Monday, May 24, 2010

MSTC Graduation

IMG_1284
IMG_1284,
originally uploaded by MSTCprogram.
Yay! I graduated this weekend from the University of Texas with an MS in Technology Commercialization.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Leather Chaps

I finally got around to writing a post about my leather chaps. i got them from Revzilla here: http://www.revzilla.com/product/icon-womens-hella-leather-chaps. I LOVE them. They make me feel safe when riding my scooter in the city plus they could double as a sexy costume some day.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Fly Scooter


I just got my new Fly Scooter before heading off to Christmas vacation. It's amazing. I ordered a RevZilla RevIt Ginger jacket in red before I left and it was waiting for me when I got back from vacation. I left a review on the website but wanted to share with any other scooter fans as the jacket is currently on sale.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Crazy Wife

I wanted to share this story incase anything happens to me because of this crazy woman or her family. And because I've had a lot of friends ask about the details and I don't want to have to type it multiple times.

Background: I started a Masters Degree program at the University of Texas and last week I went out to Austin for a four day orientation. During orientation they broke us into teams of 5 people. We then worked with our teams for the remainder of the weekend. Everything went fine and it was a lot of fun. Then when I got back to San Francisco, our team received an email from one of our members explaining how he was not going to be able to participate in the program any longer because of being spread too thin and overcommitted. I felt really bad for the guy because he had seemed really excited about the program in Austin. So I wrote the following email in response to his:

Bob~

I'm really sad that you're no longer going to be my teammate... I know that I would've learned a ton from you and developed a lifelong friendship. I'm also nervous that this is going to be a huge time commitment. Good luck with the million other things I'm sure you do each day, and moving everything out of your mom's house and finalizing the sale. :) Please stay in touch.

*note names have been changed to protect the innocent

So the next morning I wake up to this email in my inbox:

Lisa-

I am Bob Doe's twelve-year old son.

This is our family e-mail address and I read the e-mail that you wrote to my father. I don't like the "cozy" feelings that you wrote this e-mail in. How dare you say that you will have a "lifelong friendship" with someone that you just met and studied with for four or five days, if that's all you did with him! The only kind of female who keeps a "lifelong friendship" with a married man is a slut.

I wonder what kind of a person you are. I hope that you will never do this again to any other married man, because what you do to him affects every member of this family. You are an immature person, and my sisters agree with me. I'm twelve and I don't even put stupid smiley faces in my e-mails. Are you trying to tell me that you aren't even twelve years old yet? What possible reason would you have to stay in touch with my father? And I'd like to know what "a ton" of things that you could have learned from him. What makes you think that he needs to be any kind of a teacher to you?

You need to go get a real life, and think about going to church while you're at it. And unless you want to clear your conscience and tell me anything, I suggest you "lose" this e-mail address and any other information that you have about him.

Just get lost.

I was beyond shocked and pretty pissed off that someone would send me an email like that in response to a "good luck in whatever you do" nice email. So I took the higher ground and decided not to respond to the email. Besides, the "kid" did tell me to "just get lost". I did feel like it was important for Bob to know that his son was sending these types of emails, so I forwarded the email to Bob's work email address.

Then the next day I get yet another email with the subject "please respond":

Since now we know about how you seduced our father, I really need to understand why you would want to do that to a married man. Aren't you married too? What would your husband say if I told him? Please respond right now with your explanation so I don't have to call you since your phone numbers are in the directory.

Bob Doe's son

I hadn't heard from Bob and decided it was time to make the harassment stop so I called up Bob at his work number and left him a voicemail explaining how "his son" had been sending me disturbing emails and it needed to stop.

Then that night I got a call from Bob's wife. She said, please hold, Bob has something to say to you. "He must be shy". I figured she was going to have the little boy apologize for the nasty emails he wrote me. I just assumed the little boy had the same name as his father. Then she asks me if i have anything to say. I figured she meant something to tell the son about how horrible they made me feel and how it's not nice to send those types of emails without knowing the whole story. But it wasn't my place to educate the kid so I said I was working on taxes with my husband. Then she said "Don't play games. I want to know what is going on". Then she said "I am proud of my son for sending those emails". Immediately I knew something fishy was up. "I just want you to know that I had nothing to do with them". At which point I flipped out. She had actually called me up at my house to accuse me of having an affair with her husband over a 4 sentence email wishing someone the best. I was shocked. I didn't know what to say other than get pissed off. I couldn't believe she was actually serious. Eventually she couldn't control herself and was getting the point where I wanted nothing more to do with her so I hung up. I was clearly upset that someone would accuse me of something so ridiculous.

So Steve volunteered to call her up. He was patient as the lady in hysterics suggested that her husband and I had had an affair. She said, "so your wife just is nice and sends emails like that all the time". In which steve's response was "yes.". He then calmly told her that there was clearly some issues that her husband and her had to work out but that was their business and that she should never call or email me ever again. And that was that and the conversation ended.

Moral of the story... don't be crazy and read into emails without understanding the context of it. The entire weekend the program talked about the "lifelong friendships" we were going to make with our classmates. And Bob constantly was stepping out of the room to deal with the real estate sale. I reread the email I wrote to him over and over again and asked other people what they thought and no one interpretted it as we had had some sort of affair. I was so touched that Steve was so supportive of me through this and never once questioned my loyalty. Trust your husband or wife! The only person ruining Bob's marriage was his physcho wife. And another thing, control your husband/wife. Bob should never have allowed his wife to call me and upset me since I was an innocent third party. That was unacceptable. He should've talked to her and reassured her that she was certifiable. Another lesson learned: Get your own freaking email address and don't have a "family" account. And finally, TALK TO YOUR KIDS!

***I hope I never hear from these people again, but if I do I'll be sure to update this post. Hopefully I don't need to get a restraining order. This whole situation baffles me.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Fabric Bouquets --- SUCH A COOL IDEA!!

