And truth be told, John and I have been living together for almost a couple of years now. This means that we have amassed and accumulated more than enough things. Of course we could still make use out of a few items, but it doesn’t make sense to create a registry out of those items and then randomly selecting things out of fear that there wouldn’t be enough options for our guests.

Another truth be told moment: we would rather have a bunch of Lowe’s and Home Depot gift cards so we can fix up and design our house! But that doesn’t seem very wedding-y, now does it?

Our final option was to create a Honeymoon registry. Yes, they absolutely exist, and I think the inventor should be kissed a thousand times over. It is ingenious – Einstein would be amazed! Okay, I digress.

This is the homepage of our honeymoon registry website.

What is amazing about this kind of registry is that you accumulate monetary contributions towards any special event (think baby showers, honeymoons, and anniversaries). The site we use allows you to break everything down into sections. We created a Honeymoon section that included our all-inclusive resort and round trip airfare. Another section was for Pampering, aka couple’s massage. We listed out Excursions and even Beachwear.

The point is that you can customize your registry to be whatever your heart desires. That is the beauty of our advances in technology!

After the section, you break down each section into an amount of money and the number of contributions you need to reach your goal. As an example, we broke things up into 60 contributions of $20 for airfare. That way people can contribute as much or as little as they like.

Make sure to register for what you’d most appreciate receiving money towards. I have seen some for house improvements as couples are moving into a new place together. You can even create a registry for contributions towards new home wares and appliances. There really is no limit to the kind of registry you can create.

Check out Deposit A Gift. Happy registering! And of course, happy planning!

Recently, I shared my “Will You Be My Bridesmaid?” cards with you all. You know, the ones I spent weeks making, painstakingly cutting out paper-doll chains, dresses and attempting to recreate each bridesmaid’s hairstyle to match each respective paper doll.

Nothing like creating an Internet meme of you sitting on a toilet to ask your closest friends and family to be a part of one of the most important days of your life. Though not quite a formal ask, at least it had a bit more character than a simple text (which was the method he told his friends about our engagement). Plus, it perfectly suits his personality – goofy and laid back – just how I love him most.

I highly recommend putting some of your favorite pictures together in a board.  It makes things a lot easier for your planners, venues, and vendors to look at!

We finally booked our “real” honeymoon last week for January 2013 and I couldn’t be more pleased. Originally I looked up different places, got some ideas of prices for flights and all-inclusive resorts to see what we could afford. We had places we were dying to go to, but the price just wasn’t right (aka Bora Bora, Brazil, Maldives). Even though our parents are paying for the wedding, we still couldn’t justify spending 10K+ of our own money for one week’s vacation! I even know someone that financed their honeymoon to an expensive resort! Can you believe that?!

A friend of mine told me her mom was a travel agent and even though I trust her, I was still a little leery on the concept. My family doesn’t really travel much and when we did, we planned our own trips. So, I gave it a shot and gave her mom our information, what we were looking for and what kind of budget we had. We had a resort in mind, so I made it easier for her.

The way it works is that you don’t really pay extra to have the travel agent plan your arrangements. The travel agency has accounts with tons of companies and the way they get paid is from the company or resort that you book with. Most of the time, they can get you a cheaper rate! They receive a certain percentage of commission based on your reservation from the resort/cruise line/rental car company etc. The only thing you would really be paying extra for is a nominal fee (around $30-$50) for the agent booking your flights. Airlines almost never pay commission, but the fee is worth it when they are monitoring flight prices daily for your trip and get you the best deal.

Our travel agent told us when we inquired in January this year that contracts are usually negotiated and prices are lowered for the following year around March/April and that we could book then, but it was probably smarter to wait for prices to drop. She checked daily for about 3 months and last week she got everything together for the best price. For a week at Cocobay Resort in Antigua with everything included (flights, transportation, room and board, food, alcohol, water sport activities, roses and Champagne on arrival, etc) we booked for under $5,000 for the premium cottage with an infinity pool! Everyone I told was like “WOW! That is a great price!”

View from the type of room we booked at Cocobay Resort!

