The Nerdy Bride

Looking Back: Flower Market Flop

2010-06-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

I realize that I haven't blogged about our floral plans. Way back when I still had months and months until the wedding, I had mentioned making fabric flowers. As those months dwindled and turned to weeks, that simply wasn't going to happen. I had neither the time nor the energy to make fabric flowers. We decided that the best course of action would be to head down to Los Angeles' Flower District to purchase fresh flowers and arrange them ourselves the Thursday before the wedding.

Stepmom Doxie and I woke up bright and early on the Saturday after my bridal shower. The wedding was in two weeks, and we knew we had to finalize our floral plans so we set out to drive down early, choose and place orders for our flowers, make a quick Ikea run and then head home. With a vague theme of easy, casual, gardeny, throw-them-in-a-vase-and-call-it-a-day, a list of flowers that I loved, and an idea of our budget, we figured we'd have no trouble at all.

This was my first trip to the Flower District, and I have to admit, it was a little bit overwhelming. Though, the fact that it was the day before mother's day definitely added to the chaos.

Flowers and people EVERYWHERE! Buildings that spanned entire blocks! Definitely not a place for anyone with allergies.

On our shopping list for the day was:

And whatever else we may have found that would coordinate.

Well, we arrived, searched, searched, and searched. Nothing. NOTHING. Hundreds of thousands of flowers, and the only red ones were carnations, roses, and gerbera daisies. Apparently, because it was right in between seasons, variety was low.

We wandered around for about an hour, talked to a handful of vendors, and still no luck. One vendor had red ranunculus, but they were pretty sad looking. I was so disappointed. Imagine: two weeks before the wedding, and our one plan for flowers completely fell through. We left, dejected, and made our way to Ikea.

All was not lost, though! Ikea came through majorly. Two weeks until the wedding, and our centerpieces had been completely re-imagined thanks to impeccable Swedish design!

Did you have to reinvent any of your ideas close to the wedding? How did they turn out?

Looking Back: Showered with Love

2010-06-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

Once May rolled around, my life went into super-wedding-overdrive. I remember the waking up the morning of May 1st, realizing that we were quickly approaching the end of a thirteen-month engagement, and that our wedding was just around the corner. It scared the crap out of me. It was at that moment that the wedding butterflies decided to take permanent residence in my stomach. I had so much to do. It was overwhelming, the list was so long. I had people to coordinate, projects to complete, details to finalize; to be honest, I'm not sure how I made it through that month!

But that first weekend in May, albeit full of stress, was also the first time I felt like a bride; it was the weekend of my bridal shower. It was then that I finally understood that other people were excited about our wedding. It wasn't because of the details that I had slaved over for the past year. No, they were excited because they loved us and genuinely wanted to wish us well in our new life together.

My shower, hosted by my mom, my aunt and my grandma, was perfect. Absolutely perfect. I spent the day with all of my favorite ladies, some of whom I hadn't seen in a long time, and just soaked it all in.

The shower was at a small cafe in Tulare, CA called Hazel's Kitchen. They closed down for the Sunday and filled their front lawn with tables, umbrellas, and an eclectic variety of antique chairs. Their food was spectacular: an array of sandwiches (The best being chicken salad, yummm), angel hair pasta salad and fruit salad. We played games, visited, opened gifts in traditional bridal shower fare, and had a fantastic time.

So, I took a ton of pictures to correspond to this post, but sadly they were lost. Instead, I'll leave you with images captured by others kind enough to upload to facebook!

My mom spent hours making fabric flowers to place atop ink pens for the centerpieces/favors.

The setup was so cute, and the weather was perfect.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom, me, and my grandma.

I couldn't believe how generous people were!

Our tasty, tasty cake.

As cliche as it is, I honestly felt showered with love. I am extremely thankful to everyone that made it out. Spending time with my loved ones allowed me to de-stress and refocus. Though my list of to-do items didn't get any smaller, I remembered that our wedding was supposed to be about family, friends, and love. All of the other stuff was just bonus : )

Next up: Flower District Fail

The Metal Box

2010-06-03T23:49:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Mrs. Dolphin's post about her most unexpected wedding gift, I thought I'd share a gift that we received from my Aunt and Uncle. It's amazingly unique and sweet, and I figured most of you would be able to appreciate it.

Everything was wrapped up in a pretty travel-themed hat box.

On top of the tissue there was a book, covered in red wrapping paper and with a bookmark holding a page.

The bookmark read, "Before opening your box, please read the story 'The Metal Box.'"

So, in front of all my new in-laws, I read.

From Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul:

The Metal Box

Last weekend, we celebrated my parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary. This morning, they left on a long awaited trip to Hawaii. They were as excited as if it were their honeymoon.

When my parents married, they had only enough money for a three-day trip fifty miles from home. They made a pact that each time they made love, they would put a dollar in a special metal box and save it for a honeymoon in Hawaii for their fiftieth anniversary.

Dad was a policeman, and Mom was a schoolteacher. They lived in a modest house and did all their own repairs. Raising five children was a challenge, and sometimes money was short, but no matter what emergency came up, Dad would not let Mom take any money out of the "Hawaii account." As the account grew, they put it in a savings account and then bought CDs.

My parents were always very much in love. I can remember dad coming home and telling Mom, "I have a dollar in my pocket," and she would smile at him and reply, "I know how to spend it."

When each of us children married, Mom and Dad gave us a small metal box and told us their secret, which we found enchanting. All five of us are now saving for our dream honeymoons. Mom and Dad never told us how much money they ha managed to save, but it must have been considerable because when they cashed in those CDs they had enough for airfare to Hawaii plus hotel accommodations for ten days and plenty of spending money.

As they told us goodbye before leaving, Dad winked and said, "Tonight, we are starting an account for Cancun. That should only take twenty-five years."

Ann Landers

Umm, this is Mr. Doxie wondering why I'm taking pictures for my blog instead of going to sleep. C'est la vie!

Anyway, when I had finished reading the story aloud, I pulled the tissue paper back to unveil the gift.

Tucked inside was a small, vintage metal box.

I opened the box to find 100 $1 bills!

And under the bills, a poem:

"The Doxie's"

May 22, 2010

Your vacation fund's been started just to help you out.

We're sure it will keep growing, we're sure without a doubt.

It's a wedding gift that's special and also unlike few.

It's a lifetime of saving's while having fun times too!

With love on your wedding day,

Aunt Lori & Uncle Gary

And of course my mom had to chime in with, "And from what I hear about Mr. Doxie, you guys will be in Hawaii in no time!!" Our faces turned about a hundred shades of red.

This was definitely our most memorable wedding gift, and even one that we may consider copying as future wedding guests.

What was the most creative wedding gift you received? Or, if you're not yet married, have you given any super imaginative gifts?

Acknowledging Injustice

2010-06-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

The day Proposition 8 was passed in California was the one time that I truly felt let down by my state; I couldn't believe that we would allow such a giant step backward. It is equally mind boggling how, a year-and-a-half later, the law is still in tact. I know that one day, hopefully soon, we will be able to look back and wonder how the majority was so closed-minded and selfish. But I digress.

The point of this post is not to spark a debate, but to share how, on our wedding day, we brought to light an issue for which both Mr. Doxie and I are passionate. I know that it isn't uncommon in the wedding world for couples to recognize how unjust laws against same-sex marriages are. It's a bit of a different story, however, in the conservative area where our wedding was located. We honestly weren't sure how the gesture would be received among our guest list. We wanted to do something that would be prominent enough for our guests to take notice, but still subtle. As sad as it is to admit it, I know that we had guests in attendance who likely feel as strongly against same-sex marriage as I do in support of it.

In the end, we decided to go the same route as the Sprinkles and make white knots for our guests to wear and take home.

I ordered a small ceramic heart bowl from RedHotPottery on Etsy, MOH Erin cut and tied the ribbon and I made the sign.

Everyone should have the right to tie the knot

While we will forever look upon this day with great joy, we cannot help but feel sadness for our friends and loved ones who, under current legislation have had their right to marry stripped away.

The White Knot is a symbol of marriage equality. Regardless of your orientation, please wear this knot to show your support for basic human rights. We hope that one day soon, everyone will have the chance to experience the love and happiness of their wedding day.

We believe in marriage equality

We set up the white knots and sign on our welcome table along with our guestbook and programs so that guests would see it and take one if they felt so inclined. Photo was taken by MOH Erin while we were setting up the morning of.

Though most of our guests didn't take a knot, I'm okay with that. I know they were noticed and I appreciate that some people did choose to wear one. I think it was the perfect gesture to acknowledge something that is important to us without offending those who disagree.

Have you decided to incorporate something into your wedding that may be controversial? How did you handle it?

The Doxie Programs: Keeping Our Guests Informed

2010-06-01T19:46:00.000-07:00

Though the DIY process for our programs was not quite as involved as our invitations, they still caused me a bit of stress. You see, I had a pretty good idea of the way I would have liked our invitations to turn out before I started to make them. This was not the case with the programs. I knew I wanted a booklet, but as far as the design or what to put in them? No idea. In fact, other than the names of the bridal party I really didn't know what to write for our programs. A timeline of the day? Well, that required me to finalize the ceremony. So much involved, and with about a month left until the wedding I figured I should probably get started.

First things first, I gathered my inspiration. I searched Weddingbee for posts on other Bee's programs and fell in love with the sewn booklets made by Mrs. Cream Puff. Seriously, so cute. I tried a few mockups and, while cute, just took way too much time. Not to mention I was worried my sewing machine would have a hard time sewing through two layers of cardstock and multiple layers of printer paper.

After a bit of fiddling around, this is what I came up with.

A small booklet, approximately 6" by 6", folded instead of sewn and bound with baker's twine. I had planned on incorporating the date into the cover design, but I liked the simplicity of the heart.

After folding and goccoing 120 covers, it was time to figure out the words that would fill our little booklets. For this, I turned to Spaniel's amazingly helpful program post.

Even with Spaniel's help, it took forever to get our wording just right. I came up with enough content for 8 pages.

Page 1 was our introduction.

It means so much to us that you are celebrating with us today. Whether youv'e travelled 1000 miles or 10, we sincerely appreciate the effort you've put into being here. We are lucky to have been blessed with such amazing people in our lives!

Most of you are aware of our special circumstance: Due to the immigration process, we were required to become legally wed on October 26, 2009. It was a lovely ceremony, but we always knew that we would "seal the deal" by exchanging vows in front of the people that we hold nearest our hearts.

Today is the day that we will consider ourselves to be married, and today is the anniversary that we will celebrate. After many years have passed, we will look upon this day with fond memories because we are able to celebrate our relationship with everyone that we love.

Thank you again for coming. We are forever grateful for your love and support.

Page 2 listed all of our immediate family whom weren't a part of the wedding party

Page 3 listed the members of our wedding party. Please ignore dirty fingernails... gross!

Page 4 was our ceremony outline, including the important event music.

Page 5 is the poem we chose for our reading: i carry your heart with me by ee cummings.

Page 6 was for various announcements, including when to use our wedding bubbles, a reminder to visit the photobooth, and an extra thank you.

Page 7 was a dedication to our loved ones who have passed away. This was very important to us; there isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss my big brother and my grandparents. I know that Mr. Doxie feels the same way.

Page 8 was a bit of a cop-out. I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to add, so I didn't add anything. I'm not sure how many people even noticed this page, to be honest.

I laid each page out in Illustrator, then figured out in which order they needed to be on each sheet so that they would be in the correct order once they were folded and assembled. Not gonna lie, I needed to make a tiny booklet, number each page and then disassemble for this step. Printing and cutting each sheet was the most time consuming part of this project.

As soon as all the covers were dry and all of the pages cut and folded, it was time to bind them. I could have done something fancier, but I really wanted to keep it simple and conserve time. I precut the baker's twine, and simply tied it around the center of an unfolded booklet. I tried to keep the string as taught as possible, and then I knotted it at the bottom. I cut the excess off so that about an inch of string hung from the program.

Once they were all finished, they went into a basket I picked up from Ikea. The ribbon around the basket was supposed to be red, but I ran out and didn't feel like making another trip to the store.

All in all, I really like how our programs turned out, and I heard a few guest comment on them, too. They were a lot of work, though!

Did you make your own programs? Did you make a booklet, too, or did you decide to do something a little different? Were they a complicated DIY?

We're Married (Again!)

2010-05-25T00:19:00.001-07:00

All Professional photos by the fantastic, I-can't-say-enough-about, so-good-he-deserves-his-own-blog-post, Thomas Delgado.

As a whole, this past week has been absolutely amazing, culminated by a wonderfully perfect day. I'm not saying it was without stress or a few blips, but to see a year's worth of work come together beautifully, and to have everyone we love gathered in one area to support our love was so magical.

I didn't get a chance to write to you before Saturday, Hive, but I will take this opportunity to thank you for all of your support. Planning our wedding wouldn't have been the same without you. You were there when I needed you with much appreciated advice and kind words; I'm so grateful to be a part of such a wonderful community!

I can't wait to get the rest of our professional pictures back because I know they're going to be fantastic. Until then, I'll fill you in on some sweet last minute projects that turned out to be some of my favorite details. But first, our minimoon! We're headed down to Los Angeles for a week of relaxation and fun. It's definitely something we've been looking forward to!

So, until next time, MRS. Dachshund signing out!

Our (Pre)Ceremony Soundtrack

2010-05-10T11:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't been around much lately, and rather than continually apologizing I'm just gonna lay it out on the line: I'm probably not going to be around much until the wedding is over. At 12 days out, I still have a million things to do and I'm stretched tooo thin. But! That doesn't mean I can't sneak a post in every now and again on my lunch hour!

One of our (many) pressing issues right now is our wedding music. We've booked our DJ and we're finally meeting with him tonight to finalize everything... that means we had to make some serious decisions. Choosing our playlists was a pretty daunting task; we both have pretty strong opinions about music and those opinions are complete opposites. I like folksy indie music, while Mr. Doxie tends to like more traditional wedding music. Read: boring. In my opinion, anyway.

It was really bringing me down trying to incorporate all the songs he wanted, because I felt that they didn't go with the feel of the event that I had spent so many months trying to establish. Finally, after a few arguments, he relinquished all music control to me and things went much smoother. I realize that makes me sound like an insensitive and controlling jerk, but for the record I did incorporate all the songs he really wanted.

Anyway, I love the songs that we've chosen. (Even the ones he picked!) There are so many amazing songs, though, it was hard to narrow down the ones that we would actually use. And then came the task of choosing which would be played when.

I decided that my absolute favorites would be played while our guests are seating before the ceremony, and of course during, with our most favorites being the closest to the beginning of the ceremony. Does that make sense?

So without further ado, our ceremony playlist:

Lou Reed with Gael García Bernal- If You Rescue Me (From The Science of Sleep soundtrack)

I loved this soundtrack more than I loved the movie (although it was pretty decent, too.) This song is so charming. And! On the soundtrack there is also an acoustic version of this song sung by the adorable Linda Serbu from whom we adopted our kitty a few years ago.

Plain White T's- 1, 2, 3, 4

This song has no meaning to either of us, I heard it in a restaurant a while back and thought it was sweet.

Damien Rice- Cannonball

One of my favorites. It's one of those songs that I can listen to on repeat and be content.

The White Stripes- We're Going to be Friends

This song seriously makes me perma-smile. I wish I wasn't at work so I could listen to it now. Strangely enough, I'm not a huge fan of The White Stripes... maybe I like this song because Meg is asleep instead of banging on the drums?

Jason Mraz- I'm Yours (Acoustic version from the EP)

I know Jason Mraz isn't exactly indie, but this song is one of my favorites. 'Specially the acoustic version.

The Moldy Peaches- Anyone Else But You

I've loved Kimya Dawson since highschool and from that love grew a love for the Moldy Peaches. It's totally awesome that Juno gave them so much exposure, but I still like to be on the "I liked them before they were cool" train : )

The Beatles- In My Life

One of both of our favorites.

