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A little while back, we received the latest issue of “Time” magazine (thanks to Mr. Pudding’s parents… if it were up to me, we’d just be getting Martha and maybe some US Weekly). Anyway, Time has conducted a survey on “The State of the American Woman”, which was summarized in an article by Nancy Gibbs. The results were overwhelmingly positive. According to the author, “it’s expected that by the end of the year, for the first time in history the majority of workers in the U.S. will be women”. Furthermore, “more and more women are the primary breadwinner in their household (almost 40%)”. Gibbs also notes that the notion that “the woman’s rise comes at man’s expense” is all but forgotten.
As a person who is extremely interested in the issues of equality, I started reading this article with a smile on my face, proud of how much the women of my generation have contributed to the movement. As I kept reading, however, my smile began to diminish.
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Usually, if you’re an international couple and you’d like to stay together after you get married, you have to file for an AOS. This stands for “Adjustment of Status”. We need to adjust Mr. D’s status from fiance to spouse! But wait, you say, “I thought you guys were married, I’ve seen the photos!” But for the US government, a marriage certificate from a municipality just isn’t enough.
You’ve been with the D’orsays through the K1 Fiance Visa Process and I’m happy that the hive will be along with us as we continue attempting to stay together despite the governmental roadblocks.
First, we made another ginormo packet of personal info. As for what goes into the packet? That info can be found here. Mr. D realized that he needed his previous vaccination form transcribed by a civil surgeon on the I-693 form to be included in this packet so he searched high and low to find a doctor who could do that. Prices ranged from $25 to $100! So, be sure to shop around if you to do this. Some doctors also told us that Mr. D needed another full medical exam. In our case, this was FALSE, and in our opinion, the offices were either misinformed or attempting to make more money off of us. Mr. D could have had his vaccines done at the doctor approved by the US government in London, but it would have cost even more money! So, he had them done free on the NHS, only to find he had to pay for a doctor to transcribe the form here.
We sent off a wedding gift of $1,010 (*gasp…choke choke*) to the government (on 10/1) and waited. We received the usual “we got it” receipt (on 10/6) from the government and waited some more. We sent the package off in late September, and on October 16th were sent a letter letting Mr. D know where and when to go for his biometrics (fingerprinting) appointment (rescheduled for 11/20). A week or two after we received that letter, we received another letting us know our case had been sent to California (10/26).
Having our case in California means there is a slight chance that we get to skip the interview portion of the AOS and skip straight to the swimsuit competition.
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First off, let me apologize. I have been a bad, bad blogger. I attribute my lack of posts to the Thanksgiving craziness and a serious case of writer’s block! I has cookies… forgive me? 
Anywho, let’s get this train back on the tracks!
I always knew I was never an aisle runner type of girl. I’ve only ever seen aisle runners at very formal weddings, and while beautiful, I’m not a huge fan. What I did know was that I wanted an aisle covered, I mean, absolutely covered, in flower petals. Those flower petal aisle “carpets” just make me swoon! Let’s examine…
This one looks straight out of a fairytale, no?
Yesterday, Mr. Hamster and I hosted some of my cousins for a dessert party. I can’t cook my way out of a pot, but I do make a pretty good cake, so I thought this would be a good way to practice my hosting skills without having my guests suffer too much! Featured on the menu were:
1. Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
Featured on Weddingbee
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
It’s five months out, and Mr. Parfait was ready to send our Save the Dates weeks ago. I caused a series of delays (just call me Miss Indecisive), including a last-minute plan to enclose a sweet two-line poem. It would add a personal touch and let people know that the enclosed item is a magnet. We came up with a few of our own, searched Weddingbee for ideas, and asked our rhyming-inclined friends for suggestions. Out of ideas, Mr. Parfait suggested we post the question on another online community.
At first, I asked him not to—I thought most of the comments would be useless, crass, and generally anti-wedding. (It ain’t no Weddingbee!) And many of them were. But we did it for fun, braced ourselves for the worst, and, 308 replies later, actually found a few gems! Here are the ones that made us smile:
We’re having a wedding, as you might have guessed/And this magnet means we want YOU as a guest!
When we met, we knew it was fate/Here is a magnet to save the date.
A magnet for you to let you know/Our wedding’s approaching, we hope you go!
When you go to the fridge to feed your face/Remember our wedding’s time and place.
Put this magnet in your kitchen/So you’ll remember when we’re hitchin’.
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We (I) decided to send our Save the Dates out rather early—like, a year before our wedding-early. I know, I know - but I figured, I like to be prepared, so maybe some other people do, too! 
We also made a sort-of controversial decision. Initially, we only sent Save the Dates to our immediate families, close family friends, and our friends (most of whom comprise our enormous bridal party), which amounted to only about 70% of our guest list. This is a decision that I stand by. I wanted to ensure that “our people” were given ample time to make their travel arrangements before the main invitations went out closer to the date.
When it came to the look of the Save the Dates, I knew exactly what I was going for. I already told you that I had fallen in love with Paper Source’s #10 note cards and envelopes which I got on sale (yay!). Lucky for us, Cheeseburger Brother is a graphic designer! All I had to do was explain what I was looking for, pick out some fonts, and a few drafts later they were ready to print!
