PS

Two things just occurred to me.

1) I also need a dress for the Rehearsal Dinner. :)

2) I have to be really careful with getting black and hot pink things...Because I don't want it to look too Sweet 16.

And I want to make sure that nothing looks juvenile. I want to keep everything looking elegant and classy.

So maybe I need to stop looking at party dresses in the Juniors department?

Also, I think that it is good that I am shying away from just pink and black decorations...And focusing a lot more on the black and white with pink accents. I think as long as I keep incorporating the black/white/pink combination, it will keep it classy and less babyish.

Dresses for Me :)

I have been so crazy focused on looking for bridesmaid dresses that I haven't stopped to think about me.

So here goes...I came across a few dresses that might be cute for Engagement Photos (if we ever get any done) and an Engagement Party (if we ever have one.)

Or I can always wear one for my Bachelorette Party.

OH! I also need a dress for my Bridal Shower, too.

Yay for lots of new dress purchases! LMAO! ;)

This dress is pretty much my colors (it is cream, not white) and pattern...Oh and it is currently on sale for only $5.99 Yeah, so I might just have to get it because ummm it is only...$5.99!!

Again, this dress has my colors (well, cream again, not white)...And it is not as cheap as the previous dress, but at $22.80, that's really not too expensive either.

I probably totally need this dress for one of my events...Since it absolutely displays all of my colors! :)

If only this dress had pink instead of red, it would be perfect, too!

There are surprisingly a lot of black/pink, black/white, and even black/white/pink party dresses out there...Which must mean that I picked an 'in' theme for my wedding. Hopefully that is a good thing. I am not going to post every dress I have found...Just a few.

I have been coming across a lot of zebra and cheetah prints in black and white, but I am not really feeling them...At least not to match my theme. Unless I was just going for colors...

...Then something like this could work...

This dress is another possibility, based on colors.

Again, this dress is based on colors.

The thing that is good about this dress, is that it has sleeves that can cover up my shoulder surgery scar...Which is the reason I am considering capped sleeves for my wedding gown.

And then of course, I also wanted a white dress...To play up the whole 'bride' theme.

This dress is cream, but it is oh so cute! And it is only $27.80!

And the Damask Continues...

I went to a Bridal Show with my Grandmother yesterday.

She must have been good luck, because I won one of the drawings!

It was a cake from one of the vendors there.

So nothing helpful for the wedding...But I still won something. :)

My family ate about 1/2 of it last night already. Hehe

I talked to a couple of the cake vendors there and showed them the cake design I drew...And they were all so impressed that I came up with the idea by myself. Go me.

Anyway, I found a guy (not the place I won the cake from) who said he can make the exact cake as I described...And it will supposedly be less than $1,000...Which is fantastic! Because I really thought for all of the intricate details I want, that they would charge me an arm and a leg. So I am really excited about that.

When I told several of the vendors my wedding colors/pattern...They all said how popular that was lately. I don't even know what gave me the idea for that style choice...So I had no idea it was popular.

But I guess it's good that so many other people like the idea too...It shows that I'm not totally crazy with my color and style choices then.

Also, I got to thinking...Instead of just having my MOH wear black with pink trim and the maids wear pink with black trim...Maybe they should all wear black with pink.

Because I got to thinking about flowers.

I want pink bouquets. And against a black dress it will look really sharp and it will really pop nicely I think. But with a pink dress, what kind of flowers could they hold? I guess they could hold pink flowers against their pink dresses, but I feel like it just doesn't 'pop'...You know?

And there is NO way they are holding black flowers!

There is always white flowers with the pink dresses...But I think that I am loving the idea of black dresses with hot pink accents and pink bouquets...And maybe even hot pink shoes!

I still need to find a way to make my MOH stand out.

Unless she is the only one who gets a pink ribbon with the black dress, and the maids just get the black dress without pink...

Or maybe they get pink ribbons and she gets a white ribbon...

Or back to my original idea that they all have the same dress...In this case I guess black with pink trims...And they all have halter tops and she has strapless...Or whatever style they agree on.

Just something subtle to make everyone know she is the MOH, without ruining the uniformity I want.

And now for some fun inspiration:

Guest Book and Pen Set...I can probably make that.

Or Black with white designs.

I am planning on going to a fabric store to look for the exact black & white pattern I want, and then try to make a lot of these things instead of buying them...Hopefully it will save money, but also this way everything will match 110%!! :)

I will probably pick white with black designs, as opposed to black with white...But I can decide better when I see them in person.

