Etsy Find of the Week

I absolutely love finding beautiful pieces on Etsy and I especially love Gemini Studio Art Chicago. I ended up buying this very unique piece from them back in March. It was suppose to be a gift for a friend, but ended up looking so gorgeous on our bookshelf that I kept it. Each piece is handmade with layered strips of antique paper and newsprint, so it has a very vintage look to it.

Just recently, I noticed they have made our piece even bigger and I love it even more! Wouldn't this be perfect as a groom's gift? Or housewarming gift?

I have also noticed that the artist has branched out and doing other cities like San Francisco and famous golf courses.

Please check them out!

Eyelash Galore

I saw this post on the Handcrafted wedding before my wedding, but never made it to Sephora. I actually picked it up a couple weeks ago and OMG! I will never use another mascara again. I am totally sold on Smashbox's bionic mascara. This is a must buy!

A Lesson on Thank you Etiquette

(Etsy)

I decided to write into Elizabeth Anne Designs on "Thank you Etiquette" and they posted it today (Thanks guys!). My mother was always so sweet, but somewhat nagging when I was younger and I would get a x-mas gift from a relative of friend. I can still hear her say "have you written so-and-so to thank them for your lovely gift?" Mind you, I would not even have the barbie out of the box before she was saying this to me...

My mother also could rattle off the brides that she had sent a gift but never received a thank you card. After our wedding, I got so worked up over thank you cards that I literally took thank you cards on my honeymoon to do. Please note - I would not recommend doing that, but again my mother's psychotic-ness over thank you cards scared me into sending thank you cards immediately.

When they were finally done, I actually cringed the other day when I received a gift! Because damnit - I thought I was done with these suckers!

So I have some advice -

Take your time. Because when you rush, my feeling is you just start saying the same thing over and over again and you are not really giving a heartfelt thank you. I actually would only allow myself to write at the most 8-to-10 a night then I did not feel so overwhelmed and they were still heartfelt. Also the good news is you do have three months to get these suckers done.

My Thank You Card Bag. I designated a bag that I brought with me everywhere, so if I was on a plane or train and had the urge to write the thank you cards, I could. (The best was keeping a list in there and then crossing them off when they were done!).

Make your new husband write too. Why this is a designated woman job - I don't know - but again, they are enjoying the gifts just as much as you are, so seriously - they should be writing them too.

I also wish I had waited until we had our DVD of photos and then printed maybe a shot from the wedding to put in the actual thank you card. I know it would have been a little pricey, but maybe just for the family - because we got a lot of great family shots.

I did receive an email from my mother though - all her friends were so impressed that they had received their thank card from me already. Whew, so I am at least in my mother's good grace until x-mas time!

The Peacocks

A couple weeks ago, I came across an article where I guess the topic was excessive spending on weddings. Someone wrote in the comment section about a wedding she saw where the bride actually had white peacocks brought in for her wedding. I nearly choked on my breakfast because I thought - What? Nah, they can't be talking about me, could they?

So just to clarify - I did not pay for the peacocks. They actually live at my venue - Meyer's Castle.

Because the peacocks became our honorary bridesmaids, I decided they deserved their own board. They followed us around the whole afternoon while we got our photos and then interrupted the ceremony. My maid of honor has a fear of birds and she later said - I must really like you, because I seriously was so freaked out but definitely could not scream or make a scene. Even when one of the peacocks decided to camp out right behind our pastor throughout the ceremony.

Interesting enough, the oh-so-fabulous Tina had sent me this link several weeks before my wedding. It was too late for me, but we talked via email about how cool would that have been to have the peacocks on our menu cards and escort cards! Now I think how crazy would that have been if I had decided to do the peacocks considering they became such a part of our big day.

The Getting All Girly Part

I went very simple which in the end I think - saved me some moo-lah on the "day of wedding prep." The keys to saving money here - Ebay, Etsy and Craiglist. Oh - and utilizing that whole "something borrowed" saying as well.

