Wise man wisdom

Chris:
"take a couple shots of whiskey, get some good sleep, and keep thinking "I'm NOT sick!" works for me every time"

My new plan of illness attack.

Ill.

Q: What's more stressful than the wedding week?

A: The wedding week whilst sick!

That's right, folks. Not only am I sick, but so is Josiah. Currently I sound like a choking man -- it's going to make for some fun dramatic readings of vows. Eff me.

I have been totally swamped lately, so I know I've been slacking with the blog posts. I'll try to make it up to you with some crappy iPhone pictures.

All in all, I am totally excited. I just now came to the realization that everyone I love will be in the same place at the same time. (Well, almost everyone -- I'll be missing Mia Mitchell, a dear friend who's becoming Argentinian hah.) How amazing is that?

Plus, I guess it'll be pretty nice to be married. I guess.

Here's to three more days of hellish, crazy times. And let's hope that my illness vanishes in the next 30 seconds.

RSVP decor

For awhile now, I have been trying to come up with a way to display the RSVPs. I think I finally found something. I love this concrete wall in TCA -- it's the first thing you see walking up to the reception room. Also, the brunch buffet will be located on this landing, just to the right of the wall. I'm planning on draping four or five rows of RSVPs across, giving guests something to giggle at while waiting in the dreadful food line. Aren't I a nice hostess?

RSVPs

+


Twine and clips

+


Concrete wall

=

Pure joy, as exhibited by Noah

So much matching in our bridal party

Girls:


Boys:


Girls and Boys:

Almost there

The chalkboard project is almost complete! Now I just need to paint the easel the reddish orange of our wedding colors.

My final (hopefully) dress fitting is tomorrow. Wish me luck!

It's Friday night!

Instead of listening to funk rock and dancing around my living room, I have been Gchatting with Bethany and toiling over a time line for photos for the wedding. Hopefully you are having more fun than me! (Just kidding, talking to Bethany and watching Stella on Youtube is my dream Friday night.)

Writing while sitting on the ground is hard

A taste of the reception

Today we received 16 pounds of candy. Get ready for Sugar Rush 2010. Who doesn't like candy at 10 a.m.?

Myspace wedding hair

Last year, Kristen from Llena de Moras blogged about her new hairstylist, Darci, here. I decided to give Darci and Hair Pollution a shot considering I had been going to the beauty school for five years. I figured it was time to abandon $12 haircuts and become a grown up. Well, I seriously love Darci. I am SO happy with everything she does. My haircuts have been fantastic and fresh.

Last week I went to her for my wedding trial make up and hair appointment. Both looked good, but I think the curls were just a bit too perfectly curly.

Today I went in for a haircut, and Darci told me she learned a new curling technique she thought I'd like. So, she spent an extra 25 minutes doing this really fun wave style, wrapping the hair like figure eights around the curling iron barrel. It turned out awesome. It was the perfect amount of curl and wasn't very prim and proper feeling. She said it was her first time doing it on a real person (haha instead of a mannequin), so I know it'll look even better for the wedding. I think once we mess with some product to keep it piecy looking, it'll be perfect.

A dramatic reading of a real break up letter

Dear friends and family,

Please RSVP to my wedding. As of right now, only 89 people will be attending. While my parents will appreciate the budget cut, my heart may break at the sight of so many empty chairs.

People who apparently aren't coming to the gala:
-Josiah's best man and his wife
-The photographer
-The officiant
-One of my bridesmaids
-An entire half of Josiah's family

Do me a favor and fill out those precious postcards. They have polar bear stamps on them! Who could resist dropping a madlibbed polar bear postcard in the mail? Not me. I might mail myself one to make up for the unexpectedly small stack I've received.

The deadline is March 15. I can only hope you all are procrastinators.

Love always,
Celeste

P.S. - Obviously I can assume the above listed VIPs are coming (I'm only kidding about you!), but I'm using the RSVPs in the reception decor. I'd love some additional postcards to work with!


Our current count:
89 YES
36 ADDITIONAL EXPECTED
--
125 TOTAL

Bearded.

Josiah: "Do you want me bearded or not bearded for the wedding?"
Celeste: "Did you really just ask me that?"
Josiah: "Just making sure."

Mini tour of TCA

In January, my mom and I met with the event coordinator at the Tempe Center for the Arts. We went through the building and answered some general questions.

Just yesterday we had our final walkthrough. The whole family tagged along as we met with the coordinator and our caterer contact, Melissan from Santa Barbara. It was a great meeting and we hashed out some details I hadn't thought of. I felt really great coming out of the walkthrough and was honestly really excited. You may have figured out that I tend to swing from hating the wedding to being stoked for it. Yesterday was one of the few occassions I felt truly confident about this crazy ass event. I know it'll be great.

Anyway, here are some pictures from when I went in January.

This is one of the dressing rooms. They're pretty sweet ... TCA is an art gallery/theatre, so they have actually dressing rooms. It's pretty convenient.

Welcome to the Lakeside Room ... The buffet will actually be in this area, just right of where the picture was taken. That way the food won't take up the reception room's space.

