My MOH K got married in September, so her shower was last July (yes almost a year ago, hush.)  The shower was held at her now mother-in-law’s house, and it was gorgeous!  The spread of food was amazing…

The decor was creative:

(We each wrote down advice to make K a bouquet!)

The gifts were plentiful:

And I got to put my bow-hat making skills to good use:

My friend (and bridesmaid) M’s shower was held this March.  I had never been on the planning end of a shower before, and Jesus was it stressful… and expensive.  But at the end it was so worth it!  This was also the first shower I’d been a part of where it was completely a surprise – and she sure was surprised.  It was great!

The favors were these intricately designed cookies in the shape of wedding cakes.  Each cake was different!  We also played bridal shower bingo as M opened up pressies… and if anyone wants the template, I should be able to find it somewhere to send you!  Just email me

And just as with K’s shower, I got to make the bow hat again!  I love how it turned out.  A lot of people think that showers get boring – but if you’re the one creating a bow masterpiece, it flies by! 

The bridesmaids all came together to put on a great shower for M.  She got tons of gifts, and I think she had a great time.  

Have you ever planned a bridal shower?  Tell me it was stressful for you, 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

Of course, we always knew that getting married in the Catholic Church would mean that we had to go to Pre-Cana, but in our heads it wasn’t real.  I mean going to talk about your relationship in front of a priest?  AWKWARD.  But alas, we came to a point (umm February, aka 2 months before our wedding!) where we couldn’t put it off any longer, so we signed up for the one session in a place where we would at least feel at home… Saint Joseph’s University!  (Go Hawks!)

SJU Campus Ministry runs a one-day program for couples about to be wed, and I am so glad that we approached Pre-Cana in this way.  First of all, one session meant only having to dread going ONCE.  Not every week for six weeks.  (That would be a lot of dread!)  Second of all, since the program was on a college campus, a lot of the couples who ran the program were professors at the university… aka they were great at public speaking and discussing topics with a younger crowd.  (Robert and I actually recognized a lot of the couples from our undergrad classes, so they were mostly around our age.)  Time passed quickly, and I actually left Pre-Cana feeling awesome about our relationship.

Decision Making:

We first started talking about how to make decisions, and the best way to fight in an argument.  The couple presenting was lively, and they brought up a few excellent ways to approach things.  First, they mentioned that in decision making, you should reframe the situation so both the husband and wife were on the same side of the decision.  This way, the husband and wife are a TEAM, and not individual players trying to win.  (This might have been why Charlie Sheen’s marriages didn’t work out.  #winning.) 

The couple gave an example of when they were debating whether or not to buy a boat.  “it’s a lot of money,” said the wife.  “but it’s a great deal!” said the husband.  “maybe we can buy it in a few years,” said the wife.  And around and around they went… until one of them brought up the subject of the kids.  With only a few more years until their oldest went to college, they realized that there wasn’t much more time to spend as a whole family on the boat.  And once they were on the same side of the argument (the “it would be a great way to make memories” side), it was an easy decision.

The couple also discussed how to properly fight, and gave good suggestions such as:

• make physical contact with each other while you’re fighting.  fight the urge to push the other away.
• don’t go talking to third parties about your issues.  resolve it with the person who matters – your husband (or wife, or boyfriend, or fiance, whatever!)
• figure out what scares your partner.  this could help you figure out why they fight with you.  maybe your spouse comes from a broken family, and they are just afraid you are going to leave them like they were left before.  take this into consideration when you fight.
• don’t bring up anything in the past.  focus only on the matter at hand – not how many times that issue has come up before, or any unrelated issues that you think will help you “win.” 
• it’s not about winning!  really.  listen to each other instead of trying to formulate your next point while the other person is talking. 

Natural Family Planning:

One word: ugh.  You guys, I really tried to go into this one with an open mind.  I think I even said to Robert that this might be an option for us to try once we were ready to have kids.  (AKA in approx a bazillion years, for those of you keeping track.)  Then the couple started talking. 

First – I have to say, that both the husband and wife were doctors.  I.E. not college professors, and therefore they were not in the least engaging.  They were very preachy, and for someone who was talking about Sex and Intimacy, they were too shy and uncomfortable, which made everyone else uncomfortable.

Second – once they started discussing NFP, they mentioned how they were kind of… surprised… by their first child.  A real poster couple for how NFP really works, right?  They then went on to discuss the process of NFP, and words like cervical mucus were involved.  After I finished vomming, I really didn’t want to hear much more.  I think I’ll be on the birth control pill forever.  (TMI?  Sorry.)

