Last weekend when my mom was here I had a final make-up trial with Mary Dee Housely, my makeup artist. The main reason for going to visit her was to have a facial, an indulgence I have never experienced before. But I had also mentioned that I was hoping to make my eyes look bigger, so she suggested that she would do the eye makeup again for no charge since I wasn't satisfied the first time (just one of the many, many reasons why I truly love working with Mary).



The facial was spectacular. She does everything by hand, the products all smelled so yummy and when it was all said and done my skin was softer and smoother than it has ever been in my life. I had no idea my skin could look the way it does even now, five days after going to see her.


I don't have an after shot, and I somehow never got a picture of me with the new, improved eye look, but that was fantastic too. Instead, I will share this shot with you, because I seriously have no shame :) Mary was hamming it up, too...I believe those are blueberries on my 'eyes' there :).

We're legal!

Mr Corn and I headed to Newport this morning to get our license at the town hall. If neither the bride nor groom are from Rhode Island, you have to go to the city hall in the town where the wedding will be held in order to get the license.

These steps look grand, but in reality the clerks office is on the ground level, so you go around the stairs to a small door under the building. It was rather anti-climatic...but we didn't care.

Here's Mr. Corn filling out his 'side' of the paperwork. One thing that I didn't realize we would need is the officiant's name, address and phone number. Fortunatley, for us, it is my sister, so I know that information by heart. But I can see how that could be an issue if you didn't have that information on you.

Here we are...all licensed to wed!!

ONE WEEK FROM TOMORROW!! WOOT WOOT!!!

Update

Mama Corn is here this weekend helping me with the last of the things that need to get done. Yesterday morning was my final dress fitting. My Boston bridesmaid came along to record exactly how to string up the back and do the bustle so that there is more than one person who knows how to do it. The dress is now pressed and hanging from ceiling on our third floor. Turns out I am so tall, the dress doesn't fit in the bag without bunching up at the bottom :) so it is out of the bag and we have sealed off the room. Mr Corn is on strict orders to stay away from the third floor.

Yesterday afternoon my mom made all 60 votives for the reception tables while I finished making the centerpieces. (We wrapped the sea grass in paper so that it wouldn't spread out and get tangled en-route to Newport).


It was GOD AWFUL hot out and we live in a 104 year old house with no air conditioning, so it was pretty miserable and very sweatshop-esque. Thankfully, I was able check the weather in Newport and realize that even though it was 95 with a 102 'feels like' in Boston, it was only 80 with an 84 'feels like' in Newport. It didn't help cool us down much, but it did make me feel better about having my bridesmaids wear cashmere sweaters in only 2 weeks. :)

This morning I am getting a facial with Mary, my makeup lady. She will also do my eyebrows today and do one final makeup mini-trial so we can see if we can make my eyes look bigger. We will spend the rest of the day tying ribbons on the programs until my final dance lesson with Mr. Corn tonight.

Tomorrow is my big meeting with the Caterer and Colleen, my DOC to go over final logistics and and off all my stuff. I'll let you know how that goes, since I have no idea what to expect.

Through it all, I am trying to keep myself grounded and appreciative of the moments. The wedding is only one day, so I am trying to soak up these last days of planning as much as I can.

I know there are a few of us getting married on the 8th...how are you all holding up?

To dream the impossible dream

As it has been noted MANY times on the bee, it is next-to impossible to find a decent Mother of the Bride dress out there these days. The options seem to be:

• Boring beige (albeit with sparkles) MOB dress ordered from a bridal store. To be honest, this dress comes in a rainbow of colors, but it is still prohibitively expensive which is worse when you realize it will only get one wearing.
  
  
  
• Love Boat hooker-wear
  
  



• The same dress every MOB wears because they can't find anything else that isn't the first two options above
  
  

Many, many people have suggested looking at Nordstrom's. In fact, I think the first time I heard this suggestion was on the bee back in early February when I first happened upon the site. I went on the Nordstrom's site and indeed, there were many, many dresses to choose from, which I thought was great.

