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!!