Meet the Wedding Party: Jessie & Christina

Name: Jessica "Jessie" Kravitz
Job: Bridesmaid
Relationship: Partner in Crime to Erin, Rap Battle Ally to Jimmy
How We Met: Erin and Jessie became friends while studying abroad in Dublin their junior year at NYU. They ended up directing 2 music videos together while there and spending most hours of most days together doing a combination of goofing around and working. That began a hilarious partnership that usually ended with someone in a wig. They've remained close friends despite being on two different coasts and can always be found talking about TV, watching hilarious movies or just chatting about nothing, on the computer.

Jimmy also met Jessie during the famed Junior year jaunt to the Emerald Isle. They bonded over their mutual appreciation of mid-90s hip hop and masochistic fandom for ursine Chicago sports franchises.


Name: Christina "Stina" Mar
Job: Bridesmaid
Relationship: Partner in Crime to Erin, Musical Moron Twin to Jimmy
How We Met: It was 2002 and the NYU Freshman Film Department was sent to the Poconos for "Camp Bug Byte." Stina and Erin spent some time paddle boating together while there, realized they had a lot of classes together, and the rest is history. Stina and Erin ended up having many many more classes together after that and Stina ended up in Dublin too! Their time together has been lots of silly movies, lots of TV and lots and lots of theme nights. Thank goodness for instant messaging so even when they're on opposite sides of the country, they are in constant contact.

Jimmy met Christina when they were living next door to one another in the NYU apartments on Fishamble Street in Dublin. While Jimmy often used this proximity to get closer to a certain criminal accomplice, they also found a shared interest in pretentious indie music and medieval fortresses-turned-hostels in Western Germany. Though they now live thousands of miles apart, they continue to discuss the overratedness of every band on Pitchforkmedia and talk shop about the cutthroat world of nonlinear video editing.

Here are some Jessie/Erin/Stina picture gems from the past (isn't it creepy that we're in the same order in all 3 pictures?!):




Besides the fact that Jessie and Stina happen to be two of our closest friends, we're also very excited for them to be in the wedding party because they were present at "the beginning." They are part of a very small number of people who remember when Jimmy and Erin weren't "Jimmy and Erin" and we're really excited for them to be there with us. And, also, we can't wait for the hilarious pictures that will ensue.

And It Goes On Like This

Since we got engaged, Jimmy and I have been discussing how we can reference The Simpsons as much as possible during the wedding or any of our wedding events. The first few ideas were pretty obvious:

1. Homer's vows in "A Milhouse Divided"

Reverend Lovejoy: I will now read the special vows which Homer has prepared for this occasion. Do you, Marge, take Homer, in richness and in poorness. Poorness is underlined. In impotence and in potence, in quiet solitude or blasting across the alkali flats in a jet-powered, monkey-navigated...and it goes on like this.

2. Have my dad give Jimmy a pair of "family heirloom" pig cuff links like in "Lisa's Wedding"

Homer: Hugh, there's something I want you to have. My Dad gave me his
cuff links on the day I married Marge and they brought us good
luck. I couldn't imagine a happier marriage. We don't have many
traditions in our family, but it would mean a lot to me if you
kept this one alive.
Hugh: Well I'd be honored...
[opens case; cuff links are a bride and groom pig]
...to wear those...things.
Homer: Aw.



3. Some of the more obvious ideas were to use Simpsons stamps for everything or name the tables after places on The Simpsons. Recently we discussed cake toppers (Jimmy seemed to think there was a law saying you HAD to have one) So then I thought, "Well, maybe we can have a Simpsons cake topper" (tho I wasn't really planning on having one at all).

Today I went searching for some pig cuff links on Etsy. I found one seller who had sold a number of these cuff links but has since shut down her shop and even has a note up saying she can't currently make them. I guess we're not original?

Luckily, I found someone on Etsy (TheClayCollection) who IS selling them and they are adorable:



http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38422379

My search also led me to Ebay where I got to see how goofy Simpsons cake toppers would look.





