An Update on the Realness

Focus on the baby deer.
Let the warm fuzzy feelings wash over you.
This is how I feel all the time now.

While my post from earlier this week accurately reflected my excitement and dread for wedding planning, upon rereading it, I realized I left out the most surreal and wonderful feelings I experienced: relief and happiness.

As I've written before, it wasn't easy to be engaged and not have any kind of wedding to plan, because I didn't even know when Dave and I would be in the same place again. It's something we've really struggled with but had come to accept for the time being. I took my mom's advice to heart ("You will have many, many years of happiness together! Don't worry about these few!") and tried to focus on the journey-of-a-thousand-steps mentality that has given me the strength to get through this long distance relationship for two years and counting.

In the end, the decision to finally set a date, plan a wedding, and get started on this new chapter in our lives came incredibly simply: Dave and I started talking about the future. We decided together that we wanted to be married sooner rather than later and so we figured out a way to make it work. I was so nervous when we started to tell people--for some reason I kept expecting people to say we were crazy or rushing into things or acting selfish, but the response from friends and family, overwhelmingly positive (with lots of "It's about time"s), has helped me to realize this is actually happening.

For some reason, having set a date makes this whole marriage thing so real for me, much more than getting engaged. While I was thrilled to get engaged, I still knew that it would likely be years before I could start this wonderful future with the man I loved, and there was something inherently heart-breaking about that. I could plan, but I couldn't, I could think about it, but it could potentially make me very sad.

Now, though, I am over the moon with happiness, and so so so excited to finally (finally!) finish this crazy long-distance lifestyle Dave and I lead: No more airports, buses, trains, cars! No more $300 tickets, rain delays, missed transfers! No more saying good-bye on Sunday nights! No more nightly hour-long phone calls! No more counting the days until we see each other! As if I needed more reasons to be excited to get married....

Wow! I'm getting married! For reals! And Dave's going to be my husband! Some times life is crazy wonderful :)

Just Got Real

So. It finally happened. We have PICKED A DATE!!!! WOOOHOOO!!!!

Although the actual date is, for the moment, under wraps, we're finally ready to commit to a day (or, ok, right now we've got it narrowed down to a 3-week period...). This means that now every time I see a pretty dress or nice pair of shoes or hear some music, where before I might have thought "Oh, that could be lovely in a wedding," now I think "Oh, that could be--HOLY CRAP I ACTUALLY HAVE TO MAKE DECISIONS!!!" For the past 11 months I've been (semi) blissfully living the life of the engaged, but not the wedding-planning. It's been nice, but that's all over, folks.

Dress? Reception hall? Wedding bands (jewelry)? Wedding bands (music)? All decisions I've happily put off, now which are careening towards me. Oh I needa wedding planner (just kidding! I already have one, and her name is Mom, and if you think she hasn't sent me less than 11 emails today, you haven't been paying attention).

So, I'm excited, thrilled, nervous, overwhelmed. Right now I'm busy running over the (sparse, dreamy, naive) notes I made since we got engaged while I wait for Dave to finish his exams so we can then hit the ground running. The guy already made a spreadsheet! This is why I love him... In the mean time, I'm trying to enjoy my last few precious weeks before we get swallowed up by the wedding industrial complex. Today, already burned out, I sent Dave a pictorial representation of my feelings:

Sure is an adorable little soul-sucking monster...

Coin Rings

Came across these beautiful coin rings. Made by a son and dad team of crafters, the rings are pounded and shaped from antique coins. The process leaves a few words on the outside and inside band.

While most of the rings are dated from the 1960s and 1970s, you can pick almost any coin to make a ring, including current issues. How nice would it be to have a ring with your anniversary engraved onto the surface?

What's also sweet are the words that rise to the surface (don't you love things with multiple meanings?)


You can get designs from other countries around the world, too. I'm particularly fond of this lovely set made from a Swiss Rappen and Swiss Two Franc.

Prices range from $24.50 to $79.50, for men's and women's sizes. Buy online at their website or their (duh) etsy store.

Wedding Videography Done Right

Dave and I have pretty much nixed getting a videographer. "Remember that Flip camera you got?" he said. "We don't even watch that." (except for the time I surprised him with a 4-month-belated Christmas present) And frankly, I never really saw the appeal; most wedding videos I've seen are fuzzy-sounding atrocities jazzed up with star-swoops and soundbites from Grandma giving awkward sex advice. I don't even like the quick-cut close-up wedding video seen in Love, Actually, which some videographers actually boast they could reproduce just for you (you know the best part about that video? it was thirty seconds long).

But then my future-brother-in-law forwarded me the video from a friend's wedding, and I was completely blown away. Beautiful imagery, stunning photography, heartfelt editing--I've never even met these people and I actually shed a little tear, just witnessing all these wonderful little moments from their wedding events. It perfectly captured the love the two of them feel for each other and the pure joy of friends and families getting to witness and celebrate their marriage. And I challenge you to listen to the brother of the bride's proud, nervous toast to his sister without getting choked up.

As brother-in-law Steve says, "a trailer for the wedding? I really want to see this movie!"

Naeema + Taha from Society Hill Studios* on Vimeo.

*they are in New Jersey, where Dave and I are getting married. wheels spinning...