Today

Our day is today.

There are going to be people at my wedding that I have preferred not be there and a large handful that I don't even know.

And I didn't get all of the DIY projects completed that I wanted to.

And I didn't lose those last five pounds or tone up as much as I wanted.

But nothing matters today except for the fact that today is the first day of the rest of my life.

Amor...

Sometimes, I am a bit of a sap. And with the wedding being tomorrow and all, my sappiness is in full force. I came across the le love blog, which is perfect for my frame of mind right now. And this post in particular makes me tear up a bit every time I read it.

Problem Solved: Programs

I took my cardstock + pretty font idea one step further and added what basically boils down to fancy popsicle sticks to turn our programs into fans.



A pretty ribbon at the base of each and voila:


They aren't the most amazing programs ever or anything, but they are pretty and functional and, as is my motto these days, good enough!

Black tie not optional

Remember my compromise on ring dog? Well, I found the perfect attire for the pre-ceremony picture session:

How cute is that? My pups will be tres chic in black and white (white fur, black tie).

[from Terrier Tie Company on Etsy]

A little hospitality

On a bit of a shopping binge in the Target $1 section, I picked up a few things that I thought people might need throughout the course of the night so I could put together hospitality baskets for the restrooms at our venue: hand lotion, Shout wipes, hand sanitizer, kleenex, and of course, gum. I found a little basket (I have a ton of little baskets laying around the house right now and I'm making use of all of them!) and put it all together. I know I'm being super OCD at this point, but I thought it was kind of cute and would probably come in handy.

Problem Solved: Favors

Mmmmm, Dewar's chews. Dewar's was recently voted The Best Thing About Bakersfield, btw. I'm not making that up.

I went and bought 2 pounds of each of their five flavors (peanut butter, peppermint, almond, caramel and chocolate almond).


My good friend Archie helped me keep an eye on the candy while I sorted, bagged and tied.


I tied each bag up with a ribbon and placed them all in a basket for people to pick up on their way out. It was a fun project but took about three hours from start to finish. Definitely a good thing to do with a movie on.

I want to do a little sign to let people know we appreciated having them be a part of our special day - are there any good "we love you, take a favor" rhymes out there? I just can't resist my last opportunity to do something cute.

Stressful Wedding Things: Programs

High on the list of "things I sort of thought about but haven't really decided on yet" is ceremony programs. I'm trying not to stress over it, but I want to make sure we have a nice program for people to follow along with.

I love the modern simplicity of these:


But I'm thinking something like this might be more at my skill level. Pretty cardstock + pretty font = voila!

[all images from The Knot]

Flowers. Sigh.

You know how I feel about flowers. I just can't get excited about them. And even though I'm already settled on my flowers (Gerber daisies from Costco, thank you very much!), I don't know, I'm really loving this modern green bouquet:

[found on The Knot]

Let them eat cupcakes

I figure you can't have cupcakes without having cute little signs to indicate the flavors, right? So I found a great template courtesy of Martha Stewart and posted on the always fabulous Vintage Glam Weddings.


I found the template for these cute little cupcake flags on Vintage Glam, too. Super easy - cardstock + toothpicks + glue stick. Now that is my kind of craft project!

Stressful Wedding Things: Favors

ARRRRR. Seriously? I have to do this? Fine. It's gotta be candy. I've been to my fair share of weddings and I don't even remember what the favors were. But the one that sticks out in my mind is my friend's wedding where each guest got an individually wrapped Smith's heart cookie - both yummy and thematically appropriate.

I want my favors to be both edible and local, so I can support local business and give people a taste (literally) of Bakersfield. Right now I'm thinking a handful of Dewar's chews, wrapped with a ribbon. Something along the lines of the picture on the right:

[I'm being a bad blogger right now because I saved this image a long time ago and can't figure out where I got it from. If this is from your blog and/or wedding, hats off to you for coming up with a great favor idea!]

Pitching in...

