We get by with a little help from our family...

Scott, professional rustic sign painter maker extraordinaire.


We decided to make signs to show our appreciation for just how far some of our guests will be traveling.

 
Sneak preview of our arbor.


Fun was had in the making of this structure.

 
Ash smelling a very minty tree branch.


Marmaduke with some embellishments.

Hand-Made Good'ness by: My Dad!

Thank gawsh for awesome dads!

My dad flew in last Thursday and words cannot describe how fabulous it has been to have him here! My dad and I are two peas in a pod, and I'll be the first to admit that I am a Daddy's Girl. :o)  During my childhood years my dad was my soccer coach and braided my hair, putting beads at the end of each braids so I could look cool and hip like the Fly Gurls from "In Living Color." He taught me to fearlessly ride the waves on a groovy, orange boogie-board. He introduced me to every genre of music and was my trusty date to my elementary school's Father-Daughter Dance. Because of my dad, I enjoy tie-dye, traveling, and shamelessly acting like a complete spaz. In a word, my dad is AWESOME...and if you've met him, I think you'd agree. ;o) Needless to say, my dad is a *B I G* part of my life and so it's only natural that he take on a large role in helping us prepare for our wedding.

 No, that doesn't mean he's footin' the bill. On the contrary, Adam and I are paying for the majority of our Big Day, but all parents are contributing in some way. I would never ask, expect, or allow my father to pay for our entire wedding---not only is it old-fashioned, but I think it's ridiculous to be under the impression that Daddy should pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for every aspect of a wedding. Financial assistance is greatly appreciated, yes, but gee whiz brides-to-be, let's get a little bit more in tune with our inner feminist and take on some of that financial responsibility, eh? I could go to great lengths with this, but I digress...Let's  get back to the real reason for this post, shall we? We shall.

SO! Other than being the best dad in the world and being one of my very best friends and being the one who will walk me down the aisle in four weeks---which, by the way, is something I've imagined and cried about on multiple occasions for a number of years---I am proud to announce that my father is contributing his handy-man skills and making us a variety of awesome, custom-made goodies to go with our rustic and personalized wedding theme!

Tomorrow = Sign-Making Day!
From the get-go I knew I wanted to somehow represent my California roots. Stating the mileage from Chocorua, New Hampshire to my hometown of San Diego popped into my head without any question...but then we thought it would be fun to represent all the other major places our guests are traveling from! We've got friends and family from all over the map---California, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Maine, Kansas, Florida, Costa Rica---so why not pay homage to everyone's homeland? It's always fun to see how far away one place is from another place, right? Right! And it doesn't get any more rustic than old slats of wood (picked up from the side of the road and weathered to perfection), paintin' on 'em with white paint, and nailing them to a post. Stick it in a whiskey barrel and call it macaroni, woo! My dad has worked for years making sets and props for a theater company back in San Diego, so creating something like this is right up his alley and I know he's stoked about it. In addition to the multi-location directional sign post, I'd like to have signs like the ones you see pictured: one to put at the top of the dirt road that leads to The Brass Heart Inn, one that points in the direction of the ceremony, another one that points to the barn, and maybe one to lead guests to the fabulous photo booth that Adam and I will have set up inside the barn (*more info on THAT coming soon!).

Since early this week my dad has been working on constructing an arbor (with the help of Adam's dad, too!), which will be used for our ceremony---something quite similar to a "huppah", except we're not Jewish so I don't feel right calling it by that name. The Brass Heart Inn has one we could use, but it's one of those cheesy white-lattice ones and I just couldn't stand the idea of getting married under something so trite. Having a more natural-looking arbor was what I had in mind, and I knew that my dad would jump on the opportunity to make one. :o) The two dads collected branches from the woods of Salisbury and having been working their magic, creating us a special arbor which we have yet to see! They are anxious to surprise me and Adam with the finished product tomorrow, and I can't wait to see it! I have no doubt it will be awesome and better than I could have imagined, as this is something my father has been obsessing over for at least six months! Not only will it make for a picturesque ceremony site, but Adam and I will be able to move the custom arbor to our backyard and use it as an entryway to our future garden. Aww!

