Friday, September 28, 2012

iPhones and Vows

No, this is NOT a post about the new fancy pants iphone.  I have my iphone4 and I heart it.  I'm sure the new one makes pot roast and will create world peace, but I don't care...I like mine.

This is a post about how we used a great new iphone app at our wedding!  A few days before the wedding, I found this great app via pinterest: weddingpartyapp.

Photo Courtesy www.weddingpartyapp.com

First, go onto their website, here...https://www.weddingpartyapp.com/

Then register your wedding.

Once you register you can download free place cards to put around the room that tell your guests how to download the app...here's a pic of one of our tables (before flowers, table numbers, etc) with the wedding app cards on it.



The app is 100% free and seemed to be pretty easy for our guests to use!  As a result, we got a great website full of awesome pics all taken by our guests.  It's pretty much like disposable cameras only much, much better.  It's great because while we wait for our professional photos, we get a chance to see so many photos of the day!

Here were a few of my favs...



Wine glass party favors (and escort cards)



Chris' bar sign.  That bar was his baby, folks.



Us getting ready.  One of my favorites because of Kim lurking behind the door...



Cool as a cucumber...on our way to the wedding



Contemplating his last few moments as a single man...



My sister's hair.  So pretty!



God this cake was good!



First dance...and the only physical record of Chris dancing, ever.



The moustaches were a hit...right Aimee?  :)

So this is my piece of advice for future brides.  Seriously, register for the wedding app and put the cards around your reception.  You'll be so happy you did!

Monday, September 24, 2012

The Bathroom's Bigger Than the Blue Banana

So I thought I'd spend a few posts going over my honeymoon experience.  It was pretty fantastic, and I have a ton of pictures (and didn't craft while I was there) so I figured I'd share.  PLUS if you're going to Maui anytime soon, this is helpful stuff here. 

So this post is all about our (first) hotel room.  We stayed at the Four Season's Maui.  It was the fanciest hotel Chris and I had ever even seen, let alone stepped foot into.  We felt instantly out of place from the first two minutes but the people there were pretty nice so we just pretended like we belonged.  On the way to Maui Chris wanted to tell the airline gate person that he was Michael Phelps and I was his wife, Kelly Clarkson, and it was imperative that we be moved to first class.  Well, once we got to the hotel he would walk around saying "well we have google money" or "I own Apple."  Basically, we were completely ridiculous.

Here's us getting our picture taken in front of the sign.

Now you may be thinking "wow, how embarrassing that you asked to have your picture taken in front of the hotel sign."  My response to you...yes, it was.  But you only live once and we're never going to afford to go back, so dammit, we got our picture taken.
 
When we arrived they gave us leis, ginger mint lemonade and (no shit) chilled lavender towels.  Chris looked at the woman and said "uh, what am I supposed to do with this?"  She said "refresh yourself" and I was really tempted to wipe my armpits off with it.  We had been traveling for like 15 hours...don't judge.
 
Then they had a guy take our bags up to our room while giving us a tour of the hotel and explaining our room amenities.  Of course, I asked him to take our picture :)
 
 
Look, fancy pants leis.  They wanted $18 for them at the airport!  I was glad I didn't buy one there...
 
Once the guy left our room we spent the next 15 minutes taking pictures of it.  Seriously.  I had my fancy pants camera and Chris had his phone...and we just lost our minds.  "LOOK, there's a radio built into the bathroom!"  "Free champagne!"  "This balcony area is HUGE!"  "FREE SLIPPERS!!!"
 
Here are the highlights...
 
Chris told them it was our honeymoon (with the hopes of getting free stuff, duh) and it worked.  They left a rose, two glasses, and a bottle of champagne in the fridge.  I really should have gone around calling it "champs" a la Real Housewives Orange County Heather.  But I was too busy going "whoa, this is free?"
 
Here are some other pictures of the room/bathroom...
Slippers!
 
Yes, the bathroom was bigger than the Blue Banana!  (hopefully I'm not so old that no one knows that movie reference anymore)
 
Remember how I said this was our first hotel room at the beginning of this post?  Well...here's the thing.  This room was pretty awesome.  Garden View with a huge courtyard area to walk out onto grass, lay out, etc.  BUT it also had an adjoining door to the room next door that let noise in and some people came into that room halfway through our stay.  I guess they were still on a weird time schedule because every morning at 3am they would wake up and start loudly watching TV and talking/laughing.  We didn't want to complain (well, I didn't want to complain) but it was a pricey hotel to not be able to get much sleep.  So, we complained.  And by we I mean Chris said something while I refused to even go near the desk as he did ("Uh, I need to use the restroom, and take pictures, and stuff...I'll come meet you after").  And they moved us...
 
I guess the new room was supposed to be pretty fancy pants.  It was an ocean view and clearly out of our budget.  Here's the view...
 
 
Honestly, I just liked that we could sleep in and not get disturbed by noisy neighbors in this one.  Oh, and of course the hotel was just laying it on thick at this point...
 
 
It's kind of hard to tell...but these are chocolate covered strawberries with an accompanying "sorry for the trouble with your room."  The woman at the front desk also said to call her directly when we come back and she'll upgrade us for free.  I tried not to laugh...IF we ever come back it will be for a 50th wedding anniversary or something and she'll probably not be there anymore.  But alas, it was an awful nice thing to offer.
 
Moral of the story: it must be nice to have money and think this is a normal vacation.

More to come!!!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Bridesmaid Survival Kits

As promised, now that the wedding is over I'll be bombarding you with wedding projects that I completed months ago and couldn't post until after it was all over.

One of my favorite gifts for my bridesmaids were survival kits that I made. 


They also came in super handy that day when I (a) cried like a baby, (b) got a little headache by the end of the night, and (c) asked if anyone had any mints handy.  So basically, I probably utilized them more than my bridesmaids.

Here's how I made them (you should make them too!)

I found these great makeup bags on Etsy...you can customize your fabric and rosette colors (and the rosette comes off if you want).  Here's where you can get your own...http://www.etsy.com/shop/allisajacobs?ref=pr_shop_more.



Then I went to Walgreens and found all sorts of great things to put in them.  They weren't super big, so here's what I collected:

  • Kleenex
  • Shout to go wipes
  • Sewing kits (with scissors for my local girls and no scissors for the girls that had to fly home)
  • Burts Bees Chap stick
  • Travel Size Deodorant
  • Altoids Smalls (a nice little mint tin)
  • Emory Board
  • Advil

I would have liked to add more to the kits, but the small makeup bags were pretty full with just these few things.

I also made a little card to go in the kits as well.


Now go!  Make your own!

P.S. Have you liked me on Facebook yet?  Do you want to?  Pretty please!  Check me out here: http://www.facebook.com/JanesGirlDesigns?ref=hl

Monday, September 17, 2012

AND....I'm back!

Sorry about the longest non-blogging time period ever in the history of blogging and time.  In my defense, here's what I've been up to...


That's me gettin' hitched.  I plan to write a ton more blog posts with wedding projects and a complete recap of the wedding titled "The best day of my life..and the snottiest" - I'm talking actual snot.  Basically I was a complete mess walking down the aisle.  I got so overwhelmed and happy and just hit with all the emotions that I started crying and by the time I got to my man, it was a full out ugly cry, complete with snot.  The good news is he still married me.  It was amazing.  Best.  Wedding.  Ever.  I may be biased.

And then I did this!




That's us on our honeymoon in sunny Maui.  It was beautiful and pretty perfect.  Just like the wedding (only less snot on the honeymoon).

Alright, more to come.  Just wanted to assure the cyber universe that I was alive and well!