well we're heading out to las vegas for my good friend's bachelorette party this weekend!
i hope we have smooth sailing on the drive out.... i'll update with photos when we get back...
have a great weekend everyone!
showered with love, laughter and lace
May 27, 2008
(l - r: michelle, bm - erin, bm - meagan, me, moh - wendy, bm - shayna)
this past sunday, my high school friends/bridesmaids hosted my lingerie shower. it was a really fun couple of hours. and since i'm a counry girl at heart it had a western theme to it, from the decor, to the invites, and even the food!
what's a lingerie shower you might ask? well, everyone showers the bride to be with pjs, lingerie, and other things for the honeymoon and married life. thankfully my friends know me well (and i asked them to spread the word) and they kept it very tame! after my maid of honor's lingerie shower, i realized i might be mortified if some of the items that surfaced at her's, showed up at mine. thankfully everything was classy and
modest just the way i had hoped it'd be! =)
above is my SIL's picture perfect ribbon bouquet creation!
a glance of the gifted goodies... they were all so pretty and colorful
(and i'm talking about the wrapping)!
the FOOD!
i love food and i love deserts, unfortunately, i didn't make much of a dent in the ones at the shower. so sad... we had a salad bar with all the fixin's for a southwestern salad and sweet pepper corn bread (which i need the recipe for), and homemade brownies, and my BM Shayna's famous sugar cookies to match the theme in cacti and cowboy hats!
also - you'll see those buckets above again, i will be using them for potted hydrangea throughout the wedding decor - they sell for $.97 at Wal Mart! this is just another way i can recycle them after the wedding.... hmm
below: me trying to enjoy the great lunch right as i was told it was time to go inside so they could "grill" me with questions......
loving my forehead wrinkles...eeshh
k so i went from stuffing my face with food - to bazooka bubblegum!
let me explain: wendy, my MOH, called my FI earlier in the week and asked him 20+ questions about a variety of things - which she explained she was going to grill me with in front of everyone at the shower! for each i answered incorrectly i had to chew a piece of gum....
the pressure was on!
there were a few "trick" questions, which i called my FI out on after the shower, but wendy still made me take the gum, even though my FI told her wrong answers (i'm just a little competitive, can you tell?) for example: what day did you and Blair meet? i said the second week in May, 2002 - well he told her May 5, 2002... we most certainly didn't meet on cinco de mayo, and i know that for a fact! what i do know is we met during the second week USC's spring finals.... o'well...
so glad to get rid of the gum! so much for my clean feeling teeth... oh and i ended up with 6 pieces of gum to chew... and a very unsuccessful bubble blowing attempt
(for which i will spare you the photos)
here's BM shayna, the semi - pro photog, and if it wasn't for her i wouldn't have any of these pics - thanks shay!!!
this apron is absolutely ADORABLE! it has little sea-horses (matches our soon to be nautical themed home), has ruffles, and little bows on the pockets too! and you must be wondering why an apron at a lingerie shower?... well... it's what my friend's mom told me is "lingerie for the kitchen", i kid you not!
kristin - a febuary bride, next up after me, and the winner of our clothes-pin wedding taboo game!
clearly i'm a big fan of this one, so cute with all the little ruffles.... although my face isn't totally convincing, it was one of my favs after trying it on - thanks cels!
ok so here's the kicker: my FMIL couldn't make it to the shower, she lives in salt lake city, but she did send a fabulous lingerie item which i opened at the very end.... what was it????
oh Hanes Her Way High Waisted Briefs......
just as i was about to die to show them to anyone.... i discovered a note in the card from her saying "just kidding about the first gift" and a Victoria's Secret gift card.... oh heart attack over!
this is also the reason for the laughter in the photo above and the next 3!
phew...
above: the look on rochelle's face (bottom right)
says it all when we discovered it was a gag gift! =)
the most special part of having a shower of this nature is to celebrate what my FI and i have( well actually have not) done in our relationship.... we're saving ourselves for marriage. i'm not trying to toot my own horn, but the fact that we've done this at the age of 25 is really somthing to celebrate with a lingerie shower!
so thanks to everyone who made the shower so much fun, and for celebrating this milestone with me!
all the girls after the party
the high school friends again, hamin' it up
** new trend for the ribbon bouquet: my fair lady hat... naahhh that'll never fly**
Ziba for my eyebrows - my 1st beauty post!