So, I have to say that I totally recommend booking your honeymoon (or any large trip) through a travel agent! Knowing someone is a bonus that way you trust who you are working with, but an easy Google search can find you a reputable agent to work with. Planning a wedding is hard enough, so why not have someone else handle your honeymoon arrangements?

exhibit a

Looking through our “portfolio” we realize we won’t be getting discovered anytime soon and we also realized engagement photos probably aren’t our thing.  Not only are we 0% photogenic, we just can’t picture ourselves staring into each other’s eyes under an umbrella, or gazing off into the distance outside our favorite cafe (exhibit b). A better portrayal would be a Friday night  photo shoot where we are watching HBO on Demand with a gyro smorgasbord and our dog.  But we didn’t think that would translate well to a magnet.

After we started to talk with photographers about our wedding day photos we learned that the engagement photos are actually a great way for your photog team to get to know you and for everyone to get comfortable. After all, these people are probably going to see quite a few personal moments from happy tears to boozy proclamations.

Now we are all about the engagement photos and trying to come up with some ideas for a laid back set up. Like a trip to the farmer’s market, a night cooking in our kitchen,  a day at the park with our dog Lloyd…and two gyros.

At this early stage of the game you may not have all the details yet (I do but that’s just me). But two things you should have decided on are the date and the country, state, town. Once you have these essential elements you should start telling your guests about it.

Save the Dates are one place that you can really get creative. There are so many options out there and these do not have to tie in or fit with your overall wedding theme. It is nice to use the save the dates to give guests a little glimpse into what they can expect from your wedding. Go crazy. Use photos, DIY, props…

I opted for online Save the Dates because they are quick, easy and sometimes even free. Also with my guest lists spanning over four continents I thought I would wait for the real invites to start shelling out for postage.

A quick web search will guide you in many different directions. Play around with different sites and find one that you like and that’s easy to manage. I went with www.punchbowl.com. It’s a great site that allows you to get creative and keeps everything organized at the same time.  It allows you to upload your guest list and keeps track of everything for you.

In the meantime, I do need a subject to blog about. So without further ado, I give you….the story of how I met the Joker!

Our story starts in October 2008.  My now Matron-of-Honor, Rapunzel, and I made our way to our college’s production of Frankenstein.  We sat in the front row and while I should have been watching the play, all I could do was watch the really cute actor playing Henry Clerval.  You guessed it, it was the Joker.  I elbowed Rapunzel the entire time and whispered over and over just how cute I thought he was.  Well, Garden, I would LOVE to tell you that’s when everything took off for the Joker and me.  That, however, would be a lie.  And is frowned upon in most societies.

I left that night, still thinking about the hot actor on stage, but not putting any more into it than that.  Figuring, instead, I would never see him again.  Three days later, I was talking with my friend, future bridesmaid Belle, and she informed me she was working backstage on the show as crew.  When I told her I thought the actor playing Henry was hot, she told me I should come work crew with her so I could meet him. I wish I could tell you I told her yes and THAT was how we met.  However, that ALSO would be a lie.  And it would still be frowned upon in most societies.  Instead, I told her no.  Because going would make me seem like a crazy stalker.  (After we FINALLY did meet and started dating, I asked him if he would have thought I was crazy for doing that.  He said yes.) Sadly, the production ended without us ever meeting and I pretty much forgot about it.

Flashfoward to February 2009, our college was sending a group of students to Texas for the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival.  And who should be on this trip but the Joker and Me???  We were finally meeting face to face! I wish I could tell you THIS is when we hit it off.  But it was actually kind of the opposite. Mistah J was quiet and shy.  Didn’t talk much.  I was loud and obnoxious, laughing at everything and everyone.  Based on our ying-yang personalities, we didn’t really click that week.  So it surprised me when I found us sitting next to each other in the van on the ride home and he flirted with me the entire time.  He would steal my camera to take pictures, lay his head in my pillow, sprawl across me for naps and just say cutesy things to me.  It was weird and I didn’t know what to think.

One of the pictures he took when he stole my camera. How cute is this face??? What was I thinking, thinking he was weird?

