The Kettles Approach The Finish Line

My wedding is less than a month away now. Yikes!! It's so exciting and so nerve-wracking all at once. I'm so excited to marry Mr. Kettle and I can't wait for our wedding day. But on the other hand, there are a million and one things left to do that I likely don't have the man hours to complete.

There are big things that happen around the 30 day out mark that any bride should be aware of. These things were not on any of my checklists!

1) Make final payments to vendors. Unless your vendors are magical elves who will take a credit card payment over the phone or internet, you'll need to schedule time to make these payments. Between Momma Kettle, Daddy Kettle, and myself, we've been running around the Chicago/Joliet area like chickens with our heads cut off delivering certified checks to all our different vendors.

2) Confirm all details on all contracts. Again, unless your vendors are magical elves who have Ivy League or Oxford proofreading skills, check your contracts. There were errors we caught in contracts from our florist, our venue, and our photographer. They were small fixes, but they were details that were important to the vision of the wedding.

3) Make sure your wedding party knows their schedule for the next 30 days. This is especially true if you have wedding party members who live out of town or have a hard time taking off from work. They need to know when and where you expect them in town. If you need to send out a newsletter or make 20 phone calls, make sure they know, otherwise you'll be missing a bridesmaid from your wedding rehearsal, and you don't want that.

4) You will have a lot of final details to decide, keep a list!! This one is important. You don't want to leave things like assigning someone to pick up grandma from the airport until the last minute.Sort out these final details and decisions as soon as you think of them, and keep a list so you know who is responsible for what. You will thank your self later when you aren't nearly as stressed as you could be.

These are things I picked up in the last couple days I just wanted to share with you. I climbed from underneath a pile of ribbon, satin, and tulle to keep you in the know. I'm looking forward to sharing posts soon about the frame I made for the sweetheart table, the (finally finished) ring bearer pillows (again!), and the flower girl baskets.

But before I go, I also want to share one of out final details. Mr. Kettle and I had a mini photo shoot with our wedding photographer. She was amazing and I'm so excited to work with her in a little under one month. The photos that she took will be used for our Poster Guest Book and also our personlized photo order cards that the photographers gift to the guests at the wedding. Want to see the photos we picked? Of course you do!

Image via Jolie Images

This shot will be for the poster. They are going to de-saturate the color so that the guests can sign all over the whole page. I've purchased purple, black, and gold permanent markers for them to sign.

Image via Jolie Images

This photo will be used at the photo card. This will go at every guest's seat at the reception so they know where to go to order photos from the photographer after the wedding.

Any tips for getting through the last 30 days before a wedding?

Great Hair & Makeup Advice

When I first told my friend who is a Mary Kay consultant as well as my hairstylist about my engagement, they both launched into plans for the wedding. I've read enough posts around the hive to be aware that having a good plan in place ahead of time can save you a lot of hassle in the long run and avert a possibly crisis.

So, hive, I will share with you what these two lovely ladies have told me in hopes that someone else (especially with my type of skin or hair) may benefit from their expertise.

Skin care: My skin type is combination skin. That means I have some areas that are normal, some that are dry, and some that are oily. I've been blessed in the skin department people. I've never had any terrible outbreaks or bad acne, even in puberty. But choosing the right products that make my skin neither dry nor oily has been a delicate balancing act. I use a Dove Bar on my face and skin because it has amazing moisturizers in it. I use Oil of Olay body lotion as well as Palmer's Cocoa Butter. My skin stays smooth and healthy because of it. We also do a number of Mary Kay products that are targeted towards someone in my age range. There's a long list of products I use, But I use them all every day for the most part, in addition to drinking lots of water.

Image: Oil of Olay Lotion via Bzz Agent

Image: Palmer's Cocoa Butter via Oh My Beauty

Image: Mary Kay TimeWise Night Restore Complex

Image: Mary Kay TimeWise Eye Cream

Image: Mary Kay TimeWise 3-in-1 Cleanser

Image: Mary Kay TimeWise Moisturizer

Image: Mary Kay Tinted Moisturizer in Bronze 2

That's a lot o' products for real y'all. We didn't add them all at once. I first tried the lotion back in 2007 and we just added the tinted moisturizer a little over a month ago. NEVER add multiple products at once if you can help it. How else can you identify what's working and what isn't?

