Blog High Five!

This makes me happy, because really, what bride woman doesn't want to be admired by strangers?

Matt and Christine get Hitched on Rocknrollbride.com

Photographic Proof That I Really Did Get Married!

We finally got our wedding pics back! Here are a few. There is a whole folder of them over on my Flickr stream.



I created my own button stems and then had local wedding vendor/artist Princess Lasertron make felt stems. The bridesgals had similar bouquets too.



We found this awesome tent at a golf course and rented it for the entire day at a ridiculously cheap price. We had both the ceremony and reception here and saved ourselves a ton of money. We also saved our guests from driving to two separate places.



How excited am I?



Our cutting cake was decorated like the Yellow Submarine cartoon. It was a surprise to Matt from me. The cake was unbelievable. It was chocolate with peanut butter mousse.



Our first dance was to, "Something" by The Beatles.

Almost There... I promise.

Guess what I just did?

I placed the order for our wedding photos 10 days before the deadline.

Can you believe that?

I almost can't.

This means that the wedding pictures should be along shortly... FINALLY!

Wedding Pictures...

Are on the way. They should be done by the end of the week. YAY!

Are we done yet?

I am sort of patiently awaiting the arrival of my wedding photos from the photographers. I know its been like, 12 days since I got married and the poor lady took like, 800 photos. But come on. Let's see the goods already. I'm more than positive that I am the most important and funnest client she's ever had so I can't understand why she isn't ASAPing the daylights out of my wedding pictures.

Impatience is definitely my Achilles heel.

We Got Married!

Well, we got married yesterday. It couldn't have been more perfect. More to come when we get home from the honeymoon...

Vacation!

Wedding vacation started today. No work, no responsibility. Matt and I went over the floor plan with the golf course today and double checked the head count with the caterer. Grand total: 131. Not too shabby. Everything is completely taken care of.

Cousins Tori and Somer came today. Adult family members arrive tomorrow. The Club House has seen a surge in business. What else is there to report? Not much... can't wait for Saturday. It's going to be awesome.

And I think we're done...

I went an ran my super secret errand and talked to the golf course about the bar situation. I decided to forget about dry cleaning my dress since it's so late and I would freak out if I didn't get it back by Saturday. It looks perfectly clean and pressed so we're just letting it hang out outside of the bag for a few days and calling it good. And besides, it's going on my body which means it stands a 95% chance of getting ripped and stained within an hour of putting it on. So, what's the point really?

I have to run out to the golf course tomorrow because they want me to show them where I want everything set up. Details, details dude. I don't really care. They're tables... But since I've seen the venue exactly once it probably wouldn't hurt to go remind myself what it looks like.

I guess that's it now? I believe I might really be done this time.

Um, Like 5 Days to Go???

Isolated thunderstorms and 76? Ok, whatever. I guess I'll take it. This is September in Nebraska so I should be happy the forecast doesn't call for six inches of snow.

It's officially Wedding Week. There are about three semi-major things I completely forgot about. One of those is taking my dress in to have it dry cleaned. Um, ok. Not a problem. I guess that's not too big of a deal. I forgot to call the golf course about our liquor order. Again, shouldn't be a problem. We're not ordering anything outrageous so that should be ok. The third thing I can't say because it's a surprise for Matt. But it's not that big of a deal. There's still time to get it taken care of.

I think that's it... All of his family will be coming to Omaha this week for the festivities. I expect it to be mildly chaotic but a good time should be had by all.

Sunny and 72!

The forecast for the 13th is currently sunny and 72. PERFECT! I couldn't have asked for anything better. No one likes a sweaty bride. Everyone better bring a jacket! It might get chilly at night.

Matt and I got our marriage license today. I was surprised at how easy it was. The lady didn't even ask to see our photo IDs. She just matched the form we filled out to our birth certificates and handed everything over. It was kind of alarming.

Why Not Eleven Day Forecasts?

I was really excited to check the ten day forecast on weather.com, thinking that the 13th was in ten days. Nope. Wrong. The 13th is actually in eleven days. So, I have to wait another day to get the forecast for the wedding. The 12th is sunny and 75 degrees, so let's hope that the 13th is comparable.

And while we're on the subject of weather, who else is loving what we've got going on right now? It's soooo beautiful outside. I hope it stays like this until February.

Happiness Is a Warm Griddle

I just want everyone to know that we used the giant electric griddle that Jeff and Brandon gave us as a shower gift. Matt cooked breakfast for my (and soon his too) family on Saturday. He made us eggs and pancakes. The pancakes cooked perfectly on both sides and were delicious. That's one of the reasons I love him. He's sweet and he does things like cook breakfast for me and whoever else happens to be around. I haven't cooked pancakes in over two years because of him.

Really though, he was looking for any excuse to use the griddle. I could have said, "Let's set up a burger stand in the driveway and sell flat-top sliders for a quarter," and he would have said, "Where's the extension cord?"

