So, I finally have my STDs, Address Labels, and Photosharing cards here from Vista Print! I’ll take photos of them this weekend and write a review on their services. So far I’m very impressed!

The Fiancee and I spent the last week/weekend moving the rest of his mothers stuff to her new house and out of our (new to us) house - hence the small absense. It was nice spending four days together (thank god for an extended day or two of vacation!) and rearranging our home, going through our life that was stuck in storage for the last year, and purging a lot of our crap.

Wedding stuff is kind on a halt right now, I’m waiting on other family members to get addresses for me. I swear this is like pulling teeth! How can I make this easier on myself? I can’t think of anyways!

What do you during your wedding-down-time? Sometimes I have to go in spurts or I lose creativity.

In bad news, I have to redesign my invitations because I didn’t realize the DPI was at 72 instead of 300 and printed really badly. Should be fun… NOT!

So of course, on my stationary-goods rampage I’ve been on in this past week, I started looking for inspiration for programs. Now, I know it seems early. But I’m neurotic, obviously. I just wanted to get some inspiration. Figure out what type of programs I wanted, then I could do the rest later.

I love this because it could hold a place card, our photosharing cards, and the program. Multifunctional!

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I think the first dance is one of the most important at a wedding. It tells a story about the couple, and how their relationship is reflected to their audience. Perhaps, then, this is why it’s so incredibly hard for some couples to choose the perfect first dance? Here are some suggestions.

1. Does you and your fiancee have “A Song”? This was our first instinct, to use what we’ve dubbed as “our song” for our first dance. Until we realized how hard it would be to dance and still be cute and pretty and elegant. That, and the song is like 5-6 minutes long!

2. What genre would you prefer for your first dance? Do you want it to be a slow-dance? A funky, fast paced dance? Do you want to combine the two like many couples have done lately?

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A lot has inspired my wedding, in fact I have spent hours researching online and surfing blogs, The Knot, and other wedding websites saving photos. While I will have my own edge and flare at our wedding, I thought I’d share with you some of the photos that have inspired me. I’m going for a very romantic, chic, and modern feel for our day. The nice thing? Everything I’ve done, Greg has agreed on and loved. Whew! Before I continue, while searching for inspiration, I didn’t realize how important it was to save the source of each photo to give credit at a later date, so if any of these photos are yours PLEASE let me know and I’ll give you proper credit!

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Man, LJers weren’t lying when they said the “Free!” offers would be pouring in from Vista Print within a week! You know me, I am a design freak. I like things to match & coordinate. I love designing things on my own, which is in part why I’m designing and making our own invitations.

In the last post, I talked about designing and ordering our STDs (*giggle*). Those are on their way here. Today I woke up to an email with 15 different FREE offers. So, I looked to see what they had. Return Address labels? Check! Photosharing cards? Check!

I am so excited to see it all come together. I’m even MORE excited to order & start preparing the paper goods for my invitations. Now THAT is what I’m most excited for DIYing.

Now that I have three different products coming to me, I’ll review them once they’re all here, as well as take additional photos of the actual products. Wish me luck!

PS: Was it like pulling teeth to get addresses from your friends and family for everyone else? Or just mine? AHH!

As a “Happy 100th Post” here at Alluring Heart (hey it still counts even if I used to do fashion/beauty blogging!), I’ve decided to actually show you a completed project. With 330 days to go it’s weird thinking, “I actually have a project done”…

Yay! I finally got the ball rolling on the design for my Save The Dates (dreadfully abbreviated as STDs.). For a few weeks now I’ve been meaning to start the design. But we were debating between a magnet or postcard medium for delivery. Ultimately, this evening when I logged onto Vista Print* I saw 100% off for 100 Postcards! So, I think you know where I’m going with that. We decided on post cards.

*If you’re going to order through Vista Print, use this link and receive a special offer!

I opened up photoshop and thought, “Do I want to do something totally different and fancy like all the photos and bookmarks I had saved within the last few months?”…OR… “Do I want to do something simple and clean, that will match our invitations, and completely represent who we are as people and as a couple?”.

If you chose Option B, you’re a winner (of what I’m unsure)! So, I went to work on my template Vista Print provided me with for Photoshop and came out with something both Greg & I were very happy with. Sure, I could have spent another hour or two hovering over my keyboard & mouse perfecting them… adding drop shaddows and other various minor options but I decided this was one “DIY” project I would not be too picky about.

So, you want to see the design do you? I thought you’d never ask! Continue reading this post…

This is the story of my most dear, precious printer. And how I had to say goodbye.

Okay, so I’m not the most cleanliest of people. However, when I start a pile of something I stick to it. So, being that I’m in the makeup industry, I wear a lot of accessories. Usually from Claires or Icing or the like. For the last two months, Greg and I have been cramped in the basement living in his mothers town home. We’re buying it from her next year, and we were waiting for her to move out into her new home (which happened this weekend!)  - hence the crampiness.

