Taking a quick break from studying today to put together some wedding eye candy. I've been gathering pictures over the past few months, and definitely see a sort of theme emerging in what I like- dogs as ring bearers, bright colors, anything vintage, and sweets.

Since it's really important to us to plan a wedding without going overboard on spending even a fraction of what the so-called average wedding supposedly costs ($29,859), we're considering scrapping the traditional $400 wedding cake in favor of a tiered cake stand piled with doughnuts, but Brandon's really giving me pushback on that one (kidding! out of everything we've come across, this was the first thing Brandon jumped on - doughnut wedding cake? let's do it!)

I just finished a pretty intense assignment for class today, and am "relaxing" (air quotes) with a glass of wine while I price jewelry and put together a shipment to send to Sioux Falls.

I'm thinking moving forward with viewing wedding venues will have to wait until we pack and move and get a bit settled into our new place. I'd really love to have a place booked and date set, but there are only so many hours in a day! We do have a list of potential places, but we really want to find somewhere that will accomodate a fairly small wedding and will let us have a lot of creative freedom, which in the wedding world equals being able to bring in your own food and cake, have an iPod for reception music- that type of thing. Oh, the unadultered freedom I will feel knowing that I'm not paying $6 a slice for cake and cake cutting.

Koda- it's nacho cheese.

Koda ate almost an entire container of Qdoba queso tonight. We were in the other room, and while my subconscious was hearing some sort of eating or drinking of that wasn't dog food or water, I ignored it.

When I finally decided to check it out, I discovered that he had taken the queso container from our tall coffee table and somehow managed to place it on the ground, without spilling any of it. He had the round, cardboard container cradled between his two paws on the ground, furiously enjoying every last little bit of queso.

He's now passed out beside the bed, dreaming of nacho chips.

we're having an iPod wedding!

I'm usually the one carrying the camera, therefore, it's much more common to see photos of my guys on my blog. Today, Brandon was in charge of the camera as we took a walk through our new neighborhood. I'm really trying to resist commentary on my photo, but think my once-savvy haircut has grown out into a soccer mom 'do when I go all weekend-casual and forget the styling products. Oops!

Now that we've got a potential wedding month kind of defined, people have been asking me about our latest plans. We're 95% sure we're going to have an IPod wedding dance in lieu of a deejay- or as I said to my sister Becki last night when we were out to sushi getting all girly over wedding talk, "We're having an iPod wedding!" (meanwhile Becki's staring at me with a confused stare, wondering what an iPod wedding might be- vows downloaded from the iTunes Store? What?)

Some of my favorite recent downloads for my "iPod wedding" include: Falling Slowly Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, Kodachrome Paul Simon, Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop Landon Pigg, Beyond the Sea Bobby Darin. Of course I'll be adding some Van Morison (thanks, Sarah!), already have Kanye West (Becki- you know me too well) and am slowly gathering some of my favorite oldies- my dad loves the song Tequila, and I always think of my mom out on the dance floor all happy and dancing whenever The Twist or Shout comes on.

Here is a photo of Brandon's dream video game-themed wedding cake. What I most appreciate about this picture is the contrast of the Super Mario Brother's cake with the elegant roses hanging off the white trellis in the background. Ah, compromise.

With school and moving on our plates, we've decided that we will be waiting to get married until spring 2009 (maybe April, May, or June). Our first mission has been accomplished: rings have been procured, and we've each got a list of our top 5 ceremony/reception locations written down. Rather than picking a date and trying to find somewhere that is free on that date, I think we're going to see which location works best within our budget, and allows certain freedoms like bringing in your own wedding cake (or dessert buffet) and using an IPod instead of a DJ. I think we'll probably get moved into our new apartment and maybe start touring some places over the next few months.

Rather than making it a last-minute wedding task, I'm trying to accumulate a collection of music a bit at a time, so I'm wondering- what song would make you get up and dance?

In May, we're heading west- from our 1-bedroom uptown digs to a 2-bedroom place on the west side of downtown Denver, near the South Platte River. We took a walk in our new neighborhood today, and I think we're officially in love with our upcoming change of scenery.

I came across these lovely little things on the wedding section of the Martha Stewart website tonight. After reading through the instructions, I realized that it would be a pretty quick project- just grab some white tissue paper from under my art desk, and grab some 24-gauge wire, which just I happen to have handy. Craft nerd!

In less than 5 minutes, I had a rudimentary 10-inch white pom-pom created. It wasn't perfect, but I felt proud nonetheless and hung it from the ceiling fan cord dangling above our bed so I could snap some pictures of my handiwork. With school over these past few months, moments of creative completion have been far too few!

Koda stood on the bed, peering at the pom-pom with a huge smile on his face. I asked him to stay in my nicest voice, because I wanted to get the perfect photo of my first attempt at handmade wedding decor. I grabbed my camera from the living room, sprinted back into the bedroom, and snapped this photo of Koda peering up at my creation.

After two failed attempts which left him with tissue paper scraps flying about, he finally managed pulled the Martha Stewart tissue paper pom-pom down from the ceiling fan and promptly ran by me and into the living room.

About 20 seconds later, the ball of tissue paper had been shredded into a hundred pieces. Luckily, we gather amusement from the amusement he gets from such endeavors. And I have at least 360 more days to practice making tissue paper balls.