I found the dress!

I have been struggling to find a wedding dress until this weekend. I had tried on several dresses that were very beautiful but often times were overstated for a garden wedding and were super heavy. I will be walking at the very least 2 miles in the garden and lugging around a super heavy dress in St. Louis humidity sounds horrible. I was very close to buying the Paloma Blanca dress I have in an older post in my blog. My Maid of Honor (Marie) and my mom as well as Alexis and Sara liked it a lot. However, when people described it back to me they used words like princess, cute, and even cupcake. The last thing I ever wanted to look like on my wedding day is a princess. I want to look like a bride and not a girl playing dress up. Plus, the lace top worried me. I am not exactly "busty" and so the lace didn't feel like it provided any sort of structure or shape and I coudl totally picture myself hiking it up several times over the course of the day. So I decided to keep shopping but not rule it out entirely.

My mother and I went to Julie's Bridal Couture in Birmingham where I made a last minute appointment to try on some dresses. They had a decent selection and everyone was incredibly helpful, especially Carole who ended up helping me in and out of every dress. My favorite is when she would dig through the mounds of fabric and poof to find the floor for me so I wouldn't trip trying to get into it. So funny! I tried on a St. Pucci and a Jim Hjelm that I liked but had pulled a dress that caught my eye. It was unlike all of the other dresses I had tried on but something there was something about it that I really wanted to check out. I tried on all the other dresses first and every time I would pass by the dress, I would find myself more and more excited to try it on. At one point another attendant took the dress for another bride to try on. I actually found myself getting a bit worked up that the dress I was looking forward to trying on the most had disappeared and I did not want to leave without trying it on. Finally we got to the dress. It made my mom cry a ton and I was even tearing up. I had the dress on for nearly 45 minutes with a veil and got more and more excited about it the longer I wore it. I didn't buy it that day though because I can't bring myself to impulse shop on something like that, so I waited until Monday to go back. Alexis, my coworker, and my Man of Honor (HA) Brandon came along to see the dress. Besides loving the dress I also got 20% off and the designer, Christos, was having an offer where I get my hallow to hem alterations for free in addition to a chapel length $900 veil! There are currently no images of it online because it is a spring 2009 dress and although I can't describe the dress because sometimes when Doug is really bored he glances at this blog, I can say that it is perfect for a spring garden wedding and I absolutely LOVE the material and details. I am super excited to have one more thing checked off on the list of to dos.

Whoa!!!

So... I tried on more wedding dresses this weekend. This one is most definitely my favorite! HAHAHHA... After trying on several dresses one of the women in E. Bella Bridal in Northville suggested I try this on. It took everything I had not to bust out laughing - I figured why the hell not. So here it is! They kept telling me how much I looked like a beautiful princess. I couldn't help but think I looked like a cupcake princess freakshow.

Prior to E. Bella, Marie, my mom and I went to Elizabeth's Bridal in Northville. They had an excellent selection and Suzie was amazing! I have no idea what to pair up with a dress in regards to veils and head pieces and she had a great eye for it that really matched the dress and my style. I was beyond impressed and she was wonderfully sweet. I think I have found THE dress. I have tried it on several times for different people and have consistently gotten the same "that's the one" reaction. I also asked Marie to be my Maid of Honor today. She is the sweetest person I have ever met and I have known her forever! I am super excited that she is going to be my MOH, I nearly cried asking her.

Edible Seating Card idea

So the box isn't edible... but the chocolates inside the handmade boxes I will be making will be. Doug and I have discussed making a personalized pattern for our wedding that I can print or silkscreen and create these handmade boxes from. It would be fun to include a little message on the inside of the box as well underneath the chocolates. Or I might punk out and buy some fun paper and then create a tag to hang from the box that designating the guest's name and table number. Since I am going to be creating the birds for the favors, I think the namecards should be something edible. Between the boxes, the birds and the terra cotta votives, I have my work cut out for me! I am very excited to get my hands dirty making stuff for the wedding. I also am starting a glassblowing class next weekend at CCS (where I got my BFA). Who knows what else I will get inspired to create for the wedding.

