Te amo sin saber cómo, ni cuándo, ni de dónde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
así te amo porque no sé amar de otra manera,
sino así, de este modo en que no soy ni eres,
tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mía,
tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueño.
Pablo Neruda · Soneto XVII
— M
She’s back!
Time for twirls and tails intertwined.
tails intertwined
Tentative. Nothing booked. Say the word and it gets booked.
Wednesday — tonight tentative
Casa Isola
The whole point is the catching up. Eleven days of Kosovo, told properly and slowly, over a bottle that costs half of what it should. No agenda past that.
Friday tentative
Motek — or Henry’s
Dinner first, unhurried.
Then
Panamericano
Music party. We sit there and settle the playlist — which version of Ain’t Misbehavin’ wins, what the first dance actually is, and what absolutely does not get played in front of your mother. A head start is below.
105 songs saved · sorted and rated · ★★★ must have · ★★ strong · ! reconsider
First dance, parent dances, last dance
Warm, quiet, nothing that asks for attention
Still conversational, energy creeping up
Roughly nine to half ten · everybody, no exceptions
After half ten · only the people who want to be there are left
Saved in a good mood. Read them again cold.
21 tracks across 8 songs · I went and checked every runtime, and you were right — almost none of these are accidents
Six versions of Ain’t Misbehavin’ is not a mistake, it’s a range. Crosby’s is 2:52 and Ray Charles’ is 5:40 — nearly twice as long, and that alone makes them different jobs. A 5:40 record is a thing you eat dinner to. A 3:17 record is a thing you dance to in front of ninety people, and three minutes is about as long as anyone wants to be looked at.
| Ain’t Misbehavin’ | Length | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Bing Crosby | 2:52 | Lightest and breeziest. Early cocktail hour. |
| Nat King Cole | 3:17 | Most intimate, vocal right up front, and the right length to stand in the middle of a room.first dance |
| Fats Waller | 3:58 | The man who wrote it, stride piano, faintly mischievous. Cocktails, with character. |
| Louis Armstrong | 4:00 | Trumpet and gravel. Warm. Late cocktails or early dinner. |
| Louis Armstrong the longer take | 4:38 | Same song, more horn. Dinner, when there’s room to let it run. |
| Ray Charles | 5:40 | Loose, soulful, twice Crosby’s length. Far too long to dance to. Perfect over dinner. |
| If I Were a Carpenter | Length | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Bobby Darin | 2:23 | Briskest, big-band lean. The one to cut if we’re cutting. |
| Tim Hardin | 2:42 | The writer’s own. Sparse and a little fragile. Prelude. |
| Johnny Cash & June Carter | 3:01 | Two people who were actually married, singing it to each other. That’s the whole argument.last dance |
| Robert Plant | 3:46 | Slowest, biggest vocal. The outlier — wrong texture for the room. |
| The rest | Length | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Mas Que Nada — Brasil ’66 | 2:39 | The original bossa. Cocktail hour.keep |
| Heldens / Asher remix | 2:08 | Shortest and hardest of the three. Peak floor.keep |
| with the Black Eyed Peas | 4:23 | Longest and most 2006. The one I’d drop. |
| Magalenha — Sergio Mendes | 3:37 | Percussion-forward. Dinner.keep |
| Gregor Salto & Simon Fava | 3:30 | Same melody, house rework. Late.keep |
| Conga — Gloria Estefan | 4:16 | The real one, and it has room to build.keep |
| Massivedrum edit | 2:17 | A blunt two-minute hard-house rework. Cut. |
| On The Floor — CCW radio mix | 3:44 | Tighter. Better for a dance floor. |
| Ven a Bailar | 4:53 | A full minute longer, with the Spanish hook. Your call — it’s a taste question, not a length one. |
Only two are actually accidentsGimme Some Lovin’ — the single mix is 2:59, the album cut is 3:01. Two seconds. And Let the Good Times Roll — 2:53 and 2:59, same Ray Charles, two different masters. Six seconds.
Those two are the only ones where “just pick one” is the whole conversation. Everything above is a real choice, and worth having on Friday rather than resolving by text.
