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Liz & Cristina’s Festival of Love, Friends, and Food

This couple needs little to no intro to set the tone for what their celebration is all about. Fun, fun and pretty much more fun. I’ve been waiting and waiting to have the chance to introduce you all to these great ladies – enjoy getting to know Liz and Cristina!

The Glö-Couple:

Liz, an attorney and
Cristina, a pastry chef

These gals blog! Check out Liz’s blog Bunny Loves Bacon and Cristina’s blog Cervezecal

Celebration Date & Location:

September 2011
Ceremony: Coral Gables Congregational Church,
Reception: Cristina’s parents’ house
Coral Gables, Florida USA

Tell us how you got engaged:

Cristina says: Liz had been drinking, and as I was putting her to bed she looked up sleepily and said “will you marry me?” And I said yes. And the next morning we confirmed that it was all true.

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:

The overall feeling is “family gathering with bacon.” We didn’t want anything too formal and we want people to have plenty of good food and drinks, feel comfortable, and have fun spending time with each other. For us, this means not worrying about or including chair covers, favors, or the color of cocktail napkins. :)

Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:

Instead of just having a day or a weekend celebration, we are having months of celebration! We’ve invited people to join us for events leading up to and after the wedding (like a book convention, a day at the spa with us, and a trip to New York to see Lord of the Rings!). We really wanted to include people in our lives for in more than just one day. Editor’s note: these ladies are way to modest – they are planning an entire epic celebration full of a bajillion fun events for those who are free to join. I’ve already started lobbying for my own invitation….See their entire range of events below!

What was the inspiration for your Glövite and Glösite design?

Honestly, we just picked the design because we liked it. I like the color yellow and it was a good backdrop for the tons of text that we have.

Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!

This has got to be my absolute favorite page…

Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?

Cristina says: Figure out what is really important to you and stick to it. Don’t worry about all the stuff that people or wedding magazines say you “have” to have (favors, flowers, a clown, etc.), and don’t get distracted. For us, our non-negotiables were having the ceremony at our church, having good food, and being able to invite everyone we care about (since Cristina has a huge family, that means a huge guest list).

Liz says: Also, avoid wedding blogs and magazines. They can send you into a spiral of “I want my wedding to look like this and it will never be good enough waaaaaaaaah.” Not fun. I only read two wedding blogs: Offbeat Bride and A Practical Wedding. Keep talking to each other! Wedding planning can bring up emotions around lots of things that you might not have been expecting. It’s OK to realize that you care about things that you didn’t think you would (for me, it was the dress). And it’s OK to realize you *really* couldn’t care less about some things (like decorations). We made our guest list over several months – this gave us time to make sure we weren’t leaving anyone out. We started by making an excel sheet listing people. When we switched to Glo, we inputted all of the people on the list.

Liz says: Glo has been the single biggest organizational help. I was going crazy with my multiple excel sheets for multiple events. Once I inputted the guests into Glo, I could manipulate them much easier. We just sent out our email save the dates, and I would say this: if people don’t view the invitation through their email, send the link to them on Facebook! I sent out 15 messages and within a few hours everyone had viewed it.

super-great tip there about facebook!

What’s the biggest “say what?” moment or funny story that’s happened since you started planning?

Apparently, bridal stores are unable to comprehend that anyone *wouldn’t* want a train on her dress. We were at a certain well-known wedding dress factory trying on dresses and this is how it went:

Liz: Can the train on this dress be cut of?
Saleswoman: Not really. You’ll want it for the pictures, and then you can just bustle it.
Liz: But I don’t want a train.
Saleswoman: It looks nice in pictures.
Liz’s head explodes.

And because no one can resist the cuteness of kitties – here is ONE of Liz and Cristina’s four black cats

So tell us…If you attended Liz and Cristina’s festivities – what would YOU wear to outshine the brides??

23 Feb 2011

Andrew & Diann’s Scottish-Singaporean wedding in Bali!

OMG – who doesn’t want to get married in Bali? And who doesn’t want to have a Scottish-Singaporean wedding? Plus, these two are keeping the ceremony and reception location a surprise for their guests – Uber-fun! This celebration has all the necessary ingredients (not to mention a fabulously sweet bride.) Diann and Andrew sent paper invitations that guided guests to their Glösite for more information and to RSVP. Read more below….

