Girl goes shopping

Boy proposes to Girl.
Girl says yes.
Boy goes to war.
Girl plans a wedding.
Girl goes shopping.

I love to shop.
It doesn't matter what I'm buying, or if I'm not even buying anything at all. But my favorite kind of shopping is the kind where you are looking for something specific... I imagine it's a bit like how the guys feel when they go hunting. I look, I find, I kill. Then I bring it home with me.

I knew that some shopping would be required for the wedding.
There's the typical shopping... dress shopping... shoe shopping....
But after we found the venue and started to put things together, I realized that I needed center pieces, and some fun little details.
And so the shopping began :)

The first shopping trip was with Javier's cousin-in-law, Danielle. She and I scoured several stores and managed to track down lots of treasures for great prices!







We also found several other things that I will be blogging about later on that turned into DIY projects.

Right now I am up in Oregon visiting family. One of our traditions is shopping the day after Christmas. We do it every year. At a ridiculously early hour of the morning. And we love every minute of it! It was not my plan to shop for the wedding... but it just sort of... happened.






































Okay now I know that some of that alone looks a little overwhelming... and almost cheesy. But not to worry. It won't be when I'm done with it :)

I am building a crazy collection of stuff. I can't wait to put it all together!!!
And I need to add a little note here for my mother: Please excuse the poor quality of these photos. I know I am a photographer, but I seem to take the majority of my personal photos with my cell phone. There is no excuse, I know. Don't worry... we will have a wedding photographer (2 actually)... I will not be taking our wedding photos with my cell phone.

Girl chooses colors

Boy proposes to Girl.
Girl says yes.
Boy goes to war.
Girl plans a wedding.
Girl gets confused.
Boy tries to help.
Girl is still confused.
Boy changes plans.
Girl makes decisions.
Girl chooses colors.

One of the first decisions I was finally able to make when it came to the wedding was the color scheme. When we were originally planning on a big fancy November wedding, I had several different color schemes in mind. I couldn't seem to pick one. Part of my problem is that I like so many different things. I really have a hard time narrowing it down.

I love weddings that have a ton of bright color... or one bright color that really pops. But I also love weddings that are full of neutrals. And don't even get me started on metallics.

There are so many choices when it comes to color that I really didn't know how I would make a decision. To be honest, I'm still not sure exactly HOW the decision came about. I think it started with one photo and ended up evolving and growing and taking on a life of it's own.




This picture is from our engagement session with Jordana of Hazelnut photography. It just so happens that in most of our photos from that session, the feel is really purple and gray. And a color scheme was born.

I am not entirely sure when this decision was made... but I found that as I started to put things together... the decorations and the centerpieces... I was seeing a pattern of Purple and Gray. And Silver.

Since J is gone, I've been filling his room with all of the wedding stuff. I told him the other day that it looks like a Purple and Gray elf threw up all over his room. With sparkles.

I am so excited to see how it all comes together!

Girl makes bouquets

Boy proposes to Girl.
Girl says yes.
Boy goes to war.
Girl plans a wedding
Girl saves money.
Girl gets crafty.
Girl makes bouquets.

I knew early on that I didn't want to use live flowers in our wedding. I wanted something different and unique. I knew that I wanted to do a lot of things myself and be crafty. I like to be crafty :) I also knew pretty early on that my bouquet would be made from brooches. I did not think that the girls bouquets would also... that would just be too much. But I wanted something that would go together.

When I was googling things and looking around online, I came across this picture:



I decided I liked this idea, so I set out to try to recreate it. After several failed attempts at making something I really loved, I had success. And so I want to share a little DIY paper bridesmaid bouquet. As with all of the DIY projects I post, I'd love to see pictures if you do something similar! Or if you put a different twist on it! I love to see creativity!




Here are step by step instructions to make one. If you need to make more than one, just make sure you get enough supplies and repeat the instructions!

Things you will need:
-Styrofoam ball (I used 5")
-2 foot by 2 foot piece of fabric (keep in mind color will show through a little)
-wooden dowel (mine was about 6 inches long)
-rubber band
-inch wide ribbon (about a foot and a half should be enough)
-Dress maker pins (or something similar. Could use pearl headed pins instead)
-flower hole punch
-super glue
-4 to 6 sheets of scrapbook paper in coordinating colors (It will depend on how close together you want the flowers and if you want a single layer or a double layer. I put mine pretty close together and doubled each flower)

Step 1:
Place Styrofoam ball in the middle of fabric square


Step 2:
Fold fabric square in half diagonally over Styrofoam ball.


Step 3:
Pin fabric around ball leaving about a one inch space free.