It means *so* much to know that my dad is excited for me and to know that he wants to help in any way, shape or form. Having my dad contribute his creative talents and personal touches to help us achieve our desired wedding aesthetic is truly priceless. Words cannot describe just how sentimental a person I am, especially when it concerns my dad, so I am thrilled about having his creations be a part of not just our wedding day, but the rest of our lives. Maybe we're not the first couple to have a family member construct something for the ceremony, or go with a rustic barn theme, but it still feels pretty great to know that NO ONE else in the world has ever had personalized wedding'y facets created by *my* dad. It's truly the little things that will make our wedding unique and extra-special, and I couldn't be happier. :o)


*Major props and thanks to my dad, as well as Adam's dad, for their dedication, enthusiasm, craftsmanship, and love!*

Las Flores

Florist: check!  (it's about time, I know...)

'Tis true, I had put off booking a florist long enough to make my mother-in-law-to-be gasp in horror...which later made me cry because I was fearful I had really effed up, and in the words of Modest Mouse, "truly missed the boat." Here we were in the middle of June and I had not yet booked a florist. For reasons unknown, I wasn't too worried about this reality and the procrastinator in me figured that it'd all fall into place last-minute, which was perfectly fine as long as there were actual flowers and not hand-picked weeds from the side of the road. I had faith that I'd stumble upon the answer...though I hadn't a CLUE what that answer would be. A professional florist that would cost me loads of money? Buying wholesale flowers from Costco or online and tackling yet another DIY project?? Bite the bullet and buy silk flowers from A.C. Moore in hopes of no one noticing the strangs of thread jutting out from various petals of felt-covered stems????

I'm a pretty outstanding procrastinator (which is what I learned best during my 4 years at UCSC), so again, I just wasn't worried about flowers for some reason. Why stress about a bunch o' flowers, right???

Well, when Adam's mom and grandmother showed GRAVE concern for my not yet having booked a florist, I became incredibly stressed. Just ask Adam--it was like a switch had been flipped and I experienced a minor panic attack and cried. I knew it was time to stop lollygaggin', and deep down inside I knew it wasn't too late to get flowers somewhere....but I think I was just a tad bit embarrassed. What kind of bride-to-be doesn't have her friggin' FLOWERS figured out just two months before her wedding????

So the very next day I referred to some notes I had jotted down back in January---back when  I was recently finished with graduate school and had no job, so time was plentiful and wedding planning happened every day (which has SO not been the case over the past few months, ha!). My faithful maid of honor, Jackie, helped me round up some details from two florists up in North Conway< New Hampshire and within a day and a half I had booked Adrien, The Faaaaabulous Florist of The Flower Drum! *huzzah* I must say, after talkin' with Adrien over the phone and paying my deposit, I felt ten times better. Knowing I had a florist to help make our day beautiful brought a sense of calming over me; how pleased I was to know someone else would be arranging bouquets and delivering fresh flowers to The Brass Heart Inn the day of the wedding. No stress!

Some "deets" (aka: details):
1. Adrien suggests the boutonnieres NOT be made out of gerber daisies because they tend to wilt in a rapid manner. While he has offered various options that go along with our color scheme, I'm trying to hunt down silk gerber daisies (that look real enough and aren't too humongous) so as to make the groom & groomsmen bouttonieres myself. What do guys care if their "flower pin" is a live flower or not? And technically, once picked and wrapped in sticky green florist tape, the flower is dead anyway. May as well make it fake... :o)

2. The price for four bridesmaid bouquets, two flower bouquets, and my bouquet isn't too bad...though I still need to figure out what the grand total will be once we add in the single stems for decorating the aisle and centerpieces. Many, MANY thanks to my faithful bridesmaid (once again!) for offering to help pay for the flowers, 50-50. SUCH an excellent gift idea, Roomie!!! *future maids of honor, take note!*

3. I'm drivin' up to meet with Adrien on the 29th of July. Yeah, seems kinda last minute, I know...and yeah, it probably is....But whatever, I have faith that this will all be fine. The florist knows that the only flower I want is the gerber daisy, and our colors are orange, yellow and green. Easy-peazy! They're JUST flowers, after all...why stress over pretty plantlife??? ;o)

Custom Made!

