the hangover (kit)

UPDATE (1/16/13):
Thank you all for the kind words and interest in my bachelor party hangover kit tags! Due to the influx of requests, please email me at hmgmcguire at gmail dot com to inquire about availability and pricing for customized hangover kit tags.

Please note that I prefer to be emailed directly (hmgmcguire at gmail dot com). I will not reply to comments left on my blog.

Thank you again for your interest!

-Heather


 Original post:

This weekend the future mister went to Charleston for his Bachelor Party. A grand time was had by all and luckily there were no babies, tigers, missing teeth or lost and sunburned grooms. I did have a bit of fun on Thursday night (and a much needed break from invitations) while I created these for the guys:

Hangover Kits! They each contained two bottles of water, two mini bottles of Gatorade, a travel bottle of Advil, Pepto-Bismol, hand sanitizing wipes, gum, and some Airborne for extra antioxidants and electrolytes. Oh, and the future mister got a small box of BC Powder, his preferred headache medicine.

And here's a closeup of the tags I made for each guy (Warning: there is some foul language on some of them. Not meant to offend, just quotes from the movie).

images from imdb.com, photoshopped by me

I was told my kits were "life savers" on Saturday morning.

What did your fiance do for his bachelor party?

MIA

I can't believe it's Friday and this is my first post of the week! I have lots to catch you all up on - my fabulous Pennsylvania shower being on of them. But first things first. On Monday I received a very important package:

SHE'S HERE! I waited to open the box until the future mister left the house for a softball game. And I had my mom on video chat so she was able to share the moment with me. The dress is about a size too big in the torso area, but I was expecting that. They also forgot to ship the veil with my dress, but that's all taken care of and will be arriving on Tuesday. Now I just have to schedule my fitting appointments! Until then, though, I have her hanging in our guest bedroom/my office/craft room. I know that the future mister wouldn't dare go in there, but it still makes me nervous.

Did anyone else have to worry about hiding their dress from their fiance?

rsvp help

I need some help y'all. I've been neck deep in invitations for the past few weeks and am just about ready to start printing my RSVP cards. I thought I had it all figured out, but now I'm second guessing myself.

Here's the original wording:

We have reserved ___ seats in your honor

Name(s): ______________________

___ Wouldn't miss it for the world!

___ Will toast you from afar


My concern is that if we invite Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blow, indicating on their RSVP that we have reserved 2 seats for them, and only Mrs. Blow intends to come will they know that they are only supposed to write Mrs. Blow's name on the name line? Or what if Mrs. Blow thinks that since 2 seats are reserved for them and Mr. Blow can't come, that it's okay to bring Katie Blow who isn't invited to the wedding? Or am I just being crazy?

I did some research and discussed it with the future mister and here are the two other options that we are now considering.

Option 1:

We have reserved ___ seats in your honor

Name(s): ______________________

___ Wouldn't miss it for the world!
___ Number attending

___ Will toast you from afar


Option 2:

Name(s): ______________________

___ Wouldn't miss it for the world!
___ out of ___ attending

___ Will toast you from afar

Thoughts? Suggestions? Your help is much appreciated!

bride-to-be's little helper

It's just about time for the invitations to go out and I have more work than my two little hands can handle. At the same time, though, I'm too much of a perfectionist-control-freak to let anyone help me because the thought of relinquishing my control gives me more anxiety than actually doing it myself. Wow, I think I just made myself sound quite insane.

Anyway...

Yesterday I was convinced by a very willing future mister to let him help. And help he did. While I traced, he cut out about one hundred or so envelope liners.



Unfortunately, he's not all that comfortable helping me with the remaining invitation tasks (due to their skill level). But every little bit helps!

Did your fiance lend a hand with any wedding crafts?

THE call

Happy Friday! This week has certainly ended on a high note. Yesterday afternoon I received THE CALL. The most anticipated phone call for almost every bride. The call we anxiously await for months (or for me - a year and four months!). THE DRESS IS IN!

