A True Love Story Never Ends: Steph's Wedding Recap

It's finally time for a Wedding Recap! As you all know my older sister tied the knot September 18th and along the way I've kept my readers well updated about the various wedding related things. I blogged about when Matt popped the question, fancy tuxes, the engagement dinner, when Steph asked me to be Maid of Honor, going to a bridal expo, the venue, dress shopping, planning Steph's bridal shower, Steph's bachelorette, and, of course, choosing wedding nails). Sheesh! Is this a blog about her life or mine?? Just kidding. I'm thrilled that I get to now blog about the culmination of all of that.....her actual wedding. But first, the nails I wore for the wedding. They were inspired by a manicure I found on AllForFashionDesign painted by an instagram user kiss_it_chic.

You know the drill, everyone got hair and makeup and then we helped her with her dress. The dress looked like it had beautiful covered buttons but it had a hidden zipper so it was a lot easier and quicker to handle. She looked stunning and her dress was beautiful! The pearl bracelet around her wrist was my wedding day gift to her. My uncle is a jeweler in California so it was custom made and featured a gorgeous diamond clasp. It was stunning and she loved it. I'm glad she chose to wear it as her "something new" on her wedding day.

After we were all finished dressing and primping we took some photos outside my house. Then we all loaded in the limousine and it was off to the church we went! I don't know if she was nervous but if she was she didn't show it at all. She was very excited and she looked amazing in her dress. See, nothing but smiles from the soon to be Mrs! 

Steph and Matt chose to get married in the same church that my parents got married in and the church that we used to go to every Sunday when we were younger. We had a couple minutes before the ceremony so we shared a few laughs while waiting to walk down the aisle. Not the best photo -- we're both making faces -- but I just love how candid it is so I wanted to use it anyway.

We all paraded down the aisle (so awkward) and then she said "I do" and got married! Official Mrs. status!! From left to right is her bridesmaid Alysha (who actually got cut out of this photo), Steph's college best friend Kelly, the flower girl (our cousin), me, Steph, her groom Matt, the best man (Matt's cousin and best friend), my broski Matt, and then the final groomsmen Matt's brother (who got cut out of this photo). I was a little annoyed that the priests stood in front instead of behind the couple. Way to block the visual, Fathers!

Following the ceremony we took a bunch of photos. Some were staged and classic but others were more candid and fun. I enjoyed this one because everyone seems to be freestyling. 

During the reception, I made the Maid of Honor toast. As a surprise I asked one of her bridesmaids to join me AND we sang Steph's toast! We changed lyrics to popular songs like Happy by Pharell, the Friends theme song, Backstreet's Back by the Backstreet Boys, etc. Everyone loved it and Steph and Matt obviously loved it if the photo below is any indication!

Check those big smiles!

I can't believe it's over. They are officially Mr. and Mrs. and I have fulfilled my Maid of Honor duties above and beyond what Steph could ever have anticipated. Who knows, maybe before too long we'll be planning another wedding here on The Files. Maybe mine!!

Wedding Nails

Just another quick post today because oh my gosh, Steph's wedding is in TWO DAYS!! It's on Friday!! Tomorrow all the girls are getting our nails done before the rehearsal dinner...I know, I know....I should just do my own nails. But hey, it'll be nice to get pampered for once! I was thinking of a French Manicure because it's timeless and classic and I think will look stunning with the bridesmaid gown. So all the options are pretty much variations on a French Manicure. 

Must choose a wedding nail design for Steph's wedding:

Bachelorette Party Nails

Today's post is a photo of my "Bachelorette Bash" manicure that I wore to the bachelorette party I and the bridesmaids planned for my older sister. It's been a couple weeks but I liked these nails too much to not post. The night was relatively low key -- just a night out for dinner and then some drinks and dancing. It ended up being a lot of fun and my manicure was perfect for the occasion:

The inspiration for most of the manicure was the Bachelorette Corset cake we had made for Steph. Luckily, Steph's soon to be sister-in-law had a connection with a cake decorator (her mother-in-law) so it was perfect. And her mother-in-law was sweet enough to agree to do a cake for us for free! The cake was pink velvet (delicious!) and the icing was buttercream (of course!) I think it turned out spectacularly and Steph was blown away by it. It even said "Congrats Steph! Last fling before the ring." And just in case you are wondering like I was, the boobs are in fact cake instead of just mounds of icing. Then the other manicure inspirations were the countdown until the wedding (20 days!) and of course an engagement ring because, you know, it's a wedding and rings will be exchanged and all! 

Then came favors and such. I decided since it was a relatively small group of people to go all out on the favors and I purchased mini champagne bottles for everyone. To the bottles I attached a customized label and I tied a paper straw with either polka dots or stripes to the bottle with white tulle. The large champagne bottle in the middle was a bottle I bedazzled for Steph and had all the girls sign. The custom label just said "Pop the Bubbly before Steph gets her hubby" on the front and had a little poem on the back telling everyone who has twitter or instagram to hashtag "SingleToTingle" (Steph's soon to be last name)

I also made buttons for the "Bride's Entourage", "Maid of Honor", and "Bridesmaid." Everyone wore them as we went to dinner, drinks, and then out dancing and they were basically just overall awesome.

Lastly, the paper behind the buttons is the scavenger hunt I had everyone do. It included some crazy things like "take a photo of the bride kissing a bald guy's head"....which she did three times!

Of course we had to have wearable stuff for the bride so I also had a mini-veil and a BACHELORETTE sash for Steph to wear all night long. All in all it was a pretty fun night!

 If anyone would like a tutorial on how I made my nails, the customized mini-champagne labels, the bridal buttons, or the scavenger hunt just leave me a comment below or send me an email!

Bridal Shower Boastin': Recap of Steph's Bridal Shower

Hi everyone, I'm back for the moment! I hope you're all having a great June. I have been studying for the exam as you know but because my sister is tying the knot in September I had to split some time preparing for her bridal shower. This post is quick loooooong recap of the Bridal Shower so keep reading if you're interested in some festive photos and bridal shower ideas.

My mom, the two bridesmaids, the groom's mom, and I all planned the shower together. We limited the shower to about 50 attendees (the groom's family is quite extensive though) and we chose to plan a brunch at a beautiful ballroom in a local restaurant. The photo is the full banquet room but they had wall dividers to break it down into two smaller rooms. It was the perfect size! 

The theme for the shower was Breakfast at Tiffany's because my sister is a huge fan of Audrey Hepburn and her movies. I custom designed invites perfect for the occasion and printed them using a company I found online. The invites turned out perfectly AND for less than $1 each they weren't expensive at all! All the bridesmaids loved the design and how it invited guests to wear those little black dresses that everyone loves so much.

In light of the theme being Audrey Hepburn/Breakfast at Tiffany's, we bought a bunch of pearls, sunglasses, and diamonds for the guests to wear to be part of the fun. We even bought a cardboard cutout of Audrey off of Amazon for everyone to take photos with as a fun break from Steph opening gifts. Everyone enjoyed wearing the goodies and posing with Audrey was a big hit. The photos came out super cute.....like this one:

I also DIYed a cute banner to hang on the fireplace mantel in the ballroom. I found the original idea on Pinterest but changed the font, size, colors, ribbons, and hearts to fit my sister's bridal shower. Ignore all my studying notes behind the banner...you know I'm studying!

For treats, we of course had a bridal shower cake. We chose pink because we knew she was thinking of raspberry for the wedding and the black and white is just so classic. She loved the cake and it was so delicious. The message on it read "From Miss to Mrs with our Best Wishes." 

We also decided to add a sweets tray so we found this adorable dual layer serving platter at Target on clearance for $17.  We even managed to buy it secretly while at Target with Steph! She had no idea. Anyway, the treats we served were full size macarons from Miel Patisserie (one of Steph's favorite bakeries in Philadelphia), petit fores, and an assortment of cookies.

Watching someone open presents can be really boring so to give guests something to do while Steph opened present after present after present (we really showered her with love), I designed and printed a Bridal Bingo game and a Bridal Word Search. The word search was made using an online generator (use words like marriage, bride, love, etc). The Bridal Bingo was basically a standard bingo card but instead of the numbers I used terms like towels, silverware, keurig, wine glass, etc. and instead of bingo chips I used really cute pink glitter hearts punched from scrapbook paper. We played the standard bingo games (4 corners, straight across, etc) but we also added a "T" game where the winner had to cover the whole top row and the middle column (hence the "T").  People loved it! Winners were given little prizes throughout the shower and the guests got really into it the closer they came to covering their card.

I also DIYed some Kate Spade inspired advice cards for guests to fill out for the bride-to-be. I collected them all and put them in a book before giving it to Steph.

Now for the favors.  In addition to the little frames, we also decided to give an edible treat too. There was no shortage of sweets at this shower. We packaged 3 Baked By Melissa cupcarons tied with a ribbon as a second favor for everyone. If you don't know Baked By Melissa it's my sister's favorite bakery in New York and they specialize in mini cupcakes. The cupcarons were a limited edition summer special that was only available until June 20th. They were the perfect combination of macarons (Steph's favorites) and mini cupcakes from her favorite bakery! Steph loved them!


To keep with the theme, the wishing well for the shower was a custom designed wishing well made to look like a ring box. My dad made it so it could fit on a table rather than sit on the floor and it turned out amazingly. Everyone was complimenting it. Check out how generous everyone was! And the ring box was full of small goodies too.

All in all Steph loved it and said it was the perfect shower!

Steph's Wedding: Say Yes to the Dress!

As you know from my previous posts here, here, here, here, here, and here, my older sister Stephanie is engaged to be married in September 2015. As a continuation in the Steph's Wedding Series, today my mom, my sister, my sister's bridesmaid Kelly, and I went to look at potential bridal gowns at Sposabella. Ok, number one, check out this selection of gowns:

Seriously, how are you not going to find the perfect wedding gown in this room?! It was an entire large room full of all type of white bridal gowns. Anyway, Steph tried on a bunch of beautiful gowns in various styles and she looked gorgeous in each and every one of them. She may have settled on her perfect dress but she didn't decide yet so we all wait to see if she will say "YES!" to the dress. There was a ton of sparkles, lace, and even some fancy belts so I figured I should incorporate all of those into a nail design for the occasion:

For this look I used Zoya Snow White as a base for my index, ring, and pinky fingers. China Glaze Sunset Sail was the base polish on my middle finger. I then used Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl on all but my middle finger and followed that with Orly Shine On Crazy Diamond. I made the middle finger look like a dress with pearls with Zoya Snow White. On the ring finger I used Bright Ideas Silver Streak and some rhinestones from Born Pretty (which I reviewed here) to make a fancy belt!

Looks like there's 444 days til the Wedding Day!

On Wednesday We Talk About Weddings: Venue Style

As you all probably already know from reading this here blog, my only sister got engaged (!) and we have been on the wedding planning journey ever since. From celebrating the engagement, to celebrating the engagement, to the Philadelphia Bridal Expo, to becoming her official Maid of Honor, to just cute wedding-appropriate nails, there's been no shortage of wedding manicures featured on this blog to commemorate the wedding planning process. Today's post is yet another wedding inspired manicure to celebrate the fact that.......*drumroll please*.......Steph and Matt have officially set a date AND booked a venue! For security and privacy reasons or whatever, I'm not going to disclose exactly where it is BUT it's a gorgeous country club near my hometown. I can so picture Steph's and Matt's wedding here, and I'm so excited that it's finally becoming "real" or whatever the proper word would be. See the photos below for a sneak peak! So, when is the big day you might ask??? 

SEPTEMBER 2015

Yes, in September 2015 my sister will be rocking a stunning (yet to be determined) white dress and her best buddy from college, her "to be" sister-in-law, and I will all be dolled up in bridesmaids dresses (yet to be determined) to celebrate the momentous "I do" moment. I can't wait to stand beside her as she becomes a "Mrs."!! Cheers to exciting times! 

The contract has been signed for a few months now but I couldn't settle on a design to feature with the post! I finally decided on nails that were inspired by the bottom picture (the exterior of the venue) and went with a white, gold and silver waterfall or gradient or catastrophe design. I shot this with two differnt lights because it changed what you can see with the colors. How do you like?

Leave a comment below with any requests, suggestion, questions, etc (or just say "hi")!

Philadelphia Bridal Expo

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon with my Bride-to-Be older sister, my dear mom, and the official first bridesmaid Miss Kelly at the Philadelphia Bridal Expo!! It was so much fun and there were quite a bit of vendors there showing off their products and such. For example, check out the group of 3 photos to the right. The Bride-to-Be (BTB) reallllllly wants a photobooth for her wedding and I have to say, they are so much fun. The BTB (in the pink and black masquerade mask), Bridesmaid Miss Kelly (middle), and little ole Maid of Honor me (on the right) couldn't help but take advantage of a photo op. Love how it came out! So cute!

I have to say though, we were all a tad disappointed in the Bridal Fashion Show they had planned. The venue had a stage and would have been perfect for the modeling of the bridal gowns but instead they had the brides walk through the crowd (which not everyone could see). The BTB was disappointed and asked "Where are the lights?! Where is the music?!" I have to agree.

Anyway, I was planning on something white and whimsical and bridal for the corresponding manicure and I like how the design came out for the most part. I must admit, this is not freehand (it's much too perfect a design)...although I did add a white tip to sort of cap it off. 

