I might have changed my mind. Again.

This past weekend I went flipping through all of my wedding magazines from Spring/Summer in search of another ad showing my dream gown. I didn't find another single picture of my dream gown, but I did find inspirational pics that I had looked over the first time around. One such picture was of a color scheme out of InStyle Weddings - Summer 2009, from their color report they did a page on Sand & Coral. I love it:


I love these three colors together. Here are some inspiration pics using this color scheme:

Found Here

Found Here

Found Here

Found Here

I think these colors would go perfectly with our locations that we've booked and I still feel like the color palette evokes that timeless elegance that I want from our wedding.

How many times have you changed your mind about your color palette?

And it goes on and on and on...

Jack Johnson says it best:



Only I'm referring to my list of DIY for the wedding. This weekend Mike and I sat down with a couple of drinks and went over what we have left to do for our wedding. I made a list of things that either of us could do and then a list of DIY items, only I feel like my list of DIY list keeps growing which means I really need to get to work!

Here's what I have on my list of DIY to do:

Invites (yes, I won them but I have plans to make them a little more spiffy!)
Programs (I can't begin working on this until we have our readings, etc. ironed out)
Guest book & ensemble (Mike has some really good ideas for this!! I was pleasantly surprised!)
Escort cards
Place cards
Menu cards (our tasting is scheduled for January!)
Napkin rings
Favors
Thank you cards
Bouts for the mens
Cocktail table centerpieces
Reception table centerpieces
Table numbers
Pomanders for church pews
Out of towner bags (this is for pretty much all of our guests)
Paper wall idea for behind the bar (seen here as idea for photo booth back drop)
Cocktail napkins (I will make my gocco useful)

I know this isn't the craziest list of to-dos but after the time it took to do our save the dates (that I thought would be a cinch!) I think I should be more liberal in assigning time allotments for each of these projects. It doesn't help that almost daily I see new DIY projects that I would love to incorporate into our wedding somehow also!

Are you taking on more DIY projects that initially anticipated?

It happened one night...

...my first wedding related nightmare.

Found Here

Very early this morning I am laying in my comfortable, warm and cozy bed when I wake up with great relief realizing that it was all just a bad dream....(enter dream sequence swirls a la Wayne's World).

Found Here

I am at some kind of venue that is a mix between Vegas and a theme park, it's my wedding day and I have been waiting for hours for someone to come and help me prepare. I'm waiting in a room that is similar to a small private room where you would have a birthday party as a kid at Chuck E Cheese, my MOH is there with me and we're waiting up until 20 minutes to the start of the ceremony and we finally leave our room to ask what's going on.

As we're walking up to the front desk, there are suddenly what feels like miles and miles of steps leading up to the front desk to ask for help. When I finally get to the top of the steps my MOH has disappeared and I'm asking for help all by myself. When I explain my situation (I don't know where my family is, I can't find my mom, my DOC hasn't called me, I don't even have my dress or know where it is) the girl I'm talking to at the front desk doesn't offer me help, she shows me pity. She tells me that she can't help me and as I turn away I hear her tell the people around her what has happened, especially how sad it is that I don't even have my dress on.

In my dream I feel my chest begin to heave as boulder sized tears form behind my eyes and then I wake up.

Groan, I've actually had a nightmare about my wedding. I was hoping that I could get through this whole process without having any wedding nightmares, and we still have 6 months to go...

Have you had any wedding related nightmares yet?

DIY Inspiration

I freely admit to cyber-stalking my photographer, she's just soooo good at what she does! While cyber-stalking her blog today I came across some DIY that she recently shot at a wedding that is to die for!

Fabric flowers on the invites

Fabric flower on the tree at the guest book table

Fabric flower on the BM's right hand

Fabric flowers on the escort cards

Above pics Found Here

I love these little handmade details! Because they pop up all over the place there is no doubt in my mind that the bride (and probably some friends too) made these little details themselves. It's a part of what makes a wedding so personal and memorable. I'm feeling inspired to do something similar, off to Michael's in a little bit to purchase some goods to do my tulle pomander trial this weekend and maybe picking up some goods for some other DIY projects now too!

Where did you find inspiration for DIY or general wedding ideas?

Firsts and Lasts

With Thanksgiving being only 1 week away, I'm already thinking about what I'm thankful for.

Found Here

At the same time, I'm enjoying the fact that this will be the first (and last!!) Thanksgiving that we'll be spending with our families as an engaged couple! (Last year, Mike's nephew asked his mom what I was to him since Mike is his uncle, she kindly replied that I am a friend to everyone in their family, sweet huh?!) As happy as I am that we're finally engaged, I'm even happier that at this time next year, we'll be getting ready to spend our first Thanksgiving with our families as husband and wife. :) And I will be a new auntie to 2 teenage boys, 3 teenage girls and 2 adorable little boys, not to mention that I will have gained 3 sisters in law and 2 brothers in law.

