Programs are finished...mostly

Because we're creating all of the paper products related to the wedding, including save the date cards, invitations, response cards, etc., it seemed only right that we would also create the programs.

The internet offers lots of wording suggestions for invitations and save the date cards but came up short on the wording for programs. The sites I did find were too rigid for my tastes and tried to dictate the information that I "must" include in the program. Sniff. As if an indie bride would fall for such nonsense.

My original plan for the programs involved a minimalist style (in other words, as little text as possible), but I realized that we have too much information to impart on a single card, so I had to break down and use a single page (printed on both sides and folded) for each program.

On the positive side, we won't have to matte and glue the programs as we did for the other paper items--thank goodness. I fear that I have already been exposed to too many rubber cement fumes and that several more hours in front of a rubber cement jar would push me over the edge.

We have all of the information we need for the programs except the names of the readings. I've been slacking in that department, and waiting for the right reading to come to me has thus far been unproductive. I decided I ought to do some research, and my first stop was a modern poetry book. Before anyone jumps to conclusions and assumes that my English degree imparted a deep appreciation for poetry, let me tell you that I much prefer literature over poetry, and the only reason I own poetry books is because I had to buy them for classes. Anyway, apparently love and the appreciation of love have fallen out of favor with poets over the last 200 years because even the poems that started out romantic-sounded ended with a "And then you ran over my jerboa, so I microwaved your iPod" type of theme. Not what we're looking for.

My next stop was my old Norton anthology (which, sadly, has not been opened since my soph-year Brit Lit class--I'm amazed how much information is crammed in the 2000+ pages--several novels, in fact) and perused the romantic-sounding titles. The pickings were much better, and I found several potentials. Unfortunately (and this is what bothers me about poetry), a poem can seem effusively positive and upbeat but is actually mocking the subject it pretends to appreciate. We're going to have to do a thorough reading of all candidates and pay very close attention to the footnotes.

I found still more options on the internet, and our JP provided us with paper copies of a few readings she has collected over the years. I'd rather choose readings that have special meaning to us rather than to others, but at this point, I'm not sure if we can be that choosy. If we haven't come across anything obvious, then perhaps the less obvious options are the best.