One of the most interesting things about being a Bride is the number of lists to which your name is suddenly added without your knowledge, much less permission. Some of these lists are really annoying—for example, somehow—probably through David’s Bridal—I got added to some junk list for Connecticut Bridal Expos, Reception Halls, Florists, and Photographers (all of which I created spam filters for so they automatically delete just in case my “unsubscribe” attempt didn’t work. Fortunately, I haven’t seen any of these in a few months). Then, which is worse, I got added to some list that insists I’ve won free honeymoons, wedding rings, or whatever, as long as I sign up to waste an evening at a sales pitch for over-priced cheaply-made cookware or crystal or some other crap.

Unfortunately, both of these lists were not only email lists, they were phone call lists, too. That’s right. I was getting calls all day long from people pushing their junk. Here’s some other Brides who got upset about this too: http://www.projectwedding.com/post/list/is-my-name-on-every-freaking-bridal-mailing-list-in-the-world

Honestly, all of this made me feel terribly bad for less decisive, focused, aware Brides. I am sure some have fallen into a trap or two. My advice to any Bride is stand firm in your decisions—if that photographer/reception hall/Bridal expo has to spam you, that means they’re not getting enough business by fair means, which means they’re probably low quality and therefore not worth your money. Unsubscribe and then create a filter, and if someone calls you on your cell phone, label it as “Spam” so when they call you again you don’t pick it up.

The Ups

Some stuff, on the other hand, was really fun, like the catalogs I got in the mail, which really were helpful when I was looking for ideas for various things—companies like Exclusively Weddings, Invitations by Dawn, and Oriental Trading Company (from whom I did order a wedding-related product, so this isn’t surprising I was on their wedding list) all had something to offer, if only five minutes of entertainment with my morning coffee.

The best stuff of all, though, were the packages I got from Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond, encouraging me to sign up for their registries. Why?

Target’s ad was well put together and sensitive—I love the “his” and “her” campaign. I could see these—most of them, anyway—applying to us, and I imagine many other Brides could see it, too. Target’s ad is a lesson in soft-sell with universal appeal, but more than that, these cards will make fun accompaniments to couples shots of us from the wedding day in an album. The package below arrived on March 4.

Eventually, we did register for a few items at Target, only because some things in our house need replacing (we are still planning on moving south in the near future, so our focus has been and continues to be on getting rid of junk, not acquiring more). Target’s registry package, which I picked up in-store on April 27, had great value-added advertising.

Value-added advertising is an ad which includes something a consumer can use, such as helpful tips or note pages. Target exceeded at both. There were not only helpful tips, but lists for what to purchase two weeks before the wedding day and suggestions for Groomsman’s gifts, which I found totally useful. The package also included a Shutterfly gift card (an essential for me for post-wedding books) and small cards to slip into invitations.

Bed, Bath & Beyond also had convenient cards with designated spaces for our names and registry number. These cards could be used to slip into invitations, and came in pre-packaged sets of 25. They are free, and a Bride may request as many as she needs when she registers. The cards arrived May 22.

The post-wedding mailings, which include everything from announcements to a copy of the short story and program to those who gave us rocks for our collections, was prepared ahead of time and ready to be mailed on Monday, September 17, 2012.

In February, I taught a writing workshop with fellow New England Horror Writers Trisha J. Wooldridge and TJ May up at Annie’s Bookstop in Worcester, MA. Annie’s has a wonderful selection of not just books, but collectibles—especially Dr. Who collectibles.

As Nathan is the second biggest Dr. Who fan I know (our friend Frank Todaro is first), it was easy to, first, get Nathan a birthday gift, since his birthday was about a week after I returned home from my winter residency at Norman’s in Provincetown. So, I bought him the Tardis Cookie Jar for his birthday—and then settled, since he’s also a collector of pocket watches, on the Dr. Who pocket watch for the wedding present.

When I got home, however, I decided that, even though the collectible was high quality and he was going to love it, I should get him a real engraved pocket watch. So I gave him the Dr. Who watch for Valentine’s Day.

Nathan happily opens his Dr. Who watch.

The watch. I couldn’t get the metal version, but considering that this is plastic, it’s really high quality. It feels solid.

The box. We still have it in the basement.

Video: The Dr. Who watch has sounds, of course. Enjoy.

