Off they go!

Our Save the Dates are off today! All 120ish of them. {minus 5, or so, because we are still unaware of significant others last names, etc...who knew?}

Here is what a stack of 120ish labeled and stamped postcards look like

{courtesy of a man who loves me enough to pose for this picture while only rolling his eyes twice}

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Purchase!

I bought this lantern today at TJ Maxx for a whopping $20!

{It's pretty big. That is the largest candle that I had in the house!}

Right now I am planning on using it as decor on the Escort Card table...our guest list just passed 250 {out.of.control.i.know.believe.me.i.know.} so there won't be much room for anything besides cards, but I think this might do nicely with a bigger candle and maybe some greenery at the base?

The table itself will be sitting inside the entry, in front of this fireplace {sans furniture, of course}

{sorry for the blurriness...taken on the run}

I hate to block the pretty fireplace, but what you see off to either side is the entry into the main room, so there aren't many other options. I am planning on throwing some other things up on the mantle, possibly some initial letters reminiscent of these lovelies by Martha...

Once the escort cards have all been taken, this same table will become the favor display for departing guests...more on our super fun favors later, but in the mean time...what do y'all think of the ideas so far for escort card display? Any awesome ideas for a mantle/entryway/escort card table out there?

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Fab Friends: Lindsey & Darren

Sorry for the lateness of this post, but hey, it's still Friday!

This week's featured friend is the latest to get married...just this past April.

Meet Lindsey and Darren!
{This is the lovely Lindsey who won me free calligraphy at the Not Wedding! Thanks again Linds :) }

While neither of them live there anymore, they met and fell in love at the College of Charleston, so they decided to celebrate their wedding in the lovely and historic city of Charleston, South Carolina.

The photo from above was taken shortly after their first reveal at the Cistern {a college landmark}. We got ready in a college building and took photos before the ceremony all over the beautiful campus.

{Ooooh la la!}

We took these girls-only shots, before the big reveal!

{That is real laughter...at a sneeze, I think}

Then we headed to the ceremony site... The First Baptist Church of Charleston.

We snuck upstairs to wait for our call and the photog grabbed this gorgeous shot

{Here we go!}

After the ceremony, there was a promenade, complete with strolling musicians, down the block to the reception site - the South Carolina Society Hall.

Shot of the beautiful decor, before the guests arrived...

{this decor was courtesy of our friends' moms, the greatest volunteer planners ever.}

Food was eaten and much fun was had...

{this shot has, believe it or not, almost all of my best friends in this world in it...a must at our own wedding}

and before we knew it, it was time to go!

What an awesome time! Can't wait to see the album guys!
{You know, once it gets back from Italy}

{All photo credit to Ed Coyle of Ed Coyle Photography}

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Some weekend lols

Excuse my lack of posting this week...between moving offices and wrapping up final projects for school, {and trying to get our Save the Dates mailed!!!!}

BUT, I will redeem myself, at least a little bit, by introducing you to the site that acquires images such as this:

 

{FYI, this girl is 16. Her groom? 17. That "dress"? £16,000. That is like $30,000 folks.}

See more here.

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...and I have a problem making decisions.

After perusing the lover-ly photo blog of one Leigh Miller, of Leigh Miller Photography, I am currently in love with:

These table numbers,

these low arrangements

{maybe with those fantastic pearl candles from before...}

and tall {and cost effective} arrangements like these:

Our tablecloths will be navy, so I think fresh, white arrangements with little pops of green would look so crisp and clean. How did y'all figure out your flower ideas, when there are so many fabulous ones out there?

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What a Party!

The Not Wedding was f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s. The food, the music, the clothes, the food...oh, wait, did I mention the food?

Here is a sneak peek of my pictures...

Oh, and did I also forget to mention that I won something fabulous, courtesy of my bestest friend Linds? It was the only prize that I really wanted {since most of them were Atlanta based}

...ready?

FREE CALLIGRAPHY for our invitations, courtesy of Brown Linen & Co.!

I am so excited because this is a detail that I have been drooling over for a long time, but was definitely not in our budget - until now!

Here are some beautiful examples of Abany's work:

Yay! Best weekend. Ever.

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Tying the 'Not' Today!

 

Pictures and recap to come! Check it out at www.thenotwedding.com, tickets still available at the door!

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Wish List {not so} Fun

After talking to my mom, I have realized a big 'oops' on my part.

