Etsy Wins For Details

I have just found so much success on Etsy for details for our wedding.I wanted a wedding hanger for my dress... found it on Etsy.

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I liked the history behind the wedding dress label... found it on Etsy.

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Here's that history: In the 20’s and 30’s, couture gown designers starting designing personalized labels for their clients, and attaching them inside the gowns. Now brides can use this special touch to make wedding gowns truly their own. When the tradition of labels for wedding gowns started, it was seen as the last time a bride would use her maiden name. So the bride’s full maiden name and wedding date was sewn into the gown. More recently, brides began choosing to put their name and the groom’s name on the label with the wedding date. Today, anything goes—from nicknames, monograms, or symbols—whatever the bride feels has the most meaning for her.These labels are sewn into your wedding gowns lining at the hem, or inside the top of the gown, where a typical clothing label would go. They can be sewn in any color, but are most commonly done in blue for the traditional “Something Blue.” They can even be sewn as a pocket to hold something special, like a good luck charm, or other precious item that you want to have with you on your wedding day. After the wedding, the label becomes a memento for future generations to have the name and date from the day the dress was worn. This is a special touch for a dress that will be handed down. And if you decide not to keep the dress, the label can be removed, and kept as a memento of the gown-perhaps to be placed in your wedding scrapbook, next to a picture of the dress.

I wanted belt for the reception but couldn't afford the one from the veil designer... found it on Etsy.

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Right now, Etsy is my best friend!

Ketubah!

We did it! Whew! Pulled the trigger on the not only the ketubah but on the language as well. Harder than I thought it would be.Think about it. You have to buy a piece of art, that is going to hang on your wall forever, that will extol your love for each other (in a non-cheesy way) but that meets the legal requirements of Jewish law so if we ever move to Israel, they believe we are legally married.That's a lot of pressure on one little piece of art!After hours of looking, we chose a paper cut ketubah from Etsy. The Terrace Ketuba by Melanie Dankowicz is beautiful. I would have never thought that I would go for a paper cut ketubah but I love it! Here's an image of it from her shop:

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I think it is stunning and beautiful! Something that I won't be embarrassed to have on my wall 30 years from now and I don't think it will fade either. I hope our kids think it's cool too. :)

As for the language, there are so many different versions. Even if you say "I'm going to be strict and only use the Orthodox version..." The translations into English are very different! The traditional ketubah is written in Aramaic, not Hebrew. I thought that was kinda cool but in the end, we used the orthodox version as a template and added in pieces that fulfilled our vision of Judaism and our relationship. I will share our language with you after the wedding (have to keep somethings a secret!) but I am very happy with it. I accurately describes our roles in our marriage. :)

Check out Melanie's site on Etsy for more paper cuts and AMAZING art work! Click here - MelanieCuts

We Found THE Band!

The Fever - Photo Sheet_Page_1Whew! Checking things off the list like it is our jobs! We finally put a deposit down on the band. We think they are pretty cool and they have a great repertoire! They can do jazz and more modern stuff too!They are called The Fever and they are from Boulder. We met with Michelle, the manager, and loved loved loved chatting with her. They are super versatile, passionate musicians and we are excited to have them rock out at our wedding!It's coming together!

Even More Pictures!

We were fortunate enough to get to spend an afternoon with our wedding photographers. We are SO excited about them. They are a very nice young couple who shoot amazing pictures! They are totally in our style and totally in our budget. :) Check them out at DoxPhoto.comHere are a few pictures they shared with us... There are more here on their blog or click here for even more! :) 

Kippot Have Arrived!

We just got the kippot for the wedding! It was so exciting to get a huge, heavy box filled hundreds of kippot! This is just one piece we will be giving our guests at the wedding.navy kippah - A1 SkullCap

I was a voracious wedding/bar/bat mitzvah kippah collector when I was younger. We had every color, shape, and material you could imagine. In fact... For my bat mitzvah my grandpa Milton so graciously paid for the kippot as a gift to me... he wanted me to have everything I wanted... even if that meant alternating satin panels of teal and rose... yes, your eyes are not deceiving you... my bat mitzvah kippot were TEAL AND PINK! Oy. My only defense is that it was the early 90's...

Anywho, I shopped around online for the perfect kippah. I found them at A1 Skullcap! Since our colors are navy and yellow, we went with a navy suede with gold imprint... I never dreamed I would do a gold imprint... I seriously dislike gold but... it works! I love them! And I highly doubt our children will tease me for these as badly as they will tease me for my bat mitzvah ones...

Can't wait to share them with our guests.

Dan's Wedding Gift

So there is a tradition, which evidently a lot of people haven't heard about. I always knew that the bride and groom get each other gifts on their wedding day. Jewelry, cufflinks, flask, etc...I have been planning, nearly from the minute we started planning this wedding, to get Dan special cufflinks for the wedding. I knew exactly how I wanted them designed and how I wanted them to look... no, I will not tell you, it is a surprise!But of course, they do not exist. Even though the design is not that unique, not one person (that I can find online) has made them as cufflinks.Darn!But I don't give up that easily.So I Googled and Googled.Still nothing.You see, I had hit the trifecta of hard to find. I wanted:

  1. Fixed back
  2. Hebrew
  3. Unique design

Chirp, chirp, chirp... nothing on the internet. I was starting to worry... would I have to settle for less than perfect here?In the final stages of my despair, I started Googling anything I could. Then this image of beautiful custom Hebrew monogram cufflinks popped up.

Custom Hebrew monogram cufflinks Gabriel Prero

I knew I must find this designer. Immediately. I googled his name, Gabriel Prero and found his website - www.prero.com and his ShapeWays storefront - CuffJunk.

I immediately contacted him and we are working together to create the perfect gift for Dan... I can't wait to give them to him... or rather, to have my brother Ronin give them to him. :)

Workplace Engagement

A few months ago, I came across an incredible article written by Chuck Blakeman. It was entitled Why Employees are Always a Bad Idea. Then recently, it popped up again on my Twitter feed. It still felt so relevant and was, again, a fresh perspective that I needed.

I have always been a huge proponent of a positive and encouraging workplace environment. People laugh at Google and other "young" companies that provide food or bean bags or an on-site gym but it makes employees feel wanted and that their company cares for them.Not only does your work environment affect your work output, but so does your buy-in. I saw this very clearly when I was employed at Target just after graduating college. The employees (or Team Members) who felt they had a stake in the company, their section, the outcome, worked harder and smarter. They didn't complain about coming in early or staying late, or doing something beyond their job description. The people I worked with who couldn't care less about their job were transient. They didn't stay long, they made problems, and were generally a pain in the butt.But there is a different, yet similar issue in many workplaces.

Chuck Blakeman says:

Employees are Children This view of work (and life) turned adults back into children. You were taught that the most mature person was one who obediently took orders, did what they were told, didn’t question authority, was blindly loyal to those in charge, and lived passively as others directed their lives. Pretty much what we want a four year old to do.In order to keep the children from ruining the house, and to make them extensions of machines, the Industrial Age boxed people in with extremely clear and narrow limitations on what they could do, the hours in which they could do them, and endless limitations on being human and “adult” at work. It stripped them of their need to think, create and solve because the machine didn’t need them to think, create and solve. It just needed them to do.

Let me give you a few highlights and then I suggest you read the whole article here. 

“Employees are “Silent”

Employees are Children This view of work (and life) turned adults back into children. You were taught that the most mature person was one who obediently took orders, did what they were told, didn’t question authority, was blindly loyal to those in charge, and lived passively as others directed their lives. Pretty much what we want a four year old to do.

Employees Are a Disease, not a Cure Because of the Industrial Age, the word “employee” has become synonymous with “child.”
Stakeholders are Adults
Stakeholders Require Leadership, not Adult Supervision
Stakeholders Focus on Work, not Promotion to the Next Title
Stakeholders Create Better Teams
Stakeholders are Self-Motivated
Stakeholders Make You and Themselves More Money

So why in the world would you want an employee when you can have (and easily so) stakeholders?Another article that came across my desk recently was entitled What I got wrong in the Peanut Butter Manifesto by Brad Garlinghouse. He originally wrote and internal memo at Yahoo that was leaked and "made it big." More than six years later he revisits this idea and addresses some gaps he sees. Here is a quote form his article:

Yahoo!’s strength had emanated from the passion and entrepreneurial zeal of its employees, but these muscles had atrophied. The company’s core culture no longer encouraged and celebrated innovation with the same zest and ardent ambition to change the world—too often this had been displaced by half-hearted maintenance of the status quo.

Marissa’s immediate focus on improving the company culture to make Yahoo! a great place to work again is evidence that this inertia endured. Though people can deride perks like free food and iPhones (or giving everyone an iPad mini for Christmas!) as buying loyalty with trinkets and toys, there is an underlying—and more fundamental—impact.

Whether you give people the latest gadget or deck your office space with beanbags and foosball tables, the point is to make work a fun, interesting and inspirational place to be. The Shower Principle (thank you, Jack Donaghy) states that great solutions are often conceived when your mind is not focused on the problem. Sometimes interactions need to happen beyond the ping of an email or the (god forbid) drone of a PowerPoint presentation.

Do you see the trend here? Abuse your employees, whether obviously or subtlety and they won't do the work as well as you want them to do. Honor their creativity as human beings and professionals in their field, understand that they have lives and issues outside of the workplace, and be compassionate and you will receive the work product you want and deserve.Now by no means am I recommending to be irresponsible or reckless in these tactics. They are just that, tactics... not meant to bankrupt a company or interfere with work but to enhance it.

So what do you think? Are employees and thin peanut butter here to stay or are we starting a revolution lead by stakeholders?

Wedding Hiatus

I am very sorry, to all of our readers, that I have had no new recipes for you since our great pickling adventure of 2012. You see, shortly after the pickles, my boyfriend (and foodie partner in crime) proposed to me. So we have been crazy with wedding planning ever since.Our wedding is March 10, 2013 and I promise to be back with some fun and crazy recipes after that!Thanks for tuning in!