Last "Fling"

This weekend is my bachelorette party. I have no idea what's planned, but I do know we will be heading to Va Beach for a girl's weekend with some of my favorite people!!!

I'm sure I will have lots to share when I get back. See you later! :)

1 month = 30 days

WOW!!! We only have 1 month til our big day. The countdown is no longer months, but weeks, then days and then hours. We're no longer walking, but skipping and eventually running full speed.

I feel like the last 10 months Ive been in line to get on a roller coaster. The line is always the longest and slowest part of the whole experience. I've gotten into my seat and buckled up with feet dangling -- yes I'm "that" short. I cant argue though, because swinging my feet always makes me feel like a kid! :) The ride is about to start. The next few weeks are the seconds I spend riding the ride -- looping the loops, dipping the dips -- the whole time laughing and screaming, but enjoying every second with a huge grin on my face.

Get ready and hold on tight, we're on an extremely fast, but definitely fun ride these next few weeks. AND we cant wait to be surrounded by our family and friends having the time of our lives.

What's For (Rehearsal)Dinner?

I'm glad you asked. Last week we picked our rehearsal dinner menu and boy is it delicious. :)Thanks to Justin's parents, we are going to be treating our family & dearest friends (aka our wedding party) to one helluva good evening!


So let's talk food. Julep's lets you offer either a 3 or 4 course meal. We've decided on a 3 course meal: soup/salad, entree and dessert. I'm sure you are thinking, ok...so what are the options?!?!


First Course:
Sweet Water Crab Soup with Sweet Potato Gaufrette and Olive Oil Poached Tomato
Mixed Spring Lettuces with Cucumber, Applewood Smoked Bacon, Stilton Blue Cheese, Pecan Hush Puppies and Lemon-Balsamic Vinaigrette


Second Course:
Grilled Petite Angus Filet Mignon wrapped with Applewood Smoked Bacon, Mashed Potatoes, Baby Spinach, Caramelized Cipollini Onions and Julep's Steak Sauce
Parmesan Crusted Alaskan Salmon with Spring Pea-Crispy Pancetta Risotto and Pinot Noir-Dried Currant Emulsion
Grilled Smithfield Pork Loin Chop with Pistachio Pesto-Goat Cheese Crust, Sun Dried Apricot Confiture, Black Lentil and Sweet Pea Shoot Saute


Third Course:
Decadent Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Sauce and Stewed Blackberries
Cheesecake with Lemon Zest Scented-Almond Crust with Strawberry Gastrique

We are also going to have like a mini cocktail hour to allow everyone time to get there and settled. Everyone will be coming from the rehearsal, but since it's in the heart of downtown parking can sometimes be tricky. So we want to give everyone time to get parked and to the restuarant.

During our "cocktail" hour, we will be serving some appetizers. We've selected:
Fried Green Tomato Beignets with Roasted Jalapeno-Lemon Aioli
Southern Style Chicken Samosa with Garlic-Chili Sauce
Honey-Cumin Seed Glazed Lamb "Pop"

Yumm! Yumm! Yumm!

After we Rehearse...

We will EAT!!! If there is one thing that Justin and I love... its really good food. And we are really looking forward to our rehearsal dinner hosted by Justin's parents. Thanks future M&F-IL!! A while back we decided on having our dinner at Julep's. Now we just have to invite our guests.

Last weekend I started working on our rehearsal dinner invitations. They went in the mail Thursday and they have already started arriving in our family & wedding party's mailboxes. Let's take a peek...

I wanted the rehearsal dinner invites to be different from our wedding invitations. The envelopes are metalic bronze from Cards&Pockets. I bought some cream cardstock to print the wording on and chocolate brown cardstock to back it. Remember this post? Originally I had planned to use the tree stamp for our wedding invites, but after Justin decided we should have them professionally printed, I wasnt able to use it. Then I decided I would use them for our rehearsal dinner invites.

I stamped each invite with the tree in brown ink. I didnt like the typical rehearsal dinner invitation wording, so I played around with it a little and came up with:

Let's Celebrate

with good friends and good food!

Join us for a Rehearsal Dinner

hosted by Wayne & Earlene

in honor of

Jenny & Justin

Julep's Restaurant

address

Friday, September 24th

time

Because of the possible size of our party, we need to give counts to Julep's. So I created an rsvp for our guests to send back with their meal choices. Luckily we had extra rsvp envelopes from our invitations (Thanks Twin Ravens Press!) so I stamped them and included them in our rehearsal dinner invites.

