Down to days: 0

I didn't want to be the bride that was up all night working hard to finish a project. I wanted to be the calm and collected bride that was nothing but happy and relaxed on the day of. Psh, I was smoking some good crack that's for sure.

I started off calm, or at least so I thought. But then I got ansy. I couldn't and wouldn't  sit still. I tried for a little bit and then would fidget. I remember people telling me to just sit down and relax. I remember telling them "you don't understand, I have been going nonstop for what seem like forever."

I did one last "project" on my wedding day. I wouldn't call it a full project, I just added a finishing touch to Project Ring Car. I needed to add something to secure the rings to the car. Baker's twine was looped through the "roof" of the car, like ribbon would be used on a regular ring pillow. I don't remember if the videographer got this, but I know our photographer got a picture of me tying the rings on just before the ceremony started.

Bottomline, I am a complete nut job to have done all this.

Countdown:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4 and 5
Day 6 and 7
1 week
2 weeks
3 weeks
1 month
2 months
3 months
4 months

5 months

Meltdown at 5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

11 months

12 months

13 months

Down to days: 1

• Woke up early to place all the escort cards in their respective envelopes. Thankfully I had the smarts to put them in alphabetical order long ago.


• Packed up most things and got them ready for transport to the hotel. I recognized that I needed help and asked N to check me in and take a bunch of stuff to the room.


• Jake took my family out on a duck boat tour while I went back to the spa for a manicure.


• Made little signs for all the different things that would be served for dessert.


• Fielded phone calls and text messages left and right. I wanted to throw my phone out a window. I remember yelling "just leave me alone! why won't you people just leave me alone?" Thankfully, I was alone and no one ever saw that ugly side.


• Had mini meltdowns throughout the afternoon. I tried hard to choke back tears. There's only so much you can do when you are handed bad news (more on this later). Luckily, my pride was nice and strong and I was able to stifle the sadness and focus on tasks that needed to be done.


• Had my family bust out some last minute DIY project. Project baby photos. I really had something different in my mind, and was ready to just call it. I really shouldn't have done it, but after hearing my dad say "you should do it", I couldn't deny the man.


• We rehearsed and had a blast at the welcome dinner. I felt bad that people got lost and what not, but what could I have done?


• After the welcome dinner was all wrapped up, I headed home to make signage for the photobooth and build-a-cupcake station. Somehow, I completely forgot to make one for the guestbook. *sigh*


• "Quickly" packed my bag and headed to the hotel with all the guys's suits/shirts/shoes in tow. Well almost all the guys's. As we found out the next day, we forgot all about Jake's suit. Why did I do that? I had grand plans to stage all their outfits together for photos. Let me tell you, on the day of, I threw most of my ideas in the wind and just let my photographer do whatever.

  

Countdown:
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4 and 5
Day 6 and 7
1 week
2 weeks
3 weeks
1 month
2 months
3 months
4 months

5 months

Meltdown at 5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

11 months

12 months

13 months

Down to days: 2

• Woke up early to finish gluing all the name/table assignment tags to the escort cards.


• Hit the spa visit for a few beauty treatments. Stupid me waited too long to schedule a manicure and pedicure. I actually had to come back later in the day for my pedi and the next day for a mani.


• While my siblings folded the last few pieces of paper for the origami balls, I fit all the pieces together to form them.


• I was supposed to pick up my Chinese dress after my pedi, but my seamstress cancelled like 30 minutes before I said I would be available to swing by. Good thing for internet phones.


• Greeted a friend and her two toddlers at the airport and helped them get situated with the rental car and their hotel. Thank God I met up with them, because traffic on I95/128N was atrocious. And this was at like 9pm! Oh and whole new respect for mom's out there, especially one's that travel cross country with a 4 year old and a 2 year old in tow without her husband! Mad props!


• Picked my dad up from the bus stop at 11pm. I should have sent Jake, but I was out and about and still on this "I am Superwoman" kick.


• Finished putting together the last of the origami balls and cubes. Me and my stupid ideas. There was more work than there was return on those damned balls. I may have thrown one or two of them out of frustration and exhaustion. There are just some things that you shouldn't work on when you are exhausted and stressed out.


• Stamped all the escort cards with a clear stamp to make it look more like a watermark. I don't think anyone even noticed this. I shoulda just went to bed.


