Peter and I were looking for a little something to save ourselves from hand addressing every single reply card, when I thought of this. I’ve been in love with custom stamps ever since I saw them on the Paper Cafe, but for our wedding I wanted something a bit more elegant. After searching through all of our options I fell in love with Bryn’s work from Paper Finger. Here’s a little reminder to refresh your memory.
{via}
Interestingly enough, she was the only vendor who replied to my inquiry and she is based in Brooklyn, so I was able to cut out the hassle of shipping and walk over to her studio and pick the stamp up myself. Everything worked out really well. Within a week Peter and I had our very own custom stamp.
My only complaint is that because of the thinness of the lines, it can be a bit difficult to get an even print of the image. But overall, I think it adds to the handmade elegance that Peter and I were going for with the invitations.
What do you think?
Well, sort of–okay not really. A couple weeks ago I did something that I’ve been wanting to do for a really long time. I attended a class at the Little Flower School. Coincidently, a reporter and photographer from the New York Times happened to be covering the class. So, last Thursday I was quoted and pictured in the home and garden section of the paper. It looked a little something like this.
See this awkward looking girl right here?
{via}
That would be me. Surprisingly enough a couple of people actually found the article on their own and contacted me about it. I think the weirdest connection was a guy who I studied abroad with read the article while he was on a train in Tokyo and then facebook messaged me about it. Crazy! Anyway, you can read the article here. Below are my feelings about the class.
I’ve been longing to take one of these classes since they started popping up everywhere in the blogosphere, so you can imagine how excited I was when there was an opening in a class during the time that I was in Brooklyn. I was a bit terrified when I arrived because I really don’t have much experience when it comes to arranging flowers. In fact, usually when Peter buys me flowers I let him put them in the vase for me—wait, does that make me a terrible woman?
Anyway, I was immediately entranced by all of the beautiful flowers.
And despite my fear of doing horribly in the class, things turned out really well. I got a lot of hands on instruction and the teachers weren’t afraid to jump in and make suggestions. Everyone’s arrangements turned out beautifully and they were all very different. We each got lost in our own little worlds for a few hours and when we looked up the room was covered in discarded stems and wild looking little bits of art. It was amazing and worth every penny.
I can’t imagine having that many flowers at my disposal any time ever again. Two fabulous things came out of the class. First, I remembered how wonderfully satisfying it is to spend time away from the computer and create something tangible. Second, I realized that as fun as it is to make flower arrangements, doing one and getting it right takes quite a bit of time. Peter and I had originally thought about doing our own flowers for the wedding, but after having a little bit of hands on experience, I’m happy to outsource this task. Plus, Sarah recommended a florist who is just starting a business in Austin! How amazing is that?! Maybe I will recommend some of the really great flowers that we got to use like this scabiosa pod:
and this one:
and this black basil:
Okay, here’s one last picture of my arrangement from the Little Flower School website. I will venture to say that its a bit more advanced than my last stint with flower arranging.
{via}
Gush! I’m envious of this beautiful world that Nicolette and Sarah get to work in.
Calligraphy doesn’t exactly fit into our wedding budget, but as the idea of addressing invitations and thank you notes becomes closer and closer to reality, I’ve started looking into buying a custom calligraphy stamp. It all started with a slight obsession with these custom stamps. I would think about how exciting it would be when Peter and I bought a house and how fun it would be to get a custom stamp.
Then a few days ago I came across a stamp by an Etsy seller called Emililies on the Martha Stewart website.
{via}
Then I got nervous and started worrying that the stamp wouldn’t arrive in time for us to send out our invitations, so I started looking for other sellers.
{via}
{via}
{via}
Now I’m stuck wondering when anyone will get back to me and trying to figure out which one I like best. Which one would you choose? If you want to complicate the decision, go to their websites and look at all the other styles. Excuse me while I go check my mail–again.
I’m sort of torn about registries.There’s a side of me that hated the process, but the rest of me actually wishes that everyone I know had a registry so that I would always be able to buy them the perfect gift. As I recently mentioned, Peter and I registered not long ago. One of the fabulous yet horrible parts of a mordern day registry is that after you leave the store you can make changes whenever you want. Because of this, we put off several main items that we were interested in (like the drill I really want), thinking that we could always add them after we had done more research. The bad part about this is that there is so much to look at. I price checked everything between all the places that we registered to make sure that our guests would be getting the best price and I have tried to find the products that I think will last us the longest. In my researching, I’ve been looking at what some of my friends are registering for. (I guess I’m just at that age when everyone I know is getting married.) Surprisingly, while many couples differ on their choice of brands for china and cookware, every single person I checked in on registered for a Dyson vacuum.
{via}
Keep in mind these people are just my friends and family, so it might not be the most accurate search. It is interesting to me that this vacuum comes so highly regarded. I have never wanted to spend $500 on a vacuum, but with its sleek design and potential ability to tame the giant mounds of fluff that fall out of our dogs, the vacuum has made it on to our registry. (Who knows if anyone will feel compelled to buy it for us.) I’d like to take a moment to step outside my little circle and ask you, is it worth it? Or is there a different vacuum that’s a much better deal for the price? I’d love to hear what you have to say.
This weekend Peter and I started setting up our registries. The first one that we tackled was Williams-Sonoma. We were lured in by the beautiful kitchen gadgets, but within a short period of time the excitement had worn off and we felt stressed, overwhelmed, and annoyed. We waited for a long time before managing to talk with anyone. And when we finally got our scanner it didn’t work. The employees at the counter denied that this was not our fault and continued to tell us time and again that we were using it incorrectly, yet they never accompanied us over to an item to check if we were in fact messing up.
The following day I received this email in my inbox. Please note the highlighted portion.
Really? You’re a huge company but can’t hire someone smart enough to pull our names and plug them into an email? I felt a little bit insulted. I hate the wedding industry, but I don’t think many of these places realize just how bad their customer service really is. The following day Peter and I went over to Crate and Barrel and setting up a registry with them was SO easy. I doubt you’ll be surprised when I tell you that I got home and searched for everything that we registered for at Williams-Sonoma on the Crate & Barrel website. When I found an item that both stores carried, I promptly moved my selections from Williams-Sonoma to Crate & Barrel. I feel great about supporting the stronger business. How was registering for you? Did you love it or was it just kind of a nightmare?
