Small and Chic in Cville

Good-by from Miss Small & Chic

2012-06-01T08:49:00.007-04:00

This is the last time I'll be writing to you as Miss. I have to admit that the week leading up to our wedding hasn't been what I expected. As the various weather forecasts started to line up and agree, we had to define what had been a fairly vague rain plan.

I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I've shed some tears in the last 48 hours over the weather and the changes to our plans. My main wishes for this day were to get married outdoors, with the Blue Ridge Mountains behind us, and to have my dog present. Thankfully, our venue briefly lifted their "no dogs inside" rule so Baxter can be part of our ceremony. However, getting married outdoors seems impossible right now.

Screen shot from Accuweather.com

I wish I could write a dreamy, bliss-filled "morning-of-my-wedding" post like others have done before me, but I feel I have to be real.

So, good-bye from a sad Miss. While I'm thrilled to be marrying Marc and am looking forward to tonight, I'm very sad that everything from our pictures to our decor (corn hole in the rain, anyone?) will be negatively affected by the rain.

DIY Wedding Program Fans, Part 2

2012-05-29T01:53:00.000-04:00

I took a break from sharing pictures of our program fan project to tell you about attending the Jorge Manuel Upon a Star event I attended with Mrs. Pony. It's time to get back to those details! As you may remember, I had the print center at work print our programs with some pretty bad results. A trip to an independent print shop fixed everything. I didn't have too many extra sheets of the expensive card stock I ordered from Cards & Pockets, so the second printer had to use the backs of the pieces that were used (ruined?) by the first.

When I got home, I used a corner punch to round the corners of the card stock sheets. This was surprisingly time consuming work. The Martha Stewart punch I used could only handle two sheets of card stock at a time. I had 200 sheets of card stock and four corners on each sheet, so I had 400 punches to make (it actually took more than that because I didn't discover the punch could take two sheets until I was a good bit into the stack of paper).

I followed Weddingbee's Mrs. Bunting's advice and used some packing tape to secure the fan sticks I bought on Etsy to the card stock. I had to stare at that first, botched print job for hours while I taped.

I've extolled the virtues of the adhesive tape runner before and like others before me, found it to be the perfect tool for securing the two sides of the program fan together. You can just barely see the shiny lines of adhesive in the picture I took of this step:

Finally, I had to line up the two sides of the program and apply pressure to get them to stick together. The second printer did the cuts for me and the two sides were exactly the same size, but I did my best.

When it came time to assemble the program fans, I was a little disappointed. Some of the ink on the "inside" of the fans could be seen around the edges once the fan was put together.

I contemplated painting the edges or running marker around them, but that should have been done before they were put together. What's more, when I tested using a marker on the edges, the paper soaked up the ink unevenly and the result wasn't very nice looking.

If I was doing this project six months ago, the perfectionist in me would have scrapped everything and started over. I am giving myself permission to use the fans as they are. I hope people can focus on the illustration and program content instead of the edges.

Did you have to settle for less than perfect results on a project you tackled during wedding planning?

DIY Wedding Program Fans, Part 1

2012-05-25T01:52:00.000-04:00

I don't know where I first saw a picture of a wedding program that doubled as a fan, but I loved the idea immediately. I knew I'd be making some for our wedding eventually. When I started to work on a design recently, I wasn't happy with any of my drafts. I originally tried to use the "monogram" I wrote about a while back. I didn't like the results. I kept wishing that our program fans could look like our guest book poster.

By AmpersandInk Designs (with minor edits on names)

I decided to reach out to Tasha Montgomery, the artist behind AmpersandInk Designs and our beautiful poster. We loved the illustration that Tasha created for our poster and were thrilled when she gave us permission to use it on our program fans.

Now that I had permission to use the illustration, I had to change the text to work for our program. While I consider myself pretty tech savvy, I had always been intimidated by the software programs I'd need to use to make the edits (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc.). I spent a few frustrating nights at the computer before things finally "clicked" for me while using Illustrator. Suddenly, I was tweaking layout and using glyphs (pretty characters that come with a font that you can't use in simpler word processing programs).

I was so proud of the final product. I had wanted to print the programs at home, but my Epson Artisan can't handle the nice, linen card stock that I bought from Cards & Pockets for this project. A colleague suggested I take the files and paper to our copy center at work. They were happy to do personal jobs. Their prices seemed reasonable and the brochures they did for our office always looked great. I dropped everything off and almost sprinted to pick them up two days later when I got the call that they job was done.

They did it all wrong.

I opened the box and my heart sank. They had resized my image to fit the entire page. Perhaps I missed a setting that would prevent that in Illustrator, but every time I test printed the files, the size was exactly as I designed it. I couldn't really have 8.5" x 11" fans! They'd look ridiculous!

What's more, the quality of the printing varied dramatically throughout the stack. Some pieces were just fine, others were faded out, as if the machine that printed them was low on ink. They also told me that they lost about 30 pieces of my beautiful card stock to a printer jam. I was kind of puzzled by that, but there was nothing I could do about it.

To their credit, they offered to reprint the job and not change the size, but they didn't have any paper that was nearly as nice as the card stock I gave them. I didn't even have enough card stock left for that and I didn't feel like there was any guarantee that the quality of the color would be better.

I quickly emailed T&N Printing, the people who printed my guest book poster. I asked if they'd be willing to print on the back of the paper I had and they told me to come right over. Within minutes of walking in the door, they handed me the product of a test print. I think I heard birds singing.

As I waited, I looked around the shop and saw about half a dozen jobs that were being done for other offices where I work, including the President's office. That was telling!

The staff at the shop was nice enough to do all the cutting for me, too. I had anticipated spending some time with my office's paper cutter after hours, but a big, paper cutting machine took care of that task pretty quickly.

The print shop at work didn't charge me for the job when they saw my reaction to the finished product and acknowledged that they had resized my images. I know how much they would have charged me, though, and expect to pay more at the independent printer. In the end, T&N charged me half what the print shop at work would have charged. I was stunned and very grateful.

I'm so happy with the final product. The size is perfect, the colors are strong, and the text (which I can't really show) looks fantastic. I'm so excited to move to the next part of this project, putting the fans together.

The first job vs. the second

Did you have any vendor mishaps? How did you resolve them?

Passing the Jorge Manuel Veil

2012-05-24T00:25:00.000-04:00

You may remember that I won my Jorge Manuel wedding gown last year in the designer's very first Upon a Star contest. I originally encountered a Jorge Manuel gown in person at the beautiful Hitched bridal salon in Georgetown (that's in Washington, DC) about a year ago and decided to enter the contest to win one of his creations. I wound up flying to Charleston to pick up my gown, but I still consider my journey to being a Jorge Manuel bride to have started at Hitched.

