To-do list for this week/weekend

1. Meet with officiant re: vows again.
2. Finalize seating chart.
3. Work on signage for bar, cupcake table, buffet table, candy buffet, gift table.
4. Work on escort cards and room map.
5. Buy alcohol.
6. Decide where we're buying pumpkins.
7. Buy parent gifts.
8. Buy candy for candy buffet.
9. Practice corset lacing with MOH.
10. Send out rehearsal dinner invitations.
11. Decorate cupcake tree (this might have to wait until next weekend!).
12. Wash and decorate candy jars.

I'm sure there are about 80 other things I'm forgetting at the moment. Here we go!!

Invitations to Printer: Check! Plus, other random tasks

I'm so happy to report that we sent the invite files to the printer yesterday and dropped off the black paper this morning before work. Hooray! That is such a weight lifted. We were ecstatic after uploading the files yesterday.

Also, the printer has already sent us a PDF proof of our invite. That was fast! The owner told Mr. T that they were in a lull at the moment, so the printing might only take about 2 weeks. Hooray! That means, if we have some time to spare, that we can consider doing custom postage through Zazzle or a site like that, to coordinate with our invitations. If we use the post office's postage, we're stuck with some not-so-thrilling options, but we'll suck it up if we have to. I just wish they'd updated the Edgar Allen Poe stamps with the new rate...sigh.

This weekend we also accomplished a few other wedding tasks:

• We made our registries live on our wedsite. We haven't added flatware yet, but we can do that later.
• We tried two more rehearsal dinner options. This is turning out to be much more challenging than finding the wedding venue! To summarize, the Vietnamese place closest to our venue sucks, so we're looking at opening our search to restaurants without private rooms.
• We purchased a custom return address stamp from Etsy.
• We booked our hotel room for our wedding night, plus our photographer's hotel room for two nights.
• We ordered our cupcake stand (cardboard, to be painted and adorned by us).
• We purchased gifts for my bridesmaid and MOH as well as our officiant.
• I purchased a wedding band for Mr. T from an online jeweler...luckily we can return it to the company if he hates it.
• We purchased envelopes for our invitations, with extras for thank you notes. We also decided that lining the envelopes wasn't worth the hassle, so that's another thing off my list.
• We put some thought into our first dance and decided what we're going to do (but I'm not telling!)
• I scheduled my first dress fitting for this Friday! This is when I try on the muslin version. After that they order the fabric and get to work!
  

Phew! Only another 120 things to go!

145 Days to Go and OMG, We Have So Much To Do

I finally joined The Knot because they had some articles on Halloween weddings I wanted to read. The articles weren't really worth it, it turns out.

I had to put in our wedding date as part of my registration and I got an automatically generated checklist. These are the things we haven't done, and many of them are overdue according to The Knot:

• Make sure to insure your engagement ring. [We do need to do this. We also need renter's insurance. Sigh.]
• Decide on and meet with your officiant to discuss ceremony structure. [We've emailed some stuff, but no real discussions yet.]
• Brides: Start shopping for bridesmaid dresses. [Actually, the MOH and I are going to visit the other bridesmaid in LA this weekend for girl fun and dress shopping! I can't wait, it's going to be such a fun little trip.]
• Register for your wedding gifts, and don't forget to include some choices appropriate for your upcoming bridal shower as well. [GAH. No progress. We decided to register at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, but aside from agreeing that we need new knives, we don't know what to register for.]
• Brides: Decide on the bridesmaid dresses. [See above...maybe we'll get that done this weekend, or maybe the girls will just be left to their own devices. My only stipulation is that the dresses be black, and not too short!]
• Book a baker [done], choose your wedding [cup]cake[s] design[s] [to be done], and send a deposit [done].
• Start planning the rehearsal dinner. [No luck on this front. I've researched a few places, but we've only tried one, with disappointing results. We need to get back on this. I would love a more informal dinner, like Mexican food with margaritas, but there's not much near our wedding venue/hotel. Sigh.]
• Start working on your invitation wording and design. [I am happy to report we started doing this last weekend, even though Mr. T had a cold. That's info for a separate post, though.]
• Finalize your invitation wording. [TBD]
• Finalize menu and service details with caterer. [We still need to pick a vegetarian main dish and a passed appetizer. We're not doing that until October, though, so The Knot will need to scream at us until then.]
• Order your invitations and announcements (don't forget plenty of extra envelopes). [Again, TBD. Invites will take 2-4 weeks to print after a proof is approved, so we're thinking we'll send them to the printer mid-July or so. I'm torn on the envelopes...it's tempting to just have the printer do the return addresses for us, but another part of me would love to do either black envelopes with orange lining or vice-versa. And that means ordering envelopes and doing custom liners. Hm.]
• Start thinking about flower arrangement styles you like, and figure out what flowers will be in season on your wedding day. [Well, I guess I have thought about it. But I'm not entirely sure about the seasonal thing.]
• Decide on a floral scheme, choose flowers. [Not really done. Except I'd like Fall colors, and primarily reds, burgundies, and a bit of orange.]
• Reserve tables, chairs, and/or other rental equipment you'll need (unless caterer or site is taking care of it). [Mostly this is done, but we have some stereo equipment stuff to sort out.]
• Grooms: Start looking to buy or rent tux, suit, or other formal attire. [We did start...we just didn't see much! And other plans have prevented us from going shopping again. Can you hear me hyperventilating yet? This list is a mile long!]
• Book rehearsal-dinner site. [Um, no. See above.]
• Book hotel room for your wedding night. [We haven't done this yet. I think Mr. T would like us to stay at a high-end hotel near our wedding venue, whereas I would just like it to be easy, so I want us to stay at the venue (although The Claremont is sounding mighty tempting). So we're still discussing.]
• Compile packages for out-of-town guests with hotel reservation (done) and city information, and mail them out. [Our "wedsite" gives hotel info, but no city info. I'm undecided about mailing out packets, but I suppose I could put something together...in all my free time.]
• Grooms: Decide on your groomsmen's attire. [I doubt if Mr. T has put much thought into this. He only has one groomsman, so it's a little easier. I think he'd like his brother to wear a suit, but who knows what color suit, or what color shirt, or tie!]
• Book your honeymoon flights (if not using frequent flyer miles) and make all your other travel reservations. [I'm putting this one in Mr. T's lap...the mini-moon, that is. When we take a real honeymoon trip I'll be recovered enough to help plan it. For the mini-moon I'd like relaxation, good food, and a massage or two. And some nice scenery.]
• Brides: Choose your bridesmaids' accessories (shoes, gloves, etc.) and either purchase or pass along purchasing information. [Well, my girls can pick their own shoes, and they don't need gloves!]
• Grooms: Give all of the groomsmen the information they need to buy and/or reserve their attire. [Nothing done here; see above.]
• Pick out or design a ketubah or other marriage contract required by your religion. [We don't have to worry about this one. Check!]

