Friday Final Post on Ashley and Greg's Wedding

Don't forget to enter the Laurie's Granola Creations Giveaway to win a free 12 oz. bag of all natural, organic granola! Anyone can enter!

I spent the week recapping Ashley and Greg's Wedding Part 1 here and Part 2 here, and now I'm going to close out the week with a full recap of their wedding that I put together using animoto. After all, what wedding is complete without one?!

Enjoy and have a great weekend!!


As always you can read my favorite Friday Wedding stories of the week on Storymix Media's blog.

TWO Giveaway Winners!

Phew! I've been a bad blogger - there has been LOTS going on for me lately, and I'm just trying to keep my head above water, so forgive me.

Firstly: I have not heard from my winner for the Favor-Days $25 Giveaway, so I had to pick a new winner and the winner is comment #1 - Karen!

Now for my PrintRunner Giveaway:

The winner is #2 Kara (Yay Kara! I went to college with Kara!)

Make sure you contact me at info@lauraandchristopher.com so you can redeem your wins!

PrintRunner Giveaway!

Congratulations to Audimomof4 for winning my Favor-Days Giveaway! Please email me at info@lauraandchristopher.com so I can send you your coupon code for $25 off your order!

As one givewaway ends, another begins! PrintRunner.com is an online printing company that can certainly help with any of your wedding or business needs! They make banners and signs, postcards, greeting cards, business cards, door hangers, magnets, and many other printing services. They also do online sticker printing, which I am offering as a giveway this week!

The winner of this givewaway will receive 250 standard online sticker printing for FREE. They are 2"x3.5" and printed on premium sticker stock. Once your order is received, they can be ready to ship in 3 business days!

To enter:
1. Leave me a comment below telling me what you would have printed on your 250 FREE PrintRunner online sticker printing!
2. Follow PrintRunner on Twitter ,and leave me a comment saying you did.
3. Like PrintRunner on Facebook, and leave me a comment saying you did.

Disclaimer: I did not and will not receive compensation from the sponsor of this giveaway. I will receive the same offer that is given away to my winner.

The giveaway ends Friday, April 13th at 12:00noon EST.

Favor Days Giveaway

Chris and I are attending our first wedding of 2012 this weekend in upstate, New York! We are excited to celebrate for our friends Laurel and Kyle and to see other friends from our college days. In honor of officially kicking off our intense "Year of Weddings" (as this year has been dubbed), I have a giveaway for you!

I was recently contacted by Favor-Days.com to see if I was interested in either reviewing a product or hosting a giveaway. I was sooo tempted to try out one of their products, but I resisted because I'd rather have one of my readers win the $25 gift card to use for themselves!

IF I could use the gift-card, I would use it on these items:

These chalkboard tea light holders. Not only would they be so adorable for a wedding, I want them in my house! Like now...I may just have to buy these...

I actually have cupcake liners at home and haven't had a chance to use them yet. But I just love how they look! They instantly glam up a cupcake, (and really, who doesn't love a glam cupcake?) Like the chalkboard tea-light holder, these are good for weddings or general party hosting as well!

Mini pies are HUGE right now - wait, that's an oxy-moron. This would be perfect for a country wedding, and any type of shower or party!

I think these wine charms are cute, and practical

If I were getting married in December, these sooo would be my place-card holders/favors:

Favor-Days.com literally has everything you need for a bridal shower, wedding, baby shower, or even general party hosting!

To Enter:

1. Visit Favor-days.com and leave me a comment below telling me what you would order with your $25 gift card!! That's it!

Extra Entries:
1. Follow me on Twitter, and leave me a comment telling me so
2. "Like" Favor Days on Facebook, and leave me a comment telling me so

Giveaway ends Sunday, April 8th at midnight EST.

Friday Find: Skyscraper Proposal

Congratulations to Amanda at Twoninenine and Ever After for winning my Bridal Hair Clip giveaway!! Email me at info@lauraandchristopher.com and I'll put this beauty in the mail for you!

Friday Find: It's another "Proposal Friday" here! I couldn't resist this proposal. This guy has some serious hook-up to get this to happen. How cool is this??

Wishing you a happy weekend!

Anniversary Dance and Bridal Hair Clip Giveaway!

