Tagalicious

Ok I am finally figuring this out so forgive me, thanks Tina for tagging me!

1. What is your occupation? Sales rep for well known food company.

2. What color are your socks right now? No socks, barefoot.

3. What are you listening to right now? The radiator making crazy noises, but if I were listening to music I am loving Yael Naim. You might recognize her song from the MacBook Air commercials.

4. What was the last thing that you ate? I have a Nutrigrain waffle and yogurt smoothie for breakfast every morning, I am boring!

5. Can you drive a stick shift? No, my fiance has tried to teach me but I am too afraid of ruining his car.

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Probably yellow but I am not sure if I would want to be a crayon.

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mum.

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yeah, Tina rocks!

9. Favorite drink? Hmm, Pinot Noir or I do like me some Vitamin Water

10. What is your favorite sport to watch? I do not watch sports, I like going to Cubs games but that is about it.

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? I have been blonde, brown, but recently I have decided to go back to my natural red, keepin it real.

12. Pets? I would have 20 dogs and 10 cats if I could but we live in an apartment so I just have my one cat Misha.

13. Favorite food? How do I pick...goat cheese or pretty much any cheese but I like chocolate a lot too.

14. Last movie you watched? I think it was A Mighty Heart, sad but good. In the theater it was Definitely, Maybe which I actually liked a lot.

15. Favorite Day of the year? Umm I guess any day I don't have to work and can stay home with my fiance.

16. What do you do to vent anger? I am still working on that one, I will get back to you.

17. What was your favorite toy as a child? I had a Raggedy Ann doll I liked a lot.

18. What is your favorite, fall or spring? Well I love fall because I like the colors and fall clothes but I like spring because it is finally getting warm.

19. Hugs or kisses? Hugs

20. What kind of pie? Not really that into pie.

21. Living arrangements? I live in Evanston with my fiance and our cat.

22. When was the last time you cried? The other day because work sucks sometimes.

23. What is on the floor of your closet? Laundry that needs to be done.

24. Favorite smell? I know this is weird but my fiance's deodorant smells really good.

25. What inspires you? Design, architecture

26. What are you afraid of? I don't do well on planes but I am getting better and I can be a total hypochondriac.

27. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheese, but a Boca burger please, no meat for me!

28. Favorite car? I love classic cars, a Ford Woody station wagon or vintage Mercedes convertible.

29. Favorite cat breed? Whatever my cat is I suppose, I don't really know much about cat breeds.

30. Number of keys on your key ring? 5

31. How many years at your current job. Almost 2.

32. Favorite day of the week? Saturday.

33. How many states have you lived in? 5: Georgia (13 years), Minnesota (5 years), Iowa (college, 4 years) Wisconsin (1 year) and now Illinois (3.5 years)

34. How many countries have you been to? 4: England, France, Mexico, Canada

Project DIY: Episode 2

Episode 2: The Out of Towners

I think providing a little treat or at least some area attraction info is a must for your out of town guests. Some people will have traveled long distances and you should thank them for doing so. I have a few ideas for this project.

I fell in love with this idea on MS Weddings. A simple pouch that hangs on the guest's doorknob and you can insert direction info, restaurant info, etc. Most hotels will have this information already but it is nice you have handpicked the things they would actually enjoy. Cost for this project is very low, all I would purchase is paper to make the pouches, a circle punch and circle stickers. However, I know this would depend on the hotel but I really can not see them placing the pouches on the doorknobs, usually they don't even know what room they are going to assign until the guest checks in. If they are just handed to the guests all effect is pretty much lost. Ease level: Easy


to read the full article from MS weddings - click here.

I also think a small basket of water, snacks, etc. is a nice welcome gift for guests. Since we are estimating only 30-40 out of towners this is managable for us. Check out this post from Tara on In This Instance, she did a great job using boxes from the Container Store. I love the stamp she used, I was either thinking a stamp or some sort of label. If you are doing a lot of these check out Uline, they offer good discounts on retail bags and boxes. You can even request samples if you are unsure of which size or style you want. Another resource, WrapSmart, a little more expensive but they do have a nice variety of colors. Ease level: Easy

Remember not to go overboard as out of town guests will most likely be flying and will not have a ton of room to take back items. What do you think are the perfect supplies for an out of towner gift box?

Project DIY: Episode 1

Since we are attending an open house for a possible caterer tomorrow night I am going to post a little early.