• Passed out cold.

Countdown:
Day 3
Day 4 and 5
Day 6 and 7
1 week
2 weeks
3 weeks
1 month
2 months
3 months
4 months

5 months

Meltdown at 5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

11 months

12 months

13 months

Down to days: 3

*I'm doing the play-by-play recap of the days leading up to big party just so that I remember the crazy stress I put on myself. I will also use this to warn future brides and our future children of what not to do.*

• After catching about 4 hours of sleep, Jake dropped me off at the rental car counter. I picked up the rental car and then waited for my family to land in Boston. Stupid me didn't bother to check their flight status. Since when does a red eye get delayed? They came in about 30 minutes late. Guess I could have slept in. But who needs sleep?


• I took my mom and my brother's girlfriend to view/picked up my wedding gown while Jake dropped my dad off at the bus stop. Say what? You see, my dad, being the social creature that he is, wanted to go to NYC while he was here so that he could see his friends. Friends that he hadn't seen in close to 30 years. Sure, why not, one less person in our apartment would be a good thing.


• Almost forgot that our wedding planner was stopping by to pick up all the DIY items and the welcome packages so that she could deliver them to the hotel. I literally ordered lunch and then ran out of the restaurant. My family returned with my food in tow before Paula even left the apartment. Let me tell you, it felt damned good to hand everything over. A HUGE sense of relief.


• Printed and cut the names/table assignment tags that would be glued onto the front of the escort cards.


• Put Jake to work categorizing them into their appropriate entree choices. Apparently, we screwed up at least two dinners. Woops, sorry. It was Jake's fault ;)


• After letting my siblings rest "sufficiently", I put them to work folding sheets and sheets of paper to make origami balls for decor. I think they folded almost 200 sheets of paper of various sizes. I owe them big!


• Started gluing the name tags to the escort cards.


• I swear I did something else too all before passing out for the night.

Countdown:
Day 4 and 5
Day 6 and 7
1 week
2 weeks
3 weeks
1 month
2 months
3 months
4 months

5 months

Meltdown at 5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

11 months

12 months

13 months

Down to days: 4 and 5

Monday:

• Made my last and final trip to Costco to purchase the last of the snacks that would go into either the welcome packages and the kids packs, or consumed by the wedding party. I swear Costco people knew me by name since I had been in there almost daily up to this point. 


• We went to our last and final dance lesson. Good thing we had this last lesson. We were able to figure out which way to face and how we needed to be situated for the grand finale.


• Printed and cut all the pages for our programs. There was a lot of corner punching done by Jake in two days. I shouldn't have punched the corners on the cover page. That would have saved HOURS of work. I think the corner punch actually bruised his hand. Woops!

Tuesday:

• Printed a welcome note that would be placed in the welcome packages.


• Met my personal trainer for one last workout. It was really wierd how calm I was. I spent an hour and a half driving to and from the gym, and not once did I freak out about how I could be spending that time crafting. Instead, I enjoyed the quiet time. I remember telling her that all I had left to do was put together the programs, the welcome packages, and the escort cards. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy. Right.


• Made a quick run into Boston to pick up tourist brochures to put in the welcome packages. People probably thought I was some kind of nut job counting out 35 of each and then loading them into my giant purse.


• Finished punching the last of the corners on our programs and then proceeded to assembled all of them, by hand, by myself. Not because no one offered, but because I thought it would be an easy job.


• Individually packaged lobster lollipops that I had premade for the welcome packages.


• I think I spent the entire rest of the day working on putting together the welcome packages. Jake tried to help. But me being me, shoo'd him away when he didn't do things my way.

  

Countdown:
Day 6 and 7
1 week
2 weeks
3 weeks
1 month
2 months
3 months
4 months

5 months

Meltdown at 5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

11 months

12 months

13 months

Down to days: 6 and 7

Other things we did the week before:

• Finalized song for mother/son dance


• Checked in with our cinematographers


• Finalized all the music selection, name announcement, and timeline with our DJ

Saturday:

• Ran out and purchased washi tape in the correct color. As it turns out, I totally didn't have to do this.


• Apply newly purchased washi tape to remaining two escort cards. Again, totally didn't have to do this. *sigh*


• Attended our last wedding as an engaged couple. Congrats to S and R!