Ok. Have you BEEN to a Nordstrom's to look for a MOB dress? I can tell you now, there's nothing. My shower was in mid-May in Philadelphia and the plan was to go to the Nordstrom's at the King of Prussia mall after the shower. The thought was that since it is a flagship store, we would have even more of a selection to choose from. No. such. luck.

When we got inside, we asked someone where the special occasion dresses were...we giddily explained we were looking for a MOB dress. The woman pointed to an area of the store not far from where we entered. From where we were standing we could only see an orange be-spangled slinky dress with a slit to there and a V to the other there with a gaudy brooch to nestle between the breasts. Surely there must be something else, we thought, so we turned the corner expecting to see the wealth of options that were online. Again, no. such. luck. There was nothing. There were exact replicas of the orange dress in aqua and a few cocktail dresses, but that was it.

We found another sales associate and explained that we were looking for MOB dresses and asked if she could point us in the right direction and she said, rather defensively, that these were all they had. At this point I almost throttled the woman. Instead, I calmly explained that we were looking for something a bit less hooch. I may have gone a bit bridezilla by continuing on to point out that it was the start of wedding season and I couldn't possibly be the only person with a mother who wasn't a size 2 looking for a decent dress to wear for a wedding. The sales associate just started backing away from me like she was scared I might grow another head.

With no other options, we discouragedly headed out of the store. On our way out, the first sales lady we had seen asked us if we had found anything and I explained to her that the only thing that was there wasn't very MOB appropriate. She looked at us semi-empathetically and said, 'I know, as soon as anything comes in it goes right out the door'. Are you kidding me?? The demand is that great and Nordstrom's can't figure out to stock more? Grrrrr...

We looked at many other stores too; Macy's, JC Penney, Boscov's, Bon Ton, Catherine's, Lord and Taylor; you name it, we have been there to look for a MOB dress. They all have the same three dresses. My mom wanted something special, not something she knew would show up as the MOB dress of 2007 in every bride's wedding album.

Obviously, I am not the first bride with this issue; it has been documented so many times by so many brides just on this site alone. So what is the deal? The demand is clearly out there...where is the supply?

With two weeks left until the wedding, I don't have time to leave you all hanging. We did eventually find a gorgeous outfit that my mom loves and that will coincidentally go with the whole feel of our wedding. We finally found it in a store called W.O.W. (Women of Worth) here in the Boston area. The outfit is silk and the top is hand dyed. It was expensive, but it is made of pieces that my mom can, and will, wear again. I am posting it here for two reasons. One, because my mom looks beautiful, comfortable and happy. Secondly, because I think it is important for all of you with mom's out there to see that there are other options out there if you search hard enough.

Happy hunting, kids. And if anyone wants to open up a MOB shop with me, let me know.

The Mother-of-the-Bride Dress/Outfit

The Rehearsal Dinner outfit

The count down is on

This morning I had an appointment with my longtime friend and stylist, Raul, here in Orlando. Although he won't be able to come to the wedding to do my hair, it was so great to see him and get to catch up and to get a final trim before the big day.

You can read more of the story here if you are interested...it is rather lengthy which is why I refrained from posting it on the Bee.

Next up, flying back to Boston tomorrow and meeting up with my mom to tie ribbons on the rest of the programs, finishing making all of the centerpieces and votives, and a my final dress fitting on Saturday.

Just. Can't. Wait.

As you know, I am in Orlando until Thursday for work. Basically, I am sitting at a desk in a freezing lobby of a hotel by Sea World in case one of the 666 FT Audit Campus hires that my firm just hired has an HR question. Thankfully, we haven't had that many fires to put out.

This has provided me with LOTS of time to sit and contemplate how my wedding is only 18 days away!!

18 DAYS!! YAYYYYYYYY!!!

Some people thought I was nuts to go to Orlando with only two weeks left before the big day, but actually it really pushed me into high gear to make sure everything was all set before I left.

