Meet...

Greta and Marshal, they will be gracing the top of our mountain of cupcakes. Adorbz.
I've had a thing for Ann Wood birds for a while now, and Sean's Mom was able to snag these two for us as a gift for the wedding. His Mom and I work in the same office and when we realized she got the birds (it's no small feat, they are posted and sell QUICKLY) we were so giddy!

There is a chance that they might not be ready in time for the wedding, since they are made to order, but I have my fingers crossed that they will!

Hallelujah

Our invites are printed. I'll be picking them up from the printer on my lunch. I have to say, I'm still disappointed deep down that we weren't able to have the designer print and prepare them all, because I'm sure she would have done a great job. The ones from the printer look just fine, and yes...I know that NO ONE will know the difference, but I just had to note my disappointment. At least I was able to get them printed and they will only be like 2 weeks late. Oh well!

We had our tasting yesterday, it was delicious. I was relieved that the food was as good as I had heard. I also came away with three mini-notebook pages of things I need to follow up on. Darn.

My shower is tomorrow. I hope it doesn't rain! I can't wait to see everything my Mom has done and eat some fried chicken. I love fried chicken.

back to work. Blarg.

sigh...

I'm seriously so in love with our engagement photos. Our photographer posted some more on her blog. I snagged a few of my very favs. But check them all out here. She isn't done editing them all yet, but I can't get over what a great job she did. I can't stop looking at them. How vain! I know!

(all photos credited to iKLiKphoto)


Okay, I must go to bed now.

Let me take your picture...

We took our engagement pics yesterday with our awesome photographer, Kris. We went to a lot of different locations and I think we got some great photos. I was really nervous at first, but it was so much fun! I can't wait to see the final result. In the mean time, she posted a great little teaser on her blog. a. maz. ing.

Go, Go, Go! Check them out.

Now, I need to research how to get a marriage license. Thanks be to Outlook reminders.

Cards, please and thank you...

My Mom has been working on our card box for the reception for sometime now. She finally finished it and I think she did a great job! I told her she should try to make some more and sell them, but I think she's just happy to have this one completed! I forget how artistic and utterly craftastic my Mom is.

Well, enough talk. Judge for yourself.

She bought this bare card box online. Then painted it with a few coats of white pearl paint.

We picked out the ribbon and tried different combinations of colors and in the end, we liked this one the best.
She made all these flowers out of paper and floral wire and buttons (I love the buttons!). She wired them together and was able to create a nice 3-d effect.

The final touch was the yellow bow. I think it finishes it off quite nicely. :) It's a little bigger then I had imagined in the beginning, but we'll have it on a low table so people can easily access the top. I think I'll probably have to put some sort of signage by it that alerts people to the fact that it is not a real cake, but indeed the card box, because it actually looks quite life-like in person.

She's moved on to creating the decorations for our shower next weekend and I can't wait to see what she comes up with! I know it will most likely be adorbz as I've already had a sneak peak of her homemade poms Ala Martha and Co.

Oh, hello...it's me again.

Well, I'm back from tantrum world. The last few days were a bit stressful, but everything worked out with the invites (or...it should. I don't actually have them yet). I ended up getting the digital file from the designer and I'm working with a local printer. I should have them by the end of the week. In the end, I'm going to be saving a few hundred bucks so I feel okay about the process. Was it still annoying? Yes. But, it's not the end of the world. I should be seeing a proof on Tues or Weds and I hope it will be a no brainer from there.

Some positive things have happened in the last two days, to sort of makeup for last weeks shit storm.

+ I received these little beauties from Etsy Seller, RachelleD. They are awesome and they go with the bridesmaid's dress perfectly.
I have one in mind for each bridesmaid and of course I already told them that if they want to swap, have at it! She's going to make me a matching pair of simple drop earrings the coordinate with each necklace. Can't wait to see those and CANNOT recommend her enough. She was really sweet and even put together two custom necklaces for me. Not to mention, she sent me a cute pair of earrings as a "something blue" gift.

