[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="Blue Silhouette by Mickie Caspi"]
[/caption]
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
I need to stop looking at ketubot
This is the last ketubah that I'm going to look at. I wish I could get a better look at the gold foil writing around the edges, but at least we're set on a papercut, as opposed to a printed ketubah. I wish we could afford a painted, or etched glass, but I'm OK with the modest budget so that we can also get pretty invitations. So, I need to stop looking at ketubot. That's it. We've got 3 contenders, and leave it at that.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="Blue Silhouette by Mickie Caspi"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="Blue Silhouette by Mickie Caspi"]
[/caption]
Monday, May 31, 2010
this one vs. that one
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Four Seasons Ketubah by Enya Keshet"]
[/caption]
I really can't decide which one I like more! They're both paper cuts and they both have printed (not calligraphic) text, but they're so different. The first one is cool because it's laser cut parchment over hand dyed silk, made in Israel, and the tree going through the four seasons is just so cool. But I just found it online today and there aren't a whole lot of options when it comes to picking the text, plus the poetry in the border is all in Hebrew. With the second one, I like the Toronto Reform text, that poetry in the border is in English also, and the fact that we saw it in person while looking for a ketubah and wedding invitations at Kolbo, in Brookline, MA.
[caption id="attachment_303" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Gefen Papercut- Autumn by Ruth Stern Warzecha"]
[/caption]
[/caption]I really can't decide which one I like more! They're both paper cuts and they both have printed (not calligraphic) text, but they're so different. The first one is cool because it's laser cut parchment over hand dyed silk, made in Israel, and the tree going through the four seasons is just so cool. But I just found it online today and there aren't a whole lot of options when it comes to picking the text, plus the poetry in the border is all in Hebrew. With the second one, I like the Toronto Reform text, that poetry in the border is in English also, and the fact that we saw it in person while looking for a ketubah and wedding invitations at Kolbo, in Brookline, MA.
[caption id="attachment_303" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Gefen Papercut- Autumn by Ruth Stern Warzecha"]
[/caption]Sunday, May 30, 2010
scary owchies
I love Ben, he's never really hurt himself when I'm around (he did cut himself once and I got him into the bathroom and squirted saline on the cut before seeing the blood run down the drain and getting woozy), but I've managed to injure myself or get sick a few times in the 4 years we've been together.
Today was no exception to the norm, Ben's fine and I may have a scratched cornea. Eye pain is scary, but he hugged me and held my hand while calling my cousin S, a nurse, and then while I called the eye Dr. Thankfully, it's a superficial scratch and is already feeling better (5 hours after the initial onset) and if it the sensitivity isn't gone by Tuesday morning, my Dr. said to call first thing in the morning and he'll see me then for a regular Dr. appointment (which only requires a copay for insurance coverage, not a percentage payment like for the ER).
Long story short, I'm fine now (though shaken) and Ben is good at taking care of me when I'm sick or hurt. I wish those things happened less often to me, but he has the immune system, and healing power of a superhero!
Today was no exception to the norm, Ben's fine and I may have a scratched cornea. Eye pain is scary, but he hugged me and held my hand while calling my cousin S, a nurse, and then while I called the eye Dr. Thankfully, it's a superficial scratch and is already feeling better (5 hours after the initial onset) and if it the sensitivity isn't gone by Tuesday morning, my Dr. said to call first thing in the morning and he'll see me then for a regular Dr. appointment (which only requires a copay for insurance coverage, not a percentage payment like for the ER).
Long story short, I'm fine now (though shaken) and Ben is good at taking care of me when I'm sick or hurt. I wish those things happened less often to me, but he has the immune system, and healing power of a superhero!
Friday, May 28, 2010
I'm a lazy uploader
I hate uploading photos because I hate resizing them/exporting them and my web provider makes me do all the work! How lame. Anyway. I own the internets photos from my bridal show and from DJ & J's wedding. I'll start with DJ & J's wedding because it was kind of epically huge. 320 people attended the reception!
[gallery link="file"]
Here's the rehash I wrote for my parents, who asked what lessons I learned from DJ & J's wedding that I might be able to apply to my own (my parents were at my youngest brother's college graduation, instead of the wedding):
On their wedding day we got to the church 30 minutes early to take some photos with the Illinois family. We were in just a few, but we had to take 2 sets, one in front of the St. Peter the Apostle's Catholic Church sign, and the same ones next to (but not including) the sign, to send to our shared gramma. We were also in few photographs after dinner, but I'm sure a look a little disheveled form dancing in those and I know J was exhausted because it was 10:30PM and she was quietly whining about how her feet hurt.
