And again.

We've already established that I'm officially THE MOST indecisive person ever.

Yes,  I'm referring to our Save the Date's. Again.

When we last left off,  I thought I came up with something that could definitely work.

Then I changed my mind. And I changed it again.

And again.

I was left with a new set of options, all of which I created, based on examples I had seen around the interwebs. Foxy was about ready to kill me and my waffely behavior. I mean, who's really going to care about these besides me? Here I am, wanting it to be fun and spunky and different, when really? A nice postcard would do. And I needed to accept that.

But onto the goods. The newer set of STD options.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

The first two would just be cards, put in an envelope and mailed out. The last one would be a 5x7 postcard (hence requiring one of my awesome forever stamps), and printed on metallic card stock. I would have loved for it to have rounded corners, but apparently you can't have rounded corners on postcards..?!

Or I thought I could just go back to square one and do a different version of that fun magnet photo booth style thing I came up with.

I really just needed to make up my mind. But I'm just so bad at it!

The one where we eat. A lot.

One of the millions of things we love about our venue is that catering is included. Everything is cooked and prepared by Susan, one half of the Vandiver Inn's husband-wife ownership team (another reason we love it - it's family own and run!). Since they don't technically have a "full service kitchen" and thus need to prepare food über-fresh the day of and is specific to each event, they don't do formal, traditional tastings.

What they do have are these super fun Monday Night Supper Clubs almost every week. The theme of each dinner varies, but Susan typically makes a multi-course family style meal for whoever decides to attend that week (usually locals). When we signed our contract with the venue, we were told that we were more than welcome to attend one (or several!) of these dinners free of charge to count as our "tasting" of sorts. The idea is that you get a feel for the food as a whole, even if you aren't getting those exact menu items for your wedding. Think of it as when you go to restaurant; you only try one or two dishes, but you can definitely tell whether a place makes fantastic food or not based off of that meal. Same deal at the Vandiver!

Image via Vandiver Inn

So back in June, Foxy and I decided to visit the venue again for two reasons. The first was to see it and the surrounding area at the same time of year that our wedding will be. The second.. well this should be obvious.. we went for a Monday Night Supper Club, aka our first official tasting!

The night's "theme" of sorts was locally grown produce and local meats. Foxy and I are big fans of buying and eating local and fresh, so this was a perfect meal for us.

We started out with some crispy goat cheese apps with corn relish and hot pepper jelly.

As a testament to how freaking delicious these little balls of heavenly cheese were.. Foxy had about 5. And he usually hates goat cheese. I'd say it was winner. Even better was the fact that we were able to mingle and enjoy said goat cheese and some wine on the porch before dinner started, which was so very lovely.

Side note: ideally, our cocktail hour will be split between the inside of the house and the porch/front area of the Vandiver. Some pictures!

I die over those umbrellas! I want one NOW.

The drinks at cocktail hour would be set up on the left side of the deck,

where the big Cocktails sign is. (Green pomanders left over from previous wedding!)

After enjoying the weather and scenery for a bit, we were called into dinner by John, aka number 2 of the husband-wife ownership team. Some inside pictures!

Aren't the copper tables to die for?? We so want one when we get a house!

As for the food itself.. well.. I kind of only have one picture of that.

Can you blame me? Everything was SO amazingly delicious!! If you couldn't read the menu up above, menu items included a garden salad with a homemade spring onion dressing (fabulous), grilled asparagus (meh I hate asparagus), stir fried portabellos, bok choy and snow peas (salivating), crispy potatoes with creamery garlic, chives and cheese (oh. my. god.), sourdough stuffed chicken with gravy (delicious), and strip steak (Foxy says it was mouth-watering - I passed since I don't eat red meat). For dessert there was an incredible blueberry ciafouti - think a mix between a blueberry muffin and coffee cake. Yum!

So our overall opinion? We done did goooood picking out a venue, and hence, a caterer. We definitely plan on going back many times before our wedding next year, both to enjoy more food and fall in love with the place a little more. Although I'm not sure that's even possible.

Gratuitous lovey photo by the water two blocks from the venue!

Don't you just love wedding related things that involve food?!

Five for Friday

Yes, it's crazy late on Friday and this almost shouldn't count, but I promised myself that I'd start this new "series" of sorts this week. In case you're wondering what the Batman I'm talking about.. Five for Friday is and will be a little shout out of sorts to my main squeeze (see Jessica and K for examples); aka, reasons I love Scot, in all their mushy, adorable, sentimental, possible puke-worthy goodness. I don't expect people to comment - this is more for myself and my little blog than anything else. There's lots of reasons I'm starting this (which I may eventually get into).. but for now.. here goes.

