i heart my shoes

My "back up" shoes came today, and I LOVE THEM! I wasn't all that crazy about them online, but I they were gold and had a 4'' heel so I thought I'd give them a shot...and I'm so glad that I did!!! (I know, not that vintage inspired, but I love them nevertheless!) I'll take them with me to my final fitting on Saturday. Wish me luck!

wedding CD...check (almost)

Aside from ordering the last of our paper supplies for our programs, escort cards, and menus, this weekend I started the (lengthy) wedding CD project... We first purchased these amazing "vinyl CD's" and these "record liners", which I painstakingly punched out 2'' holes from the centers to give them a more "record liner" kind of a feel. Then, I sifted through our CD and iTunes libraries and came up with 43 "favorite songs"... It seriously took us longer to whittle down the play list than it took to find all of the songs! (And, being from the south, Nathan insisted on as many country songs as I would allow. God help me, after three years with this man, I'm actually starting to like some of that stuff...) Below is the final song list.

You're My Best Friend - Queen - Introduction Song
Making Memories of Us - Keith Urban - First Dance
Sweetest Thing - U2 - Cake Cutting
Heaven (acoustic live version) - Bryan Adams
Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Collide - Howie Day
Stand by Me - Ben E. King
Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers
Cupid - Sam Cooke
Tiny Dancer - Elton John
Faithfully - Journey
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Bless the Broken Road - Rascal Flatts
You Are So Beautiful - Joe Cocker
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
She's Everything - Brad Paisley
I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
Cherish - Madonna
Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton - Last Dance

Yay Tina & Andy!

Tina and Andy, from with this ring, I thee obsess, are tying the knot today!!! Congratulations!!!

photo credit: Sarah Alair Photography via wtrito

tables, candles, and flowers, oh my!

I love me some long tables. Love, love, love them! But my florist just told me that I would actually need more "stuff" (not less) to fill up a long, banquet tables than I would with a standard, round table. Yes, yes, I know, there are fewer inches of space to fill width-wise, but there are far more feet to fill length-wise. When my florist explained this to me, my heart got so heavy! Why, oh why, is everything going wrong? Apparently this happens to everyone, not just me...

So, last Saturday, I went to my father's house and unpacked all of the candles I've purchased over the last 6 months... I took one look at the pile and thought to myself, wow, I went overboard... But...then I realized that our mint julep cups filled with small bunches of flowers, and my insane amount of candles would be just enough to fill up long tables (with a few left over for the buffet, bar, etc)!!!! Yay for long tables!


photo credit: Natalie & Jake's wedding via Thorsen Photography, random flickr search, Sanny & Oli's destination wedding via theknot, Kimberly & John's wedding via Brian Dorsey Blog

Chicago Postcards

Vintage Chicago postcards are not the easiest thing to find! I want to use them as backgrounds of our table numbers which are a cross between VintageGlam's 3D beauties and Mrs. Tiramisu's gorgeous digital materpieces! Wish me luck!!!


View to Grand Avenue, Chicago, 1930


Chicago, Illinois, View to the City, 1955
Chicago Theatre


Wrigley Field - Outside/Sephia - ©Photofile


On The Chicago River


Wrigley Building, Chicago 1930
Marshall Field's Clock

Flower Girl Update

As you may recall, my flower girl and my soon-to-be-SIL found their own version of my flower girl dress, one that I didn't like very much at all... After some serious internal debate, I decided that I wouldn't press it, and I would let her wear whatever she wanted.


That was, until I was on Nordstrom dot com and saw this adorable dress! It is eggplant (one of our colors), it's chiffon, and it's adorable! I promptly asked Nathan to call his sister and gently persuade her to get this dress instead. Mid-conversation, she asked to speak to me...gulp...and I could tell she wasn't happy about my changing plans 4 weeks out. So what did I do??? I bought the dress and had it sent to their house. I know, another $100 bucks down the drain (I feel like we're being nickel and dimed to death!), but at least now there was little room to protest.

The dress arrived today (according to my e-confirmation) so I expect to see a slide show of images to arrive via email any hour now... I really hope they like it! Look at how cute it looks with my bm dresses (together they are our colors, eggplant and [pseudo] pomegranate)!

running with the library theme

This weekend, I researched DIY projects like a mad woman! There are so many great "how to" resources out there, many of which I'm sure you're familiar with, but some of which I haven't seen featured on too many sites... I hope to feature several of them, to give props where props are due, but after the wedding, of course. I can't add another thing on to my plate!

In the meanwhile, for any of you running with a library theme (which is random, I know, but may be relevant to some), Creature Comforts featured a great little library card DIY project that you might use for a Save the Date or a Favor Gift Tag... I'm not positive, but, I think I'm going to use them for our "advice cards" (for our Wishing/Advice Jar).

The wedding is in 26 days and I still have so much to do... Thankfully, only some of it is "necessary", like the programs, place cards and menus...everything else is just fluff... It's all just fluff...

PS, coffee table book update: I'm totally not buying any Chicago coffee table books - they're like $50 each! Instead, I'm going to the library and renting them for free! Yay for budget-friendly ideas!

photo credit: Creature Comforts

I LOVE MY DRESS!

I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to tell you about the latest on my dress. On Saturday, I drove out to bufu Schaumburg (and yes, it's bufu if you're driving from Old Town) for my dress fitting, and I have to say, I've never loved anything more (other than Nathan)... I know everyone says this, but it is seriously the most beautiful dress I've ever seen, much less put on! Yay for my vintage (read: preowned) Vera Wang! Yay for finding the deal of a lifetime!

Plus, the previous owner and I are basically the same size, so yay for super cheap alterations! (Here's a shot of the dress, but I'm having the Asian-esk bow/additional lines of fabric in the back removed...) I LOVE IT! I can't stop telling everyone how much I LOVE IT@!!!

to candy or not to candy

I've been trying to stop myself from doing something just because it makes for a "good photo op"...and so far, I've been somewhat successful. For instance, I originally wanted to exit our church (from our evening ceremony) through a line of wedding sparklers... Why? Because it would make a great photo! But, logistically, it makes for a bad everything else. (Last summer I went to Nathan's bff's wedding in St. Louis (read: STL is HOT as hell in July), where they made the wedding guests wait in the St. Louis heat for 30 minutes while they finished their church photos...all so they could get a few shots of the bride and groom leaving in a cloud of bubbles...) Needless to say, after that experience, I decided that I wouldn't force our guests to wait in the November cold, in the dark, somewhat shady neighborhood, just so I can get my photo!

So with that said, herein lies my problem... Is my "need" for a candy buffet caused by my "want" for great photos? I don't know... And, could the candy buffet money be put to better use if we did "passed desserts". I've already purchased the apothecary jars from Michaels (which will be opening their Roosevelt Rd store shortly) and Save on Crafts, so half of the money has already been spent. However (perhaps) hundreds of dollars will still need to be spent on color appropriate candy (like the ones below).

Thoughts? Suggestions? Anything???