Beau-coup's Spring Sale is HERE!!!

This week, Beau-coup is having its annual Spring sale! Save up to $50 off your purchase and get ready for the sun!

Hurry though because the sale only lasts until this Thursday 3/18 at midnight! You can check out the sale page here: http://www.beau-coup.com/promo/ and please share the news with your readers, twitter or facebook followers! Thanks!

Say Cheeeese!

I know, I know. I owe you many details and pictures from our May wedding. Were finally getting back to a normal schedule, but still waiting on the pictures from our photographer. So in the mean time.... I did want to share, probably the biggest hit of all, our PHOTOBOOTH!

Mr. CP and I wanted more than anything for our guests to have fun at our wedding. I reached out to Neil at Poshbooth and he explained the pictures come out in double prints, one copy to the guests, one copy to our guest book, and that would be where the guests sign! I was sold!

Our guest book is so much fun and people keep telling us how much fun they thought the photobooth was! Neil from Poshbooth brought a tub full of funny props for the pictures.

Here is Mr. CP and I, at the beginning of the night

Here are my parents, who despite thinking this was a "dumb" idea, definitely had fun! (they were so wrong!!! and I loved it, hee hee)

Here is my brother and his wife, (and my bridesmaid), who may have had the most fun with it, being the took 3 or 4 sets of pictures and used various props that they found around the wedding (like our marriage license) Next, Here is Mr. CPs brother and his soon to be (tomorrow!!) wife!

Here is me and my Matron of Honor

Here is me and my Maid of Honor
Mr. CP and some of his friends getting silly!

Me and my oldest friend and bridesmaid (so easy even a caveman can do it!)

The end of the night...we were exhausted!

What kinds of unique things did you do or are you doing, to make it a more festive night?

challenges of DIY

I'm starting to think all my DIY aspirations are a bit too optimistic! I have so many ideas rolling around in my head and I really want to make Everything myself, but this past long weekend I sat down and tried my hand at creating some of the pieces I was imagining and.. it's just not that easy! I think I'm going to rely even more on Etsy than I originally planned - as well as my mom. She is actually quite a seamstress, and she really wants to help. For some reason I'm having a really hard time delegating - is this an issue for any of you?

Here's my list of things I'd like to make:

- programs

- birdcage veil and fascinator

- shrug/bolero (I'm thinking satin or silk shantung, since my dress is all lace. I've never sewn anything like this in my life, not sure what's possessing me to think I should make this myself)

- button bouquets (more details later)

- a bunch of other tiny little details??

I still think I can handle the programs and some of the other little detail items, but after playing around with buttons the past few months, I'm losing a little steam. Using flowers would just be easier! But my sister is all excited about the button thing, she's making my cake and plans to incorporate little candy buttons as part of the cake decorations - I think she's a genius and it's going to look awesome. Here's a pic of her first attempt at making the candy buttons (she got a mold for these here). Photo source: personal.

Hmm I want to gush about my cake for a sec. She made a test cake for us and it was amazingly delicious - white cake with poppy seeds, with lemon curd and fresh strawberries for filling. And then european buttercream frosting (it's lighter and less sweet than other common buttercreams). I have pics of it somewhere, I'll have to share! I'm very excited about my cake. Mostly because Mr. Fairfax was blown away by it and he's not really big on sweets, so I was very pleased we came up with a cake he could really get behind.

Oh and the favors. My sister also had the brilliant idea to give away candy buttons as favors, and I found some sweet tins for cheap at Save-On-Crafts.com that I could buy and my mom has volunteered to hand paint each one.

So I'm feeling kind of committed to the button thing - which is awesome because I still love love vintage buttons and the whole idea is great. I'm just having doubts about my motivation to create hundreds of button flowers. They're really not as easy as they might look! Especially since each flower is basically a stack of 5 - 7 buttons and creating just-right color combos is a bit of a challenge. How does this lady make it look so easy?!

I Return... This Time More Crafty!

I do not have the prowess that my Maid of Honor (Miss Gallery Place) has, when it comes to the Do-It-Yourself projects. Seriously, she posted her about her Save the Dates, and I was so impressed at how great they looked when we received ours in the mail.

