i do monograms

Just returned from visiting my little bride-to-be and we had such a great time. We spent our time expoloring, laughing, eating, and what else... shopping! We spent a full day on Friday shopping for wedding gowns and she found a GORGEOUS gown. She still has a little over a year til the wedding though so no purchase yet... but I'm telling you, it's absolutely amazing! I won't post any details about it though in fear that her fiance might read.


In any case, just wanted to let everyone know I'm home and I'm spending the night responding to all the e-mails and orders I received while I was gone. I won't be able to get to my e-mail all day tomorrow as we're having an open house (keep your fingers crossed that we get a buyer!) tomorrow- but I'll be back on schedule starting Monday. I hope everyone's having a fabulous weekend!

Happy Thursday! I'm getting ready to go out of town to visit the bride-to-be (my little sis) and help her in the hunt for that "perfect" gown. I will still be checking my e-mails but not as often as usual so I may be a little slow in my responses. I'll return on Sunday- hope everyone has a great weekend!

I loved our Polaroid Guestbook that we did for our wedding- it was very interactive and much better than the typical "sign your name on the line" guestbook. If you're looking for another unique guestbook ideas check this one out:

Today is our one year anniversary! I can't believe it's been a whole year, it feels like it was just yesterday that I was walking down the aisle to marry the man of my dreams. We decided to celebrate our anniverary last night and my handsome hubby told me he had set something up and we needed to be somewhere at 7pm. So we got all dressed up and my hubby blindfolded me (well, actually I wouldn't let him blindfold me so I kept my eyes shut- and really I didn't peek!) and we were off. I honestly had no clue where he would be taking me. When he told me to finally open my eyes I realized we were at the country club were we had our reception! Now we are not members of the country club and you can only have dinner there if you're a member, so I thought that he had just brought me there to kind of reminice and then we would go out to dinner somewhere.... wrong!

Our guests raved about the polaroid guest book we did. They loved having their picture taken as soon as they arrived at the reception (I guess it made them feel important!) and they really enjoyed being able to write us a message rather than just signing their name. So how'd we do it? It was actually really simple, and cheap! Below are the directions:

Materials:
- Scrap book (I purchased a small 5x7" scrapbook from ACMoore for $3- make sure to get a book that has the page covers that are closed at the bottom so that if any of the photos come loose they won't get lost)
- extra scrapbook pages (also at ACMoore)
- photo corners (purchased at ACMoore)
- 2 Polaroid JoyCams (purchased off ebay)
- JoyCam film (purchased off ebay)

How it Worked:
We had three guestbook attendants. Two attendants took photos as the guests entered cocktail hour at the reception, which helped to keep things moving. With two photographers, no one had to wait for very long. The third attendant was seated at the guestbook table and was responsible for attaching the photos to the pages with the photo corners and making sure that people signed next to their photos. Once each page had two photos and two messages, the attendant at the table just inserted the scrapbook page into it's cover and voila! The guestbook was finished before we even arrived at the reception! Simple, easy, cheap, and much more fun to look back on instead of just a book with names!

I have to gush about my fabulous photographers again... I know I know, I rave about them all the time, but they were so amazing to work with and now that we're just a few days away from our one year anniversary I can't help but to look back on all the fabulous photos and share a few with you all. This is one of my faves mainly due to the fact that it just illustrates the happiness of that day and how in love we are with each other. Oh I love reminiscing! Don't worry, I'll be posting more soon. It's so hard to choose just a handful!

It's funny how everything comes full circle. Almost a year ago I was taking the long walk down the aisle to marry the man of my dreams... truly the happiest day of my life. Now, just three days away from our one year anniversary, we found out that the offer we put in on a home was officially accepted and we'll be getting the house of our dreams! (YAY!) It's so exciting! It's like walking down the aisle all over again. I knew there was no question my fiance (now hubby) was the man of my dreams and who I am supposed to spend the rest of my life with. There was no uncertainty, no hesitation, I wanted to run down that aisle to marry him! It's weird that I'm feeling the same way about this house (well, to an extent)- I just can't get to it fast enough! Silly I know, but it's true. And what a better anniversary gift to give to eachother than a brand new house! I'm all smiles- can ya tell?! :)

Photo above by my talented photographer's at Enigma Productions

We're still playing the waiting game on the home we put an offer in on and I'm super stressed. I know the saying says "no news is good news" but in this case, I feel like that's false. I just want to know something... anything!

