Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Today I love you more than yesterday...

From 530 to ZERO.

That's how long we've been planning this day!

Mr. Peep- I've loved you more each day!!

And today- today, I get to make you my Husband!! You're the love of my life and I can't WAIT to continue this crazy journey with you next to me. I can't believe that I get to hold your hand till it's wrinkled and gray. You mean the world to me. You have my heart, so hold on to it tight! OR else! he he.

To the hive, Finally, it is our day!! I swear I thought this day would never come. But without your support and advice, I would have never made it this far. We've finally made it down the wedding planning rabbit hole- in one piece- and more in love than ever. If we can do it- you can do it too!!! I promise to be back soon to recap our glorious day! THANK YOU for everything.

And to my fellow Bees, you are an amazing group of women. Thank you for all your inspiration and support. I've loved every moment of sharing this journey with you! And I really have to credit you ladies for helping me keep my sanity!

And with that, I am off like a prom dress to marry the man of my dreams!!

Please Join the Festivities....

Before I say I Do, I am going to show you one last DIY project, our Escort Cards:


I had to wait until I knew who was coming and what each guest was eating before I could start this project. Green is for the guests eating beef, and pink is for the guests eating fish. I printed out both the names on the front and the inside, directs guests where to sit:


I went opposite on the inside colors so the two pinks and greens didn't have to match. Meaning, if you ordered beef, the outside is green and the inside is pink. And vise versa.


I then embossed the front with a heart stamp. I got inspired to emboss them at a Paper Source event which showed me how easy it was to do (and provided some tips)- and then I went to Joann's and bought all the tools for less than half the price. Here's the stamp and stamping pads I used (minus the heat gun and embossing powder):


The cards themselves are Soft White from Paper Source. I thought I had bought the eco-paper ones, but alas, I bought one soft white and one eco- and of course, I didn't realize this until I had finished about 75% of them on the soft white. Be careful, they have at least FIVE different whites/off-white escort cards, so make sure you get the color you want.

Since the stamp was so big I had to cover up two rows of the heart while stamping:

Before I stamped the paper I removed the tape for a clean stamp:


And then immediately after stamping I threw down embossing powder- making sure it covered up the stamped area:


Once it was covered, I removed the excess embossing powder. Usually I gave the card a good flick from behind to make sure all excess was gone and then I applied the heat gun tool.


You can tell from the picture above that the pink part is raised (aka embossed). You can also tell that I usually didn't stamp perfectly uniformly (see the lower right hand heart), which gave each card character and a bit of individuality. Some of the names were longer and I stamped over part of the name- which again added character.

I have to admit it- this project took forever. I had to print the names individually, then I printed the inside for each card, and the embossing just takes time (I did all of one color first and then went back and did the other color). I think it took at least 3 or 4 nights of working on them while mindlessly watching TV.

So what do you think? That's the last DIY project I have time to share with you, but don't worry, I have programs, menus, a welcome letter, a map, and my favorite project to date (involving chocolate and carbonfund.org). Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until post Honeymoon.

How are you escorting your guests to their seats?

Friday, May 22, 2009

Hey Mr. Post Man!

So the Peeps have been ordering and receiving a lot of fun things in the mail. Some that I've shared with you and others that well, I am just sharing with you now.

First up, Mr. Peeps and Papa Peeps wedding gifts. I ordered them both from Red Envelope because I found a 20% coupon on-line. They are the perfect wedding day gift:




And the pen, well, it's beyond perfect for Papa Peep- a life long Dodger lover and season ticket holder. I wonder if he ever sat on these seats??? When I was a super young hyper thing, we had our tickets in the blue seats, so they always remind me of sugar highs and running up and down the aisle- quite possibly for the whole game (yes, I was totally that kid!!).




Second, a couple years ago Mr. Peep and I both got transitional lenses. Since our wedding is outside, we didn't want it to look like Mr. Peep was wearing sunglasses on our wedding day. SO Mr. Peep did his research and ordered a pair of glasses on-line!! Yep, he took the plunge. We were very careful to order glasses that were as close to the measurements if his current glasses, and I actual think I like them better with his new glasses.

Example 1: Mr. Peep wearing his transitional lenses for our engagement pictures. No bueno.


Example 2: Mr. Peeps new glasses. Here he is on his birthday last week. I think they look smashing:


Just last week Mr. Post Man delivered a very important part of a Jewish Wedding- our Ketubah. There are a ton of Ketubah sites out there, and a lot (actually almost all) provide Ketubah's with interfaith text. At first we thought this Ketubah was the one:


But some how both of us fell in love with the colors and mosaic of this one:


In person, it's perfect. I can't wait to have this sucker signed and hung up in our house for everyone to see. I promise to write more about the text post wedding.

