We're getting Married!

Ryan proposed and everyone has questions: When? Where? What colors? What if it rains?

And of course don't forget me! I have questions too: Anyone know good venues? Ideas for decorations? Resources? Who wants to help?

To answer these questions and collaborate with friends and family, I've decided to convert my previously useless and unused blog, into a wedding blog where I can share my (and Ryan's) latest and greatest thoughts on the wedding and receive comments, feedback and maybe even volunteers? :) from you - my lovely friends and fam - to help me through the decision making process.

Before we start though, I would like to share my and Ryan's values concerning the wedding so as to frame up our ideas and considerations:

thriftiness - though not sacrificing elegance...I'm known for my ability to find good deals, and high end materials - even second hand - and you'd better believe it is my goal to employ this value for our wedding.

resourcefulness - thinking outside the box for anything from the dress to the decorations. Additionally, it is important to me to stay small and local. I'd rather give a big job to a small business to help them grow, than go conglomerate.

simplicity - I mean this in two ways. First, I want things to be simple and easily executable, nothing too complicated - it's not worth it. And secondly, I like simply beauty.

uniqueness - You probably know that I'm not one to follow the mold, in fact, my idea of a perfect wedding is a very different from the typical wedding format (which will probably end up happening for us anyway), but I have to be realistic given our circumstances, so I will hopefully insert uniqueness where I can.


As we venture through the planning and preparing process, I hope to keep these values first and foremost. That being said - if I get off track - please call me out! No, Bonnie - you cannot have that $3000 dress! Shame on you! Likewise, if you suggest something that doesn't quite align with these values, please do not be hurt if I seem uninterested. Now onto the fun stuff...

So, without further ado, here is a brief synopsis of where we stand:

GUEST LIST

Our guest list is probably around 220. This is way bigger than I imagined. And I know that many will probably decline, but that doesn't help me in planning because I have to book a venue before I send out invitations right? If it were up to me, we'd have a small ceremony and a GREAT BIG reception, but Ryan and I are both some of the first to get married in our families, so of course everyone must be invited and the most important part is seeing us exchange our vows - there goes an intimate ceremony in the woods....

FOOTWEAR

Ryan has drawn the line. The most important thing to him about the wedding is that he gets to be barefoot during the ceremony and that we are wed outside. Both are fine with me. But if we're going to have alot of attendees at the ceremony, this will make for a difficult wedding outside and I say that because when Ryan and I think outside, we're not thinking perfectly manicured golf course lawn with white chairs and trellis, we're thinking beautiful woodsy, by a stream...which is why the number of guests presents a problem.

VENUE

The only decisions we've made here are that we will be having our wedding and reception here in the Twin Cities. But even that is probably still up for debate. I.E. if we decide to have our wedding at the camp Ryan worked at throughout his youth.


That's about all for now. I have plenty ideas on decorations, flowers, photography, dresses...but I will save those for another blog. Juli got me a wedding planning binder/book and if it's taught me one thing, it's this: one thing at a time. There's a time for each thing, in fact, the book has a timeline (awesome :)). So I will get to those in time.

For now, I value everyone's input on where, when and how to cope with a larger than you expected wedding. What are my options? I am so not motivated to look at sites during a season that I know I will not be having my wedding. Oh well.

Now I think I'll go toast the first entry of my new blog with some toast for breakfast, this is early for a Saturday :)

I hope you're all as excited as I am about this blog! Love you all!





Guest List.

Don't worry, chances are if you're reading this blog you're invited.

Stealing laundry? What kind of stupid are you?!

So Saturday night I was in North Minneapolis at the Boys and Girls Club on Irving volunteering through YouthCare at a lock-in for inner city kids. The kids were wonderful and everything was going great. In fact, the night was alot of fun, until I got a call from my Dad who had stepped out for a cigarette. Now he's been trying to quit, so when he called and his first words were "I just stepped outside to have a cigarette..." I was immediately upset, but the words that followed soon made me glad that he had.

At about 1:30 Sunday morning when Dad stepped out for a cigarette my car sitting in the fenced in Boys & Girls club parking lot was broken into. Mine among 2 others, and who knows how many more if the guys hadn't run off when my Dad came outside.

They smashed in my back window, and not just smashed it but jimmied it so they bent the metal frame too.

They stole the only thing in my car. You'll never guess. My big ol' bag of laundry.

WTF??? why?!

I mean, there was a good 3 loads of clothes in there - and practically all dress clothes, for work. I've tallied it up and it was about $400 worth.

Now of course insurance won't cover this. So now I have to go shopping for all new stuff and foot the bill. Talk about a pain!

And you know that those rats probably just opened it up, saw it was a bunch of women's clothes, worth nothing to them and just tossed it in the dumpster.

Thanks guys. Way to use your brain. Real worth it to run with a huge sack of clothes that you got nothing out of. What? - you think I line the pockets with dollar bills?

I'm feeling quite conflicted. Not only am I sad for myself and angry at them, I'm sad for them and angry at the social system that has created such people. Why are there people like this? It's so sad!

It just goes to show how our social system and government continue to fail alot of people, and it really makes me sad.

It also makes me think just how privileged I am. If the most I have to complain about is gas prices and family tiffs...

I mean these people don't have stable homes, jobs, the have their own social issues, don't feel loved, outcast from society and feel they have to resort to stealing to get by in life. These people vibrate at a very low level and once you're there, it's hard to get out.

I know that it's just a bunch of clothes and I should be thankful that it wasn't something like my purse or electronics. But honestly, I might be happier if it had been. Because those are so easily replaceable, but clothes are like a collection, a representation of you, a source of expression. Not only that, but they are time consuming to find. You have to find something you like and it has to look good on you, and you have to see the value of it to decide whether or not you're willing to pay that price. etc. Electronics can just be replaced. No biggie. They're all the same.

I feel so very bad for these people but at the same time I feel so very violated. It's not even what was stolen, it's just that it was mine.

The worst part of it is that insurance is such a scam. I still have to take the car to a garage and they have to get me a loaner, which I may end up paying for and who knows if I will have to pay out of pocket for any of the repairs - it seems like there's always hidden costs, and the whole thing is just one great big hassle. Not to mention the hours of shopping I'll be doing for new clothes - of my own money!

Ridiculous. All because someone wasn't even thinking, just taking. It's sad when you've gotten that low. Not even thinking.