Apparently there are 6 Bed Bath & Beyonds in the entire state of Wisconsin {it's true- see here} and none of them are within a reasonable distance to my family. {I thought there were, but apparently it was a Linens and Things, which, as we are all aware, is closing. Awesome.}

And there are no Pottery Barns within a drivable distance from most people on my list.

AND there is only one Macy's. {a recently acquired one, which if you have ever been in, does not look at all like what I call a 'real' Macy's, which means, no china or crystal in-store}

Yup, I know. Bad research. My bad.

So what does this mean? After a quick act of pulling myself back together, I realized that the majority of things we registered for at BB&B are available elsewhere. So, I am planning, for now, on maybe opening another registry

::she grits her teeth::

Four registries just seems like so much to me! Especially once I put them on our wedding website and have to list them all. I just do not want to seem that I have gone crazily greedy, because at the end of the day I care that people are there with us - not what they have brought for us.

Now, I can rationalize the use of all of them until I am blue in the face, but friends, what do you think? Should I transfer some stuff over to a new registry to make things more accessible for guests, and keep all four open? Or is it too much?

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Fab Friends: Megan & Mike

For my first Fab Friend Friday Wedding post, let me introduce my friends Megan and Mike!

They were married in November of 2005 and their anniversary is next week, so I thought they would be the perfect couple to kick this off! They were married in Corolla, North Carolina (on the Outer Banks). It was one of the most lovely and fun celebrations that I have ever attended. We got to stay in this amazing house...

Where we all, including the bride, got ready that day. She wore a dress that she got on sale, and had altered to suit her style :) It was originally a zipper back, and she had a corset back put in so that she could put pink ribbon through, and added a pink crinoline skirt underneath. Here she is taking a page out of Scarlett O'Hara's book:

{A sidenote on the bridesmaid's dresses...$20 on sale from Old Navy, simple khaki sheath dresses with lovely pink cardigans. I still wear mine...how often do you hear a bridesmaid say that?}

We got her ready in time to meet her love on the shore...

There was a huge and fun loving bridal party! Megan even had two 'bridesmen' that you can see at the end on her side.

Another shot of the whole crew, post ceremony:

The bride is vegan, so her family and her made every last bit of food at the wedding, including the cake! Some of the bridal party even helped make Virginia and Texas shaped vegan cookies {for where the bride and groom are from}.

The groom's cake said "To a Whale of a Husband" an allusion to a Simpson's episode, and I think matched the whales on his tie.

After all the fun wedding activities, first dance, cutting of the cake, eating and having a fabulous time, we all headed back to that 'cozy' beach house for an awesome after party.

They are such a loving and happy couple, and have since added a little one to the mix! Congrats on three years of wedded happiness guys!

{All photo credit goes to one of the Maids of Honor, Andria, and a couple other assorted guests whom I have forgotten since I have had these photos for so long! Let me know if one of them was you :) }

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Coming Soon {tomorrow}

"Fabulous Friend Fridays"

As you may have noticed on the header image of my blog it states my claim as a "professional bridesmaid".

I have been in a lot of weddings {not quite 27, but getting there} and have attended even more.

I have been so privileged and honored to be involved in each of these celebrations. Each of my friends' fabulous weddings have influenced some idea of how I wanted my own wedding to be someday.

So, in honor of them, I will be showing some photos and thoughts from their days...and the debut is coming tomorrow! {and it is a surprise} Get excited!

[married friends, if you would like to be featured, or would prefer not to be, email me :)]

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Playing Dress Up

So a while ago I posted about dress shopping, but never told you anything about it! {shame on me}

The first place we went was Treasures Formals & Bridals in Roswell, GA. We weren't sure how this place would be, and they did not have a large selection, but the dresses they did have were so well picked. There was a large range of styles among them and they were not too pricey.

The owner was my bridal consultant and she was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I loved her. Seriously.

I tried on many dresses, and ended up liking two dresses. It was funny that I liked these dresses, both by Sophia Tolli, because they both have asymmetrical elements to them and I love me some symmetry.