NY Magazine put up a special wedding section recently and it's chock-full of amazing photos and inspiration.

This wedding in particular is amazing. I love the annotated photo and how everyone pitched in to make a special day even more special. That is what I'm envisioning and hoping for our wedding - everyone giving of their time and talent, which really, is the best wedding gift anyone could ask for!

Centerpieces, take two

From my mock-up a few weeks ago, to this... pretty good, huh? Again, this isn't exactly how the looks, just the basic components that we'll be using. I'm even more excited now that my table cards are done - I think they'll add a nice touch to the whole thing.

Prezzies!

I can't write too much about the above picture, because my bridesmaids all read this blog, but one of my many projects has been getting together gifts for our bridal party. The cute little packets above are part of my gift to my bridesmaids.


For the kids in our wedding party, I'll be adding in a little something extra to their goody bags. For our flower girls, that means these cute little bath fizzies!

DIY: Table cards

Keeping with our airport/aviation theme, our tables will be named after airports that we've flown to together.

I've been working on our table cards and here's what I've come up with:

front: pretty simple, with the airport code (which is what will be written on the escort card) and airport location

back: a little more fun! I used pictures from our engagement shoot (which took place at the airport, although this picture isn't the best example) and letters that I found in the scrapbook aisle at our local crafts store.


Here they are with the holders and ribbon that I'm using:


My little brother helped me tie on the ribbon, btw, which I thought was really sweet:

I'm not very crafty, so it's nice to have the help!

DIY: Guest Book

I always knew I wanted have a unique guest book. At first, I was thinking something like this:

[find it here]

I made FH a book on Blurb for Christmas. It was easy, fun, and he loved it. And I really adore the idea of having a guest book that becomes a bit more of a keepsake than the average sign-your-name-here-on-the-line type of book.

But then I had my bridal shower, and my brother's girlfriend got me the best present of all - she took something off my to do list! We now have a gorgeous silver picture frame with a nice, big, white mat, perfect for signatures, a la:

[find it here]

DIY: Goody Bags!

Of all the DIY projects I've worked on since I've been home (I'm living with my parents for the few weeks leading up to the wedding), this is my fave: goody bags for the kids (everyone 8 and under) in attendance.

I bought small kraft bags at Target, along with party favors and fruit snacks to fill each bag with:


And then tied them up with a brightly colored ribbon:

They'll be placed at each table, ready and waiting for the kids. It was a super fun project and I think they'll get a kick out of it (and keep them entertained during the ceremony), which makes me happy.

Stressful Wedding Things: Music, or rather, Dancing

FH doesn't like to dance. This is well documented. At one wedding we went to, he danced with me once and then spent the rest of the night talking to some other guest about, you guessed it, planes.

I don't like the idea of having a DJ or even a band. Our venue is small(ish) and in a neighborhood, so we can't exactly get our groove on until 2 in the morning. Besides, this isn't really a dancing crowd, with a few exceptions.

My initial thought was that we could have a "first dance" and then just let people do what they want. We'll have music playing via Ipod and if they want to dance, great; if not, no big deal. But now that we are way over on RSVPs I don't think we'll be able to carve out a dedicated space for dancing.

I keep on hoping it won't be an issue, but I can't get Tina Fey (as Liz Lemon) out of my head ... "no dancing at a wedding? That's a dealbreaker!"

Fiesta!

One of the things I was most excited to register for was our Fiesta dishes. You can read more about the history of Fiesta dishware here. Basically, they've been around since 1936 (with a brief hiatus in the 70's to mid-80's) and they come out with different color options every year.

We registered for place settings in a variety of colors - peacock (bright blue), cobalt (dark blue), scarlet (red), and sunflower (yellow). They look great mixed and matched together - I even pointed out to FH that we can do an 'SC place setting with the scarlet and sunflower. Technically, we could also do UCLA, but I knew better than to mention this.

