A stroke of rough, raggedy genius

I've had post ideas building up over the weekend while I got a ton of things done. Mom has cupcake transporting boxes! I sorted out my thoughts on wedding makeup and got prepped for that hot mess! I dipped into the wedding fund and bought the materials to make a card box! I found gorgeous $3 dusty pink fabric at WalMart and it makes even more gorgeous flowers!
But noooo.... instead of blogging like a fiend all weekend, I just cleaned the kitchen and did four loads of laundry. However, that was a worthy accomplisment that needed accomplishing before I ran out of panties.

But -- while I'm sitting here at the library wondering where the battery charger is for our camera so I can get crackin' with some pics and blogging later this week, I started working with my budget outline some more and filling in the gaps that had been big ol' "       "s in the spreadsheet until now. Maybe it's because I'm in a better mood, but I'm definitely feeling more up about what I can accomplish with a little creativity and savvy choices of materials.

One of those savvy choices has been that I've planned to get some burlap from the local tractor supply company to make runners with to jazz up the tables. As I was Googling average prices per yard on the stuff (I'm putting $6/yard in the budget as the maximum price but I see it cheaper), I threw a random "wedding" into my search and started seeing all kinds of awesome ways that you can use burlap in weddings. I could go burlap crazy if I wanted! I don't want to use it so much that it looks like we're getting married inside a huge potato sack, but I saw something that really caught my eye:

From Cap Classique

Dah!!! I'd been trying to think of some kind of bunting option because there are wonderfully placed sconce lights on the walls in the fellowship hall at HCC and they're just begging to be used for hanging stuff. I might just be able to use burlap scraps from the runners (or buy a little extra for not that much money) for a look I love.
If we were able to hang stuff from the ceiling (which would be too much work to pull off), I would soooo be trying to do this:


From Inspired By This

 ... which I could still hang from the wall sconces, but I'm not sure if it would look that great (and I wouldn't know how to hide the cords!). This is a design question that needs the input of a Mom, but I got excited and wanted to go all bloggy with it first.

Pondering a piece of plastic

This whole wedding-on-a-budget thing is great in theory. You know how theory works... where you plan out how much you can save each month, then calculate how much that will give you in the end, then congratulate yourself for being such a great saver and relish the thought of being able to afford those gorgeous and affordable dusty rose tablecloths.
"Ha!" says Life. "Guess who you forgot? Me."

Soooo... I was driving home from work yesterday, singin' along with some Toby Keith, when I hear POPflapflapflapflapflap. And I see that dangling from the driver's side of my windshield is a long piece of black plastic. Whatthecrap. I was almost home and it wasn't hanging out much, so I decided to see if I could make it. Part of why this was questionable is that last summer, the same thing happened on the passenger side, and the black plastic piece went flying off into the woods.
I get home and investigate it -- no sooner than I touch it does it crack right off at the base.

Balls. (Also, that's frost on my windshield from this morning, not nastiness.
Well, that's probably there, too.)

I'm left with a gaping chasm between the body of my car and the windshield on both sides, though at least it's filled in with some kind of black caulking glue-esque stuff. I think (from my research) that this is a piece of weatherstripping and it can be replaced and installed at your average auto body shop. But... yeah... that costs money.
And I overshot what I could put into my wedding savings this month and have $5 left in my checking account and $60 left on my credit card.
Baaaaaaallllllsssss.
I'm going to take some out of the wedding fund to live on/pay the repair bill for the next few weeks until I get paid again and be thankful that I get a good tax refund this year. But facing an unexpected expense yesterday got me thinking about all the other life expenses that I haven't been budgeting for -- things like a friend's bachelorette party and hotel expenses for her wedding, the increases in gas, how much it will cost for me to start fixing more fresh fruits and vegetables rather than Hamburger Helper.
I'm having to face the fact that I won't be able to save as much as I'd hoped for the wedding, rings, honeymoon, and all that jazz. But I've been pep-talking myself to keep from sinking into a pit of despair and thinking that we can't pull it off. I'm a determined, creative person, and I know that with the brains God gave me and the help that our wonderful families and friends offer, we can make a wedding that's awesome.

Something that this experience has made me realize is that you have to let go of worries at some point, somehow. I don't know if it matters how you do it -- whether you meditate or just relax or find something else to take your mind off it. I keep coming back to faith, holding onto trusting that if I save as much as I can and spend as wisely as I can, God will help us have a wedding. It doesn't have to have colored tablecloths or pro invitations, but it will be a wedding, where we can get married, which is the point of it all.
And that helps.

Goodbye, dear friend.

A sad, sad event occurred on Monday night. It was already taking place when I came in the door from work -- I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye.
It came about because Johnny got a new job, and new jobs mean changes. (Not only did he get one new job, but two! We found out that he's being transferred to the middle-man office of the newspaper conglomerate we work for, where he'll be doing IT support rather than layout and production. That's great and exciting! But then...)
He got a call on Saturday to come in for an interview at our local Ingles for some weekend work in the deli. They liked him (who wouldn't?) and it looked like he'd be making an extra $80 each week. Hooray! But then, the bad news -- all Ingles employees must be clean-shaven.
We stared at the electric razors for half an hour in Walmart on Saturday night as he decided whether or not to take the plunge. One really nice self-cleaning electric razor and some aftershave went in the cart, and he was all set -- if he decided to go through with it.
I loved Johnny's beard. It's been one of my favorite physical things about him ever since I first laid eyes on him at the newspaper (in high school, he was beard-less, but that was so long ago my memories are fuzzy). It's one of Johnny's favorite physical traits, too -- he was dang proud of that beard. He aspired to rock a beard like Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top one day.

But alas, his dream was shattered on Monday night, when he took the plunge and shaved it off.
I don't think either of us are quite used to it yet. He wouldn't even let me kiss him until this morning. I'm supporting him either way, whether he keeps it shaved and keeps working the deli job or whether he ends up deciding one 40-hours-a-week, hour-long-commute job is enough and lets it grow back.  But I can't help but miss it, at least a little.

Oh beard... someday I'll see you again. I hope you'll join us for the wedding. I'll send you an invitation.