Merry Christmas!!

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Sorry I've been a little silent lately. Things have been super crazy but I have a lot of exciting posts to share after the holidays. In the meantime, MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope your holiday was filled with friends, family, food and lots of fun!!

xoxox
D & O

What's a bride to D.O.?

As you know, I want to be able to use the word bride as much as possible on my wedding day. I know a lot of people prefer to got the "Mr" & "Mrs" route, but I figure I have my whole life to be a "Mrs." That being said, I had originally planned on doing simple chalkboard bride & groom chair signs tied with some burlap, lace and pink ribbon. Simple and sweet. done and done.

Then, on a shopping frenzy, I picked up these large white letters on sale at Michaels. They were only $1.50 each, plus I think it's kind of sweet that our initials spell "DO." I literally had no plan, I just bought them and hoped I could work them in somehow. Now I am thinking they might make great chair signs. However, I am not entirely ready to give up on the "bride" and "groom" signs. I have collected a series of inspiration pictures and I am hoping I can kind of incorporate these different elements into a cohesive design. (Hang in there I know there is A LOT going on!)

I really like the sweetness of these signs... we are also using a lot of whimsical calligraphy at our wedding so like this but smaller might work.

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I love the feel of this one. The mix of items is really pretty, I feel like this would only work for my chair though, I would want to make the grooms chair a little more masculine. Maybe we could do pink ribbon and lace on mine and burlap and lace on his.


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I think this whole setup might be the closest to what I want. Instead of blue ribbon it would be pink or lace. However, I would hang the letters a little lower and then add the words "bride" and "groom" to the chair.

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After all that, I realized that maybe its just too much. Maybe I should just K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, silly) it. Look at how sweet and simple these striped letters.

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I love the print on these letters. I think I also prefer the way the letters are hung with the two strands instead of just one.

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I love these fabric pom-poms, I think they are a great touch and would be super simple. I don't love the white, on white, on white, but since my chairs will probably be gold/silver, then I can add a pink pom-pom or fabric flowers to my chair and burlap ones to the groom chair. hmm... so many possibilities.

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As an alternative to adding bride and groom signs to the sign, I could somehow try to do something like this: There is actually a great tutorial on how to do this... the problem is that I only have one set of letters so I really can't afford to mess them up with a DIY project.

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Love these. Simple. Romantic and really diy-able!

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I think I'm gonna keep the letters white, do something simple with burlap, ribbon and lace and just call it a day. Who would have thought chair signs could be so complicated!?!

Surf with Style

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A while back, pretty much out of nowhere, Mr. mentioned that he would really like to incorporate a surf feel into our wedding. Since Mr. almost never thinks about the wedding or offers up an unsolicited opinions I figured I should take this pretty seriously and see what I can do to incorporate his love for surfing.

Of course I haven't quite figured out how I am going to incorporate a "surf feel" into my whimsical, romantic, vintage summer wedding, but I thought I should do a little googling for inspiration and here were some of the most inspirational details I found:

I clearly won't be doing any of this... I am pretty sure I will fall face first into the water, thereby ruining my hair and makeup... so, um, yeah, no surfing pictures.
{Rock N' Roll Bride}
I love this surfboard chalkboard idea. I would also make a great seating chart. I also think that the chalkboard would fit into my theme... I don't really know what colors surf boards come in, but I think a vintage wood surfboard could look amazing and super stylish.
{Avant Bride}
I love this wooden board. However I don't know if we could bring TWO surfboards back to the US with us, since Mr. will already bringing his board down from LA. I also don't know where we would put a surfboard in our TINY New York apartment. Although I should keep in mind that we won't live in a tiny apartment forever!
{Alistair Humphrey}
I thought this cake topper was super cute and appropriate because I will probably have to drag Mr out of the water on our wedding day!
{Fun Wedding Things}
I just liked this picture. I think I could definitely pull this off during our trash the dress session. How hard can it be to lay on your stomach and paddle?? As long as the water is pretty flat, I won't get myself killed! (I'm actually a pretty good swimmer. I was on the swim teach for 7 years, I was a lifeguard for two summers, and I've taught swim lessons for the red cross!...I just happen to have a fear of the ocean. Blame shark week!)
{My Wedding}

I'm gonna have to do a lot more thinking but I think there is definitely a way I can make this work.

Has anyone else incorporated surf elements into your wedding? What other weird/fun things did your SO ask you to incorporate into the wedding?

2 Flower Girls & A Ringbearer

I am so blessed to have an amazing family. I was raised in a very traditional (co-dependent) family and am super close to my fam. I talk to my baby sisters every day, three or four times a day. I also talk to my parents 4-5 times a week... did I mention we are uber co-dependent?

