a virtual flood of RSVPs

Yes, you can see the last bar is slightly higher than previous response bars, we decided to add a few more last minute people, and a few people decided that without their flavors of the month/year/etc. they would be lost and alone, and could they please bring their significant others? I understand my young cousin, and I understand my mom's friend who's going to be visiting her long distance boyfriend and hour away from Boulder while she's here, but my friend, whom I didn't even know HAD a boyfriend? Uuuuh, whatever. I should be nice, Ben and I were inseparable after we met, and I'm not sure more than my closest friends and my grandmother knew he existed until after the High Holidays (when he smashed my foot!).

</rambling rant>

does blogging have a pause button?

Things are starting to happen quickly, like dominoes falling. Today we heard from about many people we'd been waiting to hear from if they were coming or not. We also got our ketubah in the mail! It's beautiful and our names are typo free, woohoo! Kippot have been shipped, welcome bag goodies procured, and crafting dates lined up with a girlfriend.

Tomorrow is Erev Rosh Hashanah, the night when Rosh Hashanah starts. Starting tomorrow night it will be 5771, the year in which Ben and I will be married. Wow. That's a heavy thought. I know that from this blog it looks like I'm obsessed with wedding planning, and that it's all I do; I'm not and its not. Wedding planning is my escape from the sad reality of my employment situation. As a bride with a wedding expense account (thanks mom and dad!) I'm a normal, functioning bride, not an under-employed college grad who is addicted to mediocre TV and might qualify for public assistance if not for all the cobbled together part-time jobs I hold.

Anyway, if you've read this far, I just want to say thank you, and I hope that you'll forgive me for any bad stuff I may have said or done this past year. Its the time of year for forgiveness. May we all have a happy, healthy, and sweet year together. L'shanah tovah, happy new year!

craft time!

We've been hitting up Michael's and Costco every weekend to stock up on crafting supplies and goodies for the welcome bags. So, expect to see awesome programs, home made yarmulke labels, ribbon wands (Ben won't let me have bubbles and Boulder won't let us have sparklers), and all sorts of other crafty goodness.

Here's my current favorite logo for the welcome bags, bonus points if you recognize it's origins:

response tallies

We're still waiting to hear back from about 40 people. Seriously? I understand the few friends who've fessed up to loosing/forgetting to mail in their responses, but what about the other 35 of you? Do you have a new baby or kitty to distract you too?

awkward questions

Apparently getting married lets people feel entitled to ask you weird questions.  Like "Do you plan to have kids?" or "How soon are you planning to have babies after you're married?" or "How late will the wedding go, I want to catch the 6 PM flight out of DIA [which is about an hour away], and I don't want to miss too much of your party." Wow, AWKWARD (the first 2 more than the last). Yes, we're having kids, later. We'll tell you more when they're on the way. None will be born in Colorado, Ben has to graduate first so that we no longer qualify for public assistance by having a family of three or more. Yes, leaving at 4:30 to get to the airport means you will miss at least an hour to 90 minutes of party. Sorry. You'll be leaving right before we parade across the street to the bistro/bar to play pool, eat fried food, and drink beer.



Seriously, who would want to miss this? We've got glow-stick bracelets for everyone and there will be pool, beer, board games and fried food! Sounds like an AWESOME party to me. But, then again it's our party and why would we plan a party that we wouldn't want to go to?

5 GOLDEN RINGS!

Or 2, 3 if you count my engagement ring. Yesterday, after our menu tasting and walk through with the coordinators, we ordered our rings (and my veil and earrings too)! YEY! And I got an email from our ketubah artist that our ketubah has been shipped. YEY! A week from this Monday, we can bring our Domestic Partnership in to the City Clerk's office and credit what we spent on it towards our marriage license! Wow, the wedding is in 36 days. That's not even 5 weeks.

Now, I need to confirm our appointments to go over the ceremony with the rabbi. Call the counselor he suggested and set up 1-2 sessions of pre-marital counseling (we've talked to her on the phone and she doesn't think it'll take us longer than that to go through her checklist since we're "so open and honest, even on the phone").

It is also TIME TO GET CRAFTING! I need to figure out who's doing what so that we can print the programs and make them, as well as who's coming so that we can make table assignment cards, work on welcome bags, and order and print/attach the labels for the insides of the yarmulkes. What else.... Buy balloons and sunscreen, order foundation garments, take Ben to get his suit tailored and help him pick out a tie. Ribbon wands, those need some TLC too, but their Ben's job since he doesn't want bubbles (he's afraid I'll stain my dress and won't be able to dye it and rewear it in March).

Dress fitting, that's the missing piece. I think it'll be the Friday of Kol Nidre. Weird juxtaposition, but my friend from synagogue is coming with me and that's when she's available. Hopefully my veil and earrings will be in by then too. I ordered 2 pairs of earrings, but both came in under $20, so I'll resell them or wear them some other time. I'm apparently picky about my pears and crystals being on gold and of all the millions of earrings only found 2 that were pretty AND affordable. Damn expensive jewelry!

there's going to be tasty food at our wedding

We had our menu tasting today. YUM! We just chowed down on leftovers for dinner, and there's still food left!

Here's a teaser photo, you'll get to eat everything but the smoked cheese tartlet (second from the right):