Saturday, February 5, 2011

Our Moment in the Spotlight

Sometimes, you find a vendor that you just click with.  They get you, they get what you're about as a couple, and they get what your wedding is about.  I've felt that way about my florist for a while now, and I decided recently that I also feel this way about my videographer.

Our videographer creates "love stories" out of their wedding videos.  They try to learn as much as they can about the couple so that their wedding video really captures their personalities.  They accomplish this by interviewing couples a couple of months before their wedding.  This provides footage of the couple talking about their relationship and their future, but it also gives the videographers the opportunity to get to know their clients' style.

Our videographers recently contacted us to schedule such an interview.  They told us to choose a location that represented us well.  The baseball fans that we are, we immediately thought of Turner Field.
With Sister Lioness at the ballpark...and we're all wearing Polo...weird.

It apparently costs $200 to use Turner Field for something like this.  That wasn't in the budget, so we nixed that idea.  Next, we thought it'd be fun to use Piedmont Park.  It's one of our favorite places in Atlanta, and we take Lion Corgi there often.

Unfortunately, the forecast for the day of our shoot didn't look as pretty as the weather in that photo.  It was supposed to rain.  In biblical proportions.  This forced us to think outside the box a bit.  Maybe instead of having a fun setting, we could be doing something fun!  Hmm, what do Mr. Lion and I like to do together?  Lots of things, really, but one favorite activity stood out in my mind...

We like to cook.  And eat.  Papa Lioness was able to pull some strings for us, and he got us a suite at the Residence Inn Dunwoody for a couple of hours.  We packed up some of our favorite kitchen toys, some ingredients, and the recipe for Martha Stewart's Blueberry-Lemon Bundt Cake and headed to the hotel.

The decor of the hotel room made for a much better set than the decor of our apartment.  Our apartment has lots of muted, natural colors, which I like.  The kitchen is tiny and has horrible fluorescent lighting, which I do not like.  The hotel room had stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, simple modern decor, and bright colors throughout.

The crew showed up and set up shop with fancy cameras, lighting stuff, and sound stuff (clearly, I know all of the technical terms).  I was a little nervous about answering the questions awkwardly, but they really put us at ease.  We both felt pretty comfortable around them; it just felt like we were having a conversation.  They interviewed us together first, and asked questions like "How did you meet?" and "Does your wedding venue have any significance to you?"
Sorry about the iPhone quality!

They wanted to interview us individually too, but first they had to rearrange our "set."  In the meantime, Mr. Lion and I got to baking while one of the crew members shot us being cute in the kitchen.  I wish I had pictures of this, because I promise we were adorable :)

We stuck our cake in the oven, and I sat down for my individual interview.  They asked me about my "somethings," how I found my dress, and I told the story of our proposal.  Mr. Lion sat down for his interview next.  He talked about how he asked my dad for permission, how he thought he'd react when he first saw me walking down the aisle, and he told his proposal story too.  The interesting thing is that our proposal stories were totally different!  I focused more on the surprise, and Mr. Lion focused more on how nervous he was that it was going to rain.

The timer for the cake dinged immediately after Mr. Lion finished his interview.  They turned the lights off and put the equipment away as we waited for the cake to cool.  Then, we gave each of the videographers a slice and took the rest to the front office to thank them for their generosity.  Needless to say, they were pretty psyched!

We had so much fun.  Not only did we get to ham it up in front of a camera, we got to reminisce about our history and gush about our future.  I just think it's so cool that our videographers do this to get to know us a little bit.  It's kind of like taking e-pics with your photographer before the wedding; it gives you a chance to get used to each other, which I think is a great bonus!

Do any of your vendors have some kind of unique twist that you were excited about?

We Want a Shrubbery!

Ten points if you get that reference!  And if you don't, I strongly urge you to play the video below and educate yourselves!

Anywho.  Remember my obsession with topiaries?  Since we're getting married in a garden, these beauties fit in perfectly with our decor.  We're using these placecard holders:

When our guests first walk into our reception, they will be greeted with a table filled with these placecard holders.  We also wanted the table to have some sort of banner on it with larger topiaries, like this:

We decided to go the DIY route for the larger topiaries.  Which mean...time for another tutorial!  Yay!

Materials
  • Moss-covered balls (you could get Styrofoam balls and cover them with moss, but I found moss-covered balls at Michael's)
  • Two thick wooden dowels (or one long dowel and a saw)
  • Brown paint
  • Two terra cotta pots
  • Dried moss (to fill the pots)
  • Ribbon/rope/baker's twine
  • Card stock
Instructions

Most dowels come in that awful saw-dust color, so the first step in this process is to paint them a more natural bark shade.

Next, fill the pots with moss and place the dowels in the pots.

