and now for something completely different.

if you've been dropping by for a while, you may recall my semi-recent engagement and my aversion to the wedding industry, heteronormative, pretty-pretty princess bridedom thing.
our wedding planning process may be a little more lackadaisical and slow paced than most, but we are making small steps forward.
i now have a dress.  i was able to purchase it for $50 (including shipping!) and therefore stayed well within our super small budget.  it is strange to have this dress in my closet.  it seems to carry so much more identity than any other piece of clothing.  weird, huh?
we have also nailed down the total budget and started a "savings plan".  a surprise bit of generosity has allowed us to have a honeymoon.  we had previously decided that a honeymoon immediately following the wedding wasn't going to be financially possible.  now we are overwhelmed with the possibilities.  we're 99% sure it'll be a trip to one of the national parks; most likely Glacier, but also in the running are Yellowstone, Yosemite and Denali.
next step:  visiting our short list of potential reception venues.  yikes!

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like things are moving along. I'm not the princessish bride type either although I do regret not having some kind of pretty dress or special meal. Some of that came later but it wasn't as magical.

    I have friends who do all that outdoorsy stuff. They live up in Alaska if you ever find yourself in their neck of the woods.

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  2. Ahhh....the wedding planning. How I thought I would love it, but hated every second. Mike and I got married under a tent in my parents backyard and had a pigroast---that part I loved. I had a fru-fru dress that I got for $100--that I loved. I did not think I would want a princess dress, but I put it on and it was perfect. We still managed to spend $6,000 ---which I hated and wished I had spent it on a nice honeymoon instead.
    Here is some unsolicited wedding advice.
    Get a good photographer as this will be your only memory of the event as it flies by WAY TO FAST and you are a lover of artsy view so capture that view.
    Only invite the closest of friends and family for Friday rehearsal, Saturday wedding, and Sunday brunch that way you get so much time with them---my most absolute favorite part!
    Use you I-pod and rented speakers for music and put a friend in charge that way you get all your favorite music wicked cheap!
    I am sure there is other stuff that I am forgetting.....see only a short 7 years later and I can't even remember....:)

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  3. @tmc i definitely struggled with the dress idea. there certainly will be no veil, train, garter, assorted other things that are froofy.

    @kate it sounds like we're on the same wedding planning planet! if only we had a big backyard, that's what we'd do too!
    we are definitely doing the ipod thing. we're not planning to do a rehearsal dinner, or sunday brunch (or have bridal/grooms parties) although i'm sure that something informal will come together.
    the photography budget is twice as much as both of our clothing budgets put together!

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  4. Our weekend wedding was very informal. Friday was pizza, wings, and beer in the tent (out to a bar to drink our faces off--of course I was 26 then). Satuday wedding, then Sunday my aunt and Mom bought pastries, fruit, bagels, juice coffee and we ate in the tent again. The tent, table, and chair rentals cost a ton so we got our money's worth!
    My Dad actually had to level part of their yard cause their house is on a hill. I told my Dad he actually moved the earth for my wedding-he loved that!
    I made all the wedding invitations. I hand-painted flowers on the front then went to a printer to get all the info printed on card that I tied inside with raffia. I made postcards for the RSVP card. You are Ultra-creative you could totally do your own invitations!!!!!
    I used dried and some-kind of paper flowers for myself and the girls bouquets. The guys wore shirts, ties, and khaki's. I was really the only one overdressed. My bridesmaids wore dresses from a store in the mall! My uncle makes the best pies from scratch so he made like 12 pies and then we paid a friend of my mom's to make a cake shaped like a turkey (Mike likes to hunt) which was a surprise to Mike--very funny and hick-ish! One of my Mom's friends happens to be a pastor. We are not religious so she kept the Lord to a minimum and gave a us different vows to choose from.
    I wish I had a big yard you could use! Our yard is el-sucko too!
    This is fun sharing all these memories with you!!!!!!

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  5. @kate your invites sound interesting. i was thinking of hand painting ours too, but it seems a bit overwhelming.
    "she kept the Lord to a minimum"-love it! adam thinks he's going to ask one of the glens falls judges he works with to officiate.
    i love reading about your wedding...it's great inspiration!

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  6. The wedding invites: I just spread the work out over a couple of weeks and the flowers only had 4colors--very simplistic. It was about 100 invitations so it did not take long at all. I have some sort of an aversion to store-bought cards. I am not sure why. I only buy Christmas cards and I even hate doing that...
    Anyways, I did not want a cookie cutter wedding so I figured handmade invites would set the tone:)
    Use one of your many beautiful landscape photos instead of painting that would be really nice!

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