It's just Meant To Bee

I was at my Mom's this weekend for a mother's day purge session.  She's working on cleaning out her entire house in the hopes to put it on the market filled with just the bare essentials.  After years of holding onto everything that might be of importance or sentimental value for her, and the four of us whom she has raised, it proves to be a daunting task to sort through it all and decide what is really worth keeping.  In the two and a half days I was there my brother packed the Town & Country to the ceiling and delivered it to Good Will.  While he was gone, another half a load worth made it's way out to the garage.  During the numerous breaks I took from my task of clearing out my old bedroom closet, I made my way down to the kitchen for a snack or yet another cup of coffee from my Mom's fabulous Keurig.  "Isn't that thing wasteful" says my guy when I came home ranting about the disgustingly convenient contraption yet again.  "well, yes, but it comes with a little mesh filter to use over and over again with bulk coffee."  That shut him up...I think that means I won.  Sorry, I've gotten sidetracked.  

        On one of these ventures out of the confines of my "project" I talked with a visiting friend of my Mom's who popped in every now and then throughout my stay.  I have to give this background first.  In my occasional window shopping of the internet wedding world, I had found a really cute idea for favors.  Little jars of honey with a corny little saying on it that combined the wedding motif and the actuality that it was honey.  Back to my Mom's friend (we'll call her Mel, for the Latin naming of the Western Honey Bee, Apis mellifera).  Mel, a now retired, high energy lady who loves projects and will do whatever she can to help a fellow sist-a out.  In our on and off conversation of this little thing called Our Wedding says "I'm just putting it out there, so think about it, but a nice idea for favors might be honey."  I say "OMG Girl, that's totally a route we had discussed taking!"  Come to find out, her and her husband have bees and it would be their honey!  She can also do candles and is working on soap!!  It's for shizzle!  All we have to do is find jars and make a little label for them!  So easy!  I think we might try to do something else to go with it so at least there's some element of surprise to those readers who are also guests.  

        In preparation for this post, I looked some of those jars up that I found so that I could have a pic of what we're thinking of.  In the search I found out a few things that make this idea even more appealing:

"In early Greece and Rome honey symbolized fertility, love, and beauty. Furthermore, in Greek mythology, it is said that Cupid dipped his arrows in honey to fill the lovers heart with sweetness." -www.e-weddingfavors.com

         What a great gift!  Local Vermont Honey in a reusable glass jar!  It fits all of our ideals and even has historical meaning!  It's pretty much a done deal and we still have 466 days to go!  All for getting things taken care of ahead of time.

Also, my great friend M is a newly inaugurated bee keeper and just a shout out to her!  Hey M! 

Thank you to www.e-weddingfavors.com for the use of their jar-o-honey pic.  

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3030/2934975197_1cc6b8027a.jpg for the use of the comb pic.

http://www.mwt.net/~fry/MessyHouse.jpg for the use of the messy house framed saying. 

Umm, So, I Guess That's All

We officially checked out our first venue this evening.  It was exciting but I was equally nervous.  We don't know what we're doing here?  I've got a cookie cutter wedding planning binder that's giving us the generic questions to stick to the "wedding planner" of such venues.  Which I have to say was little help in our first experience at this whole site search.  We visited Applecheek Farm this evening which is a working farm in the hills of Vermont with gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains and a bundle of various animals wandering around the newly plowed property.  The on and off weather and strange cloud formations we've been having today only adding to the beauty of the views themselves and making the 15-20 minute drive up and back a really enjoyable trip.  

{I have to mention the distaste for my camera at the moment.  I took some, what I thought, were going to be really awesome shots while we were up there and on our way back, and when we got home and I went to load them onto my trusty mac, the photos were nowhere to be found.  All the previous pics still there, but no award winning masterpieces.  Blast. So Applecheek themselves have to be thanked for the use of their photo creations.}

So back to our evening outing.  I realize now that we have to look at this excursion as a learning experiance for two reasons.  1.  The venue in itself as to be considered for our event.  2.  How to go about the interview process of any venue being considered for our event.  The second being the most crucial to the bigger picture, which is what we gotta see at this point.  We're too far away to be worrying our little heads anything other than the grande picture thus far anyway.  But to address both aspects of the adventure we'll start with the first.

