a little idea I'm thinking of...

... and since I don't know how to keep my mouth shut and the blog is always available, I'll blurt it out now:
I'm thinking of renting a little vacation house for us, to sort-of be our HQ. When and for how long I rent it for would depend on pre-wedding deets. EG when are you all coming, if we do my bachelorette party in France (this might be the easiest? like the Saturday before the wedding?), and other details that won't be settled for at least another year!

  Is this something you'd be interested in? If so, shall I look for something that has space for us and your men? Just don't be surprised if I kick Ben, Alan, Greg etc out the night before the nuptials!

I'll have to look into prices, but a lot of little houses like this come up on my radar during my search for a reception/ceremony location, so I think I'll start keeping a list of potentials. For those of you who get here really early (more than a week before), I'll also be trying to place you with friends/w Rudy's parents if poss. How many friends we can house you with will depend a lot upon how many are still living in the area when the time comes (friends might be moving for work opportunities, etc).

Does this rental sound like a good idea to you ladies? If you're down for it (or even for those of you who are down for it -- we don't have to be the whole BP crew in the house --) we'll need to talk budget.After a preliminary look, the larger houses (that could house all of us and Greg, Ben, Alan etc) are often around 800 or 900€/week. You girls are already spending a lot to get here and on your dresses and stuff, so I want to try to make the rest as inexpensive as possible. OH MY GOD SCRATCH THAT!!! Well, the 800-900€ part. I might have found a total gem:

This place: (here and here) sounds like it might be perfect, because it has loads of wonderful things and is only 20 min from Bourges. The gîte (summer cottage ish thing) can house up to 10 people, and there are 2 "chambres d'hôte" (which are like B&B rooms) that can house 2-4 ppl each right near by. The gîte is currently listed at only 500€/week, they have a washer/dryer, dishwasher, BBQ, games, jardin furniture and an ADSL hook-up!!!! The B&B rooms are listed at nightly rates, but I'm sure I could negotiate with them to get a global price, or I'd have my Aunt, Uncle, Cousin Mindy etc stay in them. EEEEE!!!! If things continue to go well with work, I can forsee paying maybe half the fee for the gîte's rental, maybe a bit more.

Even if we, the BP decide this idea isn't for us, I'm going to keep this one high on my list bc it looks like a total gem. (tho I do hope you're down for it, because I think it would be so much fun for us to have a Head Quarters)

ok, that's it for my LONG late-night ramblings.
xoxoxo
*m*

A very delicious weekend project

Ok ladies, get your tastebuds primed and ready! Rudy and I had a chat about signature cocktails, and he's down for the idea. Now we just need to find ones that we like! This is where you come in: we'd also like your input! So I'm going to list 3 recipes (2 yellow and 1 purple), and if your time and budget permits, try them out and let us know what you think! (oh as a side-note, you can also respond to the posts right here ;) emails are naturally fine, too)

Recipe 1:  Purple Haze:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 oz vodka
• 1/2 oz black raspberry liqueur
• cranberry juice
• 
  
  
  

  Preparation:

• Pour the vodka and black raspberry liqueur into a cocktail shaker with ice.
• Shake well.
• Strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice. 

Recipe 2: Yellow Fever 
Ingredients:
4 parts apple juice
3 parts vodka
½ part lemon juice
½ part Galliano

Preparation:
After a few of these, your temperature will rise and your skin will take on a jaundiced glow. Mix everything in a highball glass then fill it to the brim with ice. Garnish with a wedge of granny smith apple.

Recipe 3: Lemon-ginger margarita (re-posted from earlier post) 

 Ingredients

• Salt for rim
• 1 oz. tequila
• 1 oz. margarita mix
• Splash of triple sec
• Splash of orange juice
• 2 lime slices (1 for juice, 1 for garnish)

Preparation:

• Moisten rim of a margarita glass with water and dip upside down into salt.
• Combine tequila, mix, and triple sec with ice.
• Pour into glass.
• Top off with orange juice and a squeeze of lime.
• Garnish with lime wedge. 

A thought that occurs to me is that, if you don't want to pay out to buy whole bottles of vodka, galliano, etc, just try heading to a bar and seeing if they can whip it up for you! The lemon-ginger margarita might be the only difficult one, since you're supposed to use the marinated tequila in the drinks. Rudy and I are going to get the stuff to make 1 or 2 of them and try them out on his family at Sunday lunch this week ;) Feel free to try them out and then go trying on dresses for me, because I think the photos would be so much better! So prepare, taste and rate! Oh, and in case you were wondering what the hell a "part" is, I had to look it up as well and this is what yahoo answers gave me: wtf is a part
xoxo
*m*   

Pretty Dresses!

