This Day in Herstory

The best part about having our venues is that we now, finally, have a date. Oh, sweet date. A date we can cling to, plan for, dream about, and tell to the world.

And not just any date.

It's the day of Odysseus' fabled return from the Trojan War. The anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. penning his famous letter from Birmingham Jail. The birthday of Charlie Chaplin and Anatole France. The day a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became law. The afternoon Apollo 16 headed off for the moon.

And now, in 2011, the day we say we do.

My wonderful groom and I have been hard at work creating Save the Date magnets to send to our guests. Ever the thrifty do-it-yourselfers, we resolved to take an engagement photo, design the card, and assemble the notices ourselves. The only task we're letting out of our hands is the actual printing, which we're entrusting to the darn good prices at www.vistaprint.com.

Taking the photo was the highlight of our Save the Date journey. Sitting on the couch one afternoon, with only a couple hours of daylight left, rain threatening, and no particular plans, we decided to get out and take some kick-ass photos. After a brief but heated debate atop a parking garage downtown, we settled instead on a more vintage location.

We then proceeded to burn approximately 658 calories each by running back and forth to alternately take and review the photos, with the help of the ten-second timer, of course.

Outtake: Nate didn't make it to his place before the timer went off.

All in all, creating the Save the Dates was a wonderful and fun first step in the months of planning and preparation we have ahead.

Excelsior!