MRS. Chickadee checking in

Today marks the one week anniversary of our wedding! We're back from our honeymoon, Mr. Chickadee is playing with our new bread knife (you think I'm joking, but I'm not) and our puppy is playing with a peanut butter-stuffed kong, so I finally have a minute to blog.

I might be a little biased, but last Saturday was pretty much the most beautiful day in the whole universe. I may have freaked out early in the week because I convinced myself that I had nothing done, but come Saturday, I was calm, collected, and blissfully happy.

We somehow managed to finish all the last minute crafts & projects we took on, and I can't wait to blog about them.

In the meantime, I'll just leave you with one of my favorite pictures from our photographer, Mark Romine.

A Dress for My Girls

Once again I have been on a more or less self-induced hiatus. However, I am back, and hopefully will remain more of a presence around here until the big day rolls around.

Which reminds me....every day I sign in to my gmail and google cheerfully reminds me that the days until the wedding are rapidly disappearing. 78 days? Realllly? When did this happen?

Funny how the time till the big day keeps getting shorter and shorter, but the "to-do" list keeps getting longer. However, since the last time I blogged, we really have gotten a lot done. This week we even ordered our invitations (finally!).

I want to back up a little to the idea of bridesmaids dresses though. We actually accomplished this one back in February, I just never got around to blogging about it. As far as our wedding party goes, we're not having anything out of the ordinary.

I know bridesmen and best women are becoming more and more popular these days, but we're rather generic when it comes to this stuff. However, we have decided to forgo some of the common titles for our bridal party. I prefer to lump them all up as the Chickadee's Circle of Love. Mr. Chickadee on the other hand refers to them as our "posse." Either way, come June we're going to stand at that aisle surrounded by some of our favorite people in the world. But what they'd be wearing? Well that was a whole other issue.

See the thing is, my half of the circle of love range in age from 24 (my big sis) to 12 (my youngest cousin). And there's that little issue of there being seven of them. Yes, seven. So, the big trick was to find one dress for seven very different, but equally, lovely people. I had considered putting my younger cousins in a different dress (a la junior bridesmaids), but I first just wanted to see if there was anything out there that would work for all the girls.

Early on in the planning process I had gathered a few inspiration photos of what I'd ideally like to see on my girls.

First were the fun, yet sophisticated dresses of Knottie springchic, who basically inspired my whole wedding.

I loved the pop of the yellow flowers against the summery white & black dresses. These dresses were from White House | Black Market, but were no longer available when I started my dress shopping.

However, I did find something similar from David's Bridal:

[I photoshopped those flowers in myself, so they look a little funny, sorry!]

I was still a little concerned about how busy something like this might look, with the all-over pattern. For a more simple look, I absolutely adored the dresses from LJ-user 1999's wedding:

1999 got these dresses from a local department store and made the yellow sashes herself.

So, armed with a few inspiration images, I gathered my entourage and headed out to the stores. The goal of the day was to have fun, which I think really helped everyone get through the arduous process of climbing in and out of dresses, and in the end I think it meant we ended up with a really fun dress. It's not at all what my mom or my sister would have picked, but I absolutely LOVE what my girls are wearing. And I think they even like it!

We ended up going with style 1343 from Impression bridal. Here it is on the grouchy looking model:

[Imagine it in black!]

Here's my older sister in the dress:

[Ignore the somewhat stunned look on her face, it's hard to get good pictures!]

I think it will be absolutely perfect for the wedding - the perfect combination of young and fun and flirty. I know that shopping for my girls' dresses could have been a total nightmare, but instead it was actually a really great time. The girls were all enthusiastic and willing to try anything. I know this just means they'll be amazing to have around the day of our wedding :)

Now if only we could figure out what the boys are going to wear...

More Stationary Issues

Although I have not technically chosen my invitations (the Chickadees are still in negotiations) a new problem has cropped up that I want to bounce off the Weddingbee hive.

