{a good hair day}

maybe i could convince my hair to look like this for the wedding...

{time for the countdown}

Ready for a progress report? The good news is, well according to my wedding planning checklists at least, I am pretty much right on schedule! There’s a few things here and there that I’m working on and probably should finish up soon, but all in all, I think since most checklists span an entire year, and we’ve only been engaged for a little more than a month, and I’ve had to catch up to the “six months before” column, I’m doing really good.

Here is my to-list:

ASAP to-do:

1. Plan an engagement dinner (probably just for parents, families and local attendants… I might even host this myself!)
2. Research and book a photographer (this is in process right now, I’m just hammering out details)
3. Narrow down the guest list
4. Send save-the-dates (this is my weekend project for March 21!)
5. And on the groom’s to-do: Start planning our honeymoon (hooray!)

Over-the-next-month-or-so to-do:

1. Start our pre-wedding counseling
2. Book officiants
3. Finish designing print materials: invitations, response cards, directions/maps, programs, menu cards, place cards…
4. Go for tastings (yay!) with our caterer and baker
5. Find a wedding band for Kail (aww!)
6. Figure out what Kail and the groomsmen will be wearing

Small projects to remember to keep working on:

1. Find a second dress (I think I might be able to check this off on Friday!!!)
2. Find and order a flower hairpiece for me and the flowergirl
3. Find a flowergirl dress
4. Figure out hair/make-up and jewelry situation
5. Have engagement photos taken

I'm feeling so ambitious...

{centerpieces}

I have decided on my centerpieces! Thanks to my mom knowing where to look and being so thrifty, we have began assembling various sized and shaped glass vases (think more hurricane vase shape) to crown our tables (many of the vases costing $1 or less!). These vases will all be finished by a single cream colored candle—my plan is to have the candles lit about an hour before the reception starts so that all that melty-waxy-loveliness can get going before anyone gets here. That way, when you walk in to the reception, it will be like we were waiting for you (mmm, like a house at Christmas time or a really good spa, you know?)

We set up a practice setting and decided on a compilation of five different vases with candles surrounding a single vase that will sit in the center and hold a tall stem of multi-bloom flowers (think orchids or such). I haven’t decided on the flower yet but am playing with the idea of incorporating sticks—which will probably be in small touches elsewhere in our décor.

Don’t laugh, sticks can be very chic (haha…let me find a picture to help you see my vision)

(p.s. our centerpieces are a very green detail too! We’re using mostly vases we’ve found with found materials—like sticks!)

{the bride wore...}

so some of you may already know but i already have picked out and ordered my wedding dress (not the dress in the picture). i found this dress just a few days after we were engaged, the same day I choose bridesmaids dresses and my mom and mother-in-law picked out their coordinating dresses (it was a very long, very busy day—but fun!). I think that I tried on somewhere around 30 dresses and in the end, choose the only dress I wanted to put back on…

I love this dress, it’s very comfortable and light, and perfect for the style of our wedding. And (drum roll please)… it was such a good price, that the opportunity to buy a second dress has sort of presented itself. Since I’m getting married twice after all, what seems more fun than having a second dress?!

I’ve been looking for awhile and after a false alarm of thinking I had found the second one for sure (if you’re interested, it’s a Casablanca dress, style 1900) I started watching and reading the ads on http://www.oncewed.com/ and http://www.preownedweddingdresses.com/. The dresses on these websites have either been worn once, were store samples or were bought and never worn because that bride bought a second dress (apparently, this happens to a lot of people! Who knew!). Because these dresses are somewhat “second-hand” or whatever you choose to call them, they are being sold for much less than their original prices. This is fantastic!

I am nearly certain I have found my second dress (also not the dress in the picture, lol) via one of these websites—a designer gown by Pronovias that is brand new, with tags. It was never worn and has only been hemmed…fortunately for me (and maybe fatefully) the bride who bought the dress happens to be my exact height and street size. And because it was designed in 2007 (so it’s not this season) the seller is asking only 30% of it’s original price.

I’m really excited! I am making my final decision on Friday, and am giving myself these few days to let it sink in, to keep comparing it to other dresses, to search past and current collections…but the more I look, the more I get excited about this dress.

