E-Pics!!!!

Yesterday we had our engagement pictures taken, and I can't wait to get them back.  Matt was great to work with, and let us really do our own thing, versus telling us what poses to be in shot after shot.

It was also great that we were able to take pictures at our Alma Mater, which is so special to us since it is where we met.  Matt was also great in following us down to the beach, about thirty miles away to take more pictures. I can't believe how flexible he is, and I can't wait to work with him again on our wedding day!

Jello is Delicious, But is it Beautiful?

Like I told my florist I would do, I tried to make the Jello centerpieces.  Unfortunately, I have to say that I somehow didn't get any pictures of this process, and I am so sorry that I can't share it with you right now. But, I will say, that it didn't come out much different from what the florist was able to accomplish.

 I used a much larger vase than the florist used, and filled it with six cups of Jello, whereas the florist only used two.  That alone made a huge difference, and with that I was able to get the flowers to stay down in the Jello, but that was only because I kept pushing them down with chopsticks.  When pushing them down, petals kept breaking off and folding in half, and the flowers looked terrible.

So, I think this idea wouldn't work with real flowers, no matter what, so maybe I will try to do it with fake flowers that way the petals have a less chance of falling off and folding.

But, no matter what, I promise that I will take pictures next time.

Let's play dress-up!

If you remember from one of my earlier posts about dresses, my mom lives well over 1000 miles away.  She was able to be around for the first time I tried on dresses, and that was great, but having her miss out on the other shopping trips is going to be hard.

Now that we have decided a bit more about our wedding, and have an actual idea of what it is going to look like, my ideas on dresses have changed a bit.  While I still don't want the whole churchy wedding dress, I feel like the personality of the dress could come out a little more, and it could be a little more fun versus the plain and simple ones I tried on on my first shopping experience.

I asked FMIL to join me on this dress hunt, as she was there the first time, and is really the only person I have around that could go with me. MOH E lives in Indiana, and BM A lives in New York, so those options are kind of out of the question at this point.  But, FMIL said she would love to go, so we took a drive back to the first shop we went to, as they had they designers I was interested in.

I tried on more than ten dresses, but only got a picture of three of them, as they were the only three that were picture worthy.  Oh, and they let me take pictures this time since my mom wasn't there, so they weren't actually snuck this time.

Since this was the same shop I had visited earlier, I asked the consultant to pull the dress I liked best from the last appointment, the Jim Hjelm Blush 1103.

Jim Hjelm Blush 1103 / Personal Picture

I tried it on and really liked again, but then the bad news came from the consultant.  The dress was no longer available in white and could only be ordered in ivory. That was it for me, the dress was taken off of me and my list. I wanted a white dress, and while the ivory color looked good on me, it actually didn't look as good as white did.  So, we moved on.

This next dress we tried on was more for the style than the actual dress, as I wanted to try a one-shoulder dress to see how it looked.

Pronovias "Paris" / Personal Picture

This dress was very pretty, and I loved the one-shoulder look. It was very comfortable, but the dress itself was a little too drapey, and the pleats going down the middle of the back made my hips look really wide, and I wasn't too much a fan of that. They are wide enough as is, they don't need more accentuation!

The dress dress I tried on was a little more fitted, but had a fun personality in the skirt and on the bust, and a criss-cross bodice, which looked pretty good on me when I tried that on previously.

Pronovias "Papira" / Personal Picture

Pronovias "Papira" / Personal Picture

When I tried it on, we all agreed that the third boob (flower in the middle of the bust) would need to go, and that while the ruffles on the bust brought a nice detail to the top and made me look fuller, it was too much going on with the rest of the dress, especially since the bottom was so full.  After showing this picture to MOH E, she said the bottom scared her and looked like hair.  This one was officially off the list.

Last, I tried on another one with a fun full skirt, but less details overall. It had a corset back, and beautiful flowers on the skirt, with again, a pleated/ruched detailing on the bodice, and a sweetheart neckline.

Maggie Sottero "Alandra" / Personal Picture

Maggie Sottero "Alandra" / Personal Picture

Of all the dresses I tried on, the Maggie was the favorite.  It had some great detailing on the skirt, and the flowers fit well in with the venue, it being a Botanical Center, and the sweetheart neckline really looked great.  The only thing that didn't sell me about the dress was the corset back. I really don't like the way that they look, and while they do amazing things for the waistline, they just don't really appeal to me.  So, while we had another favorite, I still wasn't ready to commit.  

Me, a Bridezilla?

So, I am determined to not be a Bridezilla, but what some people don't understand is that I have had ideas in my head of what I want this wedding to look like for more than four years.  When you have all these thoughts in your head and a vision of what things look like, and then people disagree with you, it's kind of disheartening, and makes you want to ignore them and do what you want.

Some people translate this to being a bridezilla. I disagree. For me, it's more of being a totally Type A person.

But, this is happening to me in regards to quite a few thoughts I have had about the wedding.  People don't think that I should have a short ceremony, and people don't think that I should use paper lanterns. Someone is always going to have an opinion about something I have or FI and I have discussed and planned for the wedding, so how do you deal with these people?

Any suggestions on what to say to these people when they disagree with one of your ideas?

In One Year

Today is October 6, 2011.  One year from today will be our wedding day.

FI,

I cannot wait to stand up in front of our guests and proclaim my love to you. These last almost six years have been a beautiful journey, and I cannot wait to make it even more special by becoming your wife.

I love you!


On a less mushy and serious note, HOLY COW! One year from today, I will be getting married!  That means that the countdown on my phone (What, you DON'T have one? Yeah, right!) will finally read under 365 days!

But, that also means that I really have to get cracking on all these DIY projects I have planned.  Yikes!

Clickity-Click

Choosing a photographer was one of the easiest vendor choices we have had to make - NOT.

I spent so many hours researching photographers, falling in love with their pictures and photojournalistic styling, and then being heartbroken when seeing their price lists.  While FI and I decided that photographs from our wedding were going to last forever and were extremely important, we could not justify spending over $2K for our package.  Because we wanted so much out of it, this was very hard to find.  It basically cut out all of the more popular photographers around this area.

So, I turned to a bride's favorite resource, Facebook.  Ok, so maybe not favorite wedding-planning resource, but it sure helped me in this task.  I put a post up to my recently married and wedding-planning friends about their photographers and price points if they were willing to share, and I got some great answers.  I took a look at their albums on Facebook, then on their individual blogs, and made a list of my top ones.  One comment I got on my post intrigued me though. My youngest cousin had just had her senior high school pictures taken by a photographer who also shoots weddings, and she gave me the password to see her pictures on the photographers website. I took a look and was floored at how gorgeous they were, and how different they were from traditional senior pictures.  He was quickly added to the list to consider.

FI and I set up three meetings with three different photographers, and spoke with each of them about the services and price points, and their favorite things about weddings in terms of photography.

I won't get into the boring details about each of the meetings, and instead, I will just tell you who FI chose (because I am a terrible decision maker).  We have signed a contract with Matt Ferrara Photography, the one who did my cousin's senior pictures.  His work was great, and with just a bit of customization, we were able to get everything we wanted for $2K: a two-hour engagement session, two photographers on wedding day, all-day photography, and full printing rights to pictures.

We are so happy with our choice, and cannot wait to have our Engagement Session at the end of this month!