My wedding is gonna be awesome cuz I'm gonna run around the Museum of Science in my gown while Lisa Rigby takes pics

I had kind of a meltdown on Monday.  I was convinced my wedding is gonna suck and look crappy and I’ll still be fat and my arms will still be gross.  Not a good day self-esteem wise.  I have my moments.  So on Tuesday morning, while driving to work, when I passed the Museum of Science as usual (and smiled as I always do cuz I’m getting married there!!!) I thought about how fun my pre-wedding photos are gonna be.

I’m letting Simon see me in my dress before the ceremony because I want pre-ceremony pics.  I don’t want to miss half my reception.  I wanna have fun at it!  So I plan on a run around the museum with fun photo ops at different exhibits.  Kinda like this one with the dinosaurs:

Photo by Person + Killian Photography 

It’ll be so fun to walk around in my wedding gown through the crowds of people.  I love attention, I’ve spent a lot of time on stage, and I will have an absolute blast with this.  I think some of the best photos of the day will be from that hour and a half or so.

Lisa Rigby, our photographer, is also looking forward to the fun, as she mentions our venue as an upcoming wedding she’s excited to shoot!  And while I was wading through Google images trying to find some at my venue, I found a ton of gorgeous wedding pictures from the museum.  They were simple and elegant and looked perfect.  So will mine.

Photo by Ciras Photography

Squee! Save-the-date time!

Tweets:

@CelestialAxis - Squee! Save-the-date time! #wedding http://yfrog.com/j1nrroj

@CelestialAxis - OMFG I am going to kill WeddingWire.com.  I can't seem to export my guest list with ALL guest names in one household.  Trying TheKnot.com.

@CelestialAxis - Breakdown time.  TheKnot.com guest list exporter isn't working.  I'm going to kill myself.  #wedding

@CelestialAxis - Chocolate covered espresso beans = bride crack.  #wedding

@CelestialAxis - Now how the fudge do I merge Excel data into a Word envelope label document???

@CelestialAxis - It's awesome when you exactly follow step-by-step instructions on how to do something and it fails.  GAH!  #wedding

@CelestialAxis - But it f*****g worked for Simon!  G*******T!  At least it's done.

@CelestialAxis - It helps to turn the printer on before trying to print.  *headdesk*

@CelestialAxis - HOLY effing gods, I FINALLY have address labels for my save-the-dates.  #wedding

@CelestialAxis - Save-the-dates are coming along!  #wedding  http://yfrog.com/4xattpj

@CelestialAxis - Jesus Christ.  Simon just asked for 3 more cuz he had 3 labels left.  Gave me back a pile which contained 3 blank envelopes.  *headdesk*

@CelestialAxis - I even sealed 2 of them without realizing.

@CelestialAxis - Done!  55 save-the-dates ready to send.  All licked shut cuz my envelope wetter over-wets them.  #wedding  http://yfrog.com/2mhnsj

First of all, I apologize for half my blog being tweets, but you can’t get a feel for the day I had without them.  Second of all, I apologize for my language; I’m PG-13 at the best of times, and I was having one of those days.  I censored myself the best I could.  ;-)

So on Sunday, we finally tackled the save-the-dates.  A week later than I wanted to, but oh well.  I sat down at my computer to make the address labels.  No, I’m not addressing them by hand, sorry.  I have my guest list saved on both WeddingWire.com and TheKnot.com.  I already had a simple version of the list in an Excel on my computer from the engagement announcements (no separate address for kids 18+, etc.).  I tried to export my list from Wedding Wire to Excel, but it would only format it with everyone’s name separately and in alphabetical order, instead of all names in one household together.  I was NOT going to sort through that mess.

Then I logged into The Knot to try it from there.  I picked the info I needed and clicked “Export”…and got a “runtime error” page.  Tried again, same result.  I really was banging my head on my desk by this point.  Simon gave me some chocolate covered espresso beans, which I began to devour.  Then he mocked my freak-out.  Bad idea.  =P

I finally decided to manually edit the current Excel I had.  I updated two addresses that were old, then separated out the 18+ kids so they got their own.  After checking and re-checking it against my online ones, they finally matched: 55 addresses.  Okay, now all I have to do is a mail merge to make labels right?  I went into Word and tried to import the list, to no avail.  I looked up step-by-step instructions online, and that failed too.  I told Simon to do it, and it worked.  Of course, he is an IT director.

Yay, I have two pages of labels on my screen!  I printed a test page on regular paper to make sure they lined up with the labels.  Compared them, they worked .  Printed them (after a couple of failed attempts).  After seriously TWO hours, I had labels.