Searching for a real pocket timepiece that was at least reminiscent of Dr. Who’s took a little while, but I found one on Things Remembered. My friend L’Aura Hladik, author of Ghost Hunting New York City, was with me when I’d bought the watch and the Tardis at Annie’s, and it was she who came up with the inscription on the silver-plated watch box, (“To My Dr. Who”), and the watch (“I’ll always travel through time with you”) which I ordered that evening.

The watch arrived on February 21—Nathan’s birthday. I kept it stowed with my wedding things until the end of July, when I purchased the card to go with it.

The gift box the watch came in.

The inscription on the storage box reads “To My Dr. Who.”

The inscription on the watch reads “I’ll always travel through time with you,” our names, and our wedding date.

The watch interior. It’s at least reminiscent of the real thing.

Our 38^th Rock

Our 38^th rock is a piece of milky quartz infused with gray granite from our friend Toni’s yard in New York. Toni and I met at the Norman Mailer Writer’s Colony in 2010—only to find out we lived half an hour from each other back home! In the winter of 2011, we were both up there at the same time and were neighbors—and it was a lucky thing, since there was a pretty wicked Nor’easter that knocked out our heat and power, necessitating a “sleepover” as we waited out the storm. On that same trip, we saw Black Swan together.

The rock arrived in the mail August 28, 2012…with a few surprises!

Toni’s package arrives.

LOVE this sticker on the back of the card! Does she know us or what?

The card that came with the rock.

The note that came with the card.

A close-up of the rock.

The fun Zoya nail polish and other little thoughts she sent with it! I love the color of the polish – it’s dark gray. Very rock-like.

Our 39^th Rock

Lisa Seymour brought us “Cape May Diamonds” on September 6, 2012. On the right, pieces in their natural state; on the left, pieces which have been polished and are sold in gift shops.

Lisa spent her Labor Day in Cape May and brought us back these to add to the collection. She collected the unpolished pieces; a gentleman at a gift shop gave her the card and a couple of the stones after they’ve been cleaned up for sale.

Our 41^st Rock

This isn’t really a rock, but our friend Heather thought it was interesting that this was the cover of Newport’s The Mercury—a local publication that lists all the city’s events and bar/club line-ups—the week of our wedding, Friday, September 7-Thursday, September 13, 2012. In fact, when we went clubbing on Sept. 8, this was the issue we used to plan our outing.

Our 40^th Rock

Our friend Melissa gave us a quartz crystal from an unknown location. She “has had this piece in my collection for probably twenty years,” but doesn’t recall where she got it. She gave it to me on a (kind of) “Bachelorette Weekend” in Newport, RI on September 8, 2012—along with some jewelry that just happened to match the dress I was wearing!

The bag the rock came in.

Me, out at Newport’s Gas Lamp Grille, in the necklace and earrings Melissa gave me. It was a coincidence that the necklace matched my dress! The earrings are freshwater pearls—really cool since I’ve never owned a pair!

Our 42^nd Rock

This rock, from Block Island, was given to us by Beth and her husband Chick on September 11, 2012 (along with a cool bottle of Preseco!). I know Beth from Lee Farm Corporate Park; she works with a long-time friend of our family, Donna, at another office in the building. Beth and I both love Newport and Florida, so we have a lot to talk about (cheers to the 10 o’clock people, who  never seem to run out of things to talk about!).

Beth brought this to me and set it on my desk. So totally cool, especially since it’s my last day at work until October! (And I love the bag in which she put the Preseco).

The card that came with the rock.

Crocs are, by far, the best shoes to wear in the Disney Parks—they’re comfortable and they can get wet. I own two pairs of the classic style, but this time around (since it’s my Honeymoon), I wanted something that didn’t make me look like I was wearing clown shoes. I ordered these and they arrived on September 7, 2012.

This is probably my last edition of the Travel Log—and, undoubtedly, I will probably miss a few things, since I was so jamming with so much stuff to do I really didn’t have time to keep track of everything.

Order ring bearers’ gifts.

Pay balance on cake.

Complete all programs and place in tub.

Finish wrapping all gifts and store.

Label and organize all tubs.

Finalize plans with Howe Caverns; deliver several tubs in advance.

Change candles in centerpieces: purchase new votives and package.

Set up email auto-responder.

Make reservations for Honeymoon carriage ride.

Join Pinterest—to talk with photographer.

Buy myself a wedding gift (dammit, I earned it!)

