I've been kissing high school boys.

This is my excuse for being vacant, I'm going to claim that my laziness and complete lack of posting is due to Mono*. It's not because I'm in the post wedding lull. It's not at all a depression based on having very few photos of the event. It's because I'm too tired to do anything other than drag my slug-like body down the hall to pour myself a bowl of cocoa puff... just enough sugar for me to surf anthropologie online and dream of the day I will have the energy to go and buy more cardigans.

I had PTWS (just like Mr. Monkey's description) and forced poor Mr. GB to go into the garage and paint our placeholder dining room table's legs. I say placeholder because we do intend to get something nice. but until we can, I couldn't look at the plain legs and be satisifed... well, when had PTWS. Ask me now and I'll sniff dirty socks and think "oh.. not so bad... I can wear these if only I can avoid laundry one more day..."



What's that I see? Thank you cards. We're on top of this, I swear. I did a whole 5! During our 3 days of activity, I managed to gocco our thank you cards and buy a few more just in case some of the gocco ones looked like our dogs did them. They did, actually, we've forced them into slave labor as well.


You can see by how unorganized the living room is that we're starting to decay as humans. Note the paper source bag from the fillmore store since we're boycotting the berkeley one. The dreamcast, currently right side up, although it doesn't play unless it's upside down anymore... and the huge PILE of dog toys. People, please stop giving these to us, they don't need any more!!!!


I bought the two on the left from etsy! I adore etsy!
We leeched the labeling idea from the most recent MS weddings.
and my gocco cards, albeit amateur and less impressive than what the average toddler can do (again, I'm going to claim the dogs did it) is the pattern of our rug. Because I love our rug THAT MUCH.

I bet you were hoping for more photos of the wedding. Me too. Until then, I'm going to go back to pretending I'm dead and shaking my fist at xbox katamari. Why is this one so freakin' hard?!

*I don't have mono, nor have I been kissing high school boys. I've just been licking the rims of every used cup I see.

What?! No Stems?!

That's right, no stems. We opted for simple water tumbler glasses and the reidel 'o' stemless glasses. Not only because I tend to feel like I'm about to pour whatever liquid happens to be in my stemmed glass all over myself or someone's white sofa/rug/maltese puppy, but because I wanted to go for a more relaxed feel at the table. That and with all the fist shaking after particularly vicious battles of tetris between courses, we felt that even trying to pretend we were sophisticated delicate wine drinkers would just be a thinly veiled sham, we admit it. We prefer juice.

Anyway, Mr. GB really really wanted twig flatware, so he got his wish. I think it tied the branch centerpieces + nest placecard holders together really well. Maybe even with the chivari chair bamboo-y-wood thing they have going on too. I could just be lying to myself that we actually thought about all this beforehand and I really AM that stylish and detailed. Yes!

Seeing as it was just over a week ago, I still don't have photos - but thankfully my cousin took some photos of the table settings for us! Thanks Ellen!


Less is more! Less is cheaper! ahem... less is more!


I think using the nests as placecard holders worked out fairly well. Some of them stood up better than others. Some of them came home with us, some people took theirs, and some of them went home with two korean women who raped the table of all things not tied down until their bags were full. Seriously, there was a stack of about 5 nests that could not be fit, so there they were left on the table, a tower of sad, discarded, unstealable nests.

Now the remaining 50 or so nests are in a box, lined up nicely so they don't get tangled, by the front door. Sadly ignored because I'm finishing Phantom Hourglass and Mr. GB is thoroughly engrossed in Puzzle Quest. Bejeweled with Skeletons, that game, and stealer of my husband's soul. I imagine we may get around to selling them, otherwise, burning them in a wedding bonfire that will coincide with some kind of nervous breakdown.


This is unrelated to the tablesetting choices, I had to post this photo because it's cute.

thanks for the picture, tiff & jason!

It's a secret.

I wanted to wait until I had professional photos of all the flowers at the wedding.
But I can't resist, I had to post SOMETHING about them!

I had no ideal bouquet, no dream flowers, hell, I barely know the names of flowers. Carnations what? Isn't that condensed milk? When I went to meet with our floral designer, I was so confused, I didn't have a clue what was going on. I gave a list of flowers I know that I like, most of which are unavailable in October: Ranunculus, peonies, and dahlias. While dahlias do exist, they apparently aren't very resilient. :(

After nailing down every other decision, it came down to the bouquet - I found these two inspirations and emailed them over:


image from michelle rago ltd


image from inspiration queen rebecca thuss

I loved the colors, the soft whites into the soft muted pinks, mauve and warm purples. The addition of the uneven foliage, the difference in the kinds of blooms used and the way they were all put together helped to create that natural, freshly picked look.

