Shoes, etc...

I completely forgot to post pictures of my shoes and sash when they came in a couple of weeks ago. Everything I need to wear on the wedding day are all here except for the dress. I've stored everything in a Nordstrom shopping bag in the closet. My shoes, the VS bra, sash, and even my foot petals are all in the bag. I hope my dress magically shows up next week. It's not supposed to get here 'til the middle of September but the dress people told me that they usually come earlier than expected. We shall see.

Ceremony and Reception Decor

Being that our wedding is very casual and small, we decided that we are going the DIY route for our flower decor. Well, I decided to go DIY. J doesn't really have an opinion of who gets to do what or what we should and shouldn't pay for. I don't think I'm capable of doing my own bouquet, corsages for our moms, and boutonnieres for J's dad and grandpa so I have to get these professionally done. It doesn't look that difficult to cut some flowers and put them in a container to hang. I am definitely doing a test run as soon as the planters come in though.

White and green hydrangeas will be used for our ceremony and reception. I've ordered 10 square planters from Crate&Barrel, 8 small ones and 2 big ones. The small ones will line the aisle and the big ones will be upfront. I'm going to use fishing wires to hang the planters on shepherd's hooks (that I have yet to purchase!). The same arrangements will be transported to our reception only this time they won't be hanging.

{ Imagine these flowers without the patriotic-looking vase }

{ In this type of arrangement }

{ in one of these }

I've already done my research on the flowers. They will be purchased online from two different places (unfortunately!). White hydrangeas will be coming from farmstogo at only $2.82 per stem. You can only buy them in quantities of 20 or 40 so I'm getting 40. The price also includes overnight shipping straight from Colombia. Mini green hydrangeas will be purchased from theflowerexchange. They're $2.85 per stem with a minimum purchase of 15 stems and the price also includes overnight shipping.

Crazy couple of weeks...

I can't wait 'til we are finally married so we can stop planning. I plan events/meetings for a living and yet doing my own is too difficult. The next couple of weeks are jam packed with appointments and things...

8/30 - florist appointment
9/2 - cake tasting
9/5 - hair and make-up trial
9/6 - mani/pedi (for engagement session)
9/8 - engagement session / get marriage license
9/16 - my dress should be here!
9/17 - get my dress altered
9/19 - rsvp's are due

More checks for this weekend!

I caved in and finally ordered my shoes. Nordstrom didn't have my size when J and I went last week but I had to stop by there yesterday to match the swatch of my sash. I called J and told him that one of the swatches matched though it wasn't perfect. He made me buy them and they should be here next week. He tried to tell me that I should go back to Creations and have them make the sash to match perfectly. Yeah, he's a little anal.

My strapless bra came in from VS also. They're very comfy and convertible so I can wear them more than I had anticipated. I hate strapless but these are actually great.

I ordered some FootPetals products also. I don't think I can last in heels all day so these better help and work. I got haute heelz and tip toes in pink. I would have coordinated them with our wedding colors but they didn't have green nor brown.

Addresses are all done and on a spreadsheet ready for printing! I'm missing two more but that's J's deal so I'm really waiting for him to get them. We somehow went from needing 28 invites to now 34! The guest count went up to 43 too! I swear, the tiny wedding is not so tiny anymore. It's still tiny but not as tiny as we originally planned.

This week I hope to have our menu done and hopefully find shepherd's hooks and galvanized pails for our ceremony decor.

Our Invitations are In...

and we love them!

Karah was so awesome and easy to work with. I changed a bunch of stuff and she was totally cool with my little requests. I told J last night that I didn't have anything wedding related to do for this weekend and all I really wanted was to finish the invites since I wanted to add a belly-band to the set. I'm not exactly the crafty kind so I wanted a little extra time to get everything done.

Well, what do you know?! The invitations came in the mail today before noon and it was soo exciting! It made the wedding more real now :) I had to rush after they came to finish the monogram since I had to change the shade of green and brown that I originally did. I went to OfficeMax yesterday to get a test print and the colors were too dark.

I made J pick the one he liked the most since I didn't know which one I liked best. I had the monograms printed during my extended lunch break and picked up some clear adress labels while I was there. I had to run to Joann's also to get ribbons but they didn't have enough of the color I needed. So across the street I went to Hancock Fabrics but they didn't have the ribbon by the spool and I was not about to pay by the yard. I had no choice but to wait 'til after work to get the darn ribbons! Who knew I was going to find them at Wal-Mart?? They were so much cheaper too! It was less than $2 for a 6 yrd spool.

It didn't take me long at all to put them together. I guess the fact that we ony have 35 sets helped a lot. Tomorrow, I will work on the labels and maybe pick up the green stamps to match our invites.

