A Strange Obsession

Jars. I love jars. I don't know where this obsession came from, but it started in Australia. I found myself washing jars and returning them to our shelf, saving them from their terrifying fate at the recycle center. I'd fill them with all sorts of things from food to crayons. So, you've guessed it! Derek and I are even incorporating jars into our special day to give it a whimsical feel, hence, the jars on the Save the Dates.

We're going to try to turn this... 

Into this...

This will look amazing at night, outside at the venue.

I know we can buy jars for cheap, and they won't come with that funky tomato paste smell in them, but there are some REALLY cool jars out there. For instance, the Traders Joe's Rock Salt Jar; it's one of my favorites.

So, if you see any, snap a picture and send the picture our way, maybe we can find some really unique jars to put in with the ordinary ones.

Our very small collection of jars. The one with the popcorn in it is the
Trader Joe's salt jar. As of now, none of these particular mason jars will be used.

Something Fabulously BLUE!

For my something blue, I want fabulous blue shoes! 

Keep an eye out for something as awesomely fun (that's right, I said, "awesomely fun") as these shoes!! I know it's not really my normal style, but I don't care, I want fun blue shoes.

Now, I looked these particular shoes up, and I can get them really under budget on Amazon (wow, right!), but I hated the front of the shoe. It was very "stripper-esk" and honestly, it's a little too much heel for my own good. God knows that I don't need to be falling over in my wedding dress, and with those heels, I totally would. I was not blessed with grace, and though I took dance for 8 years it did NOT make me graceful... I tried, I really did. 

Anyway, keep an eye out for something with a slightly thicker and shorter heel, but just as fun!

::click, click:: "There's no place like Key West. There's no place like Key West."

Save This Date

Well, these Save the Dates and I have a love-hate relationship. I hate that the process was a little more time consuming than I thought it would be, but I LOVE the way they turned out !! The paper from 29th Street Market is perfect; vintage looking, a hint of all our colors, writing on it- perfect. Originally I was going to use old pages from a Hemingway book as the jar's paper, but I have decided to save them for something else (which I am totally excited about). Anyway, here is the process and the end result... hope you all enjoyed them and they look good on your fridge ! :)

Custom cutting each one...

Testing out the overall design...

Oh how I love Martha Stewart...

I hand stamped the jars and cut each one out...

Making the stamps, and playing with the designs...

All the jars have been stamped...

Adding a little bling...

Adding the magnets...

Adding the jars to the background...

The final product...

A group of them...

Mom addressing the envelopes...

Derek helping out, putting our wedding website on the backs... :)

Stuffing them in and saying goodbye... Yay!!

Piece of Cake

When I was a child, every year a few weeks before my birthday my Mom would hand us a stack of cake books and a stack of 'Post-Its'. It became a very near and dear tradition to me; I got to go through hundreds of pages of cakes and leave little markers in the pages of the cakes I wanted the most. There is something you should know about these cakes, they were not flat 2-D cakes, they were 3-D, walk around, make the Cake Boss proud cakes. A child's dream come true. Of course, there were a few regulars. To start, the penguin ice castle cake, the princess cake, the water slide with two towers cake (which she made for me one year) and even a jungle cake (that I think she made twice - once for Brandon and once for me). Every year these little animals/people that she would make out of pure sugar would sit in the freezer, and we weren't allowed to touch or eat them.

You figure when picking out a Wedding Cake I would gravitate towards a cake that is extreme to say the least. Not the case actually; Derek and I have picked my family's favorite Mocha Cake. Simple, absolutely mouth-watering, and the detail that we are most excited about is that we have the recipe. We can recreate this cake for birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions. We love that. We love that we'll be able to have our wedding cake any day of the year if we want.

I'm really so excited to have these little touches in our wedding that we'll cherish forever. It's really a way of making the day truly ours.

"Can't I just wear the dress home?!"

I FOUND IT! 

And though everyone says that when you put YOUR dress on, you'll just know it's "the one". I'm not sure my experience was quite like that. Having very little idea of what I wanted, I tried on quite a few different dresses ranging in color, style, length, accents, fabric and cuts. Though my Mom, Elisa, and ladies that helped me seem to enjoy my spontaneity, I was pretty sure those sales ladies were not expecting to make a sale. Honestly, I too, was positive that they weren't going to either. During the experience on Friday, I said things like, "That one's different... how about that one... Ew! No that's ugly, buuuuut let's try it on anyways... What about that one... OOoooo, that's very different too, let's try that... Look at all that bling, pull that one in here..." I believe at one point I yelled at a woman who was trying to clothe a manaquine, "WHAT SIZE IS THAT ONE?!" No consistency, no fear, and I'm now here to tell you that there ARE some dresses to be afraid of. Yes, be afraid, be very afraid. 

After too many dresses, and not enough food in our stomachs, Anita, my final helper, fasten THE dress up. I walked out onto that little pedestal they have [you know, that one that makes you feel like you're the cake topper to a barbie doll cake],  and I just looked at myself. It was like falling in love slowly. The more I looked, turned and felt the dress, the more I fell in love with it. I'd get close to the mirror, then move away, then get closer again, then twirl, get off the pedestal, and then back on. After repeating that pattern a few times, I had Anita play with the bottom of the dress a good 8 times before I stopped, stood still, and just smiled. That was it. I was in love. A perfect fit. A dress that was not only "very me," but by the end of the day, very mine.

Sorry, no pictures will be posted on this blog today. I want to keep Derek in the dark on this one. I even avoided the actual "dress terms" in this blog to make sure he doesn't have any clues, sorry if I confused anyone. 

Special thanks to my wonderful Mother and Elisa for their patience, humor and adventurous attitudes. It was a fun day, and one I'll never forget.