Fall trip

A few weeks ago we went to visit friends in Atlanta and go to a friend's wedding in Highlands, North Carolina.  The fall leaves were gorgeous, as was the wedding.  The whole weekend was great!  Friday night we caught up with Andy, Charles' friend from Rhodes, and then Saturday morning we got in some visiting with Caroline and their three kids.  Saturday afternoon we headed up to Highlands for the wedding - the fall leaves were incredible!  Charles' parents were there and it was nice to have a weekend to spend time with them.  Charles also got the chance to catch up with Stephen and the rest of the Pate family.  Sunday we squeezed in a visit with our friends Brooks and Missy and a little more play time with Andy and Caroline's three kiddos.  Overall it was a great trip!  Here are a few of my favorite pics from the weekend:

 At the wedding

 Enjoying fall!

busy, busy

Where does the time go?  I have been very busy the past few weeks with lots of stuff other than wedding planning it seems.  Since my last post I/we have:

• We celebrated Charles' birthday with some yummy food and Abita Andygator at BRC.  We love BRC, especially the brunch, but had not been for dinner in quite a while.  Charles wanted to go there for his birthday dinner and we were excited to see they had expanded their gastropub menu.  Probably the top highlight of the evening was that they had the Abita Andygator on tap - Charles was very excited!
• Spent the first fall-like weekend in Houston entirely outdoors we visited the Bayou Bend Collection (part of the MFAH) for the first time, we took Lola for a walk on the bayou along Allen Parkway, we spent the afternoon at Boheme, a neighborhood bar, and Charles worked on some painting.  We took lots of pictures, but haven't downloaded them yet.  I'll add them later.   
• I had dinner with Vicky and Ellie and bought some awesome silver glitter paper to make my table numbers.  We had dinner at Ruggles Green in City Centre and then walked over to this new store that just opened called Paper Source.  I got some great ideas for wedding invitations as well while we were wandering around.  Also, if you are in need of funny and original birthday or thank you cards this is the place to go, such a cool store!
• We went to San Antonio for my 10 year college reunion and some wedding planning.  We had a great evening on Friday night watching Trinity mens soccer (they were playing Rhodes).  I'm not going to discuss the results of the game, but let's just say it was painful for Charles to watch.  Afterwards I was introduced to Andy, Charles' college soccer coach and one of Charles' former teammates, Tanner.   Following the game Tanner took us to Beethoven for Octoberfest, it was awesome!  I never expected to walk into this in a neighborhood in South San Antonio.  Saturday we took care of a meeting with the florist and DJ and squeezed in brunch at Panchitos (best tortillas ever!).  After the wedding stuff was out of the way we wandered around Trinity campus and I exclaimed how different everything looked since I went there 10 years before.  It was fun to go back and walk around and re-live old memories.  Saturday night was the Gamma Chi Delta (my sorority) 50th anniversary party, it was fun catching up with old friends.  Sunday we just hung out in and around down town San Antonio and checked out a few rehearsal dinner spots.  We have settled on Acenar, I am excited and think it will be fun for everyone to enjoy Mexican food on the riverwalk.  We wrapped up the weekend with a trip to the Alamo, where Charles did another lovely painting. Again, we have lots of pics, but they are all still on the camera.  I'll post some later! 
• I went to Austin to meet my wonderful friend Andrea's baby and to celebrate my amazing friend Michelle's baby that is on the way. 

So, as you can see I don't have much wedding news to report other than nailing down a few more vendors.  But, I have recruited some friends and family to help me with the flowers, so hopefully I will have more to report on that DIY project soon. 

Oh, I also bought my veil.  I bought it online, so we shall see if it works, when it comes, but I'm hoping it will be what I wanted.  I of course bought it on sale (I simply cannot resist a good sale).  So, this takes one DIY project off of my list.  Of course, now I have 3 yards of ivory tulle that I need to find some use for!  Any ideas?

less than 6 months to go

Time is flying by, I can hardly believe that the wedding is 167 days away (actual date count is thanks to the knot website - and sometimes stresses me out!).

