The STDs Revisited

So, I have successfully made the prototype for our Save the Dates. I must say, all of my crazy wedding research and blog stalking has made me learn quite a few new design skills! I am by no means a pro, but I am learning a lot. There is no way I would have been able to design these 6 months ago.


Since our invitations are going to be a very formal navy and white (with maybe a hint of yellow), I wanted our STDs to be mostly yellow, and more playful. I like the overall design, and I enjoy the yellow envelope, but I am not sure what to do about the backing on the card. I did try the material backing that I mentioned previously, and here is what I came up with:



The back looks like this:


Even though I loved the extra texture that the material provides, I worried that the pattern on the front combined with the different pattern on the back was just too busy. So, I used different backings to see what they would look like. Here is the STD with yellow backing:


.....and navy blue:



What do you think? Which one do you like best?

P.S. For all of you who will be guests at the wedding, but are not traveling from out of town, you will not be getting one of these. I am only making them for people who need to plan ahead. If you are coming from out of town and receive one of these in the mail a couple of weeks from now, try to act surprised, please!

Blinging out the Girls

Doesn't the name of this post make it sound like I am going to talk about diamond encrusted underwear or something? Sorry to disappoint!

I've been watching the Rachel Zoe Project (I have a lot of time for Bravo lately), and loved the way she styled her celebrity clients for the Golden Globes. I was particularly happy to see that both Debra Messing and Anne Hathaway wore navy blue, further convincing me that the colour choices that I made for our wedding are indeed chic!

I loved Anne's overall look, and plan on using it as inspiration for my bridesmaids!


I am fairly certain that I want the girls to wear long dresses, and I know that I want them soft and flowy, as opposed to taffeta. This way, they will mirror my wedding gown (more on that later). I made these decisions long ago, and Anne is simply modeling my vision.

However, it was Debra's outfit that had my creative juices flowing. Actually, her dress was kind of a mess, but her accessories were amazing!


Don't you think that those emerald earrings against the navy of the dress are just to die for? They are so unexpected and striking! I think that they would look amazing on my girls.

What do you guys think? A dress like this one from Nordstrom:


Paired with earrings like this from overstock.com



Hmmm....maybe that doesn't tie into our navy, white, and yellow theme. Hmmm....maybe I don't care.

The Traditional Wife

For the last couple of weeks, I have been working very hard to organize Matthew's closet. It started out with me sorting and throwing out his old, out grown clothes, and advanced to folding and neatly stacking all of his garments (the man has over 90 t-shirts!). For the last couple of days, I have found myself endlessly ironing all of his dress shirts and pants, and meticulously placing them on hangers so that they are ready for future wear. When my future FIL saw me ironing again last week, he said: "You know, ironing was one of the first things that my wife taught me when we got married, so that I could iron my own shirts!" This got me thinking about why I was so concerned about ironing Matthew's clothes. Am I trying much toohard to fit into the stereotype of what a "wife" is supposed to do for her husband? Am I forming habits in our relationship that will forever box me into being Matthew's glorified house keeper?

Upon further thought, I came to the conclusion, that when I iron Matthew's shirts, I really do it for me. You see, Matthew doesn't care whether or not his shirts are ironed. He could go to work wrinkly every single day and not let that effect his productivity or self esteem. I, on the other hand, love to see him in a crisp, ironed, dress shirt. I think that he looks so handsome and clean, not to mention grown up! I must admit however, that there is an old school Polish part of me that believes that the way he looks reflects on me as his wife. I realize that this is an irrational way of thinking that has been forced on me by my traditional upbringing. Alas, being from an old school Polish family has rubbed off on me, and not always in positive ways.

Do you iron the shirts of your husband/fiance/boyfriend?

STDs

Since we have had a looooooooong engagement, I have been so frustrated at the fact that I couldn't actually plan anything for certain, in fear of changing my mind. Now that we are less than 10 months out and it's time to get started, I am finding that I have no idea what I want!

Matthew's mom has been asking me to think about sending Save the Dates, since her family is spread out all across the USA, and will be traveling to the Greater Toronto Area for the wedding. I hadn't really thought about sending these out, because they are not customary for Polish weddings. Actually, I had never received one myself!

Nevertheless, I realized the importance of getting the word out ahead of time so that people could plan their vacations appropriately, so I started searching for inspiration (any one else out there believe that searching the internet for ideas is the hardest and most complicated element of diy?).