The Glö-Couple:

Diann, a budding entrepreneur and
Andrew, an engineer

Celebration Date & Location:

May 2011
A secret location (um, how majorly fun is that?!?)
Bali, Indonesia

Tell us how you got engaged:

We made a trip to Bali over a long weekend in February 2010. Andrew and I love to travel and we try to do so every opportunity we can. Well I thought it was going to be a quiet relaxing weekend but on Day 2 of our trip, which just so coincidentally happened to be Valentine’s Day, we were having breakfast out by the pool in our villa when Andrew said he had to go back in to our room to get something. I thought nothing of it and continued eating my breakfast and before I knew it, he was by my side, on one knee, asking me to marry him. I love that he totally caught me by surprise! Later that day, I asked him why he decided to propose over breakfast instead of dinner and he said something I’ll never forget….”I wanted to have a whole day enjoying our engagement together”. And true to that, we had the most memorable day together. The phone calls and text messages we got made us feel so loved. We were amazed at how many people expressed their joy about our engagement. Thanks to our parents and some friends, word spread pretty fast! :)

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:

We chose Bali since it’s so (obviously!) special to us. Even before we got engaged there, it’s always been a magical place that makes us feel so relaxed and at peace. The venue we’ve selected is a beautiful villa on a cliff overlooking the ocean. We chose it as it resounds with the “feeling” we’re going for – intimate and memorable. We are keeping the guest list very small….only our closest family and friends to share with us on this special day and we want them all to have an unforgettable time. Being a destination wedding, we thought it would be nice to have a few days of celebration since everyone’s making such a huge effort to travel and be with us. So we’ve organised a cocktail party at a gorgeous restaurant on Thursday, followed by our wedding ceremony & reception on Saturday and a casual poolside lunch on Sunday. We really just want everyone to have a great time celebrating with us and enjoying themselves. Noting too fancy, just lots of food, drink, music and dancing!

Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:

Aunt Montel’s Sugee Cake from: Cherry on a Cake Blog

Quite a few actually! For music, we’ve got a good friend, who’s a musician in Singapore, to perform at our wedding. You can’t beat live music! He’s so talented and we’re thrilled he’ll be singing at our wedding. Since Andrew and I have different cultural backgrounds, we thought it would be nice to incorporate a little of both. Besides the Scottish lads wearing kilts, we’re serving single malt Scottish whisky and incorporating some tartan for our wedding favours. We’ll also have ceilidh dancing (Scottish folk dancing) a must-have at any Scottish wedding! Our wedding cake, made from semolina and almonds, is called Sugee Cake. It’s a traditional cake made by Eurasians (my Mum’s heritage) full of buttery goodness….very scrumptious! We’re also having a very dear friend as our celebrant during the ceremony. He’s so sweetly agreed to marry us and we couldn’t be more thrilled. His wife is my maid-of-honour and their son is my ring bearer!

What was the inspiration for your Glövite and Glösite design?

We initially decided to do a website as an easy way to communicate the many events we’re having. We did consider putting an insert into our paper invitation but it seemed too cluttered. So having a Glösite just made sense, especially for RSVPs. It’s made everything so simple for me! From the initial idea of using it for RSVPs, it’s grown to be quite informative, providing details about Bali such as flights, accommodation, restaurants, and attractions. All important info for a destination wedding! We chose a simple design from the templates available and so far, we’ve got lots of compliments from everyone about how great the site is!

Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!

These are Diann and Andrew’s Paper invitations:

and here is their Glösite:

Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?

Time really does fly so try to be as organised as possible! It can be difficult but the best thing I’ve found is to keep notes somewhere….be it an actual notebook, an app on your iPhone or an Excel sheet. It just helps to pen down thoughts as they just seem to come randomly and sometimes they can be the best ideas you don’t want to forget!

28 Jan 2011

Real Glö-bies, Real Glö-Vites & Sites

Rowan and Kevin’s Vermont Weekend

I’m so super-pleased to introduce Rowan and Kevin. These two met in Alaska, were engaged in Ireland and will be married in Vermont later this year. With the support of the adorable Kinsey and Roxy, this couple is sure to throw an amazing celebration for their friends and family.

