Our Merry Wedding: October Update

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Wheeee, our wedding is less than two months away! It is going to be so-freaking-neat. Friends keep asking what else we need to do, and the truth of it all is, there’s not a whole lot of “big stuff” to get under control anymore. October has felt like a busy month, but I don’t feel like we have a lot to show for it; our rings are on order, we decided that Pete would certainly be wearing some kind of clothing but haven’t bought anything yet, I decided to wear shoes that I already own to save a few bucks, we secured a block of hotel rooms our out-of-town guests, and, as you might already know, we invited people. I spent the first half of the month up to my elbows in envelopes, as I addressed our wedding invites and wedding shower invites and my birthday thank you notes, and then spent the second half of the month trying to unfurl my tired hands.

A few other things that we’ve been working on/thinking up/planning for?

1. Building Tables. You thought we were joking?

Borrowing inspiration from a hodgepodge of online tutorials, we’re building our own wooden tables for the wedding. The whole party is designed as a cocktail-style reception, meaning that we don’t anticipate needing (or want to provide) seating for every last person who attends, but understand that having some place for our aunts, grandmas, and kids to sit at is an important part of keeping our event comfortable. At this point they aren’t fully assembled, but I can prove that we are making progress.

Each table is likely to weigh between 250-5,000 pounds based on my rough and imprecise calculations. More to come in a full tutorial when we finally have some finished pieces to show.

2. Help. Where do people rent awesome chairs?

There has to be a secret source out there that I have yet to find. I’m thoroughly unimpressed with the stock chairs that are rented at any of the Rochester, NY area party services. And this is where I really want your help. I need, like, 30 chairs, and if you are a super-cool chair distributor (or a restaurant who would like to rent your own to us for a day, or just someone who has a whole buncha cool chairs!) I would love to hear from you. *cough*Pinkberry, bring me some chairs*cough*

3. Dressy + Dressier!

I finally, happily, landed on a wedding dress, and maybe you’d be surprised to know that it didn’t end up being one of the dresses that I ordered during my trip to NYC, as reported on in last month’s update. If you really want to know, there was a short period of time this month when I had four wedding dresses in my possession, but that was mostly only overwhelming from a where-am-I-going-to-store-these-huge-boxes aspect. I should also mention that three have been returned for a full refund, don’t be thinking I’m a crazy dress hoarder, yo.

The dress that I kept? Surprise, I found it on eBay, and I should add that I’ve never once before shopped on eBay. And I’ve really never even browsed eBay either, I’m a total disgrace. I was an eBay virgin. I had to make an account for the first time and everything. But the dress, it’s beautiful, it was a total bargain, and on Wednesday I wore it around the house myself for 3 hours while I was alone. The fact that I didn’t want to take it off is a good sign. 

As wonderful as it is, the dress is different than what I originally envisioned, and I’ve been dealing with a little bit of a trickle-down effect in that it impacts some of the other details of the wedding. One of the bigger details we’ve already addressed relates to Julia. The dress we already had for her was no longer the perfect complement, so last week I decided to buy a new flower girl/bridesmaid/maid of honor dress for her. Badass eBay to the rescue again (seriously, shut down my account now). It’s a “new without tags” dress from J.Crew Crewcuts, and I was able to negotiate the seller down an extra $15 (that’s a conversion rate equivalent to three venti mochas).

It’s completely covered in sequins, and my god, it’s wonderful. This photo doesn’t do it justice – at the wedding, it will be filled with a spinning 6-year old and sparkling like a disco ball, just like the J.Crew gods intended.

Cheery wedding love. Have a great weekend, and don’t forget about what I said about my facebook page at the beginning of this post!