A Very Important Date

We have now entered the double digits in our wedding countdown!  We've started to get a lot of logistical questions from our guests, like where to stay in Atlanta, when to fly in, etc.  Items on our to do list are slowly being checked off.  The wedding is starting to feel real, and I'm starting to feel productive; but the anticipation and the excitement really started to build when I got this in the mail the other day:

It's an invitation to my bridal shower!  Squeeeee!  You may remember from Sister Lioness' fabulous guest post that my shower is going to be "mad tea party" themed.  I knew that she had that theme in mind when she was designing these invitations, but I had no idea that they were this detailed!  I really appreciated all of the thought that she had put into them.  I loved the colors, I loved the fonts, and I especially loved the nod towards the novel.  It added that hint of vintage whimsy that just defines our wedding style.  She even included it in the registry cards!

The envelope also included an invitation to my bachelorette party, which will take place the same weekend.

I love how the themes are clearly different, but the colors compliment each other well enough to be included in the same package.  The "preppy princess" thing kinda melted my heart a little...she knows me too well!

Best of all, I liked how the events described in this envelope fit in with our wedding style but were unique enough to stand on their own.

 {all personal photos}

What was your favorite part of your shower invitations?

Shower Planning 101

I really wanted to write a post about planning my shower, but I'm not the one planning it!  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for a guest post.  Allow me to introduce you to someone much more qualified to talk about the Lioness shower: Sister Lioness!

Why hello there, Hive! I’m a long-time lurker, and I’m beyond happy to be here!

I’ve always loved event planning (I’ve been throwing themed birthday parties since middle school), so you would think planning this shower would be a snap. But when Miss Lioness got engaged and I actually had to think about this kind of stuff, I realized I had nothing up my sleeve. I sort of panicked. All of the fun, modern, themed showers sounded really fun to plan, but they were NOT Miss Lioness. She is traditional and classic, but she has her quirks. She needed something that suited her personality.

The Lioness Shower will be an Alice in Wonderland-themed tea party, but it will be nothing like either of the movies (for once we are shunning our Disney roots). It will be literary, whimsical, and vintage… but most of all, it will be fun.

Mad Tea Parties seem to be all over the wedding world right now. Finding pretty pictures was the easy part.

 Sources {clockwise from top left}

faeryspellcreations, Wedding Chicks, Style Me Pretty, Not Quite Nigella, Style Me Pretty, A Man Called Old Fashioned, myrecipes, Hostess With the Mostess, Lenny's Alice in Wonderland Site, Jessica Claire Photography

You’ll notice that these parties all have a few things in common. These were the things I tried to recreate – kind of like a wedding, on a much, much smaller scale.

Mismatched Vintage Tea Cups & Stacks of Books

This was the first thing I knew I wanted to do. Mama Lioness has a wonderful vintage children’s book collection, but I’m terrified of ruining one of her classics. Between thrift stores and library sales, I found enough books to make some pretty stacks without worrying about destroying an heirloom if someone gets a little sloppy with their tea.

I absolutely loved all of the teacups in these pictures, but I knew I was on a budget that would not allow for antique china. Luckily, the Goodwill near my apartment at the time had one of the most extensive and organized houseware collections I had ever seen. I became a frequent visitor, snatching up as many $1 teacups as I could find, along with the occasional teapot or water pitcher. Unlike the ones in the inspiration photos, they are not all intricate, fine china patterns; that was a pretty early compromise. But I have big plans for these teacups, and I have learned to embrace their differences.

Color & Whimsy

I was initially drawn to faded, vintage color schemes in some of the inspiration pieces, but I wanted the Lioness Shower to be brighter. I’ve always been obsessed with color – whether I’m designing stationary or dying my hair, the brighter the better. Lucky for me, Miss Lioness embraces this quirk and often uses me as an excuse to be a little more daring with color herself. Unfortunately, a lot of the teacups I found are more along the lines of the vintage fades than the whimsical brights. But with the help of some fresh flowers (and some well-dressed guests), the shower will rock this color palette:

(Has Miss Lioness told y’all that I love fonts? Because I really really love fonts.)

Garden Party

It’s only natural for an Alice fan like me to expect to throw a backyard tea party... not at all considering the fact that this shower was to be held in January. I realized this around the time I realized just how much space 25 people take up and just how much work it would take to feed them. I needed a venue: a real tea room that wouldn’t break the bank. Hive, meet the Vineyard Café in Marietta, Georgia.