Note that this checklist is not everything we have to do...it's just everything we should be doing during this timeframe...next month, there will be even more items looming over us! It's feeling a little insurmountable at the moment. One thing at a time, right?

Cupcake Tasting #5

OMG, yum. We had our fifth cupcake tasting on Tuesday night. Fifth!! Believe it or not, I think Mr. T and I are done. We have at least two more vendors on our list to try, including one vegan baker that comes highly recommended, but Mr. T and I don't think we can do anymore. We need a cupcake break! Luckily, we have some good options to choose from.

We tasted carrot with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, chocolate with vanilla buttercream, lemon, and 2 red velvets, one with extra rich cream cheese frosting and one with vanilla buttercream. Unlike the other bakers we've tried, we did not have to pay for the tasting, and we also got to choose our flavors! I appreciated both of those things. The carrot was super tasty but we liked the killer carrot from one of the other bakers better. However, the other cupcakes were also great, unlike the other baker--we couldn't think of another flavor of hers that we really enjoyed! This baker's chocolate cake was moist (all of them were moist), not too rich, and the vanilla buttercream was so tasty. I loved it, and usually I'm so-so about buttercream. The lemon was nice and tangy but not too tart. The red velvet was great, and again I liked the buttercream even more than the cream cheese frosting (Mr. T liked the cream cheese). We liked that none of them were uber-sweet, also--we didn't feel sick or jittery afterwards.

Before the appointment Mr. T said, "Unless we love this place, let's just go with the other baker," (the killer carrot baker) and I agreed. After we left, we had changed our minds. We haven't officially decided, but I think we've found our cupcakery. Exciting!

Prices in comparison to the other place are about the same. The baker from Tuesday does decorations for free, while the other place charges 50 cents per cupcake for them. The big difference is the delivery and setup fee, which is a steep and unbelievable $250 from the baker we're now thinking of going with. Mr. T asked me, "Aren't cupcakes supposed to be the cheaper option?" I think what we're going to do is have a friend pick them up and set them up for us, which means we'd save that money. It's a lot to ask of a friend, but folks have offered to help, so I guess it's time to test that!

I get an official proposal from this baker next week, and then we'll decide. Hooray! Check that off the list, which is growing exponentially every day...

So, while I'm on the cupcake discussion, I found this photo on some bridal blog and thought it would be perfect for us. It's not Halloween-related, but Mr. T is a drummer, and his drumset is currently sitting unused in our front hallway. And hey, we'd save on cupcake tiers!

Good news and bad news

...but mostly good, I think.

So, our spreadsheet has been acting funny since we switched to a Mac and I've been having to fix the formulas. I finally figured out the formula for "money left to save" last night, which had said $5,000, but that didn't seem right when I did the mental math (although, with my math skills, it could've been. You're talking about the bride who added an extra "zero" onto the postage and put tax in twice as a line item). So anyway, the newly corrected Excel document now says we have a mere $2,000 left to go! That's really exciting.

The bad news is, many things are costing us more than I budgeted. For example, when I budgeted for cupcakes, I didn't budget for tier rental, decoration, or setup/delivery. Also, we budgeted for 8 hours of photography, but thinking about how that day will go, I believe it will be more like 12 hours, so we'll have to add more there. Things like that. So I don't think it's really just $2K that we need to save...I'd rather just keep throwing money in the account and figure out what to do with any leftover money later (such as...a honeymoon?).

However, even though it's a bummer that I underestimated, we do still have seven months (OMG only 7 months!!!!!!!!Yikes!!!) to save up, so I feel good about it. And I feel very good about the thought of not going into debt for our wedding. Hooray!!

