See the Bride. See the Bride Plan. See the Bride Blog.

The Big Day: Getting Ready

2010-10-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

June 12, 2009 dawned a bright and sunshine-y day. I woke up SO excited, and yet so calm. I headed downstairs where all my friends were together in one place, which was just the most awesome feeling. We grabbed some small food, and got ready to head to the salon.

You know I was happy because a. I have a mimosa in hand b. because I was grinning and c. because these photos of me with no makeup on actually exist.

Actually, I had walked out of the house that morning without my makeup. Ack! So much for being calm. But, a well placed phone call to mom and all was resolved.

Almost done!

My gorgeous friends were all getting beautified

While we were getting ready, everyone got the chance to relax on the couches, drink some mimosas, and hang out...

Shelby contemplated life...or cheese curds. One of the two.

Lindsey got the fun job of running to have my ring cleaned...and everyone else's!

After we were all ready to go, we headed out to Lake Wissota. Cue the pro pictures.

Headed down to the getting ready room, and hiding from the boys.

Shoes on the Bible... sacrilegious? I certainly didn't stage this one.

The ladies were dressed and then it was time for one last toast, before it was time for the dress.

Not a pro pic, but I love this photo, because I can distinctly remember thinking "Well, here we go!"

Time for presents and a veil and then we would be ready for our first look!

Girly Sleepover

2010-10-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

So, I said next we would wrap up rehearsal night with a post on the gifts given to the ladies and gents - buuuut, I can't find those dang photos. So, I will have to come back to that, moving on.

Some of us had some fun with the hats that decorated the bathroom...

After wrapping up a lovely evening on the lake, we ladies headed back to my parents house for a good old fashioned girly sleepover. The boys went off to do, well, all sorts of things that I would rather not write about :)

My amazing ladies gifted me with some pretty underthings for my new married life, and then gifted me with the new traditional OSL bridal gift - an initial necklace of my new last name. I was so excited!

We gossiped a bit and laughed a lot and then, well, we hit the hay. The next day was a big one!

Dining in Style

2010-08-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

Edit - I wrote this post a YEAR ago and never posted it. Here we go friends.

Here I am, back from my hiatus! but I have had a good excuse. Seriously, look:

Anywho, onto the Rehearsal Dinner!

After our lovely stop in at the View, we headed to our RD location - High Shores! The food was delicious and the weather was divine. The music played and all of our closest friends and family members surrounded us. At one point we looked at each other and my FH said. "This is it, this is our wedding."

We were so overwhelmed.

Little did we know that open mic night was about to begin.

First, the host and hostess (FH's mom and dad) each spoke. Then my mom. And then, well, everyone.

{these may or may not have been pregnancy tears ;) }

As if we did not know before how lucky we are to be surrounded by such amazing friends, we were assured that night. Some tears were shed, hugs were shared, and then it was time for presents!

Leinie's Tour and The View

2009-08-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

Since we had such an early rehearsal, and a bunch of time in between the actual rehearsal and the dinner, the FH and I decided to make good on our longtime promise to friends who would come to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin...the Leinenkugel's Brewery Tour!

Leinenkugal's has been distributed more widely in the last few years since they signed on to being distributed by a larger national company - but all of the Leinenkugal's beer you have ever enjoyed was made right in Chippewa Falls.

We signed everyone up for the free tour, and everyone that was of age could enjoy some of the free samples ;)

{the hubby and his dad - you wouldn't know it. ha!}

After enjoying our freebies, we headed on the tour.

After the tour, we headed towards the Rehearsal Dinner location with a small stop over at a local bar on Lake Wissota, The View. And what a view it has.

but in reality...in between the tours and The View, some of the party sneaked away on a secret mission to buy a little gift for my Packers fan of a husband.

and then we had a toast.

With the Cheesehead.

On to Dinner!

A little layout change...

2009-08-18T17:32:00.001-07:00

I have futzed with the layout a bit to bring you bigger photos for the recaps!

Enjoy.

Let's Rehearse

2009-08-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

And now for the coverage of the most efficient rehearsal ever. Seriously.

Deacon Kinnick, from St. Charles was not playing around. He knew that we had places to be and so did he. (He had about 50 teenagers arriving shortly for Youth Group evening camp.)

To be honest, we felt lucky to have a rehearsal at all. When we had to do the "hey let's move the wedding up a month," the only possible problem was that we wouldn't be able to do a rehearsal, as the church was being taken over by teenagers the night before the wedding. So our rehearsal was at 3:00pm.

Unusual? Yes. End of the world? No.

We found some fun ways to fill the time (read: Brewery Tour).

In any case, upon our prompt arrival (after a costume change) we got started right away! Austin yelled out the orders of our guys and gals, and we all lined up for a quick photo.

My mom and I may or may not have been running in to make the shot.

Look at all those lovely ladies in their lovely dresses.

As we ladies were lining up, the deacon directed the boys down to the front of the church, where my FH stood waiting to see this whole thing get started.

We made it down the aisle and got started with the whole she-bang. These were probably the most surreal moment of the entire weekend. I was grinning like an idiot and barely paid attention to anything going on. Apparently neither were my maids, since they were able to snap this shot.

Excited girls at the altar!

Deacon Kinnick showing the FH how to escort me to my seat.
There I am pretending to pay attention and grinning.

My parents looking on...

We're all laughing at something that none of us can remember.

And then it was done! We had the marriage certificate - signed, sealed and delivered, and we had rehearsed. Our deacon may or may not have taken on the personality of a drill instructor, but we were in and out in around 40 minutes! We even had enough time to grab some photos after the fact before heading to our reservations at Leinenkugels.

We interrupt

2009-08-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

your regularly scheduled blogging to bring you a discovery that has me tickled.

Not only did we love, love, love our engagement photo shoot with Alyssa Alig in Athens, but it seems the feeling was mutual!

We are now the engagement portfolio couple. How fun is that?

Check it out here.

And I digress...

2009-07-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

So soon, you ask?

Why yes! Because, when she saw that I had not photos of the set up process, my new father-in-law's lovely girlfriend sent me some!

Loading up the vehicles...I believe I am in there

conferring with my brother about a checklist.

Look at my hot husband hanging curtains for me.

Look at how much fun my lovely maids were having! haha. right.

The siblings, helping out. While others were nice enough to not make

comments along the lines of, "she is insane," these two had no qualms.

Ah, sibling love.

"Here dads, let me show you how I want it..."

I may or may not have walked around apologizing to everyone and

thanking them profusely throughout this entire process.

And with that, a few ~~hours~~ minutes later, we were good to go!

Again, thank you so much to everyone who was willing to climb ladders, get ceiling dust in their eyes, tie pretty bows and sting lanterns ad curtains that night. It all came out fabulously.

Impromptu Welcome Lunch

2009-07-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

While a few of my lovely bridesmaids arrived on Wednesday {and then we got to hang out and get manicures and pedicures and set up the wedding reception decor [read: my friends and family love me enough to be slave labor...thanks guys!] - no photos though, sad day!} the majority of the wedding party and family arrived on late Wednesday night, or early Thursday morning, so we will start recaps there.

{Are you impressed by the length on that last sentence? I am.}

As everyone rolled in to my parents' house, my mom and I were running errands early - picking up some flowers for the house, picking up linens and tables, all sorts of last minute details.

We headed back to the house, and some of the people had arrived to stay! I immediately went into chill mood and was ready to have some fun. My fiance, on the other hand, went into "let's get things done" mode, which made me laugh. But, he assigned duties to everyone hanging out and they hopped to! He and I ran to drop off linens at Lake Wissota and check in with Karen, our event manager, to make sure everything was good to go!

We were so excited and giddy the whole way there and back, and we were ready to roll when it came time to meet everyone up at Noodles & Co. for a quick bite to eat!

Don't you just love when those big, loud, annoying groups steal

all the tables in the restaurant to create a large one? Ha!

We were just so excited to see everyone all in one place! This is the moment where I looked around me and said "it's here!" And then, just like that we all had to run and change to make the 3:00 rehearsal on time!

Recap Outline

2009-07-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

As I tackle these wedding recaps, and since I am an English major at heart, I figured that the best bet would be to first outline these thoughts - chronologically. I briefly considered just writing a novella, but thought if I break it up it would be easier for everyone to stomach.

Recaps will occur as follows:

Rehearsal Day

Lunch
Rehearsal
Leinenkugel's Tour and The View
Rehearsal Dinner
Bachelorette Festivities! {thankfully no pictures of the Bachelor activities exist}

Wedding Day

Salon and Getting Ready
First Look
Wedding Party shots
Getting to the church
Ceremony
Family Shots
First Dance and Dinner
The Sunset
Toasts
The Cake Story
Dancing
Bouquet/Garter Toss
We're on a boat!

The Day After

Brunch
The Mall of America

Ok, so this is what you can all hold me to! It will be quite some time to get through all of this, but I will, I swear, and hopefully our video will get here soon so I can interject some of those clips as well as photos.

Here we go!

Photos are in!

2009-07-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

We have received all of our professional wedding photos! Thank you Jeff!!

I will be starting recaps just as soon as possible, until then here are is a sampling of a few of my favorites {which are all over the place, but otherwise I would just have to post them all!}:

Still Waiting...

2009-07-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

for our photos to arrive, but in celebration of a month of marriage here is another one to whet your appetite.

Back to reality!

2009-06-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been a complete and utter blur of a crazy beginning to married life!

We have had so much fun taking care of so many things: moving cross county twice, possibly buying a house (!), and trying to get settled before the Husband deploys!

I heard from our photographer this morning that he will very shortly be sending us our photos, which can then lead to tons and tons of recaps and fun stories {including the story of the cake that never was and photos of one of the most gorgeous sunsets ever}. So, get ready for an awesome ride, but until then here is a little teaser:

Licensed to Wed

2009-06-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

The FH and I had a laundry list of tasks to accomplish today, but the first thing on the list was to head down to the County Clerk's office at the Chippewa Falls Courthouse to get our marriage license! Woo!

I was actually really dreading this task, having heard so many nightmarish stories before. But - our experience was wonderful.

We headed into the office and there was - no wait. Seriously, we walked right up to the counter and the deputy clerk just started typing our information right in.

The license was printed and they handed us a commemorative pen to sign our license! It says,

"Congratulations! From the Chippewa County Clerk"
Cute Right?

Here we are...licensed to wed.

{Picture in the car, because it was raining...booo.

p.s. the rain is creeping up on the wedding date - everyone throw a thought out to whoever you throw thoughts out to. kthanks.}

Watching the Weather

2009-06-07T10:55:00.000-07:00

I had probably more apprehension about hitting the ten day mark from our wedding than most people would think. Why? Why 10 days and not 7?

Because 10 days is the first glance at the forecast people!

I was relieved when I pulled it up and it showed this:

Wooo! 75 and Sunny! (Well partly cloudy is good in my book - better for photos than full on sunlight).

I did a happy jump around dance and then quickly knocked on some wood so that the weather gods don't think that I am being presumptuous and decide to teach me a lesson.

See, here is the thing: I have been trying to convince my friends for years that it is g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s in the Midwest in the summer time, that it does not snow year round, etc. So the fact that we set a record low yesterday for June 6th (unbroken since 1938) was not making me feel very good.

But, the weatherpeople are saying that this weekend is a freak cold snap and should start warmingback up on Monday evening (whew.)

Here is hoping the weatherpeople are right for maybe the first time ever.

DIY Makeup Trial

2009-06-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

I meant to do my Makeup Trial yesterday with my hair, but ran out of time as my mother and I ran errands to our hearts content...including picking up the best gift for my groom ever. More to come on that.