Yes, there are things that need to wait until the last minute...seating arrangements, getting our license, having our final vendor meetings and my final dress fitting. But other than that, we could get married tomorrow if we needed to.

I will admit, well before I knew I was headed to FL; way back, 9 months ago when we first got engaged, I made a promise to myself that just like any other event I have planned in my life, I wanted to be done with the planning well ahead of time...and by 'well' I mean a week.

Of course, I never anticipated that with everything done that can be done, I would be so antsy! Which I guess is a good thing.

So are any of you planning on being ready to go early, or am I the only nutty one?

My Bachelorette Par-tay!

Sorry for the length of this, but I couldn't bear to leave anything out...oh...and I wrote this on Saturday morning on the plane to Orlando, but am only posting it now because I just got to an internet connection :)

---------------------------------

I am on my way to Orlando for the week and I would like to personally thank Jet Blue for not only allowing me the pleasure of seeing the ancient video of Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” (anyone know why she points out the B-A-G of the Baggage sign in an airport in that video please feel free to let the rest of us in on the secret) via VH1 Classics this morning, but for giving me access to Engaged and Underage, where a teenage lesbian couple fought their way to the altar much to the chagrin of their parents. Isn’t satellite TV grand?

My second bachelorette party was last night (the first was the JT concert last Friday with my bridesmaid, Lauren) and it was really, really fun. I am greatly suffering the consequences this morning considering how uneasy I feel in my leather seat as we jostle about a mile above the eastern seaboard enroute to Mickey’s Corporate Office aka Orlando where I will be for the next week for work.

The night started out with a yummy cookie and tea ceremony to celebrate my friend Meg’s birthday which is coming up on Sunday. Then we (my friends Sarah, Meg and I) progressed to Kitty O’shea’s, an Irish pub near were we work, for Blue Moons with lemon wedges, buffalo chicken tenders with blue cheese and ‘Nacho average Nacho’s’. Another friend, Suzi, showed up shortly thereafter with my first wardrobe change of the evening, a sweet baby-blue T-shirt with the word B-R-I-D-E emblazoned on it with glitter paint. (I have since been warned I probably shouldn’t wash the shirt, as the glitter paint is actually washable glitter glue).

Our next stop was Silvertone’s, a fun, garden-floor restaurant near Downtown Crossing with a retro-hip vibe and the best Macaroni and Cheese this side of the Milky Way. Seriously people, it’s made with three different cheeses and served in its own individual crock so you get all the crunchy bits along the edges and then topped with salty bread crumbs. All four of us ordered up the Mac and Cheese causing the table of skinny girls sitting next to us to cautiously ask the waiter ‘Is the mac & cheese THAT good that their whole table ordered it?’ To which he responded, ‘yes’ causing the skinny girls to order one plate and some fish to nibble on.

The wait staff at Silvertone’s has never really been known for being friendly or particularly helpful, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that when I asked our waiter if he was were to choose between the Raspberry Vodka Cosmo or the other Raspberry Vodka drink he bluntly replied, ‘neither, I drink Bourbon.’ Uh, thanks buddy. Sadly, I went against my gut feeling and got a Moody something-or-other that was extraordinarily strong and gross. But since it was my bachelorette party, I thought it was important to drink it all up, a task that was much easier once I poured 1/3 of my glass of water into the drink. It was at this stop that Suzi pulled out the second wardrobe change of the evening that required me to put on a tiara and plastic bejeweled earrings.

None of us could finish our mac and cheese, having stuffed ourselves with cookies and appetizers earlier in the evening, so we got to-go boxes and headed out. We walked off some of our meal on our way to our third and final destination: the Four Seasons dessert buffet, by strolling through the Public Garden (where I received my third wardrobe addition, a molting, white feather boa) and then stopping and window shopping at Perla. We were just commenting on how ridiculously expensive everything was when a seemingly normal business man came up to us and told us a story of how he was going to get underwear for his girlfriend and when they wanted to charge him $625, he asked them politely to hold them for him to come back, which he never did. A weird encounter, for sure, but a nice diversion on the way to the desserts.

