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?

Here the rest of our photos

In the end, we decided to go with the engagement photo shoot.  And to my complete surprise, I LOVED THE PICTURES.  It captured Hydrangea Dude and I’s personality perfectly and combined some great close-up pictures, but also great shots of us in our natural fun-loving environment.  We can’t wait to see what she has in store for our wedding.

What did you end up doing? Did you go with the engagement session or do something different?

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.

The e-session was so valuable to me because we got to spend some more time with our photographer and we were very comfortable smiling, kissing and interacting for him. Which will make our big day just a little bit easier. I know some couples just go to a cheap studio and have 3-5 pictures taken to have one to put in the newspaper and to frame. I’m very glad that we opted to go with our actual photographer for these photos. I highly recommend picking a wedding photography package with engagement photos included.

We should get to see all of our photos in 1-2 weeks. I’ll share a couple of my favorites with all of you in the garden when we get them.

I began scouring the endless wedding websites out there and discovered a couple of great options:
♥Encourage guests to share their photographs
♥Photo Booths

The first option, encouraging guests to share their photos is easy.  Set up accounts on Picasa and Flikr, print out some cards with the passwords on them, add a tutorial to our wedsite and Shazam!  Photo sharing made easy.

Our Photo Sharing Cards
Images by Cotton Bud

A photo booth, however much it is a fun idea, is also quite pricy to rent.  We’re talking in the $1000 range, in the northeast.  Yikes!  Sorry, but $1000 isn’t anywhere near in my budget for something fun, that is far from a requirement for a reception.  Hmph. But I don’t give up that easily.  I could always have a faux-to booth, right?  I’ve seen some stunning ideas with macbooks and printers and remote controlled shooting.  Ugh, that still seemed like too much more work (and money) for us to commit to such an unnecessary extra.

But wait, there’s more!

I seem to always find some sort of alternative to a project, if I want it bad enough. I don’t mind if things aren’t high tech or if they blend a few different ideas together.  My solution to this photo booth that I desperately wanted, was such a blending of ideas.

Remember those disposable cameras that were such a hot item in the ‘90s at weddings?  They have those pretty silver bells or golden rings embossed on them, with the couples name and date and are sitting at every table for guests to snap candids of each other? Well, I thought, “Why can’t I use those in our photo booth?”  Surely, there are enough people at a wedding that guests could snap each others’ photos in the “booth”.  But those silver bells and golden rings didn’t quite fit into our style.  A bit of surfing on the web produced a wonderful website with a large variety of options – www.customcameracollection.com.  We opted for their Camp Bugs style, and naturally personalized them with our wedding info.  The best part of this website is that you can include developing expenses up front.  After the wedding, we can pop the cameras in their included pre-paid envelopes and toss them in the mailbox.  When we return home after our mini-moon, they’ll be all developed waiting for us!

Source

But what’s a photo booth without props?  I’ve adored photos (like the one below) of friends and family framing themselves for the photo op.  I had to include a pretty wooden frame I had in our photo booth, but didn’t think it would be enough.  After a trip to Dollar Tree and our local party store, I came up with a bag full of silly props for only $20.  I can’t wait to take a picture in our booth with the fez hat on!

Source

Our Props!
Photo by Cotton Bud

I’d say, for the less than $50 total I’ve spent, we will be just as happy with the results from our booth, as we would have been spending a thousand dollars on the real thing.

How are you capturing all of your special wedding moments?  Will you be having a photo booth or some other quirky activity at your reception?

Here are a few pics of our decor, with a special thanks to Charlene Lopez at the Key Largo Hilton, Blooming Design and Events and Edda’s Cake Designs for making our wedding an absolute dream.  The creativity that went into designing this amazing scene was well beyond our wildest dreams.

Our wedding cake… I couldn’t stop starring at it, I was just so obsessed with it!

I loved this centerpiece design because I felt like it was bright, colorful and refreshing.  We had floating votive candles in blue water, a few smaller floral centerpieces and a larger center floral design with a round style vase floating in a square vase.

