So Much Wedding Excitement to Share!!!!

First of all, let me apologize for being MIA for the past week.  Going home for my bridal shower (more on that later) and then trying to get ready to start working on my invitations (eek) not to mention that stupid thing called my job, I've just been running around like a mad woman!

But, we shall start at the beginning...my flight home last week was delayed for 3 and a half hours!!!!  I hate airports.  In my mind airport = hell.  People are either in too much of a rush or they aren't moving fast enough, somehow it has gotten to the point where people think being in an airport gives them a right to look like they just rolled out of bed in public, and the chairs are always uncomfortable.  Needless to say, being delayed 3 and a half hours didn't really put me in the best mood.  But apparently, Jet Blue does a lot more than give you cookies and free TV on all of their flights!

First, they brought out all the snacks that are available on the planes (chips, cookies, soda, etc) and let us help ourselves.  Then they ordered pizza for us!  Yeah, they totally had 20 pizzas delivered to the airport for us to eat.  Then they started playing trivia and if you got a question right you got a $25 credit towards a future Jet Blue flight.  Then they said they were going to draw a winner out of all the people who had answered questions correctly for the "grand prize."

I totally won the grand prize.  I never win anything.  I was pumped.  It was Red Sox tickets for a game that I would no longer be in Massachusetts for but, do you know what this Sunday is?  Yeah, it's Father's Day.  Know who loves the Red Sox?  You guessed it, my Dad!  So I got to be the best daughter ever and give my Dad pretty awesome tickets to the Sox game this Saturday.  And that totally made up for the delay.

My Bridal Shower was on Saturday, and it was absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to tell you allllll about it, but I forgot my camera at home.  My mom mailed it down and it should be here any day now, but I'm not even going to bother writing about the shower until I have pictures to share with you as well.

But, at some point during the shower someone decided to drown my phone.  They tried to clean it up (as in, they dried off the outside) but when it wouldn't turn on and I pulled the battery and a bunch of water came pouring out it was pretty obvious what had happened.  I minorly freaked out.  Being without a phone makes me feel naked.  Being without a phone when I was flying back to Pittsburgh the next day made me want to vomit.  I don't even know how to use a pay phone anymore.  So, BM Kim and I went to Verizon.

First, there was nothing they could do, I could have a replacement sometime next week.  Then I threatened to cancel my contract.  They asked if I wanted to talk to customer support, I said yes.  They dialed the number that brings you to the automated system.  I damn near exploded - but chose to continuously press 0 until a human came on.  As I'm on the phone the Verizon man magically found a phone he could give me as a loner.  I was livid.  If I hadn't said "yes, I want to speak to customer support" he wouldn't have even looked if there was a phone they could give me temporarily.

At this point, probably 45 minutes had passed.  Then we spent the next 2 and a half hours waiting for him to figure out how to set that phone up with my number.  TWO AND HALF HOURS!!!!  Did I mention we were still in our absolutely adorable bridal shower outfits?  But they just could not get it to work.  And they finally went and magically found a new Thunderbolt (the phone I have) to give me.  I was like "Seriously, I thought you didn't have any more thunderbolts???" (my phone is still under warranty).  And his asshole response was "we don't have any replacement thunderbolts, this is a new one."  Took him all of 5 minutes to get that sucker working.

My theory is that they couldn't set up the crap-adelic phone on my plan because I have a hardcore unlimited data plan and that sucker probably wasn't even T-9 capable.  They weren't going to downgrade my plan so their system wouldn't allow them to put that phone on my plan.  But whatever, I have a new phone now, it just took 3 and a half hours.

Then I went out with Kim that night, flew home the next morning, and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing because I was exhausted!

Enough ranting and raving though...onto a much more important topic - wedding day accessories!

I've probably mentioned I've been working on applying crystals to my shoes during my lunch at work and last week I finished my first shoe!  Then I made a little flower to clip on the front the other night!  I have a post for Weddzilla all about it, but Weddzilla has been wonky for the past couple days, so I'm going to at least show you a picture:

Isn't she purty?  But, like I said, more to come on that once Weddzilla catches up with all the pending posts!

