Monday, August 19, 2013
Friday, August 16, 2013
Three Weeks till the Wedding: Seating Chart & Place Cards
I can't believe how close we are getting!! Matt and I were talking this morning and we don't really feel nervous, we're just really excited to celebrate with our friends! Well, he's not nervous at all, I'm pretty nervous to walk down the aisle, but that's it. Praying I don't trip!!
We're still waiting on some responses from guests so unfortunately we can't finalize the guest tables, but we've started working on it anyway. Considering we're making our own place cards and we have to make two copies for our venue, I want to get those finished!
Our venue requires to place cards. One version to inform the guest of their table and the second will be placed in front of their seat which shows the entree selection. I've never heard of requiring two place cards, but the venue told us this was best so they don't have to ask the guest which entree they have. The wedding coordinator said they do this to avoid the issue of guests not putting their place cards in front of their seat. To me it sounds like added work, but what can you do!
Instead of creating the same place card twice, I'm planning on creating a larger seating chart which lists each guests name along with their table number. I've found some cute ideas on Etsy:
We're still waiting on some responses from guests so unfortunately we can't finalize the guest tables, but we've started working on it anyway. Considering we're making our own place cards and we have to make two copies for our venue, I want to get those finished!
Our venue requires to place cards. One version to inform the guest of their table and the second will be placed in front of their seat which shows the entree selection. I've never heard of requiring two place cards, but the venue told us this was best so they don't have to ask the guest which entree they have. The wedding coordinator said they do this to avoid the issue of guests not putting their place cards in front of their seat. To me it sounds like added work, but what can you do!
Instead of creating the same place card twice, I'm planning on creating a larger seating chart which lists each guests name along with their table number. I've found some cute ideas on Etsy:
My sister in law has offered to help me print these the week before the wedding,which is really nice. One less thing for me to worry about!
For the place cards on each guests table, we went with more Paper Source items (shocker!). Instead of writing out "beef" and "fish", we're going to color coded the place cards so the venue knows who ordered what. We have been using two main colors on our paper source products for the wedding, a navy and a light green (night and moss).
We are using these place cards and these labels to print on. We're definitely taking the easy way out - I originally planned to have the place cards include a lot more crafting! I loved the heat embossing tool at Paper Source but I can assure you the last thing I want to do these last few weeks is use that tool on 180 place cards!!
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Wedding: Bridal Party Attire
We're finally a few weeks away from the wedding and all of the details are coming together!
I went to Chicago back in February to do some bridesmaids dress shopping with 3 of the bridesmaids and we found the dress in the second store! The girls are going to wear a Love Lane long navy strapless dress. We got them at Bella Bridesmaid in Chicago. I haven't actually seen it in navy yet since the store only carried green and that's all the website shows. Below is a picture from the website (why is the suitcase so awkward?):
We knew from the beginning that the groomsmen were going to wear grey suits and we looked around at many stores and couldn't decide where to go. My brother strongly recommended Indochino suits (online, custom suits), but they were a bit out of our price range. He emailed us a 72 hour sale on a Friday night that the suits were $300 down from $380 (side note: as of today the suits are $450!!). Although it was still pricey, we knew they were great suits. The problem was trying to get 7 guys to measure themselves that quickly, especially with two groomsmen living in Costa Rica! After going back and forth many times with Indochino, we finally paid up front at the sale price and they gave us a few weeks to get the measurements in. We absolutely love the suits and we're hoping they fit all the guys great (some of the groomsmen won't be trying it on until the wedding week since it was shipped to a different location than they current live).
I went to Chicago back in February to do some bridesmaids dress shopping with 3 of the bridesmaids and we found the dress in the second store! The girls are going to wear a Love Lane long navy strapless dress. We got them at Bella Bridesmaid in Chicago. I haven't actually seen it in navy yet since the store only carried green and that's all the website shows. Below is a picture from the website (why is the suitcase so awkward?):
We knew from the beginning that the groomsmen were going to wear grey suits and we looked around at many stores and couldn't decide where to go. My brother strongly recommended Indochino suits (online, custom suits), but they were a bit out of our price range. He emailed us a 72 hour sale on a Friday night that the suits were $300 down from $380 (side note: as of today the suits are $450!!). Although it was still pricey, we knew they were great suits. The problem was trying to get 7 guys to measure themselves that quickly, especially with two groomsmen living in Costa Rica! After going back and forth many times with Indochino, we finally paid up front at the sale price and they gave us a few weeks to get the measurements in. We absolutely love the suits and we're hoping they fit all the guys great (some of the groomsmen won't be trying it on until the wedding week since it was shipped to a different location than they current live).
