Pingg! Your Invite is Here!

I know we are all planning or helping to plan quite a few parties in addition to the reception- bridesmaids get togethers, bachelor/ette parties, showers, rehearsal dinners, etc. Getting married is like taking a crash course in event planning. Parties = invitations, and I am a fan of using the internets to spread the word. I was kind of getting frustrated with Evite and since Mr. Peacock is an internet insider I asked him to find me something better. To make your life easier, too, may I present Pingg.

My girlfriends from high school and I get together once a month for brunch and we usually use Evite to collect RSVPs. I thought the March brunch sounded like a great excuse to test Pingg out. I will share my long list of why Pingg rocks Evite, but I think the best part is the look of the invitation. There are some really beautiful but simple designs, or you can create your own with a photo or other favorite image.

Here is how the invite looked when it arrived in my inbox:
Below the image- built right into the email (no need to click through to another site)- was the RSVP options as well as a link to the invite site. I did not take full advantage of the invite options, but you can include more details in this image so that your guests can get all the deets right within the email. If you do click through, you can invite guests (and easily forward the invite on to them), review news on the event (which the hostess creates), leave comments, get directions, add to your Google/Yahoo/iCal/Outlook calendar and subscribe to the RSS feed for the event.

As a host, here is my list of pros-

• Collect funds (I host a lot of fundraisers)
  
• Add event to Facebook
• Import contacts from your email system and search within that list
• Decide whether or not guests can bring other guests
• Make it private or only view "yes" responses
• Decide on the frequency of updates
• Include a gift registry (yay for showers!)
  
• Print/export guest list
• Review who has opened your invite
• Ads are either non-existent or very well hidden
  

My only real con, which may just be user ignorance, was that I wasn't sure how to select specific guests to send a message. I added a new guest and only wanted to send the invite to her, but I ended up sending it to all. I could also foresee wanting to respond directly to a guest's comment, but I would have to skip Pingg and go right to email.

Here are two more of my favorite designs:


Has anyone else tried out Pingg or would like to recommend another online invitation site?

Cards on Boards

I am strangely excited about escort cards. It seems like it could be an inexpensive way to add a little fun and personalized style to your wedding. I have already decided that I am doing something with ferns, and I would show you a great example but InStyle Weddings has a stinky website and none of the photos from the current issue are in there.

In the meantime, if my wedding had gone shabby chic as I had originally planned, I would be all over these cards on boards:

Mrs. Strawberry

The Knot

The Knot

Martha (DIY instructions included)

There is actually one more pretty red and white one in in a gorgeous frame in that same issue of InStyle Weddings (pg 240), so if you own a copy, please take a look :)

And Design Sponge wants to help you make these fun boards. Here is a link on how to make these cutie buttons!


The nice thing about these boards is that if you don't have a ton of help with decor on the day of your wedding, you can make these in advance and send it and an easel along with a loving friend to set it up.

Is anyone doing anything particularly fun and creative with their escort cards? Is anyone forgoing them altogether?

My Sweet Valentine

Valentine's Day is extra special for Mr. Peacock and me because it is also the anniversary of our first date. In prior years, we have gone all out on gifts and swanky dinners. As nice as that was, I think this year was even sweeter. We decided to make our gifts for each other and we would celebrate V Day at his family's lake house in Michigan. For the gifts, we could use things that we already had on hand, but the additional materials couldn't cost more than $15.

If someone tells me to make something, I think paper.

I wrote out one reason I love him for each day until the wedding. He is getting as antsy as I am, so I hope this helps the time pass a little. It doubles as an hourglass because he can put the a love note in the empty container each day until the wedding.

If someone tells Mr. Peacock to make something, he thinks pizza.


A heart shaped pie of barbecue chicken deliciousness. This pizza is so amazing... I am so mad at myself for already eating all the leftovers.

This wasn't the only thing I received this weekend.

A little downtime with these two makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Plus, when he is napping I can turn off college basketball and turn on "The Wedding Planner."

My Right Hand

I love, love, love my engagement ring. Mr. Peacock spent months with a jeweler trying to create the perfect ring for me. Although he did this all on his own and the ring itself was a surprise, I did share some photos with him. Most looked very much like the Tiffany Legacy ring.

He did it very well, with a little more vintage flair in the setting.

The one "problem" that I have found in my ring is the back of the setting.