Then last night I decided to try out yet another idea for a boutonniere for the guys.  This time I was going to use pearls (like my beloved bouquet) and I came up with the idea to mount them on a gold leaf brooch.  BEST IDEA EVER!  And now I have even more of an excuse to troll ebay for vintage brooches...

And my absolute favorite picture:

Seriously, couldn't be happier!  I love when I come up with good ideas.  Not only does it look fabulous but it's a freakin' pin!  How much easier could that be for the guys?  And they'll be all different leaf brooches (you can see some that I've picked up already in a few of the pictures).
And, I officially finished making my pocketfolds last night.  Let me tell you, cutting, scoring, folding, assembling, and embellishing 85 freakin' pocketfolds kind of sucks.  But they ended up costing me pennies a piece, so I can't complain that much, not to mention I get the satisfaction of saying I made them all!  Blood, sweat, and tears baby - that is what is going into this whole wedding (minimal blood though)!

So this weekend begins the actual assembly of the invitations.  I'm kind of pumped, kind of dreading it.  The design isn't that complicated, but my Cricut is going to get quite the workout!  But none of you get to see them until I've mailed them out - sorry!

I think that's all for now.  Don't hold your breath for a fitness recap tomorrow since, ummm, I didn't work out at all this week!  Someone please blog-slap me, I totally deserve it.  And my first fitting is on Monday.  Who doesn't work out at all the week before their first fitting??????? Whatever, starting Saturday I am 100% back on the exercise bandwagon!

First Planning Meeting with the Caterer!!!

So, if you remember from my March Calendar, yesterday fi and I met with our caterer, Rania Harris, to do our menu selection.  Now, Rania isn't any ordinary caterer, she's what I'll call a caterer on steroids.  Because she also works directly with the rental company to plan basically everything with you.  So, when I say 'menu selection' I actually mean 'preliminary menu selection as well as deciding all of our rentals because she actually has examples of everything in her office' haha.

So, fi and I got there a little early, and she actually does "gourmet take-out" so she has a little diner like area and we got to hang out in there while we waited.

Cute little place, right?

The Fiance - he hates having his picture taken!

The happy couple!

Then, once she was ready for us, we got to go back to her office to start discussing details.  She is such a caterer on steroids that she basically has a showroom in her office:

Table Settings Anyone?

We started with linens.  Rania and I basically gabbed back and forth while Bryan looked slightly confused and we finally decided on having all the tables in the reception room will be eggplant (except for the cake table which will be lilac) with lilac napkins.  Then in the lobby (which is where cocktails will be held) the bar, escort table, and gift table will be cardinal, and all the "cocktail tables" will be eggplant.

Choosing place settings was actually a lot easier than deciding which linen will go where.  We decided on the following:

This silverware only with normal length handles

And all of our glasses will just be the least expensive option.  But it just so happened we could get fancy martini glasses for the same price as basic martini glasses, so our martini glasses will have a purple stem:

And then it was finally time to actually talk about food.  We went over all our different options and settled on the following:

Passed Hors D’oeuvers:

-Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Pepper Crostini

-Vegetarian Spring Roll Halves w/ Chinese plum sauce

-Sesame Beef in Fillo

-Tequila Shrimp skewers with texas red sauce wrapped in bacon

-Chorizo Pastry puffs

-Baby Bella Mushrooms stuffed with crab

First Course:

Mixed Greens with Seasonal Fruits #1

Salad with blackberries-strawberries-raspberries-red Bermuda onion-roasted walnuts-gorgonzola cheese with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing

Entrée Options:

-Grilled Filet Mignon with sauce Au Poivre

Filet served on a smashed potato cake with Boursin cheese and asparagus

-Grilled Lemon and Olive Oil Marinated Salmon Filet

Topped with fresh tomato, basil, red Bermuda onion, caper and organic olive oil relish served with roasted asparagus with lemon confit and sweet onion risotto cake

-Spinach and Asiago Ravioli

Finished with a light cream sauce infused with fresh spinach and roasted red peppers and freshly grated Parmigiano

-Kids 12&under

Mixed fruit bowl for first course.  Chicken fingers served with French fries and carrots with ranch dipping sauce.

