Awesome, Local Photography and Music

Well my droogies, I've been sick with some sort of uber-cold since I last wrote to you. But after four sick days, two bottles of NyQuil and a serious prescription, Eric and I have managed to get quite a lot done. We've signed contracts and paid our very first vendors.

I found local photographer Lara Swanson through an advertisement on offbeatbride.com. She is very cool and appreciates unique weddings, and is really excited to shoot our bike ride to the reception. It's really great to work with someone who isn't scoffing at your choices - you'd be surprised how much flack comes along with the simplest of diversions from the norm. There will be two photographers on the big day - Lara and Jen Smoose, who shoots for the Washingtonian. Eric and I are pumped to have such awesome coverage within our budget.

In other news, Eric tracked down a hip, young string quartet. Once Eric showed me their website, we couldn't help but daydream about starting a quartet of our own - I'll take fiddle and Eric will shred the cello ("...and I'm jello, baby.") Not only do they look and sound fantastic, but they're very affordable and can learn our choices for processional and recessionals. They also have a great mix of songs, including lots of the Beatles, in their existing repertoire.

There have been several new developments on the food front, since our last talk with Alli and E. Stay tuned for talk of local produce, vintage cake-toppers and a startling amount of country music.

Invitations Photo Shoot Outtakes

The photoshoot this weekend with Erin went swimmingly. It was about two hours of shooting with cut-out letters, posters and even some climbing rope. Here are a few outtakes...on the final product, keep an eye out for a fifth hand in some frames!

"I'm on a roll this time."

My trip to Arizona for Christmas proved inspiring for the wedding in several ways. A few significant highlights:

Grandma Mary (dad’s mom) worked her magic on my Nana’s (mom’s mom) dress, letting out the seams a bit to fit my non-girdled waist. As you may know, I’ve declared Amanda Ellexson the prime minister of costume, hair and makeup. She asked for pictures of the dress, so she could see how it fit. But I forgot to take pictures, so this drawing is the best I can do, what with the dress in Arizona and me in DC. I can’t decide whether I should be ashamed or proud.

I have more to say about costuming, but I’ll save that until I consult with the parliament.

On the food front: although we can fall back on a number of cheaper (but no less delicious…mmmm Boston Market) options, I’ve been talking with the Festive Foods peeps in Bethesda, Md. as a catering option. For months I looked high and low for caterers who work with locally produced food but didn't find anything, not even on Local Harvest. Festive Foods does work with local purveyors, according to an article in the Washingtonian. I’m looking forward to hearing what they have to say.

Just this week we've progressed a lot on the invitations front. Inspired by these save the date cards, Eric and I decided to do something similar for our invitations. I’ve enlisted the help of our incredible Trout designer, Jim Gray, to take care of the photoshop and design elements, and our friend Erin Dooling has agreed to take the pictures for us. The wording will be different, since we're skipping save the date cards. I figure everyone who's coming already knows the date - so get a pencil and write it down, for goodness sake. We might shoot as early as this weekend. I’m thrilled that a whim on Monday has become reality by Saturday. These will look wicked.

Elizabeth and I talked over a few options for the invitation design, and I think I’ve settled on the tall-skinny folding card, with the photo-booth awesomeness pasted onto the cover. My smiley Eric-and-Hannahs might not completely capture the tone, but you get the point. I’m enlisting the help of my crafty elder sisters for paper choices and a cross-country invitation sweatshop.

Well, I’m off to return a call from the Festive Foods peeps. More on that and my possible costume changes later.

"What a Man, What a Man, What a Man, What a Mighty Good Man"

Here's how I know Eric is the one - such an awesome display of manliness.

We had a few memos last week about annual exterminations in the building. A few days later a new, more troubling memo said something about mice and "the problem getting worse for about two weeks before it gets better."

So my droogies, this filled my head with horrible thoughts of mice-rats and roaches dramatically death-marching around my apartment but I tried not to think about it. Until...the smell.
Eric and I came home on Friday and promptly declared, "It smells wierd in here." We independently came to a really gross conclusion-slash-guess: dead mouse in the radiator.
Eric slipped a note in the landlord's office. We figured we could hold out until Monday. About an hour later, the smell got exponentially worse, and I wondered aloud if we could open the radiator ourselves.
Eric retrieved his screwdriver and a ziploc bag, and I was being very helpful by reminding him to be careful while perched atop a chair halfway across the room. He opened the radiator, he coughed.

E: Step outside, I'll take care of this.
H: Oh my God! It really is a mouse?
(H steps outside, a minute passes, E pokes his head out of the door and shows me some tongs).
E: You weren't especially attached to these tongs, were you?

I wasn't. Eric told me to look away when he passed me in the hall to take the tongs and the dead-mouse-in-a-ziploc to the dumpster.
Eric told me the thing was "brown and squishy" and was definitely decomposing in our radiator.
Isn't that the manliest thing ever? I don't think I could ever do that. My hero.