Here are some pictures of the reception room. The floor is obnoxiously hideous, but once linens are on and the chairs are surrounding tables, you don't really notice it.

Half DIY

When I envisioned my ultimate wedding of the century, I figured some crafting would be involved. I have an innate desire to make things, but it's not exactly my forte. I've bounced from craft to craft, whether it's knitting or painting or beading. Nothing's ever stuck. Probably because I'm not good. But I want to be a DIYer so badly.

So, when the time came to think about a guest book, I immediately decided to do some sort of cards instead of the traditional bound book. That way, I could display them in a cool frame or installation piece later on. I contacted Invited Ink to see if they could design some fun cards for us. Success! I printed them out at Kinko's, sliced 'em up and pasted them to some thick, sparkly cardstock. I'm pretty stoked about them.

Our baker, SLiCE, is making key lime shortbread cookies shaped like bikes for our favors. She's going to glaze and decorate them in our colors. Each one will be individually wrapped and placed on every placesetting. I wanted to have some sort of cute tag to accompany the bags. Here's what Invited Ink came up with. They are so darling, and I love how the "Celeste & Josiah" is being incorporated into various aspects of the wedding.

Crizzlin shiznit

I think my favorite part of the wedding has been our invitations. I am obsessed with them.

I am equally infatuated with the RSVP cards. When Invited Ink created the design, I instantly fell in love with this mad lib style response postcard. Josiah is a high school English teacher (and English graduate student), and I'm a journalist ... so the grammar game fits our nerdy personalities.

The RSVPs are addressed to my parents' house, so every day I bother them with a phone call around 3:30. It's been a blast to read everyone's answers. These are some of the early RSVPers (God bless your souls) that have been anxiously awaiting their Internet debut. Enjoy!

From the good people over at Llena de Moras.




From our boss haha.

This is why I have been absent.

My current to-do list:

• Create wedding playlist
• Meet with Kenny, our officiant
• Call Morgan to brainstorm photos
• Write vows
• Nail down groomsmen outfits
• Buy Vans for wedding party
• Book hotel for mini-honeymoon
• Find jewelry
• Create day-of timeline
• E-mail caterer
• Have Jo's pants tailored
• Buy more thank you notes
• Start writing wedding TY notes
• Create program easel
• Schedule haircut
• Finish creating guest book cards
• Call Todd to discuss performing during ceremony

This past week's to-do list (all of which we accomplished):

• Buy wedding rings
• Mail back Jo's ill-fitting suit
• Pick up hair piece/comb thing
• Schedule/go to trial hair and makeup appointment
• Print and cut guest book cards
• Buy twine for wedding favors
• Buy bulk candy for centerpieces
• Buy ties for groomsmen
• Buy glasses for centerpieces
  

Now stop your moaning! I'm doing enough of that for you all haha.

Accessories

So, I have these shoes...

Gwen Heels from Kate Spade

Now I need to figure out some jewelry...

Deck-The-Halls Necklace from Anthropologie

Crystal Wave Earrings from Anthrpologie

What else do I need on my wedding day?

P.S. - I am back by popular demand. :) Just kidding. But not about being back.

Finally!

Holy crap Amanda is amazing.

We just had a 30-minute brainstorming session on Gchat and came up some seriously amazing ideas for decorations!!!

I am legitimately excited.

More explanation to follow sometime ... as for now, wait in anticipation for our crafty genius.

Suiting

One of the benefits of having a really attractive future spouse is that I don't have to worry about him looking good at our wedding.

Girls have to worry about lots of BS:

"This color washes me out."

"You can see my cellulite dimples through this ill-fitting satin."

"My boobs are falling out."

Josiah, on the other hand, could wear anything and look hotttt (middle-school throwback).

The day after Christmas, I made Jo join me to register for presents at the mall. We decided to have him measured at J. Crew, then stop next door at Banana Republic to try on some suiting.

And holy shit. I felt sinful, he looked so good. I am now worried about being one-upped by his handsomeness at the wedding. I don't think that's allowed.

Anyway, the only concern for Jo is that since he's so slender, he needs a slim-fitting suit. Luckily for him, every hip brand in the world these days make clothes for men like Jo. I like it.

We're thinking of doing a charcoal suit with a white shirt and green tie.

The J. Crew Ludlow suit:

Banana Republic Monogram:

Some randoms:

Decorations

I am about to decorate my foot up TCA's butt. This is such a pain! I thought it'd be easy to think of some fun touches full of personality. Not true. I can't come up with anything good!

I spent most of Sunday afternoon crying because I have no idea what I'm doing with this wedding nonsense. Surprise surprise.

However, in the past couple of days I have:

1. Finalized the bridal shower invite list/addresses
2. Addressed 49/80 envelopes
3. Received the wedding photographer contract
4. Contacted the caterer to set up a testing
5. Contacted the coordinator at TCA to set up a meeting/viewing of the reception room
6. Forced Josiah to contact the officiant to set up a meeting

Other than addressing invitations, it's not much to write home about. But at least I am trying to do something. Anything!