To Have and To Hold

My engagement ring's first photo(point and)shoot

I didn't have a traditional proposal.  I was not surprised with a ring.  B did not get down on one knee.  There were no tears or screams of excitement.  Really, our engagement began with the decision to finally start our fiance visa paperwork.

I am completely fine with that.  In fact, because we did it that way I was able to choose my own engagement ring.  I love B with all my heart and I'm sure he would have chosen a lovely ring, but I am VERY picky when it comes to the jewelry that I wear.  I chose my e-ring online. It was shipped to me and I had it for about a month before B even saw it in person.  It is absolutely my dream ring and it was well within our (very small) budget.  It's been on my finger for a little over two months now and I still can't help but stare at it. 

Today I finally tried to take some pictures of it that weren't blurry and out of focus.  Eventually I'd like to get a DSLR, but for now I'm stuck with a little Casio point and shoot.  I think the pictures came out pretty decently, though!

The carving on the sides of the ring is what won me over.  I also really liked the low profile of the setting.  I have a tendency to clumsily knock my ring on a number of different surfaces; I figured it would be safer it was lower.

 

I probably should have cleaned it before its photo shoot.  I've always wanted a pave setting, and I love love the beading on the edges.  (is that what that's called?)

 

There's also carving right under where the pave sidestones stop.  I should have taken a better picture of that, because that's another favorite feature : )

I guess my little point and shoot did an acceptable job, hm?

For the record, B did eventually "propose."  One night during his last visit, he and I were sitting on the porch steps while my puppy was taking her time searching for the perfect spot to potty.  We were ready for bed, tired from our day full of activities and impatiently waiting for Juno to poop.  She really does take forever.  B was was wearing only his boxers as he recited his cute little spiel that he had practiced.  I laughed, and I think I told him I wanted a do-over when he was fully dressed and when there wasn't fresh puppy poop three feet away : )  I really wouldn't have had it any other way.  Even though I already had the ring on my finger, his little proposal was very endearing and very us.

So what about you?  Did a ring come with your proposal or did you get to choose your own?  If your FI picked one out for you did you love it?  Has your ring had its first photo shoot? (I'd love to see!)

Invitations, take five

From the very beginning, and out of every detail that we're putting into our wedding, I am definitely most excited about our invitations.  Sure, I like flowers well enough.  Music, food, cake: they're all great... but I've always been a sucker for beautiful paper.

Engraving was out of the question due to the cost.  Gorgeous, yes, but we couldn't justify spending that  much for something that the majority of our guests won't notice and appreciate.  So I began searching the vast, weddingy part of the internet for affordable letterpress companies. 

Being the naive bride-to-be that I was, I was completely unaware of what customized letterpress would cost.  I searched etsy, google, tons of wedding blogs and wasn't able to find anyone that offered what I wanted with a number with which I was comfortable.  I even happened one local man who owned a small letterpress studio.  When I called him he seemed thrilled that someone from the area even knew what letterpress was!  (More about the difficulties of being a small-town-bride later) His rates were extremely reasonable.  For 150 invitations with RSVP enclosures and printed envelopes he was going to charge me $150 plus the cost of the paper.  Excited, I visited his shop to see examples of his work.  I was less than thrilled.  It just seemed like the quality of his work was lacking.

Though I am still tempted by beautiful letterpress suites, I've decided to make my invitations myself.  It's the only way I can get the look I want at a price I can afford.

I'm not Illustrator-literate at all, but I figured with a little trial and error and a lot of youtube tutorials, I would be able to create a design I was happy with.  Well, it took a lot of trial and error, but five entire suite designs later I've come up with something that I LOVE.

Thursday night I was lying in bed delaying sleep with wedding thoughts, as per usual, when I had an idea to incorporate buttons into the invitation.  And hey, it'd be cute if I sewed a little on there, too.  What's cuter than buttons and stitching on paper?

I found these at Cake + Milk Paperie

 

I love the sewn border on those notecards.  (Also, what a cute and easy DIY BM gift?) I imagined a cute little red button stuck up in the corner of these and I knew I had to do a mock-up.

