Color overload.

I can't escape from the colors. I'll explain why shortly. First of all, some wedding-planning updates:

I found a dress! I can't say much about it, because Ben will read it and know what it looks like and we just can't have that happening. (NICE TRY, BEN!!!!!). BUT, I can tell you about the experience. I made two appointments and had all my girlies there-all four bridesmaids and my mom. The first appointment was at Bridal Exclusives in Tigard, since they were having a trunk show (read: discount!). I didn't really know what to expect and wasn't really convinced I'd find anything I'd like that day. I went into it with ideas of what I liked and didn't think I'd like/would look good on me. The day before, mom and I had gone into David's Bridal real quick to just look around. I lasted about three minutes there before I got overstimulated and overwhelmed and we left. So I didn't have high hopes going into Bridal Exclusives. Except it was a totally different experience there. My cute little consultant, Patty, told me to pick one dress of each style: A-line, fit-and-flare, ballgown, mermaid, etc. And then once I tried on all the styles and decided which shape looked best, I could go from there. I went into this thinking the ballgown style would look bad on me, but I actually really liked it! That's not what I got though (NICE TRY AGAIN, BEN!!!!). Anyway, I went to the store with one style in mind, and so I made sure to try that one on. And I loved it. And nothing else quite compared. And it was more than I wanted to spend....So I tried it on, walked around in it, fell in love with it a little, then headed to David's Bridal. After some champagne. YUM. Then mom had to drive....Anyway, we made it to David's Bridal and I immediately wanted to turn around. The place is crazy. There are dresses EVERYWHERE. And they are all covered in plastic with bright flourescent lights everywhere and a million dressing rooms filled with a million brides-to-be. I hurriedly tried on a few dresses then ran out. And back to Bridal Exclusives....Now, I had it in my mind that maybe I could convince them to knock the price down a little bit more. So when they didn't, I had a little meltdown...and the lady (Shelly this time) ran to get my mom cuz she didn't know what to do. And all my mom and sisters told me to just get the dress, it was still close to what I had budgeted, I just was hoping I wouldn't have had to spend my full budgeted amount! And I just couldn't make myself do it! But then Shelly, my hero, told me she'd give me free side alterations ($90 normally), and then everything seemed doable! So, I got the dress! I couldn't believe it! I was so sure I wouldn't find one that was the style I liked, with the budget I had, that was long enough (HOW were all Bridal Exclusives' dresses long enough?!?!), that looked like I wanted it to when I was wearing it....but I did! Success! One more thing checked off the To-Do list!

Next on the list: find someone to marry us. We aren't really that involved in our church, so kind of felt weird asking someone there to marry us. But it's a huge church (three locations, eight services, about 1000 people per service...that's a lot of people!), and it's not like the pastors really know a lot of the people anyway. So I decided I'd just email someone and see what happened.

First of all, let me tell you how much I love this church. Not only are the sermons amazing and eye-opening, but the people are so great. I had the opportunity to meet the head pastor (well, former head pastor, his son now carries that title) the other day in one of my classes. The professor of my Speech and Hearing Disorders class also goes to Solid Rock, and the pastor's wife, Diane, has cochlear implants after she started going deaf at age 26. So she came to our class to talk to us, and brought her husband, Phil, along with her. During the break in class, Diane was walking by me and said I looked familiar and I told her that my fiance and I go to Solid Rock. So Phil also came over and introduced himself. And we talked for the next five or 10 minutes. They were just asking questions about me, talking about church, etc. They were just so sweet and genuine, and it made me love that church even more. They could have just said, "Oh cool, you go to Solid Rock, nice to meet you" and moved on. But they took the time to just chat and find out about me and my life. And I was almost more excited about talking to them than I was about the Rock calling me "honey."

Anyway, I decided to email the Downtown location pastor, Gerald, find out about having someone from Solid Rock officiating our ceremony. So he agreed to meet us after the service on Sunday to talk to us. So after watching WICKED (AMAZING!!!!), we ran to the church to meet up with him. He asked us a few questions to find out about us, talked to us about the premarital counseling and just went over things real quick. He is a super friendly guy and we love his sermons when he speaks. So we are super excited to have him do our ceremony! As long as his wife gives the okay for the date anyway :) So, another thing checked off the list!

