Travel Themed Goodies

First of all I want to apologize for my absence and lame-o posting over the last few weeks. Between Christmas, my family's one week visit, finishing up my final semester at law school and moving out of New York (during one of the snowiest winters!) to Amsterdam, I've been a little busy. Now that I'm in Amsterdam, I will finally be able to get back to the business of blogging.

Right now, I am super jet-lagged and achy from moving huge suitcases across the Atlantic so I don't have the energy to do a wedding planning updates. Instead, I decided to do a travel-themed post. In honor of my move to Amsterdam, here is some fabulous travel themed wedding inspiration.

{Source}

{Source}

{Source}

{Source}

{Source}

{i-do-it-yourself.com via Just happily ever after}

Happy travels!

Ready for "The Aisle"

{Source}

If you remember my post about the Aisle, you will excited to hear that tomorrow is the very first sale! Starting at 11am EST The Aisle will be featuring discounts on wedding related items from the following designers:

• Monique Lhuillier
• Angel Sanchez
• Elizabeth Fillmore
• Oscar de la Renta Jewelry
• Suzanne Couture Millinery
  

If you haven't sign-up, click here to join! Happy shopping!

Merry Christmas!!

{Source}

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.

{Source}
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.


{Source}
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.

{Source}
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.

{Source}

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.

{Source}
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.

{Source}

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.

{Source}

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

{Source}

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

{Source}

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!

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

{source}
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.

{Source}
{Source}
{Source}
{Source}
{Source,Source}

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?