Easter Treat

I don't really do anything to celebrate Easter... it's one of those holidays that is more fun when spent with children. Plus I work.

There is one tradition I have, though, and I definitely need to share it with anyone who will listen. Toasted Peeps. Those silly little marshmallow candies shaped like bunnies and chicks? Definitely not my favorite Easter candy, (Peeps only rock when you are looking through the finalists of the Peeps Diorama contests... which is always fan-friggin-tastic entertainment, in my book) until my mom sent me this link last year.

Basically, toast them like you would a regular marshmallow over the fire (I use our gas stove, and it works fine), just be careful because they catch on fire a LOT quicker than regular marshmallows. The sugar coating of the Peeps caramelizes, into perfection that is. I'm telling you now, they are really sweet. I can only eat 1 or 2 at a time. Ok that's a lie, but still. At least try one, and let me know what you think.

Happy Easter!

I LOVE MAIL!!!

I am really starting to become addicted to getting packages in the mail. Half the things we buy for the wedding are bought online, so for a while, I was getting 2 or 3 packages a week from either ebay or etsy sellers. Well, today I got my Save the Dates, and holy crap am I excited! Since I am making our invitations myself to keep costs down, I didn't want to spend a ton on Save the Dates, but I also didn't want to just use word-of-mouth or email. So I did some shopping around, and finally decided to use one of our engagement photos as the front of a postcard.

Vistaprint is a website that does free printing (free being relative, seeing as you still pay for shipping and then they try to sell you all kinds of stuff before letting you checkout - also, this only works for quantities of 100, more than that and they start charging). Some reviews of the website helped me to understand that it wasn't necessarily the best quality, and people were either fine with that or upset. I decided I would be the type of person who is fine with it, since you get what you pay for, and in the long run it is JUST a Save the Date. It is not part of the decor, it won't be on display at the wedding, and as long as it still looks decent than mission accomplished.

Well, I couldn't be happier with the result. Especially for the grand total price of $28 for all 100 to be designed, printed, and shipped to me (Well, I designed them, so that was free, but whatever). I know it is a faux pas to discuss money, especially when it comes to how much you spent on something, but c'mon! $28??? I want to shout it from the rooftops, saving future brides the stress of having to budget for something that can be done so cheaply and still turn out great! Here is the front, which is all I am going to show you for now, mostly because I don't have an image of the back.

I designed it to look like an old French postcard on the back, and added a vintage treatment to the image on the front. Mind you, this is pre-cropping of the image, I just want to give you an idea. I'm not sending them out for a couple months still, but by then you will be able to look forward to getting fun things in the mail, too!

Engagement Photos

I realized that I never posted any of our engagement photos on here... though if you read my blog, chances are we are friends on facebook. Still, this blog is for all of my wedding stuff, so it seems like an obvious choice to keep everything together in one place. These are my top favorites (the same ones I posted on facebook). We took these at the Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park. None of us had been, but it was totally worth it and a lot of fun, even if it was drizzling half the day.

Our awesome photographer Dan Simmons works with us at the sports bar, which proved to be a really great idea. It means Tony and I have a closer work friend, and it makes it easier for our other coworkers to be a little more interactive when it comes to our wedding, which I love since they are the people around us day to day so why shouldn't they be part of it at least a little. It's also opened the door for a potential cake decorator, hair stylist... a lot of people have ideas about wanting to help!

Anyways, without further ado, I give you our engagement photos! Enjoy!

Invitation Dry Run

I decided awhile ago that I would be DIYing our invitations, so I tried a few different designs to see what worked/I liked. This is the winner.

It doesn't have the correct information on it, so ignore the text. And I think I am going to leave all four corners square. I tried a few different corner punches, but they end up looking like something I would have been really proud of in middle school. Nice but not very professional. So whadaya think?

Final Product

Here is a photo of the finished banner from a sneak peek of our engagement shoot, by the amazingly talented Dan Simmons!

Save the Date Banner

Yesterday Tony and I went to have our engagement photos taken. Normally I wouldn't feel like spending money on them, but 1) I wanted to see how this photographer's work looks because he usually works in still life, 2) I want Tony and I to be comfortable with him shooting us since he might be covering our wedding, and 3) I decided to use one of the photos as our Save the Date.

So I decided to make a banner with our wedding date on it, that way the front of the Save the Date is a photo of us with the date needing to be saved. And because I finally charged my camera and got a new laptop, I decided that a tutorial was in order.

First order of business was to decide the font for the numbers and print them out on regular computer paper. I also chose thick cream-colored cardstock for the flags, since the banner I decided to make were pennants strung on a ribbon, and a light green 5/8" ribbon.

I considered a few different ways to make this. I could trace the numbers onto a darker cardstock and then mount them to the pennants, or print them out directly onto the light cardstock. I decided to trace them out and paint them in. It was going to be meticulous no matter how I did it, but this way gave me more control over the final product. This meant cutting out the numbers, which was slow-going.

After I cut out the numbers, I cut the sheets of cardstock into the triangular shape. I had to play around a little bit with the actual shape so that the size and shape of the numbers looked right. I then positioned the number and traced it out. I would highly recommend securing the number down, I just held it and tried to keep it lined up. It worked fine and turned out right, but it was a huge pain.

Choosing a paint color was a weird process. I tried to decide what matched with the rest of the wedding stuff (the invites specifically), then I looked at colors that would look nice outside since we were going to take pictures at Golden Gate Park. I eventually realized I was over-thinking it and just picked a color that I had enough of.

Once I finished painting them (and redoing a couple that I messed up) and letting them dry, I glued them to the ribbon and voila! I don't have photos of the finished product (after hours of tracing and painting, I was DONE), so you will just have to wait until we get the engagement photos back, sorry!

Lazy Days

My days off have been few and far between. So when I do get a day off, I tend to catch up on sleep, and then spend the rest of my day zoned out in front of the tv in my pajamas. It's nice, and very necessary, but it's getting old. If I am barely ever off, then I don't want to waste that time by tuning out. We need to get out of the house and explore!


Maybe we should take a day trip out of the city. And have a picnic. While snuggling up in cozy blankets.

Now if only it wasn't going to rain for the next two weeks.