Mr. Postman

Wow! We mailed the invites on Saturday just before noon and they've starting arriving to folks as far away as Buffalo today. Impressive, Mr. Postman!

Invitation Eve

Tomorrow we send out the invitations! While we decided long ago on sending them out 10 weeks before the wedding (to allow plenty of time for all the oot guests to make arrangements), all week long I've been bugging FH about them.

Monday: Can't we just send them out tomorrow??
Tuesday: But I'll have time to go to the post office on lunch Wednesday! What about Wednesday?
Wednesday: Oh, come on, it's been a long week, sending them on Thursday would just make my day!! Besides, then people will get them at ten weeks.
Thursday: Fine! I can wait until Saturday.

Okay people, keep an eye on your mailboxes. I promise from this point on the blog will contain more actual information, like details on parking, hotels, and all that jazz. And please, please prevent my head from exploding by sending your rsvp postcards back in an expedient manner! :P

Dig this!

I had been debating putting in a garden in our backyard and last weekend I decided to go for it. Our landlord asked that we put the garden outside the fence so when I noticed the remnants of a parking spot (two cement strips with 3' of ground between them) I decided it provided the perfect outline for a flower bed. Initially I started my digging with a hand trowel, since it's the only shovel we own ... I did not get very far that way! The next day I borrowed an actual shovel from props storage at work which was much more effective.
Over the course of a few days I peeled off the top layer of grass and set it aside on a tarp, then continued digging down to about 8"-12". Then I broke up the grass clumps, collected some leaves and a few bags of coffee grounds from Starbucks (they'll give you big bags of grounds for free if you ask! Many have a little basket marked "grounds for your garden" near the counter, you don't even have to buy a cup of coffee to get them.) and started layers. Grass/leaves/coffee, dirt, grass/leaves/coffee, dirt ... I tried to shred the grass up well but I'm sure I'll have to weed out a few errant patches along the way. At this point I have not added any extra fertilizer, the goal is cheap and natural, but I may change my mind once I see how things grow.
Here's the patch!! We got some heavy rain last night so I'm glad I got it done yesterday. The rain really helped soak it back down. I lined the edged with some leftover campfire wood, rocks, and chunks of pots that didn't make it through the winter.

Due to the experimental nature of my project and the questionable soil quality I decided planting seedlings, rather than seeds, is probably the best bet. I plotted out my little cutting garden last night and set to starting some seeds indoors!
Some of these were started a couple weeks ago, some earlier this week, and a bunch today. I'd been setting them in various windows of the house but then read an article online saying that a standard fluorescent light works almost as well as a grow light and provides a lot more for a plant than a window. Curious, I put a few seeds on the kitchen counter and left the light on overnight ... it was like magic!! I purposely chose seeds that sprout quickly but still, to see my bachelor buttons and zinnas break the surface after 2 days was thrilling!

Half of our kitchen counter is now taken over by bachelor buttons, zinnias, snapdragons, calendula, stasis, bells of Ireland, and some veggie starts that will live in pots. (After all the random junk I found in the soil while digging the plot I sure don't want to eat anything that grows there, at least not until we've conditioned it for a few years.) These are mostly cooler weather plants so they'll be ready to go outside in just a few weeks. Next weekend I'll probably plant the remainder of the rannunculus bulbs on the border of the plot before it gets too warm for them to start.

Stay tuned for more gardening adventures!

Checking off the list

Today FH and I met with our caterer to finalize the menu and talk a little about set-up. Really, it was more of a "yeah, we still want what we said we want 4 months ago" meeting, but at least I can check it off my Knot checklist. (It's okay, I only like the Knot ironically. But they do have one of the most all-inclusive planning checklists so that is helpful.)

I also called the cupcake place to find out how much notice they need for an order of 12-13 dozen cupcakes and they said, I kid you not, 1 or 2 days. I love these people! Then I said, well, it's for a Saturday and for a wedding but we don't want any special colors or anything, just your normal flavors. To which they responded, oh, well, then maybe call like 2 weeks in advance. Ha ha! Screw you knot checklist who said I needed to order a cake 2 months ago! I do think we'll place the cupcake order in the next month or so, just to have it done with, but it made my day that they were so laid back. One of the big reasons we went with cupcakes!

Invites will go out at the end of next week, which is causing me no end of distraction. They're all addressed, stamped, and inserted in their envelopes. Paranoia keeps me from sealing them yet, just in case, but aaaahhh! It will be hard, I think, to shove 50 hours of my life into a mailbox and let it go into the world. Sigh.

It's Greek to Me!

I think we've settled on a rehearsal dinner venue, the Greek Islands Restaurant in Downtown Indianapolis. It's one of the few resaurants we've actually been to since moving the Indy and man, was it good! We've got a meeting set up for early April to talk about menus and such, but it seems like they're able to work in our price range and are accustomed to groups of this size (around 30-35 people.)

For those of your whose tastes run on the conservative side, don't worry, I think you'll find Greek food very accessible. It's kind of like Italian but without the tomato sauce, rice instead of pasta, and feta cheese instead of mozzarella. But the flavors are generally mild (not spicy) and the food is light and fresh. Ideal for a summer evening.

Good thing it's lunch time because now I'm hungry!