Dishing on J Heart P

There are several things that are very common in wedding world that I've never batted an eyelash at. Today's culprit: the candy bar.

{this and more found here}
Talk about chic and amazing! If we were going to do a candy bar, this would be our inspiration. Hands down. But, as you can imagine, most of them don't look like this. But many of them feature alphabet shaped letters that spell out LOVE. Sometimes they even make an appearance on the cake table as someting extra. But considering most people I know dont even go peep the cake up close (I checked), I know that the candy and the possible adorable-nes of the dishes is missed on most guests. Not to mention the expense involved with providing a variety of candy to over 100 people. Cute, but no thank you. Maybe for a shower, but not for a reception.

So imagine my surprise today, while catching up with the Wedding Industrial Complex (aka theknot.com) I ran across these dishes:

{found them here}
I'd never seen a heart dish like this (I've seen lots of letters; most couples spell out LOVE) and I looove it. I kinda want a set - J ♥ P, naturally - and could easily see having these filled with yummies during one of our (increasingly infamous) WII/Xbox Game Nights. Or even for a more sophisiticaed soire, complete with cocktails. Fruit, candy, nuts...oh the possibilities.

That's it. I think I just convinced myself that we should order them. But after the wedding. Waaaay after the wedding.

....off to the post-wedding purchase list you go!

♥

Are Ya Hungry?

If you weren't, you might be in a little bit. Cause I wanna show you our menus!


I can only take about half the credit for this project. For starters, it was all MamaP's idea. One day we were discussing paper-goods in general, things going on the table specifically, and she mentioned that she thought it would be nice to have something on the table describing the food. I thought she meant a few table tents with the menu on it, but no. She meant individual menus. And what did I do? I agreed to do them, only if I could design them.

MamaP's idea + my DIY muscle = an awesome team.

Here's what I came up with:


Ya'll know me, they were designed in PowerPoint and they had to match everything else. I was able to fit 3 on an 8.5x11 sheet, and had them printed at Office Depot. Since were planning for approximately 150 guests (!), I decided that I should outsource the printing to the professionals. It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't terribly expensive either. Plus, I couldn't beat submitting the order online first thing in the morning, and swinging by to pick them up when I got off of work. No sweat, tears or technical difficulties. (I spent about $30 on card stock, printing and peace of mind at Office Depot.)


To finish them off, I layered them over a slightly larger piece of Moss colored card stock from Paper Source. Again, I was able to get 3 back layers out of each sheet of 8.5x11 paper. Ever since I discovered Paper Source early into the wedding planning, I've been dying to find a reason to use them for our paper-goods. And now I have! (I spent about $15 on moss card stock.)

I am not going to lie. Assembling these suckers was an unbelievably huge pain in the arse. Thankfully, BM Naima agreed to come over and help me start them, and my cousins BM Melissa and Natalie helped me finish them this past weekend. Ladies, if you're reading this, thank you from the bottom of my bridal heart.

I know $45 is not bad for about 150 completely custom menus, but I do wish they'd come in a bit cheaper. Nonetheless, I loove how they turned out and I can definitely see why brides pay good money for other people to do this kind of stuff for them.

♥

Another post about cake :)

Frequently I get newsletters from theknot.com. Not quite so many that I feel spammed, but regularly enough to only skim them. Today’s email contained a newsletter – not sure how often this comes out – that informed me that one of the choices we made for our cake is one of 7 (New!) Cake Trends. See for yourself:


Go figure. I don’t know if its brides flexing their recessionista muscles, or people are finally starting to admit that fondant is lovely to look yet more expensive and funny tasting, but I’m glad to see that the sage advice of icing your cake in buttercream is finally becoming mainstream. We picked buttercream for our cake only because I looove buttercream. The fact that it’s more reasonably priced is just icing on the cake (pun intended – lol).

If you’re interested in viewing the other trends you can check them out here. All this talk of cake is making me hungry. Off to see if there’s one last slice of strawberry layer cake…

♥

Who does that?

Uninvited guests: the bane of every bride’s existence.

See, you spend all this time strategically deciding who to invite, thinking through all the possible justifications for why they make the cut, and agonizing over people who don’t get a high enough grade on your rubric to guarantee the invite.

