weekend recap.

After work on Friday, I came home and started looking for some wedding-related things online and began to feel really overwhelmed. There are so many things we have left to do before September! There are less than 8 months left until the big day and it feels like I will never get everything done! So in order to feel a little more organized, I printed out all of the wedding planning forms from the Russell + Hazel website and started filling them in. This led me to feel even more stressed out because there were so many blank lines that I didn't know how to fill in!

On Saturday, I expressed to Adam how stressed I was beginning to feel about the wedding, so we spent the day trying to check things off the never-ending list.

First, we went to the mall (in a snowstorm I might add) in order to find a few things. We were looking for moss green ties for the groomsmen and teal ties for our dads. I never realized how hard it would be to find plain satin ties! We were wildly unsuccessful. We also were looking for the teal satin flats I've been eyeing for the wedding. I'd read some reviews online that they run a little small so I wanted to try them on before I ordered them from amazon. Sadly, I couldn't find them anywhere. I also wanted to look for some wedding day jewelry, and didn't get much accomplished in this category because I have no clue where to start. I still don't know what kind of jewelry I want to wear! There is so much to choose from it's just overwhelming to me.

The only thing that we accomplished at the mall was to pick up our champagne flutes and decide that we like the rest of the set that goes with them. So we will have to add another store to register at... yet another thing to do.

Next we went to Men's Wearhouse, because I had found some ties online that I thought could work for our dads. They had the ties, and they were the right color, but one of them had a spot on it that was really noticeable. So we decided we'd just buy them at another store.

We drove a few blocks more and stopped at David's Bridal so I could get swatches of the bridesmaids dresses. It was crazy in there as usual, and I had a frustrating encounter with the girls at the front desk. I explained to them that I needed swatches of the taffeta dress in plum, juniper, and olivine, and they told me that they only carry swatches of their satin dresses, not the taffeta ones. Does anyone else think this makes absolutely no sense? Why would you make swatches of all the dresses you sell except the taffeta ones? Stupid.

On our way home we stopped at another Men's Wearhouse, where they also had the teal ties, but none in extra long (my dad is sort of tall) so we couldn't buy the ties here either.

Our last stop was Michaels, where I had seen that all flower stems were 50% off. I've been wanting to make "a" and "h" letters out of hydrangeas to hang on the doors of the church. We found the perfect shade of hydrangeas and brought the entire stock they had to the front, only to find out that they were considered "bushes" and not "stems" and weren't included in the sale. This was the point where we gave up for the day, brought the hydrangea "bushes" back to their spot in the aisle and went home.

We spent the entire day trying to get wedding tasks accomplished and the only thing we had to show for it were our champagne flutes. Which are beautiful by the way, but we still did not cross anything off the list!

When we got home, we ordered the teal ties from the Men's Wearhouse website before we went out for the night. I think our dads will look pretty handsome sporting these teal ties and matching pocket squares!
Ties from Men's Wearhouse.

dress dilemma...solved!

I've finally solved the dilemma I posted about here, where I couldn't decide between using two or three colors for the bridesmaids dresses. I've decided that we'll be going with just two of the colors, teal and plum. The guys will be wearing moss/olive green ties. I think this is the best option for a few reasons:

1. I want everyone to have their first choice for color. It just so happens that the order happens to be teal, plum, teal, plum, teal, plum, teal. Ask and you shall receive!

2. I am anal and I like order. The order of the dresses when using three colors and not giving all of the girls their first choice in color is less than perfect.

3. With the girls having (most likely) green bouquets, I think the flowers with the green dresses would blend in a little more than I'd like.

4. I think the balance of the green bouquets and green ties will tie everything together enough that we won't need the green dresses. And my bridal party will look less like a rainbow. Hooray!

So it's been decided. I plan on calling all of my lovely bridesmaids this weekend to tell them the news and to let them order their dresses. They are going to look beautiful walking down the aisle in these pretty dresses! And the guys will be looking dapper as well in their pinstriped suits and green ties!

Photoshopped image from my MOH Dani.

toasting flutes.

My future mother-in-law as been asking for awhile now if we could pick out some toasting flutes for the wedding. This is one of those things for the wedding that I think only the people directly involved (aka the bride, groom, and whoever buys them) actually notices. But I also think that it's one of those items that should be displayed in the dining room after the wedding, so I wanted to make sure we really liked them.

On our wedding day, Adam and I will be toasting with our very own Vera Wang "Grosgrain" champagne flutes (shown in the middle). Are they cute?
I like them so much, I'm thinking we may very well register for the rest of the china set that goes with them!
Flutes and china by Vera Wang from Macy's.

i found it!

The perfect clutch to carry all of the items I cannot live without on the day I get married. Now if only it would go on sale...

Clutch by J.Crew.

red velvet cupcakes.

Happy Friday! I hope you have some fun plans for the weekend! Our weekend will consist of blocking hotel rooms, working on save-the-dates, submitting our engagement picture to the paper, and registering at Target and Crate and Barrel. I'd also like to make these red velvet cupcakes, and use it as sort of a cake testing for the wedding.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe from Paula Dean

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 pound cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
Chopped pecans and fresh raspberries or strawberries, for garnish

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers.
In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.
Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.
Garnish with chopped pecans and a fresh raspberry or strawberry.

Since my mom's making our wedding cake, I already know what her cakes taste like. But I'd like to try a new recipe and if it's good, I'll just have her practice a little before the wedding! I'll let you know how they turn out! And if you have any other great cake recipes send them my way!

Recipe by Paula Dean of the Food Network.

wedding rentals.

With our reception being held at the local armory, we are on our own when it comes to dinnerware. I'm trying to find some reasonable options when it comes to the look vs. price of plates, silverware, etc. I refuse to use paper plates and plastic silverware. I think it would work to just use a charger plate that looks somewhat pretty but can also be used as a dinner plate, to make the table look nice and keep the costs down. But I'm not having much luck. These plates are nice, but at $4.00 a plate, not including the rest of the dishes, glasses, silverware, etc... I'll pass. Seriously, who can afford that on top of everything else?
If anyone knows of any nationwide rental places, or someone in the Green Bay/Appleton, WI area or Upper Michigan... please let me know!

Photo from here.

button mums.

I love button mums. They are just so cute! I've been waiting to find a picture of a bouquet of button mums and haven't been able to find any (although I haven't been looking very hard). I think I'd like to incorporate these flowers into the wedding, possibly in the bridesmaids bouquets. So today while I was looking through the real wedding featured on Style Me Pretty today, I found one!

The flowers look like they're choking a little bit, I think I would make the bouquet fuller and tie the ribbon a little lower. But I think it has potential! Otherwise maybe the girls could have mixed bouquets, something like this:

Except a little smaller and substituting small stems of hydrangeas for the roses.

Which do you like the most?

Photos by Jonathon Canlas via Style Me Pretty.