And if I was ordering all of these items, the patterns wouldn't be the same and all. So I think for the uniformity that I want to be pretty strict about, I will be forced to have a lot of DIY projects.

Which will be fine, if I can get things figured out and then start the projects soon. So I can do them all nice and calmly over the next 10 or so months. And not be stressed and rushing to do everything like a week before the wedding.

I was thinking of making my own table runners...Jon said I should make my own tablecloths and chair covers too...But come on now, who has THAT kind of time? Even if we have like 10 months until the wedding. LOL

Plus, I don't have a sewing machine. Sooooo, I think that will pose a problem for the big crafty items.

This is a Unity Candle...But I had been thinking about something similar for a centerpiece. Like probably just the middle candle. But it was just an idea I had as an alternative to flowers.

Damask Centerpieces

So I am not sure that the original bamboo centerpiece I designed a little while ago will match my new theme...


So here are a couple of damask centerpiece ideas I came across:



Just picture the yellow in pink.



And this one is in my colors! :)

Damask Flower Girls

It is rather difficult to pick out a Flower Girl dress, when I have no idea who she is going to be, how old she is going to be, or if there will even be one.
But none the less, here are a few possibilities:




Black and White Damask...But no Pink...
(To me it looks more like black and silver, but the website describes it as "Black & Diamond White")


Pink & Black Damask...But no white...


Just Pink & Black Colors...But no pattern...



I am not too crazy about this one...But it DOES fit the Black & White Damask theme...




All 3 found here.

UPDATES!

Update # 1) My "Soon to be Mrs. Hines" hoodie came in yesterday...

Wait, let's take a closer look:

"Williams"..."Hines"...Same thing, right?!

*Sighs*

I wonder if there is a future Mrs. Williams out there, just as upset as I am!

But the invoice that came with the package clearly has "Mrs. Hines" written on it...And when I called Exclusively Weddings to ask them about the mix up, they have "Mrs. Hines" in their records as well...So at least we know this wasn't my mistake.

Anyway, they said I just have to take a picture of the hoodie, email it to them, and they will send me my correct hoodie.

They also said, I can keep the wrong one. LOL

Any Future Mrs. Williams out there need a hoodie?!

I wonder if I can sell it on eBay...Or if I should just wear it as a joke.

Maybe it would go good with my Bridezilla Halloween Costume? LOL

I think a Bridezilla would freak out about a mistake like that.

Ha

Update # 2) I mailed out my "be my Groomsmen/Bridesmaid" cards yesterday. I cannot wait for my girls to get their cards! I am so excited to find out if they will be excited and surprised!! :)

Update # 3) My girls' pink buckets have been sprayed with the silver glitter...And they look AWESOME! :)

They seriously look like they were made that way.

Update # 4) Since I started going to Boot Camp in September, I have gone every single day and have not missed a single class. But I had to miss it last night so we could go to our Daniele's Appointment (which went fantastically!) And I have to miss class AGAIN tonight to go to our Beardslee Appointment. :(

I think I will force myself to wake up early tomorrow morning and go to class, to try to make up for missing two in a row. :(

At least I am still eating healthy, so I HOPEFULLY won't gain any weight.

Black, White, & Pink Wedding Ideas

Of course I would have pink instead of red


I love each of the tiers...But probably not together.


Black Tie Affair


Maybe we could make the thick black line hot pink! :)

STD ;-)


Lots of stuff


Centerpiece


Table/Chairs



It looks like someone else had my idea! :)


About a week or two before we got engaged, I drew my dream wedding cake.
Tonight I re-drew it to match my new theme.
I need to scan them in to the computer one of these days.

Of course, I don't know if I can find a bakery around here that will be able to pull off all of the elements of my dream cake...

Venue Appointments

I have been calling several venues to make appointments for Jon and I to go look at that still have August 2010, September 2010 (but avoiding September 11th), or October 2010 Saturday Evenings still available.

Here is a list of venues we have appointments to go look at so far (complete with links to each of their websites for convenience):

• Sunday, October 18, 2009: Esperanza Mansion (I looked at this venue while at the Bridal Show) I don't think they had any of the dates we wanted for 2010 still available.

• Thursday October 22, 2009 (TODAY!): Daniele's Banquet Hall ---> They might have September 4, 2010 and September 18, 2010 open...People have put "tentative" on those dates. And they have October 2, 2010 still available.

• Saturday, October 24, 2009: The Roselawn

• Saturday, October 24, 2009: Valentino's ---> They only have August 21, 2010 still available

• Sunday, October 25, 2009: Dibbles Inn (I will be going there for a Bridal Show, so I figured I will check out the venue while I am there.)