And finally, we got an invite to another party for us!! The Rehearsal Dinner!! DIY'd by my FILs, aren't they great!?

Oh, how could I forget, we've also gotten a few official wedding presents:

Some much needed love for our salt and pepper:


And our also much needed every day bamboo flatware:


Anyone else doing a flurry of on-line ordering?

Thursday, May 21, 2009

And That's a Wrap

Back in November I bought what I thought would be the perfect wraps for the ladies. I was so excited about them, I even bought one for myself to go with my dress.

Here's the problem- the one I bought to go with my dress is all sorts of wrong. While the wraps are freakin gorgeous, they all have a vintage appeal to them. And well, there is nothing vintage about our eco-chic, modern City wedding. I was in denial until Mama Peep suggested just getting simple pashmina's for the ladies.

Of course I couldn't do simple, I wanted to make them eco-friendly. Finding eco-friendly wraps that were somewhat affordable was relatively easy. Enter: Nimli. I was able to order 6 pashminas- 4 for the girls, one for me to go with my rehearsal dinner dress and one for Mama Peep for under $200 (using a 20% off discount code online of course).

Unfortunately, the colors online are pretty different from the colors in person and I was less than impressed by the quality. (sorry, I didn't take a pic before I returned it). I felt defeated. I could order a different color online but I don't really have time to order another color and have it be wrong- again. Not to mention, the wraps took forever to arrive.

Enter: Google. Type in: kelly green wraps.

The first site that pops up: La Purse. Again, online they seemed like the perfect color and the price- at $20 per wrap couldn't be beat- should I risk it again???

Wait, what's that I see?? They are located in San Francisco!???!!

Hallelujah!!!

After a quick phone call, I confirmed that they had four Kelly Green wraps and was told that the wraps are cheaper in the store!!! Score.

One quick bus ride later, I had my hands on four Kelly Green pashminas at half the price of the Nimli wraps and the quality was amazing. And I have to say, the color online- identical to the color in person- maybe even better. Unfortunately, I know that these aren't eco-friendly and that makes me really sad, but I tried, and sometimes trying is half the battle.

At the end of the day, I'd highly recommend this site for great quality wraps at affordable prices. I can now start wrapping up my Bridesmaid Gifts. They are getting: earrings, homemade clutches and the green pashminas. If I sell the wraps I bought in LA, I think I spent just under $60 per girl. Not too bad, right?

Would you be excited to get this?? What are you gifting your ladies?

More Pain in the Peep Household

You are probably wondering how crazy I must be to constantly talking about the ups and downs of wedding planning.

But yesterday Mr. Peep and I found out that our honeymoon is indeed a real pain! Before we could jet off on our fantastic honeymoon to Panama: we needed shots!!!!

Source.

While at my annual check up a few weeks ago, not only did I have to get a Tetanus shot, but I found out that our health care provider also suggested to get a Hepatitis A shot and a Typhoid shot.

So yesterday, we took a shot in the arm for love and a safe and happy honeymoon. I have to say, I had a horrible reaction to the Tetanus shot. I am so glad that I went in early for that one- my arm was swollen, red and super sore for days- not what you want right before your wedding day!! But yesterday we were in and out in 5 minutes (thus, no time for pictures) and the other two shots weren't that bad. Although, poor Mr. Peep is hurtin from his Tetanus shot today!! The best part- our health care covered all of it. (I've heard that travel shots can be really expensive). The worst part, we have to go back in 6 months for a second Hepatitis A shot. Bummer.

Please consider this post a public service announcement: Don't forget to find out if you have to get shots before you go on your honeymoon.

Anyone else traveling somewhere on the their honeymoon that requires shots?

Subject: Add Safety Dance

to the list of wedding music!!! SSSSSS----AAAAAA-----FFFFFFF----EEEEEE----TTTTTTT-----YYYYYYY-----SAFETY DANCE!

This was the email that I got from Mr. Peep today. And I have to admit- this song wouldn't be on my list!! But I am totally OK with that! I am just excited that Mr. Peep is excited to bust a move on the dance floor!

Here's the thing, up until a wedding last June, I could NEVER get Mr. Peep on the dance floor. It almost made me want to break up with him at his cousins wedding- seriously this Peep likes to bust a move (like the white girl I am) whenever I get the chance. I couldn't marry someone who doesn't dance.

