Our Save the Dates : )

We finished our Save the Dates and here's our finished project!

Berry Merry Christmas

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

We absolutely LOVE them and I can't wait to get them sent out. I really liked the design because we didn't want them to be too bright and scream Christmas since we are doubling them as Christmas Cards and Save the Dates . I absolutely love Christmas but we wanted them to be something people could leave hanging on their fridges even after the holidays are over and not look way out of place.

What do you guys think?

Christmas Cards/STD's

We couldn't decide if we were going to send out save the dates and then Zach came up with a great idea! He knew I had always wanted to send out a christmas photo card together but we thought we would just hold off until we were married. Well he surprised me and told me he thought it would be fun to send out a Christmas Photo Card and double it as a save the date. I thought it was an awesome idea so we went for it! We went on Shutterfly and found a ton of Holiday Photo Cards. It is very simple and anybody can do it. You just go to Shutterfly and create an account. Then you upload pictures and pick which product you would like to incorporate them into. They have a lot of really cool products including: Christmas cards, mugs, calendars , and holiday photo cards. I absolutely LOVE how they turned out! Once I get them in the mail I will add a photo of the finished product. I'm too excited to not show you anything so here is a link to my favorite Holiday Photo Card that ended up as our STD. I highly suggest Shutterfly to anybody because it is very easy to work with and their products are very high quality.

Are you doing a Holiday Card with your significant other/husband? If so where did you order them from?

The Bridesmaids Dresses Arrived!

I got a call last week that the bridesmaids dresses had arrived and I was very excited but also nervous. In an older post I talked about finding them and included a picture but it was small and you really couldn't see much. The sample dress the girls tried on was a coral color opposed to yellow. There were other dresses by that designer in the yellow I had picked out but they were chiffon and the dresses I was wanting were silk. She had warned me the color could differ between the two fabrics and I have been anxious to see what the finished product looked like. To make matters worse I had a dream last night that when I went to look at the dresses for the first time I absolutely HATED the color! In my dream somehow they turned out green haha, don't ask me why! Anyways, from the beginning my number one priority was to not end up with pastel yellow dresses. My wedding is in April and I knew my bridesmaids would be at their fairest skin tone during this time of the year and I didn't want to make them wear pastel yellow. But it was much harder than I thought to find yellow dresses that weren't pastel but also not neon yellow. Well...... I LOVE them!!!! One of my bridesmaids was with me and she loved them too! The color turned out very rich and it was the exact color I had wanted :) I really don't think they will wash out the girls and I think they will look great up against the charcoal grey suits. I took a picture but unfortunately it was just on the hanger.



I also love that I was able to find a bridesmaids dress with a sweetheart neckline just like my dress. If you forgot what mine looks like I'll remind you :)



So what do you think? Do you like how the the color turned out? Do you think it will look good against the grey suits? Do you think it will wash out the girls skin tone? Sorry for so many questions I just love all your input!

Hope you all are having a great week!

Scarf Exchange!

I was soooo excited when I got to my mailbox and saw a package waiting for me! I think we should do another exchange of some sort.... Not sure what but we should think of something! Anyways, I was paired up with Jennifer over at The Adventures Of Our Army Life and she did such a good job picking out a scarf I can wear with soooo many outfits. Thanks so much! If you're not following her blog you definitely should!



Well I hope you all have a great weekend!

Am I being a Bridezilla???

Something I found out this weekend really frustrated me and I need to know if I'm being a Bridezilla or if I have a reason to be upset.

This weekend we attended a couple from high schools wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and we had a great time! At the wedding we were sitting with a group of our friends and one of Zach's best friends brings up the fact that their sister is moving back to town earlier then expected and that her wedding is now going to be in the Spring instead of next Winter. When anybody says anything about a Spring wedding I get a little nervous until I hear the date. Well he said they were still looking into venues and they hadn't set a date yet. Zach asked him to remind her that our date was April 30th and to just keep that in mind when setting their date. Well later that day we were told that when he went to remind her of our date she told him they had just put a deposit down and their wedding will be May 1st! That means our wedding will be Saturday and theirs will be Sunday. A million things started running through my head. Zach's friend is a groomsman in both weddings and now I'm worried she will have her rehearsal dinner then night of our wedding and he'll have to hurry out of our reception. We also have LOTS of common friends and I do not know how many of them will be involved in her wedding.