And the last of the waiting-for-the-wedding-party-to-get-their-act-together songs:

Barry Louis Polisar- All I Want is You

Back when Mr. Doxie and I were long distance, I came home from a long day of work to find an email embedded with him singing this song to me. Mr. Doxie is not the world's best singer, (<3) but it was probably the sweetest thing ever. It comforted me when I was missing him. We had to include it in our day.

I'm hoping a few people arrive early enough to enjoy all of the music we've selected. Maybe we'll run a little late on purpose to make it through the playlist, which runs just under 30 minutes. : )

Up next, our VIPS walk out to the songs that REALLY matter... the real ceremony soundtrack.

Was choosing your various playlist as daunting a task as it was for me? How did you and your SO settle any disputes?

Something Blue

2010-04-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

I am seriously crushing on this necklace:

From Etsy seller favorJewelry

Isn't it beautiful? I'm torn between wearing my grandmother's pearls, wearing red in my necklace, and wearing this. It's so pretty and delicate. *Sigh.* Do you think it would be too much to layer this with pearls? I'm thinking it probably would. Hrm.

What do you think would go best with my dress? This necklace alone, something with red stones/beads, Grandma's pearls, or something else entirely?

The Best Projects are Simple Projects

2010-04-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

Guys, I have a confession to make. I am sick of DIY projects. I still have a ton, but I am embracing the K.I.S.S. philosophy, for lack of time if not for my own sanity. The other day I had to order some paper and envelopes from Paper Source, and I figured that I'd go ahead and order a few extra things since I was already paying for shipping.

Ever since I saw this card box, I've had my eyes on those cardboard suitcases from Paper Source. I loved the card box idea, and finally decided to order them. One more thing to check off the list, right? Right!

This card box was super easy. I ordered two suitcases, the large and the medium, cut the bottom out of the smaller one with a box cutter, and then traced that hole on the larger one. Cut that out too. The holes definitely aren't perfect, but no one's going to see the inside! I taped the two suitcases together with a bunch of shipping tape until it was secure.

After it was all taped, I cut a slit in the top. I drew the rectangle on with sharpie, and tried my hardest to make straight cuts.

But alas, I'm terrible with a box cutter. The slot was all jagged, but nothing a little ribbon couldn't fix! I threw a bow around it for a little added something. Adds security, too, I think!

I'm still debating whether or not this is big enough, though. As it is, it's about 7 inches tall. I think it will be okay, but do you think I should add another tier?

What did you use for your card box?

It's Here!

2010-04-20T14:01:00.000-07:00

When I got home from work yesterday afternoon this box just happened to be waiting for me:

I was super anxious, a little nervous, but mostly excited to get into that box and try on my dress for the first time! Was it going to fit? Was I going to like it? What if I didn't!?! I don't have much time left for alterations, so I was really crossing my fingers that all would go well.

So exciting! Pretty pink packing paper. It made a mess, but it's was cute!

Omg dress! I've been waiting for the dress for so long that even the garment bag was exciting! (Erm, excuse my walls, we're in the middle of trying to figure out what color we want in the bedroom.)

Unzip...

Annnd....

It fits! Like a glove. Hive, you know I love you. I wouldn't share these pictures with just anyone, you know. I asked my mom to get off the couch to take a picture, as pointing the camera up is rarely flattering. She wouldn't budge. Oh well : )

Here I am showcasing my ridiculously tall albeit ridiculously cute shoes. The dress is much prettier in person! My cheap camera flash makes the silk taffeta look awfully shiny while in reality it has a perfectly acceptable amount of shine : )

This is my mom's dirty mirror, not mine!

I can't wait to see what it looks like all wrinkle free with my accessories and my hair and makeup done. I've gotta say, I didn't think I was going to have the feeling. I didn't cry, but I did feel giddy, and I did feel like a bride. I was so nervous, and really it was all unwarranted. I found my perfect dress, and it fit like a dream. I was so worried that the measurements would turn out to be wrong, or the length was going to be off, but it was surprisingly perfect! Only one more month until I'll be wearing it for real!

I really couldn't recommend Dolly Couture more. They have been nothing but helpful. I got my dress in eight weeks, and I love, love, love it. I've received quite a few comments and messages from brides who are my size and are considering the Beverlywood from Dolly Couture. My conclusion: Go for it! It's very flattering and comfortable. I feel pretty in it, and I know you will, too!

Want to catch up on the rest of my dress shopping experience? Here are my previous posts:

I am a Plus-Sized Bride

Biting the Bullet

THE ONE.

And a quick question for you guys: Where should I take it to be pressed? Will any dry-cleaners do this for me?

He Gave Up His Video Games for Me!

2010-04-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, not completely. I don't think Mr. Doxie could ever give up video games, and that's okay. I enjoy them too. However, he did trade in a substantial amount of his games to Amazon.com for credit there. We had planned on doing this a few months ago. He was going to trade in everything that he no longer played, and buy the new games that he wanted. Well, we finally sent them in and he got the credit today. 34 games landed us just under $300.00. It's a loss, yes, but not too bad if you consider they were just sitting on the shelf!

After a bit of light persuasion on my part, Mr. D agreed that it would be okay to see if Amazon sold anything we might need for the wedding. We still need a lot, and luckily Amazon sells everything! Our video game shelf is a little barer, but we definitely scored:

We finally got our rings!

This is mine This is Mr. Doxie's.

The groomsmen got their ties:

I think these mint ties will go well with the bridesmaid dresses.

Mr Doxie got his tie:

Finding a red and aqua tie was hard! Hopefully we like this one when it arrives.

And we got a buttload of candles! 144 votives and a dozen pillar candles. We'll need many more pillars, but I wanted to see the quality first.

Not too shabby! I am so appreciative that Mr. Doxie was willing to give up his beloved games to help pull our wedding together. Also, we get to cross a bunch of things off our list with no out of pocket costs. Score!

Did you and your FI do any "spring cleaning," so to speak, in order to purchase things for your wedding?

P.S. My dress was delivered today! It's currently sitting in my living room waiting for me to get home and open it. I'm so excited! Pictures will come soon : )

The Doxie Invites: The Big Reveal

2010-04-09T13:49:00.000-07:00

I was planning on splitting the invitation reveal up into multiple posts, hence my previous two, but with just over a month left to the wedding I just don't have time. I'm a huge ball of stress because I have so many things left to do. Blogging gets pushed to my lunch hours at work, and most of the time I forget to upload my photos. Anyway, here goes nothing. I'll keep the commentary to a minimum : )

Presenting our invitations, which were truly a labor of ~~love~~ frustration.

I didn't feel like editing the pictures for privacy. Oh wells, don't stalk me guys, k? The tags were somewhat of an afterthought. I cut them out with my Cricut and gocco'd the design on the front.

On the back, they served as an inner-envelope so-to-speak. I wrote the names of everyone invited. I'm really not sure if anyone even noticed this.

Yummy baker's twine and our fabric-backed invite peeking through the heart.

Cutting, folding, gluing and gocco'ing these sleeves was a major pain in the butt. But I guuesss it was worth it.

Our invitation, out of its home in its sleeve. The original plan was to use Lettra paper and gocco everything on them. That got nixed after the sleeves. Waaay too much work. I went with Gmund Digital in white linen purchased here. It's 110lb and really nice. And! They printed perfectly on my home printer. Sorry Lettra, you're beautiful buy convenience wins.

We went with a postcard for our response cards to save postage and trees. Same deal with these, used Gmund paper and sent them through the printer.

USPS really needs to update their current stamp collection. Polar bear? Really? Well, at least it matches!

On a side note, it's surprising (and a little sad) how few people are leaving us notes.

And because we're already receiving gifts, I started to make our thank you cards. They're super easy to make and look pretty awesome.

The back of our thank yous. These are gonna go in pool (the same color as our sleeves) envelopes and be hand addressed in red ink.

So there they are! I love them, and I've had a ton of compliments, but they were a pain to make.

Folding 120 sleeves hurt my fingers.

Sewing 120 invitations and labels took foreeeever.

Don't forget about the tags and gocco'ing. It was seriously a chore. On top of that, my dad kept calling to add invitees. To be honest, my favorite part of making my own invitations was putting them in the mail slot.

If there's one thing I learned from making our invitations, it's that they can't be perfect.

I kept making small mistakes (like the over-stitch above) and getting frustrated. I'd throw it in a separate pile and think to myself, "Well, I guess I can give that one to my Grandma." (She's blind.) Or, "Urghhh. I don't think Mr. Doxie's brother will notice this..."

But in the end, I don't know who ended up with my faulty invites. And I really don't care. They're done, they're cute, they're somewhat original. That's the best I could do!

Hope you like them, Hive!

Are you making/did you make your own invitations? If you could do it over, would you go the same route?

The Doxie Invites: From the Outside In

2010-04-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

From day one, making the invitations was the part I was most excited about in all of wedding planning. I must have designed 15 different invitation suites before I decided on a design, and even still I questioned myself. When there's an endless amount of amazing wedding invitations on the internet, it was hard to believe that anything I could make would live up to my inspiration.

Anyway, after about eight months of designing, second guessing and redesigning, I came up with a design that I think conveys the feeling of our wedding and our personalities pretty well. They're not perfect, and if I had more time I would have added a few more details, but they are what they are, and I think the turned out well enough!

So let's begin with the outside and work our way in. That's how our guests will experience them, after all!

I knew that I wanted our invitations and STDs to "go" together without being too matchy-matchy. One of the ways I did this was by using the same color red envelopes from Paper Source. I know Paper Source isn't the most budget friendly option, but the paper they use on their envelopes is so thick, and the red is so perfect.

As far as postage goes, I wish custom stamps from Zazzle.com were in our budget, but they simply weren't. I had already spent more than I wanted on the paper and envelopes! We lucked out, though, because the King and Queen of Hearts love stamps are pretty perfect. They almost match, and the overall feeling is very similar to our invites. We had to use two per invite because USPS told us they were non-machinable.

Unfortunately, the Canadians didn't get cute stamps. Postage was a dollar to Canada, and the only dollar stamps available were these Wisdom stamps. Yeah, they're ugly. But at that point I didn't care. I also had to add those airmail stickers to muck up the envelopes even more.

Do you remember Miss Poodle's amazing sewn-on address labels? Well, I loved the look and I knew they'd be perfect, but I was far too lazy to disassemble our envelopes and actually sew them on. The solution? I printed each label, cut them out, sewed a border around each one, and used spray adhesive to glue them to the envelope. Half the work, and I think they turned out pretty nicely!

Of course I had to make the labels wrap around! Our return address folds around the back of the envelope.

Up next: We open them up and look inside!

p.s. do you notice I didn't make envelope liners? I really, really wanted to. I had them all planned out, but I ran out of time and energy. My dad kept adding more invitees, and by the end of it all I was just relieved to have them finished. So far I've only heard positive comments about them. I'm sure no one will be expecting liners. Oh well!

Invitation DIYers: Was there an element you had to leave out of your invite suite? Did anyone even notice it was missing?

Finished!

2010-03-31T14:07:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have noticed that my last post was over two weeks ago. I can't help but feel guilty for my absence, but I have a valid excuse! My invitations have totally kicked my butt, but I am VERY happy to say that they're finished.

Our living room looked like this for two weeks...

120 Cricut-cut and gocco printed sleeves, stitched address labels, fabric backed invites and double sided RSVP postcards later, I'm dooone.

Details will come soon. Until then:

Were your DIY invitations as much of a pain-in-the-butt as mine?

Wedding Balloons?

2010-03-12T13:09:00.000-08:00

The other day I emailed Mr. Doxie and casually mentioned that it might look nice to use balloons as ceremony decoration. He couldn't picture what I was talking about, so I responded with this this photo so that he could get a feel for what I was imagining:

Source

"Wut?" was his only response.

I laughed, and then sent him genuine inspiration photos. No offense, Two Ladies and a Helium Tank, but the balloon arch and pillars aren't really our style. Those large, perfectly round balloons, however? I think they're incredibly modern and beautiful if done correctly. Do you remember this spread from MS Weddings a few months back?

I love them; they're like a fresh take on paper lanterns.

I've been fretting a bit over our ceremony decoration. Our ceremony is going to be outdoors, in a large, open grassy area. Our venue offers a traditional white metal archy thing, but I dunno. I didn't want an arch decorated with flowers. It was a little dated to me, and I wasn't sure it would feel cohesive with the rest of our details.

Then, I saw this wedding featured at Green Wedding Shoes. It pretty much solidified my desire for balloons-as-ceremony-decor.

*sigh*

And think of the pictures we'll be able to take after the ceremony!

I found these pictures late one afternoon while I was still at work, and I sketched out how I think I'd like the balloons set up.

I thought the balloons would make a pretty backdrop for the wedding party. In my head, I imagined them to be red and a pretty, pale aqua.

I found these, and quickly ordered them to see if I liked the colors in person.

source

Weellll, I liked the red. The blue wasn't aqua, but teal. Like Cupcake's teal. Sooo, I didn't know what to do. Should I go with red and white?

I drew up a few "mock-ups."

I'm not sure what we're going to do. The balloons are affordable at ~$2.75 a piece, and the shipping was very fast.

Which do you think would look better? Would you ever use balloons as part of your wedding decor?

Haarblume

2010-03-10T14:32:00.000-08:00

My favorite part about Germanic languages is the ability to squish as many nouns as possible into one megaword. Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft translates to "Association for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services." Wut? My favorite was always "Geschirrspülmaschine," meaning dishwasher. Isn't it fun to say? My stepdad's favorite joke to tell, (and he tells it often), is: How do you say 'bra' in German? Itkeepsemfromfloppen. Get it?

Um, but I digress. The point of this post is to talk about something with which I'm sure most of you are familiar: Hair flowers. Or fascinators, as they are one-in-the-same. I think. According to Wikipedia, fascinators have only recently come back into style. Maybe Carrie Bradshaw had something to do with the come-back?

Anyway, I never thought I was going to embrace the wedding flower/fascinator trend. I don't know if I thought it to be too "fashion forward?" (lol?) or if it had anything to do with the fact that I know my mom would laugh at it, but I just never felt that I'd want to wear one, especially on a day where all eyes will be on me. *gulp*

But, really, they're EVERYWHERE. Come on, tell me you can't open a wedding magazine without flipping to a page that showcases a beautiful feathery flower affixed to the top of a fake bride's head. By fake bride, I mean model. Everything looks pretty on models...

Even so, I was intrigued. I had seen so many pretty hair flowers that I started to imagine myself wearing one with my veil. I even added a cute little flower to the picture I drew of myself for the banner on my personal blog.

See?

I decided I'd go ahead and make one. If I don't like it, I don't have to wear it amirite? I turned to woman whom everyone turns to should they need a DIY tutorial, Martha. I remembered that she had a fabric and paper flower feature a few months back. I know a few of the Bees have already blogged about their fabric flowers, but I figured I'd join in the fun. Just because I really like how mine turned out!

I'm not going to write a complete tutorial. They're very simple and all the instructions can be found at marthastewartweddings.com.

I chose to use the garden rose template, which calls for you to cut out many flower-shaped layers and stack them all together. I went to JoAnn last week and used a 50% off coupon on a yard of red silk dupioni fabric. It had just the right amount of sheen and structure. The only downside is that it frays very easily.

The first flower I made used the medium sized template.

I layered all my layers up, pinned each petal through the entire stack of fabric and cut them all at once. Martha doesn't tell you to do this, but she's probably not as lazy as I am. This saved a ton of time.

Mr. Doxie resized these pictures for me, and the quality got a little bit wonky. Sorry.

It took about five minutes to cut all the layers out. Make sure your scissors are sharp! I separated all the layers, then stacked them back up and sort of staggered them. I didn't pay much attention to the template when cutting, and one side ended up with petals much smaller than the other. I made sure to put each layer opposite of the last, so that my finished flower would be even.