+ I found these shoes at Macys yesterday, and after searching everywhere for them online...I nearly crapped when I saw them in front of me and on sale. I proceeded to purchase six pairs for my bridesmaids...yes, i do only have 4, but I wasn't sure of some people's sizes so I just went buck wild and bought sizes 7 1/2 to 10. Thank you, Visa for allowing me to purchase numerous things and return them without spending any "real" money. I tried these on with the dress as well and I think they go quite nicely!

Yes, I am the whitest person on earth and No, you can't see my face...it was too late in the day to be having my picture taken looking a mess.

Sidenote: Thank God I've been holding one of the bridesmaid's dresses hostage so that I can try on all my purchases with it to make sure it all goes together!

So, the bridesmaid's getup is all taken care of. Check. I have a few more things to gather up for thier gifts, but I have a bit of time for that still.

+I went to try on my dress today, post alterations, and it was exactly what I had asked for. I am very relieved. Not that I didn't think the seamstress was more than capable...but it was a little hard to wait the 6 weeks to see the result. She pinned my hem and my bustle today and it's coming together very nicely. I tried on my shoes, veil and jewelry and I like the whole shebang.

+We went to get Sean fitted for his suit today at Bachrach. He's getting a modern fit, custom three piece suit and we got to pick out every aspect of it. I think it was a great deal too, for just how custom it is. He had to pay extra for the vest, but for the two piece custom suit, it was $495 (without the vest) and it could range up to $795 if you get a really high grade fabric. But, we liked the $495 fabric just the same. The salesman was really helpful and not pushy at all. I look forward to seeing the suit all put together--hopefully sometime in early June. We decided he's going to wear the black and white checkerboard slipons and his groomsmen and ushers will wear the black and charcoal slipons. Needless to say, he's pretty stoked about the footwear situation.

+ I think I figured out my flower situation. Now I just need to figure out how to articulate it correctly.

+ My Mom got her dress in and she still likes it! We're going to get that altered in two weeks.

Tasting next week and still about 50 things on my list of "to-dos." One of them needs to be remembering to go get a marriage license within the next few weeks, or people may be showing up for nothing!

That's all for now.

Murphy's Law

"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

Well...I've hit the point where all the things that I thought were going to fall into place are not. My floral meeting the other day was a disappointment and I need to rethink my flower choices. and now today our invite designer dropped the bomb on me that she has a 4 week processing time from payment to shipment. Did she not tell me that? No...she did not. Because in that case I would have needed to get the "processing" going 4 weeks ago as opposed to this week. And maybe that would have dawned on her when she was designing them seeing as we have a June 25th RSVP deadline and our wedding is July 11th! I'm already a few weeks behind where I wanted to be.

At this point I'm ready to just go to Micheal's and print some shitty invite and send it out.

I wouldn't be so upset if I didn't totally love the invites that we are supposed to send out. I asked the designer if we can just buy the files from her and go get them printed somewhere else. I hope she agrees to that and in that case we will need a large refund.

UGH. I'm pretty much done with this junk at this point.

Huzzah...

Well, would you look at what we have here...

The lovely and talented girls in my department are throwing my shower at work and look at the fantastic invite they created! It pays to work in the same department as the marketing and design peeps. I'm really excited for my work shower. It should be fun. I'm sure my face will be bright red the whole time though as I'll be sitting in front of 100 people opening gifts. Yes, 100 people. Showers in our office are a well attended event. Even the 10 or so men who work here usually come too...I think it has something to do with the free cake.

While I am on the subject of showers, I also wanted to share the invitation that I found for my shower and my Mom ultimately approved. I absolutely loved it and have gotten tons of great feedback. I know that you normally don't pick out your own invites, but I'm not much for surprises. Plus, I'm obsessed with paper goods. They are a Hello Lucky! creation. And...they are letterpress. I had to find a way to add letterpress into the wedding somehow! I ended up having a discount code too, which is always a plus! Check em' out!

Pretty much the best. My Mom and I, and my best friend hung out one Friday night, and with the help of some Martini and Rossi we put most of them together with the registry cards and a little recipe card for guests to bring to the shower (we kind of lost interest after a while and my Mom finished them up the next day) and then they were on their way. Our shower is May 30th and I already know my Mom is going to create an amazing celebration for us.

