Shoe Zombie

I am not a shoe girl. Clothes? You better believe it. Purses? Yes, please. Makeup? Sephora and I are like this.

But shoes? Meh. It's not that I don't like them - I have several pairs of shoes that I adore. (Including a $1500 pair of Sergio Rossi boots that I scored at a Goodwill for $8 thank you very much.) For the most part though, I'd rather spend my money on other parts of my outfit (see above).

So imagine my surprise when it occurred to me that I had spent hours of my life devoted to finding wedding shoes with no luck. You'd think I could just grab a pair of comfy sandals and call it quits, but nope. Apparently my wedding planning alter ego has other plans. While far from a bridezilla, she appears to be taking on some zombie like qualities with glazed over eyes, foaming at the mouth, while searching online and grumbling "Must. Find. Shoez."

Shoe Zombie had several requirements to complete her bridal look:

1. Slight heel < 3 inches. Since I'm rather tall at 5'9", I'm not entirely comfortable in super high shoes. I'd also rather not tower over Mr. America. 
2. Preferably a wedge. Getting married on the beach means no stilletos.  
3. Fits in the wedding color scheme: aqua, pink, or gold. 
4. Modern looking- Nothing that looks like a prom shoe.
5. Must allow for my cute  pedicure to be visible.
6. Must be able to protect my feet from icky sand (due to sandphobia) and/or the ability to quickly get the sand of off my feet post ceremony.

I did manage to find my DREAM shoes via Pinterest, but alas at $545 they are way out of my price range.

Miu Miu Glitter Wedges via Fashion Fuss

Sighhh.

These shoes would be great if they weren't so darn tall:

Via New Look

Then of course, there are the shoes that I purchased back when we were still planning to get married at the vineyard. I had dragged Mr. Rucksack to DSW to look for fall boots and ended up being inexplicably drawn to the sparkly shoe section. I put these on just for fun, but then fell in love. I loved the sparkle, the heel height, and the fact that they were super comfy:

Fergalicious Grace via 6pm

Oh, and the fact that they from the Fergalicious line by Fergie pretty much sold me. I'm not a fan of the pop star herself and actually loathe the Black Eyes Peas nearly as much as April from Parks & Rec does.

April Beheads the Black Eyed Peas via Fast Company

However, Fergalicious happens to be one song that is frequently stuck in my head. And I'm not quiet about it. Poor Mr. Rucksack often has to listen to me bust out singing "I blow kisses that puts them boys on rock rock, and they be linin' down the block just to watch what I got." Of course as soon as I saw the name of the shoes, I had to take a dance through the aisles of DSW singing to Mr. Rucksack. He was mortified, but hey - I got to test the shoes out and I now for a fact I can not only jump in them, but I can also power kick and get down low with them!

The problem was, they just weren't ideal for a beach wedding. I had a feeling I'd be tripping and sinking into the sand, and I would definitely get that yucky sand stuff stuck in there. It was back to the drawing board... sorry Fergie!

After a few months of searching high and low for the perfect glitter shoes, I gave up. Clearly my dream shoes did not exist in my budget. So I followed in the footsteps of girls much craftier than I and made my own!

Via Lulu's

I found these shoes on Lulu's for the amazingly low price of $23 and figured that if I messed them up, then at least I wouldn't be out much money. The weekend they arrived I armed myself with a big bottle of gold glitter and mod-podged away! 20 minutes plus a couple of hours of drying time later and I had my dream wedding shoes!

Sparkle Sparkle! They look so cute when they peak out from my dress! 

Were you surprised at how much time you spent on things you assumed you wouldn't care about?

It's not a diet. It's a lifestyle!

I’ve been trying to keep from talking too much about our diet and exercise routine on this blog. I don’t want to be that girl. The one that is always “Paleo this” and “Crossfit that.” You know, the Paleo Wedding Blogger. It’s a big part of our life, but it’s not like it’s completely informing our wedding related decisions.

Sure, we wanted to have a menu that we could actually eat and we didn’t want to give out sugary favors that we wouldn’t eat. And yeah, our changes in diet and activity have helped us become more in shape than ever. But it’s not like we’re forcing our guests to eat beef jerky and bacon grease. And even though it would be amazing, I won’t be tossing my bouquet in kettlebell form. 

That said, it’s driving me crazy when people say “Wow you’ve lost a lot of weight for the wedding!” or try to explain “Miss Rucksack doesn’t eat sugar because she’s getting married soon.” Ugh, no!

