THREE MONTH COUNTDOWN

I can't believe that I am 3 months away from the wedding. This past weekend was a year since our engagement and it got me a little misty eyed, I can't lie. Time has flown by so fast, but I feel like I'm much calmer and on top of things than I was a few months back. :)

On the agenda for the next 30 days...

- Begin and master bouquet assembly

- Assemble and send out invites with MOH

- Go flower girl dress shopping with some of the cutest little ladies ever

- Schedule our appointment to get the marriage licence

- Start figuring out my hair/makeup styles

- Get PUMPED for my bridal shower and bachelorette parties

- Spend quality time each week with Kevin, where the "w" word isn't a topic

Let's see how this goes!

Wedding Hair

So I'm thinking of doing a trial run for my hair/makeup the day of my shower and b-party. I have a few things to consider...

1. I've been working on growing my hair nice and long since I became engaged. The hubs loves my hair down, so I definitely want to show of the length I've gotten it to as well as go along with his wishes.

2. I've been tossing back and forth the idea of a veil. I'm not into the long, whimsical veil look. But I LOVE the look of birdcage veils.

3. Most of the birdcage veil pics I've seen look better with updo's than down.

Below is the pic I think I want to work with for my wedding day. I'm thinking it'd be easy and fun to make my own veil.. I'd love some feedback on this look!

* Long, soft curls with partial updo and cage veil*

Back view:

(courtesy of boards.weddingbee.com/topic/birdcage-veil-with-long-hair)

Snow Day Update: Sola Flowers

One of the main things I've been struggling with over the past few months has been dealing with the flowers and bouquets. My problem lies around the cost and fragility of flowers... I've done a lot of searching and researching and finagling but I still can't fathom spending hundreds of dollars on professionals doing the bouquets and decorations for them to last a few days, or spending almost just as much plus tons of additional stress to do it in the few days prior to the wedding. I knew I couldn’t be the only one out there with this thought… there must be alternatives for the same beauty and delicate nature of natural flowers that are cost-efficient and durable.

So started my searching…

I found interesting ideas using feathers, buttons, brooches, and even paper or tulle flowers. But then I found sola flowers. If you search through google images, you’ll see just how GOREGOUS and elegant these flowers are. They are sculpted from tapioca wood, they never die or dry out and they are amazingly affordable.

This image is what inspired me to begin looking into sola flowers.. I think this is stunning and beautiful..

site: JL Designs

So then I started hunting a bit more and found great deals for these creamy sola flowers on save-on-crafts.com

A week or so ago, I began organizing my bits and pieces… here’s what I accomplished…

I spent a Friday evening working with some google photos as inspiration. I had bought some accent colors and started to work on boutonnieres.

Finished product # 1!!

More to come...

Engagement Party Pics!

Here's our room, pre-party. We decorated some tables with mason jars filled with sunflowers, snapdragons and some fillers we found at a farmer's market the day before. We also had a talented member of my family send in some awesome cookies which we set around the outside of the room.



Outside. Pretty funky and casual.. a "gathering".

About halfway through the party, we had our Maid of Honor and Best Man read off trivia questions about us. Right answers got a drink ticket! It was fun hearing who knew the essentials (where we met, where we've traveled to, how we got engaged, ect.) as well as hearing people's opinions of where we'd be in 5 years :)

We enjoyed the answers :)

For favors, we put custom fortune cookies in take out containers and wrapped colored ribbon we had found on sale at a craft store to tie in the pink, blue and brown theme.

We spent a bit over $1,000 but had an awesome 5 hour party with catered food and open pool tables for our friends and family. We brought favors, decorations and homemade cupcakes for dessert. Totally worked out to be a fun and memorable day!

Everything happens for a reason...

Well it has been five or so months since I last blogged about the wedding.. Things have been a tad nuts, but I'm officially back on the blog-wagon!

In early November, we were notified of a property issue that our venue (The Mansion in the Woods) was having. They weren't able to guarantee how/when it would be cleared up or if we could have our wedding there. They said they should hopefully know by December. Hearing this, I lost it. Cried, yelled, when into a bit of a freak out. But Kevin and I decided the smartest thing for us to do would be to start looking for a new venue just in case we didn't hear good news from them in November. I went on a bridal rampage and within 5 days, had set up over 20 appointments for Kevin and I to view new venues. I searched everywhere from vineyards to historical houses to museums to inns to mansions... if they had a website and contact info, I made it work. Luckily on our last viewing of our first day of hunting, we found a beautiful venue on the North Shore...

The Smith Barn! The place is gorgeous and rustic... and we both knew this was "it". Unlike the MITW, this place had everything together, took a lot of the guesswork and questions out of the process of the wedding, fit our budget AND had our date open. Within a week, we signed the new contract and got back our deposit from our previous venue, thus moving our wedding event 52 miles north east and starting from scratch with most of our planning.

I'm finding it easier to focus now, as there much less to worry about and things are getting finalized.