Enter. DJ David.

Amazing doesn't even begin to describe him. Mr. Peep was out on the dance floor ALL NIGHT LONG!! I don't know how DJ David did it- other than playing an amazing list of music, but he saved our relationship (not really, but you know what I mean)!! We practically booked him for our wedding on the spot. Within 3 days of our friends wedding, we had a signed contract and had paid our deposit.

Here's evidence of the dancing Peeps, we're in the corner. Me grooving out with my eyes closed and Mr. Peep with his curly hair and glasses:

And here's one of my Bridesmaids busting her own move.


So with the wedding count down in full swing, we've both been trying to get our favorite songs on THE list. And boy do we have different taste in music. After a long night of picking and choosing our music (and a last minute email from Mr. Peep), I emailed our play list to our DJ today.

In the hope to help someone else from spending hours compiling a list, here's ours (please don't mind the misspellings and such- we're in count down mode- I don't have time to make everything perfect!!):

More parent friendly stuff:
Thank God I Am A Country Boy, John Denver
Come On Eileen
Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison
Sweet Caroline
Sweet Home Alabama, Skynard
Build Me Up Buttercup, The Foundations
Signed Sealed Delivered, Stevie Wonder
Can't Always Get What You Want, Rolling Stones
Satisfaction, Rolling Stones
Don't Stop Till You Get Enough, Michael Jackson
Cecilia, Simon and Garfunkel

Suggestions:
Public Safety Announcement, The Bravery
Cherry Bomb, Spoon
I Kissed A Girl and Hot and Cold, Katy Perry (massive guilty pleasure)
Doorbell, White Stripes
Mu Man, The Killers
You're Fit And You Know It, The Streets
Paper Planes, MIA
American Boy, Adelle
Low Flo, Rida
I Don't Feel Like Dancing, Scissor Sisters
Ignition Remix, R. Kelly
Tiny Dancer
Don't Stop Believing, Journey
Paradise City, Guns n Roses
Single Ladies and Crazy in Love, Beyonce
PYT, Michael Jackson
American Idiot or anything else, Green Day
Hollaback Girl And Bananas, Gwen Stefani
Ket Me Clear My Throat, DJ Kool
Sexback or anything by, Justin Timberlake
Float On, Modest Mouse
See The World, Gomez
Panama, Van Halen
Golddigger, Kanye
Cornershop
Gold Frapp
The Arcade Fire
Beast Of Burden, Rolling Stones
Brown Sugar, Rolling Stones
Jump Around, House Of Pain
Down With OPP
Body Groven, Fat Boy Slim
Hungry Like The Wolf, Duran Duran
Missy Elliot
50 Cent
Yeah Usher
So What, Pink
Shaggy
Let Me Go On, Violent Fems
Safety Dance, Men Without Hats
Hey Yeah, Outcast
Vampire Weekend
MGMT
Praise You, Fat Boy Slim
Groove Terminator
The General, Dispatch
Pour Some Sugar On Me
Foo Fighters
Don't Stop The Music /Umbrella, Rihanna
Mercy, Duffy
Beastie Boys (Everything)

Slower songs:
La Vie En Rose Louis Armstrong ----> 2nd To Last Song/Last Slow Dance
You Really Got A Hold On Me, She & Him
Reduce Reuse Recycle, Jack Johnson
Ben Harper
Donovan Frankenriter
1234 Fiest
Sweetest Thing U2
How Sweet It Is, James Taylor
Make you Feel My Love/ Chasing Pavements, Adele
Put your records on, Corrine Bailey Rae
Come away with me, Norah Jones

Hope you enjoy!!

Do you and your Fiance agree on music? Anyone else find an absolutely amazing DJ that you are stoked about?

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Call me Frazzled.

Like Miss Cheese (yet a lot less eloquently), I want to provide a good representation of what the final count down feels like in the Peep household.

Source.

One word: Frazzled.

We've been planning this wedding for over a year, and for 90% of that time I've felt no stress, no tension, no bridal pains. But this last week has been a dozy. It doesn't help that Mr. Peeps has been stressed to the max due to finals week, and that we've been up until 1am some nights editing papers and crafting posters (I swear he is in college not grammar school). Yes, I said WE, what type of partner would I be if I didn't help out with the little things like cutting, gluing and correcting all the little comma mistakes.

