Days 359 - 367 (ok 9 days to go!)

life is good! we're 9 days out from the wedding. i can't believe we've been planning for this day for over a year already. and yes, i'm a bit nervous that i won't have such a fun thing to plan for...but no fear, liana is convinced that i'll find myself a new project. it will be sad though that i won't be able to keep justifying purchases we make -- 'but it's for the wedding and we'll use it afterwards too...'
speaking of new stuff-- here are a few things we recently acquired --
bottles for flowers
frames for pictures, obviously :)
painting/frame for a chalkboard sign
earrings 
forks and wine glasses for our table
and here's a sneak peak from my picasa album of  a few things

bottles for the remaining table center pieces and some for flowers in the courtyard

could not resist these forks!

a preview of the girls in their amazing dresses!

my co-workers threw me a 'surprise' shower on friday. while it was awkward and i was super uncomfortable with like 40 people staring at me when i walked into the room, it was incredibly sweet. i work with some fantastic people and good friends!

"Surprise" shower at work for Jess

ceremony prep is going well and what jess wrote gave us both the chills when reading it. after we work with her over the weekend and make a few edits, we'll be good to go.
And we're featured on a blog! that's fun, huh?!
Ok that's all for now -- more soon.

Days 348 - 358 (holy moly 19 days to go!)

it's sept! now this countdown is for real. like really for real. while i can't believe we're getting married in 19 days, i'm actually feeling good about where we're at with the process and planning. we plowed through the to-do list this week -
here's the recap --

• finally made it to meet the elusive Vikki (former bride selling her stuff) on route 1 for her chalkboard sign frames! she threw in her chalkboard spray paint and a paint marker too, so we're all set to make us some new signs (and 1st need to figure out what the heck we need to write)
• we ordered some engagement pics to display in the courtyard during the reception and have started going through old pics to frame as well. as we're not doing a slide show, we now need to parse through the stacks of old pics and just select a few for display. this is harder than one might think.
• oh and we went to grey's fabric and found this amazing reproduced vintage feed sack pattern for the photobooth wall backdrop. i like to describe this feature as a de-constructed photobooth. it's going to be cool but just not the small red box that one typically thinks of for a photobooth. anyway, here's the fabric --

•  oh and the shutters...we did it! they are finally hinged together! what a relief to know that this crazy project may actually work as a room divider and they look really cool. just need to clean the remaining 3 shutters and hinge those bad boys together too! check out the handy work...(and to go on the record, liana did in fact help with the hinging as the trusty assistant who handed me the screws and hardware :)

cool, right?!

i feel like we've done more this week (a reason i should be posting more often i guess). last night we were able to check off so much from the last version of the to-do list that a new one has been created and there's really not that much left to do. this is crazy.

Days 324 - 329

i cannot believe it's already sunday again. the weeks are zooming by way too fast! fairly busy week in wedding planning i suppose...here's the rundown --

• we received the ring vessel! that order was super speedy and it's beautiful! so excited for everyone to see it!
• the rsvp's have started to roll in-- it's really happening! and really soon! getting more excited by the day.
• my new dress from boden arrived and i think it will be the rehearsal dinner/ night out dress.and it fits perfectly and was on sale. could not be happier finding a cute dress for under $30!

•  the chalkboard paint was also out and the frames are looking cool. i love being able to re-purpose old things! it just makes me happy.
•  and i found more shutters!! $20 for 3 shutters just a few towns over (a nice change from most of my crazy craigslist adventures!). now i think i'm finally ok with what we have. though i really enjoy the hunt!
• we attempted to head out to saugus, ma to see a girl about some frames, but she cancelled on me. hopefully i'll be able to snag the cool frames she used in her wedding this week sometime.
• oh and we hung one of the windows frames on the wall today -- it's looks really cool, especially after painting 1 of the walls a lovely shade of goldenrod. of course it'll look even better once it's filled with colorful pics. i also get really excited to use the wedding decor purchases in our house, in case that wasn't obvious already :)

  

lots to do this week - on the list so far--

• try on dresses with jewelry to make see if everything works
• fill up our frames! which means ordering engagement pics and printing out old family/childhood pictures
• make a final decision / call for reservations for the night before shin-dig
• more ceremony stuff
• order liana's ring
• figure out photo booth stuff
• figure out a signature cocktail that is served over ice and with straws...we welcome suggestions!

