Spicing Up My Ballroom

One of the downsides to having a ginormous wedding is the limited venue choices.  I've talked about it previously, but as my countdown nears the 100 day mark, I get a little bit sad face when I think about my venue.

You see, if I were positive my wedding would have fewer than 250, I would have been able to be in the other hotel ballroom.  The one with actual windows.  And a view of the slightly brown and silty gorgeous lake.

image via Lakeview Golf Resort and Spa

Instead, I have the ballroom with no windows.  And big fire doors.  There are no dramatic vaulted ceilings nor eye catching chandeliers.  I'd show you a picture, but I have none of my own and it would be rude to post someone's wedding photo under this circumstance.  Not to mention creepy.

Reception Regrets

Fair warning: I'm truly ecstatic about my upcoming nuptials, despite what you read in this post.  Also, I probably sound annoying and whiny.  If so, I'm sorry.

Miss Zebra's post earlier this week really got me thinking and opened up a can of worms regarding my reception emotions as of late.  At some point in the wedding planning, wedding regrets always occur.  A year ago, when I was freshly engaged, I dreamed of a hotel ballroom wedding.  Growing up, I remember thinking that my venue was the height of opulence.  I had Sunday brunch there every week and never believed I'd be able to have my wedding at such a beautiful place.

But of course, my tastes changed at a fast clip in the first few months of my engagement.  After I found blogs such as SMP, Snippet and Ink, Green Wedding Shoes, and the plethora of others, I yearned for a wedding that was in a lush, outside environment.  Unfortunately, such a venue doesn't exist within 25 miles of my church that could accommodate my number of guests.  I live in a state known for its outdoor beauty, yet I can't have my wedding outside because there's too darn many of us.

I'm not sure why I've suddenly had this flood of emotion due to my venue.   Perhaps I've been reading too many of the above blogs lately.  Maybe I'm starting to worry that my theme will end up looking silly and my DIY projects will look amateur.   Or maybe I'm thinking a bit too much about other people's weddings.

You see, two of my good friends are also getting married this summer.  One in Wisconsin and one in West Virginia.  They are both getting married in their parents' respective back yards, and the idea of a wedding like this just makes me swoon.  I wouldn't say I'm jealous per se, just a little regretful that I stuck my nose up to that idea when I began planning.

My parents are lucky enough to have a 2+ acre yard in the area by the lake in my town.  This area is getting heavily developed and real estate prices are heavily inflated.   Nothing like San Francisco or New York City, but our property values have exploded in the past 5-10 years.  A large yard is hard to come by now without paying an arm, a leg, and 15 fertile eggs.  Years ago, my mother had talked about having my wedding in our front yard.  I always dismissed the idea and rolled my eyes.  But here I am now.  Wanting that exact wedding.

In reality, I know a wedding a la Mrs. Scissors or Mrs. Glasses (or other bloggers, you two were just the first that came to mind :) ) is impossible for me.  Sure, my yard looks lovely here:

Blingin' Biscuit

Hive, I need your help!  With 132 days to go, I realized I have no idea what accessories I should wear on my big day.

Oh, and fair warning Mr. Biscuit.  This post shows my dress.  You know what that means:

Why the dilemma?  Well, for the past 5 or so years I've worn pretty much the same accessories every day.  They consist of: pearl earrings and either a pearl necklace or a miscellaneous necklace from the Tiffany silver collection.

I'll show you what I mean:

I can't bring myself to draw on this beautiful picture from my photographer, but I think you get the picture.

Born to Run

I've been a pretty avid runner for years now.  I may not look like it, but I often get crazy if I don't get in my 6-8 miles per day. 

When I'm really stressed out, I'll up it to 10-13.  Yeah, I'm that girl you make angry dagger eyes at while at the gym because I monopolize the treadmill or inclined elliptical.  I only do that when the gym is empty though.  I promise.  Please stop stabbing me with your eyes.

I'm also not one of those cool, calm, and collected runners who find their solace running outside.  For some reason, I hate it.  I like to choose when I go up a hill, and I always have this underlying fear that a hobo on our Rails to Trails will cut out one of my kidneys or other vital organs.

Because I was already active and dare I say, in very good running shape, getting fit for the wedding seemed like a moot point.  Except that, well, a few months ago, I kind of stopped.

I'm on a (Fail) Boat.

The DIY fails just keep on coming.  This one was particularly hilarious, so I felt I needed to share it with the hive.

Remember how I wanted to make pretty tissue paper pom napkin rings?  Well, my myriad of bulk paper came in finally and I decided to give it a whirl.  I followed Martha's instructions, but uh...something happened.

I looked at Mr. Biscuit and desperately said, "We can't use these, can we?"  Hoping he'd validate my project saying it wasn't too bad.

He didn't.

Videography? Yes, please!

In the beginning of wedding planning, videography was not in the forefront of my mind.  I thought it was silly to spend money on a grainy, shaky home video that Uncle Bob could have taken for free.

But everything changed one day once I saw Mr. Biscuit's cousin's wedding video.  I am not an emotional person, but this video brought me to tears.  Seriously, I was sitting at my computer blubbering like an idiot.

How could a simple video cause such passionate pathos?  Here, just check it out yourself:

Angela & Warren's Wedding from Kiss The Bride Films on Vimeo.

The Stitch Went Nuts...

OK hive, I have a confession to make.  Remember when I told you all about my lofty goal to sew all the napkins and escort flowers for the wedding?  I left out an integral piece of information.  I don't know how to sew.  I didn't think it would be a big deal.  Hey, I taught myself how to knit.  I'm in a profession where I'm supposed to be good with my hands.  Sewing would be a piece of cake, right?

Eh, not so much.

It started out innocently enough.  I began to sew an escort flower by hand, as per the tutorial.  I finished with something that didn't look too bad.  Then I looked at the clock.  Just putting a simple running stitch in one flower took 45 minutes, and I still had to sew the pin and button in the middle.  Sewing fail.

No problem, though.  I figured I'd try to up my ego and sew a few napkins.  I wasn't quite sure how to do this, but my grandmother had a sewing machine sitting in my room at her house that I could experiment with.  The next time I went over there, I attempted to give it a go.  How hard could it be?  I mean, the instructions to thread the machine were located on it.  However, I underestimated my ability to read Ikea-esque instructions on a faded sticker.  Sewing machine: 1 Miss Biscuit: 0.

Yes, it really looked like this.

The Biscuit Wedding. On the Interwebz.

To date, my most exciting project-turned-giant-pain-in-the-butt has definitely been the wedding website.  You see, in undergrad, my focus within my major was Systems and Control Engineering, so I did my fair share of programming and it was something I really missed.  So, clearly, I would want to code my own website from scratch.  Right?  Right.

However, life got in the way as it usually does.  Between studying for my first set of boards last summer and attempting to juggle patients, classes, and my requisite hour of lazy time per day it became glaringly apparent that I could not spend 100 man hours making the Zeus of wedding websites.