Category Archives: Miss Behavin

Miss Behavin // Showered with love

We have all been guests to showers with games, questionnaires, delicious food and of course our loved ones. As a bride, showers are a time for you to realize how truly blessed you are to have such great friends and family. My aunts hosted a Pampered Chef shower in my parents’ home, Mr. Behavin’s family hosted an amazing shower in his hometown, and most recently, I had one by my lovely bridesmaids.

A few tips:
1. Instead of a guest book have your guests sign thank you note envelopes. This will save you a lot of time looking up and writing addresses!
2. This tip is if your guests are there while you open your gifts. As you open up your gifts, invite the gift giver to sit with you. Then have your Maid of Honor take a picture of you with the gift and the person who gave it to you. This helps when writing thank you notes and would make a super cute photo album.
3. Since I am not originally from the metro area, my good friends were not able to come to my hometown shower. So my sister (MOH) and the bridesmaids put together a shower for me and my ‘local’ friends. We chose to rent a room at Breezy Hill Vineyard outside of Neola, Iowa! Free wine tastings and they allowed us to bring in our own food. They even gave us suggestions of foods that go with their wines! Plus I was able to have my favorite wine: Misbehavin’! It was such a great time.
4. Thank your hosts. A thoughtful note or small gift would be lovely. I gave my bridesmaids each a bottle of my favorite wine, wine charms for the party, and some chocolate. You don’t realize how much time they put into these things! The deserve a BIG thank you!

As you can see, thank you notes are something, I feel, that are very important. A few weeks ago, I spoke with Mr. Behavin’s aunt about thank you notes. She was told they were not a part of modern weddings. So stick with me, my fellow brides… Get out your pens, stamps, and stack of pre-addressed thank you notes! Let’s keep this tradition of kindness alive!

Bride Blogger // Easy way to organize your wedding

From Miss Behavin: The next six months will be hectic for me: I’ll have parent teacher conferences, move out of my tiny apartment, complete another school year and, oh yeah, I am getting married!!

I have been collecting things for the wedding for over a year. Buying gifts, napkins, toasting flutes… the list goes on and on. So what should I do with all of this stuff that I have been buying? I knew I needed a place that I could put EVERYTHING. So, I went to Target and bought this clear-ish tote to store all of my stuff. I hate when you have to look through 15 totes to find the one tiny thing you are looking for. Now I can see exactly what I am looking for without opening anything. Somehow I fit everything into one big tote. But as you can see, it’s about to bust open. I will be getting another clear tote to add to my collection. However, it serves its purpose… I know that all of my purchases are in one spot and will stay that way when I move.

Read more from Miss Behavin here. Get more advice and tips from real Omaha brides-to-be here.

Bride Blogger // DIY Thank You Cards

From Miss Behavin: I am about to embark on a new journey … bridal showers. I am so excited to spend some quality time with my friends and family over the next few months. I hear brides talk about how much time it takes to write their thank you cards after each shower. Here are a few tips I have received from fellow brides:
1. Don’t spend a crazy amount on each card.
2. Write a personalized note, thanking them for attending and the gift they gave you. (Hopefully your maid of honor will join you at your showers to write down the gift list.)
3. Place envelopes at each seat at every shower, guests then write their names and addresses on the envelope and leave it for you!
4. Write and send out thank you notes as quick as you can. You do not have to worry about getting to the post office near your big day!

To stay on budget I chose to make my own cards. I printed them on 5X7 cardstock that I purchased at Hobby Lobby.
I love calligraphy but am too much of a perfectionist to try to hand-make each card. Since I spend a lot of time using Microsoft Publisher as a teacher, it was easy for me to make them. I wanted to use a new font that would look like calligraphy, but there are very few font options in the software I used. There are many legal websites offering free fonts you can download onto your computer. Check out http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/. You can even submit your own handwriting for them to make into a font!

I had a lot of fun making the cards and plan to also make the wedding thank you notes. I am ready for all the showers to start so I can start sending them all out!

Bride Blogger / Gift ideas for the entire wedding party

From Miss Behavin: All your closest friends and family will soon be spending a lot of time and money to be a part of your special day… we must figure out a way to pay them back. So now the big question of what to get everyone. I have learned, it is best to start early. Take advantage of the many holiday sales right now. Don’t get stuck worrying about the gifts right before the wedding.

Bridesmaids: I chose to make a wedding day survival kit for each of my girlies. The Knot has a great collection of things to give to your bridesmaids. I tried to make things personalized for each girl and chose things that could be useful for after the wedding. I won’t spill all my secrets since my girls are wonderful enough to read my blog.