Eleven Days To Go

I had the most relaxing pseudo weekend (Sunday and Monday). I didn't think about the wedding, worry about the wedding, do anything involving the word "wedding." I sat around. I crafted for the sake of crafting. I drank coffee until my eyes spun around like a cartoon. It was great. If this is what it's going to be like AFTER I get married, then lets do this thing already. I can't wait to be normal and married and just be a wife rather than a bride.

I made good on my promise earlier to ditch any wedding tasks that didn't get accomplished on Saturday. I never got around to painting those stupid shoes. Instead, I hit Dillard's mega crazy cheap Labor Day sale and got a pair of patent navy blue heels for $19. Sounds good to me. They're cute. And come pre-decorated. I have a sickness when it comes to footwear so it was like, "Should I buy another pair... who am I kidding? Of course I'm buying them." Really. Its bad. Just ask, well just ask anyone who's seen my closet(s). I only buy on clearance though. I want to make that known. :)



All that's left is for Matt and I to get a marriage license. This is the one thing that I knew I would forget to do if I wasn't constantly reminded of it. Sure enough, I forgot about it until Matt reminded me last night. That's probably one of the more important things on the list...

Updated To-Do List. Smaller This Time!

So, this is what we have left:

01. Finish the bridesmaids jewelry
02. Print guest book pages
03. Fix up the boh-ring pair of white shoes I bought.
04. Order booze. For the wedding.
05. Take dress to cleaners

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere

Yesterday was craftemonium at our house. We finally finished the insanity that has been this wedding. Mom, Cat and I divided and conquered the remainder of the favors, the 4 missing centerpieces and the flower girl baskets. Everything sitting in one room together looks like a flower factory exploded...

Flower girl basket:


Centerpieces in a box:


I also made a large centerpiece for the head table:


And Mom made a bouquet of flower pens for the guest book table:


I never intended for the wedding to be so flower heavy... but this somehow happened. Everything looks incredible together though.

Wedding Hair Test Run

Well, this is me with wedding hair. I told the stylist, "Breakfast at Tiffany's-ish, and no curls. None." She delivered. I dig it.



Whaa? This is what I look like with a real hairdo? Seriously?

Weekends of Mass Production

This weekend will bring another day of mass production. I've decided that it will be the last day ever that I will spend being Crafty McCrafterson for this wedding. If if doesn't get done on Saturday, then it evidentially isn't that important and I'm throwing it out the window. I didn't really do a lot of planning for the wedding, but I spent a countless number of hours making crafts. I seriously can't stop. What is wrong with me? I'm about to stick a hot glue gun to my temple and put myself out of my misery.

And even when I'm not doing crafts for my own wedding, I'm doing crafts for other people's weddings/any excuse to make things. Jeff and B invited Matt and I over to watch the Huskers game on Saturday. Jeff and I are turning it into a football/BBQ/craft extravaganza for the heck of it. Nothing like a cold beer and some embroidery to kill a Saturday night.

I'm going to spray paint my shoes *hopefully* tonight or tomorrow. I'll post pics of the process. It should be entertaining if nothing else. I also called the caterer today with a semi-official count and he was all, "G'day mate, the head count doesn't need to be in until the week of the wedding." (He's Australian if I didn't make that clear enough.) He's a very nice and patient man, but it's hell trying to understand him over the phone.

Shoes. Again. Will these things not just decorate themselves?

A friend on Flickr suggested a couple options for fancifying my white shoes. One of them was to spray paint them with metallic paint. She even sent me a link with directions. It looks seriously easy. And at this point, seriously easy is the only way to go.

Did I mention that the wedding is in 20 days?

I'm done worrying about whether or not things get done. Either they will, or they won't. It doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. I learned last night that details are just details. All that matters is that we are all lucky to have the chance to get together and celebrate with the people that we love.

Can't wait to see everyone!

Updated To-Do List

Somehow, the list got bigger this week. WHAT THE *@!%#! How did that happen?

01. Make a flower girl basket/somethingorother
02. Finish the bridesmaids jewelry
03. Print guest book pages
04. Fix up the boh-ring pair of white shoes I bought.
05. Finish center pieces
06. Finish buying/reserving decorations
07. Order booze. For the wedding.
08. Plan somewhere to take pictures at.
09. Take dress to cleaners
10. Track down MIA RSVPers and harass them into accepting or declining.
11. Call caterer with head count.

-ALSO-

I'm looking for ficus trees to use as reception decorations, if anyone has one I can borrow or keep, would they let me know? I'd like to avoid going out and buying half a dozen fake trees. Renting isn't any cheaper either. So far I've gotten a freebie from a lady from work and I found one in the Boys Town warehouse sale for pretty cheap. I'll take as many as I can get.

Email me: cburright at gmail.com if you are in need of having me lighten your load of fake trees.

Thanks!

Work Shower

This morning, my coworkers threw me a little wedding shower. It was very thoughtful of them. They got me several wonderful gifts, baked a cake and pitched in for some food. It was nice.



