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Thursday, December 31, 2009

dilemmas and resolutions

As we roll into 2010, I'm realizing that all those months of planning have set me ahead of the game in many respects, but we do still have some things to figure out. My two biggest wedding resolutions/to-dos for 2010 include:

1. seriously finalizing our guest list - I have about a week to finish this before our save the dates go out and there are a lot of emotions surrounding the guest list - who knew?!

2. figuring out what we're doing about our registry - our save the dates have the link to our wedding website (thus registry information) and I have already been fielding questions from inquiring relatives about our registry. Mr. UVA and I have been living together for several years now and our house is pretty well set up. The wishlist we have compiled for our house doesn't play very well with gift registries. Seriously, what do you do in this case? Why doesn't Anthropologie have a gift registry? Can you register for cash dolla dolla bills, a down payment on a house, tuition for a masters program? Can you register for big pieces of furniture or artwork? How do people do this and not end up with things you don't need or want? Registries are tough man!

Can't wait for another year with the future hubby though - he's pretty wonderful!

Happy New Year everyone!

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2010, Here We Come!

2009 was a very interesting year and as much as I hate to leave my 20's, I am looking forward with great anticipation to 2010. Here is a look at all of the wedding trends us wedding blog junkies loved in 2009.

Happy New Year! See you guys in 2010!

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Friday, December 18, 2009

Yes, I am a Vender Stalker...

I came across this post on Weddingbee and realized that it has been a while since I cyber-stalked my venues. I am a mad-lady at stalking my photographer and band, but its been a while since I have googled, "Glen Echo Park" and"wedding." I found the greatest photos of recent weddings on-line last night that I thought I would share with you all. Looking at them just makes me fall in love with our venues all over again. (All three above taken by Michelle Lindsey Photography)

The couple below also used our ceremony venue. I am so in awe and envy of the decor and professional design of this wedding. THIS is how you do the Bumper Car Pavilion.

(Photos taken by Kristen Leigh)

Although we will not be using the carousel, I love it dearly...I am so sad that it will be closed for our wedding.
(Blink Photography)

No matter what, however, I am just happy to have found this place. I mean, come on, who could resist pictures like this...
(Documentary Associates)

So, what about you guys? Vendor or venue stalking?

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Thursday, December 17, 2009

100 DAYS!!!!

Yes, that is right! We have only 100 days left before our wedding and I am suprisingly pretty calm. Being ahead of the game and being engaged for so long has allowed me to do all of my planning ahead of time. The great thing is that the mental space most brides reserve for freaking out at the 3 month mark, I have reserved for stressing out about my job and working with my moot court team.

Although, I basically have everything done, there are a few projects I do need to work on in the next few weeks to make sure I STAY ahead of the game. I always refer back to my favorite checklist from Real Simple to make sure I am up to date on what should be done during this time. Here is what they suggest:

Three Months Before
Finalize the menu and flowers. You’ll want to wait until now to see what will be available, since food and flowers are affected by season.
-Send florist an email just the other day...see, I am TOTALLY on top of things ;-D
-The menu has been finalized for a while now, but I should follow up with the caterer regarding booze...

Order favors, if desired. Some safe bets: monogrammed cookies or a treat that represents your city or region. If you’re planning to have welcome baskets for out-of-town guests, plan those now too.
-out of town baskets...OH CRAP! *adding to Google calender "work on out of town baskets*

Make a list of the people giving toasts. Which loved ones would you like to have speak at the reception? Ask them now.
-Done...but I should remind them

Finalize the readings. Determine what you would like to have read at the ceremony—and whom you wish to do the readings.
-Done! She just mentioned that she is working on that right now

Purchase your undergarments. And schedule your second fitting.
-Done! First fitting with Angie is scheduled for Jan. 8th (Woo Hoo!)
-I got THE BEST undergarment in the world to hold in my three stomachs, lol, check it out!

Finalize the order of the ceremony and the reception.
-Semi-done...the programs are done and there is a tentative draft for the reception timeline, but that depends on the band and their breaks, which I have not confirmed with them yet...so this remains open...

Print menu cards, if you like, as well as programs. No need to go to a printer, if that’s not in your budget: You can easily create these on your computer.
-Done with the programs! I plan to do this for the menu (so cute!)

Purchase the rings. This will give you time for resizing and engraving.
-Well...we have my ring...Mr. Glen Echo cannot decide on what type of ring he wants. Hopefully, tomorrow evening when we go ring shopping for him, we will have that all figured out and I can get this also checked off our list.

Send your event schedule to the vendors. Giving them a first draft now allows ample time for tweaks and feedback.
-Ok...this is a big one! In a few days, my plan is to draft a final vendor list that will give me all my vendors in one place. At that point, I will just go down the list and check off which each one as I contact them and confirm times. That seems to me to be the easiest way to do it. Does anyone have any other suggestions on this?