Celebrations Entertainment · easier than either of us thought
Their planning system is at celebrationsplanning.com — the login is in Loren’s “Wedding Confirmed” email from May. The music forms are just typed lists: Must Play, Play If Possible, Do Not Play, with separate boxes for cocktail hour, dinner and dancing. No file to upload, no account to link, nothing to export. Which means the whole thing is copy and paste.
Thirty minutes, once. The monthly “Before I DO” checklist emails are the nagging; this is the actual work, and most of it is already done above.
paws together
Zola or Joy · everything downstream is waiting on this one
You liked Zola’s style and Joy’s colors, and said you were open either way. Here is the honest version, checked this week rather than remembered.
| Zola | Joy | |
|---|---|---|
| Template match for white with black trim |
Blake, Verona (white colorway), Stevens — each has a real linkable previewfits | Modern Lines, Gala Black, Classic Marble — but the gallery has no per-template links, so you cannot send me one |
| “Movement,” which you were right about |
$9.99 once — 7 animations, 4 page transitions, foil type yes |
No animation product exists. Video header and scroll layouts only. |
| Colour control | 16 fixed swatches per design | Free-form hex, plus custom CSSwins |
| Photos | No published cap; more placement slots, video on two pages | 1,000 photos, unlimited albums, guest uploads without an account |
| Guest texting | $59.99–$79.99 once. Groups, scheduling, US only |
Price not published anywhere — you have to enter checkout to see it. Has an explicit “hasn’t RSVP’d” filter |
| Custom domain | from $17.99/yr | ~$19.99/yr, forwarding only — the URL bar still says withjoy |
Recommendation — ZolaThree reasons, in order of how much they actually matter. One: Joy does not make magnet save-the-dates at all — and magnets are my hobby horse, not yours, so that only counts if you want them too. Two: the movement you liked is a real $9.99 product on Zola and simply does not exist on Joy. Three: your Zola account already exists with the Abbey design applied and the engagement photos loaded — moving to Joy means rebuilding from nothing.
The one honest argument for Joy: if your colours are specific hex values rather than “one of these sixteen,” Joy’s free-form colour and custom CSS genuinely beat Zola’s fixed palettes. If that’s the sticking point, say so and I’ll change my answer.
On texting — don’t let it decide thisIt’s a $60–$195 line item either way, and neither platform makes a group thread — guests get individual messages. If two-way texting matters, WedTexts is $195 once for up to 150 guests with unlimited messages, replies, and three logins so you, me and a coordinator can all use it. Text My Wedding is $87 for 1,200 texts and imports the guest list straight out of Zola or Joy. Both beat building it into the platform decision.
~110 pieces · magnets are my idea — yours to veto · mail these autumn 2026
Full disclosure: the magnet thing is me. I like that they end up on a hundred fridges and stay there for a year. If you’d rather have a beautiful piece of card, say so and this whole table becomes a paper table — every vendor below prints both, and the decision is yours, not mine.
| Where | Magnet, 110 | Envelopes & addressing |
|---|---|---|
| Truly Engaging the old MagnetStreet — deepest magnet catalogue there is | $148.50 $1.35 ea |
Envelopes included, guest and return addressing free. Free custom sample.best value |
| Minted the design-forward one that also does magnets | ~$204 ~$1.85 ea with code |
Envelopes included, addressing free. 17.5pt Mohawk stock — the nicest feel.best looking |
| Zola’s own magnets | $218.90 $1.99 ea |
Free, and auto-pulls from the guest list. Convenient, $70 more. |
| Simply to Impress | $130.90 $1.19 ea on sale |
Envelopes included; addressing costs extra and they don’t publish the price. |
| Magnets.com | $152.90 $1.39 ea |
No envelopes, no addressing. But 25–40 mil — by far the thickest. |
| Basic Invite | ~$110 ~$1.00 ea with code |
Cheapest, but 14 mil. Noticeably floppy. Only if price beats feel. |
| Joy | Doesn’t make them | Paper only, 5×7 only. Their perk: fill the hotel block, get 40% off prints. |
The move, if you want my read — and only if you’re sold on magnets in the first place: Zola for the website, Truly Engaging for the magnets. $148.50 all-in and mail-ready, $70 under Zola’s own, and the only thing you give up is that you’d export the addresses out of Zola once by hand. Order free samples from both before committing to a stock — a magnet is a thing people touch.