The Glö-Couple:

Rowan, an environmental lawyer and
Kevin, a veterinarian

Celebration Date & Location:

September 2011
The Alerin Barn
St. Johnsbury, VT

Tell us how you got engaged:

The official engagement happened while we were on vacation in Ireland, at a misty lake with sweet words and an amazing heirloom ring that was Kevin’s great grandmother’s. The actual engagement happened a couple months before when we were talking about moving, and Kevin wanted to move me again (I already followed him once cross-country). I was pretty hesitant about it and he asked if it would be better if we were married. I said yes, it would help and he wondered aloud if he should ask at that moment or wait until Ireland. I told him to wait but considered us engaged at that point (although I waited to tell everyone until the official “will you marry me” happened).

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:

We are focusing on what would make it a good party for us and for our guests. We are trying to downplay the “show” aspect of weddings. So no colors, not too worried about centerpieces, we’re not having a garter/bouquet toss, and we may even skip the first dance. It’s important to me for it to be pretty, but it doesn’t have to be amazing and super coordinated.

Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:

Kevin and I will be walking down the aisle together. Nothing against my dad (or mom since I would have them both walk me down the aisle if we went that route), but I feel like they “gave me away” when they dropped me off for college 13 years ago. Since Kevin and I have been living together for awhile now it feels right that we will be walking down the aisle together. I hope it will relieve some of the anxiety of first seeing each other if it’s done in private and that it will take some of the attention off me (I have never really liked being the center of attention).

What was the inspiration for your Glövite and Glösite design?

For the Glosite, I used Glö’s templates and just modified from there. I’m not tech-savvy AT ALL but it was super easy to create and embellish. I am particularly proud of the slideshow I made and love the pac-man game.

Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!

If you created your own design – how did you do it?

The Save the Dates are a photo taken by a friend of ours which I uploaded and then wrote over (easy)!

Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?

The wedding planning is an excellent time to start asserting yourself as a unit and figuring out where you want to compromise in order to please others. So while some things may feel trivial and “just an extra 20 people to keep the peace with your mother” it also can set the tone for future dealings. You may want to let her invite her friends because it really would make her happy and it doesn’t really matter to you. Or those 20 extra people might tip it from being a small intimate celebration to a large one you don’t want or can’t afford. Figuring out where to compromise and when to assert yourselves will happen over and over (planning where to spend a Christmas, deciding whether or not to baptize your baby, etc.) and wedding planning is a great time to set yourselves up as a unit and practice saying [gentle] no’s to invested people. Also, step away from the bridal magazines. They will only make you feel bad and buy stuff. Find a few blogs that inspire you and ignore the rest.

13 Jan 2011

Real Glö-bies, Real Glö-Vites & Sites, Real Glö-Weddings

Ilene and Victor’s Celebration of Cherished Friends, Family (and Golf)

Look at this amazing wedding! I’ve loved working with Ilene and Victor over the past months – these two planned a wedding while practically on a world-tour. That was enough to tell me how put.to.gether these two are. Let’s get reading!

The Glö-Couple:

Ilene, an angel investor &
Victor

Celebration Date & Location:

November 2010
The Lodge at Ventana Canyon
Tuscon, Arizona USA

Tell us how you got engaged:

Vic first said that if I parred our last hole in a golf tournament we were in, he would ask me to marry him. I did! But the real story was that he realized that sanctifying our relationship with marriage was important to him. He was going to surprise me at his “surprise” birthday party, but he could not wait and asked me to marry him in our kitchen! We planned the wedding in less than four months as we traveled around the globe from California to Tucson to Israel and Piemonte, Italy.

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you were aiming for with your celebration:

Our cherished friends and family are the center of our lives and were the center of our wedding. The natural beauty of the outdoors set the stage for the ceremony. Dancing and good food set the stage for the celebration. It was elegant!

Did you add any fun twists on tradition:

As an older couple, we chose to have our grandchildren walk down the aisle. They were spectacular!

We not only had a cake dessert, we had a Gelato Cart! (mmmmm)

Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!

What’s a favorite moment or memory from your celebration?

Ilene says that the lovely words she received from their guests after the celebration was one of the best parts. I encouraged her to share some quotes, so here are some of the fabulous things their guests wrote to them:

Thank you so much for this weekend! It was so awesome!! It was great to be part of it, you guys did a superb job with hosting us all and the wedding was so beautiful and moving, planned to the last detail !! Your wedding weekend was such a joyous one, and we are so happy to have been here to share it with you.

