Dancing Queen

Mr. Marshmallow and I had a dancing lesson last night. Let me start this post by saying the dancing lesson was really more for me than him. I am so self conscious about moving to a beat, I don't even take aerobics classes at the gym. I don't mind dancing to fast songs, but slow songs are where I have no clue on what to do.

The lesson started off with the instructor showing us where our hands and feet went. This was huge! All of a sudden I wasn't stepping on Mr. Marshmallow's feet any more. Then we practice some basic shuffles and some turns. We went from Eighth Grade Dance (awkward!) to Dancing with the Stars in a little over an hour. I'm not even joking we learned how to do a dip! It helps that Mr. Marshmallow is a natural for this kind of stuff.

I now feel much more confident for our first dance... now we just need to agree on a first song!

OMG... I Heart RSVP's

Mr. Marshmallow and I only have one mail box key (it's a long boring story) so everyday when he comes home I run to him give him a big welcome and then I try to see if we have got any mail.Then Mr. Marshmallow proceeds to slowly sift through the catalogs and bills while I'm eagerly looking over his shoulder to see if there are any turquoise postcards hiding between the pages. There have been a few sad RSVP's (I will miss you guys!), I love reading the little notes and thinking about how much fun we are going to have at the wedding.

(Images courtesy Jen Good, our photographer and graphic designer!)

I saw the sign... answers

1) Where Mr. Marshmallow had our first date. Hint we both ordered Mint and Chip. SWENSONS

2) Site of Mr. Marshmallow's former habitation and quite a few infamous Halloween parties. 4TH and IRVING (STREET)

3) Built during the 1915 Worlds Fair and on a sunny day where Mr. Marshmallow and I often have a picnic and do a lot of people watching. PALACE OF FINE ARTS

4) The street where Mr. Marshmallow and I live. Hint look at your RSVP card. BRODERICK (STREET)

5) California's first state park and used to be just sand dunes. Also where Mr. Marshmallow ran our first half marathon together. GOLDEN GATE PARK

6) Formally an airstrip and where Mr. Marshmallow and I usually run a normal Saturday morning (and spy on all the doggies running around!). CRISSY FIELD

7) Street location where Mr. Marshmallow and I eat dinner many nights out of the week. Not a Hazelnut but a .... CHESTNUT STREET

8) A happy hour joint that Mr. Marshmallow and I go to frequently. HOBSON'S CHOICE

How many did you get right?

Addicted to wedding blogs!

I swore to Mr. Marshmallow that I would stop looking at wedding blogs, but I just can't. It's this horrible addiction I have during my lunch hour at work. The funny thing is now that I'm looking at the blogs, I am seeing stuff that I have already decided to do :) Here are a few weddings that I've come across and that I just love. See if you can pick out the things that I've have already blogged about or used.
( Image Courtesy of Style Me Pretty San Francisco Wedding At The Fairmont From Boutwell Studio)

(Image Courtesy Style Me Pretty- An Elegant, Shabby Chic Wedding, III)

(Image Courtesy Style Me Pretty-Rustic, Chic Wedding by Heather Kincaid, IV)

(Image Courtesy of Style Me Pretty- Rustic, Chic Wedding by Heather Kincaid, IV by Abby Larson)

With this ring

52 days left and the only thing that really that is "past due" on our to do list is to find wedding rings. I've been searching around and while I would love to have a princess cut eternity band, I do not love the price. What I do love is the matching shape stones. What do you think about these more realistic alternatives.

I saw the sign

Table signs are an easy place to add some personality to the reception site. Since San Francisco is where we met and live, Mr. Marshmallow and I decided that we could name our tables after significant places in San Francisco. I thought it would be fun to play a little matching game and have you match the clues of why each place was significant to us and the picture of each place. See if you can guess and I'll post the answers up tomorrow :)

Clues:

1) Where Mr. Marshmallow had our first date. Hint we both ordered Mint and Chip.

2) Site of Mr. Marshmallow's former habitation and quite a few infamous Halloween parties.

3) Built during the 1915 Worlds Fair and on a sunny day where Mr. Marshmallow and I often have a picnic and do a lot of people watching.

4) The street where Mr. Marshmallow and I live. Hint look at your RSVP card.

