wedding

Jul272010

Help Us Pick Flavors, Please!

Hello readers!

I need some help from you and your taste buds. We are having several dozen mini cupcakes at our mini Vegas reception. The problem is, our bakery, Retro Bakery, has some really amazing flavors and narrowing it down it driving me slightly mad. For every dozen cupcakes, we are allowed 2 flavors, which means we get to pick up to 8 flavors. For sanity’s sake, I doubt we’ll pick that many. We also get to pick a flavor for the 6″ cake we’re using as our cutting cake.

The 8 I’ve managed to narrow down for the cupcakes are as follows. We have tried 4 flavors when my amazing friend, TheDearlyWed, sent us a package. Take a peek at all the flavors Retro offers and, if the 8 below don’t satisfy your sweet tooth, feel free to suggest some more.

Red Carpet: Red cake topped with almond buttercream and red glitter sugar
Milk & Cookies: Chocolate-chip cake topped with vanilla buttercream and a freshly baked chocolate-chip cookie.
Cinnamon Toast: Vanilla cake topped with cinnamon buttercream dusted with cinnamon and sugar
Cookies and Cream: Chocolate cake topped with crushed, chocolate sandwich cookie buttercream
Peanut Butter Cup: Chocolate cake topped with peanut butter buttercream and dark chocolate shavings
Mint Chocolate Chip: Chocolate cake topped with green mint buttercream and mini chocolate chips
Pink Lemonade: Lemon cake topped with pink lemonade buttercream and hot pink glitter sugar
PB & J: Vanilla cake filled with strawberry jam and topped with peanut butter buttercream

I’m thinking of going “plain” for the cake and getting Vanilla Loves Vanilla, which is exactly as it sounds: delicious! Alternately, Cinnamon Toast was amazing and might become the cake as well. Who knows! I’d love to have all their flavors. 😀

Pick your top 3 choices and maybe it’ll be amongst our choices!

[poll id=”2″]

Jul272010

July 27 TMW Post

Tweet: @msrib – my last 10min: marshmallows on @levitymallows, flavors on @retrobakery, & searching reviews for wedding dress lingerie. #ohyeahimabride

Thanks to The Vegas Wedding Planner‘s blog, I have discovered a new Vegas treat. Homemade marshmallows in tons of different flavors made by Levity Marshmallows. Well, not tons, more like 10. They’re in Henderson, NV and have a strictly website business. After emailing the owner back and forth, we might end up getting 2-3 mallows for each guest. So, uh, is a bunch of mini cupcakes and flavored marshmallows too much? I didn’t think so either!

I sent out an evite to our potential Vegas guests to get an idea of how many we will be having. I do plan on sending out info packets and, of course, having welcome bags. I purchased a 10-pack of iron-on transfer sheets and figure I have enough to make 19 bags. I think we’ll be maxed out at 15 guests. Once I have a better number, I’m buying the bags and starting to find the goodies. Should the bags go per person or per couple? The water bottles are per person, but can easily fit 2 in the bags with other stuff. I’m thinking the aluminum water bottle, deck of cards, candy, chips, gum, aspirin, transportation maps… what else do you suggest?

Jul262010

Pretty Underthings

Where “polite society” may not want to discuss lingerie, brides are all about discussing it and trying to find the perfect items to shape and support under our wedding gowns. As a plus size bride, it’s been difficult finding what I am looking for mostly because my in-store local options are vastly limited. I cannot shop at Victoria’s Secret due to their bra sizes being far too small. I will not shop at Frederick’s of Hollywood due to, well, they sell a lot of trashy lingerie and I don’t feel like digging through it. Lane Bryant sells some, but mostly Spanx and pretty corsets.

So I turned to the internet. Ah the glorious internet. I won’t shop at any stores called “big girls bras” or the like. Instead I discovered sites like HerRoom.com and HipsAndCurves.com. Both have a wide variety of sizes in a huge selection of everything from bras, bustiers, corsets, panties, all over shapers and so much more. As someone who exclusively buys bras at Lane Bryant, these sites are a godsend with free or relatively low shipping and great return policies.

Now for the matter at hand. My dress has spaghetti straps and is fitted in the bodice, in true empire waist form, than completely flowing chiffon down to the floor. After many internal and twitter-fed debates, I am opting for Spanx and a strapless. Or maybe a strapless and a waist cincher. Or maybe a basque bra and Spanx. The possibilities are endless.

