Fabulous Faux-to Fun!

One of the main reasons that we selected our photographer is that one the options to add-on to her packages was the option to do a photo booth. Now it's not the kind where you close a little curtain and make four goofy faces. I'm talking about this kind of faux-to booth:


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Since I started wedding researching in May I thought the idea of a photo booth was so fun and it really fits our personalities and the fun-loving attitude of our friends. At the same time, trying to get a photo booth for our wedding seemed impossible. Our reception venue is inside with limited space and it's upstairs. When I found Jen Slot, I asked her some questions about the photo booth (mainly how much space would be needed) and then asked our reception on-site coordinator if it would work and to my surprise, it will work out! YIPPEE!! We'll be having a photo booth!

After seeing Mrs. Bee's photo backdrop, I loved that it wasn't just a white sheet. A few months ago, I saw a picture in Martha Stewart Weddings that I thought would be a great backdrop for our bar area, but now I thinking it would be perfect for the photo booth.

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The thing that caught my eye when I first saw it was the color story. It's warm and soft, perfect! But how great would it be with your friends posing in front of it?!? Way better! I think the paper will allow for a little bit of our personality to shine through. It's all of those little details that make the day more memorable. I'm excited about this project. I just need to find the paper to make the streamers and begin snipping away!

Are you planning on doing a faux-to booth on your wedding day? If you did, did the guests enjoy it?

I found some flowers that I love!

Unfortunately they are of the wearable variety - not the kind that you want to carry by the dozens while you walk towards your groom to say your vows. :)

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with my casual engagement ensemble (aka, outfit No. 1):

E Pic 1 by mugsee2003 featuring J Crew

The top is from J. Crew I tried it on in a size 4 and it felt a little large, they didn't have a size 2 so I bought it in a size 0. (Happy dance that I can still buy something in a size that small, yippee!!)

The jeans are from Abercrombie & Fitch and I really like how they fit and the way they feel when they're on, however they have whiskers at the hips and again at the back of the knees...I'm a little unsure if I like that. I have a backup pair of jeans that I might decide to wear instead. (No, I didn't buy these in a size 0. For some reason I am really little up top and have a lot of junk in my trunk, so I had to buy my jeans in a size 8. But I'm still doing my bridal boot camp plan...hopefully I'll get back to my size 4 soon!!)

My dressy engagement ensemble (aka, outfit No. 2) is a blue dress that I bought to wear to a wedding that was on July 4th this summer. I bought the dress from The Limited when it was on sale and unfortunately I can't find a picture of it online.

So what do you think of my casual outfit, too plain? I'm afraid to add accessories because the neckline is already pretty embellished. Did you decide to do engagement pictures? If you did, did you have a hard time picking things out?

P.S. As a side note, the guy that helped me at J. Crew told me that we have to go to Freebird's Mexican Restaurant while we're in Santa Barbara for our engagement photo shoot. He said that when he was in college at Fiddyment in Los Angeles they used to drive all the way to Santa Barbara just to eat at Freebird's, it's THAT good. I know what we're having for dinner when we're done with our shoot. I'll report back on Sunday with a full report on the food! (I know I just said I was working on the boot camp thing but who can resist Mexican food that is supposed to be worth driving a few hours for?!?!)

How it all began

It's come to my attention that I've haven't shared the story of how MJ and I met.

When I was 18 and MJ was 22 (we were just kids)


His shirt reads "Life's too short not to be Irish" Classic.


Gosh I was cute!

I was out with a friend on a Friday or Saturday night and we were in our home town of Roseville partying at a friend's house. My friend had told some people she worked with (they worked at her parent's restaurant) that she would meet up with them at some point in the night. She eventually convinced me to drive to downtown Sacramento (about a 20 minute drive) with her to meet up with her work friends. Turns out that the place we were meeting up was MJ's apartment. He had just graduated from college and moved downtown with two of his friends. I didn't know any of them.