In addition to all of the items listed above that I need to work on, I am also working my escort cards and a few other DIY projects. I found this lovely idea that I plan to do during "FUN FUN DIY DAY" with my bridal attendants in January. I also am using this idea for my escort cards. They are mini-envelopes that you make beforehand and then just add an insert with the table number once you have the seat placements all figured out. TOTAL GENIUS! This means that I can do the escort cards BEFORE I have my RSVP info :-O

Are you ladies ahead or behind the game? Any tips for getting getting through the next 3 months?

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Thursday, December 10, 2009

the veil: update

haha soooo I had been talking before about how I wanted to make my own veil - because how hard can it be to make a birdcage veil really? well, it's hard. especially if you have absolutely zero experience with anything like that.

so after (kinda) flipping out on my mom for trying to take over the project, I ended up scrapping the DIY veil and turning to my dear reliable etsy. I found this simple small birdcage veil fromAnnLeslie and it's exactly what I wanted and even though it's more expensive than the half yard of netting would have been, it was still very reasonably priced and totally worth it for my sanity.
The picture actually shows the veil in ivory, but I ordered it in champagne. The difference is shown below, in a photo Ann sent to me to help me decide which one I wanted. I chose the champagne at the time because I thought it would go better with my (then) dress - I think the ivory could have worked with my new dress but the champagne will work great too, it's got a nice "natural" color to it which is what my raw silk gown has going on.
(photo credit: Ann Leslie)
I'm really pleased. I just also bought these little clips from Cultivar (photos below credited to said shop) and I'm playing around with it. I may give the purply/blue clips to one of my bridesmaids and just wear the ivory ones.. or who knows. I love both sets.

What are you doing for your headpiece? Or maybe you're skipping it altogether? Here is a greatcollection of posts on the topic over at APW.

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Wednesday, December 09, 2009

talking it out

Right now, just over 3 months from the wedding (holy what?), the main thing I'm focusing on is hammering out the scheduling for the week-of and day-of. Maybe a little far in advance but since I'm having family members do some of the big stuff (flowers, cake), and places people are staying are kind of spread out (Herndon, Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria), I really want to make sure we're thinking of everything in advance so we're moving efficiently leading up to the wedding.

It's a good thing I'm doing this now because I had been planning to have the bachelorette party the Thursday before the wedding, but after going through all the logistics I've realized that is just not possible, so we're going to have the bachelorette the evening of the day of the shower (end of next month). At first when I thought about it, seemed a little anti-climactic to have it that far in advance but it will still be way fun and I would much rather do it then, than be stressed out trying to make it happen the week of the wedding. When are you all doing your bachelorette parties?

Also! My MOH and I are trying to think of semi-non traditional ideas for what to do for the bachelorette. Someone suggested a sexy-themed scavenger hunt in an art gallery (finding all the nudes I guess??) which sounds like a cool idea but I'm not sure that's what I want to do exactly. But new ideas like that are what I'm looking for.

Other kinds of talking it out going on right now is the pre-marital counseling discussion. Mr. Fairfax and I have been on the fence about hiring a pro, figuring we could go through the list of things usually discussed in formal counseling and sort of do it on our own - however, after Meg's post the other day, we are way more convinced we should go ahead and find a pro to work with. Really want to make sure we're doing this the smart way, and probably going to this kind of counseling now when we're happy and there's nothing wrong, may help us feel more comfortable seeing a counselor in the future if we find ourselves in a rough spot (in addition to the obvious benefit of having these kinds of discussions facilitated by a pro).

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Friday, December 04, 2009

senor boddington

ooooh! i’m so excited about our invitations! we just sent the final proof in yesterday and the whole suite should be in by the beginning of next month. just in time to send our save the dates. originally, i had planned to make our save the dates (on the purchased and used once gocco) but i just couldn’t resist mr. boddington and my discount from working at the paper store (rockpaperscissors in charlottesville).

there are so many awesome invitations out there and it was really difficult for me to choose just one. fortunately (or not so for some), we still need programs, rehearsal dinner invites, and escort cards so i can play a little more with paper options.

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Tuesday, December 01, 2009

I <3 Miss Brache

Ok we're about to order the bridesmaid dresses from MissBrache aka Diane. She is a dream to work with. We haven't even put the order in yet but she's been so helpful! She'll work with you to design basically any kind of dress you want (I've only been talking dresses with her but she does all kinds of awesome clothing) and she's great with fabric suggestions, etc. All my bridesmaids (the ones in dresses anyway) have chosen this dress:

..but instead of the big red petticoat we are having Diane make simpler tulle ones (much cheaper). I put together this little mock-up of what my girls are going to look like, given the fabrics they've chosen (though the belts are not included in the order so they will not look like that exactly; also all of them will have petticoats). I'm really pleased.

And I've just found the perfect necklaces (I think), from FreshyFig. I'm hoping the little birdy is speckled enough that it would go with a number of different blues..?? And I think it would look great with that yellow too?
I'm still debating what to do for my MOH who's wearing a suit and wouldn't probably like this necklace. Somebody recommended cufflinks (was it you Miss Glen Echo? I can't remember), and I am strongly considering getting her these:
weee! every time we check another item off the list it all feels a little bit closer to happening.. not that this is even checked off yet but we're close! :)

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