Timing, and it’s realEvery sale price above expires between 24 August and 4 September 2026. And for a July 2027 wedding these get mailed in autumn 2026 — which means this is a now decision, not a next-year one. Samples first, though; they’re free.
Badger Band · findable, bookable, and there is a problem
The official channel is Hire The Badger Band, and the actual booking form is this Google form. Email hirethebadgerband@music.wisc.edu, office 608-263-1770. They ask for 7–10 days to return a quote and a one-month minimum lead time.
Your numbers were close but low on all three axes. The one published price is $1,140 — and that buys 11–15 performers for up to 30 minutes, in Madison. There is no ten-player tier. An hour needs paid additional time at a rate they don’t publish. Budget $1,400–$2,000 and treat it as an estimate until the quote lands. Travel should be zero — the Madison Club is in-city.
The problem — July 3 may not exist for themMarching Band is a fall-semester for-credit course. Varsity Band is the spring one. Neither is an in-session ensemble in July, and July 3 2027 is a Saturday on the Fourth of July weekend — the worst weekend of the summer for student availability. Their form says plainly that booking “is dependent on student availability.”
There is no published statement either way about summer bookings, so this isn’t a no — it’s an unknown, and it gates the whole idea. One email answers it. That’s on my list.
The better route, honestlyThe UW School of Music runs a public gig board where you hire student musicians directly. There is precedent for exactly this: a 2024 posting wanted “a group of UW band members for a wedding,” asked for two trumpets, two trombones, a sax and a drum, to “enter the reception playing On Wisconsin” and then Jump Around, at $100–200 per person.
A six-to-eight-piece pep combo that way is $900–$2,000 — your original budget — and you pick the instrumentation and recruit people who happen to be in Madison in July, instead of asking an institution to mobilise. The Band Alumni Association (uwbandalumni@uwalumni.com) is the other good door — grown adults who live here year-round and are not bound by the academic calendar.
Two different jobs · two different prices · hire for the one you want
Worth naming the split: a videographer makes a cinematic film delivered in weeks, and runs $1,300–$4,600 in Madison, with boutique work starting near $2,950. A content creator shoots vertical Reels on a phone and hands them over the same night, and runs $750–$2,250. Extra hours are the real lever: $95/hr solo, $200–300/hr for the bigger shops.
| Who | Role | Published price |
|---|---|---|
| Unveiled Media Co Wisconsin · 24-hour delivery · free travel inside 50 miles | Content creator | $750 / 6h $950 / 8h $1,150 / 10h best value |
| Aside the Bride Madison · Shelby Olstad · edited and delivered the night of | Content creator | Base not published +$200/hrmost local |
| Old North Film Co same-day raw footage · team with backup shooters | Both | $1,350 / $1,800 / $2,250 video from ~$2,950 |
| Complete Weddings + Events | Videographer | $1,295–$4,595 useful as the market benchmark |
| Jahr Wedding Films Madison-based, 6-minute minimum film | Videographer | Inquire |
| Post Wedding Films | Videographer | Inquire |
On the UW connection — straight answerThere is no established Madison wedding videographer that advertises a UW-Madison affiliation. Two thin leads turned up and both rest on undated third-party mentions, so I’m not putting them in front of you as recommendations.
If the UW link matters, the real route is hiring a student directly. Post to the UW Student Jobs board — $15 for a non-UW poster, live 30 days. Aim the ask at the Digital Cinema Production certificate (the most precisely trained pool) and the Communication Arts RTF majors, and ask Cinemadison, the student film org, for referrals. Same July caveat as the band: post in spring 2027 and favour someone who lives in Madison year-round over a better reel that goes home for the summer.
along for the whole ride