Island Time

As you all know, we'll be cruisin' around the Caribbean for our honeymoon. Last week we finally booked our excursions, so now I can tell you about all the grand adventures we're going to have! I am super pumped!

First Port: Key West, Florida

Eep!

Mr. Hyena has always been a little bit of a daredevil; he's gone skydiving, likes thrill rides and thinks all the scariest tasks on The Amazing Race look super fun. And me? I am terrified of free-falling, roller coasters, jumping off high things and things I've never tried before ... so when he suggested we go parasailing on the "first leg" of our trip, I was very hesitant. That's high up! And it probably moves fast!

He finally convinced me that it would be fun, though. We watched a video of other people parasailing, and it didn't look like they were going fast at all — just chillaxing and taking in the gorgeous views from the sky. I can deal with that! The parachute even has a smiley face on it, so it can't possibly be scary, right? Plus, agreeing to parasailing has gotten Mr. H so excited that the excitement is contagious. :)

Second Port: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

I've never been out of the country before, so the stop in Grand Cayman will be my first foray into being a world traveler! For this stop, we decided to go snorkeling. I've snorkeled once before — when my family went to Hawaii one year — and it was so much fun! (Mom Hyena wouldn't put her face in the water because she was convinced she would drown. I told her if she starts to drown, take her face back out of the water!)

Anyway, the adventure we signed up for is snorkeling a coral reef off the coast of Grand Cayman, and going to "Stingray City" to see its namesake! Oh, and apparently stingrays eat squid and we can feed them. Super awesome.

Third and Final Port: Ocho Rios, Jamaica

I've heard that the biggest and most famous attraction in Ocho Rios is Dunn's River Falls. We'll get to hike one of the waterfalls, and swim in the pool at the bottom of it! This excursion also goes through Enchanted Gardens botanical garden, which also has a bunch of waterfalls inside. Prettyyyyyy. I love doing nature walks, and I'm glad Mr. Hyena wanted to do this one too!

What are you doing for your honeymoon? Do you have any grand adventures planned? Tell me about them!

(all images from Carnival Web site)

SHOUT! ... Now waiiiiit a minute...

After my millions of questions about how to figure out the music, I wound up bawling all over Mr. Hyena about the playlists, and the bar, and how I can't deal with this wedding crap anymore and we should just elope because no one will like our wedding anyway WAHHHH.

via Bridal Buds / cartoon by Adam Zyglis

And Mr. H came up with a brilliant, albeit unconventional way to deal with all the mini "events" during the reception.

We would emcee our own wedding. Five months in advance.

I know what you're thinking. You don't have to say it. I know. But hear me out.

Here's the plan: we have four "events" we want to include in the reception: Anniversary Dance, Cake Cutting, Bouquet Toss, Garter Toss.

• My awesome future sister-in-law already volunteered to emcee the Anniversary Dance. What would we do without her? Since that requires more than just one announcement at the beginning, I think it's a good idea to have a real person speaking.

• For the other three events, we will use my computer to pre-record our announcements with voiceovers that say things like, "YO, WE'RE CUTTING THIS HERE CAKE, PAY ATTENTION!" except in a classy, nice way that doesn't make us sound like rednecks. We will insert the sound clips into our dance playlist along with a few slower non-dance songs, so that we have time to cut the cake, and everyone can get their cake and eat it too before the dance party starts back up. Also, this way Bridesmaid A won't have to switch playlists 15 times during the reception.

• We'll do the same thing for the bouquet and garter tosses, except play only the one song for each event and put announcements before each song begins.

I know this is just "one more thing" to DIY (ie. one more thing I have to think about), but luckily this seems like a project I can get out of the way pretty quickly, and then I can stop freaking out about it.

Is this idea totally nuts? Has my brain reached boiling point? Do I need to be carted off to the loony bin? I'm expecting you to tell me truly! I'm a woman on the edge!

(Or you know, if you think it's a cool idea and could work, I'd like to hear that too. ^_^)

You know this makes me want to SHOUT!