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Their catering manager has been nothing but wonderful to Mama Lioness and me, and when Miss Lioness and I went to try out their tea service, we were speechless. Great food, great service, great price? This lion is totally in. Did I mention they have a big beautiful sunroom overlooking Marietta square and a cute shop downstairs filled with goodies?

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Once we booked the venue, everything has been pretty easy. The mismatched teacups are serving as both our favors and an icebreaker activity. I’m still working out how exactly I want to arrange everything. I have a feeling I’m just going to show up with all of my supplies a few hours early and just deck the halls in whatever way feels right at the time (excessive planner brides, forgive me!).

So for any bridesmaids out there (or for those brides looking to drop a few hints!), here are my rules to live by for planning the perfect shower:

Know your bride. Does you bride even want a big, themed shower? Or would a small, friends and family get-together be more her speed? Find out what she wants to have before you start thinking about what you want to plan. Chances are if you’re throwing the shower, you have a lot in common with the bride. Find something you can both relate to, like your inner child/bookworm.

Know your budget. Like all things in life, you’re going to have to make concessions. Personally, I would have loved to have every book on the table be a vintage copy of Alice in Wonderland, but 50-cent bargain books were a lot cheaper and easier to find. When making big budget decisions, like whether to use a venue or go DIY, ask yourself how much your time is worth. For us, it was well worth paying for the tea room!

Have fun! This isn’t a wedding; no one is going to blog about it or iconize it like it’s a wedding. When in doubt, keep it simple. Just do what feels right and have a good time. That’s the best way to guarantee that everyone else will too!

Have you ever planned a shower?  How did you find your inspiration?  Any tips for other shower planners?

Merry and Bright

You may recall that we recently bought our wedding rings.  Our jeweler resized them for us, and they were ready just in time for Christmas, so we Santa left them under the tree!  The pretty boxes came in a little bag, so all it needed was some ribbon and a tag.

Oh and look!  Santa made the tag out of some of our leftover Save the Dates!  What a nice touch.

We eagerly opened up the bag to find two beautiful pieces of metal that we will wear for the rest of our lives.  So, without further ado, here is some Christmasy ring porn for your viewing pleasure:

Santa also brought Lion Corgi a couple of toys, but she was far more interested in the rawhide candy cane.

{all personal photos}

Did the holiday season bring new additions to your wedding?

Inspiration for the Invitations

I.  LOVE.  PAPER.  Seriously.  Paper products are somewhat of an obsession of mine.  Notepads, stationary, and all kinds of paper embellishments are always at the top of my Christmas list.  We Atlantans are fortunate enough to have a Paper Source here and, well, they know me.  Every time I walk in, some employee says, "You again?  But you were just here!"  Much like this:

"Have you got anything new?" "Not since yesterday!"

It's funny though; as much as I love paper, the invitation category in our budget was pretty small.  We figured that we could save money and still have something beautiful if we went the DIY route, like we did for our Save the Dates.  Sister Lioness offered to design something fabulous and we planned to print it at home using our own office printer.  This took letterpress out of the picture.  But let's drool over some letterpress for a moment anyway, shall we?

Mrs. Fro Yo's invites via Weddingbee

Mrs. Paisley's invites via Weddingbee

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Swoon.

Anyway, I knew that I wanted something with a garden motif.  We're getting married in a garden, and our wedding will take place during the spring time.  I also really loved the idea of including a tree in the design.  As Meerkat posted, the symbolism associated with trees is just beautiful.

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I found myself drawn to invitations with some kind of green bottom border, like grass or leaves.  The contrast with the rest of the design gave some nice contrast.

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And, of course, I needed to incorporate some whimsy!

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Love the fonts on this one!

So, how in the world did we incorporate all of those ideas into one design?  Stay tuned!

How did you find inspiration for your invitations?  What themes did you find yourself drawn to?

Guys in Gray Tuxes

We recently started shopping for the guys' gear and, unfortunately, it's been slightly more rocky than dress shopping was.  We debated between suits and tuxedos for quite some time.  Tuxedos seemed too formal for a daytime wedding, but suits seemed difficult to coordinate.  We finally decided on a compromise that suited our style, fit our theme, and was easy for 9 men in 4 states to obtain.

We found a gray tuxedo, which seemed slightly less formal than the traditional black, at Men's Warehouse.  We then paired this tuxedo with an ivory shirt.  Now, I know the topic of white vs. ivory has been highly debated on the 'Bee.  We didn't go with the ivory shirt because it would match my ivory dress.  Frankly, I don't really care whether the shirt matches or not.  We'll have different shades of white in our bouts and bouquets, so I figure it'll all come together somehow.  I chose ivory because I just liked the way it looked with gray!  I think it captured the vintage-but-whimsical look we're going for.

