Soon to be McGee

Wedding Shadow Box

2011-08-08T12:40:00.005-04:00

I thought I'd pop back over here from my Newlywed Blog and post about the project I did this weekend. If you haven't found me at my new blog, please come visit! There's a lot more going on over there than here ;)

I found a really pretty white shadow box at TJ Maxx over the weekend. I thought this would be a great way to display sentimental items from our wedding. So, here's what I put together yesterday:

I included a wedding invitation and an envelope with the amazing calligraphy, my garter, a rose from Kevin's boutonniere, cocktail napkins, drink stirrers, matches, the reception menu, and even a box from the favors. I think it came out pretty nicely. I can't wait to hang this up. At the moment, I'm thinking of doing a gallery wall in our bedroom with this at the center and pictures of us around it. I'm really excited to be able to display our invitation and other wedding items, without them having to be stuffed away in a scrapbook somewhere.

Hopefully that will inspire any of trying to figure out what to do with all of these little keepsakes after your wedding. :)

Wedding Album

2011-02-09T23:10:00.001-05:00

We recently received our wedding album from our photographer. I love it and know it will be such a wonderful keepsake. We got a GraphiStudio album and it's great. Check out the pictures below.

This is probably my last post here! So, I hope you've enjoyed reading about my adventures from start to finish of planning a wedding. I think I've done enough recap/post-wedding posts now, lol.

Check out our newlywed blog for more fun and to see what we're up to now. http://newlywedmcgees.blogspot.com/ :)

Featured on White Thread!

2010-09-27T09:02:00.005-04:00

Our wedding was chosen and featured on White Thread this weekend! It's a wedding planning blog for brides in North Carolina and South Carolina. I'm so excited that they chose to share the details of our wedding with other brides who are planning. I hope our event can be an inspiration to others planning NC/SC brides! Check it out at:

http://www.white-thread.com/real-wedding-meredith-kevin-in-raleigh-nc

Be sure to check out the rest of the blog/site, there are some beautiful weddings from NC/SC on there and lots of other inspiration! :)

Wedding Film

2010-08-06T23:49:00.008-04:00

Our videographer posted the trailer for our video on his blog today. We were SO excited to receive the full film (105 minutes) earlier this week. We watched it as soon as we got it, and we love it so much! Cinematrimony did a phenomenol job with our video and I am so glad that we chose them as our videographer. They work out of Charlotte, but will travel anywhere for weddings. I love their style and they really make your wedding look like a movie!

For any of you who haven't yet decided if you should get a videographer, definitely don't hesitate. It's an investment and will be a great momento for you to look back on in the future. We're so happy with the final product and they were great to work with leading up to and on the big day.

Meredith & Kevin! from Cinematrimony on Vimeo.

Click here to go to their Blog.

Pro Pics: RECEPTION!

2010-06-10T10:34:00.008-04:00

Our reception was fabulous, lol, if I say so myself. Everything, seriously, the food, decor, atmosphere, and people, turned out to be better than we had even expected. I have a TON of pictures, so here's a selection of my favorites!

Pro Pics: Portraits

2010-06-10T10:24:00.003-04:00

Here's a selection of the portraits that we took after the wedding. It started to rain right after the ceremony, so we ended up having to do all of these inside. I was hoping to do a lot of nice shots outside, but the weather changed this. However, we ended up getting to enjoy the cocktail hour with our guests, so it all worked out!

Pro Pics: Wedding Ceremony

2010-06-10T09:57:00.003-04:00

Our photographer had our pictures uploaded online so fast, before we were even back from the honeymoon! So, I'll share some of the pics he put online.

Our ceremony was wonderful and the decor looked amazing. I was really impressed with the florals that Fresh Affairs made for us. We had a fabulous altar arrangement, unity candle decorations, and pew bows... Lyn is so creative and truly an artist! We weren't allowed to have photography during the ceremony, so we don't have pictures of the ceremony. But, we did have a videographer, so it we'll be able to watch it later! Here are some of the pictures that we did get.

Getting Ready Photos

2010-06-07T10:06:00.007-04:00

Here are pictures from the day of the wedding and all the girls getting ready.

And here are some of the boys' and girls' getting ready photo's from our photographer:

Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner

2010-06-03T15:52:00.007-04:00

On Friday night, we had our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal went fairly smoothly. We went through the processional, ceremony and recessional twice and everyone seemed fairly comfortable about what they needed to do the next day.

After the rehearsal, we headed to downtown Raleigh for our Rehearsal Dinner at 518 West Cafe. Guests chose their soup or salad and main course selections from a menu that we created for the dinner. For dessert, we had almond pound cake with vanilla buttercream icing. The Groom's Cake was a surprise for Kevin and was in the shape of the Old Well of his alma mater, UNC-Chapel Hill.

I didn't take many pictures but everyone had a really good time and the food was delish. Here are a few pics!

Rehearsal Dinner:

Bridesmaid's Luncheon Recap!

2010-06-03T13:43:00.005-04:00

On the day before the wedding, my mom and I hosted a bridesmaid's luncheon for my girls. It was a lot of fun and it was great to relax and enjoy the time with everyone.

We had strawberry spinach salad with a sesame and poppy seed vinaigrette, fresh fruit and vegetables with dip, cucumber sandwiches, and chicken salad sandwiches. For dessert we had cupcakes from The Cupcake Shoppe.

After lunch, I gave the girls their gifts and thank you cards. It was a really fun afternoon. Here are some pictures:

I'm Back!!

2010-06-03T09:23:00.003-04:00

I'm back!! Yayyyy. Our wedding and honeymoon were both amazing! The wedding was so perfect and even better than we could have ever dreamed. I'll be posting pictures later today or tomorrow!!

We spent a week in Paris for our honeymoon and it was so much fun and so relaxing! Today is our first day back at work since before the wedding... it's not so fun having to go back to the real world, lol!

Here's a teaser pic from the wedding:

Yay! Good surprises!

2010-05-17T14:06:00.004-04:00

Well, I still can't believe it. We are 5 days out from the wedding. This week is basically crazy. We have a lot of little things to do, but we've got a plan and we're dividing it all up. I am taking Wednesday-Friday off from work, so that will be great!

Today, I went online to the website for our apartment in Paris and found out that the apartment we're renting has been renovated. This is soo exciting. It was already really pretty to begin with, but now the kitchen and bath look so nice and luxurious! Wow, what a nice surprise!! Here are some pictures of the updated apartment. LOVE IT!

I also got an email today that our favors have been delivered! This is such a relief. I can't wait to see them! Plus, we ended up ordering more than we'll actually need, so that means there will be extra chocolates for later... yum.

We have our final dance lesson tonight. We're basically just reviewing and putting the finishing touches on it since we know the whole thing now. I'm nervous about it, but I think it's going to be great.

My to-do list for this week is pretty long, but we're checking so many things off. I'll update tomorrow!

8 Days!

2010-05-14T09:35:00.002-04:00

Yay! Eight days until the wedding, it's kind of surreal right now how close it is. I FINISHED the ceremony programs last night. I think they look really great, I can't wait for everyone to get one. Lol, hopefully they'll see how hard I worked on them. Things are really coming together nicely. We have a few random things we need to do and buy but we're basically ready!

Kevin FINALLY figured out his groomsmen gifts and they're going to be so nice! I'm excited to see them when we pick them up on Saturday! He also had his bachelor party outing last night. They went to a Durham Bulls game and out in Raleigh afterwards. I think they had a lot of fun.

There's only a few more days of work and then it will be crunch time! Next week should be fun and relaxing though, we really don't have any last minute projects that will cause problems. So, I hope to be able to enjoy it!

So, this weekend here's my list of final things to do:

- Finish assembling OOT bags

- Print escort cards for reception

- find/decide on shoes for the RD

- lots of little errands for stuff

- final meeting with ceremony coordinator

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! :)

Ps, tonight Kevin and I are going to see the musical WICKED! We're so excited!

Time is FLYING!

2010-05-12T10:51:00.004-04:00

Ahhh, 10 days until the wedding, whatttt!! It's getting so close, I can't believe I can say "I'm getting married next weekend." OMG, crazy! Well, we've had so much going on the last few days with getting everything finalized and making final vendor payments. But, I think we're doing really well stress wise, we're staying organized and trying to stay relaxed!

I finished printing all of the programs, then cut and punched holes in all of them. Now, I'm just tying all of the ribbons to keep them together... they look really good so far. I've done a bunch and I'll finish them up tonight! Yay!

Our other last minute project is the family wedding photo table/piano. We have about 90% of the pictures that we need but we're still waiting on a couple more. I'm so excited about this, it's going to be so neat to look at.

