Birthday Boy - the big 3-0!

Alright everyone, and a 1 and a 2 and a 3...

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear old Douglas, Happy Birthday to you!

 

 This weekend we celebrate Douglas turning the big 3-0!  So be sure to wish him a happy birthday on Sunday!

Digging the Tracks - Part 1ish

Happy Holidays!  Today's post is all about insight.  You were promised insight into the STD track listing and this post will attempt to make good on that promise.

Before we delve into the tunes, I feel I must divulge the reference in the title of the last post - even Douglas missed it! 

Scudworth: [Typing on the computer] I'll title it, What It's Like to Be a Teenage Clone, colon, A Rope of Sand.
Mr. Butlertron: [Mr. Butlertron enters scene] Good title, it draws the reader in without giving too much away.

It's from an episode of Clone High.  I know, I remember the oddest stuff sometimes.

Anyway, let's move on, shall we?

At the end of the last post, we started with the Universal Theme.  So let's pick up from there.

Track 2 is Partyman by Prince.  Did it sound familiar?  It's ok if it didn't because it's probably been a while.  This track is from the Batman soundtrack.  Yes, the 1989 Batman.

Up until the Dark Knight movies, this was, by far, the best Batman movie out there.  Keaton will always be Batman and Nicholson will always be the Joker.  Those will always be my starting points.  Ledger is an awesome Joker, but he's a different Joker.  Nothing will ever replace Nicholson as the Joker.  Douglas and I quote Joker lines from this movie just as much as we quote them from the Dark Knight.  Who doesn't remember "Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?"  Creepy!  The soundtrack, too, was pretty awesome.  It's mostly Prince tunes, but it worked in this instance.  "Batdance", "Trust", and "Partyman" always get us in a dancing mood.  We decided that "Batdance" would take up too much space on the disc and wouldn't get people moving as much as the other two.  It was a difficult choice between "Trust" and "Partyman".  Luckily, I'm a sucker for "Partyman".  Nothing beats Nicholson's Joker and his thugs "broadening their minds" in a museum.

Track 3 is Jungle Love. 

Oh yeah, Jay and Silent Bob!  Douglas and I both really enjoy Kevin Smith movies.  I actually got introduced to the View Askew universe due to Douglas and Ryan's love of it.  Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was nothing to write home about when you first saw it, but man if it isn't still fun to kick back and laugh at.  I could wax poetic, and get Douglas to join in, on how the adventures of Jay and Bob give you a time line and connect different stories within the View Askew universe, but I'll spare you in this post.  Our choice of including "Jungle Love" on the cd is because we can't help but dance when it comes on the speakers and it allowed us to work one of these movies into the playlist.


Track 4 is the Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show (RHPS). 

RHPS will always have a special place in our hearts.  Not only do we really enjoy the movie but we bonded over my helping Douglas' organization putting together a screening of RHPS for campus.  Throughout college, we both made a lot of great friends and had a lot of great times around Rocky Horror.  If you're lucky, we might be able to get Douglas to reprise his role as Riff Raff.  I haven't donned the Janet slip in quite some time.  Can you guess which members of our wedding party also participated in RHPS screenings with us?  Can you guess the roles that they played? 

Since I'm being long winded, I'm going to break up the track listing insights.  So three tracks will last us until next time.

Stay tuned for more!

When Your Guest List Can't Reflect How You Feel: A Rope of Sand

Kudos to anyone who gets the reference in the title.

Now that the STDs have gone out, I feel I can breach the topic of the guest list.  Through out the rest of the wedding planning, I hope nothing is as depressing as putting together the guest list.

Why was the guest list so depressing, I hear you asking.  Well, we simply weren't able to invite a good number of folks who we thought we'd be able to.  Douglas' side has a lot of family and I've had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with a good number of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.  My family, on the other hand, hasn't been close over the past few years but seems to be trying to repair rifts and getting back to being family again.  So the numbers for my side also ended up being large.  Douglas and I both knew that there was going to be family that weren't going to make the cut.  There are simply too many of them.  Of course, once we were done with the family we technically had no room for our friends who weren't in the wedding party.

