It’s official! Dad took the invitations to the post office this morning and (hopefully) they’re all mailed. YAY!
I say hopefully because apparently there was some discussion about whether or not they have enough postage. Dad took a couple samples to the post office and was told they weighed in at $0.75/ea. The federal employee, however, failed to mention that there is also a thickness limit. Today, a different employee noted the thickness issue. They got our invites through their $0.75 template but it was a tight fit. Hopefully you will get them! (And we won’t get them back.)
It’s feeling so real. I hope everyone likes them!!
I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect card box. Originally, I was going to make our card box by decoupaging pictures of us throughout the years on it. But that would have involved a lot of work for a box that we’d never use again. I’d rather have those pictures in an album or at least decoupaged on something useful. What would I do with a box with a slit in the top after the wedding?!
Friday, I popped by Pier 1 because rumor had it they sold a wire basket that looked like a present. Sure enough, they had it! It’s not a solid metal box. It’s cube shaped and the wire kind of squiggles all around, so it’s open (kind of like a birdcage, but more free form). It’s a pretty awful gold color but I plan on spray painting it copper to match everything else we’re doing.
I like that it’s shaped like a present and metal wire. The copper wire is a pretty predominant theme throughout this whole event but we’re also sneaking in little holiday references too. Our centerpieces will have cognac and champagne colored Christmas ball ornaments hanging from the canopy. We were originally going to give out ornaments as favors to but have since changed our minds. (You’re now getting chocolate. YUM!)
Anyway… while I was in Pier 1, I found the PERFECT table number holders! Perfect, I tell you. I’ve been looking for something to hold our table numbers for months but just haven’t found anything. Picture frames are pretty typical but I couldn’t find anything I loved. Plus, well… ‘typical’ is so boring and expected. I wished we could find something more unique but hadn’t come up with anything yet. “Besides, it’s just table numbers,” I rationalized, “who actually looks at them?”
But there, on an end cap at Pier 1 were copper and cognac colored, ball-ornament shaped place card holders! The copper holders have ribbons of cognac glitter twisting around the middle. The cognac holders have strands of copper glitter. They match our colors! They match our ornaments! They’re perfect and I love them.
The families got together this morning to velcro, stamp and stuff our invitations into envelopes today. Mom & Dad had said earlier that they picked up stamps for our outer envelopes and today we saw what they were. Dad surprised us with custom stamps! Aren’t they great?! It’s the first picture of Rob and I – taken 2 days before we officially started dating. (Thanks Erin, for snapping that shot 8.5 years ago! We’ve sure gotten a lot of use out of it.) Dad also put our wedding date and a copper border around the pic on them. LOVE THEM!
Be sure ogle over the envelope, not just the invite when it arrives! Keep an eye on those mailboxes, ladies and gentlemen.
Regina got some video of me flying! Check out my birdie catch:
About the less than graceful dismount… Randy (the catcher) threw me back to catch the return bar but there was no bar and I wasn’t expecting it. The centrifugal force kept my feet going up. Oops! It was fun though!!
In preparation for the wedding, we’ve created a Shutterfly Collection to get everyone’s digital pictures in one place. If you take any pictures at the wedding or pre-wedding parties, upload them here to share with us! For more info, please check out the new page -
A few months ago, some SJ knotties and I planned a NYC get-together. Yesterday we finally got to do it and I took them flying!
Lyndsay, Eva, Regina, Christen, MC, Karen, Michelle all met at our apt and we train hopped it over to Brooklyn. There we met up with Luisa (it was her b-day!)(well, day after) and Diana & Rachel (Michelle’s cousin & friend). 11 of us went over to the Espana Streb Trapeze Academy in Brooklyn. We completely took over the 3-5pm class.
We walked in and Dino was there! Dino was my trainer when I flew last spring at TSNY. Apparently, he’s working at Streb full time now and was going to be one of our instructors. Everyone got changed and while they were walked through the intro flying stuff, I got a few good turns in. I haven’t flown since last spring, so I was excited (and a little surprised) to see that I hadn’t forgotten everything.
I demonstrated the knee hang and the flippy dismount – which I forgot to lay-out from and landed on my face. Ooops! Haha! Through-out the class, I was able to throw my set-birdie, set-split and work on my swing. I attempted some of my back-end positions. Like last spring, I would always get a trick on the first try but had one heck of a time duplicating it. I threw my back-end birdie the first time and then couldn’t get it at all the rest of the class. Argh! Guess I’ll just have to go back for more lessons!
