Posh Purpose on Twitter

Some of you may remember the hashtag #melweddingupdate and all the many tweets directed towards President Obama regarding #weddinggate. We are now introducing #briweddingupdate for the final countdown (33 days, y'all!) so head on over to @PoshPurpose to stay up to date on all the wedding crazy! Hopefully we won't need to bring back #weddinggate - should be unlikely as Presidential campaign activities will be totally over by December 1.


Here are some of our fave tweets from #melweddingupdate:

Posh Purpose ‏@PoshPurpose

Btw 7 am wake up call for a 7 pm wedding. Woot.#melweddingupdate

Posh Purpose ‏@PoshPurpose

Sweet groom arranged for manicures and a ride but forgot to share the destination! No worries, we are en route now :)#melweddingupdate

Posh Purpose ‏@PoshPurpose

Mel almost wet her bridal panties because she was stuck behind the motorcade. Thanks, @BarackObama. #melweddingupdate

Posh Purpose ‏@PoshPurpose

Word of the wedding week: damn #melweddingupdate

Posh Purpose ‏@PoshPurpose

"anyone want some eczema cream?" #melweddingupdate

Posh Purpose ‏@PoshPurpose

Storage company gave the groom a large unit overnight free of charge. So thankful! #melweddingupdate

Wedding Flowers!

Just got done with my florist meeting - we finally decided on what to do! No more thinking about flowers! Here is a sneak peek at my table flowers :)

Thanks to Susan at Sebring Florist for being flexible and making up all the lovely arrangements and bouquet mock ups!

Best RSVP So Far

We have received quite a few of the RSVP cards, almost all accepting. This has been the best response I've seen.

Love my RSVP cards! The lighter font is actually silver and a bit shimmery. The card is pale pink. Love love love!

Stringing Pearls

I have a confession to make, a very serious confession for a southern girl. I do not like pearls. I think they can be quite pretty on others, but they just look so weird on me. Perhaps I will change my mind in a few decades, but for now pearls are not for me.

Or at least that was what I thought before obsessing over a 47" strand of irregular black pearls. The necklace was listed at a starting bid of $10 so I figured "eh, why not?" and placed my bid. A few days later, the seller cancelled my bid and took the necklace off ebay. I was so disappointed! Ever since, long strands of black pearls have been catching my eye but none have been within a price range that I am willing to pay just to test out a new look.

I came across this website orientalpearls.net and found 9-10mm black rice shaped pearls at $8.97 for a 15 inch strand. I ordered four strands :)

pearls, silk cord, certificate of authenticity 

I watched this youtube video to learn how to string pearls (since youtube has the answer for everything) but came up with a better solution given the tools at my disposal (i.e. tweezers instead of that funky looking thing).

I would not suggest you use this method on good pearls. I frequently hit a pearl with the tweezers. I was not worried about damaging my pearls because the surfaces are already not perfect, but it would be very sad to scratch an expensive high quality pearl.

It took me about 90 minutes to figure out how to tie the knots close enough to the pearls and to string the first 15 inches. Since my time is currently worth $0/hr, I figure I am doing pretty good on cost.

beading needles are apparently
thin wire segments

Things you need:
Pearls - make sure they have holes drilled
Silk cord, already threaded with a beading needle - see picture on right
Tweezers, angled and good condition so they close tightly
Good vision
Patience

I wanted my necklace to be a continuous strand with no clasp. To do this, tie your first knot at the non-needled end of the cord. I used a normal knot where you loop the thread in through itself. You know, a normal knot. Ok so you have your first knot. Now slide three pearls onto the cord and leave some extra space and then tie a second knot. Put another pearl on the cord right up next to that second knot.

This is what the knots and pearl set should look like.
Not all my sets looked this good. I left some gaps.

Here comes the tricky part. You want to sandwich the pearl between two knots as closely as possible. Play around with it and see what method works best for you. I found that tweezers helped me the most.

The tweezers should be closer to the pearl. This picture
shows what I mean by "part of the cord coming out
of the pearl."

To use my method, start your knot but leave it pretty loose. Place your tweezers on the part of the cord that is coming out of the pearl. Pinch the cord as close as possible to the pearl. Now slowly and very carefully pull the other end of the cord to tighten your knot, making sure that it is tightening right next to the tweezers.

 When you tighten the knot so much that you can't go any tighter with the tweezers in the way, you must somehow remove the tweezers while finishing off the knot. I am impatient so I kind of just yanked it around, which is probably why I have some gaps between my pearls. Again, play around with it and find out what works best for you.













Once you reach the desired length, it is time to finish it off without a clasp. I threaded my cord through the first two of the original three pearls (the ones with no knots between them) and tied a knot between pearl two and three. Then I threaded my cord through pearl two and did the same thing: tied a knot between pearl one and two. Then I threaded my cord through pearl one and again, tied a knot between pearl one and the last pearl. Thin cord will make this easier than thicker cord. Also, you will have the end of the cord hanging from the location of your last knot. Just tie it off and cut as you feel comfortable.

It took me about four hours to complete the necklace. I didn't make it to 60" because I was bored and decided that 50something" was good enough. The length of silk cord that I purchased was just long enough to comfortably complete my necklace. It may take you more or less time depending on your desired length and level of perfection. Good luck and let me know what strategies work for you!

