blurb guestbook

i made one! it's on its way. soon, i hope! (i upgraded the shipping for $0.60 more to have 2-day delivery - i mean, really? $0.60?)

here is a sneak peek preview of the cover:

and, like erica said, you can use any font already installed on your computer! so i used gotham, which is one of the two fonts used on our paper products. i really like how it turned out! i can't wait for the final product to come...!

my bachelorette party!

saturday was my big girly party and i had a riot! we started off at my house with a *ton* of food (mostly made by my sweet bridesmaids) and fun drinks - a homemade mojito mix and cosmos. we played a fun game called "how well do you know your groom?" which involved me taking jello shots when i got the answer wrong. then we played a game where i had to guess who got me each gift, and of course take a shot when i got it wrong! needless to say, i was quite a few deep into jello shots to start off the night!

the limo came a couple of hours later and we were off to a dueling pianos bar and ended the night at a local 80s dance club. it was FUN! i won't go into details (ahem...) but a fun night was had by all! here are some photos from the evening!

first up - the bride with her bridesmaids! they told all the guests to wear black and asked me to wear a bright outfit - which i think turned out so cute!

here's me and my future mother-in-law (left) and my mom!
here are 2 of my bridesmaids inspecting an "interesting" gift someone got me! LOL!
and here's me at the piano bar up on stage!

all in all...it was a fabulous night and i felt so loved by all of my friends! (we won't talk about things that happened after the piano bar...)

rehearsal dress dilemma

simply put: i couldn't find ANYTHING! here's how it went down in chicago:

i wanted white.
i couldn't find white.
i decided i could do white with a print.
i couldn't find white with a print.
i said, "fine, i'll do a LBD."
i couldn't find a LBD.

but then...THEN...we stopped into ann taylor loft. it's not a place i regularly shop, or in fact, i don't think i've ever bought anything there. it's not really my style. anyway, we went in and i spotted THIS beauty:

image from here.

it was perfect. it fit perfectly. it was comfortable. it was EVERYTHING i wanted! i bought it and i love it.

rehearsal dress dilemma SOLVED!

oh PS...and how appropriate the color's name is lake blue? :)

my FAVORITE accessory...

...no, it's not my fabulous shoes (i'm not biased, am i?), or even my most sparkly jewelry...

it arrived in this box the other day all the way from new york...

the box itself is beautiful, i think!

...ta da! my custom fabric flower! oh how gorgeous it is in person...! it is made of silk taffeta and there is a light organza material they weaved throughout.

again, this will be pinned to the upper right or left "corner" of my dress. i can't wait to see how it looks at my next fitting! yay!

GPYC visit

last week, geoff and i went up to the club to meet our florist. she was so sweet and is such a fun "vendor," although i consider most of our vendors "friends." anyway, while we were there, the club was being set up for fleet review...which coincidentally is the same setup for a wedding. so we got to see some tables and the captain's table that we chose!

now, take out that blue and white and add some gold, silver, and pearl with some navy and apple green to imagine our look!

DIY bride i am not!

...but i am pretty proud of these (few) projects that i (read: gram and i) accomplished last week!

first up, the unity candle!

i knew i wanted something classy and timeless...something we can light every year on our anniversary (so i knew it also had to be quite large). i chose a 9" pillar candle from michael's (yes i used a coupon!) and had some leftover ribbon from the birdcage.

(and i sort-of got some inspiration from here:)

image from the uber-talented ksenija. this, by the way, is the same florist we are using! her name is deborah...isn't her work g-g-gorgeous?

so here is my (ahem, gram's and my) version:
i made the bow all by myself! and we pinned the 1 1/2" ribbon into the candle - hot glue gun proved to be too slippery. then we glued the bow onto the pinned ribbon. add the cutest stand ever (also found at michael's, and yes, also with a coupon!) and...voila!

