Friday, October 31, 2008

I think I know where I am getting married

After many good discussions with some of my young married friends, I have realized that weddings (hopefully) only happen once and should include everything you want. As October ends, I realize that this will always be the most beautiful time of the year, and I love it. I always will. So Fiance and I are getting married on October 10, 2010 (10/10/10), at the Deming Log Show Grounds in Deming, WA. Deming is a small town on the way to Mt. Baker. The venue is huge, it's out in nature, there is a grand hall (referred to as "the museum"), and a 24 hour rental costs $500.00. SOLD.

I haven't made the reservation yet, but this is where it will be. I have a feeling about this one... and it will be the wedding that I have always wanted, with fall colors and a fire in the fireplace and a lace dress. We will be out there in the most beautiful corner of the earth, with the leaves changing to orange and red and the fog of the North Cascades rolling in.

I have to say that most of my inspiration to follow my heart came from my good friend, Jana. We are in grad school together, and she just celebrated her third wedding anniversary. She and her husband were married on their favorite beach at Deception Pass in early September. The wedding wore flip-flops and the colors were white, tan, and a bright yellow. Guests sat on arranged driftwood. Instead of a unity candle, Jana and her husband each poured a jar of sand from the beach into a larger glass container (which they still have). It is the incorporation of nature and the simplicity that comes across as the most memorable from that wedding.

Exciting news--I am trying on wedding dresses tomorrow!

Sometimes I wish our wedding were next year ('09), but sometimes I am thankful for the time. Hmmm... I wonder...

~Anna

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Raspberry, Lime and Vanilla... it's a delicious treat!

Another one of my inspiration boards. FI and I are having a convo right now about our colors and I really think that these have helped him feel a little more comfortable with the whole wedding concept.

I joked to a friend that he was going to say this one is too girly, and lo and behold, haha. But that's ok, I wouldn't want those to be our colors without a darker contrast. I do love me some polka dots though...

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

I am stopping by to share one of the boards I made for FI. I really like how they turned out, but since I thought I was just making these for FI I didn't save the sources for some of the photos. I can find them if I need too.

This is one of my new favorite color combinations! Black, white and green.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

It is true love

And I'm not just talking about that love between Fi and I (although more on that later). No, I am in love with a beautiful, wonderful, lovely thing... a little print... called damask ::sigh:: (Hence the blog facelift).

Isn't it lovely?

I wore a dress that was black and white, with a teal scarf as an accent and I fell in love with the combination. As soon as we became engaged I immediately knew what colors I wanted to use, but now I'm starting to question those colors. Are they right? Will they work with what we want? Will Fi like them or not? Since my Fi has little to no experience in connection to weddings at all, he became overwhelmed at the very prospect of choosing colors (poor boy, he will have to take baby steps to the wedding, luckily it's a long engagement). So after we had a discussion today in which I realized I need to remember he has no knowledge of weddings and need to help him more, and him needing to communicate when he doesn't know something or has questions... I love my Fi! So, I am going to put some ideas of things together (oh darn, I have to put together some wedding inspiration boards, darn) and send them to him. And then I will probably put them on here :D

In other news of things I love, today while I was searching around for ideas for the board, i came across these beauties.
From Target 24.99
From Wet Seal 22.50

Both these stores (and Old Navy too) had some great deals on shoes! Some at Old Nacy were less than $10! Yum, I love shoes. The mustard yellow is due to all the black, white and yellow I've seen around the blogs the last couple of days. Love it! But I don't think I could ever convince FI to use yellow... maybe I'll just slip it in and see if he notices :D

Last but not least,

I've been getting into a lot of craft blogs while researching for wedding ideas, and there are a lot of things that could be used for both. This is a really cool idea that would make cheap and interesting centerpiece candle holders. I love DIY stuff!

That's all for now, I hope we meet again soon blogger.com, I'll try not to let my reading interfere with our time together.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Facelift!

I was finally able to find someone who made dummy-proof templates for blogger! I think our page looks much much better... although I'm really bummed that I'm not tech-savvy enough to do it on my own. What's an English Literature major to do? Yeah... use some other tech-savvy's brilliant work. Oh well, I've succumbed to the fact that I'm about 50% computer illiterate.

No real news on the wedding front, although I have been searching to see if the UK has its own wedding magazines. And there is a bridal show here in a couple of weeks. I was also really hoping to witness some marriages on the beach as well... after I saw this post in offbeat bride I've been dying to see a English wedding, mostly just to anthropologically study the differences, are their differences? That is my goal.

~Mandie

Sunday, October 12, 2008

So, economically speaking...

