The Sweetest Occasion

The New The Sweetest Occasion!

2009-10-12T04:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, friends, it's officially time to show you my new blog! I'd be honored to have you visit me at The Sweetest Occasion. It's going to be full of inspiration for not just weddings, but events of all shapes and sizes such as birthday parties, baby showers, engagement parties, casual backyard bbqs and so much more - inspiration for all of life's sweetest occasions. Come visit and tell me what you think!

But, of course, first a little tiny teaser to ensure you it's worth the click over...

It's Almost Time!

2009-10-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

On Monday I will officially be saying goodbye to my first home on Blogger and moving on. I've put so much effort into designing the new site and I hope you'll join me! I expect our wedding photos any time now, after which I will commence sharing all of the details including extensive information on the best of my many DIY projects. But, you'll have to come see me at the new site in order to get all the goods. Check back Monday morning for the link to my new blog. I hope you love it as much as I do!

xoxo

Where in the world is Cyd?

2009-09-23T13:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, by now I imagine at least a few people (...at least one person, right?) are wondering where I've run off to and the answer is pretty simple. I've been busy busy busy working on the new site while I wait for our wedding photos. (Which I believe I should have soon - yay!) In the meantime, while I'm slacking off over here, there are still plenty of places to get your daily dose of Cyd. Care to chase me around the world wide web? You can check any of these places where I pop up routinely will all sorts of random thoughts on fabulous letterpress stationery, newlywed adventures, my reasoning on why I didn't change my name when I got married (which I never shared here) and all sorts of miscellaneous fun.

Smock
Bella Figura
Boxcar Press
Weddingbee PRO
Elizabeth Anne Designs - Weddings
Elizabeth Anne Designs - Living
A Year of Marriage

...and possibly even soon doing a few guest spots on Two Brunettes!

So, never fear. I'm here. I'm just not here. (But I'll be back really really soon and it'll be worth the wait....I hope!)

xoxo
C

Amazing Vintage Book Wedding Invitations

2009-09-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

Am I the only one who stalks Jessica Claire's blog? No? I didn't think so. But with that said, if you somehow missed the photos of her wedding invitations for her upcoming wedding that she posted today, you are in for a treat. There is only one word - amazing. Truly amazing. I am completely, madly, deeply in love with these invitations, lovely vintage books which have been hollowed out and filled with lovely squares of paper, ribbon, and sealed with stamped wax. We all know I'm a book lover, so you know I'm just in awe of these...

Her save the dates, which she also posted, are equally as stunning. All I can say is wow. Wow wow wow. I love it when a couple takes an idea and makes it completely and uniquely theirs. Traditional invitations with envelopes? So overrated. These are genius.

A Little Survey

2009-09-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog Friends,

I've had the great fortune to make so many amazing friends in the blog world through this blog and to connect with so many of you as we've planned our weddings. As I work on the redevelopment of The Sweetest Occasion (and as I'm waiting on all of my professional photos to share with you, of course), I would really appreciate the insight of my blog friends. If you would be so kind as to stop over and take this little survey, I'd be much appreciative. I promise it'll take you about a minute or less and, no, sadly I have no prize or other way to lure you over there other than with promises of hugs from afar for taking the time to let me know what you think. Thanks so much in advance!

xoxo

Courthouse Wedding Celebration {Congratulations Christina + Graig!}

2009-09-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

Just a couple of short hours ago one of my beloved friends, who was also one of my beautiful bridesmaids, was married to her boyfriend and the father of her amazing 9-month old little girl. They recently decided to have another baby and are delighted to be 4 weeks along and, for them, it seemed the perfect time to complete the puzzle and get married. They did so quietly, without fanfare, in a Kansas City courthouse and are now at home celebrating with their baby girl this evening. All of their family and friends, myself included, are back in New York and wishing them all the best. Oh how I wish I could have been there, but I am so happy for them and I can't wait to celebrate with them just as soon as we can.

If I'm perfectly honest, I can't help but feel a bit wistful. I loved every moment of our wedding, but it wasn't without flaws and there are certainly things I would change if I could do it all over again. I realize I'm not "supposed" to say that, but I'm saying it because it's the truth. The planning process got very stressful at times and I often dreamed of eloping and just showing up at our reception a few months later and dancing the night away. And, I have to say, courthouse weddings can be every bit as chic and celebratory as a "real" wedding...just ask Carrie Bradshaw! So on that note, an ode to the courthouse wedding and a giant hug and my warmest heartfelt congratulations to my dear Christina and her new husband Graig...

{The Knot}
{Craig Kohlruss}

{Oh So RB}
{Weddingbee}

{Weddingbee}
{Pink Hues}

DIY Catch Up

2009-08-31T17:31:00.000-07:00

Hi, friends! I have been having such a lovely evening, trying to catch up on everyone's adventures during a rare period of relaxation. I've also been working on getting photos together so I can share all of my DIY projects with you in greater detail and wondered how you prefer to see DIY posts written - I would love to know your thoughts! Is it better to just see photos with a general description and then ask/answer questions in the comments or do you prefer full tutorials? While you mull that over [and hopefully comment with your opinion!] here is the rundown of projects I have yet to share with you in full detail...

- Ceremony programs {bound with baker's twine, gocco covers with lined pages}
- Favor boxes {with gocco tags and tied with baker's twine}
- Escort cards + envelopes
- Table name signs
- Tent cards for each table explaining that particular table name
- Flowers {bouquets and centerpieces}
- Cocktail napkins
- Postcards with weekend events
- Photo upload cards
- Letterpress offcut bookmarks
- Used book basket with sign
- Card box
- In memory sign
- Photo guest book {scrapbook using a Kolo album}
- Bridesmaid necklaces

And because no post should ever be complete without a pretty photo, here is a photo to serve as my personal endorsement for the beauty of snapdragons. I picked these up this past weekend on the way to a baby shower I attended - you can see more here.

a year of marriage.

2009-08-24T16:54:00.001-07:00

This been over a month in coming, but I'm finally ready to share my new blog with you, a year of marriage. What's it going to be about? Life, love, our newlywed adventures, and all of the fun that comes with nesting. The twist? My newly minted husband is coming along for the ride and will be posting at least periodically, so you'll get the newlywed perspective from both sides of the household. I hope you'll pop over to join the fun and in the meantime, I'm excited to let you know that design of the new and improved The Sweetest Occasion is well underway. I can't wait to share!

Getting Fit 2009 [Sunday, Aug 23]

2009-08-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

So, I realize it has been a really really long time since I updated you on my fitness progress. But, with the wedding now a month past, it's time for me to get back to getting serious. I still have further weight loss and fitness goals I want to hit so I need to keep pushing. With that said, things have been feeling a bit ho hum lately. I'm just so over it. So, I'm on the hunt for a new gym, a new program, new classes, a new something to help keep me motivated.

Enter the new series of classes by Les Mills. I've heard they're tough. Really tough. And, I think that's exactly what I need. They have everything from an intense spinning class known as RPM, to a high intensity yoga class called BodyFlow to a full-body barbell class, BodyPump. An old friend of mine is a trainer in my hometown and she and the other trainers at her gym were recently certified as BodyPump instructors, which is how I found out about the Les Mills classes. I took a look at the gyms in my area that offer Les Mills classes and found one that is in a good location between our house and work, where the class schedule seems to work pretty well with my work schedule. This week, a couple of coworkers and I are popping in to visit, look around and hopefully get to take a class to try it out. Fingers crossed it's as awesome as I hope!

Has anyone tried any of the Les Mills classes? I would love to know what you think!

Kailei & Shane's Long Island Vineyard Wedding

2009-08-20T13:24:00.001-07:00

After adventuring around Southold and Greenport, we woke up the next morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to party. Good thing we had polished up our dancing shoes, because we were in for some fun! Kailei and Shane were married in the beautiful gardens of at Vineyard Caterers on a July day that was nothing short of beautiful. We sipped a glass of wine before the ceremony and then I tried, quite unsuccessfully, to hold back the tears while my beautiful friend married her love. The ceremony was short and sweet and just perfect.

{photo by me.}

Kailei's dress, by Mikaella, was absolutely gorgeous and a perfect blend of simply classic and subtly fashionable that was perfect for her personality. Her bridesmaids (who were so much fun to party with) wore incredibly fun dresses by Melissa Sweet in teal. My favorite part? The dresses had pockets. Love!

The flowers were done by Ivy League Florists in Southold and their cake - which was delicious - was from Create a Cake in Port Jefferson Station. And, yes, I ate cake a week before my wedding. I was breaking all kinds of bridal "rules" that weekend.

{photo by me.}

I told you the bridesmaids were fun! {photo stolen from facebook. I admit it.}

After the reception, we went to Kailei's childhood home where her dad hosted as all for after hour festivities and a bonfire. Later, we all went out, but not before Kailei and Shane's adorable bulldog Dozer made an appearance in his bow tie.

{photo by me.}

From here, I freely admit that the details get a little fuzzy...as do the photos. Which, I suppose is indication in and of itself as to how much fun we had. It was the perfect way for us to destress before our own wedding and we loved celebrating with Kailei and Shane's fabulous family and friends. A big congratulations to them and best wishes for many many years of happy adventures! xoxo

{All photos by Vivid Visions unless noted otherwise.}

Long Island Adventures

2009-08-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

One week before our own wedding, we traveled to Long Island for the wedding of a dear friend of mine from grad school. The drive was long, but the beauty of North Fork Long Island was well worth the effort. We got into town late afternoon the day before the wedding and took off to do some exploring.

A seemingly random giant anchor next to a playground on the beach. I made M push me on a swing and squealed like a little girl.

Waiting for dinner...we were so hungry!

After checking in to our hotel, we only had time to hit one of the many dozens of wineries in the area, The Old Field, but every single wine was incredibly good. One of the best wine tastings of my life. (And I've done more than my fair share, I admit.) From there, we asked for a suggestion for dinner and were pointed in the direction of the Seafood Barge. I can't remember what entreés we ordered, but mine involved lobster and big English peas and M's involved salmon and watermelon and both were incredibly delicious.

Standing along the beach on the very tippy tip of Long Island.

Following dinner, we were off for a drive to find the beach. We stumbled upon a few different little parks, all with incredible views. We stopped somewhere along the way for a bottle of wine and ice cream cones and then decided to drive out to the very eastern tippy tip of Long Island...just to say we did. We splashed around in the surf and watched the ferry roll in and out a few times before calling it a night and heading back to our room to polish a bottle of wine before resting up. And it's a good thing we did rest up, because the wedding the next day was one hell of a party. Next up, I'll share all the fun details!

I love love love the ocean.

p.s. I am in NYC again for business the early part of this week so posting is likely to continue to be a bit light. In the meantime, you can now find me over at Elizabeth Anne Designs Living.

A Teaser...And Big Things to Come

2009-08-10T17:19:00.001-07:00

I've been sitting on these photos for a few days...it's so very surreal to see them! (Wait...what? We got married?!) At long last, I'm ready to share them...although I did consider holding off on sharing any official wedding photos until the relaunch of The Sweetest Occasion. Yup, that's right. The Sweetest Occasion is moving and getting a face lift, but you'll have to wait a few weeks to learn more. In the meantime, to those who have asked me whether I'll keep blogging (absolutely!) and whether the blog will remain wedding-based or become a newlywed blog, the answer is I will now have two blogs. I'm almost ready to share with you my newlywed project so sit tight and I promise lots of eye candy in the near future. (In the meantime, please leave me a comment with your email address if you're interested in helping critique before the big launch - I will pay my critics handsomely with homemade cookies during the holiday season!)

So, with all of that said, onto the photos. All photos were taken by our amazing photographer, James Bass out of Syracuse, NY.

This photo looks staged, but it's not. I was fastening my sister's necklace, one of the ones I made for my girls.

The DIY baby's breath bouquets in action. To answer the question, "was it worth it?" - absolutely! I'll share many more details soon!

Like my photo inspiration from the wedding of That Bride (now That Wife) aka Jenna, some fabulously fierce group shots of me and my girls and my bridesman - sans bouquets - were a high priority photography item. Check!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the village, James's second shooter for the evening, the equally talented John Larkin of Rochester, NY, caught this shot of the boys. Such hotties!

I told you, my favorite kind of group shots are those that are informal and dynamic. I love this shot.

I love love loved my dress and I love this photo - the details were so lovely!

I like this series....but man oh man do I hate that hair pin! It was moved later, but not in time to save these photos. *tsk tsk*

Pretty romantic shots on the dock were a must and my guy JB delivered. I love this one!

And again...these dock shots rock my world.

So very much more to come! Thank you to everyone for lending your support during the planning process - I can't wait to share more soon!

{Please link to James and to The Sweetest Occasion if you'd like to use the images for any reason. Thank you!}

Bella Figura Letterpress Sample Sale to Benefit American Forests

2009-08-10T08:11:00.001-07:00

Clearly, I'm a little bit biased in my love and adoration for all things Bella Figura. I have long been in love with the truly breathtaking letterpress invitations we produce, predating by far the time when I landed my dream job and took up daytime residence at the Bella Figura studio. One of the things I have always loved is Bella Figura's commitment to the environment so I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you the fabulous summer sample sale that just kicked off today. From now through August 31, 2009, all letterpress invitation samples will be just $1 (regularly $5) with all proceeds to benefit American Forests. For every $1 donated, American Forests plants a tree to help preserve and protect our forests and wildlife - they are a truly inspiring organization. The sample sale is an exciting opportunity to experience Bella Figura letterpress for yourself while also supporting an incredible cause.

To learn more about the sample sale, visit the Bella Figura blog.

Our Bella Figura Letterpress Wedding Invitations

2009-08-04T09:26:00.000-07:00

At long last, I am finally going to share with you our beautiful letterpress wedding invitations from the one and only Bella Figura. When you’re surrounded by incredible letterpress invitations every day (because I work at Bella Figura, for those who do not know) deciding on your own becomes incredibly difficult. After a couple of months worth of debate, literally, we decided on Keswick, a 7" square size, in mediterranean and pale gray inks with mediterranean envelope liners. The entire process was incredibly exciting - including hanging out with our printer, Carrie, as she set up the press check - but nothing topped the day I finally got to hold them in my hands. I love love love how they turned out and we will certainly be having a set framed soon.

And, of course, no invitation is truly complete without fabulous calligraphy. Our envelopes were addressed by Bella Figura's master calligrapher, the incomparable Debi Zeinert of The Blooming Quill. She hand-mixed the ink to perfectly match the mediterranean blue of our invitations. The end result was absolutely amazing.

