Wedding Hair Trial

I've figured out down how I want to wear my hair for the wedding: Half-up/half-down, curled, with lots of volume on the crown. Kind of like this:

KIDDING!

I'm thinking more a combination of these:

I showed my stylist what I wanted for my hair and here is how it turned out on me:

I really like it! She added full blond highlights (as opposed to my usual half highlights) because I still want to be blond when I put my hair up. And I'm much blonder now.

What do you think? What would you do differently?

With This Ring... I thee Wed

It's official! We've purchased our wedding bands (so long, income tax refund!)

Mine matches my Engagement Ring and looks like this:

Wow! That's some bling!

Jonathan puchased a Tungsten Ring from Tungsten World that looks like this (you can read more about it on Jonathan's Blog):

We spent a bit of time thinking of what we wanted have inscribed on the inside of our rings. We wanted something personal as well as spiritual. What we decided on is: the wedding date and Ani L'dodi V'dodi Li" which is Hebrew for "I Am My Beloved's and My Beloved is Mine" from the Bible, Song of Solomon 2:16.

Survey Says

I posted a Blog Poll about our First Dance and which song we should choose. Van Morrison's Crazy Love won by a "Hillary Clinton over Barak Obama in West Virgina" margin.

So by popular demand we'll be doing our First Dance to Crazy Love. Which is great because that's the one that Jonathan and I wanted anyway (hmmm... I wonder how many times Jonathan voted?)

Click below to enlarge the poll results:

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Unity Sand Ceremony

In many Christian wedding ceremonies a unity candle is used to symbolize the uniting of two people and two families into one. Instead of doing the traditional unity candle:

I really like the symbolism of this event so we've decided to use "Unity Sand" instead. Unity Sand goes well with out beach theme and will be a lot easier since we're getting married out doors. In my quest to find a Unity Sand on the Internet, this is what I found:

I liked the nautilus shell ideal but I worried that people in the back wouldn't be able to see the sand or the shells would just look like white blobs in the picture. So I opted for two small Hurricane Vases and one large one. Like this:

Yesterday in a mini - "omg I have so much stuff to procure before the wedding" - freak out I went to Michael's (which, on a separate note, has THE ugliest wedding stuff ever) and bought the Hurricane Vases and sand. At home I have raffia ribbon and small sand dollars which I'm going tie around them.

Yay, one project is almost done! And bonus, the vases will look great in the condo after the wedding!

Next project on the docket: procuring hundreds of sand dollars and starfish for favors, decoration, and placecards.

Being a "Turquoise Bride"

It's a well documented fact that I love the color "Turquoise". I love wearing it, I painted my walls a turquoise shade in two houses that I've lived in, and I knew it had to be my wedding color. So when I picked colors I choose Turquoise with Tangerine and White accents.

When I started looking into wedding decor and colors I realized there are a lot of shades of "Turquoise" out there -- it can be called Pool, Aqua, Tiffany Blue, or my favorite "Clear Pacific" (what Nordstrom calls my color) and it's not the easiest to decorate with (compared to say pink, red, or green)

In my quest for Turquoise inspiration I found out that I actually have a decently unique color scheme... I found one bride who calls herself Aqua Bride with a whole page of Aqua ideas, I found a Bride and Bloom Magazine article about using Aqua and Orange as wedding colors, and I found another blogger who put together an Aqua and Orange Inspiration Board. Additionally Inspiration Board Blog, Snippet and Ink, has some cool Turquoise Inspiration Boards as well. But that's about it.

Since you can't really have Turquoise flowers (no, hydrangeas are more purple) and I decided not to spend the money on Turquoise Linens, people have been asking me how I am incorporating my signature color into the Wedding. The following Turquoise Inspiration board shows all the places that I actually am incorporating my favorite color:

I'm using Turquoise elemenets in: the Bridemaid dreses, the Groomsmen vests, table menus, flower ribbon, seating cards, general decorating ribbon, beads, the cake, programs, invitations and potentially uplighting. Where I don't use Turquoise, I'll use Tangerine (such as flowers).