A couple weeks later, the Joker and I were both cast in a production of William Shakespeare’s Richard the Third.  He was very much still the guy he was in Texas, but he was opening up little by little.  And I was, too.  I got to talking to him more and more, which was when I realized we had a couple of classes together.  In those classes, I found myself slowly sitting closer and closer to him and in rehearsals I found myself around him more and more each week.  Days before the show opened, I realized: I had fallen for the Joker.

Another cute photo of Joker. This is how I flirted with him. By taking pictures. Maybe I'm not very good at flirting?

If this were news to anyone, it was only news to me. Turns out the entire cast had been saying for weeks how obvious it was we were smitten for each other and everyone thought we would be perfect together.  But there was an issue:  I was not then, am not now, and have never been a “first move” kind of girl.  I was going to wait for him, which even then I knew would be a challenge.  Mistah J is not only the shyest person in the world, he’s also the SLOWEST mover everrrrr.

Sadly, Richard the Third ended and we STILL weren’t together.  School broke for the summer, and I didn’t get to see him every day any more.  We would Facebook chat whenever we could by writing on each other’s walls, pictures, and statuses, but that was pretty much the extent of it.  I thought about him every day and couldn’t wait to get back to school.  I just knew when we got back from summer, everything was going to be different.

Sure enough, school started again and we picked up right where we left off.  And FINALLY, after a lot of pushing from our friends, the Joker asked me out on our first date.

Taken not all THAT long after we "officially" became a couple. Isn't it cute?? Mistah J used to have braces!

And it’s been happily ever after ever since! Sorry it’s a little bit of a long story, I just feel like every part of it is important!

Did I completely bore you??? Or is your story filled with details you can’t leave out either?

*Sidenote, I think I’ve decided to make each title some sort of pop culture reference.  I wanna see how many of you know as much useless garbage about TV and movies as I do! This is one.  As was my last one.  And, really, I kinda did it with my first actual post, too.  Who gets them???

As you saw, my dress has a pretty long train. It’s also a very formal dress, which makes our wedding a little more formal just by itself. When I found the dress, I had a slight moment of terror when I realized that having a wedding at any place other than a church just wouldn’t do my dress justice. I imagined it something like this…

Source : http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler

OK…so maybe it wouldn’t be in Westminster Abbey and it wouldn’t be nationally televised…but I’d have a long aisle to walk down in my dress with the beautiful train. A girl can dream, right?

Well, after we found our reception venue, we started looking around for a church in the area and we ran in to a few problems. Some of them I expected, such as fees and a necessary counseling session or two with the pastor who would marry us. I didn’t ever dream that we’d be required to go to six weeks of classes or become (paying) members of that church (remember that our venue is 45 minutes away from us) for at least six months before being married. The idea of a beautiful church wedding quickly started slipping away.

Fortunately for us, our venue has an absolutely beautiful area with a canopy of tulle and a beautiful lighted arbor where we can get married. It may not be a church wedding, but at least we won’t have to worry about our guests finding their way to and from the ceremony to the reception. And we also won’t have to worry about rushing around to take pictures after the wedding…that can all be done while the guests are having their cocktail hour at the same place!

It may not be the wedding I always dreamed about as a little girl, but I know that it will be special nevertheless. I just had to remind myself that the ceremony is only going to be 20-30 minutes out of a very long day and that in the end, where we get married doesn’t matter…it’s the fact that we’re there in front of all our family and friends to say I do!

We met with the woman who was to show us around, and we followed her to the barn and farmhouse in a remote location. This is a huge plus for us, as we hope to have an outdoor wedding, we know that we will remain mostly undisturbed. We are driving down a small country road, and looking up, at the top of the hill is this adorable farmhouse and barn.

I took a bunch of pictures of the exterior, but not being an awesome photographer, here are just a few.

She then took us inside the farmhouse. It. Was. Amazing. The farmhouse has been fully restored; it is fully furnished and very antique looking. It is definitely a getaway spot for a large group. It’s cozy, yet HUGE inside. The house is a great place to host the rehearsal dinner! It has plenty of seating and a big enough kitchen to cook tons of food. And, of course, I found the perfect spot for some great dress photographs to be taken!