My sister got married on the 19th and her bouquet was gorgeous. So pretty. But after the wedding I never saw my bridesmaid bouquet again. The problem with flowers is that they die. Anyways, long story short her hair stylist keeps a blog and on her blog was this photo of one of the brides she did and her really amazing bouquet. I'm not sure if she made them herself or had them done for her but I think it's the cutest idea EVER!

Pros:
  • You get to see what your bouquet will look like before the wedding day!
  • Probably cheaper?
  • You can keep them forever... they don't die.
Here's a pic

Found the lady who makes them!! Here's her Etsy shop

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

In The Keys

I'm writting from my hotel room in Key West, Florida. My younger sister of 15 months is getting married this week and we're busy busy doing all of the wedding preparations. It's nice how she's getting married at the hotel where most of the guests are staying. The part that is really nice is that everything is walking distance so she doesn't have to rely on anyone to drive her to all of the appointments she has to do before the wedding. That's one thing I wasn't so excited about for my "destination" wedding. In Montana you NEED a car and not having one put you at the mercy of others.

We just went and talked to her cake maker today. Got to try out five flavors before her and her fiance decided on three (a different flavor for each layer of the cake). I liked that idea... that way everyone was happy. I still think the cake is a waste of money. But it's a fun tradition.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Tattoo Artist - Reel Love Theme


Steve and I decided to do a logo for our wedding. It was more me than him since he thought it was corny. ;) Anyways, since we had a Montana theme i was thinking "Reel Love" as in a fishing reel. I drew a logo myself of a fishing reel going back as if to cast a line and forming a heart but it just needed a lot of design loving. So I decided to go to a Tattoo artist and have them draw it. I went to a guy who had done a tattoo for a coworker in san francisco and he was amazing.

The tattoo place I went to was: http://everlastingtattoo.com/. Justin was kind enough to help us out. :)

We used the logo for a bunch of things like our RSVP cards, little tags for the welcome bags, and our terrible towels. I recommend doing something similar. Wasn't too expensive either.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Automatically Upload to Flickr

Just wanted to share this link on how to setup a script to monitor a folder on your computer and automatically upload any photos that are dropped into that folder. It would be incredibly useful for situations such as a photobooth to immediately have the photos go live. We were thinking about doing something like this at the place where we had our reception but they didn't have wireless. It wasn't a huge deal... I uploaded them all within a few days. But something like this could keep those real nerdy guests on their iPhones in another room entertained. ;)

http://lifehacker.com/software/hack-attack/automatically-upload-a-folders-photos-to-flickr-262311.php

Our Little Girl

ca2
ca2,
originally uploaded by cpup22.
HERE SHE IS!! Our breeder sent over these photos about 5 minutes ago. I can't believe how cute she is. So excited to finally get to hold her. It's going to be a long 1.5 months.

...now to think of a name. (Ghirardelli is out)

Friday, November 14, 2008

TreeSize - Find Files That Take up the Most Space On Your Computer

So I realize this blog is starting to move away from Wedding Ideas and turning into more general cool things that I know about but want to share with other people. So today I wanted to install a new piece of software but i was using all but 2% of my harddrive space and I needed a bit more than that. So I started doing the normal Control Panel > Add Remove Programs > Remove the unnecessary programs. But that wasn't helping at all. So I did some searching online to find some tool that could help me find which files were taking up the most space on my harddrive. Long story short.... I found the PERFECT tool.

It's call TreeSize Free and It's AMAZING.

You can download it here: http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

Monday, November 10, 2008

San Francisco Puppy Classes

Wanted to make a post so that I didn't forget this link. I went into a pet shop the other day and they recommended this puppy training class:

http://www.sfspca.org/dog_training/dt_puppy.shtml

I definitely will need to do a few of these classes when we get little Delli.

This class also sounds interesting. The place has better reviews than the SPCA site but it could be that the SPCA site is also an animal adoption facility. Here's the link: http://www.yelp.com/biz/perfect-paws-dog-training-san-francisco-2#hrid:onObc7pScvTPpw9l7xzFcQ/query:perfect%20paws.

http://www.perfectpaws.org/Home.html. Looks to be a little pricier at $450 for 5 in house sessions. Maybe that means your pup get one-on-one attention.

Little Ghirardelli DeLuca

It's official! We were approved after an hour long interview process to be proud parents of a new chocolate and tan baby miniature smooth hair dachshund! We are beyond excited! Steve reluctantly agreed to the name Ghirardelli. I have to admit it IS a little corney but it's PERFECT! Reasons it's perfect:
  1. She is a Chocolate and tan dachshund!
  2. We live in San Francisco where Ghiradelli Square is so popular!
  3. Ghiradelli is actually an Italian name and Steve is Italian!
I am really excited. We plan on calling her delli. I did some research on how to pronounce Ghirardelli and found this site: http://www.ghirardelli.com/about/faq_company.aspx. It says:

The correct spelling and pronunciation of the Italian name “Ghirardelli” has long stumped even the most avid consumers of Ghirardelli Chocolate. It is pronounced Gear-ar-delly.

Our breeder is super nice. You can tell she really wants to make sure her puppies end up in great homes and that the family knows what to expect out of the dachshund breed. The kennel is out of Montana which is perfect because I'll be in Montana for my best friend from highschool's wedding on January 2nd. So right after Mandy's wedding we'll drive up to the breeders and pick up the little one. Then it should be interesting to see about flying her back on the plane. Here's the breeder's website: http://www.2dogslongdachshunds.biz/.

I'll be sure to share lots of photos as I get them. She said she'll take some photos as soon as her eyes open which could be some time this week. We are super excited!!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Google Documents

Oh! Wanted to share this fun tip that kept me organized during the wedding. Google Docs are incredibly helpful and easy. The best part about them is you can use them from any computer. So I created a new Document named "Wedding TODO" and shared it with people that were helping me finalize the wedding: my mom, bridesmaids, etc.

Everyone you share the document with can view it and you can give them different permissions based on if you want to allow them to edit. I used the handy cross out feature to cross out the stuff I had finished. I also just removed it. It'd better than any TODO list that I found out there on random websites. Plus you can save large chunks of files. I'd save the print outs from my iDo guest list and table seating charts so my mom could have the final say.



