Ted and Shay: To the world's two greatest moms!

Ted's mom

Shay's mom and grandma

Ted and I are pretty lucky kids; we have the most amazingly incredible moms! We both feel so fortunate to have these women as our soon to be mother-in-laws. Their support and love is almost overwhelming, and they are two of the most creative and inspiring people we've ever known.

So Judith and Mary, thank you for everything you've done for us and for bringing us up the way that only each of you could do.  Without you, we would never have met! You're the best mom's out there!

Love always,

Ted and Shay

Ted and Shay: I guess I am Predictable

Since my wedding planning mantra has become "I will not buy bridal magazines" I've been scouring the web for ideas and inspiration.  My google reader is subscribed to approximately 82 different blogs about all things wedding.  It's simple this way, when I have a spare minute or two during my day I scan through the new blog posts and star anything of interest. When I get home at the end of the day, I saddle up to my laptop and review. I'm big on images. When I was younger and purchased magazines on a regular basis, I found it cathartic to clip out images that inspired me. I had binders spilling over with clippings and cork boards ready to fall off the wall due to the weight of all of the scraps pinned up.

Life has been simplified and now I just save images to my massive external hard drive, which is littered with folders all titled and organized (insert nerd comment here).

I think I've mentioned that I'm tackling the project of making my own wedding dress, and I have an idea in mind of how I want to design it, but it's the details and the colors that I've yet to nail down.

I'm in full on project mode with the season change and I'm antsy to make some decisions so I can actually get started on this beast.  I decided to go through my "Wedding Dress" folder and see what all lived in there.  There was a trend:

Good lord! I know I'm a magpie at heart and anything that sparkles grabs my attention, but PINK!?! I think I'm going soft now that I'm a blond.  This little block of images wasn't all....

Maybe the dress I made for myself last summer for Brian and Rene's wedding was a premonition:

Ah camera phone pictures...It was a blush/nude/pink satin from a Theory dress I ripped apart into the above little number. The original dress was worn to a wedding several years before.

I think the color might work. My big reason for hesitating on a color is my hair color is influx right now. Naturally a brunette, currently working towards platinum, but not sure how long I'll be able to live with it. The obvious progression is to go bright red next, and then fall back into brunette and finally black.  There are over 5 months before the big day, which is a lot of time for change.  A pale pink would work with all of the options, I think.

Just as long as I don't end up looking like chewed-up bubble gum, or a blob of cotton candy, this color might be the one.

xoshayox

Row 1 images via Vintageous, Tara LaTour Lindemeier, Giles Spring 2010 RTW via Style.com
Row 2: Maggie Gyllenhall via Style.com, D&G via Net a Porter, Oscar de la Renta Pre Fall 2010 via Style.com
Row 3: Vogue image via East Side Bride, JCrew, Classic Bride
Row 4: Roksanda Ilincic via Net a Porter, Vera Wang Fall 2010 Bridal via Brides, Shana Faust
Row 5: Jorge Terra via The Sweetest Occasion, Stella McCartney via Net a Porter, Keri Hilson via Marie Claire
Row 6: 3.1 Phillip Lim via Net a Porter, Lanvin Spring 2010 RTW via Style.com, Albino via Yoox
Row 7: Vintageous, 100 Layer Cake, Vintageous



Since my wedding planning mantra has become "I will not buy bridal magazines" I've been scouring the web for ideas and inspiration.  My google reader is subscribed to approximately 82 different blogs about all things wedding.  It's simple this way, when I have a spare minute or two during my day I scan through the new blog posts and star anything of interest. When I get home at the end of the day, I saddle up to my laptop and review. I'm big on images. When I was younger and purchased magazines on a regular basis, I found it cathartic to clip out images that inspired me. I had binders spilling over with clippings and cork boards ready to fall off the wall due to the weight of all of the scraps pinned up.