In any case, back to makeup. I originally considered having my makeup done, but then I realized that I am pretty darn good at it. Seriously - I have had a LOT of practice. Bridesmaid S and I were college roommates and she regularly would come plop down in my room for me to do her eyes for going out. Most of the weddings that I have been in I have done the makeup of the bride and some other bridesmaids. Besides, if I did it myself that meant that I could go crazy with my most favorite brand of makeup - Smashbox.

I was originally introduced to Smashbox cosmetics in a sorority philanthropy fashion show as a sophomore in college. They donated their service to make up the models, and then - best surprise of all - gave all of the volunteer models the makeup they had used. Yay!

Since then I have never been without my very favorite eye shadow - Eyelights in Beam.

Through undergrad and graduate school though - money was always a little less than flowing, so I always had to restrain from purchasing the rest of the makeup I had been handed at the fashion show.

BUT - this is our wedding. So, I decided to "jump on that hand grenade" and pony up the dough. (Tee hee hee) I had the best time at Sephora. I am so glad I decided to DIY. I am going for natural, but pretty and polished.

So anywho - long story short, I tried out my makeup today. Oh? You want a photo? Here ya go.

{Check out those relaxed curls - that my friends is what comes from sleeping in your wedding hairdo. Brunch attendees, expect to see this same hair style then.}

6 days and counting!

2009-06-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

Well - I picked up the fiance last night, and have been going nutso with projects in my blogging absence.

But, I had my hair trial yesterday at the Garage Salon and Spa and was so happy with the results! Of course, being a trial my stylist was quick to start out that it would not be as secure or as finely tuned as it would be on the big day, but she wanted to make sure we were on the same page...and yet I was pretty happy with it!

So happy in fact that I am going to share some photos :)

{Oh yeah - and I got highlights, but they aren't nearly as blonde as they look in the bright sunshine here!}

{See? Still red...no worries.}

Anywho - Yay! Things are getting exciting around here!

As I type this I am copying our readings for our readers (whoops, prolly should have done that a while ago) and the FH is upstairs folding and cutting programs, as my mom scurries to make her house as loving and warm (read: sparklingly clean and well scented, via Yankee Candle) as humanly possible for out wedding party guests and the brunch following the wedding.

6 days - wow.

More Photos!

2009-05-26T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hooray for a FSIL who loves me enough to take her valuable time to get together all the photo edits on our high school engagement picture shoot! I got them in the mail today (along with 8 million other wedding related items - it was like Christmas) and thought I would share a bunch, while I decide which ones to include in our Blurb guestbook.

Enjoy!

{cheese. i know.}

{taking him to the principal's office. uh oh.}

{the cafeteria... our relationship had defining moments here, lol}

{the auditorium, where our relationship really started}

Hope you enjoyed the glance!

Wedding Jewelry!

2009-05-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

I have been on a quest for wedding jewelry for quite some time. With the date change up and the chaos that ensued, however, it kind of fell by the wayside.

When I got to Wisconsin I suddenly realized - I have no jewelry to wear.

I set out on the town of Eau Claire looking for something that mixed pearls and "sparkle" be it diamonds, rhinestones, whatever (I didn't really care so long as it included pearls and some sort of "sparkle").

I scoured the mall and found, well, nothing. Being a girl from the south I am used to tons of pearl options, but apparently the pearl craze is just beginning here.

{Detour: At one store I witnessed a girl my age, a teacher, getting her first strand of pearls. So cute. The saleslady was commenting how when she started working there 10 years ago, no one wanted pearls, but suddenly it just ramped up...I think I may have helped the girl more than the saleslady, but I digress.}

In any case, I was looking for something with pearls and sparkles because I have been dropping hints for months that I would love, love, love these earring jackets that I saw at Spencer's Jewelers for a wedding present from the FH.

What is an earring jacket you may be asking? Something along the lines of this:

{This shows a diamond solitaire earring in the middle, whereas I would put my pearls in the middle.}

I fell in love with them around...um, November, but the FH contended that I had received enough jewelry that year to last me for quite some time {engagement ring, wedding ring, pearl drop necklace...sigh...he was probably right}.

So I let them fall by the wayside for Christmas, but like I said above have been dropping hints about them for a wedding gift.

In any case, while I have no idea if I will actually receive them wedding day, but I wanted to coordinate jewelry to match just in case, and hey if all else fails, I wanted to like it just as much, without spending as much.

Enter Etsy. Whew, how Etsy and its wonderful vendors have served me time and time again.

Considering that we have, ahem, 3 weeks to the wedding, I was sure that I wouldn't be able to get anything in time.

I was looking for simple, classic and lovely. I fell in love with many necklace designs, but worried that they would be too much when combined with earrings, a hair flower and a veil. That is a lot of accessories.

Like this one from luxedeluxe

{Truth be told, this one was a close contendor anyway for being purchased, but since her maker is located in edinburgh, scotland - there was no way to get her here in time, while remaining cost effective. sad day.}

Luckily, I found another design that was simple and that I also loved and whose designer was willing and able to work within my tight schedule. Enter EricaBapst and her lovely design "My one and only" {how appropriate, non?}

and look! Matching earrings!

I convo'd Erica and let her know the situation and she let me know that she would have them in the mail to me within 24 hours of my purchase. Go Erica.

So folks, there it is, the winning jewelry.

I will try not to be too sad if I end up not wearing those earrings ;)

Travel Bags for the Maids!

2009-05-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

So I lied again. Invitations are not my next post because I have yet to take pictures of them all completed.

Instead I will feature the lovely (if I do say so myself) travel bags that I send to my Maids.

(mainly because one of my lovely maids, VM, already took a photo of hers and posted it online, thanks lady!)

Here they are:

{If you are wondering about the double monogram it is because VM is ultra-chic and has a hyphenated last name...which her husband also took as his last name. Swanky, right?}

I filled the bags with finds from the travel section at Target, and attached that little bow with a safety pin, in case it was not everyone's preferred style (and for easier washing).

I also attached the little poem to the upper right hand handle that said:

"Because you are a maid and friend,
One that is amazing and oh so dear,
I decided to show my thanks and send
These travel treats to get you here!
{Wisconsin that is}
Enjoy!"

{It's no Whitman, but I think it got the point across :)}

Our Ceremony

2009-05-20T22:39:00.000-07:00

Last week I was finally able to make it to St. Charles Borromeo to meet with Deacon Kinnick about our wedding ceremony!

and finally see the church in person...check it out:

{gorgeous! [and it better be for what we are paying]}

In any case, it was lovely to actually meet the man who will be marrying us and to plan out all of our ceremony details. As a little preview, here is a summary of the readings that we chose, and order of our Catholic Service Outside of the Mass (because the FH is not Catholic we are having a service outside of the mass meaning basically that communion will not be served).

I. Introductory Rite

Processional
Greeting
Opening Prayer

II. Liturgy of the Word

First Reading Genesis 2: 18-24
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 340
Second Reading Ephesians 5: 2a 21-33 (If you know me you may be surprised at this choice, but I swear the explanation is fabulous...and the FH was adamantly against Corinthians)
Gospel Acclamation 1John 4:12
Gospel Matthew 7:21, 24-29
Homily
Rite of Marriage
Unity Candle (my sister will sing)
General Intercessions
Nuptial Blessing

III. Concluding Rite

Final Blessing
Dissmissal
Recessional

All in all it should take about 40 minutes, which granted is longer than some wedding ceremonies, but is much shorter than an entire Catholic Mass. All of the paperwork has made it through not only St. Joseph's in Athens, but the Atlanta Tribunal and the La Cross authorities and finally to our church.

Whew! We are pegging away at things one little bit at a time. Next up, Invitations!

hey! remember me?

2009-05-14T19:47:00.000-07:00

I am still here! Working diligently on wedding projects, I swear to you, though I have not blogged one bit.

In the meantime I was worrying about graduating and getting from Georgia to Wisconsin!

{this is me with our fabulous faculty, minus the equally fabulous Dr. E}

Oh yeah! and printing, assembling and mailing our invitations; sending my bridesmaids travel bags; picking up my dress; ordering veils; spray painting vases for centerpieces; painting our card box; crafting my own flower hair fascinator; trying to find a new cake lady (since ours can't change for our new date) and setting up appointments with every vendor in town.

Updates to come!

Here we go...

2009-05-04T10:16:00.001-07:00

Ready everyone? New wedding date: June 12, 2009.

Join me won't you? (in going insane, that is)

Get ready for a marathon of projects.

Reframe

2009-05-01T06:10:00.000-07:00

Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.

Robert Schuller

There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

Washington Irving

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.

Epictetus

If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

Winston Churchill

In counseling (of which I have had but a very small amount of training) they have a technique called the reframe. It is a way of looking at your present situation in a different light, something manageable.

I am reframing all over the place.

The support and love from all of our friends and family members and everyone who has commented on this blog is overwhelming and in that love and understanding I feel blessed to have such people around me. It is reaffirming to know that I have friends that will say things like:

"The important thing at the end of the day is that you will be married, and that is so much bigger than this."

"Whenever, wherever you guys decide to get married I will be there."

"I am sure whatever you guys come up with will be amazing, whenever it ends up being. You're both incredibly resourceful people and I'm confident your wedding will come off without a hitch. I just know it."

"Don't worry about us. I know you must feel like you are putting a lot of people out, but don't even worry about it. We all love you so much and just want to be there with you to share your special day. It has been a long time coming and I would jump on a plane tomorrow if you decided you needed to elope in Vegas."

This will not overcome my happiness at marrying my best friend. This will not overcome the blessings in my life that I should be celebrating right now, including these wonderful people who are my friends.

Thank you all for your support and reassurance, but most of all for your trust and generosity in allowing us to make the decision that is best for us.

We love you all.

Updates to come.

The Navy Strikes Again

2009-04-30T10:28:00.000-07:00

While I have just had an internal argument with myself about posting this, I have decided to go ahead and do so as my original intent with this blog was to have a venue to express all of my feelings with this wedding planning process.

First, to all of my friends and family reading this who have committed to being at our wedding, have made travel plans, put down deposits, bought bridesmaids dresses, etc. I apologize for the manner in which you are first receiving this news, but I just found out less than an hour ago and am still trying to emotionally decide what to do with this.

Writing helps me figure these things out, so I promise that you will get a phone call tonight from us with further condolences to you, but I thank you in advance for your graciousness and understanding in granting me this one moment to be selfish and figure things out for me.

So here it is: the Navy has said No.

No to our wedding
No to our dreams and plans
No to the wedding dress I have bought, but not even been able to try on
No to allowing us to start in this career happy and settled
No to all of our feelings and
No to our pleading on behalf of us and our family and everyone's financial contributions

They have directed my husband to be to report to his ship, somewhere in the world, at the end of June. This of course, is before our date of July 17th.

My heart is on pause right now. I have cried more in the last hour than I have in the last few years combined. My head, though, I cannot stop my head. I have so many questions.

Why, when we asked specifically not to be assigned to a ship deploying so soon were we assigned to one that was deploying well before even graduation?
Why is this happening to us?
Why didn't I see this coming?
Why did I allow myself to believe that this would all work out so easily last week? The fall would not have been as far if I wouldn't have let myself be so high on the tentative good news
What do we do?
Do we push it up?
Do we wait until he returns in October?
Do we postpone the big wedding and secretly run to the courthouse?
Should we have been planning for that all along?

The one thing that I am not questioning is whether or not we will be married. We will. I am secure in that.
But when? and how?

I know that this may seem silly to some, but the fact is - these are my feelings. They don't need to make sense to anyone but me.

And I am feeling a lot. I feel like all of the time and effort that I have spent planning has been for naught. I feel like this is unfair, and I feel angry. And I wonder if this is a lesson from a greater power than me that I was putting too much emphasis on this one day, or a lesson for some other reason that I do not yet understand. And if this is a lesson about my priorities, or supposed to be, I feel indignant, and that this is so unfair.