Days 320 - 323

Monday, Monday, Monday...

so the weekend was super productive! friday was awesome -- got up early and made liana measure the shutters with me (before she even had coffee, which was pretty risky!). then we we spent a while at AFH scoping out the space with ashley and taking all kinds of measurements and really figuring out where things like the photo booth and bird bath will go. we also made some decisions around how to display our old photos and felling pretty good about stuff. we also snuck into the custom house observatory for an amazing view of the city! this is my new favorite place to take out of town guests! and then we went to a bar to see our DJ who had a gig that night. while it wasn't quite the music we're going for, he did a darn good job. now i just need to email him to make sure we didn't scare him away with our list of 100+ songs...

on saturday, we spent a few hours chatting and researching ceremony stuff and the 1st draft was sent to Jess for edits!

and on sunday i found another craigslist find and we made a quick trip out to rowley, ma for some vintage windows --
the plan is to add some pics to the panes as more decor.

oh and i may have found another guy selling shutters and may try to convince liana that we could use just a few more...stay tuned

Days 76 - 85

So we finally did it - the save the dates hit the mail box today! there are still a few more we need to finish up and verify addresses on, but whew! i can't believe the coffee and dining room tables are finally cleared off. for some reason the final steps to finish up the project were just too daunting and we kept postponing it. and now, since addresses are current and in 1 spreadsheet, i can send out the holiday cards that i bought last year and never opened. oops.  so that's the goal this week - write those damn cards out!

what else? oh, i've started the part time job with locately and have been busy working on location analysis projects for them over the weekends. it's actually pretty interesting (and yes, i am a big nerd) i've already completed 1 project and received my 1st check! whoo hoo! i'm hoping this gig will pay for the photobooth that i really want, but we'll see.

Days 50-62

it's been a pretty busy week and we've made some good progress on things--
save the dates
we spent about 5 hrs or so last saturday on the living room floor figuring out how to use create the best water/gouache mixture, painting both sides of the post cards, stamping the front of the cards with both the blue and black ink stamps, and hoping that we'd have enough cards in total after screwing up a few of the stamps...take a look at some of the pics

 we plan to finish the back of the cards this weekend and to have 1 project completed
meeting with coordinator 
on thursday, we had our 1st meeting with ashley, our coordinator and it went very well! she totally gets our concept and we are ok with the logistics. she seems like a perfect fit with us! we can get all of our 'stuff' to them before the wedding and they will also hold everything for us after the wedding as well. whew! we were both getting nervous that things would not work out, that our ideas were crazy and would not come together, and that we were in over our heads. but, ashley and shane at AFH both seem to like our ideas and think we can definitely create a warm vibe with these vintage elements in the modern space. ahsley took lots of notes and will be sending us her spacial design once she draws it out in a CAD program - how cool?!  they also said the chandelier is fine and so i'm emailing the woman to see if she still has it and then it's off to new hampshire tomorrow i think.
getting excited for more craigslist and antique fair adventures...
 say cheese!
i think we're going with a photobooth! not a big red booth, but a simple, sleek touch screen from picture this. they have never done any events in the boston area, and i think we've cemented a deal with them :)
i figured that with all of the focus groups and research studies i'm doing, i'll be able to come up with the extra cash for this

Days 36 - 49

it's been a pretty busy few weeks and i haven't had much time to post...

let's see, what's been happening??

• we finally tried on our dresses and had a fashion show party with some talented ladies and we have official approval from both the little ones and jess. thanks for coming by and bringing the girls, great ideas for dress accessories and yummy cookies! i think we're keeping the dresses! i'm still not 100% sure, but i think i'm just shocked that we got 2 dresses for so cheap (mine was a shocking $59) and can't believe it worked out...
• i am officially obsessed with evernote and have spent the weekend mornings reading blogs and clipping the images i like into my evernote wedding notebook. seriously - everyone needs to use this for both work and other fun stuff.
• we finalized the save the date image with liana's cousin (thanks again, tina!) and have ordered custom stamps for the post cards. i was hoping to start this project over the weekend too, but that just didn't happen.
• i was on the for sale boards at wedding bee and found this chandelier for sale. we may go pick it up next weekend in NH.
 

