Saturday, April 28, 2012

399

Haven't done anymore planning lately. That's ok by me. 


Went and saw the Five Year Engagement last night. Cute movie, more serious than I expected, but still funny.


I mostly just wanted to update to say...




Only 399 more days to go!! Wooooooo!!!!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Making it Meaningful

We changed our colors again. It was such a point of contention to pick colors we could both agree on. But right from the start there was a combination we both liked; orange and purple. We nixed it originally because that also happens to be Hobart College's colors and we didn't want everyone thinking we chose them because we had some emotional attachment to the college. 


I remember we went, with some of our friends, to Washington DC last spring break. I drove down with our friends and Rob drove up form his NIRSA conference in New Orleans. He stopped on his way up to visit his Space Camp friend Cici. He told her he was thinking of proposing. That was eight months before he actually did. One of the days in DC, we were walking from the metro station down to the National Mall and we walked past the World Health Organization building. Outside of it was a huge patch of orange and purple tulips. I remember seeing them and thinking about how beautiful the color combination was and that someday, if I got married, those would be my colors. And now they are.


We also came up with the most awesome idea for what we want "thrown" at us for our recessional after the ceremony. I figured we would just do something traditional/normal like bubbles or confetti, but we're going with something very personal to us. It will require some DIY work, but it's something we're both excited to sit down and make one day and I'm sure we can get a few of our friends to help us. I have no intentions of blowing our surprise on here though... everyone is going to have to wait until next year to find out. 


There's only 405 days left!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

"Banded" Together

When Rob and I first got engaged, one thing he got really involved in looking at were wedding rings. We have the same outlook on the rings, which is that we both need to be happy with the ring we wear because we're the ones who have to wear it, look at it, like it, forever. 


Right after we were engaged, we looked around a lot for wedding rings. There was a jeweler going out of business here in Geneva (he was retiring and closing shop) and the prices were crazy good. We almost bought plain bands just because the prices were so low. But essentially we decided that rings were one area we planned to splurge on. Men's bands are much less exciting and have less variety, so it took Rob a while to find one he liked. I stumbled across a meteorite band on Pinterest and sent it to him and he's completely sold on that now... cool isn't it?






I on the other hand am completely in love with tension set bands. On top of that I want a two toned wedding band to match my two toned engagement ring. And, I want something kind of fancy and bold, since I won't be able to wear both rings on one finger. My engagement ring is just too big to put another ring next to (and that's a problem how, haha). So when I have just a wedding ring on my finger, I want it to take up some space on my finger! I found a jeweler I really like, who sells two toned tension set rings, with the diamonds included both in the setting and in the price. Typically the diamond has to be purchased separately, so I'm stoked to find some I like where it's included without jacking the price out of reach. Granted, the one I really want, if money was no object, is out of reach (so many diamonds!) I'm going to be a good, economical bride and settle on a single stone ring. I think I'm going to go with this one:


Isn't it pretty? I'm pretty excited about it. And I'm really happy that Rob and I both have the same philosophy about wedding rings being worth their money. I mean, you have to wear it EVERYDAY FOREVER and be happy about it FOREVER. 

On a different note, I'm excited to go bridesmaids dress shopping again soon. And then my mom and Sharron and I are going to look at flowers and start planning some floral arrangement ideas. So exciting!

Only 410 days left. 

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Elements of Us

Slow, slow, slow. Our planning has slowed some, which is fine. We've booked all our time sensitive vendors, so now we can slow down. We still have a bit of time to kill anyways. 


We've done a bit of talking about elements of the wedding, such as flower girls. I think we've settled on a decision. We're going to ask to have Rob's little cousins Isabel and Kathryn. They'll be the right age to be young enough to be adorable, but not too young to get shy/cry/not make it down the aisle. And speaking of Rob's family, we still need to send Daniel his house warming card/save the date/please officiate our wedding card.


My mom and I have started talking flowers. I definitely want Gerbera Daisies as one of the flowers. I think I'm also going to do tulips, which are Rob's favorite flowers. My mom has a close friend who happens to be a florist. She's kind of far away to do fresh flowers for us, but she's offered to make us silk flower arrangements. At first I wasn't too sure about this, but the more I think about it the more I've realized, I only care about myself when it comes to flowers. As long as I have a fresh bouquet, The rest can be silk. I think I'd also get Rob's boutonniere fresh, for consistency.But the rest of the bridesmaids bouquets can be silk, the rest of the groomsmen can have silk boutonnieres, and all the arrangements around the wedding can be silk. It will save us money, still look beautiful and as long as i can have fresh, beautiful flowers, everything else will be fine. 


