snacky, snacky, snacks

For those who don't know I love snacks. Which leads me to think of all of the people who will be hanging out with us on when we get married. Which then I think of what everyone will be doing and how to keep everyone happy. And after all of that we are back to snacks.

Now one thing that I'm am wanting to be careful of is making sure that peoples needs are met without having everyone weirded out by saying things like "Sorry but we can't have that Soandso is vegan/religious". So, thanks to PETA2 I now have a long list of tasty snacks that everyone can enjoy. Also, it will make having a candy table much easier as we will be able to have things for everyone.

Candy Table possibilities:

• Airheads Taffy


• Blow Pops


• Chick-o-sticks


• Cry Babies


• Dots


• Dum Dums


• Jolly Ranchers (lollipops and hard candy)


• Laffy Taffy


• Ring pop lollipops


• Smarties (U.S. version only)


• Sour Patch Kids


• Swedish Fish


• Sweet Tart


• Twizzlers

Snacks for throughout the day:

• Cracker Jack


• FritosLance's Toasty Crackers


• Lay's StaxLay's


• WOW! potato chips


• Microwave popcorn (minus the real butter flavor)


• MunchosPeanuts


• sunflower seeds


• almonds


• cashews


• Pistachios


• Pretzels


• Trail mix


• Wheat Thins

I mean these are tasty things that everyone can anytime and they aren't gross and can be shared with everyone without infringing on any beliefs and can be bought anywhere.

The wonderful world of Etsy

Beautiful flowers by petalsandpaws.etsy.com (Talented, huh?)

I don't know how many people are aware of Etsy.com but it's the site if you like unusual things. Most everything is handmade by creative people with loads of talent. So far I've only bought one thing off of Etsy, a small silver ring with a pink pearl and I love it.

Etsy is also a great site if you are an "Indie Bride" and want some inspiration for your wedding. One of the better services that they offer is Alchemy, where you can post an offer for a customized item. Say you really want a funky cake topper with kissing pandas or that you would really like to keep your bouquet forever, but don't want to dry real ones or deal with silk that can loose it's shape, so you might want to have your flowers made out of clay. You simply post what you want and how much you're ready to pay and Etsy vendors can vie for your order. It's like a reverse ebay.

Kristy vs. Wedding Industrial Complex

Every woman has at some point thought of what they wanted as their wedding day. I've have been very influenced by wedding shows on television, bridal magazines, and popular blogs. But these media outlets have actually turned me against the Wedding Industry.

Well, to be honest the pimping of linens and favors has 50% to do with my thoughts of what I want for our wedding. The other 50% has to do with the irresponsibility of spending money on those unneeded "Necessities". At this point I'm (me not Erik) looking at church mice and thinking that they are wealthy, so there is no way in hell that I'll be thinking of personalized napkins or notebooks that people will throw away. Seriously, 200 dinner paper napkins go for about $37.90. PAPER NAPKINS!!!!! Really? Do we honestly have to have these things? That's $40 that I could put toward more yummy food or tasty beverages for people to drink.

Here's another money sucker, unity candles. The center pillar candle if you purchase from a bridal retailer will burn your wallet for $25 to $80. The taper candles will run around $10 to $25 for the pair. Now here is where they get you, the holder will on set you back $25 to $125. So, the money spent on a tradition that was reportedly started on The Young and the Restless in the mid-70's will be $60 to $230. I'm not spending any of my soon to be hard earned cash on a dramatic waste of time from a soap opera that was silly. Everyone knows the real stories are on ABC.

I admit that WIC has already stolen some of my pennies. I have bought one wedding magazine (InStyle Weddings) and one fabric swatch. Not surprisingly both items have already been thrown away and I now want my eight dollars back. However, now that I can buy Martha Stewart Weddings without feeling guilty and weird, I'm going to buy every one that comes out until I get married. I love that magazine.

And I do watch bridal television with a tiny bit of yearning, but those over the top bank busting parties aren't who Erik and I are. We're backyard barbecues and ice cream in the summer folks. Bonfires and marshmallow in the autumn people.

Laid back.

Yeah, Laid back. That's what we're going to have.

Target silliness

So, after lunch today we went to Target to look at wedding invitations. We found a good way of selecting things together.

This is what we do:

• We each pick out the ones that we like
• Then we narrow the selection down by looking at the ones we have in common
• If only one choice is left then that is what we go with
• If there is more than one, we use the same process to eliminate the choices down to one

I think this works well.

Getting Married.

We have been engaged for two and a half weeks, but have at this point only spent two days together. Tomorrow we are going to have lunch at one of our favorite places and discuss our wedding. It's odd thinking that we are actually getting married and that we will do it the way that Erik and I want.

So, here's what we have so far:

• It will be as environmentally friendly as we can make it


• We will make choices together


• We will not be the "Bride" or the "Groom". We will always be Erik and Kristy.

More to come tomorrow. Hopefully.