Reliving Our Wedding, One Tree at a Time

Sheesh - I can't believe it's been over two weeks since my last post.  So much for coming back "regularly," huh?  Sorry about that.  As it turns out, returning from one's honeymoon right as the holiday season is getting into full swing is perhaps even more crazy-making than wedding planning.

During this time each year, Mr. FW and I typically make a special shopping trip to buy a few new ornaments for our tree, but this year when we looked around at a house full of wedding decorations and honeymoon souvenirs, we just couldn't imagine trying to cram more stuff into our space.  So what did we do?  We repurposed.  

You remember our string balls, right?  

Well, after putting in some hard time as our lovely wedding centerpieces (and I can't wait to show you just how lovely they were!!), some of these lucky balls are once again bringing a little cheer to our lives... as ornaments!

Once the sun goes down and the string lights are turned on, the holiday warm fuzzies are in full force in our little house.  And this year, as we mark our first first holiday season as a married couple, those warm fuzzies are just a little warmer and fuzzier thanks to the wedding memories on display.  

Could you or have you repurposed any of your wedding decor for the holidays?

We're Back, and We're Married!

Oh hive, it feels like I've been away for such a long time - but I guess that's understandable since SO MUCH has happened in the last few weeks.  First and foremost, we got married (obvs)!

As expected, we haven't yet seen any pro pics, but there have also been surprisingly few pictures taken by guests, at least that we've seen.  So I'm forced to rely on only our photobooth pictures and a few other candid guest shots in order to relive our day so far.

{I think this is before our first dance, which would explain the giddily nervous smiles on our faces!}

{Thanking everyone for coming, with the cute detail of our clasped hands behind Mr. FW's back.}

Whenever people ask how the wedding went, the only reply I can come up with is "wonderful" or some similar descriptor.  Throughout our wedding day I just felt so, so happy and it seemed like everything was so blissfully amazing.  I know, of course, that nothing is ever absolutely and completely perfect, but I was made aware of precious few hiccups on the day of.  And I'm not lying when I say this, even though I know it probably sounds like an exaggeration - I honestly wasn't bothered by a single thing for longer than about two seconds.  I had this incredible Teflon-like mentality where something would come up (realizing it would rain throughout the day, feeling that things were getting a little chaotic during prep, hearing that we were running behind on our reception timeline, etc.) and then just as quickly it slid right off of me.  I was able to... let it go.  For the record, I'm not typically a person who can easily let things go, so I wish that whatever magical transformation happened that day could stick around forever!  I guess all that wedding mojo just made it easy to be consistently relaxed and in the moment, and for that I am extremely grateful.

There's tons more I want to share with all of you that I'm going to save for my recaps, but I will sum up our day by just saying that I thought our wedding was perfectly us and our reception was one hell of a party!

So yeah, we got married and then two days later we left for our epic (for us) two-week honeymoon to Australia.  I know y'all got a little sneak peek of our trip thanks to Mrs. Jaguar, when we got to meet up with her and Mrs. Teaspoon during our stay in Sydney.  (Yay for the power of the 'bee - when you can travel to the other side of the globe and see some familiar, wedding-loving faces!)  I promise to post some honeymoon recaps as soon as I can find time to pare down my 1000+ pictures.

{on the Skyrail to Kuranda}

We returned last Monday afternoon and I went back to work on Tuesday, so it's taken me the last few days to successfully transition back into my pre-wedding routine, not to mention my pre-honeymoon sleep schedule.  But now I'm back and ready to go!  While I'm waiting for our pro pics to come in, I've got several projects, thoughts, and stories to share that I didn't have time to blog before the wedding.  All that to say, you can expect to hear from me pretty regularly again starting right... now!  Because I've missed all of you!

Do you imagine yourself having a Teflon-like mentality on your wedding day? I highly recommend it!