She sent us information on what flowers she was using, but uh.... I have no imagination for how they would be put together. I was so overwhelmed, (who knows how to spell the scientific names of orchid families by heart so to look them up...??!?!) so I said "I just trust you." After a frantic phone call from the flower mart saying she found ranunculus and got them for me (whee!) I otherwise didn't know what was in it.


Sometimes, when you see someone's portfolio and know they are good and just don't have any clue what you want, it's good to step back and just put your faith in them. I did, and it was perfect.


image by floral designer... I'll give you her name later, silly!


to be continued when we have our professional photos...

It almost didn't happen...

It's true. If you are in Northern California, the rain on Friday was pouring! We had to be begged to come out through tears and the possibility of rain cancellation, traffic, heavy rain... probably the most convincing part was listening to our coordinator roll around on the lawn to prove that if we had mats and blankets, the rain wouldn't soak through, so we COULD have our lawn games.

Well, that and Mr. GB bought me these to cheer me up:


After two hours of driving and frustration, we arrived as the rain was stopping. We unpacked, decompressed, then head to our hotel with four of our friends to begin the last minute cookie crafting. I love them, after several hours with some of my favorite people, we were rolling around on the ground in good spirits, knowing that even if it poured, at least we'd have been talking about the two momos (that's our loving nickname for our mormon friends) competition of bow tying cookies faster than the 4 of us combined!!!! After threats and growling, we had 400 cookies wrapped and ready to go!


So how did it end up? Well, we don't have our professional photos for another two months, but we have proof from a few snaps here and there.




with that... what do you want to hear about during that 2 months of waiting for my real photos? I don't want to dry up into a shriveled blogless prune for two months! Is there anything you'd like to hear about the planning that I didn't cover that you've been DYING to know about? Or details about the day? Or about my WILD adventure with two manicures in a day?!

or should I just stuff a sock in it?

Feathers and Quills?

So I'm stepping back a little and showcasing some finished work that we had done for the wedding I didn't get a chance to write about before.

I know I got my ceremony pin from k.autumn from relish at home, but one is never enough, so I asked her to make me something completely new and different, nothing like she'd ever made before. Being awesome and sweet, she obliged and shortly after our meeting presented me with this.



A mix of vintage stones, laces, and dyed feathers, this one was by FAR Mr. GB's favorite pin. I was completely blown away by how wonderful this pin was. We had talked a bit and looked at sample pieces, but I really wasn't expecting something this pretty to come of it. I know, I go on and on, but really, it IS pretty darn special!


And next, our calligraphy for the wedding was finished! We had a piece missing and another misspelled, but they were overnight rushed to us, so it was all ok! I had never thought about it, but I guess calligraphers keep a few pieces just in case! Rebecca's calligraphy is so unique, it really worked well with the feel of the whole event.



you can almost make out the menu... almost!

I'm beat!

The wedding is over!

Mr. GB said it felt so short, but I felt like it took forever to start, but we still didn't have time to set everything up perfectly. We were planning on setting up Friday, but it was pouring rain.

We had our complaints, but overall things went really well and we were glad to see after the music had stopped and vendors were packing up, a lot of our friends were still sitting on the lawn playing games and laughing. We wanted people to be able to go whenever they wanted, but were happy to see people staying because they wanted to relax on the grass and hang out.

Despite the hiccups, the feel of it was exactly what we wanted it to be!



I'm sitting in my messy ass living room with the pups drained, eating cake and trying to let it wash over me, but I'll be back, I promise~!

Odastyle Tempations.

Remember how I had my dress anxiety, but in the midst of the horrors, we discovered Odastyle? We already knew they were sweet, super nice, amazingly talented girls... but how much? Well, they gave me something totally unexpected:


How totally amazing are these? They are the sweetest girls, and now these pins are just the most darling things ever! I'm really speechless and can't say enough about how gorgeous they are!! If you are looking for a custom made anything at all, they can do it! My rambling can't even come close to describing how great they are. Hell, if you're in the bay area and you want to see them, I'll meet you in a dark alley and let you look at them in person. That's how totally impressed I am and how convinced I am that you will be calling them begging to get something uniquely YOU made!

I'm so close to making Mr. GB go out and buy a glass display case so I can showcase all the ridiculously amazing works of art that I've received for my wedding. Screw the wedding, I'm just going to have an art show.


PS - does anyone have a nail salon they can recommend for amazing cuticles and possibly a tip? My nail broke in a horrible-owie-bleedy place and it won't grow to a normal length before the wedding, I'm sure, so any recommendations for somewhere to get that fixed and make my fingers look like they haven't been crafting for 18 months would be much appreciated! (both frou frou and hole-in-the wall recommendations welcome!)

