Very Interesting!

A friend mentioned she couldn't find this blog today, so I just did the basic google: To Each Her Own and what pops up?

A new movie! Here's the synopsis:

'To Each Her Own' is a twenty-something coming of age story of a closeted, young married woman, Jessica Sutterland (Hannah Hogan) whose life is turned upside-down after a chance meeting with openly gay Casey (Tracy Rae).

Interesting! Apparently it has been screening all this past fall at different film festivals.

This teaches me to research before I choose a blog name, but I'm excited to have stumbled upon it.

Here's the movie poster, and a link to the site:

This now begs the question-- do I need to change the name of this blog?

Get Yo' Drink On!

Trying to plan a wedding right now is like pulling teeth out of a lion-- an angry lion with cavities.
But I have just discovered a beautiful little site called Freecycle. You post things you are trying to get rid of, and you can request things you are looking for, and it is a great way to recycle unwanted things in your house! I'm sure many of you already know if this site/group/amazing thing, but I just discovered it and I'm in love!

Though we don't have much planned (like you know-- colors, flowers, venue, ceremony)... we do know we want a signature drink. And in a shout out to our southern heritage we want to serve said drinks in mason jar mugs. Do you know how expensive those little f'ers are? I'm finding them for $50/dozen... And we are planning on at least 50 guests, so that price is a no go.
But with freecycle? Maybe we can turn someones clutter into our " drinking favors"

If you are curious, we are planning on making our signature drink a fancy little beverage called "Lemoneerdka"

What is this you say? That sounds ridiculous?!

It is ridiculous-- ridiculously cheap and delicious.

Here's the recipe for one pitcher:
1 Bottle Vodka (Cheap Vodka, don't waste your nice stuff on this)
2 Beers (any kind, but generic Miller/Bud/Etc is best)
1 Minute-maid concentrated Lemonade (the kind you find in the freezer section)
Water

So, you pour about 1/3- 1/2 of the bottle of vodka, the beers and the concentrate in a pitcher.
Then you add water (about equal to the amount of vodka you have added).
Then you add ice.

Stir and serve. The great thing is this all depends on your taste. You can use lime-aid, or raspberry lemonade, whatever! And if you believe hard enough you can pretend that you are hydrating yourself while drinking this due to the water you put in.

Let me know if you've tried it and liked it! (or not liked it)

On another note-- while searching for a mason jar mug photo, I came across this mason jar light unit on a blog called Weeping Cheeries:


The blog has step by step instructions-- which seems like such a cool lighting piece for your house or your ceremony!

Mason Mug Photo From Here.

Google Search: Lesbian Wedding

In an attempt to find fun and funny things to put up here, I'm going to do a weekly google search. It may be anything from veils, to ceremonies, to whatever whatever whatever, but it will be nice, so I hope you like it.

It seemed fitting that the first thing I search for is-- lesbian wedding.

Do you know what horrible terribly tacky things appear when you type in lesbian wedding?

This is from this site here. What is this?! I can't decide if my favorite part is the gilttery rainbow "congratulations" peppered around the couple. Or the said couples awkward hand-hold, OR the Sweatin' To the Oldies headband bride #2 is wearing on her head. I know if one of my friends gave me this in a serious manner, I would cry sad sad tears.

And then there is this gem, which I found on flickr:



While the message (our love is stronger than your hate) is wonderful... well, you know what I'm getting at here....

But then there are the things that make you go "YAY!" Like this great site. It seems to be a pretty great resource of vendors in California:

From When Cally Met Sally

And finally, this beautiful work of art:


I am just learning about the Ketubah (Katubot?) it is written both ways on the website, and I am not Jewish, so I don't know which one is correct. I think it is lovely, though generic and not written specifically for the couple, the wording is great! And this company, A Good Company, seems spectacular, and well... good!


That is it for google search one! Do you have any gems that you've found on any of your searches?

Hello there, ye young lass, how bout a wedding mass?

Finding a gay-friendly venue in our fair state is a bit of a challenge. I apologize for not posting last week, but I was at an educational conference. While I was there, I ran into some dudes from the Texas Renaissance Festival and we started the wedding talk.

How nerdy is it to get married at a Renaissance Faire? Pretty nerdy, but we are nerds and love the renaissance and when you start thinking about all the troubles of finding gay-friendly caterers, bartenders, cake makers, etc.... it starts filling your head with stress and doubt and terrible thoughts about eloping to a rinky-dink ceremony in Canada with you, your fiancee and the no-one else. Or worse-- not going through with anything at all.

Gasp.

But Renaissance Festival, they seem pretty gay friendly. I just sent them an email, and I'm waiting on a reply. Overall, it is a pretty cheap place to get married, with it working out to just about $20 a guest. And the most expensive (and I'm talking-- lots of crap in this package) is $6500-- including flowers, cake and tickets for guests.

The nerdy tudor history dork in me just died and went to heaven....

Drawback: You can't bring in your own cake or food. And you are getting married at a renaissance festival (so there may be some unsightly folk around).

Plus: One stop wedding shop, with nothing overlooked.

I must admit, it is being thrown into the pot of our venues to look into.

Hey, Good Lookin'-- Whatcha Got Cookin?

I am obsessed with the Food Network.

No really. I can't cook, but I feel that watching the Food Network makes me a better cook in theory. I know fancy words like 'julienne' and 'blanche' and 'fondant'. I can pretend to know how lamb should be cooked and how to make risotto. When I lived in NYC for two years, I even tried to get an internship in their accounting department-- and I hate math.

