• This seersucker dress is comfy and travels well. I was able to stuff mine into a hat box and then unroll it wrinkle-free for my last weekend trip. The fabric might be a bit casual for some weddings, but it could work as a bridesmaid dress for a garden wedding.
• This dress has a sweet, faux-wrap neckline, a flouncy skirt and pockets. The pink is not overly feminine and more antique in color. It would be perfect for a bridesmaid's tea or a wedding shower. Also available in black and white.

Labels: shopping, wedding

posted by Alison 10/16/2007 06:26:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Three Tiers for Penguins!

Previously...

Cake Test
The Backup Cake



I survived making my own wedding cake and ended up with some pleasing results. The fondant didn't work as perfectly as I would have liked, but we managed to hide most of the flaws by rotating them to the back.

Most of the cake was made late at night the Friday before our Sunday wedding. Our Maid of Honor, Maid of Awesomeness (a title earned through months of selfless service toward our wedding), and our Magic Wedding Elf, Frances, stirred big cauldrons of Rice Krispies and molten marshmallow. All involved did an expert job of measuring out huge quantities of ingredients and getting the proportions just right.

My job was to pour, level and ice each layer. Each tier has two layers glued together with Wilton icing purchased in gallon buckets purchased from the craft store. Despite being mostly shortening it had ideal qualities that made it a good choice. First, it didn't discolor or make the cake soggy even after two days of waiting to be consumed. Next, it worked well when we needed it as a glue. All of our layers and tiers stayed firmly in place, it kept the fondant exactly where it needed to be, and it managed to keep the penguins and flowers attached despite being moved three times.

Most importantly, the Groom really liked the taste of the icing, which is the most important thing. The Rice Krispy cake was really for him, as he doesn't care for regular cake. The icing taste was very similar to Twinkie filling. To me, it is better in small quantities, but Mr. Lollipop couldn't get enough.

The outer layer of the cake was made of plain pre-made Wilton fondant purchased in five-pound boxes from the same craft store at the icing. The fondant tasted like it was made of fresh Lucky Charms marshmallows, but it could easily be peeled off for those who couldn't stand the sweetness. The fondant was one of the harder parts to get right, especially for our 14 inch bottom layer. I discovered a too late that the ideal thickness is a little less than 1/4 inch. It is the best thickness to remain pliable, yet hide flaws.

As I said before, we glued the penguins and flowers on the cake using frosting that we dispensed from a pastry bag. For those who missed my earlier entries, the penguins were made of Fimo clay and are inedible, although that didn't stop guests from trying.

Our cake didn't taste all that bad considering that it was made of two-day-old Rice Krispy Treats. We also served two sheet cakes purchased through a local restaurant with delivery service, a Middle Eastern restaurant called Aladdin's Eatery. We managed to get two awesome cakes, an Oreo flavored one and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup one, for less than $2 a slice, including delivery costs. Both supplementary cakes were a big hit and saved me worry about serving stale, be-fondanted non-cake to guests.

The cake itself is sitting on an overturned piece of wooden butcher-block counter top left over from a remodeling project. Mr. Lollipop fashioned it into a an ideal cake board by adding some snazzy handles. The cake board was absolutely indispensable for moving the cake from place to place without damaging it. Keep that is mind if you plan on making your own DIY cake.

Labels: DIY, food, wedding

posted by Alison 10/09/2007 07:14:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, October 08, 2007

Photos from Friends and Family

I admit it, we totally stole Ms. Lemon's idea to collect photos from friends and family using flickr. We printed our account information on the back of our seating cards, and while they weren't as pretty as Madame Lemon's, they did the trick. Well, it helped to have a bridesmaid willing to cajole people by email. (Go Aileen!)

We ended up with some wonderful photos that have a slightly different perspective than our professional ones. My favorite is the shot below of us immediately after the ceremony.


Some photos captured memorable moments even before our photographers arrived. We made the boys wait in the basement after I ran home to get my dress. I didn't want Mr. Lollipop to see me after I'd had my hair and makeup done.

Other pictures revealed the point of view of our friends and family. Along side our professional pictures they provided a more complete record of the day.

I needed lots of help getting my shoes on.


My ladies looked fabulous as they waited for pre-ceremony pictures.


We took a long ride up the zoo escalator to get to the aquarium shuttle.


The best man served as guardian over our plastic Blessed Virgin Mary as we moved her from the ceremony to the reception.


Some of our friends clowned around in the tunnels around the stingray tank.

There are many more photos still to come once our professional shots are ready for release. Stay tuned!

Labels: photography, wedding

posted by Alison 10/08/2007 12:18:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Thursday, October 04, 2007

Tryin' to Get the Pretty

The one bad thing about getting married on a Sunday is that all of the independent, super-fancy-pants salons are closed. (Rats! No temple massages!) I wanted to give all of my ladies a chance to get their hair done, but that would be impractical time-wise if we hired someone to come to us for hair and make-up. Despite being a DIY bride, I knew that I was too incompetent to even do my own eye-liner, so we turned to a local chain for our prettification needs.

Here are the final results. Photo credit goes to my Maid of Honor and her fashion photography skills.


We used Philip Pelusi on the South Side of Pittsburgh. I did a hair trial there and was happy with the results. For both my trial and the wedding day my beautician was Christina, and I would recommend her to anyone looking for a hair and makeup artist. She got married the month before me and had plenty of war stories to share, including a summer storm that caused so many downed trees that her rehearsal almost had to be canceled.

The back also turned out wonderfully. However, my stubborn hair only lasted this way for an hour and a half, but I wanted to do something out of the ordinar because our wedding guests would be staring at the back of us for most of the ceremony.


Mr. Lollipop was obsessed with my hair even after it de-curled itself. It stayed poofy (but not in a bad way) for the rest of the evening and he liked touching it.

Labels: hair accessories, wedding

posted by Alison 10/04/2007 10:46:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Tuesday, October 02, 2007

The Improv Bachelorette Party!

