Our Wedding Website

I've gotten the CD of our engagement pictures in the mail today and I was finally able to finish up our wedding website. I designed it myself based off one of their existing ones to have some structure. I used www.wix.com and it was fairly easy to use one I knew what I was doing.

So.. I can't give you all the address to the website because I don't want all of the internet world to know exact details, so I took screen shots of the pages and blurred the important information out so I can share them with you.

Without further ado, our wedding website (click on picture to make larger, if needed):

Our home page. It has tabs to the right for all the pages and each page peels off like a book.

Our "About Us" page. I didn't really fluff this area up with too much details because of something that involves our wedding invites (which will be revealed later.)

"Ceremony Details" page.. sorry for all the blurs, it pains me to do it!

Reception details.

Our wonderful wedding party!

Guest info page. We haven't done our hotel block yet and such, so this section is pretty bare.

The guest book page for people who visit to leave us nice comments.

I worked really hard on this and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out! It's somewhat different than most wedding websites, but still touches on all the important stuff. What do you think?

Down the Aisle

A couple years ago, I came across some music that I fell in love with and knew that I wanted to use it for my bridesmaids to walk down the aisle to.

The melody in the song is so pretty and gives me chills at times. It's actually called "First Kiss (Veronica's Theme) by George Fenton, but this is the only youtube video I could find of it.

I just hope it's long enough for them to walk out to, if not.. I'll tell them to book it down the aisle. LOL!

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Wedding Talk..

... for some fitness talk.

I hate to admit it, but I've been lazy lately. It's not for lack of wanting to work on my fitness, though.. oh no, not at all. I was getting into the swing of my c25k MONTHS ago when I fractured my foot. It took quite a while for my foot to feel right after that, too. But.. right after my foot healed, I suffered from a knee injury (that still bothers me on and off) not to mention the fact that I've gotten a cold/sinus problems and have been going non-stop this whole month.

But, that's enough of the complaining and the excuses. I have a little over 6 1/2 months to the wedding and I need to stop procrastinating and just suck it up. 

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Derrick and I decided that starting today we're going to get healthy (he doesn't really need it.. he use to train to be a body builder, but it helps to have him keep my motivated/accountable.) So, starting today, we're going to start training for a 5k together! We're going to start the c25k program (he can run, so when I say "we" I really mean me and he's just going along to keep me company and safe."

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We're going to train for the 5k 3x a week by running outside (thankfully there are some nice running trails around here). We're also going to do 2 days of upper body strength training at the gym and 2 days of lower body strength training and some cardio at the gym. I also started a diet today, as well, and I am more than determined to stick with it. We figured we would go balls to the wall from now until the wedding and then back off of it some. 

I'm about to take it Biggest Loser style with my life and I hope you guys join me for the ride. I'm going to be taking my before pictures when Derrick gets home from work and then we are heading out for our first run and then to the gym for some upper body. I'm not going to clog this blog up with exercise talk, though, so I'm probably going to update you all about every 2 weeks on here. If anyone wants to become fitness buddies with me.. let me know!

Kick Them Out of the Nest

I'm so going to watch them fly.

My save the dates, that is. I FINALLY finished making 130 envelopes, printing all the magnets and spraying them with protective spray, stuffing said envelopes and gluing on the wrap around labels. It was a pain in the butt, but I love them and now I plan on taking a nice break until I have to start working on printing and assembling our invites (and by nice break, I mean like.. one week. lol.)

OOoooo... what's in the pretty zebra box?

Oh nothing, just 130 save the dates chilling in there. (Notice that some of them aren't even sealed yet, lol. We're putting a wallet of one of our engagement pictures in some of them, so we have to wait to seal them.)

Front of the envelope (sorry about the blur of the address.) Also, the postage isn't on there yet because I'm very upset with USPS. I really wanted those "Celebrate" 44 cent stamps to put on these since they match so perfectly. Well, since these are magnets, it costs 64 cents to mail and the postal worker told us that we had to take these butterfly stamps, that do not match, if we wanted to mail them and wouldn't give us any other options. Totally rude.

Back of the envelope, again..sorry about the blur.

Our save the date magnet (excuse the blur, once again.. lol.) The colors really pop in person, but I had to take this picture with the flash off because it kept giving me a glare.

I can't wait to send them out and not have to worry about them anymore. It's time to kick them out of the nest and watch them fly!

{All photos are personal photos}

Flower Power

Yesterday Derrick and I drove nearly 3 hours to having two meeting with two different florists. I took some inspiration pictures in with me and talked about color schemes and what was in season.

