Recap, Our Playa Wedding: Syzygryd

Photography Credit: Jenny Beatty via Flickr

If you haven't been to Burning Man, you need to know that it takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to envision, execute, and build an art piece that stands up to what the desert can throw at it. Friends worked round the clock - often with just catnaps - to bring Syzygryd to life.

Photography Credit: Tom Cavnar via Flickr

Our build team faced white outs. They faced rain. Yet in spite of these challenges, Syzygryd came to life. And it was a beautiful thing.

Photography Credit: Joachim Pedersen via Flickr

Of course stills can't adequately capture the awesomeness that is Syzygryd. So here are a couple of videos of Syzygryd in action. In the second you'll see the fire tornado in action.

When cubes and I get married on October 10th, Syzygryd will again be included. Our ketubah will feature an image one of our friends took during our playa wedding. And hanging on a staircase in the hallway between Freja Hall and Balder Hall will be hanging ribbons with the recap photos from our playa wedding.

Our Playa Wedding Recapped

• Sneak Peek
• Getting Ready
• Herding Cats 
• Promising
• Traditions
• Friends
• Getting Married
• Syzygryd

Recap, Our Playa Wedding: Getting Married

Photography Credit: Mikest via Flickr

Last year a friend joked about exchanging vows on a bullhorn. This year that's exactly what cubes and I did.

Photography Credit: Jessica Palopoli via Flickr

Besides the odd amplification for the ceremony, our stage was a little different - a scissor lift - and our officiant was a time traveler.

Photography Credit: Jessica Palopoli via Flickr

Our officiant returned from the future to ensure that our union take place as there was a 28% chance the world as we knew it would end if it didn't. (To all brides thinking of scripting your ceremony yourself - let your officiant have some creative freedom. We entrusted the entire ceremony to Joshrander and it was better than anything we could have come up with.)

Photography Credit: Jessica Palopoli via Flickr

Photography Credit: Jessica Palopoli via Flickr

One touch that our friend 10_9 arranged for us was a Sign Language Interpretor. At home, we typically swap her Sidekick and our iPhones back and forth as we converse. I loved the fact that everyone was able to be in the moment with us.

Photography Credit: Arlette via Flickr

Our Playa Wedding Recapped

• Sneak Peek
• Getting Ready
• Herding Cats 
• Promising
• Traditions
• Friends
• Getting Married

Recap, Our Playa Wedding: Friends

Before we get to the recaps of our ceremony and our venue, I wanted to highlight our guests. Our friends. Our campmates.

Photography Credit: Tom Cavnar via Flickr

In the moment I forgot all about someone needing to coordinate the affair. I was so caught up in seeing everyone and thanking them for joining us. I was also busy handing out our favors. It wasn't until the I was on the scissor lift that I realized just how many people had come to see us say "I Do" (or just happened by the sculpture). In fact, I wasn't even nervous until I climbed up into the scissor lift, turned around, and looked out. 

And that's when it hit me. There was a sea of smiling faces - some we knew, some we didn't - surrounding us. We'd asked guests to wear costumes inspired by Joss Whedon's Firefly series or Serenity movie (River and Inara-inspired costumes that I'd found on Etsy). And people had done exactly that!

All of a sudden the moment seemed that much greater. For me time didn't move quickly; it seemed like an eternity between when I started and finished my vows. But it did end and the sun set completely. And the rejoicing began.

Here are some shots of our amazing guests.

Photography Credit: Arlette via Flickr

Photography Credit: Arlette via Flickr

Photography Credit: Arlette via Flickr

Photography Credit: Arlette via Flickr

Our Playa Wedding Recapped

• Sneak Peek
• Getting Ready
• Herding Cats 
• Promising
• Traditions
• Friends

Recap, Our Playa Wedding: Traditions

Something new; something old; something borrowed; and something blue.

Syzygryd (the sculpture we got married next to) flashes C-M-Y as music is made and played. So of course my "something new" was inspired by one of the colors, M - or magenta specifically. I had three items. My M boots which I adore (and which I wore the day we went to City Hall to get our marriage license). A tool belt and comfy arm warmers.

