First Professional Pictures Have Arrived!

I just got a message from my photographer literally like.. 20 mins ago that our blog post was up with our sneak peak! I'm so blown away by her talent that looking through the blog post made me teary eyed. I was just telling my husband (I'm still trying to get use to saying that, lol) that I don't really feel like our wedding has really happened and that maybe when I saw some of the pro pictures it would hit me. Well, it did! lol!

Anyways, I came right over to my blog to share the first pro pictures with you since I love you all. I'll do vendor reviews here soon and share some guest pictures while we wait for the CD with all the pro pictures (it should be about 2 1/2- 4 weeks from now).

Favors.

During our first look.

(I practiced my serious face FOREVER, but I still somehow managed to smile instead)

(Excuse the sweaty hair here, lol.. this was towards the end of the night and I had been dancing up a storm and it was hotter than heck in there!)

Donzo! (Plus the first pro picture!)

This past Saturday was the big day and I hate to say it, but I'm a little sad that it's over. I spent nearly the last two years of my life planning this wedding and it flew by so quickly. The day turned out beautiful and I couldn't have asked for better vendors (well, there were a couple that I was none too pleased with, but we'll get into that later).

My photographer is going to get a sneak peak up within the next week and a half and also be done with my pictures in 4-5 weeks. After that, I'll begin to do recaps for you all. Trust me, I'll be back with guest pictures, though.

But, for now.. my oh so sweet and fabulous photographer was kind enough to share a picture of me and my new husband on my facebook wall the night of our wedding to hold me over until the sneak peaks.

ENJOY!

My Dress Is Home!

After being with the seamstress (aka.. Derrick's aunt), my dress is finally back in my possession and currently hanging on the door to the den so it can fluff out. I missed it dearly while it was gone and I can't wait to wear it.

But, I can't show you pictures of me in it yet. Not because I don't want to, but because I really don't have a floor length mirror that will show the whole dress. I have a floor length mirror, but it's a curvy one from Ikea and the dress poofs out too much. But, I did take some pictures of it hanging on the door that I'll share!

Please excuse the fact that I took them on my iPhone, I was too lazy to get my good camera out, lol (also please excuse the dress bag hanging behind it).

Side view with the veil hanging in the front:

Front view.. look at all the poofiness:

Trust me when I say, it looks even better on. The seamstress told me that another lady had dropped off her own dress while mine was still there and when she saw my dress hanging there she gasped and said "THAT is the CUTEST dress, ever!" =D That made me so happy when she told me that! lol!

Don't worry, lovelies.. I'm getting married in 10 days and you'll get to see that dress on me soon! yay!

Hello Wedding Month!

Oh that's right.. we are officially 11 days away from the wedding! EEK! We've been planning for 22 months now and at times I felt like the wedding was never going to get here and now I'm wondering where all the time went.

So, what have I been up to in regards to wedding planning?

Well.. I had my hair and make up trials yesterday. I drove all the way to Cincinnati (a 3 1/2 hour drive from where I live now) on Sunday night so I could get up early for my trials. Was I a good blogger and took pictures? NOPE!!

I will tell you that I LOVED my hair and makeup artists. They were SO nice and sweet and so funny to talk to. I felt completely at ease the moment I met them which really helped. They really listened to what I wanted and executed it perfectly! So, since I didn't get pictures, I'll share my inspiration pictures with you.

First up, my make up inspiration:

Now I know people say you should go for a natural look for your wedding, but believe me when I say this is natural for me, lol. In my real life, I do the bolder eyeshadow colors and such so if I showed up to our first look with browns and neutral colors, Derrick would give me the wtf? look.  The makeup artist did a fabulous job with executing this look and it really made my eyes pop. After the makeup trial my BFF and I got in the car did a little fist bump (while saying "onto the next".. a little Ghost Hunters joke we do). And drove to my hair trial.

Here are the inspiration pictures I gave the hair stylist:

So I handed over my clip in extensions (I have fine and thin hair, so I needed them) and she went to work. I did tell her before she started that I wanted volume and I wanted it to make my face look thinner and not rounder (I have a round face and I'm self conscious about it.) I also told her I wanted swoop bangs to cover a couple scars I have on my forehead (even though the makeup artist covered them up for the most part).

She pretty much did a style similar to the second picture I posted (of Eva) but with swoop bangs and not the center part, she said with the curls in the back higher, it balances out the face and she made it poofy bc the bigger the hair, the smaller the face. I wish I would have taken pictures because it's hard to explain... but trust me, it looked fabulous! It was a pain in the butt to take the bobbi pins and extensions out last night, though, lol.

I couldn't find my hair fascinator ANYWHERE, though and I tore apart the whole apartment looking for it. Derrick moved some wedding stuff to his parents house till the wedding, so I'm hoping when we start decorating for the reception that it'll turn up. *fingers crossed*

My Playbill Inspired Programs

I've spent the last few days designing my programs and I was so excited about them that I printed out a mock program and put it all together so I can photograph is and share it with you all. I'm going with a playbill inspired program just for a little something different. Without further ado... feast your eyes on these babies (please excuse the parts that are blacked our for privacy):

Front Cover

First page.. a run down of what is going on.

