Your Presence is Requested.

It has been nearly seven months since our wedding and so I wanted to share our final decisions on the wedding and how it all came together.  John Gentry Photography is credited with all photos www.johngentryphotography.com

I decided to hang large J letters on the doors of the chapel. I bought the letters at JoAnn’s Fabrics and literally just glued on moss bought from the same store with a glue gun. It gets messy so make sure you have a towel or something underneath your working space.  We used removable sticky hangers on the doors so we wouldn’t hurt the finish and tied them up in a bow with a coffee colored ribbon.  It gave a very earthy yet elegant feel to the area.

Outside the doors, I placed this sign Happily Ever After Starts Here, which I got from www.etsy.com  It added a cute feel as folks entered the chapel. 

The guest table had a large tree on the center made from branches from my parents’ farm in a flower pot I got at Hobby Lobby.  I made wish cards from ivory card stock and printed on them Write your Wish for Jill and Jonathan.  Guests wrote their wishes and then hung them with tiny clothespins bought at JoAnn’s Fabrics.  The wedding programs, which I got from www.weddingpaperdivas.com were placed in a basket I bought at Hobby Lobby.  I also placed a photo from our engagement session in a moss planter I found at a local antique shop…again adding that earthy organic feel.  It was important to me that we not do a typical guest book that would collect dust in my attic, so I thought this was a beautiful alternative.  Many more pictures and details to come! Stay tuned!

    

Wrap it up and Tie it in a Bow

So it’s been quite a while since I last blogged…sorry! But here I am and can you believe it? Two and a half weeks away. It goes so fast!! The latest projects are ones that I’ve done myself. Mom says as she checks off things on our list, she then adds a couple. haha We’re trying to stick with the checking off at this point.

Totally random, here is a picture of my rings. ha! Just had to show them off.  We picked them up a couple weeks ago.

We met with our photographers last week and it went great! They gave us a complete agenda with up to the minutes on what we will do when. EXTREMELY helpful. Loved that. I also told them what pictures we wanted, those unique things that I’ve seen while looking for wedding ideas and I gave them photos of all the cute litte details we are doing for the wedding so they can be on the lookout for them.

Our wedding will be formal and dazzling with touches of earthy/shabby chic. Sounds different huh? that was the plan. Our guest table will consist of a wish tree kindof like this one, but minus the crystals where folks will write their wishes for us and we pin it to the tree, a basket with our programs, and a picture of us in a moss frame.  We will also have a sign that says Happily Ever After Starts Here.  The chapel doors will have these cute letters that I made myself! I just got two J’s at JoAnn’s and lots of moss and glued it on. Pretty simple. As you go in the chapel, you will see the lanterns on the pews and just a simply table with tons of candles. It was very difficult deciding how to decorate the chapel, but I finally decided just a few candles are the way to go. I’m hoping I can put them on some sort of tray and then on the organ and piano. The instruments are on both sides of the front of the chapel and since we will have 15 people up front with the wedding party, me and my fiance and the pastor, all we need is a few things on the sides because anything in the middle would be covered up by people.  We decided not to have any vocalists or readers during the ceremony. Just the pastor and us. We are going to do communion. You know how they play the unity candle song at weddings and the couple lights the candle and then stands there for another 2 minutes until the song is over? We are trying to avoid that. During the unity candle song, which is “Feels Like Home” by Randy Newman played on the piano, we will light the unity candle, take communion and then do something special. I got this idea from a girl at a wedding my fiance was in several months ago. On their wedding day, they wrote each other notes to open on their 25th wedding anniversary, put them in a box and won’t open it til then! So…during the unity candle song, we will take our notes for one another and put them in the box. What a neat idea. It’s exciting to think about where we will be in our lives in 25 years, and I’m sure to look back on what we were thinking on that day will be pretty cool.

