My wedding shower was just a few weeks before our wedding, during a whirlwind of activity. It was the day after my hair and makeup trial, which was coolio because it meant I could leave my eyelash extensions in. Hey-oh!

My mom and matron-of-honor planned the shower, which was at a country club. This just so happened to be the country club where I waitressed during high school, where I had served many a bitchy bride. It was awesome to be back in my old workplace – I really loved working there, actually – but I did feel a little guilty ordering mimosas from my former coworkers. Oh, well.

I so wish I had some photos of the tables and centerpieces! They were so, so beautiful. Luckily, I do have some shots of the dahlia cupcakes that MOH Alisa got!

Aren’t they gorgeous? They were delicious, too.

Another thing that was gorgeous was my rented dress, which I mentioned in a post back in March. It was Tibi from Rent the Runway, and I LOVED it.

(Loved my aunt Becca’s dress, too!)

So anywho, you all know how a shower goes. You show up, you freak out over seeing friends and family that you haven’t seen in ages …

Long-lost college buddies and long-distance cousins!

You hopefully get to wear or carry something that makes you feel special, like this awesome bride wine glass that MOH Alisa gave me as an engagement gift …

A few toasts are made, in this case by my future-mother-in-law, who was also wearing a beautiful dress …

And then it’s gift time! That’s the part where you try to sit like a lady while opening presents so that nobody can see your underpants.

One of my stand-out gifts was this incredible Wedding Day Survival Kit from MOH Alisa. It had everything. She seriously went nuts with this thing, and it was SO awesome to have on the wedding day!

At one point, my cousin and Mr. Panther showed up, and it was like a celebrity had entered the building. I mean, there are even paparazzi shots.

Don’t they look pleased to have just entered a room full of excited women?

According the timeline of photos (which were taken by MOH Alisa’s sister Stefanie, by the way!), something really funny happened at this point.

My cousins Rachel and Shira, plus MOH Alisa and cousin/bridesmaid Leah, formed a pretty efficient assembly line. When we finished with the gifts, I remember saying to MOH Alisa, “I should say something now, right?” But I’m awkward, so of course when I stood up, I made this face while trying to figure out how to get everyone’s attention.

Real cute.

Wedding showers are kind of a crazy experience. Depending on the size, it’s almost like a dress rehearsal for the wedding – everyone stares at you, you greet some people that you’ve never met before but are already immensely grateful to, and you try not to fall on your face. Pretty good stuff! My mom and MOH Alisa did an amazing job.

I guess I was kind of self-conscious about wearing such a tight dress after eating so much food. I’m holding my stomach like that in a bunch of photos. Whoopsies.

Oh, the favors! I didn’t get any pictures of them at the event, but luckily, I brought one home to take photos of.

Sadly, my kitty cat got to it before I did, and left a few bite marks in the tag.

I thought having Boston Baked Beans to represent the place where Mr. Panther and I spent the first three years of our relationship was so perfect!

By the way, my bow bouquet came out frigging awesome. It was like people color-coordinated on purpose!

So, that’s my bridal shower recap. It only took me seven months to post it. Shame on me! I have a few more pre-wedding events to recap, and then we’ll get the juicy stuff: the wedding recaps!

Have you ever thrown a bridal shower? If you’ve been the guest of honor at one, were you as awkward as I was?

When you’ve got a hard, set goal to work toward, and when society deems that goal The Biggest Day of Your Life, it’s easy to put it first. When I was planning my wedding, my priorities were simple: 1) Wedding planning stuff. 2) Exercising so that I would look decent on The Biggest Day of My Life. And 3) Work. I knew I was going to need my paycheck to cover the wedding expenses, after all.

Spending time with friends is incredibly important while you’re in the middle of the planning process, because they’re your support system. But when you have to ditch them to go to a cake tasting, they understand. And your boss understands when you’re spacing out at your desk while gazing at photos of peonies. Because it’s your wedding. It’s important, and then it’s over. Then you get back to business.