Assembling the flower is really as easy as folding the circle in half, tacking it with a few stitches, then folding it in half again, and sewing the seam shut with a few stitches.

It took about three minutes with a needle and thread before my flower was finished. It was oookay. A little small, a little boring.

I don't want a huge take-over-your-head sort of flower, but something a little bit larger than that. It was probably about three inches across. Cute, though. Maybe I'll gift those to the bridesmaids for their hair.

I tried again, this time using the large template, and adding more layers. I want to say the first flower was nine layers of fabric? I didn't count, but that sounds about right.

Attempt #2 had 17 layers of silk. I also purchased some red tulle* because I thought it might give it a little more dimension.

My camera battery died before I could get a picture of the finished product on its own, but Mr. Doxie did snap a few shots of it in my hair!

I apologize for my messy hair, guys.

My cheap little camera really doesn't do it any justice, but I think the flower looks great. The silk is so pretty; it really makes it look like it was expensive. But! With my 50% coupon, it only cost about $3.00 to make.

Now I have to make the veil to attach it to! My mom hasn't seen it yet, and I'm pretty sure she's going to scoff, but I don't care. It's very pretty, and it's going to look great with my dress.

Did you end up wearing or using something that you never though you would?

*When I went to check out at JoAnn's, the kid who rang me up told me that my "tulley" didn't qualify for my coupon because it was already on sale. Really? How do you work at a fabric store and pronounce it "tulley?"

THE ONE.

2010-03-02T17:38:00.000-08:00

No, I don't mean Mr. Dachshund. Though he certainly is the guy for me, I'm not talking about that "One". This "One" is The One that I never thought I'd find! The One that took my breath away, that I had to have. This One is my dress.

While I personally wouldn't mind Mr. D seeing the dress before the wedding, he's pretty adamant about keeping it secret. So, if by chance you're reading, don't go any further!

As mentioned here and here, dress shopping wasn't the most pleasant of experiences for me. When I left David's Bridal, I was optimistic but still worried. While I was determined to find a dress that looked beautiful on me, I wasn't sure I'd find what I had in mind.

When I continued my search on the internet, I was reacquainted with the beautiful dresses by Stephanie James Couture. While she had two dresses that would be absolutely perfect, they were just outside of my budget. I forwarded them to my Aunt anyway; they were tooo beautiful not to share.

Then, my Google sleuth of an Aunt, (Remember, she's the one that found our venue!) forwarded me this website. Have you heard of Dolly Couture? Visit their website. Beautiful, vintage inspired dresses on the cheap!

Can you guess which dress I fell in love with?

*swooooooon*

Is it not amaaaazing? It's exactly what I had pictured. If I could design a dress for myself, it would look like that! I shot the ladies at Dolly Couture an email asking if I could have this dress finished early enough for our May wedding. Of course! I could receive it in six weeks with a nominal rush fee.

Relief washed over me. I knew that I had found it. Because Dolly lives in Tarzana, which is a short two-hour drive from me, (and because I can always use the excuse to go down and visit Ikea) I decided to schedule an appointment at her home to hopefully try on some dresses and have my measurements taken.

Well, unfortunately the trying on was a no-go. The largest size dress she had at her home was a size 8, and believe me when I say there was no way that was getting on. It wasn't for lack of trying, though! Dolly was so sweet, though. She apologized, let me know that she thinks the Beverlywood dress will be perfect for my body shape, and we started taking measurements.

My dress will be slightly different than the stock Beverlywood, though. I'm having enough length added so that it hits me below mid-calf, and my sleeves will be slightly longer.

And because I can't get enough pictures of it:

Via Style Me Pretty

I looove it. So, so much. I can't wait to get it in the mail in a few weeks! Can you imagine it with my shoes?

source

The best part? When I showed those pictures to Stepmom Doxie, she mentioned that her grandmother had a veil very similar to the one on the model, and that it's safely stored in a hat box at her sister's house. I'm crossing my fingers that it's in good shape!

Did anyone else purchase a dress without even trying it on? Did you find your "one" on the internet?

Vans Vs. Converse

2010-02-26T12:49:00.000-08:00

I knooow my next post was supposed to be the big dress reveal. But this is a matter of utmost importance!

Our groomsmen need to be informed about their shoe situation. This is a difficult task considering I haven't yet made that decision!

And boy is it a difficult decision to make. Waaay back in the beginning of our engagement, back when we chose our colors, I had mentioned that I'd like for our guys to wear red converse with their suits. I mentioned this casually way back when. Yesterday, we received an email from a concerned groomsman regarding their shoes and what they should purchase.

I told them I'd let them know by Sunday. Before I do that, I'd like your input! I can't decide between Vans or Converse. I'm a Vans girl myself, but Converse has so many more customization options!

The Facts: Our groomsmen will be wearing casual, grey suits. I've given them general color guidelines and have told them to purchase a suit that they'd be able to wear again. Our bridesmaids will be wearing a minty aqua colored dress with red flats. And well, you've all seen my shoes.

The Choices:

Vans:

source

Personally, I've always found Vans to be more comfortable than Converse. Maybe it's because I have wide Fred Flintstone feet. *Shrug* I'm not sure if the grey shoes will clash with the suit if they're different shades. The only custom aspect of the red Vans is the grey stripe.

Converse:

source

The "make-your-own" Converse have many more customization options. From the shoelaces to the stitching, you can even add a short ID on the heel stripe. These shoes are (Product)Red and 15% of the price goes to the fight against AIDS. So that's pretty cool.

They also have these (which I might have to buy for myself):

Buuuut, I don't think our groomsmen want hearts on their shoes!

Maybe some white "bridal" converse for yours truly? : )

So what do you think? Should we go with:
A. Grey Vans
B. Red Vans
C. Grey Converse
D. Red Converse
E. Skip the tennies all together and stick with dress shoes

Thanks guys!

Biting the Bullet

2010-02-24T15:41:00.000-08:00

Alternatively: The David's Bridal Rejects

First of all, thank you all so, so much for your kind words in regards to my last post. I cried reading a few of the comments you left; hearing your stories touched my heart. It really makes it easier knowing that I'm not alone in my fears and insecurities. And y'all telling me that I'm beautiful? Shucks guys. We all are!

So like I said, a few weeks ago I finally got the courage to suck it up and go dress shopping. We figured David's bridal was as good a place as any to begin looking. I made an appointment and went online to search for dresses that I liked to use a starting point. I was pretty surprised with a few of their newer additions. Call me Debbie Downer, but I wasn't really expecting to find anything I liked.

I printed out this collage to show my consultant. All photos taken from David's Bridal website.

When we pulled into the parking lot I was really, really nervous to go into the store. I had no idea what to expect as I had read bad reviews of the consultants at this particular David's Bridal. It was a madhouse. I don't remember my consultant's name, but I do remember that her sweater looked like she had just pulled it from the bottom of her laundry hamper. Don't people know how to iron?

Anyway, Wrinkly Sweater Girl (hereby referred to as WSG) took me aside, asked me if I'd ever been in the store before and then took my measurements. She measured my waist to be seven inches larger than my bust.* WTF, WSG? I knew that had to be wrong... Your waist is the smallest part of your body, right? By her measurements, I'd fit into a size 28. Wut?

She took me over to the "women's section" which housed the plus-sized dresses. I believe they went up to size 26. After seeing them, I told her I think a size 20 would probably fit better. I have a pretty good eye at what will and won't fit me. I've had this body for a while, after all!

Fine. WSG asked me what I was looking for in a gown. I told her I wanted something simple and modern, with a bit of a vintage flair. I didn't want: beading, excessive lace, satin, a train, shiny material. Good luck meeting those standards in the women's section of david's bridal!

After she had shown me about eight dresses, all of which I shot down, she tracked down the dresses from the picture that I brought in. I was able to try on dress 1, 2, and 4 (in the picture above) in my size. I didn't love any of them. (I do have photos of me in the dresses, but they're stuck in my mom's camera! As soon as I can get them I'll share)

WSG brought me dress 3, which I was looking forward to trying on. However, they only had a size 14 in the store. Against my protests, my mother came into the dressing room and attempted zipping me into a dress that was four sizes too small. "You know, this would have been easier had you been going to the gym for the past year," she casually remarked.

*blink*

No shit?

I know that my mom isn't intentionally mean to me. I say nasty things to her, too, on occasion, about which I always feel terrible afterward. Sometimes I feel like mothers and daughters are biologically in-tune with one another, allowing us to tactically press each others buttons in just the right way to allow for maximum pain. That and she's going through menopause, so I ignore her verbal diarrhea most of the time. (Aunt Lori, if you're reading, don't tell her I wrote that!)

That was the low of my day.

The highlight? There was a bride two fitting rooms down who was a few sizes larger than me. I was fortunate enough to see her come out of the dressing room and to see the look on her face when she saw herself in the dress. She lit up; she was absolutely glowing! The dress was lovely on her, and you could tell that she felt beautiful. I wish that I would have told her how pretty she looked in it, but I was too shy. Instead, I just smiled.

She gave me hope. I didn't find anything I liked that day, but I knew then that the perfect dress was out there for me. I wasn't going to stop looking until my face lit up like hers!

All in all, my experience was mostly positive. WSG wasn't very attentive, but she was nice enough. As for the rest of the dresses, dress 5 was the same as dress 1 (oops) and dress 6 wouldn't be ready for the wedding if I were to order it, so I didn't bother trying.

So I didn't find anything I liked at David's Bridal. A few dresses came close, but definitely not close enough. We were back to square one, but at least we got our first dress excursion out of the way. The first hurdle is always the most difficult!

How many stores did you visit before you found your dress?

*A few days later when the woman fitted me for the dress I purchased, she measured my waist to be a whopping 10 inches smaller than WSG's measurements. L2measuring tape, WSG!

I am a plus-sized bride.

2010-02-23T13:01:00.000-08:00

I've struggled with my weight from a very young age. I was a size 13/14 by the time I was in eighth grade and I've fluctuated between an 18/20 since I graduated high school. My body image has been poor for as long as I can remember; it's only been Mr. Dachshund's love that has allowed me begin to view myself in a different light. When he tells me that I'm beautiful, I know in my heart that he is absolutely genuine. He makes me feel beautiful. My self-image has improved exponentially in the time that Mr. Dachshund and I have been together.

It may have been more logical for this post to have gone up around the beginning of my blogging for Weddingbee because being plus-sized is something that so many brides relate to and identify with. I agree that I should have written this much sooner, but I was so nervous that my size would be the one thing that became my identity as a Weddingbee blogger. I’m not sure what exactly I wanted to build my blogging identity around, but I certainly didn’t want to become “The plus-sized Bee” right out of the starting gate.

It’s come time for me to share my dress shopping experience, and I don’t think I can do that without this preface. As a plus-sized bride, every insecurity that I’ve ever had about my body has come flooding back in full force. I can’t remember the last decision I’ve made for this wedding where the thought of my weight wasn’t in the back of my mind.

I have an amazing photographer, but I was scared that I’d end up hating our wedding pictures because I didn't think I could be a pretty bride.

Remember my beautiful shoes? I hesitated buying them because I was worried that they’d look ridiculous on me.

The same goes for veils, makeup, hairstyles… Anything that I can twist in my mind to make myself believe that they’ll draw negative attention and judgment.

The number one, top-of-the-list wedding task that has caused me an endless amount of anxiety has been my dress. Most brides tackle this task first out of sheer excitement for finding their wedding dress. It’s something they’ve dreamt of their whole lives and when they find “the one,” it is the moment they feel like a bride. Me? I was certain I’d never have that moment. I was dreadIng dress shopping to the point where I’d change the subject should anyone mention it.

I was terrified of being undressed in a room full of strangers and gorgeous, perfect brides. I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to fit into any of the samples, or that the consultants would laugh or ignore me when I entered the store. I didn’t want to imagine the disappointment that I knew I would experience, so I put it off.

I had been engaged for ten months before I considered looking for a dress, and I only did so then because I was afraid I would never find anything if I didn’t. So, with only three-and-a-half months left until the wedding, my mom, aunt and I went to David’s bridal.

While I didn’t find anything at DB (I knew I wouldn’t), a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I had taken the first step, and it wasn’t bad at all.

I’m writing this because I know there are plus-sized brides out there who are postponing shopping for their dresses because they’re insecure, or just scared that they won’t find anything. Please believe me when I tell you that I understand just how scary it is. I’ve been in your position. I’ve shed tears because I never thought I would find a dress that could make me as pretty as the brides on SMP. But honestly, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined it to be. Really and Truly. There are so, so, so many options out there for you; by waiting, it’s you that’s limiting yourself. You will find something that does make you feel as beautiful as you are in your fiancé’s eyes.

I found my perfect dress, and I’ll share it soon, but I wouldn’t have been able to purchase it had I waited any longer; I was lucky. So no more waiting! Grab someone you love and go find the dress of your dreams!

Has planning your wedding brought any of your old insecurities back to front-and-center?

Gocco'd Invites: Take Two

2010-02-22T13:13:00.000-08:00

After my first attempt at gocco printing our invitation sleeves went awry, I was determined to master the screen-burning/printing technique during my second attempt this weekend. I'm happy to report that round two was (mostly) a success!

I did have a few mishaps: Two of the bulbs I used while trying to burn our names onto the screen were duds, causing an uneven master; only one side of the image burned correctly, and because I wasn't sure if you can expose an original multiple times, I decided to wait until this evening to try again with a fresh copy.

I was, however, able to create a crisp burn of our quote to print on the bottom of our sleeves. Remember last time a few letters didn't turn out? Well, I followed the advice I received (Thanks guys, the Hive is great!) and mounted my original on card stock and ironed it (to get rid of excess carbon?) Worked like a charm!

I really, really love the white gocco ink on this paper. It makes me smile : ) Working with the white ink is a pain, though-- it's so freakin' thick. I had to use a TON of it to get even prints.

I had to use so much ink that it bled over my ink blocking material. I constantly scraped it up and tried to put it back in the center because I didn't want to waste ink.

Between cutting the sleeves out with the Cricut and SCAL, gocco'ing them and folding/assebling them, gocco'ing them was by far the fastest step... even though I'm only halfway done. I got through all of them pretty quickly. The hardest part is folding and assembling them. That takes foreverrr.

I was gocco'ing like crazy for a good 45 minutes. Furbaby Doxie was jealous that my attention wasn't on her!

It wasn't long before I had a few racks (plus a large amount of floorspace) filled with goccoed sleeves.

I can't waaaait until they're all done. They're going to look something like this:

That's the fabric that will back our invitations. Imagine our names on top of the heart. I'm really happy with them so far : )

On a side note, Mr. Dachshund is always wary when I begin a craft, because the whole house inevitably looks like this:

White paint on the floor from a ceiling painting accident D:

I'm glad that I finally settled on my invitation design, that the gocco is working as I'd imagined, and that I know I'll be able to finish them in time. Believe me, I was worried. I have a tendency to dream up DIY projects that are way too complicated! I'm excited to show you the next few steps of our invitation suite process and hope that you enjoy them as much as I do.

Did you DIY your invitations? What was the most complicated and tedious element?

Also! I have a ton of little heart cut-outs. Do any of you have suggestions as to how I should use them? They're way too cute to throw out.

Gocco Fail

2010-02-19T13:25:00.000-08:00

I asked for a gocco for Christmas. I know that it may not have been the wisest choice considering gocco supplies are becoming increasingly expensive and difficult to find, but it was just one of those have-to-have things. Searching for Gocco'd invitations was, after all, how I found Weddingbee!

So, I ended up receiving a PG-10 Gocco for Christmas and I let it sit. It sat in its box for about two months, half because I hadn't finalized an invitation design, and half because I was a little intimidated by the whole process. Sure, I'd watched enough videos online to know how the gocco works, but I was pretty nervous I'd ruin my precious screens.