Episode 1 - Table Runners

As I mentioned in a previous post I was looking for green stripe fabric to make my own table runners, look no further Paper Source has the answer. This stripe is perfect, it has the perfect chartreuse green (looks much different in person) and will be less expensive than fabric (also less work, no edges to hem). I would purchase the roll sheets since they are the biggest, cut each sheet in half, sew or tape the two pieces together and voila one fab table runner. $6.50 per roll, two sheets per roll. If we go with 6 ft tables I can make 2 runners per roll and for approximately 12 tables. 6 rolls at $6.50 = the bargain price of $39 for 12 fabulous table runners. All this requires is cutting the sheets in half and then taping or sewing together in the middle. Ease level: Easy

Short article on MS Weddings about this idea also - click here.

DIY Mania

Since I am stuck home with the flu I have been getting a lot of things done and my last post got me to thinking, exactly how many DIY projects have I planned out for either myself or my super talented family.
Dun dun dun daaa... 15! Which is funny because our wedding is 15 months away. I am guessing more projects will pop up along the way but for now 15 is the magic number. Now take into consideration some of these are super easy and should maybe not even count. So for the next 15 days I am going to post one of my possible projects. Please feel free to let me know if there are any that I should definitely keep or definitely delete. Or let me know if I am plain crazy but please do it as nicely as possible.

UPDATE: I have decided to make this all official and rate each project's ease level. Very Easy, Easy, Medium, Slightly Difficult, Very Difficult. Hopefully there will not be too many of those Very Difficults on the list!

When is there too much of a good thing...

I don't know if anyone else is having this problem but I find in my attempt to make things personal and pay attention to little details I may have gone a little overboard. At some point its going to be too much but how exactly do you decide what is too much. For example, I found on For Your Party pretty reasonably priced custom cocktail napkins, awesome! I also found an idea to make custom little drink flags for the drinks, awesome! I also really, really want custom flags for our cupcakes, awesome! I want to make pretty little signs (MS style) for all the food and dessert since we are having stations and not a sit down meal, awesome! I want to have a trolley to shuttle guests that is green so that it matches the wedding colors, awesome! OK I am sure you get my point by now. So my guess is after awhile when it is all said and done these things are going to look crazy! How do you choose what to keep and what not to keep, how do you know when enough is enough?

Images: Napkins - For Your Party, Drink flags - MS Weddings, Cupcake flags - Flickr, Trolley - Chicago Wedding Transportation

The Great Favor Debate

Over the weekend I was thinking a lot about favors, maybe too much, I am sure too much, but we really want to do something different or something people will actually use. We are most likely having take home boxes for the dessert buffet/ice cream bar so a sweet treat favor is out so I came up with some alternatives and narrowed it down to two options. Please let me know what you think!

Option 1: My dad is an amazing wood turner and has been making wood bowls, vases, etc. for years. He also makes his own wine bottle stoppers. Unfortunately I do not have a picture but he turns and hand carves the wooden knob and then attaches the stopper. I like this idea because I am close to my dad and want to show off his talent and I think people would actually use this.

Option 2: I have always loved products from Knock Knock. They have these clever and hilarious (see more here) sticky pads (aka post it notes). They have several different choices and since some are probably not appropriate for grandparents or children I could pick and choose which guests get which pad. I like this idea because it reflects me and my fiance and our sense of humor and its something people probably have not seen before. But...how often do people use sticky notes and would they think, huh why a pad of post it notes?

Ice Cream Part Two

So as I am researching more on the Cold Stone option I also came across a company Melody Ice Cream Co. If we were having an afternoon wedding or if our reception venue wasn't as formal I would be all over this, for just $100 (2008 pricing) an ice cream truck will come to your location and then guests can pick which of their favorite ice cream treats they would like. Prices range from $2-$2.75 per person which is so affordable and fun! I think guests would be so surprised to see an ice cream truck pull up come dessert time.

You Scream, I Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream?

So my wonderful mom sent me a link she found on Bride's.com about a new trend in wedding dessert. I think I saw this on an episode of Oprah but assumed it was too expensive. What do you think about a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream station?? They make the ice cream per order right there and apparently even have take home boxes. Bride's says it is only $300 for setup and then you have to pay $30 per hour per employee and since I am saving thousands by not have a fancy cake this could really be an option! What do you think?
Would our guests scream for ice cream??

Dress Shopping this Weekend - Eeek!

I am going home to Minneapolis this weekend to visit my parents, get a haircut (I love my guy there I can not find anyone better), and do my first round of dress shopping! I am a bit nervous, I hear the horror stories of sample sizes being too small and sales people being too pushy, I even saw an episode of Say Yes to the Dress the other day and one of the mothers punched the sales woman. yikes.

