Talented Ladies!

Several weeks ago, I hosted a little get together with my ladies - my four bridesmaids, and my future-mother-in-law. Of course, my mom was invited to, but she had a prior committment and was unable to attend. (We tried to reschedule, but with everyone's busy schedules, it just didn't work out.) I wanted my sisters, my best friend, my future-sister-in-law (also a bridesmaid), and my future-MIL to get to know each other a little better!

We all met for lunch at my favorite restaurant in town and had a lovely dinner. Then we went to a store called The Bead Garden, for a private jewelry making class. This was to be part of my gift to my bridesmaids: we were making jewelry for them to wear at the wedding! I think some of them were skeptical about their skills and creativity, but I'm sure you'll agree, they all made gorgeous jewelry!!

In order of appearance: Future SIL "L" with her earrings, best friend "S" with her earrings, and sister "J" with her earrings. Unfortunately, sister "M" didn't finish her earrings that day, so I will make sure we get a picture at the wedding! Each bridesmaid also made a pretty bracelet to go along with her earrings. Here's one last shot of everyone working on their masterpieces!

Like Cinderella... Almost

I might as well just say it plain and simple: "I am horse crazy!!!"

This picture was taken of me last fall, on a trail ride with some friends and family. This is one of the other "men" in my life. (Yep, I have more than one horse!) His name is Rip, and he is a registered American Quarter Horse, as well as a former race horse. Can you believe he is now 19?! Looks pretty good for an old guy.


Now that you've been properly introduced, I'll give you a little history on my love of equines. I have been riding my whole life. When I say whole life, I truly mean it. You see, my mom, also horse crazy, got her first pony when she was 8 years old, and has never been without a horse since. While it is scary but true, being pregnant with me didn't stop her from riding! And of course, I was put on a horse's back before I could even walk. I started out on a pony named Penny, got my first horse Goldie around my 9th birthday, and commandeered Rip (formerly my dad's horse) at the age of 12. Through middle school and high school, I competed in 4-H and open shows. Once in college, I rode competitively for my college's equestrian team. Nowadays, my riding is mostly for fun, but I have recently taken up the sport of Dressage and hope to compete again someday with my young horse Ducati (one of the other "men" in my life). Ducati is a branded North American Oldenburg, otherwise known as a warmblood. This picture was taken when he was only 2 1/2 (now 5 1/2), so he has filled out and grown significantly since, but you'll get the idea.

So what does all of this have to do with Cinderella, you might ask? The horse and carriage of course! What horse-loving bride-to-be doesn't want a horse and carriage at her wedding?! Fortunately for me, my wonderful fiance has really taken to my love of horseback riding, and is quickly becoming horse crazy too! In fact, I think he was more adamant about including horses in the wedding than I was...


Unfortunately, this has proved to be a very difficult task for us. With our wedding being in the middle of nowhere in northern Wisconsin, there were no cinderella carriages or Vis a Vis available... Although my family has plenty of our own horses that we could have used, it just wouldn't have worked logistically, trailering them 3 hours from home, who would take care of them, where would they stay for the night, etc. Just when we were about to give up our search, we found something!


So technically, we have a horse and carriage booked. Will the guy show up? Not sure. Is there a contract? Nope, he didn't want one. Did we pay a deposit? Nah, he didn't need one. Did he give us any sort of confirmation or agreement that he'd be there? Sure, he said, "Yep. August XX. That will be just fine. Just stop by a couple weeks beforehand, and we'll figure out the details." I hope that means the horses will be clean, the driver will be well-dressed, and the carriage will be polished! He was able to show us digital pictures on his camera of the team and carriage that we will have, so that put my mind at rest a little bit. If he does in fact keep his word, we will have something like this:

A 10-person Wagonette

Plus

A pair of black and white Paint horses

Plus

A dressed-up cowboy

(Source + Source + Source)

I'm sure you're thinking, so what happens if this mysterious vendor doesn't show up? Honestly, I will be disappointed. I know my Josh will be disappointed even more. But the day will go on! We haven't paid him a dime, so we won't be out any money. Bottom line, our wedding will still go on, horse and carriage or not.




Have you had any experiences with not-so-professional vendors? Did they come through for you?