And all that is before the invitations even go out. In fact, usually its before you know what they’re even going to look like! Not surprisingly, as October 3rd approaches, I’ve been having more run-ins with possible uninvited guests. And I’m always pretty surprised at the source of the inquiry. Actually, my response each time has been “Who does that?!?” Here’s whats happened (so far):

My first run-in came from one of my ‘maids. Long story short, she wants to bring her boyfriend to the wedding and for several reasons – the main one being that neither I nor the PHI have a relationship with him – we’ve essentially told her no. Honestly, I thought the matter was settled a year ago (yes, I am saying that in a year we still don’t feel like we know him; long story). But I was accosted at my FL shower about this dead-horse issue. The difference this time was she asked me in front of a small crowd of people. So I couldn’t say “What makes you think he’d be invited now when his name is not on the invitation label I printed last week?” like I wanted to (lol). Instead I punked out and said “We’ll have to see when the RSVPs start coming in.” I can’t believe I said that. I can’t believe she wants to invite someone to our wedding. I know, it doesn’t put us on the hook for actually giving him a seat at the reception, but I think opened her up to the possibility. But in all seriousness, who does that?

The next run-in came the very next day. I was at MamaP’s house packing my suitcase and trying to figure out how to get mostly everything home when there was a knock at the door. It was my mama’s godbrother’s ex-wife (were you able to keep up with that?) wondering why she had not been invited to the shower. She heard about at her ex-mother in law’s (MamaP’s godmommy) house, and after hearing that the shower was fab, proceeded to find out what happened to her invite. Thankfully she blamed MamaP and not me for the “oversight.” But my favorite part was when she said “I guess that means I wont be invited to the wedding…” Yup, especially after that stunt you just pulled, you’re probably right. Who. does. that.

My most recent try arrived in my inbox (yes, you read that right) last week during a pit stop to drop off the stuff we got at Sams. The PHI and I were having a domestic day (I’m now off every other Friday) and we took the opportunity to run some errands together. He’d never done Sams, and I imagine that from now on I’ll probably be venturing in there alone – lol. But anyway, for the sake of not getting worked up, the email was telling us that my sister-in-law’s sister-in-law (I know) has not only invited herself to our wedding, but has already purchased a plane ticket to SoFla.

Say it with me: who does that!?

It was initially framed as a question (i.e. “is it okay if she comes) but eventually turned into a request, complete with offering to pay for her plate and a reminder that she doesn’t have much family and considers the PHI and his family (her in-laws) to be her family too.

Fine. This stuff is all gradually driving my pressure up.

But not anymore. I’ve deposited here, I’ve told my friends (and co-workers), and now I’m back to the old Patti we know and love. I refuse for people to take away our choice in the name of wanting to celebrate with us. We’d love to invite everyone. But we cant. Nor are we going to initiate our own personal recession by trying to. So I’m putting it out there:

If you thought you were getting an invite and it never came, we’re sorry.

If you read my blog, and are interested in coming, thank you (!) but I am very sorry.

And if you think that you can just bop your way over to the Harriet Tubman* Theater on October 3rd, and we’re going to just let you in without a returned RSVP nor an initial invite, you’re sorry.

::stepping down from my soapbox::

I’ll be back very soon with pics and info on our invites and our menus that I just had printed. Unfortunately the invites didn’t price out as cheap as I’d like, but our invites more than made up for it. I am just swooning with love for them.

xoxox

*hilarious inside joke from my FL shower. Pics and recap are on the list, I promise.

Adding to My Anti-Toss List

Several months ago I shared my 4 reasons for not wanting a garter toss, and asked your opinions about chucking that tradition. I never posted an update, but I'll say this: I only have one bouquet (that I fully intend on taking home with me) and have not made arrangements for a garter (yet).

However, as the wedding gets closer, I anticipate receiving more questions about this (particularly which songs we'd use) and I definitely think we'll get a few questions after the fact. I fully intend to rely on my aforementioned list as my rebuttal, plus one. This one is being added to the list post haste.

Meet Reason #5: "If you knew where it came from, you wouldn't want to do it either."

It used to be that after the bride and groom said, “I do,” they were to go immediately into a nearby room and “close the deal” and consummate the marriage. Obviously, to really make it official, there would need to be witnesses, which basically led to hordes of wedding guests crowding around the bed, pushing and shoving to get a good view and hopefully to get their hands on a lucky piece of the bride’s dress as it was ripped from her body. Sometimes the greedy guests helped get the process going by grabbing at the bride’s dress as she walked by, hoping for a few threads of good fortune. In time, it seems, people realized that this was all a bit, well… creepy, and it was decided that for modesty’s sake the bride could toss her bouquet as a diversion as she made her getaway and the groom could simply remove an item of the bride’s undergarments and then toss it back outside to the waiting throngs to prove that he was about to, uh, get ‘er done.

- {excerpt taken from The Bizarre Origins of 8 Wedding Traditions by Jenn Thompson}

Bizarre is exactly right. As a civilization, allegedly we've come alot further than this. But every week I hear about some groom spending a little too much time under his bride's dress...with the entire reception watching! Sounds like the modern day interpretation, right?