Getting married on a Sunday on a holiday weekend has its benefits. One of the biggest was that Mr. Lollipop and I had a chance to have our bachelor/bachelorette parties the Friday before the ceremony while most of our friends and family were in town. Perfect.

My party was planned by my Maid of Awesomeness, Saralinda. She borrowed a giant SUV and stocked it with water and snacks and drove us all on one car. I requested two things from her: to go to Friday Night Improv, and a total ban on all penis-related novelty items. Both of my wishes were granted.

Friday Night Improv is a weekly show held at the Studio Theatre in the basement of the Cathedral of Learning. The format is similar to the show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but audience members are invited to participate in sketches. August 31st happened to be opening night for the season, so the show was extra packed and we ended up sitting on the floor in front of the bleachers. It was extra convenient for those times where we held each other and laughed so hard that we rolled on the ground.

A shot of us with our amazing host, Ben Mayer.


Plus, we were their first bachelorette party, ever! That somehow gave the Maid of Honor license to yell "Take it off!" at most of the male performers. Still, we mostly behaved ourselves and I got to be the bachelorette in a Dating Game sketch. I left the theater as the bachelors and their quirks were chosen. My job after I came back in was to ask three questions and guess what was wrong with each. An example:

ME: If we went on a date, what would you write in your blog afterwards?
BACHELOR #1: (In a falsetto) Well, we would ride horses and then we would almost kiss, and then we would siiing and then siiing some more...

Then bachelors #2 and #3 would answer, and so on. Below is a picture of me with my potential "dates": a Disney princess, a man obsessed with English literature, and some one who was molting. Guess which one was Bachelor #1.


The MOH also did a sketch of her own. It was a Shakespeare themed sketch where one of the other performers was stabbed and died on top of her. That was the most action any of us got that night with a stranger.


FNI ended at 1 am so we ran over to my favorite bar, the Library on Pittsburgh's South Side. I managed to get myself tipsy rather quickly, but there were few boys to flirt with. Well, there were a few on the second floor patio, but they were related to one of my 'maid's ex-boyfriends. Hmm. Awkward.

Then, at 2am tragedy struck. Noo! Not closing time! I hadn't made out with random boys or at least had a chance to talk about it before chickening out! While we stood outside trying to decide what to do next I saw my brother in law come out of the bar across the street, and then another brother in law and then Mr. Lollipop and the rest of his bachelor party. The South Side flats has over 80 bars in an area a little less than one square mile and we coincidentally picked two across the street from one another. Yay! So, instead of awkwardly, drunkenly hitting on strangers I made out with Mr. Lollipop in the middle of the street. There is a distinct possibility that I traumatized my younger brother, but it was a happy ending to the nightlife portion of the party.

We separated from the boys again and went to Saralinda's house where we drank my favorite kind of liquor, which is anything packaged in a tiny bottle. I fell asleep almost immediately while everyone else stayed up late and watched the BBC Series Footballers' Wives, which is for the best because I have a hard enough time following that show while sober.

So, I had a great night on the town with my ladies. Three cheers to Saralinda for organizing it all!

Labels: wedding

posted by Alison 10/02/2007 03:00:00 PM : (2) comments : splink


Monday, September 24, 2007

It's a Steal and It Was on TV!

Okay, I will admit that I am a huge fan of Arrested Development. I own all of the DVDs, refer to each episode by its title, and force friends to watch whenever I get the chance. So, I have been following the official prop and wardrobe auctions since the beginning on ebay.

So, why am I posting about this? Well, this week there is a wedding dress for sale, one worn on screen by Charlize Theron as she played the part of Rita in the third season. And while Charlize might have worn it over her clothes, it's still a cute dress by the designer brand Melody Of CA and a steal at $103 (as of this posting). Plus, it comes with a fuzzy pink crown. How could anyone resist?

There isn't any size information available, so be prepared to invest in a good seamstress.

Labels: dress, wedding

posted by Alison 9/24/2007 07:37:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, September 23, 2007

We're back...and oh, the mess!

We came back a few days ago to a wrecked house and (thanks to an infestation of pantry moths a few days before the wedding) no food. Our luggage and unopened gifts turned our living room into a pond of stuff, more fit for wading than walking through.

Still, it was a relief to be back and sleeping in our own bed. It was an even bigger relief to have a pile of unopened gifts waiting for us at 5:30 in the morning when jet-lag left us unable to do anything but toss and turn. One of the best so far has been a family genealogy where Mr. Lollipop's relatives thoughtfully added me to the family tree. Aww!

Our professional pictures should be ready soon as will my recaps of our honeymoon destinations, Bali and Hong Kong. Whee!

Labels: honeymoon, wedding

posted by Alison 9/23/2007 08:54:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, September 03, 2007

Shh! Don't tell anyone we're married!

Wow. I married Mr. Lollipop 24 hours ago, and now I am sitting in the Phoenix airport for the first of many connections before we arrive at our honeymoon destination. I feel so happy, so satisfied and so full of love. I'll be posting pictures soon and writing about our trip, but first I'll need to fulfill my backlog of pre-wedding entries. So, let's just pretend that I'm getting married in two weeks, or until I catch up. Thanks!

Labels: wedding

posted by Alison 9/03/2007 05:48:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Friday, August 31, 2007

Cake Test

Our cake baker has finally returned one of my messages and now I am officially on my own for my wedding cake. Strangely, I feel relieved. I won't be stuck with a cake that I haven't seen before the wedding and I won't hurt my baker's feelings if I show up with a backup cake. She's a friend and having a tough time, so instead of being irritated I have nothing but sympathy for what she is going through.

Anyhow, full speed ahead!


You know what I learned this week? Icing things is hard. Actually, the spreading of the icing on the cake isn't difficult, but getting it to look professional is really, really hard. The little perfectionist demon on my left shoulder told me that a cake that looked home made would never work. The resident of my right shoulder gave up and moved out a few months after I got engaged, so it was silent.

