1 Month before the wedding: anxiety

I have to admit that despite all the efforts not to be, I am a little behind on my wedding planning.

Luckily, only minor details are left to plan. Unluckily, these are the details that will make the day extra special, therefore these are very important. And, on top of the wedding anxiety, my job became way more hectic (that comes in the package with more interesting projects).

So, I am feeling quite stressed for about two weeks now.

So, here is what calms me down and keeps me in order (or at least prevents complete chaos):

1. Summer - just going outside and noticing how everything looks and smells makes me calmer, because I enjoy this summer, even though it rains a lot. I actually don't mind rain.
2. Toodledo.com - I think I finally found a way to track things. I wanted Google to come up with a task tool like that, so I can keep everything in the same spot, but this free tasking program so far wins over Google tasks for me. Toodledo gives you literally any criteria you can imagine to sort your tasks and keep them as together or as separate as you want.
3. My fiance is back home from a two week long trip. While I don't mind some time apart, in the last month before the wedding I need him like air. And not just because that he helps with planning (!!), but just having him around makes everything better.
4. Zoom out: when I feel completely tangled in the details of the day, I force myself to zoom out and look at myself, as if I am watching a movie. This helps to keep first things first.
5. Blogs that I follow: Blogs are a window of inspiration and emotional recharge for me, since everything there comes from talented self creators, and I am learning to be one. Jasmine Star's blog is my favorite, when I read her posts it feels that I am right there with her watching everything happen. Her posts are completely captivating and a work of word art.

According to Jasmine, every post is better with a picture. I agree. Here is one of my favorite shots I captured to date.
Wishing everybody a productive, everything-goes-as-planned week. (Wishful thinking, but we will try, right?)
How are you coping with your stressful moments?

3 things you need to remeber when dealing with wedding invitations

1) As soon as you know your wedding date, count backwards:
1 month before: this is your reply by date
2 months before: this is your send out date
3 months before - you need to decide on the way you are printing and you will need to have information on the time of your wedding, reception and on dinner choices.

2) There are several ways to print invitations:
- you can buy a kit from a crafts store - the best ones are in Michaels and in Target - and print the invitations yourself. Total cost would be about $150 for 75 invitations plus your time, ... lots of your time!
- you can buy your invitations from Wedding Paper Divas or Minted (there are many more companies out there). You still need to print your envelopes and apply postage. Cost: $300 - $2000 per 75 invitations, depending on number of items in your package and the type of printing. Letterpress is the most expensive (and beautiful!).
- you can use a local invitations specialists to print the invitations. This is a way to still receive personalized invitations, and it can be even less expensive than going through an internet company. Maggie, our day-off coordinator has offered her services, but I wasn't quick enough to take her offer (my schedule got a little out of hand). This service will cost about $350 per 75 simple, elegant invitations minus all the hustle and headaches of printing and mailing. The price is an approximation, as it heavily depends on the invitations themselves.

3) if you end up with one of the do-it-yourself (partial or entirely) options, make sure to invite a couple of friends to stuff your envelopes. Goes sooooo much faster!

Which route I took? Wedding Paper Divas + printing the envelopes at home. I didn't follow my advise #1, so this was my only option. :( ... :) The company has excellent customer service, by the way, and I am really happy with their job.

The best way to do wedding invitations in my opinion? If you have time, do them yourself from a kit. They do really have beautiful kits out there!

If there is no time, hand it off to your invitations specialists. It might cost you a little more than ordering invitations online, but it is way less hustling. Maggie Heely in my opinion is just the right person for this task and for wedding planning in Buffalo.

This is how our invitations turned out.

What do you think?

And, our cake is...

I bet you didn't even think of this one, but here is the cake we chose:

Photo via Project Wedding

This might be a little unexpected choice, but actually it fits into the wedding theme, I promise! The tie-in of this cake to the wedding is ... my dress. :) Also, sometimes Andrey reveals the most incredible little things that matter to him: it happens that he can not have a cake at his wedding that is square or blue. Just like that! (Actually I sort of understand his fears - I can not drink Blue Gatorade). So, we are all about compromising and finding a choice that makes both of us happy. This cake did the trick!

Oh, and I just have to tell you about our baker, Zilly of Zilly Cakes.

