Holy Crap

In 19 days, I get to marry this man...

While I have wedding projects coming out the wazoo, Chris is making sure our humble abode is guest ready. He's painting, and turning doors around (I didn't know you could do this!) and reshelving and recabineting. The place looks awesome. I have no idea what I would do without him. I definitely wouldn't have any shelving. My toilet paper would sit on the floor. The painting I can handle... but not at the top where the ceiling meets the wall, even with a step ladder. Thank God for him and his handiwork :-)

Rehearsal Dinner Invite

I kind of love our Rehearsal Dinner Invitations. I wanted something simple and easy. So, we did them up in Photoshop and got them printed at ColorImages in Burbank. They are post card size, so they'll be super cheap to mail. Perhaps since I'm saving so much money on postage, I should upgrade to Zazzle stamps... they are having a sale ::muhaha::

Yummy Letterpress

I didn't really allow myself to look at a lot of invitation suites because I knew I (a) wanted to do them myself and (b) didn't want to spend a ton of cash on them. I had a feeling that I would fall in love with letterpress, so I stayed far far away. Just in case I fell head over heels and decided that I needed to have it in my life.

But now that invitations are done, what's the harm in buying a few t-tiny little itty bitty things?

I started with the calendar from Etsy shop ilee. Because it's STUNNING and adorable and cute.

Then, I happened upon some Thank You Notes and realized that I would have to have something to write a little note on for the bridesmaids. Opps.

Let the love affair begin :-)

Merry Christmas!

I just realized that it's 1:45 am which means it's Christmas! WOOOO CHRISTMAS.

As it was 70+ degrees today, and we only just put up the tree 2 days ago, and we've spent all of our waking moments with wedding shiza, I kind of forgot that it was Christmas. Our tiny little tree (that I adore) looks so sad with just a few little presents underneath. Me, not being so good with surprises, and Chris, working like a madman, we just bought/exchanged on the spot a few weeks ago.

Perhaps I will never again plan an enormous event three weeks after Christmas. Perhaps a bad choice on wedding date :-)

I'm already looking forward to next year when I have time to try new cookies, and pies, and candies and I'll be able to eat it all without fear of forcing the seamstress to let out what she just took in.

Merry Christmas to all! Enjoy your families, your holiday and your food and your sweets (jealous!).

Enjoy!

Camera Camera Camera

Chris and I love to take pictures. We were point and shoot folks until about 18 months ago, when we accidently dropped too much cash on the Nikon D50 and it was the best decision on the entire planet.

The pictures are crisp, clean and stunningly beautiful. It makes us look good!

But a few months ago our 55-200 lens just stopped working. Then we were told it was going to blow up the camera. BOO! So last night we bought ourselves and early Christmas present and sprung for the new Nikon 55-200 with the Visual Stabalizer. Woo!

Then we decided there was going to have to be a new bag to carry all the gear for Thailand.

We bought the Quantaray QR Echo Messenger Backpack. Based only on the grounds that I would NEVER have to carry it. It's only redeeming "cool" feature is that it is a messenger bag and not a super cool backpack. So, here's my question... why doesn't anyone design a nice, stylish, stunning, fun, sexy little bag that is functional and cute?

Hummmmm... business opportunity?!

P.S. For anyone interested, Ritz Camera has a crazy sale on the Nikon D40 ... Body & 2 lenses for $600ish. Awesome deal! Go get it.

Postcards

I love that the Roosevelt is an old vintage hotel. It has so much history! One of my favorite things to do while I should be working, or doing something wedding related, is troll eBay for old Roosevelt things. There's so much!

Sometimes there are old room keys, matchbooks, dinner programs, advertisments, all kinds of stuff that was once part of the hotel. There are ALWAYS old postcards. I thought about buying a bunch for our Out Of Towner baskets, but at $4.00 a pop, that seemed dumb.

So I made one!

We'll write a little note on the back of the card and put it on top of the OOT box.

