| Wood Escort Cards |

 One of my favorite memories from wedding planning? All the fun materials we got to play with and choose from! My husband and I were stumped about how we wanted to create and display our escort cards for our guests. Wood as a material was an idea early on, but seemed expensive, and we didn't look more into it. After trying all sorts of cut outs, paint, calligraphy on paper, I wanted to research how we can make the wood work!

We purchased some wood planks (found a great deal!) and as fate would have it- a friend from architecture school mentioned how intricate a laser cutter machine could engrave! My original thought was to try burning, or branding the wood- and that would've taken forever. 

Off we went to use the laser cutter machine! After getting the settings just perfect, we got all 210 of them made in a day. We even made some 'Thank you' cards for our vendors as a special treat. 

These escort cards made us super happy. And it's a nice remembrance of the wedding for our guest! {At least we'd like to think each of them will treasure these forever! ;) }

Aren't they lovely? :)

| Romantic Save the Date |

It's been an exciting January already! With the holidays over and decorations stored neatly in the attic (thanks, awesome husband!), there's a lot of planning to do for the next few months! 

Same goes with many bride-to-be's out there. Wedding planning is in FULL swing. I'm so thrilled to be involved in four weddings of my very dear friends this year :) 

I started a design recently for the lovely Emily and Micah. They will be having a traditional, romantic wedding this coming fall! I love her color palette of ivory, champagne, and apple green. I provided two different styles for her Save the Date, and I can't wait to see which one she chooses! 

What are you busy planning??

Bridesmaids

My lovely ladies

So according to dictionary.com, the definition of bridesmaid:

woman who attends the bride at a wedding

Yes, you chose your sister, relatives, and best girlfriends because of all sorts of reasons. They've known you the longest, they were the shoulder you've cried on, they're always there for you, love you, and you want them there by your side on the most important day of your life!

Just don't be like Tess on 27 dresses and choose girls because you want a 'pretty' wedding party. Yikes.

I was thrilled to have all 8 of my girls a part of our wedding. Throughout planning, I'd get overwhelmed, and being a perfectionist, wanted to do EVERYTHING myself. It's because I've got the best girlfriends out there, they were constantly asking for how they can help! At first, I felt bad. Everyone has busy, hectic schedules, and I didn't want to be a nagging bride giving chores left and right. And then I realized they WANTED to help! haha, EARN your right as a bridesmaid! ;)

Most of my bridesmaids lived in different cities, so I delegated tasks like phone calls that I really didn't need to make myself (i.e. hotel reservations!). My sister, Maid of Honor, really stepped it up! Any free moment, she helped out, knowing I needed to be wedding planning, and not getting my car's oil changed, or taking clothes to the dry cleaners. She even planned a surprise, super fantastic bachelorette weekend getaway! Every task that my bridesmaids took on gave me a huge sigh of relief! Even if it's just responding to my 273 emails on which veil I should choose. :)

So choose wisely ladies. Again, this THE most important day of your life. Put your wedding party to work! Don't forget to ask the groomsmen for help too. We had them help set up our ceremony decor, do a few pick-ups around town, and they even hand delivered lunch to us while all the girls were primping and priming!

It's great to get everyone involved! Remember, they WANT to help!! And how rewarding is it to finally see on your wedding day all the love, sweat, and sometimes tears that went into it!