STATIONARY: Wedding Guest Book Box

Seriously, how very cute is this wedding guest book box by Cut the Cake Designs on Etsy?

SHOP: Cut the Cake Designs

DECOR: Compass Place Cards!

These Compass Place Cards are just so darn cute, I love 'em! They're pricey for a large wedding, but could be perfect for a rehearsal dinner or small wedding. What a great take home gift and how unique! ($10 each)

SHOP: LH Calligraphy, Etsy, www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5571573

GOWNS: Filene's Running of the Brides

If you're getting married and live in one of these cities, don't miss Filene's Running of the Brides sale!

FAVORS: Love this Ribbon!

Check out this cute ribbon from Cox & Cox in ivory and ribbon. I adore it!

And this wedding sign is a great way to help show guests their way to the wedding - isn't it cute?

And these parking and loo signs!

SHOP: Cox & Cox, www.coxandcox.co.uk

ALBUM: One idea...

We're currently working on selecting the photos from our wedding day that will go into our 'official' wedding album. I say official, because I hope to also make a couple of informal ones through Snapfish that include the not-as-perfect but still great photos that family members have shared with us. It feels as though it's taking us forever to choose from the hundreds of beautiful images that our amazing photographer took. We need to just pick them and be done with it already (hopefully in the very near future). I know a few girl friends who after a year or years in some cases, still have no album to show. They just never got around to it. I really want to have an album to show our future grandchildren, so this is a priority on our to do list.

Here's an idea that I wanted to share that's on the pricer-but-fabulous side of the album spectrum. Our wedding photographer shared this link when I asked her about our album options and I fell in love immediately. I really want to save up and create one of the family history books. Their new accordion books could work well for wedding or honeymoon photos, as you can see in the samples below from their blog. Check out their site - I promise you won't be disappointed.

SHOP: Good Stock, http://good-stock.com

SHOPPING: Wedding Gifts

We enjoyed a great weekend visit to Jersey and PA to visit our families for Thanksgiving. This was our first Thanksgiving married and together in the same place! Each year prior to this one while we were dating and then engaged, we would drive up from DC together and then go our separate ways (our families live just an hour apart on either side of the Walt Whitman Bridge).

As this weekend of visiting family came to a close, we took a detour on Saturday before coming back to DC. We visited West Chester, PA to exchange a wedding gift at Simon Pearce - an artist known for his handmade glass and pottery.

This is the glass bowl we had received (the smaller of the two). While it was nice, we had received so many bowls, that we decided to exchange it for something we'd get a bit more use out of.

We exchanged the bowl for four hammered metal chargers and a spoon rest. So we can only have two people over for dinner : ) which is just perfect for now anyway in our teeny tiny place!

If you live in or will be visiting the PA area, I recommend stopping by. It was a little out of the way (not near the main street area of West Chester), but neat to visit. They have glass blowing on the first floor as you walk in and then the shop on the second level is filled with all the glass, pottery, wood, and metal pieces you could possibly imagine. It's pretty pricey, but they also had a section of marked down items that are just a tad off (not 'perfect' for full price). They also had a nice restaurant where we had lunch. The quiche was great! It made for a nice day visit before hitting the road and sitting in all the post-Thanksgiving traffic.

SHOP: Simon Pearce, www.simonpearce.com

GIVEAWAY: Winner of Sea Horse Necklace

Thanks again to Courtney for doing this great giveaway!

The winner of the Sea Horse Necklace is: LEXI

Yay! Congrats! Please email me here to collect your prize.

To see the list of all your and my favorite beaches, go here.

DECOR: Something for Spring!

I'd love to see a spring bride use these as table centerpieces for a cocktail reception. They're only 5 inches tall and you could surround them with a wreath of flowers and/or feathers. ($8.00 each).


SHOP: Pier 1, www.pier1.com

ACCESSORIES: Hot Pink!

I've been MIA online after two weekends away in a row with another getaway coming up soon. We've been busy packing, unpacking, repacking, working, catching up on errands and cleaning our condo. So, I just wanted to say a quick hello and share these cute hot pink accessories.

If I were to do our wedding day all over again (and we happened to have unlimited wedding funds), I would wear these for our ceremony - instead of the incredibly uncomfortable pair of white heels I wore and took off immediately after we finished at the church. ($149)

And how about this cute Paisley Purse from Cath Kidston? It'd be cute for bridesmaids or even for the bride! (£10.00)

GIVEAWAY: It's a Giveaway!

With Thanksgiving and the holiday season just around the corner, I'm kicking off a series of giveaways - this is my first ever (yay!) and the first in a series of fun giveaways with various Etsy designers. Here's your chance to win some great prizes - either as a treat for yourself or a gift for a special someone. It's also a small reminder to consider Etsy this holiday season for amazing and unique hand-crafted gifts, wrapping, and cards. So here we go!

We begin with TWO prizes! How cool is that? You have a chance to win one of two necklaces designed by Courtney Anne Designs. Both are sterling silver 16" necklaces. The first, "White Sand Dollar," has a black freshwater pearl, white opal swarovski crystal, and sand dollar charm. The second, "Silver Seahorse," has a white freshwater coin pearl, black diamond swarovski crystal, and sea horse charm. Both are just beachy and oh-so-cute!

Necklace # 1 - "White Sand Dollar"

Necklace # 2 - "Silver Seahorse"

The first will be given away here at my Big Fat Italian wedding, the other at just Beachy in the city. You're invited to enter both to double your chances of winning. You don't have to enter both, but one name will be drawn from my Big Fat Italian wedding's comments, the other from Beachy's comments.

So, for your chance to win: leave a comment noting your favorite product in Courtney's Etsy shop and also include what your favorite beach is - it can be anywhere in the world. We just want to hear the beachy spots you all love to visit!

You have until Thursday, November 20th to post comments. Winners will be announced on Friday, November 21st. Thank you to Courtney for this amazing giveaway! : )

SHOP: Courtney Anne Designs, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6174218