Free calligraphy birds for your wedding

This gorgeous wedding invitation (DwellStudio Splendid Swirls at WeddingPaperDivas.com) sent me on a hunt for free calligraphy bird images for DIY invites and other paper goods.


These vector images are absolutely beautiful, titled "Fabulous Bird".

(Download this image pack here)

Briar Press has a few "letterpress ready" images for free. The first one would be great for your place cards.

(Download this image here)

(Download this image here)

CraftsmanSpace has a great calligraphy bird image, originally meant for woodworking:

(Download this image here)

Ben Blogged has cute sparrow drawings in a vector format for free:

(Download this image pack here)

The Graphics Fairy regularly scans old calligraphy books and cleans up the images to create clip art. See the Spencerian Saturday label on the blog to see her latest work.

(Download this image here)

Searching for the Perfect Purple Bridesmaid Dress

I looked high and low for the perfect purple bridesmaid dress! Here were the requirements:

1. Price under $200. That ruled out some higher-end designers like Priscilla of Boston and Jenny Yoo.
2. Deep purple, matching my color scheme. Not wine, not lavender, just purple.
3. Knee-length. Even if April, Texas can be pretty warm.
   
4. Flattering with minimal alterations. If the girls are already spending $200 on a dress, they shouldn't have to spend a fortune to alter it to fit their body type. My wedding party runs from size 2 to 12, so it has to look good on skinny girls and curvy girls.
   
5. Not strapless. My dress won't be strapless, so the maids' dress won't be either. Plus I think strapless dresses require a lot more alterations to actually look good (see #4).

I looked for dresses by non-bridesmaid designers and non-wedding stores:

Calvin Klein in Eggplant; Maggy London in Purple; Anthropologie in Plum

I considered floral dresses for my springtime wedding, instead of the traditional solid-colored dresses:

Adrianna Papell; David's Bridal in Lapis

I fell totally in love with this dress from Swoon online, but we couldn't find anywhere to try it on until January. Swoon takes up to 14 weeks to make dresses, so that wouldn't leave a lot of time for alterations.

Swoon Mykonos in Aubergine

I found that only the mass bridesmaid dress producers had multiple options in the purple shade I was looking for. Stores that carried limited colors like J Crew only had a wine-like color. When I actually went to try on some of these dresses, most of them looked terrible on anyone who wasn't a size 2 model.

Alfred Sung in Aubergine; David's Bridal in Lapis

I ended up choosing this adorable dress from David's Bridal. It's reasonably priced, really flattering and comfortable, available nationwide, and has pockets! The pockets really sold me on it.

David's Bridal in Lapis

Here's the dress on one of my bridesmaids:

So flattering!!

*Update* Check out my purple inspiration board here for more pictures

Vintage Postcard Font

Love this font (named "Intimacy") for creating a vintage postcard like my Save the Dates! And it's FREE on dafont.com.


It's a close match to the font used on one of the original vintage postcards I bought on eBay:

Italian + Cajun Wedding Menu = Italjun?

The majority of our wedding guests will be from Italian or Cajun backgrounds, so when we started talking about the dinner menu, we wanted it to be something really special that pulled from both of those heritages in our families, plus from the local specialties in Galveston.

Italian + Cajun = Italjun?

I looked through the regular wedding catering choices that our hotel gave us, but I wasn't really struck by much. A lot of the entrees seemed like they were trying to be overly fancy or showy for what they really were. Are my relatives really going to appreciate filet mignon? No - my grandfather gets his steak cooked well done. Will it be really great filet mignon if it's made to serve 100+ at the same time? No - they're going to sit in warming trays for hours.

So I told our catering manager to think about:

• Italian + Cajun
• Fresh ingredients: no swordfish flown in from Japan. Take whatever is fresh off the boat in Galveston that morning.
• Simple preparations: let's not get too fancy here.
  

I was SO pleased with what the executive chef came up with!

Saltimbocca Chicken with Sage Butter
Romano Crusted Chicken with Garlic Cream
Blackened Red Fish with Andouille Cream
Traditional Cannelloni or Cannelloni with Creole Tomato Sauce

We went to the hotel in Galveston for our first tasting this week. Yum yum!

I was really glad we took the time to do the tasting - some of the items I thought would be delicious were not well prepared, we didn't like the taste, or our guests wouldn't like it. I think our final menu has something for everyone!

