Things are really getting busy...

There are a lot of projects on the table right now... Thought I'd list the immediate ones, partially for my organization, and partially, well, to post.
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Invitations: B's finishing step 1 of the actual invitations down south; they should be ready to come up by next weekend. We'll work on step 2 and 3 the weekend of 4/3. I'm working on envelopes at home right now, and I'll get the outer envelopes from B this weekend so I can start labeling next week.
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Placemats: 56 have fabric on them, which means another 44 need fabric. We're planning 100 for now, and additional ones can be made if we get more than 100 rsvps. Then, all 100 need ribbon and backing. Goal to get this done: 3 weeks from now.
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Giftboxes: We've done nothing! Well, we have all the supplies. I need to cut and glue paper on to all of them, as well as make the contents. I think the making will occur the weekend of 4/3 because baking can happen while other stuff is happening.
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Registries: Will be finished up the weekend of 4/3. BBB's will take a while though... there's a lot to go through.
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Website: Needs: photos for a few things, hotel information, and registry links and info. I think that's it though!
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Centerpieces: My big project this week and next week during the week. I sit at home and cut and make paper roses. No joke. I made probably about 40 last night and cut probably about 70. Not very productive, especially considering each centerpiece needs about 200 roses. UGH.
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Lanterns: Our friend, Tiana, it cutting circles and folding, B is doing the same. Our friend, Jenn, is stapling and making lanterns. So, while I NEED to staple the petals I have, I have to work on centerpieces the next couple of weeks. Those take greater importance right now.
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Food: I need to do a test-run of the rouladin to double make sure the freezing/thawing process doesn't ruin the integrity of the item. This is more to please my parents than me... I've done this before! Ugh. But I suppose it will make me happy too. Food preparation should begin the first week in May. I figure 1.5 months frozen is an ok time. I plan on freezing the rouladin in gravy so as to keep it moist in the freezer. Spaetzle will be made probably the first week in June.
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Tablecloths: Need to be made. I have the material... but I think I will use the material I have on chair covers first, and then possibly use the remainder or buy thicker material for the tablecloths.
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Chair Covers: Need to be made. ASAP. We will be measuring the hall this weekend, as well as taking detailed measurements of the chairs. Then it will be a matter of cut and sew for me. I need to get these finished soon. Hopefully by mid-April.
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Yellow Lanterns: Haven't even begun to be made. Eek. I figure we'll probably need about 200 of these.... They will be easier than the regular lanterns because these only need to be hung on a vertical strand... but still.
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Hiring Workers: One has been hired, the other 2-3 need to be. This will occur in late April/early May.
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Flowers: Need to be ordered. Probably this weekend. I need to also order other items for the flowers, and that will probably happen online or I will call local florists.... that will probably occur next week.
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Menu Cards: Will occur late-April, once I do a test-run of the rouladin.
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Name Cards: Will occur mid-June, after we've hunted down all the RSVP folks.
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Church Decorations: I think we're going to do all-white. There had been the hope of doing color, but B and I discussed it, and we like the idea of lanterns in the church done in all white. Thign is though, white will show staples more, so we may glue these lanterns. 28 rows, each side, so 56 pews to hang on, times 3 lanterns each = 168 lanterns. I have beautiful white satin ribbon to hang them on. B & I think it will be a nice way to tie the church decorations with the reception decorations
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Dress Rehearsal: I need to fill out the card reserving things. UGH. I keep forgetting. B and I need to decide who will provide the meat... probably a local BBQ place.
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Cake Decorations: I have to get started on these. Maybe a day in the next week or two can be devoted to these....I will probably start after 4/3 weekend because I want to do a few more practice ones and get B's input.
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Rose Droplets: It depends on whether we get the centerpieces done with enough time. I'd like to have 3 rose droplets on the back of each chair at the reception, but if we dont' have time, these will become lanterns instead.
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Table runners: Need to be sewn. This shouldn't be too complicated.
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Wine Glasses: Need to be cleaned (they have logos on them right now... extras from an event) and have charms put on.

There's more, but you get the idea....

China

B and I looked at china last week, and we liked a pattern that was $80 a setting (on sale... no guarantee how long that will last). We wanted 8 patterns, and that worried us since we weren't sure that would happen. We'd hate to get 3 sets and be unable to afford to purchase the remaining 5, you know? 

