No wedding planning this week or next..at least not til after 2010 starts. We are leaving for Cabo on Thursday morning and will be spending a week in warm, sunny weather. I'm looking forward to getting away from the hustle and bustle of life and spending some quality time with John and the sun. I hope all my family and friends have a great week and we'll see you when we return!

Crafting

I'm going to be making a lot of things for the wedding and have started picking up supplies over the past couple of months.

I was excited to find this fabric at Joann's this weekend. I looked all over the store at all of the fabric before I realized they had these small swatches to work with. These will be perfect for what I'm thinking of using them for.

And I picked up this tissue paper at PaperZone today. It will be perfect for the garlands I'm planning on making.

I'm pretty pleased with how things are coming together even though most of the stuff I want to make hasn't been started yet...at least the ideas are in place. Christine and I mocked up a table centerpiece yesterday with some of the flowers she had in her home and the mason jars and candles she and I had. We just have to figure out where to get bulk flowers or go to the Pike Place Market a day or two before the wedding and I need to come up with placemats or paper for the center of each table and we'll be on our way to decorating the tables.

I still need to figure out what to do for escort cards. I was going to do pinwheels but they are becoming a hassle and John never liked them so I think I'm going to nix that idea (he will be so happy). I still want to do something creative and have a few ideas but I think I'll work on all of the other things (the invitations first of course) and see what time allows for. Plus I've got plenty of paper right now to work with but I don't know what I'll have left after I get our invitations done.

Here's our map and the new paper cutter I bought last week. It's one of the best purchases I've ever made...it's so much faster than what I used to make invitations for a friend last year. I can't believe I waited so long to get one.

Wedding Coordinating

Tomorrow morning I am meeting with my friend Christine who will be helping to coordinate our wedding. We are meeting at 11AM at her house in Everett and then heading to Hidden Meadows so she can see the place and we can check out the space. I'm hoping we will figure out table arrangement ideas and possibly decorations for the aisle. I have so many ideas in my head that they are all starting to mix together and I probably want to do too much. Do I want lights? Garlands? One large cylinder vase in the middle or flowers in mason jars? Lots of candles or just a few? Some type of table cover over the white tablecloth or just use the white cloth? ... I'm sure Christine will reign me in and the ideas will become more clear when I see the place again in person. I need to remember that just like in design, the simpler the ideas the better the outcome generally. There's just so many good ideas out there. I think the accessibility of blogs, diy projects and pictures these days has given me wedding vertigo.

Here's some ideas I'm considering:

Engagement photos

When we bought our photo package for the wedding it included an "engagement photos session" with Amy. (Check out her new site here!)

Well, we just set a date for the session! We actually have two dates set just in case the weather doesn't cooperate on the first date.... February 27th, with March 13th as a backup.

I hope the sky is as clear as it is today on one of those dates! :) This is a view from my window at work...finally November is over and the sun is back out.

Ahead of the game?

We have just under 6 months til the wedding! :)

Everyone keeps telling me I'm ahead of the game...we have most of our vendors in place and I'm pretty sure I know who we will book as our caterer and close to figuring out a florist. I know my colors, my venue, I have a dress (that needs to be altered), I'm making our invitations and already have started on them...they don't have to go out til March! And we picked a bakery this weekend.. Morfey's had delicious wedding cake. So why do I feel like there is still so much to do and figure out? Because there is...I think you have to get all of the vendors in place before all the work really begins so I'm glad to be as far as I am. There are still so many small details to deal with.

Two tastings

John and I have a busy wedding planning week.

Last night (Monday) we met with the great Julie Cooper who has officiated 230+ weddings. When I saw her website I thought she would be laid back and easy to get along with and I was right! We met her for about an hour at Tullys in Ballard, she told us her spiel and answered a few questions. Overall she was pretty close to what I was looking for in an officiator. Fun, personable and seemed like she would do a good job. Turns out John liked her too so we have decided to hire her.

Today I met with my 3rd florist in as many weeks. Last week I met with Kristen of Denney-Designs. I liked her and received a proposal on Monday. She seems like she would do a good job and listened much more closely to me than the last person. Today I met with Lea of Florarama. She was also very nice. We had emailed a couple of times before meeting so she had a good idea and was prepared when we talked in person. She will send me a proposal in the next couple of days. I have a feeling it will between one of these women but I don't have a sense one way or another of who would be better. It may end up coming down to who can fulfill our needs most cheaply.


Next up, Thursday we have a tasting of the proposed menu that Market Street Catering put together a few weeks ago. I'm looking forward to tasting what we might actually have on the menu!...and in general looking forward to it because their food is tasty! I am also looking forward to seeing what the "blue" tablecloths look like that we had been told about last time we met. Apparently they are pretty close to the same shade of blue as the shear ribbon I'm using on our invitations.


Finally Saturday John and I will be tasting cake at 11AM on Saturday morning at Morfey's in Belltown. I've been looking forward to cake tasting for a while now and have heard some good things about them. I hope it's yummy!

Rehearsal May 20th

Hard to believe, but we've already set the time and date for our wedding rehearsal!