Wedding Reception Menu:
Petite Crab Cakes with Tomato Remoulade Sauce
Mini Quiche Bites Lorraine and Florentine
Chilled Champagne Poached Gulf Shrimp with Traditional Cocktail Sauce
Hazelnut Crusted Goat Cheese Lollipops

Mixed Greens Salad with Assorted Dressings
Greek Style Salad

Blackened Red Fish with Andouille Cream
Traditional Cheese Cannelloni with Tomato Sauce
Carved Prime Rib of Beef with Horseradish Cream and Au Jus

Sides determined by Chef

Dinner Rolls and Butter

Tea Room Bridal Shower

My amazing maid of honor threw me a gorgeous bridal shower over Thanksgiving weekend! She held it at Holly Berry Tea Room, an adorable tea room in an old house in the historic part of my hometown. Since it was the day after Thanksgiving, it was already decorated for Christmas!


We started with delicious tea sandwiches, chips, gelato, and lemon cream cake. Yummmm

(image source)

We moved on to some party games! First up was Clare and Anthony trivia:

• When did Clare and Anthony meet? (August 26, 2003)
  
• How did you meet? (student orientation for Turing Scholars)
  
• Where was your first date? (Mozart's Coffee Shop)
  
• How long did you date? (5 years)
  
• Where did Anthony propose? (Mozart's Coffee Shop)
  
• How many animals do you and Anthony own? (24)
  
• How many animals do you roughly hope to own? (in the hundreds - mainly geckos)
  
• Where is Anthony from? (New Jersey)
  
• What animal distracted you before Anthony's proposal? (turtles in the water!)
  
• What other important event was taking place the night of your proposal? (Obama's DNC speech)
  

Everyone was also asked to anonymously write down some marriage advice for me, which I read out loud. They ran the gamut from "Don't go to bed angry", "Win every fight", and "Try not to fight".

Remember my bridal shower outfit? I think it turned out well!



Going with the tea room theme, the favors were tea mugs with an infuser, similar to these from World Market.


Thanks to my lovely ladies for throwing me a beautiful shower!

Las Vegas Bachelorette Weekend Recap Notes

This is weeks late, but I still wanted to share all the fun we had during my Las Vegas bachelorette weekend. The three words I would choose to describe it: amazing, perfect, FUN! Don't forget to check the gift boxes / survival packs I made for the wonderful ladies that joined me in Vegas.

Saturday:

• Fly into Vegas around noon and meet up with maid of honor in the airport to head to the hotel: THEhotel at Mandalay Bay.
• Explore the Mandalay Bay casino a bit. Quick lunch at Raffles Cafe (although we had breakfast food: the french toast is GIGANTIC).
  
• Lounge around the hotel room with ladies catching up, as we haven't seen each other in MONTHS.

• Get ready to go out, and explore the casinos a bit.
• Pre-dinner drink at minus5, an ice bar with parkas!
  
• A random guy in Luxor gave us free wristbands for LAX since we were a group of pretty girls. Wristbands gave us free cover and free drinks 11 pm - midnight.
• Delicious dinner at craftsteak in MGM Grand. Father and son at the next table kept trying to be a part of our conversation, but somewhat made up for it by sending over Patron shots after they left.
• Head over to LAX in Luxor. Our wristbands didn't get us in immediately, but we only had to wait a few minutes. We spent about $5 in tips the entire night thanks to the free hour of drinks.
• This was the best part of the evening: One of my more brazen friends leaned over a rope and asked some guys at a private table if we could join them ("we don't want your drinks, we just want to dance!"). They surprisingly let us in, and did indeed share their bottle service with us. We had a TON of fun coaxing the shy ones to dance, and doing nerdy dances like "the robot" as a group. Thank you, random accountants from Boston!
• Left the club at about 2 am, but were lured in by video blackjack just outside for a while.
• Finally get into bed at about 3 am.
  

Sunday:

• COFFEE
• Walk down the strip to Tix 4 Tonight. Paid $2-3 per person for a restaurant reservation and 20 - 50% off our meal.
• Champagne brunch buffet at Bayside Buffet in Mandalay Bay.
• Relaxing spa and pedicures at THEbathhouse in THEhotel in Mandalay Bay.
• Sushi and dinner at Ah Sin at Paris.
  
• Watch the fountains show at Bellagio.
• See Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity show at New York, New York. This is the 18+ "adult" Cirque du Soleil. Lots of topless women, but it was hilarious and still had lots of amazing acrobatic tricks.
  

Monday:

• Chinese foot massage at Hawaiian Marketplace

• Henna tattoo (aka temporary) from random shop on the strip: "i (heart) Anthony 4eva" on my lower back (yes, a tramp stamp). The idea was to scare my wonderful fiancé into thinking it was real. Have to spend an hour afterwards with my shirt pulled up to avoid rubbing.
  