May 23, 2008
sorry the above pic is in 2 pieces
yes, every once and awhile a girl needs to treat herself to a little pampering... and i have been in need of such a thing. this is sorta emabrassing to share, but here are my pampering stats:
mani & pedi - not since the engagement party (last november)
my hair - the day before Valentines....
eyebrows and facial waxing - um... not too sure?
needless to say, my track record speaks for its self! since getting engaged i've tried to be better about "frivolus" me type purchases, pampering included. but with my first shower this weekend, my mom polietly reminded me it was time...
i needed to get some of these things done.
today i went to a unique salon called Ziba Beauty
i can't find my camera cord, but as soon as i do, i'll post the before and after eyebrow shot! but this salon is awesome! they had me in and out in like 20 mins (only because i wanted a "really" good threader for my 1st time). basically ziba is a salon that specializes in threading and primarily eyebrows for $11! such a steal... they also thread the entire face, have waxing services, and henna. as i waited for Simi, my threader, i sat in awe noticing that people were in and out in 10 mins. you come in sign in and either go to a chair, or wait if you want someone specific, then they send you back up front when you're finished, you pay and that's all! i joked with them that they had quite a rush while i was sitting there, and they said "oh that's the after work rush" ha, i couldn't believe it. i think they got 50 people in and out in the 20 mins i was there!
you do the math...
i'm ranting about this salon, because i love my new eyebrows, they now have an arch (something i've never been able to achieve on my own with tweezers). visit their site for a list of all of their services and locations, i went to the South Coast salon, which is the only one in central OC.
i can't register here?... seriously????
May 21, 2008
but what if i want your drinking glasses to be my drinking glasses?
or this storage bench?
well that's what i felt like saying during my last visit to Cost Plus World Market....
i found some super cute drinking glasses which would go so well with our emma dishes
and katherine flatware from pottery barn. the glasses aren't online, otherwise i'd provide you with a picture, but i'll paint the picture for you... they are traditional drinking glasses with the raised dots like my dishes and utensils! they are really sweet....
so, while i was at CP, i asked about the registry, and was told they didn't have one.
but why though i wondered?
they have so much neat and unique stuff that would make great registry items.
it's just sad that these items are a perfect fit, and they will stay on the CP shelves until FI and i can afford to add them to our "real registry items."
fun bonus:
wouldn't these glasses make a cute addition to the many of the soon-to-bees over at weddingbee
has anyone else found "registry-worthy" items, only to find that there's no way to register for them? any advice as to how i should go about fulfilling my non-existent registry items? =)
my wedding shoes
May 19, 2008
k... so my wedding shoes have not been at the top of my wedding attire to do list,
to be quite honest my attire hasn't been at the top of my wedding to do list!
is that a little strange?? i'm a bride to be, not worrying about all the accoutrements....
well on my trip to JCrew today to return the extra BMs dresses i had taking up closet space, i snooped a little and checked out these espadrilles i've loved since i saw them in the early spring catalog.
you can find them here
they've bounced b/t full price $98 and the sale $79
well i tried these puppies on and oh now they are down to $59... oh yeah AND JCrew is running an additional 25% off sale merchandise.....
that means my wedding shoes were a HUGE steal!
i believe $44 was the price before tax
i know you're probably thinking these don't look like typical wedding shoes...