As you can see from the picture, it might be a good idea to do this project outside!  The moss shed, and I got lots of dirt everywhere.  That would not have been fun to clean out of carpet!

Next, poke a hole in each ball with scissors.  This will make room for the dowel.

Stick the moss-covered ball on the dowel and twist to secure.

For the banner, I printed out our names, with the letters spread out.  I used my 2″ tag punch to punch out the letters.  Then, I taped each tag to some baker's twine and tied each end to a "trunk."

Oh hi, Lion Corgi!

{all personal photos}

The entire project took about 7 minutes...woot!  How has your wedding's setting inspired your DIY projects?

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Getting My Hair Did

Remember my hair inspiration post?  Remember how I wanted to look like a pin-up crossed with an Old Hollywood movie star?  Well, I had my hair trial!  Please excuse me if my face looks a little rough in some of these pictures...it was the day after my bachelorette party!  Why did I decide to schedule my hair trial during what would inevitably be a hangover?  Well, who knows!


Here I am showing my stylist some inspiration pictures:
"You see, I write for this wedding blog and so I wrote one post all about this one hairstyle and so all of my pictures are right here on this one webpage and I want this part of my hair back a little bit and also I like run-on sentences."

Curling is fun.

Teasing is fun, too.

The finished product:

Mama Lioness admiring my new 'do:

We might have to work on the veil a little...

How did your hair trial go?  Were you pleased with the results?

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Lioness Invitations: The Breakdown

Now that you've seen the final reveal of our DIY invitation suite, I wanted to break them down for you!

Here's what we bought:

Materials for the Invitations and the Response Cards
Materials for the Information Tags
Additional Materials
I had already bought many of these materials for our Save the Dates.  After subtracting those previous purchases, the grand total we spent on our invitations was $210.12, or $2.10 per invitation.  Please note that this total includes postage, but does not include ink.

Here's how we put them together:

The Invitations and the Response Cards

After Sister Lioness worked her Photoshop magic, we scaled the design so that several would fit on one page of cardstock.  The invitations were 5 x 7", so we could fit two on one page.  The response cards were 3 1/2 x 5", so we could fit four on one page.  We then printed for several hours and had a cocktail.

Then, we used the paper trimmer to separate the invitations and response cards.  This part required several cocktails!  My advice (and I can NOT stress this enough!) is that if you are going to design and print your own invitations, do not choose a design that bleeds.

As you can see from our design, the grass goes all the way to the bottom and the tree goes all the way to the top.  This required some pretty precise trimming, and resulted in one massive headache!

Finally, we rounded off the corners of each card with the corner punch.

The Information Tags

We were able to fit ten tags on one sheet of paper.  We printed out several sheets, and started punching with the tag punch.  We then used the little heart punch to create the hole in each tag.  Then, we embossed the balloon on the edge of each tag.

Then, we used about a foot and a half of baker's twine to tie the package together.  We only had one spool of baker's twine, and we still had some leftover after 100 invitations!

The Labels

We were able to fit five wraparound labels on each full sheet of labels.  We printed, then used the paper trimmer to split them up.  We placed them on each invitation, stuffed the envelopes, and sent them on their merry way!


We probably spent about two full days putting these bad boys together.  They were our most involved DIY project yet, but they were totally worth it!  I'm really happy with how they turned out, and they definitely came out under budget.  What is/was your biggest DIY project?

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Many Sides of Chuppah

As I've mentioned before, Mr. Lion is Catholic and I'm Jewish.  Neither of us are traditional in practicing our faiths, but we definitely identify with them culturally.  As a Jewish bride who plans to have a non-denominational wedding ceremony, I wanted to somehow incorporate a few Jewish traditions.  One tradition that we decided to include was using a chuppah.

A chuppah, or canopy, is a piece of decor that sits at the altar during a Jewish ceremony to symbolize the home that the bride and groom will build together.  Traditionally, the four poles are carried down the aisle by members of the wedding party.  From there, it can either be secured at the altar, or the wedding party members can continue to hold it up throughout the ceremony.  The groom walks underneath first to symbolize his ownership of the home, then the bride walks in to symbolize the groom providing for her.  No offense to tradition, but we'll probably walk underneath together because that's more our style!

The chuppah is usually open on all sides, to symbolize the hospitality of an open home.  The chuppah is typically covered, to symbolize God's presence over the home and over the marriage.  The cover can be designed with traditional Jewish symbols...

...or it can be a more modern and unique design...

...or it might not even be fabric at all!

The chuppah itself can come in all shapes and sizes.

Some chuppahs aren't even covered on top, but the concept is still the same.  Plus, it serves as a great way for the couples' personalities to shine through!


So what will our chuppah look like?  Well, we wanted it to fit in with the rest of our whimsical garden decor.



