raindrops & reesecups

sunday love #1

2009-06-28T04:38:00.000-07:00

i usually hate sundays. i always feel the stress of the work week starting tomorrow. i need to change that feeling. i'll start posting lovey photos on sun. <3

{image/josh goleman}

a little (or a lot) of inspiration.

2009-06-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

i've been so distracted this week & haven't posted in 7 days. i have a good excuse. if you enjoy a good book: love, rosie. go buy it. read it. love it.

once wed has been a huge inspiration to me lately. i love all of the casual but equally amazing weddings they've been sharing.

{image/oncewed}

possibly one of my favorites:

{image/oncewed}

i obviously really like mix & match bottles. more (inspiration) on mix & match to come..

****************************

kelly from yes, please started this. i wish i lived in california.

i bought this journal from a local seller on etsy. buy one too, favorite notebook ever. right now: free shipping.

one of my dream honeymoons. i don't even think we're taking one. maybe after i graduate?

i wish i was going here this weekend..

{image/me}

happy friday everyone.

happy friday.

2009-06-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

it's been a rough week. so literally, happy friday.

sunday is the longest day of the year. not sure how i feel about it. the 21st is 3 years & 5 months for us. father's day is lonely. i'll get through it. more to come on the father/daughter wedding stuff.

<3

please?

2009-06-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

i want this.

image/nicole miller

weekend recap:

2009-06-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

our trip to ikea included checking out the cost of buying certain wedding items (wine glasses and silverware, which i actually forgot to even look at) but we did come home with a few things for the man room [justin's room for his guitars, recording setup & fish tank]. i own a wall in this room.

a closeup of the fabric on the walls. i originally picked these out for napkins, but it might be too much. i'll practice w/ leftovers.

remember my first wedding purchase? it found a home on our kitchen table with baby succulent & a soy candle.

**sidenote: i came home from work today sicker than i started the day, and after passing out on the couch, i woke up to chicken noodle soup & a get well soon balloon. love him. he's famous for these little things when i'm sick... usually it's a card & gatorade.

images/me

happy tuesday.

2009-06-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

tuesdays are typically better than mondays.

image/oncewed

we had a great weekend... including a trip to ikea & being lazy. pictures will come soon. we had to spruce up 'the man room' in order to spark some more creativity for j (and myself).

i have my class schedule for the fall. my life is going to go from what i think is busy, to crazy-i-can't-even-breathe-hectic. honestly, i have no idea how this will turn out. full-time student. full-time employee. bride-to-be. gym rat. i've been telling justin that during the school year, the planning is up to him. scary.

i need a white shirt & new jeans {so we can take engagement pictures}

ps. i'm coming down w/ something. swine flu of sorts. i need sleep.

flab to fab

2009-06-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

i've been obsessed w/ working out for almost a year now. this time last year, i was going a few times a week for about 45 minutes. since last fall, i've been going just about everyday mon. - fri.. since the beginning of may, i've been attempting to go twice a day mon. - fri., once each weekend day. some people think i'm crazy, but i'm making myself healthier. i'm not really on this pre-wedding weight loss kick like people might assume. right now, i'm at the smallest i've been since i was in like the fourth grade and there's no reason for me to stop now. i still have about 10 more consisten pounds. i say consistent because even though i might lose a few every week, i somehow manage to get it back and i'm still unhappy w/ where i am. i've decided that either a) i'm not ordering my dress until i'm down another size or b) if i keep at the same weight (my trainer says i'm gaining muscle, but i don't care, i still want that number to go lower!), i'll order my dress at the size i'm aiming for & that will motivate me 100 times more. i hope i don't gain the freshman 15 again. ouch.
speaking of dress, i found mine online. price tag at a store including the fitting: $350. pricetag thru netbride: $260. YES. that's a steal, trust me. that's actually the max that i wanted to spend anyway, even before i found this little gem. i can't post it b/c j is signed up for blogger updates & he will see (even though i really really want to show him)
really though, if i was making fat money, this would be mine:

(source)

judd waddell. mmmm, love it. not sure of the exact price, but it has a lot of $$$ next to it, which carries atleast a $3000 price tag. hello, that's more than our wedding budget.

