he never leaves the seat up.

Here's another reading from Mara at The Wedding Cabaret. I swear they wrote this one just for us...

He never leaves the seat up …

He never leaves the seat up, Or wet towels upon the floor
The toothpaste has the lid on, And he always shuts the door!
She’s very clean and tidy, Though she may sometimes delude
Leave your things out at your peril, In a second they’ll have moved!
He’s a very active person, As are all his next of kin
Where as she likes lazy days, He’ll still drag her to the gym!
He romances her and dines her, Home cooked dinners and the like
He even knows her favourite food, And spoils her day and night!
She’s thoughtful when he looks at her, A smile upon his face
Will he look that good in 50 years, When his dentures aren’t in place?!
He says he loves her figure, And her mental prowess too
But when gravity takes her over, Will she charm with her IQ?
She says she loves his kindness, And his patience is a must
And of course she thinks he’s handsome, Which in her eyes is a plus!
They’re both not wholly perfect, But who are we to judge
He can be pig headed, Where as she won’t even budget!
All that said and done, They love the time they spent together
And I hope as I’m sure you do, That this fine day will last forever.
He’ll be more than just her husband, He’ll also be her friend
And she’ll be more than just his wife, She’ll be his soul mate ‘till the end.

So sweet! I love it.

a unique fall color scheme.

My cousin Heather is planning a fall 2010 outdoor wedding, and has asked me to help her plan it! She wants to incorporate some of the traditional fall colors. I found this gorgeous color scheme on one of my favorite blogs, 100 Layer Cake that I think would be perfect for a beautiful fall affair. It incorporates some of the traditional fall colors (red and gold) while bringing in a some unexpected shades of plum and midnight blue.
I am in love. That is, if it's possible to be in love with a color scheme? I think it is.

bridal events galore.

Planning of the bachelorette party, as well as two showers is in full swing! As discussed previously, my future sisters-in-law will be throwing us a bridal shower in the next few months. My mother and a family friend are throwing another shower as well! Since the guest list will be rather large, our moms thought it would be best to break it into two separate events. Works for me! My task for the next week will be to come up with guest lists for both showers. I've also been instructed by our family friend to pick out a signature drink for the shower her and my mom are putting together. Again, since I like to do things out of order, I think I've decided on which girly drink I'd like served.

Berry spritzers with your choice of champagne or wine anyone?

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I'm drooling at the thought of them!

My bridesmaids are also hard at work planning my bachelorette party. All I know so far is the date and the location! We'll be spending our night on the town in Milwaukee! I can't wait to spend some quality time with all of my favorite girls!

boys need flowers too.

In the form of a boutonniere, that is! I'm a fan of simple ones with green hypericum berries for our ringbearers, because you know they are going to destroy them by the end of the night anyway!

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Next up, the groomsmen. We'll be keeping it simple for them too, adding in a few button mums (possibly in purple, green, or a mix) to add some color. Nothing too elaborate, just something to dress us their collars a little.

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Lastly and most importantly, we have the groom of course! The Mr. will be wearing a different bout than the rest of the gents, containing a purple dahlia and probably more of the same hypericum berries to tie them all together.

(source)

All that's left to decide is who will be making them! I have a florist, but I feel like these would be so simple to make. And with an estimate of around $12 per bout from our florist, it's worth it to try. I'll be sure to post an update when I do.

Is anyone else considering making their own boutonnieres?

pre-cana...no longer a mystery.

A while back I posted about our experience taking the FOCCUS survey. This past weekend, we completed the last step in order to get married in the Catholic church by attending Pre-Cana class.

Some of you might be wondering what Pre-Cana is. Before attending, Pre-Cana was always a mystery to us and a lot of other couples we know who have gone through it. According to wikipedia: "Pre-Cana is a course or consultation Catholic couples must undergo before they can be married in a Catholic church. The name is derived from John 2:1-12, the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee, where Jesus performed the miracle of turning water into wine.
Approaches to Pre-Cana vary among Catholic dioceses and parishes. Often six weekly sessions will be led by a priest or deacon with support from a married Catholic couple. Common topic include: compatibility of the couple, basic principles of Catholic marriage and family life (namely theological meaning of marriage), conflict resolution within marriage, rules the couple is accepting to follow (including, but not limited to, natural family planning)."

Now that you have the official definition, I'll tell you a little about our experience.

We arrived at the church at 9:00 am and the first order of business was to fill out our information cards and name tags(and pay if you hadn't already paid online). There was a booklet for each couple at the table when we sat down. After everyone was settled, the facilitators, a couple that was married for over 20 years, explained how we would spend the day.

Our first exercise was finding our nametags, since after writing our names down they had collected these from us. They passed them out to other attendees and everyone was supposed to find their nametag. Not sure how this related to getting married, but I think they were just trying to break the ice.

Next, we started going through the booklet. There were doubles of most pages within the book, one for him and one for her. We were instructed to fill out the first pages and discuss. These pages consisted of writing down the top three events and people in your life, as well as a few other questions. We filled out the pages and discussed them with each other. No big surprises here, we had pretty much the same answers.