On top of that, I have been fielding last minute questions from the venue, the in-laws, my parents and the bridal party. While they all are SOO excited and everyone has the best of intentions, this tired Bride finally reached the frazzled phase of planning.

After a very tense drive home from work yesterday with Mr. Peep (we've all had those car rides), I went to gym to burn off some steam. After my workout, I still felt completely stressed and frazzled.

Yet a funny thing happened to me on my way to the grocery store. My mind cleared of all the wedding crap, and I just thought about how much I love my Man.

And for reasons I will never ever know, I finally found inspiration to write my wedding vows. I was pissed, I was tired, I was so not happy with Mr. Peeps, but I felt this overwhelming love for him. So in the middle of the Trader Joe's parking lot- I wrote my wedding vows. The vows that I've been dreading to write since Mr. PT said he really wanted to write his own vows over a year ago. So through teas of joy and tears of anger, my heart poured out onto paper, and I was finally able to put into words how incredibly special Mr. Peeps is to me. I wish I could share them with you today, but since they are for Mr. Peeps, I think I should wait.

I will say that after my moment of clarity, I went right back into frazzled mode. But by the end of the night I was able to apologize to Mr. Peeps. And I made sure that when he climbed into bed exhausted from writing his last final, I snuggled up real close and told him how much I loved him.

Did your Fiance suggest writing your own vows? Where have you found inspiration to write them?

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Sewing Clutches for the Ladies

As I said on Monday, I have a bunch of projects that I haven't shared with the hive yet and I am trying to get them all up before the wedding. This project was suppose to be makeup bags for my ladies, but I wanted to spice it up. After some trial and error on my part, it turned into this:

Clutches for my Ladies!!!

Here's my best shot at a sewing tutorial. I've never written up a sewing project like this before, so I am going to try my very best to be specific, but I just really sew by trial and error and I don't know all the technical terms for things.

What you need. A. Fabric- you want something a bit heftier on the outside, and something somewhat durable on the inside. I bought the outside fabric at Joann's and just used some leftover fabric that I had from previous makeup bag projects on the inside (hello, recycling!!). B. Iron on- Heavy Weight Interlining (stabilizer). I found out the hard way how important this stuff is, without it your purse will feel thin. 3. Magnet buttons.

Here's a step by step:

Step 1: Cutting rectangles. Cut both the outer and inner fabrics into approximately 11 inch by 18 inch rectangles. Put the two fabrics facing each other and sew the two long sides and one of the short sides. I used about a 1/4 inch seem.

Step 2: Cut the Interlining. Iron on the Heavy Weight Interlining. I wanted some extra heft so I did a layer of interlining on both sides.

Step 3: Starting at the short edge that is sewn, measure about 1/3 of the way down the long edge- mark it. Along the short edge, measure about 2 to 2.5 inches in. And create a triangle. Sew that line. This is important- it allows for the seam for sewing the sides of the purse- otherwise, the flap folds funny. (I don't know a better way to describe it).


Step 4: I can give you more. Just kidding.*

Step 4: Turn your purse inside out and iron. It should look like this:


Step 5: The magnet button thingy. This is easy. First, fold the purse in equal thirds. Both sides of the magnet have two prongs. Measure approximately 1.5 to 2 inches from the top of the flap, mark the center and cut two holes into the liner fabric only, and put the magnet in place.

Attach the other side, mark the spot where the prongs hit the fabric. Make two holes in the outside of the fabric and fold prongs over.

Did that make sense? Make sure that you also measure so you are in the middle of the clutch.

Step 6: Sew the final side short side of the purse. Do this by turning the edges in and iron them flat before sewing.

Step 7: Turn the bottom part inside out and sew the two sides.


And that's it.

Here are the insides, as you can tell they are all a bit different:

I loved them, but I thought something was missing. Thanks to a post by Miss Powder Puff, I went somewhere I never go: Forever 21!!! She mentioned some great flower hair accessories there, so I went and snatched up a bunch, cut off the hair elastic, glue gunned them to a safety pin and added them to the clutches.


What do you think? I have to admit that it took me at least three or four tries to figure out how to make these successfully. Anyone else sew up a project via trial and error?

*extra credit if you know the song?

Miss Peep FINALLY has the perfect pair of peep toes

I have already blogged about shoes before, here, here, and here!! I even asked the hive for advice, and totally ignored all if it. (sorry- bad bee).

