MakeUp Trial - Success!

A couple of weeks ago I had my makeup trial for Kerry Rihtar of All Eyes on You. She is going to be coming to my parents house the day of the wedding, but I went to her at Nordstroms in Beachwood for the trial.

I loved it. I have gotten my makeup done a couple times in the past and hated it. She really listened to what I liked and didn't like and made me look like me - which was most important. I am so happy I did a trial before hand too. Now I am excited to see the real day!

See below!

With my mom at Nordstroms right after trial

Close up a couple hours later

If you are looking for a makeup artist, I would definetly recommend talking with Kerry. She is very easy to get along with and does fab work.

The Invites are Out!!!!

So I have been on a hiatus from my my blog lately because I have been busy with sister's grad party, my sister leaving for college, work and working on my invitations. The invitations are done and were sent out today so I wanted to share them with all of you and get back to my blogging ways

I got the invitations printed at Vedda and Sons Printing in Cleveland and they were fabulous. I worked with Phil and he was great. I sent them my proofs and he was quick with getting my samples. Once final approval was done, it only took two days to have all the parts of my invitations printed.

This is what the invitations look like:

We placed a piece of tissue inside to protect the invitation while being mailed

Close up of the main invite - my favorite part are the pearls on the design

Close up of Directions

Map on the back of the Directions

RSVP Postcard

Back of RSVP with stamp (all they had were to polar bear - oh well!)

Accomodations

Reception

Each invitation was personalized with our monogram and then the guest information

Pocketfold Invitations with navy blue satin ribbon bellyband and monogram!

Ready to mail!

My amazing help that came over and helped me put them together! they rock my face off.

The invites have been mailed and now all we do is wait to hear the responses!!!

Lauren's Insight on Bridal Showers

I have had the priviledge of going to quite a few bridal showers this year, and many in the past. This is a list of tips I have compiled that will help to make a bridal shower fun and interesting for everyone there. Take it for what it is, it's just my opinion!

::stepping on my soap box::

1. Bridesmaids:


Define the roles of what everyone's role is going to be BEFORE the guests arrive. The worst thing is when bridesmaids fight over the jobs in front of the party :)



* One bridesmaid (most often the Maid of Honor) should be seated near the bride to take the cards and make a Detailed list of what each person got the couple.
*One bridesmaid should be bringing the gifts to the Bride
*One bridesmaid should be taking the opened gift from the Bride and placing it in a neat pile. (if you can, bring rubbermaid containers to allow to store gifts. It also makes for easy loading after)
*One bridesmaid should be disposing of the gift wrap. (this may not be the best job, but it may be the most important!)
*One bridesmaid should be making the gift bow bouquet.Make sure this is someone who has done one before, or is creative!

If you don't have that many bridesmaids, you can have other people sub into these roles.

2. Brides:

The way you act and carry yourself at the shower says a lot about you. People are there for you, and they are excited for you.

*Please announce who every gift is from. People want to know when their gift is being opened and others want to know what people got.
*Show the crowd each gift.
*Thank the person who got you the gift when you open it. They spent time and money getting you that gift, they need to be acknowledged.
*Greet all your guests when they arrive. They are there for you, please show them you are happy.
*Don't spend all your time with your bridesmaids - you see them ALL the time. When is the last time you got to see Aunt Betty?
*Don't check your registry everyday. Let there be some surprise!
*If you get overwhelmed just take a deep breathe and relax!
*Write a personal message in the thank you card. People really appreciate the thank you cards

3. Guests

The bride invited you because you are someone important to her.

*Please do not talk through the gift opening. This is incedibly distracting.
*Don't be afraid to talk to people that you don't know, everyone there has something in common - either the bride or the groom, use that as a conversation starter!



4. General Tips:
*Set up the room so everyone can see the bride when she is opening gifts. The worst thing is when people feel like they are pushed to the back like their presence is not important.
*Do not invite an overwhelming amount of guest. If you need to have 100+ people at a shower, please break this into a couple of showers. The shower is not meant to be a mini reception and you shouldn't obligate every women coming to your wedding to come to the shower as well. I went to a shower this weekend of 32 people and it was the perfect size.
*Try a different theme to create excitement: wine tasting, stack the bar shower, couple's shower.... the possibilities are endless
*This is one people have differeing opinions on, but mine is please don't make me fill out my own address. Why don't I open the gift I brought too?
*And above all, enjoy being there, being the bride and being part of the wedding. This day is to celebrate the Bride and Groom building a life together - dont lose site of that!



Making sure you take into consideration some of these things when planning a bridal shower for someone else, will help everyone enjoy their time there.


::stepping off my soap box::

Good Luck Planning :)

PS look at this fab bow bouquet Megan G. and I made for our friend Megan's rehearsal:

Floor Monogram by TEN23 Designs

As I was reading my RSS Feeds last week, I came across an interesting idea on Brenda's Wedding Blog. She was feature TEN23 Designs, Lauren Atwater. Lauren designed decals for the floor or wall to use at your reception, in your home etc. I contacted Lauren to see what she could do for Mike and I.