And now, the pièce de résistance, the barn:

It’s probably everything I’ve hoped for in a barn. Big enough for what we need, but intimate as well. Both doors on either end open, and one reveals the rolling hills in the back. It’s rustic but also well kept. It even comes with lights wrapped around the poles!

After taking in everything, the venue is really everything I’d hoped for. Of course, there are a few “cons” thrown into everything. But as with most things in life, nothing is perfect. Right now the price might be the biggest thing we have to contend with. I am really excited about this place! It looks wonderful and if the price is right, this will be the place where I marry my sweetie!

Before the reveal, let me just say that this was a love/hate project. I LOVED the idea and how it eventually turned out, but after finishing my first card, I sat there, overwhelmed at my large bridal party. You mean I have to make SEVEN of these??? Good grief. From start to finish, I completed the project in about four weeks. I’d sit down for an hour, cut out the paper doll chains, and then stop for a few days. Then I’d cut some dresses, maybe some hair, and then stop again for a few days. I could’ve completed them much more quickly, but I had plenty of time to get them done, so I just saved myself the stress.

Within those four weeks, this is how our dining table looked on any given day:

In the end, even though it was a little tedious, I absolutely adored how they turned out. And the overwhelming response from all my girls was that they loved them, too! And what mattered most to me, aside from them all agreeing to be my ‘maids, was giving them something to make the smile and get excited about the day.

I never thought I’d have such a large bridal party, but there’s just no way I couldn’t have all seven of these lovely ladies as my bridesmaids. Two I’ve been friends with since I was three years old. Two more have been my friends since middle school. Two others have been my friends since freshman year at college and one is my future sister-in-law! Maid and Matron of Honor duties are happily shared by both my friends of (gulp) 24 years. I am an incredibly lucky person to have such stellar people in my life, and that they’ll all be up there with me as Mr. Snapdragon and I tie the knot.

Yes, that would be my a box of my beloved invitations …. countless hours of blood, sweat and tears went into those bad boys and I am so incredibly proud of them. Soon they will they will be off into the world, into the mailboxes of our loves ones, where they will hopefully (carefully) open them and get as much joy out of them as I put into them.

Ha, who am I kidding. No one appreciates a wedding invite as much as the bride, right? Oh well, I have a few friends who will appreciate all my hard work I’m just anxious to know they all reach their destination safely, in one piece and that the response cards find their way back to me in the same manner.

And hopefully, in about another week or so, I can share invitations with the garden Stay tuned!

Here’s some pics I snapped at the show:

I highly recommend bridal shows to those planning weddings.  You’ll see things you love, like, and even things you don’t.  There’s so many giveaways and prizes to win, why not?  In fact, at a bridal show I attended last year, I actually won the services of my current wedding planner!

{my custom-made white feather & brooch bouquet added a unique touch}

{art deco-inspired boutonnieres from Etsy}

{a bridal shower gift that came in handy on the “day of”}

In this post, I’m going to give a “Reader’s Digest” version of the wealth of knowledge I have on printing (sorry – it may be long!!). Hopefully this will help save some you roughly one million Google searches as you start on the journey to creating the piece that will single-handedly set the tone of your big day to your guests (no pressure).

Step 1: Determine the number of printed pieces you will need. Yes, there’s the actual invitation and response card, that is obvious. However, will you need a reception card? A directions card? A small card to call out that more information is available on your website? Try to map out what pieces you need exactly in your suite. Also, think of adding a matching thank you card to your suite. You get better discounts when you order printing in bulk, so this could end up saving you some money down the road. This will come in handy for…

Step 2: Pick a size. The most standard invitation size is 5×7. This fits into an A7 envelope and is a standard mailing size. Anything square is NOT standard mailing and will require at least $0.20 in extra postage per piece. Once you pick the size of your invitation, it is easier for you (or your designer) to pick out corresponding sizes for the other invitation pieces. Stuck? Check out a site like www.paperpresentation.com. They have a bunch of envelopes, folders, etc. that can help you in mapping out your suite.