Then we had to list the top three things that we thought were important in a successful marriage. We prioritized them within our own list, then with each other, and then with other couples at our table. Then the whole group compiled a list of the things they thought were important, and of course the group's list ended up being very large. The facilitators explained how though all of these things are important in a marriage (things like trust, communication, excitement, etc) would come together in different quantities throughout different times in the marriage.

The rest of the morning was layed out very similar, filling out a page in the booklet on topics like traits of yourself and your future spouse, methods of good and bad communication, etc., then sharing between each other, then with the table, then with the whole group.

Before we broke for lunch we were asked to write a letter to each other about anything we wanted. It was nice to read what the other person said with such an open-ended letter. The fiance wrote a very sweet letter to me that I think I'll save to look back on when we're older!

After lunch, it was more of the same routine, discussing topics like budgets, intimacy (there was no sharing with the group on this topic), and children. They touched on natural family planning, but since the facilitators were not medical professionals, they did not feel comfortable going into detail. They provided more information for those interested in the form of a booklet and details on a natural family planning class.

One of last topics that we discussed was how we had experienced God's presence within our lives. It was nice to hear the stories that other people told, but no one was forced to share a story. They simply asked for volunteers.

Before we wrapped up for the day, they ended by having each couple stand up and explain how they met. Though it was nice that they wanted to make each couple feel special by sharing their story, it took forever (there were 42 couples there) and it was awkward sharing with a bunch of people we didn't know (although I realize I do this via blogging on a daily basis!).

Overall, I must admit that I was a little disappointed with my Pre-Cana experience. I went into it with the feeling that I was only going to get out of it what I put into it. I went with a positive attitude, and even convinced my very unenthusiastic fiance to try to make the best of it. When we got there, I found the topics we discussed to be very predictable, and the discussion associated with each subject was nothing I hadn't already heard. There was also a TON of time wasted. The class lasted from 9:00 am - 4:30 pm. Everyone was finished with each exercise within about 10 minutes, and we talked amongst our table for at least 15 minutes between each exercise. We probably could've finished before noon if there wasn't such a lag between exercises.

In hindsight, I wish we would have taken the class in our hometown, where it was $30 rather than $180, and then even if we didn't get anymore out of it than we did here, it wouldn't have been such a waste of money.

If you attended Pre-Cana, what was your experience like? Did you get more out of it than we did?

saving the date part 4: the cards.

Now that you've made your embossed envelopes, it's time for the more important part... the cards that will actually tell your guests which date to save.

You will need:

-cardstock or cover weight paper (I used 12x12 linen textured cardstock from JoAnn's in white and a moss green color)
-paper cutter
-corner rounding paper punch
-paper punch (I used a 1/16" punch)
-small metal brads
-large stamp (I used the Large Flourish stamp from Paper-Source)
-stamp ink (I used a Colorbox stamp pad from Paper-Source)
-artwork design

Instructions:

1. Design your artwork. Don't forget your crop marks and the small dot on the front page to tell you where to place your brad. I actually made the brad mark white, not black, and it was much more discreet. So much so that it wouldn't show up in the picture.
I designed our save-the-date artwork in Adobe Illustrator. I sized the cards so they would fit in the A2 envelopes we used, and made sure to maximize the number of invites per page by fitting 6 on each 12x12 sheet. This helped me save on printing costs.
Caution: Before you buy 12x12 cardstock, make sure whoever you are getting your prints from is capable of printing on 12x12 paper. Not all printers can print on paper this large!
2. Get your prints made. We used a small print shop located in the UP (called CJ Graphics if anyone is interested). It was hard to do this from a distance, but they were great to work with and called me several times asking for Pantone numbers in order to make sure the colors were what I wanted. 3. Start cutting! We found you have to make less cuts if you cut around the perimeter first, then cut between the cards. (Do as I say, not as I do! The picture below shows me cutting the perimeter last, which takes more cuts and more time!)
4. Stamp and emboss your pages, just like you did on the envelopes. 5. Assemble your pieces (we had three pages) and make sure they line up properly. Trim edges if needed. 6. Round all corners while your cards are stacked. This ensures that all of your pages will match up nicely. If you have more than three pages, you might have to split them up, as it was difficult for us to even put three in the rounder at once.7. Use your paper punch to punch a hole through all sheets in order to put your brad in.8. Insert brad and separate prongs to fasten.9. Your save-the-date cards are complete!
10. Insert your save-the-date cards into your embossed envelope and seal it shut (use your tape roller again if your envelopes are homemade). 11. Add postage and send your lovely save-the-date cards to your guests.

My last post in this series will be a budget breakdown and lessons learned, so stay tuned!

balloons and ric-rac.

How cool is this idea for escort cards from Once Wed? They would be perfect for a modern wedding.


The pink ric-rac is such a sweet detail. I am amazed at some of the things people come up with to use for wedding decor. I think this same idea could be applied to centerpieces too. Such a simple (and cheap!) DIY project that would make a big impact!