Save the Date Reveal + Top Registry Picks

Dec 20

Dec 20 Save the Date Reveal + Top Registry Picks

Merry Christmas from the soon-to-be Pramanns! (Woah, weird to say.) Last weekend, Chris’s mom gave us an outdoor planter emblazoned with “The Pramanns,” and it’s our first gift with our (my) new last name. Pretty exciting! It’s been a little quiet around here lately, but I wanted to give you a quick life update before I take a break until 2019. Work has been crazytown (and things only look crazier in January—gulp), yet still really good. If you didn’t catch the news on Instagram, I’m hiring an Associate Copywriter to join my one-man show! Accepting referrals and recommendations. :) I’ve also just been really inspired by and enjoying the projects I’m working on and feel like I’m striking the right chord, which feels great. The days and weeks fly by at work and I don’t take it for granted that I’m in a job that challenges and satisfies me.

Outside of work, we’ve been busy, too—Chris and I hosted our first Christmas party last Friday! I think everyone had a really good time and even though there are a handful of things I’d for sure do differently (Champagne, for one), I’d love to make it an annual thing.

Today is my work holiday party/outing, so I’m looking forward to a day off and hopefully a cocktail or two before everyone bolts for holiday break! Then Chris and I are squeezing in a holiday date night (I bought him the Minneapolis winter passport, so we’re going to break it in!) and a Saturday birthday party before we leave to spend Christmas with my parents and sisters. Christmas came SO quickly this year, and while I’ve had our tree up since before Thanksgiving, I feel like I kind of missed a lot of the anticipation of the holiday somehow, do you know what I mean? With work wrapping up tomorrow, hopefully I can just savor the next few days before it’s here and gone! I’ll be taking a blogging break for the holidays, so I wanted to say Merry Christmas by revealing our save the dates/UNOFFICIAL HOLIDAY CARD!

So, here it is! We ordered our save the dates from Zola, to match our wedding website, and the price was considerably lower than Minted! The size of the card was a little smaller than I anticipated and the white type is a little hard to read in some places, but I didn’t need special foils or fancy paper and overall I’m really happy with it! This photo wasn’t initially my top pick, but I didn’t want to do a kissing photo or anything where you couldn’t see our faces, so this one checked those boxes. Plus, Chris liked it and LET IT BE KNOWN I’m not an uncompromising bridezilla. I also like our pose in it—it looks like you could’ve realistically just caught us in this position, and I think it makes us look like strong (equal) partners, which is how I think we’ve approached our relationship so far and plan to continue to do!

If you’re engaged—or soon to be (tis the season!)—I highly recommend checking out Zola. They make creating a coordinating wedding website, registry, save the dates, invitations and thank-you cards all in one place super easy. We registered at Crate & Barrel (heart eyes emoji) as well as Zola, and I love that it gives me a “hub” for that registry plus all the miscellaneous CB2, West Elm, Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, Target, Serena & Lily stuff on my list that I didn’t feel warranted a full registry. Registering for a honeymoon fund is also clutch, and having a super organized website with all our information in one place plus RSVP functionality allowed us to skip formal paper invitations altogether and save a good chunk of change $$$!

OK so let’s talk about the registry. (Is it rude to admit I’m excited about the gifts? Because I am.) If you don’t know where to start, Zola has a lot of cool capabilities to help you out, like making sure you’re hitting all the price points and recommendations for number of gifts and cash funds based on your guest count. (Luckily, I have a very helpful mom to play this role. Wink!) So we decided to skip china because we don’t think we’ll use it and it isn’t important to me. Other than that, I registered for basic kitchen upgrades (dinnerware, flatware, non-stick cookware) and a few splurges! You can buy any gift from your registry that isn’t fulfilled at 20% OFF after the wedding, so I figured there’s no harm in adding lots of stuff. I’ll keep an eye on things as we get closer to our wedding date and add last-minute gifts a few days before the wedding just to take advantage of that discount. Since we recently bought a house, I also registered for quite a bit of furniture and all of that stuff is HIGH on my list! I have been wanting this console table for our entryway FOREVER (praying it doesn’t sell out/discontinue) and I can’t wait to create a little sitting area in our dining room with this rug, these chairs (currently 30% OFF and it’s so hard not to just buy them!), this side table and these blush pillows! Furniture aside, here are 10 of the more traditional household items on my registry that I’m most excited about!

Wine glasses—I mean, it’s me. I currently have a mismatched collection of old Target stemless and hand-me-downs from my mom and I can’t wait to have an elegant set that really makes having a glass of wine feel special. I went back and forth between the Tour and Camille at Crate & Barrel, but think I settled on the Camille (red and white).
Coffeemaker—I’ve had the basic Mr. Coffee forever, and can’t wait to graduate to this LEGIT programmable 14-cup Cuisinart—nothing fancy, just something worthy of adult life. My current coffeemaker is actually only a 4-cup size (long story), and it kind of makes me feel like I’m living in a toy house. Lol.
Decanter—We don’t necessarily drink hard alcohol very often, but I still want a little bar cart situation going for the vibes and also for when guests come over. (I can see Chris rolling his eyes right now.) I registered for this one (classic) and this one (to coordinate with other Direction glassware).
Large Fruit Basket—I want this three-tier fruit basket because our current one is always overflowing and it would be such a luxury to be able to separate garlic from avocado and onions, etc. I’m doing a mix of marble, acacia/wood and pops of copper in our kitchen, and this copper is so pretty!
Marble Platter—I have ZERO pretty serving platters for snacks and apps, and this marble platter would’ve come in so handy for our holiday party! I would for sure use it when it’s just the two of us, too—for cheese and crackers during football games and that kind of thing.
Mixing Bowls—I’ve recently realized that mixing bowls are convenient for more than just baking (which I rarely do). When I’m chopping a bunch of different vegetables or ingredients to go into a stew or sauté pan, I like to toss stuff into a small mixing bowl (these glass bowls are so Food Network and pretty) as I go to keep my cutting board clear, rather than just moving stuff to the corner of the cutting board and trying to plow on (which doesn’t really work). Brilliant.
Dutch Oven—The holy grail of kitchens, right? Le Creuset makes so many beautiful colors, but I opted for the 7.25-qt in cream.
Glass Tupperware—Not sexy, but I cannot wait to replace our random plastic Tupperware with quality glass food storage containers. I take my lunch to work almost every day, and with only two of us, we have dinner leftovers almost every night.
Appetizer plates—Since entertaining is my new favorite pastime, these mini plates for meatballs, chips and dips are a must.
Cutting Boards—I need more and I need matching ones! Such an important tool in cooking any meal. I registered for all three sizes of this Epicurean cutting board.

To the married gals: what was the best thing you registered for? To the newly engaged: create your registry with Zola.com using this link and earn $50 to spend at Zola! (Woop woop!)