That being said, the family is GROWING!!

{Personal Picture} My baby sister has two a-mazing kids who are are going to be my flower girl and ring bearer. Our wedding is about a week before her third birthday and the ring bearer will be about 10months old.

{Personal Picture} Also, my very favorite cousin who is going to try super hard to get to my wedding all the way from Malaysia, has an A-DORABLE daughter, who would be my second flower girl. She will be 2.5 at the time of the wedding.

That being said, how am going to get three toddlers down the aisle?!?! At first I was think we could do a wagon situation. Flower girl D loves nothing more than to pull her brother around the house... so she could probably handle it. I am not to worried about stage fright, she is quite the ham.

PLUS Babies in wagons are super adorable!

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I love this kid. He has the best hair. Plus who doesn't love a cutie in a suit.

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How much do you love the "hear comes the bride" sign. Also doesn't this baby look like an Anne Gedde baby. She looks like a little baby fairy, but I am partial to babies in tutus.

As far as I can tell there are two problems. (1) How would I get a wagon to Costa Rica? Maybe they have them there??(2) Can you even pull a wagon through the sand?? More importantly, could a 3-year-old pull a wagon through sand?

If I can't get this wagon thing to work out, I will just have one of the bridesmaids walk the ring bearer down the aisle. I have 6 bridesmaids and only 5 groomsmen so it would actually work out quite well.

Does anyone have any other suggestions on how to get three toddlers down the aisle? What about sand-friendly alternatives to a wagon?

My Something Blue

MY DRESS IS HERE! So I may or may not be wearing my wedding dress as I type this post. At first I considered, not opening it at all. Who was I kidding!?!? I ripped it open like a kid on Christmas morning. First of all, it fits like a glove. I don't even know if I need alterations.

Second, now what?!? My wedding isn't until May what am I suppose to do with her until then...

{Friends: The One With All The Dresses}
I did a little bit of googling and learned that depending on the dress, you can either keep your dress stored in a box/bag under your bed or hanging. However you shouldn't hang your dress for more than 6-7 months.

UNDER THE BED STORAGE

• If the dress has beading, pearls, sequins, rhinestones or anything else that makes it heavy it needs to be stored flat.
  
• If the dress has heavy fabric suspended relatively weak fabric, it is also a good candidate for the "under the bed" treatment. A heavy dress with narrow shoulder straps or a dress with net insets in the bodice are examples. You don't want the weight of the hanging dress to pull it apart.
• Wrap the dress in a white sheet, then store it under the bed. Mine came in a long, flat box but if you don't have one, you can pick up all sorts of under the storage at Target. This will protect the dress from cats and dust bunnies.
  
  HANGING IN A GARMENT BAG

• If your dress is relatively plain, check the fabric content. Natural fibers need to "breathe," which they cannot do in a synthetic garment bag. A dress of silk, linen, cotton, or wool should be wrapped in a cotton sheet. You can leave a plain, not-to-heavy dress on the hanger.
• If, however, your dress is good old polyester, with little or no trim, it can stay happily on its hanger in a garment bag for seven months. A very heavy dress might start to pull apart after seven years of this treatment, but polyester is remarkably stubborn stuff. A 100% polyester dress with no appliqued trim can be washed in the washing machine and allowed to drip dry, too.
• If your dress has a mixed fiber content, follow the procedure for the most demanding fiber.
  

For more info click here.

For now I am going to keep her hanging, however I think the safest bet will be to put her back in her box until the big day. My seamstress is coming out here this weekend to do my first fitting. I'll be sure to post pictures once I have another person around.

The perfect smile

So let's talk wedding photos. They are this HUGE investment and they are really the only thing that lasts past the wedding day (other than your love for your new hubby/wife, of course!). Here's the thing, after taking my engagement photos I realized that I have a huge smile. Mr. makes me laugh and never takes life seriously... so during our entire e-session I was grinning from ear to ear. Now this might sound sweet but how will I ever get myself under control on my big day!?!? I really love these romantic subdued wedding pictures.

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This is what happened when we tried the oh-so-sweet head on the shoulder move:


I literally couldn't stop smiling! He kept whispering silly nothings in my ear. Sigh. I love the man but he makes it so darn hard!

While I totally recognize that there are lots of reasons to be smiling from ear to ear on my wedding day. I love how intimate and tender those moments are... I only hope that me and Mr. are mature enough (or comfortable enough) to get it together for our big day.

So here's the crazy obsessive bridezilla part: sometimes I make us practice being serious! Usually I just catch our reflection in a mirror in our apartment (usually while we are brushing our teeth or something) or walking by a window or in the review mirror while sitting in a cab. Hehehe. I know its silly and usually ends with us making "blue steel" faces or making gangster faces or just plan silly faces, but I'm honestly worried.

