My Very Etsy Wedding - Part Two

I already shared some of my Etsy vendors with you earlier this week, but I'm back today with even more handmade goodness. Let's go.


Paper die cuts from Scraps4ever: These colorful little circles represented our guest tables on the floor plan that was displayed in the ballroom foyer. Not a really intense purchase, but it was something I needed and was easily found on Etsy.

credit: Girl Photography

Embroidered handkerchiefs by EmbroiderybyLinda: I stashed one of these hankies, complete with my husband's initials, inside my clutch on wedding day. So it was my "something borrowed," even though it's pretty nontraditional to borrow something from your beau.

credit: Embroidery by Linda

Flower girl pinwheels from ElizabethSt: Our wedding wasn't very flower heavy, and we had pretty young flower girls, so I didn't think giving them flower petals or pomanders really made sense. I figured pinwheels would be easy for them to carry, and the fact that they were so oversized made the girls look even cuter than they already are.

credit: Girl Photography

Honeymoon bag by astylishdesign: Okay, so this was technically a purchase used after the wedding. But I loved this bag so much that I still use it on plane trips now. It's big, durable, and a real attention-getter. I have since bought slightly different designs for two of my engaged friends because it really does make the perfect bride-to-be gift.

credit: A Stylish Design

Really, how did brides get a little help with their DIY, find totally unique items, or customize to their hearts desire before Etsy came along?

My Very Etsy Wedding - Part One

Like so many brides, I tore through the shops of Etsy when it came time to detailing out my wedding. Because I loved all of the vendors I worked with so much, I wanted to post about them here. They were all easy to work with and delivered exactly what I wanted. Note that some of these shops can be found outside of the Etsy world, but for convenience I've linked to their Etsy shops only.

Our cake toppers by craftyapril: I wanted these to look like tshirts we had worn back in our youthful days of running around Penn State. I believe this shop is closed now, but still wanted to give her a shout out.





My beaded headband by UntamedPetals: I chose the Poppy style headband, and asked that it be on an actual band instead of just tying it with ribbon ends. I loved how subtle this piece was.





Our invitations and programs by down2earthpaperworks: You already know what a success it was working with this shop from this previous post.





Our bouquet ribbon by mysilverbeetle: I know this sounds ridiculous, but I couldn't find the exact ribbon I envisioned for our billy ball bouquets anywhere. So I contacted Stephanie with this shop, and she found the perfect ribbon in a market in India and shipped it all the way to Philly. I'm not sure if this shop is still open.





All of the above photos were wonderfully shot by Nicole Peterson of Girl Photography.

I'll be back with another post on the rest of my Etsy vendors later this week, so stay tuned.

Notes From a Newlywed: The Videographer {Well Spun Weddings}

The last major vendor we secured for our wedding was the videographer. We weren't 100% sold on the value of having a movie done, so it took a while for us to make the call on this one. But our parents collectively asked us about getting a videographer enough times that we finally broke down and gave in.

I had long been a fan of Well Spun Wedding's work whenever I saw it pop up around the blogosphere. And, like I mentioned above, this was my last vendor to nail down so I didn't have an exhaustive search in my at this point. Well Spun it was.

Now, the only part of the DVD that I was personally looking forward to seeing was the section that features highlights set to music. And this part of the DVD turned out great (you can see for yourself below.) But we had some serious issues with the rest of the finished product - speeches that were cut off and the entire baraat was missing at one point.

It took a ton of back and forth over the past several months to get these issues fixed, and unfortunately our FINAL final product is not totally what we had hoped for. But I'm really glad we have the DVDs, so we can remember exactly how the speeches went and how everything looked that day.

I'm still not one to preach that you absolutely NEED to have a videographer at your wedding. I know that you can't fit everything into your budget, and I totally understand why some people skip this vendor altogether. Wedding planning is about making decisions and choices, and everyone just does what is right for them.

This officially marks the end of my 'Notes From a Newlywed' series. If you've missed any of the posts, feel free to scroll through and catch up.

Notes From a Newlywed: The Cake {Carvel}

Our wedding cake was figured out, at least in our minds, almost immediately after getting engaged. No eight tiers of fondant or fancy fruit fillings for us, no way. I'll tell you what we wanted in two simple words: ice cream.

