Love this Bout! Part 2

source

Geeking Out a Little More

Okay, okay, okay, I get it. I blogged about Mario cakes and cupcakes all ready, I posted a photo of a cake because it had a giant Goomba on top . . . the truth is, I might be a little bit of a nerd. There. I said it. Secrets out.

And now that the truth is out, I figured I could geek out just a teeny bit more. I have a good reason for it, I promise.

Ever play Little Big Planet? If you have, you know that its a super cute and super fun game. Mister Giraffe and I have had quite a few Little Big Planet nights. It definitely makes for a good two player game, its really enjoyable.

And, as having previously mentioned that I'm a Marvel girl, Little Big Planet has got even better now that its added Marvel costume packs! Whooo Hooo! I'm so excited! (source)
So, you're wondering what this all has to do with wedding stuff, right? Weeeeelllllllllll let me tell you!

The little Sackboys in Little Big Planet? Well someone had the amazing idea to create a cake topper looking like little Sackboys (and girls)! Ahhhhhhh I love it!

And you will love it too! Ready? Are you sure? Because this very well may be too cute to handle! (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5)


And my personal favorite, due to their wedding finery (Source):
Ahhhhhh! I love it, love it, love it!

Anybody else totally geeking out for the big day?

Mari-Oh snap!

(side note: I never really joined the "oh snap" trend when it was popular, and feeling like I missed out, I'm now throwing back to the early '00s)

So I had a nice, moderately interesting post about Mr. G an I and transitioning from a long distance relationship to short distance relationship for last night, but I fell asleep on the couch with a computer on my lap. My bad, but oh well :). I still want to get into that, but today I have something that's way more exciting than hearing me talk about myself (even though it might be my favorite topic).

It all started with me seeing a photo of wedding cake with a Goomba on top (pictured below), a la Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. After that, I couldn't help but wonder about Mario themed wedding cakes. I showed it to the future Mister, and Mr. G instantly wanted our cake to look like a Goomba, and I had to start looking into Mario cakes.

Yeeeaaaaaah, well apparently, that wasn't the only one! Yup, apparently the rest of the internet feels the same kinship to Mario & Peach's relationship as Mr.G does. Ready for this? There's no way not to smile after these!

Now, firstly I have to mention to use caution when sharing these with your groom. I mean, I love Mario as much as the next guy, and I grew up with him, hung out with him, and feel pretty close to the Italian plumber. I do, I really do, but I just can't see him at my wedding. I mean we only can fit so many people at our venue and he'd probably bring Toad which would be another plate to pay for. That being said, after Mr.G saw the Goomba cake, he would looove to have Mario at our wedding. Knowing him, he'd probably bring Luigi, Boswer, and Baby Bowser (and we're not even inviting children!). . . at least we could invite Yoshi? I always love that Dino since Super Mario came out on Super Nintendo.

Firstly, let's start with the Mario cupcakes! Can't get enough of these! (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4)
I know, right?! Faaaaaantastic! But, really, we're not really cupcake people. Have no fear though, Mario cakes abound! Foooor reals, yo! (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5, source 6, source 7)
Anybody want to jump on this next cake?

I can barely stand it! These are so amazing! Works of art, I tell ya, works of art! So you want to know what my favorite is? This baby!

You want to know why I love that cake the most? Is it because of it's crazy detail, like the Bloopers in the water levels? Maybe. But I love it because of the side cakes made to go with it. AUH MAZ ING!

Ohhhhhhhh man! These cakes just make me so happy, but to be perfectly honest, if I was going to have a gamer cake at my wedding, it would have to pay homage to my favorite little guy. (image source)
Anybody else totally geeking out with your wedding cake? Because if you are, I might seriously love you for it.


Ohhhh okay, one more for the road! (Source: Cake Wrecks, but I don't have the original post link).

We're not having a Mario cake, but somebody has to! Are you?

Illustrator Info: Dotted Lines

Recently, due to wedding message boards and the like, I found myself quickly whipping up things for other brides to be in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. Working with these programs all day, every day pretty much means I could use them in my sleep, but not everybody can. They're definitely complicated programs, and if you don't know your way around they can be very confusing.

I know many future brides are trying their hand at DIY invites, and have had quite a time with the design aspect, so I decided I'm going to post small tips for Illustrator here on the Bee. These will be how tos on simple things, so hopefully folks with basic knowledge will be able to figure it out.

Today's tip is a easy, but good one: how to make a dotted line in Illustrator. If you've used InDesign (my favorite) at all, you know there's a simple option to click 'dotted line' in your strokes palette, but Illustrator is a little different.

Note: these screen shots come from version CS4. My lazy butt needs to go out and get CS5 all ready. Also, for this post, I'll list the step and put an image right below it (instead of above it).

