My Carmel Wedding

We're almost parents!

2011-09-06T10:02:00.000-07:00

So I basically fell off the face of the planet and stopped blogging once our wedding was really on the horizon. A quick synopsis: our wedding was amazing, honestly everything that I could have asked for.

Our honeymoon in Maui was incredible and we're going back in February of 2012 for 2 weeks

...only this time we'll be going back with our 5 month old daughter Madeleine. :)

Yep, we're about to be parents! I'm currently 2 days shy of being 39 weeks pregnant with our first child and I'm blogging my experience into parenthood at my Mommyland Chronicles blog.

I look forward to seeing some familiar faces at the new blog.

'T Was the Day Before the Wedding...

2010-08-17T15:12:00.000-07:00

MJ and I drove down to Carmel the day before our wedding and arrived in town right around lunch time. As soon as I saw the ocean, I was flooded with nerves. My hands were shaking, my chest was tight. I was down right nervous!! So as soon as we arrived at the hotel, we went to the hotel bar and each ordered a drink, champagne seemed appropriate. Then as our friends and family started to arrive we sat down to lunch. I say we sat down to lunch, but I was too nervous to eat, so I had another drink in an effort to calm myself down.

After lunch everyone dispersed and my maid of honor and I went to my bridal suite to get ready for the welcome reception that we were hosting for all of our guests. We decided to host a welcome reception instead of a rehearsal dinner because we had invited 75 guests total to our wedding and every single one of our guests were traveling from out of town. Our welcome reception was held at A.W. Shucks on Ocean Avenue. The food, drinks and service was incredible. I wish I would have taken pictures (thank goodness some of our friend posted their pictures on Facebook!) or better yet, hired our amazing photog for the night before our wedding too.

We ordered about 15 different appetizer platters for our guests to share and another 10 or so oyster platters for sharing too. We also brought in about 15 bottles of various wines for a limited bar offered to our guests. It was a total hit, everyone had a great time and afterwards MJ and I said good night to each other as fiances for the last time.

My maid of honor and I went back to my bridal suite to apply Proactive Zit Masks and MJ retreated to his suite to do what you ask? Well, let me show you...

I'd like to pretend that wrestling with your friends the night before your wedding is some kind of old ritual that all grooms perform, but I'm pretty sure that it's isolated only to MJ. :)

What did you do the night before your wedding? Did you have a traditional rehearsal dinner or something that welcomed more guests?

A wedding is a beginning and an end

2010-08-15T11:10:00.001-07:00

As you might assume, I am a married woman now :)

We had an amazing wedding in Carmel and it was, without any doubt, the very best day our of our lives. Towards the end of the planning process, as our wedding drew nearer, I became too busy to find the time to blog about my wedding planning process. However, I am still going to blog recaps of our wedding because wedding blogs (stemming from the www.weddingbee.com website) was my largest wedding inspiration for my own day.

So beginning tomorrow, I'll be doing recaps of our wedding day with the hope and intention of inspiring brides to be.

For now, I'll leave you with some teasers and to the other brides who's blogs I was following and have now tied the knot: many congratulations and wishes for a life filled with love.

Invitation Inspiration

2010-03-05T18:58:00.000-08:00

Since I've been "allowed" to publicly view and purchase wedding magazines (yes, I was once one of those un-engaged girls who bought wedding magazines!!) I've been anticipating the day that I could send out our invitations.

Seriously. I've designed, on my mac, at least 7 different wedding invitations that I was going to Gocco (I own one, never used it. Bought it on E-Bay right after I discovered Mrs. Penguin on WeddingBee.com), or take to Kinko's and have them print (again, WeddingBee inspiration here ladies), or take to a real printer to have them print (my design) on professional machines.

I've been looking forward to the invitations for such a long, long, long time. I remember when I was recently engaged I was talking to a friend about what I would do for flowers. My response was something along the lines of "I don't know what I want to do for flowers, but let me tell you about the invites that I'm obsessed with right now."

My first love was a feature from Brides magazine (I'm a subscriber, I love the pictures):

I love everything about this invitation suite. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it just speaks to my style.

The funny thing is is that I ended up winning free invitations from WeddingBee.com when I had fully intended on doing them myself (side bar: MJ was FREAKED OUT at the idea of DIY invitations, he had little faith in my artistic abilities). So when I won free invites, I was under the impression that I was limited to one designer's collection. Low and behold, when I finally was able to select my invites, I went with a different designer, in a color palette that was not in sync with our own.

I love these invites, and my girls love them too. :) But I felt like they needed to be dressed up a little bit (I can't handle plain envelopes after making beautiful ones for our STDs), and after fiddling with some different ideas, I've fallen victim to the lure of boxed wedding invitations. Pre-Purchase invitation brides shield your eyes!

Slight tease: I'l be doing boxed invites. I can't wait to assemble and post our boxed invitation suite!! I've already purchased and received (thank you Fed-Ex!!) our boxes. :)

Where did you pull your invitation inspiration from?

It Happened One Afternoon...

2010-03-01T19:47:00.000-08:00

...in Bloomingdales in San Francisco on a shopping trip with my mom. We went into the city to return my Christian Louboutin wedding shoes that I had purchased at Barney's online, but turned out to be a half size too small to justify keeping them.

I had hopped that by some freak chance they would have them in the store in a half size larger and I could just exchange them (I got a great deal on them - I wasn't ready to drop full price on CLs after I already bought them at 40% off). So we exited Barney's and went about looking for something that could satisfy my idea of wedding shoes.

We went to Nordie's and I spotted a great pair of Jimmy Choo's that were practical, timeless and very comfortable. The nude sling back. A beautiful shoe that I would for sure wear again, but there wasn't enough oomph for them to be my wedding shoes.

I then went back to searching for a pair of blue shoes that would satisfy my original idea that my shoes could be my "something blue." The closest blue and style that I was happy with was a pair of Guess pumps, but the heel made them a little too casual for the wedding.

Even though I saw myself wearing the hell out of these shoes long after the wedding (I didn't buy them, I was on a mission for wedding shoes.)

After that my mom suggested that we walk on over to Bloomies. As we're walking around a pair of Badgley Mischa shoes start screaming at me. They are scarily similar to a pair of CLs that I had fallen in love with when I first started looking at wedding shoes online:

As I begin to drool on these shoes, a very helpful sales person walks over and asks me if I would like to try them on. Learning from my first experience I ask for several sizes only to be told that they only have one pair in stock, in my normal size: 8.5. I cross my fingers while he goes back to the store room and brings out a simple black shoe box. I slip on the shoes and perfection.

I present you with my wedding shoes:

How and where did you find your wedding shoes? Did it include a trip somewhere?

Bloggers beware!

2010-02-28T09:08:00.001-08:00

...if you write about your venues, there is a chance that someone who works for the venue may see it.

This could be a good thing or a bad thing. In one of my most recent blogs (found here: The Situation) I wrote about how our reception location was perfect upon first glance but once we went back I found a few things that I didn't see at first - and they weren't pretty things.

The on site coordinator saw my blog at some point and offered to do some draping for our site to take care of the merman that hangs from the ceiling, for no charge! (Isn't that so sweet and kind?!?!) I was blogging about it though not to take a jab at our venue but more as lead-in to our amazing florist/event designer (who has some beautiful solutions to hide the stuff that I'm not to keen on, ie: Mr. P. (More to come on that in the future.)

The moral of the story: be careful about what you say on your blog if it's publicly available to all. Blogs, like email, are open to interpretation because you're missing key communication elements such as body language, tone, inflection, etc.

Now, a little bit more about our florist/event designer. I initially had received a quote from the same florist that Mrs. Lemon (over at weddingbee.com) had used for her wedding in Monterey (about 5 miles north of Carmel). And she gave me a quote that was around $4,500. Just for flowers. It was expensive. I looked around a little bit more and found another company in the area who does flowers as well as rentals and designing of event spaces. I had a phone conference with the owner and she just got me and really understood my vision. When you find THE vendor, you just know. And I knew that she was the one.

The best part - instead of pomanders for our pews, we'll be doing some possie pockets for the ceremony decor. I found a picture showed it to her and she knew what they were called and just had amazing ideas to dress them up.

I'm so excited.

And now, a sneak peak at my bouquet (via Martha. I'm. In. Love. Best part is that they're gardenias so it will smell incredible!! I can't wait to hold my Martha inspired bouquet in my hands!!):

Have you accidentally offended someone on you blog?

FedEx: The Dream Maker and Heart Breaker

2010-01-19T18:51:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago I made a crazy decision; I bought my wedding shoes. I didn't just buy any wedding shoes, I bought my dream wedding shoes (well, they aren't my absolute dream shoes because they're not blue but they're pretty damn close!). Late last week the FedEx man delivered them to me at my office. Louboutin, it's nice to finally meet you:

Christian Louboutin Bow T Dorcet in Gold

The upside: They're classic and all kinds of fabulous. Not only will they look amazing with my wedding dress but these will be amazing with a pair of black capri pants, jeans and a white blazer, a hot little date night dress, the possibilities are truly endless. The best part, I bought them for 40% OFF from BarneysNewYork.com.

The downside: I bought them online which means I didn't try them on first. Unfortunately, they are about a half size too small. Normally, I would happily allow my feet to suffer, cramp up and blister all in the name of beautiful shoes, but because they're peep toes everyone will be able to see the ridiculousness that happens when big feet meet small shoes. Damn, but I was thisclose to perfection!

When I first pulled them out of the box and crammed my feet in, I tried to convince myself that they would fit (I kept thinking that for a few days actually) but they are just too small. I don't want these shoes only for one day, I want them for the rest of my life. Also, if I'm going to drop this much on amazing shoes, they should be perfect; and that includes a perfect fit.

Who needs a spray tan? I do, I do!

So now I'm either going to take them back to the Barney's in San Francisco or try to sell them on E-Bay and maybe sell them for more than I bought them for (they were 40% OFF!) Then I'll be back at square one: searching for the perfect wedding shoes, maybe the Barney's in the city has a perfect pair of blue Loubies just waiting for me to buy them... :) A girl can dream!

Have you made a wedding purchase and tried to convince yourself that it was perfect, even though it really wasn't? Le sigh.

The Situation

2010-01-14T18:14:00.000-08:00

I'm not talking about this one:

Doofus

And although I had a seriously meltdown today, I'm not going to talk about this one either:

Isn't this a seriously fab shot? I still like to think that it represents a bride who is ready to knock some fools out! Specifically some family members who seem to have lost their minds!! I digress.

I'm talking about the eye sore, the ugly that has entered the room and everyone is afraid to acknowledge. I'm talking about this, at our beloved La Playa Hotel:

Um, are those antlers coming out of his butt? I think so.

Sitting above you as you eat, nice. But the thing I'm really talking about it a little bit lower. Yup, right there. Those fugly panels.