We've got good news... and bad news....

Which do you want first? Ok, we'll start with the good because it makes for pretty pictures, and we all know that pretty pictures is what makes you guys come back day after day. (That and the hope that Mr. GB will write that Japan guide for you, and he will, but probably after the wedding)

I'm feeling a little blah today, I took a nap on the couch promptly after waking up, and Mr. GB left with the dogs to take them to the butt-fluff trimmers. He walks in, totally lacking that nap-time quiet and boisterously flung open the living room french doors, gigantic package to match his equally gigantic grin. He tells me that the UPS man was joking with him this morning, about how there hasn't been a day when he has to drive up our street that he hasn't had a package for us.... we're sad that after the wedding all he'll be delivering is the occasional anthropologie package. By occasional, I mean weekly. We slowly cut the tape around the package and open it up to reveal... my dream wedding package.



Yes, that's 20 birds and a cake topper from Ann Wood! I love Mr. GB for managing to order these for me, after so long of writhing on the floor in desperate want of these birds, we have them! My photos really don't do them justice, so I'll post the images that Ann Wood sent to us herself. Even her own photos don't show how cute they are!


the whole group of them!


closeup of the topper

I know, how could anything go wrong after this? What is the bad news?

RAIN.

It looks like it may rain on or before the day of the wedding, which is just really really bad since we have no indoor options and the rain contingency would be ridiculously expensive! If it rains before, the grass will be sopping wet and lawn games and picnics would be right out. :(

Pray for good weather everyone!! Oh, and if you are mad scientist who has plans for world domination with a weather machine, I promise you my first born if you keep the rest of october sunny and bright!

Wedding Bag for Gamer Girls!

I know, I know, I bought a clutch already. But then I got hooked on Phantom Hourglass and neeeeed my DS with me. So I wanted to get something to hold it! I present you with the perfect portable gaming wedding clutch!



Hell Yes. Now I can bring my games with me in STYLE, hiding my shame in a satin bag from the few attendees that don't know I'm a hideous game freak, sitting in my own several day filth slashing on a screen in anguish over not being able to control my boomerang properly. If it weren't for the new GODLY Whole Foods around the corner, I'd be eating a lot of disgusting food on top of that. Seriously, the new Whole Foods in Oakland is freakin' amazing and in a really neat building. If you live in the area, go and gorge yourself on overpriced fruit (but it's SO neatly stacked!) and a lot of falsely healthy soups. "it comes from whole foods... that cheesecake HAS to be good for me!"


I admit the bag is plain on the front, but I don't have a ridiculous collection of stupid pins and random bits and pieces here for nothing. If I am feeling crafty, which we know I never am, I will probably floof it up. I do appreciate the stripey, vaguely nautical waspy fabric on the inside!

Gamer girls who know that you will bored at your own wedding and want to ignore your husbands blah blahing about whatever you're eating, bring your entertainment stylishly in your bag and still have room for your lip gloss! ...or an exploded slightly melty bag of skittles like I will undoubtedly have in mine!

ps. someone asked where I got that bird necklace from - it's 'Alex and Monroe' just fyi!

Relish your home.

You've seen the photos, you saw it in martha stewart weddings and all the design blogs. K. Autumn's hair pins.

The only thing you don't know is that Kelly of K. Autumn is possibly one of the nicest people on the planet. I'm lucky enough to live close by her shop, Relish at Home, in Berkeley. I stopped in, wanting to pick up the latest j. mendicino vase, and I mentioned I was getting married and saw her pin. Within seconds I had a handful of feathers and pins in my hand and were talking about the process of getting one made. Since I'm local, I was able to hand pick my beads and rhinestones, feel the feathers, and, best of all, work with Kelly personally!

So here is her hard work:

the color is a little different, sorry!

It's a gorgeous raspberry color and absolutely stunning! I'm really excited to have been able to work with her on this!

If you live in the SF bay area, stop by Relish at Home, she just remodeled and it's cuter than ever! If you are even considering getting a pin, Kelly is amazing and you won't be able to resist getting one after you see one in person.

my hands hate me.

I'm a slave driver. I'm forcing last minute crafts into my schedule of work and meetings like nobody's business... well, except yours, of course! Well, like all the rest of us and our envy of Mrs. Plumeria's awesome palmier idea, we wanted to offer something as a snack upon arrival! It's been tough to keep Mr. GB from eating the cookies!!! I think an electronic remote collar with zapping on his neck will work.

Cookie Belts!

yes, the bear are for our "special" friends... points if you are so geeky to know who he is!

