Mr. Tartlet's Labor of Love, Part II

We've seen the outside--now it's time explore the contents of our wedding programs! I mollified some of my guilt over Mr. Tartlet doing the brunt of the work by designing the panels and printing them onto text weight speckletone kraft paper. They were cut to the final dimensions of 3-9/16" x 4-13/16", which left a small border all around. Aaaaaaand, there's where my hand in this stops, because Mr. Tartlet promptly took over to stick them onto the accordion panel backing using 3M Super 77 Multipurpose Spray Adhesive.

The first panel is a relationship timeline. I gobbled up inspiration from a number of ladies here at Weddingbee, as well as this timeline from 100 Layer Cake.

Mr. Tartlet's Labor of Love, Part I

Remember these babies from way back when? Hive, I can't even begin to express how elated I am that Mr. Tartlet finished these over the weekend. Our wedding programs evolved from being a couple pieces of cardboard covered in fabric to something incredibly precious that I'm so in love with--and Mr. Tartlet is pretty proud of, too.

After waffling for quite some time on how to keep the booklets shut, Mr. Tartlet purchased assorted wooden buttons and some leather cord from Joanns to create these cute closures. He also tried other combinations using wooden beads, black leather, hemp, and copper wire (instead of the knot) but we felt that au naturale looked the best with our wedding's moderately rustic vibe.

A Flipside to Wedding Favors

I have a fondness for tchotchkes that dates back to my elementary school years: my enthusiasm for carnival and cake walk prizes was unsurpassed (I was also quite a competitive little bugger). It's no surprise then that I look forward to seeing what the bride and groom's wedding favors are! Double happiness candles? Score. A pair of porcelain love birds? Awesome. A bookmark with the bride and groom's photo on it? Still use it to this day. However, when it came to our own wedding, I was conscious that a good percentage of our guests are of the "WTF do I do with this?" persuasion. I started researching alternatives to traditional wedding favors and quickly gravitated towards a slew of edible alternatives. S'mores, anyone?

  Image via Twig & Thistle

Dressing the Rest of the Best

In addition to the three bombshells that glam up my side of the wedding party, Mr. Tartlet will have four handsome gents standing beside him as we say our I do's. All of our guys are incredibly laid-back, which led us to be inspired by this less formal, retro-chic look that seemed to compliment their personalities better than matching tuxes or suits would:

 Image via Green Wedding Shoes / Photo by Jeff Wallace

It was a trying learning experience tackling the world of menswear because Mr. Tartlet can be very particular about his threads. After months of fruitless shopping, we went the made-to-measure route and purchased his slim-fit, three-piece, charcoal gray suit from a company called Indochino (the same one that the Cinnamon Buns used):

Seating Charts and Table Numbers and Place Cards, Oh My!

Guest list? Check. Table arrangements? Check. Seating assignments? Oh, how we wanted to leave people to work things out for themselves! Without getting into the murky details, let's just say there are enough delicate relationships amongst one of our families that motivated us not only to have assigned tables, but assigned seating as well. We're hoping the extra effort will prevent explosive combinations from coming together while simultaneously taking some pressure off our guests: couples are guaranteed to be seated next to one another, friends will be clustered together, buffers will be placed in between conflicting personalities, and hopefully no one will be the wiser. In between the ceremony and the cocktail hour, an easel with our framed seating chart will be placed in the room for our guests to peruse at their leisure over strawberry lemonade and hors d'oeuvres:

 

Our seating chart: still a work in progress!

Seating Style

Now that we have a firm hold of our guest numbers, our next step is to tackle the seating arrangements. We've had a somewhat unique wedding setup from the get-go because our ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception all take place in the same room. Long story short, a misunderstanding occurred where I was under the impression that our room could be "flipped" during the cocktail hour. I was gravely mistaken and learned fairly late in the game that our venue has a regulation where decor items must be in place and ready to go prior to the start of the ceremony. This means tables, chairs, centerpieces--the whole nine yards. That enlightening phone call left my palms clammy and the games began to work within the boundaries of our venue.

There's something timeless and elegant about classic rounds. Case and point:

Photo by chocostudio (10 points if you recognize whose venue this is!)

The Numbers Are In!

