Posts from — November 2008

A few months back, I wrote about wanting to go to this great wedding ring workshop, where couples can actually design and make their own rings. I signed us up for the one in San Diego last weekend, and it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Seriously. All of you engaged people (y’all are dropping like flies… you know who you are), I highly, highly recommend doing this! Give up a day, be prepared to be patient (yeah, I am telling you to be patient; the irony is not lost on me) and go for it. As Bri said, “I really can’t imagine buying our rings any other way.”

All told, making our rings took 10 hours, start to finish (apparently, we picked the most difficult metal to work with), but it was super relaxed and fun. Jay Whaley is the jeweler who runs the workshop here in San Diego, and he’s just the nicest, most patient man ever. He teaches at UCSD, so he must be used to squirrely students using power tools for the first time (he didn’t look terrified when I picked up the blow torch). He was great about showing us what to do, stepping back to let us do it ourselves, then lending a hand when we got stuck.

OK, I’m going to drop a bunch of pictures on you right now because they tell the story better than I can. Ready… GO!

This is what we started with… just some lumps of metal

Fire, fire! Melting the metal into one piece

My little special ball

Brian’s perfectly formed ingot

Lots and lots of annealing– making the metal soft enough to shape

Flattening the metal in this fun press thing

Lookin’ good

Taking out our aggression and shaping the metal into ring form

Getting closer

Soldering time!

“Lord of the Rings” geeks? Kaila? Hermes? Anyone?

The neverending polishing process

Hey, everybody! Come and see how good I look!

Toasting our success with delicious almond champagne

Tee hee. So demure

Still in disbelief

Oooh, shiny

The final product, engraved and all!

Opa! Victory is ours!

There’s a lot of goodness and happiness going on right now in my world. Brian and I are in the same place! And not just via Skype! He is officially back from his tour in Iraq, we are both in San Diego and life is glorious. We are that obnoxious couple kissing and holding hands and playing footsie in public, and I don’t even care. I’m gonna wade around in that lovey dovey schmoopiness as much as I want. We earned it!

Look! He’s real!

We’re madly trying to get wedding stuff done in the next few weeks, but for some reason, I’m feeling much more calm now. So we still need to finalize our contract with the DJ? We need to send out invitations next week and we’re still going back and forth with the printer? Meh. So what? Have another glass of wine. I have plenty to write about right now, but it’s going to have to wait.

In the meantime, this is a conversation I had with Kathleen last night. I was trying to figure out how to word the invitation card for the rehearsal dinner, and this is the crap Google came up with:

Tyler popped the question
and April said “Yes”
All the planning is over
from the hall to the dress.
Only one thing remains
for this day to be great
“Practice makes Perfect”
September 25th is the date.
We’ll practice the ceremony,
and iron out the kinks
Then it’s off to the Peachtree Cafe
for some dinner and drinks!

6:23:25 PM Kathleen: oh my goodness
6:23:40 PM Kathleen: sooo that website is amazing
6:23:49 PM Kathleen: i even found one we can use for you
6:23:50 PM Kathleen: A sprinkle of flowers and a
couple of kisses,
Soon Brian and Gillie will be
Mr. and Mrs.
But as we wait for that special hour,
Let’s honor Gillie with a surprise Bridal Shower!
on some date in January
at some really great place in New Orleans!
6:24:02 PM Kathleen: haha
6:24:16 PM Gillian: ahahahaha
6:24:21 PM Gillian: i just threw up a little in my mouth
6:24:30 PM Kathleen: as did i, i can’t believe i let myself send that
6:24:40 PM Gillian: you should be ashamed of yourself
6:24:42 PM Kathleen: hehehe
6:24:46 PM Kathleen: no regrets
6:25:03 PM Gillian: super gross, i tell you. these people are on crack
6:25:19 PM Kathleen: must be good crack if they think those invites are worth sending out
6:25:59 PM Gillian: for reals. if i ever think it’s a good idea to send out rhyming anything, please smack me
6:26:48 PM Kathleen: i think you have a several good friends who will more than happy to smack you
6:26:57 PM Kathleen: for rhyming invites or using the wrong font
6:26:59 PM Kathleen: oh dear
6:27:28 PM Gillian: i think ide and darren would fight for that honor… or both if i rhymed and used papyrus
6:27:36 PM Gillian: actually, then brian would cancel the whole thing
6:27:52 PM Kathleen: yeah, you’d be totally ditched
6:28:04 PM Kathleen: so just keep those thoughts out of your head
6:28:12 PM Gillian: conditional love. i see how it is.
6:28:16 PM Kathleen: haha
6:28:38 PM Kathleen: well, you know my love is unconditional… i’d just smack you to make sure brian stuck around

Ah, good times. We’re spending the weekend going registry shopping (translation: me hula hooping in the aisles of Target and Brian caressing a Set it and Forget it Rotisserie), doing that “make your own ring” workshop and maybe a little pre-cana partying. We might just block off a night, get take-out and a few bottles of wine and knock out all nine lessons. I think live blogging that would be awesome. Too much? Inappropriate? Or just hilarious?

