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.

Days 64-75

ok so i realized that i started a post last sunday night and never actually posted it. i was doing way too many things at once i guess. so i'll give a brief update on the happenings of the week --

• super excited to sign the contract with our photographer ashley o'dell !! she is awesome and we both felt really comfortable with her. and she's from the midwest, which is a fun fact too!  as i may have mentioned, we're not doing a very traditional wedding, so having a photographer who gets that and will capture the moments is important. we're not going for the 'stand here, look this way, say cheese' images'. 
• we made our way up to NH on sunday and have acquired the chandelier!!! it is freakin' cool and  can actually be wired to use in a house. not that it will work in our small condo, but perhaps someday in some larger abode with a grand entrance way...

•  we also found these old bottles that are from the new england bottle company back in the day. we're planning to use these for the table centerpieces.
• save the dates are about done and will be mailed very soon. they look pretty cool too, i must say.
• the wedding website is up and running and will be listed on the save the dates. people can find wedding details there.

 ok well short and sweet today - more this weekend, i promise :)

Day 63

i'm not sure where the weekend has gone.. it's sunday morning already and the save the dates are still in a pile on a table. i'm still hopeful that today will be productive.  no chandelier today -  i think we'll go out to NH next weekend to pick it up, and perhaps along with some mason jars too. i spent most of the morning yesterday updating our wedding website, it's actually kind of fun (and yes i am a nerd) and the website builder,  wix, is actually pretty easy to use, but it is a time suck. i was also playing with my google picasa album and figured out a way to create a new page in the blog that links to my pics on picasa. if you can't see the pages on the left (links for 'extra ways to fund the fun' and 'pictures'), let me know as i think there may be a bug in the system. anyway, keep an eye on the pictures over time - i think the slide show will automatically link to my album and i may not need to post as many pics within each post. who knows though...

we also had a good talk about the ceremony last night and came up with some good ideas (thanks, rebecca!)
there are still lots of decisions to make as far as what type of person we want to officiating, what exactly we want for the ceremony, and how to involve the guests. at least we still have a bit of time - we're only at day 63 since starting the blog counting to 365 days...