Wishin' and Hopin'

Does that song remind anyone else of the opening scene of My Best Friend's Wedding? No? OK, moving on.

I already showed y'all our guest book in my last post. However, I also love the idea of collecting well wishes and advice from guests and wise married people.

Since we've already got one tree, I didn't want to add another like these:

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As gorgeous as these trees are, they're just not what I was looking for. So I continued my search and started finding these inspiration photos:

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Oh my god, this is perfect! See there once was this girl who made all her flowers out of paper and got a little excited and cut a crapload more than necessary. Remember these?


I can totally use the extra circles cut from security envelopes for well wish papers! I bought some twine and mini clothespins from JoAnns and Home Depot and now I'm all set. I also plan to mix in some family wedding photos with the well wish papers. The venue has a gorgeous mantle that I plan to hang the twine from. I can't wait to see how it looks all set up and full of wishes and advice!

Are you doing more than one guest book? Are you looking forward to hearing advice from the older, wiser ones?

"Leaf" Your Print and Sign

I knew from the moment I saw the thumb print/guest book tree trend, I was going to have to include it in our wedding day!

I've always wondered what people do with their guest books after the wedding. I didn't want a book with people's signatures just hanging around collecting dust. I love the idea that I can take our guest book and display it proudly in our house after the wedding.

These were some of the first examples of this trend that I found:

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From the fabulous Mrs. Poodle

How can you not love this trend? And what a perfect opportunity to get Mr. P involved in the wedding planning again!

I asked him to draw a tree with just branches. Check out what he came up with:


I was blown away by how quickly he drew this and how awesome it looks. He started with pencil and traced over it in Sharpie. I think it took him only an hour and a half. Thank god he's artisic because I, ladies, am not. At least not with a pencil and paper.

I am, however, proficient with fonts and lettering. Once he finished the tree I added the lettering underneath. I chose Centurion Ho for the lettering.

What are y'all doing for a guest book? Are you going traditional with a book, or doing something a bit more trendy like a tree like me, postcards like Miss Starfish, or a bench like Mrs. Sand Dollar?

Fancy Dress Hangers: A Tutorial

As promised, here's my tutorial on making fancy dress hangers on the cheap. I found these simple wooden hangers at JoAnns in the clearance bin.

1. I started by choosing a font that I liked and printing out each name in that font. I used a font called LSLeaves. I believe I found it on www.1001freefonts.com.

2. Once the names were printed out I used a pencil to shade in the backside of each name paper.

3. Then I taped each name to a hanger and traced the name. The pencil on the back allowed me to transfer the name directly on to the hanger.

4. Using black paint and a small brush I painted the outline of each letter.


You can see my name paper above the hanger.

5. Then using a contrasting color, in this case light pink, I traced the leaves.

And VOILA! Done!


If y'all have any questions please ask. It really is pretty easy and definitely inexpensive.

Mama Plaid Gets Purrty

Over the years Mama Plaid has been a great inspiration to me and an even better shoulder to cry on and the best cheerleader a girl could ask for.

I finally got to be my mom's cheerleader last summer at her wedding!

In turn, I feel she deserves to look just as beautiful as me on my wedding day. From the moment I announced my engagement, she's been right there willing to help. Granted, it's been more difficult than either of us ever imagined with her in Idaho and me in Texas. But she's still there for anything and everything I need and is also planning to come down here a week early to help with all the last minute things that are bound to pop up.

Back to the task at hand: finding Mama Plaid a gorgeous dress to wear to my wedding. She knew she wanted to wear yellow (one of her favorite colors and also one of my wedding colors), but she also knew she wanted to lose a significant amount of weight before she went dress shopping. So we had to wait until September before we could even start the hunt.

As September rolled around, my mom was 40 pounds lighter and was ready to go dress shopping. We heard about this site, Helene Bridal, from one of my bridesmaids, and decided to check it out. It is an awesome site! There are so many options. We both went through the dresses separately and then decided on one together. One of the great features of this store is that they will make it to fit exactly so you don't have to get it altered!


Isn't it gorgeous?!?! It's great quality, fits perfectly and it arrived quickly. I'm so glad we found this site and my mom was able to get a dress that she loves. I can't wait to see her in it on our wedding day! I also bought Mama Plaid a gorgeous silvery gray pashmina to wear with it if she chooses!

Where did your mom find her fabulous dress? Did you get to go shopping with her or did you two have to do it via the internet?

A Clear Vision

At last. I finally did a trial run of my wedding cake. Here's a reminder of what I was aiming for:


I decided to just make one tier just to get an idea of what it'll look like on the big day. I'd say it was a success. Sure, there are some adjustments that need to be made, but overall, a success!

I started the night before by making royal icing for the detail work on the cake. I used four different shades of blue to mirror the various shades of my bridesmaids' dresses. And just a reminder, the pattern mimics the lace pattern on my own dress.


I piped these the night before so that the royal icing would have time to dry overnight.


