Shoesday Chronicales - Part 5

As I was writing Part 3 about my online shopping I went back to visit some pages and grab pictures off the websites to post. It just so happened as I was looking for a picture of Kate Spade's Lovely shoes (pictured below) on zappos, I came across a new pair of shoes I had not seen before!

Kate Spade, Lovely

Badgley Mischka, Xango

At 3 inches, a peep toe, and pink - I was crazy excited but still reluctant to commit. I took a few days to mull it over, and wound up ordering them!

Wondering if this could possibly be the pair of shoes I would wear on my wedding day I waited and waited the 5 long days it took for the shoes to ship to my work address. When they finally arrived I tore open the box and carefully worked my way through the pristine wrapping holding my new shoes.

Upon opening, I thought they were just "ok". When I tried the shoe on my foot - I new these would not be my wedding day shoes.

First of all, the shoes were to big. I wear an 8, but had tried on some Badgley Mischka shoes before that seemed small, so I ordered and 8.5. The shoe probably had 1/2 an inch extra space in the back. I could always exchange them but the size was not the only issue.

A 3 inch heel was what I was looking for, but this shoe was terribly uncomfortable. Maybe the way it was built, but it felt a lot higher than 3 inches and I knew I wouldn't be able to cope with these all day.

So I packed up the Xango's and put the return label back on the box.

Labor of Love #2

The invitations are in the mail - hallelujah!

In an amazing effort by KJ and myself - our invitations made it to the post office early Tuesday morning and we've had a good response that people have seen our pretty pink envelopes filling up their mailboxes already.

Warning to any soon-to-be brides out there, DIY Invitations are SUPER stressful.

They are also worth it - take a look at our completely one-of-a-kind custom

invitations:

It all started with a bag:

and inside that bag was a lot of paper courtesy of Paper Source:

I had never been to Paper Source, but its one of my new favorite places. Its so colorful inside!!

Very important in DIY Invitations: A Mom with pretty handwriting and a heart of gold, willing to hand address envelopes for hours and a time.

Exhibit A - Mom's pretty hand writing:

And I've talked a lot about BM (Best Man - NOT Bridesmaid Kris) Kris' design talents - here they are in real life:

He worked from the inspiration invitations that I ordered (but never actually came in the mail) from minted.com

BM Kris also designed a Directions Card and our RSVP Cards:

KJ took over postage and stuffing while I manned the hot glue gun to assemble the ribbons and wax seals.

Before stuffing, each invitation was topped off with a Moo Card - the idea came from the super crafty ladies of weddingbee:

And a must have for any DIY Invitation project: a fiance willing to personally lick 111 pink envelopes:

I think I've said it over 20 times in the last four days, but I LOVE our invitations. I feel bad for loving them so much, because "paper" was one of the things I was willing to let take a back seat in wedding planning. I feel they get thrown out so quickly, or lost, or like a lot of my invitations - coffee-stained. But when you put hours and hours of work into these invitations, well they kind of find this very special little place in your heart.

I sent them out Tuesday and got the first RSVP back in the mail today! I'm SO excited, so keep 'em comin' folks!

I get by with a little help from my friends...

I've been light on the blogging as of late.

And thats because the past weeks I've been working on the BIGGEST DIY project... ever.

This project started as something small and simple, a way to save money, and has turned into a monster undertaking.

Le sigh... I'm about 20 minutes away from going to pick up the invitations from the printer, and I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I can honestly say that our best man, Kris, and been aaaamazing in this whole processes. Kris is a Graphic Designer who also did our Save-The-Dates. Without his time and hard work we wouldn't have our very special and one-of-a-kind invitations.

I've learned a lot through this project - and I'd love to spend a few minutes sharing my new knowledge about DIY invitations.

#1. It's never as easy as it looks.

I found some inspiration invitations on minted.com. The invitations actually looked pretty simple in design, but cute, something that fit what I was looking for. When we had went to Kris and asked him to design something based off the inspiration invitations I had no idea how difficult it would be to make these no-hassle invitations. Probably close to 48 hours of design time later, and a hand drawn font by our designer - our invitations were getting close to what we wanted.

#2. Printers suck.

The wonderful store Paper Source offered a multitude of paper sizes in every color of the rainbow, including a 5X7 invitation and a 4x6 size, perfect for an RSVP card. What the store doesn't tell you is that no printer (Super Print, Kinkos, etc) can print on paper smaller than 8 1/2 x 11. Well, I take that back, Super Print was able to print on the smaller size, but they would charge $50 in set up for each run because they had to put it through the printing press. We had a total of 7 different images to be printed - which means in set up fees alone, before copies, the printing would be upwards of $300.

