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!!!

The Dreaded Guest List

Here is a lesson learned...be VERY critical of your guest list.  I was not, because I knew a lot of my friends are military and wouldn't be able to make it.  Therefore, I was not as critical of Jason's "Family Friend" guest list as I maybe should have been.  I wasn't for two reasons:  a, to be a nice person (I rarely am), and b, because I was assured that most of them would RSVP "no"...and then they didn't.  In fact, I separated our RSVPs out into groups to see how it was breaking down.  The groups were friends, Jason's family, my family, and Schaub Family Friends.  The largest group is his family, which I expected.  His mom has something like 9 siblings.  Seriously.  The second largest group (now actually tied for first place)? Schaub Family Friends, with 41 guests.  I've met 2 of them.  So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE learn from me...please be the bad guy and say no!!!    

Wait...How Many Weddings Are You Having?

I suppose it's not so uncommon to have more than one wedding.  Especially for military people...I'd say about half of my friends had a legal wedding as well as the "show" wedding.  Even Amanda said she sees it a lot more lately among her clients.  Sometimes (ok, frequently lately...even that's an understatement), I don't want a second wedding.  It's stressful, it's expensive, it causes fighting and mistrust and hurt feelings.  I have to prod Jason to get his wedding stuff done because he's working 15 hours a day and not sleeping enough.  It's not fufilling the original purpose of getting our union blessed in the Catholic church (I will have to actually enter a church for this to happen...sigh.  The things I do for love...)

Ohhhhh GOT...I love you (via fanpop.com)

And things like this:

just don't help.  Hey, person I invited...I love you (obviously!), but really???  Here's why:  Jason has 4 living grandparents who live in the Milwaukee area.  I have no living grandparents.  I would LOVE to have it in KC, but that's not fair to his grands.  I was already selfish and barred them from attending the JOP wedding. This one is more for them, and our friends.  And so we can finally exchange rings, and have a legit party.  Yeah, we'll probably have another when we are 100% married in the church as well.  No, unfortunately none of them will be at my home...I wish I could.  This is probably more of a rant than anything else....I can't make anyone happy except us!  So I wanted to at least halfway explain our motives.  

Crafty Time

I'm not gonna lie...the wedding has eaten my life and I'll kinda be glad when I can craft for the heck of it and not for this specific event.  But I've been feeling cruddy and it's raining today, so it was a good day to knock a few things out.
Project #1:  Pick a Seat, Not a Side Sign

 I found this crate on the beach a few weeks ago.  I couldn't find a pre-made sign I liked, so I made this one instead.  It's blotchy in places, and the first line is uneven, but overall, I love it.

 Project #2:  Chair Signs

I had leftover cardstock from the programs (which are only half done right now), so I had a friend make some stencils and painted these today.  I'll probably be angry at the crane placement later, but I'm definitely in "Don't care, just get it done" mode!

Project #3:  Door Hangers

mine :]

backside of the guests' hangers

front side

These were also made with the leftover cardstock.  I saw something similar on Etsy, but decided that I could make them easily enough.  They are far from perfect, but I think they turned out cute!  I didn't post a picture of them with the holes cut because that is REALLY imperfect, and I'm trying not to think about it!  There's a couple of things I've decided to make as well...but that's another post for another time!

Gifting My Party People

You Guys.  I am flippin busy here lately.  Which makes me a bad blogger.  Sorry...I'm an amateur!
Anyways, wanted to give you guys a look at what I bought for my bridesmaids!  So.  Bridesmaids...vanish, por favor.  You want to be surprised, right?

You Remember That One Time?

The time where I asked for your opinions, and then totally didn't buy the necklaces you suggested?  Yeah, about that...but the good news is that a lot of your comments guided me. Beau....go look at xkcd.

Invites, revealed!

Well, it seems like it's safe to unveil these babies.  Meet our invites!

Proof courtesy of etsy seller Twigs Print Studio

Expectation vs. Reality: Envelope Addressing Edition

Today's blog is simply a PSA.
If you want your wedding invitation envelopes to look anything like this...

image from paperblog

...even remotely, just HIRE A CALLIGRAPHER.  Just do it.
I thought I was going to be able to find a shop in Vegas that could print out our envelopes in white ink, but that was a delusion.  None of the places I called could print on envelopes.  It was extremely frustrating.  So was the result of me sending my envelopes to a calligrapher, but more on that later.  Just wanted to warn you.

