Sprinkles

About 2 weeks ago I blogged about the Sprinkles cupcakes mixes Williams and Sonoma now sells.
I picked up the vanilla mix and decided to make them for the get together at the Cheds' house.
While they were quite scrumptious, they weren't as good as I was expecting them to be.
I also learned that I need to work on my decorating skills before the fiancee and I open up 'Cupcake Joes' (yep, that's the name of the cupcake/coffee shop we'll someday open).

Regardless of the look & taste I still thought I'd post a few pictures.
They make my tummy growl!
Lucky for me the Mr. and I have to head back to Charleston this weekend so I plan to hit up 'Cupcake' on King street for at least a half dozen of my favorite dessert. ;)

Item of the Day

I've always loved flowers but my true obsession with them only started a few months ago.
I anxiously await the day that the Asian family who sells gorgeous, cheap blooms, sets up shop on Tryon St. for the summer. :)
Last year I often treated myself to a bouquet on Thursday's so I could enjoy their beauty throughout the weekend.
People would ask me who bought me flowers and I would proudly exclaim, "ME"!

Well in the meantime I've been feeding my obsession with fake flowers blooms in the form of accessories!
This darling bangle from Anthropologie is just another item I'm adding to my wish list. :D
Purchase yours here!

To garter or not to garter?

There will be no bouquet toss at our wedding and no Mr. P hunting around in my dress for a garter! Sorry to disappoint anyone, it's just a tradition I can happily do without.
So do I really need to wear a garter? The answer is no!

However, I stumbled on Julianne Smith's website via the Southern Wedding Magazine blog and now I think I may want a garter after all!
You see Julianne has many garters on her site, traditional style, animal print, something blue garters, tossing garters, you name it, she has it!
But what really peaked my interest was the fact she does custom garters.
Meaning I can send in extra fabric from my dress and she'll use it to create a one of a kind piece for me. Complete with my new initials! :)
I'm pretty confident that our future daughter will never want to wear my dress, but maybe she'd want to wear this, you know, as her 'something old'.
Just a thought.

I like thinking ahead! It's such a pretty picture!

Hey, by the way, in 193 days I'll be marrying the most handsome, funny, caring, thoughtful, smart, clever man I've ever met! Tears creep in my eyes just thinking about it!
I love you P!

Weekend Update

Oh my how to sum up such a WONDERFUL weekend?
This may be a long one, so grab a cup of coffee, maybe a glass of wine, sit back and enjoy!

@ 5:30pm on Thursday Mr. P picked me up and we headed for Charleston.
Despite the monsoon like weather we found our adorable home and after a little mishap (I forgot the code to the lockbox) we were safely inside and touring our sleeping quarters.
We were lucky enough to have the master bedroom and boy was it a comfy bed!
This is the house my family will be staying in the days leading up to the wedding and I can honestly say I'm looking forward to returning!
We quickly found out that the house P has rented for the wedding week is literally two doors down!
I LOVE the idea of him being so close, but not being able to see him! I'm SO EXCITED for our wedding!!!

Anyways, back on subject now...
I tucked myself in pretty early on Thursday evening because we had our appointment with Jerri @ Ooh Events at 9:30 the next morning!
I've been so excited for this meeting!!! :) I was excited to hear Jerri's ideas and to run a couple little ideas (cookie "buffet" and postcard guestbook) by her.
The meeting was incredible and I left feeling elated and giddy! There's just something about being in their adorable store/office that put's the biggest smile on my face!!!

After a perfect morning my lovely friends, Chelsea and Elizabeth, accompanied me to Magnolia Plantation!
During my last trip to the plantation we really only had time to walk around the site of our actual ceremony/reception.
This time the ladies and I walked the gardens and even visited the petting zoo!
Yep, you read me right! There's a petting zoo at the plantation and it's AWESOME!!!
We saw goats, deer, a pig, chickens, bunnies and peacocks to name a few. All these animals cohabiting in the same area, it was very cool!!!
A few pictures are on the way, I promise!

The gardens are truly breathtaking!!!! There were so many areas I wish were big enough for the ceremony! *There is one particular lawn that I've fallen in love with and I'm going to check to see if it's available to us for a possible ceremony site.
*More on this to come!

Later that evening we had a lovely dinner courtesy of Miss Chelsea & Elizabeth! YUMMY stuffed shells, Caesar salad and garlic bread! Makes me hungry just thinking about it!

Once the Barzees arrived (they couldn't make it on Thursday) we all prepared our running gear for the big 10k the next morning! :D
I had a hard time sleeping because my heart was beating so fast from excitement!

The race was pretty tough for me this year (still sad/mad about this) but we all finished and that's all that matters!
Chelsea and Elizabeth came in around 54 minutes, my Mr. P with 55, GREAT job baby, and the rest of us soon there after. ;)

After the race we all stuffed our faces at Melvin's Legendary BBQ and boy was it good!
Best cheeseburger I've had in awhile! I have a feeling we'll all be visiting this restaurant again next year.

