Wedding decorations and life news. If you don't care about decorations, skip to the last paragraph.

Now that the semester is winding down, I was finally able to think about the wedding a little more today.  I finished writing a few papers last week, presented at a conference yesterday, and will be defending my thesis (hopefully successfully) tomorrow.  After that, I will be on grading cruise control for the rest of the semester.  

We went shopping today for some specific monogrammed decorations at Anthropologie, but we were unable to find both an E and J, or S and D in any one style.  They would have Ds and Es in the same style, but that just doesn't do us any good.  But we did find some really cool vintage style skeleton keys, which are one of my favorite objects (other favorite objects include brown eggs, globes, and old maps).  I think I'll incorporate the keys into the centerpieces my mom and I are planning.  We want to use potted pants, which we will decorate with some vintage paper mom found.  They will be displayed along side the wedding photographs of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.  Guests will be able to take home the potted plants, but not the keys!  I will hunt down anyone who walks out with one of my skeleton keys.  I know where you live, I sent you the invitation, I will find you...

The birdcage will be used to collect any cards people bring to the wedding.  I also found some cute bird nest card holders that I will use to reserve two tables at the reception.  One will be for the bridal party, the other will be for parents/grandparents.  All other tables will be a free-for-all.  The fox and raccoon aren't necessarily wedding decorations, I just thought they looked cute in the picture.  Jeff got me those ornaments right after I took the GRE's to get into grad school.  That test was one of the worst three hours of my life, but Jeff cheered me up right away by taking me out for a romantic evening in Fargo.  I think we got the decorations the next morning in a shop in downtown Fargo. 

In other news, Nuesoft has confirmed that Jeff will be able to continue working for them remotely while we are in Australia!  That will be ideal, since I'll be doing most of my dissertation writing from home too.  It is a great relief to know that we will have a second income right away when we arrive in Melbourne, since my stipend is only really enough to cover our rent.  Now we can have a roof, and eat food too!  Huzzah!