1. You write the answers to my crosswords next to the clue.. instead of in the boxes, since you know I hate that!

2. You came home early from work just because you wanted to be there for me when I needed it.. without me even asking you to.

3. You're the only one who can make me smile and laugh in the midst of tears.

4. You treat our herb "garden" like it's our child. Makes me giggle.

5. You always find a way to make me feel like the most beautiful person in the world, even when I feel the exact opposite.

Once again, it's never too early.

I don't have a save-the-date picked yet. I haven't printed out or assembled (or even decided how to assemble) our invites.

But you know what I do have?

Image via USPS

Stamps!!

180 stamps, to be exact.

I have no idea if this will be enough, or too many. Or if we can get our invites to an appropriate weight so that each one will only (hopefully) need one (or exactly 2) stamp(s). What I do know is that I couldn't resist USPS's new Forever stamps. They are not only incredibly fun and say "love" on them (as all mush-tastic wedding stamps should), but they kind of totally match our color scheme in a non-matchy kind of way. As in, the background color is a certain shade of teal. Which is similar to turquoise. And some of the flowers are orange. So it works.

Huzzah!

I guess I should probably explain why I seemingly went out and spontaneously bought "wedding" stamps real quick, though.

See, I'm not really a fan of the usual wedding stamps - you know, the cake, rings, hearts, etc. It's cute and all, but it isn't really mine or Foxy's style. I feel like I have come to expect those stamps on wedding invitations, and it always comes as a nice little surprise when a couple decides to do something a bit different. True, most people don't even notice silly things like the stamp on the envelope, but I do. Hence, I needed to find some stamps.

I first saw the new Garden Love Forever stamps a month or  two ago and instantly fell in love with them for the aforementioned reasons. I bought them now because they always seem to change up the Forever stamps, and I didn't want to miss my opportunity. Easy peasy. Pretty stamps = happy Fox.

Though I'm sure everyone and their mom will be using these stamps by the time I send out anything.

CRAP. I just realized I didn't factor in stamps for the RSVP envelopes!!! Ugh. Back to the post office I go.

Anyone else care about really, REALLY trivial details.. like stamps?

I can't fight this feeling anymore..

..except I totally know what I'm fighting aiming for.

REO Speedwagon anyone? No? Just me? Psh.

The long and short of it is that I keep getting asked what 'kind' of wedding we'll be having, what the 'feel' of it will be.

And for a while I had no stinkin' clue. I would ramble on and on about stuff no one but myself cares about, like how it will be a laid-back, kind of picnic-y summery feel with a splash of sophistication here and there. Modern with a twist. Simple but classy, but more casual-classy. Etcetera and so forth.

Then I came across this wonderful little term: rustic chic. The beautiful thing about this current wedding buzzword is that it can be defined a million different ways and it encompasses a wide variety of ideas, themes, details, etc. In the wedding world, it seems like everyone and their mother is doing their own twist on this, but whatevs. I'm totally enamored.

I would write out my personal definition of rustic chic (and hence, our wedding), but it's so much more fun to do it in an inspirational picture board, no?

From top to bottom..

Left: 1 2 3

Middle: 1 2 3

Right: 1 2 3 4 5

Clearly, there will be LOTS of turquoise, and we'll be adding accents of a light clementine orange here and there to complete the look. I just totally love the color combo!!

Definitely snatched this entire inspiration board

Le sigh <3

Tell me, what is/was the 'feel' of your wedding?

364.. count it!

Or..

You guys. Today officially marks the 1 year mark until we get married. This is HUGE. Like, Godzilla huge.

It just clicked that this is where 'bridezilla' comes from. Shut it.

Ok, maybe not that huge, but it's definitely super duper exciting!!! My very first post on this here little blog stated that we had 732 days until our wedding.. and now we are down to a precious 364. 

Hella good!

Now my big worry-of-the-moment is how the weather will be. This will mark the forth straight year of likely shitty weather on June 16th.

BIG. SAD.

I know it'll be awesome regardless, blablabla. I just wanted to whine and fret for a hot minute. ;)

Because I want to, that's why.

I'm warning you now that this post is going to be a little rant-y.

A bloggy friend recently wrote a great post titled "5 most annoying things about getting married." Number 5 on the list was the fact that people start acting like getting hitched is a death sentence - that you'll never be "free" again, that you're life is over, etc and so forth. Miss Petit Four also lightly touched on the subject here.