Looks like we're about to face some really tough times. Let me just say that my Jewish bargain-hunting gene is inflamed like a stubbed toe right now! Perusing the other wedding blogs, I have been seeing nothing but advice and suggestions for cutting corners, and I am so glad that this pragmatic approach is being painted in a popular light (even if brought on by unfortunate circumstances).

The venue... I think that's where I last left off. I found this place in Bellingham called The Majestic. It's a grand hall downtown that can seat up to 350-400 (don't worry, my guest list is much smaller), but it would be plenty enough room to invite the larger version of the guest list, set up a buffet, and have dancing. Originally I had conceived a brunch reception for myself, but because the wedding will most likely be in winter, I am leaning toward an evening reception. If that happens, Finace and I decided that we want to have troughs of Middle Eastern food--pita, humus, tzaziki, Greek salad, Tabouleh, and, of course, skewers of chicken and LAMB. Yum... tastiful. In any case, I want guests to walk into this beautiful space downtown and feel warmed up by the smells of spices and lots of rich colors in the decor.

I am excited. At the same time, this bride-to-be is very overwhelmed by the rigors of full-time grad school and full-time work. My entries may be sporadic, but I will be dress shopping in a few weeks and also dedicating myself to researching affordable catering options.

~Anna

PS. Mandie--the wedding venue looks incredible.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Way too earlier...

Well now that we've pushed back the wedding it just feels WAY too earlier to start booking vendors, but I have a friend whose little brother is an up-and-coming photographer. I've been following his blog and I absolutely love his work! I know in 2 years he'll still be in university so that will be ok, but I also am pretty sure that he will have been able to raise his prices to way more than we will be able to pay! He's affordable now, but in 2 years? Who knows what could happen.

Anyway, here's his website:
http://www.sergiomottola.com/index2.php

You can't save his photos so I can't upload them here, but seriously, go check out his portfolio. I especially love his engagement photos!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

I've been a little absent...

But I have a good excuse, I swear! I've been in England since the 16th of September and only now in the last couple of days have gotten internet on my lappytop. See! Here's proof!

Grandma, Ma and Myself at Stonehenge

But to make up for my absence, I have lots of news and pictures!!

First bit of news, after a lot of discussion, and a few tears F and I have decided to push back our wedding to the summer of 2010. I didn't really want to have that long of an engagement, but for the sake of our sanity and our bank accounts, it makes sense for us to push it back. I know I could get married not in the summer, but I've always imagined myself a summer bride. So summer of 2010 it is. Hopefully that means that we can squeeze in a trip next summer to make up for it. I suggested Mexico in January to celebrate our 5 year anniversary... :D

It's been difficult to do wedding planning from abroad, but because the engagement is so long I've just been reading blogs and collecting pictures. I'll have more time to collect amazing photos and figure out how to DIY projects!

Before I left, F and I went up to visit the previously mentioned Anderson Lodge. We absolutely loved it. There are two sites, one is more woods-ey and the other was built on top of a hill. I'll show pictures and then discuss the conversations that followed.


The view from the Hilltop House

The main buildings

Isn't this barn picturesque?

The ceremony site- an old apple orchard

More of the ceremony site

Patio outside the kitchen of the other, woods-ey site

Where food and dancing would be- obviously I would have to spruce it up

Ceremony site

Path out to a field that people can camp at

Looking from the ceremony arch back towards the buildings

F happy after a successful day- and onto the Phantom of the Opera!

Ok, so the deal is that you choose one of the sites and you rent out the whole thing for the weekend. We love this idea because we would love to have a whole weekend dedicated to hanging out with family and friends. There is a fire pit for marshmallows, game room with ping pong and 2 pool tables, board games galore, books, lots of places to rest and relax. It also comes with a full service kitchen so all we would have to bring would be food. The down side to these places is that it's a little expensive, but since we're extending our engagement, that probably wouldn't be a problem- plus we would be providing lodging for a lot of our out-of-town guests. My three biggest concerns are: 1)The distance... it's about an hour drive from our home and where a lot of our guests will be coming from; 2) the sleeping arrangements (it's set up with not much privacy, and a lot of twin beds, so I don't know how many of our family would actually want to stay there...); 3)and the place that would have food and dancing. It's not large and in its plain version it's not really that beautiful. I want people to eat, drink and dance, I want a huge party! but I'm afraid that these sites wouldn't provide that, or would make it difficult. But after seeing this place and its possibilities, it seems silly to just have a one night wedding... I don't know.

But it's the only site we've seen, so I'm not going to decide one way or the other at this point. F and I both want to take our parents out there to have a look at it and get their opinions.

Ideas? Comments?