Thursday, December 24

Merry Christmas (eve)




Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 22

The Great Search for Centerpieces

Today, the brave Fiance and I set on the hunt for the perfect centerpiece. We had started with the internet looking for pieces of inspiration and had decided on three different types. So we set out in our car to find the pieces to compose these essential part to our wedding. (sorry for the poor photo quality)We came up with these:



I really thought that this was going to be my favorite...but it's not the one we chose!



Rose with silver plate


Rose with plate without candle



Rose without both



I really liked the simplicity of this one...Ryan, didn't.



Again, even simpler without plate.


Carnations in water in small vase


Without plate



With plate


Without candle


With everything


Candles on plate


Decisions, decisions!


Ry said, "Why don't we make it more complicated and put the carnations in the rose container?"


And without the plate


I don't know why I took this so dark


Let me introduce to you...


Our Centerpiece! :)

It consists of:
Three carnations (1.50)
One silver plate (2.00)
One tall flared vase (1.00)
One floating candle (1.00)
Five tealight candles with ribbon hot-glued on (1.50)
1/3 package of clear marbles (1.00)
For a grand total of 8 dollars per centerpiece!!! Yippeee!! :)


Monday, December 21

Engagement Photos

I haven't shown everyone our engagement photos yet! Sorry! I just realized this, so today it is going to change! They were taken by my friend from high school, Jenny Venema. She's amazing, very  flexible and fun to work with. She's just starting out, so check her out here and drop some encouragement! The wooded ones were taken in my own backyard, and the other ones were taken downtown Rockford, Mi.











We think this one's going in the paper...(above)















Or this one (above)















I'm so so so happy how they turned out, and like I said, Jenny was fabulous! :) Love her!
And, P.S. Ryan's eyes really are that blue...I have people ask me that all the time when they see our pictures.

Centerpieces

Announcement:
I think we have found our centerpieces! Hooray! I actually found three I really like, all within our budget. Yea! They all have to deal with three or less flowers (carnations or roses) and one tall vase (found at the dollar store. I'm averaging less than 5 dollars a centerpiece! We have less than 20 tables, so $100 for centerpieces is not too shabby...Ryan and I are doing 'mock' centerpieces tomorrow, and I'm sure you'll see photos!

Anyways, Christmas is so so soon. I haven't hardly started my shopping. The next two days, I have a complete game plan, I made a list of things I need to get done for about the past week! I feel like there is not enough time in the day!

172 days!

Thursday, December 17

Bridesmaids

So, this is what I have so far for my bridesmaids:
Shoes

(They all match, and since the girls are all taller than me except one, we're doing flats.)


The Dresses

The girls dresses are all different, which I love, but all in the same color (my sangria). They ended up coordinating PERFECTLY, so they have roughly the same style (short and strapless) and fabric (beautiful, light chiffon). We are going to have them shortened a little bit by the makers, so they will all hit just above the knee. I cannot wait to see them all together! :)
MOH:
My maid of honor is my best friend, Stassia. She is getting married in February. Yea! So it has been so much fun planning our weddings together! Her dress is this one:




Maid #1: My next bridesmaid is my other best friend, Beth. She has been with me since second grade, and we have been through everything together. We have lived together, gone to the same college, and when we were 10, swam in the same neighborhood pool. She is wearing:





Maid #2: My last girl is Ryan's little sister, but she's more than that to me. She's been my little sister the entire time Ry and I have been dating. I've never had a sister, and hanging out with Lindsay has been a truly rewarding experience. Lindsay will be wearing (sorry bad picture quality):




Jewelry

I wanted to keep the jewelry simple, and all matching like the shoes. They will be wearing large CZ studs and CZ bracelets (they are very beautiful!).
(I will post photos of the jewelry soon, I have not taken photos yet! :)

Bouquets




Since the girls are all wearing different dresses, I wanted to continue the theme of different styles in their bouquets. My maids, my moms, and I will all be making our own flowers and decorations the tuesday before the wedding. I found an amazing little store here in Grand Rapids that rents out the studio time and the cooler room, and since I buy the flowers wholesale, doing it this way is cheaper than having a floral place do it for me (and way more fun!). Our main flowers are peonies, roses and carnations. Stassia will have a bouquet of mainly roses with some carnations.
(Side note, our bouquets are not going to look exactly like this, they will be closer to my final posted bouquet, pure flowers and ribbon hand tied).


Bethany will be having peonies and some carnations




And Lindsay will have all carnations


My Bouquet will incorporate all three flowers, the girl's will be various shades of pinks, and mine will be all white. (Kinda like this, however with carnations...)




