We got hitched!! Part One

We did it!
And it turned out awesome! All our hard work was so worth it.
Our theme was essentially "home made" but it was also "Alice in Wonderland." I know a lot of people had a hard time understanding how that was all going to fit together, but I think they understood once they saw it.
We wanted it to contain aspects of all the things we love: hand made, Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton, Harry Potter, zombies, ninjas, good food, beer, etc. But most of all we wanted it to be fun.
Jess and I have been together for ten years, so it feels like we've already been married for awhile now. And since neither one of us likes being the center of attention, so we tried to make it less about "everyone gush over the happy couple" and more of the coming together of families and friends.
Since I have a ton of pictures, I thought I would separate them and do two posts. This one I thought I would just show all the decorations we had worked on. The next post I'll put pictures of the actual wedding.
But first, I wanted to show off the awesome gifts that we received at our rehearsal dinner.
We got this painting of Sally and Jack from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" from my friend Valerie and her brother Brian. Brian painted it

Here's the nameplate:
Our friend Viet painted this for usWe have really talented friends!
Malachi already wants some beer. Uncle Jess was very proud
Our wedding was held in Jess's brother Paul's backyard.
We didn't really have a dance floor, so we improvised. Jess made pillars to hang paper lanterns from
I crocheted party favors for the guests. Here's little guys I created using patterns from Christen Haden's book "Creepy Cute Crochet"
Here's a ninja
Here's some Pygmy Puffs (Harry Potter) from this pattern: http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/features/crafts/crochet/pygmypuff
I made Mome Raths based on this: http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2008/07/crafts_by_alices_crocheted_mom.htmlI crocheted our wedding cake. The goblets next to it were a gift from my aunt and uncle. Thanks Neenie and Woody!
Jess made five or six batches of homemade beer and mead and gave them all Alice in Wonderland theme names like "The Mad Hatter's Tea" and "Beware the Jabberwock."
For center pieces, we just filled mason jars with buttons, put one of those battery-powered LED lights on top, put tulle over the jar and put the lid back on with ribbon. My Mom sewed checker board placemats
Paul really doesn't like their shed and his wife Melissa really dislikes this big mirror they have, so Paul and Jess made a "looking glass." They covered the shed with yellow plastic and put the big mirror in front. Tada!
It worked out perfectly because all the little ones enjoyed looking at themselves in the mirror.
Jess and I made the Mad Hatter and the March Hare out of sculpey clay
They sat next to the guest book Jess made and the card cage I decorated.
These were our centerpieces at the food table that my friend Kellie helped me put together
Here was our kids table. The adults seemed to like it too
I glued tea cups to dowels and make these cute little path markers. We put LED lights in them and lit 'em up.
I also made big flowers out of ribbon and yarn, but didn't really get any good pictures of those.
We had a lot of fun making everything and wished we had more time to do more. But Paul and Melissa's backyard was so beautiful it didn't need that much.
Thanks again for letting us invade your house, Paul, Melissa, and Malachi! We love you guys!

Time flies when you're not prepared...

Ok, so it's not that we aren't prepared, it's that we still have so much left to do to Paul and Melissa's yard. We went over to their house to start planning what we want to accomplish and I think I spent more time playing with Malachi.


How can you resist? Too cute :)
Two more months exactly till my wedding.
Whoa...
I can't believe how many wonderful people I have in my life. So many friends and family doing what they can to make me and Jess feel special. We feel so loved :) You guys are awesome!
And holy crap! Our guest list is almost up to 200, and we could have kept going.
There are some people who are no longer a part of my life, and they are definitely not missed. I found out some things after the fact that I wasn't aware of and I am now ecstatic that they are gone. And I wish I could take back all the nice things I said to them, but have no desire to ever speak to them again. I don't need those deceptive people in my life.
I know I am not the easiest person to be close friends with (I have to have my alone time, I have a hard time trusting people, etc.) but those who understand that that is just the way I am are friends worth having.
And apparently, I have a lot of them :)
I had an amazing bridal shower that I was apprehensive about at first because I don't feel comfortable making people buy me presents, but it was a lot of fun. Rachel, Melissa, and Valerie put it together at my Mom's house. Thank you everybody!!! Unfortunately we had to change the date because of the weather, so not everyone could attend, but I think it was for the better. I don't think I could have handled many more people. I'm trying so hard to get used to being the center of attention. Meh.