So give me your thoughts... Is it appropriate for me to talk to her about not having her rehearsal dinner the night of our wedding? I don't want to come off as being rude or making my wedding the priority. But I do feel that I should mention that we have had our date set for over 4 months! Anyways, what do ya think?

Blog Award!

Laura at Lucky in Love and The Luckiest in Love has given me a blog award and I am very excited! It is called A Blog With Substance.



It is my very first Blog Award and it could not come from a more fitting person, Laura is who got me into the blogging world in the first place. Thanks so much! I know my wedding wouldn't be nearly what it's going to be if I had not met you and been introduced to the blogging community :)

I am supposed to sum up my blogging experience in 5 words. So here they are:

Inspiration: As a result of being a part of the blogging community I have received all sorts of inspiration and great ideas that have greatly impacted my wedding plans.

Motivation: Blogging has given me motivation to work on projects and get pictures on my blog to share with blog friends.

Encouragement: Some days when I feel like my ideas are not that great or all the time I've spent on something is not evident an encouraging comment from a blog friend brightens my day.

Stress-relieving: Blogging takes me away from school, work, and anything else that is causing stress in my life. It is wonderful!

Fun: Lastly, it's just plain FUN!

Now it's my turn to pass the blog award on to some deserving blogs! I absolutely LOVE these four blogs, if you don't already follow them you definitely should!

Shanna at Miss Arkansas Bride

Nicole at Seaside Smitten

Janna at Love The Moments

Laura at The Luckiest in Love I figured since you got this award the first time around for your wedding blog I could give it to you for your newlywed blog!

That's all I've got. I hope everyone's had a great start to their week!

LONG Overdue Update

So first I have to apologize for being absent from blogging for the past month! It has been a crazy month and somehow blogging was the thing I sacrificed :( So here we go with a month's worth of updates haha.

-So to catch everybody up with the dress situation I did end up purchasing dress #5! I fell in love with it and nothing I tried on at the trunk show even came close. I found myself constantly staring at pictures of the dress throughout the day and I knew that it was "the dress". I really think Zach will love it and I can't wait for him to see it on our wedding day (btw it is less then 8 months away now.... crazy!!!).

-Right after I bought my dress I had to go straight home to start moving. One of my friends Elisha, who is the best landlord ever (I know you read this, love ya!), bought a house and is renting out the rooms to a bunch of our friends. But of course we chose to move-in on one of the most disgusting days of the year haha. It was 100+ degrees outside and we were all completely exhausted after the move. But by the end of the day I was moved-in to my new house AND I had purchased the most beautiful dress I could've imagined!

-The second week in August Zach and I went to Los Angeles to visit my brother. It was soooo much fun! We were busy everyday from 8:00 am to usually past midnight. Throughout our trip we were able to go to a LA Dodgers game, go on a Warner Brothers Studio Tour, go on lots of shopping trips, go to the most awesome Karaoke Club in Hollywood, watch my brother film a show he is in, go to the beach, lots of sightseeing, and spend a lot of time with my brother who I miss soooo much! It was not a relaxing trip but it was a lot of fun and we made lots of memories we'll never forget :)

- Then came the start of my last semester of nursing school! I am soooo excited to almost be done :) This semester is filled with lots of clinical hours at the hospital and not much time to work. So Zach and I are both very excited for me to get out of school and find a full-time nursing job!