{All photos from Bella Figura on Flickr}

The Best Decision. Ever.

2009-08-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Ok. Seriously. I always knew fabulous photography was a must for our wedding, but I am so so happy I decided top notch videography was also a necessity. I can't seem to get it to upload in blogger, so you're going to have to go here, witness the reason I can't stop smiling and come back to share with me your thoughts. In the meantime, I'll let you know that I truly believe Alisha Clark and her husband Luke Walker and their brainchild that is Lillie Studios are beyond amazing. Such talent, such personality, such passion - it just can't be adequately expressed in words how highly I think of them.

So go. Watch. See. And you'll understand why I've been in awe for the last few days.

Emerging from the Wedding Bubble

2009-07-31T05:52:00.000-07:00

As it turns out, I am still working on getting myself adjusted to reality again after emerging from our lovely wedding bubble. I am planning to be back in full force next week - I feel like it has been so long since I've caught up on what everyone is up to so after the weekend, I am officially back to being my blog-loving self. In the meantime, I can't believe we've already been married for two weeks! I can already see that the first year of marriage is likely to pass just as quickly as our year+ of planning.

And one more little tidbit before I'm officially back, the answer to the question as to whether we did all of the flowers ourselves (we did) and whether I opted for baby's breath bouquets (I did)....

{You'll have to excuse the quality of this photo as I snapped it quickly with my cell phone the evening before the wedding as we made the bouquets.}

...And We're Back!

2009-07-28T18:41:00.000-07:00

So we're officially married, home from the honeymoon and settling in as quickly as we can. Today was my first day back to work and from this point on, life is officially moving forward. Incredible how the last few weeks have flown! I have so very much to share, including photos from the Long Island wedding we attended the week before our own (which was so so fun!), but it may take me a few days to get back in the groove. I had no idea I would feel so disoriented!

In the meantime, I was flipping through some of the first photos to pop up from friends on facebook and this photo made me remember my 30 second debate about whether or not I should keep my nose ring in for the wedding. Let's just say, I'm really happy I didn't give it anymore thought...and here I am, in the limo with my father and bridesmaids, about to get hitched! I was so excited. So nervous. So ready...

Married!

2009-07-19T17:17:00.001-07:00

Try though I did, the tail end of last week ran away from me and I never did manage to post again before the wedding and now it's official - we're married!!! The weekend was incredible. Things popped up out of nowhere, plans changed, rain clouds came and went, and much merriment was had. I can honestly say, I wouldn't change a thing. M and I may just be the luckiest and most loved people in the world, or so it seems today in the afterglow of the warm embrace of so many beloved friends and family.

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone for your support and friendship in the last months and especially in the last several weeks. We have already seen some incredible photos from our photographer and I can't wait to share them with you! For now, this behind the scene glimpse will have to suffice...

{Photo by a family friend}

Tomorrow morning we're off to Bar Harbor, Maine for the week - I'll be back soon with lots of goodness to share! xoxo

Anxious

2009-07-15T04:44:00.000-07:00

Consider me officially anxious. As the week has gone on, I've had a harder and harder time sleeping. Throw in the latest forecast and I'm a big ball of jitters. My lists of things to do are still long and, because rain is typically unheard of in July for us, there really isn't a rain contingency plan in place at the moment. Has anyone else had the craziest spring/summer weather? My fingers are crossed that the forecast changes again. It has done nothing but rain for months (literally...it has been rather depressing for everyone who lives up here) and I could really really use a nice sunny wedding weekend. Really.

Off to Long Island

2009-07-09T19:18:00.000-07:00

This weekend, M and I are off to the North Fork of Long Island for the wedding of my close friend from graduate school. Yes, you read that correctly. We are driving 7 hours (one way) to attend a wedding just one week before our own. Crazy? Absolutely. Honestly, I'm exhausted. I started working longer hours on June 1 to try and get ahead on projects before leaving for two weeks, which culminated in a 13-hour day today. Tomorrow, we're heading out as early as we can so we can make it through NYC before Friday afternoon rush hour traffic starts trying to push it's way out to Long Island and the beach. I'm looking forward to the road trip, time to slow down and read, cutting myself off from blogs and the internet and wedding projects and spending a bit of solo time with M before the craziness of next week hits for us. I'm hoping the weather is good and we see a bit of this while we're there...

{Source}

An InDesign Call for Help

2009-07-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

I spent a few hours last night working on laying out our programs in InDesign. It's my first time using InDesign so I asked a coworker to help me to set up the document (thanks, Jess!) and then away I went. The programs consists of 4 spreads (or 8 pages) and I think they look fantastic so far in spite of my being a mediocre designer at best. I printed a test print this morning to check type sizes and to scan for typos and another issue came up...I'm really not sure how to duplex print in InDesign so that the spreads on opposing sides of the page print double-sided. I was printing on a printer that has duplex printing capabilities, but I can't seem to find where to set it up in InDesign to make it happen.

Here is where you come in - can anyone out there walk me through duplex printing in InDesign? I'll be your BFF forever ever. Thanks!

xoxo
C

Ceremony Programs - In Progress

2009-07-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

Without a doubt, the ceremony programs are proving the most time-consuming DIY project I've tackled so far. After I created the mock up program, I started the process of creating 40 programs. So far, they've been quite simple but there are a lot of steps that are quite time consuming. Finally tonight, after several sessions of cutting, trimming, scoring, folding, lining, and Goccoing, the covers are finally complete. Next up is laying out the pages, printing, more trimming and then binding with baker's twine. Hopefully these are all finished before the wedding next week, eh?

You'll have to excuse the poor photo quality as I'm too busy these days to take and upload good photos, but here you can see the completed cover. It has a Gocco front cover, a Gocco back cover, punched corners and the entire cover is lined with the same paper as our envelope liners from our invitations. They are pocket-sized, roughly 4.5" x 4" and I'm planning on roughly 1.5 programs per couple as I wanted to make sure I had enough for handing off to our photographer for good photos and a few leftover for myself after the wedding. So, here are the ceremony programs in progress...

Goose Bumps

2009-07-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

So, I have basically been in love with this guy and this lady and the amazing photos they both take for what feels like, well, ever. I am a huge fan, a huge fan indeed. And I've made no secret of how excited I am to work with them when Alisha is with us to shoot video on our wedding day. And you know how in love I am with their vintage handkerchief Save the Dates....but, seriously, this takes the cake. I've spent the last few weeks since Luke and Alisha's June 16th wedding drooling over their amazing wedding photos as they've popped up on Facebook. What happens when two amazing photographers get married and invite all of their photographer friends? Nothing short of pure magic. But their wedding video trailer literally gave me goose bumps tonight and I could not pass up the opportunity to share. It's sensational. The sappy girl in me gets all giddy excited for two friends I've yet to meet in person and the utter bliss I can feel radiating from them in this video. Congratulations, Luke and Alisha! I am so happy for you and can't wait to meet up soon. To everyone else, enjoy.

Topping It Off

2009-07-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Remember when I wasn't planning to have a cake...and then ordered a cake? Well, I wasn't planning on having a cake topper, either. I know, the gall of going sans topper to my cake! (Our baker basically thinks I'm crazy for this one, let me tell ya!) As it turns out, there will be a cake topper after all, because I stumbled upon Quitesparkly on Etsy and fell in love with these paper roses she crafts by hand from the pages of romance novels. Romance novel roses for the book-loving bride and her English teacher groom? It's absolute perfection at a price that could not be beat. I think they will be absolutely divine stuck in a cluster atop our delicious cake - a little bit vintage, a little bit unexpected, a little bit sensational. Now, everyone cross your fingers that they get here in time from Australia!

{Romance novel roses by Quitesparkly}

Personalized Cocktail Napkins

2009-06-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

I'm not entirely sure when I decided I "needed" to Gocco some personalized cocktail napkins, but it was quite some time ago...months ago, in fact. And just when I had decided the cocktail napkins could be pushed to the back burner, Heather (who is my wedding day twin!) posted photos of her awesome cocktail napkins and I immediately knew personalized napkins were once again on the agenda. Heather scored her napkins on sale at Party City, but I picked mine up from The WEBstaurant Store, in the dove gray color, for about $13 with shipping and they arrived just a few days later. I spent about an hour this evening printing all 250 napkins and I have to say, this might just be among the most satisfying $13 and 60 minutes I've invested in the wedding to date. I am so glad I decided not to skip out on the napkins - I totally love how they turned out!

Is anyone else planning to DIY personalized napkins? Make sure to share if you do!

Baked with Love

2009-06-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

Remember those kraft paper cupcake boxes I fell in love with? They led me on a quest for miniature kraft paper bakery boxes of my own, which I scored from Big River Packaging, 100 for $19.95 in the 4x4x2.5" size. I just finished assembling 160 tiny bakery boxes, which will be tied with baker's twine and the favor tags I made a couple of months ago. The Monday before the wedding, when I'm off from work and have lots of nervous energy to direct somewhere, I'll be baking up a ton of cookies so I can nest a few cookies wrapped in wax paper in each pretty box. Don't you just love these? I do I do!

Mission Accomplished

2009-06-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

My goal for my bachelorette party was to fall down at least once and to be wearing a cute dress and hot shoes while doing so. The verdict? Mission accomplished! Saturday was an absolutely fabulous day, spent with my favorite women in the world - my six bridesmaids and my mother. We started the day at my place on the lake with cocktails, cupcakes and chocolate fondue before getting dressed for dinner where we ate at our favorite hibachi steakhouse. Then it was out on the town for many more drinks, dancing and a wee bit of insanity. It was a gloriously fun time.

All of us at dinner, it was so delicious! Lobster hibachi is my favorite!

As always, we drank lots of sake. Lots and lots of sake.

Me and my little sister/Maid of Honor. We have about a million photos like this from throughout the evening.

Our usual crazy antics, this time on a street corner in downtown Syracuse. As you can see, the cute dress and hot shoes were accounted for and I even got to rock one of those adorable Sexy Little Bride hoodies from Victoria's Secret because my mom and sister are awesome like that. Like I said, it was a completely fabulous evening. Did anyone else have a bachelorette party this weekend? We saw a ton of brides, it appears to have been bachelorette party weekend!

The Dress Diaries [Part VIII]

2009-06-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

This past Friday, I got a call that my dress was in....again. You may recall the first time that call came, the dress had been cut two inches too short, despite having had my hollow to hem measurement taken in the correct shoes. At first I was really calm, cool and collected about the whole thing. What can you do about it, right? And then I started to get anxious when I heard it might be as late as July 1 before the dress came in....for our July 17/18 wedding. And I knew I needed a minimum of a bustle, cups sewn in and the top taken in...and needless to say, two weeks is not a whole lot of time for alterations. Just when I thought I might have to jump on ebay and find myself a back up dress, the call came that the new dress was in a couple of weeks early, so with bated breath I made the trek to try it on Saturday morning.

This time, it was perfection. The length was perfect and the dress was amazing, just as I hoped it would be the first time around. With my mother having long ago paid for the balance on the dress, I swooped off to my first fitting and was thrilled that all of the aforementioned alterations rang in at just $107. Total price for my trunk show steal of a dress with tax and alterations? Just $671. Now that is my kind of dress.

And now, to prove it was perfect, the requisite photo, shown wearing my shoes...

Photo Inspiration

2009-06-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

There are a few things I love about these bridal party photos and reasons why I hope we manage to pull of some shots like this over the course of the wedding weekend...

(1) They're a little off the beaten path. Aren't you growing weary of the same ol same ol overly posed wedding party photos?
(2) There is not a single bouquet in sight. Really, who says you have to hold a bouquet like a trophy for it to qualify as a wedding photo?
(3) I love the idea of a handful of photos of my fabulous [and super hot] bridesmaids without me. I love this photo!

{Photos from That Bride now That Wife | Photos by Kelli Nicole}

Krista + Wade

2009-06-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I promised to sneak at least one photo from Krista and Wade's wedding. Today is your lucky day - I am sneaking you two photos! While the newlyweds are still parading around Europe, I thought now was a good time to get you good and ready for all the amazing photos I know Krista will share as soon as she can. In the meantime, I can vouch for the day having been an absolutely beautiful celebration of two people so wonderfully in love you can't help but smile just sharing a room with them. Indeed, weddings like theirs are why weddings were invented in the first place.

First up, as Krista and Wade were getting hitched, I snapped this photo of their driver awaiting their grand exit from the church. It was an absolutely picture perfect beautiful day and the vintage car they rented was a showstopper all day long.

And a fun shot of the amazing cake that Krista and Wade made themselves. Yes. The day before the wedding the bride and groom were baking and the morning of the wedding bridesmaids were frosting and helping me figure out how to transport said cake in the hatch of my Volkswagen Rabbit so I could deliver it to the reception. You will be glad to know, it arrived safely and in style. You can be sure Krista will share all of the magic behind this masterpiece when they get home. In the meantime, I hope you're excited to see more of their beautiful day!

Sweet Treats

2009-06-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

These letterpress kraft paper cupcake boxes by Simplesong Design via Ritzy Bee, have totally inspired the direction our favor packaging shall take. Aren't they beautiful? Lucky for me, I had already purchased many yards of baker's twine. Lucky for our guests, I'm one hell of a baker. And, of course, the Gocco favor tags will come into play, too. Sometimes I wish I could be a guest at this shindig I'm planning, because they are in for some sweet treats!

{Photos by Ritzy Bee}

Penned & Pretty

2009-06-23T18:50:00.001-07:00

One of these days in the near future, I am going to share with you the awesomeness that are our letterpress wedding invitations and the great wedding gift that was bestowed upon me by our master calligrapher at Bella Figura and Smock, Debi Zeinert of The Blooming Quill. In the meantime, however, I want to make sure you all know about the sweet Jessica Lynn of Penned & Pretty.

Originally, I had intended to work with Jessica Lynn to help out with addressing our envelopes - I love supporting entrepreneurs following a dream and her rates are so affordable it's hard to pass up working with her. While I have really neat handwriting myself, I wasn't looking forward to all of that work so I was excited to pass that off to someone else. What's best is how sweet she is, how responsive she is to email inquiries and how flexible she is to work with so I can highly recommend her even though she didn't end up with my large stack of cotton letterpressed envelopes invading her home. Though her style is not calligraphy in the traditional sense, her penmanship is absolutely exquisite. How cute are these lovely details?

How did you end up addressing your envelopes? Has anyone else out there had the pleasure of working with Jessica Lynn?