(Something tells me that NFP isn’t all rainbows and star power as seen above.)

Hot Topics:

 The last segment of the day was hot topic-type issues such as budget, children, where to live when we get married, family, friends, and more.  We did a lot of exercises individually and together to see where each other stood on things.  This was very helpful, as it showed us how in sync Robert and I truly are.  (Barf, I know.)  But I’m serious guys, we rocked all those quizzes.  Go team!

Anyway, guys, Pre-Cana wasn’t all that bad (minus the NFP section… oh and the terrible, long Mass at the end!)  Ultimately we were happily surprised, and walked away feeling warm and fuzzy, and super in love.  (Barf again, right?)  And in the process, I feel like I learned a few more things about my religion.  (here are a few, in case you wanted to learn too!)

• Priests can’t because your family is supposed to be your highest priority.  And if your highest priority is your family, how will you take care of your church?  
• The church believes that marriage is meant for procreation.  And if you’re in a homosexual relationship, you won’t be able to procreate, and therefore the Church isn’t so keen on gay marriage. 

Do I agree with these stances?  Not necessarily!  But it was nice to learn about why the Church has the rules that it does. 

Anyway, Pre-Cana turned out to be a great experience, and provided us with lessons that actually seemed applicable in life – not just in the church! 

Did/would you do pre-marital counseling of any sort?  If so – what was your experience like?

But instead of freaking out about the details that I have LEFT, let’s talk about some of the details that have already been done.  Starting with my pride and joy, the Save the Dates.

One of my very first wedding ideas was to make a Photobooth type image with the two of us holding signs that said “save” “the” “date” “4.30.11” (full disclosure: I MIGHT have had this idea before we got engaged.  I can’t remember )

I thought this idea was so creative and unique – no one had ever done it before!  A quick google search brought me back down to reality.  But look at this inspiration:

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In an effort to save money, I was all about doing these myself – finding a template online, taking our pictures, and printing them 2 to a photo page via an online printing company.  Robert, however, had a different idea.  You see, we’ve been to quite a few weddings in the past few years and have received quite a few STD’s in the mail  (yes you heard that correctly!).  Most of them have been magnets, and we slapped those babies straight up on the fridge.  Robert wanted to make sure that our STD would get slapped on the fridge too, so he preferred his STD in magnet form.  (Cmon, read that without giggling.  I dare you.)

Most of the photo booth style magnets however, weren’t what we were looking for.  Most of the templates would allow you to provide pictures but they had the signs filled in already, but I had my heart set on handmade signs.  So a few more google searches brought me to Fresh Impressions, where they help you customize your entire magnet!  Our lovely photographer helped us snap a few pictures in the “photobooth style,” and we submitted them to the website.  After a few emails and a minor mishap involving us accidentally receiving magnets for North Star Behavioral Health Services, we had our save the dates!

Of course after viewing that fabulous inspiration above, I couldn’t just stick the magnet in an envelope and call it a day, right?  I headed to papersource to get some #10 flat cards in beet, some photo corners, and a silver pen.  A few days later, I had these [slightly more] thoughtful Save the Dates:

Lovely, yes? I’m quite proud of them.  We packaged them up in regular white envelopes (may I suggest getting the envelopes with the self-adhesive flap?!  Saves your tongue and some time!)  and as a hint of what was inside, I stamped all of them with this baby:

And finished them off with the best investment ever – our new rubber address stamp! (I thought I had a pic but my camera must have eaten it.)  I only included our first names so it is far more versatile for before and after the wedding.  And *spoiler alert!* after having to send out  invitations and rsvp envelopes, this guy has totally proven its worth.  How did I ever survive without one of these guys?  Ours is the flair stamp from Paperwink, and loved working with them.  GET ONE NOW.

Anyway so that’s the story of  how our Date was Saved.  Let me know if you have more questions about how we actually assembled them, etc.  It really was a breeze, just a time consuming breeze

What’s hanging on your fridge?

I am lucky enough to still be close friends with most of my girlfriends from high school.  And while I didn’t follow any of my friends to college, a good number of them went to school together, and made very close friends there too, who have now become my friends.  A lot of us have moved away, but we still come back to see each other as often as possible.  Even if we go a long time without seeing each other, I know for certain that there will be one weekend a year where I get to see all my girls… Bitches Weekend.