Take the Google Documents Tour Here: http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html

Reminder - Update Registry Address

So we've been married now for 3 months... craziness! We're just moving into our new home and had to go back to the old apartment to clean out some stuff. I went to the post office and did a change of address form but there was still a couple packages sitting there for us. That reminded me that I needed to go to the registry and update the address for the post wedding places. I figured I'd share since not all people live together before getting married. Some people move, or buy a new house afterwards like we did. I completely forgot and didn't think I'd need to but some gifts are still slowly tricklin' in.

Reminder: Update Registries after the Wedding with New Address.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Danielle Lazier - Real Estate Agent Extradenare

Our first home buying experience happened FAST. My husband and I had just gotten married in August and finally I had convinced him to come with me on a few San Francisco open house hunting trips. Our car had just been totaled out the weekend before but we somehow mustered up the courage to bike across town (we lived in Pacific Heights) over to Portreo Hill to check out a place. We loved it. It was HUGE (1500 sq ft) and had an amazing view of the city. It was a bit of a fixer upper but we thought we could have a little fun with it. Offers came in too quick and it was impossible for us to get organized that quickly. It was then that we realized we needed to be prepared if we were going to compete in the fast paced market that is San Fran.

I spoke to a family friend in Montana who was a Certified Real Estate Agent. She explained to me what the designation meant... lots of studying, exams, coursework. Basically a CRS is a *must* when looking for an agent. She looked up local San Fran agents and found Danielle Laziers name. She emailed Danielle letting her know we were in the market and the next thing we knew we were sitting in her office in Noe Valley discussing what we wanted in a new home.

Danielle was great from the very beginning, genuinely interested in every little detail and very knowledgeable about the current state of the economy and housing markets.

The weekend following that first meeting, which was on a Thursday, she sent us a few places from Zephyr's house hunting website tool to check out on our own. Since we didn't have a car we bussed it over to Potrero and Bernal Heights and saw only one place.. the rest we ruled out for one reason or another. We loved it but weren't so sure about the neighborhood.

On Tuesday of the next week Danielle had arranged to drive us around and show us a bunch of new and old listings. We saw about half a dozen places, she was very patient with us, walked around the places with us and listened to what we said about each. She convinced us to go back to the one we had seen the weekend before even though we had essentially ruled it out due to the location. And again we loved it. The real estate agent that was working the open house told us that there had already been an offer that was put on the place and that the sellers had countered. Our hearts sunk... it was then, with that feeling of sadness that we were convinced this was the one.

We told Danielle that we liked it and wanted to make an offer. She was so quick to put everything together as we had to put the offer in that same evening. She came and met us (since we still didn't have a car) and we sat down for about an hour signing a million pieces of paper. So in 5 days we went from meeting Danielle to making an offer.

Then the fun happened...

Our offer was approved, we did the inspection, had the appraisal, and started working on our loan docs ...and continued working on our loan docs. We ended up doing an application with three different banks. The first was rejected through the mortgage broker because of the mortgage insurance. Finally we had one go through. Danielle was awesome the whole time insuring us that it was normal and it was just the way the economy was right now. She kept us updated on how the sellers were feeling and was quick to answer any questions we had. She advised us not to buy a new car (even though we were ready to have wheels again) because it could've effected the chances of the loan getting approved. She also had us wait to put in notice with our apartment just in case we were never approved so we wouldn't be forced onto the streets :).

Of course we went to Yelp after speaking with Danielle the first time to read her reviews and we were shocked at the 1 star rating when all the rest were 5 stars. We joked with her about how we'd love to close on Halloween so she could show up in her Halloween costume. She laughed. Not only did we feel comfortable enough with her to joke around but we trusted her and appreciated her honesty. We felt like she was invested in us and our future in our new home, she wanted to see us happy and offered insight in such a way that she would've made the same decisions had she been purchasing a home for herself rather than helping us.

We closed on the 21st and moved in the following weekend. I'd recommend Danielle to anyone.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

New Home + New Car

Today we closed on our new home!!! It is officially ours. Our real estate agent, Danielle Lazier, who is amazing btw, had her assistant Cici drop off the keys this morning. I was working from home and was so excited when our apartment door bell rang. I rushed to the stairs to meet her. She had not only the keys but a fun welcome kit from Zephyr, a return address stamp, and a bottle of champaign. They were such cute touches.

Right after getting the keys I called Steve and told him the good news. Then I walked over to the Toyota dealership and purchased a brand new 2009 Toyota Corolla. They're having a really good deal right now with good credit you can get 0% financing for 3 years with $0 down. So without even whipping out my checkbook I was able to drive away with our new car. I love new cars...

I had to drive it and what better place to go than our new home!! I loaded it full of small boxes and headed over. I unpacked all of the boxes so we could reuse them and put a few things away. I'm going to wait to put things in the cupboards until Steve is around. He's the kitchen expert between the two of us and I know he'll be specific on where he wants things. I also want to swing by Costco and get some of that drawyer liner to put down. That way we'll only have to unpack once.

I am so excited!! I hope we're able to move over on Saturday. Steve wants to ask a few of his friends to help us move but he hasn't yet. I kinda wanted to get professional movers, even though they're more expensive, in order to move the big heavy stuff. Plus professionals are usually insured so if anything happens we'll be able to replace whatever the damage is. It would be nice to save some money by not having professional movers but I really want to move over there as soon as possible.

We had to give 30 days notice for our apartment so we'll have it for a good 3 weeks from today. It makes it nice because we don't feel as pressured to get out of our apartment. But it would be nice to have less of an overlap with the cost of rent. At least we have a car now so we can always drive back over the apartment one weekend and clean it all out. Make sure we get our security deposit back.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Wedding Thank You Notes

People are doing some pretty creative stuff these days for their thank yous. I saw a bunch where people were holding a sign that said Thank You... or even a blank cardboard sign that they later wrote "Thank You" in either by hand of with photoshop. I decided to skip all that and just use photoshop for ours.