I've only gotten quotes from 1 of them so far, the other one is suppose to e-mail me sometime today, though. I know who I felt more at ease with and who I feel really caught the look I was going for (it's probably who we are going with, too.)

I took the following inspiration pictures with me:

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The first florist we sat down with actually took the time to ask me what I liked in each different bouquet and then if a certain flower wasn't in season, she came up with another flower to get that look. For example, as most of you know.. peonies, they aren't in season in November. But, there is a garden rose to give you that fluffy look.

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So, what we came up with was for my bouquet to be a mix of pink and white flowers using garden roses, hydrangeas, orchid, lisianthis and a little bit of greenery. Then the bridesmaids would be smaller and different shades of pink with no white. Also, they'd be similar to mine, just without the orchid (orchids are EXPENSIVE) and instead they would have amaryllis which have the look of an orchid but are actually a lilly. The junior bridesmaids would just be a smaller version of the bridesmaids. As for the boutonnieres Derrick would have an orchid that matches the orchid in my bouquet and the groomsmen would have an amaryllis to match what is in the bridesmaids bouquet.

Now, the second meetings we felt very rushed and she didn't really seem like she took the time to find out what I really wanted. She kept pushing me towards putting blue in the bouquets since our wedding colors are blue and brown and I kept saying no. Not to mention, she never bothered to tell me what flowers that are out of season could be replaced with, I actually had to bring them up (thankfully I knew what flowers to bring up thanks to the first meeting.) She didn't really seem to grasp what I was looking for and really pushed us to do centerpieces through them. I'm pretty sure they are going to blow our budget out of the water, though.

I'll let you all know how it goes. How did florist meetings go with you all? Did anyone feel rushed through them?

First Dance

Believe it or not, one of the very first things we picked for our wedding was our first dance song.

We picked "More Than Anyone" by Gavin DeGraw. It's a really beautiful song and it means a lot to our relationship (one of the first cards I gave him when we first got together I wrote at the very bottom "Ps. I'm going to love you more than anymore".. so it just kind of fits.

For any of you who have watched "One Tree Hill" this was also Nathan and Haley's first dance song when they renewed their wedding vows. That's actually the first time I really listened to the song and I fell in love with it. Our favorite show to watch together is actually "One Tree Hill" and we spend lots of nights on the couch together watching the seasons on DVD. We always said our relationship was a lot like Nathan and Haley's from the very beginning... so, that song just clicks on many levels.

"More Than Anyone"

Gavin DeGraw
You need a friend
I'll be around
Don't let this end
Before I see you again
What can I say to convince you
To change your mind of me?
I'm going to love you more than anyone
I'm going to hold you closer than before
And when I kiss your soul, your body'll be free
I'll be free for you anytime
I'm going to love you more than anyone
Look in my eyes, what do you see?
Not just the color
Look inside of me
Tell me all you need and I will try
I will try
I'm going to love you more than anyone
I'm going to hold you closer than before
And when I kiss your soul, your body'll be free
I'll be free for you anytime
I'm going to love you more than anyone
Free for you, whenever you need
We'll be free together baby
Free together baby
I'm going to love you more than anyone
I'm going to hold you closer than before
And when I kiss your soul, your body'll be free
I'll be free for you anytime
I'm going to love you more than anyone
I'm going to love you more than anyone 

Strike A Pose!

Since the time I got engaged, I have always wanted a photobooth. I want one like Aladdin wants Jasmine, like the Cookie Monster wants cookies, like the Little Mermaid wants legs, like... well, you get the point.

The thing is, photobooths are EXPENSIVE and I just cannot afford one in the budget. So.. I turned to the diy land and settled on a "faux-to-booth".

Basically.. I'm going to hang up a black backdrop (maybe with some twinkle lights) and I'm going to set up some lights as well as set out a prop table. The tricky part was to figure out how to get the photos taken.

I have a friend that I went to high school with and she just started a photography business with her cousin. She agreed to be my faux-to-booth photographer for super cheap as long as she can use them in a portfolio!! She's going to bring her own professional camera and take three sets of different pictures of each person/group that comes into the fauxtobooth (that way it's SIMILAR to the real thing). Then she is going to burn me a CD with all the images and I'm going to also put them on a photosharing site for all the guests, too. 

I'm super excited... I've heard how awesome and fun these can be at weddings and I may not get a REAL photobooth, but this works all the same in my eyes.. I know I'll still get some GREAT pictures!

Did anyone else go a cheaper route to get what you wanted?

Engagement Pictures Sneak Peak!

Our photographer just posted a few sneak peaks from our engagement shoot that we had this past Sunday. I'm super excited to see the rest of them (which will probably be in about 1 1/2 weeks.. ahh, I'm too impatient.)