For the first time since we got engaged, I recently started to freak out a little bit about our reception music. We'll be joining the masses rockin' an iPod/laptop reception, and I have very little grasp on the logistics.

via iWorld-CLUB
Panic! Adorable Panic!

Sure, I've got a basic outline of the music we'd like to play for the various parts of the reception, and we've got plenty of time to finalize it. I've talked to the woman who owns Downtown 202 about some of the logistics of hooking up a laptop (she said to come in a few weeks in advance to make sure everything will hook up properly, or just burn CDs of all the music).

What I wasn't sure about, though, is how the actual reception is gonna go down. Obvs, we would like to have music for the anniversary dance, cake cutting and the bouquet and garter tosses, as well as plenty of time to cut a rug. This is where it got complicated in my brain.

• When we select music for these moments, should they be embedded into the rest of the dance playlist (for minimal playlist-switching on the part of Bridesmaid A), or each event on a separate playlist?

• If each one is on a separate playlist, do I need to separate the entire dancing playlist into sets so there isn't any repeats in the music?

• Without an emcee, how do we let everyone know it's time for each event?

These questions were bouncing around in my head, unsolved for a couple of days, in which I was almost frustrated enough to blow the whole thing off and just hire a DJ. I had worked the iPod at Bridesmaid A's wedding, but since her wedding was mid-afternoon with no meal and no toasts and not many announcements, I don't remember how she accounted for these little things (and neither does she). I mainly just recall hitting play on her cocktail hour playlist, and then switching it over to the dance playlist when she and her new hubby walked in.

Luckily, Mr. H came up with an answer to my many questions ... and I promise you'll think it's crazy. You'll want to stay tuned for this.

If you had an iPod reception, how did you deal with the little "events"?

Throwing Money at Our Problems

I'll admit, up until a couple months ago I did not consider myself a DIY Bride. It wasn't until I was talking to a Planning Buddy J about our corsages a while back that I realized how many details I've unintentionally DIY-ed.

While I was not planning to be a DIY queen, I DID consider myself to be a Budget Bride. And oh ho ho did I have big ideas for that one before I got knee-deep in planning.

Wedding cake? Oh, we'll just get the local HEB grocery to make it! Catering? HEB has party platters too! Flowers? ... You may be sensing a theme. I freaking love HEB.

via The Dallas Observer
Oh HEB, you are so good to me...

All of these could have been great ideas, but unfortunately there was still a heavy DIY element to these ideas. And frankly, my poor little bride brain couldn't handle it.

I realized I would rather spend the extra cash on our cakes in order to have them done by a professional and delivered to us, instead of selecting from the pre-made "cakes we know how to make" bakery booklet and picking it up ourselves the morning of the wedding. I would rather pay someone to make really good food that I don't have to figure out how to keep fresh or warm. And, well, you already know how I feel about flowers. I'm pretty sure HEB doesn't regularly stock peonies. Even if they did, my head would explode if I had to wait until the last minute to get them arranged.

At some point, we have to figure out which is worth more: our time or our money? Our money or our sanity?

Now, I realize that I am putting quite a lot of effort into the DIY aspect of our wedding, but I'm justifying that because the majority of the projects I'm taking on were ones that I wanted to work on. I know the limits of my capabilities (I don't think I've ever successfully baked anything; therefore, I should not delude myself into thinking I could make our wedding cake). If a project sounds awful and difficult, I don't want to waste my time doing it.

I'll admit, there are a couple projects that I do NOT want to be working on (like, oh, a DIY BAR, more to come on that later), but I'm trying to keep those to a minimum. I'm not fun when I'm stressed out. I'd like to remain fun!

What kind of bride are you? Is it super weird to love a grocery store so much? :)

It Must Be A Sign

Mr. Hyena's side of the guest list is MUCH larger than mine. We are getting married in a fairly small church. If we went with the traditional "Bride's Side, Groom's Side," my side would be ... sad-looking, and there wouldn't be room for everyone on his side. There won't be any ushers, and I like the idea of letting people sit wherever they want, but I didn't know how to convey that until I saw this sign:

from Mrs. Hippo

Hmm. I could do something like that!

