A few months before our wedding, I was really struggling with what to get my bridesmaids for their gifts. You’ll remember this (rather desperate) post?

Well, I came up with putting together what I called a “wedding day survival kit” for my girls. I started by looking for a gray handmade tote bag on Etsy (gray was one of our wedding colors) and wound up with these fairly basic bags from Etsy seller Fantella (who was great to work with!). I thought these bags were simple enough to suit all of my bridesmaids’ varying tastes. They make great casual weekend bags and are big enough to fit books, laptops, whatever!

{author’s photo}

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Hello lovelies. Hope you’re all having wonderfully calm, inspired days.

I’m so excited to kick off the first of my official wedding recaps here on EAD. Just last week we got our pictures back from our amazing wedding photographers, Dave and Jo of Allegro Photography, and as I said on my own blog, they. are. phenomenal. And the slideshow movie they made is making our guests tear up left and right. I love it!

Our wedding day. How to describe it? Three words that come to mind: serene, opulent, and joyful. And special. So, so special.

Since Allegro did such a beautiful job of documenting our day, I’m going to let their pictures do most of the recapping of our “getting ready” moments. First up, my handsome groom, getting ready in our hotel room.

My pretty dress, quietly waiting for me.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

I’m still waiting for the official pictures to come back from our photographers (although they have given us a sneak peek!) so I thought I’d tell you all a little about our rehearsal “dinner”.

When it came to planning the rehearsal dinner, I was a bit stumped. I was trying to organize so many other details that it wasn’t a big priority for me. I thought I might like to have something outdoors (a BBQ maybe), since our wedding was going to be entirely indoors,  but when I looked into the details of renting a space and getting all the food out and our guests out to a park, plus plates and cups and napkins etc., I got overwhelmed and figured we’d just make a reservation at an interesting restaurant and be done with it.

Then we hired our wedding planner, Danielle, and once we told her that most of our guests were from out of town, she had a great idea. Why not take them on one of Boston’s famous Duck Tours? Since we hadn’t been on one either but had heard great things, we were all for it. She also thought of having a caterer set up in a public park and suggested Christopher Columbus Park on the waterfront, which is one of my favorite parks in Boston.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Hello hello hello again! I’ve just gotten back from the whirlwind that is getting married and then spending 10 days in Hawaii. It was a long trip back to Boston but we’ve finally arrived and are just trying to stave off jetlag long enough to celebrate my new hubby’s birthday which happens to be today!

Anyways, there’s so much I want to share with you - and finally can share with you - now that the wedding is over. Of course we are still waiting for the professional pictures to come in, so why don’t we start with the most recent event - our beautiful honeymoon in Kauai!

Back when I was researching honeymoon options, I didn’t know if we’d be able to afford Hawaii. But after one of my ever helpful bridesmaids discovered Home Away, a vacation rental website, I was lucky to happen upon this beautiful condo on the north shore of Kauai in Princeville. By staying in a condo, we enjoyed the convenience of far more space and privacy, a large lanai with ocean and mountain views, and a full kitchen, all for less than $200/night (during the off season when we went, just $160/night).

View from our lanai plus a visitor {author’s photo}

Kauai is the oldest and one of the least commercial of the Hawaiian islands. It is known as the “Garden Isle” and for good reason: it is green and lush and home to some of the world’s greatest natural features, including Mount Waialeale (known as the wettest place on earth, receiving up to 600 annual inches of rainfall) and Waimea Canyon (dubbed by Mark Twain as the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”) - not to mention some of the best beaches in the U.S.!

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Hello, my dear EADers. Sorry for being a little MIA lately. This past month has thrown me for a loop. We’ve gone through the process of almost buying a house and then losing that house and then finding another one, all in the midst of the most intense period of wedding planning.

Needless to say, I’ve been hanging on to my sanity for dear life! But I’m in a good place and I wanted to share this that I wrote this morning and posted on my own blog about all the feelings I’m experiencing right now.

———

This is it. We’re one week out from the wedding. This. is. IT!

I know I can’t keep starting all my blog posts with “This is it” but you have no idea how hard it is to stay grounded in the present when you’re one week out from your wedding. Your mind keeps wandering to the bridesmaids gifts and will we assemble the programs in time and I need to write all my cards out and whoa.

Whoa.

Slow down, sister. Yes those are all important things to think about but let’s focus on the here and now. Let’s focus on the fact that in one week, one week from this moment, Andreas and I will be waking up together for the last time as “single” people. Let’s focus on how amazing that is. This is the moment. Right now.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

To all my fellow brides-to-be out there - this one is for you.

I feel a certain kindred spirit when I meet other brides. A few weeks ago, my bridesmaids took me to some very typical bachelorette party destinations around Boston and one of the many (many) highlights of the evening was getting to meet so many other brides. We’d drift toward each other, attract by the various tiaras and boas and other paraphernalia our friends had draped on us and hug and ask each other almost simultaneously, “When are you getting married?”

Some would say in a few months, some next month (like me), but more than one said, “Next week!” I couldn’t even comprehend (and still can’t) what they were feeling at that moment but I would just squeeze them tightly and say, “GOOD LUCK!”

Many of you are probably several months out, possibly even a year out or more from your wedding, and are wondering, what will it be like at the eight week mark? The four week mark? The one week mark? The one day mark? I know I was when I was in your shoes.

Well, here I am reporting straight from the trenches of the four week mark and I’ll say this - it’s not so bad. And I was never one of those relaxed, happy-go-lucky, “I’m sure everything will be fine” brides. I was the, “holycraphowwillwegetitalldone”, rocking and muttering to myself in the corner kind of brides.  Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit but it has not been a smooth ride for me by any means. At one point I was so stressed out that I gave myself shingles and had to start seeing a therapist (not in that order though).

But! I’m doing much better now. And I’m feeling pretty in control of my to-do list.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

This is Part II of a two part series on my invitations. You can read Part I on the envelopes here.

When it came time to decide on our invitations, I knew it was going to be an uphill battle. I’ve always been into paper and stationery so of course I was going to be picky, but A too had some strong opinions when it came to invitation design. His main concern was with anything too “girly”. He didn’t want tons of flowers (actually he didn’t want any flowers at all) or overly scripted fonts - which was fine because I didn’t either. We also needed an invitation suite that fit into our somewhat unique color scheme of plum, mustard and charcoal gray.

And as with every step of the wedding planning process - budget was a big issue.

We started at our neighborhood Paper Source, which is usually my go-to place for all my papery needs (literally, my paper source. Ha! Moving on…). I had long envied the couples who spent sunny Saturday afternoons curled up by the window at Paper Source, casually flipping through the volumes of invitation samples, pointing and smiling and discussing everything they liked. Unfortunately, that is not the experience we had. Everything we found at Paper Source seemed too cliché. Nothing felt like us. There was very little in our color scheme and to top it all off, it was all pretty pricey.

That’s when I emailed Lynne Johnson at the Inviting Company. I originally asked her to send me some pricing on a particular line she carried. She emailed back and said,

“This is more than a business to me. It is my passion. I am sure once you sit with me and see how I can help you design the perfect invitation that will reflect you, your fiancé and your event you will see this. I do more than just invitations and I will be happy to show you what I can do. Most importantly, I pride myself in working with all budgets. I carry many commercial companies from the high end to the economy brand. HOWEVER, I very rarely sell invitations from the books.

I am a creative stationery designer with a background in fine art, greeting card design, and advertising. I have a great affiliation with a printer in Maine who does all my custom printing and this allows me creative freedom while keeping costs in check. An invitation should reflect the bride and groom and the event they are creating…my invitations are all colors with custom monograms and personalized drawings of things that reflect you.”

