The Knot Trends of 2008

Today I came across the Knot's Top Wedding Trends for 2008. Let's see what we think, shall we!?
1. Making Split Decisions. For those brides that just cannot decide on one dress....why not have two!? If only I had two bank accounts.
2. The Gray Area. Steel gray will replace chocolate brown as THE accent color. Amen. For some gray inspiration just check out Style Me Pretty, Snippet & Ink, & Perfect Bound. I would throw it into my color scheme if I could.

(inspiration board taken from Style Me Pretty)

3. A Return To White. The classic color is making a comeback. Just ask Classic Bride. If I had it my way, I would have stayed with a clean white & black scheme. Somehow the "splashes" of plum and raspberry have overtaken the b&w.
4. Lush and Luxe. "Size does matter for floral arrangements....more petals, blossoms, even feathers!!" Feathers? Scary. Petals = Pretty.

(photo by Jasmine Star Photography)

5. Sample Stations. Try a champagne bar with different fruits and mixers or mashed potato martini bar with bacon, cheese, sour cream, other mouth-watering toppings. Anything where your guests can make their own signature creation will be a hit with your guests.
6. Vintage Visions. "From dresses to rings, brides are revisiting the past for style inspiration." Love it.
7. Guests Make the Call. Need help? Allow the guests vote on it thru quizzes on your wedding webpage or a blog poll (like the one above!). Examples The Knot mentioned were letting your guests vote on their favorite cake flavors, entree choices, or dance music.
8. Other top trends were: Green weddings, honeymoon hopping, and booking a cover band to play at your reception.

I suppose you could say we're somewhat trendy. #2, 3, 5, and 7 are trends that we are definitely hoping to carry out in our wedding. What "hot" trends are you following? Are there any more you would add to the list?

Poll: Invitation Design

Over the weekend, Chris and I were estatic when we received proofs back from our "invitation designer." We told her that we wanted the invite to be based off of the monogram designed for us by Erin of e lucky designs. She sent back some amazing proofs and now we just need to pick a design!

The poll for this week will have you voting on what your favorite design is. Help us pick!!

(Option 1.)

(Option 2. Bars right below and above the monogram)

(Option 3. Bars around our names)

Items to note:
1. Last names & venues have been blacked-out for privacy issues.
2. We want our invitations to look something like this (invites of Mrs. Eggplant from weddingbee )when we are all done. I'll be posting later about options for colors of cardstock, backing, ribbon and pocketfolds.


So, which one is your favorite!? Vote now! Goal for voting on the poll: 30 votes!!
{Results: 33 votes! option 1: 18, option 2: 7, option 3: 8, back to the drawing board: 0}

Shades and/or Shade

Yesterday I posted about how I love the little details of the big day...like the groom's surprisingly striped socks! Today, I move onto another detail...shades and/or shade.
Chris and his groomsmen are all big fans of aviators. Apparently "chicks" flock to them in droves while they are sporting the shades. Whatever. Point being that I can totally see Chris and his groomsmen doing something like this on our wedding day:

(photo via bobbi + mike)

I suppose I will let them have their fun. P.S. love the idea of alternating tie colors between the guys. I'm assuming given the choice between a plum tie or a raspberry tie, most of them would go for the raspberry....they like to think they are metro.

And while I, myself, will not be sporting the aviators on the big day, I did give this type of shade a thought:

(photo via evoke photography)

And then I realized that our wedding is in downtown Indianapolis and seriously, for so many reasons, there is no need for any amount of parasols. I surprised myself with how many anti-parasol thoughts I came up with. (Think eye injury, weird stares from onlookers for having a parasol downtown, an extra $7 per parasol into the budget, etc) But what are the girls going to do for shade? Maybe I'll just have the BM's wear matching aviators. Inside the church. During the ceremony. No?

Did any of you/will any of you be incorporating shades or shade as a fun little detail into your wedding day?

(So as to not offend: I personally do like the idea of a parasol...in the proper setting. For example, a country wedding, a wedding in the South, etc. Just not one in downtown Indianapolis. The parasols just aren't necessary)

Stripes or Argyle Socks?

I stalk photographers blogs regularly. Hopefully they don't have any sort of tracking installed for their blog. Seriously, I am sure that they would block me when they see how often I visit their sites in hopes that my google reader isn't working and a new post has miraculously appeared since the last time I checked 5 minutes ago. Anyways, I love these shots of the grooms' socks! What a cute little detail!