Put Your Best Face Forward-on your wedding day

Every bride wants perfect skin for their big day and I’m no different! It seems like we women spend tons of money on all of these products that don’t work and we don’t find out until it’s too late, money down the drain.  Well, I have decided to get a facial once every four weeks in preparation for the big day.  I’m still looking for the perfect regimen though. Right now I’m using Aveda, which is supposed to be really good, but I’m not getting the results I want. I know it is VERY imporant to limit your caffiene intake (which is SO hard for me!!!) and drink 8-10 glasses of water each day.  I can tell a different in my complexion when I do that.

You have to look your best on your wedding day and here are some photos I’ve found of makeup I really like for that day. Just fresh, clear and natural is best.  I also love this hair shot of Eva. Love how it’s just loosely pulled back and natural. However, I’m not a fan of the curly cues in the front. Those would also have to be pulled. back.

Back to the skincare, I have recently had a professional recommend www.sommeinstitute.com to me. I’m thinking of trying it. I’ve recently switched to Pureology Shampoo and I love it. Although I’m not a huge fan of the conditioner. I use Neutrogena Triple Moisture Daily Deep Conditioner with it. Works great.

I love this make up artists’ website that features her best advice and products for your wedding day and honeymoon http://www.bridesbylisa.com/Pro-Beauty-Tips.html and also makeup and skin tips in general. http://www.lisajohnsonmua.com/page6421.htm They are great!

That’s all for now. I will have a cake update for you soon.  Meanwhile, I will leave you with what NOT to do with your wedding cake. oh dear Lord!

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

Remember that song back in high school? Blocking up the scenery, breaking my mind, do this don’t do that, can’t you read the signs… anyway, so I found the CUTEST shabby chic signs on Etsy. Have ya’ll heard of Etsy.www.etsy.com.   It’s amazing.  They aren’t that expensive and I think they will be a neat touch to the wedding. I thought of making my own, but honestly, I’m not an artist and I’d rather spend a bit more and get what I know is already pretty than break my back trying to make it right.  I just love these signs. Perfect to make it a tad vintage and

make our very formal wedding seem laid backa bit more.  Don’t you agree? I also found signs for Sweet Tea and Iced Water. I think some of the sellers can custom make signs as well. LOVE this idea! I will have them scattered throughout, but obviously guest book on the guest book table, Happily Ever After starts here in front of the chapel, Love is Sweet on the candy table and Happiness is Being Married to Your Best Friend (which is so appropriate for us because I really am marrying my BF!) on the table that we will be hanging polaroid pictures from the night!

To me in the PR world signs are a way to express thoughts and feelings and add a mood without having to say a word! That’s why I love them!

Girls in White Dresses with Blue Satin Sashes

So my wedding ticker says I have 100 days until my big day. Scary!! The invitations have to be printed, I need a hair accessory, I’m making cute little notes to go on the rim of the champagne glasses, I’m thinking of having small chalkboards to label the various drinks available like tea and water, I have no idea if we’re going to have menu cards or not, we haven’t selected our cake flavors, the groom hasn’t gotten the tux or met with the pastor, our programs, bubbles or petals, guest book, place cards have yet to be ordered and I haven’t met the DJ. So I guess you could say I’m stressing out….slightly.

There are a lot of things I have done, so that’s good, it’s just those ones that are lingering that I just want to get my hands around and get finished so I can rest a bit easier!

So….things are starting to shape up as far as all the partying! I have four bridal showers planned! yep, two in Kentucky and two in Tennessee.  wow.  I must say, I’m glad I don’t have to do a thing but show up to these! 

I’m really excited about one idea that I had that involves polaroid cameras.  I’m going to set up a table with the same centerpieces that are on the rest of the tables (tree branches from my parents farm), but instead of hanging lights, I will have guests take photos of whatever they like, each other, us, the wedding party, and pin them (with small clothespins) to the tree branches! I thought that was a cute idea.