My new favorite store, Paper Source, is awesome, but it's also 30 some miles away from my apartment so getting there is a little bit of a hike. All in all, I had to put about 200 miles on my car going back and forth between the store (3 trips), and one emergency trip that I called my mom on. Again, thanks to the wonderful Kris, he suggested making a final trip to Paper Source to return the pre-cut paper, getting the same paper in 8 1/2 x 11, and having the printer cut it. (For about $350 LESS than what I was quoted).

#3 You can never estimate enough cushion time.

One of my jobs and work it to put together the budget and projections for all of the marketing projects. With all these projections, I over estimate their expense just a little in case anything happens and we need to do a second run or make changes late in the game. It winds up working out really well, because most of the time the projects are right under projections and we are under budget in our expenses.

Sadly, I'm don't have the same skills when it comes to projecting time. I thought that design and printing would take about 3 weeks. In looking back through my e-mail, my first invitation-related e-mail to Kris was May 5th. This project has now been 7 weeks in the making... no wonder I haven't been blogging lately!

and finally, #4. Just because another bride has it, doesn't mean you have to.

Wax Seals, embossed print, Moo Cards, Ribbon Belly Bands. I did SO much research that I was over stimulated on invitation ideas. I wanted them all. I'm happy to report I have pretty much everything I wanted (well, not embossed invitations, those were clearly out of my budget) - it just took a whole crap load of time and effort.

I'm going to have the invitations in the mail Wednesday. Well... I say that tonight, but if I learned anything through this, they will probably be in the mail Saturday. Lots of assembling lie ahead. Pictures coming soon!!

Shoesday Chronicals - Part 4

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

When I last posted, online shopping wasn't getting too far, so I hit the stores. From DSW, to Macy's & Nordstom, even adventures to Sears and Lord & Taylor, I visited every department store in a 45 mile radius of Chicago.

The department stores definitely had some possibilities, but it got to be a game of Goldilocks & The Three Bears... this shoe was too hot, this shoe was too cold... and none were just right.

Poesy from Nordstrom

3 1/2 inches - check

Peep-toe - check

But the shoe was a little more purple than pink :(

Nina Shoes - Galvey

On sale at Macys? Yes please!

It just so happened that KJ was on this shopping adventure with me, and he voted this pair out immediately. Plus, at 4 inches, the heel was a little out of my comfort zone.

Nina Shoes - Crita.

I adore this shoe to pieces. I thought about asking the BM to all get this shoe in Navy. The pink they offered though was too soft and I feel it wouldn't pop enough. Part of the fun of wearing colored shoes is making a statement and these just didn't seem to cut it.

It didn't seem like I could find the right color pink, so the next most logical choice would be to get a pair that I could dye to my favorite color. I have to say that I am 99.9% against dyeable shoes. I've gotten a few pairs for prom before and it always seems like the material on the shoe starts to fray after dying. Trying to keep an open mind I investigated into dyeable shoes. I remembered from my Prom days that David's Bridal could match almost any color, so off I went.

I had looked online and saw Martina:

However when I went to the store, the shoe was completely sold out.

And that took care of the dyeable situation. I wasn't going to get a shoe that I couldn't try on before buying and after browsing their selection of dyeable shoes it only seemed to reaffirm my distaste for the frayed edges of dyeables.

By this time, my first dress fitting was on the horizon. I went to the appointment sans shoes and had to use a pair of heels at the bridal salon for my fitting. They were 2 1/2 inches, and I was told at that time I could go up a little in heel height without drastically changing the alterations. So now, I was locked into a heel right around 3 inches.

I began to feel helpless...

Wedding Shower #1

Last weekend KJ's mom and sister (BM B) threw us a fantastic summer Garden Party Shower!

We had a lot of KJ's hometown friends come and celebrate with us, along with his family who wouldn't be able to drive to Chicago for our second shower at the end of June.



MOH S(left) drove in to help BM B (right) host.

Check out those AWESOME PINK tablecloths thanks to BM B. And see the pink lanterns... SO cute!

BM J (right) also drove in to make sure I did not break ANY ribbons while opening gifts...



MOG S did an outstanding job ordering cakes! The Illinois cake was white with butter cream frosting, and the flower cake was strawberry!




It fit PERFECTLY with the Pink/Garden Theme! The strawberry cake was exceptionally DELICIOUS... yum!



We were one happy couple - and very thankful for all the work that went into planning. It was really nice to see some people we haven't seen in a few months!



