Let them eat POPCORN!

Well, the lovely Julie from Bohtieque has done it again!  She made us our labels for the popcorn bar bags and here they are....

She did such a great job matching our invitation suite-

and I could not be happier!

Yay for having another project completed!  Now the question is...what kind of bags should I use?  I originally thought I'd use cellophane  bags, but I'm wondering if they will be too messy.  I might need something thicker that will hold the popcorn if it's a little greasy...hmmm...thoughts?  

Taking advice from brides before me...

So after my last post about being bored and having nothing to do, I heard and am LISTENING to advice I was given.  I am going to use this "down time" to work on the mundane projects that I would have undoubtedly saved until the last minute.  

I'm going to hunt the thrift stores for popcorn containers....

I'm going to spend countless hours taking the paper off of crayons and melting them into my letter molds...

I'm going to search for the perfect baskets for the pashminas and flip flops...

I'm going to weigh the pros and cons of silk vs. real flowers to make pomanders for the flower girls to carry.  I really hate hate HATE silk flowers, but I would love to do this project well in advance...

I'm going to search for the perfect mason jars and ribbon for the aisle decorations...

And I'm going to enjoy every bit of it!  Hopefully doing this will make the time go by faster!!

I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL weekend!

All is quite in weddingville...

I heard it happens....

The lull between frantically booking vendors and planning details-and the actual wedding. 

It's true.  I'm in it now.  And I am B-O-R-E-D.  

We are almost 6 months away from our wedding.  

And there is nothing to do.

Which makes this girl sad. 

Here are a few details I'm excited about including in our reception...

Flip flop basket (cuter basket) with something cute like "kick off your heels and dance"

Pashmina basket with something like, "snuggle up and stay warm"

This one is super cute.

I need a new hobby.  Or I need to start planning other peoples weddings.  I love it way too much for my own good.  And I'm already sad for the planning to be over.  

I'm a freak.

Very cool new tool...

So, I was just browsing around EAD, and I came across a contest that I DESPERATELY want to win!  It is for a Laura Hooper personalized map.  I have been in love with these maps and was going to have my very talented Uncle recreate one for me.  However, if I win this contest, he won't have to.

Anyway, when I read that I would have a better chance of winning if I created a wedding map through Project Wedding, I thought I might as well.  I'm so glad I did!  This map is awesome, and I already added it to our website for guests to view.  I'm worried about folks getting lost up there in the mountains, so this will hopefully help out a lot.

I am also very happy to report that we have chosen our invitations!  I found them on etsy through her, and I fell in love immediately.  I received the sample I ordered, and it is everything I hoped it would be (and the price is incredible also!).  Check her out-

Here is the original:

Here is our version.  We are still going to tweak the wording, but notice how she added a bird to the tree for me?  Cute, huh??  I love love love it! (sorry for the crappy lighting and iPhone shot)

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.  Vince and I are keeping the kids until Wednesday (my bosses went to Vail on Saturday morning) so we are in full parent mode, and it's exhausting but fun!

The Popcorn Bar

One of my favorite elements of our wedding so far is definitely our popcorn bar.  Vince and I are HUGE popcorn eaters, and I love the idea of having different flavors for our guests to chose from.  

I love the apothecary jars and have found a few at Hobby Lobby for 5-15$-which is a great deal!

I also like these vases and think they are more practical for reaching your hand in and scooping out the popcorn...

This one is cute, but too informal.  I do like the jars though. 

I have contacted Julie who owns etsy shop Bohtique she made our return address labels for our save the dates, and I love working with her. 

I want to put labels on each bag that the guests will fill with popcorn.  I really wanted it to say something cute about sweet and salty and love, but I haven't been able to think of anything yet.  Any ideas??

Let them be SEXY!

We have chosen a bridesmaid dress!

Bridesmaid Shelly and I were having some cocktails on the patio of a restaurant yesterday.  It was 70 degrees and sunny here, and a perfect day for patio drinking!  We started looking up bridesmaid dress ideas, and we found the winner!!

It's so perfect!

It's from here and all of the girls love it.  

Three are wearing it in brown, and three in this green color:

All 6 of my girls are absolutely gorgeous inside and out, and these dresses are going to have them look SMOKIN'!

