I am so mad

That I didn't find this site BEFORE my wedding. These dresses are totally awesome! And completely affordable!! And they rent them too. Damn it!!

I mean, my dress was okay. It was definitely affordable :) But it was way too boobalicious, and I had to keep hiking up the front of it all night - those bad boys just didn't have enough support. It's the one thing I would change if I could go back. Le sigh. Maybe I can help someone else avoid making the same mistake. Your dress is important!! Not $2,000 worth of important, but you do want to make sure you're as happy with it as you can possibly afford to be. I felt too overwhelmed and was too afraid of being a high maintenance bride to make enough of a stink over choosing my dress. Lesson learned.



Yes. This is me singing with my sister and my cuz. We had a lot of live music that day :) But the point I'm trying to illustrate with this pic is actually the complete lack of mammary support. I had a bra on, I swear! Like it made a difference. Ugh.

And so. What makes a dress perfect:
1. It fits you. Perfectly. (read: enough booby support! and make sure you're not going to be tripping over it while you're dancing!).
2. It's flattering (Hello saggy migillcutty.)
3. It fits your budget. (aka doesn't make you want to cry every time you remember the price tag. Also, you don't have to sell your soul to get it.)
4. It's comfortable enough to let you focus fully on what is happening around you.
5. It makes you feel like the most specialist girl in the room (not because that's what it's all about, but because you'll be getting a lot of attention, and it's kind of nice to feel like you're dressed for it :)). Don't underestimate the value of feeling pretty.

So stalk your dress!! It's out there! Whether you're having a formal wedding for 400 people or eloping in Kuala Lumpur, trust me, It Will Be Worth It.

That being said, as long as you manage to look this happy the first time you dance with your husband (or wife), then nothing else really matters that much. Yeah, I'm pretty lucky.



Seriously though. Don't be afraid to insist on getting yourself a dress that makes you feel super special. Really. It will be one less thing to worry about that day - you'll know you look awesome, and you won't have to be constantly worrying that your naughties are showing :) Which obviously equals having way more fun :)

p.s. sorry about the extreme hiatus. for whatever reason, I just haven't been feeling it lately. I'll try to be better... much love to you all!!

p.p.s. Also, I want to point out that the reason Matt and I aren't gazing into one another's eyes in this shot is that we were LITERALLY surrounded on all sides by our guests, who were all singing our first dance song TO us (Dream a Little Dream). So we alternated between looking at each other and looking at all the other people we love! Absolutely one of the most incredible experiences of my life.

Holiday Cards

So now that I'm all married, and the wedding and the honeymoon are behind me, I'm getting some feeling back in my long-unused parts. Like the part of me that makes art. Yeah, that's slightly major. I can't believe I've neglected it for so long! It's still being slow to recover - like I have pins and needles in my creative regions - but slowly I am regaining the use of my brain as a whole. No longer is all the blood just going to the wedding planning area!! Hooray!!

So I know I'm a bit late in getting these out there, but I've done a small line of holiday cards, which are for sale in my etsy shop. I'm a little obsessed with birds, if you didn't know. And in the name of shameless self-promotion, here they are!



ttfn!

How to light up a dark apartment

I can feel December slipping through my fingers already, so I've decided to decorate the apartment today. I really really wanted to get a real tree, but living in the city, in a neighborhood that doesn't really do cute little Christmas tree sales on corners, without a car, it's not so easy. So I'm seriously considering sucking it up and buying a cheap little fake tree from one of the cheesy discount stores that are, for some reason, so plentiful in my 'hood.



I love our apartment, but it has one major downside. It's dark. It just doesn't get a lot of natural light, and the wintertime, especially, leaves me feeling like I'm living in a cave. To top it off, this has been a super gloomy week, and I'm finding it hard to get motivated to clean and prettify our little nest. I'm hoping that once I get started, and once we get some little white lights twinkling, it will start feeling a little less gothic and a little more cozy.



Cross your fingers that I can get it done!! Hopefully I'll have an update for you tomorrow :)

You know what??

I have to stop putting off posting. Really, it's because the idea of writing a blow-by-blow account of our wedding is 1. totally exhausting, and 2. actually probably impossible to achieve in a way that I'm happy with. It was such a perfect day, although slightly blurry in parts, and I don't think I can really do it justice. So here's what I'm going to do. I will jump back in and continue with the old blog. Every so often I may feel moved to include some details and/or pictures from the wedding, and when that happens, you'll get another taste of the day. In the meantime, however, I must confess that I. AM. OVER. WEDDINGS.

Like A Practical Wedding, I will likely talk about marriage, and all the issues and loveliness that it entails. But I am also in a major nesting mode, so I WILL be talking about throw pillows and paint at some point, I'm sure. Sorry Meg :) This was never expressly a "wedding blog" - in fact I started it as a way to share my creative workings and mullings - and so I will return to simply blogging about my life, my obsessions, and the like.

But just because this is probably my favorite product of our wedding (apart from um, my MARRIAGE), I'll share some of our photobooth pictures.

We couldn't afford to hire a photographer. Period. Luckily my husband is a professional photog, and there were at least ten OTHER professional photogs at the wedding. So we ended up getting some amazing shots for free! We also couldn't afford to rent a photobooth, so we decided to set up our own. A dear friend of Matt's volunteered some equipment (huge lights and a giant grey seamless), we set up Matt's digital on his tripod, wrote up some instructions, and let people go nuts. And go nuts they did.

We ended up with over 400 pictures from the photobooth alone. Matt edited them down, and now I present you with a tiny selection from his edits. Enjoy!

Reception: Part Uno

There is so much to say about this day, I'm just going to dive in. Here's hoping it's not too out of order and confusing. I'm thinking it will take at least two posts to cover it all...


