For the last week, I have been somewhat stressed on the most minor details with this wedding, so I felt like this quote from Katherine Heigl put it all in perspective.
( www.theknot.com)
And then for the boutenaires, we will probably add some color, but might go with tulips or roses.
(www.brides.com)
(StudioThisIs)Hope everyone is tivoing Martha's show today - its her big Wedding show! Miss Peacock, another Chicago Bride, was at the show. Read all about it on wedding bee!
I went to Crate and Barrel's registry party tonight! Seriously, I had the best time (the free alcohol helped) and actually learned a lot. They close the store down and then had a ton of sales assistants around to answer any of your questions (how many wine glasses should I get?, etc.). I was extremely impressed. Did anyone else go? If you can get to one of their registry parties - I would do it. 
I hate going to the knot, because of that ticking time bomb it has on your main page - the lovely countdown of how many days you have until your big day! Today, I went on there and saw that I have 130 days to go. It freaked me out a bit. However, this week I feel like I have progressed on a couple things. I am going to the Crate and Barrel registry party on Thursday night but prior to that I am stopping over to my designer to see my first proof of my invitation. A little excited and a little scared. I hope I like it. A couple things are getting finalized and I am hoping to get nailed down - transportation and hair and makeup. The biggest vent I have is the fact that vendors will not get back to me. Especially hair and makeup folks. Unfortunately, my hair guy is going to be out of town on our wedding weekend, so I have to start from stratch. I easily could do my own make-up but hair is another thing...Once I get those finalized, I feel like I am set (until the next DIY projects - favor boxes, menus, etc.). Yikes!
I absolutely love this idea from Greer Chicago - Vintage Stamps. The owners of this store will find beautiful vintage stamps from the 1920s to the 1980s and will coordinate them with your wedding theme to use on your invitations!
We had a gift card to Best Buy and ended up buying this - a Flip video camcorder. The fiance's thought was we could use this to tape the wedding because we nixed the videographer. I laughed on this one but seriously - this thing is genius and so small! At first I hedged, but it is very easy to use and I just took this video two seconds ago. Ok, yes - I hit the deep end and video taped my wedding dress on a hanger. BUT my friend in Cali has been harrassing me to see the dress (sorry Ang - not the best because it has been sitting on a closet door for the last two months but you get the idea).
Last weekend, we went over to Oak Alley Plantation in Vachaerie, La., about sixty miles from New Orleans. It is a plantation which was built in 1837-39 and famous for its alley of 28 evenly spaced giant live oak trees. When I got there, the first thing I said was how beautiful would it be to have a wedding here! Well, I inquired and of course, they do weddings there. They even have little bed and breakfast cottages. 
(Oak Alley Plantation website)
(Bray Danielle Photography)
Then I started looking on ebay's site. I found a pair of Jimmy Choo and Vera Wang shoes for pretty good prices, HOWEVER none of them were my size. 
A couple weeks ago (I am so sorry classicbride!), I found these on ebay and put in a bid. I thought they would work but didn't know for sure until I tried them on last night. Well they perfectly match my dress and I only spent 50 bucks (plus shipping). Yeah! 
Some advice on if you start looking for shoes on ebay - make sure to narrow your search to your size only...l fell in love with the Jimmy Choos and even tried talking myself into thinking I could fit into a size 7 shoe. Also - start early when looking for shoes on ebay. I checked daily on ebay beginning in early November- and just bought these two weeks ago. 
Ok...I am back from New Orleans! We will not talk about the Game. Up until Monday night, we had the best time! I had not been back there since 2003, so it was so nice to see the city and it looks like it is coming back. There is still crazy Hurricane Katrina reminders (ex: cars still in parking garages that were there before the hurricane hit and the owners have never come back to get them, etc...We even walked past a theater that has been abandoned and the posters in the "Now Showing" windows are plays that were going to be opening the week of Aug. 27, 2005. Just crazy). But the city has recovered very well and the French Quarter was just hopping crazy with LSU and OSU fans all weekend. 
Continuing with the bridesmaids gift trend, how about a gift certificate to this yummy Chicago place - Chocolate For Your Body? Doesn't it sound so good and if you order the Bridal Spa Package, the bride receives a customized facial, massage, lash extensions, manicure and pedicure for free!!
I have had a little ADD lately and instead of focusing on a couple things that I probably need to get done, I have been looking all over for the bridesmaids gifts - something that probably coule wait. I really love the idea of giving them a monogram bag and robe (my inspiration came from this knottie bio on Pearls Events blog). I found these bags on Fresh Ink. How adorable are these?! They had a ton more that I could totally see giving to my girls.
Exciting news - My fiance's niece got engaged over the weekend! (Yes - his niece. He is the youngest of a very big family and his first niece is only six years younger than him!). Like me, she wants to get married all at the same place and not do the church thing. So it has been sort of fun to pull out my old files and hand over some of the sites that I loved, but couldn't do. She is teetering back and forth on getting married either in the city or heading out to the suburbs. I rattled off a couple downtown sites off the top of my head, but would love anyone else's input...She is definitely looking for something unique and possibly inexpensive (HA!).
