Filling Our Love Letter Box

I've finally found a wine to put in our love letter box! It tooks months of research but it's finally on our way!

The reason it was so hard to find a suitable wine was because I had so many criteria:

-It has to age well. We don't plan on cracking this thing open for awhile! But we did agree that we would open it on our 15th anniversary so it won't spoil. We would then replace it with a wine from our wedding year and close up the box again without reading the love letters.
-It has to be from either 2009 (the year we marry) or 2005 (the year we met).
-It has to be light and fruity because Mr. Lab isn't much of a wine drinker and that's all he likes.
-It has to have a pretty bottle. Naturally. :)
-It has to be relatively inexpensive.
-It has to be highly rated to ensure quality and taste.
-It has to be from Europe (I added this one late because it's ourdream honeymoon location).

So what did we end up with? I can't even pronounce it! It's a *deep breath* 2005 Perrin Chateauneuf du Pape Les Sinards Rhone Red Blends from Chateauneuf du Pape, France-Rhone. *whew*

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Basically, it's a red, fruity wine from France that meets all of our criteria.

I bought it from Wine.com for $38.99. I was sold after reading a couple of its reviews and the winemaker's notes:

"Perrin Chateauneuf du Pape Les Sinards is made from the traditional varieties of Chateauneuf du Pape from Chateau de Beaucastel's own vineyard and from other top quality growers in the appellation. Predominately Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Mourvedre, the wine is rich and silky with a deep red color. With the gamy, earthy quality that Beacastel is know for, Les Sinards is long on the palate with rounded tannins."

Yum, yum, and yum!

I just hope the slight wine lush in me doesn't break into this thing just to try it out! I'll have to remember to keep the house stocked with wine so I'm not tempted.

I had to have it shipped to our best man's house in South Carolina since Wine.com doesn't ship to Georgia. I also ran into this problem when ordering our bridal party wine and champagne for when we are getting ready. All that is left to do now is write our love letters and put an appropriate quote on the box! We're writing our letters after we get our marriage license next week (We've already attempted this once but had a minor fail. More later!)

Has anyone ever tried this wine? How was it?

Semi-DIY Invitations: It's What's Inside That Counts!

I've already shown you the "basic" invitation we sent to our guests. However, for a few special people, "deluxe" invitations were found in mailboxes.

The full "suite": stamped and "fauxligraphy" addressed envelopes, front and back of the wedding invitation, wedding map, liner, rehearsal dinner and bridesmaids' brunch invitations.

I held off sending invitations to anyone in our wedding party or family that would be attending the rehearsal dinner and/or bridesmaids' brunch to save on postage (I also hand-delivered invitations to people I see on a regular basis to do the same).

For the rehearsal dinner and bridesmaids' brunch (a tea party!) invitations, I really wanted to give my guests a sneak peek into what was in store for the events. So I found "templates" (aka, I may have gotten a little creative using some Google images...) online for both and printed them using Zazzle.com.

Rehearsal Dinner:

Bridesmaids' Brunch:

Now that you've seen all of the invitations, it's time to find out how much they cost. To be completely honest, this is the first time I've added all of it up. I was getting down to the invitation deadline wire and that meant being less picky about prices and just wanting to get them done and out the door.

Labrador Invitation Cost Breakdown:

Wedding Invitation Design: $18 (includes iStockPhoto image credits)
Map Design: $0
90 Wedding Invitations & Maps printed by Vista Print: $89.52 (includes envelopes I didn't use)
Rehearsal Dinner & Bridesmaids' Brunch Invitation Design: $0
20 Rehearsal Dinner & 10 Bridesmaids' Brunch Invitations printed by Zazzle: $36.95
100 Shimmer Chocolate Envelopes from Paper Source: $54 (10% discount for ordering 10 packs)
10 Taupe Brocade Liners from PS: $25 (1/2 off sale + 10% discount for ordering 10 sheets)
Liner template from PS: $9.50
USPS "Vintage" Stamps (20 Silver Coffeepot, 100 Tiffany Lamp, 20 American Toleware, 20 Chippendale Chair, 80 Green Wedding Hearts) : $38
Metallic Gold Pen: $4

Grand Total: $274.97
Cost Per Invitation (90): $3.06

These numbers are really skewed because I overestimated supplies so much. For instance, I only ended up sending about 65 invitations because many were addressed to couples or households. I have left over liners because I was able to squeeze so many onto each sheet. I also have leftover stuff I can use for future projects like my liner template, stamps, and envelopes. So I'm guessing the real cost is more like $2.50 or less per invitation. Nonetheless, I'm still out $274.97, but I think that's a more than reasonable price to pay for my "babies", don't cha think? Plus, I'd rather have leftovers than not enough! ;)

Semi-DIY Invitations: First Impressions

Because I wasn't having a particularly fancy invitation suite with letterpress, response cards, fold outs and all those other "fixin's" and whatnot, I knew I wanted to at least give the envelopes a wow factor.

