My Favorite Ring Shot Ever

Ok, everyone has their own tastes, so I totally give it to them for having a unique wedding. But this did make me giggle.

Married Life Bliss

What have I been up to as a married person?

1) Updating the "old school bachelor pad" to a house for 30-something, somewhat modern newlyweds. We definitely have similar tastes, but it is amazing what tastes do not match (Me - vibrant colors - reds and oranges. Him - brown, brown and brownish khaki).

2) It was my birthday and we decided to put a new roof on the house. We joked that was my birthday gift, but then really all I got was a card, a kiss and a nice dinner. Welcome to married life, my friends!

3) ok, technically I got a little more than just a dinner for the b-day. We bought a new camera - a nikon D40. I have yet to read all the directions, but have already taken a ton of photos of our children (dogs, cat and ivy plant).

4) Lastly, because I have been obsessed with the Olympics over the last week, I have also gotten heavily involved with Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. Please visit their website and make a video as to why we should have this bid!

Work is Killing Me...

Is it bad that I rescheduled an out-of-town work meeting so I would definitely not miss this?

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.