A view of the amazing natural light.  I had originally wanted white chivari chairs, but due to budget constraints went with the white wood folding chairs… personally I thought they still looked great!

Close up of the incredible centerpiece!

A bar shot

And just because I love it, one more close up of the cake!

Thanks to Emily Harris Photography for capturing every single detail so I can relive it every day!

Thanks to the Key Largo Grande for providing a vision and such an amazing backdrop for Blooming Designs and Events to work with! And last but definitely not least, thanks to Edda’s for a beautiful… and tasty cake!

I was pretty mad. After a new contract and some back and forth we still have our photographer.

Photo from celebratewithstyle.com

Then in our reception hall search we called a certain place and asked if our date, May 28th was available. Yes, they said, it is available. So we take an evening to visit and talk with the manager. And we asked, are you sure you have our day? He assured us that they did have it available.

The next day, Lilac Dude received a call from the man we spoke with. He said they have a monthly event that he forgot about and that our date was actually not available. Would we consider choosing another date?  I was livid! We asked TWICE and were assured TWICE that our date was open. And now they want us to CHANGE it?

Don’t these people know that May 28th is the most important day of 2011?!?!

Photo borrowed from Gardenia Bud's blog on Save the Dates

As a bride I consider my wedding date to be special, it is a very important day to me, my groom, our families and our friends. It is just another day to vendors, a day that they may or may not have scheduled to work.

I think that what makes a successful vendor is putting your actions where your words are. When your literature or website tells me how special my day is, your people and your practices should too.

Right now I’m feeling like people involved in my wedding could care less about what an important day it is. Have you ever felt like this?

Amy Sandoval Photography - http://amysandovalphotography.com/blog/

Top Row – Left to Right – Chinese takeout boxes from Paper Mart with personalized labels from an Etsy seller – guests used these for the candy buffet, my bouquet from Bella Flora which was hot pink gerber daisies with lime buttons in the center, personalized water bottles which were designed by an intern my mom’s friend works with, and our flower poms from Prost to the Host on Etsy.

Middle Row – Left to Right – Swizzle sticks on the candy bar purchased at Fresh Market, the arrangement on the bar also from Bella Flora, our wedding rings on Hershey’s Kisses that were from the candy buffet, and gumballs and a lollipop also from the candy buffet.

Bottom Row – Left to Right- Our cupcakes – liners were from Etsy, our centerpieces from Bella Flora with limes in the vases, my daughter’s bouquet and $25 Kohls dress in the back, and filled and personalized beach buckets I made for the two kids we had at the reception.  Most of the stuff was purchased for less than $1 each at Party City and Michaels.

I wanted to kick off my wedding posts by sharing with you the best decision we made during the entire process of planning our wedding… the decision to see each other before the wedding.  Thanks to our amazing photographer, Emily Harris, for even suggesting it! I know that many choose to go the traditional route, and I thought we would too, but if you are comfortable to forgo that tradition, we highly suggest having that special moment before the wedding!

Moments after first seeing each other!

I spent about 2 hours having my hair and makeup done and immediately got dressed to go see Dogwood Dude.  We were able to spend over an hour taking photos of just us, much longer than we would have if we would have waited till after the ceremony.  We also knocked out the family and attendant photos before the ceremony so our family members and attendants could head off to the party immediately after the ceremony.  After all the photos were done, Dogwood Dude and I split up and went to separate rooms to enjoy about an hour of time hanging out and relaxing with our friends.  It really was amazing to have the photos done and have an hour to hang out with my girls and just enjoy my time with them.

I remember my biggest concern was that seeing each other before the ceremony would take away from that amazing moment when you get to the aisle and see your groom standing at the end and the excitement that occurs.  I will say that although I was able to stay a lot more calm and not as nervous in the minutes leading up to the processional, when I saw Dogwood Dude standing at the end of the isle, near the water, my stomach still lit up with butterflies and it was a completely different feeling of excitement then when we first saw each other earlier in the day.  Seeing each other before or not, there will never be another feeling like that first site at the altar and knowing that you are about to marry the man of your dreams!

Without further ado, here is the sequence of our first sight! As you can see I was REALLY excited!

