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Sunday, August 21, 2011

My Bridal Shower!

Gary and I went up to Pensacola for the 4th of July, and the following weekend I was excited for my shower. July 9th was my fantastically fabulous bridal shower hosted by my Maids of Honor (and sisters) Lauren and Danielle! It was absolutely perfect!

My family has this unique little place we go to for special occasions like Mother's Day, and I always said when I get married that I'd want my shower there. Well, my sisters made it happen! The place is the cutest, girliest, frilliest little tea room with AMAZING food and tea. It's called The Garden Gate Tea Room, and is located in quaint downtown Mt. Dora!

The adorable invitations!
It was amazing to have friends and family gather for little ole me! I was even lucky enough to have people travel in for the event like my Future Mother-In-Law from Pensacola, my bridesmaid Nicole and MOH Lauren from Ft. Lauderdale, my long-time family friend Denise all the way from Indiana, and my Aunt Patti all the way from Kentucky! I was so pleasantly surprised!

As soon as people started filing in, Katie and Nicole greeted everyone and had them participate in several bridal games/activities. Once the food started coming in (which again - amazzzzing), we started playing even more games! This ranged from trivia questions Gary had pre-answered that I had to guess (tricky!), the "what's in your purse" game, and even a spin on Bingo for the gift-opening portion. Nicole was also doing a terrific job as a photographer and captured all of the details. Here's some pics (not the ones Nicole took, but I'll have those up soon)!

I snuck a peak at the room as they were setting up!

Such pretty decor! Love the shabby chic look.

These mini teacups were shower favors for everyone in addition to candy in a mini glass slipper!

Danielle, Lauren, my Mom, Me, my future Mother-In-Law Cindy, and my Auntie Patti!

Open a few gifts, eat dessert, open a few gifts, eat dessert. Best pattern ever! LOL.

The girls with adorable tea room hats!

Krissy's Crew (minus Tiff and Broda - missed you girls!).
I always feel humbled yet thankful when people shower me with gifts, which I found is something that happens at a shower! Thanks to everyone, I'm now so prepared and ready to cook, clean, decorate, and even more prepared for the Big Day! I won't get into too many details and I absolutely love everything, but I HAD to give a special shout out to my Aunt Patti and show you what she put together....this was just one of her thoughtful gifts, a hand-made Barnhart generation recipe book!


So there you have it! It's definitely times like these I realize how blessed I am to have these wonderful people in my life. Thank you to my wonderful sisters for making this day happen! I love you!

<3

Krissy

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Our Snazzy Invitations

I had to do a post on our beautiful invitations because they came our AWESOME! I really am pleased with how they came out; pretty snazzy if I do say so myself!

(Yeah that's right, I brought that word back....snazzzzzzzzzzzzzzy)

When researching, we debated working with a local company or finding someone online. In the end, I found a style that we both LOVED online, so we started there. The style was perfect for our event. Unique, dramatic, artsy, and described an outdoor, night, garden wedding perfectly. We found the design at the same place we ordered our Save the Dates, Magnetstreet.com.
The only problem, or so I thought, was that I definitely wanted to incorporate our heart monogram logo, and also certain items like a matching envelope liner that they didn't have online. I also wanted people's names printed in purple because I was not about to hand address all of those myself, and I knew it would look much better. That also didn't seem to be an option. Additionally, I wanted to use a pocket type of invite so I needed something to "hold it together." After some digging and discussions with the company, I found that they could indeed fulfill all of my requests! YESSSS!!!!

It was confusing at first trying to do the customization online since this is something they don't promote, but once I had someone on the phone it was a much easier process. I was able to tell them exactly what I wanted, and I worked with their graphic designer a bit and finalized the proofs. They even graciously put a rush on my order as I was again working against the clock.

While I was waiting for that order to come in, I knew I wanted to use a custom stamp to give the outer envelope a little pizazz. After all, the inner envelope would have the liner, so the outer one needed something, right? I found a great sale at a company I've known about for awhile, Zazzle.com, and those stamps came in extremely quick to my surprise!


I love the HUGE, glossy, custom logo stamps we got from Zazzle!

When my invitation order came in, Gary and I had THAT night to put them together, stuff them, and get them out the mail the next day. We were leaving for a trip, and needed to get them in the mail asap. We both got to stuffing! I printed out a guest list and numbered it, then put the same corresponding number on each RSVP cards in light pencil, realllllly small in the corner. I read that this would come in handy if someone sent the card back forgetting to fill in their name, and boy did it! Also armed with double-sided sticky tape to secure the band around the pocket invite/the envelope liner, we got to working like an assembly line.

The invitation spread.

Here's a bunch of pics so you can see the finished product!

Front of pocket invite.

Back of pocket invite.

Don't worry Lauren, I blocked out your address! LOL
Ready to be mailed! Broda, you don't live there anymore so your address isn't blocked out.
So there you have it! Thank you everyone for the nice comments and texts about them. Also, if you haven't mailed back your RSVP card yet (they are a postcard and already have a stamp, just place them in the mail directly), please do so asap. I'm working on getting the final count for food orders. If you lost your RSVP card, then please email me your food choice NOW to kbarnhart1112@gmail.com.

Choices are:

Salmon
Chicken
Baby Shrimp & Grits
Vegetarian

Thank you! Love you all!!!

<3

Krissy