Unique Shower Gift

I'm still gathering myself and our pictures from this weekend so while I figure all that out... I decided to weigh in on something I was reading over on Lovely Little Details. I'm sure you've read Jacin's latest post about unique gifts for bride-to be's but just in case you don't stalk follow her ;) you should definitely click on over there and see what's going on... it's an amazing blog -- I tell you!

But what I wanted to share is one of my most unique gifts that I received last month at my bridal shower.

One of my mom's best friends, Marjorie, gave me a basket full of candles:


But these aren't just any candles... each candle has a significant reason for being part of the basket -- and along with the gift came a handwritten poem:

A Basket of Candles for Jasmine & Sean


A basket of candles that come in a pair,
In all different colors for you two to share.

The white ones burn first,
They are wrapped in white lace,
To celebrate your first married night - in your new chosen place.

The green pair is taller and also much thinner,
Burn with the first company you have over for dinner.

The dark blue candle is for after your first fight,
Use it to burn while making up all night!
Pink candles set the mood and pave the way,
For your first married Valentine's Day.
Now, when your first year of marriage is through,
The cream anniversary pair will light for you two.
Red candles aflame, both your futures are bright,
Celebrate promotions you've worked toward with all of your might.

By this time we hope, maybe, just maybe,
You can light the purple ones for the birth of your baby!

And just when you thought you'd put these away,
Take the light blue ones out for your 5th anniversary day.

Now just one pair left - for the big twenty-five,
The silver anniversary pair that will keep your love alive.

Congratulations Jasmine and Sean on the start of your forever,
May the two of you always be happy together.
And burn these candles just the way I have said,
But please don't forget - blow them out before bed!

;)

Another wonderful part of this gift was Marjorie reading the poem to me in front of everyone! It was so sweet and definitely a time during the shower craze when everything just stopped and I really got to take it all in -- and that poem really made me think "oh wow, I'm getting married!"


It's perfect! =)

Fine China

Oh, I'm sorry... did I forget to mention my fancy china that I'm utterly in love with and talk about all the time -- as in every day [legit].

Well, let me just say that registering for china was something that we really thought argued about. Sean felt pretty strongly that it would be wasted, that we rarely have over people/that the people we have over aren't into fancy plates, and that it would inevitably just take up space... space that we don't actually have.

So, I registered for it... and took it off the registry... and registered for it again... and took it off the registry again... and pretty much went back and forth for a while.

Ultimately, I decided to leave the china on our list for a number of reasons:

1. I loved the pattern
2. China is not an item I would buy myself
3. I felt that if I didn't get it now... I never would
4. I fully intend on having people over... in order to use the china
5. I wanted it

Okay, so the last reason is kind of a childish excuse... and I sort of vetoed his opinion in this situation but really?! I wanted china. And I felt like why shouldn't we have nice things? We can have a dinner party just like anybody else! And one day we will! (hopefully!)

So at my shower I was so excited to see that we received some china... 5, count'em FIVE, sets of china to be exact. Pretty sweet!




The set is the Kate Spade Larabee Road collection (we're registered at Macy's but they're available lots of places). Along with the china sets, we received our toasting flutes [that we'll use at our wedding!] and a few goblets... I couldn't be more excited [or grateful] about this!

Shower Gifts

The day after my bridal shower I really wanted to go through all my gifts -- again. At the actual shower, like I said, I was feeling rushed... and didn't get to thoroughly enjoy and stare at everything. So when I was doing this the following day I had a thought: take pictures with all the gifts!

Originally, I thought I may include these pictures with the thank you cards I was sending in the mail. I thought it would be cute to send a picture of me holding the gift(s) each person gave to me.

But when it came to writing out the thank yous... the pictures kind of took a backseat. I really wanted to get them in the mail and taking the time to have the pictures printed just never happened.

Although, I have to say that I'm so glad I took the time to do this little (time consuming) task anyway. It was fun(ny) and I loved looking at everything!

Here's a few of the pictures:

Gifts

Hmm, have I shown you the end result of the bridal shower? This was my mom's living room...


Fortunately, it looks better than this... now. Unfortunately, Sean and I don't have any place to keep all of our amazing gifts [no kitchen, living room, dining room] so most of them must be kept in storage until after the wedding we own a house. =(

I posted about these a while back.

