Dessert

Found this image on Pinterest...not sure who the original poster is. I've seen pictures of hand-shaped cookies decorated similarly to these, but I like the cakes better. So pretty, who would want to eat them?!

Countdown

Holy cow where did the past 4 months go?!

Bonjour! Adios!

Flights booked for our honeymoon! Paris & Barcelona! Wee!

BHLDN

I heard about BHLDN a few months ago via this blog but just looked at their stuff for the first time today. BHLDN is a bridal line created by Anthropologie, which I originally thought was all dresses and shoes but it turns out they also carry a variety of items for the big day. Here are some of my favorites (although I love just about everything on their website).

How pretty is this yellow dahlia as a hair-adornment for the mehndi (a 2nd option to real flowers):

The "For The One I Love" photo album:

A little overly-sentimental/mushy, but I like it.

I'm thinking about this garland as an accent for the mehndi stage backdrop:

I LOVE these "Bride" and "Groom" stamped forks. Cute picture, cute detail, cute cake-cutting. I'm 2 seconds from purchasing these...

One of many cute cake-toppers:

And I'm not having a white wedding, but their dresses are so simple and chic:

Most of their stuff is ridiculously overpriced for what it is ($600 for a cake-topper...) but really cute and vintage inspired. I just ordered the forks and I really want the "One I Love" album but can't justify the price. It's a pretty website to browse around and get wedding inspiration from though.

DIY Bride

So far, I haven't been a DIY bride at all. I like the idea of DIY, but a lot of the time doing it yourself can be just as costly as paying someone to do it for you. This week, I tackled a few DIY-able tasks. I printed the addresses on my invitation envelopes, made my own menu cards for the place settings at the reception (still need to perfect/finalize these), and today, I refinished an old bench that we plan on using for my mehndi. Most of our decor for the mehndi has been settled, except for the actual stage. My mom and I were thinking of keeping it simple with some kind of bench, throw pillows, and maybe some Moroccan lanterns. I came across a couple of cute benches for sale but the idea of spending a few hundred dollars seemed pointless. Then I saw an ad on tv for Krylon and decided to refinish this old bench my mom has been hanging on to for the past 20+ years.

The directions are pretty simple, but the key to an even finish is to shake the bottle for 2 minutes before using, and to spray side-to-side, not focusing on one spot for too long. (I did a test spot on the back of the bench and got a few lumps from not moving it enough.)

Before:

After:

I used 2 cans of the metallic gold on this bench and it wasn't quite enough. I was able to cover 99% of the bench, but I need to buy another can to even out the paint in some areas (they're only $5/can). Then I just need to find a nice colorful fabric to cover the seat with!

The new finish won't be practical after the party, but the cool thing about Krylon is we can buy a few cans of the right wood finish color and re-paint it back to brown.

Mehndi Inspiration

Stress Begone! Beautiful Invitations Be-here!

After the beautiful presentation of samples I received a few weeks ago, it's no surprise my wedding invitations arrived today in a package that looks like this:

First of all, (eeeeeeee) I cannot believe they're already here-- I just placed my order 2 weeks ago on May 9th! The boxes, the wrapping paper (where can I get paper like this?!), the personally signed order slips...Bella Figura, you are a class act and on top of your exceptional customer service, I could not be happier with my wedding invitations! If anyone is ever looking to splurge on invitations, I can assure you this eco-friendly company makes it worth every penny (and they also donate 1% of every sale to an environmental cause of your choice via "1% for the planet").

In the end, I didn't choose either of the 2 finalists from my other post. I decided to stick with simple elegance and ordered the Keswick suite. Like I've already said, I could not be happier. We're at the 4 month mark and I can finally cross something new off my task list!