Welcome to Hollywood in t-minus 25 days.

Le Bling

Bling Bling :-)

I adore the set that Chris bought with absolutely no help from me! Well, maybe a little bit of help from me.

The stone was my grandmothers'. It was part of a seriously large 1980's God awful cocktail ring. My aunt gave it to Chris in August and he kept it in his sock drawer for three months! He bought the set at The Diamond and Jewelry Gallery on Ventura in Studio City.

We bought Chris ring at Icing on the Ring in downtown LA after many many recommendations on the Knot. It's a 9mm white gold ring.

The Shoes

I adore shoes. It's a slight obsession that I have. A problem. I love the way I feel in a stunning pair of sky high heels. There's nothing like it.

Now I need something fabulous to complement my new rehearsal dinner dress.

At the BCBG store where I bought the dress, I asked what they would recommend. I didn't want to go boring with a silver or gold strappy sandal. I do that at work... I want ridiculous shoes.


So, the salesman brought out these...

Again, WAY more than I wanted to spend. But I can't stop thinking about them. And that's the true sign of something you should splurge on.... right?!

We weren't going to do Christmas at all. We were boycotting. We're too busy. Wedding expenses are, well, large. Our itty bitty condo has been totally consumed by wedding stuff. Then I found the most perfect dress for our Rehearsal Dinner. But I knew I didn't want to spend that much money. Then it started to disappear... and Chris bought it for me for Christmas!

Well know I have to get him something! He really wanted a new watch. But he just bought a watch last year and he realized that he bought his watch because it was the best one out there and all the other watches were just not as great as the one he already had.

One mention of the iPhone and he got all giggly and silly... so, to the Apple store we went and he walked out with his Christmas present

Then his mom called and told us about the dinnerware she bought for us because she knew that I loved it. It's the Rococo line from Mikasa.

And, never one to turn down a present, and never one to not reciprocate... I got stuck. And thus, we are no longer boycotting. And I think I'm going to add a tree to the disaster area that I call my living room!

I Don't Want To Be That Couple!

Chris has been SUPER busy with work. I didn't even see him Sunday-Tuesday of this week because there was a casting weekend and he just stayed at the hotel. I guess when you're working until 1:00 am and then have a 6:00 am call time, it doesn't make sense to drive 30 minutes home and 60 minutes back. Damn you LA traffic.





Soooo, in light of his super busy schedule and the 20 million appointments that I'm scheduling, he told me to "Just write it into my google calendar". WHAT?! I feel like we're one step away from "Just let my secretary know".

I don't want to be that couple that communicates through a shared calendar or an employee. But then again, is this just the new form of communication? Technology has made so many other things so simple, this is just another step. Yesterday I faxed some sheet music to my pianist for the ceremony. Then he called me on my cell while I was standing in line at the post office and played the music for me. It was perfect, easy, simple and now it's done.

Communication is such a huge part of marriage, obvioulsy. I don't want to lose what we have because we're so busy that we don't talk to each other anymore. What's next... making an appointment with each other to have dinner?

ONE MONTH

Holy crap we're at the one month mark. In exactly one month I'm going to be bouncing off the walls in my white Juicy terry cloth outfit (thanks Katrine for reminding me that I had to wear some clothes and that they should be bride-y)! Hair will have just arrived and there's going to be a buzz in the air :-) I'm getting married!

Then I think of the long list of things that I need to do between now and then. Then I remember that I like lists and that I'm super excited about crossing the things off the list one by one. Ohhh it's going to be a month packed with excitement! Woop :-)

Testing the Waters

Well, testing the florals. We had a final appointment and mock trial with Michele Brue at Floral by Fauna. It was everything that I imagined it would be. Fabulous work. Adore her.

She found all the crystals and garland downtown. I'm excited to see the way the candlelight will bounce off of them :-)

Honeymoon?! Wha!?

