Finding Direction

Folks.  Its wedding week J  We’re four days away.  Which means that I probably won’t be posting much (read: at all) this week.  There seems to be a lot of coordinating to do here at the last minute.  In addition, we’re working hard to finish up all those DIYs and printing lots of paper (you won’t believe how much paper ends up being involved with a wedding).  Maybe if there is time you’ll hear from us once more before the wedding, but if not, have no fear – I promise to return after the honeymoon to fill you in on all the juicy details that I haven’t had a chance to share yet (remember I’m using this as somewhat of a journal too so I’ll want to add the rest for when I’m old and can’t remember what games we played at cocktail hour ‘n such).

This was a big weekend.  We crossed so much off the to do list!  And I got to see all of my bridesmaids (each of whom helped us out with a wedding task at some point during the weekend….thanks ladies!)  While there is lots to show you, I thought I’d come back to the teaser I gave you a few weeks back regarding a special project my Uncle Jim was working on.

A loooong time ago, I found a post of an Ash Lawn wedding on one of the blogs I usually read.  It. Was. Gorgeous.  And as a result, I may or may not have stalked hunted  tracked the bride down to ask her some questions about having a wedding at Ash Lawn.  One of the pieces of advice she gave: ‘Take advantage of Ash Lawn’s space.’  It’s a pretty big plantation with lots of gardens and picturesque locations to host your guests.  I took the advice to heart and plan to send you guys all over that place for different wedding events and activities.  But her advice came with a warning: ‘Make it clear where stuff is…like the bathroom.’  She explained that spreading out and using all of Ash Lawn was awesome, but did mean people were a little turned around.  She mentioned that with several folks, during the only 5 minutes she spent with them, they asked ‘Where is the restroom?’ 

With this in mind and an unending stream of ideas placed in front of me via Pinterest, we jumped on board the wedding band wagon of including signs into our special day décor.  First off, I love the way they look – definitely go with our laid back, outside wedding feel.  But it seemed that they would also serve a good purpose: helping our guests get around the grounds of Ash Lawn.  (an aside: I’ve been amazed at the ups and downs that come with planning a wedding; shocked at the level of incompetence of vendors and thrilled by the generosity of some to do all that they can to make your day special.  Lucky for us, the good and helpful surprises have far outweighed the bad! Not only from our friends and family, but complete strangers as well.  We are so lucky.)  In an introduction to Pinterest for my Aunt, my cousin showed off some of the images I had been pinning to my ‘Wedding (maybe)’ board.  My Aunt took notice of the wedding sign trend that was occurring and ever so kindly offered my Uncle’s services to reproduce the gems I was seeing on the interwebs.

My Uncle is a very talented wood worker.  While I felt a bit guilty about accepting the help, I was giddy at the thought of having the beautiful signs I had always envisioned directing our guests about the wedding.  He assured us it would be no problem and had mock ups (based on my pins!) within a week.  We made some selections and within no time, he delivered the posts and arrows for the seven signs I requested.  (I know…way to take advantage of someone when they offer you help….)  And they look awesome!

This past weekend Kels trucked up from Rich-mund to help us finish them off with some stenciling J  Luckily Saturday included some beautiful weather so we headed out to the circle to write out all the signs.  We needed an arrow for each of the below:





Ceremony

Cocktails (2)

Corn Hole

Kubb

Cheese

Reception

Restrooms (2)

Cows (wouldn’t want you guys to miss out on the cows!)

Chile (you know to help you get your bearings)

Then three larger signs to 1) direct cars at the turn for Ash Lawn 2) send you guys down the right path to the ceremony  and 3) help you find your seat.  We are so happy with how they turned out!  They’re going to look even better once we have them mounted on their posts and sticking in the ground.  Hopefully you guys will take note and use them to help find your way to all sorts of important things (like the cheese table and corn hole sets!).

Bathroom Baskets! - Guest Post

Hi all! BM Jess here, as requested by the bride to give y’all a little insight into some of the details that you’ll see on the day of the wedding :)

A few months ago Audrey reached out for some help with one of those wedding details that you could call a trend if you’d like, but one that’s become more and more popular and shows no sign of disappearing soon for one very specific reason: this one actually makes a lot of sense. I am referring here to Bathroom Baskets, which are exactly what they sound like: baskets placed in the bathroom and filled with various goodies and toiletries for wedding guests to make use of throughout the night.

