Vote for Hoboken Love!

The Boken T-Shirt
Available from Hoboken's Solid Thread

The Crate&Barrel Ultimate Wedding Contest is off & running! Engaged couples are vying for the top prize of a $100,000 wedding of their dreams. How does it work? Each couple submits an entry describing their love story, their ultimate wedding & their dream home. Friends, families & strangers vote for their top choice & the couple with the most votes WINS!

This is where you come in to the picture . . .

I'm a girl who adores her hometown of Hoboken & dreams come true. There are seven Hoboken couples trying to win the Crate&Barrel Ultimate Wedding Contest. It's so easy to help these local couples. Simply visit the Hoboken Ultimate Wedding Contest page & vote for your favorite couple. Can't decide? Spread the love & vote for all of them!

Good luck Hobokenites!

Charming Bouquet

Paloma's Nest, the home of modern heirlooms, has been on my radar for awhile. I've always admired their Ring Bearer Bowls as a chic, meaningful alternative to ring bearer pillows. Since we don't have a ring bearer, I counted them out for our wedding. Imagine my surprise & delight when I came upon their custom bouquet charms:

Image via Paloma's Nest

I'd love to have a bouquet charm to carry down the aisle with a few sweet words & our wedding date. I'm a complete sucker for little touches like this! After the wedding, we can use the charm in a wedding shadowbox (we're registered for this one) or as a holiday ornament. My wheels are spinning!

And if we had a ring bearer, this is the ring bearer bowl I would choose:

Image via Paloma's Nest

The Sun. The Moon. The Stars. For You. Does it get any sweeter than that?!

Shower of Wishes

Yesterday, I had the honor of attending my friend Marisa's bridal shower. Family & friends gathered to shower Marisa with love & good wishes. It was a fun, special celebration for a beautiful Bride-to-be.

I had a wonderful time at the bridal shower- almost as much fun as I had preparing for it!

First, I had the golden opportunity to craft my first bridal shower card:


Instead of buying items from Marisa's registry, I shopped at my very own Koru Wedding Shoppe. Marisa had mentioned she liked the sassy Newlywed tank top. What could be better for her Aruba honeymoon? Here it is:


Last but not least, I wanted to get Marisa the Soon-to-Be Mrs. hoodie. But her wedding is quickly approaching. And maybe I should stick with the honeymoon theme. So I went with the another version of the Soon-to-Be-Mrs. hoodie. It's pretty cute: Mrs. So & So est. Wedding Date. I ordered a white hoodie & light pink embroidery in brush script to match the Newlywed tank top:



I hope Marisa enjoys her new tank top & hoodie on her honeymoon! Best wishes always~

Gracias

Lots & lots of lovely gifts

We're all smiles as we open our engagement gifts

My personal stationery from Dreamland Designs

Blank notes waiting to be filled!

Written, addressed, stamped & ready to go!

What comes in the aftermath of an engagement party? Heartwarming memories. Cool gifts. Thank you notes. Seriously, we had some work cut out for us with the thank you notes we needed to write to our engagement party guests.

With our upcoming wedding & my impending name change on the horizon, I have my adorable "Kate Sullivan" stationery that I need to use before it no longer applies to me. I bought my personal stationery years ago from the talented Gina of Dreamland Designs & I love it. Gina hand-lettered my name & hand-colored a shamrock for the sweetest look. I don't want it to go to waste. I added "& RZ" to each card & viola- the stationery is perfect for our engagement party!

Here comes the fun part: I had to write every thank you. Why didn't RZ write some? Well, he conveniently has awful handwriting. Often, I have to ask him to translate the cards he writes to me. Our guests were kind enough to come to our engagement party & bestow us with gifts & they deserved legible thank you notes. I spent many, many nights writing thank you notes until my hand cramped. Of course, it was well worth it. A little thank you note doesn't seem like enough to properly thank our generous family & friends!!