Step 3: Set a budget and pick your printing method. Invitations can come at a pretty penny. With all of the options available to brides, it is easy to send a lot of money on each invitation suite. Below are the three most common printing methods for invitations, in order of cheapest to most expensive:

1. Digital: This is the most commonly used form of printing for wedding invitations. Think your home or office printer, just bigger and nicer. It is by far the cheapest method of invitation printing. Downside? Color can be misread on screen and printed differently than what you had in mind. Also, you cannot use thick/textured paper with digital printing.
2. Thermography: Thermography is a method of printing in which a substance is added to ink to make it raise off the paper. When people run their fingers over it, they can feel the ink. It is a bit glossier than digital printing. This is a cheaper version of engraving, where printing is pushed from the back of the paper through to the front. Downside? You can only do the thermography in one color. You can, however, combine digital (flat) printing and thermography on the same invitation.
3. Letterpress: Note: this may come off as biased because I am absolutely obsessed with letterpress. Letterpress is relief printing using a press with a “type-high bed” press, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image. The result is a piece that when you run your hand over it, you can feel slight indentation where the ink is. You can print on thicker, textured piece of paper with letterpress. Letterpress is currently very “trendy” in the rustic/vintage wedding themes. Downside? It is not cheap.

Step 4: Determine your paper type and get a quote. If you are working with an invitation printer, or using ready-made designs, they will be able to tell you which type of paper fits best with your method of printing. Make sure to get all of the pricing up front so you can make sure you are within budget before you have anyone start any customization of an existing design, or designing from scratch, for you.

Once you have all of the above squared away, it is time to start thinking of how you’d like your invitation to look. Gather a bunch of inspiration of other wedding invitations you like and start thinking about colors and the overall tone you’d like for your suite.

Stay tuned for Part 2 with more on my tips for designing a beautiful invitation suite!

In my own defense, I had pretty good reason for doing so. With both of us being full time students, and with the understanding that I was planning on going to grad school for my Doctorate for three years, I had to find a date that would work for both of us. We knew that we both wanted at least one of us to have a steady job when we got married…and since I’m going to be in school until December, 2014…that person had to be him.

We have been incredibly fortunate because Violet Dude was offered a five-semester paid co-op during his undergrad education at an AMAZING company. When he graduates, we’re keeping our fingers crossed, they’ll probably offer him a job and he’ll be able to start working the May before our August wedding. When we decided on a date, we knew that him having a job was important so that he could have health insurance and I could be transferred to his insurance when we got married. Being in a health-care related grad program, it’s mandatory for me to have health insurance and it’s a lot easier when I can just transfer from my parents’ to his in one easy transition.

The second part of choosing our date came when we had to look at the calendar for my grad program. I knew that I would be going to school full time, summer, spring, and fall semesters with very few breaks to have a wedding and honeymoon. Initially, I was concerned that we were going to have to have a winter wedding and I didn’t want to do that. So, we went to the calendar and tried to find a date that gave us enough of a break to have our wedding and honeymoon without rushing.

Thankfully, the second summer that I’m in grad school, I’ll be doing my first clinical rotation for the entire summer. It’s 40 hours a week, but there isn’t any homework and there are no tests…which means my evenings are mine and they can be dedicated to working on wedding stuff. The other perk was that my clinical rotation will only last for 10 weeks out of the 12 week summer, meaning I’ll have an entire month off between summer and fall semester. Our wedding falls smack-dab in the middle of it. (And we didn’t even plan that part…I didn’t know about the extra two weeks until I started school!)

So, even though I had looked at the calendar and had the date picked out before he even popped the question, it made it a lot less stressful in those first few weeks of our engagement to have a date picked for when people asked us.

Did you choose your wedding date before you were even planning your wedding?

Either way you slice it, you may end up following a trend by accident. When I first began perusing wedding blogs, magazines, and books, I had no idea what I would want for my wedding. John’s main criteria were: awesome and cheap. I prefer the term inexpensive. I, by no means, want a cheap looking wedding.

I digress. Wedding blogs and other sources are the place to begin gathering ideas for your wedding… and ultimately your wedding style. All of these sources, however, create a disjointed idea of what a wedding will look like because they are completely stylized from head to toe. They are gorgeous for this very reason, but can cause a problem – a money problem, to be exact. My idea list grew and grew and grew. I began creating ideas in my head that ended up being realized in other couple’s weddings.

