Check it out…
(please excuse the poor lighting in the photos — I don’t have a flash on my iPhone, and my “first-thing-in-the-morning-taking-a-self-portrait-as-I-wait-for-the-dog-to-poop” facial expression.
These were fairly easy to make, and actually kind of fun!
Coming up next – where the idea (and tutorial) came from — so you can do it yourself.
We hemmed and hawed over the cake topper for some time.
I like bird cake toppers a lot, and they’d mesh well with our card “box” — but the ones I wanted were difficult to justify the price (they went from $70 when I found them, to $120).
I thought of a DIY cake topper, but I am my own worst critic when it comes to my work, and I didn’t want to spend the day wishing they were cooler.
We like the idea of something customized, and I spent many hours on etsy checking out the fabulous choices available.
We finally settled on Naked Peggies. They’re like Goose Grease’s toppers, but I feel like they look a little more personable.
Suzy was great to work with, and our little dopplegangers arrived last night!
Here they are!
I’ve gone back and forth on wedding shoes. I’ve got 3 pair sitting in my closet that I loved, and will love to wear, but that aren’t perfect for our wedding.
Pair 1 – apple green peep toe Salvatore Feragammos from Saks – very 1950s
Pair 2 – a cute ivory patent peep toe wedge from Zara in San Francisco (R picked them out)
Pair 3 – black satin peep toe with a beautiful silver/jeweled flower near the toes
But, in having an outdoor wedding, I felt I needed something that wouldn’t sink into the grass while we were shooting photos, or if I accidentally stepped off the path.
My ceremony shoes have to have a little height (I’m cool with only 2 inches), open toe and some sort of wedge or thicker heel, to prevent that dreadful “sinking into the grass” feeling.
My reception (or later into the reception) shoes need to be something I can dance in, and feel comfortable in for hours. Oh, and they have to be cute!
I think I finally found both of them.
Introducing:
My ceremony shoe – Hali by Report (and they’re on sale!) – cute, and perfect for an outdoor soiree.
My reception shoe – the always awesome J. Crew Joley. These babies will get a lot of love after the wedding too.
I love the look of a sun-kissed bride. That glow that seems to emanate from deep within, that look of sheer happiness.
I usually can’t achieve that look naturally. I get those dark circles under my eyes, my skin tone is sometimes blotchy and I generally don’t project that warmth (I try! I just don’t) – even though I am generally a very happy, easy-going person.
I can’t get into tanning. I did that when I was younger, but now that I see a little wrin
I tried a few cosmetic lines, but had minimal success as I tried to capture that look without looking all fakey-bakey.
Now, I can stop complaining 
I ordered a sweet little set from Sephora – which includes an illuminating finishing powder (and it works!), an eyeshadow trio in gold glow, lip color in natalie (which looks dark, but comes out looking like a lovely soft wash of color), and lash visor waterproof mascara (hello, wedding day!).
Here are the products on their own:
Finishing powder
Eye shadow
Lip color
Mascara
Or, you could buy the same get, snag a cute little metallic linen clutch and get it all for $38.
On a side note, it’d make a lovely bridesmaid or mother’s day gift.
Here’s my makeup inspiration (and stylish celebrity-twin when comparing compexion, cheekbones and possibly jawline) Leighton Meester rocking that lovely sunkissed look.
We’ve been planning to use my old blue ball jars for our wedding for some time now – but I knew I couldn’t just throw them on the table and hope that they work out.
I put together 2 options — using the same ranunculus bouquet from Trader Joe’s.
Option 1: ranunculus in the blue quart Ball jar. If I go this route, I’m going to have to work with stem lengths, I think I’ll have to trim them down so the heads are closer to the mouth of the jar.
Option 2: I have a bunch of these laying around — I thought they’d look fabulous with a ribbon tied around them, and the flowers. Again, I’d have to play around with the height of the stems before the actual wedding.
Or maybe I should pull them apart and go with a more sparse look, a la Martha Stewart.
Either way, I’ve got to figure it out soon — the wedding is less than 30 days away!
We are truly blessed with some amazing bridal salons in the Twin Cities metro area. Priscilla of Boston, Monique Lhuillier, Macy’s Bridal Salon, and of course L’atelier Couture.
Good news: L’atelier Couture is hosting their annual sample sale, starting on Monday, April 20th.
I don’t know what th
Here’s a snippet of some of the lines they carry – Vera Wang, Angel Sanchez, Jenny Packham, Rosa Clara, Lela Rose and Claire Pettibone.
Le sigh.
R and I weren’t sold on doing an engagement session, we both feel a little awkward in front of the camera (and in the limelight), but we decided, upon the suggestion of our fabulous photographer, to try it. And we liked it!
Laura Ivanova, our photographer, totally helped us feel comfortable in front of the camera and got some great shots of us. The only downside is that R kept cracking up (nervousness?) and I would then laugh for about 2 minutes straight (nervousness).
I am REALLY glad that we did them because we could get comfortable in front of the camera, we’re now familiar with Laura’s style, and we got some great photos in the process. Here’s a teaser:
See more at Laura’s blog.
I can’t wear strappy sandals. I have odd feet that don’t exactly match (TMI: I had 2 surgeries on my right foot when I was 17, and my left foot didn’t need it. I have 4″ long scars on the right foot, and my feet are actually differently-shaped because of this). Strappy sandals cut me and leave me sore, blistered and often bleeding after just an hour of wearing them.
So… it’s obvious that I’ll need to wear something a bit more substantial, but here’s my dilemma. Having an outdoor ceremony and reception, I don’t want anything with a super-thin heel. The fabulous green Ferragamos I bought for the wedding will have to wait in the closet for another day.
So, what do I wear?
How about one of these?
As I mentioned before, my “easy” task of taking on the invitations turned into a LOT of work (learning Illustrator — well sort of), trimming down sheets of 30×22 paper by hand (the copy shops couldn’t trim anything larger than 20″), and sending design elements to Boxcar Press (I couldn’t recommend them enough!).
I ended up going with the fabulous Dick & Jane Letterpress in Saint Paul, Minnesota to do the printing. They found me on Etsy (Alchemy) and offered to print the invites for me for a low price, since I already had the paper and plates ready.
They were kind enough to let me run a few of each of the cards through (insert paper, pull the lever, print on card, release lever, remove card, insert new card, all while pumping the treadle with my foot — just like I’ll do with my Kelsey 7*11).
Here’s what the reception cards and response cards looked like upon completion.
I was a little bummed that I designed the copy too close to the edge, thus losing some of the tree trunk when the designs were printed, but I still think they turned out darned cool, and different than any other invite I’ve ever seen. The tree was taken from a stock photo and I edited it in Vector Magic. The fonts are Occidental and Scriptina.
I love the look of a crinoline poking out from under a wedding gown. Even better is a crinoline in an eye-popping hue. Seriously? Fuchia, aqua, scarlet?!
So, of course I am OMG-so-in-love with Wedding Cabaret’s work. Of course she’s on Etsy, and she hand-dyes your crinoline for a cool $25 (naturally, the cost of the crinoline is separate). If I was wearing a different dress, I’d seriously get 2 — one for the ceremony and one for the reception.
Now THAT would be a fantastic “something blue.”