One thing I learned that we can apply to our wedding: have someone video tape the ceremony and any toasts that people give. I'm sure I'd have be too hopped up on adrenaline to listen well and Father Dominick had a lovely sermon prepared and I'm sure they'll want to be able to listen to it later (thanfully they did have a videographer/video stalker). He talked about how a marriage is the joining of two families and how DJ is going to have a lot to learn about joining an Italian family and how he'll never have to pay retail again and J is marrying a Boy Scout and that she'll have to be OK with him coming home with pockets full of stuff, holes in his pockets from too much stuff, and odd fascination with all things small/useful/lightweight, and an expectation that when he does something well that he deserves a merit badge (he somehow tied this to the bedroom in an church friendly way, but I'm not sure how). He also said something about how when he undoes his belt, his pants will drop to the floor like a dead weight because his pockets are so full of stuff that she'll never be able to imagine why he's carrying it or that she'd ever want to carry herself.
Their wedding was just so different from ours that I'm not sure there were many lessons to learn.....
DJ married into the Sicilian mafia and had a 2PM Saturday mass wedding. The ceremony lasted until about 3:15, then we all trekked over to her parents house for "snacks" where Janine's mother's friends from work made sandwiches, mixed/poured drinks, and kept plying us with cookies and cheese for almost 2 hours while Janine and DJ and their escorts took photos at the church and at the park down the street.
At the smaller ballroom of the banquet hall (with painted ceilings and marble floor) we were greeting by a HUGE seafood buffet that included focaccias, calamari (fried and in a salad), a wheel of parmesan cheese broken into bite size bits [see photos], fried polenta, shrimp cocktail, some sort of fried oyster thing with tomato sauce, fried rice/cheese/meat balls, lots of cured meats, and an open bad fully stocked with premium liquors and any mixer you could think of.
Then there was dinner! The chairs were all covered and tied with green sashes, and there were matching satin minty green napkins on the tables. Every other table had an elaborate/tall centerpiece and the others had glass pillars of varying heights with submerged flowers and floating candles on top surrounded by little candles. The table was set funny though, fork and knife together on the left and only one fork for all the courses. There was a teaspoon and a steak knife on the top, where I would put a butter knife. Dinner as a meal was quite the affair, 2 pastas, salad w/ your choice of dressing, lemon ice, veal steak with baked mashed potatoes and asparagus, then a dessert table with cake, italian pastries, and lots of fresh fruit and some chocolates, a woman scooping lemon ice and making nutella ice cream sandwiches on demand (so the cake "buns" didn't get soggy), and coffee. After the main course servers came around with carts to collect the plates and offer you a togo box if you needed one (Ben and I gifted our steaks to DJ's coworker us who's wife couldn't come because they had babysitter issues). The cake was also cut up into to go boxes as well as set out on plates on the dessert buffet table.
I'm pretty sure our budget would have just covered their bar tab, and possibly the band too, or at least the donation to the church they were married in and to the school, where Father Dominick (the drama and communications teacher from DJ's HS) came from.
PS- I think my tummy might be all stretched out from the food baby I stuffed in there over the weekend. I was constantly hungry yesterday and today! I wish I had taken pictures of Ben and myself all dressed up but I forgot. There was a photographer there taking photos in the back of the hall, but I'm not sure if/when those photos will come in.
[gallery link="file"]
Here's the rehash I wrote for my parents, who asked what lessons I learned from DJ & J's wedding that I might be able to apply to my own (my parents were at my youngest brother's college graduation, instead of the wedding):
On their wedding day we got to the church 30 minutes early to take some photos with the Illinois family. We were in just a few, but we had to take 2 sets, one in front of the St. Peter the Apostle's Catholic Church sign, and the same ones next to (but not including) the sign, to send to our shared gramma. We were also in few photographs after dinner, but I'm sure a look a little disheveled form dancing in those and I know J was exhausted because it was 10:30PM and she was quietly whining about how her feet hurt.
