Wish Tree

I worked some very long hours last week so that I would have a mostly work-free weekend. Saturday became the day to work on a few wedding projects that have not been finished yet. One important unfinished project is the wish tree.

A wish tree is an alternative to the traditional guest book. At the beginning of the reception, the branches on the tree are bare. Guests write down wishes and advice for the newlyweds on little tags, and they hang those tags on the tree. The tags become the leaves of the tree, which should be in full bloom by the end of the reception.

Here are some of the wish tree photos that have inspired me:

Nice branches on this one.

Nicely decorated one with more nice branches.

Nice table setup and nicely decorated at the bottom of the tree.

Two-tree set up, which I think is a good idea. Not crazy about the sparkly-ness.

Not crazy about the crystals here either, but it is a beautifully done tree.

I really like the shape of the tags on that last one, so I found a template to make them out of card stock. I'm planing to use some greens and some neutrals. Here's the practice setup of the wish tree with one lonely green tag hanging on it:


I think I need to spread this into two containers and add some thing to decorate the tops of the vases/"roots" of the tree. I'm not sure yet what to use.


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rediscovering the joy of reading

After my qualifying exams, I wasn't sure I'd ever read for pleasure again. The mere sight of books made me queasy for a few weeks after that. I declined several very nice offers of loaned books that friends and family assured me were excellent reads. Finally, with the help of some aimless bookstore browsing and some persistent digging through moving boxes for the one elusive box labeled "Unread Books," I eased my way back into reading.

I've always been fond of those challenges to read a certain number of books in a year, and I've often enjoyed watching friends track their books read. So I'll keep track of mine and see how many I can squeeze into a very busy year.

Here's what I've read so far in 2010:

1. The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett
It's Jane Austen meets J. K. Rowling. Utterly delightful but ultimately forgettable.

2. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
I'd read this before (and loved it), but I reread it before pursuing the rest of L'Engle's Time Quintet.

3. A Wind in the Door by Madeline L'Engle
A good read that brings back familiar characters from Wrinkle. I much prefer L'Engle's good vs. evil battles and fantastical representation of Christian themes to C. S. Lewis' Narnia series, which is allegory so heavy-handed it sometimes threatens to squeeze all the life out of the story.

4. A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeline L'Engle
Book 3 in the series and possibly my favorite. I read and watch enough science fiction to feel pretty jaded about how time travel is treated in books and film, but L'Engle is distinctively different. I thoroughly enjoyed Charles Wallace's time traveling adventures with a unicorn guide.

5. Many Waters by Madeline L'Engle
Book 4 in the series and my other candidate for a favorite. This book follows two of the Murray children as they accidentally travel back in time to meet Noah and his family right around the time that Noah receives some specifications and starts building a largish boat.

6. An Acceptable Time
A pretty good read that makes me wonder just how many creative plot lines one author can devise. It also makes me want to look into the other books that L'Engle wrote featuring some of the same characters.

7. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
Anyone who has talked to me in the past couple weeks has already heard about this nonfiction book. Pollan argues that plants have evolved to satisfy human desires. Being the sweetest apple, the handsomest tulip, or the most intoxicating cannabis plant confers evolutionary advantages, he argues, if it gets you noticed by humans who will plant your seeds or bulbs or graft you onto another plant. This text is chock full of fascinating information: ask me, for example, why prohibitionists chopped down apple tress or about how a virus made tulips more valuable than houses in sixteenth-century Holland.

Oodles of wedding goodies

This week has been overflowing with wedding excitement as various items arrived via UPS and USPS.

Back when we chose our save-the-dates, I showed Terry several options. He strongly preferred the cards and postcards with little round chicks. So we ordered them.



When the time came to order invitations, we were fully invested in the bird motif. So we chose a different but complimentary bird design. They arrived on Wednesday.



They look pretty good alongside the save-the-dates, and all the wedding stationery (happily yet accidentally) incorporates the wedding color scheme of pink and brown.



Today the UPS truck stopped out front and brought candy for favors and personalized napkins.

Here's a mock-up of what we plan to do with the favors:




The personalized napkins were a splurge, but at least they were on sale. I'm psyched about how the chocolate-on-ivory ones came out; the others are okay.




After all the goodies the UPS truck brought, I thought the excitement might be finished for today. Then I opened the mailbox and discovered that our handmade, custom order cake topper had finally made its way here from Australia. I was anxious about these little birdies because we had never seen them in person and had never even seen photos of the specific color we ordered. But they're absolutely wonderful! (The photos don't show all their wonderfulness but at least they give a sense of scale.)





Finally, late this afternoon, we went shopping for Terry's suit, which went quite well. He's going to look very handsome (as usual) on March 13.

We also learned this week that my dress has arrived at the store. I need to make a trip to Beaumont to pick it up. Terry's mom's dress came in, and she seems quite happy with it. My mom picks up her dress next week.

On Wednesday, we met with the day-of wedding coordinator who will keep things running smoothly at the church. With her guidance, we counted table cloths, vases, and steps in the sanctuary. After our adventures at the church, we made a trip to SAMS Club and purchased plates, cups, flatware, and bottled water. Wedding stuff is taking over a big corner of the living room.


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a weekend of wedding planning

This past weekend was filled to the brim with wedding planning, and it spilled over into Monday as well. We checked several tasks off our gargantuan to-do list.

Saturday: shopping for mother-of-the-groom and junior-bridesmaid dresses
At our very first stop (David's Bridal), we found a pretty dress for Terry's niece, Madison. She also picked out cute bright pink shoes to go with her dark brown dress. After a bit more searching, Terry's mom found a beautiful dress at Nordstrom. She's going to wear a dark wine color.

I enjoyed hanging out with some folks who are going to become my family soon, and I couldn't have navigated all over unfamiliar parts of Houston (including the Galleria) without a lot of help from my future-sister-in-law, Heather.

I'm very pleased so far that everyone is getting to choose styles, fabrics, and (when possible) hues they like for their attire. No matchy-matchy bridesmaids in this wedding.


Sunday: who knew table linens could be so complicated?
My mom has some skill with a sewing machine, so we asked her if she might like to make some runners or overlays for the tables at the reception. I'm so glad she liked this idea. We visited two fabric stores and chose several different prints to fit the pink and brown palette: dots, stripes, unexpected patterns.

Near the end of this shopping excursion, I had a mini-meltdown and panicked that all the different patterns were not going to work together. Maybe, I thought, I have taken this non-matching business too far. I'm striving for quirky or unexpected, but I have nightmares that something I plan will turn out to be tacky or silly.

Terry and Mom assured me it all looks good. Nevertheless, I spent a few more minutes stressing over how many tables we need to cover and the calculations involved in fitting table linens to various tables.



These are the moments that make we wonder how we went from planning a small (about 40 people) outdoor wedding to a large (about 200 people) church wedding.


Monday: from flowers to favors

Early Monday morning, I absentmindedly clicked a link on The Knot and found myself looking at a rather whimsical wedding favor: lollipops and rock candy tied together with a gold ribbon. I loved it! So I started scouring the web for bulk candy prices. I soon found that this particular favor would cost about $5 per person. Five dollars times two hundred people .... okay, that's a little bit outside the budget.



Terry and I intended to finalize our flower choices yesterday evening. I showed him the lollipop picture, and we picked out favors instead. Drawing on Terry's computer expertise--the sort of expertise that involves an interactive spreadsheet with formulas and functions I only partially understand--we eventually chose a visually appealing candy favor that fits into our modest budget. At one point I tied four dry erase markers together with a scrap of Christmas ribbon to study the possibilities.




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