Even pumpkin-lovers get married and need pretty wedding stamps!
We’re going to take a little break this week and weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. I betcha can’t guess who I’m most thankful for this year. (hee hee hee)
Image courtesy of Zazzle
I have a wedding dress. It’s not this. Or this. Or this. And it definitely doesn’t look like the one shown in the picture. I’m just keeping y’all updated. Remember, dress-free zone–we took a bestie oath. (Hint: I did get it here.)
image courtesy of Monique Lhuillier
Last night was momentous! Brad and I decided we had to settle this color issue, so we went to Archiver’s (a scrapbook supply store here in town) and tried to find inspiration in their many papers. We knew we wanted green for sure, so we first worked to find just the right shade. Once we found that, we found the yellow we wanted in a patterned paper, then decided to pick a backup color to use as an accent. We tried blush pink (I felt somewhat obligated to give pink a fair chance, but it looked awful, so we were happy to nix it) and then tried eggplant purple, which looked awesome!
I have to give kudos to Style Me Pretty (one of our favorite wedding blogs!) for all the color palettes they put up. Our yellow was inspired by one of the palettes a reader submitted to their contest (shown here). It was so helpful to see how someone else incorporated their colors into their wedding. I check Style Me Pretty everyday (ok, like four times a day) and I know I’ll be getting even more great ideas from them. Keep tuned for a blog spotlight on them soon!
image courtesy of Style Me Pretty
Well our celebration for the happy couple was an absolute blast. Here are a few pics from the big bash.
First, I’d like to introduce you to the other two besties, Marie Elizabeth (far left) and Rachel (far right). We were the hosts of this big party and it was so much fun. Marie Elizabeth and Rachel, who both had beautiful weddings in the last few years will be popping onto The Bride and Her Bestie every so often to share their words of wisdoms. Love them!
Then we have a pic of our pretty table. I’m so glad we went with this easy menu. It was a total hit.
We were so excited that Joanna’s parents and Brad’s mom were able to make it to the party to celebrate with us.
But one of the greatest moments of the night was when matchmaker/best man, Nate gave Joanna and Brad, bride and groom pez despensers. Nate is a huge collector and it was an adorable gift they will treasure forever.
Yay for a faboulous party. Now on with more wedding planning!
It’s just a few hours till party time but here is a sneak peek into the craziness of my kitchen last night. Brownies, chili, pizza (for watching Greys)! It was NUTS but so much FUN! More pics to come of the big event. Happy weekend!
To celebrate the big engagement, I am doing what every bestie should and throwing an engagement party at my casa for the happy couple. But this classy yet casual affair is not just my doing, the other bestie, Rachel and Marie Elizabeth (you’ll hear their names alot, we’re all besties), are hosting it with me. Even though its a low key party with just a few of our friends and family, we’re all about it! I set a color scheme the other day by heading to our local party store and finding the adorable black and white napkins (top left). Then paired it with a bright color I thought Joanna and Brad would like.
This is going to be quite the shindig. I’m off to the store to stock up on the yummy food for tomorrow’s bash! On the menu, chili and brownies…perfect for a crisp Iowa night!
I know, I know, I’m like the last person on earth to start using delicious.* But I’m making up for it in my enthusiasm for this awesome bookmarking site. I’ve been tagging cakes, caterers, informational websites, images with my “wedding” tag and it’s a LIFESAVER. I can sift through pages and wedding blogs fast, grab the stuff I want, then go back later when I have more time to review it.
*If you don’t know what it is, that’s ok. Here’s a short explanation: Delicious is basically a bookmarking/tagging website. You sign up, then it automatically imports any current bookmarks (and bookmark folders) you have. Then, you install the Firefox add-on and then start browsing online. When you see something you want to remember for later, be it a web page, a picture, anything, you hit the “Tag” button and it saves it in the category you want. Best part: You can access your tagged pages from any computer–you just have to sign in to your delicious account. (Plus, Brad and I can access one another’s tags, so we can share information that way.)
Just to dispel all those rumors that the groom has not been involved in all of the planning stages, I thought I would stop by and mention how much fun it is imagining what our wedding day will be like. Securing our reception venue opened up a world of ideas since we now don’t have to worry about having enough space for roughly 300 food and dance hungry family members and friends. In my research for ideas, I found several images of ceiling swag. Yep. That’s right. Ceiling swag. Once I found the correct name for these swooping strands of cloth, all sorts of photos popped up. The color and lighting in this example from Creative Concepts Special Events is particularly well done. Now the question is, “What material would be inexpensive, yet have a distinct and soft cloth-like look?”. I soon learned that tulle is out of the question, but an alternative to cloth may be gossamer. Or maybe a fabric made specifically for events like ours.
image courtesy of www.creativeconceptsevents.com
Here’s the scene for our reception–the Val Air Ballroom! It’s normally used as a mid-size concert venue in town, but we’re going to dress it to the nines and take over the dance floor for the reception.
Tomorrow, the Bestie, the Groom, and I are going to take measurements and pictures (we’ll probably post some interior shots here) to help us plan the decorating. Brad’s actually coming up with most of them. He’s got great plans. Family, take note: We’ll need your help to pull them off!
image courtesy of Val Air Ballroom
Bridesmaids dresses have definitely improved from the early 90’s but sometimes that aren’t as re-wearable as some brides may think. Today I was cruising around anthropologie.com where I found this adorable dress. Its simple enough to be a bridesmaid dress but it really is re-wearable. Branching out from the traditional bridesmaids dresses can also save big bucks. So head to the local mall before nailing down the perfect dresses…you never know what you’ll find!
Image from anthropologie.com