Catching Up: Wedding and Working

If you've been looking for me, I've been buried under a pile of prospective centerpieces, our wedding  invitations, assorted ribbons in varying colors, rubber stamps and am covered from head to toe in embossing powder. Why? Because we're almost exactly two months away from our wedding and we decided that the only way we could pull off all that we wanted for what we had budgeted, was to DIO - Do It Ourselves. I used to have this glorified and romanticized association for the DIY/DIO phrase (thank you very much HGTV) but the reality of it has been a little, well, less than glamorous (see first sentence).  

Our invitations, just before they hit the mail

At least the invitations are out (side note: what's with the line with an "M" already on that response card line? I've never seen a response card without one before so we left it on ours. To me, it's like telling guests, "Here, I know you're probably going to write "Mr. Mrs. or Ms." on that line anyway, why don't I lighten that burden and get you started. Here's an M. Now tell me the rest.."). Now we're just waiting to get the little response card in the mail and I have to admit, it adds an element of excitement to our day as we tear through each envelope in a suspenseful manor, anxious to see who is coming and who isn't. We especially love that some friends have even left us thoughtful or funny notes, or even better yet, have drawn pictures. We're just so excited to have all of the people that we love in one big room, we can't even stand it. We just need to get through all these details first.

Richard's Brunch: Smoked Portabello Mushroom, Canadian Bacon, Poached Egg, Gruyere and English Mushroom Croutons. Finished with a Smoked Mushroom Sauce 

In addition to the wedding, on the work front, we're so proud. We're working on two new very exciting projects that unfortunately I have to be coy and vague about them for now until we firm up some things first. On a day-to-day basis, we've got some really terrific clients that we're working with and we're totally getting into our rhythm with them. Additionally, we've been doing a lot of dinner parties and in-home cooking classes lately and it's been really incredible for us to find friendships in it all and really get to know people. We've just felt so rewarded by the work that we do and the people we've been meeting.

Richard's Brunch Part II: Spiced Yucca Home fries

In between all of these happenings and meetings and just our life as we know it now, it's been imperative for us to remember that we are a couple and take a break. It seems like such a silly thing to have to remind ourselves but with all that's going on, we've made a point to try to etch out some time, even if it's just a bit of time, for ourselves. A couple weekends ago Richard made me brunch and took me out to dinner. It was so nice to set aside time to take a breather. I've also turned to baking and cheese making to relax myself. I made some Soda Bread for St. Patrick's Day and since our centerpieces involve milk bottles from Whole Foods, we've had an abundance of milk that we've been trying to get through. It's helped to relax me a bit and keep me grounded with all that's going on.

My St. Patrick's Day Irish Soda Bread

I know that all of this excitement is temporary and in just a couple month's time, it will all be over and I have a love-hate relationship with that. I love that I'll seem to get my life back and I feel like I keep pushing things aside to tackle after the wedding. I'll love that my days won't be ruled by whether or not we should order soup spoons, even though we don't plan to have soup at our wedding. I know a part of me will hate that I will go to our mailbox and response cards won't be there and I'll miss that we won't be having those in depth discussions on soup spoons. It's just the nature of being a bride, I suppose.