Oh Wait Just a Minute Mr. Postman...

So, yesterday I told you that my dress was ordered...

Well, today it came!!  

How super duper excited am I?! Enough to use the word "duper".

Now to squeeze it in my closet...

Mr. Postman...

MY DRESS WILL BE HERE IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!!!

So surreal.  I can't wait to try it on in my room and send photos to all my bridesmaids.  EEEEKKKKK

Bridesmaid dresses will be in around Feb.  Things are coming along!

Mum and I have looked into our decorations.  Let me tell you, you can "design on a dime"  you just have to be vigilant and think outside of the box!

I'm really, super excited to get married.  I think the wedding will be a lot of fun too : )

This is probably my favorite picture of Andrew.  It was the first night we hung out by ourselves.  We stayed out all night and talked under the stars.  It was freezing!  We had lots of layered clothes and blankets though : )

I'm reminiscing, can you tell?  It's weird to think about the fact that I'll be spending forever with this special person.  It is also really exciting!!   Lots more star gazing in our future!

Dress to Impress

So in my search for the perfect dress, I tried my mother's on.  It may be about as stylish as it was then (in 1984).  It fit!  If I was having a fall or winter wedding, I would actually consider wearing it :o)

You'll just have to wait for a few more months to see the real dress, which has been found, but has yet to be purchased!

Oh Me, Oh My

My photographer friend that I wanted to do our wedding pictures is getting married the weekend before Andrew and me.

...This means he will be gone on his honeymoon during OUR wedding.

Anyone in the Bloomington area know of some talented, reliable, and economical photographers?

Any suggestions of what to do now?

I know that God has something super special in store, so I'm not even going to fret.  My primary concern is that the date is available for the person I choose.  Prayers are appreciated!  God is good and he will make his choice very evident I am sure.

Oh, one last thing to close this sporadic post:  Dress shopping will hopefully commence soon.  Details will follow when it does : )

Blessings to all, family and friends!

Ch Ch Changes...

So, I made a post earlier in the summer regarding where I wanted my reception to be held.  After a lot of meetings with vendors and a great (great) deal of reflection, I have chosen to change the location of my reception.  It will be in an equally lovely place, but it will better meet my needs in planning and decorating.

The venue I originally looked at was incredibly elegant.  It has lovely white pilliars in the ballroom that are lit at the top.  It basically screams wedding.  Choosing this venue meant that I was responsible for everything (Centerpieces, chairs, linens, dj, food, alcohol, etc...).  Now this means that I could easily cut costs where ever I saw fit, which is a nice freedom.  Since I plan to do a lot of decorating and have a sit down meal with some sort of bar option, finding a place with a wedding package would be preferable.  The new venue that I have chosen has a wedding package and it is in a hotel with is good for the many traveling guests Andrew and I will have.  I want to make their stay as easy and comfortable as possible. Having the reception in a hotel requires less travel (and less chance to get lost) for our visitors.  It will also allow our traveling guests to retire to their room and come back down to the reception at a later time if they so choose.

Now, I do not want a room that looks like a hotel conference center.  I don't want my reception to feel like a dressed up business meeting.  Unfortunately, I feel that a lot of hotel ballrooms look that way.  There is a hotel close to home that is a castle, yes, a castle!  This means that there will be lovely photo opportunities!

Now, I recognize these photos are basically identical, but they are taken at slightly different angles.  There is a restaurant to the right of these photos, and it has pretty windows and such that will offer a nice background for pictures.


In my process of finding pictures of the outside, I stumbled across some photographs of the ballroom decorated for a wedding...

Does it not just look stunning?  I plan to have up lighting like this.  It will be in the tiffany blue (teal) color.  I also like the monogram.  It's not too expensive so we may have that as well, however it would be above the head table as opposed to the dance floor.  You can see where the wall has two square indents.  I plan to decorate those like a Tiffany's box! I just need to figure out how to do that..  I may have to seek the advice of Andrew's artistic brother : )Well, friends, there is not much more to share at this point.  I have moved, and wedding details may be put on the back burner for a month or two as I begin my new job!  Naturally, as I stumble across new ideas and resources, I'll be sure to share.

Sneak a Peek

Doesn't Andrew look like he belongs in a magazine?  He's such a model. 

Anyways, here are a few of my favorite, including the one at the top of the page : )

Our photographer was Jackie McLeod.  She was super wonderful, and if your in the Virginia Beach area, I suggest you check her out here and here.  She came prepared and had a vision of what she wanted.  It was great especially considering Andrew and I had no idea what we were doing!

There are more that I may post from time to time.  I'm sure if you're friends with me on Facebook you'll see the whole collection!

Color Me Stunned

So, every wedding has colors.  Most weddings have themes that inspire the colors.

As I stated a while ago (I think) I love the bright turquoise and the lime green colors.  I had a revelation.