Make-up plan: We are doing a classic Mary Kay Color Party for all my bridesmaids and Mr. Kettle's maid of honor MOH Sis. We will each get to play around with makeup colors and get a personally designed color palette for our day of makeup that will be based off our skin tones and the wedding colors. I don't know when in the world we'll get it scheduled, but I'm looking forward to it!

Hair care: My hairstylist has told me that keeping my locs healthy all the time is very important. There's not much we have to do for preparation for the wedding in terms of normal maintenance. But what we are focusing on is hair color. My locs are not my natural hair color. I can play with color a bit more because the hair won't get brittle or break since it's not being combed/brushed. But it is important to keep it from getting too dry. We deep condition my hair so it says a nice color and doesn't end up brassy or faded. She makes her own hair care products and if she gets a website or begins to sell it online, I'll let you know. Anyone in the Chicago area with specific questions, just ask and I'll pass on the info.

Hair plan: We're searching for the perfect hairstyle. But we're also playing with color now so we don't try a dye job two days before the wedding that I hate. Right now my hair is red, but I may want to go more golden brown in February. The plan is to try in out in January in case we need to adjust it lighter or darker.

Wedding Planning Tip #8: Have a real plan in place for your pre-wedding beauty regiment. Please don't shock your skin or hair right before your wedding.

Do you (did you) have a pre-wedding skin and hair care plan? Did it work?

I'm Ready For My Close Up - Our First Photographer Option

Mr. Kettle has only had a couple of jobs to do for this wedding. He was in charge of securing our musicians, which he took care of basically in under 24 hours. Go Mr. Kettle! He was also responsible for picking out the clothes for the guys, which he also took care of. The other big job he had was to find us a photographer.

Neither of us really wanted to do this job, but he saw how much it was stressing me out when my cell phone was being stalked by photographers trying to follow up.

Image:

 Mr. Kettle doesn't like me stressed, so he amazingly stepped in to help. Mima Kettle and FSIL Grand offered a suggestion for a photographer of a wedding they loved the pictures from. He's setup a phone meeting with them for Sunday and I'm excited to hear about what they have to offer.

Wanting to look at more than one photographer, trying to explore my options, (Momma Kettle and Mr Kettle must be rubbing off on me), we looked for others. We basically ignored all the ones I'd previously e-mailed. Perhaps it was their stalking that made us not want to work with them? We are people who need our space. Isn't that weird that when someone doesn't act like they want my business, I will walk away, but I'll also walk away when they seem like they're trying too hard? Wedding planning teaches you interesting things about yourself.

Wedding Planning Tip #7
Pay attention to your consistent responses. You'll learn a lot about yourself while planning your wedding if you pay attention.

So just how did we find this other photographer? Well, my best internet friend Google, this time in the form of gmail came to the rescue. Because Google collect user search data, they direct which ads you see while browsing their websites. I was checking my gmail and at the top of the screen was an advertisement for Jolie Images. I took a look at their website because their amazing prices drew me in.

I liked what I saw, so Mr. Kettle set up a meeting. We went to meet with them last week and they told us all about their wonderful packages. We really liked the personalities of everyone there (it's a family-run business) and we really liked the eye they had for pictures.

I was, in true-to-me fashion, ready to put down a deposit right then and there. But we will be meeting with the photographers suggested by our family and seeing what they have to offer. So now, some photographer wedding photos to give you an idea of why I liked them so much!

All Images provided by Jolie Images

I can already see our version of this picture!

How dreamy...

Gotta love this crazy shot

I would kill Mr. Kettle!

This one feels like us. Reminds me of our engagement photos.

OMG!! A rebel shot! I can only hope and pray we could do something like this somewhere on our wedding property.

I don't know what's better about this photographer. The personalities, the prices, the photos all are fighting for top spot. Did I mention they also work with a videographer who also charges surprisingly low prices (at least for Chicago). The piece de resistance: because our wedding is in February, we'll get our photos back in less than 8 weeks. This includes copyrights for all photos, access to the website, a cd and DVD with all the pics and video footage, the wedding video, and the picture album! Ah-mazing!