shopping

2009-06-07T04:57:00.000-07:00

is fun. we went to the annual forest hill neighborhood yard sale yesterday. i love all of the houses in this neighborhood, so i knew i could find something. we showed up late, but we made our first wedding purchase... an old milk jar! for $2, i was literally, jumping for joy. j thought i had lost my mind. we originally said we'd make one trip to the thrift store, buy a cheap set of mix-n-match vases & call it a day. starting early will obviously give us time to find unique ones like the one we bought. i was proud of my find. :)

i have to post this before i forget about in a year. we're not going to have a lot of ceremony decor because making an arch, buying a bunch of flowers to stand at the end of the isle is just not something i feel like dealing with. enter: pomanders. easy way to decorate by just hanging a pomander on the end of each isle. i have no idea how much these typically cost, but i came across this post on handmade, paper flower pomanders. score. kind of like the martha stewart paper poms, but i think using the styrofoam balls will make them a bit more sturdy. i just want to make these now in my spare time**, but i guess i don't want to have 20 paper balls sitting around in our apartment.

{source}

not sure what color i'll use, but this was her finished product. saweet.

**i think i have more spare time than i really do. i have a to-do list a mile long already for school starting up soon, but this stuff is just way more fun.

my big giant math equation.

2009-06-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

uh, seriously. my brain is fried. i have yet to accomplish anything significant in planning this little shindig, but i feel exhausted just thinking of stuff. i have been supringly good about setting some type of order to this. here's what i have so far:
(i'm going to start setting monthly deadlines for myself. i work for the newspaper & deadlines and me seem to be pretty good friends)

1. a friend of ours (aka groomsman) just graduated from art school and is designing a uniform drawing that will hopefully find a home on our website & our invites. i've got a few other ideas for it but we'll see how much i like it. kidding -- of course we'll LOVE it. he's talented. it's free. that's all i need. here's some of the inspiration for the drawing:

source: greenweddingshoes

2. while he's doing that, i delegated to the mister that our wedding site needs to be created. i'm 99% positive that he hasn't done anything to get this accomplished, but it's whatever, due date is the beginning of august!

3. i need to go shopping for something to wear for our engagement shoot w/ matt. i've fallen in love w/ so many adorable engagement pics & i don't know what i want. half of me wants for us to dress casual and 'us', but the other half kind of wants to buy something really cute that we otherwise couldn't justify spending money on. only getting married once means only getting engaged once. only getting engaged once means only one engagement shoot!! it's likely that i'll find a middle ground and the pictures will turn out just fine. our photographer takes amazing photos & i'm so excited that we will be his first wedding shoot. i'm not nervous at all because i totally trust our choice.

side note: planning has been kinda like a big math problem. i just add little things together until i realize what needs to be done. example: completed design + engagement shoot + website goes live = save the dates are ready to send out!)

3. we've already decided on postcard STD's to keep postage costs low while we can. i'm sure we can whip up something quick & cute... and thanks to vistaprint, CHEAP!

4. while all of this is being done & before we get too far ahead in the planning process, i've realized that we should probably choose our bridal party. this has been talked about pretty often because i wasn't sure who to pick. j on the other hand had this figured out months ago... before he even asked me to marry him. it's not that i have an overwhelming amount of friends (quite the opposite), but the few girls i talk to are so spread out that i'm not sure if it would work. i always imagined my bridal party would be a tight knit group of mutual friends. clearly not going to be the case. i also have a few girls that while we don't talk as often as i'd like, we still had good times and i'd like for them to be a part of our day (and maybe become closer again). for these reasons & a few others, we will be having a bridal party of four. justin's brother, matt, will be the best man & corey, our designer, will be dude #2. i'll be asking my cousin, amy, to be moh (though since she lives 500 miles away, i won't expect much from her-- just her support the day of will be plenty!!) when we visit in july. hopefully she says yes, because then it's back to square 1. the second lovely lady will be j's little cousin, emma, who is 9 years old. she is one of my favorite people in the world and i can't wait for her to be in our wedding.