Photo via Zilly Cakes

Zilly is first an artist, than a baker. When we were going through so many options for the cake flavors, proportions, colors, icing, Zilly never said she would not be able to do something. She also seemed to be picturing the cake just as we were, not even caring that our fantacy can transform into too much work for her. She was eager just as we were to create a cake that we would enjoy.

I anticipate seeing and tasting our wedding cake from Zilly with excitement for the beauty and for delisiosness!

If you are looking for a wedding cake in Buffalo that would be created with care, talent and creativity, you should definitelly visit with Zilly!

How to Chose a Wedding Cake

There are so many very good looking options for a wedding cake. How to chose just ONE? What do I like and what will be beautiful for my wedding? - This was my dilemma. The problem of too many choices, yet again.

I am the kind of a bride that saw many weddings before we had to plan ours. I always admired people's good choice in different details of the wedding. However I was not the one to write down good ideas in "my future wedding" planner. I always knew that my wedding planning will be based on the relationship that led to the wedding. So I had no expectation for a wedding cake when I started looking, except one - it has to taste good.

I had to start my search for a wedding cake with no preferences in mind. A good helper in this task was Project Wedding. After looking through myriads of cake photos, I chose 8 different cakes I liked.
Which one d0 you think I chose? And which one was my close second?

All images via Project Wedding

I will tell everything about our choice in the next post in a couple of days. Let me know what do you think was our choice.
Update (7/1/09): there was a problem with some images today on this post, so I will leave you guessing for the cake we chose one more day.

Michael Jackson!

I was going to share our cake selection story and what was involved in this process, but .... Michael Jackson died. :( I can not really believe I am writing this. I couldn't peel myself away from the TV with Lary King's show on devoted to MJ. I couldn't hold back the tears.

All genius people have a weird side to them. May be this happens due to the forces of balance - if you are extraordinary good at something, you are also extraordinary bad at something else. But I wish this wasn't happening, I wish talented people really understood they had to preserve their talent for more people to enjoy it, get inspired from it, benefit from it.

To me Michal Jackson was talent, inspiration, example of excellence.

I was about 12, when even from our television signal challenged apartment house my dad managed to catch us the first commercial channel. Even on the best day the signal was weak and the picture was fuzzy, but we watched it anyways. Right after I came back from school the music videos were on. This is when I first saw, what remain my favorite videos by Michal Jackson.

Our short trip to Europe.... oops! ... Montreal, Quebec

Last Thursday Andrey and I excitedly packed our car and drove off to Montreal. I am usually overjoyed to go anywhere and especially somewhere that is known as Europe in America.

I have to say: indeed! (That comes from a renown European "expert" that has only been to Italy and Prague in Czech Republic). Well, at least I can say with a certainty, that Montreal does not feel American, and it is different from Toronto.

We enjoyed the historic architecture and details:

Loved (!!!) just installed city bike system - it lets you have a bike for $5 /24 hours and has stations to take/return bikes all over the city. It is called BIXI - bike taxi - cute! Pretty amazing, especially if you are a tourist and want to go places.

Andrey was such a gentleman to carry around my camera backpack! By the way, about camera bags: I am using Kata. I was torn between this one and Lowepro. Their products are very compatible in quality and price, so I chose the one that also offered a trolley. A set of wheels on something that contains a camera and a laptop can be very helpful at the airport. This model is DR-467. Good for transportation and sightseeing (when you need to stuff some personal items to the same backpack), not ideal for photo shoot carry-around. The carry around is going to be my next purchase. May be even the raved about professional photographers Shootsac.

Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral impressed beyond expectations! I've learnt it is a 1/3 replica of of St. Peter's in Rome. Never seen any church that big!

Our breakfasts took place in Eggspectations. Scrumptious! And a Marketing masterpiece.

Here is my delicious, freshly squeezed Banango: mango, banana, pineapple blended with fresh orange juice and ice.

Finally a couple of other views of Montreal:

Last logistical remarks: We stayed in Delta Centre-Ville hotel and were very satisfied: good service, great, clean rooms with a view (we stayed in a renovated premium room), reasonable prices. It is better to leave your car in the hotel parking lot and get around by public transportation and BIXI - my favorite.

Could I live in Montreal? Yes, for the months of summer. Winter is too cold! :)

Off to Montreal for the weekend!

Just wanted to drop a note: on the wedding side of things - we have started exploring our cake options - I will share the details very soon. But for this weekend we are taking a mini vacation from planning and going to Montreal! Have a great weekend! !!!