Stationary Practice

About halfway through my final semester of school ever, my iBook decided it was time to move on into that great big Apple store in the sky.  This wasn't too difficult for me to accept because Apple stopped making the iBook in 2004, and mine was certainly well past its prime.  I ventured into my local Apple store to purchase a MacBook.  The Mac Genius told me that I could also get a new printer and it would only cost me $30 after a mail-in rebate.  A new printer?  My mind immediately went to wedding planning.  I could design our save the dates on Mac's Pages and then print them on card stock myself!  Think of all the money I could save!  I decided it was definitely worth $30 and I bought it.

I'm not going to lie though...the whole DIY on the computer idea kind of intimidated me.  Michael's I can handle.  This was a new monster.  I decided that the best way to conquer my fear was to practice.  Fortunately, I was graduating in a few weeks.  Making my own graduation announcements would save money and give me an opportunity to practice!

Materials:
A printer that has the ability to adjust according to paper size (look for an envelope feature)
#10 Luxe Fino Flat Cards 25 for $6.25 at Paper Source
#10 Open End Luxe Fino Envelopes 10 for $5.50 at Paper Source
Squeeze Punch - 1/2" Rounded Corner $11.95 at Paper Source

I chose cream as the color for the flat cards, and I chose gold shimmer as the color for the envelopes (gold and navy are my school colors).

I then created a new document in Pages and set the page dimensions to the dimensions of the #10 card.  I inserted an image of my school's logo (don't worry, royalty-free), then inserted a line to divide the card, then I just typed in a pretty font.  I printed them out and used my fancy corner puncher to give it that little something extra.

I'm so sorry I had to blur the name!  It was so pretty!

Close up

Envelopes

The envelopes involved a little bit more trial and error, so I'm glad I bought a few extra.  I only sent 12 of these, so I don't think I saved too much money in the long run.  But if you consider the fact that I'll use the printer and the corner puncher for future projects, it's not that bad of an investment!  Above all, I was really pleased with my work.  It felt more personal than buying something from somewhere, and when I received compliments, it meant a lot more.  I'm officially in love with Paper Source now, and I plan to use them for many future wedding projects to come!  Stay tuned!

Our First Budget Readjustment

You know?  You plan and you plan and you think you cover everything.  But then something comes up and requires a budget makeover.  You see, I was convinced that we didn't need a videographer.  I'm more into still photos, and we had hired an amazing photographer (more on that later).  I changed my mind when I saw this:

Source: Disney Weddings

That's my cousin and her husband, and that's their wedding video montage.  I watched it, I cried a little, and I fell in love with the idea of having one of our very own.  Short, but sweet.  Intimate, but accessible.  It was perfect.  So really, it wasn't that I wanted a wedding video, just a video montage.  Unfortunately, you need to have a wedding video first in order to create a highlights reel from it.

I moved some things around (mostly our floral budget...that category keeps taking hit after hit!  Just not a priority to us, I suppose) to accommodate $2000 for videography.  If that sounds steep to you, you're in for a big surprise.  That's the low end of videography.  Videography is wicked expensive.

I researched potential vendors (via The Knot and Wedding Wire) and narrowed it down to two.  The biggest factor in narrowing it down was price.  The second, if we're being honest here, was the quality of their website.  So many videographers' sites didn't actually have video!  Some did, but either the video quality was mediocre, and/or the rest of the site wasn't really up to par.  Maybe I was being superficial, but the way I saw it, these vendors are artists.  The little bit of extra effort it took to construct their site in a way that complimented their work made such a difference.  Flash was a bonus.

I requested demos from the two vendors that made the cut.  When they arrived, I was a little disappointed with the first one.  When I watched the second one, I realized that I was tearing up at the love stories of complete strangers.  This videographer managed to capture every wonderful, unique aspect of the couple they documented.  It wasn't just about that day, it was about the couple's lives together.  Hive, allow me to introduce you to Three Ring Weddings.

Three Ring Weddings markets themselves as producers of "love stories."  They even interview the couple a few months before the wedding to get to know them.  This helps them come up with a story line so that the wedding video takes on a true storyline.  I ate this up.  Best of all, they actually listed their prices directly on their site.  I know!  Unheard of in the wedding world!  They offer a new "economy package" that was just under budget.  We immediately put down a deposit, friended them on Facebook, and bragged about how they made the Little Black Book on Style Me Pretty.

All in all, I was thrilled with our budget readjustment.  I can't wait to see the results!  Did a new wedding wish force some flexibility into your planning process?

