Even More Invitation Inspiration!

Yup, it's another post about invitations! And I can't promise it will be the last. What can I say, I have invitations on the brain. Today I'm loving the idea of shaped invitations. Rectangles and squares can be awesome, but I'm digging the unexpected wow factor of some uncommon invitation shapes.

I heart this heart shaped invite.

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A circle is such a classic shape, yet it's rare to see in wedding invitations:

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I love how this is almost a standard rectangle, but with a twist—or rather with a curve.

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The scroll design is echoed in the shaping of this gorgeous invitation.

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This suite is a sweet mix of many shapes!

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The incredible and intricate shape of the invitation creates the design!

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What do you think of unusually shaped wedding invitations?

Meet Our Wedding Officiant!

As we approach the 100 day mark, we need to start hammering out some of the details—like the ceremony. You know, just the little thing that actually makes us married. Thankfully we figured who would be performing the ceremony at the beginning of our planning.

Who else thinks of this guy when you hear the phrase "wedding officiant"?

In California, people can be ordained online, or even temporarily deputized in order to perform wedding ceremonies, so we wanted someone close to both of us to perform our civil ceremony. Enter our close friend, BW. BW went to high school with Mr. Cheetah and I have known her since I first moved to California. A few years ago BW casually mentioned that she would love to officiate our wedding when the day came. Hurrah--A wedding decision made years before either of us had engagements on the brain!

BW is a wedding superstar. She herself has been a bridesmaid at least a dozen times! She is a teacher and has a theater background, so she’ll be very comfortable speaking in front of all our guests. And most importantly, she is an amazing person who knows us both alone and together.

The Cheetahs & BW

BW has a deep rooted love for all things Dr. Pepper, so Mr. Cheetah I and decided to work that into asking her to be our officiant. After a glamour photo shoot with a couple old fashioned bottles of Dr. Pepper at the beach, we had a nice glossy photo perfect for BW. We printed out a little banner asking her to be our officiant and simply taped it atop the picture.

the framed photo

BW must’ve liked it because she said yes--even though she had long forgotten offering to marry us years ago!

How did you choose your officiant?

all personal photos

Such Great Heights

Okay, I'm just going to say it: I hate platform shoes. I know they're all the rage, but I just can't get on board. Please don't hate me all you platform-loving-ladies out there, especially you, Lady Gaga—we're still besties, right!?!

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Maybe it's because I'm tall, but I also just don't like the look platform heels. To me they seem unbalanced and kind of chunky, while I find non-platform shoes to be very classic and elegant.

Audrey isn't a platform fan either

I may not want a platform, but I do want a heel for my wedding shoes. I like the way heels look and I like how I feel fancier in them. And let's face it, I want to feel pretty fancy on my wedding day. There are times when I'm all about rocking a 4in heel, but the wedding is not going to be one of those times. Mr. Cheetah is around 3 inches taller than me. While most days I don't care if I'm a smidgen taller than Mr. Cheetah, for some reason I don't want to be taller on our wedding day (for the record, Mr. Cheetah doesn't care either way, but then again, his SIL is 6 in taller than his brother). Although the main reason I don't want sky high heels is that I want to be comfortable and I want to dance. All. Night. Long.

My goal wedding heel height is 2 1/2 in, but I am willing to go a bit shorter or higher. However platform shoes are so popular, it's becoming difficult to find fashionable heels without a platform.

I would love all these shoes if only they were platform-less!

Adorable--except for that pesky platform.

Love the color, love the bow. Hate the crazy heel and platform.

The name of this shoe is Cheetah! Too bad it has a giant platform.

It's looking more and more like I will be shopping in my platform-free closet for my wedding shoes, but I have found some cute non-platform options if I decide to get something new.

Crossing my fingers that these go on sale before March

Love the chevrons, love the sparkle!

I've had these bookmarked for months

How do you feel about platform shoes?

You're (maybe) Invited!

The hardest part of planning this wedding, or as my dad referred to it the other day "that little party you're organizing," is the guest list.

