• This seersucker dress is comfy and travels well. I was able to stuff mine into a hat box and then unroll it wrinkle-free for my last weekend trip. The fabric might be a bit casual for some weddings, but it could work as a bridesmaid dress for a garden wedding.
• This dress has a sweet, faux-wrap neckline, a flouncy skirt and pockets. The pink is not overly feminine and more antique in color. It would be perfect for a bridesmaid's tea or a wedding shower. Also available in black and white.

Labels: sale, wedding

posted by Alison 10/16/2007 06:26:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Three Tiers for Penguins!

Previously...

Cake Test
The Backup Cake



I survived making my own wedding cake and ended up with some pleasing results. The fondant didn't work as perfectly as I would have liked, but we managed to hide most of the flaws by rotating them to the back.

Most of the cake was made late at night the Friday before our Sunday wedding. Our Maid of Honor, Maid of Awesomeness (a title earned through months of selfless service toward our wedding), and our Magic Wedding Elf, Frances, stirred big cauldrons of Rice Krispies and molten marshmallow. All involved did an expert job of measuring out huge quantities of ingredients and getting the proportions just right.

My job was to pour, level and ice each layer. Each tier has two layers glued together with Wilton icing purchased in gallon buckets purchased from the craft store. Despite being mostly shortening it had ideal qualities that made it a good choice. First, it didn't discolor or make the cake soggy even after two days of waiting to be consumed. Next, it worked well when we needed it as a glue. All of our layers and tiers stayed firmly in place, it kept the fondant exactly where it needed to be, and it managed to keep the penguins and flowers attached despite being moved three times.

Most importantly, the Groom really liked the taste of the icing, which is the most important thing. The Rice Krispy cake was really for him, as he doesn't care for regular cake. The icing taste was very similar to Twinkie filling. To me, it is better in small quantities, but Mr. Lollipop couldn't get enough.

The outer layer of the cake was made of plain pre-made Wilton fondant purchased in five-pound boxes from the same craft store at the icing. The fondant tasted like it was made of fresh Lucky Charms marshmallows, but it could easily be peeled off for those who couldn't stand the sweetness. The fondant was one of the harder parts to get right, especially for our 14 inch bottom layer. I discovered a too late that the ideal thickness is a little less than 1/4 inch. It is the best thickness to remain pliable, yet hide flaws.

As I said before, we glued the penguins and flowers on the cake using frosting that we dispensed from a pastry bag. For those who missed my earlier entries, the penguins were made of Fimo clay and are inedible, although that didn't stop guests from trying.

Our cake didn't taste all that bad considering that it was made of two-day-old Rice Krispy Treats. We also served two sheet cakes purchased through a local restaurant with delivery service, a Middle Eastern restaurant called Aladdin's Eatery. We managed to get two awesome cakes, an Oreo flavored one and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup one, for less than $2 a slice, including delivery costs. Both supplementary cakes were a big hit and saved me worry about serving stale, be-fondanted non-cake to guests.

The cake itself is sitting on an overturned piece of wooden butcher-block counter top left over from a remodeling project. Mr. Lollipop fashioned it into a an ideal cake board by adding some snazzy handles. The cake board was absolutely indispensable for moving the cake from place to place without damaging it. Keep that is mind if you plan on making your own DIY cake.

Labels: cake, DIY, wedding

posted by Alison 10/09/2007 07:14:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, October 08, 2007

Photos from Friends and Family

I admit it, we totally stole Ms. Lemon's idea to collect photos from friends and family using flickr. We printed our account information on the back of our seating cards, and while they weren't as pretty as Madame Lemon's, they did the trick. Well, it helped to have a bridesmaid willing to cajole people by email. (Go Aileen!)

We ended up with some wonderful photos that have a slightly different perspective than our professional ones. My favorite is the shot below of us immediately after the ceremony.


Some photos captured memorable moments even before our photographers arrived. We made the boys wait in the basement after I ran home to get my dress. I didn't want Mr. Lollipop to see me after I'd had my hair and makeup done.

Other pictures revealed the point of view of our friends and family. Along side our professional pictures they provided a more complete record of the day.