All the other girls did so well! 2 of them were even caught! I posted some video of everyone on YouTube. Click here to check it out! I don’t have any video of me but Karen did get a pretty good picture of me. I’m not sure what trick I was just coming out of and my arms are a little splayed but it’s the first good shot I’ve seen of me flying!
We got a pretty good group shot of everyone afterwards:
And with Lyndsay & Luisa!
After flying, we went to S’Mac for mac and cheese. It’s a tiny little place on the lower east side. Then up to 30 Rock, where Rob gave us a tour of NBC studios. The girls thought the Conan & SNL studios were pretty awesome. Some of girls spent the night and I made breakfast casserole for the next morning.
The next morning came a little earlier than planned. Christen woke up with neck spasms and we had to call 911. The ambulance ride put her on the “fast track” and was actually seen, medicated, prescriptions had, and home by 9:30am. In time for everyone to get breakfast and on the road on schedule. She’s doing much better, by the way.
It was great to finally meet everyone and I loved being back up in the air. Gonna have to get back over to Brooklyn as soon as the rips on my hands heal.
Friday night we had a bunch of Rob’s friends from work over for a little Halloween Spookshow get together. About 11 people made the trek to Jersey and we’re so glad they did! It was a blast!! Even our new neighbors popped by for a little bit.
Rob and I decorated all out for this weekend. Since we had to get rid of all the dead squirrel smelling decorations, we bought some new stuf. I love shopping for Halloween decor! So many orange things to choose from!
The table in the front foyer has a new family of light up pumpkins. The front door still has our skeleton but we’ve taken off the staining gel “Beware!” sign and moved it to the bathroom mirror. In it’s place is a black metal circular sign that says “Happy Halloween” and has sculls around the edge. A few new tea & hand towels and some black and orange plates topped off the kitchen and bathroom. We also found the coolest spider candy dish and coordinating tea light holders. I put spider webs on our doll molds but, according to most people, they don’t need anything to be made anymore creepy. The flickering cauldron sitting on top of our up-light makes it especially awesome.
Of course, coming from families that don’t throw small parties, we had WAY to much food. We made 2 pepperoni breads, 2 pans of baked ziti, 2 packages of mini mummy dogs, a batch of Velveeta Chili dip, 2 batches of brownies, 24 cupcakes, a large cauldron of punch and a TON of beer and cider. For 11 people, that was a bit overkill and we have a ton left over. But I think everyone had a nice time.
We watched (or attempted to watch) The Shining. The continuous color commentary ensured that it never got to scary. Lyndsay, Mike and her little dog Peggy spend the night. Peggy is one of the cutest things ever (besides our little cockapoos, of course)! She made me wish our little ones were up here for some puppy play time.
It was such a fun night!! I hope they come back again soon. It was a good time and a great excuse to make lots of yummy food.
Back when we used to live in New Brunswick, we used to decorate like crazy for Halloween. 22 Jones got especially decked out the last year we were living there for our crazy Halloween party (which was quite the party, by the way).
Anyway, all my halloween decorations were packed in this big rubbermaid tub that we moved with us to Newark. Last year I just pulled out a few things since we were only here a little while but I noticed the bin smelled really bad. I pawed through the bin, didn’t find anything and put it away.
I just pulled out the same bin and it STILL smelled. I finally untied the plastic grocery sack that was full of fabric (the handles were tied in a knot) and dumped the fabric on the floor to wash it. OMG! There in the middle of the fabric, curled up in a little ball was a dead squirrel. We moved here with that thing and it’s been rotting in our closet for more than 2 (probably closer to 3) years.
OMG OMG OMG. I am so incredibly grossed out right now. I think might barf. It took me 10 min to get up the nerve to touch the fabric long enough to throw it away (and I put plastic bags on my hands so I wasn’t really touching it). Yuck yuck yuck. I’ve got all the windows open and the fan on trying to get the dead squirrel smell out of the house.
With the wedding just over 2 months away, people are starting to make their travel plans. To make it as easy as possible, we have compiled the most pertinent information and included it in the invitations. Invitations will be going out at the beginning of the month/early November, so keep your eye out.
We also posted the same information right here on our website. In fact, just tonight, I added downloadable PDFs of our direction inserts. Here are some quick links around our site to help you plan your visit -
