May by the Numbers

Hello friends!  Hope you’re all doing well.  I’ve been doing some thinking and I realized that I keep getting stuck in the past on the blog, and don’t ever find time to write about the present.  So I’m going to power through – fire off a bunch of old posts that I really want to remember, mixed in with some fun new things.  Feel free to skip the old, boring stuff if you want!  I hope to be done in two weeks or so, and then finally be all caught up.  By that time, we should have our professional wedding pics, in which case I’ll also bang out some Weddingbee style recaps, and then be on our merry way.  Sound good?  Good.

To start off, let’s recap the month of May in true accounting style – by the numbers.  (PS can you believe it’s June?  Holy Crap.)

1 – One new camera!  Check out this amazing gift that the hubster surprised me with.  I cried!  I can’t wait to use it on our honeymoon!

1 – Also a new iphone!  I’ve been loving using apps like instagram (see pic above!) and beating Robert at Words with Friends

2 – New blog friends who I finally got to meet for lunch last week!  Chrissey and Stephanie and I had a great lunch at Marathon Grill in Philadelphia.  It was surreal meeting people I met on the internet, but we had so much to chat about.

3 – Flavors of frozen yogurt I had at the new Yapple Yogurt down the street from our apartment!  It opened two weeks ago, and Robert and I went to welcome in summer over Memorial Day Weekend.  I tried white chocolate, peanut butter, and birthday cake – they were all so good!

4 – Number of books I read in May!  This includes Bossypants by Tina Fey (amazing, had me laughing on the train, and loving all of the Pennsylvania references!  she also included a great message for women – not just women comedians.  Girl power!)  I also read The Love Season by Elin Hilderbrand.  This book was good, but I threw it on the couch at the end because I was disappointed by the ending. Finally, I read Firefly Lane and True Colors by Kristin Hannah.  I am now officially addicted to her books!  The first had me bawling on the train, and the second was so deeply real.  Kristen Hannah really paints you into the story, both in the plot and in the setting.  You find yourself so invested in the characters!  I loved both books and can’t wait to read more of her work in June!

7 – Inches I chopped off of my hair right after the wedding!  I couldn’t wait to get my Post Wedding Chop, and scheduled my appointment for the first day that the salons were open after the wedding.  Take a look:

             Before………………………………………………………After!

8 – Number of yoga classes I attended at Dana Hot Yoga this month.  I really enjoyed the chance to fulfill my groupon, but by the end of it, I was ready for a little break.  But I truly feel like I am a better “yogi” now… except:

1 – Number of times I FACEPLANTED while attempting crow pose.  OUCH.  My nose was bruised for days!

13th – My 25th birthday!  Robert and I celebrated with an amazing dinner of calamari, basil mojitos, and amazing bacon burgers at 20 Manning.  The burger was great, but not the best burger I ever had!  (Although I might have kept comparing their food to 20 Manning’s sister restaurant, Audrey Claire.  The mussels at AC are in the top 5 of favorite meals ever!)  We finished the night with drinks at Table 31 on the Thursday prior.  Although I work right above Table 31, I’d never been there.  We sat outside, and I swear it felt like we were in Miami!  The celebration continued at my BFF Kirsten’s house, where she and her husband bbq’ed for our friend Georgia, Bob’s friend Pat, Robert, and me.  We drank strawberry wine from Heritage Vineyards, ate a giant cookie cake, and just chatted.  It was the perfect way to celebrate my birthday! 

31 – Days of being a wife!  I never thought that being married would feel very different.  We’d  been living together for almost 3 years by the time we got married, but it has been amazing.  I feel more connected to Robert, and I’m just giddy with love.  (Ok I’ll stop making you puke now.)

80,000 – Degrees that it’s been outside.  OMG it is so hot and humid, and it was only May.  I’ve never wanted rain so badly before in my life.  Anything to break the heat!

What were you up to in May?!  I can’t believe my favorite month is over

Spin Class: Chapters 1-4

Once upon a time, I made a New Years Goal to take a spin class.  My idea was that I would take one every week from January 1 until the wedding, and look like a svelte, hot model on my wedding day.

What I failed to account for was that I was chicken.  I woke up in time every Wednesday morning, but I scared myself  and would go for a run instead.  Then one Tuesday in March, I had a dress fitting, and while the dress zipped, I couldn’t sit down (that’s a whole other story for another time!).  The next morning, I woke my ass out of bed and went to spin class. 

{Chapter 1}

I told the teacher (her name was Sarah) that it was my first time spinning.  She explained how to set up the bike so that I wouldn’t bounce around and injure myself.  And then it was time.  I was so nervous but I tried to treat the class like yoga class.  If the class was in a “run” but I couldn’t stay standing that long, I’d just sit down and get up when I felt ready.  By mid-class, I felt more awake than if I had had a giant iced coffee.   What a rush!  I was hooked.