This is US. This is not the millions of other couples out there who are not right for each other, or who will end up divorced in two years, this is him and me. The high school sweethearts. The people who have loved each other for so long, and believed in that love, and worked for that love, even when it has been hard, and are ready to pledge to continue doing that until we breathe our last breaths. Why? Why? WHY?

The problem is that I am an action person - I feel the need to do something about this. Sitting around being heartbroken is not my style. Life is tough - get a helmet right? I know that too.

Before the [still] future husband even left his lunch break and our crying session on the couch to go back to school I had already emailed our venue, our church and our photographer seeing what we can do about changing dates, moving deposits and what dates are available. But what else can I do?

There is literally nothing I can do right now. We need to make these decisions, we need to work together to figure out a plan. We will do so. Please believe that we are going to work on this and figure out a solution that we think will be in the best interest of us and all of the people that we love.

"They" say that the hardest job in the military is being a spouse to those in it. And I know, I know that this is just the beginning - but this is what hurts now. Not only do I have to say goodbye to all of the hours of planning that I have done, and to our beautiful summer evening wedding, but I also have to say goodbye to my fiance.

He will not be there with me as we transition into our new life in Norfolk.
He will not be there with me on the day that should have been the happiest day of our lives.
He will be gone.
He will be gone and I don't know what to do with that.

At the moment I am going to take a cue from one of my most beloved literary characters, Katie Scarlett O'Hara (Hamilton Kennedy Butler) and think about that tomorrow. Some may call that denial, I call it coping and compartmentalizing.

Thanks for listening. Or reading. Or whatever. (and for excusing any and all grammar mistakes)

Updates to come - eventually.

It's looking up

2009-04-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

As you may remember I have a teeny little problem with the ceilings at our venue - I hate them.

I mean, I don't just hate these particular ceilings, I hate drop ceilings in general. I am not discriminating against our specific venue's ceilings.

Anywho, I have been thinking and thinking and thinking about what to do to create these panels to hang from the ceiling.

Professional ceiling drapery? checked it - over 2 grand just to come out to our venue. Nope.

Gossamer? checked it - possible option, but we used it during sorority recruitment so much and I always said there would be no tulle or gossamer at my wedding, lest my guests or I think they were about to be serenaded and dirty rushed.

Raw fabric? checked it - heavy, lots of sewing, and effort and expensive and effort. I mean, I am trying to graduate here and that = papers galore.

What was I going to do?

A fortunate phone call from my mother came that day;

Mom: "I was thinking," she said, "Why don't we just buy curtains?"

Me: "Curtains, you say? hmmm. Wait! I JUST saw some awesome white curtains on a blog I stalk This Young House!!!!! Mom, you are a genius!"

Mom: "Blog? what is a blog? ohhhhh like that thingie you write...wah wah wah wah wah..."

Yes ladies and ~~gentlemen~~ {ha, jk, no guys read this blog}, we will be using these lovely curtains from Ikea.

At $9.99 for a pair of panels - 98.5" x 57" each.

Considering the size of each panel, and that a spot for a dowel is already sewn in on one end, and that Ikea is so awesome that they include iron-on hemming strips in all of their curtain packages for the other end, they are the answer of my dreams.

Ok, maybe not my dreams, but they are pretty darn close.

Whew. One ceiling issue solved. Now for the other.

Our Venue is laid out in 6 almost equal sections. Kind of like this:

Each section is divided out by a soffit and tables will be placed in the side sections, the bar has a lovely ceiling above it that doesn't call for any decorating.

Based on the design that the Women of the Moose {for serious} decorated with at Christmas time, each of these sections will be adorned with panels in a pattern much like this {I think}:

Of course the panels are white, not blue.

But, we don't know what to put in the center! I have thought about tons of those strands of flowers that you saw everywhere in weddings last year, or clusters of paper lanterns, or both, or even doing something only over the dance floor.

Le sigh. What to do, what to do. Any grand ideas out there?

pssssssst...

2009-04-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

wanna know a secret?

I know you do.

The J.Crew shipment came.

And while the shoes from the crew are lovely - the fiance thinks they look "too everyday" and likes the Kate Spades more.

{picture me here doing a quiet victory dance the second he turns his back, and again later in the shoes...my shoes...my wedding shoes!}

The choice is made.

Photos to come with my next pedicure.

Some craziness...

2009-04-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

So there has been a sort of lack of "actual" posts lately - and for that I offer you this explanation.

Times have been a little tough around our household lately and I didn't want to address it until I had an answer, hence the 'surface-y' posts. You see, the FH is an officer in the Navy. Yup, the United States Navy.

While I graduate in approx. 16 days, he graduates at the end of the month from Supply School. And up until Friday we had little to no idea where he was going to be stationed, or when he had to report. And we have a wedding in three months. Getting an idea of where this is going?

{Some of you may think that we are crazy for even gambling and planning this wedding when we knew this would be up in the air, but if you are interested in that rationale, that is enough fodder for an entire post on its own.}

After a very stressful weekend - knowing the ship - but not the ship schedule, we have finally reached a point where we can breathe a little sigh of relief.

We found out over the weekend that his ship is deploying this week. For 6 months.

At first, I was elated. Clearly, this meant that he would not have to report until well after our wedding.

But, that is not the case. Because he hasn't graduated, he doesn't need to go on deployment right now - but they won't hesitate in flying him out to meet the ship once he does.

Now I must admit we have some lovely people in our network of family and friends who have been helping us to figure this whole thing out and someone was able to reach out to the FH's future supervisor and ascertain some information faster than we would have been able to on our own. The result?

His new supervisor actually went through a similar situation when she was getting married last year, and is willing to do what she can to ensure the FH does not miss his own wedding {insert sigh of relief here}.

Now, this is not all peaches and cream, but we also know that we will make it work.

It seems as if the schedule will look like this: the FH will have to report to home port {Norfolk} in June to get some helicopter qualifications and things, get married July 17th, and then within days, maybe even the Monday after the wedding, he will be flown out to meet the ship somewhere in Africa and be gone until sometime in the fall.

This is clearly not the 'honeymoon' that we were hoping for, but it is definitely not the end of the world. We knew that the Navy would throw us hurdles in life and this just happens to be our first one. Worse things have happened. Of course all of this is still subject to change until he has written orders in hand, but we are pretty assured that this is going to be the reality.

We are trying to look at this in the best way possible and the silver lining is that we will get to have the wedding that the two of us want - and when he gets back we will go on a killer honeymoon. To be honest it kind of makes me feel a little like a WWII bride with my new husband flying off to serve his country, though he doesn't think that it is that exciting {haha}.

So that has been what is going on with me, and probably why my motivation has been a little lacking. But, from here on out, it is full steam ahead, so hop on board and get excited for all the news to come!

3 Months!

2009-04-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

Exactly 3 months to the wedding!!!

I am hoping that this special day will send good luck our way, in terms of a big announcement from the Navy that we are getting today!

Guess what...

2009-04-16T16:41:00.000-07:00

...arrived today? I'll give you a hint.

They came with their very own bag that looks like this:

and they are cute. Very cute.

Reserving judgment until the J.Crew shipment comes in.

Giving In...

2009-04-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

As previously mentioned my family has been having issues with purchasing gifts {or will...if they feel so inclined to, you know}.

So the FH and I gave in and headed over to set up another registry this weekend.

Our choice?

That's right folks, we gave in and headed to ' that french store' as my dad would say {pronounced tar-jay}.

We decided that it would be best to go ahead and set this up so that folks can head somewhere easily in town and pick up a gift. Unfortunately they only carry ONE appliance that is the same as the one that we registered for at Bed Bath & Beyond {le sigh} so for the most part it is all new stuff.

Our registry only has a total of like 45 items on it, because Target, while wonderful in almost every other aspect, has an awful return policy {as in you can't return anything, even for store credit, without a receipt...granted this is because people were screwing them over big time...but still}.

So we only registered for things that we knew that we wouldn't return if someone bought them for us, because most of the items are things we had been talking about buying ourselves. Fun things, such as: a fireproof safe, nicer sheets for the guest bed, and a cooler. Oh, and a small TV that the FH wants {he was having a rough day}.

While this doesn't give folks much wiggle room, it wouldn't be at all practical to register for more everyday dishes, as we already have some from Pottery Barn, and it also wouldn't be practical for us to register for things that we don't like as much as the stuff already on our list elsewhere.

We did, however, register for gift cards as well. Yay! We know that we will use those as we practically live in Target, even if we don't use them toward registry items {read: cleaning supplies, birthday cards and shampoo}.

I still think I am going to try and persuade my mom to be an advocate for Macy's with the family. There is one in the area, and it is only because people thing is is "la-ti-da" {to directly quote my mom...granted the other anchor stores in the mall are Sears, JCPenney's and Dick's Sporting Goods} that they won't buy anything from there. I would REALLY love for people in the area to at least give it a try. We split up all of our china into individual pieces, rather than sets, to make it a much more affordable purchase...but we will see. We also have some pretty affordable bowls and kitchen utensils there.

Who knew that registering would be so intense?

Pre Cana

2009-04-16T10:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I promised a recap on Pre Cana, so here it is!

The fiance and I headed to Atlanta a few weeks ago to complete the course. Naturally, there was construction and traffic at 7:45 am on a Saturday {naturally.} so we were running a little late. We cut it close, but only ended up being about 5 minutes late to arrive at the Catholic Center...luckily another couple ran in right behind us, and the other future wife and I gave each other looks that said, "Thank goodness we are not the only ones late!"

We headed into a room that was filled with other couples at long rectangle tables, just in time to hear the introductions and say our first of many prayers throughout the day. {We later calculated just how much the Catholic Center made on the Pre Cana class that day at $110 per couple, but I digress.

Each couple was given a folder and pencils so that we could keep organized through our activities of the day. A deacon from Atlanta and a Catholic couple that had been married for 30 years and had 5 grown children were our primary facilitators for the morning. Coming from a student affairs profession and mindset I cringed a lot through the day during the moments where they would ask for participation and no one would volunteer, or there were activities that could have been done in a much better way.

First, as a group we set goals for our session {one couple's contribution "How to solve an argument" - really?}. Throughout the morning they would pretty much introduce us to a topic through role play or some other means and then have us turn and talk about it, or do a short activity, with our spouse...and then someone would be asked to share. All very routine, and I was at least glad that they didn't make us talk about it with any of the other couples {As we say in student affairs, it was all very "challenge by choice"}.

The topics ranged from household roles and responsibilities, to how many kids we wanted, communication and argument styles {which clearly should be retitled to the more appropriate conflict management and resolution}. The FH and I were of course willing to engage in these discussions, but have already had them many, many times. When you have been dating for almost nine years, and one spouse is being trained in a very counseling heavy field, these things come up. No new surprises, I am happy to report. It was kind of hilarious to overhear other couples in close range though; "FIVE kids?!?! You want to have FIVE KIDS?!"

Pretty soon we took a much needed lunch break off site, to any of the area restaurants {nope, that $110 did not include lunch}. After we headed back nice and sleepy from large lunches, they pulled out the big guns.

Natural Family Planning and Finances.

Our cute married couple and deacon left and they brought in an instructor in NFP. I thought that the information was great, and learning more about the process and procedure was super interesting, {much more scientific in approach than I had previously thought}but I just don't think it is for us. The men in the room, on the other hand, for the most part looked around at each other squirming in their seats when certain words were repeated over and over again.

The last woman was a CPA whose finance presentation really was great. She gave us great tips for laying out a family budget and saving for the future. She did bring in a whole part about tithing a third of our income, but other than that it was very straightforward and informative.

That was it.

Do either of us think that this was the greatest session ever? No. But, neither of us felt like it was a waste of time either. It was a good day for us to focus on the fact that we are getting married, and a lifelong relationship comes after the wedding, which is where - let's face it - a lot of our energy has been going lately.