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Mr. Cheetah and I want a semi-intimate wedding. We want to include all of our family and closet friends, we want to know (and like) all the guests, and we want it small enough where we can at least greet everyone personally. Out first draft of the guest list was around 150. Our venue maxes out around 140--it seemed like a perfect fit. But we should've known it wasn't going to be so easy. We realized that we had forgotten some people from our original guest list. Plus there were obligatory invites we overlooked. And of course our parents keep wanting to add... and add, and add... So we are left with a very tight A list, and an ever growing B list. For some reason we even have a short C list. Don't get me started on the dreaded Plus One debate. Don't even get me started.

We have a bunch of friends hovering on the B list, and I find myself avoiding them. I don't want to talk about the wedding around them, or indicate in any way whether or not they are invited--since we don't even know yet. I feel so guilty that I haven't made plans with any of the "B listers" in a couple months. I'm likely over thinking everything, I'm sure most of our friends would understand and may not even expect to be invited. I've realized that it's just guest-list-paranoia, so I'm going to stop worrying about it.

Is anyone else suffering from guest-list-paranoia?

The Bold & the Beautiful

My wedding dress should be in next month (woo-hoo!), so guess what time it is? It's accessory time!

In day to day life, I tend to like my accessories like I like my tea; delicate & sweet, or big & bold. So which way should I lean for my wedding look?

Veil

Delicate:

Birdcage veil on Etsy

Bold:

Veil from Sara Gabriel

Hairpiece

Delicate:

Banana Republic Bobby Pins

Bold:

Fun hairpiece with veil

Earrings

Delicate:

Hugs & Kisses via Etsy

Bold:

Deco Statement Earrings for $28 at Nordstrom

Necklace

Delicate:

Mini Heart Necklace from Tiffany & Co

Bold:

Statement Necklace from J Crew

Bracelet

Delicate:

Carolee Sterling Silver Love Bracelet

Bold:

Vera Wang Bracelet

Shoes

Delicate:

Kitten heels by Butter

Bold:

Vivienne Westwood heels

Handbag

Delicate:

Bridal handbag find on Etsy

Bold:

Rose Evening Bag

Wrap

Delicate:

Ivory Pashmina

Bold:

Tulle Cape on Etsy

Are you going for delicate or bold pieces for your bridal accessories?

More Invitation Inspiration

This Cheetah is on the hunt. My prey: awesome and unique invitation inspiration.

As much as I adore all things paper, I'm digging the idea of putting wedding invitations on a different material, such as fabric or even wood.

This wedding invite is looking pretty on a vintage handkerchief! Wouldn't it be awesome if your guests brought the invitation to the wedding and used it to dry their misty eyes during the ceremony?

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I love how this invitation is the expected shape and size, but the fact that it's printed onto fabric really adds a wow factor.

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This invitation is printed on real wood veneer!

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I do still love paper though, and lately I have been gravitating towards booklet invites.

This one is simple and sweet. Plus, check out the awesome wood grain paper!

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I'm a huge fan the clean, modern design of this booklet:

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I'm in love with the book-like layout of this invitation. Each page says "Our Story Begins" along the top.

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Did you pick an unusual material or layout for your invitations?

To Be With You

A few months ago I was out to dinner with my friend L, and we got to talking about how much time we spend with our significant others. At the time, Mr. Cheetah and I had similar schedules and we were able to spend quite a bit of time together (it was awesome). L was on the other end of the spectrum; her husband’s work schedule had him out of town for weeks at a time. It got me thinking about how much the amount of time spent together varies greatly from couple to couple, and even year to year. Some couples are able to be with each other all day, and may even work together (like Jim & Pam below). While many other couples are in long distance relationships and may only get to see each other every couple months or so.

The Happy Halperts at Work

Recently the Cheetahs' schedules have changed and even though we live together we only get to see each other a couple hours a day. In 10+ years together, our schedules, and thus the amount of time we spend together, has changed many times.

