Invitations almost ready to go

We knew that creating our invitations ourselves would be difficult. I don't think we were prepared for the amount of work that went into their creation, but we're both glad that we did it (and even more glad that we're almost finished). Making them ourselves saved us a lot of money, and it allowed us to personalize our wedding.

One remaining invitation task is related to hotels. We will include hotel cards in our invitations, as many guests are from out of town and might want to stay over before or after the wedding. I've started calling hotels to arrange for room blocks, and luckily, most have plenty of rooms available. Unfortunately, a lot of hotels require 2-night minimum stays if you're staying over on Saturday--kind of inconvenient, although some hotels can be flexible with this policy, and there are hotels that are a bit further away that offer more lenient booking policies.

We've selected two hotels in different price ranges at which to do room blocks, and we're also offering two additional suggestions. Of course, there are *tons* of hotels and B&Bs nearby, and we want our guests to feel free to book wherever they want as they might have a preferred location.

Assuming we can get the hotels wrapped up this week (and then create the hotel cards), we'll be good to go for sending the invites out this weekend. Woo hoo! Can't wait to check that one off the list.

Dollar vs Euro, head to head

Honeymoon planning has continued in spite of the flurry of wedding-related activities. I've mostly completed the day-to-day itinerary and am finalizing a few reservations with tour companies and sites that we want to visit. We've purchased a few necessary supplies, including money belts, those dorky passport/boarding pass holders to wear in the airport (mine is in a zebra print, which makes it both wicked cool and extremely dorky at the same time), packing cubes to make clothing organization a breeze (so awesome I might need to buy more), and a bag for "our" (i.e. my) cosmetic-type items and B's 1 or 2 necessary items.

One remaining issue is the matter of converting dollars to euros. In the olden days (that is, the last time I went to Europe, about 7 years ago), using your credit card was the best way to purchase everything because your credit card gave you a better rate than banks at which you could exchange cash or traveler's checks. Credit and debit cards are still generally best for purchases, but some credit card companies add surcharges to purchases. And since some businesses accept only cash, we needed to figure out how to get some. The situation required further research.

We enquired about exchange rates when we opened our joint checking account, and the woman who helped us wasn't able to give us exact information, so I called the number on the back of my card. I was transferred all over the place and placed on hold for a period of time, but after speaking with 3 people, I finally found out what I needed to know.

• We can take money out of an ATM in France, but we are charged a conversion fee of 3%. If we don't use an ATM of the French bank that is affiliated with ours, we are charged a $5 international transaction fee.
• We can order euros from our bank before we leave. Our bank charges a $7 delivery fee, and a 1% fee is charged over what the euro is currently trading at.
• Any purchases made with the debit card attached to our account are subject to a 1% fee.

So it turns out that it's more economical to buy euros in the States than it is to withdraw them directly from the ATM in France (if we're talking about amounts excessive of $350, if my math is correct...). I would have expected ATM withdrawals to offer a better exchange rate, so I am very glad that I asked.

Insuring a fabulous wedding and honeymoon

While I was still in the early stages of wedding planning, my friend TA sent me a link for wedding insurance, which protects against lost deposits, damage, military leave, severe weather, no-show vendors, and serious illness, among other catastrophes (though not against one's own cancellation of the nuptials--you're on your own for that one).

I opted not to buy the insurance then but decided to reconsider after a fit of paranoia featuring a lot of What-Ifs that cannot be written for fear that I will jinx the event. I decided to buy the coverage because it will provide peace of mind about the day, and now when I start thinking about hurricanes, I won't be as worried as I was before.

I also purchased vacation insurance for our honeymoon. For a very reasonable fee, we were able to insure the money we spent for flights and train tickets, and the insurance also provides us with great features, including payments if our luggage is delayed more than 12 hours or if we ourselves are delayed more than 8 hours. There's also additional medical coverage and a cancel-for-any-reason clause.

We're obviously expecting that both wedding and honeymoon will go on as planned without any problems, but it's good to know that we're covered--just in case.