Put tips in designated envelopes.

Mail final check and photos of Howe to photographer.

Disney tickets/travel package arrives.

Rocks from Suzi, Salisbury, Yvonne, Janet M, Lisa S, Toni, Melissa, and Beth arrive.

Send thank you notes for rocks.

Set appointment with DJ.

After appointment with DJ, send all notes and additional music.

Photograph and post all new rocks.

Buy more ink refills (many, many, many trips to Costco!)

Design program inserts—Nanette’s wedding—and place in programs.

Design and print up all rock guides.

After rock guides are done, print up the insert for the late-arriving rocks and insert into guides.

Find error in programs and come up with solution to fix it.

After a few cancellations, adjust place cards and seating chart.

Complete preparing all post-wedding announcements/packages. Still more to do after the wedding weekend.

Purchase post-reception party paper goods.

Meet with Adam and Suzanne about post-reception party food.

Several visits to post office for postage for post-wedding announcements/mailings.

Purchase all items for motel gift bags and prepare.

Obtain marriage license.

Prepare seating chart/placecards.

Prepare ceremony reserved seating cards.

Get pedicure.

Get haircut.

Arrange for Missie to do manicure.

Draw up seating diagrams for ceremony and reception.

Pack bin of all additional decorations.

Full meeting with photographer—work with Pinterest and forms.

Bachelorette in Newport on Sept. 8.

Print photos and glue into locket on Nathan’s bout.

Redesign bouts to include non-floral elements.

Give gifts to Michele, Suzi, Lisa, Stephanie, Manzino, Jen C, Mo, Melissa, and Heather.

Compile final counts on all meals.

Call those who haven’t responded.

Call David’s Bridal – make appointment for steaming and permanent tacking of gown bustle.

Drop off gown at David’s Bridal.

Organize all honeymoon reservations.

Start packing for wedding and honeymoon.

Purchase all final make-up and cosmetics.

Purchase snacks for me and Nathan’s room.

Purchase wine and beer for motel.

Clean house.

Package up all bouts/corsages in clam shells, et cetera.

Go to Nanette’s wedding!!

Make final payment to Howe Caverns.

Help various guests make arrangements.

Make action lists for all tasks beginning September 12, 2012.

I got the main idea for the story on June 2 when I was visiting friends in upstate New York. An antique wedding gown was hanging on the back of the door in the guest room where I was staying, which inspired the story’s opening scene. On Saturday, we went out for breakfast, and all three of us had an egg dish. I noticed, though, that I was the only one who didn’t use any pepper or salt. From there sprang the original opening line (which was later stricken): “Stacia was the kind of girl who thought omelets were too complicated and preferred her eggs poached with no spice, so…”

The poached egg that inspired the ghost story’s original opening line.

The story pretty much popped into my head on the ride home that weekend, but I could tell I wasn’t ready to write it yet. I simply hung onto that line in my head until Monday, June 18, when I could hear the rest of the story’s words in my mind.

Much of the work was stop and go—I’d decided to set the piece in 1976, so I had some research to do, and that took up a lot of my time. First, I needed to find out what wedding gowns in the 1970s looked like, so I could have a visual to describe. After much searching through old patterns, I found this, which I felt was perfect because it has specific details that could create the image in the reader’s mind in just a few quick strokes.

The gown the one in the story is based on.

Since I never come right out and say the story’s set in 1976, I used references to products in the hopes the reader could tell (well, older readers would, anyway), and one specific reference to a Karen Carpenter song having only been out just a few weeks (at least one of my test readers told me she knew right away what era we were in, so I guess it worked). Here are some fun blasts-from-the-past:

In the café, jars of instant Brim sit on the table.

Glade was coming out with all kinds of new scents in the mid-1970s—today we’d probably consider them simple and say, ‘what? No pomegranate-vanilla-dream?’ But there’s a mistake in the ad—it notes choose from five scents, and only four are listed. I believe the fifth one had “herb” in the title, but I can’t recall what it was now. I went with Sunny Lemon.

I really needed her washing with a shampoo that said ‘seventies.’ Faberge Organics—which I used as a kid—seemed like a pretty good bet, but in the end, I went with Wella Balsam, because I thought it would be more obvious.

In the story, there’s a scene that notes she doesn’t want to be remembered only for a bad TV movie she was in called Don’t Turn Out the Light. Yeah…guess what THAT was inspired by?

