Booze: Check!

If anyone's wondering what $1300 worth of alcohol looks like...




There you go! Our original budget for alcohol was $1500, so we came in $200 under budget AND we also bought 8 bottles of wine for the rehearsal dinner, which was not in our initial alcohol budget at all.

We will probably end up returning some, but we just didn't know what folks would want to drink. Beer? Wine? If wine, red or white? If red, pinot or cabernet? If none of the above, vodka or tequila? And so on...so, we probably overbought, but I really, really don't want to do a beer run in the middle of our wedding. We also bought toasting champagne (excuse me, sparkling wine!). We'll have 3-4 bottles of champagne for guests to drink before the toasts if they prefer to drink champagne...those are Moet, left over from Mr. T's cousin's wedding. The toasting ahem, sparkling wine is Gloria Ferrer, which was a recommendation from my codancer who loves champagne, so we totally took her advice with no hesitation. We are also serving the same chardonnay (Benziger) and pinot (Castle Rock) that she served at her own wedding, so thanks, Rachel!

For the cabernet we went with Smoking Loon, which Mr. T likes, and for beer we went for two more of his faves (and also locally brewed!) Anchor Steam and Trumer Pilsner. He also picked the vodka, of course, which is Ketel One, and I obviously picked the tequila, which is Corralejo (Herradura is my fave but was a tad expensive, unfortunately).

Buying the alcohol took all day. First I placed an online order at BevMo. I saved 5% because it was my first online order (Score!). We also got our chardonnay for essentially half off because of BevMo's five-cent wine sale (buy one bottle, get the next bottle of the same wine for five cents, on selected wines! Double score!). After we placed that order, we had to wait an hour for them to get everything together so we could come pick it up. So we went to Safeway, because they had an amazing deal on wines. A discount for 6 or more bottles of the same wine, PLUS an additional 10% off for 6 bottles of any wine, period. We saved $110 on 24 bottles of wine. Excuse me while I pat myself on the back for suggesting going there as our first stop! Triple Score!

Our next stop was Trader Joe's. Unfortunately they were sold out of the margarita mix, but we did buy the rest of the wine for the rehearsal dinner there, plus the remaining bottles of pinot (Safeway didn't have enough in stock).

After Trader Joe's we swung by BevMo to look at beer and pick up our order. We bought two cases of Anchor Steam there, and at this point my credit card was declined. "Oops," I thought, "I should've called them." I bet hundreds of dollars of alcohol purchases in an hour raises some red flags. So I put the purchase on another card, and we picked up the online order. The woman who helped us out to the car complimented us on our wine and tequila selections (patting myself on the back again...and Rach, you should too, since you picked the chardonnay). "It's for our wedding," I confessed with a smile, and she congratulated us. All day I told people about the wedding, whether they wanted to hear about it or not, since we were getting a lot of attention around our massive alcohol purchases.

We dropped off all the booze thus far at home and I called my card and reassured them that yes, it was me, buying crap for my wedding, nothing to worry about. The operator congratulated me and restored my card to good standing and we were off again! [Lest anyone worry about my credit card spending...no worries, it's just on the card until I can transfer money from our savings account, which takes a couple of days. We're a no-debt wedding! As a matter of fact, we have extra in our wedding savings. Hooray!]

Next we took a break from alcohol and went to Target. We bought CANDY for the candy buffet. $100 worth of candy is a lot of candy, but unfortunately I didn't get a pic of that one to show you. We also bought coloring books for the niece/nephew. I had a crisis in the middle of the lane at Target. I literally could not pick up the coloring books with the Disney princesses on them. "There must be something else," I kept muttering. I had no idea I felt so strongly about this issue until I was confronted with corrupting my niece with them. Finally Mr. T suggested Dora the Explorer and I grudgingly went along with it. He of course had it easy and picked out a superhero coloring book for his nephew. Anyway, we also picked up frames for the parent gifts (we're going to give them wedding photos, so they'll get the frames with "picture coming soon" signs in them), plus tooth whitening kits (yes, we're vain), and I got some cute Halloween tees for myself for $6 each, which I thought was a score. As we checked out the checker (who reminded me of Kristin Wiig's character on SNL) asked if the candy was for trick-or-treaters or if it WAS ALL FOR US. And then she said people sometimes told her they were going to keep the candy for themselves. We're talking about 20+ bags of candy, here. That's frightening!

Our next stop was another Trader Joe's. They did have the maggie mix, and by making nice with one of the employees, we got it in an unopened box. Hooray! After that we went to another BevMo, and since we were under budget, Mr. T approved the purchase of the Crystal Head vodka that I'd been dreaming about. It's going to look so awesome on the bar!



