Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts
By Alyce Wilson
April 23, 2007 - Banding Together
These rings are similar to our design
Saturday, The Gryphon and I took care of another wedding related task. We went to Halloween, the jewelry store run by Henri David, and talked to him about our wedding bands. He's the same jeweler who designed and made my engagement ring.
On the advice of a staff employee, we showed up as soon as they opened on Saturday. Even so, there was one customer ahead of us! We used the time to look at the wedding bands on display to see if any were close to what we wanted.
The Gryphon, who took the lead on this design, since I took the lead with my engagement ring, wanted to have a Celtic knot design worked in, whether as engraved or in relief. We really liked a ring that had a similar pattern inset into the ring in bas relief, with bands on either side. That's what we showed him when we spoke to him.
We handed him the pattern that The Gryphon had found that he liked, and we then figured out what width we wanted for each of our bands. Henri then measured our fingers to find out which ring size we needed. I'm still a 5, which isn't surprising, since I was last measured only about eight months ago. The Gryphon was a 9 3/4.
The rings will be made out of rose gold, the same material as my engagement ring.
The whole process took about half an hour or so. He told us they'd be ready to try on by the end of May, which is more than enough time for our September wedding.
One more thing to cross off the list!
We had a little time before catching the train home, so we stopped at a nearby Staples to look for printable place cards we can use as escort cards at our wedding reception. Those are the cards you place on a table at the cocktail area, where guests can pick up their names and find out where they'll be sitting. We are only going to designate tables and let people decide exactly how they want to sit at their assigned table.
After a little searching, we found some nice packets of place cards made by Gartner Studios. We bought two sets of cards that were white with a silver border, silver being one of our colors.
We're going to name the tables after the planets, and we've purchased one-inch square stickers of the planets to place on each card, along with the guest's name, to indicate where they'll sit. We still have to figure out exactly how we're going to do the larger table cards marking each table, but we have plenty of time to figure that out.
We also looked around to get ideas for stationery for our wedding programs, which we'll also print ourselves. Originally, we'd talked about printing them on transparency sheets, for a futuristic feel, but the cost of that is pretty excessive, so we're going back to the drawing board until closer to the time. We can always look at other stationers for ideas, as well.
Originally, we had planned on getting clear labels that we could use for addressing our envelopes, but we've discarded that idea in favor of printing directly on the outer envelopes. I'll hand write the guests' names on the inner envelopes.
So then we made our way home, after a brief pause to sit in the sun near an outdoor Lichtenstein sculpture erected in Center City a couple years ago. It was a beautiful day, and I was wearing a pink tweed skirt I hadn't worn since I bought it last fall. Ah, spring!
At home, I worked on Wild Violet while The Gryphon prepared for a game he was playing on Sunday at PAGE (Philadelphia Area Game Enthusiasts). For dinner, we tried a Thai restaurant in Springfield. We really liked it. I ordered a seafood dish, and he got pork. We even splurged on ice cream for dessert.
Sunday The Gryphon made us crepes for breakfast. And then he had to go into work. He's an IT manager and had to take care of some things while the computers weren't in use. I didn't see him the rest of the day, since he went straight from there to his PAGE meeting.
The rest of the day I spent working on Wild Violet. I managed to transcribe an entire, lengthy interview for the upcoming issue. Then I put together a list of CDs for review to give to a new music reviewer. Finally, I got started on transcribing a second interview.
Let me just say, I hate transcribing my own interviews. I always second guess myself: parts where I should have followed up, things they might have said that I didn't understand at the time and therefore skipped over, or awkward phrasing here and there. I know this is unfair to myself: I always conduct interviews to the best of my capacity at the time. Still, transcribing them, and being forced to hear every unedited gaffe, is not a process I enjoy.
For much the same reason, I never watched either of the recordings of my improv class performances all the way through. I also never watched the videotape of my first wedding, which we really primarily taped for my grandfather, who was a recluse at the time. He's since passed on. I think my mom has the tape.
This might sound funny, since I've often bemoaned the fact that my parents never shot home movies, even though they had a beautiful 8mm camera which my friend The White Rabbit says still works. I think, though, if they had shot home movies, it would be easier to forgive childlike goofs, writing them off as forgivable, or at least understandable.
I'm sure I'm not the only writer/journalist who's far more self-critical than she should be. CNN's Anderson Cooper, for example, admits to hating his own laugh. Last year, Barbara Walters aired an entire special of moments she deemed cringe-worthy from her own career. Brave woman!
Of course, she no doubt controlled how it was edited: "Yes, I know I said to put that in, but that's a little too embarrassing. Remove it, please!"
Wish I could
do that with my brain!
More on Alyce's wedding planning:
Moral:
If your jeweler is popular, it's best to order your rings early.
Copyright
2006 by Alyce Wilson
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