{wedding colors}

i've said all along that i wanted more a color palette than just a single color (or two)...but judging by the look on my youngest bridesmaids face last night as i was trying to explain the palette, i'm not very good at explaining this idea...

so, i've made a sort of inspiration board, hopefully this helps:

there will be a lot of linen/creme and the gold-orange-pink-green in details like the flowers--and the groom/groomsmen will most likely be wearing linen too. hints of that sort of sapphire blue will be in details like invitations and the bridesmaids dresses... and finally deep chocolate browns in details like table linens...etc.

i can feel this starting to come together...so exciting

{she wore flowers in her hair}

i've spent my last few lunches searching for something that felt right, and i think i found what i'll be wearing in my hair... (well, at least i've narrowed it down!)

this should also be a really good indication of the style and feel of the wedding--vintage, handmade, organic, soft...

what do you think?

{lists}

Today I found a short little list I made a few months ago while daydreaming about getting married so that when the time finally came (YAY!), I would remember a few key things:

1. please ban the word “princess” from the wedding…I will not be looking, feeling, dancing, etc as a “princess”, I will simply be me.
2. bare feet or nearly bare feet (this is why Kail and I are so right for each other)
3. a ribbon tied around my wrist (it makes me feel lucky and it’s simple, I’ve never worn very much jewelry).
4. a day that is quiet and simple, with no fluff.
5. flowers in my hair
6. candles
7. a color palette

It made me laugh, it was fun to find. AND I think all of these things are slowly making their way into the planning… Quiet and simple. If anyone asks, that’s the theme of our wedding. Our reception though, now that’s a whole other matter! Here’s a hint: If you don’t know how to dance salsa, it just might be a good time to learn!

{surprises}

I confess: I love surprises. I think I also might be one of the easiest people in the world to surprise because I always trust people and I miss little signs all the time. I tend to be blissfully unaware more often than not (this is because my job requires so much brain power that I have exhausted my daily quota of intelligence by the time I finish each day). Anyway, there are a few details of the wedding planning that I want to remain as much of a secret as possible.

Such as:

1. The song I’m walking down the aisle to (I know this probably won’t stay secret forever, but I’m hoping this one will stay hushed for as long as possible).
2. My dress. If you are not a bridesmaid, immediate family member or future in-law, I’m hoping the first time you see my dress it is a surprise…but this may change—because I’m really excited!
3. The guestbook...funny detail to stay secret, I know, but it’s a surprise, enough said.
   

I did not mention before though, that I’m actually really awful at keeping secrets…so all of these things may not stay so mysterious, but for now, it’s fun! So if you know any of these things, shhh… everyone else will have to wait.

{venue hunting}

Venues may be the single detail that have me just the slightest bit anxious. Starting out I was really afraid that we would have a really hard time finding a venue with a September date open since it is already February. Luckily, this hasn’t actually happened yet. We are 5 for 5 in finding venues with open dates (albeit, one venue was offering us discounts if we would commit to booking September 11th…which might not seem too awful, but if you know me, than you know that September 11th impacted me a lot and I’m not really sure that I would want to make that my wedding day).

Still, venue shopping takes a lot of fun out wedding planning (at least momentarily for me) because it puts an absolute monetary value on your wedding day (which makes me kinda want to make ugly faces even at the reasonably priced, pretty venues).

Venues are probably my least favorite part of this so far (well…making the guest list might tie for first place) but at least there is a silver lining in this little cloud—a really big silver lining actually—once we have a venue, which I fully expect to have in the next week or so—we will have a wedding date! I’m not sure who is more excited about this—me or Kail’s dad, Gil (aww, how sweet, right?). In Gil’s words, “just to have a date…to know…to say ‘this is the day’” will be wonderful.

I love how sweet our wedding is shaping up to be.

{the veil}

So here is a fantastic example of not having to choose:

When it comes to the question of a veil, let’s just say I’m a fan. I think veils make everything soft and very feminine. I think they also lend themselves to beautiful photo ops and can be easily passed down.

BUT, I am also a huge fan of flower/feather hairpieces that are literally taking over the wedding scene and online shops like etsy.com. I love well made, vintage-inspired hairpieces.

So—here’s the fun part—I’ll be wearing both! For our lovely Maryland wedding, since it will be (weather permitting) outside and have that wonderful hand-made/organic feel, I’ll wear a flower hairpiece. For our Puerto Rico catholic cathedral/old-world church wedding, I’m wearing a fingertip length veil and a blusher (I love my blusher…it feels soooooo super romantic).

So no choice involved, I can have both!

{bridesmaids}

Yay for bridesmaids! (or as Courtney would say “wee!”)

Choosing bridesmaids was so easy and probably one of the first decisions I made. Thanks to kail having an entire troop of best friends (seriously, there are 6 groomsmen and I really think he could have easily added at least one more) I can surround myself with 6 a-m-a-z-i-n-g girls. And here they are:

The lovely Liz Neeley. Big sister of the bride (that’s me!!)

The dashing Diana Flynn. Little sister of the bride (yay! That’s me!)

The charming Courtney Myers. Future sister-in-law of the bride (wee!)

The amazing Ashley Thomas-Seltzer. High school best friend of the bride.

The joyful Jenna Blair. College best friend of the bride.

The ravishing Rachel Leslie. Friend of the bride and the groom, and fabulous "rockband" bandmate of the bride. (Rachel's on the right, next to her sister Amanda!)

These are the girls...and I know I called them the bridesmaids, but they're all really the maids and matrons of honor! Yay!

This is going to be so much fun!

{200 days}

When kail proposed, he asked for only three things: 1. a beach wedding, 2. warm weather, 3. to be allowed to wear flip flops. Luckily, these are all things I really wanted too…but meeting these fairly simple requests has led to some major decisions:

First, we are getting married in September! September is only about 200 or some days (or about 6 ½ months) away from now—and that’s soon (at least in the wedding-planning world). I am really excited for this though! I’m I feel like the longer I had to plan, the more I would struggle with decisions and most likely procrastinate on…besides, I’m so excited about marrying kail that the rest seems like it will fall into place.

Second, we are getting married twice! This seems like it adds to the intensity of planning a wedding only six or so months away, BUT it actually serves several purposes and has yet to make me feel stressed. In fact, the idea of getting married twice I think is my most favorite detail yet. We will be having a civil ceremony here in Maryland on a beach or near water for our friends and families. We will then have a second wedding, a full catholic mass, in puerto rico in a beautiful old church (also near a beach) with kail’s extended puerto Rican family. The trip to puerto rico will also serve as our honeymoon…and I’m ridiculously excited for that detail too!

I’m so lucky! Who else gets to get married twice? This means if I can’t make up my mind on some detail—like hair up or down?—I just pick one for the Maryland wedding and the other for the puerto rico wedding…so fun.

Did I say I was excited?

{engaged}

he knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring!

we got engaged friday, february 13th, 2009.

and here's our story:

Kail and I (with about 70 other friends) went to Howl At the Moon in Baltimore because Jeff (our friend) had won a free happy hour. Kail requested our song be played by the dueling pianos, and when they went to play our song, the pianists called us up on stage to "dance".

We got up and started to dance and suddenly Kail got down on his knee (aww) and asked me to marry him. Between being shocked and completely surprised and NEARLY crying, I said yes and the pianists dedicated a second song to us that had been played at one of their weddings...

thanks to our friends being there, we have video and photos (will post soon! i promise!) of the whole thing, not to mention an entire fantastic night of singing and fun to remember!

and now the planning starts!