I’m also wanting to do something different when it comes to our guest book too. My first thought, which I actually got from our wedding coordinator at the church, was to buy a coffee table book with a topic of interest to my fiance and I both and have our guests sign the book. hmmm still thinking about that, but I also had another idea! I know we will end up getting a storybook from our photographer…if you aren’t familiar with what a storybook is, it is basically a nice photo album, but the entire page is your entire picture and each page is as hard as a hardcover book. So..I thought how great if we could have our guests sign the storybook or something similar and then insert their messages into our storybook in the middle (it will take up 4 pages I’m guessing, maybe more. That way all of our best wishes and photos and memories are all in the same place!

It is fun googling for new ideas and creative things to do at the wedding and reception.  There are so many cool things out there! I’m hoping to just incorporate a few of them for our special day that are truly us….that make it our day.

Now, back to getting to work on things! ahh! 100 days….they will go so fast!

This Little Light of Mine

So I have racked my brain trying to figure out how to decorate our beautiful church. It is exquisite and so I don’t want to over-do it. At the same time, my countless hours of googling wedding decor in pews, aisles, alter, etc has resulted in a plethora of uglyness and not a whole lot of cute. 

I had a vision for the front of the church pretty much right away. Three clear vases at varying heights placed one in front of the other on each side with flowers coming out of the tops. Ivory flowers. Probably hyrangeas.  My goal is white/ivory and clear, I guess that purity look, in God’s house. I also love the look of candles and think it’s very romantic…so there will be a long, brown table under the cross with several candles at different heights.  Also, another plus about the church is I don’t have to spend $40 on a dang unity candle that we will use once and never see again! In fact, the church has a stand for the two family candles and unity in the middle that we will use.   Excellent.  Can you see it? I believe I may have mentioned in my earlier post that I’m NOT buying those items like” unity candle, flower basket and ring bearer pillow. We are using things we  already have that are meaningful.  A basket from my parent’s house and a pillow my fiance had when he was little.

So now, the front is taken care of. So what to do about those pews and the aisle?

The floor of this chapel is so beautiful I would never put a runner down. That’s a given.  But I think I do want flower petals along the sides of the pews. Our florist said we would need at least 30,000! ouch! We would get fake petals of course. Who will know the difference?

The biggest challenge thus far has been what to put on the end of each pew. I’m not a big bow on the pew kindof person so that was out. I thought of doing flowers, but didn’t want to over do it and take away from the beauty of the church. I have found several pictures of different ideas that were cool. 

 

 

 

 

 

But nothing was tickling my fancy.  That is until I saw this picture, below of the lanterns. What a cool idea! I love that it is unique and also won’t cost a million dollars because you’re not using flowers!

We found some cute little white lanterns at Michaels and are getting some thick brown fabric to wrap them around. I thought although this picture I found was beautiful, it was a bit much for my church, so we are doing every third pew (see below). Perfect! Shine on!

Honeymoon

So I cannot wait unti our honeymoon.  We thought for a very long time about where we want to go and several places came to mind…Fiji, St Lucia, Virgin Islands.  Wow, where to start? Sandals seemed like the best choice with all inclusive and tons of things to do and the price was pretty much right.  But the more we got to looking, the more we realized it was a big too commercial for us. Call me a prude, but on my honeymoon I don’t want to be meeting couple after couple after couple and getting no private time! SO we began looking elsewhere.

Of course, I aimed big and wanted to find the place that Trista and Ryan went on their honeymoon. You remember, from the first season of the Bachelorette? yeah, they went to Turtle Island in Figi…a totally private island and it costs like a billion dollars. So that was out. Next I was looking for anything that remotely resembled privacy. 

We ended up choosing St Lucia, but not Sandals St Lucia.  I won’t reveal the exact locations, but I will show you pictures!  Here are some below. Absolutley gorgeous.  It is all inclusive, which includes all meals, drinks and snacks, which was really important to us, to get all of that in one price.