Walking up! I loved how I could see him before he could see me!

Dogwood Dude getting anxious to turn around!

I was so excited when he finally got to turn around!

It was such a beautiful moment!

Many, many thanks to our AMAZING photographer, Emily Harris Photography!

Location: Nature trail along the beach at the Key Largo Grande Resort and Beach Club

Boutonniere and Bouquet: Blooming Designs & Events

Wedding Hits:

*Our Photographer - I knew from the moment I saw her website and then again when I met her she was the one for our wedding.  I simply cannot wait to see the rest of our photographs.  This was one of my areas where I did not try to save any $ on and just booked the photographer I liked as the photographs are probably one of the most important aspects of the wedding to me.

*Our Wedding/Reception Site- Everything at the venue was amazing.  They accommodated our last minute need to move inside (due to rain…see my misses below) .  Their banquet manager, Courtney,  was FABULOUS and so was their entire staff.  The food was AMAZING and we received so many wonderful compliments.

*Our Candy Buffet – I am so glad I did it.  Everyone was so impressed by it.  My ring bearer (nephew) loved it the most…he walked around all night with various candy items.

*My Hair – I loved my hair and my daughter’s hair.  Our hair stylist, Sarah, from Salon Icon in Virginia Beach definitely did a great job.

*Our Flowers- Claire at Bella Flora was amazing.  Her shop is so accommodating and affordable.  When I saw my bouquet and centerpieces they were EXACTLY as we had discussed and how I had envisioned.

Wedding Misses:

*Our Beach Wedding- I knew not everything would go perfectly.  Our wedding was set for 6:15 and it started raining at 5…. as I was getting dressed and getting my make-up done I kept getting all sorts of phone calls and texts.  At one point they had closed the entire beach and nobody was allowed on it.  At about 6, my groom and I just decided to scratch the beach wedding (which forced us to lose about $650.00 in chair rental fees…..waaah), but with the uncertainty of the weather and the beach opening/closing, we decided it was best.

*The Wedding Cupcakes – Lets just say I hated the frosting (which I had tasted before and didn’t appear to be the same).  My colors were hot pink and lime green.  Icing colors were to be white, hot pink, and lime green.  Let’s just say my cupcakes were not lime green.  I am still trying to get over this big wedding miss and trying to decide how to word my email to this vendor.

We don’t leave for our honeymoon for two more weeks (BEST wedding advice I received) so I will have some time to do my more detailed posts.  All in all it was FABULOUS and we are so happy to be married.  We had an amazing day with lots of amazing friends and family.

At some point, much closer to our wedding our photographer (digital504.com), will send us a questionaire so that he can tailor our wedding photos to what we want.

There are some photos that I just don’t want to waste our time with. Here’s a sneak peak at the pictures that I don’t want (and why):

1. The whole family (as in anyone remotely related to the bride or groom). I have a huge family and this photo takes forever to organized with the 45 or so people for my side. I’d like to keep it to immediate family and grandparents.

Immediate family is good. Photo from weddings.sc

2. The morose bride photo. I don’t want there to be any pictures of me (or Lilac Dude) with a faraway stare or extremely solemn expression. We’ll be happy on our wedding day and I’d like our photos to reflect that.

From digital504.com

3. Lighting up – There are smokers who are invited to our wedding, but neither Lilac Dude or I care of have a picture of a wedding party member or guest puffing away outside the church.

4. Holding the bride- I hate being picked up and it’s probably uncomfortable for the groomsmen to be touching all over their friend’s new wife.

It's a cute photo, just not something I want to do. Picture from digital504.com

5. Groom with bridesmaids fawning over him (and vice versa)- I just find this weird.

That’s my list for now. If you are planning on any of these photos, please don’t take offense. They are simply my preference.

What photos make it on your Do Not Snap list? And what are some of your must have photos?

Photo taken at the 2010 Seattle Wedding Show

Wow! There is so much to do. The good news is that I am getting things done. This month I have a couple of meetings with different vendors. I’m trying to remind myself of the following details for each meeting:

1. Florist

-Walk through the wedding venue. I will give her a copy of the seating chart. This will make it easy for her to display all of the flower arrangements before the wedding.

