Gracias Fail

It's been four months since our wedding and we still haven't had a chance to do our thank you cards yet. We've gotten thank you's from two other weddings we went to after ours...one like three days later!!! I looked for cards online last night and of course all the ones I like are a flipping fortune. And people will keep this for even less time than the invite! I have to buckle down and get something soon so that we can send them out before people start silently thinking we are rude. I know you technically have a year, but I'd like to come in under 6 months.

Sigh.

Thank you, Thank you...

We need to start sending out our Thank You notes...and soon!

How much more fun would it be if we won our own custom thank you notes? A TON, that's how much!!!

I came across this give away from Pretty Lovely and ABCD Designs today.

The winner will receive a completely bespoke personal stationery design by
ABC Dragoo. You'll get 100 thick, creamy and luxurious folded and
channel scored custom designed cards. The package will also be finished
off with perfectly coordinating envelopes, of course! Want to know the
very best part? The winner gets to choose between holiday cards,
personal stationery cards, or thank you notes!

My fingers and toes are crossed...who wouldn't want to receive something like one of these lovely designs in the mail from us???


You can find more details at Pretty Lovely and see more awesome designs here.

The anatomy of a dress...

Picking my dress was not an easy task by any means. I had a specific idea of what I wanted all along and while I did try on some other styles, I never really swayed away from what I wanted: a strapless, sweetheart, lace, form fitting, non-poofy, amazing dress.

When all was said and done, it came down to two contenders. The "Romona" as I lovingly called it was the first dress I ever tried on at Macy's and I later came back to at a Veiled in Elegance in Geneva. It fit perfectly and it was all lace and well, as you remember, it made my behind look really nice. (Since I've already tied the knot, I thought I'd share some pictures of me from the dress shopping days gone by...)

Looking back on this dress, I don't think I ever really liked the front as much as I did the back:


Obviously, I did not buy this dress. But, it was the one in the back of my mind the whole time I was trying to decide whether or not to get the dress that I did end up getting. In the end, I decided that this dress just didn't have that something special that I was looking for.

So, MY dress. I found my dress at the last shop I went to and it was the last dress I tried on. It was my 27th birthday, and aside from closing on our house (which I also did on one of my birthdays) this was the biggest birthday gift I've ever gotten. Thanks, Mom!

Our last appointment was with Vanessa at Vanessa's Modern Bride in Arlington Heights. The shop is really cute. Very girly, it smells really nice, and Vanessa is awesome. I tried on a few dresses here but I ended up choosing a Melissa Sweet dress called the Hallie. I had never seen this dress online or in magazines and the sample that I tried on in the shop was not in the best of conditions, but I really liked it. It seemed to have everything I wanted, besides the sweetheart neckline...but that could be fixed. I spent about an hour in this dress and hemmed and hawed over it with my Mom and my Aunt. They both LOVED it but they didn't want to influence my decision so they downplayed their enthusiasm. I'm thankful for that because I know I chose the dress because I liked it, not because other people did. I'm not a crier and I never had one of those "OMG THIS IS THEEEEEE DRESS" moments. I just knew that I liked it the best out of everything I had tried on. (I can't find the photos from the actual day that I bought the dress. But if I do, I'll put them in here eventually. )

So, I bought this dress on Aug. 12, 2008. I then waited nine months until it came in and when it did I was seriously nervous that I wouldn't like it anymore. It's a long time to wait to see something that you can't return!

I have to admit that when I tried it on again for the first time, I wasn't totally thrilled. In fact, I started thinking that I made the wrong decision. I thought the drop waist was totally wrong on me and that it made me look dumpy.

Here is my definition of dumpy:


Yeah, not exactly dumpy...but still, I just didn't feel 100 percent great in it. It looks a little bit better from further away, ha!


A few things that I didn't realize were going to help out...a lot. A) some spanxx. Because no matter how skinny I am, I will always have a stomach bulge. B) A "long line" strapless bra to put everything in the right places. C) A dress that actually fits like a glove. I would eventually get all these things, but after my first fitting, I felt very nervous. Not about the shop, or Vanessa, or the seamstress. I knew I was in great hands. I just wasn't sure if I had really picked THE dress.