I can't wait to see what the other photographers have to offer so we can make our choice and check another big wedding decision off the list!

RSVP Karma Worry

I've been very worried about how RSVPs will go for all our wedding events because of two people, namely my mother and my fiance. Momma Kettle and Mr. Kettle are both.. RSVP-delinquents. Seriously, hive, they never never RSVP. I just knew this would cause a catastrophe for our wedding-related events because that's how karma works.

Many a bride have had to track down my momma to ask about attendance at a wedding for my mother only to respond, "I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know next week." And to my knowledge Mr Kettle has never RSVP'd to a wedding he wasn't a musician at.

In dramatic fashion, I've been drawing the back of my hand to my forehead and sighing worriedly that no one will RSVP to our events. Don't worry, I knew they'd come, I just figured we'd never be able to get an accurate head count ahead of time.

Our e-party invites had gone out and on them people were asked to either call/text my mother with their RSVP or go to our wedding website and do it.

There have been all types of responses. A couple called/texted my mom and a couple went to our website. But oh, there were others.

There were rebels.

Personal Photo

One of our friends RSVP'd through Facebook on Mr. Kettle's wall. And he wanted to bring a plus one. Mr. Kettle had to inform him that he wasn't getting a plus one for our e-party or any other wedding event.

That's rough to say, but if we're not inviting family members and close friends of our own, we certainly don't have room for extra random people two and three degrees of separation away.

I think the rules of plus ones are pretty simple. Spouses, children living in the house, significant others in years-long relationships, those who live together, and engaged peoples. The one exception to this is if someone is invited who knows no one there other than the bride or groom.

Wedding Planning Tip #6: Don't forget to put a date by which you want people to RSVP!! I forgot to do that. Luckily, we only needed a head count 3 days before the event. Luck was on my side with this. I won't make that mistake again, trust me.

We had way more people show up to our e-party than we had RSVPs for. It wasn't a big deal because it was just a cocktail party. But I was right about the bad RSVP karma. I just hope we have enough pre-wedding events to use up all the karma so we're back in neutral by the time December rolls around. Wish us luck.

Does anyone else have RSVP worries? Any brides have to track down invitees?

Kettle Tea Party Reminder, Take One

I saw all these things online, including Weddingbee, about brides who had designed their own save the dates. There were the picture booth STDs, the refrigerator magnet STD, the personal photo STDs. And then there were STDs that were some lovely combination of the three.

I thought, "I could do that!" I work 12 hour shifts sitting in front of a computer, I can knock those out with my occasional free time in a couple of shifts!" So I headed over to Vistaprint.com to see what I could come up with.

I quickly learned the easier thing to do was to design something myself about the right size on my beloved Microsoft Word and upload it as my own design. Making it the size of a postcard was waaaaay cheaper than paying $7.99 for every 10 invites of a different size.

Wedding Planning Tip #5: If you have a large guest list, don't order anything that only comes in sets of 10, except party favors.

I got to work designing the invitations. I used that first color that we came up with. The one that's on the Thank You wreath. I felt pretty proud of my design. I was feeling confident that I could easily design our wedding invitations as well since this had been so painless.




Personal photo: Original STD design

 I thought they were perfect. They were fun and casual, like an STD should be, but they also set a great tone for the wedding. They looked fun, full of love, and they used our colors beautifully. Plus, I was able to feature some of my favorites of the e-photos.
I was very satisfied with these and *brushing off my shoulders* in a very smug congratulatory manner. Trust me hive when I say, the higher you sail, the farther you fall.

I e-mailed these to Momma Kettle and Mr. Kettle. Mr Kettle said they were cool, Momma Kettle said they were alright. Not quite the standing ovation I was expecting.

Then more things happened.

1. I realized I'd forgotten to use the Save-The-Date Bunting picture. The one I spent hours preparing with FSIL Hon. I'd completely forgotten that ever-so-important-at-the-time project.