• Lunch at In-n-Out Burger (animal style fries = yummmmmmmmm). Try not to be embarrassed that I have "i (heart) anthony 4eva" exposed on my back.
  
• Free poker lessons from the Mandalay Bay casino. Most of the casinos have this - just ask for what time, it may not be posted.
  
• Gambling time: Lost $20 really quickly at Blackjack. Lost $20 slowly at the slow machines.
  
• Some lingerie shopping
• Pre-dinner drinks at Mix Lounge: top floor of THEhotel at Mandalay Bay. Amazing view and really good wine.
  
• Delicious dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Trattoria del Lupo in Mandalay Bay.
  
• Luxe shopping at the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace. We got a kick out of how great the service was once I told them I was shopping for my wedding. I guess that means I'm willing to actually spend money?
  

Tuesday:

• Try to get refund for henna tattoo - not much luck. By morning, it had completely rubbed off and was barely visible. This was the only bad experience in Vegas!
  
• Go to airport and spend some time on the FREE wifi provided by Google.
• Fly home and immediately go to sleep!
  

Wedding Jewelry on Overstock.com - Who Knew?

I looked high and low for jewelry to wear on my wedding day that was beautiful, but also in my price range. I looked for earrings first - something combining pearls, diamonds, and silver. It was so hard to find anything that wasn't $5,000! As a last resort, I looked on Overstock.com after remembering those old "O" commercials. I came across these gorgeous earrings! I got them at 10% off by signing up for the Overstock mailing list.

(image source)

They look great in person. The diamonds are pretty low quality, rating wise, but they're so small that it doesn't bother me. By the time the earrings arrived I was hooked on Overstock and started looking for a bracelet: something using amethysts (part of my wedding colors) and silver. Most of the bracelets weren't my style, but I did fall in love with this one! Thanks to Black Friday sales, I got it at 20% off!

(image source)

My favorite part of shopping at Overstock.com was the "sell-out risk" meter. If an item is listed at high or moderate "sell-out risk", add it to your shopping cart and you'll see the exact number of stock left. I tracked the earrings for weeks, and finally bought them when there were only 4 left. They sold out two days later!

I still haven't found a necklace for the big day. My vision is a three strand pearl necklace, with some sort of interesting clasp, but I'm still looking.

Punkin Card Company Giveaway Winner!

The randomly selected winner is... Hppv50!
Hppv50 said...

I like the elegant damask table number cards

"I like the elegant damask table number cards"

Congrats on winning these Beautiful Birds in Bloom table numbers!


Don't forget:
Bells, Bouquets, and Galveston Bay readers get 10% off their purchase from A Punkin Card Company, including wedding orders!
Use promo code bells10 during checkout through 12/31/2009.

I am in Shoe Love

I have never ever ever fallen so hard for a SHOE before. But, maybe that's because I'd never tried on a Jimmy Choo before. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I started trying on shoes for the wedding, since alterations are coming up and I need to know how tall I'll be on my wedding day. I set a shoe budget and decided on something silver, strappy, and wearable after my wedding.

But, I started out with these popular lovelies from Christian Louboutin anyway *just in case* I wanted to splurge. Turns out Louboutins are oddly sized, and my Louboutin size was 2.5 above my normal size. Wearing such a big size didn't really make me feel pretty. And anyway, they were way too tall and not re-wearable at all.

(image source)

Then I moved on to the budget-fitting, but honestly less thrilling Kate Spade "Luna" shoes. They just made me shrug.

(image source)

THEN, while innocently shopping in Las Vegas, I fell in shoe love. I walked into the Jimmy Choo store, and told the salesman I was looking for my wedding shoes. He said, "Oh! Let me get our most popular bridal shoe." He came up with the "Clue" shoe. This was NOT shoe love. Too much glitter for me. "Brides are wearing THIS?!" I said. *sigh*

(image source)

I happened to turn around and see these beauties winking at me: the Lantern d'Orsay shoe. "Try us on!" they said. And ladies and gentlemen, it was magical. Perfect fit, perfect heel height to keep dancing all night long. Just like Goldilocks said, it was juuuuuuust right. AND the salesman said they were 30% off! Too good to be true!!