Amanda and her beau, pre-ceremony



Mel as supermodel superhero, also pre-ceremony

My cousins Amanda and Melanie were my AMAZING day-of coordinators. When I asked them if they would do it, I really thought the work would be minimal. Shows how much I know. Luckily, they are two of the most generous, calm, efficient, organized and did I say generous? people I know, and they took it all in stride. I don't know what I would have done without them. Amanda took my phone from me the morning of the wedding, and then went to the venue site to make sure all the vendors were under control. She fielded all my phone calls, and only called my sister (my MOH who was with me all day) if there was something she didn't know the answer to. She came up with this idea, and talked me into it - she wanted me to be able to focus on the getting married part, and not the "omg we don't have napkins" part. She's brilliant. She also made all the flags that were hanging at the reception. By herself. In between tours. Like I said, she's amazing. Check her out here.


Manders did the flags, I did the birds...

The caterer was late. They didn't bring napkins. The musicians ended up having to do a sound check that morning, because we were missing some vital piece of equipment and couldn't do it the night before (Matt was a CHAMP that day - he was at the church all morning, running around in his tux, getting shit DONE). Things definitely went wrong, but thanks to the incredible support system we had, it all got handled. Amanda and Mel ran out to get napkins, like half an hour before the ceremony. They also picked up dozens of yellow and blue balloons to line the pathway to the garden. Totally their idea, and totally amazing and helpful. I think the most incredible thing about the wedding (apart from getting married, of course) was the unbelievable wave of support we felt that day, and the days preceding.

Sitting in my parents house the Thursday before, with at least three cousins, four siblings, and one nephew all sitting in a circle, assembling programs..... having so many people show up the day before (a weekday, I might add) to help set up the reception space that we were finished in a fraction of the time I had allotted, and some people didn't even need to do anything..... seeing pictures, taken the morning of the wedding, of people running around the hall, setting up the music, while I was obliviously hanging out with my bridesmaids.... arriving at the reception and seeing it utterly transformed.... GORGEOUS flowers, everywhere...... wine bottles all out and opened, hundreds of candles lit, all without my saying anything about it..... just amazing.


Magical wedding elves doing some last minute set-up the morning of...

It really was a community project, and that made it so much more special and meaningful.

Seriously? I'm already tapped out for today. Tomorrow, I tackle the music. Oh. The Music.

The Ceremony

Okay, no preamble here, I'm just gonna jump into it.



So we had this amazing procession. Matt and I, our parents, and our bridal parties, led by our wonderful minister, started it up. Matt's brother - on guitar - and cousin - on euphonium - walked behind us playing "All You Need Is Love." EVERYONE fell in behind us, and we had the biggest, most love-filled procession EVER. Ah-mazing.



We were both so floored by the power of this walk. We kept looking at each other and saying "this is insane!!"

We arrived in the garden. We had about 45 chairs set up, and about 140 guests. The ceremony was short, so we figured some people wouldn't mind standing. We wanted people to be close to us, and be part of the action, so we encouraged them to stand behind us, next to us, in front - whatever they wanted. I was a little nervous about this, but it worked out super well. ALSO, the weather cooperated! That morning, it was dark and stormy, and I was a little anxious, but I made a decision not to worry, and it turned out to be a perfect October afternoon. The sun came out, and the cold snap hadn't started, so it was crisp but not too cold. Someone told me later that the sun broke through just as we said our vows :)



My uncle kicked things off with a heartbreakingly beautiful speech. I wish I had the text so that I could quote it. I'll try and get my hands on it so that I can share. Lets just say for now that I had several people - NOT sentimental types - come up to me later and tell me that his talk was the best part of the whole day. Yay uncle P!



Listening to Uncle Peter work his magic...

Our officiant, Carmela, was the mother of a dear friend of ours, and she did an incredible job. She has such a warm, loving spirit, and she was SUCH a great support and help during the planning process. She gave us exactly the ceremony we wanted, and I don't think I'm being too biased when I say it's the best ceremony I've ever been to :) This picture is jumping ahead a bit - I just love Carmela's expression here - it captures the joy and love and enthusiasm she brought to the ceremony perfectly.



My mother and Matt's father each chose readings. We let them pick whatever they wanted, as long as it wasn't the same thing! My mom read the classic biblical verse about love ("love is patient, love is kind.."). It's a classic for a reason people! it was part of my parent's ceremony, my sister's, and my brother's, so I was so glad she chose it. My father-in-law read something totally non-secular and just as moving. But I'm a terrible daughter-in-law and I don't even remember the AUTHOR, never mind the text. I'll have to get that up later as well...



I cried. A LOT. I knew I would - I'm a big crier - but I had no idea how ridiculously copious my tears would be! It was just hard to talk, and I felt like Carmela just kept asking me me to say more and more and more :) Matt was SO sweet. he kept brushing my tears away. It was weird, but I have never felt so unselfconscious in my life as I did that day. So the crying didn't bother me until later, when I started looking at everyone's pictures, and I'm like "dude! can we find one where I'm NOT making an ugly cry face???"



Aren't my bridesmaids lovely?!!? They each chose their own yellow dress, and then some of them wore blue shoes and some of them wore pink. I bought them each a wrap to match their shoes. They looked gorgeous and bright and sunny!!



Really, all I could think about after we exchanged rings was kissing my husband. Carmela said some BEAUTIFUL words (which, luckily, I had read beforehand, so that I was able to fully absorb them and also so that the crying was kept to a minimum), and my sister and Matt's brother (the moh and best man, respectively) read the benediction:

Now you will feel no rain,
for each of you will be a shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now you will feel no loneliness,
for each of you will be a friend to the other.
Now you are two people,
but there is one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place
and enter into your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the Earth.

Then, we smooched. It was the best kiss ever.