My Whole Heart for My Whole Life

Update on Life

2011-06-22T15:38:00.000-04:00

Most importantly, I'm happy to say that the husband and I are still very happily married. We are about to celebrate our second anniversary and we are also about to move into our first house! Super excited!

We now live in Champaign, Illinois because he got an awesome job offer last summer and we immediately moved. I'm pretty much living the dream, since I opened my own Etsy shop offering wedding invitations and other stationery. Check it out! :) Daisy Design Shop

I also do some freelance writing and odd jobs but my Etsy shop has been so successful that it's pretty much a full-time job. I would have never guessed when I first discovered Etsy that I would one day have my own shop. And of course it's so much fun that I still get to work with wedding stuff. :)

Take care!

Wedding Pictures!

2009-12-02T14:35:00.017-05:00

I kind of got side-tracked since my last blog post! I have a job now (FINALLY!) as the Office Manager/Copyeditor/Marketing Assistant for a local start-up educational company, and it's been keeping me busy! Jordan and I have also been busy making holiday visits and doing a major cleaning of our apartment. But I do have wedding pictures! I will return to the Honeymoon pictures posts eventually. :)

It's been so very hard to pick absolute favorites, but I will try to keep this post reasonable. If you want to view my favorite 200, go here!

Remember you can click on them to see the high-res versions. :)

Getting Ready

Some of my favorite guys, before the ceremony. :)

My niece (and flowergirl) being sweet.

Bridal Portraits

Our "First Look" Session

Me "sneaking" up behind Jordan. :)

The Ceremony

This is when I started laughing in order to keep from crying...and I love this picture!

Wedding Party and Friends

Carriage Ride

Reception

Bride and Groom Portraits

Honeymoon Pictures: Cliffs of Moher and Dublin!

2009-11-10T12:28:00.012-05:00

The Cliffs of Moher were definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip! The view was absolutely incredible and breath-taking, but we also found out later that they were the filming location for the Cliffs of Insanity sequence from The Princess Bride! I can definitely see it now that I know!

Here's a good shot of me and Jordan with the other view we had:

And here's a cute baby goat that was nearby! Jordan made fun of me for playing with him when we had such great views, but he was so soft! :)

After the Cliffs, we made our way to our hotel outside of Dublin. It was too late to go into Dublin for the evening, so Jordan and I wandered around the campus of the University College of Dublin, which was right next to our hotel. We encountered some very cheeky swans.

The next morning, we were up very early to make the most of our day in Dublin! Our first stop was at Trinity College, which is home to an exhibit on the Book of Kells. I found it fascinating, but Jordan just waited outside for me to finish drooling over the manuscript. :)

We then visited an exhibit on Keats at the National Library of Ireland, followed by a quick tour of the National Gallery. Then we were off to find the Oscar Wilde statue--something I was probably more excited about than I should have been :P. We found it in Merrion Square:

St. Patrick's Cathedral was definitely on our must-see list. We spent some time sitting in the courtyard (it was a beautiful day!) before going inside. It was overwhelming in a good way.

Jordan was most excited about our impromptu trip to the Guiness Brewery and Storehouse! We didn't know how far of a walk it was, but it ended up being not too bad since the weather was so nice!

Finally, we ended our day in Dublin with a delicious dinner of Irish stew (for me) and Guinness meat pie (for Jordan). :)

Honeymoon Pictures: Killarney, Ring of Kerry, Adare, Knappogue Castle

2009-11-05T16:00:00.010-05:00

After our outing at Blarney Castle, we headed into Killarney and went on a jaunting card ride through Killarney National Park and up to the ruins of Ross Castle!

Tom was our horse, and he was so sweet that I spent some time cuddling with him before getting back into the cart.

The next day, we went on the 100-mile Ring of Kerry drive, which was incredible! Even though the morning started out rainy, the sun came out just in time for some amazing views.

Next up was the beautiful town of Adare, Ireland, known for its traditional thatched-roof cottages.

One of the coolest things we did in Ireland was the Irish Banquet at Knappogue Castle! Once again, we were targeted as the honeymooners and Jordan was singled out to be one of the Kings of Ireland. It was such a wonderful evening of delicious food and awesome music!

I stole Jordan's crown. :D

Our delicious food!

Honeymoon Pictures: Tenby, Irish Ferry, and Blarney Castle!

2009-10-27T15:47:00.011-04:00

Here are some honeymoon pictures from our last day in Wales and our first few days in Ireland! I was so excited about visiting Ireland and it was definitely all I had hoped it would be!

Tenby was a seaside town in Wales that we stopped to visit before boarding the ferry into Ireland. The weather was gorgeous and the town itself was so beautiful!

Part of the original city walls around Tenby:

We spotted a really awesome rock formation/cave and since it was lowtide, we were able to explore it!

Inside the cave, it sounded like Rice Krispies because of all the sea creatures stuck to the walls and the rocks.

On the ferry to IRELAND!! I was on Dramamine, so I don't look too thrilled, but I promise I was very excited! :)

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was our visit to Blarney Castle. Both Jordan and I made the extremely long trek up many flights of stairs to the top of the castle, where we both risked our lives (literally) to kiss the Blarney Stone!

The two of us in front of the beautiful castle:

And bending over backwards to kiss the Stone of Eloquence:

And finally, my two favorite pictures from Blarney Castle! I was happy to be alive. :)

Honeymoon Pictures: Glastonbury, Bath, and Cardiff

2009-10-23T16:19:00.006-04:00

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures from our honeymoon!

In Glastonbury, enjoying the beautiful weather:

And my two favorite pictures from Bath:

Cardiff Castle:

And our yummy dessert at the Cardiff Castle Welsh Banquet...I believe it was called "Milkmaid's Delight":

Honeymoon Pictures: London and Stonehenge

2009-10-16T17:31:00.010-04:00

We just got back two nights ago from our 3-week honeymoon! We took over 3,000 pictures so it's going to take a while to get all of them organized and uploaded. In the meantime, I wanted to share a few of my favorites from the first few days of our trip!

Outside the British Museum in London:

Jordan imitating a statue. This is one of my favorite pictures of all time!

In the Hampton Court Palace Gardens:

And Stonehenge! It was really awesome, and definitely worth seeing!

I'll definitely be sharing some more later, once I get settled back in. Our wedding pictures should be ready before too long as well! I'll post those when I have them!

We Are Married! <3

2009-09-22T17:58:00.003-04:00

We are finally married!!!!!!!!!! :D

Recap:

The wedding was at 10 AM, and I was awake by 4:45 since I was so antsy and nervous. My hair and makeup appointment was at 7 AM, and all of my bridesmaids came along to eat breakfast at the salon. The wonderful lady doing my hair (Jenny at http://savannahweddinghair.com/ ) was amazing! I have A LOT of thick hair and she had it all curled and looking gorgeous in just over an hour! I also don't typically wear a lot of makeup, but she did a FANTASTIC job of making me look "bridal" without going overboard.

(Note: Although it was supposed to rain all day (60-70% chance of thunderstorms all day), it didn't!!!! It sprinkled for about 10 minutes while I was having my hair done and then it was clear and sunny for the rest of the day! Meanwhile, the rest of Georgia was apparently flooding...I cannot believe how lucky we were!)

Our photographers ( http://www.khmasonphotography.com/ )arrived at the hotel/ceremony venue RIGHT as I got back from the salon (around 8:30 AM) and got some great shots of the groomsmen playing with their Nerf guns (groomsmen gifts) as well as shots of my girls helping me get into my very poofy dress, lol.

My husband and I decided we wanted to do a "first look" session, so we met in front of these gorgeous windows and curtains and had a photographer on either side to catch both of our "first looks"...it really could not have been more special. I almost cried at the expression on his face when he first saw me. I cannot wait to see the pictures! We took a few more shots around the gorgeous venue ( http://www.mansiononforsythpark.com/ ) and then I ran back upstairs to do touchups and gather the bridesmaids.

Even though we didn't have a formal rehearsal, we had a day-of coordinator ( http://www.triciahuddas.com/ ) who did a fantastic job of making sure everything went smoothly. We heard from our guests that the processional was as perfect as it could have been! I could see my flowergirl from a window and she did such a great job of dropping her petals! When I started walking down the aisle, I almost started crying again because my dad was so proud and Jordan looked so handsome!

We wrote the entire ceremony ourselves and our officiant ( http://www.savannahweddingminister.com/ ) did an awesome job with it! When we exchanged vows, I almost started bawling! I eventually just had to stop for a moment and I started laughing, which made all of our guests laugh. :) We did a slightly out-of-the-ordinary ring exchange (we repeated after the officiant together and exchanged the rings at the same time), which got a lot of compliments too. Then we exited to bubble-blowing by our guests and the song, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by The Beach Boys, which had everyone laughing again too. :)

Immediately after the ceremony, we met up with our families and the wedding party for pictures in Forsyth Park across the street from The Mansion. Even though it was sunny and a little hot, we got some great pictures before sending the wedding party along to the reception so we could take a private carriage ride. One of the photographers came along for pictures on the carriage ride, and I'm so glad she did! About 3 blocks after we left, I noticed my veil had gone missing...we looked behind us and it was in the road about 1/4 of a mile away!! Without hesitation, Jordan leaped out of the carriage (after it stopped) and ran off to retrieve it!! The photographer got pictures of him running in the street and me cracking up the whole time! It didn't help that the carriage driver was laughing and yelling, "Runaway groom!" :D

We made it to the reception about an hour after it started (we had instructed lunch to begin for our guests at 11, so they wouldn't have to wait). The photographer bustled my dress in the lobby before we went down to the banquet room because we couldn't get in contact with any of my bridesmaids. :) She was so freakin awesome! We also had a friend's mother and sister in charge of decorating the room (because it had to be done that morning) and it turned out looking gorgeous! They were so helpful and we were so lucky to have them helping us!

We had our reception at The Lady and Sons ( http://ladyandsons.com/ ) and the food was INCREDIBLE! I don't even know where to start. No one left hungry, not even us! We didn't get to eat much (I was nervous and people wanted pictures), so they sent us home with two giant to-go boxes full of food! Also, John Gallien was our event coordinator and he was very good about calling and emailing me to make sure they were doing everything like we wanted it. I could not be happier with the service and value of The Lady and Sons!

After the reception, we had our closest friends meet in Forsyth Park for funny pictures, including a giant line of at least 25 people jumping in the air at once! Then we stood Jordan in the middle of a sidewalk and had 6 people pelt him with Nerf gun bullets, which was caught on camera by both photographers! :) After about 30 minutes with our friends, we went down to River Street for another hour of pictures of just me and him. Our photographers literally took pictures until the last 5 minutes of the "8 hours of coverage" we were promised in our package! We ended up at Wet Willies, so we sat down at a table and just had a few drinks with them, sharing crazy wedding stories. It was so relaxing because both of them are such fun people and very similar to me and Jordan.

We received so many compliments from guests and vendors who said that our wedding went about as smoothly as weddings can go, which is awesome! Considering I spent 2.5 years planning it, I would hope so! ;)

Overall:

I HIGHLY recommend our photographers. http://www.khmasonphotography.com/
I HIGHLY recommend my hair/makeup artist. http://savannahweddinghair.com/
I HIGHLY recommend The Lady and Sons. http://ladyandsons.com/

The flowers were all from the ladies at WedIdeas ( http://www.wedideas.com/index.htm ) and they were GORGEOUS! No one could believe that my bouquet was artificial, and I loved it! They were also very affordable (my bouquet, with shipping, was only $85). The only possible complaint I could make was that shipping was very slow, so make sure you order well in advance.

My dress was from David's Bridal and I LOVED wearing it! It was only $700 and I didn't need very many alterations. Plus the ladies at the Athens, GA location were super friendly and helpful, so I recommend them too!

I don't really recommend The Mansion, to be honest. Although the day of the wedding went smoothly, and everything was gorgeous, we went through SO much crap before and after the wedding. It was definitely NOT worth the $3,000+ we spent for the ceremony and hotel room (our room didn't even have consistent hot water...for $350 a night, that is unacceptable).

******

We are leaving on Friday for our 3-week honeymoon in England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland!! So professional pictures won't be ready until after we get back, but here are some our friends took:

Me with my sister, mom, and niece:

Getting down at the reception with my maid of honor:

Trying to make our way through the lobby for pictures without being stopped, haha:

One week!

2009-09-13T20:53:00.003-04:00

I wanted to post today because there is just one week until our wedding!

The To-Do List has been drastically shortened since I last posted. All of the flowers are done, we have our marriage license, the ceremony and vows have been completed and edited, and I've confirmed our reservations with all of the vendors. The centerpieces will be taken care of on Saturday morning, along with Jordan's caramel apples, my manicure, and a few other small details. I can't wait to pick up my dress and Jordan's tux and leave for Savannah on Friday!

We have decided to make the favors on Friday afternoon once we're in Savannah so that the chocolate doesn't melt during the car trip. Did I ever share a picture of what we're doing for our favors? I found the idea on etsy and decided to try it myself, so we're having animal crackers dipped in chocolate and covered with sprinkles, like these:

We'll only be able to fit between 5 and 7 in each box, so we'll have the leftovers displayed in a bowl by the cake for our guests to take as many as they want. I love animal crackers and I'm looking forward to making ours with some of my bridesmaids! :)

I will probably post one more time before we leave on Friday, but then the next time I post, I will be a married woman! It's so hard to believe after almost 3 years of being engaged. <3

Flowers are completed!

2009-09-04T19:20:00.009-04:00

The rest of the wedding party flowers finally arrived this week! I have been very satisfied with the quality of work from wedideas, but make sure you order super early because both times I have ordered, the shipping has been really slow. I ordered three different colors of gerbera daisy boutonnieres: Jordan, my dad, and my uncle will be wearing white, the two best men will be wearing light pink, and the other groomsmen will be wearing dark pink. I absolutely LOVE how they turned out, especially with the gorgeous ribbon wrapping:

I also ordered loose gerbera stems to make the bridesmaids' purse bouquets. I was a little nervous to make them myself because I wasn't quite sure how it would turn out, but I am very satisfied! Amelia came over to help and we finished all of them within an hour!

Each girl will carry these instead of regular bouquets, and each "purse" has a different animal brooch so they're all a little different. The Maid and Matron of Honor will carry the light pink flowers, and the rest of the girls will have the dark pink.

Boutonnieres, bridesmaids flowers, and marriage license have all been officially taken off the big To-Do List! :) In exactly two weeks, Jordan and I will be leaving for our wedding weekend in Savannah, and in exactly three weeks, we will be flying out of Atlanta to go on our amazing honeymoon! I still can't quite believe it. :)

Three Weeks From Today!

2009-08-30T20:39:00.012-04:00

With three weeks left before the wedding, I think I've finally entered panic and stress mode, which is not much fun at all. I don't have anything big left to do, but there are so many small details that have to wait until almost the last minute, and it's making me a little nervous.

Here's what's left (in no particular order):

Haircuts for both Jordan and me
Jordan still has to write his vows
We kinda sorta still need to get our marriage license...
Have our rings inspected and polished one last time
Track down the 43 invitees who have still not responded!
Tweak the seating chart
Figure out how many chairs to rent and also how many places to reserve for the reception
Final dress fitting/pressing
Make our centerpieces and favors (though these have to wait until a few days before the wedding because they'll spoil)
Put together the bridesmaids' bouquets (mostly because the flowers STILL have not arrived, uggggh!!)
Find an iPod dock to borrow and run through the entire playlist on my iPod to make sure the battery will last through the ceremony and reception

I feel like I'm going crazy! I think it's about time for kitty cuddling and some Scooby Doo watching. :) And since I love to share pictures, here are some of my babies:

Nadia is such a fluffybutt! Isn't she gorgeous? :)

Boo is a little goober and she likes to pose for the camera. :)

And Dumbledore is just slightly special...he lays like this a lot. :)

Bachelorette Party!

2009-08-23T20:17:00.006-04:00

Here's the formula for my amazing bachelorette party: Rollerskating + Delicious Italian Food + Dancing at 8Es Bar = Incredible! I had 6 wonderful girls with me and it was such a great night!

We started with rollerskating at Skate Around USA. It was super sketchtacular and I think all of us girls realized just how long it's been since we skated. It was quite an adventure trying to keep from busting it in front of a bunch of 12-year-olds, haha! Dinner at Olive Garden was fabulous! I think between the 7 of us we consumed about 20 breadsticks and 3 bowls of salad! :) Dancing at 8Es was ri.dic.u.lous. We had such an amazing time and only had to deal with a few creeps/jerky people. The DJ played several of the songs we requested, including two of my favorites: "It's Raining Men" and "Eye of the Tiger". We danced like crazy and asked interesting people to take pictures with me. :)

Amelia bought me an awesome sash and tiara:

Me with two of my beautiful bridesmaids:

After 8Es, while waiting for our DDs, I apparently decided to "Care Bear Stare" all of the girls. Amelia caught it on camera:

What a fabulous night! I love all of them so much. :)

Oh, and a while ago I made a post about groomsmen gifts. Well, we finished "monogramming" them and they look great! :)

28 more days!

Bridal Portraits Are Here!

2009-08-16T13:27:00.010-04:00

I finally received my bridal portraits back!!!! I am absolutely in love with so many of the pictures, so it's going to be hard to pick out only a few to share!

All of these were taken by Matt Lovell of LH Images, who is such an awesome guy! Enjoy, and remember to click on the image to see the high quality original!

Amelia and I call this one the "Mermaid" pose...haha. I love it!

This is the image I used for my bridal canvas to be displayed at the reception.

We wanted to get a shot in front of the lamp post where Jordan proposed, but it had a big sign in front of it, so we went to the next one down! :)

This one looks like I'm emerging from the grass, and it reminds me of a mix between The Lady of the Lake and The Lady of Shalott.

I absolutely adore this picture for so many reasons!

And of course The Arch! It was nice to have pictures done around Athens since we won't be getting married here.

That's it for now! Just over a month away now!! :D

Ceremony details!

2009-08-07T20:32:00.007-04:00

Now that we are about a month and a half away from the wedding (AHH!), it's time to start making decisions about some small details.

The Mansion's Marble Garden Courtyard is really spectacularly gorgeous, and I don't want to fill it with a bunch of decorations that will take away from its beauty, so we've decided not to use big flower arrangements or anything like that. Instead, we will have just a few white chairs, with garlands made of pearls and pink daisies draped across the backs of the chairs. We will only be renting enough chairs for immediate family, elderly guests, and any pregnant guests, along with their spouses. Here is a picture of the chairs we will rent, followed by a picture of the daisy garland I made for just $6 with supplies from a Michael's craft store!

The picture of the courtyard shows a wedding set up to face the pool area. I am actually requesting that our ceremony be set up 90 degrees to the right, facing a gorgeous moss-covered wall. Hopefully that will work out! This picture kind of shows the wall, although there is more moss and greenery on it now than when the picture was taken:

I need to consult with our photographers, though, and see if that will create any problems for lighting, etc.

Finally, because we are having limited seating, I created some seating cards using a daisy template I found. I think they are adorable! I'll be handwriting everyone's name, but for the purposes of the preview, I used the font from our invitations:

They will be folded and placed on the appropriate seats as little card tents. :)

Only a few more DIY projects left to complete, and then we are ready! We have to make our centerpieces (because we are using jello, we have to wait until the day before), and we have to make our favors (again, we have to wait until close to the wedding because they are animal crackers and I don't want them to get stale). In less than two weeks, I am having a program-putting-together and bubble-unwrapping party with two of my favorite girls, so that will be another task completed! Yay for progress!

How to plan a long-distance wedding without going crazy

2009-08-02T14:53:00.005-04:00

First of all, we can now officially say, "We're getting married next month!!" How exciting! And yet, a little nerve-wracking too since I feel like there's still so much that hasn't been settled.

Today I checked two big items off my wedding to-do list, and in the process learned a couple of important lessons about how to plan a long-distance wedding without going crazy.

First lesson: technology helps. A lot. I used iTunes to organize all of my wedding music into various playlists. Each playlist is obviously named (like "Wedding Cake Cutting" and "Father/Daughter Dance"), and a friend will just set my iPod to play the appropriate playlist at the right time.

Second lesson: visualization also helps. I am fortunate enough to have a bridesmaid with family who lives in Savannah, and they have offered to decorate the reception room for us, since we won't have time to do it ourselves. Using bridalcanvas.com, I created images of what I want the tables to look like, so that they will know exactly where everything should be placed. For example, here's the cake table:

Yay for two important, but not-so-thrilling, details being completed! And I haven't gone crazy yet! :)

My Dream Shoes: Check!

2009-07-26T21:29:00.008-04:00

You might recall that I agonized over purchasing shoes for a very long time. I knew exactly what shoes I wanted, but unfortunately those shoes didn't seem to exist. In this post, I explained that I had found a great pair of shoes that I would dye turquoise. I did eventually decide not to dye the shoes because I have heard horror stories of the dye rubbing off on a bride's dress, staining her feet, etc.

At one point, I was also considering getting pink shoes, as I was enthralled with the cover of Brides magazine which featured this lovely pair:

Well, the return/exchange time limit was up on my original pair of shoes, so I decided to just keep them and wear pink flip flops for the reception. Problem solved.

... Except, that's not quite how it worked out. I wore my original shoes for my bridal portrait session and my feet swelled while wearing them, leaving terrible blisters all over my feet. Not to mention, they were uncomfortable and that's all I could think about the whole time I was walking. I definitely did not want to spend my wedding day worrying about how much my feet hurt.

Despite the fact that I had spent $45 on my original pair of shoes, I started looking for another pair (the first time this bargain shopping bride has changed her mind about an already-completed purchase). I decided that this time, I would go with my original idea and try to find a pair of flip flop style kitten heels. Imagine my surprise when I found an adorable pair of hot pink shoes that fit ALL of my criteria...and imagine my joy when I realized they were only $27!

Courtesy of 6pm.com, I now have my dream shoes to wear for the wedding!

And they lived happily ever after...mostly because comfort and beauty can coexist peacefully in one shoe.

Wedding-related events!

2009-07-25T12:10:00.007-04:00

Our wedding is now just under 2 months away and we're starting to have parties and wedding events, which is super exciting!

First, my maid of honor, Amelia, planned a dinner for our local friends who might not be able to make it to the wedding. We had dinner at Logan's Roadhouse, followed by a just-slightly-competitive game of hide-and-go-seek on UGA's North Campus. It was ridiculously fun! :) And the dress I found to wear is super awesome because it has both our wedding colors on it--(hot pink and turquoise). Not to mention it was only $8 at Plato's!

Me with the lovely Amelia

And with my bridesmaid Whitney!

Then, Jordan's family threw us a Couples Shower/swimming party/cookout at their home in North Carolina! It was so much fun and turned out beautifully!

Check out our hats. ;)

Things are definitely starting to go by a little quicker now that we're so close!

Table Numbers Completed!

2009-07-23T10:50:00.003-04:00

I finally got around to creating table numbers out of some of our favorite engagement pictures! It actually took a lot of going back and forth between Picnik and Snapfish to make sure that nothing was cropped out of the pictures. I originally ordered a set without previewing them and most of the numbers had been cropped out! I contacted Snapfish customer service and they were incredibly helpful! They explained to me what had happened, how to fix it, and they also issued me a complete refund! I will definitely continue to use them for my photo orders. :)

Anyway, here are a couple of my favorite completed table numbers! (As much as I love the border, I had to crop it out when I ordered the prints.)

Also, this past weekend, Jordan and I had a wonderful couples shower in North Carolina with his family! We had a cookout, complete with swimming and cupcakes, and we both had a great time! As soon as I upload the pictures, I will share some. :)

Thank You Cards - More Free Stuff!

2009-07-02T00:50:00.005-04:00

Let me just say again how very much I adore vistaprint.com! Jordan and I will be having our first shower next weekend, and I wanted to go ahead and stock up on thank you cards. I wanted to keep them within our bride and groom theme, but since we don't have any photos of ourselves in wedding attire yet, I decided to search for something on vistaprint. I got 100 postcard style thank you notes for the cost of shipping (about $7)! Here is a low-quality preview:

And I already have envelopes too, since we have about a billion left over from our rehearsal dinner invitations...I'll share those too:

I purchased those as postcards from vistaprint too...I made both images using picnik.com, and even with the charge for uploading my own image, I got 100 of those with envelopes for only $15 plus shipping! :D

Groomsmen Gifts!

2009-06-29T22:31:00.006-04:00

Like most couples, we want to give our groomsmen a nice gift to thank them for being a part of our special day. But because it's me and Jordan getting married, we also want to give them something a) useful and b) hilarious. To us, money clips or pocket watches or engraved mugs just aren't personal enough. So instead, Jordan came up with the idea to get our groomsmen (and groomswoman!) these:
I'm sure you've seen wedding pictures in which the groom poses together with the groomsmen, maybe wearing sunglasses, trying to look cool. Well, I'm hoping to get some great pictures of our groomsmen wielding these bad boys. :)

In addition to that, I didn't want Jordan to feel left out, so I got him this:

I figured he'd get a lot more use out of that then any typical gift a bride could give her groom. :)

Now I'm just waiting for the big day...when I'm sure to be pelted with at least a few clips of NERF darts.

Sneak Peek at Bridal Portraits!

2009-06-25T21:31:00.004-04:00

I had bridal portraits taken by Matt Lovell of LH Images yesterday! And by this afternoon, he already sent me a preview of one picture!! He is awesome to work with and this picture is by far one of the most amazing things I've seen in a very long time. We were intentionally going for a Victorian/antique look for this image.

I'm normally super critical of pictures of myself, but I can't find anything wrong with this one! I just have to share (and don't worry, Jordan doesn't know about this blog). :D You can click on the picture to see the full version (which is still not the best quality because the file size had to be reduced for posting).

It was taken on UGA's campus. My maid of honor, Amelia, braved the summer sun with me and she was so wonderful! She kept fixing my hair and dabbing my face with a damp paper towel. I can't thank her enough!

I can't wait to share the rest of the pictures!

A bit of coloring

2009-06-18T13:11:00.005-04:00

I was browsing on etsy the other day and I found a really adorable idea: a couple's story timeline/map thingie. I couldn't afford to buy one from the etsy seller, but I decided to try making one myself!

After an hour of agonizing over my terrible drawing skills (I'm convinced my airplanes look like sharks on rollerskates), I finally had a draft complete. Next I redrew everything as carefully as possible, this time taking two hours. Then, with the help of a wonderful graphic designer who works with me at UGA Press, I had the original image scanned and printed 12 copies onto 12x18 sheets of white paper. Each of these will be used as "centerpiece placemats" at our reception...I will have one on the center of each table and our tall slender vases will be placed in the center (where I left just enough white space).

I'm really proud of how it turned out! :) It's a little blurry on here because the file is so large, but you can view the full size version by clicking!

DIY stuff!

2009-06-13T21:31:00.007-04:00

My mind has been on other things lately, so I haven't been doing much wedding-related stuff. However, I did manage to make my tosser bouquet for less than $5 total! :D Check it out:

I found the pink gerberas at Hobby Lobby and pulled a bundle apart, then tied them together with turquoise ribbon I purchased for our programs. I added the blue and pink pushpins, found at Target, and voila!

Another project I recently completed:

I've been searching for several months for some sort of pretty, sort of antique-looking container that could hold the bubbles and the ceremony fans for our guests. I also found these stone bowls at Hobby Lobby, for only $20 each! So we'll have these set out at the entrance to the Mansion courtyard, and our guests can take some when they enter. (The bubbles are lying on top of some petals left over from the flowergirl basket.)

The last bit of news I have today is that I FINALLY purchased Jordan's wedding band. It has been a nightmare trying to find an affordable tungsten carbide band that he actually likes, but we did it! Here it is:

The best part is that it was only $25!! :) I might share my secret if you ask nicely. ;)

First Dress Fitting!

2009-06-01T17:57:00.006-04:00

It's about that time! :D Our wedding is in just over 3 months, so I went in to have my first official dress fitting (other than just trying it on to be sure it's the right size). Thankfully I don't have to have any height or weight alterations...it's perfect! This was also the first time I wore all of my jewelry, shoes, etc. at the same time as the dress!

I realized again just how much I am in love with my dress! It's not heavy, it's not hot, and it doesn't wrinkle easily. :) Two of my bridesmaids went with me and took some great pictures, so enjoy!

This is the dress bustled for the reception!

Showing off my shoes. :)

Not wedding related, but still pretty awesome!

2009-05-11T21:27:00.004-04:00

I graduated this past Saturday, with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from the University of Georgia!!!! I managed to keep my 4.0 GPA the whole four years and completed my Honors Thesis capstone, so I was able to graduate as a First Honor Graduate, Summa Cum Laude, With Highest Honors...and it was one of the most fantastic, amazing, surreal experiences of my entire life thus far. I was one of 25 First Honor Grads (out of the 3,700-person senior class), and we got to walk with the Processional into Sanford Stadium. All I can say is wow.

Here are a couple of great pictures. :)

I am thrilled to be finished, but I'm also a tiny bit nervous. I've been in school for over 17 years... what to do with myself now?! First, I decided to check out a Kiswahili textbook from the library and I will be brushing up on those language skills. :)

Congratulations to the Class of 2009!! :D

Song choices

2009-04-30T15:48:00.004-04:00

I must say that I have been putting off choosing songs for our ceremony for a LONG time because I am very indecisive when it comes to choosing music. I love so many different songs and I always feel guilty choosing one over another. However, in the past couple of days I have found, mostly serendipitously, several songs that I knew I wanted to include, and here is the result!

*Pre-ceremony, while the guests are arriving: Selections from Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings, and Heigh Ho Mozart!, two instrumental CDs that are just amazing. Here are beautiful instrumental versions of two of my favorite Disney songs, "Kiss the Girl" and "Beauty and the Beast".

*When the officiant and the mothers enter, I'd love to play Vivaldi's "Spring" as a way of announcing that exciting stuff's about to happen!

*The wedding party will enter to "Butterfly Waltz," which is so incredible that I get goosebumps everytime I hear it!

*I knew I wanted to use the "Bridal Chorus" from Wagner's Lohengrin for my walk down the aisle, but I have struggled to find a version that isn't too heavy or formal for our less-than-formal wedding, and I finally did!

*And finally, the recessional will be a bit of lighthearted fun, as Jordan and I exit to "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by the Beach Boys. :) (That video is pretty hilarious too.)

*For the reception, we will again play some instrumental music while our guests arrive and begin eating. We'll have the Disney selections thrown in there intermittently, but there is a ton more classical music that I'd love to include, such as Tchaikovsky and Chopin.

*Our first dance song is called "By the Way They Dance" by Jump Little Children, which was actually written as the first dance song for one of the band members. (Sorry for the ridiculous video, but it is almost impossible to find a good version of this song online!)

*For the cake cutting, we're using "Sugar Sugar" by The Archies...too cute! :D I'm a sucker for oldies!

And then the rest of the night will be filled with cheesy 80s music, as well as some of our favorite songs from the five years we've been together, including songs from the no-longer-together bands Honestly and Jump Little Children, and songs from soundtracks like Moulin Rouge and The Princess Bride! :)

Yay for another big decision made! :)

Hair Trial!

2009-04-21T22:09:00.007-04:00

This past weekend I accomplished several wedding-related tasks while I was in Savannah visiting one of my bridesmaids! We went to a cake tasting and I ordered our wedding cake, which will be chocolate fudge cake with cream cheese filling and Italian buttercream icing. Yummy! Normally I don't like frosting, but hers was delicious. Michelle Still was so friendly and the cake was delicious! More on that, and the other things I was able to do, later. For now, I have pictures of my hair trial!

I met with my stylist, Jenny, at her Savannah salon and had a wonderful time chatting with her. She's super friendly, and she's also a red-head so she understands my natural aversion to heavy, dark makeup!! I showed her what I wanted my hair to look like, and she delivered! The pictures will do more than any words could:

And I left it in all afternoon in the Savannah heat and humidity and it never once started to look frizzy and gross! I'm very very happy at how this turned out and I cannot express how much I have enjoyed working with Jenny already! :)

Girls (Really Do) Just Wanna Have Fun

2009-03-23T14:45:00.006-04:00

So many people use the phrase "Girls just wanna have fun" that's it become almost cliche, which is dreadfully unfortunate! Because truly, all I want for my bachelorette party is to have a ridiculous amount of fun with my favorite girls. I don't want a male stripper, I don't want to drink myself sick, and I surely don't want to sit around and watch chick-flicks. I was talking with one of my bridesmaids yesterday and I realized that my idea of a fun bachelorette party would be to do something definitely out-of-the-ordinary (at least when it comes to such parties), and something totally fun. And I had a flash of brilliance!

Here's my idea of the perfect bachelorette party:

1. Start out the afternoon by going roller skating! I'll wear a cheesy bride-to-be veil and maybe even get some rollerblades to decorate in pink, white, and black. We'll all act crazy and probably bust our butts a few times! Can you imagine the wonderful pictures? :D

2. From there, we'll all dress up in pretty clothes and go out for a nice (but not too fancy) dinner...my favorite would be something Italian!

3. Finally, we'll conclude the night with some bar-hopping (and I'll wear the veil again)! I'll drink girly drinks and we'll dance and laugh until we can hardly breathe. My favorite place to do that is 8Es Bar here in Athens because there's good music and plenty of fun to be had!

I am so excited for this idea that I even went made another Bridal Canvas and made a bachelorette-themed canvas! Check it out:

(A better version of the canvas, plus photo credits and a great cover of Cyndi Lauper's famous song can be found if you follow the link above!)

BridalCanvas.com

2009-03-21T12:55:00.002-04:00

So this site is pretty nifty! It's a user-friendly and quick way to make beautiful inspiration boards and other similar stuff. Here's one I made in under ten minutes:

Check it out! :)

Our Honeymoon Registry is up and running!

2009-03-19T14:03:00.005-04:00

I'm so excited!

http://www.atlastravelweb.com/registry.shtml

I made pink daisy cards through vistaprint.com to put into our shower invites...and it only cost $10 for 250 of them, even after shipping!

Here's a low-quality preview of the cards:

I'm hoping we'll get at least a few donations since we can't really afford the trip, haha.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T17:28:00.002-04:00

This is my second favorite holiday, only slightly behind Christmas! But in the past I have never done anything except wear green to celebrate. This year, Jordan surprised me by getting us tickets to an Irish song and dance concert tonight! There will also be plenty of Irish specials in the form of alcoholic beverages! ;) I'll be sure to share some pictures, as I'm quite excited and my camera battery has been charging throughout the afternoon!

And to make this post slightly wedding-related, I have some great news! My invitations arrived, courtesy of this etsy seller, and they are a.m.a.z.i.n.g!!!!!! They are even more beautiful in person, and I can't wait to send them to people and get compliments on our great taste! ;)

To be sure, I'm dreaming of Ireland on this wonderful St. Patrick's Day, since we'll be visiting in just over six months!! :D

Reception Centerpieces

2009-03-05T13:08:00.007-05:00

I'm fast becoming an etsy bride. I don't mind one bit, but it seems that I've purchased a large portion of our wedding stuff from etsy.com! The latest find is creative reception centerpieces! We are, more than ever, on a tight budget and can't afford to have lavish centerpieces for the reception, as much as I'd like to. At the same time, I didn't want people to show up at our reception and immediately view our centerpieces as pathetic and inadequate. So how to keep our guests from noticing the small size? Display centerpieces made of something other than real flowers!

So I browsed around on etsy and found some really interesting ideas, including felt and button flowers, origami flowers, and button bouquets. In the end, I decided on pink and white bouquets made of chipboard and button "flowers", from this seller. I received them in the mail a couple weeks ago and they are so adorable!! We will be putting one bouquet of nine flowers into each slender vase, and then filling the vases with blue jello for some added color.

And for the bride and groom table, we're going to use one set in black and white:

They were not only affordable, but handmade and cutecutecute!! Best of all, I realized when I received them that the pink and white flowers match the flowers on the front of our recently-ordered invitations (see the post below to compare). I love it when a plan comes together. :)

Back to wedding stuff...INVITATIONS!

2009-02-21T15:28:00.007-05:00

Okay, so it's been a while since I made an actual wedding post, and I have a lot of stuff to share!

Most importantly, at least for my stress level, is the fact that we have officially decided on and purchased our invitations! If you'll remember, we had decided to make our own invitations in order to save money, but to be honest I wasn't really looking forward to the hassle and I just wasn't 100% satisfied with the design I made myself.

Enter, once again, etsy.com! One day I randomly decided to search for wedding invitations and I found this seller: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5908359

All of her designs are quite amazing, but one in particular really struck me as matching our theme/decor. And the great thing about etsy is that it's all about custom orders, so I asked the seller to alter the design (colors and font) for me and she came through! Here are some pictures of the final design we purchased!

I did some number crunching and we actually ended up saving money! We ordered enough to get free shipping, and since we weren't required to purchase in increments of 25 or 50, we ordered just a few over our exact number of required invitations. Plus, the hassle level for getting our invitations has been drastically reduced...and that's worth more than a few dollars to me! :) Best of all, I am absolutely 250% in love with these invitations! The flowers actually match our final centerpieces, which I'll have to share with you in a later post!

Honeymoon! (Toto Saba)

2009-02-19T18:58:00.008-05:00

Like I mentioned before, day 16 of our honeymoon will find us in Edinburgh! In the morning we'll have a sightseeing tour with a local guide, during which we will most definitely be passing the castle!

Here's another view, which shows how high up on a hill the castle is:

The afternoon and evening will be left to us to make our own plans. We'll definitely be indulging in some of the local culture, which may include entertainment such as this:

As for the rest of the evening, who knows what trouble we'll get into! ;)

Day 17 will begin with a trip to Jedburgh, which is where Mary, Queen of Scots lived. Jedburgh is only a few miles from the English border, and is also the location of the ruins of an abbey.

After that, we'll head to Northumberland National Park, where we'll get to see part of Hadrian's Wall (this is part of a wall built during the Roman Empire, if you didn't already know that)! Two decades ago, it was designated one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites, which is kind of a big deal. :)

Finally, day 17 will conclude with a tour in York, which will include this beauty:

Day 18 is the second-to-last day of our honeymoon! It will begin with Sherwood Forest, which I'm pretty excited about! I absolutely LOVE everything having to do with the Robin Hood legend! I've seen the Kevin Costner film, the Disney version with the foxes, and, of course, Men in Tights (my favorite version!). Anyway, hopefully the leaves will already be turning since it will be October 12, and maybe it will look something like this:

Next up will be a visit to Stratford-upon-Avon which you might know as the birthplace of Shakespeare. What a place to visit on a honeymoon! While I do love Shakespeare and all, I'm also excited to see the architecture in the town!

Finally, day 18 will end in Coventry, which is the site of a beautiful cathedral:

The last full day of our honeymoon will consist of a drive through Cotswold Hills and a visit to the site of Churchill's grave. Then we'll take a walking tour of Oxford, which is something I've been wanting to do for a very long time!

After the Oxford tour, we'll return to London once more for a final glimpse of the beautiful city! If we're not completely pooped, we'll probably hit the town once more before going to bed. The next morning we'll wake up and get on a plane headed for Atlanta.

That's the last of my honeymoon posts...I hope you've enjoyed them! :)

Honeymoon! (Toto Sita)

2009-02-17T20:22:00.014-05:00

With two weeks of the trip finished and one week remaining, we will depart Manchester and drive through the Lake District into Grasmere, which is where William Wordsworth lived. I can understand how he became a poet, with scenery like this!

After that, we'll cross the border into SCOTLAND!! We'll start with a visit to Gretna Green, which is a famous eloping destination. It's actually a very interesting story, so you should look it up. Here's a famous set of lovers statue:

Apparently these wonderful creatures also reside near Gretna Green...I've seen one in person before, but it wasn't enough! It's such a cute little beastie:

We'll end the 13th day in Glasgow!! :D I am pretty excited about this part of the trip, since Glasgow has been on my "places to visit" list for a long time.

The morning of the 14th day will begin with a drive along Loch Lomond...I'm definitely hoping to see some scenery like the next two pictures!

There will be lakes aplenty during our travels on this day, and I'm really hoping that Loch Ness will be included! I am fascinated by the lake and by Nessie. :)

We'll be driving through Rannoch Moor on our way to the Scottish Highlands. I just can't believe the amazingly beautiful natural scenery...

Our final stops on this day will include Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, Cairngorns National Park, and Culloden Moor battlefield.

Day 15 will include more driving tours of the Highlands, through Dundee and Perth, which is home to a beautiful ancient castle.

Perth is also located on the River Tay, which we'll be crossing to arrive in St. Andrews. Jordan may be interested in the history of golf, but I'm much more interested in the castle and ruins of the cathedral!

After a bit more driving around, we'll end up in Edinburgh!! This will probably be one of the best parts of the trip for me...we'll be spending two nights in the city! I'll save the pictures of Edinburgh for Toto Saba!

Honeymoon! (Toto Tano)

2009-02-08T11:51:00.014-05:00

Day 10 of our honeymoon will have us visiting the amazing Cliffs of Moher!! These awesome formations rise from 394 to 702 feet above the ocean!! I love the lines in the rocks, which indicate how very old they are:

Afterwards, we'll stop in Galway, which is on the west coast of Ireland. I loveloveLOVE these crosses:

By afternoon, we will have arrived in DUBLIN and we'll have the rest of the evening to ourselves. I can't even begin to imagine what I'll try to cram into this evening, but whatever it is, it will be wonderful!

Day 11 marks the halfway point of our amazing adventure, and is completely devoted to Dublin! We'll get a driving tour in the morning, which I'm sure will involve lots of historic buildings and, my favorite, statues! Here's James Joyce:

And here's another beautiful image of Dublin at dusk:

Once again, we'll have the evening to ourselves...and I'm positive it will involve imbibing at least a few delicious drinks. Perhaps Temple Bar? :)

Unfortunately, day 12 marks the end of our time in Ireland. We'll be crossing the Irish Sea back into Wales, and then driving along the coast until we reach Chester. (Interesting side note: did you know that "Chester" comes from Latin castra meaning camp or fort? The Latin was borrowed into Old English as ceastre, which came to mean city. Who says my Linguistics degree will never be of use?) Here's a beautiful cathedral:

We'll be spending the night in Manchester, which is in Northwest England.

Next up, in Toto Sita, we'll move on to Scotland!!

Honeymoon! (Toto Nne)

2009-02-04T23:14:00.017-05:00

I have a lot of exciting wedding stuff to share very soon, but for now, I'm going to continue with the next part of our honeymoon! :)

We will be departing Cardiff on day 7 and driving through "dairy farmlands" until we arrive at the seaside resort of Tenby!

From here, we will board a ferry that will take us into IRELAND!!!! This is my dream come true. The ferry will take about 4 hours, so most of day 7 will be spent traveling. Day 8 will begin with a drive along the southern coast of Ireland, stopping in Cork!

We will definitely be visiting the castle and Blarney Stone!! Not that I really need any help with "the gift of gab," but I'll be kissing the stone. :)

After lunch, we'll head to Killarney and see the castle there before heading to our resort.

Day 9 is also full of wonderful Ireland! We'll take the Ring of Kerry drive, which I've heard wonderful things about! Check this out:

We'll be traveling through Adare, which is home to beautiful cottages and castles alike!

Then it's on to Limerick and a driving tour of King John's Castle:

If we've saved up enough money, we might be able to take part in a dinner banquet at Knappogue Castle, where we'll drink honeyed mead and be entertained with music and dancing! :)

This post is long enough already...Toto Tano will include Galway and Dublin!!

Honeymoon! (Toto Tatu)

2009-01-30T22:45:00.012-05:00

Day 5 of our honeymoon tour will begin with an early morning drive to Plymouth, the site of the beginning of the voyage of the Pilgrims! Here's a monument, yay!

After that, we head to Glastonbury, which is home to a beautiful abbey. One of my favorite things to do whenever I travel is to find amazing churches, abbeys, monasteries, etc.

Next is BATH! I am so excited about this part of the trip!! Look at how gorgeous this is:

But the history! I didn't take Latin for two years for nothing! I love seeing and learning about ancient places. I cannot wait to visit the Roman baths and soak up all that history...haha, so sorry for the awful pun. ;)

Day 5 will end with us arriving in Cardiff, Wales! I have to admit that I originally wanted a tour of just Ireland and Scotland, but I'm excited about seeing some of the wonderful scenery in Wales! Check out these pictures from Cardiff (PS ILOVECASTLES!!):

Day 6 will be spent mostly in Cardiff, including a tour of the castle, as well as St. Fagan's National History Museum (I'm a total nerd and I love museums too!):

But perhaps the most exciting part of day 6 for me is going to be visiting Brecon Beacons National Park...because they have Welsh mountain ponies!!!!

Holy crap, can this trip get any better? Amazing churches, beautiful castles, and adorable ponies!!!! Next up for Toto Nne: more of Wales, and then into Ireland!

Honeymoon! (Toto Mbili)

2009-01-25T14:40:00.009-05:00

Day four of our honeymoon begins bright and early with a trip to Hampton Court Palace. I visited almost two years ago and it was quite breathtaking!

After a leisurely tour of the Palace, we will drive to see Salisbury, which is home to an awesome cathedral:

Apparently Salisbury also has some adorable sheep...I definitely can't miss out on those! (Check out the little guy in the bottom right corner...how cute is he?!)

Next up, one of the parts of the trip that I am most looking forward to...Stonehenge! I've heard that it's not as impressive in person, but I'll wait to judge that for myself.

After that, we'll head to Dorset, which is on the coast of the English Channel. I love how little coastal towns look:

But what I'm most excited about are the amazing cliff formations in Dorset...check these out!

Next up: Dartmoor National Park, which is "the largest and wildest area of open country in Southern England". Awesome! And look what I found...PONIES! If you should remember anything about me, it's my ridiculous affinity for cute animals. :)

Finally, day four concludes with a visit to Widecombe-in-the-Moor, which also has an amazing church: St. Pancras.

Be sure to come back for Honeymoon! (Toto Tatu)...we'll be heading to Wales!

HONEYMOON!! (Toto Moja)

2009-01-23T19:33:00.008-05:00

Okay, so Jordan and I booked our HONEYMOON today!!!! It's going to be simply amazing, and I am ridiculously excited!

We're going on a 20-day tour of England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland! There is way too much to share in one post, so I've decided to break it into smaller portions. (And I'm numbering the parts in Kiswahili simply because I can.) I'm going to include pictures too! (Note: most of these images are stock photos found by google image searching. They are not photos I took myself.)

Toto Moja!

On Friday, September 25 we will board a plane in Atlanta, GA for an overnight flight! We will arrive in London at around 10 AM local time and have the rest of the day to ourselves!

One of my favorite things to do while I was in London was to visit the royal parks...many people get so caught up by the idea of having an entire city full of things to do that they forget to seek out the natural wonders. Hyde Park is incredible.

But you can't forget those famous phone booths (which, disappointingly, often smelled of stale urine and liquor). But the pictures are nice!

On Sunday we will also have the whole day to ourselves to explore more of London. I spent a week there and still hadn't even covered half of what I wanted to see! I wish we had time to do it all!

Perhaps we'll take an open-top bus tour, or maybe I'll introduce Jordan to the thrill that is the Underground!

No matter what we do, I know it will be amazing. Next time, Toto Mbili!

Check it out check it out check it OUT!

2009-01-19T19:27:00.004-05:00

Presenting...

The design for our rehearsal dinner invitations (original concept borrowed from here)! I made it myself. :)

PS. Jordan and I are seriously considering dressing up as pirates for the rehearsal dinner (remember, it's at The Pirates House restaurant), and suggesting that everyone else do the same. Hahahaha...

Finally found my shoes!!

2009-01-18T14:11:00.002-05:00

I have always been ridiculously picky about shoes. I have all sorts of problems with my feet: a) they're gigantic, b) they swell if I stand for longer than five minutes, and c) I can't walk in tall heels. On top of that, I decided long ago that I wanted my wedding shoes to be turquoise and have some sort of a "jewel" or something shiny attached...oh yeah, and I didn't want to spend more than $60 on them. Talk about impossible to find!

All of this explains why it has been so very hard for me to find wedding shoes that match my many requirements. Thanks to some very helpful ladies on the weddingbook forums, I was directed to shoebuy.com, where I found this lovely pair of dyeable shoes:

I would typically never dream of purchasing shoes online, but this site has a 100% return/exchange program, which even includes free return shipping!! So if they don't fit (which is unfortunately very possible), I can send them back and try something different. I am in love with them, though, so I'm hoping that they will fit perfectly.

The next thing is to find the right color and have them dyed! I'm so excited!

Daisies and diamonds!!

2009-01-13T18:19:00.008-05:00

I am so.freakin.excited right now!! The past few days have been FULL of wonderful packages arriving, including the rest of my jewelry and my BOUQUET!! :D

Here is a picture of my jewelry together:

(Necklace from overstock.com, earrings from overstockjeweler.com, tiara from etsy.com)

I absolutely love every bit of it, and I got a great deal on everything! Here's how it might all look together...pardon my lack of wedding attire. :P

And now for the most shockingly delightful thing that happened to me all day, my bouquet arrived and is absolutely amazing!! It's from wedideas.com and made of "Real Touch" artificial light and hot pink gerbera daisies, with stephanotis interspersed. And the ribbonwork they did is incredible!!

I think everything is absolutely perfect and I am ridiculously happy right now!! Here's one more picture before I head off to do my dreaded homework. :P

Bohemian King

2009-01-06T18:03:00.016-05:00

*dreamy sigh*

So I've booked our hotel room at The Mansion and I am so excited about it!! We decided to splurge a tiny bit and get the upgraded, super romantic Bohemian King Suite overlooking the courtyard! Here's an image:

It features "vintage soaking tubs surrounded by lush drapery to lend a more open air romantic feel to the room" and "a bottle of wine and upgraded turndown service featuring our signature Mansion chocolate piano and one of our sumptuous bath products from Poseidon Spa".

Can you say amazing?! :D

I'm going to need some relaxation after this wedding too...gah! I've been a busy little bee trying to get deposits paid and dates reserved. Classes start back this Thursday and I wanted to get as much done as possible before settling back down academically.

Just since Christmas I have: reserved our rehearsal dinner site, ordered a DIY invitation kit, contacted five print shops to get the best price on invitation printing, contacted four Savannah bakeries to get a quote on our wedding cake idea, ordered gifts for all of the bridesmaids, purchased my bridal jewelry, set up my hair/makeup appointment, and now booked our wedding night hotel room. I've also come to realize that this whole budgeting thing really sucks. But we'll hopefully have a wonderful wedding that we won't spend the next thirty years paying for.

Speaking of jewelry, those earrings I posted ended up being sold out (and they graciously waited to tell me until almost a week after I purchased them). So I got these instead:
I think they'll still look great with the necklace, which is posted below. And I've kind of been dreaming of being a bride with chandelier earrings for a while, so maybe it was meant to be. :)

As far as bridesmaids gifts go, I think I managed to do something sweet for my girls without going broke. I don't think any of them read this, so I'll go ahead and explain. I found out each girl's favorite animal and purchased brooches for each that will go on their bouquet purses. Here are two examples:

In addition, I found an awesome deal on jewelry at allcostumejewelry.com, which was pointed out by a soon-to-be-bride on weddingbook. So I got all of them a matching necklace/earring set made with Swarovski crystals and faux pearls. Here's the necklace:

So, like I said, I've been super busy. Next time I'll post about the super sweet (no pun intended) wedding/groom's cake ideas I have. :)

Purchases!

2009-01-03T16:29:00.012-05:00

So I've bought a lot of stuff in the past few days (AKA my student loans went through, haha).

So I wanted to share my finds and rejoice in the fact that all of my bridal jewelry together cost just over $150!

I finally found an affordable and not cheesy-looking bridal headband from this Etsy seller...and it was only $25!!

I also bought the necklace and earrings I posted a few days ago and they should be arriving within a few days!

I also found a really convenient and affordable way to get the invitations I've been wanting!! Originally, we were going to purchase the paper, vellum, and envelopes in bulk and have them cut to size, then go through the printing and assembling process. Well, I just randomly stumbled across a DIY invitation kit from Target.com that has everything we need (50 each of white cardstock, vellum, response cards, ribbon, two envelopes, and seals) for $50! All we have to do is take all the stuff to a local print shop and we'll be set!! Here's the product picture:

I might exchange the white ribbon for teal/turquoise ribbon just to add some color, but I am SO excited! I whittled down the guestlist and we should be sending out around 83 invitations to 129 total guests. Thank goodness I've finally got the ball rolling on this business.

Just to remind you, here's the image we'll be printing on the cardstock:

I also made a reservation for my hair/makeup appointment with an awesome salon in Savannah. The lady I spoke with, Jenny, has been wonderful about answering all of my questions, and she didn't complain a bit when I told her we'd need to get started at 7 AM on a Sunday!

Here is an idea of the hairstyle I want:

And I want mostly pink and very simple makeup (I'm an incredibly pale girl, with red hair and blue eyes), like this:

This post has already turned into a monster, so I'll end it there. :) But I've got a cute idea in the works for my bridesmaids!

Things I Love Right Now

2008-12-30T17:59:00.008-05:00

I've compiled another list! This one is made up of things I've found that I love but probably won't be using as part of my own wedding. I wish I could have 20 different weddings sometimes, haha...without the stress of planning it or paying for it!

1. Having your wedding vows printed on something other than paper.
One idea is to print the vows on the ribbon from the bride's bouquet, and another is to have them engraved on the inside of each partner's ring. How awesome is that?

2. Affordable (and cute!) wedding shoes.
These are ridiculously hard to find, but maybe 2009 will bring some hope to those of us with big feet and a picky sense of style when it comes to shoes. Lela Rose is launching a bridal collection at Payless in the next few months! And yes, there will be dyeables. Thank goodness! Here's one of Lela's non-bridal shoes from Payless:
3. Flirty, adorable cocktail dresses.
My whole childhood I was a tomboy inside and out, but nowadays I've become much more of a girly girl, and I adore dresses. My recent favorites come from Jim Hjelm, especially this one:

4. Vineyard Weddings.
My entire kitchen and living room are decorated in wine-themed stuff, and part of me wishes we could have had our own vineyard wedding. However, I don't drink wine, lol! I just like the way it looks. Here's a gorgeous image of a bride and groom at a winery wedding:

5. Creative Escort Cards
Our wedding isn't really formal enough for a full-blown seating directory, but I love how creative these things can get! If we didn't have 100+ guests, I would be sorely tempted to use this flower idea from Martha Stewart Weddings:

That's it for now, but I might do another of these later! :)

Goodbye 2008, Hello Year of the Wedding!

2008-12-30T13:09:00.006-05:00

Jordan and I will be getting married in just under 9 months. H.o.l.y. C.o.w! I don't know where the time has gone, but in celebration of the end of 2008, I'm going to make a few wedding lists!

Completed Tasks:

My wedding dress has been purchased and altered. It's sitting in my closet, though I still have to finish paying it off.
My veil is purchased and is also in my closet.
Bouquet has been purchased, but STILL hasn't shipped even though it's "been ready" for two months. Ugh.
My wedding band and turquoise bracelet are both in my jewelry box.
I have a general idea of what kind of jewelry and shoes I want, but I still have to buy them.
Tux style and vest color for both groom and groomsmen decided.
Bridesmaids dress styles and exact color still undecided. Bouquet styles decided; purses purchased, but no flowers yet.
Jordan's ring style has been decided upon, but it hasn't been purchased yet.
Photographers booked and 1/3 paid for.
Ceremony site booked and 1/3 paid for.
Reception site booked and paid for and food choices settled.
I know the style of invitations I want, but I still have to buy them and get them printed.
Cake topper purchased, "his and hers" champagne glasses purchased, cake serving set purchased, ring pillow purchased, reception vases purchased, table number holders purchased, favor boxes purchased, ceremony fans and bubbles purchased.
Music selections decided upon for ceremony and most of reception.
Guest list determined and save-the-dates sent out.
Target wedding registry set up.

To-Do Soon:

Purchase invitation supplies and print a sample invitation.
Decide exactly what honeymoon we want and start to book it.
Purchase shoes and bridal jewelry.
Go shopping with bridesmaids for dress ideas.
Book ceremony officiant.
Set up another wedding registry (Crate and Barrel perhaps?).
Decide upon design of wedding cake.
Make reservations for rehearsal dinner.
Arrange for our transportation from the ceremony to reception (we're thinking a romantic horse and carriage).

Random Ideas:

I want my hair mostly down and curled, with a small pearl and diamond headband. I also have an idea of how I want my makeup done...very simple in shades of pink.
For our reception table numbers, I want to use pictures of me and Jordan holding up each number in a variety of funny poses.
For reception centerpieces I'm thinking of using the jello vase centerpiece idea. We'll use either blue or pink jello (whichever turns out better) with two to three pink gerbera daisies per vase, and then blue vase gems on the table around each vase.
I really like the idea of using our favor boxes as placecards too...we'll just write each person's name on the front of the box.
I saw a really neat idea for escort cards in a bridal magazine this morning...I can't really explain it well, so I'll just post a picture of it later.
We're writing our own vows (and I'm actually writing most of the ceremony myself), so I'll have to share that later as well. I'm almost done with mine!
We are definitely thinking of doing a two-week chauffeured tour of England, Ireland, and Scotland for our honeymoon...it really depends on how expensive it will be.
For invitations, we are thinking of printing a classic bride and groom image on white cardstock and printing the wording on vellum, then wrapping it with teal ribbon.

This all seems very organized, but I feel distinctly unorganized, and I don't know why!!

Pearls and Diamonds...and Turquoise!

2008-12-26T22:10:00.010-05:00

Merry (belated) Christmas! :)

I spent my 22nd birthday and Christmas with Jordan's family on their farm in North Carolina, where there are no internet or cell phone signals. I'll be honest...while I had a great holiday, I'm very glad to be back, relaxing in my own apartment. :)

I wanted to make a post that somehow relates both weddings and Christmas, and I finally decided to share my bridal jewelry hunt with you. I'm not the type of girl who typically wears a lot of fancy jewelry...I own mostly big chunky plastic pieces that are super bold and funky. While I love them on a normal day, they aren't exactly what I had in mind for the wedding. As such, the search for the perfect wedding day jewelry has kept me rather busy doing internet searches for the past few months. Here's what I've found so far:

I mentioned a while back that my friend had made me a turquoise bracelet...I don't have a picture of the exact bracelet yet, but here's a very good likeness of it:

I've had a very hard time narrowing down the choices for my necklace...the neckline of my dress (a halter) looks best with a very simple necklace. I decided immediately that I wanted to have the pearls and diamonds look, even if I couldn't afford to have the real thing. Here's the one I want:

And I think these earrings match it perfectly! I wanted to go with something simple again, especially since my hair will be down.

I haven't liked very many tiaras or headpieces that I've seen online, so that might be something I need to go shopping for in person. However, I think I might stick with a simple headband rather than going with an elaborate tiara, again, since my hair will be down. One like this would be nice:

Now I'm off to watch Beauty and the Beast: Enchanted Christmas...it's one of my favorites! ;)

I love it I love it I LOVE it!!

2008-12-21T20:11:00.005-05:00

I am in love with making inspiration boards, and tonight I made my best one yet! Enjoy!

You can get a better view here.

Dresses for my favorite girls

2008-12-19T13:32:00.007-05:00

I think there is an unspoken rule among bridesmaids dresses: they are not meant to be affordable for college students or recent college graduates. David's Bridal is considered "cheap" and their dresses start at $100. Of my six girls, one is still in college, two are recent college grads (one is saving up for her own wedding and the other is probably going to grad school), another is working ridiculously hard just to pay her bills, one has four kids, and the other is my 12-year-old niece. I know that I personally don't have the money to spend $100 on a dress to be worn one time.

So it comes down to the age-old question...do the bridesmaids have to be matchy matchy or can they just wear something comfortable? Since it's our wedding, we make the decisions. Jordan and I have decided that we would rather my bridesmaids be comfortable and spend much less than $100 on a dress. Instead of purchasing "bridesmaids dresses," we're going to keep an eye out for sales at places like Dillards in the spring, and hopefully everyone can purchase dresses in similar colors and similar styles, but they don't have to match exactly.

Here are some dresses that I think would be awesome (but not necessarily all together):

Most people I've talked to have loved this idea, although there are a few people that think it will look sloppy or non-wedding-like. I'm not too worried about that, though...it's not like we're having a super formal affair, and I like the idea of having my bridesmaids smiling sincerely in all of our pictures, thinking, "This $30 dress is ridiculously comfortable...I think I might wear it again on Friday when I go out with my boyfriend." Here are some pictures of brides who have pulled off this idea quite well:

This next one is from Memory Makers Photography and it's my favorite!

In the end, as long as my girls brush their hair and cover up their naughty bits, I'll be satisfied. I just want them to stand next to me and watch me marry the love of my life. ... And then party. :P

Free Engagement Pictures!

2008-12-03T22:43:00.007-05:00

We have some very wonderful friends, indeed. This post is dedicated (almost) entirely to my favorite pictures from our free engagement session with Matt Lovell of LH Images Photography. They are just getting started in the business and building up their portfolio, and we lucked out.

Now, PICTURES!

********************

Rainy days aren't so bad...

After all, umbrellas can be so romantic. :)

Perched on a tree branch above the river

Gettin' smoochy. ;)

One of the best pictures of us, ever. :)

We're using this one on our holiday greeting cards, lol.

And now for some funnies! :D

Aren't they wonderful? I am so absolutely thrilled. I have an entire Snapfish album full of them, so if you want to see them all, just comment and I'll send you the link. :)

Now, at the beginning, I said this post was almost entirely dedicated to pictures. The last tiny thing I want to share is an awesome blog that I check pretty frequently because it makes me laugh and cringe at the same time. Check it out!

Pssst, this is a secret!

2008-11-30T20:26:00.003-05:00

We have indeed gotten our engagement pictures back, but I'm so swamped with homework and housework right now that I don't have time to share them. We just got back from a week in Michigan and I'm playing catchup.

However, I'm posting because I just bought something for Jordan that I want to squeal about!! I bought them for use in the wedding, but I know I won't be able to hold onto them for another 9 months, so I'm going to give them to him for Christmas.

They are Nintendo game cartridge cufflinks!!!! How perfect is that?!?!

I bought them from Etsy and cannot wait for them to arrive! I ordered one to be Tetris and the other Super Mario Brothers 3. I'll let you know what Jordan says when he gets them on Christmas morning!! :D

Approaching my last Holiday season as a single woman

2008-11-16T19:04:00.011-05:00

Since Jordan and I are splitting the holidays between our families again this year, my family gets Thanksgiving and New Year's, and his family gets Christmas (meaning I'll be spending my birthday and Christmas away from home for the first time ever--I think I'm okay with that, though). But since I very rarely get to see my dad and stepmom, we've decided that we're flying to Michigan for our week-long Thanksgiving break. I'm actually quite excited about the prospect of maybe getting to play in a bit of snow this year (*sigh* It's been so long since I've been in real snow).

So my last Thanksgiving as a "Knoll" is just under two weeks away. Two days from now will be two years since Jordan proposed. It's been a heck of a long time. In less than one more year, we'll finally be married and neither of us has any idea where we'll be living or what we'll be doing, haha.

Anyway, since I've been in hiding for the past couple of months (AKA: desperately attempting to keep my head above the water that is my last year of college), lots of stuff has happened. I'll pick a few of the best things to share.

1. My bridal bouquet is just about completed! Here's a picture of what it looks like before they add the ribbon and pearls on the stems:

Just for reference, here's the picture I sent them of what I want on the stems:

The flowers are the "real touch" artificials in two shades of pink gerbera daisies and some stephanotis dispersed throughout. After shipping costs, I only paid $85! :) I ordered it through WedIdeas and they have been so wonderful and friendly!

2. Next, Jordan and I discovered that one of our friends is an amateur photographer looking to build his portfolio, and he asked us if we'd like to do an engagement session for free!! The day we were supposed to do it ended up being yucky and rainy, so we just did a quick "practice session" and got some pretty funny pictures out of it. About a week later, the sun was shining and it was gorgeous outside, so we met at the State Botanical Gardens of Georgia and spent a few hours traipsing around and posing for the camera. Hopefully our images will be ready to share soon, but here are a few from the practice session.

These are two he took so that I could use them for a UGA award I won:

And here's a funny one of me and Jordan...I was giving him "The Look". :P

I think it was really awesome of him to do that for us. :) His website is here, and if you know of anyone in north GA who needs a photographer, let me know and I'll get you in contact with him!

3. Finally, last but not least........................

WE GOT A KITTEN! Haha, that makes three kitties in our family. :) We've been thinking of a good name for her, and I say "Lucy," but Jordan isn't sure yet. I call her BooBoo. :)

And here are two of the haughtiest-looking pictures I could find of my other babies. ;)

My baby girl Nadia:

And my little man Dumbledore:

The end for now. :)

Not wedding related at all, but that's okay!

2008-11-04T13:26:00.002-05:00

It's my blog and I can use it how I want to use it. :P

I'm just posting to say that it's ELECTION DAY and I voted for Barack Obama.

He's such a cutie. ;)

You're Invited

2008-10-09T21:50:00.005-04:00

So I think I've finally made a decision about our wedding invitations. After hours of deliberating, moaning, complaining, and painstaking work/research on the interwebs, I may have possibly made a decision. I say "possibly" because there are still several things that might go wrong in the process and thus I may have to change my mind again.

In the end, after visiting http://www.paperandmore.com/ I fell in love with the idea of printing our bride and groom image on white linen cardstock and the text on translucent vellum, then attaching the two layers, either with a decorative brad or with simple vellum glue dots. Our response cards will then be printed on "Aqua" cardstock (read: akin to Tiffany Blue and David's Bridal "Pool"), and the two elements will be held together with a pretty ribbon of approximately the same color. The response cards will be accompanied by white envelopes, while the entire invitation package will arrive in a pearly/shiny "Aqua" envelope.

I designed the invitation elements using http://www.scrapblog.com/ because I liked their bride and groom image best, as well as the font called "Apricot." It's just whimsical enough while still retaining a slight bit of formality. Best of all, I can practice because PaperandMore sells samples of all of their products at about 50 cents a page! I ordered my samples, which arrived in three days, and I love the quality! I have enough of everything to print out two samples, so pretty soon I'll be going around to various places (such as Kinkos and Staples) to find out who will print on vellum and cardstock and how much they'll charge.

Here are the base images I'm working from:

This is a rough idea of what it might look like to have the text printed on vellum, which overlays the image on cardstock

And here's what the response cards might look like:

I have to admit, I'm pretty excited. This (and lack of funds) has been the most irritating part of this process so far. I'm just about sick of this invitation business and it will feel wonderful to have everything decided.

A Special Post

2008-09-20T13:14:00.009-04:00

Today is a very special day. In exactly one year, at this time, I will be married to my wonderful Jordan! And tomorrow marks our fourth anniversary. Hopefully, a year from tomorrow, we will be on our way to Ireland and the best honeymoon I could ever imagine.

We have gone through a lot of stuff since he asked me out on a date four years ago. I was a senior in high school and he was a sophomore at UGA. Three months after we started dating, he told me he loved me and I said it back, meaning it with every ounce of my being. Five months after that, I left home for UGA, dealing with a lot of family issues. Jordan was always there for me when I would randomly burst into tears because of stress and high emotions.

A year after we started dating, we moved in together. Two months after that, we spent the most amazing week together in Jamaica for his brother's wedding. Within a week of returning, we almost broke up because of some very unfortunate issues. We spent the next year rebuilding our relationship from the bottom up, and he had to win back my trust after hurting me very badly. I also had to learn how to trust him again. From that point on, we were both very different people from what we had been when we started dating in 2004. We had reached the breaking point, but instead of giving up, we both showed a lot of maturity and strength and stuck with each other, even when we were both being our most annoying/frustrating selves.

One year after that, Jordan proposed to me in front of the UGA Chapel; he said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me and asked me to marry him. I said yes, and we decided to wait until after we both would be graduated from college (me with a Bachelor's Degree and him with a Master's). So the date was set for September 20, 2009...one day shy of what would be our fifth anniversary.

Here we are, four years after he first asked me out, almost two years after the proposal, and exactly one year from the wedding. We are still growing together, and sometimes the process is painful, but we both try to keep in mind how very much we love each other. Things have been tough for us, especially lately. We're both dealing with the stress of finishing our respective degrees, finding the money to pay for both rent and this upcoming wedding, and still finding the time and energy to show our love for one another. It's definitely not always easy, but anyone who tells you that love is easy has never truly been in love. It takes effort. It takes work. But the final outcome is worth a lot more than what you'll ever have to put into it.

Have I had doubts? Of course. But it's overcoming the doubts that has strengthened our relationship more than anything else.

One year from today, our lives will become even more interconnected than they are now. And we'll be eating delicious food at Paula Deen's restaurant!! :D

Have some pictures:

A wedding party mosaic:

And a bridal mosaic:

I love contests

2008-09-14T11:49:00.003-04:00

I have been entering wedding contests left and right, and so far I haven't won anything, but they're usually fun to enter anyway.

David's Bridal is having a "One Love" contest in which you basically make an inspiration board and tell the story of when/how you knew your fiance was your "One Love."

Of course I entered!

http://www.davidsbridal.com/onelove1.jsp?pbb_qsi=4693629&=PBB_DavidsBridalOneLove_336_PPIMEMAIL

If you have about an hour, enter! It takes a while to get used to the editor (very clunky and frustrating). Also, vote for mine please? :) If you enter, send me the link to yours and I'll vote for you too.

A new engagement ring!

2008-09-08T19:30:00.006-04:00

Jordan is one of the sweetest people alive. We've had really tough times, and lately has been especially rough on us, but he always manages to make me feel loved. Today he took me to Kay Jewelers, traded in my original engagement ring, and got me a larger engagement ring, along with the matching wedding band. It is absolutely gorgeous and I cannot wait until it arrives next Friday! Here is a picture of the set:

Also, our anniversary is this month. We both had such an awful week that we went ahead and exchanged gifts. He got me the coolest thing ever! It's a set of three stacking rings with hearts, yet when they stack together, they form a four-leaf clover! Here it is:

He spoils me. :)

Bad News

2008-08-25T17:49:00.002-04:00

Classes have started back, so I've been rather busy, and not really in the mood for posting on here. Not to mention, because of budget cuts here at UGA, I've sort of lost my job. I have to cut back on hours (which means bringing home $200 less A MONTH) until November, at which time my position will be permanently eliminated. How absolutely thrilling. As if everything else in my life hasn't been falling apart too.

I guess that's a little over-dramatic, but things have really felt awful lately. I'm gaining weight instead of losing, I'm swamped with work for my classes and research, I lost the best job I've ever had, Jordan and I have been fighting a lot more, I'm usually too busy to hang out with my friends, I'm way more irritable than usual, and I don't even really feel like doing any more wedding planning. That's how I know it's gotten bad...the only thing I really want to do is stay in my bed all day, sleeping and maybe coloring. I don't feel like eating, I dread the thought of having to go anywhere, and I especially don't want to go to work or classes anymore.

Ugh. This has gotten bad enough. I'm just hoping that some sunshine will come back into my life pretty soon (sans the heat and sunburn parts). I don't know how much longer I can handle feeling so gloomy and miserable.

Wait, what?! A rehearsal dinner?!

2008-08-11T16:38:00.007-04:00

I guess it just slipped my mind, but I had completely forgotten about that whole rehearsal dinner thing until my mom mentioned it a few weeks ago. How else is everyone going to know what the heck they need to be doing on the morning of our wedding?

Well, damn.

So I decided not to stress about it. The wedding is going to be formal and fancy and traditional enough. For the rehearsal dinner, we're just going to have fun!

Jordan has let me make the majority (okay, pretty much all) the decisions concerning the wedding. The pink flowers? My idea. The bride and groom theme? He could care less. He's even letting me pick out most of his outfit. The wedding as it is coming along really reflects more of my personality than his. Most people would agree that that is pretty common and a well-established tradition, but I'd still like to let his personality shine through in some way. That's where The Pirate's House Restaurant comes in!

The Saturday evening before our Big Day, we are going to have the wedding party and the closest members of our family join us at The Pirate's House in Savannah for our rehearsal dinner. This is what their website says:

"Situated a scant block from the Savannah River, The Pirate's House first opened as an inn for seafarers, and fast became a rendezvous for blood-thirsty pirates and sailors from the Seven Seas. Here seamen drank their grog and discoursed, sailor fashion, on their exotic high seas adventures from Singapore to Bombay and from London to Port Said.... At the Pirate's House, our most precious treasure is our food, acclaimed for over three decades.... We operate 15 separate dining rooms each with a distinct charm all its own."

Jordan loves pirates; or rather, he loves the concept of pirates (and I'll be honest, so do I!). I think we'll all have a grand time...and the food is said to be freakin delicious. :D Oh yeah, and it's supposed to be haunted... ;)

Okay, cool. Location? Confirmed. Now what's that about invitations? Well, I guess that's necessary, too. Since we're only inviting a handful of people, we can afford get a little more creative with the invitations. Here's something I found that fits Jordan perfectly:

I have to admit that I also have a bit of a soft spot for the Wii as well (especially Paper Mario and Cooking Mama), so this is a fabulous idea. I'm a pretty awesome Mii maker too, so I look forward to perfecting our Miis that will be used on the invitation!

We are going to use the rehearsal dinner to relax with our close friends and family before the Big Day, and also to hand out gifts to these same people, who will have tolerated my wedding talk for over two years by the time next September rolls around. Plus, since the wedding is so early in the morning on Sunday, they'll all have to be in Savannah Saturday evening anyway; us providing dinner will help them feel welcome and loved.

In other news, I created yet another wedding website, haha! I was on Shutterfly and noticed the "free share sites" link; so I created a wedding planning website that focuses mainly on pictures, but it also has a calendar, a discussion forum, polls, etc. Check it out!

http://samanthaandjordan.shutterfly.com/

JEWELRY!!

2008-08-03T15:20:00.030-04:00

Just wanted to share some quick news before launching into Wedding Planning City: Jordan and I are now officially moved into our AWESOME new apartment! It's just across town from our old apartment, but it feels like the two places are worlds apart! We have working AC, better neighbors, more space, and a washer, dryer, and dishwasher, yay!

--

Okay, so besides being a ridiculously difficult word to type correctly, jewelry is one of my favorite things in the world. Fortunately for Jordan's wallet, I'm usually attached to inexpensive, plastic, funky colored jewelry rather than diamonds and gemstones, though I do have my weaknesses.

Being that I love jewelry so much, you would think that deciding on my bridal jewelry would be a piece of cake, but I've discovered that narrowing down my choices is harder than the hardest diamond on earth. *le sigh*

I have come to a few general decisions: 1) I want my bridesmaids to wear turquoise to match their dresses and possibly pearls to match their bouquet purses. 2) I want to wear some combination of pearls, diamonds, and turquoise. 3) I will have one piece of jewelry that reflects my personality and typical jewelry tastes. And 4) None of these materials have to be real, except for the metals. That is, I don't mind substituting glass beads for real turquoise, fake pearls for freshwater pearls, and cubic zirconia for diamonds, but I have to have either sterling silver or white gold. Oh yeah, and I might as well throw in 5) I don't want to spend a ton of money on my jewelry.

I can't say it hasn't been fun surfing the internet for ideas, and here are the results of two days worth of searching:

First of all, I love simple bridal tiaras, with just pearls and diamonds:

Because of the neckline of my dress, as well as the halter straps, I want my necklace to be fairly simple, so as to not to detract from the many details of the top of my dress. Also, because my hairstyle will also be pretty fancy, I want my earrings to match the simplicity of the necklace. Alas, this is where I am most indecisive about what exactly I want. Some ideas:

Earrings to the left, necklace to the right:

Two different sets I like:

Next up is my bracelet. Not a necessary part of bridal jewelry, but this is the piece I am going to use to show off my personality. I know I want it to be made up of pearls and/or turquoise, and I want it to be chunky and bold. But there are so many options!

For the bridesmaids, I have found these pieces that I love:

Also, this is a set at David's Bridal that I love. It comes in the color Pool, which would match their dresses exactly:

And let's not forget the rings! This is the easiest part of all my jewelry decisions. I know exactly what I want, and Jordan mostly knows what he wants. Mine will be white gold with inset diamonds, and he wants titanium with very little fancy stuff on it. Our wedding bands will be pretty much exactly like these:

As a little sidenote, we are going to get our wedding bands engraved as well. We are thinking about having the phrase "Less Than Three" engraved because when we first started dating, we were in a long-distance relationship for several months and we chatted a lot on AIM. We started using <3 a lot and it just kinda stuck!

So that's where I stand on jewelry for the big day. Rather indecisive and in need of a lot of suggestions/ideas/advice. Feel free to offer it! :)

My first major change of heart

2008-07-22T17:40:00.006-04:00

So I've had my first major decision change of this wedding planning process. I mentioned a few posts back that I was changing my reception flowers to pink gerbera daisies rather than pink peonies. Well, I've fallen majorly in love with gerbera daisies (I'm looking at a vase right now with three of them that Jordan bought me today). So, I've decided to change ALL of my wedding flowers to be gerbera daisies. :)

My bouquet will be made up of pink and fuchsia gerberas and possibly white stephanotis, in a hand-tied style with pink ribbon and pearl pins wrapped around the stems. My bridesmaids will have either one of these shades or maybe a mixture of both in their white purses, and my matron of honor will have one white gerbera in the middle of hers. My bouquet will look similar to this one, except slightly larger and with the stephanotis:

For the ceremony, I'm thinking of using garlands of pink gerberas draped over the chairs nearest to the aisle. I think it would be a nice way of marking the aisle off, as well as adding some more color. I had planned on placing small urns of peonies at the beginning and end of the aisle, but now I'm not quite sure what I will do. This is an example of a gerbera daisy garland:

Also, my handsome groom will probably have a pink gerbera boutonnière, while the groomsmen and Leslie will have white ones. Examples:

Finally, since I've already talked about reception decor in the previous post, I'll skip right to Jordan's favorite part! Cake! :D I've found some pretty awesome-looking ideas for wedding cakes that feature gerbera daisies. Since we're not going to have a huge cake, we might be able to have something like this cake (without the yellow, obviously):

Or these cute cupcakes:

Another cool idea is to use sugar flowers on a regular cake; I found some in our two colors:

Yay for flowers! :)

One of my favorite parts of this process!

2008-07-15T20:41:00.014-04:00

(Psst, a quick note...I've started another blog. This one is for my travel writing! Check it out!)

Okay, so I'm a HUGE picture freak! I take hundreds of pictures whenever I go anywhere I think is cool (which even includes stuff right down the street from where I live). I'm not that good at photography, but I love to try. As such, I really appreciate and respect the work and talent required for professional photography.

For our wedding, we are spending the most money on our ceremony site and the photography. The wedding day will last less than 24 hours, but the pictures will be something we can look at for years and years afterwards, so Jordan and I agreed not to skimp on it. :) Also, Savannah has some gorgeous spots for some wonderful pictures! Since we're working with such a tight budget, Jordan actually did not want me to book the photography as early as I wanted to, but I'm SUPER glad we did it because they have had three inquiries about our exact same date since we booked!

So anyway, Kenneth and Heather Mason of KHMason Photography in Macon, Georgia, are two super awesome people! We met with them in person before we booked and I absolutely cannot wait to work with them on our wedding day. Heather is bubbly and social like Jordan, while Kenneth is slightly more reserved like me (although he has some funny stuff to say if the moment is right). Also, Heather's favorite color is turquoise! ;) They have a website, a blog, and a facebook profile!

Here are some of my favorite photographs from them (excuse the quality, as blogspot is not the best place for high-quality images):

This is a cute little flower girl who apparently kept sticking her tongue out whenever she saw Kenneth!

This fountain looks a lot like the one across from where our ceremony will take place, so I think it would be awesome to have one like this:

I love the sunlight in this one:

I'm a huge fan of "artistic" shots like this one...

And this one!

This is one of my favorite bride close-ups ever!

This one is just awesome!

And finally...this is one of my favorites of all time!!

Thanks to Kenneth and Heather for letting me share their images!

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes!

2008-07-10T19:04:00.009-04:00

I'm not super crazy about shoes, but I do have a fairly large collection. That's probably mainly because I have a really hard time finding comfortable (and cute) shoes in my big-foot size. When I found my wedding dress at David's Bridal, I thought about buying these shoes in white:
I can't wear high heels, so the kitten heel option is definitely my favorite. However, I saw a picture in our photographers' portfolio that inspired me to do something a little different. Here is the picture (by KHMason Photography):

I thought to myself, "I don't want to wear plain white shoes, even if they are sparkly. I want to have a picture where my shoes are the focus and it's not boring."

So then I decided that since aqua/"pool" is going to be one of my main colors, why shouldn't I use my shoes to fulfill the "something blue" requirement? And voila, the search has begun! Because of shoe difficulties, I will be purchasing my shoes at an actual store, in-person, but these three are my favorites that I've found online, thus far. My very favorite is the first pair, I think:

A borrowed idea

2008-07-06T14:07:00.004-04:00

I saw this idea on the blog of another bride who uses weddingbook on facebook. It's basically an "inspiration board" for wedding ideas. I created one for my own ideas. :)

So, for more good news! I recently got a new job! I am now a Marketing Assistant at the University of Georgia Press (a local publishing company). Not only am I now making $1.75 more an hour, but I LOVE this new job. The hours are flexible, the people are wonderful, and it's close to the new apartment we'll be moving into (VERY soon, we hope).

One of my bridesmaids got engaged recently, too! I can't wait to help her start planning her wedding (possibly a harvest theme, set for next October). :D

The wonders of technology

2008-07-04T09:30:00.003-04:00

I don't know how I could possibly keep up with everything without my wedding website. I know brides got along just fine without this tool for hundreds of years, but it has been such an immense help for me! I do have a physical notebook of ideas and paperwork, but I LOVE being able to organize my ideas, purchases, and tasks online. Not only is it a lot cleaner, but it is also much more editable, and I can access my site from anywhere with an internet connection!

Another benefit to having a wedding website is that our family and friends can keep up with the details of our planning. This is especially invaluable since we both have family that live several states away from us (think North Carolina and Michigan, when we live in Georgia).

On our site and visible to guests, we have the story of our proposal, the ceremony and reception information, hotel information since the wedding will not take place in our "hometown", pictures of things we have either purchased or want to purchase, our engagement photos, a guestbook for guests to sign, and much more (psst, including our gift registry! :P ).

Aspects of the site not visible to guests are also invaluable. There is a budget breakdown with a nifty pie chart, a task list manager, and a "news aisle" with some great ideas and common questions answered.

Plus, everything is able to be personalized! There is a huge variety of wedding website choices, but we chose "Our Wedding Day" because it is easy to use (and free!). Check it out!

http://jordanandsammi.ourweddingday.com/

It's been a while, but I have good news!

2008-06-26T11:05:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the long absence...Jordan and I spent a wonderful few days in New York City!! :D It was absolutely fabulous, and didn't cost more than $500 TOTAL! We were so lucky; he won a free plane ticket and hotel for three nights for being a Peabody Award student judge!

I think the best part was seeing The Little Mermaid on Broadway...omg it was AMAZING! Since this is my wedding blog, I've attached a picture of Ariel in her wedding dress. ;)

More good news: my wedding dress has arrived!! I went and tried it on Tuesday night and it fits wonderfully! I am having the halter strap and bustle added, but will wait for the size alterations until closer to next September. While in the store, I decided to glance through the veils one more time just hoping that one would be affordable. Well, I found a GORGEOUS veil that matched every requirement I had and it was only $59! It has white ribbon edging and scattered pearls and rhinestones. Apparently, they had received some new ones in very recently. The store manager was nice enough to give me 10% off since I had purchased my dress from there about a month earlier. Yay! Here's a picture of it:

A little indecisive

2008-06-08T17:42:00.005-04:00

So I thought my decisions about flowers were already made, but I am faced with a quandary! I still want the same bouquet, but the reception decor is a little trickier... Would it be bad to have a different kind of flower in the vases for the reception?

Here's my idea. I was thinking of maybe having hot pink gerbera daisies in clear vases with turquoise vase gems... Would that clash or create a problem since our bouquets will be peonies? I just can't decide how it will look.

Here's a picture of pink peonies

And here are the pink gerberas

We would only have two or three stems in each slender vase per table. Any suggestions?!

Wedding party woes

2008-06-02T19:18:00.009-04:00

The first picture shows the kind of jacket Leslie might wear. The second two are pictures of the color of the bridesmaids dresses (and the two styles I like). The last picture is the kind of black dress Leslie might wear.

It has been quite a hectic few days. Jordan and I visited his family in North Carolina over the weekend, and now it's back to work for me (and a summer class starting this Thursday).

While we were in North Carolina, Jordan asked his dad to be his Best Man and he asked his brother to be a groomsman. We also know that his best friend Leslie is going to be another "Honor Attendant". Okay, so that's three of five down...he hasn't exactly been on the ball about figuring out his side of the wedding party. Blech. >.< I keep bugging him to figure it out, haha.

I have had my party picked for several months. My Matron of Honor is going to be my older sister, Sonia. I will have three bridesmaids: Whitney (a best friend from high school), Amelia (another best friend from high school, who also goes to UGA), and Whitney (a wonderful friend I met here at UGA). My niece Brianna will be a junior bridesmaid and my youngest niece, Ashlynn, will be our flowergirl. I like David's Bridal's bridesmaids dresses in the color Pool. I've picked out my favorite styles, but I'm going to leave it up to the girls to decide what they feel best in. :)

Leslie will probably wear a black dress in a style similar to that of the bridesmaids, and with a sash or something in the bridesmaids color. She might wear a little black jacket or something, but we're not sure yet. We are quite aware that this is not traditional, but Leslie means so much to both of us, so we are quite willing to break tradition in order to have her be a part of the wedding party. If his grandmother has a fit, so be it.

PS: We bought 120 of those hot pink and turquoise fans for the ceremony, as well as the last two of the bridesmaids flower purses. After that plus the photography deposit, we are absolutely broke! But it's for a good cause. ;)

A sweet deal

2008-05-26T17:33:00.004-04:00

When I bought my wedding dress, I received a TON of coupons. Some of them are useless for us (like "receive $20 in spa credits in Barbados), but some of them have turned out to be quite awesome.

Case in point: Shutterfly coupons. We received two coupons--a free 12x12 memory book and a free 18-month calendar. I made a "kitty cat calendar" featuring my two loves, and for the memory book, I made what is going to be the guestbook at our wedding! I used the 20 pages to tell "our story" and there is plenty of room for signatures around the pictures. And all I had to pay was shipping!

Check it out. :)

Making the ceremony more than just a ceremony

2008-05-24T14:31:00.005-04:00

The most important part of a wedding is the actual ceremony, because that is what turns two people into one couple, at least in the eyes of the law and God. Jordan and I have already made a commitment to one another, but the wedding ceremony is going to be one step further into this commitment. So how to make it significant and not just repeated words?

Drawing from many different sources, I have written out our entire wedding ceremony, to be conducted by a non-religious (or at least non-denominational) officiant. Some of it is from poetry, some from actual wedding ceremonies, and some from Celtic traditions (though I'd never admit that last part to his grandmother :P). I will borrow Chaucer's words for the exchanging of the rings. I have also created a promise in my own words that I will read aloud to Jordan before we are pronounced husband and wife. He will also write his own vows.

Here are some of my favorite words that will somehow be incorporated into our wedding ceremony:

Bill Swetmon says that a good marriage must be created, and here is how:

"It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day. It is at no time taking the other for granted. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together facing life. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is doing things for each other not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude. It is not looking for perfection in each other. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding, and a sense of humor. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is finding room for the things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which independence is equal, dependence is mutual, and obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner."

And this is a blessing from a traditional Celtic marriage ritual:

"May you be blessed with communication, intellectual growth, and wisdom.

May you be blessed with harmony, vitality, creativity, and passion.

May you be blessed with friendship, intuition, caring, understanding, and love.

May you be blessed with tenderness, happiness, compassion, and sensuality.

Love has its seasons, the same as does the Earth.

In the spring of love is the discovery of each other, the pulse of the senses, the getting to know the mind and heart of the other; a blooming like the buds and flowers of springtime.

In the summer of love comes the strength, the commitment to each other, the most active part of life, perhaps including the giving of life back to itself through children; the sharing of joys and sorrows, the learning to be humans who are each complete and whole but who can merge each with the other, as the trees grow green and tall in the heat of the sun.

In the fall of love is the contentment of love that knows the other completely. Passion remains, and ease of companionship. The heart smoothes love into a steady light, glorious as the autumn leaves.

In the winter of love, there is parting, and sorrow. But love remains, as do the stark and bare tree trunks in the snow, ready for the renewal of love in the spring as life and love begin anew.

Now is the time of summer. Jordan and Samantha have gathered before their friends and family to make a statement of their commitment to each other, to their love."

I think that crafting our own ceremony and vows will make it that much more meaningful and special for both of us. I like to think of the ceremony as being poetry in action.

The Proposal!

2008-05-21T22:35:00.007-04:00

These are pictures of the night Jordan proposed, one of us with the a capella group and one of us after he proposed. That is my ring!

The proposal isn't really part of the wedding planning process, per se, but it's a great story and I love to share it!

Background information: Jordan and I attended the same middle- and high-schools, though we didn't really know each other until the end of his senior year of high school (I was a sophomore at the time). He left for UGA in 2003 and we began chatting (and flirting) over AIM soon afterwards. I needed some advice on a summer program in 2004 and he had been before, so that was when we really started talking more often. He says he knew he wanted to ask me on a date when I showed up at his pool party wearing my favorite cherry skirt, hehe. ;) On September 21, 2004 (I was a senior in high school), he asked me if I wanted to go on a date, and by December 6 of that year, we were dating exclusively! Well, after I graduated from high school in May 2005, I decided to go to UGA as well, so by August of that year, we were no longer in a long-distance relationship, which was great, but it definitely took some getting used to!

The proposal: On November 18, 2006, Jordan asked me if I wanted to go on a late-night picnic to North Campus (something we did fairly often at the time). Once we were there, he said that a campus a capella group would be performing on the steps of the University Chapel and that some friends of ours were going to show up to watch it. After our picnic of fried chicken and cheesecake, we wandered down to the Chapel to watch the performance. They sang a few songs before starting Come What May from Moulin Rouge (one of our favorite love songs). I was pretty excited, but nothing prepared me for hearing Jordan start to sing the male part rather than the performing group! After singing the first verse, he got down on one knee and said, "Samantha, I love you more than anything else in this world. Will you marry me?"

To say the least, I was quite shocked. I actually didn't even say or do anything at first (something he loves to tease me about!). He asked, "Well?" and I yanked my glove off and said, "Yes!" A friend of ours was videotaping the whole time, so we have a copy of the proposal, but unfortunately it doesn't play on any computers so I can't share it until I find a way to upload it! Jordan thinks he sang terribly, but I think it's cute beyond belief. :)

We will be getting married one day short of five years to the day of when he first asked me out on a date. <3

The Mansion on Forsyth Park

2008-05-20T22:08:00.006-04:00

The first picture is of the Courtyard (with a permanent silky white tent cover) done up for an event. The second picture is of the Ballroom set up for an event as well. Finally, the third picture shows one example of a suite in the hotel part of The Mansion.

Today's post is about the venue we've chosen for our wedding ceremony. The Mansion on Forsyth Park is in Savannah's historic district, close to downtown and the River. It is a restored mansion from 1888 and is directly across from beautiful Forsyth Park. It functions as a hotel with over 100 gorgeous suites, a spa, an art gallery, and a restaurant. In addition, The Mansion hosts many weddings, either in the beautiful Viennese Ballroom, in the Marble Garden Courtyard by the pool, or in Forsyth Park across the street.

Jordan and I originally were going to have our wedding in Forsyth Park in front of the fountain and the reception in the ballroom of The Mansion. I didn't want to risk having bad weather ruin our ceremony, nor could we afford the $7,000 food and beverage minimum (plus 29% taxes and fees) for the cheapest Mansion reception. In the end, we decided to have our ceremony in the Marble Garden Courtyard at 10 am (and in the case of bad weather, we will get moved to the ballroom for no charge) and we'll have an 11 am lunch reception at The Lady and Sons Restaurant nearby! The Southern Lunch Buffet is only going to be around $21 per person, and the price includes all taxes and fees, refillable non-alcoholic drinks, and a dessert buffet (saves on the price of wedding cake!). Not only that, but Jordan loves Paula Deen's cooking, and I'm hoping she'll show up for a photo-op! :)

Although neither of us are from Savannah, we both love it! Jordan is a huge beach buff, and I absolutely adore historic buildings. Having our ceremony at The Mansion was one of the things we decided to splurge on. It's going to cost $2,000 to rent the Courtyard, plus chair rental fees. Thankfully, though, we get a one-day wedding coordinator, who will make sure that everything for the ceremony goes as planned so that I don't have to worry about it. I'm hoping that we'll also be able to stay in one of The Mansion's beautiful suites for a few days before our honeymoon too! ;)

Fleurs de mariage

2008-05-19T19:00:00.008-04:00

The first picture is of pink and white peonies. The darker pink color is the one I want to use. The second picture is of the purses I bought for the bridesmaids to carry their bouquets. The third is of a bouquet style I like, except with all pink peonies and ranunculus...you can see some stephanotis if you look hard enough. :) The final picture is the design of the ribbon I want on my hand-tied bouquet, along with the pearl pins.

So, this is an entire post dedicated to my wedding flowers. Some brides consider their flowers to be one of the most important aspects of their wedding day. Me? Not so much. I mean, I do love flowers...I think they are gorgeous. But at the same time, flowers die, and it always depresses me when they do. Also, my fiance has terrible allergies, and the last thing I want on our wedding day is for him to be sneezing all through the ceremony.

So here is my solution to both problems. We will be having the bouquets made out of artificial flowers. I'm not talking about the cheesy paper/plastic ones you can find at a dollar store, though. These flowers will still be beautiful (and, unfortunately, pretty expensive). They are called "new generation/real touch" flowers...and they look very real!

I have decided to go through this company: http://www.angelsaccents.com/ I browsed through all of their albums and the bouquets are quite stunning. Also, I can personalize how I want my bouquet to look and the company will handmake it especially for me. Since it will be expensive, I'm only getting my bride's bouquet from here.

The bridesmaids will be getting "purse bouquets". This is a neat idea I found on the same website. Their flowers will be bunched in white satin and pearl purses. :)

My flowers of choice are bright pink peonies and ranunculus, with white stephanotis accents. The bride's bouquet will have pink ribbon and white pearl accents. The bridesmaids will carry all pink peonies, and the Matron of Honor will have one white peony in the center of her bouquet.

PS. I BOUGHT MY WEDDING DRESS TODAY!!!! :D

A wedding on a college student's budget

2008-05-18T11:13:00.009-04:00

This is a picture of the fans we'll be placing on our
guests' chairs at the ceremony since it will be
outdoors in Savannah in September. We'll be
choosing turquoise and hot pink to match our colors.

Since I work in a public library, I have been greedily hording wedding books and magazines since last May. I have scoured the catalog, had books shipped from all over the state of Georgia, scanned pictures of my favorite ideas, and poured over articles on how to save money while still having a dream wedding. Unfortunately, the latter have been less than helpful. I don't know what "budget" the writers of these articles are using, but it's definitely not that of a college student with loans and only a few scholarships.

So here I am, a year and a half into planning and sixteen months away from my wedding, and I've been doing all I can to save money and still manage to put on a gorgeous (and memorable) event. A blog post by another bride in a similar situation got me thinking of how helpful it might be to compile a list of websites and other resources I have been using to save money. So here it is!

1.) Do what I did! Go to your local library and search the catalog for non-fiction "wedding" books. You might be surprised at what you'll find (just be sure not to check out anything prior to about 1998 or else you'll find some awesomely tacky stuff). If your library doesn't have copies, ask someone who works there if they participate in a "holds" system where you request a book from another region and they ship it to your library free of charge. Once you find what you're looking for, check it out and find a scanner. Scan the ideas you like and add them to your "ideas" picture folder.

2.) For any specific aspect of your wedding, google's image search might be more helpful than you'd think. For wedding flowers ideas, for example, I searched for "pink wedding flowers" and "pink peony bouquet" and found TONS of ideas! I'm having my bouquet made of "real touch" artificial flowers, so I get to design the bouquet myself. I've collected a slew of images exemplifying every single aspect of the bouquet that must be present, and I'll present the designer with the folder when she starts to create it. You can also do this with "wedding hairstyles", "wedding makeup", etc. It's always easier to work with an image than with a description.

3.) Believe it or not, facebook can be helpful too! If you have an account, add the "Weddingbook" application and you'll see a forum FULL of other brides (and sometimes grooms) posting questions, concerns, and suggestions. If you have a question that you don't see addressed, post a new topic and you'll be practically guaranteed to have at least three answers within a week! Also, facebook participates in "ad targeting", which means that once the program realizes that you are getting married, wedding-related ads in the sidebar will start to appear. This is actually how we found our photographers! Browse the adboard every now and then and there's no telling what you might find.

4.) Once you book any of your vendors (photographers, florist, ceremony venue), ask for recommendations! Often these people will have previously worked with some really amazing vendors in other aspects of a wedding and they can give you a first-hand account of their services. This won't always save you money, but if there are one or two areas in which you're willing to splurge (photography and ceremony venue are mine), they can give you a good head-start on who is the best in the business.

5.) If you live in or near a large city, visit http://www.perfectweddingguide.com/ and browse the site and/or sign up for their mailing list (my suggestion is to create a new email address just for wedding stuff, or else your inbox might get flooded!). There are other similar websites also, like http://www.ourweddingday.com/ and http://www.theknot.com/, but I'm a big fan of the first one especially. Just find the city in which you live and there will be tons of information for you right there.

6.) A similar option, if you're getting married in a popular city, is to visit that city's website. For example, I am getting married in Savannah, GA, and on that city's tourist page ( http://www.savannahvisit.com/ ), there's an entire section devoted to weddings! If you can't find similar information, do another google search, this time for "[city of choice] weddings".

7.) Go to a bridal show! Many large cities have these, and not only are they fun (e.g., free food and cake tastings, contests, prizes), you are bound to get some great information! The one Jordan and I went to had a money wind-machine and the amount the groom managed to hold on to gave us a discount on our tuxedo rentals. They also host tons of local vendors, and there are often trunk shows, which are a way to save money on your wedding dress. You might find a designer wedding dress for half or more off!

8.) If you're not set on the idea of having real flowers, or if you or your fiance are allergic, consider artificial flowers. This can save you hundreds of dollars right away! There is something called "new generation/real touch" artificials now that look and feel like real flowers, although they are almost as expensive as the real thing. Another benefit is that they will last for years after your wedding, whereas real flowers will surely die. What we are doing is having the bride's bouquet made of real touch flowers, and the bridesmaids will get regular artificials. Our reception flowers will also be artificial.

9.) Another way to save money on flowers is to get married outdoors or in a well-decorated location. We are getting married in the courtyard of a Savannah mansion, so there will already be greenery; all we have to do is provide a few urns of flowers and we'll be set!

10.) Enter contests! It won't take much time and there's no telling when you might win something. I've entered many contests, and though I haven't won anything yet, my luck might change at any moment! After all, there's nothing to lose except a few minutes of your time.

11.) I've never quite understood why anyone would spend several hundreds or thousands of dollars on wedding reception favors. If they're not edible, they'll probably get thrown away within a week, and if they are edible, they'll probably be gone before the reception even starts! Why not spend the money elsewhere if you're not terribly attached to the idea of giving each of your guests something expensive? I personally prefer edible favors, but I'm making the packaging double as a placecard holder to save some money and space. Here are some websites that have cute (and cheap) ideas (PS: look for sales!): http://blissweddingsmarket.com/ , http://www.favorsbyserendipity.com/ , http://foreverandalways.com/ , http://orientaltrading.com/ , https://www.exclusivelyweddings.com/dynamicIndex.asp . Another benefit is that these websites will often have more than just favors.

12.) If you're getting married in a hotel, private home, or some place similar, ask about their reception costs. Often, these places will charge a ridiculous amount of money for food and drink. If your guest list is small enough, consider hosting the reception elsewhere--at a restaurant for example! In our case, The Mansion wanted to charge us around $7-8,000 to feed 100-150 guests. Instead, we opted to go to The Lady and Sons restaurant, where feeding the same number of people will only cost around $2,500! And the room rental fee was way lower as well.

13.) Don't get fooled into thinking that the packages listed by vendors (such as photographers, reception venues, etc.) are the only options. Don't hesitate to ask if you can personalize your own package (AKA leave out the extras that you don't need--honestly, do you really need white chair covers on the already beautiful chairs at that hotel?). Always Always ALWAYS ask if there is any way to lower the price. The worst anyone can say is "no" (or maybe, "you're cheap", but if they say that, you might want to find a new place).

That's all I've got for now. This monster is long enough. :)

I had that "ohmygosh" moment

2008-05-17T15:00:00.015-04:00

In reference to my previous post, Someone is looking out for me, and to them I am immensely, immeasurably, and undeniably grateful!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have found my wedding dress. OHMYGOSH I AM SO EXCITED!

I went into David's Bridal this morning to try on a few gowns I had seen online, and some of which I had already tried on several months ago. But you have to understand, I was getting desperate. Apparently, one of the dresses I had written on my list does not look as striking online as it did on me. It was the second dress I tried on, and the moment I walked out of the dressing room and stepped onto the viewing platform, my heart honestly skipped a beat or two and I fell in love.

The dress itself is white satin; the bodice is covered in lace and pearls, with a lace-up corset back; and the skirt is organza with pick-ups. Although it doesn't come with a halter strap, I can have one added from the same ribbon used on the lace-up back. Also, it's cheaper than many other wedding dresses ($599) it's on sale right now for $50 off, so even my practical side is satisfied. Amelia is my "Wedding Consultant" and she was just wonderful the whole time...she wasn't pushy, and she was incredibly helpful and super sweet.

This was just a wonderful experience all around. I didn't buy it today because I still had other places to go to try on dresses, but I'm positive I have found my wedding dress. I've made an appointment to meet with Amelia again on Monday to purchase the dress, as well as some accessories. For anyone who wished me luck, thank you so so very much...you might have made the difference. ;)

I've included a couple of my favorite pictures for this post, but I will post more on our wedding website! (Please, ignore the awul faces I'm making in some of them...Jordan has quite a talent for photographing me at my worst. :P)

Biggest obstacle so far

2008-05-16T12:47:00.008-04:00

Believe it or not, minus lack of funds, the hardest thing that has come up in our wedding planning so far has been finding THE dress.

I know exactly what I want. I want a corset/lace-up bodice, preferably halter style, with (not too much) beading, an organza or tulle pick-up skirt, in white or off-white. Okay, easy enough, right?

Not so. I've tried on dress after dress, always finding something wrong with each one. I did manage to find what looks to be the perfect dress...except it's an older style and no one (I do mean no one) within 250 miles of here has it in stock for me to try on. And I've heard horror stories of brides buying dresses without first trying them on. I personally don't have $800 to blow on a possibility.

I've also heard stories of brides who tried on maybe three dresses, and then managed to find THE dress, bought it that day, and were ludicrously happy with their choice. Why can't that happen for me? Am I too picky? Is my sense of style so off-the-wall that no one makes that dress I've been imagining for more than a year?

I have tried on at least 15 dresses and I have two more appointments this weekend. Wish me luck! (Oh, and if you happen to find that dress I'm dreaming of, call me! :P)

A much needed place to vent/share

2008-05-16T11:49:00.000-04:00

So, I'm back into blogging after a several-year hiatus. This time, it should be much different than my angsty xanga days. I've created this blog to keep track of my wedding planning, as well as to vent and share my ideas with friends and family.

Even though the wedding is still 16 months and 4 days away, I've been planning for several months now (well, ever since I was about eight in all honesty). I have so many ideas that it's hard to keep track of everything in my "My Pictures" folder and Gmail, so that's why I'm here.

Each new post will be about some aspect of my wedding planning or wedding woes, and I'd like to invite everyone to leave a comment with advice, suggestions, or commiseration. Happy reading!