There's a lot of last minute little things that we've got going on this week, but overall, we've gotten so much done! I'm so excited!!

Flowers... Finally and other CHECKS!

2010-05-04T16:52:00.005-04:00

We FINALLY finalized our entire floral order with the florist today. It took a lot of debate to reach our final numbers on everything, but what we ended up with will be PERFECT! I'm so excited to see everything that Lyn has in store for us, I know it will be fabulous!!

So, obviously since we finalized our floral order, we have a final(well, sort of) headcount. Right now we are at 164, and that's where we're going to stay, hopefully. We called and finally got an answer out of most people. I'm excited since that's really close to where we hoped to be numbers wise way back at the beginning of the planning process!

Last night, I printed out all of the Menu cards for the reception, so that is DONE! Which is a huge sigh of relief. I might start working on the programs tonight, if I feel ambitious. We have lots of payments and final checkups with people this week, but after that, I feel like we're almost ready!! :)

Update.... 19 days to go!

2010-05-03T10:04:00.006-04:00

Wow, can you believe it? I'm not sure that I even can. Today is 19 days from the wedding, we're in the teens!!

We had a super productive Friday/weekend! First, on Friday we got our Marriage License! This is so exciting and it was so easy! Yay, it's official. Then, we met with our reception coordinator at The State Club, Wendy. She has been so helpful and really knows what she's doing. We discussed everything that we could possibly think of! We finalized our reception menu and have almost decided on all of the hors d'oeuvres and drinks for cocktail hour. This is what our menu will most likely look like, although I might make some slight edits before we print:

We met with Sweet Memories (our cake bakery) too on Friday. The last time we had met with them, we had just discussed ideas for the design of the cake. Well, this time we talked specifics and finalized the design. We even picked out a color swatch for them to match the cake to. We picked Bella Pink, which is this lovely, light pink color(simulated color swatch below). This will be the base color of the cake with white/creamy brushed embroidery icing decorations. There will also be silvery-white bands of fondant around each tier, with a beautiful bow tie-like bow on the 3rd tier. LOVE IT!

We met with Joe Bunn, our DJ on Friday afternoon to go over reception music and logistics. We have a few more songs to pick out, but we're close! I'm confident that he'll do an amazing job!

Yesterday, I finally found a cute dress to wear to the Bridesmaid's Luncheon that we're having the day before the wedding. I'm excited about it, it's a white and ivory two-toned dress from J. Crew with this x/petal design. Here's the dress I got, except in the white/ivory color. I liked the pink, but they didn't have it in my size in the store, so I went with the white one.

Now, for things to do this week... we have to submit our final numbers/order to our florist today (or tomorrow at the latest). We've got most of it decided, we're just trying to decide between ordering 18 or 19 tables, we're right on the edge... I don't know what to do!! Today is also the day that we have to drop the rooms in our hotel block that haven't been booked. We're trying to make sure everyone who hasn't done this does it today, so that they can be in our block! I've worked so hard on the OOT bags, I want as many people to be in the block as possible, lol!

This week, we'll finally PRINT the reception menus that will be placed at each persons place setting. I'll probably start printing the ceremony programs, although these will be a pain because they will take so long. I guess I'd better get going, lol!

There's more, I know it. I'll keep posting with more updates! :)

Just waiting on the RSVPs!

2010-04-28T16:31:00.005-04:00

Well, we're getting things together, finally! There's still a lot to do, but I think the to-do list has shrunk to a fairly manageable size, lol. We've gotten most of our RSVPs, but there are still quite a few stragglers. Come on people, we need to know, can't you just mail back your pre-addressed and pre-stamped envelope?!! Oh, well, I'm not really worried, I'd just like to know how many people we're actually going to have. We are supposed to finalize our flower order this weekend with the florist, so I'm hoping that we'll have a better idea of what to do by the weekend. This is where we're at right now:

So, I guess you could say that these are relevant, LOL!

There's a lot of stuff going on this week, I'll post and update soon!

Style Me Pretty LOVE

2010-04-26T14:44:00.004-04:00

This wedding inspiration loveliness was posted on Style Me Pretty last Friday and I forgot to post about it over here. I love it all, they chose such beautiful accessories and accents. PLUS, the great thing about this photo shoot was that it took place in NC and used NC vendors almost entirely.... AWESOME! NC has some wonderful wedding vendors, wow! Click below to see the posts:

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2010/04/23/from-inspiration-to-reality-the-design-12/

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2010/04/23/from-inspiration-to-reality-the-design-ii-10/

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2010/04/23/from-inspiration-to-reality-the-design-iii-9/

Weekend Progress

2010-04-25T17:10:00.007-04:00

This weekend, I've gotten a lot done. I finished all 200 of the program covers! Now all we have to do is print the actual program information and put it in and tie the ribbons. We've finalized our ceremony info and music selections. So, we can finally print everything this week after we meet with our officiant this week to go over everything.

I bought a pink basket to put the programs in and hopefully make it easier on our Program Attendant. I tied a silver ribbon to coordinate with the programs.

I also bought a ton of silver frames which were on sale for our "family wedding table." Although, we're actually going to be putting them on top of the piano, this is where we'll display as many photos as possible from past weddings in our families. I'm really excited to see how this comes out, I love old wedding photos. Hopefully it will look something like the pictures below.

We received the sparklers that we'll use for the sparkler send-off this week. We got 288 of the 20" sparklers. So, this weekend, I spent some time tying our personalized matches to them for a cute touch. We'll have these placed in containers underneath the portico at The State Club by our coordinator. Then, when it's time for our exit, some of our wedding party will help coordinate the lighting of the sparklers.

It's a busy week ahead! We're hopefully going to get a lot done!

Honeymoon activities!

2010-04-22T09:46:00.006-04:00

The other day I booked a cooking class in Paris that we'll take while we're there. I'm so excited about this. I found out about this through the website that we booked our apartment, www.parisperfect.com.

We're taking a half-day class at Le Violon d'Ingres, a Michelin starred restaurant, that's taught by one of the chefs. After breakfast, we'll make a starter, entree, and dessert. Then we'll have wine and sit down to eat what we've prepared. I think this will be a really fun experience, especially since Kevin and I love cooking. We'll also get aprons and cookbooks with recipes, which will be great when we want to make something when we get back home... yay! Here are some pics of the restaurant.

FINAL shoe update!

2010-04-19T20:37:00.002-04:00

I have made my final decision on wedding shoes!! Woohoo, it's about time! I got the shoes from DSW in the mail today and I love them. They fit perfectly and seem to be pretty comfortable. Plus, the great thing is that when I put them next to the J. Crew shoes, they are the exact same heel height! This was my only fear about these shoes (that they would be too short for my dress)... so now they are my official wedding shoes.

I'm so glad not to have to worry about this any more. After trying these new shoes on, I realized how my other shoes were just too big on my feet and them not fitting correctly was making them even more uncomfortable.

So, yay for having shoes that I can wear all day long, and ones that hopefully wont hurt my feet!

Reception Drink Menu

2010-04-17T11:10:00.003-04:00

I've been playing around with the specialty drink menu that we'll have at the bar during the cocktail hour. Here are some pictures of what I came up with. These aren't necessarily the final drink choices, but we're getting closer. I like the idea of having multiple specialty drinks, since not everyone wants a fruity, pink cocktail. ;) The Something Old, New, Borrowed, Blue is a cute way to make it wedding related too! I got the idea and layout from another knottie.

And here's what it looks like in the frame. I got two of these frames for super cheap from AC Moore, they were $3 each!

Rehearsal Dinner Invites = Done!

2010-04-17T09:22:00.004-04:00

Last night, I finished printing and putting together the rehearsal dinner invitations. We used an Anna Griffin set that I got a while back from AC Moore. It was really convenient and looks really pretty. They are pocket invitations with silver swirls and we tied a light pink ribbon around each one. Then, the dinner invitation and rehearsal insert are inside. The main piece has info for the rehearsal dinner only, then we will be including the little enclosure for those people who need to be at the church beforehand for the rehearsal.

Woohoo, I love getting all of these things done!

DIY project updates

2010-04-15T23:38:00.005-04:00

Tonight I finished making the monogram labels which will go on the outside of our ceremony programs. I printed the monogram squares with our printer and then cut them out with my rotary trimmer. I used double sided tape to put the white squares on the silver squares. It actually didn't take that long to make all 200.

This is what the program will look like once we're done. This weekend, we'll finish the covers by folding all of the pink paper and putting these squares on them.

Other projects I'm working on this weekend: printing rehearsal dinner invitations, reception menu design, and other reception printing stuff.