When we first viewed our reception space we were told that the panels would be either completely gone or upgraded to wood and more classic looking. More than 6 months later and their still there. The panels are hiding the walkway from the kitchen to the reception space. They have to stay, which means it's time to brain storm, and luckily for me my genius DOC already has some awesome ideas for ways to make the panels intentional and tie them in (I STILL need to blog about my awesome DOC!) But there is another fug problem that also must stay in the room:

He is the namesake of the Poseidon room, I like to call him Mr. P.

The hotel event coordinator says that some people hide him with plants and other dress him up in a toga and have a good time with him. I'm not sure if I want to have a sense of humor with Mr. P or if I want to camouflage him the best that I can. I think hiding him behind some plants seems kind of creepy...it's like he's spying on our party. :)

Did you get over the initial love affair of one of your locations after a second visit?

Where to begin???

2010-01-13T18:15:00.000-08:00

Hello wedding-web-world! I'm back from my holiday hibernation and am back with a wedding ferociousness! RAWWWWR!

The holiday season was a roller coaster of emotion as far as the wedding planning was concerned. Filled with wonderful things like my mom buying us engraved Vera Wang toasting flutes and the matching cake serving set, engraved with our future Mr. X and Mrs. X names. (I cried, my mom cried and then we laughed at each other. It was a beautiful wedding planning moment that I highly recommend!)

My pictures:

The pretty pictures I found online:

But it was also full of the make-you-want-to-tear-your-hair-out-and-pound-your-fists-into-the-ground moments, such as a certain issue concerning our guest list (which blew up in the worst way to day. It seriously makes me sick to my stomach how presumptuous and rude our own families can be at times.)

This past weekend, however, was my favorite of our holiday hibernation; we spent the whole weekend in Carmel, planning our wedding together. I can honestly say that it was one of the best weekends of my life. :)

So I'll begin the story of the world's best wedding planning weekend with the food (I'm just going to go ahead and throw that whole chronological order thing out the window!).

OMG - The. Food. Put simply: to die for.

They brought out some really cute little aritsan rolls (Mike laughed at me when I took a picture of the rolls. I told him he'd be thanking me in a few months when he forgets if there was a bread starter or not!!)

We started by choosing a first dish:

Romaine lettuce with blue cheese, cranberries and walnuts, and basil vinaigrette. I could have eaten this baby all day long.

Runner up: Baby spinach and butter lettuce with hazelnut vinaigrette, toasted pine nuts and pears. Love the dressing, but when they brought it out I thought the pear was nigiri. I looked at Mike and asked if sushi came with the salad - nope that's the pear. Not pretty, but tasty.

Loser: Cream of Broccoli soup = yuck. Bland and kind of ugly. We both veto'd it.

Then we move on to the entree's that we choose. We weren't positive that these were the entrees that we were going to serve but they both were delicious!

Chicken Roulade stuffed with Artichokes and Mushrooms in a Roast Garlic Sauce with scalloped potatoes and spring vegetables. Oh this was soooo tasty. The chicken was moist and the gravy and the stuffing were some complimentary and sweet and savory at the same time. The scalloped potatoes could have been served on their own they were so good, perfect marriage between cheesy gooeyness and starchy potato. Delish!

This was the best, and yes I saved it for last.

Crab Ravioli with Prawns, Tarragon Sauce and Julienne Vegetables. The inside of the ravioli was delightful, it was the freshest crab, the texture of the crab inside the ravioli was such a wonderful surprise. The tarragon sauce was unbelievable, it had the slightest hint of lemon and it felt so perfect for a spring/summer Memorial Day weekend wedding meal. Love love love.

And that's all.

What? Yes, La Playa Hotel is making our cake too. Yes, we did a cake tasting. Oh you want to see the pictures from that too, oh, well, um, I sort of don't have any cake tasting pictures to share, because I, um, sort of didn't take any because I was too excited about tasting the cake. And it was gooooooooooooooddd!!

I'll post more about the cake another day, it's not really wedding food but more of a wedding art piece that happens to be edible.

Is your mouth watering? Mine is!! Did you enjoy your caterer tasting as much as I did? :)

Would you rather...

2009-12-27T15:50:00.000-08:00

There have been some changes with our post wedding plans.

In the beginning, we were planning on doing a rehearsal dinner (well, more of a cocktail hour with appetizers, including everyone invited to our wedding since it's quasi-destination), our wedding day events and then a brunch the following morning, afterwards we would dash to the airport for our European honeymoon.

However, we've since changed our honeymoon plans to ix-nay the European honeymoon (there is just so much that we both want to do and to do it the right way would require more time and $$$ than we will have immediately following our wedding) and we will instead spend 10 days in Maui, Hawaii for our honeymoon. The problem: flying to Maui on Sunday afternoon is next to impossible or too expensive for it to be worth it. At which point the question becomes, to spend another day in Carmel (with our families and friends) or to spend an extra day in Maui (sleeping on the plane and then relaxing - probably - in our room).

I want to spend an extra day on our honeymoon, but I feel like the right thing to do is have a brunch the day following our wedding and then leave for Maui on Monday morning. Afterall all of our guests will be coming from out of town (literally all of our guests, no one lives in Carmel) and pretty much everyone is spending the night there, it seems like it would be so nice for our guests to be able to get together the day after for some mimosas and pastries the next morning.

The other upshot is that I could wear something incredible like this:

However, I could wear something like this on our first day in Maui too:

and hopefully he won't wear this:

What do you think about the morning after brunch? Would you rather have a post wedding brunch or an extra honeymoon day?

Holiday Giveaway! KitchenAid Stand Mixer!

2009-12-11T17:44:00.000-08:00

I don't normally do this, but this giveaway is too good to pass up.

Mrs. Deal Finder is hosting a KitchenAid Stand Mixer giveaway on her site. It's a KitchenAid Classic 4.5 quart Stand Mixer valued at around $200.

Please go check it out and enter (or don't, makes the chances better for moi!) to win the awesome prize!

Good luck ladies!

C Lo: Revisited

2009-12-11T10:06:00.000-08:00

I'm having a crazy love affair with Christian Louboutin heels.

In the beginning of our wedding process I had heard of Louboutin, but I didn't feel the desire to drop upwards of $800 on a pair of shoes (I could buy a couple of suits for that, and a pair of cute heels!) Then at some point I started seeing detailed photography shots of Louboutins and they're sexy red soles. I was hooked, I HAD to have them.

Then, I quit my job and the idea of wearing Loubies on my wedding day was one of the first things I said goodbye to.

Now, I have a new position and one of the first things that popped in my head was that I would have Loubies for my wedding! YAAAAAAY!

So this morning, I've been drooling over bridal Louboutin yumminess and falling in love all over again. Feast your eyes ladies:

Yummy shoe detail shots get me every time!

Soo cute!

The ring shot on the Louboutin heel is something that I've been in love with since day 1

Lace dress with Loubies!! Eeeek, they're so me!!

I think it's actually really cute that the groom is holding her shoes, unique and cute shot!

I would LOVE to have a shot like this from our wedding day.

I never knew bridal shoes could be so hot!

Have you developed any minor obsessions during the course of planning your wedding?

It's official, like a referee whistle

2009-12-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

The future hubs and I have decided on a color scheme, and it's our final decision. There will be no more changes as far as our color scheme is concerned. Period.

Are you ready for it world? Here it is:

Mint, ivory and coral.

Why did we change it again? For a bevy of reasons, let me begin:

Future husby wants to wear a black suit (he's having a suit custom made, and he's pretty excited about it) and the coral and sand theme just didn't feel like it would work with my groom and his buddies wearing black suits.

Secondly, a very long time ago I mentioned that the chairs in our space are hideous. Unless, you're having a green themed wedding in which case, their genius.

Scratch that, I still think they're ugly but if you can imagine a beautiful table scape with mint and coral all over it I think it will really detract from the ugly chairs. (Honestly, I'm having a very hard time justifying the cost of RENTING chairs. I'd be paying at least $600 and I'm basically getting nothing in return. My guests will sit in chairs that are visually pleasing, it just doesn't seem worth it. I'd rather spend $600 shopping while we're on our honeymoon.)

Third, the style of our venues has a lot of coral (or terra-cotta, if you will) coloring. It makes sense to work with the spaces rather than work against them.

Outside of our reception venue (actually, it's the inner courtyard)

Outside of our ceremony venue

Inside our ceremony venue

The altar of our ceremony venue

Cocktail area of our reception venue - all I see is mint, coral and ivory. Perfect!!

Lastly, he wants green (I wanted green in the very beginning too). I want champagne, but ivory is a better choice here (I could probably get away with calling it champagne, hehe). Coral is the fun that ties it all together and makes it feel fresh.

Here is the inspiration board that has been slowly pulling me towards it for a few weeks now:

I think black suits and mint ties and bouts will look fine for the mens.

This color combo just feels fresh and summery. I think it will be perfect for a late May, memorial day weekend wedding by the sea. Plus, I love all of the fun pops of coral color and the subduedness (I know it's not a word, but humor me here folks) of all three separately but together I think they're chic and seasonally appropriate.

Was there a major part of your wedding that took you several months (and several changes) to come to a final decision?

RCIA - I'm in

2009-12-08T18:12:00.000-08:00

So far I've been pretty unhappy with our RCIA process.

I went into this process thinking that these were classes, as in any other kind of class that I've ever been to that requires learning. I even thought that since I took a world religion course in college (it was my humanities requirement for the general education portion) that I had a pretty good idea about what I could expect. Alas, this is not the case; let me bring you up to speed:

Anyone who wants to go through the process of becoming Catholic needs a Catholic person to sponsor them, I chose Mike to be my sponsor (this has really been a pledge of his love to me seeing as we're in football season right now and we're required to go to the 10:30 mass every Sunday.) So each Sunday since late October, we've been going to mass at 10:30 and sometimes we are required to attend a RCIA "class" regarding the religion. We've both really been enjoying the mass, but the classes on the other hand...not so much.

The woman who is running and organizing these classes is super unorganized and can't give a straight answer to save her life. Her is an example from this past weekend:

Me: "When and why do people sometimes touch their head, chest and shoulders before or after prayers?"

Mean church lady: "They're just customs that people have been doing for a long time."

Me: "Mmmmmmm kay." [That doesn't really help me, but okay. Moving on.]

Me: "What are the prayers that are routinely said during mass and where can I find them so I can understand what we're supposed to say. And what is the profession of faith and where can I find that at, is it in the Bible?"

Mean church lady: "The prayers aren't always the same so I don't know which ones you're talking about. Cradle Catholics know what's being said because they were raised in the church. The profession of faith isn't in the bible, you can probably find it somewhere else."

Me: "I was just wondering where I could find them so I could participate during mass. Do you know where I could find it at?"

Someone else's sponsor: "You can find the general outline for the prayers and the order of the Sunday mass online. I'll print it out and bring it in for you next time we meet. Would anyone else like a copy?"