$29.99 from Amazon.com

$18 from Sock Dreams

With the exception of my vintage boots, the other two "something new" items were practical. The arm warmers kept me from shivering in the early evening. And the tool belt pockets overflowed with our wedding favors.

My planned "something old" were the vintage petticoats I wore. My Miss Velvet Cream denim top - a New Year's present to myself two years ago was originally my "something blue," but after Christina gave me a lace garter with blue ribbon which seemed a more appropriate "something blue"my top became my "something old." 

I'd actually forgotten my "something borrowed." Luckily circumstances worked to my advantage. We borrowed a bullhorn to amplify the ceremony - a bullhorn which we returned to its rightful owner. 

Did you have non-traditional items for your something new, something old, something borrowed, something blue?

Our Playa Wedding Recapped

• Sneak Peek
• Getting Ready
• Herding Cats 
• Promising
• Traditions

Recap, Our Playa Wedding: Promising

Writing vows is hard. Writing two sets of vows is even harder. Yep, two sets. Our vows for our October wedding have been drafted and patiently waiting for 10/10/10 to come around. 

On the other hand, the vows for our Burning Man wedding... well it's a good thing some of my best writing occurs under deadline and even better that cubes can think under pressure. Mine were drafted a few hours before our playa wedding using a borrowed pencil and paper.

Photography Credit: Markus 'Fin' Hametner via Flickr

We had rough guidelines from our rabbi for the October vows: 

1. Think about why your partner loves and wants to be with you, promise to be and/or do those things.
2. Don't make any promises that you can't or won't keep, your partner might be hurt if you forget or stop doing something.
3. Cover a broad timeline, not just today.

With our Burning Man vows we had no such guidelines. We also could be a little more laid back as we weren't standing up in front of a rabbi or our parents. We did still have to keep the vows PG as business colleagues and relatives of coworkers might be present. Oh and as the ceremony might be videotaped and on YouTube from now and until eternity we also wanted to exercise discretion. (Even when I'm on vacation I'm still ever vigilant about my social media branding.)

So if you're sitting with a blank piece of paper in front of you, trying to sum up why you're in love and how you're going to make this relationship last a lifetime, try this: scan other vows to get an idea of various types of formats and start listing all the reasons you love your partner and why you're getting married. Miss Cola suggested discussing a format with your partner, agreeing on the Vow Libs (aka format) and then going off separately and filling in the blanks. Another format that I liked was Mr. and Mrs. Pencils's vows - what's special about the partner followed by the vows or promises.

One of my favorite set of vows is actually those from a wedding of friends of friends. I've never met the bride, but her pancake breakfasts were the thing of legends on the playa. I'd had a dream that the morning after our wedding, armed with bullhorn and pancakes she came into camp and rousted us. The vows from their wedding:

“Jonathan: I vow to love you
Kestrin: I vow to love you
J: to respect you
K: to always make fun
J: to be your best friend ever
K: to constantly generate a force field of awesome to guide and protect us
J: to do what I love
K: to actively maintain our relationship
J: to be lucky
K: to live a charmed life
J: to live as long as possible
K: to ask nicely for what i need
J: to communicate my feelings effectively
K: to live a life of hilarious bliss together
J: to provide for you
K: to solve problems
J: to make time for you every single day
J: to remain curious
K: to stand by my man
J: to put our relationship first
K: to build a community around us
J: to build a family life together
K: to give you babies
J: to change the diapers on those babies
K: to be great parent
J: to sing with you in the morning
K: to give you shoulder rubs, intermittently, for as long as we both shall live
J: to remember how lucky I am
K: to rock out with our great grandchildren
J: to take you on one hundred honeymoons
K: to maintain a menagerie
J: to clean up
K: to sing songs to you
J: to speak for you when you sing your voice out
K: to throw radical parties
J: to be faithful to you
K: to take joy in doing nice things for you
J: to be compassionate
K: to be devoted
J: to be committed
K: to be happy
J: to Listen to you
K: to support you
J: to stay with you forever
K: Do you vow to be my husband?
J: I do. Do you vow to be my wife?
K: I do.”