I needed lots of help getting my shoes on.


My ladies looked fabulous as they waited for pre-ceremony pictures.


We took a long ride up the zoo escalator to get to the aquarium shuttle.


The best man served as guardian over our plastic Blessed Virgin Mary as we moved her from the ceremony to the reception.


Some of our friends clowned around in the tunnels around the stingray tank.

There are many more photos still to come once our professional shots are ready for release. Stay tuned!

Labels: photography, wedding

posted by Alison 10/08/2007 12:18:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Thursday, October 04, 2007

Tryin' to Get the Pretty

The one bad thing about getting married on a Sunday is that all of the independent, super-fancy-pants salons are closed. (Rats! No temple massages!) I wanted to give all of my ladies a chance to get their hair done, but that would be impractical time-wise if we hired someone to come to us for hair and make-up. Despite being a DIY bride, I knew that I was too incompetent to even do my own eye-liner, so we turned to a local chain for our prettification needs.

Here are the final results. Photo credit goes to my Maid of Honor and her fashion photography skills.


We used Philip Pelusi on the South Side of Pittsburgh. I did a hair trial there and was happy with the results. For both my trial and the wedding day my beautician was Christina, and I would recommend her to anyone looking for a hair and makeup artist. She got married the month before me and had plenty of war stories to share, including a summer storm that caused so many downed trees that her rehearsal almost had to be canceled.

The back also turned out wonderfully. However, my stubborn hair only lasted this way for an hour and a half, but I wanted to do something out of the ordinar because our wedding guests would be staring at the back of us for most of the ceremony.


Mr. Lollipop was obsessed with my hair even after it de-curled itself. It stayed poofy (but not in a bad way) for the rest of the evening and he liked touching it.

Labels: hair accessories, philip pelusi, wedding

posted by Alison 10/04/2007 10:46:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Tuesday, October 02, 2007

The Improv Bachelorette Party!

Getting married on a Sunday on a holiday weekend has its benefits. One of the biggest was that Mr. Lollipop and I had a chance to have our bachelor/bachelorette parties the Friday before the ceremony while most of our friends and family were in town. Perfect.

My party was planned by my Maid of Awesomeness, Saralinda. She borrowed a giant SUV and stocked it with water and snacks and drove us all on one car. I requested two things from her: to go to Friday Night Improv, and a total ban on all penis-related novelty items. Both of my wishes were granted.

Friday Night Improv is a weekly show held at the Studio Theatre in the basement of the Cathedral of Learning. The format is similar to the show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but audience members are invited to participate in sketches. August 31st happened to be opening night for the season, so the show was extra packed and we ended up sitting on the floor in front of the bleachers. It was extra convenient for those times where we held each other and laughed so hard that we rolled on the ground.

A shot of us with our amazing host, Ben Mayer.


Plus, we were their first bachelorette party, ever! That somehow gave the Maid of Honor license to yell "Take it off!" at most of the male performers. Still, we mostly behaved ourselves and I got to be the bachelorette in a Dating Game sketch. I left the theater as the bachelors and their quirks were chosen. My job after I came back in was to ask three questions and guess what was wrong with each. An example:

ME: If we went on a date, what would you write in your blog afterwards?
BACHELOR #1: (In a falsetto) Well, we would ride horses and then we would almost kiss, and then we would siiing and then siiing some more...

Then bachelors #2 and #3 would answer, and so on. Below is a picture of me with my potential "dates": a Disney princess, a man obsessed with English literature, and some one who was molting. Guess which one was Bachelor #1.


The MOH also did a sketch of her own. It was a Shakespeare themed sketch where one of the other performers was stabbed and died on top of her. That was the most action any of us got that night with a stranger.


FNI ended at 1 am so we ran over to my favorite bar, the Library on Pittsburgh's South Side. I managed to get myself tipsy rather quickly, but there were few boys to flirt with. Well, there were a few on the second floor patio, but they were related to one of my 'maid's ex-boyfriends. Hmm. Awkward.

