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Every time I go to describe any part of the wedding we’re planning, the one word that keeps coming up is different. I really want our wedding to be different from other weddings our guests have been to. I want our dear friends and family to always look back on our wedding not just as a great time they had, but also as one that was really special and was a true representation of our personalities and tastes.

For example, I wanted our venue to be some place different, not your typical hotel or reception hall.

I wanted our photography to be different: artsy and edgy.

I wanted the food to be flavorful and interesting. No chicken and roasted potatoes here, no sir.

I wanted our flowers to incorporate bits of twigs and feathers and craspedia.

(You’d think I’ve been to a million weddings in my day but I haven’t. In fact, I haven’t been to a single wedding since I was too young to remember! Which has made planning tough at times but that’s another story.)

Because I’m trying to make our wedding extra unique and special, I think it would be pretty easy to label me as a “non-traditional” bride. And in a lot of ways, I am. I’m not wearing a long veil, I’m wearing a birdcage veil with a splay of feathers. My wedding shoes are a dusty gray in line with our wedding scheme. I’m planning on walking down the aisle to a contemporary folks song (you’ll have to wait until after the wedding to hear that update!). I don’t think we’ll be doing a flower or garter toss either.

We aren’t even doing favors (gasp!).

But I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as traditional and non-traditional. So much of our wedding is “traditional”: we have a decent sized wedding party (5 gals and 5 guys, plus the two of us),  A will be wearing a tux, I’ll be wearing a long white dress (well, ivory), there will be cake and a band and toasts and first dances and all those wonderful elements that make up your basic, “traditional” wedding. I’m even planning on changing my name, which is pretty much as traditional as it gets.

So where does that leave me?

I think it leaves me label-less, and that’s just fine with me. Some of my wedding is traditional, some is non-traditional, but all of it is me. Err… us. (heh)

What about you? Are you a traditional bride, a non-traditional bride, both or neither?

And are you struggling with labels? Embracing them or denying them?

One day back in January…

Him: Hey, you should pack a bag for the weekend, because we’re going somewhere.

Me: Why where are we going?

Him: I can’t tell you, it’s a surprise.

Me: Well if I don’t know, how do I know what to pack?

Him: Um…just bring two sets of clothes.

Me: Are we going somewhere nice? Do I need a dress? What about a bathing suit?

Him: Um….no? I don’t know? Yes? Just bring both. And don’t forget your cell phone charger.

And this is how the conversation started off our proposal weekend, which, despite not being a total deer in headlights surprise, was still a very fun and romantic weekend in San Diego!

Kent planned four activities for us. First on the itinerary…

1. Birch Aquarium

What can I say, I’m a museums and aquariums geek. He knows me too well. And I LOVE leafy sea dragons! When they swim in between the leaves, I think “heeey where did they go???”

This was a beautiful aquarium, and it was fun to explore and read about all the sea creatures. I recommend it for anyone visiting La Jolla, it’s a fun date spot!

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I get lots of font-related questions over at Oh So Beautiful Paper, so this week I thought I’d focus on a few of my favorite fonts - specifically calligraphy and script fonts!  I’ve also got a few suggestions for serif and alternative fonts (like wood type and slab fonts), but will share those in a future post.

So, first up, the font from my blog banner - Burgues Script:

This font is not free (or particularly inexpensive), but it comes with a ton of ligatures (the swishes and flourishes that make the font even more fancy) and I just love Burgues Script - as well as its sister font Compendium - for wedding invitations.  You can find Burgues Script through Veer.

Next up, Feel Script:

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I’d mentioned that my next 2 posts were going to be on 1) our recent engagement party, and 2) our meeting with our DOC.  Starting next Tuesday, I will indeed be writing about those 2 events, but since this is my 2nd post in one week, I thought I would interrupt regular programming with this announcement - I’ve finally done my first DIY project!

