Corset! I has it!

Yesterday I drove up the state to pick up my corset. My (extremely talented) friend made it for me. We needed to do some last minute hand sewing to get the straps where we wanted them, and we chatted for a bit while that was going on.
Then, proud artist that she is, she had my put it on again and took picatures:

There will be, ahem, less shelf action at the wedding. This picture shows me in the skirt I wore to work that day. The actual skirt is the same color blue with an overlay of sheer black fabric.
Anyway, here are some close ups of the crazy beautiful detail:
Front:

Back:

it is blue satin with black lace overlay.

As soon as I came home AJ wanted to put me right back in it (and I need his help for this), and I took pictures of the whole outfit (minus the shoes), which I will post as soon as I've uploaded them to the computer.

4 days to go!

Getting close

5 days to go!
We took a chunk of the weekend off from wedding planning. We attended a friend's wedding and my nephew's 4th Birthday Party. Lots of fun with kids, babies, laughing with new friends and old.

Then we came back and back to it we went.

First house guests arrive tomorrow!

This afternoon I am driving an hour plus to pick up my corset! SO excited. A friend is making it for me as a gift and it turned out more complicated than we thought. Which accounts for the delay. But now it's ready and I am going to get it, right after work!

This means my outfit for Wedding Event I is complete.

So, of course, I have to start second guessing. Do I want to wear the boots I bought for the wedding, which are really (really) pretty, but also higher heels and thus less comfortable (even though I've been practicing), or wear my kick ass platform stompy boots, which are comfy and kick ass, but not special for the wedding?

These are the things occupying my mind this morning, instead of the work I should be doing...

On Pampering

We are a week away from Wedding Event I. This time next week I will be....hopefully NOT running around setting up but gently delegating and trying not to muss up my hair/make up/clothes.
This week has been busy, what with finalizing with vendors, and guests, trying to finish up the little details still left, and, you know, regular work/life stuff.
The things that stand out most in my mind about this week, however, are the new experiences I had, and they fall under the heading of "pampering".

I am not a girlie-girl. I'm just not.

So having the make-up and hair trials this week was novel, and exciting for me.

I went with my friend H, who's also my hair stylist, to the make up store for a consultation. The first 10 minutes, were rough. The make up guy was disappointed in my moisturizing habits, and the fact that Ido not pluck my eye brows for example. But after that it was great. He wandered the store and came up with all sorts of things to make me look like me, but a notch or two fancier. He was patient and explained things well, letting me see the progress every few minutes as H was taking notes so she could reproduce the effect. She will be doing my hair and make up for both Events I and II as her wedding present (very generous of her!). At the end we bought some stuff and off we went. I came out pleased with the way I looked and overwhelmed with the sensation of pampering.

A few days later I met H, at her salon to do my hair trial. First we did the usual (I dye my hair black and, right now, have teal extensions in it as highlights). Then she brought out all sorts of styling things, and did my hair. She did an updo, with curls down the back (my hair's curly and down to the middle of my back). She also clipped little crystal beads into my hair and put the fascinator I made out of my grandmother's brooch in there. It all works well together and with the jewelry Rahel made for me to wear. Again, I felt very pampered.

I'm not used to being worked on like this. Not used to having professional beauty industry people use their time/expertise/style, to make me look pretty.
It feels nice.

I, of course, did not bring my camera, so I don't have pron to post yet, but H, did take a couple of pictures and will email them to me.

And now I have a pretty good image in my mind of how I will look on at the wedding. This time next week in fact!
Yay!

Quick update

We are 9 days away from Wedding Event I

This week has been spent on details, nuts and bolts, and minor freak outs.

Things we’ve done:

Finished the girls’ outfits.
Rahel’s finished the jewelry
Shira’s finished the card box (well, that was last week)
Center pieces are finished
Guest book stuff is finished
AJ hung fairy lights in the trees
My dad’s finished the planting and beautifying the yard
We’ve given last payments to the caterer, the cake lady, the rental people for Event I and the venue for Event II
Went to get make-up consultation with the lady who’s doing my hair and make up (her wedding gift to us)
Finished the ceremony text
Almost finished the vows.
Made manicure appointment for my girls, AJ’s mom and me.
Prenup draft is done!
Seating arrangement for Event II

Things still to do:

Finish the vows
Pay the photographer’s last payment
Get drinks for Event I
Order cheese cake for Event I (and one non cheese cake as per Shira’s request)
Decorate the yard (Abbey will help me with this)
Go over ceremony with our officiant.
Sign the prenup and get it notarized
Put together favors
Make disk of music for Event I in case ipod doesn’t work out.
Make and distribute flyers to the neighbors telling them Event I is happening.
Clean the house (some at least) and get it ready.
Other things I am forgetting now
Remember to eat right, sleep enough and breathe.

