successful weekend.

This weekend, Dana (one of my bridesmaids) and I went to Minneapolis to visit Kiera and Dona (bridesmaid and matron of honor). It was Kiera's birthday, she is now a quarter century old! Happy birthday Kiki! Anyway, while I was there, we went to David's Bridal to try on the dresses that I am thinking they will wear for the wedding. The girls tried on two styles of dresses. The "bubble dress" as we are calling it, and another style made of the same material. They have decided that they are fine wearing either one. After the rest of the girls try on the dresses, we'll decide between the two. I think they are both cute, although the bubble dress is much more my style. If we are going with the multi-colored dresses, I definitely think we can only get one style dress. Otherwise I'm also fine with them wearing both styles in the same color. I think the different color effect would be kind of cool and a little more original, but either way is fine with me. What do you think?After trying on dresses, we went to a store called Francesca's Collections. While we were there, guess what I found!
Headbands! In the same exact colors as the dresses! Meant to be? I thought so!

All photos are my own.

sew excited!

Forgive me for the pun. I just made something on my new sewing machine (thank you mom & dad for the early Christmas gift) and it turned out really well for my first time making anything! I've sewn before on my mom's machine when I was younger, but nothing more difficult than a pillow (which is the most basic project ever). I was a little more ambitious this time. I'd tell you what it is, but you'll have to wait! It's a gift and I don't want to give it away.

Speaking of gifts, it's getting to be that time of year. I have to admit that one of my favorite parts of Christmas is trying to find the perfect gift for everyone...and then wrapping it in pretty paper. I am sucker for pretty packaging. I'm also sad to admit that I want to get a second job as a gift wrapper during the holidays. My fiance won't let me. :( So instead, we went out last weekend and bought most of our Christmas gifts. And then I came home and wrapped them all. In color-coordinated paper that matches the colors of our Christmas tree and decorations. Which I put up on Sunday. I am slightly OCD.

Note: These are not my wrapped gifts. I am too lazy to take a picture, I apologize.

Photo from Flickr.

my best friend's wedding part tres.

So Dona asked me to create another board using a navy and yellow color scheme. She is going to try to get past the fact that her high school colors are navy and gold. Get over it :)

What do you think? Do you have a favorite color palette so far?

my best friend's wedding part deux.

Here's the next color choice for Dona's wedding. Green, navy, and white. Do you have a preference between the two?
By the way, I'm liking this inspiration board idea. Maybe I should make one for my own wedding sometime soon! Especially since I'll be meeting with decorators when I go home for Thanksgiving! I'll work on that.

my best friend's wedding.

So my matron of honor, Dona, and I were discussing color schemes for her wedding tonight. Since we've already purchased our bridesmaids dresses, navy and white have to be in the color scheme. Dona thought pink might be a good color to pair with them. I put together an inspiration board to see what it could look like. Go easy on me, it's my first time making one! What do you think?

the girl effect.

Totally unrelated to weddings, but everyone should visit the website for The Girl Effect and watch the video. What a great cause for girls like us to support! Actually, to make this post wedding related, you could donate to the cause in honor of each guest as your favors.

Photo from the wedding line.

ceiling inspiration.

I don't think I ever mentioned it on here, but we decided on our reception location awhile ago. We decided not to go with the ballroom. Too many less-than-stellar reviews from people who have attended weddings there. So we have decided to go with the armory. A gorgeous location? I think not. But it is one large room where no one will feel like they have been left out of the action, which is more than I could say for any other location in the area. Hopefully we will be able to disguise the gym-like qualities by doing some serious decorating. I'd like to lower the height of the room with some fabric swagging to cover up the military paintings and make the size of the room a little less overwhelming. Here is my ceiling inspiration.I'm loving the chandeliers, but we may have to substitute chinese lanterns as a more budget-friendly option.

And maybe I can throw in a little color, like this.

I'm hoping with all the details above, people won't notice the free throw line on the gym floor below! I think the tables will help disguise that as well.

Lantern photos from WeddingFanatic. I cannot remember where the chandelier picture is from...but if you know I'd be happy to post the source.

blogging debut part II

Melissa at Masterpiece Weddings posted my story today on her blog! Go here to check it out! Thanks Melissa for giving me the opportunity to be a part of your "Blogging Brides" series!

Photo by my future father-in-law, Mel.

bridal bouquets.

There is a lot to learn about wedding bouquets. There are so many different types of flowers, it's overwhelming! White bouquets are classic, but I find myself always drawn to the more colorful bouquets. I love the look of a bouquet that has varying types of flowers all in shades of the same color. For my wedding, I think I'd like to carry a purple bouquet. I think it will go nicely with my ivory dress. Although I am not a florist, I have looked at some options that I think I'd like to have in my bouquet. Of course I wouldn't have to have all of them!
Anemones, dahlias, delphinium, orchids, hydrangeas, and ranunculus. Of course, I would want them all in varying shades of a plum/purple color, if possible. Here are a couple examples of the flowers in the right colors.
Orchids, ranunculus, hydrangeas (please ignore the stephanotis in the middle) and dahlias. I hope the bouquet would look something like this pink one as far as size, shape, and it's also where the idea of mixing flowers came from. I realize none of the flowers are the same.
Although I also love the idea of having a bouquet of just ranunculus, they are by far my favorite flower! Something like this bouquet in shades of purple, minus the peonies, and smaller (you'll have to use your imagination!).

Most pictures from The Knot. I can't remember where I found the pink bouquet, sorry!

so much exciting news today!

So after Melissa posted my bio on her blog, I started getting some really nice comments on my blog from other brides! Including one from Heidi at 2 State Bride, saying she had nominated my blog as Uber Amazing! Needless to say, it made my day :) Thanks Heidi!

The Uber (synonym to Super) Amazing Blog Award is a blog award given to sites who:
- inspires you
- makes you smile and laugh
- or maybe gives amazing information
- a great read
- has an amazing design
- and any other reasons you can think of that makes them uber amazing!
The rules of this award are:
* Put the logo on your blog or post.
* Nominate at least 5 blogs (can be more) that for you are Uber Amazing!
* Let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing award by commenting on their blog.
* Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from.

I nominate:
Tara at In This Instance.
A Windy City Wedding.
A $10,000 Wedding.
Amy at Fiance Meeting You Here.
Abbie at A Glimpse of the Girl Next Door.

my blogging debut.

Sorry for the hiatus the past few days, I was in Portland for work. That place is gorgeous, even when its raining. The leaves were turning colors and the view was so pretty! I wish I had been able to take some pictures! While I was gone, Melissa at Masterpiece Weddings was nice enough to post my bio on her "Blogging Brides" series this week. I'll be on her blog again next week with my story. Go check it out!

Photo from here.

best of both worlds.

I really like the look of the long rectangular tables as opposed to round ones. Table runners just look so much better when they run the length of a long table. But I do like the fact that round tables encourage more conversation between guests. This table (it looks like two long tables put together) gives you the best of both worlds I think. I think this is the first picture I've ever seen of tables put together like this. I am intrigued.

I'm thinking about making my own table runners. They can't be that hard to make. But I need one of these to do it.

And I just happen to be getting one from my parents for Christmas! I never thought I'd ask for a sewing machine for Christmas. I'm officially getting old.

Table photo from Final Touches Designs. Sewing machine by Kenmore from Sears.