Wish me luck!

(p.s. this is a fun green detail of our wedding(s)—a “recycled” wedding dress)

{hair-do's and maybe some don'ts}

I’ve been swept up in the happy details of wedding planning lately—centerpieces, save-the-dates, photography, searching for my second dress…But somehow it seems, I can’t seem to avoid one question : “how are you going to wear your hair?”

I am sure I probably make scrunched-nosed-ugly faces when asked this question, and for a good reason! My answer: I don’t know! I don’t know for several real reasons though:

1. I don’t know if we’ll have money in the budget for me to get my hair done professionally, so I don’t know if I can pick something I love but couldn’t do myself or if I need to be more realistic and choose something that has a low failure % (and start practicing!).
   
2. If we have the money for my hair to be done professionally, will I even be able to find someone who will do my hair at about 7am in the morning on a Saturday?
   
3. I’ve had my hair done professionally twice—and really didn’t like it!! Once was for junior prom and I spent 30 minutes after leaving the salon scraping dry hairspray gunk out of my hair and re-adjusting everything. The second time wasn’t nearly as bad, it just wasn’t me and was definitely not what I asked for (I even brought pictures with me…) So that makes me weary.
   
   And lastly:
   
4. Every time I see something I like, it’s hard to know if my hair could actually DO that without the help of expensive professional extensions or extensive salon time (and resulting damage to my hair).

I’m sure everything will be fine and work in the end… this is just my worry of the moment.

{something [else] blue}

I'm really feeling the bits of blue that the wedding will feature--the girls dresses, my shoes--and thought a few more touches here and there might do nicely to pull everything together. Our little chapel (I'm so excited, I can barely wait!) is very simple and clean and bright, and not in need of very much decoration--a fantastic detail.

So I think I want to hang something on the chairs down the aisle, and as a final touch of sorts, there are two little columns in the front that usually couples put flower arrangements on (so I am told). For these columns, I didn't want to have something completely traditional. I want something a little funky and creative and modern.

I was in my little sisters/bridesmaids room the other night and realized she has a beautiful collection of blue glass vases. All different sizes and shapes. Fun stuff. SO our columns will be crowned with a few glass vases with single stems of white/cream colored flowers.

Clean, simple, a little modern...sounds perfect. (You'll have to imagine the vases in that photo are blue, haha)

{save the dates}

One of the many fun things about getting married twice is that we get to have two sets of invitations AND two anniversaries (don’t worry, kail and I will choose just one to celebrate most likely, lol). Choosing our Maryland venue gave us a date and a chance to start the planning for our puerto rico wedding.

We would like to happily announce we will be getting married in Maryland on September 26th, 2009 (I believe you knew this already) and will be getting married in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico on October 10th or 11th. This small break between the dates will let us focus on one wedding at a time AND October 12th is a federal holiday—so that means I’ll use even less leave (hooray) while we are getting married again and honeymooning in the tropics.

Fun. Fun. Fun!

{get me to the church on time!}

we officially have a timeline for our wedding! It’s confessedly a tad early, BUT, in my defense I never was very good at sleeping the night before something big, so at least there won’t be any waiting (and hopefully, this means less nerves) for me…

• So we have our site from 8am until 2pm


• We will set up, get dressed and be photographed from 8-9:30am


• Our ceremony will begin at 9:30am and will last about 20 – 25 mins


• Our breakfast brunch reception will begin at 10am (while the wedding party gets a few photos snapped away)


• And we will eat, drink and merry-make until 1:30pm


• Our clean up and such will be much faster than 30mins, but just to keep everything stress free: 1:30-2pm.

Done! (it will fly, but I’m so excited… )

{meet the future mr.}

I should have done this as one of my first posts! Silly me, assuming you know my fiancé… well, for those of you who have not met kail, allow me to introduce my future mr.

