Flowers Flowers Flowers Flowers Flowers

Hi Friends! It has been almost two weeks since I have blogged-- I have a reason! No internets... yes it was a sad sad day. But I am BACK and sassier than ever. :)

Hokai, so today I want to talk about flowers. I dont really like flowers. They do not evoke any special feelings for me. But I know I want to hold em on my wedding day.

My one and only inspiration picture came from Mrs. Gummi Bear at WeddingBee:



Gah, they are so beautiful!

As you may recall, I am getting married on a cruise ship. That will be leaving the country. I can buy flowers through the cruise line, but (no joke) it's ridiculously expensive. Plus, since we will be leaving the country, I would not be allowed to take my flowers back with me at all. Customs no bueno.

Chris' mommy is known for her mad flower arranging skills, and she just so happens to have experience creating bouquets with fake flowers. Problem solved! She is creating 3 bouquets and 13 corsages/bouts.

What are all those for you may ask? Chris and I are very close to our family, and we wanted to make sure that everyone was properly flowered:

Me: Super duper fantabulous bouquet
Carrie and Chantel: Super duper fantabulous, slightly smaller bouquet
Chris, CJ, and Matt: Groom and Groomsdude's bouts
My mom, my grandma, my aunt, his mom, his grandma, his aunt: Pretty-full lady corsages
My dad, my 2 brothers, his step dad, his uncle & his grandfather: electric awesome bouts.

About 2 months ago, Chris, me, his mommy and his aunt went hunting for amazing flowers, and boy were we in luck!


Chris, his auntie, and his mommy

A few weeks ago, we were beckoned over to his aunt's house to see the progress, and make sure they are what we were wanting.. and oh my gosh-- I am in love with my flowers! Check it:


My badass bouquet


The beginnings of my bouquet and my ladies ones

annnnnnddddd



The boy bouts (bottom) and lady corsages(top)

Have you had to tweak your plans in any special way based on you wedding venue/location?

Hi Friends!

It has been a crazy week of working on the invitations-- but they are almost complete and they are looking uh-maze-ing! I can't wait to share.

In the meantime, I wanted to talk about my bridal party. I will be having my friend Carrie as the one and only bridesmaid, and my cousin/best friend Chantel as my matron of honor.

Carrie and I were out to lunch one day, and I just asked her to be my bridesmaid. Kinda lackluster, huh? I know..

I vowed that for my cousin, who lives in Washington, that I would make it special as I will not be able to ask her face to face.

I couldn't really get on board with the card idea that many brides use-- it seemed to overdone to me. I wanted (as you will learn, this is my LIFE goal) to be different. SO, I collected a few of my favorite pictures with her and played around in paint shop. This is what I came up with:


cute, right?

I mosied on over to www.walmart.com, and uploaded the picture to their website. As I type this, the above is being created by elves into an 8*10 puzzle. These aren't little pieces either, they are jigsaw sized:



I am laughing my ass off at the thought of Chantel sitting at her kitchen table putting this thing together. She will totally love it and will keep the puzzle for.ev.er. I can't wait to send it to her and hear her reaction.

Second to finding a photographer, the hunt for bridal party dresses was the second most difficult part of these planning shenanigans. I wanted my girls to look fab (not difficult, really), and be comfortable. I think it is highway robbery at gunpoint to charge $135 for a dress-- fabric that costs about $10 a yard at the max! I refuse. Needless to say, I have been searching for the duration of the engagement, until one night I was shopping (possibly for clothes for myself, not wedding related..) and I saw this:



Love.

I wanted one girl to wear pink, and one to wear orange, but I saw these and everything changed. I'm gunna lay it all out on the line for y'all -- I buy stuff on impulse and then suffer buyer's remorse, it's not cute. So, I slept on it. The next morning while at work, I knew I had to buy them. They are perfect, and will look so good on my girls with some black peep toes. Oh, and the best part?

For both the dresses, I paid $54. TOTAL.

I haven't had my girls try them on yet (they are both almost identical to my size, and it looks good on me. I can't wait till I can wrangle one of them over to model for me! I will definitely share as soon as I have some pics.

My new BFF

I would like to introduce you all to my new BFF from this weekend, her name is Ava:


We became such close friends this weekend! I told her all my secrets and everything. :)

The good news is, our invitations are almost done! We are just waiting on my order of pocketfolds from Cards and Pockets (with envelopes) but otherwise, everything was created, designed and printed by yours truly. And boy, am I exhausted!

I can't share until they are all out to our guests, but here are some action shots of our weekend!


I'm embossing something for our belly bands.. I don't normally sit with a propane heater in the middle of summer for fun... =D





I think Murphey's law completely applied to this weekend. But, being a perfectionist-- I had to get it done.. and now that they are (as much as can be for now) I am feeling so accomplished.

It's very intimidating and trying, DIY'ing these things, but I thinks its so rewarding when all is said and done.

What was the hardest part of the DIY process for you?

Love O Rama

Hey friends,

I must admit, to date, finding a photographer to entrust with our engagement pictures was hands down the hardest part of wedding planning. I have put a lot of faith in our engagement pics, because on the cruise ship, we can only use their photographer and that is, well, worrying me.. about the types of pictures I will end up with.

I guess I am kinda a photography snob. Many moons ago, before I was engaged, I stumbled across the website of an amazingly awesome, jaw dropping, photographer. Lets call this photographer Sebastian (cause I like that name. :) )

Throughout Christopher and my dating time, I knew he would eventually propose; so I was content in knowing that I had already found my dream photographer.

And then I found out that photographer Sebastian charges a minimum of $5,000 to shoot weddings.

Cue Heather passing out on the floor.

Once I regained consciousness, I resolved myself to the fact that it just wasn't going to happen. His engagement packages probably start at 2 grand I just (could not would not swing that. I love pictures as much as the next starry eyed bride, but it just wasn't happening.

I became a Google stalker. Like it was my full time job. I was determined to find a photographer that would do it for cheaper.

No luck.

And I kept wishfully saying to myself that they are not as good as Sebastian's work.

Then someone suggested Craigslist.

I went through postings for about a 200 mile radius. Most that posted on there were ok, and that was it. I was still heartset on Sebastian. FI suggested to contact them and just see how much they charge for an engagement session. At the same time, I found another photographer on Craigslist that I absolutely adored. Like, website stalking adored. I sent emails off to both to inquire about an engagement session at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.

Craigslist photographer wrote me back that evening. THAT EVENING, people!! He said that they(they are a husband and wife team) would love to do a shoot with Chris and I, and that I will get a CD of all images.

All for $200.

I was ecstatic. I booked immediately, and now Chris and I have awesome pictures like these to use:







total awesomeness.All photos are credit to the amazing Andrew and Britney Ramsey

Oh, and that other photographer? Finally emailed me back two weeks after our e-shoot, saying that they thought they replied, but their response to me had been sitting in their outbox for a month and a half. And they wanted to set up an appointment with me for a shoot.

Lesson learned: you can always find what you want, if you are willing to put forth the effort to work and search for it.

What vendor did you have a hard time finding/deciding on?