Douglas and I really had our eyes on a wedding of about 80-100 people.  Our guest list quickly rose above 125.  Once we added the few friends we could, we ended up with a list of about 145!  We had to face the fact that friends we'd like to invite, we wouldn't be able to.  The parents, also, had a few folks on their lists that we weren't able to invite.

I know it's funny to say "invite" when we haven't actually sent out formal invitations, yet, but you get the point.

As we continue with our wedding planning, more compromises will have to be made as there is no budge in the budget.

Since the holidays are coming up, I will do my best to put together one more post this week and give you a double dose this week to make up for the possible lack of a real post next week.

Save the Date: Come Dance with Us!

Right before the weekend, Douglas and I took a trip to the local US Postal Service office to ship out 70-something Save the Date CDs!  Luckily, we only ran into a few snags: 1 missing zip code, having to get back in line once, and an address that simply can't be found.  All in all, not a bad trip.

We were surprised and excited to learn that some folks received their mail as early as Saturday!  We were also able to hand deliver a good number of them due to the holiday.

So, without more rambling, I give to you, the Save the Date CD!

Work Station

Liner Notes and Digital Vinyl CD

How cool are our record cds?  They even have grooves!

Box of Unstuffed CD cases

CD Cover

Completed cases with mailer

With the release of our STD CD also came the release of our wedding website - justajumptotheleft.com  We decided that a customized HTML would make it easier for folks to find.  We couldn't resist making it a reference.

Douglas was a trooper and ended up doing about a dozen or more versions of the CD until we were both happy.  Our lives have extensive soundtracks, so we could have burned an anthology!  We were finally able to narrow the selection down and included songs that have some significance to us as a couple or to one of us individually. I promised you guys trivia, so I'll provide some of the backstories to the tracks in the next post.  Here's a teaser:

Soundtrack available at Amazon.com

 

Track 1

The Universal Theme

by Nigel Godrich
from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Significance/Story: The theme music to Universal Movie Studios but done in the style of old school Nintendo video game music.  Movie + 8 bit music = happy geeks.

Single Best Word This Hanukkah - MAILED!

The Save the Dates are done and they...are...outta here!

We cut, we burned, we labeled, we printed, we stuffed, we sealed.  All to turn all of this:

Into all of this...

Look at our pretty mailers.

Don't peek too hard now.  These little babies are well on their way to their destinations.  ETA: 2-5 days.

Of course, all of our work today was overseen by our forewoman.

She's such a hardass.

Happy Hanukkah - Have an STD!

I know, I really am having too much fun with this abbreviation. 

Today we handed out our first round of Save the Dates!!!!  Tomorrow we should be able to get the to-be-mailed ones ready.  With any luck, they will be paying a visit to the post office on Friday!

Here is your first look at the cover - yes, cover.

There will be a lot of tidbits to be told about the Save the Dates.  The first one is the logo.  You may (or may not) remember the ring that Douglas proposed with.  This is the symbol from the ring.  It seemed fitting.

Stay tuned.  Next week I'll unveil the rest of the Save the Date.  Soon after that, I'll be sharing some more trivia about them.

My Own Bridal Army

I was just reading a wedding site post about bridesmaids dresses and loved this line: "...I loved that they looked like individual people and not just my bridal army..."

That is exactly what I had decided to do for my ladies.  I have never been a fan of matchy stuff, so having the girls up there in the same dress that may be out of their price range, that they may never wear again, and that they may look terrible in, simply wasn't something I was remotely interested in doing.  I looked through websites and photos of brides who had their bridal party all in the same colors but different dress styles, had their bridal party in different colors but the same style, and free-for-alls.  Personally, the same dress/different colors option was my least favorite after the matchy dress option.

The women I asked to be in my bridal party are very near and dear to me.  I love them for who they are, so why should I ask them to only show their personality and style through their hairstyle?  These women will be front and center and should be seen for who they are and how they want to be seen.  I know they would all drop everything and wear long sleeved striped pjs with Mickey Mouse ears if I asked them to.  (Let's face it, if I was to have a bridal army, one comprised of Columbias wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.)

The Pros and Cons of Save the Dates

Oh, Save the Dates (STDs). 

First off, a little trivia.  Did you know that Save the Dates are relatively new?  They only really got started in the '90s. 