Jorge enjoyed the contest from his side so much that he decided to make it a tradition. This year's contest was hosted by Hitched and I was thrilled when I was invited to the salon to announce the newest Upon a Star winner. This year's gown is going to be custom made, but a sample of the design was on display. Isn't it gorgeous?

The Eternal Flame gown by Jorge Manuel / Photo by Chris Anderson of Route 1 Multimedia

/ Used with permission

As soon as I arrived at Hitched, the staff whisked me off to the back room where salon owners Carin Levine and Julia Kepniss introduced designer Jorge Manuel. Jorge talked about his inspiration for the Upon a Star contest and about the construction of this year's dress, the Eternal Flame gown.

Julia, Carin, me, Jorge Manuel / Photo by Chris Anderson of Route 1 Multimedia / Used with permission

Each finalist in attendance was introduced and given a wonderful bag of gifts. It was then my turn to talk about entering the first contest a year ago and winning my dress, the Star gown. Soon, the big moment was at hand. It was time to open the envelope and announce the second winner of the Upon a Star contest...

Announcing the winner! / Photo by Chris Anderson of Route 1 Multimedia / Used with permission

I cried out the name of the winner, Farisa Dastvar, and the room erupted. She hugged Jorge, her mother (I think it was her mother) started to cry, and I ran over to offer my congratulations. The ladies at Hitched had put a veil on me and I was to transfer the veil to the winner, beauty pageant style. I hope I didn't hurt poor Farisa when I smashed the comb into her hair. I was so excited!

Passing the veil / Photo by Chris Anderson of Route 1 Multimedia / Used with permission

Everyone swarmed Farisa to take pictures and I got to step away and catch up with Weddingbee's own Mrs. Pony! We met at the little Bee brunch Miss Fox wrote about a couple weeks ago and I was so excited that she was able to come to the party. Chris Anderson, the professional photographer covering the party, took a picture of us and it wound up on the top of the blog post that Jorge Manuel's team wrote about the event.

Me and Jessica, aka "Mrs. Pony" / Photo by Chris Anderson of Route 1 Multimedia / Used with permission

Mrs. Pony and I looked through all the gowns that were at Hitched for that weekend's Jorge Manuel trunk show. Kyle Leverett, Jorge's Operations Manager walked us through the current collection and told us some stories about life behind the scenes in the couture bridal world, including one hilarious story about the lengths they went to acquire a piglet for an Alice in Wonderland themed photo shoot for a past collection.

Dresses from Jorge's Rococo and Iris collections

Later, as Pony and I talked with Jorge and Kyle, I started to feel silly for having been intimidated by Jorge back when I won my gown. Jorge wants to know his brides. He wants to know about their weddings. I never though about the fact that designers don't always get to know about where their dresses wind up. While we see all the pieces of the wedding puzzle in our minds, they just know their one piece.

Being part of this year's contest made the amazing experience of being a Jorge Manuel bride come full circle. I'm just days away from wearing my Upon a Star gown and Farisa is just starting her journey. While I don't know her, I feel connected to her and other Jorge Manuel brides because of this experience.

Did you get to meet the designer of your wedding gown? Do you feel connected to other brides who wear gowns by the same designer?

Pondering Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue

2012-05-23T13:48:00.003-04:00

With a couple weeks to go before our wedding day, I started getting questions about whether I have my somethings old, new, borrowed, and blue lined up. To be honest, my attention has been diverted to other details and I haven't really thought out how I'd adhere to that tradition.

Early on, I assumed my something old or something borrowed would be a lace mantilla veil that's been in my family for a few decades. I've never actually seen this veil and was excited by the idea of wearing it. I was a little disappointed when my mother told me that it wouldn't go with my dress. My dress' designer, Jorge Manuel, made a veil to go with my dress, so I have a lovely veil to wear regardless.

Finding something new is pretty easy. My dress, my shoes, and some other accessories are all new. These days, I doubt many people have trouble with this part of the tradition!

For my something blue, I have my blue, sparkly reception shoes from BHLDN, but I also bought a dress label that my seamstress is sewing into my gown. I've had it for about a year and can't wait to see it in my dress.

Label by Initial Impressions on Etsy

Now, I have to start thinking about my something old and my something borrowed. I have some offers from family members and I think I have both items covered. Last weekend, Marc's mother gave me two items to consider.

First, she gave me a charm that she used to have on a bracelet years ago. It has Marc's name on it.

She also showed me a pin that's been in her family for many years. It's an art deco piece that can turn into shoe clips if you manipulate the locking mechanism on the back. She thought I'd want to use it in shoe clip form, but I immediately thought it was the perfect size to be pinned to the handle of my bouquet.

It's a good thing I prefer it as a pin because we couldn't figure out how to work the "lock" on the back of the pin to pull it apart into shoe clips. Maybe we need to take it to the people at Antiques Roadshow and see if they can figure it out.

I still don't feel like I have everything settled and I have a feeling something will just have to do a double check before we leave the bridal suite to make sure we cover our bases. I'm not a superstitious person, so I won't be devastated if I don't fulfill the saying.

How do you feel about the "something borrowed" phrase? Did you pay close attention to the different items you needed? Did you double count anything? What do you think happens when a bride doesn't pay attention to this tradition?

The Five-Shoe Bride

2012-05-16T09:33:00.002-04:00

I'm embarrassed to share this, I am currently looking for my fifth pair of wedding shoes. I'm kicking myself. I was in denial about the height of the J. Crew d'orsays that I scored for $8 a year ago. At a fitting on Saturday, my seamstress looked at me prancing and swooshing around her shop and told me something had to change. She either had to hem the skirt of the dress or I had to get higher heels.

Now, the shoes are a tad large on me to start with and I was only going to wear them for the ceremony as a result. Combining too-large heels and a too-long skirt might result in me being flat on my face at some point on the walk down the aisle. Instead of hemming the dress, I've decided to use this as an opportunity to buy a new pair of shoes that actually fit and were comfortable. I also decided that I would look for a pair of wedges for the outdoor ceremony.

From Inspired by This / Photo by Bella Allure Imagery / via Lover.ly

In looking for a pair of wedges that were formal enough to wear with my wedding gown, I've been surprised by how limited the options are. Surly there are enough people out there getting married outdoors to warrant a nice selection of special occasion shoes with a wedge heel?

So far, the only shoe I've found has been the this one by Nina:

Nina Electra via NinaShoes.com

Part of me thinks that I should just put a pair in my shopping basket and call of the search for other options. With the wedding around the corner, I should really have the shoe situation squared away by now. I never imagined that I'd still be looking at shoes just weeks before my wedding.

