BEE my LOVEBUG

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and although the FI and I aren't prone to massive celebrations on this day, I just recently discovered this adorable gourmet & artisan chocolates called John & Kira's. They have the most precious chocolates in the shape of bees and ladybugs.

Pretty cute, no? The bee chocolates are filled with caramel and the lady/love bugs are filled with a dark chocolate ganache, um drool. I've decided for Valentine's Day to get FI a box of chocolates (but let's face it its as much for me as it is for him!). I bought the "Bee Hive Tower", which includes the yummy caramel-filled bees, as well as a 15 piece set of their every flavor box. What's additionally lovely about snacking on these delectable treats, is that the only thing you have to feel guilty about is the calories! Most of their flavor chocolates come from some sort of socially responsible background. The mint for the mint chocolate is grown by elementary and highschool age kids in Philadelphia as part of a nutrition program, the Strawberries & Raspberries are from a small family-owned farm, and their chocolate with coffee beans is bought through a fair trade program.

Not only do they have adorable, tasty and socially responsible chocolates, but they also sell them as favors! You can order favors in 2 or 4 piece sets, that are individually wrapped and tied with a bow (how cute!). I think they're adorable, but a bit out of our price range for favors, but still, it never hurts to look.

You Wish You Were My Bridesmaid!

I have a profound admiration for bridesmaids, all of them really. It takes a true blue friend to be a bridesmaid. Its easy to be happy for someone when they tell you they're getting married, but its an entirely different thing to get sucked into the bride's world of planning. Its also an expensive thing to boot. You figure with attire, a shower gift, a bachelorette party gift a wedding gift, and all the travel expenses for any or all of these things can equal some serious ca$hmoney.

I not only have a profound admiration for MY bridesmaids, but a whole lotta love. That's why I'm going to try them as much as I can, and here are some of the things that I'd like to do for my lovely ladies.


I've always liked the idea of giving gifts in a tote bag, and was going to get the uber-popular L.L. Bean tote bags, when I spotted these trendy little bags at Old Navy.


But now that I've gotten them these lovely bags, I have to fill them with something. I decided that I would fill them with a few different things, but try to stay reasonable with the amount that I spent. I previously posted about the brooches the girls will be wearing the day of, but here are a couple of them again, they're all from the fabulous online store White Aisle which has lots of amazing wedding things from invites to jewelry to socially conscious sashes. I love that all of the brooches are similarly made of pearls and crystals, but each have their own distinctive look. This way all of my girls have a slightly different detail to this accessory.














The next gift for my girls is probably my favorite. I was feeding my daily Weddingbee addiction last week, when I came across Miss Hydrangea's post on these lovely bouquet crosses from Room Service Home. I thought these were both beautiful and incredibly meaningful gifts.



This first set, is from 2007 and represents Faith, Hope, and Love. The set below represent Purity, Strength, and Beauty. There is one of each that perfectly represents each bridesmaid, and I was thinking of getting these and attaching a little note that says what their own cross represents, and why I chose it for them.



When I first thought about gifts for the girls, I decided that flip flops were a must. They're not much, but will be much appreciated after a day of 3 inch heels. So I bought 6 pairs of shimmery white flip flops from Old Navy. I'll probably tie a green bow on them (of course, they have to match!) and a little note. Something little that I'd also like to include are these button soaps and sachets from White Aisle that are, well cute as a button!

Marooned

So. Sad.

Over the holidays, I stopped by our Country Club reception site with FI and FILs, and since we'd last been in the summer, they've redone the carpet. Before, it was a medium shade of gray, there probably couldn't be anything less offensive. It had a bit of green shade to it as well, which again, not so offensive as our wedding colors are predominantly shades of green. But alas, that's all changed now. The new carpet color? Maroon. Maybe Burgundy. I'm not really sure what you'd specifically call the color, all I know is that it is DEFINITELY not in keeping with our wedding colors. How dare they, right? (totally kidding, although it is a bit disheartening)

This is the bar area before, its still a very beautiful space, and the large windows, and high ceilings will help take some of the attention off the carpeting. In all honestly, I'm actually not really too upset, I prefer to think of it more as a challenge. People don't really look at the floor anyways, and I'm trying to think of more creative ways to decorate the space so that it draws the eye upward.

The first thing I've come up with is the tried and true canopy that the Club already offers . But I definitely want to have a little more decoration on and around it. So, I plan on employing another of the most popular wedding trends, the played out but oh so adorable paper lanterns. The pictures above are from The Knot, but I think there are a few too, ok, way too many paper lanterns for my taste in the picture on the right. But still, I'm rather fond of how they make any space seem playful, and will definitely draw attention away from the floor.

I'm thinking of getting a few flower balls made to put up with the lanterns, kind of like the pomanders that flower girls carry, only these would be bigger, like Flower Girl Pomanders on 'roids. Or, I have a growing fondness for the Martha Stewart Paper Pom Poms. I like the mixture of paper poms, lanterns and flowers, and that they're all varying shapes and textures, but still spherical.