(Source)

I don't think anyone recorded our vows. cubes' vows to me - although spoken as if well-rehearsed - were composed in the moment and from the heart. When overcome by emotion, I tend not to be as eloquent as cubes, especially when surrounded by a crowd, so my vows were scribbled down ahead of time. 

Photography Credit: Arlette via Flickr  

Here's what I vowed to cubes as the sunset over the playa and Syzygryd came to life:

You bring out the best in me.

You challenge me to do
and try what I think I cannot do.

You support me in all that I try and all that I do.

You made me believe in fairy tales 

and that they could 

and can happen for me.

You took a girl who'd never been proposed to 

and made the unbelievable happen. 

Not once. 

Not twice. 

But three times.

You surprise me 

and make me excited to see what each day with you will bring.

I promise to give my best each day

to ask for

and to accept help when I need it.

I promise to be open

and honest

and share what I'm feeling.

I promise to make the first move when needed.

I promise to respect you

and to live each day with you

to the fullest.

I'm so excited to be your wife

and love you so very much.

Our Playa Wedding Recapped

• Sneak Peek
• Getting Ready
• Herding Cats 
• Promising

Tuesday Shoesday: Pretty in Pink

I know I featured these boots (my amazing Syzygryd-colored Etsy find) already. But... you know me. I LOVE LOVE boots. So here's Icka's boot shot from our playa wedding.

Photography Credit: Icka boo via Flickr

Check out the shot she got of my favorite - super comfy - playa boots from last year! I'd set them to the side of the chair while I curled up with my feet under me.

Photography Credit: Jessica Palopoli via Flickr

Once the preparations really got started - like OMG I'm not dressed and the sun is setting - everything became a blur. Such as... I don't even remember Icka taking the shot (I'm pretty sure she asked me as I'm raising/swinging my petticoats).

I do remember the moments where I stopped to take it all in:

• The deep breath I took after screaming for help from the carport where I was getting ready (anyone tried to get into a corseted top by themselves?) as Iris and Icka materialized in less than a blink of an eye.
• Stopping just after we crossed Esplanade and realizing we were surrounded by our community walking us out to our Syzygryd for our wedding (walking hand in hand with cubes with all our friends who supported and loved us made what we were doing so natural, so right)
• Scanning the horizon and seeing everyone silhouetted against the mountains right before we got started (thanks Mikest for reminding me that the light was changing every minute)
• The look out from the scissor lift at all of our guests (all these people are here to see us get married? OMG!)

Recap, Our Playa Wedding: Herding Cats

After we got dressed (and J finished the cranes) most of camp escorted us from camp to Syzygryd. This procession was totally not planned - heck, it wasn't even something I'd thought of. But it was amazing and is one of my fondest memories.

Photography Credit: Jessica Palopoli via Flickr

As we walked up to Syzygryd I was in awe over the crowd of people who'd gathered. At Burning Man you never really know what's going to happen. Time just morphs and people get easily distracted by "Oh the shiny!" So seeing everyone there was remarkable.

 Photography Credit: Arlette via Flickr

Photography Credit: Arlette via Flickr

This shot is of us just as we got to Syzygryd. We were totally in the moment and right after the photo was taken started greeting everyone (Mikest had to remind us we needed to start the ceremony - we were enjoying hanging out with all of our guests).

Photography Credit: Jessica Palopoli via Flickr

Photography Credit: Mikest via Flickr

Our officiant (close friend) Joshrander was great (and incredibly patient). I was so nervous I had trouble finding our rings in our bins and had already misplaced (not really they were in my Camelback where I left them) my vows so he graciously held onto the rings for us. He was also resourceful (we were supposed to bring our bullhorn with us but forgot, he found another for the ceremony).

Photography Credit: Markus 'Fin' Hametner via Flickr

Normally I've thought out every last detail, but here was one instance where I totally hadn't. Other than having our friends around us and standing up with us or giving me away I hadn't thought of how we were going to "enter" or arrange ourselves. I quickly thought of some order and had everyone almost rushing on each other's heels towards the scissor lift. Luckily The Massive Bri was on top of things as always and paused us. It was great getting to see everyone walking up to cubes and hugging him as they took their place in line.

