The Status of the Shoes

Remember when I pimped out my wedding shoes? If not, here's a reminder!

A lot of you were curious if they were easy to walk in or if they were slippery at all, and all I could give you was a semi-confident "yes" and "no", respectively. Before the wedding, I only had the chance to walk around in them on our tiled kitchen floor for a few minutes at a time, because I didn't want to mess the soles up. Blame it on my obscene "need" for photos of the whole shoe. Of which I got (half of) one.

Photo by Exclamation Imagery

Let's just all ogle at my pretty shoes for a minute, 'kay?

I will tell you that around my kitchen, they were not slippery. And generally, no, they were not slippery on our wedding day, either! I had a brief holy shiz moment when I first stepped on our venue's wooden floor with them, but after a few steps I got used to it. It was part "walk careful in these 4-inch glittery shoes, Fox" and part "walk careful because you're in a wedding dress, this is not everyday shoe-strutting!" Once I got those thoughts through my head, though, the shoes were a perfect little piece of cake to walk in.

Photo by Exclamation Imagery

On the flip side, I have to admit that the only time I was really on a potentially slippery surface was when I was walking through our venue's main house, like during the cocktail hour. We also did a lot of walking around on sidewalks and grass before the ceremony, so the soles had a chance to wear down a bit. But, I think the true test is that I kept those babies on for 99% of the day (minus a few minutes at the reception, until I realized no heels = me tripping all over myself). And no slips!

In short, here's my advice: glitter up your soles, but there really isn't any need to do the whole sole. If you're worried about slippage, skip the ball of the sole, where the front part of your foot goes. I promise you, you won't miss any pictures of it. If you are having a relatively outdoorsy wedding with minimal wood surfaces (and are a nutcase like me), go ahead and do the whole thing!

I mean.. let's be honest, though. They're gonna end up looking like this anyway.

A sure sign of a good time.. glitter and worn in soles!

Are you having any kind of painted or fancy wedding day soles? Are you worried about scuffing them up or slipping at all?

Another kind of invitation

Now that all the wedding invitations are sent and delivered properly (I think), I had another batch of envelopes that I was waiting to mail out.. the rehearsal dinner invites!

Funny story.. I knew I would be writing this post today and seriously had a nightmare last night about how everyone hated them and thought they were gross and dumb. That was sad.

Anyhoo, the closer the wedding date gets, the more VIP guests (you know.. bridal party and family and whatnot) have been asking us when they need to be in town for any wedding related festivities. I've been telling everyone what they need to know over the phone or email, but I still get questions and concerns and all those fun things that come along with it. Of course I could have just sent everyone one big informative email (which I'm still going to do), but I felt compelled to get all artsy-craftsy again and whip up some kind of "formal" invitation.

I wanted something simple, fun, and that was able to make use of some of the leftover and unused invitation supplies that I still had lying around. You know, like the 40 sheets of card stock I bought from Michael's right after I got engaged, not realizing until later that they were ultimately the wrong color for the invites. #notthinking

For some reason, I became hell bent on writing and using my very own cute little poem that would include all the details.. easy peasy, right? Well, obviously not; have YOU ever tried writing a (sensical) poem for a rehearsal dinner? (If so.. I envy you and you can disregard this.) Once I started running around asking Foxy what rhymed with "rehearsal" and "crab" (blab? drab? flab?), I figured I should maybe Google it (and by Google it, I mean Weddingbee it). Of course you guys had something already whipped up and easy enough to adapt to our specific situation. And so that's what I did.

So what exactly does a poem + some card stock + washi tape + more sparkly paper equal?

How stinkin' cute are those crabs?! I almost did another sparkly heart, but when I saw that Martha  Stewart had a CRAB punch.. well, obviously my mind was made up for me.

Do you also like how I added that there will be more options besides crab (even though it says crab feast and I've already literally told e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e. that there will be chicken, shrimp, salad, tuna, etc, in addition)??