Step 1) Create a new document. (Key command: Command N).

Step 2) Open your stroke pallet. Typically, this is open by default, but if it isn't, go to 'Window' up at the top and click 'strokes' like the above image.

Step 3) Use the pen tool (key command: P) to draw a stroke or create a shape you wish to add a dotted stroke to or around.

Step 4) Using the black arrow (key command: V), click on the stroke or shape you're using. Double Click the strokes palette to expand it if it doesn't look like the one in the screen shot. Click the check box for dashed line. (Typically, this will make a dashed line, like the kind you see around coupons and the dashes look like little sprinkles you want to eat). Right under the check box, set your dash as 0 pt and your gap as 10. The gap will be the amount of space between your dots, you'll probably have to play with it until you find a spacing you like.

You'll notice I made my stroke weight 5 pt or 5 points, I just did this so it would show up in the screen shot. The weight is how thick (or thin) your stroke appears.
Step 5) This is where the magic happens! Next to the 'Weight' and 'Miter Limit' box, you have some choices for your cap and your joint. You see in the previous step that the boxes are darkened all the way on the left side. Click the center boxes which are 'round cap' and 'round join.' (If you hold your cursor over the buttons, the words 'round cap' will pop up.) Also, try not to laugh at the fact that the default is a butt cap hehehe. . . I mean, grow up, people. (Also: butt cap hehehehe)
And look at that! A dotted line! Hoooooray! You did it; I'm so proud, I knew you could do it!

Anybody celebrating their dotted lines? Anybody confused? Let me know and I'll clarify more if you need it.

Gemstone Love

As a gemstone e-ring wearer, I have a soft spot for those lovely gems, and I think more people should appreciate colored stones! They're a little work to take care of than normal rings, and I found a really helpful chart on macys.com that lays out care for them all in one place. It's finally nice to see all the info laid out, for all those precious (and semi precious) stones!

Everything here comes from macys.com.
Personally, my ring has a blue sapphire so for cleaning it says,
"Clean with warm soapy water and a soft brush or cloth. Avoid strong detergents, heat, pressure and ultrasonic. Avoid re-polishing or re-cutting of the stone. Color may fade in light or with heat."

Also, I know people love colored diamonds, and for cleaning those, the site says,
"Clean with warm soapy water and a soft brush or cloth. Do not expose to intense heat."

To see the rest of the gem chart, view it here.

And also from macys.com? Some real gemstone love ;-).

And because I'm a blue sapphire girl myself:
Love it!

Ahhh the Goombas!

If Mr. TB did the majority of the planning, our cake would look like this (and I would still love it):

How is this fabulous?

So today in my inbox, I found another email I've subscribed to from weddingchannel.com. Frankly, their emails are starting to freak me out, just because each day they simply tell me how many days are left until the wedding (a fact which I'm trying to ignore because there is just too much to do).

Anyway, today's email linked me to 'new fabulous hairstyles' which I decided to check out. Now that my hair is 13 inches shorter than it was last week, I have to seriously restart the wedding hair hunt. . . or start it at all actually.

I made it through 11 of he 25 new hairstyles before deciding that today way not my day to look at hair, well not after the "open loop ponytail" anyway.
Uhhhhh yeah. . . . That's kind of why I got my hair cut originally. It was too long and it my way so I'd just twist it, ball it up, and put an elastic around it. My hairstyle would be what I would affectionately call "the hair lump." That's kind of what I feel like that open loop pony looks like. It doesn't look chic or wedding-fancy at all.

I still have no idea how I want to wear my hair on my wedding day, but at least I'm getting closer to knowing what I don't want ;-).

Love this Bout!

via greenweddingshoes

The Pre Wedding Chop

That's right, tomorrow night I have a hair appointment for a pre wedding chop! My hair hasn't been cut or trimmed for quite a while, so I'm sure my ends are spilt and gross so I'm happy to good bye to them, but honestly. . .

I'm a little nervous! Like I said, my hair hasn't been cut in a long it. It's long, like super long. Super long, in a way, that I have to get it cut because I've been shutting it in the door of my truck and zipping it into my purse.

There's a recent photo of my putting French bread into TB's car. It is clipped up a little, and it is all wavy, but it typically reaches my lower back. It's down to my butt!

It is kind of tough to go through with because everyone always comments with "wow!" and "such pretty hair!" and, secretly, the vain part of me loves the attention.

I will be following my favorite motto of 'go big or go home'', I think, because I'm planning on cutting off a good foot. Yup, there's that nervousness again.

At first, I was totally against the idea of getting a hair cut, no matter how much I wanted one, because I was worried I then wouldn't have any options for a wedding 'do. I finally realized that I would still have plenty of choices, and if my hair stays the same length, I'll loose a good 2-3 hours on the wedding day trying to have it put up. It's just too much hair; too much thick thick hair!