Susan makes a mental reference to the expression on Lee Remick’s face. I don’t mention it in the story, but the expression she’s referring to is here, in The Omen, which had come out just a few weeks before the story takes place.

The first draft of the story was completed, and a couple of people read it and liked it the way it was (the original draft was half the length of what it is now).  Knowing what the cover was going to contain—I was solid on my title—I went ahead on printing those up on June 27.

Below, a video of the cover print run. Note the commentary for the recent film The Woman in Black in the background. When I’m working on a creative project, especially if it’s a ghost story, I like to keep myself in the zone.

The finished cover.

The completed stack of covers. I made double the number I actually needed, because extras are always good, especially when you’re doing this only one time. I will most likely never reprint this unless there’s a demand for it.

Because I decided to make double what I needed, I had to order additional Bad Apple Cover Photos. They arrived Friday July 6.

After the covers were printed, my next step was to figure out how to embellish them. All of the ephemera related to the wedding has some sort of jewel or rock-piece embellishment on it to better tie it in with the overall theme. Originally, I had a specific stone in mind—I had seen pale blue, shiny, “clay”-looking embellishments which I thought would really pop on the chapbook’s orange cover, but when I went to Michael’s on Wednesday, June 26, they were out of them. I spent some time wandering all over the store, looking for something similar or perhaps even better, but came up empty-handed. Everything I found wasn’t quite right, or was too pricey—I had even changed my mind, during the course of searching, to consider doing something 1970’s-looking (I found some funky blue flowers) or stick-on lace (again, to go a little tactile). But everything I found was just so expensive—to buy enough to cover my print run was going to run me about $60—so I was quickly getting discouraged.

While still in the store, I called my friend Michele, who has been a scrapbooker for many years (we used to get together and scrapbook together, but we just got too busy doing other things). I don’t remember how we got on the subject, but I started looking at corner-punches—punching holes in the edges of the plain white paper insides to make it look like lace, which was a perfect match with the piece (I had already decided the interiors would be printed on plain white paper to better reflect lace; all the other ephemera is on an off-white fleck-finish). There was a Martha Stewart’s lace punch, but it was very expensive. Michele to the rescue! She had a punch and promised to bring it to work the next day.

It worked like a charm, although in the end, I decided only to punch the front cover, not the interiors. I felt less was more. On Sunday, July 1, I set to work.

Not without my entertainment! Repetitive jobs like assembling chapbooks is incredibly boring. I need something to keep my mind busy. I know this series is really cheesy (the announcer’s dialogue is really campy—I think what they were trying to do was do a “ghost story around the campfire” thing type of feel, but because they didn’t connect it to that, it just comes off sounding ridiculous), but I’d gotten it cheap enough.

Michele’s lace punch, right, and the front cover embellishment.

When I’d finished the first draft of the story on June 25, I sent the completed story to my friend Rob Mayette for critique. By that Wednesday, he had noted that he felt like there wasn’t enough build-up – and I agreed. It felt like half the story was missing, in fact. So, without waiting for his detailed comments, I used the first draft as an outline and worked in additional scenes.

I wasn’t done yet, though. Nine meticulous drafts and a few rewrites of the closing note later, I felt it was what I wanted for the chapbook.

Next came laying out the interior—always a challenge for me, since I do okay with Publisher but I’m no expert.

I knew I wanted the story followed by the Afterword, of course, but I also wanted a page on which to announce Bad Apple (my forthcoming dark emerging YA novel from Vagabondage Press Books) and use the ARC covers which I’d had printed as high-quality photos (I’ve talked before about how much I love adding differing tactile elements to a printed piece). With the way the story had laid out, this left a couple of pages blank.

I had done research on the Howe Caverns Main Lodge and Motel while I was writing the piece—hoping to find photos of the place in the 1970s. I’d come up empty, but had found a few interesting postcards from earlier eras. Given that the Lodge and the Motel are the main settings in the story, I thought it might be interesting to include these postcard images.

The book amounted to 28 quarter-pages, which worked out to 7 sheets of paper per book. It was a big task: lots of paper, LOTS of ink. Thank God for Costco’s cartridge refill service or I wouldn’t have been able to afford to print the books in full color. All told, I was looking at 1120 double-sided pages: 2240 printed sheets. Not counting the glue sticks I’d need to secure the Bad Apple photos.

