Dressing the Tables

A few weekends ago, (wow this has taken me WAY too long to get around to typing) we went back to our venue for a tasting and linen fun. The tasting, I have no pictures of (I suck, I know).

So I'll tell you quickly that it all tasted pretty good with 2 exceptions. One sauce was WAAAAYYYY too salty. I am pretty sensitive to salt. I think things are too salty that other people say "there is salt in this?". So when I tasted it first, I very much tamed my response and simply said it was rather salty to me, what did others think? O.M.G. Their faces were priceless! I wish I had taken pictures because it was like a lemon face with a nauseous twist. Well, glad to know it wasn't just me. No problem, the chef said he'd tame it down. (I think he knocked over the Morton tub without noticing.) Then came the Kalua Pork, our favorite hawaiian dish. It was good pork, but it wasn't kalua. It was his first time making it and he followed a recipe but it jsut wasn't quite it. He asked us what it was missing...umm... becuase I am such a pro at making this? I don't know dude - YOU are the chef!!! Oh well, he said he'd try some other recipies. Fingers crossed it turns out well, if not - at least it'll be good pulled pork!

Then, it was on to the linens. Rachelle, our wedding planner, had ordered samples from her linen peoples. Before we get any further in to this let me say this - I suggested we do the basic (cheapest) white linens, and the color would come from napkins and flowers. Simple and cheap(er). That idea got shot down like a duck in season. So now we are up to the color linens. My mother hated the linens that were the typical cheap fabric but in color. Up it a notch to the fancy color linens and now we start choosing. And by "we" I mean, my mother, Adam, me, and Rachelle. Apparently, we had to be unanimous. 3 HOURS later we had finally chosen them.

Please excuse that some photos captured colors and textures better than others.
(All photos courtesy of moi.)
I am not a fan of all the tables being exactly the same, so we will be mixing centerpieces and tablecloths.
First up, pretty aqua pin tuck!

(We might be using the napkins with the silver edge you see above.)

The real color is actually somewhere between those two photos. The top one looked a little too green, and this shot looks too blue.

For the high top bar tables we decided to snazz it up a little and add a fun overlay. Those white stripes actually shimmer quite a bit. But a little while later, we found a more fun sparkly one. So it'll be similar to this pic except it'll be sparkles instead of stripes.

Same thing for the cake and escort card tables, simple white under and a fun sparkly overlay.

So we'll have 1/2 the tables be the aqua pintuck and then the other half in this fun krinkly dark blue below. All pintuck is a little too formal/preppy for our tastes, but I love mixing it with an unexpected fabric texture.

And, as usual I managed to sneak my tootsies into the photo. :-)

As I pointed out above, this all took about 3 hours to decide. The most entertaining thing about it has actually been people's reactions to my saying we spent 3 hours on linens. Its either
"3 hours?! Thats it!? I took 2 weeks to choose!"
or
"3 hours!? Seems like an awful waste of time on linens. Huh... come to think of it, I have no idea what was on the tables at our wedding."

I tend to agree more with the latter comment, but I am assured by everyone else that it will have a huge impact on the space and potentially save us some money on flowers.

Ok, first up - whatcha think of the linens?
Secondly, how much time did you spend on yours?

If This, Then That...

I was looking through my google reader stalkings of many a wedding photo and admiring other brides dresses. Some MUCH more ornate/fancy than mine, some much more simple. And it started me thinking... if we weren't doing a destination wedding at home with toes in the sand, but an elegant feel... what might I wear? Don't get me wrong, its not that I want to change any of our plans, or that I dislike any of our plans... these are just a "If we did it this way instead... I'd wear this."

Adam, my dress is not here, but if you don't want to see what I am NOT wearing, then go read this crazy story about a stolen church in Russia instead.

For instance, if we were doing a big fancy cathedral wedding;
I might want to wear Inara's dress from the Shindig episode of Firefly.
(For anyone with no clue what I am talking about, this was a GREAT show that got canceled all too soon.)

Preeeettyyy! (Sorry about the bad photo quality, its the only one I could find and now I also have no idea where I found it to reference!)

hmm.. going full on ballgown route... I did always love Belle's dress...