Apparently, some people get antsy about things (like crabs). One thing I've learned is that you have spell everything out to avoid repeating yourself a dozen times.. and even then, you'll still get questions. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Are you sending out rehearsal dinner invites in any fashion (mail, email, carrier pigeon, etc)? Have you found yourself having to repeat wedding related things a dozen times to anybody?

Drumroll please...

Finally! It's time for the Fox invitation reveal!

I re-sent the envelopes that were returned to me early last week, and I know that at least my mom got hers already, so I think we're finally good on all that post office nonsense. About damn time.

So let's start with the envelopes (that you've all seen plenty of already). As I opted for a square invitation, I needed a 6" square envelope to send those babies out in. Good to note: square envelopes automatically cost 20 cents more to mail.

Then there was the issue of addressing them. To make a long story short, I didn't want to use labels, couldn't afford to hire someone to write them all fancy like, and I am much too lazy to learn calligraphy (unlike some fabulous other Bee's!). The next best thing was to print the addresses straight onto the envelopes. However, since I opted for the fancy, shimmery envelopes.. the ink basically didn't dry. I tried waiting three days to touch it, tried spraying it with artist fixative, but nothing seemed to work for me.

Gross.

My solution? Embossing. I've seen the word many a time here on the Bee, but honestly had no idea how to go about such a fancy thing. A bit of embossing powder and heat tool usage later, I realized just how amazeballs easy it is. Another thing to note: you cannot use a hair dryer to emboss - you must use an embossing tool. (Just trust me on this one.)


So I ran the 80+ envelopes through the printer two times each - once for our return address on the flap (sprinkle with powder, use heat tool to emboss), and once for the mailing address on the front (more powder sprinkling, more heat tool embossing). While it was all relatively easy, it took hours over the course of several days. I'm a total antsy pants and can only sit still for so long, so I usually only ended up getting about 20 done at a time. It's really time consuming, but definitely worth it in the end. Absolutely no ink smearing!

Ok, enough with the envelope babble. Let's open that baby up!!

Sorry for the blurring! :(

Oh boy...

Well hello, gorgeous!

Notice anything familiar? I decided to keep the "theme" of the glittery hearts (they were magnets in my Save the Dates) and use them as clips to hold everything together. I ended up abandoning the belly band idea that I was so set on before, mostly because I didn't like how it was (or really, wasn't) holding everything together. I think the clips worked out rather nicely, though, especially for our MiniMoo website card!

I was a bit nervous that people wouldn't flip the card over and see the web address, but guests have assured me that they noticed it (I can also tell by the increased views on the website)!

Then, finally, we have the main invite itself.

I got both the main part of the invite and the RSVP card printed out via CatPrint (the same as my Save the Dates), and I was quite pleased with the way they turned out!

These babies were absolutely a labor of love (and, let's be honest, some hate.. there were frequent curse words involved). But I love the result. And while my friend(or) Michelle designed the actual face of the invite and RSVP card, I was responsible for sprucing the suite up a bit. There was a lot of cutting, taping, carefully aligning, and wine involved.

::Phew:: Well, I'm glad they're done.. but it's all a bit surreal! The RSVP's are already coming in, making mail time even more exciting! Now I just have to get Foxy to stop opening them before I have the chance to. I worked hard on those, yo! I wanna open them myself! ;)

Bubbly? Don't mind if I do.

We are officially less than four months away from the wedding. Four months. Stupid.

Once I realized this, I realized that I miiiiight want to get started on the ever growing list of DIY projects I have. And what better place to start than with the bubbles?!

After an afternoon of tedious work, they are about 98% done and definitely ready to share! As a reminder, these were my inspirations:

Image via Hostess with the Mostess

Image via The Pretty Blog

After getting my massive shipment of glass jars the other week, the next step was to create labels. This was pretty easy - I bought clear, precut label paper from Staples, whipped up a quick design using a combo of Swift Publisher and Word, printed them out, and stuck 'em on.