Did you leave anything to the last minute in your wedding planning? How did things work out?

Managing a Dog at a Wedding (and Last Minute Details)

2012-05-15T00:08:00.000-04:00

Remember Baxter? He's my little golden retriever, who has been my sidekick for the last five years. Very early in our wedding planning, I debated having Baxter in our wedding. I feared that he'd be uncomfortable or the logistics of getting him to and from our venue would prove too difficult. Almost every comment from my original post about this encouraged me to include Bax in our big day. One bee even photoshopped an image of our little guy with a bride and groom to encourage me.

We settled on including Baxter pretty soon after that. Marc and I wasn't exactly in agreement about what Bax should wear, though. Marc thought the bow tie collar was have was the perfect outfit for our Little Bear. I put it on him for holidays and special occasions.

I had a slightly different idea. I had seen floral wreaths that my florists, Pat and Sherry Spencer of Pat's Floral Designs, had made for dogs on a few wedding blogs. I thought Baxter would look adorable with a floral wreath around his neck.

In the end, I was a bit more passionate about the floral wreath than Marc was about the bow tie, so the wreath wins. I bought Baxter a black collar, lead, and Gentle Leader harness to be the foundation for his look and I think he looked very sharp.

Of course, now we had to deal with the logistics of getting Baxter to the wedding and returning him home after our ceremony. We considered asking a few of our friends to do this, but we didn't want anyone to miss out on part of the day because they were ferrying a dog around. We considered asking a few neighbors who are students, but our wedding day is their moving day.

I almost gave up on Baxter being in the wedding, but as luck would have it, I saw a Living Social email about hiring an errand running company, based in Charlottesville, that operates in Virginia, DC, and Maryland called Vivacity to do all kinds of tasks, including pet sitting. I quickly emailed the company to ask if our "task" fit into their pet sitting parameters and got a lovely email back from the owner, Ashleigh Ward, saying she'd be happy to help us. I quickly purchased the Living Social deal and felt relieved that we wouldn't be burdening a guest with the role of chauffeur for Baxter.

I recently met Ashleigh for coffee to talk about our time line. I brought Bax along so they could meet, in case she wasn't a "dog person." It turns out that she has two dogs herself, so she's completely comfortable with taking care of Baxter on our wedding day. She put me at ease almost immediately.

I decided that I might also hire her to do some of the last minute jobs that come up just before the wedding. I'm not sure I can juggle dropping welcome bags off at area hotels, transporting linens to the venue, picking up my dress (from where it'll be steamed) and other tasks on the same day as our rehearsal. It might be nice to have someone else to help us on the day before the big day.

How are you planning on handling last minute wedding tasks?

Seating Guests at a LARGE Event

2012-05-11T10:08:00.003-04:00

As of Saturday, we have gotten replies to 100% of our wedding invitations. For some reason, we felt like it might not happen, but we managed to get in touch with all of our guests who hadn't replied and got their answers. Now, it's time to focus on table arrangements.

In light of my commitment to paperless wedding planning, I originally signed up for a website that aims to facilitate the seating assignment process. Unfortunately, it has no upload function, so you must do a considerable amount of data entry before you can do anything. I dutifully typed in all of our guests and when I was almost done, the whole thing crashed on me. It was a lovely hour that I wasn't about to repeat.

Perhaps the seating arrangement website crashing was a good thing. Marc was actually very excited about this task. He had pen and paper at the ready, but I had other plans. Since he was enthusiastic, I decided to make the process a little more fun.

I pulled out my awesome circle cutter outer thing, bought during one of those sales that Michaels runs when everything with Martha Stewart's name on it is 40% and you can use a coupon to get another 25% off. Since buying the circle cutter outer, I haven't used it, so I christened it by cutting out eight circles that would be our tables.

I then used Post-It flags to represent each couple or guest that is coming to our wedding. I color coded them based on the social group of which they are a part (bridal party, my colleagues and friends, my family, Marc's colleagues and friends, Marc's family, and our mutual friends).

Instead of the traditional head table, we are renting two farm tables from our florists, Pat and Sherry from Pat's Floral Design (Pat's husband/Sherry's father made the tables). They can fit 8-10 people each and we'll probably have 17 people at those tables. While our round tables can fit 10 people, we though it'd be nice to give everyone a little more elbow room, so we're seating eight people at each table.

The first attempt at putting everyone at a table went really well. The groups emerged rather naturally. We put our older guests at the tables closets to the dance floor so they wouldn't feel removed from the party if they wanted to sit down. We put some of the younger people on the outskirts, assuming they might be more apt to stay on the dance floor once they get there. We were left with this:

We were quite proud of ourselves, but left the arrangement up for a day to see how we felt about it. The next afternoon, we wondered if clustering people from similar social groups was a mistake. Would the left side of the room mingle with the right side of the room? What's more, we love all of these people and we think most of them would like each other, so perhaps it might be more fun to mix the tables up a bit.

We left our older friends and family where they were, but shuffled some of the younger folks around. We even mixed a few tables because there were a few couples that we thought would really enjoy meeting each other. Perhaps it's a little silly, but I kind of hope some new friendships come out of those mixed tables.

What factors do you consider when seating guests for a party or event? What tools do you use?

Stalking the Mailman

2012-05-09T05:39:00.000-04:00

There comes a time in every couple's wedding planning journey when the stalking begins. With the RSVP deadline looming, your ears become trained to distinguish the sound of the mail truck from that of other types of vehicles. On days when no responses arrive, you can't help but get a little cynical about your loved ones' abilities to fill out a card and use a pre-stamped and pre-addressed envelope.

On our RSVP deadline day, here's how our response numbers looked:

Yes, I originally spelled the meat dish as tender lion.

I removed the "+1" lines for everyone who declined and was pretty shocked by how few people declined our invitation. Doing the math, though, we were right at 80% acceptance, which falls right in line with the wisdom of the Weddingbee forum, where people say that 20% of your invited guests won't be able to attend.

A bride who is getting married this weekend at my venue told me that quite a few guests on her list put their reply cards in the mail on the RSVP deadline date, so we might get a few more cards this week. Sure enough, a few more cards trickled in. We started making calls and emailing the guests with outstanding replies and got answers out of almost everyone. Three days after our deadline, here is how our numbers look:

One of the three missing replies if from a "+1" and that's just fine with us. The other two are a bit of a surprise...but they shall remain anonymous.

Just for fun, I thought I'd share our favorite reply card, which came from Marc's sister. Her son, one of our ring bearers, also signed the card.

