A Smelly Situation

One of the many things I would never have even thought about doing until discovering Weddingbee is buying a special fragrance specifically for the wedding. I just love this idea, since I know I already associate certain perfumes and scents with different moments and times in my life. Like Curve.. do they even still make that stuff?

Image via Frangrantica

Apparently yes. I used to wear it when I was in high school, so any time I smell the remnants of the old, nasty bottle I still have, I'm immediately brought back; I even have friends mention that they think of me when they see or smell it (let's say that's a good thing..?) So, wedding fragrance it is.

I hit up Sephora yesterday on my way to work for two reasons: one, to get more of that fabulous Clinique skin care stuff (that Foxy has now taken to using as well), and two, to search for some scents. I spent a good half hour spraying almost every bottle in the store until I finally settled on something much more floral than I ever thought I would have wanted. It had hints of rose and gardenia, and while it was a bit potent on the paper tester, it smelled fabulous on my skin. Body chemistry really plays up those scents! So what was that wonderful, summery scent? It was one I had previously not heard of - Kenzo Amour.

Image via Frangrantica

Or so I thought.

See, like a normal person, I naturally assumed that the tester in front of the boxes of perfume was.. you know.. the same thing. Once at work, I felt compelled to open the perfume and test it out a bit more, only to discover that not only was the bottle color different, but that I just sprayed myself with something distinctly musky and vanilla. As in, not floral. At all.

A quick Google search told me that I indeed did not have the perfume I tested out at the store, and the one I actually wanted was Kenzo Amour Florale. Well, that makes sense. So, back to Sephora I went after work. Lo and behold, they didn't even have that scent for sale at their store. Why it was a tester on their shelves and why they just put it back on the shelves in front of the wrong perfume again is a mystery to me. Regardless, I either needed to find a new scent or just order the right stuff off of the interwebs.

I spent another good half hour searching for scents similar to the floral Kenzo, and finally settled on something very different yet very similar at the same time - Tocca Bianca.

Image via Frangrantica

As described by Frangrantica:

Bianca was inspired by tea time in Italy. It opens with a light citrus blend of lemon orpur, bergamot, mandarin and lavender. Green tea, jasmine and rose petals bloom in the heart, while a whisper of musk and sugar in the base linger on the skin.

This is a much stronger scent than the Kenzo - more of a sweet floral - but it really meshes quite nicely with my body chemistry and evokes such a pleasant feeling for me. Does that sound weird? Maybe. But I just knew that, if I didn't go with the floral Kenzo, this was it. I tested it out again today around the house and it's really growing on me - I kind of hate that I have to wait another few months to actually wear it!

I'm also debating ordering a small bottle of the Kenzo Amour Floral anyway, just to compare the two. Hey, a girl can never have too much perfume, right?! (Eh, that's debatable.)

Are you doing a wedding day scent? Was it hard to find one (or two) for you?

Return of the STD

::insert (in)appropriate joke here::

So you know how some people are two dress brides? Well I'm not that (yet).

I'm....

...ready?...

...a two Save the Date bride.

Yea, that happened. I told you I was indecisive. Here's the deal:

I've posted a whole bunch (way to much) about how much I was (over)thinking about the STD's. I really appreciated all your suggestions (particularly on this post); it seemed the winner was option number 1, but I started getting self-conscious about how many pictures of myself and Foxy were on there. I mean sure, we're dreamboats, but I didn't want it to be overkill. So I finally decided on a combination of two previously shown designs, and it looked something like this:

I ordered them from this wonderful website called CatPrint for super cheap, and a few days later I had a nice little stack of 3.5x5 cards.

At this point, I should have just stuffed the envelopes and have been done with it. But the more I looked at them, the more.. irked? unsettled?.. I became. For starters, I had designed the cards to be cropped at the edge of the photos, but for whatever reason, CatPrint wasn't able to do that. The image as a whole was smaller than I wanted it to be, and I just wasn't loving the design in general. Too busy, almost. Plus, I think they were screen printed and I could see all the little color dots that made up the pictures and text, and it wasn't attractive in my eyes.

Well then Foxy and I went on a little date night a few days later and I snapped a picture with Hipstamatic on my iPhone (love that app!). And it was adorable. And ten minutes after we got home, I had a design whipped up on the computer with that picture that I liked approximately 4739827398 times more than the other STD mockups I already had.

So.. for real this time.. our official Save the Date (minus the blurring, of course)!!

It's more basic, sure, but it gets the point across, is printed on glossy paper instead of matte (and hence, you can't see the screen print dots), and.. foreshadowing!.. has some of the same text as our invite! Love me some cohesiveness.

