Catch Me If You Can Save the Dates

Hooray for wedding planning! I will take any excuse to pretend I am a graphic designer, but it's nice to actually have a semi-legitimate reason now.

We're still debating Save-the-Date ideas, but I can't get the travel theme out of my head. With that in mind I made this Catch Me If You Can-inspired card (by "inspired" I mean "copied and pasted directly from the opening credits." It might have taken animators 4 months to make their credits, I knocked out this little number in about an hour).

I like it a lot--it's cute, funny, reflects all the hours we've spent sitting in airports for each other, and even the title, Catch Me If You Can, fits for a wedding.


*And no, that is not the date when we're getting married. Because that is still up in the air (although now somewhat narrowed down), I went with something generic: my birthday. Again, friends and family, don't go savin' nothing (this message may or may not be intended for my future brother in law. Just sayin.)

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...

Heeeaven, I'm in Heaven...

I was chatting with one of my coworkers today about dancing dates (Dave and I hit up the world's smallest salsa floor over the weekend), and she asked if Dave and I were going to take dancing lessons for the wedding. I won't stoop so low as to insult my future's husband's dancing skills (again. sorry puppy.), but I said that yeah, probably dance lessons would be fun, especially since our first dance might be to a 1940s romantic jazz song. I said something about wishing I could be Ginger Rogers, or at least having a dress like hers. Something about big romantic jazz which needs a low-cut, flowing dress...

The infamous feather dress from Top Hat

After the first scene they had to stop filming because
all the feathers were flying up Fred Astaire's nose


Note: wedding dress must have cape.


I love everything about this
from the Chiquita Banana shoulder ruffles
to the page boy collar
to the row of delicate front buttons
to the exploding bustle of hums
all the way on down to the sweet little rosette on the shoe

It's probably some kind of bad luck to post an image
from The Gay Divorcee on a wedding blog...

And because no post about the lovely Ginger
would be complete without a shot of her dancing:



Did you know she put lead weights in her skirts,
so they would fly up and twirl exactly right? Sigh

Tips to Get People Up and Dancin

My Glenn Miller shout-out reminded me of something I saw at a wedding that I absolutely loved. A few years ago when our friends Jacob and Jeanette got married, instead of the traditional box-step first dance, they opted for an elaborately-choreographed salsa number.* It was awesome--Jeanette traded her wedding gown for a cute little short gown, Jacob worked his two left feet like a rockstar, and they left everyone equal parts impressed and jealous.

When they were done, they invited a friend up on to the dance floor and explained that she'd choreographed the whole thing and gave them all dance lessons. But what was more, she also offered to give everyone at the reception a dance lesson. It was great! Everyone got up on their feet, trying out a few salsa moves, and when the dancing began in earnest, people were already up and having a great time.

I don't really plan on putting on a show at my reception, because besides the difficulties of learning, remembering, and performing a complicated, show-stopping number on a day when I will probably be so nervous that BREATHING IN AND OUT will be trial enough, Dave is not really such a great dancer (he does what I affectionately call the white boy shuffle). Still, I love the idea of arranging a 10-minute dance lesson for our guests to help them get into a groove.

Sweet, simple, and fun--and one of my favorite wedding memories.

Don't have your own amazing salsa-teaching friend? Hello, YouTube:



*I'd also like to take this moment to recount one of my favorite wedding stories ever. Dave and I, tasked with picking up Jacob and Jeanette's cake, disappeared out a side door as soon as the ceremony was over, where we ran into the brand new Mr. and Mrs. Bryant. They were not giggly, they were not jumping for joy--Jeanette turned to Jacob and said with the straightest face I've ever seen on a bride outside a wedding dress catalog, "Hey. We just got married." And Jacob said "Yeah, you're right! That's pretty cool." And then they smiled at each other. I know, right?