My tomatoes are GROWING!

Oops, I forgot for a minute that this is a wedding blog. Sorry. BUT humor me for a minute: my tomatoes, strawberries, savory, oregano, parsley, lavender, and even the basil that looked like it had kicked the bucket... they're all thriving! And all I had to do was leave town for three weeks.  :-P

So... those pictures I promised. Love the dress; only semi-loving the girl right now. I'm not usually like that, which is why I'm a little bummed. I'm wondering if it would be 1) not too hard and 2) more flattering to make it strapless, but I think the fabric probably isn't rigid enough to support my puppies... er, dogs. St. Bernards. But maybe a bra could be built in. Any thoughts? Leave it as it is and do some serious weightlifting? I definitely need a better bra than the one I'm wearing in the pictures, that much is certain. And the necklace is looking kind of funny - I'm going to be wearing a longer one with a pendant.

I kind of wish I had taken pictures of the back before I took it away from Chrissy's, since I couldn't really see how it's cut there. I would have liked for it to be pretty much straight up and down, rather than curving in near the shoulders. I'm going to have some kind of wrap, but I'd rather not need to wear it. The thing is, I'm not really sure what could be done to fix the shoulders. I guess she could add some of the same red edging that's around the neckline. Thoughts?

In any event, the Seattle trip was a lot of fun, albeit exhausting. The biggest day involved two trips to Chrissy's (she is, in a word, amazing... I can't really begin to describe how easy and great she is to work with), one LONG wander-fest through Pike Place Market (with a detour to Nordstrom Rack - didn't buy anything!), and a leisurely & delicious dinner at Ray's with my mom.

PP Market is one of the most incredible and overwhelming places I've visited in a long time. I don't usually do well in crowds, so it was a little intimidating for me. But after braving multiple street markets in Hong Kong a few months ago, this one actually felt downright spacious. Here are a few more pictures from that visit - pretty soon, they'll turn into something wedding-related! I'm aware it's moderately strange that I'm more excited about produce than my dress (to the point of posting three times more veggie p*rn than dress porn), but I know some of you will relate.  :-)   I'm also pretty happy with how these photos turned out, just taken with a little Kodak EasyShare! I did some very minor editing in Goldberg (including cropping the datestamp, which I brilliantly forgot to turn off). Most of the thanks is due to the cute signs and my new friend Butch (last picture), who kindly let me snap away for about 15 minutes. Butch rules.

Have you traveled far and wide for your dress, or made a big purchase on a leap of faith? I'm feeling a little silly that I took such a huge trip and am not totally in love with how I look in the dress. Please give me some thoughts and advice!

Guilty guilted me into it.

Just kidding, Guilty Secret! But I definitely should never make promises I'm not sure I can make good on in a timely fashion. 

My mom and I are getting ready to leave our hotel, and I have a long day of traveling ahead of me (through Milwaukee with a layover, then back to Boston and driving to Gabby and co.'s house to stay the night). So I'm going to post ONE more round of teasers before starting a full, only-a-few-holds-barred rundown of the Seattle trip.

I'm not feeling terribly body-happy these last few days, so I'm going to post a few pics of the full dress hanging by itself before posting the pics of me in it. I know it's sort of silly, but it's less scary for me that way. I also took over 100 pictures at Pike Place Market that I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate into the wedding...

See you when I'm back in EDT!

I just watched a very long All-Star game...

...and my eyes are crossing because I was glued to the TV for so long. But I wanted to post a smattering of quick peeks at my Tuesday, with more to come tomorrow night!

No, I didn't climb it.

Westward, ho! (Hey, don't call me that.)

Along a moving walkway at SeaTac airport. Besides just being rad, it reminds me of  this, 

which I keep in my viola case as a little "Tim" memento.

My mom and I just flew to Seattle on a frequent-flyer-mile-enabled trip to have my dress fitting with Chrissy Wai-Ching! I am beyond excited. After waking up at noon on Sunday (ah, the life of a musician), I went back to Boston for a day, hung out with my friends Andrea and Glenda, tried to sleep, couldn't, and flew out at 6:30 Monday morning. I crashed this afternoon for a couple hours but am still so antsy that I can barely sit still, much less get ready for bed. Let's count: That means I've been up for nearly 39 hours, not counting today's nap. Yee haw!

Here's a little peek at what we're up to, since I just can't wait to share these pics... especially the last one:

Safeco and Qwest Fields, as seen from the highway. (I took this picture while my mom was driving 65mph, thankyouverymuch.) I am so jealous that Seattle has two stadiums right next to each other, within walking distance of lots of cool downtown stuff.

My old friend Sarah grew up in Seattle and had some recommendations of great places to eat. She knows me so well. :-) I think we'll go here for lunch on Tuesday:

Cafe Flora. source

Doesn't that look amazing?? Farm-to-table, community-minded restaurant with food that sounds freakin' delicious.