I did though, purposely wait until after our e-pics for a cut. This way, even though I might have short(er) hair in our actually wedding photos, at least I'll have some of my super long hair (that TB loves, but that I can only recall wearing down twice in the last month and a half).

So what am I thinking? (from www.long-hairstyle.com)

Yeah, a little layered, a little hip. I could totally rock that. And although I'm still totally freaking out about cutting off 4 years of hair, I just remind myself that I waited so long to cut it it (aside from laziness) so that I could donate it. Someone will benefit from this chop, so that makes me a little more excited. I never had hair long enough that a cut made the cut (har har) for donations.

I know everyone does the post wedding chop, but anyone do a big chop before the big day?

Sad News. What would you do?

So, as I was driving into work yesterday, I was listening to a morning show (which I don't do too often) and when the news segment came on, and I heard the worst news.

Two days a ago, a Chicago firefighter died while fighting a fire at a downtown restaurant. Now, of course, this is awful news, but it got worse when I heard that he's only 31 and engaged to be married.

I am not a crier, not very often, not really, and I tell you, my eyes teared up at that moment.

I can't even begin to imagine what his poor fiance is going through. I'm positive that it must be so unbelievably hard to loose a spouse at any time, but seeing as I have yet to be married, I can only think about what it would be like to loose my future husband. I have no idea how hard it would be.

I mentioned it to my mom this morning and told her that I simply wouldn't know what to do. The idea of loosing TB is heart wrenching enough to bring me to tears; I have no idea how awful it would (God forbid) actually be. We've all ready talked about the names of our future children, the color of our future home's kitchen, and growing old together.

My mom said that all you would have to do is take it one step at a time. She mentioned that her & my dad had a family friend whose fiance passed away on his way to his bachelor party (in a car accident). Two months ago, Cosmo had an article about a bride-to-be loosing her fiance on her wedding day.

It's enough to make you feel sick. The idea of having a whole future, a whole life, taken away by loosing the man (or woman) you love? I just can't stress how horrible it would be.

The idea of a life without TB doesn't sound like a life at all . . . TB makes me feel alive, feel loved and feel happy. . . without him, I don't know what I would do.

Now, I am no longer just praying for a long happy life with TB and for us to be safe, but I'm now praying that no future husband or wife should have to miss out on a future with the one they're supposed to be with.

A gift for the Mister

Mr. Giraffe! If you're reading this: go away! This post isn't for you; I'm the one that's supposed to ruin surprises, not you!



Is he gone yet? Good.

I had to change the title of this post so I certain long necked cohort of mine wouldn't be tempted to read on, but
the title of this post should have been "Cuff Links!" so I could make the following joke: This is a post about cuff links with links to the pages!! Cuff Links! Get it?! Get it?! Oh man, I'm hilarious!

Anyway! I'm determined to get Mister Giraffe some cuff links for the wedding day. I think it'll be a fun little surprise gift, and I read somewhere (I don't know if its true or not) that rented tuxes don't come with cuff links and apparently you need them for your tux? I don't know, I've been too busy looking at photos of dresses to even think about TB's tux. (image source)

From what my friend the internet tells me, cuff links are not just ugly and for old dudes anymore. In fact, they can be surprisingly hip. Now, of course, this makes the links ridiculously exciting, but it also means more choices. Naturally, more choices means a tough decision, which, like always, is destined to be my downfall. I struggle so hard with making s decision between two (slipshod at best) choices, let alone 10 really good choices!

Alas, I digress, this was supposed to be about Mr. Giraffe for once. . . kind of. . . :-D

Anyway, I can tell you for a fact that Mr. G has not thought about cuff links yet. I know this because #1) he's never mentioned it and #2) he's so not a details guy that I can't even picture him thinking about it.

What's that you say? Bring on the options? Well, what a coincidence, seeing as I was about to do just that. After seeing a photo online from a wedding and following the link, my search began at etsy.com which had a crazy amount of cuff links to offer, most of the following come from there. Check the sources for specific sellers. (All images come from seller's pages, links can be found in each blurb).
This set warmed my heart because not only does it looker super chic and appeal to the out-of-nowhere-totally-uncontrollable-tradition-side-of-me, but the idea of our names and wedding date just seems so sweet. We're not the sentimental type of folks, but this could be really touching and I think Mr. G would appreciate it. We often play scrabble or invite friends over to play so this would be a cute nod to one of our past times. Our initials would be a nice touch too, but I guess scrabble doesn't play that big of a role in our lives. Grab this set here. Okay, admittedly this set has nothing to do with Mr.G. I just have an unhealthy obsession with office supplies, and I swear to you that that obsession grows in size as the supplies' size decreases. Once again, this set has nothing to do with Mr. G, but as a typographer, the idea of vintage typewriter keys totally has me squealing on the inside. It'd be a cute way to keep us together on W Day (as we affectionately call our future wedding day). Even cuter than that? I could probably find the tab key on cuff links and TAB are Mr. G's initials.This set would be appropriate seeing as I used to refer to Mr.G as Superman when we first started dating, but, alas, I am a Marvel girl through and through and I just can't find a place for DC comics on a day as important as the day of my wedding.