One thing I learned that we can apply to our wedding: have someone video tape the ceremony and any toasts that people give. I'm sure I'd have be too hopped up on adrenaline to listen well and Father Dominick had a lovely sermon prepared and I'm sure they'll want to be able to listen to it later (thanfully they did have a videographer/video stalker). He talked about how a marriage is the joining of two families and how DJ is going to have a lot to learn about joining an Italian family and how he'll never have to pay retail again and J is marrying a Boy Scout and that she'll have to be OK with him coming home with pockets full of stuff, holes in his pockets from too much stuff, and odd fascination with all things small/useful/lightweight, and an expectation that when he does something well that he deserves a merit badge (he somehow tied this to the bedroom in an church friendly way, but I'm not sure how). He also said something about how when he undoes his belt, his pants will drop to the floor like a dead weight because his pockets are so full of stuff that she'll never be able to imagine why he's carrying it or that she'd ever want to carry herself.
Their wedding was just so different from ours that I'm not sure there were many lessons to learn.....
DJ married into the Sicilian mafia and had a 2PM Saturday mass wedding. The ceremony lasted until about 3:15, then we all trekked over to her parents house for "snacks" where Janine's mother's friends from work made sandwiches, mixed/poured drinks, and kept plying us with cookies and cheese for almost 2 hours while Janine and DJ and their escorts took photos at the church and at the park down the street.
At the smaller ballroom of the banquet hall (with painted ceilings and marble floor) we were greeting by a HUGE seafood buffet that included focaccias, calamari (fried and in a salad), a wheel of parmesan cheese broken into bite size bits [see photos], fried polenta, shrimp cocktail, some sort of fried oyster thing with tomato sauce, fried rice/cheese/meat balls, lots of cured meats, and an open bad fully stocked with premium liquors and any mixer you could think of.
Then there was dinner! The chairs were all covered and tied with green sashes, and there were matching satin minty green napkins on the tables. Every other table had an elaborate/tall centerpiece and the others had glass pillars of varying heights with submerged flowers and floating candles on top surrounded by little candles. The table was set funny though, fork and knife together on the left and only one fork for all the courses. There was a teaspoon and a steak knife on the top, where I would put a butter knife. Dinner as a meal was quite the affair, 2 pastas, salad w/ your choice of dressing, lemon ice, veal steak with baked mashed potatoes and asparagus, then a dessert table with cake, italian pastries, and lots of fresh fruit and some chocolates, a woman scooping lemon ice and making nutella ice cream sandwiches on demand (so the cake "buns" didn't get soggy), and coffee. After the main course servers came around with carts to collect the plates and offer you a togo box if you needed one (Ben and I gifted our steaks to DJ's coworker us who's wife couldn't come because they had babysitter issues). The cake was also cut up into to go boxes as well as set out on plates on the dessert buffet table.
I'm pretty sure our budget would have just covered their bar tab, and possibly the band too, or at least the donation to the church they were married in and to the school, where Father Dominick (the drama and communications teacher from DJ's HS) came from.
PS- I think my tummy might be all stretched out from the food baby I stuffed in there over the weekend. I was constantly hungry yesterday and today! I wish I had taken pictures of Ben and myself all dressed up but I forgot. There was a photographer there taking photos in the back of the hall, but I'm not sure if/when those photos will come in.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
benchers and kippot
I know that might sound like jibberish to anyone who isn't Jewish and reading this little blog, but Ben really wants them for our wedding and I'm happy about that. This might turn into our Big Fat Jewish Wedding (reference), so we'll need to order a bunch of each and here are some choices:
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="100" caption="blue"]
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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="100" caption="black"]
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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="100" caption="white"]
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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="100" caption="multi colored"]
[/caption]
Which do you vote for? I expect that a handful of men will wear their own, but we'll have to provide for the men who don't right? They come in lots of 40, do we need more than 40?
How about benchers? The prayer books for after meals. I can't find any that I like that are a reasonable price (less than $2/each). If only we were orthodox and were OK with Ashkanazi pronunciations, but we use Sphardi pronunciation and don't want to lose guest's attention spans by not even keeping up with our own prayer books..... I use the transliterations sometimes too, so I want Sphardi. Boo. The hunt continues!
[polldaddy poll=3266448]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="100" caption="blue"]
[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="100" caption="black"]
[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="100" caption="white"]
[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="100" caption="multi colored"]
[/caption]Which do you vote for? I expect that a handful of men will wear their own, but we'll have to provide for the men who don't right? They come in lots of 40, do we need more than 40?