If you are in the market for a unique shower invitation or even greeting card, then get thee to the Hello Lucky! Web site quickly. I won't even get started on their wedding invitations, because that could garner it's own post altogether!

These are absolutely adorable too:

Another invite, could be engagement party or shower


A cute wedding card

And finally, I think this is the most awesome anniversary card.

I like the idea of giving a card that can be kept and even displayed after the fact. I'd definitely frame that wedding or anniversary card and put it up somewhere around the house. I could go on forever, but you get the point. They make and sell cool stuff. Go there and buy me a card. Thanks.

In other wedding news, we got our rings today. I'll talk about that later though. And lastly...I saw that my wedding shoes are now on sale for almost half of what they were originally. I couldn't do a price match, so I immediately purchased them (online) and will be returning the other pair (at the store) to get my monies back. Every little bit helps!!!

Shoes, please?

I have mine...but I am still looking for the right shoes for my bridesmaids.

I sort of have a vision (please be gentle, I'm not so hot with the photoshoping stuff)...

Shoes/Dress/Necklace/Flowers

I found the shoes in the photo and I immediately loved them! Then I remembered the necklaces and when I put it all together, it just meshed. So, I ordered the shoes and matched them up to the dress and they look nice together!

Everytime I see a yellow dress with a gold shoe, I really like it. Just look at this random assortment of images that I have collected from the interwebz:

(From one of the prettiest yellow weddings ever)


(Jim Hjelm)


(Perez even thinks it's lovely)

Here's the problem. You can see in my lovely photoshop collage that the shoes have a VERY short heel. Not a major problem, but I think it would be nicer if they had a bit more of a heel (my shoes have a 3 1/2 inch heel). I did find the style in a higher heel, but they only come in dyable white and brown satin. BLARG!

I've looked high and low, and I feel like I can't find anything else that is available in all the sizes I need and that I like as much :(

I've seen a few other options:

Here

these

Maybe these?

Sigh

I bet these are awfully uncomfortable

So, I think I may have to just ask the girls to find a shoe that is similar to these...

But first, I thought I'd at least try to throw this out into the great wide open...any suggestions?

61 days...

We're getting married in 61 days!

I got a lot accomplished over the weekend.

We decided on where to send the groomsmen and ushers for their suits. We went with Express. (which I just noticed is having a 30% off sale on the suit! Even better.) They sell a modern black suit for a moderate price and they constantly have coupons floating around so the men will be able to purchase at some sort of discount. We haven't decided on the ties yet--black or yellow? I found a nice yellow tie at Express, but I'm going to try to find something a bit cheaper online. We also have to order all the vans. The ties and vans will be their gifts. I simply cannot wait to see our ring bearer sporting his checkerboard kicks. Priceless.

My Mom and I both found our jewelry. We wandered into Iridesse after seeing they were having a "going out of business" sale. I guess they are just one more young company who is unable to make it through the economic situation today. Sad, because they have a lot of great pieces. Sean bought me a strand of pearls from the same store for our second Christmas together. It was sort of fitting that I would find my necklace and earrings for the wedding there too! Long story short, we both got an unbelievable deal and found exactly what we were looking for (and my Mom was sweet enough to pick up the tab for mine too)! Thanks, MOM!

The last thing I picked up was a dress from Nordstom for one of my showers that I had my eye on last week. It's a good thing I went back to get it, becuase there were only 2 left! I'd post a photo of it, but I can't find it on the Web site either, so maybe it sold out. I spent a bit more on it then I would have expected, but it can be worn casual or dressed up and I have two other weddings to go to this summer that I can wear it to also, so I used the "cost per wear" equation and made myself feel much better about laying down the debit card.

Last night, after I got home from my parent's house, I got all my vendor contracts organized and figured out how much money we still have to pay them! Believe it or not, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. I purged a lot of wedding magazines and tear outs and I feel a bit more organized and less anxious today. I'm glad I did that.