I have always thought having a gobo on the dance floor would be a neat idea, but it didn't quite fit into the budget. Lauren took our monogram and came up with this:

This is not harmful to the floor and will come up at the end of the night. The cost for this is $20!!!!!! I am going to see if she can make me two more, one for the wall behind the head table and one for the glass door you enter the hall through.

Lauren is running special this month for 15% off if you mention Brenda's Wedding Blog. Click here for the detailed post on Brenda's Wedding Blog.

Wedding Crazy Weekend!

So I took time out of the usually weekend wedding planning to enjoy some wedding related activity for others. On Saturday, my friend Amanda was getting married and my friend Lauren was having her bachlorette party. Needless to say, I was supposed to be in two places at once. So being the planner that I am, I did both.

The day started out at Amanda's beautiful ceremony. It was one of the prettiest ceremonies I have ever attended. The church was full of light and love.

Mr. and Mrs. Dominick Kaple!!

After the ceremony, I made a quick stop at the beginning of the bachlorette party.

The girls :)

All dressed and ready for her party!

Then it was off to the reception. It was at Wagner's Country Inn. I had never seen that ballroom look so elegant and pretty.

Had to get one with the beautiful bride Amanda

We're soon!

Right before the reception was over, Mike and I left and he took me back to the bachlorette party at Shooters.

I finished the night with the bachlorette party and had a fun - exhausting day!

Lauren's Sneak Peak at the Bridal Shower

My Great Aunt, my mom and my sister aka MOH had a meeting the other night about the bridal shower and invited me along to come. My family knows how much I enjoy being a part of planning, so they decided to break tradition and include me in on the plans! We got to take a sneak peak at the place they will be hosting the party at.

The bridal shower will be at the Falls Pointe Club. It is the club located inside my parents development. I wanted to have a home-y like feel, and what better than a clubhouse designed similar to their house!

So… here are some pictures.

The whole back of the room is windows that overlook the lake and pool.

Here are some pictures of the inside of the room. They are going to replace the tables and chairs with rented tables and chairs and use the linen company we are using for th wedding, The Finishing Touch, to do some table clothes and table runners.

The fireplace is turned on by a switch so they will have that going with candles lining the mantel.

And how could I not show my beautiful hostesses???

Emma, Great Aunt Sally, Mom

They are planning on bringing in someone from The Wine Room in Avon to do a wine tasting for the guests. The rest of the plans are TBD…. I will keep you posted!

Check: Rehearsal Dinner

So after looking at some places and taking into account what we wanted our rehearsal dinner to be like, Mike and I decided on our Rehearsal dinner location and menu tonight.

Those who are close to us will appreciate this..........

Rehearsal Dinner location: Johnny Malloys in Lakewood!

Mike and I met at Johnny Malloys almost three years previous to the date of the rehearsal. Five of the ten people in our wedding were there and know the whole story of us meeting.

Meg at Johnny Malloys is really excited about doing a rehearsal dinner and said it's the first one they have ever done. We have decided to have a sit down dinner with a 6 different entrees for the guests to choose from. They have a private room with a full bar that we will be in for the rehearsal. The guest will be able to order drinks from the bar, and since Meg was so excited about it being the first rehearsal, we are getting happy hour pricing.

We know it isn't anything fancy, but it is us. It is where we met and is relaxed. We want the reheasal dinner to be relaxing. It is our time to spend with the main people in our lives and we wanted a comfortable, relaxed place to do that in. We have plently of time the next day to be formal.

I would suggest thing type of rehearsal to anyone who is not looking for the traditional rehearsal dinner.

Ohhh... and for a sneak peak at my amazing rehearsal dinner dress that I bought this week and Banana Republic...

I got it in the pewter color. I am in love with it :)

Busy Wedding Weekend - Just Not Mine :)

This weekend was filled with Wedding related activities for friends of mine.

The weekend started with Megan's bachlorette party in Port Clinton, OH. We spent the night at a beachfront condo at Water's Edge, that had a pool and three bedrooms. The condo was great and a good idea for anyone looking for a nice big place up there.



We didn't go over to Put-In-Bay, but if you stayed there and wanted to go to Put-In-Bay, the condo was just a mile from the Jet Express.

Megan gave all the girls who came to her party a wine glass with a ribbon on it and the girls name. The girls who she knew that drank red wine got special red wine glass and the girls who drank white wine got white wine glasses.

It was really nice that they were custom to what kind of wine we drink - and so cute :)

The second part of the weekend, I spent going to my friend Lauren's bridal shower. She had it at St. Clarence in North Olmsted. They had a really cute room all set up and brought in a caterer with food and drinks. Lauren had about 150 people there, and the whole shower was over in less than 2.5 hours! They were gift opening machines. Cute place though for anyone looking for a bridal shower location. They were able to bring in their own food and drinks, which is always nice and budget friendly!!!