Life has been simplified and now I just save images to my massive external hard drive, which is littered with folders all titled and organized (insert nerd comment here).

I think I've mentioned that I'm tackling the project of making my own wedding dress, and I have an idea in mind of how I want to design it, but it's the details and the colors that I've yet to nail down.

I'm in full on project mode with the season change and I'm antsy to make some decisions so I can actually get started on this beast.  I decided to go through my "Wedding Dress" folder and see what all lived in there.  There was a trend:

Good lord! I know I'm a magpie at heart and anything that sparkles grabs my attention, but PINK!?! I think I'm going soft now that I'm a blond.  This little block of images wasn't all....

Maybe the dress I made for myself last summer for Brian and Rene's wedding was a premonition:

Ah camera phone pictures...It was a blush/nude/pink satin from a Theory dress I ripped apart into the above little number. The original dress was worn to a wedding several years before.

I think the color might work. My big reason for hesitating on a color is my hair color is influx right now. Naturally a brunette, currently working towards platinum, but not sure how long I'll be able to live with it. The obvious progression is to go bright red next, and then fall back into brunette and finally black.  There are over 5 months before the big day, which is a lot of time for change.  A pale pink would work with all of the options, I think.

Just as long as I don't end up looking like chewed-up bubble gum, or a blob of cotton candy, this color might be the one.

xoshayox

Row 1 images via Vintageous, Tara LaTour Lindemeier, Giles Spring 2010 RTW via Style.com
Row 2: Maggie Gyllenhall via Style.com, D&G via Net a Porter, Oscar de la Renta Pre Fall 2010 via Style.com
Row 3: Vogue image via East Side Bride, JCrew, Classic Bride
Row 4: Roksanda Ilincic via Net a Porter, Vera Wang Fall 2010 Bridal via Brides, Shana Faust
Row 5: Jorge Terra via The Sweetest Occasion, Stella McCartney via Net a Porter, Keri Hilson via Marie Claire
Row 6: 3.1 Phillip Lim via Net a Porter, Lanvin Spring 2010 RTW via Style.com, Albino via Yoox
Row 7: Vintageous, 100 Layer Cake, Vintageous

Ted and Shay: Registry, aka breakin' the rules

We weren't planning to do a traditional registry for a few reasons:

We've been living together for a few years, we don't own a house and we're planning on jumping this midwest ship in a few years, so it didn't really make sense to upgrade our existing stash or ask for more stuff we'll just have to move. We're also the types that when we do need stuff (especially kitchen things) we first visit Goodwill, then check out Marshalls/Home Goods/TJ Maxx, AND then check out the clearance racks at department stores. We're not cheap, just thrifty!

We planned to do a "honeyfund" where you tell everyone where you're going on honeymoon, and they give you gifts to make it happen.  But all of the honeyfund sites we found take a percent of the money you get, and the options they gave weren't really what we were looking for. 

We ended up setting up our own make-shift honeyfund through PayPal.com  But, we're only going to San Francisco and it probably won't be for long since Ted's work NEVER lets him take more than a few days off at a time.  In other words, our honeymoon isn't going to cost much at all.

We played around with a few registries, but none were as inclusive as we would like. That's when we discovered that Amazon.com has a registry option AND they let you add stuff from any site on the web!?! How cool is that?

We nimbly added things that we actually need, at first...

For example, Ted owns two towels, and I found out that he has owned these towels since high school! It might be time to cut them up into rags and invest in a new set.  But I'm not much better because my towels are the ones I brought to college with me...12 years ago!

Then we started adding practical "gift" options, like cookbooks we've been drooling over (ps-we're total foodies), interesting kitchen utensils we wouldn't mind having, and other things like that.

Then someone (I'm not naming names) told Ted that if he registered for a PS3, this person would get it for him.  I figure if Ted can register for a $300 toy, I can sure as hell register for a stand mixer, right?