(photos via jessica claire & nicole green)

Does your groom have enough courage to don a daring pair of socks? I'm wondering if Chris would wear a plum and black striped sock....or an argyle sock with a combination of black, plum, and raspberry. If I want him to wear them then I might as well just buy them for him and attempt to justify it as money well spent for a photo op....think it would work?!

Ordering the BMs

In my opinion, there is this sort-of unspoken understanding between BMs that where you stand in line has a direct correlation with how close you are to the bride. Right?! I feel as though its almost a competition to see who is standing closest to the bride on the big day. Let's face it, no one wants to pay upwards of $200 on a BM dress to stand at the end of the line in all of the pictures and at the bottom of the steps at the church and watch from afar.

(both photos from the fabulous portfolio of bobbi + mike)

"Ordering" the BMs is no fun or easy task...especially when family members (and future in-laws) are thrown into the line-up alongside a mix of old and new friends. Some brides solve this dilemma by simply ordering their wedding party by height. But, that simple solution doesn't work for everyone. And I mean come on...it can't be THAT easy can it?! How did you or how will you order your bridal party?

I asked Chris the other day if, being the groom, he felt any pressures to line-up his groomsmen in any particular way. And he gave me one of those weird looks like I was speaking in bride gibberish. Does your/did your groom have any particular reason behind how his boys will be/were lined up?

More Tidbits

Have I mentioned how productive we have been with our wedding to-do list these past two weeks?!

• As I casually mentioned, I bought my dress about 2 weeks ago! I'll post pictures of it later... the ones of it on-line don't do it justice. I have never been so relieved to actually buy something in my entire life.
• This weekend I'm ordering a j crew dress for myself (completely justified since I will have showers, other weddings, and rehearsal dinners to go to this summer) so that we can see how it will look on some of the BM's



(navy j crew sophia dress....so pretty in the summer with some coral colored or even yellow jewelry...)


• Chris set up the meeting with the priest overseeing our marriage preparation for next weekend. One step closer to getting hitched.
• Chris booked the rehearsal dinner venue yesterday and I can guarantee our time at Binkley's will be as much fun as our actual reception!
• This weekend we're meeting with a potential DJ, determining our wedding liturgy, and picking out our save-the date designs.
• I ordered and received our monogram from e lucky designs. Love it. It's going to be the inspiration behind our invitation suite and will appear on everything I can justify affixing it to. Erin, you did an amazing job...thanks again!

• This weekend we're meeting with a potential DJ, determining our wedding liturgy, and picking out our save-the date designs (the results of the save-the-date poll were too close to call, so I guess we have to decide for ourselves if our pretty faces will grace the mailboxes of our guests).
• We booked our honeymoon! 6 days and 7 nights in St. Lucia in a Beachfront Penthouse Suite. Time alone in paradise with my h-u-s-b-a-n-d= cannot wait!
• Shout out to Aletha at Pearls Events for inspiring me to change up my blog header. You likey?

The weekend is here and that means I get to go home after being out of town (and working 55 hours a week) for the last 19 out of 21 days. This is the longest that Chris and I have ever gone without seeing each other and although our calendar is already filled for the weekend, I know that we'll take the time to enjoy just being together....hope you can do the same!!

Poll: How Do We Get There!?

Most of the "major" decisions surrounding our wedding day have already been made, contracts signed, and a sigh of relief uttered. But now we're on to the more tedious tasks....some of which I didn't know would cause such a headache.
For example, trying to figure out how to get a bridal party of possibly 16 people including the bride & groom from the hotel (getting ready area) to the pre-ceremony picture location, to the church, and back to the hotel for the reception. Ugh. My head is already starting to hurt.
Here are our options:

(top 2: Jessica Strickland, bottom l: bobbi and mike, bottom r: our photog Nicole Green)

1. 18 passenger stretch hummer limo

2. 21-28 passenger sleek, black, minibus

3. 16-20 passenger trolley

4. a hot rod/antique car/sports car for the Fiance and I

I'm leaning towards just renting an amazing car for the two of us to drive around in the day of the wedding and have the rest of the bridal party get to and from the venues w/ their significant others and their own carpool arrangements. It's the most logical and cost-efficient option we have at this point. I think that we'll like the time we'll have to ourselves when we're driving together. On the other hand, we know we would have some memorable moments with our bridal party if we were all together and driving around town.

What are your thoughts?! What did you do/are you going to do about transportation on your wedding day!? Vote now on the poll on the top left side of the blog and leave a comment too, we appreciate all of your thoughtful input!

{Results: 21 votes. stretch hummer limo: 2, the minibus: 1, a trolley: 7, a classy car perfect for the bride and groom: 11}

{Update: we're leaning towards the classy car for the 2 of us!}