My sewing machine died a few months back, so I ran to Walmart and picked up a few goodies:

 

Because really, even if I didn't like how the sewn invites came out everyone needs a sewing machine.  This little guy was on sale for $110, too!

I made up a simple design in Illustrator, printed them out on some cardstock I had lying around, sewed the border and the button and was thrilled with the result.  It's perfect, really.

 

Seriously.  Don't you just want to eat them they're so cute?  I borrowed the '*dancing shoes required' bit from Miss Cupcake over at Weddingbee.  In case you can't read it, the quote says, "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams," and is by Dr. Seuss.  I loved it the first time I read it, and knew I wanted to work it in somehow.

The buttons are just a fill-in; they were the only ones Walmart had that sort of resembled what I wanted.  This morning I went on ebay and ordered these lovlies:

 

I'll only have 28 of them, though.  Whoever is the head of the button industry is making some serious cash because they are ridiculously expensive.  Two dollars for two buttons?  What the heck?  A dollar for less than a gram of plastic.  I don't get it.  I'll be searching ebay for the next few months for cute, cheap vintage red buttons.

So that's it!  I can't wait to get all the materials together to start making the actual invitations.  I'll be gocco'ing all of the lettering and embossing our names on Crane Lettra, beautiful cotton letterpress paper.  I was hesitant to share them so early, but they make me so happy I just couldn't resist.  There's still a lot to do with them to turn them into a suite, so stay tuned!

What part of planning are you most excited about?  Did you find that you had a hard time settling on any of your designs or ideas?

Color Love

Despite my chronic indecisiveness, choosing the color story for our wedding was a pretty simple task.  I knew I wanted colors that would carry through the airy, fun, almost whimsical feeling that I'd like our wedding day to possess.  I wanted something modern but not too "out there."  I didn't have to go far to find the inspiration for our color choices:

My kitchen!

Now, look past the bad picture and into the background.  The walls are a nice pale, minty aqua and there are plenty of red accents.  This has been my favorite color combination for as long as I can remember.  Though a modern palette, it still gives off a vintage feel. 

 

(See how much I love these colors?)

Immediately I typed "Aqua and red weddings" into Google images.  I'm pretty sure I audibly gasped at the images that came up.  I was hooked.  Thank goodness B likes the combination, too!

So, without further ado, meet Poppy and Pool:

 

I think the alliteration is catchy.  I've found "aqua and red" is much simpler when describing the colors to other people, though.

I put together a quick inspiration board of some of my favorite examples of the colors.

Image sources: Country Living; Lilfish Studios; Priscilla of Boston; favorsandflowers.com; Tigerlillyshop

I really do love it and I think it will be beautiful in our venue's setting.  Also, I'm loving the buttons... do I smell a motif?

How did you come up with your color scheme?  Was it an easy decision?

First Things First

Our wedding is just over ten months away.  To me, that seems like an eternity, but I know in the worldof wedding planning ten months will go by in no time.  I understand that the sooner I get started on the various DIY projects I'm planning to undertake, the less stress I will have in the months before the wedding. 

So what's stopping me?

I have absolutely no idea where to start. 

I am almost overwhelmed with wedding ideas.  I refresh Weddingbee at least 100 times a day; I'm positive that my work productivity has gone down at least twenty percent since our engagement because I HAVE to keep up with what's going on in "the hive!"  I can't fall asleep because I'm thinking about bridesmaid dresses and centerpiece ideas.

How do I organize all of my thoughts so that they can be actualized in the future?  How do I make decisons regarding the look of my wedding when I fall in love with every picture I see on Style Me Pretty, regardless of how different they are?

Ideas are great, but I need to start making decisions. 

Any suggestions on how to do that??

Choosing Our Date

The obvious first step in wedding planning for a couple is to choose the date on which they'll be married. 

Piece of cake, right?

