Blame the Cat » personal

Wedding thoughts

Tammy — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:56:03 +0000

Our wedding went by in a flash. I remember talking to my brother and sister-in-law before hand and they kept telling us that we wouldn’t remember most of the little things that were worrying me. I felt confident that if I had everything covered and in the hands of our wedding coordinator, we’d be able to happily enjoy the day.

We did enjoy the wedding, very much, but they were right, the whole thing was a blur. When Ashley, our photographer, sent me the link to our slide show and pictures online, it felt like I was really getting to see the day – all the little things and people that I’d missed. So much happens, it’s just not possible to take it all in regardless of how much planning and delegation you do. I didn’t his face as I was walking down the aisle (because I was trying not to be eaten by the lawn). I didn’t see the guys getting ready or the guests arriving, but the camera (and Ashley) did. She did an amazing job capturing beautiful images that convey the feel of the day itself and the people with whom we shared it. It’s exactly what we wanted.

Fireworks

Tammy — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:32:31 +0000

We’re back from our wonderful honeymoon cruise to Alaska. For the 4th of July, we watched fireworks from the roof of the Science Museum of Minnesota. It was fantastic! Here’s some video of the display. I also posted some photos up on my Flickr account.

Five days to go!

Tammy — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:36:00 +0000

Five days from now, Matt and I will be dining on our first meal as a married couple, enjoying live music, and sharing our evening with our closest friends and family. Tomorrow, we head to Colorado to spend a few days pre-wedding with my family. Thursday night, his family and most of the wedding party hit town (and we head out to our bachelor/bachelorette ridiculousness at Casa Bonita. Yes, we’re that insane). Then on Friday, things really get into full swing – rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, post-rehearsal dinner festivities at Waterloo. On Saturday, we’re getting married (hopefully there will be a bridge by that time)!

As you can see, we’ve got a busy and exciting week ahead. Expect some silence around these parts. I’ll try to update with a few pics from Alaska while we’re on the honeymoon!

Bloomingdale’s called

Tammy — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 04:15:30 +0000

I had a message from Bloomingdale’s to let me know that our dishes and towels were on sale. It felt extremely surreal. I’m definitely not complaining about having our registry items on sale just prior to the wedding. Sales are never a bad thing. It was more of an unexpected personal touch. I appreciate it.

A list of things

Tammy — Sat, 22 May 2010 03:58:40 +0000

Things that have gone wrong:
- My wedding dress no longer fits properly. Something went dreadfully wrong with the alterations and must be remedied.
- I’m running out of time to get everything done before the wedding.
- Our guests don’t seem to be RSVPing. I may need to track them down.

Things that have gone right:
- The bridesmaids’ dresses arrived and look lovely. Here’s hoping they fit everyone perfectly.
- Matt’s ring is purchased.
- Matt’s birthday. Enjoyable dinner followed by ice cream at Izzy’s. We were going to watch a movie, but his parents called and then we got distracted by other things. Regardless, it was still a nice evening.

Things to do:
- Wrangle remaining guests.
- Make sure wedding dress fits again.
- Enjoy our shower on Monday thrown by work friends.
- Enjoy Memorial Day weekend trip to Michigan for our shower thrown by his family.

A little over 30 days to go

Tammy — Sat, 15 May 2010 19:10:08 +0000

In just over 30 days, I’ll be in the midst of getting ready for our wedding. Nearly all the planning is done with a few stray pieces still lingering – kids’ table, table configuration type things, and the final paperwork with guest number. I still need to buy a guest book of some sort, buy our one way plane tickets to the wedding, and come up with something for cards.

I got all the invitations done in less than a week despite some serious hiccups in the production of them. I found a typo on the final which we all missed pre-printing. It’s subtle so most people won’t notice and not anything major. I figure if it’s the one thing that goes wrong, that’s lovely. We’re starting to get the RSVP postcards and amusingly enough, a few people have stuck them in envelopes despite the fact that we put postage on all the cards. People also aren’t filling in the ‘Words of wisdom for the bride & groom’ side of the card for the most part, which is a little sad making.

So far, most of the RSVPs have been ‘No,’ which isn’t unexpected. We invited nearly 200 and we’re expecting just over 100. It should be a good number and we’re excited.

One particularly unexpected thing is that managing the registries actually requires some work. Neither of us really processed the whole gift giving thing and I’m particularly terrible at asking for anything. We’ve had to be fairly thoughtful about including things. For both of us, our natural tendency is not ask for or include things, for a variety of self-editing reasons. It’s made creating a registry interesting, but I think we’ve gotten the hang of it. It’s an amusing problem to have though.

Wedding planning is a part time job, at the very least. I’ll be glad when my full-time job is the only one I have to worry about.

Moved, dates saved, not unpacked, and pictures

Tammy — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:30:51 +0000

Moving is complete, thankfully. We’re not unpacked yet and won’t be for awhile. We don’t have enough bookshelves for our books. They’re still in boxes stacked up in the den. The apartment feels absolutely huge, which is a welcome change. We can actually put the boxes out of sight and at least give the illusion of being moved in (until you walk into the den).

