Is she kidding with this?

Who tries to coordinate outfits with your loved one so you look like a couple? [WSJ]

Updates, updates. We think we've decided on a venue: Manor House at Squirevue Valee Farm. (Alas, I remember it's spelled weird, but not the exact spelling.) I don't want to say a lot about it -- I want the guests to be kind of surprised and enjoy it -- but we think it's very us. The other places that we were considering sort of shook out this way: We love the location of Glidden House, and actually will probably suggest that our guests stay there. A nice room will be like $150 a night or less (I forget the exact amount, details to come) but it's absolutely perfect -- a beautiful bed and breakfast, within walking distance to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, to the Cleveland Art Museum, Little Italy, Millionaire Row, and all sorts of cute antique stores and so forth. Oh, and the management building that Gehry just designed for Case Western. We were SO in love with Glidden as the hotel that we chose Manor House over O'Neill, the mansion we had been considering renting -- Manor House is pretty close to Glidden, whereas O'Neill was like a 35-40 minutes drive. (We're still going to have to have shuttle buses running between venues, but it won't be a 40-minute drive.)

In other news, Mom and I did dress shopping -- we totally did not find the dress, and instead had a sort of exhausting, disappointing experience at the store. Still don't have a caterer picked out... or a photographer... or a florist, or anything else we should have by this point. Eeek!

OK, so some more shots of the ring (taken my brother) (and there's sunlight involved!)

Also just announced my wedding, kinda, on my other little blog. Tee hee!

Wow: Warning, we will probably not be this enterprising.

Places I won't be getting married:

IMG_0631, originally uploaded by katmmad.

My parents have been great in scouting out venues but they seemed surprised to hear I didn't want to get married on the side of the highway.

Still no real venue

We're still deciding between venues, and at this point just sort of killing time until Reg and I can get back to Ohio (I'm hoping it'll be not this weekend but next) to look at them in person. These are the basic points in favor and against each one:

• O'Neill House. Pros: Beautiful old mansion in Akron. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, totally unlike anything else we've seen. We could bring our own liquor, and the woman who runs it would cook anything we wanted. Being located in Akron, people could fly into the frequently cheaper Akron/Canton airport instead of the Cleveland International Airport. Also: we already have the date of May 30 reserved. Cons: The house only has four bedrooms in it, so the majority of the guests would have to stay somewhere that's else, which means we'd have to deal with transportation to/from the wedding, as well as to/from the rehearsal dinner and everything else. Also: in their biggest room they can only do a seated meal for 50 -- we'd have to change it to buffet style if we wanted to fit 80 people in there.
  

• Glidden House. Pros: It's located in the heart of Cleveland, right near Case Western's campus. The B&B has 60 rooms, so most guests could stay there if they wanted to. In terms of other activities that weekend, it's great stuff -- walking distance to the Cleveland Art Museum (which is free, and awesome) and the Botanical Gardens and to Little Italy and Millionaire Row and so forth. It's also nearby a well-rated restaurant. They also have May 30 open, but it costs significantly more to reserve it (like, 10x the price), so we haven't yet. Cons: It doesn't have O'Neil's vibe. But it's better than a lot of the soulless party centers.
  

Aquarius and Libra

So this will be funny to A. and L. and M., also, because they are all Libras as well, but let me just say that I finally got a Libra magnet to go alongside my Aquarius magnet. (Reg's birthday is October 5.) I had first purchased my Aquarius magnet thinking, yep, this is totally me, and thinking how I liked that it portrayed both the positive and negative things about me that I identify with being an Aquarian.

But now, side by side with the Libra magnet, it seems clear to me that someone hates Aquarians.

Seriously:

Everyone should watch this. I wonder if I had a 25-foot train if I would need more bridesmaids? Or perhaps a flower girl or two to do the heavy lifting. Hmmn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X56XLpnS4wA

Eeeeeee.

OK. Just e-mailed with my mum about putting down the (not so high) deposit on the O'Neil house, the place they saw on Sunday that Reg and I both adored. We're still waiting to hear from other places, but I fear the reason they haven't returned our callS in the past two weeks is because they're booked solid for the season already.

O'Neil house had May 30 and June 6 open. I've NEVER wanted to be a June bride, and Reg remembered that we invaded Normandy on June 6.

So... will May 30 be my wedding date? Wow. Kind of overwhelmed at the thought of that.