Guest Book

Our guest book table was a hit at the wedding!

Image: Sarah Alair

As you may recall, I combined a Blurb book full of engagement photos:

 Images: Sarah Alair

with Martha Stewart's idea of collecting anniversary messages*:

Images: Sarah Alair 

I swapped out plain note cards for ones gocco printed with our various wedding logos:

After the wedding, I ran the envelopes through my xyron machine and pasted them into the appropriate pages of the book**:

Our friends and family actually had a lot of fun with it. (Except for my mom who asked me two days later, "What guest book? You had a guest book?") We've even gotten a few in the mail from people who took cards home with them. We had a couple of guests that came up to us to announce that they'd be dead or in their 80s when we opened their cards. Which, how do you respond to that? "Well, then, I guess that you better hurry up and drink your miniature martini right now!"

Image: Sarah Alair

(*I had some printer problems on my very last signage project - the guest book instructions. When I went to buy new stickers, Paper Source had changed the product. I never found time to figure out the new format, so I never reprinted anything. My DOC wonderfully printed out these instructions for me the morning of the wedding. When I was cleaning the Sunday after the honeymoon, I found a perfectly functional copy that I had kicked underneath the couch by accident. Oops.)


**I have heed caution to anyone else who is planning on doing this. The book is really thick with the envelopes - about 16". I'm worried about the binding breaking. I'd so some sort of spiral bound book withh large prints if I were you.

Wedding Programs

Image: Sarah Alair

Our wedding programs turned out to be a Labor of Love. The original design had the inserts printed on 11"X14" paper, which would have involved making two folds and required MAYBE an hour of time to assemble. Well, due to (a major printing company)'s lack of supplies and employee competence, I ended up having to reprint these on 8.5" X 11" paper the four days before the wedding and spend two days measuring, cutting, and folding.


You may recall that the cover art was created by etsy seller arippke based on my design that I was too lazy to finalize myself.

Wordle

Does anyone else feel stressed out after running their blog through Wordle? Seriously, no wonder I'm so tired! I wish that Work would be bigger!

Wedding Dress Thank You Cards

I realized that never shared this project with you guys. I created these thank you cards for my family shower. I liked them so much that I also used them for my bachelorette party. I wish that I would have made them sooner and used them for the Sur La Table and Work showers too, as I had them in my mind all spring.

They were inspired by these lovelies from Snow & Graham:

Image: The Red Stamp

I traced a photo of my gown to create the line drawing. I decided that it looked better filled in for a silohuette image.


For the family shower, I lined plain envelopes with pages of bridal magazines.

For the bachelorette party, I created envelopes out of pages from bridal magazines and mailed them in plastic envelopes from Paper Source. I also rounded the corners on this set of cards because my sister had given me a corner rounder and I wanted to use it. :)

I have a feeling that I wouldn't have had as many cancelled wedding projects if I wouldn't had wasted so much time on gocco and envelope projects. As you may recall, I really took a shine to my liner and envelope templates from the 'Source. Oh, who am I kidding? I would have been against the clock no matter what I did!

A Cool Getaway for City Girls

I hate to be ungrateful and rip on a product that I get to use for free with no strings attached, but blogger  chaps my frickin' hide. I had just finished this post and it crashed for no reason. You wouldn't believe how many nights I've stayed up too late retyping posts. I believe it's the reason behind 75% of the typos in my posts.

Look at this cute photo that I found on the facebook page of one of my A New Leaf friends. Cristin and her husband were married at ANL the same weekend as Andy and I. Dig it. I love her cute sign!

Image: Cristin W-S

As you may recall, I had debated on where to use a Just Married sign. Our DOC ended up hanging it in a tree. (Photos to come.) A small part of me wishes that we would have had a formal get away, but I didn't want to give up a single minute of the day. Still, I think that my mom would have enjoyed it. And I really could have lived without the chaos of trying to get people on the bus and deciding who would take flowers home and where to find plastic bags for the flowers that were in the vases that we had to leave at ANL. Blah, blah, blah. Our DOC was at dropping stuff off at the hotel, so I ended up dealing with all that crap. I could have been back at the hotel with room service or a gyro from Five Faces!