I searched high and low for A9-sized chocolate envelopes (for my wonky-shaped invitations) in my city but always came home empty-handed. So I planned a trip with one of my bridesmaids over to Atlanta so I could check out Paper Source (the BEST excuse to finally visit such a coveted place in the wedding world!). I called ahead to make sure they had the envelopes I wanted in stock (shimmer chocolate-yummy!!!) and I also planned to do some other wedding-related shopping while in Atlanta to fully justify the $25 in gas-trip.

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When I got there, the sales associate already had my lovely envelopes waiting for me! But of course, I couldn't just grab my envelopes and leave like a good girl on a budget. Noooo, I just HAD to look around. But I'm glad I did, because I ended up finding my liners doing that! Many of you know that Paper Source has an extensive supply of fine papers and they do a great job of displaying them to entice ADD-impulse buyers like myself.

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Luckily, I found a stack of gorgeously printed paper that was half off! I originally planned to use the pink shimmer paper from this post, but Michael's ran out! Besides, they would have cost me more than the gorgeous brocade paper I ended up with.

I used a template in the store to count out how many liners I could get per sheet of paper. And because that number came to 10 sheets, I got an additional 10% off! Everything in Paper Source has discounts attached to how many of 1 item you buy. SCORE!

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I grabbed a few other items (like the liner templates and the ribbon for my bouquet) and then finally pried myself from "Heaven on Earth" to face my fate at the cash register...*

As soon as I had the chance, I began working on assembling my envelopes and liners and addressing them. One session turned into another session into another session.....and on and on! It took FOREVER. I even brought my invitations to work one night:


I finally had to delegate some of the work to bridesmaid Ashley (aka mash8!) and even Mr. Lab helped assemble some of the liners. I used Mrs. Sprinkle's advice and made the liners shorter than the template to save paper.


I used the Paper Source template to trace out one liner partly off the paper to make it shorter. Then I used that liner to trace the other liners out. (Still with me?) It took me a couple tries to find the best layout to get the most liners on one sheet of paper.



My technique worked because I ended up with way too much! And to think, the lady at Paper Source thought I could only get 4 liners per sheet (I got 9!). I have a left over stack of liners I may for Christmas card envelopes this year. :)

Next, the front of the envelopes! I can't afford calligraphy and unfortunately, not being able to afford something doesn't mean you quit liking it. Actually, I wanted it even more because I couldn't afford it. No worries! That's why "fauxligraphy" was created! :D

I bought a metallic pen at my local craft store. I tested it out on the paper the store provides before purchasing to make sure the color was pretty and it wrote with ease. Here's the pen I got:

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Then after several frustrating tries adjusting my printer settings, I printed out all the addresses in black (printer set to light ink). Black was the only color that would show up on the deep chocolate envelopes. I downloaded and used the "Renaissance" font on Dafont.com for free!

And then I began tracing over the addresses with my pen.


Sometimes the pen would clog and I had to shake it or bang it to get a flow going again. Make sure you have a scrap piece of paper to write a little out before going straight to the envelope or you could get blobs of ink on them!


I had to trace over some of the addresses a couple times to get rid of the "faded" look. Sometimes the pen made it through an entire envelope with no problems, other times it was a bit trickier. What seems like a million and one envelopes and days later, I had this:


And my stamps? Ordered from USPS for the actual price of the stamps plus $1 for shipping! They only took two days to arrive! I only used 1-3 stamps per envelope depending on which ones got extra inserts, but I put all of them on my mock invitation to show you the variety:


The best part about the invitation process was finding out that when Mr. Lab took them to the post office, he actually hand canceled all of them for me! I would pay a pretty penny to be a fly on the wall watching him doing that! I just think of all of us detail-obsessed brides being the only ones crazy enough to stand in a crowded post office hand-stamping a box of invitations. I really wish I had a photo of the occasion. lol Mr. Lab definitely got extra kisses from me that night! And he still doesn't get why it was a big deal...

*Next Up: The cost breakdown and the dinner rehearsal and bridesmaids' brunch invitations!
Previously: Invitations Part 1

No Longer Standing "Stationery"

Invitations etiquette? 2 months out. Me? 1 month out. That's how I roll. I make my own rules and I do what I want!

