Mission Accomplished

We did it! All I have right now though is a quick teaser by our fantastic photographer,

Robert Krawiec:

PSA: Beverage Containers

I know I just said I won't be around much anymore, but this is too good to not mention.

Like most everyone else out there, I really wanted the beautiful glass containers in which to serve our nonalcoholic drinks.

Mrs. Cherry Pie

But I didn't want to spend a ton of money on them either and all of the bigger ones were at least $50. I finally resigned myself to the plastic ones from Bed Bath & Beyond for $20.

Currently out of stock

That's when my aforementioned wedding soulmate (WS) displayed her brilliance. Who needs that little spigot anyhow? And really, don't we want our guests to be able to scoop out some of the fruit to put in their glasses?

Genius! Enter a new search and a thrilling realization that the perfect jars (well, I wouldn't mind if they were 3 gallons, but close enough!) were $20 and glass! With free shipping! Amazon.com never fails to provide!

Amazon

I quickly added two to my cart and headed to check out. Crap. They would even ship until after WS's wedding! Since we're planning on sharing them there's no way for that to work. Back to square one. I start searching around and low and behold, there they were waiting for me at my local Target! And for a whopping $13.50! (It says they're out of stock but click on "Find it at a Target Store")

I was thinking it was too good to be true but immediately headed over to check it out. Sure enough! There were two of them in the size I needed and at a better price than I could have ever hoped for.

Success!

Anyone else snag some great steals they want to brag about? :-)

A Letter to Blog

Dear Blog,

You were started, as most are, as a place to gather inspiration and document my journey from engaged to espoused. However, I've met someone else. I met my wedding soulmate (who is not my fiance as he so adorably and hopefully guessed). We've practically been planning the same wedding and now we're joining forces to make both celebrations better.

I'm sorry I just disappeared on you. You deserved better. I promise I'll still be keeping an eye on you and of course I'll tell you all about how everything went afterwards. But really? I think we should see other people.

Sincerely,

C

A Rose is a Rose?*

I've struggled with what to do with my name once I'm married for longer than I've know my future husband. I know I want to have the same name as any future children but I didn't want to give up my identity either.** Additionally, all of my cousins are female and all of the older ones have already taken their husbands names so any continuation is up to my sisters and I. That held me up for a long time until I realized that my mother's maiden name was in the same situation. That added on yet another name I wanted to "save" so I went with an all or nothing approach. I'll be honoring both sides in a multitasking, in the moment, who cares about future generations sort of way. (It's not like hyphens typically last for more than a generation anyways.)
I am going to replace my current middle name (Rose - which I've never been especially attached to) with the same middle name as my grandfather and mother (St Clair). Add to that my maiden name as a second middle, which will hopefully be used socially, and fiance's last name and I'm all set!

First Middle Maiden Last.

I'll be honoring both my mom and dad's side of the family while still having a very simple and normal two word name when I want it. (Even if the explanation was anything but simple.)
The Mister will also be adding my maiden name as a middle name but I don't expect him to try and use it socially. :-)
I breathed a big sigh of relief once I got that figured out. Whew! No more stressing about it!
Hah. That lasted right up until a saw a post about signing your new name at the DMV. Crap.
I didn't want to just sign FirstName LastName because I would really like to use my maiden name socially in a faux-hyphenated sort of way but First Maiden Last is entirely too long! We're talking 7 letters, 7 letters, 5 letters which could certainly be worse but it really wasn't going to cut it compared to my current "CatCa" signature. So I got creative.
I tried "F Maiden Last", "F M Last", "Maiden Last" and even "F M M Last". None of them felt remotely like ME. So I left it for a bit before trying again a week or two later.
While I was never really called "Cait" growing up it's much more common now. I tried "Cait Maiden Last" which wasn't exact but I was getting closer. Then I realized that if I signed "CaitCam" (Cam being the first 3 letters of my Maiden name) it really looks quite a bit like my first name! Problem solved! And it only took a few attempts and one piece of paper!

I know I'm not the only one to have struggled with this. Anyone else come up with unusual solutions or compromises?

*This is a bit more amusing if you know that my middle name is Rose.
**There is also the slight possibility that I'm not a huge fan of his last name. It's rather common and he's no longer on speaking terms with his biological father whose name he carries. I suggested dropping his current last name and both taking on his "real" (step)father's name but he has too much of a career built upon his current name and he didn't want to lose the connection to his grandfather.