Here's the end result:


Steps:
  1. Purchased plain white 4x6 folded cards from www.ActionEnvelope.com - http://www.actionenvelope.com/ae/control/product/~category_id=NOTECARDS/~product_id=A6_FOLDED_CARD $8.95/50
    Oh! The nice thing about ordering these early is that you can write them as you get your gifts. You don't have to wait until after the wedding when you finally have your photo. All you have to have are the cards and then put the photo on later.
  2. Purchase 4x6 colored envelopes to match the wedding colors. Again from Action Envelopes (couldn't beat their price and quality during my exhaustive search) - http://www.actionenvelope.com/ae/control/product/~category_id=SQUARE_FLAP/~product_id=5375-25 $20.95/50
  3. Took a photo from our photographer and used Photoshop to add some custom text: "Thank you! Lisa & Steve DeLuca". We actually used a different photo for people in the wedding party (the flower girl got her own, the officiant, bridesmaids, groomsmen, and ushers).
  4. Printed the photos from Snapfish.... 9 cents a photo
  5. Bought some double sided tape ~ $4 (no idea how much double sided tape costs... probably around that... i actually happened to already have the tape)
  6. put a small piece of tape on the top and bottom of each photo and stuck it to the folded card stock.
  7. Purchased a custom return address stamp from Etsy (see my other post)
  8. Stamped and Embossed each envelope with our return address
  9. Mailed 'em
For 50 thank you's the total price was.... dun dun dun... 69 cents each not including postage. Pretty cheap! And it was kinda fun doing them myself after the wedding... especially with all the creative juices that went into the wedding planning it was fun to continue with the personal touches. Of course the 69 cents doesn't include the cost of the etsy stamp ~$25 or the embossing powder and stamp... those were just for fun but we'll get to keep it forever!

RealBridesmaids.com

I created a new website while I was wedding planning to try to make bridesmaid dress shopping a little more collaborative and fun. To date, I'm the only person who has uploaded any photos. But I think the idea is great... it just needs people to spread the word and more people to see the benefit of uploading. If I can get the word out there maybe it'll be more useful.

Comments and Suggestions Appreciated:

#1 Thing I Would've Changed - The Flowers

My bridal bouquet was awful. It was not at all what I had asked for. We met numerous times with the flower shop and each time the lady smiled and nodded... I should've known she'd get the wedding completely wrong. The brides bouquet was pink (I had asked for 100% white), the bridesmaids were the size of a softball (I had asked for bigger and a rounded shaped, not 4 total flowers), and the little flower girls "ball" was just the bridesmaid bouquet on a ribbon. What sucks about being the bride is the day of the wedding you're so busy, being pulled in 8 different directions that you're forced to delegate. I worked hard the months before the wedding making sure everything was perfect so that I didn't have to worry that things wouldn't work out. But the flowers didn't. If it were me I would not have picked up the flowers from the flower shop. I would've demanded my money back and would have left them there. They were that bad.

Here's a note I wrote to the flower shop after the wedding:

-------------------
Susan McGee
Country Flower
720 W Main St
Bozeman, MT 59715

Dear Country Flower attn: Susan McGee:

I’m writing to complain and express my utter disappointment with the quality of the wedding bouquets received for my wedding held on August 8th, 2008 through Country Flowers. My mother and I met with Gigi on three separate occasions to discuss the details of the floral arrangements requested. From the beginning price was not a concern, I just wanted very specific flowers to go with my wedding theme.
Picture of Flowers ReceivedBridesmaid Bouquets (4): The brown orchids were exactly what I had asked for. Yet, the bouquets were MUCH smaller than had been discussed with less than six flowers total. These bouquets were not worth $100 each. It was absolutely outrageous to pay such a large amount of money for just a few flowers.

Flower Girl Floral Ball
The Floral ball that was intended for the flower girl was again far smaller than had been discussed. It was the size of the bridesmaid bouquets only rather than a stem it had a ribbon for her to hold. I showed Gigi the following photo:

She assured me this was doable with the green orchids. The size of this ball fell far below the expectations that I had, and the estimate Country Flower had provided.


Brides Bouquet
When my mother and I met with Gigi, we showed her a photo of a bridal bouquet that I loved and wanted replicated in white:

I specifically requested that it be all white. She said that it wouldn’t be a problem but to know that all orchids have a little color in their throats. As an orchid owner this meant orchid flowers similar to the photo here:
Instead I got the bouquet pictured above. I was told by Gigi that she was going to throw in some other flowers as well so the bouquet would look more ivory than the bright white of orchids, she mentioned white roses along with many others which I happily agreed to. She expressed no concern or problem with creating something identical to the photo I presented her above. My wedding colors were brown and green, a bridal bouquet that was greater than 50% pink threw off the theme of the wedding.

My Mom specifically questioned Gigi when she picked up the flowers and saw that the bouquet was not all white as specified. Gigi knew from our first consult that I wanted white on white with no other colors showing in a long cascading bouquet. My mom asked her if she could add some white to the bouquet as she knew that I would be disappointed. Gigi responded to my Mom that it was too late to add other flowers and that if I had wanted an all white bouquet it would have cost ALOT of money. This amazed my Mom and me as, like mentioned above, from the beginning money was not the object; my husband's family wanted me to have what I wanted and they were planning on footing the bill.

Above being said, I’d like to point out that I loved the way the men’s flowers turned out. However, overall, I feel like I have been cheated and lied to when it came to the bouquets. Given that the flowers received were not as promised and your website boasts that “Quality and Service are fully guaranteed”, I am requesting a refund of $725. If Country Flowers is unable to handle this request please call me or email by September 8th, 2008.

---------------------
I just got off the phone with the lady and she said she was going to refund me $125. HAHAHAHAHAH... awesome. I had told her from the beginning that money wasn't the issue. I wanted my flowers to turn out exactly like I had envisioned.