{personal photo}

We'd decided on a look and we'd found an accessible store, but the smooth sailing ended there.  Mr. Lion wasn't really feeling the bowtie and cummerbund look (which was a shame, because I thought cummerbunds would look really cute with the girls' dresses).  He also didn't like the idea of a vest.  We decided to use a simple tie to bring the look together.  The Men's Warehouse lady brought out several options for ties to "match" our wedding colors...and all I heard was the Psycho theme in the background.

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They just didn't fit the look I was going for.  You know, something like this:

Source: Red Ribbon Studio via Style Me Pretty

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Nothing we found seemed to pull the gray look together.  I really wanted something that fit our color palette and matched the bridesmaid dresses, but it was hard to pull off the vintage gray and ivory combo with these bright colors:

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This Vineyard Vines tie was the best match I found, but it was a little out of our price range.

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I found this one at Banana Republic, but ultimately vetoed it because the colors just weren't quite right.

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I really liked this one, and I don't think anyone would notice that the green is a little off because the detail provides enough distraction.  The only problem is that it's not even close to Mr. Lion's style.

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Well, you know my motto: if all else fails, try handmade!...Or maybe just try handmade in the first place.  Anyway.  I headed over to Etsy and found these:

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Sigh.  Lots that I like, and none that I love.  What do you think?  Are any of these a winner?  Have you seen any awesome green and pool blue ties out in stores that you could direct me to?  Or is this an Alchemy kind of purchase?

Registry Stalking

If y'all are anything like me, you've been busy attending holiday parties, baking cupcakes and cookies, and wrapping presents.  It's just that time of year!  The holiday season has got me thinking about presents.  When I was little, I was that horrible child who climbed up into my parents' closet (which they thought was a good hiding place) and shook each wrapped Christmas and Hanukkah present to try to guess what was inside.  Well, apparently I'm no different with wedding presents.  Yes, I'm aware that I'm an adult now.

Hive, I am guilty of registry stalking.  You know, your online registry shows what you want and what you have.  As guests start buying gifts, that little "fulfilled" column starts to fill up.  Well, occasionally I like to check out that little fulfilled column to see what's new.

The sad part is that we received our first registry gift before I acquired this stalking habit...and that surprise made the gift that much more special!  We had just sent out our Save-the-Dates, so we were a little confused when we received a wedding gift in the mail 10 months before our wedding.

Confused Lions

When we opened it up to find the following gift, the surprise got even better!

Lion Corgi was not nearly as entertained by my matching apron as I was.

You'd think after enjoying the surprise of our first gift so much, I'd stop ruining surprises by registry stalking.  What can I say?  I can't help myself!

How about you?  Are you resisting the urge to registry stalk or are you as guilty as I am?

Raising a Brow

I'm no stranger to make-up.  I've danced my whole life and, as Mrs. Barrettes will tell you, that can give you lots of practice with faux lashes!  My stage make-up skills carried over to everyday make-up, which my college roommates were pretty psyched about.  I was always happy to paint their eyelids for a night out on the town.  I feel pretty comfortable with a brush and some shadow, but put a pair of tweezers in my hands and I simply have no idea what to do.


I'm what I like to call "eyebrow illiterate."  Ever since I was about 16, I've plucked about two hairs between my eyebrows, and another two hairs underneath each one.  Fortunately, my eyebrows aren't too unruly naturally.  But this minimal maintenance has left me with no shape, no arch.  Allow me to show you an example:

Before plucking...

...and after.  Not much of a difference, huh?

I really wanted to master my brows before the wedding.  The problem was that I didn't trust myself with them, but I was scared to have them done.  I wasn't afraid of the pain from waxing; I was afraid that I would end up overplucked.

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Then, my friend introduced me to Anastasia of Beverly Hills.  This cosmetics company specializes in eyebrows, and my friend had nothing but good things to say about them.  For $30, they wax, trim, pluck, shape, and fill your brows.  Yes, that's a bit steep.  But when I learned about their methodology, I decided to splurge.  I thought y'all might be interested to hear about it, too, in case you wanted to try this place yourself, try some place similar (and hopefully cheaper!), or go the DIY route!

Anastasia bases their brow design on something they call the "Golden Ratio."

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The stylist took some eyeliner and drew three lines on each of my eyebrows.  The first indicated the medial border of my eyebrow, which lined up with my nostril.  The second indicated the lateral border of my eyebrow, which shot out diagonally from the edge of my nostril.  The third indicated the peak of my arch, which lined up with the middle of my nose and my pupil.  Using these three points, the stylist then chose a stencil that fit my shape best.  I'm apparently the "high arch," which I found interesting because I didn't even know I had any arch at all!