I dismissed the traditional "Love" stamps & I bought the "Adopt A Shelter Pet" stamp for our thank you notes. This is something that is near & dear to our hearts, especially since our adoption of a rescue dog, Bailey. The stamps are meant to bring public awareness about shelter pets & encourage adopting from a shelter. If we can say thanks & help an animal, then job well done :-)

Our First Registry Gift

Our very first gift from our wedding registry arrives

And I'm not allowed to open it!

Finally!

I often say delivery days at Koru Wedding Shoppe are like birthdays. I adore receiving packages of invitation orders or retail items. So you can imagine my total delight when a package arrived at Koru addressed to me personally a few months ago. For me!!! I could hardly wait to rip away the packaging & enjoy the gift.


Then reality set in. The Crate & Barrel box clearly meant this was a gift from our wedding registry. Our first! It wasn't a gift for me; it was a gift for us. Therefore, I had to wait & open it with RZ. My bubble was temporarily burst. I lugged it home & eagerly waited for RZ to arrive so we could open this baby. As soon as our condo door opened, I grabbed him by the hand & dragged him over to the gift so we could open it immediately. RZ took one look at the packaging & declared that it was an engagement gift & we needed to wait until our engagement party to enjoy it. What??!! Now my bubble was really burst.

Seriously, RZ refused to let me open the gift. I removed the outer packaging so we could let the gift-giver know the gift was received. The gift was from a dear family friend, Rosellen, wishing us a happy engagement. Day after day, the gift sat in our dining room & taunted the fact that I couldn't open it.

Finally, finally, the day of our engagement party came & I was able to open our very first engagement present from our wedding registry. I eagerly tore into the package & I was thrilled to find the Cambridge Baker with Rack, the sure way to cook & serve in style. It was worth the endless wait. Thank you, thank you!

Fine China. Really?

Now my dragonfly-loving cousin would love the June Lane pattern
BUT would she use the fine china?
From Kate Spade

I like the simply pretty Cypress Point fine china
BUT would the fine china ever do more than gather dust?
From Kate Spade

Task: Create wedding gift registries.

I remember registering at Fortunoff's with my sister for her wedding. She was handed a scanner & given free reign to register for everything & anything her heart desired. Pretty plates- check! Adorable, tiny salt-and-pepper shakers- check! One million thread count sheets- check! How cool! She kindly let me scan a few items to give me a taste for registering.

Now it's my turn to register for our wedding. As much as I loved the thrill of freely scanning the store, I decided to go the easy route of registering online. I kick-started our registry effort with Crate&Barrel & Pottery Barn.

Now, let me tell you, there are plenty of things my fiance RZ (as he will be called on this blog from this day forward) & I need for our home. Before we moved in together, RZ & I each had nice homes filled with nice things. By the time we combined households, many of our things had started to show wear & tear. Our kitchen is a hodgepodge of mismatched dishes, several silverware patterns, chipped glassware, tattered dishtowels, etc.

I had a wonderful time upgrading the sorry state of our kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom & bathrooms through our wedding gift registries. Matching silverware- yes, yes! Coordinating serving pieces- sign us up! Soft, fluffy towels- yes, please! And of course we must have a wine cooler! Honestly, we don't need any of these things but if our wedding guests choose to bestow us with these great items, we will be forever grateful.

I couldn't bring myself to register for fine china or other fancy items like real silver silverware. One, our perfectly-sized condo has a storage limit that has been reached. We don't have room for a new coat, let alone fine china. Two, I never saw my parent's fine china until my married sister unpacked it to display in her dining room buffet. The fine china is absolutely beautiful & it was passed down from my Dad's parents. It was never used in our house. Not that my family didn't entertain, because we did, but our guests weren't trusted with the fine china. So I have a hard time registering for something that we don't have room to store & that we may never use.

Any thoughts? Pro or con fine china?

P.S. I caved & registered for fine china at Macy's. RZ says I'm shopping our way from a condo into a house. Well, that's another story.