Yesterday, they day I took around my camera but did nothing with it, I picked up Ceara and Grant from the airport! My friends arrived earlier than expected and I was still in my wedding dress trying to figure out if my chosen underwear would show through when she texted me. I hopped over a bridge and picked them up. We did a few things, then headed to Salem. We had a few minuets to chat with Ceara’s mom, pick up something, fax things, and blah, blah, blah before we headed back up to Portland, this time with my mom. We met Sciarrino at Barefoot Sage, an awesome place that does only feet and leg massage. My mom packed cute little dinners for us, and everything. Unfortunately I was in such a state of relaxation that I totally forgot I even owned a camera. Then I left in in my mom’s car so I don’t even have proof that Ceara is here! But I do have proof of another awesome friend: 
Ya, we’re all a little tired. I stayed up until almost three last night cleaning because I couldn’t bare the thought of, not only Taro seeing my house so messy, but also coming back to it like that after the honeymoon. I have been getting more wedding stuff done, 
Awe it’s such cuteness V’s dress. I sewed a button in the back this time, and the ribbon on to the dress since she’s much more mobile and I don’t want here chewing it. Back to the food:
Which obviously gets Bj very excited. And me too, yum yum yum
Brent came over to liven up the crowd, and I had to get a picture of all of us:
I love that picture, I’m setting up the tri pod here, and I always find those kind of pictures interesting. 
Awe Brent, I know I can always count on you or Bj for super crazy pictures. And one more favorite:
Taro, checking on my weight gain. As soon as he came in it was like he was never gone. I miss my roomie oh so much. Well I think I’m signing off until the end of next week. I don’t think I’ll have much access to a computer, but we’ll see. Tomorrow night is the bachlorette, and every thing’s been kept a secret from me so I have no idea what to expect. Then Friday the rehearsal, and Saturday’s the day. Sunday we have a little after brunch and we take off for our honeymoon! It’s all going to be a blur I know, like that picture up there, a moment here and gone. Thank you for all your wonderful comments, I am trying to breathe, and enjoy everything as full as I can.
Did I sign up for this?
Whoa, these freaking sign in books, right Sciarrino? They took soooooo much longer than anticipated. About a month ago I ordered the Beary Patch tool Ali clued us all in on back in November for this project. I think I told you that we are having a photo booth at our wedding. This is one of the first things I remember ever thinking I wanted at my wedding (like a good 10 years ago at least). And it was one of the first things we told Emee we had to have. Luckily we found one. And the cool part is it’s actually old school, just like my the ones I use for my annual fair portraits. So it has the cool old school type strips. And you can take unlimited photos (we chose to have the booth all night). So I wanted a big guest book so that the pictures could all be slipped in. But I was having a coil issue, so one book turned into 5. And five sets of covers turned into 7 when I mis-punched some holes. But they are all done now and I love them. 
Each cover is just a variation (oh and the flash thing, I’m getting too crunched for time to wait for the sunshine, sorry). 
I got that fabulous Autumn Leaves stamp set and used a different one on each book. That is stamped on remnants of the seating cards, pretty thrifty huh?
My Oh-so-fabulous bridesmaid Sciarrino punched most of the 500+ holes, now if that’s not love I don’t know what is. And Angela and Sue both brought me vellum from their stashes so I could have a piece in between each page, so the photos will be safe. You guys all rock hard core, seriously!!! There are four slits in each page for a photo, then I had that "name(s)" stamp made for each page so people will remember to put who is in the thing. And….
The table numbers are finished! Simple cheap acrylic frames meant for the fridge with the magnets peeled off. Threaded ribbon through the top and they will hang on the head chair of each table. Speaking of ribbon:
Not the best picture, but Sciarrino was carting a stack of these out when I realized I hadn’t taken one. My mom and I found the fabric last weekend, Josh brought me the planters and Sciarrino helped me tie all the ribbon around. 10 for the reception, 2 for the church. This way the guys who deliver the trees can just pop them in here and will know right where they go.
