Relatives have started descending from all directions, and yesterday marked the start of a whole string of festivities: my future in-laws hosted the rehearsal dinner last night, my mother hosts dinner tonight, we’re hosting the wedding tomorrow morning, and my dad is hosting dinner tomorrow night.� All in all, a whirlwind of social activity.

It’s wonderful seeing old friends again – some I haven’t seen for years – and meeting up with family.� B.’s family met my parents last night, and tonight my brother and sister-in-law are flying in from Maryland.� An old friend who moved to India five years ago arrived yesterday in time for the wedding rehearsal, and some of my grade-school friends are flying in today.� I just wish I had more time to spend with everyone!

All is in order, just a few last-minute errands to run, like picking up my floral headpiece and B.’s boutonniere.� The dress is beautifully pressed and hung up awaiting the Big Day, and really all that’s left to do is to relax and enjoy the friends and relatives who have come to celebrate with us.

Because of the social whirlwind, I probably won’t blog again until after the wedding – so wish us happiness and luck, for the Big Day and beyond!

Yesterday I met with the bakery that’s doing the cake to discuss the decorations.  We agreed that the white chocolate glaze, while tastier than fondant, doesn’t travel as well, so switched to a rolled fondant coating with a ribbon wrapped around each layer of the cake.  I had originally intended to use gold ribbon, but upon returning home, discovered to my delight a hitherto-forgotten scrap of wedding-coat fabric, big enough to make ribbons for the cake!

So the chef will make a poured-sugar double-happiness character (gold character on clear background) to  go on top of the cake, and each layer will be wrapped in an eternity-knot ribbon with gold trim.  Here’s what it will look like against the cake layer:

The white paper represents the height of the layer, so that gives you an idea of what it will look like on the actual cake.  The fondant will probably be a very pale ivory, to coordinate better with the ribbon.

I had a brief moment of total panic yesterday when the friend who is officiating our wedding emailed to say that he wouldn’t be able to get deputized to perform a legal marriage in time!  I called up my friend Lena, who is a Tibetan Buddhist lama and will be at the wedding, and asked if she could sign the marriage certificate instead.  Shortly after that I discovered that the Universal Life Church will ordain people instantly online, and that this is apparently good enough to qualify as a religious leader in California.  (Go figure!)  So that problem is solved, one way or another.

T minus 10 days!

We got the marriage license this morning, and I settled the two florists and updated the caterer at lunchtime.  Tomorrow I’m meeting with the bakery to discuss cake decorations, and will stop by the dry cleaners to drop off B.’s shirt for pressing and to get an estimate on the cost for cleaning the wedding-dress post-wedding.  (This is one of the best cleaners in the Bay Area, specializing in wedding dresses, and I’m sure it will cost an arm and a leg to get the dress cleaned there.  But, for this gown, it’s essential that it not get damaged, so I’m willing to spend the money.)  Saturday we’ll finalize music with the harpist.

And so it goes, an endless litany of details to be sorted out.  Being the organized and systematic project manager that I am, I’m doing pretty well at it – as soon as a detail crops up, I take care of it, and I’m composing checklists to make sure nothing gets forgotten on the Big Day (or the days leading up to it).  So things are very much under control.

Which is a pity, because I’m starting to crawl up the walls from the anticipation!  Settling bits and pieces is calming, but now that virtually all the details are taken care of, I’m essentially pacing around the house trying to think of things to do.  My compudobby box is back in the shop for repairs, and dyeing is on hiatus until after the wedding.  I don’t have the mental focus to read more lessons in the tapestry book or do more Photoshop simulations.  Instead I’ve been cleaning house, which I only do when completely desperate for something to do.  It’s marginally better than pacing.

I did have one bright spot yesterday: I wrote my speech for the wedding!  I won’t put it here, because B. reads my blog and it’s supposed to be a surprise, but I’m happy with it.  It came out as a free-verse poem: not the world’s best poetry, but not bad either, and it does reasonably express how much I love him (at least, as much as any words can).  I also took a crack at writing the vows, but have decided my first draft is completely awful, so I’ll tackle it again in the morning.

T minus 11 days.  I should take up smoking; at least it would give me something to do with my hands.

I finished up the hairpin my mother sent me!

Here’s a photo of the double-happiness as my mom sent it to me – solid silver brushed with (real) gold in the double-happiness section:

Given the matte white (and rather ugly, if you ask me) backing, I was a bit uncertain whether I could make this work, but my mom assured me that I could change the lattice to any color I wanted by using watercolor pencils and fixing the color with clear spray-on acrylic finish.

Which is exactly what I did, and it now blends beautifully with my hair!

I attached it to two small barrettes, colored black with a Sharpie, using a fine, clear elastic cord that my mother sent me.  It now attaches to my hair just fine.

So, I’ll be wearing white flowers on one side and a gold double-happiness hairpin on the other!  I think it’ll be gorgeous.  Can hardly wait for the Big Day!