My Dress: Final Answer!

So after I blogged about how I got so lucky and found my dress for $50 I decided it's really not what I want.

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I've never been one to dream about being a princess but remember that whole never-say-never thing? I realized that this dress, while very pretty, wasn't special enough to me. Thanks to my grandfather I have gotten to go to some very special events and this dress wasn't any more interesting than some of the dresses I had worn before.

In 2000 my grandfather was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics and he brought his family along. (I wish I could dig the photos up for you. They're pretty entertaining as I was at the wonderfully awkward age of a late blooming 17.) The awards ceremony and banquet were probably the fanciest events I will ever attend in my life.

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(That's the King of Sweden handing Grandpa the award.)

I wore a long black dress that laced up in the back and even had a little train. It's basically the equivalent of the bridesmaid's dress I found for $50. And while I don't remember what exactly they wore, I was most impressed with the princesses. They were stunning.

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(You can just see her to the right of the Queen.)

That's when I realized that I don't want to look like a Disney princess, but I wouldn't mind having the presence of a real one and a $50 bridesmaids dress just wasn't cutting it.

I logged on to bravobride.com just to see what was out there when I saw that a dress I had wanted to buy earlier was still available. Not only that but the price had dropped. It had originally been listed for $500 which was a little more than I was comfortable paying. I had decided I would offer $400 but it wasn't accepted. Lo and behold, there it was, down to $400.

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Casablanca 1831. Ivory. My size. Unaltered except to add a french bustle.

I practically stalked this dress when I was visiting bridal shops. If a store carried it I ended up trying it on. It always made it to the top two.

Despite all this I wasn't sure enough to buy it. I was embarassed that I wasn't making myself go with what I had originally decided and it's pretty flippin' hard to argue against a $50 wedding dress. I showed my mom and sister/MOH and they convinced me that I wasn't crazy to want it. I emailed the seller and said that if she still wanted to sell it to me despite my earlier flakiness I would buy the dress. She said I was just in time. Another girl had emailed her that same day but since I was first it was mine for the taking. I took that to be a sign and sent her the money. It should be here on Friday and I haven't stopped grinning about it since.

**Photos by my mother if not otherwise credited.

A Breather

It's not like anyone has noticed, but I still wanted to apologize for being absent. I've noticed that our wedding planning definitely happens in waves and there's been a bit of an ebb lately. Actually, I think the best part of it is that I didn't even notice we were doing much until it started picking back up again! I'm going to tell myself that means I'm not obsessing about the wedding too much.

This last week the Peachy Groom's uncle was in town and we got to discuss our invitations. You see, in yet another lucky stroke we were able to utilize the talents of our family and friends yet again. Uncle Adam just happens to be an artist and graphic designer! I'm so excited for our invitations to come together! Things have really been falling into place for them and I can't wait to show them off!

I'm not sure when I realized that it wasn't marriage I was scared of, it was the wedding itself. It really can be a royal pain in the ass.


People understand budgets, but they don't understand why you would skimp on *their* aspect. Actually, the rental and food people have been awesome. It's mostly when you start talking wedding dresses that people go off the deep end.

"What do you mean? $800 for a wedding dress isn't bad!" (And it's not. The dress was worth that much.)

Or my least favorite, "Just keep looking. You'll know it's THE ONE when you put it on." They basically say that you're going to hate the way you look unless you find a dress you're absolutely head over heels in love with. (I had one wedding dress consultant tell me that she hates her wedding pictures because she doesn't like her dress.)

Ugh. The scary thing is that you hear it so often that you start believing it yourself.

I'm pretty stoked that I found a bridesmaid's dress on sale for $50. I'm not head over heels in love with it, it needs some work and it's two sizes too big and so on, but really? I'm going to make it mine and I'm pretty flipping stoked. Did I mention it was $50? I may or may not be bragging about that for the next fifty years.

(And in case you're curious, here's a sneak peek:)

Watters #9952 from their website

Ok. I'm done ranting now. My apologies, I didn't realize I was so fired up about it! :-D

**This isn't to say that some people shouldn't spend a lot of money on a dress. It's all about what your priorities are. Mine just don't happen to include putting a few house payments into something I'll wear once. So I'm going to wear my ridiculously cheap dress and drool over everyone else's stunning gowns.