My Bridal Shower

Saturday was my bridal shower. Everything went really well! It was in the Water's Edge event space at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. The theme was "Love in Paradise" and was chartreuse + purple. The flowers were beautiful too (from Curly Willow). Everything was wonderful, my bridesmaids (and bridesman) did such a good job.

toilet paper bride game

A Toast

About a week ago my mother stumbled upon some unused gift certificates that I had won years ago. (Do any stores even call them 'gift certificates' anymore? I think everyone uses 'gift cards')
So, GOOD TIMING, I was able to use them to buy our champagne flutes!

I love the swirling silver orb at the base!

Kitchen = Foreign Country

Last night I received my first recipe card, it came from Michelle! My bridesmaids sent out custom-designed recipe cards with my invites to match the invitation itself (and they just happen to match my soon-to-be kitchen). It's perfect since when I'm in the kitchen I feel like I'm in a foreign country, where no one speaks my language!
I have goals to be able to cook for my hubby and my girls are taking me that first step with these recipe cards. Since there are only like 3-4 things I can actually make without his help, he will be happy.
My bridal shower is this Saturday! I'm a little nervous but excited too!

Nicole designed my shower invitations

A P O L O G I E S !

I want to apologize to any of our wedding guests who received invitations in which the return envelope was not filled out and did not have a stamp! My boss asked me this morning who to make out the return envelope to and I was horrified to find out a blank envelope slipped by us. He laughed about it as I insisted he take one of my stamps. I really REALLY hope this was a one-time oops!

Invitations are in the Mail! ✔

Christian and I spent every free moment of our weekend addressing and stuffing envelopes. He did a really good job and didn't complain about it once. He even went out on a stamp-run on saturday evening, I love him. We put them in the mail Monday morning and they already started arriving today!

Double Booked

One of my bridesmaids is getting married 2 weeks after my wedding, June 5. I'm very excited for her wedding, it's going to be so nice! Her bridal shower is set for April 17. Yesterday, she told me that her (semi-distant) cousin, who is getting married May 1, just sent out invitations that her bridal shower is also April 17! From what I've gathered our (my friend's bridal party) invitations went out first. And they checked with the family to confirm that nothing was going on.
1st... why is this other chicks shower 2 weeks before her wedding?
2nd... who does that?
I just feel for her. Now, the family members have to decide between which to go to. That's no fun.

Invitations FINALLY!

Our wedding invitations came today! I was so excited when I got the call from the printer saying he was on his way. He is one of my regular venders and gave us a discount :)
I spent hours deciding on colors, seriously hours. Gray is not as easy as you'd think (especially for someone as anal as me)... there are warm grays, cool grays, some look more blue, some green... so I am very pleased with the Pantone color I chose.

We were glad to be able to design our own invitations!

Nails

In total boredom on my lunch-break, I stumbled upon OPI's website to look at nail-polish colors. They have a "Try It On" section where you can see all their colors on a realistic hand. You can even adjust the nail length and skin tone. It was a productive way to spend 15 minutes of my break.
It made me think that it might be cute to have my bridesmaids do white tips with a tiny grey/silver stripe across or perhaps just my MOH.
My nails are going to just have white tips. I would rather not have "fake" nails because I generally have very long thick natural nails. On the other hand I am pretty good at breaking my nails so we will see.

Rehearsal News

....... This is an Announcement to our Bridal Party .......

If you do not know already, Sunday, May 16 is the rehearsal and dinner for the wedding. The rehearsal will start promptly at 230pm at The Barn in Mill Run. Due to the distance, the availability of the barn, and the officiant's time-frame we are having it the Sunday before the wedding.

Immediately following the ceremony rehearsal will be the dinner. We are still ironing out those details.

Dress code for this day's events is 'casual dress', which by our standards means your favorite denim (required) with a nice shirt. Your spouses/fiancés are also welcome. :)

My gown is now Mine

As of last night my dress is officially mine. They even gave me a cute little certificate of authenticity from Maggie Sottero. Finally Katy has my dress and we will be planning a dress fitting at her place to finalize my alterations.

It's still very surreal that I'm getting married in 2 months, 1 week, and 5 days (according to my Daisypath wedding tracker). We are getting into the final stages of the planning process. I think everything is booked, with the exception of our cake. Yesterday, we discovered that the lady who was going to do our cake (who has done some really nice cakes, including my mothers) decided she wanted to make me a birthday size/shaped cake instead (ummm no!), and refuses to make me a taller cake due to the distance it has to travel. I contacted our caterer and wedding venue about the dilemma, within 24 hours they both got back to me with options so we'll be good to go soon!

http://stitchesbykaty.blogspot.com/

B A L L O O N F U N

This is just for fun but I have been noticing a new trend with weddings... BALLOONS! When I thought of balloons I thought of a child's birthday party. Now, I love the way they are used in photography. It creates just a little bit more interest. I would totally recommend getting just white balloons or a coordinating color for your wedding, even just for photos. I can't imagine a photographer not approving.

MOH's Dress

My bridesmaid's dresses came in a few weeks ago and my sister finally went to try on her dress. We are finding that they are all running a little small which is contrary to what we all had originally thought the issue would be. It seems that, aside from them ordering Nikki's dress in the complete wrong size, everyone is (after some effort) at least able to get the dresses on. They also appear to need pressed/steamed/or whatever it is they do to them to make them look ready-to-wear.

Carly tried hers on and sent me a photo. It looks good. She said hers is snug but not in a bad way.

Nice socks Carl :)

Year of Weddings Kickoff

This weekend marks the official start to the "2010: Year of Weddings" for us. Sunday is the bridal shower for my friend Jen. She is getting married, in May, exactly 1 week before us. After that, only 7 more showers and 9 weddings to go (including ours).