From HipsAndCurves, I purchased the following items and should have them this week. I’ve got no problem posting what I purchased, just don’t ever expect a picture of me in these things! Between these and the high waisted Spanx, which would you wear? I’m not too concerned about fashion; more concerned with comfort and doing their job! 😉

Daisy Embroidered Basque
Daisy basque bra, in white: Image source

Waist Cincher With Garter Straps
The waist cincher, in white. Image source

Flirty Ruffle Boyshort
Ruffle boy shorts, in black. Image source

OK, so the shorts aren’t for the wedding day…

Are you a plus-sized bride? What are you wearing under your wedding dress? Do you have tried and true lingerie items you’d never want to be without? Please share!

And then go check out the amazing Plumage Blog.

Jul262010

Canvas “Mosaic” Guestbook Idea

As seen in one of my latest posts, I am trying to think outside of the very popular wedding box. As I was tooling around on one of my favorite craft sites (Save-On-Crafts) for receptions ideas, I had a new idea. Rather than 1 or 2 16×20 canvases for guests to sign, the new idea is a lot of smaller canvases.

Picture a bunch of 6×6, 8×8, and 10×10 canvases, stacks of markers, colored pencils and Sharpies. Each couple or family can take a small chunk of canvas and draw or write us a note on it. I’m debating actually blocking off sections of each canvas, but if they’re not all used, it might look funny.

My initial idea is to hang them all on the little wall in our dining room over the pass-through from the kitchen surrounding our ketubah. Tonight I purchased a pack of 3 8×10 canvases to test with a variety of mediums to see which looks the best, doesn’t bleed or look weird on canvas.

This is absolutely not drawn to scale, but something like this is what I’m picturing:

What do you think?

Jul202010

July 20 TMW Post

Tweet: @msrib – i totally want to do this for our guest “book” for Miami: http://bit.ly/bsnMGS #wedding (even if i had one for my bat mitzvah…)

Image from BridalBuds

Seriously, how adorable is this idea?! I showed it to Steve and I think he liked it. Seeing as he’s the one that’ll be drawing the tree or whatever design we decide on, I’d hope so. I can’t decide if I want a small one – like 8″ x 8″ – for the handful of Vegas folks and a larger one – 16″ x 20″ or bigger – for the reception. Either way, we have this great huge half wall over the pass through in our kitchen where they would reside perfectly next to our ketubah. We’re looking at over 100 guests in Miami, so either we’ll make 2 of them, or just have a really small design. Another option is a very large mat framing a relatively smallish photo of us. My friend Abby did that and it was too cute. It was maybe 12×16 with a 5×7 totally off-center picture.

And the bat mitzvah thing? Yeah, I totally had a 2′ x 3′ humongous picture for everyone to sign. Mhmm… it’s crammed in a closet somewhere and was never hung up. Hopefully this one will be different.

Tweet: @msrib – just sent a bunch of inquiries for Miami vendors on @weddingwire… now the waiting for replies begins 🙂

I know that we have a quote from a photog whose work makes my little heart pitter patter, but I decided to do my due diligence (use this word all the time at work) and look around a bit, right? So yes, today I emailed about 15 photog’s in the Miami – Ft Lauderdale area this afternoon. Sure, I sent the same email to them all using @WeddingWire‘s fabu contact form, but whatev, it worked. So far, I’ve received 1 email even remotely within our budget. Her images are totally amazing also, but, well… something is lacking. I think it’s the extra’s that K includes.

Photog K is $1100 for 3 hours of photos and a DVD filled with all our edited images. It also includes extra print credit of $150 towards any prints that we print through her.

“Images are usually processed within a 4 to 6 week time period depending on the current backlog and busy season. Once your images are ready, you will be presented with a link to your password-protected online viewing gallery.

High Resolution Files are include a personal printing license. These files are full resolution with no watermarks. Low-resolution, watermarked files are also included for personal perusal of your wedding collection or for sharing images online.”

Photog A is $900 for 3 hours of photos and a DVD filled with all our edited images.

“The above prices include my photography services, editing the photos for you, and putting them onto DVDs for you. I take about 100-200 photos each hour. All the photos I take on your wedding day will be edited for color/brightness/contrast/sharpness/etc, so they are ready to be printed. Then I will send you in the mail all the photos on a DVD (3 copies actually) about 4-6 weeks after your wedding.

Since you are receiving a DVD of very high quality digital negatives of all your wedding photos I do not offer any online viewing galleries, print ordering services, or wedding album design.”

I’m fairly sure if it’s just between these 2 overly talented photogs, it’s kinda a no-brainer. Which would you choose?

Jul132010

July 13 TMW Post

Tweet: @msrib – is it possible to get a good photog for about $1200? in miami? yeah, i didn’t think so. i hate budgeting.