i will also be asking a few select girls from past & present to be my 'non-bridesmaids'. i will be asking (probably) in july. my non-bridesmaids will get color swatches of dress choices and will be on their own to choose whatever dress they want. they will not walk down the isle or have to carry flowers, but i will be giving them all wearable gifts. with the coordinating colors, they will stand out and this will be especially obvious in our photos. they're not required to help at all w/ the wedding planning, unless they want to. they do, however, have to listen to my complaints along the way. more details to come once i've asked. :)

future moh -- amy & i last summer.

j's cousin, natalie, she'll be three on our wedding day. one of our flower girls.

me & emma last summer.

the best man & baby elizabeth (j's other cousin) who will be flower girl #2. we don't have a ring bearer, so we'll decide which of these pretty girls will bring us rings too. baby bessie will be two on the big day.

j & corey. don't ask me why he's doing that.

so there. i think we're doing pretty well so far. since we've hit the one year mark, i'll start posting on specifics as we get even closer. (i know, a year isn't much to some people... but we've already been engaged for seven months and it feels like seven days!!!)

the countdown is on!

2009-05-31T19:32:00.000-07:00

I WILL BE GETTING MARRIED IN 364 DAYS FROM TODAY!

i couldn't post yesterday because we were out of town. in fact, we visited j's grandma who will be hosting our wedding in her backyard. (enter wedding mania stress here). since nothing is quite set in stone yet, so many ideas are flowing in from everywhere, and i can't handle it already. now i know we are betting on having a rain-free day, but thousands of people plan outdoor weddings that go fairly smoothly, so i'm hoping we will be included in that number. she mentioned having guests stand at the ceremony, which is apparently typical for the outdoor ceremonies she's been to. i've been to one outdoor wedding, and i was sitting-- is this the experience that you've had? i feel that if i am having family pay hundreds to travel to be with us on one of the holidays, we shouldn't skimp on everything, especially since we're already going to be outside. in may. in virginia. OUCH. my main concern is that all of the tables & chairs for our reception will fit in the backyard.

my gut tells me to rent chairs for the ceremony... so i think we'll be doing that. if all fails & it does rain, we don't have much of an indoor location besides the house, so the reception could include mingling inside. (although we are definitely setting aside money for a tent that we would get days before after we see the weather forecast). my main concern is that since we will be hosting the rehearsal dinner/welcome party at their house as well, i don't want the two nights to be similar. i'm hoping to have somewhat of a themed dinner (ie: bbq, red/white colors), held inside of the house, for our families to get to know each other w/ talking, games, etc.), so i don't want our wedding to be an exact replica of this.

j&i talked about the wedding on the way home from williamsburg today, and he assured me that if i work out all of the details of the little things i want, he will work out all of the logistics to make it happen. this is why he is amazing.

so yes, we will be married in one year. we've already been engaged for seven months, which only seems like one... so i am sure this year will fly by. we'll be getting a sewing machine so that i can start on cloth napkins and peace flags... with table runners & a quilt to follow. that's right, we will be attempting to include a quilt wrapping tradition into our ceremony. we're very untraditional people, so why have the standard unity candle ceremony? i realized today that only in the wedding blog world would people understand the ideas i have for our wedding because when i bring it up to family & friends, i get the crazy eye. i think we could totally pull this off. here's a post from sara from 2000 dollar wedding regarding their quilting project. can you tell that she is totally my wedding-planning-hero?

(source)

let the diy projects begin.

wedding blogs > magazines

2009-05-16T19:49:00.000-07:00

i just spent about an hour doing what everyone says you should do to get your inspiration on paper... sat down with scissors & all of my wedding magazines (none of which i actually paid for, thank god) and i ended up with three cut outs: colors, cookies & flowers. out of almost ten magazines, only three things caught my eye. i could find more inspiration from two fellow wedding bloggers than i can find in a million magazines. dumb, dumb, dumb.

i wish my wedding would look as casual but way cute like this one. i don't even think any of my friends on the same style page as me to even agree to wear outfits like these... sad face. i'm in love with this wedding!

source: green wedding shoes (jill thomas)

I still have a crush!

