wedding planning 2

[it's june 8th and this will be my 7th blog post this month! pretty silly, actually.]

anyway, wedding planning is already kicking into high gear. so far it's mostly exciting. my future husband is doing an awesome job keeping the focus on our relationship, as opposed to on the wedding. i think i'm doing a pretty good job, too. i'm proud of us and grateful for the encouragement we've received.

on the flip side, planning is FUN! weddings are fun! it's gonna be a huge celebration with our nearest and dearest! j's gonna wear a studly tux. i'm gonna carry flowers. hooray*

because i'm excited, i just wanted to share a few ideas and a few sources of inspiration that have surfaced so far:

1. we've established our wedding party, our honeymoon [dominican republic!!! see photo below], the site for our ceremony [my church], photography, and pre-marital counseling. my girls have dresses. i've begun looking at dresses but am torn between two at this point. they are both SO lovely...
2. we asked our friends dan & chad to MC/DJ our reception. they are already brainstorming ways to harass us while they're in charge of the mic. i asked a few people to be music consultants and a couple people to play in our ceremony.

3. reception sites are still the biggest annoyance. it'll be chilly in november so that eliminates any outdoor venues. most of the places i've found require you to use their on-site caterer. which often charge $60 a plate. outraougeous! this search is requiring a lot of patience, creativity and phone calls.

4. we sent electronic save-the-dates to most of our friends and fam. we got 50 free photos because i joined shutterfly, so we printed our hilarious "engagement" photo on those. i'm gonna make a label with our wedding details and send 'em as postcards to those without email. [SO cheap & fun!]

5. a long time ago [some of you may remember] i stumbled across this website. it continues to help keep me grounded and resist the pull of the wedding industry. i also regularly check 100 layer cake and once wed. because i would like to do this whole thing on a relatively small budget & because i want the day to be cozy and fun, i'm trying to think creatively. these sites are really cute and fun. be careful, you might get addicted...

[p.s. image at top from 100 layer cake]

lazy saturday

i got to spend almost 12 straight hours with my fiance on saturday! this doesn't happen very often. we almost always have stuff to do on saturdays, but we had the whole day free. it was seriously amazing. i love relaxing with him.

highlights of the day include:
eating sandwiches and talking to my philly fam
a long walk in pennypack
laughing, thinking & listening
learning to play euchre
kicking his tail in war
getting my tail kicked in ping pong
reading on a blanket in the backyard
an impromptu dinner @ ruby tuesday
talking about our pasts [family, history, etc]
daydreaming about our future together


[these photos aren't from saturday. fan took them last weekend in rochester, but just posted 'em!]

spoon ring!

about a year ago i got really interested in spoon rings, specifically rings made from baby spoons. i searched high and low on ebay and etsy. i found some really cute ones, but never any that made me decide to go ahead and purchase. a lot were expensive and others were just not terribly eye catching.

THEN when we were cleaning out grandmom & granddad's house in february, i found an old baby spoon. i decided to take it home in hopes that i could find someone, somewhere, to make it into a ring for me.

when i mentioned it to some of my friends, they recommended their friend, who knows how to make jewelry. and now, four months later... two friends of my friends made me a baby spoon ring. for free. and it's awesome.

miss now mrs.

whenever any of my friends have gotten married, they've complained about what a serious pain.in.the.neck it is to change your name... new drivers license, new social security card, etc. etc.

i heard about this website after i first got engaged. then this weekend my friend meg agreed that it was awesome. now i'm looking on the site and realizing how seriously sweet it is!

the $30 membership only lasts 6 months so i'm obviously not doing anything with it now, but what a great creation... all the forms to change your name in one site. no running around to various places and no having the correct documents. brilliant.
___________________
[on another note, i'm not in an all-fired hurry to change my name. i like my name. i like that it ties me to both sides of my family. i like that people know me by it. heck, i've had that name for 25 years. i like that it rolls off the tongue easily. but i'm seriously excited to get a new last name that i'll share with my new husband. in just under 6 months~!]

wedding planning 1

[can you tell that i'm at work alone?! i always waste the days away when my co-worker is gone...]

i promise not to turn this blog into all things wedding, but i'm super excited about the photographer we're hiring.

my friend lyndsay recommended her fellow Geneva College RD, marti aiken. i wasn't even sure about hiring an official photographer, but after lots of thought and conversation, we decided that it was a good investment: we'll all be looking our absolute best that day. i want my family and friends to enjoy the wedding, so asking them to take photos would be a lot of added stress for them. i want to have a mini photo shoot with joel & it will be helpful if someone takes our pics who has experience with weddings.

marti is so so so kind to agree to shoot our wedding. she's traveling from the pittsburgh area and staying with her friend in philadelphia. she'll be around the whole day we get married!

check out her website here. i LOVE her creative and fun style!

rochester 2010 pt. 2

here are a few more photos from our weekend jaunt to Rochester:
joel told SO many hilarious stories. i love that everyone's listening intently in this pic.
we had lots of time to relax on blankets at the park
j. did this multiple times throughout the weekend. haha!

we took a small detour through the town where j. was born. this is his g-parents' old house
my feet w/ ash's feet
on our way to the park for the second time
sisterly love
"sorry, i just had to take off my sombrero..."
[can my friends get any better looking?!?!?!] looooooooooove them!

rochester 2010

for memorial day i spent 48 hours in rochester with my fiance and some of my fav friends. all 12 hours in the car were fun and filled with great conversations. j. is an excellent co-pilot!we had a quiet, relaxed saturday with fan & lauren. j. got a full tour of roberts. he walked around campus wearing lauren's sombrero and speaking random spanish. we had a somewhat haphazard dinner at a pub near fan's house. ash met us around 10pm and we all explored high falls before hitting the hay.

on sunday we went to heart&soul and then took naps. kyle & meg met us for a bbq at cobb's hill park. we cooked kababs, played volleyball/raquetball, and laughed. later we played "imaginiff" and ate more food.

i'm so so grateful for my awesome college friends. i love that i can be myself and that we all know each other*