Narrowing the options: Designing my invites

Once we decided to forge ahead and design our own stationary suite, I drew up this mood board to serve as our starting point and came up with a few design options.

Entry Numero Uno: The closest to our original intent. A pattern surrounding simple text. But I had a hard time finding just the perfect pattern. 

The next idea was actually inspired by the print on our living room rug! Mr. B couldn't get past seeing tire tread, and disliked the off-centered text.

This art deco ornament is super cute, but not related to our actual wedding.

And finally: we have a winner! Wow, not at all what I would have thought would work, but it has a lovely modern elegance. Though I have to confess that it is actually inspired by an Ink + Wit design.

Normally I would be hesitant to so prominently feature Mr. B's initial. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for my last name yet [though I'm leaning toward just sucking it up and taking his]. I'm a pretty hardcore feminist here, and LOVE my name. But the J just looked so lovely in that spot. It was calling for a single initial!

Here's another option for the typeface, reversing the scripty and serif fonts. Which do you prefer? Text option 1 or 2??

The next step is selecting the paper. I've gotten samples of a bunch of different papers, and we're leaning toward a cream linen card stock. The texture is amazing!

Wedding Makeup

Hey bloggers. I have a new discovery that I just had to share! For any of you who are doing your own makeup for the wedding or just like makeup in general, I have found a great eyeliner! I'm always looking for a liner that won't smudge, wear off or look messy. MAKE UP FOR EVER Aqua Eyes is sold at Sephora and costs $17. It genuinely last for 24 hours and is a great pencil liner. It stays moist enough at first to add an eyeshadow that stays all day with it. I'm thinking of getting the liquid too to wear on top! Go to Sephora and check it out!

I am also considering a bold move: false eyelashes! Here in Hawaii, people get eyelash extensions all the time- it's quite popular. It is a long process that can take up to three hours, depending on the speed of your beautician. One falsh eyelash is glued to each real eyelash and it makes for a dramatic and pretty look! If done professionally, the eyelashes are waterproof and stay on for up to one month. Or perhaps I should apply them at home? Could be a disaster, could be great. Many things to consider

Add another line item to that budget

On Friday, we are scheduled to take our engagement photos. I've been researching ideas and found some really fantastic work out there. We've strategized to make the most of our golden hour time slot, with the plan to begin at our super fun loft apartment with a retro theme, then walk around our neighborhood casually [the Highlands, standard for pretty much everyone in Atlanta], and finally take the last few on our deck as the sun sets as a duo in a Bond flick [that's my hot black ball gown and Mr. B in a black suit, skull tie & aviators to you].

Inspiration includes the AMAZING Feather Love:

[we are totally taking pictures with Mr. B's banjo, the lessons are really paying off!]

And Jasmine Star via the Wedding Cabaret.

Among many others.

Wow, there's so much to do, got to get the place spiffed up, oh and REPLACE ALL OF OUR CLOTHES. Because the load of laundry that included all our clothes for the shoot, yeah, it turned pink.

Off to the mall tonight!

Hair!!

Hello friends!

As is evident by my last post, I've been in a wedding rut (redding what?). To distract me from the minutae of collecting addresses and pretending I have nice handwriting while addressing the aforementioned save-the-dates, I have turned my attention to hair. I made a rather large to-do list by month in preparation for the wedding and there at the bottom of May is "find wedding hair guru." Excellent...this is fun, THIS is something I can get excited about!

Hair, in terms of wedding beauty, is very important. My mother has always said that a person's hair is their "crowning glory," which, to me, evokes images of royals and angels with fantastically voluminous locks. Ah, yes: heavenly princess hair- sounds about right.

So in order to acheive heavenly princess hair, I assume that I will have to use massive amounts of hairspray and employ the talents of some hair magician floating around DC or Northern Virginia. Due to the logistics of wedding day, I will not be able to go to a salon and will therefore need the person to come to me. I have looked at theknot.com and have found a few mobile hairdressers, but don't know where else to look for someone who will be willing to travel. Thoughts on this?

