Our First Date

Mr. Bubblegum and I have conflicting stories on how we met.  In fact, we don’t really agree on how we started dating.  But because I am the one writing this, I have the advantage of telling my side of the story (i.e. I win).

In my mind, Mr. Bubblegum was a wonderful friend but no one I had particularly considered dating.  In fact, years later, when I found a list that my friend and I had compiled in high school detailing (literally) 400 qualities that made “the perfect man,” Mr. Bubblegum did not score well.  However, at the time when he asked me out (and yes, regardless of what he says, he asked me out and he WANTED to, dag nabbit), I was in an “I should try anything once” phase – romantic, no?

I should also mention that Mr. Bubblegum had never HAD a girlfriend before.. so at the very least, I expected his “game” to be minimal to none.

HOWEVER.. before our first date even happened, he surprised me in two ways:

1. He brought me a rose.. in the middle of the week.. just ‘cause.
2. He sent me this mp3: “First Date” by Blink 182 (if you go here and search for it, you can have a listen!  Or check out the lyrics here.)

Finally, Saturday rolled around, and we set out on our actual date.. but we did so a little TOO early, as Mr. Bubblegum had made reservations at Uno’s (tee hee – this makes me giggle), and it was not yet time.  So we decided to sit on the benches in front of the School of Communication, and we communicated – it was really kind of great.  We were already over the surface-level-getting-to-know-you bit, so we had some pretty heavy conversations that night.  Maybe not great first date talk, but it really brought to light the fact that we agreed whole-heartedly on some of the fundamental issues that make us human, and it cemented the fact that we would get along for a very long time.

After our fine-dining experience at Uno’s, we headed to the movies, where we saw Zoolander - HI-larious.. to this day, when I cough pathetically, I can’t help but follow it up with “mer..man..”

After the movies, we went to Shaw’s.  It was right before Halloween, and we decided that we needed a pumpkin (who would later have a sharpie-induced face and be named Herman).  While there, we noticed raspberries were on sale – so we signed up for a joint Shaw’s card.  I should’ve known right then that it was meant to be. 

Herman and raspberries in hand, we then headed to the BU Beach (for you non-Bostonites, the BU Beach is not actually a beach at all.  Rather, it is a grassy area that overlooks Storrow Drive.  If you close your eyes, it sounds like the beach!).  More benches. 

Now, knowing that Mr. Bubblegum was (is) rather shy, I decided to take matters into my own hands.  After waiting quite long enough, I said, “so, are you gonna kiss me, or what?”  Poor guy.  The color left his face.  I was not exactly making it easy for him.

Lucky for us both, he finally built up the courage.

Six years later, I’m still on the best date of my life.

 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just for fun, here are a couple pictures.

Us, soon before our first date:

And soon after:

For those of you who don't want to find yourselves drowning in a sea of fondant on your wedding day, might I suggest..
























New England Couture Cakes -

The woman who makes these cakes was recently at a bridal show I attended.  Immediately upon walking in the room, you could not HELP but look at these cakes - I mean - really, really beautiful.  I spent a good deal of time examining them as closely as possible (why can't MINE look like that?) before agreeing to believe they were made of sugar.  

ALSO, my parents (who, lovely as they are, are tough critics..) tried the cake and LOOOOVVVED it.  They raved about it the whollllle way home (okay guys, I get it).  The flavor they tried was "Chocolate Bourbon" - sounds yummy!

 They're located in Portland, ME - if anyone checks them out, let me know how it goes!
 

Hello fellow bees, bee-keepers, and bee-enthusiasts!!!!  Miss Bubblegum here - SUPER excited to join the hive!  As Mrs. Bee was kind enough to point out, my headshot looks like I've won an award.. because THAT'S how I FEEL!

I have been planning my wedding now for 8 short months and have 7 shorter months ahead.  Has anyone else had those moments when they say, "no need to worry.. it's over a year away.." only seconds later to realize it is, in fact, NOT over a year away and has not been so for several months?  Well gosh, me too!

I have been THOROUGHLY enjoying weddingbee ever since Mrs. Lemon's fabric invitations were credited on a knottie bio.  Did I mention I was super excited to be here??

Annd a little background.. Like Miss Canary, I also met the love of my life on my first day at Boston University.  (So weird, right?  It actually rains love potion in Boston - did you know that?)  We lived on the same floor our freshman year and met the day we moved in.  After a couple months of testing the water (and drinking the love potion), we finally started dating on October 27, 2001.  We recently celebrated 6 years of un-wedded bliss and are ready to add a new anniversary to the list.

So without further ado, let me introduce you all to the cast of characters that make me smile on a daily basis:



Mr. Bubblegum: Keeper of my heart; lover of astronomy and fantasy baseball.
Baby Bubblegum: Ruler of all paper and paper-related products.. always around to help on paper-oriented DIY projects.
Lil' Gum: Dropped the 'bubble' in a fit of rebellion; currently holds the title for prettiest girl in the world.

We all hope to entertain you throughout the wedding-planning and wedding-having process!

There is one venue in particular that, were money not an object, I would love love LOVE to use.  