Necklaces are Complicated

YOU GUYS.
I cannot decide on a necklace.  You're gonna have to help a sister out!

BEAU:  You probably want to go away now.

Simplicity

Well kids...there's officially 78 days left until we get married.  WTF?  When did that happen?  I feel like I have a gazillion things to do (we don't even have an officiant yet....GAH), and I've officially gone into simplicity mode.  I skim over most the pretty and uber unique things in the blogs and on Pinterest.  I just can't  care about naming the tables other than "1", "2", etc.  I am still crazy enough to try and DIY our programs since I can't seem to find anything similar to the picture in my brain on Etsy.  And if it's not on Etsy it doesn't exist, just FYI.  Not from over here, anyways.  It's looking like I'm going to have to simplify the transportation (just getting a limo vs. something unique and photogenic...sigh) and I've already thrown out my guest book idea.  I was going to try and compile a scrapbook of sorts, and have a Polaroid out and have people bring in fun scraps...but then I read a couple of accounts about how people just don't seem to sign guest books.  Regardless of how creative it is or if they had the DJ announce it...nothing seems to work.  Our planner verified this too.  So, in lieu of the guest book, I'll have some wish tags out.

via Etsy seller luvs2create2

Nailed it!

I consider myself a fairly vain person.  We've discussed this before.  I will run errands in gym clothes, but usually I try to look my best, even when I'm going casual.  I worry about details that many people just don't.  One of my big worries is actually fairly common in the bridal world:  I have crappy nails.  It's not because I chew them, it's not that I'm dehydrated or neglect my nails...it's just that they like to peel, constantly.  In the middle of winter, they usually look like this:

Yuck, right?
My nail lady even told me once I have good cuticles and bad nails, and that makes no sense what so ever.  I'm fairly certain I've tried every kind of nail protein ever, with no results.  I'd given up the fight, until, as usual, WeddingBee saved my life.  While Mrs. Macarons and I have different issues (she bites, mine just self-shred), her before and after pictures convinced me to try Nailtiques Nail Protein.  I chose Formula Two at first, and had great results after about 3 weeks.  After that, I had some fun with Shellac manicures:

my favorite mani, ever!  

Shellac is good for me...it usually doesn't peel or chip, and my nails stay strong under it.  Then in May, my nailist and I tried a Gelish mani.  It was gorgeous:  

"Sakura" (cherry blossom) written in Hiragana and Kanji

But complete hell on my nails.  The gel was very hard to get off--Chigusa was still peeling pieces of gel off my nails before I left for America!  And it made them peel again.  This time Formula Two wasn't helping, so it took about 3 weeks of Formula Two Plus to get back to this:  

Nothing fancy, just mostly un-shredded nails!  So it's safe to say I'm staying away from Gelish, unfortunately.  They have more colors than Shellac, but it's just too hard on my nails!  I found a cute nail place in Milwaukee that does Shellac manicures, so I will be going to Polished Nail Bar before my wedding.  Bonus:  since Beau and I are immediately going on our honeymoon, I'll have pretty nails the whole time!  Now...what color and designs should I do???

Planning in MKE

Well friends, my time in Milwaukee was super brief.  But I got so much done!  Pardon the lack of pictures...my travels did not go smoothly and I was rushed (one of my least favorite state-of-minds).  Here are the things I did and/or was supposed to do...

Visited my venue:  Right after arriving in Milwaukee, I checked into my hotel and walked a few blocks down the street to pick up a rental car.  Immediately after that, I met with Amanda at the 333.  Good news:  I absolutely love the venue!  It's unique and open and rustic-y beautiful.  More good news:  There was another room I loved more that freed up, the 325.  It's got wooden pilars and street-lamp-like light fixtures...when Kori told me about the space being available, my eyes lit up...I love the wooden pillars so much!  But seeing it in person made me realize it's just not a big enough room to do everything we want to do.  Our ceremony AND our cocktail hour AND our reception will all be in one room, and it's much better suited to the 333.

Discussed decorations with Amanda:  the absolute best part was getting to sit down with her and go over details!  And she knows a carpenter that may be able to make a torii gate for me...I will do a separate post about decorations soon!

Met my florist:  Bobby is amazing, and lovely, and warm.  And his house is gorgeous.  And he was really excited about my ideas!  I think our centerpieces are going to be different than what I originally envisioned, but I'm still stoked to see them.