Save the Dates are mostly done and mailed. I have 26 addresses that we’re still missing. Before doing them, I’d forgotten how much work calligraphy is. I remember now. Handwriting all of the addresses took rather a long time. It’s why I ended up doing them in bursts. Matt’s going to run the last of them to the post office on Monday. Hopefully, we can get the rest of the addresses this weekend – or at least most of them anyway.

So back to the subject of the new apartment, I did mention it felt huge, yes? We’re on the top floor (the 4th) and the ceilings are extremely tall. In comparison, my last apartment was a hobbit hole. This just feels immense, in a welcome way. My television and entertainment center, however, look rather dwarfish. They were purchased for a teeny apartment. It’s a problem for another day, but I’m on the lookout for ready, cheap solutions furnishings-wise. We’ll figure something out. In the meantime, I’ll cheat by finding an extremely tall fake plant to put on top of it or something (not really). The cat, who is adapting quite nicely, would eat the plant. I’m sure of it.

Last, but not least, we had our engagement pictures taken on our speed trip to Colorado last weekend. She’s already finished with them – all 182. The session was a blast – Tattered Cover bookstore right across from Union Station. We used both locations and the pictures are great. Denver’s LoDo lent itself nicely and Ashley Davis, our photographer, is fabulous. We enjoyed ourselves and you can tell in the photos. I’m laughing in nearly all of them. Now, we have to pick out a handful for our various needs. It was a good experience and I’m quite glad we chose her for our wedding. I can’t wait.

Aches, Save the Dates, rings, and Tylenol

Tammy — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:21:36 +0000

In the midst of work being insanely busy, moving, trying to finalize wedding plans, and everything else, my back decided to act up. This time last year, it did something similar that resulted in me having a microdiscectomy last May. Unlike last year, I got an MRI right away. All signs point to “normal,” but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. I’m hoping that this time, I’ll be able to have physical therapy versus losing mobility. Last year, I ended up barely able to walk. I’m sincerely hoping that this year is very different. I’m banking on the MRI results truly being “normal.”

I spent the last weekend in a lot of pain and did a fair amount of sleeping. Needless to say, the Save the Dates didn’t go out. I’m going to get them done and out this weekend. I did manage to go try on my dress and pick a bridesmaid dress that all the bridesmaids actually like. I consider that a major accomplishment.

On the downside of things, my rings came back from the shop and we tried to pick them up last night. While the wedding band looked good, my engagement ring was flattened on one side and very thin where the split had been. Dixie, who helped us last night and every other time we’ve been in, was just as bothered as I was and made arrangements for the ring to be fixed at another shop. She commented that she would be talking to the Kay Jewelers District Manager and the District Repair Manager. I hope she does. It’s sad that we’ve had these problems and it really shouldn’t have happened. If it weren’t for her being genuinely helpful and concerned, I’m sure I’d be pretty irritated at this point. Good customer service carries a lot of weight.

So, all told, things are good despite my back and carrying a large bottle of Tylenol everywhere I go. I’ll feel better when the Save the Dates and the move are done this weekend. I think I’ll take an afternoon off later this month just to recuperate from the craziness and enjoy our additional 300 square feet.

It’s been a busy week

Tammy — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:12:37 +0000

Let’s see. In the past week, I’ve gotten my finished Save the Dates (which look great!), split the band on my engagement ring, scheduled my first dress fitting, and scheduled time to pick out bridesmaid dresses (with at least two of my bridesmaids).

Let’s talk about the ring, shall we? My fiancé bought the ring in Michigan but the warranty includes resizing, etc through the Kay Jewelers family of stores. So, that’s where we went. We took the rings in to be sized in early January and two and half weeks later, they were ready. When we picked them up, the engagement ring looked fine, but the wedding band had a nick in it that looked like someone had hit it with a screwdriver blade. When I pointed it out, they took it back to be “buffed out,” but when that didn’t fix it, they swapped it out. No problem, seemingly, and no issues. Less than a week later, I’m fiddling with my ring and my nail catches on the back of the band. I look and the band is split all the way through. My nail had caught on the split. When I took off the ring, the band didn’t even look circular anymore. Back to the store.

The woman who assisted us before seemed genuinely horrified at the band splitting. The gentleman who helped us suggested that the soldering had split. The ring, obviously, is back in for repairs and reshaping. I asked how they would fix it and he said they could fix it via soldering. Hopefully, that’s true. I’ll definitely be checking it carefully. It bothers me that we’ve already had to take advantage of the warranty twice and I’ve been able to wear my ring for less than a week. Blah.

A week in review and some geeking

Tammy — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 09:00:28 +0000

My week can best be summed up by the phrase “insanely busy.” Somehow in the midst of incredibly long, non-stop days at work, I managed to squeeze in a little bit of wedding planning – still finishing up music details and a few other things. Next project is bridesmaids dresses. I need to get that ball rolling.

For now, I’m simply happy to have survived. I’ll worry about things I still need to do tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m playing around with Bing’s recipe niftiness. Type in an ingredient and get a recipe. Clever and definitely a cool search enhancement. Bing is definitely making a play. They’re additions are clever and really showcase the power of intelligent search.

And in unrelated news, I really want one of these.