NWR: Why I Shouldn't Be Photographed Running

NWR = Non Wedding Related. Aka, something that doesn't take up much of my time these days...

I mentioned in my last post that I was about to run a half marathon. Well, I did, and I survived. Barely. My Nike Plus pooped out on me about half way through, and my knees followed suit shortly thereafter.

If you are not yet familiar with the genius that is Nike Plus, let me enlighten you. It consists of two little doo-hickeys. One you stick on the bottom of your iPod, the other you stick in a little compartment in your Nike Plus compatible Nikes. There's a bit of a brand name monopoly here, but this is one instance where I overlook it!

The two doo-hickeys talk to each other, and send the info to your iPod screen. It tells you how long you've been running, how fast (or slow...) you are running, and how far you have run. I think of it as an outdoor treadmill, and I LOVE it. It isn't super duper accurate for distance/speed, but it is great to use to pace yourself.

So when it had a personality crisis in the middle of my race, I was left without a real way to pace myself. I think I started running too fast, and it just wrecked my whole body. My back is still killing me!

This puts a damper on my plan to fit in one more half marathon before the wedding! See how I took this from a NWR post all the way right back to wedding? I am skilled like that.

Anyhow, I really just wanted to share with all of you a secret shame: I look horrible running. This is a fact I may never have known apart from the fact that they have frickin photographers at races. Why, I know not. I could have gone my whole life, happily, uglily (is that a word?) running along, with the only clue to my freakishness being the odd random look or double take I get as I cross another runners path.

But, alas, for some reason, someone decided that runners should be photographed mid-race. Probably people who look like this when they run:
The grace, the smile, the beautiful surroundings!

Or this:
The power, the determination, the muscles!

Even from my own most recent race, cute runners abound:




Now, me? I now have photographic evidence from 2.5 half marathons that I tend to look:

Confused:




Scornful:




And anything but happy:


(even at the finish line)


See? I should not be photographed running.

Which means there will not be any pictures like these at our wedding. Even though they are totally cool:





Oh, yes, I did bring it right back to the wedding yet again. It's an illness, people. You'd better run!

On Feet, three ways, And Three Feet, one way.

Feet have suddenly taken a front burner in the oven of my life. I guess the burner would be on the stove, though. So I should say, Feet have suddenly taken a front burner in the stove of my life. But really, neither analogy makes any sense, and I'm just trying to come up with a clever way to introduce today's blog post. So just pretend you didn't read this paragraph and move on. M'Kay?

Feet are very important in my life. I use them pretty much every day. As I've aged, I've come to appreciate my feet more, and I enjoy buying them treats. And, as it turns out, my feet really enjoy two particular flavors of treat: shoes and pedicures. The pedicures are pretty self-explanatory, so today, the first of three foot-related topics is Shoes, of the wedding variety, to be specific.

1. The Wedding Shoes.
For the group of you who don't obsessively look at any and all wedding pictures you can possibly find online (which I assume consists primarily of non-brides, and non-wedding photographers), you probably don't know one of the latest photography trends: Taking pictures of The Wedding Shoes.

This falls under the "Details" section of photos, and also includes things like:

Close up shots of the decor,

Flowers and paper goods,

Cake and other food,

And the always ubiquitous (and in my opinion, creepy) Wedding Dress hanging in the window.

And it makes sense to take pictures of these details that the bride spent HOURS AGONIZING over. (I speak from experience here, people. This Bride has spent more than a few hours agonizing over minor details like font size and placement on my invitation alone.)

Seeing all the details from other weddings inspires me, and has helped me hone in on what it is that I want for my own wedding. And for the most part, the things that inspire me are simple and reasonable.

Except for the one detail that makes my little heart go pitter-patter with desire: The Wedding Shoes. Look at them!







You all know that the ("stereotypical") bride uses the wedding as an excuse to spend more money on a dress than she would ever imagine spending on any other single item of clothing. The "It's My Big Day/It's Only Once/I Deserve This" argument. I was able to avoid that particular Wedding Industry Dictate. Don't get me wrong - I still spent a fair chunk of change on the dress, but I was not about to spend 10% of my total budget on a dress.

