Pros and Cons

We were very excited about our venue and the fact that we were working with empty space. However, we quickly discovered that with the plusses...also come minuses. For those of you brides considering a similar path, let me break out the yellow legal pad (HIMYM, anyone?) for some pros and cons.

PRO: Make it your own

Everyone wants their wedding to be their own and never hear things like: "oh - so and so did that too" or "that looks just like so and so's centerpieces". Especially if you share a venue.

Our hope was to reduce the chance of hearing those dreaded words about our reception. As you can see from these two photos below, despite sharing a space, these two weddings have very different feels - one simple and elegant, one fresh and rustic.

A nighttime wedding at the Hamilton Garden at the Kimmel Center
Photo from Faith West Photography 

A daytime wedding at the Hamilton Garden
Photo from Sophia Negron

DIY-ish invite suite

Before I get to my invites (we'll get there eventually - haven't even shared our save-the-dates yet), I thought I'd share my "experience". Warning - it's minimal.


One of my bridesmaid duties in a wedding this past year was shower invitations and, needless to say, I set myself some lofty goals to create a high quality product for the bride-to-be. I didn't totally DIY the invitations, but many of the elements are DIY. 

Feedback Requested

So all the bridesmaids had accepted...now what?

I was starting to think about bridesmaid dresses, but with all the inspiration and options out there, it was impossible to narrow down. I decided who better to ask for feedback than my bridesmaids themselves!

The Search for the Dress - Parts I, II and III

I'm saving you all reader space here by consolidating the dress searches that didn't result in purchase into a single post. You're welcome.

I had NO idea what kind of wedding dress I wanted. None. OK - that's a lie. I knew I wanted it to be white. But in terms of silhouette...no clue.

Since my mom was in town a couple weeks after our engagement (and we had the venue and band locked in), we decided to go try on some dresses. I thought it was absolutely crazy to try on dresses that soon, but we made a strict "no purchase" rule.

Our Engagement Party

Planning a wedding isn't easy. Let's face it, a lot of feelings come out and relationships (and wallets) are strained during this otherwise joyous process. Sometimes this comes from tough relationships between daughters and their mothers.

I can say, now 9 months in, that my mom and I are no worse for the wear despite the ups and downs that have come before us. I'm not going deep on you right now, though. Instead, I wanted to talk about how my mom's excitement and involvement in our wedding planning has brought us closer together. You heard how she helped secure our venue, but coming up next is her best effort yet.

Granted, I am biased, but I wanted to share with you the details of our party as they may serve as great inspiration for any events you may be hosting.

World of Color

No, not this.

Source

I wish I was talking about the Disneyland attraction, because colors are hard y'all (so hard that I'm apparently speaking Southern now). When researching colors, it felt like every bride had it wrapped up moments after their engagement. They used fancy words and had colors like "sage" and "aubergine". To me, sage goes in stuffing...and aubergine sounds like an old fashioned name. I hope that, by admitting this, they don't revoke my bride card.

Great for Gifts, Bad for the Bank Account

Telling you about Etsy is not at all "breaking news", but I thought I would share my new favorite website / shopping obsession. For those who are not familiar...oh, who am I kidding, you all know what Etsy is.

As someone who would love to be truly crafty, but really only has great organizational skills and perfect penmanship, Etsy is a creative haven. I look at all the beautiful, unique goods and wish that I could duplicate their efforts. In some cases, I've tried and failed (the next time I make an attempt, I'll make sure to blog about it...it's a hot mess), but mainly I just wish that my mother's sewing abilities had been passed on to me or I was a wiz with a hot glue gun. On weekends, I've sometimes found myself perusing the site for hours - not necessarily for anything in particular, but just to see what's out there. This has sometimes resulted in some great purchases, other times in putting me behind in work!

Label your water - Part II

When I left you, I had a blank template on my screen...time for the fun stuff!

The bachelorette incorporated flip flops and the colors pink, green and blue. So, I set out to tie the water bottle labels to both the theme and colors. First, I did some googling (love that it's a verb) for flip flop images to insert, but nothing was matching my vision. I had to get creative.

Label your water - Part I

Here's another chance to impart my wedding guest "wisdom".


As a bridesmaid in a recent wedding, I took on the job of water bottle labels for the bachelorette weekend (gotta hydrate after days at the beach and nights on the town)!! 


I know this very much "in vogue" right now, so I figured it couldn't be that hard. I started with some googling.

Can anyone tell me what a water bottle lanyard is?

Though I expect to be wrong more often than right when judging the simplicity of DIY projects, this time I was correct. Now, a lot of the credit is owed to the site I used to purchase labels, which was OnlineLabels.com. This tutorial is going to focus mainly on using their tools and services, but I've also listed specifics that might help if you use a different site for purchasing.

For the love of the mouse

For children who are lucky enough, a visit to Disney World is an amazing experience. You find yourself in "The Happiest Place on Earth," surrounded by more stimulus than you could possibly handle.

If you're a princess lover, you have Cinderella's Castle and all the Disney heroines from your favorite films; a pirate at heart? Swashbuckler Johnny Depp is not too far away; for the thrill seekers, Space Mountain takes you on a ride in the dark...I could go on, but you get my point.

And I haven't even acknowledged all the opportunities that exist to open your wallet once you pass through the turnstiles - silly hats (see below), any stuffed animal you could dream of and treats ranging from huge (no, really huge) turkey legs to popcorn to ice cream in the shape of the park's iconic mouse.

My first trip to Disney. And my first silly hat.

I should know. I've probably eaten 5 times my weight in Mickey on a stick (ice cream), could pay for a full year of college by selling my old stuffed animals on eBay and have hats ranging from Goofy to Daisy Duck. And that's just me...I have a brother too. I have been to Disney more times than years I've been alive. Personally, I believe this puts me in the running for luckiest (twenty-something) kid on the planet. However, the best part of each visit isn't just the chance to act like the sum of my age digits but rather the chance to spend time with my family and soak up the positive energy and "happiness" that exists at Disney World.

Sexy Skivvies - Part II

When we left off, I showed you the tags, but hadn't shared how to pull it all together.

For each bride, I did something a little different for the final product. For one, I made it look like a parfait in a vase, for another, I tied each of the pairs of underwear together and for the last, I used a gift bag. I can't decide which one was my favorite!

Sexy Skivvies - Part I

As I've mentioned, I'm a wedding pro. This status also comes with wedding shower pro and bachelorette party pro patches for my wedding pro sash.

Brownies, anyone?
Source

With that, I must state, for the record, that I consider my "expertise" to be more as a wedding guest or bridesmaid rather than a bride. So, through this blog, I want to share some experiences / activities from that side of the altar.

We'll start with the fun events - bachelorettes and bridal showers. Since many of my friends all know each other (albeit loosely in some cases) I've needed to get creative with gifts for these events (don't want to be that girl who always gives a toaster). Last summer, I attended 3 bachelorettes within a short period of time and I wondered whether I could stretch a good idea for their gifts*. In the land of Facebook (where everybody is friends), you always worry a photo's going to pop up and ruin the surprise! Luckily, these ladies ran within different circles, so I felt pretty safe. 

The lingerie showers were part of their "last weekends" as single ladies (cue Beyonce). I don't have much love for the risque, but I do enjoy personalizing gifts and getting creative (plus shopping for fun underwear). Thus, I embarked on "Operation Personalized Panty Present" production.

Would you be...oh could you be...

...my bridesmaid?

There are a number of wonderful women in my life, both family and friends, who I wanted to be part of our wedding. However, with them spread up and down the East Coast, I didn't want to simply make a phone call or wait until our next visit. Being a bridesmaid isn't all sunshines and rainbows, so I wanted to illustrate how much I appreciated everything they would do as a member of our wedding party...and show them how special they were to me!

I started by practicing my calligraphy on the shiny envelopes.

It looks better when you can see the full name!

Let it Rock

Now that we had the venue set, we needed to make it a party. And when we thought about all our favorite weddings in the past 3 years, the consistent element was music. More specifically, a rocking band that kept people on the dance floor all.night.long.

This would be #2 in Mr. Turkey's limited repertoire of dance moves
Bridesmaid M is trying so desperately to teach him

And we knew JUST the band that would keep our party rocking. How? From another wedding, of course.

The dance floor didn't know what was coming for it

The Venue

Because of our status as wedding pros (award given once you've attended 15 weddings together - we have 32 under our belt), we had seen what we thought was every possible venue. Ballrooms, country clubs, museums, tents - you name it, we ate cake there. Each venue type we visited had it's own unique benefits and every couple had made their reception truly their own through personal touches. However, since we had attended multiple weddings in each of these venue "categories", we wanted to find something that was different. We had a few criteria when making that decision.

The Story of the Ring

After the "how'd he do it?" question often comes a violent grabbing of your hand for a look at the sparkly* ring upon your finger. Oohs and aahs naturally follow.

Besides the obligatory "thank you" after someone looks at my ring, though, I feel the need to tell a more detailed story...one which gives Mr. Turkey extra kudos (more than those necessary for making such a large purchase / commitment). Focus group of one, but I think he did a pretty amazing job and went a bit above and beyond. Like with the proposal story, I think it's his to tell, so I'll turn over the keyboard...

Getting down to details

Since our engagement was after Valentine's Day, we knew we needed to start moving on some of our details in order to have the most options available.

There were a couple snags in our plans to get down to planning, though.

Champagne and Cards - oh my!

After our engagement and weekend away, we were lucky enough to have a chance to celebrate with family. Chase's local aunts, uncles and cousins came together for a small party featuring food, cake and, of course, champagne!

At one point, this was our fridge. We're only 2 people!!

It was very fun, after being by ourselves, to tell our story in person, show off the ring and celebrate. This was just the beginning of an amazing outpouring of generosity, love...and alcohol.

Kiss Me, Kate!

I didn't plan on jumping right into inspiration posts, but early in our engagement there was exciting news from one of my favorite brands that just needed to be shared! A few months ago, Kate Spade New York introduced Wedding Belles (and whistles), a collection including dresses, shoes, jewelry, handbags, and other accessories.

Source

How do I love this new collection? Let me count the ways...

Oh What a Night!

"How'd he do it?"

If I had a nickel for every time someone asks me that question...I'd be able to...maybe cover an appetizer for one of our guests. The point is, you have to have your story down. Every family member, friend, vendor, acquaintance, store clerk and bus driver will ask you to tell about that fated event. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE telling the story, but I've told it a LOT over the past few months. And I think that's a bit unfair.

That's right - I think the men get it easy. Shouldn't they find themselves recounting the events of that evening to the guy on the next weight bench over?

Ok, maybe that's a bit of a stretch scenario, but, in my opinion, the proposal is really Mr. Turkey's story to tell. After all the time and effort put into planning...he should be able to tell his side of the tale. And so, here, in Mr. Turkey's own words, is the story of our engagement.

Who are you? (Who Who Who Who)

"Tell me about yourself." "Share 1 fun fact." "What makes you YOU?"

For some reason, these sorts of inquiries make me nervous. But I figure you all might want a little bit more info about the Turkeys than what you have now...so, to save myself the sweaty palms, I'm going to keep it simple.

Well, a picture's worth a thousand words*, so here are some photos to tell you our story.

This is one of my favorite all-time photos - believe it or not, it was not at all posed

Why am I here?

I hear the questions running through your head...why do you need a second blog? Why start a wedding blog when you already have a perfectly good site over at Rachel-something? You know, the place where there are a modest number of readers, few online comments and houses a glorified (virtual) cookbook. Why not use that site?

I'll tell you why.