Handmade Fabric Birds and Other Reception Decor Thoughts for a Garden Inspired Theme

I have been trying to think of something I could create myself that could function as a favor and really add something special to the table decor when I ran across this DIY fabric bird mobile project. Ditching the whole mobile part, the plan is to create these fabric birds to add to the centerpieces at the reception. There would be a note letting telling guests to give the birds a good home after the reception. I think they will really add that spring element I have been seeking not to mention a lot of playful color to the tables. I am super excited now to start shopping for fabrics to build my birds from. I think I am going to head out tomorrow to shop for fabrics with unique patterns.

I am also loving this table setting by Hatch Creative. What a beautiful centerpiece they have created with the blue birds and nests and damask like patterning on the print piece. I think this approach is more unique than my previous Decor Part I post. I think taking this Hatch Creative concept and infusing grass and floral elements as well as my handmade birds would turn out great with the help of a talented florist.

Here are what I would like to include in the reception centerpieces:

real logs (with candles, moss, nests on top)
terra cotta votives
hand created birds
wheatgrass
flowers (anemone, hydrangea, peonies possibly)
printed table numbers
pillar candles in glass garden lanterns and/or on logs
moss
bird's nests

I am so excited about where this is going, now I need to find a floral designer that can really make this come to life and add their creative play to it.

Jimmy Choo who? No freaking way.

I plan on walking down the aisle barefoot. And when I do have to wear shoes, they will likely be a pair of pimped out converse or a pair of fun ass flats. Doing a garden wedding and battling a pair of heels sinking into the grass sounds awful. Plus, nothing beats soft spring grass between your toes.

Doug and I also want him and the groomsmen to wear Converse shoes. There was a great article in Craft mag about creating your own custom Cons by swapping out the canvas part of the shoe. Dress shoes definitely put Doug off. I don't even think he currently owns a pair of dress shoes. It seems so weird for him to smash his feet into some awkwardly uncomfortable pair of shoes he would never wear otherwise.

One thing I am trying to stick to is staying true to who we are and what we want and not letting what the wedding industry says dictate what we have to do at our wedding. It gets difficult at times. All the gorgeous pictures of lush floral arrangements and great table settings. I am a designer and so this whole thing is a huge design exercise for me. I can't help but want to design every aspect of the wedding experience. Not to mention I have read tons of magazines that say I should be looking into facial peels and oxygen treatments in the months leading up to the wedding and all sorts of stuff. Or that I should have chair covers and specialty china... tens of thousands of dollars later you end up with a ton of guests who can't remember what the hell any of your china even looked like. It is all about picking and choosing what matters most I guess. I have to admit though, it gets easier and easier to take what I thought I was going to do myself and just fork over money to have someone else do it. The biggest factor in all of this is time and resources. A lot of stuff like decoration I can't do on my own on my wedding day. I would love to go pick up bouquets from the farmers market and set it all up myself but I just can't. Mobot is a public space so the turn around time to set up is only a couple hours before the actual event. In retrospect, it would have been nice to pick a place where I could have gone in and set up the night before. The more I read as well, a lot of people say don't do your own flowers. I can totally see why. I have been reading a lot about them and they are very time and temperature sensitive. It would totally be my luck for everything to wilt by the next day not to mention how would I transport all of it. Another thought was forget a florist, and just have trees or potted plants as the centerpieces that can then function as favors for the guests. But pricing them out turned out to be nearly as expensive as a florist and I would have to set it all up myself which, again, wouldn't work.

I wish I had more time to figure all of this out as well. I obviously work and don't have a lot of free time to read,research and resource.I worry that if I put off booking a florists because I think I will have the time to do the decor myself, and then I run out of time, I will have nothing. Vendors book up insanely fast and it would be my luck to realize last minute I don't have the time to make or do X and then scramble to find someone only to find out everyone is booked. Not to mention I picked mother's day weekend which means florists take fewer events because of the holiday need for flowers.

Wow, this shoe conversation totally turned into a lengthy post of me mostly whining about the flower situation. It will all work itself out I am sure. I am super excited about everything, just trying to pick and choose my battles as wisely as one who has never planned a wedding before can. Anyways, enjoy the weekend! I am heading up-north to Kung Fu retreat. A full weekend of practice and meditation. Hopefully I will have pictures to share next week.

