My Favorite and My Best

Mr. Wolf, I'm going to be talking about wedding dresses in this post. Not any on me, but still preferences. This is your only warning to turn away.

My mother's family is more on the Celtic side of things. I figured I should see what they have going too! Although I did at one point try to be a red-head, most of my relatives have dark hair like me. Please ignore pubescent acne. My brother owns a kilt and plaid, but I think the only times he ever wears them are if he decides to hit up Ren Faire. I'm way better at archery than him, which makes exactly one sport I can say that about. But I digress. On with the traditions! The first one I read might also be my favorite. It's certainly made me laugh the most. Apparently in Donegal a man could go to the house of a girl he was interested in and throw his hat into the house. If she threw it back, she wasn't interested. I'm just picturing a tam or similar come frisbee-ing out the door. Another good one from the Ireland side is the mother in law breaking bread over the bride's head. It's supposed to signify that the bride is the new woman of

Like I may have mentioned before, our budget is on the lower side. Just compared to the national average. One of the venues we're most interested in doesn't have any Saturdays available in April or May, our target months. So, what do we do about it? Well, I guess the title of this post gives it away. We're thinking about a wedding on a weekday. Probably a Monday. The difference in price between a Saturday and a weekday at this venue is $3,500. That's a lot of cheddar. I have to admit, the idea makes me a little nervous. Mostly because it means asking all of our guests to take potentially two days off work at least. We would have the weekend before off for traveling to arrive. When I voiced my worries to Mr. Wolf, he insisted that these people care about us and that they would mostly be able to do it. I guess I'm looking too hard from the perspective of finances, that a couple of days if we tell them well ahead of time isn't that much to ask. My anxiety doesn

As I think I've mentioned before, I work for an ink company. So I have knowledge about how colors are made. Apparently that has nothing to do with making any kind of sound decision about colors and sticking with it. Mr. Wolf and I were talking about color schemes this weekend. If we get married in the Spring, do we have to do pastels? Is it a problem that I like a lot of jewel tones and Fall colors, but in April or May? I don't know yet. Another part of the puzzle is the venue, which we haven't yet picked. Since our budget is on the smaller side, will the venue we're able to work with influence our colors? I would think it would have to. Here's some more Springy themes Mr. Wolf liked: Source Source Source Have I ever mentioned how much Mr. Wolf likes lemons? Because it's kind of a lot. Like on fish and chicken and stuff. I don't get it. We were also playing around with some of the Pantone colors, which is one way my job organizes sh

My father's family is very German. Like, mostly German going back quite a ways into their family tree. My brother in front of Neuschwanstein Castle around age 10. Because of this, I thought it would be interesting to research some old German wedding traditions. Who knows? If I like one, I might think about incorporating it. Here's some of the ones I discovered. Apparently my parents were supposed to plant trees when I was born so that they could later be cut down and sold for my dowry. That's a pretty old one though. Why didn't I get trees? DAAAAAAD! The Hochzeitslader: A guy in fancy clothes sent around to invite each guest personally. He's covered in ribbons and if the guests accept, they take one of the ribbons and pin it to his hat. Then they invite him in for a drink. I'm trying to picture sending one individual to multiple states and countries to make this work. I mean, really. Picture this guy showing up at your door. The tradition

We are engaged! Let me explain. Last night, Mr. Wolf asked if we could exchange Christmas presents early. Immediately I started getting anxious and my hands were visibly shaking. But I thought to myself You're prepared. Is there any reason you can't do it tonight? And of course the answer was no, so I decided we would do it. So, we exchanged. He absolutely loved his Super Nintendo and got excited reactions with every game he unwrapped. This is the photo he posted to Facebook: Then I told him I had learned a song for him. Before I could even bring it up, he asked if he could record it so he could always have it. He really is the best person. Seriously. We ended up both setting our phones to record in case one didn't turn out for some reason. I have to admit, I hit a couple of bum notes in the song. I was really, really nervous. But I remembered every single one of the words. Why not? I'd been singing them in my head for a month. I don't remember what I a