Part of the groomsmen gift is a white custom fitted shirt from my brother's company, Biased Cut. Matt will also give them navy ties from the tie bar. Matt is going with a patterned green and navy tie from the tie bar.
My cousin's 8 year old daughter is the flower girl and she went with a Seahorse white dress with navy sash. She looks so cute in it (although the picture is of a model, not my cousin's daughter!)
The ring bearer (Matt's nephew and godson) is going with a grey suit and a green bow tie. Things are coming together!
Monday, August 12, 2013
Meal Planning
I typically meal plan every week to avoid spending too much at the grocery store and to cut down on time after work questioning what to eat for dinner. This week we went to two stores for our grocery shopping. Sprouts just opened up near us so we went to the big opening weekend. The produce prices were insanely cheap!! We love Sprouts, but the closest store is about 15 minutes away, so it isn't always worth it. It's like a big farmer's market and their prices are definitely cheaper than Whole Foods for organic food and cheaper than Safeway as well.
Here are our planned dinners for the week:
Here are our planned dinners for the week:
- Greek Salad for sides/lunches
- Burgers
- Chicken Francese
- Grilled Chicken with pesto, tomato and parmesan
- Paleo chicken legs
- Salmon
We spent $60 at Safeway for all of this (includes $20 in coupons and store deals):
We spent $40 at Sprouts for all this:
We buy a TON of produce but definitely bought even more this weekend because the sales at Sprouts were amazing! We spent $14 on al of that produce!
Friday, August 9, 2013
4 weeks until the wedding!!
I can't even believe there is just one month until the wedding! We've made some serious progress on our to do list:
- Make Welcome Guest Bags (purchased items, just need to assemble!)
- Work through the timeline - in process
Create wedding program & determine readings- Print programs - 40% done!
- Create and print place cards
Create do not play list for DJBuy Groomsmen giftsBuy Bridesmaids gifts (halfway done :) )Create favorsBuy Guest BookOrder Wedding Rings- Pick up wedding rings and get my engagement ring cleaned
- Ring Bearer pillow (not sure what we will do for this)
- Get the marriage license!
Over the next two weeks we have final meetings with all of the vendors. I have actually really enjoyed the wedding planning process. Matt and I are very organized people, so we have checklists and spreadsheets for everything. It has been hard doing it from 1200 miles away, but definitely bearable. My mom has been great and has helped us out as far as going to different vendors to check out things in person. There have definitely been times where we have spent the entire weekend doing wedding stuff (...invitations), but that's what happens when you're so involved in your plans.
The invitations were the most time consuming part of the whole process. They took about 20-25 hours (for each Matt and I) to make. It took about 1 month to complete them. I'm glad we did them because it was a huge cost savings to do our own paper products (about 50%). We did all of our save the dates, invitations, table numbers, place cards, programs, thank you cards, welcome bag notes, etc. I highly recommend Paper Source for paper products!
I love the shoes I'm wearing on the wedding day! I'm starting to wear them around the house to break them in so I won't be dying on the wedding day! I also got a hairpin from etsy. I haven't seen it in person since I had it shipped straight to my parents, but it looks so pretty in the pictures,
Four weeks to go!
The invitations were the most time consuming part of the whole process. They took about 20-25 hours (for each Matt and I) to make. It took about 1 month to complete them. I'm glad we did them because it was a huge cost savings to do our own paper products (about 50%). We did all of our save the dates, invitations, table numbers, place cards, programs, thank you cards, welcome bag notes, etc. I highly recommend Paper Source for paper products!
I love the shoes I'm wearing on the wedding day! I'm starting to wear them around the house to break them in so I won't be dying on the wedding day! I also got a hairpin from etsy. I haven't seen it in person since I had it shipped straight to my parents, but it looks so pretty in the pictures,
Four weeks to go!