Anemone

There is something wonderfully simple and yet elegantly graphic about these flowers. I love them! I am definitely incorporating them into the bouquet and the centerpieces. I am in the home-stretch of deciding on a florist. I could try to do it all myself - which is not going to happen. I am not going to be able to set up tables and such myself. I can hire a coordinator and pay a bunch of money on top of florist fees. Or I can just pay the florist and deal with them myself which is now the plan. I had originally wanted to do trees as wedding favors and then have those as centerpieces, but unfortunately they are pricing out to be more than just hiring a florist. The more I research and read, it sounds better and better to just have a professional deal with it and tackle the stuff that can easily be DIY that won't turn out a disaster.

My new ride!

This has nothing to do with the wedding, but I just purchased a vintage Schwinn Trike in hot pink on Sunday night. I have been wanting one of these for quiet some time. Now my Boston Terrier, Miles and I can go for a ride. So hilarious!

Florists, DJs and Event Designers.. oh my

I love french anemone flowers and just wanted to throw them up here.

I am still looking into florists as well as a lighting designer and a DJ. I have decided to work with Erin at Exclusive Events. She is going to put together an amazing cluster of paper lanterns over our dance floor for the reception. I am pretty excited about it. I really wanted paper lanterns at the reception and I have been thinking about how empty and open the space feels. I think this is going to help make the space feel a lot more intimate as well as add a fun element to dance under and photograph.

Reception Decor, Part I

Here are some images of reception decor for the tables that we are liking. I love natural grass. I have been considering walking down the aisle of the garden at mobot with no shoes. Nothing beats the feeling of soft, spring grass under your feet after a long cold winter of constant shoe-wearing. Plus, there is just something poetic about it to me. Not to mention, heels on grass sounds like a nightmare. Doug and I have already discussed a converse wedding =]

Back to the decor, I also love introducing wood into the space through things like little flower boxes, and of course, tons and tons of candles. We are also leaning towards warmer shades like oranges, whites, grass greens (through natural stems and grass), browns (through wood and stationary), and maybe a touch of yellow. These colors are very spring like unlike the tiffany blue/seafoam color I was originally thinking. I had also thought about branches, but doing more thinking has lead me to believe that look may feel too fall for a spring wedding.

Best Wedding Cake Ever

All I can say is wow! I can't believe having a cake made that looks just like me never crossed my mind. HAHAH.. Seriously though, this image has been shown to me twice now, and I just had to throw it up here.

Bouquet Thought Starters Part I

Just some imagery I have collected of bouquets that have caught my eye for various reasons. Some might be because of color, others texture, and yet others simply one of the flowers in the arrangement. I am going to have a florist do my bouquet, the bridesmaids flowers in addition to any other specialty item.... but I keep considering doing the centerpieces myself. I would love to just head down to Soulard Market and snag some nice hand arranged bouquets, throw them in sweet vases and be done with it for 20 bucks a table instead of 100 bucks a table. Once we get colors nailed down, I might have some better ideas on decor, until then, good night!

The Gown Search, Part I

While Doug and I were visiting St. Louis, Sara took me to try on gowns for the first time. I have to admit, I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. I am not what you would consider a girly girl or anything, but everyone wants to look great on their wedding day. I was pretty excited to see what I might find. Sara was so sweet, taking me to two shops she made appointments at.

The first shop was Town and Country Bridal. This was the very first gown stop ever and I didn't know what to say when asked how much I wanted to spend. I figured, what the hell, I will give her a big number because it's my first stop and I am not buying anything today anyways. So I told her 5K, which was a lot to me. She politely told me that they don't sell anything over 3 and I instantly felt better about the whole process.

While at T+C, I found a Lea-Ann Belter dress I really liked in a blush color. They even slapped a veil on me and gave me a fake bouquet. They then told me to walk towards a mirror of myself. I think Sara was tearing up, which was so cute. I have to admit, watching myself play bride in the mirror really kind of freaked me out so the next stop was for margaritas. HA.