Perhaps this is just shouting into the void, but I am so goddamned nervous. Last night, my anxiety made me triple check with Mr. Wolf that he's on board with the timeline we're pursuing. The last thing I want is for him to think I'm only proposing in order to rush him. I'm not. But I can see how someone could think that. I just want to give him that special moment. Why should only the woman have it? I know he has some kind of plan running, but I have no idea what or when it is. Maybe that's building my nerves? I don't know. I recently found out about some shortly-upcoming bridal expos. After I explained to Mr. Wolf what they are, he seemed interested in checking some out. Luckily where we live is very close to a lot of them. The closest one is the 6th. Which may also be recognized as roughly two weeks from today. Which is kind of soon. But I think the thing that causes me the most stress is the errant thought he might say no. I know that he's not going t

I've been playing around with Canva's Color Palette Generator . I had a sudden idea today about an ombre of bridesmaids like a sunset. So I made some palettes to see how it looked. Will I use any of these? Who knows? Let me just quickly throw together what it could look like with seven bridesmaids. Is that interesting or crazy? I'm not sure.

I work in the office of a factory that makes ink. That means that I sometimes get it on my hands. Like this morning, for example. It's about equally red, yellow, and blue depending on what our customers are calling for, but I do think we have more shades of blue than any other color. When I get ink on my skin, I usually don't notice it until after it's happened and my finger makes marks on the inventory papers I got the ink from in the first place. I've also had it all up my forearm. I had better be careful any time I know I'm going to be photographed coming up. I don't think blue fingertips count as something blue.

I didn't realize when I was planning that Mr. Wolf would have shortened work hours all week and would be home every time I would normally practice my ukulele! Why, oh why wasn't I practicing every day when I had the chance? I sure hope I have it down, because the only other way I can think of would be to take my ukulele outside of the home, but then he might notice the case is missing, which I want to keep well under the radar. I've been putting it back in exactly the same place every time so he didn't even have a reason to notice it in the first place. I know all the words, though sometimes I still mess up how the chorus changes at the end of the song. I know all the chords in theory. I'm a little worried that my nervousness will drive them completely from my head. I've been trying to work muscle memory into my fingers without the instrument present. What if my ukulele goes out of tune in the middle of the song? It has happened before. I guess I stop to t

I have to admit that I am not the greatest at budgeting. I don't really know what stuff should cost. If it's above a certain number, I will feel uncomfortable paying it, no matter what. For example, I bought my car when it was six years old and paid $7,000 as is. Was that a good deal? I really don't know. This is not a good trait. But I do want to talk about one method of earning money that even I probably can't confuse. I'm talking about a website called Swagbucks . This is what the home page looked like when I ori. Yes, some of it has to do with getting money back after shopping, but I haven't used that feature. What I use to make points is watching videos and taking surveys. Completely free. In the case of the videos, I don't even have to actually watch or listen to them. I usually have them running in a tab in my browser and I check on them occasionally. I can't remember exactly where and when I heard about it and started using it, but it

I'm far away from knowing what shoes I'm wearing (because I'm not yet wearing the ring), but how cute would these flats from Modcloth be? I have no idea which way I'm going to go. I like the idea of heels and they do make me feel feminine and attractive, but I'm also going to be on my feet all day. And unluckily enough for me, I wear a size 6, which means any heel is going to feel higher to me than it would to women with bigger feet. If I did a heel, I would almost have to do one with some kind of strap so I don't walk right out of them. Maybe character shoes? Meh, this is all random speculation at this point.

Last night, Mr. Wolf and I went to a holiday potluck party. There were 10 of us there total and all couples. Is this what having "couple friends" is? Anyway, I have really been struggling with keeping a secret from Mr. Wolf about what's coming for him this Christmas. I have the tendency of telling him almost everything that enters my head. I am a bit of a babbler at times, but he never acts like he minds. Obviously I can't tell him this one and it's killing me! There was a point at which, for no reason I noticed, all the guys went down into the basement to play some game. Left in the living room were all the ladies and the two toddlers that were part of the party. I was feeling antsy with keeping my secret, so I just told them. It's only a week left; I feel like they can all hold it down until then. And it was such a relief to let it out and be able to talk about it! Seriously, I can't wait until this part is past so I can start really doing this thi

