My bridal shower invites! Great work by the bridesmaids on this one - how cool. Can’t Wait!
How fantastic is this photo of an old co-worker’s wedding day?!
Congratulations, Colleen!
We did it!
New Orleans took another little piece of my heart in the process.
FYWI’s 1ST VALENTINE’S DAY GIVEAWAY! - “CUPID SHOT ME”
Yes, it’s finally here! I promised you all a few giveaways and so FYWI’s first giveaway contest starts today! This contest is to show appreciation and love to those that have been following me and to those that FYWI has inspired. FYWI has reached almost 38,000 followers and I greatly appreciate all of you. The messages I receive are always nice and inspiring, and what better holiday to share the love than Valentine’s Day?
For the contest prize I teamed up with the wonderful Erin Graves from SPARKLEFARM on Etsy to give one of my lucky followers a pair of SPARKLEFARM’s Cupid’s Arrow Earrings + the Cupid’s Arrow Necklace, a $42 value!! Read all guidelines below carefully to find out how to win this cute package.
GUIDELINES - Please read everything!
- Reblog and/or Like ONCE (repeats will get you disqualified).
- Reblogs/Likes after Sunday, February 12th at 3 pm eastern will not be counted.
- The winner will be contacted Sunday evening after being chosen using a random generator.
- Have your ask box enabled. Submission boxes will not be used to contact you.
- Yes, this is open to International followers!!
- You must have been following me prior to February 10th.
PRIZE - The winner will receive:
- One (1) pair of Cupid’s Arrow Earrings
- One (1) Cupid’s Arrow Necklace
The giveaway starts now and ends Sunday, February 12th, 2012 at 4pm eastern time. The winner will be announced on Valentine’s Day. Good luck to everyone & even if you don’t win still head over to SPARKLEFARM and purchase those earrings and necklace, clearly they’re a MUST HAVE! Thanks soo much for following FYWI & once again Good Luck!
Here’s the deal. I’ve entered us into a contest to win a free photo session with Amanda Megan Miller. We desperately need some good shots of us so we can launch our wedding website to our guests.
Here’s how you can help! Just click here and “like” our picture on Facebook. The couple that accumulates the most votes / “likes” by Valentine’s Day wins the photo session.
You know there will be an awesome post if we win!
Phish Best Man Toast. I love this.
I must have bookmarked dozens upon dozens of crafty-type things I found on various bridal blogs when we first got engaged. When it was time to ask the girls who are going to be bridesmaids, I went back through this library I came across these DIY invitations.
Originally I was going to make these myself. I called my craft savvy co-worker, Julia, for some paper advice before heading to the craft store and she intervened, explaining I can’t cut dolls with my hands and scissors and that this type of project required a die cutter. Julia recently launched Louisville Sewing & Paper and one of her first blog posts is a really good read on how Julia made these invitations for me! These picture are hers; she has more posted showing all the detailing!
I decided that I was going to use the matching clutches I had purchased for my bridesmaids at the Lill Street Warehouse Sale last year as part of the invitation. The clutch purchase was one of the very first wedding purchases that were made last year - it’s an odd priority, but one I took advantage of because of the great savings. (If you’re able to make on the spot decisions about little details here and there, you can save so much money on random things you’re going to wind up buying in a few months when it has to get done). The downside to this sort of deal driven planning strategy, you wind up with shopping bags full of clutches in your apartment for months.
I boxed everything up and sent them out to each of the bridesmaids.
Here are some pics!
Interested in the Vera Wang Bridal line available exclusively at David’s Bridal? It looks like Blair’s bridesmaids will be sporting the line on tonight’s episode of Gossip Girl’s Royal Wedding. I didn’t have much success with this line - it’s called White by Vera Wang - however, they look like they photography really well! (Honestly, my biggest gripe was the quality of the dresses, not the styles).
We had a great get together with Andrew’s family in Des Moines when his dad and his second wife hosted us a nice little engagement party last June. It was a great was to get together with our Iowa family and friends and we were so happy that Andrew’s family from Texas was able to be there with us.
Andrew’s cousin, Kristin, who is also getting married this year in Austin, TX is responsible for both of these pieces of artwork! She’s spot on — robots and unicorns!
Kristin ordered the cake for our engagement party from a local story. When she placed the order, she said she would like it “music themed”. When she went to pick up the cake, she was met with a congratulatory Jonas Brothers themed cake. It was hilarious and the cake was delicious nonetheless. We Love Kristin - I think she did great on both endeavors!
Here’s a plug for another unique wedding event happening in Chicago. The 4th annual Lettuce Entertain You Bridal Bridal fair won’t be hosted at a venue as natural to me as the Bottom Lounge, but I thinking of heading to the Paris Club on March 4th to join them for this event.
It only costs $10 per person and they’ll have food and drinks from Joe’s, Wildfire, Hub 51, Foodlife, Osteria Via Stato, Nacional 27, Everest and more (I’m personally hoping for Cafe Ba Ba Reeba since my sister and I are thinking considering it for a bridal shower venue). I guess I’ll have to class up my headiness for this one to fit in with what I assume will be a more swanky crowd.
Event basics: You can buy tickets here and RSVP to the Facebook Event here.
A compilation of woes and woahs in wedding planning in Chicago.