The garden and dining room last night was filled with such love. And all the little things went well too: you both look fantastic, all the kids/grandkids get along swimmingly, and the gelato…nice touch!

We just got home and have not stopped talking about how lovely the wedding was. Everything was perfect, especially the bride and groom. The wonderful feelings that were at the wedding and throughout the entire weekend were sheer joy to be a part of this union. We were thrilled to be there. We wish you many wonderful years continuing to share your love.

Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?

I have to confess that I was totally chuffed to find out how helpful Glö was for Ilene and Victor when planning!

I don’t know where to begin – there are so many features on Glö that made our planning seamless. I will use Glösite for all celebrations in the future! In particular, Glosite prevents duplicate RSVP responses, unlike Evite. It allows for multiple activities, such as Rehearsal Dinner, Sunday Brunch, Golf Tournaments, etc in addition to the wedding, to be sent to targeted guests. Extremely important was not only the choice of meals capability but also the ability to put open ended questions such as “Do you have any food allergies?” We were surprised at the severity and number of allergies. Our Chef John was grateful to have this information in advance. Then the ability to learn any glitches in our email addresses or people not receiving the Glövite for any reason gave us confidence that everyone would be included. Most important to us, as our time frame was truncated, is the ability to manipulate the RSVP data responses both on the Glösite and also once exported to Excel. The support at Glösite helps make it the best site. Being a VC, we learn to bet on the jockeys as well as the horses – Glösite has a winning team.

Now that I’m thoroughly blushing…let’s see some of Ilene and Victor’s amazing wedding photos:

Photos by SpencerBoerup Photography

17 Dec 2010

Real Glö-bies, Real Glö-Vites & Sites

Alejandra and Horacio’s Mexican-Argentinian At-Home Celebration

Over the past several weeks, I have had the joy to get to know Alejandra. Not only is Alejandra a rockin’ female engineer studying along with her fiance Horacio at my own alma mater MIT, but there is Mariachi music involved in their engagement story. Plus, their streamlined-elegant ‘vites and ‘site are a great example of how to tackle the challenge of dual-language guests!

The Glö-Couple:

Alejandra, a Mechanical Engineering PhD student &
Horacio, an Economics PhD student

Celebration Date & Location:

March 2011
Alejandra’s home,
Mexico City, Mexico

Tell us how you got engaged:

Horacio is (was, I should say) the worst with secrets. He tended to get over-excited with stuff, and managed to blow off many surprises over our first years dating. So he got a warning: if you ever propose, you’d better do it right. Then, the getting married talk started to get serious. So during our spring break vacation in Mexico (my home country), he suggested going together to a small silver-mining village called Taxco to get the rings (he’s Argentinean, and in Argentina both fiances wear an engagement ring). None of us had ever worn a ring before, so it made sense we got them together to make sure they fit. As soon as we got the rings, in his very very transparent way of saying things, he told me “ok cool. Got the rings. I don’t think I’ll be able to talk to your dad in this trip, so I’ll try to come up with a way of calling him from Boston… and then I’ll probably propose sometime in summer…”. Great, he had just forgotten to tell me the proposal date to perfectly ruin a hardly-attempted surprise.

A couple of days later, at 7am we woke up to Mariachi music. At first I thought I had forgotten somebody’s birthday (at home we usually play a mariachi CD to wake up the b’day person)… to later conclude it must have been the neighbor serenading his wife (and, by passing, not letting us sleep). Horacio, of course, pretended like he had no clue what was going on (of course! what does an Argentinean know about mariachis anyway?!). It was only until I got out of bed and looked out the window that I realized that the mariachis were pointing at my room!! He then he knelt down and proposed. To make things more exciting, half way though “the question”, my dad rushed into my room with a poncho and sombrero in hand, and shouted “Horacio, this is a Mexican serenade, you should be singing downstairs!!”. And so he did, and it was fantastic. I later learned that he had secretly talked to my parents the night before, and that they were the ones picking the mariachi playlist! It was the best surprise I’ve ever had.

