I found the look I want for my aisle and it's lovely....you can see this cute wedding over on Jasmine Star's blog. I plan to use red roses instead but here is the look I'm going to go for:

I found the candeliers over on amazon for $10.80 each. I bought six of them so I plan to stagger then down the aisle just like the above inspiration. I think these will look great over at our venue on the terrace. Here is picture of the candeliers close up:

I had a wonderful day Sunday...I went shopping with my mom, my sister-in-law/matron of honor and one of my bridesmaids. It was great, they gave great suggestions and I really valued their opinions. Tiffany even brought in some champagne, yum!


I went in with no real budget in mind, I said to myself I would get the dress that I loved but at the same time I am an el'cheapo and I didn't want to spend over a g. I tried on several and then the one that I loved ended up being the least expensive so it was wonderful. I had a $50.00 coupon from the bridal extravaganza plus they were having a sale so I got another $50.00 of so after it was all said and done I walked out paying.............wait for it...............you ready????

$280.00....yep, that's it. I was happy with the way it looked and the price, it was a win win situation.

I cannot post the picture of the dress that I bought because I have a nosey fiance. He was already saying he was going to look through my camera and I just don't trust him. He's seen this blog and I wouldn't put it past him to sneak a peek. So here are some dresses that didn't make the cut.

I wasn't crying here...lol...I know it looks like that but my daughter likes to just take pictures at the wrong times.

I have thought long and hard about what I wanted for my flowers and I know I want all roses but I wanted to add some feathers and even some glass beads to it. I know I want to diy them however I don't want to deal with real flowers a few days before my wedding. I bought some fake roses, they were not that cheap but I got them at Hobby Lobby's half price sale and the are very nice in my opionion. So I got two different feather inserts and I made my own bouquet bead stems. I do plan to add a more feathers at the base of the flowers and then I plan to cover the stems up with pool color ribbon. The bridesmaids will most likely not have any feathers or beads, just simple roses and then I'll probably add a bouquet initial charm for them on the stems.

Since I design items for clients, I figured it would be good to use my creative side and my lab services to creat my invitations. I know it's early for this part of the planning but this is the most important part I think, this is the first impression a guest will see for your wedding. I wanted to stay away from the pocketfolds. I'm going with an accordian style invitation. The first panel will be the most important aspect and then the 2nd panel will have a picture from our up and coming engagement shoot later this month. The 3rd panel is the one I am not sure of yet, I need to put the Gallery's address but then I also want to mention our wedding website. The 4th panel will be the detachable RSVP postcard. I want the guests to fill it in and then just detach it and mail it back. The back side of the invite will be simple across the first three panels wil be another picture of Justin and me and the 4th panel on the back will be the address part of the RSVP post card.

Here is my digital mock up, please give me CC, I'm open for it. I do need help deciding on what to put on the information page......any suggestion or wording help?

Once the accordian is printed up it will be folded and place in an slot envelope and then I plan to decorate that with a feather, the white part of the digital mockup will most likely be a lace ribbon to give that vintage vibe and then I'll top it all off with a monogram design. This it will be place in nice pool colored envelope with a wrap around label, at least that is what I am leaning for right now.

Who knows this may all change later on but I am really in love with them and I am pretty sure this is what I want to go with.

The full layout of the front:


A close up of the front panel:


A close up of the RSVP card:

Full layout of the back panels:

A close up of the back of the RSVP card:

And then theh digital mock up of what I want the finished product of the envelope to look like:

The whole purpose of the Bridal Brunch, posted previously was to look at dresses...and here is what I came up with.

This is from David Bridal's website, it really give the whole vision I am looking for. I don't want matchy matchy but I want some flow to it. These dresses I think really fit the bill. The two little girls on the end are my two daughters, they'll be Jr Bridesmaids, they're a bit older (12 & 14). So if my colors are Pool Blue and accents of Red, what do you think of the Jr. Bridesmaids being red, I like the bit of color it adds. I am planning to have a flower girl too and she'll be in the Pool Blue so that will sort of break it up a little bit more.

These are the girls with their dresses on but just not in MY colors.

These are the girls and then adding in my two daughters. As you can see the dress for my youngest (green) didn't really fit but you get an idea.

I know my wedding is not until May 2010 but I felt the need to get the girls together for a little meet and greet and then do a little dress shopping. I want them all comfortable but at the same time I want a vision to come through. I think I got it down. I think as a bridesmaid, having plenty of time to buy the dress is a big help, doing it this early helped me get my vision down and then it will also help them to budget for their dress.

Here is the invitation I designed and gave them for the bridal brunch.

I did very minimal decorations for the brunch I wanted a very casual feel to it but I did get all the stuff from goodwill and other resale shops. The champange glasses cost me about 79 cents each...the tray for the muffins was only $2.99...and the vintage lace table cloth was $3.99. I mades some very yummy food.