I know all of the girls reading this immediately went “oh my goodness, SUCH a good thing to have” and all of the guys went “huh?”, but let me tell you, with a few minutes of brainstorming you can pretty quickly think of some essentials for both girls and guys that you’d want access to throughout a long night of partying. Audrey, Javier and I thought of an initial list of must-haves, but I first got true inspiration walking into the Mecca of cheap, travel-size toiletries: Dollar Tree. Needless to say, my list of “must-haves” grew very quickly and I soon had an absurd amount of things no wedding guest could possibly live without... After rounding out the purchases with a couple other stores and a trip to Michael’s (for the essential basket component of the bathroom baskets), we ended up with the lovelies you see below. So if you happen to need breath mints, ibuprofen, tissues, hair spray, cough drops, or any number of other essentials, make sure to swing by the bathrooms and see what’s we have :)

While there, you’ll also see the second part of the bathroom decorations – a bathroom poster giving you some details about Audrey’s and Javier’s oh-so-fabulous honeymoon in Chile! A&J thought it would be fun to add a poster with trivia or facts about the two of them to the backs of the stalls in the bathrooms, and this idea evolved over time into giving the guests a glimpse into their trip to Chile. You can see a preview here, but again, make sure you take a minute during your trips to the restroom to read up on some of the sites they’ll be visiting and some Spanish vocab to know!

Not to over share, but I'm a lady that takes a lot of trips to the bathroom (big water drinker).  So this special addition to make our guests feel more comfortable in the facilities was an important one to me.  Jess did such an amazing job with them!  Ladies and gents, I think you'll find just about anything you could possibly need (hygiene wise at least) in these baskets.  They are filled to the brim!  And the Chile fliers are gorgeous and really interesting to read (its nice to have stuff to read in the bathroom...).  Looking forward to my first trip to what will be our homey bathroom at Ash Lawn ;)  Thanks Jess!

Something borrowed...

Well I've been away for a week and owe my readers an update. While I wish my absence could be explained with a long list of to-dos I've been busy crossing off, that just isn't true.

My Grandma passed away last Sunday. I know I shared with you that her decline had been much quicker than expected so she would not be attending the wedding. New information and circumstances brought to light early last weekend confirmed that her time left on this earth was very short. So we brought her to my parents house in Williamsburg to spend time with family in her last days.  My aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma's great-grand children and her sister all occupied the house for the weekend. We sat around her eating (mostly grandma's kolache) and talking. It was a very special few days for me and absolutely wonderful to spend that time together. My Grandma passed surrounded by her four loving children in the afternoon on Sunday September 23rd. It was actually a wedding vendor that wrote this to me but I think it sums up the potency of that moment for me. 

     Often we are brought into the world surrounded by those we love but many do not have the

     opportunity have that same love surrounding them as their journey comes to a close

Last week brought more baking and time spent with family. I think everyone is doing very well and feels a sense of relief that Helen's suffering is over.

It seems like the reality of the world often infringes on our most intimate moments, cutting them short and forcing emotions to be subdued for the sake of the next event or to-do. Last week brought a unique opportunity to come together and share as a family, but this weekend brought back the reality that our wedding is two weeks away. While thoughts of my grandma are still on my mind, we did start returning to wedding tasks over the weekend.  I'll share some accomplishments later this week, but thought this post seemed like the perfect time to share with you my 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue' (as promised).

us with our hankies

Something old.

This past Christmas my grandma gifted each of the women in our family with a handkerchief. They each belonged to my grandma's mother (my great grandmother) who came to the US from the Czech republic. In addition to being a very special family heirloom, the hankie will accompany me on my wedding day as my special something old. (let's hope I don't have to use it too much.)

Something new.

I have many new items that I'll be wearing on the big day :). But think the biggest (and most obvious) will be my dress. (I had my final fitting on Saturday. It looks great!  Very excited!)

Nana's brooch

Something borrowed.