Bliss

2009-06-23T08:10:00.001-07:00

I want to be this bride on my wedding day. Peaceful, excited, rocking amazing shoes and swimming in a sea of pretty fabric on a fluffy bed. Pure bliss.

{Photo by Matthew Morgan| Editing by Heather}

Counting in Weeks

2009-06-22T04:22:00.000-07:00

Wow. We are officially counting down in weeks until the wedding now, not months. It's still rather surreal, but also a bit shocking. I can't believe we're getting married in 25 days! Needless to say, there is a lot going on these days. My big bachelorette party is this weekend coming up and this past weekend was all about wedding projects and fun wedding errands. I picked up my dress (you will be glad to know it was the right length this time!) and had my first fitting, and we also picked up my gorgeous new wedding band. We've written lots of checks, said goodbye to lots of money in our checking accounts and started to get really really excited. I promise lots of pictures soon sharing all of my many projects and, of course, photos of the dress now that it's looking right. In the meantime, happy Monday! How are all of my fellow July brides doing today?

Ceremony Decor Inspiration

2009-06-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

Hands down one of my favorite wedding blogs of late is Green Wedding Shoes. I'm sure you can relate. So it should come as no surprise that in my quest for inspiration of the ceremony decor variety, I struck gold when skimming through Jen's archives. Now all I have to do is decide if I'm more in love with streaming ribbons, hanging flowers or a lovely combination of both...

{Susan Dean, Wide Eyed Photo, Paul Rich Studio & Elizabeth Messina via Green Wedding Shoes}

{One Love Photo via Green Wedding Shoes}

{Eleise Theuer, Jose Villa and Jessica Claire via Green Wedding Shoes}

To Be Wed

2009-06-18T07:14:00.001-07:00

I've told you before about our ceremony location at the Sackets Harbor Battlefield, but never had a good photo to share of the tree grove where the ceremony will actually occur. Today, I pulled out my best internet sleuthing skills and dug up a good photo to share. One part of me dreams of pretty white flowers or paper pom poms floating from the trees nearest the ceremony - perhaps framing out an "altar"? What do you think?

{Sackets Harbor Battlefield}

The battlefield is up on a bit of a cliff overlooking the lake, although it's not a very high cliff. To the right of this photo is a green lawn that slopes down to a stone wall overlooking the lake. It's absolutely breathtaking. So - floating flowers (likely strung to fishing line or something similar) or no floating flowers?

P.S. Thank you for all of your support at times when I feel like this. xo

Lay It On Me

2009-06-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

We're a month out from the wedding. I should be excited, right? And I am. At least 50% excited at any rate. The other 50%? Stressed as all hell despite all of my best efforts to keep things in perspective. I know it's just one day (well, one weekend in our case) and that I can't allow that to eclipse the excitement of marrying the most incredible person I know. But I have to admit, at this point I'm just ready for the whole thing to be over and for us to be lying around our little oceanfront cabin in Maine, totally blissed out and done with the whole wedding thing.

I have a lot of projects I'm working on, a lot left to do, but a lot accomplished so far. I think we're in really good shape on that front, so those sorts of ultimately insignificant details aren't concerning me. With or without them, we're getting married - in a month! No no, rather it's the logistics of pulling everything together largely on my own. I live 45 minutes from my closest bridesmaid, an hour from all of my family, and while he'd love to be helpful (and he does try!), M is largely unable to offer me much assistance. I'm the natural born planner, the organizer so I delegate what I can, but he truly does rely on me to steer the ship, especially given his incredibly busy schedule as of late. I can't help but feel like the planning process would be much more fun at this stage in the game if I were tucked snuggly in a little envelope of excitement and contribution from the people in my life whom I love. Sadly, that's not really happening at this point. Ultimately, again, it's not a life threatening scenario, but it makes it a bit more ho hum.

And, regretfully, our wedding has become much more political than I had ever dreamed. Suddenly, my grandmother cares that I'm not getting married in a traditional Catholic Mass. Suddenly, my father cares about things like invitation wording. Suddenly, we're risking losing some of our guests due to two-night minimums at all of the local hotels (typical of any resort town in summer, right?) despite the fact that it's something outside of our control. And I can't tell you how upsetting I find that, especially when it involves family unbelievably near and dear to my heart. Suddenly, I'm stressed, tired and getting headaches far more frequently. I'm ready for a big glass of wine and a long nap.

I know I can't be alone in my feelings so rather than keeping them to myself, I decided to turn to you for your thoughts. Any suggestions on how I can coast through these next few weeks without a breakdown? Is anyone else ready to just throw in the towel on wedding planning and just start being married? I'll love you forever if you tell me I'm not alone.

Ceremony Program Mock Up

2009-06-14T07:21:00.001-07:00

How do girls getting married in just over a month spend their weekend? Crafting, of course! I've been working on a lot of easy but time consuming projects this weekend. Table name signs, escort cards, M's wedding gift, and a mock up of our ceremony programs so I can start trimming down the stock for the covers and laying out pages in InDesign. Am I the only one who gets really really excited to see something working out as planned? Consider me really excited right now. I'm in love with how this mock up program turned out!

Pretty blue cover stock, kraft paper pages and blue-striped baker's twine? Heaven! This is also going to prove a useful tool when laying out the pages. I can see the hardest part involving figuring out how to ensure the fronts and backs of the pages line up so they print nice and aligned, but for now I am trying not to worry about that one. In the meantime, here's what I am planning for pages and content -

front cover - some sort of Gocco magic going on
page 1 - a title page of sorts with our names, wedding date, etc.
page 2 - a welcome message
page 3 - order of events
page 4 - bridesmaids/bridesman introductions
page 5 - groomsmen introductions
page 6 - thank you note and directions to the champagne reception after the ceremony
page 7 - recognition of loved ones who can't be with us
page 8 - recognition of our belief in gay marriage rights and hope for all men and women to soon be able to marry the person of their choice
back cover - some more Gocco magic

Is anyone else working on a program project right now? Let me know if you have any tips for printing book layouts front to back so the pages work properly when assembled.

Another Sweet Occasion {Another Bridal Shower!}

2009-06-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

In April, my Maid of Honor/BFF/FSIL hosted a really nice bridal shower for me with M's family, which was a really great way to kick off the official wedding events. However, the excitement really started to mount with the shower she and my other bridesmaids hosted in May for all of my family and friends. They put so much effort into making it a wonderful day and it truly was just that.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in were the huge trays of cupcakes and lots of white roses. Two of my favorite things in life? Cupcakes and white roses. Needless to say, I knew right then and there it was going to be a great day.

The food was, of course, incredible. Miniature sandwiches, bruschetta, caprese skewers, lots of fresh fruit, bloody marys and mimosas, pasta salad, cheesecake and too many incredible things to count. It was a spread fit for Thanksgiving and it was insanely delicious.

From my favorite flower to my favorite foods to my love for monograms, the entire celebration with infused with the most lovely of personal details. Tiny terra cotta pots planted with fresh flowers served as favors and little slips of paper were placed at each table encouraging guests to impart a bit of wisdom. Not only did I receive some incredible gifts, but I got to celebrate with the most amazing women I know. Does it get any better than that? I think not. What about you - have you had a bridal shower yet?

So Lovely

2009-06-12T04:08:00.000-07:00

Have I ever told you about my plan to be a two veil bride? I can't recall if I have, although I do know I shared my lovely hairpiece from twigs & honey. Well at any rate, I plan to be two veil bride. I bought a Marilyn style birdcage veil from Something Bold that I will wear for our Saturday reception with the twigs & honey piece, while on Friday for the ceremony I am planning on a gorgeous, long and dramatic drop veil. I find them so romantic and ethereal while generally not as dowdy as some other veils. I am not by nature a veil kind of girl, I actually always envisioned myself as a no veil bride let alone a two veil bride. Funny how beautiful images of soft pretty netting can change a girl's mind, eh?

Like this one. Had I not already fully intended to wear a drop veil, I would be intending to do so now. This is complete and utter perfection if you ask me. It doesn't get any lovelier.

{Monique Lhuillier via Ink + Wit}

A Wedding Band

2009-06-10T05:12:00.000-07:00

Last night, M and I went out and got his ring size determined by a couple of jewlers. (Naturally, I forced him into two places to double check the first size was correct - totally normal, right?) I told you we were considering going with Etsy for his wedding band, and after some further consideration, I decided to go for it! I love Etsy, I love supporting independent artisans and the price could not be beat. Really - $45 for a wedding band, no tax nor shipping? Now that is a language I can speak. Fluently.

So we got home last night and I took one last look through the many styles offered by Titanium Knights and ultimately decided on a domed ring with cut grooves on either side. It's 6mm wide with a combination of a brushed finish in the center and polished bands on the outside. It's classic but with a bit of detail while still remaining simple. And truthfully, it's perfect for him.

Titanium Knights have super quick turn around times (2 - 3 days production time before shipping) so I should have it in my possession soon and I'll be sure to let you know what we think of the quality and share additional photos. They have a great Etsy rating so I'm confident it's going to be perfect, but in the event it's not I figure we'll just upgrade M's band for our first anniversary. I'm really super happy with this decision and can't wait to see his ring! It was a lot of fun to pick it out and it's one of those little things that makes this whole getting married thing feel a lot more real. Is anyone else taking the Etsy plunge (or a similar avenue) for wedding bands? And seriously, isn't ring shopping incredibly fun?

Happy Wedding Day, Krista + Wade!

2009-06-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

Guess where I'm going to be today?

Give up? Ok then, I'll spill the beans. Today I'll be in Kingston at the wedding of this guy....

And this girl....

Perhaps you know them, too? That's right, it's Krista and Wade! Excited much? You better believe it! I promise to sneak you at least one photo while Krista and Wade are off on their awesome European honeymoon. Until then, congratulations to two amazing people whom I personally can attest to being totally in love and unbelievably excited to marry one another. I can't wait!

Smock at the National Stationery Show

2009-06-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

When Smock went to the National Stationery Show last month, we had a truly incredible time. And because I went totally MIA in blogland during the craziness that was the show and the weeks of preparation leading up to the show, I figured I ought to share some photos I took of our beautiful booth, designed by our Creative Director, Amy Graham Stigler. I loved the color palette and all of the little details from the flowers to the lighting and the clean white lines of the furniture. I would love love love to see a wedding inspired by a similar aesthetic - wouldn't it be lovely?

You can check out more from the show and our latest letterpress designs on our Smock blog, where I regularly hang out during the day sharing as much inspiration as I can get my hands on.

In Love with Baby's Breath

2009-06-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

Seriously, from day 1, I've always intended to do my own flowers. I've blogged about it what, probably 100 times already? And my recent DIY bouquet trial solidified that conviction. However, I am still wavering on the most cost effective way to pull it off. I've been loving the baby's breath trend for months, and honestly when my friend Carolynn of Two Brunettes posted this lovely bouquet a while back, I nearly lost it - it's the perfect blend of sweet, romantic, simple and casual and I love it, especially for a bridesmaid bouquet.

Because it's baby's breath, you know this pretty bundle was about as inexpensive as they come. I am seriously considering ditching roses for baby's breath, but any of the places I have found it wholesale offers a ton of different varieties. Does anyone know anything about baby's breath? Does it matter what type you get for bundling up as a bouquet? I'm guessing it doesn't, but one can never be too sure when it comes to the intricacies and delicacies of flowers. Is anyone else considering jumping on the baby's breath bandwagon?

Birdcage Centerpieces

2009-06-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

I know birds and birdcages are all the rage in weddings right now, however, I've never really been completely enamored with them for our wedding, no matter how cute I find those details. Today, my opinion may have just changed. While on the hunt for inspiration for flower-free affordable centerpiece ideas, because contrary to popular belief even a simple grouping of pillar candles can get very pricey very quickly, I stumbled upon these birdcages. They're cute, they've got a fun vintage feel and they're somewhat of a blanket canvas. Card holder? No thanks, I already have one of those that I'll be sharing soon. Stick a pillar candle in it and call it a centerpiece? Now we're talking.

Tell me, now wouldn't these be just adorable amidst a collection of votives and tealights sparkling from assorted containers I've been amassing? And don't forget all of those Christmas ornaments my mother and I hoarded after the holidays. I'm seeing an array of assorted found objects all artfully scattered around a birdcage centerpiece for tables that are fun, a bit unexpected and very pretty in a fun vintagey kind of way.

And did I mention that each birdcage is only $9.99 at Save on Crafts? Because I don't know about you but $13 centerpieces (give or take with a pillar candle added to the mix) are my kind of centerpiece. Plus, unlike flowers, I can sell these babies post wedding and recoup a bit of our expenses. I might be crazy, but I may just be onto something here. What says you?

A Sappy Bride

2009-06-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

With a little over a month to go until the wedding, I feel as though it's finally catching up with me. Many months of planning have gone by and admittedly, it has all been rather surreal to me up to this point. I'm a planner, an orchestrater, an organizer by nature - it's just what I do. So doing it in the context of our wedding hasn't felt all that different to me for most of the journey. Research, debate, get inspired, make decisions, execute, lather, rinse and repeat. Make lists, check items off the list, make phone calls, obsess over contracts, reconsider everything for the eightieth time, slash the guest list, slash the budget, add to the guest list, add to the budget and then slash again.

The Wedding Date

However, over the last month or so, the sappy part of me has started to kick in. Who on earth is this sappy bride I've become?! At work, I have been working with some of our awesome Bella Figura brides on a couple of upcoming projects and some of them have been insanely forthcoming with the details of their love stories, the plans for their weddings, their ceremonies - a few have even shared the text that they've lovingly created for programs, readings and personally written ceremonies and vows! The result? I can no longer count on one hand the number of times I've found myself sitting at my desk tearing up at the office. I mean, totally choked up, feeling all warm and fuzzy toward couples I don't even know - this is not typical behavior for me!

Vision in White by Nora Roberts

I've also had a strange renewed addiction to sappy wedding-themed movies. Seriously. I can't get enough of movies like The Wedding Date (which might be my favorite wedding movie of all time), 27 Dresses, Bride Wars, The Wedding Planner, My Best Friend's Wedding, Sex and the City...seriously, I'm running on happy-ending-movie overload these days! I even recently found myself reading a copy of Vision in White, a sappy wedding-oriented love story by Nora Roberts, and while I am an avid reader, I do NOT read chick lit or romance novels - ever! (Granted, Ami left her copy with me, which she recently reviewed on EAD Living, as we parted ways after the National Stationery Show and I did have a loooong train ride home to occupy myself, but still!)