2. We changed our wedding colors. The guys had been waffling between gray and black and when they settled on black, that fade to gray in the picture just didn't work.

3. We hadn't actually sorted out how many people we were inviting, so I didn't actually know how many to order. At first I wanted to order 300 because that's how many guests we were inviting. Then I realized, we're not inviting that many households!!!!

4. Apparently, I worded it wrong too. "Formal Invitations to Follow" should read "Formal Invitation to Follow" My mother is a huge fan of appropriate etiquette and wording, as am I, so this just wouldn't do.

This was quite the epic fail on my part. Epic fail. I was lucky enough that the order I placed, for 300 STDs in the wrong color, could be cancelled and re-done.

I then began changing the STDs over and over again. My confidence shaken, I changed it at least 6 more times before settling on one. But by then, it was time to send out invitations for our e-party and our Moo cards. Sigh, it was quite a process. I'll show you all the final product after I've talked about our engagement party planning, which actually took place last Saturday!

Did you grow wiser and smarter after a DIY attempt fail? How did your STDs turn out?

A Flush Tea Photo Shoot

What's Flush Tea?

Taking that first crack at looking natural in the photographer was no easy task for me, but before we even got there, we had to find a photographer.

For some reason, finding a photographer for this wedding has been a major source of stress for me with the wedding planning. I didn't know this at first, so I dove into finding a photographer with the same gusto as everything else. Mucho gusto that is.

But then I hit a wall. I had too many photographers. I was getting follow-up calls at the most inconvenient times. I couldn't coordinate schedules with Momma Kettle or Mr. Kettle to set-up meetings. I began avoiding the calls like I was avoiding a bill collector. It was bad y'all.

Image: Lockhorn Vs. Lockhorn Blog / Cartoon by The Lockhorns


The biggest thing is that I wanted engagement photos taken. And I wanted to use those photos as our STDs. I had already made the bunting banner!! And I wanted to get these photos done by the end of June. I had to find a photographer at least for our engagement photo shoot.

I knew there was no way I was going to end up with a package deal for e-photos on top of the wedding so I let that go pretty quickly. The next job was to find a photographer who wouldn't hound me to sign a contract for all our wedding photos.

Enter Mr. Kettle to the rescue with his amazing, I'm-a-musician-plus-I-have-a-ridiculously-large-family connections. In the span of a week, I collected business cards and phone numbers from probably four different photographers just by going to family events and gigs with him.

We ultimately decided to go with his cousin who's a photographer. I went to his website and I checked out his photos. I wanted photos of Mr. Kettle and I, just being us with no embellishment. His photos looked just like that.

For his price ($300), we got a photo shoot. He was open to as long as we needed in as many places as we wanted. He also agreed to give us a CD with the images as well as access to his website to download them whenever. Gotta love that family connection!

I ended up getting an opportunity to make our moo cards and STDs earlier than expected, but he was on it. He had our photos available for me to use within a couple days. If you're looking for a photographer in the Chicago area, send me a private message, and I'll tell you how to contact him.

We decided on just one location for our pics because we didn't have a whole bunch of time that day. Mr. Kettle took a gig (which is a recurring theme on pre-wedding stuff days). I'm not gonna tell where we took the photos just yet, I want to see if any Chicagoans can figure it out!

I chose this place because it is literally my favorite place on the planet. I love that it's this escape in the midst of so much bustle. I can sit on a bench and read my Kindle and feel like I'm tucked away from the world, but so close to the pulse of it all. So without further ado, our e-pics!

All Images from The Nu3 Buzz Media

I started off incredibly awkward. Mr. Kettle has done photo shoots for album covers, so he was better.

Still standing awkward, making photos I barely want to use for our thank you cards...

What to do with my arms? So many decisions. At least Mr. Kettle has an amazing smile in this one. And of course, the wreath looks fantastic!

At this point, we were having waaay to much fun. But look how great our STD Bunting looks!

The bunting is really popping in this photo. Too bad we decided the kissy photos might be a bit too much, cause I really love this one.

My smile is still awkward, my hand it too pose-y, and the wind was blowing the bunting. I was feeling pretty proud about the durability of the banner at this point.