I Can't Believe It's Time

It's 1:00 a.m. on the day of our wedding, and I'm writing this from my hotel room.  Party Person N is asleep nearby and junior party person M is asleep in the living room (yes, my hotel room has a living room!), yet here I am so amped up that I can barely even fathom the thought of closing my eyes.  I know I need to sleep, but I feel this intense need to keep my eyes open and take all of this in - like sleeping for even a second might mean missing out on part of this crazy-wonderful-magical time.  I've been sensing the 'wedding bubble' around me all day today, and I know that the feeling of this moment won't last forever.  I'm trying very hard to take the sage advice offered in my bee twin Miss Seal's last post, and just breathe and stay in that moment for as long as I can.  

Tomorrow morning I will wake up and do a little bit of a decoration set-up, then I will sit back and wait for all the rest of the meticulously planned pieces to fall into place.  To say that I'm thrilled wouldn't even begin to cover it.  :-)

To the hive: Thank you so much for all of your help, advice, support, and kind words over these last few months.  Sharing our planning with you has been an amazing journey, and I've learned so much about myself along the way.  I look forward to having some time post-wedding to write more about the personal aspects of our planning process, and of course I can't wait to show you how all the details come together!

To Mr. FW: Tonight when you teared up as I was reading my vows at the rehearsal, I was reminded of why I'm marrying you - because you are deeply touched by this commitment we are making to each other, and I know you don't take that for granted.  Right now those vows are just words on a page, but you know that those words are truly written in my heart and that this little wedding thing we're doing tomorrow is just the incredible celebration of a love that's already rock solid.  After so many months and years of planning and preparation for this day, I am ready beyond words.  

And with that, I'm finally turning in for the night.  See you all on the other side!

Artistry, of the Hair and Makeup Variety

Of the many things that I love about my appearance, perhaps my very favorite physical features are my eyes and my hair.  Nearly every time I look in the mirror, I notice one or both of those and I can't help but smile at my reflection.  It's not vanity, and I hope it doesn't come across that way.  It's just that I truly believe everyone should have aspects of themselves (physical, relational, emotional, intellectual, etc.) that they can acknowledge as strong, positive features (even if, at times ,it's simultaneous with with less positive features - for instance my acne-prone skin).

So, given this love affair I have with my eyes and hair, you'd think I'd have spent more time considering my wedding hair and makeup.  But, in actuality, I had one very brief moment of hair inspiration and zero ideas about makeup.  I don't know if it was anxiety or just feeling overwhelmed with other stuff, but I showed up to my trial session with one inspiration picture and almost no ability to articulate what I was looking for.  Thankfully my amazing hair and makeup artist Lucy Flint knew just what questions to ask to get a sense of my wedding day vision, and then she began to work her magic.  (Side note: She even continued with said magic as the building was rocked by a 3.8 magnitude earthquake.  That's running a business in the Bay Area for ya!)

Over the course of a few hours we tried out a makeup look, with and without false lashes, and two different hairstyles.  I was so pleased, relieved, and excited about how great everything turned out that I wanted to go back for a second trial to do a bit of a different hair version.  You know how I love me some options!

Forgive the poor lighting - it was dark by the time we finished.

{half-up hairstyle, makeup with no lashes, and post-work sleepy eyes}

{low messy side bun, with lashes}

{with the headband}

From this trial I learned that even relatively heavy makeup can look quite light in pictures, so we're going to pump up the eyes and lips a bit on the wedding day until it looks just right in our photographs.  Also, I am absolutely going with the false lashes because they looked amazing!  Lastly, although the low side bun was oh-so-lovely, I realized that I really had my heart set on a half-up hairstyle.  The only uncertainty I had was about those frizzies along my hairline.  Hmm...

So today I returned, complete with updated hair color, to try a curlier look.

{curlier half-up 'do, my regular makeup}

Ignoring the crazy curl wisps escaping on the top of my head (which we'll smooth down in the final look), I'm thinking I like the curlier style better.  The frizzies are still there, but they're much less noticeable.  Also, this style probably has a better chance of making it through the night without becoming a frizzball since my curls weren't brushed out (as they were in my initial trial).  Mostly though, this whole look just feels a little more "me."

The only thing I'm now trying to decide is how much to pull my hair over my forehead.  The sideswept hair is very different from how I normally wear my hair, so it feels more special.

Whereas I think the pinned-back hair opens up my face more.

