Sneak Peek: E-session with Steve Hughes

Love it!!! My friend, Patrina, gifted these Anthropologie monograms and they were perfect props. We will be featured on Style Unveiled in a few days -- can't wait to share!

Inspiration #86: Hearts on a String

I wish I had thought of these --check out the center image of escort card hearts on a string!

Photo by Marianne Wilson, via StyleUnveiled LA

 

Inspiration #85: Engraved Vintage Flatware

Really, someone needs to deny me access to Etsy. I just discovered WoodenHive's shop and I want to buy so many beautiful things. I was especially tickled to find a fork engraved with the message "Give Thanks." That's Rule #1 for the supperclub I help run in the San Francisco Bay Area AND our other motto is "Hold onto your forks." It's perfect, because without the Ghetto Gourmet, I never would have met Guitar Fred (aww).

I'm tempted to buy these his and her forks (and they're $14):

Bride & Groom Fork Set, $14, WoodenHive

Give Thanks Fork, $15.99, WoodenHive

Table Numbers, $6.50 each by WoodenHive

Sneak Preview: My Bridal Hair

In preparation for our engagement session, I got my hair and makeup done by Penney Do. Recognize the hair accessory you helped me select? I like my hair down, but I have the option of a side chignon. What do you think?

Va-va-voom: e-session outfit

I heart Anthropologie. Here's the outfit I'm wearing for our e-session tomorrow!

The "Silken Stitches" dress:

paired with this "Redux" jacket in black:

and Stephen Loewinsohn is taking photos of us at the Albany Bulb.

Spread the Love

This Sunday, a couple of my bridesmaids and I are joining Shakirah Simley, of Slow Jams, at La Cocina to make the last batch of our wedding favors: onion-bacon relish! Chef Peter made the bacon himself, so there will be lots of extra love put into these.

Here is some jam-favor inspiration to get me through until our favor-making extravaganza! The "Spread the Love" label is available on Etsy.com from Miss Pickles Press for $15.

{From OnceWed.com}

{from Whimsical Wonderland Weddings}

{the Spread the Love labels remixed}

{from DailyCraft}

{Not jam, but I love the doily and baker's twine! From We Met in a Bar}

My Uber-Fantastic Bachelorette

Voila! My bachelorette party was so much fun aboard the wine trolley. Click to watch the video slideshow set to Madonna's "Holiday."

1 month to go!

Here it is. 30 days left! Everyone's asking, "How are you doing?" 

From a tactical perspective, we're on track. In fact, last night, Guitar Fred and I finished printing and binding our programs! It took about 4 hours because we had to punch the corners to 250 individual pages, hand stamp and emboss a peony pattern and insert a brad into the corner. We printed the free custom monogram from the Wedding Chicks for the backs of our programs.

I also had my third dressing fitting with Anne Ventresco, who came highly recommended by my friend, Jill. I hadn't seen her since May and the dress was a little bit looser (yay!). I also got to see what the Pegasus Maiden fascinator that you helped me choose looked like with the dress.The whole ensemble looked splendid! More alterations are needed, like deepening the sweet heart neckline (Guitar Fred will appreciate that) and hemming the bottom. My last fitting is October 1. Gulp.

Last night, Guitar Fred and I also revisited our budget, which has been stressful and provides a glimpse into how we'll manage finances for the future. Fred is such a solid guy -- he kept reassuring me and pointing out that we weren't as far off as we thought. Ultimately, we came up with a couple solutions to cover the gap. This exercise helped me realize I'm more the spreadsheet-calculator person in our relationship and he's the big picture (and optimistic) type, which I believe is a good balance.

Things to look forward to over the next few weeks:

1. Bachelorette party on the wine trolley tomorrow!
2. Engagement session with Stephen Loewinsohn (www.stevetakespictures.com)
3. Getting our RSVPs by September 17 and putting together our seating chart
4. Friends and family flying into town just in time for Guitar Fred's birthday on October 7

Inspiration #84: Iron Gate Escort Card Display

A DIY bride created these escort cards from craft paper. She hand stamped each person's name (there were 166 guests) and punched the edges with a Martha Stewart doily edge. The cards were clipped to vintage lace that were strung flush against a wrought iron gate.

{Photo by Vera Devera}

Wedding Slideshow - DONE thanks to Animoto

I've been dragging my feet in putting together our slideshow for the wedding. I'd been hitting a wall trying to edit over 100 images in PowerPoint and MovieMaker on my PC when I found Animoto. I can't believe I hadn't heard of it any sooner. It's a kick-ass automatic movie maker. You can sync it with your Flickr, Facebook and other social networking sites to pull your image files and video into Animoto. You don't have to be an editing whiz -- the site automatically sets your images and video to the pace and tempo of the song you pick.

You can choose your own song, but you don't have control over the number of songs. I love love love the final result.

I'm not posting the video since I don't want our guests to see it before October 10! But I did put together a quick video of my dog to show you what one of the slideshows can look like (it's the 30 second version, you have a choice of full length/as long as the song you choose).

Here are some comments on using Animoto:

1) It took me 6 hours to put this together!
2) Scan your photos at hi-res -- I made the mistake of importing low res and had to rescan everything (which is a huge reason it took 6 hours).
3) Don't panic when you can't see the final result before processing. Simply put your photos in the order you want them to appear, upload your song and let Animoto do the rest. I was amazed with how our images synced with the song we ultimately chose.
4) The original Animoto production template is by far the coolest one, the Air, Water, Fire, and Earth aren't as flashy.
5) Definitely upgrade to the $30/year membership so that you can save your work and also access more than one template.
6) Don't freak out when you watch your video on full screen and everything is blurry, Animoto charges you $5 to upgrade to hi-res to be able to watch it on larger monitors.
7) Stumped with music? Our friend, Juaquin, tipped us off to a great site, called Dirpy, where you can find songs on Youtube and convert them to mp3 (esp. if your music collection is tied up in iTunes).
8) Have fun!