Next: registering for gifts. Who would have thought this would be so difficult. I can commit to spending the rest of my life with Ben. No problem. But how on earth are we supposed to commit to a color of dishes for the rest of our life!??!?! How do you choose these things?!?! We looked at every dish in the store. On two separate days. And every combination of colors possible. And we CAN. NOT. DECIDE. Towels we can change. Placemats we can change. Dishes are spendy and you don't want to have to buy a new set when you realize yours are ugly or out of style. HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE?!?!!?!? So, we are probably going to end up with all white or something. I don't know. I can't handle making any more color decisions! The nice thing is that Ben and I like all the same color combinations, and he was good at putting colors together. But we just didn't fall in love with anything! Bah. Too difficult. Maybe we'll try again next week and have some magical brainstorm of inspiration. Or we'll get all white. HELP!

colors AGAIN!

Okay. I have been obsessing about colors. I just can't find quite the right samples anywhere! My amazing roommate Megan showed me a graphic designer tool called Kuler (by Adobe). You can make your own color samples by adjusting them and playing around til you get just the right thing. So I played around a little, using my favorite bouquet as inspiration. And I think I've just about got it! So here is the semi-final color palate! Let me know what you think!

Source: peacockfeatherevents.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

Thinking of this for the dresses!

Source: apartment34.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

Soon to come: the wedding dress search story!

A break from wedding planning

Sometimes a girl just needs to pamper herself. My version of pampering is usually either a nice hot bubble bath or a self-done manicure. I'm too cheap to go get manicures.

Because of my mad couponing skills, I occasionally try out a new product I wouldn't have tried before because of the cost. One of my most recent ventures was Sally Hansen Salon Effects. I had been curious about these, since it is supposed to last longer than normal nail polish. I love having my nails painted, but get annoyed when it chips off after a day. So I had high hopes that this stuff would be a miracle cure to chipped polish! Normally it costs like $10, but I got it for less than $2 thanks to a huge sale plus a coupon at Rite Aid.

I decided to try it out the other day to see what the fuss is all about. It's basically an at-home shellac manicure. I got out the instructions and went to work. These reminded me of little stick-on nails I used to get when I was little. They are just the grown-up version I guess. The directions say to stick the little sticker on your nail, stretching it gently as you fit it to your nail. Then you push down the edges with an orange stick and buff away the extra from the end of your nail.

Don't worry, I got pink ones, not the leopard print. Although they were BRIGHT pink ones.

Another reason I was excited to try this is it means no drying time. I hate painting my nails then having to wait forever to actually do anything. I always have to go to the bathroom or something when I'm done, and end up ruining my freshly-painted nails somehow. So I figured this would be quicker than a regular manicure. Well, there is no drying time, but it takes forever to apply them. It definitely takes some technique, but its not impossible. The right hand definitely turned out worse, which is always the case with a self-done manicure. But all in all they looked pretty decent.

For a few hours, anyway. They started chipping and peeling pretty quickly. By the next day, there were cracks all over each nail, plus chips around the edges. So then came the task of removing it. Which I will equate to removing sticker residue from a glass. Not fun. Not easy.

Anyway, they are a great idea! Just not worth the $10 cost! Not even worth the $2 cost...

Colores!

So I've had a bunch of ideas for colors, and kind of keep changing my mind because I can't find quite what I'm looking for. But basically we've settled on a coral-y pink color and turquoise. Here is some inspiration for those colors!

Source: 100layercake.com via Amy on Pinterest

This wedding is basically exactly what I'm going for. The colors, the favors, the table decorations, centerpieces, etc. I want this exactly. Except with a little bit more color in the flowers, and add in some lace touches.






LOVE this boquet. LOVE the colors. Perfection.

Source: marthastewartweddings.com via Amy on Pinterest

Love the combination of the bright, vivid pinks with the muted, soft, vintage pinks and greens. With the blue Ball jars!


So, that's the plan so far! Now, to figure out what the bridesmaids should wear. I love the idea of coral dresses in different styles and shades for the girlies. But that might be a hard color to come by. It would also be fun to have them wear turquoise but have coral/pink bouquets and a pink dress for the little flower girl. So many choices!

wedding=an excuse for putting other things off

Wedding planning has a way of taking over and making homework even that more unattractive...so here I am blogging instead of writing a ten-page paper.