The other day my sister-in-law to be asked when they need to be here (coming from Atlanta). I hadn't even thought that far ahead at that point but I figured it would be the Thursday or Friday of that week. I contacted Hidden Meadows this week and I just heard back. They schedule all rehearsals on the Thursday night before the weekend since they have weddings on Fridays usually. Since we are the Saturday wedding we get first pick of the 3 time slots they have available so our rehearsal will be 6:15-7:15 on May 20th. Now I guess we need to come up with where we should have dinner.... hmmm

Website is up!

John's and my wedding Website is up! Check it out here!

No Bouquet Toss

We decided that we aren't going to do a bouquet toss, and probably not even the garter throw. They are just traditions that we're really not into. At most weddings it seems like single friends are reluctant to go up to catch said items and married people are just happy being married. Why do most people feel it necessary to continue on with these traditions?

I have an idea of what I want to do with the bouquet instead but have to keep it a secret for now.

Rubber stamp

I just ordered a custom stamp at Impress. I'll be using this on favors somehow. :) I love that you can have stamps personalized.

Yum!

We may have found a caterer. Last Saturday afternoon we met with Market Street Catering in Haggen at their Marysville store. Steve Hanft met with us for over an hour. He was able to tell us their history and answered most questions we had. They fed us full of yummy foods including bacon wrapped scallops, baby greens with goat cheese, apples and vinagrette, chicken satay (yum!!) and had prepared a plate of 8 different kinds of cake for us to try. Everything was so good! We decided that we really like them for the main food but not for cake.

On Tuesday we were sent a preliminary menu of salmon and one other entree, which will most likely be chicken. Garlic potatoes, asparagus, salad, one waiter passed app, bread, their amazing basil lemonade (which we also tried at the initial tasting), fruit, salad, etc. Everything sounded good and even the price is pretty close to what we were planning on and that includes linens, waiters, glasses, settings, and a bartender. The one thing I think we will probably add is one more appetizer because the chicken satay was just that good. So now we go back the evening of November 18th for a tasting of this menu. If all goes well we will sign a contract with them. I'm feeling really good about them and wish everything else was this easy!

Next on the list is an officiant, cake tasting, hair and makeup people... and starting to make invitations and other decor! Oh, and I'm meeting with Kathi of Kathi's Freelance Floral next Monday evening. I hope she's good. I'm not quite sure about her but it's worth checking her out in person.

Found a DJ

I'm so excited that things are starting to get crossed off the list! Tonight John and I met with Mari of Amore Events and she seems so great. I had talked to her on the phone last week and warned her that John is pretty particular about music and once she started talking to him he did have some questions for her. I'm glad he went with me to meet her because he is much pickier about these things than I am. :) I have to thank my friend Lisa for the recommendation..thanks Lisa!

Bridesmaid dresses found!

It's been a while since I last blogged. I've been staying busy with planning.

I've come up with a mock-up of our invitation design, which even John was impressed with. :) And I'm making some fun escort cards in blue and yellow paper. Last night my Matron of Honor, Melissa, and I went to the Alfred Angelo's in Tukwila and she tried on a dress that was THE favorite of all the bridesmaids so far online. Turns out it looks great on both Melissa and Sarah so dress found! I'm so glad to be able to mark that off the list.

Also, John and I went to an open-house at Hidden Meadows 2 1/2 weeks ago. We thought we would find a bunch of vendors to use there but sadly we didn't really like anything there. We've got our photographer now, Amy Soper, who will be a ton of fun on the day of. Next week we have appointments with Mari Odette who is a DJ in Seattle on Monday and an appointment with an officiant on Tuesday. Fingers crossed that it all goes well. I'd love to be done with finding vendors!

I hope to get our website up and to people this weekend! Stay tuned...

Baby Cakes

I just wanted to say that I like this idea a lot...one two- or three-tier cake for us to cut into and lots of little itsy bitsy individual cupcakes around the table surrounding it on different cake stands. Cute!

Flower Envy

I love all these bouquets!

It's hard to pick a favorite, but I love this one!

Cake stands

I was wondering how I was going to come up with all the cake stands we would need to have lots of cakes.

I love this idea of making my own!

Here a Cake, There a Cake, Everywhere a Cake Cake

I love the idea of having multiple single layer cakes on different cake stands. John and I are not too fancy and I don't think we need a fancy, 5-tiered cake. We may even need a few cakes and a few pies. I think we are both looking forward to tasting desserts...we need to start setting up some appointments.

Food, food and MORE food

We may have found a caterer tonight. We headed to Cabbage Patch in Snohomish after work and was able to try just about everything that we had put on a mocked-up menu. Some of the food was a little plain but overall it was really good and Sondi seems like she would be great to work with. There's a few things we would change, like one of the apps and some of the tableware, but she seems very flexible and says its all about what we want that day. We aren't going to decide til we taste one more place probably, or go to the open house at Hidden Meadows Oct. 6, but right now this place is first on the list. I still can't believe how much food she made for us...I even have lunch for tomorrow.

And I just have to say, after driving through Snohomish again tonight, I'm really glad we are getting married there! We saw 3 hot air balloons, a parachuter and a small plane flying (very close to us as it was coming in for a landing), the mountains were out...it was perfect tonight! Now if only we can get all that right on May 22!