I stuffed the envelopes, Simon placed the address labels on them, then I sealed them.  Like you saw above, he requested three more after I could have sworn I gave him 55, but it turned out he had just missed three envelopes somehow and put them in the “done” pile.  I even sealed two before realizing they were blank.  Good thing I have plenty of extras!  I have an envelope wetter, but it completely saturates them no matter what I do, and I didn’t want soggy magnets, so I just licked them.  All 55 of them.  Yeah, not hugely pleasant.

Once the pile was done I gazed upon them proudly.  We’re getting married!!!

Simon mailed them out Monday.  Here we go!

Dammit forgot to do save-the-dates this weekend. Argh, fail.

That’s right, I’m finally BEHIND on something!  I know I’m not late for the usual save-the-date deadline, but with so many out-of-town guests, I wanted to get them out ASAP.  But with test-driving a motorcycle on Saturday (which we put a down payment on!) and running in my first 5k on Sunday, I was a little busy.


So now I’m past the 6-month mark.  Less than 6 months till my wedding now.  I need to send out those save-the-dates, but my weekday schedule leaves little time for that so it looks like this weekend will be the time to do it.  I also need to get back to the furniture rental company and set up an appointment to view the couches.  Those are my immediate concerns.


Next on the list are setting up wedding day car service, calling the hair and makeup woman I have a business card for, contacting the caterer with my food choices, sending sheet music to my pianist, ordering invitations and programs, and booking the rehearsal dinner.  Whew!  I need all that done before July, which sounds far away, but totally isn’t.


July, the 3-month mark, has its own huge list of to-dos.  I don’t even want to think about those right now.  In other news, I’ve still got 30 lbs. to lose, I changed my mind on my dress AGAIN (back to LilyWedding.com as LightInTheBox.com never responded to my questions), and I’m still having wedding nightmares.  The most recent one involved my dress not being tailored in time and having to go to a store and buy one off the rack the day before my wedding.  I don’t know why I’m so paranoid about my wedding when asleep, and fairly optimistic when awake.  I can’t imagine I’m going to sleep well the month before the wedding.

Like most brides, I’m excited, yet terrified I won’t be able to pull it off.  This is SO much work!

Getting really impatient to order the rest of my wedding stuff, but it's still 6 months away!

Suddenly my wedding is only half a year away, but I’m completely antsy to do more.  I’m mailing save-the-dates this week, so I can give our multitude of out-of-state guests plenty of time to plan.  I’ll also order the programs and invitations soon, now that they’re all designed and priced out.

We’re getting married six months from Friday!  OMG!!!

I need to buy all the décor and silk flowers, but that will take up a LOT of room in the house and really won’t take long to put together.  I think July will be the month I really buckle down, because that’s also when I’m ordering my dress.  Everything becomes a bit more real when you order your dress.  ;)

I’m down 20 lbs. already, just 30 more to go until my goal wedding weight.  I plan to reach my ultimate goal weight (total loss of 80 lbs.) by my cousin’s destination wedding in April 2011.  It seems like a long way away, but those last few pounds will be the hardest!  Who else here is losing weight for their wedding and beyond?

I really need to get on my STDs ASAP.  It will take a few nights of working on them after exercising and making dinner to get them ready to go on Friday.  Maybe I’ll aim for sending them Monday.  I am early, after all.

Still working on my rehearsal dinner.  I’m really worried about people finding parking in Boston on a Friday night.  I’d run a bus or something from the rehearsal site, but not everyone that’s invited to the dinner will be at the rehearsal.  I’m worried about making out of town guests take the MBTA.  Any suggestions or ideas?

Um, so I can order my 50 invites, 50 RSVPs, envelopes, 100 programs, and 140 address labels for wedding on Vistaprint for $100!!!

We’ve been debating back and forth about our invitations.  Make them or buy them?  VistaPrint or Etsy?  I finally decided I want to get them from VistaPrint like the rest of our stationery so the design will match.  I went online to get preliminary pricing, and ended up spending hours designing my invitations, RSVP cards, and programs.  SO much fun!  Here are the semi-final designs:

By going to VistaPrint’s Twitter discount site, I saved even more, and will end up paying only $100.  That is UNHEARD of!  That’s with a linen finish for a more elegant look, and just plain envelopes because the (free!) address labels will have the leaf on them, so that’s all it really needs.  I turned note cards into RSVP cards, and the programs come with envelopes too so I can possibly use those to have inner and outer invitation envelopes.

That site continues to amaze me.  I have already bought my favors (personalized pens), save-the-date magnets, engagement announcements, thank-you cards, guest wish cards (in place of a guest book), and wedding announcements from them, all in the same coordinated leaf design, which I love.  It’s so simple and pretty, and just the right colors for our wedding.  My co-worker spent $500 on her invites, RSVP cards, and envelopes alone.  I’m sure they were much higher quality, but why pay TEN times the price when people usually just throw them away?  I may have a decent budget for this wedding, but I never spend money needlessly.  VistaPrint is my budget choice for all of my wedding stationery!