We decided to print them at Kinko’s, thinking that we would get the best quality for the money - wrong. They messed up the printing like a million times, ran out of the paper they were using about half-way through, and after it all, it still cost $100 to print them. It was frustrating, but we still saved money on the project, as it cost only about $175 (including postage) to make about 120.
Take a look at how they turned out (all thanks to Cheeseburger Brother!):
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
After Mr. S and I had cut our cake and enjoyed our first dance as a married couple, we were able to sit back and relax for a bit. Finally!
Daddy Stiletto started off with a sweet welcome for all of our guests at the beginning of dinner.
Don’t tell my mom I admitted this, but I totally have a habit of biting off waaaay more than I can chew.
And this is how I found myself knee-deep in a food favor making project less than a week before our wedding.
Honestly, I don’t think I ever considered not having homemade sweets as favors. It was the one thing I was never indecisive about. Okay, maybe that’s not so surprising. I did fall in love with sweets (both making them and eating them) years before I fell in love with Mr. DD. And falling out of love with them would be quite similar to falling out of love with him—just not possible. What better way to share this love of mine with our guests than through our favors?
So, homemade sweet favors it was. But that didn’t solve the problem of what exactly to make. Yes, you guessed it; here’s where my indecision took over again.
The first thing I thought of making were these homemade marshmallow peeps (and it looks like Miss Parfait thought about this, too!):
(Source: Twig & Thistle)
In my mind, Mr. P’s and my journey would sequence like this:
Pretty simple and standard. Life had other ideas. Ideas that have reshuffled those events to resemble this:
You see that subtle shift? We took advantage of the dip in Seattle area house prices and bought our first townhouse. Woo hoo! …Except it took 80 days to close and tied up our $$ -read: Mr P couldn’t purchase a ring until the house was closed.
So, after I posted the story behind Mr. Nachos and me, a lot of people wanted to see the home movies. I had my dad make a copy for me in a file I could use here. After a little trouble opening up the .avi file, I downloaded a video converter and turned it into a .wav file, then uploaded it to YouTube.
It’s a little long (just over 7 minutes) but here’s who’s who:
Mr. N’s in the fancy red and yellow snow suit, his brother is in black, my sisters are the other 2 outside, and me? I’m the one giggling like a weirdo in the background, and I make my appearance fashioning a snazzy turtleneck and bright red bowl haircut about 2/3rds of the way in. The music definitely tells it all – I’m guessing I was about 5 years old which would make this circa 1983, and I think the songs were new releases!
So, without further ado…
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This contest is now closed. Congratulations to #3 mrskesslertobe!
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We have a great giveaway today from MagnetStreet Weddings! One lucky reader has a chance to win 200 save the dates of any design and any style! MagnetStreet has a great design tool that allows you to completely customize your Save the Date to reflect your style, and then you can check out your proof online instantly!
To enter this contest, please browse through their save the date gallery and let us know which design you’d select if you win, and how you’d change it to make it your own. The most popular designs are right here. You have until Monday at midnight PST to enter. Good luck!
So. Let’s talk flowers.
I don’t really like them.
{Source}
Yup, I said it. I have a black thumb; I can’t grow a flower or plant to save my life. Every Valentine’s Day and birthday, I tell Mr. Cola that I don’t want flowers, they only make me sneeze, and plus, they die. Why waste money on something that’s gonna die? But every year, I get them (he thinks he needs to CYA, just in case, I guess).
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You thought I was going to say FAIL, right? Normally I would have to say that, but this is one that I’m really proud of.
So, remember when we decided that we wanted to assign seating and discovered these great name card holders? Well, as cute as I thought they were, I also thought we could make them. So, we headed to the woods and collected a very large fallen branch, and Mr. Fro Yo got to work (side note: I felt like a complete tool carrying this gigantic piece of wood around and came up with a firewood story just in case anyone asked. No one did, but I swear there were some stares, and I almost blurted it out anyway):
I already knew we were not going with floral centerpieces for the wedding, but I got a sort of reconfirmation of this today when I found vases/hurricane candle holders, pillar candles, and river rocks for twenty tables for only $237.80. I will try to sell the vases and the rocks after the wedding, too.
So that leaves for the florist: 1 bridal bouquet, 5 bridesmaid bouquets, 1 groom’s boutonniere, 11 other boutonnieres (6 groomsmen, 2 bridesmen, Papa Spaniel, my step-dad, and FFIL Spaniel), 3 corsages (mothers and grandmother), and any floral decorations we will need for the ceremony.
Well, given that our photography/videography/DJ expenses are going to top the $5,000 limit I’d originally set for them (probably by about $500) and that part of the floral budget is being burned up by candle centerpieces (pun absolutely intended), we need to find all of the flowers for under $1,200. How will we do it?
(source)
Quite a few bees have had PWCs (post-wedding chops). But since short hair makes me look like a Muppet, I went for a post-wedding curl instead.
That’s right. I did what I said I’d never do again after a hairtastrophe that I shall call the “poodle perm incident of 1988.” (No offense to Mrs. Poodle, who has a lovely hairstyle.)
“Don’t cry. I’m not a poodle, I’m your new big sister!”
I got a perm. A digital perm.
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