Nick & J-me

I thought things would slow down quite a bit when the wedding was over. Haaaahahahah! But regardless of the speed of life, things have been pretty awesome.

Milestone achieved: the thank you cards are DONE!!!

I decided to make thank-you cards that matched the invitations – so sending those out took a little longer than I originally would have anticipated. (Though we got them out before Christmas. Woohoo – big success!)

Another milestone: I’ve also been blogging regularly about the massive honeymoon trip on my personal blog at purenoumena.org, and I put up the last honeymoon post today.

Coming back from an incredible trip like that was pretty harsh… but being reunited with the dogs was fun, and we’ve been trying to enjoy the little things. (Because trips to Costco really are just as fun as trips to the Guinness Storehouse! Okay, maybe not. But we do love spending time together.)

We also came back from the honeymoon to another surprise – wedding photos from our photographer Elli! They look amaaaazing, and sorting through them was a lot of fun. (Though I’m glad I’ll surely never see that many photos of myself ever again. “Hey – here’s one of me! and another one of me. Omg look at this photo of me and another one of me!”)

If you want to check out the online galleries you can see them here:http://paperlily.zenfolio.com/nick_jamie  (password: pumpkin).

For any guests reading this blog post: we’re going to be making a wedding album and we’d like for it to include as many pictures as we can – of everybody that was there, if possible! If you’ve got some photo gems you’d like to share with us, we’d really appreciate it.

The past few months have been absolutely incredible. Returning from the honeymoon was a big reality check, but now we’re just catching up on life and trying to spend as much time with each other as possible… enjoying the  residual wedding bliss as it comes.

So. Only a few days away…

On Saturday, Nick, Jono and I spent some time cleaning up the Q’arma courtyard. Sweeping, weeding & moving some of the construction supplies out of the way.

It was nice to spend the day outside, though I’ll admit it was pretty chilly! Fortunately it’s supposed to warm back up a bit later in the week.

We spent the rest of the day running errands and getting ready for Saturday and our upcoming trip. Ticking things off the old to do list one by one and just enjoying hanging out with each other. I got a suitcase that pretty much looks like a big pumpkin.

🙂

 I am incredibly grateful for all the help and support we’ve had from friends and family. Work has been pretty stressful and it’s nice that the wedding planning has been so much fun.

And Nick has been nothing but amazing. He took some extra time off, in part to relax and also to help wrap up some of our home projects. As of last Friday, guess who has an awesome laundry area now? This gal!

Super handsome future husband:

Can’t I have a bit more time?

Things have been busy – and even more so than normal. I’m trying to get ahead at work and tie up loose ends so I can take my wedding/vacation with few negative repercussions… but it seems like everybody else is busy too, so “wrapping things up”  has been challenging.  In all aspects, I’m trying to check things off the “to-do” list without adding anything new to the bottom. I’ve been moderately successful with that, but I’d love to have more time to handle some of the fun stuff – because I’m becoming increasingly distracted to say the least.

My  family will be staying with us the week of the wedding, so we’ve been trying to wrap up a few home projects too. We finished the basement bathroom just last week! Now we have two, complete, fully functional bathrooms in our house. It’s fantastic! Some of the initial work on the bathroom was done years ago, but our interest in the project tapered off. (Home improvements = stressful and expensive!)

But in the past year Nick and his dad have really worked hard to wrap it up, and in doing so they turned a really quirky basement space into a very large, lovely bathroom. (For the record in case you think I’m a total slacker… I did help a tiny bit in the home stretch by doing the painting and some of the drywall stuffs. I also ordered the shower curtain Nick wanted from Amazon, and all that clicking was very very hard work.)

It’s difficult to capture the size of a bathroom-room in a photo, but it’s really roomy compared to our tiny bath upstairs, and the shower is a lot more suitable for tall people like Nick. (I refuse to get rid of the claw-foot tub upstairs, because I think it’s so charming and claw-foot tubs are the best for bubble baths.)

But I digress… I’m not sure how much wedding information I should be posting and how much I should be saving for “the big day.”

My dress arrived and I drove to my fitting last week a little freaked out and not super happy with the dress and my last fitting experience. (The demo dress was wayyyyy too big, and horribly cumbersome.) But the seamstress I met with last week is great and I left feeling FANTASTIC and more excited about the dress than I was well… ever. Yay for proper sizes and hems!

Site visit with the caterer, check. Beer and wine ordered, check. Favors, check. Centerpieces? Well, that’s still on the to-do list – I have to do those closer to the actual day. (You’ll see!)

I want a bit more time to do some of the little, fun things I was looking forward to doing… so we’ll see how this next week goes and how productive I’ll be able to be.

All in all, planning is going really well and we’re fortunate to have really awesome support from friends and family. There have been a few weird byproducts of this whole wedding business, though. I feel like it makes me more selfish than normal and that feels strange. I have been told we have every right to be selfish around on “our special day” but… here’s what I mean when I say this all feels strange:

This has been a really, really hard year for so many people. Because our friends are scattered about the world, quite a few won’t be able to share the day with us. We’ve got people in our family with health issues, going through divorces, legal battles, financial concerns, etc. This year has also been absolute hell when it comes to weather. The tornado that hit the Minneapolis community, the storm on the east coast, some friends of ours recently lost their family home in the horrific fires in Bastrop…

Aren’t there more important things to be thinking about besides how my dress fits?