- We also officially decided on and booked a DJ and a Photographer, which i will blog about later. Everything is starting to come along really well and I am getting very excited : )

- I have also been very lucky to spend a lot of time with wonderful friends! Our new house has turned into a common gathering place and I couldn't be happier :) I LOVE my friends and I am completely cherishing these years of my life. One person I have been able to spend lots of time with recently is Laura from Lucky in Love and now her awesome new married life blog The Luckiest in Love. If you don't follow her blogs you definitely should! Her wedding was amazing and she has tons of DIY projects you can read all about. She is awesome and Zach and I absolutely love spending time with her and David!

Well I hope I caught you up on what's been going on and I can't wait to get back to blogging! My projects lately have slowed down with school but I hope to at least write weekly updates about wedding plans and just life in general. So glad to be back : )

I think I found "The Dress"!

I went dress shopping the past two weekends and I think I may have found "the dress"! I am not a person that makes decisions quickly so I knew I would not immediately have that moment where I knew 100% that I was in "the dress". But after trying on several dresses I kept coming back to the same one and I did not want to take it off! I already have an appointment next weekend to go to a trunk show where 52 new dresses are being displayed so I am going to keep my appointment just to see if anything catches my eye. The dress shop also did not have one of the dresses I really wanted to try on because it was at the Bridal Fair in the fashion show. So next weekend I will try on any trunk show dresses I am interested in and the one dress that was at the Bridal Fair. If I continue to come back to my current favorite dress I will get measured and order it :). Now for some pictures... I will show you pictures of several dresses and you tell me what you think!


#1 Front: I thought there was too much going on


#1 Back


#2 Front


#2 Back


#3 Front (You can tell how I feel about it by my facial expression haha)


#3 Back


#4 Front


#4 Back: Didn't think the back was flattering


#4 Side View: Loved it from this view!


#5 MY FAVORITE!!!


#5 Back


#5 Side-gather


#5 Other side


#5 With the bustle from the side


#5 With bustle from the back


#5 Corset back: This dress is too big so the corset will be much wider in the right size.


#5 Close-up of bodice detail


#5 Me with my Mom and Twin Sis/MOH


So I know that was a ton of pictures, sorry! So what do you guys think? The only thing I am concerned about is being self conscious because it is a figure forming dress. Also how do you think the bustle looks? Her idea was to pull the fabric up and under the dress opposed to on top so the side swept look could stay in place. Do you think it would look better in a more traditional bustle? I would LOVE your comments and opinions! Thanks!

Good News!

So I finally got a response from our pastor and he has approved us to have alcohol at our reception : ) For the past couple weeks it has been very stressful thinking about what we would do if he did not approve it. But now we can relax knowing that we have a church to get married in, a reception site, AND a pastor haha.

I have also just recently found my bridesmaids dresses and they are in the process of getting fitted. The dress I picked is the one on the far left, but it will be in buttercup (yellow). I know this is not a great picture but it's the best one I could find so far, sorry! The picture is from the Allure Bridals website.



I also may have found "the dress"! I had no intention of trying on any dresses for myself but my sister/MOH and one of my BM's insisted I try on the dress I had been eyeing every time I was in the bridal store so I finally did and I loooooved it! The only problem is that it costs more than I was planning on spending. I might be willing to spend more if in the end I believe it is "the dress". I want to try on more dresses just to be sure but I will be shocked if I really end up buying the first dress I tried on!

Did anyone have a similar situation where the dress they ended up getting was the first dress they tried on? Did you spend more than you thought you would on your "dream dress"?

Alcohol Issues...