Cupcake Tastings #3 and 4!

This week I've been corresponding with that vegan baker who told me she'd contact me the next time she had an order and could give me extras--remember her? Well, we went back and forth about when I could pick the extras up, and by the time we settled it, she told me the order had been canceled and therefore there wouldn't be any extras, so she totally flaked. It's like, don't you want my money?

Anyway, after the flower workshop the MOH and I had a great lunch at a little organic cafe, and then we went shopping for cupcakes! I bought cupcakes at two different places, although I only took photos of the first place's cupcakes.

Place 1:


Please excuse the smushed frosting. These were in a box, jostling around, for my walk home, so they got warm and also very friendly with each other. They were still tasty.

We tried lemon (with lemon curd filling), chocolate raspberry, chocolate, and carrot.

Carrot was by far our favorite. It had nuts in it though, which Mr. T didn't like. We also thought the "killer carrot" from the last place was better.

The lemon was my second favorite, although the curd was extremely tart and Mr. T didn't like it.

The chocolate was rich and yummy, but the cake was so flaky it fell apart as we were eating it.

The raspberry chocolate had the same flaky cake. Also, the raspberry was only in the frosting, which seemed odd to me. It wasn't a cohesive whole, I guess. Verdict? We liked the last baker better.

Place 2:



These pix are from the baker's website, since I didn't take any of my own. These look better anyway!

We only tried two of these: Gingerbread and Old-fashioned. Both of them were not as sweet as the other bakers'. It was like a more adult cupcake. I'm not sure if I liked that. It's like, if I'm going to give in and have dessert, it needs to be dessert!

The old fashioned is the one with the red coated peanut. The frosting was called a meringue but was more like marshmallow creme. Yummy and VERY messy. That wouldn't work. The cake (chocolate) was a bit dry, too.

The gingerbread had a great, rich, deep flavor, but was really dense. It didn't feel like a cupcake at all, more like a dense loaf in the form of a cupcake.

Although Mr. T and I both enjoyed the flavor of the gingerbread one, we agreed that this is not our baker. So far, cupcake tasting #2 has been the best. We have one more next week and then we agreed to take stock of where we are, although I did just get another recommendation for a (different) vegan baker. Hmm....

To-do List

On my to-do list this week:

• Finalize wedding website content, at least as much as we are able.
• Send save the date emails at least to family, so they can book hotels and flights.
• Contact more cupcakeries.
• Sign up for Weight Watchers.
• Talk to Mr. T about registries.
• Continue researching rehearsal dinner options.

And that's just wedding stuff...don't get me started on real life stuff!

I finally talked to the hotel in the marina and we don't get any special price for a room block, so I didn't book one. Our site is almost done; I just need photos of the best man and the ring bearer and we can publish it for the world to see! I also want to add more photos of us, but we have a good number up already, so I figure I can do that later.

The template is great because I can make all the updates and edits without harassing Mr. T, but it's limiting in that I can't move the pages around. Also the content is set to some extent. So, the second page has to be the photo album, which I think is dumb. That's the fun, fluff content that should come last! If I were organizing it, I would have a welcome page, then the info on the ceremony/reception, then accommodations, then registries, then the "about us" page, then info on local attractions, then the gallery. This template has the order as: 1. blog, 2. photo gallery, 3. guest book, 4. about us, 5. ceremony/reception, 6. accommodations (this was supposed to be some other page but I tweaked it to suit my purposes), 7. attendants, 8. registry. And, once we enable that page, the final page will be where folks can RSVP. Who designed this thing?

Well, I can't complain, I suppose. The price is right, and it is fairly easy to use.

Anyway, back to work!

Cupcake Tasting #2

"Tasting #2?" I can hear you all asking, "what happened to #1?"...yes, well, if you remember, we went to a cupcakery in our neighborhood some months ago and bought three cupcakes, so that was our first tasting.

Sunday, however, marked our first official tasting, with an appointment and everything. We had to pay $10 for the tasting, which I guess is not so different from that other cupcakery telling me that I could come in and buy cupcakes, but it just felt different.

We came dangerously close to missing our appointment, thanks to forgetting about Daylight Savings Time. I turned on my computer, saw the real time, and exclaimed, "holy crap, we need to leave in 15 minutes!" Luckily the traffic was on our side and we were right on time.

This bakery's name is an inadvertent Spinal Tap reference. The baker named her business, and then discovered the ST connection. It was a little disappointing, since we are ST fans, and also a little painful when she mentioned ST was before her time...ouch! Still, we liked her a lot.

We tried 9 mini cupcakes in our 45-minute slot. Mr. T and I split each of them, so we only had 4.5 minis each, and the baker assured us that it would end up being about the same amount as one slice of cake. However, you couldn't prove that by my stomach. Now, I have a sweet tooth, as I've mentioned. I thought nothing could conquer it. But at the end of our appointment, the thought of eating another cupcake was nauseating. I literally had to force myself to eat the last one. Who knew? I met my match, and its name is cupcake.

The first one we tried was the red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting. We both really liked this one. As I took the first bite I remembered that I hadn't put any lactaid pills in my purse. Ooops.