Our Playa Wedding Recapped

• Sneak Peek
• Getting Ready
• Herding Cats 

Recap, Our Playa Wedding: Getting Ready

The day of our wedding came and went quickly. Most of it was spent lounging in the shade of our camp's single carport.

Our plan had been to write our vows before leaving for the playa. Like all good plans, this one never came to be.

Shortly after lunch on the day of our playa wedding, campmates sat me down. I was unprepared - lacking both paper and a writing instrument. Christie was having none of my excuses and soon paper as well as a pencil were in my hands. Vows written I returned to my book.

As the sun was nearing the horizon things really started moving. I'd forgotten to string the paper cranes on the LEDs and with the advice to start getting ready soon remembered them. Luckily J was able to open up the cranes, punch a hole, string the LED, and then refold the cranes. With J on the task, I ducked into our carport to change.

While in the past I'd been able to get into my top with a little bit of effort. I quickly realized that when you're getting married nothing is simple. After a cry for help, Iris and Icka materialized and within minutes I was dressed and ready to go.

Photography Credit: Jessica Palopoli via Flickr

Our Playa Wedding Recapped

• Sneak Peek
• Getting Ready

Sneak Peek: Our Playa Wedding

Sorry for the long absence. It took a little longer than anticipated to shake off the playa dust. But...We're back!

Here's a sneak peek from our playa wedding. Recaps (along with crazed last minute DIY projects for our 10/10/10 wedding) next week.

Photography Credits: Tom Cavnar via Flickr

Atop a scissor lift beside Syzygryd we said "I Do" and saved the universe from potential destruction. 

We also successfully merged two geeky memes - Firefly (Fox) and True Blood (HBO) - serving a signature drink, The Fangbanger, designed to keep Reavers from eating unsuspecting guests.

The Wedding Party

• Officiant: Joshrander
• Giving the Groom Away: Netdiva
• Groom's Attendants: Simon and Nicoles
• Giving the Bride Away: The Massive Bri
• Bride's Attendants: Iris and Oznog
• Catering: Michael Whelpley with support of the Syzygryd Base Camp Kitchen Crew
• Security: Christina

Special thanks to our friends: the Syzygryd crew who moved heaven and earth and worked tirelessly so that lights and sound were operational for us and fire was test ready (OMG the heat!). Warkitten who acquired a scissor lift from DPW. 10_9 who had a ranger on hand to sign our ceremony so that everyone could enjoy. 

Our Vendors

• Bride's Outfit: Top by Miss Velvet Cream with vintage petticoats from Alley Cats Vintage and Anne Marie Austin on Etsy and vintage Liz Claiborne boots from Fleurs en Papier also on Etsy
• Groom's Outfit: Syzygryd lab coat hand dyed by SFSlim, Yerdua, et al. over Nomex flight suit and Doc Martens. 
• Rings: Bride's ring from London Particulars on Etsy; Groom's ring from EDM Designs on Etsy
• Bride's Hair: Wig from Trendy Hair Gallery with Butterfly donated by Pickle Camp
• Decor: Bouquet made by Iris from artificial flowers donated by The Artery and Center Camp; Paper Cranes made by Helen and strung on Amber Acolyte FloraLyte II LEDs (from Save-On-Crafts) by J

Greetings from Black Rock City, Nevada!

See you when we get back!

For those who are curious about the illustration of us. With Adobe Photoshop, I started with six photographs and removed all of the backgrounds. After compiling the individual components, I made two copies of each of us. I applied a Stylize filter (Glowing Edges) to one of the copies and a Sketch filter (Stamp) to the other copy. I then changed the layer properties for each of the Stamped images (top layers) to Screen at 50%.


Photography Credits: The photograph of cubes was taken by Starr right after our engagement at Burning Man 2009. The photograph of Eden was taken by NetDiva at Oznog's and Eden's Combined 2009 Birthday Party. The photographs of the petticoats were from the photos on their respective Etsy listings (Alley Cats Vintage, Anne Marie Austin, Crafty Crow Vintage).