The minor freakout was handled by making lists, doing some stuff, and going out to a movie.

16 days!

Wowee! We have 16 days left before Wedding Event I!
We just returned from Burning Man and so now wedding planning is getting into high gear again (oh, and of course, catching up on work, email, etc. dealing with kids, groceries, lifestuff and such. Must remember to sleep!).
The big pieces are done and now we are on to the many many littler details we still need to finish. Last night I realized I am running myself ragged listing things mentally to myself, over and over. The result? An actual list, with a time line!
Things left to do include
Finishing the favors
finishing the center pieces
Finish getting the kids outfits together
Finish prettifying the yard (my dad's helping with that and doing a great job of it)
Get beverages
Finish setting up lighting in the yard
Make seating chart for Wedding Event II
Finalize ceremony text
Finalize Vows (oh yeah...)
Finalize things with photographer
Do the corset handover with the lovely lady who's making them for me

I'm sure there are more, but yeah, that's what I remember (the actual list is at home, I'm at work. eh)
Wheee!

Just under a month!

Ohmygod! We are at just under a month! Our Wedding Part I happens on September 25. Part II will happen on October 3 (the first's for family, the second for friends).
Many things are done and most other things are almost done or cannot be done until the week of. We will buy cheesecakes for Part I (and one non-cheese cake as per Shira's request), we will finish the favors, which include edibles, we (well, AJ) will hang fairy lights in the trees. My father will finish designing the beautification of the yard (and I will prohibit him from doing the physical work himself); we WILL finish tidying up the house before 40 people descend on it; we will do many other things that I cannot think of right now.
In the meantime, I need to finish hemming Shira's dress, help Rahel find a tie (she's wearing a suit!), hope my bolero comes in time, finish writing the ceremony and our promises to each other, figure out the sand thingy (we're doing a 4 people unity thing which will include the both of us and the girls), make sure the vendors are on track (and pay them), and try and do as much of this as I can before leaving for Burning Man next week. AJ's already left. He'll be gone until September 8th, which leaves us, what 17 days? Right. 2 weeks to finish everything while still maintaining life, and our sanity.
But it feels ok, like we're getting there, and then we have years and years to relax together. (um, yeah, we tend to come up with big projects on a regular basis...)
One month to go!

I've not updated in a while (bad blogger!), but in my defense, life's been busy. School's back in session, but the girls' school is not-go figure. So I have been working full time and dealing with bored kids who are sooooooooo ready to go back to school (in my opinion, of course). Anyway, what with work, home life, kids, getting ready for Burning Man, and getting ready for a wedding in (ohmygod) just about 6 weeks...yeah, life's busy.
However
We have been getting things done. The music is all but done (Rahel's done a great great job with it all), the card box is in process (Shira's working on that), both my skirts are done, one for the family wedding and the other for the friends' wedding, my corsets, I hear, are coming along nicely. My dad's feeling better and the work on the garden's coming along; it's going to be beautiful! The girls' outfits are just about done. The lawyer/prenup thing is progressing. We've finished the programs. That was a big one. AJ, mostly, worked on that. A lot. It started as a simple project mainly because I felt the need to cite the sources we were using (English teacher that I am). And the project grew and grew until its final form was a booklet of silver paper pasted onto blue and with black words printed on it. We also pasted pictures of ourselves on one page, and created a crossword puzzle with trivia about us (well, the internet helped with that part).
Here's the finished product:

The other big piece we finished, and one on which I mostly worked, is the center pieces. I got the idea here: http://offbeatbride.com/2009/01/diy-ornament-bouquet but changed it around a bit. Instead of a bouquet, it's a centerpiece, and that means construction had to be different. I played with it a while and finally found the right way to do it. We also experimented with different sizes of ornaments so the result is a mix of sizes. My niece Abbey helped with this project and it was fun to hang out with her a bit.

This will sit in the middle of a pewter dish with black and blue marbles on it. I'll post pics when it's all done.

Things still to do:

Finish the prenup stuff
Pay the vendors the balances
Finish putting favors together
Rewrite the ceremony a bit as we've talked to our officiant and have a better idea how it's all gonna go.
Finish the earrings the girls and I will wear
Finish working on the yard decorations (closer to the date)
Talk to the photographer about shots we want
Do seating chart for the friends' wedding
Do the technical paperwork for, you know, getting married
Find a frame for the guest book explanation sheet
Write the individual parts of the ceremony

I'm sure there's more that I am forgetting...