Two Brides

Are you going to NYC Pride? I am(and so is Natalie)! And So You’re EnGAYged has a booth there- I can’t believe a blog I started in March is going to be at NYC Pride with 350,000 people typically going to the booths. So I’m running around like a chicken with my head cutoff. Literally. I have had So You’re EnGAYged approved vendors sending me awesome promo material left and right. So it’s like christmas or my wedding at the house with packages arriving daily.

That said, putting together a booth is a lot to handle. I wish I had some booth experience besides Crafty Bastards here in DC because I’m like “How many postcards should we have?” “How am I supposed to get myself to the booth area with so much stuff?” And the idea of driving in NYC. I’m shaking in my little boots with that idea.

BUT you better visit me!! So You’re EnGAYged is booth 25! I’m not sure what to expect but will be twittering about the whole thing all day with lots of tweetpics. So follow me on twitter @kellyprizel or @SoYoureEnGAYged

Pride Fest Information:
Hudson St. between Abingdon Sq. & West 14th St.
Sunday, June 28th, 2009, 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM

So it’s for real. The house is ours. We actually have the key. Natalie met with a contractor. PINCH me.

Here’s our living room ‘mood board’. We just bought the pottery barn moorish rug on sale and with a gift certificate we had. We have a 3 seater ikea sofa that’s in latte brown, an olive crate and barrel nailhead wingback chair(that is not leather! I promise, I just hada hard time finding a similar chair), and two west elm cubes we use as a coffee table together. We chose wild aster as the pain for the room because:

Making it lovely used it in her living room and I heart it!!

So yes. We are closing on our FIRST HOUSE. I honestly need a bag to carry around and scream in everytime I think about it. So freaking exciting!

So we are having a huge yard sale. We are selling 1/4 of our stuff and a bunch of Nat’s parents stuff. I’m not sure our yard can hold it all but we will try. Two couches, an armoire, dozens of books, cabinets, tables…it’s hard to part with all this but I really envision a clean house with not too much stuff. I we moved with everything we have now the house would be like an overstuffed green pepper.

For the living room we happened to be in Pottery Barn trying to spend our $100 gift certificate we still had from our wedding and Natalie fell in love with their Moorish Tile Rug. It was on sale. But we had to ship it from NYC because everyone else was out! We got it in espresso.

And I have found our living room paint color:

Yes, pink! I saw this room on Making it Lovely and knew that I *must* paint a room pink before I die. So the living room it was.

I finally blogged about my table seat cards. I loved them! Read all about it:http://soyoureengayged.com/kellys-ideas/diy-tuesday-birdhouse-table-cards/

So I guess some people share a lot more than others on the internet. But honestly, why would I hide anything? I hate the blogs I read where they seem so perfect it makes me want to take a fork to the screen or myself because ‘I’m not like them’. Pffff. They are so far from perfect, it’s just a facade.

I’m far from perfect. And this week was a reminder in that. When my father died suddenly when I was 18, my anxiety shot through the roof. A panic attack disorder that had always bothered me became a full blown problem- me having panic attacks at work and hiding in the bathroom in embarrassment, etc. So I went to a therapist to get some help and was put on Effexor. Effexor did the trick- it didn’t wipe out my anxiety disorder but it did help a lot. Because I couldn’t afford a real therapist, I actually enrolled in a resident program at GW where you get cheap therapy and the residents get patients. So I bounced around a little to different therapist for the next couple years and somehow landed at Dr. Book last year. He wanted to take me off Effexor because I felt I was at a much different place and felt I didn’t need it anymore. So fast forward to last week, the week I would go off Effexor. He did tell me there would be some side effects and put me of Prozac to help buffer the problems.  Little did I know…wed. night I felt a little weird. Thursday I woke up and was completely taken aback. I couldn’t get up because the room was spinning and I was nauseous. I literally fell asleep after panicking for 5 minutes and telling Natalie what was happening and didn’t wake up for hours. Friday- same deal. Saturday, I forced myself to get a wedding edit done, and tried to go out but after an hour, Nat took me home and I fell asleep.

And as horrible as this was- it was on our anniversary. But the paradox actually made me feel incredible special. I couldn’t do a thing and here Natalie was cleaning, feeding, and totally taking care of everything for me. I know when things get bad Natalie will be right there. She helped me through my panic attacks and helped me get off the medicine that helped stop them.

So I’m at 80% right now, the room still likes to spin but I’m actually eating again. So I’m trying to think of something amazing to do for Natalie. I had wanted to make a big heart banner for our anniversary and drape it over the door- but with all this rain I’m glad I didn’t.

What was the sweetest thing you have done for an anniversary?

P.S. I got my WHCC book in that I made for Shyia and it rocks! Here’s what the first page looked like:

So I was biting my nails. Would the seller take out low-ball offer? Would they even respond? They did *whew* and we went back and forth with price. Finally a price stuck and everyone was happy. So Natalie and I took the train up to New Haven on Thursday and went for the inspection. I have never seen a home inspection before, but thank God we got a top notch inspector. He actually treated us like home buyers and explained everything to us- instead of treating us like stupid girls. So the inspection went on and on and on because the company that was supposed to de-winterize the house for our inspection didn’t (of course) so sleazy seller Realtor(for real, he was like a bad spoof on sleazy Realtor) came over and tried to get it all fixed.