I’m tired, and I have to go to bed because I’m getting up early to try on my dress on more time, and then off to the airport to pick up Ceara and Grant. I can’t believe it, soon everyone will be here. Taro comes in on Wednesday, and most everyone else Thursday!!!!
Weekend Update
Oh my god I’m getting married this week, THIS WEEK. Yikes. Bj came over this weekend, first time in a while since we’ve both been so busy. And the last time coming over before he comes over with all his crap, and by that I mean moves in. I’m a little nervous about that. I didn’t think I’d like living by myself when I bought my house but I’ve quite enjoyed it and I have a lot of things "just so" (and fairly girly to be honest). I hope I can handle it. Well compromise number one started early. Bj set up our wedding present from his dad:
Bj did his job of getting the candy for the candy buffet… times 10! Seriously this guy got so much candy, it’s so funny. It’s a good thing I ordered little bags so that people can take some home! I got all the containers last week with my mom at Tuesday Morning, pretty cool place. I worked on the table numbers:
Pulled out old school supplies: vintage sign stamps, foam stamps and paint, and gold embossing powder from a middle school impulse buy at the Oregon State Fair (the wheeling and dealing barn gets me every year). And to think I almost purged that stuff! Sciarrino and I drove all over looking for goodies for the hotel room gifts, more on that tomorrow. We also "had" to stop in Anthropologie where I went totally insane and got the flippin cutest honeymoon dress ever invented, among other things. Today was all about cleaning and fine tuning. I had to totally dismantle my bedroom so I could clean every square inch and get ready for:
A new bed! Bj’s parent’s (mom and step dad) wanted to help us financially with our honeymoon, but we wanted something more long lasting, and what could be better than a 20 year warranty on a Tempur-pedic? My dad has these mattresses, and when ever I spend the night over there to watch Em I have the best night’s sleep ever. Plus this bed is a QUEEN, I’ve never had a bed this big! It’s a good thing I got some of the queen sized linens I registered for early at my showers, because I own nothing this big. I had homemade twin sized quilts on my full sized bed (although cleverly disguised if I do say so myself), but there is no stretching them to this size. I aired out the room (goodbye storm windows! Hello summer!) and walked all over the thing (good workout, it’s like walking in sand), so I’m off to make the bed!
Another Helper
Michele and Brett came down today with V so that I could get some more of the little things out of the way. And we did get a ton done, maybe that’s because they stayed for seven hours! I also got the plumbing fixed. "What was it?" "About 40 years of hair, soap scum and make up" "oh." Ewwwww, but all better now. I had a mini melt down with the bank. I’m trying to pay all my vendors, but I have a debit card daily limit. So I call to see if I can have it changed and they are like, "oh no, we can’t do that it’s a master card policy." So I have them transfer me to Master Card who say they have no such policy. Then I go back to the bank (twice because the first call was dropped) and I plead with them, "the money is IN the account, you know it’s there, why can’t I use it?" They are telling me I should just write a check, to which I explain I can’t because I don’t live in the city where I’m getting married. I tried everything, talking to supervisors, crying (but not so much on purpose), pleading, telling them my wedding is in 9 days, nothing. So now I have to contact all the vendors and have them stager payments off the card, grrr. It’s such a scam, I mean I think if you have the money in the account they should let you spend as much of it as you want. Back to the pretty things:
Straws, check!
Buttons, check! Oh how I wish I could record people’s reactions to their buttons. Because each button is specifically for a person they should get a pretty good kick out of them. And they are designed exceptionally well (thank you Sciarrino). This also proves that our count is 100% done. I know exactly who is coming, and since the number is a bit less than what we had originally planned for and we still have to meet the minimum food/beverage requirement for the room we’ve decided on….. An OPEN BAR. Are my friends reading this?
Key cards are almost done, just have to write the names on, and then put in order by table number. I’m going to have to fold newsprint around all of these because I’m afraid the keys will leach onto the paper. 
V watched and was a very good girl and let us get a lot done. Now onto the projects of the evening, finishing V’s dress and dressing up the tree containers.