{Chapter 2}

The following week, I took another class with the same teacher.  I was loving the music selection (all fun pop music like the new Jlo and Britney songs!) and I was getting stronger.  By the end of the class, the other women in the class recognized me from last week and told me how strong I looked, and gave me tips for “running” that would make it easier (like turning up the resistance so you’re not bouncing around all over the place!).  I started chatting with one girl about running and the Broad Street Run.  I never believed that people made friends in the gym, but maybe they do.

{Chapter 3}

The week before the wedding, I took off from work.  I refused to make it to my regular 615am spin class, so I took a 630pm spin class.  The teacher was good, but he was older and not nearly as energetic as Sarah was.  He played songs like the Beatles, and the class kinda dragged.  But it was still great to sweat.it.out. and melt off some stress.  Oh – I should mention, that at this point I could sit down in my wedding gown.  Maybe it was the spin class, maybe it was the salads I was eating at lunch… but I think it was spin class.

{Chapter 4}

After my last spin class, I was hesitant to go back.  I felt like maybe since the last class was kind of boring, I wasn’t going to like it anymore.  (read: I tried to talk myself out of it again.)  But I didn’t feel like running and I needed to sweat, so I went.  And for the first time, I was able to get through the entire class without having to sit when the class was standing.  I think part of it was the teacher (unfortunately not Sarah!) is training for a triathalon so she had us focused on endurance and speed, which I prefer to the hills.  But also I can feel myself getting stronger, and it’s so fulfilling. 

I’ve been having a hard time getting motivated for running lately, but spin class makes me smile.  And as an added bonus, every time I hear the new Jlo song (On the floor) or the new Britney song (Til the world ends) it makes me excited to get back to class and rock out.  Who doesn’t like to spend 45 minutes jamming out? 

Anyway, sorry for the wordy post with no pictures!  Have you ever taken a class that freaked you out?  Did you end up liking it?

You’re Invited!

 Ok guys, I have no excuse.  I’m no longer stressed 0ut, or planning a wedding.  I’m bored as h-e-l-l at work now that I don’t have wedding projects to work on (shh don’t tell my boss), so here I am, for your reading enjoyment.  I’m going to try to go in chronological order through the rest of the planning (which is a lot of planning.)  I promise I won’t go 100% wedding on you though, I have some other things to write about too!!

Anyway, for months now I’ve been telling myself to blog about our lovely invitations.  And of course, like all of my wedding posts, there’s a story.

Once upon a time, I stumbled upon Blush Paperie.  I promptly fell in love with the colors and the beautiful designs.  I ordered a few samples, and received them over the summer when I had off from work.  I remember calling my mom going “omg I’m in stationary heaven.”  The invitations were embossed and the papers were soft like cotton.  They were matted on a complimentary color paper.  The fonts… oh – the fonts!  I knew I had to have them.

Flashforward a few months.  I’m in Target, and find a clearance rack with two boxes of 50 invitations… for $7.99 each!  I buy them.  They are pretty, but not as pretty as the Blush invitations… but for $16, the bride has to make it work, right?  Here are the invites:

So it comes time to actually print the invites.  We don’t HAVE a printer, and a good printer that would produce quality invitations would be ridiculously expensive and not worth it.  We reach out to the guy my MOH used to print her invites, and 1) he was rude and 2) he was almost as expensive as if we just ordered our my dream invitations.  A few nights of number crunching, and it was decided… why spend money on printing invitations that we didn’t LOVE?  Sure we could have saved money, but by the time we printed the invites, printed the rsvps, got a calligrapher for the envelopes, etc – we’d only be saving $100 from ordering the beautiful stationary-heaven invites through Blush Paperie.  So we did!

A few emails to the owner Michele, and we had our order placed.  It was so quick and painless.  We shot a few proofs back and forth, and she even changed her usual design a smidge for us.  She was so pleasant to work with (she even handled my OCD-esque requests with humor!), and I was almost sad when I didn’t have a reason to email her anymore!  But my sadness was quickly replaced with giddy joy over the beautiful invitations.  (And I mean quick – the entire process took approximately 2 weeks.)  Check out these beauties:

Savannah invitations with Adios font for the script wording and Garamond Small Caps for the body of the invitation, by Blush Paperie.  LOVE!

*sigh* and check out the insert cards:

You can see how she custom-made our RSVP card, as the typical design is that of the reception card above it.  I loved the way it looked with the design on the side.  Michele was so accomodating!

And finally, we had our invitations digitally calligraphered (is that a word?  it is now!).  Look at all the yummy font:

Plus – the icing on the cake is that since we sent them out around Valentine’s Day… the stamp cancelling machine printed a heart on the envelopes!  I had debated as to whether to get the envelopes hand-cancelled or not, and for once it turns out that my laziness actually paid off

Anyway, this story has two morals.  1) Go email Michele from Blush Paperie!  I promise you won’t be disappointed.  and 2) Don’t buy things just because they are cheap.  You WILL change your mind (this happened to me with bridesmaids jewelry too…) and you will be out money.  Even $15 adds up!

p.s. anyone want 100 champagne swirl invitations?  I’ll give you a bargain deal of free