Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
Hello everyone! On Saturday, Mr. Mole and I were married. The day, like the rest of the weekend, was absolutely perfect.
What’s important to point out though, is not everything went absolutely perfectly. Despite my packing list, a garment bag was forgotten. The flowers on our cake didn’t match our color scheme. My bustle took several tries to get right: a process that ended with me taking off the dress completely, helping tie up the ribbons while only wearing my “something blue” thong. (Our absolutely amazing photographer has no photographs of that part of the evening, thankfully.) My dress ended up with a huge tear in the organza along the hem after a highly entertaining walk back from the Venetian to the Wynn.
None of that mattered. None of it. At all. At the end of the day, we were married. We exchanged vows (Mr. Mole’s were amazing). We gave each other our rings. We celebrated with our loved ones. We ate delicious food. We thanked strangers who congratulated us on the Strip. We laughed. We smiled until our faces hurt.
Mr. Mole showing off his new ring; Me showing off Mr. Mole
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
I also need to thank Mr. Mole. Thank you, thank you, thank you. For being here. For being you. It’s hard to express in words how much I appreciate you and all that you do. You are my person, my partner, my friend, my love. You are a wholly amazing person, and I thank the universe every day that I was fortunate enough to meet you. Online, no less! Everyday you inspire me to be a better person, a more generous person, a more kind person, a more loving person. I cannot wait to make my vows to you in front of all of our loved ones. I cannot wait to be your wife. I cannot wait until tomorrow.
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
I like making lists. I used to carry around a small Moleskin notebook exclusively filled with them: items to buy at the grocery store, texts to read before next grad class, errands to run on the weekend, things to do during the week. I love making lists and then crossing them off.
Needless to say, I have a lot of wedding-related lists shared on Google Docs. Most of them are crossed off. We’ve booked all of our vendors. We’ve paid all of our deposits. We’ve finished all of our projects. The only thing left to do is pack! I always make a packing list and lay all of the items out before I put them in a suitcase. It might take more time to pack this way, but doing so means that I won’t forget anything important.
Here’s an example of my packing method before the 2009 Boston Marathon
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
Mr. Mole designed our wedding programs, and I have to say that I have a pretty talented fiance (very soon to be husband). We are so thrilled with the results! We hope that our guests will feel the same way when they see them.
Teaser shot
Mr. Mole had a lot of fun with the process of designing and assembling these programs. He was able to incorporate some meaningful details into the design, like our love of crossword puzzles, that really represent our relationship. Mr. Mole hadn’t done any print design work in the last 10+ years—not since his sophomore year of undergrad! He insists that it was actually a pretty easy process, here’s what he did. Read more…
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
As you probably know, Mr. Mole and I are having a pretty small wedding. There will be about twenty people in Vegas, including us. Even our hometown party is going to be small. With our current number of RSVPs, we are looking at fifty-something guests. We are looking forward to having these small, intimate events.
These small, intimate events won’t feature any dancing: no first dance, no father-daughter dance, no mother-son dance, no chicken dance, no line dances. Well, I guess I have to qualify this statement a bit. We won’t be preventing people from dancing a la Footloose, but we aren’t going to be doing much to encourage it. It’s just not us or the vibe we are going for.
Inevitably, when reading about other weddings that don’t schedule in a specific time for dancing, I notice a couple of main concerns from guests:
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
When I first started looking at wedding dresses, I was adamant that I wanted one without a train. If a consultant brought me a dress with a train, I immediately asked her if it could be cut off in alterations. I thought that a train didn’t really fit the Vegas wedding vibe, and I didn’t want to worry about dragging the back of my dress up and down the Strip.
I imagine that you can guess how this story ends, right? I ended up purchasing a dress with a long lace and organza train. One that is just begging to be dirtied and stepped on. One that I still love and want to keep.