The next cupcake we tried was vanilla with vanilla buttercream frosting. Mr. T surprised me by declaring he liked the frosting better than the cream cheese. Just the other day he was telling our friends how he didn't like buttercream, but there he was at the tasting, switching sides. I liked the cookie on top but I thought the cake was unpleasantly dense. Luckily, we're not really interested in vanilla cake, so that one's crossed off, even if the frosting is not.


The next cupcake we tried was a dark chocolate with chocolate buttercream frosting. This one was yummy, but overwhelming. I think I'm just not one of those "chocolate with a layer of chocolate and some chocolate filling" type of gals. This one would be yummy with the vanilla frosting to cut the richness, though.


Cupcake #4 was the "Killer Carrot" flavor, and it was hands-down our favorite. It was carrot cake, no nuts, with vanilla cream cheese frosting and candied carrot on top. Mmmmmmm. Mr. T was raving about it.


The fifth cupcake was one of my favorites, although Mr. T was not as taken by it as I was: the pink lemonade flavor. It was just a little tart, which was a nice balance for the sweet frosting, and it was refreshing, just like real pink lemonade. And she told us that pink lemonade is lemon with pomegranate juice, which I hadn't known, so it was an educational flavor as well.


The next cupcake almost killed me. I think this is the one that made me declare I had to take a break. It was the raspberry truffle cupcake, and much like a real truffle, I didn't want to eat anything else once I was done. This one would make people keel over were it full-sized. Luckily I only had half a mini.


We passed the break by asking questions about herself and her bakery business...she is planning on opening a retail shop soon. She had originally gotten her masters in education, and whim took her completely in a different direction with her cupcake business. It's so interesting to find out how people end up where they are.

Anyway, the next cupcake was called Strawberry Blonde and was a honey cake with strawberry frosting. The "honey" referred to half the sugar being replaced by honey. I thought it was interesting, but not my fave. For this one she came up with the name before she created the cupcake!


I really liked the second to last cupcake, which was a mocha cupcake with a crazy name sorta making fun of Starbucks drink orders. I think I may have liked it mostly because the bitterness of the coffee was such a welcome change from the sugar overload I was experiencing. Mr. T didn't love it because he likes his coffee unadulterated, and for him, this did taste like a fancy coffee drink.


The final cupcake not only tested my capacity for sugar, but it was a flavor I didn't really care for--coconut s'mores. Coconut cake, chocolate ganache frosting, and homemade marshmellow creme. I liked the marshmellow the best, but I'm just not a coconut lover. It's the gritty texture (and there was grated coconut in the cake, so I got to enjoy all that grit!). The baker surprised me by declaring she also hated coconut. I thought that was funny.


She also has a cupcake tier available for rent for a very reasonable price, and it would hold all the cupcakes, so we'd only need the one. And she can make us a "big cupcake" if we wanted something to cut at the ceremony, so our cake table would look something like this, only more awesome:


She could also decorate them for Halloween for us, like so:


Which, while no Ace of Cakes, is still pretty cute.

She mentioned that there's a pumpkin flavor available in the Fall that I would love to try. I like the idea of throwing something seasonal in there.

So, our thoughts? The cupcakes were moist, her prices were good, we liked her a lot, and she's definitely a contender. Mr. T wasn't crazy about the paper cups they came in, but that was our only negative, really, aside from the sugar sickness!

Our next scheduled tasting isn't until next month, unless we want to just go buy some cupcakes at some of the other places. That one place still has not emailed me back, so I guess that takes them out of the running!

One lesson we learned is that there's no way we can schedule two tastings the same day. We'd die. I thought we should have them close together so we could compare, but really, I'll just have to take good notes, I think!

Updates...

The cupcakery with the funny website that I was lamenting for not emailing me back sent me a very nice email saying their new kitchen is currently under construction, so they couldn't do a tasting. They said I could check back with them in a few months, and also offered names of other cupcakeries for me to contact. Very nice! I forgive them the tardiness.

Of course, now one of the alternatives is not contacting me back. Sigh. Patience, patience...

Also, I did a little research and discovered that the muscle I am building between my shoulders and neck is the trapezius, and it's the row that's building them, not the pull-ups.

Cupcake Update

We have TWO tasting appointments set up!

One for this Sunday, one for 4/7. These two places hold regular tastings, so we had to fit into one of those regularly scheduled days. The baker we're seeing this Sunday charges a $10 flat fee for the tasting. The other one doesn't charge you unless you flake on them.

The vegan place emailed me to say that they don't have tastings, but the next time they had an order they'd let me know so I could pick up the extras. I hope they give me notice so I can plan on driving into work that day!

Another place sent me an email that they don't do tastings but that I was welcome to come into their retail store and buy the cupcakes, then talk to them about wedding cupcakes. I'm a bit put off by this. Would a wedding cake baker get away with this? I have no idea, but I suspect not.

I haven't heard back from the fifth baker I emailed. Hm. That's the baker that has a hilarious website. Looks like they may not live up to their own hype. Is a next-day response too much to ask for?

I will be sure to bring the camera and take pix if we're allowed to. MMMMmmmdeliciousness.