Here's how it started.  My parents said they wanted to get me a piece of jewelry to commemorate my graduation.  Naturally, I go to the Tiffany & Co website and start looking at reasonable options.  Realistically, I probably will not receive anything else from there, so it's now or never.  Here's the thing though,  I love Tiffany's. I have loved it since I was 16.  I would go to their site and look at engagement rings.  The first ring I ever really liked was their legacy engagement ring.  If you look at pictures, mine looks awfully similar.  Tiffany blue is pretty darn close to the blue on the background of this page...

Yes, that's right, I want my theme to be based off of Tiffany & Co.  I went on Etsy just to look at things that have this color - um there are a million and one things related to Tiffany's and weddings.  Well, then I was like this has got to happen.  I had a lot of meetings today regarding the wedding.  We have explored a lot of our options and now it's just a matter of comparing who will provide what and at what cost.  I was feeling a little stressed out since there really is no "wrong" answer (they'll all be about the same price--expensive, ha). I prayed and said to God, "This is your wedding, not mine.  You'll make things work as you see fit."  Well after giving something up to God, I almost always feel ten pounds lighter and an overwhelming peace calms me (He is so good like that!)  That is when I decided to start looking at stuff on Etsy for fun and stumbled across this *divinely inspired idea.

Now I know that he will find some pretty awesome deals for me, since this whole theme is His idea.  

Oh, and that lime green..still will be there.  I'm thinking an accent color to bring out the greenery in the plants I have!  Getting pretty excited.  And I figure I can make half of what I find on Etsy.  Fun weekend plans ahead.  I'll post my craft inspirations and final products as I embark on those adventures!

Big News!

Lots of good things going on West of the Virginia coast.

The venue that I love is definitely available and we received the contract in the mail.  Now there are a few things left to consider.  My mother and I need to run to a few more places around the area to accurately compare prices.  The venue that I want has a low(er) rental fee, but you have to pay for more of the decor (i.e. decent chairs, napkins, linens, etc...)  Catering is not included so before we decide that this will be the most lucrative (and pretty) choice, we must contact a few catering companies.  A lot of the hotels will cover the linens, have nicer chairs, and take care of the catering.  That is all included in their total price.  Hotel conference rooms are not as pretty as the venue I want though!  Either way, I know we will make things work!  But all in all, the dream venue is available for us even though we were originally third in line for that specific date!

Second, the church that I am looking at is available for the date!  We are not members of this church (but it's like a second church home).  This raised concern since many churches do not allow non-members to marry in their church.  Well they do, and it's lovely!  It's an older Presbyterian church in downtown!  Know what else is great about it?  It's within walking distance from the dream reception venue!  We can have a wedding caravan of sorts from one venue to the other.  This church caters, so we are going to look into their catering and possibly use them for the reception.

Finally, Andrew and I finished our engagement pictures.  We took them at the beach and they turned out wonderfully!  The photographer was super and a pleasure to work with.  Once we own the rights to the photos I'll share some : )

I am so ready for all the venue details to be finished so I can get to the fun part... the dress and decorations!!  I can't wait.

Photo shoot!

What a blessed surprise!  Andrew called me this evening and asked me about engagement photos.  I had posted about potentially taking them in Virginia, but didn't pursue the idea because I had no idea where to begin since I am not from the area.  Andrew's mum had been talking with some friends and one of them recommended someone.  She has some stunning bridal pictures!  I have not had many professional photography sessions (actually just one and it was done less formally), however, I think that this person is reasonably priced.  We get to steal her away for an hour and a half!!  What fun!  My future mother-in-law has been so generous and offered to pay the session fee.  Andrew and I are simply beyond blessed.  I cannot begin to explain how excited I am and grateful that she has got this planned for us.  She is wonderful!

Anyways, as if packing alone wasn't enough, I need to think of outfits!  Off I go to the closet....

Oh where, oh where is my venue....

Update!!

Andrew and I have set a date: July 7th, 2012.  We decided on this day for several reasons, but the largest is because we each have the majority of our family traveling to our wedding destination (not a "destination" wedding though).  Since July 4th falls on Wednesday, family would only have to take off two days of work instead of three. It's an extra (optional) travel day if they are interested!  

Now that we have the date, we just have to make sure our venue is available.  My mum and I went venue hunting today!! It was such fun and a lovely day.  We stopped by the center for performing arts.

Don't you just think you'd feel like a movie star walking in through those doors?  Bummer of all bummers: it's booked--sort of.  It's first come first serve and I'm third on the list of people interested.  If I call (tomorrow) to tell them that I am ready to put a deposit, then the manager will call the first two in line.  They have 72 hours to confirm otherwise, it's MINE!  If for some reason I find that this will not work, I am able to get my deposit back (if it's more than 4 months before the event).  WOW!

