So, I'm a big, fat liar.

I said I was going to blog, and I didn't. No good reason. I think I am just at an antsy stage, where I really want to get this show on the road, but I can't because it's still too far away. After attending the best man's wedding and preparing to attend one of my bridesmaid's wedding showers this weekend, I think I am just ready for our turn. I feel like I have all the inspiration I can stand to use. If I see too much more, I will change my mind 987498654 more times, and I just can't, because deposits have been made and I think my lovely fiance has tired of my indecision! So, instead, I have almost blocked out the wedding maddness. Almost.

Last week, we couldn't take it anymore. We keep making an insanely long mental list of things to register for, and we finally bit the bullet and did it. We spent three long, tiring hours at Bed Bath & Beyond attempting to plan our future home. No one told me that registering was going to be so hard! Here is my favorite BBB item so far:

 Dinosaurs!

We have a strange love of dinosaurs, so this was a must. I can't wait to make and decorate little dinosaur-shaped cakes! Weird, I know.

I started a Target registry a long time ago. I got a coupon the said they would give me a free $25 gift card for making a registry, so I made one online. Today we went to Target and added to it. This is the thing I can't wait to get.

I love Lamp.

My "spot" on the couch is farthest from the light, so I am dying to get this plugged in behind me. I love Target!

I thought registering was kind of hard. You have to coordinate every room, remember what you already have, think of your storage limitations, stay within reasonable budgets for guests, try to ask for everything you may ever need, and not look selfish! It stressed me out! I am mostly focused on home decor- something I never spend money on. I want a lot of things I can mix and match through all rooms, but by registering so far out, I am worried both stores will be out of what I need by June. Eeeek!

What was your registering experience like? Was three hours a bit too much?

You better shop around...

So, as I may or may not have mentioned before, Andrew recently graduated from culinary school. The French kind where he made rabbit and learned to cook different sauces and is now the go-to source for everyone we know anytime they have any question at all about any food. Needless to say, we like to eat! One of the (many) ways he "takes care" of me is by making me dinner every night, and he likes to challenge himself to make something good, not merely just put something on the table. He is very picky about restaurants we go to and what recipes he is even willing to try for dinner. He takes food very seriously.

(Not Andrew. But you get the idea. [source])

It makes sense that his one requirement for our wedding from the day we got engaged was that he got to pick the food. I gave in because I knew he would do a great job. This really was his element.

The first place we fell in love with was Pappa's Catering. Pappa's has a ton of restaurants in Houston (and other areas too) in different types of cuisine (Mexican, steaks, Greek, Cajun, seafood, etc.) and while it isn't the best meal you've ever had, their food is consistently good and affordable. We put that on the back burner until we booked our venue.

Our venue, oh our venue. That is a story for another post. Our venue has a list of five preferred caterers. There is no on-site kitchen. If you don't want one of the preferred caterers, there is a $500 fee. We definitely did not want to tack anything onto our wedding budget unnecessarily, so we decided to stick to their list. Can you see where this is going?

Of COURSE Pappa's wasn't on the list. So, we had to focus on what was.

One option was wayyyy too far out of our price range. That left us with four choices. We went to an open house for one and were less than impressed (There was a mashed potato bar with a large martini glass of cheese. I asked for some tongs or for the gloved woman working the station to put my cheese on for me. She looked at me like I was crazy, so I am guessing countless others put their germy hands in that glass before me. ICK! Needless to say, I had my potatoes plain.). One caterer runs a restaurant in Sugar Land that we visited with Andrew's dad and sister and we all four hated our meals! And then there were two...

Both of the other caterers were highly recommended by our day-of coordinator. We went to meet with one, and she could work in our budget. She insisted to me that two bites of appetizer were more than enough for our guests (I disagreed, because I like to eat!) and gave us a quote that included two passed appetizers and a buffet meal with chicken. I was okay with the menu, but not super excited about it. The quote for silverware and napkin rental also seemed really high. Before we booked, we decided to talk to our last option.