I had a couple 11x14 sheets of glass laying around (they came from some photo frames I bought, but the pictures I matted for them were too thick for the glass to fit back in), and was looking for a way to use them. I used the paint pen I bought for my hanger project and some silver spray paint I found at my parents' house. (Woohoo! This project was fuh-REE!)

Step 1: Get on the computer and type out your text in the font you want the sign to be in. Print it out.

Step 2: Tape your paper with the text to the underside of the glass. The glass should be on top of the words in the way you'd like them to be read.

Step 3: Use the paint pen to trace over the words through the glass. Two coats'll do it!

Step 4: I didn't like the blank space in between the two lines of text, so I drew a heart in between. <3

Step 5: When the text is complete and dry, flip the glass over. Spray paint the backside of the glass (the side without the text). Let it dry. You can do two coats, but I'm lazy and only did one, and it still looks good.

Step 6: Flip it over to reveal your signage masterpiece! (It looks better than this in real life, the glass makes it hard to take a picture of.) The part I love best? Because the paint is on both sides of the glass, automatic drop shadowww!

I plan to prop it up outside the sanctuary on one of those little photo stands.

Are you doing his-side, her-side seating?

Unwanted STDs: A Save-The-Date Saga

During our planning, our wedding invitations have been my baby. I have rounded each corner with love. When I found out the address stickers on the RSVP cards had our Zip Code wrong, I cried as Mr. H and I disassembled each invitation. I can picture that proud moment as each invitation, ready to take on the world, leaves our nest and arrives in each guest's mailbox ...

And I adamantly did NOT want to do save-the-dates. I planned to skip them entirely; that is, until the week of Thanksgiving 2010, when I found out no one — friends, family, bridesmaids, groomsmen — knew when the wedding is.

By the time I realized that I had to do save-the-dates if we wanted people to not plan their vacations during our wedding, we were already past the less-than-six-months-to-go mark. After pouring all my time and energy into "my baby," I just wanted to get the save-the-dates designed, get those puppies out and be done with 'em as quickly as possible. So I did just that.

Considering I only spent like, two days on this project, I'm very pleased with how they turned out! I decided to do postcards to save on stamps, and only one side in color to save on printing costs. (As I didn't plan to do these, there was no budget money set aside for them.) Yes, yes, I am aware that really both sides are in black and white, save for the text, but I love the way they look in B&W! It reminds me of newspaper announcements. :)

I had them printed from Catprint with a full bleed (that means all the way to the edge) on heavy matte cardstock.

How about a closer look:

Sorry the light made the back side show through a little...

Stamps ... those little polar bears don't match anything in the history of everything. Boo. But the new evergreen Forever stamps are kind of cute. :) I also printed off the polka-dot address labels for our guests, since they tie in with our invitation suite (and keep this side of the STD from being totally black and white).

And of course, all engagement photo credits go to Bridesmaid J!

What's your planning "baby"?

"You seem much calmer lately"

... said the older gentleman who leads our Bible study, when our group went out to dinner last night and wedding talk came up.

And he's right. I am calm, now, for the most part. I've gotten all the "heavy" items off my to-do list, and now I'm mainly down to just details. Aside from a few things like booking the bartender and hiring a cop (required by the county, because alcohol will make our guests super rowdy at two o'clock in the afternoon, right?), I can pretty much choose what I want to do and forget the rest as the wedding looms closer.

Ohhhhmmmmm.

But I have been a complete head case up to this point, I'll admit. I have enjoyed being engaged, I have enjoyed talking about wedding details, but I have not enjoyed planning. I'm not much of a procrastinator, so I crammed the bulk of planning into the first eight months in order to "not stress myself out." I have gone into a panic over things I have never cared about before and will never care about again. There was one point in which I showed up at aforementioned Bible study, freaking out about how we would keep the keg cold without having to put it in a trash can. Because obviously, I want the wedding to be beautiful and trash cans do not fit in with the decor.

(Duhhhh: there's a bar and the trash can will go behind it so no one will see it. Hence the bartender.)

I'm glad that I have people around me who help me to realize that yes, I am calm. I'm dense enough that I probably wouldn't have noticed it on my own. I am calm, I am ready, and what you mean I still have to wait five and a half months? Dang it!