When we first started dating, I hated every moment away from Mr. Cheetah—even going to class was a struggle (but I always went). One quarter in college I had a 30-minute break between classes. It took 10 minutes to walk from class to Mr. Cheetah’s apartment and another 10 to walk back to my next class. I visited him every day (well, it was a Tues/Thus class—so twice a week) for those 10 leftover minutes. Yeah... I had it bad.

Just a year ago, there were many days when the only time we’d spend together was when we were sleeping in the same bed. I was finishing up my grad school course work and working on my thesis, so I was gone 15 hours a day. At that same time Mr. Cheetah was working on his Masters and working full time. There was also a 5-month period where we were long distance (I know that might seem like a walk in the park to some of you LD people out there!). We’ve also been lucky and have had stretches of time where we got many hours a day with each other.

While I still love spending oodles and oodles of time with Mr. Cheetah, the years together has made time apart easier. I believe that a little absence does make the heart grow fonder… I love the feeling of seeing Mr. Cheetah after a couple days apart.

How much time do you spend with your SO? How has that changed during your relationship?

The Cheetah Girls: Ordering the Dresses!

You know how good it feels when you cross a big item of your wedding to-do list? I got that sweet feeling today when we ordered the bridesmaid dresses for the Cheetah Girls! We went with Priscilla of Boston dresses in crinkle chiffon from Bella Bridesmaid (with a nice 10% discount for our large order).

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Two ladies will be ordering the first dress, the second dress is the most popular as four Cheetah Girls will be wearing it, MOH Sister Cheetah will be in the third dress (that drape-y part is actually a strap that goes over one shoulder), and finally, one woman will be in the last number.

The long dresses will be shortened to knee length and all the dresses will be in the pewter color below.

Here is a dress in the pewter color with our palette

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We decided to go with the pewter over the pink (thanks for your help with that, hive!), for two reasons: 1) pink shoes, and 2) pink bouquets. I love the idea of having pink shoes and flowers really pop against the grey dresses, and inspirations photos like these below are all I need to convince me.

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It wouldn't be right for me to write a post about bridesmaid dresses without some glorious photos, so feast your eyes on these beauties:

The sun will come out tomorrow...

Even baby can get in on the dress fun!

If the power goes out, these dresses can help light your venue!

What color dresses and shoes are you putting your bridesmaids in?

Taking Advice

When you first get engaged it seems like everyone from your mother to your recently wed friends to the lady behind you in line at the post office has some advice about what you must or must not do at your wedding. And let’s face it, a lot of it is probably irrelevant to the wedding you and your betrothed are planning (“Your napkins need to be the same color as your dress!” “Make sure you have at least one harpist!” “If you serve cupcakes your marriage won’t be valid!”) But one of the things I’ve learned to do while planning this wedding is not to shut everyone out; sometimes you can learn from those who have been there before (as brides, grooms, MOHs, guests, vendors, etc…).

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I’ve had two recently married friends insist that I hire a videographer. One had hired one and was in love with her video, the other hadn’t hired one and it was her one wedding regret. So I listened. We hired a videographer. And now we have big plans for our videographer, that you’ll just have to wait to see...

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There is another piece of advice the hive has echoed over and over again: hire a Day of Coordinator, or DOC. Without the hive I’m not sure if I would have set aside room in the budget for a DOC. But I read over and over again how helpful a DOC (or a full planner) could be, and again I listened. We will have a DOC for our wedding. I want the wedding day to be as stress-free as possible, and knowing that the DOC will be the one taking care of all the little details and putting out any fires is a huge relief. As much as the detail-obsessed-control-freak in me wants to be setting up the escort table and arranging the cupcake/dessert table myself, I’m pretty sure I’ll prefer spending my time getting dolled up with my bridesmaids and taking some pretty pictures with my groom. Bonus: our DOC is also our florist—I love hiring two vendors with one stone—er, I mean one contract.

Franck at work

What advice have you taken in planning your wedding? What advice would you give to people just starting to plan?