I think the peacock is my favorite - it's just so bright and happy ... like my bright blue laundry room! (more on that later)

I heart shoes

Someone, please remind me to have my photographer take tons of pictures of my wedding shoes.

Then I can get them framed and hang it up on my side of the closet and laugh at FH when he asks me why I have so many shoes.

[from the always fabulous Meg Perotti Photography]

Monogrammed Stationary

I'm fairly obsessed with stationary. I love to write notes to people - real, handwritten notes that you send in the mail, remember those? I might actually be the only bride-to-be out there that is actually excited about the mounds of thank you notes that I'll have to write.

Now that I almost have a new name - even though I can't sign it to save my life - I'm keeping an eye out for monogrammed stationary. I read somewhere that it is bad etiquette to use your married monogram before you are actually married.

Well, as soon as we are hitched, I'm ordering these:

[from le papier studio]

and these:

[from pixelimpress]

and these, with my new last name:

[from Earmark]

Ready to bake up a storm

I might be taking this whole becoming-a-wife thing too literally, but I came across this apron on, where else?, Etsy, and kinda fell in love:

[find it at The Way We Wear on Etsy]

I think it's part of my dream of becoming a super crafty girl who makes my own stationary and goes antiquing and sews curtains and is capable of making food that my husband's children actually like.

Maybe if I have a cute apron, all of those things will be possible? I don't know, but if anyone wants to buy it for me as a wedding gift, please feel free!

Problem Solved: Photographer

continued from yesterday...

One of the things I noticed during my search is that photographers I liked all seemed to have blogs alongside their "regular" website. The blogs were a little more personal and showcased a wider variety of photo shoots.

On a whim, I went to Google Blog Search and typed in "Bakersfield", "photography" and "wedding". Which eventually led me to this amazing videography site where I found, on the blogroll, the fantastic Ellie Grover.

In looking through Ellie's pictures, I recognized a ton of familiar faces. People I had gone to school and church with my entire life. And I later came to find out that Ellie and I had gone to the same church growing up, although our paths had never crossed. It was meant to be!

I contacted her and booked her right away for our wedding date. We had our engagement session just this past weekend and it was AH. MAY. ZING. Ellie is such a sweet and talented person and a very soothing presence to be around, which will be a major plus on our wedding day.

I can't wait to see how our engagement pictures turn out and I know we will treasure our wedding pictures for the rest of our lives. Problem solved!

Stressful Wedding Things: The Photographer

From the very beginning, I knew photography would be something that was super important for me, despite our budget. When I mentioned to FH that it was a top priority, he said - and I quote - "we don't need a photographer, we can just have people take pictures for us!"

Men.

Um, NO. I'm not Bridezilla about too many things, but photography was one thing I just couldn't compromise or cut corners on. Those pictures are the one thing that we are going to have for the rest of our lives. The flowers are going to die, the food will be consumed, but the pictures are forever. Plus, I really want a gorgeous wedding picture to hang in our house.

I started searching and sent off emails to a bunch of photographers I liked. I tried staying local to our venue location, but just like everything else in Bakersfield, there didn't seem to be much beyond the typical fare. I got back quotes from LA photographers that were way out of my price range.

I started to despair. And then... the blogosphere saved me once again.

To be continued...

Centerpieces, take one

I put together a mock-up of my centerpieces last night:

Obviously, this isn't really how it would look, but just the basic elements I am wanting to use (candles, books, single flower, table "number" sign).

I'm pretty pleased with how it looks. What do you think?

For you, Future Hubs.

I'm back. Under duress, but I'm back. FH doesn't know what is going on with the wedding unless I post to the blog. Or, so he says.

So, on my last trip home, I finally got to see my bridesmaid dresses (or, one of them) next to my flower girl's dresses:

As I suspected, they look fantastic together! I keep on reading on other blogs about great deals on flower girl dresses - this usually seems to involve paying under one hundred dollars. Hmph. I got my flower girl dresses at Tarzhay for fifteen bucks and they are perfection!