Everyone else: raises hand

To be completely fair, this last class was done by a man who is actually a teacher at a local Catholic school for girls and has a Ph. D in religious studies. His lecture was structured and a breath of fresh air compared to everything we've done prior. Mike and I both left the class feeling as though we'd learned more. Again, to be fair, no one else will ask questions (except for another guy in the class who is trying to become Catholic, but he's a teacher at another local Catholic school for boys) so I asked a lot of questions on Sunday and instead of the nice guy answering the mean church lady was cutting him off and giving me these crappy answers that came off as "stop asking stupid questions, if I wanted you to know I would have told you." And a lot of her responses start with "Cradle Catholics this or that," where I'd just prefer her to keep her mouth shut if she doesn't know the answer instead of making something up or telling me that "that's just the way we do it, it's always been done that way." To which I ask, "why?"

Is anyone else becoming Catholic before their wedding? How have you liked the process so far? (Aside from the mean church lady it's been super interesting and lead to some GREAT conversations between Mike and I!)

Another grain of sand

2009-12-02T19:12:00.000-08:00

...has passed through my wedding planning hour glass. And just like that our 6 month mark has come and passed.

I was looking for a picture of a calendar to illustrate, but came across this instead. Who could pass up the opportunity?

Most notably on my wedding to do timeline, the 6 month marker is when invitations should be ordered. Since I won mine (woohoo!!) I am limited on my selection (boo!!). I won a Weddingbee giveaway a few months ago and I will receive 100 invites and response cards for free (holla!) from the Cat Seto line with Wedding Paper Divas. I'm not sure which design to go with, I've narrowed it down to two and I know that they'll be pink, white with brown font. Here's what I have so far:

Rose Bloom

or Artsy Bloom

Why did I choose these two, because they are basically my only pink options (well technically not true because I can technically order any of them in any color I like. But I'm the kind of girl that has to at least SEE something before I buy it (or in this case order it and not pay for it, because I won it (woot!))).

I don't know what it is, but the further along I get into planning this wedding the more muddled my vision of our day is becoming. Deciding on colors that I like is becoming increasingly difficult, but I can for sure tell you what I don't want and don't like; which for someone who is passed the 6 month marker and still hasn't booked a florist, I better figure out what my vision looks like really quick and start making some decisions!

On a side note, this Thanksgiving was the best Thanksgiving I've ever had in my entire life. Generally the holidays are a major cause of stressing and fighting for me (mostly with my mom, sigh). But last year we had just our parents over for dinner the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (we cook food that is so un-Thanksgiving so we don't piss anyone who is cooking the next day off) and it was a blast. We did it again this year and it was so much fun! Then we did his family's the day of Thanksgiving and another Thanksgiving with my mom on Friday. Needless to say, we had turkey and gravy coming out of our eyes, but the food was excellent all three days and the company was even better. The best part, no fighting. Sadly, I can not remember the last holiday where my mom and I didn't have a blow out fight but it was so wonderful to not fight this Thanksgiving! Crossing my fingers (and hoping I haven't already jinxed myself) for Christmas to be equally awesome!

How was everyone else's holiday and which invite would you choose? Rose bloom or Artsy bloom?

I might have changed my mind. Again.

2009-11-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

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

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...

2009-11-23T06:43:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-11-22T11:35:00.001-08:00

...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

2009-11-19T11:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-19T07:54:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-18T15:47:00.000-08:00

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

Source

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

2009-11-12T09:28:00.000-08:00

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.):

Source

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

Source

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

Source

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

2009-11-12T07:55:00.000-08:00

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?!?!

2009-11-11T20:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-09T17:21:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-09T10:03:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

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?

I want to marry you. Now.

2009-11-06T10:36:00.000-08:00

I've been talking to MOH about how romantic eloping would be, and I know that I've blogged before about how I have a fantasy of eloping with Mike. In my eloping fantasy this is what I have in mind:

My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.

My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.

My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.

My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.

My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.

My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.

My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.

This wedding just looks so romantic, simple and perfect. On a boat in the water, in love and happily married (with an great photog in tow too!) A small piece of me wants this soooo badly, of course with our own twist on everything. :)

Would you ever consider eloping?

Oh Pomander, Oh Pomander

2009-11-05T08:44:00.000-08:00

I love me some pomanders. Something about a giant ball of flowers just makes me smile. I would love to incorporate some pomanders into our wedding day decor, however, they are mighty expensive. So I've been doing some research on alternatives.

Here's what I love:

Here are some of the DIY (read: budget friendly) and non-floral pomanders that I've discovered:

They look pretty awesome, don't they? I particularly like the tulle pomanders. Our florist originally quoted me at $100 for each hydrangea pomander (I would want at least 6 of them, three for each side). I've purchased some ivory tulle from Michael's and plan on doing a tester tulle pomander this weekend to see if I like these in real life and then I'll hit up a fabric store for more supplies to make enough of these guys for our ceremony venue.

Have you found some items to be more expensive than anticipated?

Cut, glue, fold, repeat

2009-11-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

I know that I've been really slacking on the blog postings this week, so I'm going to flood the blogosphere with all of my on-goings today! Yay!!

Here's a sneak peak of what I've been working on:

You like? Stay tuned, the Save the Dates should be going out in the mail on Tuesday and then I'll post my tutorial and all of the other fun deets shortly there after.

Inspiration Sensation!

2009-11-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

My recent research has shown that a wedding on a budget seems to have more personal details, no?

Since I've gone over my budget with everything for the wedding so far, I've been doing some research on ways to incorporate fabulous ideas for less than our budget to try to compensate. What I've been coming across has been really wonderful. Allow me to show you what I'm talking about:

Non-floral centerpieces:

Non-flora church pew decor:

Handmade envelopes:

And I've just started looking at alternative methods of decor than what I had originally planned. Two of the areas that I was going to bust my already busted budget were on centerpieces for the cocktail tables and reception tables. I really want to do pomanders on our church pews but instead of using real flowers I think I'm going to research and use an equally fabulous non-floral method.

Where have you pulled your wedding project inspiration from?

All About Us!

2009-11-01T12:31:00.000-08:00

I've seen a few bloggers post this and I thought it was so cute that I'd follow suit and do the same! :)

Totally Random Fun Facts About Us:

1. What are your middle names?
Ann and Joseph

2. How long have you been together?
6 years!! Since August 2003.

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating?
We met at a party and started dating immediately.

4. Who asked who out?
He asked me out.

5. How old are each of you?
I'm 24, he's 28.

6. Did you go to the same school?
No. It's funny because I don't think he would have liked the high school version of me and I don't think I would have liked the college version of him. The timing was perfect.

7. Are you from the same home town?
No, our areas are close though, same region.

8. Who is the smartest?
It really depends on what the subject is. We're both know-it-alls.

9. Who majored in what?
Mike majored in English with a minor in Political Science. After college he was a speech writer for an Assemblyman at the California State Capitol. I majored in accounting, I was going to minor in econ but I just wanted to graduate at the end, I didn't care about getting my minor.

10. Who is the most sensitive?
Me for sure, but Mike is pretty sensitive too.

11. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
The farthest we've gone together is New York City when we'd been dating for a little over a year. :) We were only there for a long weekend but it was a blast. Lots of memories!

12. Who has the worst temper?
Mike, he's working on having more patience. I have so much patience, and I'm stubborn...it makes for an interesting mix. haha

13. How many children do you want?
We both want to have 3 kids. Mike is the youngest of 5 kids and I'm the oldest of two. When I was in high school I nannied for three boys and I loved it. So much fun! I would love for us to have a similar household.

14. Who does the cooking?
I do most of the cooking but Mike loves to cook, the only problem is that he won't follow recipes. Bacon wrapped pork chops anyone?

15. Who is more social?
Mike is far and away more social. He can easily talk to people and everyone loves him.

16. Who is the neat freak?
Me, without a doubt. Mike's idea of cleaning is hiding the mess in drawers, closets and under the bed.

17. Who is the most stubborn?
This one is me too.

18. Who wakes up earlier?
I am naturally an early bird and always have been. However, since we've moved back to Sacramento and Mike runs an office in the bay area, three days a week he is the early bird and I get to sleep in.

19. Where was your first date?
At a yucky Chinese restaurant that he picked out (he swore that the food was good when he had been there before). Our next date was the magical one, I treated and picked the restaurant that time.

20. Who has the bigger family?
His family is way bigger than mine.

21. Do you get flowers often?
Oh goodness, yes. I used to get them way more often than I do now. I love receiving flowers.

22. How do you spend the holidays?
We spend the holidays doing a lot of driving between houses. We can't wait until we're married so we can finally host the holidays and get to stay in one place!

23. Who is more jealous?
I don't think either of us gets jealous so much anymore. In the beginning I think we each would have our little moments of jealousy though.

24. How long did it take to get serious?
This is funny. When we started dating I was keeping journal/planners that I happened to come across while cleaning last week. A month after we had been dating I wrote "Mike said I love you." We both knew right away that we were in love.

25. Who eats more?
Mike eats WAAAAAAAY more than I do.

26. What do you do for a living?
I'm an accountant and Mike manages sales offices across Northern California.

27. Who does the laundry?
He's not allowed to touch the laundry. I have my ways that I like things done and I do not want to nag him about how he's doing things wrong. So I simply ask that he not touch our laundry so I can just do it the right way (read: my way). Same applies to the dishes, otherwise I will wash/put away/fold things after he's already done it. It's better than being a nag.

28. Who's better with the computer?
I'm better with anything that's electronic.

29. Who drives when you are together?
Mike does most of the driving, he claims to be "afraid" when I drive. Sissy.

30. What is your song?
Jack Johnson's "Banana Pancakes"

And then reality sets in

2009-11-01T10:42:00.000-08:00

... and you have to face the fact that you're planning your wedding within a budget.

I haven't blogged yet about our budget, and that's mostly because I've been trying to avoid thinking about it. Mike and I will be funding our wedding. All by ourselves. In cash. People that have asked about how we're paying for everthing have basically given the same response: "that sucks." While at first sight it does "suck" I think it's not so unusual. I'm an accountant, Mike is in sales, we're both college graduates. There's no reason that we can balance a budget and negotiate the items that we want to fit within our budget, furthermore, we make enough money and have enough in savings to pay for this wedding and our honeymoon in cash. I think the reason that people are surprised that we're paying for our own wedding is because we're still fairly young, I'm 24 and Mike is 28, but again, we can afford to do it ourselves.

In the beginning, I set our budget at $20,000, then $25,000 until people kept telling me that $30,000 was the national average spent on weddings so I thought that $30,000 was reasonable for our wedding. Then I slowly realized that the $30,000 budget didn't include our rehearsal dinner, the day after brunch, or our honeymoon. Now our budget is slowly going back down to $20,000 and considering items that have already been contracted...I'm not doing such a good job. Here's where I am so far (on a $20,000 budget using theknot.com's wedding budgeter tool):

Guest list count: 75; I bumped it up to 100 but seeing as how we haven't sent out our STDs yet (doh!) I can still trim it back to 75.