I have to start by telling you my 'borrowed' idea was eagerly stolen borrowed from my wise, elder sister. As I mentioned, we have been incredibly lucky to always have our Grandma and Nana close by. These two (combined with my mother and sister) are the strongest women I know.  I have been so lucky to have them as role models and supports throughout my life. As Kelsey did on her wedding day, I'll be wearing something borrowed from each of them on my big day. I'll be wearing Kelsey's pearl earrings, my Grandma's pearl bracelet and my Nana's purple brooch (her signature color) on my bouquet.

picture of Kelsey wearing Grandma's
bracelet on her wedding day

While I haven't discussed it much here, Javier and I will be having a private ceremony at the UVA chapel early in the day on the 13th to take our Catholic sacramental marriage vows.   I am so lucky that my mom agreed to let me alter her own wedding dress to wear at this ceremony. I always loved her dress and am so happy that I'll be married while wearing it.

I love the idea of carrying a piece of each of these ladies with me on such a special day.

Something blue.

I haven't showed you guys yet, but I found some awesome shoes for the big day. I'm calling then my UVA shoes because they not only have the perfect fall orange, but some.....you guessed it BLUE to peak out from under my dress. I love them and felt relieved when I realized I'd found something blue for the big day.

I'm really happy with each of my 'something's   As I said before, we only kept traditions that felt important to us. I don't think I believe in 'luck' but I like that some of these important items will be with me during our special day.

Can't Weight!

It was a big 'wedding' weekend for the Staples/Cabezas so I'll fill you in on as much as I can this week :)  starting with a big outing that took place yesterday:

I got a call about a month or so ago from Hannelore's bridal salon telling me that my wedding dress was in.  It was in!  They asked me to make an appointment to come try on the dress to confirm it was the correct one, size and had any additions that we might have ordered.  We decided that the day after my bridal shower (a post soon to come!) would be prefect since Mom, Kels and bridesmaids would all be around and could join.

I have to admin that I was a little nervous about seeing my dress again.  Mostly for two reasons: 1) I have not seen my dress pop up anywhere.  I'm reading a lot of wedding blogs, receive BRIDE magazine every month, and am sent a new wedding coupon/contest/check list/giveaway every day.  So I am watching wedding dresses pop up all over the place...but not mine.  I took this observation and did two things: a) grew anxious.  Was there something wrong with my dress?  Why did no other brides see it and think 'WOW' the way I had? b) became very excited.  I knew I wanted something a little different.  After looking at so many wedding dresses I really started to get the 'been there, done that' feeling from a LOT that I tried on.  When I finally found the one, it definitely felt unique to me in a way I loved.  Maybe it truly would be something new when I wore it in October.

While I can't show you pictures from my try-on (for fear of Javs' eyes), I'll tell you that my #1 reason for nerves was quickly put to rest.  I still LOVE my dress.  It feels like me, while being both romantic and distinctive.  It has everything I was looking for in it and I think Javier is going to LOVE it too :)   Mrs. Cabezas and Isabel were able to join me yesterday (they hadn't seen it yet!) and both agreed Javs would approve :)  YAY!

To make up for the lack of wedding dress eye candy, I'll share with you guys the two pairs of shoes I brought to try on with the dress.  I'm planning to go along with the super trendy idea of wearing some colorful shoes under my white dress!  If you are perusing other wedding blogs these days I'm sure you've seen the fun pictures of brides holding up their dresses to reveal shoes of bright yellow, teal or even red!  While I really loved the orange pair (perfect for fall!), they were not nearly as comfortable as the multi-color pair.  I'm still debating which way to go, but with such a long day, the smarts in me scream GO FOR COMFORT.

Reason #2 for my nervousness (and the connection to my title): weight.  Dun, dun DUN.  Its on every bride's mind and, unfortunately, I am no exception (so much for unique, right?).  I want to look my very best for the wedding and true to 'bride' form, I think my best is a few L-Bs less.  I don't think I've gone too weight crazy conscious these days, (I had taco bell last week and waaaay too much pizza this past weekend...) but I am trying focus more on consistent exercise.  I was definitely more of an 'exercise when I thought of it' kind of person, but for the past two months I've been running 3-4 times a week pretty religiously.  I'm no Usain Bolt, but I'm sticking with it and am up to 3 miles for my regular run.  In addition to my clothes fitting better, I'm noticing that I feel better.  I guess the extra dose of endorphins is helping to combat some of that 'omg, the wedding is getting super close' stress I'm starting to feel as well. 



this is my route except I do the full circles and repeat some of it to get up to 3 miles
(also I was totally fine after my fall, my dignity sustained the only injury)



I knew the wedding dress would be the real 'test' of my new workout routine.  I ordered the same size as the sample dress I tried on back in December with the advice from my consultant.  The sample was sucking me in like a sausage a little tight, but 'after I toned up a bit' (my unprompted consultant's words) I was sure it would work.  And I guess it has because the dress felt great :)  It was big actually!  Phew! So even though I'm not tracking exactly what I'm losing, I know that I'm feeling great and must be toning something. That sense of relief and such solid proof that I'm making some progress is certainly inspiration enough to keep it up until October. 

