Shower Tips

As you have seen, I have recently had the pleasure of attending three bridal showers - one for my Friend Y, for whom I will be a bridesmaid in July, and two for moi! I have picked out some of the highlights to share with you from all three showers.

1. Serve delicious food. This may seem obvious, but it can come in so many different ways! Friend Y served sushi, dumplings and salads and it deliciously unique. My Syracuse shower featured homemade food from nearly all the attendees - there was too much to choose from! My family shower had a shmorgousboard (is there a correct way to spell that?) of bagels, spread, fruits and desserts, and everyone left happy and full. I would say that the food was integral to all three events, and though different, always delicious.

2. Take pictures! Sadly, I didn't get any pictures from my Syracuse shower, and it would have been a great opportunity to take pictures of many of the women here that I will soon be leaving. Believe me, I won't miss that opportunity again at my going away party! On the other hand, I got some great pictures from my family shower, seizing the opportunity to take family shots with people that I do not get to see often.

3. Make bonding opportunities. This can come in many forms - at Friend Y's shower, it was when we all wrapped her in toilet paper - most of the bridesmaids had never met, and this was a great way for us to work together. At my Syracuse shower, it was when everyone shared a story from their own weddings - we were given a little piece of insight into each other's past, and we were all laughing the whole time. At my family shower, it was the game where Mr. Hermit Crab and I had to correctly guess each other answers. My extended family got to learn a lot about the two of us, and they would share related stories as we went along - it was an amazing bonding experience.

4. ENJOY! This is such a big "duh" that I can't even really say more. It would have been easy to be annoyed at my mom, or worried about having a shower where most of the guests weren't invited, but I went, enjoyed, and came away with amazing memories.

All pictures are personal photos

Do you have tips on a great shower? Share!

April Showers Bring...

June weddings!

In April, I was lucky enough to have not one, but two bridal showers thrown for me!

Cake topper from my bridal shower

The first was here in Syracuse, thrown for me by close friends of mine in the synagogue that I work in, and all the women in the synagogue were invited to attend. At first I felt funny about this party because I was not able to invite many people from Syracuse to the wedding, including most of the people who came to the shower, but I was assured by my friend that people just wanted to celebrate with me, and would understand that I couldn't invite everyone. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pictures, but about 30 women came out, and most brought something delicious for a dessert potluck. At one point, we went around the room and all the women shared something funny from their own weddings - we had stories including everything from disruptive father in laws, to lost pants and everything in between. It was a really nice afternoon, and I loved hearing a little about everyone's past!

Then, my mom, my cousin F, and my Aunt Bobbe threw me a shower for the women in mine and Mr. Hermit Crab's families. We wound up with 18 people and it was just wonderful! There was a never-ending spread of bagels, cream cheese, fruits and veggies and of course, dessert. Unbeknownst to me, Mr. Hermit Crab's sister had made a video of asking him questions that I had to guess the answer on. For every question I answered incorrectly, I had to chew a piece of bubblicious. Luckily, I did not get that many wrong, because man! that stuff takes up a lot of room! Actually, I would say that Mr. Hermit Crab and I did remarkably well on that game - I guess we really do know each other ;).

The spread - yum!



The cake - people couldn't stop saying how delicious it was! If you look closely, you'll see that the girl on the cake looks a bit, how should I put...preggers! (see above picture at the top of the post for a better view). I didn't know if someone was trying to send me a hint or something, but I assured everything that this was just a bridal shower and nothing else!

My FMIL, Stepmom and little sister, and my Mom, finishing out the toast

The lovely ladies of my generation on my mom's side of the family - just to my left, Cousin F threw the shower for me and just got engaged herself! So exciting that we get to plan another wedding together for next year :)

The Hermit Crab ladies - Bubbe (grandma) Hermit Crab (flew all the way in from Milwaukee to celebrate with me!), Little Sister and Stepmom Hermit Crab

Finally, me and mama Hermit Crab - everyone kept saying we look like sisters, she loves that!

(All pictures are personal photos)

Part of what I've loved about the wedding are the opportunities here and there to get together with small group of people that I love and share this time with them. I can honestly say that that has been my favorite part of this whole experience!

Did you have showers? What has been your favorite part of being engaged?

Invitations: Paper Choices

Now that you've seen all there is to see of our invitation suite, and you're probably sick of it, there is one last thing I want to talk about.

(Just in case you needed a refresher - photo sent to me by Kristin at Twin Ravens Press)

We were pretty set on using certain paper, and I think you'll be interested to hear about it. In case you've forgotten, here's the whole suite. The booklet almost contained one final page that would have read the following:

About these booklets

The interior pages of this wedding invitation booklet were letterpress printed on post-consumer recycled, cotton fiber blend paper that has been embedded with wildflower seeds that will grow almost anywhere. If you don't wish to retain this wedding invitation, simply moisten its pages and plant just under the surface of some soil in a sunny spot. Water regularly until seeds germinate and watch them grow!