I’m sure I’m not alone in assuming that after the wedding, my life would be infinitely easier. I thought I would be able to just let go and finally relax in the new life I’d created with my husband. And while I do love my new life (which isn’t actually so different from my old life), still – I was so wrong. So, so wrong.

See, as it turns out, when you go from a lifestyle of eating consciously and exercising daily to one of constantly demolishing pizzas and sitting on the couch, your body doesn’t just forgive you and let it slide because you “deserve a break.”

"Oh, no. My plate is empty. Again."

In fact, you wake up four months later and realize that your body is punishing you. You’ve gained 18 pounds, and your metabolism has slowed down to keep you at that new weight, so you’re going to have to work infinitely harder to get rid of it.

Meanwhile, the things that were important to you pre-wedding haven’t gone away. Your friends were so patient while you were being the crazy bride lady, so after the wedding, you want to be the best friend you can be. You want to entertain them with all your fancy new wedding dinnerware and cookware and serveware, and while you’re at it, you want to keep all your new stuff looking nice in your new Married Person Grown-Up Home. Your boss was so nice to let you slack off for 15 months straight, so you want to show him or her that it was worth the wait, because you’re the best employee EVER.

And if you’re like me, maybe you learned something new about yourself during the wedding planning process. Maybe you revived a passion for blogging, or discovered a love of DIY, or maybe, like so many of my fellow Bees, you realized that you just love weddings and you want to go into the event planning business. Whatever it is, that needs to fit into your priorities, too.

Balancing everything (while writing 178 thank you cards is), to say the least, difficult. Maybe more difficult than wedding planning. Because there’s no end in sight. There’s no hard, set goal to work for. You’re just trying to find a lifestyle that works for you, and rewards you, and keeps you close to the people you love. They were so patient while you were wedding planning, after all.

Has anyone else struggled with finding a way to get to the place you’re going to be in for the rest of your life?

Stephanie + Bradley | The Highlight Film from Vantage Point Films on Vimeo.

I LOVE it! (Except for hearing my own voice. That’s awkward, because I kind of hate my own voice. But that’s the fault of my voice, not of the video.) I love the music our videographer picked, and I love the footage he picked, and I just love, love, love it. How adorable was my friend Bianca when she caught the bouquet?!

Wahoo! What do you guys think? I’m so excited to see the long version when the DVD arrives!

Now, as you may have seen in my title, this post is about the “hot mess” portion of the evening, and since I’ve been gone so long, I’m a little afraid that you newer ladies who don’t know me very well might see pictures of me licking a street sign and think less of me. So I’m going to throw in a photo from our wedding to kick things off. It’s one of a few teasers we got from our photographers. We are DYING to see the rest!

Photo by Raw Photo Design

Crazy-amazing, right?! God, I love that sky.

All right, now. Back to the hot mess.

So when I left off, I was about to open PRESENTS! I love presents. And as I mentioned, my four bridesmaids had each picked a character from Sex and the City to theme their gift after. First up was Carrie/BM Leah, who got me adorable boy shorts, just like the kind Carrie used to wear while pondering life’s questions at her laptop.

Next was Charlotte/BM Jess, who wrapped up an adorable Anthropologie apron and matching oven mitt with color-coordinated lacy underwear.

That was followed by Samantha/MOH Alisa, and of course, the gift was racy hot pink lingerie. Would you expect anything less?

Miranda/BM Mary Alice was last, and she really stepped outside the box. There were cat-shaped measuring cups to represent Miranda’s love of her cat, Fatty:

There was chocolate cake mix, from the episode when Miranda is sexually frustrated and can’t stop eating cake, and a bottle of dish soap to pour over it when enough is enough. That’s from one of my favorite moments in the entire series. “I know you’re probably busy having mind-blowing sex, but I feel you need to know that your good friend Miranda Hobbes has just taken a piece of cake out of the garbage and eaten it. You’ll probably need this information when you check me into the Betty Crocker Clinic.”