Trending beach wedding with bright colors.

I could not control my urges to have a beautifully creative wedding (John and I are both art folks, after all). The list became undo-able. Please see our sad budget post. We had to get real, and really fast.

Trending whimsical wedding full of character.

Trending bold green and black wedding.

Trending bright purple and yellow wedding.

Sometimes you want to avoid the trends and go with something classic. It’s not a safe choice, it’s a smart choice. It means that your wedding will never look dated. Your kids won’t look back at your wedding photos and laugh at your choice of colors or style.

Classic trending wedding.

We, however, are daring to employ the ever overused yellow and gray wedding style from about 2010 to fall of 2011. The trend is over. So now we will jump on that bandwagon… extremely late. We have no shame, my friends.

Old trending wedding with gray and yellow.

Yes, please! The idea of gray and yellow for a wedding is so gorgeous, I could just die! But I won’t because our wedding is September 15, 2012, and I can’t miss it!

Go with your style gut, my darlings, even if it means you repeat a style from a few years ago. I will make this statement in every post I ever make: It is your wedding! Happy planning.

I’m actually very glad I was looking through this other blog (that shall remain nameless) because I stumbled upon something a bride recommended on her Save-The-Dates completely casually: a WeddingWire website! When I looked into it, I really loved all of the options I had through WeddingWire.  And to be honest?  Ever since I first saw Cory and Topanga do it on Boy meets World, I had always wanted a wedding website! I set one up immediately.

One of Mistah J and I's favorite couples! Courtesy of Google Images.

I feel a little silly writing this post, like it’s a shameless plug or something.  I can promise you it is not, especially since I had this website WAY before I was a bride.  But if there are any brides out there early in their planning process, especially if it isn’t going to be a small affair (because ours isn’t), I definitely recommend a wedding website! And WeddingWire made it SO EASY, so those of us who aren’t exactly HTML-savvy can rest at ease–you pretty much just plug in all of the right information and pick a theme! And you can get nifty little intros like this one!

Sorry, Garden, for all the secrecy. Though to be honest, I kinda like it

It’s a VERY pretty intro with nice Flash that’s going to make you look really impressive to your friends and family! What I like is the purple I chose is fairly close to the purple in my wedding! And when you click on the intro, you get something like this:

It’s cute, right?  Sorry for a repeat picture but as previously stated, the Joker and I have yet to take ACTUAL engagement photos.  I’ll change it when we get some better ones taken.   And do you like the shout out for the Buds I threw in there at the end?  I’ll admit it: that one IS a shameless plug but more for my family and friends then for you guys!   As you can see here, from what I haven’t censored, on this website I have put the story of how Mistah J and I met , background information on the two of us, information about the actual day of the wedding, and when we actually get around to it, I’ll be able to post information about where we’re registered!

I found that to be EXTREMELY helpful, especially because of our rather large wedding.  (That’s coming later.  I’m starting to get a little nervous about the guest list…) I don’t have to keep repeating information over and over to everyone.  I’ve already posted it on my personal Facebook and will continue to as more information becomes available.  Plus, you get your own domain name so whenever anyone asks, I can just tell them that for any information they need, they can go to our website!  And you better believe that’s gonna be on our personal Save the Dates as well!

All of this, Garden, leads me to the first advice I can give you: get a wedding website.  It’s fun, it’s a cute way for people to learn more about you, and it can answer any questions anyone may have about your wedding!

So do you have a website?  Are you going to get one?  Sound off in the comments!

After much scouting, I ran across a familiar building – the South Shore Pavilion, a beautiful space owned by the county parks system right on the shore of Lake Michigan – not to mention, less than half a mile from our house! The price was right, the setting was perfect and the fact that we would be able to use any caterer and other vendors we wanted sealed the deal.