When I came back for my second fitting, everything just came into place. I didn't remember to take any pictures because I was so excited at how good the dress was coming along. But, just imagine it looked better than above, but not as great as below.

The last appointment was right before my wedding and when I tried on the dress the last time, I knew I made the right choice. Not only on the dress, but where I bought it. Vanessa and her seamstress knew exactly what I was looking for and they made sure that the dress looked perfect on my body. Which, it did. These are from my last fitting:

I like the last one because you can see the back of the dress fully spread out. For some reason I don't have any pictures of the back like this on the day of. I think I was just moving too much!

Speaking of the day of, here is a sneak peek at what the final product looked like! It fit like a glove and it was super comfortable. I only wish I had another occasion to wear it to!

(photo by Kris Kasperek)

So that's how my dress went from being the right dress to the perfect dress. If I could give any advice to those who are shopping for dresses it would be to

• Try on every single dress you want to until you find the right dress. Don't feel like it's not the right dress because you don't turn on the waterworks and hyperventilate over finding THE DRESS! It didn't happen to me and it might not happen to you.
  
• If you are going to make major alterations to the dress, talk to the salesperson and seamstress to see if they can even accomplish what you are looking for. If you don't feel confident, maybe this isn't the dress or shop for you.
  
• Don't feel pressured to make a purchase by your salesperson or the people you have with you. Remember--most likely, you can't return this purchase.
  
• Make sure you bring people with you who are supportive of you and honest, but not mean or judgmental. It's a tough decision but it comes down to the fact that it is YOUR day and you should wear exactly what you want to wear, not what your Maid of Honor, Sister, Mother, or Mother in Law wants you to wear. Even if they are paying for it--it's not worth a dime if you don't feel like a million bucks!
  
• Most importantly, have so much fun with the process! Enjoy every minute of wearing your dress, even in the fittings!
  
  That's all for now! We have all of our professional photos now, so I'll be starting to recap the day and all the details! Take a sneak peek at the pro-pics here: http://iklikphoto.blogspot.com/2009/07/k-s-wedding.html
  

Big Ben...Parliment...

I'm trying to stay calm, I am...but I am very excited.

Our honeymoon has finally arrived! In just about 8 hours we will be en route to Europe! Stopping first in London, then hitting up Paris, and finishing up in Barcelona. I'm a little nervous and anxious, but mostly excited...very, very excited.

I'm trying really hard not to pack everything I own. I think I have a good mix of things. And hell, if I don't have it, I'll just do what I do best...BUY IT! I don't think I'll mind doing a little shopping in London and Paris.

What am I most looking forward to, you ask? In one simple visual, this:


Macarons, mother effer! More specifically, lovely Laduree I simply can't wait.

Alright, before I can eat Macarons, I have to actually finish packing. Farewell for now. Or should I say Au Revoir!

Shaking the glitter off...

Editor's Note: This post should not be taken as complaining, bitching, etc. I really just need to get some things out of my head and on to the internet.

When you spend 18+ months of your life paying attention to every detail of your wedding day, do not let the last two days prior to the wedding wear you down.

Otherwise you may end up telling your reception coordinator that fanning the dinner napkins in the water glasses is completely fine--something you would never do! Which in turn will make you miserable every time you look at your photos and all you see is napkins. Not the flowers you paid for, not the table numbers your parents worked so hard on, and not the fabric centerpieces that your aunt hand sewed. Only a sea of tables, chairs, and napkins. Sigh.

Its been a little over a month since the wedding and try as I might, I can't help but focus on the things I wish had been different. Don't get me wrong, this was absolutely the best day of my life and also the best wedding I've ever been to--although I am a bit biased. But, there are a few things that I KEEP dwelling on, and I wonder how long it will take me to get over them. I realize these things don't matter in the grand scheme of things, because everything else was perfect. The weather could not have been better, the DJ gave us the best dance party ever, our guests had the time of their lives, and we were both just so elated the whole day. So I wonder, why can't I stop thinking about them? I think perhaps if I get them out into the universe, I might feel better about it?

This is a little backwards, usually people talk about the great stuff first. But I think I need to get past these pesky "regrets," I guess you could call them, first.