Reception Venue & Rental: Budgeted: $1,600, Actual: $1,900

Ceremony location fee: Budgeted: $200, Actual: $1,800

Photographer: Budgeted: $1,200, Actual: $3,200

Invitations: Budgeted: $500, Actual: FREE!!! Thank you WeddingBee!!

Wedding Coordinator: Budgeted: $0, Actual: $1,500 (I only booked her this weekend, post to come!)

The remaining large budget items are flowers, music and attire. Catering, alcohol and the cake are all being coordinated through our reception venue, so we can keep those costs within our budget. Everything else I plan to do via DIY and try to make up for the overspending that we have already committed to.

Looking at our budget has been a sobering (read: frustrating) experience this morning that makes me want to run away and elope even more (I would rather spend $20,000 on a incredible European honeymoon!) than I did before.

How well have you done staying within your budget? How much funding are you receiving from your families?

Holiday Nuptials

2009-10-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

Seeing as how Mike (that's his name, I was referring to him as MJ because those are his initials (pretty soon I will be CJ) and I thought using his initials would bring some sort of privacy, but knowing our first names isn't giving away tons of info.) and I are getting married on a holiday weekend, I thought I would share some holiday themed weddings that I've come across. We'll move through the year accordingly.

New Years Wedding: I love the oh so sleek black, white and silver theme that most New Years weddings take on. It really is such a sexy theme (hello, you get to kiss someone at midnight, could you imagine if that was the custom of more than one holiday??). Only down side I see is the cold weather, but some people love the idea of a cold weather wedding.

Valentine's Day Wedding: There's something about Valentine's Day that puts people off because it so successfully raises people's expectations so high that it's easy to feel disapointment. However, I think a Valentine's Day wedding would actually be a treat because the day would be completely filled with love (what better way to share love than to surround yourself with those who mean the most to you?!?!)

St. Patty's Day: Originally, Mike and I wanted to have a crisp green and white wedding. Then we added black and all I thought of was the Wicked Witch of the West. However, the green and white or green, white and black weddings look awesome. And I think St. Patty's Day weddings are so fun because of the little charming additions of four leaf clovers, etc.

Easter: An Easter theme wedding would actually make for a very sweet little wedding day. The pastels and birds eggs are already regular features of weddings without holiday affiliations.

Cinco de Mayo: A Mexican theme wedding sounds so fun to me! The bright colors, delicious food, great danceable music and yummy drinks. I hope someone we know gets married and has a Cinco de Mayo wedding and invites us.

Independence Day: I think a couple could really have fun with a 4th of July wedding. Personally, I think the color scheme would really lend itself to a rustic barn wedding, with very charming accents of stars and stripes.

Halloween: A Halloween wedding isn't my cup of tea at first impression, but the more I think of Halloween (beyond costumes and candy) the more I see the potential. Pumpkins, fall leaves and warm hued colors would make for such a delightful and upbeat wedding.

Thanksgiving: This wedding color pallet is so appealing to me. Gold, deep warm chocolate brown and cranberry red are so luxurious and inviting. Plus, can you imagine the meal that would be severed? Haha, actually I think doing little mini versions of Thanksgiving classics with lots of Champagne and beer would be even better. Yum-o!!

Christmas: I think there are many different ways that a couple can go with a Christmas wedding. I think green, red and white actually come off as being pretty fresh. Yet using a silver, gold and red theme would still equally fit a Christmas wedding and offer a warmer, less fresh but more traditional feel. My opinion at least. ;) So for Christmas I included two pictures.

I didn't include Memorial Day (our wedding holiday) or Labor Day because they are mostly red, white and blue holidays like the 4th of July. That said, just because our wedding is sharing a weekend with a holiday doesn't mean in anyway that we are having a holiday theme wedding. :) But I know that there are some people getting married this weekend that WILL have a Halloween theme wedding which made me think about all of the holiday theme weddings out there.

Would you ever consider having your wedding incorporate the theme of a holiday? What was your favorite, which do you think I like the most?

Fabu Sugar Doll? Thank you!!

2009-10-30T10:14:00.001-07:00

Sweet lil' Miss Mojito honored me with The Fabulous Sugar Doll Blogger award on her blog yesterday. YAY!!

Upon accepting the Sugar Doll award, I need to post 10 fun facts about moi, and then pass this lovely little award on to some other fabulous bloggers! Without further ado:

1. MJ and I have the cutest little puppy dog, Sox. She is 7 months old and we had her spayed a week ago today. She was MJ's graduation present to me. We picked her out right after my graduation from college.

2. Although I've always loved fashion, I'm slowly realizing that I am a total Francophile too. I've always been fond of France, but the more I'm learning about the culture and the people, it's intensifying my lust for all thing French. Oui! (I so want to learn French now!!)

3. I hate wearing socks. Even though I love wearing boots in the winter (they're soooo flattering and sexy!) I hate that it means I need to wear socks too. I'm weird, I know.

4. Christmas is my favorite holiday. I absolutely love buying gifts for other people and thinking about what our friends and family need or what they would enjoy receiving. :)

5. I can eat an entire large pizza all by myself. I haven't been eating much in the way of pizza lately (or any carbs for that matter) but I can eat large amounts of food in one sitting, and when I do MJ will say something along the lines of "That's impressive." haha

6. My favorite movie is Singin' in the Rain. I love love love love old timey movies with sining and dancing, and although I've tried to get MJ to catch on he just doesn't share my interest in Dorris Day, Debbie Reynolds, Carry Grant, Gene Kelly, Don O'Connell, etc.

7. I have been having baby fever lately. Everywhere I go I've been seeing the cutest little chubby babies and it sooo makes me want one. (I think having the puppy inclines me to feel that way too.)

8. If I won the lottery the first thing I would do is pay off the debt of my family and friends. Then I would take an awesome vacation with MJ and the rest would go into the bank. Boring huh? That's the accountant in me, INVEST your money!

9. I applied to be a WeddingBee blogger a few weeks and recently received a rejection email. But I will apply again in another 4 weeks. :) Hopefully 2nd time's a charm! :)

10. I don't like chocolate. I love vanilla and I think white chocolate rocks, but I've never been a big fan of regular chocolate. It tastes alright to me...again, I know I'm a wierd-o.

Now to pass on the blog love (I know that some of these peeps have already received the award but I'm going to give it again anyway):

1. THOUGHTS OF THE ALL CONSUMED BRIDE

2. wheresmydessert?

3. RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A NEW MILITARY WIFE

4. happily after all.

5. Chocolate Lover

6. THE PERPETUAL PARTY PLANNER

7. Lucky in Love

8. Joy is the Best Makeup

9. Girl with a Ring

10. Miss Frogger

A Little Laugh for the Day

2009-10-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Today I had a revelation that the upside to being suddenly unemployed (albeit by my own choice) is that I suddenly have all sorts of time to create DIY masterpieces for our wedding. I'm feeling particularly inspired by Mrs. Perfume's reception dress (yes, she had TWO amazingly beautiful dresses, lucky duck!) that was handmade by her mom, and her veil was also handmade by Mama Perfume:

Like many DIYers I saw these gorgeous DIY pieces and thought, I can do that! Unlike most DIYers, I had a crazier idea; I bet people will love my creations so much that I can sell them. Hence I can solve all of my problems (what, you think I'm nuts, hear me out) with a sewing machine!

If you're a avid follower of my blog you've read the Kreativ Blogger award facts that I posted here. So you know that it's my dream to be a fashion designer. When I was in high school my mom drove me to San Francisco every Saturday to take classes at the Academy of Art on Fashion Design. I was going to go to college in SF after high school graduation to study fashion design up until I met the man of my dreams, MJ, and decided that I didn't need to rush off to the big city quite yet. Alas, after not going to art school (and it was becoming clear that it wasn't in the plans) I decided to get my lovely tat' on my back to remind me of what I love, even though I was to pursue a career in accounting, which I greatly enjoy but don't quite love.

Flash forward to last week, I quit my job and am trying to sort through all of my options. MJ suggested that I buy a sewing machine, design and make clothes and sell my wares to the little boutiques here in downtown Sacramento. Yeah Right!! Then this afternoon, I found my inspiration and suddenly it sounds like genius idea. I would sell my wares to boutiques and on etsy, it couldn't get any easier! Then I started reading the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly which highlighted this weeks Must List, in which it featured www.Regretsy.com - dedicated to totally weird etsy finds like overly anatomical dolls, tacky taxidermy, celeb-themed cat toys.

Then www.cratfail.com popped into my head too. Hmm...my first round with the Gocco was a total DIY fail too. So this plan might need a little more thinking through before it should be considered. However, I must say that I would drop a few pesos on the dress that Mama Perfume made.

Have you seen any DIY projects that you would actually pay for?

One day you're in, the next day you're out

2009-10-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

I NEED to finally go dress shopping. So this week while I have some extra time I am going to start making some appointments with dress shops in both Sacramento and San Francisco. This is good. However, I don't necessarily know that I want a whole entorage of peeps going with me. Enter my delima, telling people that they're out, a la Heidi Klum.

Of course when you get engaged people always want to ask about the dress.

Mainly, "have you found one yet?"; the answer is no. I've received a lot of responses that are similar to "oh when you go shopping I want to go with you." To which you can hardly shoot someone down, so I've made a lot of commitments knowing full well that I probably only want about 2 or 3 people with me, tops. Mainly because when it comes to clothes, I know what I like and what I don't like. That and too many episodes of Say Yes to the Dress have me freaked that someone is going to hate my IT dress, and who needs that kind of negativity? Not me!! :)

Next, "Do you know what you want?" Oh, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. Sadly, when I've searched for it in stores, I haven't had any luck finding it. Since about a month into being engaged I found the dress of my dreams inside of a wedding magazine. Allow me to share:

This is the Jim Hjelm Spring 2009 Style 8904 gown. I'm in love with it. Siiiiiigggggggghhhhhh. The back is so deep and sexy and the front is so very sweet. I absolutely love that this gown isn't strapless and the lace makes me drool. Not to mention that the sash is the perfect shade of champagne. Swwoooooooooooon.

However, that being said, I haven't tried on a single, solitary dress yet. And every bride that I've talked to says that you may think that you know what you want and then you try on a ball-gown and suddenly you are princess bride and you didn't even know until you put the dress on. Me being me, I am pretty sure that this is IT, my dress, 8904 is the dress that I was meant to be married in and I can't find it ANYWHERE!! I'm hoping that I can find something VERY close otherwise I am going to look into having it custom made, but that makes me nervous too...

Did you know what you wanted your dress to look like before you went shopping? Did you get something similar?

