Inspiration Boards

I've been working on designing our save-the-dates and let me tell you, it's hard! Since I'm designing them for myself, I'm having such a difficult time making decisions. Nothing is perfect and it's getting frustrating! I think I've designed about 10 different save-the-dates, with the same words just different fonts, colors and patterns.

So today I sat down and decided I needed to nail down my colors once and for all. I did that by picking five or six of my favorite images of weddings and taking the colors that those images shared. Here's the outcome:

The second thing I did was to make an inspiration board of invitations I admire. Sometimes this helps me because I can put a finger on different elements that draw me in, as well as colors and "feels." I definitely got a lot done after I made this baby!

After I did the invitation inspiration board, I realized a few things about what I want my invitations to look like:

1) I like color (and lots of it!)
2) Stripes are fun
3) I love clean designs (I already knew that though)
4) White is probably the way to go (as far as paper is concerned)
5) Definitely doing envelope liners. So.freaking.awesome.

Now I just have to get home and show my fiance some of today's designs to see what he thinks. I know he will have some changes (I'm pretty sure I do too!) but so far, I'm likin' the direction. Can't wait to share it with you!

Will You Be My Maid of Honor/Bridesmaid/House Party?

Y'all know I can't ever do anything simple, don't you? I knew when I got engaged that I would want to do something special to ask my favorite girls to be a part of my big day. One of my first ideas was to have Erin make some special "Will You Be My ____" cookies, and luckily she agreed! Of course, they turned out AWESOME!!!!! I was kind of in love with them...

After they were made, I decided to make another piece to the invitation that the girls could keep after they ate those delicious cookies! So I grabbed some of my elements from the Save the Dates I've been working on (!!) and threw together an accordian fold invitation that included a letter to them, an introduction to all the other girls (with their phone numbers and email address) and a little piece the rest of the details!

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--------------------------------------------------------------Back--------------------------------------------------------------

I know it's a little hard to read on here, but I think you get the point! It was really fun to pass them out to the girls because I don't think they were expecting it at all!

I decided to make my two sisters BOTH my maid of honor because I knew I would never be able to choose between the two of them! Then, I have three bridesmaids - Natalie (one of my best friends), Emily (who I've known since I was about 2 or 3!), and Caroline (John's little sister who also happens to be kind of awesome). I wanted to include Mary and Abbi too so decided to ask them to be in my house party! Thank goodness they all said yes!

By the way, I realize my pictures are terrible on here. I was shooting late at night in my practically pitch-black apartment and so the photos are not super great. Sorry! I need to be more patient and wait for better light next time. Womp, womp.

New Releases!

I've been keeping a little secret from you guys. I know, I know. Bad blogger! Well, here it is. I have more images from the proposal than I'd originally let on. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to share them! But I've decided I do because it was such a sweet, sweet moment! As you might remember from the proposal story, John completely surprised me when we went to get our Christmas tree. I set up a tripod to take some pictures of us cutting down the tree, and it actually captured these babies!

It still makes my heart flutter to think about it! And I've been lagging on my blogging duties but I promise I'll try to catch up soon. I am working on a post right now about how I asked my girls to be a part of the big day! Check back soon because it's pretty cute if I do say so myself!

Have a very happy Wednesday!

Wedding Planning - Steps 1-5 Done!

Thought maybe you'd like a little wedding update since I've been a little MIA lately. Not my fault, though - with Christmas parties, a full-time job, a kitchen renovation AND wedding planning, life's been pretty hectic! I love it though! We have come a long way in the wedding planning than we were three weeks ago! Many things have been officially set, including:

THE DATE

I don't think I've officially announced our date on the blog yet but we are going to get married on July 28, 2012 here in Little Rock! We are so excited. 8 months to go!

THE CHURCH

Image courtesy of David Simmons Photos

John and I are going to get married at his church, Second Presbyterian Church. His parents and great-grandparents got married at this church (although not all when this was the building). We thought it would be great to continue the tradition! This church is HUGE so hopefully we can figure out some good ways to decorate without spending too much money!


THE RECEPTION

Image courtesy of Melissa McCrotty Photography. Found on POTR website.

Image courtesy of Jamie Fender Photography. Found on POTR website. 

Where we were going to have the reception was a really HARD decision to make. When we stopped to think about what we wanted our wedding to be like, we decided we wanted an outdoor, fun event. So we narrowed it down to two places. The first was the Terry House (which is GORGEOUS). We really liked it, but it was far from the church (opposite side of town) and we couldn't use our caterer of choice. The other place was the Park on the River, in Maumelle. It's literally 5 minutes from the church and was beautiful, but it had a steep hill that concerned me and John.

In the end, we decided to go with the Park on the River. It is so close, right on the river and it's gorgeous. We're hoping the river proximity will cool the party down a little bit (since it will be July), and it's also super secluded so we can play our band and dance without on-lookers. We'll still have to figure out that hill, but that's a detail that can wait for now. Images above are from the Park on the River's website!

THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Y'all know this one is IMPORTANT to me! I immediately knew who I wanted as our photographer as soon as we got engaged, and I contacted her asap! Her name is Taylor Lord and she.is.amazing. She's from Galveston, TX and is going to travel over here to take pictures and capture our big day! Here is her website -- please go take a look! I am so pumped about her!

THE DRESS




I think I found the dress when I went to Low's in Brinkley on Tuesday! It is SO.PRETTY! I've been dreaming about it ever since. We're going to try Proposals here in Little Rock this weekend (yes, on Christmas Eve!) and I know that they have the same dress for the same price so it's likely we'll buy it there after I make 100% sure it's the one. I am oh so happy I chose to have a short(er) engagement because I cannot wait until John sees me in this dress! Y'all, I'm gonna cry!

THE CATERER

My mom has worked as the book-keeper at Cajun's Wharf for YEARS and made it super clear that that's who she wanted to cater the food. Luckily, when we went with the Park on the River as our reception site, it also meant we could choose our own caterer. So, that mean's Cajun's is the one! They have amazing food and I am so excited to figure out the details of what exactly we will be munchin' on!



Okay, so now you know what's going on and some of the things that have been going on over here! I cannot wait to marry the man of my dreams and I am so excited!

Another Short Post...sorry!

Okay dudes. I'm just updating this really quick because I'm in the middle of drying my hair for the day. Gotta look pretty because....it's WEDDING DRESS SHOPPING DAY! I thought about posting some of my favorites I've found online but I really don't want John to know what I'm thinking about getting so I'll probably skip on that. However, I will say one thing: I love off-white dresses. No stark white wedding dress for me! I might even be interested in a blush color. CRAZY TALK!

Anyway, I thought you guys might want to see the kitchen progress. John's been working so hard every day to get it cleared out before the wall guy comes next week to tear down the wall between the kitchen and living room. To be perfectly honest, this is the thing I'm looking forward to the most. Wall, be gone!

Sorry for the poor quality pictures -- John took them on his iPhone.

No turning back now!

Kitchen: Let the Demo Begin!

John finished up finals on Monday but he hasn't necessarily been having the most relaxing Christmas Break ever. On top of constant wedding phone calls from yours truly, he's also been working on demo-ing the kitchen with his momma! You can see the first picture of the kitchen before here, and now here's an update of the very beginning of the tear-down. You do not know how excited we are!!

Next time I make it over there I'll try to get some more pictures of their progress. Great job guys!

Kitchen Makeover - The Beginning

Well, now that we're in the middle of planning a wedding, I think it's high time I revealed to you another big project John and I are embarking on -- his kitchen. We've been in the process of start a renovation on it for about 2 or 3 months now and it's finally about to start! I've never mentioned it on the blog, but John owns this adorable little house here in Little Rock. It's a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom home that is, in a word, awesome. He's lived there for about 2 years now and he loves it (so do I!)... BUT there is one problem -- his kitchen is smaller than Chelsey Handler's midget.

From the get-go, we started daydreaming about a new kitchen. Knocking down walls, adding new fixtures, the works. And it was a fun little game we would play: who could come up with the best plan? But one day, after burning myself on some spoons located in a drawer under the stove, I'd had enough. Not only was the kitchen dangerous (hello, I'd just burned myself on a spoon!) but it just wasn't functioning for what we wanted it to do! 

Here are the problems we're dealing with now (yes, I spend a lot of time over at John's house so from now on I will refer to this as our problem. Hope that's cool).

• Drawer under stove too close -- fire hazard? I think yes.

• No hood/vent for stinky smells (or the occasional smoke pit) to escape

• A mere 1.5 sections of counterspace (see image below)

• Closed layout -- if someone is cooking, you can't see in, you can't see out. No bueno.

• Ovens heat entire kitchen

• Not enough room for two people

• Outdated appliances. Not the fridge, just the oven. And the stove.

As you might have been able to tell from the photos, there's NO counterspace. Okay, there's like 1 foot of it. Here's the sketch with the usable counterspace we currently have highlighted.

Okay, are you following me here? I know I'm rambling....

Anyway, my best friend's mom is an interior decorator who specializes in kitchens & bathrooms (but she does EVERYTHING and she's amazing!). Can you see where I'm going with this? I'd said all along that I would love to use her because she has impeccable taste and I love her to death, so when the kitchen thing started getting a little more serious, we called her in. We needed help  Clearly.

At first, our plan was to knock out the walls on either side of the kitchen (top and bottom from the plan above) so that it would be open to the living room and to the den (the living room is the room at the bottom, the den is at the top in said drawing). Here was her first layout:

We were pumped. Our kitchen was gonna be rockin' and we could finally use the space how we wanted to: for entertaining and, obviously, cooking.