But I'm _this_ close to caving on the shoes. It is irrational, but... for some reason, I have this horrible fear of having detail pictures of my shoes that just look ugly. The horrors!!! Can you imagine?!?

See? Even I know that sounds irrational.

But there is a little shoe lover inside me that is saying: when are you ever again going to have a chance/excuse to buy designer shoes, don't you deserve this, it is your wedding after all!

And then I look at these:


...and these:


...and these:


...and I think, "Well. I'm budgeting on lots of things. I really could afford to pay $200 for shoes. And if $200, why not $300. And if I'm going to splurge, why not really go in, and get those $500 shoes?!"

And then my feet pipe in and say: "Go ahead and buy me those beautiful shoes, they will make me look divine. But I will not take you anywhere in them. And you know they will just end up abandoned by the side of the dance floor as soon as the first dance is over. And I will be happy to return to my nice comfy sandals."

My feet are smart.

So. I will not be buying designer shoes. But that has not stopped me from agonizing for hours to find the perfect pair of shoes. Which brings me to foot-related item #2.

2. I Heart Zappos.
I spent hours going through every possible combination of shoe color, height and style that I thought would work for me. I added probably about 30 pair to my cart, then combed through them to pick my first contender:
Sofft brand (which I love, and highly recommend), brown wedges.

Totally not sexy like Louboutin, but should be comfortable. And should add enough height to me so that I won't have to have my dress hemmed! I ordered them last night.

I had ordered from Zappos before, and really appreciate their free shipping. But this time Zappos surprised me with free OVERNIGHT shipping! Which means, my shoes already came!!!

Zappos rocks my socks off!

3. The last foot issue isn't so much about feet specifically, but more about how I use my feet.

After I got engaged, I decided that I should "get fit" before the wedding. I figured I had 10 months in which to do it, so no problem. But January was already partially gone, so I could start in February. But then February was so busy at work, and I really didn't want to 'get fit' in my spare time, so I'd start in March... and so on and so on...

Then the 100 day mark hit, and I decided to take on a new challenge. I copied it actually, from another Bride to be who blogs. The 100 day challenge: 100 hours of exercise in the last 100 days leading up to the wedding. I'm only 2 hours behind so far, which really isn't that bad.

My feet are helping greatly with the challenge. I am actually running a half marathon on Sunday, which is one reason I've been able to get so many hours in!

Anyway. If anyone wants to join my challenge, let me know. We can all go party/celebrate the night before the wedding! You can join today (88 days, 88 hours) or any day you choose to. Marc is on board too, but I think he is fairly behind at this point!

And finally, at the end of a ridiculously long post, an issue that is probably the biggest of them all. The Tree Feet issue.

As those of you acquainted with me know, my family name means "Three Feet." I used to hate it - I was always at the end of the alphabet, I... Hmm. I guess the only thing I hated about it was being at the end of the alphabet.

However, I had always sworn that I would "marry up" in the alphabet. Somewhere along the line, though, I realized what an advantage it is to be at the end of the alphabet. Always last in a stack of alphabetized papers, easy to line up alphabetically, and so on. And my name is so easy, just four letters long, one syllable. My patients can say it, it is a great way to break the ice with little kids.

Now that the time has come to get married, and I am fulfilling my goal of "marrying up," I don't know if I can give up my name! It is the name I have my degree in, and my license and my board certification. Those are very meaningful to me, and hard to change.

Plus, my grandfather was a podiatrist, and known as "Doc Yard" and I like my connection to him. And my father had no sons to carry on the name.

But... I don't want to diss Marc by not taking his name. And I don't want to have a different name than any kids we may have.

This is coming to a head for me, because we are going up to S Lake Tahoe tomorrow for cake tasting (yay!!) and were thinking about getting our marriage license while we were there. It is good for 90 days, and to me it makes sense to get it now when we have the time. The form asks for our new names, though, and I'm not ready to decide!!! Thoughts??

