Seating charts and such

After attending many weddings where tables weren't assigned and having to go through that whole 'first day of school, where do I sit' feeling, I'm a big believer in designating where people should be seated for dinner receptions. I don't agree with the people who say that it's rude to tell people where to sit, because as a guest I ultimately want to feel comfortable and have a good time when I'm at a wedding, and getting stuck at the geriatric table or with a bunch of people I don't know (or even worse getting separated from FI because there's not two seats together at any tables) is not my idea of a good time. I'm not doing assigned seating with the individual names placed at every place setting, but I am going to have table assignments to guarantee that people who should be seated together are sat together and people who don't need to be anywhere near each other (certain members of my extended family!) are seated as far away as possible from one another. I think if I'm smart about placing people who know each other and who have similar interests together at the same tables, the night will be a lot more fun for everyone without all the awkwardness of guests wondering where they should sit. In my opinion seating charts add structure to an otherwise chaotic portion of the reception! Below is an example of the kind of seating chart I'm leaning towards. A framed seating plan seems much less time-consuming and more organized than coming up with cutesy individual escort cards for everyone. I'm going to be DIYing the table numbers using wooden craft numbers, a bit of stain, and brown glitter.

Hair inspiration

I've been thinking a lot recently about how to wear my hair on the big day. FI likes it down and I was trying to take that into consideration, except for the fact that my hair is naturally hella straight and it's a pain in the butt to get it to do anything. I've worn it down and curly for a couple of special occasions and it always falls flat after a couple of hours no matter how much Aquanet the stylist uses. I don't want my hair to look limp and bedhead-like when I go walking down the aisle, and I'm afraid that if I get it done early enough for pictures and such by the time we go to the reception it's going to look like crap. So I think I'm going to just wear it up for the wedding so I don't have to worry about it (since I'll have enough things to worry about the day of anyway) and wear it down for our TTD photo shoot. That way I'll have a couple different looks in our album (and FI gets to see me in THE dress with my hair down like he likes) but I'll rock a no-fuss style on my wedding day. I've saved a couple pics to my computer that I'm going to show my stylist...who by the way I haven't picked yet since I'm not a regular anywhere. I want something romantic and relaxed, not princess-like or perfectly coifed. I was thinking loose, tousled waves/curls with a little pouf on the top for volume. I don't want it to look like those Bump-its infomercials though lol I'm open to anything that looks good on me personally, so I'm just taking these pics in as inspiration and not a guideline, but it is important that I have my veil underneath my updo rather than over it. I don't see the point in paying to get your hair done if you're just going to cover it up! Here's some updo pics I've found that I'm loving right now.

Our first wedding gift

FI and I aren't registering for gifts and we've told those who have asked that we really don't need anything. We have collected a lot ourselves and have also been very blessed by our families. That doesn't mean that I wasn't excited, however, when my grandma bought me an early wedding gift that I've secretly wanted! I love baking. It's kind of a hobby of mine. I like trying new recipes, making co-workers goodies, and stealing those cupcake decorating ideas from Martha Stewart and Woman's World magazine. I sound old, I know haha I had always thought a stand mixer would be great to have in the kitchen to help me in my baking escapades, but it's one of those things that you want but don't need, so I never took the liberty of buying one for myself. Well my amazingly thoughtful grandma had heard me briefly mention wanting one and she just surprised me with a 6-speed Hamilton Beach model with 3 different mixing heads complete with a stainless steel mixing bowl with pour spout which is going to make filling cupcake and muffin pans much easier. Am I a bit of a dork for being so excited about a kitchen appliance? Quite possibly. But I'm a dork who's not going to have to wisk my own egg whites or knead my own dough from now on :)

Here comes the dog

I wish so badly that I could somehow include me and FI's amazing furbabies in the wedding. They're pretty much like our kids and I personally think they would love to see their parents get hitched! haha I love looking at wedding photos where dogs are there celebrating with their people wearing the little flowers around their collars (none of those ridiculous bridesdog dresses or full-out tuxedos, thank you) but sadly that isn't a possibility with our wedding being quite a distance from our house and not being in a dog-appropriate location. Besides, one of our babies has black fur that would undoubtedly shed all over my white dress while the other often gets so excited around new people that she loses control of her bladder lol Puddles in the aisle isn't exactly what you want happening on your wedding day! I realized recently that since I don't have the typical bio and choose to blog instead, I don't really have a "Furbaby page". So I'm making this post dedicated to me and FI's wonderful furry children. We have two loving dogs (both that we adopted/took in as we don't believe in purchasing pets when there are so many shelter animals who need good homes) and three little bunnies. We like a full house haha We got Callie when we first moved in together. She's a husky/lab mix full of energy who's favorite hobbies include getting her belly rubbed and chasing squirrels. Callie found a playmate in Cooper, who we took in about a year later. Cal has a lot of energy and likes to play pretty rough, so fortunately Cooper can keep up and they get along great. He plays when she wants to but at the end of the day he's much more chill than she is and just loves cuddling up with me and FI. On top of having two dogs we also have three rabbits. One is a Dutch breed and one is a New Zealand, and since we originally thought they were both boys and put them in a cage together, the newest addition to our family is now a mixed Dutch/New Zealand doe :) Thumper is a black and white Dutch breed, then we named our black New Zealand rabbit Onyx because of her color, and when the little bunny turned out to have the same pretty shiny black coat we named her Ebony. Here's some pictures of our little family. So darn cute!!

