Deciding on colors was a pretty difficult choice for me. I knew that it had to be one of the first things I did because so many other aspects of the wedding depend on your colors. After a lot of pinning on Pinterest, looking at inspiration boards, and going to a few different craft and home improvement stores, I decided on our colors. Our colors are going to be teal, baby blue, and white.
I know how difficult deciding colors can be, so I wanted to offer some advice to those of you who are still trying to decide what you want your colors to be.
1. Start out with some inspiration- I started my adventure into color by looking at real wedding pictures on websites like the Knot and Pinterest. I saved the color schemes that I really liked and kept them to ask my family, friends, and fiance about their opinions.
2. Go to a home improvement store- I know this sounds crazy, but it really helped me. I went and took about 50 paint samples from the paint department at my local home improvement store. They’re free and it’s nice to be able to lay them out on your carpet and match up the colors. Take different shades from all the colors you like and match them up to each other. Once you’ve found a combination you love, you can move on to the next step.
3 Go buy some ribbon- Once you have your colors chosen, go to a craft store and buy ribbon in those colors. Sometimes seeing the colors on a flat paint swatch doesn’t do you as much good as seeing it on a satin ribbon. Satin ribbon has a way of catching the light and making things look brighter. And don’t forget that your bridesmaids dresses will be in fabric, not paper, so seeing how the color moves in the light will help you feel more confident in your decision. Then, go home and make a pretty bow out of your ribbon and keep it around…if you see it every day and still like it then you know you’ve made the right decision. It’s also great to have a piece of the ribbon in your purse for impromptu shopping trips to the craft store or to look at bridesmaids dresses or tuxes!
4. Wear something in your colors- Even if you go and find a pair of earrings in the colors that you love, or find a shirt with your colors, wearing them helped me feel like I really did enjoy the colors that I chose. I actually went out and bought yarn in the colors and crocheted myself a scarf. It’s great because if anyone asks me what my wedding colors are going to be, I can pull it out and show them right away!
It’s only been a little over two months since MG Bear and I got engaged, but wow the emotions are all over the place from every end!
I wrote this post to put out a sigh of relief! When MG Bear and I got engaged there was a little static from my parents and how we should be going about paying for things and making decisions. To break it down for you, our parents are being very traditional. My parents are paying for the big stuff (catering and all that comes with it) and his parents are paying for the major things outside of that (photographer, DJ, flowers, rehearsal, etc). It was hard at first because my parents had the attitude that whoever is paying for what, should get to make the decisions. That was a nightmare to deal with and MGB’s parents thought the exact opposite, that WE should be making the decisions as long as they aren’t unreasonable! The problem was that my dad never sat down and gave us a hard budget for the portion of the wedding they are paying for. He literally said to us, tell me what you want and I will make it work. So this lead to a lot of confusion and things being misinterpreted. We finally sat down and after a few tears we were finally able to agree on how things would work.
Alright, I have finally decided on a bridesmaid dress color…yay me! After all is said and done, I have decided that not picking the color first was probably the dumbest move. Well, that’s sort of a lie. I picked the color but then when I saw it in person, I didn’t like it. Words to those who are at this stage of planning: decide on color first. Here is the final verdict: grapefruit!! It is a gorgeous reddish-orangey-pinkish color, what I would classify as coral. Not one bridal store in Cincinnati had a sample in of any B2 dress in grapefruit so I picked based on a swatch but I’m confident it will be great! Here is a look at a sample from their website…
Ok this still looks orangey but it's not....I'll just take a picture when they come in
Let me start by saying MG Bear and I have knocked a few big things off of our list so far, which seems pretty quick but we still have a loooong way to go. The purpose of this post is to get advice on how to organize everything for the big day.
I use Wedding Wire’s check list, but for some reason I am feeling very old school when it comes to this. I am all about everything being digital or available online these days, but something makes me nervous about it. A friend of mine always pounds in my head how great google’s calendar is and how it syncs to your phone, but little old me still likes to carry around an old school calendar in my purse. I would like to start a wedding binder, but where to start? How to organize? All these things keep popping into my head and give me waves of anxiety. Do I treat the binder like a calendar and mark off things that need to be done by certain months? Or do I organize it by category (ie: flowers, linens, food, RSVPs, etc)? Should I use it as an “idea book”?
So all of my girls have chosen their dresses- which is super exciting! Now I’m facing a major dilemma—which color I want! I had my mind set on coral until I saw a swatch in the store and it was pink. Which is not what I want at all. They showed me a swatch of tangerine which looked like it would fit more with my color scheme but it’s just a bit orange. I would much rather have orange than pink but now I’m stuck. Why don’t online colors look like they do in person? (I know the answer just venting a bit….) Here are the two colors on the Jasmine website:
My MOH's parents' house all set up for my shower for a tea!