9 days until I do!
My Party Planning Bi-atch
So Sciarrino and I have been hard at work making wedding related piles of stuff that is littering my house right now. I think it’s like a war room, I have the tactical seating chart on one wall, buttons for guests on the other, and emergency candy and diet coke ready to go in the kitchen, not to mention 164 163 bottles of champagne in my living room. These were delivered yesterday by Bill:
And of course I had to chill some and make sure they were good:
Are these not the cutest things ever?!?! I found the blue ones of these in In Style Weddings Summer 2003. I had to have them (of course), I mean who wants lame champagne flutes with hearts when you can have these puppies? Michele found the pink ones, and I was able to track those down as well. Then I had another problem. The article showed them on a tray with cute straws and little cards on the straws that said "cheers". I set Michele on the task to find cool straws, no problem right? Wrong, it turns out cute drinking straws are practically non existent. So what did my resourceful bridesmaid do? She impersonated me and tracked down the writer of the article, who got back to her right away and told her that the straws actually come with the champagne, and that a calligrapher had done the cards. I was blown away by this, the writer! Now that’s above and beyond. But yes the straws came with the drinks, and I’ve already started making the cards myself for the straw (check my POTD from a few days ago to few a sample idea). I’m having a stamp made that says "cheers" so that I don’t have to write on every card. Oh and speaking of stamps:
Check out this beast! I think Sciarrino and I might do up our own line of stamps we’re having so much fun making them up. This stamp is for the cards that slip into the napkins, we put it on a rocker to speed up the process. And the 153 cards went really fast because the ink I got practically dries on contact. MMmmmm I love that stamp. Also for those cards, I cut 153 hearts:
(my studio is a mess) And went through 8,000+ keys to find the most perfectly cute ones:
Wait, back up? I have 8,000 keys? Why yes, I do. Michele and I did an instillation artwork in college that involved a freaking crap load of keys. I’ve been storing them under my mom’s house, but crawled under there last week to get them (creepy town!!!) so that I could use some on the table cards (you know "key to my heart" but not so literal and sappy… I hope). Emilie and I lugged the buckets (heavy) into the living room and sorted through them all. Keys are dirty, I think I’m going to wash these before continuing on with the cards. And…
I have to call a plumber. Ugh.
Shower #3
That’s Kathy, Karen, Katie, and Kristen from left to right. Now that you see how many "K" friends I have I think it’s easy to see why I call so many of them by their last names!
I didn’t see the invites before the party because the theme was a surprise. It was an alphabet shower, everyone got a glitter letter with their invite and then got me a gift to correspond with that. It spelled amber, bj, life, love. So cute! And the girls were pretty clever. Katie Lek. got me cute little undies, and when I asked her what that stood for (because she had an M and everything else in the bag had to do with muffins) she said, "man bait" LOL I was dying. 
Sue got me this beautiful bowl for the "E", empty. It is screaming to have dyed easter eggs put in it, so I might do a late easter celebration, because there is no way that is getting done before the wedding.
Sciarrino made me this fab bag, wait what was your letter Sciarrino? It’s so cool, I’m thinking honeymoon carry on. Love the fabric, mmmmm.
Ceara don’t our moms look cute!
And of course one with my very concerned looking little friend. Awe V you’re too cute!
Pillow Talk
Some thing non wedding related, it’s a shock! Iman sent me these sweet pillow cases. They have darling hand embroidery, my favorite things are the little green swirls on each side. I love these, thanks so much Iman, this was a sweet break from wedding madness!
Trees Please
My dad and I headed to his friend’s nursery this morning to check out possible trees for the ceremony and reception. Today was a beautiful day to go, sunny and bright with so many things just starting to push out little buds and flowers. The first thing that caught my eye was this fire red maple:
But I thought with all the green going on in the room this might read a little too much like Christmas. So I settled on a tree that is already pushing out beautiful little leaves. And might even have blooms in two weeks (white ones):
I really wish I had some kind of magic ball to see what it will look like in two weeks, but I think this is a safe bet. 
and the church trees will look pretty similar:
Just a little smaller. I had them give me empty containers to decorate ahead of time that the trees can just be slipped into. So now I just have to pick out some fabric to go with the fantastically huge ribbon order that is coming today. Oh yes, that ribbon you were wondering about is going to come into play very soon.