We are currently house-hunting. We have not technically chosen the house either (hmmm, notice a trend here? Yes, we are indecisive) but we are getting close to a decision. So as it stands now, we are hoping to have a new address in the near-ish future. We're a little shaky on the timing as well, though.

All this boils down to the fact that I have absolutely no idea what return address/RSVP address I ought to get printed on our invites. I don't want to put our apartment address because we might not be living here when the invitations get sent out & returned to us. However, I'm not sure we'll have a new address by the time we have to order invitations either.

I know it used to be traditional to have RSVPs returned to the bride's parents, but it just doesn't seem practical, especially when my parents live in Dallas and I...don't. And I would sort of like to see them before the wedding and after next weekend I don't think they'll be up to Illinois again.

So the alternative is to have them all sent to Mr. Chickadee's parents' house. As it is, we have registered to have our gifts delivered there, as well as my passport, in case this moving thing causes a problem with those things as well. But basically I don't want people to think it's weird or that we have randomly, without telling anyone, moved an hour away.

So I imagine there has to be a billion other brides out there in this exact same predicament, right? How are yall dealing with this? Any suggestions (or anything to just calm my fears that this is not weird at all)?

Love for Kenzie Kate

Word to the wise: Do not order samples from your favorite invitation company when you don't actually have the money to order them...unless you want to end up like me.

See, it all started when Mrs. Bee posted about the gorgeous invitations over at Kenzie Kate. Being a big fan of something old, something new, I had seen the web site before. But Mrs. Bee's post happened to coincide with my recent decision not to make my own invitations, so I checked it out again.

I was playing around on the site, admiring the beautiful designs when I came across the The Palm Springs design. Needless to say, it was love at first sight.

So I thought I would order a sample. It was inexpensive and so easy. How could a girl resist? I'd almost forgotten I'd ordered them until I found the package in my mailbox today. And boy oh boy was I in for a treat.

I knew from the beginning that the Kenzie Kate invitations were just a bit too rich for my blood, but I can't help but gush about them a bit, for any of you brides still looking for those perfect invites.


This is what I found when I opened the package: complete with chocolate colored tissue and a note from Mackenzie herself.


Yes, it is as pretty in person as it looks on the Kenzie Kate site. The yellow is bright and vivid, perfectly paired with the modern grey pattern. And the ribbon accent? Just too cute for words.

The site allows you to choose two invitations to be sent in the sample, so I also got Aberdeen because it was so pretty.


It turns out Aberdeen is just as dreamy, with creamy cardstock and rich colors. Mr. Chickadee actually liked this one better than the Palm Springs!

So, anyone out there choosing Kenzie Kate for your invites? Which design did you go with?

Or, anyone like me and fall in love with something completely impractical? Come on, tell me all your guilty wedding pleasures!

Snow Day Fun

I thought my days of lounging around the house while it snowed buckets outside were over upon graduating high school...

but surprise! SNOW DAY!

Unfortunately, Mr. Chickadee is not so lucky...so while he's working hard I'm spending the day doing productive things...you know, like walking around in my wedding shoes and veil. Breaking in my shoes, pretending to be America's Next Top Model, same thing, right? Right.

As you may remember, I'm the bee suffering from veil-a-phobia, so the fact that I was wandering through a bridal shop, fell in love with a veil (that actually looked right on my head!) and took it home with me that day is a little bit surprising. But I guess when you know, you just know.

My veil's short and perky (just like me!) and I think it'll add a lovely bit of whimsy to my wedding day ensemble.

My veil on the day I bought it (left) and me today, in my lazy snow day mode (right).

The stock image of my shoes from zappos.com (left) and my actual shoes in white (right).

On the same day I found my veil (which, I should mention was also the day we chose bm dresses and got my mom's dress), I also picked out my shoes. This was, again, a total impulse buy.

My mom, sister, aunts, and cousins (why yes, I do travel with an entourage) were wandering around Woodfield Mall, enjoying some smoothies, when we decided to swing by Macy's. In the shoe section, I found these beauties, and seriously, within 5 minutes of walking into the store, I was at the cash register paying. They're perfect with a peep toe, short heel, and jewel accent! They're Caparros, style: Vincente.

