things

We met with out minister yesterday. We talked about everything that could possibly be included in a ceremony and which things we could have or not have and there are many decisions that we need to make about those types of things. but not yet.

We now have wineglasses from craigslist to go with our champagne glasses. We had a wonderful save the date making party with most of the wedding party, and we've almost booked a photographer.

PHOTOGRAPHY IS SO EXPENSIVE. but we found one that will fit our budget! Her photos are lovely and she seems very sweet. Hopefully we'll get to meet her soon! If you're in southern CA, you should check out voirvenir.com!

We bought our guest books. They're vintage scrapbooks from the mid 19th century. We're having two - one at the ceremony and one at the dinner reception. The ceremony one is for most of the people we're inviting, but the reception one is for just our family (because they're the only one's invited to the dinner reception). At the dinner reception, we are going to have an instant camera and glue and pens set up so that each couple, person, group, or whatever, can decorate their own page of the guest book, put a picture of them from that night in their spot, and give us a wonderful memory!

Casey and i are so sick of college. But we graduate this semester! I am trying so hard not to be a negative nancy about going to school but it's very hard.

And we've been engaged for almost FIVE MONTHS. isn't that crazy!? It doesn't feel like it has been that long.

We've been collecting vintage unused stamps to put on our invitation envelopes. Hopefully we'll get enough soon enough! We obviously don't want to pay anything higher than face value for them but if you're lucky on ebay and at yardsales, you can get them for less than face value and save money on postage AND have cool looking stamps! win-win situation if you ask me.

flower change!

We went to meet with our florist yesterday (well, she's not OURS quite yet, we still need to book her). She was very sweet (I love that all of our vendors have been just lovely people!) and gave an amazing deal on the flowers.
For [averysmallamount], we're getting
- 1 brides boquet
- 7 bridesmaid boquets
- 2 mothers corsages
- 1 grooms bout
- 7 groomsmen bouts
- 2 fathers bouts

yay!
Here are some inspiration pictures. I am looking for some nice pictures of flowers over/around a white arbor. I have a couple but I'm not so sure about them. Anyway, on to pictures!


I like this one, they used the flowers as centerpieces at the head table during the reception (just swiped them right off the arbor and stuck them in vases).




Boy bout inspiration

flower girl.. if we decide to have one. If we do, we'll probably make this ourselves.

MY BOQUET! isn't it so so pretty?! It will be modified to include cream daisies.

yikes, i would be so afraid of being crushed by flowers.

this one is okay.


I like this idea but it wouldn't work for us.

I like how simple this one is.

girls bouquets, except without that big ugly white gerbera daisy or that other flower. they will mostly be green, tied with a coral ribbon. They might have some yellow/ other colors in my bouquet, and the groomsmen's bouts will match.
YAY!

peeks!

Ready for some pictures of things we're considering?
i think i love all of these things, but i dont think they'll all work for us.

This is kind of a random assortment of images, and i have no idea where they're all from. sorry!

a cake that scares me.

This cake is so huge and sprawling that it is hard for me to comprehend. There is so much going on and i am overwhelmed by a CAKE. insane.
anyway,
We've been looking into cakes. I cannot believe that people actually pay $600-$700 for a CAKE. A cake?! Cake is like, three ingredients and so easy to make! who pays that much for a CAKE!
sooo...
we might be making our own. Casey has been researching things like fondant and tiers. Seriously, if we made our cake ourselves I bet we could do the whole thing for like, $50 max. especially since we want funfetti cake and each box is only a dollar! and funfetti cake is guaranteed to be delicious, by the way, so we don't have to worry about making a recipe wrong or anything.
Everyone says not to do things yourself because you'll have too much to do. But Casey is more of a teammate than other grooms, and I think making our cake would give us something else to freak out about in the days preceding our wedding. Like, instead of worrying about something that we can't control (spilled beverage on dress, wilted flowers, late arrivals, whatever), we can worry about the cake together, be a team, and cross something off the checklist. And save at least $500.

Another thing we were thinking of doing is having a baker make a smaller wedding cake that is like, maybe $100 and then making our own grooms cake. Unfortunately though, most bakers don't offer box funfetti as an option, and they try to make it all fancy and gourmet when what we really want is the $1 box. so who knows.

Food Presentation

While probably none of these would work for my own wedding, i really love the way the food was presented at these weddings and I hope I will be able to make ours look as wonderful!









I've also been looking at place settings. I found some sort of examples of things I like, but we'll have to see how it all works with the budget (and the wooden cutlery which was already purchased, as well as my centerpiece idea).







images from oncewed.com

i cannot stop looking for wedding photos! it's insane.

Toppers

Probably six months or so before we got engaged, Casey and I decided on our cake toppers. I found them while browsing etsy one day and fell completely in love with them! They're designed by Jennifer Murphy, and she put out this great little tutorial so that people can diy them, which is what we plan to do. I can't wait to get started, and I will post a picture of our little guys when they're all done!





images from oncewed.com via Jennifer Murphy

and here's a picture of the exact ones we want to make. so cute!!!

pompoms

i love pompoms on everything. I think they're so lovely.

and i love this idea, instead of rice or birdseed!

Of course, the colors would be different, and they'd likely be handmade, but aren't they wonderful?!

image from oncewed.com

Teacup Engagement Shower

Well, it's official! We had our first party! Actually, Casey wasn't invited, but it was a party celebrating us!
Casey's family got together to throw me my very own teacup shower. Each girl brings a wrapped teacup without a name on it, and I guess who brought each one. They pick the teacups based on their own personal taste, not on what they think I'd like. It was really fun and I thought it looked beautiful!
Here are some pictures:


Maid of Honor, Me, Mommy

My little sister and I

Maid of honor/sister, bridesmaid/casey's cousin, me, bridesmaid/casey's sister

Carissa, Me, Aunt Lynette

Me with the women behind the whole party, Casey's Grandma and Aunt!

Casey's family and I

Yum!

It looked really pretty :)

Grandma Shaw (Casey's Dad's Kindergarten Teacher) and I

Me and 2/3 of my grandmothers!

Casey's Mom and sister enjoying their tea :)

I love all of the teacups that I received. They are all so beautiful and different from each other and I like the way they look all together. Some of them were really easy to guess and some were really hard! I had a really fun time at tea with all the girls. :)