moving right along

it's been busy times again.
last weekend we met with our prospective JOP, who was a pretty cool, laconic sharp-eyed and very with-it old gent with a deliciously secular ceremony style and attractive german no-frills efficiency and punctuality. sold! we gave him a deposit and received a copy of his standard fare in the mail, to which we can make minor edits and include our own vows. we also had a small version of our wedding cake made up, which we devoured with the help of kz's family. i was happy with the cake itself but less enchanted with the sweetness of the icing; but after polling other satisfied cake-nibblers and checking with the baker that she doesn't have any less sweet alternatives, i realized i was only going to be eating 1 slice with a pint of guinness anyway, so what the hell.

today, rather than let kz pack for his west coast business trip in a timely fashion, we decided to get haircuts and hit up men's warehouse for some tux shizzy. we decided on black single-breasted, notched lapel single-button tuxes, with ivory point-collar shirts, grey cufflinks, and matte silver/grey vests and neckties. i was confused at the mention of the groom matching me and the ring bearer matching him; i thought they were all supposed to look the same. shows what i know. rather than making kz wear an ivory vest and tie, we just decided that all the boys could look the same. then they brought up the dads, which wasn't something i'd thought of before; we left it at "no for now" but i could already hear my mom being all, "your father doesn't have any decent suits," so i forsee some rental additions in the near future. the people at the store were awesome and really funny; it was a surprisingly enjoyable task.

next we ventured down to mass and hit up a crate and barrel to add to the puny registry i began online. i was hoping kz would get a little more into it, since this is just as much his registry too. and lo and behold, when we hit the kitchen section and surveyed the cast iron and mario batali enamel-coated iron cookware, the boy lit up and scanned those sku's like a madman. i was so excited to see him, well, excited in a housewares store. i got a little lightheaded myself over his agreement on the dishes i liked, and adding new baking pans and sheets. unfortuntely, their in-store scanning and updating user interface leaves something to be desired; when we got home, i discovered that none of our additions (you know, about 2 hours' worth of shopping) hadn't been saved. luckily we had the printouts handy, and i only had to type in and manually add about 50 sku's. it would have been painful, were it not for the thought that i'll be getting new dishes soon and i don't even have to pay for them.
although, whilst there i had planned on buying a registry gift for e$'s upcoming shower and nuptials, but like the sieve-brain i am, i remembered only 5 min after the store closed. so now i'll be paying the $10 shipping on top of the cost of the item as my "stupid forgetful bride-to-be" tax. so be it.

and speaking of e$, i went to get my bridesmaid's dress for her wedding altered at olga's, the store's namesake being this little fireball of an eastern european workaholic who wears high-heeled boots and serious makeup for someone in her 50's, and who likes to make jokes about slicing off my saddlebags with her tailoring shears in order to improve my silhouette. i like her a lot. she's going to take in the bodice of the dress, probably about 3 sizes, and hem it all, for $75 in 2 weeks. i think you can't beat that. i'm seriously considering canceling my appointment with the mysterious and expensive waltham tailor recommended to me by vow's when i bought my wedding gown; and just bringing it up to old olga, who will probably hem and bustle it for about $150. and she'll do it closer to my wedding than the other tailor, because she has faith in her austro-hungarian work ethic, and that would give me more time to wait for the graduate school fairy to knock off those 10 pounds. hmm.