Then, at 2am tragedy struck. Noo! Not closing time! I hadn't made out with random boys or at least had a chance to talk about it before chickening out! While we stood outside trying to decide what to do next I saw my brother in law come out of the bar across the street, and then another brother in law and then Mr. Lollipop and the rest of his bachelor party. The South Side flats has over 80 bars in an area a little less than one square mile and we coincidentally picked two across the street from one another. Yay! So, instead of awkwardly, drunkenly hitting on strangers I made out with Mr. Lollipop in the middle of the street. There is a distinct possibility that I traumatized my younger brother, but it was a happy ending to the nightlife portion of the party.

We separated from the boys again and went to Saralinda's house where we drank my favorite kind of liquor, which is anything packaged in a tiny bottle. I fell asleep almost immediately while everyone else stayed up late and watched the BBC Series Footballers' Wives, which is for the best because I have a hard enough time following that show while sober.

So, I had a great night on the town with my ladies. Three cheers to Saralinda for organizing it all!

Labels: bachelorette, improv, wedding

posted by Alison 10/02/2007 03:00:00 PM : (2) comments : splink


Monday, September 24, 2007

It's a Steal and It Was on TV!

Okay, I will admit that I am a huge fan of Arrested Development. I own all of the DVDs, refer to each episode by its title, and force friends to watch whenever I get the chance. So, I have been following the official prop and wardrobe auctions since the beginning on ebay.

So, why am I posting about this? Well, this week there is a wedding dress for sale, one worn on screen by Charlize Theron as she played the part of Rita in the third season. And while Charlize might have worn it over her clothes, it's still a cute dress by the designer brand Melody Of CA and a steal at $103 (as of this posting). Plus, it comes with a fuzzy pink crown. How could anyone resist?

There isn't any size information available, so be prepared to invest in a good seamstress.

Labels: arrested development, dress, ebay, wedding

posted by Alison 9/24/2007 07:37:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, September 23, 2007

We're back...and oh, the mess!

We came back a few days ago to a wrecked house and (thanks to an infestation of pantry moths a few days before the wedding) no food. Our luggage and unopened gifts turned our living room into a pond of stuff, more fit for wading than walking through.

Still, it was a relief to be back and sleeping in our own bed. It was an even bigger relief to have a pile of unopened gifts waiting for us at 5:30 in the morning when jet-lag left us unable to do anything but toss and turn. One of the best so far has been a family genealogy where Mr. Lollipop's relatives thoughtfully added me to the family tree. Aww!

Our professional pictures should be ready soon as will my recaps of our honeymoon destinations, Bali and Hong Kong. Whee!

Labels: honeymoon, wedding

posted by Alison 9/23/2007 08:54:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, September 03, 2007

Shh! Don't tell anyone we're married!

Wow. I married Mr. Lollipop 24 hours ago, and now I am sitting in the Phoenix airport for the first of many connections before we arrive at our honeymoon destination. I feel so happy, so satisfied and so full of love. I'll be posting pictures soon and writing about our trip, but first I'll need to fulfill my backlog of pre-wedding entries. So, let's just pretend that I'm getting married in two weeks, or until I catch up. Thanks!

Labels: wedding

posted by Alison 9/03/2007 05:48:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Other Miss Lollipop

A few days ago, on a whim I googled my WeddingBee name and discovered that the top result is not for a person, but for an airplane. The original Miss Lollipop was a B-17 bomber that flew missions over Europe during World War II. While the lovely Miss L found an inauspicious end at the bottom of the English Channel after only three months of service, the coincidence stirred the aviation genes deep within me.

And those genes came directly from my father, an aircraft mechanic. When I was younger, he took us to dozens of aircraft museums and we would spend hours looking at aircraft spanning the whole existence of human flight. And my dad knew something about each one, some fact or story. I really treasure that time spent with him and with the things he knows best. My brother must have felt the same; he grew up to be a pilot. I grew up to be someone who really loves planes. Every year when I lived in DC I would go to the Air and Space Museum for my birthday and would name as many planes as I could when driving past as a tour guide.

So, my inner aviation nerd collaborated with my inner design nerd to produce two stenciled B-17 travel cases, one for me and one for Mr. Lollipop.


