Happy New Year lovelies!  For our first wedding task in 2012, the Fiance and I nailed down the location for our honeymoon.  :)

Very early on in the planning process, we knew that we didn’t want to take up a whole lot of time to compare each destination on top of planning the wedding day.  Each place is so different that we knew it would be so hard to choose on our own without committing endless hours of research.

So we thought we’d do something unconventional, and let’s face it – fun.  We decided to pick our honeymoon destination out of a hat!

He and I each got to choose three destinations.  This is him, re-reading the honeymoon pages we’d ripped out of the magazines just the night before.

We couldn’t tell each other what our picks were. And in the rare case that we picked the same place, we thought we should be able to keep them in the hat because that would mean that we both really wanted to go and were okay with the higher chance of selection.

Here’s me, ripping out small pieces of notebook paper for the drawing.

And now him, jotting down one of his honeymoon spots while wearing said hat – and reviewing additional research on his iPhone.  :)

Once all destinations were into the hat, we called in the big guns to help us choose – Mom! To make things a little bit more interesting, she suggested we add another layer to our pick-out-of-a-hat game.  Wouldn’t it be fun to pick our honeymoon from the first name out of the hat and the very last destination left in there?  Sure, why not?

So here goes the first one pulled..

his pick, Spain!  I was so surprised, I would have never guessed.  :)

And now together with the last one left in the hat – my pick, Europe.

Okay, okay.  So I couldn’t really decide and sort of “cheated” and did the France or Italy or Greece thing, ha! But now that my selection was one of the ones we were picking from, I just had to bite the bullet and pick just one of those three locations before going back into the hat.

Here’s what my mom finally pulled out as our honeymoon destination!

Where would you have wanted to go?  I’m super happy with where we’re going – Italy, baby!!

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From the time we started planning our engagement party, these water bottles were something that I knew I wanted to do.

Here’s what you’ll need to make these:

• Water bottles
• Scissors
• Clear packing tape (make sure width is larger than your label)

On a Saturday, my maid of honor and I held a craft day to do these.  First what we peeled off the original labels from the water bottles.  Tip: I used the label as a guide for size when creating my custom label.

The sheets on the top right corner are for our water bottles.  I used a big paper cutter to make 150 strips.

Next we pulled out long strips of the clear packing tape and placed a couple of labels on it before cutting to make individual ones.  Make sure you place the top side of your label onto the sticky side of the tape.

Fold the top and bottom sides of the tape behind your label.

And voila, here are your strips!

Next, take one of the strips and wrap it around your water bottle.  Take another small piece of your packing tape to secure your label on the back side.  Make sure you smooth out any air bubbles in the tape.

The result is pretty clean, you can hardly tell that it’s taped on the back!

Now you can throw these bad boys into buckets of water without having to worry about the inks getting runny.  They’re so easy to do, I want to have them at every party now!

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The first question I always get asked when the subject of my wedding comes up is.. “have you find the dress?”  The answer is simple – no.

And I seem to be the only one not bothered by it.  I have nine more months until the big day, and I, just like every other bride, want to find the perfect dress.  But I, unlike other brides, am picky about the dress for different reasons.

For me, I don’t have a vision of needing the “perfect” dress for me to get married in.  My criteria for finding a dress are these:

• one that fits the venue – it has to compliment the W Hotel’s chic and sophisticated style
• one that makes me look tall – let’s face it, I’m never going to be as thin and toned as I want to be.. ahem, Jennifer Aniston, but I still want to look and feel pretty
• and finally, one that doesn’t break the bank – Vera Wang, I wish I knew how to quit you..

I’ve gone to my fair share of bridal salons over the past few months and have probably tried on 25 dresses.  I’ve narrowed down the playing field, having found what fits my body style the best: fit and flares, mermaids, and drop-waisted gowns are looking to be my best friend.

There are a few dresses that are real contenders but because I don’t get all weepy like the women on “Say Yes to the Dress“, I’m still not sure if they are right.  And for me, the tears are probably never going to happen because I’m just not that way.  Hopefully when I find “the one”, I’ll just feel like I never want to take it off.

Here are a couple that have caught my eye so far.  What do you think?

Martina Liana 294 – Lace gown with Parisian Silk Chiffon

Amsale Cecily – Strapless Organza fit and flare gown

Martina Liana 341 – Silk Organza Gown with Lace

Maggie Sottero Antonia – A-line Vicenza Organza gown with Swarovski crystals

I love all of these dresses, some more than others.  Which of these designs do you love?  I need help choosing!

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Although our engagement party was done in a traditional manner with a ceremony and then 100% Vietnamese menu, I still wanted to incorporate a couple of details that would make our event a little bit more fun.  And more importantly, something that reflects my style.

I shared in a previous post the DIY projects I wanted to do and now, I’m going to share just how I did them.  Starting with these super easy Paper Napkin Rings.

Here’s what you’ll need to make these:

• Printables on 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper
• Scissors
• Double-sided tape
• Napkins
• Eating utensils

A coworker of mine helped to design all of my printables based on the look of our wedding website.  Since the paper rings could be small, she formatted 20 “rings” to print on one 8.5 x 11 inch paper.  I used regular scissors to cut each ring out.  I thought about using a larger paper cutter, but for some reason, this was just easier for me to do with scissors.

Each place setting included a spoon, a fork, and a pair of chopsticks wrapped in a beverage napkin.  I opted out of dinner-sized napkins because I thought it was too big and wanted the utensils to stick out a little bit.

I positioned the eating tools in the middle, rolled the napkin, and then wrapped my label around tautly around it.  Using a small piece of double-sided tape, I secured label on the backside and then cut off any excess paper.

This project was so easy to do, I wrapped 150 settings while watching TV a couple of nights.  Shows that are two hours long like The Biggest Loser really helped this project go by faster.

Stay tuned, I’ll be sharing those custom water bottles and our party favors very soon!

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