Well, as much as we both thought it would be, picking the date wasn't exactly a simple task.  B and I had already been considering prospective dates before we announced our engagement to our families.  We knew that we had to wait until the end of this year for his visa application to be approved so that he could move to the US and get married.  That was fine; I liked the idea of having months to plan our perfect day.  We narrowed our range of dates down to March and May, 2010. 

Then we let everyone know we were engaged...

My stepdad is a team roper and immediately he started naming weekends during which ropings were planned.  "You can't get married that weekend, that's Three Rivers!"  Ugh.

Then B told me that the earliest his dad would be able to take any time off work would be the second week of May.  This was completely understandable as his dad is working on organizing the 2010 winter olympics in Vancouver.  I didn't anticipate the massive amount of paperwork he'd have after the olympics were over.

Our range of dates was drastically reduced by two months.  But, May!  May is a great month for a wedding, wouldn't you agree? 

We figured we would compile a list of possible venues and call around to see what was available.  There really aren't a whole lot of options around here for a pretty, outdoor wedding; I think I called six different places.

• Option 1- Booked until July
• Option 2- Had openings in May, but wouldn't let us have alcohol or go past 10pm
• Option 3- Booked until OCTOBER!?
• Option 4- Had an opening.  This was our first choice.  We told the woman who owned the location that we were definitely interested in May 29 (that was the only day available in May) and would have our deposit money when we had a tour.

I was so excited to see our prospective wedding location.  It was bittersweet because B couldn't be there with me to make the decision, but exciting nonetheless.  I get there, it's gorgeous and I've already decided May 29 would be perfect.  When it comes time to write the check the woman says, "What was your date again? May 29? Oh, I booked that this morning."  No other openings.

It was all I could do to hold back tears.  I know it wasn't a huge setback, but it was our FIRST setback.  This place really would have been perfect, and I didn't have B to commiserate with.

So.  I drove home, cried, and booked an amazing gem of a venue the very next day.

 

*swoon*

So, in the end our venue availability chose our date for us.  It worked out really well, as it's a holiday weekend in Canada.  Hopefully the three day weekend will allow more of B's friends and family to make the long trek to our wedding.

How did you choose your wedding date?  Was it a date that was meaningful to you or did you just happen upon it?  Did you get any input regarding your date from those close to you?

Allow Me to Introduce Myself:

I'm a twenty-four year old bride-to-be living in a smallish town smack dab in the center of California. My fiancé is twenty-seven and lives about forty minutes outside of Vancouver, British Columbia. The distance isn't a recent development; in fact, we have endured eleven hundred miles between us for the entirety of our relationship.  In total, twelve thousand miles have been traveled so that we could see each other. That's just under halfway around the Earth! The distance has definitely been emotionally draining and there have been times when both of us have questioned whether or not we would be able to stay on this ride, but (and it's a huge but!) the saying is true: you just can't help who you fall in love with.

So. Long story short: we conquered the distance between us; he proposed and I, of course, said yes. This all leads me to why we're here! We have a wedding to plan! There are some amazing online communities out there for brides(and grooms)-to-be. It's not much of an exaggeration to say that I have spent every spare minute of the past three months since my engagement scouring the Internet for small bits of inspiration to use to make our wedding beautiful, fun and unique. The wedding folder on my desktop keeps growing with images and ideas that I'm finding in reading so many brides' blogs. I hope that I can share with you my journey, and perhaps along the way share some inspiration with you, too.

My aesthetic is an eclectic blend of vintage and modern. Although I've always preferred clean lines and bold, vibrant colors, I'm finding myself drawn more and more to the traditional. I've always been a DIY kind of girl, and my wedding is no different. I have many projects that I plan to undertake in the next few months, and I'm excited to be able to share with you my successes... and though I'm hoping I won't have nearly as many blunders as successes, I'll share them, too!  Maybe you'll be able to learn from my mistakes : )

Really I'm just an average girl, planning a wedding on a budget and coping with the distance between the fiancé and me. I'm extremely excited to start this blog.  I hope it will enable me to make some new friends along the way, and at the very least it will serve as a souvenir when all is said and done.

Until next time,

J