Then came the bows - I got a bunch of the string that I used to use to make those awesome old school friendship bracelets in a light turquoise/aqua and pale peach. Then I simply tied them into little bows around the bottle necks, cut off the ends, and sealed the center knot with a bit of clear nail polish.

The final step (pre-bubble solution, that is) was the bubble wand. All DIY inspiration pictures I've seen have shown wands made out of pipe cleaners, so I went to it with some super sparkly ones from Michael's.

Making them was super easy - just cut each piece in half, loop it around your finger, twist the "tail" part around the longer piece, and center/reshape the circle a bit.

Ta-da!

I initially tried to tie the wands to the side of the bottles, but I quickly cursed the world and decided to just stick them in the bottles and will ultimately only fill the bubble solution about halfway, as to not completely soak the wand. Anyway. Time for the reveal!

I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I like them! I ended up running out of string for the bows after the first box, so I can't yet claim this DIY project done, but one more afternoon of a few Say Yes to the Dress reruns should have them done in no time.

Side note: I originally also wanted to spray the bottle caps a fun, glittery, turquoise.

See how sparkly the cap is?? So I went outside to get my glitter on, and.. nothing happened. The caps just ended up looking a bit wet. No glitter to be seen. I promptly got frustrated and declared this can of glitter utterly useless. To which Foxy replied "I'm surprised you would ever declare anything glitter as useless." Touché, Mr. Foxy. (But for the point of this project... useless.) So the caps remain silver, which I think works better anyway. DIY fail win!

Have you found that simpler sometimes equals better when it comes to projects and decorating?

Sparkles, stamps, and labels - oh my!

Since I finally (finally) decided on a Save the Date and had them printed, I've still wanted to spruce them up somehow. Add some pizazz. Some sparkle. Some.. magnetism, perhaps.

I considered envelope liners, but I think I'd rather save that extra touch for the invites if I so choose. Then I considered putting the card onto a backing of some sort to give it a border, but Foxy quickly called me nuts and asked if I could "fathom the amount of hours that would be spent on a silly Save the Date" if I did that.

Psh. Men. Of course I knew. At least 1. (Or 20, with my {lack of} cutting skills.)

Then I thought about the practicality and likely display of our little cards. In a perfect world, guests would jump for joy upon receiving these little pieces of cardstock and frame them and love them and never throw them away. In reality, it'll probably end up in a pile of mail somewhere. I think a nice compromise would be to display it on the fridge, dontcha think??

But then I fretted that people may not have magnets! Or think to put it on the fridge! (I'm sure they do and they would, but just go with it.)

My solution? Michael's. Because that man knows his arts and crafts.

I traipsed around the store for a good hour before deciding on a few key items.

Numero uno: heavy glitter cardstock. Because you can't go wrong with sparkles. Ever.

Numero dos: a heart punch, a la Martha Stewart.

Numero tres: magnet tape. The person who invented this is pure genius.

Add a punch, a snip, a stick.. and viola! Little sparkly heart magnets to hang up our STD with!

They aren't the strongest magnets in the world (I mean, what do you expect when a big ol' roll of magnet tape only costs a dollar), but they do the trick. Well, more or less.. MOH Copper texted me a picture of the only way hers would stay on the fridge..

Poor Foxy. ;)

A bonus was that these little magnets were small enough and light enough that they fit super nicely into an envelope with the STD cards without requiring extra postage. Plus it makes it look pretty shnazzy on the fridge, if I do say so myself. (And I do.)


As for said envelope, I tried to get creative with a combination of label paper, my printer, and a return address stamp that I got from emililies' shop on Etsy.

This stamp went on the fold of the back..

((I promise it looks better without the blurring!))

..and the labels went on the front, with my awesome Love Garden Forever stamps!

After some tedious assembling (these may have been basic, but they definitely took up time!)...

..they were ready to be mailed out!!

We already got some great feedback about them, which made me a happy Bee. :))

What are your thoughts on the whole magnet Save the Date trend right now? I'm clearly a sucker for it!