Okay Bj that update was mostly for you, so what do you think of the trees I picked?
More check marks
Had my final dress fitting today, made a few more changes. And to make sure I don’t look like some one ran me over with a truck I slept in this morning, like un plugged the phones slept in until 10:45, and after 4 and 5 hour nights 10 and a half felt pretty fantastic. Then I ran a bunch of wedding errands, picking up another custom stamp Sciarrino designed for the table cards, getting some accessories, and finding the perfect color ink. Tonight I worked on the seating chart/ball room layout. My mom did the whole room up on CAD for me and had it printed off huge so I can move tables around and figure out where everyone is going to sit. I did that while watching Bones, which I am now seriously in love with. Rented the first season with Bj and then had to get the season pass on iTunes to catch up. Love it! In between those things I manage to break my driver’s side mirror with my garbage can. And I wasn’t even driving, it’s the can that’s getting the moving violation. So by the time my little brother buys the car from me it will be almost entirely new, grrr.
Tomorrow I’m going to our family friend’s nursery to look at trees for the reception (and two for the ceremony). We found someone to drive them up to Portland for us. It’s hard to find people to help with these type of things because the people I would normally ask are coming the reception. So one of my brother’s friends is helping with the driving, and then I’ll hire big burly guys to actually move them.
The main issue I’m running into right now is the lighting. We can’t turn on the florescents (because they’re nasty and I want our party to be "nasty free") and the chandelier is now looking like it won’t work out because the long truss we need to have it hang from is going to be way too expensive. I’m hoping with wall sconces, spot lights on the trees, stage lights, and candles on the tables there will be just enough light, but I don’t know, it’s making me really nervous. I mean you only have to watch Clueless once to know how important a lighting scheme is.
Oh and even though I know to within 7 people who is coming to the wedding I still have 44 outstanding RSVPs, and I know 2 of them it’s because the invite never came (one of those is my future mother in law, ack!). My binder has really horrible empty looking sleeves left in it still for those cards, so if you have one please send it back. I love what Sciarrino said, "I don’t get it, they could RSVP. I mean I could take those invites and sell tickets to this thing." So true Sciarrino, so true.
15 days left to stamps, tweak, plan, press, pin, tie, cut, knot, stamp, tear, and buff up my arms!!!
Thank you so much for your sweet comments about Bj and I! I’ll be sure to share tons of the weddign photos!
Picture Happy
Okay once again let me say that I love our photographer. I also love Bj, rainy days, and Oregon. All of which I got to enjoy last Saturday. I am hoping against hope for this same kind of moody/rainy/windy weather for our wedding. Please don’t say I’m crazy. Straight up sunshine is not my favorite kind of weather. It has its place, say in July, but in March in Oregon my bet is on the gloom. And the gloom glows, it’s the best light to photograph in, the light that looks like it will break through the clouds any moment, but never quite does. So here are my favorite shots from a gloomy glowing day!
We found this storage unit place in the Pearl to start our day. How sick is that yellow people? I think Bj and I have a million pictures where he’s picking me up, but usually you can’t tell because you just see our upper bodies, so this is fun to see the hight difference (one whole foot), right after this I lost a shoe!
Hehehe, he always makes me giggle.
I loved Bj’s Eskimo kiss idea.
For our collection, we love our shoes!
This was a bit dangerous, the whole scaling a wall thing.
As you can see we tracked down every cool wall in the pearl. The only way we would have done better would have been by getting on rooftops (and someday I will!). And the forehead kisses are my favorite thing ever!
Gotta love the wind. This new boardwalk thing is sweet too, by the way.
And my favorite: the puddle jumpers!
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3, hehehe
Love you Beeg!!!