Bouquet/Garter Toss Debate

To toss or not to toss?  That is the question. 

I mentioned this to Allen last night, and his response was, "I mean, don't we have to do that?" 

NO!  I keep telling him that we don't have to do anything we don't want to do.  I think Allen's more traditional than I ever really thought he was. 

Here's my thought process:  many of my friends are or will be married by that time, and most if not all of Allen's friends are married.  Two things I'm worried about are no one standing up to catch the bouquet or garter OR those who would stand up being embarassed.  Don't take that the wrong way, our single friends have nothing to be embarassed about.  But being put on the spot to catch something, having pictures taken of you, it's all a little..."spotlight"-ish. 

Another issue, Allen is a very private person.  I can't imagine him wanting to be on his hands and knees, going up my dress to remove a piece of fabric from around my upper thigh. 

This is definitely something we need to continue to explore. 

Brides - did you and your husband do the traditional tosses?

Single friends - do these tosses make you uncomfortable, or do you look forward to them at a wedding?

Wedding Block: Round 2

OK, so after I wrote my post last night, I went on The Knot to take a gander at my "To Do" list to see where we are and where we need to be.  Below are the major things I saw on the list, and my thoughts on each.

Day of Coordinator - I need to make one of three decisions.  I have a close family friend that I thought would be an amazing DOC, and she's definitely my number one option.  The only drawback is that I want her to enjoy herself, and to be able to spend time with her husband at the wedding.  The other option is to ask my florist, who also provides DOC services as well.  However, she's also a guest of the wedding and I'd like for her to be able to spend time with her husband and daughter who is one of my bridesmaids.  My last option is to hire someone completely separate of these two people.  The main concern here is money.  I'm not sure what prices are for a DOC.
Ceremony Officiant - My MOH doesn't know this yet, but I've discussed with Allen the idea of having her husband officiate our wedding.  He's an ordained minister, and he's also officiating a good friend's wedding in May.  It would mean so much to me to have both of them standing by my side on that day, and would really go along with the personal feel we want for our wedding.  Allen and I need to talk about this more.
Wedding DJ - I've briefly talked to a friend who DJ's weddings, but need to set up an in person appointment with him.  My dad also has a friend from work who has a DJ business, and I think we're going to set up an appointment with him. 
Wedding Registry - We need to decide where we're going to register and just go do it.  We really want to try and do the honeymoon registry.  We'll see how that works out!
Cake - This is something Allen's really going to enjoy!  I'm not a huge cake person, I really just care about how the cake looks.  So I'll start setting up tasting appointments for us to go to and we'll make a choice soon!
Engagement Pics/Save the Dates - We're working on this now.  We've been communicating with our photographer about our options.  I'm thinking we're going to buy some chic coats , nice jeans, etc and have a winter engagement session.  Still need to run that by our photographer though. :)
Hotel Rooms - Not so sure how necessary this is.  Most of our guests are from Richmond, or surrounding areas.  I need to take a look at the guest list to see how many out of towners we'll have, and then figure out the room block situation.
Ceremony Music - I've had my heart set on a string quartet for the wedding.  I've listened to so many demos and had processional, recessional, and other music picked out.  Then I got quotes from string quartets and the prices were OUTRAGEOUS.  Holy cow, who knew having an hour of ceremony music was so expensive?!  So I think we're going to go with a string duet instead, reducing the price tremendously. 

I think the easiest things to tackle will be Wedding Registry, Cake, and Hotel Rooms.  I'll start there and report back soon!

Wedding Block

I need to do some research on this topic, but I think I'm experiencing what I'm calling wedding block.  Sort of like writer's block, where the creator of the magic is running out of mojo.  I don't know what to do next.  Is it because I've done so much already, or because I'm disorganized?  Or is it timing, where most of the work is really done in the 4-6 months before the wedding, and between 8-10 months before there's not much to do?  Entering November, we're at 8.5 months out. 

Will things pick up soon?  Did any other brides experience the nagging symptoms of wedding block?

We like to eat: finalizing our menu

Allen and I met with our caterer this past Thursday to finalize our menu selections.  And to be honest, I think we're both really excited about what we've chosen!  See below.

Cocktail Hour Menu

Seasonal assorted fruit including but not limited to strawberries, pineapple, and kiwi
Domestic and imported cheese and crackers
Stuffed mushrooms, some with sausage some with cheese

"Fork Friendly" Heavy Hors-d'oeuvres

Beef tenderloin with assorted sauces (bearnaise, horseradish, spicy mustard) and rolls
Chicken breast skewers with thai-lime-chili marinade
Crab puffs with a spicy remoulade sauce
Mashed potato bar with "the fixins'" (whipped butter, sour cream, chives, cheese, bacon)
Caprese salad "stacks" (only way I know how to describe it)
Caesar salad

Sam Edwards is our caterer, and he's awesome!  I've spoken to several other caterers who have said they can't even come close to his prices.  Score for us! :)

Getting inspired...