On Sunday, July 2—knowing I really needed to start printing these things, as it was going to be time-consuming and the whole process could take up to a week of constant work—I went to OfficeMax for paper, and to Costco for glue sticks and print cartridge refills (I would be paying them a couple more visits before everything was finished; all told, I ended up refilling eight cartridges). I spent that evening beginning the print run and gluing the Bad Apple photos onto the appropriate pages (however, since my print run was greater than anticipated, I had to go to Shutterfly and order additional photos, which meant the full run wouldn’t be completed for at least another week).

July 2: What’s better than chicken and my favorite Stewart’s Root Beer for dinner while I work?

Below, the beginnings of the print run of the interior. Note the cheesy Ghost Stories dialogue in the background.

I spent most of my Independence Day—a good 18 hours—babysitting my printer, taking one two-hour break to go hit the outdoor pool at the Y.

Printing was not without its trials and tribulations. For one thing, during assembly, I would discover that some of the pages were blank, because the printer had sucked in two pages together and hence missed one. Because of the way I need to coordinate the print to make the books—“print pages 1-1” which is actually, in booklet format, pages 1 and 28; “print pages 2-2” which is actually, in booklet format, pages 2 and 27, and so on—it was hard to tell which pages I needed to reprint. I quickly created a “page guide” so that I’d know.

The Page Guide, which helped me reprint pages that had come out blank. Having this really cut down on waste.

Then I created a PAGE REPAIR folder. Any pages I found that weren’t right would go in this file with a Post-It Note that told me what the page needed in terms of re-print.

The Page Repair Folder.

Sometimes, an ink cartridge would go dry in the middle of a run—usually on the back side of a page. Which meant I’d wasted a whole bunch of ink and have to print both sides all over again, as sometimes only the color sections on a page would print. A couple of times I got away with just reprinting, but a few times, not. I had to repeat the run, wasting more ink.

Speaking of ink, because I’d had the cartridges refilled, the HP printer would sometimes put up a message: “HP HAS DETECTED COUNTERFEIT INK! DID YOU BUY THIS FROM SOMEONE WHO CLAIMED IT WAS NEW?” …after several warning messages, it wouldn’t print because it would claim I’d have to realign the cartridge, which is a complete pain in the ass. You have to open up the printer door, reinsert the cartridge. Then it prints out a page, which you have to scan. Sometimes, the printer would just hit TILT and keep flashing the message and lock everything up and I’d have to force a shut-down and reboot everything to get it to stop. Eventually, I got smart and just forced a stop-alignment, only carrying through with it unless the cartridges unless I really HAD put a fresh one in. It made no difference. But let me tell you, that’s a bunch of crap. I’m never buying an HP printer again. I don’t really care if you don’t like the ink. Just do what I tell you to do.

While the pages printed—I was running them in sets of 20—there were other things to be done—things best done before collating. One was gluing in the Bad Apple covers.

Gluing in the Bad Apple Cover Photos.

And signing and dating the Afterword.

Signing/Dating the Afterword.

Last was the job of collating, folding, and stapling. I listened mostly to the Discovery Channel’s A Haunting while I did this task.

A stack ready to be collated.

Collating.

A collated stack, ready for folding and stapling.

Folding and stapling.

The final chapbook. I think the lace cut-out does look really neat. Right choice!

The completed run, ready to be stored until September.

All in all, I started the story on June 18 and everything was ready to go on July 8. I had done little else during those few weeks, but it was worth it (most of these printing and assembling steps I described were done repeatedly in smaller groups, not all on one day). Sometimes it’s just best to focus on the task at hand.

And there was another one just like it coming down the pike: the programs, for which I wouldn’t have finalized information until sometime in the middle of August.

Still, wrapping all of this stuff was going to be a lot of work. On May 17, after most of the bridal helpers gifts had come in, I visited my good friend Diane—who does beautiful work wrapping things—and we had a night of dinner, drinks, and rapping while we wrapped. Thanks, Diane!

Click to view slideshow.

Jen is a journalist, so I thought it might be nice if she had a matching notebook and pen set with her name on it. This arrived on April 9.

These Japanese-inspired backpack “coolers” would also make great camera bags. Since I know Jen never goes very far without her camera (and never comes to my house without cold beer), I’m hoping this will serve her well! The gift arrived May 16.