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
One of my (admittedly many) guilty pleasures is gossip magazines. I love crashing on the couch after work with a huge mug of tea and an US Weekly. Anyway, the cover of this week’s US Weekly really caught my eye. Below a picture of Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake reads the caption: “Can She Trust Justin?” The subtitle goes on to add the following: “It took a bitter breakup and Jessica’s ultimatum before Timberlake finally proposed.”
This cover and subsequent article got me thinking about marriage ultimatums. Can they ever work? Or will they just cause bigger problems down the road?
I think most people will agree that an ultimatum in the strictest terms — where one partner threatens to leave the other if a ring isn’t offered within a certain time period — is not a great way to start a marriage.
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise you, hive, if I confessed that I spend a lot of time browsing Zappos. Over the weekend, I was browsing through the thousands of shoes, trying to see if I could find something to wear with my new(est) rehearsal dinner dress.
Then, I remembered that I already had the perfect shoes in my closet: a pair of cream and black patent leather heels. I wore these heels on our second date. The shoes’ main appeal, though, is not because of nostalgia; it’s because I was able to walk a pain-free mile in them from my apartment in Ravenswood to catch the #9 Ashland bus. We’ll probably be doing a lot of walking the day before the wedding, so I want to make sure that I have something comfortable on my feet.
The only problem? A series of mile long walks meant that these shoes were scuffed to hell. There were black marks all over the cream patent leather. I thought these shoes were goners. However, I was wrong!
Imagine these types of marks over all sides of both shoes
All you need to fix scuff marks on patent leather are two incredibly common household items.
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
Tell it to me straight, hive. Do you find yourself spending more money on certain things and then justifying it as being “for the wedding?” Even if the objects you are buying are only tangentially related to the wedding?
Man, I have to answer yes to both of those questions. I just got back from Nordstrom Rack. Again. I know, I know. The store is way too close to where I am going once a week now for wedding dress alterations. I ended up finding another dress to be part of my “other wedding dresses” collection. I am justifying this purchase in my head for three reasons:
1. I will wear it to our rehearsal dinner, thus making the original rehearsal dinner dress into a honeymoon dress. And, seriously, can you have too many honeymoon dresses? (Rational Brain pops up to say, “Yes. Seriously. You can. You are getting preeeetty close to that point.” Wedding Brain quickly shuts her down, though, by humming along with “Somebody’s Getting Married” from Muppets Take Manhattan.) Read more…
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
Mr. Mole and I are so excited about our upcoming wedding! It’s coming up pretty quickly now. We are also excited about the possibility of celebrating it with you. We really hope that you will be able to make it to our event. So, please, let us know if you can by sending in your RSVP.
I know that we probably made a mistake in having our celebration in Milwaukee the day before the Super Bowl - especially considering the fact that the Green Bay Packers are still in the playoffs. (GO PACK GO!) I imagine that some of you are thinking about attending the big game in person or, at the very least, going to a party where you can watch it on a huge television while eating nachos and seven-layer dip. However, I know that many of you don’t care about football at all. You don’t even care about the Packers. So, please, you guys, send in your RSVP.
You could probably send it in today! If you look at the upper right-hand side of the postcard, you will see that there’s already a 29 cent stamp there. You can just drop it in one of the blue USPS boxes on the street or leave it in your mailbox for the mailman! I just mailed a letter today, and I found it was a pretty fulfilling task. Read more…
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
Mr. Mole likes to watch Louis C.K. He also likes to quote Louis C.K. (And Seinfeld. And The Simpsons. And etc.) I like Mr. Mole enough to usually listen.
Anyway, when we were driving home after our book club meeting and dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant last night, Mr. Mole started talking about part of Louis C.K.’s film Hilarious, which addresses the topic of divorce. Here’s the transcript:
Let me tell you something. And this is important because someday one of your friends is gonna get divorced. It’s gonna happen. And they’re gonna tell you. Don’t go, “Oh I’m sorry!” That’s a stupid thing to say. It really is. First of all, you’re making them feel bad for being really happy, which isn’t fair. And second, let me explain something to you. Divorce is always good news. I know that sounds weird, but it’s true because no good marriage has ever ended in divorce. It’s really that simple. That’s never happened – THAT would be sad. If two people were married and they were really happy and they just had a great thing, and then they got divorced, that would be really sad. But that has happened zero times. Literally zero. Ray Charles has killed more Jews than happy marriages have ended in divorce.