And of course, a lovely ring of condoms (and tea packets), just like the kind Magda arranged for Miranda in her nightstand:

These girls crack me up. After presents were done, we headed out to our first stop, grabbing a quick group shot in front of the hotel. By this time, our friend Sarah had joined us, too.

(Funny story about this photo: Upon seeing it, BM Leah (all the way on the right) exclaimed, “Wait, you guys all did the knee pop! Why didn’t I get the memo about the knee pop?!”)

(In other news, man, MOH Alisa and I are such tramps! Look at the other girls with their classy almost-knee-length skirts, and us in our little teeny dresses. At one point, I drunkenly told MOH Alisa that she looked like a “very, very, very, very expensive hooker.” The other girls were appalled. MOH Alisa took it as a compliment, just the way I meant it.)

I was BEYOND thrilled to find out that our first stop was my favorite restaurant in Atlanta, Fritti. It’s very tough to find good pizza down South (sorry, Southerners: it’s the truth), but this stuff is DELICIOUS. Yum yum yum. I was very happy.

Unfortunately, I was feeling frisky, and made the mistake of ordering some made-up cocktail that ended up being kind of yucky. I think it was Absolut Citron and grapefruit juice or something. Then someone bought me a shot of Patron, which I usually LOVE, but I was so yucked out from my cocktail that I have to admit I didn’t take it like a champ.

Check out my pizza, though! Doesn’t it look amazing?!

After gulping down my shot and my cocktail, plus a couple more, I was ready for the next stop. But of course, we had to stop and take more goofy photos first. This is where things started getting sloppy. They started off innocent enough:

And very quickly slid downhill:

EW. I think my tongue is actually touching the metal.

You’ll notice that in many of these pictures, I’m clutching a pink piece of paper. This was The List.

I am ashamed to say that I failed miserably at completing these tasks. But more on that later. After drinking something called a “Moscow Mule” at a bar across the street, we hopped in a cab.

Our next (and final) stop was Opera, an Atlanta club that doesn’t usually make an appearance on our weekend schedules. I loved that we did something different! On this particular evening, we were looking to go a little crazy, and well, Opera is the place to do it.

Before we started dancing, I attempted to knock out a few items on The List. This guy was writing down marriage advice on a napkin:

Next, my lovely bridesmaids handed me my complimentary champagne AND a fresh cocktail. BM Leah also bought me a shot, but I had no hands, so I tried to pass it back to her, and ended up pouring it all over her dress. Sigh. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. She was a good sport about it though. This guy was a good sport, too, and let me wear his top hat (not pictured):

(Beard added to protect the innocent.)

Somehow, Sarah, MOH Alisa, BM Mary Alice and I all ended up on the pole-dancing platform. Oh, geez. As you can see, though, we were mostly just standing up there giggling.

Later, as we were dancing, in the back of my mind, I was still thinking about The List. I knew I needed a guy to give me a piggyback ride, and I noticed a man giving me The Eye from the bar. In my liquor-addled mind, I remember thinking to myself, “That guy looks like he wants to give me a piggyback ride.” So, I went over and asked him. He was happy to oblige.

I looked at the photos the next morning and realized he looked like the biggest creepster ever to walk the planet, but oh well. All’s well that ends well.

Some time after my impromptu piggyback, we got kicked out of the club (don’t ask) and headed back to the hotel. We played Sex and the City trivia and pigged out on Smartfood, then MOH Alisa removed my false eyelashes for me (I screamed like a stuck pig) and we all fell asleep. This picture pretty much sums up the night:

As does this shot of the demolition site hotel room the next morning:

Oh, what a night. We dragged ourselves out of the hotel room, where I discovered that I had lost my valet parking slip, then somehow made it back to my house. In a display of true wonderfulness, Mr. Panther went out to Waffle House and got us some greasy hangover food, and we watched the Sex and the City movie while we ate and recovered.

