Ceremony!!!

It's hard to believe that 3 years ago I had no idea how to even open Photoshop. :)

In an effort to keep with the Type A theme, I've created a floral layout for the church. I did a trial run this past weekend with the flowers and could not be happier! It looks so much better than I thought it could and feels very classy and elegant. Granted, I'll need more flowers (of course, it's never easy is it?) but it will be so worth it. Since the ceremony is the most important part, it feels good to know that I'm spending time on it as well. So many people get caught up in the reception, which takes about 90% of your time to plan, and I want to make sure people feel the love that went into creating the ceremony as well. (And the love at the ceremony...awwww!)

Many of you have seen my inspiration photo but just to make sure, here is the photo I'm striving to re-create. This is Eva Longoria's wedding....no pressure!

*that's roughly $50k in flowers there people. Some things of Eva's, like her floral budget, will NOT be copied, haha!

I'm hoping to post pictures of my recreation soon but here's what I created in Photoshop to give the ceremony setup person a much easier time. Here it is! This only took 15 mins to create and I'm happy with how it turned out. I think it will make everyone's lives that much easier and will allow for a clean and quick setup.

Back 4 40" vases- 10 large hydrangea stems leaning towards center of room
Middle 4 32" vases- 8 Phaleanopsis orchids leaning towards center of room
Inside 2 24" vases- 8 hydrangea in traditional vase setting
Outside 2 24" vases- 8 white peonies in traditional vase setting
10,000 ivory rose petals scattered throughout vases, down the stairs and all the way down the aisle

That's the setup! And that's our church! The stairs and pulpit area (it's about the same size as a theater stage, haha) are HUGE so I tried to create a layout that would help bring everything in a bit. The wedding party will be standing on the bend of the stairs on the outside of these arrangements and there will be rose petals everywhere! There will also be rose petals (lots and lots of them) stacked on each side of the aisle to bring it all together. In addition, there will be two more arrangements on the other side of the girls. There will lots of flowers! The Unity candle and the Memory candle will both be on the white stand in the center of the photo.

I can't wait to see it setup in real life! And I can't wait to post how the flowers turned out!

The Packet

If you're reading this then you are already fully aware that your dear friend Frances is a full-blown Type A personality. Not only must I feel like I control every situation but I have major anxiety when I know there are some things I will not be able to control. So in an effort to control the uncontrollable, I make it almost impossible for things to fall out of control. It's my effort for my unstoppable force to actually move that immovable object. :)

Enter The Wedding Packet.

If you're involved in our wedding, you're getting one of these bad boys. :) I can't, however, take full credit for this 100% neurotic idea. My wedding mecca, aka weddingbee.com, had another Type A bride who posted this as a template. So I tweaked it a bit but she did all the layout dirty work. Is it weird that I'm slightly jealous I didn't think of this before her? :)

It is an 18 page packet that has everything one might need to know about our wedding and their involvement. Each packet is custom created for each individual so they won't have to sift through things they may not need. And to hammer the nail into the crazy coffin, it also includes maps specific for where each person is staying and where they're going.

Each person will also have the phone numbers of key members of the wedding (coordinator, MOH, BM, etc.) as well as the number to call after 6pm Friday evening until Sunday at 11am. :) You see, I made this crazy packet as a way to put my mind at ease that things will run smoothly and try to relieve myself of all of these worries. My phone will not be with me on wedding day. AT. ALL. So all questions I can possibly think of on wedding day are already answered in said packet and who to contact if they're not.

I hope our friends and family don't take this packet the wrong way. Please know that I trust you guys fully and I'm not questioning your intelligence for getting from point A to point B. I just know that our wedding weekend will be stressful with so many people coming in from various cities/states and it helps to know the plans ahead of time. I am trying to avoid having everyone ask me where they need to be and at what time, and how to get there, because I know I will drop the ball if that happens. I find relaxation when I know the plan of something because then I can schedule what I want/need to do outside of that much easier. Besides, who doesn't love a good map? :)

Layout:

-Logistics Overview- includes contact information of key wedding players, ceremony and reception locations, rehearsal dinner site and Event timeline

-Overview of Weekend Events- includes Event, time, date, location, point of contact, required attendees, optional attendees and a brief description of the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, day of schedule outline for pre-ceremony, bride and groom locations pre-ceremony, ceremony and reception

*stop laughing, I'm not half-way done. :)

-Detailed Wedding Day Schedule- includes where people should be when, arrival times, hair and makeup times, picture times, reception timeline, etc.

-Maps and Directions- custom created for each person's packet. Directions from their hotel to rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, back to hotel, from hotel to bride/groom location, from church to reception and reception to hotel

-Travel Suggestions- room block information, phone numbers and room rates

- Detailed Description of Wedding Day Roles- lists each role, names associated with it and what those people are responsible for. This will be custom to each person's packet as well.


