Be My Guest

Sorry, I am really not like this but I am also not going to lie...I loved seeing that my guestbook is part of Amanda's advertising on Etsy! I cannot praise this woman enough - she was awesome to work with and found this beautiful paper for me. She also never told me but added in our monogram swirls to the actual guestbook pages (how cool is that!).

I am happy we went with the polaroid guest book because I do think people really liked it. I will say that this was a huge hit for many of our young guests, however the older crowd were a little bit confused. I even had a relative keep asking me where the "real" guestbook was located. But we were able to get some of these folks to break from conformity and actually do some photos, so it was good!

Please be warned though - with alcohol flowing for several hours, several guests decided to take some rather vulgar shots (in bathrooms, underneath tables...I hope you get my drift). I pretty much knew this was going to happen, but it is still a little bit of a shock to see a naked bum congratulating you on your special day!

Lovin My Molcajete

I will be honest - I barely remember doing our Crate and Barrel registry because I unfortunately, did one of their registry parties and drank a little too much. It was not until the next morning when one of my co-workers joked that I must have really liked vases (because I had registered for about 10 vases) that I realized my registry did not really make sense to a sober person. Oops...however, I am thrilled that I registered for this sucker - a Molcajete. I actually used it for the first time on Monday to make guacamole! Well, I used this recipe and it was awesome! This is a must for your mexican dinner nights!

Just call me Mrs. Peacock

Remember when I said I never even noticed the peacocks on my first visit to our venue at Meyer's Castle? It was not until we did our scouting trip at Meyer's with the oh-so-lovely Jeremy from StudioThisIs last month that we realized they were even there. Well, the peacocks must have been reading that post and felt very slighted, because they became part of our ceremony on Sunday. I mean in a big, big way. They actually held up our ceremony for a good 10 minutes, because they crashed the outdoor veranda where our ceremony was held and would not leave. They also made sure to voice their opinions on the ceremony as well. It actually brought the house down because whenever our pastor would ask for the congregation to pray or sit, they would squawk (and I mean a really loud and long squawk!). They did settle down and stood behind our pastor for the remainder of the ceremony, allowing us to say our vows in peace. I received an email on Monday from one of my co-workers who attended the wedding - he said - "I don't want to alarm you but I think you may have actually married one of the peacocks instead of your fiance". These were some of the photos my sister-in-law got as they started their mayhem. I am soooo hoping Jeremy got some great shots with our new friends!

It's Official!

Yup, it's official - we are married! Yesterday was unbelievable - gorgeous weather, great friends and a lot of celebrating - so much that I can barely keep my eyes open as I write this post! I took this photo today and I think it gives you a preview of the big day. My fiance just gave me a glass to plop my bouquet in - I loved that it was a guinness glass!

Everything went without a hitch! I cannot wait to share all the photos and stories soon! We leave for our honeymoon, but I have a feeling I will be posting a couple shots later this week! Happy Memorial Day!

P.S. Did you catch that? I just edited this and realized I called him my fiance and not husband! OH WOW! This is all so new!

Less than 24 Hours...

Final DIY project was completed today! I ended up wanting to do chocolates for favors. My sister's friend who is now starting her own business said she could help with the chocolates - we did a buckeye (because I am from Ohio), a clover leaf (He is irish) and then our initials. The funny part is I always carried around a real buckeye for luck, so we just thought this was a cool idea.

The chocolates arrived from Columbus yesterday via my sister so we boxed them up today. They came out looking great. Unfortunately, some of the chocolate (the buckeyes) made a grease mark on the original boxes, which meant new boxes had to be found. My sister's friend actually sent some with us but I fretted that they were too big, and then we could not find liner that could fit either. At this point -I just found tissue paper and then placed them in the box. At first I did not think they looked great, but then with ribbon and our logo sticker on them - they came out really well. I don't want to ruin the surprise for my guest so I will wait and then make sure to post some photos up after the wedding.

But before I head off to bed, I did want to show off the groomscake. My sister's friend also created this! It came out perfect and my fiance who is a huge superman fan could not believe how cool it looked. If anyone is looking for a very reasonable priced chocolates and cake (My feeling is you would have to be in the Columbus area for it to work) - Please email, and I will give you her contact information - she was awesome!

I am off to bed. I can't wait for tomorrow! Thanks for the blog love - A Windy City Wedding and Semi-Hipster Homeowner - You guys are too sweet!

Simply Vera Mini-Clutch

I never have really shopped at Kohl's, but had received a gift from my shower there and had to return it. I came across this bag and had to have it. Unfortunately and fortunately, they had it in a deep chocolate and I realized this was my final gift to my bridesmaids. Plus - it was on sale. They don't show all the colors on their website but they come in brown, light brown, lime and amber.