I'm pretty sure that most little girls dream of having a "Mathematica" room at their wedding venue.. if that appeals to you, you're in luck!  Because the Boston Museum of Science does weddings!  They can accomodate 25 to 4500 guests, and they are catered exclusively through Wolfgang Puck catering..

The Blue Wing

This is the central hall.  There's a 45-ft. T-Rex in one corner and an Apollo module floating overhead.













The Museum Cafe

Not a whole lot more to mention - it's the museum cafe!














The Skyline Room

This room has panoramic views of the Charles River, Back Bay, Boston, and Cambridge.















There's even an outdoor pavilion if you want to get married on the Charles.  PLUS, you'd be married in Boston - home of the 2007 World Series Champions!!!!!!  w00t!
 

Whether we admit it or not, in the back of all our minds is the thought that, on our wedding day, we will each achieve previously unattainable beauty.  As if by magic, we will all be transformed into fairy princesses.

Unfortunately, my magic wand is loaned out, so I have to resort to methods of mere mortals.  To kick-start my transformation, I made a spreadsheet of daily goals.  Every day, I mark which ones I achieved.  Although I have been slacking the past couple of weeks (pfft.. I blame my actuarial exam), having to write down my accomplishments each day has helped me to produce results.  The basic idea is weight loss.  However, in addition to my required diet and exercise, I have made the following three products a part of my daily routine:


1) Listerine Whitening Quick Dissolving Strips

 

Yes, this is what I use, but no, I would not give them a rave review.  In the past, I've used the Crest Whitestrips, and I love them.  However, Crest Whitestrips require a) that you keep them on for half an hour twice a day and b) that you use them with dirty teeth.  The advantages to the Listerine Quick Dissolving Strips are that they dissolve quickly (gosh, really?), in about 7-8 minutes, and they also recommend that you use them right after brushing your teeth.  As it happens, this works into my routine perfectly, since really the only time I have to stick something on my teeth is the 10 minutes between when I've brushed my teeth and am walking out the door.  Plus, the flavor I'm using is Vanilla Mint, and they taste like marshmallows.  As it gets closer to the wedding, depending on results, I may have to make time for the Crest Whitestrips.

2) Vitamin E Gel ANNND Lumene Age-Defying Intensive Care





It is commonly believed that Vitamin E Gel can visibly reduce the effects of scarring.  The bottle also claims to reduce my fine lines and wrinkles.  That being said, I have been having some wrinkle crises lately, so I decided to give it a shot.  However, because there is some debate about whether or not Vitamin E Gel IS effective, I am supplementing it with an age-defying wrinkle cream.  Yes, I am 24, and yes, the wrinkle-cream section specifically had sections starting at age 25, but there's nothing wrong with being proactive!!  Whether these work or not I cannot say for certain, but they sure make me feel better.  And at the very least, the Lumene cream has a slight tint to it that, when put under eyes, does a fabulous job making you look awake.

3) Metamucil

Ahhh, the benefits of fiber.  Let me count the ways:
    a) Fiber can lower the risk of developing conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, gallstones & kidney stones.
    b) Fiber can help keep weight under control by slowing the onset of hunger.
    c) Well, obviously, it keeps you regular (sorry to be crude).

I am a huge fan of fiber.  Being a vegetarian, a large part of my diet is beans.  On days when I don't get as much fiber from the foods I eat, however, I always like to fall back on metamucil.  I would provide the following piece of advice: although the sugar-free is fewer calories, the sugar-un-free dissolves much better in water and is much more pleasant to take.  I have always had the classic orange, although they recently came out with a "Berry Burst" flavor which intrigues me.

Hopefully, by May 31st when my handsome Prince comes to sweep me off my feet, I will have earned my tiara.

 
I am on an actuarial career track.  What this means is that, in addition to doing my job, I also need to take a series of rigorous exams in order to get my designation and become an "actuary."

In general, actuarial exams and weddings are not exactly related subjects.  For me, however, the combination of the two is making my tummy hurt.

Assuming my exam next week goes alright (eek wish me luck), my next exam would be May 9.. 3 weeks and 1 day before my wedding.  This may not seem like a time conflict to some, but maybe this requires some more explanation..

The general rule of thumb for actuarial exams (this is a broad generalization) is that you should study 100 hours per hour of the exam.  This exam would be 6.5 hours, so I'm looking at roughly 650 study hours.  Usually, this studying is spread over 4-6 months.  This particular exam is only offered once per year, so if I don't take it in May.. well.. I should take it in May.

When we set the date for the wedding, my actuarial exam schedule did not even cross my mind.  And why should it?  This is my wedding we're talking about!  However, with only 7 months and 8 days left until "the big day" and only 6 months and 17 days left until "the slightly smaller but still relatively large day," I fear that my timing may just be a little off.

Is it just me, or is anyone else having to pencil in their wedding? 

I recently posted about my weird color scheme.  I feeeel as though I did not do my color scheme justice.  Therefore, in the name of my color scheme, here is my 10-minute inspiration board:


 

Hmm.. can't get it to be bigger without distorting it.. which is weird, because it's much bigger when I look at the jpg.. you can click on it to see it a little bit bigger..