A quick how-to:

The original cases from paper source:

Print your image on the back of a a sheet of contact paper:


Cut it out with a craft knife:


Stick your new contact paper stencil where you like and rub the edges with a spoon to seal.


Lastly, just spray paint, wait a few seconds and peel.

Labels: airplane, DIY, wedding

posted by Alison 8/21/2007 10:26:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, August 19, 2007

Lino Block Print Thank You Cards

Our post-wedding thank you cards are much different than our pre-wedding cards and most of our other stationery. This is mostly because 1) screen printing in multiple colors is labor intensive and 2) I am tired.

So, I went with a single color linoleum block print of our logo:


Linoleum block prints are cheap and easy to make. They are basically an easier to carve version of a woodblock print.

You'll need a linoleum block (mine is 3" x 4"), a carving tool, ink, a brayer and something to print on. All of my supplies came from from a local art store and cost less than $20. Here is how to make your own:

Print a picture of the one-color image you want to carve and glue it lightly with a glue stick to the linoleum block.


Cut an outline of the image using your carving tool.


Peel off the printed image.


Carve out the rest of the negative space.


Now you have your very own single color lino block.

Inking and stamping has a few more steps than a plain rubber stamp. First, you'll use ink from a tube instead of an ink pad. Find a flat, easily cleanable surface for rolling out your ink. I use a piece of glass I had cut and polished for this purpose, but an old dinner plate would probably work just as well. Just put one or two dollops of ink on your surface and roll over it with the brayer until its roller is fully coated. Be careful about how much ink is on the brayer, too much and you'll lose detail, too little and parts of your print won't get inked at all. Just keep rolling until the brayer makes sort of a sizzling noise as it rolls over the ink.

Next, apply your inked brayer to your lino block coating all of the parts you intend to print. Place the block over your paper and stamp. For extra clear prints, use a spoon to rub the back of paper on the stamp before removing it.

Labels: lino block, print making, thank you, wedding

posted by Alison 8/19/2007 02:49:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Friday, August 17, 2007

Getting Everyone Home Safe

So, our hotel block didn't work out too well. My fiance's family booked a hotel 12 miles out of town so that they could save a few dollars and my family procrastinated until the block expired. In the end, only five rooms out of the 20 were reserved before the deadline. We had planned to hire a shuttle service to drive everyone back to their hotels so that no one would have an excuse to drive while intoxicated. However, with our family scattered to the wind such a shuttle suddenly became impractical.

What should I do? Would it be enough to frame some phone numbers for taxi companies, place them on the bar and leave it to the guests to make their own arrangements?

Labels: dilemma, wedding

posted by Alison 8/17/2007 01:16:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Thursday, August 16, 2007

Sayin' it with a Flag

I'm not really in to having things thrown at me or leaving a mess on the church steps, so I had to think of something to replace the traditional rice or bird seed. Bubbles wouldn't be a good substitute; I've never been able to open those little bottles without spilling their contents all over myself.

So, to give everyone something to hold I decided to hand out flags:

I just screen printed on some rectangles I cut from muslin and serged the edges to keep them from fraying. Of course, one could substitute rectangles cut with pinking shears if a serger is not available. Each flag was glued to a bamboo skewer (100 for $3 in the barbecue section at the grocery store).

The transparency used to screen print them:


I only made 60, which will not be enough to cover our 200 person wedding and I might not have time to make more. I made 100 quick ribbon wands to supplement the flags, but I feel like a ribbon on a stick might be too silly for most adults. Still, they would make for colorful photographs. What do you think?

Labels: flag, screen printing, wedding

posted by Alison 8/16/2007 01:15:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, August 13, 2007

Our Invitation Inspiration - Part II

Part I

Mr. Lollipop once tried to add up all the time I spent on our invitations. I had to stop him because I couldn't contemplate the amount of time I put into them without losing my mind a little. I started sketching in November, did the design in April, screen printed in May, letter pressed in June, and finally mailed them in July. Of course, I had lots of help on the last three, but the point is that I spent lots of time in the print studio that could have been used to learn a martial art or a new language.