The stylist began to shade in the stencil to guide the waxing and the shading.

Then, the stylist waxed and plucked.  She filled in the thinner areas with a powder that matched my hair color.  Then, she glossed over it with a brow gel.  She applied some cream to sooth the surrounding area.  Finally, she traced over the bottom of each brow with a highlighting pencil.

I loved the finished product.  It looked natural, but sophisticated.  I actually had a shape to my brows, but not so much that I looked like a Disney villain!

Anastasia sells a brow kit for $85 that includes nearly everything that my stylist used on me: the stencils, tweezers, a brush, the powder that matched my hair, the brow gel, the soothing lotion, and the highlighter pencil.

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Again, the price was steep, but I saw it as an investment.  If this meant I could maintain my eyebrows independently until the wedding, I would save money in the long run.  So, I bought the kit.  Anastasia gave me a fresh start on eyebrows, and I can take it from here.  This morning, I used the stencil to fill in my eyebrows...and I was pleasantly surprised with how many compliments I received!  I truly feel that I have conquered the eyebrows that I once feared so much.  Best of all, I feel like it's given me confidence.  It's added a new element to my wedding day face, and I'm pretty psyched about that.

Are you currently experimenting with something for your wedding day look?  How's it going?

Some Ice for an Icy Day

My apologies for that horrible title.  I'm freeking freezing, so ice is just on my mind!

Hive, we're four months out.  After a long engagement, the big day is finally creeping up on us.  I don't know how it happened, but all of a sudden it feels like we're in wedding crunch time!  As busy as I've been trying to wrap up some DIY projects (oh don't you worry, they'll be up here soon!), it still didn't feel real.  Maybe it sounds silly, but it was just hard to believe that we were really getting married, and soon.  It finally hit me the other day while looking at my little countdown to-do list on WeddingWire.  So many important items crossed off the list: the dress, the venue, the flowers, etc.  There was one item that remained unchecked...and it was a biggie!  Something very important.  Something very precious to us.

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We're four months out, which means it's time to start looking for wedding rings.  You know, those little pieces of bling that you wear for the rest of your HOLY MOLY WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!  Oh hello, epiphany.  I've heard that you like to show up around this time.

Mr. Lion and I went wedding ring shopping today...and wedding ring shopping turned into wedding ring buying!  Today was one of the coldest days Atlanta's had this season, but we knew if we didn't go right now, we probably wouldn't get around to it until waaay after the holidays.  Things get busy around this time of year.  So, we bundled up and braved the "wintry mix" of sleet and other horrible kinds of precipitation all the way out to the cheaper jewelry stores in suburban Atlanta.

We only had to go to one store.  Not only did I fall in love with the first ring I tried on, it was $200 under budget!  It may have helped that I knew exactly what I wanted.  I knew I wanted white gold with a few small diamonds.  I was also pretty sure that I wanted something contoured to fit the unique setting of my e-ring; however, I didn't want something too contoured because I wanted to be able to wear it on it's own.  Well, here it is:

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I tried on others, but I kept going back to the first ring.  It fit all of my criteria; I even liked it with and without my e-ring:

Mmm...iPhone quality with unmanicured little boy hands.  Sorry, y'all.  But you get the idea :)

Mr. Lion had a slightly more difficult decision.  He had done his research, too, and he knew that he wanted something matte with black stripes.  He was leaning towards titanium or tungsten, but our jeweler basically talked him out of it.  Apparently, you can't resize rings made from those metals because they're so tough.  It didn't seem like a really big deal to me, and maybe some of you can relate.  But for Mr. Lion, it was a dealbreaker, ladies.

 Anyone?

Once he finally decided on white gold, the rest of the decision-making process was easy.  In fact, Mr. Lion ended up choosing the first one he tried on, too!  It was matte white gold with two black stripes...exactly the look he had envisioned.  It was contemporary, but classic.  Stylish, but not too different.

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We talked about continuing to look around, but it seemed pointless.  Our minds were made up.  We loved them, and the price was right!  The moment we decided to go ahead and make the big purchase, the sleet slowed and we were greeted with a sky full of soft flurries.  New bling and the first snow of the season?  OMG it was like a movie!  I was pretty psyched to have accomplished something else on our massive to-do list.  I was even more psyched that our wedding (as well as our marriage) was finally starting to feel real.

What was your ring-shopping experience like?  Did you decide to try on a bunch or did you go with your gut?