Posting may be sporadic in the coming weeks. I'm on a huge project at work that's demanding long nights and weekends. Computers are the last thing that I want to look at aftter 15 hours on one.

Sneak Preview

Our photographer sent us some sneak peeks to tie me over until next Wednesday!

(Incidentally, you're looking at my office building on the left. I work right above the satellite dishes.)

Images: Sarah Alair

Under Construction

Those of you who are non-Google Reader Readers may have noticed that I've started doing some housekeeping on 'ole WTRITO Lane. This was my way of procrastinating on the thank you cards  tonight (31 down, 54 to go if you're curious). I wish that I could send everyone these:

Image: Knock-Knock

I'm not sure where my blog's going quite yet, but I do know that I am not quite ready to transition to "with this ring, i thee nest." :) So I will just hang out here while I find my post-wedding legs, if you will. Once the recaps are over, I think that I will begin doing a weekly "With This Ring, I Thee Recess" post that takes a fancy wedding and gives it a ghetto fab price tag - kind of like that "Look for Less" show on the style channel.


I am sad and project-less, so if anyone would like any help with their invitations or DIY-stuff, please drop me a line. My e-mail address should be displaying in my profile now. I am cheap (free) labor and would be happy to even just help you talk through and plan out your ideas. Oh! Speaking of which, I kinda sorta have an invitation gig! My cousin brought our invitations and programs into school and her math teacher has "hired" me to make all of her paper products for her 10.17.2009 wedding (I know!). Isn't that so fun?


BTW, I am playing around with all of the new (to me) features that Blogger's released in the last few months before the wedding. If you're pokin' around, you may notice things don't fit in the sidebars and that my blog roll looks funky and random as I decide what goes where and how. Blogging may be random as I try to get the thank you cards finished. I promised myself that they'd be in the mail before Thanksgiving. I can't send Christmas cards until I send the Thank You notes!

One Month Ago Today...

I can't believe it's been a month. Only 11 months + Eternity to go! Ha, Ha.

(I need my damn pro pix already.)

Since we didn't get any of this:

We're going to celebrate with this:

We ordered a small white cake with coconut buttercream frosting. I told the baker to "just toss our initials on there with some circles or something," thinking that she'd draw buttercream circles or something equally as simple. Nope. Love her!

Free Photo Book from Snapfish!

Shoot! I wanted my 300th post to be something poignant, but I'm in a hurry and don't want anyone to miss this offer. Snapfish is giving Oprah viewers one free 20-page photo book. The offer is only valid until Sunday, November 16. The wedding possibilities are endless -- Guest Book, Ceremony Book, Engagement Photos, Shower Scrap Book! The weather stinks, so blow off the gym to stay home and work on your free book! Your wedding budget will thank you. You can always order Chinese food with the savings. Ha, Ha.

Click here for details.

I promise that Post #301 will KICK A*S!

Gifts for the 'Rents

We went with uninspired crystal frames as the gifts for the parents and Aunt Ruth. I picked Orrefors for its modern look and to celebrate Andy's maternal Swedish heritage. I wanted to also give something Polish to represent my family's Polish side, but couldn't find anything that I thought that Andy's mom and aunt would like.

Images: Crystal Classics

The parents received the frame on the left and Aunt Ruth received the one on the right. I'm not a crystal frame person, but I actually like the modern finish of the frame on the left. It reminds me of the crystal goblets we registered for, which I just adore.

Image: Crystal Classics

Groomsmen Gifts

I am sorry that my blog is so lame lately. I've been waiting for the pro pix to beging our recap and have been too lazy to look for fresh material.

Andy had a few ideas for groomsmen gifts that didn't pan out. He had ordered a cornhole set for one of his buddies only to find out that he had already made his own. Then he wanted to give the other guy a build-your-own-rocket kit, but found out that they're like $35. So, this meant that three days before the wedding, there were no groomsmen gifts.


I think that we did well in a pinch, as the guys were pretty jazzed when they opened their gifts:

Images: Guess

The best man called his watch (on the right) "beautiful," which I thought was a funny adjective for a man to use for an accessory.

We also bought their ties and their khakis.

