was saying a little prayer for the person/couple/family each time I sealed one. Just a little bit of love sent along with it!

Guess who’s celebrating by walking around in her wedding shoes? THIS GIRL!

I love Easter—it’s my favorite day of the year and I’m so so blessed and grateful for the love that I’ve known in my life. Christ is risen, life is beautiful, and I’m getting married in 97 dayz!!!!

Invitation paper: IN! 

Bookmark fabric: IN!

I’m so ready to roll, I just…have…to…finish..my…T…P…A. Oh and teach in between =). 

Let’s do this I’m so ready to get married!

I want to make RSVP cards that look like kindergarten class sticker charts. Like that.

Disclaimer: I’m not usually a jerk. This is the angst I’m experiencing at this very moment! Tomorrow, I may take back these words. Someone may convince me with their supercute photos that today, I have spoken words of idiocy. But here goes…

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They say it’s the little things in life that make you happy. Let me tell you: in engagement and wedding photos, those little things only make me angry! I’ll explain. 

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You know how the photojournalism approach is now like fervently a part of wedding culture? Well, there are a few poses that I can’t stand:

1. American Gothic pose. That would be the one where the husband and wife stand next to each other, outside of some barn or building. Husband holds a pitchfork; neither are smiling. This one just bothers me because it’s their wedding day! Why are they so unhappy? What happened? The groom is not a poor farmer nor the bride his spinster daughter—no! They just got frakin’ married!
2. Engagement photos taken with vintage furniture for props and set in the middle of the woods. Really? Were they on their way to grandma’s house when they just happened upon an antique desk with flowers and china that conveniently match their wedding theme? All I can think about when I see those photos are how much of a pain it must’ve been to drag that velvet couch out into the middle of nowhere, or how many thrift stores it took to gather all of those mismatching plates. This brings me to my final bother and the cause for this entire post:
3. The little things. Oh you know what I’m talking about. That photo that zooms in on the torso of bride and groom, with both of them cupping their hands to hold either a jar of honey, a paper heart, a cupcake, a little bowl, a mini lovebird, a little sign that says “just married,” a banner, a monogram, signs that say “mr.” and “mrs.” etc. I think the reason that the cupping of miniature objects bothers me is because of the possible purpose behind it: CUTENESS. The only voice I can hear in my head, and every reaction I’ve known at the sight of these photos is, “this is so cute,” “that is so lovely/darling!” “They look so in love!” 

Fact: holding little objects in one’s hands does not reflect a beautiful wedding. It may reflect the beautiful objects or things that are at that wedding, but please don’t let the success of my wedding be based on me and Andrew’s offerings of our wedding favors and decorations. Please.    

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I know I sound terribly bitter and angry for no real good reason. My frustration really comes from the fact that pretty wedding photos aren’t necessarily honest wedding photos, and to me, false wedding photos are no good. Of course I want to be my prettiest on my wedding day—but I ain’t no model, what’s the use of acting on my wedding day? I would hope to look like myself doing things that I myself do with the person I truly love. We don’t often stand side by side glaring at people, we don’t enjoy afternoon tea in the forest, and we never—ever—offer tiny jars of pastel candies to passers by. 

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End scene. 

I think this would be project number four! (I’d consider my Save-the-Dates number one, website number two, and bookmarks number three?)

So what do I call this thing? I think it’s the name card display, but which is really an escort card display, and in the case of our wedding, will be the bookmark display. Here’s how it went down:

1. Purchased an old frame from the East Bay depot for Creative Reuse, stripped the backing and removed the poster of once-famous, now infamous Tiger Woods. 
2. Purchased gold spray paint from Michael’s, and sprayed that baby down. 
3. Purchased baby clothes pins from Michael’s, used Modge Podge (my faavorite) to dip the sides of the clothes pins in white-gold glitter
4. Used leftover ribbon from my [ahem AWESOME] golden ratio costume, and tied ribbon across the front of the frame (I’ll probably need to put nails in the back or an adhesive to hold the ribbon in place). 
5. Cut my bookmarks! All leftover paper from scrapbooking. Those bookmarks will be covered with fabric and stamped and decorated with love. Although, when I look at the final product, I have a feeling that the blue coloring makes the frame and display prettier than it actually is. I’ll have to work on color scheme for fabric/bookmarks later.

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Total cost for this baby? For 150 pins, 3 frames, a can of spray paint, and the ribbon: no more than $30.  Take THAT, wedding bee! I ain’t even part of the hive!

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I’m just about to finish up my fourth week of student teaching, and I’ve come to say that I haven’t yet forgotten you, dear wedding of mine! I’m not too sorry that I’ve set you aside for a little bit, whilst I focused on lesson plans and linear equations and the way to win over 8th grade students. Because I knew you’d be strong enough to wait for me!