Shoe Craziness

2010-04-15T10:48:00.006-04:00

Recently, I've been wondering if the shoes I have to wear on the wedding day are really going to last me the entire day. I originally bought these J. Crew shoes:

I love these shoes and think they are beautiful. But, the size 7.5 is starting to feel a little big on my feet... I wore them to my bridal portraits and they felt okay, not the most comfortable shoes ever, but I rarely wear such high heels(3.5"). I bought some of the shoe liner pads to make them more comfortable and fit a little more snugly on my feet, and I think this will help.

But, since Kevin and I've been taking dance lessons, I've started to wonder if my feet will come out of my shoes when we dance. I've been practicing in similar shoes and occasionally, my foot will slip out of my shoe... causing an awkward moment for me to get it back in and possibly messing up the dance. So, I've started looking at other alternatives to possibly wear for the reception or all day, depending on what I find.

I found these shoes at DSW and have ordered them. I'll probably receive them in the next couple of days and make my decision. At least I can return them to a DSW store if I change my mind. I think they're pretty and the good thing about them is the little strap around the ankle that will keep my foot in place. The only problem with these shoes is that the heel is only 3" high. My dress has been altered for a 3.5" heel, so I'd need to wear the J. Crew shoes for at least most of the day and maybe change into these shoes for the reception when my dress is bustled.

Then, I was looking online at more shoes today and found that David's Bridal has some new shoes out. They have one style called Lolita, which is very similar to the pair at DSW. It comes in ivory which will match my dress and the heel height is 3.5". I'm probably going to go look at these today or this weekend so I can make a decision. If this shoe is comfortable, I could wear them all day or change into them at the reception.

Decisions, decisions.... at least I have some options now. I'll let you know what I decide is most comfortable!

Something Blue!

2010-04-13T19:51:00.004-04:00

I posted earlier about trying to decide about my garter. I decided to go with the all ivory garter because I didn't really have to use blue.

Well, here is what I'm using as my something blue: a custom wedding dress label that will be sewn into my dress. I'm really excited about this. My mom ordered it for me as a surprise from The Gartermaker. She gave them a picture of our monogram and they were able to copy it exactly. They did a great job!!

Our monogram:

Dress label:

Bridal Bling!

2010-04-13T11:42:00.006-04:00

Today I ordered the bracelet that I'll wear on the wedding day. I'm super excited about this. I had been putting it off, and even considered DIYing this. But, I've been so busy, I just decided to go with the one I found on Etsy from BridalBling. I think it will go great with my earrings and dress.

Here's the bracelet that I bought:

LOVE IT!

Garters

2010-04-13T11:27:00.007-04:00

So, I'm going to order my wedding garter ASAP... but I haven't figured out which one I want!

I'm debating between a few options/combinations on Etsy. These are both sold by Etsy Seller: Tinarie21.

Basically, I don't know which crystal button I want to use on the main garter; whether I want any blue in the garter, or whether I want the toss garter to have a flower or not.

Which combinations do you like best?

Weekend Recap

2010-04-12T20:57:00.007-04:00

It was back to reality today at work, but I had a wonderful weekend! Here are some pictures from my bridal shower and bachelorette party on Saturday.

It was a fabulous weekend!

Fun weekend ahead!

2010-04-09T13:01:00.007-04:00

I've been really busy lately and haven't gotten a chance to post in a while.

Well, I'm really excited that it's finally Friday and about the weekend. It's going to be a lot of fun! My bridal shower is tomorrow at noon and then in the evening, my girls are throwing me a lingerie shower/bachelorette party. I think it's going to be a wonderful day and I can't wait to see everyone!

I had a change of heart about my outfit for the bridal shower. The dress I ordered from J. Crew is too big on me now and I couldn't find any accessories that looked good with it. So, I found a cute ivory dress on sale at Macy's and I'm really excited about it.

Let's see, what have I gotten done since my last post? I ordered the favors for the reception. This is such a huge sigh of relief, I had been putting that off foreverrrrr. We've ordered and received all of the supplies for the wedding printing projects and now it's time to begin. I'll probably start working on the program booklets first since they are the biggest. Although we haven't finished the wording and info of the actual program, the paper covers and monogram on the front will take a while to do. Once we've officially decided on the menu, I'll print those too, but they will be super easy!

Oh, I don't think I even posted about my fancy new printer...? It's awesome! I have never been so excited about a printer before. It's a Canon PIXMA MX860 and we bought it from Best Buy. It does everything... lol it's a 4 in 1: copy, scan, fax, print. But, my favorite thing about it, is that it automatically does two sided printing! YES, this will make printing the programs so, so, so much easier to do ourselves. Especially since Kinko's quoted me $400 to print them for me on my own paper.... um, no thank you! Here it is in all of it's glory, lol!

In other news, we took our second ballroom dancing class last night. Technically, it was our first lesson, since the other one was a consultation/intro session. I'm really excited about the dance. We're dancing to Michael Buble's Everything and it's going to be so beautiful and fun. Last night we learned and rehearsed the beginning of the song. Yay, but we've got to practice, practice!

Tonight we're meeting with Jeff from Simpsound Lighting at our reception site to talk about lighting again and sign the contract. I'm really hoping we'll get to see the gobo for the dance floor and figure out all of the day-of logistics.

OH, and how could i forget... As of yesterday, here are our RSVPs so far:

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Planning Update!

2010-03-28T21:20:00.003-04:00

Right now I'm procrastinating from finishing a take-home midterm for class. I've finished 7.5 questions out of 8, lol! I just wanted to make an update post to organize my thoughts and figure out what I need to be thinking about this week.

This weekend I finally opened the aisle runner and rolled it (partially) out. I think it looks great. We have the monogram placed about 10 feet from the end of the aisle. I think this will look really nice when the guests walk into the church.

We also updated our registry today. We changed the cookware set that we were registered for because Macy's wasn't going to carry the old one anymore. Well, we ended up picking the one Kevin had wanted all along. I think it's great and will cook beautifully. We added some towels and odds and ends to the registry since people are actually going to be using it now! My bridal shower is on April 10th!!

So, this week, we need to:

- buy the ribbon for the programs

- order the reception favors

- decide on ceremony music

- research sparklers for reception exit

- select bridal portrait for reception display

I know there's more to do... I'll keep thinking!

Bridal Portrait Teasers!

2010-03-24T14:03:00.005-04:00

I'm so excited! Today my photographer posted my bridal portraits in a gallery on his website!! I think they came out even better than I expected. I was worried that I was posing weird or making a funny face or something in all of them, lol! Plus, I like my hair and makeup even more than I thought!! So, I'm not going to post a full length shot, but I'll give you some teasers for now. I don't want my fiance to stumble upon the pictures, although he knows to stay away from this blog.

Oh, and in these pictures, you can see the bouquet that I DIYed on Sunday afternoon. I was more stressed about making this one because it would be in pictures, but I think it came out even better than my trial!! I used pink tulips, ranunculus, and carnations and tied the stems with a pink ribbon.

Bridal Portraits and Aisle Runner

2010-03-21T21:53:00.005-04:00

I had my Bridal Portraits today, I think everything went really well!! We took them at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke. It was a little overcast this afternoon, but I think it worked to our advantage since there weren't that many people around. I was really nervous about walking around on the stone and dirt pathways, but we didn't have any problems and thankfully my dress didn't get dirty!!

Before my portraits, I had the fabulous Elizabeth Tolley do my hair and makeup. She was so nice and really is as good as everyone says! I was a little concerned that the eyes would be too dark, but I got used to it and I think it looked amazing! Plus, she put fake eyelashes on so they would pop in the pictures. This was a lot of fun but took a few minutes to get used to, lol! I'm not used to wearing so much makeup, but you really have to wear a lot for it to look good in pictures. I wore my hair half-up, half-down and I think it looked really good with my veil. I think we might put a little less hair up next time, so I have some more volume, but it was beautiful!! I'll see if I can post a head-shot sometime soon, when we get the pictures back.

When we got back from the portraits, I got an email from the girl on Etsy who's doing our aisle runner. She's finished painting our monogram on the runner and is going to ship it to us this week. I am SOOO excited about this. I think it looks AMAZING! She did an excellent job and has been so fast! I just picked out the paint color last weekend, lol! I can tell she really took her time and worked really hard on it, I can't wait to see it in person. I love this and I know that it will be a great touch of personalization for our ceremony. I'm hoping our guests will be wowed that we have put so much thought into all of the details. Click Here to visit her Etsy store... she makes some beautiful hand painted, custom runners. Here are some of the pictures that she sent me:

Invitations are DONE!

2010-03-13T22:37:00.004-05:00

I'm sooo, soooo excited about these! My mom picked up the envelopes from the calligrapher on Friday, they are beautiful! I can't even believe how perfect they turned out. I DEFINITELY recommend her to anyone that's looking for a calligrapher or just someone to address your envelopes. Leah was really great and she can copy any font you show her. Click Here to visit her website. Plus, the best part is that she's so affordable, a flat rate of $1.50 per envelope set!