So, it's entirely possible that I am going crazy. Unusual crying, atypical sappiness, feeling emotional and all lovey dovey - what is happening to me? Is anyone else turning into a sappy bride?

More Pretty Lace

2009-06-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are a few more photos of the dress I love oh so much - I can't wait to try on the new one when it arrives the correct length! It's really so pretty, the lace and netting is so romantic and feminine while overall the dress is still unfussy, which is perfect as I had no interest in a fussy dress. Oh, right, and the fact that I scored it for less than $600 - including tax - and it will need little to no alterations? Heaven! (You gotta love a good trunk show!)

Getting Fit 2009 [Sunday, May 31]

2009-05-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

It has been a really really long time since I last updated you on my weight and fitness goals and with under two months to go until the wedding, it seems like it's time to get back on the wagon of regular updates. Overall, I've been doing fairly well the last couple of months. There have been a lot of occasions to get derailed - birthdays, bridal showers, my first bachelorette party, a week in NYC, Memorial Day weekend, etc. etc. - but I think I've managed to hold my own ok. My weight hasn't been going down, but I've been holding steady, so I really can't complain. I'm sure I could be much farther along, but I find the idea of passing on cupcakes at my own bridal shower completely absurd, so eat cupcakes I did. And yet, that's cupcakes, plural.
{Source}

With that said, throughout the month of June, I have essentially no excuses for indulging until the last weekend of the month when my big blow out bachelorette party takes place. So, from now until the wedding I am committing to working out daily - a combination of heavier and lighter days, a blend of cardio and resistance. I am going to work on keeping my diet well balanced, avoiding processed sugar/carbs as much as possible, cutting out alcohol entirely for a few weeks, and keeping fiber intake high. I am only planning to weigh once a week during this time (I usually weigh daily because it helps keep me on track best) so I can avoid getting hung up on numbers and instead focus on an intensive effort to tone and trim a few more inches before July rolls around and the temptations return in the form of July 4th weekend and a friend's wedding on July 11th and, of course, our wedding the following weekend.
In particular, I'd love to see my back tone up in the next several weeks. {Source}

Are there any other July or August brides who want to join me for a month-long push in June? My target areas are my arms (still, always), my back, and the icing on the cake would be to see any further improvement on my waist line. And, of course, I'm always seeking general health and fitness improvements as I work on the physical aspects of looking better, too. So, here we go - I am officially 100% committed to getting fit again - who is coming with me?

Introducing - Our Venue!

2009-05-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

It dawned on me last weekend while I was visiting our Saturday evening reception venue for the first time in many months that I don't believe I've ever shared it with you! Luckily, I took a ton of photos last week so I have lots to share. Our reception is being held at Edgewood Resort in Alexandria Bay, right in the heart of the Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence River. Our venue is directly on the water's edge, a big sprawling river resort with beautiful grounds and breathtaking views of the river. I won't lie - we're paying a premium for those views and I wouldn't have it any other way. So, onto the pictures!

This is the view of the lobby as you enter the front of the main building. The doors to the right lead to the main dining room, the doors to the left lead to the room where our reception will be held. The table directly in front will hold escort cards.

A closer view of the cute little escort card table...hopefully it can fit all of them!

The doors leading to our room, which is actually kind of a mini-theater room. During the week in the summer they have a lot of music events in here.

See? A little stage, which is where the head table will be with our DJ over to the right by the piano. You can also start to see why the room is called the Gazebo room - it has amazing ceilings, all paneled in beautiful solid wood!

Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the room is this gorgeous wood bar - I absolutely despise those portable plastic bars you occasionally find rolling around on casters in large event halls.

Here you can start to see a bigger picture of the room, pictured here with a buffet line set up for an event the following day. We are also going with a buffet, so after dinner this area will be freed up for mingling near the bar for the non-dancers.

These ugly black padded chairs are the reason I am forking up stupid amounts of money for chair covers. I probably shouldn't care, but I do. At any rate, here you can really get a sense of the unique character of the room, the reason I absolutely love the space.

An incredible view of the amazing ceilings, which really make the room. It's absolutely breathtaking when you enter the place - hopefully our photographer will grab some great photos that really show it off better than I can.

The absolute best thing about the space? The panoramic views of the river through the large windows and French doors leading out to the large private deck. Seriously, I fell in love with this room years ago - I never really did much debating as to where our reception would be held.

A view of the deck where a few tables and chairs will be set up. In the distance you can somewhat see the castle, which is actually easily visible when you're there in person. Amazing water views that go for days? I'm in heaven!

Because the room has a unique character and a decided color palette, I'm keeping decor minimal. Ivory linens, ivory chair covers with champagne sashes, white/ivory flowers in assorted glass, milk glass and mercury glass containers, lots and lots of candles and that's about it for me. I really want it to feel romantic and casual all at the same time and I want to keep the focus on the inherent architecture and the views. I think it'll work out wonderfully and now I am getting really excited! We have less than 50 days to go! Did anyone else fall in love with their venue because of the view?

The Dress Diaries [Part VII]

2009-05-25T17:46:00.000-07:00

Last week while I was excitedly and happily pushing my body to the brink of complete exhaustion in NYC for the National Sationery Show, I finally got the call from the bridal shop that my dress was in - woohoo! While I didn't have any time to be excited last week, I made sure to fit in a visit to try it on while home to spend the holiday weekend with family. Seriously, I was so excited to finally see it again and, I won't lie, it was just as beautiful as I had remembered.

I made sure my mother and sister were there with me, waiting anxiously in turn for each of them to arrive. We were all so excited, even more excited that it fit perfectly aside from needing to be taken in up top (A sad side effect of losing 100+ lbs is that you lose your boobs too, damnit) and it zipped without difficulty. Yes, yes, I was that bride who ordered her dress a size too small, and I'm damn happy to announce that the sucker fits like a glove! At any rate, I was all set to parade around in it when I realized we were going to have a problem. I wasn't wearing my shoes yet - those lovely JCrew shoes I had received as a Christmas gift from my father specifically to wear with my dress - and the dress was only a smidge too long with me in bare feet.

"Shit. It's too short." Needless to say, those are not the first words you want to come flying out of your mouth when you first put on your wedding dress. And apparently, they were not the first words my mother wanted to hear, especially once I put the shoes on and she realized I was right - the dress didn't even skim my toes with shoes on. Yes, the same shoes I had on when I had my hollow to hem measurement taken. Shit. So out came the measuring tapes, copies of the order placed with Casablanca and the quick verdict that my dress had been cut to a hollow to hem measurement of 56" as opposed to the 58" I needed. Isn't that charming?

So after a quick recovery, which I pulled off in an effort to keep my mother [who also has pneumonia the moment] from getting too upset (seriously, it's only a dress after all), I offered to simply find new shoes if Casablanca would reimburse the $140 my father had spent on the shoes I had planned to wear with my dress. We headed off to lunch while the awesome ladies at the shop got on the phone and not an hour later I received a call asking that I stop back in so they could double and then triple check measurements as Casablanca had readily agreed to send a new dress right away. Problem solved! And honestly, I'm totally impressed with how both the shop and Casablanca handled the issue...so now, with just 54 days to go, I'm waiting on my dress. Again. I'm told it should be in quickly this time around as it was a mistake on their end and therefore I'll get bumped to the head of the production list. Fingers crossed it's perfect next time around!

And in the meantime, an obligatory blurry cell phone picture of the dress I so adore as worn without shoes. Isn't it lovely?

Hello from the National Stationery Show!

2009-05-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

I know I mentioned last week that I would be in NYC for the National Stationery Show until late this week, but I didn't want to leave you completely hanging while I'm up to my neck in a sea of gorgeous paper. The internet at the hotel is a bit slow, so while I can't upload any pictures of my wonderful encounters with some of my favorite bloggers (including this lady, this lady, this lady, this lady, this lady and this lady, among many other fabulous women) just yet, I thought at the very least I'd share a quick snapshot of my new [and oh so lovely] Smock letterpress business cards. Aren't these seriously just the cutest?

I will be here in NYC until late Thursday afternoon, loving the city, loving my job and loving the fact that I get to work with some truly incredible people. When I get back, I have tons of wedding updates to share - including tons of photos from the awesome bridal shower my bridesmaids hosted last weekend, because guess what? Two months from today I will be m.a.r.r.i.e.d. So exciting!

Playing Dress Up

2009-05-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my awesome bridesmaids threw me a bridal shower with, hands down, the best food imaginable. As seems to be the usual these days, I promise lots of photos soon as I have been insanely busy the last few weeks, but in the meantime I think I owe you at least one fun photo so I thought I'd share this one from after the shower when we headed over to try on the bridesmaid dresses for the first time. My dress has not yet arrived, but I jumped into a similar Casablanca style and tucked the straps in to simulate the strapless neckline of my dress. Finally I can see my vision of utterly sophisticated bridesmaids in champagne coming to life and I am so so happy I decided to steer away from bright color for their dresses. All of the dresses will be shortened and all of them have to be taken in, but here you can see a rough approximation of how my dress will look with the girls' dresses - two of the three dress styles are shown here.

Many more beautiful and far less blurry photos to come, but in the meantime, what do you think? I love it!

Sweet Occasions {My First Bachelorette Party...Continued}

2009-05-11T18:28:00.000-07:00

As promised, I wanted to share a few more photos of my great evening last weekend with some of my favorite people. It was the best kind of bachelorette party in my opinion - incredible friends, good food, good wine, and not a single fake penis to be found!

First up, we met up at the only hotel in the small village where we went to college. After checking into our rooms, we lounged around and caught up over cocktails and a big bag of pretzels.

Then it was off to dinner at a small restaurant in the village where, as usual, the sushi and wine proved to be divine.

Next up, we claimed our stake on our favorite corner booth at our favorite local bar...and the first round of shots was consumed.

And then another round of shots was consumed...

...and then we toasted over the big glass mugs of mixed drinks and the amazing pizza that makes this little bar famous.

Then we celebrated a random belated Christmas gift of a food processor. With more drinks, of course.

And finally, after 8 hours of eating and drinking, we were ready to retire to our hotel room...

...where at 1 o'clock in the morning we mixed a final round of drinks and then called the front desk to request they come up to start a fire in our fireplace. And they did. As I said before - best. weekend. ever.

Life is Catching Up

2009-05-10T19:26:00.001-07:00

Does anyone else feel life catching up with them? I know it certainly is for me! Between exciting/busy times at work aka Smock {my job also includes working for sister company Bella Figura and parent company Boxcar Press, if you recall} preparing for the National Stationery Show next week in NYC, wedding planning, my bridal shower this weekend {full details to come}, my first bachelorette party last weekend {I promise more pictures this week}, the extra time required to plan a wedding when you unexpectedly move with just a few months to go and are no longer local to all of your vendors, and getting our invitations out the door last week {which means you get details soon!}, I am exhausted....but a really good "holy cow this is so exciting I might just die" kind of exhausted. There is so much going on that is exciting and invigorating, but I am definitely feeling the effects of too little sleep and perhaps a bit too much mental stimulation at this point. Instead of editing photos and catching up on posts this evening, I opted instead for a bubble bath with a long-neglected book and a tub full of eucalyptus spearmint aromatherapy bubbles. It definitely did the trick to take the edge off and now I'm gearing up for a couple of long, exciting, busy and fulfilling weeks. I promise many updates soon and in the meantime, let me know if you'll be in NYC between May 16 and May 21 and/or if you'll be attending NSS!

Sweet Occasions {My First Bachelorette Party}

2009-05-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was one of the most fun in recent memory. A group of some of my favorite people in the world and I ventured back to our alma mater for cocktails, dinner, and an evening spent in a favorite corner booth with big glass mugs of mixed drinks and slices of some of the best pizza on earth. I promise to share more photos soon, but here's one teaser shot, taken with a friend I haven't seen in nearly 3 years despite having stayed in touch via phone and email. Don't you love how weddings bring people together? I do!

Another Reason I Love Our Photographer

2009-05-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

A few weeks after our engagement photo session, our photographer surprised us in the mail with the cutest miniature album of photos. As part of our package, we got to select one of the photos from our engagement session to have printed at 11x17...but it took me months to finally decide on a photo to have printed. I knew James had received the print recently, but we hadn't yet been able to find a time to exchange the goods. Low and behold while I was out of town this weekend for my first bachelorette party (more on that soon, I promise!) this arrived...

M, who had no idea we were even getting the print, called me all excited when he checked the mail on Saturday. It looks so great! And it's just one more of those little things that has me realizing just how real everything is getting and just how quickly the wedding is approaching. I can't imagine how exciting it will be to see wedding photos in a few months!

The Dress Diaries [The Mother of the Bride Dress]

2009-05-01T18:56:00.001-07:00

A couple of months ago, my mother and I went out dress shopping. After having finally settled on my dress and the bridesmaid dresses, this time we were shopping for her although we didn't actually intend to make a purchase that day. We were hoping to simply narrow styles down to a silhouette or two that looked great on her so we could start watching sales and keeping an eye on some of our favorite online retailers. Low and behold, a couple of hours later we had a gorgeous dress at a great price and our shopping was complete.

This was one of the first dresses we really liked, although we had discussed shortening it to make it less like a bridesmaid dress. With that said, the color was great on her, the fabric was appropriate for the formality of our wedding and the cut was very appealing on her body type. Ironically, this was the only dress I wrote down the information for and yet it's the only dress that I can't identify for you. Oops!

This dress was very comfortable and super flattering, although perhaps a little bit less formal than we were after. It was actually a bridesmaid dress, After Six 6274, and the georgette fabric was surprisingly forgiving. I think with the right accessories it would have been really great.
Despite looking miserable in this picture, my mother actually fell head over heels in love with this dress. Like me, she's a lover of aqua and all shades of teal/blue/blue green/green blue. It had some bling going on, something we never were looking for, but it was actually perfect for her. It's a special occasions dress by Venus that we got for less than $150 with tax as we were able to buy it off the rack and take it home that day. This picture makes it appear like a halter, but that's only because the straps were very long and had to be tied together in the back to keep them up. Next month we're going to visit a seamstress to have the straps shortened, the cups sewn together a bit to add a bit more coverage as my mom is quite modest, and we're also going to shorten it to knee length, so it's more cocktail attire and less black tie. I think it's really perfect for the formality of our event, while still allowing her to be comfortable in what is sure to be another insanely hot and humid July in upstate NY.

Did you go shopping with your mom or are you planning to - or did she go it alone? Is anyone else's mom planning to ditch the dumpy Mother of the Bride dresses and rock something fun and pretty like the rockin' 52 year old mom she is?