My best advice for couples looking for a honeymoon getaway is to do LOTS of research. We found this place online and looked up several reviews before making a decision.  Although we are happy with our decision, I do wish we had looked around a bit more. I think we wanted to book something quickly so we would have that part done.  So I would encourage others to really talk to other couples who ar getting married or recently got married to see where they went. We found out after we booked this place that some friends went to the Dominican Republic for a longer stay and it was cheaper that ours.

Oh well, with that said I cannot wait for the honeymoon! I know it will be awesome.  One other piece of advice? Don’t leave the day after your wedding. We are leaving the Monday after our wedding so that on Sunday we can get some rest. Happy Traveling!

Have my cake and eat it too

Mom is coming down today and we’re going to check out a florist and swing by the cake shop to get lots of different flavors to pick our wedding cake flavor! I know it will be four tier at least so we will probably do at least three different flavors. I’m going with The French Confection www.frenchconfectioncakes.com  for my cake. Why? Very simple. I went to a bridal show at the Hutton Hotel back in February and Maple’s Wedding Cakes was there, Dulce Desserts, Royal something and I tasted all of them. The French Confection by far tasted the best. It was even more evident to me after I chose them that I liked them because they were  a family owned business. Very cool!

So, as I have said previously, I have literally looked at thousands of cakes to decide what I want mine to look like.  Big ones, small ones, plain ones, fancy ones, buttercream ones, fondant ones, you name it.  I came up with two looks that I really like. The first one is this blue one. I like the quilted look and the flowers on top and how it’s a different pattern on every other layer.  Of course, mine wouldn’t be blue. It would be latte and ivory. When we went to visit the French Confection, I showed Stacy this picture and she immediately got to work. She drew my cake with lots of direction on there about what I wanted.  She also said that I could change my mind about how the cake looked and the flavors, etc all the way up until two weeks before the wedding! yay! so of course, I started thinking…is this is the cake I really want?

My fiance actually told me he liked cakes that look like presents! I’m very much wanting our wedding to be a collaboration between the two of us and it should be! I know that wedding planning usually falls on the girl and guys aren’t interested and I totally get all that. Just a guy/girl thing, but why should the girl leave the guy out on every decision? I want it to be exactly what he and I BOTH want, not just me…so I jumped at the change to search for some cakes that look like presents. I’m seriously thinking of having the quilted look on all four tiers of the cake and the whole cake would be ivory. Then the ribbon would be latte.  I also like the cakes that are twisted sideways as you go up tier by tier. It’s elegant, with a twist ya know?

So I haven’t chosen a final cake design yet, but that’s what I’m thinking, and today I will go pick up these flavors: carrot cake, key lime, white chocolate, lemon, southern pecan, almond and coconut cream. yum!! she calls it a “happy box” and rightfully so…we will be happy when we eat it!

Carrot cake has special significance in our lives because a few years ago I had this thought…every guy you date is either a carrot or an oreo. If he is a carrot, you know he is good for you, but you are never sitting on your couch saying dang I wish I had a carrot.  You can pass a carrot on the street and have no feelings whatsoever. No big deal. An oreo is very good looking and decepetive. You really want the oreos, but before you know it, you’ve eaten the whole bag and you’re  saying why!!  But you always want them even know you know they are way bad for you. The goal? Find your carrot cake! Goodness at the core, but sweetness added. I’ve found mine, so yes one of our tiers will certainly be carrot cake.

How Sweet it Is…

I’m not sure where I first saw the idea of having a candy station at the reception, but I think it is very cute.  In our case, the cake is going to be in front of the fireplace in the grand lobby at the Hermitage Hotel.  When guests arrive at the hotel following the ceremony, there will be butlers with champagne and hor d’ourves like small fried green tomatoes and ham and biscuits. The cake will be there in the lobby. Then, when we arrive, we will be snuck upstairs over the balcony overlooking everyone for our announcment. Then the first thing we will do is cut the cake and have our toasts. I love it! I get to eat cake before anything else. Awesome. SO then we will go into the ballroom and dinner will be served and the cake will be taken to the back to be cut up.  So that leaves an empty space in front of the fireplace.  So, I thought a candy station would be perfect! There are so really cute ones with lolli pops and jelly beans and I love the trees with the candy pinned on there and you just pick it off.

