a little idea I'm thinking of...

... and since I don't know how to keep my mouth shut and the blog is always available, I'll blurt it out now:
I'm thinking of renting a little vacation house for us, to sort-of be our HQ. When and for how long I rent it for would depend on pre-wedding deets. EG when are you all coming, if we do my bachelorette party in France (this might be the easiest? like the Saturday before the wedding?), and other details that won't be settled for at least another year!

  Is this something you'd be interested in? If so, shall I look for something that has space for us and your men? Just don't be surprised if I kick Ben, Alan, Greg etc out the night before the nuptials!

I'll have to look into prices, but a lot of little houses like this come up on my radar during my search for a reception/ceremony location, so I think I'll start keeping a list of potentials. For those of you who get here really early (more than a week before), I'll also be trying to place you with friends/w Rudy's parents if poss. How many friends we can house you with will depend a lot upon how many are still living in the area when the time comes (friends might be moving for work opportunities, etc).

Does this rental sound like a good idea to you ladies? If you're down for it (or even for those of you who are down for it -- we don't have to be the whole BP crew in the house --) we'll need to talk budget.After a preliminary look, the larger houses (that could house all of us and Greg, Ben, Alan etc) are often around 800 or 900€/week. You girls are already spending a lot to get here and on your dresses and stuff, so I want to try to make the rest as inexpensive as possible. OH MY GOD SCRATCH THAT!!! Well, the 800-900€ part. I might have found a total gem:

This place: (here and here) sounds like it might be perfect, because it has loads of wonderful things and is only 20 min from Bourges. The gîte (summer cottage ish thing) can house up to 10 people, and there are 2 "chambres d'hôte" (which are like B&B rooms) that can house 2-4 ppl each right near by. The gîte is currently listed at only 500€/week, they have a washer/dryer, dishwasher, BBQ, games, jardin furniture and an ADSL hook-up!!!! The B&B rooms are listed at nightly rates, but I'm sure I could negotiate with them to get a global price, or I'd have my Aunt, Uncle, Cousin Mindy etc stay in them. EEEEE!!!! If things continue to go well with work, I can forsee paying maybe half the fee for the gîte's rental, maybe a bit more.

Even if we, the BP decide this idea isn't for us, I'm going to keep this one high on my list bc it looks like a total gem. (tho I do hope you're down for it, because I think it would be so much fun for us to have a Head Quarters)

ok, that's it for my LONG late-night ramblings.
xoxoxo
*m*

Woot! Signature cocktail mayhaps?

Another knot find: ginger-lemon margaritas! Yummmmmmy!
Ginger-Lime Margaritas from Creative Edge Parties
1. Use a high quality tequilla such as an Anejo
2. Take a lare piece of fresh Ginger and marinate for 24 hours in the Tequilla
3. Remove the ginger.
4. Slice the ginger into small sections and muddle in a rocks glass with lime.
5. Add ice and then pour the marinated tequila over. Add a splash of soda water.
6. Garnish with a lime slice.

Things I'm loving, part 1

I spotted these on the knot. In the first pic, the "just married" sign is SO CUTE and I would TOTALLY love to have something like that for our chairs. Anyone think they're crafty enough?
(original link here http://community.theknot.com/cs/ks/blogs/wedding_style_file/archive/2009/08/14/vintage-black-and-white-weddings.aspx )

In the second pic the faux chandelier crystals make for such fabulously classy escort cards, and I can see them hanging from a little tree (faux made out of branches or real). I've seen some other cute escort card ideas, but these really blew me away. (original link here http://community.theknot.com/cs/ks/blogs/wedding_style_file/archive/2009/07/20/diy-idea-for-an-formal-wedding-use-faux-crystals.aspx )

This of course also demonstrates my typical battle: balancing the cute with the classy, since I love both. NOT EASY! Another example of this ongoing struggle is themes: to have or not to have? To give names to the tables or just use generic numbers? Names can be cute and personal but also ridiculous (ex do you really want to look back at your wedding day and have the tables named after your old pets?), numbers are classy but also impersonal. Though this faux crystal idea might have solved that, since it's just so damn classy.

FYI you can register on the knot even if you're not a bride to be yet. You can even register as my BM ;)

xoxo
*m*