I'm leaning towards the side-swept hair, but if anyone has a reality check for me please let me know!  Otherwise, I'm feeling great about how my beloved eyes and hair will be showcased on our wedding day.  Yay!

I feel so grateful that I somehow stumbled across an incredible hair and make-up artist who is talented, responsive, patient, and so much fun to be around.  What more could I ask for?!  Unfortunately for my Bay Area brides, Lucy is moving to New York in January.  But good news NY brides - you have an amazing resource headed your way soon!

Would you ever consider ponying up the cash for a second trial?  Why or why not?

Last-Minute Dress Decision(s)

Today marks the two week point for the Ferris Wheels, and I gotta be honest that it feels crazy-making to know we're so close yet there's still so much that needs to get finished.  Some of those last-minute tasks make sense:  escort cards (because we're still trying to finalize our guest list), seating arrangements (because we're still trying to finalize our guest list), and baking stuff for the dessert buffet (because there's only so long that a baked good will last).

Then there are other tasks that I really wish had been completed earlier, but for one reason or another they're still up in the air like the videographer (because we didn't decide until the last minute that we even wanted one) and wedding party gifts (because of various snafus in the production process).  But perhaps the biggest last-minute project(s) has to do with my dress.

When I bought the dress, I didn't pay much attention to the train because that just wasn't on my priority list.  Well, now that I'm having to make final alterations decisions, apparently I have to decide whether or not I want to keep it.  My primary concern about the train is how it will fit with the limited amount of space in our ceremony venue.  If you don't recall, the ceremony room looks like this.

{Mr. FW and I will stand in that window along with our wedding party, the area leading to the window will be the aisle, and limited chairs will be squeezed in there as much as possible.}

And now here's a picture of how the original train length looks on me.

One thing's for sure: the train as it is will absolutely not fit well in the space.  For.  Sure.  Plus the alterations woman told me that, no matter what, she recommended reducing the length of the train because it's currently disproportionate to my height.  This is not something I'd ever considered before, but I suppose it makes sense.  

So I think my options are thus: 1) reduce the train, hope it fits in the ceremony space without looking stupid, then bustle it for the reception; 2) leave it bustled throughout the day, no need to worry about whether or not it fits in the ceremony space; 3) chop it off - no train, no bustle, no hassle.

For your reference, here are some pictures the seamstress took of a potential bustle for this dress (not necessarily the one I'll go with, but it's an option).

I feel torn, Hive!  If I'm being really honest with myself I can admit that I kinda like the idea of chopping off the train.  But as soon as I think that I tell myself this is probably the only time in my life when I'll get to drag around a bolt of extraneous fabric attached to a garment I'm wearing, and I question whether I'd actually want to give up that experience.  Plus - the bustle is just 'meh' for me.  I don't necessarily love it.  

So I'm looking for the invaluable insight that only a group of similarly wedding-obsessed people can provide!  Given what you know about me, my style, and our ceremony space, which train option do you think I should go with?

(insert poll)

Option 1: Let it flow then tuck it in.

Option 2: Bustle me all night long.

Option 3: No bustle, no problem.

Can't wait to see what you think!  Have you given any consideration to train changes you might want to make for your dress?

(And also, in case you were wondering, the other last-minute dress decision has to do with whether or not I'll be wearing a shrug with the dress.  I really want to, but as the days tick by without a good option on the horizon, this decision might just be made by default.)

It's Feeling Real Now, Folks!

Yep, today Mr. FW and I made the arduous ten minute trek to City Hall, and we completed the shockingly easy task of applying for a marriage license.  As we walked up the front steps of the building I recalled that the last time I was actually inside the City Hall rotunda was a few years ago when one of my friends married his husband during the brief period of time when gay marriage was legal in California.  On that day the entire building was full of lights, cameras, press members, happy couples, and excited guests.  But today the place was silent, with only our voices echoing off the marble.

There were no signs directing us where to go, so we wandered around until we found the unassuming corridor with the door marked 'County Clerk.'  We actually arrived on time for our appointment, and if you know me at all, you know what a miracle that is.