We have been printing and cutting these leisurely while watching Daily Show or the Office, so it's been slow going on getting them ready. I think we'll keep the tradition of doing these at a slow pace while watching tv as to trick Mr. GB into doing more crafts while he's "resting". Not that I don't have a bunch of wood that I need him to cut for me this week.... don't ask.

Am I done crafting? I think so, but I forget. This is how busy we are, I don't even know how busy anymore!

You couldn't leave well enough alone...

Nope, you had to go and throw more craft on your plate. Yes yes, we did. The past few days have been the busiest most appointment filled days of our lives. I still couldn't leave Mr. GB just standing there to play Halo 3 all day, I set him to work and, of course, did some myself.

Cake. So we wanted to make sure people could take their cake home if they were too stuffed to eat it there. 4"x4"x4" white boxes, a bunch of brown bags, a gocco set, and some food-grade waxed tissue later... and we have our to-go bags ready. Macarons will also be right on the table, so people can pick those up and shove them in the to-go bags as well.




This was a small craft project and didn't take much time at all. We've been leisurely cutting the tissue paper a little every night, so it's not back breaking. Just whenever we have a few minutes to sit down and do it we do a sheet. We also did the goccoing in two sessions, so it wasn't a long all nighter. (we have nearly 400 of those apple bags, anyone? anyone?)

But I couldn't stop there. We bought flip flops for girls who were not smart enough to check the website and heed our warnings of "NO HIGH HEELS!!!!!" and also made modesty blankets for girls who might want to sit on the lawn and not worry about people seeing up their skirts. A ha! A use for the zakka ribbon!



And last, for today at least, I made our guest"book" at 2am last night. We are opting for a guest BOX because although it will be harder to flip through, we wanted to have something that was easier for guests to work with when doing the polaroid scrapbooking guestbook pages. We figure, if we want to turn it into a book one day, it'll be possible.

This is yet another story of horror from my local paper source that was already high on my list of "places I will knock down when I rule the earth". They were really unhelpful and demeaning as always:
mean girl: "you aren't going to do a lot of book binding, are you?"
me: "no, I don't think so."
mean girl: "nooOOoooOoo of course not" and she sauntered off...

later she came back and someone else was ringing us up at the register, we asked if they had another box like the one we were buying in the back.
register girl: "nope! that's the only one!"
us: "ok, thanks." - long silence -
mean girl in bitch tone: "HENCE why there was only ONE in the front."

the girl who was ringing us up had eyes that widened in horror... and waited until the other girl walked away to apologize to us for her comment.



Mr. GB and I vow that after the wedding, we will never go to that paper source again. If it weren't for our need for random crafts and its close proximity to the house, we would have already burned it down in a fit of rage.

oh, so here are the photos of the photo-book we re-covered:



It was amazingly easy. we bought the book binding glue, a foam brush and a bone presser smoother thingy, and book binding paper. We glued the fabric onto the top of the box, smoothed it out and then cut two pieces of the book binding paper, one for the back of the box, and one for the inside of the top. Folded the fabric into the box, glued and smoothed, the slapper that big piece of binding paper on there and glued that sucker on. Looked pretty good! We then used the smaller piece to cover up the frayed end on the back of the box, it's almost the same color, so barely noticeable. All in all, if you want to recover anything, I think it was a really quick and easy process and personalized out box to match the rest of the wedding overnight (to dry, that is!)

ugh, I'm going to go draw drawings of that girl being mauled and regain my sanity now.

Games Games GAMES!

As I mentioned before, Mr. GB and I decided to avoid dancing altogether and go with have a picnic style lounge area and games.

We're recommending to all our friends and family to bring their handheld games. Since Mr. GB worked in the industry and I, for some reason, only know dorks and even more game industry folk, we're expecting some serious wireless gaming. Bring your spare batteries people, we don't want any dying systems and a "well, I totally woulda won..." bullshit. Just bring it. Bring it HARD.

For our guests who aren't bringing their own gaming hardware because they suck... or are not game saavy and want to be turned onto the world of wireless gaming, the new fangled pong machines, or the glory that is loco roco.... we have extras. This is really just a symbol of what consumer whores we are, how easily suckered we are by the marketing term "limited edition" and how much pink is integrated into our lives.


Ok, fine, if they really are unable to get into the idea of beeps and boops and lights on a screen, then we are having other more analog options:
We've got croquet, lawn bowling, and badminton... and for board games we picked up Cranium, Scrabble, Apples to Apples, Set, Chess, Checkers, Uno, Scattergories, and you know, some cards. I plan on thoroughly destroying Mr. GB is Scrabble like I always do, further ruining his manly image in front of all his family and friends. I like to set a good tone for our future together by beating him in all games.

Are there any game essentials we're missing?