You're Invited!

So let me start the New Year for apologizing for my...um...lack of existence lately. The holidays swallowed me whole and just finally spit me out. My last post left off with the send off of my invites. This is the follow up...my invites!

These are the labels that I wrote to Miss Etiquette about. I printed these out on 8.5x11 label sheets (6 on a sheet). Mr. Mek and I cut them out individually by hand. I am sooo glad we did; I might be a lil' biased, but I think they came out quite nicely.

Return addy was gocco'd on the back of the envelope.

This is what the guest pulls out of the envelope. A jacket, complete with bellyband!

Invites gets pulled out of jacket and ta da..."You're Invited!"

Close up of our invite; it's printed on bright white linen paper.

Next up: the inserts.

And They're Off!

My invites are officially sent. Finally after some delay and procrastination, I finally stuck them in the mail box today. Not only did I use labels on my envelopes, I also used non-matching stamps. Ohhh the horror! I was hoping to be able to use these:

source

They would have matched very nicely with my red envelopes. But low and behold, my invites needed 59 cent stamps. These were my options:

source

At the first post office I went to they did not have any 59 cent stamps; they were going to order them for me, but when they called to put in an order they were told that because of the holiday rush, they wouldn't make it to the post office till January 9th. Since my RSVP date is January 15th, that was a no-go.

The second post office I went to did not have the heart stamp, but had plenty stamps of Mr. Michener. At this point, I could care less what stamp was on my invite, I just needed to mail them out. The lovely post lady pointed out that the guy was wearing a lei, I said, "Perfect, since my wedding is in Hawaii". LoL. When I got home, my curiousness got to me and I googled James Michener. Not only is he originally from Pennsylvania but he wrote "Tales from the South Pacific" and "Hawaii". Coincidence? I think not.

Make me up 2

Following up my make me up post, pretty much everyone agreed with the smokey eye/neutral lip, which is what I was leaning towards too. Guess I just needed some "bee-assurance". :o) You guys had me sold when you pointed out the red lipstick on teeth and re-applying issues with the other look.

Like Miss Snapdragon, I'm usually only a weekend make-up wearer, mainly because I look and dress like this during the week...

uniform, glasses, hair up and make-up-less

I did do some grooming prep for wedding day this week though! I got bangs!

Before

After

I figured I should get them cut now so I can
1. get used to them
2. give them time to grow out a little in case too much was cut off
3. have time to think of an alternative in case I hated them

I might be a lil' biased, but I think bangs suit me just fine. I like subtle change.


How did you beauty prep yourself?

Trash the Dress....for Charity!

For all my Central PA brides, Wink 104 is hosting a "Trash the Dress for Charity"!

source

"On December 20th at 12noon the Crowne Plaza Harrisburg, along with the photographic genius of Scott Church, will be hosting the first ever Trash the Dress event in Pennsylvania. Local brides and bridesmaids get your dresses ready to be photographed jumping into the pool at the hotel and dodging water balloons from across the room!

Participants who want to trash their dress pay $50. One half of the proceeds pays for a 11x14 ready to frame photographic print of the bride in her dress plus a CD full of images from the day, the other half will be directly donated to The Four Diamonds Fund and Penn State Children’s Hospital. Anyone over the age of 18 with a formal dress, (old prom dress, bridesmaid dress that can never be worn in public again) should plan to attend. Spectators are welcome to attend and encourage the dress destroying festivities. This time, there will be no stress…just a mess and amazing fun making it!" source

I've had the pleasure of working with Scott Church a few years ago and he is awesome! You will not regret it!

For more information: Wink 104's Trash the Dress or contact the Crowne Plaza Harrisburg at 717-920-1796 or Margaret Murphy at MMurphy@CPHarrisburg.com

"Lets Get Married" Shoes

Welp, I did it again. Bought another pair of shoes, but in my defense, I bought 3 different pairs of shoes and still spent less that $100! This is it though, I swear!

Presenting my current "Lets Get Married" shoe....

source

It's red, peeptoe, cute and less than 4 inches high! Perfect. No more looking for shoes. Seriously.

Make me up

I'm still debating what I want to do hair and make-up wise. I have already chose a hair and make-up artist to "do me" based on rave reviews from some of the Hawaii knottie girls. And sooo many of you lovely brides recommend having a trial before the wedding day to make sure everything looks right and holds up for X amount of hours, but that being said, I won't be able to get a trial till I'm in Hawaii...a few days before the big wedding day. That doesn't give me much time between trial and ceremony to fix any mistakes (or totally change my look).