PRE-wedding chop!

Its become somewhat of the norm/tradition/trend for ladies to start one wedding task as soon as that ring is slipped over their fingers: growing their hair out.  It makes a lot of sense, longer hair gives you more options for up-dos and is obviously very femine.  Then, often, brides chop it all off (cause we're probably talking about a full year of growth) shortly after their honeymoon.  Its been coined 'the wife chop' (cause you know...you're a wife by then and basically chop all your hair off).  I'll use Kels as my example...

Kels shortly after her wedding
(holding a child that is not her own)

Kels' gorgeous hair at her wedding



Now, I have always been a short hair person.  Sure I've had a few instances where I decide to grow it out, for something 'different.'  But I inevitably grow sick of it (rather quickly) and chop it all off.  Besides I think I really do look better with shorter hair (usually chin - shoudler length).  But with the ring on my finger (and some self-inflicted pressure) I started growing my hair out too.

horrible pic from our engagment night
my hair is shoulder length

horrible pic from July 4th
(I was trying to use a recent one)
my hair is curled, but straight would be 2-3 inches past my shoulders

And sure enough, last week hit a 'I can't stand my hair this length' wall.  I think it really came after looking at myself in some of the pictures from our recent weddings. Even with my hair 'done' (as in I put in some effort to try to make it look good) I thought it looked stringy and, well, kind of awful.  So this weekend I decided to get my wifey chop pre-wife.

Nothing drastic.  Just back to my good ole,
shoulder length self.

Great!  I'm feeling relieved already.  Until I think of the wedding....what am I gonna do with my hair for the wedding?  No seriously, I'm asking you guys. What should I do with my hair for the wedding?  Its one area of the day/my look I really haven't flushed out...

Here is what I know:

- I will maintain this length hair for the wedding (as in I will probably get it cut again before October)

- I think I look better and would prefer to wear my hair 'down'

- Sometimes when you curl short hair it gets BIG

- I'm planning to wear a birdcage veil

- most brides I see wearing birdcages have their hair (at least partial) up

Alright, so what do you guys know?  As in, what ideas do you have? 

What a site!

Our wedding website, that is! :) I guess you could call it a trend for brides and grooms today to set up a website where guests can visit to learn about the couples' wedding events, accomodations and information about the city where the wedding will take place (particularly if its a destination not all would be familiar with).  I said 'guess' and used the italics on the word trend because, unlike mason jars and colorful bridal shoes, this one has been around for years and seems more accepted as a standard these days.

Needless to say, Javs and I did decide to include this wedding trend in our plans and created our very own wedding website!  We had a couple of criteria that we wanted to keep in mind while creating the site: 1) that we used a free website option (there were so many available and we just couldn't rationalize spending $$ on something that we could get for free!) 2) that it was customizable (we wanted to have some control over loading pictures, arranging information and determining pages) 3) that it was relatively easy to use for guests who might visit and 4) that it still kept the 'us' feel that we've been trying to keep in mind throughout our planning!

Javier and I researched http://www.projectwedding.com/, http://www.ewedding.com/, http://www.weddingjojo.com/, http://www.weddingannouncer.com/, http://www.weddingwindow.com/ and http://www.mywedding.com/.  They all where free and offered a variety of 'themes,' but in the end - it was http://www.mywedding.com/ that offered the right combination or flexibility and us-ness (word I just made up) that we were looking for.