I told her on the phone that if I had known that the flowers were going to cost more than they had originally told us that we would've spent more to make them perfect. She rebutted with "but you had cut out so much of the wedding already that we thought money was an issue". I cut out the $30 a piece center pieces and orchids around the alter. We had an outdoor wedding and didn't have an arch so we removed that early on; had nothing to do with money. They should not have assumed anything... they should've been upfront and honest with us throughout the process and the multiple in person meetings. I should've gotten the entire balance of the flowers back, $725. But I didn't.

So I'm writing this blog post so that future brides in Bozeman, Montana know what they're getting into before agreeing to go with Country Flowers. I guess showing a picture and saying "I WANT EXACTLY THIS" is not enough.

Just to reiterate:

*** Susan had the nerve to tell me that "the size is not that different" [the one i wanted was about twice as long] "I actually think the one we made was prettier" [umm.... no comment].

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Videographer

We got our video in the mail last week from the wedding. It took a while for them to get it to us but it turned out AMAZING! I am sooooooo glad we decided to do the video. At first I wasn't all that excited about it. I figured there'd be enough pictures to relive the day. There would also most likely be someone with a video camera. I'd be kicking myself if I had cut out the video.

We popped it into the DVD player as soon as we got it in the mail. It was so awesome to see all of the little things that I missed. Like our minister talking with everyone before I came down the isle. I also got to see our parents and grandparents walking down the isle. They captured the toasts, cake cutting, and dances. They also did some fancy editing and had a cute get-away scene. I need to figure out how to compress the video and then upload it! :) Will work on that soon.

Conclusion: While it seems like it would be a waste of money, a videographer is worth every penny!! (at least it was for us)

Our videographer: www.RipeVideo.com

If I had to do it again - Wedding Invitations


Let's face it. The only people that save your wedding invitation are your parents, grandparents, and you. *Maybe* if you have a sentimental friend who is part of the wedding party... then they'll save it. But the majority of people will simply toss it in the trash. If I had to do it all over again I'd do my save the date magnets with an RSVP return card. My friend did her RSVP cards as postcards to save on postage. But if you plan on sending a save the date anyways you might as well just do that and the RSVP card. The nice thing about the save the date magnet that I did was that it had a picture of the two of us and since it was a magnet people just plopped it on their fridges. I've been over to a few friends places that still have the magnet on their fridges even though the wedding was a few months ago. They just like the photo of us.

I did my own magnets and started doing them for other people. So if you're interested see my site for more info: My Save The Date Magnets.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Cally

Cally
Cally,
originally uploaded by Heidi Knight.
Steve and I just got our offer accepted for a new home!! This means we can get a puppy. I've always really wanted a chocolate and tan dachshund and this one is absolutely gorgeous!! I want her!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Thank You Notes - Return Address Stamp

I'm working on our Thank you notes. I'm waiting on our photographer to send us our photos so I can pick a couple and have them printed out on these plain white 4x6 cards. But I have the cards so I should be able to write them before I get the photos... :)

Above is a picture of our return address stamp. I posted an entry a few days ago with the stamp that we purchased from Etsy. We got it in the mail about 2 weeks after we ordered it, like the site said, and it's amazing! I went to the local craft store and picked up a silver ink pad and some white embossing powder. It's kinda hard to read the address with the embossing powder but I think they're gorgeous. It looks so cool. The picture doesn't do it justice.
here

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

20 Mistakes Most Newly Weds Make

I saw a link to this article and just finished reading through it. It's interesting and has some good advice. Most of which you've probably heard before but I still felt like sharing:

http://newlyweds.about.com/od/gettingalong/tp/Newlywed-Mistakes.htm

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Lessons Learned: The Cake

If we had to do it again I'd only get enough cake for the "pretty" version that everyone see's that is mostly for show anyways. We paid extra to have a sheet cake in the back assuming that we should have a slice for each and every guest. Turned out we had a bunch of guests that were no shows and a LOT of guests that were from a neighboring city who left early. We had the entire "for show" cake left over. And who is going to eat that?!? HUGE waste of money. I think the extra sheet cake was $400 or so.

Lesson Learned: Cake is fun since it's a tradition, but it's okay if it runs out.

Registry ... if I had to do it again

My biggest complaint about our registry was that we signed up for a store that was in my home town thinking it'd be easier for guests to pick something up there. Turned out that we got a bunch of gift certificates and it's not that convenient to go to the branch of the store where we live. So that's a huge pain in the butt.

I *loved* registering with Amazon.com because all of our guests got that free shipping they do with $25 or more purchases. They also came right to our apartment rather than the local stuff that is still sitting with my parents (since our wedding was destination for us). Amazon isn't as easy to turn back though. There isn't an option for their return policy to say that you're returning because you have a duplicate item. So that's one caveat.

Oh, we also found this cool thing with the iDo foundation where for every so many dollars your guests spend on gifts they donate money to a charity of your choice. I don't think we got that much, probably $10, but it was better than nothing and it was free to do. Check it out here: http://www.idofoundation.org/

Summary

Good: Amazon.com
Bad: Other stores because it's convenient for guests.

...gift certificates in general are pretty annoying. I'll remember that for the future. I would've rather had the $50 than a gift certificate that I probably won't spend for months and doesn't earn interest.

Skillet Based Ziti Recipe


Now that we've got all these fun wedding gifts we're trying them out. Today we used one of our calphalon pans to make a skilled based ziti. It was really simple. Only took about 30 minutes and was amazing. It reminded me of a lasagna without meet. I'm sure the recipe could be modified to add meat, though:



MAIN DISHES- PASTA- vegetarian: Skillet Baked Ziti

Done in 30 minutes...


Ingredients:
1 Tbs olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
salt and freshly ground black pepper
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
3 cups water
12 ounces ziti (3¾ cups)
½ cup heavy whipping cream
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
¼ cup minced fresh basil
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Steps:

1 Preheat oven to 475°F. Place oven rack in middle position. Measure out water and pasta.

2 Combine oil, garlic, pepper flakes, and ½ teaspoon salt in 12-inch oven-safe nonstick skillet and sauté over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add crushed tomatoes, water, ziti, and ½ teaspoon salt. Cover and cook, stirring often and adjusting heat as needed to maintain a vigorous simmer, until ziti is almost tender, 15 to 18 minutes. While pasta is cooking, measure out cream, Parmesan and basil.