To hopefully help those who are still waiting for response cards to arrive, I thought I'd describe the emotional roller coaster I've been on this week. Four days ago, the day before our RSVP deadline, I was extremely worried and anxious about our numbers. Three days ago, I was anxious and puzzled. I thought something must be wrong with the mail or our wedding website. Surly, more people meant to respond by now? Two days ago, I was frustrated. Our wedding can't possibly be anyone's first wedding. They must know what the card is for, right? Yesterday, I was worried again. We were over our projected number and I started to think about the ripple effect of that. Today, I'm at peace.

Did you experience some emotional ups and downs while waiting for your guests to respond to your invitation? Did you have to track a few stragglers down after your RSVP deadline?

Going to the Courthouse

2012-05-08T00:37:00.000-04:00

A couple days ago, we made a spontaneous decision. We were getting ready for work and Marc said "let's just go to the courthouse this morning." We had talked about it a few times, but never made any concrete decisions about going there. That morning seemed like the perfect time.

So we went.

We went to the wrong building at first. The guard there told us where to go and wished us good luck as we headed to the door. We weren't sure if he meant we wished us luck finding the right building or wished us luck in our marriage. We'll assume the latter.

Once inside, we made our way to the Office of the Circuit Court Clerk and told her what we wanted to do. We showed us into a room that was the color of Pepto-Bismol and told us someone would be right with us.

About twenty minutes later, we walked out with this:

If it wasn't clear, we were just getting our marriage license, which is good for the next 60 days. We had the date that we could start going to the clerk's office circled on the calendar and with about a month to go, the time seemed right.

It's amazing that getting a marriage license is so easy in Virginia. We showed our IDs, spelled out the names or our parents, and we were done. All we have to do is have our officiant fill out the forms and then drop them in the mail the day after the wedding.

So, I guess it's official! We're getting married! This is another one of those "things just got real" moments. I had those feelings when we mailed our Save the Date cards and when our invitations went out, but this feeling is a bit different. We're getting married SOON!

What were your "this just got real" moments while you were planning?

A Lesson in Linens

2012-05-07T09:37:00.002-04:00

Back in December, I contemplated ordering linens that were a close match to my bridesmaids' dresses. Our venue's beautiful reception space was a wonderful, but fairly neutral slate. I'm not a fan of overly colorful lighting schemes, so the linens seemed like a natural place to bring in that pretty blue.

A Craigslist seller led me to the company that had linens that were almost a perfect match for J. Crew's Matisse Blue dresses. I ordered a swatch to be sure and was pretty excited when it came. The napkins had to be ordered in increments of 12, so I wound up with more than I thought I would need.

Just a few weeks ago, I started thinking about the rustic tables that our venue, Pippin Hill, has for use around the space. They don't exactly fit with my vision for the space. I met our DOC, Amanda Gray, at the venue to talk about the placement of those tables and decide on how they'd be draped.

We decided to drape five of the tall, bar height tables that are on the patio, where our cocktail hour will be held. We also decided to put one large, rectangular table on the patio for my escort card board, guestbook poster, and card box. Those items would be moved inside to another draped table during the reception. We also decided to drape the cake table at the far end of the space, under a huge mirror.

I quickly placed an order with TableLinensforLess.com for the linens we'd need. They arrived in just a few days and I laid them out on my sofa to take a look at them.

I got confused when every single tablecloth had rounded corners. Five of the tables were round, but I had ordered square or rectangular tablecloths for the other tables. I checked and double checked, thinking that I missed something. Alas, every one of them was rounded.

I called the company a little worried and the customer service representative calmly explained that when rectangular or square tables get over a certain size, rounding the corners helps the tablecloth drape properly. She said that if the fabric was a perfect square or rectangle, the corners who puddle on the floor and not look right. I sheepishly apologized for bothering them and explained that I had never ordered linens as large as these before.

Talk about an embarrassing moment! I was certain there had been some sort of mistake. I'm so thankful that the customer service person was understanding.

Did you have a moment when you were convinced something wedding related was wrong and all was just fine?

Paperless wedding planning

2012-05-04T15:44:00.003-04:00

While running an errand last week, I spotting a display full of wedding planning books and binders at a stationary store that made me stop and browse. You see, I never bought any sort of planning tool when we got engaged. I was curious about the contents of the binders and decided to take a look at them.

Most had pretty, pastel dividers for every aspect of a wedding. They had pockets for brochures, slots for business cards, and sheet protectors for truly precious pieces of paper.

Was I missing something? I have a folder that our venue gave us with our menu and contract in it and I've thrown a few things in there since, but I haven't found the wedding planning process to be paper intensive.

I asked a few other brides if they had wedding planning binders and got these pictures back in response:

Photos by friends / Used with permission

I thought I'd run down the tools I used in my wedding planning and how I stayed relatively paper free in the process. The tools I used were from multiple websites. I looked at a number of options and went with whatever one had the format I liked best. When one site went down for maintenance a few weeks ago, I realized how lucky I was to be using multiple sites. There were brides who were only using that one site and therefore lost access to their budget, guest list, and wedding websites for the duration of the outage.

1. Budget
I managed my budget through Wedding Wire. I liked the three-column design and how quick and easy it was to edit (and completely remove) the different elements on the page.

2. Wedding Website, Guest List, and Meal Selections
I made a site for our wedding on multiple websites before picking Project Wedding for ours. The determining factor was the simplicity of the URL. Our URL is just six letters followed by .projectwedding.com. I can't tell you how many time I've seen wedding website URLs that are something like www.___.com/ourweddingwebsite/JohnSmithandJaneDoewedding.

I also liked that their sites have pretty designs, but are pretty straightforward. I've seen a few wedding websites with music or animation that slowed down how quickly I could get information. Some of those sites don't play nicely with ipads, either.

Project Wedding also had an online RSVP feature that we could use to track menu selections.

3. Task Checklist
Like many, I started my planning by looking at The Knot's wedding checklist. I was immediately turned off by the repetition (I think creating programs is on there in some way at least three times) and some of the fluff items on the list (enjoying your wedding day is an item on the list). I think there were about 275 items on the list.

I wound up using Wedding Wire's checklist much more often. There was still a little repetition, but it wasn't nearly as overwhelming as The Knot's list.

4. Gift/Thank You Note Tracker
The stores where I registered offered a gift tracker, but I opted to use the one at Wedding Wire. None of these tools seemed great, but Wedding Wire's let me upload a spreadsheet and go from there. Others required a bit more work to set up.

5. Inspiration
I started wedding planning just as invitations to beta test Pinterest were floating around the design blog community. At first, I used The Knot to find inspiration, but quickly moved to Pinterest since The Knot doesn't have a very good search function and finding inspiration requires going through page upon page of images that are the size of a postage stamp.