We met with Courtney of Campbell's Catering. Instead of presenting us with a premade menu, she asked us what we envisioned. When I told her we wanted a seated dinner but had decided to settle on a buffet, she stopped me and told me to tell her what I wanted. She would let me know if I couldn't have it. We wanted our guests to have a choice of proteins, larger appetizers, a seated meal, and sides closer to our favorite foods. Whereas the other venue quoted us as having a rice pilaf as our starch, Courtney listened when we told her we love rosemary new potatoes and added that to our menu immediately. We told her the things that Andrew likes to cook, and we looked over her extenzive menus and created our own. It helped us make yet another aspect of our wedding truly unique. At the end of the meeting, she said she would send us a quote for a basic Italian buffet, our menu served buffet style, and our menu served seated. She promised that the price difference for seated vs. buffet was negligible.

We got the quotes a few days later, and, um, let's say we disagree on the meaning of "negligible." However, her buffet prices were drastically cheaper than option #1 and her seated price wasn't much higher than it was. This was the time to spend the money to give the groom what he wanted. He has gone along with all of my indecision, lazy DIY, and money spent on other things, so it was worth it to give him the one thing he's wanted from the beginning. No buffet for us!

What decision have you made for your groom? Did shopping around save you some cash?

Give me my remote.

I have been doing a good amount of wedding stuff, but I haven't posted any of it because I can't get it just right enough to talk about! I will take some pics of something in the works as well as blog about my honeymoon destination ASAP. I am off Friday - Sunday in honor of turning the big 2-5, so lots of blogging is in order for this weekend!

Anyways, the point of this post- On Weddingbee, the bees are answering different questions to give readers a peek into their relationships, and one very obviously stuck out to me. It was about the TV that you and your significant other watch together as well as alone. If you know Andrew and I, you know we are TV freaks. We have three DVRs, HD, LCDs (yes, plural), and Netflix subscription... It's gross. Besides the obvious sloth that comes from consuming such large doses of TV, I really think it has helped us learn to compromise as well as given us something to talk about when we aren't glued to it. (Because, let's face it: neither of us are into trying to solve the world's problems over dinner).

There are a few shows we can agree on: The Office, 24, American Idol, Top Chef, almost anything on Food Network, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Chuck, Entourage, Dexter, Rescue Me, Breaking Bad and Damages. We love them, watch them together, predict what will happen next, and name our furbaby after them (Bauer comes from Jack Bauer).

He is absolutely obsessed with Lost, but I don't get it. I watch Flash Forward with him, even though I think it's kind of boring, in an effort to compromise. It makes me feel like a better fiance.

He, in turn, watches Glee with me. I know it's not his thing, but it's a fun show! After he goes to bed or when I get time to myself, I watch all the good ABC shows (Grey's, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty), trashy CW shows (Gossip Girl and 90210), everything on TLC, and Oprah. He hates all of them.

TV is cheap entertainment. There is always something on, and it provides great time for cuddling on the couch. Sometimes simply watching a football game with him instead of going in another room to do my own thing makes me feel like I am showing him how much I care, as cheesy as it sounds. Hopefully I can learn to apply these compromising skills to other, more important parts of our marriage in the future.

What do you watch with your significant other? What are the areas most important to compromise in?

My Dress Distress

So, we all know I already have my wedding dress. If you would like a long-winded account of how that came to be, you can visit here. It was $100 brand new. When I bought it, it didn't fit, but my "retail diet" suited me nicely and now (well, okay, in July) it fit! Here is what it looks like, since I never posted pics. Sorry about the quality; these are the only images I will allow in the house because I know Andrew wants a look at the dress!

It is diamond white, A-line, with lots of beading. Definitely worth more than $100, right? There's kind of a problem though. I didn't try on piles of pretty dresses. I didn't stand on a pedastal while a consultant froofed me and my mom cried and my tummy got fluttery because I found the one. I went with my mom and stood in a conference room with bad flourescent lighting and bought the dress I liked the most out of the ones that I had hopes of fitting into.

Let's call it what it is. I kind of settled. And now, I am less than pleased. What's a bride to do?

I called my BFF/fellow bride, who bought her dress to the same sale. We went to Ventura's Bridal under the ruse of both needing dresses (I have since watched 923497234987 episodes of Say Yes to the Dress and I know this was dishonest to my very nice consultant. I'm sorry!) and "played."