I didnt have time to wait for zazzle stamps, so I just picked up the LOVE ones from the post office. Since we are using the same green rsvp envelopes for the wedding and the rehearsal dinner, the stamps will help me recognize what rsvp is in the envelope.

And a close up of the LOVE stamps. They are really cute! I addressed the main envelopes with a white paint pen so that it would pop on the metalic bronze color.

Next I'll share what we selected for our guests to choose from for their dinner.

Proof of My OCD

Wednesday night I decided to take on an extra project -- a wedding pocket schedule. A while back, I found a pocket schedule on WeddingBee. I loved the idea and wanted to do it for our wedding. Most of our wedding party is traveling for our wedding, so I thought it would be nice to give them an advance look at the weekend's schedule. That way they know what time and where to be for certain things. After I finished addressing our rehearsal dinner invites (next post), I put together our wedding schedule in powerpoint.

Our pocket schedule included Friday & Saturday events & appointments, important phone numbers (both mine and Justin's, our DOC, my MOH, and the photographer) and addresses (both hotels, the wedding site as well as the restuarant where our rehearsal dinner is).

It took a few printouts to get the squares to about the same size, but finally I got them all lined up as best as possible. I printed 2 per page, then cut and folded them.

Here is the finished product. I used some left over gold ribbon from Christmas to tie them together. I think they turned out really well and I hope our wedding party and family find them very helpful.

Spending the Night in Style

Every newlywed couple wants to spend their first night somewhere special. We're lucky enough to be spending 4 nights somewhere very special -- at The Jefferson Hotel. It's a 5 star hotel in Richmond, Virginia. You are probably thinking that it sounds familiar. Lemaire, the restaurant in the Jefferson, was a contender for our rehearsal dinner.

Since we are going to be staying there for almost a week, we thought we would check out our options for discounted rates. Justin's parents and Groomsman Brian & his wife all mentioned that they would be interested in staying at the Jefferson, so I contacted the hotel to see if we could get a group rate. I was in luck. Our wedding happens to fall on the same weekend as a local university's parent's weekend, but the Jefferson still had rooms available to block off for us. We worked out the details and got a GREAT rate for a 5 star hotel.

MOH Melissa and I are going to get a room for the night before -- since it's bad luck for the bride & groom to see each other before the wedding.

Neither Justin or I have stayed at the Jefferson, but we are both really excited to be able to stay there for our wedding.

Guess Who?!?!

Since Saturday, we've gotten rsvps every day except one. Our average is 2 per day -- and we got lucky on Wednesday with 4 and today with 5.

As the rsvps start rolling in, Justin & I have discovered that we really like the ones that have no return address. It makes it a total surprise when we open it to see who it's from and whether they are coming or not. Kinda like a game of Guess Who? -- wedding rsvp style. We even check the city and state where the envelope was processed for clues. Most of the time that doesn't provide much info because we only have a small amount of guests outside of Richmond. So when the rsvp was processed in Richmond, it's a complete surprise.

When there's a return address, you've already taken away half the surprise. But dont get me wrong, its still fun to open each and every one. And even more fun when it says that they will be there to celebrate!

Freshly Showered

Yesterday was my Bridal Shower. If you dont remember, the theme was Around the Clock.

Here's my MOH and the hostess of the party. Great Job Melissa!

The gift table. Everyone was feeling very generous. And I was feeling very blessed to have such great friends and family.

The dessert/drink table. There were cupcakes, cheescake bites, sweet tea, lemonade and homemade sangria. I may have enjoyed a few glasses of that. It was delicious!

The food table. Starting from the closest and going to the right -- breakfast pizza, roast beef pinwheels, mac & cheese, veggies and fruit.

After everyone enjoyed the yummy food, it was time for some games. The first game was How Well do You Know the Bride? My sister won with 10 points, followed by my Aunt, Step-mom and Future Mother In Law with 8 points, and holding up the rear were my 2 girlfriends with 7 points. Then we played a game with candy (pictured above). Each candy bar was an answer to a wedding statement. Like Honeymoon Memory was Baby Ruth. My sister won that game as well. I was told to stop playing. The 3rd game was Gift Bingo which obviously was played while I opened gifts.

Lydia made my bow bouquet.

And here I am leaving the party. That's exactly how I drove home too -- eating the steering wheel.

We've Got Mail

Those cute little green envelopes are already starting to come back to us. These were waiting in our mailbox when I got home from the shower.