Saying Yes to the Dress

I wanted to get dress shopping done early because I felt that the dress would set the tone and the theme for the entire event.  I began my dress shopping adventure by browsing through bridal magazines in an effort to research designers and to get an idea of what I wanted.  This did not help me at all.  I had a very clear idea of what I wanted, but I wasn't sure how it would look on me.  I went to David's Bridal with a friend who is also wedding planning, and we tried on several very different gowns to narrow down our search.  I found shopping, with no intent to buy, incredibly helpful and I highly recommend it when it comes to wedding dresses.  I came to David's Bridal with A, B, and C in mind; I left thinking of X, Y, and Z.

Attached to the idea of a dress with X, Y, and Z, I began to research bridal boutiques.  I googled, asked around, and narrowed it down to 7 stores.  I then looked at each store's website and viewed their selection.  Some carried more designers than others, and some had more affordable designers.  I narrowed it down again to 3 final stores and made appointments.  All of this involved lots of color coded spreadsheeting, of course!

Mr. Lion, do NOT read any further! 

I went to my appointments with some of my bridesmaids, and found my dress at the first one.  I knew it was the one.  I didn't cry or scream or anything like that, but I kept it on for about 45 minutes and just didn't want to take it off!  I wanted to be sure, so I went to my next appointment.  I found another one that I liked a lot and immediately stressed out.  The other salon had told me that I would get a discount if I ordered it today, so I wanted to make a decision.  I called Mama Lioness on the verge of tears and asked her what to do.  She gave me some of the best advice I've had so far with wedding planning: "If you like both of them, then you need to think about which one HE would like more."  I pictured myself walking down the aisle in the dress I was wearing, and I smiled.  I pictured myself walking down the aisle in the dress I had worn earlier that day, and I smiled wider and burst into tears.  There was the Lifetime movie moment I had been looking for!  We left the salon and called the other store to make our purchase, the Zora by WToo:

Personal photo: Looking pretty psyched.

How did your research and advice affect your dress shopping?  Did it help you narrow it down or did you go a different route?

Location, Location, Location

So we finally got back to Atlanta after living in Boston for three months and traveling to Florida for a couple of weeks.  Time to start planning right?  Wrong.  I went to Guatemala for ten days.  Hey, I'm a graduate student.  Clearly, I'm trying to save the world.

But then I got back to Atlanta and decided it was time for us to book a venue.  Yes, we still had 15 months until our chosen date, but I'm picky.  I'm sure laid back brides who are much more flexible than I am do not need to start planning that early.  I am incredibly opinionated and I knew that if I wanted my pick of the litter, I needed to get there before everyone else did.  I did a lot of research and selected 15 places to further examine.  I used these criteria to narrow down the list from there:

• Indoor/Outdoor: We really wanted a garden wedding, but I'm also a control freak so I wanted to make sure that we had a back-up plan in case the weather got the better of us.
• Ceremony & Reception: We're faithful and spiritual people, but we are not religious.  We didn't need a church/synagogue/straw hut, and we felt that we could save money on guest transportation by having the ceremony and the reception in the same location.
• Affordable: We budgeted $12K for the venue if it included catering, $6K if it did not.  We couldn't go a dime over.
• Nearby: Trying to find a place within 30 minutes of Atlanta made the affordable thing trickier, but I felt like convenience was more of a priority.

From there, we were left with four potential venues.  I then came up with new criteria:

• Charming: I'm pretty quirky (as you may have noticed?) and I wanted a place with a story.
• Big Enough: We were anticipating 125-150 guests, which is in no way a large wedding.  But given the charm factor that we were looking for, many venues on our list were more quaint than charming, and couldn't even hold that many.
• Flexible: We had a lot of time to plan, and a very small amount of money to spend.  I planned to take advantage of that by shopping around for different vendors and by doing a lot on my own.  Many venues are all-inclusive, which is super convenient for some people...but when you had as much time as we did, it was an unnecessary convenience.

Here's how our final four measured up to those criteria:

Piedmont Room

 Barristers Ball, 2010

Two of my favorite things in the world are the skylines and the color green.  Piedmont Room has plenty of both.  Piedmont Room is the special events facility at Park Tavern, one of my favorite bars in Atlanta.  It overlooks Piedmont Park and the midtown skyline.  Unfortunately, this one was vetoed because of the charm factor.  It's BEAUTIFUL, but we needed something a little more funky.

Rhodes Hall

Source

Now we're talking charm factor!  Rhodes Hall, locally known as The Castle on Peachtree, was built in 1904.  It's currently used as the headquarters for the Georgia Trust, who operate Rhodes Hall in addition to other historic sites throughout the state.  Rhodes Hall was more than able to accommodate our guests...outside only.  Their indoor facilities, though lovely, were a little small for us.  Basically, if it rained, we'd have to send some people home.  I was a little disappointed, but I moved on.