Anyways, so we finally got all of the invitation sets into their envelopes. I put the stamps on them and sealed them up. They are so beautiful. They're almost like miniature works of art! I can't wait for everyone to receive them in the mail. Hopefully our guests will be as amazed as we are. Even my fiance, Kevin, was really impressed by how good everything looks together. Lol, he doesn't usually get into that kind of stuff! I didn't take any pictures tonight, but I'll be sure to post some ASAP.

DIY Bouquet

2010-03-13T22:10:00.006-05:00

I'm going to DIY a bouquet for my bridal portrait next Sunday. I wanted to practice picking out the flowers and putting them together to see how it'd go. So, yesterday I went to Trader Joe's and bought a bunch of flowers. I got ranunculus, roses, and a daisies/mums mix.

I took off all of the foliage so that it was just the stems and flowers. Then, I slowly bunched them together, starting from the center, moving outward. It really takes a ton of flowers to get a substantial looking bouquet. So, after I got the flowers all arranged how I'd like, I tied a pretty pink bow around the stems. I used some cute pearl pins to secure the ribbon.

Next time, I think I'll go for less green and white, and use more solid pinks. The ranunculus were also pretty hard to work with because their stems are wider and flimsier than rose stems. They also get floppy in the bouquet really easy. I think it came out pretty good for a first try. What do you think?

Fitting Sneak Peak....

2010-03-09T22:53:00.003-05:00

I had my first wedding dress fitting with the famous Olga today. We didn't really know what to expect when we drove down the gravel drive to her house in Cary. Once inside, we found that she really knows what shes doing, even if she is a little intimidating, in her own Russian way... ;) She knew exactly what to do with my dress immediately after I put it on. I don't want to post the full pictures of myself, but here are some other shots of the dress and bustle.

I have my bridal portraits on March 21st, so she's going to do everything before then. I'm so excited about my dress, I love it! :)

Flights are BOOKED!

2010-03-09T10:07:00.002-05:00

We finally booked our flights today. I had been putting this off for a while now, lol. I've been watching the prices fluctuate and placing the tickets on hold, just to see if the prices were going to change any.

I'm really excited to have this done! Now, we can focus on finding fun things to do while we're in France! :) We've been looking at some french cooking classes and fun parisian activities, I think that would be amazing! We also have 1 extra day between when we get to France and when we can go to the apartment, so I think we're going to make an overnight trip somewhere. Right now, we're trying to decide between the Champagne/Reims area, Normandy, or Alsace.

Either way, it's going to be an unforgettable trip!

Going away dress... part 2

2010-03-08T23:28:00.005-05:00

I don't know what to do about a going away dress! I was so convinced last week that I definitely wanted to do it, but now I'm having second thoughts. I love my wedding dress and I definitely don't want to waste money on a second dress/outfit if it's not necessary. So, I haven't made a final decision about what I'll be wearing when we leave the reception... But, I have figured out which of the ones in the earlier post was my favorite. I think that I like #5, the strapless, cotton sateen dress, the best. Here's a picture of me wearing the same dress in green.

So, I guess I'll keep thinking about it. If I do go this route, I might get a cute hair piece or birdcage veil to make it look a little fancier. I don't think that my fiance will change out of his tux, so I don't want to look too casual. What do you think I should do/wear?

PS... my first wedding dress fitting is TOMORROW!! eek!

Bags are in!

2010-03-08T23:06:00.004-05:00

This is a follow up to the previous post. I got the bags that we're using for the OOT bags from UPS today. I'm really excited about them. Although they aren't the greatest quality bags, I think its really neat that the guests will be able to reuse them for things after the wedding. Here are some pics of the bags and the things I've collected so far to put in them. I've got a lot of ideas of stuff to include that I haven't made/bought yet.. more on that later.

Out Of Town Bags

2010-03-07T22:51:00.007-05:00

I just finished 72 custom labeled water bottles for our OOT bags. I designed the label myself using a damask pattern and our monogram. I printed and cut the labels and affixed them to water bottles that I bought.

I think they turned out well and I can't wait for our guests to find them in the out of town bags.

I also got a lot of great travel materials to go in the bags from my MOH Sarah. She stopped at the NC visitor center on Friday and picked up tons of NC maps, NC travel guides and Raleigh maps. These are going to be great OOT bag fillers and very informational for our guests.

New Wedding Party Newsletter

2010-03-05T12:55:00.005-05:00

I just finished the next wedding party newsletter. I'm hoping to mail them to everyone this weekend. In this issue, I included information about:

-Wedding day logistics

-Hotel accommodations

-Groomsmen's tux rentals

-Bridesmaids' hair and makeup

-Bridesmaids shoes

-Important dates to remember

Going away outfit?

2010-03-03T21:54:00.025-05:00

I've been going back and forth about this for a while. I still haven't decided yet, and if I do, it'll probably be a last minute decision.

So, what are your thoughts about the going away outfit? I think it is a really cute tradition. I love the almost vintage feel that it gives. It's a little more out of practice in recent years because most brides and grooms aren't jetting off to their honeymoon immediately. But, I think it's still a great option for brides who want to change into something more comfortable before they make their exit!

There are a million different outfits that you could wear, but right now I'm leaning to a short white dress. Since this is not super important, I don't want to spend a lot on the outfit. Here are some of the dresses I'm looking at. What do you think? Vote at the bottom of the post.

Dress #1 Dress #2

Dress #3 Dress #4

Dress #5 Dress #6

Wedding Rings!!!

2010-03-03T19:55:00.008-05:00

I picked up my wedding ring tonight! I'm soo excited, it turned out beautifully! I wasn't sure the diamond band would look when sized down to a size 4.5, but it looks great!

I'm not too great with taking up close pictures with my camera, but here are a few:

I can't wait to wear the wedding band with my engagement ring all the time!!

Stamps!

2010-03-02T20:05:00.005-05:00

Yes, you read that correctly. This post is devoted to postage stamps. I am wayyy more excited about our invitations' stamps than any normal person would ever get over stamps. I am the proud owner of 240 stamps that we'll use to mail our invitations out very soon!

I took our complete invitation to the post office today to be weighed and measured. I was very excited to learn that we can use the $0.61 stamps for the invitation. Our invites are printed on 220 lb letterpress paper by Crane, so I thought we might have to pay even more than that for postage. We decided not to do the ribbon around the invite set because it was going to make it too bulky. Plus, it's already a snug fit with all of the enclosures!

So, I bought 120 of the $0.60 wedding cake stamps for the outer envelopes... they are so pretty! I also bought 120 of the $0.44 wedding ring stamps for the response envelopes. :) I had looked at making custom stamps on Zazzle or somewhere like that, but I just didn't like having to pay more than the face value of the stamps. So, for the exact minimum postage needed, we were able to get wedding related stamps and I think it's great!

Can't wait to mail these out, hopefully, NEXT WEEK!!

Check, Check, Check!!

2010-02-28T23:18:00.008-05:00

We're getting a lot done! This weekend, we paid the remaining amount due for our wedding rings. Mine got sent out to be sized and should be back by the end of the week. We got to bring Kevin's home, since it was already the right size. It's all been very exciting, it's getting so close. My fiance's ring, taken with his blackberry, lol...

I also ordered our guest book tonight. We are using MyPublisher to create a custom photo guestbook using some pictures from our engagement. I'm very excited to see how it turns out, I'm sure it will be awesome!

Tonight, I finished what I'm calling our "additional info enclosure cards." I previously bought card stock that matches our invitations to create small cards to include in our invitations. The cards will direct guests to our wedding website so that they can find more information about the wedding, accommodations, and directions. I thought this was an important thing to include since there are some invitation recipients who didn't receive Save the Date magnets, which had our website on it.

Finally, we reserved our wedding night hotel room. We're going to stay at the Marriott Raleigh City Center in downtown Raleigh. We got the Romance Package, which was a great deal for an executive room including breakfast for two the next morning, chocolate strawberries and a bottle of champagne upon arrival.

We have a lot to do this week, so check back to see what all we get done!

Bachelorette Party/Lingerie Shower

2010-02-27T16:30:00.004-05:00

Some of my wonderful bridesmaids are throwing me a lingerie shower/bachelorette party in April. Kelsey is graciously hosting at her new apartment! I'm very excited, I know it will be a lot of fun!

I have been looking for a dress to wear foreverrr! I finally decided to get the dress from Dillards that I had been eying for a while. It's hot pink and very cute! I think it will go really well with the hot pink and black theme that they're planning. Plus, I believe that the girls are all wearing black dresses/outfits with pink accessories, so it will be perfect!