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So here I am, and here are my updates:

1. Wedding website, coming soooon! I’m very excited to have it finalized, since that means I can start sending my save-the-dates!
2. Save the Dates. Done and done! I’ve sent a few out to have them approved or criticized by my loyal circle, and now I’ve made just about enough for the whoole lot!
3. If you ask me what I’ve done to de-stress for at least an hour after work and just an hour before I start to do more work or go to class, I won’t tell you about glitterizing clothes pins. 
4. Portrait frame experiment #1: Complete. I stripped the backings off of old portrait frames that I picked up from a thrift store, and spray painted them an antique goldish color. They’re aiiiight and I’ll see what I can do with them =). 
5. I finally found the courage to call a nearby church to ask to meet with their pastor! I mean, I think Andrew and I had decided that we liked him and the community for a while, but I just wasn’t sure if I was acting too psycho crazy to call in and meet with the pastor this early in the game. But is it ever too early to make plans for such a certain event? NO! And that’s exactly why it was so awesome to hear back from his secretary hours later to schedule a meeting with Fr. Wayne! We haven’t set a date in yet, but I’m so glad that we’re at this point! I’m so ready to begin preparing for this with the church because really, I think that’s the most important part of this whooole process.
6. I think we found a photographer! A family friend has been kind enough to offer his services as a wedding photographer. woot woot!
7. Cake tasting? Well, it hasn’t happened yet. But I’m hungry for sweets.
8. TIES! I’m obsessed with ties. I am on a mission to find the best lot of ties for Andrew and his crew. I’d like to say that paisley and flowerish ties will not do, and that I’m very much interested in having the men looking as handsomely manly as the the ladies look maidenly, but I’m treading on unfamiliar territory and will have to reach out to my ever so savvy fashion cousin (cough jason cough ho) to help me out with this one. 
9. Wedding Accessories. What? I have to wear Jewelry? But I already wear a watch!…

Let’s get back into wedding adventures! Because love is really a good thing, isn’t it? 

After about hours and hours of trial and error while watching Moonstruck, When Harry Met Sally, Sister Act One and Two, Star Trek TOS and Firefly episodes, I’m excited to say that I’ve completed and am finally satisfied with my Save the Date!! Yahoo!

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I made my original today, and started mass producing and cutting and printing the parts of it that I could with the materials that I have now. I had to order one MAGICAL ingredient on Etsy, and once that’s in, I’ll be able to make more!

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How exciting how exciting! Do people lose sleep over this type of excitement, or am I just a frakin’ weirdo? 

Dear vintage inspired, shabby chic, rustic farmish bride,

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I get it. You want to create an environment that is charming and beautiful, simply darling, just like love. You don’t like bold colors (unless it’s a carnival theme), you don’t want bowls with floating candles for centerpieces or a slideshow at your wedding. Instead, you like pastel buntings, empty bronze and gold art frames, black and white photos of marriages past, burlap banners and wooden signs painted white to point directions to the bathroom, to the reception and to the ceremony. You may even have the lawn area decorated with a horse shoe toss and cornhole. You love finding creative and cute ways to make place settings, escort cards, and wishing trees. The sewing machine is your friend.

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But I ask you, as one of the three books sitting here in the center of table 7, what it is that you want from me? I thought you liked me as I was, the day when you, blushing and beautiful, found me dusty and abandoned on that bookstore shelf. You sent a shiver down my spine, as you brushed the back of your hand across my title. You carefully held me—so carefully back then!—and shuffled my yellow pages at the pressure of your thumb. How you loved me then, dear bride, you saw me and knew that I was important, that I was the one you wanted to read and cherish and appreciate, for all that was in me and all that I am.

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Or so I thought.

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You took me home—along with three other books. They too were filled with stories of true love, although one’s story was simply selfish and passionate more than he was good. And then you placed me in a huge box, with other books my age.

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I felt doubt the moment you set me down and covered that box—I was set leaning against a stack of four books, my spine flat on the ground! How painful it was to lay there for months, waiting for your sweet return. I told myself during this time, that soon enough you’d return to read me. Return you did. But not for that.

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When that box cover opened and you pulled all of us out into the light, I was so happy. You opened me, I stuck out my chest with a beaming confidence, for you to read the title page. And then I felt it. The worst sense of pain, as you tore through my entire being. A knife, so sharp, so keen to do the deed, slicing through my innards four swift times. I looked at myself to find an empty space inside of me. You had torn my story out

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All for beauty, all for love? Really, my bride? How could you ruin me for all that I am worth? I told myself it would be okay, but then you placed something foreign inside that empty space. For my old cousin “Love Story,” you placed a bow with rings. For me, a sorry set of skeleton keys. Then you slabbed that stinking rubber cement on me, adhered a wooden 7 right on top of my name, and finally glued a menu to the inside of my cover. 

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Here I stand, abused and tall, at your table called seven. Here I stand, leaning against my two friends, who have suffered at your hands know my pain all the same.

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Because you, rustic shabby chic and vintage inspired bride, have ruined me to the core. You’ve torn out all that was in me to replace it for concrete symbols. You’ve turned me into an object to look at instead of to be read. Do you even know me, bride? Did you even read my story!? And you say that you did this all for the love of books. This is not love, my dear bride. This has all been in vain.

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And yet, I am yours—I have always been yours. If only you would learn to love me so. 

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50% off all sale items—that means these babies are like $100 right now! That’s a hot commodity, and I love them in wild aster (a palish purplish color).!!!!