Bridesmaid K at the Library of Congress I know, I said I wasn't telling any more bridesmaids until after the proposal was official. But that was when I thought I'd be calling K on the phone to ask her. I work with her husband and their dog stays in the office with me during the day. Usually he brings the pup in, but not long ago she dropped the dog off on her way to work, so I wanted to take advantage of seeing her in person for a change. How I met K is kind of a funny story. I was one of those people who was pretty obsessed with Glee for at least the first couple of seasons. I used to sort of live blog it on Facebook (yes, I'm better about spoilers now). We had a mutual friend in Bridesmaid A and K sent me a message one day saying that she'd noticed we liked a lot of the same things and we should be friends. The first part of getting to know each other was her commenting on my Glee posts. I was away at college at the time (where I first met Mr. Wolf), so

So, I've been trying to hold back a little on letting Mr. Wolf see all the pre-research I've been doing. Mostly because I had a "secret" Pinterest board about Wedding Stuff before he and I started dating. How great is it that they've added sections to their boards? I was pretty excited when I saw how much better and more easily I could organize my pins. Now my Wedding Stuff board has 20 different subtopics. Just some of the sections: Clothes Budget Ideas Food Reception Activities Happily Ever After the Wedding Putting on My Face I want to talk about what I was working on yesterday. I had a few venues pinned as possibilities that could hold enough people (somewhere in 100-150 range, I think) and are on the lower-cost side. And that was fine. But similar to how I use Pinterest itself, seeing different ideas of how the space had been used seemed very helpful. So I scoured the internet for weddings in each venue I already had pinned and made a collage. I f

Making it official is going to be happening sooner than I consciously realize. Shoot, I better hit ukulele practicing every day that I can! 11 Days and Counting, to be exact! I know that one of the first things people are going to ask is when it will be happening. The problem is that we have no idea. I thought I'd write down what I'm thinking to help clarify things. We know we don't want a super long engagement and that I would pull my hair out with a super short one. In that spirit, here we go: Fall 2018 Pros:  Would at least keep our anniversary in the same season. Beautiful foliage. I like the idea of using some of the autumn colors. Cons: Would be the quickest possible choice for planning anything. Unpredictable moments of cold. Winter 2018 Pros: Cheapest season for weddings. By a lot. Venues more likely to be available. Jewel tones. Cons: We live in Chicago and Winter sucks here, especially for traveling guests.

The second member of my bridal party has accepted my invitation! It seems like I can't totally stop myself from talking details to people. At least with this one, I know she grew up by me and a trip wouldn't be crazy arduous. Meet BMaid A! In a way it's fitting that A heard from me second, as I've known her the second longest of my future party ( after M ). We actually grew up about a mile apart in the same town, but didn't meet until junior high because we went to different schools. One day, when I was still in Catholic School (we shared buses with the public Junior High), I was sitting in my uniform reading a book. Specifically it was Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn. We both still remember the distinctive cover.  This girl about my age with long brown hair sat down across the aisle from me and asked what I was reading. We started talking. I started saving the seat across from me on the bus (we got on before them). We hung out outside of the bus. I think

I really need to stop looking at things like venues so early in the process. Of course I've already got a yearning for a particular place. Don't know how much it is. Don't know if it can hold all our people. Still want to make it work. Also it would have to be mostly outside, which I admit makes me very nervous, no matter the time of year. But the building itself and the inside is so beautiful. I can't... If we can't use it as a venue, (which I'm guessing we won't be able to afford), maybe I can talk Mr. Wolf into taking engagement pictures there? God, it's so beautiful. This is really a problem.

If you read my recent post about my Maid of Honor , you'll know that for most of our lives she and I have been the same height, same hair color, etc. One thing we used to be was in the same weight class. Only this morning she texted me a picture from this year's Thanksgiving. The three of us have a lot of pictures together Not so much lately. And to my chagrin, most of that I've gained only in the last couple of years. I was never rail thin, but I've been getting a lot lazier and a lot less active. I was never a jock or super interested in fitness, but some of that is just my bad eating habits. Look, I'm all about body positivity, but I see the couple of purple stretchmarks on my lower abdomen and I don't like what I see. I know I could be much more healthy than I am. In some ways, I blame the Illinois public school system. We are one of only six states who mandate gym class. When I was a teenager, I may not always have been sweating hard, but I was doi