Here's the dress I picked:

DIY Candle Decor

2010-02-27T16:05:00.006-05:00

I'm really excited to be making lots of progress on the semi-DIY project that I'm working on. We're going to put a lot of candles on the fireplaces in the reception ballroom to make it beautiful and dramatic.

As a reminder, here's what the fireplaces look like:

We're definitely doing the votive candles all around the room on the ledge, like in the picture above... we've already bought about 15 dozen pre-filled glass votive candles. But, instead of just doing glass votives or small candles on the fireplace mantle, we'll do lots of alternating shapes and sizes of candles. There will be both pillar and floating candles. I've been collecting glassware and candles every time I see it for a reasonable price. I found really great deals at Michaels (make sure you use their coupons) and the Dollar Tree (3x8" cylinder vases for just $1)!

Here's what I have so far:

I'm not done yet, but I'm hoping it will all turn out like this on each mantle:

Wedding Flowers!

2010-02-18T19:54:00.031-05:00

Here are some details about our wedding flowers and some inspiration pictures.

The bridesmaids will be wearing light pink dresses and carrying bouquets with light pink and white flowers: peonies, sweet peas, hydrangea, roses, etc.

I will be carrying a bouquet of cream and blush flowers, including peonies, hydrangea, ranunculas, and roses.

We will have a gorgeous arrangement at the entry table which will hold the escort cards. Using many of the same flowers, there'll also be silver branches that will give the arrangement height.

For the guest tables, we'll have both low and high centerpieces. Both will be similar and have lots of roses, peonies and hydrangea.

Rentals Update!

2010-02-18T17:42:00.004-05:00

We met with CE Rental today to look at rental items that we'll need for the reception. Everything looks so gorgeous, I am very excited!

We first looked at linens and decided to go with a beautiful pink (petal) taffeta. We will have these in full length tablecloths on all of the guests' tables. The pink is very shimmery and changes colors in different lighting. We'll have silver satin tablecloths on the tall cocktail tables, sweetheart table, and cake table. The cocktail tables will be used in the cocktail hour and on the edge of the dance floor, they'll have a pink taffeta band around the middle.

For chairs, we picked out a silver chiavari with a white silk cushion. The chairs complete the look of the tables perfectly! Plus, the chairs make it easier to get more people at each table!

I took some of the things that will be at our table to see how everything looks together. Here are some pictures of what it'll look like:

Busy week ahead!

2010-02-16T15:37:00.008-05:00

This week is going to be very busy! But, the best part of that is that we're going to get a lot done!

* Tonight we're meeting with our pastor at the church.

* Thursday, we're picking out linens and rentals from CE Rental, doing our food tasting (YUM!), meeting with our reception coordinator, and meeting with the florist.

* Friday, we're hoping to meet with our new ceremony/wedding coordinator.

* Saturday, we're PICKING UP MY DRESS!!

* Monday, dropping envelopes off with the calligrapher.

Today, I confirmed all of the information for the Groom's Cake order. It's going to be fabulous! We're getting a UNC-themed groom's cake for my fiance's alma mater. It's kind of a surprise for my fiance, as he knows there will be a UNC-themed cake, but he doesn't know what it looks like. It will be served at our Rehearsal Dinner at 518 West! Here's a picture of what it'll look like:

We're getting it from Cinda's Creative Cakes.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T21:56:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful day/weekend!

Favors!

2010-02-13T17:11:00.008-05:00

We received our Truffle Trolley sampler today. The box had a sample of each of the 18 delicious truffle flavors. We had a lot of fun tasting each of them. There were so many good options, that we had a little trouble deciding which to pick. However, I think we are going to do 2: Peanut Butter and Traditional Milk Chocolate. There were a lot of unique flavors, but we wanted flavors that everyone would like.

I didn't have my camera when they arrived, so I had to take pictures with my cell phone. They included a few sample boxes for us to decide box color and ribbon color. They even printed our monogram on the tags! Here are some pictures, sorry if they're a little blurry!

We're into the double digits!

2010-02-12T19:16:00.007-05:00

99 days until the wedding! Wow, back when we got engaged {581 days ago...1 year, 7 moths ago}, I felt like this day would be soooo far away. Well, it's here! We're finally in the double digits, I can't believe how close the wedding is. I'm really glad that we've been getting stuff done almost every day. Yesterday, we picked out the mens' tuxes and today we picked out and put the deposit on our wedding rings!

The groomsmen will be wearing tuxes from Mens Wearhouse with silver vests and bow ties. My fiance will wear the same tux, but with a white vest and bow tie instead of the silver. We really love the classic look that these will have.

We ordered our rings today and were lucky that they had them in stock. So, we won't have to wait multiple weeks for them to come in. I was really relieved since a custom order would have meant getting the rings last minute before the wedding.

Calligraphy and more......

2010-02-03T11:29:00.006-05:00

We're dropping our envelopes off with the calligrapher on Feb. 22nd! {We're using Leah from Simply Stated} However, we really need to decide which font we want to use!! I love all of these options, but I'm definitely partial to the first one, which matches the font that we used on the save the dates and a lot of the other stationary that guests will see, including our monogram. But, the others are pretty too! Click here to see our invitations and here to see our monogram.

Which is your favorite?!

Checks!!

2010-01-29T13:15:00.005-05:00

I finally finished my January medical school class.... phew! I'm so glad that's done. Now I'll have more free time to spend working on wedding things!

We've accomplished a lot in just this week! We finally figured out transportation, which had been really worrying me! I'm so excited about the limos for the bridal party and our getaway! :)

Everyone is going to have an amazing time and the limos will make shuttling everyone around so much easier!

Another really exciting check: we decided on videography! When we first started planning, videography wasn't very high on our priority list. Over time, we've seen more and more videos and have realized that it is something that we might regret not having. We are putting so much effort into making this wedding amazing, we want to make sure it all gets captured. We decided to go with Cinematrimony, out of Charlotte. They have been excellent in communicating with us and we can't wait to see what they create for us. Click here to see their blog and a wedding trailer from another couple's wedding.

We also found a very reasonable calligrapher! Leah from Simply Stated was recommended by Swoozies in Cameron Village. She has some beautiful samples on her website and can recreate most any font! The calligraphy is going to add that extra touch to the invites. Plus, it will be great not to have to worry about the stress of addressing all of the invitations!

113 days to go!!

J. Crew Obsession

2010-01-22T11:43:00.008-05:00

Yes, it's true! I love J. Crew and almost everything they sell. Their wedding and party collection is so cute! Although, we decided not to get bridesmaid dresses from there because they were shorter and more casual than we wanted. Yesterday I ordered two dresses that were on sale and they are gorgeous, I can't wait to wear them for wedding related events! I'm thinking about wearing the silver wrap dress for the morning and getting ready on the wedding day.

I also FINALLY found a pair of the shoes I had been eyeing for my wedding. I think this is the first wedding picture I saw of them... They are sold out of almost every size and color at J. Crew. I even contacted them to see if they could find a pair for me and they are completely gone in my size! :( However, I found someone on WeddingBee who bought these then decided not to wear them for her wedding. They are gorgeous!

I'm so excited to finally be getting the little things done!

Reception Lighting

2010-01-17T21:08:00.009-05:00

We met Jeff Simpson from Simpsound on Saturday at The State Club. We were so excited that he was able to come out and show us some of his ideas for lighting our Reception. I didn't get a chance to take many pictures and my camera wasn't capturing the effects well, but we were blown away!

The ceilings in the ballroom are very high with gorgeous chandeliers. However, we were afraid that without lighting, the walls could end up looking too plain. We're hoping to do some colored uplighting on the walls around the room as well as a custom monogrammed gobo light for the dance floor.

Here's what the fireplace looks like in the dimmed ballroom:

And, here's what it looks like at the same time, but with uplighting between the columns on the sides of the fireplace:

The lighting really highlights the architecture of the room and is so dramatic! We really think that it will set the tone for a fun reception. For this example, he used a pinkish/purple color, but he can customize it to almost any color that we want.

Here are some more pictures of receptions/events that Jeff's company has done the lighting for.

We're sooo excited and know it will look amazing!

Invites are IN!!!!

2010-01-17T14:57:00.004-05:00

YAY! We're so excited that our invitations came in this week. It only took Crane & Co. 2 weeks to get them to us after our proofs! I picked them up from Swoozies yesterday and they look BEAUTIFUL! I think they're even better than I expected!

Here are some pictures... I can't wait to send them out in March!!

Favors!