After the weekend I was exhausted, but had an amazing time. Thanks girls :)

Good Advice: Top Mistakes when Choosing a Photographer

I was reading through my RSS feed this morning and saw this interesting post on Wishpot Wedding Blog about choosing a photographer. Check it out if you are still in the market for a photographer. When I was reading through it, I could relate to some of these with some of the people I met with. The seven mistakes they point out are:

1. Relying on Wedding Vendor Reviews
2. Judging Photographer's based on their Greatest Hits wedding album
3. Paying too much attention to the sales pitch
4. Not assessing the photographers personality
5. Choosing "Uncle Bob" to shoot your wedding
6. Caring about the photographers type of camera equipment
7. Confusion over pricing

Check out the whole post here: Vendor spotlight: Dubnoff Photography Top 7 Mistakes Couples make When Picking a Photographer

Lauren's How To: Creative Bar Area Decorations

My reception hall Massimo Da Milano has a seperate room for the bar and appeitizers that I have been looking into different decoration options for. I found this picture while searching online one day and thought it set the mood for the bar area of a reception.

photo credit the knot

I didn't want to spend anymore money on my floral budget, so I decided to DIY these.

Step 1: Buy a tall cyclinder vase (bought at Flower Factory), floralytes (bought at Pat Catan's), glass beads (bought at Flower Factory), baby's breathe (bought at Giant Eagle), floating candle (bought at Pat Catan's)

Step 2: Place floralytes in the bottom of the vase. (I used three in the vase shown below)

Step 3: Place the glass beads on top of the floralytes.

Step 4: Place the baby's breathe in the vase.

Step 5: Fill the vase with water (this will weigh the babys breathe down and make it sink into the vase better)

Step 6: Place floating candle on top of water.

Final Product:

Now I just have to do a couple more and purchase some mirrors to put the vases on. Quick DIY project that really has a big impact!

Lauren's How To: DIY Aisle Runner

So a couple weeks back, my fellow bride-to-be friend Tara and I decided that we were going to take a try at DIY painting our monograms on our aisle runners. If you are thinking about doing this, I would highly suggest it. It was not hard - just really time consuming, but totally worth it.

Step 1: Purchase a premade aisle runner or purchase fabric to use. We purchased our premade aisle runners at Pat Catan's for $25. Also purchase fabric paint. We got our at JoAnn Fabrics.

Step 2: Get monogram enlarged to the size you want it to be painted on the aisle runner.

Step 3: Roll aisle runner out and determine where you want your monogram placed on it. I designed mine to go in the back of the church where the pews start. My aisle runner has to be placed before the ceremony and pinned to the floor (church's rule) so I decided that would be the best place for it. Tara is allowed to roll hers out right before she walks down the aisle so she decided to flip the monogram so when people walked out it would be right side up.

Step 4: Place printed monogram under the aisle runner.

Step 5: Place wax paper in between paper monogram and aisle runner so when the aisle runner dries, it doesn't stick to the paper. Tape aisle runner, wax paper and monogram paper together.

Step 6 Use a pencil or pen to trace the printed monogram onto the aisle runner.

Step 7: Once traced, use fabric paint to paint your monogram onto the aisle runner.

Step 8: Let monogram dry, and repeat painting if needed.

The finished products: (at least finished for right now, I bet both of will be obsessing over touching them up!)

*Tara I stole this picture from theknot, didn't think you'd mind ;)*

I would recommend doing this to anyone who is considering it. It wasn't as hard as we thought, just time consuming. In the end it was totally worth it!

Lauren's How To: Make Floral Hair Pins

I was in The Perfect Bride in Rocky River with my sister when she was getting measured for her bridesmaid dress when I stumbled upon this pretty hair flower.

I instantly fell in love with the flower, and wanted to get one for each of my bridesmaids to wear at the reception - something different to set a party atmosphere. The only problem was each flower was priced at $75.

I decided that I was going to try to replicate this flower on my own with a little creative DIY project.

First I went to JoAnn Fabrics and bought - fabric, pearl beads, glass beads and thread.

I then cut out a pattern for the flowers.

I pinned the pattern of the flower to the fabric and cut the shape out. I did more than one layer of fabric at a time to make sure every pins flowers matched (plus it takes less time ;) )

I then removed the pattern and arranged the flowers the way I wanted the hair pin to look.

With the thread I bought, I strung the pearls and the glass beads on one at a time. For each flower I used two glass beads, two larger pearls, and two little pearls.

Once I was done stringing the beads, the hair pin was done!

I continued this same process 5 times until I made one for each of them.

Now I will attach this flower to a hair pin, and they will be set.

So you may be wondering, did she end up doing it for less than $75 (and I really hope you didn't think it would cost anywhere near that amount...)

The grand total of this project for each flower hair pin......... $3.25. So I made all 5 for less than $20. I love DIY projects! :)