After we slept on it a few days, though, we got to thinking that maybe it was too big. Did we really need ALL that space? Was the new layout too big for the house (which is quite small)? Would we be able to get our money out of it down the road? All of these were questions that finally led us to the fact that we didn't need a kitchen that big. Scaling it down a bit would fit the house better, and probably fit our budget better too. Always a good thing!

So back to the drawing board, this time trying to utilize a smaller space and keeping the back wall. This time, we think we've hit the nail on the head! Here's the newest layout:

As you can see, the bottom wall (which separates the living room and the kitchen, currently) would be taken out. In it's place is a countertop with a raised bar area, so we could sit stools there and people could interact with the cook without being in the kitchen. She also added a pantry (!!) since we don't currently have one. Combining the stove and oven saves even more space, and she added upper cabinets to the walls. 

Can I just say that I am in love? Especially when I did this to see exactly how much counterspace we'd be gaining.

Holy. crap.

Since John finished his exams today he is going to start the demo-process this week. And that wall between the living room and kitchen is getting knocked down by a pro at the end of this month. SO EXCITING! And, if you need an interior designer, I know just the person! Click here for her facebook page!

Christmas Sneak Peek

Just a short and sweet picture today of two sweet girls I took pictures of last weekend. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to photograph indoors and thought this one turned out pretty good! Hope you enjoy and have a great Friday!!!

Our Christmas Tree

Well, I guess it's about time I showed you the rest of the reindeer and our engagement Christmas tree! If you remember, I decided my Christmas color palette would be red, aqua, lime, and beige. The aqua I kept by keeping my vase up on my TV stand, but filling it with dried sticks instead of the purple flowers that used to be there. Then, I spruced up my art with some red reindeer paintings. On the tree, I used some of my red and silver ornaments from last year, but used lime and aqua ribbon to tie in those colors. I topped it off with some swirly, whimsical stems! I even chose some kraft paper wrapping paper to tie in the rest of the look. Do you like it?

I still have to get a tree skirt but I haven't decided what color yet. I'm thinking burlap, perhaps but I wonder if that's too much brown. I am also considering red. What do you think I should do?

I'll get some better pictures of the tree later but wanted to show you a glimpse of it today! Hope you enjoy!

Trendy Tuesday: WEDDING LOVE!

Okay, John and I have not chosen a date yet but I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite wedding inspiration images since we got engaged last weekend! I'm totally hoping for a warm summer wedding but we'll have to actually sit down and decide upon a date before that's set in stone! I'm also thinking color -- and lots of it! Hope you enjoy this collection of images!

1. Streamer Love 2. Pops of Color Bouquet 3. Rustic Chic Farm 4. Camera Cake (although I shoot with Canon) 5. Birdcage Centerpieces 6. Flower Cake 7. Candles + Wood 8. Kraft Paper Coasters 9. Pretty in Pink

Happy Tuesday to you!

Big News!

As many of you might already know, John and I are officially...ENGAGED! John popped the question on Saturday, December 3, 2011. To say that I had no idea would be an understatement. I knew he was probably going to do it soon, but I was not expecting it Saturday at all!

The morning started off a little differently than other mornings because we were finally going to get our Christmas tree (which we hadn't done yet if you remember, because John got pneumonia). Getting the tree is my very.favorite.tradition of the holidays and is not as simple as driving to the grocery store and picking one up there. No, ever since I was a little girl, getting a Christmas tree meant driving out to Saline county to a tree farm where we would find the perfect tree to take home for Christmas.

I decided last week that I wanted to bring a tri-pod with us when we went. You know, to document finding our perfect tree an all. Unknown to me, John had been planning on proposing so he was really excited that I suggested bringing the camera (although I truly thought it was my idea!)

When we finally got there, we immediately started walking through the beautiful trees, trying to find our perfect one. Every one is so different -- some are darker than others, some are fatter, some are bare and some are just plain funny looking. It's always an adventure to see which tree you end up with.

After we had walked around for about 30 minutes or so, we finally found THE ONE. It was perfect -- nice and tall, full and a beautiful mixture of dark and light greens. Now, if you will remember, we had a tripod with us so we set it up to take some pictures of us with the tree. After we got a few good shots John got down on the ground to figure out the best place to cut the trunk. Keep in mind I still had no.idea. I was completely oblivious. He called me over to where he was and asked me my opinion on where to cut the tree. While I was looking into the branches, he grabbed me by the waist and started proposing to me!

Then it hit me. DUH! I could not believe what was happening! I'm pretty sure I asked him what he was doing a few times and even asked "are you really doing this?!?" I was so excited! When he finally asked me to marry me, he held out the most beautiful ring I have ever seen in my entire life and of course I screamed YES!

It was the most wonderful day. Such a surprise and we are both so thrilled! We have not set a date yet but I'm sure we'll get to that soon! Thanks to everyone who has supported and congratulated us! We are so happy and so very much in love. We cannot wait to start this new chapter of our lives together!

HAPPY HAPPY MONDAY!!! Gotta go swoon over my ring some more. :)