Anyone have some good ideas for bridal nails? I have more bridal events coming up throughout the year (Bridal gown shopping, Bridesmaids dress shopping, Bridal Shower, etc) and I need some ideas! Help me out if you're reading this and I'll give the design a try!

Ut-oh, who is a MOH?!

In case anyone is still unaware, my older sister is engaged and will be getting married in 2015 (as blogged about so far here, here, and here). Well, I have been asked to be her "MOH"...Maid of Honor!! I'm so excited =) I had been campaigning pretty hard (just kidding) and she finally asked me when I was home over Labor Day weekend! Wahoo! She always does things in style so she had created a little package (the wrapping is the black and white sheet behind the blue glitter photo book) to ask me. The card asked me to be her Maid of Honor and then the other things were little goodies: a tiny bottle of champagne (which we'll pop next time she's over), a photo book filled with some preliminary wedding info, a beautiful book on Paris that she bought the day they got engaged in New York, and a nail polish (how perfect?!) in a shade she's considering for her bridesmaids gowns. Naturally, a manicure was in store!

Also, because you can't really see the polish in the picture (it looks a lot more blue than gray in the photo) here is a closer look:

See? Much less blue.

An occasion to di(amond) for!

Yesterday night the families got together to officially celebrate the engagement of Steph and Matt. It was at this beautiful mansion called the Bella Tori and the food was mmmmm so good! It was nice to see Matt's side of the family and catch up with them. I hadn't seen them in a while. I was in charge of the favors so my mom and I devised a plan for diamond decorated cupcakes. That's what inspired my manicure too! For this I used China Glaze First Mate for the base, Zoya Trixie for the diamond, and a rhinestone.

The cupcakes were vanilla with pink buttercream icing accented with a diamond decoration on top and served in a peek-a-boo box (so you could see the diamond) with a seal and message. They were a big hit and everyone loved the idea. I do believe I heard whispering of Matt's mom using the idea for another occasion in fact! What can I say, my family lives to inspire. Also, since it was on my Aunt's birthday I wanted to incorporate something to celebrate that too so I used some pink striped cupcake liners I had from a present she had given me a year or so ago. They went perfectly with the pink of the icing! Anyway, to the photos:

Requested by Caitlyn: Tuxedo nails

Aw, my nails are dressed to the nines today! This manicure is pulling double duty today as the second installment in my Requested by Caitlyn series AND to further celebrate my sister's engagement.

To make these fancy fingers yours, it's super simple: paint your nails white (I used Zoya Snow White) and then use black (Orly Liquid Vinyl) for the rest of the design.

Here Comes the Bride...

...because my older sister is engaged to her high school sweetheart! After nine years together, her and her fiance (how fancy?!) are finally deciding to tie the knot! I'm so happy for them and I look forward to celebrating with them ASAP but, until then, I'm celebrating in my own way...with a lovely Engagement Mani! I will admit, I have quite a few posts up my sleeve now so make sure to check back often!!

The base is Ulta It's Nude to Me and then on the index and ring finger I painted a diamond ring and the iconic Tiffany & Co. box and bow. For the diamond ring I used Kleancolor Silver Pearl, Kiss Brush On Nail Art Paint in Silver, six Cinapro gem rhinestones, and Orly Shine On Crazy Diamond (what a fitting name right?!) to make the diamond sparkle. To make the Tiffany & Co. box and bow I used China Glaze For Audrey as the Tiffany box base and Kiss Brush On Nail Art Paint in White to create the Tiffany bow.

And now the story: Matt and Steph (pictured above--hopefully she likes this picture...I do!) met nine or so years ago at Steph's Junior Formal. Get this...he wasn't even her date! Anyway, they started hanging out and then dating and then officially became a couple on February 29th of that year (I don't even remember the year it was that long ago). Since then they've become pretty much inseparable and have done so many fun things together. They've spent weeks down the shore, visited Hawaii, rooted on the Phillies at baseball games, enjoyed eating at some delicious restaurants, watched thousands of movies, and spent countless hours together just enjoying themselves. So how did it happen? Well, I'll tell you! Steph absolutely loves New York. She loves Broadway, the delicious Crumbs cupcakes, the atmosphere the Big Apple has to offer, and, of course, Central Park. It is too perfect that Matt would ask her to be his wife in one of her favorite places in the world and he got down on one knee and popped the question (and the ring box) in Central Park by the fountain! 

The rest, as they say, will be history!! 

Congratulations Steph and Matt!