Notes from Iowa

Laura and I just got back from Des Moines on Sunday after attending Todd and Deidra Hibbing's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding all around. It rained that morning, once again ensuring that the wedded couple will live a prosperous life. For those who haven't heard that saying before, I believe Ben Franklin wrote it in his Poor Richard's Almanac. Also if it's raining, the married couple can save some pennies which are also known as pennies earned. Thus achieving the prosperous life down the road when they bring all the pennies into the bank. That Ben Franklin he was a smart one!

Anyways, after about 10AM the weather was great and it was sunny for the rest of the day. Hopefully we have as much luck in April. Or maybe we'll have to settle for living an extremely prosperous life and having a soggy wedding.

Pink was the color of the day and it looked great in the invitations, bouquets, programs, dresses, etc. Everything looked great on both the guys and gals in the wedding too, very classy. James offered us some advice on dressing the groomsmen saying, "I've got two words for you guys... pocket squares." Now I initially thought he said Hot Pockets which I still think would make great hors d'oeuvres (sp?). But as he tugged next to his lapel, I realized I had just heard what I wanted to hear. But I think pocket squares are definitely a possibility as well. Get excited guys! While the girls get to go shopping and get their hair styled, we'll be eating Hot Pockets and dabbing our mouths like debutantes with our pocket squares. The jury is still out on if we will have monicles.

Back to Todd and Deidra's wedding. It was great to see everyone from Drake who was able to make it out to the wedding and the reception out at Saylorville Lake. It was good to catch up with everyone and eat some great pulled pork sandwiches and bowtie pasta salad. Seriously folks, if anyone has the recipe for the pasta salad that had the distinct taste of seven layer salad just without the bacon, let me know. The couple's family and friends outdid themselves with the tasty spread they supplied for everyone. Hopefully our professional chef can match their culinary exploits.

Now Todd and Deidra are headed off to Jamaica for their honeymoon which got us to talking about what we want to do. Considering the time of our wedding, it appears we may go to Mexico or some other warm locale for a week, and then we'll be headed back to Des Moines in time for the Relays. I'm thinking we might even be able to get a car in the Parade, or at least dance with the Isisirettes.

Next week, I'll be headed out to Iowa again for work, but I will be doing some more wedding research while I'm there. You see while some people might go with an ice sculpture or a chocolate fountain at their receptions, Laura and I are going to go one step further. That is why I will be stopping by the Iowa State Fair to meet with the people who create the Butter Cow and other creations. Who knows you might see our portrait carved in Country Crock while you pass the bread at the reception. I'll let you know if I am successful in this endeavor. Until then, congrats Todd and Deidra, and hope to see all you Des Moines folks again real soon.

Get a Room

We’ve reserved a block of rooms for our guests at the Hilton Lisle under the Micheli/Daly wedding block. 630/505.0900 to reserve. Rooms are being held through March 23 and we can run shuttles between the reception and hotel for guests who feel they’ll need the ride.

An easy step, this one.

Paper-Source

“Do something creative every day.”

A store with that tagline HAS to be great. If it’s a paper store, then for a paper enthusiast it’s heaven.

Unsure where to buy supplies for the invites once they’re designed, I looked around. Kaelin suggested this great store. Thanks for the tip!

The plethora of colors, styles, sizes, options, accessories, ideas… it’s fantastic! And the price is right. We might actually be under budget for this one thing. Don’t want to jinx it…

Check out Paper Source. Even if you’re not crafty, you’ll see at least one thing that will make you go “hmmm…”

Labor of Love… Makes us Feel Fancy

Never subject a man to tedious shopping tasks. For example, invitation shopping.

On our first trip, I thought Gavin was going to throw a book at the wall (those are HEAVY books) because of my requests to see “just one more.” The prices were also a total shock to him, which didn’t help the vibe in the cute stationary store.

I, on the other hand, had great influences in college on the creative front thanks to Jess and Gina. Not to say Gavin doesn’t appreciate good design, but my creative Barn mates showed me how much vision, planning, talent and tedious work goes into a really good piece of design. I now have a little crush on paper stores, Pantone swatches, new ways to lay out a traditional item and I still get excited about new developments in design programs even though I have no business using them.

The books of invitations don’t get old for me. They did get frustrating though, when I found that nothing grabbed me as our style. Nothing said “us.” For the asking price, that’s a problem.

I started researching non-traditional options. DIY invites and such. Nice options, but nothing that I loved, or nothing I loved well enough to spend the time assembling.

We called in reinforcement based on an earlier offer…

As a gift to us, Jess is going to design our invites! I’m beyond excited since I’m crazy about her design style, she knows me well enough to know what I will and won’t go for and I’ve never had anything designed personally. Fancy!

More on my love of paper stores in a coming post.

Lookin’ Good, Ladies

Sunday marked the start of the bridesmaid dress era. This should not take as long as it took me to finally select my own dress, but will require some time nonetheless.

Apparently, I made the gals wait too long to try on dresses. The excitement at trying on dresses was like a natural disaster finally freeing itself… but much more graceful and funny.

ROUND ONE: We started at House of Brides (HOB) on Roosevelt for convenience’s sake only. (WARNING: Do NOT buy anything there. The ladies are awful and the shop is being investigated for money laundering.) The gals, Colleen, Murf, Jme and Val with Aunt Mary as an observer and comic relief, went through about 20 dresses in as many minutes, didn’t love anything, and asked “where next?” I knew there wasn’t a lot there, but woah! I was having fun getting to pick dresses that I didn't have to try on, so I was game.

The crowd moved through David’s Bridal and Von Maur, deciding there was nothing just right anywhere we looked. Excited as ever despite a couple hours of dress shopping, they suggested heading out again this week.

ROUND TWO: Tonight we went to House of Brides in Schaumburg, where the selection is triple that of the one above and the customer service is just as outstanding as the prices. Score!

Murf, Jamie and Melissa tried on a bevy of beauties that we all liked and may have even found “the one.” In two trips? “Madness!” you say. Hey… something other than the groom should be an easy choice!

Now we just need to see if the dress we all love flatters all the body types represented in the bridal party, since we’ve got a good looking collection of gals who should all be able to feel gorgeous that day. If it’s a match, we’re good to go!

ROUND TWO.5: Because my bulldog bridal posse can’t be present for the trying on fun, they’ll be shopping long distance via the Web and passing back any goodies they find. You never know…

I Found MY Dress!

I bought a dress last weekend! After searching and hunting through umpteen bridal stores in several counties, I bought THE perfect dress. I love it! It could not be more perfect for me and it has already stood up to the true test – I’ve been to other bridal stores since and haven’t seen a thing that measures up in my mind.

The lucky dress (similar to the lucky guy…) is “my” dress.

Suddenly, all the other decisions are clicking into place and it seems this wedding might start to get much, much easier.

Advice for other brides to be – have an idea of what you want your dress to look like before you shop! Otherwise, you’re in for a lot of wasted gas, time and energy. Yep – I speak from experience.

I’m curious to know… more than one of the bridal shop attendants told me they’d had girls make comments about maybe even loving their dress more than their guy. There’s a warning sign! Anyone else hear the same while trying on/know of/say it themselves?