With a default victory for the demon I decided to blow some more money on pre-made fondant. Despite my misgivings, it is surprisingly easy to work with and looks amazing with just a little effort. I only hope that it scales up well for the larger layers.

I glued our toppers on with just a little bit of icing.

Labels: DIY, food, wedding

posted by Alison 8/31/2007 11:13:00 AM splink


Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Other Miss Lollipop

A few days ago, on a whim I googled my WeddingBee name and discovered that the top result is not for a person, but for an airplane. The original Miss Lollipop was a B-17 bomber that flew missions over Europe during World War II. While the lovely Miss L found an inauspicious end at the bottom of the English Channel after only three months of service, the coincidence stirred the aviation genes deep within me.

And those genes came directly from my father, an aircraft mechanic. When I was younger, he took us to dozens of aircraft museums and we would spend hours looking at aircraft spanning the whole existence of human flight. And my dad knew something about each one, some fact or story. I really treasure that time spent with him and with the things he knows best. My brother must have felt the same; he grew up to be a pilot. I grew up to be someone who really loves planes. Every year when I lived in DC I would go to the Air and Space Museum for my birthday and would name as many planes as I could when driving past as a tour guide.

So, my inner aviation nerd collaborated with my inner design nerd to produce two stenciled B-17 travel cases, one for me and one for Mr. Lollipop.


A quick how-to:

The original cases from paper source:

Print your image on the back of a a sheet of contact paper:


Cut it out with a craft knife:


Stick your new contact paper stencil where you like and rub the edges with a spoon to seal.


Lastly, just spray paint, wait a few seconds and peel.

Labels: DIY, wedding

posted by Alison 8/21/2007 10:26:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, August 19, 2007

Lino Block Print Thank You Cards

Our post-wedding thank you cards are much different than our pre-wedding cards and most of our other stationery. This is mostly because 1) screen printing in multiple colors is labor intensive and 2) I am tired.

So, I went with a single color linoleum block print of our logo:


Linoleum block prints are cheap and easy to make. They are basically an easier to carve version of a woodblock print.

You'll need a linoleum block (mine is 3" x 4"), a carving tool, ink, a brayer and something to print on. All of my supplies came from from a local art store and cost less than $20. Here is how to make your own:

Print a picture of the one-color image you want to carve and glue it lightly with a glue stick to the linoleum block.


Cut an outline of the image using your carving tool.


Peel off the printed image.


Carve out the rest of the negative space.


Now you have your very own single color lino block.

Inking and stamping has a few more steps than a plain rubber stamp. First, you'll use ink from a tube instead of an ink pad. Find a flat, easily cleanable surface for rolling out your ink. I use a piece of glass I had cut and polished for this purpose, but an old dinner plate would probably work just as well. Just put one or two dollops of ink on your surface and roll over it with the brayer until its roller is fully coated. Be careful about how much ink is on the brayer, too much and you'll lose detail, too little and parts of your print won't get inked at all. Just keep rolling until the brayer makes sort of a sizzling noise as it rolls over the ink.

Next, apply your inked brayer to your lino block coating all of the parts you intend to print. Place the block over your paper and stamp. For extra clear prints, use a spoon to rub the back of paper on the stamp before removing it.

Labels: papercraft, wedding

posted by Alison 8/19/2007 02:49:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Friday, August 17, 2007

Getting Everyone Home Safe

So, our hotel block didn't work out too well. My fiance's family booked a hotel 12 miles out of town so that they could save a few dollars and my family procrastinated until the block expired. In the end, only five rooms out of the 20 were reserved before the deadline. We had planned to hire a shuttle service to drive everyone back to their hotels so that no one would have an excuse to drive while intoxicated. However, with our family scattered to the wind such a shuttle suddenly became impractical.

What should I do? Would it be enough to frame some phone numbers for taxi companies, place them on the bar and leave it to the guests to make their own arrangements?

Labels: wedding

posted by Alison 8/17/2007 01:16:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Thursday, August 16, 2007

Sayin' it with a Flag

I'm not really in to having things thrown at me or leaving a mess on the church steps, so I had to think of something to replace the traditional rice or bird seed. Bubbles wouldn't be a good substitute; I've never been able to open those little bottles without spilling their contents all over myself.

So, to give everyone something to hold I decided to hand out flags:

I just screen printed on some rectangles I cut from muslin and serged the edges to keep them from fraying. Of course, one could substitute rectangles cut with pinking shears if a serger is not available. Each flag was glued to a bamboo skewer (100 for $3 in the barbecue section at the grocery store).

The transparency used to screen print them:


I only made 60, which will not be enough to cover our 200 person wedding and I might not have time to make more. I made 100 quick ribbon wands to supplement the flags, but I feel like a ribbon on a stick might be too silly for most adults. Still, they would make for colorful photographs. What do you think?

Labels: screen printing, wedding

posted by Alison 8/16/2007 01:15:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, August 13, 2007

Our Invitation Inspiration - Part II

Part I

Mr. Lollipop once tried to add up all the time I spent on our invitations. I had to stop him because I couldn't contemplate the amount of time I put into them without losing my mind a little. I started sketching in November, did the design in April, screen printed in May, letter pressed in June, and finally mailed them in July. Of course, I had lots of help on the last three, but the point is that I spent lots of time in the print studio that could have been used to learn a martial art or a new language.

Still, I don't think I could bear to let anyone else design our invitations.

I put invitation page together to carry on the tree theme we used on the cover: My original digital mock-up:


Luckily, our parents were really understanding when we couldn't get the letter press calibrated to add everyone's first names.

Also, I drew dozens of trees (one can be seen on the cover), but ended up buying the rights to use a much nicer one from istockphoto.com. That website is a great place to legally obtain the rights to all kinds of vector images for those who like to design, but have trouble drawing. Our map and directions page:


I drew the map using an old copy of Macromedia FreeHand. We used the pattern at the bottom of the page to register the layers of ink.

