east coast bachelorette party pics

did you love your bachelorette party? i loved mine - it was wrought with disaster, what started as 10 girls ended up being only 6 for various levels of unfortunate events, but it was much needed, my sister and the girls who could make it went out of their way to make sure i had a good time - and i did....oh and i won $140 on a nickel slot machine too - may sound like small pennies to you but for this wedding planning unemployed girl it was the jackpot!

the girls left a tiger in my bathroom a la the hangover...i much preferred him to the other traditional bachelorette props...i even gave him a leash.

i also got flaming bottles of vodka - i mean - fireworks and grey goose - how could a girl not feel special?!

how-to: recycled newspaper bags

here is my promised how-to for my newspaper out of town bags. i have to say, one of the biggest issues with this project for the purpose i intend on using them is the content of the newspapers i was using. if you live in a big city and have any free entertainment newspapers like the boston phoenix or the la weekly you know that the back pages usually list a specific set of services that may not be grandma appropriate - so just remember to look first!

... thats such a stress to me

i found myself overwhelmed - just at my limit today. and for some reason i kept thinking of that 12 days of christmas spoof that the jokester radio stations sometimes play around the holidays...(you know...stringing up the lights, annnd finding a chriiistmass treee...) while trying to sort out exactly what it was that was stressing me out and realized it was just lots of things swirling at once, so if you don't mind the vent...ehem.

on 12th day til wedding (ok its 30 but still) thats such a pain to me...

ALL OUT OF ROOOOOMS,

UNINVITED GUESTS,

LATE WEDDING DRESS,

GENERAL FAMILY STRESS,

CHANGING DINNER TIMES,

A WHITE SHIRT WILL BE JUST FINE,

WHERE ARE OUR RIIIINGS??!!!!,

FRIENDS NEED TO ACT LIKE GROWN UPS,

I DONT CARE WHAT NIGHT YOU COME UP,

A LITTLE THING CALLED PRENUP,

ANNNNND PLEASE SEND BACK YOUR RSVPPPPP.

thanks ladies i needed that.

i'm looking so forward to my bachelorette party this weekend and laying by the pool with margarita - after margarita - after margarita.

for the girls

i'm so excited about the gifts i found for my bridesmaids...you might remember i got them each a necklace to wear during the wedding but wanted to get them something special and just for them as well (meaning not a self serving wedding necessity that seconds as a gift.)

i kept thinking about getting them some sort of sexy or silky robe and then i stumbled upon etsy seller plumprettysugar and my dreams were answered. i was able to get each girl (and myself) a different beautiful short summer robe. the patterns of the soft cotton fabrics are just beautiful and so unique. i received them in the mail yesterday and have to admit i'm wearing mine already. i hope they like them as much as i do!

now to figure out what to get the guys. we are having such a hard time trying to think of something thats not a throw away gift to give them. any suggestions? what did you get your guys?

favorite songs to boogie down to at a wedding

so...we're working on our song lists for our dj and i kinda want to ask our friends which songs they would like to hear but i don't want to open that can of worms...so i thought i'd ask you guys. what are your favorite songs to dance to at a wedding?

BeatTrain wedding mix

as we're less than 5 weeks out from our d-day mike and i have been doing a lot of final meetings with vendors and drawing up schedules and contact lists, you know the fun stuff...

luckily we love all of our vendors so the process is going rather smoothly and we are getting really excited. we met with our dj, ari rosenfield of beat train productions, last week for a friendly dinner and to get down to business and discuss the sequence of events, the vibe we're going for, and to start discussing our play lists (though we love ari and his taste in music so we want to give him lots of freedom to let loose and take the party where he wants.)

ari spins at clubs and functions around new england in addition to weddings and has some fantastic dance party ready mixes on his website that really showcase his abilities and his diverse range, (i'm partial to the shake a tail feather mix.)

well, he made a new mix just for me (an you guys of course!) of some jazzy, loungy tunes that he might play during dinner or a cocktail hour for a wedding. i thought some of you might enjoy it either for inspiration or to go directly on your i-pods if you're planning on providing tunes yourself. enjoy!

beattrain dinner mix (follow link to download mp3)

Into The Blue by Karminsky Experience Inc.
Le temps de l'amour by April March
Comment te dire adieu by Francoise Hardy
Chez Les Ye-Ye by Serge Gainsbourg
House of Bamboo by Andy Williams
Spooky - Dusty Springfield
Humdrum Blues by Elaine Delmar
Why Don't You Do Right by Cleo Jones
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) by Nancy Sinatra
Hi-Heel Sneakers by Jose Feliciano