Dresses you look pretty in: send me pictures! Whether it's your own dress or a dress you see in a store, snap a picture of yourself in it so that I can keep it in mind when I'm hunting for dresses. ... or dress patterns. If I don't find what I'm looking for (different cuts available in the same fabric and colors), I'm going to buy a/some patterns and have them custom made.
So, to recap: send me pictures of your sexy bodies in dresses you love!

xoxo
*m*

I always prefered even numbers

Ladies, there's a new beloved face to add on board! Kay, who most of you know, has accepted to be in our kick-ass bridal party. I'm so excited!!!! For those of you who don't know her, she's one of my tried and true Cheshire friends, and is a newlywed herself (I count just 1 year of marriage as newlywed ;) That's all. I have a feisty fiancé waiting for me (in bed), so I'm off. I just couldn't wait to share the faboo news.
xoxo
*m*

Woot! Signature cocktail mayhaps?

Another knot find: ginger-lemon margaritas! Yummmmmmy!
Ginger-Lime Margaritas from Creative Edge Parties
1. Use a high quality tequilla such as an Anejo
2. Take a lare piece of fresh Ginger and marinate for 24 hours in the Tequilla
3. Remove the ginger.
4. Slice the ginger into small sections and muddle in a rocks glass with lime.
5. Add ice and then pour the marinated tequila over. Add a splash of soda water.
6. Garnish with a lime slice.

Your Lovely Faces

Rudy and I will defo be doing a wedding website. While I doubt I'll be detailing our engagement story, because that's weird, I will be wanting to put your gorgeous mugs up! (I also doubt I'll be detailing how you and I met, why I love you, etc because I think that's an overflow of information) But I would like just headshots (or body shots, or whatever) of the bridal party, so that other guests will recognize you VIPs <3

SO whenever you run across a picture of yourself that you like, send it my way and I'll add it to the "for the website" file.

I expect the website will launch next July, i.e. a year from the wedding date, i.e. around the time we'll be sending out the save the date cards (which might also be virtual).

xoxo
*m*

For your shoes... wait, let's talk about shoes first.

Outdoor weddings: grass: what fun!

I ran across these bits for high-heeled shoes on a wedding forum. Wait, wait, back up. We haven't even talked shoes yet. Before I get ahead of myself, let's talk shoes for a sec:
Since the colors of your dresses will be alternating Purple and yellow, I'm thinking of flesh tone or silver shoes. I'm not expecting to order specific shoes for you, so that you can buy shoes 1. that you have a greater chance of actually liking and wearing in the future and 2. they fit better into your budgets. So either skin tone or silver, your choice. This is preliminary but I think it's doable. (thoughts?)

Ok back to those things for your shoes, which are called sole mates. (www.thesolemates.com) They seem pretty cool, although one of the women on the forum said that she lost one of hers halfway down the grass isle, and that she should have just gone with wedges. Wedges do seem like a good idea, but I find them harder to dance in. I might buy a pair of sole mates and give them a test-run to see what I think and then let y'all know.
*m*

Things I'm loving, part 1

I spotted these on the knot. In the first pic, the "just married" sign is SO CUTE and I would TOTALLY love to have something like that for our chairs. Anyone think they're crafty enough?
(original link here http://community.theknot.com/cs/ks/blogs/wedding_style_file/archive/2009/08/14/vintage-black-and-white-weddings.aspx )

In the second pic the faux chandelier crystals make for such fabulously classy escort cards, and I can see them hanging from a little tree (faux made out of branches or real). I've seen some other cute escort card ideas, but these really blew me away. (original link here http://community.theknot.com/cs/ks/blogs/wedding_style_file/archive/2009/07/20/diy-idea-for-an-formal-wedding-use-faux-crystals.aspx )

This of course also demonstrates my typical battle: balancing the cute with the classy, since I love both. NOT EASY! Another example of this ongoing struggle is themes: to have or not to have? To give names to the tables or just use generic numbers? Names can be cute and personal but also ridiculous (ex do you really want to look back at your wedding day and have the tables named after your old pets?), numbers are classy but also impersonal. Though this faux crystal idea might have solved that, since it's just so damn classy.

FYI you can register on the knot even if you're not a bride to be yet. You can even register as my BM ;)

xoxo
*m*

Welcome to the BrideZone

Well ladies, here we are! The HQ to be up-to-date about what Tia has modestly monickered the wedding of the century! Many a thanks to Kelly for the idea of the blog. More to follow...