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.