All I can say is I'm glad I hit the scene in 1982 and not 1582.

♥

Favors Sneak Peek: Tag Toss-Up

My cousin and BM Melissa is going to be in town this weekend, and I've been instructed to put her to work - lol. Believe it or not, its really been a struggle trying to come up with things she can assist me with. Partly because I'm on track with my to do list. And partly because I'm kinda anal and like to do things myself so I can troubleshoot when something goes awry.

But anyway, there is at least one project that I could use her help with: punching out the favor tags. Yes, I know I've been hush hush about the favors, but lets focus on what you do know. You know that they are going to be filled with green MnMs, and that they have they will have a cute tag attached to them. Considering we're making favors for 150, you can see why I'd pick this as a project BM Melissa could help me with.

Last weekend, I spent a good portion of my Saturday working out what I call tag logistics. If you remember, I originally had the tags designed by a seller I found on Etsy. I loved them. Absolutely loved them. But when I printed them out, I did not like how the green printed. My bad for not printing them before I accepted the final project. Dont ya'll make that mistake, okay?

That mistake is really where today's story begins. After I got the logistics all worked out, it occurred to me that the greens wont match. Like they will clash. Not even remotely coordinate. Its something that even the guests might notice. And if nothing else, I would notice. So I opened up my BFF PowerPoint and worked to recreate the tag. After I accomplished that, I was left with the following options:

Option A: Leave the tag as originally designed.
No extra work but prepare for the icky clash.

Option B: Print it in black and white.
This would be easy - no need to coordinate if there are no colors, right? Well what about the teal? The favors would be green, black and white, no teal? That doesn't seem right.

Option C: Just make the tag teal.
Ultimately, this is what I decided to do. But for some reason I was very hesitant to do it. I printed it out several times to check and make sure that the tag looked cute in teal, and that there would not be too much teal on the table. I don't think there will be, and at least I know it definitely matches the other teals.


So there you have it folks. The real favor tag. I really wish I had thought about clashing when they were initially designed so that I wouldn't have had to go through the process of re-creating them myself. I cant wait to get these suckers printed and punched out so that I can run them through my Xyron. Then there's attaching the labels, filling them with the MnMs and figuring out how to get them to the venue.

Geez, now that I think about it, I cant wait until I can check favors off my list for good!

♥

The Photo Sharing Experiment

Today I want to show you the results of a project that was a pain in my arse, but that I hope will yield some interesting results. In this day and age, most of the people I know have a digital camera surgically attached to their hand when they attend events. And I don't assume that my showers or the wedding will be any different. As such, I got this idea (probably off TheKnot or WeddingBee) to give guests the opportunity to share their digital photos with us. Lets call this "The Photo Sharing Experiment." And I'm going to use my wedding shower guests as my sample (sans informed consent, thank you!)

I designed these cute and instructional cards in PowerPoint (surprise surprise). Initially, I wanted to do business cards, but I was having a hard time uploading a business card size image to Vistaprint. So I made postcards instead. And found a coupon code to get 100 postcards for free. Postcards are significantly larger than a business card, but still small enough to slide in a purse. Maybe this larger size will mean they'll be less likely to end up in the deep recesses of a handbag (cause I assume everyone's handbag is as deep as mine - lol).

With postcards, you can never quite call which side you're going to see first. But technically, this is the side I expect people to see first:


Naturally, I used the wedding fonts, and for good measure I included our wedding website url. If I'm able to collect any good photos from my showers, I'll make a slideshow for the website. According to Vistaprint, this is the back. Black and white text was included for the back(I did have to pay to upload my image), so I made it black and white. The additional charge to print in color was not worth it.

This is the side I expect everyone to see second:


According to Vistaprint, this the front. So the color printing was included, but I still had to pay to upload my image. Here is where I outlined (hopefully) very simple instructions on how to upload photos to our Flickr site. I chose Flickr for this project for a couple of reasons. First, brides speak very highly of it for this particular purpose. Second, I used Flickr when I designed our Blurb guestbook, and could easily see making an additional photobooks using images guests uploaded. Flickr and Blurb are BFFs, so importing photos into the Blurb software is seamless and stress free.

Ya'll already know this experiment did not cost me very much. About $18, including the uploading fees and shipping. I really hope that the ladies at my shower will pick up a card and upload their photos. I'm not entirely sure this will work, but if people use them, I'm definitely going to order more for the wedding. Probably business card sized this time.

I'll let you know how my little experiment turns out, k.

