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My Love for Etsy

I can't begin to express my love for Etsy, the one-stop online shop for unique, handmade items. It has been my "go to" for my wedding planning needs, and my experience with both the marketplace and the shop owners has been impeccable.

I purchased my wedding invitations from the Whimsical Prints shop and a woman named Leanna; she stood by me, month after month, question and after question, and change after change, offering up her expertise and experience with wedding invitation design and wording. For example, I came across questions I had never considered before, such as "is 5:30pm the afternoon, or the evening?" and "who comes first, my Mom's name or my Dad's on the return envelope?". I love her design approach, too – simple and using high quality materials that you can then dress up with personal touches if desired; my invites were a total hit among friends and family.

And I wanted something unique for my ring bearer to carry rather than the standard generic pillow – something that tied in the garden theme on my big day. I found Courtney, with her shop Courtney Alison Design, and she is creating a beautiful custom birds nest ring "pillow" (my ribbon is a dark, fuchsia pink). She also offered me one invaluable wedding tip:

Wedding Day Tip: Remember to enjoy the big day. Nothing matters at that point except that you and your new husband enjoy every minute possible.

Ok, that brought tears to my eyes again! And I am most recently working with a woman named Lisa, and her shop The Handmade Boutique, to create a custom guest book using designer fabrics and materials. She is fabulous.

I don't know what I would have have done without Etsy, and the wonderful designers that I have met on the site, as a key, grounded part of my wedding planning madness; perhaps I otherwise would have had stale, traditional wedding accents, like formal white invites with gold script, a generic ring bearer pillow, and a Staples guest book? If you haven't checked Etsy out, be sure to, you can find just about anything; and more likely than not, no one else has that same something.

A Double Rainbow

This past weekend, we headed up to Valatie, NY to visit our good friend, Derek Grout, and attend his annual apple blossom party. You may recall the story behind Derek, but as a refresher, he owns and operates a vodka distillery on his family-owned apple orchard. Well, the weekend was a total blast as expected – bluegrass, BBQ, vodka, and a lot of laughter. And the festivities were kicked-off by the below double rainbow (one is far more vibrant in this photo, look left to see the more faint of the two) that appeared upon our arrival at the farm after an unprecedented intense rainstorm. Ps, it didn't rain for the rest of our visit, however I never found two pots of gold, or even one for that matter.

Happy Mother's Day!

A part of our wedding planning involved gathering old photos from our families; we aren't sure what - if anything - we are going to do with them on our big day, but it was a worthwhile effort nonetheless. I now have a digital archive of priceless photos that may have otherwise been lost or gathered dust in shoboxes and old albums. I particularly enjoy this photo of my parents on their wedding day, and found this an appropriate way to extend my Mother's Day wishes to all of you.