My Library List

I live for books.  And chocolate.  And Mr. Library.  And books that have to do with chocolate that I can share with Mr. Library.  So is it any wonder that I asked for a Sony Reader for Christmas?  I never thought I would get it (for Pete’s sake, they want how much for a Kindle?!), but it would be super helpful to pass the time on our flights to our honeymoon destinations.  Well, surprise surprise, my parents gifted me one!  It was my main gift this year and my parents, knowing that they could give me “useful” things for my birthday, my shower, and my wedding, wanted to do something I would have fun with.  Thanks Mom and Dad Library!  It’s super thin and can hold a ton of books, so I don’t have to worry about lugging them around in suitcases, carry-ons, etc.  Really, this little contraption leaves a lot more room for nice Italian heels to come home in my bags… right, Mr. Library?

So here is my latest dilemma.  I need books.  Not just any books, but books that will keep my attention on long flights across the Atlantic and over a trillion countries in Europe.  Oh, and during a 6 hour layover in Budapest.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Budapest.  We know how to pick airlines, huh?  When I asked Mom Library, she gave me a funny look and asked, “You’re only going to read on your honeymoon?  Don’t you think you’ll be busy doing… other things?”  Uh… awkward.  Thanks.

Here is my “must purchase and read” list thus far:

1. The Lovely Bones
2. Eat, Pray, Love
3. The Hunger Games
4. Three Cups of Tea
5. Some smutty romance novel that will make me giggle
6. The Blind Side

Now I need your help.  Do you have any recommendations for me?

Words, Words, Words

What would I be without words?  Well, jobless and not a blogging Librarian (for those who don’t know me, I’m not actually a librarian.)!  Thanks to my love of words, I present my moment (and I do mean moment) of boredom this afternoon.  I call it “My Wedding Thoughts.”

Props to Wordle

I highly recommend this website, and I am playing with the idea of turning our vows into art later on… you know, once we decide on them!

What do you think?  Have you done word art lately?

Artfully Yours

When I saw Ms. Poodle’s idea for the fingerprint tree, I knew it was something Mr. Library and I had to do.  We picked the tree/bird theme (that everyone else seems to be doing as well!) from the start, and this fit perfectly.  My cousins had done signature frames at their weddings and this provided the same sense of acknowledgement for our guests.  I loved it.

I also knew who to go to.  Do I pretend to be artistically gifted?  Only when it comes to paper crafts and arranging things.  When it comes to drawing, I know where my limits are.  This tree was over the line.  People would be staring at it, signing it, and it would hang on our wall in our (hypothetical) home for years.  Perhaps it would be a treasured heirloom at some point.  This called for a real artist.  This called for…

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Sister/MOH Library!  She is one of the most talented artists I know, and as an MOH, I figured I should ask her to do this project for us.  Plus, she can take glory in everyone admiring and using her work.  Mr. Library and I researched different tree photos very quickly one night when he was finally in Maine, and we decided on this one:

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We liked the basic shape, and while we would need the little branches taken away to fit 110 fingerprints, the general outline was pretty and appealing.  I printed out the photo, purchased a canvas large enough for the project, and handed it over to Sister Library.  She got busy.

For twenty minutes.  Seriously.  Twenty.  Minutes.  That was all it took for her to come up with this:

*Personal Photo*

Isn’t she amazing?  I wonder where all that talent went in me…  It looked a little funny with just the tree in color, so she added some color around the edges, but left enough room for fingerprints on the basic canvas.  She also put a heart with Mr. Library and my initials.

I haven’t found strong enough ink yet for the fingerprints, but I am on the lookout.  Anyone have any recommendations?  I would love a dark and light green.

What are you doing for guestbooks/signature frames?

The Unemployed Elephant in Our Lives

Welcome to the year 2010, where we not only have a bad economy, but Mr. Library and I are both looking for jobs for next year.  Ugh.  Needless to say, this is the suck-tastic part of getting married.