RCIA - My first class

2009-10-27T15:07:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday MJ and I attend a Catholic mass at the Newman Center in Sacramento. Most colleges and universities have Newman Centers, they are mostly aimed at young people and they hold all kinds of events and activities for students who want to be Catholic or are already Catholic. The reason that I am doing my RCIA classes through the Newman Center instead of at a traditional church is because I can complete all of the sacraments in one school year (or two semesters) instead of the standard 18 months that it would usually take at a traditional church. The result is that I will be Catholic by our wedding, meaning that I can accept communion during our ceremony, yay!

So how was it? Okay I guess. Being that I was raised mostly without religion in my life, singing songs and praying with other people around me feels a little awkward (read: dorky, hey, I'm being honest). Thankfully, MJ is going to be my sponsor (anyone who wants to be Catholic needs to have a Catholic sponsor to have discussions with and talk about any questions or concerns regarding conversion) which means he has to attend all of my RCIA classes with me. (I can make comments about Christ Chex and now someone will know what I'm talking about!)

This cracks me up!

I feel like the RCIA classes, and mass in general, will be more fulfilling the further along I get, but the best part actually happened afterwards; MJ and I had a lengthy discussion about what we want from our marriage and the values we want to raise our family with (you know, our future 2.5 children :)). I like to believe that most people get married because they love each other, but I want our marriage to share more than just our love, I want to share common beliefs and find know that our core values are the same. (That said, we have differing views on political things that are often said to be religious views too, such as abortion and gay marriage; we don't see eye to eye on those two things but we think they're more political than anything else.)

Anyway, I will receive all of my sacraments that will make me Catholic on the Saturday night before Easter. It's kind of like a wham, bam operation. I will be baptized and confirmed all at the same time. That means I will have been Catholic for about two months before we're married and everyone I love will watch me receive communion.

Have you had any "big" conversation with your honey about what you want out of your marriage?

Because Life Happens

2009-10-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

Sigh...these last two weeks have been insane. Suddenly we have 216 days left until our wedding day and I still have BIG items left on my to-do list (flowers, music, dress!!). This week I quit my job (one of the partners at my firm was a complete jerk and MJ and I agreed that I shouldn't put up with being treated without respect, and while we can afford for me to not work, we have a wedding and honeymoon that we need to finance, so we actually do need my income) so now in addition to feeling behind in wedding planning, I'm now looking for a new job. Our new financial position means that while I'm looking for a new job, wedding spending has been frozen. BUT because I have some free time while I'm looking, I actually have time to do some wedding planning. Have I mentioned that I've still yet to ask one of my friends to be a bridesmaid in my wedding?

With my extra time this week, here's what I'm looking to conquer (while I'm not job hunting of course, or working out at the gym, or taking care of our puppy who was spayed on Friday):

Set appointments to go dress shopping (preferably in San Francisco) and notify those that I want to accompany me (I will post more about how I feel about this in another post soon.)

Ask my prego friend if she will be a bridesmaid in my wedding (she will have her first child in March, so I'm prepared that she may decline. In which case I'll move on to plan B (I will post about this soon too...))

Research florists in Carmel (I've already interviewed one via phone, I will post about this soon)

Research DJs in Carmel.

Set up room blocks with our reception site for friends and family.

Hire a local printer to do our Save the Date cards (I plan to DIY the rest of our STD suite, I will post about this during the week, these things need to go out in the mail STAT!!)

Book our DOC (I've already interviewed her, but I haven't had a chance to actually review her contract yet.)

Drag MJ to the post office to renew his passport.

Talk with our officiant about what we need to do before our Catholic ceremony (I will post about booking our officiant and my first RCIA class this week.)

Finish setting up our wedding website through WeddingWindow.com.

If I could check most of these items off of my list I will be on my way to getting back on track. The only hang up is that I can't really put a deposit down on my gown, the florist or the DJ until I have something set up for work. But at least I can still do research on who I like and who I don't like. However, I understand that it's hard to hold on to vendors (especially on such a popular weekend) without putting down a deposit. So I'm crossing my fingers that everything is ironed out (work wise) within two weeks from now and I want all of the above wedding related items figured out by the beginning of December.

Did you experience a major setback while planning your wedding? How did you get around it?

The Wedding Checklist

2009-10-18T08:44:00.001-07:00

It seems that wedding planning involves lots of checklists. This can be a good or a bad thing. For me, it's a good thing.

I'm a total type-A personality (it's actually pretty bad. MJ isn't allowed to do the dishes or the laundry because I want both to be done a certain way, and I think it's better that I just stay on top of these chores myself instead of getting frustrated with MJ does it "wrong," which just means that he didn't do things the way that I want them done. I told you.) Accountants generally feel at home with checklists and crossing of to-dos for a major project. So I'm right at home. The problem that I have is that I'm finding that my time is growing smaller and I haven't been checking off any of my to-dos. :(

Right after MJ and a I were engaged my MOH bought me this book: The Knot's Book of Wedding Lists. (She loves doing lists too but she's just not as neurotic as I am. :) ) Right away I started going through the chapters on reception and ceremony sites. I started checking things off and making notes in the book and emailing our site coordinators and asking them questions that were in the book. I was a lot of help!

Then when I started my wedding planner (the crazy binder that I carry around with me and look at almost daily, it's chocked full of magazine tear-outs, etc.) there were more checklists about my planning timeline. When I first started with my timeline checklist there were items that I knew I was behind in but I thought I would get them done quickly so I wouldn't fall behind. However, now that I'm revisiting my timeline checklist I'm faced with the realization that I am behind. :(

Here is my wedding timeline checklist and what I've accomplished and what I'm waiting for:

9 - 12 months before:

Announce Engagement - umm...I think the important folks know via word of mouth
Determine Wedding Style - Classic, elegant
Set the Date - Done! May 29, 2010
Determine your budget - $25,000 - $30,000 (MJ and I are paying for it ourselves)
Create the inital guest list - Around 90 or so...
Research & reserve ceremony site - Booked the Carmel Mission
Research & reserve ceremony officiant - Booked Bishop Garcia
Research & reserve reception site - Booked the La Playa Hotel
Select your wedding party attendants - half way there, I still have one friend to ask...
Shop for and order our wedding gown - haven't started yet, yikes!

6 - 9 Months Before:

Choose your colors - Champagne, pink & chocolate
Select bridal party dresses, shoes & accessories
Apply for or renew passports/visas as needed - MJ needs to renew his, I have mine!
Research & select the essentials:
Florist
Photographer - Jen Slot Photography
DJ/band for reception
Baker - La Playa Hotel
Caterer - La Playa Hotel

4- 6 Months Before:

Finalize guest list
Select, print or order your invitations and other stationary - I won these!
Mail Save the date cards
Select/purchase/reserve attire for groom, attendants, etc.
Plan rehearsal dinner
Meet with essential people
Florist
Photographer
DJ/band
Baker
Caterer
Officiant
Shop for and order rings
Plan the honeymoon - Going to France & Italy, but nothing is booked yet...
Arrange hotel and/or lodging accomodations for wedding night and out-of-town guests
Book transportaiton for wedding day
Register for gifts - Done! Registered through Macys and Crate & Barrel
Obtain a marriage license

2 - 4 Months Before

Assemble and address the invitations
Buy undergarments and shoes for your dress fitting
Purchase gifts for the wedding party and others as appropriate
Send out wedding newsletter for out of town guests
Attend showers, bachelorette party, etc. Don't forget hostess gifts!!
Finalize menu items with caterer
Order/make favors
Finalize music for reception and ceremony
Schedule appointments or dress fittings
Schedule appointments for nails, hair, makeup, etc.

4 - 6 Weeks Before:

Mail invitiations
Select readings for the ceremony
Meet with officiant
Purchase gift for the groom/bride
Create, print and assemble your wedding programs
Pick up wedding rings and make sure they are properly insured
Send out invitations for the rehearsal dinner
Start preparing a seating chart for the reception
Purchase accessories such as guest book, ring bearer pillow, toasting glasses, etc.
Make sure to all transportation details are coordinated and finalized
Finalize details with all of your service providers
Attend a test run for hair and makeup

2 -6 Weeks Before:

Contact guests who haven't responded
Confirm ceremony details with officiant
Finalize rehearsal dinner plans
Finalize head count with caterer and figure our table layout and seating
Complete menu cards, place cards, escort cards, table numbers, etc.
Arrange final fittings for wedding gown, bridesmaids dresses
Confirm honeymoon plans, tickets, reservations
Provide attendants with list of duties

Final Week

Pack for wedding night
Pack for honeymoon - Don't forget your passport!!
Pick up and properly store bride/groom attire

Rehearsal Day

Deliver favors, decorations and guest book to ceremony and reception locations
Provide each member of your wedding party with a detailed schedule of events for wedding day
Review ceremony seating with ushers
Hand out payments to select vendors

And that's just the checklist from my wedding binder. Each source seems to have more and more to-dos.

I'm feeling behind, and I'm worried that it's going to snowball and I'm going to be one of those brides that you see on Whose Wedding is it Anyway that has to hire a planner 3 weeks before the wedding because they haven't planned anything yet.

The Ring

2009-10-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

First, sorry I've been MIA recently. October 15th is the final annual deadline for all individual taxpayers who elected to file their tax returns per the IRS extension. To say that I've been busy this week would be a gross understatement.

Anyway, on to the engagement ring goodness!!

Long before Mike and I were engaged I purchased InStyle Weddings, initially I tried to hide this book from MJ, but as years passed and I grew more and more comfortable making hints to MJ that I thought we should get engaged and married I eventually began showing him pictures of the weddings that I thought would be cute for us.

One of the best parts about this book are the ginormous pictures of the many styles of engagement rings. :) My taste and style is very classic and the classic solitaire was calling my name from the page. I think I've told MJ about a billion times that this is the ideal engagement ring for me. (I'm sure about a half billion of those time I phrased it this way "some day, when I meet a man who falls madly in love with me and decides that he cannot live another day without making me his bride, I hope that when he bends down on one knee and proposes that we be together always, that he will present me with a ring that looks exactly like this. I've never seen a ring so beautiful.")

So when MJ dropped down to one knee on a very special Thursday evening and proposed to me that I be his wife, the ring he presented me with was exactly what I had been dreaming of and hinting at, the classic solitaire.

I wish I had pictures from MJ proposing to me but honestly it was so sweet and intimate that there was no way that pictures could have been incorporated.

I have taken some pictures of my ring with limited success of catching all of the fire and brilliance (actually getting any clear pictures of the rock is difficult.) The above is the best picture I've ever taken of my ring. I am going to make sure that a detail picture of our rings is on the "must" list for our photographer on our wedding day. I absolutely love everything about my ring. It's the perfect classic cut, I love the band and the fact that it has 4 prongs instead of 6.

What does your engagement ring look like? Did you have an idea of what your e-ring style was before you were engaged?

Cowboy take me away

2009-10-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

So...MJ and I have officially decided that we'll be spending our two week honeymoon in France and Italy!! Oui! Si!

