april 2010

Sorry it has taken forever to finally get around to this! Life is crazy as usual in the big apple, and my computer died (and was fixed very quickly, thanks to the amazing people at the 5th Ave. Mac Store - and $150 of my hard earned cash). I also wanted to take some time to play around a bit with new ways to frame images in Photoshop or Illustrator. I finally just figured it out! So - at last, here is some of what happened in the weeks before our big day :)

the beautiful dyson vacuum

my parents got us for an

early wedding present

derek "putting the vacuum together"  :)

easter sunday at our church in hoboken

neff family pictures in freeburg

for dave and lisa's 30th anniversary

a fun night in the NJ

apartment - 4/2/10

(making margaritas!)

lunch break on the steps

of the main NYC post office

at 32nd and 8th

working on table place cards

for the wedding reception

norma from work made me

a handmade "bride" card... 

...and some for all of

my bridesmaids (made to

resemble their dresses) - so nice!

More to come soon!

what a mighty good man

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the wedding plans are about all wrapped up. D & I conquered the seating charts on Saturday (took a wopping 4 hours - no fighting was involved - we were very proud of ourselves), and I hand-wrote all of the placecards. I started packing today, since we're heading home right after work on Wednesday. We'll be setting up the tent and partaking in some pre-wedding pampering (that is, I will be) before the big day rolls around. Looking forward to the rehearsal and dinner after!

 A little over a year ago, the night we got engaged - April 25, 2009

Ohhhh my... Four days until I walk down that isle to the man God chose for me to live my life with. I asked Derek on Sunday if he'd thought about how crazy that is - that people, all the time, pick one single person to spend their short lives with. He said he hadn't thought about it.  Haha  :)

To me, it's such a huge thing. In this past year we've learned so much about each other, and I have fallen more and more in love with him each day. I'm so, so very happy to be with Derek, and I think we are going to have such an amazing life together, full of experiences, learning, travel, faith and love. He compliments me because he's so different from me, but he and I are so, so alike, too. It will of course be wonderful to wear a beautiful gown, have my hair done (probably the nicest it's going to look for the rest of my life), be surrounded by pretty things and amazing people, see my D in a tux, and eat wonderful food, but I really just can't wait to be Derek's wife!

Just discovered this little beauty by one of my old favorites, Macy Gray. Always loved her! Think I'll listen to this Saturday morning with the ladies. See you all at the wedding!

cranky at kinko's

With only 11 days until the big day, life is flying by full speed ahead (except when I'm at work). :) BUT.... we (here in the soon-to-be-Mr.-and-Mrs.-Neff house) are feeling calm, cool, and collected - all because we're getting everything accomplished in advance. Last night I finished the table number designs in Illustrator & Photoshop then back to Illustrator, then back to Photoshop (they about drove me crazy), as well as some miscellaneous signs for the reception. Today after work I headed over to Kinko's and got them printed on my spiffy 'intense kiwi'-colored paper from Cardstock Headquarters. I was a little bummed because the ink doesn't seem to want to stick to the cardstock, but such is life. And after $16, a slew of really cranky Kinko's employees, and some random guy asking me if I was getting married, who I was marrying, whether it was my first marriage... AND if I was nervous, (really bizarre...) I wasn't about to re-print them. So, if you're at the reception, don't touch the table number cards until every has found their table. :)

Every day, there is a moment where I re-realize I'm going to be getting married.... REALLY soon. Today, there were a couple:

-One happened when my boss, who just returned from a vacation was going over our calendar for the next couple of weeks. She gets to May 11, and goes, "Oh! And Emily will be a married woman by then!" haha   My heart jumped a beat, but it still made me smile, so that's good. :)

-The other happened just a moment ago when I typed out a list of pictures we'd like taken at the church and reception for my aMaZiNg* photographer's "month before form". I'm a little late on the month-before part, but... that's what you get with me! Anyway, just filling out that section made me realize (for probably the 1400th time how excited I am for Derek's entire family and group of friends to be under the same roof as mine for an entire day). There is going to be so much love at St. Peter's church and at my farm that I just might burst.

oh! and i picked out a nail polish color... take a guess.

i know you're just dying to find out. :)

So much more to update this little blog on - including my very own bridal shower and bachelorette party. What. An. Amazing. Day!!! More on that later :)

*just ask her - I've already asked her if we can be friends after this whole shin dig is said and done. she said yes! :)

friends, food, and fedex

Oy... rough day at work. The cure? A nice cold Bud Light Wheat, Derek's home cookin', and a good ol' blog entry...

(where I spend 40-50 hours a week)

This past weekend I was lucky enough to spend time with two of my best friends & bridesmaids, Lisa & Corinne. It was just so nice to spend the whole day together. I always feel revived after seeing them. It was also so nice to see Justin & his gal Jordan, Lisa's boy Jim, and meet Nick (Jim & Lisa's awesome friend)! Definitely need to plan another trip immediately after the wedding. We've been doing a pretty good job of meeting up every so often, whether it's here in NYC, at Justin's in Southern NJ, or Baltimore, at Jim & Lisa's current home.

