Weddingbee PRO

Mondays are generally my catch-up days. I try to do as little business stuff as possible and focus on cleaning my house, grocery shopping, paying bills, taking my dogs hiking, etc. Since I'm in a catching-up mood, there are a few things I promised to blog about and never did, so here it is in a condensed version!

1. I picked a bridesmaid dress for my sis's wedding! Actually, I picked 2. Then I returned 1.

The elegant Tadashi dress is gorgeous but needed to be taken in a little, which meant time and money to get it altered.

This Nicole Miller dress is a mini dress on the model, but it comes down to my knees! I really am a shrimp!

Even though the first dress is loads cuter, I went with the Nicole Miller for a few reasons- the price, the re-wearability factor (not sure when else I can pull off a tight lacy black dress) and the fact that it fit like a glove. I will be busy enough with flowers and matron of honor duties; I don't want to worry about altering my dress.

2. My house is coming along! There is still much to be done, but here is an artsy fartsy look at the living room. You can just barely see the curtains I sewed and the beautiful botanical prints on the wall. Joe will be taking pictures of our favorite features in our new home, so I'll get back to you with those.

3. DIY Hurricanes -Here are the DIY instructions I promised for the book page hurricanes I made for Julia and James' wedding. Super easy!

• Gather up some old books -poetry books, old love stories, books that tie in with your theme or have special meaning to you as a couple. Picture books look especially sweet!
• Choose some pages, and scan them onto your computer.
• Resize them so that they will fill up the entire page in landscape when you print them.
• Print them onto vellum paper (Joann's has 50 page packs for less than $10).
• Wrap around small cylinder vases (I used vases that were 8.5in tall, or shorter, and 3.5in in diameter). Use vellum tape, or clear double stick tape to secure.

An excerpt from Little Women.

These hurricanes are ideal if your venue forces you to use LED candles instead of real flames- the vellum paper camouflages the LED candle perfectly, and all you see is a warm glow illuminating the book pages. So romantic!

4. A sweet surprise: This morning as I was blending my signature smoothie (banana, ice cubes, splash of OJ, splash of soy and agave nectar) my dogs started barking uncontrollably at someone outside. I looked out the peephole and saw a woman carrying 12 luscious cupcakes from Divine Desserts. For me? Thank you Kathy and Gregg! I had the moistest, creamiest chocolate cupcake with buttercream frosting for breakfast (I forced myself to drink the healthy smoothie first). I had a sugar high the whole day!

5. Thanks Jasmine! I received a disc of all the images from my Anytime session with Jasmine Star. I will share my favorites soon, but this picture just cracked me up:

This picture shows that Pesto (left) and Basil (right) really do share the same goofy features. Their floppy liver lips, googly eyes, black button noses, concerned expressions, slight double chin, even their facial markings.

Good, I feel all caught up now!

This week I'll be working on an aqua and orange wedding in Pacific Palisades. The look is sleek, modern and lush with subtle, beachy details. Can't wait!