This got me thinking. Recently, a (commitment-phobic) acquaintance and I were talking about my upcoming nuptials, and he decided to use the analogy that getting married was like jumping off a plane.. but worse, because, according to him, 3 out of 4 marriages fail. He proceeded to ask me that if you were told that 3 out of 4 parachutes fail when you jump out of a plane, would you still do it? In other words, since 3 out of 4 marriages fail, why even bother?

I didn't really know what to say to that, aside from wanting to tell him to possibly keep his mouth shut. But it did make me think; knowing that more and more marriages have a tendency to not work out in this day and age, why do some of us - why do I - bother doing it in the first place?

I guess you can say that I don't come from a family of the best "examples." My mom and dad have been separated/divorced since I was about 7 or 8. My dad's parents are also divorced, and I know my mom sometimes wonders if her parents were truly happy together. That being said, both my mom and my dad have found true, honest happiness in their second marriages, which something beyond wonderful. In addition, Mr. Foxy comes from a family with a high marriage success rate - his mom and dad have been married for around 40 years, and his sister and brother-in-law are already up to about 15 years together.

The thing is, his family and his values inspire me. Maybe it's because of that, or maybe it's because I want different for myself than what happened to my parents (divorce is a super big fear of mine).. but I am so completely, 110% committed to making mine and Foxy's marriage work, regardless of what the statistics say. And I know he is, too. He has told me on more than one occasion, when I get scared and doubtful that marriages can actually last a lifetime (yes, I'm definitely affected by my parents' divorce, I'm working on it), that he wouldn't have asked me to marry him in the first place if he had any question in his mind that we couldn't make it "all the way." Till death do us part, and then some.

Just hearing him say that brings my confidence in our marriage back up to 1000000%. And it makes me feel really sorry for people who feel the need to put other people down because of their decision to get married to the one they love. I know that we all have our issues - that some people don't believe in marriage because it hasn't worked for them, etc - and I get it. That's fine; we all have our own opinions and beliefs. But you don't need to run around telling other people who are about to get married that it's not going to work, that they are silly for venturing into it.

So, why am I bothering getting married if 3 out of 4 (such an exaggeration, IMO) of them apparently fail?

Because I believe in it. And because want to. That's why.

Please keep in mind that this all just personal opinion.. feel free to agree/disagree/whatever!

Our date needs some saving (again)

When I decided that I actually needed to get my act together with the whole save the date STD thing (yeaa, we're just gonna go that route), I totally hated all the old ideas I had. I mean, they were ok, but I just kept seeing so many other fun, cute, unique ideas and my originals just felt.. lame. Or generic. But let's be real.. in all actuality, anything I do will likely have been done before.

::letting it go::

I was also feeling very uninspired. I'm sure I mentioned this before, but my creativity got thrown out the window when I threw my high school graduation cap up in the air.

Poof. Gone.

I knew the natural solution would be to have someone else create the STD's, or just use a template. But I really wanted to at least try to be creative. I originally wanted to design the invite suite myself as well, but I quickly learned that that would not be happening and we'd be using a friendor instead. So I at least wanted to take hold of these STD cards.

That being said, I had been browsing the interwebs for inspiration a while back and realized that I very much loved a lot of the pre-made STD designs on Minted.

Some of my favorites:

All images via Minted

Aren't they all just super cute and super fun? The only not cute thing about them is the price - I wasn't so much a fan of spending $180 (+ tax, + S&H) for 100 postcards. So I decided to fiddle around on my comper, hoping to make my own version of some of the samples up there.. and one of them actually came out pretty decent!! Mr. Foxy also happened to be a fan of my original artwork.. we may very well have finally found an STD to give to everyone! That's what she said.

It may not be the most unique or fancy or artsy thing anybody has ever seen, but I'm ok with that.

Some foreshadowing: don't be too surprised if/when I scratch this idea as well. ;)


Did you have a hard time finding an STD or was it an easy-peasy decision for you?

But.. but.. the buttons!

I will tell you this about my dress: it's relatively simple. It has just a bit of bling, but the cut and fabric make up for the lack of "stuff" going on. That being said, one of it's selling points to me was the fact that it had buttons. Buttons that went from top of the back of the dress alllll the way down to the end of the train. Simply gorgeous, and as I said, pretty much the deciding factor in declaring this dress the one.

So.

I went into my initial try-on at RK Bridal incredibly excited.. I mean, who wouldn't be?! There it was, hanging in the dressing room, my beauty in all it's glory. I slipped that baby on (and actually remembered to bring a strapless bra this time, woohoo!) and was thrilled that the top and bodice fit me to a T. Porkfect. I could tell that even with the one pair of 4" heels I'd be wearing during the wedding that I would still need to get the dress hemmed a bit - no biggie. I also need to get cups or something sewn into the top, but I already figured that would be the case regardless of the dress I bought.

