A Warm Welcome

For a while, I thought I'd use gable boxes to hold welcome items for our out-of-town guests. Then, the fabulous Miss Sundae wrote about finding inexpensive canvas tote bags, and I swiftly changed my mind. Giving our guests bags that they could actually reuse sounded like a really cool idea, so I decided to go for it, too.

The bags that Miss Sundae found were a little more expensive by the time I got around to buying them, so I found some similar 15" x 16" natural cotton tote bags from InGreetings.com for $0.94 a pop (now available for $0.98 each). The material was fairly thin, but overall I was impressed with the quality for the price. There were some slight variations in size from bag to bag, but other than that I didn't have any problems and delivery was very prompt.

I set to work trying to create a design for our bags that wouldn't scream "THIS IS FROM OUR WEDDING" and instead would hopefully be something that people would want to use again. I eventually settled on an image of a tandem bike (it says "love" without being tooooo schmoopy, no?), which I of course found on iStockPhoto.com, my go-to source for all of the images that I don't have time to illustrate myself. Thank you, iStock!

To complete my design, I included a line from our first dance song (it says "Love is all about 'we'") and in the bottom right I added "B+N | 09.20.08," just large enough to read. To print the design I ordered Versatex fabric ink in teal, thanks to Miss Candy Corn's recommendation.

My photocopied design (I printed a few, just in case) and my Gocco supplies

All ready to flash my master

Once the master was flashed, blocked and all inked up, I set to work testing things out on one canvas bag.... and, well, things were not looking good.


As you can see, the heavy coverage needed on the wheels of the bike combined with non-Riso Gocco ink did not bode well for me. Apparently Versatex ink is a little thinner than Riso ink and it makes it difficult to get consistent ink coverage with a Gocco after the first impression. However, this little Cupcake was determined to make this work. After a handful of test runs, it became obvious that for adequate ink coverage, I would need to re-ink my screen before each impression (or at least re-distribute the ink to be consistent across the whole image). I only had 65 bags (which were more than enough for our overnight guests) — not a big deal, right? Eh, not quite. This "little project" ended up taking me a good four hours! In the end, though, I have to say that the bags look awesome and I am really, really proud of them.

My first successful impression

All lined up to dry

Because the canvas bags are fairly thin, I put a piece of regular text-weight copy paper inside of each bag before Gocco-ing on it to prevent the ink from running onto the back of the tote bag. This is definitely a necessity if you are printing on thin bags. I removed all of the copy paper the next day after I was sure everything was 100% dry.

Is anyone else going the Gocco'd canvas tote bag route for their OOT bags?

Play That Funky Music

Music is one aspect of our reception that we are definitely not taking lightly. Mr. Cupcake and I have been revisiting and revising our playlist for months, as we're determined to have music that (almost) everyone can enjoy.

Choosing the music has been a challenge, because a lot of the music that we like just won't work for dancing. Currently, the six-disc rotation in my car consists of She & Him, Justin Timberlake, Regina Spektor, the Broadway soundtrack to Wicked, Ingrid Michaelson, and The Beatles White Album. Aside from Justin and some earlier Beatles song, nothing is very danceable. We've had to get in touch with our inner dancing queens to compile a list that will (hopefully) have our dance floor packed all night with everyone from my 13-year-old cousin to Mr. Cupcake's 70-something grandmother.

First, the "important songs" — entrances, first dance, parent dances, etc.:


We are very, very excited about the song we'll be introduced to. You may know this as the song that is playing towards the end of the movie Notting Hill when Hugh Grant's character and his friends are racing through London to get to Julia Roberts' press conference. It's one of those songs that we both love and it always gets us pumped up, as dorky as that sounds :-)

For the rest of the "special" songs, we tried to pick upbeat songs that are recognizable but not necessarily the norm, at least at the weddings we have been to. We like to be a little different like that.

Next up, we have the cocktail hour and dinner music, in no particular order:


Between our cocktail hour and sit-down dinner, we'll need about two and a half hours worth of music, and if for some reason this list doesn't cover it, it gives our DJ a great idea of the type of music we are looking for: a mix of Rat Pack, classic rock, and more current randomness.

Then.... it's time to shake our groove thangs.


These are, again, in no particular order, with the exception of #1: "25 Miles" by Edwin Star. This song will hopefully inspire everyone to get their boo-tays on the dance floor, and the DJ will then be able to get a feel for how the rest of the evening should flow.