[can i just say...before i move on...that my grandma's house is one of those houses where there is always anything and everything you need. fabric scissors? check! mounds and mounds of straight pins all different sizes? yep! leftover ribbon and fabric to test out anything? got it! extra candle sticks just lying around in the upper shelf of the hall closet, in perfect condition to test hot glue on? you betcha! she just always has everything.]

next up...
the cutest things ever - at least in my opinion...

take this...
add a little bit of this......put them together and you get these!
these cutie-patooties will hang from the rear view mirrors of our guests' cars. the club has complimentary (is it complimentary if we are paying for it? ha) valet for our guests, so these will be placed on their mirrors before they get back into their car to head home for the night. i love the way they turned out!

stay tuned for some more checks off the list this week!

holy COW

remember this thing?

yes, that's right! that is our countdown on our refrigerator that began at 90 days! i can't believe we are down to 30 days. W-O-W! i have lots of fun stuff coming up so stay tuned!

glam city!

jewelry and makeup...a few of my favorite things!

last week, i ordered a bracelet and earrings from the white aisle (see posts below - i still don't know how to hyperlink an older post!) and i received them in the mail just a couple of days later. i am SO pleased with the quality, sparkliness (you know what i mean), and overall beauty of the pieces.




...and yesterday, i had my makeup trial appointment with the fabulous posh brides by kari. i was pleased with the final result, and it lasted all day long! the slightest reservation i had was that it was maybe a touch too dark. what do YOU think?

suits and tuxes...CHECK!

YAY!

i can't express how happy i am to have this (almost fully) taken care of right now!

here's how it went...
we wanted a tan suit.
we couldn't find the right color tan suit.
we searched for months.
we thought we could do tuxes, but they just seemed too 'stuffy' for the look we wanted.
we called brooks brothers.
we visited brooks brothers.
we made lots of discounted purchases on a new brooks brothers credit card.
we left happy :)

so without any further ado...
this is the look for the groomsmen, tie included via paul fredrick:

(at this point, he did not have on the matching suit pants, so ignore the color discrepancy)

and here is my groom-to-be in his ensemble:

(excuse the face, i caught him mid-smile...but he still looks adorable to me!) we decided to go with a solid navy tie for the geoff so that he stands out a little bit. he will also have a slightly different boutineer.

we also chose formal tuxes for our dads and step-dads for the big day. nothing super fancy - just a black tux (duh), black vest, and black tie. although that is much more formal than our groomsmen look, we (i) couldn't imagine our dads in anything but a nice tux!

my first REAL purchase!

...ok, that's a white lie. BUT it is my first-real-the-wedding-is-coming-soon-purchase! i bought the newbury earrings and september bracelet from the white aisle. i can't wait for them to come in the mail (who doesn't love packages on the doorstep, by the way?!) and try them on. i think they will go perfectly with the look i am going for and add a little bit of glam to my dress and flower (see below).

YAY! i am making progress ;)

september bracelet?

could this have been made for me?

it's from the white aisle and i think it is gorgeous! plus it's literally called "september bracelet." how could i say no? esPECially with a price tag of $24.99.

now here i go again...of course i'm not going to purchase it right now; i'm thinking to myself, "i'll just wait and keep looking." and then my inner conscious says, "MANDY! buy the blasted bracelet. your time is ticking."

what should i do?!

indecisive...

...is the best way i can describe myself right now.

i think for so long, i've had the luxury of putting off decisions until "closer to the wedding." well listen up! the wedding is CLOSE now! and i have to make decisions...which i think is why it's been hard for me to make these decisions - knowing that they must be final and knowing that this is the last time i can ponder over said decisions.

...because it's all.getting.so.real.now! YAY! 39 days folks!

BM jewelry

my bridesmaid kristen's mom is very talented when it comes to making jewelry. she offered a long time ago to make the jewels to be draped from my bridesmaids for the big day, and i was thrilled. i gave them to my girls at our BM dinner a few weeks ago. here is what they look like:
and this how i presented them. they all loved them!

ahem...an attire post!

ok. so, i have been withholding a lot of pretty details in fear that our guests will find my blog and know everything about the wedding. but, with 41 days to go, i don't care! (plus, i know my blogging friends will love some of these things!)...

i haven't shared the details of my dress, because, well...that is TOO dangerous. g knows about this site and i would just croak if i found out he had seen something not fit for his eyes just yet ;) BUT, i will share with you the embellishment that is in the works for my dress. feast your eyes on THIS beauty:
this is a custom fabric flower made by the sweet and ultra-talented girls of handle & spout. i can't quite remember how i was redirected to their website, but boy am i GLAD i found them. they are based out of new york, and have been SO easy to work with. i sent them the detached strap to my dress for them to match fabric and color and they whipped this up pretty quickly!

don't you just love it?! i do. and i know it's big. but...when else do you wear a gorgeous white (ahem...ivory) dress and an ivory veil?! that's what i thought.

what do you think?