Mr. FW lovingly offered to fill out the form for us since I was pretty busy snapping pictures of the whole process.  My favorite part of the license application was this: "At the time of application for a marriage license, one or both parties to the marriage may elect to change the middle or last names, or both, by which that party wishes to be known after solemnization of the marriage...  Parties may adopt any of the following last names: the current last name of the other spouse; the last name of either spouse given at birth; a name combining into a single last name all or a segment of the current last name or the last name of either spouse given at birth; a hyphenated combination of last names."

How incredible is that?!  I love the flexibility that California law allows for both parties when it comes to changing names with the marriage license.  (Also, I know I haven't posted about mine and Mr. FW's thoughts when it comes to name changes, but I will later if it interests anyone.)

A few minutes later and our form was all processed and ready to go.  We were given the information about what our "officiant" (aka deputized sister of the groom) needs to fill out, which we promptly forgot and will have to research again later.

And that was it.  So quick and so simple, this legal process to get married.  Mr. FW commented on our way out that, for how easy it was to get a marriage license, it somehow makes it even more sad and ridiculous that not everyone can get married - in this state or so many other places.  And I certainly agree.  *sigh*  Maybe one day...

As for us, our license is good until January of 2012 so let's just hope we can pull off a wedding sometime between now and then!

Was anyone else amazed by how easy the marriage license process was?  (I think I remember my mother telling stories that, back in the day, they required bloodwork in order to secure a marriage license.  Sheesh!  So, so glad we've moved on from that.)  :-)

History, and Old School Photoshop

You know how I said that my mom and I were going through her wedding stuff this past weekend?  Well as part of that conversation I found out the most fascinating thing about her wedding photos - something I'd never noticed in all my years of casually flipping through her wedding album every now and then.

She showed me this picture:

And she focused my attention on one particular detail.

Notice anything about this close-up, besides the fact that my mom is absolutely gorgeous?  Anyone thinking that her eyelashes are amazing in this picture?  Well, they should be.  Those lashes were given the old school photoshop treatment.  If you don't have the slightest clue what that could mean, then you're in good company because I'd never heard of this particular technique either.

It means that those lashes were actually painted onto the printed photo itself!!  Can you believe that?!  

I was completely floored when she told me, but as I flipped through her album looking for additional evidence of old school photoshopping, I saw it everywhere.  There were pictures where the photographer painted in sections of my mom's hair because the tip of her ear was peeking through, and multiple examples of him painting in eyes on my father because my dad was squinting in many of the photos.

It's incredible to me that I never noticed this before, but I guess it's proof that no one scrutinizes your wedding photos like you do.  That's certainly a good lesson for a perfectionist like me.  It also made me really happy that there are more advanced photo manipulation techniques available to modern photographers.  Of course, the minute I have that thought I flash forward to the day we'll flip through our wedding album with our kids and they will scoff at how dated those now-so-modern Photoshop effects are.  Ahhh, the neverending march of time (and technology).

Was anyone else aware of photographers painting/drawing directly onto printed images?  I'm curious how widespread this practice was.

A Little Piece of History

This past weekend I flew back to Georgia to spend a weekend with my mom, brothers, and my grandparents.  In all the crazy hustle and bustle of last-minute wedding planning (24 days and counting, gah!), it was nice to get away from the stress for a bit and reconnect with family.

While I was home there was a lot of wedding talk of course, which spurred my mom to pull out some of her own wedding stuff.  As soon as I saw her veil and headpiece in the dress box, I couldn't resist trying it on.

Here's my beautiful mother wearing her veil over thirty years ago.

And here I am - proving that this look was much better on her than it is on me.

The headpiece may not be the right style for me, but I actually liked the edging on the veil and I started to wonder whether I could find a way to re-purpose my mom's veil as my veil.  So I gathered it up and held it in a way that kind of imitated what it would look like if the veil was attached to a comb rather than the lace headpiece.

It has a little more body than I might have chosen otherwise, but the history and symbolism of it being my mom's veil way outweigh any tiny preference I have about length or puffiness.  The only question now is whether the color is a close enough match to my dress.  In the overhead lighting of the house it looked as white as the day my mom wore it, but in the bright SF sunshine it was looking a bit more cream.

