My Escort Cards Now Available on Etsy!

so...yeah, i have an etsy store. have i mentioned that before? i forget.

anyway, i'm really excited to announce that i've just added my custom escort cards to the shop! i'm still waiting on more pics from the photographer, so i'll be updating everything soon but here's a pic of how awesome they turned out!



and now you can have them for yourself! check out my etsy store!

:-)

more soon!

More about our awesome cake!

I'm super proud of how incredibly awesome our cake came out.

First, here's a photograph of the cake that I fell in love with online. (Photographer: Unknown) Apparently, this cake is by Jacques Fine European Pastries in New Hampshire.



I brought that pic to our bakery, Le Bonne Boulangerie, and this is what they created:


Photographer: Ryan Brenizer Photography

To save money, we used white chocolate ganache instead of fondant which still has that smooth finish. Pretty close to the original, eh?

Joe (my HUSBAND- yay!) wanted it to be as chocolatey as possible, so we filled it with chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache. Needless to say, it was extremely chocolatey.

Here's another pic of the awesome cake topper from Lollipopworkshop! ...and again, this photo was taken by Ryan Brenizer.


Gosh, we love that thing!

More to come!

11 days left!

agh! so much still to do. and why can't i update this blog every day? craziness!

here's the latest:

i've received a bunch of registry gifts! yay! oh how we love presents, lol. we registered at crate and barrel and target, against my wedding planner's advice who told us to just register at bed, bath and beyond because you can return things there for cash.

we got our engagement photos- yay! i ordered prints and i don't have digital images of them yet, so i guess i can't post them on here until later. sorry about that. the photos with our dog came out especially awesome! speaking of our dog...she's injured her leg and is limping/crying around the apartment. she's gone through this before so i'm going to wait to see if it heals on its own...otherwise, another trip to the vet!

we heard back from everyone but 1 couple. so far- the count is at 57 which i think is a great intimate number!

this past saturday, my friend (and lovely dog walker, dena) and i drove out east to port jefferson to do a cake tasting. the bakery that our venue uses is called le bonne boulangerie. i was seriously disappointed that they had NOTHING for us to taste, especially since i thought that was the whole point of the appointment and i had spoken with the owner as well as the girls behind the counter numerous times about the fact that i was driving all the way out from the city. eventually, we were allowed to taste a pastry with chocolate mousse inside (one of our filling choices) and it was divine. we decided to go with a beautiful design covered in white ganache (to save money by avoiding fondant but still get that smooth finish) and filled with chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache. joe gave me strict instructions because he couldn't make the appointment. he said chocolate, chocolate and oh, i want more chocolate. :-) yes, he's a total chocoholic, but so am i so i went along with it.

while we were out east, i picked up some local wine to put in the guest baskets/gift bags. can't wait to put those together!

i had my last fitting with a brand new bra! yay! everything looked great and i pick the dress up this friday! i need to drive into the city with my car to pick it up. speaking of the car...joe promises that he'll drive into the city this wednesday to pick up the boxes of mason jars that have been sitting next to my desk at work for the past month. they are for our favors and i can't create the favors until i get those jars home! ugh.

i still have SO much left to do. i'm having trouble focusing at work because i can't stop thinking about all the stuff that needs to get done. this morning, i suddenly remembered that joe needs to get his pants hemmed on his suit and we need to get a marriage license!

more manana!

falling behind schedule

agh! so much left to do! i'm kind of freaking out about everything. plus, work has seriously picked up and i'm going insane there too. agh! i'm actually starting to have panic attacks too! not good!

here's what's been going on:

i went for my 2nd bridal fitting. that went okay, but it was the first time wearing my new shoes and i was standing under hot lights and my feet swelled up! here's the thing- although i won't be under hot lights for the wedding- i'm pretty sure that i'm going to be super anxious and my feet will swell up then too! so i realized pretty fast that i need to have a back up pair of flip flops to wear before and after the ceremony 'cause those nice shoes are only stayin' on my feet for 30 minutes tops. also at the fitting- asked them to make a shawl for me out of the remaining material. my next fitting is on oct 9th, so i'm excited to see how that turns out! i'm also having corset issues, but i'll tell that story another time. haha.

favors! all of the elements i've ordered for it have arrived and i just have to bring those boxes home (they're next to my desk at the office) and start putting everything together. SO excited about those.

a few of my friends/family have told me they never got their invitations. and after all my hard work, that's so annoying! errrrr! not sure why that's happening but i'm fuming about it.

joe and i went to our venue for one last final meeting. we picked out our menu (yay!) and the table linen colors! we decided to go with ivory table cloths with chocolate brown napkins. the pink tablecloths were just way too pink- it seemed like a baby shower color...and they had no apple green...and we didn't want to go with all chocolate brown because it would dark the room quite a bit.

this sunday, we meet with the rabbi. he has to approve the ketubah writing. oh and i have i mentioned that we still don't have our wedding rings yet? and we still haven't received all of our engagement pictures! agh!

okay...more later!

memory board

ok, so i read about how to make a memory board myself and i got to it! i bought a cheap canvas at michaels along with some fabric, batting and ribbon in our wedding colors. i used a staple gun to attach everything to the wood frame on the back, then trimmed all the left over fabric and ribbon. it's important that the ribbon be kept taught because that's how the photos will stay attached.

so...i'll be glueing some buttons where the ribbons cross, but here's a pic of what it looks like so far:
and ok, here's another engagement pic...i was chopping joe's back. :-)


more soon!