A few nights ago I decided I wanted to try it out. My invitation suite design is finished, and I knew I had to get on the ball making the invites because they have to go out soon! Eek! (And they're going to take forever) The sleeve I designed and used the Cricut to cut had the simplest gocco design, so I figured that'd be the best place to start.

Blank, assembled sleeve. Our invitations will be fabric-backed, and the fabric will show through the heart cutout.

The Sleeves are cut from Paper Source's cover-weight paper in pool, template designed in illustrator and cut on the Cricut via Sure Cuts A Lot. The plan is to have our names above the heart, and a quote below, all in white gocco ink.

I printed out my design elements using the laser printer at work, and assembled them on the registration plate.

I used the sleeve to eyeball the spacing, but removed it before burning my screen. I was hoping I'd be able to burn the screen so that I'd be able to print the whole sleeve with one press.

Quote reads: "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. -- Dr. Seuss"

When everything was in place, I inserted my screen and the blue UV filter (because I'm not sure when I should and shouldn't use it, I thought I'd be safe), and was almost ready to burn my screen. Nervous!

The bulbs went into the lamp housing, and the housing went on top of the gocco. I was so nervous, I forgot to take pictures of those steps!

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and pushed down. Nervouuuus! I've gotta say, this part was pretty anti-climactic. I'm not sure what I expected, TBH... I think I saw a bit of the flash through closed eyes, and I could hear the bulbs crack faintly for about four seconds, then it was over. I was excited to see if my first screen burned successfully!

The design sticks to the screen after burning, so I peeled it away and was left with my prepared screen. You can definitely see where the film has been removed from the screen, so it's easy to inspect for any mistakes. For the mooost part, my screen turned out okay. But, I was disappointed to see a small flaw:

The Y on "finally" didn't turn out! Ugh. I know that I can always burn it again, but I hate using more bulbs than I need to. Oh wells. I was still excited about playing with the gocco, so I printed our names on a few of the sleeves.

The cool thing about the gocco model I have (I'm not sure if they all come with this?) is that it has a clear plastic registration plate. You can print on that, place your paper on the sticky mat under it, and move the sticky mat until the gocco'd design is where you need it to be.

Our names printed on the registration plate

The registration plate lies flat over our sleeve, so that we can reposition the sticky mat as need be. The sleeve needs to be moved to the left a little; our names are too high up.

Everything was in place, so I went ahead and pressed down to print.

I really like the white ink on the pool paper, but my prints weren't exactly even. The middle printed really well, but the edges were much lighter.

The B in Mr. Doxie's name didn't come out very well, and the dot over my J didn't seem to be closed.

So, my first round of gocco attempts didn't turn out very well. But I'm optimistic! Round two's going down this Sunday and I know that they'll come out better. I can't wait to see all of the sleeves finished; I know I'll love them when they're done!

How many of you learned to use a new (to you) crafting gadget for your wedding crafts? Were you successful on your first try? Do any of you have any super gocco tips for me?

The Finale!

2010-02-11T13:03:00.000-08:00

Okay, okay. So it's been a week since I left you all wondering whether or not Mr. Doxie and I were able to book our perfect venue.

Well, I was on pins and needles waiting for the owner of Victorian Gardens of Two Sisters to return my call regarding available dates in May. Our venue search hadn't exactly been smooth up to this point, so I readied myself for disappointment as I was waiting on her call. Would I be sad if she didn't have a day for us? Of course. But I had to remind myself that it wouldn't be the end of the world; sometimes I forget that I'll always have options.

By the time the phone finally rang, I was positive she wouldn't be able to help us. Murphy isn't a very nice acquaintance to have, after all, and I'm a pessimist. I was completely taken aback by her response! Not only was there one Saturday available in May, but since it's during a Canadian three-day weekend, it was our ideal date!

"HOLD IT FOR ME PLEASE!" I made an appointment to see it the next day.

As Daddy Doxie, Step Mom Doxie and I made the drive up to Kingsburg, I could feel the butterflies in my stomach. When we pulled in the driveway I could tell it was just as beautiful in person as it was in the photos; it was April and everything was in bloom. Flowers everywhere you looked! It was absolutely perfect. My family agreed and Daddy Doxie pulled out his checkbook and wrote a check for our deposit.

As she opened her datebook to pencil us in, she frowned and looked at us nervously. Tragically, as fate would have it, she had made a terrible mistake...

... Just kidding!

Everything worked out swimmingly! There were no heartbreaking mistakes and misunderstandings this time. We found our perfect venue, and we can't wait to be married there! We were also pretty relieved that the tale of our venue search had finally come to an end. I would have had a hard time dealing with another let down without Mr. Doxie there for support.

I guess everything does work out for a reason; now if only I could remember that all the time!

How does your venue-search-story go? Is it akin to a long, drawn-out novel, or an upbeat short story?

If you want t see more of our gorgeous venue, visit www.victoriangardens.biz/

The Saga Continues

2010-02-04T13:06:00.000-08:00

When I last left off, I had just experienced my first wedding let-down. The venue with which I fell in love, for which I was ready to hand over a check, was just stolen out from under my feet! I went home upset, cried a little, and wished that Mr. Doxie was there to comfort me (this was all before he moved to the States). I quickly decided that being sad wasn't going to help me find another venue and I continued my search.

I found a few venues in the area that were just as lovely, but they all had so many rules! No outside food or drink; reception must be finished by 10pm; no alcohol other than wine; no candles; etc. etc. I know that those rules are pretty standard, but jeez! It's our wedding, and we wanted to have a little more control!

We did find one venue that looked great on paper, but when we got there it looked like a backyard. I've seen some pretty awesome backyard weddings, but if we're going to pay a few thousand dollars for a venue I'd like a little more than a lawn and a patio covered with Astroturf.

A few weeks into our search, and still a little dejected, I received a phone call from my aunt who was directing me to the website of a venue located in an adjacent town.

Excited, my aunt asked what I thought.

"Hooold on, it's still loading." We live out in the country, you see. Our internet is sloow. "Ohh, this looks promising!"

I was surprised to find images of a gorgeous home:

Surrounded by well manicured gardens:

Complete with separate areas for the ceremony and reception:

And ample parking!

Well, it looked pretty enough! I decided that this could be a top contender, depending on the price and stipulations.

I gave the owner a call and asked for some details. Rental of the facilities would be $3000, which was a little higher than we expected to pay, but we'd be able to bring in our own caterers which would save a lot of money. The reception would have to be finished by 11:30 pm due to the county's sound ordinance, but other than that there were no restrictions. Then I asked the most important question: Was there a Saturday available in May?*

She wasn't sure. She knew that May was pretty full, but was away from her date-book and would give me a call as soon as she got home.

With my hopes up, I anxiously awaited her phone call. A few hours passed before she finally called me back. I crossed my fingers, picked up the phone, and let out a little sigh as she gave me her response. I definitely wasn't prepared for what she had to say.

Stay tuned to find out if she had a date available for us!

How long did it take you to find the perfect venue?

*Under any other circumstance, we wouldn't have been so adamant about our wedding being in May. However, after June, California's Central Valley gets hotter than Hades... we didn't want our Canadian guests to melt! FIL Doxie's involvement in the Winter Olympics will keep him occupied until the end of April. May was the only viable month, lest we wait until Fall.

Eeeeeeeep!

2010-01-26T13:42:00.000-08:00

omgomgomgomgomg.

O M G.

Mooonths ago I fell in love with the most AMAZING shoes ever. Like, there are a lot of shoes that I dig, but these took my breath away. I would have ordered them right away had it not been for the $165 price tag. ($190 after tax!). I haven't had shoes that expensive since, well... ever. I went back and forth on the matter for a few days, and finally I decided to bite the bullet and buy them. They are for my wedding after all, right? So I logged into Anthropologie.com, clicked on "Shoes and Bags," then "Heels," and clicked through page 1 (Hrm, that's funny, they were on the first page a few days ago), page 2 (uhhh), page 3...

My perfect shoes-- the ONLY shoes I could ever imagine myself wearing on my wedding day-- were sold out. Apparently I wasn't the only one whose breath they stole. Needless to say I was more than a little upset. I called Anthro's customer service line, and was informed that they were completely sold out. I got the manufacturer's name; still no luck. Defeated, I gave up my search.

Then! Oh, oh, oh!

Today, for whatever reason, I decided to look at Anthro's shoe selection to see if they might have anything else cute. Shoes and bags, *click*. Heels, *click*. *GASP*!!

My shoes! And the only size left is mine!? You'd better believe I snatched those up! So, in five to seven days I'll be the proud owner of the perfect shoe.

And because I made you read all that when I know all you care about is the picture:

swooooon

If they don't fit, my second wedding-planning-mishap induced cry will be inevitable.

Did you have any trouble finding your perfect wedding shoes? Were they pricier than you had hoped?

Long Overdue

2010-01-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

Despite the fact that our venue was the first decision we made, and the first wedding check to be written, I've yet to blog about it! I could never decide just how to attack my venue search posts, because at the time I had decided that I had absolutely the worst experience searching for a venue in all of wedding-planning history. It wasn't a story I wanted to revisit. Now, I've realized that our venue search was actually fairly simple, with very few speed bumps. Because it was the basis for my first wedding related disappointment, and my first (and only, I hope) wedding planning tears, the whole ordeal left a bad taste in my mouth. But I'm over it, and I'm ready to share my experience with you!

I started planning our wedding with the assumption that I wouldn't find anything I liked, venue-wise or other, in this hodunk-middle-of-nowhere-town. I had little hope before I even started to look, simply because I didn't know what was available. So I turned to Google. "Tulare wedding venues," I typed. Wouldn't you know it, my only two business results were International Agri-Center and Tulare County Fairgrounds.

Blech and blech. Google, you didn't help subside my doubts at all!

So, I endured a few weeks of my parents trying to convince me to go with the banquet hall at the Intl. Agri-Center, and I was almost fed up. Then, by word of mouth, I started to hear of some gardeny type venues that seemed much more my style... because we all know that whenever you mention to anyone that you're getting married, they respond with, "Oh! My second-cousin's-daughter's-best-friend's sister got married (insert random location here!)"

Well, thank you dozens of random people. With some of their suggestions, I had a decent list of venues to check out!

So, I started calling.

Apparently, May is a very busy month for weddings. PSA: Ladies. If you're planning on getting married in May of 2011, book your venue now. Holy cow, it was only April and May (of the next year, obv) was already completely booked at about half of the venues I was calling.

Then. I found it. The perfect venue. I loved everything about it, from the gorgeous pond:

To the picturesque gazebo:

To the green, green grass:

source

Can you imagine it all lit up at night? So pretty. I loved it, Mr. D loved it, and hallelujah there was one open Saturday in May. "Perfect! Hold it for us, we'll be there tomorrow!" I exclaimed over the phone.

Daddy and Stepmom Doxie and I headed out the very next day, check in hand. We loved it just as much in person as in the photos online. Just as we sat down to discuss business, the owner looked through her datebook and hit me with words I could hardly comprehend.

"What was your date again? May? Oh, looks like I booked the last Saturday in May this morning." She flipped through pages and pages. "We have an opening in October if you're interested."

And I cried. It wasn't my finest moment, but at least I can say I made it to my car before the faucets turned on!

Up next: I put my disappointment aside and weigh my options.

What was your first planning disappointment? Was your search for the perfect venue easy-peasy, or was it much more difficult than you imagined?

Will Our Wedding Look Like That?

2010-01-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, Mr. Dachshund saw the movie Big Fish for the first time. It's my favorite Tim Burton movie (though I suspect that might change in a few months), and I was surprised that he had never heard of it. Much to my disappointment, Mr. D didn't show much interest in the film... though I wasn't really surprised; our tastes in movies are vastly different.

There was, however, one scene in which Mr. Dachshund perked up, turned to me, and asked, "Will our wedding look like that?"

Can any of you who've seen the movie guess which scene I'm talking about?

The town of Spectre, where the grass is greener than any other, and is soft enough to tread upon without shoes. And, ohhhh.... Those lights!

Mr. D, I can only dream that our wedding will look like that.

Since then, I've done a little bit of research and the lights aren't too far out of reach, but I still need to contact my venue owner to see if hanging them would even be possible. I love, love the look, and I love even more how excited Mr. Dachshund was over them! I know he'd be really happy if I could pull something like this together.

Have you or your fiance(e) found inspiration from Hollywood, or in an otherwise unexpected form?

I'm Torn!

2010-01-15T12:54:00.000-08:00

Hokay. So. When I last left you, Mr. Dachshund and I had already decided to go with a three-layer cake, and we had a super-awesome design drawn up by Liz at Creme de la Cake. As soon as we left the bakery, however, I started to have second thoughts. This had nothing to do with anything other than the fact that I second guess everything. I am guilty of doubting every decision I've made thus far concerning this wedding. With the exception of Mr. Dachshund; I know I'm doing the right thing there.

This is the design that Liz and I came up with during our consultation:

Liz did a fantastic job of pulling details from all of my inspiration cakes and putting them together to make one, cohesive cake design.

Layer One: Red velvet cake (because it was delicious and will look great when we cut into it), is covered in white fondant, a red fondant band rolled to mimic grosgrain ribbon, and a line of stitching-like dots.

Layer Two: Vanilla bean cake with chocolate malted buttercream (swoooon), covered in dark aqua fondant with a quilted design pressed into it. Red dots at each intersection.

Layer Three: Vanilla bean cake with key lime filling, light aqua fondant topped with red and white sugar flowers.

And because the hand drawing might be hard to interpret, I drew this in Illustrator:

I do really like it, but I'm still drawn to the look of a two-layer cake. Plus, this cake has a lot going on... I think I imagined something a little simpler. Mr. Dachshund definitely wanted something simpler, but he gave all designing rights to me on the condition that he had a say on the flavors.

Using my favorite detail of the above cake, I toyed with some other design ideas and came up with this:

I added in a cake topper from Lollipop Workshop, because I'd really like to have one for our cake. I'm not sure I would like it on top of the three-layer cake, though, as the top layer is pretty small.

What do you think, Hive? I can't decide between the two! Knowing that I no longer need to freeze a layer for our anniversary cake, should I go with the original three-layer design, or my version of a two-layer cake?

Anyway, this Cake is Great...

2010-01-14T16:02:00.000-08:00

...it's so delicious and moist!*

Unfortunately for Chell, the cake was most certainly a lie. I'll bet that if she had a big, delicious cake waiting for her at the end of her, um, adventures, her tumultuous journey may have been worth it. Especially if that cake was made by Liz at Creme de la Cake in Fresno!

Remember waaay back in October when I blogged about my cake inspiration? I was so excited to have found Creme de la Cake, which is truly a diamond in the rough in this area, but I had to wait for Mr. Doxie to get in the country before we had our consultation. Well, true to form, I put it off for three months. Not because I wasn't looking forward to nomming on some delish cake, but because, well, I'm a procrastinator.

Last week I shot the owner, Liz, an email to make an appointment, and in her response she informed me that there was only room for one more cake on our wedding day! This is why it's bad to procrastinate, kids. We just happened to get lucky; I would have been seriously bummed if she couldn't make our cake.

Anyway, armed with a stack of inspiration photos, and one of my favorite Christmas gifts:

(Cutest cake stand evah from Crate and Barrel)

we headed to Fresno to meet Liz, fill up on some sugar, and come up with an awesome cake design!

Liz was great! She asked us a few questions, looked at my inspiration photos, grabbed some colored pencils and started drawing out a super cute design right away. I loved all of her ideas; it really seemed like we were on the same wavelength.

Our first step was to choose the basic shape of the cake. I was torn between wanting two layers, and wanting a small top layer to freeze for our anniversary.

(Sorry for bad camera phone pictures!)

Ultimately, we decided to go with a small, three-layer cake.

