SHOES!!!!!!!

It was INCREDIBLE! Ever since deciding that I would have purple as part of our wedding colors I have wanted purple shoes!! I looked high and low; zappos, off broadway, target, payless, the list goes on and on and I just couldn't find the perfect pair. Either the color was off or they just didn't look like wedding shoes. I don't wear heals very often but I really wanted to wear heels with my dress.

I was out at TJ MAXX tonite looking for a new work shirt with the Hubs and while he perused the guys sections I wondered over to the shoe section... and TA DA:


I LOVE them. They aren't your typically wedding shoe which I also like, but what topped the deal was:


$19.99 for my wedding shoes!! HELL YEAH.

Here's a pic of them on my feet. Its an odd angle and I hate my feet, but here ya go!

Broken Dreams...

So, without going into a lot of detail, circumstances have arose that are most definitely going to make the dream of a ceremony and reception at the Frazier impossible. With things the way the are, spending $2,000 on just the space, won't cut it. We were on a tight budget to begin with but were willing to spend the money on a great site.. location means a lot to us. But now with an even tighter budget I had two options:
a. find a new location
b. extend our time frame from our 3rd anniversary to our 5th.
I really didn't want to wait that long so I'm now back on the search for a place that will allow us to have room for both the ceremony and reception, bring in any caterer we want, and preferably our own alcohol for less than $2,000.

Wish me luck!

Cake Inspirations

Hubs and I have a friend that is a FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC baker. She's going to school to be a professional baker {that doesn't sound right but yeah} Anyway, she has made all our birthday cakes to date and so I'm really excited about having her make our wedding cake(s).

First up I'll show you what I'm thinking for the grooms cake. My man is a HUGE sports fan so I thought something like this would be awesome:
except of course I'd have to change the teams to his favorites {Chargers, Kings & White Sox}. I hadn't even gotten around to showing him this before he stated that he didn't want the grooms cake at our reception... instead he really wanted the cake to be something smallish and have it served at the rehearsal dinner. Okay, well I don't really consider this cake to be smallish so it was out... the next cake I found though I'm sure he'll like, and meets all the specifications:Again, picture this as a black hat with a WHITE Sox logo on it, I really like it and I think that he'll enjoy it too.

Okay, on to what its really all about... My inspiration is from a couple different pictures so you'll have to kind of mind meld them together!

Okay this is essentially the cake I want. 2 round layers 2 square. I don't want it to be this big though. I want more of a tall, skinnier cake. This is the color I want the swirls and ribbon to be. I really like this idea of not having the topper on the actual top of the cake. I think this is where I will be my topper.

The next few pictures are what I'd like the cake table to actually look like: I really like the lighting on this cake... It really makes the cake stand out! The top picture is really different and I love that its different. What I think would be really killer is if I could take whats on the table in this bottom picture and put it under the glass of the top picture. What do you think? Am I crazy?

OMG...

Out of pure boredom comes the wedding dress of all wedding dresses. On what is sure to be my last weekend home, as I reenter the work force, I decided to get out of the house and go have some fun. Not thinking about anything other than trying on dresses and having fun with a girlfriend. I think I found it... I have no pictures as this wasn't planned but yeah.. I think this is it!

Flowers...

Purple flower inspiration:

Calla Lilies: My all time FAVORITE flowerTulips: 2nd fave..I've never seen them in this dark color but I'm loving it. Allium: How cute are these? I've never heard or seen these before in real life but I'm lovin' the picture. Hydrangea: These are dyed but I still love them. Phlox: Also a flower I've never seen in real life {to my knowledge} but find really pretty.Ranunculus: These are different and that's a good thing! Mum: LOVE. Dahlia: One of my absolute favorite flowers Poeny: Hubs and I had a poeny bush on the side of a previous rental. It was gorgeous. Anemone: This is a delicate little flower that I think is just to die for cute.Carnations: lovely and cheap. Does it get any better?

Too Early... Part II

Okay, so I admit it. I don't know anyone who can go to a dress website and only look at the bridesmaid dresses... So, YES, late last night while the Hubs was sleeping next to me I wandered over to the bridal dresses on DB. and I found a few dresses that I liked.. I want something terrible to go try these dresses on!!!FrontBack

Style: 9J9869... Description: Ball gown skirt with tiers of soft, flowing organza. Ruched strapless bodice flows into an ethereal skirt silhouette. brooch at the waist and chapel train.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this dress. It was one of the dresses in the window at DB when we walked in! I think its kinda crazy that I like this dress, cause I never ever pictured myself in something like this but we shall see.FrontBack
Style: T9568... Description: Satin A-line with pleated bodice, and beaded lace appliques. sweep train.
This is more of what I pictured myself in... something very simple. FrontBack
Style: T9612... Description: Allover beaded lace trumpet gown with empire waist and cap sleeves. Chapel train.
I never pictured myself wearing anything other than a simple strapless gown, but I have to admit that I love the back of this gown. For a really long time now I've wanted to wear a lariat necklace at my reception. This dress has the deep V in the back that would really set it off. FrontBack
Style:ES9808...Description: Faille, V-neck ball gown. hidden skirt pockets and sweep train.
2 words: SKIRT POCKETS *swoon* I'm in L-O-V-E FrontBack
Style:8CT314 ...Description:Draped satin bodice with slightly dropped waist featuring beaded embroidered detail. Ball gown skirt with allover beaded lace chapel train.
The front of the this is drop dead gorgeous! I love it. I'm not so sure I feel the same about the train.. but I won't have to look at the train! *hehe*

I guess we'll see!!!