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Throwback Thursday: Studying abroad in Vienna, Austria
Growing up I always wanted to study abroad. I'm not sure how or why it stuck in my head, but it was something I wanted to do if the opportunity was presented and possible. My brother studied abroad in Zurich, Switzerland for a year and my parents and I flew over for 2 weeks over Christmas in 2004. It was the first time to Europe for me and my Dad and we had an amazing time. I was a senior in high school and my brother was a junior in college. It was the last big family trip we did together. I'm so happy I was old enough to remember it and enjoy it.
We flew into Zurich and spent a few nights in the city. My brother stayed in his apartment and my family stayed in a hotel a quick strassenbahn ride away. After a few days in Zurich, we headed to Munich, Schliersee, Innsbruck, Interlochen, Zermatt and back to Zurich. It was an amazing two weeks!
I studied German in high school and college (I minored in it) and after visiting Switzerland, I was itching to study in a German speaking country. I didn't want to go to Switzerland since my brother was there and for some reason I didn't want to go to Germany, so I decided on Vienna, Austria. It was an international program but the program had their own school, rather than going to a European University. I would have loved to do the latter, but most of the classes did not transfer to my finance major and I would not have graduated in 4 years if I did that. To prep for the semester away, I took some finance classes the summer before and focused on my German minor while abroad.
I went to Vienna knowing one person. Alyssa and I took a few German classes together at Miami and had some mutual friends. We started chatting about our study abroad (once our mutual friend told us we were applying for the same program) and coordinated our travel. We ended up living together with another girl we met on the program as well. The three of us have remained very close and they both came to my bachelorette party this year and are coming to my wedding (two of the guys will be representing at the wedding too!).
I absolutely loved Vienna. The history and culture were so rich; there was always something or somewhere to explore. I loved the Schonbrunn and the Hofburg (Palaces), Museums Quartier, Stephansdom, the heurigeres in Grinzig and most importantly, the Christkindlmarkt at the Rathaus (Christmas Market at City Hall).
Vienna was an amazing semester. We lived in our own apartment in a building full of every age group. We took the u-bahn to school every day. We grocery shopped. We traveled everywhere. We were broke but had the time of our lives!
We flew into Zurich and spent a few nights in the city. My brother stayed in his apartment and my family stayed in a hotel a quick strassenbahn ride away. After a few days in Zurich, we headed to Munich, Schliersee, Innsbruck, Interlochen, Zermatt and back to Zurich. It was an amazing two weeks!
I studied German in high school and college (I minored in it) and after visiting Switzerland, I was itching to study in a German speaking country. I didn't want to go to Switzerland since my brother was there and for some reason I didn't want to go to Germany, so I decided on Vienna, Austria. It was an international program but the program had their own school, rather than going to a European University. I would have loved to do the latter, but most of the classes did not transfer to my finance major and I would not have graduated in 4 years if I did that. To prep for the semester away, I took some finance classes the summer before and focused on my German minor while abroad.
I went to Vienna knowing one person. Alyssa and I took a few German classes together at Miami and had some mutual friends. We started chatting about our study abroad (once our mutual friend told us we were applying for the same program) and coordinated our travel. We ended up living together with another girl we met on the program as well. The three of us have remained very close and they both came to my bachelorette party this year and are coming to my wedding (two of the guys will be representing at the wedding too!).
I absolutely loved Vienna. The history and culture were so rich; there was always something or somewhere to explore. I loved the Schonbrunn and the Hofburg (Palaces), Museums Quartier, Stephansdom, the heurigeres in Grinzig and most importantly, the Christkindlmarkt at the Rathaus (Christmas Market at City Hall).
Vienna was an amazing semester. We lived in our own apartment in a building full of every age group. We took the u-bahn to school every day. We grocery shopped. We traveled everywhere. We were broke but had the time of our lives!
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Weekend in Vail
We spent last weekend in the mountains cheering on our friend who biked 80 miles in the Copper Triangle cycling event. The cyclists start at Copper Mountain and head over Fremont Pass to Leadville, up Tennesse Pass to Vail then up Vail Pass to Copper Mountain.
We were planning on waking up at 4:30 and heading out at 5:30, but yet again we set our alarms for weekdays only! Matt woke up at 5:23 and we were ready in 20 minutes, not too bad! We were up in Leadville just in time to see Steve 1/3 of the way through the course. We hung out in Leadville for an hour or so (it was only 8 am by this time), we were pretty impressed with the town. We knew it was a small mountain town, it was definitely a old western main street!