Here is a run down of what it cost me to get me all girly:

Manicure (and pedicure) - $45

Vintage diamond earrings and pearl necklace my sister found in an antique store - this was my something borrowed.

Shoes - JCrew (found on Ebay) - $45

Veil - My mother made for about $15

Charm from Hazelnut Cottage - $24

Hair and Makeup done by Jan and Nikki, whom I found on Craigslist - around $70 bucks (Seriously - I swear and they were amazing...if you want their contact info, please email me)

The Details

I was lucky to have this beautiful location to work from so that really became my inspiration when I decided on the details.

It was probably six months into the wedding planning when I decided to utilize a "logo" from Swish Designs. I look back now and worry I went a little too logo crazy, because I had it on our invitation, guestbook, favors and then a late entry - napkins. Especially when I made this mosaic tonight, but it was a beautiful design and I loved how it really worked well with Meyer's Castle.

I worked with a great friend of mine who helped in designing our invitations, programs, menu cards and table numbers. I had a vision and she ended up blowing me away, because it was exactly what I wanted.

When I did mention to folks that I wanted not overpower everyone with our logo, they listened and Judy, who did the wine cork escort cards, used only part of our logo. I think that was huge, because it ended up all coming together.

Yummy Strawberries

I had a work friend's shower and was asked to make a quick dessert so I made chocolate covered strawberries. I ended up going a little "Martha" and dressed them up a bit.

I put the strawberries on wood skewers and followed this recipe for chocolate strawberries. I took just a head of lettuce and put it in a planter or bowl (this photo I just used a bowl). I then put the strawberry skewers in the head of lettuce (which holds the suckers in place) and then placed some decorative moss to hide the lettuce. Tada! Unfortunately, the photo doesn't do it justice and I also forgot to nab a photo before some of the strawberries had been eaten, but hopefully you get the idea.

My Flowers - I Love Peonies

I was thrilled with our flowers. A year ago, I never even thought about peonies for our wedding. Now it is amazing how I wish peonies were in season all year round. Thank goodness - our florist - Laura recommended them. She did an outstanding job.

Bouquets
Remember the cover of the Real Simple magazine?

That was my inspiration for our bouquets but we had peonies.

I went back and forth on if I should have a white peonies or have something that popped for my bouquet! I am so happy I went with the pink peonies instead of white. It just was stunning!

For the groomsmen we went with hot pink roses. Again, great, because they just popped.

One concern with the peonies was the wilt factor, but they did hold up for the majority of the ceremony. Then we quickly got them in water which totally woke them up again!

Centerpieces
We kept it very simple (due to the price) - Just clear vases and then cut flowers. I wish I had gone for more volume on this, but then I do think it would have just gotten lost in the crowd a bit. We alternated with peonies and hot pink/orange roses for the centerpieces. I have to say that I liked the roses, but was totally drawn more to the peonies.

Extras

I wish I had the money for all the extras that I wanted to do. However, I went really simple because Meyer's Castle already has a lot of natural color around where we were getting married.

We had these gorgeous urns filled with flowers for our ceremony. (You can see them in this photo...)

I was happy with our flowers, but wish that we could have done more. It is just crazy how much flowers cost. My only advice is go through your flower list and make sure you have everything. I had actually cut out a couple things like an aisle runner but forgot to then check that I wanted flower petals to be used instead. Again it was one of those because I had cut the aisle runner they thought I wanted the petals to be cut too. And I didn't think to check!