I tried to be good. I tried to try on fairly inexpensive dresses so if I fell in love, I might have a chance of getting one. But the whole time I kept thinking I have a perfectly good dress waiting for me. A pretty dress. But it didn't feel like me. I don't really like beads. I have sensitive skin and I am terrified that all the beading that touches the area underneath my arms will itch and burn (anyone have experience with this?) and make me miserable! Since I told the consultant I was a simple girl, she brought me this one to try on.

I loved the top. The ruching, sweetheart neckline, and otherwise simplicity were exactly what I was looking for. I tolerated the pick-ups (although the consultant told me they were "last season," so now I sort-of hate them. They are kind of annoying). I liked the low-ish price tag (in the $500s). I left the place thinking that I hated my dress. 

I don't think I love this dress as a whole enough to ditch the first dress for it. But it shows me that there ARE other dresses out there. Dresses that make me fluttery and feel like me. But they will cost more money. Is it worth it to expand my budget, or should I remember that it's only one day and wear the gorgeous dress I already have? Did you ever feel like your dress wasn't the one?

Avoiding the Slideshow Cliche

Slideshows always provide the requisite "awws" everytime I have seen them at a wedding event. But, how can they be made unique anymore? It seems like everyone has their cute baby pictures, awkward years photos, shots of them playing their former favorite sport, and a timeline of their couple-dom. It's cute, it's easy, but it can make people lose interest.

This couple had a great idea. The groom gave the best man complete creative control. No matter what your political leanings are, this is funny!


Best Wedding Slideshow Ever from Olde English Comedy on Vimeo.

If you don't have a friend with amazing Photoshop skills, how are you keeping your wedding slideshow interesting?

What's in a (last) name?

Although it could be considered highly unsafe, I will put my last name out there for everyone one to see. It's Perez. P-E-R-E-Z. Now, in case you haven't been paying attention, this is what I look like.

(Awful pic of the mister and I.)

Um, do you see that pasty pale girl? That's me. This picture was taken in July, when I should have been tan. But no, all my life I have been freckled and pale and burned at the slightest brush of the sun. I guess with vampires being so "in" lately, I can just say I am ahead of the trends, but the truth is, I am fair-skinned. I like to remind myself that Snow White and Nicole Kidman have proved that pale is pretty, but that is not the point of this post.

The point is that no one has ever really believed my last name is Perez.

I remember the first day of school as a kid when teachers would give me a double take when I raised my hand when my name was called. I live in Texas; Mexicans are a dime a dozen here, and they are generally characterized by browner skin and darker hair. I definitely wasn't what anyone had in mind.

I wasn't adopted. My dad's grandparents came from Mexico, and as my grandparents faced persecution for only speaking Spanish as children and having to "learn" American culture, they raised my dad and his siblings to speak English at home with only fair comprehension of Spanish. So, needless to say, I wasn't raised in a house filled with Mexican culture, although I wish I were.

So, my whole life, I have wanted to get married to be done with this name that I have never felt has "fit." I am proud of who I am and where I come from, but tired of feeling like I don't match up. Ever since I was a kid, I have said I can't wait to get married so I can change my name!

Enter Andrew Martinez.

Yup. That guy up there, who is a little darker than me, is as Puerto Rican as I am Mexican. So, I can change my name to Lauren Martinez or still be Lauren Perez. Or I can really throw people off and be Lauren Perez-Martinez.

While I love the idea of sharing a last name with my hubby-to-be, we do not know if children are in our future and it is not important to him for me to change my name. I am sure he would love it if I did, but he won't be crushed if I don't.

(Sidebar: We actually had a wedding coordinator at a venue suggest we have a mariachi band at our ceremony after hearing our last names. I loved her stereotype and told her I thought it would be great!)

So, here is my dilemma: Should I change so I can have the joy of being Mrs. Andrew Martinez, or is now the time to truly embrace my Perez-ciousness (yeah Perez Hilton, I stole that, but I've had the name longer than you =P)? Did you have a name change debate?

Carnival!

Andrew is camera shy, so there are precious few good pictures of us together. I insisted we get engagement pics after the first of the year, and I want something a little different. It seems like the current trend in Houston is to go to Discovery Green (downtown Houston- there's a park, a mosaic wall, fountains, benches, and lots of other great stuff), and while it's pretty, it's not my favorite idea.

I was trying to think of something happening in Houston between February and April, and I realized our city's most known event, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, is in town from late February to early March. The rodeo has a carnival that accompanies it, naturally (yeah, I know this probably sound really weird and Texan to you non-Houstonians, but it's fun, I promise!). Anyway, my bright idea was to take pictures at the carnival.

I have so many fun memories of riding carousels as a kid!

 

Both the slide and ferris wheel pics can be found here. I love that the slide almost looks competitive!

 

I adore this nighttime shot with all of the movement in the background.

My favorite! Found here.

(Sidebar: because of my TV-nerdiness, ferris wheels remind me of The OC [Ryan was afraid of heights, but he got on one for Marissa] and Everwood [Amy and Ephram were riding one when she told him the Grover story] I think it would be a great inside joke touch to our wedding!).

Aren't these completely adorable? I love the idea. Andrew has already completely shot it down by saying he doesn't like carnivals. Who doesn't like carnivals? I am going to work on twisting his arm until I come up with a far more fabulous idea.

Where were your city-specific e-shots taken?

Shower me with... cupcakes?

Since we haven't even registered for gifts yet, a wedding shower should be the furthest thing from my mind, right? Um, well, no. Pretty much as soon as I got engaged, one of my wonderful aunts offered to host a shower for me. This aunt is amazing and can give Martha Stewart a run for her money- she can paint, sew, and craft with the best of them! Since I would presumably have her amazing talents at my disposal, I have been thinking of fun themes, and cupcakes are my current fave!

(Source - I couldn't resist- the kitty has the same coloring as Bauer!)

Yummmm... I don't think you ever outgrow cupcakes. Come to think of it, Andrew is pretty much the only person I know who says he doesn't like cupcakes... Although I have never seen him turn one down ;). They are pretty enough by themselves, or you can dress them up a little.

 

Source

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I know this is a cake, but I think you could melt some white chocolate, spread it on a cookie sheet, cool it, and then freehand little shirts. Stick the little shirts in white frosted and papered cupcakes. Too complicated? Maybe. But I want it!

Source 

And of course no party would be complete without fabulous decor. I know one is from a kid's birthday party, but I think you could replace the numbers with the married initial or a monogram and the party hats with vases of flowers. Cute-cute-cute! I love the sugar bowl so much I would keep it to use in my house after the shower.

Martha!

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And I can't forget this oh-so-creative presentation. Just paint some flower pots, get some foam, and there you have it... edible centerpieces!

Source

I had to cruise etsy for some cupcake deliciousness and I ran across this. I would have to wear it to go along with the theme to my own party.

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Seeing as we won't have a shower until at least this spring, I am bound to change my mind a million times. Is it too childish? I think it's fun, and I have never really been good at being an adult anyways :). Did you theme your own shower? What other fun things could I consider?

Dress Obsessed

If you know me in the slightest, you know my complete and utter obsession with the show "The Office." My dad got me hooked, I got Andrew's sister hooked a few years ago, and after hearing all of our inside jokes, Andrew finally came around and now loves the show. Our cat was *almost* named Toby, my old phone's ringtone was the theme song, and last year, we had the most awesome Office premiere party ever. So, you can understand my joy a few weeks ago when this lovely arrived in my mailbox:

I pretty much love Jim Halpert. I know he's not real, but that has not stopped me from swooning over his every move, from tracking down Karen't favorite chips to making Pam grilled cheese sandwiches to eat on the roof. Anyway, I got this in the mail and thought Pam (Jenna Fischer)'s dress was completely gorgeous! Andrew read the article before I did, deemed it entirely too spoiler-ish for my consumption, and made me wait until after the episode aired to read the article. It actually took me about a week to even open the magazine for the pictures.

Once I saw the pictures with the article, I liked the dress even more! It is a short dress, perfect for a reception. I read the teeny tiny print in the spine of the magazine and saw it was Vera Wang.

Uh-Oh.

Vera Wang would never fit into my budget. Never. Not to mention I already have a dress (which I may not be completely in love with... another post for another time...) But I kept thinking about the lovely sweetheart neckline, perfectly draped dress that looked up at me everyday from my coffee table.

I had to get it out of my mind. Prove to myself that I couldn't afford this dress. I went to Vera's website and couldn't find it! Since all of her bridal dresses were short, I clicked on bridesmaids dresses. Just to see...

What did I find?

 

                                      (Source)

Meet Anna. Since she is a bridesmaid's dress, she doesn't come in white. Pam/Jenna also wasn't wearing the sash in the EW photos, so I'm hoping it's detachable. It is quite a bargain as far as dresses go (ahem, especially those by Vera Wang!). Even Andrew, the man who has no opinion on fashion, said it was a nice dress. He is telling me just to order it in champagne!

But, now I am torn. I can't try it on until it arrives. It's not white. And won't I want to wear my wedding dress for as long as possible? Help me out. What should I do?

Like a Fat Kid Loves Cake, Part 2...

So, when we last left off, Andrew and I were bummed about our first cake tasting. No one watched Lost (his favorite show), prices were a little high, and we were given the hard sell.

Enter our wedding vendor BFF, WeddingWire.

I love reviews. Before I make any big purchase, I like to be informed and I will read any review I can find. This site is a buffet for my vendor review gluttony. My fabulous groom shares the same enthusiasm, so he took to WW to find us a baker.

One of the top rated bakers was Megan of nutmeg and co. We looked at her website (which she is redoing, so it's nonexistent right now) and fell in love with some of her awesome flavors- chocolate truffle, hazelnut, flavors with oreo buttercream, cakes with espresso in the batter, fruity flavors, a flavor with a toasted marshmallow filling- you get the picture. We were IN LOVE from a taste POV.

I looked at her portfolio, and it only got better.

(From her WW portfolio)

Her work was GOOD! It showed creativity, style, and fun. I was hooked. I immediately emailed her to set up an appointment.

After reading vendor reviews, my second favorite thing to do is facebook stalk people. So, I did it. I could tell this was a small operation, so I fb stalked the poor girl. And I liked what I saw- one of her favorite shows was Lost! I hoped she would be excited about making our cake.

We met with her and she had about 15 flavors of cake to try. We loved them ALL and didn't even get to sample some of the ones we are pretty sure we'll want. How can you narrow down around 45 amazing flavors to a mere five?

I also changed my mind on design. I decided my previous cake-spiration was too boring. I wanted a cake more like the one in the background of this photo.

(The always amazing Bride's Guide)

I love how each tier is different, yet it is still unified. I thought we could still incorporate elements from the invitation design as well as our color to make something more memorable. I showed this picture and the invitation to Megan, and she thought she could work with it. She also LOVED Andrew's idea about his Lost cake and threw in some thoughts of her own.

We left super happy. About two weeks after our meeting, Megan emailed me two possible sketches for my cake and one for Andrew's. He was beyond thrilled with his. As far as mine, it wasn't exactly what I had hoped for. I think it is beautiful, but it doesn't have the "wow" I was looking for. (But isn't the sketch idea so fun?)

(Courtesy of Megan. Sorry Blogger doesn't want to center it for me!)

How do you correct a professional? I emailed her and resent her the Bride's Guide inspiration pic. She apologized for overlooking that in her notes and emailed me another sketch that I loved within an hour. There was no looking back. We had found our baker! As an added plus, Andrew is ordering me a birthday cake in my favorite flavor that I tried (chocolate truffle) for my birthday later this month. De-lish!

What led you to your dream vendor? What kinds of alternate research did you do to find them?

Our Wedding from A to Z!

I admit, I am a total blog stalker. I saw this on According to Nina and Miscellaneous Meredith last week and decided to play along- wedding style! Both blogs are great if you are a style-clueless girl like me who likes to live out the best trends vicariously through others! In thinking of things for each letter, I thought of a lot of questions. I would LOVE some input from people who are married, go to tons of weddings, or just want to put in their two cents! I added random pictures, because this is A LOT of text!

The ABCs of six.eleven.ten

A- A is for my groom, Andrew, who I love and adore and can't wait to marry!

(A terrible pic of us at the bridal show... it was the first one I found on this computer!)

B- I am not taking Bridal Portraits. We opted for an e-sesh instead. Will anyone really miss them? 

C- Our favors are going to be coasters that we are making ourselves. It sounds a little crazy, but I love how they have turned out.

D- We have yet to pick a first dance song, but right now I am leaning heavily towards one by Dave Matthews Band. Any suggestions?

E- E is for our looooong engagement... It didn't seem that long last December, but now I am ready to get down that aisle.

(Engagement night! Don't mind my lack of a dressy coat... it's a long story.)

F- By the time we get married, we will have been together four and a half years.

G- Our groom's cake will probably be the most-talked-about aspect of the wedding. It will be totally unique and completely Andrew.

H- I am almost more excited for our honeymoon than our wedding day! We have narrowed our choices down to just a few... but of course we are researching it to death!

I- I am glad our ceremony and reception are indoors. You just never know with Houston weather!

J- Johnny Mathis was playing when he asked me to marry him, and this song must play a role in our wedding! (I am pretty sure this is the exact fountain show we were at when he asked, BTW!)

K- Andrew's best man, Kevin, is getting married next weekend. They have been friends since their freshman year of high school and were roommates when we met.

L- This wedding makes me realize how lucky I am: I found someone I want to marry who supports this whole wedding shindig he could live without and we have family who is as excited about it as we are!

M- Once we get married, I will officially be in the Martinez family!

N- Our baker's company name begins with an N... I have yet to reveal the second part of that story, so I will keep you in suspense. Trust me, she's awesome.

O- We are keeping our guest list to as close to one hundred as possible so we can have our ceremony in the back room of our venue.

P- Paper lanterns are going to play a big role in our day! They have been my simplest DIY project yet! (Completely unnecessary tutorial coming soon. They were THAT easy!)

Q- I am keeping quiet about some aspects of the wedding for now... I do want people to be surprised!

R- My "Something Old" will be my grandmother's original wedding ring. She married my grandpa almost 54 years ago when they were 17 and they are a perfect example of a loving husband and wife. I am super excited to carry on this tradition!

S- I haven't found wedding shoes yet. These are the only ones in my inspiration folder so far.

Nine West

T- Teal is our wedding color, and the specific shade is impossibly hard to match!

U- I still have to look for some unmentionables to wear under my dress... I want them to be both cute and practical. Do such things exist?

V- Vivian is my lovely bridesmaid, fellow bride-to-be, florist for the day, amazing friend, and huge source of support for all things wedding related or not.

W- I love the personal touch that our wooden signs will add to the event!

X- It's time for me to eXamine our wedding budget. Funny how these things make money seem like no object!

Y- For a short time, I wanted our wedding colors to be royal blue and yellow. I changed my mind upon realizing that is the color scheme for Ikea and Best Buy.

Z- I still have a zillion more decisions to make in the next eight months!

PS- I had my blogger settings off so I never got an email when someone commented to me! Sorry if I seem like a HUGE jerk for not responding... fixing it now!

I've Been M.I.A.

So no, I didn't fall off the face of the Earth. I've been here:

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Unfortunately, not in the literal sense :(

I was scheduled to have four glorious days off work and we had nothing to do with them. Andrew suggested we do something that we have never done before: take a road trip. His sister lives in Atlanta, and it is "only" a 12 hour drive, so we decided to do it on a Wednesday and left on Thursday morning. His sister had no internet at her apartment (long story), so I wasn't able to read any wedding blogs. Of course I didn't bring mod podge or a paper cutter with me, so there was no wedding crafting going on. It was just five days (after my boss heard my plans, she encouraged me to take another day!) of doing nothing- including wedding planning! As excited as I am about the wedding and the marriage, it was nice not to think about favors, invitations, menus, or vendors for a few days. Now I am back and ready to reenter the blogging world! We did lots of wedding crafting today, so I am excited to share that sometime really soon!

Did you need a wedding break? What did you do to give yourself a vacation from the stress?

Like a Fat Kid Loves Cake...

Or, like I love cake. I confess to having quite the sweet tooth. Needless to say, choosing a wedding cake baker was among my favorite duties. Although the big day is still more than nine months away, are you surprised to hear that we have ours booked?

As is my custom, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted...

But this definitely wasn't it!

I used ProjectWedding as my guide and went nuts. I found this one and I liked the design for the most part, but rather than what they used, I wanted to incorporate the pattern on my invitations (that I have yet to reveal!).

