2 years!

You know that tradition where you save the top of your wedding cake and eat it on your first anniversary?  We sort of skipped it and failed last year!

I am not a big fan of wedding cake.  It is usually over priced, there is too much, and I don't think it is that tasty.  I do love cupcakes!!  (The whole reason I wanted to have an 18th birthday party in high school was to have this great cupcakes from a local baker.  Unfortunately, the bakery closed before the party, so no cupcakes :( )

So, for the wedding I wanted cupcakes!
We ordered 200 cupcakes for ~100 guests and I had recycled to-go boxes for the guests to take cupcakes home with them!  No leftovers for us to worry about! And then for our anniversary, I would get fresh ones from the bakery.

Here comes the fail - the morning of our 1st anniversary, on our way to my half marathon race, I realized I forgot to get cupcakes!  The bakery isn't open on the weekends:(  Training for a marathon, just getting back from Europe, starting a new job, and moving combined to distract me from ordering cupcakes!  Bad wife!


To redeem myself, we went to Whole Foods and bought what looked like 2 tasty cupcakes.  They were not:(

We used our China for the first time last year!

 1st anniversary cupcake - Failure!!

One year later and I wasn't going to fail!  Yesterday, I went to the bakery and got 2 beautiful cupcakes in flavors we had at the wedding! 

Fun!!

What anniversary traditions you follow?  I like the traditional anniversary wedding gift guide.  Last year G, got me personalized stationary (1st = paper) and this year I got G cotton t-shirts with the #2 of them (2nd = cotton)!

ELH

Wedding dress

I sold my wedding dress!
It was a bittersweet decision and moment. The dress was in a box, in a closet, in a room that I don't go into but to feed the cats and change the litter.
I know, if we have daughters they won't want to wear it. But still.

I did have my veil preserved in a separate box, and I have every expectation of convincing any daughters that they have to wear it. It is cathedral length with simple crystals spread out on the last 3feet or so. Very classic.

And there are my shoes - Kate Spade! I would have loved to wear my mom's shoes, but they were a 5 1/2! At the time they cost $12! Originally, I wanted to get cheap shoes and toss them after the wedding, but my mom convinced me to get a great pair of shoes that I would keep and wear again and possible pass on. I did wear them to dinner a few weeks ago with a Gap t-shirt and trouser jeans. I think Stacey and Clinton would have been proud! The shoes will be passed down.

We had talked about selling my dress and using the money to buy a piece of jewelry that I could pass on. A much better legacy! In March I did list it on PreOwed Wedding Dresses and had a few inquires, but no follow-ups until July. 1719 people looked at my listing!
I know, after I bought my dress, I checked out that website to see pictures of how other girls styled the dress and did the bustle, so I imagine some of the 1719 people were doing the same thing. Also, pictures of the dress on the designers webpage make it look almost a light gold color. Not the color at all in real life!

After ~20 back-and-forth emails deciding on a price and shipping, the dress was sold! I used Escrow.com for the payment. Great service and piece of mind. They are the middle man and hold your money, protecting both the buyer and seller. From what I read paypal mainly protects the buyer, which for a wedding dress, you don't want to be out the dress and the money!

Now I have to decide on a piece of timeless jewelry....
I am thinking of getting a ring made. A simple band with channel set garnets (matching the wedding colors)
and edge detailing to match a ring I had made with sapphires - stack them together to make a great right-hand ring. The sapphire ring was made to honor my grandmother after her passing. Her birth stone is sapphire and I used my "inheritance" money for it. I really like symbolic jewelry.
Any other ideas or suggestions....

Enjoy!
ELH

Wedding

Last weekend we went to a really lovely wedding. The church was covered in pictures of the bride and groom and their families. It was a wonderful event.
This is one of my favorite pictures...love the shoes and the colorful flowers!Enjoy!
ELH

Save that Date...

From Earthly Affair - Rustle design that we used for our wedding.

Our wedding dance card is starting to fill up....
so if you want us to celebrate with you, lets us know soon!!
We have 2 weddings in May in GA and NV and 1 in September in the South of France!
I am excited about all of them, but the France one should be awesome.

We have been averaging ~3 weddings a year and have been to many different places -
Albuquerque, NM
Charlotte, MI
Atlanta, GA a few times!
Young Harris, GA
Dahlonega, GA
Toronto, ON
Invited to one in Nebraska
Boulder, CO
Cape Cod, MA
Washington, DC
Invited to one in Annapolis, MD
Palm Springs, CA

Some of these weddings, I order straight off the registry. Others, I do go rogue, but thoughtful rogue - stationary with the couples name or monogram in their wedding colors. My favorite stationary place is Stationary Studio. I also like, but haven't ordered from Paper Culture.
And of course I have to give a shout out to Earthly Affair - they did our wedding invitations and now have expanded their product line to include many other paper products. Love it!
At the Dahlonega wedding, I got them their registered french press and then added amazing coffee travel mugs that keep your coffee HOT for hours. Just a little rogue, but keeping with the coffee theme.
My other favorite is from Etsy - Recreart - bride and groom cake topper or picture holder made out of license plates! You can never have enough pictures in your house.