Classic and to the point. I adore the simplicity of this set and the letter forms are equally as beautiful.
TB and I are most certainly Macs, and Mr. G always has been. He's a Mac nerd at heart. This set here.
Mr. Giraffe loves video games more than me! Kidding. . .I think. . .(maybe?) . . .and I'm pretty sure he'd rule Hyrule if given the chance, which is why this little Link (a Link link?!?) would be perfect.
Love this! But then I'd have to deal with even more decisions about what locations to choose! Gah! Maybe where we met and where we're getting married?
These are almost perfect. Not only do they look super suave and hip, but y'know whats inside those there links?! Bass guitar strings! Mr. Giraffe majored in guitar in college, and is currently student teaching so he can become a music teacher. Music pretty much rules his life, with his guitar (well one of the five of them) at the center of it. The only problem with this is that Mr. G is a definite guitar snob. Seriously (I know, lame, right?). I don't know all the deets, but I do know he is a classical guitarist so he uses nylon strings (I can't believe I remembered that!), not whatever those bass ones are made out of. He'd probably like the idea of those links, but have a hard time setting his snobbery to the side to wear them. Lame sauce.
Ahhhhhhh! These are bananas! They're Lego men, on cuff links! Greatest idea ever? Quite possibly. I love Legos, you love Legos, Mr.G loves Legos! Who wouldn't want these?! It's very very tempting, but they'd be a little larger than the other options and I can just imainge them sticking out in every formal photo of our now-turning-super-traditional-but-hipster-at-heart wedding.

What about you guys? Anyone else recently discovered hip links and totally can't decide?

Some Minnesotan Perspective

I spent the last 3 days in Minnesota with family. We (myself, sister, mom, & dad) flew out Saturday morning, and flew back home today (Monday) afternoon. Sunday was grandpa's 80 birthday party and a whole bunch of us C's flew in from all over to be a part of it and have a little reunion. I saw the C cousins that I hadn't seen in a while and really enjoyed it.

Cousin Drew got married last summer. I met his wife for the first time this past weekend. Allison was really nice & sweet. Her and Drew got married with just their immediate families which is why I hadn't met her yet. The two of them are planning a second wedding and reception later this month. It's basically a chance for them to be with everyone and party and have the chance for a good time. Drew said its the reception they didn't to have, but they're just having another ceremony too. I won't be able to make it, seeing as a took a day off to go in for the 80th birthday party, but it sounds like a good time and it sounds like a whole bunch of the C family members will make it out there too.

They're having the shindig on the farm that belongs to one their college professors (where they planted sunflowers for the event), borrowing a tent from another professor (to which I said they were super lucky because those suckers are expensive), having a pig roast (they helped raise the pig to be able to roast it - although that's a big money saver I found it kind of sad haha), providing hale bales for seating that they plan to donate to the farm afterward, she got her red dress for $16 at her favorite thrift store, and the couple as well the guests that haven't made reservations, are welcome to bring tents and camp out after the party.

Sounds like fun, right?

We go into talking about money and Drew said at one point that they were hiring a cheap photographer and said, "Our budget for the whole thing is $2,000, and I know someone who spent that on just their photographer."

My response was, "Yeah, I know."

I didn't mention that I'm actually paying $2,400 for our (amazing) photographers.

What I did say was that, "I have photography experience and because of that, I know what I want. We're paying a lot for our photogs. We originally set a low budget and we raised when I couldn't find something for the original amount. Sure, I have to work a lot to pay for it, but in my mind it's totally worth it. And, really, I work hard for my money, and this is something I really want."

And you know what?
New cousin (is she my technically my cousin?) Allison totally smiled and said that that was great for TB and I and how exciting it is.

It's interesting how family members, who you would might worry would be judgmental about touchy subjects (such as weddings which everyone has an opinion on and money), and then they can surprise you and be totally cool.

On the other hand, I didn't judge her and Drew at all for having a different type of ceremony than TB & I and I am now totally excited for them.

Anyone else pleasantly surprised?
Also, on a side note, Minnesota is a super hip town, and I had to share a photo of myself on my uncle's boat on a ride on the Mississippi River.