My PWC...Still Not a Chop...

But I did do this:

Thanks!

Here's what's been taking up my time lately...

Thank you notes!
I wanted to make sure we knocked this out fairly early, and I knew from the beginning that I wanted to have a photo postcard.  By the time we got home from the honeymoon, we already had a DVD of our wedding pictures (again, Steve is awesome) that we could use, and we had all our photos from the honeymoon.  I poked around for a day or two and finally found exactly what I wanted on WeddingPaperDivas  (other suggestions include MPix and tinyprints).  I was really impressed with their proofing and editing services...they were super fast and responsive!  

I had them move the block of text on the back from the middle to the top, and it literally took less than an hour after that for them to send me another proof to approve.  I've been writing little personal notes in the space under that...it's still a personal touch but space is limited...so it keeps the process clicking along.  Beau and I knocked out most of the last of them today, before he leaves to go to the US for a few months.  We ordered enough that I decided to send them to friends who just made it to the wedding...that was important to me!  And check out what luck I had getting postcard stamps from our Post Office here in Misawa...

I thought they were super appropriate, even if we didn't go to Hawaii specifically. 

I'm pretty proud of getting these done in just over 2 months from our wedding!!!  

Registering

While I continue to refuse you re-caps (first world problems...I've still got some angst over how certain things went), let's talk about gift registries!  As a result of living on our own for about 6 years (post-college), Jason & I both had about enough household items to function.  There were definitely things we had doubles of and things we could upgrade, but we were fairly content with what we had.  So we decided to make a honeymoond fund our primary registry.  Originally, we went with SmartyPig, but I thought that might not be very user friendly.  I then switched it to HoneyFund, which is fairly easy for most to find and use.  I'm about 80% happy with it...here are the things I would warn people about before using it.  1.  People who contribute to you through Paypal don't have to pay any fees, which is great!  What kinda blows for the transferree is that they take a small percentage out of the gift for themselves.  So my friends that thought they gave us, say, $50...actually ended up giving us around $48.75.  Not a big deal, but something good to know.  2.  It says it's free, but they're actually going to end up taking a couple of dollars from your Paypal for it.  I asked about it and they gave me an explanation, but I forgot and can't find the e-mail.  Again, not a big deal, just something people should know.

Our other registries were fairly normal...I set up one at Williams Sonoma (snooty, I know...but I love it!) and one at GiftRegistry360.  This one is awesome because not only did it include the W-S list, but you could add anything to it from any website.  So we had stuff on there from Target (a firepit, a hand vac and a rain chain), and REI (zip-together sleeping bags), and a few other places.  Unfortunately, no one bought those items, but I still thought it was a great idea!  Especially since there's a lack of stores for us to physically register at here.  

Most of our gifts were either cash or off the W-S registry.  Now I'm just eyeing the discounts I can get for the high-priority items...  

Budget Schmudget

To be honest, I haven't totaled our budget up.  It stresses me out, and involves several different currencies, plus subtracting what we didn't use, etc, etc.  Is anyone SUPER interested in how much we spent?  It was too damn much, I'll tell you that.  We were planning for around $27,000 plus the $3100 we paid our planner.  Yeah, told you...way too much.  I don't think we were too far off that number, but I can't be sure.  There were a lot of last minute costs, like hanging lanterns and lighting...

photo via Steve Bowman Photography

...but at least those were pretty worth it!

So, seriously, anyone dying to know numbers?  I will, but only if you ask me nicely.

Post Wedding Chop (or the Lack Thereof)

Everybody does this...we all know it, and every wedding blogger talks about it.  Post Wedding Chop.  A friend of ours here has a fantastic PWC and is gorgeous and famous (seriously) too:

The lovely "Siren" and her hubs "Smack."  I stole the photo from  my friend Kim!

I was 100% convinced I was getting a PWC.  I wasn't growing my hair out, per se...it was already pretty long.  It wasn't as long as I would've liked though, and I was pretty frustrated with it.  But the weird thing is that now, post-ceremony and back at home...I kinda like it long.  I don't really want to chop it because it actually feels kinda healthy again.  Simultaneously, I had decided I probably wasn't going to bleach it all out as previously planned, because I would be re-bleaching roots like every two weeks.  I've already given up on covering my white hairs because they grow back too fast.  SO, long story short, I think I figured out a plan to still get some fun color in my hair without totally killing it.

Pretty Puppy Formal Wear

If we were able to, we would bring our dogs with us everywhere.  Including the wedding and our honeymoon.  The problem is Japan is a rabies free country, which makes getting them back into the country a long, troublesome process.  Since they were both born here, have never left the country, and we're leaving in about 6 months, I see no reason to go through this torture now.  It makes me sad my fur kiddos can't be a part of the fun!  So a long, long time ago, I started looking for ways to include them.  I thought about just putting a picture out.  But somewhere in the interwebs (sorry I can't remember where), I saw a picture of a dog in a bowtie that a couple put in their program to advertise their photo sharing site.   What a brilliant concept!  I hadn't even thought about having a photo sharing site before that, but I loved that idea too.  So set up a site on ShutterFly, then got on Etsy and found Charlie <3 Diesel.  I set up a custom order, and then waited...and waited...and waited.  It almost didn't show up in time!  Poor Ashleigh's (the owner) machine had broken.  But today, literally the last day I'll be in Japan for a few weeks, my order showed up.  I cleaned the rupps up, and took them outside.  Chiyo peed on her tutu first thing, of course.  After a good half hour of wrestling with them and using a ball as bait (for Nozzle at least) I got a few decent pictures.  Now I'm just deciding which picture to use!

I'll take any opinions!

And just for dramatic flair, I present the "far off gaze" photo that they do so well:  

Special dogs is special!  

I'm Fairly Certain I Was A Better Seamstress In Fifth Grade

But you know what?  I'm cool with that!  It's worth it.
Project o' the evening:

Once again, I couldn't find exactly what I wanted on Etsy.  Most of the ones I did find were either too rustic or too froofy.  So, with half a wooden dowl from the 100 yen shop, a roll of burlap I already owned (big thanks to Laurie for cutting out the banner for me.  My OCD couldn't handle trying to make it perfect), quilt backing given to me by my old neighbor, and stencils from my lovely Diandra, I created my own banner!  I did actually iron it too.  Here's evidence of my bad sewing job:

 But hey, it works!  Only a few projects left before I leave for America...

Finished up some goody bags last week...

 And here's a sneak peek of the programs:

And I will be forever folding cranes...

Only 16 more days guys...yikes!!!