So, I mentioned this to my father last week, hoping he'd have suggestions about where to go. No, he's not a china expert, but that man has some interesting pockets of knowledge. He got back to me later last week with an interesting offer...

My grandmother, my Oma for those who know her, has always said that she wants me to someday take her china set. It's a NEAT pattern, beautiful raised 3-D ivy leaves encircling the borders of each plate, cup, saucer, and serving item. My grandmother doesn't entertain much anymore, and really never uses the set. My father wanted to know if he could drop a few hints to my grandmother about her using that as a wedding gift for us. 

I was torn initially... but after talking it over with B, we think it's something to delicately look into. We'd both rather have a sentimental set that was handed down to us. And, if we feel like we need a bone china fine white set with lace-flower embellishments, we've agreed that can be our 5 or 10-year anniversary gift to each other. 

There are a few things that need to be done though. Even though my Oma has always told everyone this is for me (I was the one who always oogled over it, ran my fingers over the leaves, had friends over for dinner there and birthdays, etc), I want my dad to run this idea by my sister. Then there's my grandmother... I'd like the idea to come from as if she thought of it, not my dad or me. Also, we'd like  her to keep the set until we're in a house. Any entertaining we do before then can be with our daily dishes, and this way, SHE still has them if she does want to entertain (or have my mom entertain for her at her home). This way too, we don't have to worry about the china getting broken with each move (there are at least 2 moves scheduled in the next couple of years). I'd like to have a china cabinet for them in our future house too, ready and waiting for when we finally receive them.

So a lot of ifs, but B likes the set. And you already know my thoughts. It's not exactly traditional wedding china, but I love it. B loves that it has sentimental value, and he likes the unique pattern. Looking at it materialistically, this also does free up a lot of our registry too, so we will hopefully receive more items that we will use on a more regular basis to make our lives more enjoyable belongings-wise. 

Here's a picture of the pattern. I'm going off memory, but I believe that's the set. My father is going to investigate further to make sure it is a nice set with replacements somehow available. 

It is exciting. 

Registry-ing, take II

So, after visiting Crate and Barrel, we decided to split our registry between there and Bed, Bath, and Beyond. 

For the things that show (platters, bowls, etc), we're going with a crisp white with no embellishments. That will match our current daily plate set (clean, crisp, graceful white). Glassware we're keeping all clear glass, and we're not requesting mugs, since we like our many different mugs that we have. Items on the counter on the kitchen: we're trying to keep that down, and we're making the few canisters,cups, etc that we do get have stainless steel embellishments. Things like platters, we've decided to go for a few that have wood. They are so pretty. 

We both really like wood-tones, but we think we can't go for too many. What if our new house has wood floors? What if we need to replace something? So we're going for a few. Wood bathmat, wood trivets for coasters, wood salad bowl and tongs. 

Still, after spending hours visiting the stores and then working on it last night (category by category, organized progression), we hardly have anything on there. We've been told by MANY people to put too much stuff on our registries so people have choices. We're trying. We'll see where we're at when we get through with BBB and C&B. 

But so far, we are SO happy. It all goes well together, and they're all classy pieces (we think) that will last and stand the in/out/modern phase. We are so excited. We're trying to think forward... what we will be using in the future and now. We have requested beautiful serving pieces that we will use and are excited about. We just can't wait. We're finally probably goign to get rid of lots of our lousy college cruddy things, and start a life together. It's more than the things... but that is nice too. (though that sounds so materialistic)

Countdown!!

100 days from today is the wedding!

EEK.

I think it's beginning to hit home how many projects we've taken on. I'm hoping this weekend will be productive so that we can see what we need to do...

To do list for tonight: ORGANIZE. I have so many things scattered everywhere, and it makes me uneasy. I'm going to print out labels... you know: "placemats & supplies", "Napkins & Silverware" etc etc and bring up all the boxes from my car. I'm SO tired of the mess. Problem is, I am SO tired when I get home. Must. get.the.energy....

Saturday B has a lunch, so we're hitting up Costco first (checkin' out cheeze), then while he's at his lunch, I'm on the hunt for shoes and coffee carafes. Maybe swinging by target too since they (online at least) have BIG water containers. Did you know those orange gatorade cooler things at football games are $40 each? And that's if you find them cheap. Geez. When B gets out we're heading over to Crate & Barrel.