How was your first dress shopping experience?? Here are some of the dresses I am thinking about:





And my dream dress if i had thousands to spend

First two images are Jim Hjelm, second two Augusta Jones, last one Amsale.

After Six

So I was wondering if anyone out there has ever looked at, worn, tried on a dress from After Six? I had never heard of this company before but the prices seem pretty reasonable ($100-150). I was really against bridesmaids dresses before, I am only having 3 and wanted them to be able to just buy a dress from Macy's or Anthropologie or wherever their little hearts desired as long as it was in the same color family. However now I am thinking I want things a little more streamlined because the wedding is going to be a little more formal than I originally anticipated. But I was pleasantly surprised to find cute styles on the After Six site, plus there are so many styles that come in the same fabric the girls would still have options if not all wanted the same dress.

Which would you pick??

My only fear is some of the more satin fabrics (like the third dress) seem to look more silver than gray and I want to make sure it is obvious our colors are greens and grays and not green and silver.

Farewell Polaroid!

I went to Target today to purchase my Polaroid film since they just announced they are no longer making it. I figure there won't be any in sight come May 2009 so I'd best be buying it now. My fiance assures me that even though the film I bought expires 3/09 that the film will still work, there will just be variances in the color which he thinks actually looks better so score! I still have to bid on a camera on eBay since no store I know of still sells the cameras. So anyone else wanting to use Polaroids for their guest book or any other fun project go get some now!

Inspiration - Table Settings

This is what I am thinking for our table settings. I like the look in picture one, (which I apologize I do not remember where this picture was found so if you know please tell me and I can give credit) I like the two heights of flower vases and a few votives. I am not so much into huge centerpieces and I am guessing the more simple 2-3 stem arrangements will save money also.

Then I found picture two on Rebecca Thuss (I can't get enough of her site) and I like the striped runner a lot but not so much the bowls. Plus our reception site requires all candles to be in a container so this would not be an option. So I am kind of meshing these two settings together.

I found this striped fabric on Repro Depot and I think it could be perfect, my sample is coming soon so we will wait and see! Lucky for me my mom is an excellent sewer and could whip me up some table runners in no time.

UPDATE: So my sample arrived and I love the stripes and the green but unfortunately I do not love the ivory. I was hoping it would be more of a yellow but this ivory I think will just look off with a white tablecloth underneath. Bummer! If you see any green stripe fabric out there PLEASE pass it along, Thanks!

Food: i say potaato you say patatoe

We are not quite to the point where we should be picking our caterer yet but I did come across something I must have...a mashed potato bar! Has anyone ever been to a wedding that had a potato bar?? Being a carb/starchaholic I love anything potato and I am all over this. They apparently serve them in a martini glass which at first I thought was a bit cheesey but I am running with it. Guest would get to pick their own toppings, cheese, sour cream, chives, bacon bits, etc. Since we are trying to stay away from a sit down dinner but also not have it seem too buffet I think this would be perfect.

Invites

A big thank you to An Excited Bride for posting about these great invitations. I love the little pocket, a great way to hold the rsvp card, directions card, etc. I have seen similar paper pockets at Paper Source but I think the fabric personalizes it so much more.

NEW Amy Butler (yay)

Amy Butler has the best fabrics and she has a new line on her site (which will be available in April) called Midwest Modern. I am drawn to the dots pattern and it comes in so many great color combos. So make sure to check her site to see the full range.

Is it Summer Yet???

I can not wait for the Eames stamps to come out this summer. FINALLY a good stamp! I will be first in line to score these puppies for our save the dates and invites.
Image found via Happy Mundane.

Candy Buffet

I really, really want a candy/chocolate buffet at our reception. As much as I love a beautiful wedding cake I would rather get a smaller cake and have an assortment of goodies. I am thinking brownies, truffles, cupcakes, you name it, I want it! I figure not everyone likes cake. This image from MS Weddings (via Rebecca Thuss) is what is inspiring me. YUMMM!!

NEW Snow and Graham (yay)

I found some awesome new Snow and Graham prints on Paper Mojo. I went ahead and ordered ten sheets of the gray, I really have no purpose for it but will work it in somehow.
I was so settled on shades of green and gray for my colors but I have been so drawn into the whole yellow and gray trend. I have always loved yellow (my engagement ring is a yellow diamond) and it looks so pretty with the pale gray. Do you think I will still like yellow and gray a year from now or will I be completely sick of it after seeing it everywhere?
Opinions (as always) appreciated!!