Well I've been trying to put off writing a blog update about our ceremony venue because we're still waiting to hear back from the church! We had a meeting with the pastor last Monday and it went really well. I really liked him and think he would do a great job for our wedding. They told us as we were leaving that they would check the church calendar and get back to us to confirm the date. Also... when we were hanging out with some old high school friends last weekend I was talking to one of the girls that got engaged around the same time I did. I asked her how wedding planning was coming and where she would be doing her wedding. When she told me they were doing the wedding and reception both at the reception site I was somewhat shocked because she had grown up in the church that we were looking at as our possible ceremony site. As we talked I found out that she had heard from many other people that the pastor will not officiate weddings for people that are having alcohol at their reception! I kinda freaked out when she told us this but we already had our meeting set up so we would go through with the meeting and see how it goes. Well our plan was to bring it up in our first meeting to see what the pastor said. Well... that didn't happen. Really there wasn't a good time and we didn't want to come off as alcoholics! I didn't want him to think that alcohol was the most important thing to me because obviously it is not but it is kind of a deal breaker if he won't allow us to have it at our reception. The next day they sent us an email with all the specifics and rules for using the church and it did not include anything about alcohol. So I sent a reply email and asked about their policies on that issue. And.... I haven't heard back after 4 days! I decided I will give them till Tuesday, and at that time it will have been a week, and if they don't email me back by then I will call them. In addition they still never told us if our date is officially open.

What do you think? Would it be a deal breaker for you or would you just alter your reception? Has anyone ran into this with their own pastors?

Venue Update and Centerpiece Trial run

Since the last time I blogged we have made some progress surrounding the search for our ceremony site. We have a meeting with my future mother-in-law's pastor on Monday and if all goes well I hope to be putting down a deposit and officially securing our ceremony site! I will be sure to update you guys after we have our meeting next week :)

Now on to the fun stuff! I have known since the beginning of wedding planning that I would be a "budget bride". My parents are giving us some money but we will have to make up the difference. So I will be trying to do as much DIY projects and buy as little ready made items as possible. A while back my mom and I set aside an evening to try out different centerpiece ideas and this was our favorite from the night (excuse the mess surrounding the centerpiece).



You can't really tell from this picture but there is a silver/gray floating candle on top. What do you think? Any suggestions? I went ahead and bought the 25 vases I need because I found a great deal but there is still room for changes involving what goes inside the vase. One thing I have contemplated is the color of the gems in the bottom of the vase. Since the color scheme is yellow and gray I looked for gray gems but have had no luck after looking at all the local stores and even searching online. I didn't think yellow would look good because I thought it would take away from the yellow flower. The iridescent/clear gems kind of help reflect light but I'm debating whether they are too bland?

I will be placing the vase on top of some sort of mirror or decorative place mat and will be sprinkling yellow and gray cutout flowers on the tables.

Please give me your opinion, good or bad!

Venue Frustrations

So I have not had a chance to blog about our search for a church and reception site yet and decided it was about time after the horrible week I have had with the church we had decided on.

After we first got engaged we had no idea about what church we would get married in or what reception site we would use. The church we attend is currently building a new church and it will not be done till right before our wedding and I did not feel comfortable not seeing it until a couple weeks before the wedding, or worse the building being behind schedule and it not actually being done in time for our wedding! So using our church was not really an option so I decided to look for a reception site first then try to find a church nearby. I started getting ideas for the reception site by going to our local bridal fair and picking up information about various sites. We ended up deciding on a reception site after personally looking at 10-12 different sites. Before we booked the reception site we found a church that was close to the reception site and made sure they were both open on the same date. After confirming that they were I put down the deposits (this all happened about 2 weeks ago). At this point I was very excited and it seemed like everything was falling into place. Everything changed earlier this week when I went in for a meeting with the pastor of the church to discuss all the final details. When I first contacted her I asked the same 3 questions I asked every church: 1. Can non-members use the church?, 2. Can I bring in my own minister?, and 3. What is the capacity of the church?. She happily informed me I could use the church even though I was a non-member and told me I could bring in an outside minister as long as she met with him and approved of his teachings. She then told me the capacity was 275-300. I was VERY excited because all the answers were what I wanted to hear and it was within 5 minutes of the reception site we wanted to use. After hearing all of this my fiance, my mom, and I went and looked at the church and we all really liked it and decided it was going to be the place we got married! Well when I went back in this week for our meeting I was given some alarming news....the church sanctuary actually only "comfortably" seats 175! I was completely shocked and did not know what to do. I reminded her that they had originally told me it sat 275-300 and she just nonchalantly said that they could probably squeeze in over 200 and told me not to worry because even though my guest list is over 300 not everybody will show up. I was very frustrated and also felt stupid that I couldn't tell by looking at the sanctuary myself that it wouldn't fit 300, but I am not an expert at judging how many people can fit in a church and I tried to map it out and I thought maybe it wouldn't fit quite 300 but I had no idea it would only fit 175!