I called just after Christmas to check 2012 availability and was informed South Shore was all booked up. Although it seemed so far away, right there and there I asked when I could book for 2013. The woman on the phone told me if I called the morning of January 3rd, I’d pretty much have my choice of any date of the year. So at 9:30 a.m. on the 3rd, I called. Sure enough, May 18th was all ours. I was a little sad we’d have to wait a year and a half to get married, but our little hearts were set on the venue, and we couldn’t imagine getting married anywhere else. We’d be fine with a longer engagement. That’s what I kept telling myself.

Did I mention we’d never set foot inside South Shore Pavilion when I booked it for our wedding? I’d done a lot of research up to that point, going through photos online and checking reviews and message boards; and from the amazing photos and the outstanding reviews of the space (not to mention, its price can’t be beat!) I was not shy about pulling the trigger before seeing the venue in person.

Our relationship has never been traditional in the way of following typical timeline protocol (i.e. buying a house before getting engaged), so our wedding planning probably won’t be too standard, either. So a couple of weeks after we had the space reserved, Mr. Snapdragon and I thought it’d be a good idea to get a look at it.

What drew us to South Shore Pavilion, aside from its proximity to our house, is its beautiful brick walls, amazing beamed wooden ceiling and the breathtaking arched windows that look directly out to Lake Michigan.

P.S. These photos were taken in January – although the grass was fairly green and there was no snow on the ground, it should be much brighter in the springtime!

Oh, and did I mention there are little sandy beaches on both sides of the pavilion? And there’s an amazing view of the Milwaukee skyline and the nearby marina.

Going into the appointment to see South Shore Pavilion, I had very little doubt that it would be the perfect venue for our wedding – but after the appointment I had NO doubt. Because it’s a park building, we bring in all our our services – caterer, bar staff, DJ, decorations, table linens, etc. It’s going to be a lot of work for us, but I wanted to do all the work/planning myself anyway, so I’m up for the challenge. I love the idea of a blank slate and the freedom to do almost anything we want. The ideas are already swirling around my head!

Oh, and just to give you an idea of what it has the potential to look like after it’s all dressed up, here are a few photos I’ve found online.

Source.

Source.

Source.

Source.

Every once in a while, I’ll be on a run and somehow find myself in front of this building (since it’s so close to home). Sometimes I peek in and look at the space, dreaming of how I’ll dress it up in May of next year. Such an exciting feeling!

I have two ring bearers. (And three flower girls. But that’s a different post.) Our RB’s will both be around the age of three, actually one will be a couple months over three, and one about six weeks shy of. I love and adore these little boys. But I’m not sure that I trust them with my precious wedding bands. I already lost my wedding ring once. (Again, another post for another day, please bear with me!) So one day, while obsessively stalking wedding websites like I do, I came across a sign like this:

I *loved* it! And for a cool $50 I could have it. But really? $50 for a sign? So I scoured Etsy and other sources and found others I loved but none that I was willing to pay for. I’m pretty crafty (you’ll see, just wait!) and so after finding my ideal inspiration photo, I decided to make my own.

This was my inspiration picture:

It’s from Sweet B’s shop on Etsy. I already had burlap from another project, I had paint and I was able to print out the wording in the font and size I wanted. So I layed the wording onto my glass coffee table, placed the burlap over it, and taped the edges so it didn’t move and using a sponge dipped in paint, “traced” over the words. I did this for all the letters (twice) until I was satisfied with how they looked.

After a trip to AC Moore for a wooden dowel (cost me $1.99!), I added some ribbon and voila! I had my banner! What do you think?

Sorry for the close up! It's hard to hold the banner AND take a picture at the same time!

So there you have it! For less than $5, I had my ring bearer sign! Are you doing anything non-traditional for your ring-bearers?

via Wedding Chicks

I loved the bridesmaid cards I sent out back in September, and now it’s time for the groomsman cards.  Ryan has already asked most of the guys, but this makes it a bit more official

I printed the cards out on white card stock paper and then jazzed them up a bit with a black card stock paper border.  I love the way they came out, thank you Amy & Jocey for the great ideas!

What do you think?  Find all the printables on The Wedding Chicks blog here.  They have so many great designs and free printouts for that soon to be bride!

This thought excites and terrifies me at the same time; but Cape Town is a city so close to my heart and is without a doubt one of the most beautiful places in the world and so I am thrilled to have the opportunity to share it with my new friends and family.