Why have we decided to put the money and effort into Save the Dates, one extra thing that we could have easily done without?  Simply, we thought they'd be fun and it gives us a little more breathing room on how soon we feel we should get out formal invitation.  I am being optimistic on the fact that people will book their hotel rooms sooner rather than later and save themselves (and us)  a few headaches.  Also, a lot of other folks have gotten engaged recently or may be getting engaged over the holidays.  The STDs allow us to essentially secure that weekend for our wedding before our guests make other plans.  Another good thing about doing the STDs is that it's been forcing us to seriously analyze our guest list and deal with issues of number of people, cost, and getting addresses sooner rather than later.  This is only a pro because it means we get some of that crap out of the way.

These benefits don't really seem to outweigh all of the trouble that the STDs bring with them, however.  It forces you to confront your guest list, which you may have been satisfied with up until you sat down and realized how many people you actually had on the list and who had to, unfortunately, be left off of it.  It also means you have to start collecting addresses for all of those on your guest list.  (As we've learned recently, a great way to find out someone is moving is to ask for their address.  I think at least five people we know are moving in the next few weeks/months!)  I have learned to hate my guest list and anything that needs to be discussed in which the guest list plays any role what-so-ever.

The STDs have also forced me to start considering what is appropriate to send to other people, especially to older family members.  Douglas and I are very adamant about making this whole thing as much us as it can be.  However, we've gotten into a few heated discussions about whether there should be a line and where it should be.  In this case, it involved the use of the word "fuck" and how often it was being used (this will make more sense in context once we unveil our STDs - don't worry, we didn't write the f-word all over everything). 

Another con to the STDs is one that I've recently come across thanks to the wedding blogs.  A lot of people have no idea what an STD is and don't know how to respond to them.  The good thing that comes out of this is that you could end up with some early RSVPs!  I know I'm keeping my fingers crossed because the sooner I know numbers, the happier I'll be.  The bad thing is that you and/or your folks could end up getting frustrated/confused phone calls about it.  One of the Bees on WeddingBee.com recently wrote a post about this.

The last con I have to mention about STDs is simply cost and effort.  I wanted something that people would use which meant it was going to take more effort than picking out a design and giving someone the text to fill in and shipping out postcards.  The extra effort is fine by me - until we realized how much of a pain it was to figure out some of the logistics for packaging.  Oy.  Nothing's cheap.

In the end, we are going to be happy that we sent out what we did for our STDs and the fact that we'll be using the STDs to unveil the wedding website.  (Of course that means I still have to finish the wedding website) 

1 Year Out - Post 4: The Other Dresses

I'm still doing little dances about my dress (a very good sign).  Since I can't show you the dress, I figured that I would share the other dresses that we tried all leading up to THE dress. Join me on my dress adventure.  Everyone wave "hi" to my Mom in the first pic!

(Hi, Mom!)  This one wasn't too bad

Straight cuts are not flattering

Hoochie-mama dress! (front)

Hoochie-mama dress! (back)  Check out that booty!

All of these were size 14 dresses so they were very heavy with all of that extra fabric

Hair up or hair down? Moot point.

Getting clipped into a dress 8 sizes too big

Satin kept making me think of Fay Wray

Or like a victim in a horror flick

One of the few halter dresses we found

No side boob is a very good thing

Ruching is in-style and very flattering

Luckily, these dresses were only 2-4 sizes too big

Dark chocolate

For once, I said "no" to chocolate

The runner up. I still don't regret not getting it.

There was one other god-aweful dress, but it's, surprisingly, too close to THE dress to show you.  Believe it or not, the top/bust made all the difference in the world!  I still look at that photo and the photos of THE dress and get floored by how much I HATED that dress and how much I LOVED THE dress since they are almost the same dress!

Registery Help

Douglas and I are putting together an Alternative Gift Registry because it lets us compile a whole bunch of different items from different locations into one easy to access site.  I can't speak to how useful it actually is as we don't have it active yet.  However, it is very easy to set up and put together.

I always thought that putting a registry together would be easy.  Who wouldn't be able to find a few 100 gifts to request from folks?  Uh...that would be us. 