Still, I don't think I could bear to let anyone else design our invitations.

I put invitation page together to carry on the tree theme we used on the cover: My original digital mock-up:


Luckily, our parents were really understanding when we couldn't get the letter press calibrated to add everyone's first names.

Also, I drew dozens of trees (one can be seen on the cover), but ended up buying the rights to use a much nicer one from istockphoto.com. That website is a great place to legally obtain the rights to all kinds of vector images for those who like to design, but have trouble drawing. Our map and directions page:


I drew the map using an old copy of Macromedia FreeHand. We used the pattern at the bottom of the page to register the layers of ink.

The full package, including a rehearsal dinner invitation and a website card:


An assembled invitation:

Labels: DIY, invitations, screen printing, wedding

posted by Alison 8/13/2007 12:26:00 PM : (0) comments : splink

Other People's Invitations

Need invitation inspiration? Here are a few amazing invites from around the internet:

• Luau's screen printed and letter pressed invitations
• Juicyyumburger's fantastic gocco invitations
• Cupcakes for clara's pop-up invitations
• Think_ink's playing card invitations
• Chocosaur's retro bird invitations
• Wishingline's beautiful fall-inspired invitations
• Redmeg8's DIY silkscreen invitations

Labels: invitations, wedding

posted by Alison 8/13/2007 12:12:00 PM : (1) comments : splink


Thursday, August 09, 2007

Thank you very much!

Our first pre-wedding gifts have started arriving and our house is slowly filling with boxes and packing peanuts. I love checking the porch everyday to see what has arrived. I'd initially wanted to avoid registering or register only for a charity, but I was talked out of it by my mother and my fiance. Now, I look at the online registry every day to see what has been purchased for us. Deep down I am a greedy little monkey. (However, we do have a donation registry at Heal Africa just to balance out our karma a little.)

Anyhow, getting presents means writing thank you cards. I'm terrible about getting them done just because I feel obligated to write much more than a "Thank you for X!" Mr. Lollipop puts the same amount of thought into his thank you cards, but he is a lot more disciplined about getting them done. So, we usually do them together to prevent me from procrastinating. For our shower thank-yous we sat in the library for three hours and each wrote half. My mother's family tends to fall into traditional gender roles, and they were shocked and amused to receive ones from Mr. Lollipop. Really, without him they would never get written, and besides, he picked out most of the registry himself!

Just as with our other correspondence, we created a customized design. This is our wedding shower and pre-wedding thank you card:

Labels: screen printing, thank you, wedding

posted by Alison 8/09/2007 08:02:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, August 06, 2007

Hijacking an Art Exhibit for Engagement Photos

As you can probably tell by now, we tend to do things our own way. And that way tends to be the cheapskate way. So, instead of hiring someone to pose us on the Monongahela Overlook we decided to take advantage of one of our favorite places in Pittsburgh, the Mattress Factory Art Museum and do it ourselves.

The art museum was built out of (as you might have guessed) an defunct mattress factory. It's a highly interactive museum for one geared towards adults; most of the exhibits are 'experienced' rather than viewed. One of the permanent installations is a set of two rooms with polka dot floors and mirrors on all the walls and the ceiling.

We spent a Saturday morning last December laying on the floor of one of the exhibits trying to get something we could send out with our Christmas cards. Since we weren't planning on sending our photos to the newspaper for an announcement we decided that we could afford to be a little unconventional. I made the dress in the photo myself, adapting a shirt pattern into a full length shirt dress.

We sent a few different versions to friends and family:



This one is my favorite, but I screwed up the exposure timing and not even Photoshop could save it from the resulting weird coloring:

Labels: engagement, mattress factory, photography, wedding

posted by Alison 8/06/2007 01:41:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Saturday, August 04, 2007

Dripping with Jewels without Breaking the Bank

I confess that I love sparkly things, and I especially love pretty, sparkly things from nature.

In high school I was a chemistry and geology nerd. I loved how the molecular components of each crystal dictated the structure for the whole thing. The hexagonal shape of apatite, the little squares of salt crystals, it all makes sense and it's something that can be held in your hand!