The full package, including a rehearsal dinner invitation and a website card:


An assembled invitation:

Labels: DIY, invitations, screen printing, wedding

posted by Alison 8/13/2007 12:26:00 PM : (0) comments : splink

Other People's Invitations

Need invitation inspiration? Here are a few amazing invites from around the internet:

• Luau's screen printed and letter pressed invitations
• Juicyyumburger's fantastic gocco invitations
• Cupcakes for clara's pop-up invitations
• Think_ink's playing card invitations
• Chocosaur's retro bird invitations
• Wishingline's beautiful fall-inspired invitations
• Redmeg8's DIY silkscreen invitations

Labels: invitations, wedding

posted by Alison 8/13/2007 12:12:00 PM : (1) comments : splink


Thursday, August 09, 2007

Thank you very much!

Our first pre-wedding gifts have started arriving and our house is slowly filling with boxes and packing peanuts. I love checking the porch everyday to see what has arrived. I'd initially wanted to avoid registering or register only for a charity, but I was talked out of it by my mother and my fiance. Now, I look at the online registry every day to see what has been purchased for us. Deep down I am a greedy little monkey. (However, we do have a donation registry at Heal Africa just to balance out our karma a little.)

Anyhow, getting presents means writing thank you cards. I'm terrible about getting them done just because I feel obligated to write much more than a "Thank you for X!" Mr. Lollipop puts the same amount of thought into his thank you cards, but he is a lot more disciplined about getting them done. So, we usually do them together to prevent me from procrastinating. For our shower thank-yous we sat in the library for three hours and each wrote half. My mother's family tends to fall into traditional gender roles, and they were shocked and amused to receive ones from Mr. Lollipop. Really, without him they would never get written, and besides, he picked out most of the registry himself!

Just as with our other correspondence, we created a customized design. This is our wedding shower and pre-wedding thank you card:

Labels: papercraft, screen printing, wedding

posted by Alison 8/09/2007 08:02:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, August 06, 2007

Hijacking an Art Exhibit for Engagement Photos

As you can probably tell by now, we tend to do things our own way. And that way tends to be the cheapskate way. So, instead of hiring someone to pose us on the Monongahela Overlook we decided to take advantage of one of our favorite places in Pittsburgh, the Mattress Factory Art Museum and do it ourselves.

The art museum was built out of (as you might have guessed) an defunct mattress factory. It's a highly interactive museum for one geared towards adults; most of the exhibits are 'experienced' rather than viewed. One of the permanent installations is a set of two rooms with polka dot floors and mirrors on all the walls and the ceiling.

We spent a Saturday morning last December laying on the floor of one of the exhibits trying to get something we could send out with our Christmas cards. Since we weren't planning on sending our photos to the newspaper for an announcement we decided that we could afford to be a little unconventional. I made the dress in the photo myself, adapting a shirt pattern into a full length shirt dress.

We sent a few different versions to friends and family:



This one is my favorite, but I screwed up the exposure timing and not even Photoshop could save it from the resulting weird coloring:

Labels: photography, wedding

posted by Alison 8/06/2007 01:41:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Thursday, August 02, 2007

Yet More Wedding Threads from Ask Metafilter

• Invitations: Do we have to address all of these things by hand?
  
• What did you say to your significant other when you asked for their hand in marriage? Or, on the flip side, what was said to you?
  
• Three ceremonies in three countries or just elope and send everyone a MOV file?
  
• We've been invited to a Buddhist wedding. How can we stay faux-pas-free?
  
• What happens when two people with hyphenated last-names marry?
  
• We're frantically searching (our minds, the intraweb) for pre-ceremony songs.
  
• My fiancee and I aren't sure if we should do pre-marriage counseling or not.
  
• Which species of ducks mate for life?
  

Labels: ask metafilter, wedding

posted by Alison 8/02/2007 01:41:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, July 30, 2007

Our RSVPs are Fowl

Mr. Lollipop's favorite animal is the duck. For his birthday one year ago I rented two ducks from a nearby farm and he spent the evening following them around the yard and smiling.

Lots of work went into our invitations, so I wanted to try and draw some creativity our of our guests in return. Other than real ducks, what could be better for the water fowl obsessed man than armfuls of paper ducks from our loved ones? Plus, the paper kind don't poop everywhere or gorge themselves on our our garden herbs like the real thing.

Thus, our RSVP cards were born:


We've had a terrific response so far with lots of personal messages and notes. Only three party-poopers out of the more than thirty replies have returned without some kind of embellishment.

Some of our haul:


This one was done by a professional illustrator:


Two of Mr. Lollipop's relatives couldn't come so they sent a duck in their stead:


We will display the results at the reception and have a drawing for a prize.

P.S. Numbering the invitations really saved out bacon. Quite a few came back with ducks but no names or nothing at all. Don't expect everyone to remember to write their names!

Labels: papercraft, wedding

posted by Alison 7/30/2007 11:42:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, July 29, 2007

More Wedding Threads from Metafilter

Some more Ask Metafilter wedding threads:

Is it acceptable to ask the bride not to seat me next to someone in particular?
Do you regret having spent all that money and energy on your big, splash-out wedding?
How do I make my destination wedding enviro-friendly?
Help my girlfriend and I gracefully decline a request to work the reception table. Again. And forevermore.
Snappy comebacks, please, for the question: so, when are you going to have children?
What needs to be done to get married in a church?
Can anyone suggest interesting science-flavored demonstrations, experiments, or spectacles to be performed at a wedding?
Entertainment alternatives to dancing at wedding party?