Bitches Weekend started in 2007, and has been a yearly tradition of drinking, eating taco dip, making each other breakfast, and sunbathing.  (Sometimes too much sunbathing). 

(the first bitches weekend, circa 2007)

The same crew comes back year after year, and it’s such a routine for us now that we all know who we’re driving with (Leslie), what time we leave on Friday (after a half day of work), who brings what (Les and I always get the alcohol!), and what bed we sleep in (back bedroom, next to Leslie.)  Perfect.

I didn’t think anything could get much better.  But, you see, I’m the first one of my friends to be getting married, and apparently they wanted to do something special for my last Bitches Weekend as a single gal.  And special doesn’t even begin to cover it.

It didn’t start much different than any other bitches weekend.  We had been planning to go out in Atlantic City on Saturday, so we’d been talking for weeks about all the cute dresses we were going to wear.  This didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

On Friday night when Linds and Lili arrived, they went grocery shopping.  This didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

On Saturday when some of the girls and I took a walk, and the rest of the girls went home to get ready for Church, that didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

When we walked back to the house, and the back gate was locked, I just thought “hmm so much for wiping off the sand, I’ll just use the front door.”  That didn’t seem out of the ordinary.  (Damn I’m naive.)

It wasn’t until I walked through the front door to see this (well, plus all my gorgeous friends), that anything was out of the ordinary.

And then I cried.  And then I was presented with a tiara. 

And Bitches Bubbly, and yummy snacks.

And beautiful necklaces that my beautiful friend Whitney made just for us.  And this amazing pint glass, that couldn’t have been more perfect.  (Yes, I still drink out of this at least once a week!)

We got ready…

and headed to AC.  The girls had put together a very detailed and amazing scavenger hunt that we started on in the car, and we reconvened at Carmines for dinner.

The rest of the night was a blur.  We drank girly drinks and I just soaked up the love that I felt from all of my friends.  There are no words to express how I felt that night, and how I feel when I think about that night.  It was such a sweet (and perfectly executed!) surprise, and I just can’t thank all of the girls for the most perfect Bitches Weekend Bachelorette Party a girl could ask for.

What was the sweetest thing that your friends have done for you?

This is huge, guys.  I know a lot of people talk a lot of smack about the Knot – and most of the time I agree with them.  But I’ve tried a bunch of other wedding organizer websites, and the Knot’s is the most consistent. PLUS they’ve recently updated it, and it’s actually pretty user friendly now.  I couldn’t care less about the rest of the content on the Knot – I think it’s hard to navigate, often slow, and not updated frequently enough.  But this checklist keeps me coming back every day.  It held a lot of frivolous items, but I know I might forget about some of the details once the wedding comes around.  And if nothing else, this self-proclaimed “queen of lists” LOVES having such a beast of a list to dominate.  And clearly, I’m dominating. 

Go team.

Actually, I must confess. There was a time in the wedding planning process where I considered no flowers except bouquets. And those bouquets were going to be made by me and my bridesmaids the day before the wedding. I’ve seen great centerpieces done without flowers – honestly! Check these out:

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So pretty, right? The wrought iron lanterns would look great with the wrought iron chandeliers we have in our venue. Anyway, I mentioned this to my mother and she thought I was crazy. She and I both love bright pops of color, so she encouraged me to bring in some springtime blooms. I agreed that it would be worth a shot to look for florists, especially to avoid having to create 6 bouquets the day before the wedding! (I know some people can rock this, but I am too anxious of a person to leave this until the last minute!)

So where to begin with finding a florist? I wish I could tell you, I really do. But guys, I hit the wedding planning jackpot. My matron of honor, KK, was planning her September wedding while I’ve been planning our April one. As she had to be a few months ahead of my schedule, I watched her as she traveled for weeks all over the tri-state area looking for a good, inexpensive florist. She found one in Kennett Square (Karen at Le Style 25), and booked her. Shortly thereafter, I made appointments to see her, and the florist housed in my venue. Mom and I went to meet Karen, and were immediately smitten. She’s an artistic soul, and so creative. I gave her almost 6 pages of PowerPoint collages that I put together (with almost no recurring theme) and somehow she figured out what I was looking for.  The pictures below are just a small taste of what I gave her to work with…

I mean seriously – how could one person figure this out? But she did!

for the bridesmaids

for me!

…and a combination of all different purple, pink, and yellow flowers for the centerpieces!

