Monday, September 3, 2012

Come What May: The Morning Of

Yes, Hive, it's that time! Recap time, to be exact! I'm more than aware that's it's been a loooong time since my big day, and you might not even know who I am. For that I am sorry, and let me catch you up!

I became a bee quite a while ago and said "you're not giving me a lot of options" when Mr. Giraffe proposed (but I meant yes!).  After that ring was on my finger, I was in planning mode for our blue and brown wedding! E-Pics were taken and turned into Save The Dates. Then I found out we'd be having fireworks at our reception, DIYed some cake flags, mentioned my wedding crush, got a tattoo, designed a cake, DIYed a 'Years We Met' Poster, and told everyone that they need a Videographer. Oh yeah, and we had DIY Invites, too.

Now that you have the highlights and are caught up, let's move on!!

I stayed up until midnight the night before. Yes, I should've been sleeping, but I waas too excited and I just wanted to stay up until my wedding day 'just because.' I really could've used more than six hours of sleep. Oy.

I also took a photo of my watch to document this. What was I thinking?! (Sorry for the blurry photo, but in my defense, maybe I just thought it was clear because my vision was blurry at the time. Hey, a week of DIY finishing and relatives will do that to a girl!)



Anyway, the day started with Mama Giraffe waking up me & BM Mang (who stayed over the night before), and having us pose with my favorite book. (*All are personal photos, by either myself, my mom, or my bridesmaids).

Then, obviously most importantly, Murphy Joe put on his tuxedo bandana Mama G purchased especially for the occasion.


Here's where I have to tell you a story.
What happened next was the BMs that weren't doing their own hair, headed to Fantastic Sam's with me. I had been set on an up-do, had it picked out and everything, but this occurred at my rehearsal
dinner the night before.

BM Mang: So, how are you wearing your hair tomorrow?
Me: Up.
At the same time, Mr. G: Down.

HA. Apparently, this whole time, Mr. G had been picturing a down-hair bride, because he thought it'd make me all beautiful or something. Whatever. Thank goodness I didn't waste money on a hair trial when my 'do would've been different!

BM Mang and I scrambled to find a hair style that morning (thank you, new thing called Pinterest) so I could have down hair. Luckily it all worked out, but it was crazy for a little bit there!

Anyway! At the hair salon!
For my hair, we decided to do something with lots of long curls and something sweep-y with the long bangs in the front.

You can tell my my face that I was totally happy with it. The whole time I was just giggly and nuts. I seriously could NOT believe the day was finally here.


I love that in the next one, you can see BM Mang, with her Pippa inspired Hair, taking the photo in the mirror.

The stylist also popped my veil in for me, and told the BMs, how to pull it straight up, to take it out without messing up my curls.

Oh, and then I forgot my wallet, and they don't do tips on cards so my sister had to tip my stylist for me. Thanks, big sis!

This picture shows BM O'Kelly getting the updo I had originally planned on. It worked out great because I all ready the picture printed out and brought it with me.
 

BM Mar also had some curls.


 The MOH getting her blonde hair did.


And that was it! Lots of giggles and happiness, because, hey, it was my wedding day!

We headed back to Mama G's house for lunch! (Hello Jimmy John's!!)  For those of you that are interested, I called every sandwich place/grocery store/deli in the area to get their prices on sandwich party platters, and J.J.s had the best prices. I ordered it, but, to this day, I have no idea who went to pick the tray up for me (and paid for it?!), sooo ummmm thanks random relative!



And then, the photographers showed up! Stayed tuned for some equally as fun, but much better looking photos.

How did you start your big day!







Sunday, May 13, 2012

One Year Later

We had a rainy day in Chicago this week, and the first thing it made me think of was a chilly, rainy day in Chicago that was exactly a year ago.

It is so hard for me to believe that May 14th was a whole 365 days ago. The past year has gone by so fast, and I can hardly believe we're here! I feel like we're still settling into life as a married couple and learning how to live together, and all of the sudden we're not even newly wed ever more!! How did that happen!?




All post photos by the amazing Sarah & Ryan Miller / Miller + Miller Photography 
 
Video by the wonderful Jean and Alex / LynkzStudio

Happy anniversary, Mr. Giraffe! It's been pretty cool having you as a husband. I love you more every day and I'm looking forward to the next year and the next forever together.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

A Whole Lotto Lotto Favors

You guys, I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to think up a favor for our guests. Like a serious amount of time that could have probably been spent doing other things that were more important. In hindsight, I had no reason to stress about the favors. Our photobooth photos could have been our favor, as well as our Sweets table, but I just really wanted something fun at each seat to show our guests how much we appreciated having them with us!

Since I thought so long about it, I feel like it's only fair to share some of those options as well as the big winner. The runners up were. . .

Hershey's Kisses in spring time colors to match our wedding colors which were baby blue and sage green and chocolate (get it?!) brown (but obviously I'd eat all the pink ones to keep them in our color scheme).

Hershey's Pastel Kisses via Oriental Trading (Great prices there!)

Tazo Tea in Berry Bloom White or Tazo Zen Green Tea. Funny story, these are my two favorite teas EVER. I drink them constantly (as well as Tazo Passion Tea; those are my top three), and thought it was serendipitous that they matched our wedding colors. Yes, it's true, I almost handed out tea bags as favors. That is something I would love, but not everybody drinks tea.
... And then I wanted mugs! Custom printed mugs for our guests would have been awesome (back when I researched, Bargain Mugs had the best prices FYI). The only reason I didn't do mugs was I'd have to pay a lot of extra money in shipping to make up for the super short turn around time we needed (I know, I was totally last minute on this one) But that was also very close runner up. They would have been amazing.

As you can see, a LOT of indecisiveness here. Well, I finally stumbled upon this image, and - be still my gambling loving heart - I knew that this would be the favor for our wedding.

I know, right?! I instantly started Googling for some more inspiration photos, and found out that there's even been talk about lotto favors on the Weddingbee Boards! And Jellyfish made some too!

Google told me that most brides had been using Glassine Envelopes (like int he above photo) or lottery ticket holders.
Lotto Ticket Holders via Oriental Trading

Well. . . I didn't want either of these options. I didn't want to have to order and wait for envelopes, and I didn't like the look of the paper holders.

I went to Hobby Lobby, looked around, and came back with jewelry making bags. They were buy one get one free so I got 200 small ziplock-type bags for $2.59.
Personal Photo

I tried to find scratch offs in our wedding colors, but after a few stops to different stores/ Gas Stations, I decided that the dark blue on the Money Pot was close enough! It was easy enough, all we did was put the ticket and a penny into each bag.

Personal Photo
Personal Photo
Remember our wedding invitations?
Personal Photo

Well, I designed labels to match. On one side they said, "A Whole Lotto Love" (Hardy har har, other options included 'thanks a lotto' and 'if winning ticket, return to bride & groom'), and the other side had our names the same way our invites did, and also said "Thanks for sharing our special day."

Personal Photo

Personal Photo
Personal Photo
Personal Photo

I also put color cardstock, cut to size, in the back of each baggie. It covered up the ugly back of the ticket, and gave the bags a little more weight. I almost didn't do that (because of the extra work), but it made a big difference, so I would really recommend this if you're using baggies for a project like this.

I was super happy with how this project turned out. . . As was my grandpa who won $7! Success!

I was so relieved to find a (relative inexpensive) favor that I loved, especially after stressing about it for so long. In the middle of the favor hunt? How's it going?