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!

We missed our shower!

Yikes, right?

Fortunately we weren’t actually expected to attend our first shower which took place in Minnesota while we were still in Connecticut. FMIL Rucksack had the brilliant idea for a virtual shower in which the Minnesota family would meet at Panera and Facetime with us so that we could join in on the fun. Sadly, Panera’s bandwidth couldn’t handle all that fun so Mr. Rucksack and I spent 10 minutes or so looking like this while we waited:

 After we realized it wasn’t going to work, we called his mom via the much less technological cellphone and were able to speak briefly with everyone. Which mostly just consisted of each person on the other end saying “What?? It’s so loud in here! I can’t hear you, but we love you!”

I was kind of bummed that we couldn’t celebrate with everyone, but it seemed like they had a nice time catching up and eating lemon cookies.

A few days later we received a big box in the mail. It was our shower in a box since the virtual shower had fallen through!

So many fun things!

I’d love to tell you that since we were able to open our shower in the privacy of our own home that we were in pajamas or naked, but no such luck. We were still dressed from Friday at work. Which is probably a good thing for you since we got to take pictures of us with our awesome gifts.

The Beez helps out, even though lacking opposable thumbs.

Seriously, there was so much stuff packed in one box. We were spoiled!

FMIL Rucksack made this for me based on a quilt I pinned over a year ago. Isn’t that amazing? We’re hanging it up over the bed in the guest room. No Beez dog hair allowed on this baby!

She also made us these Connecticut & Minnesota dish towels. She’s one crafty momma. 

Corksicle! We love this thing!

Seriously, we have the best family! So even though we were sad we missed all of the fun, it was pretty fun and low-key to open everything alone too and it was great practice for my Connecticut shower just a few days later.

Did you have a virtual or "in a box" shower? What was your favorite gift? I'm loving all of the handmade heirlooms!

The big bad "B" word

That's right: We're here to talk about the dreaded bridesmaid dress.I don't know about you, but when I think "bridesmaid dress" I immediately think "really expensive ugly freaking dress that I will never wear again." Something along the lines of this masterpiece:

Via UglyDress.com

I think I put a lot of unnecessary stress on myself over choosing bridesmaids dresses. The girls kept insisting that they would wear anything I asked them to even if it was a paper bag, but I wanted to make sure they were happy too. That meant I wanted to keep the costs low and the chance of wearing it again high.

I was really adamant that I wanted to choose dresses that cost less than $100, but it turned out that was easier said than done. While I found some options at David's Bridal, they were still a little too "bridesmaidy" for my taste.

Since Mr. Rucksack and I are getting married on the beach, I wanted the girls to be casual and comfortable. It was also important that they match the rest of our bridal party look.

Oh hello, model version of us poorly photoshopped onto a beach:

I had visions of the girls wearing preppy cotton sundresses in navy or in seersucker, but surprise surprise those classic preppy dresses cost more than a pretty penny at $250+ each.

Lula Kate: Sassy Stripes; Lula Kate: Zoe; Coren Moore: Laurie; & Thread Shiloh

Oh pretty preppy dresses, why must you tease me so?

It took hours of hair pulling and several visits to J Crew's website fawning over their $235 Navy Cotton Cady dresses, but I finally made a random move that changed the course of my bridesmaids dresses forever.

What I had failed to do in all of my visits to J Crew was to hit that magic little button that takes you to the factory website. I know. I can't believe it took me so long either - I always love the factory!

What happened next I can assure you was like a movie moment complete with happy love song soundtrack. If my laptop and I could have run in slow motion toward each other, that would have happened too. In my head, that's exactly how it went down.

When I clicked on "Dresses" I was transported to a magical land where bridesmaids dresses cost only $50 and where they looked exactly as I had imagined.

All dresses via J Crew Factory

I immediately sent an email out to a couple of the girls for advice and as soon as they gave approval, I emailed the whole crew with ordering information. The girls will be able to choose any of the above dresses or even one of the J Crew Cotton Cady dresses from the regular site. That way I'll get a somewhat uniform look, but the girls can wear what makes them the most comfortable. And hello...$50 bridesmaid dress? That is unheard of!

I'm really excited to see which dress they each pick and can't wait to see them all together!

Did you choose matching dresses for your girls or did you have a variety of styles - or even a variety of colors?

Funfetti Bridesmaids Gifts

Do you remember Funfetti cupcakes?

Mmmm....sugar. Via Preppy Pink Blondie

My best friend, BM Veronica, and I were all about Funfetti in high school, baking up cupcakes for birthdays and Valentine's day and PMS and just because we were 15 year old girls craving a sugar high. Maybe's that's where my not so secret confetti obsession came in. It's this funny side of me that loves all things glitter, polka dots, and of course sprinkles (yum!).

I've been trying to buy little gifts and start DIY projects as I see them and as I have extra money available. I know that if I wait until the last minute, they will never get done! It's also a lot easier to purchase gifts $50 at a time when I see a good deal rather than trying to spend all of that money at once so close to the wedding.

When I spotted these adorable chevron clutches in our wedding colors at Pick Your Plum, I knew they'd be a perfect (and at $7.95 each, inexpensive) gift for my maids.

Via Pick Your Plum

Even though they'd be great on their own, I wanted more. More confetti! More cowbell!

Luckily, I remembered an adorable Etsy find that I though maybe....just maybe...I could DIY.