Do you have any photography concerns? How are you dealing with these concerns? Did your e-session calm these fears or make them worse?

Barrister Bride to Be

I don't do this that often but I just wanted to spread a little love and say thanks to a fellow barrister BTB. I have a fabulous friend, J, who was the genius behind Barrister Bride and she not so long ago had her own e-pics taken so I just wanted to share these gorgeous pictures with you and show her photographer Joe Elario a little love!









All photos courtesy of Joe Elario


If you head over to his website you'll see that he's having a contest for the best engagement session of the year and J has been nominated. So if you love the photos as much as I do, you should vote for her!

Happy Saturday ladies!

It's Friday!

It's finally Friday and I have some BIG NEWS!!! I am a BEEEE!

{Wedding Bee}
I found out earlier this week that my application had been accepted but I didn't want to announce it until it was official! Well, its offical. I am Miss Pancakes! How appropriate is that!?!

Although many of my posts will be on the Bee from now on, there will still be a number of posts that I will save for my own blog that aren't necessary Bee-appropriate.

I know a lot of my newest followers are fellow Bee fans so I look forward to seeing you on the boards as Miss Pancakes!!

Happy Friday!!

Coolest Wedding Pictures ever

You may remember this photo that I posted over seven months ago. Back then I thought that it was the coolest wedding picture I ever! Boy was I wrong! While I still love that photograph I recently ran across these photos:


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Here's the kicker! These photos weren't taken in a day after shoot, these were taken DURING the wedding day. After dinner the bride & groom decided to go wakeboard for a little bit before the party started. Is it just me or do you feel like some people are just too cool!? I LOOOVE these photos. I love that this bride and groom are truly enjoying their wedding day. Instead of getting caught up in the fact that people weren't dancing yet, they made their own fun. Not only that, they were also willing to trust that their guests are grown-ups who don't need to be babysat the whole time and take a little moment for themselves. It is after all THEIR wedding day :D

We are one of those horrible couples that will be having a 5 hour break between the wedding and the reception. Well, we are really having TWO receptions but that's another story for another day. The truth is we really wanted to have time during the day to be together and be married. I would love to just play on the beach, eat, cuddle in bed for a little bit and just savor the day.

Have you scheduled any private time into your wedding day? What do you plan to do during that time?

She's here!

When I finally got the email from Bliss letting me know that my dress had arrived at the bridal salon I was so happy I actually squealed. Mr. came running into the room and asked "Good news or Bad?" When I told him my dress had arrived, he gave me a hug and said " I am so proud of you!" (Is it possible to over-train a man?? hehehe.)

Back to the news at hand. I immediately emailed my seamstress Susan to set up an alteration date. Susan is A-MAzInG! She was not only able to travel to my house for the fitting which was so crucial since I was right in the middle of finals but she also volunteered to store my dress for me while I'm in Amsterdam. Did I mention she is A-Mazing!?!

Within hours of receiving the email I was plagued with second-thoughts! The washed over me and consumed my every thought. I couldn't study. I could barely even think straight. What if it wasn't THE dress!?!?

My three doubts about the dress were (1)the neckline. The neckline isn't a true sweetheart neckline, which I knew when I bought the dress so I was just hoping it would be a pretty easy alteration. (2) I wanted an all lace dress but Mr. P and my Momma P hated all-lace dresses. (No, Mr. P did not go wedding dress shopping with me but we did look at a few dresses in magazines together so I could get an idea of what he liked.) Lastly, and most importantly, the bottom of the dress isn't very full. The reality is, I don't really remember how full it is and it was like 5 sizes too big so I can't really get a sense from the pictures of how the bottom will sit.

Once I bought the dress I tried really really really really hard to stop actively looking for dresses but now that the dress is here all bets are off! I immediately started googling mermaid dresses to figure out what I really wanted.

The reality is, I love a full mermaid skirt, I mean have you seen the size of Vera Wang's Spring dresses!


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However, it just didn't seem practical to try and get a dress that size to Costa Rica. Also I am not sure I'm tall enough to carry it off so I decided to focus on a more modest skirt.

I love the shape of this Jim Heljm and I think it's a good compromise size. I just think she's so elegant, romantic and feminine:

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However, I think that it's also really important to look at real brides to get a sense of the way different shapes photograph and move throughout the day. Here are three of my very favorite real brides.

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1. The fullest - I love this tiered skirt. My dress isn't tiered but I also love the shape this dress gives the bride. I think this skirt has the most crinoline and I kind of the love that it doesn't need to be messed with in order to get that great shape. However my train is a little longer than this one so I have to figure out how that would look.