Labels: ask metafilter, wedding

posted by Alison 7/29/2007 12:48:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Thursday, July 26, 2007

Invitation Inspiration: The Cover Design

When I was a little girl I was obsessed with the Funk and Wagnalls science encyclopedias available in our supermarket. The first volume covering A-Aq sold for only 9 cents so it was easy to talk my mother into buying a copy. For months, it was my most prized possession and I read from 'aardvark' to 'aquarium' savoring each entry. By far, my favorite entry was 'animal'. It contained a massive taxonomy tree covering two pages. I studied the chart like it was for a grade.

Once we decided on a zoo reception venue, the chart sprang to mind as a convenient, organized way to incorporate and expand our animal theme. I drew many of the animal/plant/monera kingdom illustrations myself, though I nipped a few (namely the horse, butterfly and frog) from one of my copyright free illustration books and converted them to silhouettes.

The digital design layout:

In order to print multiple colors we broke down our digital illustration and converted each layer to a simple black and white image. Here are our results; we printed each on a transparency in order to burn them on to a screen:


Screen printing the illustrations turned out to be time consuming. The green background took more than the usual amount on time because I wanted the color to go all the way up to the edges, so when we placed each card we needed to add scraps around the edges to keep the ink from smearing onto the back of the screen and smudging future copies. Doing this 200+ times really adds up.

In addition, the tiny animal/plant/etc. illustrations lost details when we added more ink than needed. Therefore, we had to print reeeeally slowly and blot the screen at the first sign of trouble. Thanks goodness for the patience of our friends.

We also had a fourth layer of ink, the dotted swirls in the illustration above, but I couldn't decide whether I liked the extra embellishment so only half of our invitations carry it.

If you really want to learn to screen print check out this tutorial.

Labels: invitations, papercraft, wedding

posted by Alison 7/26/2007 01:26:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Our First Vendor Blip

Arg...I'm kicking myself a little for not doing better research on our photographer. I hired his company after going to a bridal show and hating every photography booth except for his. I really liked the style of his photography and decided that it was worth the significant expense. However, since then I found two online reviews, both negative. I decided that we could avoid most of the pitfalls mentioned in the reviews by having a clear list of the photos we wanted and being up front about our priorities.

Well, we had our last meeting with our photographer before the wedding and it didn't go so smoothly. We have had two prior meetings, and each went amicably. In the mean time, I've had a chance to look at photographs from other weddings and decide what I want for mine. Going in to this meeting, I knew that in addition to traditional ceremony posed shots and candid reception shots I wanted photographs of the reception venue and its set-up before the guests arrive and the tables get trashed. With this in mind, I signed up for two photographers so we could get the coverage we need.

Here is how things went wrong: First, he expanded the six shots we wanted for our posed session to more than 24, by moving most of the pre-ceremony shots to the post-ceremony session. Then, our photographer insisted that both he and the assistant photographer be present for our entire posed shot session, and no, one of them cannot go to the venue early to cover the reception details. Why? Because the posed shots will suffer and pictures of people are more important than pictures of things. I know he's the professional, and pictures of us with our families are a top priority, but he didn't seem to get how important seeing pictures of the (non-trashed) details were to me. Our wedding is pretty heavy on the DIY, so most of the details represent the hard work and creativity of my loved ones and myself. Unfortunately, there was no compromise on his end.

My disappointment colored the rest of the meeting, and poor Mr. Lollipop tried to play diplomat, but didn't meet with much success. The short end of it is that our photographer is going to do what he wants to do and we'll need to hire a third (!) photographer to get the shots we want. Crap. It's too late to hire anyone else and we've already paid a hefty deposit.

The moral here is to always check online reviews before handing over a deposit.

Labels: photography, wedding

posted by Alison 7/25/2007 09:40:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, July 22, 2007

A few more Ask Metafilter wedding threads:

Can an Episcopal Priest marry me in a Catholic Church?
Should we serve hard liquor at our wedding reception or just wine/beer?
Tipping at one's wedding--to whom, how much, and based on what?
What should we expect from a "day of" wedding planner?
I know the traditional one year anniversary gift is paper, what are some creative interpretations of that?
What should I do for a bachelorette party?

Labels: ask metafilter, wedding

posted by Alison 7/22/2007 12:40:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Friday, July 20, 2007

Snackable Centerpieces

I really, really like fresh flowers, but we didn't have money in the budget to pay for baskets of flowers for 20+ tables or the time to assemble them. My fiance liked the idea of using fresh fruit in the arrangements, so we experimented and found something that we both liked that would cost about $16 per table.



The Bird of Paradise blossoms will be about $1.75 each from our florist with a bulk purchase, and there will probably be three in each final arrangement. The vase in the center is a beer glass from Ikea (6 for $6.99), and the glass is filled with $1 of Jabo marbles purchased in bulk from ebay. The bowl is a $3 plastic punch bowl from Target*, and it is filled with a $6 crate of clementine oranges that will be purchased from a local fruit distributor. I managed to get clementines on our wedding date last year from the grocery store, so I am crossing my fingers that they will be available from the wholesale shops again.

We needed something simple that could be assembled quickly by the wedding coordinators and would fit well with the reception venue. We will be sitting in an Amazon rainforest exhibit next to a waterfall, so the Bird of Paradise should work well. Additionally, the stems should be tall enough so that views across the table will be unobstructed. Mr. Lollipop also likes the idea of guests snacking on the centerpieces if they get hungry. We'll be gluing the vases to the bowls to keep them from tipping over even if all of the oranges are removed.

*Target changed their punch bowls a little a few months ago, so the current version is a little taller and narrower

Labels: flowers, wedding

posted by Alison 7/20/2007 09:40:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Thursday, July 19, 2007

An Edible Bridesmaid Bouquet

Exactly one year out from our wedding date I decided to do a test run of our bouquets and centerpieces so I could get an idea of what was in season for September. I really wanted to do the flower arrangements myself to save money, but I had no experience at all. I figured that if I screwed up I could always just have the female bridal party carry books or lanterns down the aisle.