Now I have a reception site booked and no church to get married in! I am now starting my church search over and I am very frustrated. I have a couple ideas but I am worried they will not be available for the date I already have my reception site booked for.

Did you have similar struggles? Did you have any trouble with a church or reception site overestimating the capacity?

First Wedding of the Summer

This weekend my fiance and I attended our first wedding together as an engaged couple. I was extremely excited and I could tell my fiance was excited as well. I saw everything differently now that I am in the process of planning my own wedding. I now notice things about weddings I never noticed before. For instance, I noticed how the wedding party entered, the order of the ceremony, how the food was served, decorations for the ceremony and reception, the complete reception experience, and many many other things. I now enjoy weddings more than ever! This was only the first of many weddings on the calendar for the next few months and I am already looking forward to the next!

The wedding this weekend was an outdoor wedding and it made me really jealous that I am not having an outdoor wedding. Both my fiance and I would absolutely LOVE to have an outdoor wedding but we both worry about Kansas weather in April. There would be a very good chance of rain or tornadoes and we do not want to deal with the stress of having to move our wedding indoors at the last minute.

Did you have a similar experience attending weddings after you were engaged and had started the wedding planning process? Did you decide to have an indoor wedding due to weather concerns even though you would have loved to have an outdoor wedding?

I LOVE free stuff!

So if you know me you know I absolutely LOVE good deals, especially free stuff! So as I was browsing through Michaels I found a bridal book that I really wanted (The Modern Bride Survival Guide) but I decided to hold off because at the time is was a little more than what I wanted to pay for it. I also noticed there was a little sticker on the front that said with the purchase of the book you would receive a FREE subscription to Brides magazine, which made it even more tempting to buy. I decided to take a chance and wait a couple more days because the clerk told me it would be 75% off at the end of the week. I went back at the end of the week and bought it! It was only seven dollars and it is a great book!



I mailed in the form on the inside of the book to order my free subscription to Brides magazine and I just received my first issue!



It took about 2 months for me to get my first issue so I had actually completely forgotten about it until I got a surprise in the mail : ) The best part is that it is a 1 year subscription so it will take me right up until the month I get married.

I know it's not that cool of a find but I just love great deals so I had to share!

Throughout the wedding planning process have you found great deals (even small ones like mine) that made you really excited?

Wedding Colors

Deciding on my wedding colors was a lot harder than I would have expected. I was not one of those girls that grew up picturing my dream wedding knowing exactly what colors would be involved. I decided to search online for wedding color combinations to give myself some ideas of what I would like. After searching online I decided I wanted my main color to be yellow but I did not know what I wanted to pair it with. My mom was shopping at Michaels and found some invitations that were yellow and gray/silver and she asked me to come look at them. I ended up falling in love with the color combination! They are definitely not the most traditional wedding colors but I think it's perfect for me and my fiance. When I searched yellow and gray weddings online I found some beautiful wedding pictures that have given me some great ideas!







I am pretty picky about the color of yellow I want the bridesmaids to wear. I do not want a pastel yellow, instead I want what they call canary yellow or marigold yellow (more like the first picture than the last picture). What do you think about the groomsman's wearing gray? I know it is pretty modern but I kind of like the idea to keep with the yellow and gray theme. But do you think it is too non-traditional?