All in all, it was a step in the right direction and a check in the box to get the necessities done.

Tonight we have our FOCCUS test and meeting with the Deacon here in Athens at St. Joeseph. We will let you know how it goes!

I have been productive...

2009-04-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

...and doing my part to stimulate the economy.

Saturday I bought:

20 of these

50 of these

{to be sprayed copper, of course}

and today I bought:

these

and these

and this

{possible Rehearsal dress!}

A Wedding Resolution

2009-04-11T05:15:00.000-07:00

{indulge the SGA geek in me}

WHEREAS, there are approximately 97 days until the wedding ceremony and reception; and

WHEREAS, the bride continues to look at wedding blogs and search for inspiration; and

WHEREAS, the bride is beginning to wake up in cold sweats from wedding nightmares of tasks uncompleted; and

WHEREAS, the bride needs to buckle down and actually make headway and decisions on the details and vendors for her wedding; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the bride will reign in her need to seek out inspiration from the internet; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the bride will make decisions and stick to them; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the bride will book her last few vendors; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the bride will complete her to do list including ordering her shoes and veils, printing and mailing invitations, ordering vases and lanterns, and any and all tasks that remain without losing her mind or driving her fiance crazy; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the bride will remember that this blessed event is about marrying the love of her life and celebrating that love with all of the people who love them...and will not come screeching to a halt if the '&' on the wedding invitations is flat printed, rather than hand embossed.

Some of our Favorites

2009-04-09T10:18:00.001-07:00

Here is a look at some of our favorite shots from our session with Alyssa that didn't make her sneak peek!

99 Red Balloons...

2009-04-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

One for each day between now and our wedding!

That's right folks, we are under 100 days until tying the knot {someone hand me a paper bag to breathe into please}. I know that I promised you a recap of Pre Cana...and would have given it to you sooner, but a couple of huge class projects, and trying to figure out where the Navy will send us have put a kink in my schedule.

So for now, I will leave you with this...

Because we also got our photos back from Alyssa!

Pre-Cana

2009-04-04T04:23:00.000-07:00

We are headed to Atlanta this morning to participate in our Pre-Cana workshop...and swinging by Paper Source on the way home to pick up invitation pieces!

Details to come!

Your daily dose of cute

2009-04-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

{here, via here}

Bombarded by Photos

2009-04-03T08:41:00.000-07:00

I got an email from Alyssa the other day saying that our DVD full of images is ready and on the way to us! As tired as I am of looking at photos of myself (I can only imagine what it will be like with the actual wedding photos) I am super excited and can't wait to share them with you all!

For now though I am going to share some shots of our wedding bands. (And no sadly, those are not our invitations they were laying on in the previous teaser shot...as our invitations haven't actually been printed yet...I'll get back to that later.) Anywho, I took these shots using the ever popular Anne Ruthmann tutorial and some time I had available to waste...not that I claim to be any good at this, but you know.

Enjoy!

Purchase(s)!

2009-04-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

Since the semester is winding down I have TONS of work to do for school, as well as the wedding, so naturally I am going to take some of my precious time to blog. (procrastinator? who, me?)

In any case, we have made a couple wedding related purchases lately and got some GREAT deals! Woo! I couldn't wait to share.

First, this little lovely birdcage, from Hobby Lobby, bought at 50% off. This will be our card box at the wedding.

It is a sort of antiqued copper in the sense that it looks like it was copper but aged to green...naturally this is all faux, so I bought some copper acrylic paint to add to it and make it a little less aged...I will be sure to get you an after picture when I have had some time to actually do the project. {Ha!}

The next two purchases come from a relatively unexpected place - the Dollar Tree. Seriously.

I got these great Shepherd Hooks, which will be used to hang lanterns in a path down to the dock at the reception.

and - remember this picture?

from this post?

Well, ever since I saw this, I have been looking for candle holders like these ones, and guess what I found at the Dollar Tree?

Woo! They are not as wide as the ones from that picture, but still wide enough to hold some pearls and a white tea light candle, rather than a floating candle size like in the inspiration picture.

I was able to pick up a couple in the store here to make sure that I liked them, and then my mom walked into her DT and they had 100 available for purchase right then and there...so we (she) bought them! I am pretty excited, though not really looking forward to peeling all those stickers off of the bottoms.

I am getting so excited!

More teasing -

2009-03-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

- because I have homework {and a possible job to apply for, eek!}, else I would share all of these with you now.

But, a long time ago I promised shots of wedding bands.

I took some.

And they are coming to you shortly.

Due to popular demand...

2009-03-30T12:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some more shots, that didn't need editing to share, from our session with Haley:

{love}

Such a Tease...

2009-03-29T15:22:00.000-07:00

As I previously mentioned, the FH's sister - Maid Haley who threw me my awesome shower - took some photos of us at our Alma Mater, Great Bridge. At the shower, she gave me two discs chalk full of some awesome shots {like 300} and told me to pick out which ones we liked for her to edit.

We are currently catching up on the DVR and going through them...

BUT, in the spirit of generosity {or perhaps vanity}, I thought I would show you one of our faves...before edit:

Happy Sunday!

Today's Dilemma

2009-03-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

Lately I have realized that I have been putting off making decisions about my attire, beyond the dress, on the day of the wedding. It is time to buckle down.

I know I want Navy shoes. For a long time, I have wanted THESE Navy shoes:

This is the Kate Spade Gali Shoe. I have loved them for a long time.

Sadly, they are still $351.00.

The green ones have gone down in price, but of course, not the blue.

I have a hard time rationalizing this purchase, even though I love them so much - but when else in life will I be able to rationalize this price on shoes?? All of the comments say how comfortable they are, and that they also ordered them for their weddings (in white and ivory, mostly). Even the fiance has sanctioned the purchase...so why do I still hesitate? (Probably because I have an ongoing wedding budget in my head).

Today, I stumbled across these lovelies from J.Crew:

The Nicolette strappy heel.

These babies are $188.00, but there are promos often enough which could make them an even better deal. They are a quarter of an inch higher than the Kate Spade's...which may make a difference in a 12+ hour day. But, I may be able to get more use out of them after the wedding.

There are also some more options on Zappos, mostly from a brand 'rsvp' that all range from $65.00-$79.00. They are cute, but the reviews don't seem to be that great regarding comfort...and they are all something that I feel like I would buy for any-day wear. I don't know that they would make me feel all that 'bridal'.

So here is the dilemma - do I go with the dreamy bridal shoes, the practical midrange, or the cute, but not comfortable, affordables? (I feel a little like those people on House Hunters must, when the host boils their choices down to select catch phrases).

P.S. I could also always order them all and see what I like best in person? Who has ordered from Zappos?

Engagement Celebrations

2009-03-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

I realized lately that I never posted about our engagement party back in November, and since we were lucky enough to have another engagement celebration in March, I figured I would go ahead and combo them up!

To start, our engagement party in November. My lovely FMIL hosted this gala at her home and decorated it beautifully - her theme was 'light' and I wish I had more pictures of the hundreds of candles and lanterns that made the party glow. The food, the friends, the...um...chocolate martinis, all were wonderful. ;)

Here we are with our appropriately decorated champagne glasses...

and the result of having drank the champagne, and maybe a few chocolate martinis...

{I swear the party was winding down and there were not too many people there to witness this sort of behavior ;) }

Next up was a youthful night of dinner and debauchery with our friends in Norfolk, courtesy of Best Man Corey!

He planned a lovely dinner at a restaurant in downtown Byrd and Baldwin Brothers Steakhouse. He even reserved the private dining room downstairs!

Here is the whole crowd around our table, courtesy of our server

{That's us! Waaay down at the head of the table}

Here we are!

{Excuse the pale face as I was just getting over being sick...in fact my fever didn't really break until later that night - but I still had a great time!}

The food and drinks were delicious...no joke it was probably the most melt in my mouth steak I have ever had. After we were all finished we headed upstairs where the hostess was kind enough to take this group shot!

We then hit the streets and headed out to some clubs on Granby Street! We swung through Guadalajara, Scotty Quixx and finally settled at a table at Baxter's where we closed the place down.

{Hey ladies! My fever broke! Time to celebrate!}

We had an awesome time at both celebrations and are so grateful that this preparation process gives us another excuse to hang out with our friends and have a great time!

I have been showered!

2009-03-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I headed up to Virginia for a lovely bridal shower thrown by my FSIL and Maid Haley:

{all photo credits to people other than me, since I forgot my camera}

There is a lovely write up courtesy of my friend Jessica on her blog, so I am just going to share a couple of my favorite pictures and my feelings on the day.

I'm not gonna lie, I was a little apprehensive about this shower. Don't get me wrong... I love bridal showers! But, I have never been the one getting showered.

Besides, the part I was most worried about was opening up gifts in front of people. I haven't done that since I was probably ten years old at a birthday party and was having irrational worries {What will I say?? If I keep saying thank you is that redundant?? or sufficient??} I braved the concerns though and have to say that I had so much fun and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

It was so wonderful to be surrounded by all of that love, especially from some guests who I hadn't been able to see in so long! The entire day I simply felt so blessed to have such gracious and {seriously} generous people in my life who are genuinely excited for us to embark upon our married life. So I just want to take a second to say thank you to all of you who made me feel so loved, including those who were with me in spirit though they couldn't be there in person.

Here are a few pics!

{The lovely ladies Jessica and Haley}

{The proof of my seriously generous friends}

Yay! I am starting to feel like a real bride!

Preview!

2009-03-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

The wonderful Alyssa Alig sent me an email today that was happily awaiting my arrival in Virginia.

She is 'ahead of schedule' and has our preview up on her blog {!!!!}

Alyssa, I love you. Truly, madly deeply. This just made my day!

Click here for the full preview.

Just Kidding!

2009-03-20T05:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I am officially lame-o, as I couldn't even follow through with another update last night...

BUT

it was because our engagement pics with Alyssa ran long (yay! more pictures for us!) and THEN I had the opportunity to celebrate Champagne Thursday with two bridesmaids in town.

So - I was doing wedding related things! (rationalize, rationalize, rationalize).

In any case, I have TONS of updates for you all...since the last blog there have been two engagement photo sessions, a rocking engagement dinner, we finally settled on an invitation design, and this weekend is my first bridal shower in Virginia!

The camera batteries are charged and ready to go for my trip, so expect to see some pics as soon as I can upload 'em!

A Public Apology

2009-03-19T08:37:00.001-07:00

Dear Faithful Friends and Readers,

I know. I am sorry.

I will be back soon.

Like tonight soon.

Love,

Me

Trying to Accomodate

2009-02-27T17:29:00.000-08:00

A large issue with our wedding planing has been the accommodations for our guests, which I naively thought would be so easy! Call a few hotels, book a couple of rooms, score a discount, bada bing bada boom, scratch it off the list.

Well unfortunately, we seem to have chosen the same weekend for the wedding as "Rock Fest" - a huge summer music festival in the area. We thought that we would be safe since the festival is in Cadott and we are in Chippewa Falls, but boy were we mistaken.

At first we were kind of bummed when the hotels we were calling said that we could block rooms, but that they couldn't give us a discount because it was one of their most sold out weekends of the year, but we understood.

We recently found out though, that some of the hotels in the area are also tacking on a one time 9% service charge - just for that weekend. Oy.

The FH husband and I realized from the beginning that many of our family and friends would have to travel to make it to our nuptials, but that would have been true for any location that we could have chosen, so we intentionally went to where the most people would not have to travel (my family) and where we thought it would be most cost effective for out-of-towners to stay.

At this point there isn't much that we can do, except suggest more places to lodge. My family has, however, graciously thrown open their homes to allow people who need to to stay with them, free of charge. My first priority is the bridal party, followed by any friends and family whose decision to come or not come will be based on the finances (and with times like these whose won't be?)

