Time is flying. Really, f-l-y-i-n-g. I don’t really know if I’m surprised to see it going this quickly, but it’s hard to believe that we’re nearly at our half-way point. So here is our four month status report and to-do list:

In the next week:

1. Send out those save-the-dates that keep finding excuses to not be mailed. This is it for them: crunchtime. They WILL be mailed before the end of the week. (It’s about time really!)
2. Book a hotel room for after the wedding/the wedding after-party
3. Have our engagement photos taken
4. Send thank you cards for my bridal shower gifts

From now until the end of June:

1. Find a minister…
2. Plan the honeymoon (this is Kail’s project)
3. Work on maps, directions, hotel accommodations and entertainment for guests (to be included in the invitations)
4. Buy Kail’s wedding band
5. Finalize what the groomsmen are wearing
6. Decide on and buy the cake
7. Gather addresses for invitations
8. Figure out the rehearsal dinner situation
9. Design a wedding website that our guests can begin to visit
10. Decide on a cake
11. Budget out final expenses: flowers, photography, hotel rooms…
12. Work on our guestbook

During the months of July and August:

1. July's theme of the month: invitations. Print all invitation materials, get everything folded and assembled and address envelopes. Mail them!
2. Centerpiece check: re-pack the boxes to make unpacking and decorating as efficient as possible.
3. Finish working on wedding programs
4. Have my dresses altered...
5. Figure out what I'm going to do with [the disaster that is] my hair and makeup.

June is going to be very busy…I will have to combine this all with two different sets of training at work, a week-long symposium and a week of Kail being out of town. Not to mention Diana’s graduation weekend, our continuing pre-marriage counseling classes and a seminar at Kail’s new academy… I feel like it will be July before I know it. At least 4th of July stacks up to make a 3-day weekend this year.

{bouquet toss}

Meet the new bouquets! Changing the colors meant that the flowers were going to naturally take a slightly different direction...so here they are! My bouquet will be mostly the garden roses and the bridemaids will be mostly the regular roses. I'm planning on having a garden rose on all of the tables in the reception too. Hopefully this is the winning arrangement!

PS. my bridal shower is tomorrow!!

{goodbye gold}

Alright, so I have made a major change in the direction of the wedding, well as far as the color palette is concerned. So I know I just posted a new palette a few days ago, but this is where the change will take place. After I posted that palette and had made a decision to have coral colored table runners, my mom (although I told her she was silly for worrying about it) told me to think about adding another color so prominently. Well, I thought about it for the past few days and looked back through countless inspiration boards on other blogs and color palettes and have made a decision: no gold.

After looking at my most recent palette, it seemed a little primary (you know, so red-yellow-blue) so solution: goodbye gold. Before I decided to make this decision for sure I did think about what I had picked out/bought already that was gold and with the exception of some paper and some ribbon—neither of which was expensive enough to feel stressed out about and both which will find another purpose in my home (seriously, if you know me then you know my love for ribbon and complete affinity for finding use for it). So, that gives us a new palette: blue (with an emphasis on navy) and coral.

I am really happy with this choice and so excited. It’s such a small change really that I didn’t expect it to make me feel like this—like suddenly I knew exactly how everything will look and coordinate. I love it. The invitations will need just a bit of tweaking and I’ll need to order new ribbon and paper, but really, this is a fantastic development. I’m so excited. I finally feel like the wedding has a direction and a theme or tone, if you will, and am in love with everything I’ve chosen. It’s a great day.

see? this is very close to the direction everything has taken...although our color is more salmon in tone than peach. but this a great visual! i saw another blog that called the colors midnight and papaya...so however you want to name it is fine...enjoy!

{you 'wood'}

today i discovered this fantastic thing called manzanita wood... please be prepared to see it everywhere at the wedding!

{bridesmaids dresses}

well, the awesome tool that is photoshop has helped again--this time in helping me picture the lovely bridesmaids! so now that i've decided to add a third color (for depth and for a little less matchy-ness), here is what the ladies' dresses will most likely look like!

i love that i gave them their choice of 9 different dress styles and three have chosen (and i'm predicting a fourth!) the same dress, lol....i'm really excited now!

(left to right: courtney in marine, diana in horizon, jenna in cornflower, liz in marine, rachel in cornflower, and ashley in horizon)

and today i had an idea for the groomsmen--white shirts with blue pin stripes, in whatever pinstripey fashion they choose:

{an updated palette}

thought it might be time to update our palette from before and give you a peak into how everything is starting to come together! this time i'm using photos of materials/things we are actually using, so it's exciting and a better depiction of the actual wedding (instead of just an idea):

top row: milton ridge, the actual site of our ceremony, then a bouquet using the flowers and colors we're including (i photoshopped it just a bit to make it the right colors!), the guestbook that is serving as inspiration for our programs.

middle row: the vest via J Crew I'm hoping to convince Kail to wear, the Save-the-date I designed for our wedding, and the dandelion dupioni silk ribbon that will tie off the bouquets and aisle decorations.

last row: blue invitation envelopes, just like ours, the fabric i've almost decidedly chosen for our table runners (it echos the salmon colored tulips that are in our centerpieces) and lastly, the bridesmaids dresses via davids bridal (I photoshopped these also to make them the cornflower and horizon the girls will be wearing!)

Enjoy! i'm starting to really get excited for this whole thing...and i'm glad i can start showing you pictures instead of just having something imagined in my head!

{now you can save the date}

Well, i'm very proud to say the designing is done and our save-the-dates are ready to be printed (as soon as my new power cord for the printer arrives). in keeping with the fun, non-traditional vibe of the wedding, I designed a trio of save-the-dates and will be sending different ones to different people.

i'm really proud of these and very excited to have designed them (with a little inspiration from snippetandink.blogspot.com inspiration boards and oncewed.com real weddings)

{tablerunners}

I've been considering tablerunners ever since we picked out the table linens a little bit ago. I love how neutral and clean our tables are going to look with the ivory and the light gold, but thought it may be really lovely to bring in just a bit of color and texture with a runner.

The problem may be though that tablerunners are expensive. Solution: make them myself! So I've been doing some fabric searching...and here are my favorites so far: (yes, I like the idea or a coral color table runner to match the flowers from the bouquets and the tulips on the table. and yes, I might change my mind on this later)