When it comes to planning a Cape Town wedding you really have two options for your backdrop. Wine lands or Seaside. Once you have made this decision the planning may commence…

I opted for seaside.

I have always been a beach girl and would not want to venture too far away from my mountain on my special day. Having decided this I now had to find the perfect venue.

For a town with so much natural beauty you would be surprised at how difficult it was to find that special venue. There are so many to choose from but being a wedding planner by trade I was probably a little pickier than the rest. Ugly chairs and blue carpets being my pet peeve.

Luckily for me I have my Super Team in Cape Town consisting of my mother and sister who did plenty leg work for me, visiting multiple seaside venues, getting photographs and details so that when Gerber Babe and I took a trip home over Christmas we could hit the hot spots and choose from a much narrowed down list.

I am happy to say that I have found my venue (not giving away the surprise just yet) and I am so happy about it (gorgeous chairs and no carpet!). I know that it will showcase the best of what Cape Town has to offer and will blow the socks off my American guests.

We ran into a few snags during this part of the planning process but seeing our wedding party on the day of the wedding is a moment in time I will never forget.  Every little detail came together and made everyone look like the best versions of themselves.  Several people on the streets even commented that my bridesmaids looked like movie stars…talk about a compliment!

{Our glamorous makeup was my gift to the bridesmaids. I highly recommend an on-location make-up artist}{The groomsmen’s skinny ties, dress shirts, and Chuck Taylor shoes doubled as their wedding gift!}

For awhile I was very set on navy blue and yellow. I really liked the “pop.” But as I day-dreamed, and pinned, and drooled over weddings that weren’t mine, I realized more and more that I loved pastels. The world looks so much more like a fairy tale in pastel. As I looked over my myriad of inspiration boards on Pinterest, I realized I did not want a navy blue and yellow wedding. I wanted a light blue and yellow wedding…with other pastels thrown in for accents. I think what finally settled it was this pattern:

I saw it and instantly fell in fabric love. I am actually going to use this background for my invitations. And it was this little swatch here that decided my colors for me.  The navy blue, it seemed really brought the tone of everything down. A vintage outdoor summer wedding should be light and airy, not heavy and dark. So in one breath, out went the navy and in came the soft gray-blues and pastels.

Here is the final palette that I created, but I also later decided to throw in a little peachy pink, that was for mom, who just couldn’t abide a centerpiece without a peachy-pink. I do have to admit, that little bit of pink might spunk it up a bit. I know what I said…but I can learn to give a little…especially when mom is always right.

Speaking of mail, I made one of my favorite purchases the other day. In total, it cost me about $25 but I think it’s adorable. At the reception gift table, I wanted something different for everyone to put their cards in. Nothing against the traditional card box or cage, I just thought it would be fun to do something different. I went onto amazon and bought a regular plastic mail box. I tried to find one at a flea market, antique shop, etc but gave up after about a month of hunting. Oh well, the new one works! Then, I found a lady on etsy name Miss Prissy Paige who makes these adorable decals with your name! And viola! Here is how it turned out! I think it will be adorable especially with the little red flag up saying you’ve got mail

The other day when we booked our venue, we left to go out to dinner with our mothers and his grandmother and in the car on the way there he looked at me and said “whose wedding is this again?” Apparently at different points in the meeting I had referred to it as “my wedding” and talked about “my reception.” It wasn’t intentional, but it’s a hard habit to break.

I know that some day it will be second nature to refer to everything as “ours” but at this point it all still seems so new that we’re actually getting married. I love him, and he knows that I don’t mean anything by calling it “my wedding” but I also know that he’s just as excited about it as I am.

Tonight at dinner we were talking about weddings with two of our married friends. They told us that at one of their meetings with a vendor they told the groom “You know you don’t make the decisions, right? This is HER day.” And although I know that in the end the day is supposed to be about love and about our marriage and commitment to each other, the focus for the most of the day is on the bride. I don’t want people to refer to the day as “my day” but rather as “our day.” So, I guess if I want them to do that I should probably practice what I preach.

Do you have this problem? Did you have a hard time transitioning from “mine” to “ours”?