Went to two catering tastings:  Catering was something I was really struggling with.  Have you ever tried to pick out a menu without tasting stuff?  It's impossible.  For me anyways.  So Amanda set up two appointments for me.  Our first one was at Chef Jack's.  I was drawn to them because they mention trying to use local ingredients and staying as green as possible.  They had a good selection of food (and lots of it), but I felt like it was fairly ordinary fare.  The second tasting was at Gracious Events.  Amanda said from the very beginning that she thought I would like this place, and she was far from wrong.  I absolutely loved it...it was well thought out food that was literally mouth-watering.  It started off with a lemon-ginger spritzer and some beautiful appetizers.  It got even better with each dinner option she brought out...scallops, pork tenderloin, mahi mahi and beef shortrib.  I had to choose three of them and it was one of the more difficult decisions I had to make!  I eventually cut the mahi mahi because I didn't want to scare people off with fish (I'm from Kansas...we're not used to fish that's actually tasty).

Had my first gown fitting:  Before I knew I was going to be able to fit a trip to America in, I was going to have my dress altered in Japan...but that scared me because I didn't want anything lost in translation.  So when I planned the trip, I got a recommendation to go to Caron Sherer.  She was warm and fantastic and friendly as well!  I love the Midwest.  I was prepared to make quite the payment to have the dress taken in and bustled, but was happily shocked to pay less than $300 all together.

Ate cake:  Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkke!

Hyperbole and a Half

I already basically knew what we wanted for cake, but Susan put out all kinds of stuff to make sure.  I ended up going with one layer of marble cake with chocolate buttercream inside, and two layers of lemon cake with cream cheese and raspberry inside.  The outside will be vanilla buttercream with a semi-pleated look.  This was the original inspiration:

Charm City Cakes

But the buttercream will make it look a little rougher.  That's ok.  I like it rough!  Heehehe...  

The cake was also pleasantly inexpensive!  It's a smaller cake, because we're going to have a beautiful yummy desert bar, but it was nice that I have a few dollars leftover from the cake to put towards other deserts.  

Got my hair did:  But oh wait....that didn't happen. At Neroli Salon & Spa, the first recommendation I got was for Sydney, who was on vacation.  The second was for Dez, who doesn't work at the downtown location anymore.  And the third was for Madison, who doesn't work on Saturdays anymore.  Amanda felt terrible...they hadn't shared their changes with her!  But I got all set up for October with Sydney.

Set up our rehearsal dinner:  Another failure...the restaurant we wanted to book for this not only didn't have our reservation written down, they also let us know we wouldn't be able to reserve the whole room.  Arrrghhh.  Jason and I talked about it and decided to go back to the drawing board for this one.  

    

America...

You knew it had to be done!

So it's the calm before the storm...tomorrow I go to Korea for a night before I head back to the motherland...'Murica!  For those that haven't lived in the remoteness that is Misawa...it's cheaper to hop on a military flight to Korea and THEN fly over to America, rather than leave from Japan.  I have no idea why, other than Japan is expensive.

Anyways, just wanted to let you know.  I will have plenty of updates then, because the first days I'm there are going to be me, in Milwaukee, trying to fit something like 3 months' worth of appointments and tastings, etc, into less than 3 days.  Should make for an interesting blog post or two...

Until then, wish me safe travels!!!

Bearing the Rings

Today I got a new wedding pretty!

I am actually pretty stoked about this.  A long time ago I started noticing these pretty bowls popping up on the wedding blogosphere:

image via Etsy shop Paloma's Nest

I automatically loved them, but wasn't sure what we were doing for our ring bearer yet.  The idea of having a toddler out there in a tux is adorable, but useless.  Sorry, but you know it's true!  So I tucked the idea away for a rainy day.  Some time later, I ran across this post and this post from Mrs. Hippo on Wedding Bee.  You can read the details of why she wanted it, but for my purposes...I just really liked the idea.  Also--that makes having a ring bearer a functional necessity.  Yay!  If you can't tell, sometimes I really hate the idea of doing something just because it's what you do for weddings.  It's gonna be the underlying theme of this post.

SO.  In the last few weeks, I've been shopping for accessories and wedding whatnots, which means I live on Etsy.  Pretty much.  Also because Jason's gone.  I had marked Paloma's Nest as one of my favorite shops, and decided I should check out what's new on there.  Mystical forces at work, my friends, because I ran across this new love of mine...

Description!

