Fun, games, and... costumes?

One of my favorite Panamanian wedding customs is this:

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Most weddings have random costume-like elements lying around for when the reception really gets going. It makes for some great pictures (I think, especially after looking at our photographer's portfolio); and can really get the party moving. Also a plus - the props can be used in my DIY-photobooth... which I swear I will make before the wedding.

I was talking to Mr. Tango about wedding stuff last night, and he mentioned that his mom is not particularly fond of having these props at weddings. She didn't say anything explicitly to him about not having them at our wedding, but said something to the effect of "I don't know why people have those". I got kind of bummed out when he said that, so my next question was: "Soooooo, what do you think about it?". He didn't have strong feelings either way, but said he likes them.

Thus, our first go-ahead of many that the families may not be particularly fond of. But, hey, it is our wedding. So much of wedding planning, at least for me, has been making sure everyone will be happy and having a good time. The crossword puzzles, kids' books, bathroom baskets, favors, etc... all have a large element of ensuring our guests' enjoyment. I do think this will make many of our guests happy, but it will also make US happy - and sometimes, that's good enough :)

What about you? Have you included any elements that those close to you are not fans of? Or have you not included things for that very reason?

Meet and greet for guests

After reading lots of "Things I've Hated in Past Weddings" posts, I know many people don't like games at reception tables. That said, we have people coming from all over the world and I really do want them to get to know each other a bit. My compromise:

(Snapshot of one I'm trying to design)

Crossword puzzles with little bits of information about Mr. Tango and I. There will be one at each place setting, and guests can choose to try to figure it out on their own, or ask around for answers they don't know. After some quick Google searches, I found armoredpenguin.com which let me add questions, mess around with the format, and generated crosswords for free! Amazing! (P.S. - I also used this site for the 'Word Search' generation in the kids' activity booklets).

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My style inspiration actually came from this picture:

I'm going to do it cheaply, as it's a totally unneccesary project - likely with backing paper from Target or something one step up from construction paper, printed on regular white letterstock, and tied with twine. I'm hoping it will also add some color to our all-white linens (free, with the venue).

Thoughts? Are you doing anything to get your guests talking to one another?

Back and Rolling

Sorry for long hiatus, hive! We spent a wonderful week with my family on the Outer Banks with very little internet access and no wedding planning, so when we arrived home last night I quickly got to work. Remember the bilingual kids' activity books I had mentioned? Well, I think I've finally finished the design! Here's what I have:














































Sources I used include: Sribd, my mind, and something I found on a random site with lots of templates.

Now I just have to figure out the best way to put them together. Sew them up with ribbon? Other ideas? This was a nice, quick DIY-project which will hopefully motivate me to get going on others!

Vacation

Just wanted to do a quick update to explain why I haven't been around... We've been on vacation with the family and will be for a couple more days. It's our last break until the wedding, so I promise this won't be a normal thing. See you soon!

Ssshhh - Secret Time

Okay don't tell anyone, but.... I'm married! It was just the legal portion so that we can continue to move forward with immigration paperwork (and so we can actually go to the wedding we've been planning all this time), but it's official! We have the marriage certificate to prove it, too! Here's what happened:

1. Fiance visa is approved, meaning we have 60 days to finalize the legal wedding.
2. Mr. Tango's parents fly in from Panama and my family comes down from CT
3. We find a cheap officiant via some online research (he said he'd 'match the lowest price we found' and had our date available)
4. I stress about not having a white dress. I order a used summer dress on E-Bay in 2 different sizes, pay for 2-day shipping, and hope one will work
5. Marriage!

We were lucky enough to be able to get married on our anniversary, which fell on a beautiful Saturday. We snuck into the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens and had a really quick, simple, legal ceremony. We didn't personalize vows and refuse to call each other husband/wife until the 'real' wedding, when we affirm our love in front of God and all of our family and friends and make it really about us. This is just a piece of paper we needed, but it's still an incredible feeling!

I didn't write about it because we're really trying to keep it on the D-L so everyone realizes the meaningful part for us is in February. And there was really no planning - just a grab and go! We wish we didn't have to have the legal ceremony first, but you do what you have to do. And, as my little sister so wisely said - "At least now you really don't have to worry about him not showing up to the altar in February!"