Making Sweet Music

2009-04-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Along with my hair trial and DIY bouquet trial over this past weekend, I also met with a good friend of mine from college who will be our DJ at our Saturday evening reception. We went over the basic flow of the evening including which formalities we'll be including (toasts, first dance, father/daughter dance), which formalities we'll be skipping (bouquet/garter toss), what songs I'd like to avoid (ALL group dances including but not limited to the electric slide, YMCA, and the macarena) and what songs I'd love to hear. For the last few months I've been bookmarking YouTube videos of songs as I hear them and get excited. My collection is completely random, but these songs are always guaranteed crowd movers among the party animals in my family. I'm hoping our playlist will include at least some of these sure crowd pleasers.

Completely random? Possibly. Completely fun? You bet your dancing shoes it will be! What about you - do you have any songs you'd love to hear at your reception?

A Sweet Occasion - My First Bridal Shower!

2009-04-28T16:22:00.001-07:00

Over Easter weekend, my BFF/Maid of Honor/FSIL hosted my first miniature bridal shower at the home of M's parents. Her mother, whom I adore, traveled with her to help with food and general preparations and even with just a handful of guests in attendance, we had a lovely time. While I admit it felt a little unreal without my mother or sister there, it was a great afternoon with the ladies of M's family and a good practice round for the big bridal shower coming up next weekend with all of my family and friends. The best part of the whole day? The incredible spread of yummy food! The menu was simple but delicious, which is my favorite way to go. Fresh crudite, pasta salad, bruschetta, cream puffs, cheese + crackers, fruit and the yummiest punch ever = perfect. And what's not to love when the day involves cute monogrammed napkins?

Warning - obligatory food porn ahead!

Are you having a shower? Anyone else but me having more than one? With our families being several hours apart it only made sense to have two bridal showers. I can't wait for the next one with my favorite women in the whole world scheduled to be there!

A Hair Trial

2009-04-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Because I don't have long hair, it's a barely longer than chin-length bob, I decided it made some sense to schedule a hair trial along with my regular cut/color over the weekend so I could decide if I need to let my hair grow over the next couple of months instead of keeping to my regular schedule of trimming. Generally speaking, I have been opposed to growing out my hair and being annoyed with it for months and hating it in photos just so it can be put up for one day, but I'm open to letting it grow a bit from this point forward. I searched around and found this simple and elegant chignon and brought this along with me for inspiration.

{Source}
Here you can see the current length of my hair...and the teasing required to make it look like I have a legitimate updo. As you can see in these next photos, it's amazing what hairspray and hairpins can do!
A view from the front. I love that it's simple, elegant and classic - exactly the look I wanted.
Remember my pretty hairpiece from Myra of twigs & honey? I love how it looks in action!

This would be the look I would wear on Friday night, the evening of our ceremony and cocktail party for family and close friends. The following evening I am planning something a bit sassier, likely with part or all of my hair down for the reception. We are going to practice that look at my next cut/color, a few weeks before the wedding. So, what do you think? Yea or nay?

DIY Bouquet Trial

2009-04-25T20:55:00.001-07:00

This weekend, one of the many items on my to-do list was to tackle a bouquet trial. A few months ago I stumbled upon a video tutorial that provided the basis for how I constructed the bouquet. My mom and I grabbed two bunches of roses at the local market and aside from the flowers themselves, the project only required floral tape, straight pearl head pins, 1-1/2" double-face satin ribbon, and floral shears.

First up, we opened up the bundles of flowers, separated out all the greenery and stripped the roses of all leaves and thorns. We didn't have a dethorner, although I definitely plan to pick up a couple before we tackle 8 bouquets the week of the wedding. For the trial, we just used a sharp knife, which worked just fine.

The next step was to arrange three of larger roses in a cluster and bind with floral tape. We didn't have time to let the flowers hydrate and open, although when we order the bulk roses before the wedding I'll definitely allow for a day or two so the roses themselves are fuller.

From there, we built up the bouquet by adding roses in between the first clusters of roses and adding floral tape after every 3 - 4 roses. This bouquet used two dozen roses total, although 18 may have been sufficient were they open more. We also didn't use any greens for the trial, although we might play around with a bit of greenery for the actual wedding bouquets.

After the bouquet was the size we wanted (or basically when we'd used up all the flowers we had), I quickly wrapped the stems with a length of pretty satin ribbon I had on hand, approximately 24" in length. I pulled the ribbon fairly tight as I worked, and then at the bottom of the bouquet I used 5 pearl head straight pins to secure the ribbon. I trimmed off the stems so they were more even at the bottom and that was it! All in all, it took under fifteen minutes to make one bouquet...not too shabby!

Isn't it pretty? For roughly $30 in materials, this is probably among the best time and money I've spent on wedding planning to date. My mom is more than happy to have fresh roses in her house now, and we have more than enough floral tape and pins to complete all of the wedding bouquets. Paper Source has really pretty satin ribbon, so I am going to pick up two rolls - one in khaki (which looks more like champagne, doesn't it?) to wrap my bouquet and one in lake to wrap the bridesmaids' bouquets. All of the bouquets will be white/ivory roses with 18 - 24 stems for each of their bouquets, and 24 - 30 for mine.

This picture gives you a good idea of scale. I definitely think it would look prettier and fuller with roses that weren't still in that tight bud stage, so I'll definitely plan for that when I place my bulk order so the roses have a few days over the week of the wedding to open up. Overall, while I think we'll have more finessing to do with the actual wedding bouquets, this trial gave me complete confidence that we can create really pretty and really budget-friendly bouquets for the wedding. So, what do you think? I think it's really cute!

The First Bridesmaid Dress - After Six 6553

2009-04-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I got a phone call from the bridal boutique we've been working with for just about everything including my dress, the dresses for my seven bridesmaids, my mother's dress and the groom/groomsmen attire. Three of the seven bridesmaid dresses had arrived! My sister/Maid of Honor and I were both going to be home to visit for my mother's birthday last weekend so the nice folks at the shop allowed her to sneak her dress home for the night (even though she hadn't yet paid her remaining balance) so we could have an impromptu fashion show despite the fact that they would be closed by the time I made it into town. (How sweet!)

A is wearing After Six 6553 by Dessy in Palamino, as are two of my other girls. She had fallen directly between a size 2 and a size 4 when she was fitted before ordering - hips were a 4, waist was halfway between and bust was a 2, so we opted for the size 4. As it turns out, the size 2 likely would have been a much better fit, because the dress is sloppy big...what a problem to have right? At any rate, the dress is now back at the store and she'll be fitted soon and start alterations, which will also include shortening it by a few inches as she's rather short and it ends up nearly tea length, but here is the first glimpse.

Oh! And the dress has pockets, which we hadn't realized before and it makes it even cuter. You can kind of see the pocket seem on the hip a bit in this picture.

This photo shows off just how ill-fitting the dress is right now, but it also shows off the pretty sheen of the champagne satin fabric. The fabric was honestly so much nicer than I expected!

So, with invitations arriving this week, the cake having been ordered and bridesmaid dresses showing up, it's all getting more real by the day. Is anyone else experiencing that "holy crap, we're getting married!" thing about now?

Happy Letterpress Day!

2009-04-23T18:29:00.001-07:00

I have the most exciting news! Our gorgeous letterpress wedding invitations are officially printed and nestled safely in their gorgeous brown Bella Figura box on our coffee table. *cue excited dancing around the room* Nothing says "official" like seeing your names in letterpress!

One might think that being exposed to the beauty of letterpress every day would desensitize me, but rather it's just the opposite. I admit that my love for beautiful paper and my appreciation for the art form that is letterpress has only grown in the past couple of months. Getting to be present for the press check for our invitations was such a special thing and getting that special brown box delivered to my desk, that same one we so gleefully ship to our brides, it was a pretty awesome experience. Naturally, I've been busy photographing them all evening, but I really don't want to spoil the surprise for those of my readers who will be receiving them in the mail so for now, all I will share is this sneak peek, which I've already shared on Twitter anyway. I promise full details on each of the six pieces, the fonts, the colors and much better photos in a week or so after they hit the mail. In the meantime, here's a little taste to tide you over...

Rose Bouquet Inspiration

2009-04-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

I love flowers. I always have. I grew up frolicking about my grandmother's gardens in bare feet chasing butterflies. Flowers are just a huge part of my childhood memories, they are something that can always make me smile and I do truly believe a wedding is not complete without them. So, with that said, it might come as a bit of a surprise that I plan to cheap out and go all DIY with our flowers, because love flowers though I may, I just can't justify spending thousands of dollars on something so very disposable and short-lived. I am traveling home this weekend for a hair trial, a much needed eyebrow waxing and an appointment with our DJ, so I'm thinking I might carve out a bit of time to grab some bundles of flowers and do a trial bouquet run with my mother.

White/ivory roses have always been my favorite flower so it was only a given that they'd make an appearance in our wedding and, at least for me, going with all white and/or ivory flowers was also always a given. This may be the only decision about the wedding that has never wavered. I've been cataloging bouquet inspiration since day one, but lately I've tried to zone in on simple all rose bouquets that I feel I could easily replicate. My plan is to go with slightly smaller bouquets for my bridesmaids and possibly a different ribbon color for them than for me, but altogether it will be simple, pretty and wonderfully fragrant as roses always are. I'm thinking I'll try to tackle something like this over the weekend...

{Source Unkown}

{April Smith}

{KLK Photography}

Are you planning to DIY your bouquet(s)? Have you done a trial and if so, any tips?

The Bridal Skin Care Arsenal

2009-04-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

With less than 3 months to go before the wedding...89 days to be exact...I have decided that it's time to start focusing on skin care. I will admit that I'm fairly lucky in the complexion department, but I do have some problem areas. While I rarely experience any real breakouts, I do have combination skin that's needs change with the season. My t-zone is quite oily, but my cheeks can get really dry, especially in the winter. While breakouts aren't a huge concern, I am very prone to blackheads on my nose and chin. I have used Cetaphil for years and find that the Daily Facial Cleanser for Normal to Oily Skin variety is great for keeping me balanced. When needed I use St. Ives Apricot Scrub for the t-zone only, to try to keep blackheads and blemishes at bay while not over-drying the rest of my face. I have yet to find a really effective blackhead scrub - let me know if you have one to recommend!

I went out this week and started the process of adding to my arsenal of skin care weaponry. It can be hard to find a good daily moisturizer with SPF and I am constantly trying new ones. This Summer Glow by Neutrogena is oil free and dye free, has SPF 15 and a gradual self-tanner. I have only used it a few times, but so far I love it - it's lightweight, it has a really nice light floral fragrance and I love the subtle sun-kissed glow that I see developing. I'll be honest and admit to being horrible about washing my face at night. As in, it almost never happens. Seriously. I can't leave the house in the morning without washing, scrubbing, moisturizing and applying at least minimal makeup, but come time for bed it's all I can do to brush my teeth and if I'm lucky, apply eye cream. In an attempt to try and incorporate better evening skin care habits into my life, I picked up Neutrogena Make-Up Remover Cleansing Towelettes - it doesn't get much quicker and easier than quickly scrubbing up with a towelette, and I've heard they are great for removing makeup, dirt and oil alike. I also stocked up on Jergens Soft Shimmer Skin Radiance Moisturizer, because while I generally avoid exposing my skin to the sun despite being an avid boater (SPF is a girl's best friend!), I think we can all agree that a luminescent golden shimmer looks beautiful on everyone.

{Source}

My next big issue to tackle - I have rather prominent dark circles and sizable bags under my eyes, something that seems to have become exaggerated with my weight loss. Perhaps it just seems more noticeable in comparison to the smaller overall size of my face? I'm not sure, but it has definitely become a concern of mine so I am on a mission to alleviate the problem to whatever extent I can between now and the wedding. I've been noticing it a lot more in photos lately, which is never good when you're heading toward the most photographed day of your life. Want to know how much I love you? I am going to share an awkward cell phone photo sans makeup, complete with eyebrows I am attempting to grow out so I change the shape in a couple weeks.

See? Bags that appear to be packed up for a month-long trip to Europe that I know nothing about and dark circles that look as though I haven't slept in a week. I've been reading a lot of reviews on eye creams to help the problem and I am leaning toward Shiseido Bio-Performance Super Eye Contour Cream. While pretty pricey at $55, this is one of the few undereye creams on the market that actually works to improve the condition of the thin skin under the eye, as opposed to just moisturizing and using light reflectors to attempt to make the skin look lighter and the reviews are pretty good.

Is anyone else struggling with dark undereye circles? What steps are you taking to get your skin beautiful and wedding-ready before the big event?

Two Brunettes - Contest Winner

2009-04-20T19:11:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Two Brunettes giveaway! And now, I believe I owe you a winner...Cait St. Clair from A Peachy Wedding, that's you! Email me by the end of the week so I can forward your contact information along so you can claim your pretty cards. Oh, and everyone else, you HAVE to go check out Cait's $50 wedding dress she just scored - I love it!

Gocco Favor Tags

2009-04-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

I've never felt that favors are necessary at weddings, but I do love thoughtful edible favors, especially because I love sweets so much. M's favorite food, hands down, is any variety of cookie so it only seemed natural to go for it when I fell in love with Kat's little cookie bundle favors and the stamped shipping tags with which she tied them up. Once I scored myself a Gocco birthday present, I knew I wanted to put my own spin on the shipping tag favor tags as my first Gocco project. A few minutes laying it out in Illustrator, a handy tutorial, many questions of my friend/Gocco expert, Ami and three hours later, I ended up with these...

So there it is! My first Gocco project - 200 favor tags in 3 hours and I love how they turned out! It definitely took a bit of trial and error and some of the tags definitely ended up in the recycling bin, but it was well worth the effort and ultimately a super simple project. I used the same manilla shipping tags from Office Max as Kat and gold metallic ink and I think they look really cute. What do you think? Not too shabby for a first timer, eh?

Let Them Eat Cake

2009-04-18T07:09:00.001-07:00

I haven't talked much about cake, aside from how I love cake buffets and how the cake has never been a priority for us, despite both having an unrelenting sweet tooth. So I thought about a cake buffet and I considered cupcakes and the thought of forgoing cake entirely for cookies (his favorite) and/or ice cream (my favorite) also entered the discussion. I debated a simple array of delicious cakes picked up the day before the wedding at a regional grocery store chain known for their amazing bakery among many other claims to fame. I hunted around for cake stands in local antique shops and on ebay, and then I priced out cupcakes from a local cupcake baker that I learned about, Pamela of Cupcakes and Smiles, and despite not wanting the cake or lack thereof to be a priority, I found myself spending far far too much time and energy trying to make a decision related to cake. So guess what I did? I did the one thing I never expected to do - I picked up the phone and I scheduled an appointment to order, you guessed it, a wedding cake.