The one problem with this network, well, one show in particular--





Ace of Cakes.



It is giving me ridiculously high expectations of what our wedding cake should be. I live in a smallish town in Texas, so finding a moderately talented cake decorator is a problem. Finding a gay friendly moderately talented cake decorator is an even bigger one.

Hi. I'm Duff Goldman. I'm ridiculously talented and have a team of super-hero cake decorators that make my cakes amazing and they taste good too! Good luck trying to find something like this in the real world, bitches!

And the cake is a big f'ing deal to us. Deborah loves food, and she loves cake more than food-- more than I love the food network. And I love the astethic of quirky cakes that show a couple's personality, so we are in quite the conundrum. There isn't much more to say about it now, other than I'm sending out email after email to companies in Houston, Austin and Dallas, but is it worth the $200-400 travel fee? On top of a cake for 50-75 people?

I. Just. Don't. Know. (I actually don't think so, but the cake is one thing we agreed not to skimp on with our budget)

In the meantime, I'm reading Cake Wrecks, which is a good honest laugh at other people's expense. Check it out.

Pretty shiny things

I've been trying to write the 'story of our engagement' for about thirty minutes now, and it is pretty boring to people who aren't me and my fiancee. I even toyed with not writing about it, but if you are reading this-- maybe you want to know? Curiosity and all that! And in an attempt to keep it short-- Here is what you need to know:

1. We weren't planning on getting engaged until sometime this year (2009)
2. We found our rings at an outlet mall for 75% retail value (aka hella cheap)
3. We thought it was silly to own pretty shiny things and not wear them
4. We didn't just want to say-- "Oh hey we are engaged now"
5. I surprised her with a homemade dinner and the ring was sitting on top of her favorite dessert.
6. She got down on one knee.
7. We both cried.

There! Isn't that better than reading four giant paragraphs about random things that are really only important to me? I mean, I'll admit it. I'm a sap. I'm a romantic. I like tulle, organza, rose colored lighting and pretty shiny things, but after reading my fair share of different couples' wedding websites (and theknot.com has a plethora) you get a little bored.

In the end of all the engagement hub-bub, we set a goal for ourselves-- we are going to try to plan our wedding like our engagement. Finding things we like, and then finding them for 75% off.

So that means a lot of DIY or DIWYF (Do It With Your Friends) or if it comes down to it-- MYFDIWY (Make Your Friends Do It You)

It won't be easy, but it would be pretty sweet.

We have tentatively set a date for November 2010, giving us ample time to cruise the interwebs, flea markets, and outlet malls for great finds. We aren't trying to have a 'cheap wedding', we are looking at it as an adventure.

For those reading, or who will come across this later-- what was your engagement like? In 7 points or less? And does it reflect in your wedding plans?

So are you going to stand in a circle and hold hands?

When we announced our engagement, we were greeted with many congratulations, a few comments I'd like to block from my mind, and a ton of questions. Some were clearly jokes (So are you going to stand in a circle and hold hands?), but when I heard "So, like, are you like, the bride or the groom?" for the tenth time, I realized that maybe explaining a gay wedding was not as easy as I hoped it would be.

Here are the top four questions I've gotten that make me want to slap the person who asked it with a bouquet of calla lilies and call them an idiot:

1. So, can you actually do this here?
No, we can't and thank you oh so much for reminding us. And before you ask-- Yes, we were planning on going to California, but... we all know how that turned out.
Who cares though? (We do, but let us pretend we don't care about our civil rights for a few seconds) We still want a kick ass celebration of our love and a damn good excuse to look pretty and party!

2. Are you both wearing dresses? Cause I mean, you're kind of butch.
I'm chubby- not butch and there is a difference, but thanks for trying. We are both wearing dresses. It is a personal choice, and many different couples choose different things.

3. So how am I gonna know who is the bride and who is the groom?
Well, seeing as there are two women-- there is no groom. I find this is the answer that makes peoples heads explode. They cannot grasp this notion.

4. Are your colors going to be rainbow?
No. And never speak that question again, or I will not be responsible for my actions.

Have you gotten any questions that make you want to shake your head and walk away?

Photo from: www.designergayweddings.com

New Year, New Blog

Well, hello there. Aren't you looking fancy with your computer and searchings for wedding things. Nice to meet you, and I hope to see you again.

I'm Michelle-- the author of this brand new blog. To be honest, I never understood the idea of wedding blogs until I got engaged this past September. Before this engagement, I thought wedding blogs were simply internet gatherings of Bitchy McBitchertons to flaunt their own gorgeous, gaudy, cheap, eco-friendly, animal loving, or you name it wedding and then pick apart and taunt others for their clearly less than evolved sense of style. And I sort of hated wedding blogs because I felt like I was in high school again.

But then I got engaged, and started reading these blogs because a friend of mine mentioned some sites to me, and I went to them-- and I was intrigued! and confused! World of Worlds! Wonders of Wonders! There is so much to do, and so many options, and my brain was spinning and my eyes were doing this thing were they dart back and forth and it was all very exciting!

And scary.

There is a plethora of wedding books, blogs, and family advice for the 'traditional' couple, but what about me and my fiancee-- Deborah? Not too much out there. And while I am in love with TwoBrides and Wedding Bee, I can't seem to find much more. And I need help! And maybe you need help! So let us help each other.

I hope to see you again!