My Ring : )

Zach and I had decided not to go engagement ring shopping together. I know this was VERY risky but it ended up working out perfectly! We had looked online a couple times and all we talked about was the fact that we both preferred princess cut and we both definitely wanted white gold, besides that I was completely in the dark as to what I would be wearing on my finger for the rest of my life haha. But looking back on it I would not have done it any other way. He did a great job and I absolutely LOVE my ring! I have to thank http://soontobemrsf.blogspot.com/ because her fiance recommended a local jeweler to Zach and we have both had a great experience with them. We are planning on returning to purchase our wedding bands from the same jeweler. I really love the fact that we are supporting a locally owned family jeweler, especially during the current economic times. Now for some pictures....









So did you and your fiance go shopping together for the engagement ring? Would you do it the same way if you could do it all over again?

Our Engagement... 12/19/09

So I thought I would share how Zach asked me to be the luckiest women alive. We both knew we would eventually get engaged and married and I suspected the proposal would come in the next 6 months or so, but he still managed to completely surprise me! Our 5 year anniversary was coming up in a couple of weeks along with Christmas and New Years. But he was able to surprise me by not doing it on any of those "special" days.

The day started off with us finishing up the rest of our Christmas shopping then going to Panera for lunch. We then relaxed for most of the afternoon then headed over to Koch Arena to get in line for our big game against Texas Tech, who at the time was ranked #20 in the nation. For those of you that know anything about Wichita State Shocker Basketball you know that we NEVER get ranked opponents into Koch Arena. So the students and fans were very excited for this game and even more excited for a possible upset over a heavily favored team. As the game progressed it stayed close and we all started to believe we might actually pull out a victory. During half time a fellow student proposed to his girlfriend at half-court which was very exciting and sweet, but something Zach and I would never want haha. In the end we ended up winning 85-83 in a very exciting fashion! As we were walking to our car I told Zach and my sister that, "I was so happy that we had won and if we had ended up losing it would have been the worst day ever!" Later on I asked him if he was still going to propose if we lost and he said he had thought about that in advance and was still going to regardless but had definitely contemplated it. After the game Zach and I drove around to look at Christmas lights, and even went to the big house my family and I drove by every Christmas growing up.


(Notice we're still in our Wichita State Shocker attire haha)

After we were done looking at Christmas lights we went back to his apartment to hang out for a little while before I went home for the night. Little did I know I was just about to walk into the best night of my life. He ran up the stairs to unlock the door and this is what I saw as I walked in...



He then got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. I honestly can't remember one word he said but all I knew is the answer was YES! He then told me the whole story of how he was able to get everything set up. Little did I know my sister left the game and went directly to his apartment to meet up with his parents to set everything up. He even thought to have my sister bring a couple changes of clothes so we could take some pictures in non-Shocker gear haha.




Zach also knew it was important to me to be able to share this wonderful moment with both our families. So he had set up to have my family and his family waiting for us over a his parents house. We were able to celebrate with our families and have some delicious cheesecake!









The night was absolutely perfect and I could not ask for a more amazing fiance. I love him with all my heart and can't wait to start our married life together!



Was your fiance able to completely surprise you? Even down to the last minute before the proposal?

And so the blogging begins...

To tell you the truth this is my very first time blogging. I don't know if I'll be any good at it but I was inspired by other future bride's blogs and have decided to blog about my current wedding planning process. I absolutely love every minute of wedding planning and wish I could devote all my time to it! Unfortunately I am in my Senior year of college and working as well, which leaves little time for wedding planning. So currently I am trying to fit in as much planning as possible and I plan to get a lot done over the Summer when I will be out of school. I have been with my fiance for almost 5 1/2 years and have truly been "the luckiest". We started dating our Junior year of high school and I can't imagine having a better life. I am so happy being with him and can't wait till the day he is my husband! I don't know if anybody will read this but it will be fun for me to blog about all the great buys, projects, and of course struggles that will take place throughout this exciting and wonderful time in my life. I hope to update frequently and keep you updated on my journey : )