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2. Medium fullness - I think this dress is the closest to my own dress shape and if it isn't then I think it's the shape that I want the most!

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3. No fullness - This dress doesn't seem to have any crinoline and still has an amazing shape. I think this has a lot to do with the brides natural shape and the tiers of the skirt.

At the end of the day, I think its gonna come down to my budget versus my obsession with having the "perfect" dress. I haven't even met Susan but I get a great vibe from her (aka she answered my emails while on a Caribbean cruise and even apologized for taking 48 hours to respond!) and I think she'll be really helpful in deciding which of these looks will be best for me. I hope that this process of looking at dresses has helped me collect my thoughts so that I can both articulate my feelings and be at peace with whatever decision I make.

**I am obviously also trying to keep open the possibility that I will just love her once I get her on and perhaps I did pick the "perfect" dress.

How much did you alter you dress? Were you like me and still trying to change the dress months after you bought her or was she prefect the moment you put her on?

Flower overload...

One of the hardest things about being a DW bride to be is that I don't get to see every single detail beforehand and I really have to trust my wedding planner to understand my vision and make executive decisions. This is insanely difficult for a Type-A, control freak, perfectionist like me!

While we were in LA for Thanksgiving, we were trying to think of a wedding related activity we could do that was (1)low stress and (2)low pressure. We decided that we should go to the Los Angeles Flower Market. As I've mentioned countless times, I am not a huge flower person so I don't really know what I like outside of orchids (which I LOVE).

This is what I learned:

1. When you look at flowers have a plan! This place was huge and it was a little overwhelming. Most of the stores carried the same flowers so it was really about finding flowers that I wanted to see in person and figuring out what colors/sizes they came in.


2. I love ranunculus. They are like a smaller, tighter peony... before I get too excited, I need to ask my wedding planner if they are available in Costa Rica.


3. Peonies are HUGE! I didn't realize what a big flower the peony is... They don't have them in Costa Rica so they aren't really an option but it seems like if someone was DIY-ing their flowers, a few strategically placed peonies would go a long way. They are also all pretty closed still at the flower market so I would be important to figure out how far in advance you need to get them so they are in their full glory on your big day!


4. I pretty much hate hydrangeas. They are definitely great filler flowers and super affordable but they just aren't my style. Of all the flowers they also seem to be the most wilt-y. That being said, I have definitely seen a lot of arrangements with hydrangeas that I do love so.... we'll see.


5. I still LOVE orchids. They are just so fabulous and elegant.


6.Last but not least, I love mums. I especially love the China mum. Look at how huge and gorgeous this flower is!


It turns out that I also don't really know the difference between mums and dahlias. Sigh. So much to learn and so little time!

Were there things you learned about flowers and your own taste once you saw the flowers in-person? Do you have any advice or suggestions about flowers that hold up in the Costa Rican heat and last all day?

Necklace DIY: Bridesmaids' gifts?

So yes, I am totally obsessed with necklaces right now. I have also been wondering what I should get my bridesmaids. I want to get them something that will be useful and can be individualized but perhaps could also be used at the wedding. In other words, I'd love to pay for something so that they don't have to... With that in mind, I've started looking at possible DIY bridesmaids' necklaces. I found a bunch of necklaces on Etsy that look DIY-able.

1. Simple and Understated

{Etsy - $44}

The thing I love about this necklace is it looks super simple to make, plus it'll be cheaper to make because it only uses 10-12 beads per necklace. I also think the flower looks pretty easy to make... you could also make if fancier by adding a crystal button to the center of the flower or adding a few crystal beads between the pearl beads.

Here is a flower DIY project that I've posted before that I think would work great for this necklace.

{DIY Instructions}
2. Feminine and Fabulous

{Etsy:Mara Necklace - $36}

This necklace has a little bigger pearl beads and the flower is a little larger. It is also more like a floral poof than a flower. The color makes it so hard for me to figure out this necklace. I think I like the general idea, but I would probably use smaller pearls.

Here is a floral poof DIY that I thought would work great for this necklace:

{DIY Instructions}

3. Elegance and Shine

{Etsy - $88}

I love love love this one. I love the crystal beads in between the pearl beads, I like the symplicity and bling in the flower and most of all I love that there are two strands of pearls. While this would be the most expensive necklace to make I definitely think it would be worth the extra $$.

I've also posted this chiffon flower DIY project before but I thought it would be perfection with this necklace, especially in the soft pink!

{DIY Instructions}
As for the beads, it looks like you can order beads for a reasonable price. At Fire Mountains Gems or Oriental Trading. If you prefer to pick some beads up in person I know that Michael's has a considerable collection but I think they are fairly pricey.

What do you think? Would you wear there necklaces? Would your bridesmaids?