This week I took the serious plunge. There is something all of you who have never registered before must understand before I indulge: registering is like dream-shopping without spending any money! We totally realize that we won't get everything on the list, but hell, if someone wants to add to the china that my grandmother gave me, I'm going to give them the link where they can buy it!

Now where my confessional stems from is a single book: The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook.

I added it to the registry, but thought I should probably check it out first to make sure it's something we could really use.  Picked it up at the library and my mind was blown! They included all of the equipment tests in the book! I proceeded to load up the ol' Amazon registry and click click click, added a good portion of the essential cookware items they listed. 

I feel better having gotten that off of my chest.  So if you want to shoot a little lovin our way, in the form of a gift, it'll be one less cocktail glass we'll have to buy the next time Ted gets tipsy and karate chops a glass off the coffee table.

xoshayox

Ted and Shay: Wrapping up the STDs!

Just popped these bad boys in the mail this weekend and what a difference a mail clerk can make. We found these cheeky stamps online:

But when we brought the envelopes to the post office, we were informed that we needed an additional 20 cents due to non-machinable surcharges. I know envelopes just get thrown away, but I was kind of stoked about the Bob Hope stamps, and there are no 20 cent stamp options. We would have had to put two 10 cent boring stamps on the envelopes as well. So the next day I hauled the lot in to get a buttload of 10 cent stamps when the clerk looked at me like I was being high maintenance and told me they would be fine with just the 44 cent awesome stamps.  Whew! 

The envelopes are just A2 little guys that I found at Goodwill in a big box for 99 cents (beats paying $5 for 20!)

The only bummer about tiny envelopes is most versions of Microsoft Word don't have an option for printing them.  There is a way around it though.  Treat the envelopes like a piece of paper and enter the dimensions in the custom size option.  Works for the front and if you plan to print on the lip of the back.

Last project we crafted up came from our distaste for envelope glue.  After hunting around for envelope seals or even goofy stickers we came up with squat, so we made our own!

Picked up a pack of 8 1/2 x 11" labels (the full page type)

A large circle punch (of course I used a coupon so it was only $6)

We took one of our engagement photos LaceHanky took

Resized it and duplicated it

Printed on the label sheets and punched away. Boom, custom envelope seals!

Save the dates done in under $100!!!

We're only sending these to the small group invited to our teeny ceremony.  I threw this electronic version together for the hoards that will be invited to the massive reception.  Only problem is if we send out a massive email with the image attached, I'm thinking it will get marked as spam in everyone's inbox.  I don't think evite.com would be the best way to send out just a save the date.  Gonna have to hunt for another online option for these....

xoshayox



Ted and Shay: Drool-worthy dress!

I'm planning to make my dress for the wedding but having a heck of a time finding the fabric that I want. I was imagining a beautiful black and white striped satin, but I've only been able to find icky costume fabric or outdoor canvas.  Then I saw this totally to-die-for gown in the April issue of Metro magazine:

Pafoua Thao of PFT Couture, is the incredibly talented (and LOCAL!) designer behind it.

Just for the hell of it, I emailed her to find out if she would mind disclosing her source for the fabric. She's so awesome she emailed me back right away, however when I went to hunt the satin down, they were out of stock and weren't planning to get anymore in.  SAAAD FACE SHAY!!!!

If I had a bigger budget and didn't already have a perfect conceptualization of the dress I want in mind, I would 100% go to Pafoua for a dress.
 

Her collections are so beautiful and unique, her design perspective is impeccable.


Check our her interview with l'etoile. We're so lucky to have such an incredible group of design-minds here in the Twin Cities!

It's probably best that I can't find a quality striped fabric though.  My hair color has gone from black to brown to blond in the past few months and I have no idea where I'll be on the color spectrum come October.  Black and white stripes just don't really work with my skin tone and blond hair.  I'm thinking the hair will have to change by that point...

xoshayox

Images via Metro Mag, Model Mayhem, Jessica Kempen Photography