Pretty white dress

I had my dress bought a year ago. I love it! Great price on ebay for exactly what I wanted. My advice to anyone buying on ebay, go to a salon and try on different dresses and take note of the designers, styles and fabrics that you like. Then you'll have an idea of what works, so it's easier to buy something without trying it on. Better yet if you get the style name so you know exactly what dress to look for, which is what I did. Took 6 months of stalking ebay, but totally worth it.

The shoes. Oh, my shoes, how I love thee... I never intended to buy designer shoes, but I saw them when I was looking for a different pair, and couldn't resist. Since I got such a deal on the dress, there was room in the budget for them. When I bought them, we were still doing the local wedding, so now I have to figure out how to incorporate them in the Hawaii wedding, which will likely be on the beach or a garden. Heels and soft ground never mix. Maybe they'll have to be saved for the afterparty.

The inspiration board

I tried my hand at making an inspiration board a la Kathryn at Snippet & Ink. I think it turned out pretty good so far. We're going to do a casual, sophisticated island feeling event. I really would like to do it at an estate that we can rent for a week to house the wedding party and whatever friends are able to make the trip. Near or on the beach would be best; for a bunch of landlocked Minnesotan's, easy access to a beach is highly desired. I love plumeria's (stupid winter means I can't have some here), so that's where my color scheme is coming from. That and the ocean, with a bit of pink because it's pretty. So yellow, blue, white and pink. The guest turnout may be small (probably), so the reception will probably be on the shorter side and more intimate. Overall, there definately has to be an island feel to it, but not dripping in sand and seashells and fish. Island feel, but not ridiculous looking if we replicated it in Minnesota for an at home reception.

And it begins...again...

I guess you could consider this my second go around at planning our wedding. Originally, we were planning a Minnesota wedding in Sept 2009. A year into planning that, life happened so we decided to have a destination wedding in Hawaii. Exciting, yes. A lot of work to plan, yes. I'm a bit of a control freak. And I get nervous about not actually seeing something before I book it, like venues.

So a few weeks after deciding on Hawaii the economy crashed, and a few weeks after that I was informed that the company I work for will be closing in June due to budget cuts. Great, we can bail out Wall Street execs who have everything but have to cut back on mental health funding for those who have almost nothing...? But I digress... With all this stress and frustration, the wedding got put off to 2010 (still in Hawaii, got people excited about it), and we took a 6 month sabbatical from wedding planning. Probably a good thing, and frankly I was bored with weddings at the time.

Now here we are. A few random posts on theknot got my attention for various things, so planning started again. Even with my looming unemployment and the unending economic doom and gloom, it's time to either do this or scrap the whole idea and do a JOP and dinner at a nice restaurant by ourselves. Definately not what I would like, but we're still married in the end and that's what's important.

(hopefully I stick with this blog, I have a tendency to start things and never finish or maintain them. if I quit updating and anybody cares, feel free to email me.)