After the delicious meal and great times with Sara, we headed to our next stop, Simply Elegant Bridal. Jayne was super sweet and very helpful. I actually found a Paloma Blanca dress I fell in love with. This is the image I have included with this post. I love the way the ruched bodice made me look pretty thin, and the strapless on me looked better than I would have imagined. The material of the dresses was a form of Silk I believe. I tried on some Taffeta dresses and I just can't get into it. It sounds too much like I am walking around in parachute pants from back in the day or that I am wearing a tent... every step was accompanied with this "ship ship ship" sound.. HAHAHA.. plus silks are more eco-friendly. I am going to make another trip, this time with my mom and marie. I can't rob my mom of the "cry her eyes out as I try on gowns" experience. Thanks again Sara for being the bestestest...est =]

shameless plug for her huge STL craft event
http://www.rocknrollcraftshow.com/

Alisha Clark Photography

So we found our photographer! Here is a style-board I snagged from her blog while researching her. When I saw it and the many other style-boards, I thought to myself, wow she finds really nice reference imagery - must have pulled those from some sweet site or magazine. Then I realized, most of the style-boards on her site are her photography. dur!!

When it came to choosing a photographer, we both really like a photojournalist/storytelling approach to wedding photographer and I just found so many sites that were too posed and very flat looking.

When it came to Alisha Clark's imagery, everyone looked beautiful. Nothing looked dull, flat or ordinary. Even the most awkward of person looked brilliant and beautiful. I find her imagery very stunning. She captures a fleeting moment so well with so much depth, attention to detail and rich color and light.

I viewed tons of photographers proofs in the process and a great deal of photographers sites have fantastic picks in their galleries, but when it came to the proofs, most of the imagery fell flat. When looking through Alisha's imagery, I seriously got this incredible feeling in my stomach that I had to call her right now and book her. I just knew she was it. Turns out we were her last available date for 2009! Needless to say, I am super excited about her photographing our wedding.

The Cakery

Looking at wedding cakes is kind of fun to be honest with you. It is amazing what people can do with sugar. I have included an image of some cake designs that I really love.

First, I felt as though I had to learn a bit about wedding cake making to know what I was getting into. I thought very briefly about making my own cake. I LOVE to bake and thought it would be pretty awesome to save a ton of cash and just make one myself. Until... I really started thinking about what a total nightmare I might be getting myself into. If it wasn't my wedding, and I could spend hours on it and not have to worry about ALL the other wedding stuff that needs dealing with, sure, making a cake would be bad-ass. Sara (who is freaking awesome and is a close friend of our) and I had a discussion about how we both want to be Maggie Gyllenhall's character in "Stranger Than Fiction". My little punk-rock, art-girl, cake-baker fantasy would more than likely become my pissed-off, teary-eyed, stressed to all hell cake-disaster nightmare. Baking a big-ass cake the day before my wedding that should be gorgeous AND delicious was probably not the best idea ever. So I turned to the professionals.

After spending a ton of hours pouring over bakery reviews and cake photos, Doug and I took a trip to STL to visit his folks and I called to set up a cake tasting at The Cakery Bakery in dogtown.

Something to keep in mind
Fondant + wedding = super freaking expensive.
The Cakery + the best buttercream ever + delicious red velvet cake - fondant = cheaper

The Cakery let us pick up the cake samples instead of sitting with someone. I just had this image in my head of the scene from "Pscyho" where Norman (Anthony Perkins) has Marion (Janet Leigh) in his weird little office/study with all the dead animal heads starring down at them from walls. Replace dead animal heads with cake toppers, and I imagine the experience to be just as creepy. HAHAH...

So Doug, his parents, Sara, Dustin and I took the cake samples to a local restaurant to give it a taste, it was incredible! Even the waitress said it was melt in your mouth amazing. We tried the Red Velvet as well as the French Vanilla. They also gave us a little tub of the buttercream which Sara, Doug and I had no issues throwing our fingers into and scooping out a huge heap of it to eat. SO GOOD! I didn't need to meet any other bakers. The Cakery is the jam and they have been so nice! I put a deposit down and we are set! Plus, my mom is super sweet and has offered to buy the cake! Thanks mom!!

Wedding at Mobot!

After spending countless hours on theknot.com and tons of other websites pouring over tons of images of reception halls and ceremony sites, we finally made a decision. We will be having our wedding at the Missouri Botanical Garden. It was honestly one of the first places I found that we loved, but I couldn't just go with the very first spot I fell in love with without checking everything else out first. Hotel ballrooms were out, halls - out, anything in St. Charles according to Doug - out... meanwhile, places were booking their dates up faster than you can image. One evening I basically forced images of hall after hall, spot after spot on him until he fell asleep on my shoulder after 2 hours of searching!! HAHHAA..