Did you have two ceremonies? How did you feel about it?

Save the Date - the process

I never quite know how to describe our wedding when people ask. It's in Panama on the beach, so the immediate assumption is 'Destination Wedding'. But there will be 200 people there, and half of them are Panamanians from Mr. Tango's side, so it doesn't quite fit that categorization. Either way, people not in Panama are going to need quite a bit of notice to plan vacation time, money, lodging, and all of that good stuff to be able to come. We therefore set one of our #1 priorities: get the Save the Dates (STDs.... giggle) out as soon as possible.

We went to a cute little stationary store in Bethesda, MD entirely by acccident - it was cute and we were passing by. We got carried away and ended up being there for about 2 hours looking at all the pictures! Here are some pictures of ones we liked, taken from my cell phone:

While we really liked a lot of them, they were not in our price range and we couldn't find anything that really represented us. I know that's vague and not a very descriptive response with respect to what we were looking for, but we don't know what it was. We just didn't find it. Not being a graphic designer, I decided to look on Etsy and asked a few people if they were interested in totally creating a new idea from scratch. TwoSillySistersPhoto (Highly recommended!!) responded. We sent her pictures of some of the invites we liked and she came up with a few designs. Here's the one we liked best:

Stacey was beyond flexible and responsive as we made changes, nit-picked details ("can we make the line on either side of the '&' sign a bit thinner?"), and finalized colors. She then sent them to us, and we put them on top of a backing paper (Cards & Pockets' coffee bean), and admired. Look how pretty!

They're actually much prettier in person, but you get the point. We wanted people to know that the trip to Panama wasn't as expensive as most would think ($250 round trip and cheap hotels!) so they wouldn't immediately discard coming. We decided to, beyond the wedding website, include some basic information in the STD. Very basic. How to do this cheaply?

I bought white 4x6 postcards from Staples and created an MSPublisher document (ask if you want the template I created) using the file Stacey had sent us for the STD and added in some words. We printed them out, tore along the perforated edges and.... VOILA! A total of $21.99 for 100 postcards! They weren't quite as classy as the main thing, but didn't look too shabby either! Take a look:

We addressed them to all the non-Panamanian guests (who, by the way, are still somewhat undetermined as Mr. Tango has yet to finalize his portion of the invite list) and sent them out. One thing done, 9 million to go!

What about you? Did you totally DIY your STDs? Did you even do STDs?

Motivation and a lack thereof

Like many of you, there was a time in my life when I was very fit, played sports all year long, and looked great. Of course, that just happened to fall the most self-conscious period of time in my life so I didn't fully appreciate it until college, grad school, and the real world. Now, I find myself not quite as thin...

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Dont' get me wrong - I love my body. I have curves to the extreme and am proud of them. That said, I do want to be a bit more fit, especially for my wedding day. Of course, having the wedding in Panama on the beach means that everyone will likely see my in my bathing suit... How's that for motivation? Mr. Tango and I have both often fallen into the 'well, I'm tired... Let's just stay home, snuggle, and watch a movie' routine, and as we love to cook for each other it's easy to get carried away with elaborate 3-part meals (No lie - we have 3-4 part meals 4 times a week. It's absurd). As such, we've both gained weight and have officially decided to work together to become more fit by our wedding day.

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We bought a set of weights, and I've been going to the gym at work every morning before work starts to run 1-2 miles and do plenty of crunches, leg lifts, planks, and more. I started off at 150 lbs and aim to be around 125 by February. I'm 5'1", so it's not as much as it sounds. Mr. Tango doesn't care about weight, but wants a 6-pack again. He loses weight so easily! It's not fair! We're trying to eat healthier with some good success, and our usual once-a-week burger and/or beer failures.
I've been at it for about 3 months now and am at around 142lbs. It's progress, but I've reached a plateau and find myself lacking the motivation to really eat healthier and push myself. Have you set a goal to be healthier/more fit/thinner for the wedding? How are you doing? Do you have any tips? I like food too much!