Hiiiiii again.

Work + wedding planning + eating on budget = soul eaten. big surprise.

Wedding planning summary:

Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens for the ceremony + reception. We're heading up next week to talk to someone in person, and probably nail down the details (like the date - late August/early September, a Sunday afternoon). May try to poke our heads in at some of the catering possibilities too.

Shower is going to be a casual party probably at a state park or something. Have decorating plans. Also have decorating plans and some ideas to play with for the wedding. Invitations have been narrowed down, will most likely get them from Invited Ink on Etsy - though I still have a few other contenders. Started looking at photographers this week.. and good god it's a lil overwhelming. I have a good handful of ones I like, buuutttt whether I can afford them is an issue. (Still, I know it's something I should make work - hearing too many regrets from people who didn't splurge on photos!)

Dress, clueless. (Was scouting around here for design ideas, and kept trying to focus on dresses.. and still pretty clueless.) Cake, haven't even started looking at. But I know what I'm doing for guestbooks!!! lmao. I'm so ridiculous.

Honeymoon is Tom's planning area. Good lord the hotels all look stunning. We're looking at ryokans - a more traditional Japanese style. (Quick example - this site was Tom's jumping-off point for awhile, and Ugenta was a front-runner at one point. He's been doing so much research it's insane.) Which reminds me, I should plow through another Japanese lesson today. I can say "the cat is sleeping" and "the woman drinks tea" and "the moon is white". uhm. still have a ways to go!

But! I sat down in Photoshop today for the first time in aaages, and churned out the notecard design that's been bouncing around in my head for about a month now. Will probably be my thank you cards for the shower/wedding. (I can do the printing at work for cheap, hooray!) That basic design, light aqua and black&white damask, will be the running theme of the decorations. (Probably with less of the distressed look... but I couldn't help it! it's been so long since I had an excuse to do it!) Water bottle labels (I have label paper, can print at work, wrap it in packing tape and it's waterproofed!), menu signs, whatever all else.



We'll see how the color situation goes. More of a bright turquoise for the shower, a lighter aqua shade for the wedding. But mixing similar shades throughout, to keep myself sane. ;)

Labels: art, photoshop, wedding

 
Oof. Again, super-long silence here. Holiday season is always insanely busy for me, between baking the usual 20 dozen or so cookies, the crocheting everyone's gifts last minute/late, shopping with no money... good times.

But we did have a lovely holiday - I promise to eventually finish my post about Thanksgiving and Tom proposing. Really. Christmas morning, we chatted with his family via a Skype video call; Christmas afternoon/evening, we went up to Rochester to visit my family. New Year's Eve, we stayed in and ate cheese, the day after, we had a holiday party at Sam's, the day after THAT, we had the Paper Factory Christmas party, which was fun as always.

My birthday, I was off work and had a lovely lazy day, then went out to a less-special dinner, as yesterday, when we were both off work, we went out for a movie and a better dinner (all Tom's treat). We'd been looking forward to the new Tron movie for.. oh god, probably as long as it's been in development. Wanted to see it in 3D.. but we arrived at the theater (an hour's drive, to a theater we don't usually go to) only to find their projector broken. Buuut as the credits finished, there was a note that some scenes were 2D amidst the 3D, which means that despite the impression we'd had, the movie wasn't totally intended to be seen in 3D. This is very confusing for us, as we'd rather see it in whatever format it was originally meant to be seen in.

Either which way, I LOVED the movie. Tom was a little less than impressed, buuut.. The plot to the original is really pretty bad. I wasn't expecting much. What I was hoping-against-hope for, was atmosphere, and that, they totally nailed. The soundtrack is absolutely perfect and staggering. The visuals kept so true to the spirit of the original, that I couldn't be happier.

Dinner.. we wanted something different. Melting Pot is lovely, but, we've been so many times now. We were going to try out a pizza place, but, the location our gps took us to was closed. So, we went for sushi. Fuji Grill, up in Williamsville. The sushi? was deliiiiicious. The eel rolls we had for an appetizer were amazing. Tom failed to be impressed with the miso soup - "When I go out somewhere for miso soup, I expect something better than what I can get at home." "...maaaybe you should just accept that I'm a decent cook?" And, unfortunately, my suspicion about the sake was correct - we were brought the same bottle of (slightly cheaper) sake that we can pick up at our local small-town liquor store. I thought it was delicious anyway, though Tom was a little annoyed. He can be such a food snob. But the restaurant had a lovely, cozy atmosphere, and the sushi was delicious, and it was a really lovely time.


In wedding news.. Tom and I sat down and worked out some budgeting yesterday, and worked out what we'll be able to save, and thus be able to spend on it all. It's not a huge amount, but I think plenty enough to have a lovely day - so much of the pretty is going to be in the details, and those, I can handle. :) I have plots. And not only am I myself an artsy person, but holy crap have I built up local connections. ;)

We spent quite a bit of time yesterday looking at hotels in Kyoto - Tom's taking charge of the honeymoon plans. His parents.. I cannot even put into words how generous they're being with making that trip our gift. It's going to be amazing. I think I've convinced Tom to pick out a slightly more Japanese style hotel, and they all look really gorgeous. He's growing a lil terrified of taking a trip to a whole different country on our own, but I'm just excited. If I survived a trip to Italy as a 16-year old.. granted, it was largely super-supervised, but not every minute of it, and nobody in my group knew Italian (beyond "please", "thank you", "shut up", and eventually "exit"). We'll be just fine. :)

I have spent my morning up to my nose in planning again. Sifted through some more locations today, checked out a couple new ideas, revisited some previous ones. Sonnenberg Gardens, lovely as they are, the reception alone would devour my entire budget. Sooo that's a no-go. (Just as well - it was the farthest away of the places I was looking at.) The Buffalo Botanical Gardens are looking better and better though - Sunday afternoons are extra-cheap, and even the regular price is manageable. Also - I recently learned that Tom was originally planning to propose to me there. Which adds a little something, I think. :)

He likes my idea of maybe going as late as September with the wedding, and I'm liking it more as well. September is still gorgeous around here, it's still warm without being deadly, it's just off-season enough that costs might be a little less, aaaand it will maximize the amount of planning/saving time. ;p

Labels: family, friends, life in general, movies, storytime, wedding