Our Playa Wedding: Transportation

There are a few modes of transportation on the playa. The two most reliable methods are walking and riding a bicycle. One that's an adventure (you don't know where you're going) and chancy (you don't know when you'll be to just hop aboard or for that matter jump off), is riding on an art car.

Last year we (I) walked. This year that's not possible with friends at each edge of the city. Imagine pouty face here. (I hate bicycles and the things seem to harbor animosity towards me as well. Bicycles being riden by commuters have routinely gone mad to rush their rider out into intersections against the light swerving to hit me. Other bicycles have decided they're just too tired to carry their rider across the street in the crosswalk and have toppled over on top of me.) Last year I had a melt down in Target when faced with the idea of getting a bike. Full on melt down where I started hyperventilating and felt the world closing in. This year just a pouty face.

One Saturday in July we decided to go in search of bikes. We were victorious. We found two bikes. They fit nicely along with other Burning Man supplies in the back of our CRV.

Here's my bike.

Avigo Open Force 20 inch BMX Bike $99

(Source)

As an aside, when you order a bike from the Toys R Us website you'll save $10 on the base price and get free or reduced shipping (standard shipping only, a $25 value, on orders over $49).

So why this bike? First I could comfortably stand over it. Second it had multiple gears and the shifter didn't look like it would break the first time I tried to use it. Third it wasn't pink.

Why not this bike? The spring that I thought was decoration is actually rear suspension. I was advised that roughly 30% of my energy would be expended bouncing up and down. Um that doesn't sound very pleasant. Back to the drawing board. (Huge thank you to Sofauxboho.)

Next bike? A 49 centimeter Single Speed Mixtie.

As to whether I enjoyed traversing the playa on my bike? Hopefully I'm out riding it now and enjoying myself. Otherwise my feet are going to be pretty sore walking to and from Syzygryd and Syzgryd Base Camp (Cairo and 5:00).

DIY: Hindsight for those Self-Catering Their Receptions

First let me say this. I'm so so very thankful that we're NOT self-catering our event. I don't know whether we would have saved money or not, but I do know that I would have gone crazy.

As you know we're having two ceremonies. The first - 8 days from now - is happening at Burning Man at Syzygryd. In my copious spare time, I've been coordinating the support camp for Syzygryd. Part of that coordination has involved catering. While no wedding venue's environment will be as extreme as that we're facing at Burning Man, my experience will probably still be helpful for anyone who's planning on self-catering an outdoor wedding.

Vegan Yellow Curry with Tofu

Discovered as I started cooking that it didn't fit in one container. Oops.

Luckily I had an extra burner and an extra 2 qt pot.

The Vegan and Non-Vegan Yellow Curries Simmer Nicely Side-by-Side.

The Non-Vegan curries almost filled both an 8-qt stock pot and 8.5-qt pot. I had to watch them very carefully to prevent them from boiling over.

Major Lessons Learned

1. Everything takes longer than you think it will. Remember you're doubling or tripling recipes. What typically takes an hour to prepare is going to take twice or three times as long.
2. If you're storing food, account for all the time. The time it takes to cool the food. The time it takes to transfer the food from pots and pans to storage containers.
3. Just because you can make everything, it doesn't mean you'll be able to store it or serve it. If you're planning on making and serving from pots, think about whether you've used the same pots for multiple dishes. If you have, you'll need another way to serve some of the food.
4. Get extra of hard to find ingredients. If you're crunched for time, recipes might be prepared wrong and you may need to remake a dish. Be sure you have an insurance policy.

What We Did

We have 60 people in our camp that we need to feed. 16 are vegan. We also have people who are allergic to bell peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes. If you were planning a wedding reception with a Thai theme you would want to offer a couple of entrée choices so I've included both curries in this example. For our camp at Burning Man the dishes we prepared are not going to be served on the same day - they're two separate meals.

