Magic Ted

Magic Mike
I hate to break it to you, but as a movie this is actually pretty bad. The plot it pretty weak, the acting feels awfully fake, and their are several parts where I was really bored. But with that sad, I still loved the movie and can't wait to see it again.

Seriously, if anyone is seeing this for the plot well... you're going to the wrong movie. Channing Tatum is pretty much amazing on stage. And when Mathew McConaughey had his big number, well the wait for worth it. The montages and all the different costumes and acts were a lot of fun. And I think the only way it could have been better is if there was less trying for a dramatic plot and more stripper scene. I can only hope that when its released on dvd, it will have an unrated version.

Ted
This is another one you probably don't want to miss, for different reasons though. Again, it wasn't the most amazing of movies and I was bored at parts, but the boy has already started quoting it.

I loved both Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg in this. Also the boy who played the young Mark Wahlberg was perfect too. And if you're a Family Guy fan, there's a few good Family Guy jokes thrown in.

If there was ever a week to go to the movies, this was it. I don't think you could go wrong with either one of these, but depending on who you're going to the movies with, it may make sense to pick one over the other.

Mailbox Monday (4)

Two weeks in a row I'm linking up for Mailbox Monday. This week's host is Mrs. Q: Book Addict, and I'm linking up with...
Borrowed from a Friend
White Girl Problems by Babe Walker
This is based on the twitter feed under the same name, and is actually a fake memoir. From my friends who have already read it, it's supposed to be really funny, similar to something by Jen Lancaster.

So again, not a huge book week for me, but it is one that I'm really excited to read!

Show Us Your... Kid's Rooms

This week the theme for Show Us Your Life is kid's rooms, except we don't actually have a kid that lives in our house. So instead I'm showing off what we call our library.
Technically though, if there's any room that could be classified as a kid's room this would be it. And if you were to ask the boy's niece, she would tell you this was her room. This is the door into the library, and I think by the number of stuffed animals on it can be called a kid's room. The chair next to folds out into a bed, which is where the boy's niece has slept whenever she's spent the night here.
I have actually blogged this room before, and if you were to compare these two posts you'll find the biggest change is that we've run out of room for books.
There's obviously not just stacks all over the ground, but books that I've basically stuffed onto book shelves.
On the top shelf are my American Girls dolls, high enough to keep them safe from small hands.
Which brings us back to the same chair we started with. And since this post is technically for kid's rooms, here is at least the children books that currently reside in our library.
Does anyone else have their home overrun by books? And if you're here from Kelly's Korner, but sure to say hello!

Creating Your Jewish/Christian Ceremony

Celebrating Interfaith Marriages by Rabbi Devon A. Lerner
About a year and a half ago my mom sent me a copy of this book. (And by that I really mean she had someone on paperbackswap send it to me, but close enough.) At the time I hadn't really started thinking about or ceremony, but now that we're almost 2 months away it seems like the perfect time to pick it up.

I actually found this far more interesting than I expected and different than what I anticipated as well. I was thinking this would be more of a self-help type book or making an interfaith marriage work, instead it's exactly as the subtext describe, basically an instruction manual on creating your interfaith ceremony.

The book starts off by outline the important aspects of Jewish ceremony, as well as Christian ceremony from a variety of denominations. Then it includes a few sample ceremonies that are again based on Judaism and different denominations. Finally it breaks the ceremony down and gives several different passages that could be used for each aspect of the ceremony.

And since I can't write this review without at least commenting on the fact it was from my mom, there were a few times reading this where I would have loved to share items with my mom. For example there's a few wedding passages that our sourced to the Rabbi Emeritus at the temple I grew up going to. I had no idea that he was so widely known in the Jewish community, but it is interesting to see his name in print. And of course, reading this, I can't help but wish my mom was still here so I could talk about various aspects or passages I'm thinking of including, with her.

No this book isn't Anita Diamant's The New Jewish Wedding, but it's much narrower in its scope. (And Diamant's book is actually used as a source.) I do think that if your having a Jewish ceremony (interfaith or not) and you want to have some sort of say in the customizing of your ceremony you should read this book. (I even think if you aren't Jewish, but are planning on writing your own ceremony you could benefit from this.)