So I finally took the plunge, I made an inspiration board!  I've been wanting to do this, and I think it was finally time now that I've solidified a few things in the last couple of weeks.  I have officially replaced the green, yellow, and orange modern and clean theme with a more bold and romantic green, ivory/white, and purple.  The reason for this:  my Mom and I went to a flower show at Vogue and could not stop talking about the purple flowers on display.  They showed us tons of flowers, roses, hydrangeas, orchids, greenery, anything you can think of.  But we were drooling over the sweet pea, gladiolus, stock, hypericum berries, delphinium, bells of ireland, and lisanthius, all that came in greens, purples, and whites.  So, right then and there at the Vogue flower show, we changed the colors!  A few weeks later, I had a "phone meeting" with a potential florist and mother of one of my bridesmaids and she was totally on board with the green, purple, and white color scheme.  We both determined that working with the new color scheme would provide a lot more options. 

Without further adieu, here's my inspiration board!

Counter clockwise starting with the top left picture, here's the explanation behind the inspiration:

Candle centerpieces:  There will be tables inside the main ballroom with very similar centerpieces.  Lots of candles, giving a very romantic ambiance to the room. 
White bouquet:  This is what my bridal bouquet will resemble.  Lots of textures, different shades of white, different size and height blooms, I love it!
Purple centerpieces:  There will be several tall centerpieces that will resemble this one.  Love them!
Cake:  I'm not a cake person, but if I have to have one it has to be pretty and simple, like this one!  Buttercream icing with simple little dots of buttercream on the bottom of each tier.  Perfect!
Lit house:  This is the actual venue at night, and it portrays the exact feel I want it to have the night of our wedding.  Warm, glowing...ahh I can't wait!
Rings:  This is almost an exact replica of my engagement ring and wedding band, that I'm clearly in love with!
Bride and bridesmaids:  The focus of this picture is on the bridesmaid dresses.  They are the exact shade of shamrock as the dresses my beautiful maids will be wearing. 
Flower arbor:  I love this grapevine and flower arbor.  It is so organic and romantic, I hope we can re-create the look.
Tuxedo:  After much deliberation, I think Allen and I have agreed on a khaki-colored tuxedo.  He's going to look super fly! 

Did you put together an inspiration board?  How did it compare to the actual execution of your big day?

Twilight Images = My Dream Come True

OK, so I know in one of my earlier posts I mentioned that we had potentially selected our photographer.  Scratch that!  I can now say, for a fact, we have selected a photographer and it's not the photographer I thought I was going to use. 

Let me start from the beginning....

From the moment one of my best friends booked Melody Smith of Twilight Images, I was hooked.  Their engagement pictures were phenomenal.  I could literally feel the emotion in the pictures of Dana and Jeremy.  Allen and I set up a meeting with Melody, and everything went really well.  It was just very early on in our search for vendors and we weren't exactly sure how the money was going to pan out.  We started to compare her with some other photographers and thought we were going to end up going with someone else.  Now, don't get me wrong, it had nothing to do with the quality of Melody's work.  Anyone that knows her knows she's top notch.  It really came down to finances. 

Weird how things happened from there...

I met with the other photographer, had every intention with signing with said photographer.  Gave my parents the contract, they were on board, and ready to turn the signed contract in with a deposit.  Timing ended up not working out for a couple of weeks for me to get together with them for transfer of the contract and money to me.  In that time frame was Dana's fabulous wedding, where I ended up meeting Melody in person.  I swear, it was like meeting a rockstar and being star struck.  She was awesome!  Here's where the real catalyst for my change of heart came....she posted teaser pictures of Dana and Jeremy's wedding on Facebook that same night.  O.  M.  G.  They are the most gorgeous pictures I've ever seen.  From that moment, I knew I had to have her. 

Here we are, two weeks after Dana's wedding, the contract is turned in and the deposit is paid.

It's official - Melody Smith is my photographer! 

Seriously, check her out.  She's ridiculous, her work is unlike anything I've seen before, and I can't believe she's mine all mine on June 11, 2011!!!!

We like to party, we like, we like to party!

So I may have mentioned in an earlier post that two of my girlfriends in my close "circle of friends" got engaged a couple weeks prior to me.  Several of our other friends in our "circle friends" are in our bridal parties and four of them decided to host an engagement party in our honor! 

If this was a precursor to how fun our weddings will be, holy moly! 

The party was hosted by four of my lovely bridesmaids, Doodle, Laura, Christina, and Kari.  It was a backyard barbeque with hamburgers, hot dogs, dips, dessert, and most importantly lots of booze!  All of the decorations were done in black and yellow (Yay Randolph-Macon!).  They had cute little streamers and bows along the picket fence, we each had wine goblets and beer steins with our monograms on them, and a capital initial that corresponded with our new last name that was accompanied by a glass dish of candles and river rocks.  It was so sweet!  I'm literally getting teary-eyed thinking about how much love and thought went into this shindig...

The party was "officially" kicked off with a toast from the hosts (with the most, haha, I had to) to the engaged couples.  From there, food was eaten, beverages were downed, and yard games were played.  The night was filled with catching up with friends, Allen's groomsmen talking about when Allen and I first met, and how much fun our weddings are going to be. 

To the hosts:  I cannot thank you all enough for throwing us such a wonderful party.  Everyone in attendance had a fabulous time, and it makes me even more excited for the wedding(s)!  You are the best friends an engaged lady could ask for. ;)

Some pictures from the party below...

Me and Bridesmaid LLB.  She gave Allen and I a very thoughtful gift: a certificate to Wawa (where we got engaged!)

Me and Matt, a good friend!

Me and my main squeeze (after much wine and loaded coronas) <3