Ahh...love! We were waffling between going to Europe (I've never been but MJ studied abroad in Ireland for a semester in college) or going somewhere tropical like Bora Bora and living out a Corona commercial, something like this:

Ultimately, we realized that two weeks of laying in the sun would make two pasty skinned folk like us pretty sick and MJ isn't a big fan of water activities so it could get pretty boring after a few days.

Since we've settled on France and Italy we've decided that we'll be visiting the French Open (sooooooo excited!) and we'd both LOVE to go to a European league soccer (futbol) match! And of course we can still spend a few days living out our Corona Commercial fantasies in the South of France but still do all kinds of other fun activities and have lazy days strolling through small French and Italian villages.

Have you decided on where you'll be going for your honeymoon? Were the activities at that location a deal breaker?

Kreativ Blogger Award

2009-10-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

I found out this morning that San Diego Budget Bride awarded me with the 'Kreativ Blogger' award! Thank You!! So cool, this of course allows me to talk about the subject I know most about: Me! :)

I'm supposed to share 7 facts about myself with you and then pass this award on to seven other bloggers. I now present you with 7 random facts about me:

1. I love to run and have completed 4 half-marathons. Actually, this is the first year that I won't be running in the Nike Women's Marathon in SF. :(

A picture of the some of the crazy crowd getting ready to run!

2. MJ lived in Milwaukee for 6 months a few years ago (for work) and I flew there to see him every weekend. I fell in love with that little city and I feel like it's my hometown. I miss Milwaukee dearly.

MJ in his apartment in Milwaukee, I LOVE this picture of him. He's so freakin' cute!!

3. I have an evil plan to take over the CPA firm I work for and become the only female partner. (Cue my evil laugh.)

4. I am terrified of ants. Something about those creepy crawly bugs just really gives me the heeby geebies.

5. I have a secret fantasy that MJ and will elope before our wedding day (it will be something completely spontaneous and oh so romantic. I think I'm too chicken to actually do it though, it's just a fantasy.)

6. I have a tattoo of the Chanel logo on my back. I love fashion and I plan to get back into fashion desgin when I'm older.

7. In the last 4 months I've developed a severe addiction to my iPhone and wedding blogs. (MJ refers to me a Miss Carmel when we're at home beacuse of my addiction to WeddingBee, but the other day I Googled "Miss Carmel" and discovered that it's actually a porn site, niiiice. I feel like I should change my name on WeddingBee now. Ick!!)

Now that you know some completely random facts about me, it's your turn! I'd like to present the following blogs with the Kreativ Blogger Award:

(1) Eating in the Rain
(2) Gettin' Hitched
(3) The Handcrafted Hitching Post
(4) With This Ring, I Thee Blog
(5) Rants by Jennifer
(6) pearls & such
(7) Laylaville

Our Save the Date Design

2009-10-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd go ahead and post my rough draft of our Save the Date in hopes of receiving some feedback (I used Paint to hide all of our personal info.)

I've already sent a copy out to a few people for opinions and so far the response has been really positive. :) So that's good. But I'm still not 100% psyched about the design...I think it has something to do with the pink and I can't really put my finger on what I don't like about it.

Here's my inspiration:

I think it has to do with my fonts and the coloring...I'll be doing a little tweaking on this tonight. I'm going to experiment with a lighter shade of pink and experiment with some new fonts.

All said and done they will be printed out on 4x6 card stock, and will include a little magnet with our date on it. Finished off with a cute little belly band I think, I'm still brainstorming.

What do you think? Any constructive criticism out there?

Bridezilla vs. Groomzilla, round one. Ding Ding

2009-10-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

How involved is the groom supposed to be?

I know there are the outliers who want nothing to do with planning the wedding, they just want to know when and where they're supposed to be and what has been chosen for them to wear. On the other end of the spectrum are the grooms that want to be very involved with the wedding planning process from selecting color schemes to designing the save the dates. I have the latter and am struggling with keeping him at bay.

MJ called me a Bridezilla this morning...what happened? Well it all started last night, I was graphically designing our save the dates and MJ wanted me to stop and spend time with him. After half a dozen "one more thing" statements by me I finally closed my Mac and hung out with my soon-to-be Mr. For our save the dates, I've been planning to have them printed at Kinko's which I told MJ about a while ago (I will now research other printers and see if I can find someone else to fit in our budget.)

Flip to this morning, MJ and I are talking on the phone while we're both commuting and MJ suggests that we should take our save the dates to a professional printer instead of Kinko's. This translated to me as "you have no idea what you're doing and the save the dates are going to be embarrassing if you do them, please take them to a printer" (I'm not insecure for thinking this, MJ begged me to not do our invites on the Gocco machine that I purchased, lucky for him I won our invites...) MJ didn't understand why I was being so defensive and we basically got into a little spat, and that's where the Bridezilla comment entered.

What it comes down to is that I don't want his input on how to print out our save the dates. I've already spent time trying to figure out the best design and print methods. If it was in our budget to use a professional printer, I would take that route in a heartbeat! Alas, each time I want to splurge for something (like our day of coordinator) I also hear the other end of it about how the wedding is super expensive. I'm finding myself longing that MJ didn't care about the details, but at the same time I like asking for his opinion on some items.

When I got to my office I emailed MJ a list of items that the groom is normally involved with (along with an appology for our arguement):

- How much can be spent on the event and by whom
- Where the ceremony and reception will occur
- The size and division of the guest list
- The degree of formality for both the ceremony and reception
- The number of attendants each of you will have, and who you will ask
- Which stores and specific items should be part of your gift registry
- Where your honeymoon will occur and for how long I really do want MJ to take the reins on planning our honeymoon.

I also sent him the link to this article that I for the most part agree with. (MJ wrote this about the article: Apparently, there is some guy out there who has experienced exactly what I am experiencing. Thanks for sending this and I will take the tips seriously.)

I know this day isn't about me, it's about US. It's difficult to hear opinions from everyone when I know I'm the only person planning and researching (with the exception of my MOH :)) this wedding, so although I appreciate the thought I've already hunted down the choice that will work best for us.

Do you have an over-involved groom? Am I the only that doesn't like it?

I'm so vain, you probably think this post is about me...

2009-10-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

But after going through all of our engagement pictures, I found my true favorites. (Side note: I sent the moms (mine and MJ's mom) to view ALL of our pictures on our online gallery, my mom's first response (via email)? "I do not like your blue dress, at all." Uh, thanks mom, self appointed fashion critic.

Anyway, I have to share these too:

This first picture is the one that we'll be using for our Save the Dates. I'll be designing them tonight and I'll post tomorrow what I've come up with.

I'm a little torn on doing magnets...the idea of postcards with this image seems like it would be a little sweeter and then I imagine that all of our guests will hang the postcard up on their refrigerators. MJ thinks that there is only one option: magnets. But what about people who can't stick magnets on their refrigerators because it's not magnetic (we're friends with a couple where this is the case and their garage fridge has a few STDs on it, probably where ours will end up too) I feel like we should send the STD and then maybe a cute little magnet for those who want to put it on the fridge. It's still an idea in process...

How did you mail out your Save the Dates? And what would you do with a Save the Date postcard? If it came with a cute little magnet would you hang the postcard on your fridge?

WE'VE BEEN BLOGGED!!

2009-10-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

Eeeek! This morning I received an email from Facebook with my photographer requesting to be my friend so that she can tag me in our engagement pictures!! YAY!! I quickly accepted her friend request and jumped over to her blog as quickly as I could. The results are phenomenal!! Especially this one:

Umm...yes, I think hot is the perfect word for this. And yes, photoshop is my friend. My skin looks soooo smooth.

Love these too!

But those are just Jen's favorites, there are quite a lot more to choose from. Specifically for our STDs I love this one:

My other favorites include:

I'm loving these! I'm that much more excited for our wedding day - and I'm thrilled that I have no doubts that my photographer is going to rock it out and just add to our entire experience.

Did you decide to do an engagement photo session before your big day?

Michstal

2009-10-03T16:48:00.000-07:00

MJ and I have a wedding website (through Wedding Window, pricey but I think it's worth it) to guide our guests in case they lose our save the date, invitation or want to purchase something from our registry the day of our wedding. I know that MJ and I have gone to weddings before where being able to Google them has lead us to their registries or address of the reception or ceremony sites when we really needed them. Wedding webs have been such a help to us for weddings that we've gone to in the past that it only made sense that we should have one considering that everyone will be traveling to attend our wedding.

The problem? When I Google us (don't pretend that you don't Google yourself!), I can't find our wedding website. :( When I type "His First Name His Last Name and Wedding" I can scroll through about 10 pages of search results for MJ and still not find my own MJ. Granted, he has a pretty popular name but one would think it could be found in 10 pages of search results when I pair his name with wedding. :S

The conclusion - I'm thinking about creating a moniker like Bennifer or Bragelina for MJ and myself. Something like Michstal or Cryael (Michstal is starting to grow on me) or something that is far less common than our names therefore, making us the first (if not the only) result when searching for our site on the web. :)

Combine us and you have Michstal - these pics are MJ and I practicing before our engagement shoot, he looks smokin'!

Does anyone know of a way that we can make our website easier to find through the search engines?

A Hairy Situation

2009-10-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

My MOH's aunt is a hair stylist and owns her own salon about 2 hours away from Sacramento. We've been going to her since we graduated from high school and she never disappoints. So it was an obvious choice for me to ask her to do my hair for my wedding. We were going to do a hair trial this weekend, but it ended up not panning out. However, in preparation for the hair trial I've started looking at styles that I really like.

So far what's really popped out at me are the side bun hair styles. What I love about the side bun is that it looks great with a simple flower. I want to have a veil for the ceremony and I would like to add a flower to my hair for the reception. I think having a flower in my hair with the veil would be too much.

Other contenders:

I love the last three styles a lot, but I think there would have be to some serious extensions added to my hair to make my hair even close to comparable to the above. But I'm not sure that I would want to add extensions to my hair considering that hair extensions are expensive and take a long time to put in and I'm not sure what maintenance would look like.

Did you consider hair extensions for your wedding day?

Ahh, Champagne

2009-10-02T19:40:00.001-07:00

Have I mentioned before that I want to incorporate champagne into our wedding?

Champagne is my favorite alcoholic beverage. Champagne is my style - it's classic, sophisticated, and decadent. Which is exactly the feeling that we're going for for our wedding.

Awesome - so while we're planning our open bar reception we're planning on having wine, beer and - oh wait, that's it? Hmm...shouldn't there be champagne? Well, here's what I have in mind: I think we should have champagne for our cocktail hour and then again we'll offer champagne for our toasts (which I'm not still sure when the toasts are supposed to occur - I'm thinking after the main course has been served or maybe when the cake and other desserts have been served.) We're also considering offering a signature cocktail, but you'd be surprised at how quickly hard alcohol adds up - but the champagne is a must considering that it's one of our main colors for our whole scheme and ties in perfectly with the feeling we want to evoke.