What tasks did you think would be no-hassle that ended in you working to welcome your guests?

Extra E-pics!

2009-02-25T20:42:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but my FSIL is a photographer. Seriously.

What a major hook up - right? Wrong. I don't want her working on our wedding day! I want her standing next to me as a bridesmaid able to enjoy the moments, not worrying about capturing them.

There is another way that she can put her awesome skills to use, however, and I am SO excited to share that with you all!

You see, the FH and I originally met and fell in love in high school.

{yes, that is actually our high school}

Since we graduated (way back in 2002) there have been many changes in administration and school district zoning, but I had alway thought that it would be kind of cool to head back there some day.

As I was thinking about locations for our engagement pictures I began to think how awesome it would be to be able to have access to a high school setting (like this photo shoot from the incredible Anne Ruthmann) since that would be so us. But what school, in this day and age of safety and security nightmares, would let us in?

Turns out, our school will! On a whim I shot off an email to the new principal of our alma mater explaining our situation and the one weekend that both the FH and I, along with his sister would be back in our old stomping grounds. This morning she emailed me back saying that she was more than happy to help us in our endeavor. Success!

We are all so excited to get to head back to our hallowed halls, and I am even more so because now we will get two engagement photo sessions in places that have meant so much to us as a couple - where we began, and where we first lived our lives together, as just us.

Did you take engagement photos in any unusual places that had sentimental value?

Dressing the Hot Mamas

2009-02-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

One of the hardest people to dress for the wedding is definitely going to be my mom. It's not that my mom is not beautiful, or lovely...or a nudist. Ha!

See, when I am a mother of a bride...someday...waaaay down the road, I hope to wear something like this little number

{via Nordstrom}

My mom, on the other hand has much different tastes than me, which not only stems from the lovely person that she is, but a very different body type as well (which include some desirable curves that my sister and I joke we split between us). She used to dress up quite a bit as an officer's wife, for balls and such, but since dad's retirement and her career as a preschool teacher took off she has relaxed into a much more comfy repertoire.

She first tried to argue for a nice pair of black pants and cute top, but after realizing that she would not only be standing next to my dad in a tux, but also my brother and her new son in law, besides my sister and I in fancy schmancy dresses, she conceded defeat. I, for one, was envisioning her in something much more like this

{via Nordstrom}

I begged her to go look at some dresses and just see what she could find, and am so proud that she went outside her comfort zone on her search to find something appropriate! My mother clearly loves me very much :)

She and my grandmother headed to Minneapolis to drop my sister off at the airport, and took advantage of the situation to drop by the Mall of America!

My mother, who loves comfort and hasn't enjoyed shopping for herself since she has had children to shop for, spent the entire day trying on dresses at stores like Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, and Macy's. She told me all about it on the phone today and I can only imagine what some of those lovely frocks were like (including one covered in feathers, which is so not my mom)!

She ended up bringing one option home, and I could tell from the tone of her voice that she feels pretty confident and excited about her choice, but has decided to keep her eyes open for now. I love that she put so much effort into finding something and is having fun during this planning process too, even though we are so far away from one another. I feel like this is the one of the first glimmers of pure fun and excitement that I have seen from my normally stoic and super-planner mom.

Did your mom have fun planning with you? Did you have fun planning with your mom?

Friends with your Vend...ors

2009-02-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

Originally, the FH and I were planning on picking up our wedding bands yesterday. Since the Mr. spent so much time with the Spencers designing my wedding band, we have been back in the shop many times since September. Even my lovely Christmas present was purchased there. {We are pretty brand loyal people in general, but when there are such nice people involved you can't pull us away!}

The Spencers know us by name and always make a concerted effort to keep up with wedding plans and are just such nice people. We have recommended them to so many people in town you would think we are getting a kickback. We rejoiced with them when their son, who will someday take over the management of the business, got married a few weeks back.

Yesterday, however when we pulled up to the familiar storefront we were saddened by a sign on the door that read that they were closed over the weekend due to a family funeral. We both looked at each other and expressed our sadness immediately. Not at not being able to pick up the bands we had been so excited about moments before, but for instead for their family.

As we pulled away, I began to realize how much we sincerely care for this family and it had me wondering; which vendors did you become close with in your planning process?

Post 101!

2009-02-22T17:40:00.000-08:00

Here it is: post one hundred and one!

Spencer's Jewelers called and said both the FH's and my rings are in and ready to be picked up!!

I am so excited!

Expect some pictures of both of our bands tomorrow :)

Back in the saddle!

2009-02-18T19:35:00.000-08:00

So, admittedly, yesterday I kinda freaked.

but after a few of these:

and some lovely and supportive friends - and my especially lovely fiance's - reassurance, I am better now.

I am totally rejuvenated and ready to go - let's get this wedding on!

One thing that helped me feel so much better is the fact that we finally heard back from a church yesterday. {YAY!}

Father Felix from S. Charles Borromeo in Chippewa Falls sent me an email yesterday that sounded positively open to having our wedding ceremony there.

I am so happy, but trying not to get too excited just yet since we are not finalized. It's pretty difficult though because S. Charles was the first church I found and pretty much fell in love with.

My sister also just attended a wedding there - and like any good MOH - took the time to snap some pictures of the inside of the church.

The outside of the church is equally gorgeous and the directions from the church to reception site are easily navigable for all of our guests. Cross your fingers for us so that we can get some awesome shots like this one from Jerry Yoon Photography, via WeddingbeePRO today...

Today Marks...

2009-02-17T14:15:00.000-08:00

...exactly 5 months to our wedding - but even less since February isn't even a whole month!!!

...excuse me while I breathe into a paper bag...

While I feel like I have been steadily knocking things off of the to do list, according to Martha I have only gone from this:

to this:

23??? t-w-e-n-t-y-t-h-r-e-e things??? THAT'S IT?

Granted, quite a few of the things I have been working on are just not completed yet, so I refuse to check them off...but this has me stressed right out.

Anyone else having a minor meltdown?

Making our Get Away

2009-02-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

{Brides.com via Ritzy Bee Blog}

Much like this picture, we will be making our big getaway on a BOAT! When i first started thinking about this idea, I found others who had done the same. Like this getaway from the lovely With This Ring...

{Dear Lorelei, You are gorgeous.}

While I am in love with these pictures, however, I have a sinking feeling that our boat may end up looking more like this:

{only $40 for the day! What a steal! ha.}

I have some uncles and friends of the family in the area who have speed and motor boats who are more than willing to let us use them for free, so I think we may end up going that route, or playing around for a pontoon rental, much like this one...

I keep telling myself that it will be dark anyways, so this is not a priority, but sometimes it is hard to let those grander dreams die. I am pretty sure that this is a common issue for most brides. Did you ever have delusions of grandeur that needed to come back to reality?

Dear Maids,

2009-02-12T13:07:00.001-08:00

I had been thinking about white, and maybe blue...but how do you feel about holding GREEN flowers?

{via Style Me Pretty}

Swoon.

Rehearsal Dinner Spot

2009-02-12T12:44:00.001-08:00

While the FH and I were in Wisconsin, we drove around and were able to ~~visit~~ cross many places off of the possible rehearsal dinner spots for his mom. Some of these spots were just, well, not us.

{Besides the fact that they looked at us like we were crazy for requesting a space for more than 20 people}

Luckily though, we happened to drive by a place that is now our RD location!

Welcome to the High Shores Supper Club!

{isn't it adorably Northwoods-y??}

The best part however, is that it is also on Lake Wissota, and the RD will be out back - where it looks like this

{see that deck up there? to the left?}

{see that lake view? can't you just feel a delicious summer evening upon you?}

{the, um, Busch Beer sign will be coming down}

The food at this place is delicious, or so we have heard, and they are giving our guest the choice of 5 different entrees for a standard price. It was really important to us to have a location that is low-key and relaxed, while being nice at the same time - which is a hard find in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, I won't lie. We really just want a chance to mix and mingle and have fun with our friends.

This venue also offers Champagne Cruises, which would be awesome! {totally unnecessary, but awesome}

The date is booked, and we are ready to go. We are so excited and grateful that my FMIL is so generous and loves celebrating as much as we do!

The only question now is who all gets invited? A huge majority of our guests are coming in from OOT...which could drive up the prices really quickly. The bridal party, FH and I alone make up 18 people, not even including their significant others, or our immediate family!

Who did you invite to your RD?

just because I am excited...

2009-02-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

Check out some of my faves of Jeff's editorial and commercial work...

Photographer Booked!

2009-02-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

Remember way back when in December when I got all indecisive about our photographer?

Well, it is a good thing that I did.

We met with Jeff Thompson, of Jeff Thompson Photography, when we were in Wisconsin over Christmas and immediately fell in vendor-love with him.

His work is fabulous, and while we were all for booking him then and there...he was way more expensive than the other photographers that we had been looking at.

But look at these photos!

After much thoughtful consideration, the FH and I decided that since photography is one of the most important things to us about our wedding day, we would go ahead and splurge on him. Between his attitude and style, he was one of the easier decisions that we have made...though it will be tough to balance the budget a bit.

We sent him word and our happy contract is off in the mail. Consider him booked!

What were your budget priorities?

Once upon a time...

2009-02-06T06:49:00.000-08:00

...I promised you a post about envelope liners from our Maids & Men cards.

Here it is.

To be perfectly honest, I was kind of oblivious to envelope liners before the wedding blog world. I did realize that some envelopes were lined and some were not, but not that you could make your own!

Once I saw this tutorial over on With This Ring, I was pretty much hooked and set off on a quest for the perfect navy and white paper for liners.

I headed to Hobby Lobby, Michael's, and even a few local craft and scrapbooking stores. What did I find? Nothing. Not a single navy and white patterned paper!

After reflecting in disappointment for a few days, I started thinking...why not print my own paper?

So I did.

I opened my favorite program throughout this process, Microsoft Publisher, and simply created a box that would be the right size for my envelope liners, on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper.

Then I simply created a vertical line, with the line drawing tool, and opened the formatting options. I changed the color to the same navy blue as the rest of the card design, and bumped up the style and the weight.

Once I formatted the line the way that I liked, I simply copied and pasted it in a repeating pattern across the box, and made sure to let the lines bleed over the box a little bit. I also made sure to center my first line so that it would hit right at the point of the envelope flap.

I simply printed enough copies right onto normal printer paper and then followed the steps from the envelope liner tutorial.

Finished product looked preppy and clean, which was exactly what I wanted, and cost nothing besides printer ink and paper!

A little tin...

2009-02-03T17:50:00.000-08:00

Between this lovely photo from the talented Rebecca Thuss...

and this lovely photo from Martha Stewart...

...I have been pretty much obsessed with incorporating galvanized vases into the decor of our wedding, but of course instead of bright and shiny silver, in our fabulous accent color of copper!

Turns out finding copper vases for a semi-affordable price has been a pretty big challenge. My quest, however, has finally been fruitful!

I came across the lovely site www.galvanizedpail.com {why it took me so long to find such an obviously named website I will never understand}

In any case, there are a few different options, for affordable sizes, but my mom is super concerned about high centerpieces interrupting the flow of conversations, as have many brides before me.

There is the 5.5" diameter opening vase, which is actually 8.5" high.

These are $2.89 for any less than 48 vases, 48+ are $2.59 each.

{I am not really sure how I feel about the long handle. Meh.}

Then we have the 6.5" diameter opening vase, which is actually 11" high.

These are $3.79 for 1-59 vases, and $3.29 each for 60+ vases.

{I like these handles better, and I am thinking that I could order a large amount and use them both for aisles at the ceremony, and then transport them to the centerpieces for the reception? Maybe? Too much work?}

Lastly there are these 8" diameter opening vases, which are actually 15" high. Super tall.

1-35 of these vases are $6.59 each, and more than 35 are $5.89 each.