A couple days later, MOH Alisa and I happened to visit the Opera website and found out that we had apparently posed for the official photographer. These are some real gems, huh?

Best bachelorette party ever!

Did any of you have a task list at your bachelorette party? How’d you do?

In case you hadn’t guessed, Mr. Panther and I are back from our honeymoon and enjoying our newlywed bliss. Actually, I’m enjoying our newlywed bliss with our dog and two cats, and Mr. Panther is on a business trip, but that’s OK. We took tons of photos in St. Lucia, but I think before I get to the honeymoon, I should go back to where I left off in my blogging ventures! And that brings us to my magical, wonderful bachelorette party. Can anyone guess what the theme was?

No? OK, why don’t I start at the beginning?

Over Memorial Day weekend, MOH Alisa and BM Leah flew to Atlanta (from Connecticut and Texas, respectively) to help local BMs Mary Alice and Jess put this thang together. We started off Saturday with the “bridesmaid luncheon,” which really just consisted of me taking the girls to a cute restaurant called Sun in my Belly. We ate a lot of local cheese and drank many mimosas.

BM Jess even marked the momentous occasion by making a sculpture out of the top of a champagne bottle! She’s very talented.

After lunch, BMs Jess, Mary Alice and Leah went off to a secret location to start setting up. MOH Alisa was assigned to Panther Duty, and kept me busy at my place. At this point, I still had no idea what we were doing or where we were going. I just knew that there was a theme, and I couldn’t wait to find out what it was.

Finally, it was time to grab my overnight bag and my rented dress (the Robert Rodriguez Make You Blush dress from Rent the Runway), and we were off to the secret location. It turned out to be an amazing hotel in Midtown, and I was jumping out of my skin waiting to see what was happening in the hotel room.

When I walked in, I was greeted with this:

IT WAS A SEX AND THE CITY THEME!

I was PUMPED. Like so many women, I’m a big fan … but maybe a little bigger than most. There’s one main reason for this. During the five months when Mr. Panther and I were broken up, Carrie Bradshaw became my best friend. Now, don’t get me wrong—I had fantastic real life friends who were very supportive during that time. But every night, I couldn’t fall asleep until I’d watched a few episodes and drowned my sorrows in Carrie’s quips, struggles and successes. Is that sad? OK, I know it probably is, but I was very attached. I had the giant series box set, and I watched the whole series in order … twice. I’ve since watched it many more times, but I’ll never forget the comfort I got from Sex and the City during one of the toughest times in my life.

… So, suffice it to say I was really, really happy with this theme choice.

I wish I had more photos to show off the amazing job my girls did with the decorations. The entire hotel room was draped in garland made from Sex and the City images, including alternating print-outs of the Absolut Hunk. Everything was hot pink, black and zebra print.

The girls had found a list of Carrie’s “I couldn’t help but wonder” questions online and written them out on pink cards, which were scattered all over the place. And even the cupcakes got in on the zebra print!

The two bedrooms in the suite were labeled with the names of Sex and the City newlyweds from the movies.

Each of my four bridesmaids had picked one of the Sex and the City women and got me gifts based on their character. SO cool.

Upon closer inspection, I found that MOH Alisa (who is an amazing artist) had handwritten my wedding font (Memoriam Pro) on the gift bags. Are you kidding?! No detail was missed by these girls. Seriously.

Anywho, before it was present opening time, we all wanted to get dressed and ready. We all poured our Cosmos and Absolut Hunks and headed for the bathroom. Have I mentioned that MOH Alisa just so happens to be a professional makeup artist (in addition to regular artist)?

Chyeahhh! She helped the rest of us get our makeup on and even endowed us with some awesome false lashes. The finishing touch to my outfit was the Carrie veil that the girls had handmade for me. Sorry for the blurry photo, but I think you can get a sense of how amazing this thing was.