Found Here

With so many things that we've been doing I get a little rush in knowing that we're no longer doing them as boyfriend/girlfriend and I'm even happier knowing that in about 6 months time, everything will be done as hubby and wifey. :)

Is being engaged making you feel little bursts of excitement and happiness all the time too? What's your favorite part of the holiday season?

The Dress Hunt: Part II

Yesterday I met with the most wonderful wedding vendor to date: Carole, the woman who will be making my wedding dress.

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I contacted Carole last Friday and we scheduled an appointment for yesterday afternoon. After we got off the phone she followed up by sending me some pictures of a dress that she had recently completed that was similar to the one that I wanted:

Similar lace but my lace won't be stark white, it will be hand tea dyed by the designer.

When I first walked into her studio yesterday she mentioned Project Runway and instantly I knew she was the one. :) She was so excited about the style of my dream dress. She showed me different options for fabrics and different laces. I told her what areas I love on my body (my back) and which areas I would like to pull the eye away from (my thighs and ka-dunk-a-dunk). We took some interim measurements of my body and worked out a schedule for official measurements, fittings and pickup of my dress.

I can honestly say that of all of my wedding related meetings thus far, meeting with my dress maker has been the best experience! The best part is that I truly feel as though I will receive a product that is exactly as I want it and it's for a very fair price. This purchase will have the highest value (considering money paid for service/product received), second runners up will probably be our venues...

What has been your best wedding planning vendor experience so far?

Whitedressitus

A disease in where every white dress, of the non-bridal variety, seems to serve a purpose in your near future, causing unintended spending on new clothes.

I don't know about you but every white dress I see (that isn't a wedding dress, there is only one white wedding dress I want - in case I haven't established that yet) will serve a purpose in our wedding and/or honeymoon. Case in point:

How perfect would this hot little number be for our rehearsal dinner (it's lace - eek! - and it's in champagne, I adore the shoulder detail. This dress was made for me to wear.):

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This would be so much fun while we're on our honeymoon, say dinner in France, oui?

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I may or may not have already purchased this dress for a bridal shower that hasn't even been planned yet:

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This one I love for the bachelorette (it comes in ivory, that's what I would buy it in):

Source

I'm suffering here. Everyone of these hot little numbers is intended for dinners, dates and parties that only exist in my head at the moment (however, I know that we'll be out to dinner every night on our honeymoon and I know that there will be a shower and bachelorette).

Are you too suffering from whitedressitus? You should speak to someone, it helps (unless your MOH is a shop-a-holic, I think my MOH might encourage this behavior in me...)

Including our loved ones

ie: I would love to include our furbaby in our wedding day celebration. Look at how cute these pictures are:










I especially like this last one with the sweet little black dog with the pink flower around her neck. Can you imagine this cuteness with a sweet little pink flower tied around her neck?

Okay the first picture is from when she was 7 weeks old, but still. Pretty cute huh?!?! Ultimately, there is no way that the mission would even allow our dog on site, let alone in the church. Same probably goes for the La Playa. I wonder if they would even allow us to stay with her in our room...on second thought, I don't want our furbaby sleeping in our room on wedding night. If we were getting married close to home it would be fun to involve our love puppy in our wedding day.

Are you going to involve your furry children in your wedding day? Have you been to a wedding where pets were present?

A what?!?!

Today I worked on getting room blocks for our guests for our quasi-destination wedding. The only time it's been suggested that I block some rooms off for our guests was by our reception site coordinator, and he suggested that to us the only time that we've met him. (Full disclosure, my DOC might have said something to me about room blocks when I met with her too, but I don't remember.) That was approximately 6 months ago.



Today, as I'm on the cusp of putting our STDs in the mail, I'm also spot checking our wedding website to make sure that all systems are a go. Upon inspection of the "Accommodation Ideas" tab I remember that I should get to those room blocks and update the site. The first call I made was to our reception venue, seeing as it is a hotel, they can only block off 10 rooms only 7 of them are at their lowest rate: $190, and all rooms require a 3 night minimum. The worst part, all of the suites are already booked and they will only give us a 50% discounted rate for our room. I thought they would comp our room considering the cash we're going to drop there in 6 months.

This is supposed to illustrate a pouting bride, she looks like she's pouting to me.