6. Contracts
Perhaps this isn't the norm, but almost all of my vendors sent contracts by email. The gmail account we created just for the wedding has all of those emails saved. When we got something by mail, I scanned it and saved it to a wedding folder on my computer. I'll probably print contracts out for Amanda Gray, our Day-of Coordinator.

When vendors have given me paper, I've tried to only take what is truly necessary from them. At bridal shows, I only gave my contact information to vendors I knew I'd be working with, which I think helped keep the paper to a minimum (some commenters with bridal show connections didn't like that, but I didn't want to be on too many mailing lists).

Did you do most of your wedding planning online? What tools did you find most helpful?

Wedding Poaching

2012-05-02T00:03:00.000-04:00

With a little over a month to go before our wedding, it's time to wrap up loose ends. I have a few unfinished projects and need to get started on the paper related projects that I couldn't tackle too early. Complicating my plans is a business trip that has taken me away from Charlottesville for a week.

I decided to use a break in appointments to go to the only Christmas Tree Shoppe in my region to get candles for the glass votive holders that I bought a few weeks ago. I already bought some huge, pillar candles for my Christmas Tree Shop lanterns months ago and knew they sold votive candles in bulk.

I made a beeline for the candle section as soon as I walked through the doors of shop. Stacks of votive candles took up the entire bottom shelf of the section and the candles were arranged by color. On both ends of the candle rainbow, there were empty spaces. There wasn't a single white votive holder in the section. In disbelief, I circled the racks thinking that there was some magic supply of white candles that I had overlooked.

After picking up a few random items, I made my way to the check out, a little sad that I didn't accomplish my mission for the trip. As I looked around, I noticed the area where staff seem to be items that need to be returned to the shelves. Next to the "go back" bins was a shopping cart...

After I checked out, I scurried to the cart and found a candle stash. All those white candles that were missing from the shelves seemed to be right in front of me. Had some shopper momentarily abandoned their cart or were these headed back to the shelves? I went to the customer service desk to ask and got some bad news.

The candles were on hold. Another bride had set them aside a day ago. The clerk at the customer service desk said that there had been a sign on the cart saying she was coming back that night. The manager overheard and said that the sign came off this morning, once 24 hours had passed since she put the candles on hold. They were mine to take!

I felt a little guilty as I pulled package after package of candles out of the cart. I felt like I was poaching items from another bride's wedding. When the manager came over and thanked me for saving them from putting all of the candles back on the shelves, I felt a little better.

Did you have to get a little competitive with other brides during your wedding planning? Are you especially proud that you acquired something that was rare in high demand for your wedding?

How to Make an Exit from a Wedding

2012-05-01T00:02:00.000-04:00

Getting married and having our reception in the same location has allowed us to avoid talking about wedding transportation during much of our planning. We've had a few short conversations about the logistics of getting things and people to Pippin Hill, the vineyard where we'll be getting married, but haven't really talked about making our getaway at the end of the night.

As the day gets closer, there's more day dreaming about how all these plans will turn out and we've done some talking about how we'll leave the vineyard when the party is over. I've always been a fan of antique limousines and imagined myself riding in a classic Rolls Royce. I'm not sure a fifteen minute, one way trip would be worth a limo company's time.

Notice who is driving? / From Snippet and Ink / Photo by Jimena Roquero / Via Lover.ly

Another option is to rent a classic sport car. Marc and I both love this idea, but we're not too excited about driving it ourselves after our reception. The photos would be charming, though, don't you think? When I shared the classic sports car idea with my Maid of Honor, she offered to drive the car for us and to take care of picking it up and returning it. I thought that was so generous, but most of the sports cars we saw had two seats.

My Day of Coordinator gave me a tip that the owner of the sports car rental business in our area had a four seater that he drove for another one of her couples. I emailed him right away, but he's already busy on our wedding date. That would have been too perfect if it had worked out.

Jodi Miller's wedding (a photographer who lives near me!) / From Southern Weddings /

Photo by This Modern Romance / Via Lover.ly

I decided to submit a quote request with one of the local limo companies that has a classic Rolls that I love (it's navy blue!) and I'll see what happens. I'm setting myself up for budget busting quote already. Maybe, just maybe, there's a slight chance that having a Friday wedding will finally work in our favor and there won't be a minimum? That's probably wishful thinking.

From The Wedding Chicks / Photo by KT Merry Photography / Via Lover.ly

What options did you consider for your getaway? How did you wind up making your exit after your wedding reception?

A Manicure for the DIYer

2012-04-30T08:00:00.002-04:00

Up until a year ago, I could count the number of manicures I had gotten in my life on one hand. Manicures always felt awkward to me. I had a childhood friend who went to the nail salon every week with her mother. I tagged alone once for my first manicure and hated it. The smell of the chemicals was overpowering and while the manicure itself was okay, the sitting around waiting for the polish to dry and then the ever-so-careful way I had to touch things for an hour after leaving was annoying. Doing my own nails was so much easier. I taught myself to do my own French manicures in middle school and almost never went to a nail salon after that. I have strong nails and long nail beds (I didn't even know this until a manicurist told me), so it didn't take much to make my nails look nice.

Everything changed about a year ago. I got an email from the CvilleSaver (a local version of Groupon or LivingSocial) that offered a deal on a manicure that was supposed to last up to four weeks. I ignored the deal at first, but Dana at CvilleFashion and CvilleZumba got the manicure, using CND's Shellac polish (OPI makes their own version), and liked it (though it didn't hold up on her beach vacation). I decided to give the deal a try, knowing that I'd want a professional manicure before the wedding.

The manicure required quite a few layers of polish (I think it's technically called a gel) and between applications, I had to stick my hand in a little UV light box. When the manicure was done, the light had set or cured the polish so my nails were totally hard and dry. I went to the desk of the salon and fished my wallet out of my bag as if my nails were wet and they told me it was totally, totally dry. Silly me.

Shellac manicure, week 1

As a hardcore DIYer, I'm rough on my hands. I'm always sanding, painting, sewing, or hot gluing something. I was pretty shocked at how long my manicure lasted while I was working on one wedding project after another. At one point, someone commented on my manicure and they didn't believe me when I told them that the polish on my nails was three weeks old.

Shellac manicure, week 2

The other bonus that I noticed is that the layer of hard gel is far stronger than a layer of dry nail polish. I've bumped and banged my fingers numerous times and haven't had any broken nails while the Shellac was on them. Now, I obviously don't have this stuff on non-stop. I've had four of these manicures in a year and leave my nails free of polish otherwise.

The UV light that cures the polish is obviously a bit of a concern, though no reputable research seems to be out there about the danger (or lack of danger) of sticking your hand in the light box. I tend to wear lotion with sunscreen on my hands and I get a "dry" manicure (meaning no oils or massages), so I hope my hands are protected.