Plus, it's amazing to look at gems and minerals. They come from the ground! They might have been cut and polished by humans, but the sparkle, the color and the tone mostly come from nature. I still love pacing around the mineral exhibits in the Pittsburgh Carnegie Museums. It's almost like shopping. "Yes! I shall have you, Tourmalinated quartz!"

Some of my stash of pearl strands, double drilled garnets, amber strands, and loose opal, white topaz and garnet stones:


Also, it's surprising to learn how affordable most precious and semi-precious stones are when you shop around. Gemstone beads can be used to make great offbeat gifts for bridesmaids, or they can be incorporated into bridal accessories. I've been buying this stuff for years, so I've learned a lot through trial and error. Here are my favorites:

To find affordable precious stones, opting for less than gem quality materials can save tons of money, but give you beautifully colored stones with some personality.

• Ruby droplets: these are cloudy unlike their gem counterparts, but they would make stunning pendants.
• Gradated Sapphire beads: I haven't purchased these yet, but I want them sooo badly.
• Emerald Chips: These inexpensive chips are a great way to get the fantastic green glow of emeralds. The description says that the chips are oiled, but they don't stain or feel oily to the touch.

Semi-precious stones are incredibly affordable even at gem quality levels, plus they can be used as substitutes for their more expensive counterparts. Also, going semi-precious doesn't mean looking cheap. Even Tacori uses white topaz in their hair pieces in place of diamonds.

• Faceted peridot beads: Peridots are a good replacement for emeralds, though the green is more yellow. I think this stone is particularly appealing when mixed with pearls.
• Blue Topaz Faceted Drops: Most commercially available blue topaz is created by irradiating less desirable colors, though natural blue topazes exist. They are an affordable substitute for sapphires, especially gems of the London blue variety.
• Double drilled garnets: This gem was a popular symbol of love in Europe during the middle ages and renaissance period. There are many varieties (even green ones), but they are amazingly affordable even at AA level quality and better.

Pearls, especially the freshwater cultured variety are totally affordable. I have stands of white lotus variety, and even chunky, giant c-grade pearls (the striped ones in the upper right corner of the picture above) that are used in regular rotation in my wardrobe.

Even humble quartz comes in a variety of colors (smoky or green, for example) and shapes like leaves or flowers.

Other favorites:
amber, moss agate, light blue Apatite, dark blue apatite, lapis lazuli, labradorite, spinel, tanzanite, tourmaline


From left to right: emerald chips, moss quartz, turquoise, lapis lazuli

Labels: gem stones, gimme, wedding

posted by Alison 8/04/2007 01:28:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Thursday, August 02, 2007

Yet More Wedding Threads from Ask Metafilter

• Invitations: Do we have to address all of these things by hand?
  
• What did you say to your significant other when you asked for their hand in marriage? Or, on the flip side, what was said to you?
  
• Three ceremonies in three countries or just elope and send everyone a MOV file?
  
• We've been invited to a Buddhist wedding. How can we stay faux-pas-free?
  
• What happens when two people with hyphenated last-names marry?
  
• We're frantically searching (our minds, the intraweb) for pre-ceremony songs.
  
• My fiancee and I aren't sure if we should do pre-marriage counseling or not.
  
• Which species of ducks mate for life?
  

Labels: ask metafilter, wedding

posted by Alison 8/02/2007 01:41:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, July 30, 2007

Our RSVPs are Fowl

Mr. Lollipop's favorite animal is the duck. For his birthday one year ago I rented two ducks from a nearby farm and he spent the evening following them around the yard and smiling.

Lots of work went into our invitations, so I wanted to try and draw some creativity our of our guests in return. Other than real ducks, what could be better for the water fowl obsessed man than armfuls of paper ducks from our loved ones? Plus, the paper kind don't poop everywhere or gorge themselves on our our garden herbs like the real thing.

Thus, our RSVP cards were born:


We've had a terrific response so far with lots of personal messages and notes. Only three party-poopers out of the more than thirty replies have returned without some kind of embellishment.

