Jeff Williams made my monograms a reality!

I have a vision of what I like but most of the time I can not explain it correctly or people just don't get me, so I did not know what to expect when my cousin/MOH told me I should contact Jeff Williams about designing the monograms for the wedding and talk to him about what ideas I had for it. You maybe asking who is Jeff Williams ? Well he is a highly versatile web and print designer based out of San Francisco! My cousin knows all the talented peeps!

I had seen a lot of monograms but they all looked the same, the only difference was who was selling the monogram. I knew I wanted something elegant but with a splash of fun and casual, but what did this mean? I did not know, but when Jeff sent me his first draft of the monograms, I was astonished, somehow he had listened to what I had wanted, and used his own artistic ability and vision to make it a reality. He had created 5 design concepts each having their own initial, seal, monogram and pattern and I love each and everyone of them. They were exactly what I had wanted smooth lines, flourishes, damask and contemporary font to keep it cool and casual. The picture I posted doesn't do it justice since it only shows you one design & I blurred out the font. You should check out Jeff Williams website yourself, and not just for monograms, this guy has some serious superpower design skills that include illustration work and typography.

I *love* what he says on his website "I create engaging, smart, and wonderful things including advertisements, billboards, brochures, dreams, websites, posters, time machines, love stories, amazing playlists in iTunes, emails, plans for world domination, storyboards, illustrations and much more" Thank you to my cousin/MOH for introducing me to Jeff!

LA: A High Concentration of Sensitive Men

Although not directly wedding-related, I wanted to share with all you lovely ladies an interesting article I came across today in LAist."Study says LA guys (tied with SF) are most sensitive."

Not really quite sure what to think or say about those results. In talking to WestsideWedding about it, the more sensitive the guy, does that really mean the better? In my mind, it means more game playing, more cloak and dagger type of work... more egos being involved rather than being honest and as recent yoga classes have taught me "leading with your heart."

The most ironic part about the whole deal is I used to DATE the guy who wrote the article for LAist. By date, I mean we went on one date and I was so abashed by his insensitivity (taking out a 10 bucks and declaring that I put in the rest of the money, trying to wield me over to the rooftop of not so romantic bad-part-of-Hollywood apartment and me politely excusing myself abruptly during the whole debacle) that it ended right before it started.

But you can judge for yourselves on what you think about the results. Click here for the article.

Wedding Conversation Starters

Last week after leaving Legally Blonde, mi amor, MOH/cousin and I were discussing ways that we can get people to mingle at the wedding since most people will not know everyone. I should have wrote their ideas down because I remember them being great, but for the life of me I can not think of a single one they mentioned. Hopefully MOH/Cousin remembers and she blogs about it ;-) Until then...I found some great conversation starters at MarthaStewart.com check them out *here*. I really liked the one titled- "Song and Dance" because it gets people not only to mingle but gets them on the dance floor! The idea is each table is assigned a song title and when the tune plays, the whole table has to get up and get down! Another good one is "Change is Good" - Each guest opens their favor box which has a penny & then shares with the table an important event that corresponds to the year on the penny. Are you guys doing anything to get them to mingle? One thing we are doing is proving a 5 hour open bar, that should help loosen people up!












{Source Martha Stewart}

Etched Monogrammed Glasses for BM & GM!

I bought some etch cream to make monogrammed wine glasses for the bridesmaids and monogrammed low ball glasses for the groomsmen. I was inspired by this tutorial from Michaels (see pic to the left) but it mentioned using an engraving tool and that sounds too complicated, then I found this tutorial on Michaels which only requires etching cream & a stencil...SOLD!. I took my 40% coupon to the nearest Michaels and bought myself some etching cream! Martha also has some directions for etched glass monogrammed glasses (see pic to right) check it out *here*

I'm still on the look out for the right low ball glasses but as soon as I find them I will make sure to post my DIY skills to ya'll! (btw I am not southern but I dig the word ya'll, I don't use it in my every day lingo but I am known to use it profusely when emailing my home skillets)