♥

To Figure Out

Despite having a good chunk of the wedding planned (note, I said planned, not to be confused with paid for), my to do list continues to grow – almost daily.

It’s starting to fill up with a category of things that I simply file under: To Figure Out. Some of it is standard fare: transportation, makeup and hair logistics, etc. But some of it is…well, lemme just give you an example. [Please bear with me, because I realize a lot of what I’m about to say is early onset Bridal Crazy Talk.]

This week I’ve been struggling with table number holders [toldya, crazy talk]. When I designed them, the plan was to rent table number stands (for $1 a piece) from an event rental company. Well, several decisions later, MamaP and I determined we did not need any of our other rentals, and it seemed silly to only rent table number holders. So I cancelled the entire order. But I still hadn’t worked out the table number display.

Initially, I thought I’d buy those same silver table number stands.
Turns out they’re too expensive.
Not willing to spend more than $1 per table (our original commitment).

Then I thought I could mount them onto folded card stock to make tents.
But what color? Teal would clash…
The linens are ivory, so white would stand out a lot…
They already have green backings, so what would I do with that?
Scrapped that idea too (pun intended).

Then I thought [in an especially crazy moment] that I’d use decorated binder clips as holders*.
Yes, binder clips.
And decorate them with paint or paper, a lot like this:


Cute, right?

::crickets::

So very wrong.
That got shot down because…
Well, because I wanted to use binder clips!

Exit crazy talk, enter a real solution. Enter Etsy.

{focus on the holder, not that heinous card. found them here}
It took a little bit of searching, but I was able to find these fairly cute wire table number holders that I plan to purchase as soon as I have a little cash. They have clear bottoms, so they will not clash (v.important), and are $1 each. Cute and cheap (enough).

I would have loved to DIY them, but obviously I was struggling. And that’s the moral of today’s story. With less than 5 months to go, a dissertation prospectus and move to Atlanta eminent, I finally figured out that I need to learn to pick and choose my DIY battles. I just can’t afford to waste the energy when I can simply purchase something that will fit our needs (and our budget) quite nicely.

MamaP always says that she is willing to pay for convenience. At this stage in planning the wedding, depending on what it is…and what it costs….I am too.

♥

*I originally got the idea from Real Simple, found here.

DIY Week: Wanna Make a Toast? (day six/bonus)

Since DIY officially ended yesterday, and I dropped the ball on this last would-be Drive By, I'm posting it today - without a whole lot of hype or text. Its almost not even enough post to call it a drive by...so I'll call it a bonus - lol.

{please excuse the crappy pic, I had a hard time getting a quasi-decent one}
This, my lovely readers, is one of our etched-glass toasting flutes. They (like most of my projects) began with me being disgusted about how much ugly, generic wedding accessories can cost. Being me, I went to Hobby Lobby and got a set of plain toasting flutes for about $7, and then proceeded to personalize them by etching the glass using etching cream and some bootleg stencils.

Naturally, they are etched with "J ♥ P" and "P ♥ J" (not shown).

Glass etching was an interesting experience. You had to be really careful about where the etching cream ends up, which generally keeps you on edge until you've finished the project. But I like the simplicity of the etched glass, and how they could easily be used post-wedding for champagne or (my fave) mimosas.

For the sake of brevity, I won't go into the logistics of etching glass. I really just wanted to show them to to you (and cross them off my DIY list - lol). Let me know if you want me to post a tutorial, k.

Happy Weekend!

♥

DIY Week: Please Sign Our Book (day five)

Today is the very last day of DIY Week.* Its been such an awesome craft filled week, it will be kind of sad to go back to discussing the other wedding business (and you know there's some other stuff we need to discuss). While many of the things I've shown you this week may or may not get noticed, today's project is something I hope that every guest at our wedding will see (and enjoy): the Guestbook.

By now, you already know there was no way we would have a standard, uninspired guest book. Were having a photobook, filled with our engagement pictures (because seriously, what else do you do with those things) and lots of white space for people to sign and leave us messages. Before I go further, I better give you some visuals.


This is what you see when you first lay eyes on the book. It will probably be closed just like this on the guest book table.


Once you open it, you'll see that some of the pages have text. The text is the lyrics of our first dance song.


Some of the pages are just pictures with a good bit of white space. When we showed it to MamaD, she asked where people were supposed to sign. Spread the word: people are welcome to write in any of the white space.


One of my favorite parts of the book are the two-page spreads. I wouldnt really recommend writing on these, as it could be difficult, depending on which spread it is. The two-page spreads have a yearbook-y quality to me, and I think they really showcase our photographer's talent and how beautiful Athens, Georgia can be in the fall.

