Barber Straws Are Here!

These puppies came ridiculously fast! I tore through the box and they were in pretty packaging...I would totally recommend ordering from Garnish!

They are perfect, and exactly what I have been dreaming about!

I only ordered 100, even though we are looking at a bigger guest list than that. My rationality is that, we are having 4 signature drinks. We can use these straws for which ever one is in a tall glass. That way, it will give it even more of a personality. 

I kind of want to use one now just for kicks!

Has anyone else wanted or ordered barber straws?

Photo Puzzles

I mentioned before that I have been struggling to come up with some activities for my older cousins. They are at that age where word searches and connect the dots just don't do it. So although I still am making cute activity books for the younger kids....that stuff is a little beneath this group.

The I Spy will work, but won't keep their attention for long. I still plan on giving them some of those extreme dot to dots, mentioned here. But I have been racking my brain on any other ideas.

That is, until I came across this post by fabulous A Subtle Revelry. For a bridal shower, they made photo puzzles. They printed out a bunch of different pictures for the engagement shoot, cut them into squares, and then put them in burlap bags for people to take.

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This is such an easy project! An it is something I can give to all ages, I will just cut less pieces for the younger kids, and more for the bigger kids.

I think I will also spray mount the pictures to different colored purple cardstock, to give it a heavier texture, and so if they mess up the pieces they just have to look at the back color.

Not sure what I will put each one in yet, but excited for this DIY!

Scarlet and Grey > Blue and Maize (haha, your color is corn!)

I have been keeping something from you guys....instead of spilling it off the bat lets start from the beginning.

My aunt owns an old Italian ice cream and confectionary in town. I am always helping out there, so when it came time to think about favors I knew exactly what I wanted....something edible from her shop. Now this was no easy decision since almost everything, but the ice cream is made and prepared by her. The good thing, is that she does a lot of custom work, so the decisions are limitless.

I love chocolate, and my aunt loves making chocolate. So a favor was born. Kevin and I thought giving up big chocolate Ms would be perfect, I mean who doesn't like chocolate? And obviously if you don't like chocolate you have no business being my friend!

I went on a world wide search for a mold in the shape of an M, you'd think this would be an easy task......NO! I found some tiny mint molds shaped like rectangles with an M in the middle, a set of 4 block Ms for $10 (but it was a block M, and ugly, we wanted a nice font), I found a nicer M in a nice font, but it came in one mold for $10. Do you know how long that would take to make 150-200 Ms with one mold? That was out. I seriously couldn't find anything and gave up.

Then my aunt said, "well why don't we look into that edible paper and ink? That way we can make chocolate in any shape (circle, rectangle, frame, etc) then you can put the edible design on top of it and have any design you want?" Yeah....that may work, but I really had my heart set on our guests getting a big hunk of chocolate M style!

I began looking at the paper half heartedly, but we weren't going to buy the paper, ink, paper, and everything else you need. We would need to buy from someone who did that. And it is expensive for something people are going to shove down their gullets.

Now, I mentioned before that I went to The Ohio State University for grad school. Well, when you are there, somehow it is bred into you that you must hate the entire state of Michigan. There is no logical or reasonable explanation behind this (except that we are way better at any sport every created, especially football!), and even just by being there 2 years I dislike anything that comes from that state. Yes...irrational.

Yes, that is Brutus destroying a Wolverine!
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Here is the secret I have....so, I am casually looking for M molds again and I find it! Where did I find it you may ask? Well on a football fanatic website, where you can buy any and everything with your teams logo on it. Can you see where I am going with this? The mold I found, was none other than the Michigan M!

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There it was, clear as day, exactly what I had been searching for and pining over. An M mold with more than one mold at a reasonable price.

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I came really close to not purchasing it...for the sheer fact that it is Michigan, and blue, and ugly...and I hate Michigan. But.....I did. I bought it. I refuse to tell any of my Ohio friends that i bought it, and I pray that the ones that come from Ohio don't recognize that it is the Michigan M, but who am I kidding? Of course they will! So this is a bittersweet moment for me.

Here it is, it came in the mail yesterday. Kevin has not stopped picking on me since...it is horrible.

BOOOOOOOO!

But that is fine, because I am never taking him to a football game ever again! O-H!!!!!!!

Barber Straws

Here is a prime example of little details that I go crazy over...barber straws.

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How cute are they!? When I first saw them I knew I had to have them, but anywhere I looked I found them for anywhere from 14 cents to 20+ cents......I am not paying that much for a straw!

I gave up the search after a while of coming to one dead end after another. With our colors being dark purple, lilac, and silver...I was thinking a grey straw would be perfect. But, low and behold, any place that I did find a decent price did not have my color. (insert sad face)

So like I said...I gave up. Then out of the blue, I came across Think Garnish. They are this great store that sells all sorts of packaging products and.....barber straws! That's right...in red, blue, and grey!

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And they were a steal at only 5 cents a straw! Since not everyone will use them I just ordered 100 of these beauts, at a whooping $5! It sucks that shipping was more than the straws but I will live. So now we are playing the waiting game for these puppies to come in and to make the verdict.

