Gettin' Married

So, I wasn't kidding, was I?  I'm totally distractible.  I am tempted to look around on the internet for other blogs and bloggists who claim to be distractible, and check just how often they post.  Heh--I should have left it at one! 

I got all inspired to write again because I find myself with an extra hour this morning, and yesterday I discovered that a friend of mine had given me a shout-out from his website, "Give Us Art!"  Here is a link to the page where he did it.  I had recommended an artist for his blog.   http://giveusart.com/2011/06/02/stunning-glasswork-judith-schaechter/#comment-160

Anyway: I'm gettin' married.  I thought I'd tell you about it because obviously, it's my latest project.  We've chosen colors, ordered flowers from Safeway, started assembling favor boxes, bought dresses, and created & sent out invites.  Here's the art from the front of the invites:

I sketched that in my drawing book, photographed it, and colored it using the free Paint program that came with my computer.  We've also put together a website, but it doesn't seem wise to share that with the wide wide world.  Suffice it to say, that was a fun project!  I was all over it.  

Neither of us is originally from the state in which we live; we're getting married in my home state, some 350 miles away, so my Mom is helping with a lot of the running around.  The biggest challenge right now seems to be locating and affording a wedding cake. 

My town doesn't seem to have many cheap options; it has seemed like the only cake we can afford is the type with that frosting that I have always scraped off of the cake before eating.  My main bridal pickiness has been that I don't want that cake.  The cake is hundreds of dollars...it's not fair that it should also taste like cheap work-birthday-party sheet cake.  It should be special, I think.  I'm also aiming at plain-looking, so that the flowers can be the decoration--see the below example photo from theknot.com:

We did find a caterer whose cakes sounded delicious and much more to my taste, and she's even affordable, but she totally disregarded my request for references--and those online seemed to be 2/3 written by her.  Also, when we asked whether it would be possible for my folks to visit & test the goods, she replied that the taste would cost $100 because it required so much effort on her part.  I can't blame her, she being a one-man-show.  Still, I am spoiled by modern life and want references and a taste of the goods, so she's out for now.  Pooey.

I have made a birdcage veil to wear in the ceremony.  That required buying one of those little curved hair-combs, weaving some narrow ribbon through the base of its tines, and sewing netting to the ribbon.  The lady at the fabric store kindly gave me a 5-minute demonstration, although there are also classes available there.  I lucked out in that I have a wig form, so I was able to sort of sculpt the netting as I went, and to take into account the fact that I will wear the comb on the side.  She's slightly creepy, isn't she?  Even more amusingly creepy, she's styrofoam so when necessary I pinned the veil right to her head.  Ouch.

In order to really decide about the wedding colors, I sketched the wedding party and table setup and colored it a few different ways.  This is how I learned about saving drawings in Paint as bitmaps instead of jpegs, so that the quality won't deteriorate and make it imPOSSible to color neatly when you've decided to start over and see what it would look like if all the table linens were red.  Many thanks to Bill for that information, even though I learned it too late.

All right, I might add more to this topic (or maybe I won't write again for another year, so don't hold your breath waiting or anything).  For now, though, I've gotta go.  Talk to you in a bit!