The next morning I whipped up some French buttercream. If you've never tasted French buttercream, you must make it immediately. It's the only kind of buttercream I can stand. It's completely unhealthy for you as it is mostly egg yolks and butter, but it's to die for. (Seriously, if you want my recipe, PM me)


Using a dummy cake (it's Styrofoam), I iced the cake. It's definitely not a great job, but it'll be clean the day of, promise! Another awesome thing about French buttercream is that it's light yellow in color, due mostly to the egg yolks. It works perfectly for my cake since my colors are yellow and blue!


And voila, one complete mini cake. I used the topper version of the Willow Tree figurine I originally planned on using. Weddingbee reader mrstilly graciously sent me hers to use. You'll also notice the gumpaste flowers I showed y'all in a previous post.


There are two things I am definitely planning to change on my day-of design. One, the lace detail design needs to be smaller. I piped them too big. I am also toying with the idea of moving the flowers up to the top edge of each tier instead of being at the bottom edge of each tier.

I have a secret to tell y'all. Yes my cake trial was a success; however, I'm not making that cake for my wedding. I know, you're probably thinking, oh lord, she changed her mind AGAIN! Yes, I did, but I have a good reason, promise!

After making this mini cake, I had an epiphany. I was making this cake for my guests, not for me. I don't like fancy, elaborate cakes. I love to decorate them, but for me, I like simple. I didn't make this decision lightly. I argued in my heads for days and then talked to Mama Plaid and Sister Plaid and now I feel like I've got a clear vision of my cake in my head. It only took me 14 months to find it.

I think because I'm a cake decorator by trade I'd been putting all this unnecessary pressure on myself. I think I thought all my guests were expecting some over-the-top masterpiece. I'd love to give them that, but it just wouldn't be a wedding cake for me. So, yes, I've changed my mind yet again, but this is it. No more changes and I couldn't be happier.

I know this is kind of a long post, so if you're still with me, thank you for listening and hopefully understanding. And I'm sorry, but y'all are going to have to wait until after my wedding to see the newly designed dream cake. Sorry ladies. :)

Have you made any wedding decisions that you realized later were more for your guests than for yourself? What did you do?

I've Slammed Into a Wall

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A big ole wedding planning brick wall! With under two months to go it's been very difficult to find the motivation to take care of all those pesky little details that have been looming over my head. I come home from work and instead of knocking a few things off my to do list everyday, I ignore it instead.

I'm a bad bad bride-t0-be. But it's a new week and I'm going to be motivated. I've got five weeks left to make it all happen. I've ignited a fire under my butt and I'm off.

I finally got around to doing a test run of my wedding cake (a mini version-more on that later this week.) I also finally went and bought our ushers' ties and am in the process of securing the park pavilion we hope to host our day after brunch in. I'm also supposed to meet with our photographer this week to go over a day-of timeline. Oh and I finally took my dress in for alterations and bustling.

There's really not much left but it seems like a lot. I wish it were October already. I'm very thankful to have had a long enough engagement (15 months) to get everything done, but I think we could have shaved off a few months to avoid this final two month lull.

Have any of you hit a wall while planning? Did you ever just wish the big day was here already?

A Little Shoe Redo

Do y'all remember the shoes that I gushed about a couple months ago? No? Let me remind you.


I love them. I still love them. But sadly I won't be wearing them on my wedding day anymore. They're very tall. And by tall I mean four and three quarter inches tall. You see, Mr. Plaid is 6'6" so I could wear eight inch heels and still be shorter then him. So I thought, four and three quarter inches was nothing.

But they're too tall. They hang out of the bottom of my dress. I bought the dress before the shoes and the dress can't be made longer. So goodbye fabulous shoes.

I found these Nina shoes on clearance at DSW a few weeks ago and got it in my head that I could dye them myself. Yeeeeaaahhh...that did not end well. So moving on again.

I searched online and found a cute pair on Chadwicks.com. They were very basic but I liked them. I figured if I got them and they were too plain, I could always spruce them up. And at $25, I couldn't lose anything. So order them I did!

When they arrived, they indeed were too plain. But they fit perfectly and I really liked the style. These were the shoes. They were also the perfect height. The dress covered most of them, with just a hint of blue poking out the bottom!

So, what do you need to spice up a pair of shoes? Glitter, of course! And possibly some flowers, you know, for just a little something extra!

1. All started with two shoes...


2. The shoes were stuffed with newspapers and prepared for their glitterizing.


3. Glitter away!


4. And voila! Glitterfication complete! Oooo sparkly!


6. Of course that wasn't enough, so faux flowers were deconstructed.


7. Then reassembled and beads were added to the center.


8. The flower was then glued to the shoes.


One more picture on my foot for good measure. Please excuse the horrible toe paint job. Eww!


So what do y'all think? Are they fancy enough? If the flower too much? Did you have to embellish your wedding shoes to make them picture worthy?

Mr. Plaid's Bling

I just realized that I never shared Mr. Plaid's bling with y'all. (I know that title is totally lame. Let me just say that coming up with titles is definitely not my strong suit. Sorry.)

