Certifiable

It's official, Marc and I are certified to wed in the State of Pennsylvania. Bring it on!

M Zipcar-ed in to PA to meet me Monday morning to retrieve whatever bridal shower gifts (from Sunday) we could fit in our borrowed Scion. While we were both in the State on a weekday morning, we drove over to the Bucks County Courthouse in Doylestown to get our marriage certificate. I was way more excited than I thought I'd be!!! Who knew paperwork could be so exciting?!?

The Courthouse

Call me a nerd, but stacks of old books get me every time. And when the stacks are volumes of records of every marriage in Bucks County, PA- where Marc and I both grew up and met and fell in love and are getting married- I downright swoon over them:

It feels like all the pieces are falling into place. Despite any high stress moments (or months) that have plagued our year so far, in 4 weeks we will be partnered for keeps. By the State, and by God if we believe in that stuff, and by the love of our families and each other, it will be official. And I think, even though we've been living together for four years and dating for 8, that it will actually feel different. Better. Happy, content, and settled after a rocky year of job decisions and all-consuming epic wedding plans.  I am SO very much looking forward to calling Marc my husband.

It's funny what a couple questions, signatures and musty old books can do for a gal's spirits. Adorable historic Doylestown on a gorgeous day doesn't hurt either.

Time for a Shower!

Tomorrow, it is time to kick this wedding month into high gear. Tomorrow, it's all really real. Tomorrow, is my bridal shower.

Holy crap.

I remember when I was a little girl attending my cousins' showers and imagining my own someday.  SOMEday. Not tomorrow. My how quickly twenty years fly by...

My mother must feel the same way, because a few weeks ago, I received this invitation in the mail:

OH yes. She went there. 

This is a picture of me when I was seven, dressed as a bride for Halloween. Technically, for our "Halloween in July" or something like it down the shore at the campground where we'd vacation on the weekends in the summertime. 

My sister actually adjusted the color of the flowers in Photoshop to match the color scheme of the invitation, and the family painstakingly cut out 70+ of these bitty pics to look like polaroids, and hand glued them on with photo-corners. And the attention to detail does not end there.

The gold-flecked envelope liners matchs the belly bands and are echoed in the main invitation paper which was stored in a half-moon enclosure, all tied-up in an olive green satin ribbon and enclosed in a metallic gold envelope.

Dang mom!

Honestly, I only added envelope liners to my own wedding invitations because of these. I had to dress up a little fancier for the main party invitation. I was afraid our guests might get confused!

You see, I'm the very youngest in a large Irish Catholic family, and the pressure is on to celebrate the heck out of this wedding. And my parents love crafting invitations and hosting parties. I know, I talk about their skillz a lot... and here's the proof of their intensity!  So now... you all know where I come from.

Tomorrow is going to be kind of a big deal. And I can't wait :)

Are you looking forward to your bridal shower? Anyone else have "I can't believe I'm getting married" moments as the day gets closer?

Catch-up Day

I didn't realize how far behind I was over here on HtD, so I just brought over my last several posts from the 'Bee. Enjoy if you haven't read them already!

xoxo

Dance Like No One's Watching

Cuz.... that's about our dance skill set! I'll let you know how our friendor dance lessons go a little later, but for now, lets talk music.

(from Weddingchicks. This has nothing to do with dance songs except how super awesome our first dance will be!)

Our original no-brainer choice for our first dance song was Luckiest by Ben Folds. It was sort of "our song" for a few years, when we would pine for each other over the distance of a 4-hour drive between different colleges. It's a gorgeous song, a tear-jerker, and it really speaks to how meant-for-each other we feel.

This was Mr. and Mrs. Hamster's first dance song, and it was beeautiful!!

However, after eight years of loving this song... it almost didn't feel right anymore. Like we were trying to fit into an old pair of shoes we'd grown out of. You know? And there's the part about the couple dying, and it's poetically lovely, but I've been worried about that line...

More recently, I've found myself listening to Bright Eye's First Day of My Life on loop on the subway. I love that it is a little up beat, it speaks to how long we've waited to get hitched, and "remember the time you drove all night, just to meet me in the morning" really happened... okay well, Mr. Thimble borrowed a friend's car and drove to Allentown from Penn State on a whim on a Wednesday night and went back in the wee hours.  I just, LOVE this song. Everything about it:

This is currently on the books with our band as the song we are using for our first dance. 

But... of course... I'm reconsidering again.  Shouldn't we choose something more timeless and classic? But I don't want to choose a song that doesn't necessarily mean anything to us or that just looks like we picked it because it's timeless and classic (and cookie cutter).  

And then it dawned on me. We were listening to it at work this morning and I was thinking about how much I always love this song when it comes on, and I suddenly saw Mr. Thimble and I swaying happily to it as our families looked on and thought what a lovely choice it is for us...

It's like it was right in front of my face the whole time! Mr. T and I love The Beatles, and I love that this Across the Universe cover is slower, soulful, and just a tiny but more current and trendy but not as trendy as the Bright Eyes song. The lyrics aren't super serious- they're simple, like us. And heck, we met in high school, and it represents our youthful longing at the beginning of our relationship. No?

I love it. And Mr. Thimble pointed out that our guests will all actually know this song which is another bunch of points in its' favor.

What are you using for your first dance song? How did you choose?

How Suite it Is

This is my last post about my wedding invitations I promise! ;) I wanted to share with you how we put the whole invitation suite together before we tied it up with a bow and a Moo.

Miss Stripes isn't kidding when she likens invitation assembly to a hot an heavy one-sided love affair. It's important to have amazing friends who will help you get out of the mess once you're in too deep. NY MOH spent several hours with me gluing in the silvery lining:

And cutting 100+ lengths of twine:

Mr. Thimble painstakingly stamped addresses on our reply card envelopes (which looks WAAY better when the info isn't deleted):

Meanwhile, I worked out my handwriting skillz:

There's nothing like crisp white gel pen on an olive green envelope to transport a bride from a crazy workspace...

We used belly bands instead of inner envelopes for guests who get a +1, and I had some fun with them, depending on the guest:

Finally, I tied my last twine bow:

And I sent them out into the world:

Phew!! That felt good.

How did you feel when you set your invitations free? (And for those of you in the throes of invite assembly, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's all worth it- promise.)