At Last . . .

So it really hasn't been long at all, but I feel like saying, "Our photos are finally done!" Today, I got the best email ever from our photographer, the lovely & talented Maureen of Sullivan Studios. It informed me that our online gallery of images is up & running. It contains 417 images, and good lord, are they ever amazing! Of course, my favorites are of my goddaughter, but there are some great ones of me & the Mr.

It's mocking me

The top layer of our beautiful and delicious wedding cake is safely ensconced in several layers of Saran Wrap and nestled in a plastic container we got from the Container Store which happens to be the perfect size. It sits on the top shelf of our freezer.
The problem is that every time I open the freezer, it's sitting there, staring at me. It's calling to me, whispering, "Eat me!" a la Alice in Wonderland.

Source
I don't know if I can make it to our 1 year anniversary. Or more accurately, I don't know if our cake will make it that long.

Shoe Sale!!

Today, I went on a frantic search for shoes. I've been looking for shoes for the wedding for months now. I've looked at so many shoes, I've grown tired of looking at shoes. Never thought that could happen... I love shoes ... love looking at them, trying them on, talking about them...
So the reason I was frantically looking today is this - I just wanted it to be over! I had a few requirements: (1) heel height no less than 4" because my dress can't be hemmed easily, (2) d'orsay or peep toe style (3) ivory, silver or purple in color.
Today, I visited DSW with no luck - I only found strappy sandals in the right color & height. I was on my way to the Cherry Creek shopping center when I realized I didn't want to deal with the "rich" mall. Instead I went to Town Center at Aurora. I really don't love that mall, but they have a Macy's and I felt like making a trip to Macy's. That ended up being a bust so I decided to wander around. Dillards was having a big sale - 40% off already reduced prices. I really didn't expect to find anything, so imagine my surprise when I saw these:

The front
And from the side

I know, they aren't the right color... those are blue, not ivory or silver or purple. But they met the first two (and IMO more important) criteria. And the price was right. With tax, 20 bucks. They originally retailed at $102 before tax.
Honestly, when I bought them, I was completely unsure if I loved them. Then later, at the dentist (yeah, weird place for an epiphany), I realized what they reminded me of. . . they're kinda like these:
Yeah, those are the Manolos from the SATC movie.

So, what do you think? Jakob was a bit surprised when I told him I bought blue shoes for the wedding.... The same shoes come in ivory, but at $102, I think I may just go with the blue ones.

Veil Distress

After falling in love with Sara Gabriel's birdcage veils, but not her prices, I decided to go the DIY route. I found a place in Denver called Allyn's that sells French veil and purchased a yard. My first attempt fell flat. At first I wanted the veil to come to just below my nose, but after deciding on the angled design instead, I didn't have enough material to make it work.
Back to Allyn's I went. This time I got a yard & a half just to be safe. I stopped by a wig shop and got a styrofoam mannequin head. I had a plan - a great plan! I'd just use the mannequin, material & some bent quilting pins to try out placement before sewing it all together. I pinned my design but decided to wait a few days before sewing anything - just to make sure I was happy with the total effect.
Today I picked up the mannequin head only to find my cat had made a few modifications to my design. Apparently, she likes French food - or at least French veiling. I finally figured out exactly how I wanted this thing to look (and it took me a long time), and now there are holes all in it. Even the extra I purchased is ruined.
I was so angry and upset and frustrated that I actually sat down on the floor and started crying. I'm sure just the overall stress of paying for and planning a wedding that is just over two months away also has a lot to do with my mini-meltdown.
Jakob came home and asked what was wrong. I told him what Montana had done, and he laughed. Yeah, it kinda put it in perspective. I'm still frustrated and not looking forward to having to re-do all the work I've done, but it's not the end of the world.

Dressing Up the Boys

I'm totally tuxedo-challenged. We went to men's wearhouse, and it wasn't that hard once we figured out a few things. We didn't want tails - it's a daytime wedding - so then the biggest thing was to choose between one-button, two-button, and three-button. The main difference is how much of the vest will be showing (if you're going with vests). We ended up going with the two button style (I think) and then just picked what kind of lapel we wanted. They'll have pictures of the two types (notch or shawl) Notch lapels look more like suits - that's the one we chose.
I would suggest you bring swatches of your bridesmaids dress if you have them. . . it makes it a lot easier to pick out colors for the groomsmen's ties and vests. They have swatches of those for you to look at, and if you don't have the bridesmaids dresses picked out already, I believe you can make changes until just a few weeks before the wedding.
Then they'll have you pick out pocket squares, cufflinks, shoes, shirts, etc. but it's not as hard as it seems once you get in there and see the options.
We had to put down a $40 deposit (which will be applied to the cost of FI's tux) for the wedding party. They "opened a ticket" on our wedding party with everyone's names, the style tux each guy would be wearing, color of vest & tie, cufflinks, shoes, everything.
If you sign up for their email list, you get $20 off the price of your tux rental & a coupon for $25 off your next purchase. We used the coupon that day to buy the pocket squares for each of the groomsmen & Jakob.
Mens Wearhouse also has a program where if you rent four tuxes, the groom's is free. We opted to give our free rental to our ringbearer for a couple of reasons. . . I think it's outrageous that a tux for a 2 1/2 year old is the same price as one for a grown man. Also, his mom is one of my bridesmaids, so it cuts her some slack since she's already paying for a dress.

Casper Goes to Hawaii?