One element that didn't go as planned for me was our Anniversary Dance. I decided pretty early on in the planning process to do an Anniversary Dance at the wedding. However, I don't think many people really understood what was happening and just kept dancing. The "Winners" of our dance - for being married 50 years - actually weren't married at all! They just kept dancing and weren't listening to the instructions from the band! They were family friends from Chris' side so I didn't know who they were, so I ran over to them to give them a bridesmaid bouquet thinking " They look so young to be married 50 years!"

Until I was informed that they actually weren't even married...At first, I was pissed, but what could I do about it? Then I started to laugh, cause it actually was kind of funny. Oh well...sorry to whoever SHOULD have won!

Speaking of winning things you shouldn't have won in the first place, I won this gorgeous hair clip from the blog A Reccessionist Ties the Knot last December.

I was so excited to wear it in my hair on my wedding day. However, once I picked out my hairstyle and elements for the day, like Mrs. Recessionista, it didn't really work with my hairstyle or overall look. And so, once again, it went completely un-used.

Recessionista described this by saying the following:
"The hair pin is an ivory (with tulle accents) silk rose hair pin (see similar style here), made of gorgeous dupioni silk."
 
This has NEVER BEEN WORN. It is in brand new condition and just waiting to be used for your gorgeous wedding! I really hope the next person that has this can get some use out of it!

To Enter:

1. Leave me a comment below of why you think this will be the perfect addition to your wedding day look.

Extra Entries if you:

1. Tweet the following: "I just entered @lwoodsny bridal hair clip giveaway!
Check it out here!" And leave me a comment saying you tweeted.
2. Blog about this entry and leave me a comment with the link
3. Follow this blog, and leave me a comment saying you do.

Giveaway ends next Wednesday December 7, 2011 at 11:59pm EST.

Wedding Recap: Seating Chart and a Giveaway!

Instead of making individual seating cards, I had a seating chart made by Dear Emma on Etsy. She was so quick to always return all my emails and accommodated my many last minute changes. I want to also note that I sent her my seating chart list on Wednesday the week of our wedding and had this printed up and ready to go by Friday!

I had initially envisioned a very different seating chart: one with bright colors and swirls of green, black, and white. However, when I saw this charted listed on her Etsy site, I felt that besides it being very clean and easy to read, it fit into the whole "Castle" feel of our venue really well, and I quickly decided that this was the chart I wanted for the wedding day.

Dear Emma was so great to work with. She sent me a JPEG of this file on Thursday afternoon, I then put that on a USB and took it to Staples to have printed into a 24X36 poster. I bought a  24X36 black frame from Michaels, framed the poster and dropped it off at our venue. Definitely an easy, stress-free process (other than the fact that I was doing it 2 days before the wedding!)

As far as I know, everyone found their seat just fine with no problems and everyone could easily see this as they entered the reception.

Definitely check out Dear Emma for tons of stationary and printing options for your wedding! Now for the Giveaway! Carrying on the crown theme, I have one set of 4 "Crown Cards" to give away to one lucky reader!

Source

Giveaway Rules:

• Visit Dear Emma on Etsy and leave me a comment telling me your favorite product from her collection.

To get an extra entry:
1. Follow my blog, and leave me a comment that you are a follower.
1. Tweet the following: "Check out @Lwoodsny Crown Card Giveaway at Saying "I do" http://ow.ly/4DjE" and leave me a separate comment that you tweeted this!


Enter by midnight (EST) on Monday, October 10th, 2011. Winner will be announced on the blog Wednesday, October 12th! Good luck to you all!

Kerry's Bridal Shower + a GIVEAWAY!

This past weekend I attended my friend Kerry's SURPRISE Bridal Shower! (If you remember, Chris and I are both in Kerry and Mike's wedding this coming September!) All of her bridesmaids had a hand in planning this party, but I have to hand it to her Maid of Honor, Alyssa, and her bridesmaids Lindsay and Amanda for pulling out all the stops when it came to planning this event. They put a lot of work into making Kerry's "Tea-Party" shower personalized and very special  for her.

I arrived with a caravan of bridesmaids at 2:00 to help set up, and we were put right to work cutting up cheese, putting out tea sandwiches and mixing drinks!