Sunday:

• I remember waking up early to finish projects. I remember it being a full day, but I can't remember for the life of me what I actually did.


• I think I scored and folded the escort cards and then cut and glued the photo sharing information to the insides of the escort cards.


• Maybe this was also the day that Jake helped glue all the photos to the front cover of our programs.

Countdown:
1 week
2 weeks
3 weeks
1 month
2 months
3 months
4 months

5 months

Meltdown at 5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

11 months

12 months

13 months

1 week to go

I had started this post the weekend before the wedding. But I just never got around to finishing it. I sit here now, trying to remember what we did, but I am drawing a complete blank. I'll just try to start listing things, maybe they will come to me.

• Resigned our lease. They raised our rent by an atrocious amount, but what can you do? We aren't moving right before the wedding.


• Researched the best way to collect/store/view/share photos that will be taken by our friends and family.


• Ordered last minute items for our welcome packages and bathroom baskets


• Finalized the setup for our DIY photobooth (at work of all places!)


• Sent in the final headcount and meal choices of our guests


• Played email and snailmail tag with an Etsy vendor. First they sent me the wrong item. Then it turns out the item I ordered wasn't really the color I thought it was.


• Finally sent a shot list to photographer (it was 13 pages long, but in my defense, it included all the different groups of people we wanted photos of)


• Finalized the program design


• More or less ran around like a chicken with my head cut off, but in a really calm manner.

Countdown:
2 weeks
3 weeks
1 month
2 months
3 months
4 months

5 months

Meltdown at 5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

11 months

12 months

13 months

We got married!

Finally!


Photo by Paula Marrero.



We want to see your pictures!

Upload your photos (full resolution) at...

http://www.picasaweb.google.com/

username: jakeandcelia

password: 08202011

or

email to...

jakeandcelia.wedding@picasaweb.com

(up to 20 MB in JPG, GIF, or PNG formats per email)

2 weeks to go

• I went to my final fitting and was blown away by the bustle that my seamstress put on my dress. Seriously people, it is beyond AMAZING!


• I tried out yet another manicure place. No good. I mean it's good, but not great. I think I'm just going to go a-natural. No one cares about my nails.


• Shipped my ring off for inspection, polish, and cleaning.  I am super picky about how my ring is polished. The jewerly store we bought my ring from will do an in-store polish, BUT they never do it right. My ring always comes back with ridges in it. Thank goodness this has no impact to my ring other than cosmetically. Anways, they have a specific jeweler that works offsite that I do trust. The drawback is that it takes about a week to have it sent, inspected, and shipped back.


• Got my wedding band cleaned and polished up nicely. I know I haven't worn it, but I have played with it A LOT. Well not so much recently, but I did when I first got it.


• Menu cards are DONE! All thanks to the awesomeness that is our friend S. She's 5 months preggers, came over on Saturday, and spent hours crafting with me. Not to mention, she bought my lunch. Seriously, I should have bought her lunch and then some for all the help.


• S also helped me start/finish a whole slew of other projects that I am not going to share with you just yet. I want to keep it a surprise for all of you!


• Our ceremony is almost there. Again, the amazeballs S has been helping us finalize things! Thank goodness she officiated her friends' wedding last year. 


• Finally figured out our centerpieces! I know it's weeks before the wedding and we FINALLY found something we both love. It's so perfect. Our florist LOVES it. As does our planner. Yay!!

Up next, programs, escort cards, cardbox, and something super super cool. I am well on my way to finishing right on time. That being Tuesday of next week, since my family arrives on Wednesday morning!


Countdown:
3 weeks
1 month
2 months
3 months
4 months

5 months

Meltdown at 5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

11 months

12 months

13 months

Hotel update

For those of you that have not booked a room, I have some bad news. The Westin is completely filled up. Yes, that's right, a hotel in Waltham has zero vacancies. But have no fear, as the other hotels in the area have rooms available.

We recommend that you book at the Courtyard Marriot that is down the street. We know of a few guests that will be staying there. While we did not set up a room block there (I didn't think we would run out or rooms), the price is comparable to the rate we negotiated at the Westin.

Courtyard Boston Waltham
August 19-21, 2011
Room: $101 (non-refundable, advanced purchase)
Parking: Free
Wi-Fi: Included

If enough people stay here, we will look into having the shuttle service both hotels.