The Last Weekend of the Summer

Labor Day weekend is almost here, my friends. The days are getting shorter and the wedding is creeping closer. This weekend we will toast the end of a horribly difficult summer, welcome the fall (my favorite season), and begin the real countdown to the wedding. Naturally there will be a little soaking in of the sun's last summer rays, wearing white shorts for the last time this year, and testing out my new VS bathing suit.

My Labor Day weekend starts at the end of the day today so I won't be back to posting until Monday or Tuesday. In the meantime, I wish you all many fruity drinks garnished with umbrellas, the perfect tan, and laughter shared with loved ones. And perhaps a beach-y/lake-y perfect-end-to-the-summer wedding like this one:

(photo via: paul johnson)

One Month

One month from today we will say, "I Do."
Cannot wait.

image via: bliss event group

Feast Your Eyes...

...on the work of one of my most favorite-est Indianapolis photographers.
Not only do I love her work, but there are two couples in particular that I have followed on her blog from their engagement to their wedding. The pictures are unbelievable. You must check out the whole post on Megan's blog.

Ross & Makenzie - Engaged: Fashionable and Trendy

Ross & Makenzie - The Wedding

Are you kidding me with those shoes?!!?

Might I note that the bridesmaids shoes and dresses are divine. I also love that the MOH is in a navy dress while all of the BMs are wearing red.

And those flowers! I love the pop of red with the white! And do you see those red headbands?! I blogged about my love for thin headbands here but it didn't sound like the BMs were in favor. You can rethink that decision now, BMs.
Matt & Katie - Engaged

Matt & Katie - The Wedding

Love the BM necklaces with the black dresses in the picture above. And the light in the picture below is divine.

Just one more photo to share. If there was ever a reason to go to the Indiana State Fair...it would be to get a picture like this:
Robbie & Maria - Engaged

Do You Gocco?

In need of 200+ cocktail napkins with our monogram on them.
Tina just posted about hers and it kicked my search into high gear.
If you have a Gocco and are wanting to take on a little DIY project for me, drop a comment!

Picture from the elizabeth anne deisgns post on Gocco napkins.

The Other Jessica

The other Jessica is none other than Jessica Claire. I don't remember when it was that I first saw her work, but I was smitten. One of her latest weddings was just adorable, so I had to post about it.

First Hillary and Peter had the most adorable engagement session, previously blogged about here and as evidenced again here:

Then followed it up with a wedding where Jessica Claire captured these images:

The couple got ready together the morning of their wedding. Why not spend as much time as possible together on your big day!?

Waiting on the future hubby...with a glass of champagne, of course.

Not even a little rain could dampen their beautiful day. All smiles all the time.

And this, my friends, is some serious bling.

What is not to love about this couple and their beautiful wedding!? Check out their fabulous day-after session on Jessica's blog.

Beware

Nicole , beware. I can see the Groom and groomsmen partaking in some shenanigans such as the following during their photo session with you on the big day:

(photos via: christine farah and melissa koehler)

Sorry for the short post. It's Sunday night and my bachelorette party was yesterday up in Chicago. I am still recovering. However, it was more than fabulous and a post on it will follow in a couple days, once I have all incriminating pictures in my possession.

The Thank You

Now that the wedding is creeping up on us, it's time for us to start thinking about sending out thank you notes to our guests after the wedding.
I have always loved the idea of a picture post card. So I am thinking of using picture post cards for our thank you notes resembling something along these lines....

picture via: (rebekah westover via elizabeth anne designs)

What do we think!? I love the concept because the guests get to see a picture of the bride and groom on the wedding day and there is JUST enough space on the back (of the post card) to write a short and sweet personalized thank you note to your guest(s). Do you like this concept or are you a fan of the traditional thank you note?

FYI: We got our save the dates from VistaPrint and had great results. If you Google VistaPrint coupon codes you can get 100 post cards (color picture on front, blank backside) for FREE!! This idea just keeps getting better, doesn't it?!

Scruffy

You might have noticed that in our engagement pictures, the fiance opted for the scruffy look as seen here:
photo via: nicole green
I, personally, am a fan of the scruff.

But, the wedding is inching closer and what is a groom to do on the big day!? I suppose I always assumed that he would sport a fresh-shaven look....until I saw this picture:

photo via: ben chrisman

Nevermind how cute the picture is, that is obvious.

What do we think about the Groom's scruff? Vote. Comment.

Perhaps the fiance will chip in on this...

