Best Save the Date Photos and "How is Wedding Planning Going?"

Hi everyone,

Today I wanted to blog a little bit more about wedding related things because I realized in the past few weeks that the question I am hearing the most from everyone I run into is "So, how is the wedding planning going?" People stop in my door, ask on the phone, facebook, practically everywhere and I feel really honored that so many people care to ask! I know that is just making conversation but it's a really exciting time in our lives and so I enjoy talking about it. I know that there are some people who are in my inner circle that are probably sick of hearing about it and to those people I apologize. : ) The wedding is around 7 months away and with Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner, I have a feeling that a solid 3 months of that will go by VERY quickly and it will be here before you know it!

I can certainly understand why people get stressed out over planning a wedding. There are a lot of little things to take care of and if you are like me, you get nervous handing things over to other people to do like your vendors. I would honestly be more comfortable doing everything myself but alas, I can't bake a cake or feed 150 people sooo...I don't have much of a choice.

So here are some updates about how the wedding planning is going!

The Venue:

Initially, we had seen not so great reviews from our venue regarding responsiveness of the event planner online which made me very nervous because if we are planning this from 5 states away, I cannot have the stress of the most important coordinator not answering me. Luckily, we haven't had any problems and she has actually been wonderful so I am hoping it stays that way. The next step is the food tasting, but we are trying to figure out how we can do it without having to take a trip to Pittsburgh especially for it. There really isn't a good time to go until Christmas : / However, we have the Venue and Rehearsal Dinner locked down!

I am working on my vows, the welcome packages and the programs. There's a lot to write but they are coming along!

Decorations:

I found lovely sites for buying linens at wholesale prices called LinenTableCloth.com and some ideas for making my own centerpieces. Mi madre even offered to help when she comes down over Turkey Day to find the pieces I need and put them together for me. So far, I have gotten a few pieces purchased for this.

I also have some great photos of couples throughout history that I want to use on the tables as inspiration. Here is a sneak peak of some of the ones I have found.

 
Spreading the News:

The Save The Dates went out last month and I asked my friends and family to send me photos of them with the mailing so that I can create something awesome for the reception thanking everyone for supporting us. These are some of the best ones I have seen so far.

Thank you Casey Hall

Hilariously, people thought this was me and not my friend twin Elena!

She is so happy to be my flower girl!

The award winner for best use of props - Allison Muscaro

 Invitations are being created as we speak by my amazingly talented friend, Kim Smith who is designing everything for us. I loved her design of the Save the Dates so I can't wait to see what she does with our invitations! Keep your eyes pealed! They will be sent out about 3 months before and will have all the information for hotels, directions, locations, etc.

Outfits:

My dress is finished and hanging in the closet waiting for bridal portraits over Christmas with the beautiful Rachel Tokarski. (click the link to see the work she did on our engagement photos) I recently got my hair piece from Etsy and I am in love with it. It was hand made from ivory clay and pearls (not real because I am not rich but still beautiful!!)

Also, Dwayne got his tuxedos all ordered and ready to go and I think that the bridesmaids are all set on their dresses!

I also found a site that I really like to buy silk flowers for everyone called The Brides Bouquet.com. Again, because I don't want to have to coordinate another vendor from a distance for the flowers, we are going silk. Neither Dwayne not I cared much about having real or silk flowers and so we decided that we would save ourselves the stress.

This is not the exact one that I am getting, can't give all my secrets away!

Health and Wellbeing

I am trying to do small little things to help myself early to get ready for my bridal portraits coming up in 3 months. I have a really bad habit of not taking care of my skin the way that I should. Aside from drinking a ton of water everyday, I rarely take the time to moisterize or anything that you should do everyday -oops. This is especially bad because I know I exercise when I still have makeup on most days from work and sweating all the time is great for your muscles but not for your skin. So! I have started a nighttime regimine (that I do most nights) with moisturizing, flossing, and  making sure I take all my makeup off before bed. I am hoping this will alleviate any major skin problems creeping up around these photos!

The only thing that is on my mind at the moment is that there are so many things that I would like to do but I can't until I know how many people will be coming, which you don't know until you get all your RSVP's. Things like buying linens, printing programs, table numbers, number of centerpieces, etc.

I truly appreciate everyone who is taking an interest in our special day and are humoring me with all the fun stuff we want to do.

Thank you all!