Next up were the flavour (Mr. Doxie's Canadian spellings are rubbing off on me : ) choices! I really hoped the cakes were as tasty as they are beautiful... really, what good is a gorgeous cake if it's not yummy?

We were given five varieties of cakes to sample. From left to right: Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, vanilla bean cake with chocolate malted and chocolate fudge buttercream, vanilla bean cake with key lime filling, banana cake (I forgot what kind of frosting, but it was delicious! Sorry!), annnd German chocolate cake and frosting.

All five were absolutely delicious! It didn't help that Mr. Doxie and I went hungry, or that we just love cake in general. I think we both wished the cake samples were a little bigger!

I'm pretty sure this was Mr. D's favorite wedding planning event so far!

It didn't take long for our plate to look like this:

Can you tell which was our favorite?

Liz did an excellent job of pulling elements from all of my inspiration pictures and making the work in one cake design, and I was really excited about what she drew! I imagined her cake sitting on my cake stand, and it was pretty adorable in my head, let me tell you.

So, in only a matter of about 30 minutes, we came up with a design, chose flavours, and paid the deposit! I couldn't believe it went so smoothly! Honestly, I'm very, very grateful that I came across Creme de la Cake during one of my Google sessions.

So we were all set! We have until ten days before the wedding to make any design changes, though I didn't think I would.

Right as we were leaving, Mr. Dachshund thought of a question to ask, "How well will our top layer hold up in the freezer for a year?"

"Oh, I don't want my clients to eat old, frozen cake! I'll make you a free anniversary cake, decorated like the top layer of your wedding cake!"

Super, I thought! A free anniversary cake will be really nice! We thanked her, and left.

But then, as we were driving away, I remembered that third layer... should I keep it even if we won't be freezing it?

Up next: Our cake design!

Was designing your wedding cake a long process, or was it a relatively simple task?

*Props to anyone who got my Portal reference!

Commemorating Our First Christmas

2009-12-01T13:15:00.000-08:00

The holiday season has officially begun, and I am so, so, so thankful to be spending it with Mr. Dachshund this year. It's our first Christmas together, and I can't wait to mesh both of our traditions and to begin making our own!

In the past month or so since the Christmas decorations have been out in stores, (does it seem like it goes up earlier every year!?) I've been searching for a "First Christmas Together" ornament to commemorate the end of our long-distance. There were a lot of wedding cake ornaments, and while Mr. D and I are technically married, none of those felt right.

Finally, during a random Etsy browing session today, I found the perfect ornaments! And, they're made by a seller who is not a stranger to Weddingland: Paloma's Nest.

I love all of them, but the bottom right is my favorite. Not only is it beautiful, but the symbolism is understated yet still meaningful. It's definitely going to be a treasured keepsake in the Doxie househould around Christmastime for years to come!

I'm glad that the search for the perfect first ornament had a happy ending; I can't wait to get it and hang it on our tree!

What did you/are you doing to celebrate your first holiday season together? Did you find the perfect ornament, gift or tradition to commemorate the occasion?

The Doxie Save-the-Dates: The Finishing Touch

2009-11-30T13:58:00.000-08:00

Some of you may remember my recent Cricut purchase, and the save-the-date mockup that I made as my first cutting project. Well, it's been two months since I've acquired my favorite new toy and I've definitely been using it enough to get my money's worth! So far, completing our save-the-dates has been my Cricut's biggest project. With only six months left on our countdown, marking this project off our to-do list couldn't have come soon enough!

I'm thrilled with how they turned out! But! Before I reveal them completely, I need to fill you all in:

Do you remember my mockup? Cute (if I do say so myself), but there was a big empty space on top that needed filling!

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to include a magnet into our save-the-dates, but I had no idea what to put on them! Mr. Doxie and I haven't yet taken our engagement photos, and I wanted them to be something that people would enjoy.

In my pre-beedom, I coveted the creativity of all the bees. I still do, in fact! In my obsessive Weddingbee stalking, I came across some adooooorable illustrations by Mrs. Gummi Bear. Mrs. French Bulldog used one for her rehersal dinner invitations, and she's done some commissions for a handful of Bees. I fell in love immediately after seeing Mr. and Mrs. FB on the chinese takeout box! I HAD to have an illustration of Mr. Doxie and me, and I decided that our STD magnets would be its perfect home!

Just a few weeks after contacting Mrs. Gummi Bear via her Etsy shop, she sent me the cutest illustation of us, ever! I expected to be pleased, but I was blown away with how perfect it was; and it was such a pleasure to work with Mrs. GB.

So without further ado:

Gah! That looks exactly like Mr. Dachshund! (We decided it be cute to poke fun at Mr. D's height)

Mrs. Gummi Bear sent me the illustration as a .psd file, and I used Vistaprint to turn them into magnets. After shipping, it was $60.35 for 100 magnets. They're a little thin, but the image quality is great.

Here they are, at home on their completed save-the-date!

I just have a few more address labels to complete, and some details on our website to fill in, and they'll be ready to send out. I can't wait for people to receive theirs in the mail; I still can't get over what a great job Mrs. Gummi Bear did!

How many of you are/have sending out magnets with your save-the-dates? What did you put on them?

Playing Catch Up

2009-11-17T13:00:00.000-08:00

Okay. So I’m not going to start this post with another apology for my absence. I know I’ve been a slacking blogger. But, even worse, I’ve been a slacking bride.

As you all well know, we’re more than halfway through the month of November. Wait, what? NOVEMBER?!? Our wedding is six months away and I’ve not accomplished very much.

Where in the world has the time gone?

source

I will admit that adjusting to my new life with Mr. Doxie has been a bit distracting, but man! Time really does fly. Not only can I not believe it's already been seven months since Mr. Dachshund and I decided to get married, but he's already been here for a month! A whole month has passed, in which nothing related to our wedding in May was completed. It goes without saying that "wedding overdrive" is about to commence in the Doxie household!

However, the holidays are rapidly approaching, and procrastination is the easy route to choose for this dachshund. I'm almost nervous that the long, long laundry list of my to-do tasks will be ignored until the new year. Almost. I really can't afford to procratinate any longer; in addition to the huge amount of crafting that I've decided to undertake for the wedding (the amount of which I've actually finished is only a drop in the bucket), I still have one huuuge thing that I haven't yet taken care of: The Dress.

I've been putting off my search for The Dress for months now, terrified that I won't find anything that will flatter my less-than-flattering body. The thought of shopping for one just isn't appealing. At all. I mean, I have an idea of what I'd like, but I've convinced myself that I won't have any luck finding it. I know that unless I want one of my (many) wedding nightmares* to come true, I ~~must~~ will find a dress. But alas, I must begin shopping for one to do so. And soon! The clock is a-tickin' and I don't want to limit my already limited selection any more.

Have you procrastinated in your wedding planning, only to realize that time has snuck up on you? What did it take to get you back on track?

* I wake up on the morning of the wedding, excited to marry Mr. Doxie, and I realize that I have nothing to wear! I ran to the closest bridal salon, and after making my guests wait hours for me to choose a dress, I ended up in something like this. Definitely not a dream I want to come true!

Taking Care of Business

2009-11-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

Despite our lack of a Hallowedding, we did throw a small Halloween party. We couldn't let our invitations go to waste! We used it as an excuse to celebrate Mr. Dachshund's arrival and to spend time with our family and friends.

Mr. Doxie and I went as (a very last-minute) Frankenstein's Monster and his bride. We couldn't get the bolts to stick to his neck with the safe-for-skin glue, and after he rejected my Super Glue suggestion, I decided to just draw them in for effect : ) You can see the Halloween-fabric bunting I made hanging in the background.

After our Friday night Halloween festivities, Mr. D and I headed down to Los Angeles to continue our celebrations. We had planned on going to West Hollywood for Halloween night and partying it up with a few close friends, but Mr. Doxie was being a major party-pooper. He didn't feel well and has a pretty big aversion to cities in general. In LA he was miserable.

So we skipped West Hollywood and went to sleep early. The next morning, determined to cheer him up (and because I knew that a certain paper store was in the vicinity,) we sought out the most deliciously over-priced cupcakes in Beverly Hills.

A few pumpkin cupcakes later, we were on our way to Paper Source when what did we see!?

source

A beacon of light shone down upon that modern roof-top. So what if we're registered at Crate and Barrel when the nearest one is three hours away? We'd added a few things to the registry via the internet, but there are some things you have to see in person.

"Can we go update our registry!? PRETTY PLEASE!?"

"Uggghhhhh," Mr. Doxie groaned.

"But you'll get to play with a really cool scanner gun!"

"Ughhhhhhhhhh," he repeated as I pulled into the parking structure.

Everything started out great! Mr. Doxie, though I doubt he'd admit it, was having fun scanning things in. (That's an Altoids tin in Mr. D's pocket, not chewing tobacco!)

We even agreed on the first item that we looked at, our flatware! This was going to be effortless!

Uhhh, or so I thought. We started disagreeing on everything else. I knew Mr. D and I had different styles, I just didn't think he'd care very much about it. I was wrong.

We disagreed on our everyday dishes, wine glasses, cutting boards, sofas...

And then there were the items that were a bit overwhelming. Forget disagreement... neither of us could make a decision to begin with! How do you choose one design from a whole wall of glasses?

We managed to survive, even though I did have to do some online registry cleanup when we got home; Mr. D was a little trigger-happy.

Despite our disagreements, I'm relieved that we did decide on quite a lot of registry items. Though, I think I need to find a comprehensive checklist of registry basics so that I can cross-reference our C&B registry with the one from Macys. All-in-all, I'm happy that we made it down to Los Angeles to get this taken care of. And, I got all of our STD envelopes and paper without having to pay for shipping!

Were you and your fiancés in agreeance when it came to your registries? If not, how did you come to see eye-to-eye? Do any of you have recommendations to organize multiple registries?

We're Legal!

2009-11-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! I suppose another apology is in order; I've been the worst blogger lately, and for that I feel terrible! But things have finally settled down, and I don't foresee any more extended absences in the near future.

Anyway, a lot has happened since you've seen me last. Mr. Doxie is in California for good, thank goodness, and we got married!

Well, technically anyway.

There was a slight change in plans, though: Our legal ceremony wasn't quite the affair that we had imagined. So that we could include Mr. Doxie's parents, who would only be here for the weekend before Halloween, we decided to do a courthouse ceremony. Though it wasn't at all what we had planned, I'm glad we decided to do it that way. Our legal ceremony was intimate and special shared only with our parents.

Along with our parents, Mr. Doxie and I arrived at the elections office in Fresno at 10:15 Monday morning. It took us about ten minutes to fill out our marriage license application, and about 10 minutes for it to be processed.

Everything was processed, but our dads were missing! We were pretty anxious waiting for them as they got their coffee... I can't imagine how nervous I'll be in May! My stepmom surprised us with a small carnation bouquet and boutonniere, which I thought was really sweet.

After the Doxie Dads showed up, we were escorted into a small room and the ceremony. I was making all sorts of goofy faces... it's what I do when I'm nervous!

Goofy faces and silly smiles aside, I was thrilled to be there in that room, at that moment, marrying Mr. Doxie.

I think our parents were pretty proud to be there, too. From left to right: FIL Doxie, Doxie Stepmom and Doxie Dad. (MIL Doxie was our photographer!)

The ceremony flew by. Aside from our, "I do's," I have no recollection of what was said. I was smiling way too hard at Mr. D to pay attention to what that lady was saying to us.

After what seemed like thirty seconds, we got to kiss! We're married, holy cow!

We had our "reception" at The Elephant Bar in Fresno. It was great to be able to spend a little bit more time with Mr. Doxie's parents before they had to drive back to Canada.

We were very happy "newlyweds," obviously!

My new family is my favorite.

And my family is pretty fond of their new son-in-law!

So my past week or so has been pretty great! To clarify, though we're legally married, I'm still Miss Dachshund until May. Our legal ceremony was just something we had to do to move on with our immigration paperwork. I mentioned before that I was bummed that our wedding wouldn't be the "real deal"; now I consider myself lucky to be able to marry my love twice!

Soo, I'm sorry that our Hallowedding never was. Our legal ceremony may have fallen short of fabulous, but it was perfect for us.

Did any of you have to "make it legal" before your wedding?

Adorable Aisle Adornments

2009-10-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

From the moment I had my mind set on collecting fabrics to make our dinner napkins, I've been trying to find other ways to incorporate the fabrics to make our day seem more cohesive. So far, I've come up with ways to incorporate different fabrics into our centerpieces as flowers, on our attendants as boutonnieres (an idea I'm totally, uh, borrowing from Miss Moonbeam!), as a part of our favors, and into the invitations. Thankfully, the internet is full many, many creative and like-minded brides... I'm finding inspiration all over the place!

A few weeks ago, I saw a real wedding featured on 100layercake that made my jaw drop. Seriously. It was like wedding porn created just for me. I squealed, wished that I was as talented as the bride, and then saved the link into my favorites.

Although every DIY detail was the-cutest-thing-I've-ever-seen, one image stood out above all others:

First of all, she's wearing the dress I've been imagining for myself... which she made herself, BTW. Second of all, that's probably my absolute favorite use of fabric bunting flags. Ever.

I'm pretty sure that this bride and I would be BFFs IRL. I hope she doesn't mind that I'm planning on ~~stealing~~ borrowing her aisle decoration idea! I can't think of a more perfect way to tie together our reception and ceremony areas. Love, love, love it!

I don't really feel bad for stealing her genius idea; most ideas in wedding-land are stolen from somewhere, right!? Heck, even those that I thought were completely original have been done before by someone, I'm sure!

So. 'Fess up, ladies! What ideas have you "stolen" from other brides?

The Doxie Engagement Soiree

2009-10-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've been such a bad blogger; it's been nearly a week since I've written anything! I hope you accept my apologies... things have been pretty crazy around the Doxie household what with everything that's going on this month.

That said, I'm excited to share our engagement party with you! Mr. Doxie's parents are so incredibly sweet; they flew me to Canada this weekend to spend Thanksgiving with them. They also threw us an engagement party for about forty of their nearest and dearest. I was absolutely blown away by how warmly I was welcomed into the family. It makes me that much more excited to be Mrs. Doxie in May!

I had never been to an engagement party before, and I'll be the first to admit that I was a liiittle nervous to meet everyone. I'm a pretty shy girl. But everything was positively perfect! The party exceeded my expectations, by far.

The decorations were appropriate!

The food was deeeelicious! Seriously. Props to FMIL for making the tastiest roast I've ever had!

Although Mr. D was exhausted from his bachelor party the night before, he still looked pretty cute!

Though he did choose to skip the alcohol for the night. Also, his younger cousin found it quite amusing that we switched "bride to be" and "groom to be" buttons :D

Mr. Doxie's parents poured the champagne...

...and we toasted to finding love and happiness. Oh, and that something good finally came out of all the time Mr. D has spent on the computer! (On the left are Mr. Doxie's best man and his girlfriend)

I was overwhelmed with the amount of love that was in the house that night. Of course, I know that Mr. D is an amazing guy... it makes sense that so many people would care for him so much! During my little toast, (during which I'm sure I was bright red) I mentioned how fortunate I am to be able to marry into such an amazing family. I completely lucked out! I hope they know how grateful I am that they've made me feel so welcome already.

We wrapped up the evening with some family pictures. Can you pick out Mr. D, his dad and his brother? We're gonna have some taaalll kids!

We even received a few gifts! Completely unnecessary, and so, so generous.

The best part of the whole night? When we said our goodbyes, the majority of them said, "See you in May!" I'm so glad Mr. Doxie will be able to share our day with his family and friends! To be honest, we didn't expect so many people to make an attempt to make the trek down from Canada.

Did you have a chance to meet your fiance's family before the wedding? How'd it go?