Photo by Wire Image via TV Crunch

Eh? Eh? Perfection. And finally, we were ready to pose for some pictures and open some presents!

Just have to put it out there … I loved my dress, but I didn’t love how it looked on me. I had rented two dresses for the occasion, and neither one looked great, but this one at least looked better than the other, so I wore it. When it comes to renting dresses, you win some, you lose some! Lesson learned.

This post is getting mighty long, so I think perhaps I should save the rest for another one. Next up: awesome gifts, lots of drinking and perhaps a little bit of pole dancing.

Did your bachelorette party have a theme? What was it?

We got married!

It was amazing. It was full of warm, smushy, happy love; the weather was absolutely perfect; and our friends danced their pants off until the very end of the night. And the best part? At the end of it, Mr. Panther was my husband!

I wanted to write my last post as a Miss after the rehearsal dinner, but I was super bummed to find that our venue (where I was staying with my bridesmaids) didn’t have Wi-Fi. There wasn’t even enough cell service to write a quick post on my phone. But it’s probably better that I didn’t, because it would have been really negative. Mr. Panther and I have barely slept for the entire month of June, and by the time our rehearsal rolled around, we were both exhausted and sick. People asked me all week, “Are you nervous? Are you nervous yet?” and I kept replying, “Nope. Too stressed.” I couldn’t feel anything but stress and anxiety, and it damn near ruined my wedding day. Ladies, don’t do this to yourself! You know how certain details can’t be completed until you have the final head count? Cut as many of those as you possibly can, and if you can’t cut them, make them simple. It’s just. not. worth. it.

Luckily, when I woke up on Saturday, I felt much better. I was ready. The gorgeous sunshine pouring in my window certainly didn’t hurt! As the day went on, I found out something interesting. I had spent the past year and a half worrying about giving explicit directions to my groom, wedding party, family members, vendors and guests so that everything would go exactly according to plan. As we got closer to the wedding, I ran out of time for detailed timelines and instruction lists and signage. But you know what? They all figured it out, and the awesomeness of the people around me just blew my mind. It’s so tempting to become a control freak as a bride, but my life would have been much easier if I’d had more faith in everyone.

Our wedding party was incredible. Mr. Panther’s groomsmen cleaned up SO nice, and were so helpful all weekend long. My bridesmaids … I don’t even know what to say. They packed our welcome bags late into the night. They talked me through all my fears and worries. They even mediated a vicious fight between my mom and aunt on my behalf. But best of all, they constantly told Mr. Panther and me how much they love us and how happy they were for us. That meant more to me than anything. They are honestly the most wonderful people in the world, and I am so, so, so lucky.

I can’t wait to show you all pictures of the whole day. Until then, I still have a few things that I didn’t have time to blog about before the wedding. I’ll be hanging around until my pro pics are back, don’t you worry! But first, Mr. Panther and I are off on our honeymoon to St. Lucia. We can’t wait to sleep late, float around in the pool, and eat a thousand turkey club sandwiches. (Do they have turkey club sandwiches at Sandals? Because that’s what we plan to live off of.)

Talk to y’all super-soon! Hope you’re having a FANTASTIC Fourth of July!

Back in my early ‘Bee days (eight months ago! OMG!), I wrote a post about my unwillingness to keep things simple. I said, “This is my wedding. If I’m going to go overboard, isn’t this the perfect opportunity?”

I kept up this mindset for a long, long time, but as the wedding creeps closer (11 days! OMG!), I find myself desperately trying to simplify, simplify, simplify. Instead of tissue paper flower escort cards, I’m making single layer tented cards. Instead of making bird-on-a-wineglass place cards, I’m forgoing place cards entirely. Instead of hand-stamping and matting all our thank you cards, I created a design that matched our invitations and had them printed out. It all makes me sad, especially the bird place cards, but there’s nothing to be done. I just ran out of time. And I don’t want to kill myself over something that, in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t really matter. Sigh.

