Be our guest be our guest be our guest.

One of my biggest projects for the wedding has been the invitations. The insanely expensive type of invitation that I wanted was not in the budget. I have a love-hate relationship with Adobe Illustrator. It has amazing functions but some things are just so damn complicated. After designing it, I let it sit on my computer for a few (several) months, since invitations did not need to go out until December. I figured the easy part would be printing and sending them out.

Well, December crept up quickly and I ran into several issues during the printing. First of all, the paper was too thick to print on our own printer. Gah. Thank you, mrs. a, for letting us borrow yours! Then, the yellow I used in Illustrator was printing brown the on the printer. Gah. Finally, though I set the size on Illustrator to the size of the paper, it was getting enlarged in the printing. Gah. I am easily frustrated, especially when technology does not work. Lucky for me, I have a very patient, computer-savvy, perfectionist fiance'. He spent several painstaking hours fixing each page. Thank you, mr. c for doing everything for me that I don't have the patience for. You spoil me.

While he printed, I made address labels and return address labels. We used our customizable stamps by Stamps.com purchased from Walgreens during the summer upon a deal alert from this guy.

4 different engagement photos taken by our wonderful photogs, Chris and Erinn Austin.

After printing, we folded each page and perforated the RSVP postcard and it was ready for assembly. I went back and forth on how to bind it. I tried ribbon, I tried thread, I tried staples. I know it wasn't the best looking option, but I went with staples because it was the easiest and I was already behind in mailing them out.

i love this thing. thanks, mrs. gb.

ready to assemble.

The invitations finally went out last Tuesday, with, of course, one more complication. Unfortunately, when mr. c went to mail these out, they weighed 1.2 ounces, 0.2 oz over the 44 cent stamp rate. Gah. So, he had to purchase 17 cent stamps and stick them on each envelope:


I am completely happy with the final result:

it reads: leave us a message...but nothing boring.

Invitation Cover: Kelly Paper Solar White Classic Column $32.59/250 pages
Invitation Pages: Kelly Paper Solar White Classic Crest $21.90/250 pages
Envelopes: Kelly Paper Pewter Class Crest $55.95/250 envelopes

How lucky we are.

We are so lucky to have such ridiculously talented friends.

My long time friend, Laurie, recently started baking and designing the most amazing cakes. When she started posting pictures of her cakes on Facebook, I knew I wanted her to do my wedding cake. She makes cakes for all occasions and her creativity never fails to impress. Here are just a few showcases of her talent:

Can you believe these are EDIBLE?!

I am super excited about what she is designing for our wedding. I know it is going to be amazing. If you need a cake or just wanna see crazy food art, check out I believe it's cake!

My make-up is being done by my high school friend, miss cakeface. If you need make-up tips, you should definitely check out Beauty Booger! We did a make-up trial last month and I could not be more happy with the results:

Thanks, miss cakeface. :)

Here are a few more pictures taken with the photobooth on my new mac book:

I love these lashes.

taking pics of yourself feels kinda awkward. :-)

I'll be getting my hair cut and styled by another high school friend, Kylene. She works at Carlton Hair Salon at Westside Pavillion. I am always happy with the results, like for our engagement shoot:

If you need a great haircut on the westside, make an appointment with Ky.

If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it.

mr. c spent a lot of time designing an engagement ring perfect for me. I didn't even know what I wanted, but apparently he did.

Perfect and lovely it is.

While I was teaching, I got to wear it everyday. I keep it in the box when I don't wear it. Since I started working in a lab again, it stays in the box most of the time because I can't wear it with gloves. My first day, I almost threw it in the trash with my gloves! Eek!

On Saturday, we went back to the same jeweler in LA's jewelry mart to get our wedding bands. Gah, wedding bands are expensive! But, it is something that is going to last a few years lifetime right? ;) Since my engagement ring is custom, I had to leave it there so the jeweler can create a perfect fit for the wedding band. So, as he says, I am "unengaged" for the next two weeks.