And the guests would have either little bags or chinese take out boxes maybe with our picture, name and wedding date and they can scoop out their candy and take it home with them!  That would be our favors.

At first though, we had played with the idea of making a donation instead of doing favors. We both work for nonprofits and so that would #1 do something for a good cause and #2 allow us to simplify and not lose our sanity over the perfect candy station. We would put a card tied around each napkin telling all of our guests where we’ve made a donation. cute right?

Honestly, the jury is still out on that one. As time gets closer, we will decide which we are going to do. Stay tuned!

Gimme the Gun

Ahh registering for gifts.  One of the beautiful things about getting married is you get stuff! It’s interesting how you choose which stores to register for gifts though. I mean, I love Williams-Sonoma, but do I really expect my friends to pay hundreds of dollars for items that are half that much at say Target?  At the same time, if we register for towels at four different stores, how are people gonna know which towels we REALLY want?

We chose our stores based upon what we knew we wanted to register for. First, we are moving to my fiance’s house in about a year and he has a King size bed. Well, we dont’ have any nice King sheets or comforters or anything so we started looking. We ended up registering at Pottery Barn for a King duvet, but we registered for a down comforter at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I really think they are best place to register, but here is what we found…

First, you end up registering for the most stuff the very first place you visit.  When we started the process, we went online and started each of our registries on their site. We started adding items to the registry online as well.  However, when you do that, some of the items are online only and folks have to order them, whereas when you go to the store to choose the items, you know they are in the store. PLUS you get to use that cool gun to scan everything! haha We had some fun with that. As you can see.

Here is the thing about only registering at one place though…Bed, Bath and Beyond has awesome food processors, towels, bathroom stuff, but no electronics like tvs or cameras and no real good china.  That’s why we also went to Target.  And we registered for a great camera and a HUGE plasma. Yep, guess who wanted that? We’re hoping his groomsmen go in together to get it for us. It’s sweet. And why not? This is our chance to register for things that we will use and enjoy as a married couple. 

Before you go registering though, just be prepared. #1 it’s not a guy thing….My fiance said (towards the end) that he felt like a little kid walking around with his mother shopping ready to go home…uh yeah. #2 You WILL disagree on what to get. Some things that I thought were very useful he didn’t like and there were things like dog towels that we just had to get because he wanted them. My advice: Both of you get stuff you like together and stuff you like individually. We compromised on the things we registered for and lots of things we knew we both wanted.  However, take the china for instance. He said ‘we will never use china. why would we ever get that’  My answer? “when you get married, you need china. we’re getting it!’ and we are. I’m going to Macy’s to register for our china, since I think they have a great selection.

So to add it all up, we’ve registered at 4 places. Bed, Bath and Beyond, Pottery Barn, Target and Macy’s, We are also letting folks know thru our website that we would love Home Depot gifts cards too, since we will be fixing up his house with wood floors, new appliances, paint, etc.

It is a fun experience registering for gifts and you feel a bit guilty that you’re scanning all this stuff that you’re not gonna buy! But be reasonable, yet honest about what you would like to have, and make sure you ask about the return policy in case you either change your mind or get 5 toasters and need to exchange it.  Also many stores will give you 10% off the remaining items on your registry that you don’t receive at your wedding.  We registered for a knife set, food processor, towels, bathroom fixtures, shower curtains, wine glasses, bowels, cookie sheets, salt and pepper shakers, a cutting board and many many more things. Gives folks a good selection I think….oh and also never forget, there is always money!