{Update: 66 total votes. Yes, we like scruffy: 33 votes. No, baby smooth: 33 votes.}

Reception Flow

Friends,
I need your help in determining the flow of our reception.

Picture via jennifer skog
Here is our working timeline so far:

5:30 cocktail hour begins in the lobby outside the ballroom
6:15 guests are allowed into the ballroom and are asked to be seated
6:30 introduction of bridal party
6:35 first dance of the bride & groom
6:40 first course is served to guests
6:45 toasts by the best man and maid of honor
7ish main course is served
7:30 short tribute to Daddy/ mother-son dance
7:45 cake is cut and bride & groom thank guests
dance floor open for remainder of evening. dreaded bouquet and garter toss follow at some point.

What do you think?!
In reality, this moment at the reception is all that matters:

jasmine star

Chicago: Bachelorette Party

Just a little warning to the city of Chicago.

Saturday is the night of my bachelorette party.
A face like this might make an appearance:
This face= good times surrounded by great friends. and perhaps a beer. or two. Mommy tends to attempt to cut me off after two beverages so we'll just leave it at that.
So beware and don't say I didn't warn you.

And if any of my bloggity friends are going to be in Chicago for the weekend and want to meet up out on the town in a non-creepy-i-only-know-you-through-your-blog sort-of way, drop a comment and we shall see if we can make it happen.

Our Engagement Pictures

Our photographer Nicole posted our engagement pictures last night. When she e-mailed me, I called Chris so that we could look at them together. We are both still in awe.

Have a look for yourself here.

Our favorite:

or maybe this one

Who are we kidding....we love them all. And there are so many more images that aren't posted on her blog...pretty sure they are just as beautiful and we cannot wait to see them.

All amazing images via Nicole Green

Bridal Bouquet Sample

My florist was so worried about disappointing me after I shed a tear while in her presence that she made me a sample of my bridal bouquet for free. It is magnificent.
We are going with an all white bouquet of spider mums and little "button" mums with a couple of white dahlias. It's going to be the prettiest bouquet e-v-e-r.

Bridesmaid Bouquet Samples

When I told you that the sample of the bridesmaid bouquet that I picked up on Friday couldn't have been more breathtaking, I wasn't kidding.
Please excuse the poor image from my cell phone.
The raspberry isn't EXACTLY as dark as I would like it, but it's certainly better than the colors (like orange) that appeared in the first bouquet I picked up.
We can breathe easy now.

Gas Station, Auto Parts, or the Back of a Pickup

I follow a few photographer's blogs....ok more like about 25 photographers....at least.

One of my favorites is the travis hoehne. You might remember him as the photographer behind this post and beautiful/unusual picture from a "vintage" gas station:

My friends, he has done it again. A new favorite:

And a teaser from a wedding that will be blogged in the near future:
Love the tree, love the car, love the grassy/dirt ground, love the attire, love, love, love.
If you haven't checked out his work yet, do so here!
all pictures in this post via: travis hoehne

A Post from Mommy

Mommy and I attended a family friends wedding this past weekend. So I convinced Mommy to make an appearance on my blog today and comment about one of the big questions she has related to weddings. Have a gander:

If you have been to a wedding recently, you have probably realized that once dinner is over and the dancing begins, the guys gather by the bar where the beer is flowing and the girls head to the nearest table with a friend who has gossip to share. The gossip ranges from outlandish outfits at the reception to how embarrassing the toast of the best man was. By the way, the Best Man's toast at this wedding was inappropriate to say the least. When a good song comes on, the girls disband their gossip circle momentarily and head to the dance floor. It is there that they hold their glass of wine and twirl their hand in a lasso fashion (ala "Save a horse ride a cowboy"). All along the boys stay so far away from the dance floor they would need binoculars to see it.

Long story short: How do you pull the girls away from their gossip circle and make the men put down their beers long enough to actually be within 10 feet of eachother. In the old days, the conga line was the answer. The men would unwillingly get snapped into the line and that was that. Seeing as how my daughter shudders at the thought of a conga line, I highly doubt there will be one at her wedding. Then there was the age old trick of the YMCA...but I suppose that is outdated too. What are your thoughts as to how to keep the dance floor full at the reception?
I'm back, friends, with some other observations to share from this weekend:

The bartender would pre-pour cups of beer from the tap and set them at the edge of the bar. This way there was no waiting in line if all that was desired was a cup(s) of beer. Therefore, the line for the bar was wonderfully short for those of us like me that just wanted a glass of wine. However, the beers were quite readily accessible and just begging to be consumed. Perhaps this led to too much beer being consumed since no one ever had to wait in line for it!?

