Save the Date

Oh man. Wedding-related freak out (the good kind) on the way.

I just received the first draft of our save-the-dates, and they. Are. Amazing. Seriously. I don’t mean to brag, but they are so perfect. We’re making one itty-bitty change, but I put in the official order and we should be able to send them out in the next couple of weeks!

Remember my lovely wedding hairpiece? The same designer created the STDs (yes, it is an unfortunate acronym). She is basically a wedding jack-of-all-trades.

I know I've been getting stingy with the details lately, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise of what they look like until they’ve been sent, so here’s a sneak peek:

I’ll post the whole thing once they’ve been received.

Speaking of save-the-dates, I can say without any hesitation that the most difficult part of planning a wedding is creating the guest list. Unless you have some out-of-this-world budget (or you are a hermit), it’s simply impossible to invite everyone you want to. We both have big families, and our venue really can’t hold more than 150-160 comfortably.

This is always a funny discussion to have with people who have not yet planned a wedding. Invariably, at least one person will make a comment like, “Psh, it’s your wedding. Invite who you want to be there.”

Oh yeah? Just like that?

Well, here’s the thing. A wedding is a big roiling mass of emotion and meaning and heavily weighted choices. Making a choice in connection with a wedding will have eight times the impact that it would in any other setting. Yes, you can simply do what you want to do, if you just don’t care about anyone else's feelings in the matter.

You need to choose your battles. And I’ll probably get a lot of crap for saying this, but if some of those “you have to invite them or you will literally be disowned” guests RSVP that they won’t be attending, I will definitely do a second round of invites for the people I love but couldn’t fit in the first time around. You just have to do it right; namely, be honest, especially if it’s close enough to the wedding that they will be able to tell that you had them on the B-list. Manners, everyone.

But anyway, back to the happy part. Our save-the-dates rock! (Thanks, Becka!!)

Put it on paper

Hoo boy, has there been an influx of wedding goings-on lately!

For a while there I was sort of entering the infamous bridal slump; I was still excited, but the whole thing started to feel far away and…well, a little tedious. But I think it’s just because there was a planning lull. Now we’re back in the swing of things, baby! (I’m so sorry…)

Anyway…so I have this friend named Katelyn who is insanely stylish and artistic and loves weddings and design and pretty paper just about as much as I do (and also recently got engaged!). One day she was in an “I don’t know what I want to do with my life” funk when she decided instead of moping she would combine her loves and talents and start a wedding stationery business.

I love the idea of supporting young entrepreneurs, so I asked if she would be interested in designing something for us. Last night, she and I met up to see what she had. It has to be said that Katelyn was extremely nervous to show me her designs (I’m just so exacting, you know?). I think she said, “If you hate it, it’s totally okay” about eight times.

But she was being totally ridiculous, because she had three lovely options, one of which I loved especially. And go figure, it was also the one the Fiancé liked best (we’re such a good match, right?)! We’re asking her to make a few design changes, but other than that I am so thrilled with the result. Yay for talented friends!

I want to keep the actual design a surprise, but here are the two options we didn’t go with:

Pretty, right? She found paper in exactly the right color (my phone camera sort of messed it up, but trust me, it's gorgeous). I haven’t even been able to do that.

So anyway, SO excited. More big announcements to come next week, so stay tuned!

Ready For Wedding...ish

Our wedding is 200 days away!

It’s kind of wacky how that can sound so far away and yet so close all at the same time. I think it’s partly because I’m a mix of super-on-the-ball and still-have-so-much-to-do.

Here’s a list of accomplishments!!

DONE:
Venue (includes cake, food, booze, and centerpieces)
Dress (and it doesn’t even have to be altered! What WHAT!)
Shoes (already owned ‘em)
Photographer
DJ
Save-the-dates (well, they’re being designed..I ordered the envelopes!)

And now, a list of to-dos:
Veil (might be borrowing from someone…)
Limo
Bridesmaid dresses
Groomsmen formalwear
Groom’s formalwear (taking care of this on the Iowa trip…hopefully)
Flower girl outfits
Bouquets
DIY décor (tissue pomanders and perhaps a few fabric pennants, cake topper)
Boutonnieres
Invitations
Picking a song
Tastings
Engagement pictures (also for the Iowa trip)
Probably a million other things I haven’t even thought about yet (hard to believe, I know)

But even though it’s probably good I have all this time on my hands, sometimes I just feel so ready to get to this:

And by sometimes, I mean all times.

Photo: Jagger Photography (JaggerPhotography.com)

First Place (Setting)

This weekend we actually got quite a few things (that I have been trying to accomplish for weeks) accomplished! Go us.

Besides figuring out how many save-the-dates we need to order, we also finally met with our DJ. We should be putting down the deposit in the next day or so. (So watch for a post on that!)

