Among all the glass bottles and cake plates, I’ve picked up a few other antiques along the way — a plate here and there, a creamer and sugar, a couple of Fire King sapphire bowls, some little vintage metal trays. But my best find, by far, was this serving set.

Do you see that tag? $4.50. I doubt I could have even found a jewel-cut plastic-handled cake server at Michael’s for that. The server has a serrated edge, so I don’t even need a separate knife. That’s what I call efficient. And you can’t see it in this photo, but the tongs on the right have a scissor-like handle. Not sure if I could actually serve anything with it, but it’s beautiful nonetheless.

A few weeks ago, I went to Costco and priced out items for the OOT welcome bags. Yes, I walked around Costco with a notebook and pen and did research. It felt very official.

I’m way ahead of when I can actually start assembling the bags, but I wanted to get the shopping out of the way because a) I have enough things to keep on the mental to-do list, and b) Costco’s inventory changes constantly and my research would be moot if I didn’t get down to business.

All of the food is dated late 2009 (or later), so I went for it. And when I got home, I immediately did a test run — minus a few things that I’ll have to repackage into individual servings at a later date: dried fruit, peppermint patties and gingerthins.

The bags are from Target (and a lucky find, since the typeface almost matches the one we’re using for everything else). The Salem Visitors’ Center gave me a box of visitor guides (for free!), and they’re like little magazines. That was a nice surprise. In front of the travel guide is a Willamette Valley winery guide, and peeking out in front of the S. Pellegrino (my big splurge) is a Heart in Oregon sticker. On the right is an Ikea jar with a nut assortment (another treat I’ll be repackaging… later). And the rest is standard fare — little chocolate chip cookies, Sunchips, bottled water.

But as soon as I unfolded the little bag, I knew there was a problem. There was no way all that stuff was going to fit.

I’m not sure what I was thinking. When I bought the bags, I can very distinctly remember thinking, how in the world am I going to fill these? Clearly, I found a way. Somehow.

The voice of reason says to keep the bottled water and ditch the Pellegrino. So what if it was on sale? And, ahem, so what if you love Pellegrino? The Kirkland bottled water is 25 cents a bottle. Seriously.

But the voice of aesthetics says, excuse me, that Pellegrino is in a beautiful glass bottle. And — bonus — you wouldn’t have to go through the painstaking process of removing all those Kirkland labels and replacing them with your own. Checking an item off the DIY checklist (with exactly zero effort) sounds pretty good right now, no?

I have to take a moment to brag about Josh. Because I’m such a lucky girl.

First he decided to go antiquing for more bottles for the wedding — not because I asked, but all on his own, because he’s just a thoughtful, helpful guy. Then he not only found seriously awesome bottles (some of these put my efforts to shame), but he photographed them for me so I wouldn’t have to wait to see them.

Yeah, that script rocks. And so does the photo. So now you know that Josh is not only a better antique-finder than me, he is also a better photographer.

Do you know how hard it is to find the ones with embossed glass? Yes, really hard. And the grand finale…

A Salem bottle! It doesn’t get any more amazing than that.

And there are even more on his Flickr — these are just the highlights.

Sidebar for those who aren’t Ambrosia Parsley fans: Among many other things, Bossa Nova is the title of a Shivaree song. “I’m the luckiest girl / Gonna tell you I love you…”

I haven’t given much thought to what I’ll wear to the rehearsal dinner — I have a closetful of beautiful dresses, and given that 70% of them are not work-appropriate, many of them are on unfortunate house arrest — but thanks to Julia, I might’ve just found the rehearsal dress.

Beautiful off-white satin dress, from Spiegel of all places. But then I start thinking about shoes… Some gold flats maybe? Not Maloles for $260, but something similar perhaps.

I’ve been inspired by many people to make a list of things I hope to accomplish before my next birthday. With a little over a month to get these done, and the holidays between here and there, I’d better get going! I tried not to include too many holiday things (everyone has to Christmas shop) or too many wedding things (there is life after April 18, or so I’m told).