My amazing friend Kellie helped me with the bouquets and the corsages and they are so much better than what I imagined. Thanks Kellie!! You are so talented, my friend!
Sorry, I really want to show them off but I don't want to give away too much so no pictures until after the wedding.
The same goes for the decorations, party favors, and other stuff we have planned. Let's just say that we have a lot of surprises up our sleeves and it will definitely be a lot of fun.
People seem very curious about our Alice in Wonderland/homemade theme. Hee hee! You never know what you might see! We're silly that way ;)
Everyone seemed to love our wedding invitations (I can post pictures of them because they have already been sent). Jess and I (well, mostly I) designed them. Not too much lovey dovey (that's just not our style) and lots of humor and mischief. Awesome.






The back of the cards:


We made these golden tickets for the people who are attending the ceremony. It would be way too much to have everyone there, so we're inviting immediate family, close friends, and people who are traveling from other states or countries. We wish we could have everyone there, but the yard would just be too crowded.
Yay! That's about all for now.

"Hallowmas" - Scare people and get presents

I had an extremely busy weekend full of decoration making, trying on my wedding dress, and the "Santaland Diaries." I can't show a picture of the dress or certain people might see it. Sorry, you'll just have to wait!

I also got to do something that I've been wanting to do for a long time...I got to bake!!! Yay!!

I made these:

They are orange scones with a glaze. They were pretty yummy. I might have to make some more tomorrow.

I got the recipe from here but I altered it slightly:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Simple-Scones/Detail.aspx

Baking makes me happy :)

Here's a picture of my adorable nephew Malachi in a hat that I knitted for him:

He a cutie pie and I love those chubby cheeks! But the hat is getting too small. I'll have to make him another one.

So Jess and I decided to put up our Christmas tree, but as stated in a previous entry, we are sort of making our own holiday this year. We are extremely broke right now (especially due to our upcoming wedding and a tardy Excel bill that hadn't come for five or six months and we called three times trying to get them to send us a bill) and we are also extremely sick and tired of Christmas starting in October instead of December like it's supposed to. Not to mention all the Christmas songs that we are forced to listen to for three months straight and the horrible commercials. Since when do people buy eachother cars for Christmas?!? Well, except for rich people.

Here's our first Hallowmas present:

All this commercialism has gotten way out of hand. I personally don't know anyone who has gotten a brand new car or computer from Santa. Seeing all those commercials just makes us feel bad because we really can't get much for our loved ones this year.

But that isn't supposed to be the point of Christmas, right? It isn't supposed to be so much about the presents, it's supposed to be about spending time with the ones you love. And your family (ha! Sorry, that was just a joke). And if you are of the religious persuasion (which we are not), apparently Jesus is the reason for the season, not a brand new Blu-Ray disc player. It really annoys me.

And one other thing which I am pretty sure isn't just me, I am so sick of red and green and the traditional symbols of Christmas: Santa, Rudolph, Bells, Holly, etc. I know I am not the only one because I have seen all different color combinations of wrapping paper at the stores with polka dots and stripes instead of Christmas trees or Santa.

Jess and I are making a holiday that we like to call, "Hallowmas." Since Christmas has kind of taken over the whole last quarter of the year, we've decided to extend Halloween instead and make it three months long. This is awesome because we can keep the Christmas tree, but have scary decorations if we want and candy. And presents. And scary movies. And Christmas movies like "Elf."

The color scheme we decided on is black, red, blue, and purple. What we did was took a bunch of polymer clay and made our own ornaments. Some of them we kept from last year, though, because they are blue. I tied purple, black, and white ribbons to the Christmas lights.

Here's a scary cone guy I made inspired by this lady http://www.theholidayqueen.blogspot.com/

He's sparkly!

The garland I crocheted with leftover red eyelash yarn and black acrylic yarn.

The topper is a tophat that I crocheted.

Here is our wreath:

Mr. Sprite is playing Santa:

I don't know if we'll do much more. Maybe next year.