2010-01-11T21:03:00.004-05:00

Today I contacted the company that we'll most likely be using for our wedding favors. (Truffle Trolley)I am thrilled to report that they have been excellent to work with so far! I asked if they would be able to accommodate our monogram, since usually they only do single letter black/white text. He quickly responded that they could do it and that they would look fabulous! He even printed out a test tag immediately after I sent him our monogram file.

We haven't figured out which flavors yet, but that'll be coming up soon!! :) YUMMMM! I can't wait to try all of the different combinations. It's going to be so hard to choose!

So, we're getting the formal double truffles (2 truffles per box). We'll get silver boxes with pink ribbon tied around them with our tag. The best part is, they will ship them to us the week before the wedding and they will already be packaged, tagged and tied! It's going to be great not to have to spend more time tying bows on little boxes!!

Project Updates!

2010-01-10T21:03:00.011-05:00

Time is flying by! I can't believe there are only 4 months and 12 days until the wedding, eeek! This weekend I finished a couple projects and I've been getting ready to start others. I found really cute labels at AC Moore to put on the soap for the OOT bags. I love these!!

Then, I found wooden letters of our initials to put inside the wreaths. I hung these with silver ribbon. What do you think?? Letters or no letters? The doors at the church are dark brown, so I think the white will show up nicely (they're kind of hard to see

hanging on our white doors). As of right now I think they're cute and I like the personalization, but the letters are easy to take out if we want to.

I also started a mock up of our ceremony programs. Although we haven't actually written the ceremony yet, I wanted to get an idea of what kind of supplies I'll need. Since we didn't do DIY invites, I kind of took the design I had for the invites and turned them into programs. More on this project later. But, I do like the idea of including a map to the reception in the program (if you have enough room). Our reception location's address isn't on most GPS or google maps, so I wanted to make it easier for our guests to find their way. So, we'll probably put the map and directions on the back page, facing the cardstock cover, like in this example.

DIY Check: Wreaths!

2009-12-30T11:10:00.001-05:00

I've been trying to get some things done before school starts back in a few days. Yesterday, I made silk peony wreaths that will go on the church doors. I hit the jackpot at AC Moore and found 32 stems on sale for $0.50 each --> AMAZING (they had been $3 each). I bought 18" grapevine wreaths and some green wire to attach the flowers with. I'm really excited about how well they came out! I may get some wooden letters for our first names and put them in the middle, but I'm not sure yet. I had to hang them with a ribbon on my wall to take a picture, but I'll figure out a pretty way to hang them with a bow or ribbon for the church doors. Here's what they look like:

OOT Bags/Baskets

2009-12-30T10:52:00.005-05:00

We're going to do OOT bags or baskets for our guests. We will have the hotels place one in each guest room in our room blocks to welcome everyone to Raleigh. So, I've been trying to come up with things to include in the baskets and this is what I have so far:

- Welcome letter from bride and groom

- NC Map

- Raleigh Visitor's Guide

- snacks and drinks, including NC items

- soap or toiletries

- customized map and directions to ceremony and reception

- cards, cheap games, etc.

A few months ago, I had found this super cute DIY idea, of individually wrapping soaps with a note from the bride and groom for the OOT bags. You can find instructions, here. Well, I decided to do mine slightly differently, and will include them in the OOT baskets. Here are the materials that I use: soap, ribbon and wrapping paper. Then, I'll add a tag with our monogram or a little note saying "soap from the bride and groom" or "welcome" etc.

Invitation Design

2009-12-14T21:29:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures I made of a mock up of our invitation set that we will be ordering soon. The wording may be changed some and we might tweak the font, but this is pretty much it! I'm really loving the silver and charcoal colored inks! I'm also hoping to bring in some pink with a light pink bow wrapped around the set! :)

Booking Our Honeymoon!

2009-12-13T21:51:00.009-05:00

Tomorrow, we're finally going to put a deposit down on our honeymoon!!!!!!

I might be one of the most indecisive people in the world, so trying to figure out where in the entire world we wanted to go for our honeymoon was intimidating. Well, we've decided on PARIS! We're paying the deposit for our 7-night apartment rental tomorrow! The apartment is through www.ParisPerfect.com, which I found a couple of weeks ago. Well, most of their apartments were booked :( for our week, but fortunately, we were able to find one that is going to work out "perfectly!"

It's the Syrah apartment in Paris' 7e arrondissement. It's only a couple of blocks away from the Eiffel Tower and is on the famous Rue Cler. (Rick Steves' Europe: Rue Cler: The Art of Parisian Living) We love cooking and this little apartment has a kitchen to prepare meals with ingredients from the fresh market below. There's also a cute balcony to sit and relax or eat a meal. The living room is so parisian and full of light. I could ramble on forever about how amazing everything looks, but I'll let you see for yourselves! This is the actual apartment that we'll be staying at:

Invitations!! :)

2009-12-13T21:13:00.008-05:00

Tonight we came very, very close to finalizing the invitations for the wedding. I'm SUPER EXCITED about these. I had considered doing DIY, but I've got a lot going on in the next couple of months and didn't know how much time I'd have for DIYing invitations. Well, we found some beautiful invitations that we really like. They're awesome, here are the details:

Crane & Co. Letterpress

2 ink color flourish design

Double envelopes w/return address and envelope liner

Reception card

Response card and envelope with address

Eeeeek! They are going to be gorgeous and sooo luxurious!

We're getting them from Swoozies in Cameron Village.

We're going to order them in the next week or so, we're just waiting to hear back from them to make sure our color changes/combinations can be done.

This is what they look like. We'll be changing the light brown motif to silver and the text to a darker gray/charcoal color. The envelope liner will also be silver. This shows the paper in ecru and we are hoping to change it to an off white, but we're not sure if it's possible yet. Oh and we've discussed adding a pink ribbon to tie it all up, but so far it's mainly silver/gray. It's pretty traditional, but I think it will really be pretty!

Bridesmaids' Dresses Update

2009-11-29T09:46:00.006-05:00

So, this morning I got an email that 2 of my girls' bridesmaids dresses came in... That's only 11 days after they ordered them!! Haha, the estimated arrival date had been FEBRUARY 10th! Whatttt? The consultant at the store said they will come in really fast if they had them in stock at their warehouse. So that's great! I picked up 2 today and 2 more are on their way to the store. Wow! I can't wait to see all of them!

The pictures are kind of grainy/blurry but, here's what they look like... I LOVE the pink even more than I thought I would. I think we definitely made the right choice going with this dress and the Candy Pink! :)

Paris Perfect... :)

2009-11-24T22:44:00.005-05:00

Tonight, while researching destinations for our honeymoon, I looked into renting an apartment in Paris for our stay. I've been looking at hotels for a while... there are just so many to choose from! Staying in an apartment would be a comfortable way to stay and would be even more Parisian ;) I'm not sure if this is exactly what we're going to do, but I found this lovely company and their website and I'm really excited! www.parisperfect.com

They have a collection of about 30 apartments in Paris with fabulous views and furnishings. There are lots of reviews in the guestbook, pictures and apartment floorplans. Here are some pictures from some of their apartments and the views... :)

Bridesmaid Dress Update!!!

2009-11-19T13:40:00.006-05:00

YAYYYY! The ordering process has begun!! I'm so excited that we finally got the girls' dresses figured out. So far, everyone has really liked the dress. I'm really excited about them. They are due to come in around early February. So it looks like we will be fine if anything needs to be altered.

Also, they got a really great deal on the dresses because apparently David's Bridal is going to discontinue the dress in the coming months. I'm so glad that we grabbed it before it's gone!

As of today, 3/7 bridesmaids have ordered their dresses! YAY!

UPDATE: 4/7 at the end of the day on 11/19!!

UPDATE 2: ALL DRESSES HAVE BEEN ORDERED as of 11/27/2009!! :)

Wedding Party Newsletter!

2009-11-16T21:13:00.010-05:00

I made a newsletter for my wedding party and mailed it out to everyone this weekend. This what it looked like. So far everyone has loved it. I'll use these to keep everyone updated on the planning progress.

Ordering my Veil!

2009-11-16T20:51:00.002-05:00

We're ordering my veil tomorrow from Pearl's Place in LA!

I'm super excited, it's going to look amazing with my dress.

yay!

Table Numbers

2009-11-15T01:28:00.012-05:00

I picked up the table numbers from Megan today! I'm super excited about this project and got a lot done today! So, I started with her table numbers which looked like this:

Then, I had to totally deconstruct them.... and basically ripped all of the numbers off and took apart the frames. Sorry Megan for undoing all of your hard work, lol! Then I cleaned up all of the numbers and painted the frames with silver metallic acrylic paint.

I cut rectangles out of scrapbook paper in the appropriate sizes for the backings. I placed the paper in the frames and tightened the back of the frames. I painted the numbers with a light pink acrylic paint. Then, I arranged the numbers in the frames how I wanted them and voila! I only did 15 today. I don't know if I'll need more, but I have all of the supplies to make additional ones if we need them, which we probably will.