well these were my requirements for shoes:
gold or blue sandal (our colors are blue)
wedge heel - preferably cork or espadrille (since the ceremony is on grass)
comfy
and an ankle strap to help their dance-ability
(i think i just made up that word) =)
have any details of your wedding just fallen in your lap without you spending many long hours debating and fretting... like my shoes did today?
man i'm on a roll picked up my dress thursday (finally, the salon isn't babysitting it any longer), found the twigs & honey orchids for my hair, and my shoes in a matter of days
my list is getting shorter!
who am i kidding... it's still really long....
accessories
for those of you who know me, you know that i design jewelry and accessories.
and for my wedding i plan do do the ultimate DIY of creating my jewelry to accompany my wedding dress.... well tonight i found my one and only outside accessory,
not made by my own hands!
they are however, made by some very talented hands though! =)
photo credit: twigs & honey
anyhow, i planned on wearing two live orchids in my hair, but i was honestly a little
nervous that they would look alive still by the end of the day... but ever since i found myra's goodies i've been hooked, however i hadn't seen any of her pieces that would "fit" with our wedding and my attire... and then i checked her blog last night and she sealed the deal for me.
mrya, the designer, recently took her business full time and is busier than ever! she even posted that she can't fulfill any custom orders before the end of july...
well with our august wedding date
i might be in luck!
hopefully i will hear from her soon
i have to say, it's so inspiring to see a fellow wedding accessory designer with so much success in such little time, she followed her passion and has been reaping the reward of listening to her heart... i only hope that some day i can enjoy my passion as my full time business
as Mrya does today.
blog love
recently i was shown a little "blog love" by fellow blogger
you can find me on a long list of other fellow bride to be bloggers!
this site is full of absolutely beautiful wedding things,
which many of the ideas could even be used for entertaining too.
thanks for the love!
and on a side note, i've had this sneezy sinus thingy for over a week now
i can't shake it ... any suggestions??
all i wanna do is get back to my kickboxing classes so i don't fall outta the habit completely!
past weekend's gocco fun!
May 15, 2008
our rehearsal dinner invites
(sorry for the blurs, gotta protect our privacy)
i say fun, because this gocco print job was pretty smooth sailing!
oh that's a lie actually, i did gocco all of the project just to show them to my FI and him tell me the RSVP phone# was wrong!... arg....
so back to Paper Source i went, picked up 2 packs of new B6 cards and spend my saturday
trying again! =) i was helping out FMIL by gocco'ing our rehearsal dinner invites, which
by the way turned out awesome (this is the smooth sailing part)
here's a picture filled step by step of the process:
putting my screen to good use by running other colors for upcoming bridal expo merchandise.
gocco screens don't really preserve well, so if you aren't doing a large quantity run, you aren't getting a good return on your $3 screen!
gocco'ing also happens to take up A LOT of space, ie the dining room table, a coffee table, and our antique desk (pictured here). if you'd like to avoid this.... buy lots of card drying racks, and i thought 3 would be plenty ha ha!
this is as i was about to begin my second run on the invites for the text - you have to let it dry if you have to do multiple passes ( more than one screen)
the coordinating envelopes... just tying it all together
i love these even without the invite text - you'll be able to find these in my etsy store soon!
i laid out my laser printed master, and burned my screen - here you can see the ink blocking foam, and how i separated colors, this is the brown ink only. i block really close to the text to trap the ink, and also so i don't waste ink by letting it run all around the screen.
here we have the brown and gold inks, almost ready to print!
peeling back the master copy
hint: if you leave the mast stuck to the screen until after you apply the ink, you don't have to worry about the ink getting on things or smearing prior to starting.
close up to give you idea of the detail of the gocco print quality - if you look closely at the R in dinner, you'll see that i wasn't keeping a close eye on the ink, some areas of the screen do tend to burn through ink very quick, so pay attention to each print, you do have to re-ink some areas even on short print runs!
i believe this is misty's first appearance on the blog... but she was lending blogging moral support while i sat here and typed.
anyone else gocco'ing everything in sight???