What was Mr. Kettle pointing at? This is the obligatory walk-toward-the-camera shot.

I had just started getting comfortable and actually be able to have a private moment even though a family member was nearby and lots o' passersby were noticing us.

I ended up using this one on our wedding website cause it's so playful. I had been dying to have my sunlight-streaming-through-the leaves shot. Yay!



Yeah, we kinda got into the kiss. Cue uncomfortable averted eyes. I do love this shot. Maybe I'll frame it and put it up in our house.



If I didn't like a turtle here, I'd like this shot a lot more. Mr. Kettle looks so protective and safe.

There is a crazy story behind this photo.

 Mr. Kettle is looking to see which bird had just pooped on me and whether he was still up there. We sat on the grass to take pics and a bird promptly pooed on me.

I thought it was a bug on me until I noticed the "bug" was soaking into my dress. Good thing cousin photographer's girlfriend was there. She helped de-poo my dress and we moved forward. Mr. Kettle told me I couldn't be a bridezilla because I didn't freak out about the incident or let it ruin the rest of our day.

More weird smiles. But I think I just have weird laugh-y faces maybe. I put this one up for the background. Can anyone guess what that is in the background?

This is a favorite. This went on the website, on our moo cards, and I'm considering getting it framed.

More awkwardness. I couldn't stare off into space. Who knew that was so hard?

 I do love the shots of us on the bench. The whole time I was asking Mr. Kettle, "where are you looking?" He'd respond, "at the light pole." Then I'd go, "Which light pole? The top, middle or bottom? I want us looking at the same spot so this pic doesn't look weird."

Turns out over thinking a photo can do that too...

Since we were in the park, we had to go to the playground. While we were pretending to be carefree and fun, we actually had a lot of fun.

This is the pinnacle of awkwardness. I didn't know how to stand. Apparently, I'm too pose-y.

Oh wait, it gets worse.

Mr. Kettle is, of course, a natural. Sooooo cute. Sigh, I love that man!

This was better, no?

I think our cousin photographer gave up on getting me to be "natural". We took hundreds of photos, so we wound it down and headed to Mr. Kettles gig.

The shoot was actually a lot of fun. I was amazed with how good some of the pictures looked in spite of my awkwardness.
Wedding Planning Tip #4: if you have a chance to take pics before the wedding, do it! Get comfortable in front of the camera, you will appreciate getting past the awkwardness.

I did learn that comfort with the photographer helps. I want all family and friends to be guests at the wedding, not vendors. So we're back on the hunt for another photographer. And by we, I mean Mr. Kettle and FSIL Grand.

The Kettles Continue Their Search For A Cupboard

I've been trying to be clever and think of tea-themed title posts. Maybe I'm not so clever... But I know that a kettle belongs in the cupboard with other tea items, so I think of our wedding venue as our cupboard, especially since the ceremony and reception will be in one spot.



Image: Amish Corner Cupboard Hutch /  Furniture by Dutch Crafters

Moving on. We Kettles had agreed on getting married somewhere other than either of our churches. We had just left Jacob Henry Mansion and were almost 100% that wouldn't be our wedding venue.

We drove up to the Patrick C. Haley Mansion. I. Was. Floored. I loved it from the moment we walked up.


Image: Patrick C. Haley Mansion Grounds / This is a photo from their website for how it looks in the winter. I should be so lucky!

When we first walked in, we couldn't find any employees. Momma Kettle and I strolled around while Mr. Kettle went off to find someone. I still hadn't managed to pick up jaw up off the ground by the time one of their coordinators arrived.

They took us on a guided tour of the mansion. They explained all the details, history and options available to us for a February wedding. I apologized for all the drool as I salivated over every detail of the venue. Did I mention I love, love, love, this mansion? Warning, there are a lot o' pictures to follow.



This was the only picture I was able to pull myself together enough to take before our tour guides arrived. It's what everyone will see right as they walk into the ballroom.



This is where our tour started. It's the foyer of the mansion. I wanted a picture of the stained glass windows. Had it been anywhere else, or any larger, it would be a deal breaker.