Engagement Pics!

we only got a preview of the set... i'll just post 2 for now. :-) Our photographer is Ryan Brenizer!


isn't our dog super cute?


this photo makes me want to gobble her up! :-)

Updates!

yesterday, joe and i had our engagement photo shoot. i sure hope we got some good pics! snapshots coming soon...will keep you posted.

still have so much to do! must find comfortable shoes...
make memory board...
work on favors...
oh yeah, and send out the invitations already!

more soon!

i'm back!

okay, i've been m.i.a. since february, i know. sorry about that. i've been having major computer problems for a few months and well...i have a habit of starting blogs and stopping. sad but true. :-( but alas- i've returned! reason? i found out today that one of my coworkers got engaged last night! fun to share! what's really wacky is that yesterday, she and i were just talking about the whole topic in the office ladies room! such a weird coicidence! so anyway, that inspired me to get back to the blog. so lemme catch y'all up.

1) i bought a dress! and that's a whole story in itself. i fell IN LOVE with one dress at kleinfelds (know the place? they shoot "say yes to the dress" there. thankfully, there were no cameras there that day. phew)! anyway, they had it in my size and it was gorgeous. but i had to do all kinds of things to the darn thing like raise the neckline, open up the cup size, blah, blah, blah. this is in addition to the regular alterations.

my mom came into town for a couple of hours (literally) and i felt pressured to just find something. we went to rk bridal and i was SO excited to show her the dress! but alas- they didn't have it in my size to dry on so i couldn't show her. :-( plus...they basically told me that the changes i needed made was impossible. apparently, the designer is known for having sexy necklines. which doesn't go well with big busted women...ugh. and although kleinfelds said they could do it- it would have cost me a fortune and i didn't have the budget for that, so i had to walk away from it. :-( i was DEVESTATED. honestly. ever fall in love with a car and then realize that you can't have it? ya...it sucks. royally. so i ended up with another dress that looks really beautiful but has a little more sparkle and bling than i would like. they told me i can ask the seamstress to remove some of the sequins when it arrives, which i'm definitely going to do. everyone kept telling me that i should sparkle because it's my wedding day but i'm like uh...no...i'm not that girly. no sparkle, please. ick. so...it should arrive in july or so. i'll keep you posted.

2) i booked hair! my wedding planner hooked me up with a vendor named diana from valley stream and she was super nice. we tried and up do and a down do. i'm still waiting for those pics...i should probably email her. hmmm.

3) i invested in a gocco! if you don't know what that is, i'll tell ya. it's a nifty little japanese screenprinting machine! they don't make them anymore so you have to buy them on auction like on ebay, etc. i plan on making some cool things with that thing...if only i can get started with it.

i've been really busy with work lately and i'm also prepping to teach a university course...so my mind is all scattered. still left: makeup and florist. meeting one of each in the next 2 weeks! also still have to do our engagement shoot! ack!!!

ok so much more to say but i gotta skadaddle.

caio for now.

Save the Date!

finally, my save the date cards are finished. yay!

what a process! take a look:




again, these were totally inspired by the stds i found online by kelley and terrell. i just tried to put a new spin on them. like k&t, we used moo cards for the photos.

now, if only my fiance would give me all of his addresses!

rabbi & photographers

so, a lot has been accomplished in the past few days!

1) we talked to a rabbi. my fiance isn't jewish but he doesn't really identify with any religion. he believes in god and jesus...but isn't sure what he is. AND my mom really wants us to get married by a rabbi and well, it would feel familiar to me so i like the idea. luckily, joe says since my mom is paying for this whole freaking thing, we should do what she wants. haha. so we're going to have an interfaith ceremony leaning towards judiasm. we'll have a chupa and joe will break glass, etc. in fact, we're also going to have a ketubah (jewish marriage contract)!

2) we met with one photographer tonight. and we liked him. tomorrow night, our planner is taking us out on the island to meet with another one and on monday, we meet the third.

on another note- i'm starting to freak out about my weight and how much i need to lose. i went to a nutritionist to lose some, but i fell off the wagon. :-(

it's late! bed is calling me!

back from the dead...kinda

today was my first day out of bed since tuesday. i feel better but my nose and ears are still clogged and my voice sounds really weird. but i think it gives me character! oh and i'm still totally tired so i just woke up from a nap and it's 5pm! ugh. i ran into a neighbor who told me that he thought he had the flu once and it turned out to be a blood infection. um, hello???? doesn't he know who he's talking to? now i'm going to run around thinking i have a blood infection!

anyway- my planner emailed me today to tell me that all 3 photographers i was interested in are all available on our wedding date (yay)! except apparently i only responded to one and not the other 2. whoops! now i have to find those emails again...

while i was sick and bored out of my mind with cabin fever, i somehow managed to start applying to free honeymoon contests. i can't decide where i want to go (of course) and it looks like we can't afford one anyway, so i figured if we won one- then it would all be solved without me having to make any decisions!

of course, look at this ad? i had to choose between hawaii or mexico before i even entered the contest! "click here for hawaii, click here for mexico." luckily, my sister went to hawaii and i am dead set on not doing the same thing as her. plus, hawaii = flying over a lot of water, so mexico was an easy choice here. phew!

anyway, check out these twig napkin rings (right). i want something like this but not black...i'd want it to look more realistic. this looks kinda fake, doesn't it?

i love these brown glitter candles! (behind the polka dotted one).

aren't these monogrammed drink stirrers cute? and i think they're in hot apple cider!

lastly, how cute is this photo????

back 2 bed 4 me.