Majorly disappointed but not completely surprised (I knew that not many people would be staying at the reception hotel because it's expensive and in very high demand), I moved on to a hotel that we've previously stayed at that was quaint and affordable. They can only block 10 rooms and the most affordable room is going to be $179 (not including the 10.5% tax), 2 night minimum, and there will be a $1,000 deposit required by us right now.


Red lights are flashing in my brain, alarms are sounding. This. Is. A. Disaster. I don't have to worry about pleasing anyone anymore because no one is going to come to our wedding. For most people it's a 3 hour drive and they are going to spend at least $300 on lodging. No one is going to come. I freak out and call my honey. Thankfully, he came to my rescue and worked his magic reducing our reception site hotel's policy to a 2 night minimum from the crazy 3-day holiday minimum, as well as finding a few hotels that are willing to accept room blocks without putting deposits down or penalizing us if all rooms aren't filled.



I feel blind-sided. I honestly haven't read anything about this kind of practice about room blocks. I feel like our reception site should have given us a heads up that their suites were already booked at some point or that when I signed the contract that someone would have asked if we would like a suite to be blocked for us or that if we wanted a suite there we couldn't have one because they were already booked. Furthermore, in none of my wedding timelines or planners does it say anything about getting room blocks for guests.

I've been to at least 4 weddings that are quasi-destination, like ours, and we've always received group discounts. I wonder if they've been putting $1,000 deposits down all over town and it's just not a big deal and maybe I'm making it a big deal.

Are the hotel deposits something that are normally done through the course of business but not talked about? Did you book any room blocks for your out of town guests?

Fedex, how I love thee

Honestly, who wouldn't love Fedex after delivery freshly printed Save the Dates?!?! I love love love love love them. Best part, I designed them myself!



Just a teaser!! I will post more tomorrow!!!

Good things come in threes too!

This weekend I was awarded with three separate blog awards! I guess I'm doing something right! :)

The first one is the Your Blog is Over the Top blog award from New Mexican Bride (her blog is very sweet, go check it out!)


For the Over the Top Award you are supposed to answer the following questions with one word answers and then pass the award onto 6 fellow bloggers. Using one word is going to be a challenge for me, but here goes:

1. Where is your cell phone? kitchen
2. Your hair? dry
3. Your mother? short
4. Your father? missed
5. Your favorite food? cheese
6. Your dream last night? non-existent
7. Your favorite drink? coffee
8. Your dream/goal? self-employed
9. What room are you in? office
10. Your hobby? running
11. Your fear? failure
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Carmel
13. Where were you last night? bed
14. Something you aren’t? impatient
15. Muffins? carbs
16. Wish list item? mixer
17. Where did you grow up? Sacramento
18. Last thing you did? kissed
19. What are you wearing? sweats
20. Your TV? off
21. Your pets? cutest
22. Your friends? best
23. Your life? wonderful
24. Your mood? relaxed
25. Missing someone? Mike
26. Vehicle? Jetta
27. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
28. Your favorite store? Nordstroms
29. Your favorite color? Red
30. When was the last time you laughed? morning
31. Last time you cried? unsure
32. Your best friend? Jenny
33. One place that I go over and over? home
34. One person who emails me regularly? Sylvia
35. Favorite place to eat? Aioli

Now to pass this award on to 6 over the top bloggers:

THE PERPETUAL PARTY PLANNER

The Handcrafted Hitching Post

Live. Laugh. Love.

With this ring, I thee blog.

Shooting for a $3,000 Wedding

A Classy, Catholic, Southern Bride

The next blog award I received was the Your Blog is Fabulous award from Born to be Mrs. Beever! Thank you!!

For this one, you list 5 things you are obsessed with and then pass the award onto 5 of the most fabulous blogs you read.

1. Blogging. I swear that I've been reading blogs non-stop lately. Fashion blogs, photography blogs, wedding blogs, baby blogs, the list goes on and on.

2. iPhone. I left home without my phone when I went to the grocery store last week and I felt so naked without. I would reach into my purse to grab it and come out empty handed.

3. My wedding. I don't want to be one of those people who only talks about their wedding all of the time, but I sort of feel like I'm beginning to be one of those girls.

4. Sox. Sox is my little puppy girl. Since I've been home so much I'm spending a ton of time with her. Lately I've been doing a lot more for our dog than I've ever done before, some (Mike) might say that I've been spoiling her. :)

5. Coffee. I've always enjoyed drinking coffee in the morning, but now I want it more than just in the mornings. It's so good in the afternoon, like at lunch and then again around 3:00.

So, here are the 5 lovely blogs that I think are fabulous that I would like to pass this award onto:

Becoming His Mrs.