They certainly knew how to get me with this--"limited edition" and "only 2 left" might've swayed my decision to buy it. I'm fairly certain I could've DIY'd it somewhat successfully, but advertising won out and I decided to buy vs. make.  The other downfall is that the only personalization available on this bowl was the year we're getting married...but no matter.  I love it anyways.  For the wedding, I think my nephew will be our ring bearer...he's what, 14ish now?  And he can pass the ring around with our rings tied up safely.  I think it'll be great for the guests to be able to touch the rings and this bowl is obviously the perfect size for your hand!  Another reason I love it is because it can be functional after the wedding.  I almost always take my ring off at night (otherwise I wake up with painful creases on my face where I managed to lay on my left hand...), and this gives me something beautiful to put it in!  A pillow can't give me that....
Now, it's gratuitous picture time!

Nozzle's not impressed.

I'm pretty proud of this decision!  Also, I recommend Paloma's Nest bowls to anyone...they're as gorgeous in person as they are in the pictures!!!

Sneaky Sneaky

Sneak peak of what I'm working on today....

Yep, that's a whole lot of kraft in there.  Not real descriptive, but I think you guys are smart.  You know what this is, and you know you're not gonna get to see everything before I send them out.  I am feeling benevolent though, so I'll show you what might be my favorite part of the invite suites.

moo.

mini business cards from MOO

Just because they're cute, that's why.  

All my favorite pictures from the e sesh on one side...

...wedding website on the other!  Not gonna lie...Chiyo chan is missing
(she ran away on Friday) and looking at this almost made me cry :(

I will have more on these once I get to Vegas (!) and see if I can get my paws on a white ink pad and a printer to do offset printing for me...

How We Chose our Date

So.  Quite a few of my military-associated friends run across this question:  "Which date do you celebrate?"  It's a tough question!  Jason and I will have 3 dates:
30 October 2010--we started dating
24 June 2011--we were legally married
27 October 2012--the fun, Catholic, big wedding date

To me, the date that we were "established" is 2010.  As exemplified by the sign I had made:

I pretty much knew I wanted to commit to us then, and it's the most important date to me.  Of course, I celebrate the others too, but this will always be my favorite and most important anniversary.  SO, of course it was important to me to have our big wedding date coincide as.closely.as.possible to our 2010 date.  Beau was game for it, and a possible deployment made it even more of a reality.  The 30th is a Tuesday this year, so we definitely weren't going to have it then.  We settled on the 27th...it was worth the extra money to have a Saturday wedding for many reasons:
1. So people could get into town without taking crazy days off of work
2.  So people could recover on Sunday and possibly make it back home then
3.  Because a Tuesday wedding would suck.  Duh.

I'm excited to have our wedding close to our two year "dating" anniversary!  We'll be in Tahiti on that day this year!

 

I'm Just Sayin

Nothing earth-shattering tonight.  Just wanted ya'll to read this:  http://www.weddingbee.com/2011/10/17/because-i-want-to-thats-why-2/

Couldn't have said that better myself, or relate to it more fully right now.

Red String of Fate

...or how I love doing something meaningful for cheap.

When Beau and I were talking about the feel/theme/etc of our wedding back in the day, we both agreed that we wanted to incorporate Japan into the day.  I feel like this is hard to do when you're both a couple of white kids from Midwestern America...I always picture the cheesy trinkets and black and red and it really kinda makes me think of this SNL sketch...

(I'm sure a not-recorded-from-a-phone version is here).

So we set out to capture some of the things we love about Japan without going overboard.  I searched for Japanese wedding traditions and found a thread on Weddingbee that related and was super simple to carry out.   A Japanese contributor said that "The Japanese believe that the gods tie an invisible red string around the ankles of men and women who are destined to be soul mates and will one day marry each other.  But when you watch or see many modern day Japanese interpretations they usually show the red string attached to a pinky or finger."  If you remember, the events of December 2010 convinced us there was a reason we kept finding each other over the last 7 years, and so I e-mailed Beau the idea to see what he thought of it.  He agreed and loved it, and it was probably one of the first inspiration building blocks of our wedding.

Fast forward roughly a year and picture me walking through Daiso (or a very nice dollar store) and stumbling across this:

 It's a spool of that silky red cord, exactly what I was hoping to find to tie around our fingers/hands.  For only 105 yen!  It's a little more than one dollar...maybe like $1.25ish.  It's a small part of the ceremony, and not even an active part.  We'll just tie them on, and include an explanation in the program...because otherwise I'm sure most will wonder why the hell we have red string on.  I don't want to answer those questions...I want to eat instead!  It's really the simple things that make me happy...