That's Momma Kettle assessing one of their rooms they've filled with little tables and chairs for people to utilize throughout the day while not in the ballroom.



Anyone who knows me knows I enjoy a nice beverage. This bar in the sexy dark wood made me drool. It was very easy to imagine people looking stylish just for standing near this bar in photos.



This is a view of the ballroom from the balcony that overlooks it. I could imagine myself stealing away during the reception to overlook the whole party. I like doing that at parties.

This is a view from the front of the ballroom. I loved the ceilings with the chandeliers and draping fabric that was lined with twinkle lights. I could envision our reception feeling like it was under the stars. So romantic! And how beautiful were the chair covers? I didn't even think I wanted chair covers until I saw these.

This is usually used for outdoor ceremonies, but we were told we were free to sneak outside for some outdoor photos on our day in February. I don't know why we would, but it's an option.

This is the skylight over the conservatory at the front of the ballroom. I could just imagine being under this getting married at sunset and then dancing under the sky during our reception. If only we could get a starry night or light snowfall...

This is the conservatory where we would have our ceremony and it would be the dance floor during the reception. Sooooo many windows. I could have my winter garden feel!

This is how they'd have a head table set up. We want to do a sweetheart table, so we wouldn't have this. But I love the chair covers and I had to take a closer look at the table settings after they drew my attention to it.

Platinum and gold? This comes standard? Sign me up! I could already see some lovely DIY'd napkin rings.



This is the second floor of the mansion. Mr. Kettle is contemplating testing out the seating for guests to enjoy while they're not in the ballroom.



More second floor seating. We were beginning to discuss if we should have the jazz quartet set up on the second floor for the cocktail hour. This was before we began discussing prices...

This is a pic of the edge of their coffee/sweets table setup. Through the arch, you can see the lovely dining room where they sat us down and unveiled the price, which brought me back to reality. 

They have lovely fireplaces all around like this. Perfect mantles for lots o' family photos to personalize the place.

This is the room for the groom to get ready. It's really lovely, like an old-school cigar lounge or something, right?

Momma Kettle was testing out chairs in the drool-worthy bride's room. It's a huge room that's perfectly circular. So beautiful.  I immediately imagined getting ready there with all my girls. I just knew some of my favorite pics from the wedding would be taken in this room.

Isn't that the most adorable vanity?? I don't even like wallpaper, but I was in love with this room. Mr. Kettle looked at me and went, "oh no, I've seen that look before." He knew I'd be disappointed if/when we had to walk away from this place.

This is the approach walking up. I'm glad they have that middle bar to hold onto. I could imagine the tile on the steps could be very slippery in February.

They have a fountain in the middle of the walkway coming up to the mansion. I bet it looks lovely in February. I'm seeing twinkle lights!

A close-up of the fountain and an outdoors shot of the ballroom. Isn't it just breathtakingly beautiful?

 I don't know if you can tell yet, but I was in love with this place. When we sat down to talk prices, I realized it was outside of our discussed budget. Had we been having the wedding I originally wanted, we would have a much smaller guest list and been able to have the wedding at the Mansion.

Family is super important to Mr. Kettle and I. Having the wedding at the mansion wasn't more important to me than having a large number of family and friends there to celebrate with us. Momma Kettle and I asked a ton of questions and found out a lot of information to see if we could make it work. But ultimately, we decided we would have to keep looking for wedding venues.

Wedding Planning Tip #2: Have a budget in mind before looking at venues so that you'll be aware that you may have to walk away from your perfect venue.

Wedding Planning Tip #3: Know your wedding planning priorities. For me, guest list was a higher priority than wedding venue. After seeing my dream venue, it moved higher on the list of priorities, but not over family, of which Mr. Kettle has a lot.

Winter Wedding Tip #1: Everything with some venues cost less in the winter. This place was willing to knock $2 off per person for everything. That adds up if you have a guest list in the hundreds!
The next place up on the list was Chateau Bu-Sche. This place was owned by the owners of the Patrick C. Haley Mansion, so I had hope this place might have some of the same details I loved so much about the mansion.
Did anyone have to walk away from the perfect venue for budget concerns?