I've mentioned several times that guests will be instructed to write in the white space. I haven't decided if there's going to be a guest book attendant or not, but in the event there isn't one (or she's busy), I made a little sign (surprise, surprise) to hang out with our book. Here's my mock up:


Essentially, its just the book, some pens in a votive candle holder and the sign telling people what to do. I don't anticipate our guests having a whole lot of trouble with this. You either write a message or you don't. I really hope everyone will though.


There are quite a large number of places you can have photo books made. I decided to go with Blurb, because I'd heard good things about the book quality, the prices were competitive, and the software was very easy to use. I had a positive experience with Blurb and would highly recommend Blurb books to anyone wanting to show case their photography, their writing, or some combination of the two.

So there it is folks. Our photo guestbook. This was not nearly as cheap as many of my other projects, but I was willing to sacrifice cost for quality and bridal satisfaction (lol). The PHI and I love this little book and we can't wait to see what kinds of things our guests decide to fill in the white space with.

♥

*Sidenote: who knew blogging daily would be this much work? When is the last time I posted so many days in a row? Oh, I remember. Spring Break. And then I took almost a month off. I promise I wont do that this time!

Idunno about you, but I need a visual.

I don't know if you noticed, but I failed to mention what I want the cake to look like in my last cake post. The cake design is just as important to me as the contents, and I knew I'd need a visual aide to explain my vision to the baker. So I threw this together in PowerPoint:

click to enlarge
Basically, its my two favorite cake inspiration pics, and an explanation of which aspects of the inspiration cakes that I'd like our cake to have. I also included a small picture of our cake topper so that the baker could see it without me having to tote it around. Here's a larger one.

I made the cake topper using some wooden letters from Michaels, a thin wooden dowel (divided into 3 pieces), metallic green acrylic paint and a little bit of high gloss sealant.

Making these was a really simple project. First, I sanded and painted the letters, then I used hot glue to attach the dowels, and finally I spray painted the letters with the high gloss sealant. The whole project took me less than a couple of hours, and only cost me about $6. I think they're going to be really cute on the cake, and are very similar to the topper from one of our cake inspiration pics.

I was able to leave a copy of our cake planning sheet with Lorene and I'll have a copy in my wedding planner. I'm thinking about updating it to include the cake dimensions and flavors (may as well be thorough, right?). I highly recommend pulling together a comprehensive visual aide when you go speak with your vendors. If you don't know what you like, that's one thing. But when you know what you want, I think it helps your vendor if you can connect the dots between your inspiration pictures so they'll have the vision too...in your own words.

♥

Hot Date w/ Hydrangea, part 2

Now that we had the basics straightened out, the first hands-on thing (think: fun with flowers) we did was sort out the centerpieces. As I mentioned earlier, she suggested we provide our own glassware, and told me that for the size tables were having (60 inch rounds that seat 8-10 people), a 5-inch cube vase would be nice. Turns out 5-inch cubes are a little difficult to come by locally (and not to mention EXPENSIVE), but I found some 8 inch bubble vases that had a 5 inch opening. I brought those along instead.

Here's a mock-up of the centerpiece using green hydrangea and the bubble vases:

That's MamaP's hand. It was right at that point that she asked Darines if it was possible to add some greenery to the centerpieces. She went and retrieved these wide green leaf things and stuck a couple in there ( so we could get the look). Here is Centerpiece 2.0:

Not the best pic, but you can see the wide ribbon looking leaf I was talking about. She's going to add about five of them to each centerpiece and we're going to sit the centerpieces on a dark teal satin table runner. I just love them. They're exactly what I requested, but better.

Then we moved on to altar arrangements. I know I got on my bridal soapbox and declared that I wanted an arbor at the ceremony. Well, I've stepped down off said box, and have opted to have Darines design some arrangements to put at the front, rather than the arbor. I didn't have anything specific in mind, but we decided to use some silvery looking urns, filled with hydrangea arrangements. Initially we were thinking something like this:

That's Darines trying to hide - lol. We really liked the look of the white against the modern but still neutral containers. And we definitely could see using these arrangements somewhere else in the event space after the ceremony. But then Darines suggested throwing in a touch of color to these arrangements. Something like this:

She added some standard sized hydrangea stems that have a hints of green and blue on the leaves. From a distance they read green, but upon closer inspection you can see the touches of blue. I like AltarArrangement 2.0 better because the additional stems adds visual interest to the arrangements, and is a nice way to incorporate the wedding colors without beating everyone over the head with them.

