Our wedding in a nutshell...

It has been about a month since our wedding.  And I must say, it actually was worth all the planning and stress!  Who knew?!  I have a word of advice to all of you planning brides out there.  No matter what, it is going to be incredible.  So have faith in that ok?
Since I never thought about what I wanted my wedding to be until I became engaged, I found the wedding planning process a bit daunting in the beginning.  But I threw myself in, head first, and I actually really enjoyed it.  Don't get me wrong, I certainly had my fair share of family drama, as do most brides and grooms.  But as for the actual design and planning of the wedding.  The designer in me sort of thrived in it.
If you would have asked me the week before our wedding if I loved planning it, I would have said "Absolutely not."  But once you see your vision come to life, and you are about to marry your soul mate.  It makes the day literally perfection.  Even if stuff goes wrong (and inevitably something will) it is still total and complete PERFECTION.  My wedding day took my expectations and blasted them into the New York Harbor.  It was so beyond what I thought it ever could be.  I knew it would be amazing... and that I would be happy.  What I did not know, is that it would be the best day of my life thus far.  Seriously folks, enough gushing.  Here are a few fav pics for you to enjoy.

All of these photos were taken by the incomparable Barnaby Draper Studios.

   

My bridesmaids are the some of the most amazing women I know.  They were so attentive (as can be seen in this picture) and incredible that day.  And they all looked like super models to boot.  I am one lucky lady.

We didn't just enjoy our ceremony.  We ENJOYED our ceremony.

And last but not least... our awesome Bridal Party.

My friend Brianne is pretty awesome

First things first.... Our RSVPs are in!  And we got some pretty fantastic sketches.  Here is one by one of my amazing, fantastic, lovely friends Brianne.  She also blogged about it here , which makes me feel special.

Is that Dana from the L word???

Why yes!  Yes it IS Dana from the L word.  She sure had a pretty wedding!  www.stylemepretty.com always delivers!  I love weddings that are super intimate and personal.  

Also, aren't succulents, cockscomb and lotus pods such an interesting touch in flower arrangements?!  

I have to mention her incredible ring.  I am a little obsessed with this gorgeous ring!!!!

And to top it all off, they had MY FAVORITE type of dog in their wedding!  I don't have a flower girl so I might stick this little bugger in a tutu and make him walk down the aisle!!!

the little details

Late night etsy searching is dangerous!  I just had a late night, impulsive wedding purchase.  I bought this amazing handmade hanger for my wedding dress from lilafrances.  It's gotta hang on something right?!  Might as well be a really cool, personalized hanger!  I didn't want to put mrs. "insert future last name here" because I won't be married when I first put the dress on the hanger.  So I decided on our first names instead.  Now I need to add "buy wedding dress hanger" to a list so I can cross it off!

Wedding Day Style...how to get some

I am officially obsessed with this wedding photographed by Tanja Lippert

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2010/02/24/san-francisco-wedding-by-tanja-lippert/

This is everything I want my wedding to be.  Modern, sophisticated and graphic with a little bit of whimsy.  I love how confident the bride is in her style.  

Whenever I am designing a play, and an actress is not self confident in what she is wearing, I know right there.  She will not look good on stage.  It is the same thing with weddings.  You need to have your wedding style and you need to OWN it.  Self confidence is key in life.  Now, this is much easier said than done of course.  But I think we should all take a cue from this bold bride.  Because I gurantee you everyone fought her tooth and nail on anything she wanted to do that was different.  "Red shoes?!?!" they said.  "Short dress with a BIG head piece?!!?!"  They exclaimed!  And when they all saw how gorgeous this wedding was they all shut their mouths!  

So thank  you Style Me Pretty and Tanja Lippert and this gorgeous bride.  You have all inspired me to trust my instinct!

What to Post

I haven't posted for a week or two because I have so much going on that every time I sit down to write a post...  I have TOO many thoughts in my head.  haha I am learning on focusing on one thing at a time and I would like to share that info with you brides to be now.  

Since I have been feeling overwhelmed with the amount of tasks and decisions ahead, I have made a week by week list.  This way, when I feel overwhelmed I can look at that list and say "Don't worry about the favors this week, that is for the week of May 3rd."  I have to apologize to anyone who has gotten married before I was engaged.  I had NO idea how much planning goes into this stuff!  People don't give brides and grooms enough credit!  This is a full time job!  Maybe it is the designer in me, but I have so many ideas in my head that it actually can be a detriment to planning!   Don't get me wrong, it is fun planning it all.  It is just A LOT.  So I promise (to you and to myself) to post more, focus more, and ENJOY more!  This goes for all things in my life, not just weddings!  I definitely think that I am learning many life lessons through planning!  Haha Who knew!  Here is to the future!

A True Love Song

I am currently trying to find a few important songs for our wedding.

1) The song our bridal party will walk down the aisle to.

2) The song I will walk down the isle to.

3) The song for our first dance!!!!

Now, I am planning on hiring a string trio or quartet to play during our ceremony and cocktail hour so the first two songs need to sound beautiful when played instrumentally.  I really like the idea of playing a modern song that people will recognize so it is also important that the song be about love.  

Here is the dilemma.  Most songs I love that meet most of my requirements (and I admit that I have a quite a few) turn out not to be about love but about heartbreak.  Or, aren't about love at all.  For example, how amazing would it be to walk down the isle to Coldplay's Viva la Vida.  Such a great song right?!  Yea, but totally about a King who is ruined.  Awkward.

Then I started to look into U2 songs.  My fav U2 song is All I Want is You.  Which I have always sung at the top of my lungs, and never really thought about what I was saying.  The lyrics convey that the woman is materialistic but the man doesn't want anything but her.  Now, it is a romantic love song, but I am not that person!  And I also sort of think its kind of messed up, but whatever.  Which leads me to a song that definitely conveys a lot of what I want.  The Beatles "All you Need is Love"   Finally a song that is actually about the true, pure meaning of Love.  Maybe we will use this song for after my love steps on that glass and we are officially married!  There are plenty more songs that I thought of using that really conveyed the wrong message.  Believe me when I tell you, I gave you the short version!  Either way, I still have a long list of songs I need to find.  Suggestions anyone?

How about this song?

Pants On The Ground American Idol