Operation Cupcake Has Begun

My "Knot Book of Wedding Lists" says it's time for us to be doing cake tastings, since we're now officially at the 8-month mark. It also says we should be registering for gifts, which I'm ignoring for the moment. That one is going to be a very large conversation, I fear. Anyway, back to the easy stuff.

So far I've contacted 5 bakeries to inquire about scheduling tastings. A few of them seem to hold one or two "tasting days" per month, so we'll have to work those into our schedules. I'm not sure about the others yet. Many of the bakeries use local, organic, and sustainable products, which I appreciate. One of the ones I emailed is a vegan bakery! I'd love it if that worked out. Anyway, I have a whole backup list of other bakeries that were highly rated by the Yelpers if these don't work out. I worry that cupcake tasting is going to make us very fat!

We still need to send out our save the dates. That one is weighing on me. Mr. T and I have a date to check out an alternate hotel (one that offers rooms with two beds, unlike our venue's boutique hotel rooms) next weekend, so we can let our families know they can buy plane tickets and book hotel rooms.

OMW: Day 16, plus weekend report

I think I have to admit that there's an issue with my right knee. I'm going to switch to the bike at the gym and see if that makes a difference (although the bike is not my fave...I get a much better workout from the elliptical). If it doesn't, then I'm going to the doctor.

It's not a sharp pain. It's a dull ache that only bugs me if my knee is in certain positions, and only after I've been to the gym (it gets better over the weekend and when I have breaks between gym visits). I just think that any pain is not a good thing.

This week I'm back on a M-W-F schedule, which is good--I like having a day off in between, for now anyway. It was nice on Monday because the gym was really quiet due to the holiday. If I wasn't lucky enough to get the day off, at least I could get on all the weight machines without waiting!

This weekend was busy and domestic, all at once. Friday night was a friend's birthday party. Saturday I got my hair cut, went to the library, had dance rehearsal, and then came home and did laundry, dishes, went to the grocery store, ordered Chinese takeout, and watched The Wedding Singer on TV with Mr. T. I love that movie! So sweet. I love Adam Sandler's joke about the losers at Table 9...We were asking my codancer the other day if we were at the loser Table 9 at her wedding. ;-) I guess we'll find out this weekend! Anyway, we did have cupcakes and champagne, yummy and caloric. mmmmmm. So I definitely need my gym time this week!

Sunday we (me, Mr. T, the MOH, and two other friends) went to see a matinee of Coraline in 3D. I was worried it would make me sick, but they did a really good job of using the 3D sparingly. I really loved the film and didn't mind the few changes they made from the book. After that we took advantage of our lovely city and went to the Cartoon Art Museum a few blocks away, and for the low admission price of $6, got to see the "Art of Coraline" exhibit, plus a Watchmen sneak peak exhibit. It was really fun and one of those inexpensive cultural trips that I love to take--while searching for parking and things like that can be a downside, things like the Cartoon Art Museum are definitely a bonus of urban living. Coraline was almost entirely stop motion, so they had a lot of the actual figures from the film and some of the sketches, plus the production journal from one of the model makers. It was so neat!

I would totally recommend Coraline for any adult and for older kids. I think it would be too scary for younger kids, but I suppose it depends on the kid.

(A photo taken at the SF Cartoon Art Museum Coraline exhibit, courtesy of this blog.)

Engagement Party Afterglow

So Saturday was our engagement party, hosted by the MOH, BM, and another dear friend of ours (and her husband, who did a lot of the manual labor!). I wore a tea-length red dress that I bought for a friend's wedding, with my leopard-print stiletto heels (which surprisingly were fine to wear all night; I expected them to be less comfy) and Mr. T wore a dark blue button-down shirt, jeans, and his birthday Adidas. It was a little foreshadowing of our wedding outfits, since I'll be wearing a red dress and he'll have a dark blue suit on.

We didn't have to lift a finger other than bringing an iPod loaded with music and my old Polaroid camera (which I discovered doesn't work, but I'll get to that in a second). Mr. T was a little uncomfortable with having folks do everything for us, but I felt strangely liberated (and I am usually the control freak!). I knew my girls would take care of everything, though. The MOH also asked us to bring some framed pictures of us as decor for the food tables and I realized that I haven't printed a single photo out since we got a digital camera, so that's on my list of things to do before the wedding! All the photos I found of us were from years ago and we both look baby-faced...and thinner. I did find a couple of hilarious Halloween images: one of us as geishas, and one of us as Mulder and Scully. We went to Target that afternoon to get some frames for the photos and scored some for $2 each! We'll have to pick up more before the wedding, since I'd like to display a bunch of photos there as well.

We hit horrible traffic on the way over to the MOH's apartment and ended up being 40 minutes late to our own party. Mr. T called it being "fashionably late" and tried to keep me from getting too cranky about it. Once we got there, I was amazed at what a great job the ladies had done. The MOH was calling the theme "Halloween lite", so there was a skull on the door and a sign that had our names, hyphenated, followed by "Engagement Party;" the sign was in the shape of a spooky old castle.

Once we got inside we were greeted by the hilarious site of white and orange streamers in the hall, and a white tissue paper wedding bell with bats hanging from it. I laughed and laughed. Once we had drinks in hand (there were two signature drinks, named after us, and an elaborate and crazy bar set-up), I relaxed and got to chatting with folks. The Halloween and wedding decor was great, and there was a huge spread of food, although I realized I was so excited to talk to folks that I barely ate anything...no wonder you hear about all the couples who don't eat anything on their wedding day! The E-party team had everything running like a well-oiled machine, and we felt so taken care of and loved.