Answer: pretty darn goofy. Tho I do like the idea of Reverend Lovejoy being involved.

Obviously we will continue thinking of other ways to incorporate The Simpsons into our wedding and be Simpsons geeks in a really public way. That's always fun, right?

Meet the Wedding Party: Tim & Claire

Name: Tim Huth
Job: Groomsman (Do we call those ushers? Or is that just a job they have day-of? I think we call them Groomsmen)
Relationship: Brother of the Bride
Age: 20 (will be 21 at time of wedding...thank goodness) Please Note: We are only putting this category for Tim as we are excited he will be legally allowed to drink at our wedding.
How We Met: Well, Tim and Erin met in 1989 when she was just a selfish 5-year-old who did not want another child getting in the way of her center-of-the-world-status. He was a newborn with a full head of hair and though their relationship started off rocky, Erin and Tim are cool now. Phew.

Erin is delighted that her little brother is willing to take time out of his last year of college to be in the wedding. She couldn't ask for a better brother and is happy that he is willing to listen to her talk about wedding details with no complaints.



Name: Claire Long
Job: Bridesmaid
Relationship: Sister of the Groom
How We Met: While Jimmy is hazy on the details, he's pretty sure he and Claire met very shortly after his birth, when she was already a solid year and a half into her own existence. Being this close in age predictably resulted in no shortage of conflict and sibling rivalry, but relocating to the first and second cities (respectively) has given Claire and Jimmy the necessary room to air their grievances and become bona fide BFFs.

Jimmy is very excited to have his big sister take some time out from her busy schedule of running, biking, swimming, and generally kicking ass, to come out to the Empire State and make sure her little brother gets hitched properly.

Or, Watching Erin's Hair Change Color Throughout the Years

While we have been working on wedding stuff over the past week, there isn't much to report yet. We are heading up to Schenec next weekend (just booked the tickets, in fact) to meet with a photographer and do some other wedding things.

But, we HAVE made some changes to this little blog of ours. Firstly, we moved the ticker thing to the top of the blog so we can keep track. (Who knows why I want to know that it's "8 months, 2 weeks and 1 day" until the wedding rather than just the number of days but whatever.) We also added a SLIDESHOW! Whooo. Basically if you want to see about 56 pictures of Erin & Jimmy thru the years just look to your right and check it out. What's most hilarious about looking at pictures from the last 6 years of my life is watching my hair color and style change drastically. Oh, and it's fun to make fun of our outfits. Stuff like that.

We're going to do the first "Meet Our Wedding Party" post later today, starting with our siblings, Tim and Claire. Enjoy.

We're on our way

So, we finished our Save the Dates and put in the order last night. Jimmy was sick at the beginning of last week and then I was sick all weekend and today so that was about all we could accomplish over last week.

We did finalize all hotel accommodations so once we put the Save the Dates in the mail, we'll be updating this thing with some hotel info. I've also added a sweet "ticker" at the bottom of the blog with a countdown. (Look, I'm unemployed, I'm bound to find some seemingly un-Erin wedding things really amusing when I'm home alone with the cats).

I mostly spend my time 1. Applying/looking for jobs 2. Watching DVR (LOTS of Say Yes to the Dress) or Netflix Instant (I refuse to become addicted to daytime TV) 3. Reading wedding blogs/looking for wedding things on Etsy 4. Getting all of my news from the Internet. 5. Putting the bad cat in "time out" (aka The Bathroom) when she won't stop knocking things off the bookcase. 6. Making/shipping things for Etsy and it goes on like that...

Oh, and 7. Trying to humorously "tweet" (tho that was shut down for a while due to my illness)

My next big project for this blog (once I get Jimmy's approval and assistance) is to do a little introduction to each of the people in the wedding party. Just a little "Meet Our Wedding Party" sort of post (hopefully with pictures). So we'll see how that goes. Get ready to get some info!

Julia Child/Meryl Streep Might Make Me a Better Wife

And Julie Powell/Amy Adams Might Make Me a Better Blogger.

How's that for a tie-in?