Life has been a little busy lately.  I started a new contract attorney project a couple weeks ago, and so most of my wedding projects have been on  hold.  I have had time today to work on making some fabric flowers - here is a picture of what I have done so far:

I like the way they are turning out, but it's definitely taking more time than I expected.  I will definitely be recruiting friends and family to help me make them, don't worry - I'll bribe you by providing wine and snacks!

I've had a few requests for overall wedding planning updates.  So, here goes...

We have sent out save the dates, I think they turned out really cute.  Here is the picture we included on them.  The chalkboard in the photo will actually be used at the wedding as well.  My wonderful friend Tracy had seen this idea at another wedding recently and shared it with me - they had guests use chalkboards to leave messages for the bride and groom.  There was a camera available so each person could have a picture taken of them with their message for the couple, and that was used as their guest book.  I loved the idea, and so we ordered a couple of chalkboards in our wedding colors on Etsy for our chalkboard/photo wedding guest book.  I can't wait to see it in action at the wedding!  

Let's see what other plans can I update on?  

We found a photographer!  We are using Mark Sobahni as our wedding photographer, his stuff is amazing, you should definitely check out his website and blog.  His work is photo-journalistic in style, which we appreciate because it is more candid and captures moments, more than poses. 

We are currently working on cake ideas.  I am planning to use crepe paper flowers in various shades of blue on the different tiers of the wedding cake.  I really want a pretty simplistic cake that has a homemade icing look to it.  Still lots of ideas in the works for the grooms cake and we will probably keep the finalized idea a secret, so that you will all be amazed and awed by it at the reception. :)

Music for the ceremony was fairly easy, we decided on two violins to play at the church, the acoustics are amazing and I really think it will sound great!  I think we're also almost decided on all of the music choices for the ceremony, but still need to talk to the musicians and make sure they can play all the pieces that we want played.  

We are going to San Antonio in a few weeks for my 10 year college reunion (still amazed that it's been 10 years), and while we're there we are going to meet with the florist to pick out flowers!  Right now I'm leaning towards all white flowers with blue ribbon wrapped around the bouquets.  I am supposed to print or cut out pictures of things that I like, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.  I'm not really very picky about flowers, I really like them all, so it should be fun.  

We still haven't had time to go to San Antonio to do cake tastings and reception food tastings.  We need to go during the week, which makes it tough.  Hopefully we will be able to make time during the holidays when Charles has time off from school.  

I'm using the fabric flowers above scattered in the center of the table with tealight candles and table numbers as our centerpieces.  I have an idea for another DIY project, but I'm worried I'm going a little DIY crazy.  I went to the new Anthropologie wedding store, BHLDN (we are oh so lucky that the first one in the country opened right here in Houston!) and fell in love with these glitter table numbers.  Aren't they awesome!?  Unfortunately they are quite pricey and only come in packages 0-9 and so I would need three of them to get all of my numbers. So, I think I'm going to use cardboard, glue, and glitter and make them myself.  

The two vendors I have left are the DJ and the transportation from the wedding to the reception.  I am quite worried about selecting a DJ.  We want to have great music and have a list of songs we don't want played and so we want to make sure we don't pick a a generic cheesy wedding DJ, and so, we just keep putting it off.  My major wedding task this week is to get someone booked!  The transportation I'm not as worried about.  We're either going to hire a small bus or trolley to take the wedding party to the ceremony and from the ceremony to the reception after, it shouldn't be too hard to find someone, it's just a matter of making the phone calls.  

Ok, this turned into a marathon post.  If you want more details on something specific or have any suggestions, leave me a comment or email me! 

a few days off

I started working as a contract attorney again after we got engaged, I figured I could use the extra money, and would enjoy the flexibility of having some time off for planning in between contracts.  My most recent contract job ended on Tuesday, so I'm taking advantage of this time to do some cleaning, organizing, and DIYing.  The agency that I work with already has a couple jobs in the works, which means I should go back to work sometime next week. 