I have fallen in love with these fabric backed invitations, and am thinking of incorporating this idea into our STDs. I am going to try this out tonight, and let you know how it goes soon!

Finding Common Ground

On Friday, Matthew and I went for dinner and a movie with his friends Luke and Kristin. Because the boyfriend and I are kind of senior citizens these days, we were worried that the 9:35pm movie would put us to sleep. To prevent this from happening, we ordered some coffees to help keep up our energy. As always, I was practically done mine before Matthew had even begun drinking his. As Matthew was finishing explaining that I have a very high heat tolerance in food and bevarage (mostly due to the Polish obsession with drinking teas and eating soups), and he could devour ice cream at record speeds, Luke inturrupted him and said: "Other than your height, do you two have anything in common?"

We both were speechless for about half a minute (which as you know, can seem like an eternity during an awkward moment), both because we were shocked that he would say something like this, and because we couldn't actually think of a single thing that would counteract his reaction (I'm emberased to admit this, but the only thing I could think of was that our feet are the same size). The truth is, Matthew and I are polar opposites. He likes indie music and movies, I'm happy with Brittany and Brad Pitt. He understands how machines work, I am better at understanding people. He studied sciences, I studied humanities. He plays video games while I read.

Matthew and I have been dating for over 6 years, and it's not like we hadn't noticed that we were different. We even broke up for 8 months during university to try to find partners with more similarities. But to tell you truth, we have discovered that the true similarities that we posses can be found in our morals and values. We are both first born children, which has taught us to be caregivers, and given us a desire to build a family of our own. We are also adventurous, and have a strong desire to explore and admire the beauty of the world around us. We both enjoy trying new and different foods. And most of all, we are both addicted to gathering knowledge, which has enabled us to learn from one another. I think that this is the most important part of our relationship. If we were exactly the same, we wouldn't have the opportunity to experience things that our outside our comfort level. Plus, being polar opposites ensures that we don't get jealous or compete with one another.

I think that we are truly a case of "opposites attract", and even though I know that we do not need to justify our attraction to anyone else, it sometimes makes me sad that people cannot always see how perfectly matched we really are.

Our Un-iversary

Today is September 20. One year ago, Matthew and I signed the papers, and made our union legal. Even though we have no plans of celebrating this date as an actual anniversary, we can't help but be a little sentimental today. Starting next year, July 10th will be the most important date in our life together, but what's the harm in celebrating our civil marriage just this once?

There is definitely a bottle of wine and a hot tub in our future!

An Ode to Our Wedding Party

Deciding on a wedding party started out as a fairly difficult decision for me, and than became an awfully simple one. Because I had just graduated from University, I had quite a number of close friends that I still hold near and dear to my heart. There were my three house mates, J, H, and R who were my partners in crime during school, and were as close to family as I had in University. Than there was "the core": a group of friends from my program who are like my intellectual soulmates. There was also M; although she's a friend more recently acquired, we have so much in common that I consider her to be one of the few people that understands where I come from. To round out the group of my closest friends, there is R, a loyal friend whom I have known since high school. All together, that makes 8 people whom I couldn't imagine excluding.

Well, you might think that eight is not such a ridiculous number. I have been in weddings that had more than eight attendants on each side. However, I have yet to discuss my family. I have a younger sister, who without a single doubt in my mind would be my Maid of Honour. Also, Matthew has a younger sister whom I adore, and I desperetly wanted her to stand by my side.

So that makes ten....ok, the number is getting up there, but it's still not unheard of, right? But what about my cousins? I have one cousin, A, who is like a little sister to me, and 4 other cousins who I am very close to.

All together, that makes 15 bridesmaids. Fifteen! Where would my groom find so many groom's men? Fifteen was just too much....cuts would have to be made!

But who to exclude? I didn't want to insult anyone, and I didn't want anyone to think that their relationship with me was less valuable. So I did the only thing that I could think of.....I cut everyone! I decided that I wanted our wedding party to consist of siblings only, which works out quite perfectly since Matthew and I both have a brother and a sister. Since my friends and family are an increadibly talented bunch, they will be included in other special ways throughout the wedding. I truly hope that none of my friends are hurt by my decision, and I hope that they are excited about getting to choose their own dresses for the big party!