Although we tried to emphasize that no gifts were necessary at our engagement party, some friends and family insisted on being generous.  I wanted to send a special Thank You note because I’m still a little uncomfortable with the idea of all these people showering us with gifts just because we are getting married.  With our $25 Border gift card (one of our engagement gifts) I planned on buying some classy Crane and Co. Thank You cards, but as soon as I saw the wall of blank, colored postcard sized cards, my instinct kicked in to get creative and personal.  And so it begins - the endless obsession with making things matchy-matchy (a.k.a designing everything to tie with one theme).

I’d taken a one-day long Photoshop class a few years ago, and it was the best $800 I’ve ever spent.  With minimal Photoshop knowledge I designed the following two invitations to send as Thank You cards to our guests, with our images masked behind the text.  I think I will send the white paper with colored text to the adults (more traditional) and the kraft-paper brown invites with black comic book text to our friends - since they might “get” the urban, modern funky chic theme of our wedding a little more.

Although very simple, I’m pleased with the results.  The cards are postcard sized, and our handwritten Thank You message and our recipients’ addresses will appear on the back.

I’m not entirely sure when I decided I “needed” to Gocco some personalized cocktail napkins, but it was quite some time ago…months ago, in fact. And just when I had decided the cocktail napkins could be pushed to the back burner, Heather (who is my wedding day twin!) posted photos of her awesome cocktail napkins and I immediately knew personalized napkins were once again on the agenda. Heather scored her napkins on sale at Party City, but I picked mine up from The WEBstaurant Store, in the dove gray color, for about $13 with shipping and they arrived just a few days later. I spent about an hour this evening printing all 250 napkins and I have to say, this might just be among the most satisfying $13 and 60 minutes I’ve invested in the wedding to date. I am so glad I decided not to skip out on the napkins - I totally love how they turned out!

Is anyone else planning to DIY personalized napkins? Make sure to share if you do!

Alright on with the engagement story shall we?  Well it started with a Valentine’s Day card last year in which Lance had written, “Don’t you think its time to start ring shopping?”….which led to a trip to a jewelry store to try on different rings …and me finally deciding on what I liked.  Then the wait began.  This really didn’t bother me actually, I guess in my mind we already were engaged in a way, the sparkly ring was just an added bonus to come.

So fast forward to October…the morning of my 26th birthday in fact.  Since we shared one car and worked at the same place, Lance and I had a pre-work morning routine that would always get us out the door no later than 7:30am.  Lance would shower while I lazily laid in bed till the last possible second….then I would shower as Lance started making breakfast…the usual scrambled eggs and toast.  (I should mention that this happens EVERY morning…not just on my birthday…hands off ladies he’s MINE!)  Nothing out of the ordinary really.  We usually exchanged gifts first thing on our Bdays so the stack of  gifts on the counter as i came out for breakfast were somewhat expected.  But then Lance said, “you have one more gift but you’ll have to find it first.”

So instantly I started scanning the room looking for something obvious…a new shirt hanging up perhaps, maybe a picture of us framed somewhere….yeah well I was way off.  Checking the clock I realized I didn’t have time to “be messing around”…so I just went back to the room to finish getting ready.

Sidenote:  While all this is going on our cat Nori is being slightly more annoying than usual…jumping up on the counter…constantly in my personal space…just really extra needy for attention.

ok back to the story…so there I am just trying to get ready as fast as I can…I mean I already wasted about 15mins of this perfectly-timed-out-routine I have running around the apt looking for who knows what…when I catch a glimpse of something sparkly hanging from Nori’s collar as she’s sitting in the window.  I quickly go over to investigate ….its a ring.  and not just any ring….a beautiful princess cut diamond ring.  I screamed a little…Lance ran in…and got down on his knee (I was already on mine as it turns out)…and then asked me to marry him.  After thinking about it for 20 mins…..haha j/k…of course I said YES right away!

You see…the entire time Nori was just trying to get my attention….she knew she had an important job that morning!  Its funny when I think about the times I kept pushing Nori away and picking her up off the counter and not once did I suspect anything.  I got Nori when we first lived in Salt Lake.  She was my BFF after Lance moved to Virginia and later made the journey with me when I made the move, so she is very much a part of our relationship and I love that Lance included her.  So you wanna see a pic of the ring?