(the whole crew - minus me - out on saturday night. pardon the iphone quality)

So let's see... where are we in wedding planning land? Only 25 days until "the big day". Yesterday was the RSVP-by date, and we still have about 55 people to hear from yet. So... that will be a fun project next week - calling the stragglers. If you're reading this and haven't sent back your response card - please do! :)

Over the Easter weekend, Derek & I stayed in NJ to just take a break from our long drives home. Granted the drive is only 3 to 3 1/2 hours, but it wears on you after a while. And our trips home have been so packed with wedding craziness that it was nice to just go to church and relax at our own apartment. I look forward to post-wedding trips home so we can just veg out with our families and friends.

(Pictures taken on my iPhone on our last trip home)

(Singing to the pup... or trying to get him to howl)

:)

Our Easter feast? Italian Dinner at Benny Tudino's in Hoboken. So good!! We shared a huge plate of bruschetta (none of that wimpy hors d'oeuvres business), and I ordered a crab raviolli a la vodka. Oh my gosh. I definitely recommend it!

Earlier that weekend we tackled a bunch of wedding projects that had been on the 'to-do' list for many weeks. I finally stopped playing around with the ceremony program design and actually printed them. I think in the end, I had about 20 different versions. So I hope you like them! :) We lucked out at FedEx/Kinkos. They printed all the ceremony programs and table menus (1 per table), AND cut them for under $50!

I also picked up some special wedding makeup at the Benefit counter at Macy's with a giftcard I had leftover from Christmas. I'm not one for expensive makeup (Covergirl works just fine for me baby!), but it really was fun getting a little mini makeover and actually buying the things the girl lathered on my face. It didn't hurt that she threw in a bunch of freebies. :)

Also... picked up the bachelorette party dress (also at Macy's - gotta use that discount!). It's a little black and hot pink number. Can't wait to wear it this weekend!! I got a dress for the shower at Target a couple months ago.

(bachelorette party get-up!)

We're not going to really nail down seating charts or those sorts of things for another week or so, but I got really excited after we'd gotten a good chunk of the response cards back and started writing out table place cards without the table numbers. I think (and hope) everything will look really nice when it's all finished. It's been a lovely year of planning, and it will be so rewarding and exciting to see it all come together.

(getting a start on the place cards)

Next weekend - home for a jam packed day of bridal shower & bachelorette party amazingness!!! Can. Not. WAIT!

3 months and 13 days... and counting!

I have a countdown on my MacBook that tells me everyday exactly how many days are left until the wedding. I know you all were just dying to know. :) So this will be a monster catch-up post for the work that has been done over the last couple of months!

There has been so much wedding planning going on! It's been tough to get a lot done with Derek and I both working, but a couple of weeks ago, it hit us that we are getting married in 4 months so we'd better get back into the planning.

The bridesmaids dresses are in and waiting for the girls to pick them up and take them for fittings. The guys have all been measured for their tuxes. The mason jars are all collected, clean, and boxed up for safe keeping in my parent's attic. My mom and I shopped at a new thrift/antique store in Selinsgrove over Christmas and found tons of little antique jars for centerpieces to sit with the mason jars.

In a couple of weekends, I'm going home to hang out with my sister and put mason jars and other centerpieces together so we can get them to the florist. The burlap that will be wrapped around many of the mason jars has arrived, along with the paper from Cardstock Headquarters that will become the table numbers, programs, and menus. I still need to get over to M&J Trimming to pick up the velvet ribbon that will also decorate our mason jars.

My mom did an awesome job finding a guest book that wouldn't just require guests to stand in line before the ceremony to sign their names. Guests will receive a little card while walking into the church to sign and write thoughts and well wishes on while waiting, then I will compile them post-wedding (and probably post-honeymoon) in the guest book scrapbook-style. I love it!!

Our homemade thank you notes and table place cards are now as complete as they can be, and the programs are almost ready to print.

For grandparents we have lost, we will have a small memorial at the church and the reception. I found small frames to hold each of their pictures, and they will hang with twine from a little jewelry tree I have. We will certainly be thinking of them and knowing they're looking down on us that whole day.

I tried on my actual dress the day after Thanksgiving, and it is just lovely. I cannot wait to wear it that whole day (and maybe again every couple of months?). :) I have my next fitting on March 27.

Apparently bridal shower and bachelorette party plans are well underway, but I have no clue what the plans are! I love surprises!!

Derek and I completed the LED "throwies" for the reception lanterns quite some time ago, but here is a good picture of our work. These little guys took hours to put together! Back story: the reason they're called throwies is because they are often attached to magnets that people throw at metal objects!

The invitations have been drafted (over at My Gatsby) and are about ready to be ordered. Here is a little preview of the colors:

More to come soon.... :)

flora

I am loving these bouquets... I think peonies look so fluffy and perfect and romantic. I just can't get enough of them. It's funny, too, because at the start of all of this wedding planning, I didn't really care about the flowers (or so I thought) until I started doing a little research and realized that I am really drawn to peonies, as well as dahlias. Here are a few bouquets or flowers that I love:

source

crystal & andrew's wedding

mike & sarah's wedding

ali & shon's wedding

big fat dahlia

I love this boutonniere:

source

I'm also loving this do it yourself (DIY) cake stand. It's so cool looking and generally easy to make. I love this picture, where there are two identical cakes in a small size and larger size. Maybe Derek could work on this little project. He loves wood-working. :)

site: once wed