We're Mr. Lion is planning on going the DIY route with this project.  A few wooden poles, some cement and flower pots for the bases, and some fabric for the top should do the trick.  Our florist is providing a little bit of greenery, but other than that we wanted to keep it pretty simple.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

What's the significance behind your ceremony decor?

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Vote or Blush!

Get it?  It's a play on P. Diddy's (or whatever he's calling himself these days) "Vote or Die."  Well, I think that sounds a little dramatic; but seriously, you should vote.  On what, you ask?

I need help choosing lingerie for my wedding night!

I chose not to have a lingerie shower, because I asked Mr. Lion, "Do you want me to have lingerie or stuff to make you yummy food?" and he answered the latter.  I got some fabulous kitchen toys at my bridal shower, but now I have a little shopping to do for the wedding night!

I wanted something bridal, and I wanted it to be super sexy but pretty tasteful too.  I've narrowed it down to two options.  I like this first one a lot because the blue accents match my engagement ring.

Option two isn't as exciting from the front, but the back is unique and definitely bridal.  I mean, it has a bustle!

What do you think, Hive?  Cast your vote below!  Or just sit there blushing.  I am a little bit.
Option 1 - Blue Bows
Option 2 - Bridal Bustle

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

It's Complicated

We booked our venue over a year ago.  We knew early on that it was exactly what we wanted, and we eagerly signed up to have both our ceremony and our reception there.  The venue was then crossed off the to-do list and promptly placed on the back burner.  Our Day-Of Coordinator over there checked in with us from time to time, but other than that, it was out of sight and out of mind.  Now that our wedding is about two months away, I decided to schedule a meeting with our DOC to start ironing out the details.  What time does this vendor arrive?  What does the pattern of traffic flow look like from ceremony to cocktail hour?  Where is my candy buffet going to be?

What followed were a series of epiphanies.  Not the good kind, either.  The kind where innocence is lost and you're left thinking, "Crap!  What do I do now?"  I believe there's a Disney princess out there somewhere whose face can convey this emotion...

I'm glad I have an experienced venue and an awesome DOC to help me figure things out.  Nonetheless, my meeting resulted in adding some new items to my to-do list, some new problems that I now needed to solve:

1.  Our tables seat 8, and I initially thought they seated 10.
My bad.  I shouldn't have assumed, and I don't really know why I did in the first place.  So, now we need an additional 5 tables to accommodate our guests, which means 5 additional centerpieces.  Groan.  It's only money, and we over-budgeted for the sole purpose of covering our booties in the event of mistakes like this.  Problem solved.

2.  Table linens bring up the white vs. ivory debate that I so despise.
My dress is ivory.  Mr. Lion and the Lion Gmen are wearing gray tuxes with ivory shirts.  The Lioness Bmaids are wearing multicolored shoes with a white background, but they are wearing ivory fascinators (I figure they're far enough apart and there's a lot going on elsewhere in the ensemble, no one will notice).  When my DOC and I began to discuss table cloths and chair covers, we instantly decided on ivory.  Then, we had to decide on sashes for the chair covers.  I could choose between black, burgundy, olive, white, silver, or gold.  They all looked great with the white, but the gold was pretty much the only option for the ivory.

Gold kinda clashed with the rest of our color scheme, so that left me back at indecisive.  I really liked the silver, since we're using mint julep cups for our centerpieces.  Could I pull off the silver with the ivory?  Or should I just switch to white and forget the fact that it didn't match my dress?  For that matter, could I do white linens and white sashes?  What do you think?

3. My cake plan was turned upside down.
We had planned on having approximately 100 cupcakes, in three different flavors.  We were also planning on having a groom's cake, which would serve 50-75 people.  We planned to cut a small cake on top of a cupcake tree, which our baker had agreed to make for us.  Then, guests would be able approach the cake table and choose between our three cupcake flavors or a slice of groom's cake.  This concerned my DOC, as she believed that it would result in chaos and (dare I say) it might look tacky.  She thought it would be better if the cakes were served.

She also added that it would be better if all of the guests received one cupcake and all of the guests received one small slice of groom's cake.  I suppose that would appear more hospitable, but it seemed like a lot of food for our daytime wedding.  Additionally, that would cause us to buy twice as much cake as we had initially anticipated!  Could we get away with serving 100 of our guests cupcakes and the rest groom's cake?  Or would it be so bad if we stuck with the self-serve route?  Or should we just bite the bullet and buy cake for (gasp) 300 servings for a 150-person guest list?  What do you think?

Y'all, wedding planning is getting stressful as we're reaching the home stretch!  I just wanna go back into DIY mode and play with fun projects and not deal with logistics!  Thanks for reading such a whiny post, and thanks in advance for your advice.  I hope I didn't stress you out vicariously!  I'm going to go have a glass of wine now...

What kinds of roadblocks have you run into with your nitty gritty details?