days 152 - 172

wow - so i have absolutely no idea where the last few weeks have gone! i think i'm just feeling a bit like i have nothing important to say about progress and things. one exciting thing did happen today though - as you may or may not know, i like to enter a contest here and there and just found out that i won 12 custom wine wings from wine on deck. and so we need to give them some artwork or message to laser engrave into the wing. this should get interesting...here's an example of what we're talking about here-

what do we do for the design? and what do we do with 12 of these? stay tuned...i need to email this guy soon, so please send ideas if you have them. i'm not super into the idea of using our names/wedding date on this as people generally don't need to display another couples wedding info in their homes, but who knows, perhaps we'll come up with something cool,  that's just my initial thought.

what else? not quite sure, this was really the highlight of my day :)
oh i had an all day research study yesterday and will make $400 in a month or so and maybe i just had to take a small dose of some hormone, which in no way had an any impact on my very calm day at work today. totally worth it though, especially since we're thinking about doing engagement pics. let's be honest, i am really not that photogenic and often get what i like to call crazy eyes in pictures and could really use some practice in front of the camera. besides, how fun would it be to do some shots in regular, oh just threw this on, outfits in the places that have meant a lot to us over the past 7 years?! we're thinking harvard square --- charlie's kitchen , noir, and maybe even just between stops somewhere on the T. Anyway, not sure if this is really going to happen or not, but stay tuned.

days 140-151

so we got a fun surprise on a snow day last week --- a box of chocolates from burdick's (addressed to liana)! i of course said 'well you know i didn't send them' (which i later realized was rather not-so-nice). anyway, after we made some guesses who they might have been from, we were pleasantly surprised to see that ashley, our photographer, sent them to us! so excited to work with her!
jealous much?

oh and we also found a cool registry site where we can register for things other than the traditional registry items and include links to things/experiences that we know we'll use and love. the whole concept is still kind of strange to us, but people have asked about it, so that's the deal. it's very much a work in progress until we figure things out, but we both think this site may make the most sense for us.

what else? we're trying to figure out what to do about transportation the day of. i requested quotes on some school buses to use between the hotel (not that we've found any yet) and the venue. not sure if it's necessary, since we're in the city and things are all pretty T accessible, but we should at least consider the options, especially if we need to get a bunch of people from one hotel to the space. then again, it'd be kind of appropriate if we all took the T together (and i'm sure we'd have some fantastic photo ops)
any suggestions would be welcomed :)

so overall, still not too overwhelmed, but we do have a lot on the to-do list for each month. pretty excited to start figuring our our shoes and accessories though. my dress is pretty plain, so the plan is to find some bright colors and funky jewelry.

days 123-139

i spent the early morning hours catching up on the blogs i follow and came across yet another inspirational site - the found blog - a group that rents out vintage 'stuff'. so smart. no, i'm not about to rent out a vintage bath tub for a shoot or anything, but there are just some really cool shots giving me more ideas. we've been into the look of having empty picture frames hanging in our house and we've got some ideas for doing this with bright frames in the AFH courtyard --

 oh, we got the flower buckets, which are really cool so the 2nd bedroom is truly becoming overwhelming and stuffed to the gills. the best part is that one would not expect the collection of items in the room would be used in a wedding.  haha - i love it.

oh and here i am in all of my tiara glory---

and here are the girls--

more pics from the shower are in the picasa album (link under 'pages' on the right side of the screen)

days 113 - 122

one of my 2011 resolutions is to post more often - and then i came down with a nasty 'sinus infection gone wrong' as my doctor said. so, i'm finally feeling better and am starting this resolution today and will try my very best-est to post at least once a week! i don't expect it to be too hard, since there's more happening the closer we get to sept.
so things that have been happening / need to happen...

• contract signed with PictureThis - the high tech photobooth. yeah!
• received invite for menu tasting -- this means that we need to pick out our top choices and send them in so we can schedule the tasting soon. i really hope that the saturday time slots are not filled up yet - fingers crossed!! stay tuned for menu selections
• updated the wedding spreadsheet this week -- of course, since i love data, i am tracking every dollar spent, what we expect to spend, where we spent it, as well as guest list details and notes
• found out that some save the dates never made it to the address...damn! at least we still have some left over, so i'd like to re-send soon and contact people who we haven't heard from to see if they received the post card or not...ugh
• spotted some cheap french flower buckets from a classified posting on weddingbee that were used in a wedding in florida and snagged them up. they should be arriving this week!
• added some dates to my google calendar. i'll have to play with it to see how it can be shared
• need to look at hotels and how the whole reserve-a block-of-rooms-thing actually works

well it's a snow day today, so hopefully i can be productive and get stuff done!