So how are you doing?

On the Fifth Day of Christmas...

... my true love gave to meeee ... myyy wedding riiiiiiiing!

Well, not yet. But Matt and I agreed to gift each other our wedding rings for Christmas, and yesterday I picked up his ring from the jeweler!

It's hammered yellow gold with white gold edging, so it matches both his Aggie ring and my rings.

I'm so excited about it, and dying to show him (and make him model it!), but I guess I'll just have to wrap it all pretty-like and forget about it for now. Easier said than done!

Are you doing anything special for Christmas?

(personal photos)

Delusions of Domesticity

In the past few weeks, I swear I've gone into full-on nesting mode. Bride brain? Please. All I want to do is think about decorating our house, and throwing fancy dinner parties in which I serve Top Chef-like culinary masterpieces off the beautiful china we would register for if I could just find a pattern that I like.

Oh, to have problems such as this! I can't find china that jumps out at me that says, "I am BEAUTIFUL and perfect and you have to get me and love me forever!"

I can't decide if I want fine china or everyday china, and therefore cannot make up my mind on the sets themselves. Would I use fine china? Would the everyday china be nice enough to use for special occasions? Is it selfish to register for like, four different sets of dishes so there's always one that fits the occasion?!

Here are some sets I'm considering for Casa de Las Hyenas:

Mikasa "Daylight" via Bed Bath and Beyond

"Romance" Bone China via Bed Bath and Beyond

Kate Spade "Gardner Street Green" via Macy's

Dots via The Pampered Chef

Vera Wang "Wedgwood" via Macy's

This Noritake set is the first that I absolutely adored. Mr. Hyena came home and I was so proud to say, "I finally found dishes that I LOVE!" They are stoneware, would look good in our dining area and would definitely be good for everyday use. So, of course, after many hours of fruitless searching, I found out they are discontinued. And I am a sad panda.

Noritake Colorwave "Mint" via Macy's

Noritake Colorwave "Lilac" via Macy's

Noritake Colorwave "Raspberry" via Macy's

Noritake Colorwave "Peach" via Macy's

Are you registering for china? How did you decide what to get?

Just Hangin'

Making Sure the Tables Are Covered

I had been wanting to get all our linens ordered for a while, and finally just got around to it. Mainly because I knew what I want, and I knew Matt wouldn't like it, so I didn't want to ask. I mentioned having pink tablecloths to him once, and he thought the entire room would look TOO pink. He wanted white tablecloths.

White is fine, I guess, but without some kind of overlay or gigantic bright centerpieces, to me it just looks so ... sterile.

via Wedding Chicks / Photo by Mike Larson Inc.

via Wedding Chicks / Photo by Linda Chaja Photography

I was hoping that we wouldn't have to pay for tablecloths AND an overlay, but if we end up going with white, I'm afraid it would be necessary. Our centerpieces are not very big, and I don't want just a big expanse of white stretching across the room.

But pink cloths ... ohhhhhh pink cloths!

via Style Me Pretty / Photo by James Christianson Photography / Event Design by RSVP Shindig

via The UnBride / Photo by Zoe Lonergan / Cake by Sharon Robinson Wedding Cakes

They're BEAUTIFUL! I LOVE them! They make me type in CAPITAL LETTERS!

I went to the Web site for a local rental company to see their color options for tablecloths, and here are some of the colors we could use:

via Party Time Rentals

On the top left we have white and ivory; in the middle we've got magenta and "pink balloon," and down in the bottom right, that super dark color is "burgundy." I'm going to nix the burgundy right now. Too dark. I don't want the wedding to be too white, but I also don't want it to look like a vampire hideaway.

I finally got up the courage to inquire about pink tablecloths again, and Matt finally agreed to it if they weren't ALL pink. So we compromised with pink and ivory. Here's a mockup of what it might look like:

Downtown 202 image by me / Centerpiece images by me / Tablecloth image via The UnBride and modified by me

Since we'll have an even number of tables, and an even number of centerpieces, we can put the pink flower pots on the ivory tables with hot pink faux rose petals scattered around them, and on the pink tables we'll have the green pots with pale green rose petals.