So this is the venue I'm thinking about.  It seems reasonable and I plan to book it.  If something terrible happens I'll get the deposit back.  They'll easily be able to book it if I canceled.  Trusting God, he has the most beautiful thing planned for me, I know this.

Can I just add that this would be so easy to decorate? It has the most lovely pillars that have outlets built in..PERFECT for decorating (thinking about my twinkle lights that I insist on having).   It has a large kitchen for catering.  The rent included tables and chairs, ect... We shall see.

Very Important Dates

So, Andrew and I have a date floating around, which is all too exciting.  It is becoming so real!  Soon it should be confirmed, yahoo!  Time to start looking for the chalkboard...

Also, I just booked plane tickets to visit Andrew for a week.  Since we met at school, we spend summers apart.  Thanks to the Wright brothers, we are easily able to plan a week to visit each other.  I have considered looking for a photographer is his area to do engagement photos.  It would be pretty lovely to take some on the beach, but I'm not sure if that's too cliche ("I like long walks on the beach....")

Googled some fun ideas.  They're all super cute, but if we took any of these ideas, we'd both be fully clothed.  Swim suits are cute, but not for engagement photos : )

Love the beach ball and picnic!  Not sure if this will actually come about.  I'm still trying to decide if I want to take engagement pictures this early or if I would rather take them closer to the wedding...

Decisions, decisions.   In the meantime, I should probably start looking for a white dress.  It's always good to be prepared, right?

STDs (not the kind you're thinking...)

Save the date.  To send or not to send?  From my experience,  most people send save the dates now.  If you think about it, weddings 30 years ago were not as big of a deal as they are now.  Graduation parties today are often larger than weddings were not too long ago.

Since my engagement is going to be a little over a year, I intend to send a save the date.  I may not be having a destination wedding, but both my fiance and I will have a vast majority of our family traveling to the wedding location.  To be fair and give them adequate time to plan, I intend to send save the dates.  In my "research", save the dates should be sent 6-8 months before the wedding.  The more traveling involved, the sooner you send your save the dates. 

After figuring out the details and etiquette regarding the save the dates, I now get to look at the fun stuff.. what will be on it?!  Do I want to put an engagement picture on it (once they're actually taken...)?  Do I want some sort of fun typography on it?  Perhaps a mix of both? Maybe I want a picture of us, but nothing like our engagement pictures, something that is more tailored to our personalities or the wedding theme.  

I searched for an ugly example to show you with little avail.  So we'll just move on it fun creative ones, and finally the one that I intend to copy!

Theme?

Typeography

Engagement pictures

Creative

I think this is neat because it centers around both of them.  Not overly feminine, which many tend to be.

Finally, this is what I want!  Andrew and I are both teachers, so it's only fitting to be with a chalk board!  And, I think it will be fairly cheap to print these out on picture paper.  So easy!  Now to find a big chalkboard...

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

So, my current theme idea goes something like this "Midnight in the forrest."  Now hear me out.  When I say this I envision what a Midsummer Night's Dream might look like.  I have only read the play, never seen it.  However, thanks to google, I can search it and look up what some of the sets look like.  Here is what I found:

In the last picture especially, you can see the blues and greens, basically anything that is a "cool" color.  I was already leaning towards these colors for my wedding, but this just solidifies my choice!  My background image is Invitations by Dawn (it takes two).  I fell in love with this design when I began to work on my wedding website to share with guests.  I don't know if I will actually order invitations, but they have certainly inspired me.  

In the first and second photographs, you can see *twinkle lights! I am so incredibly in love with twinkle lights and MUST have have them everywhere for my wedding.  I would really like for it to be the primary lighting for my wedding.  During Christmas time we have this garland we hang up in our kitchen that has white lights weaved throughout.  It is probably one of my favorite Christmas decorations that we put up.  We turn the lights on while playing cards and watching movies in the living room.  The light is so warm and natural feeling and that is what I want my wedding to feel like!  Below are several images of twinkle lights that I have collected that I really like.

You can see that I want something that really does look like an evening under the stars, but I DON'T want it outside (too much work and weather dependent).  Simply love them and lastly they have significance in my relationship.  Before Andrew and I began dating (during our "talking" stage) we would lay out and star gaze all night.  Seriously, some of my fondest memories are those early times.  We learned so much about each other and had that awkward flirtation.  So precious!  

Just the beginning!

So this is us in a nutshell (fairly chronological pictures, all but the last three being from our first year of dating)  We are engaged!  I will soon be Mrs. Lawrence; how incredibly exciting!  This blog will document my journey through wedding planning.  I plan to post all my inspirations and frustrations here.  I love, love, love crafts!  I'm not always successful and often have lofty aspirations (hence the poor outcome at times). Now that you have been virtually introduced to us, I hope you enjoy traveling this journey with me!