Completed necklace. I have no idea where the body thing came from. Mom just randomly
placed it in my room while I was off at MIT.

Wedding Guest Request

While I was in Kentucky this summer, my cousin Jeremy asked that I include a drawing in his wedding invitation. I am not sure what made him think of such a request considering I don't draw and have definitely never drawn around him. However, I went along with it since he is my baby cousin who I adore (not so baby, he is living on his own, working and starting college courses soon).

To make up for my lack of drawing prowess, I copied an idea from Tally: trace trace trace! I found a picture online that would be easy to trace over and taped some paper to my laptop screen. I also left him a little note to make sure he understands the gravity of the situation.

Isn't the address font pretty? It is also the font that I picked for my name and J's on the invitation. I love it!

Glass Water Bottle

To practice for my impending desert lifestyle, I have spent my Las Vegas trip practicing good hydration. I have found it particularly difficult because the tap water in Las Vegas is AWFUL. Like beyond disgusting. I can actually feel the silty particles against my tongue when I try to drink it. The tap water also clogs up the humidifiers with mineral deposits after about three tanks (which is less than 36 hours). J's company has wonderful filtered water upstairs but of course I don't always want to walk up four flights of stairs when I am thirsty. I also think it is a good idea to carry water with me so I can constantly rehydrate.

Solution: J bought me a wonderful glass water bottle covered by a protective silicone case! It is by LifeFactory, 22 oz and does not add any icky flavors to the water like a plastic or metal bottle will. And it is dishwasher safe. I plan on filling it up often and taking it with me everywhere!

Fruit Flies?

My future sister in law Abby has a great blog documenting her crafting, culinary, and photography adventures (amongst other things) called Trial and Error Creativity. You should definitely check it out! In particular, her solution for fruit flies sounds like a lot of fun.

Wedding Update from a Very Tardy Blogger

Hey y'all! So sorry for the huge lapse in my posts - tweeting Melinda's wedding must have taken a lot of energy from me and I have been super busy with my own wedding plans. Yesterday was the two month mark! Eek!

We have been working on finalizing the menu, figuring out the lighting situation for the back yard reception (btw - it is turning out beautifully!), deciding against renting a dance floor in favor of building a temporary one ourselves, attending my beautiful bridal shower, and more! 

Possibly the biggest update of all is that my invitations are in production right now! I am currently in Las Vegas visiting J, but once I get home at the end of the week, I have will be attending a super exciting invitation stuffing party of me, my mother, and any sisters/nieces I can convince to help out :) Once the invitations have time to arrive in the hands of my guests, I will post the electronic images of the suite. Alicia at A&P Design has been absolutely wonderful through out the entire design process. She and her husband run the studio with antique letterpress machinery in St. Petersburg, FL. Alicia is extremely talented and friendly and has amazing suggestions. I did not think I would ever get excited about invitations (i.e. overpriced pieces of paper that eventually go into the trash) but she managed to take my very very broad idea and turn it into a beautiful representation of both my ceremony and reception. Her prices are also extremely competitive and she did not charge me any more for things like different colored papers. I love her work so much, I am buying my ceremony programs and thank you notes with my married monogram from her as well!

Our menu has been through quite a number of changes - tapas to afternoon tea to all southern to heavy seated family style tapas to the final state. Guests have the option of a vegetarian Italian style pasta dish,  a Latin steak dish with chimichurri, or Southern pulled pork. I wanted to represent both sides of my family with the Italian and Southern options and Josiah's Argentine connections with the Latin steak, which he loves. I have a tasting next Tuesday with my caterer. I'm looking forward to all the good food I get to try! Mom is coming along, of course. We have been quite the wedding planning duo. But even if she was not so involved, she would still have to come to the tasting because I don't eat steak.

My parents have figured out a way to string light bulbs from the trees to the house all across the yard. Again, engineering father and also very bright mother are great wedding planning resources. The lights look absolutely wonderful! I will have to snap some pictures and make another post about the lighting. The local lighting store called the Bulb Bin is loaning us a chandelier to hang from the trees, which is also quite exciting!

The dance floor will be constructed by my father, brothers and J the weekend after Thanksgiving. The materials will be from my dad's truss business and then will be repurposed into other things after the wedding day dancing is over. We decided this was the best route to go because temporary dance floors are so expensive to rent in any location, but usually rental companies charge a gas surcharge for how far they have to travel to get to my small town. It is quite common in my area for people to build their own dance floors given how handy we are. 

My bridal shower was absolutely fabulous! My mom's wonderful friend Ms Billie Jo, her aunt Ms. Gail and her mother Ms. Mary hosted a huge shower for all our guests from church. Two of my bridesmaids were able to attend, which was lots of fun. Melinda flew down and worked worked WORKED through out the entire shower! She had a wonderful system to handle the gift list, the ribbon collection, and the torn apart gift wrap all while managing two of my nieces who were bringing the unopened gifts to me and moving the opened ones to another location. Melinda is by far the best Matron of Honor anyone could ever have. I suggested she do it professionally, but I think she needs a bit of a break after all the hard work she did for me! Again, I will gather some pictures and write a post all about the shower. Sneak preview: Barbie and Ken cake toppers on the wedding cake centerpiece!