My Life in Google Docs

So this is a shameless plug for how incredibly awesome Google Docs is. Sorry, Microsoft Excel, but you're too difficult, have too many buttons, and your spreadsheets can't be shared and worked on by two people simultaneously!

Google Docs has been a Godsend with all of this wedding planning. I have made more spreadsheets in the past few months than I have in my entire life. To be clear though, I always hated making spreadsheets, so maybe in my past life (re: before the awesomeness that is google docs) I probably would have been doing anything in my power not to make them.

But alas, Google has made it so easy for Matt and I to make and update lists and share ideas. Not only has it been helpful between us as a couple, but Matt's sister Heather created a spreadsheet for all of the wedding projects which is updated by a few of us across the globe!

to do lists

projects

Along with the to-do spreadsheets and the project shopping lists, we also made an RSVP spreadsheet for when they start rolling in this week!

As each guest replies we will keep track of whether they are attending, how many are in their party, whether or not they want vegetarian meals, etc.

Thanks to Google Docs, my life is a whole lot easier!

"ringing" in the weekend!

After a few hiccups, we were able to finally order our rings last night!

I have been eying my wedding band for a while now, knowing that I wanted a band lined with small diamonds to accent my solitaire ring. I actually remember trying one on at the mall with my mom when I was home---16 months ago-- days after getting engaged! Like I said, it wasn't hard for me to decide that this is what I wanted:

French cut pave set wedding band. I wanted my band to be a little smaller in width than my engagement ring and to be more delicate, and this ring is the thinnest possible option they have with the pave set diamonds. My hands are very small and my fingers are pretty chubby, so I thought a bigger ring would look weird. I can't WAIT until I go home and get to try it on for size! 

Matt's ring was also a fairly easy decision. We did some research on groom's rings since neither of us knew anything about them. After much searching, Matt realized he just wanted a basic, comfort fit band in white gold to match my set. After a few trips to get his finger sized, we were good to go and ordered this ring to go with mine:

Heather, Matt's sister, will be receiving them in the mail, keeping them safe and more importantly taking pictures and showing us what they look like!!

ETA is May 31st.

 Next week is filled with awesomeness:

-it's a 4 day week since we have Monday off for Buddha's birthday (thanks, Buddha!)
-The invitations will arrive in Maine Tuesday or Wednesday and maybe even get to guests by Friday
-The rings will arrive next Thursday!

Inivites: Check!

After literally MONTHS of working on the invitations, they have left the coop and are now en route to the USA:

It's strange not having them laying around the living room!

They were shipped to my mom who will then put the gorgeous cherry blossom stamps on them and mail them out locally (because she's awesome like that!).

There is only one Fed Ex location in Daejeon, and although it cost us a pretty penny, it's worth it to get the tracking and priority mail. Can you imagine if these were lost or damaged?

ETA is Tuesday or Wednesday since it's a 3 day holiday weekend. Hopefully guests will start receiving the invites as early as next Friday, and you know what that means: I can post detailed pics soon after!

It's a Girl!

Last night we went to bed in anticipation for an early morning phone call from Matt's sister, Heather. She had a check up appointment yesterday and found out that she's having a little baby girl! Her name will be June Ann, named after their grandmother. So cute!

We are more than thrilled at the news! While everyone (including us) thought it was going to be a boy, we are ecstatic that June will be joining the family in mid-October.

Congrats to Heather! I can't wait to be an aunt, and Matt is pretty excited about being an uncle and setting up the crib in August when we're home. Time to start shopping for cute little dresses here in Korea!

Just another reason why we're so blessed, and why 2012 is turning out to be quite the amazing year for us!!

Inviting the Prez

It's no secret that I am very fond of our current president. Think what you want about whether or not he's done a good job, the man has overcome a lot of obstacles and is quite frankly amazing. He has been such an inspiration to me, and pictures of him with his family, pictures of him smiling and laughing with little kids, oh-my-god I can't help but smile and be happy myself. I saw him speak in Bangor when I was up at the University of Maine in 2008 when he was campaigning. I met (and shook hands with) Hillary Clinton on the same day as well, but just being in the same room as Obama made my head spin. The amount of positive energy coming from that crowd and that man you could almost reach out and grab.

So of course it's natural that I invite him to my wedding ^^

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, please!

 I heard that if you send a wedding invitation to the president, the secretary's office that deals with letters will mail you back a congratulation letter. Yip Yip!

Now if he'd only take some time out of his busy schedule to head up to Maine with the fam, that would be awesome sauce, haha.

Final Color Palette

Long engagements mean that you have plenty of time to decide on a color scheme, change it, decide on another one only to change that months later.

We always knew from the beginning that we wanted either blue or green or both in our color palette. While we changed our minds a few times in the first 6 months of the engagement, we settled in blues and white pretty early on. What I hadn't intended was for a few other accent colors to work their way into our scheme all sneaky like:

Light brown has worked it's way in to the palette the way of twine. We decided that our pocket-fold invitations were missing "something". We hoed and hummed about it until a little piece of twine laying around the house happened to seal the deal. We are also incorporating twine into many other aspects of the reception, but don't want to spoil ALL of the details! In the past few weeks we have also really liked the idea of burlap, which is close in color to twine. We will use burlap on the tables, as well as in a few signs.

The gray worked it's way in when Claire designed our save the dates. While we didn't ask for it, she chose the light gray as one of the text colors and we ended up loving it.
Fin

Flowers for the Prez

DUDE.

Just found out (even though it was a few months ago) that Broadturn Farm, the people who are doing the flowers for our wedding, made bouquets for President Obama!

He came to a fundraising dinner at the Portland Museum of Art. Stacy and the rest of the crew at the farm made these absolutely stunning bouquets for the event (these pictures are from Broadturn Farm Blog: www.broadturnfarm.com) :

Oyster shells decorated the vases

 So much gorgeousness!!!

How awesome is this?! I am getting so excited about all of the floral arrangements for our wedding!