Image by Bye Calories

Depending on the offender, I’ll either smile and nod or I’ll get up on my pedestal and explain that actually we are making a lifestyle change based on what we’ve learned about our bodies and all this cool sciencey stuff. I don’t eat sugar because it’s bad for me. I don’t eat soy because it makes me break out in hives. I don’t eat gluten because the cramping it gives me is so not worth it. I lost weight because I was getting kind of chubby from sitting on my butt and eating cookies all day. Giving up cookies and starting to work out naturally meant extra weight lost. I’ve stuck with this “diet” for 8 months because it makes me feel really damn good.

Image via Quick Meme

Of course, the aesthetic benefits are there too. I lost twelve pounds within the first couple of months through Paleo and then started changing my body through Crossfit. I sort of had to stop looking at the scale because muscle weighs more than fat and all that stuff, but I know my weight yo-yoed a little in the beginning. But all sorts of other amazing things happened that the scale didn’t show. My butt got higher and tighter. I developed abs! It started with 2 and I’m now up to 5. Sometimes I just stand half naked in front of a mirror and flex my abs because it still just blows my mind. The circumference of my legs is so much smaller. I use so much less lotion now! I have biceps and really awesome triceps. I still like to rub them just to make sure they’re actually there and not a figment of my imagination. And you guys, I actually completed a 5 mile race over father’s day weekend.

Considering I was the girl that faked menstrual cramps every day of high school gym class, this is such an amazing accomplishment. My family still can’t believe I ran the whole thing. And I was shocked that I didn’t come in last!

Winning! / Photo by Capstone Photography

I plan on sticking with Paleo for the rest of my life. Now that we’ve been doing this for awhile and we know how different foods affect our bodies, we have a much better sense of the sorts of treats we can allow ourselves. (He’s fine with soy, I’m not. Occasional dairy hasn’t hurt me, but gluten is painful for both of us.) So I’d say we eat pure Paleo 99% of the time with the occasional treat of goat cheese on a salad or chocolate that’s not quite as dark as it should be. Oh - and alcohol. I do like to treat myself with a glass of wine or hard cider after a particularly long day. So really, I don’t think I’ve given up too much. And the fact that I get to walk down the aisle being the best version of me is such a reward.

Have you made any lifestyle changes recently?

The Great Lobster Invitation Reveal

My biggest DIY undertaking for the wedding was definitely our invitation suite. I designed the whole thing with a little help from some purchased stock images. By the time I created this gem, I had already completed at least six other designs. Since Mr. Rucksack and I couldn't agree, it was back to the drawing board. Maybe someday I'll open an Etsy shop so that all of those designs don't go to waste. I thought some of them were pretty darn cute:

A small sample of my nixed creative work

I decided to go back to our Save the Date roots and incorporate the lobsters again. I mean, who doesn't love an adorable lobster? I also stayed with the navy and white color scheme to appease Mr. Rucksack since he wasn't a fan of the pink and aqua colors I had used in the other invitation sets I created. After playing around with layouts, I went with a tri-fold card with lots of lobsters and shells:

The front of the invitation

Partially opened

All the deets

Back of the postcard Response Card

Invitation & Response Card

The whole suite, including the thank you card

For some reason, I naively thought that designing our invitations would actually save us money. (Our Save the Dates had been so inexpensive!) What I didn't consider was that we were now a) printing on both sides b) using much longer paper that had to be cut down to accommodate our 6x18 cards and c) having folds included. Folds cost money. Mad money. I was able to negotiate the price a little so they weren't ridiculously expensive, but we definitely could have saved money (and time!) by going the stock online route.

I used Allegra out of New Haven to print everything because I’ve worked with them for years through both my day job and my outside design work. They were wonderful to work with as always, but I was a little disappointed with how long it all took. They were a few days late on both of the proofs and then a day late on the final invitations. We were cutting it close to the advised 6-8 week mark as it was, so I was panicking a little. Everyone’s incessant nagging of “where’s my invitation?” did not help matters.

They ended up going out at the 7 week mark which Miss Manners assures me is just fine. And I have to tell you, all of the praise we've received made them seem well worth the wait and the price.

One of my favorite parts of the invitation was our envelope. In Photoshop, I manipulated our lobster graphic from the invitations so that his claws would hold our stamps. The body wrapped around the top of the invitation and became part of our address label. I know I would smile if I had a little lobster delivering my mail!

Did you DIY your invitations? What was your biggest challenge?

Showered with Lots of Love & Surprises

At the end of June, MOH Tessa and her amazing mom – My Auntie Rucksack– threw me the best shower a girl could ask for. I knew the date (I’m not one for surprises when it comes to having to dress up and look pretty) but I didn’t know much about the details – including the guest list. It was such a surprise to have so many of my wonderful girlfriends in attendance.

