Rehearsal part II

I forgot to mention the rehearsal! Even though our rehearsal will be in the afternoon on Friday we are still planning on doing the traditional rehearsal dinner that night. Steve's mom booked, this past weekend, the upstairs room at Rigazzi's for our rehearsal dinner. Their menu sounds yummmm! I can't wait.

Planning Planning Planning Update :)

So much is getting done it’s exciting. Friday and Saturday were full of wedding stuff. Planning seems to be in full motion now. The flowers are picked out; I have pics I will post soon. I will be getting the vases from a friend this weekend. I think the Friday before the wedding we are going to go to Walter Knoll and make our own centerpieces. The lady there was confident we could do them since they are pretty simple and only contain 1 flower. This cuts down on the cost tremendously. They treat you like a florist, so you get all of the flowers at wholesale prices. They will still deliver everything to the reception site though and set them up. After the florist we went to the Piper Palm house to check it out again and figure out some logistics. Being there just reminded Steve and me how much we love it and can’t wait to get married there.
Saturday was spent trying on dresses and tasting food. I found a dress! I love it and if I could I would post a picture up for all of you to see, but Steve says he can’t know about it at all so I wont do that. :) Ellen and Sarah were along and they ordered their bridesmaid dresses. Kim and Jessica will be doing the same soon and then I can check ordering all of the dresses off my list. From there we went to a tasting of one of the caterers we may use. It was really good. It also was nice to be able to talk to someone in person and get an idea of what they can do and they could get a better idea of what we want.
Sunday we did another sort of tasting. One caterer, Butler’s Pantry, does not do a tasting, but they give you two tickets to go to a brunch they serve. It just happens to be at the Piper Palm house. :) The brunch was good, but I was disappointed because I didn’t feel like it was a good way to choose if I would want them to cater our wedding. I mean I’m not going to be having omelets and French toast at the wedding. Hehe
I am all about getting more things done. I have been looking up stuff left and right. I am waiting on a few referrals before contacting a baker, invites and dj. Steve is the main one on DJ duty though. Lots of posts coming up I hope.

Flowers

One of our stops on Friday is to Walter Knoll florist. They come well recommended from both Kara Chung and Kim Gilmore. Here are two bouquets that I like a lot. I found the white one first for me and later came across the bridesmaid one that was very similar. I don't know what kind of flowers I want in mine, but I really like how they are surrounded by the big green leaves. I had another bouquet I liked a lot, but I can't seem to find the picture of it anywhere right now.

I found the third one I like! See below. I really like the folded palms in it.

Planning Planning Planning

It’s getting so close to Christmas! I am very excited to get to see and spend some time with all of our families. I am also very excited because we are going to get some big things checked off the wedding to-do list. On the agenda while in St Louis is: going to the florist, visiting the Piper Palm house, Bridal dress shopping, visiting with 2 caterers and a dinner with Steve’s parents and my parents. It is going to be a few very busy days, but it will be nice to have some of these things completed. After this the next things seem to be finding an officient, a dj, a bus to drive us and a cake place.

Happy Holidays!

We put up our tree tonight. It is now feeling like the holidays around our home. Chewie also got a new sweater today. He insisted I post a picture of him in it looking adorable. He is very funny in the sweater. He actually likes wearing it. :)

SK Ring

When we were at the Plaza Art Fair this past September Steve and I had come across this jeweler from New Jersey. Steve really liked one ring they had. Being that the wedding was a year away he wasn't ready to make a commitment to just one ring yet. :) So he decided to wait on buying it. We took their card and all of the information on the ring he liked. The style he wants is like the one below.
Last night after going to the T-Mobile store(we are getting new cell phones!) we stopped by a local jewelry store I have always wanted to go in, Moshiri. They had a wonderful selection of men's rings and they were very affordable. To make it better they had styles like the one Steve liked. But they didn't have exactly what he wanted. The owner was there and he said to come in and they will work with him to create what he wants, send it to their maker and let us know they price and then we can decide on it. It was very exciting. We didn't buy anything and are still planning on looking a few other places, but I have a feeling he will be getting his ring there.

Photos!

I forgot to mention that we found a photographer! We met with Pattie Gabriel the day of Becky and Steve's wedding at her studio. Steve and I really liked all of her work. I really liked some of the little things you don't get with other places. For example, our proofs will come in a handmade box for us to keep. Besides these things Patti seemed really easy to get along with and I think it will be great to have her document our special day.

Cute!

I just saw this cute saying on Once Wed. They made boxes to place feathers in to toss as the newley weds walked back down the aisle. The boxes had this saying attached: "When the newly weds walk your way, toss these feathers and shout 'HOORAY". I may replace feathers with poms and attach to the bags with the poms in them. :)

Paper Pomander Balls

I have always loved the idea of pomander balls hanging down the aisle(on the chairs) but getting these seems silly as I'm sure they aren't cheap and then there's the hassle of flowers falling off of them. But then I saw this DIY project on Once Wed. They are paper pomander balls. The approximate cost of one is $5, but they got the Styrofoam balls SUPER cheap. I paid $5 for one at Micheal's!

So last weekend I picked up a ball, paper(its Martha Stewart) and a cute flower paper punch(also Martha...found it cheaper later at WalMart though). The rest I used what I had at home. I think it turned out really good. I can only imagine how great one made with all the right materials would look.

My delima now is do I want to make these and have the pom poms on the chairs? It might be too much. Oh and the pomanders would probably only go on every other row half way down the Piper Palm House. I don't know! Sometimes I think I have too many ideas and they aren't all going to go together! eek.

Did some research today and I found this site where you can get the balls for about $1.75 each, when purchasing 12. Not too bad.