Overall, I am so pleased with today's appointment. I went in not knowing what I wanted the ceremony decor to look like, and having all of the flowers turn out better than I imagined. Hydrangeas will be everywhere! I love that I'm able to use the bubble vases (that I can get at Michaels for the low), and that MamaP and Darines totally hit it off. I know everyone getting along is not necessary to work together, but it sure does make the process go a lot smoother.

Hiring a florist is definitely not the cheapest way to approach wedding flowers, but I definitely think its worth it. When its your turn, how are you planning to approach flowers? Do you already know what you want, or will you require an expert to help develop your vision?

♥

Hot Date w/Hydrangea,part 1

Back in January, on a whim I decided to hire a florist rather than have my godmother arrange the flowers. Godmommy is not a florist by profession, but has this unbelievable talent when it comes to flowers - live, silk, it doesn't matter. While I knew hiring a professional would cost us more money, I really wanted Godmommy to be able to enjoy my wedding as the godmother of the bride, rather than the florist. Unfortunately, I decided this towards the end of my 2.5 week holiday break.

Enter Darines at Simply Flowers. I called to see if she could meet with me on such short notice, and she was crazy enough to schedule an appointment with me before I skipped town, and we hit it off immediately. She shares my love of hydrangeas and did not scoff at our very tiny floral budget. I had done my homework, so I knew I wanted:

• Simple, but elegant flowers. I DO NOT like my flowers fussy. Designs featuring one or two types of flowers really speak to me
• My bouquet to be white hydrangeas and ivory roses, and the 'maids flowers to have some green in them
• Simple low round hydrangea centerpieces (white or green)

I also needed several boutonnieres and corsages. And after some discussion, MamaP and I decided we needed some floral ceremony decor. Thankfully, Darines sent a proposal back that was well within our budget, and told us that our centerpiece costs would decrease significantly if we could provide our own glassware. She also suggested we brainstorm ceremony decor when I was home in March.

I recruited MamaP to come with me to the floral meeting today. She wanted to meet Darines, and eyeball the flowers...even though she isn't paying for them. I think its a mama thing. Technically, the first thing we did was review the plans for the personal flowers: my bouquet, the 'maids, the boutonnieres and corsages. I'm carrying white hydrangeas with ivory roses, the 'maids are carrying ivory roses with kiwi green button mums, the PHI's bout will be roses and hydrangea like mine, the other bouts will be green button mums, and the corsages will be ivory roses. Just needed to verify that was still the plan. It was.

Thankfully our meeting was not all talk. In the next part I'll show you some pretty flowers...

♥

The writing's IN the pen

image
I ran across this unique DIY project for dressing up pens for the wedding. Essentially, you type your message in some word processing software, unscrew the bottom of the RSVP pen, and slide your message in. Think: message in a bottle. The color and ink combos are pretty much open - as long as you use something that will be legible through the plastic barrel of the pen. You can find the full instructions here.

We only need pens for the guest book. And it might be cute for the hostesses to have "wedding pens" to cross names off the list as people enter the reception. I was planning to use those Sharpies that are thin like pens and don't bleed for the guest book, but this may be better. If not, I think it would make an awesome addition to our out of town boxes/bags.

Whatcha think? Personalized perfection, or taking it a bit too far?

♥

Deciding on the Musiq

There have been very few things in the wedding planning process that the PHI and I just fundamentally disagreed on. Most of the discrepancies have been minor, and we've both been willing to compromise on something we could live with.

Our first dance song decision was not been nearly as smooth.

This task started out on the PHI's list of wedding responsibilities. For some reason (completely unknown to me) I assumed he would mysteriously be able to choose a song that we'd both be in love with. He chose this song:


It's called Happily Ever After and is sung by a little known artist named Case. I love this song. And if we were getting married 5-7 years ago, he would have been on to something. But despite loving it, I just didn't have a good feeling about it. Something inside me cringed when I pictured that song being the soundtrack of our first dance. But the PHI was so excited about it, and even changed it to his ring tone. I couldn't burst that bubble, could I? I waited about a month before I mentioned it. He eventually understood my hesitation, and agreed that we still had plenty of time to make a final decision. We both knew we'd find something.

Its at that point that we started what can only be called The Song Game. I'd throw out a suggestion, and he'd shoot it down. He'd suggest something, and I'd shoot it down. We considered having two songs - a bride's song and a groom's song. If we went that route, we'd dance to his song first (guaranteed he'd pick a slow song) and then dance to my choice (I was feeling I Need You by Alicia Keys). At one time, MamaP was even making suggestions! Her fave was Take You Out (aka Excuse Me Miss) by Luther Vandross which was a tribute to how we met.