Thirteen Men by Ann Margret
Swingin On the Moon by Mel Torme
Hit That Jive, Jack! by Diana Krall
Box Cars by Ken Jenson
Trav'lin' Light by Billie Holiday
Hold On by Dodo Greene
Pneumonia by Joe Tex

beattrainnyc.com

beattrainproductions.com

no cost recycled out of town bags

ok, let me preface this post by saying - i've been unemployed for a long long time now. so long i passed stir crazy weeks ago and have just today moved into the "act like an insane person when your fiance goes to work because you can't stand another day of nothing to do" phase. after apologizing for above referenced behavior i decided that today i was going to put on some records, finish a little gift i've been thinking about for a while and take a stab at making my own paper bags for no other reason than i needed a task to keep me busy.

since we have such a large number of guests flying in from California, Wisconsin, and well all over the world (Dublin and New Zealand!), we've made an effort to take good care of them in exchange for them spending their hard earned cash on attending our wedding. we've transformed the traditional rehearsal dinner into an out-of-towners feast and we want to provide our guests with at least a little something in their rooms to make them smile when they land if possible.

the thing is, the out of town bags keep moving down the priority list and the financial allotment list. what started as a dream to make fabulous one of a kind silk screened cloth bags started to look much more like a packet of useful info, a bottle of water, and a map.

somewhere in my online or design school classes someone mentioned making bags out of newspapers and i've been thinking about it ever since. mostly thinking about it in ways like -man i'd be insane to make 50 bags by hand... seems like a lot of effort to save a measly couple of bucks... people are just gonna throw them away... it's not greener than buying new if i buy bags made with recycled paper...who has the time for that really?

well today i came to terms with the fact that i have the time. so i took an old LA Weekly out of my stack of newspapers and magazines that i use for art projects and gave it a whirl. i watched a couple of different online tutorials and ended up using a hybrid of sorts using only the papers and two pieces of tape each.

i love the way they came out. i love that some have bright crazy bansky graffiti art on them while others have concert listings, one even has a huge flight of the concords poster on it, i just love them. the best part is, the LA Weekly was free to begin with and something i had and intended to use for art projects of some sort. it's a perfect size and i made about 15 double ply bags out of one paper. i'll be using the boston pheonix to finish out the lot i think...

aren't they cute? i really don't think i'll ever buy a gift bag ever again. are any of you interested in a how to??

crafty goodness

i've been a bad updater lately i know...but i have been a very good crafter. ( i kinda hate the term DIY kinda like STD i dunno why? but anyway...)

in addition to settling on a playlist and burning cd's for favors (with mikey's help of course) I've been making trolley tickets, designing cd covers, and welcome packets with important times and directions for our out of town guests - i've been playing around and making some of the fun stuff.

i've aged the key tags (stained with one morning's left over coffee) for our seating cards so that i was able to add names as the rsvp's came in. they were just a little too crisp and clean as they were...

after searching for a cheap collection of vintage slate chalk boards for table numbers without too much luck i found these cheap little wood frames at michael's (like 59 cents) that were actually a better size to not overpower our water pitcher centerpieces as well. so i got myself some chalkboard paint and stain to age a bit and made my own...

i'm not sure if i've ever mentioned this to you guys before, but our old landlord bequeathed the mother load of old ball jars, milk jars, and old medicine bottles to mike and i before she sold her house, she even gave them to us in a stack of amazing old wooden wine and milk crates. needless to say they will be a part of our decor. we decided to make a bunch of the old jars into candles (fearing that tea lights might not last all night and not wanting to mess with rocks or sand or any of that stuff to hold up the mini pillar candles) and the rest will be used as extra vases for the bars, cake table, gift table etc...

with the help of my mother and sister we made almost 70 candles for the price of the bulk wax (and the hours of pouring and patience needed to tie off wicks without pulling of the bottom)

i have to admit some of the jars are so cool i couldn't bring myself to make candles out of them at first, but then i had a pep talk with myself, they've been sitting in our basement for well over a year, if we didn't use them for our wedding would they just sit there forever? i decided it was a good life for the pretties...and the really really fragile looking ones (or the ones that had formed bubbles in the glass) i saved to use as vases instead.

so things are trucking along, and it feels really good to have these crafts done and in boxes ready for transport rather than hanging out on the to-do list.