breaking my radio silence

Yes, it's been about a week since my last post. I've noticed an inverse corrolation between how busy I am and how frequently I blog. (The eternal conundrum: only having the time to write when you have nothing to say.) But some of that busy-ness has actually been quite productive. In the past few days we have:

1) made the official cake decision & put down a deposit

2) "paid" our lovely photographer

3) gotten almost all of the spelling/non-nickname/street address questions about our guest list answered, and begun printing the labels for our envelopes:
The red slash is marking one of the ones I had to re-do ... which is a surprisingly low number if I do say so myself. You can see the swirly design detail better here:
We always knew that hand-calligraphy wasn't right for us -- too formal and too expensive -- but we really like the wrap-around labels that so many people have designed. Problem: none of the free ones available were even close to working with our invite design. Solution: well, since I'd already taught myself how to use Photoshop in order to make said invite design, I just kept going & made these, too. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. They look really cool against the lined envelopes, too.

4) I've been working on a card box.
As you can see, it's still very much a work in progress. You can also see where I got the green paper on the wall to the left of it. I'm following a tutorial found on Once Wed here. (And how much do I love their new site design?!) The basic structure was pretty simple, once I got used to the smell of the mod podge (and opened a window). The "design" elements are proving to be a bit vexing. Oh well, there's no rush and so far I'm only out about $4 in materials, plus stuff I already had. Bonus: it's a pretty good echo of the real cake we're getting, minus one layer.

5) I've done all the reseach I can do to find the least expensive fillings for our candy buffet, so I've started to make purchases. I'm buying locally as much as possible, because anything that we have to get shipped will likely need pricey express shipping. So far:
Butterscotches are sleeping soundly in my fridge (it's not empty -- I cleared a shelf) ...

and gummi grapefruit & Hershey's kisses are nestled in the freezer. (Side note to my mom: if you come by my apartment before the wedding, I'm going to hide these. Just sayin'.) I'd intended to get almond kisses from a website, because they're gold. You know, fitting in with the uber-important candy palette. But those cost almost $60 + delivery, and these were less than $30. So our palette now includes silver, in addition to cream, white & gold.

All of these so far = $66, from Jack's Discount Warehouse in downtown L.A. (They don't have a website, so google 'em if you're local.)

6) I grabbed 6 gold frames from the clearance aisle of my favorite discount craft store, for $2.50 each.
We can use them to label the dishes on our buffet, and toss them into the stuff I intend to re-sell after the wedding.

7) We gave our deposit to the designer at our reception venue. She's already asking about stuff we intend to sell that she'll buy off of us/ take in trade against our balance. Woo hoo!

8) My friend Meg has agreed to make table runners out of the fabric I bought. That's 15 runners out of $5 worth of fabric + one round of drinks & girl talk at The 3rd Stop.

Oh, and this arrived ...
... and it was so beautifully wrapped that I didn't open it for two whole days. It's perfect. It's also my gift to myself for booking that commercial last week (aka outside the wedding budget.) Go and love its maker on Etsy here!

part great news, part back to the drawing board

We had two fabulous pieces of news yesterday. First, Mr. UB is getting a promotion in 3 weeks. Woo hoo!! He'll be working long hours, but at least he won't be on overnights, so there's a slight chance that I'll get to see him, at least occassionally. Second, His Parents are going to be able to give us more than they originally thought to help pay for this wedding thing, which is a huge relief. Even with all my wheeling, dealing & scheming, we were coming perilously close to bumping our heads against the budget ceiling. How close? Let's just say that my get-a-crapload-of-pizzas idea was back on the table. But more on that later.

We picked up our rings yesterday. They're lovely, and exactly what we wanted. My photography skills, on the other hand, well ...

That's Mr. UB's ring. It's a tungsten band with a diamond embedded in it. I was trying to take one of those pictures where the shadow of the rings looks like a heart. Apparently, I need a stronger light source. D'oh!

There's both of them, in the same place I photographed my engagement ring. Kind of soft-focus. Totally on purpose. Really.

That's both rings just sitting on the book from the earlier pic ... yes, Shakespeare. Much Ado, to be specific. No, not Romeo & Juliet -- that didn't end well, remember?

My sub-par picture-taking aside, we're thrilled with them. And the jeweler we used, J. Rothstein, couldn't have been nicer, or easier to work with. They took the materials we brought them in trade, and are still working on selling some of it.

