Borne Back Ceaselessly Into the Past...

The Great Gatsby re-remake/adaptation came out in May, and I've been meaning to go see it with the BFFs. I am still stunned that Warner Brothers a) found out the date of our wedding; and b) decided to do a remake of The Great Gatsby in our honor. But they did! I guess we waited a bit too long to go see it, though, because by the time we got our respective acts and schedules together, the only place it was playing was at the Agawam Family Cinema. So off we went! After some misleading directions (my fault) we made it to the theater. Which was very... interesting. We soon realized why the ticket price was only $3.50. The theater looked and/or smelled like a combination of a high school lecture hall and the New York City bus station. There were alarming stains on the ceiling tiles, and more alarming stains on the floors. The seats had desk surfaces in front of them. Heather used the bathroom and noticed a sign on the trash saying, "Please no needles or diapers." We were definitely not in Showcase Cinemas anymore, Toto.

The movie itself was okay. I mainly went for the costumes and sets, and was not at all disappointed. FABULOUS clothes, shoes, cars, houses, dishes, furniture and light fixtures. The acting was quite good, but the filming and directing was not really my style. The director, Baz Luhrmann, did Moulin Rouge, and the tone was very similar. However, I think it worked better in Moulin Rouge than it did here.

After the movie we stopped at an Irish pub for a pint. I could only finish half of mine, but The Karate Kid was on, so we stayed for the second show. Roaring Twenties, meet Classic Eighties! After a discussion and wikipedia investigation into Ralph Macchio's real age, we called it a night. Thank god for BFFs!

Keep Calm and Shower On

My second bridal shower was a twofer: My cousin Emily is also getting married (in September), so my aunt and my mother decided to combine forces and throw the most bombastic, shower-to-end-all-shower affairs. We were asked to arrive at 11am so that we could greet our guests. We had arranged for the fiances to go golfing during the shower, so they left to get teed off.

A giant tent was up in my aunt's backyard, with lanterns and tables and food and drink. And favors! And prizes!! My cousin Melissa had made up beautiful gift baskets for a raffle. These things were amazing. Spa baskets with bath products, beach baskets, BBQ baskets, jugs of local maple syrup... really good stuff.

Unbeknownst to us, the shower had a theme of "hat and gloves". Guests were asked to arrive wearing said items, and there were some pretty creative interpretations, including hard hats, gardening gloves, straw paddy hats, and even one hat handmade from paper towels. Once again there were people I hadn't seen in many years, and it was wonderful to catch up. We really shouldn't wait for bridal showers to get together with old friends! But it's definitely a great excuse.

After a delicious buffet lunch, Emily and I were directed to our patio chairs of honor and presented with our own princess hats and loofah gloves! We both received some gorgeous gifts and cards. My favorite, from two of my coworkers, said "Holy shit! You're getting married!" I might have to get it framed.

After the gifts was a trivia quiz, with facts about our respective pasts. Guests had to guess whether the fact applied to a)Emily, b)Me, or c)Both. I even got a few of them wrong! Shows you how well I know my family.

By the afternoon it had gotten quite hot, so Heather, Maili and I improvised some refreshment by sticking our feet in the now-melted but still freezing ice tub. Relief is not spelled R-O-L-A-I-D-S, my friends.

A huge thanks to my Aunt Rindy, my mom, my cousin Melissa and my two best friends for all the hard work they put into this event! It was another roaring success.

Dahlia It Up

We went to my cousin's house for dinner and a movie, and the dahlias are up! No blooms yet, just shoots. But looking good!

The Art of the Invite

The invitations are done! I am so relieved. They came out very well, and I spent an afternoon gluing them together. We're only inviting about 60 people, so it's been very manageable. I can't imagine having a wedding of 100 or 150 people, how much time and effort that would require.

The invitation design process was fun, sometimes frustrating, and very rewarding. With RJ's help I managed to successfully use Adobe Illustrator to design the invites and RSVP cards, and set them up for the printer. After looking at many, many paper samples I settled on a textured ivory for both cards, with a navy blue cardstock as the backing. Eric suffered through one paper-shopping visit in which I went back and forth for about 20 minutes on 3 different subtle shades of navy. Luckily, despite this, the wedding is still on.

I had the invites printed at a local copy center. They were very friendly and efficient, and had the printing done in a few hours, just enough time to do some more shopping downtown! The print was perfect - and cheap to boot!

Once I got them home I cut the cardstock to size and sprayed the invitations with spray adhesive, then mounted them on the cardstock. I had to adjust the first few because the cardstock was a hair too small, but the final product was great.

I found some gorgeous hand dyed silk ribbon from Of the Earth, a vendor on Etsy. They were wonderful and I got the ribbon within 3 days.

Once the invitations were dry, I put Mom to work on the assembly line. We tied the invite and RSVP with a ribbon and put them in envelopes. I printed out the mailing labels, and they were ready to go!

For your viewing pleasure, Mom did a simulation of getting an invite.

