the Megans

It's spring break! Except spring break is almost over. How did that happen? Why do classes have to start on Monday already?!?! I planned on having a super-productive break. I was going to finish the books I started reading about six months ago. Get a ton of wedding planning done. Sleep in, work out, clean up.

I worked out once. I am incapable of "sleeping in." I didn't read. At all. I did get caught up on my favorite TV shows on hulu though. That is basically all I did during this break. Watched a lot of hulu. And took a couple bubble baths. There are few things in life that a nice warm bubble bath won't cure.

Anyway, break is almost over and I didn't get much done in the way of wedding planning. Well, maybe it just doesn't seem like a lot because they are all little things. Yeah, we'll go with that. Not necessarily little things I guess. But the Megans in my life made them seem little!

My amazing roommate Megan has her degree in Graphic Design and she is quite talented. When she found out we were talking about getting married (before the actual proposal even!), she told me that she would be available to help out with invitations if I should so desire. I've seen some of the things she's done. So I was totally in! Again, we are working on a tight budget! So I have been having a hard time thinking of how this would work. But Megan immediately came up with all these amazing ideas. She and I spent last Friday afternoon shopping around and getting inspiration.

I had pinned some invitation ideas/styles that I liked before we went shopping. I love Pinterest. Best wedding-planning tool ever. What's that? You say it's not only for weddings? Well, that's what I am primarily using it for. Also what 99% of Pinners are primarily using it for, I think. Anyway, the things I had been looking at were pretty simple yet elegant. Rustic yet classy. Just like the wedding itself will (hopefully...) be. I really liked some invites that I saw that were printed on paper bag-colored paper. With some white printing and lacey details.

We started our search at the art store Blick downtown to look for some screen-printing materials. I'm telling you, this girl can do anything and she's not scared of anything! We looked at paper there but didn't really find anything fantastic. Next up was some tea, then Paper Source. This store is super fun to look in. They have all kinds of stationary, little notebooks, adorable little things all over. Oh yeah, and paper. We hid in the back and looked at their sample invitation books. And took some pictures of ideas we liked. Is that allowed? I'm not sure, but we did it anyway. The lady there was super helpful and told us all about the paper, the bulk discounts, etc. They have the paper bag-colored paper (called, what do you know? Paper Bag.) and you can get a discount if you buy it in bulk. Plus they have matching envelopes, etc.

I went into this search with a similar attitude that I went into dress shopping, not real hopeful. Megan has done this before and could picture things in her head. I know what I want, but don't know how to make it happen so just couldn't figure out if it was possible. But now I know it is! We came up with some great ideas, found a place where we can get the right kind of paper, and I can actually picture things now! Plus I signed up for their email newsletter at their website, and they sent me a 10% off coupon. So now I'm even more excited and hopeful!

After getting excited by my invitation inspiration shopping trip with roommate-Megan, cleaning my apartment because of all the motivation, doing some more gift registry (more to come on that later!) and visiting with Ben's brothers (one of whom (who?) has lived on the east coast for the past few years but is now being stationed in WA), we headed to Philomath for the weekend. Besides wanting to spend time with my family, one of the reasons to go to Philomath was that we needed some pictures of the two of use to use on a Save-the-date card. We have some pictures, but they aren't really what we want for a pre-invitation. So my wonderful sissy, the other Megan in this post, graciously agreed to take some pictures of us. She has a great camera and takes such beautiful pictures of my niece-y poo (and nephew!). So we showed up at their house on Sunday morning (while preventing them from a trip to Costco, so sorry sissy!!) ready to be photographed! Ben and I happened to have some color-coordinating outfits with us (maybe because I brought about ten options with me...), so we made ourselves pretty and sissy started shooting! She came up with some really cute poses for us, as did Ben. They have such a beautiful home and property, and the light was great for pictures (we just avoided the rain!). So a couple hours and 450+ photos later, we were done! We actually had a lot of fun, and ended up with some amazing photos! Now we just have to pick one.....We haven't actually seen them all yet, we are going to do that tonight. But here are some of our faves so far!






So here's to the Megans in my life! Sissy-Megan and Roommate-Megan! Love you girls! I am so grateful for your help, and for the help of everyone else who has volunteered to do things for our wedding. We are so, so blessed! :)

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!)