Theme....it took some time to pick.  There were some beautiful, flowery  and many heart focused themes that just didn't seem to fit our feel.  We started looking at many fall themed sites (mywedding.com had, no joke, a million options), but a lot of them felt a bit too cheesy.  We were trying to think about our wedding (we don't have a 'theme' for our wedding, but certainly have stuff we're excited about and are centering decisions around.)  Ash Lawn has amazing views and incredible nature that is all around.  Wedding guests, get pumped for some awesome views.  In addition, we've been focusing a lot on neutral colors in our palette.  So, we started to look up more 'earthy' themes and finally found one that we thought worked well :)

Content  Probably my favorite pages on the site are the Bridesmaids and Groomsmen & Usher pages.  For a variety of reasons we asked our wedding party to write their own bio for the website.  We thought it'd be fun to give them a chance to introduce themselves to our guests and were amazed how each individual's personality totally shown through in their write ups!  Read them, they are awesome!

The rest, Javs and I put together on a delightful Friday night, drinking Cville hard cider given to us as an engagement present. We focused mostly on the Accomodations page because we knew it was the most important.  With a football game scheduled for October 13th, we wanted to encourage guests to book those hotels!

Cville Pages  When I asked Javs to review the site one more time before we sent out our Save the Dates, he asked if we might combine the three pages we had devoted to Charlottesville (in addition to the page devoted to Ash Lawn).  He was, legitimately, worried that it might be a bit much to give each aspect of Cville its own page.  Its funny, I would never call ours a 'destination' wedding, but based on the rubber we've burned between DC and Cville so far - its painfully obvious that we're not planning a wedding in our (or my parents') town of residence.  But even during our quick and appointment packed visits I'm constantly reminded of how in love I am with Charlottesville.  I. love. that town.  And while I did select to share just three of the aspects of Cville that make it so amazing - I thought it important to include.  If our guests do have the chance to enjoy some of this town I love while they're at our wedding - maybe they'll leave understanding, just a hair, why we love it so much.  Javs laughed at me, but assured me it was fine to keep all three :)

Pictures  We also decided to include some pictures. We're having....a lot of people at the wedding.  And while it would have been awesome to have each of our guests present at all of the funnest (another made up word) moments of our courtship, the truth is you guys weren't always there.  (Although some of you were at a lot of them!)  Either way, we thought it might be fun to share some of the fun and sometimes silly moments we've shared through our years together.  (It was all that goofy stuff that made me want to marry him anyway ;)  I just looked through them trying to pick my favorite and couldn't.  (but this post has been a little picture shy so I grabbed this one to make reading this post look less like such a task.  We're getting ready to watch the 'A Bug's Life' show at Disney last year!)

Registries We threw these on here too!  If folks do want to get us a gift we wanted to make it easy for them to find the registries.  We didn't even realize it when we selected mywedding.com but they had this nifty tool that went and found our registries and then automatically showed the buttons.  Too cool!  Technology is amazing and I am constantly awed by it.  (thats right.  I work for a software company.  In their technology department....)

Alright, now go check it out yourselves!  (maybe a good distraction break for your Friday afternoon :)

Its PIE day! March 14th = 3.1415926535....

Happy pie day everyone :P The wedding blogosphere is celebrating with news on folks incorporating pie into their big days. If you were to ask me, I would suggest celebrating by 1) making a delicious pie and 2) watching Waitress. (If you're not inspired to bake a pie - watch Waitress first and then, trust me, you'll want to bake a pie!)

I'm celebrating by sharing some wedding dessert news with all of you. If you haven't guessed it by now...I'm not sure what to do with you...but yes! Javs and I plan to serve up some delish pies at the wedding!

I love pie.
http://youtu.be/qXG3l4FdviU
I often walk around the house singing this song (okay just the 'pie, pie, me oh my - I love pie' part) whenever pie is mentioned. (and sometimes when its not)

Neither of us were big cake eaters as children. My bday cake has always been my favorite = chocolate pound cake. And Javs' favorite was always his Mom's poppy seed cake (now one of my favorites as well!). Neither cake had that typical cake ingredient = frosting/icing - which is where I think I find my true discomfort with cake. We're still debating if one (or both) of these cakes (or similar bundt-type cakes) may make an appearance at the wedding in addition to the pies- something to cut for our 'cake cutting,' but we know there will be pie.