Kail Bosque

1. Has no middle name


2. Is exactly 1 week younger than me (d.o.b. : may 1, 1986)


3. Was born in Alabama


4. Loves red and black


5. Loves (and rocks at) brazilian jiu jitsu


6. Is a rockband god

Makes me laugh when he:

• Makes up his own lyrics to songs


• Tries to stuff his feet into my high heels


• Dances to songs in the car


• Hits the windshield fluid button when he sneezes while driving (this is h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s)


• Dances his famous “latin dance of seduction” (you just may have front row seats to this phenomena at our reception)

Makes me worry when he:

• Comes to a full stop at a green light…


• Sets rice on fire while trying to cook


• Talks about jiu jitsu-ing our future babies


• Greets the puppies first when he gets home from work

(these all make me laugh pretty hard too)

Things we have in common:

1. We hate wearing shoes


2. We love the outdoors


3. We have both always wanted to be in the circus (this is why we celebrated our 22nd birthdays at trapeze school!)


4. We had the same orthodontist, during the same span of time in highschool


5. We have the same best friends (at least a few of them)


6. We love our puppies more than anything (except for our families)


7. We hate doing laundry and dishes (this is not a good thing, lol)


8. We love puerto Rican food! And sushi. And rootbeer. And BigMac’s (no pickles!).


9. I think we both think the other person is a dork

Things we do not have in common:

1. Books or Movies? M-Books, K-Movies


2. Movie Theatre or DVD Rental? M-Rental, K-Theatre


3. Regular or Diet? M-Regular, K-Diet


4. Peanut Butter or Jelly? M-Peanut Butter, K-Jelly

More than anything, we love to have fun. We love to laugh too. We are spontaneous and creative and love going on adventures. We met on my 18th birthday and Kail even remembers what I was wearing and how my hair was (but I don’t remember meeting him—aww). We met again (this part I remember!) at our friend/groomsmen Kevin’s party in August 2007. Kail stayed up all night talking to me about everything in the world until 7:30am even though he had work that morning…

I think we always knew.

{flowers}

these past few days have been filled with decisions. knocking the whole venue hunting thing out has allowed everything to sort of refill with excitement... so now everything is all exciting and blissful again... and being excited and blissful is condusive to decision making.

so i spent yesterday researching flowers and buying bulk and wholesale and such. i think i've made up my mind on the girls bouquets and am nearly decided on my own.

i read a lot of other blogs and one of my favorites in the world of floral design is housemarting (check them out here: http://www.housemartin.typepad.com/).

so here are some photos of her designs that i'm loving right now:

i'm thinking a mix of pinks, oranges/peaches, and yellows for the girls and then something softer for myself, maybe light yellows and creams in mine. As for flowers:

roses
tulips
ranauculus
hypericum
lisianthus

exciting!!

{music}

i've found the perfect music for the pre-ceremony! since our wedding is pretty non-traditional to start with, i have been searching for some non-traditional music to accompany our ceremony. but recently, there was a small part of me that was sort of craving a little classical...

meet the vitamin string quartet. they take popular songs we all love (and play on rock band haha) and turn them into arrangements. perfect.

this is clocks by coldplay. there are many, many others on itunes. enjoy

{going to the chapel and we're going to get married}

We have a venue! Hooray! Check out our chapel and reception hall at http://www.miltonridge.com/

We love it! we're so excited.... oh and we're getting married on September 26th, 2009. That's about 203 days away, haha (remember my 200 days post?).

{yum}

i'm excited because one of our newest venue prospects has an option of an early morning wedding...complete with a waffles bar during a brunch! how fun is that? please, who does not love waffles?

{we even have a puppy named waffles!}

the more i imagine an earlier wedding with a brunch... i like it. really. a lot. it's starting to grow on me. it's my new favorite idea.

early morning farm wedding. breakfast brunch with waffles and fresh eggs. tiny chapel. sounds fresh and clean and simple...

{something blue}

i'm in love... alright, blue shoes. enough said.

ps. i'm so in love with kail too. much more than shoes.

{a hunting she shall go}

sadly, i must report that we have decided to continue looking for venues. i almost had my heart set on Woodend mansion (it was amazing and perfect) but a tad pricey for us...

so the hunt continues. luckily, because i have the best fiance in the world, i have been spending my lunches looking up venues and then sending their phone numbers to kail...who then does the leg work for me (aww...he's so good!)

wish me more luck!