5) California's first state park and used to be just sand dunes. Also where Mr. Marshmallow ran our first half marathon together.

6) Formally an airstrip and where Mr. Marshmallow and I usually run a normal Saturday morning (and spy on all the doggies running around!).

7) Street location where Mr. Marshmallow and I eat dinner many nights out of the week. Not a Hazelnut but a ....

8) A happy hour joint that Mr. Marshmallow and I go to frequently.

Bridal Shower San Francisco Style

Whew what a weekend! Sunday was my first bridal shower held here in San Francisco (not to mention a ton of other fun nights out) It was held at the elegant Presido Golf Cafe and the sun was even out for the entire time. For those of you not familiar with San Francisco summers, the city has been blanketed with a thick, drippy, ugly fog for most of the past week.

I was a little nervous the entire week. What was I going to wear? Was I going to remmber everyone's name? Do I need to go around to all the tables? I knew how hard everyone had worked to make the shower special and I wanted to make sure they knew how grateful I was.

The day was filled with story telling, fun games, great food and amazing women. I can't thank the hostesses enough for such a fun party. Along with a so many thoughtful gifts, I even received some fun lingerie to wear after the wedding! For all the women in attendance, you each have shaped a part of who I am and have inspired me in countless ways. I love you all and will always remember how much fun we had on this day.

Now that's a way to make an entrance...

This grand entrance needs no intro. You just have to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0&feature=topvideos

Thanks FSIL (Future Sister In Law) for this!

Table Matters

I do have to admit that I've never really looked at table cloths before but I suddenly became giddy about the linens we are going to be using for the wedding reception and rehearsal dinner. FMIL (Future Mother in Law) has a contact at Napa Valley Linens and they are the most interesting and exquisite fabric designs I've ever seen. I am not going to tell you which ones we chose just quite yet :) but look how amazing these table clothes are! You can visit their website at http://www.nvlinens.com/gallery.php.

Funny Wedding Traditions

I am still not sure what the purpose of a garter is. I am not doing a bouquet toss so there is no corresponding male version necessary. I went to the Internet and tracked down this answer on a website:

The tradition of brides throwing their bridal garters is thought to date back to 14th century England when wedding guests believed owning a piece of the brides wedding dress would bring good luck. The brides dress was literally tore at and so, to keep the dress and themselves intact, they began throwing their bridal garters to the male guests. Sometimes the male guests would become rowdy and attempt to remove the garter from the bride themselves so it became custom for the groom to remove the bridal garter from his brides leg and throw it himself.

This explanation takes the cake. Does anyone know if this is even true? I've heard of a lot of funny traditions that go way back but this is a new one for me. Have you heard or come across any other funny wedding traditions?

I still just don't think I need a garter....

A picture is worth 1000 words

As you know from my earlier posts I love pictures! That is why having an excellent photographer was one of the most important things to me at our wedding.

Now that everyone has a camera these days, there are always tons of pictures from events and happenings floating around but they are not always shared with everyone.

For instance one of our good friends told us recently they were looking for a decent "couple" picture to use at their wedding but they could not seem to find any. I exclaimed "but I have tons of great pictures of you guys!". The problem being, that I have not sent any of these pictures to them. Now I pride myself on uploading photos, often to facebook or a photo sharing website. The problem with these sites is that you can only "view" the pictures and you don't have them for yourself.

The other great thing about personal pictures are they often tell the untold story or funny things that people did throughout the night and often do not come out until after the wedding is over.

As a solution, Mr. Marshmallow and I have decided to have a picture uploading station on site at the wedding. It will consist of our laptop which takes all kinds of memory cards. Our friends even have one of those card reader devices that is compatible with every digital camera memory card. Hopefully this way we can have all the pictures in one place so we don't miss a thing ;)

You tube wedding?

We decided to not hire a videographer for our wedding. Mr. Marshmallow and I are much more of picture type people and our photographer is great is fantastic and there will be two photographers during the day. There are somethings that a picture cannot capture, however; the vows being spoken, the priest confusing your then boyfriend's name with his brother's who was the one getting married at the time, the toasts by the best man, the guest's laughs during the best man's speech and so on.