Meet Francesca

I really liked this dress {sans straps} but I was not head over heels...though looking back in pictures it looks pretty darn good. The back is corset, but she is willing to make design changes, including putting in a zipper. {point for Sophia}

Next, Meet Zarah

I looooooovvvved this dress. It was a lot less traditional that I was planning, but it was just so fabulous. Lindsey even made me put it on with a birdcage veil and I could pull it off in this dress! {Not for the ceremony, of course, but YAY!} The only things we wondered were:

1. If this dress would be a lot more flat in white, as I tried it on in this deep color, and
2. If this dress would be "too much" for the feeling of our wedding so far {both my mom and academic adviser said I should wear whatever dress I want, regardless, since I only get to do this once.}

More of our day of shopping to come, but what do y'all think?

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Party Time!

We just received our invitation in the mail for our first wedding related event - an engagement party!

A's mom and sister are hosting this event for us on the eve of Black Friday {for all you non-shoppers, that is the Friday after Thanksgiving}

Last weekend I had the extreme pleasure of shopping in Atlanta with some girlfriends and found this lovely dress on a serious sale at Banana Republic which I plan on wearing to our party:

It even has pockets!

Love, love, love.

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Wish list fun

I worked with my students on a retreat yesterday, so I flexed some hours and played hooky today to get things done...one of which was doing our REGISTRY!!!

We were pretty excited to get this out of the way, as we had heard from some people that it could be a long and tiring process...and we were pretty excited to get to play with those scanner guns!

Armed with very little knowledge about what we want/need we headed to the Mall of Georgia.

We hit up Bed Bath & Beyond first for 'necessities' {read: my KitchenAid standing mixer that I have wanted since I was 14} and left two hours later...overwhelmed, but registered!

After a quick refuel in the food court we headed on up to Macy's. This is where I got excited. Objective: Fine China and Stemware.

Here is the groom on our mission, armed with scanner and clipboard:

{I love him.}

We had a little fun with the example table they had set up, and our consultant was fabulous helping us change out dozens of patterns...we ended up both really liking this one:

and a closeup of the pattern, courtesy of Waterford:

It is the Waterford Padova Pattern. We are not in love with the accent plate, but changed it out with enough others that we feel pretty confident in not getting one for now. YAY!

{BTW for all those of you who read MS Weddings as I do, you may have noticed in the last issue a little blurb about monogramming china. I asked, and our consultant said you cannot register for that, as it would be a custom order, but you could find people out there [artists] who do this sort of thing and reglaze the china so that it is sanitary for food. More research required.}

We also picked out some lovely stemware from Lenox:

(Just the ones with the Platinum edging...they go so well with the china!) This is the Lenox Timeless Platinum Pattern.

We are pretty hyped about these, and we may even buy some champagne flutes to use as our toasting flutes, but have them engraved with a 'G' or something fancy, mayhap our new married monogram.

We did not register for any flatware as of yet, but we saw on the website once we got home that Macy's carries a matching version to the China, so we may end up adding that to the list. We also picked up some lovely things from Martha to add to the list. {le sigh}

To round out the day we headed to Pottery Barn. Why, you may ask? Because we already have quite a bit of everyday dinnerware from the lovely folks at the Barn, buuuuut we would like to round it out a little.

We were able to purchase the bare essentials when A worked there {for 50% off mind you, so it rounded off at about the same price as something from Target} but we were not able to get all of the things that we smack ourselves in the head for not getting sometimes.

{Also, I got to register for two monogrammed hand towels...with our new married monogram [!!!woo!!!]}

So we picked up a few things there and are hoping that we hit enough variety for all of our guests...though we are well short of the projected amount we should register for with around 230 guests being invited. That projection is quite ridiculous and a liiiiitle embarrassing.

Whew. I am sure we will play with it, but for now that is one more thing checked off the list!

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How Pretty

 

 And when grouped with a centerpiece:

 

{from here}

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Hydrange loveliness...

I love hydrangeas. I know that they are the "typical" wedding flower maybe, but I have always loved them {well, at least ever since my mom put 4 arrangements of silk hydrangeas in the room my sister and I shared}

You may remember how in love I was/am with this photo:

{from here}

But lately I have been thinking about a more 'clean' look, if you will. Maybe something like this:

{from here}

BUT I still love hydrangeas...

I found this photo on my "someday" jump drive and am thinking I kind of love it:

{not sure where I got this...}

Am I crazy? I don't feel like I have seen many loose arrangements of hydrangeas...but I am kind of in love with it. Can you imagine this, in a tall clear vase?

Maybe like this, but with hydrangeas?

{from here}

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