Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Wedding Favors

I've gone through quite a few ideas for wedding favors (the top of the list still being mini bottles of homemade limoncello and vodka for the Italian and Polish sides respectively), but with our budget in mind, I think I've come up with a perfect compromise that is still very "us." I know that everyone does wedding CDs, but here's what I propose: a cd of a capella versions of all of the songs that are most meaningful to Alex and I.

Makes sense. Alex was in an a capella group for many years. I'm pretty musically inclined. We're having an a capella group at both the ceremony and performing at the reception. So here's what I'm thinking.
Glassine CD envelopes lined with scrapbook paper and a belly band held in place with a personalized sticker. Et Voila!





The most difficult part of this endeavor (aside from burning over 150 cds) is getting a perfect sticker. I, of course, went running to the talented art department at work and enlisted the help of Ms. Jen Mendoza, artist extraordinaire. In no time flat, she had come up with all of these!




I chose my very favorite, tweaked the layout of the date a bit, and sent them off to be printed. Hopefully they will be delivered in time for maid of honor, Jenna, and I to get a few of them together during her visit next week!



So now that I've spent some time at the craft store picking out the envelopes, paper, and ribbons, all I need to do is come up with a playlist, burn some CDs, and put them together. My current playlist ideas include:
  • I've Just Seen a Face - Beatles
  • The Way You Look Tonight - Frank Sinatra
  • Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys
  • Hey Jude - Beatles
  • In My Life - Beatles
  • God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
Speaking of wedding planning, I checked with The Knot to see how I was coming along on their "official bridal checklist" and was thrilled to see that I have successfully accomplished 41 tasks! That was until I saw that there were 142 left to accomplish...Whew!


Monday, December 20, 2010

Save The Dates


The above ended up being the final (and fiscally responsible) choice for Save the Date cards, but I think I created 20 of them by the time I was finished. Here's a few of the contenders.



Sunday, December 19, 2010

Engagement Photos, Christmas Cards, and Holiday Gifts


Now that I've got a few dozen gorgeous engagement photos from the talented Mrs. Katie Nagle (www.knaglephoto.com), I feel like I've done nothing but come up with projects to use them in. Our engagement photo session at UD back in November was a great time, and luckily Katie thinks that Alex and I are "cute" and endearing rather than crazy.






Now that the holiday season is upon us, one of the shots with Harper made the cut as our family Christmas card.




And these shots are framed and wrapped for my Mom, Alex's Mom, grandparents, and other important family members.






And of course I made a collage for my Mom of these three!








Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Puppy Kindergarten







Today was a milestone day in the Rizzbanik family. After 5 weeks of tough love, lots of corrections, and a prong collar, Harper graduated puppy class! He did very well and made some new friends in the meantime. Although we are sad we won't be seeing Bailey, Guinness, Doc, Frankie, Penny, Jake, and Spartan every Tuesday now, we are very proud of our little guy.





Here's Harper working on "SIT" and "STAY."





And here's Harper waiting his turn to work on "COME."





And here's Harper receiving his diploma and a kiss from his teacher, Pat Hoffmann. So proud of our little guy!




Monday, December 6, 2010

Wedding Website Up and Running


So it took us long enough, but the wedding website is up and running courtesy of the combined efforts of myself, Alex, and Misters Steve (BSK) Kreiss and William Lynch.

True to character, I'm dying to update it even though it's been up for a mere 12 hours. The lovely Mrs. Katie Nagle has posted our engagement pictures, so now I have a ton of gorgeous, high resolution, sentimental shots to choose from. In the meantime, here's our site! Visit
www.annieandalex.com to see the live version!