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As an English teacher, I feel the pinch of having to find another job.  When I came out of grad school last year, our professors pumped us full of positive thoughts:  “Of course you’ll get a job!  You have a Master’s from Such-and-Such University!  We’re an Ivy League!”, “You can do it!  Everyone loves you!”, “How could they turn down skill like yours?!”.  Well, as it turns out, they can.  And they did.  Forty-nine times.  I sent out probably over 50 resumes last spring and early summer, praying that something would come my way.  Thankfully, interview 15 turned out to be the charm.  I could live at home with Mom and Dad Library, save money (aka not have to pay rent so I could focus on my loans), and plan the wedding.  The fact that this was a one-year position didn’t freak me out in the least.  I wouldn’t be burning any bridges when I got married and moved somewhere else, so what could be so bad?

Well, being a zero income household with two newlyweds who have grad school loans up to their eyeballs could be so bad.  Mr. Library and I both attended Ivy League institutions for grad school, and while I did receive some scholarships to go to mine, there seemed to be no such thing for him.  Great.  Now it’s our turn to pay it all back, every cent plus interest, on top of rent, food, insurance, and everything else life has to offer.

Mr. Library’s field is rather picky, and because the pickings tend to be slimmer than most occupations, we have no idea where we will end up.  That makes my job hunt super fun and super easy.  Not.  If you don’t know anything about teaching, you have to have a license, which means you have to take tests to attain it.  Plus send in about $100 per state.  Different states require different tests.  I have taken eight standardized tests for teaching licenses to date, and none of them were repeated.  If we go some place I don’t have an existing license, it could delay my job hunt severely.

So our anxiety continues.  I am pumped to become Mrs. Library, but I hate the thought of going through a job hunt again.

What are you worried about with transitioning into married life?

When It All Becomes Real

Tiny things have made me realize that the wedding is coming sooner than I thought, like when the ball dropped on the year 2010, when Mr. Library and I kissed each other at the 6 month mark, when the groomspeople got suited up (and dressed up… but that’s still in progress), and like now.  What’s going on now?

The bridesmaids’ dresses are in!

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Not only are they in, but they are in my closet, hanging next to my wedding dress in their plastic covers, just waiting to be worn and shown off and danced in.  I am delivering two of them to Miss Sox and Bridesmaid Al this weekend when I am in Massachusetts (playing cousin and bridesmaid!).  Due to a mix-up with Bridesmaid C, she went to get the dress, but I already had it, so we will have to arrange something later.  Bridesmaid Al already has hers thanks to the wonders of ordering it to Washington state.  But that’s beyond the point.  I have bridesmaids and they have dresses.  To wear.  In our wedding.  In July.  This year.  Oh boy.

Our invitations are being shipped to us this week, and I am sure I will feel that twinge of reality when we send those out too.  I cannot believe it is so close!

What has made you look at how far away your wedding is?

So a Priest, a Protestant, and a Catholic Walk onto a Bridge

This sounds like the beginnings of a horrible joke where the punchline is too racy or demeaning to share in this blog, but, in all actuality, this is the story of our wedding.  Mr. Library was raised Catholic and his family, while not being strict church-goers, stand by their religion.  FFIL Library was actually Protestant growing up and converted when he and FMIL Library came together.  They have been Catholics for as long as I have known the family, and only a few years ago did the FFIL Library story come out.  Mr. Library is currently contemplating what his true beliefs are, but it was important to him that religion be a large part of our wedding ceremony.

My family, on the other hand, is very much Protestant.  Mom and Dad Library have a similar story to the FIL Libraries; Mom Library grew up Baptist and Dad Library grew up Catholic.  When it was time for them to get married, the priest they talked to called my mother a heathen for not coverting and pretty much put up a big fit, almost refusing to be a part of the ceremony.  Disgusted, my parents decided to raise Sister Library and me as United Methodists.  When Mom Library’s parents were alive, we would go to the Baptist church with them.  Gram Library (Dad Library’s mom) is my only surviving grandparent, so when we go visit her we go to the Catholic church, but otherwise we stick to United Methodist.  You could say that I have been raised in three different churches in a way.  I respect all three, but I am more attached to what I have grown up being.