Now, the last time I went to the dessert buffet at the Four Seasons I had just started a very intense weight loss program that was through a study with a hospital, so I had to resign myself to a small cup of sorbet. THIS time I was prepared to eat everything in sight. First thing is first. The bread pudding is TO. DIE. FOR. I don’t even normally LIKE bread pudding, but this stuff must be what they feed you on your first day in heaven. It is light and chocolaty and served with a warm cream sauce and makes you want to live at the Four Seasons and have a puppy.

Other fun delights: chocolate covered strawberries (of course), a crepe bar, cheese cake bites, fruit tarts, ice cream with toppings, chocolaty brownie things, mini-mini-cupcakes with what looked like a scoop of sorbet as big as the cupcake on top of them that turned out to just be frosting, and many lovely, lovely dessert drinks.

Shortly after arriving at the Four Seasons, we were joined by a few other friends; Meredith and Christina as well as her cousin who was visiting. Sadly, my Silvertone’s drink experience was starting to affect me and I only got through two plates of dessert and a quarter of my coffee with Bailey’s. The girls ordered a bottle of sparkling wine and I was only able to have a sip of my glass out of fear for my health, but thankfully, I held it together.

All in all, despite my collegiate, inexperienced drinking faux-pas, I had an amazing time. I am so grateful to my friends for hosting this event. It is an experience that I wasn’t too sure I was ever going to get, so I am incredibly thankful. More, I am thankful that I have such great friends who know me well enough to know my inner ham enough to realize that all I needed was a feather boa and some plastic jewels to make me feel like a bride.

My newest obsession

I lived in Florida for five years right out of college. Down there, if even the slightest disturbance in the air shoots itself off the African coast, they track it incessantly.

Even though I am not in Florida anymore, I have been obsessively checking the hurricane reports on Weather.com. Why? Because if a storm decides to head up the coast, although it may not be a hurricane when it hits Rhode Island, it sure can mean a lot of rain. And I know I can't control the weather, but I can do my best to control everything around it, and awareness is the first step.

Upcoming names for Atlantic storms: Felix, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry and Karen. You know they'll form, it's just a matter of figuring out which one it will be. Personally, I think it would be humorous if it was Hurricane Karen, considering that is my future MIL's name :) (Which is a joke...I really do love my future MIL and she is in no way, shape or form resembles a hurricane).

What about you? Have you found yourself obsessing over the weather?

I love Zappos!!

Can I just tell you how amazing it is to me to order a pair of shoes online at 10 minutes to 4:00pm on a Thursday and have them in my hand at 10:00am on Friday morning??!!

The search for my wedding shoes was long and arduous. I am 5'11" tall and Mr Corn is 6' and maybe a 1/2 inch tall. My feet feel much better in a heel than in flats because my arch tends to not support itself in a flat and then my knees hurt. So I knew I wanted a heel, but I didn't want to tower over Mr. Corn and I didn't want to sink into the grass either (cancelling out all those super cute kitten heel shoes.

FINALLY, after a very long search, I found the perfect shoe at DSW shoe warehouse for $32 here in Boston. I'll have to take a picture of them but for now, they look similar to the ones below, except they have a 2.5" heel, are champagne in color and have rhinestones on the front strap.

I LOVE my wedding shoes, but I am concerned that after a full day in them, my feet are not going to be in a dancing-type mood, so I thought perhaps I should bring along something more comfortable that I could change into during the reception. Of course, since my dress is altered to the length of my wedding shoes, that meant I couldn't just bring any-old pair of comfy shoes; I don't want my dress draggin' on the floor! So I found myself for the first time in my LIFE searching for a pair of platform flip flops!!

Thankfully, I found these on Zappos! AND they are the same exact color as my regular wedding shoes. What a hoot!

Are any of you planning on wearing a different shoe for part of the evening?

Ring-a-ding ding

23 days to go and I figured I would take out the rings, you know, to make sure they still fit. Yeah, that's it :)

Mr Corn's is a white gold band with a basketweave design in the middle.