We could easily go hog wild and add a whole bunch of stuff we really don't need, like a larger tv, but we'd like to be sensible before we add "just for shits" items.

We're also in that limbo where we're living in a place with a roommate, so while there is plenty of stuff we could add to fill up a house, we really don't have the room for that kind of stuff yet and doubt we'll have that kind of room come wedding time.

While sitting and staring at the same web pages for a while and getting no inspiration, I realized that I have a plethora of folks I could hit up for suggestions and lessons learned.

So, dear readers, have you done a registry for any occasion?  Do you have any words of wisdom to share?  Things you wish you had put on your registry?  Things you wish you hadn't?  Pleasant surprises?  Nightmares?

1 Year Out - Post 3: STDs!

Well, it's that time folks.  It's time for Doug and I to start actually producing our Save the Dates.  I ordered the materials on Tuesday and they showed up yesterday!  Of course, it was the one night we weren't home to sign for the packages, so we got them today. 

Over the weekend, we'll finalize our layout and start working on producing the STDs.  Then it's all about the mailers and addresses.

It's getting real now.  We're actually going to be telling you folks where to be and when...and go live with the wedding website!  Ah!  (note to self: finish wedding website)

1 Year Out - Post 2: Down to 2 Pages

My poor wall calendar is looking a little too thin lately.  Two sheets left - November and December.  Where did 2010 go?  This time last year I was lauding 2010 as The Year.  2010 was The Year where things were going to happen!  Some did...and we're running out of time for those that didn't to join the ranks of "did".

It's November.  We are officially out of the period of time where we have to specify "next October" when asked when we're getting married.  Since we've been doing that for a little less than 9 months, it's very odd to realize that we are now less than a year out!  AHHHHHHHH!

The good thing is that we've been able to get a lot of big things checked off of our To Do Before I Do list.

• - We've taken care of all but two things with the rabbi.  All we have left to do is take our Intro to Judaism class (so that I can be educated and so he can get a refresher course) and meet with the rabbi after the results of our compatibility test come in, which will be around February or so.  For those wondering, I am not converting.  Taking the class is simply to be more knowledgeable of Doug's religion, be educated should I ever chose to convert, and gain insight for when we need to decide how to raise our children.  I learned a lot from reading The New Jewish Wedding (revised) about different Jewish traditions and some of the meanings behind those traditions.  So I'm looking forward to learning more from the class.

• - We're penciled in for our current reception location of choice and are in talks about menus.  We've booked the temple as our ceremony site although we're considering it our just-in-case option.  Now that we have locations nailed down, I feel more comfortable with having to wait until Spring to get information on the Market Building downtown.  If it ends up being affordable, then we may end up deciding to do both the ceremony and reception there.  We have to wait and see, though.  Either way, we have locations for the events.

• - I found and ordered my dress (!!!!!!!!) and am still very thrilled about it. 

• - We've started discussing attire for the wedding party.

• - We've finalized our guest list, started gathering snail mail addresses, and are actively working on getting the Save the Dates together.

• - Hotel rooms have been blocked at two hotels and we are still working out contract details with a third.

• - A few odds and ends still need adjusting on the wedding website, but I'm getting that together so it can launch before we send out the STDs.

• - The Father/Daughter dance song has been chosen.

• - We've been discussing ways to narrow down our "relationship soundtrack" to decide on a First Dance tune.

• - I've decided on the type of photography I want. 

• - On one of the next visits to Roanoke, the ladies and I will hit up every bakery we can think of to do some cake tastings (we're totally abusing this part of wedding planning).  Once we narrow down the places to about two or three bakeries/bakers, then Douglas will join in the tasting process.

For being just under a year out, we're looking pretty good so far!  The best part is that we're doing very well with sticking to or being under budget.  There is simply no way we can go over, so the more $ we can save during all of this, the better.  I've been impressed with us so far.  Yay us!

I was going to end this post with a picture of how gorgeous the leaves looked in southern Virginia two weekends ago, but apparently in all the craziness, I forgot to take a photo.  So instead, I will share with you that we were in town again last weekend to attend Rally at the Alley at Fork in the Alley to watch the Rally to Restore Sanity with Umpha.  There was a good crowd turn out at the Alley and we all enjoyed watching the Rally together.  It was a grand ole time!

