Planning Progress

No joke, fortune cookie. No joke. (my actual fortune: 4/20/13)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, wedding planning. It is amazing how it becomes the major topic of conversation. I definitely get asked more about wedding planning than my dissertation progress now. Which is perhaps a good thing. So here is the update. 
 
Things We Have Set

• Date: Sunday, May 25, 2014 - yes, we are getting married on a Sunday. But it is Memorial Day weekend, so it is really like a Saturday. No worries.
• Location: The Milwaukee Public Market - couldn't be more excited about this! I love food.
• Colors: Black. White. Gold. Heavy on the Sparkles and the Stripes. In a way that is classy, not tacky. Because that's how I roll. See a few images below (which I will go back and mark for sources, when I have a moment). Pretty.

Please note that we have had this color scheme planned since long before The Great Gatsby came out. Every wedding blog seems to be making a Gatsby themed wedding post right now. Which is great for my Pinterest board. But I have a feeling we won't be the only ones doing this color scheme in the next year or so. We will not, however, be wearing roaring 20s attire. I'll leave that part to you. 

Things We Have No Idea About

• Who else is invited beyond Chris and I. Rough idea, but not finalized. It is surprisingly hard to plan a guest list when you are looking to keep it small. 
• Where, how, and with whom we will be doing the ceremony.
• What we are wearing. Clothes of course. But they'll be a surprise.
• What we are eating. Please note that I care more about this than the what we are wearing part. Food. Yum.
• Any of our other vendors. I will be soliciting feedback from a few friends who have planned recent Milwaukee weddings. At some point. Just not today.
• All of the little details. Do I have a Pinterest board? Of course I do. Do you even know me?! But I have decided to keep it private. Why? Because I realize that over half of the things I pin will likely not actually happen at the wedding. And I don't want our friends and family getting all excited for something totally amazing, yet implausible, like wedding pony rides, just because I pinned it, and then feeling totally let down. That would just be silly.

And that is that. Let's go back to talking about tv, books and movies now.

On My Nightstand

I can't wait to get back into reading. I find that I read a lot more during the spring and summer months, mainly because there isn't any new tv to watch. I'm not gonna lie, tv is my thing. I watch a lot of it. More than I should.

But during the summer, I would rather get outside and read a good book. And I've got quite the stack ready to go from things I've borrowed from my mom to ones I have received as gifts or downloaded from Audible/Kindle Free Books. There isn't always a ton of rhyme or reason to this list. It's just what has ended up in the pile.

Since I often get asked what I'm reading or what I'd recommend, I thought I'd share this list. Feel free to pick one and read along with me!

1. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Dan and Chip Heath - we are reading this one for work. Pretty good so far!
2. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford - I'm currently reading this one. 
3. The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang- Also for work, it's our first-year common read.
4. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
5. The Night Circus by Chad Harbach
6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
7. State of Wonder: A Novel (P.S.) by Ann Patchett
8. Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer (P.S.) by James L. Swanson
9. Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn
10. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
11. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
12. The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow
13. Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls
14. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

You might notice that many of these have been out for awhile. I don't often buy new books, and so I usually get stuff after my mom has already bought it. And then they usually sit on my nightstand for at least a year before I get to em. I also have a habit of starting a book several times before I actually commit and read the whole thing. Does anyone else do this?

What are you reading now, or planning to read next?

Photogenic

Look, it's us!

So I know that I said I wasn't going to post a whole lot about wedding stuff, but I have some exciting news to share.

We found out today that we were selected as finalists in a giveaway for a wedding photographer! Katie Lewis, of Katie Lewis Photography, posted an amazing offer to photograph one lucky winner's wedding, anywhere in the world, in 2014. I happened to get connected to the contest through my wonderful friend Ann, who went to high school with Katie. After we had the chance to look through all of the amazing photos on her web site, we knew that we had to enter. When we were talking to each other about our wedding, in our top three most important things, photos were at the top of the list. Katie manages to bring out the unique beauty of each couple's special day.

To be selected as finalists is such an awesome honor. We are really excited to be considered among the other couples. I had the chance to read their bios, and they all have such wonderful stories. If we were so lucky to be picked, I know that she would capture our story in a way that would best represent us.

Please check out her site, and if you are so inclined, consider voting for us sometime in the next week. We'd greatly appreciate it. And if you happen to have more than one device, you can vote twice! One vote per computer. : )

: ) Have a happy weekend!