one hundred seventy two

what a perfect time to discuss cakes! on my birthday, one hundred seventy two days before my wedding day.

Simple, elegant, with flowers, or quilt-like patterns, or dots. That is my love. Here are a few from bakeries here in the STL. who knows what my cake will look like but maybe something like the following.

one hundred seventy six

veils:

why are veils so ridiculous looking? Seriously, the only ones that look good to me are the retro netting ones, i think they are called birdcages (see below)

however my problem is that I don't think this will go with my dress. i'll have to mock it up in photoshop but i think i will have to stick with traditional.

Since i am attempting to make my own veil i have been doing some research and have found that there are all these rules that go along with veils. a lady has seriously made a webpage dedicated to how people wear their veils all wrong. for example i have seen a lot of brides that wear their veil under their hair bun. according to this lady that is wrong... who knew!

then the whole length deal. i could get one that was to my shoulders or one that is longer than my dress train. the rule of thumb here is that if your dress has decoration of any kind on the back it should fall above or below it. if the veil ended right in the middle of the back deco then it would be too busy and you would loose the detail. ah

i do know that i do NOT want to look like a snow beast with the veil perched way atop my head like this poor thing:

one hundred seventy nine

one ninty seven

we are now officially out of the two-hundreds! we have also just finished the biggest achievement to date, we have booked our honeymoon! here we come st. lucia! seven days in paradise, such a welcome retreat from life. i wish i could head out on it right now. we are staying at a resort with beautiful views of the Piton mountains. oh! i can't wait

two hundred thirty four

jordan and i have been working on a project. his mom gave him one of their old tables and after a good stripping and sanding it's nice and new. this weekend we began staining it to a "dark walnut" its so exciting working together on a project that will soon be in our house/apartment together. the table is looking fabulous. he just finished sanding the legs and will probably stain them tonight!

the first image is what the table looked like when we got it. There is a fine layer of ash all over it making it look dull and disgusting. the second image is just after we stained it. we still need to polyurethane, but isn't it gorgeous!!!

two hundred forty seven

drowning in burlap... yup that's right. i've taken on another project that is kinda big (no surprise there) no big details but don't be surprised if you walk into the reception to find burlapeverwhere. lol and when you do see anything burlap it was made by your's truly.

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i have recently been compiling a "to do list" and lets say that it is getting longer by the hour. currently i have racked up fifty-five different projects/things to do. from table runners to gathering smooth stones to put in vase's centerpieces... i am currently working on the save-the-date as of now. trying to decide what to do, what to use, etc. this is the part where i will be most critical of myself. worrying about typography, uniqueness, texture, overall design, the way the design is carried across different media. i love it! but i just hope i choose well, i have a tendency of choosing one thing then a few months later thinking well shoot i should have done it this way. i guess that's the way with all artists... continually critiquing their work. ah well.

two hundred fifty four

flower girls and hairstyles. love it.

so from my neice i have been given "guidelines" to the way her dress should be. here is the list
1. It has to be all the way to the floor
2. I really want to twirl in it
3. Can i have dangly earrings?
lol i'm just waiting for more stipulations, and I haven't even heard from gabrielle (jordan's cousin, the second flower girl yet).

two hundred sixty one

it's finally here, the best year in the world. 20-11. this engagement is now on it's official official countdown since we are finally in the same year as the wedding. it's amazing how slow and fast this waiting period goes, it's already been a year that we have been engaged. that just shocks me, yet at the same time... A YEAR! i've had to wait three hundred and sixty five and i still have two hundred and sixty one days left. Lord give me patience.

i know not many are keeping up with this blog (especially me), that's the bad thing about a long engagement. this becomes 'old news' for most everyone, i've already had the comments "oh, i thought you got married a while ago..." HA nope i'm still in the countdown period. since there is only a year left and that this is resolution making time I'm going to do my best to post once a week. this kind of thing only happens once in a lifetime.

another sign of a 'too' long engagement: it has been so long that people have had their feelings hurt because they weren't "invited to the wedding," or they "still haven't gotten an invite yet..." seriously people? we haven't even sent out the save the date (that is coming soon though, i think all the wedding calendars point to 6-9 months before hand so we will be in that time period very soon) let alone the actual invitations. those won't be sent out till around early june. so patience please.

i love you all and happy new year!

three hundred eleven

flower girl baskets are DONE! yay and I am so very excited about them. this is THE best alternative to paying $40 for some generic ugly flower basket! I got two small woven baskets (w/o handles) for $3 at hobby lobby. Took the amazing Pottery Barn gift wrap ribbon (just a side note: if anyone goes to Pottery Barn anytime soon and buys something ask for some of their ribbon, it matches the green dress perfectly its amazing. I can use all of the ribbon i can get from them), some jute yarn for some texture, and a flower from a sprig of flowers from HL. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE them! Hopefully Gabrielle and Isabella will like them too...