Shellac manicure, week 3

After three weeks, my current manicure is still looking pretty good. My nails have started to grow, so if you look very carefully at the bottom of each nail, you'll see where the new nail has grown in. The kind of manicure I get (I was recently told that it's an American manicure since the tips are done with a very soft white color) lets that growth come in without being too, too noticeable. There's been a little debate on the Weddingbee boards about whether French (or American) manicures are dated, but I love them. I haven't had color on my nails since I was a child and I don't think I'm really interested in my nails be trendy or fashion statements.

Do you get manicures regularly? Have you tried these new "gel" manicures that use UV lights to cure them? How will you be doing your nails for your wedding day?

It's Not Easy Being Green

2012-04-23T01:27:00.003-04:00

With Early Day around the corner, I got to thinking about some of my efforts to "green" our wedding. Some worked out well. Others didn't. I'd like to share one aspect of our wedding that isn't as green as we had hoped it would be, the decor.

I imagine I'm not alone in looking at pictures from other weddings and thinking that candlelight adds a beautiful quality to the scene. Early in my planning, I was especially drawn to mercury glass. I love it so much that my floral designers are using mercury glass vessels in all of our table arrangements and aisle decorations. I can't wait to see the beautiful result.

From Inspired by this / Photo by Joielala Photographie / Via Lover.ly

I thought I'd collect mercury glass candle holders to extend the look from others parts of our venue. The hitch. Mercury glass, the real stuff, is expensive. We could spend hundreds of dollars on mercury glass and only amass a small collection of it. I briefly considered making my own using one of the many tutorials that are on the web, but a discussion with one of my florists changed my mind. She suggested that we use mercury glass votives on the bridal party table, but stick to clear on the rest because the clear glass would allow more light to bounce around the room.

I knew plenty of brides sold decorative items from their weddings in the classified section of the Bee, so I started watching the listings for votives. I started doing the math in my head and decided that I wanted around 100 votives to put on tables and around the venue. The flicker of candles would be everywhere!

From Inspired by This / Photo by Henry Dillon Photography / Via Lover.ly

I made arrangements three different times to buy another bride's glass votives, but each time, something came up to thwart the transaction. When we got to the two month mark, I worried that it was getting a bit late and decided that Marc and I had to act. We went to our local SPCA Rummage Store, which is like a Goodwill, but the proceeds go to fund the local animal shelter. Surly, with all those used votives online, we could find plenty used votives in thrift stores. Our first outing resulted in precisely two glass votive holders.

Marc loves a good scavenger hunt and wanted to press on to the next thrift shop, but I realized that we'd possibly spent a lot of time (and gas!) on this search and still not have anywhere near the number of votives we needed. Though I had hoped to buy secondhand, we gave up the search and bought new votives at Michael's.

I think our cache is pretty impressive:

The pre-filled votives will go around the outside perimeter of our venue space, where mirrors with shelves are hunt. The regular votives will get candles and go on the tables, with the flower arrangements.

I wish we hadn't had to buy new, but I've consoled myself with the thought that we can sell our votives to someone else and give them a second life after our wedding. If we're lucky, we'll even find someone relatively local to take them so we don't have to pack them up and ship them.

Have you made any efforts to "green" your wedding?

2012-04-20T01:26:00.002-04:00

I'm pretty good at keeping secrets, but am relieved when I'm let off the hook and can share something that was previously private. I've been giddy over the prospect of sharing this news. My sister-in-law is pregnant! She and my brother, who are the reason I have an amazing gaggle of ring bearers, are having their fourth little boy!

My SIL was actually a little bit nervous to tell me her great news and explained that many women do not like having pregnant bridesmaids. I must have missed something because I couldn't figure out why this would be. I know I've seen plenty of charming pictures of bridal parties with a baby bump or two.

From Bridal Mussings / Photo by Erin Johnson Photography / Via Lover.ly

So what's the big deal? I did some googling and found some places on the web where brides say they want a pregnant bridesmaid to step down! Some seem to think a pregnant bridesmaid diverts attention away from the bride or that a baby bump in a picture isn't attractive. I could see offering a bridesmaid a way out of the bridal party if her due date coincides with the wedding date, but other than that, I don't see the problem.

I even get a little misty thinking about my future nephew seeing my wedding pictures one day. I hope he loves seeing his mother, happy and pregnant, in them.

So, why do you think brides don't like having pregnant bridesmaids? How do you feel about them?

Getting Better at Getting Gifts

2012-04-19T01:25:00.002-04:00

I am an extremely enthusiastic gift giver. Marc is the same way. We start thinking about holiday presents around Halloween because we each like to determine the exactly perfect gift that will make a friend or loved one feel special. When the shoe is on the other foot, we're both effusive recipients of gifts, but I have to admit that I've recently felt funny (maybe the right word is guilty?) at the thought of someone buying us a wedding gift.

That's not to say I'm not delighted by the gifts we've recieved. I love them! However, I think hearing comments like "cover your plate" when it comes to weddings (meaning your gift should cost as much as the meal you are served) has made me uncomfortable. It's as if there's a quid pro quo (this for that) expectation around weddings sometimes. I cringe at the idea of my guests feeling obligated to give us gifts.

One day last week, as I thought about why a conversation about gifts with my maid of honor made me uncomfortable, I realized that my friends and family are quite capable of deciding if they want to give us a gift and I need to stop feeling badly about it.

It seems almost fitting that this arrived the evening that I had my epiphany:

What could Elisa and Edward Bricker of Elisa B Photography possibly be sending me? Why would these people who we are paying to photograph our wedding send us something now?

The answer is because they wanted to. They sent us a box of chocolates from the chocolatier whose shop is down the street and a lovely note about how excited they are for the wedding. It was the first test of my new mindset about gifts and I did just fine. I only felt guilty that they enclosed a business card. I know those beautiful, thick letterpress cards are expensive!

What kind of gift recipient are you? How have you felt about being showered with gifts from friends and family?

Tracking Wedding Invitations

2012-04-18T01:24:00.003-04:00

Once you put your wedding invitations in the mail, you hope that friends and family will call or write to let you know that they've arrived at some of their destinations. I'm lucky to have an amazing post office and super responsive guests that resulted in RSVPs in our mailbox within three days. However, I still wanted to track our invitations in a more systematic way.

Since putting delivery confirmations on every envelope was out of the question, I thought I'd embed a Google Analytics tracker into our wedding website to monitor traffic. That plan didn't work out because I used a pre-made template for our website and I couldn't do too, too much editing to the HTML code behind it. I found and alternative that has been working out quite well.