I don't have a picture of the cake or of the lovely food spread. You know how ravenous it gets in offices when food is brought out. It's every man, woman and child for themselves.

Tomorrow morning is the shower my sister/MOH is throwing for me. Again, very thoughtful of her. I'm excited to see everyone!

Fear of the Dry-Cleaner

I have to take my dress to the dry-cleaner to have it steamed and I am completely terrified that it's going to come back to me as a big pile of plaid shreds. Or get lost. No, no! STOLEN! Because everyone and their mother will want that dress when they see it. That's right, you heard me. Best. Wedding. Dress. Ever.

I have yet to tackle that remaining list and subsequently have no actual post-worthy information. I did however realize today that math has once again bested me and I am short on a few centerpieces. Apparently, 180 guests divided by 8 seats at a table does not equal 16 centerpieces.

I hate bridal math.

Less Than a Month To Go

Here it is another weekend and I still have my list of things to do. Imagine that. And you know what's actually scary about this weekend? The fact that it is now less than a month until the wedding! WHOA!

So, back to that list of stuff I have to do... I did book a hotel room about five minutes ago. I booked at the Magnolia downtown and it was surprisingly cheap. It was actually $40 cheaper than the Double Tree on 72nd that I had checked with earlier. Interesting. So as of right now, the list is:

01. Make a flower girl basket/somethingorother
02. Finish the bridesmaids jewelry
03. Print guest book pages
04. Fix up the boh-ring pair of white shoes I bought. (I have a great idea!)
05. Finish center pieces
06. Finish buying/reserving decorations
07. Order booze. For the wedding.
08. Plan somewhere to take pictures at.

Look at that! Only eight things! YAY!

And most importantly, tonight I get to go pick up my wedding dress. I cannot wait! I'm so excited. Carole did an amazing job. The dress is absolutely incredible. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Vows!

Yesterday, Matt and I had a fake fight about wedding plans. Fake fighting for us is someone pretending to get mad about something stupid, then the other person gets fake mad back at them, we both say some dirty words not fit for a wedding blog and then we laugh uncontrollably. Needless to say, it's remarkably immature. But, it's fun. Here's how the (edited) fake wedding fight went:

Matt: A month from today and we will be getting married. You better finish up all those wedding crafts.
Me: (Pretending to be annoyed.) You know, you could help me. I have a list of stuff you could do.
Matt: I think you're fine on your own.
Me: Mike helped Jen plan their wedding.
Matt: (In a pretend angry voice.) I bought pants and I got a hair cut. I also bought you that *** ring so I think I'm done.
Us: Hahahahaha!

Turns out that Matt actually does have some great wedding ideas in his head because last night he asked if we could include some of our own vows in the ceremony. I thought it was a great idea! It's not anything I had considered up until that point. I don't want to say something cheesy and sappy though. Not our style. I want our personal vows to be special and funny. Then, this morning a great wedding was featured on offbeatbride.com where the couple wrote some funny vows to each other. One was, "I vow to respect your opinions, even when they are dumb." I love their wedding summary. It was so lighthearted and inspiring. They really had a great outlook on the day.

Unrelated, But I Had to Share

This has nothing to do with my wedding, but I had to share it because I'm just blown away by it. Would you look at this bouquet that Miss Violonjello made!?! It's so adorable and sweet and UNBELIEVABLE!

Perfect Wedding Shoes!

I found exactly what I'm looking for! As far as shoes go... And husbands of course.

Unfortunately, these shoes are ridiculously expensive and there is no possible way in the world to justify buying them. Stupid Moschino. Unless, my mortgage company called and said that instead of paying the mortgage this month they wanted me to go out and spend my house payment on a pair of shoes. Then, I would be forced to buy them.

Does anyone want to give me a $399 early wedding gift? No??? You guys are a bunch of cheapskates.

Vintage Goodies

Here are the vintage goodies I got this weekend. I found a really cute clutch purse at Fairmont. I hadn't been there in a few months and there were tons of new booths. One was full of purses and jewelry. I was in love.



Also, I bought some little embellishments for my shoes. These shoes are seriously boring. I'm trying to figure out what to do with them... Any suggestions?

Minor Progress Report

Turns out that I did get a couple of things done this weekend. Humph. Guess I was more productive than I thought I was. I decided at 9:00 last night to finish up the bouquets. I worked on them while watching The Two Coreys and the Olympic 4x100 swim relay. The relay was incredible! USA pulled ahead at the very last second and won. Literally! It was Lezak's last stroke and he pulled ahead just enough to win by .08 seconds.

Anywho, here's the update I started this post with:

01. Finish the two remaining bouquets
02. Make a flower girl basket/somethingorother
03. Finish the bridesmaids jewelry
04. Print guest book pages
05. Find something to wear on my head
06. Fix up the boh-ring pair of white shoes I bought. ($4.99 on ebay. Boring but cheap.)
07. Finish center pieces
08. Finish buying/reserving decorations
09. Book a hotel room
10. Raid mom's jewelry box.
11. Order booze. For the wedding.
12. Plan somewhere to take pictures at.