Step 4.
Place wooden dowel into ball. (the trick here is to poke a hole about an inch deep into the foam with the dowel. Then take the dowel out and put super glue in the hole. Place the dowel back in and hold it to let glue dry.


Step 5:
Finish pinning fabric tight around Styrofoam ball


Step 6:
Rubber band the bottom of the fabric right under where the dowel ends.


Step 7:
Tuck loose ends of fabric up and wrap ribbon around and around, covering the dowel and fabric. Make sure to keep the ribbon tight. This is what the girls will hold, so it is important that it is good and tight. Put a couple of dots of super glue at the end of the ribbon to keep it from coming unwound.


Step 8:
Use flower hole punch to punch different colors of scrapbook paper


Step 9:
Pin flowers to ball with dressmaker pins. Turn up edges slightly to create texture and dimension. You can double up your flowers (either 2 of the same color or 2 different colors) to give it more dimension and color and texture. Pictured, I doubled up the flowers using 2 different colors.


Step 10:
continue pinning flowers until the surface of the ball is covered. Make sure to pin down any fabric that may not be flat as you go. Use the flowers to disguise any problem places in the fabric.

Step 11 (optional):
Super glue rhinestones down the handle of the bouquet to acheive a little extra sparkle... And make it look like it has been pinned.

And that's it! It's pretty simple, but a bit time consuming. Each of my bridesmaids will be carrying one of these... and I think it will end up looking pretty cool!

Girl goes to Vegas

Boy proposes to Girl.
Girl says yes.
Boy goes to war.
Girl plans a wedding.
Girl gets overwhelmed.
Girl goes to Vegas.

I reached a breaking point.
I was here at home, attempting to plan a wedding a year down the road after J was home.
There were moments of enjoyment and excitement but mostly it was stressful.
After a conversation with my mom, J and I decided that it would be best to simplify.

And a plan was born.

Instead of the November wedding we were planning to have here at home, we would have a wedding in March when he came home on R&R. And we would go to Vegas!

We still wanted a wedding... and not a satin draped Elvis chapel wedding.
And so the search for a venue continued... but now, in Las Vegas.

With J being gone, and not really having a lot of experience with Vegas, we decided the best thing to do would be to take a trip over there. So for Thanksgiving, my mom and dad and I made the 5 hour drive to Las Vegas.



We had a mission: Plan a wedding in 3 days.
We made a lot of progress and I came home with a plan.

We found a fantastic Venue and we also managed to plan out where to stay, where to take pictures, and all kinds of little details like that.

I am getting excited as this wedding is taking shape. I am finally on a role. I have major direction! Lots of blogs coming with all the details!

And while we were in Vegas, my mom bought me another brooch. So I'd have one from Las Vegas :) It's also one of the colors we are using in the wedding (more on that in a later post!)

Girl chooses colors

Girl plays pretend.
Girl loves colors.
Girl grows up.
Boy meets Girl.
Boy proposes to Girl.
Girl plans a wedding.
Girl is indecisive.
Girl chooses colors.

Since I was a little girl, when asked, my favorite color would usually be purple. Although I did go through a pink phase. And when I was in junior high it was yellow and blue. Then for a while I loved brown. Lately it's been grey.

As I've tried to put together a coherent thought for our wedding, one of the things I keep going back to is colors. I've been back and forth and around and around about colors. I just can't seem to make up my mind.

I've come up with several different color combinations that I like.

Light Blue, White, Tan:
I love the feel of these colors together... calming, cool. Simple.
I can totally see this somewhere like the beach!

Orange, Turquoise/Blue:
I like these colors together, but it is even better for us because J is a DIE HARD Miami Dolphin's fan. Like he gives a whole new name to the word fanatic. I think it would be cool to incorporate his love for all things Orange and Teal by using some variation of it in our wedding.

Purple, Turquoise, Navy, Grey:
I've seen a lot of peacock feathers in the recent blog posts I've read. I think they're very cool looking! I love the colors. I put these colors together kind of by accident and kind of ended up loving them!

Gold, Pink, Champagne:
My best friend Davene is getting married in August, so we've been sharing ideas back and forth. This is actually a color combo she came up with and decided not to use. I like it a lot. It seems very classy and expensive :)

**All inspiration boards made at www.stylemepretty.com All images are used from their site!**

So what do you think? Which color combination do you like best? What venue would you pick to go with the colors? Leave me a comment and let me know what YOU think!

Lots of planning has happened over the last couple of weeks, so I have lots of blogs coming up! Some really cool DIY projects too! AND... I bought a dress :) Stay tuned!