99 Problems [Edited for Explicit Information]

We're back on track, sort of. I'll be going back to Arizona at Christmas, at which point I hope to meet with my Grandma Mary and Aunt BJ to alter my Nana's dress. I need to have my mom get it cleaned beforehand. Here are a few pictures from my Nana's wedding - 50 years ago!

I thought this would be especially interesting to my bridespeoples - hereafter referred to as "bridespeeps" - whom I have given no direction whatsoever as far as wardrobe. I figured they'd like it better that way, because there's no way I'm picking out ugly, expensive dresses for them to buy. I'll have Amanda look at the dress when I'm in Arizona at Christmas, and I'll let her direct Bode and Elizabeth since she has an eye for these things. Poor Amanda - she asked for some direction for their dresses or accessories and all I could come up with is "my favorite colors are blue and green."

Amanda is thankfully handling my hair and makeup, which she always does gorgeously. I told her I wish I had a clone of her to also take photos, because she makes everyone look so good on film. Alas, I'll have to hire one. She's given me some advice on that, and I need to get on the ball. I'm budgeting about $1,500 for that, including engagement photos. My biggest issue with a photographer is going to be posed shots, because I usually loathe them. Especially since my intended is a ham/cornball, we don't do well posing. Smile totally unnaturally, slouch...cheese!

I have indeed started budgeting, which is horrifying. I have more of an idea what food and catering will cost, thanks to Alli. We're planning on Alli directing the menu, and friends of hers doing the actual cooking, running food to the buffet and cleaning. I was surprised at how cheap foodpeeps are to hire - $12 an hour. I'll have to ask Alli how much they're generally tipped. I'm guessing 20 percent. It's good to have someone around with insight into that world, otherwise I wouldn't have ever considered hiring cooks. I thought they'd be way more expensive.

I've decided not to send save the date cards, because of expense and trees and time. So look for invitations around February. Now, if only I could finalize the list. I'm sure I'll be updating a lot more from here on out.

Reception in a trailer park?

That's right, party people. We have a reception site pinned down, the Cherry Hill Conference Center right down the street from the University of Maryland. Eric and I had met a pagan couple who recommended the place, since they are having their reception at Chery Hill in October. Being blue-eyed and naive as we were in the evil, expensive ways of weddings, we thought the rental fee was outrageous - especially given that the place is in the middle of a campground and across the street from Shoppers.
But we learned quickly how expensive everything is in warped wedding world, and having nothing to show from months of research, we revisited the idea of Cherry Hill when Eric's parents were in town last weekend. They visited the place and loved it, so we went to check it out for ourselves. Wandering around the building, it was just one of those moments when things fall into place. It was perfect. It wasn't some trashy trailer park as I had feared. It was a campground (replete with RVs, but a campground nonetheless) with a building perfect for the huge party after my wedding. The building has an oak-floor ballroom, a catering kitchen, a balcony and three separate rooms for our use. Having a kitchen on-site means that Alli can probably still cater, and having extra rooms will be wicked for karaoke or guitar hero or whatever else occurs to us!
You haven't heard the best part yet, my droogies! Because of Cherry Hill's prime location, I will realize my dream of biking from the ceremony to the reception! I invite the bridal party and whoever else is interested to decorate your bikes (I also know where we can rent them for you out-of-towners) and ride with us down the Paint Branch Trail from the university to Cherry Hill. It's an easy ride of about two miles.
I'm checking into discounted camping rates for my guests - if I can wrestle some sort of arrangement, I'll encourage people to camp.
Eric and I are so relieved to have this albatross off our necks. A reception site had alluded us for months, but now we feel like we can focus on the details since the big decisions are behind us.
Remember, a wedding reception is essentially a huge party. So meet me in College Park for a damn good time.

Running on empty.

The most-asked question recently:

"So, how's the wedding planning going?"

Sigh. It's going nowhere, to be perfectly honest. I've made a half-hearted attempt at gathering addresses for save the date cards. I saw a dress in the Express (for those of you not in the DC area, the Express is a small newspaper published by The Washington Post designed to be readable on your metro ride to work) that was cute. I saved the clip - that counts for something, right? I searched craigslist a few times for vintage dresses.

Honestly, I don't think things will pick up at all planning-wise until I:
a) move into my new apartment, which will be later this week.
b) have a serious talk with my parents about what they're willing to do moneywise.
c) have the same such talk with Eric's parents.
d) figure out what's left.
e) stop having, "why didn't we just elope?" thoughts.

The next step has been the same for months: find a reception site. I'm no longer sure that Alli the Curious Cook can cater. Food licenses and whatnot. I'm thinking about advice my mom and a coworker gave, which is to think about having the reception at a restaurant. That might be a good option, since that skips most of a rental fee. I'm sure there's some fee involved, but I'd bet it's not in the thousands. Sheesh.

Ok, I need some goals for God's sake. How about this: secure a reception site by October. Start making save the date cards and invitations in November and finish by January. Inquire about family wedding dresses when I'm home in September.

I think that's a good start. Now keep me to it.