A sweet gesture.

When Sean and I started dating, he bought me flowers. They were beautiful. I had been in Mexico and he bought them for me to welcome me home. It was sweet.

When I was bringing them home to my house, I placed the vase on the floor in front of the passenger's seat. Naturally when I was backing up the car, the vase tipped, I leaned down to catch it, hit the gas instead of the brake and hit his brother's car. In the driveway. Yup. I was that girl.

It wasn't a light tap, either. It was a huge ordeal. An honest mistake but clearly an embarrassing moment that is still referred to... "hey, remember that time you hit my car and practically totaled your car?"... "hey, remember when you crashed the car in the driveway?"

Yes, I remember.

Needless to say, Sean's rarely given me flowers since. And when he has, he's had them delivered to the house to avoid any necessary travels.

Well, this week he surprised me and sent flowers to my work.

The best part? He sent them just because.

Not for a holiday, or birthday, or anniversary. Nope.

Just because he felt like it. :)

Of course, inside the box was a note that said "please don't crash your car". I didn't.

And I love them.

...Apollo is learning to cohabitate with them.

Professional Pictures!

While we were away on our honeymoon (!) our professional pictures arrived! I was obviously so excited about them and they're perfect and exactly what I imagined. So I really want to post some - not all - there are 1,600 of them. Here are some shots from when we arrived at the venue. :)

We arrived with our hair and makeup done so all we had to do was get dressed!

 

 

 

Our pictures were taken by Damien Gaudet.  

More tomorrow :)

Our entrance.

We entered our reception to the Lion King's theme song :) and we were wearing the sunglasses we gave our wedding party as part of their gifts:


After I passed my flowers along, we began our first dance:


The song was "I love you because" by Johnny Cash:



And you know what? Remember those dance classes we spent our time and money on?? Well, we didn't use the lessons at all. But it's okay because we had fun and don't regret the time or money spent. But we decided right before our entrance that we would just move around and do a couple twirls -- and it worked out just perfectly. Honestly... my dress was too fluffy to dance like we practiced in class. We didn't really take that into consideration. So if you're taking classes make sure you think about "your look".

After our dance we went right to our sweet heart table -- notice our LOVE banner?



I think my favorite part of our table besides the love banner was that we used our toasting flutes from our wedding china! I loved seeing it on the table!

:)

My look.

I don't have any pictures of the shuttle ride. But it was quick! When we got to the venue I caught some glimpses of the entrance way, the ballroom, etc. and it looked amazing! But it wasn't finished, yet. So, we all filed into the bridal suite. It was decided that the girls should get dressed first that way in the pictures of me getting ready... they'd be all done up! I think that was a great decision.

So... this is what I did while they changed:


And, admired my flowers:


And before I knew it... it was time: TO PUT ON MY DRESS. :) :)

I feel like I could write a novel about my dress. Literally. But I won't... of course!

Let me just say that when I first put this dress on (at David's Bridal) I knew it was the one. Actually, even before that, when I was browsing the David's Bridal website the week after being engaged... I knew it was the one. There was never a question in my mind. Ever.

But, just to be safe, when we went to the store to try on dresses, I tried on 3 others first -- and "saved the best for last". But when I put it on... there was no doubt in my mind that it would be the dress that I would wear while walking down the aisle. I bought it Jan. 1, 2010 and every time I tried it on after that I felt the exact same way. It was perfect.



Ooooh. I just love it. I wish I could put it on right now...

Anyways --

So, I got dressed and that's kind of when it hit me. I wasn't feeling "nervous" but I was feeling something that I can't even put into words. I don't know that I'll ever feel it again -- in my entire life. I was anxious, excited, and mostly wanting it to start but not wanting it to end. Maybe you have different emotions to describe the feeling?

Here are some shots from getting ready:

I don't know why I look so serious?

My mom's wedding necklace & my "something borrowed".

This bracelet was a wedding gift from Sean :) and my "something new".

:) I was ready... but still had an HOUR before the ceremony. Find out what's next tomorrow!

