days 241 - 261

ready? set! here's the latest---
brimfield was a complete success! within 10 minutes of arriving we had made the 1st purchase and went back to the car with load #1. here are a few pics of our finds:

the copper tray above is used in traditional indian weddings and has a border of engraved acorns, a symbol of fertility and growth. cute, huh?! the step ladders on the right were some great bargains and perfect for the ceremony.


we were really excited to find this mirror. as you can see, it's getting some use now in the bedroom and will be displayed on a table with the tray and seltzer bottle. can you picture it yet?! excited yet?!

Liana received her etsy necklace and it is perfect with the dress!








And my purple peacock shoes arrived today too! and i think (or hope) i can totally rock them with the dress.

and then after having a blast at amy and dan's wedding in portsmouth last weekend, we came home and clearly had wedding stuff on the brain. we spent a few hours putting together a song list for our dj. we got a bit carried away and have over 100 songs to give him. it was hard describing the music we like when we have everything from  motley crue to tegan & sara to  rihanna on the list! :)

and the ceremony--- we've finally spent some time thinking about what we want. we had lunch with jess & christina (our wonderful friends who are visiting from berkeley this week- we are so lucky jess is also officiating our ceremony!) and started the conversation with them over the weekend. liana and i then went back to our local bar with laptop in tow and started jotting down ideas in appendix II of our notebook of lists.

we're really happy to be able to see christina and jess again this week to discuss more. they are both so great and helpful with thinking through all this. and jess has already done some preliminary research -- so excited to work with her to create the perfect ceremony for us.

we've got less than 4 months till the big day...i'm sure i'll be posting more often :)

Days 238 - 240

it was an incredibly productive weekend! i'm actually shocked we got so much done on the intimidating to-do list. there were even some appendices created to document the specifics we need to do for the ceremony and decor.
so for starters, we made our way to the boston flower market to see how overwhelming the store was. we're thinking about just doing our own flowers, and i was worried that this store and the ones next to it would be similar to a haymarket situation, but, no, it was totally fine. we even picked up a few bunches of flowers and 'tested out' the flower buckets and soda bottles (vases) at home...
and i think it will totally work. the lower photo is our attempt at mocking up the tables.  you get the picture, just imagine a lovely white table cloth and not a wrinkly fabric sheet.

and i ordered my shoes! purple peacock size 11's here i come! liana's etsy necklace arrived too, so once my shoes arrive, we'll be able to try on the full outfits -- fingers crossed that it all works together.

oh and then we wrote our our shopping (wish) list for the brimfield trip this weekend. let's just say that we'll be looking for everything from step stools to frames to lace to vintage boxes, crates, and bottles.

and finally, we sent out a mass email about hotels, etc to guests. and i figured out how to create a gmail group in my contacts - how excited was i?!  and yes mom, i'm sure the email was sent to all 70 people, not just you :) -  love the power of the bcc:

i am such a nerd. ok more later this week.

Days 211 - 237

wow -- so i'm a complete slacker, but the days have just been going by so quickly and all of a sudden weeks go by. but this just means that i have lots of updates.

1. we've ordered (and received this week!) our invites! that feels like a pretty big accomplishment and we're really excited about them. let's just say that they are in line with our green / sustainable ideas
2. we found a make-up artist and had a trial with lissa and she was great. of course we got all fancy on a stormy day wearing casual clothes and so it was a bit strange, and we both felt a bit, well, not like ourselves, but oh well. we're excited to work with her though.
3. hotel blocks are set and the website has been updated with details
4. this week we met with and booked our dj -- he was great - super laid back and seemed to be a good fit. now we get to really start to think about the music choices. and he liked our secret potential cute/silly 1st dance song...
5. and maybe the most exciting update--- it turns out i do not always end up with crazy eyes and awkward smiles in pictures! we spent about 3 hrs last saturday in harvard and central squares with ashley and had a blast! i think we ended up taking photos in at least 10 different spots including having a few beers in charlie's kitchen, a random alley in harvard square (that i'd never even noticed before), riding the redline, a quiet neighborhood street outside of central, standing outside of the middle east bar, among the funky murals in central sq, and ended up walking over a bridge across the charles river around sunset. the light came out just as we started shooting and the weather was perfect. check out the pics on her blog - this was the best idea EVER!

and with no real plans this weekend, there will be time to sit down and look at our to-do list. still feeling pretty ok about progress, but i'm just a bit nervous and hope that our ideas come together. it's brimfield antique fair time again and we're planning to go next weekend with the hopes to find any remaining 'things' we need for the space. 

days 177 - 210

ok back on track -- lots of updates, but i 1st want to share a necklace on etsy that i stumbled upon this morning.  it can be made with a different color scheme and a different brooch, but i'm kind of loving it. this may be too much with the purple shoes, or maybe this is better than the purple shoes. i'll need to consult with others on this one....

everything else seems to be falling into place - we're meeting with a potential dj next week, so fingers are crossed! he comes with great recommendations from my friends evan and jo, so i'm hopeful :)

and hotels?! YES, i finally got my act togehter and we've blocked rooms for fri and sat at the westin hotel on the waterfront  -- more details will be posted on the wedding website, but rooms are now available for reserving! we realize that this hotel is a bit pricey (although sadly pretty comparable to other hotels downtown boston). so, we're working to find a 2nd hotel with more inexpensive rates. We will be staying at the westin and working with them to have cabs available to take us from this hotel to the epicenter (a 5 min drive). 

food?!  oh we had our menu tasting and it was amazing! we're so excited about our catering team and the options.  i may have a post dedicated to the food later today. but in the meantime, feel free to look at the pics on the web album .

 

days 173 - 176

earlier this week, tracy sent me the link to these shoes on etsy and i can't stop thinking about them. and not in an obsessed kind of way, but in that i wasn't sure about them - i've never really been that interested in peacock feathers. but after a few days, i'm finding myself drawn to them. i'm intrigued. and as she pointed out, they are under 2 inches, so after practicing, maybe i won't fall down too many times. also, i'm in a wedding in may and amy's colors are purple and black. i'm wondering if i could pull these off with the black dress i'll be wearing in her wedding - just have to make sure the other ladies are wearing purple shoes too. and i need to figure out whether or not they are a bit too much for a bridesmaid...hhhmmm...

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.