Picture Perfect

Engagement pictures are posted online!! Yay I'm so excited, I've been waiting a whole week.... I have little patience for things like this. So you can log on and take a look!

http://trautweinphotography.smugmug.com/invite/447915154a109d01df7e33.05616396

Password is october24

Hope you like them :)

Wedding season in full swing!

I haven't posted anything in a while! The past couple months have been very hectic! March we had Rachael and Kevins wedding. Which we drove down to Florida for. It was a nice little vacation but busy at the same time! It was a great time and I am so happy for my best friend! Then April we had back to back weddings. Tony's friend Joe which Tony was the best man. And then the next weekend My dad got married. So i've been kind of weddinged out lately. Even on my own wedding! But we don't have another wedding until July, so now we can focus a little bit on ours! Tony booked our honeymoon in the middle of all of that madness! We are going to breezes, which is an all inclusive resort. The location we're going to is called Curacao. It's a little island near south america.

The Willemstad, the main city in curacao.
Breezes, the resort where we're staying! Ok my add has caught up with me, so I'm done witht his post!

Just trying to keep up.

I'm finally starting to feel like we are at a good spot in the wedding planning. I've had numerous breakdowns and freakouts on Tony and yelled THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO. YOU SHOULD SEE MY TO-DO LIST!!! Then a few minutes later I finally realize I'm being irrational. I have gotten to cross a few things off of the list, which is probably more exciting to me than it should be. It feels good to see things coming off of the list. Here is a brief overview of what we have accomplished.
1.) The ever important wedding dress purchased. Should be coming in around April or May (SOON) I need to see it again b/c i've been afraid I wont love it anymore. But I'm sure as soon as I put it on it will all come back to me.
2.) Reception Booked. We've done our taste test and picked our menu.
3.) Church Booked. A couple of months before the wedding we will meet with the church coordinator and discuss everything ceremony related.
4.) Photographer Booked. A big thing I was stressing out. Photography is sooo expensive. Some of the photographers I saw online were almost as much as our whole reception. But we found a very reasonably priced one. Engagement photos to follow sometime in May once it gets nice.
5.) Semi final guest list. I feel like the guest list is never finished until the invites actually go out.
6.) Flower situation is almost figured out. My mom found this great place in Centerville that sells flowers super cheap, and you have the option to arrange them yourselves. You get to work with a coordinator who orders your flowers. They even provide a facility and supplies to arrange everything. We're meeting with the coordinator on April 4th.
7.) The Bridal party is picked, and the girls have picked their dresses and purchased them.
8.) We decided on Save the Dates and will be taking pictures for those in Florida next week. Hopefully we will have those sent out sometime in april.
9.) Decided on a Honeymoon. Tony has been talking with a travel agent, so she is trying to get us a good price. That is my BIG To-Do right now. To put down a deposit and get our room/flight booked.

I guess that is all ... I feel like that is a good amount of tasks to have completed. But I know there are A MILLION little ones that are still left, and a couple of Bigger ones. Next up
1.) Get Honeymoon booked.
2.) Start registering
3.) Invitations.
4.) Book Hair/Makeup

We're leaving for florida next Tuesday for Rae's wedding. I can't wait! Seeing how excited she is and thinking of what it must be like to be that close to the wedding makes me excited!

To the Ladies

This is an ode (I dont know why I'm using that word?) to the ppl that will probably somehow by a miracle make all of this happen! My bestfriends, family, and my bridesmaids! :)

Lizzy:: My maid of honor. She is such a good maid of honor that she has actually researched the "position" I've known liz since middleschool and we've been best friends since highschool. I know she will be the saving grace in this whole wedding thing. Plus tons of fun so you know the bachelorette party will be a good one!

Rae :: I've also known Rachael since middleschool and have been bestfriends ever since. Rae is probably one of the nicest and caring people I've ever met. We've been together through a lot. And even though she lives in florida now, I get to be a part of her wedding in March, and I'm so excited she gets to be a part of mine!

Tiff:: I've known Tiff since Tony and I started dating I guess. Tonys family put her on speaker on so she could meet the new girlfriend. I think we've gotten a long quite wonderfully ever since we met. Maybe it's our similar sarcastic humor. I was also lucky enough to be a part of her wedding. I'm excited for her to get here and help me, and take some sweet pictures! I feel lucky that i'm going to have such a cool sister in law.

Abigail:: This picture Pretty much says how long I've known my sister I guess. She's a little bit older now. She'll be 13 this month! She looks so grown up in her dress too! We've always gotten a long for the most part considering a 10 year age difference. I think we're a lot alike, goofy and moody at times. lol But I hope I can be a good big sister and be there for her when she gets older and has problems.

Misty :: Misty is Tony's cousin. I got so lucky that Tony had such awesome family. They all accepted me in as their own. Misty accepts me as the princess that I am :) She's super fun and funky and all over the place! I wish she could spend more time in Ohio. Also she really loves Obama.

Ann:: Ann and I work together, and shes probably one of my first "grown up friends" haha. Having people at work definantly makes it a lot easier. She's super funny and always fun to be around. I'm glad that we had the chance to get to know each other outside of work and become better friends.

It's hard to only pick 6 because there are other people that I would have liked to been able to be in it too. But I think I have a perfect group. No one is difficult, they're always helpful and I know they all have my best interest in mind. But I just wanted everyone to know I appreciate them!

Traditional Veil ::VS. :: Birdcage Veil

In the beginning I wanted the full out veil with the Blusher covering my face and everything. But then I realized that I would walk down the aisle and my dad would lift the veil up and that would be it. So I nixed the blusher. I keep seeing these birdcage veils more and more and they are growing on me. They look great in pictures and I think are romantic in their own way. Rae is wearing one and I think it will look awesome on her. She already has that vintage 20's look to her. But I dont know if I could pull it off. I also think the dress has a lot to do with it. I didn't end up going with something as POOFY as I had originally thought. I think it might be just streamilined enough that It might work. But I guess we will have to wait until my dress comes in (april/may) to see how everything comes together.

Nothing new

I don't feel like I'm doing a very good job at this whole planning thing. I haven't really done much of anything recently. We decided on the centerpieces. Which I will post a picture later. They're simple but I think they will be nice. And save us some money. A couple of bridesmaids have purchased their dresses. I'm sure the rest will soon too. I feel like it's still so far out that there isn't much we can do right now. The main thing is booking the honeymoon and finding a photographer. So hopefully in the next month or so we can get those couple of things done. We will be taking some pictures in march for our save the dates. And will get those sent out ASAP. So look for them early april. We're going to St. Augustine, FL for Rachaels wedding. It's such a beautiful city I know we will find some awesome places to do the pictures! I am super excited for this trip. I get to be part of one of my best friends weddings, plus I get away from work and Ohio! We went last year for vacation and it was so much fun!

Chic for Cheap??

There is no technical "theme" to our wedding. Our colors are purple and silver, but I'm basically just going off of purple. I like the very rich deep purple I think it will be awesome for fall. Of course money is always an issue. So we will be doing a lot of DIY stuff. Wedding stuff is out of control expensive. Flowers if one of the big things right now that i've been trying to get ideas and figure out what I'm going to do. Our reception venue is very simple and I think we're going to need a lot of flowers and candles (etc...) to dress it up. Just looking at some florists online we realized that there was no way we were going to get the look we wanted for the price we wanted. So we've decided to do the flowers ourselves. Which is going to be quite a task. But I know with all of the help from the wedding party and family it will be great. I have 3 different ideas for centerpieces and I think we will be doing about 4 of each. The first is a Topiary. I know these pictures aren't all in purple, but the centerpieces will all be in a purple scheme. These are just some ideas for basic shapes that I like. I think with the topiary I will probably will just use silk flowers that way I can get them done a few months before the wedding, and save some money rather than using real. Another Idea is A tall cylinder vase filled with water with flowers submerged. I've been thinking purple tulips. I may be able to use silk flowers for this one also again to save money. The last one which I like the most is just low round centerpieces with lots of flowers. I've done my research on the flowers I like and the flowers that come in purple. I don't know if anyone knows this but purple is not the easiest color to find for weddings it seems. I really like hydrangea that is one of my favorites so that will be in coporated. Also carnations are very cheap and come in a range of purples and are good for the "roundness" that I like.

The girls will be carrying mini calla lillies in a deep purple. Ihave not decided what I want for my bouquet. I want a big round bouquet, I'm just not sure if that is something that I will be able to do myself. We will have to figure it out though because I will not pay $200 for ONE bouquet! So those are my ideas for flowers. I also want lots of candles, that is a cheap way to add "warmth" to the room and kind of set the romantic mood. I also like the paper lanterns for lighting, even though we will be inside. I think they would be cute over the dance floor

to highlight it. So those are my ideas for decorations. Hopefully it will turn out how we invision it. We are ordering flowers through a wholesaler online. It is much cheaper that way, and has good reviews. The flowers will arrive the thursday before the wedding and will soak all day, and then friday we will have to bust it to get everything together. I know we will have a lot of help, we have a great bridal party and family that have all offered to assist. I know we couldn't do it by ourselves. So it is deeply appreciated. Once it gets closer I'm sure more will come together. It still seems unreal and so far away right now. But the months go faster and faster. The wedding is 9 months from today! Here are a few more pictures of stuff that I like...To be Continued....