flower shower

I know it's been forever since I've last posted but I have a legitimate excuse! Gianfranco bought me Sims 3 for our 2 year anniversary and if you've ever played the Sims, you'll know where the hours in my evening have gone.

So without further delay, I present the little details from Nancy's shower...

First, the invitation. If you've been following my blog you won't be surprised to know we ordered these cute "Here Come the Bridesmaids" invitations from Tickled Pink Design. Once again, I can't say enough about this place! The stationery is affordable and adorable and the customer service is great. Since February, I've already ordered 3 sets of invitations and have been really pleased with all of them. Below is a copy of the invitation that was framed by one of Nancy's mother's friend's. Look how cute!

Included with the invitation was this poem, which was (mostly) written by yours truly:

"Nancy will want her house to be spic and span
And in order to help, we've come up with a plan
Of a wishing well of items to pick up the dirt
Like sponges and dusters and Windex to squirt
Paper towels like Bounty or detergent like Tide
Will all be appreciated by our soon-to-be bride
So wrap it in tissue paper and your name do not spell
It's just a little something to wish Nancy well!"

To make her wishing well a little less traditional, I copied this creative idea from my sister's future sister-in-law's shower. We took a mop and stuck it upside down inside a hamper. I blew up a picture of Nancy's face and taped it to the mop so that the yarn looked like Nancy's hair (even though she's a brunette!). We also tied an apron around the mop to give the illusion of Nancy's body. It was quite a hit!

Next were the favors. Luckily for us, Nancy already knew she wanted lip balms so all we had to do was find the cheapest vendor. Danielle, Nancy's cousin and Maid of Honor, found us a great deal at Accent The Party. Definitely check them out!

Of course, these weren't her favors (those aren't their names!) but I wanted to give you an idea of what they looked like.

Nancy loves Gerbera daisies so we thought using them as a centerpiece would make our bride happy. I had seen a picture of gerbera daisies in a square vase with green lime slices floating around in the water. I fell in love. Unfortunately, these centerpieces didn't really fit in our budget so we decided to use tall vases from Ikea instead. We still added in the limes and for an extra effect, we placed them on round mirrors.

I think they came out really pretty!

Initially, I had suggested assigned seating for the shower. I thought flower chocolate lollipops would be a cute way of leading guests to their seats. In the end, my future mother-in-law decided against it (which she later regretted - so words of wisdom!) but we had already bought all of the ingredients so we made the lollis anyway.

Using flower molds, we first "painted" the inner circles with yellow chocolate and let them set. Once they were hard enough, we then filled in the rest of the flower with different colors - red, pink, orange and purple. We covered them in clear bags and stuck them in a long green styrofoam board. When we were originally conceiving this idea, we were going to glue fake grass on the foam board to give the illusion of a "garden" but since we were only going to hand them out at the end of the party, we decided it wasn't necessary. Either way, they still came out adorable and delicious!

Now if someone can show me how to upload files on Blogger, please let me know! I'd love to share the games we played: "Wedding Word Scramble," "Purse Pursuit" and "A Lesson In Nancy." If not, the first two can be easily found online and the last one is just a personal version of "How Well Do You Know the Bride?" We also found out how well Nancy knew Jay, her fiance, by asking him questions before the shower and seeing if Nancy could match them. For every right answer she gave, she got to kiss a blown up picture of Jay's face. For every wrong answer, she had to chew another piece of bubble gum. All in all, she did pretty well!

It was a great shower and all the hard work paid off. As I mentioned in my last entry, having all of the bridesmaids work together was really the key to success. Brainstorming, creating and executing everything is too much for just one person. I'm glad we didn't have to learn the hard way!

Stay tuned for more wedding plans...

shower post-mortem

Yesterday was my future sister-in-law's Bridal Shower and while she wasn't quite surprised, she did seem to have a great time. Everything turned out just the way we planned; the food was delicious, the games were entertaining, the centerpieces were beautiful and the bride was blushing!

So after organizing my first bridal shower, what did I learn?