4.5/5

Today I'm linking up with Blonde Undercover Blonde for Book Club Friday!

Behind the Labels

When it came to addressing our envelopes I knew I wanted wraparound labels. I loved the idea of calligraphy, but I just didn't think the money was worth it. I didn't want to attempt to print directly on envelopes. And I don't have pretty enough writing to hand address them. Plus I think wraparound labels looks fairly professional, and not too labor intensive.With all my success finding already made tutorials, I was sure I'd also fine one for wraparound labels. But all I really found was Martha Stewart's template, which was adobe, and I wasn't completely sure how to do a mail-merge in adobe. I did find someone who said they made their wraparound labels in word, so I figured after all the design work I already put into the invites, coming up with wraparound labels would be a snap.It actually wound up being a lot easier than I thought, and if I had known how easy, probably wouldn't have wasted time google-ing one. But since I was determined to find a template and failed, I'm sure there's others on a similar mission. So here's my official Microsoft Word wraparound label tutorial.Insert a 2x5 table.Set your first column to its desired width. (For me that was 2", but depending on how much you want on the back that can change.)Set the second column to your desired width. (Again for me this was 6".)This probably should have been my first step, but this is when I actually remembered to change the printer to landscape, so it would actually look and print correctly.Set the top, middle, and bottom row to your desired height. (I actually wanted to use 2" here, but doing so only fit 2 labels on the page. Instead I used 1.82" which got all 3 to fit.)Highlight the 2nd row and right click to get to Borders and Shading. You want to click the left, middle, and right border to get rid of them, and then do the same on the 4th row.Go to Borders and Shading, this time for row 1, and change to desired thickness. (I used 6pt, which is the maximum available (at least easily available... there may be ways to make them thicker that I'm basically too lazy to research.))There you can also change the color.You'll need to click the desired border to apply the change. Here you can tell I've already applied it on the left and right, but not the top or bottom.For the middle I went back down to 1/4 pt, and from here you need to click the middle border to apply it.And since I had no idea this existed until I was making my labels, there's an easy way to change the direction for the return address as well.Now you're ready for your mail-merge! Which I won't be doing a tutorial on, because I still have issues with it. But I'm sure if you look there's tons of tutorials on that out here.

How did you decide to address your invitations? Did anyone else go with wraparound labels?

Behind the Inserts

I thought it was awfully amusing how many of you commented regarding the "of __" on the RSVP card, that was where I had to start this post.
Except of course as with so many other aspect of our suite this isn't an original idea. I'm not saying the image below is the first place I saw this, but it is the only one that made it to the pinboard. Enter Miss Wizard's RSVP card...

via Miss WizardI think it's safe to say here, that not only did I borrow that phrase from Miss Wizard, but the overall look of the card. One thing that didn't come from her was the giant box for accepting compared to the small box for declining (although it did still come from weddingbee browsing through the archives).

sourceOn the back for the mailing address I used the same font used to address both the actual invitations and STDs, French Script.
I used the same forever stamp to match the mailing envelope, although was paranoid that I was forgetting to add it. And considering the first two RSVPs came back without it, hopefully most of our guests did get an addressed RSVP.
The information card probably requires the least amount of explanation. I have the names of the hotels I've booked rooms at. One is closer to the venue, but basically a motel. And the other is further from our venue, more expensive, but still the one I'd recommend and where I'd want to stay. I also have our wedding website here promising a list of suggested sights, except haven't actually taken the time to write them yet. Instead I'm here describing the invites, but eventually it WILL happen. And of course our monogram shows up again.
I pulled the directions directly off our venue's website. They probably are a little word-y, but if this is how they want to lead tourists to their site, it's probably the easiest way for someone not familiar with the area.
Now to the map, which has to be one of my favorite parts. I used Mrs. Ballet Flat's tutorial, so rather than give you my own, I'd recommend that you read hers. It actually just uses powerpoint, which you probably have used before, and is really easy to follow. I love the gorgeously designed maps that basically look like art, and while this isn't quite that, I'm still little obsessed with the little touches I added. (The ferry boat on the Mississippi River, the LSU Tiger on the way towards Baton Rouge, and the fleur de lis on the way to New Orleans.)