Finally, it came down between a wedding at the Jewel Box in Forest Park with a reception at the Visitor Center or the Mobot Japanese Garden ceremony with a Monsanto Hall reception. When we found out that Mobot had the same date as Doug's parent's wedding anniversary available, we knew it had to be this location. Doug was pretty excited to share this special date with his parents, which I think is so sweet =]

So here it is! Missouri Botanical Garden on May 09, 2009!! Reception at the Japanese Garden at 6pm with Reception following immediately afterward at Monsanto Hall. Phew! It is such a relief to have a spot picked and done.

Big Sur Engagement

Doug and I traveled to San Francisco to drive down to Big Sur, California on May 2nd. We spent the first night in San Francisco staying at the Clift on Geary and the next morning grabbing bfast at Mel's diner before we picked up the Mini Cooper S! Driving the Mini down Hwy 1 was so awesome, except for getting out of San Francisco. I have a map-reading handicap that drives Doug crazy, and reasonably so. With iphone google maps in hand, you would think one couldn't go wrong but I go into severe freak out mode any time someone is looking to me for directions.

We made it out of San Fran and headed down to Carmel by the Sea to stay at the Wayside Inn. I was pretty disappointed with the place mostly because I have a ridiculously sensitive nose and it smelled very musty, which I guess you can expect when staying at an older place by the ocean. We walked around the cute little downtown area that had no joke, a ton of "art" galleries. This place was honestly a bit bougie for us, but we had a great time and the next morning made our way down Hwy to Big Sur!!

We stopped at Swanton Berry Farm which is where I want to live =] It is this amazing berry farm right next to the ocean. People stop in and pay on the honor system buying jams, jellies, berries and of course, homemade strawberry shortcakes which were so awesome, we stopped to get another on our way back up. We made several stops along the shore taking in the view which is incredible. One spot we stopped, we climbed down a rocky bluff to the beach. As far as you can see along the entire drive is ocean, rocks, mountain and occasional beach. If I could suggest any one vacation to take in the US, it is this trip!

We eventually made our way to the best place to say in South Big Sur - Treebones Resort. They are a series of yurts in the middle of nowhere. The service, people, location and everything was awesome. This was by far the best part of our trip. We ate the first night at Deetjen's, also a place you have to stop, especially for dinner. The meal was pretty expensive but well worth every dollar. Doug says it is the best meal he has ever had! He enjoyed a bacon wrapped pork tenderloin with blue cheese polenta. I seriously almost gave in and ate some of it - and I haven't eaten pork in over 3 years. That night we played some awful Simpsons board game with a local bottle of wine and then hit the sack to get ready for our big day hitting the parks the next morning.

We started off each morning at the yurts with belgian waffles we made ourselves and then we packed up to head to Julia Pfeffer Burns State Park in north Big Sur. I swear every time Doug drove, he tried to see how much he could get me to white knuckle the oh shit handle. HAHA!! We hiked up into the mountains on the Ewoldsen Loop on a cloudy morning for 2 miles!! It was a gorgeous hike and fairly tiring. Doug suggested we take a rest at this picturesque spot at the top overlooking the ocean. After a few moments of rest, he began to tell me how much he loved me and asked me if I loved him. I said yes and he rephrased the question asking if I was going to love him for a long time as I said yes, he leaned in as we sat on the dirt placing something into the palm of my hand. I clamped my fingers down feeling the object was tiny and felt like... A RING! I immediately began to tear up and said yes of course! I had no idea he had stashed the ring in a small little fuse box from Frentz Hardware in his backpack the whole trip and had slipped it into his pocket that morning before the hike. Sitting in the dirt, sweaty after a long hike, overlooking the ocean - I think this is probably the most romantic proposal ever!!!

As we made our way down the mountain the cloudy sky cleared and we enjoyed the best weather we had the whole trip!! We then toured the McWay Falls trail overlooking the turquoise waters and taking in the ocean air. We grabbed lunch outside on the patio at Nepenthe overlooking the ocean and then spent the remainder of our day at Pfeiffer Beach. We then raced the sun back to our yurt to watch our first engaged sunset over the ocean over a glass of local wine. We made our way back to San Fran before returning home and stayed at a little bed and breakfast called the Red Victorian on Haight. It was an incredible trip I will never forget!!