Pie has it all; the sweet, always gooey filling with a salty, flaky crust. There are also savory pies: chicken pot (pictured right -Paula Deen's recipe -one of our favs!), shepherd's, minced meat, etc. When Javs and I were in Sydney (with Sandy and Ando!) we ate the most amazing meat pies from a famous pie place outside of Sydney. The Clinton's stopped to eat there on their visit (I forget the name?). And, I think the first contribution to a Cabezas dinner that I ever made was a strawberry rhubarb pie. Actually - it may be the first thing that Javs and I ever tried to cook together. It was a complete disaster. Mr Cabezas called it strawberry rhubarb soup - and that's a far more accurate name for what it was. But we ate it anyway! Pie makes me think of Thanksgiving: being wrapped up in a sweater and slightly too full, but the happiest I can be.

Its become more acceptable to serve a dessert other than cake at the reception. And if it means warm gooey, pecan goodness - then this is a trend I'm happy to jump on board with! Enjoy some pie today everyone - and we look forward to enjoying pie with you on October 13th!

Scent of a Woman

If you haven't seen it - watch it! (Al Pacino is great and Chris O'donnell is cute and was still making movies....)

But this post isn't about the movie...its about me and my scent. And another trend that I'm keeping in mind for the wedding. Those of you that stalk wedding blogs might have noticed that some photographers are making a point to snag a pic of the perfume their bride is wearing for her big day. That's because brides today are picking a new perfume, special for the wedding day (and maybe honeymoon), to help associate a memory with the scent. That way when they wear it later on - it will make both them and the hubby think about their wedding :) - maybe brides have been doing this forever, but the Internet and blogs have advertised it so that brides like me who would have never thought about it - see it and steal the idea!

Now, I don't wear perfume at all - so following this trend would mean picking out any perfume that I like to wear for the day of. So when I didn't have an errand to run on my lunch (typically what I do during my lunch) the other day I decided to head over to the mall to smell some scents!

Alexa kindly offered to go with me and off to Sephora we went. I knew that I wanted something smelling more fresh than sweet. So when Tiffany (heavily makeuped Sephora employee) asked what we were looking for - I told her. She suggested their fancy shmancy 'Finding the Perfect Perfume for You' machine! (Okay that's not really what its called, but that's what its supposed to do!) Tiffany showed us how it works: you answer a series of 10 questions - selecting your favorite of the choices they provide and at the end it tells you what kind of scent might match your personality. Here is Alexa selecting her favorite flower.

The machine must have been on a roll that day b/c it confirmed for me that a fresh scent would fit my t-shirt and jeans, champagne drinking and daisy loving self. Then below the machine - Sephora provided a sample of perfumes for each category. (I know the picture isn't perfect but starting on the left there is Citrus, Fresh, Floral, Oriental, & Woody labels) You could also scroll through the Fresh options on the screen that they had available throughout the store. Tiffany also pointed out a line of perfumes called 'Clean' that I might like if I was looking for something on the fresh side. So Alexa and I dug in and started spraying little strips of paper with each of the perfumes.

I should preface my next comments, by saying that every nose is different and everyone's preferred smell is probably waaaay different. In addition, Alexa intelligently pointed out that scents often change when you actually put them on your body (because of pheromones and stuff) so in other words - if you like one of the perfumes that I didn't like, we can still be friends!

I did not like the Clean perfumes. They were oddly....unclean? They were a pretty intense smell certainly associated to their name (apparently I think clean/fresh means light) but slightly overdone. 'Warm Cotton' - for example - smelled like a Bounce sheet prior to being dried. You know, it has that really intense clean laundry smell that works so much better once its been heated up and dispersed equally through your load of laundry. Yeah, it was the too intense version of a Bounce. And the 'Summer Escape' (which I accidentally sprayed all over my hand and therefore smelled like for the rest of the day) - smelled like that mango filled, tropic you'd associate with a summer escape, but more of the Runts version of it. (You know, how Runts have that true banana smell, but one that is way over exaggerated and sweetened up just a hair too much) - that was Summer Escape.

What I did like was one of the first perfumes I smelled. (And that might have something to do with it...I'm sure my sense of smell was affected by the overdose of scents I provided it in a short 10 minute span) = Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue. It was exactly what I think 'fresh' should smell like. Alexa agreed that Light Blue was the right name for a perfume that smelled like this. So Tiffany kindly hooked me up with a sample of Light Blue so that I could try it out (and see how it mixes with my own pheromones). Today I smell like Light Blue and think that I still really like it. I'm a little worried its not subtly enough - but we'll see how it wears throughout the day.

