Craft Wars

Our venue required that we drop everything off to them (favors, menus, programs, etc) the week before the wedding, which turned out to be both a blessing and a curse.

The blessing was everything needed to be out of my hands on Sunday, which means there will be no last minute DIYs five hours before the wedding. The curse was, well, everything needed to be out of my hands on Sunday. And I wasn't ready.

So Saturday morning Mr. Coyote and I packed the car up with multiple unfinished projects and made the three hour drive upstate to my parents' house. Momma Coyote and I finished packaging up the favors:

While Mr. Coyote got intimate with our paper cutter and sliced up 150 of these bad boys:

I also put together a guestbook sign to be placed with our photo album guestbook:

Oh and (because I am completely insane) I managed to squeak out one last project before starting on the dreaded seating chart. Remember my obsession with chair signs? Well I knew that due to the curved chairs and chair covers our venue provides it would be difficult to hang something from the back of my chair so a chair sign wasn't going to cut it. I thought about mimicking Miss Wizard's frames, but unfortunately I put this project on the back burner for so long that I didn't quite have time to tackle wooden letters. Instead I stole some inspiration from her project and went for a simplified version:

If I'd had more time I would have loved to jazz it up with some pretty patterned paper, but I think I did a pretty good job considering the time constraints. We're having a small floral arrangement on our table as well so hopefully it will bring some color to the table because right now the signs are looking a little sad and pathetic all by their lonesome. Either way, I got my cute little "Mr." and "Mrs." signs for our sweetheart table, so I'm a happy camper.

Let me tell ya, I was ready for a nap after all the driving and last minute crafting, but we still had a seating chart to tackle! That's where the real fun began...

What wedding  projects are you working on right now?

It's the Final Countdown

Well it's that time folks.

Screenshot via The Weather Channel

My wedding day has finally appeared on the 10-day forecast. I'm feeling sort of apathetic about the weather at this point because as the daughter of a meteorology enthusiast (a nice way of saying my father is a crazy person who tracks and chases snowstorms in his free time) I know that it is impossible to predict the weather this far in advance.

The other reason is because, in the grand scheme of things, the weather on our wedding day doesn't really matter. I'm not having an outdoor ceremony or reception and because the ceremony is taking place at Franklin Plaza no one will need to travel to a different reception venue. Now this was no accident my friends. Mother Nature has never been kind to me and I refuse to give her the satisfaction of toying with my emotions on one of the biggest days of my life.

So why am I still stalking the 10-day forecast? Well, I put together a list of times where I will be outside and it looks a little something like this:

• Walking across the street from the hotel to the venue before the ceremony begins.
• Taking a few portraits outside after the ceremony.
• Walking across the street from the venue to the hotel after the reception.

I really won't be outside very much, but I am starting to wonder if I should invest in an adorable umbrella a la Mrs. Turkey:

Image via Mrs. Turkey on Weddingbee

Okay, the reality is there is a very slim chance that it will rain during my 30 second walks between the hotel and the venue and honestly even if it does, I'm pretty sure my storm chaser of a father has a few golf umbrellas to spare so it's totally unnecessary. But come on you guys.... It's SO cute!

Any other remaining June brides stalking the weather forecast? How are you preparing for the weather?

Face Paint

I am not having a hair or makeup trial.

Whew. Glad I got that off my chest.

I recently booked a hair and makeup artist, but due to the long distance and scheduling conflicts I was unable to schedule a trial before the wedding day. I'm actually okay with this, especially because it felt very strange to spend money getting all dolled up with nowhere to go.

Plus, I'm not looking for anything intricate or complicated when it comes to hair and makeup. I know I shared some wedding day hair inspiration photos with you already and I've decided that I would like to keep my hair down. It has reached lengths of epic proportions:

It just keeps growing.. And growing.. And growing.. But my hair does hold a curl pretty well so I would love to just have some nice, loose curls for the day:

Photo by: GPT Photography on Bridal Musings via Lover.ly

My makeup has been a bit more difficult. I don't wear makeup... Ever. In fact, on the rare occasion (three to four times a year) that I do put makeup on, Mr. Coyote always asks me what's wrong with my face, to which I fondly reply, "What's wrong with YOUR face?!" 

The truth is, I have a fear of makeup. I don't know how to apply it and every time I put the teeniest bit of mascara on I'm convinced I look like Mimi:

Image via Villain Wiki / Anyone remember this show? Anyone??

Really, I just want to look like myself. I tried searching for inspiration photos, but kept coming up empty-handed. Instead all I've managed to find is a single photo of myself where I actually liked how my face looked and hopefully my makeup artist will be able to recreate something similar for the wedding. In the meantime I've been browsing her online gallery and plan to snag a few photos on her site that I like.