Because of that beautiful basket shape along the side, I can't buy a flat band to wear as my wedding band. The two won't lie flush together, which means that the engagement ring gets lazy and ends up picking a side and resting on it. I love how he designed the entire ring and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world, which means that I need to come up with another option for my band. I would rather not have something custom made to fit around the ring because I could see myself wearing the band on its own- when we are traveling through Europe, when I get super crafty or when we have kids and I am cleaning poopy diapers. A friend of mine wears her engagement ring on her right had and her wedding band on her left and I have always admired it. She has some pretty sparkles on both hands!

While I was in Kansas City visiting my college roommate last weekend, we stopped by Tivol in the Plaza. (By the way, KCMO readers or visitors, I LOVE the Plaza. Anthropologie, Paper Source and Lill all in one pretty place? Fantastic! The home department of Halls is also very impressive.) Her husband purchased her gorgeous engagement ring and matching band at the store and so they were kind enough to give our rings a scrub while we wandered around. I fell in love- hard- for Penny Preville. If you haven't been to her site or seen her jewelry before, I highly recommend going. Everything, including the delicate little features, are fabulously vintage. This little band in particular caught my eye.

They had three of them displayed together, stacked one on top of the other. It looked like antique jewelry, which is exactly what I had been hoping for. Granted, Penny's jewelry is quite expensive and I am sure that three of those little beauties would break our budget. I am hoping to either find or ask a jeweler to make something similar. As weird as it looks right now, I think the engagement ring on the right hand is my solution and I am actually pretty excited about it.

Has anyone else had a similar problem with their engagement ring and wedding band not fitting together? What was your solution?

They're Not Just for Christmas

When I saw this wreath in an old issue of Martha Stewart Weddings, I knew I had to have it or something like it.


I have always been a big fan of a pretty wreath, but you do need to be careful not to stray too far into "something my grandma made" category. I think you do this by sticking to one flower/leaf/branch and only varying from that in the color of that flower.

I really wanted white floral wreaths hanging from the huge, gorgeous front doors of our church. Unfortunately because it is an older church (built in 1918) and is beloved by its parish, they have very strict rules about how you can decorate within the church. Since it is generally pretty ornate, I am not too worried about having large floral displays near the front doors or the altar. I can, carefully, hang something from the end of the pews. A wreath may be that very something!

This is pretty cost prohibitive, however, since a wreath of stephanotis or roses from my florist can cost around $80 each. I would need quite a few on the pew ends. I need to give it more thought, but I don't think that I have the willpower to make them myself the week of the wedding. IThis got me thinking of a Plan B. What flower is pretty inexpensive and comes in a large bloom idea for a wreath?

Thank you, Mrs. Strawberry!

Wreath Place

Bloom Room

Yes, that is baby's breath. Yes, I normally rip baby's breath out of bouquets as soon as they are handed to me. It ranks right up there with the dreaded carnation (no offense to carnation lovers!). But... doesn't it being on its own make a big difference? I think it has a vintage feel in its little blooms with lots of texture and movement. It's white, which is key when the church has 1.2 million colors painted in the frescoes. Oh yeah, and its dirt cheap compared to roses or stephanotis.

Has anyone used a wreath in their wedding? Any other creative ways to make it happen? Also, if I made these myself with some of that green foam stuff, how long would it last?

I Dream of Valentino

I would like to tell you a story of a bride who became tired of planning her wedding and began to get frustrated with her long engagement. At least mentally, all her vendors were booked and her DIY projects planned. September sounded SO FAR AWAY. In her wedding frustration, she contemplated changing her date and hoping that her vendors were free, or meeting up with a Justice of the Peace or, finally, hopping a flight to Vegas. The endless Chicago snow had also begun to drive her crazy, so a quickie beach wedding sounded fabulous, too. Wow... really, really fabulous.

After her fiance advised her to knock it off, this frustrated bride decided that she needed to console herself with pretty gold designer wedding shoes to match all the pretty gold jewelry she had been falling in love with lately.

Manolo Blahnik

Prada

Prada

Prada (super sexy back)

Valentino.

Schucks! There is a Valentino bag to match.
Shoes and bag from Bergdorf Goodman.

What's worse than being down with the way too long engagement blues? Drooling over shoes that you can't afford. Poor girl.

Mmmmm... Bubbles!

One of the unfortunate details in our liquor contract is that we have to pay for a champagne toast by the glass. I LOVE champagne/sparkling wine and I would prefer to have it flowing all night. I also don't think that everyone (Mr. Peacock, namely) likes the bubbly as much as I do and so many glasses will go to waste.

If I could have my way, I would bring in a few cases and just let everyone pass the bottles around. I would also get something a little better than the Freixenet that is currently part of my package. We tried Coppola's Sofia at our engagement party. It was yummy and came in a beautiful shabby chic bottle. That bottle was wrapped in pink plastic wrap, which adds a little excitement.