My bridal shower and bachelorette party were last weekend and while I had virtually nothing to do with the planning (awesome!) I wanted to share how amazing my family and friends are for putting this all together! My bridal shower was a tea theme, because I love love love tea! It was a great time with lots of family and friends around to wish me well on our upcoming wedding.
I am extremely blessed to have a wonderful set of bridesmaids. We’ve all been friends for at least 4 years and I consider them all to be like sisters to me. That being said, I knew that even the greatest group of friends have differing tastes and therefore picking a bridesmaids dress could end up being a bit of a challenge.
We started the search at my all-time favorite store: J. Crew. Seriously, that store is the death of my wallet. I’ve always loved their bridal line and thought from the very beginning that they would be the makers of my bridesmaid’s dresses. I started the search by, of course, picking my color (grey). I had J. Crew send me a swatch of their Aged Driftwood color in Silk Taffeta, and I fell in love. It was the perfect shade of grey, not too light, not too dark. So, in my head, this is what my 7 girls were going to wear:
We made an appointment at the J. Crew bridal store near where we live, and 4 of us went to go try on dresses. FAIL. This dress was super light in person, like almost a silvery white type color. That, and the silk taffeta was seeming like it could get very wrinkled. My girls weren’t happy and, despite my deep love for all things J. Crew, neither was I. So, the search continued.
My future MIL asked me if I had ever heard of LulaKate. I checked out their website and definitely liked some of the dresses, but thought the prices on the site were way out of my price range. Then, a few weeks later, I made an appointment at a dress shop in my town and we found that LulaKate also makes a less expensive fabric – therefore making the dress a little bit more affordable.
I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted, but we have finally gotten our wedding images and video! I wanted to share our video highlights because it just so perfectly captures our day. Lovebug and I have both said many times that our wedding was a glorious day filled with the people we love most. It really exemplified us as a couple and our love.
The venue that Morning Glory Bear (MGB as I will put him for short) and I picked to have our ceremony and reception is a nice waterfront venue tucked back in a neighborhood. It actually used to be a crappy little restaurant/bar and the catering company bought it and completely gutted and remodeled the place. I love the view and it will make for some great photo ops, but I’m worried about the lack of variety and creativity available for pictures after the ceremony. Since 75% of the venue is physically on the water (see below for picture) it’s literally just the docks for pictures. There’s no beach or really anywhere to go on-site to make for different pictures.
Copyright Cesar Chavez Photography
So, basically MGB and I talked about going offsite after the ceremony to take our bridal party/family pictures. Luckily, there is a nice park about 5 minutes away with a beach, pavilion and another dock to take pictures at. I was worried about finding somewhere that was close enough to not take time away from the reception time and was pretty enough to allow the photographer some creative leeway. In my nervousness to make sure everything goes according to plan, I don’t want this to end up being chaotic! I still want to do pictures at the venue on the docks, especially something like this at the end of the night.
I was going to write about this topic at some point in the future but since Martha Weddings tweeted brides asking what the biggest challenge is I thought I’d talk about the theme issue now.
So here is my take on the topic: I guarantee that the first 3 months or so after you get engaged you will do nothing but scour every wedding website known to man and write down dozens of things you think are neat, cute, pretty and memorable. Therefore, you will inevitably become totally confused and disheartened about the fact that you have no clue what you want. Well, my tip is this, do all of that until you are blue in the face and then give yourself a break from the planning as it will all come together in time. It all comes down to budget and the initial feeling of how you wanted the wedding to go.
Me and Mr.Pom initially wanted to go to an island and have a really small ceremony followed by a party closer to home. Thinking all of it through I am now, after 4 months of deliberating with myself, going with a simple theme. I never wanted to pick colors and I also never truly wanted a theme. So here goes, I’m thinking of classic white – because it’s classic AND simple – with pops of yellow, because yellow brightens even the gloomiest days. This would not only give the whole reception tent an airy feeling but it would also keep true to our original desire of having a simple and effortless wedding. The fact that we are getting married on a lake only adds to the simplicity and fun.
Here is the final verdict: grapefruit!! It is a gorgeous reddish-orangey-pinkish color, what I would classify as coral. Not one bridal store in Cincinnati had a sample in of any B2 dress in grapefruit so I picked based on a swatch but I’m confident it will be great! Here is a look at a sample from their website…