There was serious cause for celebration at chez Tartlet last week because our RSVP list is finally complete! Oh, memories *cue hazy flashback*: our Save-the-Dates were sent a year before the wedding. We mailed our invitations in February, and set our RSVP deadline a month before the wedding. Our guaranteed numbers are due 2 weeks before the wedding, which allowed us 2 weeks to hunt down and conquer any delinquent invitees. I'm a gal who appreciates data sets, so it's no surprise that I looked for statistics while I was in the throes of weighing how many guests to invite vs. how many to expect. Following in the footsteps of Miss Sloth, here's the statistical breakdown for our wedding:

Total guests invited: 86; 13 of which were +1s (we gave this option to those who were in long-term relationships or who would otherwise not know anyone else at the wedding)

No. of invitations mailed: 41

Out-of-town guests (over 1 h drive): 43
Local guests: 43

Accepted: 58 (67%)
Declined: 28 (33%)

Once we included Mr. Tartlet and myself, that brought our final count to a beautifully round crowd of 60--spot on to what we were hoping for! This happy ending had a good mix of triumphs and bumps along the way, though, so let's take a moment for an episode of:

Image via shareTV

Two Birds, One Stone: Tartlet's Hair and MakeupTrial

After many a past hair calamity, I made darn sure to schedule a trial prior to our wedding day. I deliberated between a handful of styles, and thanks to the input my besties and the Hive settled on the soft, loose updo. The half-up-half-down was an equally strong contender until I was reminded on a brief, glorious 70 degree day here that my back sweats excessively when I get warm. Hair plastered to my neck and back = no bueno. My appointment at Posh Studio ended up being a double-whammy with my makeup trial scheduled the same evening. I wanted a fresh and natural look with just a hint of color:

Image via sheknows

A Reminder To...

Image via Flickr / Photo by Donna Grayson
 

*Note: I've been composing this post on-and-off for weeks now trying to find the best approach to this topic. It not only touches upon the sensitive subject of weight, but it also brings up some unsettling memories for me. Everyone wants to look their best for the wedding day. However, that absolutely doesn't translate into "needing" to lose weight. If you *want* to shed some pounds, though, there's a "right" way and a "wrong" way to go about it. This story is about the latter.

The elusive lesson of self-love is one I'm still trying to embrace and learn to this day. It wasn't until I learned to be happy with who I am that I could develop any sort of meaningful relationship (platonic or romantic). And, in full disclosure it caused a lot of problems along the way with Mr. Tartlet. When we first started dating I was so full of self-loathing that it drained his emotional reserves to crash my pity parties for one. We almost didn't make it. To this day I'm incredibly thankful that he saw something in me that I didn't, and stuck around to help me become a better person.

"Must Have" Shots and the Photography Timeline

Although my detail-loving heart warms at the sight of smaller elements that together make up the "look" of a wedding as a whole, the most important aspect of our wedding is the people. As such, we want our pictures to focus on the moments that will remind us not only of how everything looked, but how everyone felt that day. Photos like this one--taken from a gem of a blog that Mrs. Avocado introduced to us--that makes my breath catch in my throat:

Image via Moment Junkie / Photo by Caroline Ghetes

In addition to covering the general feel we want our wedding pictures to have, during our final meeting with the ever-fab Aruna B. we also discussed "must have" shots, especially those that stylistically may be unique to our tastes. For example, we want to include a Vanity Fair-inspired shot during the wedding party photos:

Red Flags While Shopping

We're less than one month away from the wedding (*squee*), and surprisingly I'm doing much better than I thought I would be at this junction. We knocked out final meetings with almost all of our vendors, and these reminded me how happy and honored we are to be working with them. However, I realized that although I introduced y'all to these fabulous professionals, I never really delved into our method for selecting them. That's because Mr. Tartlet and I are "go with your gut" kind of people: if we click with someone, love their work, and they're within our budget--we sign, and we stop looking. Not terribly useful advice for a community that's renowned for helpful hints and tips. So, instead I thought I'd share some of the odd encounters I had while shopping around for the "right" vendors that had me going:

Image via Humor Hound

Here are some things that set my alarm bells a-ringin' and moved me to pass certain vendors by:

Our European Getaway Revealed

In a continuation from my previous post, we put serious consideration and thought into rounding out our two weeks in Europe. With so many destination possibilities that fit our desires (culture, art, architecture, and great food), it was tough narrowing the field down, but we finally had an itinerary in hand. Take a gander at the photo below and see if you can guess our first stop before clicking through!

Image via Norman Allen Group Travel

The Luck of the Draw: Honeymoon!

Both Mr. Tartlet and I love to travel, as evidenced by our bucket list being composed primarily of places we would like to visit (and places we'd like to eat). The month of May is an amazing time for us with our wedding, Mr. Tartlet's M.D. graduation the following week, and as luck would have it--the longest time either of us will be free from work obligations. Two whole weeks, my friends. I'm dying inside just thinking about it. When it came to our honeymoon, we entertained a couple of ideas, the first being a jaunt to Europe to revisit our study abroad haunts as a couple. I lived in Aberdeen, Scotland for a little over 6 months:

Image of Kings College via the University of Aberdeen