5............

Sorry, I skipped 6.  We spent all day yesterday working on the programs.  I made the mistake of bringing them to Kinko's to be cut.  All it needed was ONE cut...and it wasn't a complicated one either...just ONE cut to cut the sheet of paper in half. That's it.  I even drew them a diagram and showed them where to cut...and wrote out 5.5 inches both in decimals AND fraction form 5 1/2 so they there would be no doubt as to where to cut.

We get home and find out that they were off by anywhere between 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch.  I guess they didn't bother to stack the paper nicely, so some of the sheets were sticking out randomly, even though I told them to cut in smaller stacks.

So guess who had to spend yesterday trimming EVERY SINGLE sheet of paper.  Me and Lenny.  Lenny actually stayed up til 5 AM finishing up the trimming (I had to go to bed since I had to work this morning).  And then he punched all the holes in them so that when I got home today, they would be ready to be tied. 

I hate kinko's.  I was going to bring them to the local copy shop, but they are so much farther away and really, how hard is it to cut a sheet of paper in half?  Obviously, it is too hard for kinkos.

Anyway, today was my LAST day of work before the wedding.  I am SOOOOOOOO excited.  i haven't had a vacation since I was 12 i think.  seriously.  I've always worked during my breaks.  I know I will be SOOOO sad when I return.  But on the bright side, I'm starting to get the hang of being a pharmacist....so it is not AS bad anymore...I have become quite bold on the phone...even to the attendings!  It's easier to tell them they're wrong when you don't see them face to face hahahaha.  But I use my extra soft, nice girl voice.  It's hard to be nasty to someone when they're so nice to you, right? I'm killing them with kindness!

Okay...I am looking for a few dance police for my wedding....the job requirements are easy.  Must love to dance...and must love for other people to dance!  Just DRAG people onto the dance floor.  I was advised to just take one minute and hide away somewhere in the room and just observe what's going on and take it all in.  I was told that was the moment you remember forever.  So during that moment, I want EVERYONE dancing and having a good time.  Any volunteers?!

7............

One week to go.  My massive mound of DIY projects is slowly diminishing. 

Guestbook stuff....done

Table numbers....done

Programs....all printed...we're bringing them down to Kinko's to be cut tomorrow...then come the fun part...binding all of them.  I <3 my printer.  I can't believe it's still standing.  We basically had it printing for about 4 hours non stop...almost 2000 pages worth of stuff.  And it held up...and I still don't need a new toner cartridge.

Slideshow....almost done.  That's Lenny's big project, so I'm not sure what stage it's in.  I see him tinkering around with it, so I assume it's partially done.

Monday is my last day of work before the wedding (they wouldn't give it to me off since so many people requested New Year's Eve off before I even started).  Then I have about two weeks off to prep...and do nothing afterward. I can not WAIT to do nothing.  We're already talking about which movies we're going to rent and what we're going to eat during our week of vegetation.

But we really are excited about the wedding...especially seeing all our friends and relatives and having a good time.  The political part of it won't be so fun. Tea ceremony count is now at 45.  That's right, 45.  There was a recent addition of a huge lot of Lenny's relatives from Canada....all of whom MUST participate in the ceremony per the FIL.  At first, the FIL wanted to include Lenny's cousins as well, which would bring the count to almost 100.   All the cousins refused to participate for our sake (plus, they wanted to eat, not watch 99 other people get served tea).  We <3 the cousins.  Lenny pre-warned his side that we are only allowing 30 min for the tea ceremony because we want to drop by cocktail hour.  I hope they're practing how to work those clasps because we are going to have to be pretty darn speedy.  If you don't see us during cocktail hour, you'll know why.  But we've asked the RH to have all 45 cups of tea pre-poured by the time we get there hahahaha.

Hopefully next week, we'll look like this:

(photo by Angelica Glass)

Channeling Martha...

This weekend is going to be a BIG DIY weekend.  We're going to try to tackle programs, place cards, place card holders and table numbers.  Our goal is to get most of it done this weekend so we won't really have that much left to do.

My very good friend is so cute....he really wants to help with all the DIY stuff.  I let him off the placecards project since it seems like his big man fingers are too big for the delicate job.  So he'll help out with the other stuff.  And when he comes up with an idea for a project, I let him use it...even though it wasn't my original vision...i think it's cute that he's actually thinking about it!

And so far the weather is holding out.  Accuweather predicts high of 44 and sunny.  Weather.com predicts high of 38 and cloudy.  I hope i have an accuweather day.  At least no rain or snow in sight for either forecast.

8 days to go!

And the count is...

We called in with our final head count today.  We're at 287.  Not TOO bad considering we had invited 360 and were expected 340 hahahaha.  It's nice not to have to cram people into table seating.

Unfortunately, we had to hear our reception hall payment balance. hahaha ouch.  But after she told us the amount and the breakdown. I went over it and crunched the numbers and found an error...so we actually owe less!!  YEAH...don't mess with a pharmacist...this is our job...hahaha making sure other people's calculations are correct!

And the weather still looks good...although, now it seems like it may be colder than previously reported.  but still no rain...and partly sunny.  WOOHOO!

Mystery Solved...

Oh yeah...remember my mystery guests?  We figured out who that is.  It's one of those weird occurences.  So it's actually someone from church's parents.  The parents live with the couple I invited.  And somehow, I guess two of the RSVP cards were stuck together, and I accidentally mailed them two (the top one which I numbered).  So they received two RSVP cards and must've thought that one was for the couple and the child...and the other was for the parents.  So they filled out both cards and mailed them back.

Except the parents filled out the top card...that was numbered....and the couple and child we invited mailed back the bottom un-numbered one.  Which explains how the mystery guests' names ended up on the RSVP card which I had numbered....but I had also received an RSVP card from the guests corresponding to that number. (does this make sense to you guys?)

So all is good....we pretty much just accidentally invited two extra people. But only one is coming, so it's okay...and it's someone's parent, so that's fine.

We only found out because the couple came up to my mom this past weekend and told her that even though her parents RSVP'ed 2, only 1 can actually attend.  So they came to apologize for changing the number so last minute.  And the whole time, my mom was wondering whether or not we invited the parents.  Finally, she asked for her parents' names...and it was them.

WHEW!  Good thing we found out...we were going to seat them on Lenny's side with his random guests who we don't know table!

Bah humbug....

It doesn't even feel like Christmas time to me because I have to work yet another Christmas.  But a few days ago, we heard people singing Christmas carols outside somewhere.  So we rush out to our balcony to see if we can spot them, and we look over and it's my next door neighbor...with about 10 of her friends...standing outside on their balcony, singing their little hearts out for all of Philly to hear! 

I don't know if you remember me mentioning my neighbor, but she has a piano and is always singing broadway tunes.  but she is elderly....as were all her friends.  So it was SOOOO cute to see this group of senior citizens huddled outside singing.  They must've practiced too because they had the lineup all worked out and they were singing in 4 part harmony!!!

But we live across the street from a large Jewish Community Center...and as they sang, you saw the lights go on in there and the windows openning...and heads popping out trying to see where the singing was coming from.  I don't think they appreciated it because they kept slamming the windows shut.  (which is kind of ironic since we hear them singing every weekend on the sabbath).

But my very good friend and I just very recently realized how close we were to the wedding. 12 days!!! OMG!  We have SOOOOOOOO much to do...and we're hoping that we even get some of our last minute orders in on time because we forgot about the whole holiday shipping (or lack of) schedule.  At least all the major things are set...so if we don't have these little details, it's okay...i think we'll be the only ones who'll miss it!

But I took on quite an ambitious endeavor for the placecard holders...so I'm hoping I can finish!  Lenny thinks I'm nuts for trying to do so many DIY stuff.  But he'll still sit there and help me do them! I guess he passed the test

OH...and the wedding is close enough so that I can start stalking the weather forecast on accuweather.com.  The other websites only forecast up to a week.  I know that it's not accurate...BUT for now, it's a high of 41 and sunny!  I can live with that!  The day after is a high of 51 with rain.  If that forecast moves up a day, I can live with that too.  I will gladly take rain in exchange for 51 degree weather.  It's not like I planned anything to be outdoors anyway...and then I can have cool umbrella shots, although I may need another big umbrella since I broke mine during the pinata thing ;(

see protected

Musical Chairs...

I just finished doing the seating arrangement for the "kids" (including kids in their 20's and 30's)..basically my generation.  And I actually have quite a number of "kids".  This whole time, I thought the majority of my side were "adults" (parent's friends)....but we've got them beat 6 tables to 4!  And including my very good friend's side, I'd say about 50% of our guests are "kids"...which isn't too bad (he has a lot of "adults" coming).

The seating wasn't too bad actually...I tried to make it so that each person knew at least one other person at their table pretty well.  Of course, most of the kids have front row seats!  Sorry...i couldn't fit everyone up front...i only have 5 tables on  the dance floor..and one goes to family.  BUT....because of the layout of my room, there isn't really a bad seat.  The room is a big square, and they only arrange the tables two rows deep....and then the stagger the rows, so pretty much everyone has a direct view of the dance floor.

I also finished my DIY ringbearer pillow today!  It was so much work! I didn't think it would be as complicated as it was.  Even the bow was tough...i had to do a LOT of sewing (does the ribbon look familiar to anyone?!!!)

First, I knit the "pillowcase"...and I sewed a little felt pillow

Then I stuffed and sewed up the felt pillow

I put on the "pillowcase"

And then sewed the ribbon around it.

The goods...

Our rings are ready! yay!  My dad brought them home for us to try on this weekend and we LOVE them!  I'm not planning to wear my engagmenet ring with my wedding band because the ring always gets caught on stuff at work because I'm constantly using my hands to grab stuff and put stuff away.  (I've bruised my finger several times while getting the ring caught while moving quickly).  So I didn't get a matching band.  I wanted a ring that can be worn on its own, so it's wider and taller than my e-ring...and that's just too much stuff for one little finger  So for special occasions, I'll wear my e-ring on my right hand instead.

Lenny is one of those big knuckled people...so the ring fits fine (and is almost a little big) once it's past his knuckle...but getting it past his knuckle is a LOT of work.  He had to try shoving it on for quite some time before it went past.  ANd his finger was getting redder and redder.  So he's going to have to lotion up or something before the exchange of rings, because I don't think I can push it past.  SO....since we have TWO ring bearers, I might have one hold the pillow...and the other one hold a small jewelry box type thing...with a small container of lotion inside just in case (I'm not even kidding).

But we really  the rings and it means a lot that my parents came to help pick out my ring...and that my dad picked the diamonds himself.  We're keeping the rings at home in Queens for now because my parents thing that we're going to lose them.  On the way home, Lenny was saying how he missed his ring already! hahaha!

here are some pics (yes, i'm sharing pics...hahaha because I don't really consider this a wedding planning detail!)

(this is after he already struggled to take it off...and he didn't want to put it on again)

Dance dance dance....

So I'm back from Yach's wedding reception...and we got super lucky with the weather.  It just started to sleet/rain just as we were leaving.  And RIGHT after we got home to Philly, the wind started howling and it was sleeting/raining again.

But people kept asking me if I was going to ballroom dance for my first dance.  And after seeing Yach dancing this weekend, I'm glad we chose not to hahaha.  With only 3 weeks in between our receptions, people are SURE to remember hers while they watch us bumbling around mouthing, "one, two, three, four....one, two, three, four".  .  But everything was amazing...especially being a sort of DIY bride myself, the sheer amount of DIY stuff that she did was mind boggling.   

We loved the viennese table.  My mom kept asking if we were actually allowed to take the stuff home (since I brought home a whole container full of goodies).  Lenny loved the sundae bar and was almost going to go back for seconds until I reminded him that he is lactose intolerant and we had a hour drive back home.  He wharfed down three of the desserts instead (oh yeah, he is supposed to be watching what he eats because he is in between sizes for his tux pants...and decided to be ambitious and order the smaller size hahahaha).

Lenny was funny, he even wanted to go look up close at the cake to see what their cake toppers were (a detail only noticed by people who have gone through the planning process).  we loved the ceramic versions of yach, mike and even Lexi!

I loved that there were alwasy people on the dance floor...I especially loved seeing the older crowd up there getting down (they were good too)!!!  After we complimented one older couple next to us on their style, the husband started explaining how they couldn't do the under the arm turns because the wife had hurt her rotator cuff....and then showing us how he had to twirl her instead. They were sooo cute!  We managed to get in our one salsa song hahahah...with the two steps that we know (the basic and the turn) hahaha.

OH...and I loved that Austin's grandma sat at her table guzzling down a bottle of Heineken.  She is freakin awesome.

CONGRATS YACH!!!!!!!!!!!!