Here is what was on the menu:

Blueberry and Chocolate Chip Muffins

Pancakes rolled and filled with a fruit filling

Mini Pie Shells filled with scrambled eggs and cheese

Pigs in a blanket

Mini Eclairs

Fresh fruit: Strawberries, Grapes, Watermelon, Honey Dew Melon, Cantelope

and to wash it all down...Mimosa

Here's a picture of the table with all the goodies:

This is my maid of honor, Cynthia:

This is my sister in law Tiffany, she's my brothers wife.

So let me share some funnies....lol. My mom just had a birthday, well actually it was June 17th, but we celebrated it last Saturday over at my brother's house. He welcomed us with a crawfish broil and then we all had some drinks....and jumped on the slip n slide.

Yep the slip n slide...see the videos below. LOL!

But first some pictures of Justin and me....

I am an avid resale and garage sale shopper....What got me started was when I would be ona search for unique props or chairs for photo shoots, the uglier chair the better. But since I'm planing my wedding I always look for things that serve a purpose and could be used some how.

So after the gym I stopped off at Hobby Lobby and as I was walking the store I saw that all bridal stuff was 50% off. So I ventured over there and saw they had bird cages, you know the ones that most brides use for their gift cards. But not me I want them for centerpieces. I got four of them for $7.50 each, SCORE!

They will go perfectly with my theme. I plan to put red candles inside ( a large pillar style ) decorate the top with a nice aqua ribbon and then the bottom cover with some moss or maybe make the bottom look like a nest....I'm not sure but I know I have big plans for these.

So here is the inspiration that got me wanting to do these as centerpieces:

And here are my cages in the raw form of course:

It was a very casual event, a fish fry complete with shrimp and wings....plus all kinds of sides. Justin and I provided the fish, shrimp and wings but my mom, his mom and my maid of honor Cynthia cooked all the sides. My wonderful mom came to my house bright and early and decorated it.....it was red all over. If you know my mom you know she puts her heart into everything she does and this was something she worked hard on. As I stated Justin and I provided the meat, however his poor Granny came over and fried it all. Granny is the best when it comes to cooking, hence why we visit her house every sunday after church.

So I'm going to put a few of my ideas down here in writing, maybe it will help me to get more productive. I want to do alot but I guess I look at the tasks at hand and get a little scared as to where to start.

So one idea I have for the ceremony is I want to decorate every other aisle with feather pomanders. A fellow knottie named Jo did it for her wedding and I love them, their different than the flower pomanders you see.

They look great and Jo said they were simple and easy to make, she was kind enough to share her instructions with me and this is a taks I know I can handle.

I need to think of what I can do for the alter decoration, I like the tall branches but I'm not sure, I also like the arbors with hanging flowers or draping. I need to ponder more on this...off to google images.

I finished them, I have my first DIY done. I really liked how they turned out. I will be so happy to see them on the top of my cake, whatever that may be..LOL.

Oh and I bought two more but they're the bigger ones. Maybe I'll use them on one of the extra display tables or something, I couldn't pass them up they were on clearance at Michael's for like $2.

I spend the day with my mom and we met with some linen peeps....more about that later!

After lunch we stopped in Michael's, now it was just to look. I have a few ideas of DIY items but I really wanted to JUST LOOK. I passed by an end cap and starring right there back at me were the cutest ceramic birds. I just had to have them and best of all they were only $1.99 ea.

Now they came in white only and they have these holes on the side, the white is paintable but the holes I'm just not sold on yet. I plan to pain them red then re-bake them and see how the holes look then. If anything else I can fill them with something later if I choose too.

So, what am I going to use these for you ask....the cake topper. I wanted something different, no letters, no flowers....the feathered birds were too whimsical for my taste, these fit the bill perfectly.

Here they are in all their glory (unpainted of course).

The engagement party is not going down this weekend, we're having to push it back because of a death in the family. We did reschedule it for Saturday, May 30th. So I do have that to look forward to.

I did realize that I have a year now...a year from now I will be Mrs. Lewis. I am so excited to really get started. This is now officially the beginning of my planning process....I got the venue and now I need to move on and tackle more.

Wish me luck!!!

Since we finally have a date and a venu, my mom and Justin's mom decided it would be a good time to host an Engagement party for us. It's going to be just my family and his plus our wedding party. This way it will give all my family a chance to meet all of his family. We'll also use the evening to announce our wedding party.

It's not until May 2nd but here are the invitations I designed for it, very simple. I love damask and since it's so popular with weddings I just knew it wasn't something I wanted throughout my wedding so this was my way to get to use damask.

Can you believe it, I barely can. This was such a hard process. We are having our wedding and reception at The Gallery.

Because we waited to make a decision our original wedding date of May 15th, 2010 was already taken. So we had to change our date to May 1st, 2010. I never knew how far in advance these wedding venues book but at least they still had dates in May available.

Now the wedding plans can really begin. I am so excited to start.