Richard Wood Photographics

I've had the opportunity to taste Bonny's cakes at a local bridal show three years in a row. I'm a total dessert connoisseur and I am here to tell you, I have never tasted cake as good as Bonny's. This year I went to the bridal show just to taste her cake again and pick up her card. And then, for whatever reason, I tucked her card away and continued to debate cake for over three months. Well, yesterday M and I met with Bonny, we discussed flavors and design and we put down a deposit on our cake. Done and done! And the best part? I can rest assured that our guests will get to eat what will likely be the best wedding cake they ever have, and with a bit of luck we'll have leftovers to take with us on our honeymoon.

We went with a four tier cake with two tiers of white cake with Bonny's famous champagne mousse filling and two alternating tiers of strawberry cake with an amazing strawberry daiquiri mousse filling. The cake will boast Bonny's incredibly yummy champagne frosting and it will be insanely delicious. For the last 20 years, my mother has made me a strawberry birthday cake with fresh berries and whipped cream frosting. The flavors, fillings and frosting we've chosen remind me of my signature birthday cake, which delights me to no end. The best part? I won't go insane thinking about cake anymore. The tiers will be 6", 8", 10" and 12" and decoration will be sweet and simple. I wanted our cake to actually look like cake, so we opted for a simple beaded edge along the bottom of each tier and a pattern of small diamond clusters of swiss dots on the sides of the tiers. The cake will be a topped by a mound of white/ivory roses and at $2.50/slice including delivery and setup, it's very affordable, especially considering the quality and taste of the cakes Bonny creates.

Pink Cake Box

I literally spent about 15 minutes researching simple white cakes that I liked and passed these three images along to Bonny. Our cake will be very similar only with roses on top instead of hydrangeas and I'm leaning toward no flowers along the tiers. I am so excited to scratch this off my list, despite going a completely different direction than anticipated, and even more excited to get to eat a big fat piece at our wedding. This definitely ranks right up there among the best decisions I've made to date - I'm staying sane and I get to eat amazing cake. Perfect!

Sneak Peek - My First Gocco Project!

2009-04-17T06:39:00.000-07:00

I promise full details (and better pictures) later today or tomorrow, but in the meantime I had to share a sneak peek at my first Gocco project! Remember those shipping tags turned cookie favor bundles Kat made that I adore? Mix those with a Gocco and a girl with a vision and three hours later, we have 200 adorable favor tags. I love them!

DIY Project Inspiration

2009-04-14T18:07:00.001-07:00

In addition to making general lists of things to do, I have also started cataloging the many DIY projects I'd love to tackle in an ideal world. The list seems to be growing by the minute, but luckily I'll have my Gocco in my hands by Thursday evening and with it, the DIY projects are getting ramped into high gear. So, with that in mind, here are some of the things I am loving right now, many of which I plan to adapt and at least attempt to accomplish...

Why do I need personalized Gocco coasters like these beauties from Kristina of Lovely Morning? I have no clue, but clearly I do.

When I saw these amazing programs Nole posted yesterday on Oh So Beautiful Paper via Indigo Bunting , I completely scrapped my original plan for programs. Seriously, they are as sweet and perfect as they are simple. Which makes them, well, perfect.

I am planning a display of photos from the weddings of our siblings and cousins at our reception in lieu of parent and grandparent photos, largely due to the fact that my parents are divorced and M's parents have had what can best be described as a rocky marriage. I'm planning some cute tented cards, like these photographed by Richard Wood Photographics, explaining the relationship of each couple to M and I.

Escort cards, like these found via The Knot, are going to simple and cute little business-sized cards slid into tiny envelopes with names written on the envelope and the table name listed on the card inside. Right now my "keep it simple" DIY approach is to these is to start writing names on the envelopes any minute now and then just slide in the appropriate cards as RSVPs are cataloged and tables assigned.

Also on my list are some sort of cute table name/number signs and little booklets that will share a bit about M and I with our guests as we each have family attending that the other has yet to meet. While the two projects will not be combined, I do love these table number journals Darci from With this Ring made for their reception that invited guests to leave them notes and share advice. I'm thinking this would be a great basis for our cute little books.

So there we have it, the list is growing and time is dwindling. Hopefully I have lots of cute things to share soon!

Making a List, Checking it Twice

2009-04-13T19:40:00.001-07:00

This week will mark three months until the wedding so after a bit of a hiatus in important decision-making, I’ve decided now is likely a good time to evaluate where we are and what major items are left to be accomplished between now and July. To be honest, I don’t typically like nor put much value on the prescribed planning timelines you’ll find on a lot of wedding planning websites, but I do think now perfect timing for me to be checking in on myself and getting organized again. So, with three months to go the list looks something like this…

{Source}

- {Invitations} Mail invitations (scheduled for the first week of May) and begin cataloging RSVPs
- {Cake} Decide on to cake or not to cake and if not, what we’d like to serve instead
- {Ceremony} Finish selection of readings, readers, write vows, etc.
- {RSVP Info} Mail list of weekend events + reminder to make accommodation arrangements to confirmed guests
- {Itinerary} Mail list of weekend events/times/locations, suggestions for attire and other helpful information to wedding party
- {Groomsmen Attire} Finalize decision on what M and his groomsmen will be wearing, make rental arrangements
- {Wedding Party Gifts} Complete purchase of wedding party gifts for 7 bridesmaids, 1 bridesman, and 6 groomsmen
- {DIY Projects} Complete or scrap remaining DIY projects including favors, table numbers, escort cards, programs, photo guest book and whatever other little ideas I fall in love with between now and then
- {Rentals} Finalize details on what we’re renting and if it’s being delivered/setup or if we’re tackling that on our own to save money
- {Music} Finalize music selections and meet with our friend/DJ to cover the basics…otherwise it’s all up to him
- {Thank You Cards} Find/buy or design/print cute thank you cards so they are ready to go when gifts arrive
- {Flowers} Find a weekend to mock up some bouquets and centerpieces so I can convince myself I won’t go crazy doing it on our own

{Source}

So, with three months to go, that’s how things are shaping up. I feel ok about what we have left to do and honestly, I think I’ll be comfortable scaling back on the list to stay sane if need be. How are my fellow June/July/August brides doing with your lists?

Lovely Paper Giveaways

2009-04-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

Just a quick reminder that you have until Wednesday to enter the Two Brunettes giveaway! Also, don't miss the awesome Smock giveaway on Oh So Beautiful Paper this week and the Bella Figura giveaway on Brooklyn Bride - the winners of each will be announced on Friday!

Letterpress cards by Smock

Letterpress wedding invitation by Bella Figura

Final Answer

2009-04-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Maybe something like this?

{Made here}

...which I suppose isn't too terribly different from this, now is it?

{Towels from Balineum}

Huh. What do you know? Looks like I had it figured out all along.

200th Post! 99 Days Until Wedding Day! [And a Giveaway!]

2009-04-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

I remember writing my very first post months ago not knowing if I would end up blogging to an audience of one (I knew my MOH/BFF would read after all), but delighted to be writing and tracking our journey to our wedding day. Today, I am celebrating my 200th post and at the same time marking our less than 100 days to go milestone with a giveaway from my new friends Carolynn and Nell of Two Brunettes. Such an exciting day!

Coincidentally, Carolynn and Nell are paper-loving Syracuse, NY girls like myself so I am especially excited to host this giveaway. Carolynn and Nell are a graphic design and copywrite duo who became instant best friends after meeting at work. The Two Brunettes line of cards is inspired by the great connection these two friends share and their desire to create something that is an extension of their friendship. Their cards are designed to be delightfully customizable so that you can easily create the perfect set of cards you can never find in the store but long to have for that special occasion or for a special loved one. You've recently seen their cute designs featured on (Oh So) Beautiful Paper and mentioned by Whitney of Darling Dexter, both among my favorite blogs, and really, what's not to love? Their cards are adorable!

Today, Carolynn and Nell are giving away 4 note cards personalized with your initial...or that of a loved one if you'd like to give these beauties as a gift! All you have to do is visit Carolynn and Nell's newly launched Etsy shop and comment here on your favorite design by midnight (EST) on Wednesday, April 15. A winner will be selected randomly and announced next Thursday! If you ask me, these would be the perfect gift for a shower hostess and/or for the Maid of Honor who has had your back for months. Or, you know, you can tuck them away and use them to leave your new husband/wife gorgeous love notes for no reason at all. You decide!

Hugs and kisses today to my very first blog friends who commented on my very first post...

Amy Jean aka Relentless Bride
Guilty Secret turned Cate of Project Subrosa
Amanda of Peony :: Love and
Paisley of Paisley and Scott

Pretty Bridal Books

2009-04-08T17:58:00.000-07:00

I discovered Marta Designs today and I am completely smitten with these handmade books. How perfect would they be as a guest book, a scrapbook or even as a book to collect advice from guests at your bridal shower? You can even customize them with the colors and fabric patterns of your choice. Perfectly lovely. I want one. Or two.

The Great Color Debate [Continued...]

2009-04-07T14:47:00.001-07:00

It has happened again. Something has come along that caught me by surprise, made me say "oooo, pretty!" and has me totally reconsidering our color palette. Yes. Again. If you recall, when we last visited my color dilemma, we were contemplating this pretty inspiration board...

Champagne, charcoal and ivory with smudges of blue here and there, remember? Well then today I saw this color palette on the Southern Weddings Magazine blog and it was all I could do not to jump out of my seat with excitement. How amazingly sophisticated and timeless is the pairing of black with white and camel (aka champagne)?

Do you see where I'm going with this? I'm thinking about swapping out the guys' charcoal suits for something classic black and pairing the girls' champagne dresses with chic black shoes, which would help with my continued dilemma regarding affordable gold/champagne shoes as it's infinitely easier to track down great black shoes. My blue accents have only appeared so far in paper and stationery so I think I would keep it that way and keep everything else neutrals, maybe keeping charcoal or another shade of gray in the mix to keep it fun. I've been planning on white flowers the entire time, possibly wrapped in champagne ribbon, and pretty shimmery necklaces for the bridesmaids. Sooo...basically, we'd be looking at something like this...

My lovely hairpiece by twigs & honey

My dress, Casablanca 1827, via Party Pop

Bridesmaid dresses from Dessy

Photo by Megan Dailor

Letterpress invitations, Keswick design, from Bella Figura

Ribbon in Lake from Paper Source

Dashing gents in classic black via The Knot

My shoes from JCrew

Some completely fierce and totally rewearable black bridesmaid shoes like these by Steve Madden

Ok, ok. So I guess it's not that much different aside from the addition of black and a slight scaling back on the appearance of charcoal and blue. At any rate, it feels different to me...it feels more flexible and a touch more classic and I am all about keeping to a palette that is classic, elegant and not too overworked...the irony, of course, being that I can't stop overthinking the entire issue. So, what do you think? Black or no black? For the love of weddings, help me make a decision so I can seriously quit debating color!

Planning the Sweetest Ceremony

2009-04-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

As writers and lovers of literature, M and I are excited to be writing our own wedding ceremony to be officiated by my stepfather's sister. While my stepaunt is a minister, I'll be perfectly honest in admitting I don't know much about her faith as we're planning a ceremony that is largely secular. At this point in my life I most closely identify with being agnostic while M could best be described as vaguely spiritual more so than religious. Simply put, religion does not and never has played a role in our relationship so despite having both been raised Roman Catholic, we knew a church wedding wasn't for us. What's most important to us is creating a ceremony that is reflective of our relationship, our personalities and includes as many personal touches as possible.

We decided early on to include a couple of readings and asked my grandmother, a published author who has been married to my grandfather for nearly 60 years, to write one of them. We've given her essentially no guidelines and are trusting that she'll write something insightful and touching and hoping that M's grandmother, with whom he is very close, will be the one to read the words penned by my grandmother. We have also fallen in love with this quote from Captain Corelli's Mandolin that we hope to have a close friend read during our ceremony -

Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being in love which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.

Along with our two readings, we are planning to write our own vows and are considering the inclusion of a handfasting ceremony as we really like the symbolism of being bound together in life from that point forward. My aunt and uncle, who are also my godparents, have been married for 30 years and we're considering asking them to perform the actual hand binding in recognition of their succesful marriage and our intent to look to them as role models in maintaining a loving and supporting partnership despite life's many obstacles. Finally, I really love the idea of having our rings passed from guest to guest, asking them say a small blessing or in some way impart positive energy in whatever way rings true for them, although I'm a bit skeptical at the prospect of having our rings floating about. As we continue researching and planning, we intend to pick up a copy of The Wedding Ceremony Planner in the near future, a book that has inpsired many a personalized wedding ceremon in the blogosphere.

Is anyone else planning to write your own ceremony? What traditions and sources have inspired you?

All photos by one of my favorite Upstate NY photographers, Megan Dailor.

A Good Reason to Avoid Brownies

2009-04-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

I just found this stunning picture of my wedding dress here. I am expecting my dress to arrive in the next 3 - 4 weeks and I'm thinking this is the perfect motivation to avoid brownies, cookies, ice cream and all of my other great weaknesses between now and then. I absolutely can't wait to see my dress again!

Thank You, Iowa!

2009-04-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

I need not say much else aside from thank you, Iowa. I make no secret of the fact that I am extremely passionate about marriage equality and gay rights in general. I don't often speak of why it is I am so very committed to the cause, mainly because once I get up on this particular soapbox of mine it's nearly impossible to talk me down. With that said, today I wanted to share a few reasons why Iowa is now among my great loves...

{Reason # 1} | BKF. My college boss turned amazing friend, BKF will be standing by my side as a bridesman at my wedding along with my bridesmaids. He's basically my everything; friend, family, confidant, rock, sounding board, venting outlet, shopping partner and gossip talker. I love him endlessly.

{Reason # 2} | WJAK. Essentially the younger brother I never had, WJAK is a tremendously devoted friend who always has my back regardless of who, what, where, when or why. He's a natural planner with a touch of OCD, just like me, and as such he's gladly accepted the role of Day of Coordinator for our wedding weekend.

{Reason # 3} | LRS. (Here with BKF and I on their shared 30th/25th birthday this fall.) If you were to look the word "friend" up in the dictionary, LRS's face would be there. One of my bestest friends in the entire world, LRS was my roommate until M and I moved in together this summer...and I still miss him each and every day. We are honored to have him as a groomsman as our day would not be complete without him.