Classic Bride

"I Do" at the Zoo

A Fortunate Bride

A Little Birdie Weds

Lastly (but certainly not least) I received the Este Blog e Super Foto (Your Blog is Super Cute) award from NuFlaiir. Thank you!!

The rules for this one are very simple:

- Give the award to other 10 bloggers and let them know.
- Leave a message to the person that gave you the award.

Here are the blogs I would like to pass on the award:

Tying the Knot

For the Love of Stilettos

Running to the Wedding

A Chocolate Lovers Confessions

Thoughts of the All Consumed Bride

BP Wedding

Bride on a Shoestring

Cheap Fiance

Cross County Wed

Miss Frogger

Dress Hunting: Part I

Yesterday I went with my mom to a wedding dress shop in Sacramento, it's the only shop in our area that carries Jim Hjelm, if you don't remember, I have an obsession with this one Jim Hjelm dress; you can catch up here.



I decided to only go with my mom because I was a little cranky (I fell asleep at 7:00 last night and slept until 7:00 this morning, sleep much?) and my crankiness was making my mom a little cranky too. No need to bring innocent bystanders into that situation. I figured I would just try on a few gowns because I'd never tried on any wedding gowns before.

So my consultant lead me to their Jim Hjelm gowns and told me to look through them and pick out a few that I liked, then to some other designer gowns. She picked out some gowns that looked closest to my dream dress and I picked out a few that I had seen in recent bridal mags, just to make sure that I wanted to go with lace. So I began with dresses that were nothing like my dream dress:

A one shoulder gown, I've seen them all over the place. This is not my style. NEXT!

This was cute on the rack, tried it on. Hate it, then my consultant told me that Angelina Jolie wore a dress similar to this to the Oscars when she was prego. Definitely out. NEXT!!

Before I found my dream dress in a magazine, I always wanted a dress that was similar to this. Sleek and simple. You can tell my by face that I'm not really feeling it. NEXT!!!

This next one was an all beaded designer sample sale dress (I want to say it was Marcessa, but I honestly don't know). I didn't think I would like beading at all, but I really liked this one. And it was 50% off to boot!

I held on to the sample sale dress because it was so vintage and pretty glam. The look I'm trying to go for! So that one stayed in the room with me. But lets move on to the lace goodness that I've been drooling over for months:

This isn't "my" gown, but it is a Jim Hjelm and lace.

Dang my butt is HUGE!

I liked this dress more than the others that I had just tried on. And it was clear that lace was the material for me. I love the train of this dress, I loved the sash and I loved the lace (not all lace is equal I learned) but I was not a fan of the neck line or the back of the dress. This is close to my dream dress, but it's not THE ONE!

Moving on: I next tried on a strapless (I don't like the idea of strapless) all lace gown. This was everyone's favorite, except for me and my consultant (there was another bride trying on gowns next to me who had brought her two friends with her, they were giving me their input too. Super nice girls!)

All lace with a sash

My consultant is telling me that she can change the neckline so it looks like my dream dress.

I had a few issues with this dress, even though it is pretty flattering. I don't like the lace on this dress. It was heavier and not the same look at the Jim Hjelm lace I tried on before. Also, I really don't want a tube top. I have teeny tiny boobs (36A) so I just know that I would end up with tons of pictures of me pulling my dress up on our wedding day if I wore a tube top dress.

Let's try another one: This next dress is also a Jim Hjelm lace gown and it's also a tube top. Of all of the dresses I tried on, this one was my favorite.

This lace was so yummy and the train is TDF!

They even put a Cathedral veil on me to see if I liked the whole look (the veil got me pretty excited but not crying excited, which I think disappointed my mom. I think she was under the impression I was going to cry at some point, but I was a cranky-pants, and this still wasn't "my" dress.)

They undid the back a little bit so I could see if I like the low back (like my dream dress), they kept telling me that they could make any alterations to the gown that I wanted.

Showing me again that they could add the lace overlay to give me the neckline of my dream dress.

Hmm...I like it, but it's not "it".

The next one I tried on was Spanish Lace (I have no idea who the designer was) with some beading and a halter top. I wasn't crazy about this dress, as you can see on my face. After trying on Jim Hjelm lace and getting so close to my dream dress, there was no going back. Other lace gowns weren't going to make me happy anymore.




Yesterday I learned that I am in love with Jim Hjelm 8904. I must have that dress, I have no doubts now that that is the dress that I am going to be married in. I have to find it somewhere, try it on and buy it. Le sigh. I was hoping it would be easier than this.

How did your first dress shopping experience go and how many dress shops did you visit before you made your purchase?