Tomorrow morning we're going to hit Pike Place Market for a few hours, then go on a Sephora expedition to find some super-sweatproof makeup. There's no major makeup counter or store even remotely close to Ithaca, and this is a chance to go when I don't have too much other stuff going on. My mom hates shopping with such unbridled fervor that I may drop her off at a coffee shop and tiptoe among the [tu]lip(stick)s alone. (Just humor me. It's a family curse, and I've been with my mom for 12+ hours straight. I can't help it.)

Pitter patter pitter patter. source

And finally, the teaser I'm so excited about... thanks for bringing it with you, Mom!!!

To be continued...

Again with the late night posts...

Last week, I made a draft of a post when I wasn't able to be online for very long. I just finished it, but unfortunately it's posted on July 4th. If you're not getting the feed through Google Reader, please read this post! Thanks and sorry for the technical difficulties - we now resume our regularly scheduled sleeping.

zzzzzzzzzz

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The favor of your favor, part 2

Somewhat gratuitous. But... Best. Logo. Ever. Source

After I wrote about favors last night, my mission was to find some cute baseball-themed favors this afternoon. I think I scored a home run! (Ha.)

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Cooperstown Cookie Company, based in none other than Cooperstown, NY (home to the no-adjectives-do-it-justice Hall of Fame that Tim visited after his Cornell interview), seems like a wonderful, family-run (woman-owned!) company. Besides having adorable products that look delicious, my favorite thing about them so far is their commitment to the Cooperstown community. Because it's a New York State company, I feel like that qualifies as fairly local, especially when I compare it to the distances some other favors might have had to travel. The lanterns I ordered for the centerpieces came from China by way of California, and I'm trying to assuage my guilt by never doing that again.  :-(

The shortbread cookies come in the above four flavors: Classic Baseball Shortbread, Mudville Mudball Chocolate Chip, Boys of Summer Lemon, and All-Star Almond. Cute, right? And because I'm a butter fiend, shortbread is my friend. Yum. Also, I really had my heart set on the "midnight snack" idea that's becoming popular, because people are always hungry again after they've been dancing. (Tim said, "But don't we have to be out of the Fontainebleau by 11?" Thank you, Captain Literal.) A snack AND a favor might break the bank, but if we have the favors at the door as people are leaving, with some chilled single-serving milk cartons, I say that just about covers all my bases! Oooh, I'd better post this before I make any more bad puns.

For Gabby's benefit. source

The cookie idea also ties in with my guestbook idea: vintage wood baseball bats that guests can sign with permanent pens. I've been looking for small ways to incorporate our mutual love of baseball, and I think I might have succeeded!

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Do you have any semi-random ideas you're trying to make relevant to the "vibe" of your wedding?

The favor of your favor

Way back when I was starting to gather inspiration photos, this was one of my favorites:

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Before I honed in on the farmers' market theme, I was thinking rustic elegance (which the farmers' market thing still fits into, I hope), and these seedlings seemed like perfect favors. But there were a few problems.

• I've read that they're hard to get to grow, which would be compounded by the fact that our wedding is at the end of October - the tail end of when you're supposed to plant seedlings in cold zones.
• They're kind of pricey (ranging from $3-$6 apiece, depending on the supplier and the packaging).
• Most of our guests are from out of town, so they'd have to be in sturdy enough packaging for them to transport home. Even with plastic tubing, the reality is that a lot of people might leave them behind or - gasp - throw them away. Sort of defeats the purpose of having an ecologically friendly favor, no?

The most ecologically friendly favor, of course, would be either no favor at all or carbon offsets through a site like TerraPass or NativeEnergy. I would really like to give guests something tangible, though... most of them are traveling a really long way for this wedding, and it's one small token of thanks. My mom's latest idea was jars of apple butter or apple jelly (purchased from an Ithaca Market vendor), personalized with our own label. I'm hoping to use the graphic that the fabulous Stephanie of Stelie Designs created.

These favors would be cute and useful, but not especially original: I already know that our friends who are getting married in September are giving out jars of something his mom is making. I'm slightly worried that it seems copycat-y (I know my friend wouldn't be mad, but I'm sure I'd get a little friendly ribbing from her and some of the many crossover guests); more than that, though, I would love to come up with something slightly more unique that's still equally useable. I've thought about a similar favor with Mike Graney's JP Honey, a nod to the awesome Boston neighborhood we lived in for five years. 

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The other option I've thought about a lot but can't get anywhere with: something baseball-themed that's not a tchotchke and might have something to do with the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. (I'm a Milwaukee Brewers fan by birth, but the Sox are my adopted American League team. Tim is a diehard Evil Empire fan.) Please let me know if you have any clever ideas - I'd love to hear them!

Are you giving away favors? Are you more concerned with making them personal, or making them useful?