Pom Poms 2

I found these two pics of throwing pom poms. It makes me love them even more. I have been trying to think of ways we can use them as decorations as well. I really like what this couple did. They had three next to each other, but they were in the middle of pews. I don't know where you would find something like they used or how to attach them to chairs. Any ideas?

Busy!

Things have been very busy lately. We were in St Louis last weekend for Becky and Steve's wedding (congratulations!!!) and ever since then the ball has really gotten rolling on planning. We met with a photographer last Saturday, I emailed a florist and ceremony officiant this week and mom called a caterer today for us. We have been lining up days we are back in STL next with appointments. It is going to be very busy, but I can't wait to get everything going! I have lots of pictures and things I want to blog about. Hopefully I can find time later on to fill you in on everything.

Rehearsal

My mom has been in contact with the Piper Palm house and we found out the times we can have the rehearsal are kind of awkward times. Our choices were on Thursday or before noon on Friday. After talking with my mom and Kim I decided that we would have it from 11-12 on Friday, the last possible time we could get. I figure that way it gives people some time to get into town if they can. I'm sure not everyone will be able to make this time, since it isn't really ideal, but I figure enough of us will be able to get there we can fill in those who weren't there on Friday night or on Saturday before the ceremony. We will still have a rehearsal dinner traditionally on Friday night. Hope everything goes smoothly. :)

Things I need to do next: contact caterors and officients

Etsy

Just bought these two flowers from Etsy today. They are by tijusai.

Ellen and I are going to wear them in our hair. I am becoming addicted to Etsy. I could look at it for hours. I have been spending most of my lunch hour looking at it every day. It would be so awesome to make such creative things and sell them on there. It does inspire me to want to start crafting more.

Playing Dress Up

Growing up Ellen and I used to try on my mom's wedding dress every year. Here I am modeling it one year outside our house on West A.

Since mom and dad moved, mama has the dress at her house. We all know I couldn't fit into it today, but she sent me the veil. It's so pretty. I hope I will be as beautiful as mom was on her wedding day. :) And that I have a little girl some day that can put my dress on year after year.

Sylas & Maddie's

Chewie LOVES ice cream. Friday night we got Sylas & Maddie's and Steve insisted we get Chewie a mini cup. I wish there was a way to have Sylas & Maddie's at the reception. I wish we could have Chewie there also. :)

Waiting patiently for his treat....

Eating it up.....

Fabric Swatch

The bridesmaids dresses are going to be aubergine, which sometimes looks maroon(like the yarn I bought) and sometimes looks more purple. So before I go choosing other purple items, I wanted to make sure they matched up. Last week I ordered a swatch of the dress fabric and it came this weekend. I love the color and I think its going to look good on everyone. Just to make sure, I created this....

Bridal Show

Last Sunday Lauren invited me to go along with her and her mom to a bridal show in Overland Park. It was a lot of fun. Most of the people there were vendors for the Kansas City area, but I got a few good ideas. I also was able to check out places to look at invitations. I was inspired to try to do them myself, but I have rethought that. I don't know if I want to spend the man work on them. We will see though.

Shoes!

I forgot to mention a few weeks ago I saw these cute shoes at Marshall's. They only had my size in red though, but I was able to go to another store and find them in this off-white color. I think they may work with some of the dresses I liked, if not they were only $15. They are pretty comfortable and they only have a small heel, just like I would want. I plan on taking them when I try on dresses again in December.

Pom Poms

I saw this is idea and fell in love with it. I think it could look really cool.
Instead of guests blowing bubbles or throwing rice(which I don't think anyone does anymore), you have them throw pom poms. I picked up two skeins of yarn yesterday and started making some pom poms. I have also enlisted mama to help me work on them. The yarn I got is ivory and aubergine, but I think it looks a little more maroon than I thought it did in the store. 14 down, a couple hundred to go. :)

Photographer

I made an appointment to meet with a photographer on Nov 1, when we are in St. Louis for Becky and Steve's wedding. Her name is Patti Gabriel. Cathy, at NEO, referred her to us. She has a great knowledge of photography. I also had my dad look her site, he seems to know a thing or two about photography :) I liked a lot of the work she has up on her site. I'm looking forward to this meeting a lot.
Check out her site
http://www.pattigabriel.com/

If we can get a good guest list together soon I think I am going to try to make an appointment with a caterer for that Saturday. I also scheduled a day in December to look at dresses again with Ellen, mom and if she can come SL.

Save the Date

I saw this cute save the date card in a magazine I picked up a few weeks ago.
I'm not big on the hearts, but I really like the idea of a scratch-off. Scratch-offs have always been big in my family. I have looked around and it looks like this is the only one out there for this occasion. I think I could live with the hearts.
First we need to get a good guest list together. Steve and I are going to work on his family's this weekend and on ours. My parents have a good list of people they would like to invite already.

Steve is also supposed to ask some people to be his groomsmen this month. I brought it up yesterday and he told me he still has a few days left in Sept. I will probably be asking him about it again in a few days. hehe

The Big Day

Its 363 days till the wedding!
The ceremony is going to be at the Piper Palm House in Tower Grove Park. I was looking at pictures we took when we visited it and I just love it. I think its the perfect place for us to get married.
The reception is going to be on the fourth floor of Neo, with drinks on the rooftop garden.
We don't have much else planned right now. I'm sure this year is going to go by fast. We better get planning!

1st time blogging!

I've never blogged before but my sister did it when she went to Australia and now two of my friends are blogging about their weddings and I think it would be a lot of fun to do. I will try to keep up with this but I don't know if I'm going to be any good at it. It will probably be mostly about the wedding and how cool my dog is(see below). :)