Tea and Invitations

This morning I met with Sara of Constellation & Co. at the TeaCup to talk about invitations over a hot pot of tea. Constellation & Co. is a Seattle based company that does all things printing - invitations, announcements, cards, etc. Brian actually found them on Mars Hill's Marketplace :) Sara is absolutely delightful and I am so excited to get to work with her on our wedding invitations. She and her husband, Brad, are going to create a custom letterpress wedding invitation for our wedding - how cool is that?! And they are very reasonably priced. Check out their Esty shop and their Felt & Wire shop. Here a few examples of their prints:



P.S. I know I said I decided to just make them myself... but after a little more research and finding Sara... I quickly changed my mind!

Wyoming Wedding

Oh my word! This wedding that was posted on 100 Layer Cake yesterday is aaaammmazing! You have got to check out "Real wedding: Katie & Dave"! The scenery is just breath-taking...

Arrived!

My dress arrived today! I'm dying to put it up here, but Brian is well aware of this blog and frequents it... so you're just going to have to wait until June! Hopefully I will pick it up on Bridesmaid Day so that all my girls and my mother-in-law can see it : ) In the mean time, you can guess which one of Mori Lee's Blu dresses is mine!

In other news, I discovered a new wedding blog that I love today! It is actually based in Washington : ) So go check out Love and Lavendar right away...

Week of Decisiveness...

I'm feeling quite on top of things this week when it comes to the wedding! It feels great!

• I made an appointment at Paper Source in Bellevue to come in on Friday and check out the Letterpress Combo Kit ($149.99) that they have in their store. They said they would be more than happy to show me how it works, etc before I decide on purchasing it. Wonderful!
  
• I have "Bridesmaid Day" all figured out and set-up for November 6th. Brian's Mom and sister will even be able to come up from Vancouver for it : ) One of our fun activities will be to go to the Robinswood House, as most of them have yet to see it in person.
• I decided on bridesmaid dresses: Alfred Sung, d437 from Moms, Maids, and More. The girls are going to get fitted for the dresses on "Bridesmaid Day". They are giving us a 10% discount because I'm getting 6 of them, which essentially pays for the tax. Before tax, they're going to be $156, which is pretty average. I think I'm going to go with majestic (purple), as that seems to be the girls top pick.
• Brian and I have decided that we want to go with Twelve Baskets Catering, who actually catered the dinner reception for my sister's wedding. We are working on setting up an appointment to try food options sometime in the next few weeks. Yay!
• I worked on the invitation list some more last night... and began figuring out the save-the-date list (as we are most just sending save-the-dates to family and out-of-town guests).

And now I shall leave you with an awesome picture that I saw on Style Me Pretty today :)

P.S....

I had to wait until after midnight to put up this post.. because 8 months from TODAY I will be putting on a pretty white dress and marrying the love of my life! I'm just a little excited ; )

A Productive Sunday Afternoon

Today, Brian and I spent our afternoon registry shopping with my sister/maid-of-honor! We were quite successful, which was nice for a change :) We found towels at Pottery Barn and potentially our future dining room table! After spending a while there and taking a Jamba Juice break, we headed over to Macy's to look for bedding. We registered for a down comforter... and couldn't decide on anything else quite yet (like pots and pans). Last but not least, we went to Crate and Barrel! And as you will see below, we found a few things :)

Feet!

For some reason, I just love pictures of people's feet at weddings... and you can put money on it that I will have some taken at my wedding : ) Here are a few I have found over time. The last two are Michele Waite pictures, a photographer from the Pacific Northwest that I love. I don't recall exactly where I found the first one, but I'm sure it was from one of four places (Style Me Pretty, 100 Layer Cake, Green Wedding Shoes, or Michele Waite)...

On Tonight's Menu...

Aren't these plates adorable?! We've registered for them! I can't wait to serve some yummy home cooked meal to friends and family on them. And they'll look great on our table clothes from India that my mom got us while we were visiting my parents (I'll have to show you them in them later in another post).
(from Pottery Barn)

Desired

So, as a typical engaged woman, I am looking for things to put on my registry. One of the places Brian and I are registering at is Pottery Barn. Long story short... I stumbled upon this cubby organizer that I love! I just have to share...

Camping?

I told Brian tonight that I would go camping on our honeymoon if we could go to Paws Up in Montana! So really it is actually "glamping," but I would do it in a heartbeat! I found it today on one of my favorite wedding blogs, Green Wedding Shoes. What girl wouldn't go camping if this is what it was like?!

All things Invitation!

So I have decided that I am going to make our wedding invitations with the help of my bridesmaids, friends, and family! I looked at oodles and oodles of invitations online and in stores...my conclusion: they're expensive! I'm not all together sure what it will cost me to do them myself (especially with all my fun ideas), but you can't put a price on love, right?!

I am undecided about what specific method/style I am going to use... but whichever I end up choosing... I have about 200 invitations to make! My two current ideas are the following:

1.) Create homemade letterpress invitations using the Letterpress Combo Kit by Lifestyle Crafts. They offer this wonderful option of Custom Printing Plates. Long story short, I am currently in love with this idea!

2.) Create homemade invitations on nice card stock with a fancy paper backing! I got this idea yesterday when I was covering a shoe box in fancy paper so that I could use the box to put sewing stuff and buttons in it... and I had these scraps and BING! it came to me that it could be a fun idea!

Bridesmaid Dress Shopping!

Saturday I went bridesmaid dress shopping with four of my six bridesmaids. It was loads of fun and very successful! We started at Macy's, which was a fail. Nordstrom was a bit better, but not great. The last two places we went were tons better: Moms, Maids, and More and Bellevue Bridal. The sweetheart strapless dress is an Alfred Sung dress carried by M,M, and M. The halter dress is an Alfred Angelo dress carried by Bellevue Bridal. I suppose I like dresses by people named 'Alfred' : )

2 Months and 9 Days later...

I'm back! Engaged! And well on my way with my wedding plans! Brian proposed on a perfect August afternoon by the Kirkland waterfront. It was perfect! I was overjoyed to the point of shaking. Andrew Teng, my sister's brother-in-law, took pictures that turned out absolutely amazing (see below). And he got me my DREAM Tacori Danatela Ring! Later that evening, we picked up my mom at the airport and surprised her with the news; it was priceless!

2 months and 9 days later... I have my dress (by Mori Lee, found at Lady Margaret's in Puyallup, WA)... our ceremony and reception location (Robinswood House in Bellevue, WA)... our invitation list... our bridal party (6 bridesmaids, 6 groomsmen)... our budget... and lots of ideas!

(photo from: www.seattlebride.com)