I never thought it would be possible to completely and utterly lose my mind to the wedding. I just remembered a few days ago that we are going on a honeymoon! How could that slip my mind?! I spent months researching and booking... where'd it go?

I think I'm so focused on the rehearsal dinner, wedding and morning after that I didn't even stop to think about what happens after January 20 at 1:00 pm when everyone leaves :-)

We're spending 10 days in Thailand! That's what we're doing! A few days in scouring the city of Bangkok, an overnight train trip (I see it a la SATC... super excited about it and then it being a bitch), a few days trekking the jungles of Chiang Mai and closing with a few days lounging on the beach in Koh Samui.

Crap... I have to buy new clothes...

Everything You Own Should Be Beautiful

I once read somewhere that everything you own should be beautiful. From your brushes to your brooms. As long as you're going to have it in your life, why shouldn't it be beautiful?!





I found these umbrellas on Etsy via Etsy Wedding and bought three of them! They're handmade in England, so shipping is a bit pricey (hence the reason for purchasing three!). They're enormous and some lucky ladies in my life are getting them for Christmas. Well, maybe only two, I might manage to hold on to one of them. I mean, it might rain on the wedding day... I'll need something to cover up with :-)

The Morning After

Apparently three days of festivities is not enough. I'm pushing myself to do a fourth! Sunday we will be hosting a brunch at our condo. (30 people should fit in the 667 square feet, right?). Yeah, it will be tight and toasty, but that's what makes it so nice. Close and intimate. Plus, most people haven't been out to visit since we bought the place, and we're not going to be making it up there for any other wedding related shenanigans. So, it seems like a good plan. Seems being the operative word.

Plan A was to pick up a bunch o'crap from Portos. yummy.

Plan B was to place orders and put my mom in charge of doing the stuff.

Plan C is to hire someone to cook stuff.

Plan C sounds nice. I put the word out on Craigs List and have gotten lots of replies. Some of them are students and some of them are professional caterers. Students dont' worry me, because seriously, how can you mess up eggs & pancakes. Even I can make those and I suck at kitchen stuff.

It's not all that expensive and the services range from full menu planning, shopping, cooking & cleaning to just the cooking.

We'll see which plan we land on.

Completely and Totally Unnecessary, and Yet, Fabulous

Fabulous things tend to be unnecessary... which is why they are so fabulous. They are not needed. Not really all that useful. A splurge if you will. That's what makes it so much better. Going all out on something that you just don't need. It makes you feel shishi.

Enter vinyl stick chandelier to hang behind the head table at our reception. Extra Large.

It's 36' x 22.5' and from Vinyl Wall Art. I think I saw it on a fabulous blog somewhere a few months ago and now, can't remember. I get giggly just thinking about how fabulous it is :-)

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Last night I came home to this.

Our first ever wedding present! And totally unexpected! I realized that I had to wait for Chris to come home to open it because it was his gift too and that would be totally rude of me to open it without him. So I called him and told him to come home now. It was 4:30. He laughed at me.

So I stared at it for a few hours. Contemplated what it might be in such a large box from BB&B. It HAD to be the mixer! HAD TO BE THE MIXER. But it's not heavy enough to be the mixer. Definitely not heavy enough. poop.

But it was the mixer! Deceptively light in the big big box. Chris' aunt and uncle are my newest favorite people on the planet. When we were in Boston last I mentioned that I loved her mixer and was thinking of registering for one. She remembered!

It's the cinnamon one and matches the kitchen perfectly. I will be baking heavily for the rest of the weekend, but refraining from eating due to the itty bitty wedding dress. Want some sweets?

Make Up Trial

It went fabulously! I adore Alexia and hired her on the spot. She did a great job, was fun to be with and super professional.

One eye is darker than the other. I wanted to see which would be better... and I think I'm going to go even darker on the eyes than either of them. Also, I totally forgot to take pictures until after I had eaten dinner and a few hours had passed. So, there's no lip color and I'm exhausted and it looks like my left eye already went to sleep. Slacker.

