wedding blogging

Last weekend we went to visit my parents and got back Monday evening. I've been meaning to blog but time in the evenings has just been filling up with other things, like trying to finish up all of the wedding things that we've been putting off until after my prelims!

After much consternation, our wedding invitations have finally been sent (except for the international ones). We haven't seen them yet because my friend from high school did them. I regret getting another person involved and if I were to do it again we'd do it ourselves. I had a very specific idea in my head of what I wanted but I didn't think I could make it myself. In hindsight, I think I could. I just wish someone else could read my mind, since even detailed descriptions of a vision can be inadequate to convey the idea. But, whatever, the invitations are good enough. I like them.

I find this wedding planning process in general to be overwhelming. There are so many decisions to make. I think if I didn't have a job then I could enjoy the deciding the exact color of the center of the dogwood flowers on my invitations and the pattern of silverware we rent. The thing is that for most of these little details we don't really know what we want. Once I start trying to decide though, I go from having no idea at all to a clear vision. Making that vision a reality is the frustrating part, especially if Jon and I have different visions!

We are ordering a Quaker marriage certificate with our vows that will be signed by everyone present at our ceremony. We will frame it and hang it on the wall in our apartment, so it's very important to us. We decided that this is something we are willing to spend a lot of money on. We are hiring a calligrapher/artist to make it. The problem is that Jon's vision of our certificate is something like the constitution, whereas mine has flowers and color.

Jon's ideal marriage certificate, above (Image source)

My vision for our certificate is more like this (Image source)

Jon's preference is for a certificate without flowers or decorations- just black script on white paper. He loves black and white. I want to have the general layout of the certificate pictured above, but with dogwood branches and flowers instead of fall leaves. Jon is ok with flowers, but wants them to be stark contrast black pen and ink rather than the watercolors that are more common on marriage certificates. I have a beautiful vision in my head of what it would look like in watercolor, and his vision is pen and ink. Further complicating this is that we can't find any examples of marriage certificates in the style Jon prefers and I'm for some reason having a hard time picturing it in a way that doesn't look plain.

Also, did I mention that our wedding is just 5 weeks away, which is pretty much the minimum time for getting a hand-made marriage certificate? This is high on the list of things we should've made a decision about months ago, or chosen an artist at the very least.

In case you're interested, we're trying to decide between these two talented artists who both do beautiful work: Calligraphica and Sally Sanders. Now Jon and I are going to debate the pros and cons.