Is anybody here surprised that I chose this photo?!

Are you foregoing a hair and/or makeup trial? Did you have difficulty finding inspiration?

On (Not) Being Cohesive

Eclectic – Adjective: Deriving ideas, style or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.

Although we are having a fairly traditional wedding I have still been sneaking in some personal touches here and there. And now that a large number of those touches are coming together I’m starting to notice that they don’t always jive. For instance, we like wine, but we also like coffee. Our cake toppers are Charlie Brown and Lucy, but our toasting glasses are dragons. And I haven't written a post about it yet (whoops!), but my bouquet will have both bees and some cute coyote charms I found.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to themed weddings – especially since Miss Potion gave us her awesome breakdown of how she and Mr. Potion chose theirs – and I started to wonder if I was a bad bride for not having one. When people ask me what my wedding vision is (one of my most hated wedding questions by the way), I usually respond with, “Our vision is to get through the day with the least amount of things going wrong as possible.”

And while I’m being tongue-in-cheek with my answer, it’s the truth. But sometimes I am paralyzed with fear that our wedding day is going to look like a big ol’ smorgasbord of “Things The Coyotes Think Are Cool” because we chose not to have cohesive theme like “birds” or “carnival” or even just some key words like “beach” or “pumpkins” to describe our wedding and bring everything together. But then I think, is that what we really wanted to bring to our wedding? Seashells on our invitations and our tables and our cake?

The truth is Mr. Coyote and I are kind of eclectic. He likes biking and video games and wine. I like hiking and reading and coffee. And our life reflects both our mutual and diverse interests. Why shouldn’t our wedding reflect the same aspects of our relationship? And so, our theme will be a compilation of our favorite things on one of our favorite days. We basically want to say to our guests: “Welcome to the Coyote wedding. We are so happy you are here with us today, now please enjoy a few of our favorite things.” 

Are there any other theme-less brides out there? Are you worried about how it’s all going to tie together?

The Perfect Blend

Ah yes, my obnoxious hunt for favors. Aren't you tired of hearing about this? Well, I promise this is my last post about them! After Mr. Coyote and I decided on coffee favors I hunted high and low for cute little packaged favors that wouldn't break the bank. I was just about to give up hope when I turned to Etsy. Oh, Etsy… I cannot sing your praises enough. It is here that I found David and Julie of Idea Chic. They sell a myriad of party favors and stationary, but what really caught my eye was their "Love is Brewing" coffee and tea favors. 

Image via Idea Chic on Etsy

These guys are so freakin' nice it hurts. When I was waffling back and forth, they sent me a sample. When I couldn't properly describe the ribbon color they told me that I could send them a swatch and they would match it for me. And when I wasn't sure about the wording they let me customize it to my liking. They even told me I could order the favors preassembled or assemble them myself to save on costs. They were in constant communication with me and never once made me doubt choosing them to help create our wedding favors.

I chose to order the favors unassembled because I am a cheapskate, but they provided me with step-by-step instructions and answered my ten billion questions almost immediately. To say that I was impressed is an understatement. As soon as the box arrived I got to packaging. First I shoveled the coffee into the tins:

My apartment still smells like I just walked into a Starbucks. Yummmmm.

Then I used glue dots to secure the ribbon and tag and viola! The cutest stinkin' coffee favor I have ever seen!

But the story doesn't end here! Remember the Italian confetti? Well thankfully Momma Coyote handled this part of the favors and stuffed small silver organza bags with five pieces of confetti. Why five pieces? Well, I'm glad you asked! Each piece of candy signifies a wish for the bride and groom: health, wealth, happiness, fertility and longevity. 

I may or may not have sampled some of these while assembling, y'know to make sure no one died of botulism (gotta take one for the team sometimes). Apologies to any Coyote guests who receive a bag with four, or possibly only three, candies. Just remember, I'm doing this for YOUR safety. 

While I finished assembling the coffee tins I lured two of my minions bridesmaids over with promises of pizza and wine to help finish the rest of the favor "package". The coffee tin and confetti were placed into a clear bag and tied with curling ribbon:

Oh and I slipped our photo share cards in the back of the bag:

What's that? I didn't tell you how I solved my photo share card dilemma? I got myself a Vistaprint groupon and reordered the damn things for like $2 that's how.

Hey, look at that! That top card is actually legible now!

And then I bought this shirt because I'm awesome:

The Future Mrs. Coyote (except y'know, with my real soon-to-be last name)

Thank you Vistaprint! Any other brides out there have a love affair with Etsy and/or Vistaprint?