I have trouble with the whole “my dress, my wedding, my shoes, my blah blah blah” part of this process, so I wind up feeling really selfish and/or guilty when I take time for those things. But I have to remind myself there are always other “more important” things going on, and life is very much about balance. So as we’ve been planning the wedding from start to finish, we’ve really been trying to stack the deck on the fun side. We need things like weddings and parties to celebrate life, our friends, our family… Our wedding isn’t going to be fancy or stiff. Instead, we really hope it’s going to be a welcome respite for us and our guests from all the crap that the world seems to be doling out in large quantities these days.

Indulgent food. Delicious cake. Beer and wine. Cheesy and wonderful music. Friends. Family. So many hugs.

I can’t wait.

We sent the following notice out via email to our friends and family… but since not everybody has email, we’re posting it here as well just in case. Also for posterity. 🙂

Dear Friends and Family,

The big day is getting closer and closer! The little orange envelopes have been a treat to come home to and we’re very excited that many of you will be able to attend.

We understand that weddings are hectic and it’s very hard to spend enough time with everyone the night of. We also know that many of you are traveling quite a distance to be here with us on our special day and that means so much to us! As such, we’re trying to make the most of the weekend, and we’re planning to do a few things that we hope you’ll be able to do too.

Friday night – Rendezvous at Psycho Suzi’s

Psycho Suzi’s is one of Minneapolis’ most popular bars – and for good reason. The beautiful outdoor patio overlooks the Mississippi River and its indoor decor, handcrafted by local artists, makes you feel like you’re in a tropical lounge paradise. On Friday and Saturday nights, they open the second floor of the bar. Three bars, live Tiki music later in the evening, fondue and volcanic tiki drinks await.

Now, the bar gets INCREDIBLY crowded, but we really want to experience it with you. We’re planning to go there around 5:30 after we wrap up a quick rehearsal at the gallery. Please let us know if you’re planning to join us. The plan is to eat downstairs and then go upstairs for drinks and to check out the tiki band. A note to those with small children, while you can take little ones for dinner downstairs and on the patio, the upstairs bar is 21+. Please let us know if you plan to join us Friday – we’ll do our best to carve out a big space.

Psycho Suzi’s: 1900 Marshall Street NE, Minneapolis, MN

_________

Saturday night – the Wedding!

As a favor to ourselves as well as to you, wedding and reception will all be held at one location. (Altered Esthetics Gallery – 1224 Quincy Street NE, Minneapolis MN) There will be appetizers and drinks available before the ceremony, and after the brief ceremony we’ll be serving a yummy meal and having music and more refreshments.

Another note to those with small children: there will be an open bar and a bonfire later in the evening.

_________

Sunday afternoon – Tour the Twins’ Stadium!

Just because they’re not playing their best this year doesn’t make the stadium any less amazing. We’ve scheduled a private tour of the Twins Stadium for 1pm on Sunday to help make the Minneapolis weekend even more memorable.

From their website: During your guided tour to Target Field, you’ll see areas of the ballpark guests normally don’t see. These spaces may include the press box, clubhouse, dugout and other premium areas (all subject to availability).

We have to book a tour for each group of 25 people, so if you would like to join us please let us know ASAP.

Target Field: 1 Twins Way, Minneapolis, MN

For those in want of breakfast, we’ll be stopping by Grumpy’s Bar in downtown on our way to the stadium. They have some of the best Bloody Marys in Minneapolis and also food if you want a bite to eat. It’s close by, free parking, and one of our favorite local haunts.

Grumpy’s: 1111 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis, MN

_________

Well, there you have it. The weekend in a nutshell! We especially hope that you travelers will get to take advantage of the awesome other stuff there is to do in the Twin Cities. Jamie’s going to be adding awesome foodie places to eat and other fun stuff to do while you are in Minnesota to our blog: http://www.nj-jme.com.  And if you have any questions or want specific recommendations, just ask us! Some people have asked about where we are registered and there is information about that on the blog too, as well as a few hotel recommendations.

looking forward to seeing you soon!

xoxo,

Nick and Jamie

Several people have asked where we are registered, so here is the official answer.

We don’t have a traditional gifts registry. In fact, we’ve spent the past year really trying to consolidate and downsize the amount of *stuff* we have in our house, which has very, very little storage. And while we get that it’s the norm now, we honestly think the registry concept is just a little weird. We want to celebrate the day with you! We appreciate the sentiment behind gifts, but don’t want to put pressure on people to buy us stuff – especially if we don’t need another toaster (not even a toaster pre-screened by us).

So instead, we registered for a Honeyfund. A friend suggested Honeyfund to me, saying: “People are going to want to give you gifts. That’s just how it works. You need to have some sort of system set up lest you wind up with 10 toasters, 46 towels and a crystal goose platter.”