Despite these items being bought on complete and utter whims, I really really love them! I think I'm starting to discover that agonizing over every little decision will only cause this whole wedding planning process to be an utter nightmare. Sometimes it's best to just run into a store, buy what you need, and run out before you can have second thoughts!

Wedding Procrastinator, Extraordinaire

Hi, my name's Miss Chickadee and I'm a wedding procrastinator.

I'm proud to announce that it's been almost an entire week and a half since my first (and hopefully last) major wedding breakdown, which was followed almost immediately by a wedding intervention courtesy of Big Sis & Mama Chickadee. Needless to say, it was an intervention worthy of Dr. Phil himself, complete with motivational speeches, list-making, and more than a few tears.

The good news is, I am a reformed Chickadee and the proud possessor of 100 COMPLETELY FINISHED Save the Dates. I also managed to check many many other things off my to-do list...including a few toughies like choosing a veil, shoes, and bridesmaid dresses!

Today though, is going to be completely devoted to my Save the Dates. I know what you're all thinking, though, "didn't we already get a post about this?" Um, yes. Good memory. You're right, I did already write about them... but they've changed. What can I say, it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind.

Sure, I had to learn the hard way that I just don't like the way my gocco prints, or that the swirly patterned vellum that looked alright in the tray at Hobby Lobby is just not my thing, or that it actually takes way more adhesive than you could ever estimate, but in the end (with a little help from Paper Source and a lot of help from Mr. Chickadee) I finally have STDs that I LOVE.



The supplies:
#10 Open End Envelopes in Curry from Paper-Source.

#10 Flat Cards in Black.

Tons of yellow ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

These magical adhesive mounting squares.

A reliable paper cutter (best paired with a very methodical fiance).

A nearby Office Max/Kinko's/copy shop to print for you.

The Process:
1. Work up your design in your favorite layout program. If you have InDesign or QuarkXpress, that's awesome, but you can do it just as well in Publisher or something similar. I used a combination of the fonts Scriptina and Orlando for our design.

2. If necessary, take Miss Flamingo's advice and turn your design into a Vector image.

3. Turn your design into a PDF and head over to your print shop of choice. A tip for all those black and white brides out there....if you're just doing a basic black text on white paper, ask for it to be printed with the color printer, not the b&w printer at a place like Kinko's. It'll cost you a little extra but it'll be higher quality!

4. Time to get cutting. This is my least favorite part, as I always manage to miscalculate EVERYTHING. This might be a good time to call your hubby-to-be in for some couples crafting super bonding time.

5. Stick all your layers together. I really recommend these nifty little mounting squares. They don't leave a mess, are easy to apply, and keep all your pieces smooth.

6. Ta da! You're done!

Having the Save the Dates done is a HUGE weight off my shoulders. What was the task you found yourself procrastinating the most? Any tips for staying motivated with the wedding planning?

Jumping on the Bandwagon

Like so many others these days, I've been a very busy bee. In addition to the usual pre-holiday hubbub, I've started a new job and it's keeping me very busy. I feel like right now I'm also in a bit of a wedding lull. I've hired all my vendors, made all the big decisions, and now I'm just waiting to get cracking on all those DIY projects (like those Save the Dates I haven't worked on since July!).

However, I've noticed a lot of bees posting their engagements pictures lately and realized I never posted mine. We ended up getting our pictures done on two different nights since our first attempt happened on a cloudy, rainy night. We got our pictures back soon after and Mr. Chickadee and I love them so much! It was so much fun to get to see our photographer, Mark Romine, in action.

Once we got the proofs back we decided to order a photo guest book of our engagement pictures. Just yesterday Mark e-mailed me to let me know the design was ready for my approval!

You can see the entire guest book design here but I'll leave you for now with one of my favorite pages!


Photos by Mark Romine. I think clicking makes it bigger.