But of course, the risk of going from cartoon to reality is that it goes from regal and pretty...

To out of control POOF and sparkles and looking all together ridiculous!
A la "Enchanted"

I'd have a look of horror on my face too in that was my dress!!

Ahh... but then there is the wonderful Kirstie Kelly who designs "Disney dresses" that definitly exude their princess roots without being insane. A la "Belle" below:

oooohhh... pretty.....
Of course, those dresses start at $1200 (too rich for my blood) and, we aren't having a big cathedral wedding and I think I'd feel a little silly.

Or if we were going the other direction and being totally casual, maybe something like this from Brides.com

Anyone else have their "If I changed this, I'd wear that" dress ideas?

Pretty Picture

Ooooooh... Pretty.....

Nope, not my ring. Not even close. But What a cool shot!!!!!
I just saw this on Sarah K. Chen's photography blog and decided to repost it so more people can drool over pretty photography!

Pebbles and Gold and Rings Oh My!

So as promised - Adam's Ring!'cause why should I be the only one with the bling?! =)

What do you think?
Like it?

Oh, in the name of all things Holy I hope you know I am KIDDING!!!
heheheheh. Sorry. It is Friday, ya know.

Last April, we got invited to the launch party of Southern Wedding Style Magazine. Oh yeah, those are the Bliss Event Group girls and now Southern Wedding Magazine and Blog.



There, we ran into our friend, Susan, of Susan Campbell Jewelry, which I've talked about before.
She had her array of unique wedding rings from an array of different artists. We each found rings that we loved. I was pretty much sold on mine. Adam thought his was great, but wanted to keep looking... and looking... and looking...
There is picky... and then, there's my Adam.
I love you sweetie!!!! :-D

So after many many moons of looking at rings and me finding lots of different options, different metals, different designs and levels of intricacy, he finally said "Its cool, but I like my ring better." DONE AND DONE! I stopped looking for alternatives and options, and shortly thereafter, we ordered his ring.
(his real ring this time. ;-) ).

WITHOUT the black diamond - just the band with the Pebble etching.

This beautiful Pebble band will be white gold and is made by Sarah Graham, a great jewelry artist.

HOORAY!!!!

Whatcha think?

Gift Idea: Uniquely Creative Jewelry

I love this idea for gifts... if you've got the budget for it.

But first, so you don't think this is just an advertisement (cause my blog is soooo popular and people want to pay me for that.... errrr.. maybe not), a little personal back story. ('Cause really, otherwise, I'd just send you to the artist's website!)

Last weekend, Adam and I ordered his ring (!!) at our favorite local jewelry boutique, Susan Campbell Jewelry. This place might sound a little familiar to you because it was one of the stops along my Scavenger Hunt Proposal.

If you look REALLY REALLY closely, in the bottom middle pane of the door on the right, you can see a little white card, which was my next clue!

Anyway, we love this shop. We love the owner, we love the wide array of artist's work she carries, and we love that its a little local boutique and not a big chain. We knew we were getting our rings from here. Last weekend, during the Great GulfCoast Arts Festival (have I mentioned that we are festival nuts and I have a google calendar of booked weekends during festival season?) Susan had a Heather Moore trunk show.



SOOO FUN! Each and every piece is meant to be a custom design. You can pick letters or words and which font you do or dont want. You can have them engraved on the front, or the back, or along the edges - whatever! You can do a single charm, or a whole cluster of them. You can all little gemstone charms or gold links. It can be round, or square, or a mix of whatever you'd like.

Obviously, you can also swirl the text and embed little stars or hearts or whatever!

You can personalize every inch of it so your bridesmaid / mom / MIL knows it was specifically for HER.

Like different colors? No problem.

Don't like the charm look? No worries. Just personalize the links!

And, there is something for the guys too!!

I like this cufflink idea better than just your initials or date.
Its more personal with a twist of funky!

Or keychains or belt buckles! Whatever floats your boat.

