Impossible to Find a Wedding Band December 22, 2008

GTB and I decided to look at wedding bands yesterday, to see what works for each of us and sign off on this task.

He tried on about 15 rings, with no clear winner. We know he wants a simple but not plain band with no yellow gold. That should be easy enough.

Then we went on to try to find a ring that works with my e-ring. I started with the band I’d envisioned I’d wear — a basic 3mm comfort fit band, and… it looked TINY next to my ring. Sigh.

I upgraded to the 4mm, same thing. My e-ring (and diamonds) looked ginormous next to that small band of gold.

I guess you just don’t notice how substantial something is until you compare it to something similar.

The woman helping me set off to find something more “fancy” (her words, not mine). She came back a few minutes later, shaking her head.

“I’m so sorry,” she said “your ring is just too fancy for anything we have.”

I felt discouraged and giddy at the same time. And developed a fresh round of admiration for my GTB and the gorgeous ring that he gave me 9 months ago.

My Wedding Jewelry… Oh Haute Bride December 9, 2008

I’ve got 156 days (according to some random calendar counter I found through Google) until our wedding day.

Um, when did we get past 200 days?!

Anyway, I bit the bullet and purchased some loverly, gorgeosity known as Haute Bride jewelry.

Wanna see it?

Here are their stock photos…

And why did I buy this? Um, multi-tiered, sparkly gorgeousness that is a visual beauty from front to back.

I’d originally wanted a string of pearls (and would certainly be thrilled if a certain fiance decided to purchase said string as a Christmas gift), but then I got sucked into Haute Bride and ended up falling in love.

Now, just wait until you see my fabulous earrings!

I’m A Sucker For Those Military-Parent-Surprises-Kid Videos December 9, 2008

I’m a sucker for these videos. Cue the tears.

Embedded video from CNN Video

Never Thought I’d Drool Over Shoes December 9, 2008

I’ve already got my wedding shoes. Well… I’ve already got 3 separate pairs to be worn on our wedding day. I started with an ivory patent pair, then got a great pair of green leather Ferragamos, and recently added a sweet pair of black satin sling backs.

But, if I didn’t already have those 3, I’d HAVE to get one of these pairs:

Perfect for a purple wedding!
With a shorter dress — so hot!
Look at the toe detail on this beauty! Perfect for a vintage-themed wedding.
And these flats? They may end up being purchased with my holiday bonus. LOVE!

(comments from left to right, top to bottom).

Swoon.

Bursting With Flowers December 5, 2008

I love hydrangea.

They look stunning in a wedding bouquet, and make a decent centerpiece on their own (in narrow vase).

I love that I see them so often in weddings, but also know that many brides lament the cost of them (florist markup can be quite high).

I was perusing costco.com, as I often do, and found these: 60 stems of hydrangea for a mere $129.99 with shipping included!

Though you can’t choose the actual color (they’re “mixed”) — one or two bunches of these would leave even a picky bride happy.

Not Your Traditional Monogram December 5, 2008

I don’t think I ever mentioned our monogram!

We worked with Krystan Santagata — R found her on Etsy. She designed a fun, non-traditional monogram for us. She was pretty flexible and great to work with. We told her which font we wanted (to match our invitations) and she worked her magic, coming back to us with about 16 different options!

We whittled those down to finalists and decided upon our perfect (for us) monogram.

Once that dirty work was complete, we sent her design to Made to Order Stamp and Seal. These awesome folks turned around a custom embosser in a matter of days. Now, we simply have a stack of Crane envelopes waiting to be calligraphied, embossed, lined, stamped and sent. Phew!

How The Heck am I Supposed To Lose Weight?! December 4, 2008

How am I supposed to lose weight when:
1. I love wine… I typically have a glass (or a few each night)
2. I eat donuts and breakfast junkfood at work? Seriously, there’s a Pizza Luce around the corner, and we have breakfast treats each Friday and Monday!

I’m trying so hard, cutting back, etc, but with grad school, the remodel and wedding planning, it’s REALLY hard to squeeze workouts in too…

Sigh.

Any suggestions that might actually work!?

I am Loving Aisle Pomanders December 4, 2008

I adore Martha Stewart poms and plan to figure out a way to use them for our wedding.

But there’s something so spectacular about pomanders, that I figure I will need to use them as well, for a nice color *pop* at our reception.

However, with our meager budget, pomanders made of real flowers are SO not going to happen.

VintageGlam Blog, however, has the solution!

Check out these awesome tissue paper pomanders that Amanda used at her ceremony. They were fairly inexpensive and stunning, when seen in succession.

(images from {snippet & ink}

Here’s the link to Amanda’s tutorial on her {VintageGlam Blog}, so you can do them yourself.

Sneak Peek at the Letterpress Plates! December 3, 2008

Here’s a sneak peek at our letterpress plates to be used to create the invitations.

Thanks to my awesome friend Rachel for being patient through all the revisions, changes, and ideas — from dots and leaves to me thinking (for a fleeting moment) that I could create an image myself (ha!).

The fonts are Scriptina and Occidental. Both were freebies.

Bonus: our custom monogram uses the Occidental font as well

Of course, I blocked out pertinent details to keep wedding crashers away. Here you go.