I have my first dress fitting today, so that will give me a chance to see if the coloring will work.  If it does, then you can pretty much bet this will make its way onto the "must have" project list.  I'm not-so-secretly hoping that it does!

What little pieces of history will you be incorporating on your wedding day?  And does anyone have any tips for me about how to attach tulle to a comb?

The Meaning of Marriage, Part 2

In ways large and small, and ways that I don't even know yet, marriage will change a lot about our relationship because of the meaning it holds both for us and for other people.  I have been a staunch advocate of marriage equality for as long as I can remember, but being on the verge of marriage myself really illuminates all the ways that marriage is different from a civil union.  Those changes I referenced in my last post, well, I'm not sure if or when they would've happened if Mr. FW and I weren't getting married. 

It seems to me that people have been viewing us differently since we got engaged, and I think it's because they know what a marriage is, they know what it means, and they know how to relate to it.  It's not like we didn't have a serious relationship before, because we did.  But our relationship looks somehow more significant to people now, and thus they react to it differently.  Like everyone else, we had the option of entering into a civil union or domestic partnership earlier in our relationship, but we wanted to get married.  And marriage is not the same as a civil union or a domestic partnership.  The proof of this is that even heterosexual couples avail themselves of these options in order to, say, take advantage of their partner's health insurance benefits, and they can do so prior to the point where they feel "ready" to get married.  For me personally it sometimes feels like civil unions and domestic partnerships are talked about as if they are "wedding light."  I don't necessarily see it that way, and I'm sure queer couples (who enter into those arrangements because they're the closest they can currently get to marriage) don't see it that way, but to me it's pretty clear that marriage is more than just the act of two people legally entangling themselves with one another.

For instance, we bought a house together (a legal and financial entanglement) long before we were ever engaged, and we could tell at the time that some people thought that was probably an irresponsible decisions for us to make. Because as a society we tend to understand things like joint home ownership through the lens of marriage.  And we understand raising children through the lens of marriage.  We understand so much through the lens of marriage.  Yes, these are culturally constructed understandings of marriage, but Mr. FW and I live in this culture and we can't separate ourselves from that.

We have grappled very seriously with the potential hypocrisy of taking advantage of the institution of marriage when it would have been denied to us as recently as a year ago.  I don't think there are any easy answers to this issue, either.  In the end, we came to some important conclusions that feel okay to us but might not be a good fit for other people.  So I offer the caveat that these thoughts are ours and ours alone.

image via Stinkerpants.com (aka Mrs. Cream Puff!)

First, we have been supportive of any couple who wants to avail themselves of marriage at any time they can.  This has included brief periods of time where gay marriage was allowed in San Francisco and/or legal in California, even if those decisions were later reversed.  In fact, we considered getting married as a queer couple back when it would have been legal in California, but we decided we didn't want to rush something that was so important to us.  Second, we can't see a way that not accessing the privilege of legal marriage for ourselves would support the fight for marriage equality.  We actually think that accessing marriage will give us a platform to better speak to people about just what marriage gives us that we wouldn't have had access to otherwise.  We both strongly believe that individuals with privilege can - and should - find ways to utilize that privilege to advocate for those without privilege.  And third, we recognize that, for us, knowingly engaging in such privilege necessitates taking on the responsibility of acknowledging that privilege whenever we can and not allowing ourselves to become blind to it.

We have come to these conclusions based on what marriage means to us right now, as an unmarried but engaged couple.  I'm interested to see how getting married, being married, and staying married will change how we perceive its meaning in the future.

What experiences have you had that illustrate the meaning of marriage in your life?

The Meaning of Marriage, Part 1

Almost a year ago now, as I was preparing the Thanksgiving meal we would share with Mr. FW's parents, I became aware that I was spending time reflecting on relationships and family - more specifically, how relationships shape how we define family.  I had been casually referring to Mr. FW's family as "my in-laws" for a while, probably since the time everyone started taking for granted that I would be included in his family functions.  Last year though, as I was about to tell someone, "We're having Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws," I stopped myself from using that term, instead changing it to "dinner with Mr. FW's parents."  In that split second I recall thinking that they would be my legitimate in-laws in less than a year, so I should reserve that term for the time after we're officially married.

