Atlanta Bridal Shower

Mat has been away with the band recording their new album in Texas, so my mom thought the timing was perfect for a bridal shower in Atlanta. It was great because all my family and our friends in Atlanta were able to make it. My mom organized the whole thing, and arranged all the flowers, set up the food with the caterers, and did a beautiful job with the decorating. She's amazing!

My sister Shayda came over the night before to help out and so did Neda. We stayed up late talking about our boyfriends and how lucky we are to have such great men in our lives. The shower itself was lots of fun. It was great to catch up with everyone. I'm so happy my family and so many of our friends came over to spend the day with us. I got to open presents, and Mat and I got some really nice stuff! The wedding is only 2 months away now!

Closer Look At The Invites

We've been getting the RSVP cards back, so we're safely assuming nearly everyone has gotten their invite in the mail by now. So that means I can finally post photos of the invitations. We had two sets of invites, each done by a different artist. The whole invitation process was really hard actually. Jesse, my good friend from highschool, designed the invites originally.

Jesse has made me many paintings over the years, two of which hang proudly in my home. He came up with the most original and interesting looking invite for our wedding. Unfortunately for us, his design was so detailed and ornate, it couldn't be printed letterpress when shrunk down to 5x7.

My heart was set on letterpress, so we had to quickly find another illustrator who was familiar with designing for letterpress. I found two really great artists, Simone Ralph and Ailbhe from Pretty As a Picture and they each came up with a really creative version of Jesse's original print. It was so hard to pick between the two, so we went with both in the end.

The inspiration for the invites came from this Zeigfeld girls print that I love and the movie poster for Corpse Bride. I wanted to incorporate mine and Mat's insignia, so we included the Aires' ram's head and the scales for Libra. The masks are a hint at what to expect at the wedding. The reception is loosely based on the ballroom scene from the Labyrinth. And of course, we had to include our black kitty Magellan.

Print Icon did the letterpress printing and the calligraphy was done by the very talented Joanne Day. Semi came over to take photos of the invites and my work station. The finished product came out even better than we had imagined. We have so many extras though! I need to think of a creative way to make them useful.

New Your Vegas Album

Mat and I were lucky to have met once his band Your Vegas had wrapped up two years of touring with bands like Duran Duran and The Bravery. We got to spend a lot of uninterrupted time together in the first few months of our courtship. The band recently has been hard at work writing material for their upcoming album, and playing warm up gigs for their fans showcasing the new songs.

I'm so excited for this album and thankfully, we won't have to wait too much longer. The band leaves for the studio in a couple weeks to record for about a month. I'll miss him while he's in Texas, but I'm thrilled for this new, yet to be titled album. In the meantime, you can buy their debut A Town And Two Cities on iTunes and Amazon. Go get it now!

Against Nature

Mat and I had such a great day together. We went for his second suit fitting at Against Nature and he looks so sharp! Seriously, my man is so gorgeous. We were really lucky to find such a cool suit shop in our neighborhood.

 Against Nature is this amazing bespoke atelier in the Lower East Side. Their aesthetic is very classic, victorian, meets 60's rock n roll fashion. The shop is filled with unique antique furniture and taxidermy and feels like an old speakeasy. 

The owners/designers Jake, Ryan, and Amber are so incredibly fun, detail oriented, and mega stylish. Mat has been working with Jake on his custom suit, and they picked out the colors, material, and all the little details. It's so great watching it all come together. Jake is adding lots of little personal touches to the suit like the lining, stitching in our wedding date, and making it Mat's dream suit. 

Ryan is a custom jeweler and is designing Mat's wedding band, along with his cuff links and tie clip. He's going to engrave the wedding band with script. Ryan is also an interior designer, and loves taxidermy. We were discussing the wedding theme and how it's based around the Labyrinth, which is one of his favorite movies too. He just happens to have a white owl! We might get the owl on loan, but will know closer to the wedding date. Fingers crossed!

Invitations Are In The Post

It's taken weeks and many many late nights, but the invites are finally assembled, sealed, stamped, and ready to put in the post. I snapped a couple photos before I stack them up for the mail in the morning. They're much lovelier in person than my camera can show. Lighting is so important. We found vintage owl stamps, which go perfectly with our Labyrinth theme. I'm especially pleased about the cat seal and vintage cat stamps. We didn't want Magellan to feel left out.

Our Wedding Playlist

Here's a little preview of some of the music we'll have at the wedding. It's been really hard trying to narrow it all down. We still have about 4 hours of music to shave off the night.

Engagement Photos

The lovely and mega talented Semi Song took another set of engagement photos for Mat and I. She's amazing! Mat and I wanted to recreate one of our first dates, so we gathered our new china, picnic basket and packed a big lunch. 

We also brought along our Scrabble board and spelled out the wedding date (it made more sense than our Beatles Monopoly board). After the yummy picnic, Mat took me rowing and Semi snapped photos along the way. Here are a few photos from the shoot:

We've Found Our Wedding Officiant

Mat and I are so happy to announce that Rev Susanna Macomb will be our wedding officiant. We found her listed by Time Out Magazine as one of the top ten best wedding officiants in New York. We instantly felt a connection with her and know she's a perfect fit for us.

When we began looking, we knew we wanted someone who had lots of experience with interfaith and multi-cultural weddings, as well as someone who would understand who Mat and I are as a couple and tell that story to all our guests. Rev Macomb has performed nearly 2,000 weddings and literally wrote the book on interfaith ceremonies called Joining Hands and Hearts. 

She welcomes our friends and family to email her stories about Mat and I as a couple, to help her get a better sense of us as a team. Rev Macomb plans to use some of your words in the ceremony and will share your stories with us afterwards. What a great gift that will be to read after the wedding and on anniversaries :)

If you want to send in your stories about Mat and I as a couple, you can email them to Rev Macomb and her assistant Elaine Zervos - elainezervos@gmail.com, mail@susannamacomb.com. Please make sure the subject line of the email is "Thoughts & Stories about Elhaam & Mat 11/12/10". They will need these before August 31 in order to use them. Thanks!