AND LOOK:



Thanks to Lindsey, I now own them! And I can't wait to use them at our wedding!

111 days and counting!

Good afternoon!

I have a couple things going on today =)




First, I would like to thank Jacin over at Lovely Little Details for writing a beautiful post about my shower! It's so exciting and I'm so happy that other people find my bridal shower to be as fun and pretty as I do! =)

It truly was the best day!

Next I'm happy to say that my thank you cards for said bridal shower were mailed out Friday (6 days after the event -- pats self on back) and that most of my local guests should have received them or will be receiving them tomorrow (let's go USPS!). I forgot to take pictures of the actual thank you cards =( but just know they were from Paper Source and so cute!


I have to admit that if it weren't for my two week vacation I would probably still be writing those thank you's...

The other day I went to a scrapbook store in preparation for this year's scrapbook weekend! This is one of the books I made last year!

But anyway, when I got to the store I realized that because I'm so close to the wedding now [111 days, to be exact] I can start some DIY projects! I'm so thrilled & can't wait!

Oh, and while at Target the other day I saw this:


...I fell into temptation and made an additional purchase! I told myself I wouldn't buy any more magazines since almost everything is online, anyway. But I couldn't help myself and there's just something about having the actual magazine to hold -- and then cut apart to add to my inspiration folder!

=)

Bridal Shower Invitations

Here's the invitation for my bridal shower!

I blocked out some info (soo.. it didn't exactly look like this):


Don't you LOVE those stamps!?

The top of the invitation says:

"A sprinkle of confetti and a couple of kisses
Soon Jasmine and Sean will be Mr. and Mrs."

This card went along with the invitation asking everyone to bring a recipe along with them to the shower! =) I got such great ideas!

I love them!

Bridal shower recap: part 5

Between waiting for my guests to arrive and sneaking a bite to eat here & there, walking around mingling and stopping to pose for pictures -- I realized it's a lot of work to be the center of attention. Flattering? Yes. Exciting? Beyond belief. But, work? For sure.

After I started taking desserts to eat, I noticed other people began taking them, too. Before I knew it lots of the tables seemed bare! But my mom and her helpers were quickly replenishing the displays. =)

At some point, my mom suggested to me that I start opening my gifts. There were about 40 people [who all brought me a gift] and with my general slowness in the gift opening department they thought I should get started. =)


It was one of the most stressful things to do! I didn't expect to be under so much pressure. In the beginning, I was forgetting to say who the gift was from, what is was, forgetting to show off each gift. It was awful! I finally got into some type of rhythm:

Bridal party jobs:

MOH Chelsey: wrote down who gave which gift
BM Lindsey: made my bouquet out of all my ribbon
Junior BM Lizzie: handed gifts to me to open
BM Tessa: took gifts from me that I had already opened
Aunt Regina: took all my cards, checks, gift cards so they wouldn't get lost in all the tissue paper!

Let me tell you, I had all this help, and still... difficult!


I'm really the type of person that enjoys opening gifts -- each and every one! And I don't like to feel rushed. I like to give each gift [and the person who gave said gift] equal time of me reading the card, unwrapping the gift, looking at the gift, appreciating the gift & thanking the gift giver. But when you have 40+ gifts... IT'S SO OVERWHELMING TO DO ALL THIS!

Because at the same time, I felt bad! Because all these people were standing around... waiting... & waiting... & waiting FOR ME!

At one point, I realized I was opening gifts on the ground! All my practice of sitting correctly in my fancy chair went right out the window! But those boxes can be really heavy! And to have them on your lap... while trying to unwrap... while trying to balance them on your knees... well... the floor seemed like a safer option!

See our dishes?! I LOVE THEM!

I really wanted to have a ribbon bouquet. So I made sure to pass every ribbon/bow/string/anything toward Lindsey.

I unwrapped those ribbons really carefully! Supposedly, the number of ribbons you BREAK [by accident!] while opening bridal shower gifts represent the number of CHILDREN you will have. Not that I don't want children because I do -- but I really wanted the bouquet [haha] so I didn't break any!


I don't even know how long it took to open all the gifts but when I was finished I got to pose with my bouquet!! And because I didn't break any ribbons... I have a long & beautiful bouquet!

And, finally me with my bridesmaids!!
3 girls weren't able to come =(

Next up on the blog: Sean's arrival at the shower! =)

Bridal shower recap: part 2

Hopefully you got a chance to check out my post about my bridal shower decorations. If not, here you go!

