Bride's Speech

Being a fairly talkative bride-to-be, I've been thinking about this for about a year now. ;)

I know it's not as traditional for the bride to give a speech as it is for the best man or the father of the bride. However, I love the idea of being able to take a minute to thank everyone - wedding party, family, and assembled guests - at our reception. So I'm definitely going pause the action for a moment, raise a glass, and tell my loved ones how much they and their support mean to me.

Now, I just have to figure out what to say . . .

Success (Mostly)

Well, the sea glass candy turned out pretty well! Above is a picture of the peppermint and cinnamon all mixed up in the tin we used.

The whole process is easier than I thought it would be, although our first batch didn't boil evenly and was therefore stickier and less brittle than we were hoping for. For the second batch, though, we were more careful and the candy cracked easily when it was done.

The final step - painting powdered sugar on the candy to give it that dull sea glass look - is fun, but very time consuming. I'll have to think about whether we still want to do this for the wedding. Maybe we could make a bunch and have our wedding parties over for a candy sugaring party!

Testing, testing . . .

Tonight's project in our kitchen is "Make your Own Sea Glass Candy!" I saw this recipe in a blog post at Intimate Weddings (photo above from same post). At the time, I thought right away that it might be a great idea for our wedding favors. Our favors will be presented in small galvanized favor pails (like these at Beau Coup for $0.80 a pop for the quantity we need, or these at Wedding Favors Unlimited at just $0.51 each!).

I had planned to fill the favor pails with chocolate sea shells or maybe salt water taffy or some other "beachy" candy. However, assuming our practice recipe comes out well tonight, I think lovely sea glass candy would be perfect!

I'm making two batches tonight (one red & cinnamon flavored, one green & peppermint flavored) for a Yankee swap at Justin's aunt's house on Christmas Eve. At present, we're waiting for the candy to cool to the right degree of brittle so we can whack it with a hammer and break it into small pieces. Will update on how that goes. Keep your fingers crossed!

Hair!

Now, hair is not something I pay much attention to. I think the only times I've ever gone to a proper salon to get my hair "did" were my high school proms and my sister's wedding eleven years ago. I still drive two hours sometimes to my parents' small New Hampshire town to get my hair washed, cut, and blowdried for $15 at the local salon.

However, I of course understand the importance of having my hair nicely done for the wedding. And on this point, my sister, who is my matron of honor, has been a huge help. She contacted a woman (my brother-in-law's co-worker's sister, I believe?) who will travel from the Boston area to Portsmouth to do my hair here at our apartment on the day of the wedding. Just found out that I'm meeting her at my sister's place in the Boston area on January 19th for a hair trial. Yay!

Now to figure out how the heck I want to wear it . . . Here are a few styles that I like. My hair is way too fine and straight to look like these styles naturally, but I'm hoping we can make it work!

The Bridesmaid Dresses

Oh, J. Crew, how I love you so. I can never afford your clothes, but I love to look at them and get ideas. And for something like my wedding, spring for the expensive stuff!

Some of you may remember that my dress came from J. Crew's wedding line. Well, they also carry a shorter version, which I've selected for my bridesmaids and one groomswoman. Behold the Sophia short in "Mediterranean Blue:"

However, this style of dress gives a little extra cleavage at the top and in case the girls might not be comfortable with that, I gave them the option of choosing one of the other styles in the same fabric and color.

the Robin

the Hope

And the Cecelia

I like all four dresses so I think they'll look good together if that's what anyone decides to do. I'm pleased with these dresses as I think they're reasonably priced (the Cecelia's the only one over $200 and at $225, it's not much over) and genuinely wearable. And I think my b-maids and groomswoman are happy with them, too!

Fancy Pants Wax Seals

So in my non-wedding planning life, I'm a museum professional. Most of you know this. And in the process of browsing a reproduction 18th century catalog for museum programs, I came across a beautiful wax seal set. And, as those of you who have recently been married or are soon to be know, the "wedding planning brain" is always thinking! "These," I thought to myself, "would be perfect for sealing our invitation envelopes!"

Thus, I ended up ordering a wax seal set, with eight extra wax sticks, from Jas. (18th century shorthand for James) Townsend and Son, Inc. Everything came within a few days and they look great!

Hardwood and pewter seal. I chose the anchor design, for our nautical theme

Lovely dark red wax

The end result should look something like this

I love our invitations, but they're fairly simple, so having this extra nautical/historical touch makes me happy.

Great Expectations

Wonderful wedding wisdom (try saying that three times fast!) from a commenter, Abby-Wan Kenobi, on a recent post at A Practical Wedding:

If I thought our wedding day was going to be the happiest day of my life, I wouldn't be getting married. I see a future with my fiance because I know we'll have lots of happy days. Quiet Sunday afternoon days, big accomplishment days, days with babies, days with crying, days with laughing, days with Chinese take-out, days when we acheive [sic] one dream and immediately find a new one. And those days will all be special and happy and memorable because we spend them together, not because I spent $8000 on my outfit.

In a way, all these expectations we have for our wedding days to be "the happiest day of our lives" seem to short circuit a lot of why we're in this marriage thing in the first place. God willing, our wedding day will be a wonderful day, full of food, fun, and loved ones. But if it's going to be the pinnacle of our lives together, then what's the point of what comes after?