This is really a fun exercise.  For anyone who hasn't done it, pleeeease take the time to.  It literally took 10 minutes of saving pictures and 10 minutes of arranging them.  And I just feel so much better about my "weird" color scheme.  All my fears about having a Christmas-themed wedding in the spring are officially dispelled.  In a fit of abandonment of all modesty, I must say that it's beautiful. :)

 
A little while back, one of my coworkers got me into a one-week-long origami phase.  It was during this time that I decided that origami something would have to make an appearance at my wedding.

I first considered the idea of 1000 cranes.  However, as you may imagine, the idea of making 1000 origami cranes was not horribly appealing to me.  I even did the math.. "if i make 3 cranes per day.."

My next idea was to include it in the invitation.  Since the invitations were going to be home-made anyway, how about a home-made touch?  But after (literally) a few weeks of looking for an origami pattern that was a) doable b) pretty and c) flat-ish, I decided that mailing my origami was probably not the best idea.

I finally settled on the idea that I would affix my origami creations to the escort cards.  It was not until yesterday, however, that that idea took flight..

When I set out to Michael's yesterday, I wanted a decorative paper that was red and white.  Since red is my accent color and these were going to accent the escort cards, it would need to be red.  However, when I arrived, I was extremely disappointed with my selection.  Nothing that was red and white was pretty.  I skulked around the store for a while and eventually found this:



Not exactly what I wanted, and for a couple reasons:
a) Obviously, no red.  But at this point, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would not find pretty red paper and should instead focus on finding pretty green paper.
b) There's purple and there's blue paper.. neither of which I would use.  But the green made up half the pack, so I decided it was worth it.

BUT:
Each piece is reversible, so although I was buying 4 unique patterns of green paper, I was actually getting 8 different inside/outside combinations.  w00t.

This got me thinking that rather than affixing the origami to the escort cart, why not the other way around?  And so my project began.  Although it's still underway, I thought I'd share some results..



Tada!  Origami lilies!  I took step-by-step pictures, so more to come on that. 

The last one is my attempt at attaching "Jane Smith's" escort card.  I had bought some floral wire which I used to stick through the bottom of the flower and then through the escort card.  I feel very meh about it, so I've been trying to brainstorm other stem ideas.  At one point, I thought pipe cleaners might work, but FI said exactly what I was thinking: "it might look too arts-and-crafty."  So right.

SO there are still two things up in the air: 1) What do use for stems and 2) How to lay them out.  Input needed!

Back in the summer of '04, I was housesitting for my brother and SIL during their month-long honeymoon to Italy.  As it turns out, the summer of '04 was also the summer of WEDDING CAKES on the food network.  Plus they had tivo.  It was that summer that I learned (in theory only) the magic of fondant and decided that my wedding cake would be my own creation.

Not only do I want to make my own wedding cake because I like to control every situation, but also.. guess what, it's cheaper (even including practice cakes).  After being engaged a couple months, I let on to my FI that I thought we could take on this challenge.  He was skeptical, but he humored me by tagging along while I shopped for all the wedding cake-making accessories I thought I would need.  Granted, I had never made a wedding cake before, but how hard could it be?

That weekend, I devoted a day to making a practice wedding cake.  I decided to make it on a slightly smaller scale, but I learned some good lessons nonetheless.  Here's how it turned out:



Let me start by pointing out the obvious flaws:

1) The middle layer makes me laugh.  I had some fondant issues here.  More on that in a minute.
2) The balls around the middle layer also make me laugh.  Still the fault of the fondant issues.
3) The bottom layer is actually only one cake layer, because the other layer broke when I took it out of the pan.

BUT I'm optimistic, because here are the lessons I learned:

1) When painting on a design with food coloring, do it AFTER the fondant has been put on the cake.  As crazy as it may sound, it is very difficult to smooth fondant onto a cake when there is a wet food coloring design all over it.  Hence the "skirting" I tried to do in order to compensate.  An obvious failure.
2) Whoever told me to butter thEN flour the bottom of the cake pan was either a) not right or b) not there to tell me what I was doing wrong.  Next time I will just plain grease that pan.

AND here's what worked well:

1) We left the cake out and tried a tiny piece each day.  Even on the fourth day, it was RIDICULOUSLY moist and delicious.  That means I don't plan to worry about making the cake on Thursday but serving it on Saturday.
2) The general concept of fondant is great, and it's easy to work with.

Next step is flavor-testing!!

I think I need some input.

When FI and I first got engaged, we made our guest list almost immediately.  I mean, it was something easy that we could do to make us feel like we had started planning.  It went through several revisions, got passed under the noses of all of our parents, and added/lost members as situations unfolded.

When it came time to send the STDs last month (7 months after we started), I still wasn't done editing.  In particular, I had a few new coworkers.  Although they were new, they work very closely with me, and in general, my department has always been very closely knit.  In the end, I decided to send STDs to two of them because they'd been there longer and we'd hung out a few times outside of work.

Now that more time has gone by, I'm pretty sure that I want to invite the other one.  However, STDs are already out, though I'm not sure she knows that.

My question is.. should I send her a belated STD now, or should I just wait until I send out invitations and invite her then?