{Reason #4} | DJD. Another groomsman, DJD (pictured here with LRS) has one of the kindest souls I've ever known. I lost count of the number of times he's turned my frown upside down years ago as there are truly few problems in life that one his hugs can't solve. He is the kind of friend that instantly becomes family and I couldn't be happier to include him in mine.

These incredible people have seen me through some of life's most difficult times and I know not where I would be today without them. With our wedding looming closer all the time, I can't help but wonder....they will be by my side the day I get married, why shouldn't I be by theirs while they do the same?

2009-04-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

Apparently I'm trying the Twitter craze on for size. Do you tweet? Come follow along if you like!

My Ruby Slippers

2009-04-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

I appear to be even more obsessed with cute frocks, cocktail dresses and shoes than usual these days. Perhaps it's the arrival of early spring and the promise of warm days ahead that has me wanting to run about in the cutest of things? Or maybe it's the realization that the wedding is inching ever closer and with it the flurry of parties, showers and merriment to come? Either way, I stumbled upon these fantastic red mary jane peep toe pumps last week, Luminous by Nine West, and had to have them for my bachelorette party. A few moments of detective work later and I scored them on ebay for $34.99 with free shipping. I spent some time prancing around the house in them yesterday as I continued my adventures in unpacking and I l.o.v.e. them. A lot. I do believe they would make perfect wedding shoes for a girl looking for a punch of color to go with her dress!

Nine West Luminous, still availble on Overstock if you're a size 8!

An Open Letter to JCrew

2009-04-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

Dear JCrew,

Anyone and everyone who reads my blog knows I am a huge JCrew fan. Huge. You routinely taunt me with your cute cashmere sweaters, your perfectly lady-like bows and ribbons, your beautiful shoes, your perfect party dresses and those amazing little clutches. But, dearest JCrew, you're taking it too far. These shoes? They are killing me with their utter perfection and their flawless color combinations. I have not $225 to give you in exchange for them let alone $225 times three for a pair of each. It is with a heavy heart that I must request you refrain from inflicting such pain on me so regularly. I'm sure you understand. Let's keep it to like once a month or less, ok? Thanks so much.

xoxo,
C

A Birthday Present

2009-04-01T16:19:00.001-07:00

Thank you all for your sweet birthday wishes and thank you, Krista, for spreading the word. Ahhh I'm officially 26! Does that qualify as "late 20s"? Eh, I digress. I could care not because this evening, after behaving myself all day, I enjoyed a half of a piece of pizza and a big hunk o' birthday cake for dinner. And you know what? It was delicious. d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s. Not quite as delicious as the dessert Krista, her Wade and I split last night at dinner after I personally delivered their amazing invitations, but it was still damn good.

And then, it gets better...my birthday present to myself? I finally found a GOCCO! Because you are all seriously amazing, I managed to track one down and all signs point toward it heading in my general direction tomorrow. (Dear Canada Post/USPS, please don't lose my Gocco!) I found it used in excellent condition bundled with a bunch of inks in great colors so once I manage to stock up on screens and bulbs I should be in good shape for a good long while. A big thanks to Mo for pointing me toward Flickr where I found it and also to Chelsey|Miss Gloss and Ami for answering my many Gocco-related questions and encouraging me to take the plunge. Thanks, ladies!

There she is! I can't wait to get rolling on my projects and share lots of DIY goodness with you. So exciting!

Sweet Treats

2009-04-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Have I ever mentioned how much M loves cookies? I mean, the man seriously loves cookies. In fact, cookies may well be my only contender for his heart. Lucky for both us, he doesn't have to choose. Needless to say, in my great internal debate about favors (who really needs them anyway?) I'm sort of attached to the idea of treating our guests to cookies. It's just so perfectly us because we're both such lovers of sweets and because anyone who knows M knows he literally can't go a day without cookies. Perhaps, Kat {aka Mrs. Charry Pie} just made my mind up for me. I'm not sure it gets any better than the cookie bundles they gave their guests. Don't you just love these?

My Gocco Woes

2009-03-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I almost bought a Gocco. And then I didn't. About six months ago, I almost bought a Gocco. And then I didn't. About three days ago, I decided I really really wish I had bought a Gocco when the getting was good. And now I'm apparently out of luck unless I want to shell out huge money in an ebay gamble and wait for it to get here from Asia. *sigh* It figures that in my travels I just stumbled upon an amazing Gocco tutorial...you know, the kind that would be super useful if I had a Gocco.

*By all means, if you have a Gocco you'd like to sell for a fair price and/or know of where I can find one for a similarly fair price, please let me know. I'll bake you cookies. And my cookies? Amazing.*

20% Off @ Victoria's Secret [Today Only]

2009-03-31T04:54:00.001-07:00

This just hit my inbox this morning and I had to share. Great time to nab that bathing suit I've been drooling over for months...

Getting Fit 2009 [Sunday, March 29]

2009-03-30T16:49:00.001-07:00

For some reason this post didn't post yesterday as scheduled, so here it is a day late...

I have to say that I am continually inspired by the support and well wishes I am so lucky to receive from all of you. Last week's post wasn't a particularly easy one for me and yet, as I suspected, you were nothing but the best of friends in your encouragement and that does not go unnoticed. Thank you all for inspiring me to stay motivated and to keep pushing. This past week I did just that and managed to hit a new all-time low, something that is completely exciting! With my birthday this week, my goal is to maintain through the week because wedding dress or no wedding dress, life is too short not to eat birthday cake.

Because we seem to be a growing group of soon to be brides and newlyweds looking to slim down, shape up and get healthy, I thought it made sense to share one of the little ways I stay motivated and how I keep pushing. It's rather simple really. My "secret"? I truly believe one of the keys to my success are my little lists. Making them, reading them, writing them, reciting them, remembering them. They keep me in touch with where I'm at, where I've been and where I want to go so that even on days when I'm allowing myself to indulge, or days where I feel stuck, or on days when I eat birthday cake, I don't lose sight of what I'm trying to achieve. My lists basically revolve around three main categories - inspirations, motivations and goals, and they are written on sticky notes, sent to my inbox from my cell phone, and scribbled on the letterpress offcuts we use as notes in the office. They happen a line or two at a time and they are always evolving. The only consistent theme is that they keep me on track and they keep me sane.

To kick off spring, this week and for each of the next two weeks, I'd like to invite you to share your own lists, regardless of your weight loss or fitness goal. You can be looking to lose 100 lbs or 10 lbs, it doesn't matter to me. For all of you who participate by leaving your lists as a comment and/or posting your list on your own blog (just leave a comment here so I can pop over and see your list!), you'll be eligible to win a special inspiration prize package compliments of yours truly. The only requirement is that you participate each of the three weeks, otherwise the lists can take whatever form your heart desires. This week we'll focus on inspiration and I'll share my list first to kick it off. Who or what inspires you to get fit and healthy?

I am inspired by my late grandmother who was a true free spirit, a lover of life and who died far too early from heart disease.

I am inspired by my future husband who is the first person to make me even dream I might someday like to be a mother (I'm still debating this one) and in doing so has reminded me how important it is to be healthy so we can live a long happy life together.

I am inspired by my family who have stood by me unconditionally and who never cease to be my greatest cheerleaders.

I am inspired by the quiet beauty of nature and a desire to eat as healthy and natural as possible. The earth offers so much more than McDonald's ever could.

I am inspired by others who are committed to changing their lives for the better and who manage to do so despite hectic schedules and busy lives.

All photos by the incomparable Peonies and Polaroids

More JCrew Loveliness For My Closet

2009-03-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

Last month my mother purchased this pretty silk chiffon dress from JCrew during one of their fabulous extra 20% off sales that I take advantage of as often as possible with the intention of wearing it my bridal shower. In the bright and summery Bright Rhubarb color, her total investment was about $45. For silk chiffon. Seriously. Fortunately for me, while my mother and I wear the same size we are shaped quite differently so when she deemed the dress unsuitable for her body type, it found a new home in my closet. One of my very dear friends is getting married the week before us at a vineyard on Long Island, and I've been on the hunt for the perfect dress for an afternoon vineyard wedding. Today, I hunt no more. Thanks, Mom!

JCrew Silk Chiffon Twist-Tank Dress...with pockets!

And a quick camera phone shot to show you the color...so pretty!

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-03-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

Turns out, it's my birthday next week. And it also turns out, Macy's has this lovely little silk dress by Anne Klein on sale. In ivory. Don't mind if I do...

Switching It Up and Staying Sane

2009-03-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

From the start I've been adamantly opposed to a formal dinner hour at our Saturday reception. I wanted something more social, something more intimate and free form and my sights immediately set on having yummy food stations and no formal food service. Our venue is willing to do this, but the ability to make it happen largely hinges on how close our guest list gets to capacity for the room where we are holding our reception. We deliberately opted for the smaller room our venue offers as it is cozier, features great architectural details, boasts the most spectacular of river views, and also because I knew it would help me keep the guest list in check, which it has.

The room holds a maximum of 175 and our Saturday evening booking required a guaranteed minimum of 125, although there is no minimum per person beyond that, which is great. At 125 - 150 guests, the room can comfortably accommodate the extra room required for setting up food stations throughout the room. The closer we get to 175, the trickier this would become as we would need more tables set for guests. Currently, our invite list is at about 205, which will make for by far the smallest wedding in my family to date. I haven't had a cousin get married with fewer than 300 guests in attendance so our "small" wedding is quite unusual. What this means in a nutshell is there is not much filler to speak of on our guest list. We have invited only the closest of friends and family, with my huge family composing the majority of that list. We could very easily top out at 175, but I could also see us having as few as 130 - 140. I simply have no way of guessing at this point.

From the start I haven't paid much attention to such things as escort cards, table numbers or anything of the like. Because with food stations I saw no reason to assign tables and in fact was hoping to push for a few less chairs than guests to keep the atmosphere very cocktail hour-like for the entire duration. However, lately I've had this vision of myself three weeks out having to devise table numbers, escort cards and seating arrangements last minute because our venue has just informed me stations are impossible and we have to go with a buffet or plated dinner. And I picture myself frantic, stressed and annoyed for having put myself in that position. So, this week I made a fairly surprising executive decision. Stations are out and a dinner hour is in, done and done. If I plan for it in advance, I can spin the change in plans into something that I love just as much and worries me not. Should I have to change it last minute, I know the organized side of my brain would short circuit, and frankly, something as silly as food just shouldn't be a source of such concern.

Long story short, I have a whole new DIY project up my sleeve involving fabulous table names that are so perfect I can't imagine having things any other way. I am going to work to pull a mock-up together over the next few days, but in the meantime I will let you in on the fact that it some way involves the place where M and I had our first conversation. And because no post is complete with pretty wedding inspiration, here are a few table numbers that I adore.

via Once Wed

from Glamour This

via Fiancé Meeting You Here

from Handmade by Allison

The Sweetest Invitations [Proofs]

2009-03-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

Guess what? I got our first round invitation proofs today! Nothing says, "holy crap, we're getting married!" like seeing it spelled out before you in deliciously styled PDF. After great deliberation, we opted for the Bella Figura Keswick design, which I absolutely adore. While M largely doesn't care about such small details, this was the one design he got excited about, surprisingly so in fact, and despite all of the gorgeous options that had me drooling for days, Keswick was my favorite too and so the decision was fairly simple in the end.

In general I have a rule that when M feels strongly about something wedding-related, he typically gets his way as it's not often he cares much one way or another. He's a typical guy. He's just excited to get married and go on a honeymoon, the color of flowers or bridesmaids dresses are largely of no consequence in his world. So basically, he's going to be of no help from this point forward as I work with Beth Ann to tweak our invitation layouts...and that's where you all come in! First, a sneak peak at our two reply card layouts, which I am very happy with and excited about, aside from still not being 100% on the wording of "Ceremony and Champagne Reception" so let me know if you have any ideas.

Reply card design for guests invited both evenings

Reply card design for guests invited to Saturday evening's reception

The biggest decision I am faced with right now is the selection of a script font. The original one I picked isn't doing it for me, basically because I am really not loving how my name looks. So today I requested to see my name in a handful of additional script fonts and I've narrowed it down to these two favorites. I am looking for something elegant and a bit traditional without being overly rigid or stuffy. Which of the following do you prefer?

Newport Script

Figura Script, which you may recognize from the Bella Figura logo

After far too much debate, I decided on Mediterranean and Pale Gray for our two ink colors. All of our pieces will be printed 2-color with the exception of our ceremony card, which will be printed 1-color in the Meditteranean. In total we have four pieces (1 invitation, 2 reply cards, and 1 ceremony card) plus I ultimately opted for printed addresses on our envelopes to make life that much simpler when it comes time to sending these amazing little creations out into the world. I can hardly wait to see them letterpressed on gorgeous Bella cotton paper!

Getting Fit 2009 [Sunday, March 22]

2009-03-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

In the last few months, I've received some amazingly touching emails from readers who are also struggling to lose weight and adopt a new lifestyle who have managed to find a bit of inspiration in my weight-related posts. I remember just starting this process and how incredibly overwhelming it was, how alone I felt and it brings me incredible joy to feel as though I might in some small way be able to help some of you out as you stand in that very same spot. I'm no expert, I'm only human and I'm still learning all the time. And so, that's why tonight I'm opting to share just how difficult the last couple of weeks have been for me instead of just glossing over it and pretending everything is peachy keen. Weight loss is not an overnight fix, it's a lifelong commitment and a continual learning process and with that comes ups and downs.

My official before photo, taken in December of 2005 at my brother's wedding. I wore a size 22.

Recently, I hit a new milestone, a new all-time low weight! This fall I changed up my workouts and while I saw a big loss in inches, I actually saw a small gain of a few pounds on the scale as I converted fat to muscle. Add in my embarrassing Christmas weight gain that I had to overcome, and getting to this new low felt great because my measurements are much smaller and the weight was finally decreasing again, too. However, almost immediately I started to falter. I could probably blame it on the stress of starting a new job and unexpectedly having to move, and that likely wouldn't be entirely untrue, but I know it's ultimately deeper than that. All of these years and all of these pounds later, food is still an issue for me. I'm realizing fully that it always will be. I will make it to my goal weight at some point, but the battle will never be over. I will have to remain vigilant and conscious of my decisions for the rest of my life. Sometimes it's a very tiring thought.

One of my first "skinny" pictures on my 23rd birthday in 2006. I had already lost 35 pounds at this point.