Wedding Hairstyles

I'm going to wear my hair 1/2 up because I don't trust it to stay nice completely down and don't trust it to look nice all up - due to a terrible up do my junior year in high school that left me with a horrendous looking bee hive on top of my hair. Plus the up do is so my "work style hair" i.e I never do my hair for work and a hair bun always looks great with a suit ;-)

I used these resources to try to get an idea for how I want my hair styled:

1. haircomesthebride.com: This site has a lot of pictures of celebrity hair styles. Like everyone on theknot that wants their hair 1/2 up, I am inspired by Carrie Underwood's hair.
2. brides.com: Refine your search by the type of hair you have, the length and the look.
3. Theknot.com: They have wedding 101, you can search by the same above criteria and you can even take a quiz on how you should wear your hair. One of the questions was "You can't leave the house without…" but all the options had to do with beauty, I needed an option for iPhone!
4. Oncewed.com: They have intersting wedding styles from "Mariah Carey", "Wild and Crazy" and "Spanish Up Do", I had serious doubts that they would be able to show me pictures of hairs that could be described in such titles but let me tell you that wild and crazy did look wild and crazy and the spanish up do is how 90% of girls wear their hair at the quincinera!

How are you wearing your hair?

MOH: Recommended Reading

Like any great player or actor in the game of life, one must make sure that they are completely prepping for their big role... Because of this, I have recently added to my library the following books purchased on Amazon:

• The Quintessential Wedding Guide ... Maid of Honor
  
  
• The Bridesmaid's Guerrilla Handbook
  
  
• Everything Bridesmaid: From Planning the Shower to Supporting the Bride, All You Need to Survive and Enjoy the Wedding (Everything Series)
  

Just another day in one of several lives! I'll be posting reviews on these books in the next following few weeks. Stay tuned!

County Clerk: Another Happy Costumer(s)

I love these kinds of facebook updates... when you notice casual friends or acquaintances statuses change to "engaged" and "married" and then you notice their latest mobile upload...

With stuff like this, who needs reality TV? Am I a sap that I said "AWWWW" audibly when I saw this?

Brownie Pops Yum

{Source Intimate Weddings}

I decided that I *need* to make those brownie pops that I recently saw on Intimate Weddings and The Kitchn (that's how they spell it). I was about to purchase the Wilton Round Brownie Pop Mold that both sites recommended when I saw the Wilton Bite-Size Brownie Squares Mold Pan, the pop pan has 8 molds and the squares mold has 24- um sold! I can make 3 TIMES more, faster & more efficient - can you tell I work in finance ;-) And as you can see they look just as cute! It's my future father in laws birthday next weekend so perfect time to make them and ship them out to Florida! I hope I get the molds in time!

{Source Amazon}

Bridesmaids' Dresses

Update: We are coming down to the wire for dress shopping. I'm crossing my fingers that our excursion to David's Bridal towards the end of the month will show that these dresses we're eyeballing (crossing fingers) are the ones. Call me a crazy (because I am) but I know these are the ones! I only believe in love at first sight when it comes to clothing and my heart skipped TWO beats when I saw these beauties.

Save money & make yourself a kissing ball!

{Photo By: Perry Aslyn Portrait Design via theknot.com}

In an effort to save money and take care of wedding projects way ahead of time, I've decided that my flowers girls (my 2 little nieces) are going to be holding kissing balls aka pomanders. I'll be using silk flowers, but considering I don't have any wedding colors yet or wedding theme, this project will have to wait. In the meantime here are some great sources for creating your own kissing ball!

An awesome tutorial by Miss Labrador of weddingbee.com *here*
HGTV.com tutorial for floral kissing balls *here*
Vintage Glam Blog tutorial for tissue pomanders *here*
or just buy some silk red rose kissing balls from saveoncrafts on sale for $16.49 *here*