Must-Have Purchases

I ended buying a couple last minute purchases that were a must. I found this on Brooklyn Bride a long time ago, and just kept it in the files, but ended up purchasing a couple weeks ago - Kiehl's Anti-Perspirant and Deodorant Cream. I have been trying this stuff out for the last week, and it is wonderful (and probably more information than you need to know - I sweat BIG TIME and I was amazed how well it worked).

A Steam Buddy for our dresses. Even though my seamstress said I could probably iron my dress, I ended opted for this little guy. I broke it in last night and I think it worked really, really well. We will see how it handles on Sunday.

Lastly, Hollywood Fashion Tape. This stuff rocks.

Enough about the Bridesmaids Dresses!

So it is interesting the stories you hear after the fact. My sister called me last night and informed me of this - when she received her bridesmaids dress, it did not fit. Unfortunately, it was a little too snug. Well, more than a little too snug! As many of you know, we did not get our dresses until a month before the wedding. She started out the conversation saying, I just got back from the seamstress and everything is good, but...and then she went into her story. Some of my bridesmaids had to measure themselves and then call in their measurements. She thought she was measuring correctly - she was not (I guess that waist part threw her off). So here is what happened. She went to the seamstress who told her that unless she loses some weight - a lot of weight - she could get her into the dress. So my sister worked out for three hours a day and then on Saturday went to the seamstress. She lost 15 pounds in about three weeks and the dress fits. Of course, she did not tell me any of this until last night. Please note - She would not recommend this to anyone. She says she can't move because of the workouts, so dancing at the wedding will probably be out for her! Oh my...

Esty Buy of the Week

I can't remember exactly when I came across Etsy, but I know that it definitely has become my new best friend. I told my friend the other day it is like all the cool Chicago Outdoor Markets we have here during the summer, where you get to find a cool new piece of jewerly made by hand. (My favorite is Market Days on Halsted usually the first week of August).

Yesterday I decided to look at my purchase page when I noticed how much I had spent in the last couple months! Yikes. But I love all my goodies!

I ended up buying cufflinks for my brother-in-law from Anne Holman. It was perfect, because he loves cufflinks and loves vintage maps. Well, I cannot say enough about her. I made my purchase and left a comment that I would love to have where my brother-in-law and sister got married - A very small town in Scotland. I think it was two days later, I had them! Unbelievable service!

Gocco Crazy

Thank you to Honey Bee Weddings, who posted this article today. It is the perfect time because I can truly attest to how cool this little bridal community really is. About a month ago, I whined over the fact that I wanted to tryout a Gocco machine but could not find good reason to pay for the machine at this moment. At the time, I fantasized that I could do my rehearsal luncheon invitations, table numbers, escort cards, etc., etc. with the gocco. Well, thanks to A Windy City Wedding, she met up with me at a nearby Starbucks, chatted for an hour (talking all about our weddings, of course) and then she handed over her Gocco for me to borrow. I know! How cool is she?

So I knew I could not pass this up and after a couple weeks of watching some crazy "How to use gocco" videos - I decided it was time to check this out. I ended up doing something very easy. Our logo on our OOT bags. It was extremely simple because I decided to stay with one color. Secondly, I went with just a basic brown bag. For my first gocco project - I was actually sort of happy how they turned out. Some of them were not great thought. (Emily - you were oh so right about the perfection part. I don't like the fact that out of the 24 bags I did, only a couple came out perfect looking). However, I think the ones that have a little less ink still look somewhat cool.

Now what else can I do? I am thinking maybe stationary for my bridesmaids...hmm, damn you wedding for being just seven days away!



Here are all my finished welcome bags. Now I just need to hit Sam's Club for the goodies!

SATC Movie Blog

(SATC)

I love that movies are now blogging. Check out the SATC movie blog here,

Bridesmaids Jewelry (Check)

To be honest, the bridesmaids jewerly made me as nervous as getting the dresses. I actually told my sister, who is in the wedding party that her only job was finding the jewelry. She called me weeks ago and said she found a winner. Freshwater pearl necklace sets (which included a bracelet and earrings to match) for $20 bucks (are you kidding me?). All of this at a local TJ Maxx. I trusted her and told her to snag them up. Well...she left off one important fact -they were real pearl necklaces, but they were pink pearls. At first I hedged, but then this weekend I saw the jewerly with the deep chocolate dresses and was blown away. They give them a very vintage look and I think with the flowers, they will pop more than the ivory pearls would have.

Could it be true?

I am scared to jinx it, but just checked our 10-day weather forecast. Cloudy, mid-60s...and 10 percent chance of rain on our wedding day. I will totally take that, but please, please no rain....

Bride on Fire

Ok, this would be my worse nightmare.

Let's vent, my friends...