I have not been around for awhile, because we have hit that bit of a lull where the venue has been booked, as well as our photographer, DJ, etc. I've decided to take this time, however, and start looking into the small details. Favors, decor, etc. I feel like I'm about to become a squirrel, stock-piling nuts for the winter.

Going back to my original point, I am not crafty, but I think I'm about to take a leap into the big world of DIY.

As many brides with internet connections do, I peruse Weddingbee.com. It was there I fell in love with Mrs. Cherry Pie's favors!


Source

For those of you unaware, Mr. JeffMemorial and I no longer live up to my DC Nearlyweds moniker. Due to having to switch our date and venue, we are now having a beautiful mid to late fall wedding (this November 7th!) in Old Town. Our colors are red, brown, and ivory/white. We're looking for romantic, rustic, and fall going into winter. It's something that suits both of us. We wanted laid back and low maintenance, but we wanted a welcome nicely-decorated vibe, as well. As a side note, it's nice that Mr. JeffM is actually interested in this stuff, and enjoys giving input. A lot of the design and choices have been from his ideas!

Those tags would fit PERFECTLY! I must have them! Sadly this means... I must MAKE them! Per Mrs. Cherry Pie's instructions, they are super easy to make. I buy the tags. I buy the stamp and ink. I stamp the tags. I put rustic-y rope to attach to goodie bag. The end.

But there's that fear of... will they look good enough? It's a bit nerve-wracking, to say the least.

I can't be the only one with DIY fears, heh.

In addition, I also found these FABULOUS picture frames, which I must find a use for:


Source

They're $21 a piece, so my idea of awesome framed table numbers goes out the window, but it might be nice to have a beautiful photo of us put in the frame... perhaps set it on our card/guestbook table? It's a thought.

While I'm not a little details person at all (I couldn't care less about a shade of red, and I don't do personalized matchbooks!), these two things really jumped out and got me excited about planning again. I haven't been too into it recently.

Say "I Do" to the Open Bar

This beer's all ready for the black-tie wedding!
from beeradvocate.com

I am fortunate in life to have wonderful friends with many and sundry unique talents such that I never want for advice or assistance when life presents me a problem. Helping me with all my alcohol problems (haha, beer humor) is my friend and bridesmaid, A. Not only is she a beer enthusiast, but also a beer professional as she works for a national distributor bringing delicious beverages to your favorite watering holes. She asked if she could share some of her knowledge with all of you via a guest post and I jumped on the opportunity...so without further ado:

Dearest DCNearlyweds,

I am a bridesmaid in Miss Fairfax’s wedding next October, and have really enjoyed reading all of your posts these past few months (every workday needs a distraction!) There was one post in particular, from Miss Gallery Place, about her concern over providing an open bar on a small budget. Let’s be honest, weddings are less fun without open bars. I myself have been to five weddings already this year (with another one this Sunday!) and belieeeeeve me, nothing says “I Don’t” like paying for drinks.

BUT FEAR NOT!

Not only am I a bridesmaid, but I also work for a beer distributor here in DC and do lots of event planning. And when I read Miss Gallery Place’s post – I begged Miss Fairfax to let me provide everyone with a little beer math in the hopes that at least some of your wedding planning pains might be eased. The main question you have to ask is – do I want liquor at this event, or just beer and wine? I personally think that liquor is a little trickier (and makes guests a little sloppier). But here’s a suggestion:

My boyfriend’s sister got married last year - and they just went to the ABC store in Maryland (go there, it’s cheaper because alcohol isn’t regulated by the state like it is in VA and NC) and bought x-dollars worth of liquor and told the bartenders at the reception to pour until it ran out. After that, you were out of luck. They also had light beer (Miller Lite cans).* And they didn’t run out. There was a small corkage fee at the reception hall, but nothing compared to the total cost of allowing a reception hall to run your open bar. Yikes.

Now, if you’re just into beer and wine, think of it like this:

The estimate I came up with is based on Miss Gallery Place’s 80 person count, this can be adjusted for your guest count, and a budget of $800.00.