What I realized through this process was that the lyrics were very important to me. So we needed a combination of the lyrics and the sounds together saying "first dance". For me, I needed the song to speak to our love for each other and the promise of forever we are making. I needed the song to say I've called off the search, you are the one my soul has been searching for. And that's it. I don't want to hear about how I've put up with you and the baby mama drama. Just the love.

Case was not going to cut it.

Fast forward to fairly recently. One of our favorite artists, soul singer Musiq Soulchild has just released a new album. The PHI and I are both huge Musiq fans but dragged our feet a bit in getting the new album and listening to it. One day I get a call from the PHI telling me he's listening to the Musiq album and is feeling track 9. A joint called Someone. I kinda remembered that song, and knew I liked it, but that was about it. I immediately popped open iTunes to investigate. Musiq basically sells his albums singing about love, so I was not surprised to hear it was a love song.

What I was surprised to hear were lyrics like this:

Someone who will put up with the things
Loving me can bring
But still be there to see us through
Someone who would put up
With the strange and complicated things
Cause I would do the same for her too
Someone who I can be real with
Aint gotta be perfect
Because loving one another is all that matters
It's not hard to explain
So believe me when I say
That I found all of that in you

My lovely readers, I had stumbled upon a song that lyrically was up to snuff. Like, I could have written those myself. It only took one more listen for me to instantly envision the PHI and I out there swirling around the dance floor (yes, the PHI likes to swirl me around). The melody is smooth and romantic, but has some passion behind it. Kinda like the PHI :)

Lyrics AND music? Check.

I called the PHI to get his opinion on making this our choice, and after reading him some excerpts of from the lyrics, he was sold. We had found a song. A song we both could stand behind. A song that when we hear it we smile and sing along. A song we both liked independently, but love even more because of what it will mean to us as a couple.

This was not an easy decision, and it feels good to have it taken care of. Plus, I love the lyrics so much that I've decided to integrate them into some other wedding details. This was important to us: initially to the PHI, and increasingly more to me as we went along. I'm so glad this is a decision that we ultimately made together.

How do you think you will decide? If you've already decided, how ever did you do it?

♥

Favors Sneak Peak: Tags

Generally speaking, I want to keep the favors under my hat a bit.

BUT, I had this made last week (by the awesome Jessica; find her Etsy shop here) and it's just so cute I had to share. Oh, and don't bother to ask what I'm putting these on...if you don't already know, you wont hear it from me. At least not yet :)

Happy Monday!
♥

DIY Details: Signage

click on it to enlarge...you know you want to!
To date, we have taken care of the majors: we have a place, a date, someone to prepare the food, take the pictures, and everyone mostly has something to wear (even me). So now it feels like we're basically dealing in details.

So what have I been cooking up? Those lovelies at the top of this post. Say hello to our table numbers, reserved seating signs, and our bathroom basket signs! Now people will know where to sit, where not to sit, and who provided the goodies in the bathroom (people would assume I did it anyway - lol). The swirly font is Freebooter Script, and the plainer font is Century Gothic. I'll be using those two on everything (so get used to it).

Oh, and so you can see my the reserved seating signs in action, I did a mock-up:


I wont spend the remainder of this post prattling on about what I would have done differently. Believe it or not, it took me very little time to design and assemble them (not like that aisle runner that I still have some choice words for) so I consider them to be a rewarding use of my time. Plus, for those of you (still) struggling with the kiwi/teal combo, I think my signage provides a lovely preview.

Long story short: I already love them to pieces.
Next stop on the DIY train? Gotta get those save the dates out.
♥

My budget's saying NO, but my heart is saying YES

I dont know why I was on Etsy this morning. Or why I searched for personalized cocktail napkins when I know they are not in our budget. I KNOW WE CANT AFFORD THEM.

Surprisingly, its one of the traditional wedding things that I'm hesitant to let go of. I love the idea of napkins with our names/initials on them. Maybe this isn't about napkins at all...maybe its just because I like things with my name on it. I digress.

Unfortunatey (for me), my Etsy search turned up a viable option:



Specs:
Etsy seller: southmain
Products: napkins or coasters
Price: $15 for 100 (one ink color)
Variety of napkins and ink available

I ♥ them. And I'm really digging the coasters moreso than anything. I don't even know how many I would need. I guess I could just order them for our house (before or after the wedding). Am I willing to fight for them? Or (more responsibly) cut something out of the budget to accommodate them?

*sigh*

I'm back forreal this time :)

For a good part of the last week I was on a vacation from our wedding. I'm sure all of you fellow brides out there can totally relate. Were at a little more than 11 months til the wedding (I swear the time is FLYING by) and there are loads of things to do. It doesn't help that I keep adding things to the list - LOL.