Our Venue - Meyer's Castle

(www.studiothisis.com)

So I guess I need to start the vendor grading considering it is over a month after our wedding. I will start with our venue - Meyer's Castle. I actually came across Meyer's Castle many years ago when I was driving from my fiance's house in the south suburbs to visit family in Ohio. I ended up taking route 30 and saw the sign for Meyer's Castle. You cannot see it from the street, because it is high up on a hill and surrounded by woods. Once I got engaged, I decided to look into Meyer's. It was actually the first place I looked at venue wise, but at the time I really was considering getting married in downtown Chicago, so I looked at Meyer's and absolutely loved it. But I still had my heart set for a downtown Chicago wedding. I also had my heart set on getting married in May...preferrably Memorial Day Weekend. So I started the quest for a Memorial Day Weekend wedding in a venue that was not to crazy cost wise. I think about 18 venues later, I realized this was not really a possibility. I think it was over a month later since looking at Meyer's Castle the first time and a year to our actual wedding day that I ran back to Meyer's Castle. While everyone else had their venue booked for Memorial Day weekend, Meyer's actually had a spot open. I laugh now, because if I would have just made the decision to go with Meyer's Castle - I would have saved a ton of time and gas running around.

(www.studiothisis.com)

Meyer's Castle can be pricey (do not think you are getting a steal because it is in Northwest Indiana and not downtown Chicago), however - you can find ways to reduce your cost. Mine was having a Sunday night wedding on a three-day weekend. The price to rent the space completely is reduced if you have a Friday or Sunday wedding. They also reduce the actual set number you have to have for a wedding, so for our reception (in the east canopy), instead of 200, we only had to guarantee 125 people. Another cost cutting key - is have your wedding in April (the downfall of that though is the flowers, etc. are usually not in by then).

You are paying for just the beauty of the venue. It is so gorgeous and very stunning when you see it for the first time.

Location wise it is not bad at all. My family loved it because the majority of them were coming from Indiana/Ohio. It is about 40 minutes from downtown Chicago and the majority of my husband's family as well as our friends were coming either from downtown Chicago or south suburbs. They didn't seem to mind.

Now you can see this as a plus or minus - They make you use their DJ, caterer, florist and baker. I have to say I actually saw this as a huge plus because when I decided that I wanted my wedding planning to be extremely painless, I thought this is perfect - I just checked these off my list! Then I was a little hesitant because what if I did not like one of these vendors? You are stuck with them. I will say now after the wedding, I was very happy with all of them. Meyer's does say that they only hire the best, and that was truly the case.

Another plus or minus - they make you hire a wedding planner. I actually saw this as a huge minus at the beginning. I was not happy because when they told me I would have to get a wedding planner - I assumed this was someone who was going to help me PLAN our wedding. They actually now spell it out in their contract, but their wedding planner really only does the on-site stuff during the day of your wedding. She was not there to help me find vendors, etc. I think the frustrating part was that they told me I had one wedding planner, but she never called me back. They then called me and informed me that they had someone else, but I never heard back from her. I finally found out that Brenda would be my coordinator - and she turned this into a plus for me. She was awesome and actually a huge asset in the end.

In the end, I was extremely happy with Meyer's Castle because our wedding was beautiful. The food was outstanding, the cake was oh so delicious and the DJ was great.

They are not the best with getting back to you right off the bat, however, once you are designated a wedding coordinator - she really becomes your middle person, so you don't have to deal with the front office that much.

Helpful Hint From the Former Bride...

(www.studiothisis.com)

As many of you are probably aware, because I posted about it before but I was obsessed with having flip-flops for our guests at the reception. So the good news - I did do the flip-flops and can I tell you - it is still talked about by my guests...ok, maybe not talked about daily. However, it was a huge, huge hit. The bad news - I forgot to tell our photographer to get some cool shots with folks wearing the flip-flops. And the other oops, I had ribbon and a sign "Rest those Dancing Feet" for my basket (shown above), but unfortunately, it got "lost" and never found at our site. Bummer. But lets focus on the positive (not the negative that I spent a good couple bulbs and time gocco-ing those damn signs) - if you were thinking of doing the flip-flops - do it. Your guests will love you for it.

Helpful hints - I actually got on Hobby Lobby's email list and watched them religiously to see when their flip-flops were on sale for a $1 and then made sure to snatch up all their pink ones! (Please note they are not great flip-flops, pretty cheaply made - but they are for one night, people!). I bought about 50 and I think we had two pairs left. Now I noticed - the women were all about it...men - not so much.