A few days later, I received a quote from her – and could NOT believe how amazing her prices were. She had been insisting that she does things the right way – but every vendor will tell you that. Her quote, however, was proof. But who books the first vendor that she finds? So I committed myself to fulfill the appointment I had the following week with Normandy Farms.

Now let me pause to tell you a funny story. While we were talking with Karen, she mentioned how some florists she knows pull their flowers from outside – where you never truly know what’s going on with them. She heard a horror story of a wedding where there was a spider nest in the centerpiece, and it hatched on the day of the wedding. Baby spiders were crawling all over the tables, and the guests were appalled. (Total ew, right?!) So the next day Mom and I went to our first food tasting at Normandy (a story for another day!) and they had the ballroom set up with flowers by the Normandy Farms floral team, as if there was a wedding taking place. Another couple ran over to our table to see if there was room for them to sit. They exclaimed “Ashley wants to find a new venue – there were spiders crawling out of the centerpiece!”

I cancelled my Normandy Farms Floral appointment the next morning. And that’s how we came to book our florist.

When I first started thinking about how to dress my girls, I had envisioned long, purple dresses.  “Bridesmaids dresses HAVE to be long,” I thought.  “And what will mom say if I decide to go short?  They look so INFORMAL!”  Until my mother (yes, the one that I thought would flip if I had short dresses) said she’d seen a few cute short bridesmaids dresses, and that I should look into them.  Trying to appease her, I did look into them… and I never looked back.  I mean what says fun, spring wedding more than short, flouncy skirts?!  Maybe mama always DOES know best…

My search first brought me to this Jim Hjelm beauty below.  I was convinced that THIS. WAS. IT.  It was unique and the perfect color, and I found myself wishing that I could wear it too.

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I loved, loved, LOVED it… but once I tried it on (I was my own bridesmaid for a day!)… it left me looking… well, I looked a little preggo.  

Yikes.  I looked at a few more…

  
But they weren’t screaming at me.  At this point, I was about to be a bridesmaid in my MOH’s wedding, and we all were wearing a Jim Hjelm dress that was GORGEOUS but a little tricky to wear.  My friends and I are all different sizes, and I was realizing how hard it was to get one dress to look good on everyone.  I decided to start investigating the mix-and-match option that I’d seen in magazines and wedding blogs.  I mean how great do these girls look:

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I did some research and found the Alfred Sung collection (part of the Dessy Group) was the easiest to mix and match.  I didn’t want my girls to look too discombobulated (remember that time I discussed how Type-A I am?!  I’m nice, but my inner control freak needs some semblance of order!)  So I picked one skirt that I liked that came with several different style tops in the color and fabric I chose (Poie de soie – in majestic!), and let the girls pick.  There was something for everyone, and it seems that everyone is happy.  Out of the 5 styles I gave them to choose from, only one has been picked twice… and I know everyone will look beautiful and feel confident in what they wear – because they chose it.  You hear some bridezillas talk about how “I’m the bride, and I want to look the best so I am going to pick the ugliest dresses for my ‘maids so that I stand out.”  How ridiculous is that?!  These girls are my best friends, and for all the love and support they have given me, they deserve to look their best.  Plus, the dresses have pockets, so how can you possibly go wrong?!

What do you think of them?  What was the ugliest bridesmaid dress you ever wore?

As the year went past, there were several celebrations for the beautiful couple.

But none were quite as amazing as the wedding between the beautiful young lady and the handsome Irish fellow…

The wedding was on June 4, 2010 at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park, and I can’t imagine a more picturesque location!

The food was amazing (think: seared tuna and filet mignon!)  and the DJ was terrific.  He kept us dancing all night… in fact I’m hoping to book him for our wedding!  And with plenty off family  and friends to celebrate with, there couldn’t have been a more perfect evening!

In the end, all anyone could talk about was how perfect the beautiful young lady and the handsome Irish fellow were for each other.  I couldn’t be more happy for them, and am so excited for my future sister-in-law!  I’ve never seen such a beautiful bride!  Congratulations!

Hello friends!  I was thinking the other day that I talked a lot about surviving the rough times at work, but I hardly spend any time discussing the perks of working for the Big 4 Firms.  This past weekend was a prime example.  You see, as many workplaces get off for Martin Luther King day or Presidents Day, we don’t – in fact we probably work a 12 hour day that day.  To thank us for our efforts during busy season, the firm gives us 4-day weekends for the three major summer holidays… and my god is it wonderful!