{While these are super tall, I secretly yearn for tall centerpieces...}

Clearly I would need to spray all of these copper...but with my trusty spray paint this is no issue.

They would of course be filled with white flowers, and though I have always loved the look of hydrangeas, I am currently in love with each of these options shown by Style Me Pretty earlier today.

{especially those tulips in the top right! Swoon!}

How do you all feel about centerpiece heights? Do high centerpieces annoy you at weddings?

So, it has been a week -

2009-02-02T15:02:00.000-08:00

Since my last post.

I am a bad bride.

Sorry.

In the mean time...

My ladies are now ordering their dresses {yay!}, and I made the trip with my only local maid, here is proof of our trip:

{though this looks close to Navy, it isn't...do not be fooled, K also won my mostfavoritepersonintheworld award that day because she brought me that skinny vanilla latte you see in my happy, happy hand.}

Dressing the Men

2009-01-26T08:46:00.000-08:00

Pretty soon I will introduce you to the lovely people who will be wearing these fabulous clothes, but until then...let's talk about what the men will be wearing.

Ready for a shocker? {she asks with a raised eyebrow}

Tuxes!

Yes, the men will be wearing tuxedos - traditional, classic, tuxedos.

After a recommendation from a couple of people, we decided to head to Men's Wearhouse while we were in Wisconsin to talk over our tux options. I thought it would take a while, we would have the FH put some on, try some variations, etc.

Boy, was I ill-informed.

Just like every other part of this wedding related to men folk, we were in and out in about 15 minutes. Our consultant was super helpful - and very stylishly dressed, might I add - and the decisions were made in no time at all.

Without further ado, the tuxedos that we are going with:

These are the Ralph Lauren Three-Button Super 100's Notch Lapel.
The Super 100's part refers to the weight of the wool, which means that these tuxes will be really lightweight and the best option for men standing out in the heat and hopefully the sunlight.

The vest in this closeup is actually the one that the FH will be wearing at the reception. The tie, if you look closely has stripes on it, and I am not all about mixing patterns, so it will be solid {in his case white} as will the rest of the men's ties {a long tie, not bow tie, much to the dismay of my childhood dreams of a Great Gatsby, white-tie wedding}.

He will be wearing his dress white uniform for the ceremony, but since that thing is white - and so dang expensive - we are not going to chance food or wine being spilled on it while dancing. Therefore, the groom will be a two outfit groom, while I will be a one outfit bride. Ha!

Speaking of uniforms, both of our fathers also served in the military for many years, and we struggled for a while whether or not to have them wear their uniforms, or wear tuxes. Ultimately, we went in favor of the comfort factor and decided that tuxes would be int he best option. Their vests will be in the same pattern as the rest of the men, but in black as shown below, again with the solid black tie.

The groomsmen will be wearing navy vests in the same pattern. I was really nervous about the whole navy and black combo deal, and almost insisted on black vests for everyone, but our consultant assured us that it would be beautiful...and now I believe him. They will wear the vest below, with a solid blue tie {in Marine, which is exactly the color of the bridesmaids dresses}.

{a closeup of the pattern, which is thankfully, subtle and will help the blue and black look smashing together}

Have all of your guy-related choices taken no time at all like ours? Why do they get out so easy?

She has arrived!

2009-01-26T08:27:00.000-08:00

Zarah is in!

Bella Bridal Boutique called my mom to let her know that my dress has arrived...a full 5 months ahead of schedule.

While this would normally be great news for a bride, and it still kinda is for me, but I still don't get to try her on until May! So, while I needed her to arrive before then, this early delivery is kinda killing me.

Maybe it is time to check some plane fares for a weekend trip to Wisconsin ;)

Dressing the Maids

2009-01-24T09:06:00.000-08:00

Shortly after asking all of my lovely ladies to be a part of the big day - and hearing a resounding yes - we started the bridesmaid dress speculation.

I knew that since we are getting married in July, and I will have them traipsing all over for photo ops in the heat that really does exist in Wisconsin summers, we would go with something short.

One of the favorites off the bat was this Jim Hjelm lovely

{I love pockets on a dress! If my dress wouldn't look ridiculous with pockets, I would pay whatever the amount to have them put in. Seriously.}

While everyone loved this dress, we were not all in love with the around $300 price tag.

Fast forward to Christmas. While hanging out with my sister, and MOH, one day we decided to head over to David's Bridal - one of the only wedding wear vendors in Chippewa Falls - to try on some dresses, just to see.

I wasn't really that confident that we would find anything that we would like. {Also, I was secretly hoping not to find anything so that I could start lobbying for J.Crew}

But much to my surprise, we found this little lovely from their new spring line

Cotton sateen, not taffeta, but the same general shape, and hey, it even has pockets!

Of course it will be in Navy, or "Marine" as David's has named it, just like this picture

The dress on the left comes in the same fabric, and to be honest, I am fine with the ladies choosing either one. These dresses come at a much more cost friendly $135.

Another point for these dresses is that we decided to go with Men's Warehouse for our tuxes who recently took over David's tux line, so the vests will exactly match the dresses. While we didn't plan it out that way it will sure be nice that everything will coordinate well :)

My lovely maids have been running around their respective cities snapping photos of themselves in fitting rooms with the dresses on, and I think we have a winner.

What do you all think?

Engagement Photos

2009-01-22T11:30:00.000-08:00

A while back the FH and I were discussing how fun that it would be to have engagement photos taken here in Athens. This town has been very important to us - it is the first place we learned that we could make it, just the two of us; it is the place where we got engaged; not to mention the place where we both have gone to school and made new friends.

At the time, we were considering going with a wedding photographer who included engagement photos, but we aren't anymore {more on that later}. And while our new photographer does engagement photos on the cheap for his couples, he suggested because of timing and scheduling that we have someone outside of Wisconsin do them for us. Smart man.

All in all this means that we get to have our photos taken in Athens! One of my maids, Lindsey, helped me scout out some possible photographers and after contacting a few, we have decided to go with Alyssa Alig Photography. They are great cost wise and release their photo rights, which means that I can use them for our guestbook idea, which is key, plus their images are beautiful.

This husband and wife team sounds so adorable and have been so great in all of our contact thus far. They even have a quote that I love on their website:

"Love is a canvas of many threads, embroidered by the imagination. Let us tell your story."

Here are some examples of their magnificent storytelling

Making it work

2009-01-22T10:58:00.000-08:00

Remember those Kate Spade lovelies that I was drooling over?

In case you don't, and because hey, I love to look at them, here is a photo via zappos

Well, while I could totally rationalize their purchase for a day of such importance, I was still feeling a little guilty about even thinking about purchasing them.

During one of our many breaks while studying for our huge comprehensive exams, I sheepishly admitted both my desire and guilt to my dear friend Kari. This lovely woman, having the same obsession for lovely shoes that many of us suffer from came up with a brilliant plan to raise money for the shoes!

No, I will not be going door to door selling cookies.

Kari suggested that I take advantage of the fact that we live in a college town and the many "gently used" clothing shops that come along with the territory, much like the franchise Plato's Closet. After marvelling at her brillance for a minute, I was sold.

We are going to be moving soon anyway, and let's be honest - I have tons of clothes in my closet that I haven't worn in quite a while - who wants to move all of that to a new location? I may as well make my clothes work for me. Combine that with a little Christmas cash i have set aside and they are practically at my door!

What are the creative ways that you have gotten around your budget busters?

Up Above

2009-01-21T05:41:00.000-08:00

Anyone else have those little things that just annoy them at the back of their mind and they try to avoid at all costs?

One of the things that I always wanted to avoid in our wedding reception venue was a drop ceiling. I have spent the majority of my life in classrooms {19 of 24 years} and drop ceilings just makes me think of the kids in the back launching pencils to see if they would stick.

But, I digress. Main point: I do not like drop ceilings. Moving on.

Every reception location that I visited in Chippewa Falls had drop ceilings, minus the one place that would have been ridiculously expensive and really wasn't that great.

I was still trying to figure out what to do with the ceilings when we went to visit at Christmas and saw this

and this

While clearly these decorations are for Christmas, they gave me and my mom an idea. We could easily make white fabric panels to drape in the same way! We of course, would make more of them (for the whole room, not just over the dance floor). I think navy blue panels might be a bit much, so am leaning towards white.

The FH had an idea for doing a very large white paper lantern in the center where that green thing is, which I think would be ok, but am not really sold, so we will explore some other options.

The good thing is that Lake Wissota will let us do pretty much whatever we want in terms of decorating. AND if there is no event before ours that week {the likelihood of which is low} then we can get in to decorate as early as Monday! I would like to be able to get in there and get done asap so I can enjoy my week.

How have you all covered not-so-cute ceilings? Have you seen any great ideas out there?

and we're back {for real this time}

2009-01-20T11:48:00.000-08:00

I know that my blogging has been severely lacking lately, but I have an excuse. A good one.

Comprehensive Exams.

A week ago yesterday I took a test that will determine whether or not I get to graduate with my M.Ed. this May, like I am supposed to. This led to not only intense studying, but tons of guilt when I was doing anything other than studying, which definitely affected my blogging.

But- they are over now, so I am back to the fun of wedding planning! I have tons of updates for you all and posts that I have been promising for a while, I promise that I will get to them all. Besides, I went to an ACTUAL Paper Source yesterday and you KNOW you want to hear about that!

Thanks for sticking with me!

Almost our palette!

2009-01-13T08:51:00.000-08:00

Like many other brides in the blogosphere, I looooove looking at the inspiration boards over at Snippet & Ink, so imagine my happy surprise when a board went up today that was navy, white and gold!

That is soooo close to our palette, that I had to post its beauty, even though it is not exact.

Grooming the Groom

2009-01-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

In the midst of the most intense studying I have ever done in my life, I thought that I would take a break and blog about a discussion that the fiance and I had lately about some grooming. {ha.}

To frame this, please recognize that both the bride and the groom will be wearing white on the day of our wedding {he will be in military dress whites, and I will be in a white dress to match his whites}.

So, when I brought up the simple idea that he use a few of these, between now and the wedding:

...imagine my surprise when he looked at me in nothing less than shock and said no.

Now don't get me wrong...the fiance has awesome teeth cleaning habits, and his teeth are not bad looking in any way, shape, or form. BUT, as all of us brides know against pure, clean white - anything, even a shade off - will look, well, not white.

And these pictures last forever.

Eventually, I convinced him that teeth whitening may not be such an awful idea, but he still seems to think that it makes him less masculine somehow.

I was told to find a "lumberjack who routinely punches bears in the face who whitens his teeth" and then he would have no problem succumbing to the same "torture".

Should I be expecting other surprises in the area of grooming my groom? Did your grooms give you the same grief?

29 years of Marriage

2009-01-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

My parent's anniversary is today, and they have been married for 29 years!

When I look at their marriage, I am reminded of how much more important all of the things outside the actual wedding details are in love and life.

They have been through a Navy way of life - long and often separations, and little communication when they have been (the internet is new, remember?), three crazy children, finding out that their marriage had to be retroactively made legal (a long and funny story about a priest who never felt the need to send in the state copy of the certificate to the state government, and about how my mom was still able to acquire drivers licenses, passports, and everything else with no official record of marriage ever on file with the government), and all sorts of other ups and downs of life.

But through it all, I have still caught them kissing in the kitchen (when I was a teenager and I would discover them, I would say "Ugh, get a room" to which my dad would reply "You get a room, this is my whole house") and just generally exhibiting how to lead a loving family through, well, life - its ups and downs and bendy and windy twists along the way.

Thanks Mom and Dad for being such great examples. We love you!