To save even more money, we decided to use fruits and vegetables to cut down on flower costs. Plus, I was having a tough time finding flowers in anything other than weak, pale green shades. So, I decided to do a test run of the bridesmaid bouquets using green bell peppers, broccoli and asparagus. The pepper and asparagus bouquets turned out horribly because, as I said before, I didn't know what I was doing. They were asymmetrical and lumpy.

However, when I tried a third time using broccoli I managed to get results I could live with. I used alstroemeria, white chrysanthemums, mini white roses and an outside layer of bells of Ireland to surround a head of broccoli in the middle.


The flowers in the picture came from Whole Foods and our Maid of Awesomeness is serving as the hand model.

The flowers for the wedding itself will be come from Jim Ludwig's Blumengarten in the Strip District. They will be selling us wholesale flowers for bouquets and centerpieces as well as pre-made boutonnieres and corsages. This will cost us about $400.

Labels: flowers, wedding

posted by Alison 7/19/2007 08:23:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, July 15, 2007

Wedding Goodies from Metafilter

A few useful wedding-related Ask Metafilter posts:

How to make a wedding toast when you only know one half of the couple?
Event Liability Insurance Recommendations
Good sites for affordable bridesmaid dresses?
How many camels is my girlfriend worth?(Ha ha.)
Vanity Filter: Becoming an iconic bride
How do you refer to a divorced couple attending a formal function together?

Labels: ask metafilter, wedding

posted by Alison 7/15/2007 12:22:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Thursday, July 12, 2007

The Postal System Works!

The first reply cards have arrived! The first came from my cousin and included a lovely sketch of a duck (Clark's favorite animal) on the front. It will be our first contest entry! Yay!

The second card came with nothing, no name, no drawing. The number attending was written on the back, but there was nothing else. Luckily, we marked each RSVP with an ID number. We just checked the spreadsheet and matched the mystery card to Clark's aunt and uncle.

A refresher of our RSVP card:

Labels: papercraft, wedding

posted by Alison 7/12/2007 11:04:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine Will Be the End of Me

I [heart] Martha Stewart Weddings. I can't stand most wedding magazines, especially the ones focused on celebrity weddings*, but MSW just has the right combination of DIY and impeccable taste to make me anticipate each new issue. I call it my 'wedding crack'. I love flipping through it for inspiration, but seeing some of my own ideas, the ones I thought were completely original, on the pages of MSW will ruin my day+. Despite this, I devour issue after issue.

Most of my friends managed to get married without magazines. I have failed to live up to their modern frugal woman ways. I try to read one issue of a news magazine (usually the Economist) to balance out my vapid reading habits, but now, thanks to an impulse buy, I have seven back issues of MSW on their way to me.

I won them in two ebay auctions. I hadn't intended to buy them, I always get sniped out of whatever I bid on, so I expected them to go to someone else at the last minute. Five arrived today and I have been pawing through them instead of working on my machine translation system. They are so pretty and colorful and one even smells like expensive soap.

The biggest problem with these magazines is that they plant ideas in my head that shouldn't be there. They put me in a fog where giving out taper candles as favors and edging 200 treat boxes with artfully cut doilies sounds like a great idea...and then I'm internet shopping...and then disaster follows. It takes a brisk walk for me to come back to reality.

Yep. It's time for a walk. I almost ordered 250 green metallic Chinese takeout boxes.

*That goes double for wedding television programs where people are focused on copying or outdoing a celebrity. I saw one where a woman was obsessed with topping/imitating Star Jones' wedding. Really? Star Jones? Why are you making your wedding about someone else?

+I can't believe you, Martha! Screen printing favors and place mats was my idea. How could you do that to me in the summer 2007 issue?

Labels: wedding

posted by Alison 7/11/2007 02:09:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, July 09, 2007

Movies Are My Stopwatch

In college, I started measuring tasks based on the number of movies I can watch while doing them. When I worked as a lab instructor I would watch the Godfather movies while grading papers. The worst weeks would get me most of the way through Godfather Part III.

Wedding tasks are pretty tedious, but most are ideal for simultaneous movie viewing. Plus, now that we have a DVR I have no shortage of cheesy movies awaiting perusal. Here are a few wedding tasks and their movie lengths:

Task: Sorting 2000 marbles into bags of 80 for use with the centerpieces
Time: 90% of the Original Planet of the Apes
Pain: Minimal, PotA is a classic and Charlton Heston's scenery chewing acting style is always amusing. My fingers were dusty after sorting all of those marbles.

Task: Cutting 250 8" paper circles out of green paper for use as table decorations
Time: Part 1 & 2 of Empire Falls
Pain: Moderate, four hours of townsfolk with so much earnestness that my retinas almost detached from eye rolling. Also, four hours! I can't take bitter town life for that long. On the physical pain front, my arm was a little sore from using the circle cutter.

Task: Tagging and Assembling 20 children's treat bags
Time: Just my Luck
Pain: Moderate to Severe, I should really learn to avoid all Lindsay Lohan movies outside of Mean Girls. This one was especially insipid and saccharine. The physical pain was minimal, just a sore back from sorting toys for hours on the floor. Luckily, there were brightly colored doodads to distract me.

My precious bags of marbles:


Our kid's bags cost us less than a dollar each. Most of the toys came from post-easter sales and the Ikea clearance bin. Here is a bucket full of them:

Labels: wedding

posted by Alison 7/09/2007 03:51:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, July 08, 2007

Comfort vs. Looks

Shoes! I purchased four pairs from Zappos.com, from the fancy and painful, to the plain and painful. Happily, I found one pair that feels like a dream on my feet. They are ballroom dancing shoes and they have extra padding to keep by feet happy for hours. They are the only pair of heeled shoes that have ever I owned that feel ready to be worn in a 5k race.