So in addition to feeling bored with my routine and stressed and what I call "snacky" and having to continually remind myself not to nibble out of antsiness, I've also started to grow a bit complacent. When I was a size 22 and over 270 pounds, I told myself if I could just get to a size 14 I would be grateful and never allow myself to gain the weight back. My theory was that a size 14 would allow me to dramatically improve my health risks, shop at normal clothing stores, and be cute while still curvy. I was, and still am, an adamant believer that a woman does not have to be a size 2 to be beautiful, attractive, healthy and fit.

Well, size 14 came and went and now I'm working on fitting into my first pair of size 10 jeans ever in my adult life and part of me is just over it all. I know physically I'm a lot more fit and in better shape than a lot of women I know who are significantly smaller and thinner than I am, and generally speaking I'm pretty happy with how I look. M has loved me since he met me at a size 16 and for him its all gravy at this point...he's always found me beautiful and the smaller I get, the better I look it's all just a bonus. He would have loved me, married me and been an amazing husband regardless of whether or not those size 10 jeans ever fit.

Soon after I met M as a size 16, down approximately 60 pounds by then.

So right now I'm at this point where the two sides of my brain are fighting. One side is telling me enough is enough, a woman does not have to be a size 2 to look amazing, it's ok to stay where I am at a size 10/12. The other side is saying that stopping now is not an option, not until I am wearing that goal size 8, period the end. But then I wonder....when I get into an 8, is it going to be enough? Am I always going to look in the mirror and still somedays see the size 22 I once was? When does it stop? When will enough be enough? Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure, but like I said, I am still learning and I'm still figuring this whole thing out.

Minus 100 pounds as a bridesmaid for my dear friend's wedding this past summer.

For now, I believe I'm largely at peace with where I am and what I've accomplished. My plan right now is to push for another 20 pounds, reevaluate how I feel and where I'm at and possibly give that last 10 pounds a go. I am focusing on trying to keep my nasty habitual tendencies in check, finding other outlets for boredom and stress and staying the course. Sometimes the slope gets slippery, but you have keep climbing. I gave myself yesterday off to keep from going crazy, indulge some cravings and regroup. I'm largely thinking it was succesful as today I feel reengerized, refreshed and rejuvenated to keep going. Hopefully I can lose the couple of pounds I've put on in quick fashion and report new losses and new milestones soon. In the meantime, let this be a reminder that no one is perfect, we're only human, slip ups happen and all you can do is pick yourself up, dust off and keep on keepin' on.

I Love Spring!

2009-03-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

One of the [many] great things about that fun new job of mine is that our parent company, Boxcar Press, subsidizes 20-week Community Supported Agriculture memberships for all employees. M and I talked it over and it took us about 30 seconds to decide to jump on board. An abundance of fresh, local, organic produce all summer long? We can't wait! Our first delivery isn't until June 16, but we'll be receiving delicious vegetables every week through the end of October. We will be positively swimming in asparagus, garlic, zucchini, spinach, cucumbers, blueberries, basil, green beans, peppers, radishes, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, kale, parsnips, turnips, leeks, shallots and so much more. Yay for eco-friendly employers!

Last year's final CSA delivery starring our office manager, Carrie. Photos from Smock's Flickr Photostream.
M and I are big fans of the earth so we're really excited to be able to participate in a local CSA program this year. Our caterer for our Friday night cocktail party will be using exclusively fresh, local ingredients wherever possible and we've indicated a desire to tweak the menu to make that happen if necessary. While we certainly aren't perfect poster children for the most eco-friendly of weddings, we are trying to take little steps whenever possible and after having had the opportunity to feature this amazing real wedding on our Bella Figura blog this week, I am freshly inspired to see what we can do to limit our carbon footprint for the wedding weekend.

Happy Friday and Happy Spring!

The Sweetest Vacation - Confirmed!

2009-03-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

It's official! I know I shared with you our plans to honeymoon in Bar Harbor, Maine, but as of a quick phone call last week and the arrival of a reservation confirmation in our mailbox on Monday, we are officially booked and dreaming of eating lobster and blueberries to our hearts' content...because yes, to us Maine is all about lobster, blueberries, watching the tide ebb and flow, hiking, and scooting over to Nova Scotia on a day trip.

{Source}

I'm fortunate in that a handful of you have given me great ideas of where to go, what to see, where to eat and where to shop, and that definitely helped us make the leap and book our Maine honeymoon and make it a reality. We honestly debated putting it off, saving the money and taking a honeymoon later, but we just feared that with our busy schedules and frugal ways we'd never actually make it happen if not now. So, instead of worrying about the expense, we're making smart decisions and considering it our very own economic stimulus package. The economic analysts on NPR keep telling me that a nation of people saving money instead of spending money is not going to get us out of this recession, so we'll do our piece and go on a honeymoon. It's our civic duty after all, right?

With that said, we are looking to keep it fiscally responsible. We considered camping, which is a really budget-friendly option, but in the end decided we wanted a bit more privacy and something a bit cozier for our honeymoon. A lot of local hotels and bed and breakfasts are really pricey, and our cute little oceanfront cabin was the perfect compromise. We have our own little grill on our front porch, a teeny little bedroom, a bathroom and air conditioning, and ocean views all within walking distance to the Acadia National Park Visitors Center. What more can you want? Oh right. Lobster. And blueberries.

Equilibrium

2009-03-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

I am really unbelievably overwhelmed by all of your well wishes these past few weeks. I am happy to announce today that the move went incredibly well this weekend and though we are still living amidst stacks of boxes, bins and bags, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My commute this morning was a happy twenty three minutes, which brought me unbelievable joy after having spent about an hour and fifteen minutes driving each way the last couple of weeks. The dog is enjoying the process of roving around and figuring out the lay of her new land and M and I are enjoying falling asleep to the twinkle of lights from houses across the lake that sparkle like candles through the wide bedroom windows. There is just the slightest hint of spring in the air and with the prospect of the wedding weekend kicking off four months from tomorrow, we're in a really exciting place right now. I can't even believe the immensely pleasurable experience my life has become in the last two years and the last two months in particular. What's more is how happy I am to share it with all of you...happier still to be back, to be settling in and to be able to catch up with everyone this week. I promise to pop over to say hello soon!

A beautiful sunset on our lake. {Source}

Thank Goodness It's Moving Day!

2009-03-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

Today is the day! Our move officially begins this evening when I scoot out of work early to meet our landlord for the exchange of keys and garage door openers. I'm willing to bet I will be even more slack-offish and inattentive with regards to keeping up with my beloved blog friends over the next 48 hours, but soon life will be restored to normal. No more 2.5 hours of commuting every day. No more getting home drop dead tired at 7:30 just to barely have time to see M before we have to hit the sack to be up before dawn. But listen, rumor has it that come summer our new backyard looks something like this...

Complete with sand-bottomed lake and 90' dock and I'm more than willing to have you all over for a glass of wine at some point this summer if you end up my direction. Just don't come all at once, ok? I'm not sure how that would go over with the neighbors. At any rate, Happy Friday!

In Love

2009-03-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

I know of a lot of girls fall madly in love with their dress, place their order, begin the anxious wait for its arrival...and then get cold feet. Did I make the right choice? Is it as pretty as I remember? Is it really me? I have to say, I have none of these worries and that thrills me to no end. I'm surprisingly carefree and just can't wait to have it arrive in my size so I can zip it up unlike the two sizes too small sample with which I originally fell in love. My estimated arrival date is targeted as April 28th, which seems shockingly close all of a sudden. Yes, I realize in actually it's nearly two months away, but having started dress shopping nine months in advance of the wedding, having an actual dress that is mine to wear on our wedding day arriving next month seems, well, insane in the best of ways. I was flipping through some photos of my dress today and remembered just how much I l.o.v.e. it and I just had to share even though I know you've seen most of these already...but honestly, who doesn't love photos of a beautiful dress? Exactly. I thought so.

Just as a reminder to those who have been reading along for a while now or to all of the new blog friends who have recently found your way here {hi!}, my dress is by Casablanca, style 1827.

Weddingbee PRO Debut

2009-03-11T17:03:00.000-07:00

Earlier today Bella Figura + Smock. debuted on Weddingbee PRO! I know there are a lot of Bella Figura and Smock fans along with letterpress enthusiasts in general out there who are going to love an inside glimpse at the inner workings of such an inspired company. Make sure to pop over and say hi!

That's What It's All About

2009-03-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago one of my weekly posts over at Elizabeth Anne Designs scored me the great prize of an internet lashing by way of misguided commenter. Apparently, I'm all kinds of self-absorbed and out of touch because M and I really wanted to include videography into our budget and after careful consideration and exploring of options, we found a way to make it work. I have to say that I was pretty insulted for roughly a hot second, but after a bit of simmering I decided to bite my tongue, take the high road and ignore the comment. If I'm putting myself out there for all of the blogging world to read, I certainly can't expect everyone to take away an accurate impression of who I am or what I represent or to agree with all of my decisions. I get that. Truthfully, I didn't intend to bring this up here either, but I feel compelled to do so if for no other reason than to encourage us all to focus on ourselves and what's right for us without judging other people for that which feels right to them. Aren't we supposed to be liberating ourselves of such nonsense?

A couple of months ago, I shared with you the sweetest gift that arrived at my house unexpectedly from my dear friend who defected for the left coast soon after college graduation. I was blown away by that and it really had nothing to do with the gorgeous silk clutch I now own and cherish, and everything to do with the love and thoughtfulness that went into that gift by a person I hold dear. It has been nearly two years since we last saw each other, but I never fail to laugh at something I know she would find funny or to think back on some of life's toughest moments that we helped each other through when I'm stressed. Her very existence in my life, albeit long distance at this point, is a great equalizer that really allows me to keep it all in perspective. Isn't that what the greatest of friends are for?

And so, I have to ask, in turn isn't that what weddings are for? For bringing together all of the people you love in one place at one time to make a commitment, to seal the deal with the one you love and look forward to sharing a lifetime of ups and downs with? To celebrate with the people who helped make you who you are, who guided you to this day where you can look around you and know you're ready to jump into marriage with both feet, no doubts, no regrets, no holding back. And why, if this day is so very monumental both to us as a couple and to those we love, why shouldn't we find a way to include videography if our little hearts so desire? Excuse me if I fail to see where this is out of touch or off base. I find it perfectly appropriate, thank you very much.

This week I learned that same friend and her husband will be making the trip to NYS for the first time in over two years to be here for the wedding. She excitedly went out and bought herself some brand new bright pink Samsonite luggage to make the trip and they're making arrangements to buddy up with a friend of ours to split hotel costs for the wedding weekend. Who needs the diamonds, the dress, or even the food? This development in the planning process has made me happier and more excited than anything to date aside from my impending marriage itself. I have a bridesmaid flying in from Virginia to be a part of the celebration, friends from opposite corners of the state making arrangements for time off, a sister and future sister in-law who are both obsessing over how to wear their hair because they're so excited for the wedding, a mother who keeps tearing up at the thought of my first bridal shower next month because that somehow makes this all real, a fiancé who keeps practicing how the word "wife" feels, a confirmation number for an oceanfront cabin for the first vacation M and I will have ever taken together, and a bubbling feeling of joy and excitement that keeps growing and one of these days might threaten to choke me if I'm not careful.

I'm slowly, excitedly and happily, coming to the realization that this wedding weekend is going to be huge. It's going to be huge because it is likely to be the only time in our lives that all of the ones we love, the ones we miss, the ones we laugh with even though they aren't with us in body, the ones we turn to in good times and in bad, will all be assembled with us at one time in one place and it will be in celebration of us, in support of our union, and with love for us. And you know what? Yes, I do want incredible photos and yes I do want amazing videography, because I want those memories and those moments to live on for years to come and I could not care less if someone finds that to be absurd. To each their own, as they say. I didn't buy an expensive gown, I'm doing all of our flowers myself, I'm forgoing all kinds of pretty, frivolous things that I love and lust after, because to me those things don't matter, they don't count, they don't make the memories. Our friends do, our families do, and I want to see those memories and relive those memories as often as I like throughout our marriage so we never lose sight of who we are, and how much we are loved, how amazing our friends and family are, and how much support we have when things are not so pretty and not so perfect. If you can find fault in that, that's on you, not me. Because to me, that's what it's all about.

With my left coast friends after our last dinner date. They left for the great state of Washington the following morning.
{ps} Here I am with long hair and approximately 55 lbs heavier than today.

So I guess what it all boils down to is this, think of me what you will, pass whatever judgements you like. We're working hard to make a weekend that is amazing in our eyes and I really can't apologize if you don't think it's as great as we do. In turn, my best wishes that you have the wedding and marriage of your dreams, whatever those dreams may be in whatever way you define amazing for you and yours. Let's all just play nice, ok?

Getting Fit 2009 [Sunday, March 8]

2009-03-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

A quick update before I'm off to bed in preparation for another long week of long commutes. We've spent the weekend packing, discarding, assembling piles for donating, cleaning and preparing for next weekend's move and I'm really really looking forward to a shorter drive to/from the office as of next Monday. In the meantime I am obsessively labeling and color-coding every box and bin we pack up so hopefully the getting settled process is much more seamless than it was last time around. Because, if you recall, we just moved but six months or so ago so this packing and moving thing is beyond old at this point.

At any rate, today marks one month since my complete and total re-dedication to the weight loss project that is my life. In that time I have lost exactly 17 lbs (23 lbs total since the start of 2009), 2" off my waist, 1" off my hips and 0.5" from my bust. My pre-Christmas pants that were embarrassingly tight post-Christmas feel great and a couple pairs are even starting to slide down on my hips, which, I have to be honest, I find completely thrilling. I have strangely come to love sloppy-looking pants if it means I'm smaller than I was when I bought them. Ohhh the sweet little pleasures in life! I shimmied my way into my near-goal size jeans this week and while dreadfully tight and nowhere close to buttoning comfortably, I could barely squeeze one leg in before so even that humbling experience is a victory of sorts.

From today I have 31.8 lbs until I finally hit my goal weight and by my completely non-scientific calculations a rather modest average loss of 2.5 lbs/week will get me there far more than a month in advance of the wedding with plenty of time for my final fitting. My dress is due to arrive in approximately 7 weeks so I'm really itching to see what additional progress I can make between now and then. Today marks the beginning of week 2 of the 100 Hundred Push Ups challenge, so hopefully you are sticking with me! I hope everyone had a great week so make sure to let me know how things are going. I'm about five pounds away from having earned my Wii Fit and I can't wait!