3 Stir in cream, Parmesan and basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle mozzarella evenly over ziti. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until cheese has melted and browned, about 10 minutes. Serve.



Servings: 4

Cooking Tips

*Be sure to preheat your oven before assembling the ingredients.
**If your skillet is not ovensafe, transfer the pasta mixture into a shallow 2-quart casserole dish before sprinkling with the cheese and baking.
***Penne may be used in place of ziti.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Return Address Stamp for Thank Yous


I ordered this fun Address Stamp from Etsy the other day. I was debating whether or not to get one since we live in an apartment which isn't very permanent. But they're just so cute and at only $23 it's not like we're losing a bunch when we move. So, long story short I ordered one that looks similar to this one that we're going to use for our thank you cards.

Here's the link to the Sweet Papery shop that does lots of fun stamps like this one:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5180519

9/8/2008 - We got our return address stamp today and it is EXACTLY like the page shows. It's perfect! So much fun. Now I need to go buy myself some ink pads and start finishing our thank you notes. The best part is I could use our embossing powder to do some fancy return address stamping. Too much fun

Monday, September 1, 2008

Social Security Card Name Change

I decided to listen to my bridesmaid and go ahead and do the name change stuff myself rather than that website. It shouldn't be too hard. I don't know what the website could do to make it easier. You still have to fill out the forms that are specific to each form. The hardest part so far has been waiting for my marriage license to get here. It just got here on Saturday so sometime this week I'll be able to go to the local Social Security office and deal with the name change.

http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/ssa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=315

Update: 9/2/2008 I went to the Social Security office to get my name change. I waited for over an hour for a one minute chat with the lady behind the ONLY window dealing with name change type requests. Waste of a day. But at least it's done!

I'm also going to have to change my name a few other places. Here's what my list entails:

  • Passport - Here's the link to the DS-5504 form that was the one to do the name change at the time of this posting. No fee is associated with this form.
    http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/100008.pdf

  • Voter Registration

  • Driver's License - For california they want you to do your SS card first. Then you had to pay the fee again, which seems absurd, get a new pic, and wait 60 days for the new one to get to you. Info here: http://www.dmv.ca.gov/dl/dl_info.htm#two504 update 9/10/2008: just got my new license... well, i filled out everything and now get to wait. It wasn't that painful. I was in and out in probably 20 minutes. I was expecting it to be much worse.

  • Credit Cards

  • Bills

  • Frequent Flier Numbers

  • Bank Accounts

  • Car and Rental Insurance

  • Work stuff including 401k, stocks, etc



And then just in case you think there might be something else you've forgotten... open up your wallet and take a look. Go through each of the cards and if one has your old name on it and you want your new name on it then call 'em up. Most of mine had 1-800 numbers on the back so it wasn't too painful.

I decided to keep my maiden name as my middle name and drop my middle name all together. That way I'll have my maiden name on most of my documents incase there is ever an issue.

Bird Seed - A HUGE no-no

Steve and I are married and back from the honeymoon! The wedding was amazing! The one thing that was a HUGE mistake was throwing bird seed. I was really excited about the bird seed idea because i thought it'd be something easy that everyone could throw (not like bubbles where the chance of the photographer getting them in the air was slim to none). Everyone could throw them... chuck them was more like it. We ended up getting pelted by birdseed. I'll post a photo later of how horrible it was. I felt really bad for the mustang person. We were in this beautiful convertible and people just wouldn't stop throwing the seeds right into the car!

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Guestbook for Photobooth Photos

I mentioned earlier that I was going to get a fun fancy guestbook for people to sign. One of my biggest concerns was how to let people know where the photos will go. I was chatting with my mom last night about it and she said she was just going to cut out a 4x6 piece of paper and write "your photo here" so people knew. Which I thought was an AWESOME idea. But instead of making her slave away cutting paper to fit exactly 4x6 I thought it'd be worth spending the extra cash and just printing 4x6 photos. I made a little prototype on the computer, looks like this:


I had them printed at Costco.com for $.17 each. If I had thought of it sooner I probably would've done something like Snapfish where they're only 9 cents each. But oh well, it was only ~ $17. We're going to put a little bit of two sided tape on opposite corners and just stick them in the book. Then after the wedding I'll replace them with the photos that people took of themselves in the photobooth.

Here's the book from Priscella again (ours is brown and green, our wedding colors). My grandmother ended up buying the book for us for a wedding gift. Which I'm so excited about! She wanted to get us something we'd like and it's going to be awesome.


My mom got some thin sharpie's for the book. I hope it doesn't bleed through. We'll probably put the pictures on opposite sides of the pages just in case. But we'll definitely need to test first. We're also going to have the bridal party try out the photobooth and we'll place their photos in the book so people know what they're going to look like and what they should do. There isn't enough pages in the guestbook for each guest to have their picture taken individually. So we're hoping by saying your GROUP PHOTO here they'll realize they can stand with the people they came with. :)

Wedding Mapper


Found another interesting website for wedding planning: WeddingMapper.com. I went ahead and filled one out for our wedding. It's kinda cool. It looks like they just used the google map APIs to allow people to create a personalized wedding map. You can drag over your own points of interests for where the ceremony will be held, rehearsal, reception, hotels, etc. Haven't heard yet if any of our guests have used it but we created one here: http://www.weddingmapper.com/bozeman/mt/visit/00gj7f.

I decided not to do the upgrade. The stuff I have now is all the free version. For $10 more you can add custom links and stuff. But all of that is already on our wedding website so I didn't see the need to duplicate all the work I had already done there. The one nice thing about doing the upgrade is you can print off the map. Which might be cool to include in a wedding invitation or welcome bags at the hotel. For now I'll just continue using my own map creating skillz. Worth using the free version for sure though!