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:

We’re excited!!! We are getting married in my house (right where the serenade happened), which means it will be a small outdoors celebration. The religious ceremony will take place at a chapel a few blocks from my house, in the middle of the woods. Both Horacio and I are really simple, so we’re aiming for good food, good music, and minimal monetary and material waste. No bridesmaids, no groomsmen. We’re avoiding things like fancy furniture or silverware. We’re sticking to functional instead of elegant. (Actually, the wedding color is blue because the cheapest chairs we found were blue… and we realized that to turn them into the cutest chairs, we only had to make everything else match their blue — from invitations to decoration.) My family has always been pretty much DIY, so my sister will be helping out with decorations and dad will be in charge of building a platform to fit all of our guests. We’re hiring friends to take care of the music, photographs and baking…

Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:

We are trying to combine Mexican and Argentinean traditions to the ceremony and the party. For instance, we’re both going to be wearing traditional Mexican garments, and we will introduce the fabulous Argentinean concept of dessert table to the party. Our philosophy is: the more sugar we give the guests, the longer they will dance. Within our simplified life and minimal waste philosophy, we decided to send Glövites instead of paper invitations. People in Latin America are not used to the concept of wedding websites, so our Glösite has definitely been a twist for most of our guests!

What was the inspiration for your Glövite and Glösite design?

We really wanted something simple and pretty… and blue (matching the chairs, remember?). The website really came from the invitation itself, all blue and white. As for the pictures, we tried to keep them as informal as possible, to give people the impression that they’re really coming to a human celebration, more than a place with fancy tables and high heels. That, and the fact that we really don’t have any formal pictures of us!

Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!

If you created your own design – how did you do it?

Our inspiration came from a design we found at minted.com and a tablet pc. We liked the handwriting of the design, because it couldn’t be more simple. So we downloaded the font from the web, and I did some scribbles on my tablet until we liked one. We made it all on word and then took screenshots of it. Fairly primitive.

What’s the craziest/funniest/biggest ‘SAY WHAT?” moment you’ve had while planning?

Ohhhh, that one will have to wait til after the wedding, because Horacio is not allowed to hear dress-related stories just yet!

Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?

1. Read A Practical Wedding on a weekly basis. That’s where I found out about Glösite (the best tip we could give!), and about so many other things. It’s a fantastic blog that brings you down to earth, and reminds you that the wedding isn’t about a 5K dress, but about the bride and the groom starting a new life together.

2. Friends are dying to help out with something. Our friends in Mexico have been extremely helpful at finding stuff for us that can’t be found online.

3. Having a good DIY magazine is crucial to having an idea of what is realistic to do yourself, and what not.

4. Get both involved in the wedding planning process. Making the groom understand (and feel) that it’s as much of a celebration for him as it is for the bride. Let him help out with the website, give his opinion about colors and music, decide what hairstyle fits the bride best.

5. Most importanly, promise yourselves from the moment you get engaged, that no matter what family craziness surrounds you during the planning, it should help you to build a stronger marriage, and not one full of family drama.

10 Nov 2010

Real Glö-bies, Real Glö-Vites & Sites

Elizabeth and Mike – Celebrating our family, our friends, and the love with wine

Meet Elizabeth and Scott. They’re getting married in the beautiful state of Colorado (my new home!), so I am pretty thrilled about that. And Elizabeth spends lots of time looking through a lens at the wedding world, so I just know that there will be lots of lovely details included in their celebration.

The Glö-Couple:

Elizabeth, a wedding and portrait photographer &
Scott, a commercial loan underwriter

Celebration Date & Location:
January 2011
Colorado Springs, CO USA
La Foret Conference and Event Center

Tell us how you got engaged:

We were sitting on our back deck, enjoying the warm summer night and a good glass of bourbon, talking about whether or not we should get married, and Scott pulled out the ring and got down on both knees and asked me to be his wife. It is a simple story, but one of the many memories that will make moving to a new home harder in the future.

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:

It really is a celebration of our friends and family, and thanking them for the support they have given us in our love. So, we really do just want to show everyone a rockin’ good time. Also, as a wedding photographer, I’ve been to well over 100 weddings, and I’ve seen the things that just don’t matter to me, so we’re really trying to focus the bulk of our funds on the things that are important to us and what we feel will encourage people to have a good time (i.e. good food, good wine and beer, and a killer dance party,) my biggest disappointment would be if people went home and actually remembered what my center pieces looked like.

I love that last line!

Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:

We are staying pretty traditional. But instead of having just my Dad give my hand in marriage, we will be have both sets of our parents joining our hands together in marriage. I guess our gift registry is pretty not traditional, as the main things we want are romance and wine.