Some of our haul:


This one was done by a professional illustrator:


Two of Mr. Lollipop's relatives couldn't come so they sent a duck in their stead:


We will display the results at the reception and have a drawing for a prize.

P.S. Numbering the invitations really saved out bacon. Quite a few came back with ducks but no names or nothing at all. Don't expect everyone to remember to write their names!

Labels: duck, invitations, rsvp, wedding

posted by Alison 7/30/2007 11:42:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, July 29, 2007

More Wedding Threads from Metafilter

Some more Ask Metafilter wedding threads:

Is it acceptable to ask the bride not to seat me next to someone in particular?
Do you regret having spent all that money and energy on your big, splash-out wedding?
How do I make my destination wedding enviro-friendly?
Help my girlfriend and I gracefully decline a request to work the reception table. Again. And forevermore.
Snappy comebacks, please, for the question: so, when are you going to have children?
What needs to be done to get married in a church?
Can anyone suggest interesting science-flavored demonstrations, experiments, or spectacles to be performed at a wedding?
Entertainment alternatives to dancing at wedding party?

Labels: ask metafilter, wedding

posted by Alison 7/29/2007 12:48:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Thursday, July 26, 2007

Invitation Inspiration: The Cover Design

When I was a little girl I was obsessed with the Funk and Wagnalls science encyclopedias available in our supermarket. The first volume covering A-Aq sold for only 9 cents so it was easy to talk my mother into buying a copy. For months, it was my most prized possession and I read from 'aardvark' to 'aquarium' savoring each entry. By far, my favorite entry was 'animal'. It contained a massive taxonomy tree covering two pages. I studied the chart like it was for a grade.

Once we decided on a zoo reception venue, the chart sprang to mind as a convenient, organized way to incorporate and expand our animal theme. I drew many of the animal/plant/monera kingdom illustrations myself, though I nipped a few (namely the horse, butterfly and frog) from one of my copyright free illustration books and converted them to silhouettes.

The digital design layout:

In order to print multiple colors we broke down our digital illustration and converted each layer to a simple black and white image. Here are our results; we printed each on a transparency in order to burn them on to a screen:


Screen printing the illustrations turned out to be time consuming. The green background took more than the usual amount on time because I wanted the color to go all the way up to the edges, so when we placed each card we needed to add scraps around the edges to keep the ink from smearing onto the back of the screen and smudging future copies. Doing this 200+ times really adds up.

In addition, the tiny animal/plant/etc. illustrations lost details when we added more ink than needed. Therefore, we had to print reeeeally slowly and blot the screen at the first sign of trouble. Thanks goodness for the patience of our friends.

We also had a fourth layer of ink, the dotted swirls in the illustration above, but I couldn't decide whether I liked the extra embellishment so only half of our invitations carry it.

If you really want to learn to screen print check out this tutorial.

Labels: illustrations, invitations, wedding

posted by Alison 7/26/2007 01:26:00 AM : (0) comments : splink


Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Our First Vendor Blip

Arg...I'm kicking myself a little for not doing better research on our photographer. I hired his company after going to a bridal show and hating every photography booth except for his. I really liked the style of his photography and decided that it was worth the significant expense. However, since then I found two online reviews, both negative. I decided that we could avoid most of the pitfalls mentioned in the reviews by having a clear list of the photos we wanted and being up front about our priorities.

Well, we had our last meeting with our photographer before the wedding and it didn't go so smoothly. We have had two prior meetings, and each went amicably. In the mean time, I've had a chance to look at photographs from other weddings and decide what I want for mine. Going in to this meeting, I knew that in addition to traditional ceremony posed shots and candid reception shots I wanted photographs of the reception venue and its set-up before the guests arrive and the tables get trashed. With this in mind, I signed up for two photographers so we could get the coverage we need.

Here is how things went wrong: First, he expanded the six shots we wanted for our posed session to more than 24, by moving most of the pre-ceremony shots to the post-ceremony session. Then, our photographer insisted that both he and the assistant photographer be present for our entire posed shot session, and no, one of them cannot go to the venue early to cover the reception details. Why? Because the posed shots will suffer