Some cute text messages.

I've been getting some texts of cute things my mom and aunt are looking into doing for my shower. ;)

I can't wait!






=)

Oh, Judy.

When I went to the LA flower district with Chelsey last week -- she pointed out that most of the flowers I was looking at were orchids.

So [with high hopes] I went to the flower shop today holding in the back of my mind how beautiful those pink orchids were at the flower market. Unfortunately, once we got there -- I found out something. Orchids are expensive...

Therefore, I'm sorry -- you're beautiful but completely unnecessary.

So... I went on to my next flower love....





Going into this appointment, I knew -- I was positive -- that the flowers I wanted most of all were Gerbera Daisies. I wanted daisies everywhere. My bouquet, my bridesmaids bouquets, my table centerpieces... I just can't get enough of them! I think they're cute, and fun and exciting.

Unfortunately, cute & fun & exciting are not the adjectives that I originally had in mind when planing the wedding. So I had a slight panic attack [and a slightly crushed heart] but then she showed me the most beautiful flower arrangement I have ever seen! And my whole vision of the wedding changed!




Amazing? Amazing...

Pink Calla Lilies! Who knew?! The color pink I'm thinking about choosing is a little different than this picture here... but it's beautiful!

Pictures weren't allowed to be taken in the shop but I wish I could have so I could display the correct color of the flowers! =(

Here's the run-down... =)

Our package at our venue includes all the guest table centerpieces and table arrangements [like our sweetheart table, cake table, guest book table, etc.], my bouquet, my toss bouquet, my maid of honor bouquet, two bridesmaids bouquets, two mother corsages, and six boutonnieres. Because of the size of our wedding party, this means we have to pay additional money for three other bouquets [for the bridesmaids], five other boutonnieres for the groomsmen and fathers, and four corsages for our grandmothers. As you can imagine -- this will be costly. =(



As of right now, the flower choices I have in mind are white and pink calla lilies for my bouquet and all pink calla lilies for the bridesmaids bouquets. Sean will have a white calla lily on his jacket and the groomsmen and fathers will have a pink calla lily. The mothers and grandmothers will have a choice between a wrist corsage or a small bouquet of pink calla lilies and our table centerpieces will be [pink] mixed seasonal flowers [like the picture but brighter!] including calla lilies and roses [oh, and others!].

To sum up this very successful [and eye-opening] day: I'm thoroughly excited about my new found love for calla lilies, slightly saddened that orchids are so expensive and positively certain that gerbera daisies will be EVERYWHERE during my bridal shower. =)

Yay!

I love planning!

Today we stopped at Judy's Village Flowers and I set up an appointment to meet with her about the possibility of working with her store for the wedding. I can't wait until July 15th!

We also tried to map out the mileage between Christina's and hotels in the area. We stopped at the Holiday Inn Express in Foxboro which was very, very close, clean and nice. It seemed perfect for what I'm going for. The rooms are equipped with plenty of things... tv's, fridges, microwaves... they're spacious and very affordable. This hotel actually seemed like the most fantastic thing in the world until...

We stopped at the Renaissance Marriot hotel at Patriot Place [right next to Gillette Stadium]. Now this hotel was gorgeous. Anything you can imagine... was in this hotel. It was seriously perfect and they were friendly and honest.

The catch...

Because it's right next to Gillette Stadium [which is home to the Patriots but also a very popular concert venue] IF [by chance] there happens to be an event on the day/night of our wedding [which sadly is very likely - because July's prime concert season] the hotel charges an overnight parking fee of $50 per car EVEN if you're a guest at the hotel. Now this charge is on top of a relatively high room rate. So I guess that's what we're contemplating now. On the upside, neither of these hotels charge a fee to book a room block. So if I choose to ask them each to hold 10 rooms and they all don't book, we don't owe a penny -- the rooms just go back into the hotel inventory for the general public. So we wouldn't lose out on anything.