• It takes a bridal party to plan a shower. The Mother of the Bride or the Maid of Honor would go crazy if she had no help from the bridal party. Between wrapping favors and managing the RSVPs, the entire bridal party remained involved. I keep reminding Momzilla that as much as she loves party planning, she won't be able to do it alone. She'll need to consult with the bridesmaids on advice, opinions and just plain old labor. And while my bridesmaids are all good friends, that isn't the case with every bridal party. Sidenote: Planning the shower may also give the girls a chance to bond before the big day.
• Sweat the small stuff. While you shouldn't agonize over the tiniest detail, it's important to keep organized because there are so many little things involved with a shower. Parties in general require attention to detail but bridal and baby showers tend to follow a "schedule" of serving food, playing games and opening presents. We had to remember a poem for the Wishing Well, garbage bag for the wrapping paper and pens for the games. Good thing there were so many of us or else I'm sure we would have forgotten something!
• Wear a watch. I'm sure most bridal showers experience the same "mistakes" of spending too much time on silly things and not enough time on the important things. In retrospect, we waited too long to bring the bride to the party (partly my fault!) and we didn't give ourselves the time we needed to open her presents. And while most guests hate sitting through hours of unwrapping, it's nice to be able to spend the time thanking each guest after opening the present. Otherwise, you're being rushed through the entire thing!
• Bring sexy back! Okay, maybe this doesn't apply to ALL showers but I was certainly surprised by the fun reaction to all the lingerie she got. We had hung up a clothesline and pinned on lots of sexy panties for her to keep; we even displayed one of her fiance's boxer shorts! And although I was a little nervous about my future family's reaction, I had no need to be. They played right along and even gave a couple of naughty contributions themselves (one of her grandmother's friend's gave her a sexy nurse's uniform!).
  
  

I'm sure there are lots of other lessons I learned but for the sake of this entry, I decided to keep it short. In the next one, I'll show all the creative things we made for the shower in case you want some inspiration.

In the meantime, do you have any other thoughts or advice for planning a shower? I have to plan at least two more next year so any words of wisdom would be appreciated!

sister of the bride

Just a quick announcement that my sister and Maid of Honor, Lyndsey, got engaged tonight! It was such a great night and her fiance really surprised her!

She and he had come up to visit me and Gianfranco for some dinner and board games. After quite the long sushi dinner (waiting for a table took nearly an hour!), we came back to my apartment and began to play Cranium, Lyndsey's favorite game. Her fiance was dealt a "Creative Cat" card that required him to sculpt an item out of clay for her to guess. He molded the clay into the shape of an engagement ring and when she correctly guessed it, he then got down on his knee and pulled out a real one!

Once she finally said "yes!" we went to surprise Momzilla. You can only imagine her response when she saw the ring on my sister's finger! There were no words, just a loud scream. Then she ran upstairs and quickly found the shirt she had been dying to wear - a white tee-shirt that reads, "Mother of the Brides." How fitting.

So now I'm super excited! Not only am I planning my wedding to the love of my life, but I'm doing it alongside my best friend! Momzilla is ready to pass out with excitement and Dad, well, let's just say he'll have to start cutting back on some luxuries!

I'll keep you posted but in the meantime, I wish nothing but love and happiness to my sister and future brother-in-law!

always a bridesmaid...

Months before we were even engaged, my roommate Jamie and I were discussing our potential bridal party members. We sat down in Subway and made lists for each other. Jamie's number was slightly above average, but not by much. Mine, on the other hand, made Jamie almost spit out her Diet Coke. I had thirteen girls. Plus two junior bridesmaids.

Jamie pointed out that if Gianfranco were able to match me in numbers (doubtful) then there would be approximately 30 people standing by the altar (ridiculous). So as I got closer to my engagement, I sat down and really started reassessing my list. I loved all of my friends but I had to look at the bridal party as a whole and really think about how convenient it would be for each member. Some girls lived far away while others had lots of extracirricular activities going on. And not that I was afraid my Bridezilla demands would be too much to handle, I just didn't want to put any extra burdens on the other bridesmaids.

In the end, I was able to bring it down to 8 bridesmaids and 2 juniors. While still a little more than most brides have, it was way more reasonable. But lately, my engaged friends and I have been looking at our bridal party wistfully, hoping we didn't offend the friends we love but couldn't include. So, it makes me wonder, in a Carrie-esque way:

When it comes to your bridesmaids, just how many is too many?

According to The Knot, tradition uses the guest list size to determine how many attendants would be appropriate. I've heard of having one bridesmaid for every 50 guests. So, if you were having around 200 guests, you would have anywhere between 4-6 girls. For a smaller wedding, you would have fewer.

But I'm not really caring about tradition or what looks good or bad in pictures. I'm not thinking about how much each bridesmaid costs the bride. In my opinion, you should include the girls with whom you are the closest, whether this number is 2 or 20. And while most people would argue that having 20 bridesmaids can create a circus, I'd have to disagree!