Okay well, one day I got off work and was really tired. Came straight downstairs, took off all of my accessories and added them to a pile next to (or what I thought was next to) my printer. My printer has lived a short life. I bought it months before graduation in 2007 & then immediately moved home and it’s sat in a storage unit since. When it came time to move in with Greg & FMIL, I brought it out of hiding to use.

So, back to the story. So, I’m fixing to print something from MapQuest for the next day’s tasks. I push “Print” on my trusty little computer. My printer starts revving up and making its “OKAY I’M GONNA PRINT NOW!” noises. Greg sits there, watches it, me being OBLIVIOUS to what is about to happen.

I hear this huge jam. It sounds awful! Greg says, “Uh. Babe. You didn’t NEED that earring did you?”

……………

What?! EARRING! NO! PRINTER? YES!

Long story short, he watched my huge work accessory be taken right underneath all the mechanical parts of the printer and his only thought was, “Do you need this earring?!” *facepalm* Yes I am marrying this man! The printer fell to its fatal death. *cries*

So now, I have to be on the look out for a perfect new printer, that will be good enough to print our DIY invitations. *sigh* I’ve been eying the Epson RX595 as I’ve read on many wedding blogs that it’s a great one for just that purpose. Eitherway, this is the perfect excuse to get that photo printer I’ve always wanted.

So, I went into Davids Bridal today with my Matron of Honor, L. A while back, I had posted all of my wedding ideas on a seperate page. Some of you may remember the dress I had in mind. This has been my dream dress for almost two years now. When I went wedding dress shopping as L’s Maid of Honor, I saw this dress and absolutely fell in love. This is the reason I had decided to have a red & white wedding. I started envisioning my gorgeous, chic, wedding that centered around this brilliant creation. I was absolutely smitten.

The first thing L told me was, “Save this dress for last. It’s your dream dress, yes, but you want to be SURE you can eliminate others as well. Who knows, you may end up not liking it on you.” The first thing that came to mind, was a memory I had of year and a half prior where she literally threw a fit when her mother suggested the same thing. She went in to her appointment with a dress already in mind and ended up hating it on.

So, I graciously took her advice and just started picking dresses off the rack. I wanted to try on every type, every style, every color. I wish I would have tried on the baby blue princess-look-alike montrosity they had going on there, that would have made for a GREAT gag-gift to Greg the day of!! Could you imagine? A card with a photo of me in this cornflower blue dress and a caption reading, ” You can’t miss me, here’s what I’ll be wearing. Meet me at the altar!” *giggles*

The first two dresses I tried on were absolutely stunning, but just not me. One was too stiff, the next was too flowy and had no structure. I want my dress to resemble my funky style as well as my girly side. The third dress I tried on, L had picked out. “Ew! WAY too much” I exclaimed when she pulled it off the rack. “Shut up, you will try it on and you will love it!” she winced at me.

When trying it on, the first thing I saw was the beads and detail on the chest area. “WOW” I thought. But kept quiet because I knew the best dress there was being saved for last. I stepped out of the dressing room and….

I was always told girls don’t kiss and tell. I can not keep a secret for the life of me. However, I haven’t purchased said dress yet and would like to keep it a bit more secretive. Plus, I gotta keep you at the edge of your chair somehow don’t I?!

Stay tuned for more dress talk. Did I love the third creation hand picked by my 20-year long friend? Or did I shrug it off and finally decide on my dream dress? Wait and see!

Remember me talking about paper roses & other flower ideas a few weeks ago? Well, right after that post I got a creative streak in me (when DON’T I have one?!) and went to JoAnns and picked up the supplies I’d need.

This beauty will be sitting in the center of our round 5′ tables. We’ll have 14 round tables that seat 8 guests & our three 30″x8′ for our head table. So, I’ll to make 17 of these. I spent about $15 at JoAnn, getting the materials I’d need to test the waters. But did I want to spend $15 per table? No way!

So this last week, since moving our wedding up a year, I started searching online. I’ve been shopping for bargains since before the official proposal and have been glued to Wedding Bee & weddingplans@LJ ever since we started looking for wings. Save-on-Crafts is a great place to find bargains.

For the delicious centerpiece breakdown click below! Continue reading this post…

For our ceremony & reception, we are going to be having it at a local recreation center. I know this sounds sort of… cheap, but their court yard & view is absolutely stunning. Plus, it is inexpensive & we can bring in our own family catering & alcohol!

We will be able to serve alcohol for four hours, as well as our familie’s italian home made catering. So far, our menu consists of Meatballs & Italian Sausages, Sandwhich subs, Salads, Chicken Wings (Hello! Gotta have my favorite, too!) & some veggie/cheese/fruit trays. We’ll probably have our signature drinks, Captian & Coke for Greg and Malibu & Sprite for me as well as some beer & wine.

Ceremony will take place here. Imagine 120 chairs spread across the concrete behind this fountain. If I were the photographer, the guests would be facing me. Greg & I will be standing in front of this fountain right by the stairs.

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