My shower, this past Saturday, was a dessert shower. So while there were a few food/lunch options (which we'll get to later in the week!) the main course, if you will, were treats.

Mostly they were from Konditor Meister, where our wedding cake will be from! They were absolutely delicious and these bride and groom covered strawberries were by far my favorite!








How cute?!?!




The desserts were portioned out into mini shot glasses, mini martini glasses, mini beer mugs... pretty much, imagine everything you've ever seen... now imagine it in "mini" form and know that we had it holding a dessert. They were amazing!







All the desserts had these fancy name cards so that everyone knew what they were getting themselves into!













This cake is my favorite!! It's the same as the bottom tier of our wedding cake! =)




I love these cupcakes! And I love the little bride and groom decorations, too!










Amazing, right?!

Tomorrow's post will include EVEN more decor, our beverage stations and then the gifts. Oh the gifts...

Bridal Shower!!!!

Apparently, I took some days off blogging.

I didn't even mean to... it just happened.

Yesterday was my bridal shower!!! It was absolutely amazing and I can't wait to show you all every.single.thing.

I'm still getting the pictures organized.

But while I do that... I leave you with this:


Tomorrow I'll show off the amazing decorations! WAIT until you see....

Wedding Pictures.

When I starting researching wedding planning, one of things I noticed [almost] everyone recommending was finding actual wedding pictures that you'd like to "re-create".

I decided I'd post some of the ones in my "wedding photo inspiration" folder. Here's the thing... I'm a quick "save picture as..." person but a pretty much non-existent "this is where I found the picture" person.

So I'm truly sorry for "borrowing" these photos... but they're beautiful!








Cute, right?

I wish every picture on the internet had the photographers "stamp" on - so it would be easy to just throw it into a Google search and find the link all over again. Oh, one day internet. One day.

In bridal shower news -- I got my hair done today and hopefully will get my nails done within the next 2 days. ;)

One of my MOH's will be coming from California tomorrow and I'm so excited! It's becoming really, really real at this point.

I've been on vacation for 4 days and I've already accomplished some of the things on my "vacation to-do list":

- Invitations

- Bridal party gifts

- Choose jewelry for myself (assuming my mom's jewelry matches my dress next time I try it on - then it would work as my "something borrowed" too!)

- Practice wedding dance

- Pick readings

- Make programs
- Practice walking in my wedding shoes

- Choose our food
- Table names/numbers
- Choose music

It's looking pretty good. ;)

Successful Day.

It was very hard for me to decide on a dress for my bridal shower, which is now in about 13 days!

I didn't know if I wanted to go really fancy or relatively casual... bright colors or dark tones... patterned fabrics or just something solid. It was so difficult! I kept going back to the mall, checking stores and looking online. Nothing seemed right.

But today I told myself that I was going to find something. Anything. And I wasn't leaving the mall without a dress. It was hard especially since the mall was so crowded! And I guess it's time to go prom dress shopping because the dress sections were packed.

I ended up in Express and (basically) bought the outfit on the mannequin (I love doing this!). So here she is...


I think it's "spring-like"! But, I mean, this is Massachusetts. So I bought a violet cardigan to go with it. I don't want to freeze...

While searching for a dress for my shower I came across this dress on modcloth.com...


...and I'm pretty sure I need it. Rehearsal/rehearsal dinner? I think it's perfect! Wanna know what's not perfect? It's out of stock in my size. =(

And look at this...


I would love to change into this toward the end of our reception. If I can squeeze it into the budget... I'll own it pretty soon. I L.O.V.E. it. So much.

Aside from dress shopping/stalking I bought more bridal party gifts. I've come to the realization that whenever I want to buy something for my bridesmaids... the stores are never prepared for my purchases. Anytime I attempt to buy something... they only have 5 of what I need. EVERY TIME. But I need 7. Seven is the lucky number in this situation. Which means, most of my time is spent going to the same store - in a different location in search of the 2 items they're missing. It's not really that fun... I wish stores just had what they sell. All the time.

If I'm feeling up to it tomorrow maybe I'll try on my shower outfit and take a picture. Maybe...

We have a dance class tomorrow, I heard from our videographer yesterday ;) and we choose invitations in eight days. It's becoming real!