Too Early??!!

Okay, I know its WAY to early for this but I think I've fallen in love... with bridesmaid dresses!?!
I had to go to the AT&T store yesterday to have my phone looked at and of course it had to be next door to David's Bridal!! I couldn't resist. Hubs and I really just wanted to grab a catalog and run but couldn't find any... so we ended up inside and *ahhh....* I LOVE bridal salons! A few posts back I had a small meltdown about bridesmaid dresses well the long/short controversy was ended when Hubs said he wouldn't show up if the maids wore short... so here's the dress I adore...

Style: 84066... Description: Satin, strapless A-line gown with wide ruched waist band. Also has a slight sweetheart neckline and side skirt pockets.

This is the "navy" color that it would be in.. DB calls it marine. Its simple and formal but still somehow playful even with the long skirt. Would it be crazy to ask my bridesmaids to buy dresses 21 months in advance??? LOL..

**New Fear** DB will stop carrying the dresses I adore before we get a chance to order them!

And new question... should my MOH wear a different dress? For a while there I thought about letting all my girls wear a different dress. They all have different body types and I thought that would be easier than finding a dress that would look good on all of them, but this dress (granted I haven't seen it on my bridesmaids) might be able to do the unthinkable! I still want my MOH to stand apart to some degree though. I don't know if a different dress is the way to do that or not. But if it is, I think I may have an option for her as well, what do you think about this dress?Style:F12732... Description: Chiffon and charmeuse combination dress, with high neckline.

Its more formal than the other but I think that's okay. Of course, I'd still want to run both dresses by the girls. I don't want to put them in a dress they hate! While browsing the DB website late last night I also came across these:

Style: F12495... Hubs favorite, my least favoriteStyle: 83961/83801... I'm not usually a 2 piece person but there is something about this that appeals to me, but I know the Hubs will hate it! Style:F13573Style: 81441Style: F13287

I'm gonna forward these on to my girls and see what they think! I know I'm crazy!

books, books & more books!

I *fluffy heart* my Hubs SO much. He's just the sweetest! A while back I went into complete meltdown mode... I'm currently unemployed which means finding the money to make even small purchases can sometimes be hard. When you are as visual a person as I am, its also hard to made decisions without being able to put together mock ups and really playing with different things. Well, my sweetheart knew he couldn't afford to go out and buy all things needed to start centerpiece mock ups (more on that front soon) but he did stop at borders and pick me up these:




Hubs knows {obviously!} that I am a HUGE list person. I can sometime write a list 3, 4 even 5 times over again, just to help me flush out thoughts or ideas. This book is great because it has everything that you could possibly need. I'm sure to save a lot of time by using their generalized list and then adding on to it to make it my own.

The other "book" is also great. Its really more of a binder than book. It has places to hold business cards, graph paper to lay out floor plans, a guest list tracker, and a lot more! One book to help me remember and one book to help me keep things together.

I am still thinking about putting together a binder with page protectors to house all my inspiration photos, contracts and anything else I collect all the way!

Color....

Okay, so I know many of you will think that we are crazy, but after much pondering we have given in.

Our wedding colors were/are Navy blue, Eggplant purple & Gray. Don't know how many of you have ever tried to find anything in these colors but its not easy. Mainly because blue and purple are so close to each other on the color wheel. What I could find was red! Navy & red; Eggplant & red; Even gray and red! Four colors seems like a little much... Hubs thought 3 colors was a little much but agreed that navy and purple was going to need a lighter color to help round it out. Dark colors are our thing.. if you haven't noticed?! =0) So of course the first color that comes to mind is Crimson!!! But can you say emo/gothic chic?? Doesn't really play into that whole fun, whimsical mindset huh? I don't know about anybody else and I'm not knocking anything but just no! ya know?! So began combing through the options...

1) Ditch Navy.. so colors would be Crimson, Eggplant & Gray. But we've already bought blue items.

2) Ditch Eggplant.. so colors would be Navy, Crimson & Gray. But in my mind it just looked like a 4th of July party! Ummm, NO.