Getting wedding details squared away gets me excited all over again for our wedding. Not that I ever wasn’t excited, but you sort of get in a slump when you’re not actively planning.

Anywho, it has got me thinking about reception décor (as things are oft to do in my brain…).

At our venue, the napkins are pretty consistently styled like this:

There’s nothing wrong with that if it’s what you like, but for me, it just reminds me of when I would help set the table and would tuck the paper napkins/paper towels in the glasses for a bit of “flair.” I’m usually drawn toward sleeker looks, and these three options have really caught my eye:

Ok, the bows are a little cutesy, but still really cute! Maybe better for a bridal shower?

I love the draped look, and I think I might actually ask them to do this. White table cloths, seafoam napkins, some DIY menus on top…what do you think?

I love the look of a vintage doily. Mmm.

I actually saw on a blog once where a bride had printed her menus and then put them on doilies…so maybe I can have the best of both worlds.

What do you think? (C'mon, obsess over the details with me!)

Photos: Jonas Peterson (JonasPeterson.com) and Sweet Monday Photography (SweetMondayPhotography.com)

Bridesmaid Bouquet Inspiration

I’ve started giving more thought to my wedding flowers. The only blooms I actually have to figure out are the bouquets; the centerpieces are included from my venue and I’m making fabric boutonnieres.

I’m still not terribly concerned with spending loads of money on the bouquets, though. In fact, up until about three seconds ago, I was just going to stick with the baby’s breath idea, a la this:

Simple, romantic, and totally pretty. But then…well, then I found this:



And now I’m torn. I love the look, and the girl is even wearing the right bridesmaid dress color! I’m thinking I could fashion some sort of white/yellow/dusty miller mix for my girls, then have a monochromatic white bouquet for me.

Any thoughts? What bouquets have you seen that left your speechless?

Photos: Brooke Courtney (BrookeCourtney.com) and Jill Thomas Photography (JillThomasPhotography.com)

Aisle Style

My wedding is just over 200 days away! That is crazy!

But since we’re officially under the seven-month mark, The Fiance and I have started narrowing down our bridal parties. Which naturally has me thinking about what they’ll wear!

You already know my plan (or rather, lack there of) for my maids, but I think I’m a little more particular about the flower girls.

I saw this picture on TheKnot.com a while ago, and I kind of fell in love with it:

A tutu! When I was little, wearing a tutu was basically about as boss as it got, so I’m hoping not much has changed in little girl world. How cute would that be in a seafoam green? I would probably have to order a custom style, but I’ve found a few vendors online that were really reasonable.

I also kind of think this is cute, and a bit more dress-like:

And then to switch it up, I would also totally LOVE this dress if it came in the right color:

Can I get some opinions? For the married readers, how did you dress your little ladies?

Heading for the Heartland

 So, it’s official! The fiancé and I are heading back to the Midwest in November!

I’m stoked. I haven’t been to Iowa for over a year, and I have some maaajor catching up to do with some of my friends.

Plus, you KNOW I couldn’t let a long weekend go by without planning for some totally awesome wedding stuff! My mom works part-time in the men’s department of a department store, so we’re going to see what we can do about getting the fiancé his wedding tux at a family discount. AND (and this is what I’m really excited about) my little sister is going to take our engagement pictures!

Joelle is a budding professional photographer, and her stuff is pretty genius, so she was an easy choice for our engagement pics (plus, you know, “family discount”).

Since the wedding is going to be in Long Island, I want our engagement pictures to be entirely un-New York. I love the look of these desert shoots (though for Iowa, we might have to swap in a prairie or a dried-out cornfield…I’m ok with that!):

Gorgeous, yes? Oooooh…November can’t come soon enough!

Photos: Leigh Miller Photographry (LeighMillerPhotography.com) & Beaux Arts Photographie (BeauxArtsPhotographie.com)

How do you 'do?

Remember how I started thinking about my wedding hairdo?

Well, when you work where I work, “starting to think” about anything wedding related actually means have done extensive research including keeping tabs on over 150 wedding blogs. So…yeah. I have thoughts.

I’m 99.9% sure I’m going to do some kind of half-up-half-down business (yes, 99.9% of brides do this, but I don’t really care). Like this:

It’s pretty, non?

 Even so, I like to look into a few different options. (Because this is all I think about, remember?)

For example, today I saw these two lovely styles on two of my favorite blogs:

Photo: Jonas Peterson

Loose, relaxed, but still effortlessly romantic.

Photo: Braedon Photography

A bit Taylor Swift-y, but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing.

And, of course, I had to at least consider an updo. If I go that route, it will be something with a lot of height, like either of these two options:

So whadya think? Any other brides struggling with what to do with their tresses? If you’ve picked your style, where did you find inspiration?