The phrase ricocheted around in my mind for a second longer than it should have before I realized why it felt so uncomfortable.  We spent the majority of our relationship knowing that "officially married" is something we couldn't have.  So for us, and I imagine for many other queer and/or non-traditional couples, not being able to (or not wanting to) get "officially married" means that there's no hard-and-fast moment when a relationship moves from dating to committed.  So when do you call your partner's parents your in-laws, when does your partner become an assumed member of family photos, when do people get to feel okay asking you about whether you'll have kids, etc. etc.?    Basically, when do people see you and your partner as a family rather than just a relationship?  And how does that timing relate to when you and your partner see yourselves as a family? 

Like it or not, in this society the act of entering into a marriage adds legitimacy to your relationship - in your eyes, in the eyes of your families, and in the eyes of the law (at least for heterosexual couples, and for some gay couples in terms of state law only).  And weddings are the way we mark the moment we enter into a marriage.  So marriages/weddings answer all those questions and so many more.

image via mindpetals.com

Mr. FW and I have known for at least the past four years that we were in it for the long haul.  Our relationship was entirely legitimate to us and we saw ourselves as a little family (or a pack, as we refer to ourselves and the dogs).  But I know I wasn't prepared for how much other people's views of our relationship would impact how I felt about our relationship, and over the eighteenish months of our engagement I've started to feel the many ways this wedding will change a lot of little things.  

For instance, after we got engaged it felt like our relationship seemed more "normal" to people - they knew how to relate to it and they had a social framework for understanding it.  I was engaged, which meant I'd then have a wedding.  Everyone knows what those things are and what they mean.  So after we get married, Mr. FW will be included in our family's holiday name draw, he'll be expected to be present in family pictures, it will be assumed that he and I will travel places together, and it will make sense to people when we talk about having kids.  All those little things add up, and they make me feel like people are actually seeing Mr. FW and I as we've seen ourselves for such a long time - as a family.  Before I had these little privileges and assumptions, I didn't realize I was missing them.  But now that I have them, I'm aware of how much more significant our relationship feels... to me.  It's hard to imagine our relationship feeling more significant than it already did, but with all of that added legitimacy, somehow it does.

I'm not sure if that resonates with anyone else, but for me I know that being engaged and planning a wedding have shown me meanings of marriage that I hadn't before known and/or considered.

Can you relate to this at all?

Identifying the Yummies

After this wedding, I'm pretty sure I'll never want to create any sort of signage/labels/tags ever again.  Because let me tell ya, our guests are going to be the most fully-informed, non-confused, wedding guests ever.  As things have gotten down to the wire we decided to nix a few of the signs on our list because, in all of our wedding brain craziness, we came to our senses and realized our guests could probably figure some stuff out on their own (like, say, where the bathrooms are or how in the world to navigate the fifteen feet between the elevators and the ceremony space).

There were some signs that were always non-negotiable for us though, and those were the ones that were meant to be functional while also adding some crucial design flare (and, let's be honest here, that would make for some incredibly cool detail shots).  Labels for the dessert buffet and the candy buffet definitely fell into that category.

As is probably true with all good design, these little devils look much more beautifully simplistic than they actually were to create.  We're so proud of how they turned out, though, and are immensely relived that they're finished.  So relieved, in fact, that I forgot to take pictures of the dessert buffet tags before we packed them away, which means you'll just have to wait for the pro pics to come back to see how those turned out.  

But... here are some pics I did take during the process of attaching the candy buffet labels to our jars.  (And in true Ferris Wheel fashion, the ribbon I used for this has been discontinued and I ran out halfway through the job.  So cross your fingers that our feverish internet search actually yields the right replacement ribbon!)

Now, on to the pictures!

 Any chance that you'll be over-informing the guests at your wedding?  And admit it - you like pretty signs too, right?