I Am Getting Phat

I didn't eat very much in the weeks leading up to the wedding -- unfortunately, it was due to a lack of time and routine and not willpower. Then we went on the honeymoon and I couldn't finish any of my meals. I had all of these wonderful gourmet meals in front of me and I barely polished off half of each. (Note that I didn't have a problem finishing my wine.) I was pretty jazzed that I had finally balanced out my mental and physical appetites. And then we came home. And I found the appetite that I thought that I lost. And it was making up for lost time.


I immediately went back to Jenny Craig when we returned home. I had good intentions, but not good follow through. Apparently, I love pasta. And could eat it twice a day. And bread. And cheese. And sausage. And butter. And McDonald's breakfast sandwiches. And donuts. Yes, I should have grabbed fruit or some carrot sticks when I was hungry, but I didn't. I even changed my Facebook status to invite an eating intervention.


I was freaking out about my new appetite and had gotten a stern warning from my mother not to gain my weight back. Andy said that I was going through a Post-Wedding Let Down and told me to power through.  Then I read this post from the very pretty and very skinny Summer from Life is REED-iculous and this post from the also skinny Molly from These Little Moments and realized that I am just going through the post-wedding motions. (I am sad to admit that I was eating the second of two hot dogs and orders of fries as I read Molly's post.) Although their posts made me giggle, solidarity isn't going to keep the pounds off, so I better get back on the stick. I don't want the Queen and Valerie to dump me!

Tina + Queen Latifah + Valerie Bertinelli = Best Friends Forever

Queen Latifah and Valerie Bertinelli images from jennycraig.com.

Bridesmaid Gifts

I had so much fun shopping for bridal party gifts! As you'll see, my gifts for the girls became kind of random. I started out with a theme for each of the gifts, but I switched it up when they mentioned wanting to make purses.

Purses

Both girls received a gift certificate to design a purse at 1154 Lill, which you may recall we did in the spring. They both made reversible purses with one side intended for the wedding and the other side for personal use.

Jewelry

I had artist Sara Lenart design a custom necklace and earring for my girls. They looked AWESOME. In fact, I liked their jewelry bettter than mine. Both necklaces were slightly different than the other. My sister's maid-of-honor necklace was a long drop style and LP's was shorter and simpler.

Maid-of-Honor Bay-e

My sister has become an accessories whore in the last few years. I bought her a cute clutch from BeeGee Bags on impulse after seeing them on The Unbride. (Thanks, Justine!) I really recommend these bags. The quality was good and the owner is a nice lady.

Image: Bee Gee Bags

I also bought her a cute Sister necklace. I always admire these in stores and was excited to finally buy one.

Image: Lori's Shoes

I gave her this as a joke...

Image: Tamponcase.com

Bridesmaid LP

I had been on the prowl for a Me&Ro necklace for my girlfriend when I stumbled upon this om necklace from etsy seller Jennifer King Designs. I immediately e-mailed Jennifer to see if she could make me one in silver. She was awesome and had a necklace made for me within days. My friend is a pretty laid back girl, so I realized that I could buy her a more affordable necklace and give her a phat gift certificate for her favorite yoga spot instead of blowing the bank on a designer name. But I had forgotten about the purse and the jewelry that I had purchased, so I had to stop shopping after I purchased the yoga mat set shown below.

Images: Jennifer King Designs and Impromptu Designs

I had already given LP yoga blocks and some OM stationery as a hostess gift at my Paper Source Shower, so I almost completed my original yoga gift "basket" idea.

LP also got a "joke" gift:

Image: Decor Craft Inc.

Flower Girl Kailee

At my family shower, my cousin Kailee took about 60 pictures with my camera. I took the hint and bought her a Vtech Kidizoom Camera.

Image: Amazon.com

Although we barely woke her up at the rehearsal dinner to open it, she didn't put it down at the reception. Every time I turned around, she was taking my picture. I really, really, really hope that the photographers got a picture of her. If she becomes a famous photographer, I am taking partial credit for giving her her wings! ;)

I also gave her some cute earrings from Sara Lenart, but her pierced ears have closed up, so she couldn't wear them.

I gave her this little t-shirt and frame set that I picked up at a sample sale.

Image: Bridal People

And, finally, I gave her the book Junie B. Jones Is (Almost) A Flower Girl.

Image: Borders