Sometimes being a bride means you have to make sacrifices — waking up at the crack of dawn to workout, driving all over town for vendor meetings, having a “to do” list that is pages long. It can be a tough job. And then… there are the tastings! My fiancé and I have enjoyed our tastings so much that we’re considering keeping our “newly engaged” moniker after we’re married just so we can continue trying out all of these wonderful caterers, bartenders and bakers! But, alas, our wallet, our wastelines and our moral compass will forbid us from doing so. I will, however, savor every last bit of the tastings we do have scheduled! This past weekend we enjoyed — er, I mean we ”endured for the well being of all our guests” a cake tasting. Witness the aftermath (pictured above). All I have to say to my trainer is: “I’ll do a few more minutes of planking to make up for this indulgence… and for the box of macarons that I took home!”

I’m one lucky gal! Not only one but TWO bridal showers are being thrown for me in celebration of our upcoming June nuptials! I’m headed back east this weekend because two of my sister-in-laws are hosting the second bridal shower near where I grew up in Pennsylvania. In contrast to our Jack & Jill shower back in February, this shower is going to be just us gals! How does that translate to the invitation design? A pastel color palette with a pop of metallic gold and a font with lots of swoops and swirls!

This invitation design started with the ombré background (hand drawn by yours truly!). It provided some color and texture upon which the slate grey typography was set. The swirly, curly and very girly Carolyna font is balanced by the clean lines of two sans serif fonts: Bebas Neue (outlined) and Nobel. (Psst, Bebas Neue is a free font download!) The modernity of the sans serif font is carried over to the color of the envelope and the clean lines of the gold herringbone paper used for the envelope liner. The liners were hand cut using Paper Source’s envelope liner template. For a quick refresher on how to line envelopes, check out my DIY video!

Looking forward to sipping some bubbly, noshing cupcakes and catching up with all the gals!

Since today is April Fool’s Day, I felt this post from MamamiaRita was particularly appropriate… Enjoy!

This is yet another saying that the nuns taught us in grammar school. Lying is an easy sin to commit as a young child, so it came up frequently in confessional. Often I did not truthfully answer the questions the priest asked, so by mentioning lying as my last sin immediately before I left the confessional, I felt I had covered all my bases. (This is not a very good thought process to use when going to confession!)

We have all been caught in a situation where the initial lie is small but becomes compounded and more complex as you sink deeper. It would have been much easier to just speak the truth, take the backlash, then move on with your life. Now, sometimes the truth is NOT sufficient.

Example: “Do I look heavy in this dress?”

No one wants to hurt somebody’s feelings. If you cannot be tactful & say:

“That is a beautiful color on you!”

“That style is slimming!”

Then just say: “No, you look fine.”

It is all in your choice of words. Truth & tact here go hand in hand.
—MamamiaRita

#1. This dish belonged to my Great Aunt Daisy (aka Lupa). It is a numbered piece from Italy. The chocolate eggs were handmade by another friend, Claudia. There are at least 5 flavors. Each one is better than the next but my favorite is peanut butter followed closely by coconut.

#2. My favorite vase with an Easter arrangement.

#3. Two porcelain eggs that were crafted by my friend’s mother, Ida. She was an art teacher many years ago. She continued to paint, sculpt & garden into old age. They look good enough to eat, don’t they?

Buona Pasqua!
MamamiaRita

There are “sayings” told to you as a little child that you never forget. At Saint Michael’s — the Catholic school that I attended in Atlantic City, New Jersey — the nuns that taught us had much to say. These “sayings” were made up of words to live your life by. This (above) was one of them. Making trouble for the nuns, who probably already had enough troubles, would bring heaps of trouble down on you — trouble not only in school but at home too. This is not only a great alliteration but also something to ponder.