2009-05-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel silly when I bring up wedding plans to other people considering we have a little over a year left until we make it official... but regardless, it always makes me happy. The idea of having to pick & choose the little details don't make always make me happy (I'm getting so frustrating just trying to lock in my color choices), but the idea of marrying my best friend makes me ecstatic.

source: max wanger

During my early morning workout today, I was so distracted because for some reason (& no matter how cheesy it is) I was overwhelmed by the feelings I have right now. It's that crazy feeling you get in your stomach after the first date... only this was happening to be at 5:45 in the morning on the treadmill?! I don't get it, but I like it. After well over three years, I still have a crush on him! ;) I honestly cannot remember a time where j yelled at me, or even got mad at me. This makes me extremely guilty for all of the times I get frustrated over little things & take it out on him, so this morning I made a promise to myself to be a better & nicer fiancee.

The ring.

2009-05-01T19:47:00.001-07:00

It's been almost six months since our engagement! This means I'm due for the bi-annual inspection on my ring. I've lost weight since he bought it, so I'm having it resized.

Before j proposed, we had a few trips to the jewelry store "just to look", never really thinking twice about it. I fell in love with a different one each time but eventually found one that apparently I couldn't live without. Looking back now, I can't believe how selfish I sounded! Regardless, being amazing, he went and bought the one I just had to have. I love it even more on my finger, but now I sometimes joke that maybe he should have talked some sense into me until I picked something cheaper. After I started wedding research online, I found Turtle Love Committee & fell in love. Organic & unique, why didn't I know about this sooner? I sometimes ask if we can just sell mine and buy one of these. Here is my all-time favorite, for all of $200 (granted my ring wasn't over $1000 like some, but it was only because he got it on sale):

source: turtle love committee

Maybe for our anniversary?

Anyway.. enough of that... here's mine!

No pictures of it on my hand because I can't seem to get a clear shot. My favorite part is the band-- it looks like two wrapped but it's only one.

Family, Friends & Favors

2009-04-23T19:32:00.001-07:00

I've been so overwhelmed with all of the details swimming around my head that I really need to step back and take things slowly. I've gotten so excited in the past couple of weeks that now I'm somewhat at a stand-still because I just don't know what needs to be done now, or in any type of order actually. I've only been to two weddings in my entire life, both of which were completely different from the other. With all of this wedding overload being said, I guess I should start with the guest list? Please let me know if I'm starting off with the wrong detail!

When we talked to Cathie about having her backyard as our location, I told her we could cut our guests down to about 45. YIKES. J's family tree is quite complicated... I actually needed a drawing to understand at first. My dad's entire family will be traveling from Michigan (atleast I hope so, I can't wait to see them!!) so there is no room to cut family members. This means a majority of our friends won't be able to attend. We've written down a few names of our closest friends (we are homebodies so this list has dwindled down a bit) but we ultimately have to leave out a lot of people we'd typically want to be present. As of now, our list has not been finalized. I haven't even decided who I'd like to be in my bridal party. J's obvious best man is his little brother & his good friend will be a groomsman. I can't seem to find any girl friends that stick for an extremely long period of time, so I hate to commit so early (bad, I know). Since 45 seems like an impossible number, I'd like for 60 to be the absolute cut off.

While I don't have a definite number pinned down, I'm already looking for favor ideas that could either be ordered for cheap or DIY. With our low budget, DIY is definitely the way to go but I'm starting to feel as if every ounce of creativity is slowly slipping away from me. It's a scary feeling... especially in the middle of wedding planning! I used to do graphic design & my plan was to design our invites, but now that seems impossible.

Here are some favors that i just LOVE:

1. Macarons (or is it macaroon?): I've never had one, but the lady who owns Petites Bouchées was at the bridal show I attended in January. These were so cute. I've never heard anything bad about the taste, so I need to give it a shot:

source: Petites Bouchées

2. Homemade cookies (or other dessert) specially wrapped in these adorable DIY packages:

source: Style Me Pretty

I did a quick estimate of the cost to order the supplies & it's definitely cheaper than ordering ready-made favors. The question is whether or not I'll be up for baking the night before the wedding. Any volunteers?