It was a little sweeter than I usually prefer, but not sugary enough to turn me away from it. I also love that it is named after Sofia Coppola and I usually enjoy her movies. Her father, aside from being a famous movie maker, also has a beautiful vineyard in Napa where he makes some very tasty Cabernet.

There is also a mini, canned version of this champagne which might be adorable at a wedding reception. The cans are cute, anyway. The popping noise might be kind of funny right before the toast. I guess it depends on what kind of bride/hostess you are. Crass and quirky is apparently right in my wheelhouse.

If I really wanted to implode my budget, I would buy a few cases of Vueve Clicquot Rose. The VC Yellow Label was my gateway drug into the world of fizzy cocktails. I have been totally on board with the recent re-emergence of pink champagne and the VC Rose is a great example.


I know a lot of places have rules about the champagne toast. Has anyone found a less expensive way around it? If you are married and ordered it by the glass, did a lot go wasted?

My First Official Crafty Experience

Last summer, my parents were kind enough to throw Mr. Peacock and me an engagement party. We made several different types of of hors d'oeuvers, fun party drinks and had a cocktail party in my parent's backyard. My mom loves to garden and in the late summer the flowers are coming up everywhere. It was nice to be able to break up our crazy long engagement with a little celebration.

I had been playing around with the idea of making my invitations and I took advantage of the party as an excuse to play with my tools. I was inspired by a stamp ("Cottage Bloom") that I bought at last year's Paper Source Paper Wedding event. I used a watermark stamp pad and light gold powder to create the pretty, shiny flower. I had to test out several different combinations of stamp pad + embossing powder to get to just the right shade of warm gold. I paired it with some pretty blue ("Lake") cards and ivory cardstock. Here are the results:

Stamping

Powdering

Drying

Invite Done!

The ivory cards were 4.5x4.5 and the blue cards are 5x5. Cutting squares was pretty easy, compared to my previous forays into cutting rectangles. I loved using the embossing powders and I even had fun picking out the fonts. It was also nice to give my newly acquired embossing dryer a test run. This experience taught me two things- 1) I can totally make my wedding invitations and my mom and I might even enjoy it and 2) I really don't want to make my wedding invitations. I will commit to the save the dates, the direction cards, the menus and place cards. A girl can only do so much without a printing press.

I know a lot of you are making your invitations. Anyone want to convince me that I should go for it? :) Any other words of wisdom for those venturing into that arena?

Fascinating Fascinators

I found this beautiful post on wedlog on fascinators, and I am fascinated. I love their vintage look and the fact that they aren't a tiara. I'm not a tiara kind of girl, but that doesn't mean I don't want something pretty and sparkly in my hair. I am also thinking about making a cathedral length veil for the ceremony and I am not interested in wearing that crazy thing all night. It would be fun to take that off but put something equally bridal in its place.

I started looking around this morning for something that I might be able to knock off and I have found a lot online. My favorite since before I was engaged is Jennifer Behr. I bought one of her headbands from Anthropologie and I love it. I don't know if those huge, beautiful silk peonies are "fascinators" per se, because they don't have feathers, but she does have other feathery items and some gorgeous beaded headbands.

Absolutely Gorgeous also features this little number-

Myrakim on Etsy shows off some color


I don't think the flower is as pretty as the Jennifer Behr peony, but I love the feathers. Maybe my mom and I will have to do a little DIY. Silk flowers are a pretty foreign concept to me. I walk into Michaels and make a beeline past the fake flowers. I have found some really beautiful silk roses which sit on my kitchen counter to Mr. Peacock's dismay (story for another day), but I bought those at a little boutique in California. I wasn't sure if I could find something so beautiful that I would want it to be stuck to my head all day and look at the photos for the rest of my life.

I Salute the French General

I spent some time on the French General site last night and I found a lot of fun ideas! The first thing that caught my eye was this-


You can buy a kit full of those cute little lady bug and green beads and make boutonniere pins with them. I think this is such a novel idea- to replace the pins with the pearl heads with something that you actually want people to notice. I wonder if the guys will mind...

And then I noticed this-


I thought these would make beautiful hairpins or would dress up a headband. There were so many inspirational things on that site. Some of it was pretty pricey, but doable in small amounts. I also love all the Martha references, as in "Martha planned an evening cocktail party in the garden of French General and invited her advertisers" or "Martha came up with this wonderful idea using our materials." I feel closer to her just reading that site... ;)