Umpha and Douglas

Captivated by the Rally

Having a Good Time

If Only

Local Rally Signs

1 Year Out - Post 1: The Dress

First, let me get this out of the way...

Oh My Goodness, I Have My Wedding Dress!!!!!

Phew.  Ok.  

I didn't go into the weekend expecting to find the dress.  Mom wanted to at least kick off dress shopping with me in Roanoke since she and I wouldn't be able to get together often and early enough to do most of the shopping together.

In between wedding related appointments and family meet ups, the girls ventured out for some dress fun.  On Friday, Janice (Doug's step-mother), Mom, and I headed to Patina Formals to kick off wedding dress shopping.  Our goal was to start getting ideas of what worked and what didn't work so that I could take those qualities with me back to Charlotte to continue the hunt.  Patina turned out to be quite interesting.  First, the store is not where Google says it is.  So we had a nice little car trip down Electric Ave to find Patina.  Once there, we headed right over to the wedding section.  As one of the girls there started to talk to us about dresses and starting pulling stuff, I started to freak out a little bit.  Holy cow, I'm getting married!  After a few deep breaths, I started diving into the size 14 sample dresses.  Being more of a size 6, there was a LOT of extra fabric.  The girls there were very nice and were very talented at pulling and clipping tons of extra dress fabric to make it look fitted. 

There isn't too much else to share about Patina except for the now infamous booty dress:

 

Had we looked at the selection of regular dresses in Patina, we would have realized that this was status quo and it was not up our alley.

We were hoping Aunt Sherry was able to join us on this little adventure, but she was still at work.  The three of us decided that we had so much fun that we wanted to at least get out to one other place on Saturday.  Saturday afternoon, Mom, Janice, and I headed to Amrhein's and had Aunt Sherry meet us there.  I had gone past Amrhein's a dozen times on my trips to Roanoke and never thought it would be a place I would stop in.  It had a pink exterior with a light green sign.  It didn't really scream "Crystal".  We figured that Amrhein's would have a better selection than Patina and we could get some better ideas there.

While trying on dresses, a woman came in looking at the non-wedding dresses.  The ladies struck up a conversation with her about the dresses she was trying on while I was getting into the wedding samples.  It turns out, she is Miss Roanoke USA and she'll be up for Miss Virginia USA in two weeks.  She was looking for a gown for the pageant.  Everyone, say hello to Miss Roanoke USA (and wish her luck).  She was a very sweet girl and she landed a hell of a deal on her dress.

Miss Roanoke USA

Little did I know at the time, but I was getting into my wedding dress behind that door at the moment this photo was taken!  

I fell in love with two dresses at this shop.  When I had on the first one that I loved, I started to freak out because I wasn't expecting to find anything even close to being THE dress that day.  Yet, there I was standing in one I was seriously considering.  I freaked out a little more when I had on the second dress that I loved because now I knew that I was going to be buying a wedding dress that day.  It was simply a matter of which one.

At first I thought it was going to be a hard decision, until I was able to walk myself through why I liked each dress.  One I loved as an elegant gown.  I could wear this style of gown to any formal event.  The other I loved as a wedding gown.  It was that simple.

The Runner-Up

Janice, me, Mom, Aunt Sherry and the runner-up gown

Who knew that finding my wedding dress would be the easiest thing next to deciding on the officiant in wedding planning?

So, ladies and gentlemen, I have my wedding dress and headpiece.  I know how I'll be wearing my hair.  I know that I don't need more than a couple of accessories.  I have my wedding dress.

This was one of the biggest things this weekend that made all of this very real for me. 

A Big Wedding Weekend

Thursday night we will be in Roanoke, VA, the city where we are planning to be wed exactly one year from that time.  Exciting?  Yes.  Terrifying?  Yes!

We have a lot to get done in the next year and now we're up against the clock with the release of the VT Hokie football schedule in early 2011. 

