Our Wedding - Where to get the Goods

I have had a couple of questions lately about where to get some of the supplies I used for our wedding decor. I thought I would just go ahead and post the details so all could see.

MAP

The map included in our invitations was made by me. I used Adobe Illustrator and printed the file on cardstock at Kinkos.


STATIONARY STAMPS

The stamps I used on the Thank You notes and our Save the Dates is from the Martha Stewart line sold at Michael's Craft Store. It is called Wedding Cake. Isn't it delicious - I sort of want to lick the paper after using this one. Each design is a separate clear stamp that you put on a stamp block (sold separately) in whatever arrangement you want. Worked pretty well but the intricate design didn't always work with embossing powder like I did with the STDs.


CUPCAKE STANDS

The cupcake stands are from Martha Stewart's craft line sold at Walmart. Sense a trend of my design inspiration? I snazzed them up a bit with ribbon and papel picado stands like our theme.



MEXICAN CANDY

I got the Mexican candy from a Mexican Party Store in Phoenix called Dulceria Pico Rico. I didn't actually buy any candy for the candy buffet on-line like many wedding advice sties recommend. I found the on-line stores sold only in ridiculous quantities and Sam's Club along with the Mexican party store had better prices (and no shipping costs). We weren't going for a monochromatic color scheme though and wanted to feature our favorite candies - not just those that would look good. If your looking for candies that you can't normally find in the store the on-line sellers would make more sense.



If interested in knowing any other details just let me know!

Thank you!

So I don't want to seem ungrateful but it seems like I have been writing thank you notes FOREVER! Somehow this part is not as much fun as making the STDs or Invitations. I think it is because I was using plain jane thank you cards I bought at the store.

DIY thank yous to the rescue to get me through the list! Yes, getting back to DIY will help energize me. I decided to use some left over paper and the stamp supplies I purchased for the STDs. Simple - but much more personal than store bought. Why is it that homemade things (even those that turn out less than perfect) are so much better than some mass produced crap from the store? Now I am having fun writing personal notes of thanks to all of our guests.



So these are my "compromise" DIY thank you notes. I had originally planed on making some cards out of these pictures from our reception with the DIY banner I made a few months before the wedding. But I didn't like most of the options.



Why were we always making out in nearly every picture? I guess it is because we are so in love....

Yum Cupcakes!!

We knew we wanted something different for our wedding cake. Traditional isn't really us. I know that cupcakes are becoming more and more traditional at weddings and are almost a fad that is likely soon to be replaced by another. But we decided that since we had never been to a wedding with cupcakes it was still different.



We choose to go with Sprinkles. They are amazing!! One drawback of not going with a smaller bakery is that we were limited to the flavor options available for that day - that still was a dozen or more so it was still hard to decide. We could also pick from several dozen special gum paste designs for the top. Of course we choose a saguaro cactus for 2 of the 5 dozen we selected.



I recently read on honey my heart that in LA there is a mobile Sprinkles van that you can rent. What a great after reception treat!!



Review: A+, as you can tell we had some guests that had a hard time choosing what kind.

Candy Buffet!!!

One of my favorite DIY projects was our candy buffet. Going with our Mexican theme we choose all sorts of treats from south of the border and a few of our favorite American sweats that came in our colors. There is a fabulous Mexican party store in Phoenix that had loads of Mexican candies to choose from including peanuts covered in chilies, caramels, chili lollipops, and coconut treats.

I dressed things up with ribbon, papel picado inspired signs and tissue paper bouquets. A banner saying Gracias and Thank You was hung over the table. We had small white paper bags and stickers with our monogram for guests to take home their treats. It was a real hit and I was surprised how little candy we had left over. It was kinda a disappointment because we had it sitting in our house for weeks - tempting us and were looking forward to digging in! Oh well, we did however have a few extra cupcakes to enjoy. I will share the cake cutting next.

How about some non kissy face pictures...

I was just noticing how many kissy face pictures I was posting. We did actually get some normal photos...


What do you think of our first family portrait?

Biggest Wedding Day Fear: Rain

My biggest wedding day fear was that it would rain or even be cloudy with the threat of rain. Luckily it was sunny and gorgeous for our outdoor ceremony in Sedona. Why would it rain in Phoenix a few days later. Really there was no reason for me to have anxiety. It rarely rains in April. That is actually why we choose April. But the forecast was not prediction clear conditions. A storm front was moving in Friday and not expected to clear until Sat night. Out reception night. The audacity of the weather to rain on our reception!!

I tried to deny it. I resisted buying a cute umbrella for pictures just in case. I didn't worry about a back up plan or fret about how 75 people could crowd under a little tent to avoid getting wet. Or worry about all of the tissue paper DIY projects would be ruined even if it sprinkled. I didn't worry until about 3:00 when the clouds still were not clear and the hour by hour predicted another downpour at 6. Then I began to freak!!

I would recommend to everyone to have a small ceremony and a reception a couple of days later. We were so relaxed the day of our reception. We slept in and lazily watched TV for most of the day. Until 3:00 when we started getting ready and I had my first Bridezilla moment of the whole process. (Matt would probably disagree and say that I was a Bridezilla throughout the whole process but I would not.) I really regret how I acted throughout the whole thing.

Once we got to the venue I was devastated. Very few of the tables and decorations were even set up because we were all waiting to see if it would continue to downpour. All of the flowers were dripping. A giant puddle was enlarging in front of the bar. The tents were hardly water proof. My hair was fast on it's way to becoming flat. The venue people asked me every 15 minutes if we should move the tables. (They did 3 times - back and forth between tents offering various levels of weather protection). The tissue paper bouquets were bleeding and the banners were hopeless.

The only person I openly freaked out on was Matt for which I deeply regret. In the end all worked out just fine and I feel really silly that I was so upset it was raining. At about 5:45 - right as the guests were arriving - the sun game out and a double rainbow appeared. People said only Melissa would plan to have a rainbow appear at her wedding. Well, I didn't exactly plan it. But it was gorgeous.

Some more advise: Don't freak out if it is raining. Buy a cute umbrella or galoshes. Take it all in. Rain or shine.

After all, it it didn't rain we wouldn't have a picture like this:

Oops. Did I loose time again?

Seriously, it has been 1 month since my last blog post? Well I guess I did get in a bad car accident (I'm okay but did total the car a week before our road trip honeymoon :( but not to fear we got a new one). I am teaching a class and playing academic catch up. And I did need to finally clean the house after neglecting it for months. And there was the 2nd reception to do. But that can't explain my absence.

Maybe Post wedding depression?? Perhaps that is why I have been MIA. All the planning, the DIY, browsing through blogs for inspiration. Does it HAVE to be over already? Everyone talks about all of the buildup to the wedding - but no one talks about after the wedding. What am I to do for fun now?

Maybe getting back to wedding recaps will bring back my wedded bliss.



I am going to ride out this "Just Married" thing for at least a few more months.