What is your favorite or go-to wedding gift idea??
-ELH

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We made it on a website!

I am not one of those crazy brides that wanted her wedding splashed all over the interwebs, but I secretly wanted to be make the blog of each of our vendors!

We made it! Well actually pictures of my best friend's 10month old son and GH's cousin's daughter, but they are from our wedding!!

Probably a little too excited :)

We hired Bring the Kids! to baby sit during the reception. The owner Marissa was wonderful to work with. She helped create a great plan that stayed within our budget. I highly recommend her company and will use her services for future events.

Enjoy!

ELH

Wedding update

We have been making lots of progress on the wedding:

Venue booked (that was done awhile ago)

Caterer tasting done (mini sliders for the cocktail hr!!)

Florist found and flowers selected.

Cupcakes selected (no wedding cake, 6 flavors - old fashion yellow, quatro leches, cannoli, peanut butter mousse, ancho chocolate mousse, and dark chocolate mousse)Lego cake topers (yes we are nerdy and I love lego men - as a child we had legos, but my dad would never buy the sets with the men, so now I have my own lego wedding people! - hope the cats don't make them their toys!)

My dress, the bridemaid's dresses, and tuxes are done!
My shoes purchased (reception shoes - hint - I was a converse tween and Ed Hardy makes shoes...)

Invitation are here (plus other paper products for the wedding) from EarthlyAffair - We are keeping the wedding "green" and I really wanted beautiful fall themed recycled paper invitation. The owner Jennifer, was wonderful to work with and I highly recommend her company. She has also been a great resource for other earth friendly ideas for the wedding. She even sent me two tubes of organic chapstick as a thank-you. Another plus, is that her company is located in Georgia, so we helped stimulate the local economy!!

Additionally, all the paper products for the wedding are 100% recycled paper. We are using Nashville Wraps Eco-Friendly Packaging for the cupcake to-go boxes and guest bags.

For the more furgal person, Vistaprint has a new line of eco-friendly paper products.

Keeping the wedding "green"has been easier than I thought!

In keeping with the "green" idea, there will not be programs and we ask all our guests to please recycle any of the wedding paper products after the wedding.

-Enjoy!
ELT

random thoughts

Just some random thoughts ...

I think I need to join the 20th century and get a smart phone! Missed my second invite to happy hour...

"The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton is a fantastic book. One of my top favorites and highly recommended!!

Find a wedding florist is very difficult. Probably should have starting looking for a florist when I booked the venue.

Love JCrew bridesmaid dresses!! We even got them on sale (less then $100!!), because the color is out of season.

Found a day-of-coordinator! I think she will be wonderful.

Love my sample invitation from Earthly Affair. 100% recycled paper and they carbon offset their shipping! Yeah for a green wedding.
www.earthlyaffair.com

I hope this weekends snow doesn't affect air travel...

-ELT

update

Exciting things have been happening, but I have been tired (not sleeping well) so I have been slow on updating the blog.
We set a wedding date -> 10-2-10 (nerdy date!) at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, GA. The venue comes with it's own caterer, so I am nearly done with planning :) HaHaHa.
The Knot page is coming soon...

At work, my building/division had a chili and brownie cookoff and I won for Most Unique Brownie Ingredient! I made NM red chile brownies. Add 1/4 cup of dried, crushed red chile to your favorite brownie mix and sprinkle some red chile of top after putting the mix in the pan.
If you are really daring, replace the water with green chile juice.
"green chile juice" = true New Mexican have frozen green chile in their freezer and when it defrosts you have green chile juice.

T-minus 8 days until the big 3-0!

Enjoy!
ELT

ebooks

I did get a Kindle....and something sparkly and shiny!
GAH and I are getting married!!!!

The location and date have not been set, check back later for updates on the wedding planning. I will post a link to our The Knot page as soon as I create one:)

On to books - Summer books I read/listened to.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery - Fantastic book!!
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon (Pulitzer Prize 2001) - One of the better PP books
The Reivers - William Faulkner (Pulitzer Prize 1963) - audiobook
Breaking Her Fall - Stephen Goodwin
Comfort Food - Kate Jacobs - Loved it! She is a great author. Plus the main character's name was Gus.
Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult
Julie & Julia - Julie Powell - The movie is good.
Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout (Pulitzer Prize 2009) - audiobook
Alice Adams - Booth Tarkington (Pulitzer Prize 1922) - audiobook
Chasing Harry Winston - Lauren Weisberger - Her other two books are much better.

Enjoy!
The future Dr. H.