Posts from — September 2008

When I was a little girl i took ballet classes, among some others, and boy did I love it. One of my mothers cousins would take me to her ballet practices when i was around 7 and she in high school and I just loved to watch them twirl around… so graceful. In more recent years, I grew a hidden love (well, not so hidden any more i guess ) for the movie Center Stage haha So embarrassing. But it is so good! All of this amounts to me absolutely loving this picture from evoke photography:

My two ‘girls’ are a bit older, both around 10, so I am not sure if the ballerina thing would work, but I might have to try it, cause it is just too dang cute!

I absolutely love this invitation suite. It is similar to what we plan on doing, and I just love it.  The freshness of a white outer envelope, and the pretty yellow liner. Gorgeous.

(from here)

Ok, So i think, well no, I know, we found our photographer! His name is Miah, I found him through our church directory, and as soon as I turned to the first page of the first album he showed us, I was hooked. I hope he doesn’t mind I stole these off his blog, so if you take them, please link back to Studio7 photography! Behold, the beauty that is the team of Miah and Mike!

(I went to high school with her! hi becky!)

(a picture in the gardens we will have access to )

(also from the mission adjoined with our church)

(wasn’t I just saying I wanted a picture like this?!)

(also friends of mine! congrats Kristen and Dave!)

Seriously I am so stoked and so incredibly blessed that Miah has made it possible for us to have our big day captured in such a beautiful way. He is so talented. If you are in need of a photographer, definitely check them out!

What my lunch breaks look like.

B’s cats. Bubs, who got caught trying to jump on the table, and Peets, just being evil.

Our new pan and new yellow Martha towels! (Thanks future in-laws!)

yummy lunch, with my moms homemade guacamole

Yummy candy colored popcorn from the Del Mar Street Farmers Market. 

We have an interview with a potential photographer tonight, cross your fingers for us!

Today is my wonderful mother’s birthday! Happy Birthday Mom, I love you!

Oh, and these presents are all wrapped up and ready for you to tear them open tonight!

I can only assume that most of my readers are women. And that most of those women are engaged, or newly married. And I can assume that at least some of those women will go on to be mothers after their big day. 

I can’t wait to be a mother. i want to be pregnant, I want to give birth, I want to have a little peanut of my own, and I want to watch that little peanut grow up. Oh, and I want to be the best mother (and wife!) that I can possibly be.

I know a lot of you have heard the story of the Nielson family, about Stephanie and Christian’s plane crash, and about their progress during their recovery. I have been following Stephanie’s sister Jane’s blog to see the progress, but also to see how their family, which has grown from one baby, to one baby plus 3 other little ones, is getting on with this life stuck in between happiness and happiness, in a place of the unknown. The other day I went to Stephanie’s blog and started reading it… from the very beginning.  Holy Cow. She is such an amazing woman, mother, wife, sister, everything. I believe she got married when she was 19, and had all four of her children by the age of 25. Her wisdom, love, patience, everything about her shows a maturity beyond her years. Reading her blog makes me want to be the best mother I can be, and has inspired so many ideas for activities with my future kiddos. 

So, if you are one of my readers who want, or has, kids, and you have some time, I highly suggest going over to her blog, and start at the beginning.  Usually, when tragedy strikes, I am the first to say “God has a plan, may His will be done.” But with this woman… it is more of “God, I know you have a plan, and may your will be done. So long as that will is for her to fully recover, because in today’s world, we NEED more mothers like Stephanie. Thanks God, you’re the best.”

more from the same wedding. they strung pictures (with homemade frames!) of family members on their wedding day(s). So cute, and perfect to go over the dessert table, guestbook area, drink table… pretty much anywhere!

Again from the wedding of Jesse and Deanna. For table numbers they made these super cute little cards. Each number has the word ‘years’ under it, and a picture of the bride and groom at that age. So adorable!

I have had my ups and downs with this whole long engagement thing. Part of me is stoked to have a year (now 10 months!) to do all of the DIY that I want to include in our wedding day, but then the other part of me is just all “dude, let’s do this thing.”  

One of the cons of a long engagement is the flip flopping. Example: Last week I had this super great idea for our guestbook, and last night, as I was checking out the Real Wedding Saturday over at Snippet and Ink, I changed my mind. Just like that. I still think my first idea is super cute, and would encourage any bride to do it, and, well I guess I should tell you what my first idea was because who knows, I may just flip flop again. A lot can happen in 10 months!

Ok, so guestbook idea #1:  How I see it is, when are you ever gonna look at a half empty book full of signatures? Never. But how often would you look at a photo album of all of your friends? At  least once in a while.  So here is the idea: Set up a little station with a hand held chalkboard and lots of random chalk.  Set up one of your photographers at said station. Have your bridesmaids encourage everyone to go over to said station, write/draw/whatever a little something on the chalkboard, and have the photographer take your picture.  You can do this in groups, by yourself, write something meaningful, or draw a picture of the bride and groom. Whatever. You know how people sometimes set up little backdrops and have a pseudo-photo booth? It would be like that, and then it would also be your guest book. Then, once you get all your pictures back you would take the ones from your photo-guest book and put them into a blurb book (or whatever kind you prefer) and voila! a guestbook full of pictures from all of your guests! Great idea huh? 

Ok, well the snags so far in this are: 1. people may not get too excited about it 2. We probably won’t have a second photographer who can dedicate themselves to the guestbook station.  SO, in comes idea #2:

(pictures both from Snippet and Ink and from the brides blog)

So this is brilliant, and perfect, and super cute, and perfect. A picture book, and a guest book, all in one. So kind of idea #1, but more simplified, therefore better What she did was she made a blurb book (they offer a guestbook template!) and filled it with pictures of her and her fiance from when they were dating, plus scans of ticket stubs and receipts and such! Super cute, and fun for the guests to be able to flip through, especially if they don’t get to hang out with you all the time!  

Like I said I can totally flip flop again, but right now this idea is sounding super good. (plus I already downloaded the free software from Blurb and created a “guestbook photos” folder on my desktop to start collecting)

I added a new link category for the photographers that I love Be sure to check them out! I will be adding more as I find them  We don’t have our photographer booked yet… it seems that our budget + my insane love for amazing photography don’t seem to be agreeing at the moment. We have an appointment tomorrow with a photographer who is friends with my grandmother… I’ll let you know how it goes I leave you this week with a picture that I hope to re-enact at our wedding. I think it will work quite nicely on the big balcony overlooking the harbor.  

(image from here)