Puppy Love

By the way, would it just be tremendously gauche to have our dog at the wedding, all turned-out and wearing a lovely red bow?

She really is person's best non-human friend. I really hate thinking of doing anything important in my life without her.

For reference, here is another picture of the number one best dog.



I mean, she's already got a tux on and everything! Who wouldn't trust this face?

What? You want to actually be invited? FINE!

Okay, you, our demanding public. We have decided we WILL be sending out invitations after all. Fine. You twisted our arms. We'll make it official.

Sending invitations, as you may realize, was never actually in question, but our ability to get them done and not die first er...was.

In the light of day with a few hours of sleep under my belt, I realize that hey--we sent save the date cards--and peops who will make a big show out of our not getting the invitations out per bossy, rigid ettiquette de rigeur--probably shouldn't come anyway. But when the demons of panic wash over me in waves of inevitability at night when I am tired of unpacking and scheduling and such as that: the invitation ordeal makes my heart beat rapidly and my palms sweat. In general, I don't subscribe to the whole "anyone who doesn't plan a wedding a million years out is insane and stupid and irresponsible to the bridal community" (ha! a community of saboteurs), but for peace of mind's sake if you're a freaky perfectionist who drolls over a nice font and a well turned-out piece of heavyweight cardstock: PLEASE, get your invitations done early.

Of course, I actually had set out rather early to do invitations, but was foiled. While I don't give so much of a hoot about my dress, paper and art and lovely words are of great importance in my life. Somehow though, this all managed to slip through the cracks (as has the book I was reading before we moved--where are you?!). In any event, the invitations are happening officially thanks to Lufkin Printing Company, salvaged silkscreen and some lengthy discussions regarding perspective with Matt. Expect them in the mail...err, sometime.

Wish you were here (it is a golden and beautiful day!),
Wed Dog

May I enthusiastically recommend delegation?

When Matt and I went to copy.com to get the transparencies printed for our silkscreens for our invitations (follow that?), we ran into a wonderfully charming friend of Matt's that he hadn't seen in years. Charming friend was not only a great help with our graphics, he also mentioned that when he was the best man for his friend's wedding, it was like a full-time job.

Matt and I puzzled over this. What could this man have possibly taken on?

Well today I wondered no more. After my mom offered to arrange hotel rooms and such as that and my sister (who is also my maid-of-honor and awesome non-Matt best friend) offered to arrange catering, I felt a lightness in my soul. Well, and then I realized we *have* to finish our invitations tonight. Thank goodness we sent save the date cards, right? Ha.

But seriously, I would very much like to recommend asking other people to do your stuff for you--especially if they meet the following qualifications.

-They love you (a lot, preferably)
-They volunteer
-They have time
-You don't want to do it yourself.

Make sure "not wanting to do it yourself" is not the only qualification for delegating a task though because you might do a shameless thing like I am about to do.

Anyone want to plan our wedding? We're really ready for a nap over here.

Wish you were here (and not just to do our biddng),

Wed Dog

Hello again, team.

Hello friends and family,

The team here at wed-dog was delighted to learn that some of you are out there. How lovely. At this time, both of us are going a mile a minute trying to move, get married, and such as that. However, let us not forget we have a blog to maintain. I mean, come on: priorities. Am I right? Ha ha.

I want to thank all of you who came to the family engagement party this past weekend in Waco. We both had a wonderful time and enjoyed a much needed reprieve from the stress and worry that has gripped us of late--especially the week leading up to the party. We seemed to be like 21st century Jobs. I am surprised our dog didn't turn to salt or something. Fortunately, that is mostly behind us now and check this out: we ordered envelopes for our wedding invitations yesterday. "Envelopes?" Yes, well don't rain on our parade. We felt like we had accomplished very much, even though at this point, we had to have them overnighted to us (oops).

Yesterday, I went into Texas Art Supply to see if I could procure the elusive envelope (hey! I have been looking casually on the internet on at least four other occasions. Can I get an Amen?). The woman asked me "what are your colors?" Now, apparently this is a perfectly reasonable question, but I seriously have no idea what it means and Matt has not been able to input much either. I mean, my personal favorite color is undeniably red which Matt, bless him, also likes in abundance. Else we might kill anyone with our excessive amount of red stuff. But, my hair is brown. Matt's eyes are blue. My dress is...well, I don't really know what color that is (white? silver? cream? it looks different every time I see it). I don't know what the cake will look like (I haven't ordered it--eep!) and frankly, my maid of honor (my sister) is going to be seven months pregnant and she can really wear whatever she wants. So we return to the question of colors: I have no idea. Everything is going to be different, but I don't think that makes it ugly or something. Am I wrong here?

