Let's Get Organized!

For those of you that know me, I'm a list maker. What can I say, I come from a long line of VERY organized list makers, and it's rubbed off on me.

And so, it of course only makes perfect sense that I would carry this deep need to list into the wide world of wedding planning.

Now when I first became engaged I was lucky enough to receive a few wedding planning books from friends and family. I loved everything about these organizing gems. Except...one binder was great for adding my own ideas, while another had excellent templates to, ahem, "borrow". Yet another had lots of advice I wanted to be sure I had instant access to.

So what's a bride to do? It seems silly to keep all three books (which is what I have been doing for almost an entire year now). Finally this morning, I opened up weddingbee, and there it was, staring me in the face. The ultimate wedding binder!

And of course, I took it upon myself to collect the supplies to make my very own. And just a few hours later, here it is for you to feast your eyes on!



Inside this delicious front cover are page upon page of organized templates, magazine photos and articles, and great ideas that all have been carefully selected as they pertain to our wedding.

And on the back....



How are you storing all the eye candy for your wedding?

Thank You for Coming!

Our favors have finally arrived! We had debated about this for months. What should our favors be? Peas in a pod salt and pepper shakers? Wine stoppers? Coasters? Plants? Chocolate? There was just an endless supply of possibilities, and we weren't exactly crazy about any of them.

Unless it's edible, people are going to leave them behind. A CD of our favorite songs? Great for us, but unless you have the same musical tastes as we do, what are you going to do with it? Throw it out or leave it behind. The same goes for picture frames with our wedding date on them, coasters containing pictures of us, the list goes on and on.

I'm not trying to be cynical, I'm simply trying to get the most out of our investment.

We finally decided on two favors: bird-shaped homemade sugar cookies (to accompany our vintage theme and celebrate a family of bakers) and a donation to the We Move Organization, in honor of my father who passed away 3 years ago.

The sugar cookies were, admittedly, a last-minute add-on. I really wanted something edible to be included, and I really wanted to make them myself. We are having a birdcage for our card holder, and birds on our guest book, so it made sense to tie in the bird theme in just one more area. Plus, I love baking sugar cookies.

The donation was tricky; how were we going to let people know?

One day I came across a great idea - mini bookmarks! One side would have our engagement photos on them, and the other side would let our guests know about the donation. And so the research began.

I decided I needed ribbon and eyelets to make a more complete "bookmark" look. The perfect ones were found at paper-source.com. I didn't have to wait long - my package came in t-minus two days! I highly recommend them to any other DIY brides out there.



While the eyelets themselves were only $1.50 per package, in order to use them I also needed a very small hole punch and an eyelet setter. Before I knew it I had spent $25, but just look at the cuteness it produced!


(these are mini cards bought on moo.com - a bit small, but nice and thick!)





(Max loves to help with all my DIY projects!)

Cake-a-lake-a-ding-dong!

You guessed it, last weekend was the big wedding tasting! I can hardly believe it's already come and gone. The whole thing was so perfect, and it left us terribly excited for the real deal!

FH and I met our mothers at the Otesaga on what was the coldest night of the year, thus far.






Our wedding planner sat us down at a table, and plate after plate after plate of food kept arriving at our table.

First to come were the hors d'oeuvres. We tried an amazing bruschetta with olive tapenade, little mini beef rolls, lamp chops, spanikopeda, and crunchy chicken strips. Wow!





After that came the appetizers. Each choice was absolutely delicious!


Tomato and Mozzarella salad


Crab Cakes

Next were the salads. We chose between one featuring pears and blue cheese, and one with lots of goat cheese (my favorite).





We finally have come to the main courses. At this point, my stomach was telling me it was time to quit, but the food was just too good, I had to keep on! We tried:


Marinated Portabello Steaks (the vegetarian option)


an absolutely heavenly Sea Bass


Steak and Prawns

and a Mahi Mahi dish which was lovely, but we missed out on the photo op for that one.

At the end of all this we felt very satisfied and well-fed, but there was still the most important part of all - the wedding cake! And of course there were options with that too. We tried:


Pumpkin cupcakes, Chai Spice cake, and Cheesecake with raspberries.

But of course, dear reader, you will just have to wait 258 days to find out what (if any of these options) we chose, just like everyone else!

Within the Ribbon

Way back when, little cards were included in the wedding invitations of family members and close friends that simply read, "Within the Ribbon". These little treasures were like tickets to VIP seating. Upon arrival, guests would hand the card to an usher, who would lead them to the first few rows of seats, sectioned off with a ribbon.

As a bride putting together a vintage-themed wedding, these are a must have. And so, I of course went to WalMart. There, I found ivory colored business cards, which match my invitation cardstock perfectly! After some playing around on Word, I came up with these little beauties:



Yes ladies, that is Alexandra Script that you are feasting your eyes on. How delicious is that font? It is my latest obsession, and will be featured on our invitations, menus, programs, etc.

What traditional details are you including in your big day?

Just Around the Corner....

I recently purchased the most amazing tool. Let me introduce you to Mr. Corner Rounder!



This fantastic little guy has made my life so much easier. I love the vintage roundness he has added to our table numbers, escort cards, and all sorts of other goodies! I can't explain it, but I feel like the roundness adds a professional touch by taking away the harshness of the sharp straight edges. Don't you agree?

9 Months and Counting...

9 months. Or, 272 days, 6 hours, 14 minutes and 50 seconds. But who's counting?

I thought we were so far ahead. I thought we had pretty much everything finished.

Enter panic attack #1.



How is there still so much left? When you think about it, nine months is a long time. Written on paper however, it's a much different story. Written out, I have something to do every single day until the wedding.

But let's take things one month at a time. What is on the list for this month?

(1) The bridesmaid dresses have arrived! Yes, that's right folks, five whole months early they are in!

(2) I ordered our wedding favors last night. I cannot wait for them to arrive and I can finish this semi-homemade project!

(3) Finalize the hotel block for the Out of Town Guests, and try to arrange for a shuttle.

(4) Find a salon! (This one should have been done last month, so I'm especially needing it to be done)

(5) Our tasting! I scheduled this fairly early in the process so that I would not have to wait until the month before to work on our menus. I will be much too busy by then!

(6) DIY Projects: something for the bridesmaids, business card inserts, and a bridal suite door hanger.

All of these items will be gone into in great detail as they are completed, but I thought I would share just how much planning goes into this one day, each month.

Final Wedding Advent: Day 24