Mine is a platinum band that matches my engagement ring. I originally wanted a simple, wide platinum band with nothing on it and maybe a rolled edge. But when we went to the store to pick out our rings, I was quickly distracted by all the sparkly things :)



What do your rings look like? Are they a matching set?

Oh my goodness I have been super busy of late (go figure).

Summer is the busiest time of year for my team at work since that is when the most new hires come in. Not only are there the regular-'ole off-the-street new hires, but there are also around 1,500 interns and 1,400 full time campus hires that start between mid-June and the second week of September (which just happens to be when I am getting married). So not only do I have all of the wedding preparations keeping busy, but I am dealing with the enormity of preparing to leave my job for three weeks during the end of our busiest time of year.

Coming up on the schedule:

Friday 8/17 - my second bachelorette function (going out to drinks with some friends)
Saturday 8/18 - I leave super early in the morning for a trip to Florida for work
Friday 8/24 - I get back to Boston about an hour after my mom lands in Boston for a weekend visit. We are going to work on centerpieces, votives and ceremony programs until 2:00 when Mr Corn and I have an appointment with an interior designer to look at our living room and dining room.
Saturday 8/25 - more program, centerpiece and votive work with a brief intermission for a final dress fitting
Sunday 8/26 - Eyebrow shaping and a facial with my make-up artist followed by a meeting with the clam-bake people and my day-of-event coordinator to pick hors d'oeuvres and go over the table settings...followed by a meeting with the fort site-coordinator and my day-of-event coordinator to go over those logistics...followed by our last dance lesson.
Monday - Thursday, 8/27-30 - my last week at work to prep for the time I will be away
Friday 8/31 - Mr Corn and I head to Newport to get our Marriage license!!
Monday 9/3 - my sister and nephew arrive in Boston
Tuesday 9/4 - we all get to hang out in Boston...go on a train, go to the aquarium, etc.
Wednesday 9/5 - do what ever last minute things need to be done and try to relax
Thursday 9/6 - manicures, pedicures and lunch on Newbury Street with my mom and sister; followed by a BBQ for friends and family that night
Friday 9/7 - leave for Newport in the morning; rehearsal at 3:00 at the fort, rehearsal dinner at 4:30 at the Moorings and rehearsal party at 6:00 at Newport Vineyards
Saturday 9/8 - WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday 9/9 - head back to Boston and drop off stuff to vendors
Monday 9/10 - Sunday 9/23 - ITALY!!!

That should be enough to keep me busy for a while :)

The next dilemma...

So, here is one of the pictures that I have held on to for the past year which is my inspiration for our escort cards:

Mr Corn and I have searched for a year to find two branches long enough to use for a display like this. It seems much easier than it is. First, the branches need to be straight enough to accommodate putting them in the ground facing up. Secondly, they need to be sturdy enough to get into the ground. Lastly, they need to be long enough that once you put them in the ground you aren't left with 2 feet left of branch to work with.

After several failed attempts at finding something, we finally gave up and I purchased two shepherd's hooks on sale from AC Moore. The problem, they are actually quite difficult to get into the ground and once they are in there, they are quite wobbly.

I plan on hanging cones filled with hydrangeas from smaller shepherd's hooks along the aisle (you know, since I won't have garden chairs to hang flowers off of) and so I figured I would just get extra cones and hang them from the escort card display as well.

I did a mock up of the escort card display yesterday and realized we had a small issue. Even though there was only a slight breeze in our backyard, the wind caught the escort cards and blew them like sails. Most of them stayed on, but a few did fall off. I was able to take a picture when they were relatively still, and it looked great...but what do I do to keep them from tossing about wildly in the wind?

Below is a picture of what we came up with. I really hate it. I think it looks ridiculous. But I can't think of any other way to keep them from flying away. Does anyone else have a bright idea?

We have a solution

A while back I asked the Bee for some help coming up with a way to give instructions on what we want our guests to do with the guest book wish tree.