I am pleased to report that I accomplished all but one thing on my Florida visit to-do list. I didnt do number 5. It wasnt like I had an appointment with him, I was just going to see him at church. Come Sunday morning I was so exhausted I needed to sleep in.

The weekend started with mom and I talking a trip to the location (numbers 1 & 2 on the list). She loved it there and after meeting with our Linda for the better part of 3.5 hours, mom felt like we were getting excellent service for our money. Yay!

The kids (number 4 on the list) really deserve a post all by themselves. I will say this though, the five kids belong to 2 of my first cousins. I called both of them to ask their permission and both of them were surprised I was calling to ask. I thought thats what I was supposed to do before I volunteered someone's child(ren) to be in my wedding. Before I added an extra activity and financial responsibility to my wedding. My bad :) Thankfully they both agreed and I can check that off the list. Now I'm left with figuring out what the lovely little ladies (all 4 of them) will be wearing. You know mom and I have started kicking around some ideas...

(Sorry for not moving methodically through the list) Although not completely wedding related, I accomplished both numbers 3 and 6. I love my mama and I wish that she lived much closer. Even before I got engaged. Definitely now much more so. I also saw my Dani, my Brew, Dani's boo and my Dionne - not in that order I don't think. I loved seeing them but I was tired of being social by the end of the weekend. Thankfully next time I'm home I'll be there for a while and can spread out the love a little more.

As I mentioned last week I even got to see someone I hadn't planned on seeing. My godmother is my go to for all things flowers. Both real and otherwise. We popped by her house on Friday for a quickie visit. I just happened to have my wedding organizer in tow and next thing I knew on Saturday she was fetching me for a marathon Michaels trip. We discussed bouquets, boutonnieres, centerpieces and other general floral things. We now have a good working plan for the flower component of the decor. The plan is for a mix of silks and live - particularly live for the bouquets. I hadn't planned on seeing her this trip, but I'm glad I did. Not only does she rock, she's super creative and very open to my aesthetic and budget. A perfect combo!

I have loads more stuff to report on - updates from the weekend, plans that are in the works, and DIY projects I've already completed. I officially came off wedding vacay at 12:30PM, and fully intended on posting at 12:31PM to commemorate. I've been running all day. Not even with wedding stuff. I needed an oil change, I had library fees to pay, I have bills to pay, I had to figure out what to eat, I needed to go to Walmart for my class, I needed to register for next semester....on and on and on all day. Up until now really.

But I'm back now, and I hope you didn't miss me too much.
♥

I'm Going Home!

Just wanted to pop in and tell you that right about now I'm on an airplane headed to sunny South Florida for a long awaited mini-vacay and wedding business trip.

On the Florida to-do list:

1. Taking mom to the location. She's never seen it, and its hard to talk about logistics, decor, etc when she doesn't have a visual. We will be fixing that tomorrow.

2. Talking to the caterer..ahem event planner. Again, mom has never met her, and we havent met since we met so it will be good to sit down with her, talk budget and making the menu more brunchy, give mom and I both the chance to ask a tons of questions (I already have a list), and just get on the same page since the wedding is less than a year away (ahh!).

3. Kick it with some of my people. Actually, 2 of my 'maids live in town. My maid of honor/best friend/podmate (were 2 peas in a pod) and one of my favorite teachers. Hmm, I havent really introduced you to them...I better get on that. Anyway, they are on the list and since they'll be standing with me on my big day, we can lump them into the wedding business category.

4. Recruit the other 5 kids that are going to be in our wedding. Yes, I said "other five." If all goes to plan, there will be 6 little ones in our wedding. Blame it on us not being able to choose. I love all my little cousins and I couldn't decide so I figured we'd just find little jobs for everyone. I haven't talked to their parents yet, but mom and I feel like everyone will be on board to participate.

5. Talk to our officiant. I mentioned how he called us out in church the other day (by announcing our wedding to the congregation) and how he hadnt officially told us yes. I'll see him on Sunday. And even if I have to get some smoke signals, I want to be able to say "Officiant? Check." No question mark.

6. Spend as much time as I can with my mama. As you may have surmised, mom is one of my best friends. Seriously. We talk all the time, and thanks to the PHI blinging me out, we talk quite a bit about our wedding. Consider her the co-wedding planner. So yes, mom did just make the wedding list on a technicality, but she is totally on there.

Whew, that's quite a list, huh. When I'm not "working" for the wedding, I plan to be chillaxing, kicking it with the family, doing some good for the alma mater, and enjoying being in south Florida. Unfortunately that means I wont be blogging. I'll be back on Sunday, so expect something from me late Monday or on Tuesday, k.

♥