I'm home! It's wonderful. I love my family oh so much! And I miss them when I'm away at school. I was convinced that when all my homework was over and done with, I'd have tons more time, more than I'd know what to do with, in fact!

False. I do not have any more time. However, I'm not sure where it disappeared to.

Probably the same place my other sock went. Home is like that.

I got home May 1st and started work on May 3rd. I figured that after 5, I would be free to focus on all the wedding-related tasks that are vying for my attention. Instead, I come home tired, and just want to chill with the rest of my family. Unfortunately, chilling with the fam in front of an NCIS turns into an NCIS marathon...and next thing you know it's 11:00 and Dave's calling. And I accomplished nothing. Except 3 rows on my super cute lace knit hat.

Basically I've accomplished nothing.

Now I've been home for 3 weeks. I got our invitations sent out the first week. Actually, there was a minor fiasco that went along with invitation sending, wanna hear it? I knew you did!

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably know that I designed our invitations myself. In case you missed them, here's a link to the post about the invitations and RSVP's, and here's the thank you cards.

Naturally, if I'm going to put that much work into my stationary, I'm not going to neglect the packaging! I planned on designing a cute envelope design when I got home and printing all the addresses on in a super-cute font to match the invites.

Unfortunately, when I got home, my computer crashed 3 or 4 times, and in the process of being fixed, became a vegetable (the operating system was removed, and the new one didn't work. Thankfully, it works now!). So, I lost my precious Adobe programs and had to design my envelopes in Microsoft Word. Not exactly the best graphics program.

When I finally got the graphics arranged in a passable manner, I tried to print our addresses. Unfortunately, I forgot that our printer is possessed by a paper-eating demon, which proceeded to eat several of my envelopes. By now it's about 11:30 pm, the day after I wanted them sent out.

I had just resigned myself to handwriting all 130+ addresses by myself, when dad saw me and felt sorry for me. So, he volunteered to print them at work for me the following day. I set up the documents as best as I could at that late hour, and sent them with him.

The next day, I received several calls from my family, trying to reach me. I finally call my dad back, and he explains to me that he didn't realize that the proper font wasn't installed before he started printing. He had printed about half the envelopes in some large, sans-serif font. Did I want him to continue?

I took a few cleansing breaths, and explained how to download the proper font, so that at least some of my envelopes could be saved. But, as was the habit of this particular project, it didn't work. His computer wouldn't let him unzip the file, so we were stuck with the large Ariel-style font. I told him to go ahead and print them.

So, at this point, we had 6 envelopes printed in the right font, about 20 that I had handwritten, and about 100 printed with this alien font. Mom and I stuffed and stamped them, and we sent them out the next day on our way to Virginia for my cousin's wedding.

After a whirlwind 3-day trip to Virginia (an 11 hour drive, one way), we came home, and I went back to work. The first few days, I was so beat after work that I couldn't do much more than sit on my bum when I got home. I slowly started recovering, and started realizing that I was getting married in 5 weeks, and still had more tasks to do than I could imagine.

That weekend, my Dad's side of the family threw me a bridal shower! It was lots of fun. My grandmas from both sides came, as well as all my aunts on that side, and most of my female cousins. The house was all decorated in pink and green (the colors of our  wedding!), right down to the ham salad sandwiches! I tell you what, when my Aunt Mary Jane throws a party, she throws it right!

Thankfully, they didn't deliberately try to embarrass me. However, the second game we played, "Bridal Jenga," got a little embarrassing. A lot embarrassing. They-talked-about-sex-in-front-of-my-grandmas embarrassing. Apparently the game, which was a regular Jenga game with questions written on about half the blocks, was made by one of my cousins for a bridal shower for a college friend a number of years ago. Some of these questions would have been awkward in that setting, but not the end of the world. However, when your grandma pulls the block that says, "Name two places (outside the bedroom) that you would like to have sex," and you and your grandma both are supposed to answer it...yikes!

I plead the fifth.

Overall, it was really fun! Showers are, by nature, rather awkward, what with getting all those gifts and such, but I had fun. And it was nice to see so much of the family again. I've missed a lot of family events being off at school.

That night (Saturday), Dave came up to visit with Wes and his new bride, Shele. They were up for around 24 hours, to visit their grandparents who are home from the mission field for about a month. I spent all day Sunday with Dave, and got home late that night. Monday I was back at work.

Weekends here are NOT relaxing. Just saying.

This week, I decided that doing wedding planning in the evenings wasn't going to work, so I told my boss that I needed Friday's off, starting immediately. I worked Monday through Wednesday this week, then stayed home sick/played hooky with my bestest buddy yesterday. (I was actually sick, she played hooky. And we ate mint oreos and watched the best movie ever made: Anne of Green Gables).

Today I contacted several people in an attempt to chase down information I need for planning this big shindig we have coming up in less than a month.

Oh yeah, did I mention that? This week Wednesday was the one-month mark. Freak out time!! Ahh!! So much to do, and no time to do it!!