I'm getting together with my bridesmaids again next month to do another round of bridesmaids dress shopping. I did like the ones we kind of settled on last time. If we don't find anything better this second time around then that's what we'll go with. But those dresses don't necessarily fit the image I have for our wedding. I really want something more playful, flowier, and more laid back. The ones we had settled on were sheath style dresses, which just feel too formal. Our wedding is going to be mostly traditional, but we still want it to feel laid back and fun. And strapless, fitted sheath dresses just don't feel that way to me. So we're going to go to New York Bride on May 12th and hopefully find some more options. They carry so many designers for bridesmaids dresses, including the one we settled on last time. So we should have more to choose from. So far Emily is in and Annie is in, which is good since she didn't get to go last time. Crystal and Elaina are both in pending getting out of work. Lauren I haven't heard back from and will have to get ahold of. 


Rob and I got sucked into watching some wedding cake show for hours today. We're both excited to go to cake testings and eat lots of free cake. We talked some about what kinds of designs we might like, but didn't commit to anything, which is fine. I have a feeling no matter what we end up going with, it will be pretty whimsical. I like that though, it fits us as a couple. 


Our wedding is going to be traditional, fun, laid back, whimsical and eclectic. It's going to be the epitome of us and who we are. And I can't wait! Only one year, one month, two weeks and three days left! That's 412 days to go! 



Friday, April 6, 2012

Color!

Choosing colors for our wedding was such a point of contention between Rob and I. Every combination of colors I liked he said reminded him of some sports team or something else arbitrary. Yellow and purple looked like the Lakers jerseys, orange and yellow looked like the sun, yellow and pink looked like Animal from the Muppets... (can you tell I really wanted yellow). We finally settled on pink and blue. Fuschia/hot pink-ish and a bright cerulean-ish blue. Yes. 


The Ramada, where we're hosting the reception, charges extra for linens and chair sashes in your colors. I don't feel like the extra charge is worth it basically to make only me happy. No one else will notice or probably care. But I want to incorporate our colors somehow. 


For the table tops I'm thinking of using satin ribbon to tie around the napkins. Each table can have either pink or blue ribbon. We're also planing on buying votive candles and translucent marbles in our colors for the centerpieces. For the chairs, I'm thinking of buying tulle in our colors and making my own sashes. Or maybe I'll do it in some sort of satin fabric. We'll see how much money I feel like spending (blowing). This sounds great in theory, but I also don't know if I have it in me to make 120 chair sashes. Though if Emily and Elaina help me, it would go quick. They both love doing that kind of stuff and are better at it than I am, so it's possible. 


I think Rob is probably ok with my favor idea. He was a bit concerned about the cost, but they're only $2 each, which is actually pretty good and pretty typical. He didn't even have any idea about what people usually give as favors, so like I figured, he seemed somewhat indifferent with the exception of the cost. 


That's ok, we have time! 421 days to go!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Small-ish update

I'd like to go ahead and attribute my lack of updating to my lack of planning. Seeing as we've now book all of our time sensitive vendors (reception and ceremony, photographer, DJ), we're holding off on getting anymore contracts until it gets closer. We don't need a baker or a florist yet. They just need to come, drop off my stuff, and leave. They don't need to be booked for the whole day, so I'm in no rush. 


However, my next planning move is to find things for welcome bags for out of town guests. I also want to slowly start acquiring favors. I've pretty much settled on what I want to use, and I won't say on here just yet, since I have the link to this on our website and therefor visible to everyone invited. My plan is to go get a few more every time I get paid until I've bought enough. I plan on getting a few extras too. I'm going to guess they'll be popular, get swiped quick and that some people more take more than one. Hint, it is in fact, something that can be ingested. You'll find out at some point. 


I still need to run all this by Rob. I will probably tomorrow, since I just solidified it in my own brain today and he won't be home from work until late tonight. This is an area of planning I can see him being indifferent too, or not even knowing your supposed to do, so I'm guessing he'll be fine with my decision. 


And when I say run this idea by him I mean the favors. We've briefly talked about having welcome bags for everyone staying at the hotel, so I know he's on board with this. I went out and looked for things to make these bags out of today. I only managed to find four rolls of ribbon in the right shade of blue. They were sold of the right shade of pink, so I'll keep checking back and buy it when they have it again. I have no idea about the actual bag part. I think I might make them myself. They sell pre-cut pieces of fabric. I'm thinking of buying enough of those and making little drawstring bags. 


Anyways, that's really it. I wanted to make sure I posted something, but until we get within the one year mark, our planning is going to be slower than it was before. Posts will get more frequent and hopefully more exciting and planning filled as the date gets closer. But until then, I'll keep on top of it, I promise!


...and hey! Only 424 more days to go!