At this venue the cake table was set up near the front corner of the venue. We're hoping that at our reception, the cake can be near the dance floor and be the center of attention while we cut into it. I think that while we're there we will make a speech thanking everyone for coming.

Here was the real kicker for my Mom. The priest never said "I now pronounce you husband and wife." He just introduced the new couple and they kissed and practically ran down the aisle before anyone could even stand up and start clapping!! For the money that you are giving to the priest, you better actually get a pronouncement out of it!

Thoughts?!

No Rest for the Weary

How time flies. Just six short weeks from Saturday we will {finally} be married.

And I am not sure if I am ready.

Not for the whole being married part...I have never been more sure of anything else in my life. I would marry Chris today in sweatpants...but then I wouldn't be able to wear my dress so scratch that.

I am not sure that I am ready for what the next six weeks have in store for me. I feel like all I have done this week is put check marks next to items on our to-do list...but I don't feel as though I have accomplished anything. I suppose that it's times like these that instead of being six weeks out that we could just be at our reception doing the following:

But there is no rest for the weary. Today I am taking off work and going to hair trial #2, my first make-up trial, picking up the second mock-up of the bridesmaids bouquets, and making the two hour drive home for a trip to the dentist and a family friend's wedding on Saturday (I'll be the one taking notes).

Mommy and I are also going to (hopefully) finish up the design of the programs and make the flower girls pomanders (more on that later). By Sunday when I return to Indianapolis I am hoping that the OOT bags that I ordered will be on the doorstep so we can fill them and put them out of sight and out of mind. Next week brings big decisions on the table settings at the reception as well as whether or not to make/use ribbon wavers/wands for the exit from the church ceremony. I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

But to be honest, deep down I'm not sure that I am ready for the whirlwind of "last minute" planning to come and go. In an instant, the pictures will be snapped, the "I Do's" will be said, the cake will be devoured, and it will all be over. Then what will I do!? That, my friends, is a scary thought. So I think that I will just enjoy this weekend and the planning that comes along with it. Be back Sunday! (Unless I blog from the chair while I am getting my hair "did"...have I mentioned I love my new blackberry!?)
(photo above via jasmine star)

Hair Trial #2

Tomorrow morning. 10 am. Every finger that I have is crossed.
Last time we attempted the first "look" in this post. It didn't turn out well...partially because I'm not a fan of the a-symmetrical twist that she put on it, it just wasn't "me". So I'm going to show my stylist pictures of this look...

Not much different. But seriously, how can she get this wrong?! Cross your fingers it goes well...
(Images were found via Google)

Sneak Peek

Nicole posted a sneak peek of one of the pictures from our engagement session.
Words cannot describe how much I love it. I cannot wait to see what is to come!

Click here to see the sneak peek from Nicole's blog!

And I know that I say that a pretty picture should accompany every post, but the pretty picture is waiting for you over at Nicole'sblog!! Go now, then come back and comment!

Also, THE Jasmine Star stopped by my blog on this post and made THE sweetest comment about what a great photographer Nicole is....it made both of our days!

It's About To Happen

My friends, it's about to happen. In 45 days, Chris and I will be married!

I think that it hit us this weekend when we were taking our engagement photos...six-ish weeks and we will actually be married. It seems like just yesterday we were at the beginning of the planning process and attempting to determine the church we would marry in! Sooner than I can imagine, the day will come and we will be:

Just married! (photo via the yellow brick blog)

Please be understanding if posting is sparse in the coming days...there is just too much to do. xo

Our Invitation Suite

When I begin planning our wedding, I was the most excited about the invitation suite. I knew that the invitation suite was to set the tone for the whole wedding (along with the Save the Dates) and therefore, they had to be perfect.

Long story short, these invitations kept me up at night and had me hating them one moment and loving them the next. Somehow, in the end, I was happy with the results. They are all done and all but two should now, hopefully, be in the hands of their invited guests.

The fiance was nice enough to take pictures of snippets of our invitations, so that I could share them with all of you...

(Please credit tying the knot with the invitation pictures. top: color, bottom: black & white)
Our invitations included a plum koala pouch that was flat on one side and had a pocket on the backside. The invitations were adhered to the flat side with Scotch double sided tape. The four insert cards (smallest to largest) were the RSVP, Reception, Accommodations, and Directions (map on the backside) cards.

We laid them one on top of each other and inserted them into the pocket. The RSVP card return envelope was too big to fit directly behind the RSVP card, so we stuck it behind the accommodations card. The invitation was banded together with a raspberry/wine colored stain 1.5 inch ribbon with our monogram square affixed to it. More pictures to come later.