Engagement Pics Preview

A few weeks ago we did our official engagement pictures with our amazing Photographer, Kim Irons. Despite it being a record-setting heat day for a Los Angeles Spring, we had a fantastic time with her shooting around downtown Long Beach and at the beach in Long Beach (we even stopped for a beer in the middle). And from what I can see so far, the pictures turned out fantastic. I can't wait for Kim to shoot our wedding!

Here is one of pictures that Kim's let us preview:

You can see a few more pictures of us on her blog at: kimironsphotography.blogspot.com

I'll post more when we get the whole package from her.

Engagement pictures were definitely something that I thought about cutting but I'm so glad we did them. Here is why you should do Engagement pictures:
1. It gave our photographer, Kim and a great chance to get to know us and see how we photograph (apparently I blink a lot)
2. It was a really fun and intimate experience for Jonathan and me
3. We have some really fun and artistic shots of us to use in our home, at the wedding, etc.

Wedding Invitations

The Wedding invitations are done and ready to be mailed out in a couple of weeks! I assembled them with my Matron of Honor, Laurel and my lifelong friend, Sarah. Thanks girs!

I think the invitations are so pretty and really set the tone for the beachy-chic affair. Take a look...

Bridesmaid Profile: Megan

Megan

Nicknames: Megs, Megan J, MJ

How we met: First week at USC in the dorms but didn’t become friends until I October of Freshman year when my computer broke and Megan let me use hers. From that week on, we were pretty much inseparable.

Favorite memories: Spring Break 2003 (a classy tour of Rosarito and Las Vegas), being 9-0 twins, and living it up as roommates post-college in the South Bay (too many great memories to list)

Why I love Megan: Megan is so fun to be with and we always have a blast together. She was an awesome roommate for three years and I miss her already :-(. And she is brutally honest (she will tell you when she doesn’t like your outfit, but on the flip side you know she’s telling the truth when she says that you look cute).

And finally, some pictures of Megan and I over the years:

The Gifts Have Begun!

I don't mean to be supeficial, but I can't help but be excited about the Wedding "cash and prizes" that are starting to come in. It really makes me realize what great friends and family we have!

Our very first wedding gift was from some co-workers of mine, a cocktail shaker (they know us well):

The next were THE most fun and stylish dessert plates from Crate & Barrel which we got for Christmas from my Grandma, Uncle, and Godmother:

Recently we received what will likely be our largest and most expensive Wedding gift - a freaking huge Flat Screen TV from my Uncle Mark:

How awesome is that thing?! Thanks Uncle Mark!

UPDATE: We also got our beautiful Stainless Steel cookware set from Jonathan's Mom&Dad and Aunt.

Shower Invitation

I came home for working in San Jose yesterday and saw that I'd been invited to my Wedding Shower! Katie did a fantastic job on them. I can't wait for the Shower!

The Many Job Titles of Girl Planning Her Wedding

Fact: The average wedding can take more than two hundred fifty hours to plan

I think I should be able to put wedding planning on my resume. During the past nine months (and for the next three months) my responsibilities could fit into any of the follow job titles:
- Wedding coordinator (duh)
- Event Planner (duh)
- Travel Agent (flight, hotels, rental cars, airport pick-ups)
- Personal Shopper & Stylist (Bridesmaid dresses, Mothers dresses, registry, etc.)
- Project Manager (I do have a wedding workplan)
- Decorator (flowers, placecards, oh my)
- Conflict Mediator (aren’t families the best?!)
- Accountant (I’m managing a bigger budget than I’ve ever managed at work!)
- Etiquette Advisor (You can just call me “Kirsten Post”)
- Administrative Assistant (mailing lettings, writing checks, filing contracts)

AND on top of all that I’ve held a full time job.

OK – I’m done tooting my own horn :-). I'm going to go update my resume now.