Author: Polgara

Originally written May 28, 2006
The sis and I are up and about. The sis is cleaning (yes, ON HER WEDDING DAY, go figure), and I’m painting my nails and icing my knee in prep for a very long day in strappy heels. Soon our friends will be joining us with donuts, muffins and bagels, and the makeup and hair people will arrive, and it will be chaos, but hopefully in the fun kinda way. We sadly have no mimosas, as we forgot to pick up the fixin’s yesterday. Ah well.

Rehearsal yesterday was hilarious–the two flower girls and two ring bearers are five and under, and it’s going to be very interesting to see how they perform today. The reverend is also rather funny–even my uncle Paul got chastised at one point for not being prepared. Sadly, there will be no pictures allowed during the actual ceremony, by decree of the reverend; she very strongly believes that the marriage ceremony is sacred and should not be treated like a show or performance. What this means is that once the ceremony is over and people are leaving, we have to go back in to “re-enact” the key moments for the benefit of the photographer. Talk about a show! *g*

The post-rehearsal bbq was wonderful fun, although weird in the collision of worlds–Bronzers and local friends and family from both sides, plus my half-brother and his wife and BiL, whom I hadn’t seen in over six years and who didn’t know anyone else there (at the beginning at least; fortunately they’re very personable and made friends quickly). The wine went straight to my head of course, which meant I was flitting from group to group with the silliest of segues. AND, I got the most beautiful flask from pawswithclaws and mrlittlesister as a thank you for performing my duties as MoH–it was engraved with “Polgara” and a little kitty cat, and came with two shot glasses and a funnel in a cute little carrying case. It’s the coolest present ever!

Ok, done icing, gotta go do wedding-preppy type stuff, like deciding if I’m going to give a toast, and if so, what I’ll say. Meep!

Originally written March 26, 2006
The shower is over and went swimmingly, with only a few blips and freakouts. Some of the things I’d ordered online never arrived, so that was disappointing. The wine labels kept un-sticking around the edges, so we spent much time doctoring them with Crazy Glue. Also, the wine labels I’d designed were for bottles of a different year than the ones that A purchased, so instead of portrait, the labels on the white wines were landscape. Gah! The sign I made for the guest/scrapbook was too big for the frame, so we had to cut the edges off. I screwed up the scratch card game. And Nan recognized cars in the parking lot, so she wasn’t *entirely* surprised.

But these were all teeny things, and as a whole, I believe the event was a huge success. The room was beautiful, with balloons everywhere; the scrapbook was a surprising success–despite the deer-in-headlights looks at the prospect of polaroids of everyone, they all got into it and created beautiful and memorable pages; the cake was stunning; the food was perfect; only four people didn’t show up, which was masked by the three short-notice guests that did. Our friends were wonderful and so helpful, arriving early to help decorate and to assemble the most beautiful corsage ever, taking charge of the “ribbon bouquet”, taking pictures, and helping Todd pack the cars after most people had left. My uncle who recently relocated to Luxembourg was able to attend, which was a nice surprise for the sis (he’s walking her down the aisle). And the recipe book? Absolutely beautiful job by lulu.com, and a HUGE hit. HUGE. I have to send the link to a gazillion people who want to buy their own copy, and so many people were sad they hadn’t sent a recipe so that it could be included.

I was a bit preoccupied for the whole event, making sure everyone was eating and had what they needed. Anytime I had a moment to stop, I kept thinking there must be something I should be doing, but really, it didn’t require the constant vigilance I was giving it, I was just super-control-freak-girl. I was mocked for my gift log/numbered stickers system, but I was vindicated in the end, as my numbered stickers were the only way to recall who gave which placemats and which bowls and which glasses. Ha!

So yes, everyone seemed to have a good time and enjoy all the little touches, and several people told me I should consider event planning, to which I of course laughed long and hard. And now it’s over except for the posting of pictures, which I’ll do as soon as I get back to L.A. 🙂 Thanks to everyone for the advice, assistance, and support for the past three months!

I know, it’s been a gazillion and a half years since I updated this thing, and someday, I’ll be able to start a post that doesn’t start with “sorry I haven’t updated in so long,” but today isn’t that day. And for now, all I’m really doing is sharing a new toy:

I don’t know if that’s gonna work; if it doesn’t, I’ll move it over to the right column. But basically it’s a link to my pictures on Flickr, where most of the wedding weekend photos are stashed. It’s my goal to have as many pictures of the wedding weekend as possible linked here, either on Flickr or wherever they’re living. To that end, if you have pictures you’d like to share, please let me know–I can either link to them, or you can send them to me and I’ll put them up to be linked. Email is feewiwwy [at] hotmail [dot] com.

Edited to add: Ok, that didn’t work at all. I’ll put it up in the right column instead. Or, you can just go here:
Nan’s Bridal Shower
Nan’s Bachelorette Party
The Wedding Cake
The Rehearsal Dinner
The dress fittings
Wedding Day (mostly prepping in the morning and early afternoon)
The Day After (hanging out with our out of town friends and family)

But on the bright side, there’s also Panda Kindergarten!

Every etiquette website I’ve surfed in the past month has assured me that it’s impolite to include registry information with invitations of any kind. And while I completely understand the reasoning, it burdens any guest who may actually want that information with the task of seeking it out on their own. How annoying.

Therefore, I’m going to risk the mantle of impropriety in order to assist anyone who may have found this website through clever deduction*, by providing the information that you may or may not require–where Nancy and Todd are registered. (Seek and ye shall find…)

*Trust me, if you’re here, you may count yourselves among the clever, as not everyone can trace an email address to a website….not that there’s anything wrong with not being web-savvy, of course.