-1 Year Anniversary

Lunetta from Italy

This weekend we've been celebrating our negative one year wedding anniversary.  What is a negative one year anniversary you ask?  We are three hundred and sixty five days from the wedding day, hence a negative rather than a plus one....I think you get the gist.  

        What have done to celebrate (besides kind of freaking out that we haven't done anything in the last six months we've had to plan)?  Well, Friday we went out to dinner with friends we haven't seen in ages (and they bought us dinner, which was fabulous of them).  Saturday evening we fixed a fantastic dinner together of homegrown veggie fajitas and toasted to a year of fun times and productive planning over a couple glasses of cheap champagne (sorry, I mean sparkling wine...).  Today we slept in, which was really great and spent the morning running errands.  I took the Hubs To Be out to brunch at the most popular place in town (McCarthy's) where we hammered out some details over blueberry pancakes and a tuna sandwich.  Closing the place down we decided it was time to hang our wedding hat on the hook for the day and get home for a little down time.  Though we didn't get a mile down the road before he was back to discussing details of the ceremony.  Fine with me if he wants to keep talking details.  I won't discourage any dialogue I don't have to pry from his lips with the jaws of life.  

        When we got home, I had planned on doing some baking as I have approximately ten pounds of zucchini that needs tending to, but instead jumped straight on the world wide web and started researching paper products and options for our plan of attack on our save the dates and eventually our invites.  I have to say I at least accomplished deciding on an envelope that we can use for all items (std, invites and thank yous) which will be great.  And to stick with our goal of being environmentally friendly they are 100% recycled.  Just have to get past the fact that I have to pay for them and they're as good as in the mail.

        So we were fairly successful today as we decided on a layout for both the save the dates and invites and about half of the details for the ceremony.  I think the next goal we need to tackle is a time line.  We need to figure out what needs to be done when and how much it's all going to cost.  So stay tuned for that, and see you next time.   

Let the Leaves Fall as They May

There has been little to report on the wedding front but at just over our one year mark the serious planning and implementation must begin.  With the new feeling of urgency comes the need to make some decisions, which we're actually doing!  Don't worry, I've made sure to give plenty of pats on the back.  Our most recent step in the right direction came in the form of choosing a theme.  Not a theme like Vegas or Star Trek, but just a recurring, subtle idea that flows throughout all aspects of the event.

What we've come up with, or more so, the theme that we've seen ourselves following without actually defining it is...Drum Roll Please. 

Trees.

 This week, as I was thinking about different themes that would fit our list of detailed ideas, I realized the connection and the conclusion was quite obvious. 

Some of those ideas?  

• Our save the date portrait currently in it's second draft by Nan Lawson is bordered on one side with a tree.  

• If we get nothing else we hoped for in a location, it will all be alright as long as the ceremony takes place under a tree.  

• I have ambitious plans that involve tree trunks, dirt and flowers (more on this another time).

• Nate has found some really sweet wedding bands with wood inlays.

Another Excellent Etsy Find

• We've looked at guest book alternatives that use a tree as it's base in one way or another rather than using an actual book for guests to leave their well wishes and words of love.

• We plan to use wood veneer for our invites (more on this another time as well).

 With some of these ideas floating through my head, I found that continuing this motif throughout our planning would be only too appropriate.  So it has passed through the approval system and we're able to move on, keeping this in mind throughout our continued planning.  So hurray for our first big decision and on to the next.  

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.  

The Big Ol' Planning...well...Plan

         I can't seem to keep the counter clean for an hour but give me a wedding to plan and all of sudden I'm Miss. Priss about being tidy.  I've got all my books and magazines in alphabetical order and all necessary information gets neatly tucked away into my handy dandy planning binder.  This all applies only directly to wedding related items that is.  I can't say the same impulse for organization has affected the duration between my laundry leaving the drier and making it safely to their appropriate drawer nor any other aspect of my scattered, pigsty (as my mother lovingly refers to it) of a lifestyle.  I've accepted that my home life skills are below average and the decision to clean is and probably always will be because of a PLANNED guest arrival.  My only hope is to keep the diligence of orderliness plowing forward throughout the entirety of my planning process.  I vaguely recognize this excitement of starting fresh and the promise of efficiency from my school days.  The novelty that accompanied the first month (maybe two) of school, be it grade school or college, was always very refreshing.  I felt I could reorganize and be set for success.  Of course, it always wore off once the homework started to pile up and all enthusiasm for order was lost along with whatever lunchbox leftovers that managed to sneak under the bed....

          I really shouldn't compare planning a most fantastic personalized day like my WEDDING with eighth grade social studies, so in a last ditch effort to prove to myself that I am capable of being effectively organized, I have decided to start with a well designed strategy.  There is a another reason for this compulsion to gather my thoughts.  I have, to this point, been given quite a bit of helpful hints, tips and ideas regarding the details of the event and though all with great intention and our best interest in mind, not always quite fitting with our (mostly mine) vision.  I would, rather than politely taking the suggestions with little intention of perusing them, give our closest helpers something to work off of so they understand what we're going for.  So I, like any good business person (which I by no means claim to be), intend to write up a Wedding Plan.  A blueprint covering all aspects from people, to places, decor to cuff links.  A recipe of all the ingredients we've cooked up and decided on.  I've already begun scribbling and have my word document all set up and ready to go.  As soon as I have the general layout on paper I can type away and with a click clack can get all that has been floating around our heads into one place and ship it off to the anxious helper bees.  

          I do anticipate this project taking a while as I have a habit of only thinking of things at the most inopportune moments and then when I sit to write all those loose thoughts down, they're nowhere to be found.  So this is my first big wedding project (besides finding a template for this blog, phew, that was a late night...).  A project that doesn't require a hot glue gun unfortunately but I'll get to that someday soon. 
Project #1: Write Wedding Outline.  
It's on!  

A Homemade Wedding You Say?

The first things I started to think about when I finally wrapped my head around the fact that after 7+ years of this relationship, we're actually getting married, was the kind of wedding I envisioned us throwing ourselves.  I knew that we'd be paying for it ourselves so budget was going to be a huge factor.  I knew we didn't want to have all the same things that accompany most cookie cutter events.  We want our day to be different and unique.  A perfect example of our very personalities that everyone will enjoy and remember for years to come.  What this ultimately means is that anything one could buy, someone else could buy.  Anything that we want to be unique from what anyone else could have, we'll have to alter with our own touches or make for ourselves completely.  And so we have ourselves a perfect little homemade wedding in the making.  

       This concept started with the ring.  Nate designed it himself and using a hand me down stone from his mom, had it made especially for me.  We'll do the same with the bands.  This is a good example of how some things can be still unique to us though we are unable to make them for ourselves as our skills do not, at this point in life, include metal work.
       We also plan to make the save the dates, invites, hand stamp the cocktail napkins, the center pieces, the groom and groomsman's boutonnieres, my head piece, favors, even the tables and seating!  I'm sure there is more that I've forgotten but essentially anything that one would take time creating or searching for the perfect item, we'll make specifically to our liking.  It's a lot of work, but we've got a bit of time and with a trusty planning binder and drawn out time line, we'll have no problem having everything done in time.  And if we don't then you'll have the pleasure of reading about the chaos right here!

       So please share with friends and other brides-to-be and you will all be sure to enjoy reading about all the excitements, failures and achievements of this homegrown handmade wedding of 2011.