Out of City, Out of Mind?

I love love love getting mail. There's nothing more exciting than that feeling I get when I open my mailbox and letters, magazines, postcards, and yes, even junk mail come tumbling out. Its the highlight of my day, because someone, somewhere cares (even if it is a salesman trying to sell me something I don't want today).

But, today I got something in the mail that made my heart skip a beat, it was a fabulous little post card for the Veils & Cocktails event on January 30th held by Fabulous-Bridal Boutique, The Madison & Cincinnati Wedding. But, le sigh... I live over 3 hours away, which is a bit much for a Wednesday. Not that there aren't bridal shows in my area, but they're normally at the same place and have no illusions of grandeur... and there are only so many vendors that are really helpful up here since I'm having my wedding so far away.

I suppose for now I'll just have to live vicariously through the posts of brides like Miss Penguin and Miss Cherry Blossom on the Weddingbee, since I can't make it home for something a little bit swanky. So, I'll leave you with some pics of the lovely things I will be missing in a few weeks...

(all images courtesy of Fabulous-Bridal)

Double Duty

I was just listening to Ingrid Michaelson's song Overboard, and it got me thinking...

I love my fiance and I love my job, I probably love both a little too much. So I guess I shouldn't complain that I am fortunate to be in such a predicament, but sometimes its a bit overwhelming. I'm sure every bride experiences (at least a little) that overwhelming feeling of trying to merge two lives together. I'm not just talking about my fiance and I, but rather, my personal life and my work life.

I work in College Campus Ministry which is a life consuming job, but in the best way possible. There is a lot of office work and paper work involved in my job, but there are infinitiely more things that I love about what I do. I facilitate a seminar class on Christian Leadership, and work with a dozen college sophomores each week, as well as help plan events for the students at our parish. I typically work 7 days a week, and although I'm only "clocked in" for 40 hours or so a week, I tend to be here upwards of 50 or 60. While I go home feeling physically and emotionally drained, I also feel so energized by what I do. This is normally fine, since I live by myself and my FI had out-of -town internships 2 of the past 4 months for his final year of Pharmacy School, but now he's back for the rest of his internships, and I initially had a hard time balancing my work life with our relationship (I tend to be a bit independent).

I love going home and cooking dinner with him, curling up with a glass of wine, watching a movie and taking games of Monopoly and Scrabble far too seriously. But I have a hard time pulling myself away from work in the evenings, because it often doesn't feel like "work" to me. It hasn't really caused any problems, he's so understanding and supportive of my passion for my work, and patient when I'm a bit late meeting up after work.

But I can't help but think that it probably won't always be this way. And what about when we have kids? We aren't totally unprepared for this part of marriage, we've both agreed that we both want to be actively involved in raising our kids, but both of us need something outside of that home life, so we're both open to working part-time. But I know I secretly hope sometimes that the part-timer isn't me, while other times I could see myself staying at home full-time... at least for a little while.

Ultimately, I know that some sort of balance has to be achieved (and will). But right now, the scale is tipped in the work direction, with our engagement as a time to tease out a balance between the two.

Meadow Green is to Leaf as Honeydew is to Sage

I received all the paper for our invites two days ago, and they perfectly coordinate with the color of my BM dresses! We ordered the dresses from Ann Taylor and the invite materials from Paper Source. I wanted something that would coordinate, but the similarity between the colors is uncanny. I keep pulling out the sashes to compare them to the paper, and still can't believe it. We've just about got the wording finalized for our invites so hopefully I'll get started on those sometime this week.

Sweet Escape

Who doesn't love a happy ending? "They lived happily ever after..." or "Riding off into the sunset". Sure these scenarios aren't all that realistic, but they sure are romantic.

And for this reason, I would love to do the sending-off at the end of the reception. I think its such a beautiful and classic throwback to weddings of "years gone by", and definitely needs to be brought back. I'd love to tweak it a bit, and maybe mix a bit of vintage with a bit of modern. Maybe using a new song and changing into a vintage dress at the end of the reception for the sending-off.

For the song, I love the idea of rolling out after playing something like Gwen Stefani's The Sweet Escape. Its such a fun, playful song... and perfectly titled to boot!

Of course I need an equally cute and playful dress to go along with the song! Here are some options that I love... but in my indecisiveness haven't committed to yet. These first two are from the Vintage Clothing site Vintageous.















These next two are from the website Posh Girl Vintage and are also very adorable, and are the kind of style I'm looking for.















This final dress is one that I saw on ebay, and is probably my favorite since I've started browsing for a sending-off dress. But alas, bidding has ended on it, so I hope that it won't be too hard to find a similar style. I love the vintage look, but I'm always a sucker for a sweetheart neckline.