Here is what I finally came up with:



The shadow box was on clearance at Target for $7.99. I've had the 'plate holder' it is sitting on for years, but I think I originally got it from Pier One. The flower was an embellishment on a gift we received from Williams-Sonoma. The paper for the sign is left over from the invitations and then I just used two of the tags from the 'pot'.

Along with this sign that we will put on the table next to the tree, the guest book wish tree is mentioned in the ceremony programs. We also plan on having the band leader remind our guests throughout the evening to participate.

Hopefully by using all these ways to communicate about the tree, we will get a good response from people.

It's Bachelorette Time!!

That's right, beeyotches!! Tonight, my bridesmaid, Lauren, and I are headed to the one and only TD-Waterhouse-Bank-One-Garden-Pavilion thing (you know...the old Fleet Center) to see #3 on my list of hotties-I-would-like-to-have-mow-my-lawn (get your mind out of the gutter gals...I really would just love to watch him take his shirt off, rev up the lawn mower and go to town on our yard) in concert.

I know you are J-E-A-L-O-U-S of all the teenybopper-screeching and soccer-mom-chaperoning action I am going to witness tonight.

Since this is only something that two of us are doing, some of my good friends are also hosting a ghetto-fab, bachelorette par-tay (read: we're going out for some drinks) for me next Friday night.

What are your bachelorette plans?

Just. Say. No...

...to these super cute, New England themed buttons from sewingstars.com.

Repeat after me.

I do not need these.

They will add to the mayhem.

I do not need these.

No one will miss them if they don't know they were an option.

I do not need these.


But you should feel free to check them out for your wedding ;)

Program template

Wow...I had no. idea. so many of you would want the template to the programs I made. Of course, that should make sense, considering how long I fruitlessly searched for something to help me :) Fortunately, my sister, who is a minister (and who is conducting our ceremony) sent me the order of the service, so I was able to go from that. Then I may-or-may-not have stolen bits and pieces off of random sites along the way (hey, at least I admit it).

Here are two links for you to download the program file. The first is in Word and the second is in PDF. This way, if you don't have the same fonts that I have, you can at least see what the program should look like and go from there.

(Miss Bee...please insert the files here)

The script font is AmazoneBT and the wide caps are Graverplate (similar to Copperplate). The font I used for the text of the reading is Bookman Old Style.

Happy program printing!!

I really am the best fiance ever

Just picked up my gift for Mr. Corn.


Mr Corn travels every week for work and he has been interested in a portable satellite radio for a while. He has held back on his decision because XM satellite has Hockey and Baseball but Sirius has football and Howard Stern.


Well, I have made the decision for him.


That sounds a bit pushier than it is. In reality, I have done lots of research and polled Mr Corn various times and came up with the logical choice of the XM radio. In all likelyhood, XM and Sirius will eventually merge (hopefully sooner than later) and they would be stupid to alienate 1/2 of the subscribers by not making all the shows compatible, so it became a decision of which receiver was better quality and more convenient for traveling. I also picked up the car kit so he can use it in his rental cars, too.


I can't wait to give this to him on our wedding day.


Are you getting anything for your hubby to be? If so, what are you getting?

Another thing of the list

So I haven't been blogging as much recently because I have been very busy making the programs for the wedding. What seemed to be a simple task ended up being way too complex, all because I wanted a square program that was 6"x6".

To achieve this, I purchased Paper-Source's Luxe Cream 12x12 card stock for the covers and cut them in half to create 12x6 sections. For the center piece, I wanted to use paper that wasn't as thick as card stock but unfortunately, I had a hell of a time trying to find 12x12 paper that wasn't card stock and yet was still good quality. In the end, I purchased a whole bunch of extra-large drawing sheets and cut them all down to 12x6.

Then I created the program file in Word and printed them all out on our HP Photosmart c4100 printer. After printing them all, I had to score and fold them...then I stamped the hydrangea on the front and embossed our monogram on the back.