--------------------------------------------------

We finished addressing our save the dates, and they are going in the mail today.  I have to say, I'm so excited to hear responses when people receive them, but I'm also sad to see them go out the door.  They are so pretty!

My Aunt's beautiful handwriting...

Excuse me have you met our photographers?

Because they're KIND OF a big deal.

Check out Davids photo shoot with Solja Boy.

Yeah, and how about this wedding: 

SERIOUSLY!!  We are so lucky.

Lucky

I'm so excited.

Two of our dear friends have agreed to sing this song 

during our ceremony.

I have loved this song since a friend introduced it to me 

this summer and Vince and I feel like 

it's so appropriate for us.

ENJOY~

We aren't having any readings or unity candle 

so this will be the only thing other than our vows.

I hope that's enough??

Reception Inspiration Board

This is so much fun.  I promise this is the last one!

 

From top left to right: 

1)Kids crayon letters, cool shot, cake topper, cake, tie tree, cool shot.

2)thank you sign, cool shot, champagne, popcorn bar, mason jar pictures, pashminas.

3) hair piece, flip flops, getaway sign, flower girls, photobooth

Ceremony Board

Ok, so after playing around with Picasa a little more, I have made a ceremony and reception board.

(yes, I'm well aware of the fact that I am a dork.)

SO-

I love this ceremony board.  

 

From top left to right--

Bridesmaids bouquets, guys socks, bride holding vows, our ceremony spot

Bridesmaid look, shot of groom, sweet kiss, invitation idea

My bouquet, my boots (maybe), my hair, ceremony decor

Bridesmaid look, bouts, save the dates, dress shot

What do you think?!?

Look what I made!!

I just learned how to make an inspiration board!  

These images are all things that we are actually doing for our wedding.  I'm so excited!

(If any of these are your image, please let me know so I can give you credit.  I started collecting them before I began blogging!)

UPDATE: I made this using Picasa 3 for Mac.  It was so easy to do, but I cannot figure out how to make it larger, or how to make it bigger if you click on it...I'm working on it though!

By Popular Demand

Ok, here's a bit of my dress.  I have also included the link to see the full dress.  HOWEVER-as with all wedding dresses, the picture just doesn't do it justice!  

Also, I will be wearing the sleeves up instead of slouchy like the model is wearing them.  

Jacquelin 9700

So-what do you think???

To have and to hold...

I got it.

I got my dress.

I was on my way to get a smoothie for sick Vince when I passed a discount bridal shop.  

I thought, "hey, I'll just run in and see if I like anything."

And there it was.

On a SALE rack no less.

In all of it's lacy glory.

With capped sleeves.

It's gorgeous.  It has every single quality I was looking for 

1) lace

2) capped sleeves

3) light weight

4) no poof

5) affordable

AND, I got them to knock off another 100 bucks!

check, check, check, check, check.

Do you want to see a picture of it?

Hmmm...I'll have to think about it.

What a relief...

(a wedding at our venue)

It absolutely feels so good to be making progress in planning our wedding.  I am relieved that we have hired our vendors who will be there on our wedding day.  It makes it seem even more real and I feel so much anticipation and happiness when I am talking to them and thinking, "they are going to be at my wedding, helping to make it fantastic!"

We have our incredible Venue with the most amazing coordinator ever.

We hired our DJ

We hired our Photographer

We hired our Videographer

We have a place for our rehearsal dinner

We have a dressmaker (not confirmed yet, but I'm meeting with two women this week)

We have an amazing chick making our Invitations...(you might know her! :))

We have this fantastic Etsy seller making our flower girl fairy dresses

We have a definite bridesmaid/groomsmen look :)

We are well on our way folks.  Well on our way to being Mr. and Mrs.

Dj's make the people come together!

Good morning lovelies!  

Great news!  We hired our DJ last night.  His name is Harrison and he is fantastic.  Young, fun and NOT cheesy.  I feel so great about this decision, and can't wait to start working on our ideal playlist for our reception.  It's crazy to see the wedding come together in my mind and be able to put a face with previously unknown images.  Now I can picture Harrison at Neverland, and I see everyone having a great time! 