My solution is to have one of our tech savy cousins help us out. Mr. Marshmallow's parents have a nice digital video camera which will be positioned in the front row facing the alter and then moved inside for the reception. I'm sure it wont be movie quality but I think it will still be a nice record of the day.

I am still debating on getting one of those flip HD cameras as well to have some record some of the more logistically challenging moments, such as everyone coming down the aisle, the grooms expression and just to have another view point. They are around $200 (costco has them on sale though) and can record up to 120 minutes in HD. They can play directly on a TV or connect to a computer through a USB port. The can even be directly uploaded to You Tube. You Tube Wedding Anyone?

My concern is that it is hand held (although a tripod is available) that it will be shaky. Does anyone have experience with one of these?

Simply. Stunning.

I tried on my dress and veil this weekend! They are more beautiful than I remembered. I actually got a dress at the first place I visited, managed to find a dress by the end of my appointment time, and it was the least expensive I had tried on all day. It was not anything like I had imagined I would wear but it was exactly my style. I had this image in my head that it was a simple and plain dress but it really is not. This will be the most elegant dress I have ever worn and I feel so pretty in it.

As instructed I brought my undergarments and shoes to the fitting. In addition, I took some of my jewelry that I had acquired over the past few months. The dress is structured enough and it actually has its own support so that I do not need to wear my Spanx. Spanx does not exactly make you feel attractive if you know what I mean. My MOH (Matron of Honor), my sister bridesmaid and Mom all came for support and were able to give me some tips about my jewelry as well.

I attempted a few hairstyles in the dressing room and have managed to narrow it down so that my hair and makeup lady will have some direction as well.

After all the "research" I did on undergarments, jewelry and such, one thing I was not expecting was the cost of the alterations. I know wedding dresses are a bit more intricate but I could buy a designer dress for that! The seamstress seemed very knowledgeable however so I know it is going to turn out great. The wedding festivities are starting this week. I can hardly contain myself!

You've got mail

After all the commotion and what I like to call the "Envelope Debacle of 2009" the wedding invitations are finally in the mail.

Getting the invitations out has been one of the most frustrating details so far. The invites, designed by our photographer/ graphic designer in a former life, were beautiful. Something in the cosmos however, did not want them to be sent to our guests on time.

First the print shop sent the wrong size inner envelopes, only to be discovered after our calligrapher addressed all them all. After that was fixed, we tried printing mailing address on the outer envelope only to ruin 4 printers in the process (they were too thick). Handwriting was not an option for my chicken scratch and FedEx Kinko's refuses to print envelopes.

After the printers jammed and Kinko's refused to come to our aid. I had a little break down. Okay, it wasn't little but I was so frustrated. I wanted to share these invites with all of our friends and family but I could not get them in the mail!

Finally after calling around, Mr. Marshmallow saved the day and found a shop that would at least try. They came out perfectly.

Now they are in the mail (hand cancelled and all) and I can't wait for our guests to see them. Did you have any thing that didn't exactly go as planned?

DOC Part 2

I met up with my second coordinator prospect today and what a big difference! She was referred to me by my venue event coordinator and she is wonderful.

Let me recap, I went to see a day of coordinator (DOC #1) Tuesday who got great reviews online and was much cheaper than all the quotes I got back. She answered all my questions satisfactorily and was nice enough but I had a funny feeling. I wish that I could explain it more that that, but really isn't that what it comes down to?

Then today I met with Stephanie (DOC#2). She blew DOC #1 out of the water. She is as little as can be, friendly, personable and knows exactly how to do this wedding thing. Stephanie is someone I could see spending the entire day with, interacting with all my friends, family and vendors ,and organizing a beautiful personal wedding all at the same time. I think she is going to add great touches to the day as far as decorations and ideas on where things should go. No detail will be forgotten! She even remembers to bring snacks for the bridal party while they are hanging out before the wedding. I have to say it will be a little unexpected of a blow to our budget, but I think if I hold back on my "wedding related" purchases, (you know the nice flip flops I just have to have for the laying by the pool the week before the wedding). I almost feel like I have a wedding plannner partner in crime now, someone that is just as crazy as me but has a little more expertise in this area :)

DOC Part 1

Today I am meeting with a potential Day of Wedding Coordinator (DOC in wedding speak). She sent me a quote that seems fairly reasonable and she is based out of Los Gatos where our wedding will be. I found her online and she received very good reviews so I thought I would meet with her in person. Some questions I hope to ask her are:

Do you personally attend every wedding?

