We’re still waiting to hear back from about 40 people. Seriously? I understand the few friends who’ve fessed up to loosing/forgetting to mail in their responses, but what about the other 35 of you? Do you have a new baby or kitty to distract you too?

Seriously, who would want to miss this? We’ve got glow-stick bracelets for everyone and there will be pool, beer, board games and fried food! Sounds like an AWESOME party to me. But, then again it’s our party and why would we plan a party that we wouldn’t want to go to?

Now, I need to confirm our appointments to go over the ceremony with the rabbi. Call the counselor he suggested and set up 1-2 sessions of pre-marital counseling (we’ve talked to her on the phone and she doesn’t think it’ll take us longer than that to go through her checklist since we’re “so open and honest, even on the phone”).

It is also TIME TO GET CRAFTING! I need to figure out who’s doing what so that we can print the programs and make them, as well as who’s coming so that we can make table assignment cards, work on welcome bags, and order and print/attach the labels for the insides of the yarmulkes. What else…. Buy balloons and sunscreen, order foundation garments, take Ben to get his suit tailored and help him pick out a tie. Ribbon wands, those need some TLC too, but their Ben’s job since he doesn’t want bubbles (he’s afraid I’ll stain my dress and won’t be able to dye it and rewear it in March).

Dress fitting, that’s the missing piece. I think it’ll be the Friday of Kol Nidre. Weird juxtaposition, but my friend from synagogue is coming with me and that’s when she’s available. Hopefully my veil and earrings will be in by then too. I ordered 2 pairs of earrings, but both came in under $20, so I’ll resell them or wear them some other time. I’m apparently picky about my pears and crystals being on gold and of all the millions of earrings only found 2 that were pretty AND affordable. Damn expensive jewelry!

Here’s a teaser photo, you’ll get to eat everything but the smoked cheese tartlet (second from the right):

kale chips + toaster oven = FIRE!

One of the first engagement presents we got was a rice cooker from my great aunt and uncle, sadly the FIRST engagement present we got was a rice cooker from my grandmother! So, the second rice cooker turned into a fancy toaster oven, the larger (12″) version of what my parents have at home. That toaster oven is currently waiting for us in my bedroom, at my parents’ house.

My dad is going to return it tomorrow, get store credit for it, and then we’ll either wait for the Labor Day sales coming up or order a new one to be sent to Colorado. Our old toaster oven is currently quite charred (yes, I took a photo of it right before throwing a wet towel over it –thanks for the advice, gramma!) and sitting out by the dumpster. I’m 99% sure that it still works, but it smells like burnt food and is quite sad looking.

Lesson learned, don’t make kale chips in the toaster oven, they’re too close to the element and will curl up as they dry and catch fire when they touch the element (sinking back down to catch the others on fire too). Doh.

I look forward to our new toaster; this photo makes it look like a super hero!

Once I’ve been nicely fattened up by pizza and burritos at work and our menu tasting, I have to go have the final fitting on my dress. Ugh!

My big personal debate is whether to try and make my own veil, or just order one online (I found the perfecto one for under $40). I think I’m just going to order it. I only bought one length of tulle that matches my dress perfectly and don’t want the stress of not f’ing it up.

That’s it. Oh, and to pick up the water bottles and potato chips for the welcome bags.

Seriously. That’s it. I sent the contracts to the DJ and the brass quintet (for the ceremony) last night. Every vendor we’re hiring has been hired! All that’s left is to do/finish all my crafty projects, finalize music selections, menu selections, floral decor, get our clothes tailored, and find someone to do my hair (I can do my own makeup).

We also have to talk to Rabbi Marc about our ceremony. A peer from synagogue (who is also a friend of a friend) got married about a month ago and Rabbi Marc was the officiant at her wedding too. He had just returned from a silent retreat and found out that his dad was quite sick and was in a weird/meditative head-space. Apparently, he threw everyone off by asking if they had any thoughts or wishes that they wanted to share with the bride and groom, to be spiritually sealed into their ketubah before signing it, no one was prepared for this question and there were 3-4 minutes of awkward silence (which my friend said felt like 10 minutes because everyone was just looking around like a deer in headlights). I want to go over everything with him, step-by-step, to make sure that there are no silent surprises like that at our ceremony. While Ben’s family may be OK with the touchy-feelies, mine isn’t. We’re more of the silent WASPy types when it comes to emoting than the huggy ones.

But, look how pretty my handwriting is! It took me 162 envelopes to address 117 invitations. I have only 8 left!

Also, please note the awesome stamp. Only a handful of people appear to have noticed it :( But my little brother Daniel commented on liking the “font” I used to address his invitation. Silly brother, that’s no font, that’s D’Nelion handwriting, a la 3rd grade writing sample! I just wish my lines were more straight and that my numbers were fancier looking. Oh well. All invitations should be delivered at this point, and if not, my dad should see more in the mailbox at home in the next few days.