Surrounded by the lovliest of girls

Celebrating with MOH Tessa, Auntie Rucksack, and Momma Rucksack

The best semi-surprise was that my FMIL & FSIL flew in from Minnesota to attend! They were planning on keeping it a total secret, but then decided to tell me because a) a couple of weeks ago I was having a bad day and they thought I could use something happy and b) FMIL said she would have killed her Mother-in-Law if she had ever shown up for a 4 day stay unannounced.  Best In-Laws ever, I tell you!

BM F, me and FMIL Rucksack

We made a whole weekend of their visit, and FMIL Rucksack took FSIL F and me into the city for a girls’ day of shopping and a Broadway show! We saw Cinderella and it was amazing! We all cried at Ella and Topher’s finale wedding. 

Photos by FSIL/BM F

On Sunday, I got to spend the morning relaxing by walking downtown in sweats for a leisurely breakfast, getting my nails done (in neon coral) and lounging in the sun with BM F while drinking Bloody Mary’s. It was such a perfect start to the day. 

At 1:45, we headed out the door and arrived at my aunt’s house just as they were finishing set-up. We were the first “guests” to arrive which was perfect so that we didn’t walk into a swarm of people. It gave me a chance to introduce everyone and to chat with each girl as they walked in.

My old roommate Jem, Cupcake, and Goody after hitting the wonderful bar

My aunt’s backyard is just this amazing oasis of garden perfection and she and Tessa made it even more amazing for my shower.

I wish I got a picture of the food spread, but I was clearly very focused on the bar instead! Someone actually had to remind me to eat because I was so busy visiting with everyone. I realize now why everyone says it’s so hard to eat at your own wedding. Hopefully there will be people reminding me there too!

I should have requested a better cake shot, but at least this is fitting of our personalities

I did get a picture of the cake though. It was beautiful and I heard it was also really tasty. My aunt made me chocolate covered strawberries since I couldn’t eat the cake and those were super yummy!

So obviously, I’m a little out of order here. In between lunch and dessert, we also did a lot of gift opening. I’m not going to lie, I was so excited about this part. But once we got there, I realized “wow this is awkward.” I also had 2 glasses of sangria in me at this point, so I was a little flustered. And did I mention it was eighty billion degrees in the sun? Well, the first couple of gifts I was all like “Oh this is weird….am I smiling enough?....do I look appreciative?....can everyone see the sweat puddle forming underneath me?” but eventually I got the hang of things.

Hard working flower girl handing me yet another gift

My flower girl was the best helper. She handed me every single present (even the heavy ones), then took the ribbons to BM Veronica for my ribbon bouquet, and came out with the best one liners: “Whew – I think I’m getting in my workout of the day!” and "There's no business like show business!"

If I look confused here, it's because I totally am. I was told to unwrap this before reading the card and was very surprised to find a big jar of....um...things? I honestly had no clue what I was looking at. There were patches of some sort, coins, action figures, a lucky rabbits foot and so so much more. The card explained that this was a jar of all of Mr. Rucksack's treasures that he saved when he was a little boy. I thanked FMIL and then announced "Mr. Rucksackis going to be so pissed when I tell him that I have a jar of really cool things and I'm not going to share with him!"

The toys are mine! All mine!

One of my favorite parts of the day was after most of the guests had gone home and there were just a few of us left. By this point, Mr. Rucksack had joined me so that he could thank everyone on their way out. I was sweaty and exhausted, but since it was just our families and a couple of close friends left I was able to take my shoes off, put my hair in a ponytail and just relax. We had so much fun reminiscing and laughing until we were crying. Plus, Mr. Rucksack was being super mushy. It doesn’t happen too often so when it does it’s adorably funny. He kept hugging and kissing me and for some reason trying to dip me, all while saying “We’re getting married! We’re really getting married!”

A mushy Mr. Rucksack happy from love and because I shared his jar of treasures with him

The shower really made the whole wedding so much more real. It was like a sneak peek into the wedding with our guests.

All the BMs in one place: Tessa, Goody, F, Flower Girl, me, Penny, Veronica and Cupcake

Momma Rucksack, me, my grandma's best friend, Auntie Rucksack, and MOH Tessa

We both still have warm fuzzies from such an amazing weekend!

The Rucksacks with their Mommies

With MOH Tessa

Did your shower make the wedding finally seem real to you to? I feel like there’s finally an end of planning in sight!