Photo taken at the January 2010 ABC Meeting in Renton, WA

-Determine the placement of the wedding archway. Since we are getting married on the dance floor of our ballroom, I don’t want our archway to be too close from the reception area.

-Go over the flower plan that we discussed on our first meeting. Some flowers will be used twice in our wedding. For example the archway will be used first on our ceremony and then it will be placed on the cake table for decoration.

2.   Photographer

-Walk through the wedding venue. I want to show her what Towie Bear and love about our venue. Our photographer can start gathering ideas in advance of where to take pictures and what angles would work best.

-I already gave her a shot list, but it’s nice to go over it on site prior to the wedding.

-Also, I would like to discuss the policies that our wedding venue has regarding photography. The most important one is to not step on the golfing grounds, especially while others are playing.

3.   Special Events Coordinator with my Wedding Planners

-This is the most important meeting of them all.

-We will go over the Banquet Event Orders.

-Timing will also be discussed. The Special Events Coordinator asked us to give her staff some time in advance to prep for certain parts of the wedding such as toasts, cake cutting, etc.

-The seating chart is an imperative element of our wedding. My wedding planners and I have some really cool ideas regarding the set up for cocktail hour. If the weather is nice, we could have the appetizers and beverages outside on the patio. This way, the changeover inside the ballroom will go more smoothly.

-Our wedding venue has a storage area. It would be nice to go over the boxes that we have and where we could place them during the event.

These and many other details should be discussed in advance. I understand that some details will be missed. However, if I communicate as much as I can, I am hoping for a good wedding day!

Ok, that one actually isn’t too bad…but does it take videos? is it pretty? no…its not.

Get ready to eat your heart out for this beautiful video photo-booth…

and the one I think I will be having….

Guests can go into the booth, leave a video message for the bride and groom, take their 4 pictures, and instantly print it out for them! As for the bride and groom, we get a flashdrive with all the pictures and videos at the end of the night.  So going straight to your honeymoon? bring a laptop and watch your videos on your flight! amazing, right?  For brides in the chicago area…this is a vendor you want to have at your wedding.  For all you other brides, this is something id try to look into for your area.

http://www.videogazebo.com/

Akward Photo #1

Awkward Photo #2

Source

Ahh posed photography….we much prefer the journalistic/candid approach to wedding photography. So rather than pay someone upwards of $3,000 we asked Cherry Dude’s sister who is an artist, an art/photo/ceramics teacher, and overall amazing person to do the photos. She was floored and excited. All she asked for was a flash and a tripod. SOLD!

Credit: Cherry Dude's Sister

In fact FSIL is SO good at photography everyone just assumed that the photo above was one of our “engagement photos.” So we simply say “Sure is,” and exchange knowing glances about how much we hate “engagement photos” as well. The fact of the matter was the above photo was a candid shot of me sitting in a tree watching FSIL take photos of the stunning Sedona red rock and Cherry Dude sneaking up and tickling me. I look G_d awful in posed photos, and I can never seem to smile right. So candid is definitely the way to go for us.

This is not to say I have not had times where I have thought I may have made a bad choice. My Catholic guilt occasionally goes crazy and I feel terrible for imposing upon her during her little brother’s wedding- but my fears have been quelled by the entire Future Family In Law that FSIL is quite happy and is very much looking forward to shooting the wedding. Since she hasn’t ever shot a wedding before we have done a dry run at the venues, which was quite fun for us. Those photos to come!

So how are you and yours saving money? Or do you think not having a “professional wedding photographer” is a bad idea?

By Jay Kossman, digital504.com

When you pick a specific date this far in advance, it’s hard to make sure you’ll have a dry day. The weather certainly has a mind of its own and you just have to work with it. My brother was married on April 14, 2007, which we thought would be a lovely spring day. It was somewhere around 35 degrees and started to snow when we went to take pictures outside of the church. Although our lips were purple like our bridesmaid dresses in the pictures, the weather isn’t what everyone remembers about the day.