I also got a few wedding treasures from antique stores on Sunday. I'll put those up later.

Vendor Props

Princess Lasertron (flower maker) featured a picture of my finished bouquet on her website! How sweet of her! Everyone should visit her site and see the beautiful things she makes. She also got a feature about her wedding in the Omaha World Herald's Wedding Essentials Magazine.

How cool for her!

Weekend Forecast

Tonight should be my last dress fitting. All that's left to do is the hem. She's going to sew in some fun wiry stuff to give the hem some shape. I can't wait to see the final project. It's funny how much work goes into getting a dress for a wedding. Mine was even fairly easy and it still felt like a lot of work. Matt on the other hand went to Gap, tried on a pair of pants and he was done. Just like that. It took about seven minutes.

Matt and I are in another friend's wedding on Saturday so wedding progress will be minimal this weekend. Hopefully it's nice on Sunday because I want to go to downtown to some thrift stores and find some fun sparkly bits to put on my boring white shoes. Second Chance always has loads of old jewelry. I'm thinking I can find some big flashy earrings and cut off the posts and turn them into shoe clips.

To Do List

The last time I made a to-do list and then posted it online, I magically got everything on the list done. (It must have been the pressure of people seeing my list of unaccomplishments.) So, I'm going to attempt the same miracle twice. Here we go... Don't panic now:

01. Finish the two remaining bouquets
02. Make a flower girl basket/somethingorother
03. Finish the bridesmaids jewelry
04. Print guest book pages
05. Find something to wear on my head
06. Fix up the boh-ring pair of white shoes I bought. ($4.99 on ebay. Boring but cheap.)
07. Finish center pieces
08. Finish buying/reserving decorations
09. Book a hotel room
10. Find a necklace. Raid mom's jewelry box.
11. Order booze. For the wedding.
12. Plan somewhere to take pictures at.

That is a mighty to-do list! I guess in reality though, having a list of twelve things to do in five weeks isn't really that bad. I just have to do three a week. This list making thing really works. I get kind of panicky when I think I have a lot of stuff to do, but when I write it all down and I can see what really needs to be accomplished it doesn't seem so bad.

There you go. Blog post and lesson in the benefits of list making, all in one. Happy hump day!

Lots of RSVPs In!

WOW! We've received a lot of our RSVP cards back already. I've heard stories from other people about how they only got 10 out of 100 replies back and they had to call all of their guests to get a final head count. Thank goodness we have responsible and prompt guests coming to our wedding! We've gotten about 1/3 of ours back.

My Bouquet!

I ordered loose flowers from Princess Lasertron and got them on Saturday. Total bonus that she lives in the same city as me so shipping takes a day! So yesterday, the bouquet making commenced. I confessed to her that I was DIY-ing my own button stems, but that I would love some of her felt stems to put into the bouquet. It just wasn't in my budget to buy entire bouquets from her, even though I would have loved to. She was very understanding and made me beautiful flowers even though I'm a rotten thief.

Here is my finished bouquet! I have one BM bouquet done too. The BM bouquets are polka-dot heavy. She made me polka-dot flowers even, which is awesome. I used some checkered buttons and ribbons on mine to match my dress.

This wedding is ______________ (adjective) !

Things have been pretty calm this week on the wedding front. I took on yet another project and decided to make the bridesmaids necklaces. I couldn't find any that I liked so rather than buy a piece of crappy jewelry that no one really wants, I thought I might as well make them something that has some thought and time in it. So, I went out last night after work and bought some things to make necklaces. They are so cute, if I do say so myself. Just like the dresses, I would wear it all the time if I got to keep it. Their opinions of them might be a little different than mine though. But all the same, I think I'm going to set a world record for cutest bridesmaids.

Center pieces are coming along. Who would have ever thought that I would put so much time and effort into center pieces? Definitely not me. My question is what am I supposed to do with 16 center pieces once the wedding is over? Maybe I'll just give them away. (Last person to leave the table at the end of the night gets to keep the center piece as a parting gift!)

I've been collecting ideas in my brain for the guestbook. It's going to be awesome. Two words for everyone: wedding madlibs. That actually might be three words.

Get With the Program!

Programs are off and printing. Check that off the to do list!

The program is going to be folded up and included in a little surprise for everyone. If nothing else, you definitely won't walk away from this wedding empty handed.

It's tiny so you can't read it on purpose:



Gotta save something for the actual wedding! Otherwise, you wouldn't have a reason to come would you? If I told you everything that was going to happen and you could read the actual program right now, you'd probably just stay home and watch Austin City Limits on the night of our wedding. (That's what I'd be doing if I didn't have to go to my wedding.) Granted, it's a wedding so you probably already know about 95% of the stuff that is going to take place, but the fun little details are that extra 5% that I'm banking on to get you in the door. Or in the tent rather.

Say Yes to the Dress!

