Ever since our engagement, my fiance and I have scurried around the topic of registering for gifts quite frequently. It’s not because we are super greedy and materialistic. In fact, we are so much the opposite, that we couldn’t really wrap our heads around the concept. Wedding registries happen to be a traditional wedding practice, yet the thought of having our friends and family pour over a gigantic list of things really bugs us.

And truth be told, John and I have been living together for almost a couple of years now. This means that we have amassed and accumulated more than enough things. Of course we could still make use out of a few items, but it doesn’t make sense to create a registry out of those items and then randomly selecting things out of fear that there wouldn’t be enough options for our guests.

Another truth be told moment: we would rather have a bunch of Lowe’s and Home Depot gift cards so we can fix up and design our house! But that doesn’t seem very wedding-y, now does it?

Our final option was to create a Honeymoon registry. Yes, they absolutely exist, and I think the inventor should be kissed a thousand times over. It is ingenious – Einstein would be amazed! Okay, I digress.

This is the homepage of our honeymoon registry website.

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I consider myself a pretty indecisive person  So, when it came to picking out the theme and colors for my wedding day, I created a inspiration board to help me out!  After a tough decision, I decided on black, white, with pops of red.  Here’s 2 inspiration boards I put together that I just love …

I highly recommend putting some of your favorite pictures together in a board.  It makes things a lot easier for your planners, venues, and vendors to look at!

Let me start out this post by saying this should not even be a question!

We finally booked our “real” honeymoon last week for January 2013 and I couldn’t be more pleased. Originally I looked up different places, got some ideas of prices for flights and all-inclusive resorts to see what we could afford. We had places we were dying to go to, but the price just wasn’t right (aka Bora Bora, Brazil, Maldives). Even though our parents are paying for the wedding, we still couldn’t justify spending 10K+ of our own money for one week’s vacation! I even know someone that financed their honeymoon to an expensive resort! Can you believe that?!

A friend of mine told me her mom was a travel agent and even though I trust her, I was still a little leery on the concept. My family doesn’t really travel much and when we did, we planned our own trips. So, I gave it a shot and gave her mom our information, what we were looking for and what kind of budget we had. We had a resort in mind, so I made it easier for her.

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Every time I get a Save the Date post card or magnet in the mail it reminds me that AP and I don’t have too many nice looking photos together.  99.9% of the time one of us looks hungry, scared ore we just aren’t looking. (see exhibit a)

exhibit a

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One of the trickiest things about planning a destination wedding is getting guests to commit to flying a million miles and paying for them no-less. Obviously the more time you can give guests to wrap their heads around the pending travel the better. People need to save up, ask for leave, arrange babysitters and dog walkers and in some cases they may need to get a passport.

At this early stage of the game you may not have all the details yet (I do but that’s just me). But two things you should have decided on are the date and the country, state, town. Once you have these essential elements you should start telling your guests about it.

Save the Dates are one place that you can really get creative. There are so many options out there and these do not have to tie in or fit with your overall wedding theme. It is nice to use the save the dates to give guests a little glimpse into what they can expect from your wedding. Go crazy. Use photos, DIY, props…

I opted for online Save the Dates because they are quick, easy and sometimes even free. Also with my guest lists spanning over four continents I thought I would wait for the real invites to start shelling out for postage.

A quick web search will guide you in many different directions. Play around with different sites and find one that you like and that’s easy to manage. I went with www.punchbowl.com. It’s a great site that allows you to get creative and keeps everything organized at the same time.  It allows you to upload your guest list and keeps track of everything for you.

I have been a very busy Bud! Recently, I had to take two HUGE tests to officially become a certified teacher. So I told myself that until after the tests, especially for the week before, I was going to turn off the wedding part of my brain so that all of my energy could go into studying.  So aside from one reception decoration idea, and a very big one at that, nothing in the vein of wedding was accomplished. But the tests are over! So the Bride Brain is back and in full swing!!

In the meantime, I do need a subject to blog about. So without further ado, I give you….the story of how I met the Joker!

Our story starts in October 2008.  My now Matron-of-Honor, Rapunzel, and I made our way to our college’s production of Frankenstein.  We sat in the front row and while I should have been watching the play, all I could do was watch the really cute actor playing Henry Clerval.  You guessed it, it was the Joker.  I elbowed Rapunzel the entire time and whispered over and over just how cute I thought he was.  Well, Garden, I would LOVE to tell you that’s when everything took off for the Joker and me.  That, however, would be a lie.  And is frowned upon in most societies.

I left that night, still thinking about the hot actor on stage, but not putting any more into it than that.  Figuring, instead, I would never see him again.  Three days later, I was talking with my friend, future bridesmaid Belle, and she informed me she was working backstage on the show as crew.  When I told her I thought the actor playing Henry was hot, she told me I should come work crew with her so I could meet him. I wish I could tell you I told her yes and THAT was how we met.  However, that ALSO would be a lie.  And it would still be frowned upon in most societies.  Instead, I told her no.  Because going would make me seem like a crazy stalker.  (After we FINALLY did meet and started dating, I asked him if he would have thought I was crazy for doing that.  He said yes.) Sadly, the production ended without us ever meeting and I pretty much forgot about it.

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When I was a little girl and I pictured my wedding day, I always assumed I would be wearing a white dress with a HUGE train walking down the aisle of a church to meet my Prince Charming (who may or may not have looked like any of the Backstreet Boys, Hanson, or Jonathan Taylor Thomas…depending on the day you asked me…) But, now that I’m faced with walking down the aisle to meet my true Prince Charming in just over 15 months, my view of how things will go is majorly different.

As you saw, my dress has a pretty long train. It’s also a very formal dress, which makes our wedding a little more formal just by itself. When I found the dress, I had a slight moment of terror when I realized that having a wedding at any place other than a church just wouldn’t do my dress justice. I imagined it something like this…

Source : http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler

OK…so maybe it wouldn’t be in Westminster Abbey and it wouldn’t be nationally televised…but I’d have a long aisle to walk down in my dress with the beautiful train. A girl can dream, right?

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We just took a trip to visit our number one venue! We are pretty sure this place has everything we want as far as holding a ceremony and reception, as well as accommodating our guests!

We met with the woman who was to show us around, and we followed her to the barn and farmhouse in a remote location. This is a huge plus for us, as we hope to have an outdoor wedding, we know that we will remain mostly undisturbed. We are driving down a small country road, and looking up, at the top of the hill is this adorable farmhouse and barn.

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Before the reveal, let me just say that this was a love/hate project. I LOVED the idea and how it eventually turned out, but after finishing my first card, I sat there, overwhelmed at my large bridal party. You mean I have to make SEVEN of these??? Good grief. From start to finish, I completed the project in about four weeks. I’d sit down for an hour, cut out the paper doll chains, and then stop for a few days. Then I’d cut some dresses, maybe some hair, and then stop again for a few days. I could’ve completed them much more quickly, but I had plenty of time to get them done, so I just saved myself the stress.

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