They had set up a guest book area with Polaroids; luckily my bridesmaid had brought her own Polaroid camera because mine just wouldn't do anything. I have no idea how to fix it; it's been at least 10 years since I last looked at it. I'd wager the battery's dead, but how to replace it? We couldn't figure it out. Anyway, although Polaroid is no longer making new film, they'd managed to find some, although it expired in 2004. It gave all the photos a sepia tone that was kind of neat. Still, I think my vague idea of having a Polaroid guest book at the wedding will have to remain unfulfilled, since the film situation will only get worse from here out. Don't worry, though, I have other ideas!

Anyway, folks got their picture taken and then signed next to their photo. It is a really fun memento from the evening! Mr. T's dad was there, although I think he felt a bit out of place since none of the other parents/older relatives came, which was unfortunate. My friend from high school came, and Mr. T's cousins, and the belly dance crew, and Mr. T's office, and my book club (the bookbabes). I showed off my ring; Mr. T and I had been joking that we needed to have a fancy jeweler's lamp set up so that I could do showings every 15 minutes. Folks seemed to like it, or at least they said they did! ;-)

One of my belly dance troupemates picked up vegan cakes from Millennium; since I'm a lactard she wanted us to have cake I could eat. There was a lemon one with white chocolate frosting and a chocolate one with yummy raspberry filling and chocolate frosting. Apparently she asked the baker to decorate them for Halloween, which first surprised the baker (um, mid-August!), and then amused her. She had to bring some ghost-shaped sprinkles from home and asked my troupemate not to tell anyone she did that, since Millennium doesn't use any artificial ingredients in their food! Mr. T and I did a ceremonial cake-cutting pose, which will probably be the first and last time for that, since we're doing cupcakes for our wedding.

A couple of folks disobeyed our "no gifts" request (defiantly!) and we got a great bottle of champagne, which we'll probably pop open on our 11th anniversary this year, and we also got a nice bottle of tequila and a box of candy. Ah...booze and sugar, the way to my heart.

The MOH sent us home with tons of yummy middle eastern food, the leftover cake, and these hilarious bride and groom rubber duckies that now reside in our bathroom.

The next day we hung out with Mr. T's dad, watched the Olympics, and got some dinner. It was a fantastic weekend, but I'm exhausted today. It felt like a test run for the wedding, only on a smaller scale...very educational! My one regret is that Mr. T and I didn't spend more time together at the party...we have sort of an unofficial "divide and conquer" strategy at parties to get to talk to more people. At our wedding, though, I told him I want to hang out with my husband, and he agreed.

Seeing how smoothly everything went made me reconsider hiring a day-of coordinator (DOC). I have a little idea about that...gotta clear it with Mr. T and we'll see what happens...

Random Halloween Wedding Pix and Other Inspirations

Here's an entirely random assortment of inspiration pix I've been saving.

First, more pumpkins!

This is a sweet pumpkin pattern I found called "Wedding".


This is from a bride and groom who got married close to Halloween, so they added some Halloween touches...she had a toned-down Bride of Frankenstein costume on. Can't remember how I found them, maybe the Offbeat Bride photo group?


I actually found a tool online that will do this to pumpkins (or fruit, or what have you) so you can put tea lights in them. I love these little votive holders! I totally want to use this idea.




I can't remember where I found these, but here are some cute pumpkin patterns that are more abstract:


One couple used a pumpkin as their guest book. I'm torn on this one--it's super cute, and am I really going to look at the guest book in the future? But then again, if I wanted to, I couldn't with this guest book, since it will rot eventually!



This is a really cute idea for table numbers, if we decide to go that route:



More table inspiration:







I love all these candles. It looks so pretty:



More candle ideas:


From the wedding with the pumpkin guestbook, courtesy of Offbeat Bride, here are some cute favor bags:


And prizes for best costume! I've thought about a costume contest for our wedding, but as Mr. T pointed out, who would be the judge?



That same couple had an awesome cupcake stand, and creepy Halloween cupcakes! They are a couple after my own heart (check out the toasting flutes too, I totally want to steal that idea):





Not Halloween-related, but fun, and also by way of Offbeat Bride, a whole wedding party in Chuck Taylors (even the bride!):


More unusual bridal footwear (and appropriate for Halloween!):




Another Halloween wedding. I think this photographer is local to me. I like her work, so I'm going to chat her up when the time comes...This minister looks like Otho (from Beetlejuice) to me, and I love the coffin backdrop (again, note the groom's footwear):


Mr. T didn't like the idea of black suits with black shirts and orange ties for his guys (he said they'd look like waiters), but I just think this looks very cute and seasonal. Sorry about the thing in the middle, I did this as a screen capture and apparently my mouse was in the wrong place, bringing up bizarre messages about settings and such:



I found a leopard print wedding dress! So cute! I don't love this particular print, but I am a huge fan of the faux leopard. Hm....


