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.