Attacking the To-Do List

With just seven weeks until our wedding (and honeymoon - we CANNOT wait!), it's time to get serious about our ever-growing to-do list. With James leaving for a two week trip to Singapore this weekend, that means we needed to get started - like three weeks ago! Luckily, I hate waiting until the last minute to do things, so I've been doing my best to keep us on track. The last few weeks have been busy, but we've managed to cross several things off the list. First, we picked out our rings. I'm not going to give anything away here, so no pictures just yet. I'm so excited about them though, both James' ring and mine really show our personality. And I was even able to find a jewelry maker through my favorite site, Etsy, to make mine! I'm so in love with it, I just can't wait to wear it for the rest of my life!

Next on the list, our wedding wine. We headed up to my Godmother Diana's wine and beer making shop in Hartford. Diana and her husband Adrian are so wonderful. They made us this wine for our wedding gift. It's the most special gift and we can't thank them enough for all their love. James and I got to work on bottling and corking the wine. Thanks again Aunt Di, we can't wait to break it open with you on our wedding day!

me manning the bottling station while James handles the corking

On to the next task. Last Saturday we spent the whole (beautiful) day doing wedding stuff. We went up to the farm for a big planning meeting with the farm's coordinator Ian, the farm florist Laura, and our caterer, Twillia. We talked time lines, music, food, flowers, the set-up of the ceremony site and the reception in the barn. The last time we went to see the farm it was January and snowing. Boy, does the farm look different now! It is so breathingly beautiful I just can't imagine a more perfect location for our wedding - it's just so US! Seeing the farm again and nailing down some critical details really made the whole thing start to feel real - and got us really excited for all that is yet to come!

the ceremony location - what a difference seven months makes!

the whole farm runs off solar panels -way cool!

We also took some time after our meeting at the farm to drive to Putnam (just up the road) and scope out a place to have our rehearsal lunch. We found the most perfect little place called Bella's Gourmet Market and the owner was so nice and very accomodating - plus they have homemade GELATO, yum! We're going to have a causal "family style" lunch, a perfect warmup before the big day.

Lastly, and this was a big one, we FINALLY finished our invitations! I really love our invitations but man oh man were they ever a lot of work to make! Printing, cutting, gluing, threading, winding, tying, you name it, we had to do it to make these suckers. It took days to complete! But, it was totally worth it, I love them and best of all - they are 100% made from recycled materials. Love it!

the materials and the invitation task force in action

the finished product and the whole set

... and they're off... well, almost...they need a stamp...or two as I found out!