It’s been kind of a crazy week at work, so posting ended up being lighter than I like. There’s some good stuff on the way, and I’m looking forward to sharing some more wedding ideas and news with you.
I had a happy surprise earlier this week when Cupcake Wedding gave me this little award:
The rules are: Tell everyone 10 interesting facts about yourself and pass the award onto 10 other bloggers. But um, I’m tired and want to go nap before dinner with NEPA Groom. So I just wanted to say thanks! :-*
I’m still checking out all kinds of favors and goodies, and I came across another great site I wanted to share: Westport Favors.
In particular, I’m stuck on the inventive wedding favor packaging they have on their sites. There are all kinds of little boxes, tags and bags for your favors, bridal shower, and bridal party gifts. LOOKIE:
That’s actually a box! I love it. As important as the gifts are, I also have a thing for having them wrapped up in pretty packages. Have you ever seen some favor packaging that just made you drool? How are you wrapping up your gifts?
Originally, I had some very different ideas about the type of cake topper I wanted. I was enamored with a lot of the really cute toppers I saw online, particularly on sites like Etsy.I love all the little custom people who look just like you, complete with matching pooch! And I love the little hand made animals – NEPA Bride & Groom as little beagles?? *squee*
I know what I want my cake to look like, so whatever we ended up with, I wanted it to look good on top of something like this:
NEPA Mom actually found the cake topper we got online shortly after we got engaged. I made her hold off on buying it a few times until we got our act together. Since I couldn’t really decide what style I wanted, I sat NEPA Groom down and showed him 4 or 5 cake topper styles, and he hands down picked this one. You win this round mom, LOL:
I’m on the hunt for cute favors and accessories again, which let me to Sweet Memory Creations. There’s a lot of really cute stuff here so I wanted to highlight a few things that I’m drooooooling over.
The first thing that caught my eye are these cute little towel favors. I’ve started to see things like this pop up on some different websites and I like the functionality of this gift. Some guests could probably use it at the reception if they are messy, and then it could make a nice hand towel in your kitchen or bathroom. I think they are awesome, though they don’t really match our colors or themes. Maybe someone can use them since I’m not!
Next are the rubber duck bride and groom. I don’t know that they’d make good favors, but I want them for my bathtub. Actually, I think they could make really cute prizes for a bridal shower, or gifts for flower girls/ring bearers. Maybe you could use them for some sort of game? Write numbers on the bottom of a bunch and give out prizes? I don’t know exactly but I might actually try to find a way to use these!
Then finally, the motherload: butterfly theme favors. They are singing my song! There are favor boxes, place card holders, candle holders and confetti! I don’t want to go overboard on the butterflies, but this isn’t making it easy!
It feels good to know that this is scheduled and we’ve mad a little bit more progress. Though now the letter itself is making me worry about bad weather. And what “comfortable clothing” really means. Sigh.
I know, I know. In my last post I was leaning towards not attending the NEPA Bridal Expo this past Sunday. And then I went anyway. Some of my bridesmaids strong-armed gently talked me into attending. Aaaand…… I didn’t really have the urge to set the building on fire. Woo hoo!
As you might expect, bridal expos in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area are not huge affairs. Since I didn’t need to visit the venue, photographer or florist booths, we managed to speak with everyone in about an hour. If you were just getting started, I imagine you could spend about 2 hours browsing. Bridesmaid L and I wandered around for an hour (and THANK YOU for going with me) and then hit Dunkin Donuts for a recap afterwards. I purposely went sans-mothers for sanity reasons, though I may take them to the next expo just to give them the experience.
On the plus side, none of the vendors were too pushy. I got the information I needed and signed up for more updates from those I was truly interested in. One ‘registry’ type vendor has been pushy after the fact though.. they called me twice on Monday! I haven’t even looked at their website yet! It might be worth it to put down fake phone numbers for all the vendors if you attend an expo.
On the negative side, the crowd got a little overwhelming at one point. The hot lights and the stereotypical “bridezillas” crowding around the photo booth in the back made me break out in a sweat, but that’s when we walked away and had a piece of cake.
On the ridiculous side, I saw a local DJ who is on air a lot, but also has a wedding business. He was walking in at the same time as me and the best way I can describe him is what I texted to BM E – he looked like a guy who is pushing 50, wearing a jacket straight out of Star Wars, and t-shirt that Ed Hardy personally threw up on. The cloud of his cologne wafted back and almost knocked me into the street! Yuck!
Once I check out some vendor sites I will gladly post my thoughts here. I just wanted to let everyone know how it went. Bridal expos are ok, I guess. If you haven’t gotten far in the planning, I think you will benefit a lot from the ideas you find there, so give it a shot! Did anyone else attend this weekend?
This song almost seems ‘too’ popular right now. It’s on all of the wedding websites and everyone’s talking about using it as a first dance song. Aaaaand I think there’s a good reason. This live version is a little less polished than the studio version, but it captures the sweetness that’s making this song such a popular choice.
HEE. On one hand I can’t wait and I’m going full steam ahead into this. On the other, I like the idea of this extended countdown and watching all the seasons come and go one last time before we’re married. Being together for over four years now, it’s nothing new, but it feels different. We know we’re working towards something a lot bigger now.
I also like this longer engagement because I think it gives us more time to plan for our future and work through any of the situations we might not have discussed yet. I think we both flourish with careful planning and structure. We don’t go on zany spur of the moment adventures. We plan ahead. And I know married life will not always be that way, but we can lay a good foundation for ourselves this way.
Some people have shorter engagements. In fact, I think a lot of people do, lol. But this is what feels right for us. And that’s what this is all about, right?
~
Some of the girls at work were excited to see what the day would look like this year so I could plan and prepare for next year. Wouldn’t you know it was 38 degrees and it snowed in some parts of the area? It was a gross day weather-wise, but I still took some pictures of the trees on my way to work so we could see what I have to look forward to next year. Purty.
Dear readers, I’m torn. The 2009 Northeast PA Bridal Expo is taking place next Sunday. I missed the first round up in Scranton last month due to some illness, so this is my last chance to go. By this time next year we’ll all be singing The Final Countdown and the last thing I’ll want is to go look at bridal accessories that it’s too late for me to buy/make/lust over.
Here are my pros and cons on the show:
Pros
The chance to win some free stuffs
A bridal fashion show. I have yet to look at a single wedding dress in person
I can check out vendors for some of the smaller things we might like, such as transportation, wedding party gifts, decoration
Cons
There’s only one DJ there, which is the one biggie we really need
NEPA Bride does not like a crowd. At all.
We don’t need a baker, florist, reception venue or ceremony location.
We don’t need crazy favors for everyone since we’ll have the candy buffet.
It’s on Sunday. I need to be watching the football. Srsly.
So, what do you guys think? I know what way I’m leaning but I’d appreciate any more pros or cons you can add. Thanks!
Dear readers, I’m torn. The 
