if only...

I'm not usually a fan of long dresses, but if I were wearing the Spanish dress and had unlimited funds I would buy this dress for my bridesmaids. I love the color and the texture of it.
Dress and photo from Monique Lhuillier RTW Spring 2009 via one of my favorite blogs: Something Old, Something New.

the perfect updo.

Anyone that has gone on Senior Walk with me knows what one of the rules is. "Must protect Holly's bangs in the event of rain." Everytime I get a haircut I come out with a slight variation of the same hairstyle, always with longer bangs swept to one side. I think I've found the perfect updo for my wedding that isn't too much of a departure from my normal hairstyle.

A low side ponytail bun adorned with fabric flowers. And I found the perfect flower by portabello on Etsy to complete this look.

I especially love that it has small pieces of russian veil attached to it. This would be perfect if I decide not to wear a veil at the ceremony, or at least something to add to my hairstyle after the ceremony. I think it'd be a really subtle way to change my look for the reception!

Hairstyle photos from Martha Stewart. Flower photo from Etsy.

bake me a cake.

I don't think a wedding cake is the first thing that most people imagine about their wedding day, but my mom makes wedding cakes all the time so I've been thinking about mine for a few years now. When I was younger (a lot younger) I wanted this cake from the Wilton cake book, sorry the picture isn't the greatest.

Three separate cakes on a garden cake stand, with lots of buttercream flowers and swagging. Good thing I didn't get married back then.

Now that I'm old and boring, I want a simple wedding cake. Maybe because my mom has to make it and I don't want her to have to spend hours and hours making flowers out of icing. Or maybe because I have more modern taste now and prefer clean lines and not a lot of extra "stuff". Forgive me for the kindergarten drawing skills, but I was imagining what type of cake I'd like to have for the wedding, and rather than spend hours searching for a picture of what I was thinking of, I figured it would be quicker to draw it instead.

A stacked cake with white fondant and fondant pearl trim topped with hydrangeas. Preferably on a pedestal stand, although my mom might kill me because she thinks cakes are going to tip over when they're on a pedestal. With some sort of monogram on the top or possibly in icing on one of the tiers. What do you think, cute or boring?
Cake photo by Wilton from Cakes 'N Things. Drawing is my own.

we passed the test!

Good news! We met with the priest this weekend to go over our test results (one of the perks of getting married in a Catholic church...you have to take a test) and guess what, we passed. We are officially compatible. I'm glad I know that now after being together for almost 7 years.

Anyway, I wanted to post some pictures of the church we'll be getting married at. It's called Immaculate Conception Church, located on the North side of IM. It's the church I have gone to my whole life. They just put new landscaping in around the church, it should be great for pictures at our wedding! Actually it's part of the reason Shari decided she wanted to photograph our wedding (thanks Shari!).

These pictures were taken a couple weeks ago, but since then they've finished adding the rock and grass in the gardens and they are in the process of planting flowers. Won't it be pretty for the wedding?

Photos by Chris Lebo aka Sweet Leebs.

i LOVE this dress.

Too bad it's only sold in Spain and Mexico. Good excuse for a vacation?

Dress by TWO by Rosa Clara. Photo from www.rosaclara.es.

i wish i was getting married in chicago.

Does anyone know of any places to have a reception in the Iron Mountain area? The Premiere Center got torn down and now there is nowhere to go. Not that the Premiere Center was that great in the first place. My dad wants me to use the Elks, just like all the other events my family puts on. Its not big enough and is hideous inside. Pine Mountain is nothing special and its expensive. The Kiwanis building is at least big enough but then we need to do some serious decorating to cover the walls, and we have to use porta-potties. Call me crazy, but I don't want porta-potties at my wedding. Pine Grove is already taken that weekend, plus its not big enough and I don't want anyone stuck in other rooms where they can't see what's going on.

I've been trying to think outside of the box for more interesting locations. Encore on Central is the frontrunner right now but I still have some concerns. Its a really pretty ballroom in Florence. It is going to be tight though to fit about 300 people in there. And I'm quite concerned about the food, because I've never had it and I haven't heard very good things about it. I also thought about having it in an airplane hangar, but again, we'd need porta-potties. I don't think my dress would like me very much if I had to use one of those.

Do you guys have any other ideas of where to have the reception? I'm looking for a big open space. I never thought it would be this difficult to find one! I'm tempted to quit my job, move home, and build a reception hall in IM. That could be fun, right?

yay!

I am so excited! Go to www.flyawayphotography.com to find out why :) yay!

well hello there.

I am sort of embarrassed to admit that I've started a blog. Nothing wrong with blogs, I just never thought that I would want to write one. That is, until I got engaged. There are so many great wedding blogs out there that I've found in the past month that I wanted to create one of my own. It doesn't help that my job isn't exactly a creative outlet for me at the moment. I've also noticed that pretty much every wedding blog I've seen assumes that you are having your wedding in a place where there's actually a selection of reception halls, florists, etc. to choose from. Which is not the case in the booming metropolis of Iron Mountain, Michigan, which is where I happen to be getting married.

This blog will also help me to get some input from my bridesmaids, who are currently spread out all over the place! They will probably be the only ones who end up reading this anyway, and most likely not because they want to. Love you girls :)

So I have a few things going on with the wedding plans right now that are probably noteworthy, but this first one is the thing I have been pondering the longest. What color scheme should I use for the wedding? I've been going back and forth between a few different combinations, but I keep coming back to the same one.

A greenish blue, a pinkish purple, and very light green. What do you think?

I'd like to have colors that are interesting and original.I don't want anything trendy. I don't want anything that I'll look back on in 20 years and regret not choosing something more classic like black and white. I realize wedding colors aren't the most important decision I'll have to make in the next year, but they do set the tone for everything else that has to be done. Dresses, invitations, decorations, and favors all have to coordinate. I find myself wanting to get other things done but I keep coming back to this same issue every time! So bridesmaids, please help me to decide :)