Ceremony details and the beginning of the "cast"

Our "cast".. who's who in the wedding

We included the two readings that are going to be read during the ceremony and then a memorial page. The top half if in dedication to my mom, the middle section is a poem for our grandparents and my mom and the last paragraph is a poem for everyone else that has gone before us.

Then we have our acknowledgement/special thanks page and a listing of our vendors.

Back cover. All our vendors logos.

I absolutely LOVE how they came out. Now, I have to print out 200+ pages front and back, using a boning tool to fold them all in half and staple them all. But, it's my last project before the wedding and I'm done with everything else.. so at least it'll keep me busy.

Pre-Wedding Festivities!

The past 3 weeks have gone by and I've had my bachelorette party and bridal shower. Both were such a blast and I had so much fun. Unfortunately, one of my bridesmaids and best friends got strep throat the day before we were leaving for Nashville and couldn't go with us, but she was still there in spirit!

Anywho, I wanted to share some pictures with you all of the fun times! First up, my bachelorette party:

My best friend and I acting scared after we drove through a sketchy area in Nashville:

We did a Murder Mystery Dinner Tour and rode around Nashville on a big pink bus:

At a Mexican Restaurant getting ready to go to an 80s dance club:

Another one of my best friends and myself:

Dancing at the 80s dance club:

My sister (and Matron of Honor):

These next ones are from my bridal shower, this is my niece (and flower girl) and myself:

My sisters, myself and my niece acting goofy:

One of the games we played, I had to walk around the room in this apron with kitchen utensils pinned to it and then leave them room and everyone had to remember what was on the apron.

My nephew (and junior groomsman):

All in all in was a fabulous time, there were some ups and downs and some people couldn't be there at the last minute, but it was still a fabulous time. My BFF did a great job with Nashville and my sisters did a great job with my bridal shower! 

Hello October!

Whew, am I the only one who feels like September just flew right on by? It was like a blink and you miss it kinda month.

I had my bachelorette extravaganza in September (I'll be posting some pictures later) and my bridal shower is this Sunday. I've also been busting my butt getting our favors done (I swear, my life has been consumed by them lately). Since we live almost 2 hours away from where our wedding is, we try to take boxes of stuff to our hometowns whenever we are in the area. I also will have my hair trail and make up trials this month, too! Whew, I feel like October is going to fly by just like September did. 

In other news, I've been talking with a wonderful lady on etsy about making a custom garter for me to go with my dress (I was going to get a sports one for Derrick, but he really didn't care at all what the garter looked like, so I went with fun and elegant to match my dress). She sent me pictures of the final product last night.

Here is a picture of the set together:

And here is a picture of the main garter on a black velvet piece to show the detail more:

I love how they came out and I cannot wait to get them in the mail! I went with JLWeddings on etsy and she was just wonderful to work with!

EEK! I cannot believe how close November 12th is gettting!! Is it bad that my biggest wedding day fear is how I'm going to be able to pee in my dress?! LOL!

Revealed: Invitation Suite!

Now that our invitations (all 140 of them) have been sent out into the world and I've gotten message/texts from people saying how much they loved them, I figured I would share them with you all. I'm not going to lie, after dropping these off at the post office, I had a little separation anxiety from them. I had worked MONTHS and MONTHS on these and they felt like my babies. Fortunately, or unfortunately, that separation anxiety was transferred to separation anxiety from my dress now (it's with the seamstress) and I am happy the invites are out.

So, without further ado... join with me as I present to you our invitations (also, please excuse the dark pictures, I had to take most of them with the flash off bc it was washing the cards out and sorry about the black blotches in some places.. I had to cover some information for privacy):

First up, this is what our guests will see when they get their mail. I printed every address in a light gray color and then wrote over that with a brown fine tip sharpie for that handwritten look.

I was a bad blogger here, I forgot to take a picture of our return address stamp. This is (sorta) what it looked like, I blurred our address out for privacy. We stamped it on the back of our envelopes in a brown ink.

When the envelope is GENTLY opened, our cute polka dot envelope liner (that was a pain in the butt to do) is revealed.

All the pieces (minus one.. again, bad blogger.. we had a last minute piece added and I forgot to update this picture).

Front cover. All the pages are tied together with blue and white bakers twine.

First page... some info about yours truly.

Second page.. some info about the fiance.

Third page.. some info about how we met.

Fourth page... some info about the proposal.

Fifth page.. info about us getting married.

Sixth page... the wedding invite.

All the pages were then hole punched.

If you look closely at the first few pictures, you'll see the hole punch was a lovely heart shape, like that shown above.

Our information card. Sorry, this is a screen shot because I forgot to take a picture of the card after we printed them. I know the registry this is "tacky" to some, but where I live.. it's the norm and people will get MAD if it's not included.

Front of the RSVP postcard.

Back of the RSVP postcard (I know it's hard to read on here, but it's easier in person). We did a mad lib style RSVP and I am hoping we get some awesome responses.

There you have it, our invitation suite and all the pieces that went into it. There are a lot of small details in the invites (for example, the dashes have polka dots in them). I wanted to tie the polka dots in with the wedding somehow, but not overdo it.. I think it worked perfectly.