Gracias...or not

I was pretty blown away by this article our friend at Ruby Red Design blogged about on the state of thank you notes today.

I can sum it up for you this way: people just don't send em' anymore.

Someone recounted a story of recently attending a wedding, giving his friends a very generous cash gift, and instead of receiving a personal thank you, he was sent a mass "thanks for coming and thanks for the gifts" email.

Look, I love email just as much as the next gal. The internet has made planning (and attending!) weddings oh so much more pleasurable--you can buy gifts online, book your trip with great travel sites, chat with other brides, map out routes, etc. BUT an email thank you is rude, insensitive and just plain ole wrong.

Being a bride and planning a wedding represents a really amazing time in one's life. For me, I've been blown away by all of the special treatment, attention, well wishes and love that is sent my way, on almost a daily basis. I feel like a thoughtful, well written thank you note is the LEAST I can do to say how much I appreciate all of the fabulousness (both literally and figuratively) that has come across my path. I'm sure you agree...you must!

In honor of the ever important, ever useful, never to be forgotten (in my book, at least) thank you note, here are a few of my faves:

Blue Bird Thank Yous from Pink Loves Brown

Sewing Machine Thank Yous from Side Pony

Any of these lovely folded notecards from Carrot & Stick Press

Sassy Shape Card thank yous from Tobi Wood Designs.

Gracias, fer sure.

Quickie Passport Photos

For those of you who might fall into the category of "slacker bride" and have not yet gotten those passport photos taken, you're in luck.

Go online to ePassportphoto.com and they will walk you through the steps of uploading your own photos, cropping, and printing them for use in your passport. You don't really need to go to one of those fancy, shmancy passport photo places and, in fact, can do this all on your own with a digital camera, white wall and color printer.

Now, you're in honeymoon heaven!

FAVORS: Pretty box'o cookies

My first order of business is to confess that this is idea is not my own.

A few months ago during a marathon internet wedding research session, I came across One Girl Cookies. I've tasted One Girl cookies at Dean & Deluca and they are, in fact, very delish. But they also happen to have an adorable wedding favor of a plain brown box filled with delicious cookies. The neat thing about the box is that it comes with a great old photo glued to it with images from old family weddings, celebrations, etc. If you are looking for fast and easy and can spend the cash, One Girl might be your best bet. I, however, am really hoping to go DIY.

I loved, loved the idea and thought how neat it would be to put something together like this but with photos from our own family. We could use pics from our parents' weddings, our granparents, pics from when we were kids, etc. We can print them out in sepia or black and white tones and use those fancy shmancy scalloped scissors to make them look old.

I found these great pink bakery boxes in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Best of all, we can use a family recipe for some delicious cookie or dessert treat to put inside of them.

I'm not positive that this is what we'll do yet, but I love the idea.

Perfectly Charming

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the practice of buying your whole bridal party the same gift to say "thanks." I get that this works for some, but all of my bridesmaids are pretty darn different and unique and I couldn't even begin to think of one thing that would work for all of them.

Despite the fact that are wedding is many months away, I decided to start picking up little gifts here and there so that I'm not overwhelmed by coming up with an insanely clever idea a week before we say "I do" when my stress level is through the roof.

I've already bought some gorgeous silk cosmetic and make-up bags on sale from H&M (these puppies were cheap, but look super luxe!). The other day I came across these Little Charmer Clips and thought:
a. How cute!
b. I can get different charms for all of my girls
c. They would look adorable on the cosmetic bags (or anything else the girls want to use them for)

I'm getting the ring charmer for a friend who is hoping to get engaged herself soon (for good luck!), the tiara for my little sister (as she's always the little pricess), and the shoe and purse for my friends who are...well, obsessed with shoes and purses.

I'm charmed.