Bitly.com is a website URL shortening service. I use it for my Twitter accounts all the time so links can fit into the 140 character messages I send out as tweets. I've used Bitly for years because it tracks all sorts of statistics for my tweets and I can gauge what content is most interesting for my audience. I decided to use a Bitly url to link to our registry on our wedding website.

Many wedding website services have automated the task of adding a registry, but you can usually opt to set up your own page. I grabbed a logo from Bed, Bath, and Beyond and resized it to work for our page. Then I made the entire image link to the Bitly URL that is tied to our wedding website.

I actually set this up months ago, just before our Save the Date cards went in the mail. I have a few months of data to look at on my Bitly code's statistics page. Some clicks are obviously from the Save the Dates being received. A few people also clicked around the holidays. Obviously, there's a little more activity now. My wedding is small, so I'll never see dozens of clicks. This is about what I expected.

It's kind of neat to imagine those clicks being tried to an invitation being opened!

Have you done any tracking via your wedding website? What trends did you see?

Registry Regret, Part 2

2012-04-17T13:23:00.004-04:00

Recent events have shattered my opinion of Waterford. I'm so sad over this because Waterford has been part of so many celebrations and holidays in my life. And, as someone with an Irish heritage, I also felt that collecting Waterford somehow connected me to my Irish roots (perhaps a little silly of me since Waterford moved a lot of their production to Eastern Europe).

I grew up admiring the Waterford pieces that my grandmother, aunts, and mother owned. I loved to help my mother set the table for the holidays because I enjoyed handling her beautiful Waterford glasses and napkin rings. When we were done, the table would sparkle! The little girl in me loved all that bling!

I picked my Waterford crystal pattern, Kelsey, when I was in graduate school. I love it. When I picked out fine china, I thought it was kind of special that the pattern was by Waterford. A month after I registered, I noticed that Macy's started listing a few pieces of the china were no longer available. I immediately called Waterford Customer Service and the representative who took my call assured me that my pattern, Jaipur, wasn't going anywhere and that it was so popular that they couldn't keep up with demand. I moved my registry over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond after, where all the pieces were available.

Well, that Waterford representative was wrong.

Clockwise from top: Kelsey stemware by Waterford / Pointe d'Esprit flatware by Monique Lhuillier / Jaipur silver charger by Michael Aram for Waterford / Jaipur five piece place setting by Michael Aram for Waterford / All images from Macys.com

When I finally found out that Jaipur was discontinued, I had received five place settings and the ten chargers that I had on my registry. The pieces that were left flipped back and forth between available and out of stock on many of the usual websites (BBB, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Amazon). So, it seems as though the end of the supply was quite near. Replacements, Ltd. didn't have much to offer.

Had the customer service rep told me that Jaipur was being discontinued (or even told me that she wasn't sure), I would have picked a different place setting. I realize that this is one of those "first world problems" that doesn't really matter in the long run, but I'm so frustrated!

Did you have anything on your registry become discontinued? Did you pick an alternative or just hope that supplies lasted until after your wedding?

Oscar de la Renta Bridal Sale

2012-04-12T10:37:00.002-04:00

If you or someone you know is getting married in the NYC area (or can get to the NYC area), there's a pretty spectacular sale you should know about. From now until April 16th, the Oscar de la Renta outlet at Woodbury Commons (the largest outlet center in the world) is selling bridal gowns, shoes, and accessories at 50-70% off retail.

Oscar de la Renta bridal gowns usually sell for $8,000-16,000 (or more!) and the shoes are often around $1,000. Some of the gowns at the outlet are from the Fall and Spring 2011 runway shows.

Obviously, bridal gowns are usually in sample sizes, but bridal has maintained traditional sizing over the years, so the size 8 gown below probably fits like a 4 or 6 in the inflated, mainstream sizing that we see at most stores today. You often wear two sizes "above" your street size when you move into design bridal.

Here's the ombre dress shown above when it went down the runway last spring:

From Weddngs Unveiled's coverage of the Fall 2011 shows

Here's the dress on the far right in that first picture when it went down the runway as part of the Fall 2011, also last spring:

From Weddngs Unveiled's coverage of the Fall 2011 shows

Another one, from the Spring 2011 this time:

RSVP Delight (and a Vow to Become a Better Wedding Guest)

2012-04-11T00:48:00.002-04:00

Last Saturday started a nice little trend in my life. When I open my mailbox at the end of each day, there are three RSVPs inside. Every time I open the envelopes, I'm surprised and delighted by the responses. As I walked home from work last night, I started to reflect on why I have such a strong, emotional reaction to receiving confirmation that our friends and family are attending our wedding.

Our invitations went out at a time of year when many of the students with whom I work are dealing with some big decisions. A few that are disappointed with their options take their frustration out on me. Knowing where they are in their lives, I can take it, but after a day of talking to people who are sad or angry, it's really nice to open that mail box and see those little reply cards. I guess they have a similar therapeutic effect as Junior Mink's excited greeting and wagging tail after a rough day.

I'm so happy that the "yes" replies come early. I guess at some point, I might hear a sad trombone when opening envelopes, but the responses are all positive so far. I'm also happy that people tend to add a little something extra to their cards. Want to see?

I usually try to write a little note on wedding RSVP cards, but I'm going to be sure I always, always do it from now on. It's amazing how your perspective on weddings changes when you're on the planning side of them! In the future, I vow to...

Always return RSVP cards immediately after receiving a wedding invitation.
Always write a nice note on the RSVP card.
Settle on a gift early to avoid discontinued patterns
Have Mr. Mink get measured early for any tuxedo rentals
Comment on the bride's shoes (I started doing this a year ago...shoes matter!)

I'm sure I'll have an even longer list once the wedding is over!

Have you changed your behavior as a wedding guest after going through the planning process? What do you vow to do now that you've been on the other side of planning a wedding?

Wedding Invitation Reveal

2012-04-10T00:47:00.000-04:00

The RSVP cards in my mailbox and comments from friends confirm that our invitations are in our guests' hands, so it's time to share some pictures!

First of all, I have to comment on how amazing my local post office is. Up until about a year ago, my little city had its own mail sorting facility. Budget cuts prompted a closure and all mail started getting sent to Richmond (about an hour away) to be sorted. Locals were up in arms over the potential change in delivery time. I was pretty surprised when we mailed our Save the Date cards and a local friend had his in less than 24 hours. I remember thinking that the Richmond sorting facility must be super efficient!

When I went to double check the postage that we'd need for our invitations, I became privy to what's really going on at my local post office. After I bought our stamps, the clerk quietly told me to separate out the local invitations from the rest so they could bypass Richmond and stay in town. Apparently, they've been doing some hand sorting at the post office since our local sorting facility closed. They aren't supposed to do this, but it's clearly more efficient and probably saves money since they don't have as much mail to transport.