There you have it! The infamous wedding packet. And guess what, those helping with Friday's setup have a packet for that as well. :) Love you all!!!

Shhhh....

Another DIY project checked off the list! My DIY list is getting smaller and smaller and I couldn't be happier. I love knowing that these little details won't be cast aside because I ran out of time as these are the things that really help make our wedding unique.

Each out of town guest will be treated with an Out of Town bag upon arrival as a welcome from us for making the trip! We have a lot of guests coming in from outside of Dallas and I want to make sure they know that we really appreciate their love and support. I already have the OOT (out of town) bags started but those are for a later post. :) One of the things I made for our OOT guests to go in their bags are custom door hangers! I'm really excited about these because they turned out better than I was expecting. They say "Shhh....Recovering from Curtis and Frances' wedding."

Before: boring piece of cardstock and a circle punch.

After!

Door Hanger in Action!

I'm also making one for me and Curtis that says "Shhhh...Recovering from Our Wedding!" They were so easy to make! I printed 2 per piece of cardstock and used my circle punch to make the door hang. What do you think?! :)

Water Water Everywhere!

Last night was a rough one. I had full intentions of coming home, relaxing, finishing up my DIY Water Bottle Labels and going to bed early. Well, after Curtis found a 6 foot snake who moved into our retaining wall in the backyard, needless to say I was useless. I had about 4 panic attacks (tears, hyper-ventilating, the works) before heading to Walmart for Snake B Gone. When I returned I felt better after sprinkling that stuff in every crevice of the house (extra care for the doors) and the only thing I could think of that would calm me down was this project. If that doesn't drive the nail into the coffin that I'm wedding obsessed, I really don't know what does. :)

So, this was another incredibly easy project! I've seen some adorable water bottle labels that brides are making for their Out of Town Bags (more to come on that later) and of course, I had to do the same. Instead of ordering the custom printed labels for $50 or just ordering the Avery stickers for $25, my project came in right at $8, including the water. Can't beat that!

Water Before:

Boring!

I found a cute template online and starting tweaking it to have it follow the same design feel of everything else in the wedding. Here's the label after I cut it out of the cardstock:

In case you were wondering, yes, that is an actual bar code I found online (it's for a chinese frozen dinner), the proper recycling code for bottled water, a thank you from us and a nutritional fact chart that reads: Serving Size 1 Happy Couple Servings per Container 1, Calories 0 (gotta love that!), Love 100%, Trust 100%, Respect 100%, Commitment 100%, Bottom Reads: "Percent Daily Values are based on a lifelong marriage with unending love and happiness." Awwww!

From there, I tried a few way to adhere it to the bottles and honestly, a glue stick worked the best. Score! The best way was to glue the label to the label already on the bottle, I found, instead of removing the Glacier Water label and sticking my label on just the bottle alone.

And voila! Custom water bottle labels for almost nothing!

Our Beautiful New Sanctuary

Our new Sanctuary was completed a few weeks ago and I cannot believe how overwhelmingly gorgeous it is! We are so lucky to be married in this church! This is the first LEED certified church in the state of Texas. LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design so basically it's the first true eco-friendly church in our great state. :)

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves from here..







We didn't realize it but we made it in the pictures from the first service!




It is such a beautiful space and the only thing left to do is hear that huge organ in action! They were tuning it last weekend while we were working with House on the Corner which means it will be played any week now. We can't wait!

We have the Greatest Friends EVER

Yesterday I came home to find this sitting in the mail pile.

WOW, that's all I could say! The wrap-around label, the custom printing of our address, the LOVE stamp, it was gorgeous! So modern, so fun and so very thoughtful. I turned it over to open but someone *ahem* was also excited and beat me to the punch. However, he did such a good job of opening the envelope because the return address was in tact and it was very picture-worthy. He knows me too well!

I knew what was coming from here and couldn't wait to show Curtis! It's our shower invite!!!! Our wedding party is throwing us a Couple's Honeymoon Shower! Everything about the invite screamed Fiji to me; bright, cheerful, colorful and fun but was done in a very classy way. Our friends are soooooo good to us! :) I can't imagine the time (and emails) that went into making these but we are forever grateful for their efforts.

And without further ado, here are the invites! They are flat out PERFECT. And I'm obsessed with the wrap-around look; that is such a popular design right now and I love it so much!

The full suite; side 1. I love the Bon Voyage text and swirls!

The invite says "Please Join Us for Hors D'Oeuveres, Drinks and Cheer at Curtis + Frances' Honeymoon Shower" Why of course!!!

The full suite; side 2. Info about the party and registry information. Notice how it "wraps" around the invite. The wrapping is a theme throughout. So smart guys, so smart. :)

Details! I RSVP'd the second I got it and hopefully was the first one!

