April 14th, 2012

We Did It!

The Macs and Stromoskis!

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve updated, and if you’ve been watching your calendar you probably know that WE FINALLY GOT MARRIED! Three weeks ago today, I’m ashamed to say.

There are so many things I never got to blog about leading up to this day … the amazing shower and bachelorette party my sister and friends threw for me, the kick-ass band we booked for cocktail hour, the really fun favors we found at the last minute, and all of the hiccups and hard work we encountered in the final days of preparation. I may still post abbreviated versions of these, but if you want the full story, ask me about it! Otherwise, I’m going to leave it at that … at least for now.  If you can believe it, I think I actually may be even busier now after the wedding than I was before.

So while I can’t write much, I just wanted to post an update. We’re married! And it was an absolute picture-perfect, stunningly beautiful, over-way-too-fast blast. As we say in magazine speak, more TK!

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February 29th, 2012

Happy Leap Day!

Sharon, Mara and me, leaping for joy in Portland, 2010.

It’s appropriate that this is a leap year, what with all the giant leaps we’re been taking lately. Really, this whole last year has been a lesson in weighing risks and rewards, making big changes and diving in headfirst to new things.

I quit my job to become a freelance writer, entered into a domestic partnership with Anthony, began planning a wedding, and later, took an awesome but intimidating three-month office gig that’s been super challenging and rewarding. (It’s over on Tuesday!)

Recently, we’ve made a lot of important decisions about our careers and our life in Brooklyn, and pledging to stay here for at least the next few years. Anthony’s back in grad school and making moves that will affect his position at his job, while I’m about to jump back into the no-real-schedule, no-real-security life of a freelance writer. It’s busy, it’s stressful, and it’s making it really hard to even see each other, let alone plan a wedding—but fortunately we know that it will all be worth it a few years down the road.

And now, we’re about to take the biggest single leap of our lives: We have our marriage license, our rings, and most of our RSVPs. (Hey, where are the rest of you!?) Just a few final meetings, and three more weeks until the big day!

 

Signing away his freedom ... and my last name!

 

Our rings (shipped in a recycled glass bottle) with our Valentine's treat, King's County chocolate whiskey.

 

 

 

 

 

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February 22nd, 2012

Lean and Green Brooklyn-Themed Invitations by CatPrint (Oh, and by Me!)

Getting married is giving me the chance to live out a childhood dream. No, not walking down the aisle … designing my own stationery! When I was little, I used to make cards to give people for holidays and birthdays; I even formed a fictional company (Mandacards, Inc!) and slapped my logo on the back of each one of my creations.

I didn’t want to post a photo before a guest-to-be got a chance to see theirs in person, but now that I’m pretty sure everyone’s gotten and opened their mail, it’s time to spill the beans here. Take a look!

Thanks to a fun class I took at PaperSource last Earth Day, I know how to make my own envelope liners. I bought a copy of one of my favorite books, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, at a used bookstore here in NYC. It had more than enough pages to line the envelopes — and plenty left over to make more flowers.

Since my handwriting has gone considerably downhill since sixth grade, I recruited two friends with amazing handwriting to address our envelopes. Thanks, Heather and Ryan! (More after the jump.)

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February 1st, 2012

Martin Luther Kraft Weekend

I didn’t realize until I went home this past weekend how much work these paper flowers were going to be. Mom and Rachel have been hard at work folding and gluing and adding stems to their creations, and we finally had enough flowers to start to put a sample bouquet together.

A bouquet. As in one. And we need six, plus about nine boutonnieres and an assorted arrangement of corsages. Oh, man. It’s gonna be a long two months.

Luckily, I’ve had an awesome group of friends here in Brooklyn willing to help me with my crazy crafting requests. As much as I’m trying not to be this bride or this bride, I do feel like I’ve become a little bit crazy with the DIY stuff, and I’m not sure what these girls know what they’re getting into when they offer to help.

A few weeks ago, I invited some of these lovely ladies over for a Sunday afternoon crafting extravaganza.  I bought craft beer, deli meets wrapped in kraft paper, and Kraft mac n cheese. Okay, it was Annie’s organic shells and cheese; I shop at gourmet Park Slope markets! And as I cut squares of old books and sheet music, they folded. And folded. And, as always, the lovely and talented Sarah Hampton was there to document the whole thing. We laughed, I cried (when I got glue in my eye) and we made about 130 flower pedals. I’m so grateful for such great friends! More photos after the jump.

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January 18th, 2012

Cute Bridal Shower Invite Idea, Courtesy of My Maid of Honor!

Look how adorable my sister is: She designed these invitations for my bridal shower (not sure where she got them or how she did it), and then she sent a very special personalized one to ME! When I asked her whether it was customary to send the bride-to-be an invite to her own shower or whether she’d gotten the idea from anywhere, she told me, “I wasn’t going to spend all this time on them for you to never even see them!” Best maid of honor ever!

My favorite part is “Please RSVP to Rachel. However, your attendance is mandatory.” Ha!

 

My very own bridal shower invite, in a coveted spot on my fridge.

I don’t know much about my shower except that it’s somewhere near home in New Jersey, so Rach kept the location a secret on the card she sent to me. My only request was that we ask people to wrap gifts in newspaper, rather than use brand-new wrapping paper that might be difficult to recycle. This seemed like a good comprimise between wrapped gifts and unwrapped gifts, which I know some people ask for — but I’ve also heard of moms and relatives and friends getting all up in arms about people just showing up with unwrapped boxes. Plus, as much as unwrapping can be the most obnoxious part of a bridal shower, it is also, traditionally, the whole purpose … right?

With my shower fast approaching, I finally sat Anthony down and we did some registering for gifts. We found GiftRegistry360, a cool site that lets you add registry items from anywhere on the web and allows people to buy either directly from their site or from the vendor’s site. This way, we could register for all kinds of cool stuff from all our favorite stores, rather than just choose one or two.

Things are really moving along! This week we’re hoping to finalize some details with our band, print our invitations, and work on our contract for rentals and linens. Soon we’ll be down to just two months to go!

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