Hello? Am I stressed? Just a little...all the projects (hello, welcome bags?) that I am trying to get done has to happen this weekend, because why? I only have one weekend until my wedding! Yikes!

I will post all my projects that are done - once I find a new battery for the camera - but menu cards, programs and table numbers are done! Yeah! I have to thank a friend of mine, who must have seen my stress level rise a bit this week and offered to do my programs. So right now - she is dealing with cutting ribbon, etc., and not me. (sorry, but I am smiling as I type this).

My goal is to have everything done this weekend...only because I do not want to be stressed out next week. Plus, any little fires that flare up next week, will have all my attention. This week, work is killing me. It is amazing that everyone goes "oh I hate bothering you because I know you have wedding stuff going on...but would you be able to do this for me?" It is not that I am sitting here working on wedding stuff (oops, except I am putting something on my wedding blog)...I am actually trying to get all these other work projects done this week, so I can enjoy my honeymoon! But sure, keep piling these work projects on. I don't mind...

The Ivy Room

I have a friend who is getting married. He is a guy. So much a guy that he told me that they are getting married in downtown Chicago but not wanting to spend more than 7,000 dollars. I said - on the whole chibang? And he was like of course! Yeah, very naive. I laughed, but then realized that they were going to have to see for themselves to actually believe that they could do a whole wedding for that amount in Chicago.

He recently asked me if I could do it over again, what place would I pick as my reception....I love this place - the Ivy Room at Tree Studios. So gorgeous.

Welcome Bag Goodies

Yeah, I completely have delayed on the welcome bags and now with two weeks away from our wedding, I need to get this done. Last week, I started out doing the first of the DIY projects - the water bottles. I followed Tara from In this Instance's DIY water bottle instructions. Oh my god - she was right - this was very easy. I created mine in quark, just because I know it more than word publisher. Again, I have gotten a little to logo happy but it made sense to put it on these. For the non-DIY bride, these were so easy and fast - I was all over this and finished these last night.

Escort Cards (Check)

A while back, I wrote about doing the wine cork escort cards. I felt like they would be pretty easy and go well with our venue, however I immediately had some issues. First - I cut my finger three times while trying to cut the corks. Secondly, I noticed I could not get the corks to look that good because of the way I was cutting them. (I had found in the DIY Bride book that you can cut the cork down 1/4th and then cut a slit for the card). The ones that I did, looked very uneven. Lastly, I just realized I had no patience or the time to cut between 85-90 corks.

That night, I ended up looking online and found Judy of Wineknotcorkit on ebay. At first I debated on spending money, but then decided that I was getting my nice stimulus check, so went for it. It was the best decision I made because Judy was wonderful. She not only does the corks (she doesn't cut them but has a trick to keep them from rolling), but also personalizes the cards for you. I then sent her my table list and she printed the names on the escort cards. She was fast, so fast that I sent her the list on Sunday and had the corks and cards by Tuesday. They look great and I am absolutely thrilled on how they look.

Guestbook (Check)

(Paperlust)

So our polaroid guestbook is arriving this week! Thanks to Amanda, who is the owner of Paperlust, she sent me some photos of it. I wanted something unique and fun and I think she nailed it. We started looking for my colors first (deep chocolate and deep pink) and really could only find a couple that I liked. Then I decided that I just loved this paper too much to not use it. Any type of retro flowers - I am all over it. Of course, to tie it back into our wedding - I used our lovely logo.

(Paperlust)


(Paperlust)

To Do List

Ok, so projects are getting done and I am seeing some light. I actually took off work today to just get things in order wedding wise, because next week I will be so busy with work.

We struggled to get the last of our 3o RSVPs in but now we are set to do the table assignments. I actually dreaded it, but it really has not been that bad. I actually got it done last night. Can you believe it? I had so many folks tell me that they hated doing these, but this was pretty easy...or was it too easy?

So here is a question for you guys, I am ready to do the escort cards. After googling and research, I can't seem to find the best answer. Do you do formal names - Mr. and Mrs. John Smith or John and Erica Smith?

Oh - and if folks saw this post on our photographer's site. Yup, that was him talking about our scouting trip. Our venue has live animals, 10 peacocks to be exact. I actually became quite alarmed but was told by our coordinator that they really don't bother the wedding guests. How I missed this on our first tour through Meyer's, but I did! Of course, Jeremy thinks we will get some great photos out of this!

BGB Jewerly Giveaway

Please, please check out Beautiful Garden Boutique's blog - I am absolutely in love with their jewerly. They also just announced that they are doing their first ever Bridal Jewerly giveaway and you have a chance to win a $250.00 gift certificate.

Brides must first visit the Bridal Jewerly Collection at The Beautiful Garden Boutique. Then go to their blog and leave a comment about their favorite piece. They will be picking the winner at random and posting the winner on their blog on Friday, May 16, 2008.