Plus if we run out of vodka we can crack it open.

After BevMo #2, we proceeded to Michael's, where we bought flower petals for our flower girl, spray paint for some of the used frames we bought for venue signage, more glitter for pumpkins, two types of glue, and other random stuff.

We were also supposed to make a stop at Pet Club for the littles but it was closed at this point. It was probably for the best, since we were soooo tired by then.

And finally, we stopped at Andronico's for two things:

1. Individually wrapped candy corn packets--we love candy corn and had to have it at the buffet, but we don't want any open candy, just wrapped. Andronico's was the only store we found the packets in!
2. The Trumer Pilsner beer, which was on sale, and because of the sale, they had cases in stock, which they normally don't. Quadruple score!

And then we went home and collapsed.

Invitations Mailed: Check!!!

We had a wedding whirlwind weekend, and among the things we did were: taking the envelopes to the P.O. to get weighed, buying postage (we picked the king and queen love stamp, above, and we were actually pleasantly surprised by how they looked on the black envelope), hand stamping each envelope with our return address, addressing the remaining invitations (I'd done about half already), affixing postage to each envelope, sealing the envelope with a sticker, setting envelopes out to dry, and, this morning, dropping the finished product off at the post office! Woo-hoo! We still have about 4 addresses to track down, but for my purposes (and sanity), invitations are firmly checked off the to-do list.

The return address stamp was a good idea in theory but bad in practice. It was hard to align, and the silver ink from the ink pad just WOULD NOT DRY. We left those out for 36 hours in 80 degree heat, and they were still smearing when we touched them, and even after we blotted them with paper towels. So, if you are our wedding guest, and you have silver ink all over your envelope, my apologies! If I had it to do over I'd have spent quadruple the amount and gotten an embosser instead of a stamp. Oh, well. In the meantime, there is silver ink all over every surface of our home. I'm mighty glad to be done with those! We've gotten one RSVP already (we hand-delivered a couple of invites this weekend), and I can't wait for the rest to roll in. Exciting!! It's nice to see all our hard work taking shape.

This weekend we also went to Michael's because I decided I didn't trust the glue of the envelopes and I wanted something to seal them with. We ended up using the seals we initially purchased from Martha Stewart Crafts for our favor bags: little grinning skull and crossbones--they are black and white, and they glow in the dark! And then we bought other stickers to go on the favor bags at Michael's. Halloween is in full force there and it was hard to stick to our shopping list. Well, for me anyway. I really wanted the silver sign with the skull on it (with jeweled eyes) that said "Beware of Bling", but Mr. T wouldn't let me. But seriously, how perfect would that have been??

While we were there I did talk Mr. T into one frivolous purchase. No, two. They were both Martha Stewart "mad scientist" products. She just has such a nice Halloween aesthetic. One was favor bags, to mix in with the ones we already have. The second was labels for the wine bottles that will go on the tables; they say "Poison" and stuff like that on them. See below; aren't they cute? I promised Mr. T I wouldn't have to go back to Michael's again before the wedding, for the sake of our budget. Ha!

Votives, favor bags: (Partial) check!

I love Ebay! This weekend I purchased 30 votives for the tables and 90 favor bags and they are winging their way to me. I may add some more votives and/or favor bags, but I'm hoping that I'm done, actually!

The votives are fun and modern and simple, which we liked. There's a lot of crap out there for Halloween decor, as I'm sure you can imagine! We have to use glass votives, also, because apparently there's a law in the city where we're getting married that all candles must be in glass containers. Odd, huh? Unfortunately that rules out a couple of things I already bought, but I'm coming up with work-arounds.

I was intent on finding paper bags because even though the plastic ones were cute and cheap, I just couldn't contribute to landfill in that way. So I spent a good chunk of time researching, and we like these. They were affordable, and invoke a vintage feel. We may supplement with some actual vintage ones to mix it up.

Phew, another 2 things off the list!

Shopping Adventures

I was in Walgreens this morning picking up your usual drugstore stuff plus a card for Mr. T's business partner's wedding this Saturday (this is the first wedding to happen out of the 8 or 9 engaged couples that we know--Mr. T and I keep telling each other, "Research!").

I noticed two "same sex couples" cards in the wedding section. Wow, even at a chain like Walgreens, they adapt quickly. I bet those cards aren't available outside of CA or Massachusetts, though. It's funny how the opportunity to make money will override any homophobic feelings. It's oddly encouraging to see the capitalism at work here--true equality! I also recently heard a jewelry company advertising wedding bands to all different types of couples--they really had to talk fast to squeeze it all into that 60-second advertising spot: girl-girl, guy-guy, AND guy-girl were marketed to. "We don't care who you are, we want your money!" It feels like the future has arrived.