Has anyone ever ever watched the show, Say Yes to the Dress? It's about a store in New York called Kleinfeld's, one of the biggest bridal gown stores known to womankind. TLC has a reality series based on the happening within the store. The show is completely terrifying. These women pick and chose through thousands of dresses, until they find "the one" for them. I want to know how many men these women dated to find "the one" compared to how many dresses they tried on to find "the one." I bet the dresses outnumber the men.

You know how many dresses I tried on until I found, "the one?"

One.

I tried on my dress tonight (sans zipper) at Carole's (dressmaker) house and I fell in love with it. It's the first time I've seen it, ever, and I was soooo excited I couldn't stand it. I may have clapped with excitement, it was that bad. It's unlike any other wedding dress I've ever seen. And I'm not just saying that. It's definitely true. I blogged about it earlier and I know it might have sounded kind of scary (Plaid dress? What?) but I promise it's not. The dress is gorgeous and adorable and fun. Carole even made me twirl in her living room after she had me pinned all in. This dress twirls. It twirls like nobody's business. We may have to add Twist and Shout to the playlist just for the sake of my awesome twirl capabilities.

I'm going back on Wednesday to try it on with the zipper and some fancy hemming work she's going to do. Then, a few minor details left to add and it's done!

FAQ of the Day

From Anonymous:

Tell us about the cake!

Dear Butter Cream Inquisitor,
That is a very delightful (and tasty) question. You are a reader after my own heart. I am an avid fan of baked goods, and when it comes to weddings, the two most important questions are:

1. Who's getting married?
2. What kind of cake are they having?

Rather than have a traditional wedding cake, beautiful as they may be, we chose to have a variety of torte cakes made for our shindig by Annette's Catering. Her tortes are absolutely delicious. My sister used her services for her wedding and it was unbelievable. Luckily, Cathy ordered too much torte and I agreed to lighten the load for her by taking some leftovers home. I kid you not, I ate torte cake for breakfast for a week. It was just that good.

Annette probably has thirty different flavors to choose from. Obviously, we were unable to order all thirty. Unless of course you want us to cancel dinner and just serve cake all night. Believe me, I would be fine with that. But as of right now, we plan on having six varieties for you to choose from. They are:

Chocolate Mint Torte
Chocolate Raspberry Torte
Strawberry Torte
Carrot Cake Torte
German Chocolate Bavarian Torte
Tuxedo Torte

Thanks for your interest Mr. or Ms. Inquisitor. I am delighted to have answered your question!

Sincerely,
Matthew and Christine

The True Engagement Pic

Courtesy of John Morrissey. I think this one speaks for itself:

I Just Can't Stop

That is an Al Green song title by the way... it's a really catchy tune. It's also an accurate description of my inability to cease the wedding craft mayhem. I bought yet more stuff to add to the centerpieces. That means a couple more hours of putting things together on top of the current centerpieces that I haven't actually finished yet. Matt and I also talked it over and we want to have a nice guestbook after all. Which, of course, means I'm going to make a guestbook. But it's not going to be any old guestbook that you sign your name in and your done... Oh no. We would never let you get off that easily. It's going to be a fun little project that everyone gets to partake in. Actually, I have the easy part. You guys as guests are the ones who are really going to have to do the work. I don't want everyone getting bored and going home early! I've got a project for you to keep you entertained!

You'll see what I mean...

The Story of Us

This wedding is the result of a blind fix up that almost wasn't (twice) and the amazingly uncommon result of it.

Before I ever met Matt, I met Matt's older brother Billy. I was a flashlight technician for Billy's album cover-shoot. (Don't we both sound so important! Well, at least one of us?) We had to wait for the sun to go down (for the sake of the flashlights) and went to dinner to waste time until dark. At dinner, Jason (photographer) made a funny little comment about how he predicted that I would meet my husband through work. His exact words were, "You'll meet a cool client and he'll set you up with his brother or something." Ya right I thought, that's never going to happen. Well, it turned out that Billy wasn't exactly short on brothers. He came into the office a few weeks later with Rachelle and Cartney and offered to set me up with Matt. I initially declined but then later accepted. Matt and I agreed to meet out at a bar with friends so it wouldn't be too "blind-datey." Come the day of the meeting, I decided that it was probably going to be a waste of my time and I begged Shannon to let me ditch the date. What was going to happen anyways? Was I going to meet my future husband? I don't think so...

So, we all met at the Library Pub, hung out, talked, realized that we didn't hate each other and made plans to go out the next night. Matt and I had the perfect first date: Nintendo, arts and crafts and a midnight showing of Wizard of Oz. Since the theater was behind my apartment, Matt didn't have the opportunity to open the car door for me to prove he was a gentleman. He did however give me a piggyback ride through the alley if that counts for anything. (Awwww!) And for the record he does open the door for me. Every single time!

So that's that. We hit it off over 50 cent beers at a dirt bar and a night of playing Mario. About four days later we were both off the market and it's been great ever since.

