To trash, or not to trash

There is a new thing happening - I saw it on some wedding photographer sites and on some stupid wedding show on cable once - trashing the dress.

The idea is that you won't ever wear the dress again, so "trash" it in a fun photo shoot so you don't have to keep it in your closet forever. Brides destroy their dresses by hopping in pools, wading in lakes, taking a dip in a fountain, rolling around in the dirt - whatever. And - it seems - brides get all made up again, and grooms get to look more casual.

So, our photos are back - they're wonderful, but B's smile wasn't all it could be - he was recovering from his facial palsy still. I'm not a traditional bride, or a prima donna type who would want a photo shoot, but I'm a little tempted to trash.

It'd be a chance to be silly, get some cool photos of B's dreamy smile which has returned completely now, and find a good use for this dress...

What do you think?

Invites and the creation of a logo: A+B

By no means are we original, but I'd like to think we were at least a little original with our use of a logo, right?

When Shachar of Bates Meron Sweet Design started working on our invitations he helped us figure out that we wanted to focus on the location and keep everything else pretty simple. So, we used photos from Murphy's Irish Bistro and the beautiful font Gotham to keep everything clean and simple. The color photos, which we used on our invite helped, I hope, set the mood for the wedding - an old-school but modern bar-bistro, or something.

A+B is easy and fit nicely in the circle that Shachar used on the front of the invite. Gotham, the font we used, is the same font that Barack Obama used for his campaign. Organizing For America continues to use Gotham - it's modern, easy to read and crisp. It's very regular looking, too, which is actually a kind neat thing for a wedding invitation, we thought.


A+B turned out to be an excellent choice, logowise. It's easy to type, easy to say and cute. My parents set up our favors - including A+B shot glasses and awesome pencils. Even if you rarely use a pencil (I mean, everyone uses a pencil once and again!) it's nice to have a cool A+B CHEERS pencil, right?

Lots of people wrote cards to A+B and we've started signing things A+B too. I routinely call Brian B, but he calls me C for my last name - never A. As for the CHEERS that found its way on to our invites, shot glasses and pencils - totally Shachar's idea, but a brilliant bit of whimsy and celebration - not stuffy, but maybe a little Irish-Pub-y? Maybe.

This design-type stuff was important to us, but it's not important to everyone. I think we probably spent more time on fonts, design and the invitations than on the ceremony or the details of colors, matching and coordinating. This totally worked for us, and it turned out beautifully.

Our last A+B touch - my mom found A and B Christmas ornaments and affixed them to the card birdcage with a ribbon that (what?!?) actually matched the bridesmaid dresses and gentleman's ties. Woot!

Nerves

Here's me working on my vows before the wedding - just before the pre-wedding party started.

We've reviewed the wedding and determined it was the most fun ever. We're working on thank you notes for so many wonderful gifts/favors/etc... We're also finding places for some of the new things we've got - like beautiful Fiesta dishes - and some of the not-so-new things we're moving out to make room.

We leave for our honeymoon on Saturday - 14 days in California!

• August 7: Arrive in California, visit UCLA, grocery store, drive to Oxnard.
• August 8-10: Take a 9 a.m. ferry to Channel Islands National Park! We're going to hike, set up our awesome hammock, camp and pretend that we're on Lost. We go back to the mainland on August 10. We'll quickly head to eat, shower and sleep in a non-tent space - the Kon Tiki Inn.
  
• August 11: Lounge and enjoy the coast.
• August 12: Visit the Hearst Castle and set up camp near the coast at a state park.
  
• August 13-14: We'll camp but also drive to the towns along the coast, see redwoods and visit a farmer market festival of some sort. Excited for all the produce in California!
• August 15: Head north to the 17-mile drive, Monterey and its aquarium. Should be beautiful.
• August 16-18: Napa - wineries, dinners, cool doors, tastings, wine farm fun. My parents gave me a good guide to Napa - can't wait to sip some fresh(?) wine and use my adjective card to describe it.
• August 19-21: Drop off the rental car and venture into San Francisco. We're seeing an Oakland A's game and otherwise just strolling and bumming around the city. We hear it's pretty awesome. On Saturday we head back to Chicago - yikes!

We'll post from the road, too - using our sweet new iPad! We're skipping Yosemite and trying to make this adventurous and relaxing. That sounds like a tall order but I think my husband and I can handle it. Yay!