next gocco projects on my list:
invites
cocktail napkins
programs
menus TBD
gifts for some special someones =)
invite sneak peek
May 13, 2008
all i can say is that our invite will not be black!
this is an illustrator proof of the way our invites will look... the black represents
navy blue paper, and the white text will be where the natural white text will be.
also the dead space to the right of the top text area and the dead space to the left of the text space at the bottom, will showcase our wedding icon which will be a common theme throughout the wedding and decor.
what is the icon?
it's nautical
it's a shell
but you'll just have to wait and see when i show the actual finished product!
did anyone else out there expect that the invites would be such a time consuming and extremely detailed project? because i sure didn't!
wilshire graphic press embosser
since my family is quite artistically inclined, we will be gathering this weekend to assemble
my wedding invites. something that i realized i had forgotten to order was our return address embosser. i had done some research and knew basically what i wanted, but since my parent's home will no longer be my address come August, i wanted to make sure it is something my mom likes, since she will be inheriting the embosser after it serves it's purpose for the invite envelopes.
below is a representation of the type of embosser style we ordered.
the company we ordered from has been featured on weddingbee.com, and i've seen them in wedding mags, and have heard nothing but praise for their quick turnaround time.
wilshire graphic press won our wedding business for the reason they proved today! i ordered the embosser online at about 1pm, when i returned home from work i found this email proof in my email inbox (it came in at 6pm)!
sorry for the blurs... you know...
that's such a quick response with our proof, meaning i have already approved it, and it's on its way to their 3 - 5 day production..... since the proof was supposed to get emailed to me within 24 hrs, i can only imagine how quickly they will get the embosser made and shipped. i just know they've won my business in the future, once my FI and i have a permanent address to commit to return address labels and embossers!
and i'll be sure to do a large post once the invites are assembled and the workshop is complete sunday!
in the wedding planning process many vendors do not aim to please... have you been absolutely blown away by some vendor's fantastic customer service? and when it happens doesn't it just make your day and help you enjoy the planning process even more?
UPDATE: the embosser arrived at my house on saturday, a day before out family invite assembly workshop!
a rainy day entry about music
May 12, 2008
maybe we could incorporate some of these into our wedding playlists
the number one song on:
the day i was born:
The Police - Every Breath You Take
the day i turned 5:
George Michae; - Faith
although the #5 song was
Guns & Roses - Sweet Child o' Mine
the day i turned 10:
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You (from the Bodyguard)
the day i turned 16:
Cher - Believe
this is also the year Brittney came on the scene
the day i graduated high school:
Lifehouse - Hanging By A Moment
the day i met my FI (approx):
let's do a country one for this entry
Kenny Chesney - The Good Stuff ( i love this song too!)
the day we had our first date:
another country entry
Jimmy Buffet & Alan Jackson - It's Five o'clock Somewhere
the day i turned 21:
Usher - Yeah!
the day we got engaged:
country again -
Kenny Chesney - Never Wanted Nothing More
the day i turned 25:
OneRepublic - Apologize
i wonder what will be the #1 song on our wedding day?....
second set of shower invites
May 7, 2008
when my 2 bridesmaids who are friends from college offered to throw my
traditional shower, i was thrilled not only with their desire to host something but also because they are both very creative & crafty gals. they will be hosting with my sis in law, who is also an extremely crafty lady, i can't wait to see what they have planned, what i do know it will be a fabulous shower! Being that my college friends are recent grads, budgets are tight, with that in mind i offered my gocco services to them to help keep the costs down on the shower invites. they have been so cute in wanting to make sure that i will love everything they have planned, even though i've told them i trust their judgement 100%!
above is the inspiration for the shower's theme, stolen of course from good old Martha!
you can find the butterfly template here
two weekends ago 3 of us met at one of their houses in LA to crank out the invites.. here's how they turned out:
above is a batch of invites, the girls came up with the idea to use a hole punch in the butterflies to run ribbon through. in this picture you can also actually see the shine that the gocco inks produce when printed, so pretty!
