Fun Web Finds

Work has been mostly slow this morning (knock on wood) so I've been able to check out the usual wedding blogs that occupy my time so well. Today I found three very unique posts, from the Editors of Martha Stewart Weddings, Snippet & Ink and Style Me Pretty.

• The Bride's Guide idea is to use Radicchio as a stamp that creates a very nice rose. You can see the post here. I'm intrigued, but not sure how I would apply this to our wedding...
• I love the Chuppah that S&I calls to attention here - it wouldn't necessarily fit into our overall feel for the wedding, but I love the colors and the free flowing fringe on the sides.
• The Orange and Teal Bash posted on SMP is super fun. I love the lanterns on the Chuppah and the fabulous pops of color. Again, a little out of our realm but still very cool to see.

So not necessarily anything that we will be using, but hopefully this helps make your Friday go by a little faster as it did for me :)

Prestonwood Pictures

This past Sunday June (FMIL) and Liz (FSIL) went with me to take another walk through Prestonwood. They were setting up for a banquet so there were some tables out in the ballroom but I took some more pictures to get a better feel for the space. Here are some of the pictures from our visit!

We are very excited about hosting our ceremony and reception at Prestonwood - luckily the room is gorgeous so we won't have too much decorating to do but we'll still dress it up a bit :)

Aisle Mock-Up

I took some time today while Jake played video games in this rainy weather to lay out the vases I have in order to get an idea of what our aisle could look like. I can't quite decide if I like the vases lined up in a straight line or grouped together, kind of overlapping. I took pictures of both set-ups below.

Lined up straight, even with the aisle about 2-3 inches apart.

Grouped or bunched together - I think I will need more vases to get the full effect of this one.

So far I have a total of 11 vases ranging from 10 to 19 inches. I only have three that are 16 inches or greater - I'll need to get a better variety of vases in the 14-19 inch category. I like the look of having all different sizes instead of lining them up by height. Hopefully I'll be able to get some shopping done tomorrow and find some more.

I do need to do some research on floating candles. The diameter of these vases is from 4 to 5.5 inches. I'm guessing that the candles should all be the same size around 3 or 3.5 or so. I want white floating candles. I think the water heights inside the vases will vary as well, but I don't think I want them to be higher than 2-3 inches from the top.

The dimensions in the half of the ballroom that we're using for the ceremony are 48x62. With a chuppah at the end I'm guessing our aisle would be about 50 feet long?

My Very Own Inspiration Board

Out of boredom at work comes my very own inspiration board, from images that I've found across the web. Unfortunately I don't think there is a way to make this show up as a larger image in the blog post, but you should be able to click on it to be taken to the full-size image. Credits below from left to right.


Photo credits from left to right: Carrie Patterson Photography, Ink & Peat, J. Crew, lovethecard.com, J. Crew, Ink & Peat, Keily and Greg's Nestledown wedding shot by Dana and Jeremy, and Martha Stewart weddings

A Chocolate and Peanut Butter Revelation!

After having my paws in a huge bowl of Peanut Butter M&Ms this past weekend at Mom's and then having some Reese's Pieces at the house, I've come to the conclusion that the M&Ms definitely fulfill both a chocolate and the peanut butter craving, while the Pieces are just kind of peanut buttery. Don't get me wrong, both will suffice in a movie theater or on the road for a quick convenience store fix, but I have to admit that I like the Peanut Butter M&Ms better than the Reese's Pieces.

Now I just need to find out if Mars will make Peanut Butter M&Ms in different colors to go in my candy bar...

10 Months To Go!

It's amazing how time passes so quickly. Everyone keeps telling me the older you get the faster time flies. I feel like summer started yesterday! This is just a reminder that I need to kick it up a notch in the wedding planning world.

Here are pictures of some non-wedding related things that make me happy. These were all taken on my iPhone. I need to take a picture of Jake soon so that I have a more recent one of him. I guess its time to upload the pictures from my camera over the last few weeks!

Tucker watching a hummingbird at the feeder

I love these little guys!

These are the beautiful roses that Jake gave me for our 4 year dating anniversary and 6 month engagement anniversary! They smell amazing and the colors are beautiful. I think if I go with the Emerald and Aqua color scheme that I will be incorporating orange tones in the flowers to add a punch of color. Thanks for the inspiration and the beautiful flowers Jake!

Bridesmaid Dress Ideas?

I've had some time today to surf the net looking for suitable bridesmaid dresses in the Emerald to Aqua range. This is what I've found so far. The main qualifications are that they need to be in the appropriate color range and be about knee length. My motivation for having non-matching bridesmaid dresses is so that each bridesmaid can choose a dress that 1) suits their body type, 2) they will wear again, 3) they can spend the amount they choose to spend, ideally keeping it from $50 to $150.

From left to right, we have:
Francesca's Collections, Blue Moon Dress, $38
David's Bridal, Style 83176, originally $120, on sale for $59.99
J. Crew, Silk chiffon Juliet dress (in tropical aqua), $180
J. Crew, Silk tricotine Cecelia short dress (in oasis green), $225
J. Crew, Embossed-cotton Aubrey halter dress (in sea green), originally $98, on sale for $78.00

I do know that a couple of these options don't meet the criteria, but I think this gives a good representation of what styles and colors go well together. I'm certainly open to more ideas if anyone wants to share some with me!

Being Indecisive, as Usual!

I've been thinking lately about colors and I'm starting to drift away from the Black bridesmaid dresses idea. I think if I had to pick two colors today, I would choose Emerald and Aqua. Here are a few pictures that I've found lately that are swaying me to use non-matching dresses.

From Sara & Ryan's Wedding

Image via Offbeat Bride

Image via Offbeat Bride

I'm Back!

I have been uber-busy the past month with work, family obligations, etc. This past weekend Jake's brother Justin and his new wife Elizabeth got married and we all had so much fun! It made me realize that there are a lot of little details that I should probably get started on. I'm ready to kick it into high gear and get the rest of this wedding planned. Here's what we have booked so far:

Venue (Ceremony and Reception): Prestonwood Country Club
Officiant: Reverend Barbara Lodge (read her blog here!)
Photographer: April Sirit of Evoke Photography http://www.evokenc.com/
DJ: Jeff Simpson of Simpsound Productions

As for the other things we know so far - I have my Mom's dress that will be getting altered early next year. I'm very excited about this! Jake and I are going to build our chuppah and we should get started on this soon.

I need to figure out:
Bridesmaid's dresses - how about asking the rest of my bridesmaids to be bridesmaids first?!?
Flowers - do I want to have a florist do them all or can I do some on my own?
Transportation - including getting the guests/wedding party to and from Prestonwood as well as for us to the hotel afterwards
Honeymoon - we need to start researching COSTA RICA!!! We definitely want to go to Costa Rica and zipline through the rainforest, go to the beach, go horse-back riding and scuba diving

I know there are many other things TO DO but this will work for now! I hope to have more time this week to catch up on other blogs I like to follow and will post things that I love :)