Are you still here? Go do something!

To DIY or not to DIY: Flowers

As those who know me can attest, I like to be in control of things. Wedding planning is no exception. In fact, not only is wedding planning no exception, it seems to be taking my desire for control and honing it into a fine-edged point. The point being: "I can totally do that myself."

See, you combine a party (which I very much enjoy) with crafts (which I live for!) and Brenna is a happy camper. And add one dash of hard cash and a cold splash of "they want how much for that?!" and thus is born the DIY bride. Do It Yourself.

So far my project list includes: Bridesmaids cards, Save-the-dates (done and done), invitations, website (in progress), programs, aisle runner, favors, ring bearer pillow, table numbers, centerpieces, napkin rings, bouquets, boutonnieres, faux-to booth, Kid Zone, accessories, etc.

Did I mention that the wedding is in less than four months now?

Most of the projects I decided to DIY fall pretty comfortably within my skill set. You'll notice there is no baking/cooking or seamstressing listed. The one thing that set my mom to sniggering was the thought of me doing my own flowers. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I'm going to do my own flowers
Mom: ::snort::

And, truthfully, I am a bit nervous about floral arrangement. I feel like when I buy a bouquet from the store and try to stick it in a vase at home, it always ends up looking wonky and lopsided. I've always blamed the vases, but maybe it is me... Hmm...

But I reasoned, hand tied bouquets don't look that hard:
For this, you'd just take roses, some leaves on the outside and wrap it up, right? No vase to throw things off, and no other filler to poke out at weird angles.

Or this one:Just tightly bunch together some carnations (which, despite Charlotte's disdain, I think are quite lovely) and voila! Bouquet!

So, I am bravely venturing forth to do my own flowers.

Of course, I'm now being drawn to hand-tied bouquets more along these lines:

All of which look deliciously complicated, but make me feel all warm and smile-y.

And, all of the bouquets above feature my new obsession: The Chocolate Cosmo. This is a flower that is brown, which I heart (and fits in my color scheme) but more importantly: the flowers smell like chocolate.

Did you get that?

The flowers. Smell. Like. CHOCOLATE.

How have these flowers not become more mainstream? And why are there not ten bushes of them growing in my back yard?

I totally got side tracked there, thinking about my chocolate cosmos. I have yet to meet these beauties in real life, but I have no doubt that they will enter my life some day.

Back to topic: DIY flowers. Hand tied bouquets: I can totally do that. And I wasn't too worried about centerpieces, since I'm going heavy on candles, light on flowers.

Theeeen, I realized that the bride isn't the only person who gets flowers. In fact, it isn't even only girls that get flowers. The guys are supposed to sport flowers as well, in the form of the boutonniere.

Oh. Boutonniere. Not only is it ridiculously hard to spell (seriously, close your eyes and try), they don't strike me as the easiest thing to just whip up.

I read some instructions online, but kept getting lost at the "insert the wire and form a hair pin" part. Insert what wire? Where? Is it supposed to go in my hair?

Luckily, some lovely Sacramento wedding vendors got together last weekend to host a "Recessionista" Bridal Show/Workship, which included instructions on how to make a boutonniere! Huzzah!

Bono was kind enough to have back surgery, thus opening up my weekend (trying to put a positive spin on missing U2 in Denver), so I signed up and happily attended the workshop.

I'll put aside the fact that most of the people leading 'DIY workshops' spent their time telling us that most wedding things are best left to the professionals, i.e. them. I didn't care about the cake/DJ/make-up lady because the florist was phenomenal!! Her name is Angie Zimmerman and she actually publishes a DIY flower guide. She has figured out the DIY brides are not going away, and has gotten smart! And she was very helpful to me, and answered all my flower (and chocolate cosmo) related questions.

And then, she showed us how to make boutonnieres!!! Yay!!

And after I learned that Santa Rosa has a wholesale flower mart I couldn't help but stop there this morning on my way home from work.

