Team Practical

Mar 2010

You guys have been wonderfully patient waiting for the results of the Printable Press giveaway (APW sponsor) that I hosted a few weeks ago. In the meantime Kimi has been holed up, designing new invitations inspired by the winning comment. They'll be added to Printable Press' regular line up (so anyone can buy them), but the winners get one for free, get to modify it with whatever colors and text they like, and change up the wording. You know, usual Printable Press style.

So. Kimi and I read the comments separately, and immediately came to the same conclusion about who needed to win. It was gut level and totally obvious to both of us. So, drumroll please, the winning comment was this:

Just as you don't usually post giveaways, I don't usually enter them. However, this one seems like it was made out of my dreams, and I just can't stop myself! Itâ€™s also been a generally crappy week in wedding planning as our second venue just canceled on us and, well, queer family drama abounds. But thatâ€™s not the point of this entry; the point is squirrels. I've been looking high and low for a wedding invitation that includes squirrels. I won't say exactly why online (lest I embarrass my beloved), so I'll just say that funny things happen to bodies when they embark on a female to male gender transition. And now I love and collect squirrels. There are plenty of squirrel valentines day cards and even a few birthday/anniversary/Christmas/holiday cards, but no wedding invites! We'd love to have a casual, kind of funky invite that features a squirrel and maybe some sort of reference to our breakfast for dinner reception. We're looking at dove grey and apple green as our unofficial colors. - JM & MJ

And this was what Kimi had to say:

Everyone's ideas are so inspiring, and there are a lot of great weddings being planned! It was a hard choice, but JM & MJ's plea for an invitation with squirrels just won me over. Not only because her entry touched me (and intrigued me), not only because I was so charmed by the phrase "my beloved', but also because, well, there just should be squirrels on an invitation somewhere. Recently at our cabin a pair of tiny red squirrels have taken up residence in our stone wall and we have fallen in love with them.

And because Kimi is a total doll, and was on a creative roll, she ended up designing THREE squirrel invitations, so JM & MJ can have their pick. I literally love each one more than the last, and when I got to the end, I was pretty teary. So JM & MJ, email me, and we'll make some magic happen.

Continue reading Squirrels! (Thanks Printable Press)

Posted in: Sponsored Posts, Team Practical | 34 Comments »

Feb 2010

Thank You.

It turns out y'all are just like me. You LIKE surveys.

True fact,* when I was a preteen/teen, I would lie to telephone pollsters and tell them I was 18, because I wanted to answer their questions so BADLY. (especially if it was about politics. I felt I was a much more informed non-voter at 12 than most voters were). And when blogs I read do surveys, I get so excited, and I get so sad if they only ask demographic information because I HAVE SUCH GOOD OPINIONS!

Which is a long way of saying, um, whoa. We had to turn off the survey, becuause in 12 hours a THOUSAND of you took it. And they were going to start charging is per response after that, which was a no-go. Also, super interesting fact: the percentages on every answer have held totally firm since 6 AM. You guys know what you think and you're sticking to it. I like that in people.

So, thank you. I consider myself blessed to work on any project that so many of you care so much about. You're all darlings. (And yes. Once I have a chance to put together some pie graphs, I will share the results.)
Continue reading Thank You.

Posted in: Team Practical | 11 Comments »

Feb 2010

To The 40% of Team Practical In Grad School…

... a question. Because god knows, *I* am not in grad school. Everyone around me is or has, but somehow... not me. So, please discuss:

Hi Meg,

Lately I've been thinking a lot about something and it seems like its probably close to the hearts of many of those on your blog so I wondered if others had thoughts...

My boyfriend (I can't say fiancee with a straight face even 6 months later) and I got engaged last August after mulling it over for awhile. We met while I was starting the fieldwork for my PhD in London, and got engaged about halfway through my writing up -- which has been a somewhat fraught process (isn't it always?). When we decided to get engaged we toyed with the idea of waiting to plan until after I'd submitted so that I wouldn't get distracted... But as soon as the words were out of my mouth I sort of knew it was ridiculous, I'm an organizer and a researcher through and through and whether we were engaged for 10 months or 100 months I knew I'd start thinking about it straightaway (somewhat obsessively I admit).
Continue reading To The 40% of Team Practical In Grad School…

Posted in: Team Practical | 60 Comments »

Feb 2010

The Grooms Experimental Animation Save The Date

Well. It's turned into husbands and grooms and partners week here at APW, which is good, I think. We don't talk about the other side of the gender coin anywhere near enough. So it seemed fitting to end it with this tiny Save-The-Date video that Eliina sent in.

When I saw the words "animated Save-The-Date video" in my eye box, I admit, I indulged in a wee sigh (you should see some of the PR emails I get), but then I opened it, and I LOVE YOU GUYS. From Eliina:

My fiance Josh and I realized that we'd probably be a lot happier if we tapped into the talents that we do have, even if they aren't skills traditionally used at weddings. He has an MFA in experimental animation, though he's only been doing commercial stuff in his marketing job at a bank in recent years. He downloaded a free trial copy of CS4 on his home laptop, and created a Save the Date animation to send to our families and friends. Although fancy letterpress makes me drool, his work makes me swoon. It's been fun to see him really take ownership over a creative part of the wedding planning process, and I love the end product.
Continue reading The Grooms Experimental Animation Save The Date

Posted in: Gender & Feminism, Team Practical | 10 Comments »

Feb 2010

What A Wife Isn’t (Part I)

While we're on the topic of the (frankly horrific and emotionally impoverishing) wedding/marriage sexism directed towards men, can we talk about this email that made me snarf water through my nose?

Meg,

While we're reclaiming the idea of wife, could we make sure we get the right job description for it? A wife is not a husband trainer. Yet more than once since our wedding in November I've been asked if I've trained my husband yet. The last time was in his presence and he answered by saying that I already liked how he did things, that's why I married him. Yes! That's it exactly.

Thanks.
Lisa
Continue reading What A Wife Isn’t (Part I)

Posted in: Gender & Feminism, Reclaiming Wife, Team Practical | 65 Comments »

Jan 2010

Wedding Graduate: Adrienne And The Mill Wedding

Today's wedding needs no introduction, but, it comes with a really great Team Practical story. Adrienne and Vincent ended up making friends with Anna (and G) of Accordions and Lace on honeymoon in Nicaragua. They all got along right away, and then, when Anna was a wedding graduate (which was about two seconds after they all got back, since I sent Anna the wedding graduate prompt after she had gone to bed on her wedding night, NO JOKE), they had this explosion of, "Oh my god oh my god of course we all got along, ahhhhh!" So, that would be cool enough, but Adrienne also had the coolest vintage dress in the world, AND A WEDDING PINATA. What? EFF YES. Oh, and she's wise, wise, wise. Take it, lady:

Continue reading Wedding Graduate: Adrienne And The Mill Wedding

Posted in: Team Practical, Wedding Graduates | 31 Comments »

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