Reason #514 I love Etsy.com

I can’t believe my wedding is less than four months away. That’s just…insane.

It also means I need to start getting more serious about finalizing the last-minute details. Here’s what I have left to do:

1. Finalize the menu. We’ve picked it, but I need to call our place and let them in on our choices.
2. Centerpieces. I’ve contacted the florist, but I need to set up an appointment to make the official order.
3. Bouquets. I’m making my own, but I need to order the blooms.
4. Cake. Some friends of ours recommended a local bakery, but the fiancé and I need to make a trip to find out if they’re in our budget.
5. Decorations. I haven’t decided between a seating chart or escort cards yet, and I need to find out if we’re allowed to add any extra décor to the venue. Plus I want to get a big chalkboard (or possibly a white board) to hang near the air hockey table so people can post their scores.
6. Bridesmaid gifts. I have a few ideas, but limited fundage has put a hold on this. At least I have plenty of time for that one.
7. Invitations. They’re all designed, I’m just waiting for the fiancé to approve before I make my official order. Then I just need to stuff and send!
8. Wedding bands. I have the stones for my band, we just need to go to the jeweler and get everything ordered.
9. Favors. But this is another thing that won't get done until much closer to the wedding.
10. The rest of my accessories.

I already got my shoes (I broke down and bought a new pair…trust me, they’re worth it), but I needed a necklace. At first I was going to do a long gold chain-type thing, but then, true to bridal nature, I changed my mind. Or really, this wedding changed my mind.

It’s actually one of my all-time favorite weddings. If I hadn’t done seafoam, I would have done this gorgeous blush pink. Ugh, doesn’t it just make you swoon?

Anyway, one of the many details I love about this wedding is the chunky pink and gold necklace the bride wore for the reception. I mean, seriously. Love.

Hers is from J. Crew…about two years ago. After a brief eBay search proved fruitless, I decided to test something that I’ve actually been anxious to try for a while: the Alchemy feature on Etsy.com. (No one is surprised I’m on Etsy, right?)

I posted a link to the photos, explained what I wanted, and sat back to wait for people to start clamoring to create it for me. I actually got about ten solid offers. I picked a girl who included photos of the beads she would use (visual aids are a great way to win me over) and stayed within my requested budget. Now I just have to wait for my custom piece.

Have I mentioned how fancy custom pieces make me feel?

Bang it out

Sometimes growing your hair out for your wedding can get really boring.

Case in point, I really want my hair to look like this:

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Still long, but I miss my bangs. But my hair stylist has convinced me to wait until after I've said "I do."

Sigh…another day, bangs. Another day.


Anyone else looking forward to a post-wedding chop?

Bouquet Crush

Sigh. I am so in love with this bouquet:

(From this wedding on The Knot!)

Pretty much all of my flowers are taken care of so far (centerpieces come with our venue, I'm making the boutonnieres out of fabric and the  bridesmaid bouquets out of baby's breath and pretty ribbon), but I think I may splurge a bit on my bouquet.

What are you doing for your flowers? Any brave brides creating all their arrangements?

My Engagement Pictures!

Ok, I finally have pictures to show you! (I know, two day lag time. I’m sooo lazy.) It literally killed me to pare them down to these (there are so many I love!), but you can check out the full album (and see these ones bigger!) here. We had a lot of fun traipsing around rural Iowa with my sister and her fiance (AKA, her second shooter...what's with all these parentheticals?) And even though it was freezing and I destroyed a pair of shoes, I think you'll agree it was totally worth it. Enjoy!

 

all photos copyrighted and courtesy of: figmentartphoto.com
Hair+Makeup: Amber L. Hathaway, FreeStyle Design, (FreeStyleDesignStudios.com) 

It's A Party

Ok, so you have already met my junior bridesmaid and my flower girls. Now it’s time to meet the rest of my attendants!

First, the bridesmaids. I think this picture accurately describes all of them:

Megan and Dana are married (Dana’s husband is one of the fiance’s groomsmen), which is incredibly helpful since they already know everything I will probably forget. But they have all been totally awesome and ready to help with anything. Best (looking) bridal party ever? Probably.

AND I’m even going to give you a sneak peek of their dresses. (Lucky you!) Only one of them is wearing the actual dress she will wear, but we wanted to get an idea of what the colors all look like together. Check it out (sorry for the poor quality...the store didn't have the best lighting):

I think we’re going to add something like this to the silver one (but in seafoam) to add a pop of color. I’m liking the look so far, if I do say so myself.

Finally, my man of honor is my brother Jeff.

{the first picture is one of the only ones I have of him and me...it's really old. the second picture is more recent, and shows his lovely wife, Lindsay!}

Jeff and I have been close for as long as I can remember, and I credit him largely with my sense of humor, nerdy interests, and in general a lot of how my personality turned out. (So I guess you can thank him too…right, guys?) Sidenote: he is also the aforementioned junior bridesmaid's step-father. So it's a family affair.

Jeff’s first question (after finding out that a “man of honor” is actually a real thing) was, “So…I wear a dress?” He was joking, of course, but having nontraditional attendants does pose additional fashion conundrums. I asked him to wear a light gray suit, but he’ll still stand out from the fiance’s guys because they’re all shopping together, so Jeff’s suit will be different. I’m thinking something like this (of course I hit up J. Crew for the photo!):

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With a tie like one of these (the middle one is my favorite so far):

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So there you have it! I’m getting really excited to see the whole thing put together!

Flower Girl Fashion

Ready to meet the youngest members of our wedding party? The girls finally got their cards and confirmed that they’re in (yay!). First, we have Stephanie:

Stephanie is 5 (six in March), and she’s the fiance’s youngest cousin. (As you can see, adorableness runs in their family.) Next up…

Lily! Lily is my niece (she’s 4) and one of my favorite people.

Originally I planned to put them in matching dresses, but the top dress sold out much quicker than I anticipated. I kind of like how it turned out, though!

They’ll wear gold sparkle shoes like these:

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And I want to make some kind of gold hair garland, like this but spray painted gold:

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You can’t scatter petals in our ceremony venue, but I feel like they should hold something…maybe ring pillows of some kind? Though the idea of handing a small child diamonds has always made me a little nervous. Maybe pomanders or something. Any ideas out there I haven’t considered?

Dresses: Crayon Kids

I'm a tease.

We took our engagement pictures! Now, before you get too excited, I don’t have any to show you yet. What I do have? A little e-pic teaser to whet your appetite.

First, you should know that my sister (also our engagement picture photographer, you may recall) is way cooler than I am. As a result, she knows a lot of cool people. One of her friends is a hair/makeup artist named Amber. (Amber has done my sister’s hair and makeup for fashion shows and shoots -- yeah, my sister is also a model. Told you she was cooler.) Amber wanted Joelle to take pictures of some of her work for her portfolio, so Joelle offered me up as a model. (I'll add Amber's contact info as soon as I get it from my sister!)

All of that means that I got my hair and makeup done by a professional. Which was a total relief, because I basically do the same thing with my hair every day and wear very little makeup. Here’s me getting glam-ified (photos taken by my sister on my Droid):

Later that night, my parents had a wedding shower for our Iowa guests. Here’s the fiancé and me with two of my best friends (and a sneak peek of the outfits we wore for the pictures!):

I know, I know, we’re ridiculously good-looking. Can’t wait to show you the actual photos!