Tracking the Light

Having decided to get married on a Friday at the top of the city, and being two people who are completely mesmerized by the city lights, Mr. FW and I didn't even have to talk with one another about what time of day to have our ceremony.  We knew it would be an evening ceremony, after work and after sunset.  We were even more sure about this when we visited our site last November to take some pictures of the space after dark.  On that night, it was jet black outside - a completely cloudless and fogless evening, and there was the most incredible full moon visible through the windows of our ceremony space.  I'm sorry to say that I don't have photographic documentation of that, so you'll just have to believe me that it was gorgeous.

In order to be absolutely certain about the lighting conditions on our wedding day, I consulted http://www.timeanddate.com/ to get the lowdown on sundown for November 11, 2011 in San Francisco.

screenshot taken from here

At this point you may be thinking what I was thinking: "What's the difference between astronomical, nautical, and civil twilight, what do they have to do with sunset, and how do they impact my wedding?"  Well folks, I'm here to answer that question for you in as brief and painless a way as possible.  And I promise that, if you're having an evening wedding or an early morning, you do care about this information..

(Note: I am summarizing this from several sources, but primarily here.  I am in no way an expert on this issue, so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

Astronomical Twilight:  The beginning and end of light during the day.  Faint stars, galaxies, and other objects begin to disappear as this phase starts and they reappear as this phase ends.  The end of astronomical twilight would be prime city lights-viewing conditions.  

Nautical Twilight:  The middle of the full sunrise/sunset process.  Bright objects are visible in the sky, as is the horizon.  It is too dark to do activities outside without extra lighting, but some light remains.  Not the ideal light-gazing opportunity, but not impossible.

Civil Twilight:  During this phase the sky is illuminated and you will not need additional lighting for outdoor activities.  In the evening, only bright lights will be visible.  Good enough to see a full moon, but not good enough to take advantage of all the city lights.

photo via yimg.com

Sunrise:  When the upper part of the sun becomes visible.

photo via Esquire.com

Sunset:  When the sun disappears below the horizon.

photo via intrepid.com

As all of us already know, light becomes visible before the sun has actually risen above the horizon line in the morning, and light remains visible after the sun falls below the horizon in the evening.  Thus it's not that helpful to look only at sunrise and sunset times if you're interested in gauging the amount of light you'll see in the early morning or late evening.

And now comes the part where I super excitedly tell you the good news about our wedding day.  If you study the chart above you'll see that on 11.11.11 astronomical twilight ends at 6:32 p.m.  Purely by chance, we slated our wedding ceremony to begin at...  6:30 p.m.!  Yay for prime nighttime darkness!  Crazily enough though, if you take a closer look at that chart, you'll also see that daylight savings time ends A MERE 5 DAYS before our wedding date.  So if we had picked a date only a week earlier, then a half hour ceremony beginning at 6:30 would've meant that it would just be getting dusky outside (end of civil twilight, going into nautical twilight) and we would have completely missed out on that city lights look we love so much.

Clearly the stars were aligned for us (astronomical pun intended).  Oh, you don't believe me?  You want proof?  I'll give you proof.

{November 11, 2011...  Full. Freakin'. Moon.}

image via Moon Connection

Bam!  There's your proof.  I know I'm more than bit biased, but I'm pretty sure we have the absolutely awesomest wedding date and time ever, and I dare you to deny it.  :-)

How have the stars aligned for you and your significant other?  And do you have a need to track the light for your wedding day?

Rehearsal Plans and Rhyming Words

Apparently the theme of my posts lately is "Ms. FW brags about Mr. FW's amazingness."  So to continue with that theme, I'd like to tell you about how instrumental Mr. FW was in creating our super fun rehearsal dinner invites.  It started when we were both standing in line at Michael's (so we could have two separate transactions and thus use two separate 40% off coupons - obvs) and he wandered over to the $1 bargain section, where he picked up the cutest little silverware set rubber stamp.  He suggested that it might be nice to emboss this little knife, fork, and spoon design onto the back of whatever rehearsal dinner invite we chose.  Of course I was all for that, so we snapped up the stamp and then went looking for a coordinating invite.

We fell in love with this design from Invitation Consultants.  (FYI... we were really happy with the quality of these invites.  The paper has a slight sheen to it that feels very luxe, and they are printed in color on both sides.  Also awesome was that we snagged a $10 off coupon from Retail Me Not!)

