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When it came time to do our wedding programs, I took the easy way out. I had Kristen from Twin Ravens Press letterpress the covers which saved a bunch of time. For the inner pages, I used Microsoft Word to write out the program and printed them on metallic champagne paper using our Canon Pixma. It’s a pretty basic program, I sort of lost energy to go the distance, but I did stick to my guns when it came to sewing them together. I had always been inspired by stationery with thread binding, so I hopped on my sewing machine and got to work!
I’ll post pictures of the inner pages after the wedding, please excuse my frankness!
As the wedding is now just days away, I guess it’s poignant to post some additional bridal portraits of myself. I’ve had the most wonderful year and a half, planning this wedding and learning from all of you out there in blog land. Thank you so much for your compassion and creative energy. I’ll do one or two more posts this week!

Two weeks ago, Sister Coconut and I took bridal portraits. I had always wanted to take bridal portraits before the wedding. For one, I’m planning to sell my wedding dress after the big day and wanted plenty ( tons) of pictures of my beloved wedding dress. Secondly, with Sister Coconut and I getting married within a few months of each other, I felt it was an amazing photo opportunity.
As I am located about 4 hours away from our wedding photographer, I asked his permission to break party lines and hire another photographer for my bridal portraits. When it came time to choose a photographer, there was no question in my mind that I wanted to work with Susan Stripling. Her work is impeccable, and at the time, she lived in the same city. She has since relocated to Brooklyn, but was in town the other weekend for a wedding. It was fate!
I’m going to post all of the ones with Sister Coconut and me first. I’ll post some singles of myself next week!
(*Photography by the ultra fabulous Susan Stripling.)
Susan told us to look like the two creepy children in The Shining.
*Don’t worry, this is a totally neutral post.*
As Mr. Coconut and I are getting married on November 1st and we’ll be in Costa Rica on the following Tuesday, we’re voting via absentee ballot! I made sure to request ours way ahead of time, and today we mailed them in! So, for those brides getting married around the same time, please don’t forget to vote! Some of our guests are staying the week to take a cruise, so remind your guests to vote, too!
It’s so important to vote. I mean, if Leonardo DiCaprio says so, then it must be true, right?!? Actually that video is quite hilarious, and even though the voter registration deadline has since passed, the message is still important. VOTE PEOPLE!
(Don’t worry Supervisor of Elections, the ballots aren’t in this picture, these are only the envelopes!)
Featured on Weddingbee
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
Pardon the boring post, but with the wedding less than 2 weeks away, you’ll have to grant me that privilege. ![]()
Here’s a custom sign we ordered through Etsy from SignsByDiane. She did a fantastic job, right? We wanted something vintage/shabby chic looking to put in our house afterwards. That’s sort of been my go-to excuse for buying things lately. Ya dig?
For our wedding rehearsal invitations, I took the easy route and ordered some invitations from Wedding Paper Divas. I know, I’m lazy. I did, however, Gocco the directions to the rehearsal and the entree choices. Check it. At this point in the planning process, I needed to take some shortcuts and this was certainly one of them. But don’t worry, I got back into the game this past weekend with our programs. You’ll see them soon!

Yesterday, I had the absolute pleasure of doing a bridal portrait session with Susan Stripling. Oh, and she brought along the fabulous, Mary Beth Tyson. Seriously, I was in photographer heaven.
I had contacted Susan, after stalking her blog for months (I’m lying, years), and asked if she could do a bridal session that was a little different than the norm. I wanted to do a session with Sister Coconut. You remember her, right? Beautiful, Asian, got married in July, looks like me?
We had a blast! Everything you’ve heard about Susan is absolutely true! She’s so sweet and her enthusiasm really made the session for me. Last night, she sent me an e-mail, just saying how great the images looked and she even put a teaser up on her blog. Isn’t she the greatest?
She plans on posting a few more images on her blog later, but in the meantime…
I’m back with more pictures of our gorgeous stationery suite that Kristin of Twin Ravens Press letterpressed for us! First up is the menu. We’ll be placing these on each napkin, so every person will get some letterpress goodness!
For Kate and Aaron’s wedding, I offered to make their wedding programs as part of my role as a bridesmaid. Kate really loved Mrs. Penguin’s program design, so I basically stole her idea (thanks, Pengy!) and went to work! Kate shipped the paper of her choice and I spent some quality time with my Gocco. Any Gocco time I missed out on with our decision to order invitations, I made up for with this project.
The program was eight pages, which meant that I used 16 lamps! In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have used the Gocco for this project, but I think the silver ink looked amazing on Kate’s purple paper, so what’s done is done!
We’re still getting settled back in from an amazing weekend in Northern Michigan for my dear friends, Kate & Aaron’s gorgeous wedding. I’ll be back tomorrow with a post on the programs I made for the wedding, our great bridesmaid dresses and some other fun/hilarious moments.
For now, I’ll leave you with the moment they were announced husband and wife. I present to you, the Rockstar Newlyweds!

Do you want to know how Sister Coconut and I are spending our Friday nights? Oh yes that’s right, crafting baby! Here are the initials that you might remember we used for Sister Coconut’s wedding back in July. They are back for more wedding action!
For our wedding, I bought some really orange-ish/yellow/ivory flowers at Jo-Ann’s Fabrics and Crafts. The labor was more intensive because the petals varied in size, so Sister Coconut had to twist and turn them with her handy dandy glue gun, but it looks spectacular, don’t you think?
Here’s my sister, hard at work. I was Goccoing my friend Kate’s wedding programs. I’ll post about them later. She’s getting married this weekend in Michigan!
Last week, I had my final fitting! It was very exciting to put my lovely Vera Wang on again. I heart my dress so much! I don’t really have any tips for y’all on this one. I’m not wearing any kind of bra, but there were some cups sewn in. I also sported some Spanx for the tummy and bottom area, ’cause… ya know. Let’s just get right to the pictures, shall we?
I look sort of nervous in this picture, don’t I? I think it was all soaking in at that moment.
I know you are anxiously awaiting to see our gorgeous letterpress invitations, right? Kristin of Twin Ravens Press was an amazing vendor. She put up with the 50 emails I’d send her each week and was very prompt to return them. She even did separate mailings of other stationery so that we could get our invites out on time.
She is seriously the cat’s meow. (Mr. Coconut just made fun of me for using that expression, but I don’t care, it’s true!)
Check out her amazing work:
Sorry to blur out some of the information! The calligraphy is by the fabulous Michele Clark.
Since I already forewarned ya’ll that we went ahead and hired someone else to make our invitations, this post won’t be such a huge shock. To be honest, I think I ran out of gas in the midst of studying for the bar (which I passed!), and helping Sister Coconut get married. It was definitely an unanticipated expense, but our letterpress invitations turned out beautifully. I promise you, my homemade gocco invitations would not have been 1/2 of what Kristin at Twin Raven Press made for us.
Before I show you the big reveal, here are some pictures of them in the making! All the pictures are brought to you by Kristin!
Over Labor Day weekend, my future mother-in-law graciously hosted a wedding shower for us in New York. She worked very hard in preparing the delicious menu and recruiting assistance with inventing new games, and getting enough men to come!
I don’t have many pictures, but for you men out there thinking that showers are lame, I promise you they can be somewhat enjoyable. As you can see from the pictures, Mr. Coconut found ways to make it fun!
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