Guest Book Ideas

2009-01-02T21:25:00.000-08:00

Like many other brides before me, I have never been particularly attached to the idea of a traditional guestbook at our wedding. There are plenty of alternative ideas out there, but the one that I am most attached to is the idea of a photo book, much like this example from Blurb:

Of course, ours would be primarily engagement and a few favorite photos instead of wedding ones, as we will be at the wedding. People could then sign in the white spaces...or there are a few options with lines for people to write on next to the photos that could be a good mix of traditional elements with the twist that I like.

I love that there are so many options out there for making your own professional looking photo book online! Here are a few of the sites that I have come across:

Snapfish Photobooks: The first one I stumbled across via friend and bridesmaid. There are a few different options for covers and sizes, but the choice of layouts is not that great. Upside, you do all of the work online, so no software to download and take up precious hard drive space.
Inkubooks: This is a fairly new company and site. Again, lots of options for sizes of books, but for this site you need to download the software to create your book. I found the software a little frustrating, but I tried it when the site was brand spanking new, so things may have improved. Prices are right, though, and you can make a book with as few as 20 pages.
Blurb: This site is the newest one that I have found...and I may be in love. In order to continue the pretense that I am actually studying for my comprehensive exams, I have yet to download the software to play around. But the big plus for me is that this site is all about making books - many different kinds of books - and seems really versatile from the examples posted on the site.

I love the internet! Personalization of wedding elements is so fun, especially publishing books. I love books. Imagine the possibilities...cookbooks, personalized story books for the {faraway} kids, all sorts of things.

Are there any other good publishing sites out there?

Tough Talks

2009-01-01T19:12:00.000-08:00

While I still have plenty of fun things to blog about from the trip to Wisconsin, there were a couple of tense moments as well. Mostly concerning the subject of...well, money.

Most people of course avoid the subject like the plague. I am no different. Don't get me wrong - discussing everyday budgetary matters is a necessity, and you and your partner/spouse/roommate(s) need to be able to communicate effectively regarding bills and planning for the future.

Discussing whether or not to rent chairs, or what constitutes an "open" bar with your mom (who you may or may not have inherited all of your stubbornness from) is a different deal. Luckily, we worked through things quickly and with a hug after some heated words - as most mothers and daughters do.

I really feel though that we may have just hit the tip of the iceberg here. I am the first in my family in about 20 years to get married, and many family members have not had to think about what inflation has done since their wedding....and maybe they don't have the same standards as other people who "went out East to school", ha! But hopefully because we are a loving and supportive family (mantra, mantra) we will be able to work it all out for the best.

How did ya'll broach the subject of budget with loved ones? Or can anyone suggest some stress relievers?

Bye Bye 2008

2008-12-31T09:35:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!

I thought that I would commemorate the occasion with the top ten things I am looking forward to in 2009:

Getting Married! Woo!
Graduating with my M.Ed.
Passing comprehensive exams - I have to in order to graduate, and it will relieve me from a lot of studying and stress so that I can get back to the fun of wedding planning (Yay!)
The fiance graduating from Supply Corps School
The births of so many friends' children (Baby Rolland and Babies Mazzio, to name a few)
Engagement Pictures
Moving somewhere new! We have no idea where we are going until April. Gotta love the Navy right?
A real, salaried j-o-b.
Decorating new dwelling place
First married holidays

I will conclude with the "White Christmas"picture that I meant to post of Lake Wissota covered in snow...as I am sure that it still looks just like this

I am also looking forward to this being all green and lovely again before July :)

What are you all most excited for in 2009?

Let them eat cake

2008-12-29T20:21:00.000-08:00

We are back in good old Georgia today, which means the return of consistent internet! Yay!!!

One of the items on the to-do list that we accomplished while in Wisconsin was ordering our cake. As I previously mentioned, I LOVE CAKE.

Originally, we were planning to go with a Buttercream Bakery cake, but when I went in to visit, I was not really impressed. The "Eau Claire Branch" of this local chain bakery was basically a desk and couple of tables in a place called Cranberry Cottage.

The women knew a bit about craft and home goods, but not really about cake. Basically, you ordered whatever you wanted and it would be made at the main branch in Minnesota and shipped over the day of your wedding.

Not exactly the personal touch that we were expecting.

Luckily, one of my grandmother's good friends has owned and operated Connie's Cakeory for the last 30 years or so. We met with her and were thrilled with how amazingly nice and talented she is - not to mention cost effective.

We were able to sort of pull a whole bunch of cakes together, and this is the closest rendering that PowerPoint and I could come up with:

Clean, simple, lovely. In my opinion, of course. There will be little dots of icing at all of the diamond pattern intersections, and the dots on the round layers will be smaller, more concentrated close to the ribbon and then sort of spreading out. Yay!

Onto the flavors. The top tier is a weird combo, but fits us well. One layer will be Red Velvet (for me) and the other will be Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup (for the hubby). That way from our piece we cut, we can feed each other from the respective layer that we like.

Beyond the cake itself, Connie is preparing sheet cakes in all of the flavors to be cut and ready to go from the back for everyone...so there will be no delay. How fab is that? The very second we cut and feed each other cake, the wait staff will start bringing out cake for everyone and then on to the dancing!

The rest of the cake is right now Lemon Swirl and Raspberry Swirl...but we can change it up until a week before the wedding at will. Awesome. We can also change the design up until a week before the wedding.

I love all of these personal connections! (My aunt is also helping us out with the florist...more on that later)

The one thing I am undecided about is flowers on the cake. We have a Lenox topper that Connie is making sure looks amazing on top of the cake, so I do not know if flowers would be too much.

What do you all think? Do you prefer clean and simple, or ornamental and adorned?

A white Christmas

2008-12-24T08:10:00.000-08:00

and I don't even have to dream about it!

It has been blizzard conditions up here in Wisconsin, which makes for super fun wedding planning...ha.

I was planning on having a beautiful picture of Lake Wissota Golf all covered in snow for you on this post, but as my parent's computer is from the age before SM cards, and their USB ports are so old they aren't compatible with flash drives {for some reason my computer won't connect to the internet, but tomorrow morning my dad may be getting a present to fix all of this, shhhhh!} ...you will have to use your imagination.

Beautiful though, I promise.

We have checked a few things off the list and I cannot wait to tell you all about them...highlights inlude both Mom and Austin seeing and LOVING the venue, picking out tuxes for guys and dads, making pro and con lists of two photographers...and still not deciding, designing our cake {!}, and of, course, my dress! woo!

Happy Holidays to all of you! I hope you are all able to spend time with those you love during this lovely and magical season <3

Still to do.

2008-12-21T09:23:00.000-08:00

We still have plenty to do durning this visit, like:

Meeting with photographers
Seeing Lake Wissota
Making menu selections
Cake...and all that that encompasses
TUXES. I totally forgot about these before yesterday. Whoops.
DJ/Band/some sort of music to get our groove on
Church/considering having an outdoor wedding at the golfcourse.

I know. A new development.

What do you guys think, indoor or outdoor wedding? Pro and Con list?

I found her

2008-12-21T09:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, in this whirlwind of wedding planning, family time, and studying for comprehensive exams (ugh, don't ask...) that is my "vacation" this year, my mother, sister and I went wedding dress shopping.

And we found her. The one.

And her name is Zarah.

Pictures of ME in the dress to come, when a nosy fiance isn't sneaking around trying to ruin the surprise because he is finally burnt out on Rock Band.

YAY!

Kids are cute

2008-12-17T11:24:00.000-08:00

and this song is about engagement rings, so it's totally appropriate that I post these, right?

The Dark Ages

2008-12-16T15:36:00.000-08:00

Please excuse the lack of posting as of late...our internet is temporarily out of service!

In between this and the big drive to Wisconsin Thursday morning who knows when I will be back to regular blogging, but I promise mucho updates after my last exam tomorrow...even if I have to scramble to a crowded coffee shop or Panera to do it!

I love cake.

2008-12-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

Truly, I do.

The fiance on the other hand? He doesn't like baked goods! WHO doesn't like baked goods??

So, when the other day he actually said that these cakes looked good, I was impressed enough to schedule an appointment while we are in Wisconsin for the holidays.

Meet Buttercream.

The ONLY downside is that they don't list Red Velvet {my fave} as a flavor, but I am hoping that they will say, "Sure, we can whip that up for you!" though I am not sure that I trust a northern bakery to get it right.

No offense.

Since I am not a fan of fruit in cake, the rest of the flavors seem a little 'normal' for me, though I just recently had an excellent Funfetti wedding cake so I guess 'normal' can be fun too. Classic even.

What is the best cake that you have ever had?

Fab Friends: Michelle and Nick

2008-12-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

It is that time folks...another Fab Friend Friday!

Allow me to introduce you to my friends Michelle and Nick

Nick and Michelle are our friends from college and were married in July of 2006 in Virginia Beach. They had a church wedding and then a reception at the Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club.

We spent the morning getting ready and relaxing, before helping Michelle to get beautiful

Michelle is a crafter and makes beautiful cards and invitations in her spare time, and picked a vibrant color palette for the day; dark turquoises, oranges and purples

They saw each other before the ceremony, not only in order to take some lovely pictures, but also so that they could greet their guests as they arrived. Here is the lovely bride waiting to be revealed to her groom

and one of my favorite photographs of the day, the bride getting ready to walk down the aisle. I don't think there is any moment quite like that one at a wedding ceremony, whether you see each other ahead of time or not

After the ceremony we headed to the Yacht Club docks to take group photographs...you know how I love a dock photo.

Michelle and all the men, except her husband - scandalous.

Found him!

Michelle was kind enough to send along this picture as well, which we were unaware that the photographer had snapped

{hey, they look familiar...}

Then we all headed inside for a fabulous party!

An emotional sorority moment

and they were so cool that they had a getaway boat
{an idea we may very well steal...so thanks for thinking of it}

What a fun time!

Nick and Michelle have since bought a house, a dog, and had a beautiful little girl named Blair Ann. We always love to stop over and spend time with their family when we get back to Virginia. Thanks for letting me feature your special day lovies :)

and the indecisiveness sets in...

2008-12-11T19:16:00.000-08:00

There may be a new photographer in the works.

Check out the Jeff Thompson website. His style is fabulous, no?

{I would post pictures here, but do not yet have permission from him, so...explore at will}

He is a little more expensive, but also gives all photos, and has online proofing. {not to mention a killer sense of humor}

We are, of course, not going to book either of them until we meet with both in person...

but, is this normal? Did you all make any changes on something you thought you were confident in?

Good News!

2008-12-11T14:24:00.000-08:00

{is it wrong that now the Wicked soundtrack is running through my head??}

I have scheduled a dress shopping excursion at Bella Bridal Boutique in Woodbury, MN for one of the appointments over the holidays, and they have both of the Sophia Tolli dresses I liked.

If I decide to go with a dress like Zarah then these will both be necessary for the reception

{via Weddingbee Pro, Oh My Deer!}

{via Our Labor of Love}

Ladies, get excited

2008-12-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

for a shot like this one:

{via SMP}

I am so glad that we have a dock at our reception site! That is all.

"To do, to do, before I say I do"

2008-12-10T12:53:00.000-08:00

A lovely friend gave me the cutest notepad with that saying printed on it for wedding planning purposes...and I am using it.

Last night we realized we are almost at 7 months to our wedding - yikes!

The trip to Wisconsin for Christmas is going to be a whirlwind of family and holidays along with as much wedding planning as we can fit in over a week and a couple of days.

On the list:

Revisiting Lake Wissota...Austin hasn't seen it.
Working out a tasting for reception food
Booking a church {it would be important to actually get married at our wedding...}
Finding a Rehearsal Dinner location
Talking to hotels
Meeting with photographer and hopefully booking her
Finding a cake
Meeting with multiple florists and booking one
Dress Shopping!
Booking a DJ, and talking to little brother about band possibilities

I feel that there will be more things that come out, but this list is already looking ambitious.

