New Year, New Blog? Not So Much...

I was totally hoping to surprise everyone with a great new blog design for the New Year, but alas, I have not worked it out. I had a mini-heart attack earlier today in my attempts to update and write my own code. It worked in the test-blog I set up, but then I tried it here and I thought I'd lost all my links and followers and all this happened right as The Candyman wanted a quick smooch. Right at that moment I was freaking out. I was a bit of a Bitch and had to go apologize. Thus, I have given up for the time being on the blog redesign and have opted to write one instead. Go figure.

So where was I?

Right, I was threatening my family with imminent death if they sneaked peeks at the blog. Why? Because I got most people pictures for Christmas! I have to say, I am most impressed with myself. I was able to get a Photo Book made on-line, printed and sent to me at astonishing speed. I'm sure you are all familiar with the fancy-schmancy books you can buy from your photographer, InkuBook or Mac iPhoto. I got mine through MyPublisher, which I found through Costco's on-line photo section (hello, 20% discount!). I simply uploaded all the photos I wanted to tell the story of our wedding day, arranged them in the style of book I wanted (this took me ALL DAY) and had the printed versions in my hot, little hands a mere 3 days later! Totally bad-ass. We got the 15" x 11.5" size with a linen hardcover. If I could do it over again, I'd get the leather cover and pay the extra $$$. The linen cover is very nice, but it tends to fade in areas where it's touched, almost like it's getting dirty. Ew. However, I love my book and so do both sets of parents!

These are just some different shots of the pages so you can see all the different ways to set it up. You can also add text and all sorts of frames and such. It was actually really fun to do! If you're really interested in seeing how it turned out, send me your email addy and I'll send you the link to My Bookshelf on MyPublisher. The book was 47 pages and had 125 photos and was under $90 with my Costco discount!

I also took our engagement photos and loaded those into a small, paperback book as a secret gift to The Candyman. I put a few lines of "tender feelings" along with the photos. I don't know how much he liked it, but I liked making it for him!

I'll tell you what The Candyman was definintely happy about....the Wii I got for him! Look at that smile!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

I will be getting back to the wedding recaps starting with my next post! Now that all has been revealed, I can start posting my fav pics! Ooooh, I can't wait! I can't wait! It's like Christmas, all over again!

I do want to share with you one of the amazing sights that The Candyman and I saw in our Christmas travels.

Yes, the plate says TITMAN. Awesome. What was funny was that the driver noticed I was taking a picture and gave me a strange look as we passed him. I swear, I will never understand people. Never ever. I mean, how could I not take a picture of it?

P.S. I just noticed that I lost all my blog links in my sidebar. Swell. Just swell.

"I Wish" Wednesday

I hate waiting lists for on-line fashionista web-sites. It annoys me to no end. Looking to get on gilt? Do you wish you didn't have to wait? Consider your wish granted.

www.gilt.com/housebeautiful

No waiting. Instant gratification. And you can get the coveted Kenneth Lane Pear Pendant for $30. No lie.

Source

Viva La 80's!

OK, now I feel really famous! My old high school friend Mike Albo is a writer in New York. He's written a few books and often writes for different magazines and newspapers. He's also a performance artist. I had a MAD crush on the guy when I was a freshman and he was a sophomore. We were in the same geometry class. Nothing ever came of the mad crush, but I always enjoyed his company. We found each other on the Internet a few years back when I stumbled across a copy of his book in a local bookstore ("Hey, look at this book! The author is Mike Albo! I wonder if it's the same Mike I went to high school with?" Yes, indeed.) and read it cover to cover in a day. It was somewhat autobiographical, so I could identify with lots of parts of the story. I tried to figure out who was who, exactly. Good times. Anyway, he writes lots of reviews and here's one he wrote recently. SO LOVE that I got a freakin' call out in The New York Times!!! Check it out!

New Wave's Next Generation

Viva La 80's!

The Thirty-Something Bride circa 1985, loved the single dangle earring. I believe the ensemble was from the ever-hip Foxmoor.

Circa 1986, rockin' the Robert Smith 'do. Note the little frizz of hair on my shoulder? Yup, killer long tail is what that is. You're jealous, you know you are. Sweater by Krizia, a staple designer at The Limited, back in the day.

Circa 1987, sporting a more angst-ridden Ally Sheedy-style. I do miss that watch. The shirt was my first-ever purchase from Urban Outfitters (do not ask me how I remember this) and the pants were from The Limited. I worked there for two years. I had a bad-ass wardrobe.