Nick and I have wanted to travel to Europe together as long as we’ve been together and this honeymoon is our first chance to do it. But traveling is crazy expensive, so we caved and registered on “Honeyfund”- a honeymoon gifts registry.

How it works

The Honeyfund is quite literally a “registry” for our trip. We’re traveling to England and Ireland, and you can help us get there. And instead of just giving cash, you can fund specific parts of our adventure. A dinner in London, a trip to the Cliffs of Moher, Stonehenge (!), etc.

The site allows you to pay online with a credit card or print out a gift certificate to send along with cash or a check. The site is also free to use, for you and for us, and free is the best.

We liked the idea a lot because then it makes the registry process more engaging. We get to share with you a bit of what our honeymoon plans are: where we’re going and what we’ll be doing. And instead of getting us some gadget, you’ll literally help make our travel dreams come true. Awwww, how romantical!

You can find our Honeyfund Page at:
honeyfund.com/wedding/njandjme
There’s also a link to it on the right bar of this site.

We also understand that some people are more comfortable online than others. If you have any questions about how it works or need a little help walking through it, let me or Nick know.

And it bears saying again: we request your presence, not your presents! (~wokka wokka~) Especially since some of you are traveling so far and bearing great expense to get to Minnesoooota, we’re really just excited you’re sharing the day with us and expect nothing more than hugs and congratulatory high fives. ☺

(And for the record, if anybody gets us a crystal goose platter, you may or may not be getting the same thing back for Christmas. Just sayin.’)

So… I had fun making the wedding invitations – perhaps a little bit more than I expected. We decided to do them ourselves both to save a little money and also so we could do whatever we wanted instead of going with some printing template. Looking back at the components, I realize there were various bits and pieces that made them special in addition to just being handmade.

The invite itself I designed in Illustrator. Our friend Chank is an awesome fontographer and type foundry guy, and I’ve been using the Millesime font from Chank Co in a lot of the wedding miscellany. Speaking of fonts, I should note:

There will be NO PAPYRUS at the JOHNSON-SCHUMACHER wedding.

We kept it pretty simple – black and white ink printed on pretty paper our friends Mike and Irene gave us. I felt like they were lacking a little something, so I daubed little balls of iridescent paint into the strand of lights. We watched Harry Potter while I tap tap tapped the brush on the invitations. It took a long time but only because I kept getting distracted by the movie. (FYI – Somebody dies.)  Then we mounted them to colored paper backings.

We didn’t exactly pick official wedding colors, but rust orange keeps coming up because… well… pumpkins are AWESOME! Black and white are classic colors, so there you go.

I did the map in illustrator too. I’m really not sure anybody will use our map when GoogleMaps is so much easier but… at least they look pretty right? Ha. I found a stamp at Archivers that we both really liked, so I used that for the back of the RSVP cards to make them look nicer than just like cut up pieces of paper. (Which I suppose they still are… but now they are *stamped* cut up pieces of paper. SPECIAL!)

I read somewhere (and by somewhere I mean – every single blog post and etiquette article I could find on this topic) that wedding invitations should really be hand addressed, and neatly.

Seriously?

That’s like… a lot of writing and a lot of neatly.

So I got a simple calligraphy pen, some pretty ink and practiced for a few days. Once I felt confident enough I did a few envelopes every day for a week until they were all done. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to hand address everything neatly – apparently writing bible verses over and over when I was younger to practice my handwriting really paid off.

I was going to post a picture of my practice calligraphy sheet since it was kinda neat looking but the dogs ate that paper – along with our brand new couch cushions. Seriously! I don’t know why they keep eating our pillows, but it’s really frustrating. We decided anyone that eats invitation related items should not receive invitations to the wedding. We also added these replacement pillows to our wedding registry:

Only kidding. (But I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what our pillows look like to the dogs.)

The dress-buying process has been a little bit chaotic, but my friend Jessica has been helping me a ton. (Thank you!!!)

After some mild trauma and very little success at The Store That Shall not Be Named, we tried a different approach.

First, we went to Eli’s downtown for a yummy brunch – completely with bloody marys. From there we walked to Macy’s and enjoyed some of the beautiful, sunny Sunday. At Macy’s it was surprisingly and pleasantly very, very quiet – perhaps folks were still at church or maybe it was just our luck for the day. The sales staff were incredibly helpful and actually seemed excited we were there. After trying on several dresses (all leaps and bounds better than anything we saw at The Store That Shall Not Be Named) our  sales associate said she was “going to confuse us just a little bit more” and brought out just one more dress to try on.

What happened next went a little something like this:

Okay, so there wasn’t exactly fairy dust involved. However in my real-life, non cartoon form: the dress  was beautiful, it felt comfortable, it fit well, it was on sale, so that was it! Done. No more dress shopping. WOOHOO!

In other news: Tables and chairs have been ordered so our guests have a place to sit and eat. Functionally that’s far more important than the dress, but it wasn’t nearly as much of a process and besides, Disney doesn’t have any cute images about that part of the process for me to joke about.

Or do they?

We’re just MAD about the chairs and tables, really we are. What a wild party it shall be!