The only thing left to do is tie ribbon around the middles of these to hold them together. I think I will punch small holes in the center and tie the ribbon around that. It seems if I just make a ribbon loop for around the center it doesn't stay in place. I also have small charms to put around the base of the ribbon, but I am starting to think that they will detract from the basic design of the program.

I still have the Word file. If any of you are interested, email me and I will forward you the file so you don't have to recreate the wheel.

Scent of a woman

So I have often noticed how true it is that smell is one of our most powerful memory simulators. I have heard of people purchasing a scent specifically for their wedding day in hopes that the husband will be reminded of the special occasion whenever the wife wears the scent, but I just didn't think that was something I wanted to add to the list of wedding expenses.

Enter the most delicious, sexy, feminine, intoxicating scent I have ever experienced:

Hanae Mori

The fragrance is a rare blend of berries and flowers, with a distinctive tone of strawberries and almond, giving an impression of vanilla. The bottle's top is distinctly made from glass, a first for any fragrance. The top represents the beauty and delicate shape of a butterfly with folded wings.

Notes:Strawberries, Bilberries, Black Currant, Bulgarian Rose, Jasmine, Ylang-Ylang, Sandalwood, Almond, Praline. Style:Spontaneous. Modern. Festive.

And special thanks to the lady at the Macy's counter who not only got my attention but was able to pinpoint exactly what I thought I wasn't looking for.

Who cares if Mr Corn doesn't ever notice or remember the fragrance; I will!!

We need another song

Mr Corn's parents went to a wedding over the weekend and apparently they did a dance where the Bride danced with her father and then the Groom's father cut in so his dad called me up and asked me if we could dance. I plan on dancing to a shortened version of 'Butterfly Kisses' with my dad (cheesy, I know...but I promised him in college we would dance to that song) so I don't think it would be appropriate for Mr Corn's dad to step in. However, Mr Corn suggested that he would like to dance with my mom while I dance with his dad, which I think would be really great and I am so pleased he requested this since he doesn't like dancing.

So, the order for the reception so far will have everyone outside the tent to see the official reveal of the clambake. Then they will go in the tent and the bridal party will enter and do their dances while they are setting up the buffet. We will have plenty of time to add another dance, but now the question is...what song?

Here is our song list so far...

Bride and Groom 1st dance: Exactly Like You
Bride/Father dance: Butterfly Kisses (shortened)
Groom/Mother dance: Wonderful World
Bride/FIL and Groom/MIL dance: ?????

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Another wedding nightmare

This one revolved around us not having our license and me not having taken a shower for three days and feeling skanky (this may have something to do with how humid it was out last night). I kept telling people in my dream that we couldn't get married because my sister (who actually IS officiating the service) told us our ticket to getting in to the rehearsal was our license and we didn't have one. I also was really upset because my hair was in no condition to be styled.

I know these all have to do with anxiety, but in all reality, I am doing much better than a week ago. Last week I may or may not have had a slight breakdown that manifested itself in my chewing off all my nails...you know...the ones that I stopped biting way back in April and now don't have enough time to fully grow in again. Yeah. Disappointing, not to mention, disgusting.

Anyway, when Mr Corn got back from his business trip, we sat down and made a spreadsheet (he is an accountant after all) of all of the things we need to get done for the wedding, and for work between now and September 8. It is a HUGE list, but I am so thankful to have it all out of my head and 'on paper'. Which is why I am confused that I had such a vivid no-you-can't-get-married-today dream.

Oh well...maybe I will chalk it up to eating ice cream before bed.

We’re Dancin’!!

Mr Corn and I had our first dance lesson over the weekend. I am proud to say we aren't all that bad. I will say, I am SHOCKED that Mr Corn doesn't even grasp the concept of a down beat (I really had no idea that that was a concept for the musically inclined only) so I found myself having to try NOT to correct his lead. But other than that, we did pretty well.




Coming back to Mr Corn from an outside turn...pretty good shot of my wedding shoes, too.

BTW...we're not giants...I mean, we are tall, but the dance instructor has a studio in her basement with a raised dance floor so that's why it looks like we fill the room up.