"I Wish" Wednesday!

I so wish I'd had this for Save the Dates! How much fun is this? Almost as fun as opening wedding presents. Almost.

The folks over at Robbins Brothers (you know, the engagement ring store) contacted me about this so cute widget! You can use it for Save the Dates, Engagement Announcements or just a super cute video for your wedding web site! I'm totally going to upload to ours!

A Virtual Love Note

Featuring Louise and The Candyman

Create your own at Robbins Brothers, The Engagement Ring Store

Head over to their site and make one for yourself! It's totally easy and kinda fun, I have to admit!

Is He The Pink Panther? Or Lipstick?

Source

You all may remember my quickie post regarding my 4-year old flower girl and her theories on God. Apparently, she has changed her current beliefs. Her mother reports:

Theology update from this morning at breakfast:

The Girl (out of nowhere): "I think God is the Pink Panther."

The Pink Panther, lipstick. Either way, I'm good.

God is Lipstick

My MOH is my cousin, who is also a mother of two. Her Girl Child is also my Flower Girl. She recently went on an Alaskan cruise and my MOH blogged about the following:

During a conversation in which I, again, was trying to explain God to the children, my daughter said, "Well, I believe that God is lipstick."

Clearly, a girl after my own heart. If God isn't lipstick, s/he should be.

SPLASHED!

I've been so busy with travel and work, I've so neglected the blog part of blogging! In the recent past, I was "Splashed" by two fellow bloggers, Sarah Elizabeth and Marian over at Escaping the Single Life.

The Splash Award is given to alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive and inspiring blogs. When you receive this award you must:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let your nominees know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog

Thanks so much for the kudos, you guys! I really appreciate it. In addition to these two wonderful fellow bloggers, I'd like to "Splash" a few of my favorites!

Liza Hippler at Maiden to Married. Liza has some wonderful insights for brides. She has been an amazing "resource" for me and I am so thankful to have met her.

Kristina over at Wedding on Half a Dime. I love her style!

Sharon and Jonathon over at Jonathon Campbell's blog. I truly believe that choosing these guys as our photographer was kismet, fate, karma - something. These two have become a wonderful addition to our lives.

Ashely of Ashley's Bride Guide. Because she's freakin cool, that's why.

Luzel, Mandy and Sharon from iDIY. I love this site for all it's amazing freebies, downloads, ideas and insights. Just love it. You must go check it out.

Thanks again to Marian and Miss SE for the award!

Oh, for goodness sake. Just Twitter, already.

I signed up for Twitter a few months ago and have done nothing with it, until now. It's pouring rain in Hong Kong, I need to regroup before I head out to India tomorrow and I'm procrastinating by blogging. At any rate, I'm twittering and RSS feeding and doing all sorts of crap and I have no idea what it all really means. At any rate, follow me, yo.

Didn't win the $50? Here's another chance!

The Relentless Bride is offering the same giveaway as I did! Check out her site and enter once as day until June 10th!

And the winner is.......

THE FUTURE MRS. SMITH!!!

I am so happy to announce the winner of my first-ever contest! Fellow Nashville blogger The Future Mrs. Smith is now the proud owner of a $50 gift certificate to Moments of Elegance! Here is TFMS's winning comment entry:

i'm a longtime follower, but i added your button! :)
and... i want freeze dried rose petals. they look so pretty.

Congratulation again and thank to everyone who entered! I can't wait to have another contest!

To TFMS - please email me at thethirtysomethingbride@gmail.com so I can give you your coupon code!

*Insert Ear-Piercing Scream Here*

Even though my awesomely awesome photographer Jonathon and he equally awesome wife Sharon are on vacation, they posted a sneak peek of our engagement shoot on their blog. I have, of course, been stalking their blog ever since the shoot. I wanted to crawl out of my skin in anticipation! Click on the pics to make them big.

Jonathon took this one on a lonely road on the way to Leipers Fork. Well, we thought it was lonely. There was quite a bit of traffic for a Sunday afternoon!

I love this photo! I think I was balanced on the side of a hill for this one, but I'm not sure. The Candyman looks so handsome, it kills me.

Sharon, Jonathan, thank you so much for my sneak peek and for the fabulous time during the photo shoot. You two are top notch.

Memorial Madness!

OK, so I have become addicted to Polyvore and ShopStyle. More on that later, but I felt I should share, just in case I need an intervention of some sort.