Dinner for Four

Tonight was our second tasting at Hamel's Catering. My parents came with us so they could donate their opinions on the food. After all, it is mostly their families who will be attending. We had requested to try mini egg rolls, walnut pesto linguini, ham with pineapple, lemon dill chicken, and cream pesto penne. Here's the happy gang:

We thought the egg rolls were more like "eh" rolls, and the ham was nothing special. But the chicken was great, as was the pasta. We finalized the menu and discussed the non-edible arrangements like silverware, linens, and servers. This place has been really great so far. Good service, reasonable prices, and good food! Paula, who runs the catering, went over everything with us and told us she'd email me an estimate. And after Heather's catertastrophe of the caterer getting the date wrong, we triple-checked that puppy.

At the very least we know our wedding will be in good taste.

A Most Perfect Day

Saturday was my bridal "Shower by the Sea". I don't have enough adjectives in my extensive collection of Mad Libs to describe what a fantastic day we had! My mother had left a few days early to help my aunt with preparations, so my father, his sister, Eric and I squeezed into my tiny hatchback and headed out. The trip is normally about 2 hours. We gave ourselves three just in case. Three and a half hours and four detours later we finally arrived, having faced some grand trifecta of road construction, beach traffic, and the first nice day in three months. Hopefully this caused us to be fashionably late, as the guests had not yet passed out from hunger. Mom met us outside looking fabulous in a polka dot dress in appropriate colors (of course), and escorted us into the shower, which was filled with family and friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in almost 20 years! What a surprise. Mom and my aunt Judi had done a spectacular job with the decorations. There were photos of me from infancy through adulthood, handmade napkins as guest favors and incredible flower arrangements, Two extra special guests were also there, named Fred and Amanda. They were cloth dolls that my mom made for me when I was a child. She pulled them out from storage (?!?), designed and sewed wedding outfits for them and had them on display to greet me as I walked in. Fred looked just like Eric! They were so perfect, we decided to use them as our cake toppers at the wedding.

The Brother Fish

My mother belongs to a very close-knit group of friends, called the Brother Fish. They met in high school and have managed to keep in touch all these years despite cross-country moves, spouses, children, hectic careers and life in general. Each year they have a communal birthday celebration, and whenever one of their children (called guppies) gets engaged, they host a shower for the bride. I have known them my whole life, and they are part of my extended family. So it was so heartwarming to see them all there, smiling and cheering us as we walked in the restaurant.

The food was delicious, and there were the locally made whoopie pies that I had tried back in March. After everyone was sufficiently stuffed, we adjourned to the "gift room" in the back of the restaurant, which had its own deck overlooking the beach. There were mountains and mountains of gifts! I got gift certificates to doggy daycare, a local garden center, and the spa where I will get my bridal beautification done! I also received some beautiful presents, including a vintage platter, a tote bag, a handmade afghan, and many kitchen items for me and Eric. Parrish (our dog) received many lovely gifts as well.

Following the gifts was the live entertainment. At each guppy shower the Brother Fish perform a song specially composed for the couple. Our song was sung to the tune of "You Got It" by Roy Orbison, and it was hilarious and emotional and flawless. I laughed and cried.

After the shower Eric, my dad, aunt, two best friends and I went to the nearby arcade to play skeeball, a favorite game from my childhood. After winning a crapload of tickets and giving them all to a crying little girl, we celebrated by eating an enormous ice cream. A perfect ending to a perfect day!

The Dress, Round Three

My third appointment with the seamstress, and this time I brought my maid of honor AND my mother. I got to try on the full dress for the first time, with the lace overlay. It's gorgeous. Again, no photos yet, but I can't wait to see the finished product! The buttons still need to be attached to the back, and there will be some general tightening and adjusting closer to the wedding date, but it's nearly done! My mom and Maili both loved it, and we had another enjoyable time chatting with Cassandra. I also discussed my veil, which is still undecided. I know that I want to have a birdcage, but haven't gone much beyond that initial concept. Cassandra said she could make one if I wanted, so I will research it a bit and see if we can't come up with something to rival the gown.

Double Trouble

Both parents are in town now. They got in on Tuesday and will be staying for 2 weeks. LOTS of stuff is planned, including not one but two bridal showers! We aren't able to invite a lot of people to the wedding, so my mother and her sister are throwing a shower for me out east so that friends and family out there will have a bit of celebrating in advance. The following week my father's sister is throwing a shower for me and her daughter (aka my cousin), who is getting maried in September. On Wednesday Mom and I went out on the town, getting invitations printed, looking at envelopes and shopping for assorted accessories and accoutrements. We also found the time to stop by Capen Garden to see what it looked like in late spring. Guess what? It looks AWESOME.

For those of you who don't know, my middle name is Laurel. Hence the online alias. I was named after the actual mountain laurel tree, as it was growing on my parents' property when I was born, along with many, many, many rocks, giving me the name "Rocks and Laurel". For many years now, June 15th has been a date for significant life events: moving to foreign countries, starting new jobs, things like that. It is also the date when mountain laurel is in bloom. My mother decided to schedule my Out East bridal shower on that date, for that reason, so it has now become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

We did not realize it at previous visits, but the entrance to the rose arbor, which is the aisle that I will walk down, is framed by two enormous mountain laurel trees. They were in bountiful bloom, and we responded with an expected level of slightly irrational excitement.

Following this, the only logical thing to do was go downtown and try on crazy fascinators. So we did.