I'm definitely wanting long, wavy hair that is half-up and soft in the front. I plan to do a trial run with the hair person when I go to DC in July, so I'm hoping that the first try works, since hair trails are normally between $60-$100!

If all else fails, does anyone know of a ridiculously fantastic hairspray so that I can do it myself? Thanks bloggers!!

Save-the-freaking-date

Ok, I'm going to rant. These save the dates have taken me to the end of my rapidly fraying rope. I mean, seriously. I leave my house at 5:30am and get home at 6:30pm and have no access to a car (I'm friends with numerous bus drivers now- they know me), so I had no time to get to any card stores when they were actually open.

After weeks and weeks (actually, months) of putting it off, I finally went to a stationery store where I just had somebody print a card for me. Great! No worries now about printing it myself. So they print 100 cards and...they are all off-center. Every single one! This makes me want to drink 16 Coronas in succession (I'm drinking one now). But of course, I don't have the time or money to wait for another print up, so I'm just going to send the god-blessed things out. They don't even look good, but at this point, if people judge us for having off-center postcard save-the-dates, they can jump off a bridge.


So I just addressed all of them and am ready to send them out. I asked Mr. Livalittle to lend a hand in this process, so he picks up postcard stamps and what does he bring home? Polar bear stamps. We are getting married in September. In DC. If we were getting married in an ice hotel at the northern tip of Swedish Lapland during the time of the year when they have a santa village, well then a sweet and cuddly polar bear would be effing perfect. But as it turns out, we're not going to be anywhere near Jukkasjärvi or any other arctic/polar region, so the bear just looks like it's sweltering. Mr. Livalittle had the great sense to point out that the DC zoo probably has a polar bear, which was really, really helpful of him.



Maybe the real solution is to change the entire plan and just get married in Sweden? I'd have to get elves though and added to my already ridiculous crew of 11 bridesmaids, a brigade of elves would be a bit excessive. But hey, you only get married once. We hope.

Miracle!!

Thanks to the the tip from The Professional Bridesmaid, I discovered that not only could I use this awesome coupon, but my beautiful saffron satin peep toe pumps are ON SALE.

Score a big one: they were less than half price. 

Hooray!

The Dress

I almost completely forgot that my dress was scheduled to arrive in May when I got a call from my girl at the Dallas Priscilla of Boston. The amazing folks there helped get it to Atlanta [free of charge after my terrible experience with the infamous Ellen at PofB ATL] and on Sunday, I tried it on!

I was SERIOUSLY afraid it wouldn't fit. I mean, they measured me right after running a half marathon and let's just say it's been a relaxing 2009. And while the usually say your 'bridal' size is bigger then your street size, they ordered one down from my street size. For real?

But as luck would have it, it zipped up. Let's just say it was SNUG. And my ribs ached a tinge. Oh well, that October 4th half marathon should take care of that.

Wow, wish I was that tall! Clearly the main alterations to be done include making it SHORTER. I'm also considering loping off the train, so we can avoid that whole bustle issue. Not sure yet, but debating the pros and cons. Anyone wish they DID NOT have a train??

Food Comas and Wedding Hangovers

Mr. B's lovely parents were in town this past weekend. And all in the name of 'research' we hit five restaurants in 2.25 days. 

I haven't been hungry since Saturday. It's Monday night. I think it's pure cholesterol running through my veins.

Gross.

Any way, we did come up with some great Rehersal Dinner options for our group of 45, including the private rooms at Ecco and One Midtown Kitchen. Seriously, the food at Ecco is OUT OF THIS WORLD. And One Midtown is right on the Park where we'll be rehearsing. The biggest problem in is Atlanta is that there are just too many good restaurants.

The other items accomplished or at least started is insanely long, so expect updates and musings. All of the things we said were too far off in the future to worry about [DIYs, cake, engagement shoot, invitations, accessories]; it is now officially time to get crackin on.

Next up: THE DRESS IS IN.

Exhilirating adventures!

