Our "Theme"

People ask me all the time, "What is the theme of your wedding?" I never know how to respond because we don't really have a theme. Some people do a beach theme, or a nautical theme, some have a theme of polka dots or damask, but not us. I have a vision as I like to call it! If I had to name it as a "theme" I would name the theme "romantic elegance," but what does that mean? So in order to answer people's questions, I came up with my own palette of all things related to our wedding.

We are having a traditional wedding filled with neutral colors and candlelight. So from now on when people ask my theme, I am just going to hand them my palette and say - you tell me what this means to you, because to me our wedding theme is "us"!

Custom Order Bridesmaids/Junior Bridemaids Dresses - Worth the Look

As I was checking my RSS Feed this morning, I came across a post on Brenda’s Wedding Blog about custom dresses for bridesmaids and junior bridesmaids. You may recall from a previous post that I have found my bridesmaids dress. However, I have not found my junior bridesmaids dress.

Brenda’s blog today was all about this custom web site Coco Myles that makes custom bridesmaids/junior bridesmaids dresses. I checked into it and they are actually quite affordable. You think custom dress and immediately you think expensive. I was able to design this dress as a junior bridesmaids dress for $115:

Made at CocoMyles

They will also send a sample of the fabric. I am going to order a sample of their Navy Satin Fabric and see if it will match the bridesmaids’ dresses. I have been having a hard time finding a dress in the stores that is not too flower girlish, but isn’t too old looking for our 13-year-old junior bridesmaid.

I will keep you updated on the quality of the fabric. Thanks Brenda’s Wedding Blog for posting this today!

All the Rave: Colored Shoes!!!

Everyone has been talking about colored shoes for weddings lately. So on my quest for Navy Blue Shoes, I stumbled across many cute shoes in fun colors. The sites I had most luck on were:

Endless Shoes and Handbags

Dillards

Macy's

Aldo Shoes

J. Crew

Colored fun shoes are a way to express your personality while still looking like the traditional bride. Look how cute this looks:

www.strictlyweddings.com

So on to the colored shoes I found:

Red Shoes from Aldo

Pink Shoes from Dillards

Orange Shoes from J. Crew

Aqua Shoes from J. Crew

Pink Shoes from Endless.com

Purple Shoes from Endless.com

Light Pink Shoes from Endless.com

Aqua/Green and Yellow Shoes from J. Crew

Blue Shoes from Like.com

There are many more out there, it just takes some looking. :)

Mission: Navy Blue Wedding Shoes

I love the idea of wearing blue shoes as my "something blue" for the wedding. Finding those blue shoes however has been not too easy. Either they are not navy, too high, not dressy, or just plain ugly.

I found these and fell in love with them.... (of course I would, they are Christian Louboutin, who wouldn't?)

So on to finding a shoe like this pricey designer one.

Next I stumbled across the Nina web site, because they said they sold dyeable shoes. I didn't want to go to that extreme, but if that's all I could do - I would live with it.

On the Nina Website I came across these:

Not identical, but are pretty close.

I also found these:

More understated than the other two, but also a smaller heel - which is something I am looking for.

Good news though! Both of these shoes are available to be tried on at Dillards. The Dillards at Great Northern does not carry the Navy, but at least I will get a feel for which will work better.

It is such a relief to be able to say I may have found my wedding shoes!

Which are your favorite?

Lists - How I Organize Life

People have often commented at work at how they are amazed at how organized I am at all times. I contribute this to my lists.

I make a list for everything: What I need to get done this week, what I need to get done today, what the steps for each project are....etc. My list range from long term to lists of exact details. I needed to make a list today of the projects I need to work on a.s.a.p.

List of Things to Do:
1. Start copy for paper elements of wedding day (convince my boss to install InDesign on my Computer so I can do these at work...)
a. Invitations: RSVP Cards, Sleeping Arrangements, Directions
b. Menus
c. Bar Menu
d. Place cards
2. Decide on hotels and agree on guest rates
3. Send my deposit into the Florist Creations by Lynn (this should be #1)
4. Take pictures for Table Numbers (got this great idea from heidzillas)
5. Take picture for my Shower Thank you's
6. Look for Blue Shoes (this task has been harder than expected)
7. Start buying gifts for the groomsmen (have to make Mike focus on this one)
8. Get wedding pictures from all our relatives
a. My grandparents
b. My parents
c. Mike Grandparents
d. Mike's Mom
e. Mike's Dad

That's what's on my rambling list right now... I am sure I will add to it, but these are the most pressing issues to me right now.

Sorry for the rambling post - just needed to put my list somewhere :)

Thought I was done but remembered one more thing

9. Talk to our DJ about lighting

Something new, something fun!

A new trend I have been hearing about from friends who have gone to weddings this year and last fall is a photobooth. When I heard about this idea, and heard how fun it is to a guest at the wedding I knew it was something we should look into. And it didn't hurt that there is a funny story about how Mike and I met, and it includes a photobooth at Johnny Malloys in Lakewood, so it seems only natural that we would have one at our wedding ;).

Some vendors in Cleveland that have photobooths are:

Red Eye

Imagen Photobooths

ShutterBooth

All have packages that include different printing options, time options and book options. Most will even let you design your own logo for the bottom of the strip. I will keep you updated as to who we work with and what we choose to use as a package.

We haven't decided who specifically to go with, but we know this is something we are sure our guests are going to have fun with.

Who wouldn't have fun.... look at these people, or take a look at TheNotWedding blog:

Stay tuned for an update!

Marriage Seminar: Check!

This weekend, Mike and I spent time preparing for our wedding in a completely different way than most weekends - we did it at Church. Mike and I are going to be married at The Old Stone Church, downtown Cleveland.



The Old Stone Church

Every church has some kind of program couples go through before they get married to help prepare them for marriage. The Old Stone Churches program consisted of a three day marathon of "marriage counseling" as I like to call it.

The topics we discussed were: Conflict Resolution, Sex in Marriage, Communication, Finances, Religion and Health.

Going into the weekend I thought it was going to be all about God and religion. I was surprised how much the weekend wasn't about that. It ended up being more about Mike and I's relationship and how to deal with everyday life being married. I found parts of the seminar very informative - the fiance part was my favorite, because being in Marketing - finance is the farthest thing from my comfort zone. We learned a lot about each other and were forced to deal with some issues, we may have never talked about before we got married. We took the Myers-Briggs personality test, and learned why we butt heads about certain issues and why each of us deal with issues in different ways. I would suggest every couple take this test, just to see the others personality is why they react to situations differently.

Overall, the weekend was fun. We learned a lot about each other and learned how to work together to make our marriage work. I think we both kind of dreaded the weekend, and when it was over, we both left feeling happy and closer.

Now that that's over, it's time to get back to planning!! :)