What do you think? Can we pull off two cloth colors? What color tablecloths are you using?

Extravaganza!

Back in November, three of my bridesmaids and I flew out to Las Vegas for my bachelorette extravaganza and some much-needed vacation time!

Lest you think I've forgotten, I knew the wedding was still six months away. But with bridesmaids literally all over the world, I'll take 'em when I can get 'em! We were in Vegas for five days, but I'm only going to talk about the bachelorette night here, because you need to go visit for yourself. It's amazing. Go now. Bring me back some souvenirs.

This post is not entirely safe for work, but I did try to keep it tame. (What? My family reads this!) Onward!

In which I am really proud of myself for being cheap

Okay, so I promised you a cost breakdown for my faux flower pretties. Let me preface by saying, I used several items for multiple floral projects, and I did not count those prices twice, unless it was something easy, like two rolls of ribbon or something (not confusing at all, eh!). Also, I am kind of math stupid and didn't keep the best track of breaking down receipts, so this is absolutely to the best of my ability, but it may still be slightly off. Now, let's get to it!

Bride's bouquet: $70.93 (includes flowers, floral tape, berry filler)

Bridesmaid bouquets (4): $75.48 (includes flowers, ribbon, pearl stickers) = $18.87 apiece

Corsages and Boutonnieres: $44.76 (includes flowers, berry filler, baby's breath) = approximately $3.20 apiece for 5 corsages and 9 boutonnieres

Centerpieces (8): $121.81 (includes floral foam, flower pots, flowers) = approximately $15.23 apiece

Altar Flowers (4): $49.68 (includes floral foam, stands, flower pots, flowers) = $12.42 apiece

Toss Bouquet: $7.55

TOTAL SPENT: $347.75

Oh boo. I realize if you add up the numbers I over-accounted by about $20 somewhere in there. Regardless, I know for a fact that I've only spent my final total. (It's likely that the cost comes out of the centerpieces and altar flowers.)

I also mentioned previously that Mom Hyena thought our altar decorations were too small, so we came up with a solution that requires no work on my part (yesssss). Mom Hyena went on her own search, and found these pre-made arrangements at one of the craft stores!

She offered to have two of them made for us, with the white gladiolas on the top and brighter pink hydrangeas than the ones pictured. We will use the original altar flowers to decorate the lobby outside the sanctuary, so they won't go to waste!

Anyway, to make a long story short ... I'm really proud of this. I think we ended up with some really cute real-flower alternatives, and I'm excited to display them at the wedding. I am also THRILLED by the cost savings, and the fact that I can continue to use these around the house after the wedding, or give them to guests if they want them.

What's your best money-saving tip?

One Thing I'll Miss

I mentioned ages ago that we're going to be rocking an iPod reception. I've been working on playlists, and am having a lot of fun doing it. But I had totally forgotten about something that I'd always really, really loved about weddings: the anniversary dance.

I don't know if this is a regional thing or not, but in case anyone doesn't know, the DJ will call all married couples out to the dance floor, and they usually play a song like this:

Then, the DJ starts eliminating people from the dance floor. First, people who have been married less than a day (bye, bride and groom!), then less than a year, less than five years, less than 10 ... up until there's only one couple left on the floor, the one that has been married for the longest. At the end of the dance, that couple gives the newlyweds their advice for a happy and lasting marriage.

I love love love this tradition. It's so cute and I love to hear the different advice given.

What I didn't put much thought into was that this may be difficult with an iPod wedding. Sure, we could play "Remember When" (even though everyone uses it, Mr. H and I danced to it at our senior prom so I have some attachment to it), but without an emcee I wasn't sure how it would work. Bridesmaid A is manning the music, but she is also married, and I didn't want her to miss out on the anniversary dance just so she could emcee it.

Thank goodness for FSIL Hyena, though, who volunteered to emcee for this song. I would have been really sad if we didn't get to take part in this.

Are you having an anniversary dance? How about any other special dances?