At our request, our instructor is teaching us the basics...nothing too choreographed. We don't want to look like we are trying too hard any more than we don't want to look like two lost eighth-graders at a Jr High dance. As Mr Corn explained it to the teacher: 'this could very well be the only three to three-and-a-half minutes we get to ourselves the entire day, so we want to keep it intimate while at least looking like we know what we are doing'. The dance instructor practically swooned at that last bit, and then she taught us to sway, do an outside turn, an inside turn, travel across the floor and how to begin the dance. Next class we will clean it up a bit and learn a dip for the end.

The cool thing is we can use these steps from now on. She had us practice with our song and with some other ones so we could see how you can apply the steps to pretty much everything with a 4/4 beat. That makes me feel better since we have a band and up until our lesson, I had no idea how to figure out to dance to our song played by someone other than the iPod. :)

Are any of you taking lessons? How is it going so far?

A battle I'm just not willing to fight

An excerpt from a wedding scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (don’t worry, I won’t give anything away):

“Ladies and gentlemen!” called the tufty-haired wizard. “If you would please stand up!”
They all did so, Auntie Muriel grumbling audibly; he waved his wand again. The seats on which they had been sitting rose gracefully into the air as the canvas walls of the marquee vanished, so that they stood beneath a canopy supported by golden poles, with a glorious view of the sunlit orchard and surrounding countryside. Next, a pool of molten gold spread from the center of the tent to form a gleaming dance floor; the hovering chairs grouped themselves around small, white-clothed tables, which all floated gracefully back to earth around it, and the golden-jacketed band trooped toward a podium.

“Smooth,” said Ron approvingly as the waiters popped up on all sides, some bearing silver trays of pumpkin juice, butterbeer, and firewhisky, others tottering piles of tarts and sandwiches.

Oh, if it were only this easy.

One of the most frustrating experiences we have had thus far has been in dealing with the cost of white, wooden garden chairs. You know, the kind that fold and have the slightly puffy seat and have a back that is conducive to hanging things from? Those babies are $4.50 a pop!! In contrast, the white samsonite plastic chairs that are tippy and have all rounded edges preventing you from hanging even a purse off of them are only $1 each. With the need to rent 130 chairs for the ceremony and 130 chairs for the reception it becomes a matter of $1,170 vs. $257.40...a whopping $912 difference just to have prettier chairs.

To compromise, I came up with the BRILLIANT plan of having some Mr Corn’s guy-friends at the wedding move all of the chairs from the ceremony to the reception (remember, they are less than 100 ft away from each other). But much to my dismay, although the rental company is all for it, the caterer has put their foot down and will not allow it. Their reasoning…they have a policy about moving furniture during events!

How stupid!!

There is a potential of some people thinking that it is a bit ghetto to have (a pre-selected team of) guys from the wedding move all of the chairs, so I get it that they don’t want people to think badly of an event that has their name associated with it. But that doesn’t stop me from being incredibly disappointed that I can’t have my white garden chairs. Too bad I can’t just have everyone stand and have the entire reception appear around them. Those darn Wizards have EVERYTHING figured out!!

PS – I am still only on chapter 14, so please not spoiling in the comments ;)

One more thing to check off the list

If you remember, when I had my shower, the favors were these delightful boxes of chocolate shells with chocolate rocks and sugar-in-the-raw sand.


I loved these soooo much and wanted to put them in the out of town bags, but in the end it just wasn't going to be fiscally possible so I gave up the idea and started thinking of making lobster cookies.

Well, thanks to Miss Onion (who's inspiration I keep drawing from in a way that I am hoping doesn't seem stalker-esque) and her post on marzipan pears, I now have 77 bags of marzipan shells with sugar-in-the-raw sand to put in the out-of-town bags.





The inspiration for the labels came from Miss Plumeria and her Costco cookies. I made my labels from left over scraps from the invitations and then I printed the nutritional information on clear labels and put them on the back.

I think they came out well and I am glad to have something similar to the shower favor's look to put in the Out-of-Town bags.