But I can just see them set up around the bar looking oh so cute.

Is there a little detail that you obsessed over?

Nom Noms Galore Part 2

I apologize....I tempted you with pictures of yummy, mouth watering food, and instead I talked about flowers and Michael Buble. I got side tracked! It will probably happen again, a lot!

Anyway, I promised pictures and here you go! We had around 12 passed hor devours that were all amazing. I wish I took a picture of our sheet with markings, it consisted of a number system of 1-5. On the really good ones Kevin decided to give them numbers like 6, 10, +5.....totally making a mockery of our established number system. It was food chaos!

Us excited to eat free food!

When it came to the entrees, we had a gajillion choices (yes that many), we split it up between our plates to do some serious work!

We marked our cards accordingly. Seriously, everything was amazing! I don't think there was anything we tried that we didn't like. Next up we got to try their sorbet that you can serve. We are not having it, but you can see how delicious it was....I had to turn it around, being a bad blogger I began devouring it and then remembered with 2 bites left.

And after was my FAVORITE part! Cake!!!!! Seriously, I love cake! Like LOVE! We got to try their black satin, with chocolate and raspberry filling, with white frosting, carrot cake, and traditional white cake with strawberry filling and white frosting.

So yummy! After 2+ hours of gorging ourselves, it was time for the parents to leave and for us to get down to business! Kathy came over to talk to us about table layout, linens, food/wine/beer choices, cake, chairs.....everything!

Why I love Classe Catering so much is because they will customize everything for you, and work with you. If you didn't want any of their food, but instead had a couple family recipes you wanted...they would do it. Dinner served Beauty and the Beast style....they will do it. Fire breather....they would do that too.

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We get three beer choices, they had a list but even if it was not on the list they would do it, no extra charge. Being a huge Saranac fan, we wanted to have some Saranac brew! Kathy informed us that since they make a ton of different brews that we could pick 2 or 3 and it would still count as 1 beer selection......what?!?! So you're telling me we would have 5 beers total for the price of 3? Kathy I love you! So our thinking is Adirondack Lager, Pomegranate Wheat (love), and Summer Brew (double love!)....if they can get it, because it is ridiculously hard to find in the summer!

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An awesome combination of beer and lemonade!
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She said they know the distributor and will try to make it happen! Double awesome! Same held true for our wine selection, whatever we want! 

As for the food we need to do our homework, they have a lot more choices than just what we tried at our tasting. So it comes down to, pick what we tasted and was good, or take a blind leap of faith on something we didn't....even though I'm sure it would be good also.

But we do know that we will be having a passed midnight snack! Maybe some mini sliders and milk shake shooters! Yumm!

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As for the cake we have to go through who they work with so we will leave that for another post. Although I will show you our inspiration pic!

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But what put my mind at ease the most, was our sparkler dilemma. In our contract with the casino we are not allowed sparklers....now obviously inside that is a no no, but outside in the park as well? What about the gigantic sparklers I bought in PA on my move back from OH to NY? They are collecting dust in our spare room! She told me it would not be a problem, they would keep them under their supervision so no children would take them.

You see a kid playing with a sparkler...I see her burning down our historic building!
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So now we can have pretty send off pictures like this!

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Did anyone else have a meeting where they just felt completely taken care of and all your worries went away?

Michael Buble, I Heart You!

Seriously, how can you resist him?

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LOVE! I don't know where this fascination came from? I think it started when I was living in a small fishing village in Italy for 3 months and they loved him over there. So I would constantly hear his vocal cords echoing throughout the town.

On top of that, I have always found a big place in my heart for old, soulful music. My parents never listened to the works of the Rat Pack, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and the rest, but I fell hard for it all! Maybe because he reminds me so much of that old music. Whatever it is, I would be completely giddy if all we played at the wedding reception was Buble! But.....that won't happen, I don't think our guests are in love with him like I am.

His music will definitely be incorporated into cocktail hour. And I know where else he can be found....our last dance song! And I bet you will never guess the title...."Save The Last Dance For Me."I know, you would have never guessed. We wanted something slow to end the night, but not something so slow that everyone was like...."Oh...ok...that's it." We want them to still be in that "let's party" sprit, but at the same time putting an end to our gorgeous reception. This song just has that emotion.

Has anyone else been so drawn to a certain song that you have to use it?

Wedding Tree

I LOVE, love, love, the idea of a wedding tree at the reception!

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The problem is, we hired a photobooth, which will help the guests create a guestbook with messages and their pictures from the booth.

Do you think it would be overkill to have a wedding tree along with the guestbook?

Perfect Activity for Older Kids

I have been in quite a pickle on the subject of finding activities that would keep my early teen cousins entertained at the reception. I didn't think that wedding activity books that are meant for my younger cousins would suffice. But I have found one perfect activity so far.