There I was, sitting on MJ's couch looking at my cell phone when he plopped down right next to me and asked me what my name was. We sat there and introduced ourselves for several minutes, when MJ commented on how long my fingers are (they are as long as men's fingers, I swear, but long and skinny) and then he challenged me to a thumb war. Actually it was several rounds of thumb war - and I won each round - but MJ will tell you that he let me win because he thought I was cute. :)

Being the competitive people that we are, MJ and I challenged each other to various card games and drinking games all night. Until we realized that it was getting light outside and noticed that it was 6:00 AM! Shocked at how quickly the time had passed I told MJ it was time to for me to go home. He gave me the sweetest kiss I have ever had in my life (I'm certain it will only be trumped by our wedding kiss, it makes me blush and gives me butterflies just thinking about it), then I woke up my friend who had fallen asleep on their couch and made my way home.

The next day MJ called me and we watched a movie at his house, which would be followed by many, many, many dates, emails, and phone calls. Almost 6 years later he asked me to marry him.

I guess that sounds good...

I'm having a truly difficult time with our flowers and space decor/design for our cocktail and reception areas. The great thing about getting married in the Mission is that it's breathtaking all on its own.







With the exception of some pretty ribbon blocking off the excess pews (we want all of our guests to sit together in the front pews), pomanders (either tissue or real, I haven't decided yet), and 2 arrangements at the altar I'm not really doing much with our ceremony site. It's sooo beautiful naturally.

Our cocktail and reception sites are also beautiful, but they do need a little pizazz to make them evoke the right mood.







Our cocktails are being held in the gazebo area - but I have no idea where the bar will go or what I want the space to look like. Same with our reception room. Our site fees cover white linens and all of the usual items, but I know that the room as is will feel too cold and boring, not warm and decadent like our theme. I need to go looking for ideas, and I'm not sure how I want flowers in all of that. Flowers at the cocktail tables? I don't know. Flowers on the escort card table? I don't know. Floral centerpieces? I don't know. Lighting? I don't know. Sigh, should I already know all of this, should it be easier to make these decisions?? Seems like it...

How were you inspired or where did you find the inspiration for your reception decor/design?

I won! I won!! I won!!! YIPEE

I just found out that I am the very lucky recipient of FREE invitations and RSVP cards (100 count) from Wedding Paper Divas through a contest held through the WeddingBee.com website!!! This is the second time in my life that I've won something. The first time being a survey that I took for Vanity Fair (I looooovvvvveeee that magazine!), where I won an American Express gift card for a few hundred bucks. And now, I've won invitations via my favorite website. I went back and looked at the invites that I loved when I entered - beautiful invitations with a lacy motif - but after having a conference call with a prospective florist on Friday and meeting with a prospective wedding coordinator this afternoon, it's been made pretty clear to me how important colors are to a wedding. That being said - there isn't a lacy pattern that goes with pale pink and gold. Hmm.... So I think we'll go with the Artsy Bloom in apricot:



Or Vintage Magnolias in Almond:



I have to say, I really love them both. In particular I love the Artsy Blooms, but I think the decision will definitely have to be made with MJ, and I think he'll lean towards the Vintage Magnolias. What do you like best? Have you ever won anything before?

I'm different

I know there a lot of new wives who say that after the wedding and after the honeymoon, everything feels as blissful as before the wedding and before the proposal. But personally, I think it will feel just "different". I can't wait to have our first BBQ as a husband and wife. Our first Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas as husband and wife. Our first *wedding* anniversary as husband and wife, and our 7 year anniversary of togetherness. I feel like since we've been together for six years and we will have been engaged for more than a year on our wedding day - the moments (even the silly little things, like kissing at a movie) will be exciting and new because they will be firsts all over again.



Maybe I'm just fully realizing the importance of devoting yourself to one person, in your whole capacity for the rest of your life, but I'm incredibly excited about it. If feels like everything we do that brings us one step closer to the big day brings us a little bit closer as a couple and it makes be feel so satisfied and whole.

I know I'm going to commit myself to my best-friend for the rest of my life and he's excited to commit himself to me, and I don't think there's any other feeling that trumps that.

Ahhh...love. Did you get random spurts of wedding glee when you were planning your wedding?

