Picked a florist

Big happy smiles! Its Arena's - not a huge shock there.

Love them!

holiday crafting

I don't usually craft, but I saw this tutorial (via Green Paper Co Blog) for making gift bows out of magazines and I had to try it. Its actually quite simple, and not hugely time consuming. I made 8 bows in about an hour and half (while watching hulu), and the first one took considerably longer than the rest.

My first attempt - made from the front of a Macy's catalog.

I also made a small one out of the scraps of the first one - much more difficult.

The rest were made from pages of a JCrew catalog

Most, from pages like this one - I think they result in interesting patterns and textures.

My favorite.

Beau's favorite is the one with the spots.

*All images by me, expect the page from the 2009 JCrew Holiday Catalog

is it weird to want to get your wedding photographer a holiday present?

I saw these magnets on How About Orange (from ThinkGeek) and just thought - wow Tammy would think these are hilarious.

And for only $25 they aren't particularly expensive, but then I think of how much we are paying to shoot our wedding, and its not like she is a friend... I don't know. I just think these magnets are awesome and I want to buy them for someone.

1st bridesmaid dress picked

My sister picked out the following Alfred Sung dress in organdy. I love how the layering on this dress is a simpler version of the layering on my wedding dress. I think they will look awesome together.

*Image from Dessy - style number D330

Its been a good wedding day

After weeks of bad wedding feelings with lots of stress and unhappiness today was a good day. I awoke with clarity on the bridesmaid dress issue, did not confer with anyone and sent an email to the girls (for those who care, I decided on black dresses from Dessy). I called my mom, told her the issue was over and she said good.

I've been having issues with florist. The first one, I didn't like. The second one, I really liked but has a "minimum" which is a couple hundred above my flower budget. The third, my favorite at the time (after an email from me wondering where the proposal is) informed me that my date is no longer available. Ugh! So I kind of freaked, and made an appointment and a florist I've driven past for 8 years, have never entered before but yet somehow decided years ago that they would do my wedding flowers. I did not initially call them because I heard (and assumed) they would be the most expensive. I met with them after lunch and I really enjoyed talking to the older gentleman (Edward) who does their wedding designs. Edward seemed to genuinely like my flower visions and embraced them. He also gave me a quote on the spot - which was amazing (since I'm still waiting for a quote from place #2, which I met with on Nov 6th - they claim I'll have it soon). Also, they are not as expensive as I thought. Their quote fell $200 bellow the top of my budget and $400 bellow the "minimum" at place #2. So, I'm pretty sure I've found a florist!

Finally, I was avoiding studying for an exam tomorrow by browsing Guilt and found these lovelies. After several rounds of texting with one of my style gurus, C, I bought them.

Ben-Amun pewter chandelier earrings with Swarovski crystal; 3 inches long, 1.25 inches wide

Retail: $205, Guilt price: $85! Holla!

Yay, for good wedding days.

Yay, for less wedding stress.

Yay (kind of), for procrastinating studying dev bio...

pretty dress

Sometimes I wish I had fancy parties to go to (and money to buy fancy dresses to wear to said parties). If I did I would wear this.

*Leila "Butterfly" dress on sale at Bloomingdales for $373.50

Super excited, my dress is expected to arriving at the end of January, but that means I now really need to start looking at shoes. I'm thinking purple or grey; off-white would also be OK . I've kind of been keeping my eyes open when I go to stores, but so far nothing. Yesterday I did find some shoes that would be perfect EXCEPT they all have 4-inch heels! Does anyone know why its impossible to get an awesome shoe without a 4-inch heel?! Ladies, I don't know about you, but I can't even stand in a shoe with 4-inch heel let alone party for an entire evening in one.

Well, if anyone finds shoes similar to these with heels 2-inches or less, please send them along.

All images from Zappos: (1) MAXSTUDIO, Salsa; (2) Nina, Kyleen; (3) RSVP, Ivana (4) Romantic Soles, Roma; (5) Nine West, Janika; (6) Nina, Ulexa

don't trust online pictures, or why i hate bridesmaid dresses

yeah, so those beautiful Dessy dresses - not so beautiful in person. In fact, not even remotely the same colors in person. An example.

"Smashing" in Matte Satin from the Dessy website - medium toned, purple/grey, classy:

"Smashing" in Matte Satin in person - dark! purple/red, 80s prom:

(bad iPhone pic, but still, the color is pretty close to the actual color)

Now, don't tell me those are the same color, or even variation due to the colors displayed by a computer monitor. Those are just different colors. Period.

Happy Thanksgiving

In honor of Thanksgiving, pictures of my mom's famous Turkey Log (from last year).

First, you de-bone the turkey and remove some of the excess breast meat

Second, you grind the excess meat and liver with herbs and spices to make the filling

Third, you roll the turkey and tie it together

Finally, bake your turkey log and you are ready to eat!

save the dates

They took a while, but they were worth it. The save the dates look amazing. I highly recommend MagnetStreet, but they do take 5-7 business days to complete the order after you approve the proof.

Most of the envelops are stuffed, sealed, stamped, labeled and going in the mail tomorrow. The final batch will get done whenever the last few people get me their addresses...

so excited.

dress for dancing?

I love the wedding dress I picked out, but yesterday as I was dancing around my room testing out some dance songs for the wedding playlist I really wanted a short dress. After a quick search, I'm totally lusting after this BCBGMAXAZRIA I found on the Nordstrom website.

But at about $400, its totally not happening. Maybe it will go on sale. Maybe I can pretend to justify it because my mom won't let me wear the wedding dress to the Israeli reception and she thinks I should get a short white dress to wear... hmm... must stalk the Nordstrom website and attempt to try on the dress while in Jersey for Thanksgiving.

PS - save the dates arrive Monday; labels designed and completed; postage for US bound letters procured; one more thing to (almost) check of my list - amazing!

"smashing" or "aubergine" or both?

Hopefully, going to see some dresses in person Thanksgiving weekend.

*images from Dessy

bridesmaid dresses

As with all things relating to my wedding, I am completely indecisive. My poor, sweet bridesmaids have been waiting for almost a year for me to decide what color dress I would like them to wear. I keep coming back to the idea of having them wear non-matching black dresses - mostly because its easy, and everyone either has a black dress in their closet or should have a black dress in their closet. My mother is very opposed to this idea. She thinks its spring and black dresses are inappropriate, and that we should have some color. Even though I keep telling her that 90% of the female guests will be in black, and I always wear black to weddings regardless of the season. So black is kind of out. Then I was thinking green, but I couldn't find any green that I liked, so I went back to black. Oh yeah, my mom really doesn't want black. Then I went to purple, and couldn't really find a purple that made me excited. So I moved on, and for the last couple of weeks I've been envisioning bridesmaids in grey with purple heels and purple bouquets. Apparently, my mom is not a fan of grey either. So while scouring Style Me Pretty for pictures of lovely SPRING weddings with grey bridesmaid dress, I found this picture.

(*source)

This is the color purple I want. Though, I think it could easily be argued that while its a color, its clearly not a spring color. I guess I just don't like "spring" colors. Anyone out their know where these dresses came from?

The Dessy Group has a color "smashing" thats close, but not quite. Maybe I need to go see it in person. I also like their deeper purple "aubergine". Perhaps maids in "smashing" and "aubergine" (and maybe one in "charcoal" - How about you Mrs/DrW?).

final save the date

So after conferring with Tammy and Beau we picked a pictures and I finished the save the dates. We ordered them from Magnet Street last night after a lot of "are we sure, we can't really return them, are they perfect?" from me. Magnet Street wasn't the cheapest option, but the magnets come with envelopes - major bonus, and I know that they make good quality products. I also found a 10% off coupon online - sweet!

We bought the "PrintReady" 3.5x4 inch magnets - basically these are ones that you make completely on your own as opposed to uploading a picture into a design that they have made. Hopefully they turn out.

Here is the final design.

My words of advice:

1. proofread
2. Proofread
3. PROOFREAD!

I had already checked and double checked and rechecked my image to make sure it was perfect and exactly to their specifications, and I had uploaded it and was about to pay when I decided to check just one more time. OMG, its amazing I did, because as I looked upon my creation, I nearly fell out of my chair with horror. The date was wrong. I had apparently asked people to save the date for my wedding which had taken place about 6 months ago on 05-30-09! Oops! Luckily it was an easy fix. I re-uploaded my image and we were good to go, and in 7-10 days I will have my completed save the dates and envelopes, which give me plenty of time to gather the last of the addresses and make address labels.

Save the Dates

I have two pictures that I'm deciding between, your opinions would be helpful. Please try and disregard Tammy's watermark on the pics - it will not be on the final version. The quality of the pictures is also not great because I wasn't using the high res images - this will also be fixed for the final version. Also, these are just drafts of how the text might be arranged. Please feel free to let me know what you like/dislike about each.

* Images by Tammy Swales, STD design by me.

pretty pretty things

Can the 1950s please come back. I desperately want dresses like these filling my closet. Have I mentioned that I love swirly, poofy skirts.

And if it wasn't trendy to have vintage weddings, I would definitely wear a dress like this to my NON-vintage wedding.

*images from Timeless Vixen Vintage Shop on Etsy

PS - My new computer already had "Pro" versions of some of the fonts I was missing installed, and I was able to re-find most of the others (thank you iDIY!); however, the "Pro" version of Bickham script slightly different from the free version I used to have and I like the other one better, but I'm trying to get over it. le sigh.

The New Computer Blues

I finally have my new computer - its awesome! But I still miss my old one... everyday I have a new frustration at something that didn't transfer correctly from the backup - like the dates of many of my photos are just wrong now, and required complete reorganization. Today, I was annoyed because I realized that my fonts didn't transfer! AND, the two main fonts that I used on the wedding invites were ones that I downloaded from random websites (not my usual go to - DaFont) and I have no idea how I found them, where they came from or even their exact names. Its going to bug me all afternoon, until I can get home and try to pull the data off my backup manually. (BTW - I know I'm being a huge brat, but I wasn't ready for a new computer and it still pisses me off. Clearly I'm not through all the stages of grief)

Israeli Reception

[Still no computer, but I finally did order one today...]

My mom has been in Israel for the last two weeks and she did some searching for a place for our Israeli reception. There have been two problems: (1) every place costs more than we anticipated, (2) our favorite restaurants don't do private parties and (3) most "venues" are for weddings of over 200-500 people (yeah 200 is a small Israeli wedding).

However, my mom did check out three places, and this was her favorite (at least before she went to visit) - "HaPina HaYeruka" or "The Green Corner". Its in Tel Aviv along the banks of the Yarkon River. Here is one pictures from their website.

At least from the pictures Beau and I think its perfect! We'll see what my mom has to say now that she has seen it - she gets back tomorrow.

E-shoot!

Beau and I had our e-shoot yesterday afternoon with the great Tammy Swales.  We did three sets of pictures.  The first in casual clothes at our apartment.  The second in dressy clothes on the campus of Nazareth College in Pittsford, NY - I'm wearing the green Nicole Miller dress in these pics.  Finally, the third in the Naz pool where Beau swam in college and still holds numerous records - I know weird, but actually Beau suggested it, and Tammy and I both got very into it.  Actually, I liked the idea from the start because of these pics that Sexy Red Frame was in.

Tammy was so excited with how the pool pictures turned out that within 3 hours of the end of our shoot we had 6 fully edited pictures from parts 2 and 3.  So here you go!

This is absolutely one of my favorites

For the pool pics a couple good friends convinced me to wear the 1st wedding dress I bought and ended up hating.  I was going to try and sell it, but I think this was a great use for it.

I'm not really a sexy person (usually I'm just silly) - but I'm glad to know I have it in me!

I hope that some of the pictures form our apartment turned out because I think I want to use those for the Save the Dates.  I'll post more as soon as I have more, and I have a computer again...

:(

Our apartment was broken into Thursday evening, and my computer (along with a few other things) were stolen - hence the lack of posting.

I will be waiting until I get a new computer to post pictures of the special project I made for my special friend, but stay tuned and I will post some pictures from our engagement-shoot yesterday.

more crafts

So at the end I completed two projects this weekend.  

First, I finished my special surprise for my special friend - pictures after s/he sees it.  It was super fun to make - I can't wait until the reveal!

Second, I finally started and completed an "art" project for my living room.  Our apartment is BIG (one of the good things about living in the ROC - cheap, good housing).  There is lots of wall space and we don't have nearly enough stuff to fill it with.  Months ago I conceived a project, bought all the supplies and then they sat in my closet until this past Saturday.  I think I finally decided to make it because our e-pics are this coming weekend and I want some of them taken in the apartment.  

Anyway, here is the end result of my "art" project.  Beau and I really happy with the way it turned out - it was super simple and really adds a lot of ambiance to the room.  (BTW - just so you get an idea of the size - that is a queen size futon, the shelves are each approximate 2.5 ft wide and there is still about another 5 ft of room not shown in the picture)

*Pictures by me

new craft project

working on a special project for a special friend... hehe!  

teaser picture of some of the materials

*Sorry for the crappy quality photo - it was taken on my iPhone

So cool!