Overall, I think it's the type not the number of bridesmaids you have. You could have only two bridesmaids and they can either fight with each other so much that nothing gets done or be nonchalant about the whole thing and nothing gets done. I chose the 8 girls in my bridal party because in the end, I think their personalities fit the best. I have some with "take charge" attitudes and some with "follow the leader" mentalities. And even though 8 sounds like a lot, I think they will be able to work well together, which is extremely important.

As for the other girls I had originally wanted, I decided to honor them in other ways. I wanted them to still feel part of my wedding so I'm having them help with creating my overnight baskets, my DIY projects, handing out the programs at the church, bringing up the gifts during the ceremony, and coordinating with the vendors on the actual wedding day. Just because they aren't wearing a bridesmaid dress doesn't mean they aren't special enough to be involved in the planning process.

So what do you think? Am I as crazy as Gianfranco thinks I am for having 8 girls in my bridal party? What are the pros and cons of having a large party? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

t minus 17 months

I've returned from Italy! It was gorgeous and Gianfranco's family was wonderful! And now, after two weeks of pasta, afternoon naps and gelato, I am looking forward to the crazy days ahead. With four weddings and a bridal shower over the next two months, Gianfranco will have no other choice but to think about wedding festivities which means I get to do some more planning!

When I finally checked my inbox after the trip, I found an email from The Knot reminding me that I had 17 months to go until my wedding. Seventeen months. I know it sounds like an eternity to most of you but having started my planning at 23 months, I am amazed at how quickly the time has gone. What once began as a pretty long engagement has now become the average length, according to this 2007 Bridal Association of America's Wedding Report.

I probably would no longer feel embarrassed telling people my wedding date except there are plenty out there who forget that we are almost in 2010 and January is the beginning of 2011. Believe it or not, 2011 is not that far away! And with FSIL Nancy's wedding at the end of October and with the holidays consuming most of November and all of December, that means January 2010 will be here before I know it. Then I'll be down to a year.

Yes, I know, I'm rushing past the next four months but I think for once, they will also be rushing past me. As one of Nancy's bridesmaids, I've been quite involved in her wedding planning and will be extremely busy helping her get ready for the big day.

So, what's up next, you ask? Here's my agenda:

• Check out limos
• Check out florists
• Finish planning Nancy's shower
• Create Nancy's ceremony programs

Since I don't want Nancy to know anything about her shower, I'll try to blog as abstractly as possible. Once it's over, I'll be able to give more details of how the whole planning process went.

So don't worry; I am back and ready to plan! Stay tuned!

disco d.i.y.

Lyn and I were on a mission to do something different for our mother's party. We just had my engagement dinner in June so we didn't want to have another sit down dinner at a restaurant. MZ was born in 1959 and was in her prime during the disco craze of the 70s. All of a sudden, we thought of two words. Disco. Party. My main concern, however, was knowing how to plan a party like this without the expertise of Momzilla. She's fantastic at organizing events and without her guidance, I was scared everything would fall apart!

To get things started, we ordered her invitations from Tickled Pink Design, the same place from which I ordered my engagement invitations. Let me tell you, I simply LOVE this company. They are not only affordable but extremely professional. The invitations came out adorable! I highly recommend them.

Now to keep costs down (we knew Momzilla would want it that way!), we decided to do a couple of things ourselves. We made our own disco ball out of a styrofoam ball and old CDs and our own lollipop favors out of different colored chocolates. Both were a huge hit at the party!

To make the party a little more sentimental we created a big 5-0 out of old pictures as well as a sweet photo montage of Mom through the years. I think the guests really enjoyed seeing themselves on the big screen!

My favorite point of the party was at the end when I started taking pictures of everyone in the 70s Afro wig we brought for my mother. I don't want to embarrass too many people so I'll only show my parents in it. Lookin' groovy, Mom & Dad!

Overall, it was a fun night. Mom was surprised and my sister and I managed to pull off our first event without MZ's help! Many thanks to all the friends and family who helped us prepare for the night, especially Best Man Frank and Groomsman Rob - who kept the disco tunes pumping! He's available for all types of events too so check out his website and tell him I sent you!

Now that Mom's party is over, I can focus on the next event - future sister-in-law Nancy's bridal shower! Stay tuned!

wedding guests tell all

Sorry I've been a little MIA lately. Momzilla turned 50 in June and my sister and I planned a surprise party for her this weekend. We spent the last few weeks working on a bunch of fun things to make the party extra special and I'll try my hardest to post some pictures this week.

In the meantime, check out this funny article that was passed on to me (thanks, Deena!) that I thought brides and wedding guests alike would enjoy...