Mmmm....shoes

I've never really been a girl that loved shoes. I've always LOVED clothes (I was going to move out to SF when I graduated high school and go to art school for fashion design, but then I met MJ and scraped that plan and became an accountant instead. My dream is to go back to go back to fashion design school when I've had my babies and made my millions.) but I've never really been one to drool over shoes. That is until I discovered the wonders of Christian Louboutin.



There is just something about the red heels and shape of the heels that makes them so sexy and with a wedding dress...I think there's nothing else this bride can wear on her feet. I have to have a pair of Louboutins. Here's what I'm loving thus far:






Has wedding planning brought your attention to things you never knew you loved before?

To hire or not to hire, that is the question

The other night I was reviewing where I am (and where I'm supposed to be) in the wedding planning. I was pretty pleased to find that for the vendors we have booked so far, we've come out a little under budget. Hip-hip-hooray! AND I even have more cushion in some areas than I thought I did, such as a flower and stationary budgets. For some reason I thought I had $500 budget for out stationary but it's closer to $750. Yippee!



Where this brings me to is trying to jusify a day of coordinator when both our ceremony and reception sites have their own coordinators. My MOH's boyfriend's friend's girlfriend (you following me here???) is an event planner and my MOH and I are going to go meet with her this Sunday to see if she can give us some ideas for lighting, flowers, decor, etc for our sites. My MOH thinks that if we like her I should consider hiring her for my wedding, at which her services would start kicking in 2 - 3 months before the wedding (awesome becuase I will be STRESSED OUT, can you say prime tax season!! not to mention prime wedding DIY & decision time!) but it's another expense that I wasn't really planning on having. So I need to determine whether it's something that I should consider spending our money on. I feel that it works out this way - $1,500 for a sane period before the wedding or $1,500 extra for our honeymoon...tough decision right? Well at least I feel it's a tough decision.



Have you decided to go with a DOC? If you have already used one for your wedding, did you think it was worth it?

I don't have anything to wear...

For the most part, I love my closet and it loves me right back. And unlike most corporate workers, I hate casual Friday. Why, you ask (actually you're probably thinking "what's wrong with this psycho?!?!) because I love wearing a good suit way more than I like wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. At least when I'm at work. My ideal uniform is a clean suit, with heels, a cute top and good accessories.



MJ on the other hand, he could easily live in basketball shorts and a T-shirt for the rest of his life. That's his uniform, on the weekend, when he's sick...honestly, if it was acceptable to wear basketball shorts to a nice restaurant or out to a bar, he would. (You know what they say, opposites attract!)



With our engagement pictures being only a couple of weeks away, I feel like I should start doing some research on what we should wear in our photos. I want us to both be comfortable and confident and I know how powerful the impact of wearing clothes you love can have on both a person's confidence and comfort levels. I think we'll both end up wearing jeans and a T-shirt for the first half of the day...but for the other half...I don't know. Here are some engagement pictures that I'm looking to for inspiration:

I'm back baby!

This week I have really been working the bridal boot camp plan that I set out for myself!



So far I have gone running everyday on my lunch for 30 minutes (holla!!!) and yesterday was my first day of the true South Beach Diet plan (well...the best I've been able to do so far, yesterday I had a Starbucks mocha and I know that had sugar and carbs in it, whoops!). But after doing one day successfully I am so ready to keep on it. Especially since our engagement photo shoot is at the end of the month!!

Oh did I forget to mention that we're having our engagement pictures taken on the 26th??!! That's right folks, we have our photographer fully booked and she's snapping photos of us on September 26th, I CAN HARDLY WAIT!!! Eeeek! I'm soooo excited! Now that I'm on my way to feeling and looking great (MJ lost 7 lbs last week by the way, just by doing the South Beach thing and doing cardio everyday, I'm jealous) I'm so excited to go shopping for a cute engagement photo session outfit (actually we're supposed to have a wardrobe change, so it's really 2 outfits) with my new rockin' bod! The best part is that once we have our pics back we can finally get started on our Save the Dates. We have some great ideas for what we want our Save the Dates to look like, but I have to admit, we'll be stealing someone else's creative idea. As it goes, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. :)