I dropped our invitations off around 1 PM on a Wednesday and many local guests received them on Thursday. My family in the northeast had invitations by Saturday, which is when the first responses arrived in our mailbox. I'm so happy with our quickly the USPS delivered everything.

Now, let me show off our invitations! You may remember the wonderful, affordable calligraphy that Elizabeth Bartucci did for me, but it's so pretty that I can't help sharing another picture of the envelopes.

I've already shared the outside of our envelopes. We used cherry blossom centennial stamps on the envelopes as a nod to the region and our ties to Thomas Jefferson. For the return address, we used wrap around labels from Minted that had our first names on the back of them.

I bought envelope liners that complimented our invitation design from Minted and used a tape runner to secure them inside the envelopes.

Inside the envelopes, the different parts of our invitation were tied together with some thin, pink ribbon. We followed what seem to have become a bit of a Weddingbee tradition and used a Moo card to direct guests to our wedding website.

Our invitation design is Banner and Branches by Alethea and Ruth (via Minted). I saw the design over a year ago and fell in love with it. I ordered samples of Banner and Branches along with two other designs and Marc preferred one of the other ones. I decided that I would let him make the decision since there were apt to be others during our planning where my preference would dictate an outcome. He must have sensed that I wasn't thrilled with his chosen design because a day later, he said that he appreciated the gesture, but he wasn't really passionate about the paper the way I was. He was far more concerned with reception details (food and music). Our Banner and Branches invitations were ordered within hours.

The one concern I had about our invitations was the fact that I couldn't get meal selections onto the reply card. I didn't think to ask Minted if the design of the card could be altered and when we ordered our invitations, our venue hadn't established a spring menu yet. So, we decided to handle meal selection online.

The Moo card says "Please visit our wedding website http://________.com for meal selection, directions, and lodging information." So far, it's working quite well! I considered moving the RSVP online, but I love the fact that most of the cards we've gotten so far have had a personal note on them. Last night, we couldn't help but get a little emotional over the card that one of my relatives sent. The reply card notes feel like little hugs from our guests.

Did you put some component of the RSVP online? How did it work out for you?

Giving in to Temptation

2012-04-09T00:46:00.001-04:00

I think I've mentioned that I am a lover of bridal fashion in the past. Fashion, in general, hasn't excited me in years, but there's something about bridal that I really love. I absolutely loved shopping for a wedding gown and eagerly anticipate the designer bridal fashion shows that happen each spring and fall. So, when I checked into my hotel on a recent business trip to Washington, DC, my heart quickened when I realized that I was staying next to Saks Jandel, a luxury store that has a fabulous bridal salon. Every time I left the hotel, a frothy, romantic Oscar de la Rental wedding gown seemed to playfully call me to come in and fawn over the designer frocks inside the store.

While I'm not the type to second guess my dress at the sight of another, I realize that it's not very nice to monopolize the staff at a bridal salon if one isn't in search of a wedding gown. In an attempt to do something wedding related in the evenings after my work was done for the day, I decided to look for my under-the-dress items. In addition to Saks Jandel (an independent store, not affiliated with Saks Fifth Avenue), the neighborhood where I'm staying has Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom Rack, Lohmann's, and a Saks Fifth Avenue. The intimates departments in the department stores have been taken over by Spanx and shape wear. Traditional lingerie (bustiers, corsets, etc.) is hard to find.

The final round of disappointment came at Saks Fifth Avenue. As I headed towards the exit empty handed and tired, I saw a name that would excite anyone who loves bridal fashion: Elie Saab

Posts by past Bees about shopping for a fragrance to wear on their weddings days were in my mind as I picked up the bottle of Elie Saab's new perfume, just called Le Perfum. I'm usually a creature of habit when it comes to perfume, wearing the same fragrances for years on end, but the Elie Saab tester had me thinking about switching things up and buying something just for my wedding day.

Photo from Saks.com

I wasn't ready to commit, so after chatting with the salesperson for a little while, I sprayed one wrist and figured I'd see how I felt about the scent after it had some time to sit on my skin for a while.

I picked up a few more bottles as I made my way to the door and stopped at another one, Dahlia Noir by Givenchy. The scent seemed a bit more traditional to me, but I found it as appealing as Elie Saab's perfume.

Photo from Saks.com

I sprayed my other wrist with the Givenchy perfume and went on my way. I imagine anyone who saw me walking down the street thought it was odd that I sniffed my wrists every now and then as I made my way to dinner, but I was having a pretty hard time deciding which perfume I liked better.

On my way back to my hotel that night, I went back into Saks and made my purchase. Want to see what I wound up with in my bag?

Hotel room iphone photo

I couldn't choose! This felt like a pretty big splurge and perhaps the salesperson sensed that because she loaded me down with samples. So, I have in to some temptation, but not what was originally temping me.

Did you buy a special perfume just for your wedding day? Did you splurge on something else that was extra special?

Getting Philatic and the Guest List Grows

2012-04-06T00:44:00.006-04:00

I never thought I would get excited over stamps. I know there are some cute stamps that are used for weddings out there, but none of them really excited me when I was getting our invitations ready. I looked at the custom stamp option, but didn't feel very motivated to create any for our invitations. Well, thank goodness I wasn't quick to buy stamps because I found out about these beauties a week ago on the Weddingbee boards.

From USPS.com

The Cherry Blossom Centennial stamp debuted on Saturday and I was quick to snap up six sheets of them for our wedding invitations. Mailing our invitation requires two 45 cent postage stamps, so the fact that the cherry blossom design spreads across two stamps is perfect. The added bonus was that the colors would look nice with our invitation design and the image included the Jefferson Memorial. Thomas Jefferson, if you didn't know, lived here in Charlottesville.

I thought I'd show you our envelopes with those cherry blossom stamps on them. I realize that these might look a tad busy to some, but I like having all that blue and pink on the envelope. It sort of gives a hint about what's inside, doesn't it?

Of course, things never go exactly according to plan and we had three additions to the guest list after we had already sent our envelopes to Liz Bartucci of Tuccicursive. One omission was my fault. The other two were lovely, older couples who invited themselves in such a sweet way that we acquiesced. We aren't the first and we sure won't be the last to have late additions to our guest list, right?

I went through a slew of fonts and decided on a simple script to print envelopes for those three late invitations. I think they turned out just fine.

I'm happy that we are extending these extra invitations because I know those two couples will be excited to receive them. However, they also make me think of a few friends that we weren't able to put on our guest list. Part of me thinks "what's one or two more people?" while another part wants to adhere to our established plan to have an intimate wedding within the budget we set long ago.

Did you have last minute additions to your guest list? How did you feel about the additions?