I really need to get going on the wedding stuff again. I managed to finish my March Hare with the help of my lovely painting teacher/fiance:

I think he needs a spear or something like it that has a club on it. Then he'd be complete.

Last Sunday, we went with Jess's Aunt Connie and Uncle Boggie (not his real name)


to see "The Santaland Diaries." http://www.bugtheatre.org/calendar/default.aspx It was pretty good, and I recommend it to anyone who likes dark humor.

Now I must go finish crocheting coasters for my co-workers.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.' - Lewis Carroll

I have been inspired by a five-year-old's birthday party.

I came across this the other day:http://www.jessicaclaire.net/index.cfm?postID=134

That is the cutest thing I have ever seen! It makes me want to kidnap a small child and throw her a birthday party. But I won't, I promise.

Unfortunately, I don't have a child and all the little ones in my life are of the male persuasion. But I can always combine an "Alice In Wonderland"-esque element with my home made wedding. Why not, I have some Harry Potter elements in there too.

I don't want to go too overboard, though. It can't be too girly because it is Jess's wedding too. I still want to stick with the purple and green theme (or rather lavender and sage), but maybe add a tea party in there with some finger sandwiches and other treats. Jess likes tea. Maybe some cookies that say, "Eat Me."

Hmmm... That sounds bad.

Okay then, the beverages will say "Drink Me." That's better, right?

I've been on the lookout for different shaped tea pots (hopefully in my color scheme) and cheap bone china-looking tea cups online and at thrift stores. As long as I can get a few teacups for decoration, I'll be happy. It would be nice to have a lot of tea cups for an actual tea party but, call me crazy, I have a feeling that most people would rather drink alcohol than tea.

If only I could have a petting zoo! Awwww! That would be awesome to have little rabbits, pigs, and sheep running around. Damn. Maybe for my birthday ;)

In the process of trying to get ideas, I've been reading up on the "Alice" books and also the author, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson a.k.a. Lewis Carroll. It's pretty interesting stuff if you've got some time to kill: http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/.

Contrary to popular belief, Lewis Carroll was not on drugs when he wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," he just had an overactive imagination. And I was interested to find out that "Alice" is based off of one of Charles Dodgson's favorite "child friend" as he was fond of calling them. He made up the story as a way to entertain Alice and her sisters.

Anyway, I'm starting to get more and more busy at work. Not as much time to do wedding planning. The receptionist has left and I have taken over for her. There is so much that she should have shown me. It's kind of scary. And she's not very good at explaining things.

I was having a lot of trouble trying to figure out the pattern for the "I Do" shrug and might try this instead:

From the book:

Lace Style
by Pam Allen and Ann Budd

http://www.amazon.com/Lace-Style-Traditional-Innovative-Inspired/dp/1596680288/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221588413&sr=8-1

I probably won't need long sleeves in June anyway. This is so much easier to knit. And I'm using bamboo yarn which I've never used before. It's so soft! Yay!

I bought some Alice in Wonderland playing cards that have the original illustrations by John Tenniel and some quotes from the book. I'll have to figure out some way to incorporate them in the decorations.

I have made an inspiration board. Some of it are things that I have already done and some things are just what I would like to incorporate. It's an easy way to kind of give people and idea of what you were thinking for your wedding theme. It's pretty random, I know, but I like it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26415444@N07/2889780133/

I might go to a yarn store in Arvada on Saturday. There is going to be a crochet designer there named Robyn Chachula who will be teaching a class. I am excited to meet her because she's designed some pretty cool things, like my favorite shrug:

Crochet Me: Designs to Fuel the Crochet Revolution

by Kim Werker

http://www.amazon.com/Crochet-Me-Designs-Fuel-Revolution/dp/159668044X

I have almost finished a pair of leg warmers, so I'll have to take a picture of them when I am finished. I also want to start on a crocheted skirt.

So much I want to do and not enough time to do it. I should just quit my job and become a full time designer. That would be freaking awesome. Too bad it could never work out. Oh well. Back to knitting and crocheting on my lunch hour and after work.

Tonight I think I'll paint me some tea pots. And take pictures, because I really need to get my save the dates (std - hee hee) done.