I however am more concerned about rain on our day. I know that I’ll compulsively check the forecast leading up to it. I started imagining wedding photos with umbrellas and then when I was reading the Wedding Aces blog I came across this article.  It has some classy rain pictures and made me feel so much better.

From: Shandro Photography

Who knows, maybe if it rains you could get a great rainbow like this couple did.

Have you attended any rainy day weddings? What are your bad weather back up plans?

Julie Dreelin's Beach Productions (Click for more pics from this wedding)

I researched quite a few photographers, looking at their websites and making phone calls. During my quest for the perfect photographer, I took into account many different aspects:
1. Overall quality of the photographs
2. Quality of the equipment
3. Quantity of the equipment (More than one camera is a must)
4. Personality (This is someone that will be around us all day, we better like him/her!)
5. Professional

Julie Dreelin's Beach Productions

Although each one of the above characteristics was an absolute must-have, first and foremost, I have to LOVE their photos. I paid particular attention to how the photographer captured motion, color, and emotion in the images (see the images of Julie’s I’ve provided that exemplify this). Even a photographer with a good camera, is useless unless they have a good “eye” for capturing “the moment”.  Next, they had to have high quality professional cameras and lenses. I don’t care if they use them all, but its important to have back up equipment, and that the photographer’s vision can be properly represented through that equipment into high quality images.

Julie Dreelin's Beach Productions

Julie Dreelin's Beach Productions

Adesso Albums

When I first thought of our guest book, I was a bit apprehensive of the idea because typically this detail is overlooked or not as important as other elements of a wedding. At least this is the perception I have from the weddings I’ve attended.

I want out guest book to be memorable, unique and a whole new experience for our guests. That’s why we hired a photo booth vendor that will print 4 X 6 pictures that will be added in to our photo guest book. These prints will be reproduced the day of our wedding.

I decided to purchase the photo guest books from Adesso Albums and I am thrilled with my decision. Their customer service and products are amazing. For each album purchased, they gave me 10 free photo note cards!

Photo Note Cards from Adesso Albums

They have a variety of alternatives that you can choose from the material of the cover to the color of your album. No glue or extra effort is needed to add your pictures in to your guest book. They also offer these fantastic book covers in case someone spills their drink (hopefully not!) on your book.

And, last but not least, they have these cute, but elegant name plates that you can glue to the front or side of the book. I’m so in love with my photo guest book, that I purchased 3 albums. This is one of the many things I look forward to reading and admiring after our wedding. I do intend to take all of them with us for our honeymoon to reminisce on what we hope to be a magical evening.

The view from our Hyatt suite

The gown

DIY hair flowers

DIY USC garter

The bouquet

MOH and bridesmaid bouquets

The Boutonniere

DIY flower petal holders

Gazebo flowers

All pictures taken by Kris Labang.

More “details” to come I promise!

I know it has been far, far too long since I updated my recap! Mea culpa– I’ve been a very bad Blossom. I could tell you all about how I have this awesome new job with lots of travel & that Plumeria Dude and I are pretty wrapped up in house-hunting. But let’s get to the good stuff instead!

Plumeria Dude and I decided we wanted to do all of our photos before the ceremony. We’re not superstitious, and we also wanted to maximize our time with our guests. Plus we really wanted to dig on that yummy cocktail hour food! With that in mind, we staged a “first meeting” before we did our couple photos. Here’s how it went:

I was attempting to be a placid bride, but I was really nervous! You can see our reception tent in the background.

Plumeria Dude is a happy camper!

Doofy look on my face– are you surprised?

A kiss that won’t mess up the lipstick– so important, ladies!

We then took a series of portraits in the backyard of the estate. I have to say, there’s no better backdrop than the Atlantic Ocean!

I love the way my skirt flutters in this one.

All photos courtesy f22studio.com

So when you’re sitting down with your photographer make sure he/she knows what you want.  Do you want candid shots or more portraits of you and the guests?  Do you want a mixture?  Each person you interview will do it differently and it’s VERY important to ask the right questions.  Also, look at a selection of their past photos…you want to see all the types of moments they capture so you can notice a style and pattern.