I'm a bit conflicted. We had discussed it, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond has much of what we want, so we were going to simplify things for our guests and request items from there, china from (probably) Macys and then suggest gift cards for Costco, and either Home Depot or Ikea. BUT, Crate & Barrel has a lot of cute stuff. I'm on their mailing list, and it would potentially fill in some blanks from BBB. But then we're talkign about two registries at two different places. I think if C&B doesn't make a great impression on us, then we're going to stick with BBB...

Then home to do taxes and craftiness. Those are two separate things; we're not getting crafty with our taxes.

Registry

Registries... tons of fun? It was, sorta. There's a lot more that goes into this than I think either of us realized.

1) What are the realistic price ranges for our friends/family. We may love that $600 pot set, but that's not something we should count on getting. A lot of our friends are young, and have more important things to devote their money than to a $600 pot set for J & B. So, we're trying to find a lot of items in the $20-$60 range, as well as a lot of smaller items. And, of course, there's the occassional big item that we hope we get.

2) Piecemail sets or not? So we can't get the $600 pot set (We wouldn't, most likely, and please, seriously, if you were going to get us that pot set, please just give us a check instead!)... so should we order a set piecemail? As in, one person gets us a $40 pan, another gets us a $40 pot, etc etc. Well, we realized THAT'S risky, because what if we get only 2 pots and pans? We'd be left buying ourselves the rest of the set... I think we decided to not put down pots and pans, and instead to plan on buying those for ourselves from Costco. Costco is goign to be on our registry, but only as a place where we list "giftcards only".

3) How do you indicate preference? Yes, a panini maker would be AWESOME, but we'd prefer to get two flatware sets (I think those are the ones we liked... B has it written down). And while they may seem typical, we'd really like the kitchen canisters . I wish there was a ranking system.

4) The quantity of things to put on the registry. This sort of goes with #3. Say we NEED 20 things. Well, that's not enough for the registry. So we add in 50 things that we like, but don't need. How do you indicate those that you need?

5) We will be moving. In the next year and a half, we want to get a house... so everything we request has to be NOT geared to our current apartment. You wouldn't think this would be hard, but it is. For eg, B has a love of potracks and we need some sort of under counter wineglass holder, but we don't know if either will fit into where we eventually end up. So we have to go with the items that will be flexible, because we'd hate someone to buy us somethign that we can't use in the near future.

6) Styles... We don't want to go for the "in" things too much. Misseireann had the good anology for me of "don't be like the 70's people and request things in avocado color." Hm.

7) Colors. Do you realize how much kitchen stuff is nowadays in color?? Rachel Ray has some CUTE cookware sets , KitchenAid too , and while they're adorable, a) how will we know we want that color in 5 years, b) how will we know that color will go with our future home, c) replacements will be hard to find, and d) how do you get all them to match? You'll get stuck buying from one brand only, hoping they don't discontinue the tomato red color or something. Plus, who's to say tomato red won't be "oh-so out" in a year? Grumble. I actually had this problem when someone bought me a wonderful Kitchenaid mixer for grad school graduation. I really wanted a colorful one, but I opted for a silver finish one because it'd went with just about any decor and wouldn't go out of style. And I am SOO glad I did.

There are other issues, but you get the gist.
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I suppose the result of all this is that if you don't get what you need, you buy it yourself. And really, this all sounds materialistic because it's about gifts. We're expecting gifts, and that feels weird.

I've seen lots of bad registries (too many places, too many things that don't go together, too haphazardly put together, too many cheap things, too many expensive things, too many things, too few things, etc etc), and B and I are TRYING to not fall into those categories. We have a list of things we want right now, but nothing's officially been scanned into a registry. We have about 3 weeks to get it done, but that's not a problem.

But, I must finish with a rave about my future husband. He is wonderful. He actually convinced me out of a sage coverlet with fantastic decor flexibility and cat fur arguments. And he made a great argument for a different set of china because the one we both liked didn't have the lace pattern china details. And I totally agreed. He makes me see things from different perspectives. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we don't. Sometimes he compromises, sometimes I do, sometimes we both do. He really does make me better.