Caged Bird

I don't understand the bird and cage motifs that are so popular right now in weddings.  Caged birds don't remind me of anything positive, especially not in the context of a wedding.  Personally, I prefer to be free to blow bubbles.

Moving time!

We signed the lease this morning, six days after we began the housing search!  We're going to make our kitchen kosher tonight and do our laundry in the new place.  It's so awesome to be a grown up!

In unrelated news, we visited Pasadena this weekend so I could meet Kate's brother John and his wife Jessie.  I can't wait for them to come up and visit us in return.  I can't believe how lucky I am to be marrying into such a great family!  Kate's family are total sweethearts, which I guess shouldn't be surprising since she's so amazing.

More wedding stuff to come shortly, but in the mean time pardon our moving boxes, we need to pack!

We're moving!

My parents are some of the smartest people I know, and recently my mother wisely said, "Where are you going to put the centerpieces before the wedding in your small apartment?"  Good question, Mama.  I have no idea.  I don't even know where my wedding dress could go before the wedding.  Let's not even think about space for wedding presents...

So, we're moving.

Without any intention of following through, I did a lazy search on Craigslist and saw an apartment half a block from our shul.  It's an ideal location six blocks from BART, one block from Andronico's, and close enough that our Shomer Shabbos friends (people who won't travel on Shabbat) can come and eat with us.  So we went to go and look at it, and loved it.  It has three walk in closets!  I think that's enough space for centerpieces, don't you?

So we applied for it - and go it!  Just to be clear, Kate and I began our housing search on Tuesday and finished it on Wednesday.  The hope is that we will be signing the lease next week.  Easiest housing search ever!

Bathroom with a full tub

The living room.  Walk in closet on the right, with a dresser!

The bedroom.  Walk in closet on the right.  No dresser.

The kitchen.

Not pictured: laundry room downstairs, third walk in closet in the hallway, our own parking spot, and our synagogue half a block away.

Wedding dresses

Yesterday, I almost bought a $80 wedding dress at Thrift Town.  It was almost perfect: ballroom, with straps, used, and not too ornate.  But it was a size too small and too long, and with all of the necessary alternations, combined with the fact that I didn't even know if it would fit after letting out the seams, kept me from purchasing it.  I'm still hopeful that with seven months to go, I will be able to find that used, perfect dress.  Or maybe I'm just living in fantasy land...

Hiding the walls

Do you remember the green alcoves that Kate and I didn't like at the Community Center?  Kate and I have been brainstorming madly on how to cover them up.

Originally we thought we'd do something like this:

But, you know, longer and prettier.  Then we starting thinking about the cost of fabric, the work, and the aesthetics, and pretty much gave up the idea.

We moved on to thinking we could hide it behind branches and ferns.  The idea of coordinating folks to gather the branches and ferns seemed daunting, not to mention figuring out how to hang them.  But such a pretty idea!

I just saw an awesome picture on Ruffled.  Why don't we cover them with art we make ourselves?  On sheets!

Who knows?  The aesthetics of our reception is low on the list of priorities right now, but it's fun to think about these things.

Invitations

I just spent a lot of time working on the invitation, and I think I might see an end to this creative process sometime soon.  As much fun as creating the invitations has been, five full invitation drafts later I'm ready to be done for awhile.

I was inspired not by the Oakland tree, as I thought, but by this really cool font, Futura (above).  I was looking for Hebrew fonts, and came upon this instead.  The Hebrew font is Torah Sofer, which I think augments Futura fairly nicely.  And this tree to the right fits in nicely too.  It looks nice.  I'm hoping there's not a sixth invitation draft, at least not quite yet.

Choosing Oakland

When picking a venue, Kate and I fell in love with a few places in Marin, but we kept looking.  We really wanted to have the wedding in the East Bay, and specifically in Oakland.  Oakland gets a pretty bad rep when you see it in the news, but it's an absolutely amazing community.  I'm an alum of an Oakland college, and I chose Oakland to make my home.  We both wanted to get married in this great city, and show our family and friends what we love about the city.

I've been playing around with invitations recently, but have been having a hard time finding the right tree and colors to include.  My latest idea is to use the City of Oakland tree to subtly show off our Oakland pride. It's my new inspiration.  I have no idea if my Oakland pride will get me through this creative slump, but here's to hoping!

Where should we go for our honeymoon?

After this event planning extravaganza, I want to sit on a beach somewhere and do nothing for our honeymoon.  So Kate and I were really excited about visiting Hawaii for our honeymoon.

BUT!  While Kate and I were out at a nice restaurant yesterday, I realized that I might have made a fatal flaw by choosing Hawaii.  What about the food?  If you've ever eaten with me, you likely know that I really like good food.  A place that highly values spam is not what I think of when I think of ideal honeymoon food.  I want something covered in butter, full of carbs, and filled, covered, and stuffed with a lot of cheese.

So, what do you think?  Where should we go for our honeymoon?  Hawaii's still our top choice, but now I want to explore some other options.  Ideas?