This pair has done something super cool and registered for a wine list! Why didn’t I think of that?!? Here’s what they write to their guests:
Scott and Elizabeth have become enveloped in the world of wine. Between the two of us we have traveled on 6 wine tours in various regions and participated in hundreds of wine tastings, experiencing some of the most amazing wines in the world. However, the world of wine is wide-ranging and can drain the wallet most expeditiously. There are a few bottles we have wanted to purchase and would greatly appreciate the opportunity to. We have created a small registry with one of the most experienced wine stores in Denver that we have come to personally love.

What was the inspiration for your Glövite Save-the-Dates and Glösite design?

I think it started with “our song” which is “You and Me” by Dave Matthews. There is a lyric in the song that goes “and when the kids are old enough we’re gonna teach them to fly,” and I just love the thought of that. But, then I thought, “well, maybe we should learn to fly ourselves first.” So, the entire wedding took on this whole “love taking flight” theme, and what better way to represent that then birds. We did send out printed Save The Dates, which had two bird at either side of a maze (which had meaning but was also a fun activity,) the site and ‘vites are 2 birds chilling on a branch together, and then I am hoping to incorporate more of a birds in flight theme for the day of…but that is still a work in progress.

Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!

If you created your own design – how did you do it?

I made it in Adobe Photoshop. It’s a combination of my photo’s and designs I found online, as I am not much of a free style designer. Scott really wanted to be a Robin, so I made his bird red, I’m not really sure why my bird ended up purple.

What’s the craziest/funniest/biggest ‘SAY WHAT?” moment you’ve had while planning?

It’s not very funny, but the moment I realized it just wasn’t important to me to have everything from the day captured in beautifully lit photograph’s taken by a very professional and very expensive photographer. Not that I don’t have a very talented photographer, its just that it was like #10 on my list.

Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?

I still have 4 months to go, but I would say, just go with the flow, problems will happen, but there is no point in stressing yourself out and getting cranky with the person you love. It is just a single day, that signals the rest of your lives together. Nobody likes a bridezilla, not even your husband.

21 Oct 2010

Real Glö-bies, Real Glö-Vites & Sites

Shanelle and Mike’s Camptastic Wedding with Rad Friends, Family and Pie!

I am pretty excited to introduce Shanelle and Mike to you all. Not only are they getting married on my birthday next year (yay!) but they are actually putting pie front and center in their celebration. PIE! How cool is that?!?

The Glö-Couple:
Shanelle, an Operations Assistant &
Mike, a Marketing Manager

Celebration Date & Location:
August 2011
Camano Island, WA;
Camano Island State Park

Tell us how you got engaged:
I actually proposed to Mike! (You go girl!) We went to his folks vacation home (which he loves) near the Canal to escape a busy period in our lives. I was a nervous wreck, so I basically blurted out a speech about loving him and wanting to marry him and then asked him if he would be engaged to me. I even gave him a watch. He said “of course” right away and then got on his knees and said sweet things. We cried and kissed and laughed and then did a shot of tequila! It was perfect.

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:
Mike and I are pretty laid back, but love to throw rad parties, so our wedding will reflect our interests while still showing everyone a good time. The main idea is to incorporate things we love (camping, hanging out, mason jars) but still make sure others are comfortable and happy. Figuring that out right away has really helped us stay on track. We haven’t stressed about much because everything we are planning is such a reflection of us and sounds like so much fun; it is making us so excited for the big day. My favorite example is the food; Mike and I like to grill, so our caterer is a local street food vendor that makes gourmet burgers and fries. So stoked!

Here’s some of the inspiration Shanelle has collected so far

Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:
I mentioned some above (burgers and fries), but we are also omitting the traditional cake and doing pie instead. We both LOVE pie, so it just made sense. One of our best friends wil be our officiant and I have a guy on my side of the wedding party. We have to leave the main wedding site before dusk, so we will all go back to our group camping site and make s’mores and laugh. Our rehearsal dinner will be a super chill bbq on the beach. Oh! We are also walking down the isle to a Prince song (I Would Die 4 You) since we both love him. Haha!

What was the inspiration for your Glövite Save-the-Dates and Glösite design?
A friend designed our Save the Dates based on a design we had seen online; she is amazing! We just wanted everything to be clear, simple, and reflect who we are and what type of wedding we are having.

Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!

What’s the craziest/funniest/biggest ‘SAY WHAT?” moment you’ve had while planning?
I tried on a silly, frilly dress for my future mother in law and I got stuck in it! It was too funny and surreal to be embarrassing. Haha!

Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?
Have an an honest conversation with your future spouse about expectations, ideas, traditions (wanted and unwanted) and budget ASAP. Once that is all hashed out, have fun and remember to breathe! Mike and I did a lot of the big planning within a couple of months after getting engaged and that was nice, but it has also taken some of the excitement away for the moment because we now have a while until the wedding and the little stuff can wait. I use a great blog called Offbeatbride that helps keep me calm because you can discuss wedding plans with other lucky ladies. I also suggest using a notebook to keep ideas, swatches, contracts, etc. in. Most importantly, don’t take it too seriously! It’s only one day and you already know how it will end.

9 Oct 2010

Real Glö-bies, Real Glö-Vites & Sites

Kyle and David’s Global Fiesta of Epic Proportions

You all may remember Kyle and David who shared their clever trick for creating a “things to do and see” wedding map a little while back. I’m so psyched to now share the Glösite they’ve created for their Global Fiesta of Epic Proportions. I want to attend based on the name alone!

The Glö-Couple:

Kyle, an ESL instructor, and David, a tech support guru

Celebration Date & Location:

May 2011 in Topsail Island, North Carolina (USA) at the Surfside Center

Tell us how you got engaged:

We were snorkeling in Okinawa when he randomly popped out of the water and said, “Alright, let’s do this. Let’s get married!”

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:

We’re having guests coming from all over the world, the US, Austria, Japan, and Australia, so we’re really trying our best to make everyone feel at home. The wedding is going to be on the beach and the reception is going to be a casual fiesta of Mexican food, margaritas, and everyone getting to know each other. Since a lot of our guests do not speak English, we will be providing bilingual menus, programs, etc. It’s adding a lot of extra work for me to translate everything but it’s worth it!

Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:

Rather than doing a bouquet toss, we will be doing a bouquet pull. These are very popular in Japan and are cool because it combines the ideas of a bouquet toss and the US Southern tradition of a charm pull. Basically you have a bouquet with lots of ribbons coming out of its base. But only one ribbon is attached to the bouquet. Friends and family choose a ribbon and on the count of 3 everyone tugs on their ribbon. The person with the bouquet attached to their ribbon is the “winner” but each ribbon has a charm attached to it. I figure though that these days most people aren’t interested in charms so I’m planning on attaching things like Amazon and iTunes gift cards to the ribbons.

I love the idea of a boquet pull, so I looked all over for some more info on this Japanese tradition, and found this great photo below on flickr

What was the inspiration for you Glösite design?

I want something that is easy to navigate and provides all the information people need in one easy spot. It’s fun, casual, and easy to use!

Now show us your Glösite!

How on earth did you make the crazy-cool wedding party images?

For my wedding party section, I made the template in Adobe Photoshop. I took a picture of a folder as the base. Then I used this tutorial to make the poloroid photo. Next I put a white box for the “paper” and wrote in the information about each person in the wedding party. Voila!

Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just getting started?

MS Onenote is my savior. It helps me keep all of my ideas organized in one place. I really recommend that anyone with the MS Office suite open it up and take it for a test drive. It saves me so much time when I’m going through my wedding notes.

25 Sep 2010

Real Glö-bies, Real Glö-Vites & Sites

Crystal and Scott’s meaningful, intimate and brightly coloured celebration of our love

Wow, it’s been awhile since we’ve featured a real Glö-bie vite and site! So I’m super pleased that this post is about Crystal and Scott – who are adding all sorts of fun twists on tradition for their wedding celebration…read below to find out more!

The Glö-Couple:

Crystal, a small business owner (we love female entrepreneurs!) & Scott, a power engineer

Celebration Date & Location:

The Eagle Tree Lodge in Agassiz, BC, Canada in September 2010

Tell us how you got engaged:

We pretty much knew when we met that we were going to end up getting married and sort of skipped the whole proposal thing. I don’t even have an engagement ring as we chose to get a puppy instead! (major awwww!)