And now, let me present my first attempts at boutonnieres (which I STILL cannot spell without spellcheck):
Freesia, hypericum berries and yellow pompoms with wrapped stems

Greeen pompoms, hypericum berries with wrapped stems

Just hypericum berries with natural stems. Maybe more of a corsage, given its largeness.

Unopened freesia and small green pompoms with natural stems.

Hypericum berries, unopened freesia and small green pompoms with natural stems.

What do you think? Would you use any of these? Which ones? And, most importantly of all: who wants to help me make the real ones? Anyone?? :)

STD: Go Go Gocco, Part 2 and Leaving Home

When we last left off, I'd created my template for the Gocco, gathered all my supplies, and was ready to get started!

The first step is burning the screen. I felt fairly confident after all of my preparation, but I was still nervous about doing this for real.

After seeing this burned screen, though, I thought I was in like Flint!

I cut out and placed the ink separating boundary thing-a-ma-bob. One nice thing about the Gocco is that you can print with multiple colors at the same time.

Oooh! Look at the pretty inked screen! I couldn't wait to see what it looked like printed out. I decided (again following advice of those who'd gone before me) to do a practice print first.

::Insert game show loser song - wah-waaaahhh:: Failure!

That was not only anti-climactic, it was terribly disappointing.

Luckily, I was able to develop a working theory as to what went wrong. The template has to contain carbon for the heat-sensitive image process thingy to work. That means it has to be a photocopy. But if it is too carbony, the fibers stick to the screen. The solution is simple:

Iron the template! I don't know what it does, I just know it was supposed to work. So, I ironed a second template copy I had made, and burned a new screen.

And it worked!!!

The final result!

Now, this certainly was not even close to perfect. It wasn't even really what I wanted it to look like. See how the "Beautiful" and "Lake Tahoe" are all faded at the edges? And the arrow after "Reno?" And the tree? And the blue lake is all square-y? I think this has something to do with me making the template too big, and the lake too solid. I ended up being happy with the way the letters were faded, though - it really gave it a vintage feel. The square-y lake I decided to just ignore. Or pretend that the texture made it look like waves on the lake.

The only thing that I wish I had done differently was the colors. I think I used too much ink, so the colors ended up bleeding into each other, especially in the later ones I made. What was done, was done, though, and I picked out the ones that looked least crazy to send. And, of course, I used a corner rounder to round the corners, cause I'm like that.

I used a removable glue dot to stick the magnet to the card. I like the way the magnet and the card look together. It's like we're standing on the shore of Lake Tahoe.


Finally, I got some generic envelopes at Michael's (40% off!) and some address labels at Goodwill ($0.99!) and some "Celebrate!" stamps at the post office (no discount there).

Here they are, all grown up and ready to go out in the world:

Total cost break down:
Magnets $0.24 each = $19.20
Copies for Gocco template $0.98
Envelopes $0.12 each = $9.60
Card stock (1 pound stack from Joann's Fabric, 40% off) $2.39
Glue dots $2.00 worth of box used
Mailing Labels $.50 used
Postage $0.44 each = $35.20
For 80 total STDs made = $69.87
or $0.87 per STD!

Of course, if I add the cost of the Gocco (I used less than half the screens, bulbs and ink that came with my original purchase) the cost goes up to $2.41 a piece... But I plan on using the Gocco for other things, too, so I'm not counting that!

Thing #639 That I Don't Need

Aisle Runners! What are aisle runners, you ask? Ahh, I remember when I didn't know about things like aisle runners or Chivari chairs or chargers... ::staring off into space, remembering life before fiance-dom:: But, back to topic. Aisle runners are like long carpets laid down in the aisle (aha!) for the bride to walk on. Presumably because the bride can't tread the same ground as the proletariat. Or she can't let that $10,000 gown actually touch the ground while she walks to meet her groom!

So, yeah. Aisle runner. Not for me.

Theeeen, I saw videos of aisle runners actually being rolled out by groomsmen. Here is a somewhat facetious example:


And a tiny part of my heart sort of fell in love with the idea. That is the part of my heart that I affectionately call "Crazy Bride Girl" and she's a little... well, crazy. And, all of a sudden, aisle runners moved from my "that is so silly and unnecessary" list to the "I have to have it" list.