To kick off the long weekend, I spent Friday [finally] getting back into the wedding swing of things.  I had three meetings with photographers, and in between I spent some quality time with some cute coffee houses.  The first was right in my neighborhood… I couldn’t believe I’d never been to Milkboy Coffee before!  After my appointment with Lindsay, I stuck around for a grilled veggie sandwich and a mint-hibiscus iced tea.  It hit the spot!  I spent a lot of my high school years lingering around coffee houses, and I know this would have been the hot spot back then.  I felt like I was merging two versions of myself… the HS coffee house self, and the foodie self.  The menu even has a seitan cheesesteak, and although I wimped out from trying it this time… I will be back

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After that meeting, I headed into Northern Liberties to meet with Dollface Studio.  I’d never been to that part of the city before, and once I got past the mild ghetto-ness of the area, I opened my eyes and found my new favorite place:  The Random Tea Room.

I grabbed a comfy seat and settled in with a Bourbon Vanilla Honeybush tea and a cinnamon scone.  I was in heaven!  Maybe one day I’ll open up such a wonderful oasis

Saturday we bummed around the house, and I got some cleaning done.  We headed out later to a BBQ at a good friend’s new house.  They recently moved really close to us… it’s going to be a good summer!  No pictures to report, but trust me – Kelly out did herself with the BBQ food   We finished out the night watching the flyers lose – woo hooo!

Sunday is when we really turned the weekend up a notch.  I may or may not have slept til noon… (I may or may not have had a few Coronas on Saturday )  But I woke up to the grand aroma of Strawberry Pancakes courtesy of the fiancee!  Later in the afternoon we went for a lovely five mile bike ride (approx 45 min!) and returned home to get all dressed up.

Our destination?!  The Waterworks Restaurant and Lounge.  I have been dying to go to the Waterworks since I moved to Philadelphia, and when I saw a Groupon for the restaurant, I jumped at the chance!  I had heard that WW is BYOB on Sundays, so fiancee and I grabbed a bottle and headed out.

First we took some pictures – of course

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I have to admit though, our dinner was sub-par. Once we announced that we had a Groupon, our server  changed his tone immediately.  The meal was set up in prix-fixe style, so we were to be served a salad, sorbet, and entree, and dessert.  We also wanted to try the grilled octopus, and supplement our entree with some mashed potatoes.  The server was happy to oblige (keep that in mind!).  But it wasn’t all bad.  Although I wasn’t a fan of the octopus, Robert loved it.  And our Waterworks salad was AMAZING.  But we had to beg for bread in between, and after the salad… we didn’t get our sorbet.  And when we got our chicken, it was plated with asparagus and MASHED POTATOES.  Which would have been great to know when we ordered an additional side of potatoes (for $8 I might add!)  But as all this was going down, so was the sun… and it made it all worth it.

Dessert was good too – a duo of chocolate flourless torte, and chocolate mousse.  It helped to quell our dissatisfaction about dinner.  That is… until we got the check, and we realized that our waiter had charged us for a salad instead of including it in our prix fixe.  And when we went to ask him about it, he was no where to be found!  Thankfully we flagged down a helpful waiter, and he took care of it for us (although he couldn’t find our waiter either!).  Anyway, we really tried not to let our poor service get the better of us.  While we were disappointed about our miserable service, we made the best of it with… more pictures!

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After we danced around Kelly Drive, we hit the hay.  We had a huge day planned for Monday – complete with a picnic lunch, a blues festival and….

Our favorite local winery was hosting a wine tasting and blues festival all weekend, and as blues music and wine are two of our favorite things, we didn’t want to miss it!  For $25, we got to hear two bands, have a taste of 10 wines, and keep that cutie wine glass above.  Did someone say worth it?!

(Yes, definitely worth it!)  Among our favorites were the Proprietor’s Reserve – a blend of red wine grapes (this wine has been a favorite of ours for a LONG time!), the Merican – another blend of red wine grapes with hints of cherry jam and chocolate, the Sunset Blush (a refreshing rose), and the Naked Chardonnay. 

It paired wonderfully with gelato   OH and why naked you ask?  Why not?!  Haha OR maybe it’s because it’s aged in stainless  steel barrels instead of the oak barrels.  This made a huge difference to me… and might have been the first Chardonnay that I actually liked! I might have even bought a bottle to take home!

Anyway, this afternoon at Chaddsford  Winery was perfect.   Where else could you relax with wine, music, and beautiful scenery?  It was the perfect end to the long weekend.

What did you do with your memorial day weekend?!