"Out of the tree of life I just picked me a plum."
-Frank Sinatra

WEDDING WORK ALL WORTHWHILE PT 1 (ALL OF THE PREPARATION) + DATE 14, 2011

So its true! I am a married woman and although it has been three months since the ceremony, I am still bewildered when the nurse calls for Mrs. Madden and I grin like a fool everytime I refer to Slade as my husband. I know, it's really corny, but I guess we're stuck together now. And YES, we were married on the indoor stage at Stubb's Bar-B-Que and I highly recommend it.

© Tony Spielberg

This is by far the longest longest entry ever and my only reasoning is that I treated all of this as an art show of sorts and I tried to do as much as I could myself and let all of the unfinished (and some apparently lost) items just fall away in the end.

One thing that I kept in mind the entire time was something a friend told me about her wedding. She had said that she knew in her heart of hearts that she and her to-be husband would have many many days better than their wedding day and that there was no need to stress.

The most wonderful thing about all of this was that because we didn't stress and didn't throw the baby out with the bath water when we hit a snag, we actually DID end up having the very finest times of our lives. It was just miraculous. Hurrah for the Maddens.

If you are unaware of the Save the Dates, view them here. The feel for all was to be fun, lighthearted and to give off the air of a silly time to be had.

Much like the Save the Dates, the actual wedding invite was five postcards tied with really cute orange & white twine* and the same seal and envelopes as before.

*The exact twine has been subsequently used in the next two wedding invitations that we received. Coincidence? You betcha.

invite inside detail

Below as follows: Invite card, Schedule card, Stubbs card, Map card, Reply card

click here for larger images

I had made a website for the weekend and it was quite a bit of work but worthwhile to have so much information readily available for our guests. Below are just a few images from the site. I will also add that the creation of said site did not by any means keep people from calling/email either me or my sweet mother for fairly ridiculous reasons at any given time.

The Home page above; Anne & Slade below, which then is divided into the subcategories of Photos, Honeymoon and Registry.

Event Details with a Schedule of Events and Maps; Flights & Hotels that covered all local accommodations and price ranges.

Local Austin for all things to do, see and buy and a Guestbook below.

A Slideshow of all of our cards and a simple Contact page.

click here for larger images

It was quite a bit of work and while some people greatly enjoyed it and made much use of it, other people couldn't have been less interested and had no idea what to do with themselves.

We also dropped welcome bags to the hotels and to other close family staying at private, local properties.
I made tags from a set of one-sided business cards and a specially ordered smaller-hole hole punch.

Each welcome bag was a simple kraft paper shopping bag lined with tissue & local newspaper. Each contained two bottles of water, trail mix, some chocolate granola, an orange, a quick note from me & Slade and a handy map with phone numbers and a small schedule.

My mother was zero to nil help with the welcome bags, favors etc. Mrs. Harloe does not listen to direction well and all that she wanted to do was make out with Mason Jar and watch Mildred Pierce. (I say this of course in spite of the millions of jars she filled and the countless hours that she spent slaving away on rum cakes. She's awesome, but would rather watch television and hang out with dogs than get down to work. And go figure.)

Plain stationery, above and the map from the invite with a re-vamped schedule and info for those who left information back at home, shown below.

Up Next: Our Friday Night Dinner & Drinks and our Saturday Brunch!...

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