My first DIY project: bridal sash/belt
I bought my dress about a month ago and I LOVE IT!  I ended up buying a dress by Enzoani, it is part of the Blue collection.  I didn't realize it until I got home from my second trip to try on dresses, I had tried on 3 Enzoani dresses and they were my top favorites.  The woman in the bridal salon told me, you are an Enzoani bride, I can tell.  They are all so gorgeous!  The one I decided on had some embellishment that I liked, but didn't love, so the woman helping me at the bridal salon suggested I have the seamstress remove it.  So, I did.  I decided to use the piece that was removed to make a belt.  I had tried on a beaded belt with one of the dresses and really loved the look, so I went to the local fabric store and purchased some ivory double faced satin ribbon and started stitching away...

Here is how it turned out...

My next project is to make fabric flowers for my centerpieces.  I ordered over 20 yards of fabric from fabric.com, I think this is going to take a while!  Anyone want to learn how to make fabric flowers!?  Here are the colors I bought:

Stay tuned!

The first post on my new blog

I had a couple unexpected days off of work this week and decided now was the perfect time to start my new blog. I would love to post something momentus and of utmost importance for this first post, but it's just your average Thursday. Although, I guess you never know where an average Thursday may take you. Just a couple months ago after work on a Thursday my wonderful boyfriend of 4 years popped the question. Maybe that should be the subject of this first post.

The story of our proposal, June 9, 2011:

On Monday or Tuesday that week Charles mentioned he wanted to go to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts on Thursday night, before going to our friend Lee and Betsy's going away party. There was a new Titian exhibit that had just opened and he said he wanted to go check it out. The museum is open late on Thursday nights and we have often gone to the museum to walk around on Thursday evenings, so I didn't think much of it.

I went over to Charles' condo after work on Thursday evening and he was finishing getting ready. He seemed a little flustered, but said he had been running errands all day, so I didn't think much of it. We arrived at the museum and made our way upstairs to the Titian exhibit. Once inside we started admiring the paintings and reading about the collection that was visiting from Edinburgh, Scotland. After a few minutes one of Charles former students walked in with his father, so we went over and said hello. As we made our way through the rest of the exhibit I noticed that Charles was going very quickly and seemed in a hurry. I figured he was ready to get to dinner and the going away party. As we arrived at the end of the exhibit Charles asked me to wait a minute while he went back to say something to his former student. Then we walked out of the exhibit and towards the escalator. I got on, Charles didn't. I turned around and he was standing at the top of the escalator and he told me there was a clue in my purse, but not to look at it until I got to the bottom of the escalator.

As I stepped off the escalator I looked in my purse, there was a piece of paper that instructed me to go up the stairs and once I reach the top I was to "look inside." Call me clueless, but I still had no idea that a proposal was in the works. I walked to the top of the stairs wondering what in the world I was going to look inside of to find out what was going on. As I got to the top of the stairs, Charles' former student appeared and handed me one of Lola's dog toys. This particular toy is actually a finger puppet that we picked up for Lola while in Richmond, VA and so it has a little pouch so it can be used as a puppet. So, I looked inside and found another clue. The next clue instructed me to walk to the room with the large window that has Renoir and Monet paintings. I wandered through the exhibits until I reached this room.

I walked in and Charles was standing in front of the window, still confused I asked him what he was doing, he replied by asking me if I had ever looked out this particular window.... I was so confused! I said no, then he began telling me how much he loved me and that he wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. He then got on one knee, and finally I realized what was happening! He asked me to marry him and pulled a ring from his pocket. I of course answered yes with a huge smile and tears. We had a few spectators and the kind security guard offered to take a picture for us.

After the museum we went to dinner at Raven Grill and had some champagne and appetizers, although we hardly ate a thing. Little did I know there was another surprise after dinner. Charles had been sporting a rather extravagant mustache for a few months (notice it in the picture). I had been asking him to shave it for a few weeks, especially since we were planning a trip to Hawaii and I couldn't imagine him on the beach with his mustache. So, as the final surprise he shaved it off, right there in the parking lot at Raven Grill!

Next we went to Lee and Betsy's going away party and surprised our friends with the engagement news. Friday was a whirlwind day of calling friends and family and overall just being happy and in love. Saturday morning we left for Hawaii and spent a week just enjoying each other. Overall, it was a perfect engagement story! And the ring is beautiful, Charles did an amazing job picking it out!

Happy post proposal picture!