Update! I glued the numbers and added another coat of paint...

What do you think?

Curent DIY Obsession= Table Numbers

2009-11-12T00:35:00.008-05:00

As the title shows, my current DIY obsession is table numbers for the reception. A couple months ago, I fell in love, like literally in love, with the shabby chic wedding numbers in frames from a weddings blog I was reading. <3

Well today, I was looking at a fellow NC Knottie's pictures and saw that she had DIYed these! I contacted her and guess what I'm gonna buy them from her! Woohoo! I'm so excited. I can't wait to redo these for my wedding.

Here's what hers look like:

I'm thinking I will paint the frames a silvery color and then get some scrapbook paper and paint to do the background and numbers. Yay!

E-pics!

2009-11-11T14:56:00.014-05:00

You may remember that we took engagement pictures back in July in downtown Cary, NC with Katie Hamister. We were really happy with what she captured.

However, we have always wanted to get pictures taken in Chapel Hill, where my fiance just graduated from college this past May. Since we're getting married at The State Club (on NCSU's campus), I felt it was only fair if we tried to include the rival/FI's school, UNC, somehow!

This past Sunday we had more engagement pictures taken by Miranda of In the Grain Photography. She was great to work with! Check out her website at www.inthegrainphotography.com

Here are some teasers that I grabbed from her website:

Card Box!

2009-11-08T21:32:00.007-05:00

This weekend I finally completed our card box! I made it using ivory silk shatung and pink and silver ribbons. I bought the round card box from Michaels.

What do you think??

Invitation Mock Up

2009-10-25T01:31:00.014-04:00

Tonight I decided to play around with invitation design and make a mock up of my 'ideal' invitation... with lots of enclosures! So, I went to AC Moore and got some paper and made my own pocketfold, invite and enclosures.... If we do decide to go with something like this for invitations, I will buy pocketfolds and and other materials to make it quicker!

Here's what I came up with: a light pink pocket fold with silver belly band and monogram. Inside is a sheet of pink swirled vellum over panel invitation with silver mat. Pocket holds four enclosures: Reception card, RSVP, Accommodations card, and Directions and Map card.

What do you think??

Mmmmm... Cake!

2009-10-24T00:50:00.009-04:00

This afternoon we met with Sweet Memories Bakery in Apex. We've tasted their cakes before, so we knew it would be amazing... and it was just as good as we remembered.

Here's what we have so far for our design. It will be a very pale pink/blush colored cake with ivory/cream details. The icing will be in a lace design scattered across the cake. The tiers will have bands of fondant and there will be a simple and elegant bow on one (or two) of the tiers.

All of this progress is sooo exciting! :)

Save the Date's are OUT!

2009-10-23T23:24:00.010-04:00

Woohoo! Save the Dates are being mailed tomorrow! They'll be arriving in everyone's mailbox early next week. Of course, our new puppy Darcy had to help us get them out.

We ordered these large magnets through Vistaprint and got silver envelopes from envelopemall.com. I also designed custom Save the Date return address labels and ordered them from Vistaprint.

It's Official: Bridesmaid Dresses!

2009-10-11T16:20:00.009-04:00

Yay! We FINALLY made a decision about bridesmaids dresses! I went to David's Bridal today with two of my bridesmaids and my mom. We decided that the short dress that we had liked was a little bit too casual for an evening wedding and next to my dress. We really liked the long one with organza top and sash. So, we decided that it is THE one, we're getting F13625 in "Candy Pink."

Here are some pictures of the girls at David's Bridal trying on the style in a different color.

A similar DB satin dress in Candy Pink on the left and the dress style we picked for everyone on the right.

Monogram Update

2009-10-02T12:37:00.003-04:00

Here's the latest version of our wedding monogram. I think this might be *the one!*

... Now to think about all of the fun DIY ways I can use this!

Bridesmaid Dress Update

2009-09-22T11:13:00.003-04:00

It feels like it's been forever since I've posted! I'm busy all the time with my grad school work.

Well, last weekend, I went to look at the Dessy bridesmaid dresses I posted about. Needless to say, I was not as impressed in person as I thought I would be. I didn't have anyone with me so I just tried it on... and I hated it. I also saw the color that I had been thinking was THE ONE... but it was ugly. yuck! Soo, overall, I walked out feeling quite dejected because I tried on a billion bridesmaid dresses and none were what I'm looking for.

So, I went back to David's Bridal on Saturday. I told the consultant that I just wanted to look around and I did. I was much more successful here! I found 3 possible dresses in a color that I think I can accept. I had been hating all of the pinks out there, but I think David's Bridal 'Candy Pink' will work nicely. So, my favorite is the short cotton sateen dress in the middle. The long dress with sweetheart organza neckline and bow is #2. And then, there's always the plain-er style of long dress that we could do a sash with.

The dresses look a little bit more mauve-y in these colorized pictures than they do in person. I think that one of these is the one!! Yay for making progress! I think this will just be much easier to do at David's Bridal... plus they're cheaper!

Next step, take some bridesmaids to DB and get them to help decide which one we should do!

I might be addicted to Vistaprint

2009-09-11T10:15:00.007-04:00

Soo, i've been taking advantage of all of vistaprint's sales recently... Yesterday I ordered:

- 100 save the date magnets for 50% off

- 10 additional save the date magnets for FREE

- 250 photoshare cards (with free upgrade to glossy!) for FREE

- 3 pens with our names/date on them for FREE

- 50 rehearsal dinner menus for FREE

** I'm testing this out to see how it will look on the oversized postcard. If it does work, I'll use these for the menus for the RD (if we don't change the menu) and maybe for different cheap menus for the reception! yay for free stuff!

All of this = AMAZING! I'm so excited to get it in the mail and see what I can do with all of the free stuff!

I definitely recommend trying vistaprint and seeing if you can use their free products creatively to add personality to your event! However, I'd recommend if you're doing magnets or anything else important, using the 10 for free initially to make sure your colors and everything are correct. Then you can wait til a huge sale and order everything and save so much!! That's what I did and I saved a total of: $105.93 haha!

Rehearsal Dinner

2009-09-11T00:12:00.003-04:00

So, for the longest time I wanted to have our rehearsal dinner at Caffe Luna in Raleigh. Well, after evaluating the menu options and comparing with 518 West.... I think we've finally decided to go with 518 West. Hopefully we'll be sending in the contract in the next week or so. I am really excited and I know it is going to be delish!

Here's a mock up of the menu that we could use....

Bridesmaid Dress Search!

2009-09-10T10:29:00.005-04:00

Soo, planning has been progressing nicely recently. I've ordered my dress and I'm feeling like things are coming together in my head. So, next up is finding bridesmaid dresses.

Right now, I'm loving this one:

It's Dessy 2733. I'm thinking maybe in 'Rose' with a 'Frost' sash tied in the back...

What do you think about this style/color combo?

Updated To-do List!

2009-08-27T14:20:00.004-04:00

Yay! We're making progress with all of the planning!

We've officially:

* Finally decided on my wedding dress! ;)

* Sent deposit/contract to florist

* Finished design for Save the Date magnets

* Booked Arioso Strings for string trio cermony music

What's up next?

* Bridesmaids dresses

* Finalizing guest list

* Hotel blocks

* Cake consultation

* Meeting with officiant

Dress Search Update

2009-08-16T22:47:00.012-04:00

Sooooo... it seems we have it narrowed down to THREE... yes, three. Ugh, I was really hoping to get relief this weekend and discover that the paloma blanca was THE ONE, but instead I added two more fabulous gowns to the mix.

So, here are the ones I'm considering:

Paloma Blanca - 3953

This is a stunning gown. It's a lovely 'champagne' (more of an off white really) silk dupioni with unique alencon lace appliques at the bust and hemline. I love the covered buttons that go all the way down the back of the gown. It has a sweep train which is perfect for me, because I don't want anything really cumbersome. I love the scoop neckline, which is really quite pretty, and different from the straight across strapless or sometimes-too-revealing sweetheart necklines. And of course, another great feature is the simple satin bow at the empire waist. I love ribbons and bows, and this one just looks like me.

Couture Bridal by Elma Reis - 1915

I fell in love with this gown when I tried it on this weekend. I was not expecting to like it as much as I did, because it has a much larger skirt, more of a princess cut or A-line. It is made out of amazing duchess satin with pretty alencon lace appliques at the bust and hemline. I like the dropped waist and slight sweetheart neckline. This dress also has covered buttons all

the way down the back. I felt like a princess walking around in this dress. It is the most expensive of the dresses, and wow, I think it shows when you see it in person. In the picture, it is shown with a gold sash, I tried it on with an ivory organza sash that tied in the back and really liked it.