Seed Paper

As you may (or may not) know, John and I like hiking and backpacking so the theme for our wedding is mountains and anything to do with them such as wild flowers, rocks, etc. etc.

I've been thinking about doing something with seed paper as a guest favor. It's paper that is embedded with seeds and you can plant it and grow wild flowers. Anyway, I just came across this photo and had to share. They are cute little birds made out of the seed paper and attached are instructions on what to do with them so you can grow flowers. Cute!

Shoes

I found these shoes at Nordstrom Rack today. I've been thinking I want gray shoes of some kind or some blue or yellow color that goes with the rest of the decor. I'll try them on this weekend while John is in Vegas and see how they look. :) Fun, right?

Wedding Fun

I love all these fun details...

I'm definitely getting a parasol

silly socks!

Only this would say Thimsen :)

I need to put my dad to work making letters and other signs...hmmmm

Mark your calendars

I haven't posted in a while...been busy looking at venues and dresses and such.

The biggest news is that we set a date, found a venue and I bought a dress! (not in that order)

About 4 weeks ago I went to Something Blue Bridal Boutique in La Conner (about 1 1/2 hours from Seattle) and found THE DRESS! I tried on 17 dresses that day with two of my bridesmaids sitting by watching and taking notes. It wasn't til I retried on 5 dresses that they were able to say what they thought. Kim, who owns the store, is very particular about how things are done! And I'm glad she is. When I retried on the dress I bought and knew it was the one it made me cry. :) I just love it. It will need to be altered but it gets to sit in my closet til February.

Then the following weekend we went to Hidden Meadows in Snohomish and fell in love with the place. It's a bit spendy to rent the place, but the pluses are they give you the place for the whole day (noon-midnight), they allow you to bring your own alcohol and they have 6 caterers to pick from. So many places make you use their catering and their alcohol and they do 2 weddings per day. It will be nice to be able to not have to rush everything...I'm sure the day will fly by as it is.




And since we found the place finally we were able to set a date!....May 22, 2010! Please do a sun dance for me that week. Luckily Hidden Meadows has an indoor option if it rains but we'd much rather be outside in the grass with everyone.

Orcas Island

I'm going to head to Orcas Island with one of my bridesmaids this Saturday to check out a couple of places. Right now I really like Orcas Hotel and I'm hoping I love it even more when I see it in person. Doug, the hotel manager, said that we can stop by anytime between 9am-3pm and they will be setting up a wedding so we can see what it will look like all set up, or at least close. The cool things about this place is they include in the wedding package a winter stay so we can taste food and plan the wedding with them, we can reserve the entire hotel (12 rooms) so family and the wedding party can stay if they want (depending on how many people there would be), they have a water view, and they are close to the ferry terminal so its easy for people to come and go. They are so close to the ferry that I think people could even walk on and walk to the venue if they wanted. I hear from people's blogs that its an easy going place.

We are also going to look at Doe Bay Resort on Orcas. I'm not as excited about this one but we'll see how it is when we get there. Mostly I think the cost is too outrageous, but I'm sure it's a beautiful place.

The Canal in Ballard is still in the running as well and John will go see it next week. I'm not excited about the cost of the place...I keep thinking about what an amazing trip we could have for that amount of money, or that we could put a down payment on a house with it. I just never thought I'd be spending so much on one day. Sometimes part of me wants to just go elope at Alderbrook Resort or something. But the thing with that is we would still throw a party and that seems like it would cost almost as much so why not do it all at once? So many decisions. It's overwhelming. At least I think I may have found a dress. I'm going to look at Something Blue on the 15th but if I don't see anything there or its too expensive I'm going to go with one I found at David's Bridal.

More wedding venues

Yesterday a friend and I went to 3 wedding venues to check out their spaces. First we went to The Canal in Ballard and I LOVED IT. The space was great for the amount of people I think we will have. The price could be better (food and drink is expensive!) but we are thinking of seeing what they have off-season to make it more affordable.

Next we went to Ray's Boathouse, also in Ballard. The space was small, they have a $2 cake cutting fee (I find ridiculous) and a $250 dancefloor fee. What I didn't like the most was that some people would have to sit outside and some inside during the reception so people would be separated too much. They should have planned better by making the wall able to open up.

Last we went to Bell Harbor, down by pier 66. The views are amazing at the top of the building, but in the end the rooms where we would probably have the reception are too corporate feeling and some of the views can be obstructed by the cruise ships that come in and others are obstructed by cranes.

I wrote the lady at The Canal last night. I hope to hear back from her today. Unfortunately John won't be able to look at it for 2-3 weeks due to work commitments and his Alaska trip. In the meantime I'm going to head out to Fort Worden I think this weekend to see what that would be like for a wedding and camping weekend.

And I go back to David's Bridal tomorrow to try on some more dresses. It was the first place I went to a month ago or so and I have more of an idea of what I want now so I need to try on more dresses there.

Blue Inspiration

I definitely love blue and green...here's some cool things I've seen for a blue wedding.