Did alcohol have a big budgetary role in your wedding? It's going to have a big role in ours, but we were expecting it, being Irish and all. :)

Wedding Balloons

2009-10-02T15:01:00.000-07:00

Since I bought my first wedding magazine (I mean, the first one after we were actually engaged, teehee) I've been in love with wedding balloons. Not sure what I'm talking about? Let me show you:

The problem I have is that because our ceremony and reception are indoors I'm not sure of the best ways to incorporate wedding balloons into our day. I like the idea of a wedding sign out front of our ceremony & reception sites with giant white balloons tied to them (or maybe soft pale pink balloons...) I'm also a little concerned that balloons will clash with the overall feel that we're going for. Everything is very classic and sophisticated and suddenly we have balloons - not so classic or sophisticated. A friend of mine suggested that we use balloons during our farewell and everyone would hold a big white balloon as we're dashing away from the party.

What do you think about wedding balloons? Was there an element of your wedding that you knew you wanted to incorporate but not sure how to go about it?

Heaven, I'm in Heaven

2009-10-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not the greatest dancer, ok, I'm a terrible dancer. And MJ has nailed the Robot and Grocery Cart dance moves, but beyond that, he's a bit lost. Despite these facts, I am really looking forward to our first dance as husband and wife!! Maybe I'm a little over-optimistic but I've always imagined it would be something that was light-hearted and fun. Right now I'm dead set on Frank Sinatra's Cheek to Cheek, what I have in mind is something like this:

I also like this one, except I wish that everyone else who is sitting on the dance floor was having as good of a time as the bride and the groom:

So what's a couple with 4 left feet to do? Well dance lessons of course! We knew that we were going to be taking dance lessons just because we're THAT bad at dancing. I figure if we're going to take dance lessons (and drop $300 of our budget on learning how to dance) we might as well entertain our guests while we're on the floor shaking it. :) ...and have a little fun with it!

Other first song contenders initially were Tony Bennett's Just the Way You Look Tonight - I'm still hoping to incorporate this song into our wedding by doing a couples dance. :) MJ also liked Nat King Cole's Unforgettable and When I Fall In Love - but although they're both beautiful songs, they're a little slow and boring. We've always said that Jack Johnson's Banana Pancakes would be our first dance song, but we just can't dance to it. It's still our song, and we'll still use it in our wedding somehow - it just won't be our first dance.

Am I shooting for too lofty a goal for our first dance considering that neither of us can dance? What kind of first dance did you have or are you planning on having?

Can't Hardly Wait

2009-10-01T11:59:00.001-07:00

So last Saturday we had our engagement photo session with Jen Slot, who was way more awesome than we expected! :) As I previously posted, MJ and I are in love with this creative Save the Date (and we're actively stealing this idea for our own):

So we began our shoot sitting in a tree and making out (don't worry - it wasn't real making out, just lips and no groping, haha) in front of a stranger. Turns out that when it's 78 degrees in Santa Barbara it gets humid and that makes 78 degrees feel a lot more like 98 degrees. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure that my hair was massively frizzy and my cheeks were probably bright red, and I KNOW I was sweating. Although we started out nervously laughing and kissing each other, we quickly were able to relax and ended up having a lot of fun.

The problem now is that we're soooooo anxious to get our photos back. I always think it's funny when brides talk about cyber stalking some of their vendors, until I started cyber stalking my photographer and I realized that it completely sucks! Seriously, yesterday I must have checked her blog at least 6 times to see if maybe she posted a teaser picture of us. I just really want to see how they turned out and I really am having a difficult time being patient and I'm a very patient person.

Fabulous Faux-to Fun!

2009-09-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

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:

Source

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.

Source

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!

2009-09-23T19:39:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-21T18:46:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-20T19:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-12T14:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-11T09:53:00.001-07:00

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. :)

I have a secret

2009-08-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

MJ and I are having a Catholic wedding (that's not the secret!) but I'm not Catholic (that's the secret).

MJ's family is traditional Irish Catholic (no really, MJ is only a 2nd generation immigrant from Ireland, his grandfather moved here and sent money back to Ireland to support his family. His mom even works for a Catholic newspaper, and MJ is the youngest of 5 kids. They really are traditional Irish Catholic.) Me on the other hand, I was raised entirely without any religious background. My mother was raised as a Baptist and hated the religion and everything behind it. Therefore, she decided that when she had kids she would let them decide on their own what religion they would follow. That leads me to the present; I don't really have a religious background - save for some Christian youth groups that I went to with friends when I was in high school.

However, MJ and I agreed a long time ago that we want our wedding ceremony to be at the Mission, which means it's going to be a Catholic ceremony. And all things being equal, I have decided to convert (is it really converting if I'm not claiming another religion as my own???) to Catholicism. I begin my classes in October and will be accepted by the Church on Easter. Just in time for the wedding!! I don't want people to think that I'm converting just because we're getting married or that I'm converting just for MJ. I'm choosing to become Catholic because I want our children to be raised with religion and I want them to go to Catholic schools, and I also really enjoy the community that comes with belonging to a church and I want our family to have that. And because MJ is already Catholic, that seemed the natural way to go. AND now I'll be able to fully participate in our wedding mass rites and accept the Eucharist with MJ. :) I think that's pretty cool.

Surprisingly, people's reactions have been pretty varied at the news of my converting. Have you converted to the religion of your future spouse? Have you thought about it?

Ouch

2009-08-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

I was reading Brides (okay, no one really reads Brides, I was looking at the pictures) when I came across a page that was about the pros and cons of having a wedding over a holiday weekend. I read them both. Unfortunately I read the con column first (the bride is selfish to think that people want to waste a 3 day weekend at your wedding, it's too inconvenient, etc. etc. etc.) then I read the pro side and it even talked about a destination wedding over a 3-day weekend (yup, that's us!) and how they weren't expecting that many people to attend anyway. This article really hit a sour note with me, and unfortunately has left it's mark.

MJ and I were never planning on having a huge wedding (our reception venue won't fit that many people anyway) but it had never really crossed my mind that the people on our list won't want to or won't be able to attend. We were planning on 75 people attending - max 100 people. But now I'm afraid that there will be lots of guests who will feel that their Memorial Day weekend will be ruined if they have to spend it in Carmel with us and our nice (read: crazy) families, and may end up RSVP'ing a "no" response. In that case, I'm a little worried that MJ and I will end up with mostly 2nd tier guests at our wedding. However, with that said maybe it's those who are willing to spend a few days in Carmel with us during a coveted 3 day weekend are those who should be the closest to us.

Okay maybe not a wedding this small but still, it will be somewhat intimate.

Source

I know I'm not the first bride to fear that no one will come - but it's a very scary thought when you're having a destination wedding on a holiday weekend. Suddenly I'm feeling like a foolishly selfish bride.

I think I've made our decision, maybe...

2009-08-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

Today MJ and I were looking at various stores looking for patio furniture (we just moved back to Sacramento from San Jose and since we moved into a house, it's the first time we've ever had a backyard). While we were at Home Depot we passed by the paint section and I asked MJ if he wouldn't mind waiting a minute while I looked at paint samples, I didn't wait for an answer and went about pulling colors that I really liked. Eventually I settled on four colors (a la Ralph Lauren Home): Edwardian Linen, Oatmeal, Gardenia and Old Violin. However, after looking at the inspiration that I posted yesterday I feel that the colors I chose today are somewhat too...bland. They certainly evoke the classic and timeless feel (also sophisticated) feel that I'm going for but they just aren't quite warm enough. The combination feels a little too stuffy rather than decadent. Even though MJ approves, I think I'll be making a return visit to Home Depot tomorrow to see if I can't come upon a combo that meets our style perfectly.

I saw via WeddingBee today that Michael's is having a crazy sale tomorrow and I immediately thought "Score! Perfect time to buy everything I'll need to make invites!" Then I realized that we're still more than 9 months out from the wedding meaning that I can't realistically send out invites until about 7 months from now. So I'm considering maybe making some elaborate Save the Dates that will be quite similar to our invites. However, seeing as our wedding is basically a destination wedding the wedding invites will be much more substantial than the STDs.

It feels like there is so much to do and at the same time I feel like I'm trying to do some things a little too early. What I should be concentrating on is booking people for the music, a florist, ceremony decor and reception decor. Time to re-group, I think.

Oh, umm...hello there

2009-08-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

So, I know I've seriously neglected my blog. Whoops! With a college graduation, a move from San Jose to Sacramento, starting a new job (read: awesome, dream job) life has been just a tad bit too busy for blogging.
Anyway, now that I'm back I'll catch you back up to speed. MJ and I went and met with my first choice photographer but it turns out that even though I knew he was going to be out of our budget, he was WAY out of our budget. Bummer. MJ was still so awesome and told me that we could still go with him because he knows that the photography is VERY important to me. Better to get someone who you will love and not regret than to have pictures after the fact and be disappointed. However, I thought I would try to find something that was a little more affordable. Then I came across Jen Slot and I think she's going to be the one for us! She's not as artistic as my first choice, but her work is amazing and she's more of a blend of my taste and what MJ likes too. It's perfect - and we're meeting with her on the 24th (I can't wait so we can schedule a day and time for our engagement pictures)! The best part is that they give the option to have a photobooth (umm...we're both pretty psyched about this) and while I've always LOVED that idea, I always thought it would be toooooo far out of our budget and now it fits in very nicely. :) http://www.jenslotphotography.com/

Next on the list - Save the Dates. So during my blogging hiatus, I took the plunge and bought a Gocco machine. (I bought it before we moved so the Gocco basically sat at my mom's house untouched for a few weeks.) The Gocco is a B5 and used (sent from Japan) and came with some inks and only 1 screen and only one set of bulbs - which meant only one try to get it right for my first tester. My first attempt at Gocco'd paper yumminess - disaster! The ink was just a little too splotchy and it sort of turned out to be a mess - but after buying some more screens and blubs and some gold ink (I'll tell you about the gold later), I plan on trying again. I'm not ready to give up on my Gocco, especially since I really love all of the Gocco'd save the dates and invite suites that I've seen so far. My new supplies should be here sometime next week, and when they arrive I'll post some pics as to what they look like.
Now time for the good news! I've decided on our colors and overall feel for our wedding:

http://gallery.weddingbee.com/photo/tms-blush-apricot-inspiration-board

Our wedding is going to have the feel of vintage creams, gold and a little pink. I want the wedding to feel timeless, classic and a very sweet. I think that's a really good representation of our style (okay, well mostly my style, but still MJ likes it too.) I love everything about the above inspiration board, the invites the maid's dresses, the escort cards, the bouquet, the champagne and the LOUBOUTINS! I've been going ga-ga for Louboutins lately. But again, we'll save that for another day.