Another wonderful discovery that happened this morning was Cake & Art. They were recommended by our not-really-our-wedding-planner, Ania (she can't do our new date, but she's continuing to share her resources. LOVE her). It's a tiny little shop in West Hollywood that's been there for 30+ years. Mark (one of the 2 cake gurus there) spent about an hour with us, looking at my magazine tear-outs, flipping through their catalogue, and sketching up a basic outline for us. He asked many more questions than we were prepared to answer, and was very sweet about our sleepy-eyed stammers & shrugs in place of actual responses. (I rehearsed until 1:30 a.m. last night, and the Mr. is still on his farked-up sleep schedule.) He came up with an idea that will incorporate several ideas from the rest of our decor, and suggested cake flavors that will compliment the tastes in our dinner menu. Hello! Are you kidding me?!? Oh, and the cake was super-yummy -- enough to snap me out of my Morning Grouchy Phase. (Note to self: cupcakes for breakfast cure that.)

The best part: they don't charge by the serving. I haven't found anyone else who makes wedding cakes who doesn't do that. They quoted us $380 for a 4-tiered cake. I was ready to slap down cash right on the spot, but Mr. UB wants to go eat more free cake. I suspect we'll do both. (Don't let their admittedly weird website put you off -- go and talk to them. I dare you not to love them.)

I'm very pleased to have the cake business sorted, because we got an estimate from the caterer we thought would be on the cheap side. They're quoting us almost $4500. Ouch. So: who wants pepperoni? Seriously, we could be the Pizza Wedding. That's cool, right? Sigh ... probably not. But it's time to start poring over the estimate one line-item at a time, and seeing what else we can figure out. I've never attempted to feed 110 people before ... will someone out there kindly remind me not to do it again? Thank you.

luuuurrrrve!!

Once again, I am in love. Or rather, more specifically, I am in luuuurrrve. With the delectable Ania. She's a wedding co-ordinator, who fell into my lap via the beyond-lovely Mel (Camera-Op Extra-ordinaire) where I am once again working. But ... what-evers. I luuuuurrrve me some Ania. She has resources for everything from cakes & flowers to rings & decor stuff. AND she's committed to fitting into my micro-budget. I would cart her around on my shoulders if I could. She also thinks I've done a good job, on my totally uneducated, out-of-my-depth own, thus far. Woot = us!

ack!

I have seen the future, and it foreshadows my doom:





I can only hope there's no DC Universe Online* cake hiding out there ... (gulp).
(photo 1 from whoops -- please tell me! photo 2 from Let Them Eat Cake, via Cake Wrecks)

*bucksboys.com: select "content & viral", then "justin janowitz", then the bottom left video. That's Mr. UB in action. Yes, it takes forever to load.

D. I. ... Me(?)

As long as I'm going to try to make the invites & do the decor myself, I may as well see just exactly what I can whip up. And who knew! (you probably did, but I had no idea) about all those websites & blogs out there with cool ideas.?!

For example, I find myself oddly intrigued by this pomander made of craft paper & ribbon. (photo from article on Once Wed here) Which is surprising because when I first discovered the existence of said objet, I thought it looked ... well, stupid. But it's clearly growing on me. Now, I have no idea how much "real," aka "made of flowers" pomanders cost, but I'm betting they're not cheap. (Just a hunch, based on the recurring theme of "anything we know is for a wedding costs 30 to 300% more".) But anyway ... the rather adorable little thing pictured here costs only about $5 in craft materials, plus the sweat of my brow. (And from what I've heard, that can be had for a very reasonable rate. Even though it's for a wedding.)

There's also this project (also on Once Wed, here) for a cupcake stand that could be pretty freakin' sweet as part of the display for the candy buffet.For the record, I'm deliberately choosing projects that don't seem too ambitious -- I just hope I'm not over-estimating my abilities. Frankly, for the right look at the right price, I'll stay up as many nights as I have to, playing with cutesy-shaped hole punches and fancy paper.

In other news, my mom wants to have a telephone pow-wow with me & my sister, to discuss ... things? ... i'm not sure what, exactly. But I'm sorta guessing that she thinks I'm gonna f@ck this whole thing up. Or maybe she just knows they have expertise to impart -- I'm probably projecting my own exhaustion-imposed self-doubt onto other people. (It's not even exhaustion I can blame on wedding planning. It's just life this week. Which doesn't give me high hopes for the situation improving.)

Oh ... and I think I finally saw a cake that I a) don't hate, and b) can imagine having at a wedding for me:
(photo from The Polka Dot Bride here) No idea what to put on top (do I have to?!) but we've got time for that. Maybe I'll hole-punch something on fancy paper.