The thing is, each task in the wedding seems to take so long, I kind of looked at brochures until my eyes glazed over and then, I went to work the next day thinking things would fall into place. And truly, they have, but at this point, they're falling into place mostly on account of the existence of FedEx.

I'd say I'd do better next time, but that seems ominous. Matt and I did decide that if we live to see 50 years together, we're going to hire someone to do a super, obsessive job on our anniversary party. Although by then, who knows? We all may be living on the moon, owning personal jetpacks and robo-maids. If that is the case, I will hire a robo-planner for our 50th anniversary.

Okay, I know you really want pictures, so here are some. :)

Engagement Party

Aug 12, 2006 - 31 Photos

Thanks for nothing, dude.

About two weeks ago, Matt and I went to A & E The Graphics Complex to get a quote on wedding invitations. We didn't really like what we were seeing in the books at retailers, so we thought we might design our own. With that in mind, we took an invitation that we liked over there to get some ideas. Now, while I am definitely NOT going to recommend A & E, the people seemed very friendly and nice. But instead of getting ideas, which I kept saying we wanted, they acted like we wanted an exact replica of someone else's invitation. Before I could say anything, the invitation was confiscated and we were told we'd get a quote in two days. That was a Friday, but even by the following Friday we hadn't heard from them. In the interim, I designed our invitations myself, saving a million hassles and a lot of money. Finally, last Friday it had been two weeks and still no word, plus they had a family member's invitation that my mom had carefully saved. So... this morning I called over there and talked to the designer who had promised us a quote and this, I swear, is a faithful representation of that conversation.

Mary: Hi, I talked to you about getting a quote on invitations a couple weeks ago, but we never heard from you, so I am hoping I can come pick up my original.
A & E dude: Oh yeah, you know there was a Bridal Extravaganza that weekend I thought y'all might have gone to and found something there instead.
Mary: Umm, no we didn't go to that. We went to A & E to get our invitations and we were waiting on a quote from you.
A & E dude: Oh, you should have gone. One of my fraternity brothers went and said it was amazing.
Mary: ... Well, we didn't want to; it's not really our style. Do you have any information for me?
A & E dude: Okay, well our printer said the minimum order is going to be 500 and I thought that might be too many. Also, did you know that these invitations are handmade? They're handmade.
Mary: Yes, I knew. We didn't want that exact thing, we just wanted a quote on paper and printing costs.
A & E dude: Oh, well if you'll give me a few days I can get those for you.
Mary: Uh, no thank you. I want to pick up my invitation. Can i come by now?
A & E dude: Sure, dude.
Mary: Okay, thanks.

So when I get there, he comes out with a photocopy of a woman's business card that says her services included "Tatted Stationery Doilies" and the address is in Magnolia. (For those off you not familiar with the Houston area, Magnolia= FAR!) Not only that, but instead of offering a business phone, the number on the photocopied card is a pager number. Does she also sell crack?

So he hands me this and says "I think maybe she'll have something you want."

Though I thanked him for his time, I think we all know that acquiring a pager number for a woman who specializes in doilies is probably not going to be helpful to me. And may I also inquire as to the nature of tatted stationery? Seriously, wtf is that? Maybe I will page this woman and see. (By which of course I mean: I will not page her ever.)

So a big, enthusiastic thumbs down for their totally odd, unprofessional practices and total lack of caring when I mentioned I'd been waiting two weeks for a quote that was to come in two days.

Bridal extravaganza. Hrmph. Whatever, dude.

Presenting my $1200 wedding dress (sort of)

A few weeks ago I went dress shopping with a couple of my friends and found the experience to be extremely traumatic. When I wasn't getting tightly laced into some sort of armor, I was aghast at the prices I saw. I mean, we're talking about ONE dress. I hesitated. I wembled. I sighed. I trembled. Then I did the sensible thing. I went home, dress-less and exhausted (and whimpering, really), then went out and spent $1200 on a bike the next morning.

I felt very confident that this was a purchase I could fully endorse without hestitation. As an aside, I did get a dress finally and it's lovely. But let's just say I paid considerably more for my bike. Why? Can you ride a wedding dress across multiple states? I think we all see the answer is no. But seriously, the dress is nice. Also seriously: the bike is nicer. Yay. Also, I got a red helmet. :)

Without further ado, my better-than-a-wedding-dress dress: