weekend with mommy

my mom came to visit this weekend and we got a bunch of wedding stuff done.  

1st - we finally bought my official wedding dress.  yay!  so happy to have that done with.

2nd - we did a tasting of the appetizers and one of the entrees for the wedding.  all the food was superb.  we also went over some of the logistics and figured out how many tables we would need so that I would know when I talk with florists.

3rd - we confronted at the people at Peggy's Bridal about how they over charged me for the first dress I bought.  they were very stand-off-ish and completely unwilling to compromise.  so i now have the first dress in my closet and it makes me angry whenever I see it - i'll have to find a new place to put it until I can list it online and hope to get some of my money back.

4th - we looked through lots of pictures of flowers and table settings and discussed the floral arrangements for quite a while.  my mom isn't feeling the antique bottles, but Beau and I love them, and so we are doing it.  also, the owner of the venue said we could definitely use her mason jars and any other glass-ware she has.  after i pick a florist i'll definitely go over there and rummage through it all.  

and she kept me company at the lab for 4 hours on Saturday and 2.5 hours on Sunday - what a great mom!

would rather be...

the lab has been pretty crazy recently.  i'm desperately trying to get data together for the meeting i'm presenting at in just a few short weeks... in the past 5 days i've spend approximately 45 hours in the lab.  

i would definitely rather be here...

... Finland.

Home of the cell phone, 190,000 lakes, and, of course, 

the Wife-Carrying World Championships.

i'm so not joking.

check out the BBC article - gotta love a country that can be so serious and so ridiculous - reminds me of myself.

wedding day jewlery

What about this necklace for the wedding?

Made by my very talented cousin, Galit.

Israel Reception

My mom and I started working on the reception in Israel.  I want a place on the beach, or at least with ridiculous views of the sea.  A dessert wedding would be a very close second.  

But first we had to assess the number of people so we could narrow down venue options.  We were thinking the guest list would be 50-60, like at my Bat Mitzvah.  After my mom named everyone that had to be invited we were at 82 - not including babies, or some other family that could be invited.  Oops...  We had forgotten to consider all the marriages, significant others and kids that have come into the lives of our family and friends in the 15 years since my Bat Mitzvah (or 10 years, if you count since my sister's).  Now we have to reassess the guest list, and figure out who we can cut without insulting large factions of the family.  Personally, I would cut everyone who's name I don't know, but I don't think thats going to work...  Apparently my mom has to confer with my grandmother about it.  

I'm finally starting to understand why other people have huge weddings with family they barely know - its all politics!

(Also, it just occurred to me that if my Israeli and German families all moved to the states, my wedding would easily top 200 people!  INSANITY!)

double wedding invites

I'm seriously crushing on these spectacular invites featured yesterday on 100 Layer Cake.

I definitely need to rethink our invitations, to include info about both receptions on one invite.  My previous idea was to just have two separate invites, but this seems so much cooler.

*invite by Markatos Moore via 100 Layer Cake

broken

i might have fractured my scaphoid - 1.5 weeks ago.  the scaphoid is one of the little bones in the wrist.  this little bone can lead to big complications if it doesn't heal correctly, so i'm in a cast for at least 2 weeks until they x-ray again.  typing is hard.  night.

wedding dress: check

(almost)

Picked a dress, just haven't bought it yet because my mommy wants to be there.  I ended choosing the Marissa.  I love how elegant, soft and flowing it is; and how its unique without being ostentatious.

I'm especially loving it with the veil!

For the Rochester area brides, I am most likely purchasing from Jacqueline's.  So far the sales person I've been working with has been very nice and helpful and did not seem to be annoyed with my indecision.  Also, they immediately agreed to match the price offered to me in Jersey, and I have it in writing.

*Pics by my dear friend CS