3) Ditch Gray.. so colors would be Navy, Eggplant & Crimson. Okay, even to dark for me. Plus this combo just screams gothic and that's so not what we want conveyed at our celebration
so after much debate we went with option

4)Ditch our favorite red but add a red that works with the color scheme already chosen! Our improved color scheme is:

Navy blue, Eggplant purple, Candy Apple red & Gray.

Ring Pillow

So almost everything I buy has to have some sort of alteration. My wedding colors just aren't that popular, especially in the spring/summer seasons! Anyway, I had to share this find with you! I was in Shelbyville visiting family and decided to go browse the goodwill! I LOVE the goodwill for their prices {most of the time} and their ever evolving selections!

On this day there happened to by a whole rack of wedding items. Unity candles and their base, flower basket, guest book & this pillow:
I'm not huge on the fact that it is bright white but that can be changed! I feel in love for 2 reasons: One. Its small. Our bearer will be a few months shy of 3 years old when we have our celebration so having a huge pillow would look off. And Two. it was 50 cents!

My thinking was that I could take this small pillow, take the ribbons off, buy new fabric and just use this as the pillow form but a crafty friend suggested that it would be easier & cheaper if we just "un-stitched" a corner took whatever is in it out and dyed the pillow whatever color we wanted! I'm super excited about this DIY, dying is always fun!!! And if were not happy after its done... will I still have my pillow stuffing don't I?!

Odds & Ends

For the time being {I say this because Hubs works for a restaurant so schedules are always changing} Hubs is home on Saturday mornings! So, needless to say we've been hitting the neighborhood yard sales. We aren't hard core about it or anything but have had a little bit of luck. {probably would have more luck but I just can't bring myself to dig through things!} In one such outing I found the perfect empty frame prop for our DIY photo booth for 25 cents! I never took a picture of it so I can't share {sorry} right now, but I was truly excited especially after venturing to the local goodwill where they wanted close to 5$ for a frame this size! Right now its in the to be painted pile of the "wedding war room" which used to be our dining room! As per everything else I have no idea what color I'd like to paint it! Right now its just your plain old wooden frame... and that just wont do! =)

On to another yard sale where I found this guy!
Obviously, this guy is that start of my "jar/vase" collection that will turn into our candy bar! This jar was 4$ and I love it! Of course I'll have to play up our colors with ribbon and I'll have a tag as to what candies are in the different jars!

I have also bought some just standard clear scoops to go with my candy bar that I will be dressing up. I'm thinking ribbon and maybe some rhinestones on the handle. What do you think? I have 2 of each size {although, I don't know if I'll be using the largest size, Its really big}. 6 scoops cost me 3$. That didn't seem to bad to me! Now I just have to decide what candy I want! I feel as though I'm doing certain things backwards but I guess that's what you've got to do when you find great deals!!

The Getaway!

Picture it.. its the end of the night, we're ready for our "grand" exit, all the guest have gathered outside for the photo op, we open the doors and all the guests have ________!
Okay, its time to fill in the blank!

Originally, I wanted these!

Aren't they great? Ribbon wands; they are simple, fun and as you can tell make for a cool picture! It would be another DIY but who cared? I am up for anything that is going to make my wedding day and especially the pictures {because we will not have enough money in the budget for a cinematographer} look AMAZING!!

Then in dawned on me! You dummy. Our ceremony and reception are in the same place. There won't be a day exit {i.e. leaving church to go to reception/picture location or an afternoon reception that involves a grand exit during day light hours!} I was sad to see this idea go because I thought it was really cute. So now the brainstorming begins. I'm determined to have a "grand" exit. Hubs hated the idea. He didn't think we needed one and when I found out, the only thing that I could think of for a night time exit, sparklers, were not permitted at my venue I figured it was fate telling me that I just really didn't need that exit... A week or so later I stumbled across this picture and everything changed! Even the Hubs thought it was fun and agreed that if I could find some that wouldn't break the bank, this would be our exit.

Fast forward to last week... OH how I love the holidays! Knowing that I'm renewing my vows on my 3rd anniversary has given me 21 months to plan my celebration that's 2 of almost every holiday to take advantage of the savings and sales they have to offer. I bring this up because Target now has 4th of July goodies in there 1$ section, including, you guessed it, glow bracelets! As long as these bad boys stay in the dark they are good for basically ever! There are 15 per tube and I got 5 tubes. That's a little less than the number of invited guests but I'm sure some won't want to participate and some older guests may have already left the party by the time the exit rolls around!In a previous trip to Marshalls {my time in this store}, way back when I was still thinking that I was going to be using the wands I came across these:
They are just your standard pencil cup but I love the design of them and thought they'd work great for holding the wands until the time came for the big exit! There job has changed only slightly. Now that they'll be holding the glow bracelets I think I'll only need to use one. Any ideas for the other could be used for?? These are black so they will be spray painted before we use them. Here is a close up if the detail {again, sorry for the poor picture quality}
All in all, we'll have spent 8$ on our super cool exit!

What kind of exit did you have/going to have at your wedding?