There have been many casualties in my mission to annihilate unnecessary details. Sadly, one of them just might be my beautiful, sparkly, wonderful J. Crew bracelet.

This is only partly to avoid extra work. It’s also part of my desire to Just Have Fun at the wedding. First of all, the bracelet is too big. You can’t tell in the photo above, because I’m holding my arm funny, but it falls down around my hand when I put my arm down at my side. It’s delicate, and every time I touch it, I’m afraid something’s going to fall off of it. It’s heavy and it’s bulky. I love it, but I just don’t know if I can eat, drink and dance comfortably while wearing it. I had every intention of bringing it to a jewelry shop to get it shortened, but I just never got around to it, and I worry that it probably wouldn’t survive the adjustment, anyway.

There’s another story, too. Shortly after I bought my big-ass bracelet, I spotted this one, and fell in love.

Image via J. Crew

But I already had a bracelet, so I forced myself to walk away, and eventually, it sold out. As soon as it sold out, I regretted not buying it.

Months later, J. Crew released a mini version, but it just wasn’t the same.

Image via J. Crew

Again, I stepped away and moved on. But today, I was at the mall scooping up some last-minute things for the honeymoon, and I swung into J. Crew for a couple pairs of shorts. I couldn’t resist taking a quick peek at the jewelry case, and … well … the original was back.

Image via J. Crew

It’s just slightly different from the first one I saw. Dare I say, a bit more rosey? Rosey gold? Like my wedding bands? I took it as a sign. I bought it.

By the way, I took these photos with the waterproof digital camera I bought for our honeymoon. Not bad for a point-and-shoot, right? Plus, it’s pink! Anyway, back to the bracelet.

I really love it. It’s so much more comfortable and sturdy-feeling, but still bold and different. Plus, it looks awesome with my wedding tattoo, which I had calligraphized (yeah, that’s a word, ’cause I said so) by the amazing Fran at Little Flower Calligraphy last year. It’s from a poem by Daniel Ladinsky, which we’re also using on our ceremony programs.

Anyway. I’m thinking I can still wear my big chunky bracelet for the pictures and the ceremony, but I haven’t decided yet. I got it on mega-sale right before it sold out everywhere, so it’s not the WORST thing in the world if I don’t wear it. I would definitely find another occasion for it!

In actuality, I guess switching out my jewelry at the very last minute isn’t exactly “keeping things simple.” But for the record, I also said in my anti-simplicity post, “I think my ‘bridal styling’ will be among the last few things I choose, simply because when it comes to my looks, I change my mind a lot.” I may be crazy and indecisive, but you can’t say I don’t know myself well!

Anyone else second-guess your wedding day look at the eleventh hour? Anyone else try to cut down on extra worry at the expense of things you’d really looked forward to? Anyone else less than two weeks away from their wedding and TOTALLY LOSING IT?!

Makeup was easy. The word “fresh,” “classic” or “timeless” have never described me. I wanted bold, dramatic and smoky, like this:

Photo via Powderroom.com.au

And this:

Photo by Aaron Young / via Inspired by This

As for hair, I decided last year, while trying different styles with my dress, that I wanted a low side chignon, and it was easy-peasy to find examples. I loved this look on Nicole Kidman:

Photo via Primped.com.au / Getty

And of course, on the absolutely stunning Mrs. Cowboy Boot:

Photo by Tec Petaja / via Weddingbee

Hey, look at that! I just noticed that Mrs. Cowboy Boot and Nicole Kidman have the same hair color! Funny.

Anywho, the night before the trial, my mom and I got airbrush spray tans. I’ve always felt better about myself with a little color in my complexion, but ever since I discovered the joys of sun spots, I’ve hidden from actual UV rays. I used to get booth spray tans all the time in college, but this was my first airbrush, and I LOVED it! If you’re in the central Connecticut area, I highly recommend Milano Salon and Day Spa. They’re the bomb. Dot com.