The Vegan Menu (serves 20 people)

• Tom Yum Soup with Tofu
• Yellow Curry with Tofu
• Red Curry with Tofu
• Jasmine Rice

The Non-Vegan Menu (serves 50 people)

• Tom Yum Soup with Shrimp (no tomatoes)
• Yellow Curry with Chicken
• Red Curry with Chicken
• Jasmine Rice

Specific recipe changes that we made for dietary preferences and allergies were as follows:

• Thin soy sauce was substituted for fish sauce in all vegan recipes.
• Vegetarian tom yum paste was used for the vegetarian tom yum soup.
• Vegetable broth was used in place of chicken broth for the vegetarian tom yum soup and to thin both the yellow and red vegetarian curries.
• Maesri red curry paste was used in place of Mae Ploy red curry paste for the vegetarian red curry with tofu.

Due to poor planning and finding out too late, we realized that we didn't have enough Vegetarian ingredients on hand to be able to make the base curries or soups in bulk. Had we planned further ahead we would have been able to purchase more of the Vegetarian ingredients online and have them shipped to us in time. This would have simplified preparation.

16.5 Qts of Tom Yum Soup

Successfully transferred to 1.5 gallon Ziplock bags and cooling.

From Hindsight: Things to Keep in Mind as You Plan

• How familiar are you with the recipes you'll be cooking?
• Do you have enough people to help with preparation as well as cooking and serving?
• Do you have pots and pans large enough to accommodate the cooking?
• Do you have enough refrigeration and freezer space to hold all of the prepared ingredients as well as final dishes?
• Do you have vehicles with enough cargo space that you can use to pick up the ingredients for cooking?
• Do you have vehicles with enough cargo space to take final dishes to the site?
• Do you have coolers for keeping the final dishes refrigerated prior to reheating on-site?
• Do you have enough containers to store the finished meals prior to serving?
• Do you have enough burners for rewarming the final dishes on-site?
• Do you have chafing dishes or soup pots large enough to serve the dishes on-site?
• Do you have serving spoons and/or ladles for serving the dishes on-site?
• Do you have a rice cooker large enough to make and/or keep warm the rice on-site?

What We Didn't Have

• Enough appropriately sized pots. We had to serialize cooking and split dishes across multiple pots.
• Readily available stocks of hard-to-find ingredients or substitutes. We had just enough Vegetarian Tom Yum paste for one batch of soup. When I accidentally put Tom Yum paste into the Vegetable broth it could have easily been the Vegetarian Tom Yum paste into Chicken broth like I had feared. I was able to go get more Vegetable broth. I wouldn't have been able to get more Vegetarian Tom Yum paste.
• Vehicles with enough cargo space. We needed to make multiple supply runs.
• Containers for storing finished meals. We had to break finished dishes out into portions that would fit in 1.5 gallon Ziplock bags.

What We Had

• Familiarity with the recipes. The recipes used were ones that I've been preparing for almost twelve years. Even still for one of the recipes I forgot that the ingredients were already scaled for events rather than individual family sized portions. For example, instead of making a yellow curry that would serve 10 people, I tripled the recipe. We ended up with a curry that would serve almost 30 people.
• Another pair of hands to help with prep. The sheer number of mushrooms and onions alone that we had to slice was overwhelming. We had 4 pounds of mushrooms and 3 pounds of onions. A friend who had experience using a knife and preparing for large numbers of people volunteered to help me out in the kitchen. Besides the actual help having someone else in the kitchen was great for morale.
• Refrigeration and freezer space. We had a commercial kitchen with lots of refrigeration and freezer space available to us. Not all dishes were prepared there - so refrigerator and freezer musical chairs was played.

It's so easy to think that because you've been able to cater a meal for 30 to 40 people that you can easily scale up to 60 people. Also for dinner parties I've never been cooking solo. I've had a cadre of sous chefs. With a tight deadline, a strict budget, and limited volunteers, cooking - a task I typically love - is not so fun and is quite stressful as we couldn't afford to make any mistakes.

Luckily I had a friend who joined me one night for preparing 3 pounds of onions and 4 pounds of mushrooms. It made the task fun again. Later in the week when I had more entrées to prepare I almost lost it when I was unable to split open kabocha with a cleaver. More friends to the rescue and a night off to celebrate friends' birthdays. That time out was huge for my well being.