There were so many beautiful, handmade details placed throughout the party.
The centerpieces were DIY tissue paper flowers, a framed different engagement picture on every table, a plant and bird figurines on top of a serving platter and floral table runner:

 There was a wishing tag area, where we wrote our wishes and advice for Kerry before she becomes a Mrs.

 Then we hung the tags on a clothesline with little clothespins:

 A Kerry and Mike banner:

There was lovingly spiked lemonade, and iced tea sweetened with honey from the farm that they're having their wedding!:

 Her signature drink was the "Mikerry" sangria:

 The backyard tent was warm and inviting with these DIY tissue-paper poms!

Kerry arrived thinking she was attending a teacher party she attends every year! She had NO.IDEA!! But I think she quickly caught on as soon as she walked into the backyard!

She had given her Maid of Honor her "bridal shower" dress a few weeks ago so when the time came, she could change into it. I loved her gorgeous anthropology dress:

For dinner there was shrimp cocktail, baked ziti, zucchini casserole, roasted potatoes, chicken cordon bleu, chicken and rice, ham and tossed salad. Everything was sooo good!

After dinner, Kerry started opening her crazzzzy, huge pile of gifts!

 Her bridesmaid Amanda made a fabulous ribbon bouquet for Kerry!

 Kerry and her bridesmaids:

Then it was time for dessert and these AMAZING coconut cupcakes!

The favors were adorable: tea-bag with tea-bag rest tied in green tull, with green ribbon and a personalized "Kerry's Bridal Shower 7.9.11" tag!

We also had white-chocolate mini wedding cake favors homemade by Mike's mom and Aunt!! These were white-chocolate covered oreos, in the shape of a three tiered wedding cake with yellow sugar-floral decoration. Simply AMAZING! This picture (with Anna as my model) does NOT do it justice how cute these are. I will try and get a better close-up picture of it to post later.

The last gift that kerry opened was a poster size painting of one of their engagement photos. Her mom and dad sent away for this and her dad handmade the frame. This is certainly an awesome keepsake for them to have.

 

I'm so excited for Mike and Kerry as they are now in full wedding mode at the 2-month mark! Lots more festivities to come!

Now for the GIVEAWAY! Uprinting.com is giving away one 18" x 24" Poster for one "Saying 'I do'" reader!! This can be a Semi Gloss / High Gloss poster and has a 1 business day turnaround! The poster can be of anything: Get an engagement or wedding picture blown up, or order something for your upcoming wedding! Uprinting.com does customized Poster Printing, has downloadable poster templates, and many different poster sizes to choose from.

uprinting.com

To Enter:
*For 1 Entry: Leave a comment below telling me your favorite detail of Kerry's Bridal Shower!
**For 2 Entries: Like UPrinting on Facebook and/or follow them on Twitter and leave me a comment telling me that you did so.
***For 3 Entries: Follow LwoodsNY on Twitter and leave me a comment. (If you already follow, leave me a comment saying so)

Giveaway ends at 11:59pm on Monday, 7/18 and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 7/20! Good luck to all!

Restrictions: Limited to US residents 18 years old and above only.
I have TWO more fantastic giveaways lined up for the next month so stay tuned for more giveaway fun coming soon!

Product Review: Tights Please

A number of us wedding bloggers have been trying out the amazing products at Tights Please over the past few weeks. I was contacted by Lauren who wanted to know if I cared to try out any of their products. I poured over their extensive selection of Tights, Hold Up's, Stockings, Shapewear and much, much, more! They also have an extensive selection of Bridal Hosiery!

http://www.tightsplease.co.uk/

http://www.tightsplease.co.uk/

I didn't plan on wearing stockings with my dress annnd I already have my garter, so in the end I chose to try out their selection of leggings. I can always use more leggings and figured they'd be fantastic to wear on our honeymoon in Italy! The Tightsplease Leggings were very lightweight and perfect to wear under dresses for the Spring/Summer season.

http://www.tightsplease.co.uk/

The thermal leggings are amazzzzingly comfortable and sooo warm. The inner lining is very soft, it feels like fleece(??)and...well....I kind of want it to be winter now so I can wear them every day!

This is the ONLY forgiving angle I could take!

If you're interested in trying out any of TightsPlease's products, Lexi is offering an amazing giveaway at Long Distance Bride right now for $80 worth of Tights Please products! Definitely head over there and enter the giveaway, which ends this Sunday!