The Postman Never Rings Twice, So You Better Do It Right the First Time

So far I've received two RSVP cards back in the mail... and three returned invitations with incorrect addresses on them. Humm. Those odds aren't good. If it continues on in this pattern, 40% of our guests will make it to the wedding, and 60% will never even know they were invited.

FAQ of the Day

Today's question is from Cathy:

Why the Beatles theme?

That's an excellent question Cathy. I'm sure a few people are wondering why we've decided to dedicate our wedding to The Beatles. Matthew and his brothers were raised on The Beatles. The McGuigans' dad was a huge fan of the Fab Four and he instilled that love in his sons. Matthew and his brothers love the band so much that they have memorized almost the entire Beatles catalog and perform an interactive show of their music around the country.

Matt converted Christine to a classic rock lover when they started dating, and now the music of The Beatles rules their lives. (We even named the dog Ringo.) We wanted our wedding to be a reflection of who we are and what we like. We want it to be fun and memorable for everyone. For us, that meant taking our love of music to a creepy height and making decor out of pictures of John, Paul, George and Ringo - instead of ourselves. (Please, don't tell Yoko we did that.) That crazy engagement picture you all received is even inspired by our song, "Two of Us" by The Beatles (of course). There will also be a few Beatles inspired surprises at the wedding, but you have to come to find out what they are!

I hope that answers your question Cathy. I'm a little surprised that you didn't already know the answer to that, but thanks for bringing it up for the sake of everyone else.

Sincerely,
Matthew and Christine

P.S. Even though we're diehard Beatles lovers, Stones fans are still welcome to come enjoy the festivities. Monkees fans are on their own though.

FYI About Comments

I enabled the comments feature on this blog to allow anyone to leave a comment without having to log in to anything. All you have to do is click on the comment counter at the bottom of the post and type type type your heart out. Currently all the comment counts are ZERO. Aww shucks...

FAQs

I know I didn't answer everyone's question with this post, and I know I probably answered some questions that no one actually asked me. So, if there's anything else you would like to know please email it to me at: cburright at gmail.com. (My email address is typed out like that because of phishing losers.) I'll probably respond with something funny to say and then post it here to show everyone how clever I am.

Kidding!

Not really!

And on to the questions:

Where should I stay?
In the event that no one in Omaha offered up their guest bedroom or couch to you (what jerks!), we suggest making a reservation at the Holiday Inn on 72nd and Center. We did not reserve a block of rooms, but this particular hotel is close to the wedding site and easy on the pocketbook.

Holiday Inn and Convention Center
3321 S. 72nd Street
Omaha, NE 68124
402-393-3950

Where is the reception?
It's in the same place as the wedding! In fact, you don't even have to get out of your seat to go from the ceremony to the reception. The party comes to you!

What should I wear?
Well, the wedding and reception are in a tent, so you'll be outdoors in September, in Nebraska. That means it's either going to be 100 degrees outside or it's going to snow. (Maybe you should wear something casual-dress for warm weather and leave a parka in the car just in case?) Go ahead and skip the formal, just come as yourself. And if "yourself" happens to be daisy dukes and an NFL jersey, well that's just fine with us.

What weather can we expect?
Again, sweltering heat or snow are both options you might want to consider. In all actuality though, it will probably be quite warm during the day and a little cooler at night. But that's not a guarantee. Nebraska is known for wacky temperatures so just check out the morning's forecast when you get here. Pack a light jacket if you're coming from out of town and you should be good.

What's for dinner?
The wedding starts at 6:00, dinner might not be until 6:30 or 6:45 just to let you know. You will be fed though, don't you worry about that. Vegetarian options will be served. (Vegetarians still eat yak meat, right?) Don't forget to save room for desert.

Are you two registered somewhere?
We would never expect anyone to bring us a gift. We're just thrilled that you're going to come celebrate with us. However, we went ahead an assumed that everyone would still want to shower us with expensive presents and we registered at Target.

Where are you going on your honeymoon?
Why? Do you want to come too? We're going to San Francisco! We went there in February for a couple of days and fell in love with the city. It was warm and sunny, full of museums and record stores, and had good food to eat on every corner. It was Mecca for us.

Can I request you play a certain song at the reception?
No way! Who do you think you are???

I'm kidding!!! Will your hubby only dance to Juice Newton's "Queen of Hearts"? Well, that's totally weird but we'll still play it for you. Just let us know if there's something you want to hear. This is going to be an iPod wedding so email your song request ahead of time so we can not-illegally-but-maybe-kind-of-illegally download it. (send to: cburright at gmail.com) The only song that we will veto is "The Chicken Dance" for obvious reasons.

Is Ringo going to be there?
Sadly, no. Ringo will be sitting this one out. That's too bad because he already got himself a tux...

Family Fun Night! Right? Right guys??

Invitations are done! Mom, Pam and Cathy came over last night to help stuff envelopes. Dad came over too, but he came to take a look at our broken garage door - not to do wedding related chores. (In case you're wondering, the garage needs a new cable.) Surprisingly, only one envelope was ruined by me dropping pizza on it. I was expecting much worse from myself.