We stopped at City on a Hill for some coffee and breakfast burritos, definitely recommend it if you're in the area! We came out of the coffee shop to Crum talking to a local:
We drove down to Vail to watch Steve 2/3 of the way through the course. We got there just in time - we got some chairs out and only waited about 10 minutes for him to come by. Vail Pass is the most difficult pass, so that took some time to get down to Copper.
We found a bar 20 yards from the finish line, so we ordered some beers and cheered on the crowd. Once Steve finished the ride, we headed back to Vail since we were spending the night there. We stayed at the Vail Marriott and were very impressed! Some of our friends work at Marriott and got us a great discount of $84/night (normally $199 in the summer). It's about a 5 minute walk from the Eagle Bahn Gondola in Lionshead. There was a small outdoor whirlpool/hot tub so we hung out there for the afternoon until it was time for dinner.
We took the free bus to Tavern on the Gore, which was in Vail Village. It's only about a mile away from Lionshead, but it was pouring rain so we opted for the free ride! The restaurant was an upscale sports bar/restaurant. It had decent food, but if you're looking for a nicer dinner, I would opt for a different restaurant. Once we finished dinner the sun came out and we decided to take the Eagle Bahn Gondola to the top for the sunset. I read online it was $5, how could you pass that up!? It was hard to leave Vail Village, it's so cute!
We got to the ticket booth to buy the gondola tickets to find out that $5 was for kids under 12.. try $21 for adults! The perk was that you got $10 in drink coupons at the bar and restaurant at the top of the mountain. The bar was nothing special, so we grabbed two beers (maxed out on our coupons) and walked around the summit. It was SO beautiful from the top with the sun setting! There was even a small seating area for about 150 people for a wedding ceremony. Talk about a beautiful wedding (and expensive!).
The next morning we just ate at the Marriott and headed back to Denver. We loved the town and it was surprisingly very active during the summer. It was so nice to walk around a ski town and not be freezing the whole time!!
We were planning on waking up at 4:30 and heading out at 5:30, but yet again we set our alarms for weekdays only! Matt woke up at 5:23 and we were ready in 20 minutes, not too bad! We were up in Leadville just in time to see Steve 1/3 of the way through the course. We hung out in Leadville for an hour or so (it was only 8 am by this time), we were pretty impressed with the town. We knew it was a small mountain town, it was definitely a old western main street!
We stopped at City on a Hill for some coffee and breakfast burritos, definitely recommend it if you're in the area! We came out of the coffee shop to Crum talking to a local:
The road between Copper Mountain and Leadville has some beautiful pull of points, this is possibly the most beautiful spot I've seen in Colorado. Plus it was off the side of the road!
We drove down to Vail to watch Steve 2/3 of the way through the course. We got there just in time - we got some chairs out and only waited about 10 minutes for him to come by. Vail Pass is the most difficult pass, so that took some time to get down to Copper.
We found a bar 20 yards from the finish line, so we ordered some beers and cheered on the crowd. Once Steve finished the ride, we headed back to Vail since we were spending the night there. We stayed at the Vail Marriott and were very impressed! Some of our friends work at Marriott and got us a great discount of $84/night (normally $199 in the summer). It's about a 5 minute walk from the Eagle Bahn Gondola in Lionshead. There was a small outdoor whirlpool/hot tub so we hung out there for the afternoon until it was time for dinner.
We took the free bus to Tavern on the Gore, which was in Vail Village. It's only about a mile away from Lionshead, but it was pouring rain so we opted for the free ride! The restaurant was an upscale sports bar/restaurant. It had decent food, but if you're looking for a nicer dinner, I would opt for a different restaurant. Once we finished dinner the sun came out and we decided to take the Eagle Bahn Gondola to the top for the sunset. I read online it was $5, how could you pass that up!? It was hard to leave Vail Village, it's so cute!
We got to the ticket booth to buy the gondola tickets to find out that $5 was for kids under 12.. try $21 for adults! The perk was that you got $10 in drink coupons at the bar and restaurant at the top of the mountain. The bar was nothing special, so we grabbed two beers (maxed out on our coupons) and walked around the summit. It was SO beautiful from the top with the sun setting! There was even a small seating area for about 150 people for a wedding ceremony. Talk about a beautiful wedding (and expensive!).
The next morning we just ate at the Marriott and headed back to Denver. We loved the town and it was surprisingly very active during the summer. It was so nice to walk around a ski town and not be freezing the whole time!!