 

After reading many reviews online, it seemed to me that Houston's top cake baker is Who Made the Cake? However, after looking into her prices and comparing it to our budget, I didn't think SHE would make OUR cake. I would have loved to use her, but I knew we couldn't afford it. Her work is extremely beautiful; she was even featured on an episode of Platinum Weddings!

More research led me to Cakes by Gina. She was recommended by many of the venues we visited. Andrew really liked her because one of her promotional flyers featured a Beatles LOVE cake (their Vegas show- we have seen it three times and love it!) that he was hoping we could recreate. We tasted some cakes at an Open House and liked them a lot.

We arrived at the appointment and met with a consultant, who told us to choose six flavors out of about twelve or so to sample. I'll be honest: I wasn't super impressed with the selection. They were pretty run of the mill. However, we were given some truffles to sample, which were awesome! I gave our consultant the above picture for inspiration with an invitation sample, and she gave me what I wanted.

Andrew wants a groom's cake that is LOST themed.

 

(Hopefully it comes out a little better than this one!)

But, neither our consultant nor Gina herself knew a thing about Lost to help us create it. I give them credit for trying, though. They came up with a very rough outline of what they could try to do, but I worried it would lose authenticity coming from non-Lost fans.

So, we were given a quote that we felt was a little high. The cake was good, the designs were nice, and we even considered adding truffles as favors (something that definitely had not had a spot in our budget before). We were walking out when Gina approached us and gave us a hard line, "What will it take for us to get you to sign today?" I was pretty irritated at that. I mean, this was our first cake baker, and tasting cakes is F-U-N. I told her that. Andrew and I both walked out with a pretty bad taste in our mouths. I mean, there are other means of aggressive selling without coming off as a used car salesman.

We were both really put off by the whole thing. We didn't want to give them our business anymore. If they were the bottom line-lowest price, then maybe. But Houston had tons of other bakers to try, and we were ready to go after them. Luckily, we ended up finding our perfect fit. More on that another time...

Did you have any wedding vendors completely turn you off?

Engagement Pic Inspiration

Convincing Andrew that engagement pictures are a necessity is hard work! He knows he is taking them, but he is pretty convinced he will be miserable. While I have yet to figure out a location, I know I want to go outdoors. I was inspired by this from our lovely photographer, Lindsay Perry.

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Andrew is not a Texans fan, but he IS a football fan. A lifelong (raised in Brooklyn) New York Giants fan. So, I thought incorporating his love into our pics might be some nice motivation. Plus, I promised him that if our photographer says the pictures will be okay, he can wear a baseball hat for them. Without even trying, I found this perfect Giants shirt at Old Navy a few weeks ago.

Did I mention it was only 20 bucks? They have other teams, too.

I had to find a cute, vintage-y Giants shirt for myself. Luckily, we ordered a Giants jersey for Andrew's dad last Christmas, so the NFL Shop catalog comes to my house. On or around September 18th, I will have this to sport every Sunday.

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I found a coupon code, so Andrew took it upon himself to order a new Giants hat :). I hope the blues coordinate well- I hate red Giants merchandise, and I thought G-Men blue was a must for the pics. Andrew told his dad about this, and he fully supports his future daughter-in-law trying hard to become a fan. I only hope Andrew is as supportive when I insist on a new, cute outfit for the pics!

What will you do to get your groom interested in e-pics? Did you buy anything special for the occasion?

Semi-DIY: Wooden Signs

So much for thrice a week blogging, eh? While there are no excuses, I have been quite busy in semi-DIY land. One Sunday evening, I found a whopping THREE projects that I just had to try. Two of them are definite keepers and the other is on the back burner for now. I was cruising etsy when I came across this lovely:

via etsy seller thebackporchshoppe

I loved the sentiment expressed, and we needed something like this because the reception room is in the front of our venue and the ceremony will be held in the back. I want to give my guests some direction. Unfortunately, this style of sign neither fits in with my wedding design, nor does its price tag ($42.95). So, I decided to do it myself! (I confess, I googled for some tips on how to make pretty writing, and I found a good tutorial, which I did not bookmark. I also didn't use it step by step.) At first, I was going to use scrapbooking stamps for the type, but the ones I already had weren't big enough. So, I did it the long way. You will need:

