Best Wishes, Emily and Mr. Emily!

Belated wishes to my little friend, Emily of A Windy City Wedding, on her wedding yesterday. I've never met her in person, but I love her as if I had. I am D-I-Ying to see photos of her projects in action. I bet that she was gorgeous (Hooray for Red Hair!) and that her guests were blown away by the fruits of her labor.

I love shoes

I think the second wedding-related decision I made was that I was going to splurge on my wedding shoes. I own about 70 pairs of shoes. (Yes, I have a serious shoe problem.) But for that reason, I wanted my shoes to stand out.
I had decided to search for some Christian Louboutins to complete my wedding ensemble because I love his sense of style. So, when I stumbled upon these beauties – on sale, I knew I had to buy them.
Sometimes I worry that they are too low-key, but then I return to my senses. The fancy thing about them is their beautiful red sole! I think that I made the right decision.

Photos by me

Bracelet

Sorry for the lack of posting. I'm kind of in a funk. But here's some happy news I forgot to share! Remember the bracelet that I loved enough to write about here and here? 

Image: J. Crew

Andy's sister bought it for me for working on her wedding projects. Yeah!

Don't Forget to Enter the Honeymoon Contest!

Don't forget to enter the Fancy Fortune Cookies contest for the three-night Dream Honeymoon for two at one of Sandals tropical resorts. The contest ends on May 20 - only two more days!

Click here to enter.

Clutter is Making Me SentiMENTAL

So, what's the verdict on keeping greeting cards and notes from one's engagement period and wedding? I have been keeping them all, but we just don't have room. I decided that I would keep whatever would fit in one medium Kolo Havana box.

I've been checking all cards for the following criteria:

1. A personal note.
2. Personality.
3. Cute Factor.
4. From a mom. (I just can't throw away a card from my mom. I don't know why. And Andy's mom buys cute cards.)
   

Is that wrong? Will I be disappointed in 30 years if I don't have all of the cards? Knowing myself, I'm guessing "no," but what do you think? I will say that my Kolo box with the cards bundled by event with Paper Source ribbon does look cute. And it's nice to see our recycling bags spilling over instead of the bookshelves.

There is one card that I will definitely be keeping. I inferred in my previous post that my friend's wife made my favorite card. Isn't it cute? For the new readers who weren't around last summer to e-hold my hand during the invitation debacle, she scanned our invitation design and wrote a poem.

 

She also created an envelope from all of our other mailings -- the save the date and the hotel flyer.

 

I had a few other funny ones to show you, but my scanner has suddenly stopped scanning.(God forbid that anything work on Vista.)

Cute RSVPs

I am packing up my craft shelf for the impending move and found some cute RSVPs from our wedding guests.

From my friend, Mrs. A.

 

Mrs. A is the mother of my bridesmaid, LP. If my friend Balz is my Party Twin, Mrs. A is my Party Aunt. 

From my friend Kev and his wife Angela.

I have to post the card that Angela made. You guys will love it!

When I tease Andy about his intense love for 70s music, he credits his sister April . Here is April's RSVP card:

It breaks my heart to shred the RSVPs - even seven months after the fact. :( I am saving these and a few others in a scrapbook, but seeing all of my pretty shiny paper in the recycling bin is bittersweet.

I think that notes on RSVPs are the best, don't you?

Beach Wedding #1: Out-of-Town Bags

I don't want to invade anyone's privacy by posting photos of my sister-in-law's wedding that Andy and I attended in March, but I can share the few details that I helped out with.

Since the wedding was in the winter hometown of her snowbirds-in-law - Jupiter, Florida, it was a destination wedding for all of the guests. I designed some tote bags that she and her mother-in-law filled with Florida-themed treats to greet the guests that stayed at the Jupiter Beach Resort.

Using plain canvas bags from Cheaptotes.com and iron-on transfer paper, I applied an altered logo from the wedding invitations.

Each bag was labeled with a sand dollar** and Welcome tag attached with some twine. (I used the same template as the welcome tags for the OOT bags that Andy and I gave our guests.)

The flower girl and Jane of Honor (my sister-in-law's stepdaughter, Jane, was the maid of honor) received custom bags:

And the cutest kid in the history of kids, Connor, received this bag:

Notice all of the excess iron-on transfer paper on Connor's bag. I was tired of cutting the logos out very early in the project and wanted to see how bad it would look with the full sheet of transfer paper. Since Connor is a little boy and, therefore, the least likely to notice mistakes, I tried it out on his. Then, I met Connor at the wedding and realized that he is 18-months old. Thank God I did not spend 20 minutes cutting out his design.

**I ordered the sand dollars from QualityShells.com . They were BEAUTIFUL. The irony of ordering sea shells from Florida to ship back to Florida aside, they were great. I highly recommend them.

*I* Am the Biggest Loser

I haven't watched any of this season's Biggest Loser, but caught tonight's episode while I was getting my nails done. And by "caught" I mean, I bawled through the entire episode. That's right. I bawled. In the middle of the nail salon. This show had it all tonight:

• Tara  giving her mom a new kitchen, her messy bedroom, and her compulsive exercise made me cry. 
• Helen  running that marathon and weighing in at 147 pounds made me cry. 
• Hunky Mike stressing out about his weight and his family's struggles and having to walk that marathon made me cry.

But, Mike's dad, Ron, was the best. I want to hug him for finishing that marathon and then pin a "Father of the Year" award on his new svelte chest.

I wish that they had a "Kinda Big Loser" for chubby people that only have to lose a saw buck or two. I think that's what I need. I'd love to lose 45 pounds in 17 weeks.

BTW, the video messages of the "Pre-Losers" talking to themselves are GENIUS. I wish that I had done that when I've lost weight.

I Need to Get Over My Love for Trinkets

I love everything by Spitfire Girl , but I think that these hankies are my favorite.

They make me wish that I knew someone who:

1. had a sense of humor and
   
2. uses hankies.
   

Those seem like odd common denominators to find in a person in the year 2009. They'd be great add-on gifts and stocking stuffers. I've seen them sold individually at Paper Boy.

Dig these box cards too:

And these shower favors:

And this might look handsome in our new condo:

All images from Spitfire Girl .