• Saturday, October 31, 2009: The Turningstone Resort & Casino ---> They have September 14, 2010, October 9, 2010, October 16, 2010, October 23, 2010, and October 30, 2010 still available.

• Sunday, November 8, 2009: Francesca's Banquet Hall (I will be going there for a Bridal Show, so I figured I will check out the venue while I am there.)

I have been playing phone tag with Beardslee Castle...So hopefully one of these days we will get an appointment to go look at that place. According to their website, they still have September 4, 2010, September 18, 2010, October 9, 2010, October 16, 2010, October 23, 2010, and October 30, 2010 open.

I am trying to avoid October or at least the end of October...I don't want my wedding to be associated with Halloween.

Plus, I reallyyyyyy don't want it to be too into Fall (hence, the beginning of September is still technically the Summer) because I realllyyyyy don't want a Fall-themed wedding. I reallyyyy don't want pumpkins or corn husks or even leaves as my wedding decor.

I am not saying it doesn't look good for weddings, if that is what you are going for...But that is not what we are going for.

I am 99% positive that when Jon said he wanted a Fall wedding, he meant it for the cooler weather, not for the theme.

Because think about it...How many summer weddings do you know that had like a giant sun chillaxin' in the reception hall as decor?!

I don't feel that you have to play up the current season in your wedding decor if you don't want to.

Unless of course if my wedding were to be out on the beach, then I would play up that theme. :)

**UPDATE: I got an appointment with Beardslee for tomorrow night! :)

More Color Inspiration

More about the black and white Damask/Paisley/Brocade patterns and splashes of hot pink wedding theme idea...

So I was thinking that instead of my girls wearing the pattern as a dress...They can wear solid hot pink and my MOH can wear solid black.

Or the girls wear solid hot pink with a black bow/ribbon/sash and my MOH wears solid black with a hot pink sash/ribbon/bow.

Since I do definitely want uniformity with my girls, I still always figured (and probably have mentioned a few times) that my MOH's dress will be slightly different. And this might be a good compromise since my sister really doesn't want to wear pink.

I originally figured they would all have the same dress style and color, and the top of the dress would just differ slightly (ie, strapless, halter, tank, etc.) so that the MOH could be easily distinguished from the other girls.

But the exact same gown on all of them, with the opposite color is another idea that I think I will run with.

I never really cared for the idea of say all the girls in dark purple and the MOH in light purple, for example.

But black with pink and pink with black, I'm liking that idea...

I mean obviously if my girls look horrible in pink, I will choose something else.

And then of course the hassle will begin to try to find a dress that will flatter all of them.

But right now, back to my wedding color ideas.

FLOWER GIRL DRESS!!! :)

I know I used to always say I didn't want anyone wearing black or white to my wedding...Black is for a funeral and white is just for the bride...But look how classy this looks:

So elegant!

Such classic beauty!

So now of course I have to rethink my wedding cake idea.

To something more like...

That. Only I would want all of the tiers to have that same pattern that is shown on the 2'nd and 4th tier...The white background with the black pattern. And then I guess the bottom of each tier could have an (edible) hot pink ribbon going around it.

Color Decisions

I think I have narrowed my wedding colors down to three final choices...But I can't decide between them.
And then of course every color comes in like 552 different shades!
Decisions, decisions!

Pink and Brown:

Mocha and Light Pink


Pink/Brown



Pink/Brown Damask

Pink and Black:

This actually is not a dress I want my bridesmaids wearing...But I am just showing how black and fuchsia go so nicely together!



And now the opposite...Pink with black bow!



Pink/Black Damask

Pink, Black, and White:

Pink, Black, and White...Sooo pretty!!


Pink/Black/White Paisley


I recently have been really getting into Damask flowery patterns


Ring Pillow


Favor Boxes


So can that be a theme? Black and white Damask flowery patterns, with splashes of hot pink...Fun! And maybe classy?



Maybe my girls could wear a dress like this with a hot pink sash thingy?
Or would that be too loud?

If that is the definite theme, then it could be cute if I wore that dress, instead of my girls, to the rehearsal dinner or some other pre-wedding party.






This dress is kind of what I just described, right?




I came across this picture as a banner to a website...But I really like the idea of using that for an invitation pattern. The black and white damask in the back with that pretty turquoise color replaced by a pretty fuchsia color...And a pink ribbon with a diamondy clasp around it.