A Candy Bar

My first idea for favors was to get these cute glass photo coasters. To make sure they were quality products, I ordered one a couple of weeks ago. At first, I was totally sold on them. But a co-worker brought up a good point. Did I try to change out the picture to see if it was easy to do so? So I tried it and it was horrible! My hands got all sticky and I never did get the picture out of the coaster. Bye bye coasters.

However I did see an idea that I like even more. A Candy Bar. No -- not like a Hershey Bar. More like a table with lots of different candy options, complete with plastic bags with our wedding labels on them. We would invite our guests to create their own bag of goodies tailored to their individual taste. Here is an example of what I have in mind...



I don't know if I would only do candy in the wedding colors. I honestly like the idea of different color candies. I'm not a "matchy-matchy", I must dye my shoes to match the dress kinda gal.

Thoughts? Suggestions on type of candy?

Even Steven

Do you remember the Seinfeld episode that talks about Even Steven? Well I feel that it is totally applicable when it comes to wedding planning. My fiance and I have been meeting with different dj's. We found our guy though! He has a great personality, is professional, has great references, and most importantly--appreciates our diverse taste in music.

However... I got an email from my photographer that said she realized that she was already booked for our date! So it is back to the drawing board. I have found a few other photographers though and hope to have this booked within the next week. I'm a fan of mixing the photojournalistic style with some classic traditional photos. In particular, I'm interested in the following photographer...

www.krisgrahamphotography.com

If I had a ton of money, I would totally book with this gal...

www.agneslopezphotgraphy.com

Her packages start at $3,000. YIKES. I can't spend much more than $1,500. I really am more interested in the actual photography service. I don't want them to make me an album, as I actually want to get an actual book made from the KODAK gallery website.
In an ideal world, I would get 5-6 hours of coverage, ownership of the photos, and a couple of prints suitable for framing. My co worker (who used the first photograher) said she negotiated her package to get something similar to what I want for $800! Wahoo! I would love to get that.

Flower and cake planning!

My lovely little sis will be making my wedding cake as her gift to us. She will also be making the grooms cake. She is a pastry student at Johnson & Wales and extremely talented. So I've been scouring websites to find pictures to show her what I like. Here are some I've found so far...

Here are some flowers that I like as well. Notice a trend?? lol

What do you think??

Found it!

One of my biggest (okay, actually THE biggest) topic of anxiety for me has been finding a wedding dress. I'm not 100% comfortable at the size I am at now. I'm a size 14-16 petite. I didn't think that the bridal shops would have carry anything in my size. I thought they would all be size 6's. Plus all my friends were telling me how you have to go up a jazillion (okay, maybe not quite) sizes up from your typical size since they size wedding gowns smaller. But after a pep talk from some friends, I decided to go with mom to take a first peek at wedding dresses. I had the following criteria in mind:

(1) No strapless dresses
(2) No color aside from white or ivory
(3) Lace on the bodice

We hit up the cute bridal shop near my childhood home. I immediately inform the little old lay of my dress size fears. She instantly puts me at ease. Looks at me and guesses my regular everyday size perfectly and immediately leads me to the Alfred Angelo dresses. No more than 15 minutes later, I've got the below dress on.



How the heck did this happen? But I saw the dress, lost my breath for a second, and the next thing you know..I'm on that bridal pedestal in front of a 3-way mirror. I tried some other dresses on but this is THE ONE. I'm going to show it to my sister and future mother in law in a week or so when I order it.

Now that I've found the dress I really wanted (again, a surprise!), I'm even more excited about planning the wedding! I found a photographer, favors and am close to pickin invitations! So I hope to be posting more when I finalize these details!

A must read for the newly engaged woman!

When I got engaged, I almost immediately went to my local Barnes & Noble to stock up on every bridal magazine I could get my hands on. I also looked for books on wedding planning. However the best book I bought was one that sadly, many brides to be do not acknowledge. I'm speaking of Allison Mohr-Smith's Emotionally Engaged: A Bride's Guide to Surviving the "Happiest" Time of Her Life. This book explores all the emotional feelings that happen during your engagement. From anxiety to sadness to happiness, this book honestly made me feel that I wasn't alone. I really enjoyed the sections on your changing role of daugher/sister to wife. I also learned a lot about why I felt that my single friends abandoned me.

The books on dresses and flowers are great, but I really feel this book is what is helping me enjoy this process!