the pieces are coming together

turns out saturday dress shopping went a lot better than i was anticipating. in the back of my mind i knew i was getting all hyped up over nothing. the wedding consultant that worked with me was awesome. she was very attentive and friendly and went out of her way to help me and my crew. i probably tried on a total of 10-12 dresses and found the one! i was shocked that it turned out that easy. the dress is perfect. i love everything about it and can't wait to hear what people say when they see it on the big day. the dress and veil are both ordered and should arrive in about three months. the good news is that it doesn't need much in alterations either. and as long as i find the right shoes, it shouldn't need to be hemmed at all.

it's such a relief to be able to check this off of my list. the fact that it went so smoothly and successfully is really adding to my overall fun level with the whole planning process. i honestly am enjoying planning things out even down to the finest details. i want to keep checking things off of my checklist because it's fun for me to do so, not because i have to do it. in all reality, i still have plenty of time to get things done that i want to get done and buy things that need to be bought, but i am taking my time so i can take it all in at a non-stressed out level. this way i am able to enjoy things and have the patience and time to create my "perfect" wedding.

over the weekend we also met with a couple florists to discuss what we want for the wedding. to be honest, i really had no idea what i wanted to do as far as colors for the bouquets. i might have had a ton on photos of bouquets that i showed, but i never took the time to envision what i wanted to see on my wedding day. i didn't even have any photos of the boutonnieres, nor did i take any time to consider what i wanted them to look like either. i guess i was concentrating so much on the reception table pieces that it simply slipped my mind. that's the good thing about an experienced florist who's good at their job. we were able to talk out some ideas and the pieces came together. i began to envision what the bouquets would look like and how they would vary between the bride, maid of honor and bridesmaids. and the boutonniere ideas, while seemingly simple and straightforward, took their shape and will prove to be just as breathtaking as the bouquets.

with the events from the weekend, i officially have a vision of what the wedding will look like. the attire, the flowers, the colors, the overall style. the whole wedding feels so much more real now. and i'm really excited to watch our ideas develop.

moving along

i scheduled my first appointment for dress shopping this weekend. yay! or, more appropriately for me, ugh... i'm kind of dreading dress shopping. and there's a couple reasons for this. first, i remember how long it too me to find the perfect dress for school dances. i would pass dress after dress at a store then end up trying a few on and never find "the one." so it was off to the next store and the next series of dresses. i remember my mom and i agonizing about going dress shopping because there never seemed to be any dresses that were nice. everything was so tacky and showy or just plain old ugly. i like simple, elegant dresses. the kind of dress that will make the man you're with catch hi breath when he first sees you. this is what i'm looking for in my wedding dress. not too much to ask for, right?

the second reason... i don't especially like being the center of attention. i'll admit it, i'm kind of a shy person. i get very nervous when all the attention is on me. it makes me feel like i have to constantly be on guard that i'm not making myself look like an idiot or doing anything dumb. with that said, however, i shouldn't really be concerned about this at all. i'll be shopping with my mom, sister-in-law who is going to be one of my bridesmaids and another bridesmaid who is a close friend of mine. and i have to say, all three of these people have all seen me at my worst. so maybe i should move onto the last reason why i'm dreading this process.

two words. wedding consultant. i know that by going on a weekend i will have to share my wedding consultant with another bride. this won't be a problem as long as they work equally with both of us. i'm assuming the worst in this situation. i can picture it turning into a battle to cater to the bride who's going to spend the most money. this is definitely not me. i'm not one of these brides that goes out and gets any dress she wants and simply hands mommy and daddy's money over. i have set a budget for my dress and there's not much wiggle room. i want something beautiful and elegant and amazing, but that means i might just have to shop around some more to find something like that in my price range. i'm worried the other bride will end up getting all of the attention because all the consultant is going to see is dollar signs. i'm also worried that the consultant won't listen to me or be on the same page as me when it comes to the style and design of the dress i'm looking for. i have some sample images to show that hopefully will help eliminate this issue, but it's still something that could happen.

maybe it's just an issue of me being eager to finally go out and dress shop. i'm probably thinking way too much into this and making myself anxious over the whole process. i'm nervous, but very excited at the same time. all i want is for the appointment to go smoothly without any problems and be successful. come this weekend i'll have all of these thoughts behind me and be ready to shop with an open mind!