We eventually did get it all done but after 4 hours of inspection I felt like ‘OMG, this house is a shit hole.” and was afraid of the final say of the inspector. But apparently every house has tons of little things to fix- but the only thing we are waiting on is the oil tank which may or may not have a leak.

I’m beginning to feel like the house up in CT is my home. The attachment has already started and I’m adoring my new house. I just love it. It’s MINE!~!!!

So you know what that means…I have a whole new house to paint/design. I’m high from going through my entire Domino magazine collection and post-it noting ideas. Natalie is already asking for decisions to be made. I just started thinking!!

So this last week has me running on empty. We took the bolt bus up to New York, got in at 10:30, hit the hay. Then we wake up, have breakfast with Natalie’s brother, sister-in-law, and their baby. We get ready for passover and then commence the craziness of having 40(?) people sit together on one of the longest tables known to man and have Passover.

(just one of the tables)

We then get up at the crack of dawn, have breakfast with the baby again and head out to New Haven CT. Over two days we see 20 houses.

Things I learned about house hunting:

• There are a LOT of delusional sellers out there. Like, high on crack delusional. One house we visited had the most lovely exterior but when you walked in the whole house was covered in the ugliest wallpaper you have ever seen in your life. And it was really old wallpaper. I’m thinking “Why would you not tear all this crap down before showing it?” The doors were falling off, the kitchen was a hot tranny mess, and I could just go on. And they wanted $$$. No wonder that house has been sitting on the market. Don’t you think people would get the hint after 6 months of zero interest?
• People obviously forget how gross their home is. I have 2 cats but I scoop their litter daily. Houses we went into STANK of cat that would be simply taken care of by scooping the box. Hello?? Who wants to buy a stinky cat poopy house?
• One house we went to had floor to ceiling samurai swords on an ugly orange wall. I didn’t know what to say. I just have a much harder time picturing myself in a home when I have to delete the 300 swords from the room mentally.
• House hunting is sooo tiring. After day one I wanted to crawl into bed. Half way through day two I started falling asleep in the car. It’s just exhausting trying to remember each home, ask all the right questions, picture yourself in each home, go up the 4,000 stairs.

BUT. We found the house. The house house. Our first house.

(yes it was raining and bitter cold, but isn’t it cute?)

We are putting an offer in today. I’m so nervous about this because it was far and away the best home. I love everything about it. It felt like home when I walked in.

PLEASE oh please let me get this house. Let the contracts work out. I did take, oh, 500 pictures of the house. Wanna see them?

My life is kinda in total chaos right now. With the launch of So You’re EnGAYged, I have waaay more stuff to do. Plus, I just gave my two weeks notice to my vet job because it was becoming a nightmare. I love my hospital, I have worked there almost 4 years, but the organization is just having serious management issues and is handling employees like criminals, not people who care about their job. It’s sad, but I just felt like no one cared how much I cared- just making a list of mini mistakes I made. So that has me feeling way down. I loved my job and the animals. But enough is enough.

We are also moving to New Haven, CT since Natalie picked Yale. So we are looking at houses, which I’m thrilled about. But poor Nat is nervous- and so am I- about moving to a whole new place.

I feel a little bit like I’m floating out here with nothing trying me to the earth. My job, my location, everything it seems is in flux. I’m trying to realize it’s all going to settle down come September, but I’m anxious honestly.

It’s not just me anymore, it’s 6 other gay couples blogging! Are you ready for So You’re EnGAYged??? Go check it out!

This week you’ll meet the other bloggers, have a chance at winning a free “Marriage is so gay” tshirt, and learn about some cool LGBT wedding vendors that are making an effort to turn the wedding industry around!

Honestly, I’m so freakin excited that this is happening. Can you believe it??? Plus it’s official, Natalie and I are moving to CT so Nat can go to Yale. We can get legally married!!!!!!

Our official launch is tomorrow! Here’s a blurb about our launch:

Kelly Prizel of Film Noir Photography and author of Two Brides Blog has teamed up with Lara Swanson of Lara Swanson Photography to create So You’re EnGAYged (www.soyoureengayged.com), an online resource for same-sex and allied couples. So You’re EnGAYged features same-sex couples blogging about their wedding-planning experiences, LGBT-friendly vendor profiles, wedding tips for vendors and clients, and LGBT news. What differentiates So You’re EnGAYged from many other same-sex wedding resources is that vendors do not pay to be featured on the site; rather, they have to go through a verification process that ensures their business is actively LGBT-friendly. Furthermore, So You’re EnGAYged only accepts paid advertisements from those vendors who have gone through this vetting process. So You’re EnGAYged hopes to assist same-sex and allied couples in planning weddings that are meaningful and reflect their own ethical commitments. So You’re EnGAYged hopes to become the go-to online site for same-sex wedding planning.