Flint Hil

Source

I love this place.  Flint Hill is an antebellum home, turned events facility.  It was perfect for a garden wedding and an indoor reception.  The price was right, and the woman I spoke to on the phone was fabulous!  They are an all-inclusive facility, though incredibly flexible compared to their competition.  Something still didn't feel right though...

Anthony's Fine Dining

Source

Funny story about Anthony's: I'm an alumna of Kappa Kappa Gamma, and the Kappa Atlanta Alumnae Association held a luncheon at Anthony's a few years ago.  Gringa Bridesmaid Emily (who is also a Kappa) decided to go and we absolutely fell in love with the place.  This was long before I got engaged, but Emily still insisted on planning my wedding there.  She went and found the head chef, got him to give us a tour, and we talked prices.  We were just being silly but to be honest, it's been in the back of my mind ever since.  Anthony's is an antebellum home, built in 1797, and it's now a restaurant in the middle of Buckhead.  The garden is perfect for the ceremony, the Ladybug Room is perfect for the reception, the wine celler is a really cool place to get ready...I loved everything about it.  It met all of the criteria, so we decided to go take a peek.

We made an appointment for a tour and ended up staying there for a few hours, just chatting with Mary and Amy, Anthony's wonderful coordinators.  We told them we'd go look around and let them know what we decided.  We decided on the five-minute drive home.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't go check out the other venues, but I don't like giving myself the opportunity to second-guess myself.  I never check over my exams before turning them into my professor and I wasn't about to second guess this gut feeling.  I was especially curious about what Flint Hill looked like in person, but fortunatley one of my best friends is getting married there in October!  I suppose we'll see it then!

A Subtle Tribute for Unsubtle Fans

I don't remember exactly when, but around Christmas break we started discussing dates.  We knew we wanted Spring 2011, because we were both graduating in Spring 2010.  We knew we wanted a Saturday, because so many of our guests would be coming from out-of-state.  So I whipped out my iPhone and took a look at the calendar.  I decided March might be too cold, and May would be too close to three of my bridesmaid's graduations (more about how incredibly brilliant and talented my friends are later).  That left April.

Source: my iCal

I immediately checked the vitals: Passover was the 19th through the 25th.  Easter Sunday was the 24th.  The NCAA March Madness Finals were the 4th.  That left the 2nd, the 9th, the 16th, and the 30th.  My mom didn't like the 2nd because it was too close to my birthday.  I didn't like the 16th or the 30th because it was too close to actual wedding season (and finals for my lovely bmaids who are still in school).  So now that left the 2nd and the 9th.  Then, I had an epiphany.

Source: SoxBlog

Do you know who that is?  It's Jackie Robinson.  He broke the color barrier.  Now, I've told you that Mr. Lion and I are huge baseball fans.  I'm a Sox fan and he's a Yankees fan.  This is the source of all of our arguments.

Personal photo: Hat fight, circa 2005

Personal photo: Interleague Sox game at Turner Field, 2009.

Mr. Lion was not thrilled that my boys were winning.

Regardless of who you root for in baseball, integration is something we can all agree on.  Jackie's number is 42, so April 2nd would be a wonderful tribute to him and all he did for the game.

I was psyched.  We had set a date AND discovered a fun way to incorporate our love for baseball into our wedding day.  Plus, Mr. Lion could never forget an anniversary date like that!

How did you choose your date?  Does your date have a certain significance behind it?

Let Them Eat Cupcakes!

One of the other ways I tried to incorporate Mama Lioness' creativity was by having her host our engagement party.  I love seeing inspiration boards featuring engagement parties that could rival a wedding.  I didn't want all of that, though.  I wanted something low-key, inexpensive, and casual.  Also, I didn't want people to bring presents, as we hadn't had a chance to register yet.  We decided to have it at Mama Lioness' townhouse on December 26th, 2009.  We were in South Florida visiting three of our four divorced parents for the holidays, so it was a perfect opportunity to take advantage of already having many of our favorite people in the same place at the same time.  Five of my six bridesmaids are also from South Florida, so they were home visiting family as well.