This cover of this booklet and lining of the envelopes are made from handmade lotka paper imported from Nepal. This paper is made using centuries-old traditions with fibrous bark from the daphne cannabina shrub, which grows at high altitudes in the Himalayas. Because these papers are handmade and hand-dyed in Nepal, they are subject to slight variation in color and thickness, making each and every piece unique.

Not only was it important to us that these invitations be unique, but we tried to be eco-conscious. I don't think that everyone is going to plant our invitations, but if they throw them away, (they are not! they will save them forever!) they will at least be totally biodegradeable. (I do realize, of course, how much paper this used, but we tried where we could!)

Speaking of plantable invitations, remember our save the dates? Some people have planted them and they are really beginning to sprout! So exciting!

So that concludes the invitations saga. I am so enjoying getting the rsvps back - I especially love when people write little notes, or how a couple of people have actually used the drawing and colored it in or added their own flowers!

Did you try to make eco-friendly choices throughout your planning? Share your eco-conscious secrets!

Invitations: The Final Product!

It is the moment I have been waiting for for SO long! I absolutely love our invitations and could not wait to share them with you! These were a true collaboration between so many wonderful artists - our letterpress printer Kristin of Twin Ravens Press, our incredible map maker Crystal Kluge, our calligrapher Fran of Little Flower Calligraphy (for wording in the invitation and also our envelopes), and our Hebrew calligrapher Jerise. I found each of these artists (with the exception of Crystal) on Etsy, and I cannot begin to recommend this site enough. You can literally find someone for everything, and I have been incredibly happy working with each person - and anything that I haven't found, I have been able to find here on the 'Bee!

So you're like, enough already, give us the goods...and without further adieu:

Just a warning: this post is chock full of pretty pictures. (It pained me to blot them out even a little but you can use your imagination!) All pictures sent to me from the amazing and talented Kristin from Twin Ravens Press.

Here is the first thing that our guests saw on the back on the envelope. They would carefully, carefully open the seal (yeah, right) to reveal...

An envelope lined with pretty petal embedded lotka paper ("Wow, what a neat detail," they would notice) and then...

This pretty blue booklet with a dried pressed flower on the cover! "I can't wait to see more!" they would exclaim.

The first page is a traditional Hebrew poem, often used during weddings. The words in English are:

Again may these be heard in the cities of Judah
And in the streets of Jerusalem
The voices of gladness and voices of happiness
The voice of bridegroom and bride

And a close up of the writing - this page alone features the talent of three different artists! Kristin of Twin Ravens Press dress the flowers (and did the letterpress), Jerise did the Hebrew Calligraphy and Fran of Little Flower Calligraphy did the English calligraphy. I love how well all the styles came together.

They would turn the page to find the information. "Oh how lovely! I can't wait until June!" was their enthusiastic response.

And a close up here because it is just so beautiful! The same three artists came together here. We chose to use three colors to make this page pop.

Ah, the map. Crystal Kluge is responsible for this lovely little surprise! Our guests will now remark how whimsical this map is, and how they love getting to know us just a little bit better this way. Coming soon, you'll see how we use this little guy again!

Hm, the accommodations page. Our guests will surely book their hotel rooms just as soon as they read this!

The RSVP card! Pretty even on its own, it is going to be the inspiration for our thank you cards, which are in the works.



I loved the light blue envelope with the RSVP card, just another pop of color and a little addition of interest. Of course our guests saw this and said, "Oh! I must send this back right away!" Right...

And the final piece to our set. Not to be forgotten, the directions page is a lovely way to end the tour through our invitations.

So here is the whole suite, just as our guests laid them out when they received them, I'm sure ;)
In honesty, these so far exceed my expectations, I could not be happier with the way that they came out. I was able to work with so many talented artists and truly make our invitation dream a reality. I wouldn't change a thing!

We were very conscious in our choices, though, that we made for this suite. Stay tuned for Invitations: Paper Choices.

Did any of your wedding projects exceed your expectations? Share your happy stories!

THE Look

This weekend I will be going for my first dress fitting, so I thought I would take a moment and put together my look for you.

(source, source, source, source, source, the rest are personal photos)

I have yet to purchase my shoes, but I am pretty sure this is the look that I will be going for - fun, pink and silvery. I usually wear sparkles on my nail polish, so I think it will be a great pair with pink. My small centerpieces will be a guide for my bouquet, and the colors will be vibrant. What do you think of this look? Any suggestions?

Have you put your look together? Hows it coming?

Inspiration Check In

Now that we're getting closer, I decided to take my original inspiration, and make an inspiration board to see how things are coming together.