Time to get an itinerary going!

Anyone else that had a crunched time frame to do these things? What have you found that are important to get done first?

Just a Little Spray

2008-12-09T20:18:00.000-08:00

As I have previously mentioned, I adore these initial letters

{via Martha}

Now, other brides have done DIY moss covered letters, such as Mrs. Lemon of Weddingbee fame:

{these lovelies are via SMP}

And still other brides have done DIY flower covered letters, such as Mrs. Ladybug, again from Weddingbee fame:

{actually Mrs. Ladybug's creations}

While I loved each of these ideas, I was not in love with moss for our setting {and I assumed that our dog would probably eat the moss before I could get it glued on letters} and I couldn't reconcile myself to what color flowers to go with...I decided to go easy.

Today I made these little $5 lovelies thanks to Hobby Lobby and a bottle of Krylon Copper Spray Paint:

{via me}

They took about 10 minutes max.

Simplicity at it's best!

Trendsetting...

2008-12-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

While relaxing and watching television this evening, I clicked over to the Knot...you know, just perusing.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear...than an article proclaiming that "Navy is the New 'Something Blue' "

Who knew? Me. That's who :)
{and you know a million other brides using Navy blue out there...}

Check out some finds from this article about Navy accessories:

Shoes from the Crew

{though I am still lusting after the Kate Spade lovelies, I fear they are going to break my heart}

A sapphire bracelet

{a nice touch that I hadn't thought of, to be honest}

A lovely clutch from Lauren Merkin

And of course, Navy blue lingerie...a necessity for every true Navy bride

Now, I know a friend who-shall-not-be-named incorporated a bright orange teddy, of all things, since her husband is a HUGE Clemson fan, but...

How did you all incorporate accent colors into your accessories?

Save the Dates!

2008-12-06T11:16:00.000-08:00

Now that our Save the Dates have been made and sent out, it is time for the big reveal!

There are so many beautiful ideas for Save the Dates out there, but we decided to pull from some of our favorites to make this postcard design...drumroll please...

Front

There is a washed out map of Wisconsin in the background, which I made sure had Lake Wissota visible, and then both of our names and the date.

Back

Simple, and to the point, you will notice from my previous post that we had to change up the design on the back by lightening the bracket color and removing extra text, as well as shrinking things up from the bottom to fit within the Postal Services guidelines for post cards. Make sure if you decide to do postcards you are within the parameters!

Here are some real life photos from stamping and addressing...it killed me to make them fuzzy, but someone is very particular about the revelation of full names online and all that, so this is the best I could do!

The cost breakdown is as follows:

250 Custom Design Uploaded Postcards from Vista Print,

Color Printed on both sides, with standard shipping:

$55.10 (about 22 cents per card)

125 Postcard Stamps:

$33.75 (27 cents each)

Total: $88.85

Total for each Save the Date sent: about 49 cents each

This is a pretty budget conscious way to send a ton of Save the Dates!

Fab Friends: Jessica and Adam

2008-12-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

You know these Fab Friend photos will be g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s, because this friend was, believe it or not, in the top ten of the Miss Virginia Pageant before getting married in the Summer of 2005!

Allow me to introduce you to Jessica and Adam:

Jessica and Adam had a beautiful wedding in Virginia Beach/Chesapeake Virginia. Look at these pictures of the bride getting ready

{if the young lady holding the mirror in the middle picture looks familiar, it is because she is actually the bride from this previous fab friends post! I told you we were close :) }

The wedding took place at Atlantic Shores Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, where the couple first met, and where after a stint in Charlottesville, Virginia and Peabody, Massachussets, Adam has now returned to be a Youth Minister! As soon as the doors swung open to reveal Jess, every woman in the church burst into tears...including me, which is saying something!

After the wedding, the bridal party and newlyweds snuck over to Regent University to snap some more beautiful photos...

{Part of the "Bridal Army"...Jess and Adam had 16 'adult attendants, and 9 children attendants! Here are some of the kids playing around, minus the flower girls from the getting ready photo above...}

{aren't they cute???}

While the bridal party was taking photographs, the rest of us guests headed to the Chesapeake Conference Center to enjoy a fabulous cocktail hour.

The bride and groom entered and had their first dance to "Making Memories of Us" by Keith Urban, which again had almost every woman in the room in tears...{it was a very emotional day}

and if THAT didn't have everyone in tears, when Jessica's little sister Anna, her MOH, made her toast, that certainly got the rest of us. She intertwined her speech with singing the Shania Twain song "Forever and For Always", which was not only original and brave for such a young MOH, but brought down the house.

One of my favorite parts of Jessica and Adam's wedding, however, was that they took the time to honor the Jewish part of Jessica's heritage. Who doesn't want a picture like this one?

They definitely threw an amazing celebration:

And as alway we made sure to get one awesome friend shot in before their exit:

{$10 to anyone that can help me discover a spray tan that can help me from glowing like I am in this photograph for my own wedding...I am almost translucent!}

And the evening ended with the bride and groom exiting to a secret location, secret to everyone besides the groom and his father that is, to keep well meaning and hilarious friends from sending them large orders of pizzas and other obnoxious distractions

They had such a beautiful celebration to start such a beautiful life together. They just celebrated their three year anniversary this summer and live thier lives in such a gracious model of love and support for one another...even across college rivalry lines (as Jess went to and is a fan of UVA and Adam is a die hard Hokie...they are even able to attend games together, a feat which not many such couples can claim).

Thanks for letting me share your pictures guys!

Maids and Men Cards: How to

2008-12-04T12:01:00.000-08:00

While the cards may have seemed almost self-explanatory for other crafters out there...I thought it would be fun to break down the steps, and cost, of the cards from asking our Maids and Men.

First up was the card itself:

After much deliberation on what colors and types of cards to do, {and Austin pleading desperately with me to go to any other store besides Hobby Lobby and Michaels -sidenote: have you ever noticed there is no apostrophe in Michaels? So is it plural Michaels? rando. sorry} I decided that crisp white cards would be the best to build on from there.

I bought one of those Value Packs of cards and envelopes from Michaels for a whopping $5.99 for 50. We would only need 16...by far the most cost effective way to do a card, in my opinion, since I did not have to buy envelopes separately and all of the card stock was pre-cut. I bought the navy cardstock and vellum on the other hand at "The Lobby" as it is affectionately called around our house, for about $5.

After coming home with cards in tow, I measured them and figured I would leave about a 1/4 inch border of white, then do a 1/4 inch border of the blue, and then 1/4 inch in from that would be the photo and vellum.

It is important to remember though, if you are doing something like this with the ribbon at the top, do every other step first, before adhering anything to the card, or you will have to punch through to the inside of the card...and unless you have a long handled puncher you are in for some creative solutions...

So, we took the photo ourselves {camera with a self timer is imperative} and then I imported it to my computer where I used Picasa 3 to edit it.

If you have not heard of it, Picasa is powered by Google and is a free downloadable photo editing program. It is pretty basic, but I love it for quick fixes and it helps keep things really organized on your hard drive. It also interfaces really easily with Blogspot and Their Online Web Albums.

So, I cropped and sepia toned the photo to look copper-ish and then imported it into one of my favorite programs, Microsoft Publisher.

I know, I know, it is not fancy. But, I am of the personal opinion that with a few other small tools Microsoft Publisher and PowerPoint are some of the most easily usable design programs out there, and let's face it...most of us already have it. So I use them a lot.

I created a few pages in Publisher {it helps with my organization to be able to have multiple pages and save all aspects of a program in one file}. The first was the photo, and the next was a box with the wording for the vellum overlay.

I printed and trimmed both to the same size and then used an adhesive roller to attach the photo to the navy card stock. I used some removable glue dots that I had lying around to position the vellum on top of the photo, and then used your everyday hole punch to punch the ribbon holes.

I used white grosgrain ribbon that I found at The Lobby for 99 cents for a roll. I then tied a simple square knot and cut the edges and adhered the whole shebang to the front of the white card.

Card Cost Breakdown:

Cards and Envelopes...........................................$1.92 (for 16)
Cardstock and Vellum (8 Sheets of each)....................$5.00
Ribbon...................................................................$0.99
Total.....................................................................$7.91
Total per card........................................................$0.49

Not too shabby for 16 cute cards and the envelopes! Of course I did not factor in ink, adhesives, or regular computer paper, as I had them all already, but still pretty durn cost effective.

::whew:: That was a long explanation, but it is a relatively simple project, I swear. Next up, easy breezy envelope liners!

Thank you Macy's

2008-12-04T11:26:00.000-08:00

for finally making our wedding registry visible online.

As some of you noticed it was not visible when we first registered...so we sent an email.

and then another.

and then went to talk to someone at Macy's.

and then called the person we were supposed to call from that interaction.

and then followed up with an email that that person recommended we email.

and now? our registry is visible. Yay!

The whole time we were dealing with this, the Macy's reps kept reiterating, "This is so weird, we can totally see that you are in the system and the visibility is on!" yet...we were invisible.

I guess that it is just one of those things that you don't anticipate taking much more energy to take care of than you had planned. Like most things in life, right? :)

Nonetheless...the switch has been flipped and I heart Macy's again...just in time for friends and family discounts.

Maids and Men

2008-12-01T14:57:00.000-08:00

Though I haven't heard from a couple of them yet, I am going to go ahead and reveal how we asked our bridal party to join us! {I will wait for introductions to the party as a whole until we hear from everyone, but a tutorial will be coming soon too! :) }

We deliberated for a long time on how to do this...and then we decided, hey, why not DIY it?

Remember that Sneak Peek I gave you a couple weeks ago??? Well that was a peek at our "Will you be our..." cards!

Here are some better photos:

The "suite" as a whole

We used the same card for bridesmaids, groomsmen, MOH and Best Man.
The ladies got the bottle of champagne {plus some poppers!} and the men got the cigars*

Here is a closeup of the front of the card, and the self-made envelope liners

The inside said:

"but there is nothing that we would love more

than to have you celebrating with us at the finish line.

Will you be our {blank}?"

{Yes, those are really our feet, and please, please, ignore the grammar mistake on the front if you noticed it...the comma just did not look right with the change in font.}

The card in the envelope, as shown before

and a quick seal I whipped up...thanks Xyron!

A closeup of the champagne bottle label...thanks again trusty Xyron

The label is the same image of our feet, washed out, and a definition of the word "celebrate"...we had originally intended on making cigar labels that looked similar for the men, but ultimately decided not to...as the boys would probably not care :)

*I had a couple of ladies out of town, and found out that you cannot mail alcohol, whoops. So then I thought, "Hey! I will just send the poppers, good idea!" Just Kidding. Those are also illegal to mail. In the end I sent them a champagne glass, with a picture of their champagne bottle that is awaiting them the next time we see each other.

Dear Kate,

2008-12-01T11:01:00.000-08:00

I love you.

{from here}

and 7 days later...

2008-12-01T08:04:00.000-08:00

Wow! It has been a whole week since my last post. I apologize profusely to my devoted readers :)

I will blame this lack of posting on a vacation where cable internet was unreachable and also on my general frustration with DSL...but do not fret, for there are plenty of things to talk about and reveal this week!

First and foremost I would just like to say that the wedding is officially real. Now that we have seen so many friends and family and been able to talk about and reflect on what this means for us, it is so much more, well, real - for lack of a better word.

We were so blessed to have spent time with people that we love over the last week and are amazed at how willing, and excited even, they all are at coming to be with us in Wisconsin, of all places. As we sat in traffic for hours and hours and hours yesterday {more on that later} we were able to really wonder at how we have been so fortunate to have such amazing people come into our lives.

So, thanks. To all of you.

Get excited for much information to come!

Off they go!

2008-11-24T09:22:00.000-08:00

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}

Purchase!

2008-11-22T18:49:00.000-08:00

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?