Mama Lioness sent out evites (did I mention how casual I wanted this to be?) and started brainstorming with Sister Lioness.  They decided on afternoon cupcakes and champagne with DIY decor.  They got mini-cupcakes from Allegria at The Promenade in Coconut Creek.  (They sell froyo and cupcakes...who could ask for anything more?)  These are the flavors they decided on:

• Strawberry Meringue
• Mocha Espresso
• Tres Leches (it was very important to me that we include something more traditional to Mr. Lion's side of the family)
• Apple Streusel
• Key Lime
• Cookies and Cream
• Reeses Peanut Butter
• Red Velvet Cheesecake

Mama and Sister Lioness also made Black Bottom Cupcakes, a family favorite...so much so in fact, that I think people would have been disappointed if the Lionesses served cupcakes without a Black Bottom appearance!  Mama Lioness does not have cupcake trees, so she stacked glass cup and saucers together.  She bought a few heart-shaped cupcake liners and made a few Funfetti cupcakes to serve as toppers for her cupcake trees.  Then, she hand-made little bride and groom toppers to be toothpicked into the top cupcake.  Sister Lioness hand-made signs indicating the flavors (I wish I had her handwriting).  Here are the final results:

You can't see, but we had personalized confetti with our names!  A very nice touch from Mama Lioness, since she knows I'm into the details.  The lovely 8x10 frame and commemorative letterpress was a very nice gift from FMIL Lion!

Sister Lioness' amazing work

The only thing store-bought on here are the bottom two tiers of cupcakes.  Yay for DIY!

And here's a recap of how much fun we had!

When getting ready for an engagement party, it is necessary to wear an Ariel tiara and make a princess face.

Us with our Mamas...I am literally the whitest person here.

By the way, how fun our our buttons?!

 Mr. Lion and Lion Corgi...dancing!

 With Sister Lioness and Daddy Lioness

With 4 of my 6 bridesmaids...aren't they fabulous?

{all personal photos}

We had a ball.  The best part was having so many people that we care about in the same room at the same time.  If that's any indication of what the wedding itself will be like, I'm psyched!

Push the Button, Commander!

The title of this blog post is brought to you by one of our favorite married couples: Ryan (who is one of Mr. Lion's Groomsmen) and Emily (who is one of my best friends from grad school).  We were at Disney World (as most of my great stories begin), and we were on EPCOT's Mission Space.  For those of you who have never been on Mission Space, there actually is a mission.  You have to push a button.  The problem?  The ride simulates space and all of its super fun gravitational effects.  So, when you try to push a button, it's nearly impossible to lift your arm because it feels like it weighs three tons.  Each passenger gets a different role and Emily was assigned "Commander."  When it was her turn to push the button, Ryan kept screaming "PUSH THE BUTTON, COMMANDER!" but it was too hard for her to lift her arm!  He truly believed that if she failed to complete her part of the mission, they would be doomed.  Of course, it's a ride and that's not the case.  She finally made it and accomplished the mission, but not without giving us an amazing Ryan story.

But I digress.

This post is about our first engagement gift that we received.  Sister Lioness, who is my Maid of Honor, is an incredibly generous, thoughtful, and creative human being.  She wanted to do something special not just for me, but for the entire bridal party.  She loved the idea of custom tees for bachelorette parties and pre-wedding pampering, but she wanted something that we could use over and over again, something that would be versatile enough to be used for a variety of occasions.

Hive, allow me to introduce to you The Embroidery Shoppe.

Source: The Embroidery Shoppe on Facebook

The Embroidery Shoppe is a small business based out of Gainesville, Florida, home of my Florida Gators.  I'm a huge fan of artisans who are able to turn their craft into something lucrative (more about Etsy later).  I first heard about The Embroidery Shoppe through one of my sorority sisters.  This company is a Southern sorority girl's dream.  They hand-craft totes, koozies, and buttons with the preppiest of materials in order to create one-of-a-kind accessories.  Sister Lioness had this made for me about a year ago in honor of Timmy's last season with the Gators:

 Personal photo: Is that a gameday necessity or what?

So when Sister Lioness decided that she wanted something all of the bridesmaids could wear over and over again, she knew who to contact.  I had told her that our wedding colors would be some shade of green and white, with some accent color (which later turned out to be aqua).  She collaborated with the girls at The Embroidery Shoppe and decided on fabric, font, etc.  Here's what they came up with:

Source: The Embroidery Shoppe on Facebook  Yup, they totally featured OUR buttons!  How fun is that?!

If that doesn't say Southern spring wedding, I don't know what does!  They're even cuter in person, and The Embroidery Shoppe truly did a brilliant job when making them.  The quality really is amazing!  My girls absolutely loved them, and we plan to wear them for showers, the bachelorette party, and while getting ready before the wedding.  Most of all, I just appreciated the effort Sister Lioness put forth in order to have them made.  I'm certainly a lucky bride!

What was your first gift as an engaged couple?  What was sentimentally significant about it?