I've neglected you!

I am so sorry everyone! Things have been a little busy, all non-wedding realated these days!

I'm waiting on my step dad (still!) to fix the printer so I can do the assembly of the invites blog. My daughter turns 4 today!! And we are having a big party on Friday. My FMIL has touch of pneamonmia after comeing home from a trip to Europe. Alex has been traveling for work more and we were very sick last week - Paige and I...

Wow...that's a lot. So to make it up to you I bring you two little gifts......

#1 - check out these Thank You cards I made for My friend and fellow Bee Michelle, who's getting married on SARURDAY! Holy cow, right?! SHe wanted something simple and wouldn't you know I just so happen to be really good at simple :-)

They are made to order through Vista Print - if anyone needs something contact me! I'm happy to make you anything you need, at an EXTREMELY reasonable price!

Sorry for the funny border - for some reason it's not going all the way around....weird...

AND #2- if thats not enough for you - I give you my photographers blog, on which you can see some AMAZING pregnancy photos of my sister who is due the end of this month with her first baby, a little girl she plans to name Kati (Kah-Tee-Ah)

Kari Layland Photography Blog

Look around and you're sure to find Mr S and I too ;-)

Ugh.

I feel like pulling each individual piece of my hair out, one by one and then scouring my head with a brillo pad would be more fun then trying to figure out the order of the reception.

Who is supposed to give a speech? Dads, Bridesmaids, Best Man? How many speeches is too many? Do I want people talking the whole time through dinner? When will we show the slide show? When are we cutting the cake? Will I even have time to eat?

These items you think would be things that the reception hall would tell you the general lay out of - but no, they are all mysteries left for one to figure out on their own.

It's up to us, we can do it however we want.

A simply phrase at the beginning of the planning process I thought was great - but now, with nearly 5 months left to go I just want people to tell me what to do, and when to do it.

ugh.

Dressing the Junior Bridesmaid

After several weeks of planning, I got my 6 year old sister into the bridal shop to try on some dresses.

I called ahead and discuess with them the fact my little sister, wasn't as little as most and that I didn't want this to be an issue or discussed in front of her. (This turned out to be no problem at all as the girl assigned to help us wasn't around at all, and we had to track her down just to check out, which was very much not like the other experiences I'd had here in the past)

I went in with a dress in mind: (see right)

It matched the bridesmaids perfectly and was really cute. Not to mention that my sister actually liked it, which is a plus!

Now my sister, who is 6 by the way is about a 10/12 in kids sizes. So I figured that a 14 would suffice for her in the dress. I grab it myself (as I mentioned before....the girl supposed to be helping M.I.A!) and brought it to her room. The sample was in a hideous BRIGHT orange that looked like something Rainbow Brigt might dress a bridesmaid in, and the look on my sisters face was "I am not wearing that thing!"

I quickly explained that it would be black and to just put ion for size.

It didn't fit.

I grabbed the 16 and the 18, in both that dress and another tea length with elastic on the back! They didn't fit either.

I had now exhausted all my Jr Bridesmaids options and was not forced to go into a Bridesmaids dress. Helper girl, who is still M.I.A is finally tracked down, doing nothing outside a dressing room for a bride who clearly didn't need her help. I explain the situation and she runs off, coming back what seemed like hours later with another dress choice in a size 2 adults.

Figuring this HAS to fit I ask my sister to put it on. Annnnnddddd - Won't zip.

We're off to the 4, the 6 and then to the 8. I'm frustrated for my sister at this point and trying not to show it. Though my step dad keeps commenting on how the zippers are junk, which they kinda are.

The 8 zipped, and fit but we had an issue: No straps and she was obviously not going to fit into this dress 3 months from now if she grew an inch. So I talk to the seamstress and we decide on a 10, and they will add straps in from the left over hem.

The neat thing is, though the dress (see left) is a tea length on an adult - it's a perfect floor length for my sister. And it doesn't look frumpy or anything because she had to go up to adult sizes. She felt good in the dress, and that's all I care about.

I let her choose weather she wanted a pink or black dress, and she wanted pink - so thats what she got. I think it will compliment my bridesmaids black dresses nicely and plan to incorporate that pink into my daughter flower girl dress as well.

Now I just have to find a fluffy huge beautiful dress for my daughter with a pink accent in it - which I haven't been able to track down as of yet... One down, one last one to go!

Programs - Take One!

I spent the majority of last night working on the programs. My eye balls hurt and I pretty much hate Photo Shop now. But after some cutting, printing, adjusting and ribbon cutting I came up with this:

(Never mind the wrinkled monogram on top, I used the wrong glue but it worked to get the general idea.)


The program is really simple to make and was really quiet inexpensive, when all is said and done each one will cost roughly .70 or less!

SUPPLIES

• I bought black linen card stock in 8.5x11 size, and folded it in half. That made the outer portion of the program.
• Next, though the sample is on regular printer paper, I ordered metallic text paper for the inside. I cut those pieces after they were printed, to 8x10.5 - just a half an inch smaller on the inside so that the edges didn't hang out when assembled.
  