I don't think I ever expected I'd have so much to say about our invitations, but hopefully you're finding these enjoyable (or even useful) because I still see another invite post (or two!) in the future.

Behind the Invitation

My last invitation post delt a lot with mechanics. Cutting paper, scoring paper, tape-running... and while it didn't require a lot of thought, it did take a good amount of time. The post is pretty much the exact opposite, because while creating the invitation itself didn't require a lot of physical time, it did require a lot of thought.

I actually based the look of the main invitation on the bat mitzvah invitations my mom created for me (and later the ones she created for my brother's bar mitzvah). Both times she put the ceremony details on a piece of vellum, and underneath, so you could see it through the text, was our first initial. (But here, instead of a single letter I used our monogram.) She attached it all to a piece of colored cardstock (I believe a purple-ish pink for me, and blue or green for my brother) and "sewed" them all together with a piece of ribbon. (I still remember being at sleep-away camp and my mom mailing me several ribbon samples telling me to mail back the one I wanted her to use.) It's been years since I've actually seen one of our invitations, but obviously it was something I haven't been able to forget, and I think I captured the memory quite well.

In the process of "sewing" the inviteAs for the wording of the invite, a lot of it is from Anita Diamant's The New Jewish Wedding. Borrowing her words she says,

"You needn't be "honoured" to invite people-you can be "pleased" or "happy" or "delighted." Their "participation" might be as important to you as their "presence." You might decide to invite people to "dance at" your wedding rather than just "attend.""

Since the boy & I (or mainly him) are paying for the bulk of the wedding (along with very generous contributions from various family members), I had both of our names next.

As you'll probably notice by looking at our monogram the boy doesn't use his first name. But coincidentally both my middle name and his first name start with the letter "A". I had originally planned on creating an ampersand that not only looked like an "and" sign but also an "A". (Bridesmaid Chicago even took the time to design something that we could have used.) But when I started creating the invitation the idea of actually designing a new image seemed a little daunting to me. Instead I went through every font on my computer to find an ampersand that could work. That font was Edwardian Script, and I think if you look at the shape long enough you can find an "A" or two.

With our parents' names, I knew I didn't want to leave my mom off. Traditionally I've just seen invitations that list those who are still alive, but when I saw Mrs. Hawk's invitation wording, I knew listing her as "the late..." was the perfect solution.

Invitation Mock-UpsFor the date I checked with the boy and his thoughts on how to spell out 2012. He actually taught a class this past year where his students had to spell out numbers, and informed me that two thousand twelve (instead of two thousand and twelve) was indeed, mathematically correct.

I included the Hebrew date of our wedding next, again a line from The New Jewish Wedding seems to explain this choice best.

"Don't be afraid to use Hebrew. A transliterated word or a few clearly translated words used in the tesxt or graphic design informs your guests that Jewish tradition will be honored at your wedding. And don't worry about confusing people with the unfamiliar; in general, both non-Jews and Jews are far more intrigued than intimidated by the presence of Jewish elements in an invitation."

For the time listed I have quarter after the hour shown. But secretly the ceremony starts at the half hour. I figured that showing a time 15 minutes early would help to stop late arrivals.

I did think about blurring the address of our wedding location, but thought since you already know where we're getting married, it would only take a brief google search to discover the address.

For the last line, I used the first quote I showed you from Diamant's book again for inspiration. I felt that including dancing as well as dinner, would give a better feeling of the reception I'm hoping to have.

While I've talked a lot about where each aspect of the invitation came from, I haven't really touched on the design. I actually used Adobe InDesign to design the entire invitation suite, and what I think is more impressive is that until I started these I had never even opened it. Basically I used Miss Wizard's InDesign tutorial and googling my way through any stumbling blocks. I'm not going to attempt to give any type of design help since I still don't really understand it. But again coming from someone who had never even opened InDesign before, until I came up with my own invitation suite, tells you exactly how helpful her tutorial was to me.

I had actually planned on using the post to explain the inspiration behind our inserts as well, but considering I've already written a novel I'll stop here and leave that to the next time.

And if you're already design (or have started designing) your invitations, where are you drawing your inspiration from?