In real wedding business, we're working on hotel accommodations for the wedding and starting to think about all the other little things now that the location and date is settled. While I basically find everything about this process fun and exciting, mostly I just want to think about people's clothing, pictures that can be taken and presents I can give people in the wedding party. When we have settled info, I'll post it here and maybe after the Save the Dates go out more people will be reading this to get info. Or to make fun of me. Whichever.

So, obviously I'm watching Julie and Julia and as a result, have suddenly been overcome by the desire to learn how to cook (and maybe blog a bit). Maybe it's that I love food and it's never made sense that I had no interest in cooking, maybe it's that I'm getting married this year, maybe it's that Jimmy is usually home much later than we should be eating dinner or maybe it's those pearls and the ability to look elegant while cooking that I am into. Who knows. So maybe I'll try to find something to learn to cook and make a goal of it.

No, I will not be blogging about my cooking adventures or going through all the recipes in a cook book. That's just crazy.

Here's hoping Meryl rubbed off on me...

It's a date

After already contributing two posts to this blog, Erin insisted that I take the reigns for a change (this is Jimmy btw). I can't believe it's only been a week since we started this whole wedding planning madness (to be fair, Erin's been kind enough to bare most of the burden for that), but we already have a place and a date. We decided pretty quickly that having the wedding upstate near Erin's folks' place in Schenectady was key, both in the interest of convenience and making it a meaningful event.

We'd looked into a number of places in the Capital District, and found a handful that seemed both tasteful and affordable (not an easy task), but without question our favorite was The Stockade Inn in Schenectady. Located in Schenectady's historic district, the decor is rustic and cute (with super sweet wood molding) and, equally important, Erin and her family had eaten there before and could vouch for the quality of the food. We were pretty much ready to book it based solely on the website, but we figured we'd come up here and check it out to be sure. The staff there took us on a full tour of the space, including the accommodations at the inn (very nice), and gave us a full rundown of what we could expect in terms of both the ceremony and reception.

Everything there seemed pretty standard (in a very cute, tasteful way) as far as I can tell from the few weddings I've been to, with enough flexibility that we feel like we can actually make it our own, and with a few little extras (can you say 'antique billiard room') to sweeten the deal. It's also just the right size that it can comfortably fit everyone we're expecting to come, but small enough that we'll pretty much have free reign of the place. And they were still available for most of the dates we wanted. So it might seem silly to not look at any other places, but we didn't see any point. We were sold.

So, folks, mark your calendars. Saturday, October 9, 2010 (that's 10/9/10). Stockade Inn. Schenectady, NY.

Erin and Jimmy get hitched.

Wedding Thoughts #1

So, one thing I never really realized before we got engaged is how much time we'd spend talking on the phone. You have to call people to tell them the news, call people to ask them to be in the wedding party, plan the thing over the phone. It's crazy. It's also been really good to have a reason to keep in better contact with our friends and family. It's nice to have something specific to call about and discuss. Who knew getting married would bring everyone closer. But anyway, I mostly use my phone to check my email, text people or update my twitter status so it was definitely weird last weekend to use it so much for its original purpose.

I feel like I'm in one of those turn-off-your-cell-phone-or-we'll-be-mad-at-you ads before a movie. "It takes many calls to plan a wedding and only one to ruin it." And then it shows Jimmy and me on the phone in many different settings but a little confused about how to work it or something.

In actual wedding update news we're looking at a place on Saturday so if that's works out we'll have a date soon. Hooray. We're planning Fall 2010 in Schenectady so....watch out.

At some point Jimmy will have to update this too much for now you're stuck with me.

xo,
Erin

Engaged!

I'm pretty new to this wedding planning business but I'm pretty sure Step 1 is: Get Engaged.

Done.

And I can only assume Step 2 is: Start a Blog.

Also done.

Jimmy and I got engaged on New Year Eve and began planning on...January 1st. Everything has been crazy so far but exciting. We sort of decided we would do a blog to document the event and at the request of some people (you know who you are).

For right now, here's our "engagement picture" taken at the restaurant right after it all happened.

-Erin