A few hours later (probably not the smartest move having Melvin's right beforehand) Mr. P and I had our tasting with JBC Catering!!! The food looked and tasted amazing, as we knew it would, and I'm thrilled to say they are our official caterer. My favorite item of the day was panko crusted mahi mahi on a skewer with a ginger dipping sauce! DELISH!!!

After stuffing our tummies even more the ladies and I headed to Jean's Bridal Boutique to check out a Jim Hjelm bridesmaid dress. I'd seen this dress online, but no one in Charlotte had it in their store. Luckily we were able to try it on there to see how it fit! The dress is beautiful and it's definitely "the one"!
Fortunately J Majors here in Charlotte can order the dress for us at a discounted rate since I also purchased my dress from them! :D
More on the bridesmaid attire later this week.

After an action packed non stop day we were all ready to unwind!
We headed to Shem's Creek for a bite to eat and lots of yummy cocktails!
EVERY place was packed so we ended up back home a few hours later to watch the Tarheels win, followed by a dance party! Yes my friends, we boogied our butts off!!!
It was the perfect end to the perfect weekend!
Actually the RIDICULOUSLY good biscuits and gravy I had the next morning at Acme Cantina in Isle of Palms was the perfect end to this amazing weekend!
Great friends always equals a great time and I'm already excited for next year!!!

LOTS of wedding updates/pictures this week, pinky promise!!!

Yee-Haw!!!

First my dear friends, I must tell you that I'm leaving town today to head to my favorite place on earth, Charleston, SC! :)
This trip was planned for the annual Cooper Bridge Run (we've done it the past 3 years), but you bet we'll be squeezing in a few wedding meetings while we're there!

Tomorrow Pepe and I meet with the lovely Jerri at Ooh Events and we'll finally get to meet Lisa, the "visionary" of this great company. :)
I'm very, very excited about this appointment! We haven't set down together since the venue change and I'm anxious to hear their ideas. I also have a few ideas of my own I'm excited to run by them. Fill you in on that next week for sure.

On Saturday, after running the 10K, Pepe and I are going to meet with our caterer (yep we've decided on JBC Catering) at 1pm. I have a feeling our tummies will be ready for some grub!
Pictures and an update on this for sure next week.

As for the images above, they are invitations done by Yee-haw Industrial Letterpress and Design Co. Don't you just love the name? I knew right away they were going to be amazing! I e-mailed the company asking if they do wedding invitations and boy do they! They sent me some samples that I just absolutely love!!! They do all their work by hand with wood and lead machines that are 50-200 years old (see pictures above)! How cool is that!?
I unfortunately don't think we can afford them.
BUT a girl can dream though, can't she? ;)

Okay I'm out of here for now! If I don't make an appearance at some point this weekend, I'll see you lovelies for The Weekend Update! :)
Cheerio!

Item of the Day

Karl Johnson is one AMAZING silhouette artist and I've been meaning to order prints of my lil' family, aka me, Tucker and Pepe, for a few months now! I adore them andthink they would look just perfect over my craft desk.
Aren't they just darling?

Breaking it down!

By now anyone who regularly reads this blog has received their Save the Date in the mail.
Everyone really seems to like them which makes me as happy as a pig in a mud puddle!!!
I can now show pictures of the whole, fun process. :)
As you know from a couple previous entries it took me a few days to assemble these bad boys before they could actually be mailed out.
You may have received them and thought to yourself, "what took her so long?" Well here's what!

Step 1 (Photo 1 & 2): This is what the invite looked like when I received them in the mail from the lovely Karissa of Kiss and Tell Cards.

Step 2: I cut & measured out all the bakers twine I would need, cut a bunch of white stickers to attach the 'moo cards' and gathered the rest of the items & tools I'd need.

Step 3: I used my nifty little corner hole punch from Target to round out all the edges. I thought this went much better with the whole overall look of the cards.

Step 4: I used a ruler and an Xacto Knife to cut out a little tiny square on each side of the card. This was so the bakers twine would wrap around the card and stay in place nice and snuggly!

Step 5: Attach the bakers twine to the 'moo cards' using the little white stickers I cut out.

Step 6: I purchased a big roll of self-adhesive magnets at Michael's for like 4 bucks! I then cut the roll into small individual sized magnets that also attached to the 'moo cards'.

Step 7 (Photo 8 & 9): Wrap each card with the bakers twine, in various colors, and tie in a little bow. :)

Step 8: Place in pretty little envelope and affix stamp. If you remember the custom stamps I ordered ended up being to big for the envelope...we're going to save those for the invites.
These pretty lil' stamps from USPS worked just fine!

Step 9: With a BIG smile on your face place all completed Save the Dates in a box to take to Post Office the next morning!

Finito!

Now I can start worrying about the actual Invitations.