We're still hemming and hawing over our honeymoon and hopefully I can focus on that this week.

Next week is my final flower appointment and my second dress fitting. I'm very anxious to see what it looks like after the first round of alterations! Sean is getting fitted for his suit and shirts on Saturday too. He's getting a three piece suit from Bachrach and getting shirts custom made. He's really slim and has long arms, so shirts almost NEVER fit him correctly...so he's going the distance for the big day and getting everything fitted just right. We were going to get his suit from J.Crew, but then we stopped in Bachrach and he really liked the fact that he could go in and get fitted, etc. instead of having to order it online and roll the dice with the alterations.

We picked out the items for our tasting on the 28th, which I'm really looking forward to! It's so crazy that after being engaged for SO long, all of these events are finally upon us. It feels good!

Well, I think this is the longest post I've written in a while, so I'll end while I'm ahead. It probably has something to do with the fact that I'm at work and it's one of those "I'd rather be thinking about all things party" kind of days.

Over and out.

k.

Responde Vouz...

I'll pass by the "sorry I haven't posted" BS, and get straight to the point...

We found our invitations! Huzzah. We're getting them from Etsy! I really wanted to get something affordable, but not cheap looking. Something cool, but that didn't cost a friggin' fortune! And I think we found the perfect combination! It's a bit different from our save the date design, but I think that's okay, right? RIGHT!

Before I get into the details of our designer and the invites we chose, I think I'll use this space to pay homage to some of my favorite invite designs and stationary designers that I've seen along the way. Le Sigh. If only I could have multiple invitations!!!

First off, these little delights from Bird and Banner. I love the polka dots and the scalloped edge.

These were one of my favs. From Chewing the Cud Weddings. Whimsical, classic, just really nice. And...really out of our price range, but that's what happens when you fall in love with letterpress.

Oh, but how can I play favorites when there is the "Carnival" design by Milkmaid Press?
I mean, just look at this? It's also letter press, and dreamy, is it not?

Sidenote: Milkmaid Press also has a more affordable line of invitations that they just introduced, called Pearl. While we didn't find a design that suited us perfectly, they do have some very nice sets!

Behold, the Cabaret, my favorite Pearl design:

Kristen also has a great blog, All Things Lovely, full of inspiration for weddings and everyday life.

Save the Dates

When it came to the save the dates, I wanted to do something different. I wasn't really into the magnets with our photo on them, even though they do come in very handy! I've seen the photo booth strips, but that just didn't hit the spot. In the end we decided to enlist our friend, Biker Jon, to create the design for us! Jon has a bmx clothing company that he designs for, Enemy, and most of his designs are usually way more manly...so we appreciate him trying his hand at wedding stationary! I also appreciate him putting up all my changes until we got it just right.

I sent Jon a lot of ideas and pictures of Save the Dates that I saw online and liked, just to give him a basic idea of where to start.

We went through quite a few designs (sorry for the black mark but I didn't want to broadcast our Web site).

Originally, we were going to use brown as one of our colors, but eventually (read 3 designs later), I decided against that. This design was too "golf" themed for me. But, I liked the layout of the text etc.

Moving on...I asked for polka dots, instead of the argyle.



After this design, I decided to nix the brown and I busted out the pantone colors. My lovely design department at work let me borrow their pantone fan (love that thing, btw) and I gave Jon a few options for colors.

I think he went above an beyond to satisfy my indecisiveness, sending me EIGHT color combos to happily peruse! (click on the picture to enlarge)



Here's the one we went with!

We printed them through Jakprints.com, which was the most affordable option we found. We were going to try to send them as a post card, but we ended up just putting them in envelopes afterall. I think they turned out really nice! Everyone liked them and this has bought us some more time to send out our invites. Plus, we've already heard from a few people who aren't able to make it to the wedding, so we've gotten a pretty good estimate of who is and who is not coming.

Just for fun, here are some alternate designs he did for us. I didn't think the diamond fit what I was looking for, but still pretty cool.

Thanks again to Jon!

Next up, the search for the invitations!