Bier & Vino

When we thought about previous weddings we've attended, very few have had a full bar. Most of them have served just beer and wine. That ended up working great for us, since most people in our families really only drink beer and wine.

Honestly, I don't know much about alcohol. I know I like red wine. I know I like cosmopolitans. I know I usually enjoy shots with inappropriate names. Aaaand that's about the extent of my drinking knowledge. Since Mr. Hyena's family is German, and he actually knows things about beer, I left that particular beverage in his capable hands.

For ummm, RESEARCH! YEAH! we took a little trip to Shiner, Texas, to visit the Spoetzl Brewery, and yummmm. Mr. H suggested serving Shiner Bock as our beer. Sounds good to me!

I approve. If you like touring breweries, this was a fun tour and you got to taste several varieties of Shiner!

Various beer coasters we've collected. Some we picked up in Shiner, some taken from local bars, and some from Germany when Mr. Hyena visited last summer!

We stumbled upon our wine by accident. You see, I have this wine rack, and when I moved to College Station I wanted to decorate it. As a great wine connoisseur, I went to Wal-Mart and picked all the bottles that were under $10 and had cute labels. I proceeded to drink none of them. Until ...

The day after we got engaged, a friend of mine was hosting a Texas Wine Night, and we were all required to bring a Texas wine that cost less than $10. I went to my wine rack to see if I had anything that fit the bill, and discovered that one of the wines I had picked up at Wal-Mart was Llano Estacado's Sweet Red. (The winery is in Lubbock.) We brought it. It was freaking delicious.

via Llano Estacado Winery

On separate occasions, we tasted their Blush and Chenin Blanc wines as well, and I was pretty impressed. I'm not a huge fan of white wine in general, but both Mr. Hyena and I liked the Chenin Blanc. Nice and light and fruity. I think these will go well with our hors d'oeuvres. Even though it was good, we're not going to serve Blush (do a lot of people like Blush?).

So there you have it! We've got our alcohol! Local and delish.

What are you serving at your wedding?

My Chandler Bing Moment

"If you're calling before Saturday, you've reached Monica and Chandler, but if you're calling after Saturday, you've reached Mr. and Mrs. Bing! Please leave a message for the Bings!"

~Friends, "The One With Monica and Chandler's Wedding"

(From that same episode. I took a picture of my TV since I couldn't find it anywhere. ^_^)

I was not expecting this. No sirree. In fact, I've talked about changing my name on here before. It's cool.

But we are not married yet. So when I saw that someone from the church had e-mailed out a contact list with "Firstname Newlast" instead of "Firstname Currentlast," I had my own loosen-the-tie moment. (You know. If I'd been wearing one.)

Look, I don't think my name defines me. I know eventually I'll change my name. It's important to Mr. Hyena, so it's important to me. Maybe it is the fact that all these huge life changes will be happening at the same time. Maybe it was seeing someone else acknowledge the change. But it was too much. So I curled up next to my soon-to-be hubby, and let him hold me and reassure me that it will be all right. And it will be.

I love that man.

Have you had any "Chandler Bing moments"? Isn't it crazy how a show that ended 10 years ago is still so relevant?! :)

The Best Idea That Isn't Mine

In all seriousness, I am really glad that on Thursday, Pandora told me I had used up all my free listening hours this month. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have gone to Yahoo Music and started playing random music videos as background noise for working, and I wouldn't have seen Taylor Swift's "Mine" video.

I had talked to Mom Hyena about doing some kind of slide show, of the aww-here-we-are-growing-up-and-yay-we-found-each-other variety, and I didn't want it to be something we had to force people to sit through. I thought it would be convenient to just play one before the ceremony on loop, so if people want to watch they can.

But I like the idea in this video sooooo much more than just a regular slide show! Press play. The photograph idea is thrown in several places throughout the video.



Pretty, huh? To me it just looks like string and photographs, but I love the way they swirl in the wind. I might have to figure out a way to incorporate photos that way instead. Maybe for outdoor portraits? There's a pretty wooded area right outside the church that I imagine we'll use for pictures, and it would be pretty to have photographs blowing in the breeze ...

Have you found inspiration in any unusual places?

