i won something!

today, I'm ecstatic! I won some fabulous Minted holiday cards over on the Ruffled Blog. I couldn't be a happier girl :)

lawn games...

in my next life (because I only plan on getting married once in this lifetime) I will have an outdoor wedding with lawn games and adorable signs...

 

it'll be fabulous. 

lace + leaves...

 

image via style me pretty

isn't that so fabulous?!?! almost makes me wish i was planning a fall wedding... 

i heart the internet.

Seriously. It's been a good internet day. I started off the Saturday in bed with my laptop browsing through a SATURDAY Style Me Pretty post. I'm always a little sad when I check my blog roll throughout the week and come saturday morning I have nothing new to look at so this was extra special! The rockstar women working that blog really know what they are doing! It's eye candy overload and today did not disappoint and left me uber inspired.

By noon I finally nailed down our color scheme... that I might just post a picture to in the near future... it's not like it's top secret or anything. :)  And then Jason and I were off to Home Depot to pick up some supplies for our photobooth project... which we found inspiration for ... on the internet! My amazing and patient father spent the day with us sawing, building, and teaching us how to make my plans a reality and we actually got pretty far. 

After a delicious fall dinner with the family I was off to ebay to search for some vintage wallpaper... and look what I found!

I can't wait to receive my package from the ups man and see what my new wallpaper looks like in person! I have a feeling that day might feel a little like christmas... :)

I just heart the internet.

11 months to go ... sort of...

Well i guess I did try to post last month. I started drafting this post on July 18th (our actual "eleven months to go" anniversary), but then I decided I'd rather spend every minute I could with my boyfriend, and I put the blogging on hold... here's what I started to write:

Today we are exactly 11 months away from our wedding date and I feel like I need to acknowledge it somewhere aside from my facebook page (I love my future husband but I don't need to start annoying people with status updates just yet) We have been celebrating with a lovely 4 mile run, moving Jason out of his former apartment, and pizza. Just being alone together made the day perfect.

... and that's it... but re-reading over a month later helped me to remember a day that was so simple and fun for the two of us. I have to post so it's permantly saved in our lovely internet history... :)

thursday

reed fish inspired me in so many ways tonight.

first, I netflixed the movie "I'm Reed Fish" (via instant streaming on the Wii, don't know what I'd do without it.)
obviously step 2 would be me googling Reed Fish the person (who wrote the film... inspired by his actual life)
through google I was lead to his webpage, where he and his wife, Liz ( - - man it's a little creepy how much you can learn through google) post elements of their artistic life - photography, videos...

this series of portraits especially caught my attention.

here are a few from "Here There"

check the rest out if you're interested.

now, i know i seem to be turning EVERYTHING into wedding talk lately... and I really don't want to strip the genius of these photos... but seriously. . . Couldn't this make an interesting concept for an engagement shoot? sure you could add some fun props, but the photos from two different perspectives alone could tell an awesome story about someone and their significant other... 

just thinking.

speaking of cake...

... these fabulous cake paintings were featured on design sponge today.

can't decide if I'd rather eat them or hang them on my wall...

artwork by jordan and paul ferney

july?

... how did i miss it? my birth-month and I fail to document a single thing?! well here's what I intended to post on my birthday...

some of my favorite inspriational cakes.

52 days later.

toilet paper

I've recruited family and friends to save their toilet paper rolls for me for a special wedding project.

wish I could say I was making this installation though... :)

our photographer

Last Tuesday night, Jason and I met in Ann Arbor for a sit down with a potential wedding photographer.

Calynn Berry is the second wedding photographer that I've met with (sadly, due to a scheduling conflict the date wasn't going to work out with Amy Carroll but I will whole heartedly recommend her to ANYONE!)

Anyway, Calynn is just the sweetest and we started working up a contract within that very first meeting... We are so excited to work with her...

I just love it when things start falling into place. :)

wednesday inspiration

Wednesday night to me, Thursday morning to the rest of the world... this is perfection... sweet paper cutting dreams for this girl.

the proposal...

we were at my apartment, before heading out to dinner and the dialog went a little something like this...

me "I'm sorry I'm not ready yet, I'm trying to figure out what to wear... any suggestions?"

J "yes"

me "really?"

J "I think you should wear this"

I turned around expecting to see him holding some shirt I left in the living room and found him on his knee, holding a box... with a ring.

and the award goes to...

the worlds worst blogger award that is... that would be me. I have been pretty busy with wedding planning though! We've chosen a location, venues for both the ceremony and the reception, and hired a photographer... the countdown is on with less than a year to go and so very much to do.

up next... dress shopping! here are a few ideas

jcrew

jenny packham

lazaro

hopefully the search will begin in a few weeks...

a big decision

Jackson (home) or Bay Harbor (destination)?

if you've been to Jackson, Michigan you might be thinking I'm crazy for even posing the question. My mind should have been made up before the words even hit this page, but there's just something so romantic, lovely, and enduring about having a wedding at home.