Since some of the older folks may head out before the reception ends at 11:00, we thought that later in the evening would be the best time to play the songs that will be more of a hit with our friends:


As you can see, we're not really including too many current songs, but hopefully some of these selections will get our friends excited and nostalgic :-)

If more dancing songs are needed, we put together a secondary list. Some of these are still up for debate between Mr. Cupcake and me (like "We are Family," which I insist is a necessary evil, yet he despises), but the DJ can see what the night holds and go with the flow depending on the crowd! Even though some of the songs get a little cheese-tastic, sometimes these are the songs that get the most people on the dance floor (and how can we have a September wedding without playing "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire?!).


I know that "Band of Gold" isn't the most appropriate song to play at a wedding reception, but I L-O-V-E this song. I don't know what it is, but this is one of those songs that I like to belt out in my car, and every time it comes on when Mr. Cupcake and I are together, he cranks it up for me because he knows "that's my soooong." We shall see!

We also chose a few slow songs that we wouldn't mind hearing throughout the night, but we don't care if we don't end up hearing all of them. Why slow things down if the dance floor is packed, right?


And finally, the totally necessary Do Not Play list. I know, I know — some of these are crowd favorites and I'm totally a meanie Bridezilla for depriving our guests of these songs. But we're just not a fan of organized dances or the super, super cheeserific tunes, and we don't think anyone will miss any of these songs if we've successfully chosen some other fabulous selections!

In red, for dramatic effect

Have you gotten really into planning out your playlist for the wedding, or are you giving your DJ or band full control? Are any of your favorite party songs missing from our list?

Something Borrowed

Although I'll have the traditional "something borrowed" on our wedding day, I am thrilled that I'll be wearing something borrowed for our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, as well. Two of my bridesmaids are my cousins on my mom's side of the family; both have gotten married in the last 6 years, and they both wore the same beautiful lace dress on the eve of their weddings. My aunt graciously offered to let me borrow the dress for my own last evening as a "Miss," and I happily accepted.

When I first tried on the dress, though, it didn't exactly fit, and I was very bummed. I've lost some weight in the last few years and feel very happy with where I am physically, but I'm still not quite as lean as my cousins. The dress was originally custom made to fit the first cousin, and she has broader shoulders than I do, but a narrower mid-section. As such, the dress zipped up to the middle of my back, and would have been fine at the top where the zipper meets, but it wouldn't fit around my ribs. No matter how much weight I may lose, I don't think I can do much about my ribs!

I was really sad that I wouldn't be able to carry on the tradition of wearing this dress, but my mom was determined to somehow make it work. After some playing around one day, we came up with the idea of turning it into a corset-back dress. My mom was convinced that she could modify the style without harming the material at all, so after I wear it we can return it to its original state.

Here is the dress from the front..... it looks a little ill-fitting and loose here because the back is not completely reworked yet, so it doesn't fit me as snugly as it will when it is done. Plus, um, I'll be wearing shoes.

This is a quick mock-up of the back..... the zipper will go to just above the small of my back, and above that will become a corset back. Darts will be added to directly above my shoulders to allow us to create a nice V-shape (instead of the weird connect-at-the-bottom-and-the-top-but-not-the-middle scenario we currently have going on). Lace and lining will be added to connect the V, and satin ribbon (not this lovely white cording) will be used to complete the corset.

Obviously, this is a rough mock-up and everything will look quite a bit more finished when it is done, but playing around with this set-up gave us a good idea of how we can make this work. I am still a little nervous that it will look like I'm just a fat girl trying to squeeze into a skinny girl's dress (hehe), but I'm hoping it turns out okay! My mom is quite the seamstress so I trust that she will make it work and it will look spectacular.

Have you creatively modified any garments in order to carry on any family wedding traditions?

Photo Scouting

One aspect of the wedding that has been stressing me out for a while has been finding a charming place for photos that won't impose on the brief timeframe that we have allowed for them. I know that our fab photographers, The Wiebners, will compose fantastic photos no matter where we are, but I still wanted to find something with a little charm and interest.

Enter Mama Cupcake, who came to the rescue after scouting out a few places around our reception site, The Desmond. Literally two minutes away is Valley Creek Park, which, aside from being perfectly convenient, has an adorable spring house and a larger house (we think perhaps the groundskeeper's residence?) that have just the charm and character I was looking for.