A misplaced Costco card this past Saturday could have also resulted in a meltdown but another friend came to my rescue and I was even able to laugh about the wild goose chase I was sent on. (And luckily a stranger pointed out that instead of Jerky fit for humans I'd just picked up dog treats.)

The incident with the cleaver. The near feeding of my camp mates with dog food. These are all things we can laugh about now, but had this been in the hours leading up to our wedding, I wouldn't be laughing, I would be crying hysterically.

Etsy Tuesday: Firefly-Inspired Looks - River

This morning I shared an Inara-Inspired look. Here's a River-Inspired look.

River

Image Credits: River from Objects in Space Episode via Replica Prop Forum, Crochet Bolero Vest by The Little Things by T (Etsy) $44, Elephant Maxi Dress by Kolon Clothes $20 (Etsy)

Etsy Tuesday: Firefly-Inspired Looks - Inara

For everyone who's been wondering what do I wear to a wedding where Firefly-Inspired costumes have been requested, here's some help. First visit Can't Take the Sky for screencaps from various episodes - a great way to get a general feel for the costuming. Also check out The Costumer's Guide to Movies. They have a section dedicated to Firefly.

To get you thinking about costumes, here's an Inara-inspired look I put together. River and Kaylee-inspired looks to come later.

Inara

Image Credits: Inara's Red Dress from Shindig Episode via SF Browncoats, Embellished Top by Booth 325 (Etsy) $25, Maxi Flare Skirt by Beyond Clothing (Etsy) $42, Scarf by Idea2Lifestyle (Etsy) $28

Fab Find: Costume Wigs

Last year for Burning Man I had my hair braided. With my crazy schedule I didn't have time to get my hair braided. Also, with my hair six inches longer than last year, no one was sure whether or not the braids would be too heavy.

Unsure of ordering wigs - sight unseen and untried - from the Internet, I decided to visit the wig store I kept passing on the way to and from Ardent West.

My fab find? Trendy Hair Gallery and their Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off or 20% off coupon (available from their website). For any burners looking to get wigs last minute and avoid overnight shipping costs, this is a great way to go.

Wigs (from upper left, clockwise): Cindy by Sepia, Hot Pink Color $48 ($55.95 for 100% Human Hair & $29.95 for Synthetic Hair from BestWigOutlet); Cindy by Sepia, T1B, Deep Red Color $48; Cecilia by Eve, RT-BUGB Color $48 (the wig I'm planning on wearing the night of our playa wedding)

; Fantasy by Sepia, Grapevine Color $48 ($38.95 from BestWigOutlet)

Sneak Peek: Favors for Our Burning Man Wedding

Yesterday's mail brought our wedding favors for our Burning Man Wedding - a box of personalized buttons.

Want to see a sneak peek? (Yes I know I said you'd have to wait, but I love how the design turned out.)

Overall, I was very impressed with Wacky Buttons. I received a proof of the approved design. Then after submitting the order, we received a proof of our buttons. From design to order to delivery, the entire process took just 4 business days. While their Time Calculator could be a little more user friendly (include the estimated time to approve design), everywhere else Wacky Buttons went above and beyond. It was easy to upload your own artwork. (If you didn't have Adobe Photoshop they had an online design tool.) The price was right. The customer service was great. I would definitely order from them again.

So what do you think of the wedding favors? Did you do something untraditional for your favors?

Our Playa Wedding: Wedding Favors

Our project Syzygryd has buttons. We're getting married at Syzygryd.

Idea! We should give our playa guests buttons! (For those who haven't been to Burning Man, people collect and trade buttons.) Once a DIY idea has been born, let's just say it's pretty hard to stop it. So we're off!

First, we need to find a vendor without a minimum order requirement that can get the buttons to us before we leave for the playa. A quick Google search and we have a couple of options: Affordable Buttons (100 1.25" round buttons, one color on white $71), Just Buttons (100 1.25" round buttons in Hot Pink $30), Speedy Buttons (100 1.25" round buttons, unlimited colors $60 with optional $15 proof fee), and Wacky Buttons (100 1.5" round buttons, unlimited colors $30). Based on cost, we only considered Just Buttons, Speedy Buttons, and Wacky Buttons.