The next day, my mom, Mr. Panther’s mom and my aunt joined me at Dana Bartone‘s salon, cameras and inspiration photos in hand. I also brought my box o’hair: my Raquel Welch 10-piece clip-in hair extensions.

Dana started with my makeup, because I wasn’t wearing any and I felt like a beast. Then, we moved onto taming the ratty nest that was my un-straightened hair.

Yikes! Frightening, isn’t it?

When the extensions were in and everything was pinned up, it looked like this:

I think in that photo, I’m saying, “It looks awesome, but something’s not right.” I finally concluded that it needed to be lower and more “bun-like.” Dana was great with my vague request, and adjusted it for me. Don’t be fooled by the face I’m making in this picture. I was really, really happy!

See?

One more shot of the hair:

At that point, we decided to throw in the veil to make sure it would work out. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but the veil was my mom’s. In her wedding, she wore it attached to a wreath that went on top of her head. I wasn’t really down with the fairy princess look, so we had it put on a comb. I have to admit, despite my initial misgivings about a big, long, traditional veil, it DOES look super bridal:

(I am very, very sorry for the inappropriate amount of leg I’m showing in that photo. Eek!

Look how long it is! This baby definitely won’t last past the ceremony.

Meanwhile, my mom got a soft updo with some braids worked in (though you can’t see them in these pictures):

My aunt got a rolly-looking curly updo:

And Mr. Panther’s mom rocked some pretty curls, too:

After the trial, we put our styles to the ultimate test: a boat ride down the Connecticut River. I thought it was kind of a crazy idea after spending a bunch of money to get my hair and makeup done, but Mr. Panther was DYING to waterski, and I am a fantastic fiancé, so I caved. We snapped one last group photo before saying farewell to our ‘dos:

From left to right: My aunt, Mr. Panther’s mom, me, my mom.

I had to let Macy out to enjoy the Connecticut grass a little bit before we left, too. Have you guys ever compared northern grass to southern grass? It’s SO MUCH BETTER. So soft and cool and GREEN. I miss it.

Smile, Macy!

I know. My puppaloo is so frigging cute.

So, how did my hair and makeup hold up after the boat ride? Um … OK, I guess. Mr. Panther held onto it for me so I wouldn’t lose my extensions.

But really, it never stood a chance.

At least Mr. Panther got to go waterskiing.

Did any of you totally destroy your hair and makeup after your trial, or did you go somewhere nice and peaceful to enjoy it as long as possible?

As you may recall from my last table number post, I had some trouble with a bunch of frames that had the glass GLUED in. We ended up just cutting the fabric as close as we could and then gluing it to the glass itself (instead of wrapping it around and taping it in back). This means we won’t be able to re-use the frames after the wedding, but you know? C’est la vie, man! We have 18 days left until the wedding. No time to care about these things.

Anywho, here’s the rest of them! I made 26 tables just in case, even though we probably won’t need more than 23. Better safe than sorry, eh?

Mr. Panther helped with the gluing. Thank goodness. I’m the sloppiest of the sloppy, so if I had done that part, they would look much different.

What do you guys think? Do they look like my original inspiration photo?

I started thinking about our invitations almost immediately after we got engaged. I went through a bunch of bad designs, then I went through a bunch more, and finally, I picked one and just got the damn things printed. I hemmed and hawed over what kind of belly band to use. I spent countless hours bent over my Cricut working on envelope liners. I wore down the blade of my paper trimmer to cut out backing sheets. I rolled cards through my Xyron until I could roll no more. And finally, there they were.

So, without further ado (and without much narration, because I am EXHAUSTED), here are our invitations. I’ll start with what the guests saw when they received them. Mr. Panther and I chose the Hawaiian Rain Forest stamps, because they were colorful and different. OK, and because we were both rain forest nerds in elementary school. Plus, um, hello! Panthers live in the jungle! (Right? Do they?)