days 93 -112

the past 2 weeks or so have been crazy (i'm sure like it's been for everyone else). i've been fighting a cold since returning from michigan over a week ago and have not had the energy to do much of anything, though i've been trying to keep some mental notes about things i wanted to share:

• we received our invitation for the menu tasting, which is pretty exciting. stay tuned...hope to schedule this within the next month or 2 before 'wedding season' starts up for the catering team 

• while in michigan, i may or may not have experienced a very pink and sparkly surprise shower from my dear friends. amy and roxanne invited liana via skype, but since we are still very low-tech,  unfortunately she could not attend from boston. it was very much a surprise, and in true amy-style, i showed up at her house expecting to go to dinner at paesano's, and instead got 'surprise! you're having a surprise shower downstairs tonight' and we continued to deal with the chaos of the day, while the fantastic chris picked up food at ma kigers while having to deal with a sick dog at the hospital. and of course they pulled it together just in time for my mom to arrive, along with the sarah's. it was perfect and i am so grateful that these amazing (and generous!) women are still a part of my life (even though i'm really bad about keeping in touch -- this is one of my 2011 resolutions!).the room was covered in pink tulle, glittery hanging things from the ceiling and i was crowned with a lovely tiara (oh yes, with a veil). can i just say, this is so not me AT ALL and yet this is one of the many reasons i love these fools. oh and we had 2 games too -- these were actually pretty fun, the jess-bingo had us laughing and telling so many stories of our 10+ years as friends (some of which my mom probably didn't need to hear :). pictures will be posted soon. one of the most memorable moments is from little chase - "'eeewwww -- it smells like girls down here!"

• and we have our 'something magical' to wear (yes, i just decided that a 'something magical' is necessary) - we each received beautifully knitted shawls that were created with an actual love spell. thank you rebecca!

• during a visit to brooklyn this fall, while spending the day in pj's, and sipping some vino, (liana and sister sharing a pair of cat socks), we discovered the section quartet and loved their music. according to wikipedia, 'it specializes in turning popular rock songs into classical quartet pieces'. you may hear some of their work during cocktail hour...

i'm feeling ok about the wedding planning status at this point, which also makes me a bit nervous. i think the plan today will be to set up a google calendar and plug in some dates for things that we know need to happen to get a better sense of time lines. i also want to figure out how to link my evernote notebook to this site, since i'm a bit obsessed with using it, but we'll see.

yeah for an exciting 2011!!


update: yes! i was able to add my evernote notbook as a link to the 'sites i'm finding useful' on the right side of the page.

Days 86 - 92

so it's been kind of a busy week, but not so busy with wedding stuff.  so i will take this opportunity to blah blah about the venue and what we're thinking for things --
the artists for humanity is a great organization! here's some of the 'about us' from their website --

At the heart of Artists for Humanity is the belief that skills equal power and opportunity. AFH has three goals, which provide inner-city teens with:

• a safe meaningful place where they are respected for their contributions and develop mentoring relationships so important to teens;
• an opportunity to have a voice through exhibitions, commercial services, and public presentations;
• the respect and responsibility of paid employment that promotes self-esteem and financial accountability.  At AFH, young people learn entrepreneurship and get paid for their own creative production.

While the goals remain stable, methods of reaching them are constantly evolving. AFH reaches into every niche of the city to ensure fresh input, new projects and media, and a unique outlook.

i mean, really. really, if we're spending so much cash on this big day, then we thought that the money should at least go to support something meaningful in the community. and the walls will be covered in art created by the kids - we have no idea what will be hanging on the walls next sept, but i'm sure that bright colors will fill the space  - and who knows, maybe there will be a life-sized incredible hulk exhibit like there was last year in another wedding i happened to stumble upon (aka wedding stalking) in my venue research. i hope that people find a new piece of art that they can't live without while visiting southie....

what else interesting is there to say? well, we'll be having both the ceremony and reception in the same space which may be a new (and totally cool!) wedding concept for some folks. oh and since it's a green building, it's full of interesting things created using recycled materials, including windshields from old boston police cars as the railings for the stairs and 2nd floor balcony.
so hopefully our 'sustainable' ideas and the random stuff i've posted about are beginning to make sense to people now.
looking forward to sharing more with my 4 followers :)
and thanks steve, for mentioning the comment box - hopefully it works now...

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.