First step: Get appropriate design templates for the buttons. (Rename them so you know which template goes to which vendor.)

• Just Buttons: templates are by size and type of file. I designing in Adobe Photoshop so I chose the PSD template.
• Speedy Buttons: templates are by size and type of file. I chose the PSD template again.
• Wacky Buttons: templates are by size and by DPI. I again downloaded the 1200 dpi template for Adobe Photoshop.

Second step: Design buttons.

This is easier said than done. Remember the invitations for our Burning Man Wedding? Well, I thought we could easily create a button from that design. Um yeah. The illustrated figures were designed for a corner cut. Not a circular cut. What was intentional now looks off balance. 

Of course I don't have the original. Design dilemma. Simplify? 

Or just redo the illustration? You'll have to wait for the sneak peek to see what I decided to do.

I created all my designs in Adobe Photoshop for upload. Wacky Buttons had an online tool available for creating buttons - a good option if you don't already own Adobe Photoshop and know what you want your design to look like.

Third step: Upload the finished buttons.

With Speedy Buttons you have the option for a proof - it's $15. When I did a quick check of vendor prices I didn't see this. (It's not on the home page or the Button Pricing page. It is on the Custom Button page.) That fee for a proof makes it more expensive than Affordable Buttons, but you aren't limited to one color. One nice feature with Speedy Buttons is the ability to pick a guaranteed delivery date - at a glance you can see what the rush charges and shipping fees will be. With the requirement to submit images in CMYK, I was hesitant to order without a proof. Total would have been $75 for 100-1.25" full color buttons.

Wacky Buttons, like Speedy Buttons, provided a Time Calculator so you could see if you needed to rush your design. To have a chance at getting the buttons in time for Burning Man, we'd need to select a payment method of Credit Card or PayPal Balance and USPS Priority Mail (2 to 4 days). If you're uploading your own designs, they need to be approved. Approval can take up to two business days and isn't included in the Time Calculator. I like Speedy Buttons' guaranteed delivery date interface better than Wacky Buttons' Time Calculator. Once your design is approved (in our case we submitted our design on Sunday and it was approved by 7:00AM Monday morning), you get a proof of the button. This is very cool. Total cost was $26.63 for 50-1.5" full color buttons.

I tried Just Buttons last. I wasn't sure if I wanted white or hot pink paper (additional two cents per button). As there was no proof option, I decided to go with white. We have Magenta in our design and I didn't want the two colors to clash. I didn't like that I had to supply billing information before I uploaded my artwork. You could request a delivery date but they asked that you take production into account. I had to go back to the home page to figure out if we'd get the buttons in time. Total cost was $34.05 for 100-1.25" full color buttons.

Fourth step: Wait for buttons to arrive in the mail.

This DIY project was pretty simple. Took about three hours - would have taken less if I had the design elements ready to go.

Tuesday Shoesday: M Boots

Syzygryd sports C (cyan) M (magenta) Y (yellow) colors. Her staff will be decked out in lab coats and coveralls in these colors as well as K (black).

Now many of the gals have decided to accessorize. Which means the hunt for cute boots is on. I'll be wearing my K lab coat (got an M lab coat as well) with these M beauties from the 80s. Can't beat the price - $18.

Pink Suede Liz Claiborne Boots for $18.00 from Fleurs en Papier (Etsy)

Some M options I came across for coordinating with Syzygryd's C Y and K labcoats.

She's The Boss Boot by Zigi

$71.99 (w/10% off coupon code WINNER) at ShoeMall

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Randi by Kate Spade

$125 at Zappos.com

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Possibly a little too hot for the playa. But how can you go wrong? They're Kate Spade.

1460 8 Eye Boot by Dr. Martens

$129.95 at ShoeMall

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Carson Pull On by FRYE

$348.00 at Zappos.com

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They're FRYE - the brand preferred by DPW everywhere (well in black not magenta), so you'll know they'll be comfortable and long lasting.

DSquared2

Normally $1,004.00 - a real steal at $648 at Zappos.com

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If Syzygryd ever makes the rounds at tradeshows in Vegas, these are what all the booth babes should be sporting.