Alyson Hannigan wearing Vera at the 2009 Emmys

Does the dress look familiar?  It should, its a navy (looks black to me, but its supposedly navy) version of the Callalily dress from the Vera Wang Luxe Wedding Collection.  Its the dress my dress was based on!

PS - I'm a huge Buffy fan, and Willow is wearing my wedding dress (kind of) - so freakin' awesome!

"guess who got engaged?"

...was the text I received last night, which was followed by quite a bit of freaking out.

My darling o-bear (also my super wonderful "bridesman") got engaged over the weekend in the Adirondacks.  Apparently his wife-to-be, ms k, was initially expecting something but was ultimately surprised because he let her plan the entirety of their weekend trip.  He proposed with a ring that had belonged to his grandmother that his parents generously gave him - so sweet!

Congrats to o-bear and ms k!

succulent love

Recently I've totally jumped onto the succulent band-wagon.  A few months ago I couldn't tell you what a succulent was (apparently the are "water retaining plants adapted to arid climate or soil conditions" - wikipedia) now I'm all about having them at my (non-dessert) wedding...  I'm sure I won't, but still, maybe I'll buy some for the apartment.

I love how they look great on their own

Or mixed into arrangements with traditional flowers

Maybe I'll just have a few mixed into my bouquet...

*First 3 images from 100 Layer Cake; I've forgotten where the other 3 are from.

update

Back from ASBMR - all went well with my presentation, yay!  Sitting at the lab, not doing work - he he!

Now that I'm back I'm starting to feel pressure on wedding stuff again...  

We have our engagement session coming up in a few weeks and I want to get my make-up done, but I don't really know anyone in town and the person the photographer recommended charges $75/hr - that kind of seems unreasonable, right?  Oh, and once we have the pictures back I need to make Save the Dates... and mail them out - oh but before that I have to collect peoples addresses...

I'm also getting nervous about our invites... Josh really likes the ones I designed, but I'm afraid they won't look professional enough, especially since I'm printing them at home.  I emailed the Budget Savvy Bride and her rates are very reasonable - for $50 she will design 5 invites for us to choose from based on our wedding colors, styles etc, and she will design them so they can be easily printed on a home printer.  For an additional $25 each she will also design RSVP cards and any other elements I want.  I'm seriously considering it.

Its also almost time to start looking for a florist... I'm not looking forward to it.  I want really nice flowers, but I refuse to pay a lot because I know its something I could do myself - my family won't let me (they have no interest in having me transform into a Bridezilla the afternoon before the wedding).

My mom is also going to Israel in a couple weeks, so we have to settle on a guest list, and date for our Israeli reception so that she can find an appropriate location.

I think thats all for now.  Just needed to unload.

ASBMR

my hotel

View from inside the convention center

The room I'm presenting in tomorrow... eek!

i'm leaving on a jet plane...

... i'll be back on Wednesday.

Going to Denver for the annual meeting of The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

On Monday afternoon I will be giving my 15 min oral presentation... wish me luck.

I'm going to try to post pictures while I'm away (assuming I can find the cord to connect my camera to my computer between now and 625am).

weekend with mommy

my mom came to visit this weekend and we got a bunch of wedding stuff done.  

1st - we finally bought my official wedding dress.  yay!  so happy to have that done with.

2nd - we did a tasting of the appetizers and one of the entrees for the wedding.  all the food was superb.  we also went over some of the logistics and figured out how many tables we would need so that I would know when I talk with florists.

3rd - we confronted at the people at Peggy's Bridal about how they over charged me for the first dress I bought.  they were very stand-off-ish and completely unwilling to compromise.  so i now have the first dress in my closet and it makes me angry whenever I see it - i'll have to find a new place to put it until I can list it online and hope to get some of my money back.

4th - we looked through lots of pictures of flowers and table settings and discussed the floral arrangements for quite a while.  my mom isn't feeling the antique bottles, but Beau and I love them, and so we are doing it.  also, the owner of the venue said we could definitely use her mason jars and any other glass-ware she has.  after i pick a florist i'll definitely go over there and rummage through it all.  

and she kept me company at the lab for 4 hours on Saturday and 2.5 hours on Sunday - what a great mom!