How many weddings have you coordinated for?

How many hours are included in your package? What if we need you for more?

How many hours are you with us on the wedding day? The rehearsal?

DO you help with set up and tear down?

Do you help with recessional and processional?

Do you do a site visit?

Do you charge for expenses of travel. Do you need a meal?

What will you not help with?

Is there anything else I should ask this potential DOC?

Tongue Tied

As we reach the 75 day mark, Mr. Marshmallow and I have now moved on to the nitty gritty details of the wedding. This includes everything from the to do lists to the minute by minute game day plan. One of these items is the ceremony. There are many aspects to the ceremony from music and readings, to welcoming words and recessional. Many of these things are pretty standard but one thing I have not settled on are the vows.

Do I want to say the traditional "for richer or poorer" that has bonded countless brides and grooms or do I want to write my own. Perhaps we can even do the traditional vows and during the exchanging of the rings we can say a few words on our own.

I am sure that you can tell from this blog I am not a very elegant writer. I also don't consider myself creative; however I do want my friends and family know how much I love Mr. Marshmallow and why I think he should be my partner forever. I won't even go into the fact that I'm so nervous to be in front of the most important people in our lives and public speaking is not exactly my strong suit. But, you know, I would do anything for Mr. Marshmallow and I guess sharing all the reasons why I love him in front of 120 of our closest family and friends is as good a place to start as any.

Now I just have to find the right words.

Do you have any thoughts on the traditional vs. writing your own vows?

Absent without leave (AWOL)

I have been notably absent from my blog recently. Part of it is due to a big project at work that just wrapped up, and part is due to various otherfestivitiesthat we have had the pleasure to take part in the past few weeks. I have to say it has been a nice change of pace to be involved in other events besides wedding planning. We also have a friend's out of town wedding next week, and another friend's engagement party coming up soon too. I can't wait to see them and celebrate their big days too.

That being said, wedding planning has not taken a hiatus at all, but my ability to blog on it has.

Mr. Marshmallow and I have been working with our fabulous photographer to design our invitations. Unfortunately, I can't share the final product with you yet since my guests have not received them and I want them to be surprised. I will make sure to follow up in another post.

While I thought all the big wedding things have been decided. Mr Marshmallow and I have also been reevaluating some of our wedding priorities. Really it has been me reevaluating. This includes everything from the dessert stations to evening entertainment. We've had only nine months to plan and while that seems like a long time in normal people time, for a wedding that is hardly enough time. I began thinking about things we decided on and now that I have a much better understanding of what we both want and what is important to us I just felt like I had rushed into some of the earlier ideas. Fortunately my change of heart hasn't not resulted in too much damage to the wallet in form of lost deposits.

At first, we thought we couldn't afford a band but I've been sending out some inquires and since it is much closer to the date, we might have found a fantastic cover band that is actually reasonabley priced. I love cover bands and it would be awesome to have my very own that plays all the songs I want to hear. Once we finalize everything, I will make sure give you some details (I don't want to jinx it :). We might even take song requests! More to follow!

Mr. Marshmallow has been pretty fantastic during these past weeks and we have started to put together our DIY projects. We have been working on the out of town (OOT) bags and he not only decorated them but wrote handwritten notes to all our out of town guests. They turned out great! I will have to wait to post picture on these too until we finish them the week of the wedding!

Sorry to not have more to share with you but I promise to not go AWOL for awhile!

Hiring- Please inquire within

After much debate and budget number crunching Mr. Marshmallow and I have decided to hire a day of coordinator. Someone not only to coordinate vendors but give me piece of mind. As we get closer to the week of the wedding the to do list only seems to be getting longer. Mr. Marshmallow and I have started to plan out the timeline and there is just no way every one will be able to keep everything straight. From picking up the wedding cake, to table decorations I just feel much better having someone else that knows all the details. I hope this will allow me to focus on the people around me and not what's next. When booking our venue we thought we would be able to get away with just the event coordinator but in the end I think this is the right decision for us. Now we just need to find one. If you know if any good coordinators in the bay area we are now accepting applications!