3. Simple chocolate chip cookies served with organic white milk. This is my FAVORITE combination. I found a great spread that showed exactly what I'm looking for but I can't find the link now. How cute would mini bottles of milk & cookies be? (I kind of have a 'thing' for chocolate chip cookies... I can never turn them away) :)

Once we went to my cousin's wedding and she gave away leftover cake in personalized goodie bags, we decided that's what we were going to do too. It saves money on extra favors AND it helps get rid of leftover cake. That's still up in the air because we changed our minds to have cupcakes rather than cake, but now my mom has said that she'd like to buy my cake -- so who knows! You've been warned... a majority of the things I mention in the early months of this blog could very well change a million times before anything is set in stone.

The idea of a backyard shindig is born

2009-04-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

I guess I should start with the basics. We pretty much knew from the beginning that planning a wedding would be tough considering our financial situation, with me going back to school full-time this fall. With some influence from Sara & Matt from 2000 Dollar Wedding, we decided that we wanted to spend about $2000 to $2500. It's possible right? Right. Well, it got even better. I enlisted the help of Justin's grandmother, who i LOVE by the way, and we took a trip to a waterfront museum who had low rates. While the pricing was fair, I was getting mixed feelings about the quality. Cue stress. Justin and I looked at each other and said 'scratch the wedding, let's just get married and have a nice dinner with our closest family.' Well no, scratch that too. Realizing that our 'immediate' family would obviously stretch out to be around 25 people, that was still a significant dinner tab. This is where Cathie (grandmother... but I really don't like to use that word because she just seems so much younger than a gma to me) offers her house as the ceremony & reception site! Perfect. In November 2007, J's mom was married inside of the house so we knew that's not what we wanted (same pictures, no 'isle' to walk down, etc.) so we decided on the backyard. The layout of the backyard is great -- stepping off of the patio is some space but then you climb over a hill and there is more space, overlooking a golf course. Final decision: have the ceremony over the hill (there's plenty of space for guests to sit) and the tables will be set in the area closer to the house for the outdoor reception. Did I mention this was all for free!? I'm thinking banquet style tables and string lights for a casual feel. (ok, ok, in all actuality, I have way more details in my head, but we'll get to that later)

source: this young house

So our $2500 budget wedding looks like we could get away with spending a little over $1000 instead. I'm a poor college kid, and while I wish we could handle this event financially on our own, it's just not possible. We've already had offers for various pieces and parts of the wedding, which we are beyond grateful for.

The first step.

2009-04-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

I always said that once we got engaged, I'd be okay with just being engaged for a long time while we get everything in order to actually afford/plan our perfect wedding. After Justin proposed, I become wedding-blog obsessed and instead of waiting until I graduate, we're planning a backyard wedding for May 30, 2010. Since this blog is my way of getting my wedding-related ideas in print so I can remember them & so everyone else can keep up with my ever-changing mind, it's very likely that J will never, ever post (besides, the day he writes a blog or just a post, I will probably pass out & die, it's that unlikely). I never planned on being "that" bride, but seeing as my job is no creative outlet for me & I'm beyond busy these days, I am starting this blog to get me through the next year of planning our big event. Here is our story:

We're 22. He is a network engineer for a small consulting firm & I'm an advertising assistant for our local paper. I'm also preparing to also go back to school full-time this fall to finish my bachelor's... I only went for 1/2 a semester out of high school. We grew up in the same town & we met in high school through friends, becoming great friends while we were seeing other people. We worked together, we rode home from school together & my mom even lives in the house that he grew up in. We finally became boyfriend/girlfriend in February 2006 & have lived together since July 2006. We are truly the best of friends. J proposed on November 16, 2008 after only having the ring for one week -- we can't keep secrets from each other for very long! We had talked about the big proposal & when it could happen & where, but in the end, he asked on a Sunday night @ home. It was perfect! We're all about little field trips on our time off, so of course we're not getting married in our hometown.

So here we are... we're getting married in 13 months with little to no money, but with help from our friends & family and some serious dedication to making this happen, we will have the wedding of our dreams. We're not planning to have the biggest party of the season just to impress our guests, because the day is all about us starting our lives together, not a DJ, expensive flowers & useless favors.