An ice cream wedding cake was exactly what we got. I can't even begin to tell you how excited people were when we told them we were getting this cake. It's definitely something out of the ordinary, but everyone likes ice cream, right?




Good ol' Carvel in Mullica Hill, New Jersey prepared our four tiers (plus slicing sheets) of chocolate, vanilla, cookies and cream, and cookie dough deliciousness. We have gone to this Carvel for numerous birthday cakes over the past few years, and they always do a great job with our orders. For anyone in the Philly area, I highly suggest hitting up this location for all your ice cream needs. Just ask for Jan.

Sure, our cake started dripping a bit before we cut it, and not all the flavors got served since we over-sized our order, but hey...it was ice cream and it was awesome. Carvel crunchies for all!





The photos in today's post were provided courtesy of Nicole Peterson of Girl Photography. Don't know Nicole's work? Check it out here.

Notes From a Newlywed: The Suits {Macy's}

We weren't having a very formal wedding, so tuxes for the guys didn't really make sense. Once we were sure we wanted to go the suit route, we decided on a color: a light/medium grey. We also chose to make these the groomsmen gifts. Lots of decisions made. That was where the easy part ended.

Next came finding a suit that we liked. Really I deferred to my husband here, since I don't make a habit of wearing sensible pant suits in my everyday life and deemed him a more knowledgeable person in this matter. We did find one at a large chain men's store, but we ran into issues with availability and kind of felt our time there had run its course after some confusing customer service.

On a whim we returned to the suit section of Macy's, where we'd been before, but had been told (mistakenly) by a salesman that they don't really "do" wedding parties. We found a more accommodating salesman this time around, and we were on our way to buying ten suits through their personal shopping service within minutes. (And it should be noted that they outfit wedding parties all the time).

For anyone in the Philly area, I can't recommend enough to get your suits from the King of Prussia Macy's to outfit your groom and groomsmen. The thought of getting the right jacket and pant sizes, shipping them all over the country, and then dealing with exchanges or alterations for ten guys made me want to ball up in the fetal position in the shoe department (they have so much seating there). But Sherri with Macy's handled this like it wasn't a big deal at all. She was incredibly on top of our massive order, expedited exchanges when a couple different sizes were discovered to be needed, and coordinated our purchase with available sales so we could get the best price.

Can we talk about the suits for a second? The light grey Tommy Hilfiger looked great on all the guys, and complemented the bridesmaids' varying blue dresses fabulously. The suit has a slimmer cut and it's the perfect weight for the warmer months. I know a bunch of the guys have worn it several times since...including my husband.

Just a note on the ties: we also gifted these to the guys, with the g-men (left) ties from Banana Republic and the groom's tie (right) from Nordstrom.





All the suits (and the guys) were photographed perfectly by the one and only Nicole Peterson of Girl Photography.

Eyes on the Bride: Michelle T.

I first learned a bit about today's bride-to-be and her wedding plans when we met over a year ago during a day full of tree planting and weed trimming in Fairmount Park. As if there were any doubt before that little green thumbed adventure, there's definitely a reason this is a wedding blog and not a gardening one. (Is there even a chance any of those trees are still standing?) So to get back to weddings now...

Michelle agreed to give us a peek at the details for her and Kevin's upcoming May wedding, so read on to find out just what they have planned.

photo by Hoffer Photography

Bride's Name, Age, Occupation -- Michelle Thurstlic, 31, Attorney

Groom's Name, Age, Occupation -- Kevin O'Neill, 26, Law Student

City of Residence -- Glen Mills, PA

Wedding Location -- The Yellow House of Willowdale (ceremony & reception), Kennett Square, PA

How you met -- Kevin and I initially met during the summer of 2007 while I was working for the Delaware County District Attorney's Office and Kevin was interning for one of the county's criminal judges. At the end of the summer, the judge's staff told me that I was all Kevin would talk about when court was not in session. Kevin says that he had a huge crush on me and tried to talk to me a few times, but that I was all business.

A couple of months after his internship was over, we ended up in the same bar one night in West Chester. Apparently I embarassed him in front of all of his friends by coming right out and saying "I heard you had a crush on me last summer." He got my number that night and we started dating within the month.

How long you've dated -- Together 4 years (engaged for 2)

How he proposed -- Kevin and I had plans to go out and celebrate the end of finals of his first year of law school. When he came to pick me up, however, Kevin presented me with a photo album filled with pictures from our time together. He had written little notes along with each photo saying different things he loves about me. When I got to the last photo, the caption was "will you marry me?" and when I looked up, Kevin was down on one knee with the ring. I was overwhelmed, but of course I said yes. Kevin then suprised me again by telling me that our families and friends were waiting at the bar/restaurant that we had planned to go out to. It was extra special to be able to share our happiness with everyone right away.

Wedding colors/theme -- Navy blue, kelly green, and white

Bridesmaids' dresses info -- J. Crew silk taffeta in Pacific Blue (they're wearing individual styles)

Best part of planning -- Laughing with Kevin over the ridiculousness of it all.

Worst part of planning -- Trying to get everyone on the same page.

Most surprising part of planning -- That Kevin's better at it than I am. Everytime I ask him to take something on, he's gotten it done on the first shot. I've agonized over every vendor and decision.

Favorite vendor so far -- Tie between our venue (The Yellow House of Willowdale--the wedding coordinator is just so great) and photographer (Hoffer Photography).

Places you registered -- Bed, Bath & Beyond and Pottery Barn

Any Do-It-Yourself (DIY) plans -- A lot of the decorations. The ceremony and reception are outdoors underneath a tent, which we're planning to decorate with bistro lights. We're also planning to use chalkboards to display seating arrangements and the menu for the buffet.

Honeymoon Location -- Undecided. Kevin is graduating law school a week before our wedding, and right afterwards will have to jump into intensive studying for the bar exam, which is at the end of July. We're planning to take our honeymoon in the fall, when he's finished, and are weighing France (all over), Argentina, or a road trip up the California coast.

Michelle's color scheme is one of my all-time favorites, and the venue sounds perfect for a May wedding, so I can't wait to see photos of how it all comes together. And those honeymoon options? None of them is a bad choice, right? Thanks again, Michelle, for stopping by TWB. Best of luck with the final months of planning ahead!

Spotted: As Seen at Lovesick Expo

As Carina of Love Me Do Photography was prepping for this month's Lovesick Expo, she contacted me about contributing a piece to be included in a small 'zine that was to be handed out to those couples in attendance. Of course I was more than happy to oblige, and came up a quick little advice article entitled "How To Not Stress Out."

Carina just sent me a copy of the finished product and I absolutely loved flipping through the pages. There's lots of great info in there from so many talented vendors, and it's all highlighted with images from Love Me Do.




I've posted what I wrote below for those who weren't able to make it out to Lovesick to get the printed version. Oh, and good news for those already looking ahead to Lovesick '13: it's not only stopping in NYC and Philly again, but it's also adding Boston and DC to the itinerary.







Planning a wedding and getting married should be fun, right? Right! But it's so easy to forget this and slip into stress mode because throwing together a wedding and walking down that aisle is also alot of work. Here are some things to keep in mind so you can stay calm, cool, and totally stress-free.

While You're Planning...
1. Organize & prioritize: Utilize online or old-school pen and paper tools to keep track of inspirational photos, vendor quotes/signed contracts, guest lists, to-do lists, etc. all in one place. While you could gather ideas for décor and debate DJs vs. bands from now until forever, realize what is most important to have around you on your wedding day and work to keep those items within your budget.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help: Newsflash...you aren’t the first people to ever throw a wedding before. Chances are that family members and friends have navigated these waters before and will be able to offer up a lot of advice, support, and an extra hand with DIY projects if you need it.
3. Give yourself a break: When you’re looking at months and months of planning, you deserve a wedding-free moment here and there. It’ll be beneficial to your sanity to put the wedding mag down, stop stalking your photographer’s website, and get back to your other pre-planning hobbies. Everything will be right where you left it…I promise.
4. Don’t wait until the last minute: As your wedding date gets closer, you’re going to want the luxury of being able to spend this special time with your family and friends. So try to continually make progress on that to-do list as much as you can. Nothing is worse than writing out escort cards while in your wedding dress (yes, I’ve seen it done before!)

On your wedding day:
1. Get a good night’s rest (also see “Don’t wait until the last minute” above): It’s normal to have a few pre-wedding jitters, but try to go to sleep at a reasonable hour on Wedding Eve. And hey, everyone needs their beauty rest, right?
2. Eat, drink, and be married: Your wedding day is going to be a fun-filled, action-packed, emotionally-charged…LONG day. Be sure to eat enough and drink plenty of water as you’re getting ready for the festivities to kick off.
3. Allow your vendors to do their jobs: You hired amazingly talented people to surround yourself with on your wedding day. Don’t micro-manage them and just let them do what they all do so well. They'll be just fine without you worrying about their every move.
4. Keep your eyes on the prize: If a relative gets on your nerves, a line is skipped during the ceremony, or the cake is cut slightly behind schedule at the reception…just remember that this is the day you are marrying the love of your life. Nothing else really matters or is worth stressing out about. Have a blast and enjoy!

Notes from a Newlywed: The Shoes {Badgley Mischka}

I knew before I even went wedding dress shopping that I didn't want white shoes with my dress. Not only did I not want white, I didn't want anything close to it: no bone, ivory, cream...well, you get the point. Unless you're wearing a short dress, no one even really gets a good look at your shoes other than your photographer, so I really have no valid reason to explain my aversion to white bridal shoes. I've seen lots of brides wear them and they look stunning. But for me, I just wanted a little bit more color.

There were already alot of blue elements in our wedding: the bridesmaids' ceremony saris, their reception dresses, and parts of our paper suite. So I settled on blue shoes. Plus, these would be my "something blue," although I ended up with a few blue things by the time my wedding day rolled around so that wasn't really a hard bridal requirement to fulfill.

I ordered the satin Badgley Mischka Randall pumps from Nordstrom in medium blue. Such pretty shoes! The flower at the peep toe sort of coordinated with the detailing on the bodice of my dress, and for being 4" high they weren't totally uncomfortable. Note for anyone looking to wear Badgley's for their walk down the aisle: they run big, so definitely order a half size or full size down from what you usually wear to avoid any missteps.






All fabulous footwear photos are by Nicole Peterson of Girl Photography...who only threatened to steal my heels on wedding day, but didn't actually follow through with it...!

Notes From a Newlywed: The Flowers {Flowers by Mary Elizabeth}

So, I had put off looking for a florist until the wedding was about six months away. I didn't feel a huge rush in securing one since I knew my floral order was pretty small. All I needed was ten bouquets. No centerpieces (we were going non-floral). No boutonnieres (the guy's were just going without).





I had gotten quotes from several Philly area florists, and in doing so I specified the exact number of stems I wanted assembled and delivered. I thought doing this would decrease the chance of having wildly different prices come back to me. Wrong. I really don't know how vendors can price out a service and product that is essentially identical and come up with such varying numbers. But it somehow happens.





Luckily for me one of the florists I found was Mary McVeigh of Flowers by Mary Elizabeth. Her prices were very competitive, she was extremely responsive to all of my questions, and she was really flexible when it came to listening to my ideas. What she delivered - in the midst of the semi-chaos of our hotel suite's prep time - was exactly what we had discussed months prior.





And yes, I kept the bouquets simple, small, cheery, and chock full o' billy balls. I thought the bright yellow would pick up the gold details on our saris for the ceremony, and then pop against our dresses for the reception. But really...I just knew you can't go wrong with some b. balls.











This floral explosion of photos provided by Nicole Peterson of Girl Photography.

Notes From a Newlywed: The Invitations {Down-to-Earth Paperworks}

When it comes to our next vendor, Down-to-Earth Paperworks, I really can't say anything but good things. If you want to read more of my gushing over working with Menna and a bit of background as to why I decided on this particular style of invites, be sure to check out this post from earlier in the year.

Menna not only designed our invitations, but also whipped up coordinating ceremony programs, too. And these weren't your average programs...they had a front and back cover plus eight interior pages of text. When you have a 90 minute Indian ceremony, you definitely want to make sure that all of your guests can follow along.









Thanks, as always, to Nicole Peterson of Girl Photography for getting some great shots of our paper products.