The picture above is of Lavender Dude and me, it’s by far my favorite picture and why I say to take time choosing your photographer, because I look at it and it brings me right back to the night.

What questions were important to you?

Photo by Tom McCall Photography

I wanted to share some bridal show tips with everyone that I learned.

1. Enter for everything! Along with that make labels with your name and information. Vendors raffle off thousands of dollars in prizes at shows. Everything from free cakes to free photography packages. Just be ready for the email advertisements.
2. Play the games. I won money off of the tuxes and got myself a great deal by playing Plinko at a booth.
3. Enjoy the freebies. Some of the freebies I got include chocolate and cookies. But I also got great things like a keychain with our names and wedding date engraved on it and a coupon code for a free personalized wedding tee.  At some shows if you bring your dude along you can even have a free engagement photo taken.
4. Eat drink and be merry! Taste the cake, enjoy the candied fruit and other samples.  It gives you a great idea for what kinds of things you want to share with your guests on your big day. Also, who can resist dark chocolate cake with peanut butter filling?
5. Wear comfortable shoes. Usually bridal shows are in big buildings and you’ll be on your feet a lot, so high heels are probably not a good choice.
6. Bring a camera. Bridal shows have galleries of cakes and decor ideas so take pictures so you can remember what you like and organize the ideas that you pick up.
7. Organize afterward. Go through your info while you’re still on a bridal show high and ditch anything that doesn’t fit your budget, venue, or wants for your wedding. The last thing you need is wedding clutter, sort it all out and organize it using whatever method you have for wedding planning.

The only things that should last forever is your marriage and your photography – everything else is just details.

I think I agree.  I am going to try to keep this in mind when I am stressing over flowers and invitations and favors.  I knew from the get go that the wedding photography was important to me.  It is one of the first things I booked.  I love our photographer and her work.  From the moment I stepped foot into her home for our first meeting…I knew I was going to hire her.  I know that the photos she takes of us we will have forever and they will be passed down to our children…so I had no qualms when it came to the cost of the wedding photography.  Seeing our wedding photos is one of the things I look forward to the most about our wedding.

Here are a few of my favorites from our photographer to be, Amy Sandoval.

http://www.amysandovalphotography.com/

Do you agree that the two most important things are the marriage and the photography? Why or why not?

When we met to interview with him we took a list of questions that we had put together with our parents.  I wanted to share our questions with you all. Our list looked like this:

1. Who will actually be photographing the wedding? We wanted to make sure that the main guy would be there instead of sending someone else.
2. How long have you been in business/doing photography? Our parents were wondering about this one the most. If you are helping a friend start up a business that’s totally cool, but if you’re hiring a stranger it’s nice to know about experience.
3. How long after our wedding will we receive our photos? We had horror stories from friends who waited 6 months to up to a year and a half.
4. What are your cancelation and date change policies? We don’t expect anything to change but it’s nice to know what the plans are if the unexpected does happen.
5. What’s your back up system? When my parents got married the photographer lost a whole roll of film. With digital photos that’s less of a concern, however memory cards must be changed and the pictures have to be stored somewhere. Our photographer keeps the cards on his person until he downloads the pictures to two separate computers and stores the cards in a safe. Lilac Dude and I were pretty impressed!

We learned at our meeting that it’s good to book early; our photographer has dates booked into October of 2011 already!

We were impressed that he was willing to let us take the contract home and think about it for as long as we want. We also appreciated that our parents don’t get to tell him what to do, we get to whether they pay for it or not. So if my dad tells him to shoot something that isn’t what he understood from meeting with us, he’ll confirm it with either Lilac Dude or me.

Another good thing to know is when he/she will show up on your big day. Talking to a friend today I found out that she interviewed a photographer who admitted to being 30 minutes late for an engagement session!

What tips do you have to share about photographers?

This is what I have done so far -

• We chose our colors -hot pink and lime green…my two favorites.

• Booked the venue – it is exactly what we wanted.  It is on the boardwalk.  It is affordable and the food is amazing.  We knew right when we walked in that it was the place for our wedding.