Topics currently under discussion:

• Who to officiate.  A friend recently offered to officiate which has brought a few questions around worth discussing related to what we need to do to have the rabbi marry us.  We're meeting with the rabbi on Friday morning and hopefully after a chat, we'll have a decision.
• Where to have the ceremony?  We've been clueless and still are.
• Where to have the reception?  We have our favorite location chosen.  However, due to not knowing where we want to have the ceremony, we've been second guessing the reception venue.
• and much much more.

So what will we be up to this weekend?
My folks are going to be in town with us!!!  They will finally get to see Roanoke - and at the peak of leaf season, too!  This will be the first time Mom and Dad will be able to participate in wedding planning activities, which has me very excited! 

On the agenda for Friday is kicking off wedding dress shopping.  Mom and I realized a few months ago that wedding dress shopping wasn't going to be what we were hoping it would be.  Getting up to NY to visit Estelle's Dressy Dresses was going to be next to impossible until this coming spring/summer.  So, we're going to try on a few dresses in Roanoke and at least see if we can find a style that works.  Then the rest of my shopping will be taking place in Charlotte and Roanoke.  At least I get to start shopping with Mom, even if we don't find The Dress. 

Lots of family, lots of talking, lots to do.  It will be interesting to see what Douglas and I come away from this weekend with.

Stay tuned for scenes from next week's all new episode...

Wedding Dress Tid Bit: The white dress does not symbolize virginity.  The veil is the symbol of virginity.

Superhero Groomsmen

2010 really does seem to be the year for all of our ideas for our wedding to be popular.  So does doing these in 2011 make us seem behind the curve?  ;-)


The latest example: Superhero Groomsmen

Source

I love the photo, too.  Especially with the bride peeking out behind her groom and his proud pose.

Check out the rest of this awesome wedding.

Ms. S and Mr. S

Ladies and gentlemen,

Ms. Vanessa and Mr. Josh

10/10/10 Bride

Tomorrow kicks off Vanessa's wedding weekend!

Early in the AM, we'll be picking up Noel from the airport, dropping Kaylee off at Sharon's, and hitting the road to Durham.

2pm kicks off the festivities in Raleigh.
 

CONGRATS, VANESSA and JOSH!

October!

Welcome to October, everyone!

Little tidbit: today is a binary day 100110 (translated from binary: 38)

I have recently discovered that October is my favorite month.  I've always known that autumn was my favorite season, but never really spent time speculating on a favorite month.  It's October.  Why?

1. It's in the Fall;
2. The leaves change color;
3. It's hard not to be comfortable outside;
4. Halloween, my favorite holiday, is at the end of the month;
5. It kicks off the holiday season (also known as the baking season in our house).

I just love everything about October.  Oh yeah, and next year we'll be getting married in October, so we'll add that to the list later.  ;-)

So welcome to October, everyone!

Moo Minis are Here!

Today was a good mail day.  The Moo MiniCards showed up!  Here is the typical USPS mail bag:

What was in the bag, you ask?  A box!  Although not a mystery box, still has my curiosity. (It could be a boat!)

After taking off the green sleeve (note how the color of the sleeve matches the label on the mail bag)...

(If this packaging doesn't make your day a little brighter, than you need a little Ben & Jerry's.)  Next, we take the lid off the box.  Here's an aerial view of the box, lid, Yay! card, and box sleeve.  Oh how color coordinated these Moos are!

You  know what's really cool (as if there wasn't enough already)?  The box, itself, acts as a very nice cardholder.

They even provide tabs!  "MINE" and "THEIRS".  Not shown is the little card that is stuck in the back behind all of your MiniCards that says "Psst! Pass it on!"  It introduces itself as a MiniCard and offers 15% off a next purchase.  A gift within a purchase!  Very nice.

Alright, so we made it through all of the packaging (wasn't that a lot of fun?).  Now for the cards!

You can barely make it out on the photos, but there is a flower pattern on that card.  The color is darker than it appeared to me on my screen, so I'm a little sad about that.  However, that is my ONLY complaint.

Here's a view of the front of 1 card and the back of another.  To give you an idea of the size, they're both on the lid of the box they came in.

Overall, I have to say I'm very satisfied with my Moo order.  I'm definitely happier than my last VistaPrint order.  I'd be very curious to see how really customized Moo orders come out.  I simply used a template that worked.

So hooray for Moos!!!!