Sunday, April 18, 2010

Sunday Morning Dancing



Mom, please excuse the crude language, it's funny!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

2 Weeks to Go!

What a ride this week has been! My first few days of work were busy, but exciting. I was more exhausted after each day than I thought I would be, so this weekend is a catch-up for me. My mom and step-father are coming in next week so our tiny apartment needs so major cleaning up!
It is already 6:30pm on Saturday and I haven't done anything except nap and get a massage, you can tell the pressure is really getting to me, ha! But seriously, even though there are still some imperative things to do for the wedding, my excessive planning has really helped me get to a place in these last two weeks where I am not pulling my hair out or yelling at everyone *pat myself on the back*...well, at least for now!
Our photographer and I are meeting this next Wednesday to do a walk-though of the venue, which I'm pretty thrilled about! Photography has always been important to me and I have full confidence in her! I know that I had shared a few pictures of hers before, but here are a few more that she shared with me.

I really like the angles she finds and the light she uses. Her website is http://www.stephmphoto.com/
just in case you want to see more of her work!

I guess the big things to do still are the table seating chart and rentals for the rehearsal dinner and wedding.
There are a lot of little things to do like making the boutonnieres, printing up table number cards, double-checking appointments, and paying vendors, but overall, I'm feeling good!

I just checked the 10 day forecast and it says it will stay in the 60's until the Monday before, but I think that is a good sign, since it has been dipping up and down in temperature. Hopefully by the date, it will be on the upswing and we will get a 75 degree day, like we have had in this past week. 

Boutonnieres are next on my list of little things and here are a few ideas I have been going on:

This last one makes me laugh! I like that it uses the moss, which has obviously been a theme of mine. I also have some dried moss left over from the nest project, so maybe I will take a trip to Michael's and let it see where it takes me with the rest of the project!
Which one is your favorite?


Friday, April 9, 2010

Craft Night a.k.a Heather and Mairead beat Etsy

The last two days have gone by fast, but as you will see from the last post, I have gotten a lot done. We went downtown and got our marriage license yesterday! I guess that means in the state's eyes we are married, so to celebrate we got cheap mexican food, took a tour of the new building I will be working in, and rock climbed for 3 hours.


My office is in the black, square building in each of these pictures. It is right on the river and is cornered by the Wrigley building and the Tribune Tower. To say that I am thrilled is an understatement!

After our adventurous day, we headed over to Sham and Mairead's to finish up a few projects, which I wanted to share.

Project #1: Paper Flowers for the Seating Table Board

These suckers took way more time than we ever thought they would, but they were worth it once we saw the final product. 
Pretty much, the packet contained a lot of paper, wire, florist tape, and instructions.


From there, we cut out petal patterns and glued the wire onto the backs of all of the petals. Each flower had 5 small and 5 large petals, meaning that for three flowers, we did this 30 times! Don't be fooled by this post, either. We did all of the prep work last Sunday to get to the assembling last night!

After you have all of the petals, you bunch the petals and wrap them in floral tape for the stems.


(Don't mind the white marking behind him, not a part of the flower!)

Again the reason we assembled this gigantic paper flowers was to attach to the seating table chart board, which leads me into the next project:

Project #2: Seating Table Chart Board

The only supplies needed are:
Big piece of cardboard( we had some left over from a package that was shipped to us)
Hot glue gun
Fabric

Pretty self-explanatory, but really worth it compared to buying the same thing.


I only bought enough fabric to cover the front of the board, which save me about $10.


I pretty much just wrapped it like a present and glued.

10 minutes later....



Done! 


I will be assembling the flowers onto the board closer to the wedding, simply for storage purposes. 

Last, but not least with our projects, I saw a ring holder that I really liked on Etsy, but it just seemed like too much money for what it was. Then, I remember my trip to Michael's, and the fact that I had seen all of the items necessary to make what I wanted. Not only was it cheaper, but it took less time to make than for me to get online and order one.


Project #3: Bird's nest ring-bearer

Supplies:



Ribbon, Moss, bird's nest, and a hot glue gun

Cost: $8.50, without glue gun


I glued the moss into the center of the nest, then strung the ribbon through the sides of the nest.


From there, I glued the ribbon into place and let it all dry.



Now, we have a nice little place to tie our rings for transportation in the ceremony. 


*A note on this project. We aren't having a ring bearer or flower girl, but we are doing a ring warming ceremony, where we will ask all of our guests to pass the rings in this nest from person to person in order to bless them or say something thoughtful over them before we give them to each other.

Today and tomorrow are promising to be busy days, so I better get started!





Monday, April 5, 2010

Let the Countdown Begin!