So, we covered the napkins. That sucked and I feel like it totally changed the feeling of the room from more whimsical and fun to more "old school banquet hall." Of any mistakes they could have made, they didn't make the mistake of not putting the napkins in the glasses.

I guess I can start from the beginning for the rest.

1) From the very beginning, I was pretty set of not seeing Sean before the ceremony. We didn't have too many really traditional things throughout the day, but this was one that I wanted to keep. I feel like it was a big mistake. I thought that it would be cool to wait to see each other and I also felt like I was going to be "rushed" to get ready if we took photos beforehand. I was wrong. Although I did enjoy the time spent with my bridesmaids, etc. in the suite while we were all getting our makeup done, etc., I feel like the time that I could have spent taking photos with Sean and even taking photos outside with my bridesmaids would have been well worth while. The time after the ceremony FLEW by and I feel like these moments would have been nice to have. The only pictures I have of my bridesmaids and single photos of me are in the hotel suite and while my photographer did an amazing job...I think I should have thrown tradition to the side and seen Sean before the big walk down the aisle. I didn't really think about this ahead of time, but there was such a long walk from the hotel to the ceremony aisle, that it wasn't like I had this huge, grand entrance or anything. So, if you're thinking about seeing eachother before, I would say to definitely do so.

2) When you are getting your dress fitted for the bussell, make sure you are wearing the shoes that you will be wearing when the dress gets busselled on the day of. I did not do this, and unfortunately, my feet were KILLING me by cocktail hour so I wanted to wear my flipflops. In hindsight, I should have sucked it up and wore my heels for a little big longer, but I didn't and I spent A LOT of time trying to get my dress bussell pinned up so that it wasn't dragging on the ground. So, lesson here is remember to wear your flats at your fitting if you think your going to change right away and also don't spend too much time caring about things like your dress dragging on the ground when you have a room full of people who you want to talk to. You'll never wear the dress again, but more importantly, you'll never have that hour back in your life.

3) Sometimes, you need to be a bridezilla. Seriously. There are things that I wish I had been WAY more hard nosed about. Mainly when I asked someone--a vendor--for something and then didn't take the time to enforce it. I blame the fact that I'm polite and laid back and also the fact that by the time you have to make all these final decisions you are SO utterly sick of talking to people that all you want to say is "that's fine" or "I really don't care." BUT DON'T DO IT! Do exactly what you want and make sure you get what you are plopping down your hard earned money for!

4) The cake cutting. What a disaster. We wanted to cut the cake right after we walked in to the reception room during our grand entrance. In my mind, I pictured us walking in and up to the front of the room to cut the cake. What really happened was...the cake was all the way in the back of the room about 50 paces after we walked in. In fact, I was so surprised that it was back there that I walked right past it! Our parents and VIP tables were up in the front of the room and they had no idea what was even going on. It felt very rushed and the woman who was the banquet manager kept standing next to us to "show" us how to cut the cake. Very, very bizarre. Also, there were no forks or napkins. The "helpful" woman kept trying to get me to wipe my frosting filled hands on one of the extra fabric squares that my aunt made for our table decorations. "That's not a napkin" were the words that repeatedly came out of my mouth. That and "there are no forks?!?" So, in hindsight, we should have just did our grand entrance and then cut the cake later. That way if I saw it in the back, I could have asked them to move it forward.

5) Last thing about the cake, I promise. We had a very small cake for cutting--6 inches--and yellow, pink and orange cupcakes for our guests. I asked the reception place to please place some cupcakes around the cake so that it didn't look so meager when we were cutting it. For some god awful reason, they chose the yellow and orange frosted chocolate cupcakes as opposed to the pretty yellow and pink frosted vanilla cupcakes! Not what I was looking forward to at all. Lesson in this one, again...make sure you say EXACTLY what you want. I didn't think I had to be that specific because my coordinator assured me that he was very detail oriented. But, your preference may not be the same, remember that.