Groomsmen: Mr. Behavin’ chose (meaning I found it and he said “okay”) gifts for his groomsmen and ushers off the same website I used for my girlies. He wanted to make sure it was something he would like, nothing too cheesy. For a good laugh, see this list of top 100 worst Groomsmen gifts. http://www.groomstand.com/100_worst_groomsmen_gifts

Ring Bearer: Thankfully I found something perfect for our 2 year old ring bearer. Kurt of Engravingwiz made this perfect yo-yo quickly and at a great price. He has many other gift ideas on his Etsy website. http://www.etsy.com/shop/engravingwiz

Flower girl: My 20 month old niece will be the only flower girl in the wedding. And she has been, by far, the most difficult one to shop for… Since I spoil her 365 days a year I need to find something really special.

Parents: What do you give to the people that have given you everything? Cuff links and personalized handkerchiefs for dads? Necklaces and spa days for moms? So many options… Check out this vintage store in Omaha that has many unique gift ideas! http://www.etsy.com/shop/pdvintageboutique

Don’t forget the people outside your wedding party! Prepare something for the host couples, they are going to be working away for your special day. Make sure to find a way to thank them!

I am making welcome bags for all those people who stay in the hotel rooms that I blocked near the reception. I’ll be including maps, things to do in the area and some special goodies! More info to come about this adventure …

Bride Blogger // Save the Dates

By Miss Behavin: Save OUR Date

One of the most important things I have learned while planning this wedding is … there is a chance things won’t be EXACTLY like I have been imagining in my mind. This is difficult for me to admit because I always have a very optimistic outlook on life. Luckily, I found Mr. Behavin’ who always knows when I need to come back down to earth. He helps be remember budgets and all of that other not so much fun stuff.

When it came to ordering save the dates I just knew I would come across some great deal. So after weeks of looking through online blogs, pinterest posts, and many other online resources I was about to give up on looking for that great deal. (Pretty discouraging I know… But I promise that there is a happy ending to this story.)

One night Mr. Behavin’ told be I should try to look for them in a different way. So, I put these two words into Google “Cheap Postcards.” A sight popped up and I figured I would give it a look. Overnightprints appeared to be a site for company printing products. I seriously thought about clicking that little red X in the corner, but then I found the ‘postcard’ section. This is that moment when Heaven’s gates opened and the angels began to sing in my head…!

Here is why… 1. Front/back picture with glossy finish. 2. Can be customized any way I’d like. 3. I could type in my address, eliminating writing it 47 million times. 4. 500 postcards with shipping was less than $100.00

I had imagined something VERY specific for our save the dates. And by keeping an open mind and not giving up I found something even better! So my tip to you.. Don’t Give Up and Be Open to Change… you might be surprised what you find!

(The red line indicates the text boundary. The green line indicates where the postcards will be trimmed.) Read more about Miss Behavin’s plans here.

Tip from the editor: Not as design savvy as Miss Behavin? Check out what local designers Meldeen and Inclosed Studio can do!

Miss Behavin // Professional Maid of Honor

From Miss Behavin: What did I learn from being a maid of honor? A lot …What did I learn when I was the maid of honor for two weddings in a three week time span? No words can describe it! I was so honored to be in my friend and sister’s weddings this summer. Throughout these weddings I most definitely made a long note of the things to remember on my phone. So these are a FEW things the bride, maid of honor, bridesmaids, or personal attendants might want to remember.

1. Ask the bride what she needs/wants. You are there for her right? If the bride is shy or simply indecisive… make an “Uh Oh” bag with the supplies you think she’ll need. Items you may want to include: Extra bobby pins, Ibuprofen (bobby pins are a killer), Tide Stick, Sewing Kit, feminine products, deodorant, water, Kleenexes, baby powder (slick feet in high heels are not fun), A & D ointment (Yes, this diaper rash ointment is great for us ladies with curves who might have irritation on legs from rubbing together), nail glue, lip gloss, chap stick, hair spray, band-aids… and anything else you would like.

2. Be the calm. It has been proven (by me) that mimosas calm a bride down instantly. It’s classy and a VERY fun picture opportunity for the bride and her bridesmaids as they are getting ready.

3. Be resourceful. Make sure someone has a phone to download their first song… just in case the DJ didn’t.

4. Don’t forget your speech in your hotel room.

5. Eat some cake. You’ve earned it!

6. Laugh. Have a ton of fun and don’t forget to tell the bride how honored you were to be a part of her day. (Love you Amberle and Darcy!)

Photos from Tree Snap Images (top) and Urban Safari Photography. Read more real stories from the Bride Bloggers here.