She's going to do all of the bridesmaids and me so we all look super stunning :-)

The Nitty Gritty

With 44 days until the BIG day, we're getting down to the nitty gritty. This is the part that I love! Pouring over the little details and making sure that everything comes together in a stunning manner.

I have a final appointment with the florist next week and I've really been thinking about what I want to do. Just a few touches to what we'd already layed out. Then I ran across this photo on Perfect Bound.

I love the branches and the bits of light and well, all of it for the legs of our chuppah. Candlelight at it's best :-)

Now I'm wondering if the chandelier look is going to complement or fight with the branch look. Will it be too much? I love the touch of the chandelier in this still photo from an episode of Sex & the City.

Screw it, go for opulence.

Mixing Business & Pleasure

Mixing business & pleasure can be a tricky predicament, especially when it's really really important. Or is it? I think it can go both ways. Someone who is really close to you will push through some major crap to get the job done because it's not only their work relationship on the line, but it's their personal relationship. They will go out of their way because you're more than just a client, you're a friend. It can swing the other way too. They could rationalize that they will get the client finished first and that you can wait because you're a friend. So, hiring a friend... good idea or bad idea?

I'm doing a make-up trial with a friend of a friend tonight. All I know is that she's from the Midwest, did lots of weddings there, has a beautiful website with some stunning photos and is working in the movie/TV industry as a make-up artist now. But, she comes highly recommend from a friend of mine who worked on a movie with her. Although, in that movie he played a guy lost in a desert who has to swim through a septic tank. I kind of want to look the opposite of just-swam-through-a-septic-tank on my wedding day.





This is my inspiration...

... Mostly the bottom right image of that girl from the Soprano's... Jamie something.

Perhaps the key to working with someone you know on a personal level is seperation...one level of friendship removed. Not my best friend, but my best friends' friend. Still a client, still a friend.

Itty Bitty Details

I didn't want to hand write our address on the RSVP, I couldn't print on the chocolate brown envelope and I didn't really want a colored label. So, I bought plain white mailing labels and pasted the damask print from our Save the Date and the belly band. In a text box I printed our return address in chocolate brown. Simple and easy!




Perhaps somewhat cheesey, but I don't care. Our guests will be attending either "in Body" or "in Spirit".




I went back and forth on the zazzle stamps. Why spend more money on something that I COULD spend less money on and it would be fine. But I couldn't bring myself to use the pink heart stamp. It was only a bit more, and the turnaround was quick. I've gotten more compliments on the stamps than anything else.

I ADORE the embosser. It is probably my most favorite part of the invitation. I used it on the outer envelope and the RSVP envelope. I bought it from Wilshire Graphic Press. The image is perfect, they used our custom artwork and the turnaround time was only about 3 days.

The Creative Spread

Creativity is contagious. I love that when you start thinking outside the box in one area of your life, it tends to spread. Spreads through you and your life and spreads to others.

This wedding is forcing Chris and I to spurt creativity everywhere we go these days :-)

We've been all about the kitchen recently. I NEVER cook. When Chris travels I survive on a diet of pb&j and cereal. If I didn't have him in my life I bet I'd be super skinny! But I can't seem to stay out of the kitchen. I cooked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week! There was chicken pot pie, meat loaf, pork and apple stew and brick chicken. Thank God for Martha. There was also Thanksgiving dinner with my very own Turkey and my new most favorite dessert... Whiskey Pumpkin Cheesecake. Holy Crap.

With Chris' break from cooking duty, he's find his outlet elsewhere. We'd been talking about doing something with the kitchen since we bought the place almost 2 years ago. The previous owner painted EVERYTHING in the place an icky grey.

As I played wedding projected DIYer, Chris painted every cabinet BLACK.

I was slightly concerned with this, as... well, black?! But I think it looks stunningly rich and beautiful and am super happy! Super happy that (a) it looks beautiful and (b) I didn't have to lift a finger!