Being Prepared

Note: I rarely post "secret" things on this blog. MamaP reads it, the PHI occasionally reads it, and several of my bridesmaids are regular readers. Needless to say, if I want to keep it a secret, the blog is so not the place to put it. This is one of those things that should be a secret, so 'maids, you might want to skip this post, k? Cause I'm going to tell everyone else about a project that's going in your gift bags!

As many of you know, I'm a lifetime member of Girl Scouts. Its the only thing I've done longer than be in school - which is really saying something. There are several things that I have naturally incorporated in my life that I've gotten from Girl Scouting, but the one that rears its head most often is our motto: be prepared. All of the tedious planning I've done up until this point has been motivated by that simple statement. And last night, I made something that will hook my 'maids up in the event some unforeseen issue comes up.

Meet the Bridesmaid Survival Kit.


Inside, each 'maid will find tissue, band aids, a pack of Tylenol, a Shout wipe, a tube of chap stick, an emery board, a few bobby pins, and a few peppermints (my fave; pun intended).

Everything was purchased either on that travel aisle at Target or in the beauty section at Walmart, and I maybe spent about $10 total (yup, for all 6). I threw together some labels in PowerPoint that were thankfully as cute on paper as they were in my head. Not bad for $10 and about 30 minutes of my time, huh?

And can we just talk about how cute they are? I think this might be the cutest thing I've made for the wedding. Okay, maybe thats a stretch. They might be the cutest thing I've made this month for the wedding :)

Some of you may be wondering what kind of party I'm planning that would require a "survival" kit. Completely valid (and hilarious) question. No, I'm not planning to host a mosh pit in place of the bouquet toss. But, I do think that when you have so many ladies in close proximity, all dressed up, during (what I hope will be) a very exciting weekend, things are bound to happen.

So now, when they do, at least my 'maids will be prepared.

♥

Dishing Out Our Pics (the preliminary plan)

Lately, despite there being 94 (eek!) days til the wedding and my wedding to do list has taken to doubling in size daily, I've been thinking about our wedding photos. Yes, the ones that are neither paid for nor exist yet - lol. I love love love pictures and the idea of having lots more, taken by our fab photographer Chelsey, makes me giddy.

I haven't finalized the list completely, but this is what I'm thinking so far:

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For our guests, a photo collage to place on our Thank You notes, kinda like the one pictured above. The plan is to use Mrs. Daffodil's instructions, and have the photo be detachable so that our guests can have an additional souvenir from our special day. Right now, the plan is to send Thank Yous to everyone that attended (not sure if I told you about that part), so hopefully between the PHI and I, we'll be able to accomplish that.

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For the parents, I'm hooking up with my good friend Blurb to make them Photobook Albums. Both MamaP and MamaD love our photo guest book, so I think they'd really enjoy having their own to enjoy (and show off). Some of the pictures will be the same in both albums, and we'll include some family specific ones to each album.

Also for the parents, grandparents and other relatives, we'll do framed prints. Hopefully we'll have them just in time for the holiday season. The PHI and I did something similar this past Christmas, and gave MamaP, my grandparents and my aunt and uncle framed prints of our engagement pics. We (I) selected photos that we thought they'd enjoy and we were right. So we'll be doing that again for parents, grandparents, godparents and probably aunts and uncles.

Last but not least, I want to do something like this for our home:
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I love big wall groupings of photographs. Our new apartment has an empty wall thats just begging for some photos to go up on it. Although the central print is a very large 24x36, I think the whole idea can be scaled down nicely. I'd love to have them printed on canvas, but I'm afraid its going to be super expensive, so we'll have to play that part by ear. Either way, this has our name on it, and I'm going to start mapping it out as soon as we get our proofs.

So whatcha think? Any other ideas for ways to dish out the wedding pics? I can't wait to see them!

♥

OH MY GAH

On Friday the PHI and I got our first registry gift! Why didn't anyone tell me it would be so thrilling?! I'm getting excited all over again just blogging about it!

Interestingly, the CorningWare that we got was a fairly recent addition to our Target registry. Prior to its addition, it was on our now nonexistent Bed Bath and Beyond registry.

I've already started brainstorming things to make in it. I'm so excited. I've wanted CorningWare ever since MamaP got hers (a gazillion years ago)...its a prime target for that oven to table look, it matches our lovely White Pearl china and cleanup is a breeze!