my new favorite font

just randomly, i happened upon what is currently my new favorite font. i've passed over this font several times without giving it a chance at all until now. and only by accident. i was searching for a font to use on a custom poster for a retail store, something elegant and classy without having all the swirls and flourishes as something like scriptina. i accidentally clicked on museo. it was almost as if a light bulb clicked on in my head. this is the perfect type of font i've been searching for for my website. for those of you not familiar with museo, here you go:

i can't quite put my finger on why i am so in love with this font right now. i think maybe it's a combination of simplicity created by the letterform shapes and the feeling of elegance that is projected when they come together to form words. it's very modern, but is very reminiscent of the art nouveau era. it seems to be a very versatile font with perfect legibility.

i prefer the plain museo version as opposed to the museo slab version. and what really makes this version of the font is its semi-slab serifs. is this a sans-serif font? or serif? it's hard to place it in one category over the other since most of the letters have a combination of sans-serif and what i would classify as partial serifs. whatever it is i don't care. i love this font!

well on our way

we've now officially added a dj to our booked items for the wedding! and i have to say it feels really good to have this done and out of the way. i feel a definite sense of accomplishment and i'm proud that all of the hard work is really paying off. and the best part is that we've saved a ton of money by giving ourselves the time to shop around for what we really want and at prices we can afford. i feel like we've found the best that money can buy without having to sell any organs on the black market. i just hope everything from here on out goes equally as smooth.

i know what you're thinking, you still have over a year to go. we're just that good at planning ahead. i'm the kind of person that needs to follow some kind of goal path or whatever you want to call it. i can't help it. i'm always planning for the future. i don't like not knowing what's going on or how things will work out. i can't simply fly by the seat of my pants all the time. i am well aware of the curve balls that life throws your way and more often than not you have no other choice than to just wing it. but that's the good thing about wedding planning for me. for the most part we have complete control of our goal path and timeline of events leading up to our big day.

i've heard a lot of couples complain about the planning process. i've been told good luck followed by that wow, she has no idea what she's in for look so many times i think i would actual be a millionaire with each nickle i got. planning for your wedding should be special and memorable. it should be something you both enjoy. there's going to be a few problems or unexpected adjustments you're going to have to make along the way, but that's just life. just recently we missed an outing to go see a potential dj perform thanks to my lack on concentration when reading an email detailing the location and date/time. simply put i thought it was saturday night when it was in fact friday night. luckily for us we called before we left for the event and realized the mistake immediately saving us the two hour trip. i was more upset with myself over the fact that this was our only time to see the dj perform until july. this pushed us to look at another dj and we actually ended up going with them over our original. i'm a firm believer that this all happened for a reason. we missed the djs performance because there was something even better just around the corner.

sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. life never goes exactly as planned and much is the same for wedding planning. a lot of things can be made more enjoyable in life if you just make the time to actually enjoy it.

in need of an update

i've had to stay away from my web redesign for the last couple of weeks. one trick zebra custom requests have been flooding in recently keeping me fairly busy. throw some wedding planning into the mix and you've got a real recipe for disaster as far as design progress goes. it's all good though. i haven't forgotten my site completely. i figure this will give me some extra time to come up with a really solid design.

for those of you who aren't familiar with one trick zebra, let me explain. right now i'm making screen printed onesies and baby/toddler tees along with receiving blankets. i've been working on designs for appliqued onesies and plan to develop my first prototype this week. you can check out the products i have and the different designs i've been developing on my facebook fanpage. be sure to click "like" to add it to your favorite pages and help me promote my very small, but growing company! a couple of other products i have in mind are quilts/blankets, burp cloths, bibs and various baby toys. it's hard finding the time to sit and sew with my busy schedule, but i do find the time, it can be very relaxing. that is, when my sewing machine is working! i also have an etsy store here that you can check out.

on to wedding stuff... my fiancé and i have made some major progress with wedding plans. as of right now we're a whole year and nine days away from the big day and already have the church, reception, videographer and photographer booked. the dj is in the process of being booked and we plan to have that finalized in the next day or so. these were the top things that we definitely wanted booked well before the one year mark. we have a meeting in the next two weeks scheduled with one florist and are hoping to add another florist meeting into the mix. in the meantime, i've been able to get a couple other things accomplished such as ordering centerpieces, ordering the unity candles for the ceremony, making our cake toppers (jeff and i each made our own bride and groom "character"), and ordering invitation samples along with ordering paper samples and designing our own custom invitations. all in all i'd say we're pretty well off with our plans. the elephant in the room seems to always be my wedding dress. everyone keeps asking if i have a dress yet. no! haha. i've been looking online some, but haven't gone to stores yet to try anything on. i know exactly the look i want and have some styles i want to try on, but i just haven't had the chance yet. plus, i just recently got my bridal party all figured out so that was holding me back from shopping. now that i've got all the responses back from the girls, i'm going to work on scheduling a day that we can all go dress shopping together.we're getting there. slowly, but surely.