So, right now my biggest things to tackle are the cake (with me being out of the state for school, the cake got overlooked until it was too late and all the bakers in the area are booked full for June, so we're gonna make it ourselves), flowers (we're making our own bouquets using silk flowers, but I haven't decided yet what they should look like), ceremony decorations (which, by the way, I could still use suggestions for!), ceremony music, reception layout/decor, makeup, photography, music, hairstylists, shoes (which I don't have yet! eep!), and probably about 100 other things that I'm forgetting.

Oy vey. Buckle up kids, this should be fun!

And to think, at the end of this, I'll be a wife. That totally hasn't sunk in yet. Not sure it will for another year or so. That's about when I'll wake up when I finally get the chance to stop.

Wow! What a month! I've been so busy with school, and Cedars (the campus newspaper, of which I am the visual editor) and wedding planning that I haven't had time to keep you updated on what I've been busy doing! Honestly, I don't have time to be writing this now, but sometimes I like to pretend that I have time. It keeps me sane. Ish.

So, in the past several weeks, so much has happened! While I haven't had a lot of time to devote to wedding planning specifically, things have happened. I guess I'll start at the beginning!

Sunday April 11: Lingerie Shower

I feel so scandalous saying "lingerie" on the internet for the whole world to see! But hey, it was a fun party! The girls in my unit decided a while back that they wanted to do something for me, and this seemed to be the favorite option. So, I provided them with sizes of...*ahem*...well sizes they needed to purchase gifts, and a guest list! Obviously all the girls in my unit were invited, as well as Julie, my RA from last year (who, fun fact, also grew up with Dave!). I also asked that Dave's sisters (in law) were invited, as well as my two best friends from back home (who are in the wedding party).

Almost everybody came! There were a few girls in my unit who couldn't make it, and Emily and Holly (besties from  home) couldn't make the trip. But all the sisters came!

Now, I know that with a lingerie shower nobody is really interested in the guest list. You all really only want to know one thing. And instead of telling you, I'll show you!


THE FOOD!!! Wait, you thought I was going to show you something else? I honestly can't imagine what that would be...

Yes, we had tea! Three types. In the first, epically graphic, teapot: White Tea, Island Mango and Peach. The violet pot held Holiday Spice Blend tea (which seriously tastes like Christmas in a cup. No joke!). And the leopard print pot held Tanganda, a favorite of anyone from Zimbabwe (as Dave's family, and Julie, are)!

We also had finger foods like strawberries and cheese. It was quite delicious. If I wasn't so embarrassed and focused on keeping my elbows pinned to my side so the wet circles under my arms wouldn't show, I would have eaten more!



After we had food they had me tell our story! So I went on an on unintelligibly about back seats and long crushes and hopeless flirting and long distance. Thankfully, I think most of them had heard our story before, because otherwise it wouldn't have made much sense.

(Disclaimer: the back seat thing? Totally not how it sounds. We met in the back of a van. Um well that doesn't sound right either. How about we just say it was youth group thing and totally innocent and leave it at that.)

Then, Becca, my RA, had this game planned. She had asked Dave a bunch of questions beforehand about me/us/our relationship, then asked me the same questions right there in front of everybody! The goal was to see how well our answers matched up. For the most part, they did! There was one pretty bad question, tho.

"What is the most embarrassing thing Rachel has ever done in front of you?" This question scared the bejebers outa me! Not because I had done anything particularly embarrassing...but because I was terrified that I had done something embarrassing and forgotten about it, and he was about to reveal it to all my friends! Thankfully, his answer was something I had done that embarrassed him, not me, so I didn't mind at all!!

After the newlywed game (soon-to-be-wed game?), the girls couldn't wait anymore. They wanted me to open my presents! Now, let me just tell you something. It's very awkward to go to a party where the entire point is to give me presents. When I do get presents, I'm used to it being like Christmas, where everyone gets presents. At this shower, there were enough bags stacked up on the table to be Christmas, but they were all for me! It was really weird.


See? That's a lot of bags! I started opening them up, and got more embarrassed than I was before. Remember when I was just eating cheese cubes and digging my elbows into my side to keep my wet circles from showing? Yeah, these "unmentionables" are a tad more embarrassing than cheese cubes! As I tried to gracefully pull the delicate underthings out of their striped bags, I looked far less than delicate. But since nobody was looking at me, they'll never know!

Except I'm posting it on the internet.

And even those of you who weren't present know now.

Oh well. Moving on to bigger, more humorous problems. Every time I picked up something with straps of any kind, I got it tangled up! I literally had trouble figuring out which end was up on many different strappy numbers, and my roommate had to sort them out for me. My roommate. Had to show me. Which end. Goes up. Among other things. I think they should have come with instructions, personally.

Now, I can imagine what you're thinking. I'd be thinking the same thing if I were in your shoes. You want to see something that I got! Well, I suppose I can let you see just one.


