents' first cousins) and about 20 family friends on each side and 20 friends for each of us. This has ballooned to 215 people who are invited and probably 150 who will come. Ugh. There were a few over 30 people at my bridal shower and I was kinda overwhelmed and unable to talk to everyone; how are we going to manage at our wedding?!

I realize that as one of the two stars of the day I won't meet my worst party fear: feeling alone in a crowd; but how am I supposed to get any decent face time with anyone?

Preliminary solution: satellite parties!

Friday night kabbalat shabbat dinner with immediate family (parents, sibs, grandparents, aunts and uncles, first cousins)

Saturday, kiddush after services for the congregation and anyone else in town who wants to come

Saturday evening some sort of potluck/dessert gathering with lots of low alcohol wine (sorry lowlanders, I don't trust you to hold your liquor at over a mile high)

Sunday daytime- WEDDING

Sunday evening - after party for friends (note to self: talk to Walnut Brewery about private parties)

this schedule should give us enough face time with family and friends, but not family friends. Sad. Oh well, you win some you loose some. I guess we'll just have to go home more often and see them then.

yummy yummy

we have two open seats to our menu tasting. anyone want to come? It can take place almost any time before August 14th.

Here's what we know so far: Tuscan inspired luncheon buffet. Soup, salad, veggie entree, fish entree, tea, ice tea, and coffee. We also need to pick out (inexpensive) wines. And what to serve for food during the cocktail hour (which will be the hot or sparkling cider hour). Dessert is already decided on -and it's not cake.

Help? Let me know if you wanna come!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="168" caption="sorry, no pizza.... maybe that's an idea for cocktail hour!"][/caption]

buying our own gifts

We're weird. Yeah, you read that right: we are weird. Last night, after meeting my preggers friend R, her husband, M, and their little man, I, Ben and I went to the biggest Bed, Bath & Beyond in Colorado and used some gift cards to buy ourselves a glass pitcher (to keep filtered water in, in the fridge, and a single place setting of our meat dishes (the black rimmed ones).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="230" caption="Quadro 57.25-Ounce Glass Pitcher with Lid"][/caption]

Is it normal to buy things off your own registry? Is it normal for people to only gift you serving pieces, bread plates, and dipping bowls, but no place settings? Maybe people only want us to eat tiny meals from community serving pieces!

good hug'n'waddle first dance song?

Sarah McLachlan Ice Cream Lyrics

Your love is better than ice cream
Better than anything else that I've tried
And your love is better than ice cream
Everyone here know how to fight

And it's a long way down
It's a long way down
It's a long way down to the place
Where we started from

Your love is better than chocolate
Better than anything else that I've tried
Oh love is better than chocolate
Everyone here knows how to cry

It's a long way down
It's a long way down
It's a long way down to the place
Where we started from...

Songwriters: Mclachlan, Sarah

© TYDE MUSIC;SONY/ATV SONGS LLC

DREW veil

There's a veil out there that probably costs WAY more than I'd be willing to pay for it, but minus the crystals is EXACTLY what I want. It even has the same name as my dress!

Will someone please buy me this veil in ivory without the bedazzling?

http://www.saragabriel.com/collection/veils/products/118-drew

PS- Just incase you're concerned about the dress; I'm super curvy and I'll also be modifying the dress so that it's more late 50s party dress and less, um, exoskeleton than it appears on the runway waif.

new-ish eyeballs

I got new glasses about a month ago. They're SO much less frumpy than my old ones. I'm sad that there aren't more photos of brides with glasses out there. What do most 4-eyed women do??? My mom went without her glasses at her wedding because she was worried about glare in her photos, but at that point she only wore them for reading.

Here are my glasses, but I'm not entirely sure they have anti glare coating. I'm not even sure the prescription is correct! I saw a new eye doctor and there was a lot of "uh, they look the same" on my eye exam and I'm pretty sure he just gave me the lesser prescription. Oh well, I should go back, but I'm lazy and nannying doesn't require 20/20 vision. At least I found metal frames with magnetic clip-on sunglasses lenses that are covered by my insurance.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="440" caption="my new glasses (but in red, not brown), w/out clip ons"][/caption]

FYI, incase you didn't check your calendars

the wedding IS Columbus Day weekend. If you're willing to travel on Saturday, you can get to Boulder from (almost) anywhere in the lower 48 and back, without missing any work to come to our wedding.

it's a penguin! but his beak is on the wrong side....

SodaStream Penguin Water Carbonator | Williams-Sonoma.

dear lurkers

thank you for reading my wedding blog. I hope that you've learned more about me by reading it, and that now that I've met a few of you in person you will feel more comfortable leaving comments. Don't worry if you don't think it's appropriate, invasive, improper, etc. I'll delete anything I deem as such and email you in response if I have one. Your comments aren't carved in stone (unless you want them to be, in which case what is a luddite like yourself doing reading a blog anyway?).