For someone who grew up Catholic, I’ve been to surprisingly few Catholic weddings. And by few, I mean two. One was my uncle’s wedding when I was a senior in high school, and one was Nicole’s wedding in August. I don’t remember a ton about the first ceremony, so I was surprised this summer when I saw the order of the wedding Mass.

Apparently, this is the traditional order for a nuptial Mass:

ENTRANCE RITE

Processional
Gathering Song
Opening Prayer

LITURGY OF THE WORD

First Reading
Responsorial Psalm
Second Reading
Gospel Acclamation
Gospel Reading
Homily

RITE OF MARRIAGE

Exchange of Vows
Blessing and Exchange of Rings
Prayer of the Faithful
The Lord’s Prayer
Sign of Peace

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

Preparation of Gifts
Offertory Song
Eucharistic Prayer
Nuptial Blessing and Dismissal
Closing Song/Recessional

Besides the fact that it looks really long when it’s spelled out like that, what seems odd about this arrangement? The actual marriage part, with the exchange of vows and all that good stuff, is right smack in the middle of the Mass before Communion. I’m not a fan of this plan. It seems awkward and disjointed, like we’re just randomly sticking a wedding where it doesn’t belong. I’m used to the flow of Mass, and messing with it will make me go all Rainman on you.

I also think it’s kind of anti-climactic to say “I do” and exchange rings… then have the “Our Father,” the sign of peace, the preparation of gifts, Communion… It just takes all the fun and excitement out of “I now pronounce you husband and wife”! Haven’t you seen the movies? When the priest says that, we’re supposed to kiss and process triumphantly out of the church to trumpet fanfare and swelling violins. And perhaps there would be some sort of dove release. Fireworks would work as well. I like a good plot line, and this doesn’t cut it!

Has anyone ever changed this order, or is it set in stone? And am I just being overly picky?

There are a lot of traditionally girly things I’m just not good at– doing hair and make-up, wearing heels, sewing, being seen and not heard. Luckily, I have friends who are good at these things (except for that last one), which is how I made it through Homecomings, proms, girls’ nights out and anything else that required a curling iron or a thong.

My college roommate Kaila is the ultimate champion of the girly arts. She was the one who did my eyeliner when we went dancing freshman year and the one who helped me throw together last-minute costumes for pirate parties, toga parties, jungle parties, Father’s Day parties. Kaila is very crafty, and I am happy to take advantage of her mad skills.

Early in college, I told Kaila that she would have to make my wedding dress someday… you know, when get old and crazy enough to get married. I had seen her construct a beautiful Queen Elizabeth-esque dress, corset and all, from scratch for the Renaissance Festival, so I was pretty confident she could make me an amazing wedding dress (though of course I continued to mock her for going to the Ren Fest every year– huzzah!). 

So Kai is making my wedding dress, and it’s going to be freaking beautiful. We went to a few godawful nightmare bridal boutiques in Metairie back in January to get some ideas for what I wanted, and it was a little traumatic (bossy Yat ladies telling me what I want and poking and prodding me is not my idea of fun). After seeing a lot of really ugly dresses and a few beautiful ones, I decided what I wanted: 

1. Ivory, not white, with red accents  
2. Not pouffy or anything that could be described as “princessy” (tulle is created by the devil himself)
3.  Elegant but still fun


Kai sketched out a design that I liked and then started working her magic. Check it out so far… 

 
See, the bodice is going to be ivory lace with silk chiffon straps (red satin underneath), and there will be more satin ruching under the bust…

And the red satin underskirt is going to be covered by layers of silk chiffon so it won’t show in the front. But in the back… ay ay!
 
Ooooh, it’s gonna be perty. I’ll post more progress reports as she gets closer to being finished. Yay, I’m getting excited!

Some of you might remember the last time I was in France. I lived not far from Antibes in a quaint little Provençal town, where I taught adorable French children how to say “It is Thursday” and “I like to eat pizza.” I had a few problems when I lived in France, namely that the French people like to mess with my head and deprive me of things like heat, money and contact with the outside world.

This last trip to France, however, was much more smooth… probably because I wasn’t there long enough to incite riots or train strikes. Kathleen and I both caught a vicious Gallic cold as we were leaving this fine country (totally unrelated to us staying out too late drinking wine and dancing), which is one of my excuses for not posting in so long.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are a few highlights from our trip, as told through ridiculous snapshots (also check out Kathleen’s hilarious and more detailed account of our voyage):

Absinthe bar, complete with funny hats and drunken Belgians

Kathleen always has a song in her heart and a dance in her step

On the Isle of Ste. Marguerite, Esther indulges in two essential French food groups: chocolate and beer

We make a very entertaining Scottish friend at a five-hour happy hour in Cannes

Kathleen and I discover a fabulous club in Antibes and find our dance cards are always full

At Le Refuge des Fondues in Montmartre, Paris (yes, that is red wine served in baby bottles– to avoid the tax on stemmed glasses, apparently)

Before… but why is the wine gone?

After… yayyyyy!

Fin

(OK, now I am back to the real world and will be posting again on the wedding planning I swear I’m doing. Two and a half months until the wedding… holy crapshit.)