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:

We are aiming to have a day that is totally reflective of who we are and the things we enjoy that we can share with our friends and family. Keeping this in mind has allowed us to get past any fear of “what people will think” and just do what we want. Hot pink wedding dress? Why not? Mismatched, brightly coloured table runners made from Indian sari fabrics? Sure! Already some of our family members don’t seem to know what to think of the whole thing but I hope that when they see it all come together it will erase any doubts they may have had.

Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:

We’ve removed anything that didn’t fit with who we are- the garter toss, the first dance, the white dress, etc. I’m having a hot pink, 50s/60s style gown custom made. (We can’t wait to see photos!) We’re walking each other down the aisle as we have been through a lot in our relationship but have always faced everything together. We’ll be walking down the aisle to a Tegan and Sara song that is meaningful to us (“Take Me Anywhere”). Just to name a few things.

Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!

Any good planning tips and tricks:

I’m not especially well organized and am prone to procrastination so I highly recommend doing the opposite! There are a lot of things I wish I’d done months ago and not left until the last minute. The big day sneaks up on you quickly. I am glad we chose to use a Glösite/Glövites because it is so easy to keep track of guests.. it’s truly my only semblance of organization!

What’s the biggest “SAY WHAT?” moment you’ve had since you started planning:

I really love all things Indian so I had it in my mind to get some brightly coloured/possibly sparkly fabric to make some table runners out of. I figured I could just go into an Indian cloth store and pick some out. After finding about 10 different fabrics that I wanted a few metres off of, we were not so kindly informed in front of everyone in the store that the fabrics were sold in sets of 3 prints to make the different parts of a suit and that we could not just buy a metre here or there. We were pretty embarrassed and not sure why they waited that long to say something when we obviously didn’t know things worked differently. We ended up finding a second store where the staff was much friendlier and helpful to make our purchases.

How crazy-fun does this wedding sound?? Congrats you two! We can’t wait to see all the brightly coloured photos! For those of you who are drooling over the cute countdown these guys used on the front page of their site – check out TickerFactory where they made it.

10 Sep 2010

Real Glö-bies, Real Glö-Vites & Sites

Tim and Mo’s Garden Wedding Vites and Site

The Glö-Bride: Melissa, Educational consultant

Her Glö-partner: Tim, Landscaper

Celebration Date & Location: August 2010 in Melissa’s sister’s backyard in Junction City, Oregon/Lane County, USA

Tell us how you got engaged:

I have been friends with Tim’s sister for over 20 years. Tim and I recently met again after many years and sparks flew. He proposed over a picturesque bridge on bended knee, and I, of course, said yes.

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:

We’re celebrating in my sister’s beautiful garden with many, many lush blooming plants. The overall “feeling” we’re going for is casual garden party.

Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:

We have wonderful cooks in the family, so we’re doing potluck.

What was the inspiration behind your Glövite and Glösite design? How did you make it?

My sister’s garden and her cats were the inspiration for the invitation and website. We also threw in an eagle to honor Tim’s totem animal.

I have to confess, I had to do a bit of research to learn that a totem animal is a personal spirit that helps watch over and guide you. Pretty cool stuff! I took a little quiz and found out that I am either a Horse (neigh!) or Dog (woof woof!)

My friend, Merisha Lemmer, designed our invitation. (You can email Merisha here)

Now show us your vites and site!

Any good planning tips and tricks:

Get e-mail addresses early. Also, have a plan for those who have yet to join the twenty-first century and don’t do e-mail or can’t access the Glösite.

If you have guests who aren’t on email, consider sending paper invitations that match your Glövite designs. If you choose a Glö design, we can arrange for you to have matching paper invitations printed. Just contact us at Glö!

I discovered that Melissa and Tim were using some other nifty tools to help with their planning. The first is a travel booking site called Hotel Planner where you find group discount rates on hotels. A SUPER big help if you have numerous guests coming from out of town. You can even specify that the event you’re planning is a wedding. After the hotels are chosen, you have a landing page on the site that lists all of the hotel options for your guests. What a great way to make it nice and easy for them! Melissa and Tim simply included a link to the site on their ‘Travel’ page.

Melissa and Tim also registered for their honeymoon using Travelers Joy. And although the google map couldn’t seem to find Mexico (??), I’m sure the pilot will have better luck! Registering for a honeymoon is a great option for those of you who have what you need for the house already.

12 Aug 2010

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