Things are coming along, little by little and generally all at the same time. The majority of the invitations are already sent or about to be sent, though we will be continuing to squeeze in more friends as the summer wears on and other people RSVP. Here’s a poorly-lighted sneak peak of the lovely hand-pulled letterpress invitations designed from scratch by yours truly and lovingly produced by Hannah Skoonberg, a dear friend and one of my most favorite artists.

 As those of you who follow n00bcakes may know, the wedding cake flavors have been selected! We are going with a tasty chocolate cake with coffee icing. This thing melts in your mouth and makes your tastebuds sing! And it is a cake that incorporates coffee that le BF/fiance approves of, huzzah!

Photo: Mary

It has been such a treat to spend time with Mary each week and to sample all of her delicious creations. To catch up on the wedding cake tasting and selection process, check the n00bcake links below.

• WeddSplosion: Prologue
• WeddSplosion: The First Tasting
• WeddSplosion II: Return of the Cakes
• WeddSplosion III: The Cake of Doom
• WeddSplosion IV: The Final Tasting

The patio has also been coming along, although lately it seems to be more of a “two steps forward, one step back” affair.

We got all the dirt in, but the compactor we rented may have been a bit too manly for the job, as we lost some bricks from our back wall. Adam diligently tore out the affected part of the wall, reset the stones and elected to use a hand-tamper rather than an electric one. However, the wall no longer wanted to behave properly and fell out again once tamping resumed. Right now, we are backing away from the patio and working on other neglected chores about the yard (some of our continuing battle against the ivy, privet and nandina that has been allowed to run wild for the past few -maybe as much as ten – years.

Also in the wedding arena, we received our wedding bands in the mail this week and man-oh-man do they look sharp! We got them from TitaniumKnights on Etsy and though I forgot to ask for our engravings (whoops!) we are extremely thrilled. I will have to find someone local to handle the engraving.

Finally, I just ordered the wedding dress this morning. I will say that it is indeed a custom Dolly Couture dress, which I am extremely excited about. I would never have done it without my sweet Ana and her husband Johnny who are contributing to the purchase of the gift as their wedding present. Thank you both!

That’s the down and dirty on what’s up with us. Lately, it’s just been mostly dirty. But we get by with a little help from our friends – Ashley, Mary, Hannah and Ana most especially. Thank you, thank you, thank you, my lovely ladies.