We have music!

Ack! I keep making excuses about how I'm a bad blogger. Well, there it is, I just am. At the beginning I just wrote a bunch of posts and scheduled them to publish. That was fab. Then I started to slack on it and those scheduled posts ran out, the ones queued up were never written and well... yeah.

On a separate note, we booked our DJ! This was one thing that the fiance really wanted to have a hand in it. I was totally cool with that, since there are the grooms out there who are just uninvolved. I knew that the music aspect of our wedding day would be really important to him, so I researched the companies and then scheduled some face time.

Having a fiance who is in a different state makes wedding planning a little tricky, but totally doable. Unlike brides who are planning destination weddings, I'm here in the area of our wedding. It's just when things arise that he needs to be here for that require some extra planning. The last time that he was out here we went to interview the DJ company. I also took him to see the reception venue which he had never seen in person, only through photos and verbal description. Next time, we'll have to meet up with my priest to go over some particulars and other stuff.

Our DJ company is awesome and if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'll highly recommend them. They are Denon & Doyle based out of Pleasant Hill, servicing the entire Bay Area. I attended a wedding this summer where they were the DJ company. Everything ran smoothly and everyone gravitated to the dance floor. The flow was great and I felt like it was so professional and just awesome! They know tons of venues and vendors and are so easy and great to work with. They've gotten rave reviews from the Knot and local papers. We met with one of the senior DJs, my fiance got a good vibe from him, and he was hired. Done and done. Now if only all the other wedding stuff was that easy!

Terrible Blogger, AWESOME Post!

I've been really bad at blogging lately. But I'm going to make a better effort to blog as I did when I first started this.

I found a really great article - Top Ten Tips from Nicole Rinaldi on the Wedding Chick Blog! It's great inspiration to get yourself in gear if you're looking for reasons to eat better and get in shape for your wedding or just in general.

Check out the article!

Eco-friendly BM gifts?

The Wedding Chicks posted about these awesome bags. Thinking green and wanting to reduce your carbon footprint? Check out these super cute AND eco-friendly bags by Envirosax. I think these would make fab green gifts! Check out the selections below:

At only $8.50, these are a steal! Reduce those plastic bags! Shop in style and save the environment. It's a win-win situation.

Simply Cinematic

I found this over on one of my favorite blogs, Elizabeth Anne Designs. Have you ever wanted your day to be remembered as epic? Well, that's the feeling I get when I watch this trailer. Definitely an event to remember. This was shot by the folks at Simply Cinematic, Atlanta-based videographers. Truly awesome!


Laura & Erick - Sneak Peek from Simply Cinematic on Vimeo.

Don't Miss it!

The Crate & Barrel Wedding Event is coming to a store near you!

One-Stop Shopping for Inspiration

If there's one blog that I can rely on for everyday inspiration of amazingly beautiful weddings, it's the Southern Weddings blog. I discovered them just a few months ago, and it's one of my daily reads and has some serious eye candy. Lara Casey and her team do a great job of showcasing so many lovely, yet unique, weddings.

Take a look:

Jane & David by Heather Forsythe

Shalyce &Ian by Michele M. Waite

Katie & Torsten by Kate Benson

 
Miriam & Jon - This one was shot by our awesome photographer, Travis Hoehne!

Check out Southern Weddings if you haven't already!

All photos from the mentioned photographers, collaged by Southern Weddings.

Dress Shopping, my take, Part 2

I may be speaking words of blasphemy. Dress shopping was one of the easiest tasks on my wedding to-do list.

When I went wedding dress shopping two weeks ago, I really had no intention of purchasing a dress. I was simply going out to get an idea of what I'd look good in or what styles we available currently. I had a couple of ideas of what I was looking for, and my only request was that it would work with my "something borrowed", my mom's veil from when my parents married, 29 years ago.

We went to the first bridal salon, J'aime Bridal, located in Pleasanton, about a hour east from San Francisco, and about 25 minutes from where I live. I had found the store online as a recommendation from Here Comes the Guide as well as a recommendation from my venue, Castlewood Country Club. It's a small boutique full of lovely wedding gowns from all sorts of designers, as well as chock full of bridesmaid dress options.

Jaime, who I believe is the owner, met with me, my mom, and my sister. We showed her my mom's veil which gave her a couple of ideas of what to pull. I told her that I didn't want too much beading, but some lace, and some details would be okay. I'm not overly fond of the gathered skirts that have been in style the last few years, and I'm definitely more on the simple side of things. I was pretty sure I wanted a strapless dress or one with straps, but with a V-neckline.

After perusing the two main sections of gowns, I pulled some that I thought I would like. Here's a note to wedding dress shoppers out there, if you have allergies, and the dresses are not bagged, then you may experience an allergic reaction to the fumes(?) of the materials of the dresses. I know I sure did. My eyes finally acclimated after a while. I entered the dressing room and accepted what would come next: stripping down to my skivvies and allowing a total stranger to help me get dressed. Not a time for body issues.

I dove into the first dress and Jaime cinched me up as the corseted back sucked everything in. The dress was gorgeous, a Maggie Sottero, which J'aime Bridal, just so happened to be having a Maggie Sottero Trunk Show Sale that day. I didn't really think much of that fact at first. I liked the first dress, it had nice ruching and the corseted back made sure the strapless dress stayed in place. I thought, "Wow, this whole dress trying on thing isn't so bad".

I tried another Maggie Sottero that Jaime had chosen that had less ruching and a fuller skirt. It too had a corseted back and some nice embroidery detailing along the front of the dress. It was beautiful. My mom and sister remarked at how lovely it was and how good I looked in it. I thought, "Definitely Maybe".

I tried on a Casablanca dress that I had picked out. I could definitely tell that it was way heavier than the first two that I tried on. It was made of satin, whereas the other two were made from taffeta. I always liked the look of taffeta, and now I realized that the weight of the fabric made all the difference in the world.

I think I probably tried on seven to ten more gowns after that. I tried on some shoes -- most definitely looking for comfort! -- and even held up a necklace to see the look altogether. Wedding dress shopping is tiring! After trying on all the options, I chose my top two, which Jaime wrote down on a card for future reference. My favorites from this stop were the first two Maggie Sottero gowns.

But I wasn't ready to decide. We still had one more stop before the day was over and couldn't make a decision without seeing what the other salon had to offer. So we thanked Jaime for all her help and headed to the next shop.

To be continued!