Notes From a Newlywed: The Horse {76 Carriage Company}

I know not everyone is looking to snag a horse for their wedding, so I'll keep this recap short. But if you are in the Philly area and do find yourself in need of services of the equine variety, then I'd definitely recommend 76 Carriage Company. After spending any amount of time in our fine city, you'll no doubt see tourists riding around in horse-drawn carriages. (Beef-A-Reeno free, I hope). 76 Carriage operates those, but is in the business of providing wedding horses, too.




Their wedding horses are pretty much regulars at our venue, so the one that showed up for us was, of course, a pro. As I've mentioned before, I didn't participate in the outdoor portion of the wedding day, but I know our guests had a great time welcoming the groom and the white horse he rode in on.






All photos courtesy of the irreplaceable Nicole Peterson of Girl Photography.

Notes From a Newlyed: The Registry {Macy's}

Right around the time we got our DJ locked down, we also got around to figuring out our registry. We decided to register at only one place, which every bridal mag and website will tell you is a no-no. You should give your guests limitless gifting options! You should get basics from a larger store and more unique items from a specialty shop! I get the point, but I also get that our lovely (but pretty cozy) post-wedding abode can only hold so much wedding gift goodness before we'd be using said gifts as makeshift pieces of furniture for lack of space.

So off to Macy's we went one day last Fall to wield the scan gun. Macy's made the most sense because it had the items we were looking to stock up on, offered a fair range of price points, and had one of the more generous registry rewards programs I had seen. This last factor proved to be huge when we made a fairly big wedding related purchase there several months later...but I'll get to that more in a future post.

The funny thing with picking out registry items is that everything looks amazing and fabulous when you're in the store or when you're shuffling items in and out online. But you just never really know how everything's going to hold up until you unpack and start using them. There are some items that were epic fails, and looking back now I see they have negative reviews online so I'm not the only one who thinks they're duds.

But I have some things, especially in the kitchen, that have proven to work out perfectly, especially with our space constraints.

These nesting magnetic measuring spoons actually fit in the drawer that I thought was too small to hold anything.





The mini food processor takes up no space at all in the cabinets and is still large enough to get all the slicing and dicing done.





I had heard from several people who had already chartered the registry waters that they'd regretted getting the cookware set that comes with every pot and pan imaginable, when you really only use so many of them every single day. I kept that in mind and hand picked the ones I wanted, and I have yet to find myself missing anything come dinner time.





These collapsible measuring cups are another space saver and super easy to clean.





Anyone else out there have any registry reports, either good or bad?

Spotted: Curtis Center Wedding by Branded Productions

Thanks to Branded Productions for sending over another great clip from a recent Philadelphia wedding they shot. This one captures a day at the Curtis Center, with a few other Center City Philly spots making appearances, too. Click play and enjoy!

Spotted: Weld Photography

Thanks to Philly area Weld Photography for sending over some images of their work today. Below we have shots from a recent wedding in Broomall, PA and an engagement session in Ridley Creek State Park.

Notes From a Newlywed: The DJ {John Romani}

I've been in the band vs. DJ conversation too many times to count at this point. It's just like choosing between chocolate or vanilla. Pepsi or Coke. Leno or Letterman. Ben or Noel. There's no right or wrong answer, it's just a matter or preference.

Wait. Except for that last one. Although I love Scott Foley, it's Team Ben 4eva. It just is. But now I'm babbling about beloved WB television shows and not focused on weddings. So let's get back to weddings before I just break out my Felicity DVDs and call it a day.

We decided on hiring a DJ early in the planning process. For the type of songs we wanted played during the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception, not having live music made sense for us. But like I always tell people when I am asked to weigh in on this debate: I've seen good DJs and bad DJs, and I've seen good bands and bad bands. You aren't guaranteed anything by simply choosing one or the other.

Choosing to go with a DJ was the easy part. Choosing the actual DJ took so much more time than I originally thought it would. There were several weeks of discouraging emails being exchanged with some DJs and cheesy press kits arriving in the mail from others. Finally I stumbled upon this post in the Weddingbee boards from local bee Mrs. Cupcake and it led me to our DJ salvation: John Romani.