I found this dress as a possible alternative silhouette. It's like the best of both worlds: I could dance in it, but could have a bit of a train (I think...it's hard to tell). Imagine this as a red corset dress and sans the odd diagonal line down the front and tell me what you think:

Venue #2 and Cupcake Tasting #1

Wow, that title sounds like we did a lot this weekend, but really we were just wandering around our neighborhood.

Mr. T and I went to peek at Venue #2. You may remember this as the place that would not agree to give me a formal tour. I'd also like to add that they emailed me a rental agreement in a format that would not open on a Mac or a PC. When I asked them to re-send it in a more common format, like PDF or Word, I got no response. So, I didn't think this was a winner even before we went to see it, although the price was right.

So, "open all day Sunday" apparently means, "someone else is having a party that you will be crashing." Which we did, although Mr. T protested about it from the get-go. I am much ruder than he is. The local Historical Society was having some sort of party, but we snuck in and just looked at the room really quick. It looked a little small, although charming in that Craftsman kind of way. Like many of the places around here, there was no separate space to have a ceremony, so this one room would have to serve both purposes, meaning we'd have to shoo our guests out of their chairs and make them stand around while we rearranged the chairs at dinner tables. This option is less appealing to us, even if these kind of spaces are more affordable than spaces that have multiple rooms.

So, Venue #2, I don't think you're for us. I won't be pursuing getting that rental agreement in a real file format after all.

After breaking and entering, I mean, touring the venue, we went to do something I knew we would both enjoy: cupcake tasting! It was not a formally arranged tasting, but it was at a place that charges for tastings anyway (shame on them), so we just dropped in and bought three cupcakes:

(Photo courtesy of Mr. T, who got really into setting up the shot and taking "artistic" cupcake photos for my blog.)

Why, you might ask, are only two cupcakes pictured? Because we ate one on the spot! We ordered a Devil's Food with vanilla buttercream frosting, a Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting, and a Chocolate with peanut butter frosting. Not pictured is the Devil's Food cupcake, which ended up being our favorite, although Mr. T thought the frosting was a little runny for his tastes. But, he declared, chocolate with vanilla frosting was a must, and so we now have one of our cupcake flavours decided. The Devil's Food was very moist, and it wasn't overpowered but rather accented by the frosting, unlike the Red Velvet, where all I could taste was the cream cheese, although it was delicious. The Red Velvet was also a little dry, but the frosting helped with that. The Peanut Butter/Chocolate combo was disappointing. I love this combo and saved it for last, thinking it would be my favorite. However, again, the cupcake was dry, didn't have as much flavor as the Devil's Food, and the frosting was too sweet, if you can believe that's coming from me (I'm a girl who likes dessert!).

So, I'm not sure if we'll be ordering from this bakery. We'd need proof of a second, solid flavor. Plus, there's the runny frosting issue. But, it was a fun thing to do after the venue disappointment!

PS--For those of you who were wondering, yes, I did pay for the dairy consumption later. But that's all I'll say about that. Next time, Lactaid pills!

Bucking Tradition

It will be no surprise to you that I'm not going to go for a lot of the wedding day traditions. As I've told Mr. T, this is our day, and it should be about us. He wasn't sure if he wanted a ring or not, but felt that he needed one for the "mandatory" ring exchange on the day. I told him, "If you don't want one, don't get one. This is your wedding." Ultimately he decided he'd get a ring, but an inexpensive one, and he'd only wear it sometimes. (I teased him, "You know, women look at men's hands..." He said dryly, "Believe me, they're not beating down my door now, and I don't have a ring." I told him I didn't believe it.)

Here are the things I'm pretty sure we aren't going to do on the day:

• No white dress for me.
• Probably no veil for me (unless I find a fabulous red lace mantilla veil that I must have).
• No diamond ring for me.
  
• No tux for Mr. T.
• No flowers in the reception hall (I'll post about decor later). I will carry a bouquet though, which brings me to...
• No bouquet toss. It's my bouquet, I want it! Also, why humiliate the women at the reception with this horrible game? "Okay, all the losers...I mean single women...come up here and scrabble desperately...I mean try to catch the bouquet." No thanks. My single ladies are gorgeous and fabulous and I love them. I was thinking of having my bouquet made into a painting, actually. I like the idea of keeping it in our household, but in a nontraditional way.
• No garter toss. I actually found a few cute Halloween garters (below), but again, I think it's really in poor taste to have your groom all up in your business while your friends and family watch. WTF?

• Not getting married in a church. We're happy heathens.
  
• Non-traditional officiant. We don't know who will be our officiant, but they will likely be ordained by the Universal Life Church.
• Photos taken before the ceremony. Actually, we haven't officially decided this yet, but I think it's hard on the guests to be left cooling their heels while you're doing a photo shoot. So I'm going to push for a pre-ceremony shoot. My brother and sister-in-law did this and I thought it was brilliant.

And of course there's the most non-traditional part of all of this, which is that we're having a Halloween costume wedding.

We haven't decided what we're going to do about other traditions, such as the first dance. I suggested to Mr. T that we learn the "Thriller" choreography and do that as our first dance. He laughed and started doing the infamous zombie dance part (you know the one), which made me laugh. See? He makes me laugh.

We will definitely have guest favors, but with our own spin on it.