How about benchers? The prayer books for after meals. I can't find any that I like that are a reasonable price (less than $2/each). If only we were orthodox and were OK with Ashkanazi pronunciations, but we use Sphardi pronunciation and don't want to lose guest's attention spans by not even keeping up with our own prayer books..... I use the transliterations sometimes too, so I want Sphardi. Boo. The hunt continues!
[polldaddy poll=3266448]
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
jewelry and other bling
OK, so I'm weird about some things. One of them being jewelry. I'm partial to yellow gold, but I'm starting to think that I look better in silver tones than yellow gold. This is a problem because my brain requires my metals to match each other (though I don't think that my engagement ring and wedding band will have to match all my other jewelry every day).
I think I liked yellow gold because it blends into my skin tone more, but silver really sparkles against it. Boo. My favorite everyday earrings are yellow gold and silver together, so those are fine to wear with the magen dovid necklace I wear everyday.
Anyway, my concern is with this metals-must-match thing that's in my head. My shoes have TINY gold buckles on them, and the tiara I have is on gold plated wire, but it blends into my hair and I REALLY want some sparkle on my head. Then I went and wore silver dangly earrings to my cousin's wedding last weekend (sorry, forgot to take a photo of myself) and my pearls with the white gold clasp, and now I want to wear silver! But gold is better with ivory.
Stupid things to fret about, no? I'll stick with what I have and gold tones, because I think they're more "me" even if silver stands out more. Now, I want to go to the new bead store here in Boulder and try and make earrings like these, that match my tiara, but with gold wires (you know, so they match.....):
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="227" caption="Audrey Earrings, tigerlilly.com"]
[/caption]
I think I liked yellow gold because it blends into my skin tone more, but silver really sparkles against it. Boo. My favorite everyday earrings are yellow gold and silver together, so those are fine to wear with the magen dovid necklace I wear everyday.
Anyway, my concern is with this metals-must-match thing that's in my head. My shoes have TINY gold buckles on them, and the tiara I have is on gold plated wire, but it blends into my hair and I REALLY want some sparkle on my head. Then I went and wore silver dangly earrings to my cousin's wedding last weekend (sorry, forgot to take a photo of myself) and my pearls with the white gold clasp, and now I want to wear silver! But gold is better with ivory.
Stupid things to fret about, no? I'll stick with what I have and gold tones, because I think they're more "me" even if silver stands out more. Now, I want to go to the new bead store here in Boulder and try and make earrings like these, that match my tiara, but with gold wires (you know, so they match.....):
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="227" caption="Audrey Earrings, tigerlilly.com"]
[/caption]
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
my cousin's big, fat, Sicilian, Catholic wedding
My 2 favorite parts: that we took 2 sets of photos, one in front of the St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church sign, and one not (for our shared grandmother); and the Italian pastry/fresh fruit/cheesecake/wedding cake/ice cream sandwich dessert buffet.
I've never been to an Italian wedding before. I was warned to expect a lot of food and to not stuff myself with every course (some were buffets and some were served family style), I appreciated the advice but because I don't eat meat or shellfish I ended up kind hungry by the end of the meal because I'd paced myself and then stuffed myself stupid at the dessert buffet. I've been avoiding the scale since we got home, but I've definitely been sporting a food baby since Friday night (mmm, Webber Grill Restaurant).
Oh, you want pictures? I'm lazy, if you're my friend on facebook then you can see these:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2527868&id=10207952&ref=mf
otherwise, here's a shot of the dessert buffet for you all to drool over:
AAARGH. Ben's on a business trip and there's some sort of server side error coming up. BOO. Sorry all you 10 readers/week, no photos for you today!
I've never been to an Italian wedding before. I was warned to expect a lot of food and to not stuff myself with every course (some were buffets and some were served family style), I appreciated the advice but because I don't eat meat or shellfish I ended up kind hungry by the end of the meal because I'd paced myself and then stuffed myself stupid at the dessert buffet. I've been avoiding the scale since we got home, but I've definitely been sporting a food baby since Friday night (mmm, Webber Grill Restaurant).
Oh, you want pictures? I'm lazy, if you're my friend on facebook then you can see these:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2527868&id=10207952&ref=mf
otherwise, here's a shot of the dessert buffet for you all to drool over:
AAARGH. Ben's on a business trip and there's some sort of server side error coming up. BOO. Sorry all you 10 readers/week, no photos for you today!
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