If there are 80 wedding guests in attendance, and you are also serving wine, assume about 50 guests will drink beer. Be generous with your guests (especially the guys) and assume that everyone will have a maximum 6 drinks apiece. Therefore:

50 guests x 6 drinks = 300 drinks

300 drinks / 24 (beers in a case) = approx. 13 cases (I rounded up)

The five most common beers served at any reception are Miller Lite, Yuengling, Corona, Blue Moon, and Sam Adams Lager. Twelve-packs of these brands should be available for under $15.99 in the District (Corona has the lowest pricing here in DC than in any other market in the country) and in some cases will be even less (like $10.99 per twelve-pack).** For the sake of math let’s say you buy 26 12-packs (13 cases) in an assortment of flavors:

26 (12-packs) x $15.99 (per case) = $415.74

$415.74 + $37.42 (9% sales tax) = $453.16

This leaves you roughly $350.00 of your $800 budget for wine and non-alcoholic beverages (if that isn’t already included in your per-plate total). Harris Teeter carries an excellent white Mediterranean wine for about $6.99 and Trader Joe’s has a great red wine (a cab-sauv mix) for $5.99 a bottle.***

The conclusion to this novella of a post? Open bars are soooo do-able, and for relatively cheap. I hope this helps – good luck everyone!

*Don't dis the can! It's the perfect excuse to offer your guests the wedding favor of choice for all the young prepsters down south, the WEDDING KOOZIE! And as my dear friend who has quite a collection advised me, "don't forget to order enough to give out at all your showers, engagement parties, and reception and also send the whole bridal party home with 15 after the wedding."Koozie and matching programs from clared23 on flickr

**While Costco is not always cheaper, doing a price comparison with your local grocery store can be worthwhile. Costco is also a great place to get your N/A bevs like water and soda.

***If you have a neighborhood wine shop, check them out too. They may be able to assist you by finding a distributor that supplies a wine you like at a price point that fits your budget. We love Unwind in Alexandria, and have already been in to talk to Vanessa about wines. She's going to help us find wine and Champagne at our price point. More on this later...

Candy Bar & Wedding Packaging

FI and I decided to steer away from the traditional favor, and we are opting to offer our guests a candy bar/candy buffet during the reception, so they can select their favorite sweet treats. It took us a while to find the right packaging for the candy, but thorough research paid off, and I found Nashville Wraps. They sell commercial and bulk packaging, including bags, cakes boxes, and takeout containers. They can custom print your items, and they even offer eco-friendly packaging options.

I've compared pricing to local craft stores and discount stores, and Nashville Wraps had the best pricing for what we wanted. Their products are of great quality, and they specify which packaging is food grade. We ordered the 200 printed cello bags that we wanted, and they arrived pretty quickly. So far, we've also purchased about a dozen apothecary jars or varying shapes and sizes. We'd like to have our candy bar look something like this when we are finished.

Taza Treats

Today I was reading the Express paper and saw this little feature on Taza Chocolate and immediately I thought they would make great favors for your guests. Both the shape and the packaging is unique. They would look great at a place setting.

Plus it's a favor your guests can actually use...the chocolate is used to make hot chocolate or it can also be eaten alone (for lovers of dark chocolate). You can order boxes of 24 which would average out to about $3.50 each. Not the cheapest favors but by no means the most expensive.

What Should Guests Throw At Me?

The wedding coordinator for our site recently asked us if we were going to have any type of "send away" at the end of the night and if we were what we'd be doing for it. Well if you remember, Fiance and I are having our reception at a historic Inn and we'll be staying at the Inn that night so we won't actually be doing the going away thing. They said they could stage a mock one but that just sounded stupid to me...what would we do just turn around and walk back in?

Then they suggested we have a going away when we leave from the church to the reception and have everyone line up as we go to our car. But since we're taking some pics after the service that means everyone would have to wait on us and then someone would have to gather them while we wait and that once again just seemed a little staged and fake to me.

But I really do like the idea of the "send away" so I needed to find some way to incorporate it. I decided I would have the "send away" as we were walking down the church aisle right after we said our vows. But then comes the question..."what should guests throw at me?" Despite the fact that our church is really old and could be easily damaged they are actually incredibly lenient about this type of stuff so my options were wide open. But I had some rules of my own

1) Sparklers were out. Flammable...indoors...historic church...sun doesn't set till an hour after the ceremony anyway....just wouldn't work.

2) I hate loud noises. For reasons I won't go into, I really can't handle the sound of anything around me popping, banging, exploding or making any type of similar sound. I don't want to be scared on my wedding day. And for other reasons, I can't think of anything worse then the sound of a bunch of bells all ringing at the same time. I want to cover my ears just thinking of it.

