Sleeping Arrangements

I've spent this morning in a hotel/b&b-filled haze. It's been great! When I first started looking at hotel arrangements for the night before and night of the wedding, it was August of last year and nobody had any information for over a year in advance. I had to remind myself that Halloween weekend was not the largest hotel day in the year, so I was probably safe to refrain from panicking.

Well, it's 2011. Tomorrow March begins and I would like us to get our hotels booked for the wedding! Planning early means deals are available and hotels are probably hoping to fill spots for late October.

The night before the wedding, Dr. Light admitted he wanted to stay at The Westin Downtown Denver.

Image from The Westin website.
I've worked near this hotel for about eight years now; it's very nice! Despite that our wedding is 45 minutes away in Evergreen, being able to wake up and have a staging area in downtown is really great for a few reasons.

Click to read more.

Mailed: Save the Dates

After hemming and hawing over if we should include our website in our Save-the-Dates this early on, we decided: WHY NOT? Folks will have the chance to see how far our venue is and allow them to figure out if they actually want to save the date.

We ended up printing out our website address on some business cards, then putting them in with the final product. I figure if people want, they can use our magnets to stick the web address to their fridge. Or, just, throw it away. Y'know, like you do.

Some photos, slightly edited for privacy:

Dr. Light informed me I spelled "Azeroth" wrong. Sigh. This is what I get taking pictures after a few beers.


Everything looks rather red next to the envelope, but it's really white. Truth!


Dr. Light is SUCH an invite hog! See how many more he has than I do? His are blue.


We used these cute king/queen stamps. I took all the queens, he took the kings. In case of a mutual friend, we divided it up according to who had known them the longest.

What do you think?

Beating Sickness, aka Things My Pharmacist Told Me

One of the most annoying things about being a woman is your period. Aside from the crap we can all agree on, the thing I'm touching on in this post is the fact that just before her period, sometimes a woman is more susceptible to getting sick.

I'm pretty sure this very thing ailed me the past couple of days, as I had body aches without fever and a runny nose that wouldn't quit. Yesterday I went home from work early just because I couldn't concentrate. To make myself feel better, I took a picture of my new kangaroo onesie.


I'm so not kidding. Isn't it awesome?
That aside, it got me thinking about how much I'd dislike being sick for the wedding. Here's a bit of advice centered around minimizing a cold that I've gotten while dating Dr. Light, who is a pharmacist and has a pretty good head for this kind of knowledge.

1. Drink lots of water. Despite this being an age-old adage, I never really understood the advice. Ok, yeah, we're always supposed to drink a lot of water, so why would this be any different when you're sick? Well, the last time I had a nasty cold, Dr. Light gave me a good reason why I should do this. Drinking a lot of water helps thin out the mucus in your system, meaning that if you have a really nasty stuffed up nose, you can have an easier time blowing it out. Thinning the mucus and getting rid of it will also keep you from getting a sinus infection. THAT, my friends, was really great advice for a girl who likes to know the reason behind things. And who hates sinus infections nearly as much as she hates her period.

2. Dr. Light always recommends Airborne when I catch a cold. I'd never paid the stuff too much mind, but he practically swears by it. If you've never heard of it, Airborne "contains 16 vitamins, minerals and herbs – including Zinc, Echinacea, and a blast of Vitamin C" (I cribbed that all from their site). You can read up on the specific ingredients on your own, but Zinc, Echinacea, and Vitamin C are things that people from different parts of my life have always recommended to me in times of sickness, and Airborne combines them into an easy-to-drink dissolving tablet. Plus, it travels easily (think: honeymoon). It's a simple way to fortify your system and help you get back on your feet.

3. Definitely use an expectorant when you have a cough and you are awake. Expectorants help you get all the crap out of your lungs and system by forcing you to cough. If you are trying to sleep, it's ok to use a cough-suppressant, but avoid buying an expectorant and cough-suppressant combination - they work against each other. It's like asking your body to cough and not cough at the same time. So keep that in mind when you read the packages at the store.

That's my small bit of advice. I wish I could tell everyone how not to get sick in the first place, aside from minimizing stress and sleeping more. Since I can't, all I can do is point to the stuff you probably already know, but now can back up with a pharmacist's blessing!

Photography: I'm so glad there are professionals!

On Saturday my friend Beverly invited me to her house with the request that I take a few photos of her and her fiancee, Nick. I hopped over with my trusted Canon Digital Rebel t2i, and snapped away at them for about 20 minutes.

I learned a few things.

Wedding photographers are awesome. They're not only used to helping couples express their love in front of a camera, but they've got a ton of ideas (both for look and positioning) that I just don't have in my repertoire.

Right now, Dr. Light and I only have the kit lens for our camera. It's an all-around ok lens to use for photography, but it doesn't make up for the fact that we don't have a portrait lens or something that can take landscape photos. Because of this, I ended up switching back and forth between my Canon and Nick's Sony, which is also a great DSLR. I really wanted to give the two of them some amazing photos that would make them both just die. I couldn't.

I also don't know how to use all the manual parts of the camera. When I shoot, I just set the thing on automatic and go for it. I don't know how to adjust aperture. I kind of suck, a little. Someday I'm gonna try to take a class on how to use this fancy beast with all the amazing features!!

Beverly and I got to chatting the other day, and she admitted that photographs probably weren't as important to her in the wedding process as they are to me. She and Nick don't have the same emphasis on the engagement photos and such. I couldn't live without mine. :) Ok, I could, but I'd probably stomp on the floor a little and be grumpy. In any regard, I find it interesting to see the different priorities one bride to another has regarding to her wedding.

I gotta say, it's not easy to get the photos that we're used to seeing in the blog-o-sphere. Those photographers carry SUCH good cameras with SUCH good lenses - and they know how to make the lenses sit up and bark! So I say to any couple that is pondering having a professional vs. winging it - get the professional. They are expensive, but you're not only paying for their time, you're paying for the creativity, the editing, the knowledge on how to use their hardware (which itself is a pretty penny!)

If a photographer is not a priority to you, I'll never totally get it, but it was fun to be out there snapping pics and watching two great friends celebrate their love. :)

So, Bev and Nick, I wish I could have given you OOOOH and AHHHH photos, something that was better than my meager self can do. Or at least a photo of a unicorn with a rainbow shooting out of its butt to best represent your love.

(Although the pictures of you smooching on the rock were awfully cute.)

Choosing a Bridesmaid Dress - Part 2: Color

After a couple of intensely busy days because of work and social functions, I'm back and am going to talk about the color aspect of the bridesmaid gowns.

Remember the pewter Bill Levkoff dress that I was hoping would be a slate blue color?


It was definitely not blue. In fact, below the cut I've posted the most true-to-color picture of the color card that I could get photoshop to produce (since there was yellow light in the shop).