birds

So here is a crappy iphone snapshot of the first batch of birds for the seating cards. I sewed some ribbon into the crown of the head so they can be hung from branches at the reception for people to pick up. Then, after the wedding, they can use them as ornaments or hang them on a plant in the house... whatever... feed them to their dog... Anyways, the truth is I haven't made anything with a sewing machine since middle school and so this is quite a lot to take on. But it is a great deal of fun to make something for the wedding and I think they are coming along pretty well. Someone wanted to charge me 750 bucks just to sew the birds and that didn't include cutting or fabric. So for the cost of fabric alone and my shabby sewing skills, I am pretty happy with how they are coming along. I haven't sewn the tails closed yet because I am not sure how to do it! HAHAHA

sneak peak

So here is Doug's completed flower sketch. I am super excited about how the invites are coming together. Doug is so talented, makes me wonder why the walls in our house are empty.

The invites

Doug started drawing a flower that will be on our invites and it is coming out amazing! I am so excited to see it all progress. We found a design studio in Minnesota called Studio on Fire that will do our lettepress for less than half of what my friend was quoted for her invites. I am super excited at the possibility of having affordable letterpress.

Functional wedding programs?

So I saw these on my photographer's blog. She had these incredibly cute save the dates screened on vintage hankies. I think this is adorable and was thinking of how I could merge this with the programs for the wedding. Doug has been eager to silkscreen and so I was thinking the hankies could be the covers for the program with the paper/information inside and then neatly wrapped/held together with ribbon. Viola, a functional wedding program because you know there is going to be tons of waterworks, especially from my mom! With any luck, we will actually make time to do these. Gotta keep an eye out on ebay now for these as well.

My wedding band

Doug and I have been looking for our wedding rings knowing that we have to order something soon for it to come in time. I have been back and forth on whether I wanted a wedding band or not. I love my engagement ring and I know that more often than not, I will wear it which means I will constantly be wearing two rings. I've never been a fan of the idea of wearing two rings together and neither is Doug. Friends have told me they twist around and get wet when you wash your hands between and can be kind of a pain. So I have gone back and forth with just having my diamond set into another band and just having one ring. So I found a ring I absolutely fell in love with and Doug was so sweet and told me that I could get it. We ended up at Darakjian in Southfield. They have been in business for 45 years and they are fantastic! Doug and I tend to not get much attention from people when we walk into a jewelry store and the people there went out of their way to make us feel welcome. We never felt rushed or that we were being an inconvenience which is a vibe we got from a number of other stores like Tappers or Tiffanys (not like we would ever buy anything from there anyways). Or even the shady sort of hustler vibe we got from Metals in Time in Royal Oak. We would tell them the price of a ring and they would just pull some arbitrary number from out of the sky as to how much they could get it for. The guy who helped us even made a weird comment when we were looking at rings telling Doug that he could easily find a ring that was way more expensive than the one I wanted for me to buy... which rubbed me the wrong way. Who says something like that. It didn't come across as a very funny joke, just a jerk thing to say. So anyways, we ordered the ring on Friday and got nothing but wonderful service at Darakjian. I am SO excited and absolutely love it. I will likely pick up some super cheap metal band to wear if I snowboard or we are out doing something active where wearing my ring would be a bad idea. I am also planning to put a colored stone in the original solitaire engagement band so I can still wear it out.

looking for letterpress

I really want to use 6" or larger wood letterpress letters for my table "numbers" at the reception. It would speak to Doug and I's occupations as designers, although we are digital, it is a fun throwback and a fun element to introduce to the decor. Especially with Lucky You working wood into my table settings. With any luck I will find a set of them at an affordable cost, but so far they are kinda pricey. I would end up using them to decorate a wall in the house if it works out!

Birds for seating cards

So I finally started the birds today. This is probably the first project I have done on a sewing machine since middle school so I was super nervous about it. Thanks to youtube I was able to remember how to thread a bobbin and my machine and got to work. The first bird is a total test run and overall it went pretty well. I am planning on sewing a satin ribbon in at the crown of the head and I have to watch that I get a nice and smooth seam - which isn't easy but I think I can do it. I am also placing an order for tags so that I can use ribbon to put people's names on the tags along with their table number. The second image is the great variety of tags they have on paperpresentation.com. And the bottom image is a screenshot of all the fabric patterns I ordered on quilthome.com. Once I get these done I am hoping to hang them from branches at the reception alphabetically by last name in 3 stations A-H, I-P, Q-Z. I am pretty excited overall at how much fun this will be to work on and how neat it will end up looking on the day of the wedding. I hope that people take them home and hang them from Christmas trees or in a plant in their house or something or pawn them off on pets or kids.

And the ring bearer is...

So I have been considering having my Boston Terrier, Miles as my ring bearer! I think it would be so much fun to have him at the wedding and be a part of our special day. I love my dogs and they are a huge part of my life. Unfortunately our 100lb pitbull is a bit much to bring to such an event =[ Plus, I have already looked into hotels that take dogs and the Four Seasons is one of them. It would be great to spend the night at the hotel snuggling my Miles and share some room service in the morning. Too funny! I would be a fair amount of work I suppose and a big variable. He is pretty mellow overall around people so I expect him to be well behaved. We can always try it out at the rehearsal and if it goes horribly, then we just go sans ring bearer. But I really think the little guy could do it and how adorable will that be!

DTW bridal shower!

So my mom and I searched all over for a great shower location. It is incredible how expensive a luncheon can be! We got pricing ranging from $11 up to $27 with most places requiring you spend at least $500-$1000 in the room in addition to rental fees, cake cutting fees, linen fees... ridiculous! My mom was relatively set on deluca's in Westland, but I was really hoping to find a space that was affordable but mostly had some windows and maybe even a patio. We finally stumbled upon Fox Hills in Plymouth. The pricing was a flat rate with all the service, taxes and other fees rolled in. Not to mention it is country club style with a golf course view. The room we are using is the Magnolia room and it has windows on two of the walls, which is so great! In addition, we have access to a patio. So we have a date of April 4th at 12:30. It will be a lot of fun to decorate. I am super excited we found such a nice spot for a decent price. Now I just have to get over the fact that people will be staring at me while I open presents. I feel super awkward in situations where all eyes are on me, so the entire wedding thing will be interesting. I will definitely have to have a nice glass of wine to start out the day!

Birdcage for cards at the reception

So after spending a few months popping on ebay every now and again to find a birdcage, I finally found one I loved and wasn't expensive. Jill found a wonderful birdcage out in Chicago and I figured I might as well try ebay one last time before I told her to go ahead and pick it up. Sure enough, I found this one. It just arrived today and I love it! It is pretty huge and in great shape. The sender did the most incredible packing job I have ever seen! It seriously took me several minutes to pry the box open only to discover the most intricate packaging ever. I should have taken a picture. So I will probably decorate it with some ribbon and possibly some silk flowers for the big day. Afterwards I have the most perfect ledge behind my sink where I will put plants in it and it can remind me of my wedding day while I do Doug's dishes ;) ha!

Yeah for shoes!

I finally found 2 pairs of shoes in yellow that I absolutely love, both from J.Crew. The Carmen Satin Peep Toes in bright saffron and the Satin Rosette Metallic Capri Sandals in golden yellow. Now I just need to decide if I am wearing flats or heels. I initially wanted the Carmen Peep Toes in the saffron, but they had sold out. Flipping through my most recent catalog and found that they were back in stock. I love having shoes in our wedding color of yellow. I love when brides have an adorably colorful pair of shoes hidden under their ivory dress. It's just too damn cute! I can only hope that the Satin Fleur Clutch is back in stock sometime soon as well.