I cant wait to cook in it. Did I mention I'm so excited?
♥

Temporarily satisfied

I promise I've been working on wedding things, even if I havent been blogging about them. Most of the things are still kind of in the pipeline, or are supposed to be a surprise for someone special.
This is one such thing. You know how I ♥ these coasters? Well, since I've been told on multiple occasions that I dont need them for the wedding, I decided to get some anyway...as a gift for someone else!

As you can imagine, I cant really reveal the design - it would totally give away the recipient. But what I can say is that I love Etsy and that Jenna from Southmain has been a dream boat to work with. When I initially contacted her about designing some coasters, she informed me that she wouldnt be able to make until after January 1st and if I needed them before then she couldnt help me. Well, we all know the wedding is still months away, so we were a go. At that point we proceeded to nail down a design, a font, and an ink color. It took surprisingly more messages back and forth than I imagined. Fast forward a week or so, and I believe I can check one more gift off the list! I imagine they will be produced and delievered in January - with plenty of time to spare.

Unfortunately, I've had so much fun designing the coasters that I really want coctail napkins (again) for our wedding. I could get 200 for less than $30 and supplement with white or ivory ones. I'm seriously tempted to eek some money out of the budget to get them. Like, I've-already-started-brainstorming-designs tempted. I've already started working on the design and they have this yummy teal that would be perfect. Consider me temporarily satisfied.

I'll let you know if I order napkins. Try to act surprised :)
♥

I know Etsy...in the biblical way

*giggling*

I popped my Etsy cherry today!

Sorry, I think that was one too many virginity references. I have been lovingly visiting Etsy regularly since oh...June, and today I finally purchased something! Its going to part of one of my bridesmaid gifts. Like part of one person's gift. See, I'm fairly certain I'm not doing a blanket (think: one size fits six) bridesmaid gift. They will all have a common element (which I've already purchased for a fab price!), but there will be variety in the other elements. Same for the moms...and the readers (oh geez, I had almost forgotten about them..I haven't even asked them yet - lol).

But anyway, I made my second (of many) 'maid's gift purchases. I'm so tempted to post a pic to show you, but I don't want to give it away.

...okay, okay you twisted my arm, here's a peek:


...and no, I'm not telling you who "it" is for! On second thought, let's just pretend you didn't see that, k?

The point is that I finally purchased something from Etsy! Cheers to the first of many happy purchases to come. ♥

Surprise Wedding Gifts Rock

A couple of weeks ago a mysterious package was sitting at my backdoor. I was expecting my FM transmitter for the iPod to be back there, but this other books was truly a mystery. I know mom hadn't sent anything because she would have asked about it. I really didn't know who it was from and eventually gleaned that it was sent from the Greater Palm Beaches. Home! A package from home! But from who?

I didn't get a clue until I opened it. And on top was a print out of an email on how to vote for a girl I know who was vying to be a red carpet reporter at the Emmys. It was some People.com/You Tube contest which mom had told me about, so I now knew which family this was from. But a couple sheets of paper is not worth a box, right? The box was for some really gorgeous towels! Ivory with an Old Gold (yes, I did say old gold...look it up if you don't have a reference point....try AlphaPhiAlpha.net) patterned border. They wouldn't be something I'd typically pick out since I'm into bright colors and almost all of my towels are a different color, but they are perfect for like a guest bath.

And they screamed their sender. Ms. Lerna is really quite a lady. Immensely thoughtful and pretty fabulous in her own right, she's one of those people who you just enjoy being around. And she sent us our first gift! Interestingly, there was no card, but I knew Fran (the daughter and People.com red carpet announcer contest winner didn't send them. These screamed her mom.

And that meant our first thank you note was in order. I promptly ordered some pretty cute standard thank you notes from Target.com and patiently awaited for their arrival. I figure we can have a wide variety of thank you type notes - ones that match the invites, some that feature our gifts, and even just solid ones for before the invites go out. Plus, I keep thank you notes on hand. In my older age, I really wanted to be the kind of girl who sent thank you notes for gifts. So I became her and I always have some on hand.

I sent Ms.Lerna's TY note on Thursday and she should be getting it this weekend. It was such a lovely gift, enhanced by the fact that it was a total surprise.

Surprise gifts rock. The fact that its a wedding gift that makes the surprise that much sweeter. I ♥ Ms. Lerna. She rocks.

♥