• Found someone to perform our ceremony.  My uncle Dave is a retired minister.  He married my parents 30+ years ago. W hen we saw him over Thanksgiving we asked him to marry us…and he agreed.

• I found a dress for my daughter to wear.  She is 10 and is going to stand up for me.  We are each having one person stand up for us.  I got the dress originally $50, half off, for $25 at Kohls department store.  It is bright pink with a matching sash.  I do want to have the sash color changed…and need to find the fabric for that and work on it.

• We booked our photographer.  I have no idea where I found her.  She is local and one day as I was going through all of my favorites on my laptop, I came across her site.  I spent the evening looking at everything on her website and everything on her blog and then booked a meeting.  I knew that night she was the photographer for us.  Her name is Amy Sandoval and I cannot wait to see the amazing photographs she takes at our wedding.

• I created and ordered our save the dates from Vista Print.  They have all been mailed out.

• We booked our honeymoon.  We are taking a Carnival cruise to the Bahamas and Grand Turk.

• We booked a resort for our wedding weekend.  I will stay there the night before the wedding and we will stay there together on our wedding night and the following night.

• We started our registry.

I still have a lot to do. I have lots of ideas.  I worked all last week on designing our wedding invitations, reception cards, and response cards.  I am taking the DIY approach to it.  I have ideas for favors, the cake, etc… But no matter how many times I watch TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress (because I am OBSESSED with watching it) these extra pounds I have put on since falling in love…have kept me out of the bridal boutiques.

Having a perfectly even wedding party was something that I thought would be vital to a wedding day.  It ends up, having our wedding party perfectly uneven worked out better for us. After the ceremony and before dinner was served, we had a little bit of time to take the wedding party portraits.  Granted they weren’t the most formal or organized, but we love how they turned out!

The girls taking a walk up the long road back up to the reception site.  Im pretty sure one of us took a little bit of a spill right before this picture was taken, but you could never tell.  ; )

The guys took a walk around downtown Temecula.

Loved having our wedding party behind us during our first dance.  It was very special to me.

Friends and family mean the world to us.  It was so special to have our wedding party travel for the wedding.  We love you all so very much!

]]> http://www.bridalbuds.com/2010/01/tied-the-knot-in-temecula-wedding-party-friends-and-family/feed/ 1 http://www.bridalbuds.com/2010/01/breaking-tradition/ http://www.bridalbuds.com/2010/01/breaking-tradition/#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:37:06 +0000 Dogwood Blossom http://www.bridalbuds.com/?p=11787 Dogwood Dude and I have begun to interview photographers and have found some great ones in the Miami/Keys area through WeddingWire. We browsed many photos, read tons of reviews and have asked all the typical questions.  After going through my list, I asked the photographers if they could think of any question I forgot to ask or had any questions for Dogwood Dude and me. I never expected to get this one… Do you plan to see each other before the ceremony? I have always pictured myself walking down the aisle and seeing DD’s face when he saw me for the first time, but I couldn’t answer immediately for some reason.  There was this little voice in the back of my head that kept thinking how great it would be to have that moment to ourselves.

Dogwood Dude and I started talking about it and to be honest I was surprised to hear him say that he had always thought that we would first see each other at that moment on the aisle.  After we started weighing the pros and cons,  the pomp and circumstance faded and the private moment became more appealing to both of us. We actually started calling and emailing all of the photographers and asking their thoughts…this answer from Emily Harris Photography really stood out to me “I strongly advise brides to consider seeing the groom prior to the ceremony. It is a wonderful and intimate moment to photograph. More importantly, it gives me more time to photograph the bride and groom together (normally in beautiful daylight) and get all your family formals out of the way so that everyone can just enjoy themselves and the party after.”

This totally makes sense, but can I forgo the moment I always dreamed of?  Here’s the thing…our wedding is all about the party, that is why we kept it small and intimate. We want to spend as much time as we can with the people that mean the most to us.  I started looking at images of brides and grooms who do see each other before hand and they really are beautiful.

I’d love to get everyone’s opinion and why you would, wouldn’t, did or didn’t!