Either way we get to be married by the water (my dream) as J's parents have offered up their lake house lawn for the ceremony. (they are pretty amazing) Call me a silly dreamer, but I love the idea of being able to tell my kids someday that their father and I were married in their grandparents backyard...

... on the otherhand, it would be so sweet to take family vactions to Petoskey, Michigan and stay a night or two at Bay Harbor, telling our children stories of our romantic wedding there.

Both would be so beautiful and romantic and perfect. (I never thought I'd be saying that a Jackson wedding, something that never happened to be a dream of mine, would be perfect... but I know I could make it that way.)

*sigh* what to choose, what to choose...

I need to make a decision.

tomorrow.

May Day

Happy May Day! I think this diy May Day flower basket posted on DesignSponge a few days back would make a perfect decoration for the chairs aligning the aisle in an outdoor wedding ceremony...

image via design*sponge

Here's the link :)

Momentary Scheme Obsession...

Alright, I know I'm jumping ahead of myself here but I can't stop thinking about color schemes. I blame the fact that I work so closely with color everyday. That might also be the reason why I keep changing my mind about colors. There are just too many amazing possiblities!!

Today I'm digging this aqua and emerald scheme I found over on Martha Stewart Weddings.

pistachios

have you ever had one? They're pretty delicious.

the first time I ever ate a pistachio was about 7 years ago, on a long, late night bus ride in Italy. I was with J.

We had been good friends for a couple years at that point, but our friendship grew stronger on that trip.

While conversing over delicious pistachios, as "just friends" we got the idea in our heads that we were going to get married.

We talked for over an hour about how we would start dating in college because maybe our timing would be right then (and it was), allow for a break-up along the way (we had a few), pursue careers in fields that we loved (check, check) and then, when we were 25 (it just seemed like a good number) and still in love, we would get married.

We called our conversation "the seven year plan" and promised over a pistashio shell that we would try to make it happen. We then split the shell, ate the nut, and each kept half.

I lost my half of the pistachio shell a long time ago, somewhere along the way while moving back and forth from college, but J still has his! What a sweet guy to save something that represents so much in our relationship. I get to marry him!!! :)

that HUGE story just to get to this short point...

I HAVE to find a creative way to incorporate pistachio shells into our wedding!

love-ing...

... this pistachio flower brooch.

found for sale here (triple points for being a michigan seller!)


pistachios shells have a special place in my heart. I promise to explain... soon.

Great Website: Romantic Lake Michigan

Searching for the perfect Lake Michigan Venue for your wedding?

What this site lacks in bells and whistles, it makes up for in great content.

Venue Search: The Inn at Bay Harbor

the inn at bay harbor.

what a beautiful place for a wedding.

lake michigan... check.
lodging... check.
adirondack chairs... check + check.

ahhhh... perfection.

money money money

first things first.

budget.

or is it venue?

well J and I are attempting to go with budget.

Do you have any idea of what the average michigan wedding costs today? uhh... is it just me, or does that seem like A LOT?

We have a budget, (I'm not going to mention the number) but who really knows where we'll end up... I'm a planner, and I've been saving budget friendly wedding ideas for quite a while now. I know some of the things you need to do to get the cost of a wedding down like, planning your wedding off season, entertaining the idea of ANY day of the week besides saturday, or have a lunch or cocktail reception.

I'm not so sure any of those are going to work for us... but I'm not counting ANYTHING out just yet.

I'm starting by contacting venues and making spreadsheets. Since I don't have excel, this is where google docs comes in. Planning ahead is definitely going to save us a lot of money in the long run.

ENGAGED!!!

It happened on April 2nd 2010. Good Friday. A GREAT Friday if you ask me! J asked me that question that I've been playing out in my head for the last seven years and my first words were, "is this a joke?!" ... guess I need to get a handle on my word vomit. Obviously "ummm, OF COURSE!!" was quick to follow.


I'm extremely blog OBSESSED! Constantly searching for inpiration on interiors, fashion, and ...weddings for a few years now. You would NOT believe how many photos I have saved to catagorized inspiration folders.

I need a place to share this inspiration (Lord knows I'll never be able to use it all.) But more importantly, I need a place to savor every moment leading up to our wedding. If you ask anyone who knows me, I'm get stressed out waaay too easily! I don't want my wedding planning to be like that. I want to enjoy every moment, every decision, every dollar spent... thus, this blog is born...


(ahh born!! can't wait till we can start popping out some babies... I mean... I can WAIT, but... eh, you get it.)