I do like the "something old, new, borrowed, and blue" tradition, so I think I will keep that one. Apparently the original saying ended, "And a sixpence for your shoe" (for luck), but no way am I putting a coin in my shoe. I would like to incorporate a sixpence another way, if I think of a suitable idea.

As I mentioned earlier, I don't mind doing the "cake cutting" with our cupcakes. There will be NO smashing of cake into the face, however. (Mr. T, are you reading this?)

I like the idea of bride and groom gifts--stealing a sweet moment the day of or night before the ceremony to give each other a thoughtful gift. Speaking of that, some of the brides on the blogs have mentioned stealing a little time alone together directly after the ceremony (like 10 minutes or so) to let the impact of being married sink in, and have some alone time, before joining folks at the reception. I like that too.

I'm excited to create something that reflects us! I hope our guests will enjoy it too.

Ze Cake

One thing I am absolutely looking forward to is cake tasting. Mmmmcake.

Mr. T and I enjoy watching Ace of Cakes every week. Duff is lovable and funny and the cakes are crazy (I loved the Harry Potter/Hogwarts cake they did this season!). I don't think we could afford Duff, but obviously you could do really fun things with a Halloween-themed cake, such as:





How awesome is this cake (thanks Offbeat Bride!)? Zebra stripes, sugar skulls, and Elvis! Check out the rest of this couple's wedding pix on Flickr (mmmcheetah shrug).



The above cake was apparently the BPAL founders' wedding cake. I just love their perfume oils (I have been wearing Snake Oil every day since I got it!) and I also enjoy the goth descriptions of the perfume oils. I could get lost on their website.

However, as tempting as it is to create a decadent Halloween multi-tiered cake, I think we've decided to go with cupcakes, for a couple of reasons:

1. More flavors! You could have 2 or 3 flavor options available. Yes, you could theoretically have each tier of your cake a different flavor, but that leads me to reason 2:

2. Cheaper! Cakes run $4-6 a slice (or more), and the venue typically charges a cake-cutting fee on top of that, whereas cupcakes are $2.50-$3.50 each (no cake cutting necessary). They are also really a no muss, no fuss dessert. You eat them with your hands, they're fun, they're portable...mmmm cupcakes. I'm a fan. I was thinking Devil's Food and a pumpkin/spice flavor. Mr. T likes lemon. I'm not sure if we're doing two or three flavors yet. I have been looking into cupcakeries and I've found:

1. Love at First Bite (you have to pay for your tasting, though! How gauche. Also, their prices are higher than other places, in general)

2.Teacakes

3. American Cupcake (their website is hilarious--the tagline is "the donut is very scared".) They have "puffy" frosting:


4. Delessio (a deli, but they make cupcakes)

5. That Takes the Cake

6. La Farine (it's not on their menu, but someone said they make cupcakes. I adore their regular cakes)

7. Crixa Cupcakes

8. Whiskie Bits (exotic flavors; on the expensive side, though)

9. Kara's Cupcakes (I've actually had one of these before, and they are yummy. These are on the expensive side, though. They seem to be nickel-and-diming folks for every design choice.)

10. Sharlene's Babycakes (Their website is not very detailed, but I do like the tagline, "A Little Bit O Naughty to Make You Feel Nice.")


11. Sibby's Cupcakery, creator of these lovelies:


12. Debbie Does Cakes (the name is um, an odd choice, but her prices are the lowest I've seen, $2 each for basic cupcakes. If we stayed basic. However, due to her "busy schedule" she won't do tastings for cakes that serve fewer than 150 guests. Hmph. Of course, I bet if she's that busy, her cakes are that good.)

13.Noe Valley Bakery, creator of these adorable cupcakes, complete with individual toppers! Plus, their prices seem good, about $2.25 each:


A friend recommended that I just say that the cupcakes are for a Halloween party, so I don't get gouged on the special wedding rate ripoff prices. I might do that. Mr. T asked me, "Won't you miss doing the whole cake-cutting thing, where we feed each other?" I told him we could cut a cupcake in half and do it that way. I'm not worried about it.

I am wondering about cake toppers, though. We could try to do toppers on every cupcake, like the NVB ones above, or we could have toppers just on two cupcakes at the top of the tier, or we could have toppers just standing among the cupcakes on the top tier, if the toppers are big enough. There are some pretty excellent options for Halloween cake toppers.

We could do Day of the Dead figurines:




Or, I found these gothy cake toppers (they're expensive, though, like $180!!!):

Bats (lighted!):


Skeletons (I like the "Love Never Dies" part. But is that skeleton giving the other one tongue? Ew.):




Caskets (Again, nice "Till Death Do Us Part"):



Or (and this is the best) We could get cake toppers made to look like us (and I just LOVE that they used Pierce Brosnan as the sample):


On Offbeat Bride they did a feature on a couple who had Han and Leia figurines as their cake toppers. That's awesome:


An unexpected expense is that if you want cupcake tiers, you need to rent or buy the tiers. I need to think about this a little (and do pricing, obviously). Most bakeries will rent tiers and do the set up for you, which is appealing. We could also hit up Goodwill for used ones, for a more organic (read: haphazard, unmatched) effect, but then we'd need to get rid of the things afterward. Mr. T also thought maybe his mom has something we could use, which would be great. I like free!