Huh, right? This quotation really got me thinking. Read more…
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
Many couples choose to give gifts to their wedding party and parents at the rehearsal dinner. These gifts are tokens of thanks: for their support, for their love, for their presence on that day. Mr. Mole and I have decided to do the same at our “rehearsal” dinner.
Despite the fact that we don’t actually have a wedding party, we are going to be giving gifts to our closest friends and our siblings, who—had we planned a different kind of wedding—would otherwise be standing up for us. These loved ones are internet-savvy enough where they could stumble upon this post and ruin the surprise, so I am going to hold off on the reveal of these gifts until after our wedding. (Soon, I promise!)
Our parents, on the other hand, are not as…let’s say, adept with the internet. My mother, bless her, spends most of her time online sending me chain e-mails with blinkies and pictures of puppies and commenting on my Facebook statuses via her own wall. As such, I have no worry about talking about their presents here in advance.
Mr. Mole and I decided to take the easy way out with our gifts to our parents. Read more…
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
Our table numbers for our Vegas reception won’t begin at one. There will be no table two or table three (or table four, although that’s because we will only have three total tables). Instead, we have decided to number our tables with the years that are important to our relationship. We will be having tables 2009, 2010, and 2011.
In order to show our guests which tables are numbered what, we will be having framed photos of ourselves from those years in the middle of our candle centerpieces. Our venue is going to be providing more votive candles and small vases of seasonal flowers. (Again, hooray for restaurant receptions!)
Imagine that I cleaned the vases before taking the photo
Mr. Mole helped me add the years to the relevant photos that will be in the frames through Photoshop. (My skills are so minimal in Photoshop that I needed help to add a text layer. I think I will stick to my day job.) Then, we used the magic of the internet to send them to Walgreens to be printed.
Interestingly enough, all of the photos that we chose were taken on trips that were important to us.
Mrs. Mole, Los Angeles/Las VegasAge and Occupation: 29, Test Prep InstructorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, User Experience ArchitectEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: January 2012Venue: Wynn Las Vegas/Bouchon BistroAbout Me: I’m a Wisconsinite-turned-Angeleno who is planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas. I am passionate about education: I spent 23 (!) consecutive years in school, and now I work to help other people get into graduate programs. I love running on the treadmill, buying bath products from Lush, learning new moves in step aerobics, and exploring my neighborhood on foot. I am sometimes snobby about food, but I am rarely snobby about books. I read everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to Iris Murdoch to Chuck Klosterman to Candace Bushnell. My fiance and I are getting married on our third anniversary!
I’ve read that the average engagement length is between 14 and 16 months. I completely understand the reasons why people wait over a year to get married. Some people have their hearts set on a specific date or season. Other people have a long list of DIY projects and tasks to complete. Some people live in locations where venues book up fast. Most people, including us, need some time to save up and budget.
Honestly, though, I don’t think we could ever wait that long. It already seems like Mr. Mole and I have been engaged for-ev-er, even though it’s only been about 8.5 months. And we still have three more weeks to go. Argh. Patience is clearly not one of my virtues.
We finished all of the major planning months and months ago. We found our venues, our photographer, our wedding day outfits, our centerpieces, etc., throughout the summer and early fall. The only things that are left are the small stuff that we would have had to wait on until now anyway: creating seating charts, making escort cards, finishing dress alterations, confirming times and appointments. All that the extra time allowed me to do was start to second-guess my original decisions!
If I could pick my ideal engagement length, I would pick 6 months. Read more…