With the pattern of Protestant marrying Catholic already established for us, Mr. Library and I had a few questions when it came to deciding on who would officiate our ceremony.  Did we want two people?  I thought that would look a little funny, and I wanted a connection with one person, not a juggling act with two.  Even if we could decide on having one person, what kind of church would we get married at?  Would an out-of-town church let us bring in our own officiant?  So many questions, so little patience for different officiants’ egos.

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When we found the bridge, I knew Mr. Library was pretty hestitant to get married outside, away from an actual place of worship.  I believe that God is all around us, so it would be a spiritual place no matter where we were (with the possible exception of a county jail or Vegas “wedding drive-thru”).  Being the amazing man he is, Mr. Library agreed to the bridge, so I left the job of finding an officiant up to him.  If the ceremony needed to be more religious for him, he was the man to find our officiant.

And that he did.  With a few emails, Mr. Library contacted his priest from undergrad, Father Walter.  An aging man with bright blue eyes and an infectious smile, Father Walter has to be one of the most liberal priests to grace our planet, and I love him dearly for that.  I have a few complaints about different Catholic rules, specifically having to state that I WILL raise my children as Catholic (or ELSE!), and Father Walter said that was fine.  Did it matter that I was Protestant?  Nope.  When we went to visit one of his services, he made the whole ceremony “Protestant friendly” and explained each tradition as we went.  He welcomed me to take communion (a huge no-no at other Catholic churches) and genuinely cared about what I needed spiritually at the ceremony.

When Mr. Library and I went to his parish to have dinner a few months later, Father Walter not only proved to be a welcoming host, but an amazing chef.  I was tempted to ask if he could cater the wedding as well!  He mentioned that because we were both baptized as Christians, the Catholic church dictated that we had to get married in a building.  Well, because our bridge is a covered bridge, he was willing to file the paperwork in a certain way to get the church to recognize it.  Oh Father Walter, you scoundrel you!

I am so glad that Mr. Library picked Father Walter to lead our ceremony.  Though it was tough balancing our two different backgrounds, the compromises we came to have worked out wonderfully.  I cannot wait to see how it all comes out together!

How did you pick your ceremony officiant?  Are you from different religious or spiritual backgrounds?

Getting Flashy

With all of my posts about my love of photography, I’m sure you all saw this coming.  One of my most sought after gifts is none other than a Nikon D (insert a number higher than 50 here).

What?  You’ve never heard of this kind of camera?  Surely you have seen them on the streets, dangling from a tourist’s neck.  They’re at soccer games (of the pretty rich and famous) and oogled over by people like me who long to become photographers but who don’t have the funds to make it happen.

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What I love about it is the fact that I can manipulate the focus.  Some of my most favorite photos have really cool effects thanks to different lenses, and regular point-and-shoot models just don’t make me happy with their auto focusing.  I can play to my heart’s content with this baby.

Unfortunately, this type of DSLR runs with a high pricetag, money that a first-year teacher just doesn’t have when she has student loans, car insurance, and a wedding to pay for (yes, I also know that I have it pretty easy compared to my “not living with the parents” counterparts and those who do not have jobs).  So now, I must live with the fact that perhaps somewhere out there, some special and secretly wealthy person on our guest list will pluck this beauty off from our registry list and present it to us as a wedding present.  Yeah… I have a big imagination!

What wedding registry presents do you want the most?

Help! I Need Somebody!

Ahhh the grand scheme of putting a perfect wedding together as a 50/50 effort between the loving couple.  Sounds great, right?  Every decision is made together, everyone gets along, everyone feels blissfully at ease with the whole process.  Yep, that’d be nice, but totally not us.

I have learned a lot about Mr. Library during the process of planning our wedding.  In the almost eight years we have been together, we hadn’t really ever planned anything to this great detail, so it was bound to open some eyes.  While we might not have the “oh, we planned every little detail together and love each other for every moment” wedding planning story, I love him for what he has done and what he hasn’t.

1.  He’s laid back.

So, I’m a little high-strung when it comes to making plans.  I like to know when, where, what time, how many, what color, what dress code, and who is going to be there.  It doesn’t matter if it’s the wedding or just going to a casual party; I am all questions.  Mr. Library is a lot more chill.  When I wanted to pick our invitations the second month after getting engaged (read: 25 months before the yet-to-be-set wedding date), Mr. Library gently talked me back from the edge of the envelope liner and made me look at the big picture.  He rolls with the punches on my changing opinions and is willing to look at things five times just to make me happy and secure in decisions.  He even lets me email him thousands of pictures for inspiration each day.  What a guy!

