Pomanders.

So yea, the things at our house...


Debi and I made them from these:


Colorful cakes:




We had our invitation meeting, it was pleasant. I hope to get a draft of at least our Save The Dates while we're in Japan....

oh, and I apparently have to go to AP and Baby business meetings ;_; help me to pick what to wear.....

Oh Furniture...

Will you ever stop tempting me? Oh Eames. Despite how much rob hates molded plastic, I cannot help but want you in my life.


And will you, perfect desk of mine, ever look less appealing? In addition to the Eames Eiffel chair, your colorful slots and walnut finish - how I long to put my computers on you and look like I'm working.


And what of you bed that is in all the photos for Amenity Bedding? You are not for sale, you are one of a kind made by the co-owner of the bedding company. Completely out of reach and yet you're the only bed I really want right now.

The only thing I love more than all these.... are these images of the Orla Kiely Flagship Store London. Two of my favorite things together - mid century furnishings... and orla kiely patterns




So many things I love.

But nothing quite as much as listening to Nat King Cole completely butcher Spanish. Who ever thought it would be wise to allow him to record albums in a language he cannot at all pronounce with any grace?


oh yea, and we have our catering meeting tomorrow to decide what we want to have available.... we chose our caterer based on the food, the communication, and the fact that they believe food should taste good and just sit down and eat, rather than bite sized tiny things with lots of random fusion that doesn't taste good and just sounds good. Oh yea, and they're local, all organic, and seasonal.

so far:

• refresher bar with lemonade, two kinds of fresca, and horchata. Alcohol available to add? NO BAR!
  
• Popsicle available at some point, probably during the play time after dinner.
  
• Family style meals (both pork and fish on the table) with vegan options for our friends that don't eat meats. And steak for my grandfather.
  
• Dessert other than cake available.
  
• Food and drinks on arrival and available throughout.
  
• Discuss the passed hors'doerves options, salads, pastas... cheese plate?
  

Anything else? rentals, but that's all for me and rob to sit around and mull over.. ;_;

Wedding Ideas

They're all slowly coming together. I dragged R down to the living room floor and we wrote out a bunch of ideas and sent them to Grace. She gave us her input and I think things are coming together slowly...

we still need to write down more ideas and questions for the caterers. But that all will come out this coming week at our meeting!

Spring!

Spring is coming, as proof by the ranunculus that I so love. They're like roses, except when they bloom fully they aren't hideous - they are layer upon layer of petals, little balls of petals. I also love dahlias and peonies... none of which are in season for my wedding.

Rob and I won this vintage teak table on ebay the other day, I'm really excited about it... worried it won't come before we leave Japan in which case we'll have to ask someone to stay and wait for it the day it is expected to arrive. Someone will be taking care of old-man-buns and lychee anyway, so it isn't that much more, right? Well, maybe it is.... our rug came today too, the other one was sent away because it had a pee like stain on it (uh, nasty!) As did my wedding glasses. Yea, wedding glasses.... with blue on them (that's right! something blue....)

So my wedding planning is coming together slowly. Our catering meeting got pushed back until the 20th and invitations until the 25th. So we'll be busy in the upcoming two weeks before going to Japan. We're actually starting to discuss the layout of the wedding and activities, so it's getting a little more hectic in the trying to work things out.

I need table runners - very very very long ones. If one of you seamstresses is willing to help out - I'll give you... wedding gown preservation, envelope stuffing, lolita wardrobe dry cleaning free... anything you want! I'm also going to be buying paper parasols for the wedding most likely, so if you want some, let me know. That means if you are having an outdoor wedding before or after, you can have/borrow/split the cost with me. ^_^

Colors and Themes

Rob and I are not having a huge theme that is going to dominate the wedding, but we wanted some elements to tie the whole thing together.

Rob and I live a very vintage/retro lifestyle, filling our already period-styled home with vintage furniture and kitchenware. We wanted to extend that part of our lives into our wedding, the vintage dress without a veil, feather hairpins and casual atmosphere. We're looking at vintage birdcages to hold cards and nests on our tables as a cute holder for candy eggs.... I'm a candy fiend! Grass will be our main table element as the venue itself is absolutely gorgeous and lush with greenery, we don't feel the need to really take away from that with huge floral elements.

grass green, deep rich chocolate browns, with accent raspberry are our colors, birds and a casual day-at-the-park feel is how we'd like the whole event to play out.


This all ties into the fact that I desperately want those nests from Williams Sonoma. Badly.

Ebay Addiction

Rob and I won a new coffee table on ebay the other day, we're glad to finally be getting rid of our ikea "placeholder" table that ended up staying with us for a full year. I'll post photos when it's finally here and settled in to its new home.

Appointments.

Our meeting with Lisa from Good on Paper was pushed back until the 25th. It's too bad, I was really looking forward to it! We intend to bring our papillon with us to play with her boston terrier, which will be more fun than designing our invitations I'm sure!

I forgot to mention that we did meet with Nancy Liu Chin and she was a huge ball of bubbly energy, I had a hard time keeping up! I'm really shy, so I got a little lost, but she's a total sweetheart and I really have a lot of faith in her designs. I've been in love with them since the moment I started planning. I need to reply to her email, but Rob and I have been behind with taxes coming up and having bought our home last year, there are a lot of things we need to work out.

We have our rental and menu meeting with Rising Sun on the 20th, which I'm also nervous about because of my shyness, but I really love Heather and I feel we have a good connection. Rob is excited to be able to work with them as we really felt they understood us. Here's to hoping for good communication!


Rob and I are terrible at wedding meetings, I admit it. Between my shyness and both of us being very laid back and easy going about everything, the vendors expect a lot more from us in terms of questions and demands. We have very few, we trust people and we are easy to please. I wonder if they wish we were harder to please, or are just expecting more.

It's also hard for them to see the groom as the point of contact, rather than the bride - I always am misplacing my phone, so I rarely answer it. I'm very very shy in person and nervous on the phone anyway, so he has taken over as the point of communication to all vendors. I guess most grooms aren't as involved, but Rob and I stand as equals in our responsibilities and planning. I love him for that.

Mid-Wedding Planning Vacation

Rob and I are heading back to Japan for hanami - the cherry blossom viewing, at the end of this month. It's been months since I've been back to Japan, so my little heart aches for some time in my second-home.

We need a kick start on the planning, with most of the larger vendors already chosen and Grace working out the contracts, we're feeling the slump of overcoming major pieces and little drive to do the details. Hopefully we'll come back refreshed and relaxed, with new ideas and a drive to work out the rest of the details.

That and weight to lose because I intend to eat myself into some heavy weight gain.