Hydrangea Dude and I got engaged nine months ago and are excited about our upcoming wedding in April.  Once we got engaged, we knew that there were a few vendors we wanted to secure right away including the photographer.  In my opinion, a great photographer is very important in capturing what will be the best day of my life, so I wanted to make sure I did my research.  After a friend recommendation, we chose Emily Harris Photography, a photographer who works near where we will be married in South Florida.  After meeting Emily in person, we knew that she would be a perfect match for our personalities as well as capture beautiful moments.

One thing we debated right away was getting engagement pictures.  I don’t know about any of you future brides, but for some reason, I just couldn’t understand why we needed pictures of ourselves all lovey dovey and posed before our actual wedding.  In my head, I wanted to be different and not send out a photo as a save the date, so I just couldn’t see the reason why to do it.  So, we debated.  Should we get engagement pictures or have Emily come and take pictures at our rehearsal dinner as well?

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I love looking at photos of other’s weddings as I really enjoying searching for the small details, the little things that we may sometimes overlook.  As you all know, I had run the wedding gauntlet in the years leading up to my moment, and for so many of those weddings, I never paid attention to the little things; like bouquets, accessories, table numbers, guest books and even cakes and centerpieces… all the things that you can use to show your personality. Of course once I started planning my own wedding, these things became much more pronounced and I started pulling inspiration from every wedding I attended!

Here are a few shots of some of our small details, that I absolutely loved!

My bouquet... I never would have thought these things would be so heavy!

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Hurricane season was a consideration very early on in determining our wedding date and location. We decided to risk it when we chose our location along the coast in the peak of hurricane season. My family has vacationed along the Outer Banks for 26 years, and we were only evacuated for a hurricane one time, for Hurricane Bob. The last few days, have been full of news on the action in the Atlantic. Our wedding is next weekend (10 days away), and that red dot (Gaston?)  in the lower right is really starting to make me nervous.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

We do have backup plans in case of rain, however, nothing is as ideal as a ceremony on the beach.  We are hoping for the best. The funny thing is, right now the focus is on Earl, who seems to be taking the same path as Bob did back in 1991. While we evacuated and ended our vacation early that year, its damage to the Outer Banks wasn’t as devastating as others in recent years, though it hit Massachusetts pretty hard. Earl will be long gone by the big day, but we’re still far enough away that a new storm (or two), could develop and impact our big day. Right now its anybody’s guess.

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Lilac Dude and I met with our photographer, Jay Kossman (digital504.com) this afternoon for our engagement photos. He includes one additional shoot with wedding packages and we opted for an “e-session.”

Not one of our photos, just one from the night we got engaged (personal photo)

It was so much fun! We went to a playground and pretended to be kids for awhile and then we had a classy picnic at a park.

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When Calla Lily Lovebug and I first got engaged we were on vacation. It was lovely and amazing and everything you want for an engagement, right? The only problem (and I so use the word problem lightly here) was that it was all such a fairy tale. We’re at the beach, just got engaged, no obligations, no work to go to, no school to worry about, essentially: HEAVEN!

Lovebug proposed on a Wednesday and we went back to reality on Monday. It was a lovely fairy tale. Here, let me show you:

Ahhh, memories I’ve always told myself that I would never be a bridezilla. And it seemed that this would be perfect. He proposed two years in advance of when we had discussed getting married so we had all the time in the world to plan! Right?

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We felt 100% confident with our baker (we ordered a 6 inch cake and 100 cupcakes) up until about a week before the wedding.

That was when I received an email reply about the cupcake icing colors where the baker said something like ‘the buckets of icing come in white and ivory’.  HOLD UP…buckets of icing? You are a pastry chef…you do not make your own icing?

Our cake table - stand created by my husband and his best man

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Yes, we did it – CC and I are married!

What a long walk down DIY lane it has been… but it was absolutely perfect!

Just Married!

We had the most perfect weather imaginable.  Really.  There were a few poetic clouds whisping through the blue sky.  The humidity was non-existent (mind you it’s been super humid in the North East this summer).  The temperature the days before (and the days after) were in the sweltering 90s, but not on our wedding day – a lovely 80 degrees, thank you.

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I’ve talked before about how important photographs are to me. Choosing my photographer was one of my biggest wedding decisions, and I know Julie Dreelin is going to take AMAZING photos of my big day. But at any large event, there is always more than one thing going on at any given time, and each of my guests is going to have a different point of view and a different perspective of the day.  In the digital age that we are in, so many people will be taking their own photos of the event, and without some help, its likely I would never get to see them. So I have been searching for some time for a way that I can easily have my guests share all their personal photos with me and everyone else. I am pleased to say I found a really great solution, and I wanted to share it with you: Yogile.

Yogile.com is clearly the best option for me

In my research, there were a bunch of options that I considered, but one of them stood out above the rest, let me share it with you:

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Being that Lilac Dude and I are both students we approach wedding planning like we do our education. We have been setting deadlines, crafting assignments and taking field trips.

My command center for wedding planning AND school work (Personal Photo)

Since we obviously don’t hate school this has been a pretty good approach. I feel like I’m “studying” venues and traditions when I’m browsing through blogs and the articles that I send to Lilac Dude are “assigned readings”. I just finished a very large “art assignment”… the flowers! I’m proud to say that all corsages, boutonnieres and bouquets are done!

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As a new BridalBud, I’m eager to start sharing and learning with everyone else! I’ve already been engaged for a year, but I’ve got over a year to go still so there will be plenty of posts to come!

First, let me introduce you to Calla Lily Lovebug, my fiance. I’m truly grateful for him every day of my life and find him to be absolutely perfect for me. I find that I’m a better person when I’m with him and I think we compliment each other perfectly.

At this point in my life, I’m at a bit of a standstill.  I’m living at home with my mother who is widowed.  Lovebug and I are planning on buying a house this year but we’re going to live separately until the wedding.  It’s not that I’m old fashioned, because I’m definitely not, but I always felt that there wouldn’t be much of a change if we lived together before we got married.  So we’ve decided to try it this way. We’ll see how long it lasts after we buy a house.

I work currently as a social worker doing early intervention with at-risk teen and first time parents. I’m also finishing up my Masters degree in Counseling.  This is the main reason Lovebug and I are waiting so long to tie the knot. I want to be done with my degree before we get married.  It’s also been nice to have so much time to plan. I can’t believe a year has gone by already!

I’ll write more about my specific plans later, I just wanted to give a shout out to everyone and say thanks for reading!