Even puppy Sadie got to have some shower fun:


And in the end, everyone ate, drank and was merry. The weather was supposed to be 85 and stormy all day, but thankfully, no rain made its way near us! We got to hang out late into the night with BM B and her man. I had a great time and can't wait for our second shower in a few weeks!

Engagement Pictures!

Our engagement pictures have arrived!

Check out a few teaser pics that Photographer Steve Koo posted on his blog.

A few of my favs...

The Butcher, the baker, and the... Bridezila!

This past weekend my mom had come out to our apartment to watch our dog. KJ and I were heading to Michigan for his cousin, HJ & his new wife, Michelle's, wedding reception. Before we took off for MI, my mom and I went to order the cake for one of the showers.

Now, WHY are you, the bride, ordering a cake for one of your showers?

Before you send the etiquette police after me for ordering my own cake, let me explain.

There is this awesome thing called Geneva Bride. Basically, a bunch of Geneva shops got together and said "hey, we have what every bride needs and wants, all within 4 blocks from each other". So they formed a little business group. Twice a year, Geneva Bride has a Wedding Walk where you can get a ton on vendor information all in one stop. It's pretty sweet. Plus, you can enter in a bunch of raffles (including a 7-day honeymoon in Aruba) given by a local travel company. During one of the two Geneva Bride Wedding Walks I've been too I was lucky enough to win a gift certificate to a local bakery for a smaller cake good for a party or shower.

I was pretty excited. The Cocoa Bean has desserts and pastries to die for! When one of my co-workers got married last year, we ordered her shower cake from Cocoa Bean because you really can't beat them.

Now, back to this weekend. My mom happened to be in town and we had a little bit of time, so I grabbed the gift certificate and we headed out to order the cake.

The gift certificate suggested you order at least a week in advance, and we were three weeks out, so no problems there. My mom and I had talked briefly about what we would like the cake to look like, something simple and elegant. One layer, round, and hopefully, maybe a really pretty peony or fake e-ring on top.

When we got to the bakery, we told them we wanted to order a cake and the cashier said he would grab the chef. The chef came out, and we explained we had this gift certificate, and would like to order the cake. He kind of just looked at me, and said "ok".

Awkwardly, I grabbed my phone and flipped to 2 pictures my mom and I had found earlier. When I told him what I was looking for (round cake, flower on the top) he said "no. we don't do that". It just so happened I was standing next to a cake with a flower on top of it and asked about the flower (which btw, check out their website, every cake pictured has flowers on them). He said "no, we don't do that", crossed his arms, and stood there.

Now, I'm not expecting everything to be simple. And I'm a fairly easy person and understand "compromise" and "meet in the middle"... but when you just stand there and tell me "no" - well, what am I supposed to do?

Obviously, not making any suggestion on what they can do for me was his way of telling me to bugger off. So I did. I left said, "Well obviously we'll have to think of something else" and vowed to never go back there again. Personal vendetta, slightly, but definitely not over rated.

Now, as I mentioned, I was part of ordering a cake from there before, and they were totally willing to work with the theme that we had in mind for the work-shower that was thrown. So, why were they so obtrusive this time?

Well, honestly, I think it was because I had a gift certificate. Because there was no money in it for them. I wear a lot of hats at work, and one that I wear frequently is my smiley, Rose-colored glasses, customer service hat. If a patron has even the slightest issue we try to resolve it for them because where I work, patron loyalty is probably one of the biggest things that keep us going.

I really didn't appreciate being treated like that. Having bad experiences can suck the "joy" out of a wedding within seconds.

For all you brides out there, besides getting "viral" about your experiences (blogs, fb, vendor reviews) what else can you do to punish poor vendors? It may be trivial, but I really don't like people being a flat out jerk to me either.

Shoesday Chronicles - Part 3

Part 1

Part 2

I knew what I was looking for, but one of the first pair of pink shoes I came across in my shopping where these:

Kate Spade lovely, courtesy of Zappos

What do these shoes and my dream Manolos have in common? Well, besides the fact they are hot pink, not much. However, they were super summary and, gasp, ON SALE!

Getting back to the style I was looking for, I came across some other possibilities online, but they just weren't right.

Martinez Valero - but at a whopping 4 inch heel, I wouldn't last more then an hour

Nina shoes - cute, but maybe not fancy enough. Plus, I don't really think Nina's are comfy at all!

Stuart Weitzman - not digging the ruffle

Barbie by Town Shoes - again with the ruffle?

These town shoes had potential.. until they weren't sold anywhere in the country, and I couldn't find anyplace to ship them here either.

So online shoe shopping was turning to be useless. It was time for me to hit the stores and get serious...