Basically I've met a photographer and passed on him, we've scheduled a meeting with a new photographer that we both love, I bought a Gocco, unsuccessfully tested it but I'm getting back on the Gocco horse next week. Oh, and we've decided on the style of our wedding. Phew! Now I just need to be a good blogger and not go MIA for months at a time! :)

Part-time dieter

2009-06-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

So far this bridal diet thing has been 2 steps forward and 1 step back. But not for the obvious reasons, let me explain:

Since January MJ has been living in Santa Clara and I have been living in Sacramento. That's distance of roughly 2 hours (depending on how fast you drive, it could be 1.5 hours, which it usually is for me) which has caused some changes in our living conditions considering that we were living together for almost the last two and a half years. I had to stay in Sacramento so I could finish my last semester of school and he had to move to Santa Clara for a major promotion at work (I am very proud of him, he's an awesome manager and overall business genius) and rather than renting two apartments, he moved to SC with all of our things and I moved in with my mom, back into my room that I had as a teenager.

While I've been at my mom's house, she makes most of my meals (she's been referring to me as Oprah lately, LOL) and then on the weekends, when MJ and I are in Santa Clara, we pretty much totally veg because the week seems very long with the extra driving and both us missing each other a ton. Long story short, I eat healthy and am totally good on my diet Monday - Thursday and then when MJ and I are together again, I basically eat like a man. Well a man exploring new restaurants in a new town. For example, I had a Double Double from In-n-Out Burger at 11:00 this morning. If MJ and I were living together like normal, he probably would have made us a cute little Sunday morning breakfast because I would have gone to the farmer's market like I used to/normally do on Sunday mornings. Instead, there were no groceries in our house and on our way to McDonald's we spotted In-n-Out, enter the Double Double, fries and diet coke.

So basically I'm postponing this whole Wedding Dress Diet thing until July when we will be living together and have some normalcy in our lives once again. The upside: I won't stress on the weekends about what we're eating, instead I'll just enjoy the new restaurants, food and spending our little weekends together; plus I can continue to be good during the week (and maybe add some extra cardio to make up for my weekends a little bit). The downside: this will give me less time to get in shape before our engagement photo shoot in August (and our engagement party in August).

Has anyone else tried to lose 15 - 20 pounds in a short amount of time and had success? What did you do that brought you success?

Bridal boot camp

2009-06-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

So I realized last night (after looking at my thighs in disappointment, but honestly, what woman doesn't do this) I realized that summer is already here and I haven't lost the twenty pounds that I promised myself that I would lose on good ol' January 1st. Now that engagement pictures are looming in ahead, I need to get to work on that New Year's Resolution of mine. (Also, we're already well into swimsuit season and the thought of these legs in shorts is still freaking me out, let alone an itty bitty bikini!!)

Therefore, I'm enlisting myself into Bridal Bootcamp, which will basically consist of me kicking the crap out of myself at the gym and actually exercising some self control (poo!). I Googled bridal diet and found an overwhelming amount of information for and about brides who want to lose weight fast. Even this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8632379/ the MSNBC Bridal Diet Challenge.

Personally I am just going to use the South Beach Diet method. I read the book last year (around September/October) and lost 13 pounds and felt great, but then the holidays came around and I'm right back at where I started. Damn holiday sugar cookies, and wine, and candy, and... Anyway, I'm going back to good fats, and good carbs only and basically no sugar for two weeks (including no bread and that's pretty much what is pumping through my veins at any given time).

The engagement pictures are something that I'm going to hold on to forever and pass along in our Save The Dates to all of our family and friends, so I want to make sure that they see me when I'm feeling my healthiest and happiest (I'm already at the happy point, time to get that healthy part down) because I think it will really show through in our pictures. And when I'm all old and wrinkly and MJ looks at me, I can show him our engagement pictures and remind him why he wanted to marry me in the first place. :) Plus, I've noticed, that we hardly ever let people take pictures of us and I think it's because we both need to lose 20-30 pounds.

No sugar, and daily running will get me in engagement picture shape in no time.

I've already taken a "before picture" of myself in my swimsuit, I'll share it when I'm to my "after picture" self. (Warning: the "before picture" could cause blindness.)

I think we have a reception site

2009-06-08T20:53:00.001-07:00

I just emailed our deposit and catering agreement form to the events coordinator at our #1 reception site. Hopefully he can read the scanned form and will email me back tomorrow to let me know the date and time slot is ours!

Something will have to be done about the chairs, but that can hold off for now.

It will be a pretty huge relief to know that the two of the biggest "to do" items are completed already. Then it will be time to move on to details (or ya know, moving on to items such as finding a place to live when our lease is up in July, or finding a job where I can make good money now that I'm a college graduate) and take a bit of a breather from some of the wedding planning. We sort of skipped over some of the inital fun to dos including sending out annoucnements or actually letting all of our friends and family know that we're getting married. None of MJ's siblings (minus his sis) have seen the ring, or even us for that matter since we've been engaged. Seems like there is an engagement party to be planned, engagement photos to be taken (they don't need to be over the top), and annoucements to be mailed out to those nearest and dearest to us.
This one is cute, only I want some color in it. Only black and white feels too severe for a Spring wedding, especially in Carmel, even if it is in the evening.

A few days ago I was looking online for announcement ideas and I saw a really cute save the date with photobooth looking pics, and the bottom simply said Save the Date and the date of the wedding. I think we'll end up doing something similar, especially if we're going to be doing a black and white theme. Which the more I think about it, the more appealing it's becoming. Black and white and an accent color (I'm not sure if green is that color but I'm having a hard time letting go of green in our wedding, hmm) but I don't want it to be pink, I'm tossing green around, and really what else is there that can hold its own against black and white? I guess it's back to Google Images for me.

How did you come up with the color scheme for your wedding? Was it an easy decision for you?

This is what I'm thinking for our colors, as it were.

2009-06-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

Here's what I have in mind for our colors for the wedding, from Martha of course. http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/photogallery/perfect-palettes-green-and-white?lnc=00e72f09fba1d110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&rsc=pgnew_Homepage
The only problem that I have now is that I want to let my MOH & BMs wear these really cute little black dresses. But when I think green and black...all I think about is the Wicked Witch of the West. :( So I really like the green and white details by Martha, but I also really like the LBDs for the MOH & BMs. I think I'm back at square one as far as wedding colors/theme goes.

Even though we're getting married in Carmel, I don't necessarily want to do a beach theme, in part because we're not getting married out on the beach (the ceremony & reception are indoors) but it also feels a little cheesy. I have started to look at dresses and have found one (so far) that I'm in love with. I'm hoping that finding a dress or at least dress style that I really like will help me find a direction to go in with the style of the wedding.

My MOH told me yesterday that two Irish looking people getting married in a Catholic Mission with a green reception felt like almost too much Irish, and I kind of agree with her (she also suggested that since we wanted to get married in May of next year that we think about Memorial Day weekend and we ended up taking her advice on that one :) ).

What colors/theme are you using for your wedding and how did you decide on it?

Will you be my...

2009-06-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

So I've been trying to figure out a cute way to ask one of my friends and my cousin to be my bridesmaids (yeah, I know, it's almost been a month and I've still yet to ask people to be in my wedding party). So after Googling "Will you be my bridesmaid?" for an hour I came across these:

I called my bestie the night of the engagement and asked her to be my MOH, so I feel like if I'm doing something cute for the other two girlies I should do something special for her too. I'm thinking I'm going to send her one of the above cookies, but it will read "Will you be my Maid of Honor?" and then I want to get a book about MOH duties, something cute. But maybe in lieu of a book I will get her a tote or T-shirt, but those don't seem personal enough. This book is from Amazon.com and it looks pretty cute:

This looks like a cute book when you preview the chapters; the last chapter is about Toasting (which is something that MJ and I were joking about the other night and the MOH and I were joking about yesterday), I think it will be cute and hopefully offer some insite and guidelines.

2009-06-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

P.S. Great news!!! On Friday we got the estimate back for the La Playa Hotel reception and cocktail hour and it's actually below what we were budgeting! I was screaming in my car when the email came through. We're getting both of our first choice venues for the wedding! Now I only need to get my mom to put the deposit down for La Playa to make everything official.

We've booked a location! It's official!

2009-06-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

So on Tuesday Mike and I (with some help from the FILs) booked the Carmel Mission to exchange our wedding vows. I was beyond giddy when Liz told me that she'd pencil us in for the time slot. Immediately I called Mike to tell him all of the good news and ask questions (apparently we need a permission form to get married there...kind of confusing but we've got it all figured out now). We're both thrilled that we were able to book the Mission for Memorial Day weekend!
Next up - booking the reception venue. We're waiting to get a quote back from our first pick, La Playa Hotel. Our #2 pick emailed her quote earlier this week. Oh Em Gee...I just about died laughing when I saw the final estimate price. It was about $8,000 over what we wanted to spend. Don't get me wrong, the location was gorgeous but there was no lodging on site, you could only use their wines (it's a winery), no liquor is allowed, and you could only use their caterer even though he doesn't work for the winery. Mostly we were concerned about having to shuttle folks to a hotel after the reception and maybe after the ceremony too. The Mission is less than a mile from the La Playa and the La Playa is uber close to other lodging options. Now it's just a matter of waiting to receive the quote and then putting our deposit down on the place.

I'm crossing my fingers that the reception isn't too far out of our budget. Please, God, don't let the estimate say more than $15k.

We're engaged, let the craziness begin!

2009-06-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

Mike and I became engaged on May 14th, exactly three weeks ago today. His proposal was beyond sweet. This is how it started a few days earlier:

MJ: "Babe, if I wanted to look at all the pictures of us where would I find them at?"

Me: "They're on my laptop, you can look at them this weekend..."

MJ: "That's the only place that you have them?"

Me: "I don't know, how come you want to look at pictures so bad."

MJ: "Just cause, is your laptop the only place they're saved?"

Me: "No you can go to www.kodakgallery.com/myname and get them from there too."

MJ: "Awesome. Thanks. Love you. Bye."

Then I thought for a few seconds about how weird that exchange was and went back to work.

Then on Thursday before finals for my last semester of college, Mike came from home to work to his girlfriend who had hair back, PJs and no make-up on only to present me with a sweet little photo album that he made of Us. The sweetest thing ever. So there we are on the couch, just flipping through pictures of the last 5 years, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years (of course I kept trying to rearrange the pictures into chronological order) then the very last picture is one I've never seen before. A picture of a diamond ring.

Me: "Um, babe. I think you have someone else's picture."

MJ suddenly down on one knee: "I've loved you since I met you, and I want to spend the rest of my life loving you. Will you marry me?"

Me: "AHHHHH...wait, I don't have makeup on! Oh my God! Of course! Yes! Oh my God! Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Let the cuteness begin!

I must have thought about the day he would propose and fantasized a million and one ways how he would do it and where. Never ever did imagine anything so sweet. To top it off he totally threw me off by proposing on a Thursday night! Sneaky! I love it!!!

I'm now officially the Future-Mrs. Joyce