The Candyman and I had a great long weekend! It started off on Thursday with amazing news for The Candyman! We celebrated with sushi at our local sushi place called Minami. The restaurant is so small and so near our house, it's our favorite last-minute-celebration-go-to-spot!

I came home Friday afternoon to see The Candyman had finished laying the tile in our backyard and it looks good! I knew we'd be planting something this weekend.

Saturday, The Candyman and I went to have brunch and run errands, but the "run errands" part turned into, "let's go vintage shopping and pretend we're running errands."

Sunday we did brunch again, then actually ran some errands. We headed over to my friend Philip's house and helped him enjoy his gorgeous patio and a great dinner.

Monday, we planted. I napped.

In between all that fun, I managed to completely finish my invites, print and cut my recipe cards and thank-you tags I'm planning on using for my favors. I started printing my menus, but haven't gotten far. Um, hello. Did I not just mention Polyvore?

I also bought a pair of potential wedding day shoes. I found them on Zappos via ShopStyle. As an interesting note, I was blabbering to The Candyman about the shoes, where I found them, etc. He mentioned that "zapatilla/zapato" is Spanish for shoe. Is that the source of the name for Zappo's? Me wonders......

Here's the visual update!

I got these at Zappos for under $80! Keep your fingers crossed that they fit and that the heel isn't too high. Great thing about Zappos is that return policy! They were listed as "new" on Thursday (I think) and I got the second to the last pair of blue 8-1/2's!

My favorite!

The Candyman and I headed out to the 12th Avenue South area in Nashville to do our non-errand errands. We ended up at Savant Vintage Couture (I'd link, but she's so retro, she doesn't even have a website!) where I found these lovely, seed pearl purses and the feather and pearl hat. You like? ;) Maybe a little much.....

Newly potted pretties!

The Candyman finished the tile on Friday and we worked on some flowers this weekend. We still need to figure out what to do on the left side. I'm thinking more boxwood bushes like we did by the stairs. See below:
Boxwoods. Clearly, our grass has some patch-issues. We're working on it! Our little postage-stamp backyard will be awesome soon!

Basil, flowers and rosemary.

I hope everyone had a fabulous long Memorial Day weekend! A shout out to my pop, The Colonel. Twenty-five years of service, including a year in Vietnam, Marine Corps Fighter Pilot. Thanks, Dad!

New Button

I learned how to make my very own button. I'm not sure I like the particular design as I kinda rushed through it. Do you guys like it? Should I rethink it? Would you share it if I made it easy to cut and paste? Does anyone care?

I was just wondering how it was done and did some online research. Actually, it's super easy! I went here and followed the directions. Easy! I did use the xs.to web site to upload the image into html.

Anyway, here it is. It links to my site! Geek fun!

Big Mean Turtle

While this isn't very wedding/bride related, I think it merits a post.

I was driving home from the gym yesterday, chatting on the phone with my friend in California (hands-free device, of course). I generally take this lonely back road because it has beautiful farms, rolling hills and old oak trees that line both sides of the road. There is no shoulder and in some spots, pitches into a ditch.

I came over the top of a hill and saw something in the road. No one was behind me or in front of me so I stopped to check it out. It was a HUGE turtle, the biggest I've ever seen in my life up close. I didn't want to leave him there, nor did I want to leave my car parked just over the crest of a hill. I was asking my friend what I should do - how I should move him and she said to just pick him up. Hell, NO! This turtle's shell was easily over a foot long and he didn't even scoot in his shell when I walked over to him. I nudged his rear end with my foot to try to move him along and the thing snapped at me! I, of course, screamed. I'm sure my friend went partially deaf. I have no idea why this turtle was so mean, or why I was so afraid of the damn thing.

I continued to scoot, scream, jump. Scoot, scream, jump. Scoot, scream, jump - until I had him as close to the edge of the road as I could. I tried to get him off, but he kept holding on with his mean little turtle claws. I told my friend that no one would believe me. Then I remembered I had a camera in my purse, so I took his picture. Behold the ferocious turtle who nearly ate me, even though I was trying to help him.

Paper and Cake

OK, so if I wasn't 94.27% done with my invitations and hadn't already purchased all my printing stuff as well as chosen my wedding colors, I would totally buy this instead.