I love getting mail! :)

Invitations: The Pieces & Details

Last weekend and the beginning of this week, I spent my free time assembling 60 invitations. You've seen the finished product, now we are going to rewind and take a look at the pieces and details.

Last Friday, I was greeted at the door by a box from Twin Ravens Press. Our invitations had finally arrived after what seemed like forever. It was really only a week. Inside the box I found this:
Starting from the top and going clockwise: the invitation, rsvp envelope, rsvp envelope stamp (purchased from USPS), the insert card and the main envelope for the invitation.

Our invitation. It reads:
Because you have shared in their lives
by your friendship and love,
Jennifer
and
Justin
Invite you to share the beginning
of their new life together.

Marriage vows will be exchanged
Saturday, September 25, 2010
at five o'clock in the evening

The Valentine Museum
Richmond, Virginia

Dinner and Dancing to Follow

Our insert card. Can you see that line? It's perforated. Yep, I saw it on our printer's website and had to have it.

Ok... it's hard to tell in the pictures, but the invitations were printed 5x5, which when in your hands, turns out to be VERY small. I didnt want them to get lost in the envelope and they were looking kinda plain, so I decided to use cardstock to mat them. The cardstock is from Ben Franklin and I believe the color is Deep Burgandy. You cant see in the picture, but its also textured which I think gives it a little personality.

Here's a close-up of the monogram. It was free from weddingchicks.com.

These are the stamps used on the rsvp envelopes. I love animals and what better way to show it than by using the Adopt a Shelter Pet stamps. And look at all those cute faces.

And last but not least, probably my most favorite. My peanut butter and jelly stamps ordered from Zazzle. I wanted to add a fun little touch and I think these nailed it. These stamps almost didnt make an appearance though.

When we first started talking with Kristin at Twin Ravens Press, she sent us some samples. Being proactive, I took a sample that would be very similar to ours to the post office to be weighed so I could go ahead and order our stamps while we were waiting for our invites. The man behind the counter said .61 -- standard wedding invite postage for anyone who needs/wants to know. Well, fast forward to this past Wednesday and I'm freaking out. The envelopes we received were not the size we were quoted -- they were square. Turns out square envelopes usually take .64 stamps. So the whole morning I was stressing and came up with 2 plans: 1) use misc/additional postage with our pb&j stamps to make up the difference or 2) just use USPS' .64 stamps. So, imagine my relief when I had the same guy behind the counter weigh OUR invitation and tell me that it's still .61. So I got out of line and stamped all of the invitations. In the back of my head though I still had a fear that .61 wouldnt be enough and that A) all of our invites would come back as undeliverable or B) our guests would have a little postcard attached that says that they owe the remaining postage. Dont laugh. It's happened before. Justin received a card one time and the sender didnt use the correct postage. So attached to his card was an envelope for the remaining balance. How embarrassing would that have been with our wedding invitations? Oh I dont even want to think about it. To end this story, I was very pleased to hear Thursday morning that invites had started landing in our guests' mailboxes.

You've Got Mail!

Note: I'm going to do the invitation posts backwards. Dont argue. It's how I want to do them.

Isn't it fun to receive a pretty colored envelope addressed with your name in a fancy font? Yeah, I know. I hope that everyone that receives an invitation in their mailbox thinks they are as pretty as I do.


Alright. Time to see how everything came together.

The outside of the envelope. Font is Edwardian Script. And there's my cute little stamps. Let's open the envelope.

It wasnt planned, but I really like how the monogram fits perfectly in the V of the envelope. Oh and another thing that wasnt completely planned, but worked out well -- the envelope liner. The flourish design matched the details of the monogram.

Once you take the invitation out of the envelope, you will see this. I used extra strips left over from the cardstock to create a belly band strategically placed over our names. If you've been paying attention to previous posts, the original belly bands I bought werent used. They ended up being too small and the purple wouldnt have matched.

Flip the invitation over and you will see that the belly band is holding in place the insert card. This view shows the rsvp card. When I was doing research for our invitations, I saw on Twin Ravens Press' website that one couple had their insert card printed with information on top and an rsvp printed on the bottom. In between was a perforation so that guests could detach the rsvp. It was something unique that I wanted to do with our invitations and Kristin was happy to do it for ours.

Flip over the insert and you will find information for our room block and our website.

And there you have it. Our invitation! I'm really pleased with how they turned out. Next up, I'll share the pieces and some other details.

E-pics are here

I already shared the details of the session here... so I'll spare you from a repeat and just show you some of my favorites. Enjoy!

*all images courtesy of Shelly Simpson Photography