Finding the Right Shoes

With this wedding fast approaching, I looked for pink shoes for a whole straight week. I have never once said that I hated shoes 'til then. Our wedding colors went from pink and brown to baby blue and brown to now moss green and brown. This is all due to my shoe dilemma. Who knew pink and blue shoes were so darn hard to find! I was determined to wear either pink or blue but that did not work out. I was too worried that the sash I wanted to wear will be too hard to match perfectly with the right shade of shoes.

We have now settled with moss green and brown and I'll be wearing brown shoes due to the brown sash. Well that and the fact that it's a little easier to find brown shoes.

Why the green and brown combo? Well, the ceremony is outside and we wanted to use these two colors 'cause of that. Our invites are the same color combo as well. I have to make sure that my sash (swatches are on their way) is very close to the color of my shoes.

I have one pair coming in today. I purchased them from shoes.com on Friday during their big sale last week. I paid less than $50 shipped and they were originally more that $200! I did find another pair at my local Nordstrom this weekend but they didn't have my size. They're a little more at $89.95 but they looked so sexy on my feet and very comfy for the heel height. J loved them too! We shall see what happens with the ones coming in today.

{ Cynthia Rowley Soprano }

{ Glint Kailey }

I hope the swatches for my sash come in the mail today so I can finalize my shoe option.
More pictures later on today with the actual shoes.

My Wedding Dress

The very first wedding purchase since the crazy wedding planning started is my dress. We picked and purchased our wedding bands months ago but my dress way the first legit purchase since the real wedding planning started.

I looked all over the internet for something very simple and dainty. J Crew, Nordstrom, Saks, everywhere...but came up with nothing. I didn't want a full-length dress and I wanted it plain. No lace, no beading, just plain. I did want a sash but that was it. I searched for a whole week and decided I was going the custom route but didn't find anything online since most of them had a 12-week wait.

Creations Bridal was my only choice. The lady I worked with was very nice and patient with me. I brought in pictures during our first meeting and she was very quick to sketch what I had in mind. They even had the right shade of dupioni silk that I was looking for. But in the end, their price was a bit too high for me. I was about to give up on my quest for the dress until I decided to stop by Bella Rosa to check out the dresses they carry for bridesmaids. At this point we had already moved our date to October and I can actually get a dress in early enough if I paid extra for the rush service.

I have been to Bella Rosa before with a friend right after the engagement just to check out what they had in the store. It was about an hour before their closing time and the lady had me pull all BM dresses that I was interested in. I picked about 4 and headed for the fitting room. none of them worked. I hated each and every single dress I tried on. By the time I was done, it was 5 'til 6. She asked me what I didn't like about the dresses and I told her that all of them puffed out in the bottom. I told her that I would probably have to come back another time since they are closing but she told me to try on one last dress. She pulled an ivory lace dress, v-neck, tea-length, and very pretty. I actually looked at it but didn't think twice about trying it on because of the lace material. I went in to the fitting room and tried the dress on. You know how they say that when you know it's the one, you just know? Well, I did! I fell in love with the dress soo much! It reminded me of this Monique Lhuillier dress that I drooled over for so long that I knew from the get-go I will never be able to afford.

I went home that evening and told J about how I foun the dress. He doesn't know anything about it except for the fact that it's ivory and it's not long. I bought my dress from Victoria's Bridal Couture located in Florida. They have an on-line shop and I paid for less than half the retail price had I purchased it from Bella Rosa. Their rush charge was only $30 and it should be here by the 2nd week of September. I plan on wearing my dress with a brown thick satin sash.

This is getting long. I will post my shoe dillema next.

My First Post :)

J and I will be engaged a year on August 28 and somehow we are just now planning our wedding for this coming October. I know, it's coming up really soon. We decided 3 weeks ago that we wanted to get married soon! Needless to say, it's been a crazy and stressful 3 weeks. We went from 9/20 to now 10/11. There's no turning back now! The invites have been ordered and they are probably on their way to the printers.

We are having a very small and casual ceremony in front of 35 family and friends at his uncle's farm about 30 minutes outside of Richmond which will be followed with cocktails and dinner all the way back in Richmond. It seems a lot of driving but we absolutely love the farm and we are getting a great deal at our reception site.

I'm pretty surprised that we have accomplished a great deal within these past 3 weeks. Ceremony and reception are finalized, my dress has been purchased, invitations have been ordered, and most important of them all, our photographer is booked!

We looove our photographer! J found Jason one afternoon after google-ing him. I was getting tired and frustrated trying to find one myself but J got really lucky! This has to be the most important part about our wedding and the one thing that we are soooo excited about! I can't wait to do our engagement session with him.