Hair part is is pretty easy. I'm looking for long loose curls and side swept bangs...

source

source

Make-up...well, I'm still debating. Should I do a strong smoky eye with neutral lips?

source

source

source

or a bold red lip with more neutral eye?

source

source

Should I do some DIY trials first? How did you decide how you wanted your hair and make-up without a professional trial?

Invite Prep

Without showing the whole entire invite, just yet, my invite inspiration is a combo of:

knottie: redshoegirl

+

source

Sheesh! Invite prep takes a loooong time. And I'm not just talking about making an invite list and trying to gather address from everyone (although that takes forever too!). Here's a lil' of what I've been doing the past few weeks...

My supplies: Jacket Invites, Pretty Japanese Paper, ATG 700 tape gun and a trusty paper cutter.

Apply tape across opening of Jacket invites

Stick pre-cut liners inside Jacket and on top of tape.

Rub off extra tape.

Tada!

Now for the belly bands.

Before (Japanese Paper and shimmery paper)

After!
(our names will be on the bellyband, the alias was photoshopped on)

Of course none of this was difficult, just a lil' tedious (and repetitive). Nothing a new episodes of reality TV couldn't entertain me through.

How much prep work are you doing on your DIY items?

Yes, Miss Etiquette, I'm using labels.

Dear Miss Etiquette,
I am doing the unthinkable; I'm using envelopes to address my wedding invitations and I don't care what you think. In my defense, I was planning on using a calligraphy type to print onto my envelopes but my dark red envelopes makes it difficult to see the address, so labels it is. You may judge all you want but Martha Stewart doesn't think it's so bad and neither do I.

Sincerely,
Ms. Mek

"Reduce the Flesh"

In case I don't lose an inch before the wedding day...

source

I got me some Spanx!

Spanx

The "Higher Power" power panties to be exact. They totally give me flashbacks of the 80's (think spandex biker shorts).

source

They are a lil' hard to get on, but once their on...wow, do they do wonders. Did I lose 5 pounds? No. But they totally sucked everything in and smoothed me out. No back rolls for me! This particular day I had a baby shower to attend and I wore them ALL day, just to see how they held up. I was taking lots of photos, running all over the room and kneeling a lot. I think I had to tug them up maybe once, but nothing major; they weren't rolling down or anything. Considering I was doing a lot of kneeling then standing, kneeling then standing, I think they did great.

You guys better love me for posting this photo. LoL. Just to prove that it really does suck fat and skin in, I had Mr. Mek take a photo of my Spanx semi rolled down (and pushing all my fat out)...

Wishin' I could wear this under a swim suit!

Are you sportin' the pretty undies on your wedding day or going granny panties and lookin' thin?!

Gym=Blah

I hate working out.

source

Unfortunately I have to do a PT (physical training) test every 6 months to stay employed. My confession: The last two tests I did, I was TOTALLY out of shape (aka did not work out at all)! And while I did pass, I was practically hyperventilating and struggling to stay alive. Now that turkey day is out of the way, I'm on a mission to get in shape; not only for wedding day (which is 3 months away! Yikes!) but for myself and my next PT test. Having a wedding in Hawaii not only means the standard, "feel good in dress", but it also means "feel good in swim suit". :oP

Mr. Mek is very athletic and absolutely loves to work out. He's been on a set workout system since June and has easily gained about 15 pounds of muscle since then (while I sat on the couch grubbin' on my fudge rounds). He has volunteered to take on the job of being my personal trainer.

This week was my first week back at the gym in...well, a looong time. Mr. Mek has me doing different circuit training routines every day and my plan is to find some cardio classes to take. Did I mention I despise cardio? I know running is a great work out for my body, but I hate doing it. Once upon a time, I was an competitive swimmer; swimming and running are two totally different things. I would love to get back into swimming now, but I can't afford a membership to a gym that has a pool (I currently have free gym access). So I'm looking for some cardio (non running) alternatives. I've have signed up for some pilates classes, but I'm more of an action/have to sweat to feel it kind-of a work out person; like kickboxing.

Food wise, I refuse to deprive myself of the foods I love....so I'm not going to. In moderation of course. I don't particularly eat unhealthy (I've never liked soda), but I'm sure I can cut out that occasional third cookie or eat more salads. I'll do minor changes, like eat whole grain bread instead of white, but I will not change my whole diet. In all honesty, for not working out, I've maintained my current weight fairly well. I figure if I start working out whole heartidly then I should be able to maintain what I currently eat, but maybe lose an inch. ::fingerscrossed::

What are you changing in your day to day life to become healthier?