Our Wedding Invitations Arrived

Ahh, our wedding invites arrived! 

I searched and searched online and finally found a design I loved at Paper Source. They are seriously GORGEOUS. It's funny because it literally took us four hours to design them with the Paper Source designer. FOUR.HOURS. But what can I say? It was worth it.

I am obsessed. We were going for a traditional and classic invite without a bunch of colors. If fact, it ended up being silver, white, and dark gray. This is what the full suit looks like:

Because of the silver foil we went plain for the details and rsvp cards. However, leaving the trifold alone looked unfinished. We decided to do a ribbon band with a stamped and embossed monogram of our last initial. That was the only thing we had to assemble ourselves but believe me it took forever. First we (I) had to cut 80 portions of the blue ribbon. Then I had to cut equal amounts of the silver ribbon. Then we had to punch out the bigger black squares. Then we had to punch out the smaller silver squares. Then we had to stamp each one, layer the powder, and use the embossing gun (which is super fun BTW and that might get a post of its own) and then we had to adhesive it all together. We wanted the monogram to be attached the band of ribbons but make it so the band of ribbons would slide off the invite.

And then this is what the invite looked like before it was ready to be stuffed in the envelope. We printed the envelopes in a faux calligraphy (calligraphy is SO expensive I found out and I was too chicken to try to DIY that).

Apologies for the poor photos. I only used my good camera for some of them! Alright, so we have to get these in the mail and then start the nail-biting-inducing process of waiting for the rsvps to roll in!

My Parisian Themed Bridal Shower

Yet another wedding-related post. I promise we're almost finished with all the wedding-related stuff and I'll go back to just nails (and then some). But for now, I'm sharing a peek into my bridal shower! My bridal party planned a *surprise* Parisian-themed bridal shower for me. It was nice to see everyone and I was blown away by the fact that one of my closest college buddies showed up -- she had to drive 3 hours each way! Unfortunately, I don't have the digital files for photos so we'll have to do the whole photo-of-a-photo thing.

Full disclosure, it was not really a surprise. Hence I wore the white pants. The rouse was that Andrew and I were going to lunch with my future in-laws. The problem was not that we never go to lunch with them--it was that we do that somewhat often and we only ever go to one restaurant (it's my father-in-law's favorite). So when Andrew told me we were going somewhere else I was immediately suspicious. It was easy to put 2 and 2 together and I decided to wear white pants because that was bridal but non-committed in case I was wrong. After all, it's summer and people wear white all the time.

It was a buffet brunch with mimosas and delicious food. Andrew's family was there, my family was there, my friends, and my mom's friends, too. And how cute is this little cake?! The black bow? So precious! They also gave out Eiffel Tower cookies and a compact mirror with an Eiffel Tower as favors.

Overall, it was a nice time. The opening presents while everyone watched me was a little awkward and I got SO MANY KITCHEN things I could open a second kitchen. By far the best gifts were the Himalayan sea salt lamp (from my future sister-in-law) and the creme brulee set (my college buddy).

 One step closer to the wedding!

One Love Manchester

Yesterday I, like many people, tuned in to watch the One Love Manchester benefit concert organized by Ariana Grande after a terrorist attack occurred in connection with her Dangerous Woman tour performance two weeks ago in Manchester, England. I posted these nails to my Instagram today as a show of support to Ariana, her fans, and everyone else who came together to show "One Love"

If you had not heard, a bomb went off as concert goers were leaving the concert...leaving innocent concertgoers dead and many more injured. My heart dropped when I heard the news because my sister and I went to see this tour when it was at Madison Square Garden in New York in February. It's a little too close to home and it's a shame we live in a world where this behavior actually happens. I send my thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families. We all deserve better.