Our Hallowedding: Crafting Made Simple

2009-10-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

To say that October is a busy month for us is somewhat of an understatement. Not only do we have our impending Hallwedding quickly approaching, but I'll be heading to Vancouver this weekend to spend Canadian thanksgiving with Mr. Doxie and his family, Saturday night is our engagement party (our first wedding-related event), and then I'll have to scramble to get my house future-in-law ready for Mr. D's arrival with his family. As in, deep cleaning everything and finishing all of my half-painted walls.

I'll let you in on little secret: I have a tendency to procrastinate. (If Mama Doxie's reading this, she's probably thinking that that's the understatement of the century!) Having put every other task off until the last minute, I knew that my Hallowedding craft projects needed to be quick and simple. And preferably cheap.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you wonder to yourself, "Why didn't I think of that sooner!?"

I had that exact revelation just a few days ago when I decided to attempt to make some plain-jane, glass candlestick holders black.

Obviously I've used spray paint before... I've had the occasional picture frame that needed sprucing up. However, I've never really considered it to be an important tool in wedding crafting.

This idea arose from a Target Hallowedding decor hunt in which I found some black candlesticks that dripped red wax. Target also sold a neat black candelabra, but for the amount of use it would get, it just wasn't worth twenty dollars. I bought the candlesticks in hopes that I would find some awesome Halloweeny candlestick holders. When my search was unsuccessful, I decided to try to find something at Goodwill that would be cheap enough to try to paint. I had no idea whether or not glass was spray-paintable.

I picked up four candlestick holders at Goodwill for $2.75

I picked up the cheapest gloss-black spray paint at Walmart for $.96, went home and crossed my fingers that the paint would stick to the glass!

And stick it did! I think they turned out great. You can hardly tell that they were painted; they look like black ceramic!

I was so impressed with the results that I painted this vase I've had in my pantry forever. Previously, it was a nasty puke-brown color. About $.10 worth of paint and it's something I'll continue to use in my living room, even after Halloween.

These projects were so simple and inexpensive, and I can't wait for people to see them in action. My favorite part about crafting for our Hallowedding is that I'm getting a lot of ideas for our actual wedding in May. Now that I know that I can successfully paint glass, my vision of white ceramic centerpiece vases and bowls are now well within reach.

Have you had any crafting revelations recently? How about something that turned out awesome for just pennies?

Ch-ch-changes

2009-10-07T16:26:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been forced to wait for something for so long and with such anticipation that once it rolls around it catches you completely off-guard? Well. I’d been going quietly about my day today, entering the piles of paperwork that have been covering my desk for the past month, while my mind was off in the clouds--nervous about meeting every single member of Mr. Dachshund’s extended family this weekend.

Then it hit me.

Mr. Dachshund will be here soon. In-two-weeks soon.

For.

Good.

Please don’t misunderstand; I am absolutely excited and thrilled that Mr. D and I get to start our life together, for realz. However. I’m also anxious, nervous, overwhelmed and, well, just a tiny bit terrified.

I’ve lived by myself for quite a long time. While Mr. D prooobably won’t mind my habit of walking around in my underwear, I’m sure he won’t appreciate my pants lying on the floor on the exact spot in which they were removed… a habit I’ll soon ~~have~~ try to break. I’ll let you guys in on a little secret: I suffer from an aversion to housework.

It’s not just the superficial things I’m nervous about. I’ve been waiting for this day to come for so long that I never really thought about the changes that it’d bring about… it’s a little bit scary. I think that feeling is justified… change is always scary, right?

On the other hand, sometimes change is “for the better!” When I catch myself mulling over everything in my life that will soon be different, I try to remember why living with Mr. Doxie will be wonderful:

I’ll get to wake up with him every morning
Rather than turning off the computer at night when we say goodnight, he’ll be there next to me to keep me warm
Dinner-and-a-movie isn’t quite as nice when you’re by yourself
I’ll get to kiss him every time he makes me smile (he makes me smile a lot)
I won’t have to get the stool out if I can’t reach something!
There will be less leftovers to go bad in the fridge
Our goodbyes will be for hours, not months
He makes me happier than anyone ever has, and probably ever will. So, yeah. There's that.

So! Two short, short weeks. Though I'm more nervous than I ever thought I would be, I'm beyond excited. I. Cannot. Wait. I'm ready to embrace every change that will be thrown at me!

With that in mind, what was the best change that you experienced after moving in with your SO?

My Engagement Ring's First Photo(point-and)shoot

2009-10-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

I didn't have a traditional proposal. I wasn't surprised with a ring and Mr. Dachshund never down on one knee. Really, our engagement began with the decision to finally start our fiance visa paperwork.

To be honest, I'm alright with that. In fact, because we did it that way I was able to choose my own engagement ring. I love Mr. D with all of my heart and I'm sure he would have chosen a lovely ring, but I am quite particular when it comes to the jewelry that I wear. So, a few weeks after Mr. Doxie and I made it official, I chose my engagement ring online. It was shipped directly to me, and I had it for about a month before Mr. D saw it in person. It is absolutely my dream ring and it was well within our (very small) budget. It's been on my finger for a little over two months now and I still can't help but stare at it.

A few days ago I finally tried to take a few pictures of it that weren't blurry and out of focus. Eventually I'd like to get a DSLR, but for now I'm stuck with a little Casio point-and-shoot. I think the pictures came out pretty decently, though!

When imagining my engagement ring, I always dreamed that it would have timeless, vintage details. The carving on the side of the ring was what won me over!

Of course, the side-stones and beading added to my attraction!

I am absolutely in love with my engagement ring! Even now, after it has been on my finger for six months, I still catch myself sneaking peeks at it throughout the day! Even though I picked it out, it still reminds me of Mr. Dachshund.

For the record, Mr. D did eventually propose. One night during his last visit, he and I were sitting on the porch steps while my puppy (Mini D) was taking her time searching for the perfect spot to potty. We were ready for bed, tired from our day full of activities and impatiently waiting for Juno to poop. She takes forever! Mr. D was was wearing only his boxers as he recited his cute little spiel that he had practiced. I laughed, and I think I told him I wanted a do-over when he was fully dressed and when there wasn't fresh puppy poop a few feet away : ) I joked, but I really wouldn't have had it any other way. Sure I already had the ring on my finger, but his proposal was very endearing and very us.

So, what about all of you? What came first, the proposal or the ring? Did your guy choose your ring, or did you get to pick out your own?

Floral Alternatives: My first attempt!

2009-10-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

On my way home from work last night I was thinking about all of the alternative floral options about which I've recently blogged, and I realized that I had the materials in my house to make most of them. Or, at least make a mock-up of most of them!

My first attempt at our prospective DIY flowers was a slight variation of these:

{source}

If you follow the "source" link, you'll find a tutorial. However, being the stubborn girl that I am, I attempted to make them without reading it. Yeah, I'm that girl... the one who's tried to assemble every piece of Ikea furniture she's ever owned without reading the instructions. Of course this was no exception!

For those of you who aren't that girl, this is what I did:

Step 1:

Gather all of your materials. I used fabrics, pinking shears, buttons, floral wire (mine was from an old Martha Stewart crepe paper flower kit), and thread. Lay everything out neatly and take a picture to include in your blog : ) Not shown: sewing machine, needle (to hand stitch), and floral tape.

Step 2:

Cut a long strip of fabric. I didn't measure, but I'd say it was about three feet by two inches. Unlike my inspiration photo, I decided not to fold the fabric in half; I made it single-ply instead. In hindsight, I think doubling it would give the flower more volume and make the edges cleaner.

Step 3:

This step is unnecessary, but I decided to sew a decorative zig-zag stitch along what will be the outer edge of the "petal."

Step 4:

After I sewed the zig-zag, I flipped the strip of fabric around and sewed a plain-Jane straight-stitch (I have no idea what these stitches are actually called) set at the longest stitch-length setting. Make sure you leave long "thread tails" on each side.

Step 5:

Separate your "tails." While holding on to one thread, gently push the fabric toward the center, bunching it up into small ruffles.

Step 6:

When you're finished bunching, it should look like a scrunchie that you wore when you were little : ) I tied the thread tails together to secure the, um, scrunchiness.

Step 7:

This is where I got out the needle and thread and started to form the flower shape. You basically curl the fabric in on itself and tack it down with a stitch or two. Actually, it was really more like 100. I got tired of making stitches...

Step 8:

...so I cheated. Once everything was generally in place, I sewed a small square to make sure everything was good and secure.

Step 9:

Turn it over and admire your flower! Please ignore how messy the center looks...

Step 10:

I sewed a button to the center of the flower to hide all of my messy stitches. And to make it cute. I mean, buttons make everything cuter, right? My stitches were so messy that I should have used a larger button!

Step 11:

These next few steps are optional. I only made leaves because I wanted to see if I'd be able to recreate this. So I doubled up some fabric and free-cut some leaf shapes.

Step 12:

I sewed them together with a teeny straight-stitch, and pinned them to a small piece of floral wire.

Step 13:

After setting my machine to a zig-zag stitch, I tested out the stitch length and width on a piece of scrap fabric. When everything was set correctly, I made sure the wire was centered between the needle's entry points and started sewing. The floral wire was a little bit sticky because it was pre-covered in floral tape; it stuck as I was sewing and made the stitches gap. If you make sure to push it through as you're sewing, your stitches should be more even.

Step 14:

I repeated step 13 for the other leaf and attached them both to the stem with floral tape. The loop on top is what I'll use to secure the stem to the flower.

Step 15:

Pin the loop down and sew it on with a needle and thread. Make sure it's sewn down tightly on all sides!

Step 16:

Turn it over, put it in a small vase and admire your pretty fabric flower!

All in all, I think it came out alright. There are a few changes I'll make next time, though. I'll fold the strip of fabric in half first; I like the cleaner edges of my inspiration photo better than my unfinished edges. I'll definitely make sure my stitches are neater, and I think I'll make the strip narrower... the flower was a little bit too big.

What do you think? Would you have done anything differently? I'm still a sewing-machine-novice, so I'd appreciate any tips!

Have you tried to recreate any inspiration projects while forgoing the tutorials? How did they turn out?

Our Hallowedding: The Invitations!

2009-09-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

I really appreciated all of your responses when I asked you to help us choose our Hallowedding invitations! After taking all of your thoughts into consideration, I decided that I liked the idea of the boxed candy invitations best. So I began my search for 5x7 mailer boxes. Unfortunately, I put the task of making my invitations off for too long. I needed to get the invites in the mail this week; not only would it take too long for the boxes to arrive, but the shipping costs put them just over my budget.

I was a bit disappointed in myself because I think the boxed invitations would have turned out great. But I came up with a new design that I hope you like just as much! They're a lot simpler than the boxed invitations would have been, but I think they turned out pretty well!

I designed the invitations in Adobe Illustrator and had them printed at Kinko's. I know that Kinko's isn't the greatest for print quality, but they turned out better than they would have on my home printer.

I designed the pocket template in Illustrator, too, and cut them with my Cricut.

I used a bone folder and a ruler to make clean, sharp folds. I put a piece of heavy cardstock under the paper that I was folding so that it wouldn't damage my table.

I also cut the vellum with the Cricut, and attached it to the pocket with a hand-held Xyron adhesive dispenser. I used an adhesive eraser to get rid of any stray sticky. Once the vellum was all stuck down, I used the same Xyron tape to close up all the flaps.

Finished! Now for the envelopes...

I picked up some black envelopes from Staples, and printed the label wrap on full-sheet label paper and cut it out with a small paper cutter.

I downloaded both fonts for free from dafont.com. "Happy Halloween" and the names on the address labels are Danzig 4P, everything else is Another Typewriter.

So, what do you think? I really like them in person, but I can't help but think about how great those boxed invitations would have been. Have any of you had to change any of your wedding plans because you simply ran out of time?

On Being a Small Town Bride: Our Cake

2009-09-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

Living in a small town definitely has its perks. So the nearest Ikea or Crate and Barrel might be 200 miles away, but we are getting a Macy's, and our freeways will never look like this:

{source}

Sure, I have to drive two hours to find a Korean BBQ restaurant, but we have plenty of delicious (and authentic!) taco stands just around the corner!

Anyway, it's taken me a while to embrace my town after moving from Los Angeles. I spent so much time focusing on what would no longer be available to me that I forgot to notice how much charm small towns have!

Then, as soon as I started planning our wedding, my attitude immediately reverted. I was so worried I wouldn't be able to find any talented vendors here in this middle of nowhere town. Granted, we won't have many vendors because so much of our wedding will be DIY, but at the very least we would have to outsource our food, photography and cake. The three most important things.

Great.

Actually, I've had pretty good luck so far with our photography and food, which I'll blog about soon, I promise.

The cake, however, has been a different story.

It may be a result of the multitude of cake shows on tv, but I believe the standard for wedding cakes is much higher than it used to be. I was positive that I'd never find a bakery in my area that would live up to my sky-high standards. I knew I wanted something clean and modern, and was terrified we'd be presented with a cake like this on our wedding day:

{source}

So I started my search for a bakery with a gallery of cakes that lived up to my expectations. After a few months of searching, I hadn't had much luck. By way of website galleries, bridal shows, and walk-ins, I had browsed through cake photos from eight different bakeries. None of them impressed me. Lumpy fondant, messy scrolls and misshapen flowers abounded.

I was starting to consider cupcakes.

Then, I found Creme De La Cake in Fresno. They make cakes like this:

and this:

And this:

{all images from Creme de la Cake's website}

I finally have confidence that a local bakery can create a beautiful cake using a collaboration of many inspiration photos. So I started searching! And boy, did find some FANTASTIC cakes!

I love that this cake looks like it's wrapped in ric-rac and grosgrain ribbon. It'd definitely fit in well with our overall look!

{source}

The flowers on this cake make me so happy!

{source}

I wish this picture was larger so that I could see the detail. I looks so pretty, though. And it's in our colors!

{source}

These cakes are from the first real wedding I saw after considering our wedding colors. I think it was the little red stitches on the blue cake that sealed the deal for me!

{source}

At this point I really have no idea what our cake is going to look like. We're going to go for a tasting as soon as Mr. Doxie gets here in October, and I'm looking forward to seeing the designs we come up with together!

If our cake ends up looking anything like our inspiration photos I'll be happy!

Did any of you small town brides have a hard time finding vendors that exceeded your expectations?

Dressing Our Party: The Guys

2009-09-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, reader Mrsv2bee posted a link to her photographer's blog on the boards, which led to absolutely gorgeous pictures of her wedding. Though they were all amazing, one photo of her hubby and his perfectly styled groomsmen caught my eye:

Don't they all look so handsome and modern in their light-colored suits and mismatched sneakers?

I've known all along that I don't want our guys to wear traditional tuxes. I've always pictured light gray suits, stylish ties and classic Vans or Converse. Fortunately, Mr. Dachshund is on board with this vision.

Until recently, I hadn't really put any effort into searching for our ideal groomsman ensemble. I had browsed Men's Warehouse's website, but that was about it. So, in search for inspiration, I turned to Rock 'n Roll Bride, the internet's mecca for modern (and slightly edgy) bridal parties.

Boy was I inspired!

(all photos found browsing Rock 'n Roll Bride's "groom style" tag)

I don't think I want our groomsmen to wear black, but I love the modern fit of these suits.

Mr. Doxie doesn't really like khaki suits, but I love how these are styled. (That's a pretty impressive beard, don't you think?)

Love, love the vests and colorful skinny ties. I think I'd have added cute socks, though!

More skinny ties. Plus, there's just something about a man in suspenders!

LOVE the vintage style suspender clips, shoes... everything, actually. I wonder if they wore jackets at all?

How adorable is this groom? I really like these suits. The unique pocket-squares make the look, don't you think?

