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After many technical difficulties, I can finally post my menu designs!! I wanted to design something a little different than what’s normally been done for menu cards, so I decided to have them printed by the same online company that printed my invitations, OvernightPrints. This may sound a bit strange, considering that they are actually a commercial printing company (postcards. letterheads, envelopes, brochures, etc), but they will print whatever artwork you send them so long as it fits their size requirements. After receiving a sample of their postcards last winter, I knew this was how I wanted my invitations printed. Their 5.5″ x 8.5″ postcards are of AMAZING quality, with super thick, glossy, premium stock… no flimsy postcards here!!
Anywhoo, I planned to design the menus in Adobe Illustrator, save them as a PDF file, upload them on their website, and send them off to print! Was it that easy?! Of course not… for some reason, my files were HUGE (100 megs for the front and 150 megs for the back side), and OvernightPrints has a file maximum of 20 megs. Uhmmm, crap… I won’t bore you with all the snoringly exciting details of my trials and tribulations, but let me just say that I ended up sending OP a lower-res jpeg in order to fit their size requirements, and was NOT happy with the print quality. I contacted Customer Service and we worked out a re-print at 50% off, and I sent them my original 100+ meg files which they were able to reduce down to size for me. The final result was picture perfect!!
After mulling over the zillion drink options, I finally decided on our specialty cocktails! This could only mean… design time! I needed to come up with a drink menu to be displayed on the two bars. This time, I decided to K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid), and went straight to Microsoft Word instead of messing with Illustrator.
Voila!
I was so excited to see this perfume, Nina by Nina Ricci, recently featured in People Magazine’s fashion blog, Off The Rack!
Why so excited? Well, apparently it has just been launched in the US, so it is “new.” However, I bought it last October in Paris, right after Mr. E proposed! That is why this will be my wedding day fragrance. It smells absolutely divine… not to mention, the bottle is so freakin cute!!
Cuz blood, sweat and tears went into this baby (yes, there was a teensy bit of blood from a needle prick or 2!). I present to you, my programs!
The cover: The programs are 4.25″ x 5.5″ (an 8.5″ x 11″ cut down in half, and folded) printed on Pearl White metallic cardstock from Paperandmore, and rounded corners (that was Mr.E’s job!) Each cover is hand embossed in gold with our monogram. I ordered a custom stamp with our monogram from Impress, and the quality and detailing is fab!! I was very insistent on designing this particular size program because I wanted something small that would fit into a ladies purse, hence, they better take these with them, hehe!!
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Thanks for all your helpful suggestions, everyone! In the end, convenience and peace-of- mind won out. I ordered 6 lbs (approximately 240) of the mini dark chocolate Eiffel Towers from Chocolate Fantasies (thanks tofu!)
Many many months ago, I came up with the brilliant idea that I wanted our wedding favors to be hand-made chocolate Eiffel Towers. It totally went along with our Parisian theme, and our test chocolates came out pretty well. So this past Saturday (3 weeks before the wedding), my sister and my future-sister-in-law came over and we got started on these suckers.
We bought 21 pounds of chocolate morsels (mostly Nestle, but some Ghirardelli and Hersheys as well) and started off with 5 Eiffel tower mold trays and 2 microwavable chocolate making squeeze bottles.
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
The time is quickly approaching… Our countdown is now in the teens and I’m starting to get butterflies in my stomach! It seems like just yesterday when we were still at 6 months… I am so excited and anxious for that weekend to come, not just for the wedding, but also for the flurry of other events that will take place! Here is the 411 on the Emeralds’ Wedding Weekend Extravaganza!
Thursday: Big casual BBQ/welcome dinner at my parents’ place for about 25-30 people (mostly relatives)
Friday: Rehearsal + Rehearsal dinner for 50 people
Saturday: THE BIG DAY!
Sunday: Big casual breakfast, again at my parents’ house for about 25-30 people
Sunday Afternoon: Traditional Chinese tea ceremony at Mr. E’s parents’ house
Sunday Night: Huge Chinese wedding banquet for 300+ people
Monday: Hawaii, here we come, hallelujah!
Insane! What other wedding-related events are you having?!
For the past few weeks, we have been receiving a flow of gifts that have gotten me all hyped up and giddy. Can we say red Kitchenaid stand mixer and Cuisinart combo blender/food processer?? And how about our lovely Crate and Barrel flatware? And our sheets and duvets? Yahoo!!
But then this weekend there was a special delivery from Mr. E’s older sister, her husband and Mr. E’s two uncles… a goooorrgeeeouuuusss 42″ Pioneer Plasma flat panel TV!!
Day 8 of the *dreaded* SBD (South Beach Diet), and whowouldathunk it… it’s not so bad!! I have officially lost 6 lbs, whoa nelly! Every day I get excited to step on the scale and see what the new magic number is. I realized that in order to stick to this, I needed some structure. So buying all my groceries in advance, throwing away the bad food in my fridge, packing a weeks worth of snacks on Sunday night, and most importantly, having Mr. E on the same plan works wonders! He has also lost 6 lbs (I thought he would lose weight faster since he is bigger and has more to work with).
