Did I hear you were going to...

Something I've learned from planning a wedding, is to never ever, under any circumstances, say you're doing "A" and then do "B". People are allergic to change.

Ok, that's not possible and happens about every other minute when you're planning a wedding. My mom is still, somewhat jokingly, on me about having a summer wedding, which we had originally planned.

Apart from my mom's joking, I've seriously had people come to me complaining about the most random things. Things that I had no idea effected anyone but myself and Mike. Like what we put on our save the dates, or what color our wedding website is..

So how do you deal with  -"I heard you're getting buttercream frosted cake. I just wanted to let you know that buttercream is gross and I will smoosh it on your face if you serve it to me..." and no, unfortunately that was not a real conversation, it's just would totally happen.

Do you submit to their demands of having twelve tier wedding cake? Get a bouncy house and clown to entertain their misbehaving kids?

I'd love to say NO! put down your foot in every instance, it's your wedding!! But that's not always the case. Sometimes people have actual good reasons for complaining or suggesting things...I think. Then there are people who keep suggesting you rent a camel to ride in on, and all you can say is "huh".

Anyways, I guess it comes down to being understood and being understanding at the same time. Can you bend a little on if kids are allowed at the rehearsal dinner? Maybe, if it doesn't really matter to you. But should you bend on something important that will effect price too much or ruin your experience? Nope.

Side note: Many people I know have much more wedding sense than I do, and I'm extremely thankful to have them around. Actually Mike is probably even more thankful to have people to organize my ideas..Otherwise we might be having a circus themed wedding, in Cancun, on a cruise liner...which would be SO COOL!!! Right??

Oh hair, where art thou?

You know when you go into get one of those experimental "I want to tottally alter my look" haircuts? We'll I did just that two days before I got engaged I chopped off most of my hair. I mean it was short befor that, but I wanted a cute bob. And it is, only problem is I'm getting married in seven months and this is my hair... grown out...

I looove my short hair, but want it long for my wedding because, well I do. So I've been soliciting advice from hair stylist friends and other experts in the field (google), on what I can do to grow my hair out fast, and so far the resounding opinion is pre-natal vitamins! Which, if you're not pregnant, buying them is SUPER awkward. Especially when the inevitable "so when are you due?"..."uh I'm getting them to grow my hair out"..."wink* Ok, right" conversation comes up between you and the cashier, or random-super-conservative-friend-you-never-regularly-see-except-when-you-happen-to-be-buying-pre-natal-vitamins-seven-months-before-your-wedding... Never-the-less, I'm going to try it and if nothing else I'll have really nice nails, because apparently they do that too!

Practical, Posh and Pretty Bridesmaids' Gifts

I had a nightmare last night that it was our wedding day but we had forgotten the wedding favors and all of our guests were throwing temper-tantrums demanding little bags of candy. I woke up in a cold sweat, and then realized.."oh right, our wedding is almost a whole year away, we don't have to worry about that yet."  The favor's I'm not so concerned about yet, the bridal party gifts however have got me a little worried. What do you get you're bridal party? I found a few places and websites that have great tools to help you navigate the bridal party gift waters.

Macy's Wedding Shop
This cool little website helps you find pretty much anything you'd need for your big day. You can create a head to toe look for your attendants, find jewelry and shoes, and they even have great attendant gifts!

Wedding Star 
This website/magazine is a great one-stop-shop for, well, pretty much everything. They have great unique items for your attendants as well as inspirational tips.

Things Remembered
If you're looking for personalized gifts, lets say a engraved flask or compacts, then they're your go to guys. They have a wedding section with idea's for bridesmaids and groomsmen gifts.

Boudoir Photography

So keeping up with the theme of my last blog, I found another new trend in wedding photography, boudoir photography! I've been trying to scrounge together my venders for my wedding..which has been a blast so far since nearly 90% of the people I wanted are either already booked, or moving. Any who, whilst I was researching photographers in the area, I started noticing something, almost half of them had a "boudoir" section. Not really knowing what it was, I clicked and actually didn't find the shots that un-classy, gross, or pornographic. You'd have to be pretty comfortable in your own skin to do it, which I'm personally not, but if you can get over that, then more power to you! It might make a sexy gift for your husband or bride to be. If you do go that route, I'd suggest buying a safe to keep them in so no nosey relatives ever "accidentally" finds them ;)!

What do you think? Would this be a great memento of the glory days, or is it too much?

First Look Photo Sessions

Haven't heard of them? Me either, until today when my wedding photog friend Emily posted something on my wall. Basically, what they are is a photo session on your wedding day of just you and your fiancé seeing each other for the first time. Instead of you two seeing each other for the first time walking down the isle, you do pictures of the two of you in a more intimate setting, away from all the eye's of your friends and family.

This could either be really cool, or not so much, depending on the couple. If you've always wanted the big reveal of you walking down the isle, then this route isn't for you. However, there's something very special about seeing each other for the first time on your big day. And how awesome would it be to be able to capture the looks on both your faces when you see each other for the first time?

What do you think of this new trend?

Discount Designer Dresses

At my old high school we had to do these things called "Senior Projects". For those of you who don't know what that is, or had a sane high school that only required community service, it's basically just a opportunity to explore a career or passion. A year or two after I graduated, a girl decided she'd put together a discount prom dress day for her senior project. Fed up by the cost of having to buy a dress that would only be worn once, she petitioned the community to donate gently used prom dresses, to be sold at the high school gym half price the retail value. After I've looked at a few wedding dress stores, and seeing the prices,  I understand her frustration at women having to pay so much for a dress they would only wear one day.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand that a wedding dress is way more sentimentally important then a prom dress but wow, can they be expensive. At the same time buying a quality dress is important. So what's a girl to do? I don't know, BUT there's this amazing place online that my sister showed me called preownedweddingdresses.com. They have basically any designer you could ever want and the dresses are all significantly discounted. While some of the dresses have been worn once, I found a few that still had the tags on! Now, I've never used this site so it is a little "buyer beware", but I am noticing that physical shops like this, that either rent or sell wedding dresses, are popping up everywhere. While you might need to make some alterations and adjustments, you could save a pretty penny.

Doing it yourself

I love the idea of doing things yourself, especially when that means you save a whole lot of dough. The problem with it? The amount of times I mess something up before I get it right, and then making sure I can repeat the process without a huge glitter-glue catastrophe!

I live all the way up in Oregon and when I wanted to ask my would-be-bridesmaids to be in the wedding I ran into a problem. They live pretty much everywhere except Oregon. I couldn't just ask them all at once, or ask them individually without racking up a some impressive credit card debt for travel expenses. So I decided to figure out another way to ask. 

Our wedding's going to have a peacock theme so I was looking all over etsy for peacock related items. I found a few cute things but nothing that I loved. So one day I was getting school books at the Duck Store in Eugene, and all the sudden I saw them. They were these blank cards with peacock feathers and they were on sale!!! 

So I bought them and went to town, trying to figure out a way to squish in "will you be my bridesmaid" on the card, and avoid the somewhat ginormous feather. 

This was the first...few, attempts. It worked super well as you can see, but eventually after kicking my printer a few times, and enlisting the help of my fiancé we figured it out. 

The final product wasn't exactly up to Martha Stewart quality, but I was happy with them. Most importantly, all the women I asked said yes!

What DIY did you do for your wedding? Did it work out, or was it so not worth the effort?