the above invite gives you an idea of how detailed the gocco can print, however i blurred areas with top secret info for privacy reasons!
a little note to fellow gocco'ers
also, we did have a snafu with the gocco printing the text... i hate to admit my little gocco was not a friend at the beginning of this project! it was my foe until i realized i wasn't considering the margins of the screen when i burned my master! if you've gocco'd you know it's great when you can use 1 screen to do a print job... well i wasn't keeping the invite within the 3.5 x 5 inch margin, it was too wide. so i wasted a few screens trying to trouble shoot this, and each time the RSVP and the rsvp email address we not printing the ink and i got really frustrated!
just when i was about to throw in the towel, i found a post in my yahoo gocco group that the screen can only handle 3.5 inches wide... after that it was smooth sailing!
hope this helps some of you future gocco'ers, because i know it's no fun to waste supplies
tangent over, back to my invites
we turned to martha again for her handy dandy wrap around address labels.
below is what the return address looks like, and yes USPS is fine with the return address being on the back of the envelope!
to create the labels i actually took Martha's idea and created my own in the Mac program "Pages". i did this myself only because we were working with a smaller scale envelope.
step by step here's how i made the labels myself:
- opened the Pages program on my computer
- insert the rectangle shape
- open the "inspector" and click the "graphic" section and change the stroke option to whichever dotted line you like best
- next i opened a text box and picked the font "Snell Roundhand"
in all lowercase type the return address portion
- then i typed the addressee's name in "Snell Roundhand bold"
closer to the right end of the label
- for the address i used "imperator caps" and make sure the zip code is on it's own line with a space between each number.
like this: 9 2 8 4 0 as opposed to 92840...
see how it gives the zip a different look, besides Martha advises it! =)
- once you've made all your labels, print those out on the preferred color paper
- cut those out and then send them through your Xyron machine
- while still attached to the wax backing use a bone folder or straight edge to make the crease where it will wrap around the envelope
- lastly pull the label off the backing and stick it on each envelope!
and you're ready to send them to their new homes
set a date with the man in your life
May 1, 2008
i don't know about you, but wedding planning and life can get in the way of spending quality time with your groom-to-be. we have a few other outside factors contributing to our
lack of "couple time". i work a very irregular schedule, not to mention have a jewelry & accessory business which is starting to keep me a little busier!
(why not start a new business venture while planning a wedding? great timing right?!?)
being just a lil sarcastic...
while my FI on the other hand is a full time 2L in law school, works 20 hrs a week, then spends most of the rest of his life studying.... doesn't leave much room for little ol' me.
but then again i knew this would happen when he signed on for law school,
and i also knew we were in it for the long haul!
so that brings me to, how to spend some quality time free of my "wedding agenda" and his law school craziness?
us a few years ago at dland
answer: we go to Disneyland!
and that's where we went tonight, since we have annual passes, but not for much longer =(
we went after work to help get his mind off of his finals and to spend some much needed "us" time together. we went on a few rides, got some quality walking in, and had some fun!
below are other date ideas i like or have enjoyed in our almost 5 years of dating!
local museum: we went to the Getty Center while in college and it was a fun way to talk about topics we don't normally - THE ARTS
county fair: with summer coming, most cities will play host to local fairs which are fun to bring out the kids in your coupledom - i have a peter pan syndrome, can you tell?
picnic : go to a local beach or a park with a view, pack some wine/martinelli's, some cheese, fruit, and sausage... but don't forget the utensils - we forgot last time we picnicked!
us hiking in jackson hole, wy - don't mind my pomp
go for a hike: find a local nature walk or hiking trail, another great way to burn calories, you can even take your pooch along too for some fresh air.
these are just a few ideas we've enjoyed - or i'd like to try sometime soon with my FI
hopefully these help any other ladies out there in need of new date night ideas
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