But of course I couldn't stop there.. I just had to spice it up a little more with accessories and packaging.. stay tuned!

Did you/have you had a big change of heart about anything wedding related? Dress? STDs? The groom? TOTALLY KIDDING about that last one!!

And again.

We've already established that I'm officially THE MOST indecisive person ever.

Yes,  I'm referring to our Save the Date's. Again.

When we last left off,  I thought I came up with something that could definitely work.

Then I changed my mind. And I changed it again.

And again.

I was left with a new set of options, all of which I created, based on examples I had seen around the interwebs. Foxy was about ready to kill me and my waffely behavior. I mean, who's really going to care about these besides me? Here I am, wanting it to be fun and spunky and different, when really? A nice postcard would do. And I needed to accept that.

But onto the goods. The newer set of STD options.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

The first two would just be cards, put in an envelope and mailed out. The last one would be a 5x7 postcard (hence requiring one of my awesome forever stamps), and printed on metallic card stock. I would have loved for it to have rounded corners, but apparently you can't have rounded corners on postcards..?!

Or I thought I could just go back to square one and do a different version of that fun magnet photo booth style thing I came up with.

I really just needed to make up my mind. But I'm just so bad at it!

Our date needs some saving (again)

When I decided that I actually needed to get my act together with the whole save the date STD thing (yeaa, we're just gonna go that route), I totally hated all the old ideas I had. I mean, they were ok, but I just kept seeing so many other fun, cute, unique ideas and my originals just felt.. lame. Or generic. But let's be real.. in all actuality, anything I do will likely have been done before.

::letting it go::

I was also feeling very uninspired. I'm sure I mentioned this before, but my creativity got thrown out the window when I threw my high school graduation cap up in the air.

Poof. Gone.

I knew the natural solution would be to have someone else create the STD's, or just use a template. But I really wanted to at least try to be creative. I originally wanted to design the invite suite myself as well, but I quickly learned that that would not be happening and we'd be using a friendor instead. So I at least wanted to take hold of these STD cards.

That being said, I had been browsing the interwebs for inspiration a while back and realized that I very much loved a lot of the pre-made STD designs on Minted.

Some of my favorites:

All images via Minted

Aren't they all just super cute and super fun? The only not cute thing about them is the price - I wasn't so much a fan of spending $180 (+ tax, + S&H) for 100 postcards. So I decided to fiddle around on my comper, hoping to make my own version of some of the samples up there.. and one of them actually came out pretty decent!! Mr. Foxy also happened to be a fan of my original artwork.. we may very well have finally found an STD to give to everyone! That's what she said.

It may not be the most unique or fancy or artsy thing anybody has ever seen, but I'm ok with that.

Some foreshadowing: don't be too surprised if/when I scratch this idea as well. ;)


Did you have a hard time finding an STD or was it an easy-peasy decision for you?

The shoe saga continues.

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with finding my wedding shoes right this instant.

Ok I lied, I do know. It's because I wanted them in my possession before I went to my first dress fitting.

That being said, I was browsing everyone's favorite obsession site (aka Pinterest) the other day and saw these:

Image via Martha Stewart Weddings

I don't even need to tell you why I'm in love. Just look at the TURQUOISE SOLES. Amazing.

I did some research (aka looked at the caption) and saw that the brand, Pour la Victoire, has a whole line of bridal/wedding shoes, many of which are sold on Zappos. Which is where I saw these:

Pour la Victoire Cristella 2

Are you dying yet? You should be. They're amazing.

So I ordered those babies on the spot at about 10:30pm. I woke up the next morning to an email from Zappos saying that they already shipped them, and got them in the mail the very next day. Seriously? I said it before, I'll say it again, and no I'm not being sponsered: I love Zappos. Big puffy heart love. That's twice in a row that I got my shoes in less than 48 hours!

So the shoes are totally gorgeous both off and on. They are a unique shade of ivory that I'm a bit cautious about, since I'm not sure it will "go" with the dress. Then again, I never really cared about that kind of stuff, and I'm not inviting the fashion police to the wedding, so I should be ok.

My one gripe is that the only turquoise is on the soles, and I really want something by the peep toe. If these work with the dress (both color and height wise), I'm thinking of shnazzing them up a bit. Maybe bling it out with some turquoise crystals or take off the bow in the back and put a flower in the front. I have no idea. But the world is my oyster and these shoes are totes-magotes the pearls.

Terrible analogy, but you get it.

Meep!