choosing my wedding dress

one of the first decisions made about our wedding was the date - it had to be st. patricks day! the 2nd was the dress. mom told me from the beginning she wanted to help cover all the cost of my attire (very generous of her... major love mom thank you!) so the hunt begun. right away i discovered why couples have such long engagements and although eric and i had been engaged for over a year we hadn't started planning anything yet! so, its December and i needed a dress by march! before march! i didn't want it to showing up 2 days before the wedding and something be wrong - so if i coudln't get the dress by the end of feburary - i didn't try it on! this narrowed the search quite a bit..

here are the close contenders 

 this Celtic feeling gown was a favorite but with a green sash not red of course!

right off the bat i knew i was going to add another stipulation besides the date

a V-neck! its just what looks best on me.. this also limited  my options way down - even further!

ya know 90% of the gowns were strapless

 back view - see what i'm saying about the celtic look with the embroidery on the tails of the sash 

 this one was the first one that really "clicked" with me

 and i discovered - it was the corset

so the 3rd stipulation to getting a dress (besides the date & a V-neck) was a corset

 full front view with my green raw peridot & pearl jewelry

Eric got me this set for my birthday a few years back and its what i was using as my color inspiration for the entire wedding decor - planing the whole time to wear it wedding day

 with a green bow

i was really liking this one!

 the option of a flower (not pink though) at the knot instead of bow (i'm not a huge bow person)

 really like this one (it was huge on me!) it had a real vintage feel to it

 on no! no corset!

keep looking

 this one was beautiful! but there was no option of adding any green to the dress.. and it did look really formal

 oh my! the front was so low - i was going to have to have a bra sewn into the dress

this made me really nervous - cause my girls need a little more encouragement then that!

 this one i wore in the store for a very long time! 

too bad we didn't get a full length shot - it was a mermaid style gown and flared out and had a gorgeous all lace train. but there was no way i could have this at a beach wedding! it was all lace!

after a full day at David's bridal we went to lunch/dinner had a couple drinks and talked options

the next day was Jon's bridal and all their gowns immediately ruled out any of Davids (which are all pictured above) Jon's gown's were gorgeous and you bought them on the spot so i could walk out the door with my wedding gown!

the only thing i didn't like about Jon's bridal was i couldn't take pictures..

until of course i tried on this one.. and that was it! i started crying and we took it home!

 perfect! 

it has a corset!

it wasn't so low that i couldn't  wear a nice corset bra

and the fabric would be beautiful on the beach

and most importantly i could walk out of the store with it that day!

 wasn't so sure about my hair piece yet - but i tried a veil just for fun 

although once on.. i knew i wasn't going to wear one.. as i told mom "it looks to bridal"

for some reason the sales lady thought that was funny!

 mom and me

yay! i found my dress!

maid of honor gift

my maid of honor kim deserved an amazing gift 

for starters she flew across the country just for me!

one thing i know for sure about kim is she doesn't splurge very often and by often i mean never! so i wanted to get something for her she would never get for herself but make sure she was still comfortable "owning it"

several things came to mind - but the only one that really stuck was a poppy colored kate spade bag

kim -  hope you love it and every time you carry it know that someone loves you!

programs

our wedding programs were a last minute decision

but i still wanted them to match the over all theme

so i took the idea of the invitations and made a "booklet"

instead of binding them together i used green jeweled brads

and used the same boarder punch on the bottom

Michele (the officiant's wife) handed them out as our quest took their seats

ribbons on a stick

as the rsvp's for the wedding came poring in.. the increasing number of children to be attending was growing.. rapidly!

so, i put my thinking cap on and came up with ribbions on a stick - perfect for sword fighting or pocking ones eye out!.. yes, this would be the perfect thing! hehe.. 

this is the process of how i made the ever so gracious and lethal ribbons on a stick 

bought 1/4" dowels

put them in this here box

and spray painted them gold

rotated them and painted again

and repeated this process a couple times

 till a good gold coat was applied

thanks to macy for the gold paint (lub)

make sure they fit in the bucket for a resting place till the children grab em' at the reception

then took them 1 by 1 and tied ribbons on (with a double knot) 

huge success!

the flower girl (brennan) loved hers

and her mischievous little brother..

isn't he a cutie?!

luckily no one's eye was poked out!!

only ribbon fun was to be had!

thanks to erica (flower girls mother) for the snap shots she took of the kids!

LOTS of scrapbooking supplies

while out shopping with my mother in law for wedding supplies we stopped in...

Big Lots and you know they carry scrapbooking and crafting supplies?!

yup! - and super cheep too! so naturally i got "just a little" carried away! it was fantastic! 

here's all my exciting and fancy finds! (and for sooo cheep - yay!)

 we put these lights around the DJ table at our wedding

kitchy - but fun!

 look at all this jazzy stuff!

yarn, brads, chip oh my!

ribbon, ribbon and more ribbon!

 card kit, thickers, paper pack alpha stickers...

this is all going to be a ton of fun to play with! yay

making the invitations

making our wedding invitations wasn't even a decision - i had too! being such an intimate part of the wedding detail and planning wasn't an easy task but it was worth every moment!

the first step was designing them

that wasn't easy.. i went through about 4 prototypes

all very differant

then it hit me.. 

the reason i was making these invites was

1. i love to scrap

2. its our wedding and no-one could make it more us then... well us

so what is my favorite thing to scrap?

answer: mini books!

that's when it hit me and i knew i had to make everyone there own mini book invatation

here's making our wedding mini book invites

each page had to be typed, cut to exact size then stacked by page number
there were a total of 6 pages + a front and backing
also, every page had a vellum "cover sheet"
so there was a total of 14 pages

mom opened all the packages and assembled the white roses & shamrocks

page 1.

getting them all in order
the bright green is the backing

stacked

books ready to be assembled together

RSVP
we wanted to make them humorous
so mom & i sat down with a strong glass and came up with this
it took an entire afternoon - but it was a blast!

my desk in the middle of the whole project
- oh yeah.. i knew where everything was! -

the finished invitation
the front cover is 4x4 acrylic which i rounded the outside corners
and the first 3 pages are a waterfall to make the book lighter, and easier to turn the pages + it looks better! 

once completed each mini book invite was wrapped in a silk blend chiffon
which was all hand cut (all 52" x 4 yards of it) by mom!
go mom!

mom was such an amazing life-saver/support with the whole wedding process!
here she's helping me stuff all the envelopes and addressing them all.... by hand!

there were 2 envelopes
the ivory "shell" with the quest's name on it
which was inserted into...

this not so pretty patted yellow envelope
it needed the extra protection - to insure it's safe arrival to each quests home

but before they were inserted into the patted envelope
each ivory envelope was sealed with a gold waxed heart

i didn't have the right glue gun - and instead of running out to wal-mart at 2am
i just watched a couple movies and did each one...
by hand

it was acctually relaxing! no measuring, no counting... just pressing the heart

almost every RSVP i received back said how much they loved them... and i have to admit i was pretty proud of them myself! after all the whole process took about 4 weeks!