Only drawback? These babies ain't cheap.
Granted, they are good product and great craftsmanship giving you a high quality beautiful piece. If I only had 1 or 2 Bridesmaids, I might consider it. We are still tossing this around as an idea for the moms, but really, we'd be getting them a VERY basic first piece that they could add to as they liked.

Since I've been teasing you about it for a while now.. I'll post about Adam's ring next! (Maybe mine too!... Though I have no photo pf mine yet.... hmm.. might have to wait on mine.)
Anyone else find a boutique store they love? Or a great gift idea that's just a bit out of range?

For Better or Worse... I'm BAAACK!!

I'm sorry. Bad blogger...again....

Though, if you are reading this I am assuming you have forgiven me..... regardless of whether or not I ate your flowers.

Believe it or not.. I've been pretty productive of late! (Unfortunately, a lot of it has been work and the parts that are fun and pretty wedding planning I only have few pictures of... so I'll try and make up for it with wit and humor and some fun ideas.... pictures would have been much easier!!) :-)

List of here to come wedding fun-ness:

• We had a tasting of our wedding menu!
• We picked table linens! (And I feel stupid for paying that much for something for 4 hours that I have to GIVE BACK! Many a lesson to be learned in this post.)
  
• We ordered his wedding band!
• We bought my wedding band!
• We found some great ideas for bridesmaids or mother's gifts... if your budget is bigger than ours.
• We are finished with the bridesmaids gifts! ... Though I have no idea where we are on the groomsmen gifts and at this point - Not My Problem!
• We are close to deciding on wording for the invites and getting them ordered!
  

I think that's it. That, and I will post a how to DIY for the barefoot sandals. I know that's been a long time coming but writing a how to for jewelry is awkward! Fear not.. I won't keep you waiting for long!! Just to give you a pretty picture or two to look at...

Fiji drool worthy photos from The HoneymoonBlog. And yes, somewhere in that vicinity of the world is where we are dreaming of honeymooning... anyone got any personal favorites?

Double Uber!!

Many thanks to Craft Lil Momma and the Wishpot Wedding Blog for giving me the "Uber Amazing Blog Award" !!

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 pass this honor on to:
Melissa of Masterpiece Wedding's Adventures in Wedding Planning Blog
Meg of A Practical Wedding
Hbowar of 2 State Bride
Rae of Rae Leytham Photography Blog
and Ashley of Lost in this Moment

Decisions Made

"We hold these truths to be self-evident," they said, "that all men are created equal." Strange as it may seem, that was the first time in history that anyone had ever bothered to write that down. Decisions are made by those who show up.

Show up. Be heard. Be a part of a decision.
Otherwise - shut the hell up.

Go get your sticker!!

Quick and Funny

Or at least... it is to me.

I am working on invitation wording right now. I despise the whole "honour of your presence" bit. I'm sure it works great for plenty of people, but in my head it says

"come, celebrate, bring a damn big present, use the extra starch for the stuffy shirt, and don't forget the biggest stick ever placed where the sun don't shine."

Just not the feeling we are going for.
I'll do a full post shortly about the options I've come up with and the family drama that ensued. But for the mean time, this is just funny, and very "us". While looking or a quote to go with the wording I came across this quote from a scrapbbooking site:

"i know you are the one because even on the first day we met you could finish my sentences, and know that when i said nothing was wrong, you knew something was. this is how i know you are meant for me. and i love you."

Author: mix

Nothing special. Sweet and cheesy, blah. (My apologies if anyone happens to love that.) Here's the funny part. I am scatterbrained and ADHD to boot. I am easily distracted by noises or shiny things and more often then not I stop talking in the middle of a sentence and am then confused why Adam is staring at me expecting something (like, say, the end of my thought/sentence.) This drives him bananas. (What an odd saying "driving someone bananas". Did someone come up with that after too much Mario Kart?)

I digress...

Anyway, the point being, when I came across the above quote, I thought it said,

"i know you are the one because even on the first day we met you could finish my...."

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing because it was so me.
We probably won't be using it in our invites or anywhere else for the wedding because I am sure most of our guests wouldn't get it. But maybe I'll sneak it in somewhere... along with my hidden mickeys! :)