Just stating for the record, I am ecstatic that Mr. Plaid actually wants to wear a ring. It seems to me that about half the married men in the world wear a ring, while the other half don't. I think it's nice when the man wears a ring because it's like they're bragging about their awesome wife! That's probably not the reason guys wear a ring, but it sounds good to me so I'm just gonna go with it. ;)

However, Mr. Plaid is in the same boat as me. He works with his hands, i.e. large power tools, and can't wear his ring to work. Boo. Or rather, shouldn't wear his ring so as to avoid any crazy accidents involving his ring and/or his finger having to be removed. Eeek!

But when he's not working he'll be sporting this beauty come the end of October:

His ring by itself

Our rings together!

It's it gorgeous? It's white gold with a tungsten carbide inlay. It's very heavy, at least compared to my featherweight ring. I really hope he can get used to wearing it as he is very much a non-jewelry wearing type of man.

Was your fiance excited to wear his wedding band? Was it an easy choice or a challenge to find something he liked?

PS...I promise I've got more DIY coming this week. I know the DIY storm that I started with has been a little lacking as of late, but more to come, promise!

All Shook Up!

It's bachelorette party time! And it was semi-Elvis themed! Even better! (Sorry about all the exclamation points, but they're very necessary.)

My kick-ass Co-MOH Leesa decided it would be best to rent a van and drive everyone downtown and home so we wouldn't have to deal with drinking and driving. And her awesome husband (and our officiant, Guy - more on that later) offered to drive the ladies around. Check out our sweet ride and driver!


I'll let the pictures do the talking from here on out. First stop, El Arroyo, my favorite Tex-Mex in Austin for a little dinner!



BM Tiffani order myself and all five bridesmaids kick-ass Elvis t-shirts. You can see four of them above.


Cheers! (Quick side note: If you've never had a Mexican martini before, look up a recipe immediately and enjoy. They are quite delicious!)


First stop, Spill. And you wouldn't believe who we ran into. Captain Morgan!


We got free Captain and Cokes, decks of cards and do y'all remember slap bracelets from the '90s? He gave us slap koozies. They were awesome. Sadly, I lost mine somewhere that night. Boo.

Then it was on to Pure to do some dancing! And of course, more drinks!


We ended the night at Pete's Piano Bar. Co-MOH Leesa's best friend's husband plays there.


He was supposed to sing some Elvis songs for me. I don't think he ever actually did, but I still had a blast, as evident from the next picture. I blame the liquid on my pants on my sister. She's got a beer in her hand, I don't. Boo Sarah, boo.

Let me tell you, the next day was not pretty. I kinda wish I didn't drink quite so much, but I had a blast, so I can't really complain. I can not thank my BMs and friends enough!

I specifically asked my BMs not to cover me with phallic stuff and condoms and they did a great job. My friend Shawn made me this super awesome veil!


Did your 'maids throw you a kick-ass bachelorette? Mine was exactly what I'd been dreaming of!


I can't resist sharing this with you. My cutie, Olive, modeling my veil and ready for marriage!

***All photos taken by me and Co-MOH Leesa

Shower the People (or this case, ME!)...

... you love with love... oh James Taylor. I got showered with lots of love this past weekend.

My bridesmaids decided to throw me a bridal shower/bachelorette party extravaganza all crammed into one day of delightfulness. BM Jenna even flew in from San Francisco for the weekend to party with us!

MB Tiffani, Co-MOH/Sis Sarah, me, Co-MOH Leesa, BM Jenna

It was a very intimate affair. Four out of five of my fabulous BMs were able to make it and a few friends joined the party too. I can't get over how generous everyone was. I felt so loved!

I'll start by showing you the details that my sister/Co-MOH Sarah agreed to take for me.

BM Tiffani ordered chocolates off TheKnot.com with our names on them and in our wedding colors. She also ordered custom cocktail napkins and personalized confetti. Is she cute, or what?


My sister organized the games. We kept them pretty tame. We played a game similar to Scattergories first. (If you don't know what that game is, go buy it immediately. It's awesome!) And then we played the Newlywed Game. My sis emailed Mr. P and got his answers. Some of them were very interesting. For instance, I apparently remind him of a chipmunk. (Homework: Ask your SO what animal you remind them of? It'll be interesting. Promise.)

Co-MOH Leesa made lots of delicious food. Orange pecan mini-muffins, white bean dip, cinnamon fruit dip and loads more. Serious loads. We have lots of leftovers. Please come over and eat them so I don't get fat. Just kidding... sort of.


There was a bit of a lingerie theme to the shower. Check out these adorable cookies BM Jenna made.

Cute, huh?

And I got some fabulous lingerie to temp Mr. P with.


I also got a picnic basket filled with wine, cheese, wine glasses and crackers, an awesome spatula for pancake flipping (Mr. P was very excited about this gift as he picked it out when we were registering) and an aphrodisiac cookbook. Oh yeah, and a panty sundae.


I sent the picture Mrs. Cheeseburger posted of her panty sundae to my sis in hopes she'd re-create it for me!

Check out this gorgeous cake my co-worker Bert made for me! And it was funfetti inside. My favorite!


My bridesmaids and friends are awesome. I love y'all so much. Up next, bachelorette fun!

Did you have an awesome bridal shower? Was there a theme?

***All photos taken by Co-MOHs Sarah and Leesa