The invites are in a box ready to be dropped off at the post office today. I was going to put them in the out-going mail bin at work but that's no fun.

We also tackled the job of putting together the wedding favors. Production was delayed for a little while when we realized that the bags I bought to put the favors in were too small. We made an emergency trip to Hobby Lobby and then everything was back on track. The original bags were way cuter and I still want to find a use for them, so if anyone has any suggestions as to a fun way to use 200 clear plastic treat bags please let me know. As an added bonus, the pile of supplies for the favors is much smaller now. Looks like Joe won't have to sleep on top of a pile of Folger's boxes when he stays in the guest room.



The favors turned out to be absolutely adorable. Unfortunately, my entire ribbon stash got cleaned out. We probably used twelve spools of ribbon. I've been hoarding polka dot ribbons for months with the intention of using them for the wedding, but all the while secretly hoping that I wouldn't have to use them and I could keep them. I have a problem with wanting to buy craft supplies and then not wanting to use them once I have them. (I like to keep things feeling new so I hate to open the packages.) Every time Mom would get to the end of the spool I'd tell her, "I'll go see if I can find another roll... But this is absolutely it this time! I don't have ANY more!" I think I said that at least seven times. I kept pulling more out of the closet, out of the basement, out of the office...

I did eventually really run out of ribbon. Well, that's not entirely true. But we ran out of coffee bags so it didn't matter anyways. I need to work on my division skills because I ended up buying cases of supplies that totaled: 126 bags of coffee, 188 pairs of coffee creamer and 200 bags. I never claimed to be good at math.

Check out how great those look! The sacrifice of my ribbon collection was well worth it. And now I have an excuse to replenish my cache with a trip to the fabric store!

My New Partner in Crime

Jeff informed me that he has hydrangea bushes behind his house! Umm, hello Jeffrey! Why didn't you tell me this earlier??? He agreed to pluck and dry his beautiful flowers in sacrifice of my wedding. (It was actually his idea! No pleading was involved!) So, after he farms two months worth of them we're going to make a topiary for the wedding!



Someone new to feed my wedding craft addiction! Yay!

Let Them Eat Shoes!

How much is too much to spend on a pair of shoes? Or rather, how much is too much to spend on a pair of shoes that I will wear at my wedding?



Keep in mind that it's the most important day of my life and thus these will be the most important shoes of my life. That's how it works, right? Don't I get to spend extravagant amounts of money on things I normally wouldn't buy just because I can argue that they will be "the most important" that I will ever own?

Besides, it's not like I already spent money on a pair of shoes for the wedding.

...I DIDN'T!

Ok, I did... But these ones are totally justified! These are the comfy backup shoes for when the fancy expensive shoes start hurting.

Bridesmaid Bouquet of Hotness

I made the first bridesmaid bouquet tonight. But I didn't make it out of flowers. I made it out of hotness and fierceness. I also watch too much Project Runway because I'm calling things fierce these days. It was pretty time consuming. I made Mom hold it while I poked stems into it and taped it up. I lured her over with pizza and then tricked her into staying and helping.

There's a few extra pictures tonight because I busted out the good camera for this cutie. Mama's so proud! Thanks again to Princess Lasertron for some inspiration.

Ring Box and American History Trivia

Not a whole lot got done this last weekend. It was a nice long weekend either spent on the couch or in a store exercising my all-American right to shop. Matt was at work and asked someone for their "John Hancock." A teenager he worked with asked, "Who's John Hancock? Why do people always say that?" That's the future of America right there everyone. Happy 4th...

But on to wedding related items. I finished Kyle's ring bearer box. It took a couple hours and lots and lots of hot glue.

Progress Update, i.e. Something Cute I Made That You Should See

I got off work early today and this is what the guest room (room with a futon) looks like as a result:



Messy and disorganized? That's what you think! That room is a proverbial hotbed of production. I mean, take a look at what I made this evening. This oh so adorable corsage will be adorning the wrist of the oh so adorable Cartney at our wedding:



I made sure it fit me just in case I needed to wear it somewhere. Like breakfast or the movies. She's getting a freakin cute basket to go with it too.

Oh to live in London...

A dress from Candy Anthony's shop. Click to see more.

Does anyone have a problem with us moving the wedding to London so I can get married in one of this lady's dresses? These dresses are INSANE! If not the wedding then maybe just the bridal shower? Do you ladies have passports?

My Name is Christine and I Am an Addict

I need to be banned from entering the following stores: Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Hancock Fabrics. They need those lists that casinos have for recovering gambling addicts. You sign an agreement that says if you try to enter the casino they must refuse you entry and escort you from the property. I need to get on one of those for craft stores. I definitely have a problem and I am powerless over it.

The Dress

Ok, I really can't keep anything to myself. I'm sure it's bad luck to blog about your wedding dress or whatever but I can't help it. What if the groom doesn't read the wedding dress blog before the big day. Is that ok then?