My somethings

Of course as a bride I have to provide for the something old, something new adage on my wedding day. It's a tradition we girls know well, and I'm pleased to say I have my things!

My something old will be an antique-style pair of chandelier earrings I bought a long time ago for a special occasion just like this. They work perfectly with my dress as I needed some really glam, long earrings to wear since I've decided I won't be wearing a necklace. Sorry for the poor quality picture. Crappy camera phones!

My something new is (duh) my dress.

My something borrowed will be the toasting glasses my parents used on their wedding day and then my grandma is also letting me use her cake serving set. Yes I know technically this shouldn't count since I'm not actually wearing these items, but I am including them in my wedding day so I think I'm safe from any bad omens that should come my way! The toasting glasses aren't like typical flutes, and instead are more goblet shaped like the ones in the picture below.

As for my something blue, I'm just going to wear the traditional blue garter. I debated getting one of those cute sports team garters to cater to my man but seeing as how I didn't have anything else in blue for the wedding, I figured using the garter to fulfill this would be my best bet.

A touchy subject

Ever so popular in search engines and seen almost daily in The Knot message boards is the question of how to ask for money as a wedding gift. Different sites and different etiquette specialists will all tell you different information, ranging from it's always a no-no to it's a common practice nowadays. FI and I have been shacked up together for the past two years and in that time we have gathered all the various items we need for our home. In fact our place is too small for the compilation of things we have! Yet the "wedding experts" will have us believe that we are required to go down to our nearest Target or Bed Bath & Beyond and get trigger happy with the scan guns rather than tell guests what we would actually like is money to put towards new furnishings (which are too pricey to expect one person to pay for in a registry) and our honeymoon expenses. We have stuff thrown in closets and in storage as it is, so why in the world would we need to register somewhere for gifts? Now I know it's not polite to expect gifts just because you're getting married and I would never make someone feel obligated to get me something, but let's face it-a lot of people who come to your wedding are going to want to bring a gift because they care about you. If you are getting married soon people have probably already started asking where you are registered or what they should get you, and if you haven't been asked directly they have probably discussed it with your family or bridal party. I want to urge my guests not to go out and spend a fortune on gifts since the reason I am inviting them to the wedding is not to be showered with household items, but to be able to share the joy of the day with them. But if they insist that they want to give me and my future hubby something, as many of our invitees have done, who am I to stop them? I know it's a touchy subject and some think it's a major faux pas, but I find myself falling into the category of people who believe it's perfectly acceptable to let people know you'd rather receive money than another coffee maker or random items that ended up on your registry just so you'd have something on your list for others to purchase. I think it's a far worse crime to register for frivolous "filler" items and have guests waste money on things you didn't need in the first place than it is to express that money towards a bigger goal is what you would prefer. I will not be including any registry information on my invitations because that is just common sense that you don't pull a tacky move like that, but FI and I do have a wedding website that I'll be posting information on to explain why there is no registry floating out there for us and that while gifts are not necessary, if someone wants to give us something a monetary contribution would be much appreciated. We're hoping we won't have to eat grilled cheese sandwiches in the months following our wedding just to pay off our honeymoon expenditures! So how am I going to sugar coat this request for money? Why, a poem of course! This may not be for everyone but I know my guests are not the type who would be offended and it's rather cute and witty if I do say so myself. I wrote most of it on my own and then brought in bits and pieces of other poems I'd come across online. It's funny and light-hearted enough to where it doesn't sound pushy, because that's not what I was going for. I really just wanted a fun way to explain why we aren't registering. Here it is if you'd like to use it (please remember to credit accordingly!):

This is where you would normally see
Our registry information,
But as we already live together
We find ourselves in a situation.
We started collecting long ago
All sorts of things for our home,
There are not too many items now
That we don't already own.
So don't bother with searching for a gift
And please just bring yourself,
For that would mean more to both of us
Than absolutely anything else.
If you're still set on bringing something
Just know your presence will suffice,
But if you truly feel the need
Help with our honeymoon fund would be nice!

The first dance

I normally want to gag when couples do those ridiculously corny "surprise" wedding dances, especially since most times they either can not or do not need to dance like that! This couple just looks so cute though, and if FI and were ever to shy away from the traditional first dance we would do something fun like this.