Princess Lasertron

A new cartoon she-woman?

A Star Trek character?

A sci-fi heroine bound for theaters?


(If you know who this is, pardon my attempt at humor!) When I read the name Princess Lasertron, all sorts of odd things come to mind. But it wasn't the name that caught my attention, as I used it to catch yours. It was this picture along the side bar of another blog:





When I first saw it, I wasn't sure if I was looking at polymer clay creations, fanciful sugar paste flowers, or artfully decorated sugar cookies, but I was pleasantly surprised to find none of the above! Artist Megan Hunt started her company in 2005 and creates the most beautiful bouquets out of vintage fabric, felt, and vintage buttons. Her bouquets are truly whimsical and a wonderful alternative to the traditional fresh flower bouquets. Her blog is full of photos and inspiration.






Since I do love fresh flowers for the wedding, I'm thinking perhaps my rehearsal bouquet! You see, I didn't have any wedding showers, so I have no paper/ribbons/bows etc. to craft a rehearsal bouquet. I've been looking for something fun that could also be a wonderful keepsake. I think I've found it!


Has anyone else found an interesting alternative way to do flowers? One of my other favorites are the neat Flower Kits from Paper Source...

Love It: Artecnica

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Ever since seeing this photo on the Knot, I've been drooling over Artecnica's "Until Dawn" curtains! They are made of Tyvek, and as an aspiring architect, I know that name well! If've you've built a house, you probably know too, but for anyone else who has no idea what I'm talking about, Tyvek is a synthetic material used as a building wrap. It is attached to the exterior sheathing, prior to the installation of siding, and is otherwise known as the air infiltration barrier. (In English :-), you cover your house with it before you put on your siding, to help keep the wind out.) Tyvek is tear, temperature, and moisture resistant. Dutch designer Tord Boontje, aka Artecnica, has created a laser-cut curtain out of this strong paper-like material, and it is gorgeous!! After seeing the photo above, I hunted down the product and found they cost anywhere from $90 to $125 each! Not for my budget, I thought.

Then this morning, a new email from One Kings Lane arrived in my inbox. "Denyse Schmidt and Artecnica Events Now Open!" Artecnica, I knew that name! Could it be? Was the "Until Dawn" curtain one of the items included in the sale?!? I was super excited to find out IT WAS!!! And at $49 (half the cost!!!), I could surely make room in my budget for that! Unfortunately, the beautiful lime shown above wasn't available, but lilac was, which will fit into my color pallette equally well!

My curtain, however, will be used a bit differently than the picture from the Knot. I am doing a seating chart, rather than escort cards, so I have two ideas for it. 1) A beautiful backdrop for the cake (the hall's walls are plain white) and 2) To display photos of my honey and me, clipped on, much like the escort cards. So we'll see what I decide... but either way I'm very excited to recieve my whimsical curtain!

Here are some other cool items designed by Artecnica: (The item on the left is a shade for a hanging lamp, and the item on the right is a table lamp with shade.)

P.S. If you've never heard of One Kings Lane, it's an exclusive home decor sales company that features top brands at discounted prices, sometimes up to 70% off! Each brand is only featured for a few days, and the items are only for sale while supplies last. If you're interested, let me know, and I'll email you an invite to join OKL.

Pretty Toes

With less than two months to go, and my first fitting coming up fast, I have finally found the perfect shoes! While I would love a pair of Stuart Weitzmans, Badgley Mischkas, or Kate Spades, they were simply out of my price range.


While I scoured the internet, I really wanted to be able to try the shoes on first... Unfortunately, the bridal salon's in my area had very few shoes to choose from, and I just wasn't finding anything that tickled my fancy. So I visited Macy's, JCPenney, Kohl's... Who would have thought it would be so difficult to find white shoes in the middle of the summer?! On a whim, I visited the local DSW to see if they had anything. While I didn't find anything that would work for me, I found these beauties:

They are "Whimsy" by Sam & Libby. At only $45, they almost made me want to include pink in my palette just so I could wear them! Alas, my search continued.


