FLOWERS Pale Pink, Champagne & Ivory...can you think of anything more romantic?!? After much stressing and looking through websites of cheesy boring florist I finally found a dream come true of a florist! Her name is Debbie and she is amazing. My maid of honor came in town to help me meet with vendors and after the first two I was totally frustrated and bummed. The prices were absolutely outrageous (starting at over $2500-CRAZY!)and they didn't seem to "get" the look that I wanted. Debbie was the last one we met with & honestly if I hadn't found her I probably would be doing my own arrangements & bouquets. She listened to me and had wonderful suggestions, she also had some great ideas about how to cut costs & stay in my budget while still getting everything I wanted!Her website is... www.affordableweddingflorist.com Her company is DD's Blooms and she services all over the bay area...if you're interviewing florists then take the time to book a consulation with her, she puts the others to shame! Here are the main flowers we're going to be using... Majolika Roses Porcelina Roses Pale Pink & Ivory Hydrangea Freesia These are going to be in my bouquet and Peter's boutinairre, the other groomsmen will wear Majolika Rose boutinairres The bridesmaids bouquets will look very similiar to these...pink & ivory roses with a pink satin ribbon around the base. Mine will probably also have a pale pink ribbon but instead of a bow i want to find a vintage broach. I'm also ordering some of the material that the bridesmaids dresses are made of to wrap around the bouquets. I think it will help tie everyone together. ________________________________________________________ THE CEREMONY Our church! Isn't is beautiful??? I'm so excited we were able to book this church, I've probably driven by it a hundred times and have always wondered what a wedding would like there...I guess now I'll know first-hand!For the ceremony we're going to have two arrangements at the entrance of the church, two at the altar and something very similiar to the pews below, love the petals! We'll use the Majolika roses at the points & the silk toole will be ivory. ________________________________________________________ Bridesmaid Dress My bridesmaids are wearing gowns in "Honeydew" from the Spring 2006 Belsoie collection at CC's Bridal in St. Pete. I LOVE these dresses so much! If you've seen my dress (it's under the blog "I found it!") than you can see why this dress coordinates perfectly! The crystals on the neckline give it that glamourous vintage feel that I love while the color is super romantic. Eleni's going to kill me for putting up this picture (I call it the bridesmaid robot) but it really shows a closeup of the dress. ________________________________________________________ Favorite Links First things first when you're engaged...sign up on the knot. I absolutely thrive on the knot, it has the ultimate wedding gown library, great local chat boards & hundreds of fellow bride-to-be's bios. www.theknot.com It's a good thing. The background picture on this profile is one of my favorite Martha Stewart good thing ideas. How beautiful is the champagne toast going to be with little pink spray roses on the glasses!?! www.marthastewart.com I don't know if it's my own creepy voyer thing or if all girls could spend hours looking at other bride's bios but I love it! This site sent to me by my maid of honor Brooke has a slew of the best bios from The Knot. www.magnificentbliss.com ________________________________________________________ Table Numbers How cute is this?!? I really want to include Parker & Lucy somehow in our wedding (without being a cheesy overtop loves my dogs lady) so I thought this would be a perfect idea. Cake Topper with Glitz! I can't do the little plastic bride & groom on top of the cake, just can't do it. So I was thinking I was going to be stuck with just flowers on top until I saw some brides on The Knot with their monogram in crystals on top of the cake. So Pretty! However once I started looking at prices...not so pretty. Just to have the letter "D" (our new last name initial) in pink, clear & champagne crystals was $140!!! Goodness gracious! I can tend to be a little crafty so I thought, why not do it myself?!? I just ordered the metal letter from www.weddingcuts.com & it was $40, they sell the swavarski crystals on their website but I also found them at the local JoAnn's & Michael's craft stores. I'm really geeked out about making this myself not to mention it'll make a pretty snazzy Christmas ornament for years to come! ________________________________________________________ Meet The Maids Here are the ladies of the wedding, I'm so blessed to have each of them in my life & hope they all know how much they mean to me. I love you girls! Bridesmaids' Brunch Jill lives in L.A. so she couldn't make it to brunch... Brooke-Maid of HonorBrooke & I met in college when we were both rushing the same sorority at USF. We became ADPi's together & then got kicked out of ADPi together...dues? I have to pay dues? We lived together, waited tables together, got into credit card debt together & made hangover trips to chick-fil-a together! Brooke is one of the most loyal & compassionate people I have ever met & I absolutely adore her. She lives in Orlando with her fiance Josh & two dogs Bruiser & Caroline. Since Brooke is planning her own wedding for this November she has been a HUGE help to say the least. Even though she's only a couple of hours away I miss her terribly & secretly wish she'd pack up her fam & move back to Tampa. Aunt Ashley Ashley is "Aunt Ashley" because she's a second mom to our two dogs Parker & Lucy, she's probably the only person that understands how much I love my dogs & doesn't think I'm crazy...Abby her Pomeranian has an entire wardrobe, & it's actually better than my wardrobe. Very sad. Ash & I also met in college & she has truly been there for every up & down. She's that girlfriend that you know you can call at 3a and she'll drive over in her pj's bringing you a frosty because she knows that's just what you need. I know she'll always be there for me & I'll always be here for her...my wedding would never be complete without Ashley standing by me. Eleni Eleni in 20 years... Being that the rest of the bridesmaids are dog girls (Moxy acts like a dog Jill) & Eleni has 3 cats we like to refer to her as our "Crazy Cat Lady". Eleni & I met about 2 years ago when I took on my first marketing