I purchased my dress at Kleinfeld's back in October 2009 during a trip to NYC with my mom. At that time, we decided that I would come home and have the alterations done at Kleinfeld's, which would guarantee that my mom could be there. Right after Christmas, though, the thought of having to somehow fit in and schedule another trip up North with all of the other stuff going on made me a sweaty, heart racing, anxious mess. So the dress will be shipped to me and I'll have the alterations done at the seamstress shop that Anne Barge recommended, which is in Atlanta. At least, that's the current plan.

Now I just have to (patiently??) wait for the delivery on the 21st!!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

what is this I see?

I spy, with my little eye....

beautiful handwriting courtesy of FSIL/bridesmaid Katie

the cutest return label

and a gorgeous shower invite!

This is for our couples' shower at the end of April in North Carolina. I'm so excited! The future mister is too, even if he did roll his eyes at me when I insisted on taking a million pictures before actually opening the invitation. Hey, this wedding stuff is only going to happen once, so I intend to document every last detail!

in the garden of love

(usps via hello! lucky)

I spotted these beautiful new forever stamps over on hello! Lucky's blog this morning. I am so very sad that they won't be available until May 19. Way too late for our invitations, but just in time for all of those thank you cards, perhaps?

hostess with the mostest

March is here! Guess what that means?? It's almost shower time!

[As a side note: With all of these big wedding milestones coming up, I keep telling myself that the wedding will finally start to feel more "real" - but it has yet to happen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will finally hit me either with these showers coming up or when I finally start my dress fittings.]

If you remember, I had a small shower back in October when my bridesmaids came into town for some dress shopping. But coming up I have a shower in Pennsylvania for all of my family and then we have a couples' shower in North Carolina with the future mister's side.

That being said...I need to start looking for some hostess gifts!

A paper-source catalog came in the mail the other day and I was impressed with their array of cute gift items:

(Lucia Soap Set)

(Bath Tea)

(Practically Perfect Tea Towel)

(Lotus Flower Apron)

(Reusable Tote)

Definitely a great jumping off point - I'm sure I'll be able to find something fabulous for the special women who are planning these events. I truly am blessed to have them in my life.

What did you get the women who hosted your bridal shower(s)? Do you have any more gift ideas to share?

hair and makeup - take 2

Sorry for the long hiatus! It's been a busy week at work and slightly busy on the wedding front as well. Anywho....two weekends ago I had a second hair and makeup trial with someone new (see the first one here). Overall, I think it went great. This MUA/stylist was much more personable and really put me at ease. Unlike the last person, once she was finished we evaluated and tweaked the look until I was happy with the outcome. Let's take a look-see at the results, shall we?






The eye makeup basically looks the same as it did the last time, she just used pinks and mauves instead of browns and golds. I love, love, love the long lashes. The hair was much closer to what I wanted in the back, but the front looked a bit flat and sad. I much prefer the look of the front from my first trial. Plenty of body at the crown and more hair sweeping across my forehead.


Now here's where it gets frustrating. I received a follow up email from this person early last week and I responded with my thoughts, questions and concerns almost immediately and also to let her know that I would like to sign a contract and place a down payment. This week came and I still had not heard anything. So I sent another email on Monday. As of this morning, still nothing. I really hope nothing serious has happened, but I don't want to wait around twiddling my thumbs until I hear something back. I'm quite upset at the thought of going through this entire process yet again. Especially since the trial had gone so well! Luckily I had an appointment for a cut and color last night and when I was talking to my stylist about it she told me that she does wedding hair and makeup. So I went ahead and set up an appointment for a trial with her (but it's not for another two weeks). Keep your fingers crossed that the third time really is the charm!

Have you had any experience with unresponsive vendors? How did you handle it?

*UPDATE* I finally just received an email back with a copy of the contract and an explanation for the delayed response. Now I have to make a decision whether to book her or not. I really want to because I love what she did and we got along great, but future unresponsiveness would probably make me very anxious. Perhaps I should bring this to her attention and see what she says? Thoughts?