My Ring's Moment in the Spotlight

I can't believe I haven't posted any pictures of my engagement ring up to this point! We've already been engaged for like, forever!

I wanted to post pictures way sooner, I promise. The problem was that the majority of the pictures I had of my ring were blurry, and the pics that weren't had my hand in them. (We got engaged in the winter, and that's when I get Elephant Hands — yes, that's a technical term. As soon as Mom Hyena saw the pictures of my ring on my finger she told me, "You have GOT to do something about your hands!" So I wasn't too keen on putting those out there.)

Now that my ring has had it's own little photo shoot, I can show her off for the Web to see! :) Please indulge me!

Back in October, Mr. Hyena and I went shopping for wedding rings. Since the basket on my ring sits a little wider than most rings, a regular straight wedding band wasn't going to lay flush to the rest of the ring, and I knew Mr. H knew that would bother me in the long run. (What can I say? I'm indecisive sometimes and he knows me better.) The only other options were to saw off (!!!) part of the basket so a straight ring would fit underneath it, or get a band that curves to match it. I love the basket and I didn't want them mangling it, so curved ring it is! My ring wasn't part of a set, but luckily the ring designer had something that would fit it. I'm so glad the jeweler sent this picture over; when we went in to purchase it, they only had a printout of the picture, which made me nervous. I have been so afraid the past couple days that I wouldn't love it when it comes in. But now that I have a larger, clearer picture, I think it will look beautiful alongside my precious. Now I just have to wait impatiently until it comes in!

via Natalie K, courtesy of David Gardner's Jewelers

Does anyone else get Elephant Hands? How do you avoid it?!

Room to Dance

It had been quite a while since I'd gone to visit our venue, Downtown 202, and Mom Hyena recently freaked me out by saying she didn't think all the tables were going to fit in there. We're only having eight tables with no assigned or reserved seating so as to make it feel like a mix-n-mingle cocktail-type party, since Downtown 202 only provides that many tables. Mom Hyena was remembering it much smaller than it actually is, and in doing so, I started thinking it was super small too. Where will the people dance?!

I took the afternoon off to go see it again and play with the layout a bit, and I am SO glad I did! To my relief, everything fits exactly as I had imagined it! Since I didn't have good pictures to show off the first time we talked about the venue, I took some this time so you can get a better idea.

This is what people will see when they first walk through the door. In the back there's a stage. We think this may have been an old refurbished firehouse or something. I love the rustic brick! It continues to the left, but hold your horses, we're getting there!

Look up: there are GORGEOUS chandeliers all over the place! All of them are different too.

Now we'll take a look to the right ... there's the bar! Bathrooms are in the back. There's also a little soundbooth area closeted off to the very right, not pictured, but that's where we're going to run the music.

Now let's have a looksee to the left. Hi Mr. Hyena! Hi Planning Buddy JackieDe! They helped. (Actually, I wandered around and told JackieDe where everything was going to go while Mr. H did all the work. Thanks Mr. H!) You can get a nice view of some of the chandeliers here too. Just picture how gorgeous it will look with all the chandeliers going, some nice crisp linens on all the tables, some bright pink pops of color ... *sigh* I love it so much!

Walking into the room where Mr. H was setting tables in place ... I could see that everything will fit just fine over here, so the big room will be open for mingling and dancing. Downtown 202 provides a lot more chairs than tables, so those can go around the edges of the big room so there will be more places to sit.

What's that to the left? Oh, I'm glad you asked! The doors swing open to a little patio that's covered in plants! We have the option of setting up some cocktail tables out here, but I'm not sure what we're going to do yet. We could leave the doors open the whole time or we could just leave 'em closed and people can go out as they please.

Here's the view from the other end of the building. I'm in the storage closet so you can see how big it actually is. Why was I worried about it all fitting?

The chairs aren't super gorg, but upgrading is not an option. These come with the venue, and I don't have the funds for something that will essentially spend the evening getting acquainted with your butt.

So my oh-so-selfish question is going to be ... should I do something to make the chairs a little prettier? Cheap ideas are welcome (ie. not paying for chair covers)!