Foxy Mama and I taking pictures of each other taking pictures of my dress ;)

So far, so good.

While I was admiring myself from the front, side, and back (narcissistic much?).. I noticed that those buttons I mentioned? Stopped midway down my butt, where the zipper stopped (yes they are faux-buttons, whatevs). Um.. where were my buttons???

I looked at my mom and mentioned it, and said that there were definitely buttons all the way down, to which we both agreed. Just to be sure, she had our assistant, let's call her Lisa, pull the sample - sure enough, it had buttons all the way down. I was getting every so slightly antsy (but totally kept the bridezilla at bay, I promise!) until Lisa told us not to worry; they would either get a new dress with the buttons all the way down, or would order the buttons and sew them on for me. The plan was to have my mom go back in the store when  it's corrected to do a once-over of the dress and make sure everything is kosher before having it shipped to Maryland (cost of shipping < NY taxes).

And THEN.

We go up to the front to possibly buy and take home my hairpiece (which we didn't because of the silly NY taxes, again), and the sales associate behind the counter, Mariah, was on the phone with Allure asking about the rogue buttons. From what my mom and I could gather, the person she was talking to at Allure was a big ol' bitch and not being very helpful. She didn't know if the dress should have buttons all the way down, kept putting Mariah on hold, insisted RK had the wrong sample or that they sewed the buttons on themselves.. who the heck knows. All I knew was that I tried on a dress with buttons, and I wanted my buttons. All my mom knew was that she would NOT pay extra for something that is supposed to come on my dress already. We weren't being bitchy - RK was totally on our side and trying the best they could to figure out the best way to get me those damn buttons.

Eventually, Mariah handed the phone over to Candy, the store manager. While I believe she was still on the phone with Allure when we left the store, she assured my mom and I that regardless of how it happens, I will get my buttons. When the dress finally reflects the sample I tried on, she will call my mom and have her come in to pay and do a once-over before shipping it and the hairpiece to me.

I know this is not the end of the world. I know it can be fixed. I know that I have more than enough time to get the buttons sewn on/order a new dress, have it shipped, and have it be altered. But it's just annoying, you know? Le sigh.

Anyone else have any trials and/or tribulations in regards to your wedding dress?

This is starting to get real.

You'll never guess what I'm going to do tomorrow.

For one,  it involves those massive amounts of shoes I've been buying off of Zappos.

For two (?), it rhymes with shmess shmitting.

Ehhh?

Ok yes.. it's my first official dress fitting!!

By the time you all read this, I will be well on my way to New York to meet up with my mom and stop back at RK Bridal to see and try on my beauty for the first time since November! It's going to be a very basic fitting - just to  make sure that they ordered the right size and such - and then it will make its journey from NYC to DC. Apparently, we will save oodles of money if we have it shipped from the store to my apartment, rather than buy it at the store and do alterations there, pick it up, etc (silly NY taxes).

The plan is that I'll get the dress (and headpiece?!) in the mail shortly after Tuesday's fitting and get the alterations done down here in Maryland/DC. So if anyone knows a good local seamstress, please let me know!

I must admit.. I'm very eager to see what the dress will look like with the (three pairs of) shoes I have as options. Oooh, the possibilities. Wish me luck!

Bridal Shower Weddiquette

I need your help, hive!

See, Foxy Mama has taken the initiative to email my bridesladies, namely my two maids of honor (more on that later) about starting to think about my bridal shower. Part of the reason for the advance thinking is simple: I have friends and family spread up and down the east coast. Close friends and family. In my bridal party alone, one is on Long Island, two are in Philly, and two are in DC. Lord knows if they will ever actually all be together in one place before the wedding itself.

Image via The Tizona Group

Needless to say, the decision of where to even have the shower is very pertinent, as planning can't begin until that is decided. Ideally, I'd like it to be in New York - it's where I grew up, it will always be home, it's my ideal city. However, that would require the majority of people traveling a long(ish) distance (especially with traffic), and I just don't see that realistically happening. Practically speaking, it should be in DC. You know, the one city where neither of my two maids of honor (or mom) live.

I know it's not a big deal in the long run, but small things like this seem to matter more than they should sometimes. I would just love a nice, fun bridal shower with my friends and family. End of story. But I have no idea how this stuff happens or how it works. Seriously.

Am I supposed to have any say in this? Does my mom take care of it? Do the bridesladies? Most important: who pays? (Foxy Mama would like to know the answer to that as well.) I need your help! Tell me everything you know about your experiences and bridal shower "etiquette," please. Or I'll be forced to give you the sad kitty eyes.

Image via Ebay