Tweet: @msrib – is music really needed? don’t need an MC or anything like that. just some background noise. not getting a dance floor. #budgeting

As seen in my last post, I am focusing on our Miami reception right now. I got a quote from one of my favorite photographers and it’s totally in our budget. She is local and I’ve coveted her pictures for a long time. It’s pretty much a given that she (or her hubby) will be doing our reception pictures and that makes me happy to no end! The best part is we’re not doing any traditional wedding stuff, not having a dance floor or emcee and are basically dubbing it as just a big party.

It’s been pretty much decided that we won’t have a band or DJ, just an iPod DJ for some background music. Although, the band at my cousin’s wedding yesterday was simply amazing! I got a bunch of videos of them singing and just… wow… they were awesome. This past weekend was the third wedding I attended while engaged. Sure, I’ve gathered ideas at them all, but this one was not full of ideas for me. Instead, I wandered around and gathered ideas on favorite shows in Vegas. What is your favorite?

Tweet: @msrib – aw crap. my test labels look terrible w/smeared text! apparently the clear labels hate me b/c they’re perfect on plain paper #wedding

I actually wanted to get started with our labels this past week, even though they aren’t getting sent until after our Vegas Vows. They’re all typed up in InDesign and I sent a PDF to myself at work to do a test run. Thank goodness I only printed a single sheet cuz on paper they were PERFECT… on the clear labels, not so much. The text was all super thick and bulky and totally unreadable. I was seriously bummed since I bought 100 labels for 85 envelopes. Meaning a very tight margin and I just lost 10 of them. *sigh* I’m totally bummed about it. Maybe the labels will have to be white since my envelopes are white. Grrrrr! I am annoyed, but whatever, they’ll still be pretty and embossed and… tossed in the trash almost immediately, right?

I printed them at work and think it’s an inkjet. Has anyone has good success with clear labels? What kind of printer did you use?

Jul062010

July 6 TMW Post

Tweet: @msrib – how many professional photographers do i have on my feed… debating if i want pro pics for our uber casual wedding reception

I’ve been seriously debating this issue. Our big DAY will have plenty of coverage as included in the package by Scenic Las Vegas Weddings. As will 2 days later thanks to the amazing photo shoot we won with the amazingly talented Emeric Photography

In a series of responses from photographer and non-photographer friends, I was convinced that yes, we DO need a pro photog at the reception. As one friend pointed out, the party, with all our family and friends, will look like drunken party pics especially compared to our pro pics for everything else. So now, I need to figure out a budget for the January shindig and see how much cash we have to spend on pictures. I have a friend that I would love so much to use, but I just don’t know if we can afford her. Luckily she said she has a friends and family discount. She is one of those truly amazing photog’s with crazy high ratings on WeddingWire. I am in love with her work. Le sigh.

Tweet: msrib – as open as i’ve been w/all my dress choices, i think i’m gonna keep the final selection a secret until the pics are posted. maybe #weddingwednesday

I did end up purchasing the gown last Monday. I was in and out of David’s Bridal in about 45 minutes with my newest dress in hand. They had the size and color I wanted to try on. To be fair, I did wander around to check on other floor length gowns and tried on one other. Little Miss Indecisive is no longer so! The dress is in my closet. My mom said she like it a lot better than the last all lace one. I don’t have any pictures of myself in it as I was having major undergarment issues. Plus the straps are a bit big so I need to have then fixed before I’ll post any pictures. I suppose in this case, third time really in a charm!

Tweet: msrib – Hello mini future Mr & Mrs Fletcher! #caketopper http://twitpic.com/21eohx

And I leave you with a bit of creativity… all I need to do is spray on the varnish and we’re done!

Jul042010

The Dress.. No I mean it this time!

What a bad blogger I am! It’s been nearly a month since I’ve last posted. In that time, I have completed a fair amount of wedding-related things. I made our cupcake tower, but decided against bringing it to Vegas so it doesn’t get ruined and will just use it at the Miami reception. Our cake topper is nearing completion and will post pics when it’s done.

Also, I swear I’m one of the most indecisive people on the planet when it comes to this stuff! I bought a dress super early in our engagment, then got tired of it and took a year to sell it. Then I found another one, super cute and sassy (it’s posted here somewhere). Then I got tired of IT and returned it. My vision of what I wanted to look like on my wedding day has changed like crazy. The first dress was a ballgown with pick-ups all over the skirt and a totally undecorated bodice except for a smattering of pearls along the top edge. My 2nd dress was knee length, all lace, and just plain fun. My last and hopefully final dress is floor length, all chiffon, spaghetti straps and beading under the bust. I am in love with it. No pictures of me in it (I wasn’t wearing the right undergarments!), but it’s this one:

Image from David’s Bridal

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