And now a new wedding project.

Escort Cards. 

I wasn't going to do them because we are having a buffet, but I've been told we should have assigned seating.  

A new project means new searching.  

Wish me luck.

These are a few I like so far all from the knot

My precious..

So-thanks so much to all of you for helping me come to my bridesmaid decisions.  We are going with the boots.  I'm so thrilled with my decision, and all the maids seem pretty excited too.  I still have to decide on the dresses, but we have time for that.

On to other things!  I fell in love with this bouquet 2 years ago when I saw my mom's boss's son's wedding pictures (follow me?)

I am O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D.

I emailed the picture to a friend of our family who is very into flowers.  She told me the flower is called a Protea.  However, I cannot seem to find them online.  The closest thing I found on google image search was this?

It's really not the same, huh.  Hmm.

So now my mission is to find these flowers.  Aren't they cool?  And won't they look great with these bouts?

The saga continues...

Ok, I have made an executive decision and I'm sticking with it.  

Some bridesmaids love this look, some think it's "cowboy-ish".  I have decided (thanks to your comments) that I love it.  I've loved this look since the first time I saw it here and I don't want to look back and regret not making the decision that I really wanted.  (thanks Adrienne!)

Now-another question.  

I thought it would be perfect to have them all buy their own chocolate brown dress and then wear any shade of brown or tan boots.  Bridesmaid Claire is saying that she thinks we need color.  SO, do I ask three of them to buy/wear a colored dress?  I like the green in the picture.  We weren't going to use green but I am drifting further and further away from having a set color scheme.  I don't think it's necessary and I'm about ready to say eff it-and go with whatever I like.  Our shephard staffs down the aisle are going to have wild flowers of all colors from Vince's dad's garden.  There is no reason to stick with specific colors when the point of the venue is the fall leaf backdrop.  

Right?

I am aware that I am thinking out loud but I am feeling kind of frustrated.  Everyone has an opinion.  EVERYONE.  And it's getting old.  It's getting old because most opinions I'm getting are OLD fashioned.  I want a different kind of wedding.  I want it to feel different.  I don't like cookie cutter anything.

So-do I ask them to buy specific dresses?  This goes against my wedding morals of not telling my best girlfriends what to buy.  I want to let them chose what they want.

UGH I'm so confused~what do I do?!?!

My bridesmaids are going to kill me.

I know these are all over the blogs today, but I am SERIOUSLY considering telling my girls to scratch the black dresses and different colored shoes....for this....

We are getting married on a farm!  In the fall!  This is SO appropriate.  So far, the responses from the girls is not good.  How far do you think I should take the "it's my day, wear what I tell you to wear" line?

My Matron of Honor says this makes it look like a themed wedding.  Then she said yee haw.  

Am I crazy?!

Wha Wha Wha WHAT?!?!

Our AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHERS have their wedding blog up and running.

I. AM. THE. HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD.

I can't wait to look like this chick:

http://www.ourblogoflove.com/davidkendrick/

Hey Mister DJ...

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

I thought we had chosen our DJ.  I talked to her, and thought she sounded pretty cool.  She sings also-and I liked that addition to the music.  I liked her until I emailed previous brides who had used her.  

This is a great tip.  Don't use references provided by your vendor.  Ask the person in charge of your venue for email addresses of brides who have used that vendor.  If I hadn't emailed those brides, I never would have known that

1) the DJ only played 2 out of the 20 personal and special songs the bride had put on a CD for her.

2) even though the venue is not strict on the 11pm ending-and Suzy (the coordinator) has told all brides that it can go later if needed, the DJ started packing up at 11 on the dot, and even taking song books out of guests hands.

3) she BUTCHERED the names of the wedding party even though the bride had pronounced them for her AND written them in correct pronunciation form.

SO, we cancelled the deposit check that we had put in the mail YESTERDAY, and called to cancel with her.  

Now I have to find a DJ.  This is something that makes me very nervous, because I generally despise DJ's as a whole.  I find them to be arrogant and obnoxious-and I don't ever think they're funny.

What are your experiences with DJ's?  What are some things I need to be sure to tell them so they understand that I'm not a typical bride, and ours is not a typical wedding?