But then again, if there's no event -- there's no parking fee. And if there's no event, the room block rate is pretty affordable. Unfortunately, both hotels asked me to wait to book room blocks until they find out the events in the area which will be posted in the fall. At that time, they will be able to give me the right numbers and I can book as many rooms as I want.

I think it was successful...

I also got a name of a company that works with the hotels at organizing shuttle services. So that's the next thing we'll look into!

June, To-do's...

Some of you may [or may not] know that we have a very busy summer ahead of us! In about a week I'm off to California for Chelsey & Tucker's wedding. Sean will join me about a week & a half later and we'll return in the middle of July. We'll be home for about a week and then we're off to Seattle for Joe & Kim's wedding! By the time we get back it'll be August and before I know it, I'll be back to work and that means our countdown will be at about 10 months. Can you believe that?! The time will fly...

Because of this, I'm choosing to do as much as I can in this next week. Because, CLEARLY, time is passing! So first things first...

Flowers: I need to decide which flower shop I'll go with. I have a package [thankfully] but I can still choose the specific store and I need to find out what the money allotment for the flowers actually is. I need to find out which flowers will be in season and which ones I want. These are big choices! I'm about 98.5% sure I want pink.

Hotels: Proper etiquette says to book off room blocks at three separate hotels. I don't know how necessary that is but I do need to go look into the hotels around Christina's. I know a few offer the bride & groom a free night -- but I don't know if any require money down to block off rooms. So I need to find out the terms and conditions and things like shuttle services, parking fees, prices, etc.

DJ: We have the DJ and he's perfect! But we were asked to make an on-going list of must-play songs and a list of do-not-play songs. I haven't really gotten started but I think I should... I mean, music is the most important part of the whole event [besides the marriage itself, of course].

I love being busy!

I want this!

Handkerchief Bouquets!

Flowers

These are beautiful flowers! I don't really know what those green pea like bulbs are... but they go with everything else that's going on in this bouquet!

Some cuteness!

How cute is this?! Unfortunately, the bride who did this only had twenty people at her wedding so I suppose making these was pretty quick & easy. But I have so much time that I think I could do this, too! It could be a great DIY project and all I would need are those little chains, tags and stamps. And someone I know probably has at least some of those supplies [if not all]. It would be so adorable to have them on the champagne toast glasses!














I think I may have posted these a while ago, but I came across them again and they're so cute! Maybe not for the wedding... but for an engagement party or a bridal shower -- they could be perfect!

Pretty?! I love the peonies and the clear place cards are so nice. I love the way these flowers look and how big & full they are! I think they're amazing! And the vase is beautiful too! I'm not sure if I want things to be silver, though. I like the pinks/coppers/golds more. But my problem is that the silverware/utensils will probably be silver... so it will not match my decor. So maybe that means I'll have to add silver other places so the utensils don't stick out as much. Hmmm.

Oh, Martha... So Clever

From Martha: In the whirl of activities following the ceremony, the bouquets of the bride and bridesmaids will undoubtedly have to be set aside. This clever idea can help keep flowers from getting crushed or wilted while you and your bridesmaids are busy elsewhere. Just fill hurricane vases partway with water and trim with single ribbons (affixed using double-sided tape) that hold the names of the flowers' owners.



Also from Martha: Keep bridesmaids' dresses from blowing in the breeze at an outdoor wedding with these handy weights (available at sewing-supply stores). Simply slip the metal buttons inside the hem, and stitch into place.

How smart!

Pretty!

Pink & white peonies!


Cymbidium Orchids

More inspiration

Perfect!

So, I found this wedding on The Knot! and I think it's beautiful! I love the light pink and blush. I love the black chiavari chairs with the white chair pads. I love the hanging lanterns [although I don't think they're possible]. I love, love, love everything about it.


These flower arrangements were on each guest table at this same wedding. I love that they're small & simple. This is just what I want!


Same wedding! It's so pretty! I love it!! I know I want an all white cake, and I've never seen anything like this before! It's fantastic!

What a wedding crush, I have. ♥