• One wooden sign (I got mine premade at Michael's- originally $13.99 but I used a 40% off coupon)
• Two colors of paint (We bought two ivory bottles that were .59 each and one sparkly teal bottle that was $2)
• Foam brushes (I bought a 10 pack at the dollar store for my many projects :))
• A teeny, tiny paintbrush (Called a dotter- $1.49 at Michael's)
• One piece of white tissue paper giftwrap
• Scissors
• Tape
• Sharpie (preferably close to the color that you want your sign's writing to be)

Beginning with a good design is a must. I had already downloaded Freebooter Script from dafont.com to address our invitations with, so I went into Word, made the font bigger, typed what I wanted the sign to say, and printed it out. Then I cut the words out individually. So far, it's super easy, right? While I did all of this, Andrew painted the sign with the ivory paint for me. I love an involved fiance! After that, I arranged the words on the sign to make sure everything fit well.

I was pretty happy with this arrangement. After that, I cut the tissue paper into small pieces about the size of each word. I taped the tissue to the printout, then traced the outline of each letter onto the tissue paper with a pencil. I smoothed out some of the awkward lines between certain letters. Still with me? Then it was time for the challenge. I put the tissue paper onto the sign just as I had laid out the typing paper and taped it down (the ceiling fan in my living room necessitated the tape- if you don't have that problem, you may be able to live without it!). Slowly and carefully, I traced each letter's outline with my teal-ish sharpie until I had this-

I took off the tissue and I was left with a near-perfect outline! (I freehanded the parts in pencil because they didn't show up as well.)

I took the tiny paintbrush and filled in my outlines. I DO NOT have the steadiest hand, but I was pretty happy with the outcome. Andrew stepped in and painted the trim on the sign. Up close, you can see the imperfections, but from far away, no one will notice.

What do you think?

I left plenty of room at the bottom so I can get a sheet of sticky vinyl to make an arrow. That way, I can take the arrow off after the wedding and we can hand the sign in our house above our entry way! I think it will be great to see a reminder of our wedding when I walk in every day. This project went so well, we are making another one to direct our guests to another area of our wedding that I'm not sure I want to divulge just yet. We are either going to set it in a small easel or attach picture hangers and ribbon to the top. How did you direct guests to your wedding attractions?

Invitation Frustration

People need to know about this big, fat, expensive party we're throwing, right? Invitations are definitely something you can't do without. While my practical, wanting to be green self would love to send out an evite, I am pretty sure that is frowned upon. So, the search began. Ohhh Letterpress, how I love thee. In my perfect world with unlimited funds, you would announce the pending nuptuals. Letterpress, pockets, and layers!

Project Wedding

I also completely lusted over the detail on these beauties- the envelopes, the bellyband- LOVE IT:

Hammerpress

I also thought these were cute, especially with the vellum map.

Project Wedding

I love the simplicity of these two. They make me imagine a very contemporary wedding and the second feels really industrial.

Source via Source Project Wedding

But these babies are all pretty pricey. I realize that my invitation will hang on a refrigerator for eight months at best and then be unceremoniously dropped into the trash by everyone but my mom and me. I can't justify $3.50 plus postage per invite. So, I gave myself a limit $1 per invitation plus postage, and I do not want to spend more than $.44 per invitation. That kind of thing adds up! I thought I would use some serious DIY here. We live really close to Archiver's, so I got a ton of ideas from them. This was my favorite because it looked easy, but still nice. All it takes is two types of cardstock, an inkjet printer, and a stamp.

In the end, though, Andrew convinced me that it would be WAAYYYY too frustrating and I would hate myself for it. So, the search continued. In all of my research (and there has been a lot!), I found that The American Wedding is probably the best value for your money. We ordered from them, had a minor issue, and are working at getting it resolved with only having to pay a minimal additional fee (we had to pay to mail something back to them, but it was less than $5). They provide samples, have good customer service, and are really affordable! I'm not ready to divulge my choice just yet, but here are the invites that almost were, courtesy of Wedding Paper Divas (also affordable, but I didn't love the lack of customization, and the invites were just plain printing, whereas TAW invites had raised printing).

There are so many options! What was your ideal invitation price? Where did you end up finding that piece of stationary that can set the tone for your whole wedding?