However, all you lovely ladies out there have really changed my perception of the decorations and the flowers! Here I thought that I was being unusual with having different kinds of flowers, and you gals are making them out of totally different materials or even succulents!  I wish I would've started planning after I saw all your ideas! :) I still think that I'm going to do the real flowers, just because I've budgeted and paid for them...but if we ever re-new our vows... :)

We are still missing centerpieces, but I have several ideas...
ANNND, after Christmas, invitation tutorial...yea! :)


Saturday, December 12

Girl's Day

I am a horrible blogger.

I had a girls day. There are these two girls at my work who are FABULOUS. We have all just clicked as friends, we have so much fun together. When I am with them, I feel like we've known each other for years, even though it's only been like a few months. They are so pretty and confident and fun. Anyways, we had a girls day. Mall, movies, and dinner. We started at noon, with new moon. I loved the Twilight series, not impressed with the movies (it's never as good as the book). I just liked the series because they were a fun easy, read and they let your imagination go crazy! After the movie, was Maurices. I was so so naughty and spent WAY too much money, but it's not my fault that they have really cute clothes! Then, the mall. Old Navy (I got Ryan some pj pants and slippers and some comfy shirts for Christmas...really good deals!), Forever 21, Wet Seal, Payless, PacSun, Plato's Closet and the list goes on and on....it was really fun just looking and giving opinions (especially since I've never gone shopping with her before!!). Then, to Outback Steakhouse (yum) where Ryan works. We were hoping to sit in his section, but found out that he was cut just before we got there, so we sat in my other fabulous friend's section (Miss Hannah G) and Ryan got to eat with us. Like I said, I haven't been friends with these girls for very long, so Ryan hasn't met them before. He really liked them, he noticed how well we clicked and work together (no pun intended). Anyways, after this whole fun filled day...I am ashamed to say that my camera battery was dead, so there are no photos. :( I am so sorry my friends...next time I promise to be a better blogger!!

Stay tuned though!! I have photos of fun wedding stuff to come soon! :)

Wednesday, December 9

Snow Snow Snow



We are under a horrible BLIZZARD!  Meteorologists are predicting horrible roads and storms. The road conditions are so bad, it is forcing Michiganders to stay inside and risk CABIN FEVER! It's ok though, with exams coming up, its probably a good thing! And today is my day off from work to relax and catch up on errands and homework. So, since I was not aloud to go outside (except early this morning, to buy new tires...yipee!) I had a very boring day. I was so un-motivated. I got up and did homework and then took a nap and then ate...that's pretty much it. So boring. I didn't have any motivation to do any wedding stuff...it was so sad. I did watch Made of Honor though...LOVE Patrick Dempsey. 




( I have a thing for guys with dark hair and blue eyes and button-ups...reminds me of someone else I know...)





Which reminds me, Grey's Anatomy is on tomorrow! Yes! I think that Meredith and Derek's wedding was just what it should be, simple and perfect. They just committed to spend the rest of their lives together and to love each other the rest of their lives, which is all a wedding is. It's a great reminder when I get stressed out about the little things, because at the end of the day, I only want to be married to Ryan and spend the rest of my life with him. 


Anyways, going to go lay around some more...haha.




Sunday, December 6

Bowling and Parties

This last thursday, my work had a bowling-Christmas-get-together-party thing. It was really fun, and since I work at the same place my dad works, my entire family, including Ryan got to be there. It was very great. I loved the party even more just because all the people I love were together. And Ryan gets along so well with my brothers, it's almost as if they were meant to be. It makes me so happy.

No new news of wedding stuff. I might be going a little bit crazy with the whole poof idea, though. I think that I'm going to have them on the chairs lining the isle (since we're getting married outside, I wanted some color to make everything pop, but budget friendly) and then my florist said that to get your budget to stretch farther, you should use your chair decorations at the reception hall. So, I'm thinking that we could use them on the chairs like such:



And then after the ceremony, we could put them behind the food at the reception hall like this:




What do you think? Too poof crazy? They would be in shades of pink and white....

Another thing, PINK? What was I thinking?? When I originally was looking for colors, we decided that we could do the 'sangria' color from DB.


This color goes really well with light pink. It just is so pretty. HOWEVER, pink is much easier to find than this purple color. UGGH. So unfortunately, my decorations are all turning into pinks. So so not what I wanted. It's really pretty, however, it does not fit us as a couple. And I don't know what to do. I don't know if I'm stressing out about this way too much (because the only thing that matters is that Ryan and I will be married at the end of the day) but I also want to make sure that it doesn't look like a third-grader's birthday party (especially with the poofs...I have to be careful!!) I guess the idea in my mind was romantic with a twist (that was the purple). I wanted peonies and the poofs because of the frilly-ness, and lots of solid colors and soft light. But I just want to make sure the whole venue looks romantic, not childish. I think that I should just try harder to use less pink (even tho it is very simple to find!).

Ok, done venting and worrying. Time to be happy.