Speaking of shopping, I was at Michael's this weekend and noticed they have the Halloween stuff out (two months early!). They have "treat sacks" available for 29 cents each--perfect for our candy favors. Based on my sketchy and incomplete research, that seemed like a good price to me, but I haven't bought them yet. It just felt too soon. I might go back though. If I wait until the post-Halloween sales, I'm worried they won't have enough.

Moo!

Recently I got some belly dance cards made through Moo, and at the time I thought, "these would make good save-the-dates. I should mention these to folks." And then lo and behold, I just got an email newsletter from Moo (since this is the month of all things wedding), with suggestions about how those adorable little Moo cards could be made into favors, save-the-dates, or place settings, to name a few uses. Great minds!

They're only $20 for 100 cards right now, and you can use a bunch of photographs, not just get 100 of the same photograph.

Another idea is to have photo stickers made (90 for $10), and you could either use the stickers to seal your invites, or you could have stickers made from your wedding photos and use those stickers to seal your thank-you notes. Who doesn't like a photo sticker??


Plus, I mean, I know the cards are small, but they're so cute.

Custom Temporary Tattoos

I found this site online and oh, am I tempted! We could do little pumpkins with a banner and the date on them. Of course, it's another $75 we'd have to spend when we already have an idea for favors, which means we probably won't do it. But how fun!!! I'll have to think about this one.

Decor: Part one of many

I could really write quite a few blogs about decorating, especially for Halloween, but since didn't want a 20-page entry today, I thought I'd restrain myself and talk only about decor ideas from Martha Stewart, or MS as my grandmother calls her.

First, let me back up a bit and say that when it came to wedding priorities, flowers went to the bottom of the list. Yes, I want a beautiful bouquet (what it will look like is another potential post subject, but I'm restraining myself here, remember?), but Halloween doesn't scream "$2000 floral arrangements on the tables" to me.

So...what does it scream (no Halloween pun intended)? I went to the authority, MS, to find out. I discovered that she and I have a shared obsession: pumpkins. I love carved pumpkins. I don't know if I could ever pull off some of these creations, but I have this Halloween to practice, right?

Without further ado, take it away Martha! (All photos courtesy of www.marthastewart.com).

First, let's start off easy: A nice autumnal centerpiece:



I don't really want assigned seating (again, another post in the making), but if we did, we could use these cute place cards:



I like "Halloween trees" but they appear to be quite expensive based on my internet searches. Here's MS's version:



These are candleholders wrapped in tissue, to look like jack-o-lanterns. Cute, huh?:



This is pumpkin decoration even I could do: glitter pumpkins. Ooooh:



Okay, I know I said no flowers, but I like the cobwebs here. Maybe one arrangement for the guest book table?


Speaking of flowers, maybe at our table we could have a hollow pumpkin to keep my bouquet in:



I like the idea of dry ice in a pumpkin, but there will be some kids at the wedding (I think), so I'd worry about policing them around the dry ice. Here's a cute pumpkin fake punch bowl, and a candy bowl with dry ice underneath:




Speaking of not kid-friendly decorations, we won't be having these apples, but I liked them. I like the idea of the apple-bobbing tradition, but the reality of everyone's saliva in the same water is icky. This has the idea without the ick:


Mr. T and I like the idea of a candy bar, since it's Halloween; there are lots of nice candy jar decoration options, like these:


Here's another way to display candy (lollipops, to be specific), and all you need is a drill!



And yet another way to display candy, also involving a pumpkin!:


I like the idea of words on the pumpkin, and I like that the carving doesn't go all the way through the pumpkin, so it's just a nice glowing silhouette. Mr. T and I could do our initials in pumpkins using stencils, like these:



Here's another pumpkin decoration that I could pull off: Pumpkins carved with cookie cutter stencils. We could do hearts! I quite like the row up the driveway; would be cute for an aisle, no?:




And another pumpkin that would involve the drill: Pumpkins with xmas lights sticking out of the drill holes. It sounds weird until you see it:


I also like these spiderweb pumpkins, but they would require a bit of skill:



Also requiring skill would be these silhouetted pumpkins. I adore the skull on the white pumpkin:



And finally, my favorite ones. I love that they're white; even though I'm not wearing white the white pumpkin says "wedding" to me, as does the "lace" pattern. These seem like they would be really hard to do, but again, I could practice...right?:





I can't remember who suggested it, but someone said my rehearsal dinner could be a pumpkin-carving party. I laughed, but hmmm....

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.