This is a picture of the original inspiration for the dress. It's really really really (really) cute. But its also insanely expensive. Apparently you can charge anything you want for a wedding dress in New York and someone, somewhere will pay for it. What do you expect from a city that charges $25 for a roast beef sandwich?



Why is she carrying a dog? Are bijons the new bouquets?

I was absolutely in love with the polka dots. I still am. But for the life of her, Carole (dressmaker) couldn't find polka dot fabric that would work. Instead, she found plaid! Oh yes everyone, plaid. And the crinoline underneath is going to be powder blue to give it an extra little heft of funk.



So, that dress above, minus the dots, plus the plaid, add in a sash and voila! My wedding dress.

Wedding Sweatshop: An Amish Weekend

This weekend was an incredibly productive one for me. Why you ask? Well, because of this...



We had our power knocked out for 46 hours by 110 mph winds and lots and lots of falling trees. It was kind of like being Amish for the weekend. It went out on Friday, right after I got home from work, and didn't come back on until this afternoon. There aren't a lot of distractions when a flashlight and a hand crank radio are the only gadgets in the house that work. This wedding is DIY crazy and I decided to make everything myself for it, within reason. And some stuff not so within reason. For example, I decided I wanted to make boutonnières for everyone instead of buying floral ones. My inspiration came a la the fabulous Princess Lasertron. Great idea! Here's what the first one looked like:



It's cute, huh? Well, that little guy took me oh, I don't know, maybe four hours to make. And then I did the math and realized that I needed to make twelve of them. But how was I going to find the time to sit down and crank all those guys out? Good thing I didn't have power this weekend!



No TV, no internet, no Wii. Absolutely nothing to stop me from working my fingers to the bone making wedding crafts. I also made ten center pieces, picked up and cut out engagement pictures when Baker's got its power back, and temporarily escaped the sweatshop for a four hour wedding pow-wow at Cathy's house. (I also snuck in some internet time to get my fix. I'm a web junkie. Hense the insanely long post tonight.)

I was just sitting down to the computer to finish printing off stuff for the invitations when the sirens went off on Friday. I had just enough time to turn off the computer, grab a flashlight and run to the laundry room before the power went out. I was finally able to finish printing everything off tonight. Here's proof that I really did the invites myself and didn't outsource them to India to save some bucks. It's also a picture to brag about having my power returned. Look at that printer go!



Keep an eye out for one of these babies in the mail in the next few weeks...

Who Is the Who?

We want to thank our awesome wedding party for agreeing to stand with us at the wedding and for being incredible friends and family members. We want them to be honored at the wedding as much as we are. They truly deserve it.

They are also graciously going along with our wardrobe/costume choices for the big day. It's going to be like Breakfast at Tiffany's meets The Ramones. (And they agreed!) That's true love right there. In no particular order, those fine folks are:

Cathy Price - Sister Extraordinaire of the Bride

Matron of Honor & Master of Keeping the Bride in Check Since 1983.

Shannon Werts - Friend of the Bride

Gloria Bustillos- Friend of the Bride

Jeff Guenin - Friend of the Bride

Ryan McGuigan - Brother Like to Other of the Groom

Best Man and Band Mate for life

Eric Perlstein - Friend of the Groom

Joe Kaspar - Friend of the Groom

Cartney McGuigan - Sweetest Flower Girl on the Planet

Kyle Anderson - Cutest Ring Bearer Known to Mankind

Update on the Planning Phase

Something snapped in the last week and I caught the bride virus. I hated the organizing part. You know - caterers, bakers, venues. That stuff is boring. And expensive. But I'm past all of that and now I'm working on the little details. Like an addict loves crack, so do I love little details. I just about peed pants with excitement when I bought cards and envelopes for the invitations. ENVELOPES! WHEE! I could quit my job and make party invitations for people for the rest of my life and I would be perfectly happy. Something about paper products... I just love it. I don't scrapbook but I love to collect the paper and junk and be happy just having it and looking at it. Weird? Maybe... So the invites are in the works. Everything should be delivered by this week and then the Official Family Ladies assembly line will convene and I'll get those babies in the mail.

And the center pieces? Oh jeez... this is getting out of control. I keep finding stuff I like so I just say to myself, "Let's throw it on the table too. Why not?" This wedding is going to look like every horizontal surface in my house - covered with crappy stuff that only I find amusing and which Matt sweetly puts up with. I also took back my promise to let the bridesmaids pick their own dresses and I bought them super cute cocktail dresses which they can "totally wear again!" Every bride says it but I'd like to think it's true in this case. Maybe? Probably not... I'd wear it everyday for the rest of my life if it was mine. My dress is in the works. I've already told too many people about it so I'm keeping is a secret until the wedding. Ok, that's not true. I can't keep secrets. I have an incredible costume designer, Carole Zacek making it for me. She's done work for commercials, movies, ballet and theater. I'd give you her website link to go look at her stuff, but there's a picture of me on there in a flea costume.

Hellooooo!

This is our wedding blog! More info to come...