2.  He’s a secondary planner.

Did I think this was a good thing all the time?  No siree Bob.  I have had my share of crying fits where I whined about how Mr. Library was putting all of the planning pressure on me in my first year of teaching and it wasn’t fair.  Looking back on it, I have realized that it is my passionate to plan everything to the Nth degree, not his, and that’s okay.  If we had to sort through all of my research and his on every decision, we would have needed a lot more engagement time, and trust me, waiting 2.25 years is enough!  We know that we share a vision and he is fine letting me run the ideas by him once we find the best ones.

3.  He makes simple requests.

It’s not hard to make Mr. Library happy in the process of wedding planning, or generally in life, for that matter.  He has made simple requests throughout the process of planning wedded bliss, like that we eat copious amounts of cake at the cake tasting (check!), we go to Europe for our honeymoon, but only to countries where he speaks a little of the language (I didn’t like the whole “we have to speak the language” thing at first, but I caved… so check!), and that the wedding have elements of blue (double check!).  It seems to me that if I am happy, he is happy, and I tend to be happy when he is, so we’re doubly happy. 🙂

4.  He’s willing to ask the tough questions.

I am a total chicken when it comes to asking about fees/money.  Or when questions could cause family drama.  Or when it’s awkward.  We like to joke that awkward is Mr. Library’s middle name (and his undergrad mascot), so when it comes to asking these questions, I turn to him.  He hasn’t complained once.  Not once in all of our wedding planning and meeting with vendors.  You should stand up right now and applaud him right now.  Go on… clap!  He is my awkward question hero.

Here’s to you, Mr. Library!  Even though I had this wonderful plan of making every little decision work together, I’m glad it didn’t because I have learned a whole heck of a lot more about us as a couple.

What have you learned about your significant other during the planning process?

Etsy Virgin No More!

After hearing about the wonders of Etsy for months and seeing all of the cool items people in the hive have purchased, I was ready to have my first encounter of the Etsy kind and purchase Ms. A’s bird basket.  I logged on, went to my shopping basket where I keep all of my favorite things, and…

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found it completely gone!  It was a blank box with just the seller’s name in bold.  Uh… where did my bird basket go?  I typed a quick message to the seller and waited.  Did she have another one available?  Please oh please oh please have another one!  It had taken us so long to find and fall in love with that exact one!  Let this be a lesson to all who wait to purchase the perfect piece!

A few wedding prayers and worries later, I got a response.  The seller, creations4brides, had discontinued the style, but if I really wanted it, she had enough materials to make one more.  Did I want it?  YES!  A thousand times yes!  After making a custom listing for me, I logged onto Esty and bought our first Etsy wedding purchase:

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Now it’s a waiting game.  But the basket will be ours and Ms. A will be adorable!

Have you purchased anything from Etsy before?  What was it?

With a (Second) Kiss Goodbye…

I have submitted my application to WeddingBee (again!) and hopefully this one happens to be a good one.  Here are some lessons learned from some reflection and from the last one:

1.  Professionalism isn’t everything on online blog applications.  For Pete’s sake, they are going to get to know me through the blog, so why be boring on the application?

2.  Regardless of their decision, I love writing this blog.  If I get onto their website, awesome!  Amazing!  Fantastic!  Super!  If I don’t, I’ll keep writing and enjoying it.

3.  I love Mr. Library.  Plain and simple (but this didn’t happen out of being rejected by WeddingBee the first time!).

4.  I have a writing personality and I want to share it!  Let’s hear it for people who love to put their thoughts into words!

5.  Wedding planning is awesome and it should be shared, but in a non planet “Look at me! Look at me!” way.

Credit to G.L.S. Photography

So now I wait (again) for probably about a month.  In the meantime, sit back, grab a yummy snack, and enjoy my babbling and my funny pictures of DIY projects!