3) Nothing minuscule. I can't even imagine what a nightmare cleaning up rice, birdseed, rose petals or confetti would be for the poor janitor that would have to clean up after our wedding. That would be wrong of me and I'm not a selfish enough bride to put someone through that. Outdoors is one thing but indoors would be a nightmare.

4) No poor unsuspecting animal should be used for my personal amusement. No doves, No butterflies.

So that didn't leave many options. I could have done bubbles but I heard they can stain your dress and I was worried about any damage it may do to the carpet/pew seats inside the church.

Well you know the other day when I mentioned that I was looking for something completely unrelated when I found the Favors You Keep website? That thing I was looking for was streamer throws . What are streamer throws you ask? Just see below



^Credit to Innovative Photography

Streamer throws are (surprise!) streamers! I know you're asking yourself "wait a sec...aren't streamers messy?"

Well the great thing about streamer throws is that the thin streamers stay attached to a plastic capsule that you can loop around your hand. So once the streamers unravel you can just gather up all the capsules for super easy clean up. I really like the idea because they will probably make for some good pictures, people still get to throw stuff at me, they won't damage our church, and it'll be easy to clean up afterwards. The only problem is the streamer throws aren't sold in many places.

I found them at Favors You Keep and ordered their 3 capsule sample pack. Each sample pack comes with 1 white paper streamer capsule, 1 colored paper streamer capsule, and 1 silver mylar streamer capsule. Ordering was easy and shipping was lightening fast. Below is what I found when I opened the box


^The capsules are very tiny. I put an 80z water bottle next to them for comparison. The white pipe cleaner loop at the top is what you slide your hand through. You then rip off the paper bottom.




^Once you rip off the paper bottom you can see the mini streamers all rolled up in little balls. This is the colored paper streamer capsule.



^With your capsule open you then aim the streamers at your target and throw just like you were throwing a ball. The paper streamers unravel in the air and hopefully onto your victim.



^Once they have fallen you can see that the streamers are still attached to the capsule around my hand, instead of scattered all over the floor.


^All you have to do after that is gather the capsules and throw away. Easy Peasy.

What I learned from my 3 sample pack was 1) I wanted to order the streamer throws for my wedding 2) The mylar streamers unravel a lot quicker/easier/better then the paper. Some of the paper streamers didn't unroll quick enough. So get mylar 3) I liked the multi-color more then the uni-color streamers.

We decided to order enough so that the kids at the wedding could all have one and the person at the end of each row. We figured one for every person would be overkill and a waste as not everyone will want to partake. We ordered 20 overall.

Unfortunately, Favors You Keep only had silver or gold mylar streamers....not the multicolor like I wanted. So I did a little bit more research and found AeroTechnic.com, they had the throws in multi color mylar so I ordered from them.

The streamer throws from AeroTechnic came in the other day and they are pretty much the same, but I believe the ones from Favors You Keep are a higher quality. The plastic on the throws from AeroTechnic looked a little worn and not as clear as the ones from Favors You Keep and the paper bottoms are taped down unliked the ones from Favors You Keep. But AeroTechnic had the colors I wanted and they allow you to order how ever many you need, whereas with Favors You Keep you are locked into ordering boxes of 24 at a time.

Overall I've been very happy with my experience with both companies. And I'm excited to see how it ends up looking! What do you want your guests to throw at you?

Skylines from Favors You Keep

I was trying to find something completely unrelated (but also for the wedding) when I ran across the site Favors You Keep. They have the typical array of wedding favors but they also have a whole line of wedding things that you can customize with a city skyline.
I know you're thinking "yeah they probably just have New York City," but they have over 25 different cities...including some more obscure ones like Kansas City and Cleveland. And of course they have D.C. and Baltimore!

They also have about 25 colors to chose from, 30 different ink colors, and a number of fonts so you can really customize your Skyline items to fit your wedding.


^You can get favor bags and customize them with the D.C. skyline


^ Check out the above Save-the-Date with the Skyline of Baltimore



^ You can also do a magnet Save-The-Date (this one has the D.C. skyline)



^You can also get welcome bags made up to welcome your guests to your wedding city

Christmas Favors as Wedding Favor

For Christmas fiance and I basically asked for Crate and Barrel giftcards because we have a lot of things to buy for the new condo. My sister included a Crate and Barrel catalog with my gift card and yesterday I was browsing through and spied the below adorable gift boxes.