Per our request, the party is at our house. It's too perfect for parties with the large deck and downstairs area to pass up that opportunity. I am, however, being kicked out the day of, haha. I may go treat myself to a year long overdue haircut that day while Curtis plays a few holes of golf or something but the anticipation is going to kill me! I love surprises but after seeing this, I'm literally counting down the days until this shower. We really have the greatest friends in the world, EVER!

The invitations were designed and printed by Caroline Latawiec. After seeing these, she's booked for our wedding invites. :) More to come on that in a later post but this made me realize that while I love a good DIY project, there are just some insanely talented people out there who can take my ideas to levels I never thought possible. We have a meeting tonight to discuss invites and hopefully I'll have an invite mock-up to show you all soon! She is the most fabulous invitation designer I know and we're so lucky to have her available to help us!

WE ARE THE LUCKIEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!!! Thank you wedding party for putting up with my crazy ideas and antics for a full year already and I hope you all know how much you mean to us. We love you!!!!

Ring a Ding Ding!!!!

We have become very close friends with the UPS guy lately. It seems everyday we come home there is a new package on the doorstep. Yesterday he dropped off one of my favorite packages so far. Curtis' wedding band! He found one he really liked online and we ordered it to see what it looks like in person. Turns out, we both love it! He wore it around the house for a few hours last night to make sure the size was right and the band wasn't too bulky. I was giddy and giggly the entire time. I must say, seeing him with a ring makes me happier than anything else we've done so far because I know that the next time he's wearing it will be when we're husband and wife. And THAT is the greatest feeling of all! :D

Yes, that's the ring package and yes, that's another package in the background. Boxes are everywhere!

I tried to get a close up of the ring but failed because I took these around midnight. It's a Titanium band with some variance of polished and brushed looks. It looked so good on his finger! I didn't get any pics of him wearing him mostly because I was just too giddy to think to find a camera. I can't wait until this is officially on his finger! :)

DIY Tissue Cards

As noted in a previous post, I knocked out another project last night, the Tears of Joy tissue cards! They turned out to be a really cute and easy project to finish and I love the way they look. :)

They were very easy to make and they're a big hit on Weddingbee! I started with plain cardstock, printed "Tears of Joy" on each piece about 6 times (including a double line border on top/bottom), cut those out and glued the ends to a 4x5 piece of cardstock I also cut to size. After that, I took some leftover tissues I didn't use in the bathroom baskets and tucked 1 tissue behind the band. Viola! That's all there was to it! :) I think this took about 1.5 hours and it was completely worth it. It also gave me an excuse to catch up on some long over-due House Hunters International.

I made around 40 of them so feel free to use at the wedding! They will be placed randomly on the pews with a few outside if you need extra.

This shows how big they are. (And it was a great excuse to get another ring shot in!)

Let's Rehearse!

Curtis and I finally picked a Rehearsal Dinner location! After discussing with his parents, we have all decided on the incredible Isabella's Italian Restaurant and Wine Bar. We are so lucky to have our rehearsal dinner there as it's the perfect combination of class, great food and top-notch service. :)

Isabella's is located at Legacy and 121 in a beautiful Piazza overlooking a large fountain. The restaurant reminds us so much of Italy as it's charming and beautiful, elegant but comfortable. We'll have the main dining room to ourselves, which is so nice, so we'll be able to say our thank you's without half of the diners listening in. :) Here are a few pictures!


And here's the delicious menu options we'll have to choose from! All of these are wonderful and we couldn't believe how big the portions were. Italians definitely do not skimp on their food! :)

Appetizers- served family style

Assorted Pizzas- Prosciutto, Bianca, Margherita, Pollo, Salsiccia

Calamari e Fritti- Crispy calamari served with lemon & spicy tomato sauce

Bruschetti- Grilled bread with oven dried tomatoes topped with pesto and goat cheese


Entree Options

Penne Pasta con Pollo- Penne pasta with chicken, artichokes, zucchini, sundried tomatoes in a light basil broth with pesto and parmesan

Penne alla Primavera- Penne pasta in a sauce of peppers, zucchini, squash & asparagus

Pollo Arrosto- Herb roasted chicken breast served with cipollini onions, haricot vert, soft polenta with a Marsala sauce

Spaghettini alla Pomodoro with Pollo Griglio- Spaghettini pasta with a natural tomato sauce made with garlic & basil and chicken

Bolognese con Papparelle- traditional sauce of ground beef, veal and pork served with pappardelle pasta

Gnocchi con Quatro Formaggio- homemade gnocchi finished with four cheeses


I can't say enough great things about this restaurant! The food is fantastic, the service is wonderful and the location is perfect. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful restaurant for our rehearsal dinner and I can't thank Curtis' parents enough for allowing us such a luxury.

Now I can bust out the Gocco again and start making the invites and menus!