6) Right after the "dance triology" as I like to call it, the DJ invited everyone to the dance floor to dance. Sean and I went our separate ways to each greet guests, etc. and I noticed that the DJ was playing a lot of slow songs all in a row. Well instead of asking him to spread them out, I figured he would play some more throughout the night. He did not. I know why he didn't, because we really wanted to have the "dance party" feel to the reception, but it turned out that my Mom and Dad never got to dance because when all the slow songs were playing, they were greeting guests after dinner, etc. Sean and I also never got another slowdance on the dance floor. We danced together a lot! But I wish I had said something to the DJ about the slow songs early in the night. If you see or feel something that you don't like, say something about it. Because even though people like to tell you that "you won't remember any of it" or "it won't matter after the day" but, most likely if you are reading wedding blogs, it will matter to you.

So, these are my main "I wish it had been different" regrets. Like I said, all things that are not really comparable in the grand scheme of things. But I had to get it off my chest and this is the best space to do so. And after listing them all, they still matter, but not as much...because I realize that even though these things all happened, the day actually was perfect.

Perfect because my life changed forever on that day and every single person I could have ever wished to be in one room together was.

Perfect because my Mom was there with me all day long and got to see all her hard work come together.

Perfect because my Dad walked me down the aisle.

Perfect because my bridesmaids were beautiful and our groomsmen looked extremely cool.

And lastly, perfect because I married the best dude I've ever known and all the perfect napkin folds, or frosting colors, or cake cuttings in the world couldn't ever top saying our vows and dancing under twinkle lights and paper lanterns to the only slow song that mattered.

Ours.

The dishes are done....

Well, I was a pretty terrible blogger, and I can't really apologize because planning a wedding is VERY time consuming! BUT the time I didn't spend blogging...I spent working on details, details, details.

I may be a bit biased, but I think it paid off because it was the best wedding I've ever been to!

I'll probably do the recap thing, because I think it will fill up some of my time.

For now, please take a peek into our wedding day, provided by our photographer Kris. To say that Kris is amazing is an understatement. She is the nicest person you will ever spend 12+ hours with, probably could moonlight as a ninja, and may or may not have cloned herself for this wedding because it seems she was able to get amazing shots of EVERYTHING! In short, we heart her, and we can't rave about her enough.

Okay, enough gushing. Please, go to her blog for photo-palooza!

http://iklikphoto.blogspot.com/2009/07/k-s-wedding.html

xo,

Mrs. B

Rain Rain...and shoes

We're getting married in 8 days. The forecast has rain in it. I should stop looking at that...

Also, it took me about a year to find a pair of yellow shoes. This would have really come in handy. Even though mine were cheaper, eventually, after returning them to get the discount...

No time for pictures, but here is the link.

Nina, design your own shoes.

T-minus 30 days.

What? How did this happen. Really? 30 days?

I still have a crap load of things to do, including making a slide show, going to see my florist again for a second time to see a new mock up...but first I have to purchase 20 white vases from the pottery place in Dundee...making sure everyone who needs to get a room, gets a stinking room before the rate runs out--TOMORROW PEOPLE! And a few other minor things like write our ceremony, choose all our music, choose where to go on our "mini-moon," finalize our real honeymoon to Europe, make the programs and get my Mom's dress altered to be a whole size smaller since she is apparently the incredible shrinking woman, etc., etc., etc!

I'm super excited and super tired just thinking about it.

Also super exciting, our engagement photos were featured on The Wedding Cabaret blog. Pretty neat!

That's all I got for now.

see ya.

k.

invites...the finale.

...well, here they are in all their glory. We've already gotten a lot of responses back. So far, everyone is a "yes!" A couple people have commented that they really like the invites. I guess they ended up being worth the trouble after all!






We used Strawberry envelopes from Paper Source for both the mailing envelope and the RSVP envelope and the King and Queen postage stamps:

We spent about 6 hours stuffing, stamping and labeling these suckers...(also going to the office supply store a half hour before they closed because the original labels I printed turned out to be hideously over sized. Sean told me they would be too big when I bought them, but did I listen? No. There was no "I told you so." Just a slight sigh and a ride to Staples. When we were finally done and I dropped them off at the post office the next day, I felt a nice sense of freedom. Probably similar to what a prisoner feels like when they get paroled. I dunno, maybe that feels better, but this felt pretty damn good!

TTFN.

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!