Aren't those ties fun? Shutter shades are great for photo-ops, too : )

And last, but certainly not least: V-neck sweaters. I'm not really a bow-tie kinda girl, but I'm really digging the look of the sweaters over dress shirts and gray slacks. I haven't really seen this combination before in a bridal party, but it'd definitely be more pocket friendly than having each GM buy a suit (they all have to purchase plane tickets, too).

I love that non-traditional styles are so widely accepted now in the wedding world. What are the men in your bridal party going to wear? Are you going to dress your guys up in suits or go with more traditional tuxedos? Where did you find your inspiration?

Floral Alternatives: Part Two

2009-09-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

As a sequel to my last post, in which I wrote about paper flowers and shared inspiration, I'll continue to share my ideas for alternative, DIY flowers... focusing today on flowers made of fabric!

I'm not sure where it was that I saw my first fabric flowers. Etsy, maybe. Those little organza flower hairpins have been popular for quite some time, after all. Anyway, I love the whimsical, DIY feel of colorful fabric flowers!

These colorful blooms made with patterned quilting fabric have so much character! Only a few flowers make a bit statement. The sweet little vases play a large part in the role; but with eight months to go thrifting/ebaying/antiquing them would be easy peasy.

source/tutorial

The taller arrangement would be lovely on our guestbook table, and I think the smaller vases would make very pretty centerpieces. These would be great projects for any fabric leftover from our napkins.

source

Miss Beagle blogged about these oh-so-romantic fabric mums a few months back and I bookmarked them right away. Though it's a little pricey, you can purchase a pre-cut kit here.

source

Buttons twisted onto wires and arranged in various jars and bottles would make really fun centerpieces.

source

Or you can combine the two, fabric and buttons, to create really beautiful, creative bouquets that can be soft and romantic...

source

Or bright and super-fun:

source

Ribbon is also a great medium for DIY flowers!

source

I think I love the yellow button centers of these daisies the most. They're so happy!

source

These ribbon carnations would look great as a hairpiece or on a stem. They're made from a wired, silk ribbon... the tutorial seems very do-able!

source/tutorial

This bouquet is from Martha Stewart, who else!? Made of ric-rac, grosgrain and fabric, this might be my favorite of the DIY bouquets.

source

These aren't flowers, obviously, but I found them on Etsy and I fell in love. Even if they won't fit in with our wedding decor, they'd look fantastic in my house!

source

I like them all so much I wish that I could attempt them all! I know that isn't feasible, though. I have to make a decision soon because the clock is definitely ticking.

Sooo, now you've seen my paper and fabric flower inspiration photos. Which do you like the best?

Dressing Our Party: The Girls

2009-09-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

MOH Erin is visiting this week after her return from a month-long European vacation (jealous? So am I!) I haven't seen her in over a year due to crazy schedules in both of our lives and a 200 mile stretch of freeway between us. Although I am beyond excited to see her, her upcoming visit has really turned up the pressure to get all of my wedding thoughts and ideas organized. I want to make the most out of her few days here because I'm not sure when we'll be able to get together next. First order of business was figuring out the bridesmaid's dress situation.

Just the phrase, "bridesmaid's dress," is off-putting, isn't it? I haven't had much personal experience, but I couldn't help but imagine the stereotypical floor-length gown with tons of beading, tons of taffeta and a whole lot of tacky. Blech! I didn't want to put my bridesmaids through that. After all, they're my nearest and dearest! I want them to love me after the wedding's over!

So I began my search.

I found this first dress back in April right after Mr. Doxie and I got engaged:

It's by Charsa, whose website no longer works. (Have they gone out of business, does anyone know?)

I was drawn to its retro vibe and imagined it paired with a pair of cute red flats. It was the first BM dress I was excited about... until one of my more amply bosomed maids expressed her concerns about the logistics of keeping her girls modestly covered.

So I searched some more.

And I found Vivien Leigh by Siri.

Isn't it lovely? Siri conveniently doesn't list prices on their website, so I called the closest bridal salon that carries the line. The woman says, "That dress is so pretty! It's one of the pricier bridesmaid dresses..." $360. And that's including the discount for ordering more than three dresses!

My maids all agreed that the dress was great and they'd be willing to fork over the cash for it... But I'd still feel bad making them spend that much. I'm keeping it in mind, though... it's just so great! But I did continue to look around.

Yesterday I found an amazing designer on Etsy. I'm not sure how I've missed her before, she's been featured in SMP, Offbeat Bride, Martha Stewart Weddings and tons of other wedding blogs.

She's Amanda Archer and she makes adorable dresses.

See for yourself!

Pleats, pockets, ruffles, oh my!

And a super cute strapless dress for good measure:

She takes custom requests; I'd like all of these dresses in a pale aqua cotton fabric. Her cotton dresses run around $160, so they're definitely a better bargain than the beautiful Vivien Leigh! I'm thinking of having each bridesmaid choose a style and having them made in the same fabrics. What do you think? Fabric swatches have been mailed out and should be here sometime next week, hopefully before MOH goes home; I'd really like her opinion.

Where did you find your bridesmaids' dresses? Will they all be wearing the same style dress?

Cricut Madness: STD Tutorial

2009-09-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

I recently posted about my new Cricut and my save the date mockup I made using it. I know a lot of you are interested in the Cricut, or Sure Cuts A Lot if you already have a Cricut. On its own, the Cricut is a very handy crafting tool. Paired with Sure Cuts A Lot, a program used to cut custom designs, the Cricut becomes a gadget with limitless possibilities!

In addition to the Cricut and SCAL, you'll need a program that allows you to create .SVG files. You can find a list of programs here; my tutorial, however, will use Adobe Illustrator. I think I went a little overboard on the screenshots and photos, so bear with me if some of the steps are obvious. I definitely have a tendency to over-explain!

Here goes:

I started out by making a simple design in Adobe Illustrator. By no means am I a graphic designer; I don't even know AI very well, but I know enough to scrape by. With the help of Martha and her cute little placecard template (I wish I could take credit for that window shape... I'm terrible with the pen tool), I came up with a design that I liked.

The rounded rectangle is 9"x4", just big enough to fit in Paper-Source's string and button envelopes. There are two rectangles, because the one on the right will be the back of the STD card.

Sure Cuts A Lot requires that all fonts be converted to outlines. While your text box is selected, click on type from the pull down menu, and select "Create Outlines." Alternately, you can hit Shift+Ctrl+O while your text box is selected.

Once your text has been converted to outlines, it will look like this.

Now, we're finished with the design and we're going to save it as an .SVG file. The option is right in the regular save window pull-down menu.

The text in the window here will not be part of the .SVG file. I made a rectangle slightly larger than the cut-out window and arranged the text so that it fit the space well. Once everything was to my liking, I copied the text box and the rectangle and then pasted it (in multiple) into a new file.

This will be printed using my inkjet printer. I lined up the lines of the rectangles so that it'll be easier to cut once it's printed. If you get a good quality inkjet paper, you can't tell that it was printed on your home computer! I think the paper I used is HP brand, but I can't be sure.

While that's printing, I went back into the original .SVG file and made a little rectangle around the date. I'm going to copy, paste, and save this rectangle into a separate .SVG file. This file will be used to cut the paper that will peek through the cut-out numbers.

Now we're done in Illustrator and we can start cutting! Open up Sure Cuts A lot:

When you first open the program, there are some windows that will open containing different shapes. I close those, maximize the window that contains the cutting board, and use the de-magnify tool so that you can see most of the board. This is going to make positioning the design much easier. Click on the little SVG button and locate the file.

After you open the file, you can move the design around as you please. I put it a little more toward the middle of the mat.

Almost ready to cut :D

So, I ran out of the aqua paper I used in my original STD. For the purpose of the tutorial, I'm using this textured yellow paper.

You load up the paper on the cutting mat. This thing is super sticky. Make sure your paper has a substantial weight to it, or when you try to lift the delicate cuts around the numbers it's going to stick and bend when you scrape it off.

This paper has a lined texture, and I wanted to make sure I positioned the paper on the cutting mat so that when it cut, the lines would be running vertically on the card. When you look at the mat, there is an arrow that matches up with the one in Sure Cuts A Lot.

Once you've got your paper all stuck down well, you load it up into the machine.

Then you have to adjust the blade pressure and cutting speed. This is one part of Cricut use that I haven't mastered yet, but I suppose it'll come with practice. As your paper thickness increases, your pressure will increase and your speed will decrease. You might want to get a few extra papers so you can play around with the pressure and speed until you get the cleanest cuts. For this cardstock, I had my pressure set to the third highest, and the speed set to the second lowest.

You can see that there were a few spots where the cut wasn't exactly clean. I think that had to do more with the softness of the paper, though. In these instances you can clean it up with a sharp x-acto knife if you have one handy.

Now that everything's cut, we'll lift it off the cutting mat. That little spatula is Cricut brand, and I'd highly recommend it. It makes lifting the paper SO much easier. Without it, I tend to peel the paper off rather than lift it, and it makes the paper all curly.

Also, see the little middles of the zeros? Save those! They're going to be used at the end, and they're teeny-tiny, easy to lose. When I start making these en masse, I plan on having a little bowl for the zero centers.

Now we'll go back into Sure Cuts A Lot and we'll cut those little rectangles we made. These are small enough that you'll get a lot out of one 12x12 sheet. I'm not cutting that many today, though. I turned them on an angle because they'll be cut out of striped paper and I wanted the stripes to be diagonal through the date cut-out.

Same deal. Load up the Cricut mat, cut, and lift off the little rectangles.

We're finished with the Cricut at this point. I used my paper cutter to cut out the text that I printed.

Aaand we have all of the pieces to assemble one STD. Minus the little zero centers, that I lost... Kitty was very interested in what I was doing, they probably got stuck in her fur : (

Turn the front paper over, and apply adhesive around the date and window cut-out.

This little hand-held Xyron tape thingy is pretty handy. I like it because it lets you get adhesive on all of the little pokey parts of your cut that would be easily bent if they weren't glued down properly. If you use it, make sure you put something under your paper that you don't mind getting adhesive all over. That stuff is sticky.

Position the little rectangle cut-out behind the date, and your text print-out behind the window. I did that from the front so I could make sure it was all lined up well.

Once everything was stuck down, I ran the whole front sheet through my Xyron. I peeled off the Xyron backing and then stuck the STD cut-out to the backing.

I'm going have to come up with an alternate adhesive solution for this part once I start making these in bulk. The Xyron refills are $18 for 18 feet... and each of these STDs are 9". Have any of you had any luck with spray adhesive?

No, I didn't find the zero centers, I had to cut new ones : ( I turned them upside down, ran the handheld Xyron adhesive thing over them, and stuck them in the zeros on the card.

One last step, and it's important if you're using a Xyron. Those things leave all kinds of sticky residue behind. That little square I'm holding is a generic brand adhesive eraser, found at any craft store for like $2. Rub it along the edges, and anywhere any sticky might be exposed.

And that's it! I know it seemed like a lot, but it's actually pretty simple once you get the hang of everything. Once you get the first one perfect, it's smooth sailing for the rest.

For any of you interested in the fonts I used, the "Save the Date" font is Pointedly Mad, the other font in my printed window is Existence Light, and the date font is URWoodTypD. All are available for free download.

So I'm still super excited about my Cricut. Sure Cuts A Lot really make the possibilities limitless! I imagine I'll use it for our placecards, favor tags, signage... and so much more! In fact, you'll see many Cricut projects show up in our Hallowedding!

Do any of you have a Cricut? Will you be using it for any wedding projects?

Floral Alternatives: Part One

2009-09-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

I love flowers. I'll admit that I don't know much about them, but I do appreciate their beauty and it makes me happy to have them in a pretty vase on my kitchen table! What I don't love about flowers is their cost. Flowers are so expensive! I can imagine them eating, very quickly, through our very small budget. Originally our plan was to make all of our floral arrangements ourselves using flowers from the Los Angeles Flower District. That will mean we'll have A LOT of work to do just a few days before the wedding. The more I think about how stressful that will be, the more the idea of "alternative flowers" grows on me.

Does anyone remember this movie? My grandma taped it for me when I was little; it was on the Disney Channel and we didn't have cable. I remember loving this song! I would make paper flowers for my mom to take to work so that she wouldn't miss me : )

Paper flowers can be made to look very realistic, or not, depending on what you like. Bright flowers made of card stock can look very modern and clean, while crepe paper and coffee filters make absolutely beautiful roses! Whatever your style, there is an endless supply of paper flower inspiration--and tutorials--on the internet.

These are a few of my favorites:

I love the thought of turning your favorite book, a book of love poems, or even Love Letters of Great Men (And Women)*, into your bridal bouquet. It would be a great conversation piece!

{source}

These tissue carnations are made very similarly to tissue pomanders. I think they're pretty, though. They'd look nice bunched together tightly in a bouquet, don't you think?

{tutorial here}

This bride made all of her bridesmaids' bouquets out of tissue, hand-painted coffee filters, and card stock. I love the aqua card stock flowers with the red roses. I think they really make the bouquets original and fun.

{source}

I made these roses a few years ago from crepe paper using Martha's tutorial. They. Take. FOREVER. Seriously, I think this one bouquet took me three days, at three hours or so a day, to finish. They turned out nicely, though.

{picture courtesy of my old camera phone}

Paper Source sells various paper flower kits that are all so pretty. They even have flower making classes for those of you who are fortunate enough to live nearby one of their stores.

{source}

Poppies have always been one of my favorite flowers. I think I'd really like to include these in our centerpieces; I wonder if they take nearly as long to make as Martha's roses?

{source}

I've saved the best for last:

These are probably the most amazing pomanders I've seen. I'd take these over real flowers any day... I can't imagine how much time they took to make!

{read her how-to!}

I really, really like the idea of having paper flowers. There's just something about them that's so cheerful! No wonder Andy's paper daisy always made him feel safe : ) I know they're not completely unique anymore, but I'm sure they would be for most of my guests! I think my biggest concern would be having the time, and the patience, to actually get them finished.

Will "artificial" flowers play a role in your wedding? If so, have you been able to finish them in a timely manner?

*Because I know we all love us some Sex and the City.

My Most Ambitious Project

2009-09-24T16:32:00.000-07:00

Lollipop Events & Designs create the cutest, most original party and event designs that I've ever seen. I don't remember how I came across their website--I'm sure it was during one of my late-night blog hops--but their photo gallery has served as an endless source of inspiration for me. In fact, I nearly changed my colors after I saw their Barnyard Chic Wedding!

One of the things that really stood out to me in their designs were the infinite amount of details that they included to pull the looks together. Also, I noticed that in more than one event they used custom napkins!

{Lollipop Events' "Nantucket Nautical" wedding}

{Lollipop Events' "Barnyard Chic" wedding}

Don't you think the napkins up the originality level tenfold?

My mind was made up! I had to have custom napkins... even if meant spending hours sewing ~150 of them myself!

So I set out to find further inspiration and tutorials on napkin making. To my complete surprise and excitement, Miss Beagle posted about making her napkins that same week! I was thrilled! I wasn't crazy for wanting to sew each dinner napkin, after all! (Or, maybe I was... but at least I wasn't alone!)

Beagle's post eventually led me the wedding of another bride who made her own napkins, and the creative way she she saved them after her wedding was over. Look!

The napkins on each of her tables were made from a different fabric.

The escort cards featured fabric from the table to which the guest was assigned.

And then, the kicker:

She turned her beautiful napkins into an amazing quilt. I HAVE to do this!

I'm not letting the fact that I've never quilted before intimidate me. Not only is it just too perfect not to try, but I think it will prove to be an excellent post wedding project... something to keep me busy to avoid the dreaded PWD (post wedding depression)!

I've been scouring Etsy for the perfect fabrics to use on my tables. After a few weeks I think I'm finally finished.

I've found 25 fabrics that I absolutely love. Little by little, I will start ordering tomorrow (pay-day... this wedding has made each pay check go by way too fast!)

