Happy Stampy

From reading The DIY Wedding, I got the idea to look for a personalized address stamp to save time + our wrists when writing out the invitation envelopes. Needless to say really, I searched on Etsy and came up with these favorites! Now just to see which one Alex likes best (or at all)!

Sweet and circular:

Self ink stamp by ishandmadestamps

Sexy Calligraphy:

Self-inking Rubber Stamp Calligraphy by emililies

And my personal favorite:

Eco Friendly Self-inking Rubber Stamp Calligraphy by emililies
(Um, awesome. Recycled plastic, water based ink, re-fillable)

Anyone know of any other great places to look for customizable stamps? Possibly in the UK?

Also, just started looking for a photographer and it is HARD. Like, not finding one (just google Cornish Wedding Photography, and, boy, do you have a whole heap of choices!) but, like, how do you pick one from SO many!?!?!?

DIY Reading

Hi y'all. It is another busy week in the Gillingham Crisp household, let me tell you. I've just made a schedule to write a chapter of my dissertation a week to finish by my birthday in December (and to meet the university deadline) and Alex is up before the sun to go take bloods and patient histories at a nearby hospital. Crazy times up in here. And still, any free moment where my mind gets to wander and be playful a bit, I'm still smiling about our wedding. Smiling, mostly, cause I'm getting to marry Alex (YAY!) and also because it's really fun planning a wedding with her. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely times when we're on such different pages it's like we're reading different books, but the giggling, the giggling and giddiness makes it all worth it.

Speaking of books, my current selected reading a la weddings: The DIY Wedding: Celebrate Your Wedding Your Way.


The DIY and money saving info is fab, but occassionally my feminist consciousness wants to toss it on the floor (i.e. the focus on the bride is crazy and sometimes I get tired of swapping groom for bride and fiancé for finacée).

The Ring?

Discussions of how many rings, how to source them and their meaning aside for another post, check out this beauty. We think we've found our ring design.

In Praise of Google Docs

While the work on the wedding website continues this week (I hope y'all are impressed with it--I spent an hour and a 1/2 yesterday on the Accommodation page for Fowey alone), this week it is all about the praise for Google Docs, in (short) list form.

Reasons Why A&E love Google Docs (thus far):

1. Our time, effort, and new skills in Excel have not gone to waste in the guest list/contact list compiling exercises.
2. We can share the UK Guest List, CA Guest List and HUGE Contact List with anyone really, primarily our folks (and we don't have to print them out! Yay trees!).
3. Anyone we share the 'documents' (files) with doesn't have to have a Google account.
4. Multiple people can be viewing, editing and saving those documents at any given time and those changes happen instantly.
5. Alex and I can sit at our own computers in separate rooms and chat and giggle online like old times across the ocean while we edit the lists together.
   

Betcha can't tell which one is my favorite reason...

Two more notes:

• Yes, I did totally co-opt the title of Cheryl Dumesnil's new book of poetry, In Praise of Falling--how did you know!? And yes, you should check it out.
  
• And blog posts are more fun with pictures, so here's an old school one of Alex at her desk at the Ocean House. :D

Save the Date -- Done!

For all of you following this who are actually coming to one or two of the ceremonies, this may be a bit of a spoiler, but I'm just so pleased with how the Save the Date and photo collage came out I couldn't resist sharing.

As for our to-do list, the photo collage is now checked off, the website coming along nicely, and some more basic details to be covered this weekend (like getting a Certificate of Approval from the UK Home Office--immigration stuff scares me! The bonus part though is that I just spoke to a very nice man at our council office who we'll go see to Give Notice of Intention for our UK ceremony. There's no Vegas-Let's-Get-Hitched! around these parts!).

Now onto the good stuff, what people will be receiving in their email boxes next month (yeah saving trees, postage, and fossil fuel!), with the exception of our grandmas--some of them are computer saavy, some of them prefer good ol' post.

Click on either for a larger view.
Images, respectively by savethedate and Wyatt Olson Photography.

The Save the Date design is called Jenny by savethedate's etsy shop. She was super easy to work with and Alex and I just love her design. Plus her slogan is 'Save the Date * Save the Trees' --pretty rockin. Then we picked out our favorite photos and threw them together in the collage! (Ok, ok, it took a bit more time than that...) In all seriousness though, we loved working with Wyatt and can't wait for him to photograph our wedding in California!

Week's To-Do List

I have to say that after being back in London for over two weeks now, I finally feel like I am sort-of back in the routine again. The realization was signaled by finally moving all of my IDs, cards, etc. from my US wallet to my UK wallet. (Yes, I have two different wallets. And if you've ever traveled abroad, you know the difference coins can make!)