*Finally!* We can show off another fabulous facet of our wedding: the invites and rsvp postcards!!

I have long waited for the chance to share our wedding stationary designs with the world, knowing that it was going to be a great accomplishment and something worth boasting. ;o) It took Adam and myself a while to agree on the layout of the invitation, and then once THAT was finally accomplished, the challenge of creating the "perfect" rsvp postcard had to be added on, taking all the more time! If you don't already know, Adam is incredibly talented with computers and graphic design, but with this great talent comes great perfectionism. Admittedly, I was nagging at him from time to time, telling him to just "move on, it's fine!" because I was anxious to do this on the to-do list: design invitations and rsvp postcards

I knew from the get-go that we weren't going to go with some hum-drum pre-fab design; the DIY approach was agreed upon early in the engagement game, and I was both pleased and excited over the idea of expressing our creativity on the pieces of paper that would be sent to the home of every single guest. But we were pretty clueless as to how to make our goal turn into reality. All we knew was that we wanted to include a barn somewhere on the invite, and make the rsvp cards postcards because they make for cheaper postage! *rinnnnng riiinnnggg, money saving alarm!!!!!!* ;o)  Once we had a rough outline of the invite design, we then found it difficult to find a printing press that would take Adam's jpeg file and print HIS design on THEIR paper. *Curses!*

Companies like Wedding Paper Divas failed us, along with countless others that came highly recommended or just looked good in general, but after lots of time and perseverance (and maybe with a touch of luck), Adam came across www.pixxlz.com---an eco-friendly printing company! That was another thing Adam and I knew we wanted to do: make our wedding invites as "green" as possible, because we are all about the love, the peace, and the three R's (reduce, reuse, recycle). This company proved to be two things: completely awesome and SUPER-DUPER affordable. We're talkin' ~150 invites and ~150 rsvp postcards printed for the low price of $105.00. No, I'm not kidding and yes, I know that is an incredible bargain. After reading in wedding mags that the average cost runs from $4 to $8 per invite, I can't help but feel like we're the luckiest S.O.B.'s this side of the Mississippi! 

So, without further ado, here are the stationary masterpieces, designed by my beloved fiancé  and printed with tender love and care by the amazing Regan Smith Clarke at pixxlz.com!  :o)

*  The front side of the rsvp postcard. I love it! It's so bold and funky-fun! And while it is a bit straight and to the point (i.e. "There is no way you can lose this, and please friggin' respond on time!"), we did include the word "kindly" so it's not totally screamin' in your face.... ;o) Love the font, love the colors, love the rustic-country touches mixed with modern funk.

* The back side of the rsvp postcard is fabulous too, don't you agree?? The meal preference icons were my idea, and we had a good laugh over the hilariously-stupid silhouette of a piece of lasagna (which was obviously replaced with a leaf to represent that it's the vegetarian option). The kids meal icon cracks me up, too! Stuck a polar bear postcard stamp on each of these puppies and DONE!

* The invitation is a 5.5" x 8" piece of cardstock. Adam was incredibly meticulous about the color gradation from yellow to orange to green, the rustic "wash," and the placement of the font. Speaking of font, we realize that it's not very formal...and that is EXACTLY what we were going for. The invitation should really reflect the time of vibe you are going for, and while we are mixing in bits of traditional American wedding, we are also uniquely making this special day our own and do NOT want our guests to think that they ought to be showing up in stuffy suits and ball gowns! The image is serene, the font is varied and fun; we went with a less-than-formal wording ( "Food and merriment to follow!" for example), and feel really good about this decision. What I ALSO feel really good about: This single piece of cardstock and a 4 x 6 rsvp postcard stuffed into a single large envelope only required a regular .44 cent postage stamp! No extra postage needed for being overweight or oversized, and no wasted paper with pointless inner-envelopes, velum flaps, ribbons, etc.  YAY!