Now let me direct your eye to the truly amazing part.  See, Mr. FW is an incredible wordsmith (seriously, he can make anything sound good) so he had no trouble coming up with the most adorable rhyme to set the tone for our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

before the knot's tied come help set the mood

we're ready to celebrate with drinks and Thai food

at our rehearsal dinner we'd like you to be

if for no other reason than because it is free

Smooth Thai is in the lobby of the Parc 55

casual dress will match the laid-back vibe

we'll eat at 6PM on the tenth of november

and we hope it will be a night to remember

so please come and join us on the eve of our day

and know that we love you more than we can say!

You're impressed, right?  Yeah, me too.  He also decided to include these little personalized timelines for each person we were mailing the invitation to, so they would know exactly when and where to show up for the rehearsal part of the day.

Then we packaged them up, did a little embossing, slapped on our favorite celebration stamps, and they were ready to go.  (Of course, this was after the font freak in me insisted we find an address font that was similar to the invitation title font - because I just knew we already had one and it made me feel so good to see what a near perfect match they were.  All that, even though I knew rationally not a single guests would ever notice the fonts.  Nope, that level of detail-consciousness was just for me!)

And that makes one more project off the to-do list, courtesy of Mr. FW.  What would I do without him?

Did you do a rehearsal, complete with invitations and everything?  Honestly we didn't really expect to, but I guess it's happening now whether we like it or not!  :-)

Photobooth Speech Bubbles, Minus the Chalk

I am so flippin' excited that we're going to have a photobooth at our wedding!  And yeah, I know it's one of those things that's been done everywhere at this point, but I honestly don't care about that in the slightest.  The idea of giving our guests a fun, non-dancing activity during our reception is totally worth it to me.  (Not that we don't want people to dance, of course.  We just want them to have options.)  Our photobooth package includes a box of props, which is great because it means we don't have to raid the Halloween stores on Nov. 1 to find our own (although that did sound kinda fun).  But we still wanted to find a way to personalize things just a bit.  

I'd seen pictures of those awesome chalkboard speech bubbles, and I thought that might be our answer.  But when I talked to Mr. FW about it he seemed concerned.  It's not that he thought it was a bad idea, no no.  He just thought it would make me freak out to be near chalkboards on our wedding day.  See...  I have a bit of a chalk phobia.  For realz, just typing out the word chalk makes me shiver.  I can't stand anything about it - the way it feels in your hand, the way it sounds when you're writing with it, the dust it creates when you erase it.  Ugh...  seriously, it's a problem.  

So Mr. FW went searching for alternatives, and he discovered the ingeniousness of white board contact paper.  Yep, it's contact paper that you can write on with dry erase markers.   You can probably purchase it a lot of places, but we're online people so we bought ours on Amazon.

{GoWrite dry erase rolls on Amazon.com, $8.99}

Mr. FW banged out two bubbles in just a few hours, and each step was pretty simple.  Here's a little tutorial we put together for you.

We have a lot of cardbox boxes around the house lately, so Mr. FW cut up a few of those to use as the backing for our bubbles.  He sketched out both a speech bubble and a thought bubble then he got to cutting.

First he cut out the bubbles, then he used those as templates to cut out the whiteboard paper.  A little note here: We found out the hard way that the contact paper isn't super thick, so we could see the writing on the cardboard through the paper.  Mr. FW said that if he was doing it over again he'd also cut out a single piece of printer paper to attach first to the cardboard, under the contact paper.

To give them just a little extra oomph, I inked on a simple blue border with a Sharpie marker.

Mr. FW attached some paint stir sticks (is that what those are called?) to the back, and then they were finished!  We haven't tested them yet with the dry erase markers, but I feel pretty certain they're going to be fine because all the reviews of this contact paper were very complimentary.  Just in case, though, we're packing up a small spray bottle of cleaner and napkins.  Now I just can't wait to see what how creative our guests will be with these!

Any other chalk phobes out there?  Also, I can imagine a lot of other uses for these little bubbles besides a photobooth.  What would you use them for?