My Wedding Band

I decided on the Micropave Ring. I like how it's dainty and can even be worn on its own for traveling or events where a big engagement ring is not appropriate.

Here's a close up of my beautiful new ring. I can't wait to wear it!

I Think I have Emotional Issues

Maybe it’s the stress or the fact that getting married is an emotional time in a girls life, but I flew to Chicago this weekend and on the plane I wrote letters to my bridesmaids and my parents to give to them at the rehearsal dinner. I got pretty choked up writing my letter to Laurel (my MOH) and I full-on cried writing my letter my Mom and Dad. I know that I’m a crier (which is getting worse with age, not better!), but this is ridiculous.

I guess emotional issues run in the family. My Mom cries at sentimental commercials and don’t even get me started about her during a sad movie). My Dad told me already that my Grandma is going to cry non-stop at the wedding and he’s worried he’s gonna cry during his song.

I’m worried that I’m going to bawling during my wedding ceremony. My one saving grace is that adrenaline makes it hard to cry and I think I’ll have a ton of adrenaline pumping during my wedding. If I do cry I hope I don’t make an “ugly cry face”. See example below (courtesy of Mrs. Lovebug from Weddingbee.com):



Any suggestions for how NOT to cry at my wedding?

Punk’d

I’ll be the first to admit that I work with/for some of the coolest people in the world. Everyone says Accenture is great because we have great people and I couldn’t agree more. Well, it turns out that they are total pranksters too. This is what happened to me on Thursday…

I had an end-of-week sync up meeting with Trinity (my Manager) but right before the meeting she says that Darren (my Sr. Manager) is going to join us for the meeting because he needs to discuss and “HR Issue” with me. So I mildly panic and start racking my brain with “what did I do?!” So Darren and Trinity join me in the conference room and Darren start telling me HR called him regarding something I did/said to another co-worker. At this point, I’m practically shaking and all I can think is “oh crap, I’m fired and I don’t even know what I did!” Then Darren suddenly says, “we’re joking” and Trinity whips out a Wedding Present from for Darren and her: A gift certificate for a fancy dinner for two (dinner, drinks, dessert) at Ruth Chris in Maui! SUCH an awesome present and they TOTALLY punk’d me, which makes it ever better. I love my job.

ONE Month!

O.M.G. Our wedding is in one month! I'm so excited and trying not to panic.

All of our vendors are set and ready. Our Pastor is ready to marry us, the band is ready to play, Carlee is ready to coordinate, and Kim is ready to photograph.

What's making me panic are all of the minor decor items that I have left to do - table numbers, menus, programs, favors, escort cards, baskets, signage, and out-of-town gift bags. All of the things that allegedly "make it all come together".

I'm so glad that I decided to take two weeks off of work before the wedding.

Note to Friends in San Diego: I'm hostessing a "favor, program, placecard making party" on Saturday August 9th or Sunday August 10th, so save the date.

These are the thing that make me lose sleep:

With THIS ring?

So I had some wedding ring drama ...

I ordered the matching wedding band that "goes with" my Engagement ring and I HATED it and returned it. It was too big and not age-appropriate (e.g. I looked like the old ladies who stack up their bling). So I starting thinking a plain band was the way to go, but others (like Jonathan and Megan) disagreed, so right now I have TWO potential wedding rings: a plain platinum ring
and a diamond micro-pave ring. Take a look:


(Left side= micro-pave, right side= plain platinum)

I'm about 90% sure I'm going with the Micro-pave ring. What do you think?

You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby

Spending the week in San Diego by myself has given me lots of spare time to:

a. Work
b. Drink my parent's expensive wine (I mean the cheap stuff)
c. Work on wedding stuff
d. Scan a ridiculous amount of childhood photos of myself so I can use them for wedding stuff
e. All of the above

If you guessed E, you are correct. And if you guessed E and mainly D, you get a bonus point. Get up and get yourself a cookie, you deserve it.

I spent all of last night combing through photo albums and I managed to scan and save 70 photos of my childhood. Thanks to my future Mom-in-law I already had 200+ scanned baby pictures of him. So now my plans for adorable baby pics of us on the guest book table and a slide show at the Rehearsal dinner can come to life!

Here is a preview of our young lives:


Age >1, age 3, age 5, and age 17.

The Knot.Com Features Our Wedding Color Pallet

I logged onto the Knot.Com today and I found that their featured article was entitled "New Color Combo: modern reception style" and it was all about our Blues and Oranges color pallet.


Although I'm not doing the purple-blue in additon to my aqua-blue, they are pretty spot-on with my pallet.


Take a look:

My Bridal Shower

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending my Bridal Shower!

