The task that took our entire engagement

I can honestly say that there has been one task that has taken from the day after we were engaged until, probably, a day or two before the wedding; and that task is music.

We've been listening to albums we haven't listened to in years, we've been ripping what we haven't ripped already (the benefit of which being, of course, that almost our entire music library will now be digital and stored on our server), we've been selecting songs for a few different playlists (cocktail hour, dinner, dancing, plus the shorter events like first dance, father/daughter dance, cake-cutting and last dances), we've been scribbling songs from the radio down on whatever teeny piece of scrap paper we could find so we would remember to download them later, we've been organizing and cutting and reorganizing. It's a monumental task, to be quite serious.

I didn't quite figure on this much work, musically speaking, when we decided that our wedding music would be supplied by our MP3 players. If we were engaged for 2 1/2 years instead of slightly over 7 months, I think this task would take 2 1/2 years. At some point (probably 2 days before the wedding), we will have to just finalize whatever we have ended up with at that point.

The hardest part, of course, is not selecting which music to include, but rather selecting which music from our vast list to NOT include. I've had to cut some pretty great songs because of time. The cocktail hour playlist, for example, is all classic love songs -- crooners and modern-day crooners like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Buble, and, of course, Harry Connick, Jr. We have easily 10 hours of wonderful music that I'd love to be able to play, but cocktail hour is only 2 hours long. Narrowing it down is hard. I have to keep telling myself that it's background music -- everyone will be talking. And just because we don't play it at the wedding doesn't meant we don't ever play it. But the choices are getting more difficult.

Wish me luck!

Welcome gift bags

I don't want to ruin the surprise for any of you wedding-goers, so I won't give details, but last night I went shopping for things to put in the welcome gift bags for the people who are staying at the Sheraton. The kids have separate gift bags, which I hope will keep them pleasantly occupied during any downtime the weekend will afford.

I even stuffed the bags and so they're mostly set until I drop them off at the Sheraton a few days before the wedding. I have yet to write up the packet with local information (restaurants, Boston info, other things to do in the area, etc.), which I'll also put in the bags. Hopefully I can get that done tomorrow.

So far I have 8 rooms booked, although I'm expecting a flurry of RSVP cards in the next 5 days (hopefully!), so more will be booked shortly.

Then, next Thursday, Paul and I start individually bugging people and getting head counts and hotel info, if necessary, because we really need to know who's coming and who's not.

For those of you traveling in from out of town, remember, the Sheraton room rate is good only until Aug. 1, so I have to let them know you're coming by then. If you'd rather RSVP by email, feel free!

1001 Ways to Save Money...and Still Have a Dazzling Wedding

I've also found a book very early on in my planning called 1001 Ways to Save Money...and Still Have a Dazzling Wedding.

100 Creative Ways To Cut Wedding Costs

Paul and I love bargains, so I thought this article would be useful to our audience as well. (Thanks, Rich McIver, for pointing me to it!) They're coming at the topic from the point of view that you don't have to start your life together in credit card debt, which is absolutely a good point.

Flower girl basket

And here's the flower girl basket:

Sorry the pic's dark... It'll be much cuter in the light of day. I wanted the basket to be a Nantucket basket to bring home the whole New England idea...

Invite package

So I finally took some pix. Here are the invitations:


And here is the bundle of extra info cards (hotel info, RSVP cards, map):

Colors on the gentlemen

This past week, I spent 6 hours shopping for wedding things. I'm not kidding. I shopped for hours for ties for Bill, Ryan and my dad. The good news is I got lovely light blue ties and . :-) Decision made, for better or for worse. They will all be in blue suits, which will go well with the light blue bridesmaids' dresses.