I can't wait to get them so I can start making my napkins! Stay tuned: I'm sure that despite all of the great tutorials out there, it will be trial and error for me and I'm looking forward to sharing the process!
Will you reuse anything from your wedding to create a keepsake for your home?

All fabrics were found browsing the "supplies" category on Etsy. Leave me a comment if you'd like to know where you can find any of them.

Like a Kid on Chrismas Morning!

2009-09-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

I am now the proud owner of...

A Cricut Expression complete with the Sure Cuts A Lot program!!

I bought it the other night on a whim with no project in particular in mind. While it may not have been the wisest purchase, (especially when I have to pay a $260 dollar speeding ticket next month), I was SO EXCITED to get it home and start cutting. I'd only heard great things about the Cricut, and after seeing Miss Penguin's adorable stationery she made using it, I was sold.

On my drive home I tried to come up with a worthy first Cricut project and I decided it would be the perfect tool to make our Save The Dates. After all, I had seen some pretty adorable STDs made using a Cricut!

Finding inspiration in Mrs. Cupcake's cut-out invitations, I came up with a design for our save the dates that I really ended up liking!

(Tutorial coming soon!)

This is four pieces of paper all together. The design itself is cut from the top sheet with scrapbook paper behind the date and regular ol' inkjet paper behind the cute little window. I ran it all through my handy-dandy xyron and sandwiched it all together with a solid piece of cardstock on the back. (That I also cut with the Cricut... it's great for accuracy!)

The top portion is intentionally left empty for an extra addition that's in the works. I can't wait to show them to you once they're finished; they'll be so adorable you'll proooobably explode!

When they're all ready to be shipped off, they'll be placed in these super cute envelopes from Paper-Source:

With an equally cute, but yet-to-be-designed, address label.

I'm pretty excited about them. They'll be the first wedding idea that I've come up with that I'm not changing! I can't wait to see what they'll look like fully assembled and get them sent off to our guests. Hopefully by mid-late October.

So, what about all of you? Were any of your wedding projects inspired by a fancy-schmancy-crafty gadget?

...And I Would Walk 500 More

2009-09-23T16:59:00.000-07:00

Long distance relationships are NOT easy. In fact, despite knowing early on that Mr. D was the one for me, this past year has probably been the most emotionally draining year that I can remember. A girl's heart can only miss someone for so long! Thank goodness we've been fortunate enough to have the money and vacation time to visit each other once every few months; I can't even begin to imagine how these women whom go years without seeing their significant others handle the inevitable sadness that comes with an LDR.

If I could travel back in time, would I do it all over again? In a heartbeat!

Would I recommend a long distance relationship to anyone? Well, that's a question without a simple answer.

There's a lot to think about before committing yourself to someone you won't be able to see on a regular basis. I am, however, always willing to give advice to (or commiserate with) anyone's who's thinking about jumping into an LDR!

Before you decide:

{source}

There are some key questions that you need to ask your (potential) significant other so that you are both on the same page.

How often will we see each other? Consider each of your budgets and the cost of travel and work out a tentative visit schedule. Being able to physically reconnect with each other is important to keep the spark alive. Not knowing how long it might be before you see your loved one again is what makes the waiting so difficult. Mr. D and I have tried to see each other once every two or three months. Our loosely scheduled visits have played an important role in the success of our relationship!

How will we stay connected each day? We're lucky to live in the age of technology, in which you can easily (and cheaply!) talk with anyone in any part of the world. Being able to talk to your SO throughout the day is important to remind each other how important they are to you, and vice versa. Whether it's texting, email, an online messenger or telephone, find something that works for both of you.

What do you want to get out of our relationship? I know how hard this question can be to ask in any relationship. However, an LDR will be a lot of wasted heartache if you and your SO are at different stages in your lives.

Will you move, or will I? Because, frankly, a relationship cannot be long distance forever. If you want it to work, someone will eventually have to move. Try to consider what's tying each of you to your current locations and when those ties might be broken. At some point, one (or both) of you will have to compromise.

{source}

Do I trust him/her? If you do not wholeheartedly trust your SO, you might want to reconsider an LDR. You will drive yourself insane if you let yourself think about the "what-ifs." Yes, your SO probably has some friends of the opposite gender, and they're probably going to hang. No, you won't be there to do anything about it. If you think this is going to bother you, you can talk to him/her about it, but ultimately you're going to have to let go and trust that they love you enough not to stray. If you don't, the distance isn't going to work.

So, you've asked yourself all the questions, taken everything into consideration and you're ready to start your long distance relationship. This is what's helped Mr. Dachshund and I keep our relationship going strong:

{source}

Obviously, communication is important in any relationship. In an LDR it is ABSOLUTELY KEY! I will not stress this enough to anyone considering an LDR. "I'm not very good at communicating my feelings," you say? Well, you're going to have to get over that. When you can't be with the person that you love, you're bound to experience negative emotions. Keeping them bottled inside will lead you to resent your partner. No one's a mind-reader, especially when your SO can't be around you to read your body language. (S)he may never know something's bothering you!

Let your SO know when the distance is getting to you, or if you've had a particularly bad day. And, if you're on the receiving side of these feelings, put a little extra effort into expressing your love; it'll be appreciated!

Buy. A. Webcam. Seriously. A webcam is probably the best investment (other than travel expenses) that you can make for your relationship. It might sound silly, but actually being able to "see" Mr. Dachshund after a long day always makes me smile. Even if we just leave the webcams running while we browse the internet or stare at each other, it's very comforting to know that he's there thinking of me.

Be romantic. I'm not saying you need to buy a girl flowers once a month, but a cute little romantic gesture every once in a while will go a long way. Send a letter via snail-mail rather than email. Send a lovey children's book that expresses the sentiments you feel. Make sure your SO always feels loved, needed and appreciated! It's easy to take each other for granted when you get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, especially when there's distance between you.

I could probably go on for a long time on this topic; it definitely hits close to home. When I asked Mr. D if he had any advice on long distance relationships, he responded with a simple, "have patience." I think that's a pretty decent summary. Be patient with each other, with time, and with the relationship itself.

"To sit patiently with a yearning that has not yet been fulfilled and to trust that, that fulfillment will come, is quite possibly one of the most powerful "magic skills" that human beings are capable of. It has been noted by almost every ancient wisdom tradition." --Ms. Elizabeth Gilbert

If an LDR is successful, it truly is worth all of the work. I wouldn't trade what Mr. Dachshund and I have for anything (though I can't wait until he's here for good!) Because of our long distance relationship, we've been able to learn a lot about each other that we may not have otherwise. We've learned to be more open with each other and more true to ourselves and our feelings. It's definitely made us appreciate our time together, too!

For those of you who've been in an LDR, do you have any advice to add?

I Would Walk 500 Miles...

2009-09-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

One year ago today, an unassuming e-mail from Mr. Dachshund happened to be signed with, "I've got a crazy question for you... want to be my girlfriend?" Mr. D and I met in an online video game that we both played, started "dating" before having met in person, and by the end of his first visit I knew that he the one.

Then he went home.

Three months went by before our next visit. Two months before the visit after that, then another two. It's been a three months since I've seen him last, and although an end to this madness is in sight, the distance between us is sometimes unbearable.

We've only been "together" for 35 days of our first year together. Meeting and falling in love with Mr. Dachshund has made this past year the best of my life, but it's been bittersweet. Our days together are amazing, but saying goodbye is always difficult. Missing him has led to more tears than all of my past failed relationships combined. There are days when I have a hard time going about my routine because I miss him so much-- days when I wonder how it's fair that our life together is put on hold because he lives in another country.

And then, on those nights when I'm lying in bed, having cried every last tear, longing for the comfort of Mr. Dachshund next to me, I can't help but wish that I didn't have to go through this--that "the one" lived here and not one-thousand miles away. Absence makes the heart ache, not grow fonder... old proverb my ass!

Tonight is especially difficult because it's our one-year point. A night worthy of celebration for many couples; one that we'd normally spend connected via the internet-- but alas, Mr. D's internet is down, and his cell phone isn't working. It just seems like there are nights when the stars are aligned against us.

I just keep telling myself that it won't be very much longer.

This morning when I was thinking about this post, I had planned on giving advice for surviving a long distance relationship. Mr. D and I have made it this far, after all. Despite all of my nay saying, we are happy. The distance is definitely a drag but we've managed. We both have good and bad days when it comes to being apart; today wasn't a good day for me. I do have some good advice, though. That'll be coming up next.

Happy anniversary, Love. I wish I was there with you <3

How many of you have had to deal with distance in your relationships? How do you deal with being apart?

The Colors that Inspired it All

2009-09-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

I'm putting some of our "real wedding" projects on hold because Halloween is so soon, but I don't want you to think that our actual wedding isn't the main event!

I thought I'd give you a quick peak at how I'm imagining our wedding day, starting with our colors.

Despite my chronic indecisiveness, choosing the color story for our wedding was a pretty simple task. I knew I wanted colors that would carry through the airy, fun, almost whimsical feeling that I'd like our wedding day to possess. I wanted something modern but not too "out there."

I didn't have to go far to find the inspiration for our color scheme:

In fact, I get to see our colors every day!

I know it's not the greatest picture of my kitchen, but if you look closely you can see our wedding colors. The walls are a beautiful pale, minty aqua and there are plenty of red accents. This has been my favorite color combination for as long as I can remember. I love that while it's a modern palette, it wouldn't be out of place in a vintage setting.

Can you tell that I love these colors together?

Immediately I typed "Aqua and red weddings" into a Google image search. The images that I found made me gasp! I was hooked. Thank goodness Mr. D liked the combination, too!

So, without further ado, meet the colors of our wedding, aqua and red:

I put together a quick inspiration board of some of my favorite examples of the colors together.

Image sources: Country Living; Lilfish Studios; Priscilla of Boston; favorsandflowers.com; Tigerlillyshop

I'm so excited to be able to incorporate my favorite colors into our wedding and I think they'll look beautiful in our venue's garden setting. Also, I'm loving the buttons... do I smell a motif?

How did you come up with your color scheme? Was it an easy decision?

Help Me Choose...

2009-09-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

...our Hallowedding invitations!

One of the reasons I'm so excited about our "Hallowedding" party is that we'll have such creative freedom over the decor... anything goes! But, Halloween is in just over a month. That's not a whole lot of time considering I have projects for our actual wedding in the works. My first priority is figuring out what we're going to do for our Halloween invitations; I only have about a week before they need to be sent out, and I haven't even started them yet!

Here's where you come in:

I have a handful of ideas for our invitations, but I just can't decide. If you were a prospective guest, which invitation would impress you the most?

Message in a bottle invites from Martha

Those bottles are actually pretty inexpensive. They'd be packed and shipped in small mailing tubes.

Also from Martha

True, these might be a little bit gruesome, but they're fitting with the spirit of Halloween! I thought it'd be kinda cute to put a nickel machine ring on the finger.

{source}

Obviously these don't scream "Halloween" now. Picture a black and orange invitation card lying on top of candy corn or black and orange gumballs all packaged up into a cute black box.

{source}

I like the idea of a bat-winged pocketfold. Maybe minus the head and chicken feet.

I do prefer a few of these over the others, but I'd love to hear your opinions! Which invitation would be best for our Hallowedding?

Making it Legal: Our Unusual Nuptials

2009-09-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

In my introduction post, I mentioned that Mr. Dachshund and I will have to be legally married before his visa expires, which is about three months from the time he'll arrive in the US. That left us with two options: making it legal beforehand, or planning our wedding around our immigration time-line. The latter would have been doable if our timing had been better. However, FFIL is working for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and he'll be unable to make a trip to California until after April. April is not even close to our three month deadline. We're stuck with option one.

I'll admit that I was a little bummed we'd have to be married months before our actual wedding. What would people think if they found out that we had already been married for six months!? Would they assume we were just soliciting gifts? While I knew that couldn't be further from the truth, I wasn't sure our guests would understand. Above all, I worried that a civil ceremony would make our wedding less special.

Despite my initial misgivings, I'm a firm supporter of turning life's lemons into lemonade. Because there was no way out of it, Mr. D and I thought we'd make the best of our situation and use the opportunity to turn our civil ceremony into something off-the-wall and fun. That said, we'll be making it legal on Halloween night at our century-old country home in the company of a few of our closest friends and family. My MOH will be officiating.

So, with a classic Twilight Zone marathon serving as motivation, I turned to the internet to find inspiration for our Hallowedding (doesn't "Hallowedding" sound fun!?)

I've never actually thrown a Halloween party before, let alone a Hallween-wedding. In my head I'm imagining classy, Marthaesque decorations with tasty food and even tastier drinks. I spent hours searching for inspiration and came out with a small bounty of photos that will lay the foundation for a memorable party to celebrate our quickly-approaching nuptials.

{Photo sources: Love-o-lanterns, tissue pom, bottle invites, tulle poms, pumpkin cooler, witches candy, pumpkin punch bowl, Halloween garland, brain cupcakes, luminaries}

I'm really looking forward to getting started on our Hallowedding crafts. It's so hard to believe that it's right around the corner! I'm definitely running out of time. I think the entire month of October is going to be Halloween overload; I still have so much to do!

Are any of you "making it legal" before your wedding day? What are you planning for your civil ceremony?

The Best Cure for a Case of the Mondays!

2009-09-23T05:59:00.001-07:00

It started out as a Monday like any other. Before lunch, the highlight of my day had been the homemade orange-and-almond biscotti that a coworker brought in. But, by the time lunch was over, this Monday had turned out to be the best I can remember! I was slowly working my way through the never-ending mountain of paperwork on my desk (working through lunch; we had a lot to catch up on), when I decided to check my email.

By no means did I expect that email from Pengy to be sitting there in my inbox. But there it was... I crossed my fingers, opened it, and then squealed with delight! A Bee? Me!? I was so, so excited that I told EVERYONE around me (and wished that they knew what a privilege being able to blog for Weddingbee really was).

I tried to get back to work, I really did! But, needless to say, I was so excited that I didn't get much done for the rest of the day! : )

Allow me to introduce myself: I'm Miss Dachshund and I'm absolutely thrilled and honored to be here blogging for all of you!

A little bit about my namesake:

She's my one-year-old miniature dachshund, Juno. She's the love of my life... right after Mr. Dachshund, of course! She's the sweetest little thing ever; I don't think I could have chosen a more perfect Bee moniker!

A little bit about me: I'm a self-profclaimed nerd. When I'm not completely engrossed in the wedding world, I spend most of my time cuddled up reading a good book or playing video games (in fact, that's how Mr. D and I met!) A country-girl by proximity but a city-girl at heart, I'm combining the two as I plan our DIY-tastic wedding set in a beautiful Victorian garden just outside of my small hometown. "Cute" is definitely my most overused adjective, but it's the word that best describes how I want our wedding to feel! Cute. And fun, of course, with a just a little bit of whimsy. I'm sure I'm taking on too many projects for my own good, but in the end, I know that it'll all be worth it to be able to make our day feel so, "us."

So, who are we?

As cheesy as I'm sure it sounds, we're just two people who consider ourselves lucky to have found one another. We like playing Rockband (I always sing because Mr. D can't*), lounging on the couch watching silly movies, turning our little house into a home, exploring new places, and just being together!

Mr. Dachshund is Canadian, and like a few of the Bees in the recent past, he and I are going through the seemingly endless immigration process. Long distance relationships are always difficult; I'm sure many of you can sympathize. But! There is a fast-approaching light at the end of our tunnel... I can finally say, with certainty, that Mr. D will be here soon!

Due to the rules of our specific visa, Mr. D and I must be married within 90 days of his arrival to the US. With his estimated arrival date of October 20, our May 2010 wedding is far from the allotted three-month time line! So, we've decided that we'll "make it legal" first. We have something really fun in the works for that; I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Again, I'm so happy to be here. I'm looking forward to sharing all the details of our wedding with you!

*He said I should change that to "shouldn't." I'm sticking with "can't" : )