job & she was my right-hand woman, since then we've worked together at Miller but more importantly worked together being "queen of the drive-bys". I can officialy say I know where every one of her ex's live. (: Eleni is my sushi buddy & my confidant. I can tell that girl ANYTHING & I know her lips will be sealed & she won't judge me. She's my support when things get tough in the beer business & in our personal lives. I honestly don't know what I'd do without Eleni & can't remember how I functioned before meeting her! Crazy cat lady or not...she's wonderful. Jill Ok, much better picture of Jill with her man David. Although I must say the absolut bottle was pretty darn funny! Did we really bring our own alcohal to the wedding? What were we thinking?!? Jill is Peter's baby sister & I've asked her to be one of my bridesmaids not only because she's his sister & should be a part of the wedding but because she's an amazing, sweet, beautiful & funny girl & I'm lucky to have her as my soon-to-be sister! She's lives in L.A. with her very cute cat Moxy & works as a set designer. How cool is that??? She just finished working with the designers on "Little Miss Sunshine" and she's in the credits! Peter & I get so geeked out about that & keep telling everybody we know! It's so cool! Celesta Last but certainly not least is Celesta...oh Celesta, where do I start...Celesta is honest, sweet & my completely innocent Kansas girl. Celesta & I go waaay back although I don't think either one of us realized at the time that we would become such great friends. Nobody makes me laugh like Celesta does...nobody! She's pure, happy, wonderful Celesta. Everyone loves Celesta. There's no way you can't! She's my cheerleader & one of the most easy going girls I've ever met. Get her some 7-11 nachos & she's happy! I can't say enough nice things about her & honestly can't think of a bad thing anyone could say about her. Tell you what...to help you understand how lovable this girl is let me throw in a few more pictures. I have more funny pics of this girl than I know what to do with! Here's a few... Tab-tini Tuesday! Chef Celesta at Wal-Mart...Drunken pirate Celesta...(she's gonna kill me for this one) Supermodel Celesta... Any time you give Celesta more than two drinks... Those are the very important ladies, I'm gonna have some HOT bridesmaids walking down the aisle!
I'd like to meet:
Little Princesses I have three baby sisters (although they're going to kill me for calling them "baby" sisters) who are going to be a part of the wedding. Maggie, the youngest who's 9, is going to be my flower girl. Her dress is below, it's by Mon Cheri & we'll be ordering it in Oyster/Spun Gold. SOOO sweeet!!! My other two sisters, Rebecca & Elisha who are 10 & 12, will be my Jr. Bridesmaids. They're going to KILL me for putting them in super girly dresses but you know what, they'll get over it! Their dresses are also from Mon Cheri and come in the oyster/spun gold colors. For all three girls I've ordered extra material from Belsoise, the bridesmaids' dresses company, & my mom is going to replace the sashes on their dresses with ones she's made from the big girls' dresses material. It should really make everything flow nicely...they're going to be so stinkin' cute! I also have a wonderful baby brother, Andrew, who's also 12, & is going to be one of Peter's groomsmen. I think I'm more excited to see him in a tux than anyone else! Well, him & Peter of course! All three girls will also be wearing rose halos out of the Majolika spray roses like the picture below. (Except I think they'll wear their hair up in loose curls) Our Cake! Believe it or not our cake is from Publix! For you guys that don't have Publix they're a great supermarket chain in the South...It's as beautiful as the super expensive wedding cake exclusive bakeries but without all the upcharge. The top & bottom layers are going to be marble with a fudge filling and the middle layer is almond with a raspberry filling. YUM!!! Photographer Sigh. This was another one of my wedding tasks which I was getting REALLY frustrated with. I knew exactly what I wanted, a photojournalist style that captures emotional candid pics verses posed staged ones, but could not find anyone locally that could produce those results. Well, I take that back...I did find a few but their prices were out of control. We're talking $3500+ as a starting package...craziness. So one night I was making Peter go through photographer's websites with me & to show him the style I wanted I pulled up a blog from the knot (http://www.theknot.com/co_profileview.htm?profilename=MrsRo bsButton)that I love! Her wedding was in Seattle & just for the heck of it I shot her photographer an email asking if she'd ever been to Florida. Turns out she was all about adding some "destination weddings" to her portfolio & even though I had to cover her airfare it was still cheaper than the local photogs I liked. Her name is Laurel & she's super fun, creative & VERY accomadating to your needs & personal style. I'm really looking forward to working with her & wanted to share her name with all of you because you never know...flying someone in from Seattle sounds insane but it actually worked out perfectly! Here's her website... http://www.mcconnellphoto.com/ TO DO CHECKLIST... Videographers Haven't a clue...this isn't something I want to spend a ton of money on but I've read blogs of brides who passed on a videographer & really regretted it. If any of you wives or brides-to-be know of a good one let me know! Music I really want to hire a 3-piece string band to play during the ceremony & the cocktail hour. I think it would add a classy sense of occasion & I could be wrong but I was thinking if I either hire some people that play in Dad's church or maybe some USF music students it wouldn't be too expensive. If you have any experience in hiring musicians let me know! As far as the DJ goes I'm a little torn as to what to do. You see, Peter seems to think that since he's a radio DJ he would be the perfect guy to DJ our wedding. I can't seem to get through to him that he's going to be kind of busy at our reception!!! He thinks that since he knows everyone he'll be able to walk around & host the party. (Think of cheesy roaming comedian) I don't know how to get through to him but also let him have fun too...more about this to come. I think I'm going to have to blog about it & you guys can just call him & tell him he's crazy! (:
