j+h wedding

Thank you!

2010-05-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who made our wedding special and helped us put on a great party!! It was the best day ever and we still can't believe the timing with the rain.

My one regret of the day was that I didn't get to spend much time (or any time) with everyone. My bustle broke at least 5 times and we kept trying to fix it. Had that not happened I may have made the rounds a little more. If I didn't get to say hi to you just know I love you all and so happy that you were there!

Cheers!
Heather and John Thimsen

Rehearsal Tonight!

2010-05-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

We are having our wedding rehearsal tonight at Hidden Meadows from 6:15-7:15pm. Then we will head over to La Palmera in Mill Creek for dinner and drinks and toasts and roasts. Should be a fun time!

Two days to go!!

See you Saturday

2010-05-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, not very far to go now! In just 4 days I'll be a Mrs. Thimsen. :) Mrs. John Thimsen!

Thank you in advance to everyone who has helped out or will help out this weekend!

We've got a list together of things that will need to be done and most everything is packed. I'm getting a manicure and pedi Wednesday evening and then off Thursday and Friday for any last minute prep. Our rehearsal is Thursday night and Friday I'm heading to Tulalip with a couple of my girls. :) Then Saturday is the big day!

If you have questions or need directions or anything please give us a call.
Heather: 206.265-3041
John: 206.406.3696
Our coordinator Christine: 425.681.0090

The wedding starts at 5pm so guests should start arriving around 4:30.

Hidden Meadows: 11805 Springhetti Rd • Snohomish, WA • 98296

I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone!
xo,
Heather

Tough Week

2010-05-02T23:22:00.000-07:00

Just under 20 days to go and it's been a stressful week. I ended up switching up the bridal party so now John's sister is going to be a bridesmaid. It's unfortunate that my friend Jodi had to drop out but it will be fun to have Crystal on the team. Now Jodi can enjoy herself the day of the wedding and not worry so much about being home right after the ceremony to get back to her little girl. I think it worked out for the best.

My mom's dad has had a lot of health issues this week. His adema came back full force a few weeks back and on Thursday he was given a new medication that had an adverse effect. He ended up in the hospital Thursday night, even quit breathing but is still with us for now. He is a tough ol' guy....survived WWII, Federal Way Fire Chief for many years and now this. He won't be able to come to the wedding anymore but I do hope he makes it a little longer so we can share a video of it ASAP after the ceremony. I will miss him greatly. AND my dad's dad is not doing well either right now. I won't go into details but he may have to have one of his leg amputated due to an infection from diabetes plus he's got a bladder infection and high white blood cell count. Not looking good at all. I guess the bright spot in all of this is my grandmother is doing better since her heart attack in January and will be at the wedding. ;) It's just been a tough year.

We got a lot of stuff done for the wedding this week...met with the DJ, Caterer, Wedding Coordinator, Officiant and soon the Photographer. Little by little things are getting done. It seems we pretty much only have the programs, vows, music and some of the timeline to figure out. There's probably more but those are the big parts of the puzzle. It's getting so close.

Honeymoon

2010-04-25T23:32:00.000-07:00

Bocas Del Toro

Panama Canal

We are going to Panama for our honeymoon..for two full weeks! I'm excited to finally go to the Carribean and see the Panama Canal.

We won't be leaving til a few weeks after the wedding. We were hoping (and still are) to go to Sasquatch...all three days or even one day of Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately tickets sold out early this year, but I'm still really wanting to make it happen. (Hint hint...if anyone has extra tickets or would like to give us theirs for a wedding present I'd gladly taken them!)

It will be nice to have a few weeks between events for packing and shopping and getting out thank yous, etc. etc. It will be very hard to go to work on Monday morning after the wedding though...

Sparklers

2010-04-20T16:05:00.001-07:00

I just ordered wedding sparklers for John's and my big send off as man and wife after the wedding. It will be so fun to run to our limo through a sea of lit wands waved by our friends and family. I hope we get some great pictures from them!

Sandpoint here I come!

2010-04-15T16:51:00.000-07:00

I'm heading to Sandpoint, Idaho this weekend to visit Melissa, my Maiden of Honor. I can't even remember the last time I saw her! ... I fly to Spokane Friday night and then we'll drive to Sandpoint and go out for some drinks. Saturday we have a Spa Day! We're getting massages, pedis and facials.

The rest of the weekend is up in the air but I'd like to go shopping for a dress for my bachelorette party in a few weeks and want some spring clothes now that the sun is finally showing itself. I am ready for a relaxing weekend away and when I get back Sunday the rest (almost the end!) of the planning and crafts will begin. 37 days and counting. I'm almost a Thimsen!

Updated Registry

2010-04-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

We have updated our registry! We are now registered at

I Do Foundation
Crate and Barrel
Macys
Honeyfund
Amazon

Days are flying by

2010-04-06T15:02:00.000-07:00

Our Cake Topper

We are down to 46 days til the big day! The days just seem to be winding down quickly at this point! I've been doing a lot of little projects... Last night I painted the frame of a chalkboard I found at Good Will for $2.99. We will use this on the bar to showcase our Signature Drinks. Today I bought a cake topper and some treats that will be part of the wedding favor. I seem to be crossing two things off my list and then I add one more. Hopefully that math works out right so by May 19th or so I'm done. :)

I had my 2nd dress fitting on Saturday. It went well...it fit and we scheduled my pick up of the dress for May 21st at 2pm! Two of my girls and I will be staying at the Tulalip the night before the wedding so on the way there we'll just stop off and get my gown. I do want to try it on one more time just to make me feel better that it is all done... things are tacked together with pins still right now and there's one button that needs to be fixed. I just want piece of mind that I won't get stuck by pins as I'm walking down the aisle or that my button won't fall off or some other disaster. I know Darcy is great and will get it done...I just want to see for myself before picking it up 24 hours before I wear it...

I also sent out Rehearsal Dinner invites! May 20th at 6:15 pm we will be at Hidden Meadows dotting our I's and crossing our T's in preparation for that Saturday and then off to La Palmera for dinner and drinks and toasts. :)

Bridal Shower Thank you!

2010-03-30T15:40:00.001-07:00

Thank you to everyone who made it to my bridal shower on Sunday!! I had a great time and it went off without a hitch. There were a few no-shows who I missed due to illness but I was glad to have the my friends and family who were there. We even got greeted by my friend Kassy's husband who delivered her present when she was not able to make it. We had lots of food, dessert, games and so many gifts! The weather was blustery, but what better reason to stay indoors! Hopefully I'll get some pictures soon.

Now on to continuing to plan the wedding and rehearsal dinner!

Bridal Shower

2010-03-26T12:35:00.001-07:00

This Sunday is my Bridal Shower!

I don't know if I'm super excited because I don't really love being the center of attention but I plan to enjoy it because this only happens once!

24 of my lovely lady friends and family will be attending and we will play games, eat goodies and have fun discussing me becoming a Mrs! Can you believe the wedding is only 56 days away!!??

Thanks in advance to Sarah who is hosting and to Steve for offering up his space for us!

Engagement photos

2010-03-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

We went out to Discovery Park and into Ballard for engagement photos with the lovely Amelia Soper this past Sunday, which just happened to be our 4 year anniversary. The weather was just about perfect for our shoot. Here are some of the best photos – we get a disc soon with more photos we haven't seen yet.

The Latest

2010-03-12T12:07:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy week and I've hardly been home, which doesn't really work too well when planning wedding stuff. I'm glad to have seen my grandma and chat with her for over an hour on Wednesday and had a wonderful dinner with some friends too. But the planning continues...

We met with our officiant, Julie Cooper, last night over cocktails and food and had a fun time getting to know each other more.

I had my first dress fitting with Darcy of Fragile Fit last Saturday. I don't know what I was expecting but I was in and out in about 20 minutes flat! I put on the dress with my silvery shoes, she pinned, she bustled and I said everything looked good and away I went. I'll go back on April 3rd for the second fitting.

I also worked on some wedding decor type stuff with Christine on Saturday after the fitting. We finished some garlands, discussed some other decorations we will have and had a fun afternoon. We also looked into what it would take to order wholesale flowers and have them delivered but I think I've decided to just have my florist do everything.

Speaking of florists, Kristen of Denney-Designs emailed me this week to tell me we had to order flowers NOW and payment was due. It kind of freaked me out because it seemed so early for that. After several emails and questions of what we want and discusson on costs, I finally called her and my last question to her was "and I just want to make sure, but is this early for ordering flowers? The wedding is May 22 and it just seems early to me." Well, she thought we were ordering for March 22 even though she had May 22 on the contract. Phew! At least we made some decisions on things and are pretty much set until the order gets made in a couple of months.

We also found a couple of cake stands at Costco last weekend...two come in a box for $19.99. I think we are going to also borrow some from a few friends and family and hopefully we are set. It's hard to know exactly how many we need until we get a full headcount but at least we know that Costco has more if we need them.

Lastly, we have a box full of 150 paper lanterns in gold and white in our garage. I can't wait to see how they look all hung up when the day comes.

Happy weekend!

Filling Jars

2010-03-04T12:41:00.001-08:00

We are going to have 3 mason jars on each table to fill with flowers. My question is do we have the florist do this and have all the flowers match the rest of the flowers in the wedding or do we stop at a few flower markets a day or two before the wedding and do them all ourselves?

I don't really care if we are all matchy matchy and I think the Pike Place Market would be a lot cheaper than the florist. So I think it comes down to how much time will it take to do this? With hanging 150 lanterns and some garland in various places I'm hoping I will have a lot of helpers. Plus I think we are taking photos before the ceremony and will have to be beautiful early in the afternoon. We only get our venue at noon so I think from one or two p.m. we will be doing photos. It's just crazy how much goes into all this. I know we will get it done though!

Paper Lanterns

2010-03-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

I just ordered 150 white and yellow paper lanterns at asianideas.com in sizes 12", 14", 16" and 18". :) Here's some lantern decor inspiration:

Another Weekend gone...

2010-02-28T23:10:00.000-08:00

I didn't get much done this weekend on the wedding. I've kind of come to a point where things can't be ordered yet or I'm not sure what needs to be ordered. I also need to come up with a list of things that need to get done or bought in the next two months.

I am meeting with Christine this week so I'm sure she will have some ideas and thoughts on what needs to happen from here on out. We have had a lot of trouble getting together so far...seems someone gets sick or can't make it at the last second so we are doing wedding stuff both this Thursday night after work and next Saturday afternoon. I'm looking forward to it and hope to get a lot done. The next few weekends are starting to look busy so I will be so happy to cross some more things off the list.

Tuxes

2010-02-27T19:25:00.000-08:00

Today John and I went to The Tux Shop in Northgate and talked to a salesperson on whether we should have the guys wear tuxes or suits. For a while now we were thinking charcoal grey suits with indigo blue ties. Well today, we changed our minds. The guys are going to wear black tuxes with black vests and different colored ties depending on their role in the wedding.

Wedding Crafting Weekend

2010-02-19T13:33:00.001-08:00

Photo by Zakka Life

John is out of town in Reno this weekend so I'm having some of my girls over for wedding crafting. Saturday my coordinator Christine and I will make mats for the centerpieces. Sunday a bunch of us will make tissue paper flower garlands, more tissue paper flowers, fold boxes, and start working on the escort cards and table names. I hope to get a lot done! Every detail is not worked out yet so hopefully I'll get some inspiration and ideas along they way too!

It's also SUNNY in Seattle! I hope to get out on my bike at least once this weekend. It's too nice to be indoors. I hope it stays nice for next Saturday but it isn't looking good. John and I have engagement photos on Feb. 27 with Amelia Soper but if it rains it will be moved to March 13 probably.

I also bought a sweater and an umbrella for the wedding today...just in case its cold and/or wet on May 22. Cuz you really never know what the weather is going to do here. Who knew it would be 57 degrees on February 19th? I still can't get over how nice it is today.

Happy weekend!

Necklaces

2010-02-15T00:24:00.000-08:00

I'm loving these necklaces by luxedeluxe on Etsy. I may just have to buy one.

The Weekend List

2010-02-12T10:43:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot this morning about what I want to get done this weekend. I'm looking forward to THREE days off.

1. Declutter my home. Organize. Throw things away. Rearrange.
2. Shop for a new mattress
3. Work on wedding decor
4. Try on rings
5. Look at Men's ties
6. Figure out wedding music
7. Work out
8. Relax, get outside, see friends

We'll see how I do... we are going out tonight and Saturday night. I need to fit in seeing my grandparents and would love to go snowboarding....and if we don't go snowboarding I'd love to go out for breakfast or at least make breakfast... Sunday is also Valentine's Day.

And how could I forget...the Olympics start today!

Happy Weekend!

In the mail...

2010-02-03T14:17:00.001-08:00

Our invitations went out this morning! I gave the guy at the post office two shoe boxes full of invites this morning. I cringed a little when I heard him dumping all of them into the cart around the corner from me...I've put so much time into them, I'm worried they will fall apart or something on the way to people. My hope is they make it to everyone okay and we start getting RSVPs soon. :)

Invitations!

2010-01-28T10:50:00.000-08:00

Invitations are almost done! I'm so excited to get these out of the house--I will finish the remaining 10 or so this weekend and they will all be sent out early next week. :) Be watching for an amber colored square envelope to be coming to your house soon!
I can't wait to start working on something else...

Desserts

2010-01-24T16:49:00.000-08:00

This weekend John and I biked to Seattle Pie Company and tried their cherry and strawberry rhubarb pies. YUM! We've decided we will be serving some pies from them and cakes or cupcakes. I went searching for some cake stands today and found one that is 3-tiered at Ross and 1 large cake stand from Goodwill. If anyone has a cake stand or two or three they'd like to donate to me let me know!

Cakes

2010-01-12T12:25:00.000-08:00

I still love the idea of having many cakes and pies for the reception. I think this is a great way to go to keep the cost down on something too and it gives a nice variety of things so everyone is hopefully happy with the dessert...just not sure where I'm going to get all of the cake stands but I guess I can always make my own (if time allows).

Tulalip Casino and Resort

2010-01-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

We are going to stay at Tulalip Resort and Casino the night of the wedding! Above is a picture of one of their king-size rooms. We are hoping to keep the party going after the reception and hope that others will be able to stay there as well.

If you would like to book a room call 866-716-7162. There have been some rooms blocked out for a cheaper rate. King-sized rooms will run $149 and Queen-sized (2 double beds) will run $169. When you book tell them you are calling for the Kuver-Thimsen Wedding Room Block. Reserve by 4/22/2010 for these prices.

We haven't figured out if we will have shuttle from the hotel to wedding and back to the hotel or not yet. If that is a concern please let us know...that may sway us one way or the other. The drive to the hotel is about 20 minutes from Snohomish.

Starting up again...

2010-01-03T21:59:00.001-08:00

Wedding planning is gearing up again. I have not done much over the past couple of weeks. We went to Cabo, which was beautiful and relaxing. Now it's the new year and 4 months and 19 days to go til the wedding! So much to do and I'm sure it will go so fast. This week I hope to get most of the RSVPs printed and start gluing the invite part. Next week we might be able to start addressing everything.

Other things we need to do:
Set up RSVP on Web site
Register at Macy's
Call Tulalip Casino to block rooms (I already did this once but no one called back)
Start coming up with a list of music to play at wedding and reception
Decide on men's clothing
Buy an address stamp

And the list goes on...

I've worked out the past 3 days too. I drank way too many cervesas last week. Only a month til I need to call to start getting fitted for the dress so working out is a priority right now.

I'm also a little worried about my bridesmaid gifts... I have them ordered and only 2 have come. I'm not sure what happened to the 3rd one. Hopefully it's in the mail.

2009-12-22T14:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-13T22:42:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-11T23:04:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-01T12:47:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-11-23T09:22:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-17T15:59:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-13T13:17:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-11-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

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

No Bouquet Toss

2009-10-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-26T23:42:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-06T23:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-02T09:40:00.001-07:00

I love all these bouquets!

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

Cake stands

2009-09-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-22T10:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-18T00:03:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-28T08:57:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

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

Wedding 2010

2009-07-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

John and I are getting married!

When? I don't know. But most likely spring or summer of 2010.

What are your colors? I don't know. John likes blue and grey, and while that is nice for military uniforms I'm not sure it's perfect for a wedding. We'll keep you posted.

Where? Somewhere in Seattle or nearby...unless we get tired of planning and we run off to Hawaii and elope!

I have been doing so much research on weddings lately. We don't have a venue yet and that will most likely determine the date and colors. I've looked at several places...so far tops on the list are Golden Ga rdens Bathhouse in Ballard and Jardin Del Sol in Snohomish. Cost is going to decide for us where we end up I think...we don't want to pay an arm and a leg for the venue...I'd rather have a big party people can enjoy and spend more $ on the food and having fun.

Next Monday I'm looking at three more places...Belltown Harbor, The Canal and Rays Boathouse. I think it would be a lot of fun to do something in Ballard since that's where John and I spend the majority of our time and we love the area. I'm looking for something with a water/mountain view...does that have to come with a big price tag? ...John and I are also going to check out Cave B Inn near the Gorge on August 14th when we come home from an eastern WA trip. So many options...too many options!

Here's some inspiration for decorations, invitations and other things I like so far.