Happy smelling friends! (as in - enjoy smelling, not that you guys smell or anything...you know cause I said 'smelling friends'....you get it...)

something next to normal

Wedding trends: they’re everywhere. And they’re powerful. I find myself totally succumbing to some of the current wedding trends without explanation. Like, why am I so much more attracted to this instead of that? But I am. I don’t want that, I want this (I really do)!

this = mason jar : that = a regular vase

A trend right now in engagement shots seems to be signage. Evidence:

Now, Javs is not the keenest on the contrived photo. It was actually what we looked at most when selecting our photographer – we wanted someone who worked hard to catch the natural moments of the day. Now engagement photos lend themselves to a certain amount of illusion. (How often do you just sit around and smile at each other for that long anyways…) but I did think there were some elements that we could work on to help make our pictures more ‘natural’ (or as natural as they could be).

I think one thing to help was asking our photographers to come to our home to take some pictures. Outside of Cvent walls, its where I spend the majority of my time and certainly where we spend the majority of our time together. Maybe our at home (literally) setting will help put us at ease!

Now, I’ll admit that I may have fallen a bit for the engagement photo signage trend. I do think its kind of fun to put that little thought bubble or caption to a photo that helps deliver its message. You know, like those rare episodes were the coyote would hold up a sign (because he never spoke) to let you know what was on his mind. I loved those episodes - I momentary glimpse into the soul of an otherwise silent coyote. (okay – slightly dramatic, but you get it). But when I talked to Javs about ‘props’ for our session he was more than skeptical. (Maybe it was my use of the word ‘props’ that contradicted so clearly with his ‘non-contrived’ hopes.) But I kept thinking that if I could find something that was really us and really gave a glimpse into whatever it is we’re trying to say with our engagement pictures that he might be on board because it wouldn’t be contrived.

Enter Next to Normal.

Next to Normal is a musical that Javs and I went to see on one of our early dates. It was just getting started then and hadn’t made it to Broadway yet. We did get to see the ‘original’ cast because they were the only cast…it had just started traveling. I learned later that Javs was all nervous because it was a new show and he wanted it to be good (cause he was still trying to impress me) yatta, yatta. Well, it was better than good. We both came out at intermission bubbling over with excitement about how much we were loving it; the songs, the actors, the whole show = awesome. (Apparently critics agree b/c it went on to win three tonys).

The love song in the show (its played and reprised several times) is called ‘Perfect for you’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGGeJTH7zN4 – Listen to it.

In one of the reprises there is a line (one of my favorites),

‘Cause crazy is perfect and f***ed up is perfect so I will be perfect, perfect for you’

I love it. It kind of says it all…and I’ve already expressed wanting this written somewhere at our wedding!…but agreed with Javs that having ‘f***ed up’ written (even if it is in a pretty frame) at your wedding is probably not the best idea. Instead, I suggested using some other lyrics to make a ‘sign’ for our engagement session – javs was in!

I think the song can have a myriad of meanings (probably different for different people). I won’t go into all the meanings it has for me, but its certainly something that makes me think of Javs and what we have been (and will be) for each other. And its something we often walk around our house singing to each other, “perfect for you…I could be perfect for youuuuu.’

***DIY Alert** (my first!)I used frames that I already had - just took the pictures and glass out. Then printed off the 'perfect for you' and 'i could be' in Bradly Hand ITC font (just good ole word font). I bought some awesome notecards from papyrus (because you can never have enough notecards from papyrus) and cause we haven't completely decided on our colors - so I didn't want to get a ton of orange paper (that we wouldn't end up using) where as with notecards - I knew I could use them no matter what (thank yous!). Then I traced (several times) the letters I had printed out until they were some what etched into the card. I went back over the etching with the pen to really darken it out, but I think they didn't turn out half bad. (Javs wanted me to just free hand them onto the cards...has he seen my handwriting? - NO)

And so were born – our signs :) So we’re taking the trend, but making it us. We’ll give em a try tomorrow and see. If you never spot them in the pictures I (hopefully) use from our session tomorrow....well then you know they were a bust. Here's hoping we're trendy enough to pull off the trend :)

Oh - and the chafing gel did not turn my face blue (sorry - those pictures would have been hilarious)