        Our thoughts on the venue itself are a little muddled.  The pros? In our price range, talented caterer right on site, the beauty of Vermont gorgeously exemplified, and close to home (our home anyway).  Cons?  Indoor venue not large enough to accommodate our present guest list, working farm which provides guests with a first hand (or nose) look at the sights and smells of a farm, which doesn't bother us any but we need to take our guests into consideration.  And the pro of being close to our home, is a con to the rest of my family who would be driving there and back the same day.  Not the amount of grassy area we had hoped for. In the end we both agreed that, while appealing to our price range, we will continue to look around, but if this was the option we had to go with, we'd make it work.  Hell, I'm more than willing to wear my muck boots down the aisle, I just don't know if all our guests own a pair...

        Our overall first experience?  Well, and this could be looked at as good or bad, the representative of the farm was also the in house chef and though a tremendously pleasant person, not a very good salesman.  We went through our list of questions and that was the extent of our conversation.  If there is something they offer that we didn't think to ask about, then we'll have to base our decision on what we DO know.  I just kinda felt kind of bad, like we were forcing ourselves on him.  As if they don't really do weddings, but WE were trying to convince him to host it.  Nate and I do have a basic idea of how we picture the logistics of the ceremony and reception to look like, but to have someone on staff at the venue throwing out ideas that we may not have thought of would be a plus.  But I guess that's a price we're going to have to pay for doing things so far from customary.  So what we've learned?

• Do all our research on a place and have specific questions ready to go based on our visions.
• Do they have any input as to how their site would fit our vision?
• Are there are any 'benefits' so to speak to choosing them as our venue?
• What is included in the price of the venue?
• Ask for a tour.

This is what we've come up with so far for things to think about next time along with our long list of our event specific questions like can we bring our own booze.  

        With this first, awkward experience, we've started to define our delusions of a utopian escapade (on a bargain budget) and now know better how to go about the next interview.  We still have a lot to learn and I look forward to the next happen chance that we get to find our wedding day host!  Until next time, Baker Betty Bride, signing off.

Again, A thank you to Applecheek Farm for sharing their photos with us.  Please check them out as well as their in house Chef, Jason of Just Delicious Catering.  They are an organic certified meat producing farm and have a great CSA program.  Even if they may not be a perfect fit for our wedding, I have no reservations about supporting them as local farmers and great people.  

Operation Buddha Booty Phase Out

I have recently noticed that I'm no longer the slim self, I've identified with for the past 10 plus years.  I've struggled with this change because I'm really uncomfortable with others talking about their weight insecurities.  But we all have a vision of ourselves and mine in particular has been separating from the reality of my physical self.  Of course it didn't happen over night like the legendary Freshman 15 in which college freshman, in their first one to three months of being away from home and surviving on microwaved food products, greasy take out food and lots of cheap beer, gain a lot of weight all at once.  My weight, which I can't actually even call weight since I haven't gained a pound since high school, has been slowly joining me over the last couple years.  Time in which I've exercised less, and continued to eat the food I've always eaten.  Healthy (most of the time) but not good with little physical activity and the creep toward thirty certainly hasn't helped.  The process of turning what used to be muscle into fat has sped up in the last few months that I've no longer been getting up at 3:30 in the morning.  Because I can stay up later, we've been eating later and later and too many times than not, within an hour of going to bed.  Something I've always tried to avoid.  All of these factors have left me with more than welcome midsection flab (the Buddha belly) and jiggly buns (the booty).

         Now this is just an overall distaste for this change in my physical appearance and dislike for how my lifestyle has become so inactive and has little to do with the fact that in a year and half I'd like to be looking my best....I said a little!  To address these issues, I've decided to develop Operation Buddha Booty Phase Out, my own lifestyle change for the better to get fit, watch what I'm eating when and improve my overall self image.  This is still the beginning stages so I have yet to actually have a hard copy of the operation details, but want to state here my intentions to make the changes.  Accountability ya know?  Stay tuned.

         So here goes nothing!  Wish me luck!