We visited Rogue on Saturday and just love it! It is a working farm, so very rustic and, well, farm-y. They have a nice barn we can have the reception in, a pretty outside area where we can have the ceremony, plus turkeys and chickens and pigs. Oh my! So we are booked! September 1, 2012 will be the big day!

So, one thing checked off the list. Well, two, we also booked our honeymoon: a week in St. Thomas! Now on to the other million things! We are finalizing our invite lists and thinking about save the dates and invites. One of the biggest things I'm worrying about now is the food. How to feed 200 people good food on a budget. We decided having the event catered is kind of out of the question, budget-wise. So we are going to follow the rustic theme and have a classy BBQ for the wedding. Is that an oxymoron? We'll make it classy. Pulled pork, lots of salads, some beer of course provided by Rogue...It should be fun and yummy!

We also are thinking about table decorations. Rogue has either picnic tables or round tables we can use. I love the look of picnic tables with no linens, but its not very practical or comfortable. So we might go with the round tables and rent white linens somewhere. We are going to decorate the tables with lots of flowers grown by my lovely sister and others, and use blue Ball canning jars for the vases. The main colors are going to be coral/pink and turquoise (like the blue jars we'll use).

I think next we need to find some bridesmaid dresses and groomsmen attire, figure out the invites and find things to decorate with. I am going dress shopping this weekend with my bridesmaids and Ben and I are going apartment hunting. So hopefully after this weekend we'll have a couple other things checked off the list?

Who knows how much salad one should make for 200 people? And who wants to make it all...?

(Actually, I have lots of amazing friends and family who are helping make all kinds of things!)

Step One

Being engaged is a lot of work! We've only been engaged a week and I'm already stressing about the wedding! Ben is amazingly understanding though and is good at calming me down and telling me everything will work out! And following me around to Michael's, Home Depot, Ross.....

Needless to say, we had a busy weekend.

The first thing we are trying to figure out is a venue for the wedding. We have a small budget and a large guest lists. The two don't work very well together. But after lots of research on both our parts (Ben is also very helpful, finding lots of good ideas!) and recommendations from family and facebook friends, we visited some venues this weekend. Here are the places we have looked at/thought about so far:



Beazell Memorial Forest in Philomath. Beautiful. Rustic. Natural. I love this place. $750 to rent, includes tables and chairs for up to 80 people. You can fit up to 120 if you arrange parking somewhere else. If my family wasn't so big and we didn't have a billion people to invite, we would be having it here. Perfection!





Scappoose Creek Inn. Lovely and quaint and adorable. Llamas and chickens wandering around. $650 ncludes tables and chairs and use of the barn and outside area. They also have a restaurant on premise and can include bar service for $100. Really pretty, but again, too many people. This would have been our second choice though!




Mt. Tabor Amphitheater. Beautiful setting, only like $322. Doesn't include tables though, and is in a public park. Read: people playing basketball and running around while we're saying our vows. Can fit up to 300 people. But would incur a lot of other costs to rent tables, chairs, get insurance and permits. Lots of space though!





Stein-Boozier Barn in Wilsonville. Rustic, beautiful, cheap. Only fits 98 people max :(


We did tons of research and looked at lots of options. We had almost decided to go with the Scappoose Creek Inn when Helen suggested we look at a place in Independence. Looking at the info online, it seemed too good to be true! But I emailed them, and after waiting three days finally heard back. It really WAS all true!


And now, the piece de resistance:

The Rogue Brewery hopyard. Fits up to 200 people (perfect!). You can use their catering if you want, and if you do they don't charge for the venue. If you don't use their catering, its only $500. Includes tables, chairs, tableware, set up and tear down of tables and chairs. They are a brewery, so you can serve their yummy beer. It is also beautiful. Or so I've been told. I actually have never seen the place, but Kevin and Helen seem to love it, and the pictures I found online seem beautiful. So we booked it without seeing it! We'll go look at it this weekend, and if we hate it can cancel. But sounds like we'll be saying "I do" there on September 1st!