Topher's pillow is also done and cost a studly $5! I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some satin fabric, Pottery Barn ribbon from their gift wrap, some jute yarn and stuffing! Perfect and it matches everything else! I love this stuff, making all these personalized elements. hooray for weddings and being crafty!

three hundred thirty eight

Patience! i need it and it seems some of my dearest friends need a small dose as well...
ha i'm kidding, i am waiting and waiting for my engagement photos from sara. ahhhh! soo very impatient.

slightly off topic but still under the huge umbrella of 'weddingness' i got my bridesmaid dress today for miss Elena's wedding. it is gorgeous and fits pretty darn perfectly, except for it being an inch too tall. easy enough to fix. here is a photo i took with my phone


the shoes are fabulous as well. they match the top of the dress so perfectly kudos to Em for such a fantastic find and for $20 bucks you can't beat that.

the dress is champagne color with the lace overlay on the top. maria, who is the maid of honor is wearing a slightly different dress that is gorgeous. here is my mock up that i did for elena to help her visualize the dresses and her choice of deep red roses. gorgeous!!!!
please ignore the fact that the roses are just floating there since their hands are actually behind them. use your imagination people!

it is less than fourteen days till elena's big one! i can't believe it went by that fast for her. my day seems to be dragging it's feet. yes yes, it will seem like it flew by when it FINALLY gets here but as of this moment in time.... it's taking the long road.

three hundred sixty four

finally! we are officially at the year mark. we have exactly one year left! yes yes yes! i am soo very excited. today is a perfect day, perfect temperature. there were six roses on my rose bush in full beautiful bloom. i missed traffic on my way to work this morning. so far soo good. so i believe september twenty fourths are forever going to be good for me. i really love this wedding process.

another good thing that is happening today is i am picking up my bridesmaid's dresses! ha so they get to sit in a closet for exactly a year.

three hundred sixty seven (b)

new ideas!

oh i love these pictures!
first a great old galvanized tub (i found one downstairs in my basement! whoo hoo i love it!)
































































Hydrangeas for centerpieces! oh! by the way we have found our florist and i am so very super excited: victoria cripps. she is fabulous and did a friend of mine's bridal flowers. they were so very amazing and she is so extremely reasonable! here are some bouquets that she has designed:

three hundred eighty two

happy labor day! this weekend i went to a friends bridal/wedding shower. well i suppose it was a 'wedding' shower since the groom was present....right? any-who i had a wonderful time! there were some adorable traditions that were done there. since i am not a shower expert and have only been to two in my life these adorable things might not be news to you but i loved them! one was the 'bow-quet' where all the bows from all the presents were assembled together to create a bow-quet for her to use at her rehearsal! so adorable.

another amazing idea. one of her neighbors gave her a red full table setting. in the box there was a poem to explain what it was for. basically it was only supposed to be used for special occasions to celebrate one persons achievements such as a raise or when your little ones come home with a good report card. Set up the table with the red place setting just for them to celebrate in a small way. so very cute.

three hundred ninty three

my first post in the three's! the newest update in wedding planning is the transportation for the wedding party! so this might not be as much fun for other people but i know that fourteen people will be very happy.

we have officially booked a stretch excursion limo that is absolutely gorgeous! this is the car that will take the wedding party away from the church and drive us around getting pictures, then it will drop us all off at quail ridge! It has two bars, tv's, lights...etc. definitely a perfect place to start the celebration!

four hundred one

four hundred one days left to the wedding, unchecked items on my huge list include: florist, church (officially), videographer (if we need one), bridal party transportation, some cake items, engagement rings, all the stationary imaginable, guest list... and more things that i can't remember.

have i mentioned how wonderful my groom is? i can't tell you how much he has helped with all this stuff. this past weekend we worked together on one piece of our stationary, the program. i went through all of my old paper from school and found some amazing paper to use. it has a great texture and is a nice ivory/antique white. jordan is the one who came up with the idea to hold the four pages together. it looks superb! you will all have to see for yourself. he also had an amazing idea for our guest book... but i refuse to say more, again you'll have to see for yourself!

here is another photo dump of my favorites:

four hundred fourteen

bridesmaids dresses are done and chosen! again, its super early, but it's done, one less thing to think about and it worked out so perfectly, my cousin bailey came in town and one of my bridesmaids megan was going to leave the following monday for kc. so everyone was in town for this friday.

we met up at the wedding gallery in st. charles which has the largest selection of bridesmaids dresses in the midwest. this is the shop where i got my beautiful and amazing dress (which has been out of my mind, well until now, and is carefully tucked away in my aunts gracious closet for safe keeping for another four hundred plus days) unfortunately my mom was out of town but my two aunts and cousin's grandma were wonderful step-ins. we arrived as soon as it opened and walked into a completely dark building...no power. ha well that didn't stop us! we were completely fine with using the light from the door to see these dresses! we would go to the men's dressing rooms in the front of the dark building, then race up to the door to take a look, quite the experience. after a few minutes of searching and trying in darkness the lights flickered to life and we continued without a hitch.

with four girls to try on dresses we basically took up their entire back room. we had about twenty different dresses that were swapped, switched and tossed between dressing rooms so everyone could try on each dress. i knew i was leaning towards chiffon fabric, and i loved empire waists but we tried on other options as well. however in the end whether from the general consensus or my slight nudges (i say slight nudges, but since we ended up with my original favorite dress i guess there were some definite shoves from me that helped in our "General Consensus") we ended up with a perfect dress. though i might be biased i think it looks wonderful on everyone. its elegant but simple and not over the top 'bridesmaid' ... well you'll have to be the true judge on that.

i won't show you a picture but i will tell you that it is the same color as that jeep in my previous post and it is chiffon fabric. i love it and hope my wonderful, beautiful, talented, amazing girls will like it too.

more wonderful pictures that inspire me daily: