Monday, November 16, 2009

Engagement Party

This weekend was absolutely lovely. My amazing Aunt Kimmy threw an engagement party for AJR and I at her house. She went all out and it was classy and divine and PERFECT. AJR and I had about 15 of our friends come in town for the event (and they ALL stayed at my apartment, oh my... that was quite the experience) and our families finally got to officially meet. There were about 40 or more people at the party and it was so hectic for me because I was so worried about talking to everyone and making people feel welcome, etc. I can't even imagine how it will be on the wedding day... *siighh

However, it was sooo much freaking fun. Kimmy has impeccable taste and decorated in all my wedding themed ideas. She put the perfect spin of southern class in the party and it was incredible. The menu was to die for... salmon and prime rib with delicious carrots and asparagus with the most tasty sauces I've ever had. There were countless wine options and cheese platters, individually wrapped gourmet chocolates, and even a coffee bar! The silverware was put into mason jars and randomly throughout the house were mason jars with votive candles in them. Surrounding the mason jars, she placed big magnolia leaves and it was GORGEOUS. I think I found my centerpiece! I don't even need magnolia blooms... just the leaves with the lit mason jars was so simple and elegant. I adored it all! The walkway leading to the house was lined with mason jars with lit candles in them and it was such a nice way to welcome the guests. She also made floral arrangements in large mason jars with small pink roses. One of the arrangements was all rose buds and they were so beautiful! Among all that we had several pictures of AJR and I in rustic frames and it really tied it all together. Eeee, I am getting all giddy thinking about it!

The engagement party was a perfect preview to how I want the wedding to look with all the splashes of things that I have been envisioning. Many thanks to Kimmy and all my aunts and Mom who helped her pull it all off. It was amazing! (And I feel incredibly spoiled. Sheesh.)

Our friends were also contributors to the amount of fun that was had this weekend. Saturday morning several of us got up at 6am and kicked off the weekend with an 8K race to benefit organ donation. It was a blast! All day we hung out and the guys went to a shooting range after watching college football at a bar. Meanwhile, Sarah (my roomie/Maid of Honor) and I hung out at home and tried to prepare for the night. After the party all my friends and I went to a place downtown for some dancing and more drinking. It was an awesome celebration and it couldn't have gone better. Sunday morning we all woke up to a breakfast casserole and recapping the night together.

Gah, okay I shall stop gushing about my incredible weekend, but I am all smiles on this Monday back to reality.


This is the cake that Kimmy had made for us... it was so pretty! She put fresh flowers on top and it was so fun cutting the cake together for the first time. (Good practice for the wedding ;) Take note of the silverware in Mason jars. P.S. The silverware was actually plasticware that looked like silverware. I am taking this idea with me to the wedding thank you very much!



This is AJR and I about to start filling our plates up. I just like it because we look so happy!



This is my Dad making a toast before the cutting of the cake. I love this picture because the similarity between AJR and his dad is so noteworthy.



Here is my Mom and step-dad, Vince. He made the first toast of the night and it made everyone say "aw".

I wish I had more pictures to share (especially to show you how amazing the decorations were!) but in the midst of all the people and drinking and food and excitement, I didn't take a single picture! Luckily my future sister in law, Lauren picked up my camera and took several pictures for me! Hopefully I can bum some pictures off of people who thought to take a few. I did see some flashes coming from my Aunt Wendy's way throughout the night...

Friday, November 13, 2009

We have a Photographer!

I mentioned in the last post that during my productive Veteran's Day off this Wednesday, I also met with our wedding photographer! She is incredible and I am SO excited to have her be a part of our wedding day! I decided to go with Kelsey Thompson, who is based in Northern Virginia and I am obsessed with her style! We met at a Starbucks and ended up having so much fun talking that we stayed for over 2 hours! She is so easy going and sweet and very professional. Basically, I want her to be my friend.

Her website: http://www.kthompsonphotography.com/
Her blog: http://kthompsonphotography.blogspot.com/ (my new favorite site to stalk ;-)

Here are some pictures I pulled from her blog to give you a sense of her work and why I fell in love with it!






















Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Dress

And now.... for the biggest announcement of my wedding planning (drum roll please) I HAVE A WEDDING DRESS! Woo-Hoo!!! (alright I admit, it's a bit superficial to think the dress is the biggest announcement. but still. it's huge. i'm psyched.)

Yesterday I used my Veterans Day holiday to tackle a few wedding things and man do I feel great about it all! I now officially have a photographer (I will introduce her in my next post) and a beautiful wedding dress is hanging in my bedroom. (eeee!)

The Dress situation was definitely worrying me a little because I originally fell in love with a $3000 Paloma Blanca gown and I was convinced that it scarred me because while I could never even dream of being able to afford such a dress, I wanted to compare it to everything else I looked at afterward! But then my future sister-in-law, Lauren took me to the bridal store, Jeanettes (where she got her wedding dress a few years ago) and I was instantly in awe over the AMAZING selection! Everything was beautiful and quality and I wanted it all! Lauren was an awesome sport and sat through two hours of me trying on dresses and asking a zillion "Does this make my butt look big?" questions... I mean haha, just kidding, but a lot of "ahh... is this The One? Do you think this would be me?" Many thanks to Lauren for bringing me to the place where I found my dream dress and for bearing with me through it! (I'm really lucking out with the cool new family thing. yay!)

So next step is to take it to the seamstress I found and have her make alterations (and a few minor changes to the dress to make it perfect) and I am finito!

Unfortunately, that's the most you'll be hearing concerning the dress on this public blog where my loving fiance is just a click away from reading. However, if you're that interested and your name isn't AJR, I'll show you a pic :)

Now here are some dresses it ISN'T:







(hee hee ;-)

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Feeling Accomplished :)

This weekend was good... I feel like we waded a little further up the wedding creek. (is that even a saying? guess I just made it up)


Some things we have done this weekend:

-- Trying to make headway on the dress (well, this is something I am doing... obviously AJR can't know any details!) I know what I want, I found an amazing seamstress who can help achieve it... I just need to find a base dress to help me get there....

-- I have unofficially booked a photographer, and am meeting with her on Wednesday to discuss specifics (and hand over the mula to stake our claim on her for our date!)

-- The Save the Dates are coming together with the help of our lovely graphic design talented friend, Bridget.

-- We met with our pastor for the first time to talk about the wedding. He was late for our appointment. And it made me angry. But... as long as he doesn't forget our wedding then I suppose he shall do. (This is to be determined. I don't like when people aren't punctual.)

-- We found the PERFECT reception site. When we book it, I shall post more details... but it is ahhh-mazing.

-- We started exploring honeymoon options! How incredible does this look? I'm sold!


(This is the two of us today... sometimes in the midst of crazy wedding planning, you need to remember to just relax and enjoy the simple lovely parts of love. I like holding hands.)

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Succulents are so... well, succulent!

A few weeks ago I saw where a bride incorporated succulents into her bouquet and then had individual succulents as the main flower for the guys' boutonnières. I thought it looked so organic and different. Plus, it's also green! (not that I'm biased to green or anything...)

I'm at the end of my work day, so I decided to google image succulents used in weddings. Naturally my boss just walked in to see me doing so. "Um... these are totally for speech therapy research purposes. Yeah..."



image found here

Monday, November 2, 2009

Calligraphy on a Budget




This morning I stumbled upon this neat idea posted on Design Sponge.

Looks insanely time consuming, but would certainly spruce up the invitations without the major cost of hiring a calligrapher.

Basically, the girl that did these bought a font she liked online and printed each address onto individual envelopes in a shade darker than the envelope itself. Then she went back and hand traced the lettering with a calligraphy pen in a lighter color.

The end result: Beautiful calligraphy that looks hand written, but without spending a fortune. Terrific idea... but you would need some major help accomplishing this. And sometimes... it's worth it to just spend the money to save time. I must admit, having my envelopes addressed in calligraphy isn't a huge priority (most people don't save the invitations, much less the envelopes they came in!), but daannggg it looks purdy.




I have this belief that if I pick up a calligraphy pen, my handwriting magically becomes beautiful. Maybe I can just address my own invitations?

(Post is here)