Dressing up the dudes

Being a guy in a wedding is fairly easy. The No. 1 thing I keep reminding Greg to do is to show up and not be late. Basically the only other task that's totally in his court is getting his guys to Men's Wearhouse.

A couple of months ago, we went to our local mall, flipped through the laminated pages of tuxes, and within 20 minutes, we'd decided on what the guys would wear.

We had considered going the "everyone get their own black suit and we'll get nice ties" route, but Greg wanted a more unified look.

At first, Greg wanted to go with a gray tux since it's one of our wedding colors. However, MW only has one option in gray to rent, and Greg wasn't feeling it. The fit was a little too boxy for his build, and if you look at the original post with the photo below, if the groomsmen wear the same one, that's a LOT of gray at the altar.

 

Let's pretend there's nothing else besides the tux in this photo. (source)

We did keep the gray in mind once Greg picked out a black tux he liked. Since he is against an all-white ensemble, we went with a nice silver for him like the one below (and I hope he's as happy as the model at the wedding!).

 I'm the king of the world! (source)

For the groomsmen, Greg picked out a red vest and tie combo, so they'll look a little like this, except a bit less serious.

C'mon, put on a happy face - you all look so sharp! (source)

How do you think Greg did with the tux choices? I can't wait to see everything in action!

Hi from North Carolina!

So, it's less than two months from our big day, and we're spending this weekend on a whirlwind of driving. Our college pal Travis is getting married today, and we can finally say we've been to North Carolina!

Orion staffers in '06 - that's Travis with the sports section. (photo courtesy Chico State)

It's exciting to go to another wedding before ours, since planning for June is really ramping up and getting a tad stressful. It's a great way to remind ourselves what a wedding is really about: celebrating the commitment to being married. :)

After this, we start the 4.5-hour drive back to D.C. to catch a concert tomorrow night. It's Greg's favorite Spanish pop act, Juanes. You may or may not encounter some of his tunes come June... ;)

Here's hoping everything goes smoothly - more posts to come soon!

Let's get moving

After signing oodles of paperwork yesterday, we got the keys to our new place free and clear! We went out with our pal Matt to a fab celebration dinner. All was fun until we realized only about 30% of our apartment had been packed. That's where we are now -- and the movers get here in a mere nine hours.

But now for pictures!

Greg's favorite part of the new place is the upgraded kitchen, yeah-yuh!

Apollo loves dark spaces, so he took to the boxes. Here he is slinking out after a nap.

But I'm sure he'll miss his first home a little, too!

Back to packing! We'll post pics of the new place once we get settled. :)

On being uncrafty and asking the gals

I'm far from being crafty. I can assemble Ikea furniture, but I'm too impatient and critical (and a shopaholic) to make things myself. I figure I'm keeping people who sew, knit, etc., in business! Etsy for the win!

Since the economy tanked, do-it-yourself projects (DIY) have become uber-common in the wedding sphere. "So, you love personalized napkins? Break out a screenprinting machine and do them for a fraction of the cost!" This works for people who like spending time doing crafty things and spending money buying crafty gadgets. I'm more of a "click and credit card" gal (at least I'm honest).

Unless it involves a computer. College exposed me to some desktop publishing programs, so I'll at least give real simple paper products a try.

Case in point? "Making" cute cards to ask my friends to be part of the wedding. I use quotes because I'm not really a DIY bride -- call me a resourceful one: I know when to leave things to professionals, but I'll do my darndest to still get a deal.

I bought a set of blank white notecards and envelopes from Target ages ago, thinking I'd make my own cards for holidays (my shopping side got the best of me, and I splurged at Paper Source). I came across a free customizable graphics service offered by The Wedding Chicks. The blog teams up with fab designers and presents the freebies in a super easy-to-use interface. Win and win.

I picked out the bicycle built for two design and spent a few minutes experimenting with colors. I simply changed my page setup in Microsoft Word to the notecards' size, added some cute dotted brackets and punctuation (go grammar!), and printed. Time spent: 20 minutes for the cards and about an hour to write memories and funny stories for my ladies on the back. :)

Ta da! (personal photo)

Though I know the cards weren't necessary, it was easy to do, the ladies loved them -- and who doesn't love getting snail mail?! The whole "We're getting married" thing really started to sink in as I wrote to my best friends how much they mean to me. It was a fun project that was great for all involved!

Our busy offseason

Greg told me last month that we love baseball so much that when it's over, we don't really know what to do with ourselves. It's no coincidence that our wedding blogging drought coincides with the lack of baseball. Not because we're lazy - we've been busy!

Our answer to being baseball-less seems to be: "Let's stress ourselves out with life changes." So, the news:

• October: We got a cat, who is doing great and is definitely a mommy's kitty.
• November/December: Spent the holidays in San Diego and San Francisco. (Recaps to come!)
• December: Greg graduates from grad school. No more night classes!
• January: Greg switches jobs and is loving data analysis at Capital One.
• Late January: We realize that since I love my job, too, we should look into the D.C. area housing market.
• February: Oh yeah, we have a wedding coming up. Let's start on invitations...
• Mid-February: We fill out miles of paperwork, I get stressed like crazy, we put an offer on a place in Arlington, Va., and it gets accepted!
• Currently: We're packing our apartment (ugh) and moving next week.

The best part? Opening Day for the Washington Nationals is the 31st, yay!

Now that the wedding's less than three months away, there will definitely be a lot of posts coming. And I changed the look of the blog. And I already have posts lined up. Let's play ball!