Hello blogging friends!

Well, I celebrated my birthday yesterday in Hawaii by parasailing! It was really amazing to soar over the ocean near Waikiki and Diamond Head right next to Brad. If anyone is honeymooning out in Oahu, I highly recommend this activity. When you go with Xtreme Parasail, couples can go together. I love heights, so I thought it was great fun, despite Mr. Livalittle's attempts to tickle me and shake the harness while we were 700 feet above the water (typical). The company offers skydiving and jetskiiing too, which would be pretty amazing in such a gorgeous place. I think that high adventure brings a couple closer together, especially when you can experience the risk at the same time! I think I'm going to learn to do stand-up paddleboarding next and then perhaps kite-surfing? Good times!

The only flowers

Will be my bouquet. Seriously, not a single other bloom. No boutonnieres, no centerpieces, no rose-petal-covered-aisle. From a budget and tree-hugging perspective, it just makes sense.

But sure, I'll carry some flowers around. And just as TTO and A Cup of Joe have discovered, Trader Joe's carries the best dirt cheap flowers around!

I've decided the small, delicate spray rose is my fav, so a few weeks ago we picked up a single bunch ($3.99 at TJs) for a test run. I think this pink is going to be the color, it will be the one really feminine touch of the whole shebang.

This is the day before picture:

And this how well they open up after a night in water. This trial made it clear we'll need 5-6 bunches to fill it out and pick the very best flowers.

This is two bunches worth, picked up for Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day Momma! I like that they didn't quite open up as much and aren't uniform, giving it a more organic feel. 

Would you do it?

Etsy Seller  TickledPinkKnits via Style Me Pretty

Over a wedding dress? Clearly, I would. The texture! The color! It's incredible. This is a def pos.

Favoring Food

You could definitely put us down as massively obsessed foodies. Really, there are few things that better analogize the love Mr. B and I share.

Though I'm not big on the whole favors-at-weddings band wagon, I do love a chance to get in extra goodies so long as it is cheap. Sorry folks, no trendy french macaroons [srsly, they are the new cupcake] here. But we all love the edible favors, as Samantha has figured out.

First idea to suck me in was Jenna's homemade flavored olive oil. Mr. B and I made an incredible trip to Sonoma last year, and tasting olive oil straight up is one of our favorite memories. AMAZING. But checking out her DIY tutorial [Parts 1 and 2], made it clear this a 'Week Of' project. Unfortunately something I won't be making time for. Also expensive to get good oil [at least by Mr. B's sky-high standards]!

But last week Amy Jean posted a note about the fantastic blogging over at MyRecipies.com. We use it all the time for the Cooking Light recipes, but I had no idea they had a great entertaining/foodie blog called You've Got to Taste This. Contributor Ashley Johnson is getting hitched herself and full of great food-related DIYs.

Enter: our current favor idea. The Candied Pecan!

A southern favorite, the pecan can be sugared to be sweet, coated to be spicy or a covered in a sweet+savory mixture. Imagine in a cute clear box with custom label available for pick-up at the start of the ceremony at the Park, where there otherwise would be zero snacks. 

And best of all, we can make this several weeks in advance. Hooray!

To Invite or Not Invite...THAT is the question

Dearly beloved bloggers,

I have a quandry. I have just moved to Hawaii where I am making a new life for myself and am forming friendships. This is not the problem- this, theoretically, is good. However, because I am living in bizarro world (i.e. planning a wedding), I can't help but think that new friendships are just making life more complicated.

Should I invite these new friends to our wedding? There are several that I can foresee being long-term pals. Will I regret that they weren't there or weren't invited years from now? All of my new friends live in Hawaii, but the wedding is in DC. Most of them probably won't be able to come anyway, so does that seem like we're just asking for a gift? Oh I just don't know! I just want people to be included in the celebration if they can make it, but I don't want to inadvertantly send the wrong message!

Bestow your wisdom, fellow brides and blog-readers!

Distressed in Lanikai,

Samantha Livalittle