Unfortunately, Zappos only sold its white ballroom shoe in a non-leather version, so they look a little like plastic Barbie shoes. My wedding dress should cover them for most of the night, but I plan on wearing them with my much shorter getaway outfit. It would be a pain to lug a second set of shoes to the reception and I hope everyone will be too drunk to dwell on the less than perfect texture.

The sublime feeling/less than sublime looking shoes:


Update: Arg! I just learned that Zappos has a new leather version of my shoe!

Labels: wedding

posted by Alison 7/08/2007 11:14:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Saturday, July 07, 2007

90 Down, 60 to Go

The first round of invitations have been mailed. Phew! Even with three people working for most of the Fourth of July, we only got through the first 50 out of the full 150. 90 have now been completed and we are still faced with one more day of printing, cutting, addressing and stamping.

This is our last major task before getting married, and the biggest time commitment so far. I think we spent less time in premarital counseling than we did on these things.

Luckily, we have the food, bridal party, clothes and location locked down. Now that we have notified everyone we are left with just minor tasks before the big day. Even if those don't get done we can still show up and get married and feed everyone.

Here is the resulting invitation package, including a rehearsal dinner invitation there are 7 pieces. The colors are off due to my busted camera:


The assembled invitation:


The screen printed front cover, a slightly different version from the assembled one above:


Our (redacted) invitation and map pages, letterpressed and screen printed:



We'll be having a drawing contest using our RSVP card. We'll be giving out prizes at the reception. Each is numbered just in case they arrive without a name written on them:

Labels: DIY, invitations, wedding

posted by Alison 7/07/2007 04:35:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Tuesday, July 03, 2007

The Getaway Dress for My Getaway

My 'getaway' dress was once supposed to be my wedding dress. On a trip to Thailand two years ago, one year before my engagement, I had the top secretly made at a tailor's shop while attending a Machine Translation conference alone. I had been with my (now) fiance for about five years. At the time, I'd imagined a much more casual wedding, possibly with a bowling alley reception. So, I went to the shop, gave them a sketch and it was in my hands three days later.

My wedding has changed to a much more formal affair and my simple bowling-ready dress has been replaced by a beaded number with a train. However, it would be a shame to let such a pretty silk top go to waste. Now, it will be what I change into when my wedding dress gets to be too cumbersome at the reception.

I purchased matching silk after my aborted New York Father's Day trip and made a knee length circle skirt to complete the outfit. Just to add some character, I drew a picture of a vine a few days later and silk screened it around the hem.

Before:


After:

Labels: DIY, dress, preeety, wedding

posted by Alison 7/03/2007 12:01:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, July 02, 2007

Saint Mary and the Sewing Machine

I have just a few things that belonged to my grandparents on my mother's side. They had 18 children and 40+ grandchildren, so their possessions were stretched a bit thin when they died. That's why I feel really blessed to have things from them that mean a lot to me.

First, I have my grandmother's sewing machine. She sewed blankets and stuffed animals for all of her grandchildren. Every year at Christmas she would send everyone a box full of handmade goodies. When I was in elementary school and obsessed with dinosaurs she sent me a 3 foot long stuffed green brontosaurus.

I've been using it to sew a few things for the wedding. I've made my reception headband on that machine as well as part of my getaway outfit, and all of these things inherit Grandma Power. I'm hoping that her power is to convey long, happy marriages and not child production, although she was a champ at the latter.

Some headbands (inspired by Jennifer Behr) from my magic Kenmore sewing machine:


The second thing I have from my grandparents is a plastic Virgin Mary statue. You see, they were really, really Catholic (as if the number of children didn't give that away), and the plastic statue stood on their staircase landing for as long I as I can remember. When my grandfather died my family had a special ceremony and bestowed it on my aunt Cathy, the oldest of the 18 offspring. Eventually, it was passed along to me and I had to whisk it away before my other relatives found out and challenged me for it. It's cheesy, but I love my Blessed Virgin Mary and she stands at the top of my steps.

She'll also be standing on the altar at the ceremony as a tribute to my grandparents.

The lady herself:

Labels: sewing, wedding

posted by Alison 7/02/2007 12:59:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, July 01, 2007

Wedding Green Screen Chellenge

I like to think that our wedding has special effects shots. We have been using a green screen to capture silhouettes of us and the members of our bridal party. It's been really fun getting everyone to pose and I like the idea of our decorations as more about the people close to us rather than just about me and my fiance.

We'll be screen printing the resulting images on our invitations, stenciling them onto lanterns and incorporating them into our other decorations. The silhouettes are simple enough to lend them well to a variety of media. The other advantage is that with the right pose silhouette figures can make anyone look good, even if they are making a funny face or wearing a stained shirt.

We used the following improvised green screen method to get our shots. First, we bought a roll of green paper from Staples (~$7 if I recall correctly) and temporarily attached it to our dining room wall with masking tape. We left a little on the floor to stand on so our entire figures, from head to toe, would be surrounded with an easy to remove color.

Next, I imported our digital photos into Photoshop and used the magic wand tool to select all of the green area. Using the brightness/contrast controls I turned the brightness all the way up until everything faded to white. Next, I inverted our selection and turned the brightness all the way down to deepen our color to black.

Somehow, reducing our pictures to just two colors makes us seem less like unkempt ninnies and more like sophisticated ninnies. Observe:



In another shot my parents hammed it up. Unfortunately, they were a little too far off the paper to use this image without a lot of headaches:


Our lanterns will one of the most prominent uses of our silhouettes. I made a few for an art installation in February as a test:


Three more lanterns out of the twelve:


Stay tuned for our silhouette invitations and more silhouette decorations.

Labels: DIY, wedding

posted by Alison 7/01/2007 01:42:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Friday, June 29, 2007

Pittsburgh's Secret Jewelery Abode

There is a special building in downtown Pittsburgh called the Clark Building. Instead of being filled with accountant's or lawyer's or optometrist offices, the first four floors are occupied by nothing but jewelery stores. I've never been a woman who craved jewelery, but there is something about that building that makes me happy every time I go there, and this is despite the fluorescent lighting and drab carpeting. I really like the idea of having all of one type of store in one place. We were able to peruse the whole range of quality and price in just an hour, too short to get bored or sick of looking at the same thing.