Here's the original:

Via Twinklebird's Etsy Shop

I love the confetti and the quote! But I also wanted to use my wedding colors, and not have to pay $42 a piece. So DIY I did!

$25 later, and I have 6 of these cute little boxes:

I first gathered my supplies:

1. Colorful card stock. I used shades of aqua, pink, gold and navy to represent our wedding colors and paid between 50 and 70 cents per square.
2. Ring bases. I purchased a pack of 24 for $6 from Etsy.
3. Handheld hole puncher. The office 3-hole punch left the card stock bent and morphed, but the handheld worked great.
4. Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. This stuff is so cool.
5. Ring boxes or small favor boxes. I purchased a package of blue favor boxes for $5 at Michael's.
6. Xacto Knife

Then got to work:

1. Start by punching about a million tiny confetti pieces using your handheld puncher and card stock. My plan was to punch them all during our Thursday night television line-up, but that tiny thing is surprisingly loud so I was limited to commercial punching only. My hands also got really tired by the time Parks & Rec came on.

2. Once you have a sufficient amount of confetti, begin assembling your "jewels." I used some of my scrap booking glue (the same stuff I used for our Save the Dates) to hold two pieces of confetti together. (You could probably also use a bit of the Mod Podge.) I found the best way was to dab some glue on a piece of paper and then run the confetti through it so it gets an even coat. Then I stuck it to a matching piece of confetti because I wanted them to be nice and strong. (This was also helpful for the gold confetti pieces since they had a white back that needed to be hidden)

3. Once you have your double-sided confetti pieces ready, it's time to Mod Podge. This part took a second to get used to, but I found the easiest method was to squeeze gently into a big drop and then to swirl onto the confetti until it was spread evenly across. The Mod Podge begins to dry surprisingly fast, so you have to work quickly.

4. Check for air bubbles in between applications! I set aside an area of paper specifically to drop off bubbles before moving onto the next jewel. If you don't, you'll end up with tiny bubbles in your jewel and it will look like a boob.

5. Wait. And Wait. And Wait. The jewels will be dry in 3 hours, but it's recommended to let them sit for 24 hours before handling. Below are my pretty jewels (I made extras just in case some of them didn't turn out) and an example of what happens when you don't pop an air bubble. (See boob in lower right corner.)

6. In the meantime, assemble the boxes. I created the ring inserts by cutting a square of card stock slightly larger than the lid and then cutting squares out of each corner so that I could fold and fit them into the boxes. The little slit was created using an Xacto knife.

7. When the 24 hours are up, apply your dried confetti jewel flat side down to the ring by using a thin coat of the Mod Podge. (I tried hot glue and failed miserably since it kept drying upon contact with the metal ring and the glue bump it left was too big) Press down firmly for a couple of seconds and it'll be dry shortly after.

I placed my finished rings in their boxes along with some extra confetti for fun and now they're set to go.

They're certainly not perfect, but I think they'll be a fun addition to the bags and the rest of the gifts.

Have you tackled any bridal party DIYs lately?

Asking the bridal party. AKA: Thanks a lot, Pinterest.

Do your remember the Pre-Pinterest days when asking someone to be a bridesmaid was as simple as calling a friend and saying "Hey, dude. Do you wanna be a bridesmaid and help me pee with my wedding gown and stuff?"

I feel like with the invention of Pinterest, those days are long gone. Now apparently you have to "pop the question" to your whole bridal party. I thought about skipping the tradition, but then FMIL Rucksack mentioned it. If even FMIL Rucksack was expecting me to craft something awesome, then I knew it had to be done. (In addition to blaming Pinterest on my "must DIY" obsession, I also blame Minnesota. Those Minnesotans are a crafty people.)

Pinterest is a terrible source for competitive Type A people like myself because when I see something cute my thinking goes something like this:

"That's awesome! I could do that!"
"Crap. It's on Pinterest. I wonder who else has seen it."
"If it's too popular, I can't do it."
"I must do it BETTER."

Which is how on a Wednesday evening I came to be opening up a package of darts from an Amazon package.

You heard me right: darts.

Via Amazon

And then I attempted to paint them with pink glitter paint. (I am only now starting to realize just how crazy that plan was.) It was a total failure and it was at that moment that I used my favorite stress-related phrase: eff it.

It's a phrase I first used when stressing out over finding the perfect brown belt to go with my "meet the parents" outfit when Mr. Rucksack flew me out to Minnesota the first time. After searching through stores for over an hour, I realized his parents wouldn't care or know that my outfit would look cuter with a brown belt. And so, "eff it" was born.

Similarly, my bridesmaids never have to know that my initial plan involved them popping a heart shaped balloon with a glitter painted dart to reveal confetti and a fancy banner requesting their bridesmaids services. I know I'm totally giving up the world's best bride award here, but I know my bridesmaids will thank me later when I'm significantly less crazy and twitchy from craft related stress.

And you know, their gifts are still cute and original:

I made the bracelets and the holder based on ones that I saw on Etsy. The little quote works perfectly since I did theater through high school and college and I ended up using starfish as my stars since it fit with our beach theme. The folded cards were purchased from Etsy seller Charm and Fig.

The best part about my simplified gifts is that they could be sent easily in the mail. With one bridesmaid in Minnesota and one in New Hampshire I was going to have to spend money on shipping a big (although very light) balloon holding box.

Of course, we couldn't leave out the groomsmen and kiddos! Up next, the rest of the bridal party gets their goodies!