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Hey friends, just a quick post from me. It was a wild weekend with three of my bridesmaids coming into town along with my mom and mother-in-law to-be for my bridal shower/bachelorette. It was a wonderful, awesome time, but needless to say I’m a little, em, tired. With lots to catch up on.

BUT! Now that our invitations are officially OUT and we’re starting to get our replies back, I wanted to share them with you all. This is going to be a little mini two-part series, starting out with our envelopes!

I always knew that I wanted to have calligraphy. I understand why it is often the first thing cut from the budget but to me, it was important. I love calligraphy. I had a calligraphy set growing up and even though I never developed any great talent for it, I always appreciated it.

Just like every other decision for my wedding though, I didn’t want your typical, ornate, cursive-like calligraphy. I was inspired by more quirky, different calligraphy styles like those of Betsy Dunlap and many others. But of course I didn’t have the biggest budget in the world.

Enter the wonderful Mara Zepeda of Neither Snow. Not only is her work beautiful, but it is affordable ($2 per envelope!) and she was a joy to work with. I would highly recommend her to all of you!

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Fellow brides to be out there, have you noticed that along with all the various wedding-related festivities comes the pressure to buy new clothes? Lots and lots of new clothes?

{Death Wears Diamond Jewellery}

Let’s see, you’ve got the engagement party, the engagement pictures, at least one bridal shower, a bachelorette party, a rehearsal dinner, and for all these you need to look fabulous. Because you are the bride. And all eyes will be on you (oh, and that fellow who’s also involved with the wedding, I believe they call him the groom.).

Now a few new outfits over the course of say, nine months, would usually be no problem for me. Par for the course, actually. But lately I’ve been acting a little, well, cheap.

I’ll admit it! I’m cheap. And the wedding has only exacerbated that quality of mine. As I find myself thinking about bridesmaids gifts and parents gifts and gifts for the groom and all the other little things I’m dolling out the cash for these days, the thought of spending more money on all these new outfits is nerve wracking for me.

For our lovely engagement pictures, yes. That dress is new. So are the shoes. But I felt like I had to get new stuff to achieve the style I was going for for the e-session. But for other things, I’m having trouble coming to terms with spending more money.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

I have one of those countdowns on my Facebook profile that tells me how many days are left until the wedding. I used to think it was a fun, quirky thing to have, but as the number gets smaller and smaller, I find myself getting more and more freaked out about how little time we have left. There’s just so much to do!

Our wedding planner keeps telling me to delete that countdown (I won’t, just because it comes in handy at times), but I am looking at it less and less.

Still, we’re sending out our invitations on Monday, so it’s impossible to ignore that we officially have (breathe) eight weeks until the wedding.

Breathe, Shelley.

Eight weeks. No problem, right? We pretty much have everything done, right? Okay, so hair and makeup isn’t nailed down yet but we have trials scheduled. And we haven’t totally nailed down the cake either but we have a tasting on the books.

And the rest is just little stuff. Like our vows and some little DIY projects like our programs, menus, table “numbers,” etc. I can do this. I know I can.

And yet… I just get myself stressed out. (So stressed in fact that I wound up with shingles, but that’s another story you can read more about here.)

One thing I’ve been thinking on for weeks now without getting anywhere is what do get my bridesmaids for their gifts. I’m totally stumped on this point. I want the gifts to be fun and special but I don’t have the biggest budget in the world for them.

For awhile I thought I’d put together a gift bag for each of them. I read about these super comfortable and flattering undies called Hanky Panky (have you tried them? They’re awesome.), that I thought could be a fun part of a gift bag but at $18 a pop, we’re almost at half my per bridesmaid budget.

Now I’m leaning toward getting each gal one nice thing. I thought about iPods or silver Tiffany necklaces but both are out of my budget for sure. And that’s really all the progress I’ve made on the attendant’s gifs.

So fellow brides-to-be out there, do you have some ideas to share for the bridesmaids gifts? I’m all ears!

(And p.s. I’m fresh out of ideas on my gift for the groom as well!)