While perusing the WeddingBee Blog, I found a clearance code for Aldo.com from Miss Joey. (If you like Aldo, be sure to check it out!!) I went on there and found the perfect pair of shoes! They are called "Zorana" and were on clearance for $37.46! Done deal!! Even if they didn't fit, I could return them to my local Aldo store and continue hunting. (The shoe pictured is black, but I ordered mine in white, of course!)

The search was over, or so I thought. I kept looking back at the Aldo shoes, and I started to worry about their height and pointy stilletto heel. While my honey is 6 inches taller than me, I knew I could get away with the extra inches. But truth be told, did I want to?? High heels = sore feet, and the last thing I wanted to do was to run around the reception hall barefoot! So I continued perusing wedding shoe websites. Yet again, I found "the perfect pair" of shoes... "Celine" by Nina. And the best part? They are dyable, so I can still have my beautiful colorful shoes like I posted about a while back!!! Here are my mid-heeled, (temporarily) white satin, beauties:

I ordered them from http://www.myglassslipper.com/ (bridal shoes section), and was amazed at how quickly they arrived! They fit perfectly, and the lower heel is super comfortable. NOW, the search is really over, just in the nick of time. My first fitting is tonight!

Cookie Monster

Okay, I know this is a bit off topic, but I just had to share!! If you don't like chocolate chip cookies, you can probably skip this. For the rest of you, enjoy!

I found this recipe over on Janice Rusnak’s blog Scissor Variations. I baked them last night with my Little (Big Brothers Big Sisters program), and we loved them! Hands down, this is the best recipe for guaranteed soft, chewy, chocolate chip cookies that I've ever tasted!

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It's not your typical back-of-the-chocolate-chip-bag recipe, so you'll likely have to go shopping for an item or two. Well, one item, that I definitely did not have in my cupboards: Instant Vanilla pudding mix. Sounds odd, but I'll never bake chocolate chip cookies again without it!

Here's what you need:

1 cup butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 pkg vanilla instant pudding mix (96g size—the regular 4 serving box)
1 Tbsp milk
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups milk chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheets and set aside. (I used my stainless steel cookie sheets.)
In a large bowl, mix together butter, and brown and white sugars. Stir in dry pudding mix and milk. Stir in eggs and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and baking soda, stir this into your butter mixture. (The batter will be a more moist than usual, but you don't need to add any extra flour.)


Drop by heaping 1 Tbsp about 2 inches apart onto your prepared pans. Bake in the center of your oven until golden brown around the edges about 12 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

The recipe makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies.

Handbag Love

After seeing picture after picture of brides with boldly colored shoes, handbags, and other accents, it didn't take me long to decide that I wanted to add a little drama and color to my white ensemble too! I particularly loved the colored handbags and shoes. These are a couple of photos that inspired me:

Image Sources: 1, 2

So I've been looking all over for shoes, but have basically had no luck finding anything colored that I like, is in my price range, the right heel height, and the right color. I've decided to I'm either going to have white shoes, or I'll find something I can dye to match my hangbag. Hence, the handbag hunt.

But I'm stuck!!! (Have I mentioned that I tend to be indecisive? lol) I have found several different bags I love, and I simply cannot make up my mind!

While searching the 'net, I came across the company Dylan & Dillion. The company was started in 2004 when two sisters decided to combine their talents. Their motto is "Life is too short to carry a boring bag!" They make an adorable bridal bag that is completely customizable. It's stylish and practical (hands free!), and you have 47 colors of silk duponi to choose from. You can also choose silver or gold for the charm, as well as the color of the Swarovski crystal. At $65.00, it's quite affordable.

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I was practically set on the Dylan & Dillon bag, when I found these two other lovely evening bags:

The first is by the Vintage Metal Mesh Handbag by Savanna. It's on sale on Endless.com for around $30. I know, it's sorta odd, compared to the other couple bags. But here's why I love it. For years, my mom has been collecting antique metal mesh bags, dating from the late 1800s, early 1900s. They are from the victorian era. I, too, love antiques, so whenever I'm out bumming I keep an eye out for her. This bag just reminds me of the lovely Whiting & Davis bags my mom has, and the light splash of color is perfect.

The last bag is the Quarnasopra bag by Aldo, which is also on sale at $20. I know the color is not exactly eggplant, but it is just too cute not to love...

Now, if I could only make up my mind. Any suggestions?