MissNowMrs.com


I got a brochure in the mail the other day for this new website service that will help you change your name after you get married, http://www.missnowmrs.com. It seems like a pretty good deal. It claims that it takes an average of 13 hours for a bride to change her name after getting married. That seems a little out of control. I don't know why it would take that long. It sounds like all they do is go on the web and find the right forms and then you still have to print them out yourself and mail them in. I bet the main advantage is you'd only have to enter your information in once and then it'd fill it out for you. Not sure if that's worth $30. The card I got in the mail also have a Promo code to save $5.

Probably won't end up doing it. But wanted to share!

--------------------
Response from my married bridesmaid on whether I should do it or not... hilarious!

DL, you'll need to go in person anyway (at least in Texas) and you get a new picture. SS was super simple and you can download the form online before you go. there was a wait when i went, so i just took a book and read for about 30 minutes before they called my name. Once I got called, it only took about 2 minutes.
CCs were simple - just call the 800-number on the back of your card. they didn't even want proof. I still haven't changed my AA miles name because we keep buying tickets on american and the name on the ticket has to match the frequent flyer name, so I'll do it when we get back from australia, hopefully. I can't change my passport until that happens either (so that I still have a valid-government-picture ID so I can fly with my old name), but again, that's a simple form you can download online and mail in.
i actually don't remember ever doing anything with the post office, but maybe it was so simple (online) that I just don't remember.
anyway... with 13 hours, you can definitely change them all for free without the $30. If you weren't internet savvy, I'd probably suggest it, but since you know how to do a simple search, you'll be fine without it. spend the money on a good bottle of wine to drink while you do it instead! =)

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

eWedding.com


I definitely recommend that all newly engaged couples setup a wedding website. We decided to do ours through eWedding.com. You can check it out here: http://www.SeacatDeLucaWedding.com. It's really simple to use. I'm a software engineer and love to make my own websites but this was just so easy. I'm already spending a bunch of time doing a million other things for the wedding so it was nice to have a WYSIWYG editor to enter the wedding details for guests.

OH! I also wanted to add that you can purchase a domain name from goDaddy.com for about $7 (they are always running online coupon's if you do a search). It's really easy to forward the domain name to your ewedding site. I recommend doing that. So you could have www.MeAndMyFiance.com point to the ewedding site. Easier and crisper for guests to remember. Also takes up less space on the save the dates. Post a comment to this posting if you need help and I'll be happy to show instructions on how to do that.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Wedding Dance Lessons

Steve and I thought it'd be fun to know a little bit about dancing for our first dance together. The swaying back and forth that most couples do is just boring. So Steve added a bunch of dance lesson DVDs to our Netflix queue. Needless to say they were HORRIBLE! And impossible to follow. We both ended up yelling at each other that the other person was doing it wrong. So we lucked out and checked the local dance lessons available and found the Cheryl Burke Dance Studio in San Francisco. Last Sunday we did a group wedding class with about 15 other couples. It was a blast. We learned the fox trot and swing. Mostly just a few steps.

My favorite part of the class was actually the basics about leading and following. How he holds you to tell you which way he is going, etc. That part we had no clue how to do. We liked the class so much that we signed up for the package which includes 3 individual 45 minute sessions. Our first one of those is tonight. We get to bring in our own music so hopefully they'll help us choreograph a fun routine. Can't wait!

Here's the Link: http://www.cherylburkedance.com/catalog/workshops/index.php?dt_id=47

========================

Our choreographed first dance was AMAZING! It was so much fun. Our guests were hooting and hollering. This was one of my favorite parts of the whole wedding. Wasn't as expensive as I thought they would be and it was a fun break from the wedding planning, something my fiance and I could do together and just enjoy this exciting time in our lives. We're going to take more lessons soon. But I highly recommend indulging in some dance lessons. Can't wait to see how the video turns out! Maybe I'll post the youtube video of it later. ;)

Friday, July 11, 2008

Shepherd Hooks

So our rental place which is a gigantic rip off has shephard hooks for $2 each. I did some searching online and I found a few places that had them for a little over $2. Here's what I found:

http://www.save-on-crafts.com/shepherdhooks.html

http://www.craft-supplies-online.com/productdetail.asp?item_nbr=340-24-8186
$2.48

http://www.craft-supplies-online.com/productdetail.asp?item_nbr=340-24-7463
$2.21 (36")

I'll chat with my mom and see what she thinks. As long as they can make it here by the wedding it's probably a better deal. We can always sell the extras on eBay.

-------------------------

Update: We decided to just go ahead and rent the shepherd hooks from the rental place in town. They're only $1.50 each and then we won't have to worry about selling them.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

1966 White Ford Mustang Convertible


Looks like we found a get-away vehicle!

Montana Marriage License

A lot of people asked why Steve and I waited so long to get married. By the time we actually get married it will have been 18 months of us being engaged. I just checked the requirements for the Montana Marriage License and they waived the Rubella blood test as of October 2007!! That is enough reason to wait until 2008 to tie the knot! :)

Montana Marriage License Information

Steve and I are planning on going to get our marriage license the week of the wedding. It says we'll only need our drivers licenses. Hopefully that's right. I think we'll probably leave our passports to make sure they're ready to go for the honeymoon. So exciting, only one month to go!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Paper "planets"

Paper "planets"
Paper "planets",
originally uploaded by cpup22.
I bought a bunch of paper lanterns online that I want to hang over the dance floor. Should be interesting since there isn't really anything to hang them to. We're hoping to be able to just get a ladder and tape them to the ceiling. I hope it works!