(image source)

But alas, they were still not in my wedding budget and I left Vegas without them. On Black Friday, I couldn't help but go into the Jimmy Choo store at the Houston Galleria while shopping with my parents. You know, just to see if they were real, and I hadn't dreamed them up.
My mom told me "If you leave the store and you can't stop thinking about them for a week straight, you HAVE to have them." And to my surprise, my parents told me the shoes could be my Christmas present! *girly squeal*

So there you have it, the story of my beautiful wedding shoes. Excuse me while I go gaze at them fondly for the millionth time.

Gluten Free Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix Gift

After making cookie mix jars for my lovely bridesmaids as a thank-you gift for a fabulous weekend in Vegas, I realized my maid of honor has a gluten allergy! Luckily, Alton Brown, king of Food Network (at least on my Tivo), has a gluten free version of his chewy cookies recipe.



Dry Ingredients:

• 5.5 ounces brown rice flour
• 5/8 ounces cornstarch
• 1/4-ounce tapioca flour/starch
  
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ounce sugar
• 5 ounces light brown sugar
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

If you have never baked anything gluten free, some of the ingredients will be unfamiliar. Don't fear though! Anything you can't find at your regular grocery store will be at Whole Foods. Look for the Bob's Red Mill brand.

To put the cookie mix together, start with a smooth quart-sized Ball jar. They are made especially for crafts, so they don't have a logo imprinted into the glass. I found mine at Michaels in the "vase and jar art" section (mixed in with all the sand art stuff).

To fit all of the dry ingredients in the jar, I had to halve the original recipe, so use the measurements above. It didn't fill up the jar entirely, so I would suggest not packing down the ingredients at all. I only used Alton's weight measurements for the ingredients, not volume. Get out your trusty kitchen scale!

Layer the ingredients in the jar like this:

1. (on bottom) rice flour, cornstarch, tapioca flour, xantham gum, kosher salt, baking soda
2. chocolate chips
3. sugar, brown sugar

Add a square of gingham fabric to decorate the top, and tie on a gift tag with the following instructions:
Preheat oven to 375. Sift together dry ingredients (bottom layer). Cream sugars (on top) with 4 oz melted butter, then add half egg, half egg yolk, 1 tbsp whole milk, 3/4 tsp vanilla extract. Combine with dry ingredients and chocolate chips. Chill dough. Roll into 2 oz balls & bake for 14 minutes.

Las Vegas Cowgirl Cookies

As part of the Vegas Bachelorette Survival Packs, I included some homemade cookie mix for the girls to take home with them: Vegas Cowgirl Cookies!


I was inspired by Bakerella's Cowgirl Cookie Mix Jars, which fit because everyone on the trip was from Texas! But of course I had to put a casino spin on them. "Vegas Cowgirl" reminds me of Vegas Vicky, one of the "Glitter Gulch" signs in Vegas:

(image source)

The recipe I used comes straight from Bakerella:
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup & leveled
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooking oats
3/4 cup m&ms (I used my "casino mix": bags of red, white, and black from Michaels)
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 – 1/2 cup chopped pecans


Start with smooth quart Ball jars, especially made for crafts. I found them in the "vase and jar art" section at Michaels: look for signs with sand art. Read Bakerella's post on how to layer the dry ingredients. To get the ingredients into the jars without spreading flour all over my kitchen, I made a makeshift funnel out of printer paper and tape.


To decorate the top of the jars, cut out squares of gingham fabric and add a strip of feather boa for a little Vegas flair. Here are my jars pre-flair:


I put the leftover m&ms in a tin, and made that part of the gift as well:


I hope the cookies turn out well!

Happy Holidays Giveaway From A Punkin Card Company!

Happy December! The holiday season is here, and I'm so excited to be able to do my FIRST giveaway on this blog with A Punkin Card Company, just in time for gift giving! Amie at A Punkin Card Company is a Houston-area design and stationery artist, specializing in greeting cards, wedding stationary, gift tags and journals. Each creation is one-of-a-kind, handmade, and GORGEOUS.

Amie is giving away a set of Beautiful Birds in Bloom table numbers in beautiful fuchsias, hot and powered pinks! A value of $20! The set includes numbers 1 through 10. If you need more, you can order them through Amie.



To enter this giveaway, leave a comment with your favorite item from A Punkin Card Company's website until December 7 11:59 pm. The winner will be chosen at random. Only one entry per person!

If you post a comment anonymously, make sure to check back on December 8 to see if you've won. Otherwise, I'll email you.

DISCOUNT!
Bells, Bouquets, and Galveston Bay readers get 10% off their purchase from A Punkin Card Company, including wedding orders!
Use promo code bells10 during checkout through 12/31/2009.