Without further ado, for your viewing pleasure... here are our sneak peaks:

{Please excuse his shoes in this one. I had a big discussion about him changing his shoes before we left his parents house (who we were visiting before pictures) and he swore up and down he would change them once we got to Cincinnati. As you can see, he did not.}

I should also note that in the above picture and the one below it that I DO NOT have a great "serious" face. lol. Everytime she said "okay.. make a serious face" I would start to laugh and end up looking mad or constipated. lol! I guess all that "serious face" practicing I did in the mirror all morning that day didn't pay off. Oopsie. lol!

{All photos are courtesy of Amanda Donaho Photography}

I'll post some more once I get them in (there was an outfit change that we had and a change of scenery that isn't on the sneak peak.) So stay tuned!

Cake Stand Inspiration

 I found an awesome picture of a cake stand on the internet and set out to find out how I could do it myself and make it my own.

It really isn't that complicated and I wanted to share with you all what I plan on doing in case it inspires any of you!

All you need is a piece of plexiglass a little bit bigger than the base of your cake and also some square vases. I plan on getting these little 2-3inch square ones I found at the Dollar Tree for $1 each. I think we are going to use about 12 for our cake due to the size (the bottom tier is 16 inches).

In addition to that, we are purchasing some LED ice cubes that can either stay one color or slowly change colors and put them in the vases. I think it would look really neat and totally add some pizazz to the cake table! A cake base that slowly changes color? Yes, please!

What are you all using as your cake stand?

Engagement Shoot Outfits

I've been stressing for WEEKS about what to wear for our engagement pictures that we have this coming Sunday. I originally wanted to have our pictures done at a carnival or fair, but as luck would have it.. there were none. So, I set out to find two outfits that I pretty much could wear anywhere.

First up, I found this sparkly tank top from Charlotte Russe:

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I just love me some sparkles and this fits my personality PERFECTLY.

But, I wasn't about to just wear a tank top in our pictures.. oh no. So, I found a cute knit bolero/shrug to go with it at Old Navy:

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 Just ignore the white shirt that it is shown with!

And of course, no engagement shoot isn't complete without at least a second outfit to change into.

So. I found this cute black jacket to wear:

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The cool thing about this jacket, if you roll the sleeves up a little bit there are black and white polka dots! Umm.. yes, please!! That will go so great with my black and white polka dot flats that I own and will be wearing with this outfit! I also plan to wear a white cami underneath the jacket, too.

Both tops will be paired with regular jeans, as well. I couldn't find any pictures of the outfits my fiance is wearing, but you'll see them in a couple weeks. One is a button up striped shirt and the other one is a Joey Votto Cincinnati Reds jersey (you'll see what he chose this at a different date as well.).

Did you stress out about what outfit to wear for your engagement pictures?

Remembrance

As our wedding gets closer and closer, it has really been hitting me how much I wish my mom and grandma could be there. It was really important to me to find a way to keep their spirit near and dear to me on the day of the wedding, so what did I do? I turned to etsy, of course.

I'm going to buy a memorial photo charm to attach to my bouquet.

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I'm not 100% sure if I will get a double sided photo charm or just get two separate ones, but I plan to have one for my grandma and also my mom to keep them with me that day. 

I also really wanted to do something for my fiance since he lost his grandpa that he was extremely close to a few years back. I'm going to have his grandpa's picture put in one of these charms and I'm going to ask the people at the tuxedo rental place to pin it in his jacket  so his grandpa will be close to his heart. I really hope I can keep this part a secret until the wedding day. I have a huge problem with spilling beans.. haha. But don't worry.. he never reads my blog!

What are some ways you plan on remembering those who can't be there on your wedding day?

Yummy In My Tummy!

I just realized I never did talk about our tasting with the caterer.

It. was. DELISH! Seriously.

I'm so unbelievably excited about the food at our reception (as well as the cake) and I think our guests are going to love it. So, what's on the menu, you ask?

We have two main dishes to choose from. (Sorry I don't have actual pictures of the tasting.. but you get the idea.)

1. BBQ Chicken (yeah, I know.. BBQ sauce and a white dress = possible disaster? Eh, I'll be fine.. I love me some BBQ chicken.)

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2. Sliced top round of beef in homemade gravy. Seriously.. this was SO SO SO tender!

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Then we have 4 side items as well.

1. Macaroni & Cheese made with large penne noodles.

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2. Roasted parsley red potatoes.

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3. Seasoned green beans.

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4. Buttered sweet yellow corn.

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But, that's not all.. it all comes with assorted artisan breads and rolls, butter and condiments to compliment entrees as well as dinnerware.

YUM!! I can't wait!