This door is very tiny, and it will make us look like giants. Note to self: must take photo next to tiny door!

Mr. Cupcake and I will see each other for the first time at this park, and after taking some pictures of our first meeting, we'll also take photos with our bridal party here. In addition to the cute houses, there are some other notable photo-worthy spots:

Pretty trails with lots of yummy light

Fun, swervy trees that remind me of a dinosaur's neck

Mama Cupcake also found this really awesome quarry nearby, but unfortunately we wouldn't be able to get beyond the fence that blocks the amazing view to capture some cool shots. Nonetheless, here are some cool shots I took by holding my camera up high.



After the ceremony, Mr. Cupcake and I will have a little less than an hour to steal away for some pictures of just the two of us. With limited time, we won't have the opportunity to wander around the area and find some cool photo ops to explore, so I found two more fun spots in between our ceremony and reception, including the West Chester Railroad depot with vintage railroad cars:


And this little orange house at the entrance to an antique store complex. This house totally speaks to me!



Next door is this (just as orange) garage:


I know that the Wiebners will make anything look spectacular, but I'm excited to have some fun spots scouted out for them to work with.

Have you chosen locations for your photos, or are you just going to wing it? Are you allowing a lot of time for photos?

The Night Before

Although I was very, very tempted to make our rehearsal dinner invitations as complicated as humanly possible (an unfortunate personality trait of mine), a wise friend strongly advised me to keep them simple — our guests would never know that I had originally planned on doing a layered invitation with the top layer having rounded corners, and I shouldn't create more work for myself! Although I'm sure I would have loved the complicated result as well, the less complicated route saved me a lot of time (and sanity) and I was still happy with them.

Our bridal party and close family members received this invitation for the festivities that will be occurring the night before our wedding:


Everything was printed on Stardream Quartz, and I used matching Quartz A7 envelopes. I did not print anything on the envelopes as FMIL Cupcake took care of all the addressing!


Along with the invitation, I included an insert with driving directions and an insert that describes the history of The Ship Inn, where our dinner will be. The history is on the restaurant's website and I thought it would be a nice touch, since it is an historic building. Now the guests will have a little insight into the location before they get there.

I wanted the design to complement the color palette for our wedding, but I also wanted these invites to be fun and a little different from everything else our guests have received for our wedding. The wallpaper image that I used for the background was from good ol' iStock (it was a seamless pattern vector file, and I changed the colors). I like that the damask wallpaper pattern complements the old-fashioned ambiance of the Ship Inn while the bright colors give it some modern flair. The font I used for all pieces is Century Gothic, which is one of my favorite sans serif fonts.

All of the rectangle shapes with rounded corners (which frame all of the copy) are what I had originally intended to make top layers, which would have meant twice the printing, twice the cutting and the additional hassle of corner rounding (no matter how much I love the high-tech corner rounder in my workplace!). Printing everything as one layer did not alter my design at all and it made things lighter for mailing purposes, as well. Hooray for simplifying!

How involved are you getting with your rehearsal dinner invitations? Have you decided to simplify any of your big projects for the sake of your sanity?

Bridal Shower, Part Three: Fabulous Flappers

Bridal Shower, Part One: A Ladies Luncheon
Bridal Shower, Part Two: A Family Affair

My third and final shower was hosted by my supremely spectacular bridesmaids. This bridal shower to end all bridal showers went down at my mom's house, and all of my girlfriends were invited to celebrate with me. I knew the where and when, and I knew that it was a cocktail party shower — a shower "with a twist," if you will — but that was all I knew. My 'maids did an amazing job of keeping the rest of the details top secret. Unbeknownst to me, my girlfriends had all received this flapperiffic invitation in the mail:

Guests were instructed to wear their "1920s ritzy rags." Invitation designed by the one and only SIL Cupcake

I was encouraged to wear my favorite little black dress (the same one that I wore to Momma Cupcake's wedding back in February), but other than that, I was clueless. You may remember that the invitation I had received left many details a mystery:


When I arrived at my shower, I was greeted with a mysterious sign on the door:


I didn't know the secret passcode, but luckily, they let me in anyway!

SIL Cupcake greeted me at the door as all of my flapperiffic friends looked on....


...Momma Cupcake immediately threw a bright pink boa over my shoulders.....