I made this:

into this:

source for chocolate fountain
source for chuppah
source for Botanical Garden reception
all other pictures are personal photos

So far, so good! I think it's really coming together (anyway, I hope so, being less than two months out!). My vision for whimsical and colorful, fun and still sophisticated seems to be shaping up. Is your wedding coming together as you imagined it would?

Croatian Vacation

We're booked! The day after the wedding the Hermit Crabs will be heading off for nearly two weeks in Croatia!

This is the moment when I'm telling people about our honeymoon that they start looking confused. But why Croatia, they ask. Why not? we say in return.

When picking a honeymoon destination, we had a few criteria.

• Neither of us had been there
• Safe for tourism
• Affordable (excluding airfare)
• Not a resort, tour, cruise, etc.
• Preferably cities and histories, though beaches wouldn't bother us
• Good weather in June
• Not too far (24 hours of traveling was out)

The first criteria knocked a lot of places off the list for us since we have both done a lot of world traveling, both separately and together. Some of our original considerations: South of France driving tour, Morocco, Argentina and Chile, Croatia, Greece, driving tour of Germany.

When we first started dating years ago, I talked about my desire to visit Croatia. While Mr. Hermit Crab wasn't originally totally sold, we started looking it up, and over the last few years, we've gotten really excited about visiting. When it came time to book, we knew that's where we wanted to be. Let me take you on a little tour of our proposed itinerary of Croatia - Zagreb to Dubrovnik and back: There and back again, a Newlyweds Tale (sorry for the Lord of the Rings reference!)

(source)

We will be flying into Zagreb, and working our way down to Dubrovnik and back again in about 10 or 11 days. It is 11 hours from Zagreb to Dubrovnik in one trip, to give you an idea of the size of the country. We can travel through most of the country by land and water.

(source)

We'll start in the city of Zagreb - exploring 17th century architecture and museums from art to natural history and everything in between

(source)

In Pula, we'll see Roman architecture and eat in seaside cafes

(source)

Described by a friend of mine as "the most beautiful place she has ever seen," we'll take in the Plitvice Lakes State Park

(source)

We'll stop in Split and explore the Diocletian Palace and from what I hear, lots of lively nightlife and great food, all with splendid views

(source)

We'll weave in and out of the islands on the Dalmation coast, visiting small islands and beautiful architecture

(source)

At the south most end of the country, we'll spend a few days in Dubrovnik. Another friend of mine claims it to be his favorite place in the world - unparalleled beauty, delicious food, interesting history and museums and so much more.

We'll travel down and then back up again, hitting different cities and islands in each direction.

How did Croatia meet our criteria?

• Neither of us had been there easy - check
  
• Safe for tourism as far as I know, and I haven't heard otherwise
  
• Affordable (excluding airfare) not on the Euro yet, the dollar is still strong
  
• Not a resort, tour, cruise, etc. we're planning our own way, check
  
• Preferably cities and histories, though beaches wouldn't bother us hey, a little of both!
  
• Good weather in June should be beautiful!
  
• Not too far (24 hours of traveling was out) 10 hours, not too shabby
  

I am so looking forward to getting away and spending our first few weeks as Mr. and Mrs. Hermit Crab in Croatia!

What criteria did you use to determine your honeymoon destination? Where are you going? Have you ever been to Croatia - have any tips for us?

Roadblock

(source)

I've hit a road block. There is something that I just have to take care of for the wedding weekend that I can't seem to bring myself to do, and I've been skirting the issue for months now. Why? I'm not sure. I'm sure I'm making it more confusing, complicated and scary than it will really be, maybe I'm worried it is going to be a logistical nightmare. Whatever it is that is precluding me, it's doing a great job! I will find an excuse to do almost anything else - from something for work to cleaning the litterbox, you name it, I'm on it, as long as I don't have to do this. Want to meet the culprit of my anxiety?

(source)

This seemingly innocent vehicle has been the source of sleepless nights and well, lots of productivity. I know I need to arrange the transportation for the wedding weekend events, but for some reason, I just can't! I feel like I have truly hit a psychological road block on this one. Thank goodness it has not stopped me from doing other projects that I've left for the last two months of my 20-month engagement, like the table numbers and the out of town bags (more to come soon, you'll love them!), but it's draining none the less!

Anyone else have to take care of transportation for several hundred people? Anyone else hit a roadblock - any advice for getting around it (preferably other than "just do it already" - I already know that!)?

Being a Bridesmaid: Shower time

As a bridemaid in Friend Y's wedding coming up in July, I have gotten to enjoy wedding planning from a totally different perspective. Recently, we went down to Philly for a bridal shower thrown by Y's family. It was a gorgeous shower, complete with all the guests filling out a page in a scrapbook for Y, tons of presents, and of course, more delicious food than we could possibly eat! It was also a great opportunity for all of us bridesmaids to get together since we all live far apart (from Israel to Atlanta and everywhere in between).