So, a quick search on my favorite store of all time: Google, I found that aisle runners can range from simple:Price $44.75

to a bit classier:
Price $41.75

From silk-screened images:Price $180-275

To hand painted monograms:Price $75-200+

And everything in between.

The things all of these aisle runners have in common is this: they don't fit in my budget. This moved aisle runners on to the "Maybe I'll figure out a less expensive alternative" list (this list is long).

And, I am happy to say, I crossed that item of the list today! Maybe.

Another of my frequent trips to Goodwill scored me a partial bolt of "Ivory Baroque Satin" aka "100% acetate" but I'm not dithering over fabric quality at this point. Cause, dude! It's to walk on!

It's folded in half here, so is twice as wide, and shinier.

I have no idea if I'll end up using it, but at $6.99, I couldn't pass it up. I like that I could do whatever I want to it - splatter paint, tie dye, trace crime scene bodies... the possibilities are endless!

When I see videos like this I think maybe the aisle runner is not all its cracked up to be:

But then I think it is really funny, and would make me laugh, and who doesn't love laughing at weddings?

Do you think I should use the aisle runner? How should I decorate it?

I'll See You in Pictures: A Tale of Umbrellas and Balloons

Yesterday was a day I'd been waiting for for a long time - our engagement pictures! We were initially supposed to do them a few weeks ago, but a dasterdly spring storm thwarted our plans.

As cool as pictures in the rain with cute umbrellas and galoshes can look:
Photo by Catherine Hall
Photo by Charlotte Leonard

And, as fun as splashing in puddles in the rain can be:
Photo by Clayton Austin

I was concerned, because:
1. I don't own a cute umbrella or galoshes
2. I didn't want to end up looking like this:


So, yeah, we rescheduled. And yesterday the rain held off long enough for us to get in a couple of hours of pictures!

It wasn't until yesterday morning that I finally picked my outfits. I brought the original inspiration outfit, a casual outfit with jeans, T-shirt and jacket, and another dress/sweater combo I recently got. And bright yellow sandals, because how fun are bright yellow sandals??

My two dresses. Sorry for the poor-quality photo. I was running late, and didn't have time to pose them nicely! I was already wearing the jeans outfit, so it isn't pictured.

I was running late getting ready, because I spent over an hour in the early afternoon traipsing around party stores in Sacramento looking for the perfect balloon! I had decided that I wanted a big, round balloon. Yes, I happily hopped right aboard the balloon e-pic band wagon.

Fun!!

I finally found the big, round balloons at Party Concierge in Sacramento. Unfortunately, big round balloons are not only HUGE (like won't fit in my car huge) they also cost $25. Hmm. I chose the 24" balloon-shaped balloon instead, for $7.61, a much more appropriate prop-price in my mind. And still so big it barely fit through the door of the car!

We used a couple of the spots I'd picked out in my scouting mission. I was glad I'd taken the time to do that, as the location was a new one for our photographer, and he hadn't had time to scout the area very thoroughly himself.

Having your picture taking can get kind of exhausting. And, let me tell you: it is hard to make jumping in the air while holding a balloon look pretty. Or natural. Gives me a whole new respect for the models of America's Next Top Model. Is it just me, or do they seem to be jumping a lot this season?

In the end, I didn't change into my fun 40s outfit, because I was tired, we were running out of light, and I kind of decided it wasn't the right outfit for the setting. I now picture it in a big city setting, or a cafe, etc. Anyone want to volunteer to take e-pics of me and Marc in the city one day? I'll totally rock the outfit then.

We should get to see the actual pictures some time next week. Until then, here's one last parting shot of us post-pics getting some dinner. We brought our own flowers to dinner last night, from our garden. It was supposed to be another prop, but we forgot about it!
I think my make up held up pretty well, which I'm happy to see. I'm not sure whether to hire someone to do my wedding day make-up or not. And Marc was thrilled to both long hair and beard for the shoot. Not to mention the hat!