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?

words and photos: homestyle !

i am really, really struggling to make all the elements of this wedding come together.

we want it to feel like home. classy, fancy home. we want it to be the wedding we would have at our own home, if our own home could hold one hundred people (because if our home could hold 100 people, it would be here.)

that said, it is hard when i see a great wedding like this.
hands down the best bouquet i have ever seen.
grey and yellow? wonderful. palm springs pool party?! so fun.
i have weddinglust.

.....

last weekend i did some practice tablescapes and such. i also started a big project: hand making 115 mini chalkboard menus. i actually had to purchase a saw for this project! neat.

we won't be using these colors ( i just happen to only own orange napkins, and found super cheap perfect brown fabric at ikea). our caterer has tablecloths and napkins, but they are purple and brown striped. i want darkdark brown? and burlapy texture? i think...




so far, i think it looks too "glassy." i need more texture in there. but i can't let myself buy anything until i really decide on colors.

i must say i do love the way the chalkboards look (they will eventually be gocco printed with the menu, as soon as we have a final menu). each guest will have a personalized button as a place card.

our caterer uses stemless wine glasses and ball jars as water/tea glasses, so that will change the look a bit as well. there will also be several 7" hurricane vases with candles and full jars of rosemary on each table. along with pitchers of sangria. and bowl of olives. and nuts. and olive oil. and baskets of bread. what started off looking empty is beginning to sound very full.

seriously, blogger friends, how did you pick your colors? help!

(early) project: paperstuff

i am officially calling anything that will be printed-on, written-upon, folded-up, cut-up or stamped-on "paperstuff."

a dear friend (and former employer, and mother of my adorable ring bearer) is going to help design these things for us. this is a great, great relief to me, since i am absolutely horrible at design. i can come up with the ideas, have a picture in my head of what i would like, but no idea how to put it onto paper (or a computer program).

our gocco arrived yesterday. i went back and forth on buying one for a few weeks, since they are no longer making supplies for printing. i finally found a great deal on ebay and went for it. i am excited to practice with the screen printer, but i don't want to waste my precious screens and flashbulbs.

our first project will be save the date cards and magnets. we might go the postcard route, we might do a simple card with the magnet inside. my gocco deal came with 100 recycled brown cards and envelopes, and i would love to be able to use them for something!