The company is called Paper & Cake and of course they have a lovely Etsy shop. They have buy-what-you need templates for all kinds of party supplies and invitations. These are the wedding goodies I like:

You can buy each template for $10, with a 10% discount on 5 or more items.
* Invitation
* Response card
* Save the Date card
* Ceremony Program cover
* Map card
* 8.5 x 11 Letterhead
* Menu
* Favor Bag Topper
* Favor Box
* Place Cards
* Circle tags
* Table numbers

They also have fun bachelorette party supplies for $5!

Check out their blog and become a follower. Why? Here's why:

"We do love our followers.... so here is a special offer, just for you.

How does "buy 3 $5 sets, get the fourth free" sound? Just purchase your three sets in our Etsy shop, and write in the message area which set you would like us to throw in for free.

This offer does not ever expire... that is how much we love you!"

Goodie Bag

I've got a lot of random stuff that I've been meaning to share, so I'll do a little catch-all here in order to get it all out!

I saw these in the Two's Company catalog and am smitten. Makes me wish I was having a beach wedding!

This is a board I created from a wedding featured in Veranda magazine (I subscribe). I didn't get it posted very quickly and then it was featured on Style Me Pretty, so there wasn't a real rush. My thoughts? Pretty. Gorgeous. Expensive.

Briar Press has tons of FREE down loadable "ornaments" like monograms, borders, birds and beasts, flowers and lots of others. These are just a few I like.

GORGEOUS etched champagne flutes from Anthropologie. These were only $12 each. I almost got them for our toasting flutes, but stopped myself. I might go back and get them though.

They also had the etched pattern in wine glasses. I love the merchandising here - how they've planted herbs in the glasses. Actually, chives in back and I'm pretty sure that's a strawberry plant on the left. I think this is a grand idea for table arrangements. Lovely.

These are on sale at Pottery Barn. They aren't for sale on their website though, in-store only. Cute for bridesmaids, but contemporary enough for groomsmen. There are lots of men out there who like scented candles!

I love these! It's felted soap from Anthropologie. The wool encases the soap and as you use it, the felt exfoliates your skin and the soap shrinks. When the soap is gone, you cut open the felt shell and replace your soap and re-use! Re-Use. Re-Cycle. Go green, if and where you can. Great BM gifts, at $14.00 each.

Last, but not least - I was perusing local letterpress companies and found this non-local company F2 Design from Lubbock, Texas. They have this awesome letterpress poster of Blues/R&B/Funk master Little Milton. Grits Ain't Grocery is a great song (The Candyman will be flabbergasted that I know it) with oddly romantic lyrics:

If I don't love you baby
Grits ain't grocery,
Eggs ain't poultry,
And Mona Lisa was a man

(Oh yeah! Let's get into it. Listen.)

All around the world, I'd rather be a fly
I'd light on my baby and stay with my woman till I die
With a toothpick in my hand I'd dig a ten foot ditch
And run all through the jungle fighting lions with a switch
Because you know I love you baby
Oh you know I love you baby yeah
Now if I don't love you baby I tell you

Grits ain't grocery,
Eggs ain't poultry,
And Mona Lisa was a man

(Oh baby. Uh! Listen.)

All around the world I've got blisters on my feet
I'm trying to find my baby and bring her home with me
You better run into me baby and be convinced
If you don't run it to me right now woman
You ain't got no sense
Because you know I love you baby
Oh you know I love you baby yeah
Well if I don't love you baby I tell you

Grits ain't grocery,
Eggs ain't poultry,
And Mona Lisa was a man

(C'mon y'all. Hit me. Oh baby. Listen.)

All around the world I never will forget
I lost all my money, my woman, and my pet
But I've got to have you baby and I will settle for nothing less
Give up all my good time baby and stay for happiness
Because you know I love you baby yeah
Oh you know I love you baby yeah
Well if I don't love you baby I tell you

Grits ain't grocery,
Eggs ain't poultry,
And Mona Lisa was a man

The very first dish I ever made The Candyman was yellow grits (none of that white crap) made with whole cream served with this salmon salad I make (grilled salmon, green onions, red bell pepper, lemon juice, olive oil - done). They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Mission accomplished! :)

A Quick Picture by JCP!

Clockwise from the left: Ashley, The Candyman (in the waaaaay back), Liza, T30SB, Tabitha and Sharon

OK, so I couldn't get home fast enough from shopping to post this awesome pic from last night taken by Jonathon of Jonathon Campbell Photography. There are a few more pictures you can check out over on their blog too. We had a lot fun last night!