It was Luau-themed shower complete with Mai Tais, Leis, Sand, Orchids, and Palm Trees. And the food was amazing!

Here are some pics of the beautiful Hawaiian decor that Katie created for the shower.



I posted pics of all the lovely ladies in attendance, as well some mandatory present-opening pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/GreerWedding/BridalShower

Engagement Pictures

I first want to take a moment to brag about my wonderful and talented photographer, Kim Irons. She is fantastic! Besides her amazing photographic skills, the other thing that I love about her is that as part our photography package we own our digital images so I can show you this compilation of my favorite engagment photos:


Images are copywrite of Kim Irons


To see all of my favorite engagement photos please visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/GreerWedding/ProfessionalEngagementPictures

Invites Sent!

Just wanted to update everyone on my "Going Postal" post from yesterday. Today my invites went out, hand canceled and everything!

My Mom got a nice lady at the Midway US Post Office to hand cancel and send them! (Midway Address: 2535 Midway Drive, San Diego, CA 92138). Thank you, postal lady, for restoring my faith in government services!

And because I'm so happy, here is my happy happy engagement pic for you:

I'm about to Go Postal

I originally intended to send the wedding invitations out LAST weekend. That was until the Long Beach post office would not hand-cancel them.

For those of you who've never had the pleasure of sending out bulky party invites this is what hand-cancelling is. Canceling is the ink-stamp used by the Post Office to note that a postage-stamp has been used. Typically this is applied by a machine at the Post Office that may be rough on your envelope, but hand stamping prevents this damage.

Basically the wedding invitation is thick and if it goes through the machine, it the invitation is likely to get mangled.

I want them to look like this nice hand canceled sample:



Well anyways, today my Mom took the invitations to the Jamul post office who would not hand cancel them and then to downtown San Diego post office only to find that they won't hand cancel on Mondays (and they will only do 25 invites at a time). Mother effer, I'm going postal!

Each post office has a blah blah blah reason about why they can't/won't do it. And I'm not the only bride to have this problem! Not to be mean, but I think the Postal Service is just lazy. I can't see any other reason why they won't do this. I mean, how long could this possibly take? It would take about 3 seconds an invite, for 100 invites, for a whopping 5 minutes total spent. C'mon Mr. Postman, just hand-cancel my invite, please!

Another Wedding Registry

When I registered for wedding gifts I knew I had to register at Crate&Barrel and BedBath&Beyond because I love love those stores. I also added Macy's because Macys is everywhere and practical.


Well this weekend I was walking in my Long Beach neighborhood and went in Z Gallerie. Immediatly I fell in love with this Duvet and Pillow set:



I also saw all of the wonderful art and decorations that the store has and knew that I must add Z Gallerie for to my wedding registry list.

I think four wedding registries is a big much, but I feel like Z Gallerie is so different and the items that I registered for at Z Gallerie are not your run-of-the-mill registry items.

Fiesta Rehearsal Dinner Inspiration

For our Wedding Rehearsal Dinner, we're having a Mexican Fiesta at my parents house. Even though I'm not Mexican, I did grow up in house that you can see Mexico from and I love Mexican culture, art, and of course, food!

I put together this inspiration board for our Fiesta Rehearsal Dinner:



Here are the ideas I have for our Fiesta Rehearsal Dinner:

Food - Authentic Mexican Caterering from Gerardos (booked!)
Drinks - Margaritas and Buckets of Mexican Beer
Table Decor - Red table linens, cactus plants, chili peppers, candles, red flowers
General Decor - Mexican Wedding Banners, red paper lantern, Mexican blankets, sombreros

I really wish I could get down to Mexico before the wedding to buy some of fun Mexican items. Hmmm... day trip anyone?

LIGHTS, camera, action!

I'm always looking for new and creative ways to totally break my wedding budget... hence this week's obsession with wedding reception lighting.

(side bar: It's kind of funny how each wedding vendor will tell you that their wedding detail is THE thing will make THE impact on your wedding look and feel. The florist says it the flowers, the band says its the music, the chair people say it's the chairs (I hope its not), the statationary store says its the invitations, and the AV people say its the lighting.)

I have visions of spotlights, uplighting, dance floor washes, and monograms/logos projected on the wall.:

Well all of that went out the window when I came down to earth EXCEPT uplights. Uplights are about $25 a light so for just a couple hundred dollars you can totally transform the mood of the room with lighting. I'm thinking of doing turquoise uplighting. It will complement the orange glow of the chandeliers, wall lights, and chandeliers AND will make the room awash in my favorite couple. Do you think this would look or should I stick with a warmer color?

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:

.

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.