Either that or I'm just a lazy, procrastinating, bad bad bride. I'll let you pick. ;)

So yeah, because I somehow managed to break my camera, Mr. Lab's camera, and don't have the cable connector to Mama Lab's camera I've been borrowing, this invitation post will be a series. I'll start with what I have now because I can no longer wait to share my "labor of love" (NOW I get why all the other invite DIYers call it that!). I should really call them my "labor of stifling many curse words".

After my initial dilemma regarding invitation design, a very gracious reader reached out and offered to help me create my vision. Nada (Aka nada122, a fellow Georgia gal and sports reporter!) worked with (read: tolerated) my perfectionism so well that I thought she might have been my long lost clone from an alternate universe. Together, we came up with this digital beauty that I would print on my own.

Front:

The coloring is "off" because of Vista Print's template Nada had to use. The printed invitations are blush pink, not purple. You'll see the true colors of the invites in the next post!

Back:


Peony and Chandelier Images from iStockphoto

I chose not to do response cards because 1. I didn't want another hassle 2. I wanted to avoid extra envelopes/postage and 3. from what I hear, many people don't even bother to send them back. Internet and phones are way more convenient! Not to mention that because the invites went out so late, doing RSVPs this way is much quicker than waiting on a card back in the mail.

I also included our purdy DIY maps!

I went with the "My Last Name-His Last Name" Wedding + wedding date combo the hive suggested! I also added a quick note on attractions and accommodations on the back side of the map.

Sneak peek of the completed "basic" invitation:

No political statement. Just an "easy out" so I don't have to blur my hard work!

Stay tuned! More to come on envelopes, liners, stamps, "fauxligraphy" and fonts, actual photos of the invitations, and costs. Plus, the "deluxe" invitations that feature the bridesmaids' brunch and rehearsal dinner invites!

The Ultimate Mother Daughter Song. Warning: Tears Ahead

When I first wrote about our wedding day music, I mentioned that I planned to dance with my mom to "Brown Eyed Girl" since I won't have a father daughter dance. Well, that was before my ride to Savannah yesterday to tie up some last minute loose ends.

I was just minding my own business as I made the very boring 4 hour ride from my house to my wedding host city when I ran across a song that literally brought me to tears one verse in. I normally listen to sports radio or a pop/hip hop station when in the car. But I was in a "dead zone" where the only stations that would come in were country (mind you, this IS Georgia).

Don't get me wrong, I do like my country music having grown up most my life in a very rural-pageant and festival lovin'-three stop light-one high school for the entire county-most dirt roads in the state-your dad is probably a farmer-everyone drives tractors on the last day of class-we fixin' to go do sumin'-south Georgia town. I especially love to listen to country in the summer months. I can't take a boat ride on the lake without blasting some Kenny, Tim, or Alan on the iPod. But I just normally don't listen to country so I'm a little behind on any new songs.

As I was scanning stations, I caught this song at about the 1:30 mark:

Jamie O'Neal "Somebody's Hero" music video

Jamie O'Neal |MySpace Music Videos

Now I'm not one for randomly bursting out in tears. But I just about had to pull over. I'm guessing it was the added emotion of being under a month out from the wedding, but boy was I a MESS. I was on the way to my makeup trial (coming soon!) and was so grateful that I wasn't leaving trial when I heard the song.

After my trial, my mom finally got into to town to meet me (she's helping with the wedding to-do list weekend). I immediately showed her the song and picked up crying where I left off. This time it was worse though with my mom in the room with me and an actual video to accompany the song. I still hadn't taken a picture of my makeup because my camera needed to be charged, so you'll have to keep that in mind when you see those pictures (But I'm happy to report that my mascara didn't run!).

And just like that, Jamie O'Neal's "Somebody's Hero" kicked "Brown Eyed Girl"s butt as the mother daughter dance song at my wedding. We'll still dance to "Brown Eyed Girl" but not as a "feature" dance, just general dancing with all the guests (since we'd always talked about dancing to it at my wedding when I was younger).

Now I just have to make sure I have a hankie stuffed into my dress prior to stepping onto the dance floor because I know I'll be a ball of tears and ugly cry faces at that point.

Have you made a song selection a while back just to have a new song come along and promptly replace it?

Photo (Pr)Ops

As you may know by now, my wedding is an ode to the Southern way of life. I started to think about Southern Belles and realized that for some of my wedding pictures, I really want to look the part. Not quite as done up as this...

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...but still with the same essence. So I hopped on Ebay and found a very "Southern" looking lace parasol and matching fan. How great will these look in photos of me in my dress walking around Savannah's famous historic squares?

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I love that the lace will compliment my dress. And speaking of my dress, I've been researching some dress forms as well. I want some shots of my dress on a mannequin. Don't get me wrong, I love love love the artistic look of the "dress on the hanger in a doorway or window photo"...

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...but I also want some shots of my dress displayed in its full form glory. There's just something about a dress on a mannequin that makes my heart flutter.

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Source (PS. The bride made this dress!)

I haven't purchased the dress form yet, but I'm in love with one like this:

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After the wedding, I plan to put my new dress form to good use. I have a sewing machine my mom gave me a couple Christmases ago and want to start picking up where I left off in 9th grade Home Ec. I figure I'll have to fill my post-wedding DIY blues with a new craft, so sewing it is! I'll eventually need a dress form as I get better, so I'll already have one!

And if I happen to procrastinate and end up not brushing the dust off my sewing machine, I'll just "antique" my form and use it as a pretty display in my house. It's a win-win!

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Are you buying any special "props" for your wedding day? Do you plan to use them after the big day has passed?

...And a Lucky Sixpence in Her Shoe!

Okay hive, I'm officially under ONE MONTH. *screams like a wild woman on the inside*

Ah-hum. Now that I've composed myself, I'd like to tell you about my latest accomplishment. I've been trying to nail down a lot of my "little" purchases for the big day so they don't pile up last minute. I just finished buying all my items to complete that age old wedding poem that features little "somethings".

So what are my "somethings"?

My Something Old/Sixpence:

I need as much "luck" on my side for my wedding day as possible (I still don't know at a month out how this shindig is going to come together!), so I'm definitely wearing a sixpence in my shoe. I think a lot of people forget about the sixpence as part of the poem. I didn't forget but I did piggyback the "old" part of the poem with the sixpence. I decided to make it a special sixpence by ordering one from my mother's year of birth. Mine looks just like this one, only with a 1958 date.

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My Something New:

I'm going to do like many other brides and count my wedding dress as my something new. I just found out that my wedding dress will FINALLY be in early next week. May the alterations begin!!!

My Something Borrowed:

Right after I got engaged, Mr. Lab's sister called me to see if I would be interested in wearing a hand-me-down necklace from their family. It's made from Mr. Lab's mother's engagement ring and FSIL Lab wore it at her wedding a couple years ago. They want to start a tradition of passing it down to all the female Labradors for their wedding days. I can't even begin to describe how touched I was that they wanted to let me in on the new tradition!

How gorgeous is FSIL Lab?!?

A better view of the "floating" diamond necklace.

My Something Blue:

I found this absolutely gorgeous blue cameo set in a pinkish gold filigree on Ebay for only $6! It will adorn my bouquet handle along with two other very special articles (TBA soon!).

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Are you having items in your wedding that represent the "Somethings" poem? What about a sixpence?

Dressing My Little Ladies: The Search Is Over!

After spending a weekend full of work and mild depression (my Dawgs lost AGAIN, but I knew it was coming), I decided to do one of my favorite Sunday activities: catch up on Weddingbee! On the very first page I saw Miss FroYo's post about Ruche.com. Despite better judgement, the shopaholic in me decided to click on the site and take a gander. That's when I stumbled across what I thought would be the end to my junior bridesmaids' dress search.

Um, how perfect would this dress have matched my bridesmaids?!?

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I quickly added two dresses in my girls' sizes to my shopping bag and was on my way to check out when I got...*gasp*...an error page! Apparently, the store only had one more dress in stock. I was HEARTBROKEN. I only have a month left and cannot afford to wait on more to come in stock lest they need to be sized or I end up not liking them. So I swallowed my sorrow and went back to the hunt. :(

I briefly considered another dress on the site but decided that it wasn't quite junior-material:

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If they made that dress in a mini version, it would have been perfect for my flower girls. Since I wasn't 100% in love, I couldn't justify the price tag. I went back to the search using my fave shopping research technique: Google. And I soon found this:

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My first thought was that I wanted it for myself! My second thought was "holy cow, it's only $19.99"! My third thought was "checkout time"! Although the dress is a bit casual, I think it'll fit in perfectly with the bridesmaids. I'm going to search for cute little shrugs/bolero type cardigans to dress them up a bit, but even if I can't find any, I like the dress as is. Plus, I got $4 off each dress just by doing a quick search for online coupon codes for the Bon Ton store! (More on "bargainista" shopping tips in a post coming soon!) I'm just glad the dress shopping is finally over for my entire wedding party. Now I can focus on helping my mom find a dress and suiting up my nephew-aka ring bearer!

Have you wanted to purchase on of your attendants' dresses for yourself?

DIY Bridal Bouquet Part 2: Changing My Mind

It's been awhile since I wrote about my bouquet-making adventures. In the first installment, I told you about my mock trial run. But a lot has happened since then. I've changed my mind about our wedding colors and opted to change my bouquet to reflect that. I sold the old, all-white peony bouquet and ordered some new, light pink peonies*! Aren't they fabulous?!? :D

I swear they're really pink. The flash seems to wash them out!

Along with the new bouquet, I switched up the bouquet handle. Instead of the simple champagne ribbon, I used a gorgeous (pictures don't show it) dusty pink ribbon. I also took some of your advice and beefed up the handle by using leftover stem parts!


To add some Southern charm, I added lace ribbon as an overlay. I love the look of the lace and pink ribbon together and it'll go perfectly with my dress.


And here's the nearly finished product!


I still have a little tweaking to do to it and some special handle additions, but it's about 90% done! Yay for another DIY project checked off the list! Best part? This bouquet cost about half the price of the other one, so I even saved money!

How are you making your bouquet handle unique or special?

*Flowers purchased at Afloral.com!

Dressing My Little Ladies: 3 Down, 2 To Go

I'm slowly checking off the gazillion and one items on my wedding to-do list as the days quickly tick down. The latest accomplishment was settling on 3/5ths of my niece-entourage's attire. After some serious lusting over Miss Ramen's flower girl dress find, I set out on my own search for the cutest little dresses I could find to fit my cheek-squeezin' worthy gals. I'm extremely excited about my finds and am secretly envious of all the dresses, especially this one with its precious rosettes:

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That adorable frock will adorn this adorable kid:

Lab Niece Morgan

Lab Niece Morgan is the youngest of my five (yeah, count 'em, 5!) nieces. She just turned 3 and will be a sort of "honorary" flower girl. I got to meet Morgan the moment she came into this world. I stayed with my older sister (her mother) for around 9 hours waiting for Morgan to be born. I haven't gotten to know her as much as my other nieces due to a busy work & school schedule, but I know that I'll always have a special bond with her because I was one of only two people (me & her daddy) allowed in the delivery room when she graced us with her presence. I can't believe she's growing up so fast and already talking so much! I love how she never hesitates to tell you how much she loves you!

This next dress will be modeled by my two 8 year old nieces, the "official" flower girls.

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To snazz it up a bit, they'll be carrying their pink pomanders and I'll supply them with pink flower headbands (not sure whether that will be a DIY project yet). I think all 3 of the little girls will wear flats of some sort, but I'm not going to get anal about them being matchy-matchy.

Btw, here's the faces of my little "models"!

Lab Niece Mary Elizabeth

Lab Niece Mary Elizabeth is such a quirky girl. She has this mesmerizing deep voice that makes you want to believe she'll grow up into the next Joss Stone. She has such a beautiful and vibrant soul and when she smiles you can't help but to feel warm inside. And I know she'll be picture ready all day long. When you take a picture of her, she always says "CHEEEEEESE!", even when you didn't ask! She's my oldest brother's daughter.

Lab Niece Haleigh

Lab Niece Haleigh is best described as the "Scarlett O'Hara" of nieces. She has southern charm with a bit of sass. Her accent is too cute! It has so much twang you'd swear it was fake (even worse than mine for those of you who heard me on BeeTV, lol)! It's hard not to give this girl what she wants with a face and personality like that. She already has Mr. Lab wrapped around her finger and never leaves his side when we visit.

It was really important to me to find dresses that would last more than one day for the girls. My older sister alone is "supplying" 3 of the 5 girls, so I didn't want to burden her with huge run-of-the-mill flower girl dresses that can't be worn again because the kids will outgrow them (unless your wedding is close to Christmas or Easter). And although these dresses we settled on were a little bit pricier than I had hoped to find, everyone loves them!

Now for the other 2/5ths of that niece-entourage...my junior bridesmaids! I thought I was done with the search for ALL the girls' dresses when I ran across this cute and complimentary dress:

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I was going to add champagne sashes to go along with the bridesmaids' colors. I thought the dresses would be perfect on my shorter nieces (adding a bit of length down to the knee) and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that they were on sale from $50 to $20! Too good to be true, right? Sure was. Macy's had already sold out of the chocolate version. :(

So now I've been combing the internet looking for a suitable replacement with no luck. I'd love if any of you could help me out! I'm looking for something that compliments the bridesmaids while still being age appropriate. Here's a refresher of the bridesmaids' dresses if it helps (picture the skirt in chocolate):


So anything with chocolate or champagne is good but I'd prefer the same "trapeze"-style dress of my inspiration photo so all the little ones compliment each other. Thanks so much in advance!