Mr. Hermit Crab and Mr. Y-to-be were the lucky men at the event. They were great sports about it!

The room was set up in Y's colors, blue and white, and the flower arrangements were beautiful.

There was, of course, a champagne toast



And since Y had no yet gotten her dress, one was made for her!

Y and all the bridesmaids!

It is so much fun planning a wedding with a close friend! We get to enjoy planning our own, and then being part of the planning for another. I am looking forward to her wedding in Israel in July, and sharing all the details with you! (All pictures are personal photos)

Are you able to enjoy wedding planning from more than one perspective? Have you ever been bridesmaid? I'd love to hear your advice!

NOLA Bachelorette Weekend

Recently, I had my bachelorette weekend in New Orleans, Louisianna, and it was one of the most fun, most ridiculous weekends of my entire life. I can't wait to tell you all about it, so here's

Part 1 or, What I Expected:

After a short delay in the airports, I finally arrived in NOLA, greeted by my three amazing ladies, and three of my lifetime closest friends:

Friend M, a friend from life here in Syracuse

Friend B, from day 1 of sleepaway camp when we were 11 and all these years later!

Friend A, since Kindergarten, and the spearhead of all our activities while in NOLA

We headed out for dinner at celebrity chef John Besh's restaurant for dinner. After dinner, I got a text from another high school friend who was flying down for the weekend that we should meet him at a certain bar.

We arrived at said bar way before we expected BL to arrive. In the meantime, we were descended on by the party-goers of a bachelor party who had chosen the same bar. However, they were heavily into their evening, and I'll share this shot with you that accurately sums up how we felt about their company:

Luckily for us, they seemed to lose interest pretty quickly!

Friend BL finally arrives (on the left). On the right is a friend of mine that I met when we were on a teen tour of Europe nine years ago! We were great friends, but kind of lost touch. I saw that he was living in New Orleans and I went out on a limb and told him I was coming down. We reconnected for the first time in nine years, and it was amazing to see him!

Also, another friend of mine and his girlfriend showed up that night to surprise me. They had gone to Tulane, and met us out that night. It was a great surprise. However, it was only the first, and most mild, of many surprises. So here comes

Part 2 or What I Had NO Idea Was Coming...

We went to brunch the next morning and returned to the hotel room to wait while our other friend and his girlfriend got ready. Quick disclaimer: THIS POST IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART (OR MY PARENTS) and the accessories and beverages that you will see here are not my usual - I was living on the edge ;).

Anyway, this is when the "bachelorette" party started. I was given some pretty new accessories:

There is a straw, necklace and light up headband in this picture that are not what they might seem at first glance...

And what happened next caused Friend A and I to react like this:

Yes, that is us barely able to breathe from laughing so hard!

I wish I could share pictures with you of what was happening, but I have been threatened with end-of-friendship if the pictures appear on the internet! In short, there was music, there was dancing, there were tear away pants, there were, shall we say, ladies undies, and there were three surprise guests bringing them all together!

I caught a thrown accessory during the show

The surprise of these three friends - three of my oldest guy friends (since kindergarten!) would have been enough, but the routine really put it over the edge. It was absolutely the most hilarious surprise ever!

After the show, everyone cleaned up and headed out on the town together for live music and sunshine. Aren't we a good looking group? My mom joked with me that I would have more guys than girls at my bachorlette party! I can't help it - these are like brothers!

Of course, we came back to the hotel to get ready to go out for the evening, and I needed my new accessories.

I was dared to wear the headband out for at least a little while. I had absolutely no idea that they would attract so much attention! This woman actually passed us and then came running back to tell me how much she loved it! Priceless.

The next day included more music and for Friend BL, a NOLA classic: crawfish

All the ladies went to grab margaritas at, where else? Margaritaville!

We were sitting by the edge of the mighty Mississippi, enjoying the sunshine and music, when the silliest thing happened. Friend X is all the way on the left in the green shirt. We were sitting as were are in this photo when a tiny dog came up and started to pee on X! He jumped up and the dog ran back to its owner (he was on a leash!) When X said, "Hey, your dog peed on me!" The owner simply said, "Oh, well, you must have looked like a tree." And he walked away! None of us could believe that actually happened.

Three days later, I arrived back home, elated, exhausted and so excited for the wedding! This was the first wedding event in the months close to the wedding, and it made it really seem real. I also came home so grateful for such amazing friends. We had absolutely the best weekend, just being away together and enjoying life. I needed this break and I love my friends - I couldn't have asked for a better weekend! (All photos in this post by amazing Friend M).

What is your favorite bachelorette party that you've ever been to? If you're having a bachelorette party, will it be co-ed? Share your favorite stories!