Augusta Jones - Sterling

This gown was sooo sparkly and had tons of alencon lace which we really liked. I loved how all of the beading and crystals sparkled in the light as I walked. The dress is satin with an alencon lace and crystal beading overlay. It has a fit and flare silhouette and chapel train. I also loved this one with an ivory sash. In some of the pictures on her website, it's shown with a bolero, but I much prefer it without. This is another definite contender. BTW, I think it looks so much prettier in person!

So, what do you think? Which one would you chose?

Clover Green and Purple Inspiration Board

2009-08-13T15:24:00.002-04:00

Here's another inspiration board that I made for another knottie.

Her colors are clover green and various shades of light and dark purples.

Red, Black, and White!

2009-08-13T15:19:00.005-04:00

Woohoo, these are my favorite colors... and ALMOST our wedding colors! We decided to go with pink and silver after deciding that the red and black wasn't as springy as we'd like.

I made this inspiration board for Knottie wlfpkbride.... Can you tell she's getting married at the NCSU Alumni Center- The State Club(same as me)!! So her colors are just perfect for that location!

Garnet, Gold, Orange Inspiration Board

2009-08-13T15:16:00.003-04:00

I made this inspiration board for knottie tarheels1.

She requested a board with colors of garnet, gold and hints of orange.

Light Blue and Silver Inspiration Board

2009-08-13T11:16:00.002-04:00

This is an inspiration board that I made for Knottie barrieinlove. Light blue and silver are such a gorgeous combination! The muted tones make it feel so elegant and wintery. The silver sparkles, making it feel so warm and inviting, even if it is a winter wedding!

Dress Shopping.

2009-08-12T15:10:00.009-04:00

So, I'm going dress shopping again later this week/weekend.

I have seen so many beautiful gowns... ahh I don't know what to do. I'm still SO in LOVE with the Paloma Blanca 3953...

I'll be sure to update when I get done!

My Inspiration Boards

2009-08-12T11:34:00.004-04:00

Here are a couple of the inspiration boards that I've created on Style Circle.

'Midnight Blue and Canary'

'Lime~Teal~Blue'

'Rasberry~ Lemon~Slate'

'Pure Romance'

'Going Green'

More peonies...

2009-08-10T23:26:00.006-04:00

I'm obsessing over SMP's Style Circle.

Here's another one of my Inspiration Boards... look for more in the near future!

Wooohoo! New Planning Resource!

2009-08-10T16:51:00.007-04:00

Yay! Attention brides, a new social networking and wedding planning site has been created! And let me tell you, from what I've seen so far, it is awesome! Check it out: http://circle.stylemepretty.com

So yes, I realize that there are tons of these out there. But what sets this one apart is the awesome Inspiration Board feature. Simply select your favorite images and drag them into the board to create one! So simple, yet elegant with the crisp white lines ;)

Here's one of the ones that I created:

Bridal Attire: Part I

2009-08-10T10:35:00.007-04:00

This week I am going to focus on identifying my bridal attire look/inspiration. I have a lot of ideas and love so many gowns, I'm having a hard time deciding! Here are a few of the gowns that have caught my eye:

Paloma Blanca # 3953

(ps. this looks so much better in person!)

Pronovias Halifax

(pic from Knottie jcrawford76)

WTOO Rosalyn

Watters 9046B

I would probably wear a sash with an all lace dress like this.

:) Gorgeous Wedding Inspiration

2009-08-04T22:08:00.005-04:00

Look at these awesome pictures of a gorgeous wedding. I LOVE the light pink and cream colors, soo soothing! And of course, the fluffy peonies. :)

http://cynthiamartyn.typepad.com/cynthiamartynevents/2009/06/love-is-sweet-michelle-matts-waterside-wedding.html

291 days to go...

2009-08-04T21:44:00.002-04:00

Eeeek! It seems like so much time, but we have so much to do!

I'm making a list of things I want to accomplish in the next month or so:

- Find and order wedding dress

- Find bridesmaids dresses that everyone likes

- Finalize guest list

- Send deposit to florist

- Decide on motif/monogram

- Save the Date magnets

- Meet with officiant

- Hotel blocks

Okay there it is, it's all out there. Hold me to it!

Where are you in your planning? Do you feel behind or right on track?

Engagement Pictures Sneak Peak

2009-08-03T09:56:00.006-04:00

Here's a sneak peak of our engagement pictures that we had done by Katie Hamister in downtown Cary, NC. I love them! :)

Inspiration Board for SMP Contest

2009-07-29T15:08:00.007-04:00

Style Me Pretty is running an Inspiration Board Contest, and I decided to make one to enter. http://www.stylemepretty.com/2009/07/22/inspiration-board-contest-3/

I designed my board around the gorgeous Monique L'huillier dress for Spring 2010, Sunday Rose. It is a beautiful ivory silk and satin A-line gown with rose embroidered skirt... amazing!

So, I included my love for fluffy, romantic details and peonies (of course) to create this:

Photo Credits (clockwise):

Dress: Monique L'huillier: Spring 2010: Sunday Rose, http://www.moniquelhuillier.com/

Table design/Centerpiece: Fleurs de France, http://www.fleursdefrance.net/

Favor boxes: Grand Peony Favor Boxes from Bridal 'n Beauty, http://www.bridalnbeauty.com/site/1566638/product/BF4-GPB01

Flowers: www.DesignSpongeOnline.com

Cake: Floral Cascade Cake, Sweet Sensations Cakes, http://www.sweetsensationscakes.com/

Invitation: Simply Unique Accessories, http://www.simplyuniqueaccessories.com/SilkInvitationHolders.html

Hair: Hair Comes the Bride, http://www.haircomesthebride.com/

Inspiration!

2009-07-03T23:00:00.006-04:00

So, I was looking at bridesmaid dresses/flower girl dresses and stumbled across these pictures. Wow, these are Ah-mazing! I love all of the pink and silver details, chivari chairs, ribbons, flowers... :) http://www.pegeen.com/flower-girl-dress-of-the-year-09.php

Monogram ideas

2009-06-26T10:07:00.009-04:00

Monograms! Eeek, I L.O.V.E monograms! Another thing I L.O.V.E, Flemish Script! haha, is it dorky to love a font? Well, I've found that a lot of companies use this font for monograming things, which is amazing! So, I am starting to conceptualize what we're going to do as our theme/monogram that is seen in all of the details. Look at the M on our napkins in the post below. I will probably tweak it some for various items, like maybe include our names and date. BUT, I love a classic, elegant last name monogram. :)

Some monogram ideas:

Soon to be McGee

Wedding Shadow Box

Wedding Album

Featured on White Thread!

Wedding Film

Pro Pics: RECEPTION!

Pro Pics: Portraits

Pro Pics: Wedding Ceremony

Getting Ready Photos

Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner

Bridesmaid's Luncheon Recap!

I'm Back!!

Yay! Good surprises!

*8* Days!

Time is FLYING!

Flowers... Finally and other CHECKS!

Update.... 19 days to go!

Just waiting on the RSVPs!

Style Me Pretty LOVE

Weekend Progress

Honeymoon activities!

FINAL shoe update!

Reception Drink Menu

Rehearsal Dinner Invites = Done!

DIY project updates

Shoe Craziness

Something Blue!

Bridal Bling!

Garters

Weekend Recap

Fun weekend ahead!

Planning Update!

Bridal Portrait Teasers!

Bridal Portraits and Aisle Runner

Invitations are DONE!

DIY Bouquet

Fitting Sneak Peak....

Flights are BOOKED!

Going away dress... part 2

Bags are in!

Out Of Town Bags

New Wedding Party Newsletter

Going away outfit?

Wedding Rings!!!

Stamps!

Check, Check, Check!!

Bachelorette Party/Lingerie Shower

DIY Candle Decor

Wedding Flowers!

Rentals Update!

Busy week ahead!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Favors!

We're into the double digits!

Calligraphy and more......

Checks!!

J. Crew Obsession

Reception Lighting

Invites are IN!!!!

Favors!

Project Updates!

DIY Check: Wreaths!

OOT Bags/Baskets

Invitation Design

Booking Our Honeymoon!

Invitations!! :)

Bridesmaids' Dresses Update

Paris Perfect... :)

Bridesmaid Dress Update!!!

Wedding Party Newsletter!

Ordering my Veil!

Table Numbers

Curent DIY Obsession= Table Numbers

E-pics!

Card Box!

Invitation Mock Up

Mmmmm... Cake!

Save the Date's are OUT!

It's Official: Bridesmaid Dresses!

Monogram Update

8 Days!