Jakob works for a major airline that recognizes your "registered domestic partner" (or RDP) and extends flight benefits to this person. In our case, I get to fly (nearly) for free. If we were a same sex couple, not only would I get flight benefits, I'd also be eligible for his health benefits.
Another major perk is the occasional deals employees get offered. Take this for a great example. . . yesterday, Jakob came home with an memo offering all employees of said airline access to the company's vacation packages at a wholesale rate. If we choose to take advantage of it, we will save over $3500 on the package. Wanna hear the details? It's six days, five nights in Cancun, Mexico. We would have a year to use our package. Included in package is: all meals & drinks included 24 hours a day, free oceanfront resort upgrade, and unlimited non-motor watersports. Did I mention it would only cost us $148 per person (and if we were bringing kids, they'd stay & eat for FREE) ???
Yeah, it's a great deal, and would totally solve our dilemma of where to go on our honeymoon (and more importantly, how to afford it). Jakob's grandmother had a condo in Cancun, so his family has been down there several times. I've never been out of the country - even to Mexico.
So what do you think? Should we spend our honeymoon sipping margaritas and trying to get some color to my "friendly ghost" legs? Or should we wait til we can afford a really kick-a$$ honeymoon to somewhere like Fiji or Thailand? Or should we do both since the Cancun trip is so freaking cheap?

DIY Invitations

We finally settled on an invitation suite. I told you about the ones I loved but couldn't justify the price. I thought about designing them from scratch, actually was pretty set on that. But in the end, we decided to buy invitation kits from Michaels. Yeah, that's right. . . the arts & crafts place. They're not really what I had in mind from the start, but I like them - a lot. They're simple & elegant and, let's face it - at the end of their journey from box to printer to envelope to guest, they'll probably be tossed in the trash. (Shh, don't tell them that!)
"So what do they look like?"
This:

I didn't bother blurring out names or any other information since this is just a photo of the example invite that comes with the kit.
Of course, they come completely disassembled. I'll post step-by-step instructions as we assemble them along with tips on how you can customize or create a similar design from scratch.

To Bee or Not to Bee

I said I was going to take the weekend to decide whether or not I will apply to be a Bee on Weddingbee again, but I've made up my mind. I will not apply again. The more I think about it, the more I realize my beliefs and my friendships are more important than my wish to become a bee. I was going to call and ask my Carey (yeah, I call him "my Carey" - it's a long story) how he felt about it, since he's probably the most outspoken of my friends on the issue of legalizing gay marriage. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I couldn't put him in that position. "Hey, there's this thing that I really really want to do, but it will make money for a company that isn't very gay friendly - is it okay with you if I do it anyway?"
I mean, really. . . how selfish would that be? And how would he answer? "No, I'm really not okay with that." That answer may cause some uncomfortable moments. "Yeah, cool... go for it." But I'd always wonder if he was just saying that because he wanted me to be happy. Typically, Carey's a brutally honest person, but there'd always be this nagging voice in my head telling me I really hurt his feelings and he's just too good a friend to say anything.

Edit 10/15/08
The real test was this: I decided after posting this entry that I would blog as if I were reapplying for weddingbee for a couple of weeks. That was 11 days ago, and I wrote exactly ONE entry - I had to really make myself write that one. So I know I made the right decision. . . I'll blog because I want to and I'll feel good about it because I'm not making money for anyone whose business practices appall me.

Second Guessing

"I'll take that one. . . . no, no wait - that one. Maybe this one is better. What do you think?"

Lately, I've been second guessing every decision I've made in my wedding planning process. I told you about my wedding dress and how much I love, love, love it. For the past two weeks, I've been rethinking everything from the length of my wedding dress to the color palette. I've been driving myself crazy over whether the color & style of the bridesmaids dresses will look good on all three of them. I worried about the invitations, worrying about the seating charts, even wondering if we should have looked at more venues before deciding on one.

What about you? Are you as indecisive as I am?

Mrs. Bee's Big News

Yesterday, Mrs. Bee of WeddingBee made a big announcement: She has sold Weddingbee to eHarmony. This sale will make her life a lot less hectic and allow her to concentrate on the fun part of Weddingbee. She still retains full editorial control. While eHarmony "owns" the site, at this point it appears nothing will change as far as the content, selection process or diversity of brides (and grooms like Mr. Mango). Sadly, some of the Bees will be leaving the site due to their concerns about the partnership between WeddingBee and eHarmony. Mrs. Gingerbread, one of Weddingbee's bloggers, says it much more eloquently that I could, so it is, in her words:

I am concerned with eHarmony’s heavy involvement from 2000-2005 with Focus on the Family, an organization that promotes unscientific conversion therapies of LGBTQ people and homosexuality as a mental illness. I know that as both a member of the LGBTQ community and as a psychologist, that this rhetoric and these practices have and continue to cause a lot of harm to LGBTQ people. I am not sure that I can be involved with a company that in any way is associated with an organization that promotes this type of practice. Eharmony has distanced themselves from Focus on the Family for the past few years, but I worry that this is more of a business decision rather than an actual change of heart. I believe that their current company practices support my concerns.

The other reason for concern among many Bees is eHarmony's policy against same-sex matching. My previous post There's Nothing Wrong With Adam & Steve makes my views on same-sex marriage pretty obvious. To read views from Mrs. Bee, Mrs. Creampuff, Miss Sweet Tea, and a response from Stan Holt, VP of Publishing at eHarmony, check out this post on Weddingbee.
Someone from the audience says, "And how do you feel about this, Loralie?"
Well, that's a valid question, and I don't have an answer for it. I'm still very up in the air about the whole thing, and I have questions. . . like "Will eHarmony make money from my visiting the Weddingbee site?" and "If so, can I break myself of the addiction of visiting several times per day?"
About a month ago, I applied to be a blogger for Weddingbee. I wasn't chosen, but no hard feelings. The night I received the decision from the panel, I decided then and there I would apply again after the four week mandatory waiting period (much longer than that three day wait to buy a gun). So my four weeks are up but I'm going to keep my application to myself for a few more days so I can get some answers to my questions and make the best informed decision possible.