Cinco de Mayo

Mr. PaC and I jetting off to attend our friends' wedding in Mexico... on Cinco de Mayo! All I can think is gonna be one heck of a celebration!

Wedding pavilion at sunset
Initially, I dug my heels deep into the beach sand over the time, expense, and additional stress of traveling less than one month before our wedding. But you know what? I'm glad Mr. PaC convinced me we should go. At 30 days out, an odd sense of calm has come over me and I find myself looking forward to the downtime, shaking loose of all the wedding stress, and most of all, celebrating with our friends and the newlyweds.

The resort shortly after opening in 2008 during our first trip.
See you when we return from our practice honeymoon! (Mr. PaC's name for this trip.)

What sacrifices would you make to attend a friend's destination wedding?

Arts and Crap... erhm, Crafts

I can't believe I'm contemplating screen printing as a DIY. Mr. P tried to convince me not do screen print our invites. I agreed, only after pricing out the materials and considering the logistics. (What? Just because Mr. P says so doesn't mean I always listen. I can be stubborn.)

Still, I really want to screen print something. Before I added on another DIY project, I felt it was a good idea to actually try it first! And so I found myself at Terrain @ Styer's one Sunday in February, enrolled in a screen printing class and ready to make something.

Mexico, a go-go

Oh, Mexico
It sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low
Moon's so bright like to light up the night
Make everything all right


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The backstory: Mr. P's close friend (and the last roommate before I moved in), got engaged about a month before us in 2009. Due to the timing of our engagements, both couples were fated to the same planning timeline. However, I'm a planner so I pressed fast forward on my to do list. First time on the to do list: venue, and consequently wedding date.

At the same time, the friend and his fiance (N&D) decided on a destination wedding, location and time TBD. We were one of three 2011 weddings and need to pick a date ASAP. A few weeks later, our venue was secured and a date of 6/4/11 was set. Soon after, I heard N&D were considering St. Lucia. I knew we couldn't afford a St. Lucia trip the same year as our wedding (and honeymoon). We'd priced it out in 2007; for the same money, we could do 7 days in a high-end Mexican all-inclusive. (We went. We had a fantastic time.) So this is what I relayed to N&D.

Art installation inspiration

Four years of art education and a graphic design degree do not play nicely with a day job that utilizes none of those talents. All of that bottled up creative energy has to go somewhere or else I get cranky/sulky. (It's kinda like SAD, but for creative types.) So now that I'm planning a massive art project, I mean wedding!, you can imagine what sort of trouble I'm headed for. Look out wedding project overload!

Because I don't have enough going on, I've decided it is completely sane to design and build an art installation. For the wedding. I hear all the I-can't-draw-a-straight-line people asking, "what the heck is an art installation?" Short answer: it's three-dimenional site-specific art. The best way to describe is with pictures, and what better way to begin than with the motherload of inspiration: Anthropologie.

January windows at Anthropologie (all personal photos unless otherwise noted)

Sticker Shock

I like to punish myself... because I kept the Saturday appointment with the expensive dress.

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BM R happily volunteered to be my extra pair of eyes and an expert opinion (ahem, Miss 27 Dresses). We giddily discussed dresses for the 45 minute drive to the Ardmore salon (just outside of Philly proper). I had no idea what to expect of the town or bridal store, but R felt if it was anything like the bridal store there before, we would be in good hands.

Bijou Bridal - Ardmore

What irks me

I have a newfound pet peeve: wedding guests posting pictures on Facebook (or some other public site) without running it by the bride or groom. And this new pet peeve runs counter to my previous position. Before we got engaged and I started paying attention to what is/is not polite, I didn't think anything of uploading wedding pics. (In fact, I did it as recently as New Year's Eve 2009.) So what changed my hypocritical mind?

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Snotorious B.I.G.

There was an abundance of snow this winter. Need a refresher?

Harry's Savoy Bridal Expo

1/31/10: Lots of snow overnight. Made a mess of the roads. Mr. P's mom was going to accompany me to the Harry's Winter Bridal Expo (my second) but the weather kept her downstate at the beaches. Ever the gentleman, he offered to go in her place. I wouldn't have asked him to go to such an overtly girly event, but he was game. Do you think he was a little curious?

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By going later in the day, we missed most of the crowds. Both of Harry's ballrooms and guest areas were utilized for this paid event. The vendors were concentrated in the ballrooms and thus so were the frenzied brides and family. (I must say this is an unappealing aspect of wedding preparations.) We stood at the edge of the ballroom, unsure about entering the fray and already overwhelmed. Mr. P scanned the room, silently counting, then announced, "I'm one of five guys here." He grinned and reassured me he was happy to be here, participating.

Secret garden hosts a wedding?

Shortly after visiting the DCCA, we were onto our second impromptu scouting trip of the day - the Italianate formal gardens and reflecting pool at Gibraltar. All the years I've lived around the corner, I never ventured in past the stone privacy walls. What an idiot I was!

Run down buildings,
now slated for massive renovation into commercial space
This place is gorgeous, even in January... without the beds tidied up and no flowers. (No one wants to see photos of a garden in winter, so I've swapped the originals with more seasonally appropriate images.) It has a forgotten/secret garden feel, which works well to satisfy the quirkiness aspect of our dream venue. Lots of amazing spots for a ceremony thanks to the "rooms" Marian Coffin designed.

Spring and summer

Edgy, art museum explored

For those of you keeping track, we've visited three venues already. Because our industry has a seasonal slow down after the holidays, our January-March weekends are full of blissful free time. We decided to use our time wisely and pop into a venue last minute.


The Delaware Center for Contemporary Art downtown near the developing riverfront. The views outside the building are nothing spectacular - half-complete construction sites, parking lots and vacant land. Wintertime doesn't help. However, we are not interested in the exterior here. The DCCA's urban contemporary facade with corrugated metal and exposed beams hints at what's inside.

You registered for what?

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After tubing down the Brandywine River with friends last weekend, we're seriously considering adding a pair of river tubes plus pump to our registry. The only problem is Williams-Sonoma and Macy's don't carry river tubes. I could have sworn they were next to the meat thermometers and fine china...