• i started cleaning the shutters last weekend and at 30 minutes a shutter, i didn't get very far. we look like 'that house' with these random 17 dirty wooden old shutters scattered all over the back deck. good thing their in the back yard and not bringing the property values down OTB. so, the cleaning project will be continued today before the trick-or-treaters arrive. here's what we're going for with the shutters -they will be hinged together and used to separate the ceremony space from the rest of the massive room, hopefully creating a more intimate feeling for the ceremony. the plan is to move them after the ceremony and use as decor throughout the space.

•  

i found this blog where they used shutters and we love the idea! the wedding was also featured on ruffled. cross your fingers we can really pull this off...

• We have a meeting with our coordinator from russell morin next week and will be doing a walk through with her at the venue. I really hope that she'll tell us we're on an ok track and that these projects will work out for us. we're nervous about the logistics -- i mean we're talking about bringing in shutters, frames, maybe a large mirror, small tables and a huge chandelier to hang. and everything needs to be out of the building that night -- apparently people do this all the time, right?

Days 7 & 8

Ok so i made it almost a straight week posting daily. yesterday was kind of tiring. for starters, we spent the morning scrubbing the carpenters trunk /  future coffee table that we recently purchased. then we headed to the great bridal expo, which was quite the experience. liana was feeling ill and high on allergy meds, i was ready to tackle the expo tables, and we got slightly lost walking from the train to the westin hotel. the supposedly 8 minute walk took us 45 mins and yes, once we got to the hotel, you could actually SEE the T stop...it was really probably a 3 minute walk. it was crazy inside, tons of people and not as many vendors or free stuff as i had anticipated. i was hoping to see lots of DJs and maybe some local flower shops. they also sold perforated cut outs with your name and contact info for your to quickly enter contests ($6) instead of writing your name at each booth. that was a pretty smart move. a smarter move was the chick we saw with her mom with sheets of those stickers you use on envelopes with your address. brilliant. i also nearly fell over when liana pointed out the couple sitting in front of us with matching bride and groom hats. oh yes, i am not kidding, they wore them and wore them proud.
we did love the westin  westin on the waterfrontand realized it is super close to AFH. i plan to call this week and talk to them about reserving a block of rooms. there are also 2 bars and we had a much needed glass of wine after at city bar and thought it'd be a great place for drinks at some point before or after the wedding.

 i also started playing with the stamp kit  we bought at staples - the one we got has 7 lines and 2 ink pads, but i couldn't find the link. we're planning to use this on the save the date postcards, invites, and other future stuff we send. there is enough space for our full address as well as space for our wedding website -cool huh?!
Once we figure out how to use  'gwash' then for real DIY here we come. it was a rather embarrassing trip to the art store when i asked if they had something called gwash (didn't see the huge signage in the aisle next to where i was standing) and then when at the register with 2 paint brushes we didn't realize we had $26 brushes in hand. nothing like looking like most non-artsty-cool people in the store on a busy night.

Day 4

well it's thursday and i'm so ready for the weekend. we do have some wedding-y events which will keep us busy though. tomorrow we're going to macy's for a registry party --not sure what to expect exactly, but i'm ready for free wine and snacks! on saturday, we may start the save the date project. i don't think i've mentioned it, but we bought some HAM radio post cards from the 1930's on ebay that we're going to paint and stamp with the save the date message/image. check out the before pic. we've even framed a few and they are now hanging in the living room (next to the brimfield fair empty frames).  on sunday it's the bridal expo. i'm pretty nervous for this and am not sure if i'm ready for all of the crazy brides out there, but again, it's all about the free stuff i hope to attain :)
i'd also like to officially sign the contract for the photographer this weekend, then we'll have most of the major things booked.
ok maybe i'm not ready for the nutty weekend ahead...