Days 64-75

ok so i realized that i started a post last sunday night and never actually posted it. i was doing way too many things at once i guess. so i'll give a brief update on the happenings of the week --

• super excited to sign the contract with our photographer ashley o'dell !! she is awesome and we both felt really comfortable with her. and she's from the midwest, which is a fun fact too!  as i may have mentioned, we're not doing a very traditional wedding, so having a photographer who gets that and will capture the moments is important. we're not going for the 'stand here, look this way, say cheese' images'. 
• we made our way up to NH on sunday and have acquired the chandelier!!! it is freakin' cool and  can actually be wired to use in a house. not that it will work in our small condo, but perhaps someday in some larger abode with a grand entrance way...

•  we also found these old bottles that are from the new england bottle company back in the day. we're planning to use these for the table centerpieces.
• save the dates are about done and will be mailed very soon. they look pretty cool too, i must say.
• the wedding website is up and running and will be listed on the save the dates. people can find wedding details there.

 ok well short and sweet today - more this weekend, i promise :)

Days 50-62

it's been a pretty busy week and we've made some good progress on things--
save the dates
we spent about 5 hrs or so last saturday on the living room floor figuring out how to use create the best water/gouache mixture, painting both sides of the post cards, stamping the front of the cards with both the blue and black ink stamps, and hoping that we'd have enough cards in total after screwing up a few of the stamps...take a look at some of the pics

 we plan to finish the back of the cards this weekend and to have 1 project completed
meeting with coordinator 
on thursday, we had our 1st meeting with ashley, our coordinator and it went very well! she totally gets our concept and we are ok with the logistics. she seems like a perfect fit with us! we can get all of our 'stuff' to them before the wedding and they will also hold everything for us after the wedding as well. whew! we were both getting nervous that things would not work out, that our ideas were crazy and would not come together, and that we were in over our heads. but, ashley and shane at AFH both seem to like our ideas and think we can definitely create a warm vibe with these vintage elements in the modern space. ahsley took lots of notes and will be sending us her spacial design once she draws it out in a CAD program - how cool?!  they also said the chandelier is fine and so i'm emailing the woman to see if she still has it and then it's off to new hampshire tomorrow i think.
getting excited for more craigslist and antique fair adventures...
 say cheese!
i think we're going with a photobooth! not a big red booth, but a simple, sleek touch screen from picture this. they have never done any events in the boston area, and i think we've cemented a deal with them :)
i figured that with all of the focus groups and research studies i'm doing, i'll be able to come up with the extra cash for this

Days 16-34

so it's been a hectic few weeks and i can't believe i haven't posted in so long! we've been super busy and traveling through new england a bit over the past few weeks. ok, so we made 2 trips to NY, but one of them included a drive from brooklyn to rochester for a wedding and then to montreal --technically we were in several states and did a lot of leaf peeping :)
the wedding was beautiful and very traditional, but did give us some great ideas (thanks nicole and jon!). in an effort to remind myself later of things --
to do:

• include a fun, low key night before the wedding with everyone you love at a local pub
• make personalized gift bags for out of town guests (ie. some people enjoy hiking, while others are more into shopping or photography museums)
• great food, drink, and music is a must
• make sure you talk to everyone and dance as much as possible
• day after brunch with everyone to get a chance to actually talk to people, relax, and talk about how awesome the previous day's activities were

now that we're back from our road trip adventures and i'm able to catch up on my blog stalking, check this idea out --

wheat grass - how cool is this?

wheatgrass DIY on ruffledok so i've never actually had wheat grass (as far as i know), but i do enjoy the concept of growing a tray of wheat grass and somehow incorporating it into the space. we're still not sure how to or if we want to do seating arrangements, but i'm sure we'll find a way to use it! maybe i'll buy a kit and practice growing it to see how it looks...

and i just found a wheatgrass centerpiece kit for sale! they have 10 in circles which may end up being cool and they are cheap too!

oh and by the way -- while in rochester, i got a call from JCrew that they found my dress somewhere in transit and it arrived yesterday and liana received her dress right before we left. of course it's still in the box, but, hopefully we'll get a chance to try them on this weekend and see if we really do like them together.

Day 1 of my 1st ever blog

well this is really a pre-blog kick off post -- there are actually more than 365 days until the wedding, but i wanted to post early as i'm just now figuring out how thing blog-thing works.

it was actually kind of a manic insane weekend with wedding planning adventures. i was up early on sat reading various wedding blogs and found this great wedding that featured wood shutters. yes, wood shutters from an old house were involved with the decor. so a few hours later, i was on craigsist and this nice guy had just posted 100 year old shutters for sale. we decided that we could not miss out on 17 blue, green, and black shutters, so we hopped in the put-put car and headed out to get 'em. $200 later we acquired some amazing items that we hope to use to break up the space between the ceremony and reception. we'll see...good thing we have super creative people in our lives to help with the vision...

100 yr old shutters from craigslist

and then yesterday, we got up early and headed to the brimfield antique fair. this was crazy and maybe the most wonderful place on earth. we didn't go too crazy, but we did find some great picture frames, a pizza oven paddle thing, and perhaps a carpenters trunk which will act as a new coffee table. ok so not everything will be used for the wedding, but we now have many more ideas and inspiration for the concept we're going for. the plan is to use as much as the wedding decor/other stuff that we buy after the wedding in our house. fingers crossed we'll find a use for those shutters...