(this was my attempt at being artsy when I got my new camera)

Well there you have it!  An engagement story that included my birthday, our cat Nori, and a beautiful diamond ring!

Looking for a unique bridal shower theme? Well, I have one for you … Around the Clock! Last Saturday my beautiful bridesmaids hosted a fabulous shower for me, using the same theme from my mother’s shower 30 years ago. Every detail was so carefully chosen and perfectly fit my personality. I feel so lucky and so loved!

Each invitation included an assigned time (many craft paper clocks were lovingly cut and assembled), and each guest was asked to bring a gift for Nick and I to use during that time. I’ll share some of the creative gift ideas in a bit, but first … the details.

The venue was a lakeside pavilion at Kain County Park, in Jacobus, PA. Red and orange streamers hung (by my dad) around the circumference of the pavilion with bunches of red, orange, and white balloons. It was such a peaceful spot surrounded by trees with the lake just a few yards away. I love the outdoors, and my sister/Maid of Honor Laura couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate setting.

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Ok, so we are 115 days away from our wedding.  WOW.  That seems so close to me-and I know from following blogging brides that these days go by FAST!

I’m trying to decide what to do with my hair, and I hope you lovely ladies can help me!

First of all, I have very fine, wavy hair.  I straighten it all the time-as I can never get the curl to look right.  However, when it dries naturally, Vince LOVES it.  He is a big fan of curls, so I really would like to wear my hair in curls on our wedding day.  I don’t want to wear it down, though-because it tends to get very frizzy when I’m warm-and frizzy hair is not conducive to dancing the night away.

SO, I’m thinking something like this:

My mom says it’s too messy, so I found LC’s hair in this image below:

{found via google image search}

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image source

I know a candy buffet would be completely unnecessary, but my new favorite color is yellow and I have in my head this vision of candy filled jars (large and medium sized mason jars, maybe, even?) that I’m not sure I can shake. Although, my budget is waning, so I’m not sure I should be taking on any extra expenses. We haven’t lined up a cake yet (though, we want really really simple, white, plain, 3 tiered, so we should easily get one for $500 or less, right?) I love candy and I think that’s what makes this such a hard decision. Chocolate and candy are very reflective of me (and by adding in Garrett’s favorites despite his usual lacking in the sweets-craving it can reflect him too!). Maybe I can add in some home baked goods?

image source

So, should I stick with all yellow, which limits my flavor options (lemon, banana, butterscotch, and a few jelly belly flavors, like buttered popcorn which I love!) or do I just pick candies I like, and decorate the jars? (sour patch kids, chocolate covered almonds, reeses pieces, truffles, meltaway mints, etc). Or alternate the yellows with the mixes? Your call.

I love when things turn out exactly as I had pictured them. This one was a little iffy, all the way until it was finished. It turned out much girlier than I anticipated, but so far DJ does not seem to mind. The moss and girliness makes me think of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden.

I ordered moss on eBay, with no idea what the color or texture might be - or even quantity. I’d recommend the seller I used, although he never did respond to my questions before buying. But it was delivered quickly and packed well.

Quick note on moss: I ordered the dyed green variety, and it is a perfect forest/hunter green. The natural moss would be better for a silvery or sage-y color scheme. It’s hard to say exactly what the coverage of a box of moss is, but I used about 1/3 of a box for the bulletin board.

The base is a (thrifted!) bulletin board, the frame painted with pewter-y art paint. I attached the moss using little dots of hot glue. Not too many and not too close together, because I was afraid that too much glue would make it hard for the corsage pins to hold. The moss sort of sticks together on its own, so I didn’t need a ton of glue.

That’s one of the escord card envelopes, tacked on there with a pearl-headed corsage pin. I went a little embellishment crazy with silk flowers and ribbon. There’s a trick to the flowers. Pop the heads off the stems, then insert the head of a sewing pin into the hole left by the stem. Instant flower on a pin. (Yes, I’m sort of embarrassed about the state of our dining/crafting table. I’m a terrible housekeeper.)

The whole thing is sitting on a 12″ plate stand from Michaels. It’s pretty stable, but if you’re trying to fit more than 40 cards then two boards would be better.