Wedding ceremony/reception venue? Check! Now on to the next million things on the list...but mostly wedding dress shopping next weekend :)


If anyone has had/been to a wedding at the Rogue Hopyard and has pictures, I'd love to see them!

Frozen yogurt....and other things.

So, let me tell you about my day last Saturday. It was a pretty decent one.

The day started out with me doing homework and coupon shopping. Neither things exactly fun, but necessary nonetheless! I told Ben I was going to finish up some final studying and then come over to his place. He told me that his mom was going to come down that afternoon and wanted to take us to a late lunch/early dinner and then go suit shopping for him. Sounded like fun to me!

His mom showed up and we piled into the little pickup to head to Henry's (a place that Ben chose, which was surprising as he had previously sworn to never return after a couple bad experiences there!) for happy hour. We all ordered our food, had a nice time chatting, then headed to Men's Wearhouse. Ben has a potential job interview lined up and so they said they wanted to get him a suit to wear if it pans out. Sounded legit to me, nothing suspect!

Boy was I wrong. After having some severe sticker shock at the suits there, we headed for some frozen yogurt. Now, I love frozen yogurt. I would eat it every day if I could. Ben and I have been to froyo many times during our ten months together. So again, nothing suspicious! We went in to the frozen yogurt shop in Pioneer Square (Chef Fresh), where Ben's mom (Debbie) distracted me by asking questions about the sign outside the shop, asking if those were the specials for the day. When we walked in, Ben handed me a container to fill up with frozen yogurt.

Nothing suspicious again (although I almost handed it to his mom, since he didn't have one for her!). I grabbed the container and headed to fill it up.

Let's backtrack for a minute. Ben was acting a little odd all day. He was super giddy when I was facebook chatting telling him I was on my way to his place. Then a little quiet and distant once I showed up. Then happy again. Then, on our way out the door, he grabbed his giant gym bag. This sucker is giant. It was a Christmas present from me, and I probably should have gotten the next size down. I think I could fit in it. Anyway, I asked him why the heck he was bringing his bag. He mumbled something about having the things he needed for the day, and the game he wanted to play with my parents, even though he knew my parents had decided not to come up for the day. Anyway, I let it go (good thing). And we now return to where I left off....

I grabbed the container and headed to fill it up. Except I felt something weird on the bottom of the cup. I was standing right by Ben and turned the cup over asking, what is this? He said....I don't know.....as I unpeeled the tape on the cup.

I'm not sure what happened next. He either dropped to his knee or I saw a beautiful diamond ring. Things got a little hazy. I also don't know if he popped the question or explained the original plan first. Whatever order things happened in, I found a beautiful diamond engagement ring, Ben got on one knee and asked me to marry him, he explained his original plan for proposing (which I ruined!), his mom told him to re-do the proposal since she hadn't had time to get her camera out to record it. Oh and I said yes. Oh and also there was frozen-yogurt-eating mixed in there somewhere.

Even after ruining his carefully thought-out plan! Here is how things were supposed to go. Debbie held up her end of the deal: she was to distract me while Ben went into the shop and talked to the girls (who already knew he was coming since he had called days earlier to talk to them!) making sure they knew what they were supposed to do. When I got in there, he handed me the previously-prepared yogurt container and I was supposed to fill it up with whatever my heart desired. When it came time to pay, the girls were going to tell me I owed like $13 because it weighed so much. I was going to freak out a little, try to figure out why it weighed so much and then find the ring. By this time, Debbie would have her camera ready, Ben would get down on one knee and we would live happily ever after! Such a wonderful and adorable plan! Well, things happened a little differently!

But, the moral of the story: I got engaged!!!!!





So now we're in the whirlwind of planning. First trying to figure out then when, where and who. Then all the other details. We know we want to have the wedding this summer, but we aren't sure exactly when...it kind of depends on the place we find and when its available. We aren't super-rushing, but six months even is still a short time to plan a wedding. So we don't really get to just enjoy being engaged, but have to hurry and figure everything out! But we are still enjoying it and having fun planning together. Ben is really helpful and is always sending me places he found, tips he got from friends and coworkers, etc.

Anyway, yay for being a fiance! Now I just have to get through my last term of school and plan a wedding, then we'll be married :)