• The ribbon in the sample is Light Pink 5/8 doubles sided satin from Michaels Craft Store, I paid $3.99 for 5 yards, and it's a huge rip off so I searched the net and found Favor Frenzy had some, but not in my color - so I popped over to Ribbon Retreat for Pink in 100 yard spool for about $10 or so. I suggest 3/8 ribbon - I used 5/8 and find that it's much too big and the program likes to stay open because of it. (Check Favor Frenzy first as their prices are cheaper)
  
• I picked up a 2 inch reach hole punch by Punchline (McGill Inc.) at Michaels, and found that the hole size was a bit big so I will be going back to get a 3/16 hole instead of the 1/4 I'm used for the sample.
• The pink backing to the monogram on the top is from scrap from my invites. The monogram will be printed on the same white metallic paper as the inside.
  

TIPS AND TRICKS

Cut the ribbon in 1 yard pieces, this will give you enough to comfortably tie the bow, and trim off edges to make the ends nice and crisp.

I punched the hole on the black outer part first. I simply put the 2 inch reach punch as far as it would go and punched once on the top and once from the bottom. Directly on the crease of the fold!

The after I printed and cut and folded the inner part, I laid it inside the black outer piece where it should sit, flipped it over and used a pen to mark through the holes where to punch on it. It's a putsy process but it worked like a charm every time.

* Let me know if you have any questions about how I made them or anything! They are still in the "mock up" stage but as soon as my product arrives I'm going full force on them!!!

Who Invited You?

It's funny, ever since I announced Mr S and I were getting married, people have been coming out of the wood work to drop hints about coming to the wedding. And I have to say it's been my friends more then his, mainly since most of his friends are actually invited to the wedding, and I - well I have 40 different groups of friends from all over and even if I wanted too couldn't invite them all.

So far I've dodged the need to actually have to speak to any of these "self inviter's" hoping that with the non arrival of an invite they will get the point. But with a few of them it gets sticky....for instance, I have a few friends in the group that are invited because I still talk to them, but some that are not.

Most of these issues are from the guys I know, and most of my friends being guys, you'd think I'd know how to handle them by now...nope. I'm still just a big dumb girl.

Guys, unlike woman, seem to not grasp the concept that the wedding costs money, that no matter how long it's been since that last time you've talked they have always been invited because how could you not want "Smitty" at the wedding to show off his beer chugging abilities?! My guy friends seem to think that every occasion with alcohol present requires them to drink it all as fast as possible so that no one else can get any. I should admit that some are not invited solely based on the fact they can't act like a human in public.

For those who don't make "the cut" I think that what I will do, is draft up an rejection letter, like those you get from colleges , for the non invited:

Dear Self Inviter,
The acceptance committee gave full consideration but we regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you a position at the Mr S & Mrs G wedding, class of 2008.

We have had many applications and only have a limited number of spaces. We suggest spending less time with "extra curricular activities" and drop your Cussing 101 class, and apply to you second choice wedding.

Please try not to take the rejection too hard, we're sure you'll get into your next choice wedding.

Sincerely, Dean of Admissions

I think that ought to help things along - don't you?

Get With The Program!

I'm embarking on a new creative journey! The Programs for the wedding. I've actually gone back and forth about weather or not to do them, save the time and the money and skip it all together - I mean who woulnd't know what was going on or who would be getting married...really.

But in the end, the desire to have all things "tradtional" so to speak won, and I'm not starting to lay out my designs.

My program will come from inspiration from 2 other programs I have seen. One, I found on line, a Knotti Bio that I am in love with - props to Jenimac for the next photo:


The Program is an 8.5x11 sheet of cover weight card stock folded in half, the long way. Inside on regular white paper was the information and the whole look is completed with big, elegant ribbon and a monogram on the front.

I plan to use this idea for the outer cover of ours, but instead of a plain inside I'm going to keep going with the Stardream Metallic.

We will have the monogram on the front as well: It will look like this (see right), which is a theme that is carrying through out the whole wedding. I may add in the date at the bottom however, and possibly "All You Need Is Love" which is kinda our mantra in life.

As for the inside, I got the idea from a program I came across while at my PREPARE class at church. They passed around a basket full of programs and told us to take what we wanted for inspiration. The one we really liked was actually printed on Metallic Stardream paper and really suited us as a couple.

It has a photo printed on the it's cover (What will be Page 1, in our program) that is faded out and has a sweet saying along the top.

The Back, which is directly next to to it, has a sweet Thank You to our guests and another photo.


The inside, simple and straight to the point. And east to read - which was a big thing for us. We didn't want an over crowded inside that was hard to make out. Simple, clean lines.
(excuse the image, my scanner either is zooming in on one little corner of the program or cuts off the bottom, I've tried it 40 different ways.)


I'm starting creation today of the inner part - with Photo Shop CS2. When I have something - you'll know!

Shoes, shoes SHOES!

I just wanted to share some great sites to look for Bridal and Bridesmaids shoes. I've been searching for my perfect pair for months now, but it's not for lack of options! I'm just being majorly picky!

6pm

Haute Bride (sales!) Think Vera Wang, for $50 - $75! Oh yeah!

Zappos

and if that doesn't work for you - maybe you have a bridesmaid as cool as I do who will get you some of these to wear:

Oh yeah! Personalized Converse Chuck Taylor's that say "Bride 2008" on the side AND are customized in my wedding colors all thanks to Jacque!

From the second the ceremony is over - it's out with the heels and in with the totally awesomeness of Chucks!