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.

Yes, M, you will have a wedding gown

I started getting antsy about my wedding gown recently, and more specifically, when my wedding gown would arrive at the store (and would it arrive in time for the necessary alterations).

I ordered it about 3 months ago and have almost forgotten what it looks like. Our dance instructor asked how wide the skirt was (because that's a concern when you're dancing--you don't want it to be stepped on), and I couldn't remember. Sad.

Here's what I do remember: It's white. It's strapless. It has about an inch of beading on the top, and the beading continues down the back, which is corset style (I'm picturing a Scarlett O'Hara scene when I'm getting dressed--just find me a bed post, and a 22" waist will be mine!). The waist has some rouching on the left side. That's about all I remember. Oh, except that the ladies at the wedding gown store measured my hips 3 times because they didn't think that someone with a size-4 torso would also have size-10 hips. Sadder.

So the gown is going to require some alterations. I have already decided that I will wear whatever size heel is necessary to guarantee that I won't have to have the hem taken up because for some reason, hem alterations are the most expensive. Unfortunately, my tried-and-true duct tape hemming method probably isn't acceptable for a wedding gown. Although you can buy white duct tape...

Anyway, I called the bridal shop yesterday, and the shop called the dress manufacturer, and my dress is almost finished! It will be shipping shortly (I think from China--how long do you suppose it takes a dress to travel from China? Only time will tell...), and they said it will likely arrive before its projected arrival date of August 1. Phew.

So yes, I will have a dress. And it will be white and perfect. I hope. :)

Finding a home for homeless stuff

This weekend, just over a year since moving in, B and I decided to take back the third-floor loft and reclaim it as a livable space and not a dumping ground for otherwise-homeless stuff.

We were concerned that we were outgrowing our space already--quelle horreur!--but it turned out that we were lacking adequate storage space. With limited outdoor storage and no basement, we had no place to put stuff that we don't need every day but still want to be readily accessible. It was time to start using our attic.

You might be thinking, how could a 3-story condo possibly have an attic? Well, it's not a real attic. It's the crawl space above the ceiling but below the roof, and you need a ladder to get up there--and we didn't have a ladder. We made a trip to Home Depot and remedied the ladder situation.

We were able to move our holiday decorations, toys (yes, we have toys), wires, camping equipment (yes, we own camping equipment, though no, we have never gone camping), and miscellaneous other items up there and out of the way. Now the loft looks messier than ever (isn't it strange how you have to achieve the tornado look in the cleaning process before the organization can improve), but the volume of stuff in the room is significantly lower. After we find homes for all of the small items, the room might actually allow us to walk around in it without tripping over air conditioners, golf clubs, and framed prints.

This just doesn't seem right

My dilemma du jour is dissatisfying in so many ways. I'm upset that I'm spending so much time thinking about it and that I haven't made a decision yet and that this is even something that I want to decide. But my tendency toward perfectionism tends to overrule my disinterest in mundane details, so the problem remains in front of me, unsolved.

Prepare to laugh at me.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the wedding favors/placecard holders have arrived, and now the "only" task that remains to be completed before this item can be checked off the list is the placecards themselves. And placecards are straightforward--paper and pen, right?

Wrong!

When you're in DIY-wedding/indie bride mode, everything--including, sadly, placecards--is customizable to fit your personality. Some of the burning questions keeping me up at night include:

• Round, rectangular, or square placecards?
• Mounted or not mounted?
• If mounted, how much of a border? Which color paper? Multiple colors?
• What color pen? What kind of pen? (Also under consideration--must supply the pen to the wedding coordinator in case of last-minute table or attendee changes.)
• What style writing?
• Include any stickers or other decoration? (Perhaps a use for the heretofore stumblebum-like glitter paint...?)

I am fearful that if I pursue this issue any further, my brain cells will unite with my wedding favors, stock card paper, and rubber cement to swallow me whole in a scene worthy of the Willy Wonka movie.