Mar 3, 2010
Posted on Mar 3, 2010 in DIY, Inspiration | 2 comments
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It’s moving week here in Awesome world. Sigh. As I sit on my couch writing this post I’m surrounded by half-finished STD’s and an ever increasing sea of boxes that make my heart race. And not in a good way. And then there’s the wedding crap.
Have you ever looked around at the fast accumulating wedding crap that’s taking over your house/apartment/life and wondered what the hell am I gonna do with this stuff after the wedding?
In attempting to have a green (ish) wedding I like to think about where this stuff is going after our wedding and not just rejoice in my initial discovery.
This goes for all our wedding inspired handicrafts as well. Like the cranes. Yup, like a bunch of blog-land brides we’re making a 1001 cranes. What’s that? You don’t remember me talking about them? Right. That might have something to do with the fact that so far we’ve done zip. zilch. zero. There’s a practice crane or two floating around the apartment, but definitely not a wedding worthy crane in sight. But don’t worry- we’re not. We’ve still got six months and a whole bunch of willing friends, so we’re thinking of hosting a few crafting/crane making parties where your admission is a set number of cranes. It’s really just an excuse to drink with our friends, but it’ll get the job done.
Anyhow the important question is what in the hell are we going to do with 1001 effing paper cranes? I have no doubt whatsoever that they’ll be gorgeous but I already want ‘em out of our house (and we haven’t even made ‘em yet) And of course I’d love it if they weren’t a total waste of paper/trees but it might break my heart to shove them all in the recycling bin…
Then I came across The Crane Chandelier Project and now I know what we’ll be doing with our cranes. All 999 of them. We’ve gotta keep a few right? The Wedding Co. is creating a giant 10,000 crane chandelier from recently engaged/married couples cranes and is donating 50 cents per crane to cancer research.
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Do the math. That’s 499.50 to cancer research. And 999 beautiful cranes included in what’s sure to be a gorgeous piece of art. This makes me so happy.
And today being happy makes our big move bearable. Any creative or charitable recycling happening after your wedding?
Mar 1, 2010
Posted on Mar 1, 2010 in DIY, STD's, fashion | 5 comments
So I’ll just admit it.
I may have gotten a little ahead of myself and previewed our STD too soon. Yes that horrific screeching you hear is the sound of this STD party* coming to a grinding halt. Or maybe it’s that awful tape tearing sound as we put together yet another box…
So before we totally derail (um, we’re moving this week. enough said) I wanna share my dilemma and cross my fingers you have a few brilliant ideas or words of encouragement to help a girl out.
The problem (and maybe the solution) start with this delicious fabric:
I first came across this beauty while making my Valentine Swap Flowers and I. Fell. In. LOVE. I’m seriously leaning towards making every single guest at our wedding a “guest of honor flower” that will look a little something like these:
Anyhoo, maybe you remember my Bridesmaid Three-Way dilemma documented here and semi-resolved here? So this gorgeous fabric provides us with a beautiful wedding color palette and sets us up to have bridesmaids sporting dresses like these:
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Le sigh. Um yeah. Love ‘em. Anyway my infatuation true love for this fabric knows no bounds and this weekend I did a little experiment and incorporated it into our STD labels. And that’s where this train ground to a halt. Have I overdone it? Do they look too primary? Too childish? Do they have just the right je ne sais quois? I just don’t know anymore.
Oh sorry- here ya go, our fabric inspired (i.e. scanned) wrap-around labels:
The real deal will be printed on kraft paper labels and the envelope is a delicous smoky black color that I was too lazy to get a really good picture of, but I think my real reservation is that I can’t get the stripes to print as vibrantly beautiful as the actual fabric or as this screenshot:
Is it my printer? Is there some tweaking I can do in illustrator to help correct this problem? Or am I just a crazy person who is obsessing over an envelope label? Be nice with that last one. For comparisions sake I’ll leave you with this last photo:
And two questions:
What changes (if any) would you make to the label?
Which direction would you affix the label- so that the wrap-around return address seals the flap, or ends up on the other side?
*I look forward to getting this STD party restarted! 
Feb 25, 2010
Posted on Feb 25, 2010 in STD's | 2 comments
That’s “Google to Do It For Me”, in case ya didn’t know. Anyhoo…
“Google Docs is magic.”
That was Scissors response when I mentioned writing about it to a few of my fellow bees yesterday. And, um, she is in fact correct. And then some.
Google is magic and Google Docs is THE magic potion that will gather your guest’s info in gossamer thread and deliver it to you by unicorn post.** Seriously it’s that amazing. So get me a butter beer (and add a shot of makers to it) while I rhapsodize about my guest list.
I know I have a tendency towards hyperbole, but after thinking about the list of things google helped me out with today alone, I’m pretty sure I’m not exaggerating this time.
Check it:
I learned what is appropriate to wear with a white dinner jacket.
I figured out where to get lunch.
I navigated to David Hasselhoff’s house.
AND I entered 54 email addresses, hit send, and ALREADY got back 32 complete sets of contact info for our lovely guest list. In spreadsheet form.
I’m most excited about that last accomplishment- so thanks google!
You want your guest list delivered up by unicorn post too?