1. Make these cupcakes.

2. Find a fabulous Christmas dress. (I have my eye on this one.)

3. Make a magnet board.

4. Plan a trip to Spokane.

5. Start a 2009 P.S. (Pretty Sweet) journal, to record something good from each and every day.

6. Start writing an honest-to-goodness business plan.

7. Try at least three new dinner recipies and make three batches of cookies, tarts, or other treats (preferably on my road to being a domestic goddess).

8. Read at least one page from a real book every day (i.e. magazines, blogs, and anything on my iPhone screen do not count).

9. Do yoga at least once a week, in addition to my regular training and cardio.

10. Join, and sign up for a class at, the IPRC.

11. Send five cards. (Christmas cards and wedding invitations do not count.)

12. On nights when it isn’t raining, stop to look at the stars.

13. Wireframe the redesign for my website.

14. Purchase one item specifically set aside for my future home with Josh.

15. Do a December Daily, or at least take a photo every day.

16. Simplify something.

17. Make the table runners for the wedding.

18. Apply for three freelance projects that seem out of reach and are more in line with what I want my business to be.

19. Finish my never-ending personal design/writing project, Listen Closely.

20. Relax.

21. Test drive a Tiguan. Just for fun.

22. Make a new year’s resolution.

23. Take a floral decor, cooking, or dance class.

Actually, it’s part more-than-three, because I’ve been to Pacific Coast Antiques in Brookings a couple of times for a bottle here and a bottle there. But this was installment three of the Quest for Bottles and Cake Stands.

Since I was driving down to Brookings for Thanksgiving, I thought I might as well stop in and check out the world-famous antiquing in Lincoln City. Well, if you are looking to make a single purchase — and spend a pretty penny for it — then Lincoln City is the place to go. At my first stop, I found quite a few beautiful milk bottles in perfect condition, and many of them were quite special, but most were $60+. Several were $75, and I didn’t see a single one below $30. I’m buying so many of these, I can’t justify even one bottle at $30. On to the next shop, which was a complete bust. One nice cake stand, but at $70, I couldn’t bring myself to buy it.

Last, I went to Granny’s Attic and found a few more reasonably-priced bottles. I was a little discouraged and antiqued-out at that point, so I skipped the rest of the stores and hoped for better luck in Brookings.

That photo has nothing to do with anything wedding-related… I took it from the beach in Brookings one evening this week. This is why the Oregon Coast is my happy place.

I found a couple of nice cake plates in Brookings, including one that was a steal at $9. Surely it isn’t an antique, but you can’t beat $9 for any glass cake stand, regardless of age. But still no milk bottles, no vintage wine carafes, no other nondescript bottles that I just had to have.

Yesterday, we went down to Crescent City to explore the antique shops there — and I was shocked to discover that there are tons of them! Nine in all, including one I went to a few months ago. And lo and behold, bottles!

First, the non-wedding items: The book is a first edition of a book I loved as a child, published in the 1800s. The little trivet is just for fun… We know I have a trivet obsession, and this one was only $2.

The little sugar bowl was just such a great find I couldn’t pass it up… I will probably see if the caterer will use it for sugar for coffee at the reception. The pink depression glass cake plate and the clear cake plate at the very back are the ones I found in Brookings. The little blue saucer at the front was all by himself so I had to have him. Not sure yet what role he’ll play at the wedding.

A couple of the bottles are from Granny’s Attic in Lincoln City, and the rest are from shops in Crescent City. The large bottle on the far right was a real splurge — I must’ve had a momentary seizure when I decided to spend $20 on a single bottle, but it’s in perfect condition and is very special.

And my HUGE splurge was the little light blue cake plate at the left. You can’t see him very well in this photo, but he’s so so so pretty — the perfect blue, in flawless condition, and blue milk glass, which is very hard to find.