shower, so soon.

a few weeks ago this cute little card arrived in my mailbox:

an invite to my first bridal shower, hosted by my maid of honor gina and my boss/neighbor/friend-hybrid annette. now, when i write "my first bridal shower," i do mean first. i have never been to one before. most of my friends aren't married, and those that are were married long before i met them. this will be a new experience.

the shower is coming up this saturday. i am extremely, extremeeelllyyy nervous. i hate being the center of attention. i am the adult who usually goes off and plays with the children at parties and other social events. i have been anxious about this for weeks. it looks like there will be 25-35 guests, and that number scares me beyond words. luckily, the guests are all people i see almost every day (moms from preschool, coworkers, close friends) and my own mother and aunt are flying in for the celebration. thinking about seeing my mom, aunt, and maid of honor (who all live in the bay area) is what gets me excited!

hopefully i won't have to do any embarrassing games. i can guarantee you i won't be posting any photos here, as my face will be permanently red throughout the party. i will probably be very sweaty, and won't be able to stop laughing. i laugh constantly when nervous!

the party is a good excuse to package up some cute gifts for my wonderful hostesses, as seen here!


did you notice the yellow stain from gocco ink and the giant roll of brown baker twine? half of our invites are officially out (mailed to out of town guests) and round two goes out in a week or so as soon as the rest of our paper arrives. and um, my "thank you" is upside down. but it is printed on both sides of the tag, so that makes it ok, right?

things

random bits:

-our invitations are almost finished. i wasted two 25 sheet packages of paper before i realized it wasn't me that was messing it up, the paper just wasn't receiving the ink properly. one last trip to papersource in pasadena tonight, ugh. they do look wonderful so far!

-when we got engaged my mom offered us funds for a wedding or for a house down payment. obviously we chose the wedding. sometimes i wish i went with the house. reasons we didn't: we aren't sure we want to put down "roots" in LA just yet. we don't know if we could afford a mortgage, taxes, repairs etc right now. houses are a big commitment! if we took the money and didn't buy a house right away i would have just been lusting over weddings. although every time i look at the carpet in our rental house i question my decision just a tiny bit... i pine for hardwood floors.

-i will look back at this week and remember it as the cupcake war of '09.

-i love this wedding! moss in apothecary jars! tiny clothespins holding photos on string! jars hanging from fences and trees! amazing.

yay, friday!

project: cupcakes !

guys, i have a problem. before i can make any decision, whether it be small or large, i feel the need to ask the opinion of every single person i know. this is bad because it just shows how little i trust myself to make the right decision.

last week i decided i want to make my own f'ing wedding cupcakes. one hundred+ wedding cupcakes. i did a trial run for a coworkers birthday and wrote down these facts:

1. it costs me $ 0.60 to make a cupcake (including batter, frosting, wrapper, and decorative topper)
2. it takes me less than one hour to sift, stir, scoop, bake, frost and decorate 24 cupcakes (not including baking/cooling time)
3. it will cost me $3.50 - $5.00 per cupcake to have them made for me

so by making the cupcakes myself i can save about $300, decorate them any way i want, make any flavor i want, and have fun doing it because i love baking. sure, i have some doubts. what if my oven explodes? how do we transport them? what if i eat all of them the day before and can't fit into my dress?! but nothing that can't be figured out.

yet i still asked everyone what they thought about me taking on the cupcake challenge. and every single person said DO NOT MAKE THE CUPCAKES. so i keep asking, they keep telling. i ask again, i get the same answer. but i really, really want to make them myself.

so, guess what?? i'm going to!!! i will be sifting, mixing, scooping, baking, frosting and decorating 100+ cupcakes a day or two before the wedding. why not?! i have the week off from work. i plan on having most things finished before that week. my family and friends will be in town to help. and if there is some crazy disaster? we go down to whole foods, pick up a couple of vegan cakes and brownies and call it a day.

to celebrate my decision i bought the following:

photo: bake it pretty

photo: bake it pretty

photo: bake it pretty

photo: bake it pretty

waiting

today marks three months 'til the wedding. time is flying by.

in completely unrelated news...
i am surprising the fiance with tickets to neko case at the greek theatre tonight!

this album is all we have been listening to lately (between jillian michals and npr podcasts, that is) and i can't wait to hear it live! i managed to score some pretty great seats at the last minute, and b has (hopefully) no idea. we almost never go to shows these days (too expensive, parking in l.a. is a hassle, excuses excuses) so i think this will be a spectacular treat for both of us!

this weekend: visiting with out of town friends, invite proofing and printing, envelope liner cutting, cat petting, running, backyard pretty-ing, enjoying the june gloom while it lasts, farmers markets and other lovely things.

happy weekend, everyone!

project: fitness !

i made some vegan red velvet cupcakes for my coworkers 30th birthday on wednesday. the batter tasted great. the frosting was amazing! best cupcake recipe ever. (and i tested the wedding cupcake toppers and they look good too).

..so then i had a cupcake for breakfast. not being one to let things go easily, i had frosting for lunch. feeling guilty, i had pineapple for dinner and then decided it was a really great idea to try on my wedding dress. in reality, it was a horrible idea. it was tight. it zipped up, but bunched in weird places. when i bought it in march the saleslady told me it would look perfect if i lost five pounds, and she was right. it fit great then but could use a little extra room in the hip/thigh area. so what did i do? i gained six. in three months. six pounds. and now my beautiful wedding dress doesn't look so beautiful on me anymore.

the good news: pilates started back up again this week, our fridge is full of farmers market goodies, and we are on week 6 of the c25k running program. for the first time in my life i can run two miles without stopping. that has to count for something, right?

i also have a daily date with jillian, starting.. now.

project: cupcake ornaments !

while anxiously awaiting the final design files of our invites to arrive in my inbox, i have been keeping myself busy by working on some small craft projects.

(please excuse the poor lighting, i forgot to take pictures until nighttime)

our cupcake toppers! the idea is to have each stick on a separate cupcake. the dowels are still a bit long, i'm going to make a test batch of cupcakes to see how short i need to trim them. you can buy the little person figures here. i used my trusty drill to put holes in the bottom and picked up a 1/8 dowel at home depot for .29cents. painting, drilling, stringing and photographing took less than an hour and cost less than $5. my kind of project!

splashy award

i've been splashed by jessica at mason jar bride!

The Splash Award is given to alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive and inspiring blogs. When you receive this award you must:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let your nominees know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog.

5. Remember to link to the person from whom you have received your Splash Award.

so here it is, some blogs i find exceptionally impressive:

bride vs. groom we share a city and a dj! perfection!

hazelnut photography love seeing the other projects our photographer is working on.

sweets and life candy and weddings, what could be better?

quarrygirl vegan food, los angeles, awesome.

photos: the sunday wedding !

the sunday wedding was great fun, great drinks and a few new friends. seriously, the mojitos really are as good as people say. the fiance and i had to leave the party early in order to get back in time for work and school on monday, but we are going to try to head back to the ace as much as humanly possible, since we completely fell head over heels in love with the hotel.

all week we have been fantasizing about hopping in the car and going back for some more sun and relaxation, especially since los angeles has had a weird mix of weather this week. ok enough talk, check out the amazing photos that the lovely sarah yates took:

photo: sarah yates photography

photo: sarah yates photography

photo: sarah yates photography

photo: sarah yates photography

the rest of the pictures can be seen on sarah's blog + the flashdance. you will notice that i couldn't stand it and wore my rehearsal dinner dress a wee bit early. and i plan on wearing it all summer long. oops! a dress that cute shouldn't have to sit in my closet for three more months, right?

inspiration board !

photo: inspiring brides

carly of inspiring brides was nice enough to make us this amazing inspiration board today. it is lovely and perfect and showcases our colors beautifully. go check out her blog, she is currently accepting requests for custom inspiration boards! i tried to make my own at least a dozens times and i just couldn't get the hang of it, so if you are anything like me this is a great help.

project: invitations {stamps !!!}

(hanging on the weddingboard)
(you can even see early save the date designs that didn't make it!)

packages have been arriving to our home daily. multiple times daily. usps, ups and fedex delivery people all know our names and wedding date. it is hilarious!

the stamps i ordered from ebay are trickling in sheet by sheet. after spending so much time just thinking about (haven't even started assembling!) the invitations, i just couldn't ugly them up with forever stamps. i wanted stamps that would look nice and help the design of the outer envelope, not detract from it.

i searched for stamps that were relevant to us, and found some winners. arizona stamps with a cute cactus?! perfect! owls and eyeglasses and feathers and trees? amazing! the only problem i have is that i perhaps underestimated how many stamps i would need for each envelope. a .04 stamp only goes so far in mailing a thick, heavy invitation. it's back to ebay for round two.