Just wanted to share our list of things to do, as it stands. The list is still in the works, but overall, I'm feeling good about it:

April 2010 Itinerary for Asaadi Wedding


Week 1: April 4th-10th
By Wednesday, the 7th:
Have packet for traveling guests completed
Figure out what is needed and where to go for marriage license
Turn in cake topper, rest of payment, and color swatch to Tipsy Cake
Write thank you notes for early gifts
Make sure all groomsmen are aware of suit fitting deadline and make sure pick-up is arranged
Check in on all non-RSVPd guests
Have rough draft for Kevin by Wednesday night. Heather will type up, if Jonathan sends out verses


Thursday or Friday:
GO GET MARRIAGE LICENSE!
Finalize pictures and survey for photographer, ask to meet again
Call Florist, make changes to flowers, send in their check
Print out pdf and instruction card of tree

By Saturday, the 10th:
Meet with Asaadi parents for overview of day
Meet with Mairead, have detailed itinerary prepared for all members


Week 2: April 11th-17th
Trail makeup and hair/ bridal portraits on Sunday, 11th
Send in $ for florist
Check in on dress, make payment for alterations
Make arrangements for grass centerpiece pick-up


Week 3: April 18th-24th
Make ipod playlist for both rehearsal dinner/ ceremony
Finalize number for rehearsal dinner list
check on chair rentals for rehearsal dinner
Look for frames for prints on guest table
Finalize rental order with Classic Party Rentals


Week 4: April 25- May 1st
buy napkins, plates, cups, utensils for rehearsal dinner
Make up table seating chart, attach to board
Make marshmallows Wednesday night
Order rehearsal dinner food(Wednesday)
Costco trip for beer, rehearsla dinner flowers
Pre-assemble centerpieces
gather all items in seperate boxes for each table at the reception


This weekend was quite productive, thanks to our ever so helpful friends, Sham and Mairead. Together, we assembled all of the cute little boxes for our favors.
Of course, our stickers will look a little different than the one in the pictures, but those are coming in the mail soon!

We also started to assemble paper flowers for the table seating chart board. You wouldn't think they would take so long, but man, what a labor of love!

The blogs will be coming more frequently, as this is the power month to get all the little things done!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

One year older, One month to go


Before I get to the beef of this next post, I had to share this picture. If you are not familiar with our childenz, this is our bad cat, Boo. We have a very pretty and sweet cat named Lady, of whom this pink little dress belongs to. When Lady was smaller she loved to wear her dresses. Yes, she has more than one.
One of my favorite stories of this was when I was studying abroad a dear friend of ours was looking after Lady and when I had originally passed lady off to her, I included Lady's dresses. My friend thought it was bizarre at the time, but a month into me being gone a got an email letting me know that she had gotten Lady into her dress, saw that she actually does strut around in it, and let her loose OUTSIDE in it!  FOR MULTIPLE DAYS!
I can't imagine what the neighbors thought when they saw a cat prancing around in a pink dress.
Anyways, back to Boo. Boo hates having the dress on, hence the tortured look on her face. However, it is just too tempting to not put it on her from time to time.

Tangent accomplished! So, it was my birfday yesterday and a great one, at that! I received flowers not once, but three times by some really great people in my life!


These were from Richard and mom. They were so big and so beautiful! 
Jonathan tied a bouquet to my bike with twine while I was at work, along with a very sweet note. I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but when it's my birthday I revert back to little kid mode of ripping packaging as fast as I can.
Missy was also a peach and brought me a latte and a bouquet of flowers, so much freakin love!

Lunch was also really great and will probably make anyone that is not me or Jonathan want to throw up in their mouths a little bit from how cute it was!
We went on a picnic, since the weather was in the 70s, which is a miracle since it was 30 the day before. Picnics are particularly special because of one we went on in a row boat at Versailles, but that is another story in itself.



We mimicked this original spread and we seated ourselves under the tree we are getting married under. *AWWWWWW*
Jonathan also bought me a cupcake with the most frosting on it, ever.



A little unflattering, but a great segway into another wedding plan that we have in mind. 
Notice the guy walking on the sidewalk behind the fence? This is pretty much the way that our guests will be facing and it would be great if our wedding pictures didn't have a bunch of random passerby's hanging out when we are exchanging rings. So, we have asked a few family members to bring quilts to hang on the fence! When I say a few, I mean 15, but that isn't too many considering my grandma is an avid quilter and a few of my aunts have closets full of them.



This was actually the picture that inspired me with the quilts. I think they will create a nice amount of privacy and also add a nice home-grown feel to the wedding.

Back to the birthday... It ended with a nice evening of dinner and drinks with friends. Friends that were all so nice and gave very sweet and thoughtful gifts, even though they really shouldn't have. 



Jonathan also made a cake for the occasion, as seen behind the chair in the above picture and in the below picture. He bought me a potted hydrangea bush, too, which I am a little bit in love with!



(compliments of Mairead's flickr!)
Overall, a perfect birthday. It was also the last night before he moved over to Sham and Mairead's for April. It is hard not to be a little bummed out, even though I will still see him everyday. However, I was thinking of making it more of a project month for me. April is sure to fly by quickly, now that the wedding is only 30 days away!
I need to write an email to our friend who is DJing for us, as we are starting to set out a playlist for the entire night. 
I will leave you with what we think will be our first dance, goodnight!