One of the things I've found weird about knowing you're going to be engaged for a while before you actually are is that you start planning stuff that's way too far into the future to make decisions on. Most websites seem to agree on a basic timeline and I know we're more than a year out at this point, but I keep looking at stuff that actually has to wait for other decisions. One example is bridesmaid dresses. I've been looking at a couple of websites to see what's available and price points. But until I know what time of year it's going to happen, I can't really know what I'm going with. I also can't really ask the bridesmaids until I know when the wedding is going to be. I guess I could tentatively ask them, but the majority would have to come not only from out of town but out of the state altogether. If I had my way and got everyone I want, one would even be coming from out of the country. But how can I expect them to give me any sort of an

Papa and Mama Manatee and Me! My parents. We've shared a birth month and a birth week. I'm sure they were overjoyed about that (/sarcasm). They knew Mr. Wolf for a long time while we were just friends and once or twice teased me about us hanging out. When I told them we were going to start dating, I don't think it was a surprise to them at all. Brother Manatee joins us at Christkindlmarket. Mama Manatee is the adventurous one. I think she's happiest when she's up and moving. She believes that going to a movie theater during nice weather is a waste of a good day in the sun. She's more naturally extroverted than anyone else in the family except for Brother Manatee. I think it might be a tie there. My excited chatter about the relationship and planning for the next step has been something she's simultaneously enjoyed and been taken aback by. She keeps asking if the engagement is official yet. You'd be the first to know, Mama! I absolutely

Mama Wolf learned I had never gone Christmas tree cutting before, so I was invited along to help them pick out the one for their home. The Manatees have always been strictly a tree-in-a-box kind of family, so I didn't know what to expect. We were at their house at 8AM on Sunday and I found out we were driving roughly an hour to the farm, actually much closer to where the Manatee parents live. There were a couple of competing Christmas tree farms next to each other in the area and I found it very amusing to speculate on their rivalry. It ended up taking quite a while to pick out the right tree. Having no experience, several of them looked fine to me, but I let them deliberate. Mr. Wolf has a record for picking out the best trees in previous years and that's what ended up happening this year too. Poor Wolfie though. The trunk was full of sharp needles and his hands ended up getting cut up a bit. They asked me if I wanted to take a turn sawing at the trunk. I think Mama Wolf

I have a little confession to admit. I know what my engagement ring looks like. No, no, he hasn't proposed already without my telling anyone. I don't think I'd be capable of keeping that secret, honestly. Here's what happened. We were visiting the Manatee family home for Thanksgiving. Actually, fun fact. Though manatees most often swim alone or in pairs, they will gather in larger numbers around a warm area with plentiful food. How cool is that? I just learned that.  But I digress. We were there from roughly 11 AM to 5 PM before leaving for our home. I had mentioned earlier in the day that I had never done any Black Friday activities, and we live less than ten minutes from our area's mall, so we decided to swing by for a little while. We didn't end up buying a lot of stuff, but somehow spent a couple of hours there before we decided we were done for the night. Not Friday at all by that point. We were walking back into the department store on one si

Mr. Wolf said he's not going to read this blog right away so he can enjoy my thoughts later on. Which is great, because I'm just about to write about something I don't want him to see. Absolutely no peeking, Mr. Wolf! Still, just in case, I'm going to attempt to put the read more link right here.

Our first anniversary Hello, this is your friendly neighborhood Manatee. Miss Manatee, if you please. This is my story with my Mr. Wolf. Yes, we're using pseudonyms of our favorite animals. As you do. A long, long time ago, in the year 2009, Mr. Wolf was entering his third year of college. Miss Manatee was just transferring into that college at the same time. She had a friend (later known as bridesmaid A, but we're getting ahead of ourselves) already attending there she had known from her hometown. The friend and Mr. Wolf were already in the same social circle. Inevitably, they met. Look at how young and squishy we were! They became really good friends in college. To be honest, they both had a crush on the other but were too shy to say anything. They found out that they had both grown up in the same Chicagoland area three hours north of the college. After college, both were dating people at different times. There was one date, but it was super awkward. But that