And the party began! There were beads, boas, and headbands for everyone, although some girls came prepared with their own. The 1920s theme was so perfect.... in college I co-choreographed and performed in the musical Cabaret my senior year, so it was a nice touch that Liza Minelli (as Sally Bowles) was sitting atop my name on the invitation. I have a love for all things vintage and so many details of my shower reflected that!

I got my very own peacock-feather headband to match SIL Cupcake

Chatting it up with some of my favorite gals

me and FMIL Cupcake

There was quite the impressive spread of food.....

....including a MASHED POTATO BAR!!!!

I love any food with the word "potato" in it, so my MOHs Kelli and Nicole masterminded this fantastic idea. There were toppings such as bacon, cheese, sour cream, and scallions for the white potatoes, and nuts and marshmallows for the sweet potatoes. Lucky for me, there were also several pounds of potatoes to take home afterwards ;-)

Matron of Honor Kelli found these great martini glasses at the Dollar Store! We used them for the mashed potato bar.

Me and my "mashpotini" (err, one of my mashpotinis that evening!)

As if the food weren't enough, there were signature drinks, all named after little ol' me!


There was even a bartender! I don't have a picture of her but my mom found a bartending service nearby, and a fabulous woman named Coco made us scrumptious cocktails all evening. Coco made excellent Brook-a-politans and was very sweet and excited to be a part of the celebration.

Just a small portion of the liquor.... there was a lot :-)

You're probably thinking that that is enough food and drink, but we can't forget dessert, now, can we? MOH Nicole made these scrumptious peanut butter chocolate cupcakes with chunks of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on top. Yummmmmmm.

She also made these sinfully sweet mini cupcake bites — the green ones are Oreo flavored and the white ones have red velvet cake in them. They were to die for!

And let's not forget the chocolate fountain!

Would you like some chocolate with your chocolate?

In the background of the above photo, you can see an old black and white movie playing on my mom's plasma.... the movie The Roaring Twenties starring Humphrey Bogart played silently throughout the evening while we all enjoyed the party. How cute is that?! Those clever ladies thought of everything!

In addition to the movie, bridesmaid Chrissy had collected an impressive collection of music from the 1920s, which played in the background throughout the night.

The fabulous Miss Chrissy

Old records served as coasters for the evening:


Of course, there had to be time for presents:


In the spirit of how gift-opening usually goes at my mom's house on Christmas, I posed with many of my gifts, and even demonstrated how to use them:


Before my Nana passed away last month, she had given SIL Cupcake strict instructions to give me this handkerchief; it was hers back in the day and it was SIL Cupcake's "something borrowed" when she married my brother. It will now be my "something old."


And then, I finally got it.... the KitchenAid stand mixer! A superb gift from my six bridesmaids.

Apparently I squeeled when I opened this

Somehow we got on the topic of old family wedding dresses, and my mom brought hers out for me to try on.... even though my parents got divorced 18 years ago, it was still pretty cool to put on my mom's wedding gown! Believe it or not, she sewed this dress all by herself back in the 70s. It was way less 70s-looking than I remembered from pictures.... perhaps because I didn't try it on with the coordinating "veil-hat"? :-)


Everyone took home these adorable favors — stacked envelopes filled with Prohibition era cocktails renamed for me, Mr. Cupcake, the town we live in, etc.

Created by SIL Cupcake, assembled with the help of Brother Cupcake. How sweet is he?

I truly could not have asked for a better evening with my girlfriends. I know I might be slightly biased, but it really was the best shower ever! My bridesmaids put so much thought and love into every detail, it just blew me away. Of course, I lucked out having a Matron of Honor who is an event planner and a SIL who is an event designer, along with such creative friends and an artistic mother, so that certainly didn't hurt :-)

Here are a few more photos of some of the fabulous ladies who celebrated with me.

Friends and co-workers Maggie and Cat

Maid of Honor Nicole

Bridesmaid Chrissy

My oldest friend ever, Jill, and Matron of Honor Kelli

Bridesmaids Chrissy and Kim, Matron of Honor Kelli, moi, and Maid of Honor Nicole. Bridesmaids/cousins Michele and Coleen couldn't make the trip from New Orleans but will be here for the wedding before we know it!

Special thanks to Kim/SIL Cupcake for most of the photos, and to my friend Maggie for being our resident photographer!