We didn’t realize until we got them that they were HUGE, but it was too late then! The envelopes above are of last-minute invitations, so they don’t have the real calligraphy on them. Just my chicken scratch in a gold pen. So, here’s another envelope with fancy calligraphy! I don’t even have to blur out the address, because we moved! Please excuse the paint all over my nails. It’s from our table numbers, which are DONE! Post coming up next!

The back, as I already showed you back in February, had our addresses letterpressed on the flap (by the amazing Twin Ravens Press). I forgot to take a new picture of this, but you can see it in the old post if you’re really curious!

When our guests opened the envelopes (very, very carefully), they saw my metallic envelope liners. Just like the ones in our save the dates, I printed these on Stardream text-weight metallic paper. There were three differences: They were lavender, instead of aqua; they had a cute little decal thingy with our names and wedding date; and I used a LASER PRINTER! This made a HUGE difference. It looked much crisper, and it didn’t smudge. Whew. Lesson learned.

Here’s a better image of the liner, from closer up.

When our guests took the whole chunk of paper out of the envelope, it looked like this:

It took us a long time to find that lavender ribbon. I tried satin, grosgrain, wire, everything. They were all too thick and didn’t let me close the envelopes. Finally, I saw a post on Elizabeth Anne Designs that featured what seemed to be the perfect ribbon in the perfect knot. I commented and begged for a recommendation, and Jana directed me to Etsy seller CCustomCreations. The ribbon is gorgeous and has the perfect sheen, but it’s SO thin! (In a good way, not in a cheap way.) Hooray! Wedding blogs to the rescue, as always!

Anyhoodle, hopefully at this point, our guests turned our invitation sideways and noted the lovely aqua edge painting. Then they said, “Oooooooh.”

The first piece that came off the stack would be our website cards. Like many a bee before me, I went with Mini Moo cards, and I’m so glad I did. They’re adorable!

Next up was the RSVP card, printed by catprint.com on their heavy cotton paper. Guests who were invited with a date (or their whole family) got this card:

And because I’m a grammar freak, guests who were invited solo got this card:

Yes, I filled in the second blank in “__ of __ is excited to attend.” Maybe it was overkill, but it worked! Nobody has added unwanted guests to their cards … yet.

Our RSVP envelopes were letterpressed by Twin Ravens Press, and they looked AWESOME. I have to use Kristin’s photo here, because she’s way better at photographing letterpress than I am. She probably gets a fair amount of practice, I suppose!

Photo by Twin Ravens Press

Our directions card was nothing fancy, but hopefully it’ll do the trick. It was printed by Catprint. This photo is by me.

And then, of course, there was the invitation. The beautiful, beautiful invitation.

I’m trying to toot my own horn here. It’s not the design that makes it so beautiful. It’s that gorgeous letterpress on that wonderfully cushy duplex-weight paper, and the shimmery edge painting, and the awesome bonus that Kristin printed the peony pattern on the BACK! Let’s go back to Kristin’s photos.

Photo by Twin Ravens Press

Get a little closer. The imprint is amazing.

Photos by Twin Ravens Press

I just can’t say enough good things about Twin Ravens Press. In addition to letterpressing (is that a word?) our outer envelope flaps, RSVP envelope fronts and both sides of our invitation, she also did the edge painting, and it came out SO. GOOD. She is crazy amazing. I wish I weren’t so tired so I could use better words to describe her amazingness.

Aaaand, here’s the entire suite. (This is my photo again.)

What do you guys think? Pretty, right? I’m so glad I didn’t go full-on DIY with these like I did for the save the dates. Don’t get me wrong. I loved our save the dates. But I saved a TON of time by leaving things to the pros this time around, and I just love, love, love how they came out.

Woohoo! Let me know if you have questions on what kind of paper I used or anything like that!

I promise to write peppier posts soon. I’m falling apart at the seams over here, but I’ll be OK!