Remember connect the dots when we were younger, that consisted of all of 10 dots and somehow you made something crazy; like an elephant eating a whole pile of peanuts or something? When these are connect the dots for us all grown up. A co-worker informed me of this company called Mindware that has a bunch of different products for kids of all ages. What I found interesting was their extreme dot to dots.

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They are puzzles that have anywhere from 500 to 1,400 dots! And once you are done connecting, which hopefully could take hours, you can color in the picture too! They even have some samples on their page. I'm hoping this will take up a lot of their time! 

Did anyone else find anything cool like this, to keep kids entertained?

Let Him Eat Cake

I knew a long time ago that I would want to surprise my FI with a groom's cake on our wedding day. Up to this point in the wedding process, he has basically given me free reign to take a hold of my ideas and run with them. I feel that this would be a great surprise for him, and also a way to say I really was thinking about you!

Now the time comes where I need to decide exactly what this manly man cake should be! We have some many shared interest and hobbies that this could be a challenge.

Being a big outdoors man, hunter, fisherman, and all around guy of the woods I could go with the animal route:

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He also LOVES his JD....I sense a little romance between them sometimes:

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This would suite my interests more than him but I'm teaching him to love hockey as much as me...seriously I would cry if I received this cake!

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Or this coffee and donuts one. He needs his 8 cups a day or he can't function! Mmmmm strawberry frosted donuts!

I'm sorry, I honestly don't remember where I found this.

Or, a 1967 chevy impala modeled after the car they drive around in Supernatural. He is obsessed with the show, if you know of it, and we constantly tease him for having a crush on Dean, so it wouldn't only be perfect and something we could laugh about, but something he would truly like!

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What do you think? Is there some reasoning behind why you picked a groom's cake, if you had one?

A Table Big Enough for Kings

.....or our crazy wedding party!

When we began thinking about how we were going to sit at the wedding party I seriously had no clue. We didn't want to have a sweet heart table, we thought we would feel isolated, plus we want to spend time with the special people we picked to be a part of our day. Then we felt bad keeping these people away from their SOs, I mean everyone should have a good time right? Then I thought, wouldn't it be perfect to have everyone in our wedding party and their SOs all sit at the same table as us? Brilliant, I mean we are friends with ALL of these people so why not include them? I didn't even know this was called a king's table until recently. But, this image immediately came to mind!

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Then I giggled thinking of the wedding party dressed like knights of the round table. Then I saw the gorgeous images of the extremely long king's tables and fell in love.

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We will sit at the end and then have 9-10 people sitting along each side.

Is anyone else going with a king's table set up?

In Love With The Casino

I have a secret to tell you....we found a reception place and put a deposit down before we were even engaged! I know, ballsy, but the fact of the matter was that we knew we were getting married, I just didn't know when the ring was coming. And to have a reception at our venue you need to book it quick, like it books almost 2 years in advance for summer weddings quick.


We knew we wanted a summer wedding, looking back I don't know how or why we established this, I just know we both were like, "yeah, July sounds good." Boom done, decision made. Let me take you through the process a little more in detail before I reveal our wonderful, fabulous, absolutely gorgeous reception choice!


When I told my mom about visiting sites but not wanting to wait until we were "officially engaged" to put money down on anything if we found "the" place, she told me that my dad and her booked a reception site before they were also even engaged! That sealed the deal for me....the hunt was on.



The first place we looked at was Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia, NY. They have a beautiful outside area right next to the water, where you can get married underneath a gazebo. Beautiful place but we were too worried of rain, and having it here you would want to have to have the ceremony outside....so that was nixed.

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Second, was the Pruyn House in Colonie, NY. Another gorgeous location with an old historic house and barn and an outside garden seperating the two. All I could think of was a rustic wedding, with a barn filled with white lights. But, alas....again the fear of rain made me rethink how we would have to set up insdie/outide seating, bartender outside...the thought of it gave me chills. So nixed again...

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Finally, I came across a gem. The Canfield Casino in Saratoga Springs Congress Park. It's this great historic building that was originally a casino, now it is booked for all sorts of parties and weddings. When we went and looked at it I fell in love. High ceilings, romantic lighting, and a big mahagony bar perfect for the men. We originally wanted a certain weekend in July and it was already booked, there was only two other Saturdays available. So we booked it on the spot and picked one of the few available weekends in July of 2011.

Outside view in the park
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Inside dining area with gorgeous stained glass celing
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Again with the gorgeousness
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And the best bar in all of Saratoga!
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And another little secret about our reception choice. It was just on this little show on SyFy called Ghost Hunters...yeah have you heard of it!? It aired in October of 2010, where the show's hosts Jason and Grant and their team stayed over night to see if the ghost stories were true. 

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There were rumors of apparitions, moving objects, noises, and weird paranormal experiences. But don't worry, the team only found activity on the third floor. Which is offices and some museum exhibits, so we aren't planning on any uninvited guests at our reception!


That began the whirlwind of wedding planning.....after he proposed a month later of course!

How did everyone else's reception searching go? Was it quick and easy or seem like a never ending process to find the perfect site? Do you have any unique venue stories?