It’s so easy and so awesome that all you blog reading smartie pants probably don’t even need a tutorial, but I’m gonna give it to you anyway! This tutorial is officially dedicated to all you scissor-wielding, level eleven gocco-masters and Macgyver crafties who can turn grandmas hanky, a paperclip, and a piece of gum into something etsy-worthy, but look at the computer, throw your hands in the air and are like, “excel, waaaah?” So ready or not, let’s get organized:
1. Go here. Yes. There are really around 70 amazing templates to help you organize dang near every aspect of your wedding. It looks a little something like this:
2. Today we’re gonna focus on the Guest List, so scroll down to the “Wedding: Address Book by Google” template. Hit the “Use this Template” button
3. Now the fun begins- it’s time to pick a theme for the cute email you’ll send out to all your lovely guests asking them to share their contact info. Click “Themes” and pick one you like. Here are a few of our contenders:
AND:
AND:
4. When you find a theme you like hit “Apply,” then edit the note that will accompany your form if you’re so inclined. Here’s Ours:
5. Finally hit “email this form” and send your cutsie little form off to family and friends.
6. Check back as your spreadsheet magically fills up and looks a little something like this (but more full and awesome)
And that’s all there is to it folks. It’s seriously that simple. And so awesome! One of my favorite parts so far, besides inching towards the we-can-finally-mail-our-STD’s finish line of course, has been the comment section on the spreadsheet where friends can leave you a little message. A few notable ones we’ve received so far have included:
“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!,” “hurry up with dem grandbabies,” “um…how about you guys are effing adorable” and “Google Docs rocks my Striped Socks”….
Oh wait, that last one may have been mine! hee hee. So that’s all there is to it really. I’m sure we’ll be hitting up Google Docs for a bunch more organizing help as our wedding day gets closer and I’ll be sure to keep you informed on the awesomeness. Are you a tech saavy bride with a few favorite tricks up your sleeve for making planning/crafting/wedding easier? Care to share? Pretty please…
ALL pics in this post are screenshots from Google Docs.
*This is a good example of my tendency towards hyperbole.
**I know, I know it’s owl post, but I want unicorns damnit!
Feb 25, 2010
Posted on Feb 25, 2010 in STD's | 2 comments
Not the nasty kind.
The cute kind.
The awesome kind:
Sure some folks think STD’s are silly and unnecessary but we think they’re silly AND awesome. So we’re having ‘em.
Squeal. Sigh. Double Squeal.
Aren’t they gonna be awesome?!
Ssshhh. Don’t tell anyone okay?
Next up- we gather addresses so we can get these bad-ass STD’s firmly situated on our friends fridges where they belong.
*This portion of our STD by the amazing Stinkerpants
Feb 18, 2010
Posted on Feb 18, 2010 in thoughts on marriage | 2 comments
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Stupid Wordpress. I wanted the title to look like this:
I don’t wanna get married.
Anyway, I know I’m like a broken record with my constant “I never imagined my wedding or my dress or any of this stuff” that I now LOVE writing about nonsense. But there’s a pretty simple reason.
I never really wanted to get married and I never thought I would.
I’m not talking about feeling like a bride, or planning your whole wedding pre-engagement peeps, nope, I’m talking about the actual act of joining your life with another person. Marriage. Didn’t want it. Not a bit. No joke. Seriously.
I know, I know…I’m pausing to allow for your collective sigh of shock.
See I’ve always been fiercely independent and had big dreams of travel and education and writing and art, and well, marriage just didn’t really jive with those things for me. I think this is in large part due to my blue-collar upbringing. All of my friends in elementary school had a dad who worked and a mom who stayed at home or had a part time job. None of these women had careers. And none of them were pursuing the dreams I aspired too.
Now despite this dynamic or perhaps because of it, my parents were always incredibly supportive of their nerdy, artsy little girl and insisted that I go to college and do whatever I want to in this life. I went to a fancy high school and finally met kids who had two working parents, decidedly un-blue collar. Lawyers. Doctors. Writers. VP’s.
And yet it still stuck with me that marriage was not conducive to freedom and success and travel and art and all of my other big dreams.
I pretty much maintained this attitude through my early twenties. I went to an awesome college, I’ve travelled extensively, and I have a job I love.
And somewhere along the line, as I began to achieve my dreams, a funny thing happened: My universe and the possibilities within it expanded to include marriage.
I credit this dramatic transformation to a few very diverse sources: First, I had a pretty traumatic break-up in my mid-twenties followed by the “oh my god, I really am gay” moment. (so yeah- marriage seemed a lot more awesome once you took the boy out of the equation) Second, I took a good look around and realized that a lot of very successful people in my industry weren’t very happy with their personal relationships (or didn’t have any) and I decided I didn’t want to be one of them. And third, I started admiring a few of my close friends abilities to be independent, successful, and hitched all at the same time!
And then I started dating C and it all made sense. She has always been so open about her desire for marriage and children that she made me a lot more comfortable acknowledging that I want those things too! Now I can focus on my career, on making art, on having fun and creating new friendships in a totally relaxed way because I know that C has my back. And I’ve got hers. I’ve found greater freedom, comfort, and possibility in our relationship than in any other I’ve known, and I can’t wait to marry her!
What about you guys? Any other converts from the “I’m never getting married camp” or were you born toting a wedding binder?