In the last month, this is what we've accomplished:

• New venue
• New area for guests (hotel room block booked, looking into new weekend events)
• Ordered my wedding dress (the one from the pics in July!)
• Decided on a new menu with a new caterer
• New awesome dessert theme
• THREE WORDS: DUFFY DAY COORDINATING
• Um, hello bridal shoes!
• Booked a DJ
• Met with and reserved a Justice of the Peace for our ceremony
• Booked our 7 night honeymoon to Costa Rica :)
  
• Designed and sent out our save the dates
• Designed and ordered our favor cards
• Began accumulating pieces of the centerpieces
• Fell in love with sola flowers (you'll hear more about this soon, I'm positive)
• Started brainstorming with Prima Portraits for wedding shots

...I think that's most of it?

Life's been a bit crazy. The next 2 weeks of holidays, no classes and winter weather excite me because I feel like things are started to actually come together. :)

OH, here's one thing I forgot (although I have no idea how I ever could)..

Meet Winston, my furry adopted child :)

It's official... I have found my dress!

I just got some pictures back that my Mom took when her, my little sister, my MOH and I went back to Amari Bridal in Franklin on 7/10. We went through some of the dresses I really liked the last time I went with Kevin's family.. but then I tried one on I hadn't seen before. And it just hit me. I had found my wedding dress. When I first put it on, it felt just like another beautiful gown.. but after a few minutes, I couldn't get over it and didn't want to take it off. It's by Casablanca, style 1827. It's a sweetheart, strapless top with very delicate beading and a low back. The dress is described as A-line, but the one I tried on (even with a zippered back) is much more fitted with a flowing, lace-accented skirt. I feel like the pictures don't do it justice.. When it's on, it's lightweight, comfortable and I feel like a million bucks (which is why we spend $$$ for something we'll wear for 8 hours, right?!) I'm looking to go back for my measuring and ordering in August. I'm going to have some customizations done with the designer to alter the train length as well as have a lace-up back put in, replacing the zippered back. I have some pictures you can click on below... (The dress they had was in a brighter white than the ivory I'll be wearing)

*The first few minutes I had it on... http://tinypic.com/r/2hgfcjr/3

*The back, showing the lace layer of the skirt... http://i28.tinypic.com/2r42xp1.jpg

*Side view! http://i25.tinypic.com/10ridjk.jpg

*Close up of beading on top... http://i29.tinypic.com/rw722g.jpg

*Excitement! My MOH Sammy, Sister Dylani and I... http://i30.tinypic.com/ixxv0p.jpg

*Another back view... http://i31.tinypic.com/2ahi4gl.jpg

*Veiled... http://i29.tinypic.com/347wxnp.jpg

Engagement Party Success!

We had our engagement party last weekend and it was definitely a success! We had it at Big City, a pool bar in Allston. It was casual but definitely eclectic and random enough to fit into Kev & I’s environment. There were 4 pool tables, a food station with different apps, pizzas and salads, a guest card station with some of our engagement pics around, and then a few TV’s so everyone could keep an eye on the World Cup final. We had a good turn out (45 out of the 60 or so invited) and everyone seemed to mingle and enjoy themselves. My Mom helped me make these awesome floral arrangements of sunflowers and snapdragons in big mason jars with brown raffia bows around the jar... very casual, summertime feel. Kevin’s sister helped me assemble all of the favors, which were little Chinese take-out boxes filled with 2 fortune cookies from Fancy Fortune Cookies (with, of course, random customized notes from Kev & I) and different colored tissue paper to match the blue/pink/brown theme we had. We also had a decent amount of desserts! My Aunt in Arizona shipped out lots of awesome cookies from her bakery, TerraBites,which we set up around the room for the party. Then, after most of the food was demolished, we brought out about 5 dozen cupcakes that my Mom & sister had made and we had decorated that morning. Those, also with the pink/blue/brown theme, came out super cute and VERY delicious.

Towards the end of the party we had a trivia session where the Best Man and the Maid of Honor read 5 questions about us including How long we’ve been together, Where we met, Who asked who out, What countries we’ve traveled to, and Where would we be in 5 years… for the last one, the best answer (judged by Kevin & I) won. The best answer, we decided, was “in a house with a dog” (It made me go “awhhhh” and we decided that was the most realistic image for us in the near-ish future). Runners up included “Aruba” and “Retired”. Hahaha

One of my bridesmaids from Montreal even went through 12 strenuous hours of bus rides just to be around for the shindig. J THAT is dedication!! 4/5 of my bridal party was around for the party, and it was pretty much the same for Kev’s groomsmen. Both of our immediate families were there, along with lots of friends and close pals who we wanted to share the day with. My buddy Christina who did some of our engagement shots from Prima Portraits was around for the day and got great shots of everyone. Once I get those pictures, I’ll make sure to post them.

All in all, a great day with great memories. I’m so glad we got this special times with our friends.. Next stop? Wedding!

Oh yeah, AND we stayed in our budget :)