My mom got them in the mail yesterday and hung up one of each size so I could see what they look like. I think they're really cute. We thought they kinda looked like planets.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Do it yourself inkjet embossing


Just wanted to post again about my embossing experience. I mentioned below that I had figured out how to emboss using my ink jet printer, bought all the supplies, and was going to try it out. Well, I did it and absolutely loved it! So much fun! When I first tried it I used regular cardstock and it didn't work at all. The ink dried way too fast on the paper. I then pulled out some old photo paper my dad had given me ages ago (before college maybe). The paper was extremely glossy and worked perfectly. This picture is a zoom in of what it turned out like. I love it. All I did was throw on the embossing powder as it was coming out of the printer. then I shook off the excess and funneled it back into the container using another sheet of paper. I had the embossing heater turned on and then gave it a little once over to melt the powder. There were a few places were I got too close to the paper for too long with the heater and it had some yellow burnt looking marks. But overall I was very excited about the embossing. If I had to do my wedding invitations again (we decided to do them ourselves as a fun craft project), I wouldn't have paid to have the professional embossing. You can barely tell they are there and for $2.50 an invitation for embossing alone it wasn't worth it. But, I DO recommend the emboss yourself stuff, just remember it doesn't work well on cardstock... I LOVED the way my table names turned out.

Online Cardstock and Wedding Envelopes

Somehow I ran across this website: http://www.actionenvelope.com.
They have very good prices for cardstock with tons of colors and matching envelopes. I actually went through another company online to get the first round of what I thought would be my wedding color for green envelopes and they turned out to be a hideous lime green and were flimsy and in poor quality. I decided to return those and went with action envelope. I've been so happy with their customer service and quality. The cardstock is extra thick and beautiful. You can order samples of any of their colors for $1 but they give you a $1 coupon towards your next order. I highly recommend these guys.

We put the thick chocolate brown cardstock behind our wedding RSVP cards. I'm also going to put it behind the table names and some green behind the trivia cards.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Wedding Shoes

I ended up getting these shoes to wear from the wedding ceremony from David's bridal. Not the best reviews on their website but all sales are final. I got these awesome wedge flops from Victoria Secret to wear for the reception. I might just have to wear them for the ceremony too.

David's Bridal Ones:
http://www.davidsbridal.com/accessory_detail.jsp?stid=1430&prodgroup=167

Victoria Secret Shoes:
http://www2.victoriassecret.com/commerce/application/prodDisplay/?namespace=productDisplay&origin=onlineProductDisplay.jsp&event=display&prnbr=8P-221153&page=1&cgname=OSSHUWDGZZZ&rfnbr=4786

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Dry Erase Conversation Bubbles

The blog I mentioned below that talked about setting up a photo booth also had some cute pictures of dry erase boards shaped like conversation speech bubbles. My sister and I just found some dry erase magnet sheets online and I purchased some to cut out the conversation bubbles for our photobooth. I'll probably have Steve do the cutting since he's pretty good about perfect shapes.

I got the magnet from www.magnetking.com

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Napkin pocket


here's the kind of napkin folding that I'm interested in doing. I need to find instructions on how to do it and then figure out how much space is available for the insert card.

Cake & Votive Candles

I've always really liked the look of this cake. It's made by a baker in Montana but after tasting some of her samples, we decided to go with another cake baker. I hope that the one we end up with looks exactly like this.

We purchased 72 votive candles from candles4less. My mom is going to send me a picture of what they look like in person. But of the 72 holders, 23 of them are cracked or broken. Not very good at all... I guess you get what you pay for. Hopefully they'll replace the broken ones and send them to us before the wedding.

Paper Lanterns

Every time I see a picture of someone's wedding with the round paper lanterns I absolutely love them. I like the randomly scattered ones more than the evenly hung ones. I'm not sure how to go about hanging them from the reception hall that I'm getting married in. But if I could find a way I'd be all about these balls.

http://www.asianideas.com/42incrla12pc.html

Heart Shaped Napkin Fold

I found a cool website that shows how to fold a napkin to look like a heart. I thought it'd be cute to do for the tables at a reception. I'm still looking for a napkin that has a pocket to put the trivia card in. The heart is pretty cool though!

http://bumblebeelinens.com/heartFold.php

Friday, June 13, 2008

Millers Professional Imaging - Flush mount books

One of my previous postings was to the Tuscany flush mounted books. I talked to another one of my friends who is a photographer and she suggested I go through Miller's. They have the same type of books but the prices are a little more reasonable. Here's the link to them as well:

http://www.millerslab.com/info/products/albums/albumsdef.aspx

Their books look just as nice. I liked the covers from Tuscany but it's hard to tell from Miller's site what they'll look like. I'll need to explore more later. I won't even need to worry about it until after the wedding.

I'm also now looking into getting a videographer. I heard a bunch of brides talking about how they loved their videos.

Centerpieces - Fish

I'm going to put a cube 8"x8" on each table with a fish and some rocks. I found a website that sells polished rocks but I feel like unpolished will be just as pretty. Here is the website I found: http://rocktumblingsupplies.com/polished_river_rocks_mixed_medium.html. My mom got the candles yesterday and said they're kinda cute.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Escort Cards

So I've been going back and forth trying to figure out something creative to do for the escort cards. I finally found exactly what I was looking for!

They are perfect! I'm going to string the fish with fish wire and hang them along a fishing rod. Along with the fish I'll string the guests name as well as the table they're assigned to. I'll probably put some scissors next to it for people to free their fishes. Might need to use some brown ribbon to tie the names to the fish. http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?demandPrefix=12&sku=68/26026&mode=Searching&erec=92&No=0&D=fish&Ntt=fish&Ntk=all&Dx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&Ntx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&y=0&N=0&requestURI=processProductsCatalog&x=0&sd=Fish-Shaped+Freshwater+Shell+Charms
.


My sister thought of a cute idea to have little rubber duckies with people's names underneath them. Kinda like a bob for apples. I think that'll be harder for people to catch on to though and are a little pricier. We already have some cute take home ideas so just the little fish ornament will be perfect. Here's the link to some white rubber duckies that are pretty reasonable: http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?demandPrefix=12&sku=57/9225&mode=Searching&erec=0&D=rubber+duckie&Ntt=rubber+duckie&Ntk=all&Dx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&Ntx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&y=0&N=0&requestURI=processProductsCatalog&x=0&sd=12+Design+Your+Own%21+Rubber+Duckies