

I have been procrastinating like a teenager with a room full of dirty laundry when it comes to posting about my makeup trial. I assure you, it is not because the results were so terrible I was ashamed to show my face - rather it was the before photo that I’ve been not wanting to post up for the world to see. I have to admit, it was accurate for a couple of gals who had all of 2 hours of sleep and hadn’t started their daily 12 cups of water regimens just yet. Add a little distortion due to a perhaps too close camera angle and you’ve got some goofy lookin’ Miss Pomegranate and Craft Bridesmaid Pre-Makeup Mugshots. With that said, you will never be able to claim that both Crafty Bridesmaid and I didn’t take one for the team.
Crafty Bridesmaid and I had our makeup trial done months ago by the uber-fabulous LeiLani. Apart from being wholly entertaining as a person in general, LeiLani knows her craft - and is quick to holler about industry insider information on her favorite products from Clinique, MAC, and Laura Mercier (and more!). We sat talking shop while each of us had our makeup done - and we had a blast! The time truly flew by!

Image via MakeupByLeiLani
Well, I promised you a a follow-up post on our DIY Invitations and a follow-up post you shall have! I apologize for the delay, but I’m just getting over something that I was fighting during the latter part of last week. This is a testament to the necessity of taking your vitamins and getting your beauty sleep while planning your wedding. Otherwise, you may end up wasting valuable DIY time by watching hours of Olympics without much energy to do anything else. I digress.
I should preface this post with our original budget amount so that you know what my creative restraints were - I wanted to create 100 invitations for under $500, including cards, envelopes, labels and all postage. This, of course, meant no letterpress - but gave me a little wiggle room. In this post, I’ll cover a few tips and tricks about printing/designing your own invitations, how to tie that pesky-yet-lovely square knot, where I got some of the fun graphics, and how I ultimately was able to come in under budget.

I thought I’d share with you a little bit more about how Mr. Pom and I came to be—as it ties in to the meaning behind what we’ve chosen to give to our guests as favors. Both Mr. Pomegranate and I are huge music fans with very eclectic tastes. With Christmas approaching a mere week and a half from the date we met, we decided to exchange very simple, inexpensive, but meaningful gifts.
Our challenge was to pick our Top 50 most favorite songs of all time and make an autobiographical play list on Rhapsody - which we swapped on Christmas Day. This was an extremely hard project—a 50 song limit made for slim pickings for me and I was rather skeptical about the message I wanted to send him, especially in regards to song lyrics, as we had just met each other! However, to this day, this remains one of my all-time favorite gifts ever received from ANYONE. EVER.

I have Rhapsody To Go service and I love it.
They’re gone - and aside from the RSVP postcards, they’d best not be back (if they know what’s good for ’em)!
Our DIY invitations were truly a labor of love. Designing, printing and putting together our own wedding invitations was about ten times more intense than the DIY Save the Date process. For some reason, there was a sense of importance within me that wasn’t there during the design of the STDs. It became an obsession - especially when I discovered exactly how much I did not thoroughly know how to use Illustrator, did not fully understand the printing process and did not have a clue what I was doing. Many of my nights in the past couple of months ended in tears of frustration. In the end, I’m at peace with the entire experience and would not trade it for the world!

Okay, group photo - everyone huddle together!
Please excuse the crappy photos. Just as I am not a professional graphic designer, I am not a professional photographer.
A few weeks ago, I met with Carole Kenney to start the fitting and development of my dream dress. We had a dress concept in mind, but no pattern, so everything will be created on the fly. Carole likes to start at the top and work her way down, so of course we began with the bodice.

The first stage of my dress bodice.
I’m a knitter. Yup, I’ll admit it - I love knitting baby booties as much as the next granny. Although, my patterns have not reached far beyond “long, straight things,” really only a smidgen past “socks”, which, I know are not particularly easy. Then again, they are much smaller and therefore, in my opinion, much harder to screw up!
Then why, might you ask, am I taking up yet another DIY wedding project that I myself will wear on our wedding day? No, not wedding socks or a wedding beanie - why, a wedding cardigan! As it gets quite cold out in the country from my experience, I figured I’d need something to take the chill off - even with it being the beginning of October in California (aka home of the rather long Indian Summer).
No, I’ve never knitted a sweater of any size in my life. Yes, I am crazy for thinking about doing it now - and especially in the expensive materials I would like to craft it in. I mean, it’s our wedding day - why not wear cashmere or alpaca!? Of course, it would still be only a fraction of what I would pay for in a store - but still, it’s quite the spendy project for a first-time-sweater-knitter.

The Ribbed Shrug by Pam Allen @ Interweave Press
Wow! You readers truly are amazing shoppers! I was amazed at all of the awesome shoes you found to replace my lost ceremony shoes. In fact, I’d love to share a few of my favorites, before I reveal the winning pair.

Reader Lindsay suggested these Calvin Klein Jalen sandals and I must admit, they were the front runners for some time!
$80.99 @ Buy Shoes Online
We’ve chosen our Minimoon adventure: Big City Fun in Portland!

The Deluxe Hotel in Portland, Oregon.
Image via sweetdisasters on Flickr.
We’ll be staying at the Deluxe Hotel, a 1940’s Hollywood style boutique hotel in downtown Portland. It so happens to be situated right in front of Portland’s awesomely convenient Max Light Rail that will take us directly from airport to hotel. This means I will be able to shop like crazy without having to worry about lugging bags around, hailing cabs or renting a car.
To answer Miss Seabreeze’s comment on yesterday’s cupcake post, why yes, I WILL be making some cute little signs to guide guests to their flavor of choice! In fact, I’d like to showcase each flavor on our cupcake table, which will be front and center on a table in the foyer. I think it’ll make a fun, creative entryway arrangement for guests to ogle upon their arrival before heading up to Olive Hill.

The foyer in the R.H. Phillips Winery Tasting Room - our cupcake table will sit where the large barrels currently reside.
I fell in love with the idea of a cupcake wedding dessert after seeing a few gorgeous cupcake designs at a wedding show last December. The striped fondant ribbon-topped creations shown below will be paired with a couple different custom versions of the famed Hostess cupcake inspired designs shown underneath. With the decorations decided upon, the next step was to schedule a tasting!

Image via Cakeworks
Imagine these with black and white striped bows. Adorable, eh?