*Edit- I posted too early... as it turns out, no news IS good news! My hubby couldn't stand it any longer and called the realtor. The builder has verbally confirmed that he is accepting our offer but the realtor wanted to wait and contact us until he got it in writing!!! YAY!!! We're not saying it's a definite yet until we see it in writing, but it looks like it's really going to happen!!!

A good photographer can make chaos appear beautiful. As our one year anniversary is nearing I keep looking back at our wedding photographs and this one always stands out to me (credit to our fabulous photographers at Enigma Pro of course). Even after all my meticulous planning and creating timelines and schedules for everyone in the bridal party, we somehow ended up running late. Thankfully my wonderful group of bridesmaids and my mom got me into my gown and completely dressed from head to toe in mere seconds. Talk about chaotic! I had hands all over me pulling, pushing, squeezing, tying, buttoning, poking, you name it my girls were on it! I thought I would definitely get a good laugh when the pictures came back but I was shocked when I saw how beautifully my photographer captured this chaos! True genius.

So what’s the moral of this story? When selecting your wedding photographer, choose someone that you feel comfortable with and also someone who has the ability to remain calm and capture the beauty of the day in all its chaotic glory. Since we officically have 10 days left until our 1 year anniversary I'm going to highlight the fabulousness of our photographers and try to post one of my favorite pictures from the wedding each day... now how do I choose?!

I've been totally inspired by the story boards that brides have been posting over at WeddingBee. When I first began planning I too created a story board and was searching through my files to try and find it so that I could share. Well... no luck, I forgot it was saved on my old computer. But then I started thinking, hey wait a minute... I'm already married! So instead of a pre-wedding storyboard, here is our post-wedding storyboard (even better right?!) with all my favorite details. Credit of course to our fabulous photographers Enigma Pro!

I am a huge HGTV junkie. My hubby can't stand it (although at times he can get into some of the DIY shows as well!) This week is HGTV's wedding week and I am so excited I can hardly contain myself! Below is a handy little list of airtimes that I devised to make sure I don't miss any of these great wedding episodes, jot them down so you can tune in as well! (Is anyone else as excited about this as I am? I'm not the only wedding fanatic out there am I?!)

I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned that in my "real life" I'm a school counselor. So when I came across this website I knew I would just have to share. The website is called "True Bride Confessions" and it's a forum where brides (past, present, and future) can annomously post about anything going on in their lives that they need to confess. Confession is, in my opinion, an extremely theraputic outlet. So often we hold in what we are thinking or feeling... sometimes we do this because we're embarassed of our thoughts and feelings, or most likely, we don't want to burden anyone else with our problems. What we don't realize is that by keeping things in we're placing a heavy burden on ourselves. It's time to let it out! Go and vent about your overbearing future mother-in-law or your lazy fiance who refuses to help with any of the planning... take advantage of this great outlet! The best part is... it's completely anonymous- so no one will ever know! Don't have anything to vent? Go check it out anyway- you may be able to relate to some of the confessions and hey, some of them may even make you feel better about your own life! *warning: some foul language



"TrueBrideConfessions is the first ever online confessional for brides, brides-to-be or brides -who've –been. A place for women planning or reminiscing about their joyful wedding days who need to vent but don't want to ripple the wedding waters." -www.truebrideconfessions.com

So it’s probably pretty obvious by now that I’m slightly obsessed with monograms… ok, ok, I’m completely obsessed! Just check out my website and you’ll see– I love to monogram EVERYTHING! So when I came across these adorably trendy monogram paperweights from one of my new favorite websites See Jane Work, I simply fell in love. What a unique gift these would be for bridesmaids! They are definitely on the costly side at $65, but they are a true artform.

Thanks to everyone who entered our Monogram Giveaway! We have a winner... JMAC!!! Congratulations! Please send us an e-mail with the following info and we'll get started for you:

1) Monogram selection (select 5 monograms from our monogram page)
2) Bride's first name
3) Groom's first name
4) New last name
5) Wedding date
6) Wedding colors (please select from our color chart)

If you didn't win but would like some monograms, just click here!