The koala pocket and paper for the invitation were ordered for me by a vendor that I worked with. In case you are wondering, here are the envelopes that I used for the outer envelope and the RSVP envelope:

Outer Envelope
RSVP Envelope

In the beginning I had these big goals of learning calligraphy so that I could address the outside of our invitations myself. Well friends, that didn't happen. What I ended up doing was purchasing a plum sharpie and creating my own calligraphy. And it looked goooood if I do say so myself. Pictures to come. The RSVP envelopes were run thru my printer to display my parents home address on the front of the card in the font that we used for the rest of our invitation suite.

Copy {Click} and Paste {Volume 6}

Mommy and I bought my veil a couple weeks ago and it's taking everything within me to resist pulling it out from my closet, affixing it to my pretty little head, and twirling around in it.

We've decided that I'll only be wearing it for a teeny tiny bit of the day...for a select few pictures before the wedding and during the actual ceremony itself. After that it will go back in the closet. Sad, I know.

However, one of the aforementioned "select" pictures that the veil will make an appearance in will for sure be one like this one:

east hill photography via the brides cafe

The Weekend

Friday:

• Hair trial went horribly wrong. I have pictures, but no one will ever see them. Debating about doing another trial (for $40...ugh) or just praying that it will turn out decent the day-of.
• Bouquet sample looked worse than I could have ever imagined. I shed a tear while sitting at the florist. The raspberry was pretty much hot pink and the light peach was bright yellow. Ironically, they got the plum color right. Overall, it looked nothing like the picture (below) that I had given them to use as the inspiration. Bouquet mock-up #2 will come Friday. Cross your fingers people.



• Marriage license obtained. Good for 60 days.
• Taste testing at the reception hall went better than we could have imagined. Way better. Let me just say that the mashed potatoes are divine.

Sunday:

• Met with church organist. Picked out traditional church pieces.
• Had our engagement session with Nicole and Dan. The five pictures she showed us on her camera are so amazingly fantastic that I cannot even begin to put into words how fabulous they are. And to top it off, friends of ours cooked us a wonderful dinner around 9pm after we had used their cottage to "shoot" at.

Sorry so short. Stay tuned.

Final Fitting

Mommy is here tonight.

We went to my final {gasp} dress fitting. The dress fits like a glove and looks better than I could have ever dreamed it would look. Ever. Finally putting on the dress and having it fit makes this all seem real. I felt like a bride-to- be tonight and soon I will be a bride sitting for her bridal portraits!!

(rae leytham )

Poor MOH has at least 6 bustles ribbons to tie together on the big day. No pressure.

I told Mommy I wanted her to guest blog tonight...wouldn't you have loved that!? However, her usual bed time is 8pm so when we home at 10:30pm, she was done for.

Tomorrow we go for my trial hair do thing, see a sample of the BM bouquets and the table runner, obtain the marriage license and sample the chicken at the reception venue. Cross your fingers that all goes well! (Sidenote: My new BlackBerry Pearl might just allow me to blog on the road!) It's honestly so hard to believe that in less than 2 months we will be married and already back from our honeymoon!

P.S. I will attempt to post a snippet of my dress photos soon!!

Ohmygawd What Do I Wear?!

Our engagement pictures are on Sunday. As in Thursday, Friday, Saturday....SUNDAY!
On top of throwing everything from my closet into the garbage because I have NOTHING to wear I have been attempting to practice my smiles and "looks" for the camera. Just kidding. I already have 2-3 outfits picked out and I really don't have time to practice my smiles in front of the mirror. However, I have had time to scour some of my favorite photographers blogs for some engagement inspiration. Here are some of my favorites and the reasons why I love them:
These first three photos below might just be some of my all-time favorites. I love the laughter, the coy-ness, cuddli-ness and the adoration displayed. Definitely copy & paste them.

Take out the sand and replace it with a gorgeous white pier and a beautiful lake below and we could totally rock this out:The next 2 photos come from the most amazing engagement photo shoot I have ever seen. Chris is a pretty boy and I'm pretty sure that once he relaxes in front of the camera he'll be a natural.
And just because it's a cute picture:
(all photos above via jasmine star )

I love this one for the way that she is looking at him. It reminds me of how my Grandma would look at my Grandpa. And check out the sun flare! (photo by jessica claire )

Walking off hand in hand into the sunset will be a perfect ending to our e-session. Fingers crossed!

(photo via jasmine star )