Save the Date!

A few hours ago, as I was getting ready to leave work for the day, an email popped up in my inbox: "Your FedEx package is available for pickup."  Hallelujah! I shut off my computer and raced over to the FedEx office like a kid on Christmas morning. Our save the date cards from Minted had arrived!

I definitely get inappropriately excited over paper products. My local Paper Source store employees practically know me by name, and I've spent weeks searching for just the right "Will you be my flower girl?" cards for my eight year old cousins. (Which, by the way, I finally found in a little stationery store in Philadelphia this weekend. One more thing to check off the list!) Anyway, needless to say, getting this package in the mail had been the highlight of my week.

First of all, how cute is the little ribbon-and-sticker wrapping? I was all, "A present? For ME?! Why, thank you!" 

And here they are! The color looks a little faded in this photograph, but in real life, these are a lovely, vibrant pink and navy blue. The card stock is nice and heavy, the printing is absolutely perfect.... I'm totally thrilled with these cards. It's still a few months too soon to send them out, so I'm going to tuck them away until late summer - which is great, because it gives me plenty of time to round up everybody's address! But I can't wait until our guests have these in their hands.

(Mine is already on the fridge!)

A riddle today: what has two thumbs and a really, really cool Save the Date card being printed right now?

That's right - THIS GIRL! (Picture me pointing my thumbs at myself here.)

I can't figure out how to get the proof from a PDF to this blog, but as soon as they come in the mail, I'm taking a picture and putting it up. They're so cool, I just can't stop looking at our digital proof! I have a feeling I'm going to have to carry one around like a security blanket for the next year. Ha!

Early spring brings a lot of wonderful things - the first few hints of warm temperatures after a cold winter, tiny shoots of garlic and wild onion at the farmer's market... and wedding expos for all the blushing brides-to-be who got engaged over the holidays!

I wasn't super excited about the idea of attending a wedding expo at first; especially in a place like New York City, I figured they would all be over-crowded and underwhelming. But after my mom reminded me that my brother and sister-in-law had won a free honeymoon in the Bahamas at an expo, I changed my tune pretty quickly. Oh, and figuring out that most of these things had free booze, too? That helped.

What I didn't realize was how much fun these events could be! Mr. M and I kicked off our expo season with a visit to Brooklyn Based's Wedding Crashers event at the Green Building in Brooklyn. It was fantastic - we were greeted at the entrance by a waiter with flutes of champagne. A little bubbly? Don't mind if I do! Within a few minutes, Mr. M had wandered off to check out the Groom's Lounge (complete with thimble-sized samples of Hudson Whiskey) while I had my makeup done -gorgeously, natch - by an artist from NYC Faces. After we joined back up, we circulated around the room and gorged ourselves on the copious free samples of seriously delicious food. I spent a ton of time in front of the Bee's Knees Baking Co table, trying to sample each flavor of cake-pudding-cake-frosting there was to try, and scarfing down the mini cupcakes at the One Girl Cookies table. (Love them.) My friend Gaia's amazing store, By Brooklyn, was there representing - and handing out killer goody bags stuffed with all kinds of sweet things. I probably would have gone into sugar shock if it wasn't for the food trucks parked outside, giving out trays of burgers, schnitzels and miniature lobster rolls.

It wasn't all food, of course - we got to check out some stunning floral designs, drool-worthy letterpress invites and I even got to say hi to my photographer, who we'd booked a week or so earlier. Finally, after we'd tasted every cake, sampled every cocktail and pored over every pretty invitation suite, we left, bellies bloated and complimentary tote bags full of info.

The New York Magazine Wedding Event turned out to be a less-hipster-y, more Manhattan-y version of our twee Brooklyn wedding expo. It was also great, but in different ways. We sipped free-flowing champagne as we cruised from booth to booth, signing up for honeymoon giveaways and collecting take-home goodies. I wound up falling in love with a particular floral display there -  this awesome collection of hydrangea, roses, orchids and feathers from Bride & Blossom. How gorgeous is this?

Picture above is from the Bride & Blossom blog, photographer uncredited.

The Wedding Event gift bags were second to none - we came home with more makeup, chocolate truffles and Lenox crystal toasting flutes than we'll ever be able to use. (Well... except for the truffles, of course.) Wedding expo #2? A smashing success!

Lucky for me, Mr. M popped the question just in time for the most important time of the year for a newly engaged girl: wedding expo season!

As the flurry of congratulations from our friends and family started to taper off, the wedding event invites started pouring in. Cocktails at the Lenox showroom? Sure! Brunch at the Bloomingdale's registry department? Don't mind if I do! Mimosas at Crate & Barrel? Man, we should get engaged more often! 

Our first official pre-wedding event was Lenox Celebrates Couples, a catered cocktail bash with an incredible goodie bag. We didn't know what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised to arrive and find a hip wedding band, a photobooth, a cigar bar featuring hand-rolled cigars and - most important - free flowing St. Germain cocktails! (Oh, and some whiskey for the fellas.) Drinks in hand, we wandered around the Lenox showroom and started talking about our future registry. I have to admit, I didn't think we were going to really even look at the fancy china and housewares; I'd sold Mr. M on the party just by mentioning the magic words "open bar," so I didn't think he'd be really into the idea of discussing place settings and flatware right then and there. Blame it on the whiskey, maybe, but we actually wound up figuring out a whole lot of our registry plans right then and there. (And I fell in love with these Kate Spade Darling Point champagne coupes. Amazing, no?)

Fun with registries continued a few weeks later with a Bloomingdale's brunch, sponsored by The Registry at Bloomingdale's. Mr. M and I both had high hopes for a repeat of the boozy, casual, celebratory vibe of the Lenox event - but no dice. Our brunch was more like a slice of lukewarm frittata and a cup of coffee, eaten while talking, speed-dating style, with representatives from high end housewares companies. Um, awkward! The folks were absolutely lovely, but I already knew pretty much everything I needed to know about Le Creuset and Cuisinart, and attempting to gobble down breakfast while maintaining a veneer of interest in the products we were being shown was just... weird. On the bright side, they eventually turned us loose with the scanner and Mr. M and I got a whole ton of registering done in almost perfect harmony. (The sum of all of our conversations that day: "Ooh, that looks cool!" "Scan it!")

After the registry parties, it was time for the wedding expos! Our first was the New York Magazine Wedding Event. More on those next time!

Welcome to Paper Hearts!

Hey there, reader! Welcome to my wedding blog!

First, a brief introduction. I'm Kat, a thirty-something Brooklyn bride-to-be planning my June 2013 wedding to the fabulous Mr. M! We're having a Catholic ceremony in my Prospect Heights parish, then celebrating with a big party at my dream reception venue: the Palm House at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I can't wait!

Mr. M proposed back in January, and I have been absolutely giddy ever since. Besides the fact that I completely adore him and am head-over-heels thrilled at the prospect of getting to spend the rest of my life hanging out with him, I love planning a good party! These days, every single moment not spent daydreaming about the future with Mr. M (or, you know, working...) is devoted to planning all of the fun little details of our wedding. 

In the interest of not completely annoying and alienating my friends (and fiance) by blathering on about wedding planning all day, I've started this blog to give myself an outlet for all of the (totally awesome) details. So this is for all you ladies (and gentlemen, maybe) who share in my addiction to Pinterest wedding boards, the Weddingbee blogs, checklists on the Knot and pretty pictures on Ruffled and 100 Layer Cake! Come help me obsess over ruffled frosting on wedding cakes and worry about whether I'll be able to get anemones in June.

Oh, and the title of this blog? It comes from "our song" - Trippin' On a Hole In a Paper Heart by Stone Temple Pilots. Not the most traditional song, maybe... but it's ours. :)