Letterpressing: Mrs. Robinson & 42 Pressed

Hey ya'll! I started designing our wedding invitation (our sweet wedding suite, if you will) yesterday, and it's SO FUN! Having a great time doing it. 

One of my best friends, Mrs. Robinson (aka Jackie Robinson which is JUST as fabulous a name) who I lived with while we were at school in the Circus just bought a letterpress! Jeff and I will drive down to Jacksonville to spend a lovely weekend with her drinking mimosas and letterpressing to our little hearts content.

A plug for 42 Pressed: Jackie's new letterpress stationary design business. If you ever need any special baby announcements, wedding invites and the like, Jackie is a wonderful designer, and a great girl who is so so talented! Be sure to check out her site.

Until next time! 

5 months...

And we're getting married!!!!

Well I've been confronted about our lack of updates (Aunt Abbie, this one's for you) and have decided to catch everyone up to speed!

First of all, my mom has been such a huge help (Hi Mom!) and I don't think we could do it without her. One of the things she's working on is figuring out the food situation. Something she's VERY good at.

We're keeping true to Jeff's southern roots and going... southern. I'm going to keep it a surprise, but I'll promise you this: you'll find grits and greens at our party, right in keeping with the entertainment: a bluegrass band from Whitmore Lake! Cool guys.

Honeymoon will be at the beautiful Turtle Inn on an island off the coast of Belize. Look!

Last week, Jeff and I got each other's respective wedding bands. Here's a little bit about each one:

I found this awesome girl to help me make Jeff's ring. After an initial prototype session where I practiced making the band with copper wire (banging it out with a hammer and everything), I went back over to her studio and made the final version. Four hours of hammering, soldering, filing and buffing, it was done. Thanks to Dana who was SO helpful and taught me so much about metal working and jewelry making! 

When Jeff got the parts to my engagement ring, he also acquired a few other pieces of his great grandmother's jewelry. Her original wedding band was too tiny for my fingers, but one of her anniversary rings which I fell in LOVE with fit perfectly and looks like it was made for my ring. Jeff went to the jeweler that helped him with the engagement ring, they cleaned it up, added a few sparkly stones (per my request- thanks jeffie:), and voila! My ring is done... but I don't get to see it until July 17th!

I can't WAIT... this is absolutely insane in the BEST way. Knowing that Jeff's wonderful family (who have so sweetly taken me in as one of their own) gets to meet my amazing/crazy relatives makes me so excited. This is going to be one entertaining party. Has anyone seen Meet the Fockers??

Wedding Photographer has been booked...

We finally made it official. The wedding photographer has been booked. He's a good buddy of mine, and a stellar photographer. Check him out!

http://weddings.jimmytothejohnston.com/

He's also responsible for our engagement video!

Save The Dates

So....Ayla is one the most talented graphic designers I've ever met. She wanted to take on the task of creating the things we needed for our wedding. The first undertaking was our Save the Dates.

She spent hours pecking away at her computer in Illustrator, and came up with the text that would be only a portion of the project. After several trips to the paper store, and much contemplation, she knew what they were going to look like.

She made a few as a test to make sure she was happy with them. I was floored at what she had created, they looked amazing! Then it came time for production. Our good friend Harden came over w/ a 12 pk of Sierra Nevada in hand, and ready to get to work. They went at it for hours in the other room, while I kept to myself in the office.

Here it is!

pretty amazing huh?

we registered!!!

We've got a few essentials that we registered for at Target, and same for Macy's...

now here comes the fun one! www.honeyfund.com is helping us plan and organize our honeymoon. It's an awesome website where you can contribute to our honeymoon fund by picking out specific things (dinner on the beach, snorkeling expedition, that sort of thing) that we have planned and directing your gift there. It should be up and running in a few days. 

In all cases, just visit the store websites and search for our registry by entering either of our names (ayla barenfanger + jeff wolk, of course :)

thanks guys!! 

Where to Stay

We've blocked off rooms at two hotels in Ann Arbor, just outside of Dexter. Unfortunately there aren't any hotels IN Dexter, but the ones listed here are probably about a 15 minute drive from my parent's house, where the wedding and reception are. The hotels we have blocks of rooms are:

Clarion Hotel and Conference Center
www.clarionhotel.com
2900 Jackson Rd.
Ann Arbor, MI, US, 48103
Phone: (734) 665-4444

Weber's Inn
www.webersinn.com
3050 Jackson Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
(734) 769-2500 

Reservations: (800) 443-3050

Block Code: WOLK 71710CH (for online reservations, enter this code)

If you prefer to stay in the heart of downtown Ann Arbor and within walking distance to great food, drinks, museums, U of M and nightlife, some other cool places to stay are:

Bell Tower Hotel
www.belltowerhotel.com
300 South Thayer
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
(734) 769-3010 (800) 562-3559

The Campus Inn
www.campusinn.com
615 East Huron Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1593
(734) 769-2200

ayla's version...

Jeff's right, it was magical, amazing, the most wonderful day of my life! He and I met at this holiday party, and we hit it off... pretty much became inseparable from that night forward. I like to remember the moment that I fell a little bit in love with him. It was a pretty chilly night (I was well prepared in my northface sleepingbag coat), and Jeff and I were standing outside. A sick, homeless but friendly man walked by and talked to us for a few. He said he was cold because he had a coat, but no shirt underneath. Let me tell you what an amazing guy I have, he literally took the shirt off his back and handed it right over. Jeff is the sweetest, most thoughtful person I've ever met, and I'm LUCKY!

Jeff and I moved in together as soon as we could, and it was perfect. It still is.

The proposal, like Jeff said was at the fantastic Hartsfield Jackson Airport here in the atl. We'd talked hypothetically about getting married, someday, but I was NOT expecting it at ALL... that's one of the things I love about Jeff, he just does what he knows is right in his heart. And he's really good at surprises! It was incredible and I'm happy we have the video to document it because honestly I was so shocked it's all a blur to me!

He'd been talking about this present he got for me for a few weeks, and would let me guess but wouldn't give up the secret. When I walked into baggage claim and found Jeff, we were both so excited that I was finally home from Chicago, and Jeff was acting a little high strung but I thought he was just really happy to see me. He was carrying a wrapped rectangular present, and I thought it was a book. I kept asking if I could open it but he kept putting me off... "just a few more minutes, let's move over here." Finally he gave it to me, and I opened it to find an old wedding portrait of two people. I was mostly just confused... I mean it was cool but I was kind of wondering what he was getting at. Then the wheels started to turn...

After I asked who the people were, he said to me "Well, this is a portrait of my grandmother Rita and my grandfather, and I'd like you to wear the ring that's in this picture." And I couldn't believe it, he pulled out the prettiest ring in the world and asked me to be his wife! Of course I said yes and I have never been happier or felt as lucky as I feel today.

The ring he gave me belonged to both his grandmother Rita and his great-grandmother Rose. The band is art deco, from Grama Rose's engagement ring, from the 1920's, and the diamond is from his Grama Rita's engagement ring (in the picture). I absolutely love what this ring symbolizes and that Jeff wanted to give me such a special family heirloom. I love looking down at it and thinking about how long it's been around and the years of happiness it represents, and the many happy years ahead of us in our marriage.

JEFF I LOVE YOU! and our wedding is gonna ROCK!