Both my ring and my fiance's came from stores on the third floor. I wore mine secretly on the bus ride home after picking it up alone. I've never worn a ring, but I found mine to be instantly comfortable. We are each holding one another's rings until our ceremony to help me resist the temptation to wear mine prematurely again and again.

There is also one store in the Clark Building that sells amazing Tacori hair accessories. Unfortunately, they only sell ones made of silver. I can't justify spending $325 on something that won't match my dress.

Still, I want one!

Labels: DIY, hair accessories, Pittsburgh, preeety, shopping, wedding

posted by Alison 6/29/2007 08:47:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Thursday, June 28, 2007

Now I Know Why Letterpressing Is So Expensive

I never imagined that it would take so long to letterpress our invitations. Last week, I spent two days in a letterpress studio setting type for our invitation wording and directions. If you've never set type before, just image setting tiny metal dominoes.

I was able to use the studio for free as a favor from our friend Nick. It is located in a garage in Squirrel Hill with no running water or toilet facilities. After my hands got too dirty from the type I couldn't rub my eyes. Happily, it rained later that afternoon and I was able to hold my hands out in the downpour to clean them off. The next day I brought a bottle of water and a towel.

A few days later Nick helped me to get the type ready for printing. We spent from 8:00 pm until 4:00 am just setting up the press and adding pieces of onion skin paper so that the type would hit just right. We spent six hours the following day printing and resetting for the next page. Once we finished adjusting the press it took less than an hour for the whole 200+ print run. The same would have taken four hours with a silk screen and would have suffered a much higher error rate.

The press itself is from (circa) 1895. I runs on manual power and moves smoothly despite its age. First, the roller grabs ink from a plate and rubs it on the type. Next, the type pivots forward and kisses the card on the platform. While the roller grabs more ink a human (Nick, in this case) takes out the printed card, lays it out to dry, and then places the next card. All this happens while someone (me or a trained monkey) provides the power by spinning the wheel.

By the time we finished our two sets of cards my arms were ringing and I was sick of looking at my invitations. I gave up on letterpressing rehearsal dinner cards and returned home. I am tired of invitation work, but they still must be assembled and mailed. I would kill for a crafty post office fairy right now.

It's standing room only in the garage:


An iron frame for holding type and spacers called 'furniture' in the type industry:


Some of the type I set:


Paint and shelves of wooden type:


Drying prints:

Labels: invitations, letterpress, wedding

posted by Alison 6/28/2007 12:52:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Thursday, June 14, 2007

I am the Human Error in Screen Printing

My end is almost in sight! The screen printing phase of our invitations is nearing completion. Actually, it would be complete if we hadn't bungled so many copies of the cover illustrations, or rather, if I hadn't ruined so many copies. The best man and maid of awesomeness cranked out perfect invitation after perfect invitation while I smudged and stained proofs that had been perfect up until that last layer of ink. Out of the print run of 200 we are only left with 120 copies of acceptable quality. I'll probably drag my sorry behind back to the studio some time in the next few weeks, but I need some time off from screwing up my own wedding invitations. On the bright side, the other two pages have enough good proofs so that I am not embarrassed to send them out into the world.

I know that most people will toss the invitation ten minutes after it arrives, but even that can't settle the perfectionist Miss Hyde within. No more Martha Stewart for me for a few days. It unsettles the humors.

A look at our current incarnation, the cover, map and invitation wording pages:

Labels: invitations, screen printing, wedding

posted by Alison 6/14/2007 10:21:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, June 11, 2007

Stop the Graphic Design Insanity

I created a wedding logo this week. This is a sure sign that I have too much time on my hands, but I was on a plane and I had nothing better to do. Clark insists that it looks like a company logo, but this will be what we are going with until he offers a substitute.

There should be a rule about this sort of criticism: no complaints without a viable alternative. I don't have the time or brain cells to fix everything on my own. However, in this case, after listening to him I looked at all 9800 fonts at this site, but I decided that I liked the current incarnation. Luckily, I am a font geek and enjoy spending hours looking at typefaces. I did find a few good selections to add to my collection.

Anyhow, I printed out 600 logo stickers to seal our invitations and candy buffet bags at the reception.


I'm tempted to silk screen it onto all of our place mats, but I think the bridal party would murder me in my sleep if they have to spend another Tuesday in the studio.

Labels: papercraft, wedding

posted by Alison 6/11/2007 07:32:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, June 10, 2007

A Lucky Veil from a Happy Marriage

Ho boy! My future mother in law sure is a nice lady. Because she has three boys and Clark will be the first son to marry, I am the lucky heir to some of the to M. family wedding keepsakes. Namely, I'll be wearing her wedding veil. My mom didn't have a one of her own. She borrowed her sister's wedding dress and instead of a veil she wore a big southern-belle wicker hat. Yeah, not my taste, really.

So, I dodged a bullet, an ugly hat-shaped bullet. I'm especially excited to have a veil from a happy, long-lasting marriage. It was cathedral length and attached to a lace cap. I say 'was', because I chopped it to bits this morning. I reduced it to ankle length, removed the cap, converted it to a double layer veil, and rounded the corners even more. My mom will be adding trim to the edges with her new serger.

I did all of this with permission of course. At my FMIL's wedding her husband kept stepping on it, almost yanking it off of her head. Most of my their wedding pictures have her cap askew. Amazingly, it is still intact; there isn't one snag or tear. Even so, I felt evil hacking it up.

Measuring and rounding the corners:


Here are my results:

Sadly, I only have two photograph faces: eyes-closed or crazy.

Labels: preeety, wedding

posted by Alison 6/10/2007 10:53:00 PM : (0) comments : splink