With the settling came the time to start looking at the 'to-do's before the 'I do's--and let me tell you, we've only got 6 months left now before April 17th rolls along. Loads of time really, what with a dissertation to write, hospital placements to attend, jobs to find, shifts to work. Ok, ok, I'm not really complaining. Here's what we're up to this week:

Wedding Website

MyWedding.com is a free wedding website site up for couples to post their wedding info of where to go, where to stay and what to do along with their story, photos and select music. Let me tell you, Alex was stoked on that last one.

I heard about them as a dear dear friend used the website for her wedding and I really liked the set up. I have no idea who owns them (Anyone? Anyone?) but I've found their site easy to use and gay friendly--i.e. I didn't have to pretend to be a 'groom,' instead I could be the 'partner' that I am. (Although, best thing would have been to let their be two 'brides,' but hey, it's a US site and partner has a heck of lot more politic weight there than in England.)

This week I'm in charge of filling it out with the goal of having it done by the end of the week, ready to send out with our email Save the Dates going out at the end of the month.

A little preview:

The header we picked out of about a hundred,
it was a long process...

One of our favorite listed attractions!

We heart Pinky Murphy's

Another awesome reason for doing a wedding website: saves on paper, printing, and postage. Unlike some wedding invitations that come with different cards of where to be, where to stay and what to do, we hope our guests will use the power of the internets to garner all that information for themeselves and save some trees while they're at it!

Photo Collage

Alex's job for the week, among other glorious, but not so exciting feats in Excel and Google Docs, is to create a photo collage from our engagement photos (a few here) to send out with the Save the Date. Conveniently, the photo collage will also have the url for our wedding website. So far, it looks like it will be a run-off between these two photos for the 'big' photo in the collage. Votes?

Sort of traditional in pose and a nice shot of our faces.

More stylized and great colors!

Photos by Wyatt Olson Photography.

Lovefest Turns Two

Paraphrased phone conversation between Alex and her mum, Andrea, on Saturday:

Alex: We're going to Wahaca tonight for our anniversary.
Andrea: I thought you were going to Rick's on Monday.
Alex: We are. But we planned to go to Wahaca before we knew about the wine tasting on Monday (our actual anniversary).
Andrea: Do you have to do everything twice?
Alex: Yes.

So Alex and I celebrated our anniversary twice. And really, since it was our second anniversary and there are two of us, it really just made sense (well, it made sense to our stomachs, but maybe not total 'pence' if you know what I mean). At any rate, it was lovely.

Alex had found Wahaca (phonetic spelling of Oaxaca, Mexico) in Covent Garden, read the menu, and decided before she even told me about it that we were going there to celebrate our anniversary. As our anniversary fell on a Monday, we thought the smartest thing was to celebrate it on the Saturday before. Plan #1 was formed.

And excuted on Saturday October 3, 2009.
(Those aren't match books, by the way, but chili seeds!)

We sat down to dinner 9:30 PM, like good Londoners, with Coronas in hand and heated anticipation over the shrimp ceviche and steak burritos.

The shrimp ceviche nearly had me on the floor it was so good,
and it was by far the best dish of the night!

And Alex couldn't leave until we tried the churros--which we quickly devoured, licking the chocolate mug and everything!

Plan #1 was the only plan until I arrived back in London (tell-tale sign?) and we found out at our first night back at Rick's (we love it there, it's around the corner from our house, and I work there one night a week) that they were having their monthly wine tasting night ON our anniversay. Well, it was just too good a deal to pass up. Hence, Plan #2 was booked for October 5, 2009.

We started with aubergine caviar but moved onto wild mushroom risotto with Pucela (Castille y Leon, Spain). Both were to die for.
AND Alex doesn't normally drink red wine or eat mushrooms.

Between courses.
Note the grapes from Rick's garden (we thought of you, Dad)
and the perfectly placed engagement ring.

Our notes sheet. Yay Rick's!
We might have spilled a glass of wine, but who's counting really.

Lovefest turns two! (And got tipsy!)

It was a lovely night and we talked about loads of things--my recent university work, Alex's hospital placement, food mis-adventures and, of course, wedding stuff! We've done quite a lot in recent weeks and there's always something to talk about.

Next on our wedding to-do/ponder list: best ways to gather email/snail mail addresses for our now-ready eco Save-the-Date card; researching and tasting local/organic rose wine, presecco and pink cava; picking a local Cornish keg to have behind the bar; and possible tap water ideas for reception (an idea from Rick actually). Oh yeah, and securing a reception venue. We're so laid back...