I've been torn about whether or not to do favors. Part of me feels it's a waste and most people just leave them behind. But I always kind of like getting something small at weddings even if it is cheesy. If I was going to do favors I had some rules 1) couldn't be expensive 2) had to be somewhat useful 3) couldn't look cheap. I told myself if I ran across something like that then I'd buy but, otherwise I wouldn't bother.

Well, I think the gift boxes fit the ticket. 1) They are technically for Christmas but they don't look exclusively Christmassy so they could be used for any occasion. 2)I think they'll look adorable at each place setting. 3)They are a metal box with metal ribbon and lined in black velvet on the inside so they definitely don't look cheap 4) They are somewhat useful as technically they are ornaments so they could be reused at Christmas. They could also be used to hold something small like rings, or they could be regifted to someone else. 5) They are only $5.98 for a box of 4 which averages out to only 1.50 each (down from $11.95 per set). That's pretty cheap as wedding favors go.

I think we'll put a small candy or maybe the traditional wedding almonds on the inside. As a side note, you won't find these on the general Crate and Barrel website. You have to search in the catalog section and enter the catalog number (K2069). They come in silver and gold and naturally quantities are limited.

Cupcake Wrappers

Cupcake trees in lieu of a cake have been a trend for a while but if you're looking for a way to make your cupcakes a little bit more elegant or a little bit more fun try these cupcake wrappers from Paper Orchid Stationery. At $46 for 50 they are one of those little extras that won't break the bank. They come in all types of themes...some suitable for weddings, some for a beach themed wedding, some for a winter wedding, and they also have some for baby showers, graduation, kid's birthdays, the holidays, you name it.

Graffiti Does Invitations Too

As a follow-up to my earlier post today about Wonderful Graffiti Wedding, I also had to point out these unique invitation and favor ideas from their site. Now I'm not really into monograms, as I think they are kind of overdone for weddings nowadays but I know 99% of the wedding world is into monograms so I'd be neglecting my wedding blogging duties if I didn't tell you about these lollipop invitations. 6 inches in diameter, they come with your monogram as a part of the candy, and your invitation on glossy cardstock on the back. The RSVP card is the hangtag from the lollipop. They come packaged in a box with your monogram on the box. They come to you completely ready for addressing and mailing. Naturally they don't come cheap...They are $35 each and cost about $6 each to ship! But talk about a "wow" factor for your guests. Plus they could eat them instead of just tossing your invitation into the trash after the wedding (yep, almost everyone does).

Too rich for your blood? Yeah me too. But the below favors are actually really reasonably prices. They are sucker favors with your monogram as part of the sucker. They come wrapped with cellophane and they each have a bow and a hangtag wrapped around it. The hangtag is personalized and can say either "Sucker for Love" on the outside or "Thank-you." On the inside you can completely personalize the message, so you can put your names, wedding date, or just a nice message for your guests. The best part is these are only about $2.50 per sucker...less the more you order. I think it would be incredibly hard to find wedding favors with this level of individualization for such a good price. Plus no last minute DIY panic trying to finish your favors since these come ready to go.

Don't Forget the Cookies!

Amphora Bakery makes cute cookies too! These would make great wedding favors or be perfect for a bridal shower.

Cider House Rules!

Recently little bottles of champagne have become popular either as wedding favors, gifts in your out-of-town bags, or just a cute way for you and your bridesmaids to relax before the ceremony. Well I'm actually not a huge drinker and the church we are using forbids having any alcohol on the premises so so much for taking the edge off before the ceremony. I think a great (and cheap) alternative to the pricey champagne bottles are miniature sparkling cider bottles!

Alpenglow is a Virginia based, family run, business that produces five different varieties of sparkling cider. They sell to the public and they sell their miniature bottles as pictured below in a case of 24 for only $25 . That's only a little bit over a dollar a bottle. These would make great "welcome to Virginia" gifts in an out-of-town bag or cute favors to send your guests home with at the end of the night. Not to mention you won't have to worry about any DUIs.

If your colors are pink then the cute little pink bottle below would be perfect.