From our first meeting with him, I knew John was exactly the DJ we were looking for. He was incredibly receptive to our requests and flexible enough to work within our day's timelines. He listened to our "must play" song list and followed our "do not play" list just the same. John kept everything flowing smoothly from the start of the ceremony to the end of the reception, and had people dancing with a great mix of songs in between. He also didn't keep the music too loud, which was actually something we had specifically asked of him. We hate going to weddings and not being able to talk to the person sitting right next to you when you're at your table.





John's not the type of DJ that's there to put on a flashy show for the crowd or promote his name in between songs. He doesn't bring along crazy strobe lights or fog machines (score!), but the equipment he does bring is reliable and he brings back-ups just to be safe, too. He's super prepared, extremely professional, and incredibly easy to work with. I'd recommend him to anyone!





*All of the above photos of our guests getting their Footloose on are courtesy of Nicole Peterson of Girl Photography.

Aileen & Tim's Wedding: Colonial Dames in Philadelphia

Pssst...have you entered the giveaway that's going on right now here at TWB? No? Well, a jewelry without jewels accessory is yours for the taking, so hop to it and enter away.


So, do all of you in TWBland remember when we started working with Aileen and Tim this past summer? It was certainly a whirlwind few months of planning, but all of our collective hard work culminated in an intimate and truly joyous wedding a few weeks back here in Philly.

Of course we had a stellar team of wedding pros that worked to make this day the success that it was:

Nina from Cheekadee Makeup Artists rocked the makeup for Aileen, her MOH, and the flower girls (who were self-proclaimed "one part cutie and one part tomboy," as overheard by Erin as they were running around the venue early in the day.)

Aileen made a comment in passing to me about her wanting to have a Ben Franklin impersonator at the wedding. She thought it would fit with their "Colonial Safari Meets Star Wars" theme and it would be entertaining for her guests to interact with him. Well I can say that Ben Franklin, AKA Dean Bennett, was in fact a big hit and was an absolute pleasure to work with. He was integrated into the ceremony sort of last minute, but rolled with it like a true pro.

Kenny Cunningham provided music during the outdoor ceremony and cocktail hour. We thoroughly enjoyed hearing his performance from above as we hurriedly readied the second floor ballroom for the reception.

The food and bar and dinner service was provided by Feastivities Catering, and we saw alot of clean plates so the food must've been good.

Tim's best man, Mike, also happens to be a co-owner of Philly Cupcake and Philly Chocolate. Of course this meant that total wedding dessert euphoria ensued. We had numerous conversations leading up to the big day to make sure that the cupcake tower and Star Wars-themed groom's cake were absolutely perfect...and I do believe they were.

Kim from No Macarena kept guests of all ages dancing, singing, and clapping all night long.

The venue coordinator from Colonial Dames, Adriana Robinson, was seriously an all-star. She was incredibly accommodating and flexible, and helped to make the ceremony and reception flow seamlessly. For anyone who is looking to book an event at Dames, know that you'll be in good hands.

And below we have just a few photos from Nicole Peterson of Girl Photography, but be sure to check out her Facebook page and blog for even more of what she (and second shooter Alix Passage) captured from this day.









And finally, congratulations to Aileen and Tim! Thanks for giving TWB the chance to work with you for the past few months.

Spotted: Brittany Ostrov Photography {Part Two}

Did you have a chance yesterday to see the ceremony and details of this wedding from Brittany Ostrov? Well today I have the second part of this wedding extravaganza for you, and the couple definitely put together a reception that was jam packed with fun activities and entertainment. Here again is Brittany to give us the lowdown!

Guests arrived the day of the wedding ready to celebrate, and the bride and groom were sure to not disappoint! There was a pool for the kids (and kids at heart) to swim in, a stage to showcase the multiple performers of the night (bands, singers, and belly dancers, oh my!), and a dance floor just waiting to be filled. A hay-bail couch was within perfect viewing distance of the stage, placed beautifully under a vintage chandelier hanging from a large tree. Large photo props and cutouts were placed around the grounds, and there was even a camp grove outlined with Christmas lights so people could stay the night and continue the celebration the next morning. The night ended for most of the guests with a performance from two fire dancers, but we heard the party raged on into the early hours of the morning and beyond.