OOT Time

It's hard for me to believe that we've been working on this wedding for just about eight months. That sounds like a long time, but with just 11 days to go I can barely remember the good old days when I still had time on my hands. (By the way, that card box got decorated then tossed because it looked so awful. A talented and generous friend has made me one instead).

While I don't think we're quite at the point of the penny-candy-in-a-Ziploc yet, getting stuff together for the out-of-town guest bags is making me nuts and I will be relieved when finished. At this point I'm planning on just filling them with the usual stuff: water, pretzels, Wrigley gum, possibly Girl Scout cookies that may or may not have been sitting in my freezer for six months, etc. If time and budget allow, I would also love to include mini gooey butter cakes as a nod to my hometown of St. Louis, Garretts, Fannie May Cubbies chocolate bars and/or Frango mints (acceptable to me now since they are being produced in Chicago again).

I'm also a bit nervous about everyone getting their bags. I know I have to trust the hotel to do a good job on this one. Our hotel charges $5.00 per bag to be placed in a guest room (or we can leave them at the front desk and up to chance). At first I was a little put out by the charge since we're spending a good chunk of change there already. But a friend of mine in the hotel biz (whose hotel charges $6.00 per bag!) said it's a pain to do put the bags in each room. Who knew.

Six degrees

Our guest list is inching toward 200. We're not inviting a lot of extended family, so most of our guests fall into a distinct category: immediate family, work friends, college friends, high school friends and Chicago friends we've picked up along the way. There's not a lot of crossover, since we grew up in different parts of the US and went to different colleges. I've always loved "six degrees of separation", though, and I bet if we put our heads together long enough we'd figure out there are connections between our guests (aside from the connection to us, of course).

I just found this from an amazing Newport Beach, CA wedding:

Jonathan Canlas Photography via Grey Likes Weddings

It made me think of this, which I stumbled on early in my wedding planning and still love: