Signature Drink

I read somewhere that a good signature drink incorporates something from the couple's past with the "theme" of their wedding. Following that tradition we are incorporating

prickly pear syrup (from the ubiquitous prickly pear cacti in Arizona where we met and live)
+ Tequila (from our Mexican Fiesta theme and engagement site of Mexico)
= a Prickly Pear Margarita

photo from Martha Stewart

Unfortunately our reception site doesn't allow for frozen margarita machines but I have sampled many a prickly pear margarita on the rocks and it is just as good.

I am sure everyone is familiar with a margarita. A prickly pear margarita is the same but with the addition of prickly pear fruit juice or syrup (added sweetners). Prickly pear cacti found throughout the Southwest produce the most wonderful bright pink or fuchsia fruit in the spring after flowering. Added bonus of matching our wedding colors!

photos from Wikipedia

In the markets of Mexico and some grocery stores in the US you can find the fruit for sale. I tried to extract the juice from a fruit once and only got about 2 Tbls. Definately not a DIY project to make sufficient quantities of juice. We went to the pros and ordered a gallon of prickly pear syrup to combine with margarita mix for the reception. The recipie is simple - just add 2 oz. of syrup for every 8 oz. of margarita mix. Add lime wedge and enjoy!

photo mine

But what do we call it on the bar menu? Just 'Prickly Pear Margarita'? It seems that good signature drinks also have clever names.

Any ideas?

Real Wedding Inspiration

I just love this wedding! I saw it recently featured on Wedding Bee Pro by Megan @ Princess Lasertron. Be sure to check out her Etsy shop, Princess Lasertron. She makes amazing custom bouquets and boutiners out of felt and vintage buttons. If we didn't already have this taken care of, I would totally think about getting these custom made in our colors.

All photos from Austin and Cassandra Huck.

Isn't her dress cute? Not to mention her shoes! I am pretty sure it is the "Pasadena" from Dolly Couture. The same designer as my short vintage inspired dress.

And how fabulous would a reception in a bowling alley be? I sort of wish we would have checked out bowling alleys and skating rinks as reception options.

Anyone having a reception in a quirky location like this couple?

Just Married Signs and Getaway Cars

Did anyone else see this post featureing Just Married Signs from Ritzy Bee today? It gave me some inspiration on how to use our Just Married Sign.

I just love this one:
Aw... now I want to rent a cute convertible.

This brings me to a wedding etiquette question. Who decorates the bride and grooms car? I am not sure this is something we necessarily want but I am not sure of tradition here. It is probably something that the wedding party does. Hmmm, but we aren't having attendants.

Anyway, I just love these ideas from Martha Stewart Weddings.

Cool Find of the Week

All grad student geeks like me are probably familiar with PhD comics. PhD Comics reminds grad students of their "life (or lack thier of) in Academia." The last couple of weeks have featured an ongoing storyline of grad student wedding. These comics hit close to home so I thought I would share.

Click to enlarge comics.

Original here.

Yep, academic departments are pretty incestuous. Matt and I are both in an archaeology graduate program. For awhile we shared an office but now we are just 63 steps away (yes, I have counted). It is nice to walk to work and have lunch with my guy.

Original here.

So we didn't get that technical with our budget, but I do have all of our wedding budget and to-do lists in a relational database. And yes we can relate to a ramen budget.

Original here.

Yup, did anyone read my rants about social and environmentally conscious wedding decisions.

Original here.

Yeah, sometimes I feel like this is pretty much the case. We both are trying to write our dissertations as well as plan a wedding. Normal life doesn't stop.

Anyone seen other fun wedding comics?

Best Wedding Product Ever

Okay, so it really isn't intending for weddings and I am sure there are tons of other "best wedding products" out there. But for a DIY bride like me you can't live with out these:

They are 8 1/2 x 11" stickers that you can feed through your laser printer. I think that Avery also makes some for Ink Jet printers as well. It is only about $13 for a pack of 25 sheets and are avaiable at Office Max and Staples. They are intended for shipping labels but can work for som many other things. Maybe they are not as cool as having a Xyron Sticker Maker but I feel they work just a good, if not better, and more economical. The sticker is very thick and easy to work with.

I have been printing labels galore and cutting them down to whatever size and shape I need. I have used several craft punches like pictured below to keep consistent with our papel picado banner theme. These are way easier to use than printing something out on paper and then gluing/taping to another piece of paper. It is also much more secure. For some earlier projects I did without the stickers, I had problems with the corners sticking down, etc.

From Martha Stewart Crafts at Walmart.

I originally got the labels to make our invitation address labels to go on our black envelopes. They worked like a charm. Matt did all of the printing, punching, and adhereing to the envelopes.

I have found many more uses for them and they will pop up in a couple of more DIY projects I will feature over the next few weeks.

I have found that searching the aisles of office supply stores has provided me with several shortcuts for my wedding decor. Craft stores are great of course, but the office supply stores also have products you can make work for your DIY projects. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box.

Anyone found their own "best wedding product ever' and want to share?

DIY Project: Thank You Sign

Inspired by these:

From here.

From here.

From here.

From here.

I decided to make this:

In keeping with our papel picado banner decor I made a little flag for each letter. It was a really easy project. I printed out the letters using the same font as our STDs and Invitations. I worked out the number of banners so that the back side could say this:

I am not sure if I will print Thank You's with the sign picture but wanted to have a couple just in case. I plan on using pics with the Just Married sign in a wedding announcement card to other family and friends who can not make our celebrations. Hopefully our pics will be super cute!

DIY Project: Paper Flowers

For our Mexican themed Fiesta reception, I wanted to create several arrangements of paper flowers. Paper flowers are a big part of Mexican decor and are a great budget friendly way to add color and a handmade touch. Paper flowers were also an interactive element of our Save the Date announcements. I am going to ask a couple of people to bring their paper flowers to the Fiesta so that I can scrapbook them with their guest book advice entries. What do you think - a good idea or would it seem tacky?


Here are some simple instructions for DIY paper flowers:

Step 1: Cut squares of tissue. For smaller flowers I used 4 x 4 inch squares and 4-5 sheets per flower. For larger I used as large as 8 x 8 squares and 6 sheets. The more sheets, the fuller the flower but the harder it will be to separate the petals. For some of my flowers I added a smaller piece of tissue in an alternative color to create different flower centers.

Step 2: Stack sheets and fold like an accordion fan. 1" folds works well. Smaller flowers, use smaller folds.Step 3: Cut the edges of the fan for your desired flower shape. I used a couple different shapes to add different textures to my arrangement such as rounded (pictured), V-shape, and a deep V-shape.

Step 4: Secure the center of the folded fan. I used floral wire cut to 8 inches to create the "stem" of the flower.

Step 5: Fan out the fold on each side of the secured center. You will want to pull apart the folds down to the base of the flower. The better you separate the folds at this step the fuller and rounder the final flower.

Step 6: Pull the petals apart towards the center. Separating one layer at a time.

Step 7: "Fluff" and reshape petals to the desired look. The tissue is incredibly moldable so don't be afraid to pull and place where you want it. Sometimes I found that the two sides of the flowers were separated. To fix it I used a double sided piece of tap at the flower base to secure the two sides together.

Step 8: Arrange flowers. This is no different than arranging real flowers. I did use more double sided tape at the flower bases to get them to stick together. In some places of the arrangement you could see the stems and hiding pieces of tape gave the arrangement a fuller look with no holes.

I made 4 different arrangements to go on our Sweet Treats table. In keeping with my goals to reduce, reuse, and recycle the wedding decor, I used turquoise and purple drinking glasses as the vases that I will later reuse in the kitchen.

I must give a plug to an inexpensive paper flower kit from Martha Stewart Crafts. I learned a few other flower shapes from this kit that I won't explain here. She has a couple of ideas for other more complicated flower shapes. I don't know if my patience was wearing thin or if I am not ready to graduate to complex crafts, but mine didn't look as good so I stuck to the versions above.

Cool Find of the Week

This Valentine's Day idea from How About Orange was so cute I had to share.

original post here

Wouldn't this be great to add some pizazz to wedding invitations, thank-yous, or favors? Easy, budget friendly, and totally adorable.

Eeek!!!! Only 8 weeks to go!!!!

I am so excited that wedding day is almost here! Although it is still a little scary how much there is left to do. Deep breaths, deep breaths. Seriously reading other bridal blogs makes me feel like such a slacker. And they also give me tons of inspiration so the list keeps getting longer. ;)

Here is a quick rundown of the major projects left to complete:

Send Invites - done but need to get stamps
Matt's suit - purchasing this weekend
Load up ipod with Music for Fiesta reception
Finish Papel Picado Banners
Purchase Candy/dried fruit and make labels for Sweet Treats table
Finalize where, when of hair and make-up
Purchase accessories and decide on what to do about hair flower
Finalize a few other DIY projects including menus, signs, and photobooth

Hey, this list isn't that bad. Now if I just didn't also have dissertation grants to write, a book chapter to finish, a major report to submit, and two conferences to go to...

Stay tuned because I have been a DIY wedding fool lately and have several posts planed about our projects. What would you like to see first - paper flowers, photo albums, or cupcake stands?

Thanks so much for this sweet lemony blog award! I was presented with it by the lovely Jenn from With This Ring, Cyd from The Sweetest Occasion, and Jessica from Mason Jar Bride. I love each of these blogs and was very excited to receive the award. Thanks ladies!

Here are the official rules of the game...

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude.

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

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received the award.


I am going to buck the trend and not nominate anyone officially. However all of the blogs listed on the right on my blog roll are fabulous and if you haven't already - you should check them out.

Instead I am asking for new blogs to add to my daily reads. Or at least new to me blogs. Anyone have a favorite or want to share info about their own blog that may not be on my list? Please post the link and consider yourself nominated. For sharing I will show great attitude and gratitude!

I think I found them!

I don't want to jinx it, but I think I found my shoes! I really owe the blogosphere for this great find. I first saw them posted on Classicly Modern and then All You Need is Love. So I headed over to Amazon.com and snatched them up. Unfortunately, based on what these lovely ladies said I am a little worried about the fit. But I am not worried about the price. I used my Amazon credit card rewards so the cost was $0.

I hope these work because I have also come to think that some sort of a ballet flats would be best for several reasons.
1) I don't usually wear heals and don't think wedding day is the time to try it out (although peep toe pumps are sooo cute! wait a minute- is this really me saying this?)

and 2) I will be to walk over this stream to get to our ceremony site and really don't want to fall in the water!!

Photo from our ceremony planner - Weddings in Sedona.

The shoe saga continues....

Suggary Goodness!

Amy Atlas has done it again. Check out this winter wonderland dessert bar featured yesterday on Style Me Pretty as well as her blog.

I would really love to have the marshmallows like the bottom right photo on our candy buffet and hometown dessert reception. Martha had a recipe in the latest Weddings Magazine. Maybe I will give it a try and do similar toothpick flags.

Another option is to go for Marshmallow Peeps. I absolutely love Peeps - they are my favorite thing. I am not a huge fan of the yellow and pink chicks but love the white ones, especially the vanilla flavored hearts that come out around Valentines Day. I also think they would be fun since I and some of Matt's friends call him Peeps which is a play on his last name. But they are not for everyone and I find that you either love 'em or hate 'em.

These pink heart pairs might be an option.
I like these because they are wrapped in pairs whereas others come in packages of 4 or 9. One thing that I know about Peeps is that you don't want to expose to the air for too long, otherwise they become a rock hard mess.

I wonder if I could repackage to look a little classier...

Shoe Dilemma Take Two

Thanks for all of the great advice about shoes. I got some great ideas.

Jeana from My Dream Ring suggested I look at like.com. This was a new site for me and is great because you an search by color as well as style, etc. Although they didn't seem to search many stores... Anyway I found a few more contenders. Unfortunately none in turquoise/teal.

Jessica Simpson Ceasar- but not in my size :(
Charles by Charles Pendant Pump
Caparros Vincente II Satin Pump
Cole Haan Air Elly Patent Wedge

Mootsies Tootsies Trusty Retouched - perfect but no turquoise or fuchsia!!!

My future mother-in-law reminded me that heals of any size might be be the best things since we are getting married outside and have to embark on a short hike to get there - over a stream as well. And honestly who am I kidding. I wear Teva sandles everyday. Thinking flats or something like the wedge shoes above might be better.

The search continues....

Shoe Dilemma

Since I am wearing a short dress I think that shoes will be key and really set the tone for my look. I have been dreaming about a fabulous peep toe in turquoise or a darker teal. I would even go with a flat ballet slipper if it was the right color. Something like these would be almost perfect:

Nine West Julia Rea shoe
no longer available :(

Charles by Charles Women's Tux Peep Toe

But they are no longer available. :(

I am having a hard time finding what I want. For months I have window shopped and spend countless hours on-line. Every time I find a style I like, it either doesn't come in my size or not in the color I want. Since I am completely frustrated I might even consider going fuchsia. Such as these:Fuchsia Satin Peep Toe from Nordstrom

I might even have to go the dyeable route. I sort of wanted to avoid this. I did have high hopes for the new Lela Rose Dyeable shoes at Payless. The price is right but I found thier >3.5 inch heals a little out of my comfort range. And they seem like they are only about a half inch wide.

Any suggestions? Where can you find comfortable and stylish dyeable shoes? or turquoise satin fabric (no patent leather - yuck) peep toe pumps?