Cake layers:

Yellow cake/fudge filling/chocolate cake/raspberry filling/yellow cake



We get to go back at the end of the month to try everything and decide if that is 100% what we want.  All I know is it sounds freakin' delicious!

She also works with a liquor distributor who (for whatever reason, I don't know why) is required by law to sell hard liquor and beer at cost, but can up charge for wine.  He'll purchase everything, deliver it, and we don't have to pay for it until afterwards because he'll take back any un-opened bottles.  Sounds amazing to me!

And our 2 and a half hour long meeting ended with her explaining a bunch of worksheets that she was going to send to me including:

The Meal Choice Seating List -
so waiters know where to bring which dish

A Vendor List - so she can hunt people down if they aren't
 doing what they should be doing the day of

Bridal Checklist - so she knows everything is being used
that should be the day of!

And we should be getting a CAD image of how the space will be set up sometime soon!

Basically, Rania is freaking awesome, and although it was a long meeting, it was also super productive!  And we're going back March 30th (have to update my March Calendar!!!) to do a tasting...yummmm!  Oh, and everything worked out right within our budget!!!  HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN!?!?!?!  And that is under the assumption that most people will order the fillet and it is including all the servers!  Best wedding-related meeting ever.  If you're getting married in the Pittsburgh area, I 100% recommend using Rania, she's just so damn helpful!

How did your meetings with your caterer go?

Apart from the Personal Photos, images taken from All Occasions Party Rentals

Ask and you shall receive: Cost of DIY Embossed Cocktail Napkins!

Jill, author of the Strawberry Blonde Bride, asked how much embossing your own cocktail napkins cost.  And although I don't have the exact prices of all the supplies I bought, this could definitely give you a general idea.  And if you were more patient then I am you could probably find even better deals online (ebay, overstock, amazon, etc.).  These are the prices I know for sure:

Cocktail Napkins -          19.99 for 500
Custom Stamp -               22.50 for 3 different stamps (I don't know how much it would be for just 1)

These are the other supplies you'll need with an estimated cost (by searching on Jo Ann Fabrics site; I got my stuff from Michael's, but finding things on their site sucks, so I just searched Jo Ann instead).  What I'm showing you is the full price...I did not pay full price for any of this, I used coupons!  Gotta love 40% off coupons!

Ink Pad -                      4.99 In the 200 that I've done so far I haven't depleted my ink pad yet, and once I do I'm not going to buy a whole new ink pad, just ink.
Embossing Powder -    3.99  Again, I haven't even used a full bottle yet, I'm guessing I'll use 3 bottles of powder for 500 napkins.
Embossing Gun -         26.99 DON'T YOU DARE SPEND THIS MUCH ON ONE!
Funnel Tray -                 2.50 So, you don't need this, but it helps conserve embossing powder and minimize mess (and it's only $2.50, sooo...)

So, at most, to emboss 500 napkins (this is under the assumption that a single stamp would cost 7.50 and you would need 3 things of powder) would be $73.94.  However, the following would be a much better estimate:

Cocktail Napkins -          19.99 for 500
Custom Stamp -                8.00 for 1
Ink Pad -                           3.00 (go buy the one from Michael's that is usually $5 with a 40% off coupon)
Embossing Powder -          7.20 for 3 (bring two friends and each go buy 1 from Michael's with a 40% off coupon)
Embossing Gun -              16.00
Funnel Tray -                     1.53

Okay, so a much more realistic cost estimate for DIY embossing 500 cocktail napkins would be $55.72, but I'm sure you could get it done for less if you looked for the best deals!  I probably spent somewhere around $50 in all, which I don't think is half bad considering ordering them from somewhere like The Knot would run you 20 bucks for 100 (as in $100 for 500 napkins), and you don't really get to personalize them!