Honestly, the food is not so bad! There are not too many restrictions in terms of flavoring (I do miss ketchup though), so most of the food we cook is pretty tasty. We aren’t using the recipes in the South Beach book. Instead, we do a lot of broiling, baking, sauteeing in olive oil. Oh yea, and eggs. LOTS of eggs. Thank goodness I love them! Scrambled, fried (in fat free Pam), hard boiled, omelets, you name it, we have it. And we love our sugar free jello. I also found a fabulous sugar free tapioca pudding, but then realized that the tapioca has starch, so it may be on the no-no list…
Ok, I apologize in advance, but I’m going to slightly exploit my Weddingbee country-wide reach for a minute. I am having some issues with a bridesmaids dress that doesn’t fit (no need to elaborate), and probably cannot be let out.
Designer: Jasmine, B2 collection
Style: B3308
Color: Berry
Fabric: Tiffany Chiffon (this was an upgrade, but if you have regular chiffon in Berry/Cranberry this may work as well)
Size: 10 or 12
Do any of you, or someone you know, have this dress sitting around from a previous wedding?
Here is a pic of the dress from the website, and then in the Berry colored Tiffany Chiffon on my sister.
Awww, my department just threw us a surprise bridal shower! “Us” being the 7 or so ladies getting married in the next 2 months (marketing = 90% women!). It was such a thoughtful gesture and completely unexpected. We each got a $100 gift card to Crate & Barrel (love it!). There was SO much food… 20 large pizzas from Giordanos, thin crust, medium crust, deep dish, you name it, it was there. Unfortunately for me, if you recall, Mr. E and I started the South Beach Diet this past Monday. So all I could eat was a large plate of romaine lettuce, 4 cherry tomatoes, and the 3 slices of cucumber that I could dig out. 
Now this wasn’t so bad, honest. I wasn’t dying for the pizza. What was absolutely TORTUROUS, was the SIX DOZEN GOURMET CUPCAKES!!!! AGHHHHH!!! The red velvet ones were absolutely screaming my name… *sniff sniff* 
Must… keep… the… end… goal… in… mind!!
Anywhoo, the SBD is going well so far *knock on wood*, I’ll officially update the status of that on Friday!
(Pic courtesy of Cupcakestakethecake Blog
Or not! Mr. E recently got back from his weekend road trip/bachelor party to Toronto with 8 of his closest buddies. As expected, they had a rolicking good time, complete with all-you-can-eat sushi, clubbing, the inevitable trip to the strip club, and of course, an afternoon at the day spa! Yes, you heard me, the day spa! All 9 of them decided to get pampered, with some of them choosing 1.5 hour massages, others getting facials, and some mani/pedis thrown in there as well. Mr. E was giving me a blow-by-blow description of their weekend festivies while we were at the gym, and when he got to this part, I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my elliptical! Mr. E had a massage and a manicure, topped off with a paraffin wax treatment (his hand are on the left)!
Now I’m not makin’ fun of them, I just think this is the cutest thing ever, hehe! 
Now I think it is MY turn for some pampering!! What spa treatments are you planning to get prior to the wedding?
Help! Our meeting with the DJ is this Wednesday, and we are behind on finalizing our music selection list!! Our reception music will be divided into 3 distinct portions:
1. Dinner Hour - French music (our guests may not get this and wonder why they don’t understand the songs, but this goes hand in hand with our Parisian theme and we like the idea, so there! haha)
2. All Ages Dancing (8 - 10 PM) - music that is fun and appropriate for young and old
3. The ParTAY (10 - Midnight) - Booty shakin’ time!
I’ve pretty much got 1 & 3 covered, but I’m drawing a blank on music selections for the middle portion. Unfortunately, my parents’ guest list consists of a number of attendees who apparently just Don’t. Dance. Period. Bummer. So maybe I shouldn’t worry too much about designing a play list for the older musical palette. 
*shrug* But I’m gonna try… I also have a list of standard Do-Not-Play-Or-I-Will-Withhold-Your-Check (just kidding) music:
Back in the olden days when I was 95% sure that I was going to do my own makeup, I was on the prowl for a good airbrush foundation. The two that I had in mind were:
The MAC Studio Mist Foundation is fairly reasonably priced (in my opinion) at $28.50, while the Diorskin Airflash Spray Foundation retails for a hefty $60. But since I’ve recently booked myself a makeup artist for the wedding, I didn’t end up buying either of the products.
Our wedding is by no means a “Destination Wedding.” But we have been amazed at the number of friends and family who are willing to fly/drive to Chicago just for our big day! Here is our tally:
Alabama - 2
Arizona - 1
California - 10
England - 1
Florida - 1
Georgia - 5
Hong Kong - 4
Kentucky - 6
Massachusetts - 1
Michigan - 2
Minnesota - 8
New Orleans - 2
New York - 3
Ohio - 2
Taiwan - 9
Texas - 2
This is over 25% of our guestlist from outside Chicago! I am really touched that all these people care so much, and we can’t wait to see them all. Unfortunately, I will also feel really bad about not being able to spend much time with each of them, but I hope they will understand… What’s your out-of-towner count like?
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Mrs. Emerald, Chicago Age and Occupation: 26, Wedding Planner Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Paralegal Engagement Date: October 8, 2006 Wedding Date: September 2007 Blogging Since: November 29, 2006 Venue: Hyatt Lodge, Oak Brook IL About Me: I have been dreaming about my wedding forever, and flipping through bridal magazines since high school, so I am in my element! I am calling our theme "Vintage Inspired French/Asian Fusion." Mr. Emerald is very involved in the planning process, but of course he generally defers to me cuz I have a strong opinion of how I want everything to be :-).
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