What? you thought you'd see something exciting? Well let me tell you something: that flower is a blessing! You don't really want to know. Trust me. You don't.

Now the only problem is figuring out how to send thank you notes for these particular gifts. What am I supposed to write? "Dear Friend, I'd like to mention my thanks for the unmentionables. They will be greatly enjoyed. Love, Me." Awkward!! Oh, and to make it better? The adorable thank you cards I designed (and just got back, yay!) are postcards, so my awkward thanks can be read by every postman from here to kingdom come! Oh well. What's a girl to do?

I just had to show you these! I threw them together on Sunday, based on some ideas and inspiration pictures I had gathered previously (maybe that'd be something interesting to tell you about someday; my inspiration and where I get it from. That might be fun!). With a little input from Holly, my roommate Kelly, and my future sister Rachel, this is the final product!

As of today, we have 100 days left until our wedding! It's crazy that it's coming up so quickly! That's only a few days over 3 months...when we got engaged we had 14 long months to go! It's amazing how fast the time has flown!

Last week, I was home for spring break. My main goals for the week were to finish--and send to print--the invitations; to look at bridesmaids dresses; to look at flower, cake, and decor options; as well as other general wedding planning.

I got the invitations done and sent to the printer (along with the RSVP cards, but I guess that's all included under the "Invitation" umbrella). We looked at bridesmaid dresses, and actually ordered all 4! One has even come in already! I went to look at silk flowers to see if they'd be an option. We didn't get much done on the cake front, unfortunately, and since decor isn't as urgent as other things, it's been pushed off to a later date.

But ever since the beginning of last week, my mind has been going overtime with wedding ideas and stresses. I've come up with numerous different food ideas, found decor inspiration, reconciled my ideal seating with the practical (at least in my mind...we'll see what the other ever-practical planners have to say about it), and thought through song ideas almost constantly. Even when I'm in class, I'm distracted by quaint images of icream cone-clutching children, watermelon slices, and blankets in the shade. I have 10 different idea lists in every imaginable place, becaus if I think of something I don't want to forget it!

I was hoping to run through a lot of these ideas this weekend, and possibly do something about some of them, however school obligations have come up (that I knew about, but didn't have in the front of my mind) and we'll see what all I actually get done.

How about you? Did your brain go over-time when you realized how close your wedding was getting? Or are you in the throes of it now? How do you stay focused on everyday tasks with something as interesting as a wedding on your mind?

Last time I talked about bridesmaid dresses, I was still waiting on one lovely lady, Miss Holly, to pick out her dress. She did that this past weekend, and here's her dress!



This dress is totally cute, and Holly seems to like it! Now, there are a few things you need to know about Holly. She doesn't wear pink, and she doesn't wear dresses. However, she loves me more than her pride, and has agreed to wear a pink dress for me! Isn't she awesome?

Another thing that I have promised updates for is our website. I showed you a picture of it as we were designing it, and promised I'd post a link once it was online. Here it is! daveandrachel2010.com

Let me know what you think! I think there's still one or two pages in progress, so if there is Latin gibberish, or information looks silly and/or incomplete, it's probably not done yet.

Finally, I'd like to show you our invitations! I've been working on them for a really long time, and I'm really happy with the result! We sent them into the printer early last week, and should be getting them back in a month or so.

This is the invitation:
It will be printed in a #10 size, which is the size of a standard business envelope! Totally nontraditional, funky, and fun! It will be flat printed on white linen-texture paper.

Here's the RSVP:

It will be printed in A1 size, (basically tiny enough to fit in the business envelope), also flat printed on linen textured paper. I'm super excited to get them back!

I'm thinking about adding thank you cards on to our order, because it won't cost any more than buying generic, mass-produced thank you cards to have them custom printed, and I could get them to match the rest of our stationary!

I'm so excited to see everything coming together!

Our wedding is not going to be formal. Dave and I aren't formal people, for one thing, and so we liked the idea of a more fun, laid back wedding to really show our personalities. We knew we wanted every aspect of this wedding to make people go "Oh! That's so Dave and Rachel!" I'm still looking for some elements that fit us this well, but the invitations were easy!

Since we wanted a laid back feel, I knew we couldn't go with the standard calligraphy invitations printed in white and ecru; we needed something fun! So, I turned to my favorite source of inspiration, Google Images, and googled "wedding invitations." Naturally I got tons of pages of results, and as I looked through them, I saved the ones that looked kind of fun for my own future reference.

Then, I stumbled across these gems:Not only are they fun, they're whimsical, adorable, laid-back, and oh-so us! They are designed by a gal named Holly Hatum at Teardrop Weddings. I would totally encourage you to check them out, because the adorable designs will give you warm fuzzies inside.

One thing I did know about my invitations going in was that I wanted to design them. I am in the graphic design program, and how adorable would it be to be able to say that I designed my own wedding invites? So, using these, ideas about us, and tea as inspiration, I've begun designing my own!

And it's so much fun!