But today is a glorious day- Miss PEEP TOE finally has shoes to wear to her wedding!!!! Before, I showcase my perfect pair of peeps, I thought I'd write a little bit about my experience with online ordering.*

First, Endles.com. I love the idea of Endless- free shipping both ways = fantastic-ness!! But I ordered three pairs of shoes through them and two of them were pretty damaged. Right out of the box, they both looked second hand. Not Good. The other was just not right. All three were quickly returned- FOR FREE.

These two were damaged:


Source.

Source.


And these were just wrong:

Source.

Second, Yoox. I had never heard of Yoox, until I began shopping for the elusive pair of perfect wedding day shoes on my favorite on-line site: shopstyle.com. Yoox is an on-line store that sells designer labels (most of which I have never heard of) at discounted prices. My first big problem with this site- their isn't much information about their products on their site. And when asked, they don't know.

For example, I saw these fabulous shoes.

(so sorry, after trying and trying, this was the largest image I could save and post- go to the link above to see a closer look)

Upon review, I couldn't tell if the dark part was black or brown. (This is when I believe I went into no holds bar- crazy shoe bride mode.) The picture looked black, my coworker thought it looked black, but I wanted them to be brown so badly. I emailed the site and they had no idea what color they were. So delusional me, I ordered them anyway. Sure enough, they were black and ivory.

Second big problem about this website- you only have 20 days to return them, you must include the return form, and they charge $6 for you to return them via UPS. I don't know about you, but USPS is much easier and convenient for me to handle. I had to find somewhere that takes UPS and 2 weeks after I shipped them I got an email saying that I didn't fill out the return slip correctly and the shoes had passed the 20 day return policy. BUT since I was a first time costumer, they would return them for free- just this once. Overall, I will not be ordering from them again- too much pressure to get it returned in 20 days.

Third, Amazon. My very first wedding shoe purchase. They came fast; shipping was free; and I thought they were perfect. Two months later, I tried them on with my dress and they were all sorts of wrong. Since I missed the 30 day return period, I now own them outright. Anyone want to buy these gorgeous shoes?? Size 8.5 (they run big and a bit wide), never worn. $30. I'll have them up on the classifieds soon.

Source.

Finally, desperate times call for desperate measures: Enter FULL PRICE J. Crew.
You may have seen these:

Source.

Also coveted by the lovely Brushetta. They look magnificent online, but I have to say, really disappointed in person. The Ivory didn't look ivory, it looked more champagne/pink. And the pink part looked less pink and more blush/dark rose. And the quality- I hate to say it- but it seemed lacking.

YET, J. Crew's best friend- J. Crew SALE did not disappoint. I present to you my fabulous Peep Toe shoes:

Ok, so they are more strappy sandals than peep toes, but aren't they gorgeous? Not to mentioned: they are comfy; the heel is shorter than my other options, they look fabulous with my dress and they gave me the best excuse to get a pedicure:


Surprisingly, they look pretty bridal with my nails done!! Anyone else go on a wild goose chase for the perfect wedding shoe???

*During my crazy, must have the perfect pair of shoes adventure, I did buy two pairs of shoes from Nordstroms (both blogged about my Miss Bruschetta), and both were fantastic, just not perfect. So yep, that takes my total shoe buying purchases up to nine.

Monday, May 11, 2009

You Down with OTT?

Since almost all of our guests are from out of town, we need some serious Out of Town (OOT) Bags. While I was watching my pennies spent on the OOT bags, I still wanted to make sure we put a little bit of SF and a little bit of ourselves into the bags.

First up, the perfect bag:

From the Target $1 bin, reusable and the perfect size. Run, don't walk to your nearest Target to get your own. They also come in blue and tan.

As for what to put in the bag. Some of the Peeps favorite things of course:

We both love goldfish; Mr. Peep always buys mentos when we are on a road trip; and I can't live without Orbit's Mojito Mint Gum!! Plus we scored some free SF Zagats from a family member- perfect for the foodie lovers! And we bought some handy dandy 'Green Living for Dummies' handbooks.

We also plan on adding these glass containers full of M&Ms and Salted Almonds:

Here are all the glass containers that we've been collecting:


And here are all the OOT Bags together.


Some other items that I am considering adding:

An Advil Travel Pack (my drug of choice):

Source.

The new Colgate Wisp- it's a disposable travel toothbrush and toothpaste all in one:

source.

They run about a dollar a toothbrush- and I am afraid that if people do bring their own toothbrush then these would just go to waste.

And finally, something I always seem to need, but never have during a trip full of tears of joy:


So hive, what's missing from our OOT bags? What would you appreciate as a wedding guest?